Dear friends, please turn with me to your Bibles to 1 Peter 1, verse 22. I want to focus once again, go back to that text and consider some of the words here where we read at the end, the final clause where we read, "...see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." And I know the last time that I preached this message, you all said, well, many of you said it was cutting. It made you miserable. Well, I want to do a bit more work on that. And not to make you more miserable, but to show you the grace of God in these things and to expand this passage, which we didn't manage to finish the last time. Here, the apostle says, seeing He have purified your souls. We explained that last time. in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned or sincere love of the brethren. And then this is the part, see that ye love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Now here the Apostle Peter, he strikes at the very heart of Christian living. He says, you want to know what Christian living is like? This is it. Here is no cold sort of abstraction, no mere sort of ornament of holiness or piety, but it's a command that teaches us and reaches into the marrow of our faith. What is your faith like? What's the source of your faith? What's the heartbeat of your faith? Peter takes us from the inner sanctuary of grace, as it were, to the open field of Christian fellowship. He speaks to those who have known something of the cleansing, the purifying power of the gospel and the Spirit of God and the life-giving breath of the Spirit. And he also presses upon them this royal command to love the brethren, he says. And if you trace the flow of this chapter, you'll see that the Apostle Peter, he's been laying a foundation and we've looked at before, he reminds these scattered pilgrims, who are sojourning in this world, of their election according to God's foreknowledge and the grace of God, of their redemption by the precious blood of Christ, that it wasn't by silver or gold, but by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and also of their hope of an incorruptible inheritance. We've seen all of that. And He has summoned them to gird up the loins of your mind. He says you need to be ready. You should not be distracted in this world. You need to be sober, thinking straight, to live in holy fear. For they are not redeemed with anything that is corruptible. then as if to crown all of these things, he declares that this faith, this hope must flower. It's not just shoot some branches and leaves. No, it should flower. What's the flower of it? Love. Love. Love for the brethren. Love for God and love for the brethren. And here's the point, dear friends. True Christianity cannot live in isolation. The faith that unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ and binds us also to His people. It's not just saying generally we are united in what we believe. But remember that this faith binds us, Christ binds us to God's people. Grace never works alone. It brings forth fruit in every sphere, towards God, in reverence towards God, yes, towards the world, in holiness, and towards the church of Jesus Christ, love. And if that love is absent, all our fair professions are but painted leaves upon a dead tree. That's what it is. I hope that is not the case with us. The Apostle John, he declares this in 1 John 3 and verse 14, he says, And I find this so challenging. So this evening, I would just linger over this holy passage, holy duty. Of course, not to exhaust it, but to look at love's height and depth. And I want to give you something more, some more instructions, not just from this passage, but other passages in the Word of God to give you something more about brotherly love or love for the brethren. And there are three things that I want to leave before you this evening. Three biblical perspectives. Number one, I want us to think about the inseparable or inseparability of faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and love for the people of God. So, love for Jesus and love for God's people cannot be separated. That's the first thing. And secondly, the necessity of instructing our consciences You actually need to have your consciences instructed, if you are to love your brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, how this brotherly love must be expressed. And it takes a lifetime, my friends, for you to instruct your mind how you are to love. Not what you think love is, but how you are to love from the Word of God. And then thirdly, I want to simply show you the wisdom of repetition. Peter repeated himself again and again. And I thank God for that because I repeat myself unknowingly. He did it knowingly. But this is good for us to be reminded. And I would really ask you to listen carefully with both mind and your conscience. These are not side issues. This transformed Christian life. This transforms the church. What we are talking about, Eternal God has joined these things together. And so let no man put them asunder. The measure of our Christianity will not be taken by the orthodoxy of our creed and confessions of faith, nor by the sort of a fervor of our prayer alone, but by the reality of our love for those begotten of God, as the scripture says here. So we need God's grace for this. It's a solemn thing. So the first thing I want you to notice is this. The inseparability, it is easy to write it, it's hard to say it, of faith in the person of Christ and the love for the people of God. So we want to begin there and I want to begin with