In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: In our Bibles, we come to 1 John. We've entered into Chapter 3, which is an interesting chapter, and we came as far as verse 16 and we'll pick up there this morning. But there's a tremendous message that flows. The DNA of this message is woven into the fabric of 1 John as he's going to remind us this morning what an authentic Christian looks like.

You know the Bible says there's a lot of people that have a form of godliness, but they have denied the power, that is of the Holy Spirit to transform. They have a form, but they haven't been transformed. They're going through motions, but there's no emotion, there's no conversion. And again, Jesus said that we have to be born of the Spirit.

If we're born of the Spirit, then we get a different mind, a different heart. Everything about us changes because the Holy Spirit now is living in us. We're going to see this morning that as the Holy Spirit lives in us, it should bear out the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. So let's pray and we'll dive into our message this morning.

Father, we thank you for these reminders because what is before us this morning, the subject that we need to look at from your Word, is supernatural. It's the one thing in the Christian life you can't fake. You cannot fake the kind of love that Christ calls us to.

So Father, if in any wise our hearts have grown cold or bitter, if we've had a critical spirit, if our discernment has turned into judgment, then Father, we pray this morning that you would speak to us. And that, Lord, you would bring us back to our first love where we love you. Because when we love you, we love everybody else. It's just the way it works.

Father, speak to us this morning, we pray. Help us not to be distracted. I already just got a whiff of that turkey out there. Help us not to be distracted by those turkeys out there. I'm not speaking of the guys doing the work; I'm talking about the actual turkeys. Lord, just be with us this morning, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

You got to turn back with me for a moment to the first chapter of 1 John because there's something very interesting that is taking place. 1 John is a masterful book. Many of the theologians have said the tenses, the grammar that he uses, and the words that he chooses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write to us are masterful.

But when we started this journey through 1 John, as we came there to verse 5 of Chapter 1, listen to what he says. Because he's going to repeat this phrase again in Chapter 3, and that's where we're at. He says, "This then is the message." God has something he desires to communicate to us. There's a central message, and out of that come all of the nuances of the message.

But the central message that God the Father wants to communicate through his Son and through the work of the Holy Spirit through the written Word is this: "This then is," and it's in the emphatic in the Greek, "the message which we have heard of him." Jesus declared it to us, and we declare unto you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

And if we say—now this can be a false confession—if we say that we have fellowship with him. You see, that's what he's called us into. That word is koinonia. It means to have all things common. It talks about an intimacy, a relationship. God is a relational God. That's why he manifests himself to us in relational terms: God the Father.

God sent his Son, his only begotten Son, to suffer and die to bring us back into relationship with the Father. We're the bride of Christ; he's the bridegroom. It's all written in relational terms, not in religious terms. You see, you can't join the church. You can go through church membership and they can say, "Okay, you passed our litmus test and now we're going to put you on the roll." There's only one roll that matters.

We've had people come here and be here for a while, and they've asked me, "You know, we really like it here and we want to join your church." And I tell them, "You can't." And the look on their face sometimes is like, "Oh, yeah, okay, I get it; it's a clique, right?" No, it's not. You can't join this church because it is a living entity. It is the bride of Christ. You have to be born into it.

So I'll ask them, "Are you born of the Spirit? Are you born again? Have you received Christ as your Savior? Have you been regenerated by the Holy Spirit?" Well, yes. Then you're already part of it. "Yeah, but don't I have to do something official?" No. If you're born of the Spirit, you're official. You're in because this is a family. This is relational.

We are those that are born of the Spirit. We have become—and that's why he started this chapter by saying, "Behold, what manner of love the Father, God the Father, has bestowed upon us, that we should be called," or actually in the Greek it's "to be named," the children of God, the sons and daughters of the Most High.

This then is the message: that God is calling us into an intimate, personal, living relationship with a living God through the work of Jesus Christ, being washed in the blood, being regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit. So now we have the mind of Christ, we have the heart of Christ. We now are brought back into relationship with Christ.

But then the second thing he tells us, we find in 1 John Chapter 3, verse 11. He says then, "For this is the message that you've heard from the beginning." So here's the second part of that: that we should love one another. In fact, in Matthew Chapter 22, listen carefully because one of the lawyers came to Jesus one day to trip him up and he's going to ask him a question.

