Alright, turn back to John, 1
John 3. 1 John chapter 3. As. As with all of. God's word. It is written to God's people. Written to believers, written
to the beloved of God. Beloved children of God, those
God foreloved, elected, foreordained to be his children. Back in chapter
2, verse 1, look back there. He says, My little children,
these things write I unto you. Then in verse 12, Verse 12, he says, I write unto
you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you. Verse
13, I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him. That
is, from the beginning, young men, you have overcome the wicked
one. He's writing to believers, to
believers. Verse 21, I have not written
unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know
it. Chapter 5, verse 13. Turn over there. Chapter 5, verse
13. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have eternal life, that you may believe on the name
of the Son of God. So, it's very clear who he's
writing to, isn't it? Very clear. Writing to God's
people. This is, and this is a love letter. God's love letter to his people. One of the things I despise the
most in our day is how men take this book and apply it to everyone
without exception. I despise that. I hate that.
They're lying on God. God said, thou shalt not bear
false witness. Well, they're doing it against
God. They're taking what God wrote
to his people, and it's clear. Verses like that, and they're
very clear to you who this is to. And they take it and go out
in the world and say, Behold, what manner of love the Father
bestowed upon us. And they lie on God, and that
cheapens the love. When they go out there and tell
it to people that aren't interested in it, it cheapens it. And the word of God. Humanly
speaking, they make it of no effect. But it's not no effect. This is written to his people.
His people, God's love letter, I wouldn't take it kindly if
someone I used to write love letters to my wife, I don't do
it anymore because I live with her. But before we were married,
I used to write her all sorts of love letters. She kept them
all. She kept them all, little poems, you know. And I wouldn't
have taken it kindly if some fella had taken one of my letters
to her and tried to, and applied it somewhere else. Applied it
to someone else. That's what men are doing. But
this is written to God's people. So, verse 1 of chapter 3, and
it means something to God's people. Comfort, it's there, it's glory.
Verse 1, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Behold what
manner of love the Father. And everyone is not the child
of God. God is not the Father of all
mankind, is He? That's what most people believe,
don't they, John? Don't most people, when you say nine out
of ten people believe that? We saw that in Romans nine, very
clearly, Romans nine, and I'll just read it to you. If you don't
want to turn, if you want to turn, turn. He says, verse eight,
they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God. That's as clear as the nose on
your face. And some of you have a pretty large nose. And that's
pretty large. That that statement, these are
not the children of God, children of the flesh, but the children
of promise are counted for the sea. All right, so Henry, everybody,
God is not everyone's father. And Romans 8 talks about that,
and he hath adopted us, given us us, the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry as a father. So this is to God's people. Everyone
is not God's child. But behold, what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us. Who is it? You that believe
on his son. You that trust his son. Salvation
could be summed up in that way. Trusting Christ. That's it. Looking to Christ. Believe in
Christ is all. That's salvation. You'll be reckoned
righteous by God for just doing that. And he's the one that did
it. He did that. He's the one that
gave that faith. Behold what manner of love the
Father, our Father, by adoption hath bestowed upon us. What manner
of love? Behold what manner of love, love
for the unlovely. I don't think there's anybody
in here who thinks too highly of himself. Any man thinks he's something
when he's nothing, the scripture says, he deceives himself. Our
Lord calls us wretched, miserable, poor, naked, blind, vile, worms,
dogs, Vanity. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us. He loves the unlovely. The unlovely. Now, we love those that love
us, don't we? Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed
upon us. He loved us when we hated him. Nobody in here loves like that.
We just don't do it. We just don't love those that
don't love us. We especially don't love those that hate us.
And we wouldn't think of loving those that hate our children.
Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us.
When God sent his son, we said, kill him. Here's the son, let's
kill him. Behold what manner of love. Children
of wrath, even as others, but God set his love on us. Behold
what manner of love. What kind of love? Sovereign
love, electing love. Joe, you're just as vile as the
rest of these Hell bound, hell deserved, deserving sinners out
here. Behold what manner of love God
said, I'm going to love you to the heart. Why? He's not lovely. Oh, he is now. And I'll get into that in a moment.
But he was a child of wrath, even as others. But God said,
behold what manner of love he set on you. Sovereign love, distinguishing
love. Love for God haters. Herein is
love. Not that we love God. No. The
carnal mind is enmity against God. Hates God. I hated God. Hated everything
about religion. Denied it. Denied the faith.
