Let me invite the rest of us to turn to 1st John chapter 4. 1st John chapter 4. So we will be looking at this passage in particular this morning, even as this anticipates our time of sharing in the Lord's Supper, sharing in communion. We're going to be looking at 1 John chapter 4 really zeroing in on verses 9 and 10. But in order to see the broader context I want to read verses 7 through 14. 7 through 14. And even this is not the entire context. In reality it could be reading the entire letter to 1 John because it all is interwoven with the significance of what is revealed here. But nonetheless want to focus on verses 7 through 14 and then within that in particular verses 9 and 10 for our purposes together this morning. So hear now the word of our living God. 1 John 4 verse 7. By this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love. Not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And this is God's holy word. The last couple of weeks, if you have been among us, you know that we have been looking at the new commandment that Jesus issues in John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. Namely, that his disciples, which encompasses all disciples in all places at all times, are to love one another. Even as he has loved us, so we are to love one another. And he says in verse 35, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Well following that very same commandment and that very same theme John's letter of 1st John which of course is written by the same Apostle John who through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit penned the gospel of John. This theme of loving one another as an overflow and as an outgrowth and in response to the love that God has given us to Christ. This theme is very prominent throughout John's letter of 1st John. And John Calvin has reflected that the entire letter of 1 John is filled with the doctrine of faith and with the exhortation to love. And this, of course, in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is fully interwoven, not only with what he's revealed in the gospel of John, but throughout all of his word. And so in the passage before us, the primary thrust of the passage, of course, is a reiteration by John of the necessity and of the obligation of believers to love one another. But as we're gonna look in particular at verses nine and 10 in the context of this exhortation to love one another, which is a reiteration of things that John has already addressed in this letter in earlier sections, what we're gonna see in verses nine and 10 is the reason for the obligation we are given to love one another, the foundation of this obligation. And ultimately what John is revealing, and what God is revealing through John, is that love for one another is absolutely essential. It is inseparable from genuinely knowing God, from genuinely being born again. And this is the heart of what he has to say. So notice what he says in verses 7 and 8. He's stating a truth, he's stating the reality that if a person has been born again, has come to saving faith in God through Christ, God has done a supernatural work of new birth, and he has planted his very own life in the soul of that one who has come to know him, if that is the case, then love will flow from that. love for God in response to his love, and love for others in obedience to God's commandment. It's a very straightforward, logical statement. The one who loves, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And then in verse eight, he states the same thing in an opposite or in a negative way. He says, verse eight, the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. The very nature of God is love. And therefore, if one possesses the nature of God, one will love. If one does not love, it's indicative of the fact that he doesn't truly possess the nature of God. Now it should be noted that when he says God is love, it's not to say that's all that God is. Earlier in chapter one, verse five, he says God is light, which is a metaphor he's employing to affirm the holiness of God, the purity of God, the blazing transcendent moral integrity and righteousness of all that God is. He is light. Coupled with that he is also love and he is the essence of love. And a love that is fundamentally bound up within the mystery of the Trinity of God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. As the father loves the son as the son loves the father as the Holy Spirit is present in all of that in the mystery of the Trinity. Jesus speaks about that even as he prays in John chapter 17 as that love is bound up within God so he loves those whom he has chosen in and through Christ. But what we see at the very outset as we consider this is that supernatural transcendent love found only in Christ is the most thorough test of genuinely being born again. It's the clearest evidence of whether or not a person genuinely possesses the life of God. It's whether or not you love others born out of your love for God and your obedience to his commandments. If you claim to be a Christian, if I claim to be a Christian, if anybody claims to be a Christian and there is not within us an impulse and a longing and a recognition of giving thanks to God and praise to God for saving us, wanting to know his will, wanting to know his commandments, wanting to grow in obedience to him, and through that obedience, love for others. If that's not present, beloved, you don't know God. It doesn't