So we start our reading there in verse 36, and this lawyer came and said, "Master, which is the greatest, which is the most important of all of the commandments?" And I love Jesus's answer because he doesn't even hesitate. He says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." How about with some of your heart? How about with most of it? No, all.

That we would be passionately and intimately in love with the one who made us, with our Father. "That you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. Again, in the Old Testament, in the Shema, we read, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart."

Jesus came to bring us back into an intimate relationship with the Father. He didn't come to make us religious where we join something or we become part of an organization instead of an organism. The church is the living bride of Jesus Christ, born of the Spirit, back in relationship with the Father.

But he says the second of these commandments, we're going to read here, is like unto the first: "That you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In these two commandments is all of the law and the prophets fulfilled." We know that we're fulfilling the will of the Father when we love the Father, when we love the Son, when we love the Holy Spirit with our whole heart and we love one another.

That's the evidence. We're going to see this morning that that is the only evidence of a true conversion. Now, I've been around Christendom for almost 50 years, and I've been in every flavor that there can be. I started out in the Assemblies of God with the hyper-Pentecostals, and they will tell you that the evidence that you're born of the Spirit is you speak in tongues.

I watched some of those people that speak in tongues and how they lived when they left the church. I went up to one guy and I said, "Listen, man, I can learn a language. I'm an intelligent person. I can learn Spanish, I can learn Greek, I can learn Hebrew, and I know some Greek and some Hebrew. I can learn Swahili. I sought to learn Swahili when we were doing our work over in Africa until I found out that Swahili is the trade language and is the slave language."

It was the language that Idi Amin used when he nationalized Uganda where we were working, and so it became a language that nobody wanted to speak, so I put down the books. But you can learn a language and you can learn to fake it and speak in tongues. But you can't fake love. Not the kind of love that's going to be presented to us this morning under the inspiration of the Word that we should have.

It's not just love when you write down cards or love that you speak. It's love that causes you to sacrifice yourself for another human being. And that cannot happen physically. You and I are carnal. Our hearts are desperately wicked. We are conceived in sin, we're born in transgression. We come into this world greedy and selfish. Listen, it's all about me.

If you don't think that to be true, go check out the nursery. Because those little kids come in here and they want to bop each other, steal their toys, hit each other. We come into this world this way. We can fake it. We can put on an act. But this kind of love that we're supposed to have can only be a work of the Holy Spirit.

We're going to see that this morning. So he's saying this then is the message. First of all, that you love the Lord with your whole heart. And if you love him, you're going to love the things he loves and you're going to hate the things he hates. And if you love him, the blood of his Son will continually wash you and cleanse you of all your sins. That's the message: brought back into relationship with the Father.

But secondly, because you're back in relationship with the Father, this is the next message: you shall love one another. And this particular word for love is agapao. It's a different kind of love. It's not phileo, which is friendship. It's not storge, the love you have for your family members, your sons and daughters, your grandkids. It's not even eros, the kind of love you are to have for your wife.

This is agapao love. It's the love that the Father has toward you and me because it's unconditional. It doesn't matter how the other person behaves, you still love them. Now, you may not be able to associate with them because of their actions, but you still love them. There's never a reason, you never have been given the right as a follower of Christ, to ever hate somebody else.

You are called to love your enemies. Now let me ask you this: can you do that without the work of the Spirit? Listen, sometimes we can't even love the ones we love. Here's Thanksgiving season; you're going to find that out. But God calls us to love our enemies, to do good unto those who have not done good unto us, to speak well—there's one—to speak well of those who have not spoken well of us.

To forgive those even when they don't ask for forgiveness. Because forgiveness is not for them; it's for you. You forgive them. You love them. You may not be able to have fellowship with them because they've broken it because of their sin, because of their rebellion, because of their actions, but you still love them. You still pray for them.

Jesus, when he was being crucified... now how many feel like you've been crucified by somebody in this life? Did they really get out the spikes and drive them through your wrists? And did they really spit on you, pull out your beard, call you everything but a white person? No, you've never been through that.

But Jesus, when he was being crucified—this is unimaginable to me because, like I told you last week, I've written doctrine courses that are being used around the world to help lay pastors and I've taught through the Bible multiple times. But there is a concept, there is a reality, there is a truth that I've yet to fully wrap my hands around, and that's the way God loves.