a searching question. I want you to listen carefully. Can there be such a thing as a Christian who believes on Christ yet does not love the brethren? Can there be a Christian who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ but doesn't love his brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer of the scripture is clearly this. No, never. It's impossible. To separate faith in the person of the Lord Jesus from love to the people of Christ is to rend asunder what God has eternally joined. You cannot do that. Let's think about this. We have the witness of, first of all, the witness of the apostles. Think about the Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians. He says this in Ephesians 1.15, he says, So they've got faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he says, and so he connects that with the word and, and he says, cease not to give thanks for you. So what happened with these people? What was it that made the Apostle Paul thankful? He was giving thanks to God for them. There were two things, not merely their faith in Jesus Christ, but their love for all the saints. Not some of the saints, but all the saints, he says. Faith and love, like twin jewels, they glitter together in the crown of grace, as one put it. You think about the words in Colossians. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 4, think about it. Listen, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. So they've heard about their faith in Christ Jesus. They've had a good confession of faith. These are good, sound Christians. They're completing Jesus Christ. So the sound of their faith has gone throughout the world. It says, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, he says. So the same pattern appears here for Paul. These were the unmistakable marks of divine life. You know, somebody said to me this morning, how do I know I'm a Christian? This is one key thing. Before, we didn't love these people, this bunch of people who sin, who are not lovely, who do all sorts of things. They're a strange folk and I've got better people or more likable people. But then something happens. I begin to love them. I begin to see things. I begin to see they love the Lord Jesus Christ. I love them too. And that changes in my heart. And that is one key mark. We love the brethren. So if you want to know one of the things, how do you know you are a true child of God? You love God's people. It doesn't matter where they are from. Sometimes it is even they don't dot every I and cross every T, that you cross and you dot. But they love Jesus Christ still. They may be weak, but you thank God for them. So there is this faith that is directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this love flowing towards his people. Again, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul, he says, So these people are growing. Reformation is taking place. Real growth is taking place in this church. They were idol worshippers, but now they love Jesus Christ and they believe in the true and the living God. And then he says, and charity of every one of you. That word charity is a good word. I heard a preacher recently saying, the authorized version's use of charity is not a good one. My friends, I think it was a good choice because it's not, in our modern day love actually equals lust. It's a feeling. Charity cannot be a feeling. Underneath it is love that then acts. That's what it is. But it is the same word that is translated elsewhere. We were just reading this in 1 Peter 1.22. It's the same word agape. And here it's translated as charity. So don't get too worried about it. It means love, but it is quite active love. It says, and the love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth. It's abounding. It's not just now and again, but it's abounding. So you notice the growth of faith and the abounding love. And so they rise together alike, like the twin pillars. upon the temple of true religion. Even in his brief letter of Philemon, Paul rejoices. His end is in Philemon 1.5. He says, Faith towards Christ Love towards his saints. Not one without the other. So I hope you get this. Because I have faith in God and then I don't like or don't love these God's people. But another thing is the testimony of the Apostle John. He says this. He makes it much more sharper. And he says this in 1st John. 1 John 3, verse 23. The Apostle John, I've put him in a different category because it's quite cutting what he does. He says, this is his commandment. 1 John 3, verse 23. This is the commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another. So you want to have the commandment of God, this is it. One commandment, two parts. Believe on Christ and love the brethren. Who will dare to divide these things, to sever what God has bound together? John presses the matter still further in chapter 5 and verse 1 of his epistle, first epistle. He says, So, If we love the one who has begotten us, we also love those who are begotten of Him, meaning Christians. We love the Christians. And so this is the unchanging law of grace. Where there is faith in Jesus Christ, real faith, true faith, saving faith, there will be love for those who are His. Life gravitates to life. Children of the same father cannot but love one another. And then there is, let me give you some pastoral appeal. And I'm asking you this, does this principle live in your soul? What we've been talking about. There's some maybe young people. Maybe outwardly you come to church, those kinds of things, you're tied to