"A Lesson in Fervent Charity" By Brother Parrish Lee April 3rd,
2016
Amen, Saints, you may be
seated. What a beautiful time of praise
and worship. As you can see, Brother Patrick,
he’s hobbling. Brother Bill, Brother
Mark, they weren’t able to be here. That
didn’t stop the move of God. You’ve got
to love that. You just have to love
that. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord,
because You are the lover of my soul.
And, then, how can I keep from singing?
How can I keep from shouting? How
can I bottle this thing up? Please,
Lord, please, please, please, please, please, please, Lord, please reign in
me. Gracious alive. Good God Almighty. Goodness.
Wow. What a wonderful time we’ve been
having in the presence of the Lord. It’s
good to know Him today. It’s good to be
alive, and, be able to, like Malcolm was talking, let His name come off of your
lips and know where it’s going. Know
that it mutters a praise; know that it has a connection. It is good to know the Lord Jesus Christ in
our hearts and lives today. Amen? Amen.
It’ been a beautiful time. We’ve had a beautiful time in
recent months, here. You know, we have a
theme of the month, we always have a Scripture theme. For January, our theme was, “Being Born
Again,” and, right after that, it was, “Receive Ye the Holy Ghost.” And, then, right after that, our Scripture,
last month, was the Word of God, and how Heaven and Earth will pass away before
His Word shall pass away. Well, today,
our Scripture theme is from First Peter chapter four, verses eight through ten,
and I’m not going to read the whole thing;; we’ll be getting into that in the
message. As we get started, we’re actually
going to read: 1 Peter 4:3-13 For
the time past of our life may
suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in
lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable
idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you: Who shall
give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For for this
cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be
judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto
prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity
shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without
grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of
the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which
God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to
whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Beloved, think it not
strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange
thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's
sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with
exceeding joy. If you could bow your heads with
me for just a moment. Lord, God, it’s
amazing when we come into Your presence.
A time of praise and worship. A time of You just revealing Yourself to
us. A time of—Lord, we can’t even
say. As the song said, we find ourselves
falling short of words; we don’t know what to say. We just want to praise You and uplift You,
but words fall so short. And we just
come before You and thank You. Thank
You, Almighty God. Thank You, thank You,
thank You. Thank You for our time
together. Thank You for our praise and
worship. Thank You for the enlightenment
that You bring to our lives. Thank You
for opening our eyes and our hearts to Your marvelous Truth. Thank You, Almighty God. And, God, you’ve blessed us already; You
blessed us from the moment we woke up today.
We ask that You add Your blessing onto the reading of the Word, that it
might do, as Your Word says, exactly what You sent it out to do, and not return
unto You void. May it nourish us. May it make us more cherished to You, and You
more cherished to us. God, may it truly
accomplish everything You sent it to do.
This we pray and claim, today, in Jesus’ name, and everyone said,
amen. Amen. 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. What a Scripture! What a beautiful Scripture that is, that the
Lord enlightened Apostle Peter with, for us today. But he starts off: 1 Peter 4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us
to have wrought the will of the Gentiles… So,
starting off in this chapter, he talks about that we used to do some things, but those things are gone from us. There has to be a changing from the times
when you didn’t know Christ to the time when you have accepted the Lord and
Savior. And he goes on, he gets distinct
about it. He talks about, “when we
walked in lasciviousness,” and lasciviousness is that crazy wantonness, just
wanting something; not satisfied, just having that craving going at the
Saints. And he went on from there, and
he talked about lusts. And,
straightaway, lust is, not just that strong desire, but lust means a strong
desire, especially for that which is forbidden.
Not just for food, but for food that you ain’t supposed to have. Lust is a desire for something that you’re
not supposed to have. And he goes on,
and he says, “excess of wine,” and, you know, that don’t even need a whole lot
of explanation on that. You actually see
that on so many commercials, now, they’re able to put it on TV, and they make
it so luxurious, and so enlightened, and, “Man, if I could get that…” Such an image to that whole thing, excess of
wine. And it says, “revellings.” Revelings is a cutting loose, letting
yourself go. Revelings, it’s akin to, in
the Bible, it links it up with rioting, and it didn’t so much mean rioting like
we have today, where you go in and burn buildings and, you know, you loot
stuff… That is part of it—it does go
along in that same spirit—but revelings is the kind of thing where, “I just
want to go out and let myself go. I want
to get loose, completely loose. I want
to just go and let my mind take me wherever I’m going to go.” That’s revelings. No control.