mean that our love is perfect because John makes clear throughout his letter that we're not perfect and that we yet sin. But if our sin doesn't grieve us, if we're not pricked in our consciences regarding our failure to love when that's evident and we don't see it in light of the holiness of God and see how our lack of love is so inconsistent with his love for us. Beloved that would be an indication that we don't truly possess the spirit of God. The proof is in the pudding, as we often say. And you know a person can say, I believe in God. They can say that relatively easy. They can say they have faith. They can even do a lot of Christian kinds of things. But the proof is in the pudding. Do you love others with the very love of Christ? And are you growing in that? And is that a concern to you? John Calvin also observed, I love this word picture, that you can no more separate heat from fire than you can separate true love from true saving faith. Fire produces heat. True saving faith produces true godly love. and you can no more separate heat from fire than you can separate love from true saving faith. Well we might ask the question, what is the foundation of this love? If it is an obligation, if it is an essential priority, if it's a non-negotiable for children of God because of the love that he has in himself, what's the foundation of all of that? Are we just talking about some abstract, mystical, sentimental kind of love? Well John's answer Passionately, of course, is no, that's not what we're talking about. And the answer to that question is really what he addresses in verses 9 and 10 of our text. And again, all that he shares here is building on statements he's already made in his letter. Back in chapter 2, verses 7 through 11, where he speaks of love. Back in chapter 3, verses 11 through 18, where he also is to expand on this and build on this and reinforce this. And so notice what he says in verses 9 and 10. He says, By this the love of God was manifested in us. And what he's introducing here is he's saying by this the love of God was revealed in us, was demonstrated, was shown, was manifested in us. And here it is, that God sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the foundation and the substance and the power of it all. And then of course as he reflects on that he reiterates the exhortation in verse 11. Beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another. But I want to focus in on verses nine and 10, and this statement of what God has done in manifesting in us his own love through his son. One commentator has said that the coming of Jesus Christ, and that of course is what is being referred to here, the coming of Jesus Christ into the world is the visible indication in our experience of the hidden love of God. Another commentator has said, quote, all of our definitions of what love is and how it behaves must be drawn from him if they are to accord with reality. And of course this follows what Jesus himself said, right? In John 13 verse 34, a new commandment, I give you that you love one another as I have loved you. We need to be reminded continually that God would not have us to look by sight to our circumstances to try and discern his love for us. We're so tempted to do that aren't we? look at our circumstances, look at things that are going on, look at things that aren't what we might wish they would be, and maybe there's disappointments, maybe there's griefs, maybe there's heartache, whatever it may be, and often we are so tempted to look by sight to our circumstances and try to discern the love of God. And we just get thrown all over the place because we're never going to understand the love of God in the context of our circumstances if we're looking at them by sight. We're never going to understand the love of God until we look by faith to the fullest display of his love in Christ crucified. That is what He calls us to. And that's what John is proclaiming and affirming in this passage. And this is even what God has given us in the commandment to share in the bread and the cup as a remembrance of Him. And a remembrance of His sacrifice. And a remembrance of the love of the Father for the Son, in the Son, and through the Son for His own. that we might see His love preeminently, infinitely displayed in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The truth and the glory and the weight and the wonder of God's helpless sinners like you, like you, like you, and like me, The glory, the truth, the weight and the wonder of that is that which should just melt our hearts and crush every hint of pride and cause us to sing out as John Wesley penned, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood. Beloved our greatest need as God's children is to ever increasingly see and wonder at and marvel at the greatness of his love for us in Christ crucified. And if that is indeed our greatest need our greatest danger is to minimize the wonder of that love. to allow our vision of His love in Christ crucified to become dull, to become foggy, to become commonplace. And He has called us to His table that we might ever remember the greatness of His love. Well, I'd like us to see in verses nine and 10 three aspects of His love in Christ, of the Father's love in Christ. And I am, in these three aspects, modifying James Montgomery Boyce's reflection upon this passage. His three points I'm slightly modifying, so I just want to give credit where credit is due, that