September 4, 2024 • 29 mins
What does it mean to truly embody divine love in a world that often feels devoid of it? Join me, B.R.Maul, as we explore the profound teachings of 1 John 4:7-11, revealing how authentic love originates from God and signifies our deep connection with Him. This episode, "Living God's Way in an Ungodly World," begins with a heartfelt discussion on how the command to love God wholeheartedly and to love our neighbors as ourselves sets us apart from worldly love. We'll engage in a meaningful prayer, seeking divine guidance to manifest this pure, selfless love in our everyday lives, especially in these urgent times.
Moving forward, we'll delve into "The Power of Agape Love," where the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ takes center stage. Learn why acting on temptation, rather than temptation itself, constitutes sin, and grasp the assurance of salvation through Jesus' sacrifice, debunking the myth of losing one's salvation. We’ll also navigate the constant struggle between flesh and spirit, emphasizing the importance of repentance and God’s unwavering grace. Finally, in "Seeking Biblically-Grounded Church Communities," we stress the critical need for churches that prioritize biblical teachings over traditions and denominational constraints. Choosing the right spiritual home is crucial for our growth, so let's ensure we invest our time wisely in understanding and living out God's word to the fullest.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
B. R. Maul (00:28):
Hello and good day.
I am BR Maul, and this isLiving God's Way in an Ungodly
World.
It's good to have you here withme.
Thanks for joining.
We continue in the book of 1John.
We're in chapter 4, and todaywe'll be going through verses 7
through 11.
(00:49):
John has been talking quite abit about the outworking of love
and truth and righteousness,and today he's going to talk
even more about knowing Godthrough love.
John has made it pretty clearto us, as born-again believers,
that love is the foundation, andthat is obvious for those who
(01:13):
have been reading God's word,because, well, we know that love
is our first and foremost.
First part of that is to loveour Lord, god, with all of our
heart, all of our soul and allof our might.
(01:42):
The second part of that is tolove our neighbor, so everyone
else, anybody who comes incontact with us, is our neighbor
, not just a person who residesnext door or across the hall or
wherever it is that you liveacross the fields, but neighbor
(02:04):
represents everybody, and we areto love our neighbor as ourself
.
Notice the difference, though.
We are not to love ourself and,for that matter, our neighbor
more than God.
We love our maker.
We love God with every fiber ofour being.
(02:26):
Living in this sinful world, inour sinful state of mind and
our sinful flesh, of course,makes this impossible.
But the day will come when weare glorified and when we are in
eternity, we will be able tolove him completely, entirely
(02:47):
with our heart, soul and mind.
But in the meantime, well, weare told to do it, which means,
with the help of the Holy Spirit, we're going to give it all
that we got, and when we do messup, we turn around, we repent
and embrace our Heavenly Father.
We don't run away, we don'twalk away sulking.
(03:09):
You get up and we keep on going.
That's loving Him.
So let's begin the reading and,as usual, I will back up after I
give the full reading and we'llbreak it down verse by verse.
1, john 4, verse 7.
Beloved, let us love oneanother, for love is of God, and
(03:33):
everyone who loves is born ofGod and knows God.
He who does not love does notknow God, for God is love.
In this the love of God wasmanifested toward us.
That God has sent his onlybegotten Son into the world that
(03:55):
we might live through him In.
This is love.
Not that we loved God, but thathe loved us.
We also ought to love oneanother.
(04:16):
Heavenly Father, I ask you toguide my tongue.
Let nothing of my own words, myown agenda whatsoever leave my
mouth.
May it only be the words thatare blessed by you, through the
Holy Spirit, and open the heartsand minds of those who are
listening.
Lord, time is essential, aswe've talked in other podcasts.
(04:38):
The end of time is gettingnearer and nearer.
So, lord, for those who areseeking you, may all blockades
be removed from them.
Help them get rid of theirpride, help them get rid of any
insecurities, anything that maybe keeping them from you and
(05:00):
knowing your son, jesus Christ.
And I pray through the name andpower of Jesus Christ, amen.
So let us back up Chapter 4,verse 7 in 1 John.
So John says Beloved, and boydo I enjoy that.
I guess that's where I pickedit up from, because I like when
he calls us beloved, and that'swhy I use that term of
(05:23):
endearment, because it's a goodreminder that we are loved.
So I like to read it in God'sWord and I like to use it with
my brothers and sisters,especially when I am teaching
God's Word.
So I think it's important thatwe remind one another that we
are loved.
And that's what John has beenteaching us over these weeks and
(05:45):
we're going to know more abouttoday.
Because, again, love is thefoundation of Christianity.
We cannot be a follower ofChrist and not have love in our
hearts.
If one claims to love Jesus andyet does not have the love of
their brethren in their hearts—Brethren as in other born-again
(06:06):
believers, brothers and sistersthat's when the person should
seriously consider if they areindeed born again.
