Do you have assurance of your salvation

Understanding Our Need of God

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

The God of Israel

Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 6

What is Spiritual Maturity? If we had one word to describe Spiritual Maturity that word would be “assurance”.

This assurance comes by just believing everything God has to say!

1Pe 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1Pe 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
1Pe 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
1Pe 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
1Pe 2:3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1Pe 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Even when we think we know all there is to know about our Savior, there is still much more to learn and we will not know all about Him until we meet Him in the clouds.

As long as we are in this body of flesh, we will feel the need to get closer to God and we had better pay attention to that need!

Israel had lived in the presence of God for some time now.

He walked with them, and He talked with them, and God does this same thing with each and every believer today.

He provided all their needs as He does for each believer.

Remember a believer is someone who believes “all” the Word of God not just bits and pieces.

We cannot select what we believe and what we do not believe.

He kept them safe from danger in ways they could not understand.

As Christians we have angels watching over us.

God gave them laws to set them aside from all other nations.

Those laws are still good laws to help us in this life!

God was faithful to this tiny nation of Israel.

God is faithful to every true believer!

The first thing we need to clearly understand about our God is that there is no other God in this universe.

Oh, there are many so-called little gods who are only figments of the imagination.

There is only the One God, Jehovah and it does not matter what the world has to say about it or what the world believes!

We have a Living God who has given to us His Living Word!

*Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Deu 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

We always forget what God says here. If we love Him in this manner, then we will certainly believe Him.

The Hebrew word “Elohim” is used to say that Jehovah is One God in three persons.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit which Israel still has not understood.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

That word “Hear” means to hear “with the intent of believing what God says is true”, and this is to be applied to all the Word of God!

Moses was God’s “messenger: just as every true man “called of God”.

1Co_1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

1Th_2:12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

1Pe_2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

1Pe_5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1Jn_3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

God has made a covenant with humanity and this covenant began with the Ten Commandments, which are now hated by the world because they teach us things not to do and the world refuses to be obedient to God.

We must understand that it is hatred not love, that guides this world today!

Have you noticed that even the “judges” of today look upon crime with a soft touch and none of us can understand it. Where did this come from?

It is a complete lack of observing the covenant with God! The Ten Commandments.

Most judges of today are not about laws but only their own interpretation of the laws which they should always avoid!

The Ten Commandments must be followed even today, and we need the Ten Commandments because we refuse to love one another!

There is no true brotherly love in America today.

Every group of people are trying to get what they want off the backs of all other groups of people!

God made this covenant with the Israelites who believed, after He freed them from the tyranny of Egypt!

Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

We should not miss the fact that God demands obedience!

God had saved and delivered them, and He expected them to follow His laws.

We see God expects the same for all those He saves!

God made this covenant!

This covenant was not something dreamed up by humanity!

There is no excuse for any child of God to be confused about the Word of God!

With those things that we do not understand, we are to just accept them for what they say!

We are to just accept the Word of God and be obedient to it!

It is all those who pervert the Gospel who instill confusion in the many believers.

Moses became a type of Christ as the Mediator of these commandments.

1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

When we are obedient to our Almighty God, then we become His personal possession, but:

He will treat us a king.
He will treat us as priests.
He will treat us as holy, sanctified, pure, righteous, the consecrated people of God!

These are all things that show us just how much God loves us if we love Him!

*Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

You see, it is our Holy God who produced those Ten Commandments and not some man or some group of men.

God will never change these commandments, nor will we ever find them useless as long as we are in these bodies of flesh.

These commandments work because they come from God!

Exo 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Jehovah is the source of all things good and proper!

God simply says, “I Am That I Am”, our self-existing God!

He is the source of all life because He is the source of all beings, and the source of all His creation!

Remember God created using nothing but His will!

This is why there are no true creators today, because they only use the things that God has already created for their creations

He created us.
He loves us.
He will save us.
He will deliver us.
He will redeem us if we love Him!

Isa 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

We must understand the Word of God as God’s Divine Revelation of His Creation and of Himself.

We must have the proper view of the Word of God, to experience the enormous truth that God has given to us!

Though much of the world ignores the Word of God, for we who love Him, we do not know what it would be like to not know the truth of our creation!

Once you know the truth of God then it is easy to see the lies of this world!

Our God is not far off in outer space, unreachable or unapproachable, He is very near to those who love Him, even residing within us!

Deu 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

My God hears me even when I whisper to Him!

Jehovah is direct!

He Himself saved the children of Israel, He did not need help from some other source.

The Lord Jesus Christ gets personally involved with those who love Him!

