and we'll save some time for some baptizing here after our service. Galatians chapter 5, I've been working and learning how to work with some PowerPoints, and we'll see how this goes tonight. Galatians chapter 5, we're going to deal with walking with love, and we're going to deal with the first point is the meaning, the meaning of love, right from Scripture. And so Galatians chapter five, look with me at verse 21, I'm sorry, verse 22 and 23. And it says here, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. Heavenly Father, we bow before you tonight and we thank you for the specials. And Father, we think about the prayer petition and those that we've, think about and pray about and concern for. And we lift those names and situations up before you. And Father, we know that you answer prayer and we want to pray and ask you, Father, for your convenience and for your power and your strength in these situations. And Father, we thank you for just having that access, having access right to the throne of grace tonight. Be with those that are watching and those that are listening, but especially those that have come out. And I thank you for their faithfulness. And Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would work in all of our hearts tonight through your word. And I pray that we would get something that would teach us, that would cause us to grow more for you and have more of a love for you, not only for you, but for Father, for one another and for your word. And we're thankful for all the blessings you've given us. Be with our evening tonight, be with this message. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. We ask these things in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. So here in Galatians, we've kind of followed Galatians. There's been heavy parts of Galatians, meaning speaking of the Apostle Paul breaking down the arguments using the Old Testament, trying to realign the Galatian churches back so their doctrine is centered and correct. and on top and on point with what he had first delivered to the churches of Galatia. And so we've kind of worked our way through that. Now he begins to encourage them to grow. And so this is where we're at tonight. In verses 19 now, we didn't read them, but we looked at them last week. In verses 19, verse 20, and verse 21, we've seen the works of the flesh. And that we see what that produces. And he names a whole list of those. And we looked at some of the definitions to these words. And it's not a bad study on your own or just kind of at home. Look these words up and get a good working definition for the words that the Apostle Paul used here. So let me say this, dealing with verses 22 and 23 and dealing with the first one that we find in the fruit is love. The fruit of the spirit is the fruit that comes from God himself. It is this fruit that illustrates that we connect to the vine. It illustrates our connection to the vine. In John chapter 15, verses one through five speaks of that. He says, you are of the vine, and you can't do any work unless you're connected to the vine, and Christ is the vine. Matter of fact, let me go over there. I'm going to misquote it, and I need to say the whole five verses here. John chapter 15 is where I'm headed. And if you wanna turn over there with me, John chapter 15 in verse one, I am the true vine, he says, and my father is the husband, and every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth much fruit. Now, the purging is kinda sometimes hard to go through, but God allows that dross, if you're thinking of silver, gold, and precious, he allows that dross to come up, and he cleans it, he purges you and I. And here, likened to a branch, he's going to purge it, he's gonna purge it, cut it back, prune it back, so it may bring forth more fruit, all right? And so verse three, now you are clean through the word, that is his motor method of purging, purging us through the word, the word of God, which I have spoken unto you, there it is. Verse four, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. Basically, what he's saying there in a teaching context is if you're not abiding in the Holy Spirit, abiding in God, not speaking of salvation, we're talking about your conduct, bearing fruit. If you don't have a good relationship with God, you won't be bearing the right kind of fruit, you'll be with the works of the flesh, you're only going to do one, you're going to either bear fruit are going to have the works of the flesh. And this can take this can take place in Christians lives, setting right in church. All right. So you could be sitting in church but not wanting to bear forth fruit for God. And so he's saying here, look, you want to bear fruit, I want you to bear fruit. Verse five, I am the vine, ye are the branches. Make sure he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. And so this is what he's stating here and it illustrates to the Christian believer the fruit of the Spirit is contrasted with the deeds of the flesh. Now the deeds of the flesh are done by a person's own efforts, not done by the Spirit of God. And this can take place whether he is saved or unsaved. Sometimes people say, well, if you're saved, you won't produce those works of the flesh. That is contrary. If you're not walking in the spirit, you're not yielded