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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amen. So welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday morning and happy Valentine's Day for those that are celebrating Valentine's Day. Make sure I got, yeah, so yeah, so upcoming events here on the list nothing crazy. We have the men's prayer meeting at the end of this month and we're already mid February, so mid February so everybody's probably like, yes, get through winter, we want spring to come. But, and then the women's prayer meeting will actually be March 6th, so does that help you feel better? Like your next prayer meeting is going to be in March. And then our chapter memory for the month is 2 Timothy chapter 4, so we're going to be finishing up the book of 2 Timothy. Not a super long chapter, chapter 3 wasn't that long, but 2 Timothy 4. Again, if there's someone in here that says, hey, I want to memorize a book and you want it to be like a church thing, let me know because I'm just randomly picking these books. I picked 2 Timothy because I needed to finish it, so I'm putting myself in there on this one. But if there's another book that you want to memorize but you want the church to kind of be in it with us, or all of us in there with you, let me know. And then 1 John 2.22 is our memory verse. You know, I should have probably picked a different one, but it's who is a liar but he is to deny that Jesus is the Christ, he is the Antichrist, to deny the Father and the Son. I used it out this week, so it was on my mind, but I probably should have picked one about love, but it's still a good verse to have on there, so have that memorized and you can get a piece of candy for that. And then our soloing time today is at 1 p.m., so after the service, try to get a bite to eat and then meet back here to get paired up without soloing at 1 o'clock, and then we have the Tuesday soloing time at 6 p.m. Brother Charles leads up, so be on the WhatsApp for that as far as time of meetups and all that for soloing. We have a bunch of birthdays that are coming up this week, so we have Brother Chris, that's tomorrow, and then we have Miss Taylor, so what would that be, Thursday? Right? Thursday? And then Lily, so you guys have the same birthday, so Lily on Thursday as well, and then on Friday we have Henry, so we have a bunch of birthdays here, a couple of Gandy's in there, and so we'll sing Happy Birthday for all of you before we get into the last song, and then we have the pregnancies on there now, so we have my wife, so be in prayer, obviously because her due date will be here before you know it. Her due date is April 2nd, so but if you've known all the Robinson babies, they've all come early, but it's a boy this time, so maybe he'll wait longer. You never know, but just be in prayer, obviously, for my wife as we're coming, you know, to the end of the pregnancy here, but obviously with a healthy baby, safe delivery and all that, and then be in prayer for Miss Joyce, Miss Tabby with their pregnancies, and so happy to see that, and be in prayer for all those that are trying to have you know, babies, and or just having problems, you know, like all those different things that are going on in the church. I feel like every church deals with that, and just be in prayer for that, and so, you know, but it's definitely a blessing to see the babies in the church, and all the kids, and as far as other announcements, I mean everything else is just the typical stuff as far as the offering box in the back. I need to get the tax, your tithe returns. I have the Excel file with all the end of the year from last year. Let me know if you just need to know that number. I can give you that number as far as like how much you tithe. If you give in a check, or if you give where you actually put your name on there, I keep track of it. If you just put money, if you just put cash in there, it's just anonymous. I can't keep track of that because I can't know who touched that dollar bill or who touched that. But if you need to know that, and you're like, hey, it's February and I still haven't gotten that, I can give you that number real quick, and then I can give you the sheet so you can have that on file so that if you were to get audited, they can be like, yes, this is legit. But I have the file, I have not had a chance to get those, basically I just need to put it in a Word document and say that, hey, I approved this message that you gave this much. But that, and keep that in mind too, if you give and it's anonymous, that's fine. I don't care. But if you put your name on it, then if you were to claim that on your taxes as charitable giving to a church, if they audit you, they could end up coming back and saying, hey, who'd you give that to, and all that. It's all about just making sure we don't go to jail. And with Biden, he's just taking more taxes. So, hashtag, thanks Biden. But yeah, so just on that, I apologize, it's taken me a little bit to get that, but if you need to know that, I can give you that number real quick. I can give you that number today if you want to know that, if you just need to know the final amount that you've given last year. Besides that, I can't think of anything else that's on the list here. Just being prepared for those that may be traveling. I know my mom is in Ohio and traveling, but if anybody else is traveling and stuff like that, the roads have been awesome recently. Especially in West Virginia, they really take care of our roads. Another reason why the government is awesome at everything they do, and you know what the answer is? Give them more money. At least that's what they tell me. Anyway, besides that, I think that's it for announcements. Everything's business as usual this Sunday, so nothing out of the ordinary. Brother Dave is going to come and sing one more song, and then sing Happy Birthday to the birthday kids, and then we'll have the scripture reading. Who's reading this morning? Brother Jason is going to be reading 1 John 4 for us this morning. All right. Take your songbooks and turn to song 227. Song 227. We're going to sing Saved by the Blood, but before we do that, we need to sing Happy Birthday to a whole slew of folks. Mine is Lily and Henry, Taylor and Chris. All right. Let's see who's going to be rebellious. I need everyone standing up. Really? We got Henry? That's it? No, Lily, you stand up. You have to obey me. All right. Nobody else? Not going to stand up, brother? Taylor, come on. Help me out here. All right. All right. How old are you all going to be? Lily? 14. Henry? All right. All right. How old are you all going to be? Lily? 14. Three. Taylor? Chris? 23. All right. All right. We'll sing Happy Birthday to you all. Here we go. Ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, everyone. All right. And we'll sing song 227. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Now ransomed from sin and a new work begun. Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved, saved. My sins are all pardoned. My guilt is all gone. Saved, saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. The angels rejoicing because it is done. A child of the Father joined heir with the Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved, saved. My sins are all pardoned. My guilt is all gone. Saved, saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. The Father he's spake and it was done. Great price of my pardon, his own precious Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved, saved. My sins are all pardoned. My guilt is all gone. Saved, saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. All hail to the Father. All hail to the Son. All hail to the Spirit, the great three in one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved, saved. My sins are all pardoned. My guilt is all gone. Saved, saved. Saved. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. All right, take your Bibles. Turn to 1 John 4. 1 John chapter 4. Brother Jason will read that for us. All right, 1 John chapter 4. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are not we are of God, he that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error. 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. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Here in his 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 are also to love one another. No man hath 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 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? In this commandment, in this commandment, have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this church, Lord. I just pray that you would be with Pastor Robinson as he delivers the message, and help us all to learn and be edified, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So you're there in 1 John chapter 4, and I want to preach a sermon called Let us love one another. Let us love one another. And this sermon is really, I mean, if you think about it, it's Valentine's Day. And we celebrate Valentine's Day, and so you may not, and that's fine. I'm not here to preach. You should celebrate Valentine's Day. But I do want to hit on that real quick. Go to Romans chapter 14. Just dealing with holidays and all that. And I don't think it's wrong to have a day where you celebrate loving each other. So that's essentially where my stance is on it. And you say, well, you know, the history of Valentine's, I don't know the history of Valentine's Day. So, you know, I've heard it. I've heard, like, some, but, you know, that stuff gets foggy as far as what's real about that, and, you know, what's just folklore, and all that stuff. And really, to me, I don't really care. I'm celebrating Valentine's Day as a day to say, hey, to my children, I love you. To my wife, I love you. And, you know, we reciprocate that, and I think it's a good thing to do. But if you don't want to do that on a certain day, or if you want to do that on a different day, there's nothing wrong with that. So this isn't a sermon to say, you know, you should celebrate Valentine's Day. But I want to say this. In Romans chapter 14, verse 5, it says, one man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. And so if me celebrating to love my wife, to love my children, and for them to love each other, that's not wrong. There's nothing