“No moral highway for myself. I
want to let everything else go for me and just break all my boundaries.” That’s revelings. And he talks about those things were the
things in our past. And he goes on to
say the next one is, “banquetings.”
Banquetings, it’s the food type, but it’s the drinking and food, and
having it in the atmosphere where you let the moral fiber go. Not just the drinking in spirit, it’s more
the enjoying it. It’s more having a
feast with it that would be the banquetings.
And then he says, “abominable idolatries.” Now, we know that idolatry would be the
worship of an idol, or worship of an image; that’s idolatry, but he makes the
distinction here, that there was times that all of us have had some of this on,
and many of us have had all of these things going on in our lives. But he talked about abominable idolatries,
abominable, in other words, unlawful idolatries, or, to get a little more
descriptive, shamefully wicked
idolatries. Now, if anybody were to say,
“Well, that was way back then,” no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not the
issue. They might have change the image,
but the spirit of idolatry is still rambunctious, today. They even name TV shows after them. We need to be an American Idol. An idol.
There was a time, when you said that, it was nearly a bad word, and,
now, that’s what people want to get to.
“I want to be an idol!” And he
says, these are the things that we just laugh in, in the times of our past. So, he’s building a foundation, here, he’s
building a foundation. And he goes on to say: 1 Peter 4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run
not with them to the same excess of riot… The things that you used to do—and
any Christian would know as anybody who has allowed the Lord to be their Lord
and Savior would know—the things that you used to do, when you used to run with
those people, when you used to laugh in those things, you had buddies that
liked to do them with you, and when God changes your life, and you turn away
from them things, they think it strange that you don’t continue with it. And they started talking about it, “I don’t
know what got into him. I don’t know
what she or her is doing. Something has
to happen! They done took this thing too
far! They speak evil of you. They think it strange that you don’t run to
that same excess of riot, Apostle Peter says here. And he goes on to say: 1 Peter 4:5 Who shall give account to him that is ready
to judge the quick and the dead. Everybody is going to have to give
account, but we realize that Judgment Day is coming. And we allow ourselves to
have—hallelujah!—the blood of Jesus cover us up, that, when we stand before
God, we listen for his voice, we look to hear it. Oh, hallelujah, that’s great. Well, we want to skip down a
little bit: 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity
among yourselves, [Fervent charity among yourselves] for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Fervent charity among
yourselves. Now, in the past, when we
have given ourselves over to some of those other things, those other things,
you know, the banquetings, and revelings, and, some of us, I was in the Navy it
is no strange thing that they say that, in the Navy, you learn to drink like a
fish. That’s all I’m going to say about
that, yeah. So, in those times, we may
have walked in banquetings, and revelings, and surfeitings, it says in another
place in the Bible, lasciviousness, lusts, and excesses of wine, but now, he
says, to have, above all things, fervent charity, fervent charity. Charity, we know, is that love feast. Charity is that God love. But he says, “fervent charity,” and I’ve
always remembered fervent is strong, but that’s not the fervent that’s used
here. This fervent is, this fervent,
that it says here, is an intentional charity, a charity that you make sure is
put there. It is a non-stopping, a
non-ceasing charity. A continual charity. Above all things, have an unceasing
love-feast one for another. Above all
things. And, you know, some things happen
when you give yourself to this charity.
Some things actually happen. We
have an example of somebody who gave himself, in this fervent charity, and, you
know what? one of the things that happened? he didn’t get his own way. The one who gave himself to fervent charity,
he didn’t get his own way all of the time.
You know another thing that happened? he got his feelings hurt. That’s a fact. Got his feelings hurt. He talked about the lack of faith, “How long
must I suffer you?” Fervent
charity. But, you know what else
happened? He gave us a path that was made over for Godly understanding. Fervent charity brings a pathway to more
understanding in God. You know what else
it does? Fervent charity makes a pathway for God’s blessings to come in. Paving it with God’s love allows God’s
blessings to come in. Fervent
charity. And that’s what we look for,
Saints, we look for that pathway that God can have access to us. And, you know what else happens when you have
fervent charity? We find that fervent
charity brings separation. It separates
those who love Him from those who love Him less. It also separates, fervent charity also
separates little love from fervent love.
