Outside Looking in - Part 2 — David Wilkerson

Hallelujah. Praise you, Jesus. Bless your name. Bless your name, Lord. Hallelujah. Wonderful presence of the Lord here tonight. God bless.

Welcome to our visitors. We trust the Lord has ministered to you his grace tonight. Now, the ministry of the Word. He's going to have to multiply the little I have. Boy, I had five loaves, two fishes.

I got one loaf and half a fish. 1 John 4 .16, please. This is part two of a message entitled Outside Looking In. Outside looking in part two. Verse 16, 1 John, fourth chapter. I'm going to read one verse.

The Love of God Revealed in 1 John

No, we'll read three verses. Four. I just looked here. We'll read to the end of the chapter. Looks good. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is 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's no fear in love. Perfect love cast without fear. Because fear hath torment.

He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he what? First loved us. If a man say I love God and hated his brother, he's a liar. He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

This commandment of we from him that he who loveth God also love his brother. But verse 16, we have. I want you to quote this verse with me right out loud again in King James. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.

God is love. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Oh God, tell us what that means. Show us what that means. Lord, I'm not looking for some morsel of truth that we've not heard before.

I'm not looking for something unique. I'm not even looking for some special revelation. I'm just looking, Lord, for something that satisfies the deepest hunger and need of my heart and the hearts of those who are gathered here tonight.

And Lord, I've got to have your anointing. I've got to have your blessing. Sanctify this vessel. Purge me through and through that I would speak truth from the inner man. That everything I say and do tonight would be to the glory and honor of our blessed Lord and Savior.

Amen. Outside looking in. Now, let me explain to you what I mean by looking in. What do I mean by being inside? Now, remember we talked about that last week about the prodigal son. He was freely forgiven and merited love.

The Prodigal Son and Entering the Father's Love

And he accepts that. The prodigal son accepts that love. And we see him dancing and singing and leaning on the father's bosom and being embraced and really accepting that love. Joyful in that love. Resting in that love.

The older brother comes in, remember, and he looks in and he is very jealous because it's the very thing that he wanted and yearned for and could never get. He couldn't find it. He was working, faithful, obedient, and he could not enter in to that.

And his father goes out to him and treats him and asks him to come in to the feast. And he says no. This man didn't know his father. Didn't know his love. Had never known it. Never experienced it. And there's no evidence in the scripture that he ever did find that love.

Even though he was loved, there's no evidence that he found it or entered into it. Though it was his. Though the father said everything I have. Now he's including his own love. He did not enter into that love.

No doubt went back to his miserable, hard life of trying to please the father. Being faithful, being obedient, but never enjoying his relationship with his father. Being inside means the very thing we have knowing and believing the love that God has you to such an extent it causes you to rejoice in the Lord.

And there's a freedom. There's a rest in it because you have known it's been revealed to you and you have believed that God loves you. You have finally understood that he is a father and that a father, true father, a perfect father will love you no matter what you do.

No matter how you may run away as the prodigal and he will still be loving you. Now this forgiven prodigal was offered free unmerited love from his father. He accepts it. He believes it. He enters into the enjoyment of it.

And sadly millions upon millions of Christians. Listen to me now. Have never known and believe that God loves them. Now I told I said I made a broad statement. Millions upon millions and I won't take it back.

I believe that with every fiber in my being that there are multiplied millions of believers all over the world. Who have never known and believe that God truly loved them. They've never entered into the joy of it.

They've never fully understood it. And they just do not understand. Pastor Carter told me of a well-known evangelist in a meeting that he attended. And he was on pulpit. He was one of the speakers and this well-known speaker.

In fact I knew the man. He's spoken all over the world to many many thousands of people all over the world. And he just leaned over to Pastor Carter and blurted it out. I've never known the love of God.

Never ever and never known or understood the love of God for me. Folks that's the testimony of many of you sitting here now in this building. Listen to me. You have never really understood. You've not known or really believed that God truly loves you with everything in his being.

My mother was a godly preacher. She died at 90 years of age. She came to New York and worked with me here when I first came to work with gangs and drug addicts many years ago. My father died at the age of 54.

