(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you song number four one zero you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you this morning I preached on a time to hate so this evening we're gonna preach on a time to love and this morning it really dovetails a lot off of this morning's sermon so hopefully if you didn't get a chance to hear that you can hear that later on if it's available or if it's gonna be available online probably won't be available on YouTube but we'll we'll see how that ends up going but in any case when we think about even in Ecclesiastes 3 with all these passages there's a time where it's appropriate to love a time where it's appropriate to hate these are all the different times where these things are appropriate and when it comes to a time to love, honestly there's too much to put into one sermon so I'm gonna try to cover a few things we're really gonna be going through 1 John 4 a lot there's a lot about love here and there's the objects of our love and really just a lot about what love is and I'm gonna probably spend more time dealing with what love is according to the Bible because of the fact that the world has a lot of different definitions and there's a misconception about love itself anyways and the things that people do that really are loving and could be considered love in the scripture, other people out in the world just would have no clue that that even is love or they think love is something different and often times where the confusion comes in just real basic things things like the lusts of your heart often times especially in the world are confused as being love like this feeling that you have inside of you many people confuse that feeling or that lust of your flesh, that lust of your heart with being love and I'm not saying there's no feeling in love of course you have feeling in love but you need to be able to understand the difference and often times especially with younger people they don't understand the difference between love for what love is versus just an attraction or a feeling it's not the same thing there's a big difference between the two and you know there's a lot of different dreams and things that people have about love just out in the world you think about the music and the movies that are put out there and the fairy tales and all this other stuff it kind of turns love into something often times that it's not and if we want to understand love we're going to go to the word of God now there's many different objects of our affection if you think about you know of course first and foremost we should love God we're talking about love and we're going to get into definitions too but one of the times appropriate well it's always appropriate to love God you know it's appropriate to love your brother or sister in Christ and to love just mankind in general these are going to be some of the main areas of things that we're going to be looking at but really a time to love can be best known when you understand more about what love is and we're going to get a really good definition here and understanding and good context in 1 John chapter 4 kind of digs deep into this subject and we're going to I know we just read the whole chapter but let's look down there verse number 6 and this is important verse number 6 says we are of God he that knoweth God heareth us now this in itself is just an awesome doctrine and passage you look at the boldness of the apostle John here who's writing this whistle but knowing that the authority is coming from God and he's saying look we're of God they know that it's not like anyone you know if anyone says you're not of God doesn't matter he knows look we are of God and he says he that knoweth God heareth us important teaching you know that the sheep of the shepherd know the shepherd's voice so you know those that are saved those that are of God are going to hear God's word and are going to recognize God's word and be able to receive God's word the Bible teaches itself that the word of God is spiritually understood we need the spirit from God we need to be born again to understand this book to understand this spiritual book because the natural man receiveth not the things of God you don't know it but you know what those who are saved those that do know they can receive this he that knoweth God heareth us and I'm making a big deal about this because we're going to talk start going on and on and on about love and you know what that tells me the world really doesn't understand love one of the most basic things in the whole world just really isn't fully understood there's kind of some understanding there's you know you get kind of close but they don't really get it okay and you can't really get it because we'll see that I don't want to get ahead of myself here let's just let's let the scripture tell us before I just say it all in my words verse six we are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God I mean look at the Bible says that everyone that loves is born of God and knows God so you know what that tells me people who aren't saved can't love I mean that's what it's saying right because everyone that does love is born of God so if someone's not born again can they even really love oh not according to scripture they can't even know it because they don't know what true love is no matter how many songs they write about it no matter how many movies they try to make about it they don't really know what true love is until you get saved and the reason why it's because God is love but let's look at verse number seven again for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God and we're setting up the context of this chapter to say you know who knows the truth about love and where it comes from it comes from God and those that are saved know the truth about about this about God about love and again I'm going in depth on this because look at verse number eight the Bible says he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love and