Let us begin reading here concerning
the love of God in verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwells
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whoso shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth
in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells
in love dwells in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made
perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear, because fear has torment He that
fears is not made perfect in love. We love him because he
first loved us. If a man say, I love God and
hate his brother, he is a liar. For he that loves not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loves God
loves his brother also." You and I began this study, and I
was talking to someone. I think maybe just today. And
we began the study on the knowledge of God, if you remember, out
of Job chapter 22, where he said, Acquaint now yourself with Him
and be at peace. And I remember one of the reasons
we began the study of God is because I felt like that we needed
to know Him better. The knowledge of God, I tell
you, is lost in our day among religious people. Who God is
and what He's like. What He does and what He's going
to do. So that's where we begin to study. And I love the way
Job said that. He said, acquaint now yourself
with Him. Learn of Him. Get to know Him.
And be at peace. The knowledge of God brings peace. The more knowledge, heart knowledge
we have of Him, the more and deeper our peace will be. Grace
be unto you and peace be multiplied. Wasn't that what you said that
verse said, Lord? Grace and peace be multiplied. And how is that? How is peace multiplied? Through
the knowledge of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. We're not
interested in opinions. You wouldn't be coming here to
hear my opinion. You're not interested in my opinion. We have one infallible
source to gain the knowledge of God, and that's in His Word. If we want to know anything for
sure about the love of God, we've got to go to where the Scripture
speaks out. I was talking, and you may have
talked to people, this has happened to me, and it's probably happened
to you. Somebody's talking to you about the Lord, and you say,
how do you know that? And they'll say, I just know
it. Have you ever had somebody tell you that, I just know it? Maybe that's alright in some
things, but when you come to the knowledge of God, we don't
just know it. I was talking with Paul Mahan
when I was over at his house visiting him, preaching for him,
and he was telling me when the Lord first called him to preach,
this church called him and wanted to know if he'd be the pastor.
And he said, I was trying to find out, is it God's will for
me to pastor that church? So he started calling some of
the preachers. and asking them, how do I know
if it's God's will for me to pastor a church? And he said,
every one of them, he said, every one of them without exception,
he said, you just know. You just know. And he said, him
and Mindy came down to Rocky Mount, and he said, we spent
a weekend with them, and I preached a couple of times for them, and
he said, I knew this is where I should pastor. And I said,
Paul, how did you know? And he said, I just knew. I just knew. So we don't want to just know,
do we? We want to know something about
the love of God. And where do we go to find it
out? In the Word. In the Word of God. That's where
we go. And here in this passage this evening, I want us to look
at four things that John says here concerning the love of God. And the first one is found here
in verse 8. In verse 8. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, For God is love. Now, four things concerning the
love of God. And John tells us here in this
passage. First of all, what's the nature of God's love? It's divine, isn't it? God is
love. It's divine. Are you Wayne? Wayne,
come in and get your seat anywhere. There's a seat back there if
you want to. You're sitting with Mr. Larry Baker. This is Wayne Stubick. I wanted you to pronounce
it, Wayne, so I wouldn't mess it up. Wayne Stubick was talking,
Wayne, about the love of God. That's our subject tonight, over
in 1 John chapter 4. And here in verse 8, the first
thing we want to see about it is its nature, and as I said,
its nature is divine. God is love. The very nature of God is love. And love is God. And since God
is love, and love is God, love is divine. The nature of God
is divine. And since God is love, now listen
to this and see if this isn't so. Since God is love himself,
his very nature, his love cannot be caused. There is nothing in
any object outside of God that can cause his love. The cause of God's love is found
in Himself. The motive for God to love is
within. He doesn't look upon an object
and love an object because He's attracted to that object. Nothing
outside of God wins or woos or attracts His love. God is love. Really, nothing outside of Him
affects Him anyway. Did you know that? His love He
loves because He is loved. And the motive, the reason for
Him loving is found within Himself. And let me say this, is there
anything outside of Him that would cause Him to be just? Is
there anything outside of Him that would cause Him to be holy
or to be good? Well, there's not. He's good
and holy and just in Himself. So he doesn't look at any object
or any creature and is attracted or is caused to love that object. Before there ever was an object,
God was love. So when we talk about love, it's
divine. God is love. And that means the
cause of him loving is found in himself. And here's the wonderful
thing about that. Just as no object outside of
Him can attract His love or cause Him to love, no object outside
of Himself can cause Him to cease from loving or to change His
love. He loves because He is God. Now, that is the nature of love.