the church, yet inwardly you're strangers to this family, to the family of God, to the family affection. You see people. and you don't care about them, you don't love them. You're easily hurt by others who name the name of Christians. Yes, you love your parents for who they are to you and what they provide for you, but then when it comes to Christian things, they love to pray, they love to read the Bible, they love to have family worship, they love to go and serve the Lord in some capacity and show their zeal for Christ. You recoil from it. You enjoy the fruit of the gospel. but dislike its root. And my friends, this is a fearful sign, if that is the case. Where grace reigns, where the love of God reigns in the heart, the heart clings to Jesus Christ and is warm towards his people. So you go somewhere, you don't know these people, and yet they love Jesus Christ and your heart suddenly warms towards them. These are my people. These are God's people. You may not speak the language as we have recently been somewhere where we couldn't understand a word they were saying. But they were God's people. They sang God's praises. So we love them. So let me speak to you again plainly. If you had your choice tonight, would you rather spend eternity with the people of God or with your old companions in sin, with your old friends? That question cuts through so much. The Apostle Paul, he declares this, or John I should say, he says this in 1 John 3 verse 14, he says, So he says that's the mark of a Christian, that's one of the marks. We know, he says, that we have passed from death unto life Because we love the brethren. Not because we talk of grace, not because we attend worship, but because we love the brethren. But let me give you a living illustration, the Apostle Paul, soul of Tarsus. The man who once breathed out threatenings against the saints is no sooner converted than he seeks their fellowship. They're scared of him to begin with, but he wants to be with Christians. The persecutor becomes a brother amongst brethren. Why? Because the new birth has planted in his soul that great, that mighty principle. Everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. These people have been begotten of God. I love that. So it will ever be. So friends, do you see how Peter's exhortation rests on this foundation? It doesn't command love to strangers. It doesn't say that. But specifically, to those who share the same divine life. So having been begotten again by the word of God, we must love one another fervently. Who do you spend your time with? Is it mainly with Christians? Are you building relationships and loving relationships with other brothers and sisters? Or your life is really bound up in your own life and with colleagues at work and with family who are not Christians and so on. And so much of your time is caught up with those kinds of things. And you feel detached, distant. Is that the case? So faith in Christ, love for the brethren, cannot be separated. As light and heat cannot be separated from the sun. So second thing is this. The necessity of instructing our conscience how brotherly love must be expressed. Your conscience, your mind, your thinking, your whole life pattern should be instructed day by day how you are to love your brothers and sisters. So again, think on that text. See that ye love one another. But how? How is that possible? He says, you need to make sure you see that you love one another with a pure heart. And he says, fervently, fervently. How can you keep this fire burning? By instructing your conscience. So dear Christian friend, love is not a vague sentiment. It's not a sort of a warm glow that comes and goes like the morning mist. It's not like that. The scripture knows nothing of a love that is aimless, a love that is impulsive, a love that is blind. True Christian love is holy love. And holy love is governed by the revealed will of God. It's not what you think is love. It's what the Bible says is love. It's not your definition of love. This is how I love. Like it or lump it. This is how I love. This is how I demonstrate my love and so on. If you don't like the way I love, then that's your problem, some people might think. But no, we have to say, well what, how does God define love? How does God say we should express love? So you have to then retrain yourself because we have lived in a world that we have talked about love or we've heard about love, but it's not biblical love. So you have to undo so many things and delete all of these files and then upload if I use the computer term, upload all these files onto your system, onto your mind to be thinking now, this is what I have to access prayerfully. One of the old divines, the Puritans put it in this way, law is love's eyes. Without it, love is blind. The law of God, meaning the word of God is the eyes, love's eyes. Without it, love is blind. So let's think about that. Number one, when we think about this, instructing your conscience. Number one, you need to think about this. Love is not self-interpreting. Love is not self-interpreting. I've already touched on that. We must understand this clearly. Love as a principle. is not self-exegeting. That is to say, left to itself, love does not automatically know how to act. It's not an automatic thing. You need to train your conscience. This is what the Word of God says about love. You see, the fallen heart of ours is so subtle. It's so subtle. It can baptize self-interest with the name of love. How many sins have been justified under that very banner? Oh, well, I'm demonstrating love. And in our world in which we are living in, people speak of love to excuse what? To excuse impurity, lust, dishonesty, or compromise with the world. It's just, oh, you need to love. Let love live and so on. Love instead of hate, we are told. But what says the scripture? This is the love of God. in 1 John 5 and verse 3. