John 1 John chapter 4, and I always am nervous before I read the Word of God, but let's read it tonight, starting with verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now those two verses will be in my text. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God said His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts without fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God and hate his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? In this commandment have we from Him that he who loveth God love his brother also. Our Father, thank You for the Word. Thank You for, Lord, the truths that are here. Give us understanding of them, and, Lord, apply them to our lives tonight. And, Lord, may we leave here understanding more fully the wonderful love that You have, that You are, and that, Lord, You instill in us. We thank You for that wonderful gift. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, there's words that we would translate and entire language love, and one is eros. We'll not go much into that, but it's a sensual love. And then there is fidel...anyway, it means brotherly love. And then there's agape. And this is the agape love that God is. He is that wonderful love. God is love. Now, I don't think that we sometimes understand this love, and I just wanted to find something by an opposite just for a moment, and I've said this in this church before. But the opposite of love is unselfishness. Hatred is not That which is the opposite, like, because love of the Bible is an unselfish gift giving to us, and it's done by God. Love is of God, and he that loveth is born of God. And in verse 7 it says, let us love one another, for God is love. And this unselfish, wonderful giving of God, it's revealed in our hearts, given to us over and over continually. And we know that He loves us, every one of us in this room tonight that have been saved. And we know He's for us. And one of the wonderful verses in the Bible is that, if God be for us, who can be against us? It's a great security for us. Everyone in this room that had a godly mother, that gave herself for you, and I've seen this so much in some people here tonight, that you gave yourself and give yourself to your children. You're constantly working, constantly giving, and it's a wonderful illustration of God's love for us, and it's unselfishness, deep and abiding, and willing to sacrifice a great deal for us, and Christ proved that love for us when Christ died on the cross. All that we have and all that we know of God is because of His gift to us, His giving to us, His love for us. And we, in our deep and wicked sins, deserve not any of His giving. To love somebody that's lovely is one thing, but to love someone that is not lovely like that have so many times disregarded God, cared not for what He wanted in our life, and ignored Him, and rebelled against Him. So many things we could describe of our heart, our life toward God, and yet here we are tonight, and we listen, and we're amazed, and we realize that God loves us, and we realize it because of the many things that He's done for us, and the most important, is that salvation that He gave us through His Son, Jesus Christ. God is love. And it tells us here that love is of God. I want to give you three thoughts tonight of this matter of love. Love is of God. Where does love come from? It didn't come from my heart. When I was born, you could not find a little bit of love in me. My mother, I could care less for her, whether she slept at night or not. didn't matter to me. As long as I had something that comforted me, then I was happy. And if something was a little discomforting, I made my mother unhappy. You understand that. But God loved me, and God one day saved me from my sin. All this love, it comes from God. It is of God. And we need to understand three things that we need to see. Now, I fear that in my Sunday school class I covered some of these things, so you forgive me for that. But I thought this week, what does a church need? Well, I know if we don't have love, then we are nothing. And it profits us nothing. Whatever we do in the Lord's work, if we don't love, then it profits nothing. And that was spoken a little bit last night. And wonderful love is the center of everything. There's three gifts. Wonderful 1 Corinthians last night was so unraveled for us, wasn't it? But here we have a chapter on the gifts, chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, and then it continues on in chapter 14, but in the between is a discussion of love. But it's still gifts, isn't it? These things, these three, they abide, don't they? And what are they? They're the gifts that every Christian has. God diversifies gifts to different ones, but it all have the gifts. Every Christian, the gift of faith, and the gift of hope, and the gift of love. And the greatest of those gifts is love. When you came to know Christ, you got the gift of faith, didn't you? And then nobody had to convince you that you were right with God or that you were going to heaven because God gave you the gift of hope. Your future was