 Anyway, let's open up our Bibles first, John. We began our study last week. We went through chapter one, and I had mentioned to those of you who are with us that I had hoped to be able to go through this at a more rapid pace. And so I'm going to hopefully take us through chapter two now, verses one through fourteen. That's what I hope to do. I'm not sure that I will, but I am going to do my best to do that. And so I'll begin reading here in first John chapter two. I'll read verses one and two and give you some information and all of that. Then we'll move on through and perfectly, we'll get to verse 14 as we close our study tonight. So beginning at verse one, reading verses one and two here in chapter two, John writes my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. So John in chapter one has instructed his readers about walking in God's light. And he had revealed to them as we looked at this last time, he had revealed that God is holy and God is righteous. Notice in chapter one, verse five, he said, this is a message we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So God is holy and God is righteous. God is light. And he's pointing to that as a foundation of fellowship with God. The foundation of fellowship with God is understanding his holiness. Now if God is holy, then those who are his children are also to be holy. They're going to walk in the light. They're going to maintain a close fellowship with God. In Isaiah in chapter two, verse five, it reads, oh house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. So walking in the light is centered on fellowship and with God in honoring him. It results from walking with Jesus and it extends to walking with believers. Notice verse seven, chapter one, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. So we walk with the Lord, we're walking in the light and we have fellowship. Now during this time, remember I gave you the context of this, that there was those who were claiming to be Christians. But they were walking habitually in darkness and that had caused confusion because the word of God teaches us that our God is holy and those who follow him live a holy life. And yet there are those who are claiming that they know God, they're saying that they know him. And yet not walking according to the things of the Lord as revealed in Scripture. And so John, and again we went through this last time, gave what we would call three tests as to whether or not somebody's a believer. In verse six in chapter one, he said, and he began by saying, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. And so the question is, if this person is claiming to know the Lord, do they walk in habitual sin? Then in verse eight, he said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And the second test is, do they deny their sin nature? They don't understand their own nature if they claim that they have no sin. And then in verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, this word is not in us, do they deny that they sin? If they deny that, he's saying they don't understand the holiness of God and their own nature once again. And so John desires believers to walk in fellowship with God, and with that in mind, he continues instructing them. And that's what he does in verse one of chapter, excuse me, chapter two. He said, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. I write these things that you may not sin. Now John had listed, and I gave you these reasons, listed four reasons for writing the epistle. I pointed out in chapter one, verse four, that they might have joy. I mentioned in chapter two, verse 26, to keep them from deception. And then in chapter five, verses 11 through 13, to give them an assurance of salvation. He had listed four things that he had written this epistle for. Here we see the second reason that John wrote the epistle. He said, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. I want you to be free from a life that is earmarked by sin. Now when we begin, and I want to take this apart a little bit with you, notice in verse one how he calls them little children, my little children. The word children or little children is a Greek word that was technion. It's a word that is a term of endearment. It's a word that a teacher would in a sweet way say to his student. That's how teachers would speak to their disciples, my little children. John at this point is an older man, and he's regarding his readers as little children. So that's something that stands out as I introduce this. John was a pastor. And as a pastor, he had a deep concern for the welfare of the church. His desire was for them to have joy. As a minister, as a pastor, he wanted them to live holy lives. As a pastor, he wanted them to walk in the truth. In third John, verse four, he said it like this, he said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Have no greater joy than to know that those who are followers of the Lord are walking in his word. And so he wants to safeguard them from a life of sin. He wants them to live a life of holiness. And that's why in verse one he says, I write that you may not sin. I write so that you won't have a life earmarked by a habit of continuous and unrepentant sin. Now he had said in 1 John chapter one, verse nine, it's right in front of us, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well when he said that, that God would cleanse us from all unrighteousness, there are those who would say, it sounds to me like he's giving us