We're going to see as we go through 1 John that he doesn't love; he is love. It's his attribute. He doesn't work at it like you and I have to. And Jesus said to the very people... this is... I've not wrapped my hands around this. This is inconceivable to me that Jesus would say to the very person that has beaten him and put the cross on his back and now he's there on Golgotha and they're driving the spikes through his wrists and through his feet, and yet he says to them, "Father, forgive them, because if they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't do it."

Can you do that? You can't do that in the flesh. You can only do that through a work of the Spirit, as we're going to see this morning, because the fruit of the Spirit is love. That's what the Spirit bears out in our lives. It's the fruit. It's natural. You don't strive to produce fruit. If you're in the right soil, the Word of God, if you're basking in the light, the sunlight, the light of Jesus, and you're well-watered by the Holy Spirit, then you will bear that fruit.

So he says there as we left off last week in verse 16, "Hereby perceive we the love of God." This is how we understand it, because he laid down his life for us. This is unimaginable when you consider the doctrine of soteriology, when you understand that Jesus, the eternal Word, co-equal with the Father.

Because the Bible says he was with the Father and did not think it robbery to be equal with the Father: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But he stripped himself of all reputation, honor, and glory, became subservient to the Father in the fact that his mission was to save mankind because by one man sin came into the world. It would take a man, a perfect man, to take sin out of the world.

And then he came in a human form, God in human form, suffered and died and was crucified, rose again the third day, and now he ever lives to make intercession for you and me, sinners. This is how we perceive. And listen, we perceive the love of God because it was sacrificial. That's the part that I'm still trying to wrap my hands around, and I have been a Christian for like 48 years.

That kind of love that would cause the Father to sacrifice his Son. The kind of love that would cause the Son to be willing to be sacrificed for people that at that moment hated him. People that were spitting on him and rejecting him and crucifying him.

That's why in John Chapter 13, verses 34 through 35, John records as the Holy Spirit is giving him instruction and he's speaking for Jesus, "A new commandment I give unto you." Now we're going to see this morning what makes it new. And I'm going to tell you, my toes are being stepped on this morning as well as yours, so don't get nervous.

"A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another." What makes it a new commandment? We saw that the commandment in Deuteronomy Chapter 15, verse 7 says that if your neighbor is without and you have, you help. You know, there is that commandment to love. It works all the way through the Old Testament.

But Jesus is saying, "I'm making a new commandment," and this is what makes it a new commandment: "as I have loved you." Well, how did you love me? You stripped yourself of all glory, honor, reputation. You humbled yourself and took on the form of a man. You were beaten and humiliated, cursed and blasphemed.

You were betrayed by the very people that you loved, the ones you came to save, and you allowed creation to crucify the Creator, and you opened not your mouth. Because he could have. I would have. And I would have called those legions down and smoked all of you and started over. "Behold, what manner of love."

That word 'manner' means otherworldly, alien to us today. "The Father hath bestowed upon us, that we would be called, named, the sons of God because of what Jesus Christ has done. Here's how we perceive the love of God: this new commandment I give, as I have loved you, you ought to love one another."

By this sign, you want to know what the evidence is that you're a Christian? It's not that you go to church, it's not on your roll, it's not that you tithe 10%. All of those things you should do, but that doesn't make you a Christian. Not that you speak in tongues. Well, Paul said that when he wrote to the church at Corinth in his first epistle, when he comes to Chapter 13, he says, "Though I speak in the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I'm a tinkling cymbal, I'm sounding brass. I'm just an irritating noise."

"And though I give all of my money to the poor, though I had faith to move mountains." He goes through this whole litmus test and he says, "and have not love, I am nothing." I am nothing. Because he gets to then, and he says love never fails. Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

And you could take 'love' out of there and put Jesus's name in there: Jesus hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things. Jesus never fails. Put our name in there and see if it works. But that's what we're striving to be: to be like Jesus.

So he tells us that this is the new commandment: that even as I have loved you, you ought to love one another. And you might say sometimes to those people, "Well, Lord, if you knew what they had done to me, if you knew how they treated me, if you knew what they said about me, you wouldn't ask me to do that."

Oh, you mean like pluck your beard out? Mock you, put a fake crown of thorns on your head? Scourge you, reduce you to human rubble, literally ripping the muscle and the flesh and the skin off your back? Did they force you to carry a 200-pound cross to Calvary and crucify you? You mean that?

