1 John 3. I'm going to start
back at verse 11. This will launch us into the
next thought that the chapter engages us upon. In your outline,
we obviously recognize the three categories that we were dealing
with, the tension within, the tension within that takes place
in the life of a believer when they are born again. And then we began to look at
briefly last week toward the end of our study the battle without,
the battle without. And that is the turning point
in 1 John chapter 3 verses 1 through verse 9 gives us the tension
within being children of God having been bestowed upon with
so bountiful and gracious a designation from God as to be called sons
of God. Designation itself is beyond our capacity to fully
embrace. But to be a son of God is to
be an heir of all things through Jesus Christ. That's what it
means. It doesn't simply mean to be
identified as God's offspring. Obviously, the whole human race
is God's offspring. There's a sense in which the
angels also are God's offspring in that they bear the communicable
attributes of God. So we are made in God's image
and thus called his offspring. The angels bear moral culpability
and moral cognitive thinking skills as well. They are culpable
of both rewards and judgments as we are. So we are in that
sense, God's offspring. But when we speak of being sons
and daughters of God in the redemptive sense, what we are talking about
is becoming a partaker of the divine nature and all of the
eternal blessings that were won by Jesus Christ by his death,
burial, and resurrection. This is Revelation chapter 21. And he that overcometh shall
inherit all things. So when John uses the term sons
of God, he is speaking in terms of those who are overcomers and
possessors of everything. That designation is huge. But
you and I understand that what John immediately called our attention
to in 1 John 3 was the struggle of being something in essence
that we do not appear to be in substance. John says, it does
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he
is. So the tension of the believer is that he is in essence something
that he is not in substance. Did you guys get that? Essence
meaning in our new nature, we are children of God, substance,
meaning in our physicality we still appear like every other
fallen mortal. Until that second great work
of redemption takes place as Paul describes it in Romans 8,
where these bodies will take on the full manifestation of
the sons of God and be redeemed in the same way that our soul
is, you and I are walking around as dignitaries of glory, but
we look like the paupers that everybody else does. And so while you and I have been
adopted in the beloved and we've got our certificate called the
Holy Ghost and the purchased endowment, which is the crosswork
of Jesus Christ, and nobody got to believe you are a child of
God, especially if you don't act like one. So it's a humbling
thing to be something that no one else can see, but you and
God. And that's why the just shall live by what? That's right. That's right. And when you get
into trouble, You got to remember who you are in Christ, because
sometimes when you look in the mirror, all you see is the substance. And so that's the tension that
goes on within. We talked about this for many
weeks now, and we come to verse 10, and this is where the dichotomy
takes place in verse 10. And this is manifested, the children
of God and the children of the devil, that great dichotomy,
which troubles people and it ought to. because it really does
delineate between the two. Remember what John is doing?
He's instructing the church that has been assaulted by false doctrine
and heresy, that church entered into a split because some people
were able to come in there and to teach them a gospel that essentially
said you can live like hell and be confident that you're going
to glory. That was a sort of a Gnostic, Judaistic legalism
that was plopped on them that was permeating the apostolic
era of which Jude talked about, Paul talked about, and John.
So remember what we learned If we say, if we say, and they that
say, they that say, and we have once again affirmed over and
over that say religion is not Christian religion. Just because
we say we are a Christian does not make us a Christian. So what
John does in 1 John is take us through the acid test of what
it is to be a believer. And there are three categories
which encompass the book of John, just in case you don't know.
We talked about it before. I'm just giving you a little
brief. You gotta remember this. The book of John is broken up
into three categories. The first category is light.
That's chapter one, and then chapter two carries over that
category. The next category is where we
are right now, which is what? Love. And finally, the last category
will be the category of faith. Faith. So first, John chapters
one and two start off with light. It transitions into love, it
overlaps into love. This is where we are now and
it will transition from love into faith. These are the three
categories and these are the three basic underlying foundational
premise by which the people of God are manifested. If we walk
in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship
with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all sin. Then when we talk about love,
you have heard from the beginning, this commandment that we are
to love one another. And we are in that context now,
the matrix of love. This is one of the. Acid test
of being a true authentic believer and that will flow love Will
be developed in chapters 3 & 4 and it will flow over into chapter
5 Which closes out on the subject of faith and he that believeth
on the Son of God Already has eternal life. He is already born
of God and it will close on faith light love and faith are the
three fundamental categories that encompass the book of first
John first John chapter 3 and Verse 10 says, in this the children
of God are manifested, revealed, made known, and the children
of the devil. Whosoever is not doing righteousness
is not of God. Neither is he that loveth not
his brother. Remember, we worked with this
language last week. The term doing righteousness,
doing righteousness is the way John puts it. It's a Hebraic
phraseology, doing righteousness, It's the terminology that John
uses, it's the terminology that James uses. And I told you that
doing righteousness by John equals Paul's what? Walking by what? Faith. When John talks about
doing righteousness, Paul says we walk by faith. And those are
not mutually exclusive concepts. We want to make sure that we
don't ever build a faulty dichotomy or a distinction or contrast
in terms just because it doesn't necessarily fit our theological
genre. Remember, when you rightly divide
the word of God and you properly interpret scripture, what you
what you come up with is harmony. When we rightly divide the word
of God, we come up with harmony in the scriptures. If I interpret
a passage of scripture in the book of Genesis one way and then
interpret another passage of scripture that's relative to
that passage in the book of Exodus another way, and they contradict
each other, my method of interpretation is wrong. If I draw a conclusion
based out of the writings of the new Testament and get that
conclusion is contrary to the writings of the old Testament,
my method of interpretation is wrong. When our method of interpretation
is correct, we have what is called a continuity of truth. From Genesis to Revelation, the
Bible is one truth. And this is what Jesus meant
in John chapter 10 when he says, the scriptures cannot be broken. You cannot fragment the scriptures.