Behold what manner of love. Here I stand. Behold what manner of love. He
sent his son to be a bloody mess on a Roman cross for us. Greater love hath no man than
this." Not that he laid down his life for the righteous or
for a good man, but in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. The ungodly. Behold what manner of love. Sent
his son to be a bloody sacrifice, spared not his own son. Would
you send your son or your daughter to die for one of us? Somebody like
you? Let's put it that way. Would you send your son or your
daughter to die for somebody like you? Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. He spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. It's love. What manner of love?
It's love that saves. It's love that keeps. It's love
that lasts forever. He said, I've loved them with
an everlasting life. I'm going to save them. I'm going
to keep them. They're not worth keeping, but
I'm going to keep them. It's going to last forever. I'm going
to love them forever. That we should be called the sons of
God. That we should be called the sons of God. Now, I feel
like some of you people are more worthy. I personally, speaking as a man,
feel like some of you people are more worthy and more fit. to be called a
son of God. Well, how do you feel about yourself?
The apostle Paul said, I'm not fit to be called an apostle. He said, I'm less than the least.
I'm not worthy. He said, I'm the chief of sinners.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God. I can see John Bunyan
being called the son of God. I can see John Gill being called
the son of God. I can see Charles Pershing. I can see Naomi and
Ruth and just keep calling names like that, David. I can see that
in me, that we should be called the sons of God, that God should
include me. What's that song? That He included
me. That we should be called the
sons of God. Ah, this is love. This is real
love. Real love. That's grace, is what
this is. All right, look at verse 2. Verse
1, it says, Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew
him not. That is, he calls us sons of
God. He does a work on us to make us sons of God. It's a miracle. Regeneration, a new creature.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, the scripture
says. And it says the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Scripture says for whom he did
foreknow, or that is forelove, he did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son. So this love, this love is what
said, I'm going to make these people like Christ. I like Barnard's illustration.
He said, he put it exactly like this. He said, God got up one
morning, God got up one morning, took one look at his son and
said, I want to have a whole bunch of boys just like him. And so God, for love, set his
love on a people who are unlovely, nothing at all like his son.
And if God's going to love them, I mean really love them, they're
going to have to be holy like his son. So God predetermined
in that loving contract, like marriage, that they were going
to be like his son, altogether lovely, like his son. And it says, therefore, the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not. The world can't quite
figure out a believer. Can't quite figure us out. And
I'll be honest with you, I can't quite figure me out either. I'm a paradox to myself. The
believer, he's not so much a paradox to the world. The world doesn't
really see the new man. They see there's been a change.
They see that. That they're not interested so
much in what they used to be. Eventually, they're not interested
at all, really. They try. But what God does, he perfects.
At first, they're wavering. They're on the fence, you know,
and the world thinks, ah, I can pull them over here. greater is he that is in you
than he is in the world. He says, you're not going with
him. You're coming with me and you're going to be like my son.
But the world doesn't know that. They didn't recognize the Son
of God when he came, did they? He was altogether holy, harmless,
separate from sinners, but they still didn't recognize him, did
they? They knew him not and they don't
know believers. They don't know believers, they
just know that something has happened, you've got religion
or something. But they really don't believe
it. They really don't believe it. I told you about my wife's
brother who was a wild man, still is a wild man. And he was one
of my best friends, we hung around together. That's kind of how
me and you and I got hooked up, I guess. But the Lord started
working on me. Why me? Who made me different?
Why wasn't it her brother? The Lord started working on me,
and this change started taking place. And you remember what
he said? No. He said he won't last. I was getting around 21 years
old at the time, And you know the old saying is that you change
every seven years. So he figured it was time, you
know, for a change. But it won't last. Well, twenty-eight
rolled around. And I still changed. Hopefully still
changing. It lasted. I married his sister. And the world can't quite figure
us out. They couldn't figure Christ out. This is this new
creature. This is this new creature. You
can't figure yourself out. You have conflicting, you have
conflicting emotions, don't you, as a believer? Paul said it in
Romans 7. That's what Romans 7 is all about.
