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Let's take your Bibles, please.
Turn to 1 John, chapter 4. Continuing our study, finishing
up, God willing, finishing up chapter 4, and that leaves us
with just chapter 5 left in this great study of God's Word. God's
love is proclaimed in the Word. It's proven at the cross, and
it's perfected in the saints. Let me say that again. is proclaimed
in the Word, it's proven at the cross, and it's perfected in
the believer, in the saints. And that's what we're going to
look at here tonight, 1 John chapter 4, as we see what confessing
Christ as Savior gives. The Bible says in verse number
15, 1 John chapter 4, whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the
Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 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 casteth out 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
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? And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." In
this set of seven verses, There's 14 times the Bible uses the word
love in just these seven verses. I think it's 46 times in the
book of 1 John. 522 times in the Bible. This
is God's love letter. God is love. It is His nature. Just as it is His nature that
God is holy, God is love. He's the source of all love.
And mankind will never have true love in our lives apart from
him. And probably the greatest display
of love is when Jesus Christ answered the question that man
has. How much, God, do you love me? When he hung on the cross
with his outstretched arms and he says, I love you this much.
I love you this much. Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers,
we look into your precious word. Help us now to be mindful of
your Holy Spirit. Help me, Lord, to listen to you.
Lord, not to be in a hurry, but Lord, to be in a hurry to please
you, to be in a hurry to say what you want said, not to please
anyone or anything. Lord, I pray that Jesus Christ
be magnified. Lord, that we'd see him up close
and so that we might be able to be like him in our daily life. Lord Jesus, meet with us and
help us now. We pray that by your Holy Spirit that you would
do all these things. In your wonderful name, we pray
these things, amen. Have you ever bought something
and you got it home and you found out there were some things that
you didn't realize, some features that you didn't realize that
you had in it and you were pleased? That's wonderful when it works
out that way. It's kind of bad when you think
it'll do some things and it doesn't, you know, and that's why you
bought it. That happens to me more so than the other. But whenever
you get those added surprises, that's a blessing. Now, listen,
folks, God delights in giving us more than we bargained for. He delights in giving us more
than we ever could dream, more than we could ever ask or think,
the Bible says. And so in this passage here,
Let's look, please, in verse 15, whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God. Now, this is more than just lip
service. This is agreeing with, giving
assent to, surrendering to. Jesus knew the heart of the man
who said, hanging on that cross beside him, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. It wasn't the magic words, but
there were words that expressed his heart, and Jesus Christ knew
his heart. By the way, God knows our hearts
today. He knows. He knows the burdens. He knows the trials. He knows
the problems. He knows the things that are entering into your heart
right now, trying to fight its way into your mind. Let me encourage
you to do something. If you are sitting there and
there's something in your mind that perhaps Satan's whispering
in there, you got to remember to pick up eggs and milk on the
way home. OK, if that's the case. Get out of, you know, take a
little paper there, turn it over, and write down eggs and milk,
and then turn your attention back to the message. Okay? Do
that, because otherwise you might be distracted the whole time
just trying to remember something. And Satan loves to distract us.
But he, God knows what's going through our mind. And the Bible
tells us here that there's an abiding love toward Jesus when
we receive him as our Savior. Romans chapter 10, verse 9, you're
familiar with this verse, I'm sure, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. There's that word confess. If
thou shalt confess the Lord Jesus with thy mouth and believe on
him with a heart that will have eternal life. The Bible says
in Acts 16, 31, when the Philippian jailer got saved, He said, what
must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Romans 10, 13 says, for
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. By our words we shall be justified
and by our words we shall be condemned. And so there's something
about committing. There's something about not just
thinking about something, but actually, you might say, pushing
the button, pulling the trigger, actually saying, yes, Lord, I
receive Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. Our belief is
seen and heard in that way. When that takes place and there's
an abiding love, the Bible says, look at verse 15, that God dwelleth
in him and he in God. Now, this is not something that
John, it'd be blasphemy to say that he just thought this up.