It’s a separator, it’s a separator.
Fervent charity. Now, that doesn’t mean that we
just, “Well, I’m going to have fervent charity.
That means I’m going to give a lot, but I’m going to get a lot.” That’s true, if you give a lot, you’re going
to get a lot, but that can’t be our motive behind it. We can’t say, “Well, I need to get more, so I
guess that means I’ve got to give more.
Okay, God, watch me now; watch me, now I’m giving. Make sure You take note, God, because I want
to be able to get this certain portion.”
No, because John the Baptist said: John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease. Very simple, but very
powerful. “He must increase, but I must
decrease.” Actually, I, I quote that
wrong sometimes. I quote that to say,
“Oh, yeah, I must decrease, but He must increase.” I went to look it up, and I realized I was
quoting it wrong, and, does it really make a difference? Does it really make a difference what order
it comes in? Yes, it does. Yes, it does.
You see, either way, action is required by us, but when we say, “He must
increase,” that puts all the focus on the Lord.
Let the focus be on Him coming in to me.
Me leaving is going to take care of itself, because, one thing we
recognize, we recognize, anybody who receives the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Savior realizes, and they’ll tell you, you ask anybody who’s allowed the
Lord to change their life, and they’ll say, “You know what, the truth of the
matter is, I can’t live like I used to live.
Since the Lord moved in, I can’t do it!
I can’t live like I used to live!
You know what? I don’t even love
like I used to. I used to have that real
selfish love—Mine!—I ain’t got that kind of love no more. Not all the time; sometimes I do. Not all the time. You know what else? I walk different. I can’t be the same. You know what else? I talk different. I don’t even like the same things I used
to. I grew out of that.” And, you know, they find themselves, it’s as
if they’ve become a new creature! It’s
as though they have truly been born again. Hallelujah! If we were to take a pulse on our
society today, we could say that that’s one thing the whole world is missing;
the whole world is missing fervent love.
No, no, it’s not because of ISIS.
ISIS is a thing that, we pray to God that He would put His finger on it,
but it’s for a reason, I really believe, that they are in the world today. And it’s not—you look at any government, the
governments don’t have fervent love. You
look at society as a whole, they don’t have fervent love. They have distinctions and classifications,
and, you know what? We’ve got divisions,
because, if I’ve got money, and you don’t got money, we must have a divide
between us. Now, fervent charity is
something that is missing all over the world today. But, it goes that, one thing you’ll find
that’s popular in the world today is selfishness. You’ll find that everywhere. Oh, it’s in plenty supply. In fact, I can go home, all alone, be all
alone in that house, and I’ll find plenty of it right there. Just me, and I’ll find plenty of selfishness
right there. I don’t even need nobody
else to help me with that, I know how to be selfish, all by myself. Selfishness makes it easy to say, “My house,
my car, my money, my food, mine!” I
know. “It’s mine!” But selflessness? It's a different thing altogether. Fervent charity. Selflessness, that’s a different thing
altogether. You know, we find that when
we come together, when we have fervent charity, when we bring fervent charity
into a situation, things change. You bring
fervent charity into a situation and, you know what happens? a multitude of
sins get covered. You know what happens?
fervent charity will make a man take up his cross, follow the Lord and look up to
Him, instead of complaining all the time. That’s what fervent charity will do. Fervent charity is also the type of thing
that will open doors, it will heal situations, it will bring answers where
there was none, it will make a way out of no way, it will bring light into a dark
place, it will bring understanding, it will build a bridge where there was no
way, fervent charity. Fervent charity breathes
life into things that are weak and dying. Fervent charity, it will do that. And, fervent charity, you know what that
whole thing sums up to? Fervent charity
makes us more like the One who first had it, more like the Lord. Fervent charity makes us more like the king of
kings. Fervent charity makes us more
like the Lord of lords, the Alpha and Omega.