So he says Beloved, let us loveone another, for love is of God
, and everyone who loves is bornof God and knows God.
That's verse 7.
(06:26):
So let us love one another.
That's not asking.
He is telling Love one another,and why?
For love is of God.
All love comes from God.
Think about that for just a fewmoments here with me.
That true love, not theHollywood stuff, not the stuff
(06:49):
of the flesh, the lustful kind,no, but pure true love, that
wholesome love, that love thatis overflowing with goodness,
all of it comes from God.
Flowing with goodness, all ofit comes from God.
Every single little ounce oflove comes from God.
(07:10):
Which means we can't make it.
We can fake it for a while, butwe can't make it.
We can't just produce love outof thin air.
So we must go to God for this.
And John says and everyone wholoves is born of God and knows
God.
Born of God.
(07:31):
There's that born again.
Born of God is spiritual.
We are all born physically intothis world.
If you're listening to thispodcast, well then that means
you were born Physically, youwere born into this world.
But many people are not bornagain, and that is born of God
(07:53):
or born spiritually.
So everyone who loves is bornof God or born again and knows
God.
So isn't that interesting?
The reason I find thatinteresting is especially in the
world that we live in today, inmodern society anyway,
everything is fast.
We want to get things done now.
(08:15):
When people call each other ontheir cell phones, they want
someone to pick up immediately.
Boy, do some people get testywhen they leave a message and
they don't hear back from theperson after about 10 minutes.
And of course, such things aresaid.
As I know, they have that cellphone on them Everywhere they go
(08:35):
.
So the assumption is that youneed to answer that right now
and we need to talk right now.
Fast food that's a concept.
Drive up to a little window,speak into it, say this is what
I'd like for my dinner, drive upto another window and they hand
it out to you.
That's pretty fast.
(08:55):
So why do I bring that up?
Because John says and everyonewho loves is born of God and
knows God, and that is assumed,that that all happens at the
same time, that it's very quickthat one is born again.
And because you're born again,the snap of a finger, the dial
(09:19):
of a cell phone, the ordering upof a fast food drive Just like
that you know God.
But like any relationshipbeloved, it doesn't come just
like that.
So once we are born again, ourpath, our walk with the Lord is
just starting.
(09:39):
And like any relationship, weinvest into that relationship
time and we know him, we get toknow who he is, and then we
start to understand his love andnot the world's, His pure love.
And so give it time.
If you haven't been walkingwith the Lord long, don't expect
(10:02):
just to know him.
Lord long, don't expect just toknow him.
Invest that time into him.
It's well worth it.
Verse 8, he who does not lovedoes not know God.
Why, for God is love?
There's verse 8.
So he who does not love doesnot know God.
That too is something thathappens in time.
(10:25):
My younger years was saturatedin the world, so even the way I
loved other people was veryselfish.
It was me-oriented, and so manymovies that I watched I was
just convinced that that's whatlove was.
You fell in love, you fell outof love.
(10:45):
Love just broke your heart andthen you walked around with a
broken heart for a while untilfinally it mended and then you
tripped and fell in love again.
But that's not God's love,that's the world's love.
So as you get to know God andyou get to understand his love
for you, the Holy Spirit in thatprocess is sanctifying you and
(11:10):
you yourself begin to understandthat love and you yourself
begin to love in that way.
Now that last part, those fourwords, for God is love.
God isn't full of love, he islove.
Everything about him has lovein it.
(11:33):
No-transcript Verse 9,.
In this the love of God wasmanifested toward us, that God
has sent his only begotten Soninto the world that we might
live through him, and that'sbeing Jesus, living through
(11:55):
Jesus.
And the name Jesus issynonymous with love.
I can just say his name, andsometimes that's just what I do
If I'm down and out, I'll justrepeat his name sometimes Just
Jesus, jesus, jesus.
I tell you I can feel that lovebecause he is love and Jesus is
(12:21):
the manifestation of love,which means we can see him, we
can touch him.
Right now we can't, because heis seated at the right hand of
God the Father, but he will comeagain, right to judge the
living and the dead.
But as John says in verse 9, inthis the love of God was
(12:45):
manifested toward us, that Godsent his only begotten Son into
the world that we might livethrough him, through him, jesus,
and through him, love.
Not easy, is it?
We are in this difficult statefor all of us who are born again
(13:05):
, because spiritually we want tolove Our spirit that is
speaking with the Holy Spirit,that is being guided by the Holy
Spirit that dwells in us, showsus which way to go in our path
of righteousness, to go in ourpath of righteousness.
But that can be difficult.
It can be difficult to beforgiving.
(13:27):
It can be difficult to begenerous and give when it
actually hurts to give.
It can be difficult to be kindto somebody who isn't kind, who
has a horrible nature about them, and our flesh yells and
screams inside, thinking theyhave it coming, say that witty
(13:49):
remark that'll just knock themdown.