He said, I find a law warring in my memory. What I want to
do, that's not what I do. What I don't want to do, that's
what I do. But he said, I delight after
the law of God, after the inward man. I delight in the gospel
and the things of God. I want to be like Christ after
the inward man, but the flesh. He said, who's going to deliver
me from this body of death? Just wait. Look at verse two. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. If I don't feel like it, we are. Not might be, not someday will
be. Now. John, I heard a fellow preach.
This was the title of his message. Now. Bless me. Every time he went
all the way through the scriptures now. Now have he appeared once
in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. Now he doesn't ever live for us. Interceding for
us. Now are we the sons of God. Now
are we the sons of God. But it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. Read it. It doth not yet appear
what we shall be. We don't even faintly resemble
what we're going to be. That's the reason we have a struggle
and a problem with what we are. You can't deny it. It's false
humility. I'm not going to deny that I'm
a son of God. That's false humility. I believe
what God's Word says. It says he that believeth on
the Christ is born of God. I believe Christ. Well, he says
I'm born of God. He says now I'm a son of God.
But I look in the mirror and I don't see any resemblance.
Do you? Well, it doth not yet appear.
Why? Kind of like old Lazarus, still wearing grave clothes. Still wearing grave clothes.
But read on. We know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him. And that's when Joe, we're going
to stand beside each other up in glory and say, is that you?
No. Yeah. You say the same thing
to me. That ain't you. Well, your hair
is flowing. We shall be like him. We shall
see him. And this is going to be glory.
As the song says, that will be glory for me when we see him
as he is. I'm going to see Joe as he is.
See, now he's a son of God. But look at him. Everybody look
at Joe. That's it. In a moment, in a
twinkling of an eye, he's going to be changed. He's going to
look like Christ. And I'm going to see him as he is. But that's
not... I'm going to rejoice in that,
and Joe is too, but we're both going to be rejoicing in seeing
him. as he is, because he is the object of our adoration now.
We should be like him. We should see him as he is. Verse 3, And every man that hath
this hope in him, in Christ. What is your hope? What is your
hope of seeing him as he is? What is your hope of being with
him? What is your hope of being in heaven with him? What makes
you think you're going to be there? What's your hope? Well,
He is our hope. Christ is our hope. Well, that's
a good hope. It's a sure hope, Scripture said.
A good hope. And it's sure. It's a grace that
it might be sure. The promise might be sure and
all be allayed. Every man that had this hope
was a good hope. In Him, it's in Christ. purifies
himself, even as he is pure. Purifies himself. What? Turn over to 1 Peter 1. What does it mean there? Purify yourself. Purify yourself. What does it mean? Well, we compare
spiritual things with spiritual things. We need to rightly divide
the word of truth. So we we we keep looking in the
Scriptures, where it says purification, purifying yourself. All right,
look at verse twenty-two. First Peter one, verse twenty-two. Seeing you have purified your
souls, how? In obeying the truth. Faith. Faith. That's it. Abraham believed God, and God
said, You're righteous. Oh, wait a minute. He hadn't done anything. He hadn't
gone anywhere. He hadn't changed one iota. Yeah, he was going to. Sometimes
it looked doubtful, but he was going to. God said, He's righteous. He's holy. He's pure. How? Believe God. Faith. How do we
purify ourselves? How does God consider us righteous?
Faith in Christ. Obeying the truth. But wait a
minute. That's not of yourself. Read it. It's through the Spirit. See, faith is the gift of God
through the Spirit. Sanctified belief of the truth. That's what Paul told the Thessalonians. All right, now back to the text.
So, we're declared pure, we're declared righteous, declared
holy as God's Son by faith in God's Son. Just like Abraham. All right? That's imputed righteousness. Everybody knows that. Everybody
in here knows that term. Maybe. Imputed. Very simple. means charged to. That is, the life Christ lived
on this earth was charged to all of God's elect, and God sees
them as being as holy as Christ. And all of the sins of God's
people were laid on him, imputed or charged to him, and he bore
their punishment. God saw him as the center. God sees us as the righteous.
That's imputed. Imputed righteousness. Imputed
sin. There's another thing called
imparted righteousness. Imparted. That means we're actually,
and we get that word I believe from 2 Peter 1 where he says
we've been made partakers of the divine nature. partaker,
for that is God hath, hath put in us, hath put in us the nature
of Christ, a new creature. He hath put in us the nature
of Christ. Are you still with me? The nature
of Christ, a new creature. We bear his image, the image
of Christ. That's imparted to us. All right, back to the text.