I am indebted to him. I want you to note, even as we look at these three points, that this is all about the Father's love for us who belong to Him. The Father's love. It manifestly, of course, encompasses the Son's love as well. But the emphasis of the passage is upon the father's love in and through his son. So just briefly reflecting upon three aspects of the father's love. Number one. In love, God loves his son. In love God the Father gave his Son. Again notice verses 9 and 10. By this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son. In love God the Father gave his son. This speaks of the mystery and of the wonder of the incarnation. That point in history when the eternal Son of God, in glad obedience and submission to the Father, took on human flesh in the form of a baby. We need to be reminded that the Son came on a mission. The Son came because He was sent. The Son came because the Father gave Him. And I want you to notice in these statements that we hear in verses 9 and 10, and perhaps you've already recognized the echoes of those words that Jesus spoke in John, the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16, right? 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. Do you hear the echoes of those statements even in verses 9 and 10? We see here in love the father giving his son, we see the fact of the incarnation. The statement there in verse nine that God has sent his only begotten son into the world. In referring to the eternal son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ as the only begotten is denoting his absolute, preeminent, transcendent uniqueness. His uniqueness. And this statement that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world amplifies and intensifies the magnitude and the wonder of his love in that God the Father gave that which was most precious to him. Profound mystery, profound wonder. As the Son, the Lord Jesus is the Father's perfect image. The full representation of God to the world. John speaks of that in the gospel of John chapter 1 verses 14 through 18. And so this is set forth as a fact. This is set forth as a reality that the father has given the son. It also, this statement of the Father in love giving His Son indicates the purpose for the incarnation. It indicates the purpose of why the Father gave the Son, namely so that we might live through Him. The Father in love gave the Son so that those who would believe on the Son might live through Him. And the living that is spoken of there is eternal life contrast to eternal spiritual death. that death which is the consequence of sin. Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden as it's spoken of in Genesis chapter 2 as God had created everything that is and as he had created man and woman and placed them in the Garden of Eden and had given them commandments of what to do and what not to do with a warning with an encouragement that if they were to violate that commandment they would surely die. The nature of death that God warned of and that ultimately came to be because of Adam and Eve's sin is the death of a break, a rupture, a severing of fellowship and union with God. And a death marked ultimately by physical death but extending beyond physical death to encompass eternal separation from God. And the Bible makes it clear that every person who is outside of Christ is a walking dead person under the wrath of God. Beloved, dear friend, if you have never come to faith in Christ, you are living in your sins. You are living in the wrath of God. It is as if you are on a freight train and you are encompassed and enslaved within that train and you are on a one-way journey to hell. And within that train there may be things that you feel like you can do and that you have certain amounts of freedom but you are blind and oblivious to the truth that you are enslaved within that train you are in bondage to sin you are under the judgment of God unless you repent to trust his loving provision in the Lord Jesus Christ you will suffer his wrath in hell for all eternity. He gave His Son that those who would believe in Him would have life, the purpose of the incarnation. We also see in this statement related to the love of the Father in giving His Son the origin of the incarnation. The origin of it, when He says at the beginning of verse 10, in this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. This statement is clarifying the truth that the work of God in saving any individual is a monergistic work, which is to say it belongs to God, it originates by God, flows from God alone. We have nothing to do with it. Now yes, in the mystery of salvation, we must respond in faith and repentance to the invitation to come to Christ. But even the ability to do that, God makes clear, comes from God himself. And so John is unequivocally making clear that God loves us not because he foresaw somewhere in the future that we would love him and that we would have anything within us that would incline us towards him. No, because the scripture makes it clear we're spiritually dead. Dead people don't love and that Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 3, Titus chapter 3 verse 3, Romans chapter 3 verses 10 through 12 and on and on there is nothing in us that in and of ourselves would ever seek God, would ever have any interest in God, would ever love God. If we have been inclined to come to faith in Christ, it is because God in his sovereign, eternal, mysterious