Mean when they call you everything but the Messiah—that you're a drunk, that you're a winebibber, that you're a homosexual, that you're all these things? You mean that? You see, when you think about how people treated Jesus, I mean, really think about it, and then you look at how he responded: always in love, always with forgiveness, always with kindness, even at the moment of his crucifixion.

And then he says, "even as." I'm not there yet. Don't think I have; I'm working on this one. A lot of the things about Christianity are easy for me, but this one's difficult. This one challenges me. This one sometimes rocks me to the core.

But then he says in Galatians Chapter 5, verse 22 through 26, and I want you to make note of this. In fact, if you turn in your Bible, I know they're going to put it on the screen, but I want you to make note of something here that's very interesting. Because when Paul is teaching this, it's so foreign. So he has to introduce this agapao love.

Again, like I said earlier, they understood storge, family love; they understood phileo, friendship that they had; they understood eros. But when Jesus introduces this agapao, "as I have agapao'd, unconditionally loved you, so you ought to love one another." In fact, Romans Chapter 5 says God commended his love toward Mike Warren in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me.

No greater love hath any man than he lay down his life for a friend, and Jesus said, "I call you friend." When we hated him, when we cursed him, when we made his name the most common thing that could be used, he said, "I loved you. I loved you so much that I laid all of my reputation and honor and glory aside. I left my Father and took on human form so that I could be the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sins of the world, that removes the power and penalty of sin from you and nailed those things written against you to my cross so they would never be brought against you again, to bring you back into fellowship with the Father."

And the evidence we have fellowship with the Father is we love him, we love the things he loves. We don't continue to live in the world. We don't continue to break his heart. We want to please him. But the second aspect of this being born again is that we love one another.

And that's why he says in Galatians Chapter 5, notice carefully, "But the fruit," it's in the emphatic in the Greek, "the singular fruit of the Spirit is love." There should be a period there, and the rest of that should be describing what this love looks like. Because they had never seen this kind of love before. Because you were only required to love somebody in the Old Testament so long as it did not endanger your own life.

If you had a bowl of soup, you may give half of it, but you didn't give all of it. Jesus gave everything to redeem us, and now he's calling us to do the same toward one another. But the fruit of the Spirit is love. And listen, that love brings joy in other people's lives; it doesn't bring misery.

The person that loves somebody, he doesn't slander them or gossip them or hate them or backbite them. No, you bring joy and peace. It's longsuffering. You mean it suffers long? The idea is you can't provoke it. It suffers long. It has gentleness about it. It's very gentle even when it is provoked; it's gentle.

It's full of goodness, it's faithful, it's meekness. Meekness means having a right opinion of yourself. The thing about this kind of love is when there's a conflict, you examine yourself. Could I be part of this? Did I do something wrong? It doesn't always blame others; it's introspective. It says, "Okay, what is my part in this?" And if I have a part in this, I'm going to ask that person to forgive me.

It has meekness, temperance, self-control. Self-control. You know, the Bible says only by pride comes contention. And a proud man or a proud woman is a selfish person, and it's the opposite of love. And then he says against such there is no law. When you walk in love, you're not going to break any of the commandments.

Again, Jesus said all the commandments are fulfilled in that you love the Lord your God and love each other. What's he talking about? The first four commandments have to do with our relationship with God and the next six have to do with our relationship with one another. You're not going to steal or bear false witness if you love somebody. You're not going to have a sexual relationship with their wife, you're not going to commit adultery, or vice versa with their husband. You're not going to murder or kill if you love.

And he's saying all the commandments are fulfilled in that you love the Lord and you love one another. This then is the message: have fellowship with the Father, love the Lord your God with your whole heart. And here's the second part of the message: love one another. It just is not complicated.

It's complicated when you try to do it in the flesh, because it's unattainable in the flesh. But it's easy when God gives you a new heart. It's easy when you're walking in the Spirit. And then he goes on to say, and they that are Christ's, they have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Those things have been put to death.

There's something that has awakened in us when we're born again. There's something that's been aroused in us. He gave us a new heart. That was the most amazing thing to me when I got saved, because I didn't like anybody. I didn't even like myself. I was very selfish and self-seeking, very proud and very stubborn, very rebellious.

But when I got saved that night, two things were awakened in me that I could have given you the definition of, but I had never experienced. The first was hope. I had never known it. I could give you the Webster's dictionary definition, but I had never experienced it. And love. It flooded through my heart.