“I want to be a little more like Him!”
Have fervent charity. Have
fervent charity. As He said in His Word,
the One who gave us fervent charity, who lived it in front of us, who walked
around, and talked to the people, that One said: John 13:15 For I have given you an example, that ye
should do as I have done to you. That you should do as I have done
to you. Luke 10:25-37 And, behold, a
certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest
thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;
and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right:
this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto
Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of
his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by
chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he
passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place,
came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan,
as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on
him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set
him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on
the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host,
and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I
come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was
neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed
mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Now, I want to give a little
background here, if we were to read the whole chapter, and I’m not going to
read the whole chapter, for the sake of time, but, if we were to read the whole
chapter we would see that at the beginning of the chapter the Lord had sent the
seventy out. Yes, He had groups; He had
the group of three, and the group of twelve, but, this time, He had a group of
seventy and He sent the seventy out, and, as they went out to do the Lord’s
bidding, they went out, and when they came back, they said to the Lord, “It’s a
miraculous thing, even the devils were subject to us in Thy name! Even they
are!” And the Lord said to them, “Rejoice not that the devils are subject unto
you in My name, rejoice that your names were written in Heaven. That’s what to rejoice about.” And, you know, it must have been a beautiful
time, they were coming back, all these seventy, and they’re all happy, and
they’re all telling the same story, and they’re all in wonder, talking about
the great things that happened in the name of the Lord Jesus. Well, you know how He gets, you know how He
gets, there’s a blessing going on, and you want to tell somebody that this happened
in your life, and it always seems like there’s somebody else around that wants
to say, “Oh, well, that ain’t nothin’.
You know what I did? You know how
smart I am?” Well, this lawyer stood up,
in that same spirit: “Oh, Lord. Well, the seventy comes back, I got to show I
know a little something, too. Hey, what
do you got to do to enter into Heaven?
I’m a lawyer; I know the Word.”
Now ‘lawyer’ isn’t in the sense that we have lawyers today. The lawyer, in that sense, see, back then,
they had the Mosaic Law, and not everybody, like we do today, had the chance to
go to school. Back then, it was only a
certain few that were able to have some training and some learning and some
teaching. And, if you were one of that
group of people that did that specifically for the Law, you were a lawyer, a
law-person of Moses’ law, of the Old Testament, of the commandments and
everything. You were a person that told
them, “Well, you can’t do that on this day because the sun is still up, you
know, it’s not past evening time,” or, “You can’t do that, because it’s mixed
with this blood,” or, “You can’t wear that garment, because it’s stained with
this, and it was over here in that…” And
that’s what this person would do according to this verse, or according to that,
you know, part of the bible, or, according to that prophet, “You can’t do those
things,” or “You can do those things.”
That’s what they were coming to this person—so, it must have been
something for this lawyer to be coming back, suddenly he’s talking about this
power that’s going on in the name of Jesus, and then, he turns over to
Jesus—the Bible says he was tempting Him—“Oh, what about this whole salvation
thing, Lord? What must I do to be
saved?” And everybody kind of knew who
the lawyer was. That’s why he was a
lawyer everybody came to him for answers.
But, the Bible says he was tempting Him.
And the Lord did a wonderful thing; He pointed him back to the same Law
that he’s supposed to know. “What does it say in that wonderful Word that you
talk about?” And he said, “Oh, well, you
know, it says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your soul, and
your mind, and your strength. And, you
love your neighbor as yourself.” And the
Lord said, “You have answered right.” In
verse twenty-eight, the Lord said, “Thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live.” Then, in the very next verse, he answers
again—the lawyer answers the Lord—“But, he, willing to” this time, “justify
himself,” justify himself! He says, “Who
then is my neighbor?” “Who then is my
neighbor?” And his motivation speaks
volumes. “Who then is my neighbor?” It was a wonderful thing that the Lord said,
“I thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast hidden
these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes,” Revealed them to Your children. That’s who God reveals things to, to His
children. And God said, “This is a
wonderful thing.” And,
so, as that lawyer’s trying to best Him, and then, it says the Lord gives him
man example, He gives him a story. He
says, well, you know, He gives him the whole parable, and He talks about
a man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, we know that Jerusalem is where they
would have went to worship, the Temple and everything, and Jericho was a
dwelling-place. And, it was—depending on
what source you look at—it was between fifteen and nineteen miles. Depending on what source you look at; some
sources I looked at said fifteen, some said seventeen, some said nineteen. It was more than fifteen; it was less than
twenty. But, it was a road that was
popularly travelled between them. But,
it was a dangerous road, because Jerusalem, a lot of people went up to
Jerusalem, because people went up there to worship when you went up to worship,
that was the place you were going to go.