And when our flesh thinks thatthe Holy Spirit convicts us and
the Holy Spirit reminds us thatour Heavenly Father is love and
that love is manifested throughJesus and that love is also
abiding in us as the Holy Spirit, so we can't say, I'm not able
(14:14):
to Believe me.
There are times I would like to, there are times I'm tempted to
say, hey, this is impossible.
I can't do that because the waythis person is.
But the Holy Spirit is quick toconvict me and remind me of my
own sinful self, my own sinfulnature, and that while I was
(14:35):
still in that state of sin, godthe Father loved me and Jesus
hung on that cross for that sin.
It was that thought in partthat brought me to the Lord
Jesus.
The very thought of my nature,the stuff that I was doing and
how I would talk, treat otherpeople, my motivation behind
(14:58):
things, my actions and my deeds,my words, my motivation wasn't
pure.
Like anybody who is not bornagain or anybody who has
backslidden and is far fromhearing the Holy Spirit speak to
them, it quickly becomes aboutme and selfishness and pride.
(15:21):
Well, those are enemies of love.
You know, I don't believe thathate is necessarily the opposite
of love.
That's a pretty strong emotion,so there's a pretty good
argument for that.
But I really wonder if it's amatter of pride and that that
pride is the opposite of love.
Now, I know in God's word, fearis something that certainly
(15:45):
damages us.
It takes away from our abilityto have faith in the Lord.
So faith and fear are opposites, and I suppose, even with hate,
one could argue that perhaps weare indeed accessing our
prideful self to be able to hate.
(16:06):
I mean, I don't know, that's atough one, that's one to chew on
for a while.
What do you think I'd like tohear from you?
Do you think the opposite oflove is hate, or do you think
the opposite of love is pride,putting ourself above other
people?
You can get a hold of me at mywebsite, brmaulcom, and just at
(16:34):
the top there click on the pagethat says Contact Us.
Click on that and get a hold ofme.
I'd love to hear from you.
You can also use the textingdevice that says message me at
any of the directories that youmay be listening from.
Just click on the message meand let me know what do you
(16:56):
think?
The opposite of love.
So in this the love of God wasmanifested then through Jesus
Christ.
Verse 10, propitiation that's apretty big word, but it just
(17:22):
means atoning sacrifice.
It was just the one sacrifice.
Jesus did it.
He lived a perfect life, asinless life.
He never succumbed totemptation at all.
He was tempted.
That's in God's word.
The devil tempted him.
Temptation itself is not a sin.
(17:43):
The devil loves to make us feelguilty when we are being
tempted.
If we are thinking something ina situation and we're tempted
pondering it, well that's notthe sin.
Yet right Sin is when we gothrough with it.
So don't let the devil get youdown in that you just tell the
devil that you're a child of Godand Jesus died for all your
(18:07):
sins, and that temptation in andof itself isn't sin, because he
tried that with Jesus and hefailed with Jesus.
I know, from time to time hedoes get us, but then we repent.
Right, the Lord is quick toforgive us and we carry on.
So that propitiation not that weloved him, nope, but that he
(18:30):
loved us.
That's God, the Father.
God, the Father loved us and hesent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins.
So he took care of it For allwho have confessed with their
mouth the Lord Jesus andbelieved in their heart that the
Heavenly Father raised him fromthe dead.
You are born again, you are achild of God, you are in God's
(18:54):
family and nothing can take thataway from you, including your
own sin.
That's such a horrible teachingthat is going around in some of
the major denominations today,and boy does that bother me.
You can't lose your salvation,and I would like to challenge
anybody anyways, answer thiswhat good would salvation be if
(19:18):
we could lose it under our ownaccord?
Because under my own accord Icouldn't make it into heaven to
begin with.
And so if God put that samestipulation on there that made
me fail, where I couldn't evenget into heaven by myself
because by nature I'm sinful,well, if he put that stipulation
(19:39):
on there that once I was bornagain, well, if I sin too bad,
well, he's going to take it back.
Well, that'd be worthless, thatwouldn't do any good.
Nobody would be getting intoheaven Because even with the
help of the Holy Spirit, we sin,we mess up.
That's part of this flesh andblood that continues to war with
(20:00):
the Spirit.
My goodness.
It is every single day.
Anybody who was born again cantestify to that.
There's not a day that goes bythat a person isn't tempted or
just downright tired and sickand tired of whatever.
And so sinning still comes easybecause it's still our natural
way.
But at least we have the HolySpirit to supernaturally, when
(20:24):
that is, we do the right thingand we turn to our God and
repent and we pray and we askhim for strength to be our
stronghold, and he does it everytime he comes through.
So you can't lose your salvation, beloved.
And I certainly hope that ifyou are battling with that, if
you are stuck at a denominationor a church that continues the
(20:48):
week after week, teach andpreach that you must go back and
take communion or you mustconfess and do whatever,
whatever works that they tellyou to do, because that would
just be works.