to the Holy Spirit, you're going to produce the works of the flesh. That's an automatic. You say, how do you know that? Because we live in this vessel, this earthen vessel, this flesh, and it is prone to sin. It's prone to wonder. and that deals with our relationship with God as saved people. Unsaved people, they're going to go about just the flesh. And so we see here whether you're saved or unsaved, however, the fruit of the Spirit, let me say this, is produced by God's own Spirit and only in the lives of those who belong to Him through the faith through the faith of Jesus Christ, Galatians 2.20. Remember, we keep quoting it. He said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And so that faith, that's the faith that we use to operate in our Christian life, all right? So we're not speaking of necessarily your standing, that's your salvation. We're speaking of your state. Your relationship, that's your horizontal relationship, all right? And so if you're not operating in the Holy Spirit, you're not going to have the fruit of the Spirit. And so this is what Paul's trying to teach these Galatian people so they can learn. They have something to stand on. They know what direction to go in, and they know what to do. why they're in mode of moving forward. And so let's get into this. So our first point, as you'll see on our PowerPoint thing, is the meaning of love. And we see defined in scriptures. Now, I am not a Greek theologian. I'm not a person, an individual, a student of the Word of God. I go to the Greek. I'll look at the Greek. Some of it I understand. I have a friend, a good friend, William E. Y. Sislo. Sometimes he might watch. And I bring his name up because he was a professor at Ball State University. And I've known him for years, probably 20 some years, and he's a Koine Greek and Latin professor. And so a lot of the questions that I would have about Greek, I would run past him. is an amazing source of knowledge when it comes to the Greek, especially the Quine Greek, the basic Greek that these manuscripts are written in. So, Greek is not an authority for me. A lot of my friends and people I know, I don't fall out with them, they always say, well, in the Greek it says this, well, in the Greek it says that. That's fine. I speak English. I understand a little bit about the English language. And so we have an English Bible. So we'll use it as the precedent. That's why we say, well, we have to pick a version. What version is that? That's the AV, the authorized version. And so that's why we use that particular one. It gives us a platform or an authority. But looking at this, we see that there is, for love, there is an agape and a phylo. I'll get it right here. The agape is the one we're looking at here. It's a sacrificial love. So when you look at the love here, that's the one he's speaking of. And if you read this and you think, well, the love here, that's an emotional type, that's just an emotional type feeling that I have. That's not the one he's speaking of. This one here is the agape love, and he's speaking of love in action. He's speaking of John 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave. And so this is the love that we're going to look at tonight in the context. And so we see that the Bible defines it, God's love is everlasting. I like the verse, and I don't know if I have this one up here. I don't. But I want to go to Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. And Jeremiah is in the Old Testament. It's right after Isaiah. Jeremiah chapter 31. We'll set a platform here for this walking with love. Jeremiah 31 verse three, and he says, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And that everlasting love, you say, well, how long is that? That's everlasting. In God's eyes, it's gonna mean just that. It's simple, and we don't wanna complicate it no more than just what the definition or the sense of the verse gives us. Now, I want to use John chapter 13. We're in Galatians. We looked at Jeremiah. Now I wanna turn to St. John chapter 13. I don't steal this. I think I'm running some verses here. We'll get to 1 John here in a minute. John, St. John chapter 13, and he says this about this everlasting love in verse one. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the Father. And so this is the love that we're speaking of tonight. Christ, Jesus Christ, is that example for you and I, this type of love, and he gave. So we see in point number one, the meaning of love. Now let's run some verses down here. 1 John chapter three, 1 John chapter three. And I hope I have these verses in the right place, because you're looking at that screen, but there's nothing on my notes with those verses. I remember running them, So I don't know if I put them with my notes or not, but 1 John 3, verse 16. Let's look and see what it says here. He says, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hated you, we know that we have passed from death unto life, he says, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. So he's going to get into this meaning of love towards one another. The next one is 1 John 4, look right across the way. 4 in verse 16, and we know and we have known and believe the love that God hath. to us, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, in God, in him. You say, what love is that? Well, it's not the emotional love. God definitely gives you emotions, and he definitely gives you that part of emotions to feel loved or to be loved. And really, when you boil it down, I had an illustration, and I won't use the illustration, But there was an illustration about this. And a lot of times people confuse the emotional love with this sacrificial type love. And so we want to make sure that we are in the right context when we look at this. 1 Peter, let's move to 1 Peter to the left there. 