It is divine. God is love. Now, let's begin,
secondly, with this. John Gill made this statement.
I thought, coming from Gill, I would use it maybe I'll put
a little bit of authority behind what I said, but here's what
Gil said. He said, God bears a general love to all men as
they are his creatures, his offspring, and the work of his hands. He
supports them. He preserves them. He bestows
the bounty of his providence upon them. You know, a couple
of weeks ago, or three weeks ago, we studied on the mercy
of God, and remember we determined that there was a common mercy
of God, not meaning that it's cheap, but meaning it's over
all God's creation, over all God's creatures. The mercy of
God is over all His works. And then there was a particular
mercy, covenant mercy. Well, we look at the same thing
concerning the love of God. There's a common love. That's
what Gil called it, a general or common love. And he used this
scripture reference, and I want you to turn over there to this
reference. Hold 1 John chapter 9 and turn to Matthew chapter
5 and verse 43. Matthew chapter 5 and look here
in verse 43. The Lord Jesus preaching this
sermon on the mount and here's what he said. Look in verse 43,
Matthew chapter 5. You have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love your neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use
you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven. For he makes his Son to rise
on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and
the unjust. If you love them which love you,
what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the
same? But if you salute your brethren only, what do you do
more than others? Do not even the publicans the
same? Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect." This would teach us, Gill says, and I think he's
right, that God would have us to love our fellow man, our fellow
creatures, because He does. And how is this common love showed
to God's creature? In giving them rain, in giving
them sunlight, in giving them jobs, in supporting them in this
life. We call that the common love
of God. Now, some don't believe that,
but I believe Scripture teaches that, and we could give you more
examples of that. But let's go on. Gill made this
statement right behind the first statement that I read concerning
the general love of God. But, he adds, but God bears a
special love to the souls of His elect in Christ, which is
called the great love of God. I love to call it the redeeming
love of God. I think the Bible would borrow
that out. It's special. It's great. It's the redeeming
love of God. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, the flowing wounds supplied, redeeming love has been my theme. And that's the love that you
and I want to look at this afternoon. Because the Bible is full of
this kind of love. And that's the love that you
and I are concerned about. John said, We have known and
believed the love that God hath to us. And that's this redeeming
love. That's what you and I are looking
for this evening. Let me give you two or three
things about this before we go to our second point. This is
the nature of God's love. It's special love. It's immutable. It cannot change because it's
who God is. It's His nature. It's divine.
God knows no change. I am the Lord. I change not.
Therefore, His love cannot change. He may change the way He deals
with men. His dispensations toward His
men, His elect, may change. But His love never changes. He
may rebuke them. He may chasten them. He may hide
His face from them. But His love for them cannot,
neither will it ever, change, no more than God can change.
Some of His children have different degrees, and He gives them different
degrees of the knowledge of His love. Some sometimes have more
knowledge, and other times the same people have less knowledge.
Our knowledge of God's love increases and it decreases, but the love
of God itself never changes. It abides constantly. It's immutable. I am the Lord, I change not.
This love of God never varies. Our apprehension of it varies,
but with God there is no variation. In the love of God there is no
variation. No variableness, neither shadow of turning. And thirdly,
the love of God is eternal because God is eternal. The eternal God
is thy refuge and underneath are his everlasting arms, having
loved his own which were in the world, he loved them until the
end, the end of their life, and he still loves them. The love
of God. It's immutable, it's eternal,
and it never varies. So that's the nature of God's
love. And we'll have to go on there, we can't spend a lot of
time on that, but that's the nature of God's love. Secondly,
concerning the love of God, and we find it here in chapter 4,
In verse 9, look at this, "...and this was manifested, the love
of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into
the world, that we might live through Him." Where is this love
manifested? He also said in chapter 3, look
in verse 16, "...hereby perceive we grasp the love of God." Because
He laid down His life for us. Where is the love of God manifested?