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments. That's one way of looking at it, John says. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments. So, love does not invent its own pathways. It is the same all the time. Isn't that wonderful? You don't have to go and redefine everything and think about what does it mean to us in our day and age. Read your Bible and then apply it to your life prayerfully. So love doesn't invent its own pathways. It walks in the path of God's precepts, the Word of God. Yes, the Lord has given us these sweeping truths, maxims. So let me refer some of these things to you. Luke 6 and verse 31. As he would that men should do unto you, do you also to them likewise. It's golden rule. That's how you love. And again, The apostle Paul says in Romans 13 and verse 10, love worketh no ill to his neighbor. So you don't do anything ill, bad to your neighbor, to people around you. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. But if that Fair enough. Why has God fulfilled or filled his word with so many detailed instructions? Because our consciences must be tutored. It's not just talking about vague things, general things. Our love must be regulated by truth, lest it degenerates into mere sentiments, disopinions, feelings. Well, that's how you love. I love it my own way and being very subjective. No. Let's think about the pattern that the Lord gives. So I want to look at now the pattern in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5 is an example for us. Paul exhorts in verse 2 of Ephesians 5, he says, walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. Ephesians 5, 2. There is the pattern. The sacrificial love of Jesus Christ That's what he's talking about. But the Apostle Paul doesn't stop there. He applies the principle with this piercing specificity. He says this in verse 3, so walk in love as Christ also has loved us. In verse 3 he says straight away, he says, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetous, let it not be once named among you as become as saints. So then he puts it, this is how. This is how you don't love. This is how actually you are the opposite of love. Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness. So it's talking about all sorts of things, practical things, the matters of the heart, coveting, wanting more, not being satisfied, ever wanting to have all sorts of other things. He said, don't let it be named among you. Not even once. It's not comely. It has become a saint, he says. So some of us believe that impurity can dwell in the same house as love. But the Apostle thunders, he says no. Love that imitates Christ will not defile the temple of God. So my body is not my choice. My body is the Lord's. It's the temple of the Holy Ghost. And he presses on in Ephesians 4 and verse 29. He says, So what does it do? Love controls. Controls the tongue as well as the hands. So no gossip. If you want to love your brothers and sisters, do not gossip. That's something we need to be reminded of. I need to be reminded of. We can disguise gossip under the title of sharing a burden. But if you would not say it in front of them, don't say it behind them. If you know that passing this information is going to undermine your brothers or your sisters, then don't say it. Even if they are not in this church, in any place. Don't pass on information under any guise unless it is for the edifying and unless it is actually going to do good. No hurtful sarcasm. I need to listen to this myself. No hurtful sarcasm. Cloaked in humor. We can say very cutting things. Some of you I know I've offended because of some sharp sarcastic comments and I need to watch myself. Love builds up. It doesn't tear down. And that's so important for us to think. So we are thinking about these things. And then, think about another thing. I thought this was a little humorous, but the scripture speaks about it. But it's a serious illustration. Because there are some people here, including myself, I've argued at times like this. It's about, well, I'm showing my love and they need to understand it my way. Now Proverbs, you can highlight this proverb for yourself. Proverbs 27 verse 14 gives this quaint yet solemn warning. Just try to imagine this in your mind. Proverbs 27 verse 14. It says, He that blesseth his friend with a loud noise. So this man thinks he's going to bless his friend with a loud noise, rising early in the morning, It shall be counted as a curse to him. Do you see what he's saying? So imagine a man full of zeal for his friend. You can imagine. He's been newly converted, full of zeal. He gets up at half past four in the morning and he is there rising at dawn. He's shouting. praising God, waking up everybody. He says, praise God. Let us give thanks. Let us pray. He's banging his drum, going through the house. He says, get up, get up. It's morning. What a wonderful day it is. Let's praise God together. Let's pray together. All of these things at the top of his lung, he's doing that. His motive, his motive is love, he says. So he thinks he's blessing people. He that blesseth his friend. with a loud voice. His motive is love. But his effect is what? Irritation. It