Break them apart and use a verse for your own pet doctrine or
pet teaching, especially when you discover that that doctrine
is contrary and militates against the rest of scripture. At that
point, we have to go back and re-examine our hermeneutics or
our method of interpretation. So when we talk about doing righteousness
in the gospel sense, what we are talking about is walking
by faith. You guys got that? Anybody struggle
with that? I'll give you a chapter if you do struggle with it to
work your way through it. And that is Hebrews chapter 11. In your own time, Read Hebrews
chapter 11, and you know what you will discover? You will discover
that Hebrews chapter 11, on the one hand, is talking about what? Faith. Isn't it? Now, faith is the substance of
what? Things hoped for, the evidence of what? But this is what you
will not find in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. While it
is clear that it talks about faith, you will not find a doctrinal
dissertation on the concept of faith in the book of Hebrews
chapter 11. Hebrews 11 does not give you a doctrinal explanation
of faith. Hebrews 11 gives you a history
of the people of God from the beginning of time to the New
Testament era, walking by faith, living by faith. functioning
by faith, performing works of righteousness by faith. You guys got that? And it's called
faith. And yet it is the life of the
people of God. So it's very important for you
to know how to reconcile these terms and not get in trouble.
What John says is the person who is not walking by faith are
working righteousness is not of God, neither is he that loveth
not his brother. And what we said to that last
week was, it's not possible for you and I to call ourselves children
of God. Secondly, to say that we are
actually walking by faith, which is the same as working righteousness
and yet hate our brother. You guys got that? It's not possible
for you to genuinely hate your brother and yet call yourself
walking by faith or performing righteousness. And what John
did when he got a hold to that term was to use an analogy based
upon two brothers. And we saw this last week, which
we're going to work our way through now. And that is Cain and Abel.
He used the Cain and Abel motif to help us understand that from
the beginning of time, there have been two kinds of people
in the world, the children of God and the children of the devil. And they were manifested in the
same way in which John is speaking here. You and I were amazed when
we worked through briefly what took place in the Genesis 4 account
between Cain and Abel. Do you guys recall in Genesis
4, Cain and Abel were compelled by the tradition that was passed
down to their parents to worship God. After all, the only people
in the world at that time was Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel,
And this is the way the narrative holds it up, because it's going
to teach us something about the nations of the world. All nations
come from one person. So there's a line of people that
is running through the Abel lineage, and there's a line of people
running through the Cain lineage, and they manifest themselves
in these spiritual distinctives. And Abel brought to God in worship
a lamb. And we saw in Genesis 4 that
he also brought the fat thereof, which means he killed the lamb.
And he brought the fat because that was the offering that was
given to God. According to the Levitical cult, the fat is the
Lord's. When we offered up a lamb for
a trespass offering or a sin offering, that lamb being a trespass
or sin offering pointed to who? And it pointed to the one who
was innocent, who would take on the sin of the offerer, the
worshiper. He would transfer his sin to
that innocent lamb. And that lamb was to be a trespass
or a sin offering in his stead, in his place. And he would be
burnt upon the altar. representing the wrath of God
being poured out upon him. And then the fat would be placed
on the altar and it would be consumed as a sweet smelling
savor going up to God, indicating that the nature of God in his
holiness requires justice for sin for him to be satisfied.
And when we offer the unblemished lamb, an innocent lamb in our
place and offer the fat, we are saying we agree with God's assessment
of sin. And we agree with God's remedy
for sin. And we agree with God's testimony
that he is satisfied when there is an innocent lamb that bears
our judgment in a typical way. And so, essentially, Abel understood
the gospel, didn't he? He understood that without the
shedding of blood, there's no what? Remission of sin. He understood
that the wages of sin is what? He understood that it was necessary
for a substitute who was innocent to take his place in order for
him to sustain fellowship with God. He walked by what? That's right. So the worship
of Abel was accepted to God. Remember what God said? And God
accepted Abel's sacrifice. You guys remember that? No, you
don't. Go back to Genesis chapter four. I want to make sure. I
want to keep you from lying tonight. Genesis chapter four. I just
wanna make sure you see it. We got some new people here anyway,
wanna just make sure they see it. Just in case I have new brothers
and sisters. And we are told over in verse
four, and Abel, he also brought of his firstling, of the firstling
of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and to his what? Now this is a theme that's gonna
run through all the scriptures and back When we were learning
theology, one of the things I taught you was that God uses types and
pictures and metaphors and similes and analogies to teach us doctrinal
truth throughout the scriptures. And whenever he teaches a certain
typological truth repetitively, when he gives us the same repetitive
typology over and over and over through the scripture, for instance,
the Genesis account speaks of a lamb. And the book of Revelation
closes with a lamb sitting on his throne, ruling the universe. Whenever we have this repeated
analogy or typology, this is called a pattern, a pattern. A pattern is when an analogy
is taught over and over and over and over from one generation
to the next for several reasons. One is, it's to teach that God
doesn't change. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forevermore. What God requires today is what
God required then. This is another hermeneutical
principle critical to rightly dividing the word of God. Someone
wrote me an email the other day, a very common question, and that's
this. Did God save the folks in the Old Testament the way
he saved folks in the New Testament? What's the answer? That's right. People were always saved from
the beginning of time the same way. It's always the same universal
principle that God lays down for salvation. The wages of sin
is death. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
We need a substitute. Now the form or mold might change
slightly throughout the dispensations. You ladies are gonna learn this
in biblical theology, but the doctrine inherent in that mold
will be consistently the same. The mode might change. In other
words, in the Old Testament, they offered lambs and bullocks
and goats and he goats and sometimes turtle doves and pigeons and
things of that nature where blood could be shed. In the New Testament,
we no longer offer a lamb because there was finally the lamb of
God that had come and taken away the sins of the world. And so
now what we offer is what God gave us, and that is his son.
By faith, we accept God's sacrifice, right? So we're not offering
blood sacrifices anymore. We're no longer exercising the
right of circumcision in terms of the physical circumcising
of our children, are we? And yet we are called the circumcision
of God. And so there's still what we
call eternally redemptive truth inherent in those old typological
pictures and symbols. But the mold changed. The theology
is the same. The question was raised. Also,
did the Old Testament saints receive the Spirit of God like
we do in the New Testament? What's the answer? Absolutely.