1 Peter, and I'm moving a little quick now tonight on these verses. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 8. He says this, he says, and above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. You say, what is this charity? It doesn't say love. Charity is love in action. When you look the word charity up, it's gonna be connected with love, but it's gonna be connected with the right love, the love we're looking at tonight. And the greatest gift that is given to the church, and it was a stationary gift, There were multiple gifts given to the church early on. Some were non-stationary, means they would come on the scene. God used them to help pen and format the Bible and be signs to the nation of Israel. And then the other gifts were stationary gifts, and they're given and they stay, all right? And one of those stationary gifts that is still here today, that still is in operation, is the gift of charity. It's the greatest of all the gifts given to the church. And so you can read about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and it speaks of it, the love chapter. Actually, I think we're going to go there tonight. And let me get my PowerPoint thing click in here. And now our second point, let's look at this. We're going to see number two, the message of love, the message of love. And we're actually going to let's move to 1 Corinthians and take a look at this chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. First Corinthians chapter 13, we see something. God knows that in our relationships are more important than our accomplishments. Our relationships are more important than our accomplishments, and he challenges us to grow in his love, and it's the love of the agape. It's the action love, charity. All right, so we look here at 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Notice with me verse one, and we'll grab context when we move down to about verse eight. Starting with verse one, it says, though I speak with tongues, the tongues of men and of angels, and have not Say it with me. Charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, means it's of nothing. All right, verse two, and though I have the gift of prophecy and understood all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not. charity, I am nothing. Verse three, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, man, that's committed. That's not just involved, that's committed. All right. Kind of like the pig when it comes to breakfast. All right, he says, I give my body to be burned and have not, say with charity, it profiteth me nothing. All right, there's no profit to it, because there's not charity connected to it. Now watch verse four. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Verse five, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own. is not easily provoked. Thanketh no evil." This is adding meat to a skeleton of what charity should look like. So you can look at yourself, first of all, as the Bible tells us in Matthew, look at yourself and so you go down, doth not behave itself unseemly. Do I act out and act goofy and don't have myself checked? Well, if you do, then it's not charity. It's not of God. Doth not seek her own. I'm not always after myself or trying to please myself. are me first. It's Jesus first, other second, and then me last. And so you see, seeking not our own is not easily provoked. Are you an individual who's easily provoked? Snap on a moment. And you sometimes will take pride in, I've got just got that. That's not of God. and that's definitely not hooked with charity, all right? So we see this, thinketh no evil. How's your thinking? Like 1 Corinthians chapter, or 2 Corinthians chapter 10 speaks of our imagination, pulling down those strongholds that steps and marches, or tries to march your world and life in opposite step of God, in control of God, controlling your emotions and minds, and your imagination, so thinketh no evil. Verse six, rejoiceth not in iniquity. All right, now he says, he goes on, but rejoiceth in truth. Verse seven, beareth all things. I'll bear some things, but some of these other things you don't understand, I'm just not going to bear them. It's not charity, it's a work of the flesh or something else. It's not charity. All right, so as we look at ourself, beareth all things, believeth all things. I don't believe everything. If it comes from God or from the Word of God, we should, understanding that, keep in mind that it falls in line with 2 Timothy 2, rightly dividing the Word of God. You see what I'm saying? Rightly dividing. You understand the Bible. Hopeth all things. What kind of hope do we have? Our hope is sure, and it's found on the rock. The Lord Jesus Christ endureth all things. Well, I'll endure some things, but not all things. I'm not going to endure that