That's not grace.
But remember, we are saved bygrace, through faith, but by
(21:08):
grace, by God's grace.
And is God going to take hisgrace back?
No, he is not, and I'm verythankful for that.
And verse 11, he ends withBeloved.
If God so loved us, we alsoought to love one another.
(21:28):
I really like that.
Now it's kind of interesting.
He says if God so loved us Wellinteresting way to put it,
because, yes, god did and doesso love us Well, then we also
ought to love one another.
That's not a suggestion that weshould love one another Now.
(21:51):
Loving one another make sure weunderstand this correctly is
brethren, your family, yourbrothers and sisters in Christ,
those who are born again inChrist, those who are born again
.
To love one another doesn'tmean the same thing as those who
(22:12):
are not born again Now, yes, weare to care for these people,
people who don't know who Jesusis.
Yes, our love should be there.
We need to use that love thatGod so gave us, this agape love
that is so pure, that is so holy, and go out, as Jesus said to
(22:33):
all nations, and make disciples.
And making disciples, before aperson can be a disciple, which
is a student, they must first beborn again.
And to be born again, you mustknow who Jesus is.
So we get the name of Jesus outthere, we get the gospel
message in front of people, andthat's loving them.
(22:55):
But then, once they are bornagain, well, now they're
brothers and sisters.
Now they fall into that oneanother category that John's
talking about to love oneanother.
They may be a baby Christian andknow very little of God's word
or beloved.
They could be backslidden.
That could be you.
(23:15):
Maybe you're a baby Christian.
You haven't been a Christianvery long.
You haven't had much time toread God's word.
You haven't had a whole lot oftime to sit and hear the
teaching of others who have beenin God's Word for a long time.
And for those who arebackslidden, well, that's
somebody.
You could be walking with theLord for years, but then you've
made one wrong decision afteranother.
(23:37):
You've turned back to yourworldly ways and you are tempted
over and over again to livelike you used to be, and you
need to get out of that as well.
Someone who is backslidden fallsinto that category of one
another, and so we love oneanother.
We love the baby Christian.
We do that by helping somebodywho is newly born again to walk
(24:02):
and to grow their faith so theyare stronger.
And for those who arebackslidden, we love them, we go
to them, we point out, andloving somebody isn't giving
them what they want.
Please stop giving people whatthey want in life.
That's not loving them.
Sometimes what they want iswhat they need, but when we're
(24:25):
talking salvation, we givepeople what they need.
They need Jesus, and if they'reborn again and they're
backslidden, well, they stillneed Jesus.
Someone who has backslidingdoesn't mean that they've lost
their salvation.
You can't do that.
Someone who ever appears tolook like they are no longer a
(24:47):
Christian but they used to be,that means they never were,
because they're eitherbackslidden yes, someone who has
backslidden or is backslidingcan look just like the world,
but otherwise they never had theHoly Spirit in them.
Someone who can walk away andnot feel the conviction of the
(25:09):
Holy Spirit telling them youbetter turn around and do what's
right, but they can go rightback to the way they were living
.
It's sad to say and it's veryunfortunate.
I hate saying it, but then thatmeans they were never born
again.
So, love one another, love God'slove.
Oh, that agape love.
(25:31):
How powerful it is.
And this world already has awhole bunch of the cheap stuff,
the stuff that we use to getwhat we want.
We love commercially, worldly,selfishly, lustfully, to serve
ourself, and the world alreadyhas a whole bunch of that.
(25:52):
What the world doesn't have isGod's agape love, that love that
, instead of being selfish, isselfless, that love that puts
the person below the person thatthey are loving.
And we'll go out of the way todo what is right, even when we
don't like to, because we knowit's the right thing to do.
(26:14):
It is loving other people,loving one another.
And how else do we do that?
Well, we stay in the God's wordeach and every day, right
beloved.
Well, we stay in the God's Wordeach and every day, right
beloved.
Some techniques of mine everyday of the month, 1 through 31,
that's the proverb that I readand then I'll read five of the
(26:37):
Psalms.
Each day you do that and everysingle month you've gone through
all the Psalms and all theProverbs.
And that's powerful stuff, verypowerful.
And then prayer oh, keeppraying to your Heavenly Father.
Come together with yourbrothers and sisters, meet with
brothers and sisters as often asyou can.
Weekly is the best.
(26:59):
If you can do even more, if youcan do a couple of times great.
Throw the stuff of this worldaway, these movies, even the
books that are coming out thesedays.
They're just getting worse andworse.
I still watch movies from timeto time, and there are still
good books out there, but don'tput that above God's Word.
(27:21):
It's not worth it.
And, of course, worship.
Don't put that above God's word.
It's not worth it.
And of course, worship.
If you're fortunate to have aBible-loving and teaching church
, well, stick with it.
But if you're at a church thatis stuck on their own traditions
, they're more concerned aboutwhat the denomination says, the
hierarchy of that denomination,the hierarchy of that church.