Absolutely. Faith is a gift from God and
faith is a fruit of the Spirit of God. And without the Spirit
of God, you can't have faith. Every person that was born again
in the Old Testament had the Spirit of God, just like we do
today. Now again, The nature and manifestation
of the spirit was different in the Old Testament than it is
in the new, but the presence and the power and the work and
regeneration is precisely the same. When you examine the scriptures
carefully, you understand that all true believers were born
again. What makes us distinct from an unbeliever is the work
of regeneration. You can't be a believer apart
from regeneration. Regeneration is evidenced by
How is it that Abel could believe the gospel with his soul if the
Spirit of God had not revealed Christ to him in that lamb? Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? It's very important that you
know these things but now notice what it says But unto Cain and
to his offering God did not have what he didn't look twice That's
what the word literally means to respect is to look twice to
regard There was no value in Cain's works Cain had brought
the fruit of the ground, his cabbage, his leeks, his onions,
his vegetables, and to him, they were worthy, but they only represented
the works of his own hands, and they were bloodless. The implication
on Cain's part towards God was, God might say he wants blood,
but I'm gonna give him my works, which means not only did Cain
believe that he wasn't that bad of a sinner, but he did not have
respect to God's judgment. Are you hearing me? And God does
not respect anyone that does not respect him. You believe
that the Bible says to the forward, I will show myself forward to
the wicked. I'll show myself wicked to the
righteous. I'll show myself right. As a man is to God, God is to
that man. God will meet a man right where
a man is. If a man wants to fight with God, God says, come on,
I'll show you how to fight. You see that in the scriptures.
The thing is, is that when God gives us a testimony of his ways
and his purposes and his plan, the only right thing for the
creature to do is submit to it. This is also what's so egregious
today about works, religion, and the church today, after 4,500
years, 1,500 years, 1,500 years for the Old Testament Israelites.
In fact, it goes further back to Abraham 2,000 years and then
2,000 years in the New Testament. We've had some 4,000, 5,000 years
of, uh, of, of special revelation given to us about the will of
God. And the human beings will still adamantly today say that
we don't believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. Now that
attitude will get you into hell because God has spent a lot of
energy sharing and exposing his will to the human race so that
they wouldn't miss the door into glory. And we volitionally and
antagonistically oppose the true and the living God by saying
we will find another way into God's kingdom. Now, when you
do that, you're not believing God, but you're also showing
disrespect for the sacrifice of Christ. How do you think God
the father is going to view you when you view God the son as
such a belittling thing? And this is the case with Cain,
are you following? This is the case with Cain. And so the Cain-Abel
theme is the battle without. It's really the battle between
two physical brothers, but spiritually they are in enormously different
places. Go with me in your Bible to Hebrews
chapter four. We're gonna read a couple of verses and make our
way back now and then build on where John wants us to go. I
simply wanted to teach or share with you that there is no empathy
to be had for Cain. because Cain was, he was like
your typical Christian person today, or your young person that
grows up in church and hears right doctrine. Now, not all
of them do, but if you grow up in a good church that teaches
the word of God and preaches Christ and does not obscure him,
but makes him plain, and then you decide that you want to try
to get to God your own way, then you're going in the way of Cain.
You're going in the way of Cain. Hebrews chapter 11, verse four,
uh, says this, and this here speaks to the able, uh, offering. And it's important for you to
hear because here, God is bringing the event that transpired in
Genesis four, all the way over into the new Testament to Hebrews
chapter 11. And here's what God says in Hebrews
11, verse four concerning it. Now I want you to watch this
now by what now see, this is what I meant when we talk about
working righteousness to work righteousness for the believer.
is to have as his underlying premise, his presupposition,
his motive, his basis for what he does is faith. Are you guys
hearing me? If he does something apart from
faith, it's not acceptable. Now, when we talk about doing
something by faith, we're not talking about jumping off the
cliff in the dark and acting for God in some heroic way, hoping
that God will honor our faith. That's a subjective sort of carnal
interpretation of faith. Faith is always the revealed
will of God being made known to us by which we are free to
act. Faith is always the revealed
will of God made known to us by which we are free to act. When you and I are walking by
faith, we are acting according to the revealed will of God. Are you hearing me, ladies and
gentlemen? We are not pagans. We're not rolling dice and we're
not playing with tarot cards and Ouija boards and crystal
balls with God. Faith is not, I'm just going
to do it by faith. No, no, that's not faith. That's
paganism. If it's not based upon the clear testimony of scripture
as the foundation upon which you do that thing, it is not
faith. God does not have to regard that. Are you hearing me? And
in fact, since he gave you 66 books, that's a lot of books. You know what that means? We're
slow. Since he gave you 66 books before
you jump, you better read all the precepts in that book to
find out whether or not you have merit to jump. Because if you
jump, it's presumption and not faith. Remember what the devil
said to Jesus in the temptation? Three temptations he tempted
our Lord with. Lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and the pride
of life. He said, jump down off this temple if you be the son
of God. See, in some circles, that might
be viewed as faith. You just got to believe God and
just go for it. And then you make a wreck of
your life, and you're wondering why God didn't endorse what you
did. Well, he didn't endorse what you did because it wasn't
faith, it was presumption. You arrogated to yourself a privilege
or a right that was not explicitly based upon the testimony of scripture. Now you are, as it were, arm
wrestling God and forcing him to endorse a presumptive act
on your part. People get in trouble by doing
that, you know that, right? God's got to come through because gravity
has gotten a hold of me now and I'm dropping, God, you got to
come through. You splatter and you go, what happened? Well,
God honored gravity because it was a law he made and not your
presumption because it wasn't based upon the principle of faith.
Now, why God going to take away the law of gravity just because
you was acting a fool? Are you guys hearing me? You
know how some of us grew up in those, those weird churches where
they told you, you don't have faith. If you go to the doctor,
remember that? You ain't got faith. If you go
to the doctor, you don't have faith. Remember that? Until you
got so sick, your faith went right out the door and you went
to the doctor and you were thankful that the Lord made the doctor
and the medicine to heal your sick body. You see how your theology
changed all of a sudden? It was more in line with the
scriptures. I'm just saying it's important for us to know this.
By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
what? You guys got that? See, so what
John would say in first John is Abel was doing what? Righteousness,
right? Abel was doing righteousness.
What the Hebrew writer says was he did it by what? You got it. And that's why God was pleased.
And the faith wasn't that he did whatever he wanted to do.
