Brotherly Love: The Key to Unity, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to the Archie Hardy Ministries Program.

I'm Sharon Notts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is certain to speak to every one of our hearts in both a powerful and discerning way. It's entitled, Brotherly Love, the Key to Unity. Psalm 133 declares how good and how beautiful it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Well, while it is certainly beautiful, it is not always easy, but unity starts with brotherly love. All right, we're in our continuing study on the body of Christ, the church, and we're starting a new section on the message tonight, Brotherly Love, the Key to Unity. Point one, love for the brethren brings unity and peace. And if you have your Bibles, I'd like to go to Colossians, the third chapter, and I want to read all of these verses. Colossians, the third chapter, and I'm going to start at the ninth verse. It said, Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, or barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all.

We'll stop there a minute. Here again, we see the whole thing, the theme of what? Unity in the body. And in this verse here, Paul's saying, when we get in Christ, class and social distinctions melt away. We found in Galatians 3.28, there's neither Jew nor Gentile, bond or free, male or female.

Now we find the social order. The day of Paul, the Greeks thought they were the greatest people because they had wisdom. They were a lover of wisdom. All the great philosophers were coming out of Greece, and they thought that they were the greatest people, and they looked down on the rest.

And naturally, the Jews, they thought they were the greatest people because they were God's covenant people, and they were the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the Greeks looked down on everybody, the Jews looked down on everybody, and the barbarians, the next class. Now, the barbarians wasn't like the American version of the word, somebody running around with a loincloth and a bone in their nose with a hatchet. Anyone that didn't speak the Greek language to the Greek people were barbarians because they thought that their speech was bar, bar, bar. Then the barbarians looked down on the Scythians.

They were the wild, warlike tribes. They were kind of near the bottom of the totem pole of the social order. Then, course of all, the bottom one was the slave. He wasn't nothing.

He didn't have any rights at all. An animal had more rights. If you killed an animal, you were in danger of getting killed back, but if you killed a slave, didn't mean anything. So when we got in the body of Christ to become the new man, then these social distinctions fade away.

And we can see how easy the devil could use these things to bring division in the church. I'm a Greek. I'm a Jew.

I'm the elite. And in Christ, all of that melts away. That belongs to the flesh.

You know, when people come in and start talking race, position, and such, that belongs to the flesh. That belongs to the old man. We've put off that old man, Paul said, and we're not to lie one another. We've put on the new man, and therefore we are our new order. We're the body of Christ, members one of another.

And all of those old taboos and all of those old restrictions in the world are gone away. We're one. We're all equal in Christ, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female. We are that new dynamic man that Jesus wants to empower with all of his power that we might deliver the world.

Amen? So we can see the Holy Ghost weaving this unity, breaking down and moving out, destroying everything that would break the unity, because that's the main thing, the unity. And just like in our body, we would call it a coordination.

We have to have that unity or coordination, or we cannot function properly and do right. Now, getting to the verse I wanted to, put on therefore. We're a new man, but we've got to have clothes.

Put off the old man. Put on the new man. Old man in his clothes, now we're putting on a new man in his clothes. And therefore we're to put on as clothes as the elect of God. We are the chosen of God. You get chosen after you get born again. God chose us in Christ. You've got to get in Christ first.

Any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, and then God chooses us. And we're holy and beloved. Now we're supposed to put on bowels of mercy. I gave you that little diagram and I got it on there, bowels of compassion.

That's what the word mercy really means. Bowels of compassion. The Greek word is splanchna of oik tremos. Oik tremos.

Splanchna oik tremos. Bowels of compassion. Now to the Greek, they thought that the inward parts of a man were the most noblest parts. And the bowels were the inward parts that contained the heart, the liver, and they thought they were the most noblest part of a man.

And therefore it was the seed of man. And therefore it was our compassion. So Paul is saying by the Holy Ghost, we ought to put on fervent compassion for our brother and sister. It should be a fervent compassion for our brother and sister.

Then we're going to put on kindness. The Greek word for kindness is kristotes. It's almost like Christ. The Greek word for Christ is kristos and kristos in another form of this word. Christos kristos.

You could say it real fast. You almost was thinking you were saying Christ. And that word kristotes means kindness. It's a kindness expressed in attitude and deed.

It is a friendly and helpful spirit which seeks to meet the needs of others through kind deeds. That's what kind of a kindness Jesus wants us to put on. That we will seek to meet the needs of our brother and sister in good deeds and in kindness.