That'd be blasphemy against the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
But let me ask you to turn, hold your place there and turn to
the gospel of John, chapter 15. The Gospel of John chapter 15.
There's an abiding love towards Jesus. The Bible says in John 15 in
verse 4, "'Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me.'" Verse 5, "'I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.'" This is the
same Greek word. Mino, same Greek word. It's translated in our
Bible. It's translated dwell here in
1 John. It's translated abide. It's translated
in our Bible as remain, continue, tarry. If you abide with someone,
then you're making home. You're setting up home. If you
abide with someone, if you dwell with someone, just dwell on that
for a while. That's another kind of you kind
of parked there. Dwell on it. The Bible says God
dwelleth in him back in our text. First John for God dwelleth in
him and he in God. God makes his home in the believer.
And the believer makes his home in God. Now, you might you might
say, OK, describe that to me. I don't know if this is good
or bad or not, but shake my hand. Okay, am I shaking your hand
or are you shaking my hand? We're both shaking each other's
hand. Okay, I think that's right, I think that's right. Now, you
let go. I still got you. I still got
you, okay? Now listen, thank you, sir. Now listen, the Lord Jesus said,
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's his promise to us. And when someone receives the
gift of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation, confessing, it
says right here, confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, when
someone does that, then God takes up residence and dwells in that
believer. It's not something that happens
two weeks later. It's not something that happens, you know, it's
instantaneous. It is immediate at that point. God makes his home in the believer.
There are people who have tried to get this love and this peace
and this joy that is found when God takes up residence within
a person. They tried in unbelief. They
tried in education. Voltaire was an infidel, and
he wrote these words, I wish I had never been born. That's
what Voltaire said. It wasn't found in pleasure. The English Lord Byron lived
a life of pleasure, if anyone did. He wrote, the worm, the
canker, and grief are mine alone. I think that Solomon would agree
with that. He did everything he could do
to find pleasure in this world. We think of Howard Hughes. We
think of this guy named Jay Gould, the American millionaire. He
had plenty of money. And when he was dying, he said, I suppose
I'm the most miserable man on earth. you would think that money would
bring happiness, but it does not. It does not. Position and
fame, military glory, Alexander the Great. He conquered the known
world in his day, and having done so, in his tent before he
died, he said, there are no more worlds to conquer. No satisfaction. No peace, no joy apart from Christ
alone. My friend, do you know Jesus
Christ personally? I'm not talking about joining
a church. I'm not talking about getting baptized. I'm talking
about confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. Lord Jesus, I
believe that you died on the cross for me. I believe you rose
again, proving that you're the Son of God. That's who my faith
and trust is in. If you've not done that, if you've
not expressed your faith in Jesus Christ, you need to be saved.
Confessing Christ as Savior gives you an abiding love towards Jesus. Look at verse 16. And we have
known and believed the love that God hath to us. I was just in a prayer meeting
back here before church started. And it's amazing, whenever you
want to do something for God, God gets busy and does something
for you. It's amazing how God works in
love, because here's these three words, God is love. If you look
back over in chapter three, verse eight, the Bible says it again,
he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is what? Love, that's his nature. He that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Abiding
love towards Jesus. Abiding love towards Jesus. What
confessing Christ as Savior gives, secondly, it gives us not only
abiding love towards Jesus, it gives a bold love toward God.
A bold love toward God. Look at verse 17. The Bible says,
herein is our love made perfect. Now, that word perfect has the
thought of complete, mature, grown up. All its parts, okay? Have you ever put a puzzle together? Are you one of these that palms
the last two pieces of the puzzle? When you're looking, you're getting
almost done and you get two pieces and you just put one in each
palm just to make sure that you can put the last two in. Are
you one of those? Boy, you know, it gets to be
a race at the end, you know, and you can see it coming together.