Powerful preacher. Pastor. Godly godly man that I revered very much. And when dad died I brought mother here to New York City to work with me. And she worked down in Greenwich Village. And she had coffee shops.

And that's back during the hippie movement. And the Jesus movement. And we had a the Doolums cave. We had the lost coin. We had two coffee houses down in Greenwich Village. And they were packed every night.

My mother won many. In fact, last week on that show out of Chicago, the alcohol program there, Pacific Garden, Unshackled, they had a testimony on my mother. By a young man who many years ago got saved.

And he said on the program, I was really shocked and blessed. He said, Mrs. Wilkerson, he named her name, said, she showed me more the love of God than anybody I've ever known. Any pastor, anyone, anywhere showed me the love of God.

He was an agnostic, a sinner, an alcoholic. And the Lord saved him and he's in the ministry today. And he was giving his testimony on Unshackled. And I'm trying to tell you that my mother preached the love of God.

She took over the pastor when dad died. And I saw it too much worse. So I brought her here. She walked the streets preaching to drug addicts, alcoholic. My mother was a powerful preacher on the streets.

And she preached the love of God. But when she came here to New York and the second time and she was in her 80s at this time. And been preaching for 50 years. And I was in her apartment two blocks from here one day.

And my mother blurts out to me, she said, David, I have never known the love of God for me. I don't know. I don't feel like I've ever pleased him. I was shocked. I said, Mom, not you. You preach the love of God.

It's all I've known about you. I thought of anybody you would know that God loved. She said, I feel like I failed him. I've never really accomplished anything for him. And she went through a three or four year blue funk that was just amazing.

And it was not just a physical thing. It was not dementia. It was not Alzheimer's. It was just, I said, Mom, I can't believe that, that you don't know. She sat right here in Times Square Church, would worship the Lord.

She's faithful, walking the streets. And she went through this terrible thing. I know he died for me. And I love him with all my soul, David. I love him. But there's some past sins in my life. I can't shake off.

Some things I did way in the past that now I just, they seem, they're another feeling that God is not pleased with me. Now, she came. It was probably not until she's about 85 years of age. For her last five years, she entered into a peace and a full assurance that God loved her.

But you see, you can be in the ministry. You can be well known. You can preach to thousands and even hundreds of thousands. You can preach the love of God. You can be faithful. You can love the Lord. You can be pure.

You can be holy. You can be righteous and still not know and believe the love of God for you. You say, how do you know? Because that's what I was. I preached to hundreds of thousands. I've preached to crowds of 50, 60 ,000 people.

And for years, I labored under that. Now, some of you don't understand that because you weren't saved and raised under legalism. Many of you here, you went to a church that was very legalistic. And you only were right before God by your works and your sweat.

And I was born and raised in that kind of Pentecostalism. And I could never enjoy any blessing God ever gave to me for years. If God blessed me with a new car, I can't tell you how many cars I gave away.

Honestly. Because I would feel condemned. I shouldn't be driving this. There's so many poor people. And sometimes God would just give me a brand new car and I'd get convicted of it. I went for years not being able to enjoy anything God gave me.

Nothing. Ask my wife. She said, David, you're miserable all the time. God's blessing you. Can't you accept it? I would preach to crusades where literally I've seen thousands come to an altar. I've been backstage sometimes for an hour and a half just ministering to all of these kids.

They would throw drugs and paraphernalia up on the platform. They'd take up baskets of paraphernalia. See, incredibly healing. And what I was preaching, I was preaching how much God loved them. I would preach on the streets of New York how much God loved them.

I preached love on these streets for years. And go home and cry. And say, God, all these drug addicts, alcoholics, Nicky Cruz, comes here and he gets saved and he gets so happy. And he feels so loved.

And I just can't feel that I'm pleasing you. I would sweat and work. See, I was raised under this thing. You see, Pastor Carter stood in his pulpit one time and talked about panic attacks he had. Now, I can't relate to that.

I've never had. I can't conceive what it is. Now, if you've had panic attacks, you understand what he's talking about. Now, some of you can't understand what I'm saying and say, how could you have been a evangelist and preach to thousands and win thousands to Christ and preach love and not feel and know and understand that God loved you?

