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Love (Part 2 of 2)

Truth for Life / Alistair Begg
The Truth Network Radio
February 4, 2025 3:04 am

Love (Part 2 of 2)

Truth for Life / Alistair Begg

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February 4, 2025 3:04 am

Almost everyone’s capable of loving someone or something. Love has inspired songs, movies, poems, and more. So what makes Christian love stand out from the surrounding culture’s expression of love? Explore the answer with Alistair Begg on Truth For Life.



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This listener-funded program features the clear, relevant Bible teaching of Alistair Begg. Today’s program and nearly 3,000 messages can be streamed and shared for free at tfl.org thanks to the generous giving from monthly donors called Truthpartners. Learn more about this Gospel-sharing team or become one today. Thanks for listening to Truth For Life!









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Almost everyone is capable of the answer today on Truth for Life.

Alistair Begg is teaching from Galatians chapter 5 verse 22. But I do know a couple of things. I do know that hyacinth bulbs are planted in the autumn, and they bloom in the spring. I know that because my grandmother used to plant them all the time. She placed them under a bed in one of the bedrooms. I don't know why she did that, but it was always very exciting to see my grandmother crawling under the bed like that, and me with her. And we placed them there. And I was tempted all the time to go crawl under again to see if anything at all was happening.

And most of the time, if one did, there was nothing happening that I could see. It was taking time. And so the work of God within us to produce fruit is as a result of something that has happened instantaneously, whereby he has regenerated us by the power of his Spirit. But the production of that fruit is something that then takes place continuously and takes place often quietly and in an unhurried way and in a process that is often lengthy.

But the growth is the evidence of the transforming power of the gospel. The third thing to notice is that this fruit is singular. It's singular.

You'll notice that if you look at the text. For the fruit of the Spirit is. Not the fruits of the Spirit are. It is one fruit. These nine graces, if you like, of Christian character together form one indivisible fruit of the Spirit.

And this is important to realize as well, because some of us are temperamentally able to identify more with certain elements than others. Some is just a nice person, just generally kind. If you weren't a Christian, you'd still be kind. You've always been kind of kind. Some is gentle. And so you say, well, I have the gentle one, but I don't have the other one, and somebody else can compensate for me there. No.

No. John Stark puts it perfectly when he says, The Spirit of God is not in the business of making lopsided Christians. In other words, he does not produce love without patience, nor does he produce joy without goodness.

You can mix them up any way you choose. In other words, the work of the Spirit of God in the child of God is to create the full-orbed reality of this Christ-likeness that is seen in this way. Now, at the head of the list, and understandably so, is love. The fruit of the Spirit is, first of all, love. As a child in Scotland, we used a saying about the love of God, God's love is like the sunshine.

It covers land and sea. And it fills my heart with gladness, just to know that God loves me. And the outpouring of the love of God is the story of the Bible. It is the unique nature of God himself. God is both light and God is love.

He is more than that, but he is not less than that. The sources in God, the emphasis that comes from God, is in the self-giving of his only Son, the story of amazing good news. And this is lavished upon us. And the strange and yet wonderful thing about it is this, that when you and I think about love and about loving somebody else, our expressions of love are directly related to the attractiveness or the worthiness of the object of our affection. But that is not the love of God. You remember in Deuteronomy 7, where you have that immense thought that God did not set his love upon you, says Moses, because you were greater or bigger or more significant.

No! The Lord loved you because he loved you. Well, what does that mean? Well, it means exactly what it says—that God's love has no regard to our merits. Has no regard to our merits. So again, the things that mark division amongst people in communities are often directly related to status and to merits and to education and to achievements and to finance and to background and to whatever else it is.

Well, is there a place where those things are dismantled and neutralized? Where the very things that we use as the platform for our own self-aggrandizement or for our horrible divisions with one another is just completely set apart? Yes, the answer is, amongst the people of God.

That is what it's supposed to be. Because the love of God towards us that is lavished upon us is without any merit. And it is that love to us which is then to flow through us. I don't think we've sung this in a hundred years, and maybe we haven't sung it at all, but we used to sing it in Edinburgh a long time ago, I love you with the love of the Lord. Yes, I love you with the love of the Lord. For I see in you the glory of my King, and I love you with the love of the Lord.

There's great wisdom in that. Where does this love come from? This is supernatural love. And this love is a love expressed through us that is both Godward and manward, all the way through the Old Testament. God is to be loved with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and we are to love our neighbor as ourself. And that, Jesus says, is the summation of the great commandment. In fact, our love for our fellow man is the validation of our expressed love for God. This is what makes this very hard. I can convince myself that I am very interested in loving everybody while I'm just driving in my car by myself, until I have someone I have to love.