It's almost complete. And when you put that last piece
of the puzzle together, the picture is finished. It's complete. It's perfected, okay? That's what we're talking about
here. The Bible says that we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that
we should walk in them. We're His masterpiece, His workmanship. And we have a bold love in this
perfection that He's doing in our life. Verse 17, rather, herein
is our love made perfect that we may have, what's the word? Boldness. in the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in this world. And we may have boldness
in the day of judgment. Now, let me say, first of all,
that there is judgment coming. There is judgment coming. Remember
now thy creator in the days of thy youth, the Bible says. And
Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 1. At the end of that chapter,
it says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God
and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man,
for God shall bring every work into judgment. We don't hear
a lot about that. We hear a lot about the wonderful,
fun things about life. And I'm thankful that God has
given us all things richly to enjoy, the Bible says. But Hebrews
9, 27 says, and as is it appointed unto men once to die, and after
this, the judgment. There is a judgment, there is
an accounting. We will stand before our creator. Matthew 12,
36, Jesus said, but I say unto you that every idle word that
men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of
judgment. Matthew 12, 36, every idle word. Your mama wasn't wrong
when she said, if you can't say something good, don't say nothing
at all. She was right. We ought to pray
every day, Lord, put a guard upon my mouth. The Bible says
that if we don't sing with our mouth, then chances are we have
our spirit under control. Because the mouth is our gauge
of what's going on in our heart. You want to know what's going
on in somebody's heart? Just listen to their talk. It tells on us. It really does. 2 Peter 3, verse
7, the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word
are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment.
Now, what is that all about? The heavens and the earth are
kept in store. Well, scientists will tell you that. I mean, if
you take one hydrogen atom, And if you split that hydrogen atom,
you have a hydrogen nuclear bomb. Could you imagine if all the
atoms of the universe, if God just let go? By the way, what
holds those electrons from flying off? They still don't know. They
still don't know. I mean, they can make some assumptions
and they can make some guesses, but the Bible tells us that by
him, Jesus Christ, all things consist. That word consist means
all things hold together. My friend, all that has to happen
is, is for God to just take his control off and for God to stop
holding together. And the Bible says, the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the Bible says. And the heavens
and the earth will be destroyed. There is a judgment day coming.
But in this, I have some good news. The Bible says in verse
17, herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment. Now, there were times that I
did not want to come to exams at school. There were times that
I was not ready. There were other times that I
had studied and prepared and done my notes and note cards,
and I knew it through and through, you know, and I wasn't worried. You know, I was gonna do my best,
but I knew the subject. There were other times, boy,
I did not want to go. Listen, please, we're gonna stand
before a holy God. The Bible tells us that we can have boldness
in the day of judgment, boldness. Letter A on your outline, perfect
love conquers sin. Perfect love conquers sin. God's love conquers sin. 2 Timothy
1, 12, for the witch cause, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed. Listen, for I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. What did we commit
to the Lord Jesus Christ? I'll tell you what I committed
to the Lord. I committed my sin. My past, my present, and my future,
sin. I committed that to him. Lord
Jesus, I am a sinner, and I ask you to forgive me of my sins.
Commit in my heart and life, I'm trusting you to take me to
heaven. My friend, when God looks at us, he doesn't see just all
the things that we have done. He sees all the things that we're
going to do, and the things that, as we fail before him, and there's
no excuse for that. And by the way, one of the greatest
ways for us to live a Christian life that is pleasing in God's
eyes is that when we knowingly commit a sin, that's another
sin that Jesus had to take upon himself on the cross. Folks, I don't want to add any
more sin in my mind. I don't want to add any more
burden to the great payment that was made for my salvation. I
don't want to do that. I want to please God. Perfect
love conquers sin. God's perfect love. 2 Timothy
4.16 says, Here's what happened to the Apostle Paul. The Apostle
Paul, there were problems in the churches, and at times, whenever
he was persecuted and all that kind of thing, everyone just
ran. The people he had witnessed to,
led to the Lord, discipled, taught the word of God, counseled with
him, loved on him, all that kind of thing. He said, sometimes
nobody stood with him. And he prayed and he said, I
pray, Lord, that it not be left to their charge. That's God's
kind of love. That's the kind of love that
Jesus had whenever he looked at the soldiers who were crucifying
him. And he said to his father, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. Perfect love conquers
sin. Letter B, perfect love casts
out fear. Perfect love casts out fear.
