The Love of God Part 1 | Pastor Carl Henry

[SPEAKER_00]: Please take your copy of the Word of God and turn with me to first John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be reading verses 7 to 21 when you found that, please stand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And every one that love is born of God and knoweth God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He that loveeth not, knoweth not God for God is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this was the manifested, the love of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation for our sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: No man has seen God in any time.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hereby know, we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him and He in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have known and believed the love that God has to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is love and He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Herein is our love made perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear, because fear had torment.

[SPEAKER_00]: He that fear is not made perfect in love.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love him because he first loved us.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a man say, I love God and hate it his brother, he is a liar, for he that love not his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

[SPEAKER_00]: And this commandment have we from him that he who love it God, love it his brother also.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father Lord, as we look at your word, Father today, I just pray that you would just give pastor wisdom, give him clarity and what he says Lord, as we look at the love of God, and Father I just pray that it would just prick our hearts today, as we examine ourselves as a result of this Lord that

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we are indebted to you for your love, for what you've done for us, the greatest sacrifice of sending your son to die on the cross for our sins, was the ultimate manifestation of your love, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we just pray today, as we look at this, Lord, help us to have just a mindset of thankfulness, Lord, toward you, and that it would just work in our hearts and minds to want to serve you better as a result.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I just pray for individuals today that just

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not know the love of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not have that order.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just pray that your spirit would work and that day would make this decision to know the love of God today without leaving this building We ask these things in Christening.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may be seated Well good morning everyone.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is so good to see you today and This is a great text isn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: This Texas, we're going to look at this, it's not going to get completed today.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be looking at part two of this text next week, too much here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to attempt to get right into one of the subjects that I want to talk about is that there is no fear and love, and we're going to see that next week.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we're not going to understand, especially two verses, verses 17 and 18,

[SPEAKER_01]: If we don't understand what we're going to talk about first today, and that is the love of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have a chance to look through the bolts and munching, and I was thinking, oh man, I think I'm going to go ahead and get my him book, and look up the love of God, and have us, you know, I was going to talk about that last verse in particular, and I looked at the my bolted, and they had picked that as the last long way before the message, and very, very timely.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that last verse, which is my favorite of a whole song, and you think of the sky, and if you were to think of that as a scroll to right on, the oceans filled with ink.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every stock becomes a pen, and every one of us becomes a scribe.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we start talking and writing about the love of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The ocean would give up ink first.

[SPEAKER_01]: You couldn't write enough about this subject.

[SPEAKER_01]: to describe in my way the love of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are two premier chapters in the Bible that talk about love.

[SPEAKER_01]: First Corinthians 13 describes about what love is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, we learn about that love from our God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what He has done for us, but it is something there.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says this is what love is.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what love is not.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then now in this chapter is the chapter that deals more

[SPEAKER_01]: describing the actions of what love does.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if a particular word glove comes from.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember as an unsafe man, I was very religious, but very, very lost.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of you would understand it today if you've learned about spiritism, called activities, and so forth.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I was involved with.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so for a lot of years,

[SPEAKER_01]: analytical, you know, you examine things of life, and you try to find the deeper meaning of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as a result of that, one of the subjects that came up on evening is we are talking is describing and understanding what is love.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the world can come up with all kinds of ways of trying to describe what they feel love is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I use the word feel because a lot of the love that is going on out there has to do with how I feel today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And a man or woman can look at each other and say, I love you, well, it's a feeling because six months later the hate or guts enter with somebody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's not love, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: That is something that has a lot of conditions on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: As long as you do what I want or all my expectations of you are there, then I will love you in return.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, that's not true, true love.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even in the Scriptures, we see multiple words that describe love, a brotherly love, that Philadelphia type of love, something that is love based on sight.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it excites me because I see, and I love that, think it's beautiful, and that's not this kind of love.

[SPEAKER_01]: Matter of fact, this kind of love is not based on anything on the outward appearance folks.

[SPEAKER_01]: and based on a choice, because folks, you and I are not lovely like we think we are.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, in God's sight, the sin that we have is very, very black, dark, and very ugly.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like mud, you know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is not beautiful at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: in chapter three that man loves darkness, which is that symbol of sin, rather than light.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's just the fact.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God made an effort in His mind, in His mind, in His mind, to unconditionally love that which He created.