permission to continue in sin because we're always going to be forgiven and all. What he's wanting to say here and is saying here is do not continue living in sin. You see no matter how much we desire to live right, obviously we still fall short in sin. We have a battle going on within. In Romans 7, 18 Paul said it like this, he said, I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature for I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out. There's that war within. So obviously none of us outside of me is perfect and so just don't ask Marie about that, my wife. But if anyone sins, so he's making it very clear that that happens but notice he says if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So because we still fall short of the glory of God, God has made a provision for us. I want to point some things out and show you something here. I want you to see in verse 1 how he says if anyone sins we have an advocate, an advocate. An advocate is an attorney. An advocate is a defense attorney is what he is. The word advocate is a Greek word that is parikleton. It speaks of the one who comes beside you. It's an advocate. It's used in various ways but it points to a defense attorney and so God has made a provision for us. He's given us an advocate. Now many years ago Job had cried out. Cried out that he wished he had an attorney and in Job 9, 32 through 34 he was saying that God is not a man like me that I might answer him that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God's rod from me so that his terror would frighten me no more. I wish that I had an advocate. I wish I had someone to plead my cause. And so this is the answer to the cry that Job had cried. You see we have nothing that we can plead before God to gain forgiveness. Jesus acts as a defense attorney and what he does is he pleads our case before the father. In Hebrews 7.25 the writer said, wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. We used to say from the guttermost to the uttermost. The Lord Jesus Christ is there making intercession for us. Now in Scripture Satan is portrayed as a prosecuting attorney. He's our adversary. He's an opponent in a lawsuit. In 1 Peter 5 verse 8 the Apostle said be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. And so he is an adversary, an opponent. In Revelation 12 verse 10 I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night. So it's a picture of a session in court. God is the judge, the devil is pleading a case against somebody. He's saying that person there is a liar, has been a thief. He had a lustful heart and starts just outlining all of those sins and that prosecuting attorney can say he's violated all laws, he is impure, he rightfully should be judged and he should be condemned and I'd like to rest my case. And then at that point our advocate walks in and Jesus walks in and says dad I'd like to talk to you about this one. He belongs to me. He received my forgiveness. He's been washed clean. He has no sin to be counted against him because I have imputed to him my righteousness. And then the Lord God in this picture takes his gavel not guilty and that's the point John is making. You're going to fail and sometimes when you fail it breaks your heart because you don't desire, you didn't plan, you don't want to but you do. How grateful I am and I'm sure all of us are the same in this that I have received that which I don't deserve God's grace and he's withheld from me that which I do deserve his judgment and he did so through his son Jesus Christ my advocate. And so I write unto you, I write unto you that you may not sin. I don't want you to live a life practicing habitual sin but if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous in spite of the fact that these nostics have entered in and are filtering into your teaching and in your mind things that are not true. You need to know that that you do sin but you have one who pleads your cause and he says in verse 2, he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world. He is the propitiation. How many times did you use that word today? It's probably a word we don't use very often. The word propitiation speaks of God's wrath being satisfied by Jesus. Jesus satisfied his demands and because he did we're saved. That's why we're not guilty. He is our, he last most he is our propitiation. He appeases God's righteous anger. In Psalm 7 verse 11 it says God is a just judge. God is angry with the wicked every day. John 3 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life but whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him. The Bible makes it clear that God hates sin and has a continual anger towards the sinner and because of this, because the sinner can't do anything to save themselves, God did something. He dealt with it personally. In Romans 5, 9 and 10 since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if when we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? And so the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. He is not only our advocate, he is our atoning sacrifice. He is the one who provides satisfaction to the judge. He is the one who pleads our case before him. In 1st Timothy 2, 5 and 6 it says there's one God, one mediator between God and men, demand Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. He is the propitiation for our sins. Notice this. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world. He died for the sins of the world. He wasn't limited in this, it's not a limited atonement. He died for the sins of the entire world. In 2 Corinthians 5.15 it says, and that he died for all that those who live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again. He died to make atonement. We receive him as our Savior. He cleanses us from all sin and that's because Jesus took upon himself our sin. He did it, verse 1 said, because he is Jesus Christ the righteous. He had no sin and because he had no sin he can plead the cause of those who have sinned and it's on this basis that he pleads our case before the Father. And it goes on now in verse 3 and he says this, now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments and he who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word truly the love of God is perfected in him and by this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. And so salvation is more than what the Gnostics would have said gaining information about God. Salvation is more than simple knowledge gaining facts. Salvation is lived out practically. A person who's been saved is going to have a life that is radically changed is going to have a life that is transformed. Why? Because they have come into knowledge of God, they have encountered the God of the universe and because of his word their life has been impacted, imprinted, it's been transformed because of the power of the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit there is an obvious change that takes place. There is a real demonstration of God's presence because when you come into the experience of the power of God there's a changed life. Years ago when our church was still very young we purchased our first property. It was on Maple Street. It was a 9600 or so square foot building on three and a half acres of land. It was used for a children's home. We purchased it and it needed a lot of work and so we had work days and a lot of the fellas would come, sometimes the ladies would too and helped us to tear down. I am absolutely no carpenter. I have no mechanical skills whatsoever but I can walk around with a hat on and hold a hammer pretty effectively. And so I was in one of the rooms and we were taken off the plates for the light switch plates and how hard is that? And so I was doing that and I was taking the plate off because we were going to be removing the switch and I started unscrewing the wires that were attached and somebody came and spoke to me and when they did I turned around to see what they were saying. My hand got, my finger got between two live wires and so I felt something and I still remember pulling my hand back and looking at this fingernail here and it was on fire. I was a hippie and I still remember kind of tripping out to that going, oh wow. Watching that and then he hit me, oh my good. A long time ago the Lord said, when you come into contact with my power there's going to be something obvious about that. When you come into the experience of the word of God and the power of transformation, when you come into an experience with the spirit of God who dwells within you, your life has changed. It's not that you're out there trying to make yourself better. I have fruit trees in my backyard. I have an orange tree, a lemon tree and all and when the season to bear fruit is upon us I have never gone into my backyard and seen the tree shaking trying to produce fruit. I've never seen that. It just naturally does it. Why does it naturally do that? Because it's in the ground, it's watered, it's cared for and when it's in the ground it's taken care of, it produces naturally fruit. When you're in Christ, when you're planted deeply rooted and grounded in Him like Paul would tell the Colossians, when that is you there's going to be fruit, there's going to be evidence that you know Christ. And John's talking about that. I write these things so that you may not sin, but if anyone sins I want you to know you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and he himself knew no sin and because he knew no sin he can stand as the advocate for you who are weak in sin so he can impute to you his own righteousness because your righteousness is filthy rags and he does that through the Word of God by the Gospel and it's not you denying that you're a sinner, it's you realizing you're a sinner and when you admit that, that's where you can be forgiven but if you will not admit it how can you be forgiven? You're not a sinner, there's nothing wrong with me. It's that person, it's that person. The way I was raised, it's lack of education, it's my neighborhood. You can name everything you want, blame it all until you finally just do what I was taught as a kid and I think this is biblically correct so I'll say it. We used to say mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. My fault, my fault, my most grievous fault, it's me. It's not my dad, it's not my mom. Yes, they can contribute, yes and I contribute to my children not being perfect, more than me, but no it's them. I had to say and so did you to be saved, God forgive me a sinner. I did it. I have sinned in thought. I have sinned in word. I have sinned in action. I have sinned. God be merciful to me. I'm a sinner and when I finally did that, that's how I got saved. I will sin. You will sin but I have an advocate but he wants me to not practice it. So I take that step but now we're saying, well how do you know you know him? What can you know? How do you know? That's what he says. Verse three. Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. How do I know that God has done a work in my life, my desire to be obedient, to keep his commandments. When he speaks of the word keep, that's an interesting word. I looked it up. I wanted to see exactly what it meant and it means to attend to carefully, to take care of as if you are guarding a treasure. We keep his word because it is valuable to us and unbeliever doesn't care about the word of God. Before I was saved, if you came and it happened a couple of times, quoted a scripture to me, I would just smile at you. I told this guy who was witnessing to me, I only was witnessed to a few times before I got saved but he was witnessing to me at a tasty freezer in Whittier. And I said, how do you know that book that you're quoting to me is from, how do you know that? He said, by faith. And I said, well that's nice. I said, I still remember saying how do you know that I didn't know anything about the Bible really but I said, how do you know those twelve guys that hung around with Jesus? How do you know that the ones who wrote that book weren't loaded on acid? How do you know that? How do you know that? He said, by faith. And I said, that's not good enough for me. At that time I said, that's not good enough for me. It took the Holy Spirit to convict me of sin righteousness and judgment. It takes the Spirit of God to convict you, to bring you to that realization. And so when that happens, you want to follow the Lord. And see at that point, I didn't want to keep His commandments, but when I got saved, I did. You see, to believers, God's word is precious, it's to be carefully followed. And that's evidence of knowing that God is your savior. It's an obedience that is going to result in you pleasing Him. There are those who have questions about the relationship with God. Sometimes they'll say, I don't know if I know God. They may have a right to do so. They may not know Him at all. Because if obedience to His word isn't your concern, then you may not know Him. In John 8.47, Jesus said it like this, He who is of God hears God's words, therefore you do not hear because you're not of God. In John 14.21, He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves me. And He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love Him and manifest myself to Him. I will reveal myself to Him in deeper ways as He's obedient. And so He goes on in verse 4, He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him. See, He who says I know Him and does not keep, once again, does not guard, His commandments isn't telling the truth. Someone who confesses Christ but doesn't guard His laws is a liar. In Titus 1.6, it says, they profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. But He goes on in verse 5 and notices, I want to point something out to you. Verse 5, whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in Him. By this we know that we are in Him. Now this is interesting. I want to point this out. Look at verse 4, He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments, but notice verse 5, whoever keeps His word. Commandments and word, those are two different things. There are commands that you find in the Old Testament, some 613 commandments. They are written out, thou shalt not or thou shalt. So you find those in the Old Testament. Nine of the ten commandments are repeated in the New Testament. Nine of ten are repeated. There's only one of the ten commandments not repeated in the New Testament, and that is keeping the Sabbath holy. That is not a repeat in the New Testament. Why? Because the Sabbath is a celebration that is for Israel. The church worships Christ on the day He was risen from the dead on Sunday. That's why we meet on Sundays. Some people will argue that you need to have this day. Paul's argument was one person values this day, one person values that. Well, for me, I'm one of those who values every day. So I celebrate on certain days Sunday, for example, as the day we gather as a church, and that was the habit of the early church. They gathered on the first day of the week. But I worship Christ every day. That's what you do. You walk with Jesus daily, not just Wednesday and Sunday, right? You walk with Him on a daily basis. So you have commandments in the Old Testament that are very specific. So that would be sane in verse five again, rather verse four, and does not keep His commandments. That's the law. That's what has been written. Those are the things that God has expressly told us. But notice again, verse five keeps His word. That's different. When He speaks of His word, that's actually the word logo. It's not speaking of a specific command. It's speaking really of the spirit of the word. It's guarding what He has specifically said, as well as what can be perceived. And you might say, OK, give me an example of that. I get saved. I have a friend who's talking to me. And he says to me, let's smoke some dope, smoke some pot. And I say to him, no, I don't do that anymore. He said, why not? And I said, it's just not for me to do. He says, does the Bible say you can't smoke marijuana? Can you give me a Bible verse that says you cannot smoke marijuana? And I said, no, I can't give you a Bible verse that specifically says that. I can't give a Bible verse that says you have to be 16 to get a driver's license. I mean, there are things that are not specifically spoken of in Scripture. And that's the point I'm making right now. There are some things that are specifically stated. There are other things that