You'd have to understand the background of where that came from. But there are many of you listening to me now. And I've seen it all over the United States among pastors. And I'm shocked. I talked to 75, 80-year-old Christians who've been walking with God for years, many of them Pentecostals.

And they are not convinced of God's love. They're still striving to try before they die to make things even with God. Try to make up for lost time. Amazing. You see, I was the older son outside looking in.

Thank God. In fact, I shut my ministry down finally for a whole year. And I said, I can't go on, Lord, like this anymore. I want you to take another look inside with me, if you will, to that joyous feast where the prodigal son is dancing and singing.

And there's such love in that room. I want to tell you something. You see, he found first love. He'd never known his father's love before. Because you see, when he was there, he was not looking for it.

It was there all the time, but he didn't get it because his eye was on the world. He had the desire for pleasure, and he wanted to be on the world, and his heart was out there. And his father loved him, and he missed it.

But now he comes out of sin. He comes to the father's house, and suddenly he experiences and discovers the love of his father that had been there all the time. He is discovering the father's love for the first time.

This is called first love. It was not his first love for the father alone. It was the father's first love for him who was there, but for him it's first love. Because he'd never experienced it before. Now, it's important for you to know that before we go any further.

Jude warned, keep yourself in the love of God. In fact, in 1 John 4, verse 16, we're told to dwell or stay in God's love for us. You see, this boy that's so excited, he's discovering first love of his father.

Losing and Recovering First Love

If he does not stay in that and dwell in it, if he does not feed his faith and believe in that, he's going to wind up finally doubting that love. And he's going to wind up with his elder brother out in the field.

Still faithful, not going to the world, but totally losing the knowledge and the concept that his father loves him. It's possible and it happens every day all over the world. That happened to the Ephesians.

Go to Revelation, please, the second chapter. Revelation 2. This is exactly what happened to the Ephesian church. I'm going to read verse 6, 7 verses. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil.

You've tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them liars. And is born and has patience. And from my name's sake thou hast labored and hast not fainted. Now listen to me, folks.

Everything I've just told you are evidence of a people who are in love with God. Love of God means hatred for sin. Love of God means patience. Labor in his half. The love of God is to not bear with them that are evil.

And to try them that say they are apostles. In other words, the flesh, hating the flesh. You found them liars. In other words, you deal with the flesh. You won't put up with it. You won't put up with the flesh in the church or in your lives.

You are born, you've had patience. From my name's sake, you've labored. My God said he will not forget our labor of love. There's not a single evidence here that these people themselves are not loving God.

And he said, I've got something against you, however, because you have left your first love. And I'm telling you now, if you take another look at that, he's not talking about our love for him. You have left your first love.

It was the love of God. He said, you have not loved me. The Bible says, I loved you first. You've not loved me first. I loved you first. And what happened to the Ephesians? They had that wonderful revelation of how much God loved them.

And they were working with joy. They were satisfied in him. There was a glory in the church. They did all of these things that he speaks of. The labor, the ministry, the hatred of sin. They did all these things because they were secure in the Father's love.

But he said, I've got something against you. You have left that. You have lost your vision, your knowledge. That I love you. And he said, if you don't repent of that, I'm going to come quickly and take away your candlestick.

That candlestick is the testimony. That was the depository of the oil. That is the Holy Spirit anointing the word, which is the light. And he said, that is not the testimony that I'm going to permit. I will not permit anybody to labor for me.

Before the world, I will not allow children to minister and testify, to do all these things for me. And not know my love. I will not allow you to make me appear before the world as a hard man. You've left your first love.

Now you say, wait a minute, Brother Dave. All my life I have been taught and I have believed that that was my love for the Lord. I'm not discounting that. But I want you to know something. You can't love God.

You can't love your brother. Until first you know and believe in the love of God for yourself. It's impossible. Impossible. I know. You see, I know what the sufficient condition is. I was faithful. I have loved Jesus with all of my heart.

I never left my first love. Never. But I wasn't sure of his love for me. I wasn't secure in it. He said, I loved you first. Here in his love. Not that we loved God. 1 John 4 .10. He said, that's not the issue.

It's not your love for me that's the issue. Not that we loved God. But that he loved us. And sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. He made it clear. He nails it right there. Folks, open your eyes.