[SPEAKER_01]: This chapter really starts getting into what I feel is an absolute assurance.

[SPEAKER_01]: shows us even the pattern of our God, the Father, as well as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God, our Triune God is all wrapped up in this portion of Scripture.

[SPEAKER_01]: We also see, and we're going to spend a little time on this, what the evidence of love is in our lives, and we'll see that three different places.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the question is, how do you and I prove that we love God?

[SPEAKER_01]: and so the evidence that you and I love God is how we deal with mankind and how we love the Christian, the believers, and in the text he deals with the brethren.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess there's always, and I pardon me, I know I'm appreciative of the choir because you're all here today, but it does question mark in my mind with individuals that say they love God and they became believer and so forth and they just don't like Christians.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't go to church, they don't want to be around them, they just kind of separate, they do their own thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, they're missing out to me on one of the greatest blessings.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is this, the assembling, getting to note, to have that Christian bond, the friendship, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, singing together.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, listen to how we sang this morning of what we as a group were singing about.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we mischurch, there's like a part of us through that whole week that is missing, because we need that encouragement, not just what we're learning in the Word, but it's the whole, it's the whole of it all.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's based on what is going on in our hearts, in our minds, about the Lord Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 7 says that this way, beloved, let us love one another.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, this is not when you want to.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is not a permissible thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is actually a command.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have the privilege of saying, I love you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, please understand, there were times that we all understand the Christians drive each other nuts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: There are sometimes personality conflicts.

[SPEAKER_01]: I understand all of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if there is a need, you would be the first one to be there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to make sure you're ministering.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is not a hatred, it's not a despising, but we love as a whole.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the principle that we love one another.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because love is of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, as he says later on, God is love.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we see that phrase in verse number 16.

[SPEAKER_01]: So one of my questions when I was in Bible College was one of those, you know, seeing if the guys were awake, it was one of those things, is this true statement, God contains love and almost the whole class said, well, that's a fact, so we put, yes, and we all got it wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because God doesn't contain love, He is love.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is definitely the better way of saying it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But rather all love, true biblical love that comes to this world is coming from who God is, the very person of God, it actually comes from Him, and then teaches us that, and that's what we're heading to in a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: So verse 7, also verse 11, beloved, if God so loved us, we had also to love one another.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there again, the same thing, and I was a point for me showing you this, verse 20,

[SPEAKER_01]: for he that loveeth not his brother whom he has seen, how can notices can he love God whom he have not seen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when then you go back to verse 12, the first phrase, it says, no man has seen God at any time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember reading through this the first time, I'm like, I don't understand why you put that in the middle of all of this.

[SPEAKER_01]: That first time, it just didn't seem to flow and what was God trying to show us.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he's dealing with is in the area of humanly speaking, you and I, as we see each other, we are made in the likeness of our God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's saying, how can we say we love God, who we have not seen?

[SPEAKER_01]: And in the same breast say, I hate man, who we can see, it doesn't make sense to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Matter of fact you know in chapter three he deals a lot with the same thing about the brotherhood And he compares men who hate the brotherhood to the man Kane who slew his own brother Abel because Abel was righteous and Kane wasn't It's like how can a man look at his own brother and despise him because he was better than him And then actually take him out of field and kill him It's like that goes beyond me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'll admit

[SPEAKER_01]: Even as an unsaved young man, I was 19 when I got saved, and I mean there were people that I didn't like and things like that, but I never in my mind thought I'd like to kill them.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean literally I would like to take a gun or a knife, and I would like to take this person's life from this earth because inside of me this rage is there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean we've got many policemen in this auditorium who deal with life and death all

[SPEAKER_01]: looking at a person who not only has done the act but will lie about doing the act so he can go free.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no guilt even in their mind about the corrupt things and seeing that person drop, seeing that blood spilt, and looking and saying, I am glad you're out of my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't understand that kind of hatred.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in this book of first John, that's why he

[SPEAKER_01]: That's pretty serious, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: That God would say, if we despise a person, even though we wouldn't physically take their life, God looks at it as in our heart, we have become a murderer, we have separated, and wish ill towards that individual.