For the first time in years, I smiled. I couldn't stop smiling or crying. I'm in a Bible study with 30 other hippie kids and I couldn't stop—they were thinking, "Man," because I came there stoned. The Lord sobered me, and there was this dichotomy like, "How come I'm smiling and crying?" They don't seem like they go together, do they? But it was tears of joy, and I just couldn't—and people were coming up and saying, "Are you okay?"

I've never been more okay. I don't really know what's going on, but Mikey likes it. Because God opened my heart to his love. And I looked around the room and I'm going, "I partied with some of these people, some of these people owe me money, some of these people have ripped me off, some of these people have said bad things about me." I don't know how I ended up in this study, but then I just started loving them.

They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and its lusts. If we live in the Spirit, then also we should walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory. It's not about us. In fact, the Bible says we should be others-centered, not provoking one another, envying one another. That's not part of our life anymore.

No, we love each other because God commended his love, Romans 5:8, toward us when we were dead, when we were away from him. And so he says this, now we haven't even got to the teaching this morning: "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down," it's sacrificial, "his life for us."

And then he says this, and here's the challenge, "And we ought," we are obligated, we should be committed to, "laying down our lives for the brethren." For the person sitting next to you, for the Christian in China or in Africa.

And you guys have done a great job doing that. We've got a work in India; we own two acres there that we gave to the guy that's running our ministry. We have an orphanage and five house churches that you guys paid for. We have property in Uganda; we have a church plant there, and it's thriving and out of it churches are being planted because you guys sacrificed of your funds to send money around the world to support these works.

Now watch what he says here: "But whosoever," see again, this kind of love is self-sacrificing. This is the important point because I love it, and today is my 68th birthday. I'll just tell you, I'll be honest, I'm getting old. And some of you have given me cards and some have come up and hugged me and loved me, and I love that, don't get me wrong.

But if I'm in trouble, I'm really in trouble, and I call you and you say, "Be warmed and be filled," notwithstanding you help me, then really you don't love me. Because the kind of love we're to have for each other is when one of us calls another and says, "I'm in trouble."

You drop everything and that person at that moment becomes more important than you. You become others-centered, just like Jesus modeled for us. Listen, "But whosoever hath this world's goods and seeth," you've seen it, you've acknowledged it, "that your brother has need." It's not a want, but there's a need there. "And you shut up the bowels of your compassion."

And really in the Greek, it means you slam the door. Every time God says, "You see that brother there? He has a need. You have the thing that he needs. Go give it to him," and you keep slamming the door. You keep saying, "I'm not doing it." Now how many have ever done that? Do not raise your hand.

Because everybody would have to raise their hands, and the ones that didn't would have to raise their hands for another reason: you'd be liars. Listen, we all, many times, God has challenged me to give sacrificially. And my first response is, "I don't think I can afford it," and then the Lord will say to me, "You cannot afford to not do it. You think you can afford it? You don't do it and see what happens."

This is supernatural; you can't do this in your own strength. "But whosoever hath this world's goods and seeth this brother in need and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

Because when Jesus saw our need, when God the Father saw our need, he gave the best Heaven had. He sacrificed. I don't even know that kind of love. I have a son, and I will tell you, if God says, "Listen, everybody in this building is going to be wiped out today unless you're willing to sacrifice your son," I would say, "Well, see you on the other side."

I don't know that kind of love. I mean, I'm trying to work on it. But God the Father sacrificed his Son when he saw our desperate need and watched, had to turn his back upon him and listen to his Son cry out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Because the sin, my sin, your sin came on him and he was the Lamb who was taking away the sin of the world. That is unimaginable to me. And then he says to us, sometimes the most loving thing you do is look somebody in the face and say, "You need to stop doing what you're doing. That will destroy your life."

And then when they do it, you go help pick up the pieces without going "neener, neener, neener." Because that's what Jesus does for us. How many times has he told us not to do something we've done it anyway and messed up our lives? Amen? And he's there to pick us up. Amen.

How many times you've been picked up? How many times are you glad that the Father showed up and didn't "neener, neener, neener" you? Well, here it is: how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little born-again ones, let us not love in word, not in what you write, nor in tongue, not in what you say.

But he says, "but in deed," in action, "and in truth." In action and in truth. Not just what you write, not just what you say, but your actions, your deeds. They prove that you love that person. And Jesus certainly did by his action and his deed.