(27:43):
My advice is run, get out.
You're being misled.
I'm not very popular for sayingthis stuff, but it's true.
It's so very true, and I say itout of love, because I love all
my brothers and sisters.
I want all of my brothers andsisters to flourish, so when we
(28:06):
all stand before Jesus Christ,our Lord and King, that there
will be rewards for what we havedone, because we didn't
squander it just doing worldlythings or going to a church,
because that church makes mefeel good, even though they
didn't dig into God's Word.
And that is all that I have fortoday, and so we'll talk soon.
(28:27):
Until next time, god bless,thank you.
Hello and good day.
I am BR Maul, and this isLiving God's Way in an Ungodly
World.
It's good to have you here withme.
Thanks for joining.
We continue in the book of 1John.
We're in chapter 4, and todaywe'll be going through verses 7
through 11.
(00:49):
John has been talking quite abit about the outworking of love
and truth and righteousness,and today he's going to talk
even more about knowing Godthrough love.
John has made it pretty clearto us, as born-again believers,
that love is the foundation, andthat is obvious for those who
(01:13):
have been reading God's word,because, well, we know that love
is our first and foremost.
First part of that is to loveour Lord, god, with all of our
heart, all of our soul and allof our might.
(01:42):
The second part of that is tolove our neighbor, so everyone
else, anybody who comes incontact with us, is our neighbor
, not just a person who residesnext door or across the hall or
wherever it is that you liveacross the fields, but neighbor
(02:04):
represents everybody, and we areto love our neighbor as ourself
.
Notice the difference, though.
We are not to love ourself and,for that matter, our neighbor
more than God.
We love our maker.
We love God with every fiber ofour being.
(02:26):
Living in this sinful world, inour sinful state of mind and
our sinful flesh, of course,makes this impossible.
But the day will come when weare glorified and when we are in
eternity, we will be able tolove him completely, entirely
(02:47):
with our heart, soul and mind.
But in the meantime, well, weare told to do it, which means,
with the help of the Holy Spirit, we're going to give it all
that we got, and when we do messup, we turn around, we repent
and embrace our Heavenly Father.
We don't run away, we don'twalk away sulking.
(03:09):
You get up and we keep on going.
That's loving Him.
So let's begin the reading and,as usual, I will back up after I
give the full reading and we'llbreak it down verse by verse.
1, john 4, verse 7.
Beloved, let us love oneanother, for love is of God, and
(03:33):
everyone who loves is born ofGod and knows God.
He who does not love does notknow God, for God is love.
In this the love of God wasmanifested toward us.
That God has sent his onlybegotten Son into the world that
(03:55):
we might live through him In.
This is love.
Not that we loved God, but thathe loved us.
We also ought to love oneanother.
(04:16):
Heavenly Father, I ask you toguide my tongue.
Let nothing of my own words, myown agenda whatsoever leave my
mouth.
May it only be the words thatare blessed by you, through the
Holy Spirit, and open the heartsand minds of those who are
listening.
Lord, time is essential, aswe've talked in other podcasts.
(04:38):
The end of time is gettingnearer and nearer.
So, lord, for those who areseeking you, may all blockades
be removed from them.
Help them get rid of theirpride, help them get rid of any
insecurities, anything that maybe keeping them from you and
(05:00):
knowing your son, jesus Christ.
And I pray through the name andpower of Jesus Christ, amen.
So let us back up Chapter 4,verse 7 in 1 John.
So John says Beloved, and boydo I enjoy that.
I guess that's where I pickedit up from, because I like when
he calls us beloved, and that'swhy I use that term of
(05:23):
endearment, because it's a goodreminder that we are loved.
So I like to read it in God'sWord and I like to use it with
my brothers and sisters,especially when I am teaching
God's Word.
So I think it's important thatwe remind one another that we
are loved.
And that's what John has beenteaching us over these weeks and
(05:45):
we're going to know more abouttoday.
Because, again, love is thefoundation of Christianity.
We cannot be a follower ofChrist and not have love in our
hearts.
If one claims to love Jesus andyet does not have the love of
their brethren in their hearts—Brethren as in other born-again
(06:06):
believers, brothers and sistersthat's when the person should
seriously consider if they areindeed born again.
So he says Beloved, let us loveone another, for love is of God
, and everyone who loves is bornof God and knows God.
That's verse 7.
(06:26):
So let us love one another.
That's not asking.
He is telling Love one another,and why?
For love is of God.
All love comes from God.
Think about that for just a fewmoments here with me.
That true love, not theHollywood stuff, not the stuff
(06:49):
of the flesh, the lustful kind,no, but pure true love, that
wholesome love, that love thatis overflowing with goodness,
all of it comes from God.
Flowing with goodness, all ofit comes from God.
Every single little ounce oflove comes from God.
(07:10):
Which means we can't make it.
We can fake it for a while, butwe can't make it.