bright. Old things passed away and old things became new. And then you had the wonderful gift of love. And that was the first thing. I think you noticed it right away, that you love God. Why, it was amazing to you. what God had done, and it came about because of God dealing with you. You didn't bring yourself to God. You didn't want God. You fought against God. But God kept in a tender way drawing you in many things, so many sermons that I heard when I was a boy, God speaking to my heart One night he spoke to my heart about my sin, and I'd say to you that that was a difficult thing for me to see myself. And then I wondered how God would ever have anything to do with me if I had sinned against Him as He revealed to me so strongly. And look, sin isn't just murder or adultery or hatred. A sin is rebellion against God. The sin is not believing the God of truth. You can call me a liar, but good night to call God a liar. What is wrong with us to say God is not right and I'm right? The rebellious heart, the wickedness in our life is so deep. And then to question the goodness of God because we didn't get our way or something didn't go well with us. And we question the goodness of God. This is terrible. That's what Eve did in the Bible. That's how she sinned. She rebelled against God by eating the fruit. Don't hold yourself up in a high position. Look at yourself, what you really are. I'm not talking about just before you were saved either. You've also rebelled against God since you were saved. Am I right? Come on now, let's be honest about this. I see sometimes we have this pious attitude about ourselves. There's nothing pious in ourselves. If we have something good in us, it's because of the love of God and the work of God in our heart. And so I saw my sin. Well then, how would that be corrected? What could be done? I had no clue. And then my father told me, Jeffers, God so loved. I tell you, those were words. that I needed. And he said, you know, the world, that's you, Joe. For God so loved Joe, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And I saw it. I saw him. God is love. I saw that. And he loved me. And that's why I could trust That's why he could save me. He figured out how. I say figured out, he knew from the fact. He knew it all to begin with, but why he did it, didn't he? So the first thing I'd like to talk to you about is your first love. I remember that first love. Do you remember it? Three things about love I want to talk to you about. The first love, I want to talk to you about the perfect love, and then I want to talk to you about the spirit of love. Our first love, it can be lost. Now I don't mean that you lose your love for God entirely. I don't think a Christian can do that. But there's this freshness and brightness of salvation where you first came to know a person, you were introduced to him. You saw him, he died on the cross for you. He was for you. Did you ever go out on a playground when you was a child? I moved in different places when I was growing up and going to a schoolyard and not know anybody, that was the frightening thing to me. And I had a brother that was a little older than me and I was always hoping he'd be out there so that I'd have somebody to talk to or somebody that cared about me. I tell you. It was personal. He cared about you. And you loved him. And I'll tell you something, there wasn't anything good in you that he was caring about you about. You know that. And in that, you loved him. He was special to you. Do you recall it? Remember it. Look back on it. Dwell on it. Chew on it. Why, I couldn't wait to tell my brothers what he had done for me. Because I loved him. And I wanted them to know. I didn't know if they knew him or not, you see. And they were all asleep. Well, the next morning, I talked to my friend next door to us. Corky, have you been saved? And he said, sure, I have. I said, oh, that's wonderful. How were you saved? He said, well, my brothers jumped in the swim pool and saved me from drowning. I didn't know how to tell him anything else. I didn't know how to talk to him more, but I wanted to talk to him more. And by the way, years later, at 17 years of age, he took a gun, played Russian roulette, and killed himself. I don't know if he ever got saved. But you see, there's a first love. You love him. and it's personal, and he's sweet to you, and you have a closeness to him, and you want others to know him. You're not ashamed of him. And what's the sweetness of this, Bob? You don't know much. You got a lot to learn. You have more to learn than you can ever imagine, and we're still learning, aren't we? In fact, we have much more to learn than we can imagine, and the more I learn about him, the more I realize I never knew much. and still don't. But that first time, you may not have known very many Scriptures or any Scriptures, but you knew him. And you had the Scripture. Yes, I understand the Scripture had talked to your heart, but it was him that you looked at, you see. The Scripture pointed him to you, and you saw him, and you loved him, and you're willing to do whatever he wanted