Where is it known? Somebody may come to you and
say, you know, I've had such a good life. I've been healthy. I've had a good job. And I've
not been in the hospital. I believe God loves me. I believe
God loves me. I've had financial problems.
And we've had family problems, but out of it the Lord has delivered
us, and I believe God loves me. All of that may be so, but that's
not where the love of God is grasped, is known. That may be
well looking at our lives from the perspective of common mercy,
or common love, but we're talking about redeeming love. When we're
talking about this redeeming love, where is the first place
that we see the love of God? And we can only know it here,
and that's in the Redeemer, in the Son of God, at the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is where it's manifested. So to have some unbeliever that
has no saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, talk about
the love of God. and to profess an interest in
the love of God? That's impossible. I can't say,
no, God don't love you. I can't go up to a lost man and
say, no, God don't love you. I don't know. He may be one of
God's elect. But I tell you this much, that
man is still in his sins. He can't believe God loves him.
He cannot know God loves him. It would do no good for me to
tell him God loves him. God doesn't even tell him he
loves him. The only place that we can know the love of God is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this was manifested the love
of God to us, in that He sent His only begotten Son into the
world. The love of God is known in Jesus
Christ. Do you remember when Paul was
talking there in Romans 8 about nothing shall separate us from
the love of God? Remember how he finished that
verse? Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus. To talk about the love of God
apart from Christ is to talk about salvation apart from Christ. It's not there, is it? It's so
important when we talk about the love of God to remember that,
brothers and sisters. Hereby perceive we the love of
God at the cross. At the cross is what we say. Thirdly, it brings us to this
point, therefore. This is very important also.
And that's the fruits of this love. The nature of it, the manifestation
of it, where it's revealed, where it's known, at the cross. And
now, the fruits of the love of God. I had a lady tell me one
time, she said, you know, I don't believe God makes a distinction
in His love. I believe that he loves everybody
the same without any exception. And she implied, she went on
to imply, that it would almost be unjust with God to make a
distinction in his love. Here's the problem, here's the
problem with free will view of God's love, with the Armenian
view of God's love. Here's the whole problem of their
concept of God's love. The way they believe in the love
of God, they believe it lower. They have a lower estimation
of it than they do the love of man to man. And let me illustrate
it this way. Suppose a man came home from
work, and as he pulled up in the driveway, he sees his house
on fire. And he jumps out of his car,
and he sees there in the house through the window, there is
his children. The house is full of smoke and
there's flames coming out of the top. What does that man do? without any thought to his own
safety or even his own life, he runs into that flaming building,
he begins to scream for his children, he searches under every table,
every crack, every closet, screaming until he finds his children,
grabs them in his loving arms and takes them back out to the
street. And there they are safe and sound. And what would we
think about a man, a dad? that said he loved his children
and would not do such a thing. And most people would agree that
a good dad, a loving father, would do that. But here is the
Armenian view of God's love. Here God is. And He sees those
He loves. And He sees them ready to perish.
He knows they're ready to perish. And what does He do? Well, basically,
He stands wringing His hands. And he's just hoping that somebody,
that maybe those he loves, will finally find their way out of
the house and be saved. But as far as he's concerned,
even though he loves them, there's really nothing that he can do
about it. Isn't that basically? Am I misrepresenting
their view? I think that's so. You know,
such a view of God's love, of divine love, almost sickens you
to think about it, doesn't it? What does God do when He sees
His loved ones and He knows, apart from Himself, they're ready
to perish? What does He do? Why, He goes
after them. He goes after them with all of
His heart, with all of His love. The Lord Jesus tells us this
in Luke 18, doesn't He? He knows his sheep are lost.
And what does he do? Why, in great love. His heart
goes out for them. He goes out and he doesn't look
and say, well, I'm so tired I can't find them. He doesn't look and
find them in the bog and stand and wait for them to get out.