We can't just produce love outof thin air.
So we must go to God for this.
And John says and everyone wholoves is born of God and knows
God.
Born of God.
(07:31):
There's that born again.
Born of God is spiritual.
We are all born physically intothis world.
If you're listening to thispodcast, well then that means
you were born Physically, youwere born into this world.
But many people are not bornagain, and that is born of God
(07:53):
or born spiritually.
So everyone who loves is bornof God or born again and knows
God.
So isn't that interesting?
The reason I find thatinteresting is especially in the
world that we live in today, inmodern society anyway,
everything is fast.
We want to get things done now.
(08:15):
When people call each other ontheir cell phones, they want
someone to pick up immediately.
Boy, do some people get testywhen they leave a message and
they don't hear back from theperson after about 10 minutes.
And of course, such things aresaid.
As I know, they have that cellphone on them Everywhere they go
(08:35):
.
So the assumption is that youneed to answer that right now
and we need to talk right now.
Fast food that's a concept.
Drive up to a little window,speak into it, say this is what
I'd like for my dinner, drive upto another window and they hand
it out to you.
That's pretty fast.
(08:55):
So why do I bring that up?
Because John says and everyonewho loves is born of God and
knows God, and that is assumed,that that all happens at the
same time, that it's very quickthat one is born again.
And because you're born again,the snap of a finger, the dial
(09:19):
of a cell phone, the ordering upof a fast food drive Just like
that you know God.
But like any relationshipbeloved, it doesn't come just
like that.
So once we are born again, ourpath, our walk with the Lord is
just starting.
(09:39):
And like any relationship, weinvest into that relationship
time and we know him, we get toknow who he is, and then we
start to understand his love andnot the world's, His pure love.
And so give it time.
If you haven't been walkingwith the Lord long, don't expect
(10:02):
just to know him.
Lord long, don't expect just toknow him.
Invest that time into him.
It's well worth it.
Verse 8, he who does not lovedoes not know God.
Why, for God is love?
There's verse 8.
So he who does not love doesnot know God.
That too is something thathappens in time.
(10:25):
My younger years was saturatedin the world, so even the way I
loved other people was veryselfish.
It was me-oriented, and so manymovies that I watched I was
just convinced that that's whatlove was.
You fell in love, you fell outof love.
(10:45):
Love just broke your heart andthen you walked around with a
broken heart for a while untilfinally it mended and then you
tripped and fell in love again.
But that's not God's love,that's the world's love.
So as you get to know God andyou get to understand his love
for you, the Holy Spirit in thatprocess is sanctifying you and
(11:10):
you yourself begin to understandthat love and you yourself
begin to love in that way.
Now that last part, those fourwords, for God is love.
God isn't full of love, he islove.
Everything about him has lovein it.
(11:33):
No-transcript Verse 9,.
In this the love of God wasmanifested toward us, that God
has sent his only begotten Soninto the world that we might
live through him, and that'sbeing Jesus, living through
(11:55):
Jesus.
And the name Jesus issynonymous with love.
I can just say his name, andsometimes that's just what I do
If I'm down and out, I'll justrepeat his name sometimes Just
Jesus, jesus, jesus.
I tell you I can feel that lovebecause he is love and Jesus is
(12:21):
the manifestation of love,which means we can see him, we
can touch him.
Right now we can't, because heis seated at the right hand of
God the Father, but he will comeagain, right to judge the
living and the dead.
But as John says in verse 9, inthis the love of God was
(12:45):
manifested toward us, that Godsent his only begotten Son into
the world that we might livethrough him, through him, jesus,
and through him, love.
Not easy, is it?
We are in this difficult statefor all of us who are born again
(13:05):
, because spiritually we want tolove Our spirit that is
speaking with the Holy Spirit,that is being guided by the Holy
Spirit that dwells in us, showsus which way to go in our path
of righteousness, to go in ourpath of righteousness.
But that can be difficult.
It can be difficult to beforgiving.
(13:27):
It can be difficult to begenerous and give when it
actually hurts to give.
It can be difficult to be kindto somebody who isn't kind, who
has a horrible nature about them, and our flesh yells and
screams inside, thinking theyhave it coming, say that witty
(13:49):
remark that'll just knock themdown.
And when our flesh thinks thatthe Holy Spirit convicts us and
the Holy Spirit reminds us thatour Heavenly Father is love and
that love is manifested throughJesus and that love is also
abiding in us as the Holy Spirit, so we can't say, I'm not able
(14:14):
to Believe me.
There are times I would like to, there are times I'm tempted to
say, hey, this is impossible.
I can't do that because the waythis person is.
But the Holy Spirit is quick toconvict me and remind me of my
own sinful self, my own sinfulnature, and that while I was
(14:35):
still in that state of sin, godthe Father loved me and Jesus
hung on that cross for that sin.
It was that thought in partthat brought me to the Lord
Jesus.