you to do. You didn't have any hold bars. Now I don't mean to say at that moment he said you're going to go on mission field and spend the rest of your life there and you're willing to do it. You didn't know anything about that if you ever did go do something like that. Yet you loved him. And there wasn't any hold back. There wasn't anything between you. And there was this wonderful first love. Now, you learned a lot since then. And you may know all the doctrines of the Scripture, but if that first love is not there, you're in trouble. That is that love that is giving, that surrendered, that yielded to a person, the Lord Jesus. I see the Scripture, I see Christ. But it's the person. I don't walk with a fact, I walk with a person. I don't walk with a power, I walk with a loving Savior. And we're arm in arm, and when I do something wrong, it affects that relationship, and that's what hurts. And when it quits hurting, and when you go outside, and you get calloused and hardened, and you can do something and it doesn't, Feel the same sense of hurt of a relationship with your Savior. I'm sorry you've lost your first love. Are you with me? Some of you have learned so much, but you're hard. You're hard. I don't care how old you are. This hardness ought not to be there. You should be like a child. The tenderness of a mother. And you're embracing her as she tenderly holds you. There should be this sweetness between you and her, you and him. Now look, love is what we need. God is love. I remember, and do you not remember failing the Lord? What did He do to you? when you failed him. What did he do? Chances are what he did is he showed you that he hadn't left you, that he loved you. Now, if other people treated you wrong, don't blame him. And do not get bitter in life. you that are saved. Bitterness shows you've lost that wonderful closeness to the Lord Jesus. Stay away from it. There is a first love, and we can substitute so many things. Activity. We can substitute knowledge and It's a dangerous path to follow because you're full of pitfalls when you do that. Knowledge puffs up. I think if we need revival in this country, and we do, I think it starts with a genuine love for Christ and a love that is back to the first love. And then there is the perfect love. God is love, and it's a perfect love. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, for God is love. The perfect love that I have or that God has for me is oftentimes my great encouragement and help and strength to bring me back to him I have a father that was in a place of false teaching as a boy, and he believed that after he was saved, he'd lost it, and then he thought he had to be saved again and lost it. Believed he'd lost his salvation several times and finally gave up, and in that terrible condition, he went back to the old ways of life. Not that he could forget Christ. He could not. Oftentimes laying his head on some hard place. He was a hobo traveling around the country. Not able to sleep, tossing and turning because God was dealing with him. He's remembering. Yet he lived such a wicked life. Could not overcome his lack of confidence in what God was because he believed that it was up to him to hold on to God, not God him. And I know that it's such a blessing to have that understanding of the perfect love of God. As Christ dealt with him over and over, not leaving him alone, and he fought so hard Not because he did not want God, but he thought it was impossible for him to hold on to God. God was not able to be grasped and held on to because he was such a failure in his life. Sin. And the honesty of his heart told him that his sin would always separate him from God. And one day as he was troubled and God began to work through some friends as they invited him to go to church over and over, finally he said, if you'll leave me alone, I'll go. And God got a hold of his heart. By the way, preachers, oh, how we need to understand. People are hurting. We need to preach. And it's not just the lost, but many Christians And he went down to talk to the pastor. This was way back in the early 1900s. And as he talked to the preacher, the preacher finally realized he had already been saved. And he asked if he had been, and my father said yes. And so there was this deep theological problem. He didn't believe in the perfect love of God. He didn't understand it. Go home, read your scripture, don't talk to anybody, don't read any books but the Bible, and see what God says about that perseverance of the saints. And when he came to read the scriptures, after 30 days he was so divided and yet he said, Lord, if your word is true, then it leads one way, let me read it one way. And finally he could read it. And he could understand the passages that seemed to say that they'd lost their salvation, and then he could understand the passage that I will not leave you nor forsake you. When he came to see the perfect love of God, he dedicated himself, he lived for Christ. Oh, may I tell you that God doesn't love because of our goodness, but he loves because of his goodness. It's a perfect love. That love of