Loving and Blameless Hearts

Scripture Reading

Will you turn over in your Bibles with me to 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians. Keep going past Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, and you'll get to the T's. You'll get to 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. If you're using your Pew Bibles, you can find that on page 1049. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. And we'll read the full chapter for context, but the message will come specifically from verses 11 through 13. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, pay careful attention now, this is God's perfect word.

Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone and sent Timothy. our brother and minister of God, and fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions.

For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it has happened, and you know. For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you and our labor might be in vain. But now that Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us as we also to see you, Therefore, brethren, in all our affliction and distress, we were comforted concerning you by your faith. For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord.

For what thanks can we render to God for you? For all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray now that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes and soften our hearts that we might see and believe what you would have for us this morning. Father, give me words to speak and let us be built up in holiness. In Jesus's name, amen. There's a common phrase in America. It's a pretty sad phrase, pretty telling phrase. I just don't love him anymore. I just fell out of love with her. I just fell out of love, like it's just something that happens. This is often what people will say as their marriage dissolves beneath their feet, and it didn't just happen, there's often steps behind that, but that's not the case with, praise God, that's not the case with even the majority of marriages.

Sermon

One of the things we loved doing when Olivia and I were wedding photographers on the dance floor all the time, we loved it. You could almost guarantee this would happen at every wedding. They would have all the couples, all the married couples get on the floor and they would have the anniversary dance. And you would go through, and they would say, depending on the DJ, sometimes they would let the couple stay on the floor.

But they would say, if you've been married for less than three hours, you can stay on the floor. And the couple would walk off the floor. And they would go, if you've been married for less than a year, you can leave the floor. If you've been married for less than five years, you can leave the floor.

If you've been married for less than 10 years, and you would whittle down and whittle down and whittle down until you finally got to that place where you would see people who have been married for 30, 40, 50, sometimes 60, One of the most beautiful things I saw was this old man sitting in his wheelchair and his wife dancing with him in the wheelchair on the floor. And they had been married for over 65 years.

And it was so great seeing this love that was enduring. And they would always ask these couples, what's your word of advice to the newly married couple? And time and time again, it was amazing what these people would say. Never go to bed angry. Work with each other. Never let your love die. Brothers and sisters, never let your love die. Never let your love die. Your calling today is to let the love of Christ dwell in your hearts and overflow into the lives of others. Let the love of Christ dwell richly in your hearts and overflow in the love for others. Let's look first at how we need to desire to be together, verse 11.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you. Paul is beginning a prayer here. He is praying that he might see them here face to face. He said that before in verse 10 as well. Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. He wants to see them. He wants to finish their education. He wants to be with God's people. But he's already said in this letter in chapter two that he tried to get to them twice.

Remember in Acts 17, Paul and his companions were kicked out of Thessalonica. They were run out of the city. They weren't allowed to stay there, but their hearts were still with the people. They called them beloved, chapter two, verse 18. They cared for these people. But they were run out, and they tried to get back once, and Satan prevented it. How? We don't know. They tried to get back a second time, and they were prevented from it.

Final Point

Finally, Paul is overwhelmed. He wants to know how the people are doing in Thessalonica, so he sends them Timothy. He sends them his apprentice. He sends them this minister of the gospel to hear how they're doing, but he hasn't given up hope. He still wants to see them face to face, even though he gets the encouragement back and he hears about their faith, he wants to see them himself. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you.

You remember what it was like last March, last April? I can't tell you how many emails I got as the weeks went on and COVID lockdown stayed in place and we stayed online and people would email and say, can we get back together? When are we gonna actually start meeting again? How are we gonna start meeting again? I mean, if people started getting itchy, right?

Like I just wanna get back to church. We even had other people from other churches when we started meeting, they just wanted to be with other Christians and so they would come and they would join us outside. Just wanting to be together. Just wanting to show that love for one another.

And some of you amazed me in how you showed that love to people who couldn't come. Some of you amazed me in how you wrote letters and made bookmarks and called people who were in lockdown and weren't able to leave their homes. How you delivered food and how you prayed for one another. It was a great encouragement to see how the church rallied together in the midst of absence, but there's a danger now.

Even in our own congregation, there are still some who haven't been able to come. Those of you who are still online, we still love you and we miss you. Have we forgotten about them? Have we sent them letters? Have we called them? Have we continued to pray for those who, their immune systems, they're still scared for their lives to gather together?

It's easy to let your love just kind of die out, isn't it? Or it's easy as many people will find out in a marriage, you know, the honeymoon period, right? You're just so in love with each other, you just give each other those cute little eyes all the time, and you just wanna hold each other and hold each other's hands, and then what happens by year 10? You know, it's easy to let that love go away, to just take each other for granted, to just become complacent.

The Lord is saying here, that's not the model that he gives. Paul wants to see the church, he wants to see them, and he prays for God's sovereign protection that he might be able to get there for those travels, that God might direct his way to them. Why? Why, he wants to encourage them, he wants to perfect what's lacking in their faith.

Indeed, verse 12, he wants them to overflow with love. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you. Brothers and sisters, we're to overflow with love. We are to overflow with love is what verse 12 is telling us.