[SPEAKER_01]: God says, something is missing, and you know what it is?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a love of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: How if the love of God is there, then the love for man will also come.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why this evidence is there of what God has done inside of us is then shown through how we react with others.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 21, let's command him, have we from him that he who love us, God loves his brother also, and that's the way it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's interesting how this text is, well, is chapter three.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not talking about other people loving you.

[SPEAKER_01]: In that knee, he talks about how you are to love them, which is really, really, really, really important.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because a lot of us go through and scrutinize through our experiences of how we believe we ought to be loved.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we go through life, and so I'm not going to go back there, I'm not going to do this, because they didn't do this for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't do this for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The question is, what have they done for you?

[SPEAKER_01]: What have you done to express the love for them?

[SPEAKER_01]: See the difference?

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's exactly what this whole chapter is zeroing in on is not other people's faith and the love of God in them, but is it inside of you towards them, towards the brotherhood?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so what we've got to get out of the mind is that everybody owes me because that's not what Christianity is about.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is that we are indebted as Romans 1 says, we are actually indebted to man.

[SPEAKER_01]: to love them enough to give them the gospel, to share our faith, to be there for the brotherhood.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying we're super people, we're not, we have failures and mistakes, you better believe it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I talk to one family this morning and I said, yeah, we dropped the ball like three times this week alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all can drop the ball, we can disappoint each other and things, that's, that's to say the least.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when we stop and look at my life, all right, my life, how am I generating that love?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm 51 years old, I've been saved since 19, I've been preaching for a lot of years, and I'm not surprised too much, I'm really not, but I was surprised this year, I was visiting with a guy, and he's old enough to be my dad, and been saved longer than me, according to his profession, and I was speechless.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he looked at me and said, you know, Carl, I've come to a point where I don't even care about lost people anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even care.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't share the faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want, I mean, literally, I usually have something to say, what am I going to say to a man has been saved and Christian and doing this thing longer than I have?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I stopped and I thought, what happened?

[SPEAKER_01]: How can bitterness or hate for the world or, you know, despising of so many things start to creep into a person that's older is a Christian.

[SPEAKER_01]: As John was trying to explain, the longer I serve him, the sweeter he becomes a

[SPEAKER_01]: as we get to know Him and His love, and that's the core of this message today, not just what we are supposed to be and to do is Christians, but where does it stem from?

[SPEAKER_01]: If we are not tied into the root, which is our God and His love, then our love is going to be superficial, temporary, basal and experiences,

[SPEAKER_01]: and it is not going to be thorough, the way our God's love is for you and I.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we start to see these things a little later on in 1st John in chapter number 4.

[SPEAKER_01]: The latter part of verse number 7, I do want to explain this, and everyone that if love is

[SPEAKER_01]: is born of God and know what God, that phrase is born, talks about what Jesus described in John chapter 3, where he says, you must be born again.

John 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: So that new birth process begins this inside of us to have an actual love for God as well as man can.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he verse 8, he that love with not know if not God, for God is love and other reason not born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this was manifested to the level God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now let's stop and think about that phrase.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is now going to give you an eye something that truly reveals what God's love is all about, that He manifested or revealed His love toward us because that God sent His only begots and son into the world that we might live through Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: the gods of love the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: But can I take us to probably what is one of the most familiar portions of Scripture to everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Matter of fact about every football game you'll see somebody behind the goalpost.

[SPEAKER_01]: John 316, you know, go home and read it, you know, and get born again, you know, and that's that's cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I guess somebody actually they raised money so that they can actually do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was told that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um,

[SPEAKER_01]: If I'd love to go into that ministry, I guess, great idea.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go to every pro football game, every Sunday, right behind the goal post, and hold John 3-16 whenever they get a touch down.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, here we go.

[SPEAKER_01]: OK. John, chapter 3, let's turn to it.

John 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: We're familiar, most of us are familiar with the text of John chapter 3, a man by the name of Nick Demis who was a Pharisee at this point lost, didn't fully understand, and no Jesus Christ.