To meet their need. The Lord is trying to make and impress upon us that we cannot look at our brother and be lighthearted and go upon our way. We've got to look at him first of all as the flesh and bone of Jesus and treat him that way. And second of all as our own flesh and bone and body and treat them that way. So therefore when we see our brother and sister in need then what are we going to do? Stir up our passions.

Stir up our compassion and go to them and try to in attitude and deed supply their need. You talk about being joined together. You talk about being solidified, being in unity and the devil can't get in. We have that attitude and that mindset.

We'll shut the door to all these trivial little things. You can go into a lot of church gatherings and it's true. A lot of little trivial things dividing and separating the brethren and stopping the move of God and the salvation of souls. When we come to that realization that the way we treat our brother and sister will depend whether we get souls saved because the Bible said by this shall all men know you are my disciples. And I've heard a lot of people say well if that's a Christian so we've got to be careful.

And not only be careful but that should be that motivating love on the inside. It should be that bowels of compassion turning over when we see our brother and our sister in need. That was the thing that marked the Lord. The Bible said that he was moved with compassion on the people. I know a lot of times I knew he had to be physically wore out.

I can see him at the well when the woman of Samaria came at the well. He was tired wasn't he? The Bible said he was tired and weary.

I don't care if he was the Son of God he still had a human body and that human body was subject to all the frailties that our human body is subject to. He got hungry. He had to eat. He had to sleep. During the storm remember he was on sleep on the boat. I believe he was exhausted on that boat.

That even a typhoon couldn't wake him up. But when that woman at the well come he saw that soul in need and he stirred up his bowels of compassion began to move and he forgot about himself and his tiredness and he ministered to that woman and pretty soon here come the whole city out and he ministered to that city and that great city of Samaria for the Lord. So God wants us to look at our brother and sister and see them in need and then stir up our bowels of compassion and run to them with our attitude of compassion and love and minister and supply that need. Then we're going to have humbleness of mind.

You know too many people look down on brothers and sisters as under them. Maybe they have an office, pastor, an apostle or evangelist or just look at the weaker brother and sister in their mind and just kind of a little pride. But the Lord wants us to have a mindset of humility, humbleness of mind, not thinking of our self, thinking of our brother and his needs, putting them and steaming them above our own self, not steaming them under our self.

Because then that opens the door for the devil to bring pride in and arrogance in and puffed up in and then that brings a separation that stops the body. Meekness. And this is one of those that the great Greek word, I knew that it was in Dr. Cottle's course, he's brought out this meekness, remember? And he said Aristotle's definition of the word for meekness, which is prouptes, and he said that Aristotle's definition, it was the means between two points.

Aristotle always went about taking the Greek words, trying to find the means between the two points. And the two points was of meekness is one that's blowing his top at everything, one that's always angry. They get angry at the least little thing, and the other extreme was the person that couldn't get angry at all. So then prouptes was the one in the middle that always knew how to keep his cool, to keep his demeanor, and only express anger at the proper time.

Let me read you a little bit more about it. The word indicates an obedient submission to God to His will with unwavering faith and enduring patience. It displays a gentle attitude and in kind acts towards others, and this often in the face of opposition. It is restrained and obedient powers of the personality brought unto a subjection and submission to God's will by the Holy Spirit. In other words, it's being able to keep your spirit under control, to keep it into proper restraint, and to keep it into the place where you will always act with kindness no matter what the brother does back against you.

That's a pretty tall order. It keeps you praying, don't it? You with your strong heart to bear the infirmity of the weak, the weaker brother don't know that. The weaker brother might blow his top.

The weaker brother might come and get angry at you, but you're a mature seed, and because you're mature, because you've come to spiritual maturity and perfection, and you have this trait of prouptes, you know how to keep your spirit under control, keep it submissive to the Holy Ghost, and continue to be kind even when they continue to be honoring back to you. Long suffering, macro thumia. Of course, we know the word thumio, thumos, means burning, passion, and it means long passion, or long suffering, to be long suffering with our brother and sister. I know there are some people who had to be awful long suffering. I knew when they come up and they start talking, I had to suffer long because I knew it's going to be a long time before they get done. Long suffering. It's a long holding out of the mind before it gives room to actions of passion. You just put up with them.

You put up with them. It indicates the patient long suffering and bearing injustice or unpleasant circumstance without revenge or retaliation, but with a view of hope for a final victory that God's going to bring to you. That's long suffering. Like I said, the first part with your brother and another time, long suffering when you're in a trial or a test or a hard place.