Open your ears and open your heart. I'm not preaching some strange doctrine. Until you are secure in the Father's love. There is no joy. There is no peace. There is no victory. You can't understand who you are in Christ.

Because if you don't understand his love. That Jesus was the essence of that love. Jesus was the provision of that love. You can never enter the joy of the resurrected Christ. We love him. 1 John 4 .19.

Because he first loved us. Hallelujah. I have seen churches all over the United States. That have had their candlestick removed. And you see the Holy Spirit oil is not flowing now through the candlestick.

The word is truly not anointed. And it's a dead letter now. Because you see. They have not entered in a true concept of the love of God. The love of God that many have is a promiscuous thing. Where it's just a general blanket over all of us.

And no matter what you do. We heard it so eloquently this morning from Pastor Carter. And you can turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. That's not the love I'm talking about. Because he said I'm a father to you.

And if I'm a father to you. You better understand that if he's a true father. He's going to correct. He's going to chastise. And he's going to deal with our failures. But he's going to do it in love. If you believe he's a father.

And you understand and know the perfect love of a perfect father. You'll understand he will never reduce you to nothing. He may chasten you. He may correct you. But he does it out of love. And it's all to teach you.

And to bring you in to the feast. To get you from outside inside. To be embraced in his arms. But I see whole churches and denominations of candlestick removed. See there's no joy in those churches. You can tell it when they're opening song.

Four verses of death. Like a mortuary. I heard a preacher say. Recently he said there is more spirit. Or did I hear it this morning? Did you say it? More spirit in some of these bars than there are in some churches.

I'll tell you what. I serve a God whose very presence in my life. I'll tell you I'm not there anymore where I was. The covenant brought me out of that pit. Hallelujah. I serve a God so powerful. Old time preachers.

Read it yesterday Pastor Carter. He said you know how Jesus turned the water into wine? He said Jesus is God remember. He said when those six water pots saw God they blushed. Turned into wine. That has nothing to do with my sermon one at all.

What sermon? I don't know why I did that. But you know when there's no knowledge of the true fatherhood of God and his love. People work for him out of obligation and duty rather than love. Reciprocal love.

And what you have are pastors driving their sheep. And you have a church full of people that are working and they're striving to win souls. And soul winning, soul winning, soul winning. That's fine. But if you go out and try to win souls and you don't even believe God loves you.

And you're telling everybody else God loves them. You're going to go through the terror I went through. And you end up with sinners coming in and look at all this activity and everybody looks so sad. Everybody driven, everybody sweating.

They say look I got enough problems I don't want this. Hallelujah. I'd like to go back to the feast. The story of the prodigal son. I'd like to add a chapter to that parable. And based on scripture. Based on life experiences.

Repentance, Chastisement, and the Father's Mercy

Let's look in there again and follow this boy. And here's the rest of the story. It's not in the Bible. But I've seen this happen. Literally over the years working with so many people in dire sins. For good season the prodigal son served his father faithfully.

He rejoiced in his freedom. He regained his health. He grew in the knowledge of his father's love. He lost all desire for his old sinful ways. He entered into a life of prayer and devotion. He ministered to the needy.

But there was a former servant of his father who had been dismissed for rebellion. He'd been the most brilliant of his servants. And he set a trap for this younger son because he hated the father. He told him lies.

He used all kinds of devices to appeal to his old lust. He lied to the boy. He told him the father. He'd overheard the father saying he was disappointed in him. He said, your father's mad at you. He doesn't embrace you anymore.

He's too busy. And then this ex-servant of the father moves in with a very tantalizing offer. And he says to this boy who used to live with harlots, just one more time. There's a beautiful young lady I have for you.

Just one night, just one time. She's a beautiful lady, and she's attracted to you. Just one time, one night, and the young man is enticed. He ends up in the bed of a strange woman, and he's ensnared. Now, he doesn't leave his father's house.

The prodigal stays there, but he's living a double life now. He's secretly slipping out. And he comes back, and every time he looks in the window, and he sees the feast. And now the joy is gone. Week after week, he comes into the house, and he looks inside, and his heart is so sick.

He hates what he's doing, and yet he loves the secret pleasure now. He goes in. He goes through the motions. That's what we heard about again this morning. But his conscience is screaming at him, you're a phony.