Look at verse 18. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love. Now, in the Bible, you're
going to find two kinds of fear. You're going to find two kinds
of fear. One is a good kind of fear. One's
a bad kind of fear. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is
a beginning of wisdom. There's a reverential fear of
God. We should be in awe of the holiness
and the omnipotence of God. He's not the man upstairs. He
is almighty God. And he's not a grandpa in a rocking
chair that's saying, oh, I wish the world wouldn't do what they're
doing. He's able to bring justice and judgment in a moment. And
it's just because of his mercies that we're not consumed. We should
fear before him. Now, not a trembling fear like
he's going to zap us, but we ought to have a reverential,
awesome fear before God. But now, the other kind of fear
is a fear that Christians should not have, and that's a fear of
terror. That's a fear of what may happen
in the future. The Bible says, the Lord is my
light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? He's my light. He's my strength. There are people that are paralyzed
by fear. The Bible says perfect fear, excuse me, perfect love
casts out fear. Grown-up love casts out fear.
Mature love casts out fear. Godly love casts out fear. Let me see if this will help
us here for just a moment. I've got some things here that
I've jotted down that may be some fears that people may have. Here's a fear I'm going to drop
in here. Loneliness. Loneliness. Nobody likes to be
alone. People want to be liked and be
around other folks and that kind of thing. They want to have family. But as God leaves us here and
God takes family up to heaven, loneliness is a real, real thing
to deal with. Loneliness. And by the way, God
said that he'll be a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
Loneliness. Some people, they're afraid every
day that they're gonna go to a devil's hell. Hmm. They don't understand that Jesus
died on the cross to pay for our sin debt and that God the
Father was satisfied, that it was done, settled. When he said,
it is finished, it was done. We sing the song, Jesus paid
it all, all to him I owe. Some people have fears about
their job. They're going to work every day
and thinking that so-and-so has been chopped, you know, so-and-so
has been let go, and what happens if I lose my job, or what happens
if someone doesn't like me on the job, or that kind of thing.
We all have to work and have a job and all those kinds of
things, but is that what we fear in life? When we're little, We might be
scared of the dark. Shadows and all that kind of
thing. But there are some people that, you know, just scared of
their own shadow. Guilt. Guilt. What if somebody finds
out what happened 25 years ago? Guilt, guilt. People. I would serve God. I would help
in junior church. I would sing in the choir. I
would help in the Sunday school class. But I'm just so scared
of people. I'd witness, but I'm scared that
they will ask me something I don't know the answer to. I'm scared
of dying. Nobody looks forward to dying.
God gave us a desire to live. Family. What if my kids grow up and they
turn their back on God? What if my husband leaves me? All the, you know, family, fears
about family. Let's see here. Money. What if
I can't pay my bills? What if my 401k goes away? The market drops and future. All these kinds of things. Now,
question. If this is your heart, if this
is your heart, and these fears just have a way
of kind of just getting in. I mean, we don't plan for it.
It can dominate our heart and our life. It can hinder God using
us because we're just filled with fear. I know people that
bless their hearts. They've gotten to the place that
they're even afraid to leave their own house. Afraid to get
in the car, afraid the sun might burn them, or the sun might not
come up, or I don't know what all. Maybe a bird will fall on
them, I don't know. But fear, perfect love casteth
out fear. The word casteth has the idea
of throwing, throws it out. It throws it out, perfect love,
God's love, casts fear out of our heart. So when God comes
in, we just found that God dwells in a believer. When God comes
in, it's saying, I'm not saying this, it says it. God said in
His Word that those fears, He pushes them out. Now, there's
no way I can illustrate that, but I can kind of compare it
to filling with God's love. And what happens is those fears just began just coming out. One by one. There you go. You
get the idea. Now, I didn't go in and deal
with that thing about future. Well, I need to deal with that.
I need to deal with that. When I focus on God and on God's love
and that he's in the future and that God loves me, then that
future fear goes away. I choose to focus on God. I choose to focus on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I'm the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And we choose to focus on Him.