there's a lot of talk today about love and love is love right and all this other stuff about what love is you have no idea about love because God is love and if you don't have God how can you know love God is love and you don't have that love and you don't know that love because you don't have Christ so if anyone rejects Christ is going to try to tell you what love is don't listen to them because they have no idea what they're talking about and the perfect example is the love is love movement out there that's going on right now trying to tell you that oh it's just for the sake of love like people that are perverts they're calling perversion love they're calling some filthy perverted act love it's not love you have no idea what love is some depraved lust of the flesh between two men or two women is not love you have no clue what love is you think you know and you don't you have no idea what love is all about and those of us that are Christians you know what we ought to be reading our Bible and getting this truth just hammered home that if someone's going to try to deceive you about what love is don't let them if they're not saved I mean don't let anyone deceive you about what you know about what love is but don't receive what they have to say about love if they're not even born again because if they're not of God you can't love because everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God which would tell me too that maybe you could be born of God and just not know him but you're still not loving them but there's no way anyone's unsaved can know what love is what true love is because God is love and again love is not just a feeling it's not like God some feeling out there but it's just like when this Bible says God is love it's it's such an inherent attribute of God that you're able to say God is love just like you know God's name is jealous God is you know God is a lot of things but just because God is love also doesn't mean he doesn't hate now what's a defining characteristic of God he's love right he offers love and forgiveness and long suffering and mercy these are all the great attributes of God that we know to be true but you know what there's still God's wrath there's still hate there's still there's that still exists but you have no idea what love even is until you know God let's keep reading here verse number nine in this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him here in is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin so it's telling us this is why first of all you can't even know what love is because you have to understand the amount of love that God had for us to even begin to comprehend just what love really is because this fake love or love coming from other people is nothing compared to God's love that's why in Romans five eight where the Bible says but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that word commended it's not just like a shows his love for us it's an exaltation of his love for us so that commendation his commended his love toward us is lifting up and showing how high and how exalted his love is for us in the fact that while we're sinners while we're breaking his commandments while we do the things he doesn't want us to do while we're disobedient while we're stiff necked in many cases while we're not doing the things that you'd have for us to do he still gave up his only begotten son he still offered up Jesus Christ as that sacrifice to pay for our sins even though we are totally not worthy at all that's a commendation of his love that shows how great and the magnitude of love that he has for us since he was willing to give such a great sacrifice for people who in many instances won't even care about it but he gives it anyways that is love and you know occasionally I'll bring this up to people too just to express what God has really done because people can get really flippant often times about hearing even about Jesus because we live in a society where I mean we face it still tons of people have heard about Jesus Christ they've heard about the death burial and resurrection you know a lot of these things it's just part of American culture they've heard it before whether or not they've really thought about it or given too much time thinking at all it doesn't matter they've just heard about it so people have a tendency to get real flippant oh yeah yeah he died all this stuff but it's like hold on a second don't just get past that think about what God did for you I mean this is why we're spending our time trying to talk to people because what God did it's not just something to just oh yeah okay that's cool you don't understand I mean the amount of love that God has for you like God wants you to be saved and he commends his love for you and he's commended his love for you know for everyone that you know you are so undeserving of God's love you've had your opportunities you had your chance to know the truth and you know and we still sin and we still have done wrong but like I express this to people especially when people have family like children of their own I go think about this right let's say you can you can save one of your friends someone that you like but you have to have to give up your child to save this friend of yours like they would have to die they would have to be put to death would you be able to do that to save someone else's life would you be willing to make that sacrifice for one of your friends or for one of your relatives even right and it's like that alone is a hard enough question for us to even think about like man I don't know if I could give up and then imagine like well that was your only child right now look that's nothing against you know I've got six children it's nothing against any one of them individually but you know if you lost a child you do still have more children to bring you joy right the fact of just knowing and having that child it is different if you had only one it is a different situation it's you know it's not that you