person. I don't like that personality, or I don't like going through that situation. Well, he says here that charity endureth all things. All right, verse eight. Now here we go, let's get to our point. Charity never faileth, but whether there be, let's say it, prophecies, that's a non-stationary gift. Prophecy's gonna pass off the scene. They shall fail, whether there be tongues. There's another non-stationary gift. It was given, it was used, and guess what? It's gonna come back in to use in the end time, but it won't be with Christ. It won't be from the Lord. It'll be from a false Christ and a false Lord. He says the Antichrist steps on the scene to get everybody to believe him. He will come on the scenes with all power, signs, and lying wonders. He'll be able to work all nine of them. And so we see here, but he says, whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, knowledge is another one that's going to vanish away. They shall vanish away. So what is he saying there? He's teaching a lesson, but also teaching about charity. Charity never faileth. It's still here. And all of us should be given to that gift. So I just don't have the gift of charity. If you're saved in here tonight and you have the same Holy Spirit in you, you have the capability of producing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. There's no Christian exempt from this. There's a lot of times Christians think that they are and they're not. It's contrary to what the scripture teaches. So the second point, the message of love, and God knows this and he loves this, so we wanna see the helpfulness. So the message of love, the helpfulness of biblical love. Notice with me now verse four. Charity suffereth long in his kind. I'm still in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not, itself is not puffed up. So we see the helpfulness of biblical love. Here, Paul illustrates the nature of love. We see, number one, love is patient. It's slow to anger. And we see love practices being patient. The term suffering long is a reference to having patience with people, not necessarily yourself. Rarely is it just like we have a problem with ourself. It's other people. It's other individuals. Now, granted, I worked construction for many years, and not only construction, but mainly construction. There are some characters that I've worked around that I just kind of separated myself from, because I was going to spend the night in jail, if not five years in jail, if I did what needed to be done. There are characters out there you need to remove yourself from. You stick around them, and they just, there's something about them. And man, I'm telling you what, so that's the flesh, wants to creep in there and go to work. And so I understand there's individuals that are very hard to deal with or work with or along. And it takes a lot of charity. It takes a lot of long suffering. So here we're seeing that this patient, love is patient. We're learning that love is patient. So it's suffering long is a reference to having patience with people. Now let's look at Romans. I don't know if Romans is up there. We're just in 1 Corinthians. Let me give you Romans. Make sure I'm turning in the right direction to the left from Corinthians. Romans chapter 12. We're going to look at verse 7. Romans chapter 12. Let me get over there. Notice with me, I said 7. Look at verse 17. All right, speaking of situations and dealing with people, and here we go, here's what the Bible says. Verse 17, recompense no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. That verse right there, that principle, I'll call it a principle here, he says here in the last part, he says provide things honest in the sight of all men. There's been a many a time running a small business, there's been a lot of like, man, maybe if we don't say anything, we just kind of like slip it past them. Or maybe we're not just just by default, not listen, provide things honest in the sight of all men that is never come back to bite to bite me. And the only time it has interfered with me and interrupted and caused harm or damage is when I went the opposite of this advice right here, in providing things honest in the sight of all men. Be careful. And so here, verse 18, if it be possible. There's your loophole. If it be possible, that's the person where if you know you can't work with them, and it's just something's not gonna work, separate yourself. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you. See, there's not much. Charity's there, and I'm working on love, but man, this individual rubs, just the way this thing's going, it's hard. It's hard to keep my demeanor, my Christian demeanor about myself. He says here, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. All right, so there is a loophole there. Some men you won't be able to. All right, and some women. All right, so here he's saying helpfulness of the biblical love is love is patient. Now watch, secondly, love is kind. Just as patience will take, or if you please, endure anything from others, kindness will give anything to others. So not only is love patient, love is kind. To be kind means to be useful, serving, and gracious. That's kind. Not being useful, not willing to serve, not being gracious is unkind. Well, I thought it was just maybe a bad look on my face or not shaking your hand or something, that's unkind. It can be, that's kind of can be, but the definition and how the Bible is going to use it is being meaningful, being kind means being useful, being willing to serve and being gracious. Some of the characters that you look in a Christian when you want to work in ministry or work with other people, these are the attributes that you want. It's love, it's kind. I'm going to look at 1 Peter 3. We might have read this one already, I'm not for sure, but I'm going to turn over to 1 Peter 3. I might have already read this one, I'm not for sure. In verse eight, 1 Peter chapter three, verse eight. Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. So that verse will go with love is kind. So I love, I love God, but you don't love the brethren. The Bible simply says in 1 John that you don't really love God. Listen, listen very carefully. When people say, Christians, let me say that, rephrase that. When Christians say things, I don't believe everything I hear. I don't believe everything a Christian tells me. Not because I'm skeptic, because I know a lot of times we say things to make ourselves look good or look normal when really the actions of the person won't tell on itself. So when we say that we love God and we love the brethren, more than likely, one plus one is two, they love God. Christians who say they love God but have a problem with the brethren. There's a problem with the love for Christ. When you understand that relationship, that's why we call it a default relationship, that's why he's at the top of your priority list. If your relationship with God is right, you're not gonna have a problem with the brethren. If you got a problem with the brethren or the sistren, then you got a problem with God. When somebody, a Christian, has a problem with authority, man-given authority, it's not perfect, and you should already know this if you're a adult in here tonight, Man-made authority is not perfect. You should have that. Doesn't mean that you shouldn't follow it or obey it. But when you have a problem with authority in your life, human authority, then you have a problem with authority with God in your life. It doesn't contradict. So it's a simple little, it's kind of not psychology 101, but it's a simple little math how the Bible teaches it. So I know this, somebody has a problem with physical authority, human authority in their lives. They struggle with it, seem to negatively strike with authority in their life. They are negatively striking with authority as God being the ruler of their life. It doesn't go counter-addictive, all right? So love is that way. This aspect of love should characterize all of our relationships, starting in the home. It's an individual, we've been speaking individually and then kinda to people, but it should be in the home and to non-believers as well. All right, so it should be also to non-believers. So love is patient, love is kind. Then we see, secondly, we are looking at the helpfulness of biblical love. Now we're gonna look at the humility of love, the humility of love. Look at verse four again. We'll break this while we're in, well, I'm in 1 Peter. Go to 1 Corinthians 13, verse four. Let's break this down a little bit. Number one, it says here in verse four, love is not jealous. So this love that the Bible speaks of, it calls it charity. Charity is not jealous. Jealousy is wanting or envying something that somebody else has. And it could be as little as the shirt, the tie they're wearing, the shoes that they have. I love shoes, I love shirts, I love ties. Probably more than the average person. I love that stuff. Cars, I really like cars. But when it gets into an envious or jealousy over something that somebody else has and I envy, I want it, then I begin to act a certain way and it affects me, that's not charity, that's not God, that's a work of the flesh. But love is not jealous, love does not brag. You get around a Christian who all, basically every conversation comes back to them. Back to self. And you'll find that, let's say you have 20 conversations with the same individual over a period of three or four weeks, but you have 20 encounters you talk. And that individual, just about every time, ends up talking about themselves. There's something, there's a pattern to that. Be mindful of that. Charity does not brag on self, so be mindful of that. Somebody asked you about yourself, nothing wrong with that, but if that always loops back to self, what I'm doing, you can't get out of self mode or the self bubble, there's a breakdown with charity or loving your life for others. And so that breakdown, we wanna make sure that we can hedge it up and put it back together and be mindful that love does not brag on self. Love is not arrogant. Love is not arrogant. Man, that's one of the things that really stands out, arrogance, and it can come in many different ways or forms. Some of the stuff that I didn't pick up until I was a little bit older is what we call a shameful or bashful arrogance. Well, I'm just a sinner just like you are. Just cast themselves down. It's like, we're all sinners. The Bible tells us that. Don't brag in that fact that you're a sinner. We're all sinners. Bible still commands us to do certain things and live certain ways, get with it. And so you get a