And then he says this in verse 19, "And hereby we know that we are of the truth." This is how you know you're a Christian. This is how you know you're born of the Spirit. This is how you know that the Spirit is cooking in you and the fruits of the Spirit are working out of you.

He says this, "And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him." And the idea is in his presence, because we love him. Now, just because we love him doesn't mean we don't fail him.

But when we get alone with him and we pour our heart out before him and say, "Father, I want to please you. What is wrong with me? I ask you to forgive me. That's not how I want to live. That's not what I want to do. This is not how I want to behave. That's not what I want to think. That's not what I should have said."

And there's this brokenness and repentance, and he sees your heart. How many times have we failed as Christians? And there's—the word for condemn there is actually conviction, because in Romans 8 there's no condemnation. God's not condemning you, but there is a convicting work in our hearts that we broke the heart of the Father.

You know, the fear of the Lord is something I pray for a lot. Lord, give me the fear of the Lord. Because the fear of the Lord, the Bible says, is the beginning of wisdom. And you know what the fear of the Lord is? To ever break the heart of the Father. You husbands ought to fear that you'd ever break your bride's heart. And you brides ought to fear that you'd ever break your husband's heart.

Because if you love them, you wouldn't want to do that. But how often do we break the heart of the Father? And we go to him. Listen carefully, this is what it's talking about here. We go to him because that first thing we said, "This then is the message," because if you have fellowship with him, you don't live in darkness.

You may visit there, but that's not where you live. You don't walk in it. You're walking in the light. And part of walking in the light, as he goes on in Chapter 1 of 1 John, is if you say you don't have a bent to sin, you deceive yourselves.

But if you will confess it, agree with God that he was right and you were wrong. Homologeō in the Greek. If you will confess it and you will repent of it, he's faithful. He is faithful and he's just to not only forgive you but to cleanse you of that thing. Katharizō in the Greek. We get cauterize from it in the English, to remove it from you.

But if you say what you're doing is not sin, then you're a liar. See, the true born-again person, they struggle with sin, but it breaks our heart because we want to please the Father. And so he's saying this is how you know, my little children, let us just don't love in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth.

And hereby we know that we're in the truth because sin bothers us. It breaks our hearts. It convicts us. But when it convicts us, listen carefully, this is very important: God is greater than our heart and he knows all things. Man looks on the outward appearance, and that's what religion does. "Man, if you don't do these certain things: our fathers, Hail Marys, crawl up and down steps on glass, do all..." Listen, that's how they look at things. You know what? God doesn't even care about that.

He looks at the heart. Two men came in at a temple to pray one day. You read it in Luke 18. Jesus telling the story. One was a Pharisee, very religious, walked straight up to the front, looked into Heaven, began to pray. And the first thing he prays, "I thank you that I'm not like other men." Oh, really?

And then he began to brag on what he does: "I pray three times a day, I pay my tithe, I do all..." But most of all, "I thank you I'm not like the guy that just walked in the back door." And Jesus said a guy walked in, fell on his face, rent his garment, looked into Heaven and said, "Have mercy on me, a sinner, O God. Have mercy on me. I've broken your commandments and it's broken me."

And he falls on his face and he cries out to his God, "Forgive me." And Jesus said, "I tell you of a truth, the latter left more justified than the first, because he's after your heart." He knows you're going to mess up. How can you say that, pastor? Have you read the Old Testament? When you came to the book of Leviticus, what's the first chapter deal with? You and I messing up.

There's a sacrifice for it. You get to the New Testament, there's the sacrifice: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He had to remove that to get to your heart.

And then he says this: but then in those moments, he says, "Beloved, but if your heart doesn't convict you, that's good." You have a clean conscience before God. How many times have you resisted those temptations and there's just such a joy and cleanness about it? And how many times have you not resisted and you fallen into some temptation and you feel convicted? But when you're unfaithful, he remains faithful because you know what? He loves you.

And he's telling us we should love others the same way. Now watch what he says in verse 22: "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments." Now, some would say, "Well, I don't keep all of his commandments." Have you kept the commandment to repent when you sin? Confess when you violate his law?

Is your heart broken? Then you've kept his commandments because here's what he's going to say: whatsoever you ask of me, you will receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. What is the most pleasing thing? Brokenness, contriteness, repentance.