love you know anyone less or anything like that it's like oh yeah you could get rid of that one like it would still be a very significant loss it would still be extremely significant right but it's added on top of the fact that there are like if there's only one one child and that's what's sacrifice that's what's given you know the only begotten one that's who Jesus was and and then I say like okay you know most parents would just be like no I'm not giving up my child for anybody I mean that's that's normal that's natural because you love your child so much like no I don't I wouldn't want to give up them for anyone else but not only you know in my example it's like okay well that's someone you like that's someone you know what about giving up your child for someone who has just cursed your name doesn't want to have anything to do with you if you speak they're not going to hear what you have to say is completely contrary to you and you're still are you willing then to just be like well I still want them to have an opportunity so that they don't get punished even though they're doing everything wrong but I want them to have this chance so I'm willing to give up my son in the hopes that maybe they'll accept what I'm giving them I mean that's a lot of uncertainty and I mean the amount of love you would have to have for the person to have that even just to have that possibility is so immense we don't really understand it's so hard to understand what that love is until you just even understand well that's what God did for you and you accept that and accept Christ that's real that is real love it's not like you know people even throw around oh I love you I love you hey love you right that's yeah okay I'm not saying it's fake but like that's not the same love that God has shown by making the sacrifice with Jesus Christ on the cross verse 10 again says here in his love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another so I mean it just makes sense right if God loved us this way then it makes sense that we should do the same thing we should reciprocate and try to have that same type of love that God has had for us no man has seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us hereby know we that we dwell in him and he and us because he hath given us of his spirit and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and you know again it's still tying in salvation being born of the spirit with knowing love and having this love the two are inseparable verse 16 and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him so when the world's talking about having love if they say oh I live in love are you living in God are you dwelling in God you know you just look at people and be like that person's not dwelling in God okay well you're not dwelling in love then you might want to call it whatever you want but it's not love he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love now we'll pause on that just for a second because you say well the Bible says that we ought to fear God right? and that's true we ought to have a fear of God so how does this reconcile well because we don't have a perfect love and one of the reasons we don't have a perfect love is because we're sinners and we don't respect God's word enough to be to the point of being sinless we have to fear God is because we're sinners is because we're still dwelling in this flesh that's why we have to fear God because there's repercussions because God could come down and rain down on us because we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing right? but what fear would you really have to have towards God if you could just live perfect you would have none but then that would mean you are loving God perfectly and you say well pastor where are you getting this concept even of loving him with keeping his commandments and doing that well that's coming up okay that's still in this passage but before we even get to where it explicitly says that doesn't it just make sense if someone's in authority over you and you claim to love that person wouldn't you be in subjection to that authority even if nothing else just out of the love that you have for them and if it's that perfect love hey I'm doing everything exactly the way I'm supposed to but look we don't have that perfect love that's what we strive for that's what we want to have but the perfect love is going to cast out that fear because your love is totally complete but we still have a fear because we're not perfect verse 19 we love him because he first loved us and that's the truth that's the truth people love God because they've received the love of God and that's when you truly understand what love is too what you really understand that gratitude and the love that you could actually have towards God I mean think about your unsaved self if you could remember to that point I don't know whenever you're saved God wasn't really probably in your thoughts that much I mean he wasn't in mine I could always speak for myself but I was indifferent to God which I think is probably pretty common unsaved people are just relatively indifferent now you do have some people who are really spiritual and kind of just trying to find a way and are not necessarily indifferent but in general I think it's a pretty fair statement to at least say that most people go about their unsaved lives as being relatively indifferent to God just because they don't even know any better it's not that they would say they don't believe in God or anything like that they may even go to church every week but you don't really understand the love of God and you definitely don't begin to actually love God if you ask an unsaved person hey do you love God they probably say yes but it's because they don't understand but once you get saved that's when you really understand what it is to even love God when you really know like you know I am saved God has saved my soul that awakening that enlightenment that understanding of receiving the gift of God receiving