We don't attack and focus on our negative things going on
in our heart. We focus on God and His love. If I were to ask you for a moment,
let's say 10 seconds, Don't think of the number eight.
Just don't think of it. I may have shared this with somebody
in here. I don't know. But for 10 seconds,
I don't want you to think about the number eight. You understand?
Whatever you do, don't think of the number eight. For 10 seconds. Ready? Go. Be honest. Did anybody in here
in those 10 seconds, you somehow had a flash of the number eight.
Anybody in here in those 10 seconds? Thank you for your honesty. Okay,
that's most, that's the response from most everybody that I share
this with. There are some who during those
10 seconds probably were successful in not thinking about the number
eight. Anybody? Okay, and what did you think
about? Houses, dogs, what, Tony? Four, you focused on four. Lee? Okay, all right. Okay, the only
way not to think about what you're trying to put away is to focus
on something else. Now that's practical, but the
spiritual is where the truth is. is that perfect love casts
out fear. It's gone. It just happens. And
God designed it that way. We don't have to be geniuses. We have to be depending on the
Lord Jesus Christ, walking with Him every day. And guess what
happens to our heart? It is crystal clear. Crystal
clear. We don't have to try to hide
anything. We can be transparent with others. So that's a marvelous
thing. That's a marvelous thing. Perfect
love casts out fear. Now, let me give you a help here,
and we don't have time to spend much time on it at all, but the
Lord's love in our heart brings peace, okay? That's just a truth. The Lord's love in our heart
brings peace. The antithesis, the opposite
of love is hate. Hatred. Brings fear. Hatred brings fear. And so basically,
if and we and we deal with that here, we're headed to that one. As we talk about this, this thing
of brotherly love and loving others. And if we are not loving
God as we should, then we're not gonna love others. Perfect
love casts out fear. And it gives us boldness, gives
us boldness with God. Hebrews 4.16, jot down that reference. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Deuteronomy 31.6, be strong and
have a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them.
For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee. He will
not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 10, 19, I love this verse. Hebrews 10, 19 says, having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We can go into the holy of holies,
into the presence of God. We can pray and talk to God,
not have to have a priest go and bring our request before
God. We can go before Him ourselves.
We don't have to have that fear. We can go right to Him. I, this
happened again today. I'm sitting there in my office
looking over some of these things and my door opens and in walks
my wife. She just walks right in. She doesn't even knock. She just
walks right in. She walked in boldly, not even
timidly. She didn't even, you know, can
I come in? I mean, she just walks right
in. You know why? Because she knows I love her. And so she can have boldness
to enter in at any time, and she knows that because I love
her, I'm, you know, yeah. There are many times that I'll
get a phone call, I'll look and see it's Hope, and I'll say,
excuse me, this is my wife, I need to talk to her. She needs to
talk to me, I mean. Access. Because of the love. And God gives us access into
his presence. We can come boldly unto him.
Perfect love conquers sin. Perfect love casts out fear.
And perfect love comes from God. Perfect love comes from God.
People are searching for love in all the wrong places and in
all the wrong ways. Love to satisfy our own selfish
needs, that is not love. That is not love. Love to meet
someone else's need, that's the God kind of love. And when we
do that, it's amazing what God does in our heart. And let me
remind you what the Bible says, it is more blessed to give than
to receive. Perfect love comes from God.