You're staying there. You're in an attitude of grace. You're in an attitude of knowing that God's grace is sufficient, and you're looking forward to the victory he's going to bring. Long suffering with one another, long suffering with God when he's got you in a test. God suffers long with us, don't he? Just think how many years while we're maturing, he brings us up and then all of a sudden we get a little bit maturing, and then we want to go to God for this and that, and we don't realize that God's been a long suffering trying to bring us to the point, and we're short suffering with him because we don't get the answer to what we want right away.

All right. It's holding out the mind before it gives room to action and passion. In other words, before it hollers, I quit.

I give up. Or with somebody doing unpleasant things to you, blowing your cool. The devil likes to get us to blow our cool. Then we have to repent. That brings condemnation, and then that brings separation. I tell you, God's really buffing our spirits up, isn't he? I mean, if we can live up to all of these words, we're going to be in pretty good shape for God to use us.

All right. Thirteen verse, forbearing one another. Now this kind of word kind of misleading in the English. We're talking about usually forbearing means to put up with somebody, but it doesn't mean that in the Greek. In the Greek, the word means to uplift.

It's anakeomi, and it means to bear up your brother, to strengthen him. And I think on our diagram of the man, it's one of his feet, and the feet is our foundation. You don't understand, it bears us up and holds us up. Then the companion one is forbearing and forgiving. You know, a lot of people are in trouble in the body of Christ because they hold grudges. And if you hold a grudge, then the devil can work on that and turn that grudge after a while into what? A work of the flesh hatred. I believe in another scripture Paul said that if you be angry and sin not, fifth chapter of Ephesians, don't let the sun set on your wrath. Wipe it on out because if you do, then the devil can work on that and then that can turn into a hate and the spirit can get a hold of that and bring you into that mindset.

So if we have a brother or sister that does something, then show them that we're mature. What is the natural reaction of the unsaved natural man when somebody does something is to retaliate, get back at them. You see, Jesus had plenty to retaliate for. God the Father had plenty to retaliate for, but he didn't, did he? He forgave us. He gave us grace. And in fact, that word here, to forgive, is in the same family of grace. Carisomai.

What is caris? C-H-A-R-I-S. Grace. Then we get charisma, right? The free gifts of grace. Isn't that right? So it's in the grace family. So we ought to have what? Grace.

We could have put it this way. Be gracious to our brother and sister. When everything in the natural, when the old man is crying out, retaliate, get back, the new man that we put on is saying, be gracious, forgive him.

He's still a baby. You're mature now. Act like a mature Christian.

Then he answers it. Forbearing or bearing up, holding up one another, gracing, forgiving one another, if any man had the quarrel, it means a complaint. You got a complaint, you got a grievance against your brother. What are we supposed to do? If any man had the quarrel, a complaint, a grievance against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Just forgive him anyhow. I like to live up to this saying. I say it and I sure want to live up to it and I'm striving.

I don't care what others do to me. I am going to do the right thing back to them. If I can live that, then I'm going to be in the perfect will of God. I'm going to have the victory and that's the main thing.

I want to have the victory, then I want to get them into the victory. Hallelujah. And above all these things, put on agape, charity, love, which is the bond of perfectness. In other words, here we got all these clothes on, meekness, powers of compassion, kindness, humility, forbearing, forgiving. Now on top of that, put on agape, put on God's divine love and that's the perfect thing that binds us in perfect harmony. It is the bond of perfectness. It's the thing that will keep us in perfect harmony because you know if we have agape, if we have love, love doesn't seek its own.

Love bears all things. Love seeks its neighbor. So that's the thing that will make us perfect. We just put on love. I'm going to love you anyhow. Just say, I'm going to love you anyhow. A lot of husbands and wives, one's saved and not saved and if they mistreat you, then the devil's trying to get the Christian to retaliate.

But if that other mate could say, I don't care what you do to me, I'm going to love you anyhow. I'm going to love you anyhow. How many say amen? And you're going to break down that resistance and God's going to move. Can I get a good amen?

All right. And above all these or upon all of these, put on agape, put on love and that'll keep us bound together in harmony and unity in one mind and one accord. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you are called in one body and be thankful. Going back to the main outline, we have to make the decision to let the peace be the ruling factor in the body through forbearance and forgiveness. If something comes up and it's threatening to disturb the peace and unity of the church, then we're going to have to show forbearance and forgiveness.

We're going to have to, the word endeavor means to strive, put out every effort to keep the unity of the peace. Because we know without the unity, it stops what? The revival and stops souls from being saved.