When we study the Word of God, we can see that the Mosaic Covenant is a continuation of the covenant with Abraham.

The Church is a continuation of the covenant with Abraham!

The entire world had rejected God and God chose one man Abram to forsake the world and follow our Creator.

God is still fulfilling the promises He made to Abraham and his descendants!

There is still a “promised land” to the people of God, but it is not of this earth.

Abraham is a picture of salvation!

Moses is a picture of walking with the Lord according to His Word after salvation!

Today we have the Old Testament (Covenant) and the New Testament (Covenant).

The Lord Jesus Christ instituted the New Covenant, all by the hand of Jehovah God, the One God.

Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new “with you” in my Father’s kingdom.

It does not end with us, because we are to pass this information on throughout our families and our friends.

*Deu 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deu 6:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
Deu 6:9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Notice God makes it our duty to instruct our own children.

***We must first place the Word of God in our own hearts.

The commandments of God must be real to us.

We are to cherish the Word of God as the actual “Words of God” because they are!

We must be committed to obeying what God has revealed to us!

God insists upon this, not because He is some tyrant, but because by being obedient to the Word of God we will live a better life also full of joy.

Our own hearts are wicked!

Jer_17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

When we carry the Word of God within our hearts, it will replace that wickedness with the love of God.

God will look into our heart to see if His words are there.

Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

***We must next teach the Word of God to our children.

Some of the Word of God was at one time taught to our children until we allowed certain foolish people to rewrite certain laws to suit themselves.

Our Founding Fathers approved the Word of God.

The original Constitution of these United States is mostly ignored by a certain group of politicians as they seek their own failed glory.

We all understand that educating children is a necessity but indoctrinating our children is a crime!

Today we battle those who are perverted who try to teach even three- and four-year-old their own perverted sexual opinions.

America has surely become the new Sodom and Gomorrah.

We must stand up against these things no matter what names we are called!

Obeying the Word of God does not make us bigots or racist. In fact it is just the opposite!

Teaching is taking the truth of God and then living the truth of God, so our children will understand why.

We must be examples of what the Word of God teaches!

This is the greatest of all teaching methods and we must take the world out of the focus of our children, and place the Word of God in clear focus.

We need to take back control of our school systems and rid those systems of the entrenched perverted minds of immorality.

This may have to begin with school boards. Rid these boards of perverted people and replace them with Christians.

Our children need to know what God has to say, not what the world has to say.

We need to think upon the Word of God as we walk, as we work, when we are laid down, when we get up and when we are around our children and grandchildren.

We are to live by the commandments of God!

Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

***We are to use the Word of God as our strong witness while we are in the eyes of the public.

What has happened is there is so much evil in the world, that some of the things taught in schools now seem minor but they are not.

When the children of Israel were out in public, they were bind the commandments of God on their hands and their head.

It is important that we look more like Jesus Christ every day!

In fact, we cannot be Christians unless we begin to look like Him in our everyday walk in this world.

This is called repenting from our old life. Now people just want to cling to their sin yet receive the benefits of God and He is their JUDGE, and He has already JUDGED them!

Jesus said “ye must be Born Again”!

We should not call ourselves Christians.

It is our enemies who should notice that we are trying to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Orthodox Jews practice these things.

We must understand that the home is to be the center for our testimony of the truth of God and His Son!

1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1Pe 3:16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

Psa 66:16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

God’s blessings come to those who love Him and who are trying to be like Him!

*Deu 6:10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
Deu 6:11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
Deu 6:12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

It is the simple thing of obedience where we fail the most in our relationship with our Heavenly Father!

No matter what we think, God owns all of His Creation and can do with it as He pleases!

He does not need our permission to take our land and give it to someone else!

Remember God had told Abraham that everywhere his feet would touch would belong to His children.

It is the residents of Canaan Land who were the trespassers!

What worldly gifts did God offer these people?

1) God gave them the land promised to Abraham.
2) God gave them cities that were prosperous.
3) God gave them houses already stocked with good things.
4) God gave them wells that were full of water.
5) God gave them plenty of food.

What do we learn from these things knowing that God will not do for one that He will not do for others?

The believer who is obedient to God will be blessed by God!

Greatly blessed in this life and even greater blessing in that eternal life to come.

Jas 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Moses also taught these who would receive all these blessings, that there was a downside to so many blessings.

Owning so many treasures of this world can lead to the danger of forsaking God, and this is where the Church stands today.

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

We have this tendency to get so relaxed after receiving such blessings, that we forget that they came from our Savior and begin to put ourselves before God which is a great sin.