God grasping, holding for many all those years past, many hardships and many failings, and yet he never lost that confidence of the perfect love of God. And that love is working in us, holding us, equipping us. And I tell you there is much growth in love in a Christian when he sees the perfect love of God and grasps it. I remember walking, I was single pastoring, and my wife and I were engaged at that time, and I remember walking past a mirror and looking in the mirror and thinking, what are you doing? How could God use you? And something wonderful had happened, and I thought, oh God, how could I even be a part of this? But God loved me. God's perfect love. And I began to weep, seeing my face in that mirror, realizing that God loved me, not because of me, but because of his perfect love. Yes. Now, my failings have been so many, and his love has been so steadfast, that that love begins to be perfected in us. That's the way it is. You know when you get old, oh, you may get a little cranky. I know some of you old people are cranky. I don't understand. But you get more tender oftentimes. More able to love. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll tell you something. Every preacher ought to stand for truth. And when you see a rebel, he needs to hear the truth, doesn't he? And by the way, there's some Ananias and Sapphires. You know why God would take them out of this world and I hope take them home? Because he loved his church. He loved the tender babes in that church that would be corrupted by the Adonises and Sapphires. Love doesn't mean that you've got a license to kill. God loves you enough that I believe He takes sometimes us home before we destroy too much. Perfect love casts out fear. I'm not afraid of hell. I'm not afraid of a lot of things that I used to be afraid of. And I think if I were facing death, I think God would give me the grace for fear to be cast out. Do you follow me? Perfect love casts out fear. But you know, it's perfected then. It's worked in us. Somebody that's failed over and over and over again in life. I preached to prisoners there at the penitentiary. Sometimes somebody is so beaten down. I've seen it at the mission. They're so beaten down and there's nobody, nobody. And you know, you see somebody and they're a child molester, how do you feel toward them? Can God save them? Do you love them? Somebody fails in life, and what do they need? They need somebody that cares, who knows what the thief on the cross had done. But perfect love casts out fear. And when that fear or that love has begun to be perfected in us, we can love the unlovely like we could not before. Somebody smells, reeks of alcohol, hasn't bathed. And yet if we understand the perfect love of God, that love has begun to be perfected in us. That's what a church is about. To love the unlovely and to seek the lost and those that seem to be the worst. Father, lay not this sin to their charge. The love, the perfect love of God. And I was so glad when I heard that last night. Somebody walks in here, they need to sense the love of God here, and that is in you. And if you have been forgiven much, you can love much. And not only as a Savior, but the more you love Him, surely the more you will love the down and out. The more that you see of your sin and how God loved you of the perfect love, not because of you. In spite of you, how you might love others so much more. I can hardly preach anymore without talking about my father. Bring people home. Had a man live with us for six months. Nobody wanted him. Are you listening tonight? Shame on us when we cannot love that which is so broken, because we were so broken and yet God loved us. Shame on us if we do not love others. May I say to you that we have a great selfishness. We really do. We care about this nation being saved so we can continue in our lifestyle. That's a great deal of the motivation. The wrong politicians that spew their lies and so on are a danger to us because they will disrupt our life if they get their way. But I say to you that there's something far more important than our life, and that's the message of Christ, salvation of souls. It's been during the times of persecution that perfect love was perfected, being perfected in Christians to such a point that people could understand the perfect love of God. Well, let me go on. The third thing. There's the spirit of love. God's not given us a spirit of fear, it says. That's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. But of love and power and a sound mind. God has given us a spirit of love. Somebody says, well, I'm going to say something unkind. Where'd that spirit come from? Where'd that spirit come from? I'm going to get some vengeance. Somebody hurt me, I'm going to hurt them. Is that the spirit of love? I don't think so. The spirit of love is what we need. Well, I don't want to go to church today. I don't feel like it, but I'd go if there was, you know, something like a football game. What spirit is it that's talking to us? When I see the Spirit of love, I have to say to myself, or when I sense the Spirit of love, I