Then it gets real hard at that point. I can convince myself that I have a great love for God. I have sang this song with great, you know, great effervescence, I have said.

Yeah, but what about? You see, the validation of genuine Christian experience vis-à-vis the love of God is actually seen in everyday working clothes. For anyone, says John, who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he hasn't seen. And he has given this command, whoever loves God must also love his brother. I mean, there's no middle ground here, is there? So what then is this love that is both Godward and manward?

Just a couple of things as we move to a close. The nature of this love is that, first of all, it takes the initiative. It takes the initiative. The love of God is an initiative taking love. In fact, genuine love always takes the initiative.

You and I have been involved in an argument. Love is the one that takes the initiative. Whether you are wrong or right or what you wear, love should take the initiative.

It doesn't always, but it should. Secondly, this love cannot ignore the needs of a brother. Cannot ignore the needs of a brother. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? You see the challenge that comes here? Here you are, and you say that you love God very much, and you're a very God-loving community, and you're church, and you sing these songs, and you're very concerned. You do the Bible study, and you're in the Life group, and you know a lot about the Bible and various Christian doctrine and everything else, and the Bible says, yeah, and how's the love thing going?

How's the love thing going? Why? Is there a fragrance about our community that would allow somebody to walk in and go, What's wrong with those people? Because it would actually be what's right with these people. See?

That's the challenge. It takes the initiative. It doesn't ignore the needs of the needy. Thirdly, it forgives with or without apologies for the wrong done to it. It forgives with or without apologies for the wrong done to it.

This is really saying the same thing from the other side. It's not uncommon for us to say, Well, I'm prepared to forgive if, provided that, and she can jolly well come in and apologize to start with, and I will get it going, and then a few more things, and then… Okay, so you don't want to love the person at all. So when I say that, what I'm saying is, I don't love God enough to love you. I don't love God enough. Because the love that God has for me is a forgiving love that is not based on any merit in me. He came and sought me out when I wasn't looking for him. He forgave me all my transgressions.

Am I then going to hold some piddling little offense against my brother or my sister? Not if I've been overwhelmed by the love of God. You see, the love of God is expressed in forgiveness. The fourth thing is that this love is not so much a question of our feelings but a matter of our will and of our action.

That's important, isn't it? It's not a victim of our emotions. It is a servant of our wills. Otherwise, how do we deal with exhortations to love? People say, Well, you don't have to exhort me to love. You don't have to say, Put on love. Pardon?

Yes. It's not a feeling that we feel. It's a decision that we make. It's an enabling we enjoy, but it's an action that we take. And fifthly, this love is the permanent priority of the Christian life. It's the permanent priority of the Christian life. You say, Well, are you going to get through the whole thing without reading our favorite passage on love?

Probably. Did you have this at your wedding? It wasn't wrong to have it at your wedding.

It's just that it's got nothing really to do with a wedding. First Corinthians chapter 13. It's right in the middle of all the divisiveness of the church in Corinth. They were arguing about what gifts were necessary and who had them and how it was going.

And Paul says, Well, let's just get this thing sorted out right now. You speak with the tongues of men and angels but don't have love? You might as well be a gong or a clanging cymbal. You have prophetic powers, and you understand the whole Bible, and you're very knowledgeable. You have faith. You can move mountains, but no love.

You're nothing. You're a very practical Christian. You give away all that you have. You're prepared to deliver up your body to be burned. But you don't have love?

Nothing. It's quite staggering, isn't it? You see, this love, this love is supernatural. It's not ours by inheritance or by temperament.

You know, his dad was a really nice guy, and he's a nice guy too. That may be true, but that's not what this is about. This love is not achieved as a result of going to a course, as a result of reading a book on it, of being educated in it. And as we've said, this love is not attached externally. It's not self-generated. If it were self-generated, then it may be the occasion of pride. But it is the work of God.

Therefore, we are utterly dependent. Oh, says somebody, well, then does that mean that the key to it is that you do nothing? So, if you want the emblematic reality to be seen in you, just sit quietly and wait for it to happen. No.

No. You remember Philippians chapter 2, where Paul says, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That sounds like something you're supposed to do, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. You see, the exhortations are in light of the infusion which we experience as a result of being in Christ. There's no doubt that we are imperfect in our fruitfulness. There is no doubt that we are a work in progress. There is no doubt that we will have to wait until the day when all sin is removed and when we are seen in the transcendent splendor of Christ.

There's no doubt about that. But in the meantime, what the Bible is saying is that with the enablement of the Spirit of God, we are to make sure that the graces which are made available to us, the traits of Christian character, are then to be put on the way you put clothes on. So, Colossians, after he's given us the first two chapters of the indicative of what it means to be in Christ through the gospel, he then says, Since then you have been raised with Christ. Seek these things which are above where Christ is seated. It is because of your identity that you now engage in this activity.