Sudden prosperity can be fatal to Christians!

A Christian can not only forget his salvation, but they can in fact forget God after He has blessed us so much.

As Christians we are to openly declare the Lord our Savior.

Prosperity can put us in a position of compromise!

Again, this is a sign of today’s Church who have compromised with the world and allowed what God has called an abomination into the pulpits of the Church.

When we begin to think too highly of ourselves, we begin to forsake God!

We may even think that we are so high on God’s list that we will never chastise us.

No one can get too high for God not to act against them!

Remember God loves those He chastises!

We may drift too far from God and feel nothing, and we must certainly never test God nor test the love of God!

We are to never give back the control of our lives to this world!

We must be incredibly careful if it seems we are making demands of God!

The fear of God from the heart is the most powerful principle of obedience!

Pro 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
Pro 30:9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

We must always remember our righteousness comes by our faith.

No one can keep all those old laws, and no one can keep the law perfectly.

It is by Jesus Christ that we are accepted by our Heavenly Father.

BUT once we have been accepted by Him we must seek to be obedient to Him and fulfill the commandments of God which is based upon our relationship with Him and with each other.

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

And these things will never change!

Amen

Are You Sure

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Assurance of Our Salvation

Book of 1 John Chapter 3 verses 11-24

How do we know we have become a part of God’s salvation plan? Because, the Holy Spirit has come to live within us!

How do we know the Holy Spirit lives in inside us? The proof is that we begin to love and to show the love that our God has shown to us!

We ended last week’s lesson with Chapter 3 and verse 10.

1Jn 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

How are God’s children made known to the world?

We are to be the ones who are doing things right while the world does things wrong!
We are to be the ones who love all others like our Heavenly Father loves us, who are so unworthy of His love!

This is the message God has had since the first day of Creation!

What is love?

Love is a great desire to promote peace and happiness and have true affections for all others.
Love is refusing to do anything that could prove injurious to others.
Love is doing things to promote the welfare, and the comfort, and the interests of others whether they appreciate it or not.
Love is personal and will show the real worth of that person who is so loved.
Love is taking action to show this love to all others.

This is the love God has shown to those who live throughout His creation!

1Jn 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1Jn 4:9 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.
1Jn 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1Jn 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Let this sink in for a moment.

This is the message of the Bible that we have learned from the beginning!

*1Jn 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

This is the very first lesson we need to learn after receiving our Savior!

For those who do not understand why God does what He does, then this is His reason!

We live in a world where it seems that almost everyone is looking for love.

Those not looking for love are looking to instill hatred, because they have never known what love means.

One group looks for love in the wrong places, and the other group denies that there can be such love yet, God’s only answer is that we must love one another.

When the Apostle John became so weak, he could hardly preach, he had only one message that he repeated over and over until his church got tired of hearing about the love of God.

The church of today has become tired of hearing John 3:16!

How did John respond? John said it is the Lord’s first command and that is a good enough reason to keep preaching about the love of God.

After all, when we obey the commandments of God, we show we love Him.

If we grow tired of God’s love, then how can see say He is our Father?

How could we ever grow tired of the love of our Heavenly Father?

Love is God’s message and love is the message God gave to His Son!

What happens when love ceases to exist?

*1Jn 3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

The truth is, those who live of hatred are of the wicked one! The wicked one is the Devil, Satan, the Deceiver, the evil one, the Antichrist!

It was Cain who committed the very first murder upon this earth!
It was Cain who first spilled the blood of an innocent human being!
It was Cain who first showed the results of hatred, to a world who had never seen such a thing!
It was Cain who showed the results of evil works from the mind of a human being!

Why was Abel chosen by Cain to show this hatred? Because Abel had tried his best to be obedient to God and Cain openly showed his parents that he was not going to believe what God had to say!

You see Adam had allowed sin into this world and Satan immediately found his first follower!

Cain was the first one to reject the truth of God!

Cain was the first child of the devil!

Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

Cain was the very first one who decided to try to put an end to the good works of those who love the Lord God Almighty!

As humans we cannot give life so in reality, we have no right to take a life, but according to the Word of God!
As humans we do have the ability to reproduce and those who hate life so much, have decided that they have the power to end these lives!

Reminds us of those innocent babies who are murdered everyday who have done nothing to harm anyone!

These things are the results of Satan inspired hatred!
These things are the results of a people who hate to see other people try to do good!

We should also see that Cain started down a path that he could see no means of escape, and we can be sure that Satan was feeding him these lies, and Cain never asked God for forgiveness.