Now, I've come to the last thought here. Confessing Christ as Savior
gives abiding love towards Jesus, gives a bold love toward God,
and gives a brotherly love toward others. A brotherly love toward
others. Verse 19, the Bible says, we
love him because he first loved us. God started it. We didn't start it. God started
it. Verse 20, if a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he
is a liar. 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? This thought of brotherly love
toward others. You'll never probably get to
the point that you'll have this all conquered, okay? I say that because even the apostle
Paul, Do you remember at the end of 2 Timothy? He was sending,
this is, he was soon to be martyred, and the Bible says in 2 Timothy
4, from a time of departure, is at hand, and he was gonna
lay down his life, and they're gonna behead him there in Rome,
and so he was sending to Timothy, and he said, bring the parchments,
and bring so-and-so, and all that kind of thing, and he said
this. He said, bring John Mark. for
he is profitable unto me for the ministry." You have to know
the history in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, John Mark
went with them on the first missionary journey, he and Barnabas. And
before that missionary journey was over, before that mission
trip was done, John Mark, for whatever reason, I don't know
if it was just more than he bargained for, or if it was he got his
feelings hurt, or he just got worn slap out, or he got upset,
or what, I don't know, but he quit. He went home. Well, God
got a hold of his heart, and Barnabas worked with him and
restored him and that kind of thing. They were getting ready
to go on the second missionary journey, and Barnabas said, yeah,
and guess what? John Mark's ready to go with
us. And in effect, the Apostle Paul
said, I'm not taking quitter. He said, no, God's done a real
work in his heart. And there was contention between
Paul and Barnabas over this, so much so. Barnabas had seen
God do some wonderful things in John Mark's life. And by the
way, God endorsed that. because he used John Mark to
pen the Gospel of Mark, one of the four Gospels. Obviously,
God did something great in John Mark's life. But the apostle Paul said, if
you want to take him, you take him. I'm not taking him. That's real brotherly love, isn't
it? You know? And I'm not saying
that the Apostle Paul was wrong. I'm not saying that Barnabas
was wrong. I don't know. That's up to God, and, you know,
we'll let them tell us about it in heaven, you know. But the
point is this. When it came down to it, the
Apostle Paul, God had done a work in his heart, and he had love
towards John Mark, and he said, Would you bring him? He'll help
me in the ministry. It'd be a good thing. Now, folks,
brotherly love is something that we will work on until we see
Jesus, because we still have an old nature. We still have
an ego. We still have our own selfish will. We have all these
things that kind of entangle us as we serve God with other
human beings. And there'll be misunderstandings,
and there'll be things that we dislike, and all these kinds
of things. And we need the oil of the Holy
Spirit to be upon us constantly to keep those moving parts moving. And when we are not filled with
the Spirit of God and having His anointing, as we're doing
something for Him and for His glory, and somebody just bumps
into us the wrong way, and boy, the sparks fly because there's
no oil on us. no anointing of the Spirit of God, and something
is said just off the cuff, it's taken wrong, and it's responded
back in kind, and then boom-ba-boom-ba-boom, and it's surprising how fast
Satan can get his foot into God's work. Brotherly love. Hebrews 13.1 says, let brotherly
love continue. Let brotherly love continue.
Keep on, keep on. Romans 12 verse 10 says, be kindly
affection one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring
one another. Now you go first. No, no, no,
you go first. By the way, it's always good
to let somebody go first because God says the last should be first. I agree with God. John 13, 34,
there's not a choice. A new commandment I give unto
you that ye love one another. Okay, we got 10 commandments,
right? Jesus gave commandment 11. We're to love one another. He
said a new commandment I give unto you. He had the right to
do that. He was the lawgiver. So number 11, we don't have a
choice. either obey God and love one
another and prefer one another and all of that, a brotherly
love toward others. If we don't show God's love to
others, we'll be, first, dishonest in our speech. Oh, God is so
wonderful. Oh, I just thank God for all
that he's doing. It's a marvelous thing. God,
I love you. And the Bible says that if you can't love the brother
that you see, How can you love God whom you've not seen? You're
a liar. Wow. There's probably not too
many more harsh names that you could call someone, in my opinion,
than a liar. I had a manager in the grocery
business who said that if someone will lie to you, they will steal
from you. Lying goes clear to the root of a nature of a person.