eternal life that is hard to even express into words especially at the moment you get saved but just knowing that man that love then that you have for your savior for the one who died for you is there and that exists and is real at that moment because you finally know what it is that he did for you and having that salvation hey we love him because he first loved us if a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar this is where we're going to start getting more into kind of defining like what love is and what love is not you know it's because it's not just saying you love something it's not just some feeling you know this is somewhat related but you know I've had a discussion with someone in the past that was trying to tell me about this Christian contemporary music and how they felt really close to God when they would listen to this music and I'm like how do you know that that's God that you're feeling close to and not just the music because I've had all kinds of feelings listening to all manner of worldly music that has nothing to do with God that's nothing to do with you in fact sometimes it's contrary to God right it's like really bad music yet still makes you feel a certain way and feel really good and feel lifted up music has that power so be careful what you're associating with love it may not be that but here he's saying well look we already know we're off the bat if you hate your brother but you say you love God you're a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen and this brother here is also talking about a spiritual brother in Christ I mean that's your brother right like I know we have physical brethren in this world but in this context especially I mean this is going so in depth about being born again and knowing God and everything else it's talking about your brother in Christ because that is a brotherhood that lasts forever your physical brethren is not an eternal connection it lasts forever it lasts only as long as this as you live on this earth of being you know like I have two brothers well they're only gonna be my brothers in that sense in this lifetime if we're gonna continue to be brothers beyond that they would have to be saved because if I have let's just say for example I have two brothers if both of them are unsaved and all three of us die we're not brothers anymore like they're in hell and I'm in heaven and that's it we were brothers on this earth and the flesh but we're no longer brothers so this brotherhood that is talking about look you can't hate another child of God in your heart and this is what the Bible is really clear about this now I mean obviously you can like I'm not saying it's impossible you can but then you don't have the love of God in you and look let that sink in too you know people you know there's conflicts and stuff and disagreements that you can have with brothers and sisters in Christ and whatever but don't be hating them in your heart because the Bible is really clear that if you if you're hating your brother you don't love God because you need to have more forgiveness as part of your love towards your brother sister in Christ and more long suffering and more mercy and all of those attributes that God already gave to you and God gave to that person too making you brothers and sisters or whatever and now you don't have that love of God verse 21 and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love all his brother also it's a commandment it's a commandment to love so and that alone is enough to imply that love is more than just a feeling right how can you be commanded to do something if you can't control what your feelings are well it's not it's not just a feeling you're commanded to love because love is demonstrated by your actions love is a choice that you can make that's demonstrated by your actions you you can have love for someone internally because you choose like man I love this I could say honestly look I love everyone in the church I love all of you but it doesn't really mean anything if I don't actually do something to show that love to demonstrate that love to you it's just words and that's the way it is with everything but if I am harboring hate towards people then you know not just people but born again believers in God now I can't say well you know what I really love God because I don't and you can swear up and down no but I do love God you don't understand no you don't understand if you hate your brother in Christ you don't have the love of God and this verse popped into my mind I actually had it in my notes but I was going to look at it later this exact thing about love don't turn there stay in 1 John but in Proverbs 13 verse 24 the Bible says he that spareth his rod hateth his son and I brought this up before parents that don't spank their kids and it's like no I do love my child no I don't hate him well the Bible says something different you know who I'm going to believe I'm going to believe God I'm going to believe God's word that says if you spare your rod you hate your son but I have and they'll say you don't understand I love my child but you don't and you don't even know it you don't even realize it I was trying to tell you something here and look it says he that spareth his rod hateth his son but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes the one that loves their child is disciplining them and correcting them early they're dealing with the problem early they're getting it taken care of they're not sparing their rod they're dealing with it that's love you say well I don't understand it because if a child is left without correction they're going to get worse and worse and worse they're going to get farther off the right path because you haven't corrected them and brought them back to understanding no no no the consequences for your actions because here's the truth there is consequences for your actions but if a parent wants to raise a child in a world without consequences you are setting them up for disaster you're