Cain began a life of envy and we see these same things today in our societies, our politics, our sports and in Hollywood.

Envy leads to strife, and division and hatred and sometimes murder, as it did with Cain.

Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

If we are filled with God the Holy Spirit, it will show, and the world will hate us also!

*1Jn 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

We see all these things today in our world and though we mostly mind our own business, the world will treat us as the enemy and the truth is, if the world is our enemy, then obviously we are enemies to the world even if we go about our business not bothering anyone!

1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Our world is not interested in any form of salvation that does not come by powerful men who live in this world!

Our world is not interested in remedies that do not come from some man who are said to have great scientific minds, or great in philosophy, though they are only men.

Our world will not be satisfied until we renounce God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and join the world in unbelief.

But we have a Savior who will not give up on the world and this is the message that we are to give the world!

Jesus has explained all these things to us, and the Apostle John is just reminding us that this situation came about when love was rejected, and hatred began!

These things can bring a blessing from our Heavenly Father if we stick by the stuff of Jesus Christ!

Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
Luk 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

When we cling to the love of God and show that love to others no matter what the world is doing, then we can understand why the Scriptures gives us these words!

*1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

First: The first proof that we have passed from “physical death” to “spiritual life” (Born Again) is because we love all the brethren of the Church!

Adam represents all those in the physical world and Jesus represents all those in the spiritual world, of which every believer has become a part of!

We are no longer bound by the law of death, but live by the law of life that is in Christ Jesus!

We have left that state of condemnation and live by in the state of justification!

If we cannot now love all our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we have not made this change and the Holy Spirit does not live in us!

It takes a regeneration by the Holy Spirit to know the true love of God!

We cannot even please God, until His Spirit of life lives within us!

Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

And we must count it a privilege to be a part of the family of God and have so many brothers and sisters in Christ!

The early church began with this understanding!

Act 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
Act 4:33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Though circumstance were far different in the days of the early church, we must remember, our God does not ever change!

All those who do great religious works, but do the wrong works are still dead!

Rev 3:1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Rev 3:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

We may think God is not paying attention to us, but we will be fooled when the Lord returns!

If we retain any hatred for our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter where they are or what denomination they abide in, how can we say we belong to the Lord ourselves?

*1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

The truth is “love does not hate”!

This does not mean we have to agree with everyone because we must stick to the truth of God!

When we have all sorts of negative feelings against others in the church, then we are not expressing the love of God!

Some of these negative feelings would be things like, dislike, anger, bitterness, envy, jealousy, resentment, irritability.

When we hate, we are in the same class of people as murderers!

We could say, well John is going just a little too far, but what did Jesus say?

Mat 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Mat 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Mat 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

We see Jesus went a little further and said God the Father will not hear your prayers, and the Lord our Advocate will not defend us, as long as we are guilty of any sort of hatred!

Love is the only security against hatred!

Pro 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

What is our greatest example of the love of God?

*1Jn 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Unless we forget, we were all dirty rotten sinners when the Lord died for our sins.

We could say well, we were not even born at that time of the Cross.

Then we would be limiting the Omniscience of God, who knew us all before we were even born!

I know that the Lord Jesus Christ would have died just for me!

Think upon that for a moment!

Jesus the Messiah took all sin upon Himself and took it to Hell where it all belongs!

If we love God, then we will follow His Son. We will love other people just as He did!

This does not mean we will love their sinful ways. In fact we must place all our hatred upon sin without placing hatred upon that person!

Even when a sinner rejects the Lord Jesus Christ it does not change the love God has for them!

God will just honor the choices we make because He loves us!

This we must do also!

We must plead and beg and teach our children and grandchildren, and then honor their choices, but we must never stop loving them!

We must still not be a part of their sinful lifestyle!

If we cannot love those that oppose us, then how can we say we have the love of Jesus Christ?

Joh 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
Joh 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Before we go home to be with the Lord can we truly say, ” Father, I will give you my life for my children or for my grandchildren”!

Jesus has already given us the power to lay our life down and the power to pick it back up again.

Now this does not mean anything about suicide or any such thing as that. It does mean are we spiritually willing to go to the extreme to save our children and our family!

Do we have that sacrificial love for our family?

Are we willing to pick our cross up daily and follow the Lord in all circumstances?

Are we truly in the will of our heavenly Father?

Are we considerate of the needs of others?

*1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

What is one of the greatest traits of love? Compassion! (Pity)

What are “the world’s good”? Notice this does not say the world’s “goods”, though it would include some of the world’s goods which make up the necessities of life.

The “good” things of the world are those things that comply with moral law.