wrong with celebrating that. So I choose to celebrate it, and other people may not, and that's fine. But I think it's a good opportunity to preach on loving one another, okay? So we can all agree on this, is that we should love one another. And I want to preach on this because there's different avenues depending on who you're dealing with as far as that goes. And you know, I just got done preaching a bunch of sermons about who you shouldn't love. But see, that's a very small group of people, okay? When you're dealing with that type of, you know, like psychopaths and stuff like that, that's a very small group, okay? You're dealing with maybe 2% of the population when you're dealing with that. That means that most people you should be loving, okay? You should be kind and, you know, charitable too and all that. And I think Valentine's Day is a good day if you get out of the corporate realm. It's just like Christmas, right? There's nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas, but I'm not up here like promoting Santa Claus and, you know, like all the commercialization to it, right? We celebrate Christmas because of the birth of Christ, and we center it around that. And when it comes to Valentine's Day, I center it around the fact that I love my wife, I love my children, and we want to love each other, right? And it's a day to just spread that, hey, siblings, you should love each other, right? And, you know, the Bible hits on this a lot when it talks about us siblings as far as brothers and sisters in Christ loving one another. So go to Matthew chapter 22, first of all. Matthew chapter 22, we'll get back to 1 John chapter 4, because if there was a chapter on the love of God, you know, I was appointed to one. 1 John 4 is one of the big ones I would point to when it comes to that, and we're going to get back to that. But I want you to first of all see that love is the fulfilling of the law, okay? So when you think of love, you say, well, what does that mean? You know, is that just a feeling? Now, I don't want to take the feeling out of it, okay? It's not this stoic type of love, okay, meaning that it's just business, right? That's not, you know, what love is. Love is an emotion, but it's also what you do shows whether you really love somebody, okay? And that's what it gets into when it comes to keeping God's commandments, okay? You can say you love God, but if you don't keep His commandments, then you're not really loving Him. And you can still have the emotion, like, I love God, and you have that emotion, that's great, but how do you prove to God that you love Him? How do you show Him that you love Him? How do you show other people that you love them? And not to say that you don't physically have the emotion of loving somebody, but if you don't show it, if you don't outwardly show it or do things to show it, then it's not being brought forth, right? They're not going to, you know, they can hear you say that, but there's a difference between hearing it and seeing it applied, okay? Now, in Matthew 22 and verse 35, it says, Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked them a question tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law in the prophets. Everything hangs on the fact of loving God and loving your neighbor. And how can you simplify that anymore? We're just loving, right? Now, when it goes to John chapter 14, I kind of already hit this, but you know, when it comes to going to heaven, it's not about loving God or loving your neighbor, okay? You don't go to heaven by loving God and loving your neighbor. You go to heaven because you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You trusted him to save you from hell. That is how you get saved. But we don't want to negate the fact that, hey, we need to be loving God, and we need to be keeping his commandments because that fulfills the law, okay? And I'm going to explain that. Actually, the Bible explains that, okay? What that means when it says love fulfills the law. In John 14 and verse 15, John 14 and verse 15 says, If you love me, keep my commandments, okay? This is very consistent throughout the Bible when it comes to the relationship of love and keeping the law, okay? And go to Romans chapter 13 and here I believe it really does explain this to the T as far as what that means, okay? Because when you think of the law, you think of what? The Ten Commandments, first of all, right? And the First Commandments are dealing with God directly. You're thinking, like, have no other gods before me, not making any graven image, bowing down to him, so idolatry. Then you have thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, right? So at least the first three are, like, directly talking about God, right? To God and obviously if you have another god beside him, you're not loving to him, okay? And if you're bowing down to some idol, then you're not being loving to him. If you're taking his name in vain, you're not being loving to him. You're not loving God by doing that, okay? In Romans chapter 13 and verse 8, notice what it says, Owe no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. And this is something that you're going to see over and over again, that love is the fulfilling of the law. But here's how that is explained, okay? Notice what it says in verse 9. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. What are we dealing with? We're dealing with all those commandments that are dealing with one another, right? As far as your neighbor and not killing them, not committing adultery against them, not stealing from them, not lying to them, not coveting their stuff, right? And then it says, verse, or keep reading there, it says, if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this. Namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. So, what's the whole purpose of the law? Okay? Is to love your neighbor. Okay? And, it's simple as this. If you kill your neighbor, you didn't love them. Okay? If you commit adultery against your wife or against your neighbor's wife, you didn't love your wife and you didn't love your neighbor because you did that. Okay? And same thing with lying, stealing, coveting, right? So, here's the simple truth. If you're hurting your neighbor, if you're doing ill towards your neighbor, you're not loving your neighbor. Okay? And it's very simple when you think of it that way, that love is the fulfilling of the law. So, what you're really dealing with here is that instead of being on the defense of like, what am I not breaking? Okay? Be on the offense and saying, I'm going to love my neighbor. Therefore, that all takes care of itself. Right? Does that make sense? Like, it's just very simple that if you love God and love your neighbor, you're not going to kill them. You're not going to commit adultery against them. You're not going to steal from them. You're not going to lie to them. You're not going to defraud them. You're not going to do anything that's going to hurt them if you love them. Okay? So, it's the fulfilling of the law because of that. And go to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13. So, I just want to make this very clear that, you know, once we get saved, you know, it talks about the fact that, do we make void law because we're saved by grace, not by works? It says, God forbid, yea, we establish the law. You know, as believers, we are children of light. We are the children of God. We are supposed to be fulfilling the law and walk in that as a child of light, walk as a child of God, and fulfill the law by loving one another. Okay? And 1 John really hits on that a lot. And that's why I'm, you know, that's my text passage. I'm going to be getting into that as far as loving one another. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13. It says, for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only to use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. So what's the opposite of loving your neighbor, biting and devouring each other? Okay? What it's basically stating this is that the law is fulfilled in one word, right? And a lot of times in the Bible when it says the word of God, it's not just talking about one word, right? It's talking about the words of God, right? Every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, right? You should live by every word of God. And the idea here is that it's fulfilled in one word. Love thy neighbor as thyself. And, but the opposite of that is biting and devouring one another and you can just list a lot of things that would be sins that you could do against your brother, against your neighbor, and all that. Go to James chapter 2 and I just want you to see all these places where it's saying that love is the fulfilling of the law. This is not in a corner, I'm not just showing you one place where it says this, but because I think it gets cliche, you know, like, oh, we should love one another. And it gets cliche, right? When you think of that it's like, well, we just need to love and just love each other, right? But what does that mean? Well, what that means is that you're not sinning against your brother. That means that you're keeping God's commandments. And it really shows you what the commandments are intended for, okay? Because God didn't just make these commandments just to say, I want to make your life hard, okay? The reason he's giving us these commandments is so that we would have love one toward another, that we would not only love God, but we love our brother and we love our neighbor, and that would be the fulfilling of the law. That's the whole purpose of the law, is so that we love one another, okay? And James chapter 2 and verse 8 here says, if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. So it's stating here that, you know, you fulfill the royal law by what? Loving your neighbor as yourself. But if you have respect to persons, then you're a sinner, okay? And the whole context here, obviously, is dealing with someone that's rich compared to someone that's poor, and you're respecting the rich man, and you're despising the poor man, okay? But it works both ways, right? You shouldn't just respect the poor man and hate the rich man, okay? It should be equal playing field, okay? That I love this person, you know, whether they're rich or poor, whether they're in a high position