Deceit. Be dishonest in our speech. Do
you see that? If a man say, I love God and
hate his brother, he's a liar. That's what the Bible said. Dishonest in our speech. Deceiving
our own self. The Bible says, the middle of
verse 20, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Deceiving our
own selves. James 1.22 says this, but be
you doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves. There are people in churches who are dishonest
in what they say, and they don't even realize it because they've
deceived themselves. James 1.26 says, if any man among
you seem to be religious and bribeth not his tongue, but deceiveth
his own heart, this man's religion is vain. So sometimes you can
try to point someone to the truth of God's word, and they're not
going to see it because there's no problem with them. They've
been deceived by their own sin. Dishonest in our speech, deceiving
our own self, and disobedient to our Savior. Verse 21 says,
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth
God love his brother also. We must reach out in love to
love those who God loves. We're in the same family. We're
in the same family. Now, you understand how important
it is that we're not encumbered with all these fears. As a Christian,
it's so important that we be clear with the Lord, not have
any unconfessed sin in our heart, in our life, and then that we're
oiled by the Holy Spirit. and then that we have his love
flowing through us because there are some people that are hard
to love. Brother Fegler, I know you've
never met anybody who's hard to love. In your years of ministry
and preaching, I'm sure you've never run across anyone like
that. I may have run across one or two or 10 or 20, I don't know. But think about this. How hard
has it been for God to love me? I mean, I'm a rascal. Amen. And yet God loved me. So if God can love me, then by
his grace, boy, I can love anybody if I choose to let the Lord love
them through me. This thing about fear, if we
hold hatred and bad feelings towards someone and how it brings
fear and all these kinds of things and the unknown, I leave you
with this thought. There was a man who was sick
and he went in this small town to an old-time clinic. And this is an old-fashioned
kind of doctor. And after examining him and all
that kind of thing, he told him some kind of bad news. And he
indicated that he needs to get his affairs in order. He's not
going to give him a set time or whatever, but things are not
looking good. He's on the downhill run. And he needs to think seriously
about the time that he has left. The man knew that this doctor,
he went to church, he was a Christian. In small towns, everybody knows
everybody, okay? And this guy, he was the real deal. And he
said this to the doctor, he said, Doc, he said, tell me, what is
it that's, you know, and when we die, what really happens next? Now, the doctor could have quoted
a lot of Bible verses. The doctor could have, you know,
told him about the streets of gold and gates of pearl and tree
of life and all these kinds of things he could have, that the
Bible does talk about. But he was reminded that the
Bible says, The doctor said to him, he said, I don't know. He
looked at him, he said, You're a Christian man. You're
supposed to know. He said, you don't know? He said,
not really. He said, well, aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid of what might
happen? And for the last few minutes,
they'd heard some hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. And The man the doctor standing
there he he went over he went to a door and he opened the door
and In came his dog the doctor's dog Dog jumped up on him and
things he said he said I want to tell you something He said
my dog Has been outside that door. He's never been in this
room He's never been in here. I've never let him in. So I want
to show you something though. That dog was not afraid to come
through that door because he knew that his master was on the
other side of that door. And he knew that I love him and
I would take care of him. It didn't matter was on the other
side of that door because his master was there. He said, listen,
he said, when I go through that door of death, I know that my
Jesus is on the other side and everything's gonna be great.
Everything's gonna be wonderful because my master is there. I
hope you know Jesus in that way, the kind of love that God wants
you to have that casts out fear, that gives you brotherly love
to love someone else because you don't have that kind of love.
You don't possess that, nor do I, but God's love through us
will. Let's stand to our feet, please.
Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. Heavenly Father,
I pray now as we go our separate ways here in just a moment at
the end of this prayer, I pray that we would surrender ourselves
anew and afresh. And as you dwell in us, Lord,
help us to abide in you, to rest in you, to make our home in you,
to be at rest and at peace in you. And Lord, I pray that if
there's a fear in our heart and our life that's holding us back
from serving you, Help us to focus upon Your love and Your
promises and Your Word, and, Lord, You'll just push those
out. And then, Lord, may Your love flow through us to others. These are just some of the things
that we get when we confess You as our Savior. Help us, Lord,
to be a shining example of Jesus Christ to our neighbors and our
friends. Bless, I pray, on Sunday. Speak
to our hearts and help us to serve you till then, in Jesus'
name, amen.
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
Series A Study Through 1 John
| Sermon ID | 82181958431 |
| Duration | 48:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | 1 John 4 |
| Language | English |
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