I want you to keep your finger in 1 Thessalonians, but I want you to go to the book of John with me. Go to John chapter 13. We're gonna spend just a few minutes in John, looking at what our Lord himself said. John chapter 13, beginning at verse 34. Page 955, if you're using your Pew Bibles.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." What is the key distinguishing mark that our Lord and Savior Himself gives? If you're wrestling with, am I a Christian? Do I know that God loves me? Do I know that I am in Jesus? Do I know that Jesus is in me?

Do you love one another? 1 John tells us that God is love. This is not just some emotional, mushy-gushy love, but this is caring for someone's emotional or eternal well-being. Biblical love is caring for another person's eternal well-being, and God does that to us. Do we show that love to one another? How will they know that you're Jesus' disciples? Do you love one another? You can't do this by yourself though. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not giving you a self-help sermon. I'm not saying you just gotta work it up and just gotta love each other and get along. If you've been married for five minutes, you know that you don't always get along in marriage.

Where does the fountain of love come from? Where does the motivation for love come from? Where does this come from in John chapter 13? As I have loved you. But God demonstrated his own love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Our love for one another is because it's deeply rooted in the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, that Jesus has poured out his love into you, that Jesus Christ lives in you. And if Jesus Christ is in you, then you get to love other people. Jesus describes this, just turn over one page to John chapter 15. John chapter 15.

Jesus says, I am the vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

We have to look to Jesus, we have to have the love of Jesus in our heart if we're going to truly, authentically love each other. We love one another, and just in case you say, well, maybe that's not the fruit Jesus is talking about. Maybe Jesus is talking about other stuff. Maybe he's talking about good works type fruit. Yes, he is, but look at me a little bit further. Verse nine.

As the father loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. And what's Jesus' commandment? Verse 12. He says it again. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

Love is hard. We think of love, you know, love is a huge buzzword in our society right now, and it's just caring about whoever you want to care about and doing whatever you want to do, but that's not biblical love. This biblical love is a sacrificial love. It's this love that's abounding, it's this love that's flowing over. It's this love that looks like what the early church says it did.

Selling all their possessions. and giving it to those in need. It looks like caring for the widows and the orphans and their distress. Loving looks like encouraging others even when you're run down and tired. Love in Paul's case sometimes looked like somebody posting bond for him. Love looks like buying groceries for those who don't have it. Paul speaks in Philippians about the people in Macedonia showing their love by sending money to the missionaries that they might go out with the gospel. Christian love looks like praying for each other.

Christian love looks like what Jesus taught when he said, that at the judgment, right, there's going to be those who are judged, and he's going to say to them that they've given him food and drink and a bed, and they'll say, when did we see you hungry, and when did we see you thirsty, and when did we see you tired? Jesus said, as much as you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me. As we give the drink of water to those who need it, as we give to those who are hungry and need it, as we give to those who are tired, I need a break when we grieve with those who are grieving. This is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 29. Or Matthew 22, Matthew 22 when Jesus is summarizing the law. Do you remember what Jesus said the two greatest commandments were? What's the first greatest commandment? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Now that's difficult, right? But Romans chapter 13, verses eight through 10 teach us that that's what love does, it fulfills law. Do you want people to steal from you? Well, love them by not stealing from them. Do you want people to go into your house and to beat up your family? No, then don't be angry at your brother. Do you want your wife to get stolen away from you and have an affair with someone? Then don't go looking at other women. Love your neighbor as you would love yourself.

This is the perfect fulfillment of the law is what Romans chapter 13 tells us. But love is hard. It takes time. Loving someone takes energy. It takes mental effort. It means I need to not think about myself. I'm gonna put myself to the side and I'm gonna care about someone else instead.

And man, this is totally antithetical to what the world thinks love is today. What does the world say love is today? Whatever makes me happy. Whatever relationship I should be in that gives me the most fulfillment, then that is love. But that's not what love is.

Love is saying, I'm going to put away my preferences, I'm going to put away my tiredness, I'm going to put away my money, I'm going to put away my desires, and I'm going to care for this other person instead. I'm going to show them I love them by taking those limited resources. Time, money, emotional energy, mental capacity. And I'm gonna apply it to this person. I'm gonna give them what they can't pay me back with. Love is hard.

Jesus knew this. Right, Jesus knew this. Have you ever read through the Gospels before? Man, you sit there and you read the Gospels and sometimes you look at the disciples and you say, really, these are the guys who chose? Yeah, it's hard. Love is hard because you're loving imperfect people, but love, there's no greater than this, that one would lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus knew the depths of the cost of love. Jesus gave up heaven. Philippians chapter two, he gave up heaven and humbled himself and made himself into the likeness of man. to demonstrate his love and not just that he came and dwelt with us, but he died for us. Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am the worst.

He has displayed his love by pouring out his life, his sacrificial love, his protecting love, his forgiving love. This is the love God wants you to have. And not just a little bit. Right, not just a little bit. God wants you to have it abundantly, overflowingly. I love the two synonyms that are used here. We're back at 1 Thessalonians chapter three. 1 Thessalonians chapter three. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love.