He did what God wanted him to do. Chapter 12. Look at Chapter
12, verse 24. It speaks to Abel's sacrifice
again. And I just want us to see this
before we go on back and make some headway in our study. Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 24. Let me start at verse 22, go
through 24. But you are coming to Mount Zion
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
an innumerable company of angels. See verse 22? This here is part
of the litany of nomenclature or terminology that describes
the New Testament church in Old Testament terms. This is why
we in this church believe wholeheartedly in what we call the fulfillment
theology, that Old Testament Israel was only a part and a
type of the reality that will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ
and the New Testament church. so that virtually all of the
terminology that was, as it were applied to national Israel in
that old Testament age is carried over into the new Testament and
given to the church of the living God because it's reality has
been established in Jesus Christ. Now the Jews of the old Testament
were also allowed to come in and enjoy the benefits so long
as they believe the gospel. And the Jews of the present day
are free to come into the new Jerusalem of which the Hebrew
writer is speaking so long as they believe the gospel. But
they will never come in if they believe they are privileged to
come in because they are Abraham's descendants. This was what we
call the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The battle between
Jesus and religion. That's what Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John is. The battle between Jesus religion. When you read Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, and John, here's the theme running through those two
books. Jesus versus what? Religion. And you know what religion
was saying? We be Abraham's seed. You know what the gospel says?
God is able to make out of these stones children that call upon
the true and the living God. He put the genealogy of Abraham
in his place. so that blood does not allow
you to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The will of man or
the will of flesh doesn't bring you into the kingdom of heaven,
but the will of God, evidenced by faith in Jesus Christ. If
you be Christ, then are you what? Abraham seed. heirs of the promise
of God. So this terminology that the
Hebrew writer is using is all Old Testament terminology brought
to reality in the life of the people of God here. You come
to the Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem,
not earthly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels.
The word angels there can refer to the celestial beings or it
can refer to the saints of God. We are called angels. The word
is messengers. Every believer is a messenger.
This is why you want to be taught right doctrine so that you can
speak for God. Every church is an angel. We
are commissioned as a collective body of believers to herald the
gospel as far and wide as God will grant us. Are you guys hearing
me? Every church collectively is an angel flying through the
midst of heaven saying Babylon, Babylon, the great is fallen.
God's wrath is upon her. You hear me talk about that a
little bit this Sunday. Verse 23, to the general assembly and
church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to
God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect. A lot of language there, won't develop it. Verse 24 is
where I want you to go. And to Jesus, the mediator of
the what? That's right. Ladies, you'll
learn a whole lot more about that in a few weeks. And to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant, and to the, here it is, blood
of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of what?
Now when he uses the word blood of sprinkling, he's actually
dabbling in Hebrew dualism, Hebrew dualism, because there were two
sets of blood sprinkled. The offering that Abel gave to
God and the life that Abel gave to God when he was offered up
by Cain. You guys see that? When Cain
killed his brother Abel, Abel became a picture of Jesus Christ. He became now a type of Christ
who would be killed by his own brethren, the Jewish people,
and by his death on Calvary, he would merit redemption for
us. This is why the Hebrew writer says his blood is speaking better
things than that of Abel. Are you guys hearing me? Remember,
you're gonna learn this in biblical theology from Genesis to Revelation. From Genesis to Revelation, this
book is about who? Don't ever forget it. Don't ever
forget it. This book is not about you. It's
not about me. It's not about Cain. It's not even about Abel.
It's not about Abraham. It's not about the nation of
Israel. It's not even about the church. It's about Christ. And
right biblical theology brings to bear the glory of God in Christ
from chapter to chapter to chapter. And that's what the Hebrew writer
is doing here. The blood of Sprinkly that speaks better things than
that of Abel. So now let's go back to our texts
and work a little bit more with the language. Some interesting
things begin to transpire he reiterates in verse 3 of chapter
verse 11 of chapter 3 first John for this is the message that
you heard from the beginning that we should love one another
this is John's now post argument after he says you cannot be of
God if you don't work righteousness if you don't love your neighbor
for this is the message that you heard from the beginning
the beginning when Well, from the beginning of time, in terms
of God teaching us what love is. Now, we talked about this
at length last week. I won't reiterate this too much,
but when the Bible says we are to love one another, it is presuming
that we understand the basis upon which that cooperative reciprocal
relationship should be engaged. For me to love you in the way
in which God wants me to love you, presumes that I love God. To love horizontally requires
that I love vertically. We're getting ready to unpack
that now. But for a person to say, I don't even know God, it
didn't say, but I love you. It's impossible. It's impossible
for you to love me and say you don't know God for your very
confession prescribes that you are presently hating me. because
we know that there is one God. He is one true and living God
and he is everywhere present and he has made himself known.
Your ignorance of God is volitional. You willingly refuse the evidence
that God exists. You have built a doctrine of
lies, arguing for the lack of evidence. And on that premise,
you are suggesting that you can love me without acknowledging
God's presence. That's stealing God's glory.
And that's also telling God he's a liar, because here's what God
says. If you love me, love one another. See, because love is of God. That's what James is John is
going to teach us. What that means is in order for me to love
you with my right hand, I got to reach up with my left hand
and get some love from God because I don't have any love in myself
for you. I just want you to know that now. And you don't for me.
We don't possess. We are not the reservoir. We're
not the source. We're not the fountainhead. We're
not the well of love. God is. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? So a person can't really rightly
love you if they're lying to you. Are you hearing me? They can't rightly love you.
This is the message that you heard from the beginning. And
also what John is saying to move on with time is this is the message
that Jesus constantly taught his disciple, John chapter 13,
John chapter 15, John chapter 17, and John 13. He demonstrated
it by taking his clothes off, putting on a robe and washing
their feet. Love is humble. Love is servitude oriented love. serves. Get ready to see that.
In John chapter 15, he told the disciples after he gave the analogy
of the vine tree, I'm the true vine, you're the branches. My
father's the husband, every branch in me that bears fruit, he purges
it so it can bear more fruit. The branches that don't bear
fruit, he cuts off and they're burned in the fire. Herein is
my father glorified that you bring forth what? Much fruit.
So shall you be my what? In this way, you are my disciples.
Don't tell people you're God's disciples if you're not part
of the fruit bearing component. Now watch this, because if you
are a branch in the tree, then God puts you there. And if you're
a branch in the tree, then Christ is divine and he certainly got
life in him. And if you're a branch in the
tree, the father is the pruner. So why aren't we bearing fruit?