The world, in its own way can show compassion at many times such as in the devastation of the recent hurricanes.

Today, it is not so much in sharing the things you have, but for the most part, the requests are for money to specific agencies who will keep more of that money than they will use.

For us of the Church it remains better to give to the Church and such Church agencies that can be trusted.

There will always be the poor amongst us, and these are those who are poor in worldly good!

The world’s “good” could be said to be things that are useful, things that produce a good effect, things that have a value to life and things that are valuable to life.

These things could be said to be the basic needs for life!

God says:

Isa 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Is there a benefit to doing these things?

Isa 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

You see this is another form of laying down your life for someone else!

So these may not be spiritual things, but they may lead to us being able to share spiritual things!

Or how can we look upon the face of God, if we turn our faces away from those who have a need that we are able to supply?

We know that John is preaching to the Church and certainly those should come first, but God’s love extends to all those in His creation!

We wonder why God does not answer our prayers sometimes, and John gives us another reason and another lesson in, Are We Who We Say We Are?

1Ti 6:17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
1Ti 6:18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;
1Ti 6:19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

So the question remains, Do We Really Love God, As He Loves Us?

Are we expected to empty the Church coffers to help all those in our area? I believe the monies we give are for the maintenance of the church, the salaries of those who are needed, and for the church outreach. I believe we owe it to the Lord to use every means possible to spread the Gospel and make disciples. I also believe we need some monies in place for hard times just as all good stewards.

I also believe it would not hurt to have some monies and some people, set aside to help those in need especially those of the church and according to the Word of God those needs are the necessities of life and not cars and not homes and not, other worldly things.

In other words strictly monitored!

If we are to follow all the Word of God, then certainly we must show the love that God has shown to us, in giving us His Son the Giver of Life and Life Eternal!

Are we following the Gospel truth?

*1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.

This is something that we need to settle in our hearts. We must know that we are of the truth, and that truth is Jesus Christ!

You see God cannot be fooled because He can see deep into our heart and He knows if we are real or not!

We can be sure that He that created all things, also knows all things!

God has a perfect knowledge and we do not have a clue what perfect really means, because we base perfection on the things of this world and there is nothing perfect in this world beyond that Saint of God who has departed this world to go home and the perfect Word of God!

But we need to strive for perfection and the regular attendance to a Bible believing Church is one way to do this!

Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

When our hearts are pure and striving for perfection, God will always be there to walk with us in the cool of the day, but also in the heat of the day!

*1Jn 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

If deep down in our heart, we know what we do is wrong, then how can we expect God to believe that we are right?

If our own conscience condemns us, how can we expect God not to condemn the things we do?

There is nothing that we can hide from God! Absolutely nothing!

And for those who are just playing Church, they need to wake up and get real with God and our Savior!

All those who think they can cling to their sin and get prayers answered, need to wake up!

At the same time, when we are deep into our own unworthiness and still possess the love of God for all our brethren, then God will give us the confidence that we are lacking because God can see into our heart knowing the truth of our being!

We can also know that we will have periods of doubts and fears, and God will never condemn us even of these things!

You see God certainly can see our sins, but God also knows our temptations, our struggles, our sorrows and our love.

God knows what we go through in our life and in our Christian life.

Heb_2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

God knows how to deliver us from every obstacle we face in all our lifetime!

Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

It is when we do all these things as best that we know how, that when we pray, we can expect an answer to the prayer, if what we ask is within the will of God for our lives.

There is nothing God is not prepared to give His children, When We Please Him!

*1Jn 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

The way to obtain a clean heart, is to walk in the commandments of God!

The way to get prayers answered, is to do things that are pleasing to God!

Things that please God must include our faith in the works of Jesus Christ!

Things that please God, is faith that he is God and there is no other!

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

To please God we must join the Army of God!

2Ti_2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

To please God then we must be more like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Joh_8:29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

These are all simple things, but they all require that we give up our old life.

None of these things are available to us until we have been “Born Again” into new life!

None of these things will work for us until we accept the Lord Jesus Christ!

*1Jn 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
1Jn 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

All those who say they do not know what God expects from us, just need to read this passage.

Every Church in every denomination that would allow evil men to dictate lies, need to read this passage to know the truth.

Every soul that has doubts about their salvation, need to read this passage.

All those who want to know the truth of the Holy Spirit, need to read this passage.

All those who trust in the Lord can have assurance, if we read this passage!

All those who want a clean heart, can only have one by and thru the Holy Spirit, which comes only by Jesus Christ!

Are there other ways to please God? No!

Amen

Let’s Pray!