What does he do? He searches until he finds them. And when he finds it, he lays
it on his neck and he's rejoicing. Why? Because he loves his sheep. And he brings it home and says,
come rejoice with me. Why does He do that? When He
sees His lost, when He sees His loved ones in a perishing state,
dead in trespasses and sin, why does He go to them? Why does
He make haste to deliver them? Because He loves them. That is
the fruit of His love. Now look here in chapter 4, look
in verse 19 and see if this ain't so. We find two things here in
this verse. The first one is this, the fruits
of His love. Look at this. We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. We love Him. Why? It's the fruit of His loving
us first. If God loves you, You know the
very fruit of that love will be this. You're going to love
Him back. You're not born loving Him. None of us are. As a matter
of fact, we're His enemies. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. We love darkness rather than
light. But He comes to us. He burdens
our souls. He makes us to see our lost condition,
our need of righteousness outside of ourselves. And He brings us
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we love Him. And we love
Him. Why does He bring us? Because
He loves us. Remember David said in Psalm
116, he said, I love the Lord because... What was the cause
of God loving David? No cause. His love is in Himself. But there had to be a cause of
David loving God. And what did he say? I love the
Lord because He has heard my voice. and my supplication."
Oh, he said, I found trouble and sorrow, didn't I? The pains
of hell got hold upon my conscience. And I was fallen, and I was sinful,
and I was miserable. And I called upon the Lord and
said, Lord, please be merciful unto me. And he said, the Lord
was gracious and I love Him for it. I love Him. But why did David
love Him? It was the fruit. It was the
fruit of the Lord's love for him. My heart owns none above
thee, for thy rich grace I thirst. Knowing if you love me, I must
have loved you first." Listen, now see how I quoted that? Did
you catch that? That's the way the Armenians
quote it. Knowing if you love me, I must have loved you first. But that's not what the psalm
says here. Knowing if I love you, you must have loved me first. Dear Spurgeon asked an old lady
in his congregation, he said, Dear sister, do you believe the
Lord loved you before you were ever born? She said, Oh dear
Spurgeon, if he didn't love me before I was born, he sure didn't
love me after I was born. But that's the fruit. That's
the fruit. Everything that God does for
his people, saving You can trace it to His love. Everything He
does for us is the fruit of Him first loving us. You know where
this is in Deuteronomy chapter 7, but let me read this to you.
Here's what the Lord said, and He said to Israel, but He said
to all His people. Here's the cause of His electing
His people. The Lord thy God has chosen you
to be a special people unto Himself. above all the people that are
upon the earth. The Lord did not set His love
upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number, because
you were the fewest. But because the Lord loved you,
why did the Lord choose them? Because He loved them. He loved them because He loved
them, no cause found in them, and He chose them because He
loved them. We trace our election, brothers
and sisters, to the love of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. I never
will forget, not long after the Lord saved me, I was over at
a conference in Anderson, a grace conference. I didn't know anybody
there, but the pastor asked the old man sitting on the other
side of the church if he would just dismiss and pray. And I
never will forget this. Glenn, this has been 30 years
ago, I guess. The old man, he rose up and bowed
his head. And he said, Oh, Father, thank
you for your elected love. And boy, did that ever go home
to my heart. Thank you for your elected love. And why do we call
it elected love? Because that's why God did it.
Election is from His love. Christ didn't come to enable
God to love us. But He came because God loved
us. Look what he says here in chapter
4 and verse 9. And this was manifested, the
love of God, because God sent His only begotten Son into the
world that we might live through Him. That manifested the love
of God. He came because God loved Him. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. Because Christ's coming. Why did he come? Because God
loved us. Because God loved us. Out of
love. Out of love. He elected us. He sent his Son
to redeem us. Out of love. All out of love. It's the fruit of love. If God
loves you, he'll draw you, effectually, to Christ. You say, Bruce, how
do you know that? Because God don't love anybody
and leave them in their sins and let them die in their sins.