The very thought of my nature,the stuff that I was doing and
how I would talk, treat otherpeople, my motivation behind
(14:58):
things, my actions and my deeds,my words, my motivation wasn't
pure.
Like anybody who is not bornagain or anybody who has
backslidden and is far fromhearing the Holy Spirit speak to
them, it quickly becomes aboutme and selfishness and pride.
(15:21):
Well, those are enemies of love.
You know, I don't believe thathate is necessarily the opposite
of love.
That's a pretty strong emotion,so there's a pretty good
argument for that.
But I really wonder if it's amatter of pride and that that
pride is the opposite of love.
Now, I know in God's word, fearis something that certainly
(15:45):
damages us.
It takes away from our abilityto have faith in the Lord.
So faith and fear are opposites, and I suppose, even with hate,
one could argue that perhaps weare indeed accessing our
prideful self to be able to hate.
(16:06):
I mean, I don't know, that's atough one, that's one to chew on
for a while.
What do you think I'd like tohear from you?
Do you think the opposite oflove is hate, or do you think
the opposite of love is pride,putting ourself above other
people?
You can get a hold of me at mywebsite, brmaulcom, and just at
(16:34):
the top there click on the pagethat says Contact Us.
Click on that and get a hold ofme.
I'd love to hear from you.
You can also use the textingdevice that says message me at
any of the directories that youmay be listening from.
Just click on the message meand let me know what do you
(16:56):
think?
The opposite of love.
So in this the love of God wasmanifested then through Jesus
Christ.
Verse 10, propitiation that's apretty big word, but it just
(17:22):
means atoning sacrifice.
It was just the one sacrifice.
Jesus did it.
He lived a perfect life, asinless life.
He never succumbed totemptation at all.
He was tempted.
That's in God's word.
The devil tempted him.
Temptation itself is not a sin.
(17:43):
The devil loves to make us feelguilty when we are being
tempted.
If we are thinking something ina situation and we're tempted
pondering it, well that's notthe sin.
Yet right Sin is when we gothrough with it.
So don't let the devil get youdown in that you just tell the
devil that you're a child of Godand Jesus died for all your
(18:07):
sins, and that temptation in andof itself isn't sin, because he
tried that with Jesus and hefailed with Jesus.
I know, from time to time hedoes get us, but then we repent.
Right, the Lord is quick toforgive us and we carry on.
So that propitiation not that weloved him, nope, but that he
(18:30):
loved us.
That's God, the Father.
God, the Father loved us and hesent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins.
So he took care of it For allwho have confessed with their
mouth the Lord Jesus andbelieved in their heart that the
Heavenly Father raised him fromthe dead.
You are born again, you are achild of God, you are in God's
(18:54):
family and nothing can take thataway from you, including your
own sin.
That's such a horrible teachingthat is going around in some of
the major denominations today,and boy does that bother me.
You can't lose your salvation,and I would like to challenge
anybody anyways, answer thiswhat good would salvation be if
(19:18):
we could lose it under our ownaccord?
Because under my own accord Icouldn't make it into heaven to
begin with.
And so if God put that samestipulation on there that made
me fail, where I couldn't evenget into heaven by myself
because by nature I'm sinful,well, if he put that stipulation
(19:39):
on there that once I was bornagain, well, if I sin too bad,
well, he's going to take it back.
Well, that'd be worthless, thatwouldn't do any good.
Nobody would be getting intoheaven Because even with the
help of the Holy Spirit, we sin,we mess up.
That's part of this flesh andblood that continues to war with
(20:00):
the Spirit.
My goodness.
It is every single day.
Anybody who was born again cantestify to that.
There's not a day that goes bythat a person isn't tempted or
just downright tired and sickand tired of whatever.
And so sinning still comes easybecause it's still our natural
way.
But at least we have the HolySpirit to supernaturally, when
(20:24):
that is, we do the right thingand we turn to our God and
repent and we pray and we askhim for strength to be our
stronghold, and he does it everytime he comes through.
So you can't lose your salvation, beloved.
And I certainly hope that ifyou are battling with that, if
you are stuck at a denominationor a church that continues the
(20:48):
week after week, teach andpreach that you must go back and
take communion or you mustconfess and do whatever,
whatever works that they tellyou to do, because that would
just be works.
That's not grace.
But remember, we are saved bygrace, through faith, but by
(21:08):
grace, by God's grace.
And is God going to take hisgrace back?
No, he is not, and I'm verythankful for that.
And verse 11, he ends withBeloved.
If God so loved us, we alsoought to love one another.
(21:28):
I really like that.
Now it's kind of interesting.
He says if God so loved us Wellinteresting way to put it,
because, yes, god did and doesso love us Well, then we also
ought to love one another.
That's not a suggestion that weshould love one another Now.
(21:51):
Loving one another make sure weunderstand this correctly is
brethren, your family, yourbrothers and sisters in Christ,
those who are born again inChrist, those who are born again
.