John 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he comes to him and respects him, calling him rabbi, Jesus looks at this religious leader who knew the Word of God inside and out and says, you must be born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Nick and Demis didn't get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I understand this whole thing, it's something brand new.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why is this brand new to you?

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, we should be able to see the new birth from the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: From the Old Testament, he talks about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: How Saul was given a new heart regenerated, something happened within him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, he's like, you know the law, and you don't get this?

[SPEAKER_01]: You see, folks, we can know a lot about the Bible and really not know him.

[SPEAKER_01]: and belief have believed exactly what God is trying to teach us and to show us what we are to believe in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, of course, it goes on and says, what do I do?

[SPEAKER_01]: Go back into my belly of my mum again and come back out on the second bird.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, I'm going to get this.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he explains, there's a first birth that is associated with the body, the flesh, as well as the water, and that's the physical birth, and then there's that which is born of the spirit, which is a spiritual birth, and that's the second birth.

[SPEAKER_01]: it is something that happens within us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's going through all of this, and most people stop after that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember at most preachers I hear preaching on, the story of Nicodemus stop right there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta be born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, wouldn't it be kind of important for God to tell us after saying, you better be born again and then leave, you'd be like, how?

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you're saying, be born again, and I know it's not a physical, it's a spiritual birth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, how do I get this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Jesus isn't done talking to him yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: So verse 14, as Moses lifted up the servant and the wilderness, even so, must a son of man be lifted up.

[SPEAKER_01]: He begins to give an Old Testament illustration to help him understand this new birth process.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in the Old Testament, there was a curse given to Israel because of their murmuring and complaining.

[SPEAKER_01]: and people that were would die.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God allowed Moses to take a serpent, raise a serpent, and put it up on a pool.

[SPEAKER_01]: And anybody in that tax that would go and look at the serpent would believe.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then look, and it says they would then have life, they would be healed.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a song, hymn book, look in our hymn book, look in live, my relative lived, look to Jesus now live, then it's based on that concept.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a picture how one day Jesus Christ was going to die on the cross, high and lift it up, that anyone that would look to him would have life eternal life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you would look at the serpent and you say, why is serpent?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well the serpent is a picture when sin came into the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my effect you will see in those who are involved with the medical that symbol of healing

[SPEAKER_01]: So, if we in our life look to Jesus Christ, don't who died on the cross for our sin, if we look to him, we will have eternal life.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he gives an Old Testament illustration and then he goes on later on in verse number 15 that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is a good verse.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: I know we love verse 16, but this is really imperative that Jesus taught you and I, whoever believes.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can put your name there because you are a whoever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: This is anyone that would do one thing and that would be have faith or believe in something.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, what is it where to believe in?

[SPEAKER_01]: Him should not perish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Him."

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, who's the Him?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking of Himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about how God sent the Son to die on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we believe in Him, we will not perish.

[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't mean just to go into an annihilation, by the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is mean we go six foot under and that's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But rather literally he's dealing with death and hell.

[SPEAKER_01]: Will not perish.

[SPEAKER_01]: A believer doesn't go

[SPEAKER_01]: We will never know how hot it really is, we will know zero about that place.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says we won't go there, but instead we will have everlasting life, life, we like life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God is saying it is not just life here, but in eternal life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his first John describes these things that I've written under you, the belief in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal light.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has to have light.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has to have not the Son, have not light.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of these verses are trying to pull us to an assurance that if we believe in Jesus Christ, we will have an eternal life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as John describes it, that no man can pluck you and I, the believer out of the Father's hand or the Son's hand, we are sealed by the Spirit of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have eternal life abiding inside of me, eternal means eternal, and I have it now.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have it now.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's sad is many people are taught that you cannot know if you're going to have it until you die.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't see that written here that you may know you'll have everlasting light.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are the words of our Savior giving an assurance to Nicodemus if you believe in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to have something that the law couldn't give you because there was no law that could give life.

[SPEAKER_01]: The life is through the sun that the law was pointing to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 16, for God's sake, I love the world, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And the love, as Jesus is describing it, is the Father's love for mankind.

[SPEAKER_01]: So He sends His only son.

[SPEAKER_01]: Probably one of the most unnatural things that we see people go through is a parent burying the son or a daughter.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is most unnatural thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Many of you in this room have gone through that.