Have you ever been to your grandma's Thanksgiving dinner? Did she make just a little bit of food to show you she loved the family? She got the smallest turkey and she only made one side. No, you know what it's like to go home for Thanksgiving, where you have so much food that you're able to go back not just for seconds, sometimes you're able to go back for thirds, and that's before you get to dessert. And guess what? You still got leftovers for the next week. It's overflowing, right?

This is the type of love that God wants you to have. He wants it to be overflowing in your life, not just, you know, this scant little resource that you have, but this should be the mark of the Christian life, is loving one another with this overflowing love. And notice verse 12 doesn't say it ends in the church. Yes, it's for each other, but what does verse 12 say? To one another and to all.

This is the craziness of the gospel. That Jesus says, love not just your friends, but your enemies. This is a thing that won the church over throughout the world that people either thought the church was absolutely crazy or it must have been sent by God because these Christians would pray for and care for the people who were just torturing them. because they love their enemies. Even Jesus Christ himself on the cross, as he's sitting there gasping for breath, as he's in pain, dying, as this man next to him had just been mocking him, blaspheming him, calling him a liar, he comes to his senses and he says, remember me in your kingdom. And Jesus looks at him and he shows him compassionate love. Today you will be with me in paradise. Think how much effort that took for Jesus to speak those words as he's dying. He shows this man love. That's the Christ who's in you. That's the love that propels you to love one another. And it's the love that Paul and his companions showed to them.

They had gone to strangers. They didn't know the Thessalonians. They didn't know them from Adam. But they knew they needed the good news. And so they would share their lives and the gospel with them. overflow with love, desire to be together, overflow with love, and have, this is a big one here, point three, have established unblameable holy hearts. Have established unblameable holy hearts. Look at me at verse 13. Paul's second petition, so that he may establish her hearts blameless and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and all his saints. Paul doesn't want them to show love just because it's a nice thing, but it's because it's an eternal thing. Because it is an attribute of God himself.

The reformed world is filled with, for lack of a better word, a whole bunch of jerks. A whole bunch of cage-stage Calvinists who are just really fired up about every single point of doctrine, and they're going to hammer every nail and don't have any love for one another. That's not what a blameless holy heart looks like. No blameless holy heart looks like loving one another.

That's the mark that we're able to look to. We often think of the last judgment day, and I mean, it's right here. Your heart's blameless in holiness before our God and Father and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Jesus is coming back and He's going to judge the living and the dead. Is this something that strikes fear in your heart? Or do you have confidence?

No, I love Jesus. And I love others. I do it imperfectly. Lord knows that we do it imperfectly. But I see the evidence of them in my life. And maybe for you, you're sitting here thinking, well, I mean, I come to church. This is supposed to be a family. He calls them here brothers. He's talking to the family of Christ. He's saying, you're my beloved. I'm gonna give you a challenge this week. Look around in the congregation. You can do it now or you can pull out your church directory later and thumb through the directory and think, who's one person I can show a practical application of love to this week?

Who is it that needs prayer? Who's the shut-in that needs a call? Who's the person who's been at home and not able to come for multiple weeks? Who's the person who I know is in a hard financial straight? Who's the person who's just struggling with all these kids and they just look like they need a break for an hour? Thank you for those of you who do that for my poor wife and especially me while she's gone.

Look around, look for ways that you can show that love to one another. This is how we have, as Calvin says, as he describes what it's talking about here, a clean conscience. Isn't that interesting? We know that we have holy hearts, blameless hearts, unblemished hearts, if they're marked by love. Again, that's not just accepting everything everybody does and not caring about sin. but is your heart marked by sacrificial love for one another?

Some of you do this week in and week out. You're an encouragement to us. Some of you are going to show that sacrificial love to your parents today by letting them take a nap and being quiet for them. Some of you are going to show that sacrificial love towards your sibling by just saying, okay, I'm not going to enter into this argument. I'm just going to let you have your way, and that's fine. Some of you husbands, you're going to show this sacrificial love for your wife. I don't know how you're going to do it. Maybe they will drop dead because you cleaned the toilet or did a load of laundry this week. I don't know. Maybe your closest neighbor in your house needs some sacrificial love this week. This is the mark of a clean conscience.

And if this is in us, then we can say with what Paul is going to say in chapter 5, verse 9, with confidence God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, if the love of Jesus is remaining in you, it's overflowing in you and it's flowing out into others, you need not fear the judgment day. If your hope is in Jesus Christ, and you see in your life that love marked going out to others, have confidence today. Have confidence today that you are in Christ, and that when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead, you have nothing to fear, but you can give your account with joy on that last great day, and say, Jesus loved me, and I've tried to live out that love towards others.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Oh God, what great love you have for us. We marvel at your goodness. That you would rescue us and give us a redeemer. Father, I pray that you would apply these words to our hearts. Lord, I pray that any wrong or just silly things I might've said today, Lord, I pray that they might be burned away like chaff. and that your truth might abide in our hearts and that we would live it in our lives.