You're a cheat. His brother finds out what he's doing and exposes him. Now, the father knew it all the time. But exposes him to everyone who would listen to him. And the young man is so angry at himself, so displeased that he's grieved his father.

The prodigal runs away again and moves in with his maid of fornication, fearing that his father would never forgive him again for such rebellion against light. And the young man dies and goes to a burning hell.

Now, tell me what's wrong with that story. The ending. Tell me what's wrong with that. You see, that's not the way it has to be in this day of grace. That's not the way it has to end at all. Because, you see, that young man, no matter what he's done, no matter how far he's gone, and no matter how he has sinned against light, if there's a cry in his heart, if there's repentance at all, if he wants to get back to his father's love, he runs immediately right back into the room, in fact, right to the feast itself.

And says, Father, I have sinned against you again. Now, I'm going to tell you something else. If he did it seven times, you say, well, now you're getting close to false doctrine. Jesus said, if your brother trespasses against you, rebuke him.

And if he repents, forgive him. And if he trespasses against you seven times in a day, and seven times a day turns again to you, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. Seven times a day? I don't have that kind of patience.

I could do it two, maybe three at the most, and every second, third, and fourth, we'd get warnings with him, I'll tell you. I don't have that kind of patience. But you see, if the Lord is telling us to forgive our brothers and sisters, how much more is the Seventy Father willing to forgive if there's repentance?

I look at that and say, how can anybody be truly repentant seven times in a day? That's not repentance. The Lord says, forgive him. I'm not the judge of that. You know when David was exposed for adultery and murder?

It was his faith, his believing in God's tender mercies and God's love that brought him back. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies brought out my transgressions.

David didn't sulk. He didn't sit around saying, I've sinned against light, though he did. For a long time, he sat dormant in his sins. I'm sure it was a miserable, most miserable year. That's why his bones were aching.

That's why there was no life. But you see, when God put his finger on it, there was absolute true repentance in him. And he returns without sulking, and he receives the loving kindness of the Lord. And the reason he believed that all could be made right, that he could come back to the Father's love, because he said, I know my Father has multiplied mercies.

He's tender-hearted. I've sinned against my Father. I've sat for years singing His praises, and I have loved Him, but now I felt Him. I committed murder. I committed adultery. And I have confessed it, but I come to a loving Father's full of tender mercies.

It was that knowledge. He laid hold of that confidence. He laid hold of that faith, knowing and believing that God has love for us. Now, Jeremiah, don't turn there, but the 30th chapter, God told Israel He's going to correct them because of their vile sins.

And listen to what He said, I'm going to correct you in measure. I'm not going to leave you altogether unpunished. You see, Christian, when you sin, God's going to come to you, and He says, I'm not letting you get by with this.

You're going to fail. There are consequences to sin. Be sure your sin finds you out. It finds you out with consequences. For thy bruise is incurable. Thy wound is grievous. All your lovers or your friends have forgotten you.

You're under chastisement because of thy sins. Jeremiah 30, 11 to 14. Proverbs 3, 12 says, For whom the Lord loves, He corrects, even the father in whom He delighteth. Folks, in my 50 years of ministry, I've seen the downfall of so many ministers from the pulpit to the pew.

I've seen so many people fall. People who were mightily used of God, people that had ministries, people that were loving and kind and obedient. And I have grieved, especially the number of Teen Challenge directors.

Many of them called and saved under my ministry from drugs and alcohol. And 15 years later, after 15 years free from drugs and alcohol and programs, they were mightily used of God. Mighty testimonies to the love of the Heavenly Father.

And then they fall. And names and faces keep rolling in front of my eyes when I think about it. And some of them would come to me or I would go to them and sit down in a motel lobby or some place was visiting a city.

They'd come to my crusades or I'd look them up. And no matter how many scriptures I gave them, no matter how I wept, no matter how I taught them of the love of God and forgiveness, I couldn't get through to many of them because they'd say, Brother Dave, you don't understand.

Look, I've been saved 15 years, 18 years. I was a soul winner. I've run many drug addicts to the Lord. I had such light. I sat under your teaching. And I failed Him. And there's no way He can forgive me.

