I would say is an unending love. God's love, I believe, is an unchanging love. And here's one you're familiar with. God's love is an unconditional love. God's love is an unconditional love. And so God doesn't wait until we get right with Him to love us. He already loves us. Can I have an amen, please? He loves us. And even though we may never turn our love towards Him, we would go into eternity, we would go into a Christless hell, and the truth would still be that God loved us the whole time. God loved His disciples even though they had shortcomings. God loved them because He knew who they were. He knew what was in the heart of man. He didn't need man to testify of Him because He already knew what was in the heart of man. But God's love was an unconditional love. And one of my favorite verses to consider when you think about that is Romans chapter 5 and verse number 8. But God commendeth, that word commendeth being showed, but God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And there's a whole lot there to chew off and to begin to digest, but just the fact that we're sinners means this, that we have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We don't measure up. We can't even approach God in our sinful condition. Isn't that right, saints? Nod your heads. You cannot. You cannot approach God in your sinful state, in your lost condition, in your unredeemed life. You have to approach God as a sinner in need of a Savior. We come to Him by grace and mercy and He saves our soul. But God loved us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. You know what sinners are, don't you? Sinners are at enmity with God. You go back and you begin to say the word enmity? The word enmity in its simplest definition means this. You are an enemy of God, but God loved you anyway. How good are you about loving your enemies? I say what? I'm not so good at it. Can I have some help this morning? But God loved us while we were at enmity with Him. And when you begin to study the word enmity a little bit further, it means a violent hostility. God loved us even though when we were yet sinners we were at a violent hostility towards God. You didn't recognize it possibly. You didn't even know it. Some of you were. Some of you recognized it. And you cried out and cursed God and all those things. And He saved you still nonetheless. Amen. But I'm telling you this. God's love is an unconditional love. So it's unending. It's unchanging. And it's unconditional. Are we in agreement so far? That's God's love. And we're reminded over and over through the canyon of scripture about the power, about the beauty, about the majesty of God's love. God's love, God, though, has also taught us how to love. He is willing to help us to love. He says, the Bible says, God is love. The Bible says this, that God's so loved. The Bible says that, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Or while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God commended his love in that way. But God has also helped us to love. And I want to say this, and I'm not going to be careful, and I'm not going to apologize, is that you really don't know how to love until you know God. I mean in a biblical way. You really can't understand love until you know God. And you can go back to the literature kind of love, and the movie star kind of love, and the sitcom kind of love, and maybe the tribal knowledge sort of love, but you really can't know how to love until you know God. And God, by His power, and by His grace, and by His hand of mercy, has agreed to show us, or to help us, to know how to love, to learn how to love. He does it by giving us the Holy Spirit. Romans 5, verse 5. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. And so if you're here this morning, and you are saved, the moment you got saved, the Holy Spirit moved into your soul, He took up residence, And also what happened there, you don't recognize it when you get saved, and you don't realize it when you get saved for a very long time sometimes, is that the love of God was spread abroad. in your heart by the Holy Spirit of God. That's what happens when we come to know Him, when we enter into a relationship with Him. And so we know this is true. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Hey, Jeff, you can go ahead and turn the AC on here. People are starting to fan themselves. I don't want anybody falling out during church day, okay? All right. Another way that God teaches us is here in 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 9. But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you. Paul's writing a letter to the church of Thessalonica and he said, I don't need to explain brotherly love to you because this is what he says, for ye yourselves are taught of who? of God to love one another. And so when God is working, and when the line of communication is open, and the fellowship between you and God is sweet, and the relationship between you and God is right, He can teach you to love your fellow brother. He can teach you to love your fellow man if you allow yourself to go there. Can I have some help, please? And so God is willing to help us to love. He's willing to teach us to love. He would like to get us alone and speak to us through His Word and by the power of His Spirit of what it means to love one another. And again, this morning's thought is this, to continue in the