of authority or whether they're just in a base position of authority, you know, I should love that person either way. And it shouldn't be like this hierarchy of love, okay? Now, I'll say this. I love my family. My love for my family is above my love for my typical neighbor, okay? But my love for God is above that, okay? And that's the way it should be. It should be love God and then love your family and then love all that. But that doesn't mean that, you know, like, well, I'm getting the bottom of the barrel, right? You guys are thinking like, oh, well, we'll get the bottom of the barrel after your God and family, you know, where are we at, okay? Well, you can judge that, you know, as far as like, is that horrible love that you have there? But let's just be honest, we all are in that boat, right? When it comes to your family, who are you going to make sure is safe before anybody else? It's going to be your family, okay? That's natural. That's the way it's intended to be. You know what? That's how everybody takes care of everything, too, right? If everything just, something crazy happened right now, you know what should happen? All the parents should be taking care of their own children and getting them safe and not expect someone else to do it, okay? Because then there's going to be chaos, right? Everybody's trying to take care of everybody else's kids and nothing's getting done and all that. So, go to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12 and verse 9. Romans chapter 12 and verse 9. It says here in verse 9, it says, Let love be without the simulation. A poor that which is evil cleaves it that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. So, it's kind of giving you a lot of different ways that you can be kindly affectionate to each other, you know, distributing to the saints, giving to hospitality, instant in prayer, you know, all these different things that you can do. But, you know, by love serve one another, okay? And the idea here is that how do you show love to each other but by serving one another? Okay? And Jesus is the ultimate servant. He said, I came not to be ministered unto but to minister. Okay? And he came to serve us. Why? Because God still loved the world and he gave his only begotten son and, you know, Jesus said, No greater love hath a man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. And Jesus is showing that love, you know, that God commended his love toward us and that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us. And all these things are true. God is the example, okay? So, when you want to say, Well, how should I love my neighbor? Well, look at how God loves us and follow. Okay? And so, there's a lot of verses on this but let's just get into some examples. First, I want to hit on loving your enemy. Okay? And this is the harder one to do. But go to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. But loving your enemy. Okay? When we're loving one another, this doesn't just mean love those that love you. Loving your enemy. Again, people take this too far to say we should love those that hate God. You know, we should love psychopaths and love pedophiles and all this stuff. It's like, no, I mean, the Bible is very clear about what as far as that goes. But by and large, most people you run into are not psychopaths. They're not reprobate. Okay? And there's plenty of people that hate my ever living guts that's not a hater of God. Okay? There's people that don't like my face. That don't like me as a person. That don't like anything about me for whatever reason. Okay? It doesn't have to be logical, but it could just be they don't like you. Right? It could be in the workplace. It could be, you know, at the gym. It could be somewhere else. Whatever the case may be, whether they're saved or lost, there's people that I would consider enemies or that they're my enemy for some reason or another. Okay? But I shouldn't hate them because they don't like me. I shouldn't hate them because they hate me. Okay? You don't reciprocate that. And the idea here is that we need to go the other direction. Instead of hating your enemy, you should love your enemy. And notice what it says here in Matthew 5, verse 43. Matthew chapter 5, verse 43. Famous sermon on the mountain. And it says in verse 43, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. Now, first of all, it says you have heard that it has been said. It doesn't say that as it is written, it says hate your enemy. Because what you'll never find in the Old Testament is where it says thou shalt hate thine enemy. Actually, I'm going to show you in the Old Testament where it actually says the opposite. So he's not basically giving you this dichotomy of like Old Testament and New Testament. In this case, he's giving you something that people are saying this. Be like, well, were they saying wrong stuff at that time? Should I have to say that? I mean, he's literally ripping the Pharisees over and over again for their traditions of men and all these commandments that they're teaching that are not biblical and that actually negate the Bible. And notice what it says in verse 44. It says, But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Now, this is a hard one. When it comes to loving each other in a church, that's not usually that hard. It can be, because there can be backbiting, there can be strife, there can be things that would cause you to not want to be loving or kind to each other. And same thing with siblings. You think of siblings loving each other and all that. So it's not like that's always easy. But here's the thing. When it comes to your enemies, those that are cursing you, those that are just really mean to you and all this stuff, those are the people that's hard to be loving to. And this is where we really need to be working on as Christians. Verse 45, it says, That ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? But ye, be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven, is perfect. Okay? And what God is getting to here, what Jesus is getting to here, is the fact that you know, yeah, it's easier when someone loves you back. Okay? But all the time in the Bible, it's talking about, you know, why do you, why do you give to the poor? You know, why do you say, okay, I'm going to make a meal for the poor? The whole point is that they can't pay you back. Okay? But your reward will be in heaven. And the idea of loving someone that doesn't love you, there's no reward physically, there's no reciprocation there, right? But I'll say this, when you love your enemies, there's miraculous things that happen when you do that. Okay? Someone's just nasty to you on the phone, you know, a client is being nasty to you or whatever, but you reciprocate in love and kindness, there, you know, you'll be surprised on how that turns around real quick. Okay? You know, someone that hates you at the job and you're like, hey, I just wanted to buy you a drink, you know, like a vitamin water, I mean, okay, not alcohol. Okay? I know it's 2021, you say that and you're like, what are you at the bar? What are you doing? I'm saying, like, an actual drink that's good to drink. Okay? But you buy them, like, a snack, you buy them lunch, right? And it's not because, you know, you're doing that because, hey, you know what, the Bible says I should love my enemy, I'm going to love my enemy. You know what's going to end up happening? That person's going to end up not being your enemy for very long. Okay? Now, there's some people you're not going to win over. Okay? There's just some people that just, they're just not, it doesn't matter what you do. Okay? But in a lot of cases, it will help. Go to Romans chapter 12, because Romans chapter 12 reiterates that, this, as far as what Jesus is saying here, about loving our enemy. And listen, especially in the climate we live in today, there are a lot of, you know, haters of God that are in office today. Right? There's a lot of wicked people that are leading our country. But listen, everybody that supports them, I do not believe that half our country are reprobate. Okay? But these people that are just spouting off this ignorance about socialism, and this ignorance about all this, you know, whatever, the liberal agenda is today. Okay? They're not all haters of God. Okay? They may hate us. Okay? Because of our stance on the Bible, our stance on moral issues and all that. And they may hate our living guts because of that, but we should not be hating them because of that. Okay? So, I'm not saying you shouldn't hate what they stand for. Okay? But this is a case where, yeah, you don't have to support what they do, you don't have to do anything like that, but we need to be loving towards them and be compassionate towards them and not just be there to just put them into the dirt. Okay? Romans chapter 12 and verse 14. And like I said, this is the hard one. Okay? It was easy. Everybody be loving their enemy. Okay? But this is the hard one. Verse 14, it says, Okay? And you say, I can't believe you're preaching this when you preach against the Sodomites and you preach against these haters of God. No, I'm preaching the whole Bible. Okay? And I never didn't believe this when I was preaching that. It's just that for that group of people, for those that hate God, that's what they get. Okay? No love for me. But 98% of the rest of the population, and let's say half of that hates my ever-living guts because of how I preach against the 2% there, I should love them. I should be praying that they get saved. I should be praying, you know, that they hear the truth and that they change what they believe on that issue and not be saying, God, just smite them all that they die. Okay? When you're talking about imprecatory prayers or cursings, right? Because that's what we're talking about, right? Blessing and cursing not. When you're talking about cursing, that is a harsh thing to be dealing out. Okay? A curse of like, let them go to hell. Like, that shouldn't be light. That should be for false prophets, you know, people that are haters of God, people that are trying to basically send people to hell and people that are hurting children, you know, that's what that's reserved for, okay? But when people like, hate you because of your stance on something, because of what you preach, what you