purposes has so chosen to display his love in us and through us in Christ. We need to see this love of the Father in giving his son and a giving that originated in his heart and his heart alone. We need to do away with every hint of entitlement in our hearts and minds. Oh, it's so subtle and yet so pervasive in us, isn't it? That we think that we are entitled to God showing us some favor. That we deserve it. We may not say it in these terms, but don't we often think or at least are tempted to think that, well, of course God loves us, it's his job. to love us as if we employ Him. Beloved, God's love is free. God's love is unbound. God's love is sovereign. We need to do away with any thought that we bring anything to Him. We bring nothing to Him but our sin. And so we see the love of the Father in giving His Son. That's the first aspect of love to highlight. It encompasses the fact and the purpose and the origin of the incarnation of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice, second of all, the second aspect of the love of the Father We see the love of God the Father in giving His Son as a substitute. In giving His Son as a substitute. Notice in verse 10, in this is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God sent in love his son for the purpose of being a substitute to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friend Jesus Christ did not come simply to teach us about himself or simply to teach us about God. He didn't come simply to just be an example of love and good deeds and yes, countless things we see in Him and countless things we can learn from Him. But He fundamentally came because of the love of the Father to be a sacrifice to save us from our sins. Now the term that's used there propitiation means that he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He and he alone is the one who satisfies the wrath of God on behalf of all of those who would trust him. in His body, on the cross, and even all that was encompassed in the things that He experienced throughout His earthly life, but as it all came to fulfillment and fruition on the cross, God the Father, in the full fury of His love, in the full display of His love, pours out His wrath upon the eternal Son of God. and in what Christ suffered on the cross, he satisfied the holy, righteous anger and wrath of God, so that God is now able to be favorable toward those who are trusting in Christ, because his wrath for our sin is satisfied in Christ. That's what is meant by Christ propitiating the Father, by being the propitiation for our sins. He satisfied the full fury, the full righteous and just fury of the Father in the place of all who would trust Him. What mystery there is in this, that the Father in His love for those who have rebelled against Him In the mystery of the concurrence of his love, even with his wrath and his righteous wrath, his just wrath poured out upon sin would give his own son to be the one who would satisfy that wrath as a substitute for those who would believe on him. It is only Jesus Christ, only Jesus Christ, only Jesus Christ that eternally satisfies the wrath of God. O tremble at the truth that those who die outside of Christ, those who will suffer God's righteous wrath and condemnation for all eternity, that such ones will never satisfy His wrath. His wrath will be poured out for all eternity upon them. Upon you if you have not trusted Christ. Yet in Christ the eternal Son of God, eternal wrath is satisfied. So in love, God the Father gives his son to be a substitute, to be the propitiation for our sin. Octavius Winslow, a pastor from a generation gone past, says this, quote, herein is love, as though John would say, and nowhere else but here. that God should punish the innocent for the guilty, that He should exact the blood of His Son to cancel the guilt of His rebels, that He should lay an infinite weight of wrath on His soul in order to lay an infinite weight of love on ours, that He should sacrifice His life of priceless value for ours, worthless, forfeited, and doomed. and that he should not only give his son, but that he should bruise him, put him to grief, afflict him, that he should make his soul an offering for sin, that the Lord of glory should become a man of sorrows, that the Lord of life should die, and the heir of all things should be as him that serves. Winslow goes on to say, oh, depth of love unfathomable, oh, height of love unsearchable, oh, length and breadth of love of God, which passes knowledge. And again we sing, and can it be? And can it be? So we see the love of the Father in giving His Son. We see the love of the Father in giving His Son as a substitute And then the third aspect of his love, we see the love of the father in giving his son as a substitute for sinners. For sinners. Notice again in verse 10. But that he loved us. And he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Not somebody else's sins. Our sins. All of us are guilty. In love God the Father gave his son as a substitute for sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, suffered and died for we who do not deserve His love and could never merit His favor on our own. Such is His love. Us refers to His sheep. Right? In the context of John chapter 10 when Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. That's us. Sinners who are undeserving of His love. And He died as a substitute not because of our merit but because of our need and because of the