So therefore we've got to keep that in mind. We want souls to be saved. The devil's trying to use everything he can to keep souls from getting saved. The thing that keeps the souls from getting saved, the body from not bringing forth its increase in love is bringing in a division, a schism, a separation of brother and sister so that each part is not bringing forth its measure of increase. It's not ministering to the other brother. You see, when I got something against you and you got something against me, we're not ministering our increase one to another.

And not only are we suffering, but the whole body is suffering. God's got to stop revival messages. God's got to stop bringing people in to get saved and heal and deliver and deal with our problems.

You see, I say this a lot. You can have services all the time, but you can't have revival all the time. And the hardest thing and the bigger your church gets, the harder job is for the Holy Ghost to keep everybody in love at all times. Because there's so many avenues that the devil can come in to bring that unity. But we got to be wise as the serpent, just as wise or wiser and harmless as a dove and say, oh, I know your trick, devil. You're trying to get me in my old flesh. You're trying to bring an old resurrection up of the old man because you want to stop souls.

But I'm wise to you. I'm going to take it for Jesus. I'm going to do this for Jesus.

I'm going to take it for Jesus. Some people used to say to me years ago, that minister's using you. I said, no, what I'm doing, I'm doing it for the Lord. He might think that he's using me, but I said, I'm doing what I'm doing for the Lord's cause. I'm doing it for Jesus and I'm doing it for souls. God and him will have to wreck him with that part, but I'm doing it for souls. They're not fooling me.

They're not hoodwinking me. What I'm doing, what I'm sacrificing is for the unity of the body and to see souls saved. That's the main thing. That's the thing that's the motivating principle in my life is to keep the body in unity, keep us in healthy, keep us in one mind and one accord and that God's anointing and power can sweep through the services. Isn't it beautiful when all of God's people in unity, everybody's in his place and God, the great maestro, uses every part to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ, reach into the devil's kingdom, saves and heals and delivers. No wonder there's more joy in heaven. Hallelujah. No wonder we shout. If anybody gets mad at us shouting after God saves and heals, they've got to be a devil. You have to.

The only one that can really be mad after God has saved and healed and delivered somebody has to be the enemy. Hallelujah. All right. We have to make that decision. We've got to have that mindset that I am going to do everything within my might and power to keep the unity of the peace. If the peace gets broken, if the unity gets broken, it's not going to be me. I'm going to do everything. I'm going to bend over backwards.

I don't care if I am right. I'm not going to assert my rights. You know, a lot of times people assert their rights and their wrong.

You know what I'm talking about? To assert your right and your wrong if you impede the body of Christ. Paul had a lot of rights. Jesus had a lot of rights, but he laid those aside for the unity of the body and for the salvation of souls.

Okay. Ephesians, the fourth chapter, and I'll start at the first verse. It says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. And our vocation is to be the child of God, the ambassador, the representative of the Lord. We've got a great responsibility resting on us. And Paul's exhorting us to walk worthy of that calling where we were called.

With all lowliness, see how he's bringing that theme in again, breaking down. I'm a male. You're a female. I'm a Jew. I'm a Greek. I'm a rich.

I'm a poor. You didn't come from the right side of the track. We get saved. We're all on the right track. It don't make any difference which side of the track you were on before you got saved.

After you get saved, you get on the only track. How many say amen? With all lowliness and meekness, here's that word again, with long suffering, here it is again, here's that word again, forbearing one another in love, bearing one another up in love.

Here it is, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Don't argue. I'm not going to argue. You know, if you get around people that are arguing pretty soon, if you stay there, what happens? Arguing Spirit gets you.

If you get around people that's gossiping about somebody no matter, you don't have it in your mind, you stay around them and what happens? That Spirit will get on you and you'll join in. How many say amen? You know what we ought to do when people start talking about, our brother and sister say, brother, you know what we ought to do? That brother needs prayer. Let's pray. And if they have the right motive, they'll pray.

And if they have the wrong motive, they'll get out of there. We are to forbear one another, hold one another up, lift up one another, endeavor. The word is spudazzo and that word spudazzo means with all diligence, with all our might, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Philippians, the second chapter, let's read that. I'm going to start at the first verse again.

I like this. Philippians 2, 1, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercy, here's those two words again, if there's any striving, passionate, compassion in you, he said, fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of other. Let nothing, third verse, be done through strife or vainglory. You know, a lot of people just out there tooting their horn so they can get praises.