[SPEAKER_01]: My heart went out to you, I have not lost a child.

[SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't imagine because even though I would lose a child, I have three more.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is one and only son that God the Father was willing to sin to die in the cross and that's love.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't his love for his son.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was his love for the world that went over

[SPEAKER_01]: past what his son would have to do for you and I.

[SPEAKER_01]: That hard verse for me to understand in Isaiah 53 where it tells us, it please him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's God the Father to bruise him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's hard for me to wrap my brain around that he knew the punishment that Jesus Christ was going through and yet it pleased the Father.

[SPEAKER_01]: That kind of love I can't wrap my brain around

[SPEAKER_01]: us, the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't stop there, though.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse 18, I need to save the low time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, verse 17, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

[SPEAKER_01]: The purpose of Jesus Christ coming was not to tell everybody how bad they were and you're condemned and you're

[SPEAKER_01]: And even though Jesus did talk more about hell than he did at one heaven, through the gospels I understand that, but his purpose was to come into save.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't to come and say, sorry, you're all beyond salvation.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll maybe pick a few people, take them up to heaven with the rest of you, you can care unless or about.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the way it worked.

[SPEAKER_01]: to reveal truth, to show what it was all about.

[SPEAKER_01]: In verse 18, he, that believeeth on him is not condemned.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you have believed in Jesus Christ, there will not be any condemnation that would ever come your way.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a done deal.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, he that believeeth not is condemned or is already in the state of condemnation already.

[SPEAKER_01]: no, that's the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can get saved and then there's no condemnation.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you stay in the sin of unbelief, then you will have to pay for it yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: You say, why don't believe all of this stuff?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe it's a hell.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe it's a heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe it's one God that's overall.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe the Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe it's just a book about nice stories and it's all, you know, myths and so forth.

[SPEAKER_01]: If that's what you believe, then guess what?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're

[SPEAKER_01]: through the words of Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because he have not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, notice this.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the condemnation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, remember we talked about those who are saved, no condemnation, those who have not believed, there's a condemnation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Jesus is going to go to the lost and say, listen, this is why there's a condemnation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I show you you?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's come into the world and that men loved darkness rather than light.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's why because their deeds were evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: You mean people actually look at Jesus, the light, the Word God, all of these things, and they say, I don't want that because I like what I'm doing better, you got it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was coming to that point of believing in Jesus Christ, I remember wrestling.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, I went to church very little.

[SPEAKER_01]: I knew very few Christians, very few had ever talked to me about the Bible, very few had given me anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just wasn't open, but this preacher, as he was sharing the gospel, I'm like, I need that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I still wrestle with, but I ain't gonna give up my drinking buddies and drinking and get drunk.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am not giving that up, I am not giving that up, I was fighting God, the whole way through my prayer of salvation, but I love this life, I love what I'm doing, I like not having these things of condemnation and living the life away I want to, I imagined my own God.

[SPEAKER_01]: My God was fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I had to all figure it out, and this change is everything, because now I've got to go to church, and surely they're not expecting me to like put money in the offering plate, and surely I'm not going to get in front of people and get baptized, and these are things I'm working through.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am so glad that God didn't say, and by the way, you're going to come a preacher too.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, you're going to be standing at every Sunday in front of hundreds of people.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh, I can't do that, but God didn't reveal all.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was this one thing and I couldn't get over and it was the Christ came to this world and loved me enough that he died for me and my sin and that overwhelmed me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Still does.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't get over it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe that God would love this guy was an all this idolatry and all of the garbage to car was going through and I could live in the guilt of it all but I thank God the love of God has forgiven me of all and has sanctified, purified me as is Christ and we'll talk about that next week and now I am heaven bound and it's not because of me it's because of who died for me and I believed in him.

[SPEAKER_01]: His death, his barrel, and his resurrection, and that is the gospel, and you can get saved, and you don't worry about what about these changes.

[SPEAKER_01]: God will take care of all that for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're getting the cart before the horse.

[SPEAKER_01]: The cart has no power.