Are you hearing what I'm saying? In other words, the analogy essentially
is saying it's impossible for the people of God to not bear
fruit. Are you hearing me? It's impossible
because they aren't the ones that are producing it in the
first place. The root is God. The husbandman is God. And I
think God knows what he's doing, don't you? And so the basic premise
again is that to love one another predicates that we are being
loved by God and that we love God too. So in John chapter 15,
Jesus told the disciples, see to it that you love one another. And John is getting ready to
explain why it's critical that we manifest that love towards
one another. In John chapter 17, you remember
what Jesus said in that high priestly prayer? Father, I'm
ready to come back home. I've done my work. I'm ready
to be restored to the glory that I had with you before the world
began. And by the way, I want those whom you have given me
to be with me where I am so that they might know the love that
you have towards me and the love that I have towards you. I want
that love to be in them. Are you going to tell me God's
not going to answer that prayer? That was the desire of the son
for the church to know the love of God that the father had toward
the son and the son toward the father. And the job of the spirit
of God is to pour the love of God into our hearts. Are you guys hearing me? That's
a fundamental act of regeneration. Romans chapter five, look at
it. Romans chapter five. It's impossible for us to be
born of God and not to be filled with the love of God. It's not
possible. Essentially, when we talk about love, we're talking
about God manifesting himself to us in his redemptive glory. And that redemptive glory having
an impact in our life so that we become objects of redemption
and then witnesses to the impact of that redemption. Romans chapter
five puts it this way. Listen to what it says. I want
to read verse one and go through verse five. Therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein
we stand, just a beautiful concept, and we rejoice in hope of what?
The glory of God. What is deposited in our heart?
Hope. What does that hope produce? Joy. What is the objective of
that joy? The glory of God. And not only
so, but we glory in what? Ooh, don't you lie now. We glory in tribulation. But
do you know how much love has got to be running through your
veins to glory in tribulation? Do you understand what kind of
dynamic has to be taking place between you and God on one scale? and you and the world and the
devil and the flesh on the other scale for you to be glorying
in tribulation? Do you understand how much God
must be operating by his spirit in your soul for the net effect
of tribulation to result in you boasting in God? Do you understand
how effectual the spirit of God must be working in your heart
for somebody to take a stick and whack you upside your head
and you go, glory to God. Some will say, now that's a nut
right there. But it all depends upon the context. Is it possible for the saint
in the midst of personal bodily persecution to glorify God in
the extolation of his being and the expression of thanksgiving
in the hope of glory while legit, they are beating him down. Is
that possible? You better read your Bible over
and over and over again. Acts chapter seven, Stephen is
being stoned to death right before their faces. I see the heavens
open and Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, the father,
father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. You see it while the devil is beating on Stephen. The Holy
Ghost is pouring the love of God into Stephen and opening
his eyes up to the effulgent glory of Jesus Christ and his
majesty as sovereign Lord. He sees him standing to receive
Stephen into glory. All Stephen could do is rejoice.
See, that puts perspective on your suffering, doesn't it? Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? Just in case you think my theology
is all whacked out. All I'm saying is it is very
possible for us to glory in tribulations. Glory and tribulations also knowing
that tribulation work at what? Yeah, you know, and this here
becomes, I know this becomes didactic and it becomes also
pedagogical here. But the point is, is that when
you and I settle down and embrace the process, this is one of the
things I've been trying to teach grace for years, embracing the
process. We know our position in Christ,
don't we? Do we know our position in Christ? Do we know that we
are the righteousness of God in him? Do we know that we're
perfect in Christ? sanctified in Christ, already
glorified in Christ, that we are sons of God in Christ, that
we have every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.
Do we know that? Do we know that we're already
overcomers in Christ? We have inherited all things
in Christ. We are more than conquerors in Christ. We have obtained the
victory in Christ. We are already seated in Christ.
I could go on and on for the next 20 minutes about what we
have in Christ and close. But we're in a process of obtaining
those things that we already have. And it's critical that
while we're on our journey through this wilderness world, that the
child of God rejoices in his position, but appreciate the
process. I've been teaching us this for
years. You rejoice in your position because some days that's the
only thing you're going to be able to look at is your position. But as you are able to, you appreciate
the process. You know what that means to appreciate
something? It means to value it. It means
to assess it. It means to analyze it. It means
to weigh it out. It means to deconstruct it. It
means to give respect to the process because it's in the process
that we learn how God acts. We rejoice in tribulation because
tribulation teaches me what I don't have by nature. Patience. I get so tired of being impatient,
don't you? It drives me insane that I want
things solved today that God doesn't want solved today. Actually,
the word there is endurance. Tribulation becomes a gymnasium
for the people of. Can I keep talking to us for
a moment? It becomes a gymnasium for the people of God. and it
allows the people of God to work out. You know how our muscles
atrophy when we get so old, we talk about how we used to be.
Remember I used to talk about how you used to run track and
you used to lift weights and you used to play, I used to play
basketball. When you get into that used to mode, the muscles
are already atrophying and you probably afraid of weights, running
from the gym. Oh, there's a gym, let me drive
around the other way, right? So here's my point, tribulation,
Tribulation is designed to build spiritual muscles where you and
I are able to demonstrate patience under trial in a much easier
way where we're not sweating bullets. where we don't have
an ugly continence, where bad things are not coming out of
our mouths, where we have a level of objectivity based upon the
sovereignty of God, whereby we can see things in the midst of
that trial that we couldn't see before. Can I get an amen? You know, when you are able to
grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord and obtain a sense
of endurance, tenacity, perseverance, you see things that you didn't
see before. Because before you were fighting
with the blinders on, I mean, you had that tunnel vision. You
were just looking for the enemy. Remember in the fight, I'm fighting
to survive, Lord. And then once the periphery was
established, you realize the Lord had your back all along.
What you fighting for? Because you had the blinders
on. But once he gave you a little bit of endurance, the blinders
widened, your periphery widened, and you began to be able to see
other elements taking place that gave you that sense Resolve to
simply lay back and to watch God work. Am I telling the truth?
Like this is the beauty of God giving us families because families
will teach mamas and daddies patient wanted I Just blessed
my wife on my way here today. We were I had to do a wedding.