say, right? I'm not saying you can't say that they're wrong, okay? This isn't to say like, just shut your mouth and let them just roll over you, okay? That's not what I'm saying. Because you can preach the truth in love. You know what? And the wounds of a friend are faithful, okay? Meaning this is that, that person that hates you, doesn't mean that you can't tell them, hey, you know, this is why this is wrong, you know, here's the Bible. But you do that in a loving, kind way to where you're like, hey, it's not about just me winning this argument with you, it's about me actually wanting to change your mind on this. Me wanting to actually show you the truth. This is where you get into Facebook posts, okay? Why do you put up a Facebook post? Why do you put up social media posts? Is it just to make people angry? Or is it because you actually want people to see the truth and change their mind about the truth? Now, here's the thing. The Bible's offensive, okay? I could put up John 14 6 and it'll trigger a lot of people. Why? Because it's saying Jesus is the only way. And people will be triggered and hate you for it, okay? But anything, and I'm not saying, you say, well, is there a verse that I shouldn't put on social media? No. I don't care what verse you put up on social media, okay? But usually it's not the verse that you're putting up, it's what you're saying and your intent behind it, okay? How you're saying that, okay? If you put up Leviticus 2013 and say, listen, the world needs to hear this. It's a harsh truth, but the world needs to hear this. There's nothing wrong with that, okay? I'm not saying like you're out there just to get attention, okay? Or you're just out there to stir the waters. But if that's all you're putting out, okay? There's got to be balance in the Christian life, meaning that there shouldn't just be this hobby horse on that one subject and that's all you care about, okay? And when you think about this, the Bible does teach that we should hate certain people, but what does it teach more? About loving one another, okay? So you think about like where he's preaching to the Pharisees saying, you tithe on mint and anise and cumin and all this stuff. But you leave out the weight of your matters of the law, okay? It says you need to fulfill these weight of your matters, and it says don't leave this other undone though, okay? He's not saying don't tithe on the mint and the anise and all your increase, okay? He's not saying that shouldn't be done, but he's saying, hey, listen, there's weight of your matters that you should deal with here. And again, you know, when it comes to this, I'm not saying to leave off that stuff because obviously it needs to be preached, and the stuff that is being shoved in our face every single day needs to be preached harder, okay? If it wasn't a big issue today, it wouldn't be preached as much because it's just not a big issue, okay? There's certain things in our country that aren't as big of an issue right now, so why would I preach on something that's that big of an issue right now, okay? Go to Proverbs chapter 25 because you see at the end of Romans chapter 12 there, it says, therefore, if thy enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. That's in the Old Testament. So this whole idea of like, well, the Old Testament teaches you you should hate your enemy, it's not true. Romans 12 is actually pulling from the Old Testament, pulling from Proverbs, which is written by Solomon, okay? So, notice what it says in Proverbs 25 and verse 21. It says, if thy enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat. If he be thirsty, give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee. Okay? So, same thing, right? It's just quoting it and it's applying it, okay? So when you're reading Romans chapter 12 and you see all this, the idea is what? Don't avenge yourself, let God deal with that, okay? You're putting coals of fire on their head, okay? Meaning that if someone just hates your guts and doing bad things to you and then you reciprocate with loving them and doing good things to him, how does God look at that? Okay? That means that person's punishment is getting worse because you're doing that. But it also, you know, when you think of this verse, I also think about this too, that when someone's just like really mean to you and then you give them something nice and you do something good for them, that burns to the core on them, right? I mean, think about it. Imagine you were nasty to somebody and they're like, and then they come and give you this gift. Aren't you going to feel like a heel? Aren't you going to feel really bad about like how you spoke to that person? You ever, you know, the Bible says in Proverbs, you know, a soft answer turneth away wrath. This is a great principle to have, especially if you work, you know, you're working with clients and you're working with people that can be very you know, just abrasive and nasty to you. Just this week, you know, I was dealing with a project and it was one of those things where you get a submittal, technically under contract, I have 14 days to answer that submittal, right? Like, they can't just say, you've got to have this back today, okay? And like, you're breaking our contract. I have two weeks. I have two weeks to get that submittal reviewed, okay? Got it on Friday, get a call on Tuesday, where's it at? You're dropping the ball. Okay? And the funny part about that was is that I actually talked to the main person, my main client, who's heading up the project, told me to not review it yet because they're waiting on an answer for something else. We don't want to send it out yet because we still got to answer this other question, right? So, not only that, so imagine, okay, that your client's telling you don't review this yet. Someone else in the same company calls you up and says you're dropping the ball. I need this done now. Don't listen to that person, hangs up the phone on you, okay? So, obviously, you're like, what's going on? You know, like, how you know, like, it'll make you angry, right? You're just kind of like, I'm dropping the ball? Like, it's three days, you know, like, if you count that, okay? But here's the right way to deal with it, and I'm not saying I'm perfect here, but you know what I said? I said I'll get it done today. Worked overtime, got it done. Okay? Get a call back from the same guy a couple days later. Different project. He was as nice as could be to me. He's just like, thank you so much for taking care of that. I hate to bother you right now, but I got some other question about another project. Could you please, you know, like, take care of that? But you know what that, I'm not saying this guy was my enemy, okay? Like, I'm not, this isn't perfect example here, but this is an example of how do you deal with that situation. Should I say, hey, listen, I got two weeks, and I'm waiting two weeks to get this done now that you're nasty to me about it, okay? Is that the right answer? Be like, listen, there's someone above you that told me to do something else. Maybe you need to stick in your lane, you know? Like, you know, there's a lot of things you could say in that, but it's that smart. First of all, not smart with your client, okay? It's not smart to make anybody that you're working for that's paying your bills, you know, to be nasty to them. But second of all, you know what, that's not going to help anything, okay? That's not going to help anybody by being nasty. And it's just an example of, okay, you know what, instead of reciprocating that anger, which, you could see how that'd be justified, right? I mean, could anybody fleshly speaking see how that's not justified? Someone's telling you you're dropping the ball, and you're not. Not only are you not dropping the ball, you were told not to do what they're telling you to do, okay? And so, that's just an example just from the past week, okay? But that happens all the time, and anybody that's worked out there, you know, you know what I'm talking about. You know the type of stuff that you deal with, and people are telling you you're dropping the ball. I still remember Brother Dave. This isn't an example of, like, someone dropping the ball, but he was talking about explaining to somebody that if you take a left turn, you know, like which side do you want your cargo to be on? And he was trying to explain to him, listen, if you take a left turn, your truck's going to want to go right. It's going to want to flip to the right, okay? And the guy's like, no, it'll flip to the left. Because everything's on, you know, on the left. And he's like, no, it's not. And everybody in his office is like, you're an idiot, what are you talking about? And I can imagine where you're just like, ah, what am I dealing with here? When you're trying to explain something that just anybody would know, right, that if you're riding on a four-wheeler, right, and you take a left turn, do you lean to the right? Try that sometime. You'll figure that out real quick, you know. So anyway, but just things like that. You're in the workforce, and people are, like, saying you're an idiot, and you're right about something. It's very frustrating, okay? I don't know how Dave handled that, you know. He made a call to all idiots and, like, just stormed off and said, you guys need to get an education. Like, I don't know. I don't think he did that. But I'm just saying, like, anybody in any workforce, you've dealt with that before, okay? And so what should you do? You don't render evil for evil. You don't render railing accusations railing accusations, right? Because here's the thing. Two wrongs don't make a right. Right? Simple. Two wrongs don't make a right. So if someone's sinning against you, the sinning against them make it right, okay? And so, you know, someone curses me, should I curse them back? Not unless it's legitimate a reason to curse them, okay? And again, we need to be careful on who we're cursing, okay? Because the Bible's very clear on who that should be, and it's not just someone that doesn't like you, okay? Someone that doesn't like you, someone that hates you, that is not the reason to curse them, okay? Now, go to Exodus, chapter 23, and I'm kind of sticking on this one a little bit because I think this is the harder one to do, okay? When we're dealing about loving one another, I think the hardest one is the one that's not your brother in Christ, the one that's not a friend of yours, someone that is just being nasty to you, mean to you, and you know, you've got to deal with that, okay? Exodus, Exodus, chapter 23, verse 4. Say, well, that was Solomon, right? Well, he was in the Old Testament, but the law actually teaches this, okay? The law of Moses teaches to love your enemy, and that's the funny part is that people will try to twist Matthew 5 and be like, well, see, the Old Testament law said hate your enemy. Where? Find me the verse. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, find me the verse where it says hate your enemy, okay? Now, go to verse 4 there, it says, if thou meet thine enemy's ox, or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. It doesn't say, you found your enemy's ox, slay that beast and eat it. You know, all that stuff he did against you, it's time to recompense. The recompense is here, my friend. That black Angus cow should have never came over on my property, because we're eating hearty tonight. No, obviously, it's saying if your enemy's ox go astray, bring it back to him, okay? Notice what it says, next verse there. It says, if thou see the ass of him that hated thee, lying under his burden, and would is forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. Okay? So, it's hitting both bases here, right? Because when you think of your enemy, how does someone your enemy? Someone that doesn't love you, right? Someone that's hating on you. A hater, right? They just hate you. And they may not outwardly express that, but you know whether someone just despises you, hates your ever living guts, whatever the case may be. Okay? Now, a lot of these cases when you're dealing with people that hate you, you should just try to stay away from them, right? As much as possible. But if you're in a workplace and someone just hates your ever living guts, you know, you got to deal with it. And the way to deal with it is not rendering evil for evil or you know, railing for railing, but contrary blessing. And thou shalt receive a blessing, the Bible says. Okay? And you may not receive the blessing from them. Let's say you do that and then they're just still nasty to you. God will bless you. And isn't God's blessing going to be better than anything anybody else could do anyway? So, just some principles to live by when you're dealing with loving your enemy. Go to 1 Peter chapter 2. The next I want to get to is loving your brother. You're loving the brethren, okay, as the Bible would say. And this obviously is dealing with your brother in Christ and your sister in Christ. And this is something that we need to be doing. We need to be loving one another. Not biting and devouring one another. It says in verse 15 there, so 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 15, it says for so is the will of God that with well doing you may put the silence, the ignorance of foolish men as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. And the thing that I want you to see there because obviously there's a lot of sermons you could preach on those four phrases there, but it says love the brotherhood. And we need to love our brethren. And the Bible talks about doing good unto those especially those of the household of faith. And so, if there's a priority list, you need to be loving your brother. And I know that the enemies, that's a hard one, okay. But the brethren, you need to really say, hey, I need to, especially if I'm going to do good to somebody, I need to especially do it unto my brothers and sisters in Christ. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 22. So go back to chapter there. And I want to talk about brotherly love. Which in the Greek is phileo. No, I'm just kidding. That's a farce, by the way. You know, this whole agape is godly love, phileo is brotherly love. I mean, the reason they get that is because Philadelphia, philo, right, Philadelphia, they're like, that's brotherly love. No, Adelphia means brother. Adelphos. It's just love brother. Okay. And they're just like, oh, that means brotherly love. Okay. So. But anyway, all I have to say is that the Bible does teach, though, that we should love our brother. Okay. Now what does it say in verse 22? It says, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, notice this, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. Okay. So when you got saved, and you were sanctified through the Spirit, you obeyed the truth, it says that it was unto unfeigned love of the brethren. Okay. Now, you say, well, does that mean that if I get saved, I'm gonna love my brother unconditionally, no exceptions? Okay. Spiritually? Yes. But, there's a problem, you still have the flesh. And that's why it says this, because this is why all this makes sense, because it says, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. See, if it was automatic, why would you have to say that? Okay. But the idea here is that when you get saved, you're born of God. You're like, is that what it's talking about? Next verse. Being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Okay. So, inwardly, in the inner man, you are sinless. In the inner man, you have this unfeigned love of the brethren. Okay. And you probably have all noticed that, you know, like when you run into somebody and they're like, you're saved by faith alone, you can't lose your salvation, you automatically are just like, I love this guy. You know, whoever says it, right? There's just this unfeigned love of someone that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. And you can't really explain that, but the idea is that it's there, right? The love of the brethren is always inside of you. The idea here is, though, are you gonna actually act on that love that's inside of you towards the brethren? Okay. This is the same thing when you're dealing with the inner man, the child of God that's in your soul and spirit, that's who you are, right? You're a child of God. Now are you the sons of God? But, is everybody seeing that? Are you manifesting that love of the brethren? Are you manifesting that child of God? Are you manifesting that child of light? Are you actually walking in it? Okay. And that's where 1 John comes in, and I think this will really help you understand 1 John, that if you understand, hey, as a believer, you have this unfeigned love of the brethren once you get saved. It's boom. It's there. Spiritually speaking, in the inner man, unfeigned love. Okay. But, it says, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Why? Because you have to get the flesh out of the way. Okay. You have to put off the old man and let that unfeigned love of the brethren go forth towards your brother. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 11 here. It says, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew him, because his own works were evil, and his brother was righteous. So now we're getting at that dichotomy of a child of the devil and a child of God. Okay. And it doesn't say that we should love Cain here. Okay. That's not what it's stating here. But it is showing you, you know, this dichotomy of the fact that, because he's going to get into this, well, I'll just keep reading this just to get the context here. Verse 13, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. So, Cain hated him. Why? Why did he kill him? Because his own works were evil and his brother was righteous. He killed Abel because he did good. Okay. And this reminds me of the despisers of those that are good. Okay. When you're dealing with children of the wicked one. Okay. But it's saying here that, from the beginning, we have this commandment, this message that we should love one another. And Cain is not an example of that. Does that make sense? He's basically saying, Cain is quite the opposite of loving one another. Okay. If you're going to look at examples, don't do what Cain did. Okay. But notice what it says in verse 14. We know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Okay. So what is this talking about? You know that you're walking in the new man. That you're walking in that child of God if you love your brother. You know what that means? If you don't love your brother, you're not walking in the new man. You're walking in the old man. And that's why you're abiding in death because your old man is dead in trespasses and sins. That's what it's stating. Okay. Very simple. When you understand this idea that inside, inwardly, you're sinless. Inwardly, you have this unfeigned love of the brethren. So that means that if you are hating your brother, you're not walking in the new man. If you don't love your brother, you're not walking in the new man. But if you love your brother, guess what? You're walking in the new man. You're manifesting that light of being a child of God that has unfeigned love of the brethren. And if you don't love those that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then I really do question your salvation. But see, that's something that I can't see. I can't see that. I can't judge that. But if you're just like, I hate that person because they believe that salvation is by grace through faith, then you're not saved. Okay. Because how could you hate someone that believes something that you're supposedly supposed to be believing? Okay. But deep down, we do have this love for the brethren. So not to say like, well, you're saying that someone that gets saved, they're going to love the brethren. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is that spiritually speaking, yes, you love the brethren. But the question is, are you letting that go forth? Are you putting your light under a bushel? Are you like the soul of the earth that's lost its savor and you're good for nothing? You know. Are you that kind of Christian that you just squelch all that unfeigned love for the brethren that's in there spiritually and you're just not letting that go forth? Okay. Now, keep reading there. It says, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Okay. So it's kind of talking about like you don't love your brother, you're abiding in death. But if you hate your brother, then you're a murderer. Okay. This is the idea of you hate your brother without a cause. I'm sorry, you're angry with your brother without a cause. Okay. It's okay to be angry with your brother if there's a legitimate reason to be angry with them. Does that make sense? But without a cause, you've committed murder already in your heart. Hating your brother, I don't care if you have a cause or not, you don't have a cause. Okay. That's what it's saying is that you don't have a cause to hate your brother. You should never hate your brother or sister in Christ. Even if they're being nasty to you, even if they're doing something they shouldn't be doing, you should not hate your brother in Christ. Never. Never. Okay. And it's stating here that eternal life, you don't have eternal life abiding in you. Well, if you understand the beginning of the book of 1 John, the end of the book of 1 John, who's eternal life? And I said who? Okay. Jesus. It starts off saying that this is the eternal life which was manifested under us and we declare unto you. And it ends the book with saying this is the true God and eternal life. Okay. Talking about Jesus. So when it says you don't have eternal life abiding in you, who are you talking about? Jesus. And it just got done saying that whosoever sinned, you know, he that abideth in him, sinned not. So if you're abiding in Christ, you want to know how you know that? You're not sinning. You want to know how that you're abiding in Christ if you love your brother. If you hate your brother, don't tell me you're abiding in Christ. Okay. You're a liar. Okay. If you tell me I'm abiding in Christ, brother, but I can't stand that Christian over there. I hate him. Right. And that's a true believer over there, then you're not abiding in Christ. You're a liar. Okay. And I'm not saying the person's not saved. Okay. That's doing that. But what I'm saying is that they don't have Jesus Christ eternal life abiding in him. Does that mean that they don't have eternal life? No. That's not what I'm saying. Okay. What it comes down to is that they have eternal life in their soul inside of them, but they don't, they're not walking in it. They're not abiding in it. Right. And that's a whole other sermon for another day to really get into the weeds on that whole aspect there. Now keep reading there in verse 16. Hereby I perceive we have the love of God because he laid down his life for us. And here's a great example. How should we love the brethren? How Jesus loved us. Okay. We're supposed to be following his steps and what he did and he laid down his life for us and it says, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is literally what James 2 is talking about. You know faith without works is dead and if you say unto your brother or sister depart in peace, be you warm and filled, notwithstanding you give not things which are needful to the body but to the prophet, it's the same thing if you say I love you brother, I love you brother and you have all this you have the means to help this person out that's asking you for help and you're like I love you brother, I hope that it all works out for you. Do you see how you're not you're not loving your brother like Jesus loved you. I mean you're definitely not willing to lay down your life for him. Okay. If you're not willing to just give him the abundance that you have to help them out. Okay. And it's saying don't just say it do it. When it comes to love you can have that emotion, you can have that desire and you love that person and you want good things for that person and you desire good things for that person but you know what when you do it that's where it really hits you know the nail on the head as far as do you really love that person if you're not willing to actually help them physically in whatever way right. And there's a lot of people that say I have this great faith. They're not going out soloing. They're not actually helping people with it. Well I love these people so much over here. You know it's like the people that say I love the Jews. Are you giving them the gospel? You love them so much right? Are you giving them the gospel? No I do want the Jews to get saved. You know as far as just a group of people I hate their religion but I want them to get saved. There's nothing wrong with me loving them and wanting them to get saved. Okay. But you can't just say you love somebody if you don't actually go out and try to help them. And when you say I love this community you know why that's true? Because we go out every single week and we preach the gospel to anybody that will hear it. That's not just us saying it. Okay. And anybody else out there can be saying we love this community. We love this community and they don't actually try to help them at all. You can't say that. Okay. Now go to 1 John 4. This is our text passage that we read this morning. 1 John 4. And we have great unity in our church and I just want this to have this love for each other. And ultimately it comes to this. That love worketh no ill toward his neighbor. Okay. So if you're hurting your brother, if you're hurting their feelings if you're, and I know I'm getting on a visceral level here a little bit but you know like if you're just like you know nasty to somebody, you're hurting their feelings or whatever the case may be, that's not being loving. That's not being kindly affectionate one to another. We should be lifting each other up, loving each other trying to you know help them out. And I'm not saying that every single thing that you say to somebody has to be not offensive because sometimes there's things that have to be said to be like hey listen this is something that needs to be you know like I think this will help you out. It's not easy to hear. But you know I love you. I want you to know this is what I think should you know help you out there. And so in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 7 it says, Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Now I want you to see this because this is very important. Okay. When you're reading through the book of 1 John, notice there's two things that if you love one another it says that you're born of God and knoweth God. Okay. This does not say whosoever loveth is born of God. Okay. Because that would be assuming that everybody is born of God is loving one another. Okay. There's another component to that that knoweth God. Okay. Now it's going to clarify that verse 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. Does it say he that loveth not is not born of God? Doesn't say that, does it? People try to twist it to say that. You know what it says? It says that if you don't love one another, then you don't know God. Okay. This isn't talking about salvation. Being born of God is salvation. Whosoever believeth that Jesus the Christ is born of God. Okay. But when it's talking about knowing God, it's talking about keeping his commandments. It's talking about loving one another. It's talking about knowing God that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and that I may be conformable unto the resurrection of the dead. You know, the idea is that it's not just that you're saved, but you know God. You know the Bible. You know who God is. You know what you should be doing. You know him. Right. And we're all trying to know God more, but that's a process. And it's stating here that if you don't love one another, don't tell me you know God. Okay. That you need to love one another. And those that love one another, those are the people that know God because God is love. You're like, if you're hating on your brothers all the time, don't tell me you know who God is. Okay. When you have these constant things where God literally died on a cross where people were spitting in his face and nailing them to the cross and he says, forgive them for they know not what they do. Then talk to me about love and talk to me about people that are mean to you and say nasty things to you or make your day uncomfortable or like wrongly, falsely accuse you of things. Listen, I'm not saying that it's not going to make you angry. I'm not saying that you're not going to despise the shame. Okay. But the idea is that God knows how to love people and if you don't love people, don't tell me you know God. Okay. Now, keep reading there. And this whole chapter is packed with this and I'm not going to hit on every point of this, but it says, in this was manifest the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now that should, people need to realize this because you're like, well you need to love God to be saved. No, it's not because we loved him, it's because he loved us. You need to give your life to Christ. No, he gave his life for us. He gave, he loved, not the other way around. You know what we did? Believed. Trusted. And after we trust, we should, you know, live for him, give our lives to him, love him, love other people. That's all on the other side of the spectrum. But you got it backwards and the world has it backwards. You don't give your life to Christ to get saved. You don't love God to get saved. He loved you and gave his life for you so that you'd be saved. Now keep reading there in verse 11 there. It says, Beloved, if God's to love us, we ought to also love one another. Notice how it's Satan. It's like, he loved us, died for us, saved us. We ought to love one another. It's just, that makes sense. If he loved us to do that, then we ought to love one another. No man has seen God at any time, talking about God the Father. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. Talking about the Father and Son making their abode with us, right? And this is, I've preached on this before, but the idea of, you know, Jesus abiding with us and walking in the Spirit and walking in the new man. You know what? If you love one another, you know, God the Father is going to be in you and abiding with you and helping you through all this and doing all that stuff, okay? Now, in verse 13 there, it says, Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of the Spirit. Obviously, the Holy Spirit's always there. He's dwelling inside of us. We're the temple of the Holy Ghost, okay? So God is always in us, okay? But the idea is talking about the Father and Son relationship there as far as, are we abiding in them, you know, and he's abiding in us, okay? It says, and go down to verse 17 there. Here 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, okay? And this gets into the aspect of the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, okay? But that's the beginning, okay? Just like my children, you know, at first they should keep what I tell them to do and listen to me because they fear discipline, okay? But eventually it should be because they love me and they want to do it for love's sake, right? There's always going to be a little mixture there, okay, until they become mature adults and they're doing stuff on their own and out of love, right? But, you know, when I go home and my parents are saying, hey, can you do this for me? Can you go over there and grab this for me? I'm not afraid that I'm getting beaten, okay? I'm not afraid that they're going to come down on me for something. No, I do it because I love them, okay? And ultimately, when we're in heaven, you know, when we're in perfected bodies, we're doing everything because we love God. There's no fear in that, okay? No fear in love, okay? Now, in the bodies that we have, there's still going to be fear, okay? Because we're fleshly, we have sin and listen, we need to fear God and tremble. We're still in the sinful flesh. We still sin every day and there's going to be this balance of fear and love, but perfect love casts without fear, okay? And notice what it says here in verse 19. It says 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? In this commandment, and this commandment hath we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. It's just being very simple. If you hate your brother, how can you say you love God, okay? You can't. And that's why he's saying you're a liar. If you say you love God and hate your brother, you're a liar. Because you can't even love the person you're seeing. How can you love the person that you don't see? Okay? And it's being very clear with that. Now, John, 1 John 5 kind of hits the same thing. And it kind of gets into that unfeigned love of the brother. Notice what it says in verse 1 there. It says, Whosoever believeth that Jesus the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. Okay? So what does this mean? Meaning this is that when you love God and keep his commandments, you're trying to keep his commandments, there's going that love of the brother is going to come out. Okay? You know this. Go out soul winning with each other. Go out soul winning and preach the gospel to people and tell me you don't love that brother that's standing next to you as you do that. Okay? And you can have all the differences in the world. You could not like that person's personality. Go out soul winning with them as you're going door to door, preaching the gospel and people are like hating on you for what you're doing, but you're in it together. There's going to be this love of the brethren that's going to be there. And it's always interesting to me that you know what? There's more unity when there's tribulation. So if you ever think about like, why do we want unity? Well, do you want more tribulation? Because tribulation is going to bring the unity back. And everything gets closer when you're in tribulation. When you're in a fight, if you're in a fight then you're going to be close to that person. You're not going to care how they chew their gum. You're not going to care that they chew with their mouth open. Okay? I'm speaking on a personal level. Okay? This is getting visceral for me. Okay? People that chew with their mouth open or chew really crunchy things it drives me crazy. Right? But if I was out soul winning with that person and we're preaching the gospel, I don't care what his mouth sounds like when he chews something that, you know what? There's this love for the brethren that's there. All that stuff kind of fades away. Does that make sense? And there's people that I'm friends with and that I, you know, when it comes to brethren that if it wasn't for the fact that we're saved we wouldn't be friends. Just facts. You know, there's certain personalities you just don't mix with. Okay? But when you have that common goal and you have that common drive and you're both children of God and you're working for the cause of Christ all that stupid stuff just falls away. And you're just like, yeah, that's stupid. That's dumb. You know what causes people to get upset about stupid things? Idleness. You don't have anything else to worry about. But when tribulation comes, persecutions come, now you've got to worry about that. All that stuff seems stupid at that point. It seems dumb. It seems just trivial. Right? So you've got to ask yourself that. If you're getting upset about little things, are you doing what you should be doing? Are you working hard enough? Maybe you need to work a little harder because then it's going to put all that stuff on the back burner and you're not even going to care about it. Okay? And I believe that's what the Bible is stating here is that when you love God and keep His commandments you're doing what you should be doing and your servant, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You're suffering persecution with your brother in Christ, you're going to be close to that person. And I don't care what the personality's like. You both love the Lord and keep His commandments, you can have completely different personalities and you're going to be fine together doing that. But as soon as all that persecution goes away and now you're just hanging out with that person, then that's where, you know, personality, you start thinking about it. You have time to be nitpicky about everything they do or whatever. Okay? The last thing here is that we need to love our wives and our husbands, right? So ladies you need to love your husbands, husbands we need to love our wives. Go to, go to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5. When you think of Valentine's Day, that's probably what you're mostly thinking about. You know, that's what most people celebrate Valentine's Day for is probably I mean, children's different, right? Children are like your friends and giving out Valentine's and all this stuff. But husbands and wives, you know, it's usually about, you know, love and loving each other and all that. And I think this is a good thing to celebrate, okay? I'm not saying you have to do it on February 14th, you can do it every day of the year, right? But I don't think it's wrong to have a day where you're just specifically saying, you know what, I'm gonna just you know, spend a little more time with you, I'm gonna, you know, get you flowers, I'm gonna do this or that. And you say, well it's cliche, everybody's getting flowers and everything and all that. But what you gotta think about, okay? When everybody sees everybody else getting flowers and then you don't, you think, oh well, you know, my wife's spiritual and she doesn't think about that at all and it's not gonna affect her at all. Hogwash, okay? How long have you been married? Let me tell you, like, and I'm you know, my wife may say she wouldn't bother her or whatever. And I'm not saying that's why I do it, okay? Honestly, I get my wife flowers because I want to. And there's times I get her flowers and it's not a special holiday, okay? But I'll say this, she's not gonna go on a Valentine's Day where I don't give her flowers and everybody else is getting flowers, okay? And you say, well I don't think that that should be your, that's just my personal thing, okay? That I do that because, you know what, I don't want her to feel left out, okay? And you know what, you say, well you're just being trivial with that, that's not a biblical thing. Listen, I love my wife and I don't want her to feel like she's second fiddle or she's not being treated like other wives or being treated and you say, well what if they did that every, you know, day of the year or whatever? It's like, well first of all, it's not gonna happen, okay? No one's ever gonna like mandate everybody's getting flowers every day of the year. We'll all be broke, you know, because of that. But the idea there, you say, well that's silly. It may be silly, but you know there's little things like that when, you know, you get a Valentine's, you see other people getting Valentine's, you see other people getting this and then you're like, you know, do you not care? You know, and it may not be outwardly manifested, but you know what, I don't want those little things to ever get in the way and I personally like Valentine's Day. You're like, you're crazy. I like it, okay? I like to have a day where I can, you know, tell my girls and thank God I'm having a boy, you know. I'm going to get flowers, I'm like, finally, you know, like there's an end to the madness, right? But because, you know, you don't want to, I get flowers for my girls and I get flowers for Holly and all this stuff and you know, get them things and sorry, but baby James isn't getting flowers, okay? But that doesn't mean he's not going to get candy or something like that, you know what I mean? But all I'm saying is that I want them to feel loved. I want them to just have a day, you know, and even if they don't see anybody else, that's fine. I don't care. But we need to love our wives and, you know, do things like that. You know, as men we don't care. You get us a new power tool, we're happy. You know, you get something like that, you know, give me an axe, I'll be like, yes, that's great, you know, like I don't care. But, you know, women are different than men and you know what, women like flowers. They like candy, they like being pampered, they like the idea of attention, okay? And, you know what, you need to have that type of love there and don't let this be like, well I've been married for ten years, I've been married for this long, you know, that ship has sailed. You know what, that's sometimes why marriages ship sail. Because you did that at the beginning, but now you're not doing it. And there's always someone out there that may try to do that later on. And you don't want to just neglect that, okay? Now, in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25 it says, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Those verse 33, Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Now, when it says love your wife, even as yourself, that doesn't mean get her what you want. Because if I did that, it would be a power tool, it would be something like