[SPEAKER_01]: The horse has the power, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Keep that first.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to believe in Jesus Christ in order to have the spirit of God who is going to enable you to do things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now let me get deeper, because

[SPEAKER_01]: Before I had, you know, we get to choose our friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like this guy, like this person, you know, we hang out with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now that I'm a Christian, we have to love each other.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we don't get to choose all like this, but I don't like this person.

[SPEAKER_01]: And have these clicks.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all a big click.

[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody's invited.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you didn't get that memo yet, it's a Christian.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's truth.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not to separate, do do anything at all, but rather, it is all inclusive, aren't you glad that Jesus didn't make a separate body for you?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all in the body of Christ, we are all in this together, and that was the evidence.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now I start going to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember going as a Christian first time, getting from people getting baptized, muffling through a verse out of Galatians chapter 3, as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: And he baptized me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea what that verse meant at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, but I did it, you know, people were like, oh, that was so great, you know, and bringing me in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was scared to death with this whole Christianity thing, it was brand new, and it's somebody buys me a Bible, like, okay, I bring my Bible to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even read the thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now somebody gets me a Bible, I'm supposed to bring it to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so I got this Bible, and I'm starting to read, I'm starting to dig into it, and I'm starting to learn it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we start to grow in such a neat thing, and there was a progress.

[SPEAKER_01]: of growth that happened inside of a car when Lori was only a couple years newer as a Christian than I was, I saved a couple years before me, and so she and I really are doing a lot of growing together, and it was really neat to see how God began to chisel things out of her, like implement good things into our life, and it was all an evidence, but I realized you know what, I needed to love the truth rather than what I was going through, and that's

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 20, everyone that doeth evil hates the light.

[SPEAKER_01]: Neither comeeth to the light.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now notice this less his deeds to be reproved saying this was wrong, time to get things mended, time to get things right.

[SPEAKER_01]: People, love, the way they are.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't rock the boat of my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have had many people say it this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: God and I, we have this agreement.

[SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, I hear that when I hold on.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay, God not, we got this agreement, we got everything, it's all good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me illustrate.

[SPEAKER_01]: The next time you're thinking about this, think of this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, the guy decides he's going to create a meth lab in his house, and he's going to start selling drugs out of his house, and he decides to be a millionaire by selling meth to whoever will buy it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And meantime, somebody comes in and says, listen, the police are coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they're going to bust you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you say, oh no, the police, I, we haven't agreement.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, I, I, I, I know, there, there, there, there can be just fine with me doing all of this because just me I'm a nice guy it doesn't matter I'm selling that out of my house I'm a nice guy and when it completes come in and they bust him and send him off on the jail he's gonna realize guess what you didn't have an agreement with the police they're against you because you're doing wrong people love the fink

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, God's just going to blink.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're all.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go on through.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know you give me a break.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't work that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's law is thou shalt and thou shalt.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we do what we're not supposed to do or forsake to do or supposed to do, we're guilty.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because of that guilt, God doesn't want to wink and say,

[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay, buddy.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're all right, and you can't bail him off.

[SPEAKER_01]: You say I got all kinds of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter He owns it already Okay, so we can't think we can get out of this whole thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're guilty before God

[SPEAKER_01]: And so you have to line up with what God says.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You couldn't do the law, you couldn't keep the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus died on the cross to perfect that which was lacking in you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He dies on the cross as blood is shed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is that lamb slain from the foundational world.

[SPEAKER_01]: He provided everything for God that he was expecting of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he took it for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is your replacement.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did it all for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he did it because he loves you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He actually wants you in heaven with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He likes you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: He actually wants you to be in heaven with him and so to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Someone disagree with that, but I preach it firmly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look with me to Romans.

[SPEAKER_01]: The love of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Romans chapter three, toward the latter part of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know verse 23 for all of us in and control of the glory of God and we know these classic verses This really neat to see what's around these classic verses look at verse 24

[SPEAKER_01]: Being justified, freely, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God that sent forth to be a perpetuation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the Ferverance or Toleration of God, to declare I say at this time, His righteousness, have you noticed His righteousness a few times here?

[SPEAKER_01]: that he, God, is, might be just and the justifier of him, which does one thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does it say?

[SPEAKER_01]: Believe in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wherefore, where is boasting then?