We married off a couple here today Hallelujah, and I had a
good chance to talk to the young man. I said welcome to the battle
brother. Welcome to the battle and then I went home because
my wife came and I We were just talking 10 minutes before we
had to go our separate ways tonight. And I was just telling her, I
said, I am so glad we are at that point in our life where
we aren't running around like chickens with our heads cut off.
You're raising kids in your early days, going here, going there,
doing this, doing that, doing other, you know, and it stresses
you out. And to be honest, you look pretty
ugly. You know, and you really don't
want people around you when you're trying to handle all these situations. But when you get older, you become
a little bit more durable, I should say. And the children are older
now, and they just don't get on your nerves as much. Isn't
that right? They don't get on your nerves. Some of y'all say,
I'm not sure about that. Listen, I'm going to tell you,
you better hurry up and join me because I'm not letting these
kids bother me anymore. I've got other things in my life
that I need to accomplish and I'm not going to let my kids
get on my nerves. I'm just not doing it. You know,
I'm going to give them, I'm going to give them to God real quick
and let the Lord work on their tails because he can do a better
job than me anyway. That's called maturity because
you know how we try to fix our kids. It don't work, does it?
Trying to fix your kids. and you need to be fixed, isn't
that something? So here it is, here it is. And not only so,
but we glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation works
patience and patience, experience and experience, hope and hope. See, when you and I are built
up in the hope of the gospel in such a way that hope is magnanimous
in our purview, Our whole disposition in life is going to be a whole
lot different. The man or the woman that's walking
in hope is walking in joy because they're walking with a vision
of glory before them. And what that does is it prioritizes
things. You meet people that are hopeless
and you don't want to spend a lot of time with them because they're
in a pit. Am I telling the truth? You go, whoa, that brother or
sister is hopeless. Now, empathetically, you're ready
to work with them. You want to get them a remedy
as fast as you possibly can. But here's the one thing that
you and I know, hopeless people are dangerous to be around because
they'll drag you into their pit. And then when you say, hey, here's
the way of escape, you might find out that they are addicted
to their hopelessness. And misery loves company, isn't
that true? So when you meet a person of
hope and a person that's without hope, The two are going in two
different directions. And don't have any problem letting
that brother or sister know, hey look, I'm sorry, but you're
going in that direction, I'm going in this one, and we won't
be able to spend much time together. I hope we meet in glory. Do you
got that? I hope we meet in glory. I learned
that years ago. I learned that years ago as a
new Christian. I got about 15, 20 minutes with
you anyway. I learned that years ago, I learned that As we are
making our way through this excursion, this journey as Christians, it
takes four or five years often for us to, in the sphere and
realm of fellowship, to see people's growth. It takes four, five,
six, seven years, at least, to see people's growth. And the
thing that becomes alarming is that when you meet certain people
with whom you've been with maybe a decade, and I've known people
almost 40 years now, in the church and 30 years in Christ, 30 plus
years in Christ. And when I meet people with whom
I started off this gospel journey at 18 years old, and I'm 52 going
on 53 now, and they still act like they're 20 years old. I
don't want to spend any time with those people because something
very defective has occurred over these 30 years for them to be
still stuck in the year 1972. Are you hearing me? You still stuck in 1972, man. I've got to let you go. Your
problems are way bigger than me. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? It's alarming because listen, what it tells us children
of God is that growth is not mere chronological succession
of time. You don't necessarily grow because
you get older. That's a sad, sad reality. So
a couple of weeks ago I said to us, grow, desire to grow and
continue to grow in him. And that's a deliberate intentional
thing that you and I have to do. We have to continue desiring
to grow if we want to enjoy this hope of the gospel that's in
front of us. So let me reverse five and close
this point down and hope make it not a shame. Do you see it?
Because the love of God is Shared abroad now that term means to
be poured out on us Lavishly in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given us you see verse 5 the latter part Shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost now that act right there is a
continuous act that the Spirit of God engages in in our life
wherever we need it to bring us up out of dark stages and
dark places and to recover us from pitch so we can continue
our journey. How many of you did not understand
what I just said? All I need is one hand. Thank you. Thank
you. Just one. This is such a critical point. Such a critical point. Such a critical point. It is
not automatic that the love of God is going to well up in us. at every stage of our life. There
are times where it has to be initiated by prayer, initiated
by desire, initiated by study, initiated by all of the means
of grace that God gives us to spur on and strengthen our faith. Y'all sometimes we get lazy and
we won't read and we won't study and we won't pray Are you anybody
here with me today? And so during this time, you
can be sure that the love of God, the sensible love of God
will wane in your life. It will diminish in your life.
It will diminish in your life and you can begin to grow cold.
This is why Paul said in first Thessalonians chapter five, do
not quench the spirit. Quenching the spirit is a metaphor
for fire. The spirit becomes a symbol of
what? Fire. And if anyone knows how
to start a fire and keep a fire going, this is what you know.
Starting fires and keeping fires going is work. To start a fire
and keep a fire going is work. A fire is not gonna stay lit
on its own once you start it. You gotta have the right oxygen,
you gotta have the right wood, you gotta know how to nurture
that fire, you gotta have started with, you have to keep that thing
going. And so it is in our relationship with God. When God first gives
us the spirit of God, there's such an infusion of his love
and grace in our life that we are hungry for the presence of
God, hungry for fellowship with God, hungry for a knowledge of
this God who loved us so much that he gave his son for us,
And we are studying the scriptures fairly easy. In fact, we can't
wait to get a break from our secular vocation so we can read. We are hungry for the word. So
we listen to all kinds of CDs, even if we don't know what we're
listening to. But there's a hunger there. And we begin over time
to learn how to feed on God. That's a process, learning how
to feed on God, learning how to feed on God, learning how
to balance your diet between communion with God and devotion
and prayer. Reading of scripture because we can become lopsided
Here's the danger of some Christians. I'm gonna say this because this
is I just feel like being practical right here Sometimes what professing
Christians Christians can do we'll call these the new baby
Christians is they'll be prompted to receive Christ By the exigencies
of the difficulties or the trials of their life folk run to Jesus
when they get in trouble, all kinds of folk love running to
Jesus when they get in trouble. All right. Cause that's what
church does. Church says, come to Jesus, hurry up to the altar. You got problems. Come on, let's
pray you in. And it's, it's problems with, you know, your bills and
it's problem with this and problems with a temporal problem, not
really sin and hell. And the fact that you don't have
a relationship with God, it's just temporal things. And as
one of my old preachers put it this way, if you build an ark
and you tell people to run in it because the rain is coming,
they will. But as soon as the rain stops,
they're going to climb out that ark. You get that? And so that's
how a lot of professing Christians are. They're doing fine so long
as they are in trouble as they see it. But as soon as things
settle down, they're back to their old ways. You may or may
not be a Christian. If you are a Christian, you're
going to learn the Pilgrim's Progress. If you are truly a Christian,
you're going to learn the Pilgrim's Progress. How many of you here
have read Pilgrim's Progress? Good. I recommend Pilgrim's Progress
be read and studied by every Christian. It's one of the most
profound analogies of the Christian life that could ever be read.
one of the most comprehensive books that will expose you and
I on every path of the journey. It will tell us about every enemy,
every adversary, every pit, every snare, every gin, every truck.