A lot of people went up. But it
became a dangerous road. Robbers knew
that people who had money were going to be going on that road. And, this particular man that went there,
this was a man travelling, as the Lord was talking, He said, he fell among
thieves, and they left him half dead. Then
He told him that there was a priest that was coming, and he kind of skirted around
to the other side. Well, you can kind of
understand that, almost, I mean, a priest is supposed to be a holy man, you
know, maybe he was coming from service.
Maybe he was on a mission. Maybe
he had things to do, but the Bible says, Jesus spoke, specifically, that he saw
him, and then he passed on the other side.
Now, if the man was dead, the Bible says that a priest wasn’t supposed
to touch a dead thing, but it doesn’t say he was dead, it said he was
half-dead. And, then, it talks about the
Levite. Now, the Levite, he had many
duties to do in the Temple, and he’s coming from Jerusalem, also, and he sees the
man, too, and I’m sure he’s like, “You know how it can get. I’ve got plenty of things to do I can’t get
interrupted,” or, “Maybe those thieves are still around.” Either way, he saw him, and, he, too, passed
by on the other side. And, then, this Good
Samaritan comes, and he sees him, and he takes him. Now, according to—the Samaritan is somebody
that that priest and that Levite wouldn’t have even have dealt with, according
to the woman at the well. She says, “The
Jews have no dealings with us. We are
several layers lower. They have no
dealings with us.” But this man who fell
among thieves is glad the Samaritan comes along, because he’s the one who takes
him and bound up his wounds, pours in medicinals, puts him on his beast, which
means he had to walk, puts him on his beast, takes him to an inn, where he can
be taken care of. And then he pays the man,
“Take care of him and when I come back, if more is owed, I’ll take care of that,
too. The Samaritan. The one they don’t really associate
with. The one who’s a little bit lower
down on the totem pole, I guess. And, it’s hard to convey this
whole thing, but, I want to talk about two Samaritans, today, and this is going
to be pretty quick. We’re going to wrap
this up pretty shortly, here. I want to
talk about two Samaritans, and, for this, I need a little help. I’ve asked Jason if he would come and help me
for a little while, here, so I need Jason to come. Because I need a man who was traveling. And, I also need a priest; who’s a good
priest in here? Malcolm? Okay. So, I also need a Levite who’s a good
Levite in here? Come on up, Todd; you
look like a good Levite. And, I also
need an innkeeper; who’s a good innkeeper in here? Oh, yeah, come on up, Maxx. Maxx a millions. So, for the purpose of this demonstration, a,
I need you on the floor, bro. Jason lies
down on the floor.) So, this man fell
among thieves, beat down, took and robbed, stole off of. (Jason pantomimes being beaten.) We need you guys up against the wall. First, we need the priest to walk by. Come on, priest. That’s you, bro. (Malcolm walks until he gets close to Jason,
and then gives him a wide berth.) Yeah. And he walks by, and saw, and he walks
by. The man is still there; he’s
half-dead. Half-dead. And then we need the Levite. Yeah, you just came from the Temple. You’ve got business and stuff to do. (Todd walks almost up to Jason, then shakes
his head and walks way around him.) You
are the people that God is using.
Anybody see that Levite? Anybody
see that priest? Those are the men of
God over there. The men of God walked
by. And then, (Maxx starts to walk over)
not just yet, not just yet. And then
comes, and then comes, the Samaritan.