[SPEAKER_01]: Nullars, can we brag?

[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm, it is absolutely excluded and by what law?

[SPEAKER_01]: Of works, no, nay, but the law of faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is he then the God of the Jews only praise God for this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is not also of the Gentiles.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes You and I the Gentiles also seeing is one God which I'll justify the circumcision by faith The uncircumcision through faith So we then make void the law for the faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: No God forbid.

[SPEAKER_01]: We established the law How through Jesus Christ his blood and faith in him now here's what God's trying to say here.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is right

[SPEAKER_01]: God is right, we're not.

[SPEAKER_01]: But through Jesus Christ, He wants to make you and I right or justified in God's sight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some have said that the justification is just as if I had never sinned, you know, a lot of people have used that and that's very true, but I want to take you a step further.

[SPEAKER_01]: The justification is, it's like we're in a court setting and that's a scariest place to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you've not been there, it is, don't go there, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a scary place to be because that judge rules and what he says is going to be acted out and he puts down that hammer and he is going to be clear one of two things, either guilty or innocent and there's nothing in between.

[SPEAKER_01]: or your sort of innocent.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is either declared one or the other.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what our God does.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you believe in Jesus Christ, God then says, I will choose to declare you righteous in His sight.

[SPEAKER_01]: As if I'd never sinned, absolutely, but it's an act of declaration by God saying before all, even Satan himself who was trying to accuse you, he will say, I see the blood on that man's life or that woman's life.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are saved, they are born again, they are justified, use what term you want, and I declare they are right in my sight, therefore they are innocent.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I love that first part of it being justified freely by his grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not something that you have done, it is what he has done for you through this grace God giving you and I something that way you don't even deserve.

[SPEAKER_01]: Flip over a couple pages to chapter five.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe one page for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says it this way, for when we were without strength in due time just the right time, Christ died for the what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Ungodly, so that's you, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: He, Christ, who was right, died for us who were wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, he says, scarcely for a righteous man, will one die.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yet for a venture,

[SPEAKER_01]: for a good man, some would even dare try.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, you know, you got this person, you know, they've been doing all their life, you know, and they're in a death sentence, you know, it's like, oh, let me get in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me try to help you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe, but it's like this guy to just, you know, just kill to a bunch of people and did all these corrupt horrible things and you can take their place, you can take care of himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, I'm not gonna die for this guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, that's exactly what God did.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what He goes on and says.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God commanded His love toward us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that while we were sinners, we're the guilty ones, Christ died for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He commanded or proved brought to the fullest test His love for mankind that He would die for us the sinner.

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to talk about the love of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we start giving that kind of love inside of our hearts and we begin to love the way God loved us, it will change our perspective of people.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see, this evidence that we have of Christ's love inside of us, as we would love man, it is not based on choices of what they look like, what they do, what is their status in society.

[SPEAKER_01]: But rather, it is evidence in our love for mankind as equal.

[SPEAKER_01]: As our God is not a respecter of persons, you know what that phrase means?

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't say, I love you more than I love you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's equal across the board.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no respect putting his face to shine on one person above the other.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in absolute equality, his love is toward the human race and his generation wanting to save all who by faith will believe in his name, won't you believe?

[SPEAKER_01]: Believe in a Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved as he is able to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: This gives us an assurance.

[SPEAKER_01]: This gives us a proof and obvious proof of God's love for us that He wants us to be with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're here limited time, folks.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not here real long, 70 years or so or less, and we will meet God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to be able to stand before Him, and I want you to hear those words welcome.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not because of what you've done, it's because you, by faith, believe him as your personal Savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, let me bring it back to this flow of this whole chapter then.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because of God's love for us, it moves us then to love the exact same way He does.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to love the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he's trying to explain in verse number 14, and we have seen and do testify, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what your preacher's trying to do this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what's all about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Testifying, if you are here in this whole church thing, and Christianity is all brand new to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're here to share and to testify to you that God of Father sent His Son and His Son

[SPEAKER_01]: His blood was shed for you, and He loved you, and He wants you, He wants you to be one of His kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see this pattern in our Savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: The accusations that went against our Savior while here on this earth was He hung around