It will show us where we make our mistakes. It's a beautiful
book. Are you guys hearing me? The Pilgrim's Progress. And one
of the things that Pilgrim was taught by interpreter early on
is not to lose the scroll. Now the scroll is the word of
God. He said, be careful. You're going to get near certain
cities that's going to cause you to become casual and you're
going to fall asleep. You fall asleep, you're going
to drop that scroll and you may not know how to find it before
you go through very difficult circumstances. And often we learn
that as Christians, we can get away from the word. Am I telling
you the truth? We can pretend we're there, but we're really
far, far away from the word. Here's one trouble you can get
into. It's, you know, because I'm not being paid as it were
to be a preacher, I can say this, you can get in trouble by thinking
that the only diet sufficient for you to grow in grace and
the knowledge of the Lord is to listen to CDs of good sermons. See there, you can get into trouble
thinking that you actually can sustain and grow by merely listening
to CDs. There are people all over planet
earth. All they do is listen to CDs. They don't become part
of local churches. They don't root in ground. They
don't engage in fellowship. They don't become part of the
work of the ministry. They don't nurture deep, profound, personal
communion with Christ. When they get into crisis and
difficulties, they're in trouble because they have not come to
know him intimately and personally themselves. And they have not
come to know how to actually feed themselves. When the Bible
says in first Peter chapter two, verses one through four, Desire
the sincere milk of the word as newborn babes that you might
grow thereby. It's talking about learning how
to use all the apparatus necessary for growth. So here are three
or four practical things. We've talked about them before.
Make sure that you have in your diet, at least these four things,
a commitment to reading scripture. There is no, greater way by which
the spirit of God is going to give you a comprehensive view
of God's glory than your own personal reading of scripture.
I'm talking about a comprehensive view. You can be taught a lot
by somebody else and not be able to own it yourself. Are you hearing
me? I know this is going to hurt,
but it's important. You can be taught a lot by somebody else
and not be able to own it yourself. One of the reasons why we teach
Bible study and we open the book and every time we come together,
the book is open, is because we want you to be able to know
what the book teaches. And hopefully what it will do
is spur you on to go study for yourself. So that when somebody
asks you about that subject, that issue, that doctrine, that
teaching, that practice, that heresy, that error, you'll be
able to say, this is what the book teaches and know it for
yourself. Moreover, when it comes to communion
with God, fellowship with God, Jesus already told you, if you
are my disciple, you will be my disciple indeed, if you continue
in my word. And if you continue in my word,
you will know the truth and the truth liberate you. That's a
process. Are you guys hearing me? So in
order to be strong and to grow, you're gonna have your problems.
I'm not saying you're not gonna have your problems. You're gonna
have your problems. But when you understand how, to retain
fellowship with God in the ebbs and flows, in the valleys, on
the mountaintop is going to be because you have prioritized
reading of the scripture with sound biblical teaching, with
faithful ministers of the gospel that can guide you through the
word of God. You need those two. You need
to have a commitment to the word of God for yourself. You need
to own the sword yourself, but then you need to be taught how
to use the sword. That's where you got to get good teaching.
Thirdly, you have to have a prayer life. I don't care if it's 30
seconds a day. Got to have a prayer life. Now,
I'll tell you what that's about, so you can know just in case
you don't. It's about you learning to use these two knobby things
here that God put there. You know what they're called?
Knees. The reason why a lot of people don't pray is because
they're still too proud. See, if you aren't praying, that
means you are operating in a mode of self-sufficiency that does
not require the urgency to pray. God resists the proud, gives
grace to the humble. Are you hearing? Humility is
evidenced by calling on God. And when we discover that we
need God, and sometimes this takes years for you to discover
it. And I really, listen, you can
go a long time doing church. See, this is one of the reasons
why churches can be both a blessing and a stumbling block. A person
can come to a church and they've got 55,000 activities going on
in the church. And you can get immersed in those
activities before you even learn how to walk with God. And those
activities become a distraction from your communion with God.
They actually become sin. And they become fig leaves by
which you cover up your other iniquities, which God's been
wanting to get at, to clean up in your life, to get you on your
knees. Am I making some sense? So you on this board, on that
board, you're in the choir, you're doing this, you're doing that,
doing other things, your life, toe up. But you doing church.
You doing church. Toe up. Doing church. You don't even know where to
find your Bible. You panic. Oh Lord, where my Bible at? You
left it in your trunk two weeks ago. Sister so-and-so, are you hearing
me? I'm saying religion can actually
distract you from the fundamentals by which you learn how to fight
a good warfare and grow in grace and grow in the knowledge of
the Lord and grow in biblical truth to really acquired biblical
truth, ladies and gentlemen, you have to be serious about
it. And you have to be committed to it. You and I don't hear right
naturally. We don't hear accurately naturally. Naturally we hear the wrong way. And it takes biblical truth repeatedly
coming at our hearing to calibrate our hearing. And the calibration
of our hearing hurts. because it tells us again, we
were wrong in our assumptions. We were wrong in our views. We
were wrong in our thinking. I thought this, but the book
said that nothing is more alarming than going along under the wrong
assumptions because you've been playing church for 20 years.