God don't love a man and leave him unconverted. That's the fruit
of love. If God loves you, if God loves
me, there's coming a time in my life He is going to draw me
to His Son to be saved. No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me draw him. I'll raise him up to the
last day. It's written in the prophets,
they shall all be taught of God. Every man. Every man God draws. Effectually, comes. Every man
that hath heard and learned of the Father, he comes to me. And why does the Father draw
him to Christ? To be saved. But what's the motive
behind it? What causes God to draw him?
Love. Can anybody quote Jeremiah chapter
31 and verse 3? We have used that so much. Somebody
should be able to quote that. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse
3. One does always want me to ask
her to quote Scripture, so I've got you. Here's what it says. Here's what it says. You'll remember
this. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Lord, how can I know? I want
to know that you love me with this redeeming love. I don't
want to trust in common love. I don't want to get to the end
of my way and face death and say, you know, I've just had
such a good life. I've been in good health and
everything's been well with my family. God must love me. I don't
want to trust in that. I want to know if I'm an object
of this redeeming love. Well, here's the way we can know.
I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn you. What does He draw us to? Christ
told us, didn't He? No man can come to me except
my Father draw him. Have you come to Christ? Have
you been brought to Christ? Have you been brought to trust
in Him? Wayne said he worked for how many years? Wayne tried
to work up a righteousness and establish righteousness. Years,
didn't he? How many? Thirty-eight years,
trying to work up a righteousness. And he found that he didn't have
any. And he came to Christ and he found what God had provided
for him and his son. Have you come that way? Have
we come to Christ? Then that's the fruit of His
love for us. If you've not come to Christ,
then come to Christ. Come to God by Him. Come and
humble yourself before Him. You can't know His love until
you've come to Christ and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to the
saving of your soul. It's not even your concern to
try to comprehend or apprehend or know the love of God until
you have come to Christ. Come to Christ as a sinner. And
as a sinner, He'll be the Savior. And then all these other things
will be cleared up. Am I one of His elect? I'll tell
you how you can find out. Come to Christ. Because all His
elect come to Christ. And you won't know your election
until you've come to Him. And you won't know the love of
God until you've come to Him. And when you've come to Him,
you can be sure of this, I've come because the Father's drawn
me. That's the fruit of His love. The fruit of His love. Here's
some more fruit. Take two people. They both profess
Christ. Maybe they've both been baptized.
They professed Him in baptism. But one of them is always a backslider. You'll see him for a few services
and then he's gone. What happened to so-and-so? He's
out in his sand. I thought he had an interest.
Well, he seemed to have. I sure had a hope for him. And
he comes back, she comes back for a service or two, they're
gone again. What happened to them this time?
Oh, they're back slitting again. They're gone again. Back out
in the cell. He reminds you of Peter was that talked about the
sow that went back to her water, and then the mar, or the dog
that vomited up all of this stuff that made him sick, and then
he turned right back around and eats it again. But then you have
another man. or another woman, and they make
a profession of the Lord Jesus Christ. And their heart gets
cold sometime too. They backslide sometime too.
A lady asked me the other day, she said, do you believe in backsliding?
I said, I better. I better. Most people I know
do it. I do it. Do you do it? You say,
Bruce, I ain't been drunk. I'm talking about the heart.
I don't know what we may do. I really don't know what a child
of God may do. I don't. I know this much. All of us. That's right in our
hearts. We have our cold times, our indifferent times. Sometimes
it scares us, does it not? But here's the difference between
the first man and this second man. The first man, he goes away. He's just in and out. He goes
away. The old sow back. But this second man, When he
gets that way, when he gets cold and indifferent, what happens
to him? The Lord begins to search him out, doesn't He? The Lord
begins to woo him and draw him, chasten him, reveals mercy to
him. But what He does, He corrects
his backsliding. And why does He do that? When
you get that way and it scares you, what brings you back? What
keeps you constantly coming back? Why don't you just go on? You
seem like you're just a half a step from leaving anyway. What
keeps you from going on? There's something that brings
you back. What is that? The love of God. The love of God. Hosea chapter
14, I will heal their backslidings. I will love them freely. That's the fruit of love. If
God loves you, When you get in that condition, you won't leave
Him. You won't go on there. He heals
your backsliding. And aren't you thankful it's
not just once or twice, but it's He heals you, and He heals you,
and He heals you because He loves you. Hosea chapter 14 and verse
4. I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely. One more and then we'll go to
the last point. You take two more people, for example. The
first man, he's made a profession of Christ. And as this often
happens, boy, he finds trouble. When someone says to me, I want
to profess Christ. I believe the Lord has saved
me. You know what I do? Well, I think, oh man, you've
got trouble headed towards you. It may not be today. It may not
be tomorrow. But next month, you're going to find trouble
like you've never known before. You think coverage of the Lord
is going to solve your trouble. Well, I'll tell you one thing.