To love one another doesn'tmean the same thing as those who
(22:12):
are not born again Now, yes, weare to care for these people,
people who don't know who Jesusis.
Yes, our love should be there.
We need to use that love thatGod so gave us, this agape love
that is so pure, that is so holy, and go out, as Jesus said to
(22:33):
all nations, and make disciples.
And making disciples, before aperson can be a disciple, which
is a student, they must first beborn again.
And to be born again, you mustknow who Jesus is.
So we get the name of Jesus outthere, we get the gospel
message in front of people, andthat's loving them.
(22:55):
But then, once they are bornagain, well, now they're
brothers and sisters.
Now they fall into that oneanother category that John's
talking about to love oneanother.
They may be a baby Christian andknow very little of God's word
or beloved.
They could be backslidden.
That could be you.
(23:15):
Maybe you're a baby Christian.
You haven't been a Christianvery long.
You haven't had much time toread God's word.
You haven't had a whole lot oftime to sit and hear the
teaching of others who have beenin God's Word for a long time.
And for those who arebackslidden, well, that's
somebody.
You could be walking with theLord for years, but then you've
made one wrong decision afteranother.
(23:37):
You've turned back to yourworldly ways and you are tempted
over and over again to livelike you used to be, and you
need to get out of that as well.
Someone who is backslidden fallsinto that category of one
another, and so we love oneanother.
We love the baby Christian.
We do that by helping somebodywho is newly born again to walk
(24:02):
and to grow their faith so theyare stronger.
And for those who arebackslidden, we love them, we go
to them, we point out, andloving somebody isn't giving
them what they want.
Please stop giving people whatthey want in life.
That's not loving them.
Sometimes what they want iswhat they need, but when we're
(24:25):
talking salvation, we givepeople what they need.
They need Jesus, and if they'reborn again and they're
backslidden, well, they stillneed Jesus.
Someone who has backslidingdoesn't mean that they've lost
their salvation.
You can't do that.
Someone who ever appears tolook like they are no longer a
(24:47):
Christian but they used to be,that means they never were,
because they're eitherbackslidden yes, someone who has
backslidden or is backslidingcan look just like the world,
but otherwise they never had theHoly Spirit in them.
Someone who can walk away andnot feel the conviction of the
(25:09):
Holy Spirit telling them youbetter turn around and do what's
right, but they can go rightback to the way they were living
.
It's sad to say and it's veryunfortunate.
I hate saying it, but then thatmeans they were never born
again.
So, love one another, love God'slove.
Oh, that agape love.
(25:31):
How powerful it is.
And this world already has awhole bunch of the cheap stuff,
the stuff that we use to getwhat we want.
We love commercially, worldly,selfishly, lustfully, to serve
ourself, and the world alreadyhas a whole bunch of that.
(25:52):
What the world doesn't have isGod's agape love, that love that
, instead of being selfish, isselfless, that love that puts
the person below the person thatthey are loving.
And we'll go out of the way todo what is right, even when we
don't like to, because we knowit's the right thing to do.
(26:14):
It is loving other people,loving one another.
And how else do we do that?
Well, we stay in the God's wordeach and every day, right
beloved.
Well, we stay in the God's Wordeach and every day, right
beloved.
Some techniques of mine everyday of the month, 1 through 31,
that's the proverb that I readand then I'll read five of the
(26:37):
Psalms.
Each day you do that and everysingle month you've gone through
all the Psalms and all theProverbs.
And that's powerful stuff, verypowerful.
And then prayer oh, keeppraying to your Heavenly Father.
Come together with yourbrothers and sisters, meet with
brothers and sisters as often asyou can.
Weekly is the best.
(26:59):
If you can do even more, if youcan do a couple of times great.
Throw the stuff of this worldaway, these movies, even the
books that are coming out thesedays.
They're just getting worse andworse.
I still watch movies from timeto time, and there are still
good books out there, but don'tput that above God's Word.
(27:21):
It's not worth it.
And, of course, worship.
Don't put that above God's word.
It's not worth it.
And of course, worship.
If you're fortunate to have aBible-loving and teaching church
, well, stick with it.
But if you're at a church thatis stuck on their own traditions
, they're more concerned aboutwhat the denomination says, the
hierarchy of that denomination,the hierarchy of that church.
(27:43):
My advice is run, get out.
You're being misled.
I'm not very popular for sayingthis stuff, but it's true.
It's so very true, and I say itout of love, because I love all
my brothers and sisters.
I want all of my brothers andsisters to flourish, so when we
(28:06):
all stand before Jesus Christ,our Lord and King, that there
will be rewards for what we havedone, because we didn't
squander it just doing worldlythings or going to a church,
because that church makes mefeel good, even though they
didn't dig into God's Word.
And that is all that I have fortoday, and so we'll talk soon.
(28:27):
Until next time, god bless,thank you.
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