And then finally, when you get serious about the word, that
book gets open and you say, you know what? I don't even know
anything about God. Am I telling the truth? That's how a lot of
people are. And so it's very critical when
we talk about this idea of having this hope in our soul, the hope
comes, ladies and gentlemen, from the compilation of all these
things that I'm talking to you about. The hope comes from you
and I learning how to walk with God. In all these ways, make
sure that you are reading your Bible, read your Bible. Don't
let anyone tell you where you know you don't want to be a Bible
thumper. We're not talking about reading our Bibles to be a Bible
thumper, but I wish there was a few more Bible thumpers because
we got some knucklehead folks in the world, don't we? And they
need to be hit upside the head with the Bible from time to time.
But most Christians can't even find their Bibles to hit somebody
upside the head with. So we didn't basically wiped
out the Bible thumpers. No, you're reading your Bible
so that you can learn the word of God. Thy word have I hid in
my heart that I might not sin against you. Wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to your word. With my whole heart have I sought
you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. We want the
word in our soul. What if somebody takes that Bible
from you? Have you yet become a living
epistle written and known on the hearts of all men? Can you
open your mouth from your heart and declare the word of God because
it's in your soul? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
I watched this now, again, we learned this in biblical theology
a couple of years ago, actually, systematic theology. When we
dealt with bibliology, what I taught us was that for at least the
first three, 400 years of church history, I'm talking about New
Testament church history, people didn't have Bibles when they
came to church, too poor. There were no translations. The
preacher might've had a text. He might've had the Old Testament.
And I'm talking about going up almost to a thousand AD. How did the Christian church
grow? Faith comes by what? Hearing by what? Do you know
what that means? When they came to church, they
didn't play games in church. When the preacher opened his
mouth and began to expound the word, they listened carefully
to the preaching and the teaching of the word, and they committed
it to what? Memory. Thy words, were found
and I did eat them and they became the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Cause everybody didn't have a
Bible. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? So very important. So very important for you to
know for yourself the privilege of having the book, the privilege
of having the book. Five minutes. Go with me back
to first John chapter three, first John chapter three. I'll just add one more caveat
to that for those of you who are young. If you're young, physically
young, and a new believer in Christ, you better thank God
for your youth while you have some brains that's free to be
committed to the diligence of study. Because when we get old,
forget it. It is hard to devote yourself
to the basic didactic approach or propositional study. Much
study wears the flesh. And it's really hard for older
people to stay concentrating on the word of God. See, when
you're young, you ain't got a whole lot up here in the brain. Us
old folk, our computer bank is pretty full with all kinds of
data. But when you're young, you got a brain that's empty.
It's got room for all kinds of stuff. This is really true. This
is why little children can learn so many things at once, because
they got room. They've got room to learn three
and four languages. They've got room to learn their
Bibles. They've got room to learn this, that, and the other thing.
But the gift of youth allows you to focus in and divulge these
things and bring these things into your being at a much greater
capacity and efficiency than when you get older. When you
get older, your testosterone level goes down and your estrogen
levels start going wacky. All that plays a role, I'm sorry.
You know, y'all start having them hot flashes and all that
stuff. Y'all know what's going on. And the brothers, you know,
as soon as you stop in one spot, you start snowing and slobbing.
Listen, I'm just telling you, if you don't get it while you're
young, you get all, am I right? Am I right? Am I right about
that? I'm just right about that. Go home and say, Lord, I'm going
to read for 20 minutes. I'm just going to read for 20
minutes every night. You can't get through three verses
without slobbering, especially to me, especially to me. Was that was that you said you're
OK, so you're studying the word, you're in prayer, you're under
good, sound biblical teaching, and the fourth one that's critical.
The fourth one that's critical. is healthy fellowship with people
that's serious about this journey. Quit hanging around people that's
not serious about Christ. Don't hang with them. Why would
you go to hell with some fool that's not serious about Christ?
Why would you do that? Learn to drop people off at the
light. Drop them off at the light. When
you get to the, you know how the light is red is get ready
to turn green. You got just enough time to examine whether or not
these folks is worth hanging with. And when you come to the
conclusion, they not worth hanging with, you point them in that
direction and you go in this direction, find somebody else
that's gonna actually encourage your growth. Really the secret to maturity
in Christ is following and fellowshipping with those who are mature in
Christ. I mean, if you wanna hang out with people that's less
mature than you to make you feel good, to bolster your ego, you
can do it, but you still gonna get hit by that situation where
you don't know what you know you should have known five years
ago, you still don't know five years later, because you were
hanging out with those knuckleheads, wasting your time. You're not
going to be strengthening your inner man with the spirit of
God, by which you can also now engage in ministry, because we
all by nature want to engage in ministry. As the father has
sent me, so send I you. We all want to serve the Lord
who had been born again. Am I telling the truth? We'll
get there next week. We won't be able to get there tonight.
But you can't serve God effectively until you learn. You just can't. And you're not going to serve
God with people that just sit around and talk. You know, those
Christians, they just sit. around and talk. We got some
talking. In fact, in the book of Pilgrim's
Progress, one of Pilgrim's enemies, you know what his name is? Talkative. Talkative. The book is awesome. Go on the net. If for you folks
who don't like to read whole books, go on the net and just
go pilgrim and talkative and just get that excerpt out of
the book and read it. Pilgrim and talkative. He has
several enemies and several pseudo friends and they will give you
analogies of people in your life who pretend to be Christians
but will cause you to stumble because they will do things like
talk a lot or divert you from your path because they're the
kind of people that like to meander all over planet earth. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? I can tell you are. I'm going
to stop right here. We'll pick this up next time. Let's close
in prayer. Father, thank you for the time. Thank you for my
brothers and sisters. Thank you for open hearts, ready to receive
reproof and correction and instruction and righteousness. We love you
because you first loved us. We love your word. It is a laugh
unto our feet, a light unto our path. We ask, Lord, that you
would cause the word to sink deep down into our soul, especially
in the year 2013 so that we can be more thankful for what we
have. Lord, some of us are going through real serious difficulties,
but we're thankful because it could be worse. We could be going
through this in some. ungodly country that has no rights
whatsoever. And they despise and hate and
persecute our brothers and sisters in Christ. And by the way, we
pray for them if they're going through that. And they certainly
are. Keep them and watch them. We are forever grateful to you.
who loved us and gave yourself for us. And we thank you for
the people of God, the church of the living God, the word of
God, the spirit of God, the son of God and God, the father. We
thank you for all your blessings as we go our way. Give us traveling
mercies. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.