And so, he says, every man that had this hope in Christ, this
imputed righteousness, purified himself by faith. And he endeavors to be like Christ. It works. Yeah. Faith without works is
dead. Isn't it? That's simple, isn't
it? Very simple. Even as he is pure. Didn't Christ say, I delight
to do my Father's will. I must be about my Father's business.
I always do those things which please the Heavenly Father. And
the child of God endeavors to do that, too. If they don't, they're not a
child of God. And that's what he's going to
go on to talk about here. These two principles, all right? That's
what he's going to go on to talk about. All right, let's read
on. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth,
now he's just stating a fact here, whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law. Sin is the transgression of the
law. You're breaking the law. It's God's law. Now you know
that he was manifested to take away our sin. I'm glad he put
that in there, don't you? And you, you know that he was
manifested. You've broken the law, but God
sent his son to keep it. He was manifested to take away
our sin. In him is no sin. Not only is he holy and righteous
and kept the law perfectly, in him is no sin. He could not sin. Impeccable. But those in him,
all those who are in him by faith, cannot sin. That's what we read
on down here in verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Why? His seed remaineth in him. Now, this is a mystery. I don't
expect everyone to fully understand it, but I hope you do. This is
this new creature God created. Read on. It says his seed remaineth
in him. He cannot sin. He's born of God. You understand that? No. I don't really either. But it's a mystery. It's a mystery. But look back in chapter 1, and
you know, this is no contradiction. You say, well, but I do sin.
Yes, we all do. But it's no more I that doeth
it, Paul said and Romans said, but sin that dwelleth in me. All right, 1 John 1, look at
verse 8, if we say we have no sin, that's original sin. If we say we don't have this
sin nature, we deceive ourselves, truth is not in us. Verse 10,
if we say that we have not sinned, if we say we actually do not
commit sins or have not and do not, we make God a liar because
he says all have sinned. Verse one of chapter two, little
children, these things I write unto you as accountable, responsible
children of God, that you sin not. Don't do that. Quit that.
Stop that, like you'd tell your own children. Stop that. Put
that down. Don't do that. Don't do that. But read on. And if any man sin, it really
reads, but since you do, Well, I'm glad he put this. We have
an advocate. So sin is the transgression of
the law. And you know he has manifested
to take away your sin, don't you? In him is no sin. If you're
in him, you cannot sin. God beholds a new man that he
created. All right? Do you understand
that principle? That's imputed righteousness. That's this new nature. That's
this new creature you don't have anything to do with. God did it. Mourn of God. It's the seed of God, the Holy
Spirit, entering in and creating new life, a life of God. All right, read on, verse 6.
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Same thing. Whosoever sinneth
hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no
man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even
as he is righteous. Anything considered righteous
by God must be considered righteous in Christ. Right? Everything we do has sin behind
it. If you do any righteousness,
it's because you're in Christ, because God considers you in
Christ. Anything considered by God a
good work is washed in the blood. All right. Now, he's also talking
about, though, he's also talking about, this has a, my pastor
likes to call it a bifold. Scriptures are bifocal. Some
of you have bifocals. You got bifocals? You got trifocals? Some have trifocals. Scriptures
trifocal, quadrifocal. It has many more meanings than
we even know. We preach in part. We preach
bifocal. Basically, two things we see
here. We see that imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness. He
that committeth sin, or that is, lives, that's a continual
verb there. I'm not trying to get fancy.