The Samaritan. And the Samaritan
comes, and the man is on the ground, the Samaritan comes (Parrish walks over to
Jason), and he binds up his wounds, he helps the man up, he pours in the
medicinals, the Bible says, he get shim up, he puts him on his beast, so, yeah,
that means the Samaritan is going to have to walk. But, this man is on his beast, and he takes
him to the inn. (Parrish helps Jason
over to where Maxx is standing.) And the
innkeeper has to say, “What’s up?” The
problem? The problem, Mister Innkeeper,
is that I saw this man. I saw this man,
he had fell among thieves. He was
half-dead, but I had to do something, because there was a time in my life when
I was half-dead. Sin had left me beat
up, and it had me on the ground. I had
to do something, because the One who came along, and did something for me was
the first Samaritan. And, yes, I had to
put him on a beast, I had to get him in travel, because I didn’t always have
transportation. I didn’t always have
vehicles. So, if God could do that for
me, then I have to share with others what he’s done for me. And, yes, I had to pour in medicinals,
because, you see, I was hurting bad, and He had to be a Samaritan to me. When I was hurting, He poured in the medicine
to help me. And, then, I had to take him
to a place where he could get well, because that’s what he did for me He made a
house for me. I had to bring him
here. I ain’t rich; I ain’t got a whole
lot of money, but he made a way. He
allowed me to have a job. If God
provided for me, I must be able to provide for somebody else who needs it,
too. And, when He comes back, if there’s
anything else that I need, He’s going to take care of it. So, when I go this way, I have to make sure
that, whatever the problem, whatever it is, he’s going to be taken care
of. Thank you, my brothers. So, no strange thing: The parable of the Good Samaritan is actually
talking about two Samaritans. We’re
talking about the first real Samaritan, who saw all of us, whipped, beat down,
half-dead, and had mercy on us. And how
He came over to us, bound up our wounds, every single thing that had a hole and
was killing us; it was taking us out.
And He said, “I will say unto you, live.
I will give you life.” And then, He
said, “Anything else this man needs, transportation, I will make a way for
him. I will take the brunt of what he
has to go through, and I will make sure he is provided for.” And then, He said, “What else does he
need? I’m going to make provision—two pence—I’m
going to make provision for him. That’s
what he needs today. And, tomorrow,
whatever he needs, I will provide for him tomorrow. I will do that for him, because I am the Samaritan
for him. And, when I come back, I will
continue to supply for him; I will continue to provide for him.” That Samaritan. And the charge that the Lord told the lawyer,
when He said, “Who, then, was neighbor to him?”
He didn’t say, “Who was his neighbor?” He said, “Who was neighbor to him?”
“He that showed mercy.” And the
Lord said, “Go, and do likewise.” He
charged us all to be that Good Samaritan.
He charged every one of us to have fervent charity. ##39:30## And, as we prepare to close, somebody
might say, “I have noticed a common thread through many of the messages around here. A common thread—it seems you guys are always
talking about the love of God. And, you
know what? That’s a good subject, most
of the time, but, you know what? I kind
of want a little bit more meat. Give me
some of that chunky stuff. Give me that
stuff that’ll get up in my teeth, that I don’t want to floss to get it out. Give me that stuff, the chunky stuff.” I can understand that. I can understand anybody saying, “I want some
more meat.” But, something needs to be
said about that: One thing that has to
be said is that the message of God is a love story. You can’t get it out. You can’t discount it. You can’t bypass it. You can’t get around it. The message of God is a love story. You'll find it with the woman at the well. You will find it with the woman taken in the
act of adultery. You will find it in the Book of Isaiah, and in the books of
David. You will find it in the time of Moses.
You will find it in the time of Abraham.
You will find it with the Apostles. You
will find it with Lazarus. You will find
it with Martha and Mary. The message of
God is a love story. And, the fact of
the matter, Saints, is, that really is, right there, that is the meat. That’s God’s meat, that His message is a love
story, because he said, “Above all
things, have fervent charity.” Above everything, have fervent charity; above
everything. Fervent charity. That fervent charity, to us, what’s it do? It covers that multitude of sins for us. Hallelujah.
It covers each and every one.
Hallelujah. And our charge, our
charge, from Matthew chapter ten… He
left His Word, that charity covers a multitude of sins, but, in Matthew chapter
ten, verse number eight, he charged the Apostles, He charged all of us, He
charged those who allow themselves to be disciplined after Him Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the
dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Freely you have received, freely
give. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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