Father's sovereign love in light of that need. One commentator has said, quote, in this phrase, we find the deepest meaning of the term love. Love means forgiving the sins of the beloved and remembering them no more. This is what God has done for rebellious mankind. He pardons their sins against himself at his own cost. The depth of God's love is to be seen precisely in the way in which it bears the wounds inflicted on it by mankind and offers full and free pardon. Jesus Christ, dear friend, if you belong to Him, was given through the love of the Father as a substitute for you and for your sin, sufficient for all in the world who would trust Him. Do you know that personally? Do you know not simply as a true, biblical, theological reality, not only that Christ died for sins, but do you know it in your soul that Christ died for your sins and that you have come into the love of the Father because of his sheer, sovereign grace and love and mercy? says Paul testified praise God indeed it says Paul testified in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Dear friend do you know that in your own soul? He wants you to. That's why He calls us to the table. That's why He gives us His word that we would ever see, increasingly see, ever know, increasingly rely upon the wonder of His love for us in Christ. Is it not true that we are often tempted to think that we are so wretched and we're so vile and we're so sinful and polluted? Our consciences continually can condemn us And in the hidden recesses of our hearts and our minds, we think, boy, if people really knew what was going on in my mind, if people really knew what kinds of things were happening, and we think, how can such a holy God love us? And the truth is, dear friend, even as we might often be tempted to think of ourselves that way, the truth is, we don't even know the half of how wretched we are. We don't even know the half of how vile and putrid and ugly and heinous is any measure of unbelief and rebellion against God. We don't know the half of it. But God does. And He loves us in Christ. And He gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Friend we have nothing. We are nothing. We can do nothing on our own. We have nothing to bring to Christ except our sin. And we don't even bring ourselves. He brings us. He brings us. He's the power. He's the substance and the model of how we are to walk. And that's why, dear friend, our greatest need is ever to know the love of God in Christ. Ever to behold the wonder of His love. Not just see it as some passing little sentimental statement that might be on a poster or a plaque that we stick somewhere in our house, or, oh yes, we know God is love, but oh, what about the, I mean, we just, we diminish it so greatly. Do you know it in the depth of your soul? Are you awestruck by His love? Are you caught up in His love? He would have us to know it and do away with bitterness and do away with complaining and do away with ingratitude and excusing and blaming, but rather acknowledging our sin in light of His holiness and yet rejoicing all the more in the greatness of His permanent, ongoing sacrifice on our behalf. He loves us. In love God the Father gave His Son. In love God the Father gave His Son as a substitute. In love God the Father gave His Son as a substitute for sinners. As a substitute for sinners. This is the glory of the love of the Father for His Son through His Son for His people. He calls us to the table to be reminded. and to take inventory, we come to the table as sinners, don't we? We don't come claiming any righteousness. We don't come claiming any perfection. We come acknowledging our sin, even as we sang in that song earlier. But we come trusting in His love, trusting in the perfection and the sufficiency of His sacrifice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how great our need is continually to remember and to have a deepening confidence in and appreciation of the love of God the Father for us through Jesus Christ. And again, how great is our spiritual danger to forget the immeasurable wonder of the love of God the Father for us through His Son Jesus Christ. And how great is our spiritual danger to look for love in the wrong places. Remember what John said earlier in chapter two of 1 John? He warns against the dangers of loving this world. He says in verses 15 through 17, do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts but the one who does the will of God lives forever. The world is a false love and the world would ever hold its allurements and its temptations before us as a tragic subversion to the love of God in Christ. And we are frequently tempted and we frequently succumb in sin in loving the world and thus replacing undermining and substituting the true love of God. Beloved, the Lord knows that and he is holy and he is full of love and he calls you to know his love and be amazed at his love and trust in his love and acknowledge your sin and acknowledge that you can't do anything to forgive your sin of your own accord. You can't do anything to make yourself righteous of your own accord. He calls you to see and know his love in Christ all the more fully and to confess your sins and to trust that Christ in his one time permanently sufficient sacrifice continues on in the merit of that sacrifice as our propitiation for all who would trust him. Love what John says, I live on this, I go to sleep on this since it's condemned because of my own very