love of God. Now, think about this. Unending, unchanging, unconditional love. I'm calling it an impossibility in our human frame. Now, I've heard some people talk about how they love their children or their spouse with an unconditional love, but I've been a pastor long enough to realize this, there's conditions. No, no, no, there's conditions. Not everybody can measure up to Hosea and live the life he lived with Gomer. That's a miraculous work of grace right there. To me, it's beyond the bounds of human comprehension in most cases. And so, I might give you a little bit of the unconditional love, but you won't sell me on your love being unchanging. I know your love has changed. I hope your love has matured over the years. No, no, I hope your love has grown through the years. I hope your love has become sweeter over the ages. You should want your love to change. Somebody help me today. Right. In unending, we know this, when we close our eyes in death, of course, and then that love is over. Of course, now, today, who knows when love might end, according to today's standards. Somebody help me there, too. I mean, if we really had unending love, I don't think we would see near the abortions or divorces we see today. Somebody help me there. Come on. I don't want to get political today, but that is Bible right there. Amen? Sure. You know, we're fearfully and wonderfully made by God. Amen. God believes in the sanctity of life whether we do or not. And so, you know, to say that we have unending, unchanging, unconditional love would be a very prideful statement for us to make. And so I'm going to call it a human impossibility this morning. If you want to bicker with me, you can bicker with me at the door later. Somebody say amen to that. Okay. The one aspect that I see from our text, we're going to get there in just a moment. The one aspect of God's love that we can best demonstrate is God's self-sacrificing love. Let's look at this real quick again in our text in John chapter 15 in verse number 9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. Verse number 10, if ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Verse 12, this is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. And then he gives us an example here of what that means. Verse 13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. There's no greater love than that. Jesus said there's no greater love than a man willing to lay down his life for his friends. Of course, I believe he's talking about and referring to, referencing his time he's going to hang on the cross of Calvary and suffer the excruciating events of that day on Calvary for our sins, for my sin and for your sin this morning. Amen. But there's no greater love than that, than the self-sacrificing kind of love. And we know that God's love is self-sacrificing. He gave us His only begotten Son. Now they're getting cold, Jeff. Okay. Yeah. I know you're independent, but get out of here, please. I understand that. I know that for a fact. But we're gonna go ahead and just go with it. Just turn it off, Jeff, and we'll see what happens, okay? All right. So, you know, God's love is a self-sacrificing love. He gave Himself for our sins. Right? And we can be self-sacrificing in our love, one for another. You know, and I've heard, you know, and I'm not trying to pick on anybody, and if this gets on your toes, I'm not trying to hurt you, but people said this, well, I would take a bullet for my wife. That's great, that's a one-time sacrifice, can I have an amen? What about a life of sacrifice? No, no, no, what are you willing to give up? to show your love one to another. You know, this is so true. There are spouses in our Christian homes in America today who are starving for the other spouse to show some sacrificial love. to give up some things, some time, some hobbies, some stuff, some pride. In order to really fulfill that verse that says, husbands love your wives. How much? Like how Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's pretty intense, amen? But we need to be a self-sacrificing people if we're going to be able to continue in the love of God. Because I don't think we're going to be very good at unchanging love or unending love or unconditional love, but we could possibly begin to take on to our life this form of sacrificial love, of giving up something for our spouses, of giving up something for our friends, of giving up something for one another, of giving up something for our church family, or giving up something for those who are lost and undone and who desperately need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, I do believe we can begin to approach this idea of self-sacrificing love. Greater love, the Bible says, hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Over in the book of I John, in chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. I mean, how is it that we could begin to bring God's love into view? Well, we look at the cross of Calvary. We look at Jesus Christ who gave up the ghost, who suffered again, excruciating anguish and torment, there on the hill called Golgotha. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? This is what I've learned. I'm not always keenly aware of when I'm continuing in God's love. But follow me. I'm always keenly aware when I'm not. I'm pretty keenly aware when I shut up my bowels of compassion. Oh, what's that look like, pastor? I'm done. Of course, you've never said that because you're all pious Baptists, but I've said that before. I've been done. I've been done with friends. I've been done with family. I've been done with church members. Somebody help me this morning. And that is not continuing in the love of God. And that ought to convict you to the depths of your soul if you want to call yourself a Christian and call yourself walking in God's love and claiming to continue in God's love if you've ever been that short of grace and mercy and say, you know what, I'm done. She's done. She's out. kick him to the curb, right? Is that what they're saying today? Is that what they're saying today, Marcus? I don't know what they're saying today. So anyway, that was maybe when I was a kid, they said those kind of things. But anyway, you know, why do we have to go there? Not because we're emotional, because we still have the old nature. We're still dealing with a lot of things down in the depths of our soul. And so we've got to take the Bible into consideration. We have to let the Holy Spirit speak and not let our emotions get the best of us. Not let our tempers take control. Somebody help me. and learn to love because God said, I can teach you to love. I can teach you to love. I can teach you to be a self-sacrificing child of God. You know, there's been times when, how would I say this without offending everybody in church? Oh, well, I'll just go ahead and offend everybody in church. Just because you're a part of Liberty Baptist Church doesn't mean that it's easy to love you equally as your pastor. I'm just being honest with you this morning. I'm being transparent with you this morning. Well, you're our pastor. Don't you love us all the same? I mean, I want to, but I don't think I can be honest and say, no, I don't. Some of you I don't even know yet. You know what I'm saying? And so let's just take that example and say, well, if my pastor's willing to be transparent like that, can I take a look at my own life? And say, yeah, I ought to look at my own life, too. and see whether or not I'm willing to love each other, love one another equally or not. I tell you what, tonight we're going to get in James chapter 2, and James chapter 2 just kind of T-bones this message right here. It's like you're going to get it from both sides tonight if you come back tonight and hear what's going to happen there. But, you know, we are humans, we are frail, we are but feeble frames of dust, and we need God's power to teach us how to love with sacrifice and to continue in the love of God. We do. Obedience is the expression of our love for God. No, obedience is the expression of our love for God. Ye are my friends, comma, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Did you say that Jesus' friendship has a condition attached to it? Not everybody gets to call Jesus friend. Everybody does in the 21st century. Everybody's Jesus friend. Kumbaya, right? Jesus said no. He said, you're my friend if you do whatsoever I command you. And so obedience is the perfect manifestation of God's love in our lives. Well, what do we obey? Well, the Scriptures. God's commands for us. His commandments aren't grievous. They're good for us. They're made to spur growth, to spur activity down in our soul. He might, through His commands, be teaching us how to love. Woe! No, He might through His commandments be teaching you, believer, how to love. He might through His commands be teaching you how to sacrifice. He may through His commands be teaching you a lesson in obedience. We have to be open to God's Word. Because He calls us friends if you do whatsoever I command you. And again, that's shown by our obedience to the Word of God. Jude 21, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Well, what'd you learn in church today? Well, pastor today, he wants to continue. Continue what? I don't know. It sounds like he wants us to keep things just how they were. Well, in many cases, I do. I want to keep our doctrine the same. I want to keep our music the same. I want to keep our Bible the same. I want to keep our standards the same. I want to keep our convictions the same. Amen. And I want you to learn to continue in God's love. Right? And then once you can continue, the Jew says, now you can keep yourself in God's love. Amen? Sure. But you've got to learn to continue first. And continuing is going to be some time you're going to have to sacrifice to give some things up you don't want to give up. And listen to me. And you're going to have to obey when it's hard to obey. You know, I raised two kids, you know, great kids, love them both. Jillian's my favorite daughter and Marcus is my favorite son. So, I mean, it's real simple that way. And, you know, Jillian was, she was easier to raise than Marcus was because she found it easier to obey than to buck. And Marcus found it more enjoyable to buck than to obey. It's just human nature, right? Right? But he's learning, he's growing up, he's 25, he'll be 26 years old pretty soon. He's learning that it's easier to obey than to buck now. Like if you want to keep a job. Like if you want to stay in a relationship. Am I right? I mean, all these things are true. And so you have to learn to give up some things in order to obey some things. To continue in the love of God. I told this story four years ago, but it's fresh in my mind this morning. I want to share