bashful or backwards type of this bragging or arrogancy. And you'll find that the flip of that coin will be, well, when I was lost, I lived like this, I did this and did that. And they'll take 20 minutes and tell you about all the nasty. And then it'll take about a quarter of a second to tell you about how they got saved. champion this lifestyle, how they used to live. Be mindful of that. It's not to be arrogant in that. You never see Paul. Paul was quick to get back to where he was, where he was converted. And from that point on, what Christ did with his life, not really before that, he focused on conversion after after conversion. All right, so we see love is not arrogant. We can be arrogant in many different ways. I just used a couple illustrations for that, but arrogancy can be in many different parts of our lives. All right, so we see the humility of love. Now we see the holiness of biblical love. Look at verse five, the holiness of biblical love. I'm still in 1 Corinthians 13, verse five. It says, doth not behave itself unseemly. Love does not behave unseemly. That means off-putting. Off-putting, if you're doing something, you know that it's rubbing somebody the wrong way or offending somebody, don't do it. If it's a redline issue, like a doctrine or something that you know you should be doing, then produce more love or compassion with it. But don't just go out of your way to rub somebody or a personality a wrong way just so you can. This is unseemly. And unseemly, when you look up, it goes even deeper. There's a lot involved in that behaving unseemly. But let's look at the next point in this holiness of biblical love in verse five. Here he says, love does not seek its own. So he says here, seeketh not her own. I think of Philippians, Philippians chapter two. I'm gonna move to the right. I'm gonna grab this verse for us. We'll watch the time now, Philippians chapter two. Notice with me verse four, Philippians 2.4. Look not every man on his own things. All right, I'm just worried about myself, I'm just worried about me. Well, it's not, it's just not about us. Understand, you might have some situation where you have to secure yourself first before you can help somebody else. I'm not speaking of those situations, I'm speaking of a generality of how do you conduct yourself? You're more worried about and concerned about others or just self? So more like selfishness is what I'm speaking of. Look at verse four. He says, so he says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. So he's teaching you how to minister in the mode of love. So love does not seek its own. And he says here, love is not easily provoked. Now, we were in 1 Peter, and I don't think these are up. I should have added these. 1 Peter, I wanna go to 1 Peter 2. I said, you're making me turn tonight, Brother Jeremiah. Well, we'll get, 1 Peter 2, we'll get through it. We need a little exercise here. 1 Peter 2, I'm gonna want verse 23, and here's what he says. Who, when he was reviled, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that indeed he was at the hour before the crucifixion, it says, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. means, you know, he didn't, like, when he turned the cheek, they smacked him, beat him, whipped him. He didn't try to do that to them because it wasn't the right setting. Peter tried. Peter was of that mode. Peter was of that mindset and heart that he was going to defend Christ. That's why he swung the sword and hit the guy's ear. He's probably going for his head, more than likely. So he was like, let's fight, let's do this. They want to fight, let's fight. But Christ said, no, you don't know what spirit you're of. Put the sword up. This is my hour, this is my time. So he said he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. It wasn't the time to strike back. Our first reaction, if your first reaction is strike back, That's flesh, you're in more mode of flesh, and you gotta dial that back, get in the spirit. All right, so he says, love is not easily provoked. We looked at 1 Peter. Love does not arbor evil. You're either a scorekeeper, you're either a scorekeeper or a grace giver. I'm friends and know people who they are scorekeepers. They can go all the way back through the life, even when they were in their teens, even before that. And they'll tell you about situations that they ain't ever gonna let go of, because they're holding on to it. Their heart is so centered around what happened to them and what they experienced. And it's like, my goodness, they're a scorekeeper. And they'll go right through their life hitting those points when that fires in their life. Or you can be a scorekeeper or you can be a grace giver. That's what God is. God extended grace even when we were yet in our sins. Christ died for the ungodly. And so we see here that love does not harbor evil. All right, so let's get to our third point. Let me fire this back up here. and we'll look at our third point tonight. So we see the manifestation of biblical love. Our love is displayed through, you guessed it, giving. Our love is displayed through giving. Number one, I wanna say this, give your time. Tonight, you have given your time. You say, oh man, you don't understand, my day has run like 100 mile an hour. I've done this, I've done that, I've been involved in that, and yeah, another hour or so, you're gonna wanna go to sleep. and if your mind will wind down enough for you to get some sleep. And we all naturally will do that. And I thank you for your faithfulness, but most importantly, before God. God's the one that looks at that, and there's some that wanna be here that are unable to be here. I understand that, God knows that as well. But give your time, give your time first of all to God. Give your time to God. He shouldn't get the leftovers. He shouldn't get the second part of your hours or your day. I understand our service is in the evening because of work and you know how the day unfolds schedule-wise. But give your time. Be mindful that you're giving your time. Give your communication. 