setting them up for failure that's not very loving to prepare your child for the real world for the truth for the way everything is in his life by just pretending to give them an environment that's not like the real world we need to be disciplined and it's the same concept say no but I love God I love my son but you're not you don't according to the Bible if you hate your brother in your heart you don't love God it doesn't matter how convinced a person is to the contrary it matters what the Bible says and how the Bible defines love continuing on let's continue into chapter 5 look at verse number 1 because it's all really the same thought even though there's a chapter division there verse number 1 whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God amen right it's exactly what we believe you're born again if you if you believe that's it it's not about your works or anything else whosoever believeth that Jesus Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him that's an interesting statement you know if you if you love God you're going to love all the brethren too and I don't know about you and I've talked to some people about this this is also really interesting you go out soul winning you could sometimes sense that love from people that are already saved you know what I'm talking about you run into someone and like because you run into a lot of people and people are just kind of all different types of attitudes and stuff and some people don't want to hear it and everything else and the unsaved you get everything you run into someone else who's actually saved like there's that kinship there and you're like man you know obviously we don't just judge whether or not someone's saved based off of a feeling but I'll tell you what this happens only I only have this mission with people who are confessing that they're already saved they have a good testimony yup once saved always saved I was born again and you have that connection and you know what they're like the first time I've ever had someone rude to me that was born again where I've had that experience with was someone who didn't even give me a chance to talk to them because they thought I was a Jehovah's Witness and then when they looked at the card that I left they saw I was from a Baptist church and they literally drove to find me and apologize for chewing me out or whatever I was like I'm just going to leave this on your door for you and I left and they were like they slammed the door and everything else and then they're like oh I'm sorry you know like I thought you were a Jehovah's Witness I didn't realize you were a Baptist and you know like but seriously it's just it's that that love that's there among the brethren you know and the more you know this also would explain when you go to churches that are great churches where people love God you're going to feel like home I've visited a lot of churches not a lot like in some huge number of churches but like the new IFB churches and then also other churches I've been to and the ones that have felt the most like home are the ones that have the most people who are sold out living for God and everything else and especially when you have a high like a really high percentage of the people in the congregation are saved or born again you're going to just feel that much more at home why it makes sense because we're all in the same spiritual family when you go into some churches and they're kind of cold you know what I'm talking about like it's just and then you realize like a lot of these people I don't even think are saved and some are right like you have that some people are kind of saved and you have but it's like you've got a big church maybe they've been around for a long time and just it's just kind of cold and you can't you can't define it or describe it other than that intuition that you get and again I'm not saying that that intuition is forming all of my beliefs what I'm saying is that's confirming already what the Bible is saying here so when you have that experience with people who are really friendly at the door and then you find out oh it's because they're saved it's because you have that kinship it's because like the Bible says here everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also has begotten of him so when you love God you're also going to love your brother in Christ just like when you don't love your brother in Christ you don't love God they it's a package deal just like you can't have the son without the father you can't love God and not love your brother in Christ you also can't love your brother in Christ and not love God verse number two by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God what is that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous because this is the love of God you say you love God then why aren't you keeping his commandments because again we can look at another thing here and says well you're saying one thing but you're doing another and what you're saying is not matching up with what I'm seeing in the Bible you say you love God but you're breaking like all these commandments in scripture and again like I said before we don't have the perfect love of God because we're not perfectly keeping his commandments it's just it's just not possible but the more you are in line the more love you're going to actually be able to have and show that you have towards God when you're keeping his commandments but if you have someone that's just I mean really bad at keeping the commandments of God it doesn't matter what they say about how much they think they love God because they don't because the Bible says hey this is the love of God that we keep his commandments oh I don't need I don't care about his command man come on this free grace or whatever it's not that big a deal what do you think look then what does this mean what is this you know people want to just toss out everything about the commandments everything you don't get much more New Testament than first John