it with you today. That's a little girl who was shopping with her mom in Walmart, you know. She was five or six years old. Just a bouncy little, like Sophia, you know, with the little blonde curls that kind of bounce when she walks and everything. Polite little thing. And they were getting ready to check out. You know how Walmart does. Checkouts are advertising to like seven and below. You know, it's the bling, it's the baubles, all the different things over there. This little girl, Jenny, she got her eyes on a little box of dime store pearls, you know. She said, oh, mama, look at that beautiful pearl necklace. I'd love to have that necklace, you know. So, mama picked it up, looked at it. She goes, oh, it's just $4.95. That's a lot of money for a... five-year-old girl to make up and to, you know, pay for. She said, you're going to have to do extra chores. You're going to have to, you know, help out around the house more than you have been. Things of this nature. And she said, oh, Mom, I will. I want those pearls more than anything. So Mom paid for them and got them. And Jenny wore those pearls everywhere. They were the talk of the kindergarten class because Jenny had pearls. Everybody would say, ooh. Yeah, Jenny had pearls, she used them for show and tell and all those things. She played with them in the playground. Mama said, don't wear them in the bathtub, it'll turn your neck green, right? Well, kind of those kind of pearls. One day her daddy came up to her room to tuck her into bed. She was kind of laying there and they was, read a story and things about like that. He tucked her in, kissed her goodnight every night. He said, Jenny, can I have your pearls? She said, why, Daddy? He said, Jenny, do you love me? Oh, Daddy, you know I love you. Well, then give me your pearls. Daddy, not my pearls. Not my pearls. You can have my new doll, though, with the yellow blanket. You can have her. She's my favorite. You can have her. He said, that's okay, Jenny. He walked away. He tried the same thing again about a month later. Jenny, do you love me? Oh, Daddy, don't be silly. You know I love you. Can I have your pearls? Oh, daddy, not my pearls, anything but my pearls. You can have my new pony, a little, she's a little, those little pink ponies, you know, with the hair you can brush and comb and make all kind of stuff with, my pretty, my little pony, my pretty pony, whatever it's called. You can have her, she's my favorite toy right now. It's okay, Jenny, you walked away. You get your good night. Try it again a month later. And he walked in, and this little girl was already laying there in bed, and she was already starting to cry. And her lip was already quivering. And she reached out from her blanket, and she pulled out her pearls. She said, here, Daddy, I do love you. Here's my pearls. And at that same moment, her daddy reached into his pocket. He pulled out this beautiful jewelry box, opened it up with brand new, genuine pearls, and placed them around his daughter's neck, just waiting for his little girl to give away something, to be obedient, so he could give her the real thing. The real thing. Continue in God's love. He's got something real for us. He's got something big for us and something blessed for us. If we'll simply let go of the dime store junk and go after the real blessings of God. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. You know, I've been talking about continue all morning long. But if you're not saved this morning, you're not ready to continue yet. Because you haven't made that first step of faith towards Christ and trusted Him to be your Savior. If you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, or if you're dealing with a little bit of uncertainty in your mind about knowing Christ as your Savior, today's January 1, 2017, what a great day to be introduced to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ wants to save you this morning. He will save this morning. If you call upon Him and ask Him to save you from your sins, He will save your soul forever and ever. He will never let you go. Maybe you do know Him as your Savior this morning. But this lesson on continuing God's love kind of came into your kitchen, kind of got on your toes a little bit. That's the Word of God's designed to do. It's designed to get our attention, to change us, and to make us, and to mold us into what God wants us to be. And if we're really going to get on board with God, and we're really going to walk with God, He's going to require we let some things go. He's going to require that we obey some hard commands. But I can tell you, it will be worth it all when we see Christ. There's nothing like walking with Him. There's nothing like working for Him. There's nothing like serving Him and being able to every night pill your head and know you are the friend of Christ. If God has spoken to you this morning, I pray you'll take time and speak back to Him. You can come up here and make use of these steps as an altar this morning. You can kneel down right where you are or just stand where you are and just talk to God for a little bit this morning if He spoke to you. But if you're here and you don't know Christ as your Savior, I'm inviting you as the music begins to play to step out and come and let us take the Word of God and show you more about God's wonderful gift of salvation. Brother Russ. Have you any room for Jesus?