You have no idea what I've been doing. I'm back to robbery. I'm back to stealing. I've left my wife and my kids. I'm in hell. And they couldn't conceive. Every time it was, I can't believe God can forgive me.

I can't accept it. I've sinned against so much light. And they've gone out after that and with a vengeance tried to kill themselves with sin. They said, I'm going to hell anyhow. Let me hasten the trip.

So many I've seen that go out because they refuse to accept the love of the Father. Refuse to come back to that love. And many of you are on that brink tonight because you failed God, you failed Him miserably.

And honestly, if you sat down with me and began to spill it out, it would be probably more than I could handle. You see, if you only knew what I've done. If you only knew how low I've fallen. Folks, it doesn't matter how grievous your sin.

Because this is exactly what the prophet said. Your wound is incurable. Your wound is grievous. Humanly, it's impossible. And you're under correction. You're under chastisement of the Lord. You can't sleep.

You remember every scripture. You remember the songs. You remember the souls that you won. You remember it all and here you are now, away from the Father's house. You are the prodigal and you're back again where you were.

And you say, I can't go back again. Oh yes, you can. That's what the cross is all about. That's what Jesus is all about. That's what the blood of Jesus Christ is all about. You can come back to the Father at any time.

You can get up and run back to His arms. But I've also had the joy, the extreme joy of seeing others who accepted the love of God for them. Even though their wounds seemed incurable and I've seen God healed them.

Because they allowed the Holy Spirit to draw them back. And see, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. When you're down and when you have failed and sinned against the light. And you feel that God is mad at you.

Could never again embrace you. Could never forgive you. That's when the Holy Ghost comes. That's when, first of all, first work He does is make you miserable in your sin. So that you get sick of it and want to turn away.

You got an ungodly girlfriend, young man. You think God will make her so miserable with you and you so miserable with her? God has His ways of giving you Holy Ghost miserables. He knows how to do it. To turn you away from your sin because He loves you.

Turn everything upside down. Listen to this. To the same people that He said, I'm chastising, I'm correcting you because your wound is incurable. Your wound is grievous. Everyone's forsaken you. You're cast away.

You're under chastisement. Listen to what He says in verse 3. Same chapter, verse 3. The Lord hath appeared to me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee. He's talking to these people who are fallen. He's talking to a people whose wound is so grievous it looks incurable.

And He comes to them now and listen to what He says. Hallelujah. I love you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I will draw thee. Look it up. 31 .3 in Jeremiah. I will draw you.

He's speaking to the same people. Glory to God. The people under chastisement. Listen to what else He said. They shall come with weeping. Same people. And with supplication I'll lead them. And I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water in a straight way.

Wherein they shall not stumble again. For I'm a father to Israel. He said, I'm going to draw you. And I'm going to take the fear out of you from ever stumbling again. Hallelujah. And I'm going to cause you to walk a straight path.

Why? Because I'm your father. I'm your father. Hallelujah. I'm your father. I don't care who you are. He's still your father. I'm a father of four children, eleven grandchildren. And if they run away, I've had three of them, two of them did run away.

Didn't change, you know, for five hours or so. Did I blow my point? I love them. I don't know if anything one of my children or grandchildren could do to me that could rob my love for them. Nothing. Nothing.

Especially if it was against me personally. How much more a heavenly father? He said, I'm going to do this for you because I'm your father. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. He said, I'm going to discipline you because I love you.

I'm going to chase you. It's going to hurt. But if you repent, if you just come to me back to my arms, I'm your father. I'm going to restore you. I'm going to draw you. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to draw you.

And then I'm going to bring you into waters. I'm going to bring you into water, living water. That well of living water is going to spring up again inside of you. And you're going to walk a straight path.

And you're not going to fear falling. Because I'm going to give you grace. Finally, I've learned that the greatest weapon against temptation and sin is to know and walk in the love of God. The greatest weapon against sin.

The Father's Love as Victory over Sin and Despair

Listen to Paul's testimony. We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice, envying, hateful, and hating one another. Now that's a messed up people, I'll tell you.

That's a mess. Servants to all kinds of evil. But after that, after what? After all of this? The kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. In the middle of all this, a revelation came, Paul said, of the love of God, His tender mercies.