that, right? But all this is to say is that we need to love our wives. It doesn't tell you what to do though, does it? I mean obviously you need to be faithful to her and lead her in the right direction. All these things that are mandatory things you're supposed to do with your wife. But it doesn't tell you buy your wife flowers. It doesn't tell you buy your wife this gift. It doesn't tell you to buy her a new dress. It doesn't tell you to do these different things. You know why? Because the Bible is not commanding you to basically do all the things because it should be coming from your heart. You should be saying I want to make this card and give it to her because it's something I want to do. And I'm not saying, hey listen, if you're like, I'm against flowers and I would only be doing out of duty, then that's I'm not saying like, I'm not commanding you to give flowers to your wife, okay? But what I'm saying is that it should be like, I want to. I desire to. And that should be the reason why, because you love your wife. You want to show your wife that you love her, okay? And words are fine, okay? Because you can tell your wife that you love her every single day, okay? But there's certain gestures that you can do to where she's going to know that you love her. One thing I personally do is I make my cards because I'm cheap. No, I'm just kidding. No, I just, I've never just to be honest with you, when you get cards that are already written out, I just don't feel the personal connection from that. But when I see a card where someone hand writes something to me, then I'm like, this means something to me. Because they literally wrote that out. And that's from their own heart, from exactly what they wanted to say. So I make my cards. I write them out. Draw a little heart on there, you know? Draw a little wiener dot, I don't know. Whatever you do, or whatever you do on that. But you know what? But here's the thing. It should be from the heart. Whatever you do for your wives, and I'm kind of hitting on the husbands because I'm a husband, okay? So wives, you know, I don't know. You don't have to get your husbands anything on Valentine's Day. But you know, those type of gestures should be there. Now, the Bible also says in Titus, in Titus 2 and verse 4, it says that they may teach the young women to be sober to love their husbands, okay? So it's not saying wives, you don't need to love your husband, you just need to submit to them and reverence them. Now, I'm not taking away from that, okay? Because it ends saying that they be obedient unto their own husbands, okay? But it does say that you love your husband, okay? And this love needs to be reciprocated. And you know, 1 Corinthians 7, I'm running late on time here, but you know, the Bible talks about couples and rendering. It says in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 3, it says, Let the husband render unto the wife, do benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. And obviously this is talking about, you know, the act of a married couple. But then you just have the idea of do benevolence or benevolence that you would do to some, you know, like kindness and affection. Don't leave that outside of your marriage, okay? And it's very easy to be like, especially when we have kids and you're just trying to survive, right? And you're just trying to get by, survive, you know, and all this stuff. Don't forget the romance, okay? It doesn't say romance in the Bible. I'm not adding to the Bible, okay? I'm not saying it says romance. But the idea there is the fact that, hey, don't just think that, your wife is not a business partner, okay? Your husband's not a business partner. You didn't just say, did you just get married and shake hands and be like, alright, time to have kids and let's do this. No. That's not why you got married to begin with, was it? Okay? Now obviously kids are a blessing and we love having kids and that's a whole other summer for another day, okay? But in reality, you got married to your wife because you loved her, because you were attracted to her, because you wanted to be around her, you were infatuated with her, I don't know, you know, insert whatever, right? You had the butterflies in the stomach when you first saw her, you couldn't breathe when you're around her, you know, whatever the case may be. And I'm not saying, listen, the butterflies go away and that stuff goes away, right? But that romance doesn't have to go away. Okay? And when you have kids, it's hard. It's hard to have romance when you have kids just running in all over the place and you just don't have the time or peace to yourselves, okay? And so, when you have kids, especially small kids, men, we got to work hard at it. We got to just somehow bring the romance into the relationship and I personally believe that having a day where you're just like, I'm going to really try on this day, I personally, you know, Valentine's Day is a good day, I mean, obviously your anniversary is a good day to do it, but there should be times where you're just like, you know what, I'm going to really try to not just be business as usual and just try to really take the time to really give her some attention and show her that you love her and all that. And I think that will help. And listen, the Bible teaches that we should love our wives, okay? That's not just a word, okay? It's not just a feeling. As we see that love is something that you show by deed and in truth, right? You show by your actions, okay? And I'm not here to tell you how to do that. I'm just telling you that we need to all be striving for that. Because, you know what, I believe personally marriages fail in a lot of cases because of the lack of due benevolence when it comes to coming together, right? And I think that you have adultery because that's not getting fulfilled at home. Okay, I've taught on that. That's very true. But there's also just the act of attention. There's a lot of reasons why women will go after other men because they give them attention, okay? They compliment the way they look. And you used to do that, okay? You're like, used to? I'm just speaking generally here, okay? I'm not here accusing any husband of not giving their wife attention and not trying to be romantic. What I'm saying is that when you first met your wife, you know that you were trying. You know you're trying to be like the you know, knight in shining armor, to show her, hey you know, I'm the man for you, baby. You know, like, you want to show her that, hey, I, you know all these other guys are nothing, you know. You just want to like stand out. And when you're married, it's easy to get mixed into that cog of life and not and just leave that stuff off, okay? And I personally like Valentine's Day for that aspect because it gives me a day that like, hey, here's a day where I'm going to try to do that a little more. You know, I'm going to try to be a little more and you're like, it's Sunday, we're going to be working. I understand that, okay? It's Sunday, we go soul-winding, we do all this stuff. It doesn't have to be on the day. Like yesterday, we kind of spent more time. It was kind of more like the Valentine's Day yesterday, to be honest with you. When we had time together to spend together and all that stuff. But in the end, you know, we need to not leave off love. Let us love one another. And ultimately, when it comes to your enemies, to the brethren, listen, I can't think of a better place that you really need to focus on this but in your marriage. That wives, you need to really focus on loving your husband and, you know, basically being respectful, being obedient, all those different things that will really help that relationship, do benevolence. Those things are the things that men really want. And then women, I know women just want attention a lot of times. They want to know that their husband's thinking about them, that their husband thinks that they're pretty. Don't leave that stuff off. Don't just assume that they're like, well, of course they know I think they're pretty. Don't assume that. Because it's something that needs to be confirmed all the time. And us men, we're very simple to be like, well, I married you, of course I thought you were pretty. That doesn't work. You can't just use that and be like, alright, covers everything. I put a ring on your finger, that means I knew you were pretty. No, it's something that needs to be said over and over again. Little acts of kindness, all that stuff that'll help a marriage. Hope that helps. And also, you know, it's always good to know that we need to love each other. Have that reminder. And the Bible does teach on this a lot. So let's end with a word prayer. We thank you for today. Thank you for your word. And Lord, just help us to love each other like you loved us. And Lord, we can't compare to your love. We can't come even close to it, honestly. But Lord, just help us to be like you. And to love our enemies, to love those that persecute us, but also just to love the brethren, to let go of all the little petty things, but to love each other, not the back bite or anything like that. And to love our families, to love our children, to love our wives, and for the ladies to love their husbands. Lord, I just pray that you'd help us to do that and just to have good marriages, have good families, have a good church, family, and we love you in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. So Brother Dave will come, sing one more song, and that will be dismissed. And don't forget, we'll be meeting back here for sowing at 1 o'clock. Alright, take your songbooks and turn to song 188. Song 188. We'll sing The Love of God, and if you would stand, sing song 188. His erring child, he reconciled, and pardoned from his sin. O Love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore adore the saints and angels song, when hoary times shall pass away, when holy thrones and kingdoms fall, when men who hear refuse to pray, and rocks and hills the mountains call, God's love so sure shall still endure, all measureless and strong, redeeming grace to Adam's race, the saints and angels song. O Love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song, could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, to write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.