chapter five there's not much left to the Bible after that I mean come on and if he's talking about keeping the commandments well it's kind of important right should be this is the level of the measuring stick of the love of God that is the love of God keep his commandments and of course we know that the commandments aren't grievous it's not a sad thing it's not a trouble it's not it's not a big downer oh man I gotta keep the commandments of God it's good because it's good for you God gives you all commandments to help you not because he hates you just like you would give your children commandments because you're trying to train them right it's gonna be good for them in the long run they don't understand that they need to eat the greens right but we know that's what your body needs you need to grow healthy so yeah you gotta do it and similarly there may be some commandments where you're just going like I don't know why God says I have to do this or not do this because he knows better than you do so you just follow it with the faith and understanding that God loves you he's loved you enough to save your soul why don't you just believe him and listen and keep his commandments flip back if you would to Mark chapter 12 I'm gonna kind of transition now you know we've spent a lot of time there in 1 John 4 and 5 just because it's so heavy on love and defining what love is and knowing the love of God but this also ties in to that same definition that we left off in 1 John 5 about the love of God that we keep his commandments look at Mark chapter 12 verse number 29 this is Jesus responding to someone who asks them hey what's the what is the first commandment what's a great commandment and Jesus answered him the first of all the commandments is hear oh Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength this is the first commandment and the second is like namely this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself there is none other commandment greater than these these are the greatest two commandments and what what do they boil down to love God completely all your heart soul mind strength like everything just love God and then love your neighbor as yourself and the Bible on these two hang all the law and the prophets and I might even have that reference in here probably do somewhere but you say why if you think about the commandments and even let's just think about the ten commandments to start the ten commandments if you split them roughly in half what are you going to have the first set of commandments are all related directly to God right no other gods before him no false idols you know remember the Sabbath to keep it holy because God you know God worked and then he rested and he wants you you know all these commandments that God has about himself is going to show your love to God and then the latter half is going to be not to steal not to kill not to covet your neighbor's house and wife and you know and those are going to be more along the lines of loving your neighbor right because when you love someone you won't murder them when you love someone you're not stealing from them when you love someone you're not using their name in vain that's why you could condense all and look you could just go on and on and on and on about applying that to all of the laws of God it really does just boil down to loving God and loving man love God with all that you have love your neighbor as yourself that is but see that's what love really is it's so much more than just some emotion it's so much more than just some superficial definition I mean this is it's so wide and broad and encompassing even though it is it's relatively simple right don't do evil to people don't do evil to God that's love them yet we find ourselves breaking God's commandments which means our love is flawed every time we break any of the commandments our love is flawed and any time we're not loving you know we're not loving our neighbor as ourself then it's again it's flawed I'm going turn if you would to Matthew chapter 5 sorry I'm just there's so much content I don't even have that many pages of notes but there's so much content on the subject I'm I'm already just figuring out what I don't want to cover tonight because there's too much I'll read for you from Romans 13 Romans 13 10 the Bible says love worketh no ill to his neighbor basically we're just saying therefore love is the fulfilling of the law again they're inseparable when you love you're fulfilling the law because God's law is designed to not do ill to your neighbor to protect them from evil so when you're fulfilling the law you have love love is the fulfilling of the law I said I would cover this a little bit this morning so I don't want to skip over this in Matthew 5 this is where we see where Jesus talks about loving your enemies Matthew 5 43 the Bible says you have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy now I want to point this out first there's sometimes where the Bible says it is written or sometimes where the Bible will say you know and point to specific book or the law and then there's sometimes like here where it just says it hath been said they don't all mean the same thing ok just because someone has said something or has taught something first of all does not mean that what was said was right or is in God's law so when Jesus says this you have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy hating your enemy is not found in Scripture loving your neighbor is hating your enemy is not now we did look at Scripture this morning which is why I wanted to cover it again tonight about who to hate and who was it it was God's enemies but not your enemies it never said hate your enemy it never said love God hate your enemies Bible never says that anywhere and it's not because oh we must be missing something then no it's because he just said it's been said because that's what people have said and that's what people had believed and taught hey there's people out there that say this