What is that involved? Well, it involves taking off your old stuff. You once were marked by these things. You have the same thing here in Galatians 5, by envy and by spite and by licentiousness and by a dreadful catalogue of things. Nobody who does these things as habitual pattern of behavior will inherit the kingdom of God. Well, you don't need to be concerned about that, because you have been placed in Christ, provided that now you recognize that you must no longer sow to these things which will appear so attractive to you, even as a Christian.

Take them off and put these on. And when you've been putting them on, over all of these, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. You see, we grow in the Christian life by divine grace. But it is also true that it is our duty to grow in grace. You say, Well, that doesn't make sense. Well, the quality of grace is such that though it is strength from God, still we must use it.

Still we must use it. The electricity power source comes to my home. But it doesn't turn the toaster on until I turn the toaster on.

It doesn't turn the lights on until I use the power that is made available to me. Now, listen as I close this. This, loved ones, is why all the things that pastors routinely talk about, sounding probably to some as if it's just what pastors need to do to ensure job security.

Right? So the pastor says, now, it's very important that you read your Bible. It's very important that you pray. It's very important that you're in the fellowship of God's people. It's very important that you are attending routinely, regularly, upon the public worship of God. It is absolutely vitally important that you do not absent yourself from the celebration of communion. Aren't those the things that the pastor says again and again?

Do you know why? Because the Holy Spirit uses means in producing the fruit in our lives. The neglect of the means impacts our fruitfulness, so that the things that he has given us in order to become the full-orbed, ripened fruit that he attractively creates for us in Jesus is impacted for good or for ill to the extent that we either embrace or stand back from the objective means.

And those objective means that I have just outlined to you are then to be matched, if you like, by the subjective means. Because if you think about it, we all know that it is possible to read your Bible, finished. We all know it is possible—say the Lord's Prayer. We all know it's possible to come to church. We all know it's possible to sing the song so that the external objective means of grace are not, then, benefiting us because we are not using, if you like, the subjective means.

Which are what? Well, being prepared to bow underneath the Word when it is proclaimed, committing ourselves to thinking about what the Bible says, committing ourselves to listening with all the ears of our hearts, committing ourselves to questioning ourselves, so that when we read 2 Corinthians 13.5, we're not saying, Oh, that's nothing to do with me. Examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. I'm in the faith. Look, I just got a new Bible. I'm in the faith.

I went twice last week. No, committing ourselves to saying, I need to have a look here at the fruit, admonishing my own heart, admonishing myself, sharing what's on my heart with those who know me, and being prepared to weigh their reaction to my sharing. Because, you see, you can't see yourself grow. Children don't see themselves grow. Their grandparents come from out of town and go, Johnny, you have grown!

And Johnny says, Have I? You can measure it, but you don't feel it. I know you get growing pains, whatever they are, the medics can explain later, but I don't know what that is. But you don't feel yourself growing. You don't go to your bed and go, I think I'm growing right now. So you don't know if you're growing. See, the real test is not whether I think I'm growing.

No, the real test is whether my wife thinks I'm growing, or whether you see I'm growing, or whether I see you're growing in joy, in peace. You know what I mean? We know how it goes.

We take 1 Corinthians 13, and you take and put your name in it. It's the most devastating experience of a lifetime, isn't it? Alistair is patient. Alistair is kind.

Alistair keeps no record of wrongs. It's like, Whoa, this is terrible. These are the means that God uses to prune out the dead stuff and to energize the good stuff. Let's pray for the churches in Cleveland to this end. So let's pray that if anybody comes into town and comes into gospel communities, that they will encounter something of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, help us to this end, we pray. Thank you that this is not an exhortation to pull up our socks and to do our best, but it is a reminder of the wonder of your work in us and through us, so that although we are not all that we might be, by your grace we're not what we once were, and that together we may be able to exhort and encourage one another in these matters. Help us to this end, we pray, for Christ's sake.

Amen. We've also selected a book to go along with our study. It's titled The Character of Christ, The Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of Our Savior. This is a book that looks at how the fruit of the Spirit is fully and perfectly on display in the person of Jesus. When you read this book you'll explore the Spirit's gift of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There's no better way to study what it looks like to possess these attributes than to study Jesus himself. He's the one whose every step is in harmony with the Spirit. Ask for your copy of the book The Character of Christ today. When you donate to support the ministry of Truth for Life, go to truthforlife.org slash donate. Thanks for listening. Christians can be joyful even in the midst of suffering, so what's the secret? Tomorrow we'll find out the answer. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-02-04 06:57:52 / 2025-02-04 07:06:04 / 8

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