It's just simple. Committeth. Or lives a life. The tenor of their life is in
sin. Is of the devil. He said, Let no man deceive you. Let no man deceive you. In verse ten, he said, In this
the children of God are manifest, the children of the devil. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither is he that loveth
not his brother. You see, it's obvious, Steve,
it's obvious that the guy sitting down right now at, what's the
name of that place? Well, hot dogs stand moldings,
getting just smashed, but not the children of God. That's obvious,
isn't it? Well, I used to do that. But I'm not doing it now. Well,
in this, the children of God are manifest. There's a change,
an actual change, no actual change. Who can be, nobody can be deceived
by that. Right? And the principle, listen,
the struggle that believers have is more an inward struggle. You know, the believer doesn't
live a life of open sin, he just doesn't do it. He just doesn't
do it. He's not out running around,
carrying on acting like a devil. He's just not doing it. He's
trying to be like Christ. He may fall. They may, you know,
they fall. But the Lord picks them back
up again and washes them, cleans their feet, washes their feet,
and says, Don't do that again. And hopefully, eventually, they'll
learn their lesson. Right? The older you get, you old folks,
I mean, look at you every time I say that. You older folks,
you learn some, but you've got to learn some things before you
get old. You've got to quit some things. You lose your all-encompassing
taste for it. All right? That's clear, isn't
it? Isn't that clear? And in any man, let no man deceive
you. Any man that's living like that,
he's up to devil. He's not in touch. That's not,
God doesn't do that. Like Spurgeon's illustration,
you know, that drunk. God doesn't, that's not his converts. What God does shall be forever.
And what he has begun, he'll perfect it. That's simple and
That's what he's saying here. That's what he's saying. All
right? So that's it. And now in verse
10, the last part, he said, Now whosoever doeth not righteousness,
not of God, neither, and here's the second part, neither is he
that loveth not his brother. So he just talked about the love
of God. Now he's going to talk about
what this real change or this real evidence. that God puts in that really
can't, now this can't be faked. Now this is people that quit
their drinking, smoking, cussing, chewing and run around with women
that do that sort of thing. Chewing. This is, this is something
that does not fake. Love. People try it and you can see
how fake it is. These religionists. This is the message. Now he that
loveth not his brother, forget it. How can he? And John carries
this on all the way through. He says, how can he love man? If he says he loves God who he
has not seen and hates his brother, how can he love man? Or how can
he love God? In other words, the other way
around. How can he love God whom he has not seen if he doesn't
love his brother? But this is the message, he said,
verse 11, that you heard from the beginning that we should
love one another. And they do. Believers do. He's not saying
that they don't and they ought to. They do. What he's saying,
or what he's doing, is exhorting us to more of this same thing. You see? Because God sheds abroad
this love in the heart. God creates this love. This is
part of that new creature. This is the fruit of the Spirit.
Faith, hope, and love. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
Be ye a man, hath not the fruit of the Spirit, he is not God.
This is the Spirit. Look up at... I just wrote it
a while ago. Where is it? Where is it? Where
is it? Back in chapter 4. Chapter 4. Verse twelve, it says, No man
has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
This is the Spirit, or the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. Where am I? Lost my notes. Hadn't
used them. Good. 11. This is the message you heard
from the beginning. In other words, God said this
from the beginning. You remember when he said this is no new commandment,
it's an old one. Remember that? God said it when
God delivered the Ten Commandments. He said all the laws fulfilled
in one word. The first part, love to God.
The second part, love to man. If God does a work in a man,
you have both. Right? The law is fulfilled in
us. That's what the scripture says. In us. By love. Love. This is the message. Not like
Cain, verse twelve. Y'all have brothers and sisters. And if they're unbelieving brothers
and sisters, they may say they love you. But they don't. Especially when
you start talking about the one you really love, or the gospel
you love. Right, Stan? That's what he goes
on to say. He slew his brother. Why? His
works were evil. His brother's righteous. His
religion, that is. Verse 13. Marvel not, my brethren,
if the world hate you. One, I believe, is with the Lord.
Another, who has no interest whatsoever in the Lord. And he
puts on a very good front before all of us, but he hates this gospel. And there's a real barrier there. It's sad. It's sad. He feels it, we feel it. It's
just, it's just, we just can't have fellowship. Even though
we're blood, kin, light can't have fellowship with darkness.
You just can't do it. Try as you may. Be as cordial
as you can. Because he loves the world and
we love God. Any man loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Well, marvel not. Verse 14, and I'm going to quit. I want to get through this. We
know we have passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. Down in verse 19. Hereby we know
we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him."
How's that? Verse 18, let us love in word, or not in word
only, but in tongue, but indeed in truth. He just said, we know we've passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. Verse 24,
hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit he hath given
us, the spirit of love. And I just read it to you over
there in chapter 4. We know we've passed from death unto life,
and verse 19, we know we are of the truth and shall assure
our hearts before him. Verse 21, if our heart condemn
us not, then we have confidence toward God. Very simple, and
I close with this. Do you love these people? Ask, search your heart. Examine
yourself. And not in word only, or in tongue,
he said, but in deed and in truth. Do you love? Our Lord said, Have
love one to another. This is how all men will know.