shall be counted a curse to him. He's irritating everybody. So you might be demonstrating love but you ask yourself, is this loving? Is this helpful? Or does it irritate my brother and sister? So we might laugh about this. But why is this? Because love ungoverned by wisdom becomes folly. Love ungoverned by wisdom becomes folly. Our affections, my friends, must be yoked to understanding. And we all have done things. Our motive has been good. But then we've just gone around things in the wrong way and we don't understand. Why is the person irritated? Why are they annoyed? Husbands do it, wives do it, friends do it. And then fourthly, some practical helps for training the conscience. How then shall we educate our consciences? Well, one of the things is meditate. Meditate often on the second table of the law. You do that. The second table of the law, I hope you know which one is the second table of the law. I hope you know which one is the first table of the law. The first table is commandments 1 to 4. The second table is commandments 5 to 10. Beginning with honoring our father and our mother. You meditate upon the commandment number 5 onwards. The commandments that govern our duty to our neighbor. This is the thing, that if we get rid of the law of God, then where do we start? Because I can't trust my heart. But the commandments tell us what is the will of God, what is the character of God. Then again, another thing would be good for us to do to train and educate our conscience is to read, study, and ponder 1 Corinthians 13, which speaks about love, which speaks about charity. Study it, memorize it, think through it. When the Apostle Paul, he paints love in positive strokes, he says, charity suffereth long and is kind. And then in the negative it puts it, envieth not, wanteth not itself, seeketh not her own. Let these words search you, remind yourself of these things. And then another thing is imbibe the spirit of the Proverbs. This book of Proverbs is a treasure chest of sanctified common sense. You don't have common sense, you might say. Well, start reading Proverbs and meditate on it. Think about it. Apply it to your lives and your common sense becomes quite common. You begin to realize many, many things. If I could put it like this, the book of Proverbs is love in its working clothes. Love in the marketplace. And above all, my friends, study the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is love incarnate. He is patient with those who are dull. He is tender with the bruised wreath. He is faithful and he faithfully rebukes. He is abundant in mercy. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, Even as he walked, we read in 1 John 2, 6. Dear friends, do you see the point? The love Peter commands is not mere impulse, it is a grace disciplined by truth. It's not about following your heart and what you think is love. Our conscience must be schooled in God's Word or our love will either run wild or wither in neglect. So the Bible, the law of God is love's eyes. Do you prize those eyes? Do you read the Bible? Do you study it? Do you meditate upon it? Do you pray over it? Do you give time to sharpen their sight? And then thirdly, quickly, The wisdom of being reminded again and again of the duty of brotherly love. There's wisdom in this to be reminded of it. So if brotherly love is so essential, as Peter tells us, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. If it is so essential, should we be amazed at the fact that scriptures sound this note repeatedly? Like a trumpet that keeps calling the troops to battle again and again? We are forgetful creatures. We are prone to drift into coldness and prone to easily become offended by people and prone to excuse our failures and say, well, they don't love me. They don't show me love. But God in his tender wisdom, he presses this duty upon us from every side. Look at how frequent this command is given. Even in this passage, just in 1 Peter, You read this again and again, four or five times in just this short epistle, this command is given in 1 Peter 1, 22, of course. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. In chapter 2 and verse 17, he says, love the brotherhood. In chapter 3, verse 8, he says, love as brethren. In chapter 4, verse 8, he says, above all things that have fervent charity among yourselves. Four times in five chapters. Could any duty receive greater emphasis? And if Peter presses it in this way, dare we complain when we hear it urged again from this pulpit? No, this is something that we should press home. Peter is not alone. The Apostle John speaks of this in 1 John 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, he says. Paul, he says in Hebrews 13, verse 1, let brotherly love continue. The New Testament is throbbing with this command. Why then all this repetition? Because love, my friends, is a root grace, yet easily it's choked. There are two reasons. Because love is a root grace, but easily choked. It springs from the new birth. We've seen that last week. Yet, it is not self-sustaining. It doesn't sustain itself. You see, because pride sets in, envy sets in, jealousy sets in, personal grievances sets in. And these weeds can strangle it unless we tend it diligently. Even the Thessalonians of whom the Apostle Paul said, you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. He says, God is teaching you how to love one another. He says in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 9, And then yet they're immediately exhorted, increase more and