He said to Micah—that's my son's name. I wanted to name him Christian. God said, "No, his name is Micah." I got to name the daughters: Destiny, Charis, Charity. And I did it on purpose; their names have a story. I felt like my wife messed up the story. No, because I wanted our firstborn to know they have a destiny beyond this life, that it's not about this life.

We're moving through this life, but we have a home. It's in our Father's house. You have a destiny. And then when Charis was born... Charis is Greek for exquisite beauty or unmerited grace. We want our kids to know they're saved because God is gracious. That's why they have a destiny, not because they're good.

And then the third one came, we named her Charity, which means love. God loves us because he's gracious and because he's gracious, we have a destiny. And then I wanted to name Micah 'Christian.' We're Christians because God loved us, because he's been gracious to us, and because we have a destiny beyond this life.

And my wife said, "No, his name is going to be Micah." And then I remembered what Micah meant; that's even better: "He who is like God." Because he is gracious and loving, we have a destiny and his whole motive is to conform us into his image. That Christ would be formed in us.

And what is the greatest thing that could be formed in us? Love. That we would love one another. And so he says that we would be pleasing him. Verse 23 and 24, and this is where we'll end our study this morning: "And this is his commandment." You know Jesus said, "If you love me." How many love Jesus? How many are so thankful, Thanksgiving season, that he was willing to do what he did to bring you back in relationship with the Father? How many are so grateful that you're saved by grace, not by works?

And so he says, "If you love me, keep my commandments." And here it is, here's the commandment. Listen, you will not completely love the Father or love each other until this commandment is kept. In fact, life begins for you when this commandment is kept. This is introductory; this is 101.

"And this is the commandment: that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ." What does that mean? That we should receive as we open our hearts by faith and say to the Father, "We believe that what your son Jesus Christ did for us is enough."

We believe that he is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. We believe that he was the eternal Word, your son who took on human flesh, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived the sinless life, died on Calvary's cross, a substitutionary death, died in our place to take our sin, has risen from the dead on the third day, ascended back to the Father, and he's ever there to make intercession for you and me.

We believe that. And we believe that salvation is by grace through faith, that not of ourselves; it's a gift that God gives those who open their hearts' door when he knocks and we invite him in. This is the great commandment: that you would believe, put your faith absolutely in the work of Jesus Christ, the son of God, and that you would love one another as he gave us commandment.

Well, I don't like that person. Well, you might not like them, but you're commanded to love them. "But you don't know what they've done!" Oh, Jesus would say, "Okay, well, let's compare. Let's compare." Oh. "Well, how long do I have to love them?" How long do I love you?

"Well, what if they mess up like seven times?" Peter said that. Because under the Torah, you were required by the law in the Torah to forgive three times. You know, "Three strikes and you're out." And Peter came to Jesus one day and said, "Master, how often should I forgive my brother's trespasses against me? Seven times?"

Somehow in the teaching of Jesus, Peter realized seven was a magical number. It's the number of completion. Eight's the number of new beginnings. But he says seven times? And Jesus looked at him and said, "I don't say seven times. I say seventy times seven." And some of you have done the math and you think, "Okay, 490 times you're toast." That's not what he's saying.

It's a Hebrewism for infinity. As often as your brother sins against you and asks for your forgiveness. Now, even if they don't ask for your forgiveness, you're to love them, but when they ask for your forgiveness, then you are to forgive them. For God so loved the world. He loves every person out there that hates him.

That he gave his only begotten Son—it's an action word, it's a sacrificial word—that whosoever would put their faith in him would not perish but have age-abiding life. And now he says this is the commandment: that you put your faith in Christ and you love one another.

"And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him." So there's this intimate personal relationship. "And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he has given us." And what does the Spirit produce in us? What is the fruit of it? Love.

Listen, people are going to hurt you. That's just the way it works. Jesus said in this life, you're going to have trouble. How many have had any of that? You know, in this life, people are going to betray you, people are going to hurt you, they're going to wound you. They're just going to do it because they're just people.

And I want to have the incurable disease to believe if they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't do it. And I am not responsible, nor will I stand before God someday and give an account for what you do or what others do. Not even for what my wife does or my children do.

When we stand before the Lord, it's going to be an individual thing. And I am going to be responsible for what I do. And Jesus calls me to act like him. And Jesus said, "I loved you when you were dead in your trespasses and sins. I loved you when you were crucifying me and I sacrificed myself for you."