1 Peter, we were in 1 Peter. I'm really tearing up 1 Peter tonight. I'm gonna go back to 1 Peter and I'm gonna look at, actually that's the same verse we just read. 1 Peter chapter three is the one in verse eight. I just read this. Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. You say, what is this communication? You're communicating, look at these words there. He says, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, loving, being pitiful, having pitifulness, or being courteous. That's communicating the right principles. If you're not communicating these things, having compassion, having patience, or being courteous, then there's something else you're communicating. And people are like, yeah, that's right, I've got this bad attitude, and I just want you to know that I'm having a bad day. You're trying to control a situation with your emotions. It's not gonna go far. It's not deep, it's shallow, it's of the devil, and it's definitely not of God. Communicate love. Communicate love. Give your communication the way God's mode is, all right? And so we see not only communicating or giving your communication, but give your forgiveness. Now watch this, this is harder. This is the bigger pill to swallow, if you please. I'm gonna move to the right to 1 John. 1 John, I don't know if they're there. Yep, they are. 1 John 4 in verse 20. 1 John 4 in verse 20, if I can get there here. 1 John 4, 20, 21. He says this, if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? You know, just kind of like pound right on top of the barrel head. That's a good argument or a good analogy of what God is saying here. Look, if you can't love the brother that you see or the sister you see, yet you saying you love God whom you haven't seen, you know that doesn't make sense, right? You know, you're using the weak part of your mind to come up with that type of an argument. This is not gonna fly, it's not gonna get off the ground. People think, Christians, let me go back, Christians, Christians think that does, that flies. Yeah, I can hate this person, not like that person, and yet I love God. No, you don't. Love God and you'll love your brothers and sister. And so you wanna look at those areas in your life that need help. Those will be areas that you wanna pin, it's you and God. You know, well, that's with that person. It's not with that person, it's with you and God dealing with the situation. Take care of you and God first. So give your forgiveness. You're gonna have to forgive as Christ did. And there's a number of verses right here in 1 John. For the sake of time, let me say this on my sub-point. God's love was displayed through giving. Now, we've been walking our way, kind of short, simple messages on Sunday morning. dealing with St. John. We looked at St. John chapter 1. We looked at St. John chapter 2 and these points that were in God's ministry. And we looked at John chapter 3. John chapter 3 is where Nicodemus, he introduces the new birth, born again. And we looked at a religious man who thought he knew about God. But he didn't. And God says, look, you must be born again. And Nicodemus got confused about getting back into his mother and being birthed that way. He was really confused. And Christ says, no, you're born of the flesh. You're born of water. You're born of the Spirit. You've got to be born of the Spirit. You must be born of the Spirit. And he says, well, how is these things so? And so Christ begins to deal with that question in John chapter three. And when you look at verse 16, John three, verse 16, for God so loved the world, he's telling Nicodemus this, he's laying this out to Nicodemus and he's listening. Now, Nicodemus was a smart man. because they believe he heeded what God said. He says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now verse 17, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world. Well, I thought that's why he come. No, he didn't. He come to die for the world. Watch, but that the world through him might be saved. God, the God that created heaven and the earth, that give us the Bible, he's telling you we've got a problem. And this problem is that everybody, because they're sinners, is dying. And when they die, they're not going to heaven, they're going to hell. So there's a problem with mankind. And you need a redeemer, you need a sacrifice for your sins. You say, well, why would we need that? Because that's what God set up originally. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. There has to be a blood sacrifice. That's why he sent his only begotten Son down. Nicodemus is picking this up now. Okay, you gotta be born spiritually. How do you get born spiritually? He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You gotta believe in the name of Jesus. You realize that you're a sinner and you need salvation. It's very simple. You say, well, I need it a little bit more simpler than that. Romans chapter 10 is the best place I can take ya. There's a slew of places, but Romans 10 is where it just kinda separates this thought of misconception of salvation. Romans chapter 10. Now watch this love, God's love displayed, and it's through giving. And he says this, because I gave my only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The question we're answering is how do I believe? How's this happen? Romans chapter 10, verse nine. That if thou, what's your name? Put your name in there. That if Jeremiah shalt confess with his mouth who, The Lord Jesus. Well, I thought it'd be the church. You gotta confess the church. You gotta be joined to a church. Didn't say that. The Bible doesn't teach that. Religion will teach you that. False teachers will teach you that. That's not what the Bible teaches. It says here, with your mouth, you're gonna confess that the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ is Lord, and shall believe in thine heart. Well, Jeremiah, that's me, by the way. Do you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Yes, I do. He says here that believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Do you believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead? Yes, I do. All right, he says, thou shalt be saved. Well, I need it a little bit clearer than that. Look at verse 13. For whosoever, not just Jeremiah, not just whoever your name is, but for whosoever shall call, you gotta call. How do you do that? You do it with your heart, you do it with your mouth. It's that simple. I thought I had to join the church. I thought I had to get baptized. I thought I had to take the sacraments. I thought I had to give money. I thought I had to be a good person. Now, religion's got that bumped up in your heart and head, and it's wrong. It's contrary to what the Bible's telling you right here. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's your answer to the question. You say, did Nicodemus believe and accept? I believe he did. He was instrumental when Christ did go to the cross. And he died, he was instrumental in begging that body, getting that body put in the grave. And so we see more about Nicodemus a little bit about him, but he accepted Christ. And you say, what about the thief on the cross? He didn't do any good deeds. He wasn't a member of no church. He didn't get baptized. There's a whole lot he didn't do. And what did God tell him? He didn't even, here's the words he used, the Bible's recorded. He said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord said this, he says, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. You say, well, man, he didn't get to join no church. He didn't get the whole lot of stuff. No. That's because God makes the rules, especially when it comes to salvation, and it's by believing in the name of his son. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and I believe that God raised him from the dead. I'm a sinner. I need to be saved. Here's what I said when I was five years old, 1982, down in Lawrenceburg, a little part east of Lawrenceburg. On an evening, I said, Lord, will you save me? Please save me. I'm a sinner. That's all I said. I didn't write the words down. You can if you want, whatever. Put the date down. I didn't have the date. I know it was in 1982 sometime. Listen, tonight, walk with love. Walk with love. That's what the Lord is telling the Christians to do. And you want to know why the world calls Christians hypocrites? It's because we don't walk with love. We don't walk with love. Simply put, we're hypocrites. We say we love God. And we're good at that. We've got that one down. I can act it out if I wanted to act it out. I could do all kinds of stuff up here to try to convince you that I love God. But when I hit those doors out there tonight and walk out into the world, what am I? Yeah, that's why Christians are pegged with hypocrisy or hypocrites, because we don't live what the Bible tells us to be and to do as Christians now, as Christians. So tonight, you say, well, I don't even know if I'm a Christian. I don't know if I've done Romans 10, 9, and 10. Tonight is your lucky night. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you. It's very simple. You can stand right where you're at and ask Jesus Christ to come in your heart. You don't have to do anything special. You don't have to shake my hand, but know that the Lord can save you, save you to the uttermost. He says, ah, you don't know what I've been involved in. You don't know what I've been involved in, but Christ saved me. Paul said this. He said he was chiefest of sinners, and he was guilty of killing Christians. That's the kind of Christian He was, Christ saved him. Let's all stand up tonight, walk with love. We got a baptismal. I know I'm a little over time, but we're going to do a baptismal. And Brother Tom, if you'd get ready, Pastor Tom, you get ready, Brother Jeff and him. Brother, you probably, Brother Jesse, you want to go over there?