You're going to find trouble. You're going to find persecution.
You're going to find tribulations, temptations, and trials like
you've never known. And here's what happens to the
first man. After a while, he said, I have no idea it was like
this. This is too tough. I don't like these tribulations.
I don't like these trials. And he's almost offended. And
after a while, he's had enough. And he throws up his hands, and
what does he do? He quits. He just quits. And then you have
this second thought. And he comes to you and he says,
I want to profess Christ. He saved me. I want to be baptized
and profess Him. Trouble's coming, buddy. Oh,
trouble's coming. And he finds it. Tribulations,
afflictions, people mocking. His friends that used to be his
friends aren't his friends anymore. It's not so much that he's forsaken
them. They've forsaken him. He's not at home with them. They're
not at home with him. He looks on other people and
they're having it so easy. Everything seems so fine. And
he himself is so burdened. He's so afflicted. Every day
he gets so heavy that he can hardly breathe. And what does
he do? He prays. He waits. He hopes. He trusts. He walks in the ways of the Lord.
And finally, God strengthens His inner man. And what does
He do? He goes on. He serves the Lord. Why does He do that? Love. Love. That's the fruit of this
love. We love Him. Because He first
loved us. We overcome the world. We overcome
the wicked one. We overcome the flesh. Why? Because
He loves us. And you may be in afflictions
tonight. You may be heavy. You may find
yourself in a long, dark valley. You may be on a hill of difficulty,
and you're wondering in yourself, am I going to make it? Well,
I'll tell you. I'll tell you what to tell if
you do or not. If God loves you. If the Lord Jesus Christ loves
you, you'll make it. You'll make it. You'll sure make
it. That's the fruit of His love.
And lastly, and I'm running just a little bit long, lastly, is
the proof. The proof of His love. And we
find it here in verse 19 also. This little verse tells us a
lot. We love Him because He first loved us. That's the fruit of
it. The cause. But here's the proof of it. We
love him. We love him. How do I know that
he loves me? I love him. Bruce isn't that
backward? No. No. Not in our perception of it.
Not in us proving it. It would be backward if we say
he loved us because we loved him. But if you love him, that's
proof. that He loves you. Look here
what He says in chapter 3, and look here in verse 17. Whosoever
hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And
hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our
hearts before him. By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, if you love your brother." That's proof
of his love. You love him. You love the Lord
Jesus Christ. You love his people. You love
his word. You love his gospel. That's proof
that he loves you. Look over in one place in the
closing. Look in John chapter 14 with me. Look in John chapter
14 in verse 21. John 14 verse 21. He that hath
my commandments, and keepeth them, he retains them. The Lord put his law in his heart,
and he retains it there in his heart. You don't lose it. And
he that keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loves
me shall be loved to my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him. Verse 23, If a man love me, he
will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not myself. What's the proof? What's the
proof? We love Him. We love His people. We love His commandments. We
love His Word. We love His sayings. Now, do
we keep them perfectly? None of us do. But don't you
love Him? Don't you love His Word? Don't
you love His people? You say, Bruce, I'm not for sure.
Now, come on. Come on. Terrence, do you love
Miranda? Yes or no? You never hesitated? Do you love
the Lord? We don't have to hesitate. We
know, don't we? I love dear Newton. And there's
times when I've had to say, do I love the Lord or not? Am I
His or am I not? But we know, don't we? We know. And that's proof. That's proof
of His love to us. Because you'd never love Him
if He didn't love you first.