more. Increase more and more. God is teaching you, but you need to increase more and more. Love taught by God must still be stirred by exhortation. And then another reason why this must be repeated, because love validates, as I've said before, our profession. Love validates our profession. Hear me well. Love to the brethren is not an ornament. It is evidence. We know that we have passed from death unto life, John says, because we love the brethren. Without this, our faith is a sham. Our hope is a delusion. No wonder the Spirit hammers this nail home again and again in the Word of God. But also love is a badge of discipleship. You want to learn discipleship? This is it. Remember our Lord's words. He said himself in John 13 and verse 35. He said, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love or if ye have love one to another. This is how the world will know that you are my disciples. Not by our doctrinal precision, and it's good to be doctrinally precise. Not by our zeal in service, but by our love. Observable, tangible, sacrificial. This is why you cannot do church online. This is why you cannot detach yourself from God's people. How will this world believe in the love of Christ if it cannot see love amongst its followers? Just think of the early church. What astonished the heathen world? Not their buildings, they didn't have any. Not their political clout. They had none. It was this, see how these Christians love one another. Will the same be said of us? Now, be very careful. This means that we are to be involved in each other's lives without intruding in each other's space. It means that we are demonstrating kindness. How are you going to show kindness if you are detached? If you don't see Christians, we are to share conversation. We are to be inviting one another. We are to be helping one another. We are to be forgiving one another and receive forgiveness. That's one of the things, my friends, about forgiveness. Someone has done you wrong. They come and apologize. Make sure you respond to them. Make sure you say to them, I forgive you. So they're off the hook. They're not just waiting and waiting. Am I forgiven or am I not? That's not love. If you let people just hang on and wait for you, be ready to forgive. Pray with people. Weep with them. Laugh with them. Eat with them. Serve with them. Work in a team. Or for some of us, we can't work in a team. Let them work by themselves. Don't force them into a situation. It's not a black and white issue, my friends. We need to give space to people as well, and so many other things. And some people may say, that is too harsh, or that is too much socializing, or that is not appropriate here. Some people might say, that's too much involvement. We need to have our Bibles open, my friends, with all of these things. I'm not laying down laws for you, but you need to go to the Bible, prayerfully study it, what love looks like. We need to be very careful and think about the motives as well. But also let me say, I know my time is gone, love has a ground of judgment. Love has a ground of judgment. This is quite serious. It's a solemn thought. Brotherly love will feature in the final judgment. You know the text well. If you were to think about our Lord's word in Matthew chapter 25. What marks the sheep from the goats? Not great exploits, not great evangelism, not great preaching, not great witnessing to the gospel, but the simple acts of love. Think about those words in Matthew 25 and verse 35. I was unhungered and he gave me meat. I was thirsty and he gave me drink and so on. I was sick, you visited me. I was in prison, you visited me. And the righteous are amazed, the Christians are amazed and they ask, When saw we thee? And they recite all of those things. Where did we see you hungry? Where did we see you thirsty? Where did we see you sick? And he answered, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. My friends, our eternal destiny will be publicly vindicated by the reality or the absence of love. And that thought should make us humble and act. So, my friends, so much has been said. Let us take these reminders then, not as needless repetition, but as gracious safeguards. Examine yourself. Do you harbor grudges? Do away with it now, tonight. Go and deal with it. Do you nurture coldness toward any brother or sister in Christ? Maybe you need to write a note. Maybe you need to express these things and ask for forgiveness. Put these things away, go be reconciled. Let there be no root of bitterness to defile the fellowship. Don't let Satan laugh at us. And then let me say this, that those of you who are strangers to this love, you don't know the Lord, you don't know this kind of a love, you don't feel any kind of pull towards the people of God in this sense that I'm talking about, you ought to hear. This betrays your estate. You are yet in nature, not in grace. You need new birth. You need Christ. You need to go to Him to say, Oh Lord, I've not tasted of this love. Cry to Him. He will receive you. He will pardon you. He will, the Bible says, will shed abroad His love in your heart by the Holy Spirit. This is my friends, the queen of graces is love. It was the royal jewel in the diadem of the early church. Should it not shine amongst us too? Let us pray with that Puritan, John Owen, with his holy longing. This is what he prayed, and with this I finish. Lord, give us this spirit of evangelical love, then I fear nothing but the weakness of my own heart. Well, may God grant it for his glory and the good of Zion. Amen.