you understand. So when the Scripture says, be ye not drunk with wine, wherein is dissipation. Or when the Scripture speaks concerning sorcery, that sorceries are forbidden in the kingdom of God. And then you do some root searches and you find the word pharma kf, pharma kf, pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, speakers of drugs when you begin to study that. Well, that's why marijuana is not to be smoked. Why? Because I'm out of control when I'm doing drugs. And see, that's the inference of the word and not a specific command. And so I learned that very early. I remember this guy saying, it doesn't say you can't smoke marijuana. And I said, yeah. I said, and it doesn't say that you shouldn't use poison ivy as toilet paper, but it's not smart to do that. I mean, a nonsensical argument remains nonsensical. I don't care how you put it. It makes no sense. It makes no sense. So what are we trying to do as Christians? What we're trying to do as Christians is not only keep the word as it is spoken to us and understood, but also even just the spirit of the word. Even just the spirit of the word. See, spiritual maturity results from keeping its word because spiritual maturity is actually the fruit of obeying. So we guard not only the commands, but also his wishes. To do what he expressly says and what is the spirit of his word is what we do. So do you desire to not only do what is said, but also what could be inferred? See, our life is built on these things. And the love of God is perfected in us because of that. And when you have an attitude like that, when you're not looking to try and find loopholes in the word, how many sins can I send until instead of hating sin, trying to watch as close to it as you can and still go to heaven? That's not a wise way to live. There are those who are going to be entering into heaven, you know, saved even as by fire. I was in I was working in a business when I was 18. And they had these blaspherenesses and this guy used to work in the blasphereness. And we had a long, it was a long rod. You would light a match, slide it down a tube to ignite the pilot light. And he had turned the gas on. And as he did so, someone interrupted him. I was standing right over here. Someone interrupted him and the gas kept building up. So when he slid that ignition, that fire into that tube, it exploded and this huge, heavy door burst off of the off the hinges. And he was standing like this and fire came in and engulfed him. His hair was smoking, smoking. He looked like in that old cartoon Wiley Coyote with the dynamite. After I got saved, I said, oh, I get it. I don't want to go to heaven smoking. I don't want to go in in that way. And so we need to be aware of those things, we can enter in heaven, but I don't want to see how many sins I can get away with. You love him, you don't want to do that. Why would I add anything to my life that's going to hurt me later on? So he goes on and he says, verse six, and as I'm looking at the time, I'm saying, oh, maybe I bit off more than I could chew. We'll see. So verse six, he who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. I abide in him. I dwell in him. I make my home in him. I should abide in him. As I abide in him, I should walk as he did. How did he walk? Well, his life was consistent with his words. And when you look at the life of Christ, he had an example of sacrifice. 1 Peter 2, 21, to this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. He walked in love. Ephesians five, verse two says, live a life of love, just as Christ loved us, gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrificed to God. He walked in service. John 13, 15, I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. He walked in obedience. John 8, 29, he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him. I'm to walk just as he walked. Sacrifice and love, service and obedience, those are your marks of the believer. That's how your friends and your family will know that you're saved. My father told me that the way he knew I was saved was very simple. I changed. You were different. My father saw that. I told him the truth, but I wanted to live it. I wanted to live differently. My mom said she knew I was saved because of something I had done. Somebody had driven around our corner. We lived on a corner guy had taken a left turn. He was a water delivery guy, and that's when they used to have the glass bottles and the glass bottles slid out and hit the ground and smashed and broke there in the street and I saw it and I remember going out. I got a pan and a broom. I got a bag and I swept it up and threw it in the bag, took it and dropped it in the trash. Something very simple, no big heroic thing. Later on, my mom said, you know, Dave, when you did that, I knew you had changed because before I'd have just opened the window and said, ah, look what you did. I would have yelled at him. My mom knew that. She says, I knew you had changed because you went and did something and you'd be surprised at how your life impacts people. And so when these Gnostics are saying you can do whatever you want and it's okay, John is saying no. Jesus Christ, the righteous died for us to save us from our sin so that we don't live in a life continuously in sin. Yes, you will fail, but your advocate stands on your behalf. And one of the ways you can know that you love the Lord and have been truly saved is do you desire to obey him? Has your life become one where it's a living sacrifice? Do