but I'm telling you something different I'm telling you the way it is so he's correcting what they've heard by saying but I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust so what he's saying here about loving your enemies is saying look God treats his enemies good in the sense that he still provides rain he still allows people to eat and to drink and to have what they need right he's providing them with this stuff so in that in that regard he's treating them well and he's saying you know what you ought to have that same level of love and in fact you know God for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son he loved everybody now there is the specific caveat that we went into this morning about God's enemies where he's commanding you not to love them but that's not who Jesus is talking about here he's talking about your enemies why because the natural the sinful natural response to someone who's doing you wrong is to do wrong to them but what Jesus came to show us was the love that we need to have in that even though what you know when he was reviled he reviled not again you know when they cursed at him he didn't curse back when they beat him he didn't beat them back he suffered all things and he suffered things to be done and he still had that love in his heart and offered him up himself up as an offering as a lamb of God and showed the right way to have that level of love that we ought to then be able to have the same type of love even when people are doing us wrong and doing us bad and the perfect example of that is when he said father forgive them for not knowing what they do he wasn't talking about the reprobate priest he was talking about the Roman soldiers that were piercing him and literally killing him that nailed them to the cross they're the ones that physically did it and they had no idea and then later on it's like they find out like oh truly this was the son of God he wanted them still to have mercy because they didn't know any better and there's a lot of people that may be your enemies that just don't know any better and they're unsaved and they just don't know and you know maybe they are saved saved or unsaved doesn't matter they're doing foolish things but you don't need to bring judgment and vengeance on them let God deal with that show the mercy show the love by not responding in kind by blessing them instead of cursing them because that's what Jesus did that was the example that was left for us that should mark our character that should be who we really are and that's what needs to come forward is that love yes there's an exception to the rule but that's the rule you see what I mean yes this is you know the Bible there are some caveats and it tells us what they are but by and large hey love completely outweighs the small amount of hate that we see in the scripture it just goes way above and beyond that and I forget if it's in first and second first or second Peter talks about you know if you you know when you do the good things for people when you pray for them and you do like what Jesus is saying here really you're just heaping coals of fire on their head anyways because if the people are going to continue to do you evil and do you harm and do wrong to you and you're only doing good to them that just makes God that much more angry over someone who's going to still continue to harm someone and do evil to someone that not only isn't fighting back and not only isn't giving you a reason to but is even further trying to do good to you look God's a God of justice so he will right that wrong but we leave it to him the judgment is his we operate under the sense that hey maybe this person will repent maybe this person will finally see the error of their ways and the more you can show the reason to not have like there's like putting someone in a position where they have no way of justifying how they treat you can be extremely powerful to get that person to finally wake up to what they're doing and be like man what am I doing do you understand what I'm saying that it's just like the best you can do at this at loving your enemies that could just help them to like break through and be like what am I thinking like I am nuts this is crazy I should not be treating this person this way and then maybe you know then you could actually get some progress even with that person and come in their senses and you know a lot of times people who start off as enemies can become even become friends and even become best friends later on when the person is allowed to have some mercy and have some forgiveness I mean think about your own reluctance to put your trust in Christ whatever that may be again I know everyone's testimony is a little bit different but like thank God that he extended that mercy to someone who might have been a little hard headed or hard hearted in some areas and just was able to go yeah you know what I I get it now wow I was being terrible oh man I was stupid oh I can't believe that I was actually sinning that bad when I didn't realize how bad it was right a lot of people could probably say that I know like I felt yeah I was a pretty good person well before I was saved pretty good I mean I didn't do anything like really bad but then he realized no actually what I was doing was really bad I mean it was really bad in the eyes of God I just didn't even know and he would have had every right to just shut me down and just you know send me to hell right you know right then but he showed mercy and long suffering and that's that's what we ought to have there too so love your enemies last place I return is yeah just go to John chapter 3 we'll close with that Bible says this in John 15 verse number 12 this is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends so that is the maximum love and that love is shown by action because you're actually doing it it's not someone who's willing to lay down his life for his friends it's someone who actually does it that is the greatest demonstration that is the