And now I'm asking you to love as I love. What does that look like, pastor? It looks just like that: that you love, love everybody. God doesn't hate the world. He doesn't hate Muslims, he doesn't hate terrorists, he doesn't hate drug addicts, he doesn't hate prostitutes. He loves them. They're just messed up like we were.

And they need to be born of the Spirit. They need a new life. We say "get a life," that's what they need: they need to get a life—the real life. Amen? But we love them and we pray for them. Now when they become believers and they're in the body of Christ and they hurt you, the Bible says mark those who sow discord, avoid them.

Doesn't say hate them. It just says avoid them because they don't serve the Lord and because bad company can corrupt good morals. You have to be careful who you hang around. That's Chapter 4, because in Chapter 4 he's going to tell us, "Okay, now that you're loving, don't be naive. Test the spirits."

In John Chapter 2, Jesus said he didn't commit himself to a lot of people because he knew what was in them. You have to be careful still, even in the body of Christ, because just because someone's born of the Spirit doesn't mean that they're walking the way they should walk and they can still hurt you.

How many have ever picked up a cute little baby and, "Oh, you're so cute," and you do—babies will reduce you to a moron. And you start talking like, "Goo-goo, ga-ga," and they bop you with their toy right beside the head. Do you slam the baby on the ground and say, "Good enough for you?" No, you realize it's just a baby. They're cute.

You see, if they weren't cute, you wouldn't keep them. But they're cute and you love them, and love covers a multitude of personal offenses. So when they bop you with their little rattle—how many have been bopped with rattles over the years? Or had something hurled at you? Or even worse than that, they wait. They wait to test the capacity of the diaper until you're holding them in public.

You know what I'm talking about. And you love them because you know that if they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't. This then is the message: that you should have fellowship with the Father. Because if you do, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you of all your sins. This then is the message: because you have relationship with the Father, you ought to love one another.

What does that look like? Even as I have loved you. Oh. And you can spend a lifetime working on that. Amen? But that's the goal, isn't it? That's the goal. So turn to your neighbor—and this will help me with marriage counseling—and tell them, "I love you like Christ loves you." Turn to your neighbor, tell them that. We're not eating turkey until you do.

You know, I can genuinely say to you this morning, and I mean it, I do love you guys. You say, "Well, those are just words. How come you don't send me any cards?" Well, I stand here every Monday, every Wednesday, and every Sunday morning, having been throttled by the wicked one constantly, and do what I'm supposed to do for you because I love you.

30 years in February I've walked up to this pulpit and fed you. Not because I have to. Not because I don't have other options and other churches haven't called me and said, "Would you come and pastor our church?" Because they have. I've had people tell me it's ridiculous that you should be pastoring a church in a small town like you are. I don't think it's ridiculous at all. I do it because I genuinely love you guys. And it's a privilege to serve you.

And so Jesus would say, so do the same. Amen? Let's stand. Let's get the worship team back up. I don't want them to overcook those turkeys, man. Every Thanksgiving we would go up and we would rent the Veterans Hall, and the last time we were able to do it, we did 16 turkeys. And we fried them, we barbecued them, we baked them, and there was nothing left but bones.

There was that many kids came. 16 turkeys with all of the fixings. And I remember one of them we overcooked. It was deep-fried turkey jerky. Nobody wanted—I took what was left of that thing home. I ate on that thing and gnawed on that thing and chewed on that thing for the whole next week. And it was good. It was completely dried out, but I liked it.

But we don't want that for you today. We don't want turkey jerky, so let's pray, sing the last song, and then I'll bless the food. Now listen, before we eat, we're going to have the baptism. How many people are here to be baptized this morning? One, two, just two people? Okay, good. That's great. I saw another hand, maybe three. Anyway, so we'll do the baptism first and then we'll eat, so they can change their clothes and join with us, okay?

Father, we thank you this morning that you loved us when we were dead in trespasses and sin. You loved us so much that you gave, you sacrificed your Son to be the one who would remove, not cover, but remove our sin so we could be brought back into fellowship with you.

And now that we're brought back into fellowship with you, you ask us—so ought, so ought, you are obligated to love one another even as I have loved you. Help us to do that, Lord. We know it's supernatural, we know we can't do it in our own strength. But you can do it in us, you can do it through us. And we pray that you would, in Christ's name. And all God's kids would say, amen.