[SPEAKER_01]: All of these people that everybody else is like, oh, you're gonna hang out with that person.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus hangs out with them, winning them to himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's love God.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people will say, well, preacher, you don't understand what I've done.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no way God could love me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no way God would ever forgive me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no way, there's no way God would send his son Jesus to die and across for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: because you don't know what I've done.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've heard that phrase a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're absolutely right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what you've done.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may have gotten away with murder, literally.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can be free right now, and you know, in your mind, you shot a man, you shot a woman, you killed a child who knows what you could have done and gotten away with it, and nobody knows except for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may be one of those men or women that were in battle and you just opened up your gun and shot all kinds of people with no mercy laughing about it as they died.

[SPEAKER_01]: You say, there's no way God can love me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may have gotten away with a lot of stuff, but I'm here to say, and you don't know what your preacher's done either.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't mean to murder anybody, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a lot of shame in all of our lives,

[SPEAKER_01]: all of our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And all of them here tell you that Jesus can clean it all up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his sight, now if you rob the bank yesterday, to turn yourself in, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: We got plenty of Felizman here.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be glad to take care of you after the service, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: And we pay for what we've done wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: We understand that, but at least you can know you're going to jail free from sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: one of the guy's our church that's he was in jail and he had done some bad things and he says I'm ashamed never happened but while I was in jail he got saved and he came out of brand new man and repented and won't go back to the garbage see gods and saving people and changing people it's a good thing but the fight is when I sense it so many of the losses but pretty sure you know what I'm saying I'm okay the way I am

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to change, I don't want there to be a transformation.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm happy with my life, but are you choosing the darkness that Jesus talked about rather than the truth and the light.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when you go to that light, when you go to that truth, it is that God now is changing the inside of you and giving you that evidence that Christ is inside of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can go on and on and I think we've explained it and I pray that you bless the reading of your word.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen a lot of verses here and Lord we've seen some just premier places that talks about the love of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Lord it seems that the world is just holding on to that love is an emotional, it's a full

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet Lord, when we see your love, it's, there is blame.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a point, Lord, that you want to show the love to get us out of it, to save us from our sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I pray, Lord, the first anybody here, it has been finally cleared to them that they've been trying to do it on their own, and they realize they can't do it on their own, their

[SPEAKER_01]: will be the day of salvation to them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Spirit of God, please do the job of drawing them to yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord, we see this, the level of God, to help us to understand the rest of this text.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord, help us to be students of your word, to believe what we're reading, to apply it to our lives, and help us Lord to die to self.

[SPEAKER_01]: Help us as Christians to love the way Jesus loved.

[SPEAKER_01]: I pray, Lord, do you bless this invitation?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is yours, and I pray this in Jesus' precious name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's stand together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Has God an eyes closed?

[SPEAKER_01]: My friend, if you're here, do you like to be saved?

[SPEAKER_01]: You say, well, I'm in the middle of the field.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this is what we want you to just say, excuse me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And slip on down.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to embarrass you, call out your name, do anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will meet you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we want to answer the questions you have and show you from the Word of God, thoroughly.

[SPEAKER_01]: How to be saved before you leave this place.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then she begins to play.

[SPEAKER_01]: I encourage you to come and it's Christians.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe the Lord's working on heart just a little bit today about where we are at as she begins to play.

[SPEAKER_01]: A church like this, and there was an invitation like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, wow, what are they doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: And this was all very brand new to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the third week of being in a church, I realized I really wanted to go forward, but I was scared to death to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Later on, and after noon, my mother-in-law did leave me to the Lord at their house, but I just want you to know, we want you to come.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we want to take the time and show you from God's Word, and we're here for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not against you, we're not here to,

[SPEAKER_01]: laugh, mock, or anything, if we're here because we're testifying Jesus Christ, what he's done, and we've been praying for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Many people in this room have been praying for people to come to no crisis, save you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even though this invitation is going to close down here in a moment,

[SPEAKER_01]: We still want to let you know, I'll be down by the piano after the service for a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you come down and say, Pastor Carl, I didn't want to come forward, but I am so ready to talk to you or somebody about salvation, you come and we will be glad to talk with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Would love you, but folks, the love of God is what it's about.