have to say to myself, deny myself and do what God wants me to do. When we love Him and His Spirit is in us, directing us, and we're yielding to that Our life, our actions, our responsibilities and so on are focused in such a way that we can see the needs and obey them. When I think of this spirit of love, I think of an old man in a church where I was the youth director for a while. I never heard him preach a sermon, and he wasn't a preacher. But he asked if he could be a part of our ministry, and we went to nursing homes, and he would go with us. And one day as we was driving to the nursing home, he said to me, I'm so thankful to have friends like you. And I thought, he's the friend. I never heard him in any way be unkind to anyone. I heard him oftentimes exhort people when there was need for money to be given to some mission, program. I remember that poor man, and he was poor, encouraging others to give and showing the example of giving. I remember when he didn't have a ride to church and we didn't know it, he walked those three miles to church. He didn't come and complain, say somebody didn't care for me. We wouldn't have known it except somebody would tell us, but he would not complain. His spirit was a spirit of love. Why does he stick in my mind? Why is it that I think of him so often? Why is it when I am tempted to do something his face comes to my mind and I remember his spirit? Spirit of love. When we get to heaven we will probably be surprised at what others maybe did for us that will be found out then. But all of the spirit of love, all the men and women, all of the apostles, all the people down through the ages that gave of themselves, men know that they love God because of their spirit of love. And that love was reflected in the lives of others and given to others. the spirit of love. I hope we have revival and I pray for revival. I think sometimes maybe the revival needs to begin in the heart and it become a heart of sacrifice, a heart of giving, a heart of unselfishness. a heart that prays and nobody maybe knows that they're praying. But they're willing to be on their knees. They're willing to sacrifice their life to pray for others. They're willing to tell others as they can about Christ whatever it costs them. They're willing to love the church, they're willing to love the pastor, and especially they're willing to love the visitors, those that are of hard cases. And in that, revival may come. My dad used to tell a story of a woman in Scotland in the late 1800s, and she was praying for her church that it might have revival. She couldn't get out. She was invalid in bed most of the time, and she prayed. And she prayed for an evangelist to come to Scotland. One day her sister came home from church and said to her, you won't believe who was in church today preaching. And she said, D.L. Moody. What happened? Nothing. D.L. Moody didn't know about this story at the time until some years later. She got out on her knees and prayed through the afternoon until about the middle of the evening service. She cared. It wasn't talk. It was in her heart, spirit of love. And about halfway through she got up off her knees, satisfied and refreshed. Her sister came home, you can't believe what happened. She said about halfway through the service, people began to listen intently. You know, sometimes the preacher has to work awful hard. But God's Spirit began to move and there became, you can turn it down, I'll try to speak up. And there became a movement of God that swept Scotland. When D.L. Moody heard that story, he said, when we get to heaven, that lady will have the reward. Not D.L. Moody. Attendance, high attendance is oftentimes a love for self. events that stir and churches grow is oftentimes simply for somebody's bragging rights. May we have the spirit of love. May we care for souls. May we care for each other. May we love as Christ loved. May we be able to say, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. May we be able to say, the truth to people, whether it would hurt us or it would be harmful to us, may we love others so that God could work in a mighty way. When the apostles preached, they loved, and when they loved the people and gave their life even for them and were martyred, Many came to know Christ through their love. Our Heavenly Father, I'm not able to speak plainly enough for this to be received. May your Spirit speak to our hearts. May we care not about ourselves. Help us. May we learn that perfect love you have for us. May we learn from that that our love might be perfected, that we might grow in that, and that in every condition and situation we might care for people, that we might love you, that we might live unselfishly, Lord, for others. Lord, do a work. But Lord, use us. And whatever you have to do, Lord, to bring us to an unselfishness and a concern for your work and for others, Lord, do it in us. We are weak, and may we, Lord, know that weakness, but may we, Lord, have the spirit of love in our heart that others might see Christ in us. Cleanse us tonight. We pray in Jesus' name, for His sake, amen.