real sin. He says 1 John 2 verses 1 and 2, My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. He calls us to holiness, but he says if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He himself is the propitiation for our sins not for ours only but also for those of the whole world. Which is to say that his sacrifice is sufficient for any and all in the world who would trust him. And we do that by faith. We partake of the bread in the cup as a symbolic remembrance of his body and blood. It's not only that we eat and drink the bread in the cup but it pictures for us that we are to be eating and drinking the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his merit for us. In Isaiah chapter 55, we hear this invitation which is expressed even in the song that we sang earlier, Come Ye Sinners. Listen to Isaiah 55 verses 1 and following. Ho, the prophet says, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come and buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money on what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me, God says. Listen that you may live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercy shown to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and a commander for the peoples. Behold, you'll call a nation that you do not know and a nation which knows you not will run to you because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. And the invitation and the commandment continues. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he'll have compassion on him. and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. There is an initial coming to faith in Christ. There is an initial acknowledgment of sin, acknowledgment of helplessness, acknowledgment of guilt and condemnation and inability to save yourself. There's an initial coming to Christ, but God calls us to continually come, to continually feed on and feast on Christ, to continually believe in him. Jesus said it this way in John chapter six. You don't need to turn there, but just listen to some of these statements from Jesus following the miracle of feeding thousands of people miraculously. Jesus says this, verse 26, to the crowds who had gathered because he had fed them. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. He says don't work for the food which perishes but for the food which endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you for on him the Father God has set his seal. And therefore they said to him what shall we do that we may work the works of God. Jesus answered and said to them this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. And so they said to him, well, what then do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread out of heaven to eat. And Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. And Jesus says, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger. He who believes in me will never thirst. What is he saying? He's saying friend you don't need physical food as much as you need me. I am the bread. I am who you need. Feed on me. Feed on me. Feed on me. And so we come to the table. a symbolic remembrance of partaking of Christ by faith, of being reminded afresh, being reminded anew, being deepened anew in the greatness of the Father's love for his own through his sovereign saving purposes in Christ. And so we come to the table. It's important to note that as we do prepare to share in the table as we prepare to share in the bread and in the cup as a reminder of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a time to be shared in by those who are relying, trusting upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a means of testifying, of confessing, acknowledging our union with him and our identification with him. If that is not true of you, if you are not born again, if you are not trusting in Christ, when the bread is passed, when the cup is passed, please don't partake of it. You will be bringing greater judgment upon yourself. You will be deepening the hardness of your heart. We don't want that for anyone. We want you to repent and to know His love. and certainly even as a professing believer, if there is sin in any way that you are harboring in your heart, any measure of sin before the Lord, any measure of sin towards another person that you are harboring, that you know is there, that you have not repented from, and that you are not turning to the Lord and confessing, repenting, acknowledging that, don't eat or drink as well. You need to deal with those issues, and if there are matters between you and another person that you know you have responsibility to deal with, you need a purpose to do that before sharing in these things. The Lord knows, and the Lord wants us to know His love, and He wants us to grow in His love. Father, we are so thankful for Your grace, and for Your love, and for Your truth, and for Your glory. And Lord, even as we share in these symbols that you have given us, may the truth and the reality and the wonder of your love in Christ and through Christ be all the more manifest in our hearts and in our lives. We thank you that you have given us these symbols that we might be reminded, knowing how quickly we forget, knowing how quickly we are tempted and drawn into other loves. Oh Father, cleanse us afresh, renew us afresh, and may you be glorified through it as we sing of the great wonder and joy of your love for us in Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.