you want to love people? Do you want to serve God? Do you have a heart that's obedient? Because all of these things, all of these things matter. He says in verse seven, brother, and I write no new commandment to you but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. I don't write a new commandment. I write to you an old one. I'm not given to you a novel commandment, a fresh word from God. I'm bringing you something that reinforces a previous revelation. I'm reminding you of the basics of the Christian faith. I'm not writing to you some new wind of doctrine. I'm simply reinforcing foundational truth. You see the Gnostic heresy once again put an emphasis on obtaining secret knowledge and their quest for superior knowledge had robbed them of the fruit of love and peace and so to safeguard them, John is reminding them of a foundational commandment. He says it's an old commandment because it's one you heard from the beginning. It's in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy chapter six, verse five. You were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. It's what the book of Leviticus 19 verse 18 says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. These are things that you already are aware of and so I'm not giving you something that's different, something you haven't heard and yet in verse eight again, a new commandment I write to you. I'm giving you something fresh about this. I'm giving you something new in revelation. The love of Jesus is something the world never had seen and Jesus gave this fresh commandment in John 13, 34 and 35. He said in you, a fresh commandment I give to you that you'll love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another. By this I will know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another. Loving one another is the old one as I have loved you is a fresh understanding. How did Jesus love us? Greater love has no man than this than to lay his life down for his friends. That is a fresh understanding of an old law. Unfortunately, the rabbis during the time of Christ and previous had found loopholes. I can forgive a person up to a certain amount of times and after that I can hate them and Jesus had to bring in the new, the fresh, the greater understanding. You're not looking for loopholes and Jesus is simply saying this is what's gonna cause people to know that you're mine and I'm not gonna be able to take you be so I'm gonna just close with a few thoughts here that probably will take me a few minutes. We'll pick up next week, I hope. How do people know you're a believer? I'm not trying to condemn you. I'm just asking you to think with me for a minute. How? I don't drink. I don't chew. I don't go with girls that do. No, I don't think so. Boy, that's an old one. I don't know why that came out. I'm sorry. Just taking some time. How do they know? Do they know that you're a believer by the things you're mad about? Because that seems to be evidence today for a lot of Christians. If I'm mad about the right things, I must be righteous. That's kind of a new trend, but that's not brand new. That's something that we've seen in the church off and on for many years. Or, yeah, I'm a Christian because I don't care about anything. I never judge anybody. Is that the way it is too? No, because there are a whole lot of people who call that grace when in fact, that's just simply a lack of courage, a lack of understanding of what God's requirements are, what he desires from us. But how would they know you're a believer? How did they know if we love one another? That's what Jesus said, by this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have love one for another. There was a writer, an early writer, a Greek. And his name was Lucian. He wrote in AD. He lived from 120 to 280. And this is what he said. He was watching Christians. And Lucian wrote, it is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their needs. They spare nothing. Their first legislator, Jesus, has put it into their heads that they're brethren. Isn't that interesting? And that was a pagan. And he was speaking about a new belief called Christianity. And he said, they love one another. There's something about them. There's something that makes them different than the pagans who could care less. Pagans believed that slavery was okay and the slave owner had the right to put to death the slave for any reason whatsoever. The Romans believed that the husband received ownership of the wife and permission from the father was passed on to the husband and he had the right of life and death. And so if his wife bothered him, he could kill her with impunity. I don't know if you knew that or not, but that was Rome. The Greeks, the Romans had no idea what love is. For them, love was something that would be sensual. It could be a variety. It would use the word like many Americans do today in such a careless way that it meant nothing. The word agape became a word they were aware of because it was a higher form. They had different words that were translated by the English word love. They had storgue. They had phileo. They had different words that would be used at that time, eras. And they spoke of different things, friendship, sexual, companion. But they didn't have a word that really gave the essence of what God did. The word agape became the word that was used. We're all familiar with that word. Agape one another, love one another. Greater love has no man than this in what? To lay down your life. Agape, the essence of it, is sacrifice. And it was demonstrated. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten, agape, the world. He gave his son a higher form of love. It's a love that you give without expecting anything in return. That's the kind of love a husband should have for a wife. Instead of using the word love to control, we use the word love to serve. To serve. Why? I learned a long time ago because when I have loved my wife with agape and I've served her and I've given her 100%, she always gives 150 back. It provokes a response. That's agape. And agape love is loving without anybody expecting somebody to give love in return. In Christianity you learn that because sometimes someone you loved hurts you. Someone you love injures you. And it tests your love because at that point you're able to see what quality it really is. Did I really love them? Or was I used in a word I didn't understand? Because real love is the kind of love that Jesus showed us on a cross when he died for people who care less that he was dying. When even his men were hiding for fear of the Jewish authorities. And only one was there at the foot of the cross with him, John. And when you compare John and the words of John and I was sharing this just the other day in a, I had a chance to teach at Calvary Downey and I was sharing when you compare the love of John with the love of the apostle Peter. And I had pointed as I've shared with you before but I didn't like John very much when I first started reading his gospel because he kept saying four times he says the one whom Jesus loved and I thought man that's kind of arrogant isn't I mean come on he loves the world. Who are you? Who are you John? Man. But then I drew and I realized as I've shared with you before I realized that the apostle Peter told Jesus I love you more than these, all these men. I will die for you. We'll be seeing that pretty soon as we're going through tomorrow. I would lay my life down for you. I love you more than these is what he was saying. My love for you is greater that will keep me close to you really. What happened to the apostle Peter? Well, he was there with Christ he showed his strength he showed his love when they came to take Jesus there in the garden he took out a sword and he cut off the ear of a man named Melchus he was willing to die for him. Jesus had to heal Melchus's ear put away your sword and then what happened? Peter abandoned Christ. They all for so commit flood the scripture says this love that Peter said he had for Jesus could only go so far because your love can only go so far. Now, John, I am the one whom Jesus loves. When you know how deeply Jesus loves you you'll follow him even as John did. Peter the one who says I love him ended up hiding for fear of the authorities. John went to the cross and was there. It's not how much you say you love Jesus it's how much you understand he loves you. And when you understand that then you begin to lay your life down for others the way he did. No, I'm not saying we all die but greater love has no man than this to lay down his life for his friends. I think that some of us would be willing to do some heroic sacrifice more than just the simple things. A heroic thing burning out dying in flames or whatever versus just dying daily but the Christian life is dying daily. The Christian life is praying for those who have despisefully used you. The Christian life is forgiving those who have hurt you. The Christian life is praying for your enemies. It's not being angry at people for not knowing Jesus it's loving them enough to cry for them and pray for them so that they might know him. That's the way nations are changed by the way. That's part of the way. Hearts are changed one at a time through the love of Christ. We do our political and civic duty of course of course we do we should but why? Cause I want this nation to know Jesus and I want the freedom to be able to preach his name as long as I can. So I'm gonna try to bring in people into office that don't hinder me from doing the work of Jesus Christ here on the face of the earth. It all begins with loving and being loved. He loved we love him though John says we'll see that because he first loved us. I didn't originate the love relationship he initiated it. My babies all four of them I'll close with this all four of them were first loved by the mom and dad before they loved mom and dad all four of them. And one of these days one of these days if you have small kids they'll do what mine did you never loved me. No I loved you. I love you from the moment that the doctor said your mama was carrying you. I've always loved you. Right now I don't like you but I do love you. So we're gonna have to stop there but cause I don't want to rush it. Why don't we say to God Lord I want to walk with you I fail thank you for your forgiveness. I'm not gonna be a hypocrite and pretend I love you when in fact I'm trying to continue in sin. No I want to live a life that pleases you. I don't want to make excuses for the things I do anymore. I want to be free from them because those are things that keep me from following you the way you would have me to. I want to love you. I want that new commandment be true in my heart not just to love God with all my heart but to love my neighbor as myself and to love the way that you Jesus loved. I want to love my brother. I want to love my sister. I want to be brand new. I want to live for you. Let's begin there. Father I ask that you would work in us.