greatest love of actually doing something okay I'm willing to be completely self-sacrificial for somebody else Jesus of course gets the highest honor of showing the greatest love and that he offered himself up as that sacrifice for the whole world he laid down his life for the world that's the greatest love and no man knows a greater love than that that's why you know once you actually understand that once you receive that love now you know what love is now you know the love of God because there is no higher love than that there's nothing greater than what Jesus did on the cross for you that is the greatest love and John 3 of course as probably almost everyone in this room might even have this verse memorized in verse number 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his son in the world to condemn the world for that the world through him might be saved he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God now this is the love that we need to have towards mankind in general it's the same love that God had towards mankind he loved the whole world he wants everyone to be saved and this is the love you know people can say they love God but I would say this even how can you say that you really love God follow me here God did Jesus did this for the world Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice out of love for the world if you're not willing to open up your mouth and just just tell people what did he do for you when he saved you how can you really say that you love God I mean you're thankful for him saving you but if you're not willing to like tell other people you know just just just how to be saved tell other people about the love of God there's enough to go around it's like you have to hoard it all to yourself right and God has that love for other people let them know about it the Lord's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance that's what God wants do you want that too do you really want that do you want to obey God's commandments do you want to listen to God when he says to go ye therefore in all the world and preach the gospel every creature are you going to listen to that we need to bring I mean now more than ever the world needs the love of Christ right when people are so perverted and calling the most bizarre things love they need to know what love is and when people really understand what love is they're going to understand that is not love no I know what love is love is that Jesus saved me that's love and I love him because he first loved me but that's love filthiness is not love abomination not love perversion not love do you love God today ask yourself and then think about this however you answered if God were to think about your life how would God know that you love him and be honest with yourself because there's no point in deceiving yourself and seriously think about that think about all the things that you do in your life how you behave how you spend your time day in day out do I really love God would God think that of me that I just love him based on how I live my life everyday if we're honest with ourselves I think probably everyone in here could probably be questioning how much do I love God I mean I am when you put about in those terms and you think about it going like how much do I love God how much time I spend how much am I listening to him how much can I say like that I'd be so confident that oh man yeah I know for sure God's looking at me going like yeah he really loves me am I demonstrating that because everyone would probably be in their mind going of course I love God because I too look of course I love God but that's not enough to just think that or say that real love is going to be shown and demonstrated in your actions and that's the only way it's going to be known say but God knows my heart yeah but I mean if you just have stuff in your heart that you never ever do is it even real you know what I mean oh yeah I want to see people get saved and you never open up your mouth and give them the gospel do you really I mean do you let's borrow as a word of prayer dear heavenly father thank you so much for loving us God thank you for your words I pray that you would please help us to have our hearts right I pray that you would please help us to love more the love the way that you would have us too and just help our minds to get straightened out on these subjects of love and hate and God we just we need your illumination give us the wisdom and understanding that we need to have because there's so many lies out there in the world Lord please help us to just have the understanding so that we can love you more dear Lord and we do love you especially I know the people in this church I love the people in this church dear God and thank you for bringing us all together here pray that you please continue to add more to our family here and that you would just lead us and direct us and help us in our endeavor to serve you Lord we do love you in Jesus name we pray amen alright we're gonna sing one more song before dismissed this evening let's go ahead and turn to song number four hundred and twelve song number four hundred and twelve song number four hundred and twelve sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse sing it out on that first verse hell's foundations wither at the shout of praise others lift your voices loud your echoes raise onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Jesus going on before like the mighty army through the church of God brothers we are training where the saints have drawn we are not divided oh what fun he be one in hope and doctrine one in charity onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before on that last verse onward many people join our happy throng playing with ours your voices with the triumph song glory, honor, and honor unto Christ the King to Christ the King list with countless ages let an angel sing onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before amen, church, all right we are just this