Vainglory. Even the Bible even talks about in the Old Testament, some people even praying fast to smite. But we should do everything to lift up the body of Christ, to lift up the Lord, to see people saved. Psalms 133, 1, what a beautiful scripture. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

And I think the next part of the verse says, for it's like the anointment that ran down Aaron's beard and tripped into his skirt. Dwelling together in unity is like a refreshing outpour of God's Spirit on your soul. When you got peace, isn't it wonderful when you come into church and you love everybody and everybody loves you and everybody loves one another? What an atmosphere. What an attitude. That's the attitude. That's the atmosphere that God is going to bring the sinner in.

He's not going to bring in little lambs and sheep into a place where they're biting and devouring one another, doing things out of the strife and vainglory. That's the works of the flesh, isn't it? Okay, we are to strive for brotherly love.

We see that. We've got to work at it. The devil's going to keep you busy working at it. Probably before you get home tonight after the service, the devil's going to try to do something to break your love for someone.

And you're going to have to work at it. You're going to have to bear up and forbear and have what? Grace. You're going to have to have that grace and forgive and be gracious.

Oh Lord, help us. We are to strive for brotherly love. 1 Peter 1 22, seeing as you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love for the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.

What happens? How do we get saved? We purified our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit and that brought us to what? A position of unfeigned love. If we didn't get to a position of unfeigned love, we were really not pure in our soul. So now that we have been purified our souls, brought to a position of unfeigned love for the brother, then we are to what? Stay in that place and love one another with a pure heart fervently. What is unfeigned?

Anipocritos. And that means without hypocrisy. You know, a lot of people go on, got a sham of love. They can love you while they're putting a dagger in you.

Unfeigned love, perfect example. What is the greatest example in the Bible of feigned love? Judas, exactly. He come up with Jesus, I can almost see his face. I can see him coming up, oh, Jesus, I love you. I remember once in my own experience when I was just a young Christian and a person come over to my house door in the day and I mean they threatened me and every other thing. Oh, they really just threatened me and acted like a pure devil.

When I come to church that night, they were at the door and when I came in, they said, oh, brother Hardy and they wrapped their hands around me and hugged and kissed me and I thought to myself, you hypocrite devil, you feigned love. We are to have unfeigned, without high-procracy, true love. If we don't have love, that gives us something to pray about.

See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Ekete no. Ekete no. Ekete no.

Say it, ekete no. Not lightly, but as it were, straining. Love one another, strain the love of your brother and sister. I'm telling you, God's working on us. You never knew it was so many scriptures in the Bible about loving your brother, did you?

We just got started. Failure to love brings division and sin. That's really understandable, isn't it? Galatians 5, 12, 14. But by love, serve one another. Most people want to be served, but remember when the disciples came to Jesus and said, Lord, who's going to be the greatest? And he said, he that would be the greatest, let him be the servant, even as I came not to be ministered to but to minister to and give my life a ransom for many. So by love, serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, that you love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one another, and here the neighbor is talking about your brother and sister in Christ, but if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one another. You know, that's what the devil likes to do. He likes to give one a sword, another a hatchet, and they say, sick them. And while one's hitting one with the hatchet, one's retaliating with the sword, he's out there gobbling up our lost loved ones.

Amen. What an eye-opening Holy Spirit admonishing message by God's servant, brother Hardy, brotherly love the key to unity. The book of Acts is the birth certificate for the church, the body of Christ, and its outstanding birthmark was unity. Again and again, we read that the believers were in one mind in one accord. An interesting fact about the book of Acts is that the word love is never used because you don't have to preach about love when everyone is walking in love.

It's a different story. When we get to the epistles of the apostles, Paul said that if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.

And he said, this includes a new wardrobe. He described these new clothes as mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, and above all, the perfect bond of love. As the church multiplied and spread throughout the Roman empire, there arose factions and worldly influences crept in. Christians were shielding outright sin in the church. Others were going to court to sue other believers in front of unbelievers, all of which the Holy Spirit condemned. The church faced fallen and failing brethren. And as Jesus said, it is impossible, but that offenses will come.

And James said that we all offended sometime. So how does the church deal with offenders and offendees? There is a Bible way to deal with these issues.

And the emphasis is on restoration, not amputation. Only one church out of the seven in Revelation had an open door of evangelism given to them by Jesus. Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love. This message, brotherly love, the key to unity can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request offer 320 that's offer 320. Mail to Archie Hardy ministries, P O box one seven four four Baltimore, Maryland, two one two Oh three or order online at Archie Hardy dot O R G. Once again, the offer is three two zero for brotherly love the key to unity. The mailing address is P O box one seven four four Baltimore, Maryland, two one two Oh three till next time. This is Sharon not saying Maranatha.