Have love one to another. Do you really love? Ask yourself
this. Do you really love? Can you say from the heart, I
don't have any malice toward this man, no matter what he does
to me? That's true love, isn't it? And
there was 1 Corinthians 13 said, no matter what he does to me,
I have no malice. I love him. I have no envy. Here's a man with gifts and talents
and the Lord's blessing him. I have no envy. I have not. If we were given
grace according to the measure of Christ, according to what
Christ says, you know, I'm going to give this man, I'm not going
to give it to you. I love him. Fine. Lord, give
him all of us. I was, when I was preaching in
Ashlam, four of my peers, peers, you know, peers are, don't you,
those about your same age, five of us young men, all in our forties.
That's young. Isn't it, Rebecca? Isn't it,
Vicki? Yes. Deborah. I was going to
miss you, didn't I? That's Sean. Fifty's young, isn't
it, Terry? Fifty. There's four of us, five
of us young men, and while they were preaching, not one time,
not one time, Did any envy or jealousy run
through my mind, not one time? I didn't thank Lord. And that's
just not of the flesh now. The flesh, that's just not the
flesh. The flesh, Stan, the flesh would
be, if you're going to get up and preach right after I do,
you're going to hope I fall on my face. and fail, so you'll
do well and look better." That's flesh. That's flesh. Not one time did
that enter in my mind. And that's what he said in verse
21, "...hereby we shall assure our heart we have confidence
toward God." I feel like God's done something in me, because
that's just not flesh. I mean, that's not me. That's
not what You see what I'm saying? No envy. Here's a woman, she's
much better looking than I am. A sister said, here's a woman
much better looking, more talented, has more things, nicer home,
this and that and the other. Do you envy her or jealous of
her? That's not love. What about bitterness? James
talks about grudge. one against the other, you'll
face the judge. God have a grudge against us?
Where's God held grudge against us? That's not love. Love forgets. Love forgets. You go out with that woman and
she's wronged you and you've wronged her. Love forgets about
it and goes on. I mean, forgets it. doesn't dig
up bones, forgets it. Not only forgives, but forgets
it. That's love. Hereby, we may assure
our hearts before God. Do you, can you, do you have
this feeling toward these brethren? I mean, here's one of the brethren
that he's, every now and then, he's mean as a snake. And she's rotten to the core. Or did you harbor resentment
and bitterness and just go to blood as I'm through with her?
Or do you forget it? Oh, well. Pray for them. That's right. That's the love
of Christ. And he says there in verse 20,
if our heart condemn us, God's greater than our heart. He knows
the deep recesses of it. He said the word of God is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And God
hates that. Sower of discord among the brethren.
He hates it. He hates grudge holders. He hates
the bitter. He hates those who don't forgive
and don't forget. Why? Do I need to explain? Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. So he says, this is my command.
You do the same. I know he's a scallywag, but
so are you. Surely two scallywags can love
one another. The spotless Holy Son of God
loves scallywags. Do it. Heavenly Father, thank you, thank
you, thank you for loving the unlovely. Thank you for manifesting
this love to us, shedding it abroad in our hearts. Lord, shed
it more fully. Let us know it, feel it more,
Lord. May we know something of the
length, the breadth, the height, the depth, the love of God which
passes understanding. May it fill our affection, not
just our head. May we not just know it in doctrine
and word, May it fill our souls to such an extent that we're
just overcome by it. The love of God. Behold what
manner of love the Father bestowed upon the likes of us. And, O Lord, work this work in
us. This work, you said, without
which no man has, he's not the child of God. She's not the daughter
of Christ. Work it in us. Begin it now.
If I have not loved before, let me begin today. Work the work
now. Save me now. Let me not presume
upon anything. The mercy, the love, the grace
of God. Let us plead for it now. Change
us, Lord. Turn us and we'll be turned.
Turn us Save us from this untoward generation and save us from the
most evil of all, ourselves. We pray. I ask for this congregation
to make it a group of people that's in love with you and in
love with one another. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.