God's Supernatural Love: Part 2

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The Chosen Stone and His Chosen People: Part 3

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We'd like to go a little further and look at the supernatural love of God this morning on this
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Lord's Day. This will be part two, and I'm going to do my best to conclude this.
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There's much, much more that could be said on the love of God and our love to Him. There's so many
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Scriptures you can run through the entire Bible. But we're going to look at the focus of the text this morning, which is really fervently love one another from the heart.
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Fervently love one another from the heart. So please stand with me if you're able.
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One more time with me this morning in honor of God's Holy Word. Turn with me to the epistle of Peter, if you have not already turned there.
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This wonderful epistle we've been going through. This will cover chapter one.
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Like I said, Lord willing, we'll conclude this chapter today. And as we continue our study here, we're looking at beginning with verse 22 -25.
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This has been a powerful study for us. A very powerful study. So hear the word of the living
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God. I'm reading from the NASB translation. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.
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For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable.
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That is through the living and the enduring word of God. For all flesh is as like grass, and all of its glory like the flower of the grass.
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The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the
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Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you.
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Let us pray. Our Father and our God, our prayer this morning is speak,
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Lord. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.
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And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. You can be seated. Thank you. In these four wonderful yet awesome verses before us, we see that at the center of this text is the command to fervently love one another from the heart.
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Fervently love one another from the heart. This is more than just theology.
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It is rich theology, but it's more than just that. It comes to practical living and acting as a
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Christian. It is the most important thing we see in this text, is that it is the power to love one another that actually comes through hoping in God.
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It comes through hoping in God. And that is by the power of the
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Holy Spirit, which is in us now by faith. Last Lord's Day, we looked at three important questions before us.
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And the Scriptures actually gives us the answers to these three important questions.
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The first one is, when were believers enabled to love? When were believers able to love?
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Second, who are believers to love? And third, how are believers to love?
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And the Scriptures themselves provide to us the sufficient answer to those probing questions.
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They are probing, aren't they? When, who, and how are we to love?
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Well, very quickly, when were believers enabled to love?
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Well, if you look at verse 22a, the Apostle Peter says, since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls.
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Now, at first glance, this looks like something we do on our part, but it's actually
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God that does this. There's a purification. Only God the
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Holy Spirit can purify us. And that is in and through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
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This is at salvation. This happens at salvation. And it's by the
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Holy Spirit that was given unto us. Then second, who are believers to love?
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Who are believers to love? Verse 22b, for a sincere love of the brethren.
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There it is. We are to love the brethren. We are to love the brethren. Loving one another is to be sincere.
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That's a good word. That word actually means, the old King James, I believe, has unfamed love.
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But the word sincere in the Greek is it's unhypocritical.
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And as knowing the danger of hypocrisy, and you know what hypocrisy is.
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Hypocrisy means play -acting. Externalism, external play -acting.
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And that's religion. From the lips, we people honor God. But their heart is far from God, as Jesus said.
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Paul the Apostle also admonished the Roman believers in Romans 12 .9. Let love be without hypocrisy.
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Let love be without hypocrisy. So, our loving the brethren should be genuine.
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And it should be sincere, unfamed. I like the word unfamed. It means without hypocrisy.
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It's a powerful point that he's making. Then verse 22C. And the question is, how are believers to love?
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How? Well, the Scriptures tells us, verse 22C. Fervently.
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Fervently. Wow, isn't that potent? Isn't it to the point? The word of God does not beat around the bush.
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It gets right to the point. Fervently love one another from the heart.
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From the heart. Now, as we looked at last Lord's Day, this is an agape love that is expressed and is exercised by our will.
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Now, it's not within our own willpower we can do this. It's almost as if God takes our will and our will mingles with His will and our will surrenders to His will and then our will becomes
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His will. He doesn't take that away, does He? But it's like as Jesus is prayed in the garden, the struggle was there for Him to back away from the cross and going all the way.
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But as the Scripture says, Jesus went a little further and He fell on His face and He prayed three times, three times,
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Father, not my will, but Thy will be done. He went all the way surrendering
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His will to the Father's will. And this is what we must do. And I'm telling you, and you know this as well as I do, there is no way we can do this unless the power of the
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Spirit of God comes alongside of us and gives us that strength from above.
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You've been there to do God's will. God's will takes the
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Spirit of the living God. It's a supernatural love, isn't it? It's not something we can do.
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Because within our own power, we don't have that ability. This is agape love that comes from the
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Holy Spirit. This is the love of God that is shed abroad. I love that word, don't you?
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Shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It has been lavished upon us. And I like the old
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King James, poured into our hearts. God has literally poured it into us, supernaturally.
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How can that be? Well, I don't know. I can't answer that, but it's a mysterious thing.
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It's as the wind blows, Jesus said. We're going to look at that later. But by the will, it's exercised by the will, and it's
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God's power rather than the emotion. I like to put it this way.
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It's a love of willing and not a love of feeling. Love of willing, not of feeling.
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It's not how I feel. Our feeling cools and warms. And some days we feel more loving.
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Some days we feel less loving. I don't know about you. Most of the time, I feel quite cold.
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But I know that what the Scripture says, that the just shall live by faith. It's by faith we go on, right?
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And we trust in the living God. And then love of choice here is what he's talking about.
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It's a choice that we make, and it's against our feelings many times.
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You know, a lot of people get into these hyped -up feelings. Have you ever been to a Pentecostal service?
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I'm telling you, they love to hype you up, and it's electrifying sometimes. I was telling
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Brother Keith, I've been in many worship services there, and a lot of times, yes,
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I could honestly say the Spirit of God would come in many ways, in many respects.
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But I think of this quite often. You know, we're in a comfortable building, and we're worshiping
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God. It's electrifying. It's feeling good at the moment. And actually, you can literally feel chills running up and down your spine at times.
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But what about times when someone's in prison, and they're suffering for Jesus' sake?
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And they're saying, they're looking up. No one's around. There's no hype. There's no electricity. There's no praise.
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And you know, I believe Brother Keith brought this out last week about Paul and Silas. They were in prison in shackles, and they began to pray.
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And then they began to praise God. And then they started praising God in the worst conditions, you know, in the bad circumstances.
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And then God broke through with an earthquake. Now, they didn't expect God to break through, but they started praising God regardless.
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And they were suffering. They had stripes on their back. They were in pain.
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And you know, it's in those times when God chose Himself to be God. It's just not in the good time feelings and in the worship service, right?
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But love of choice. Paul and Silas, I'm sure they didn't feel like praising
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God or praying, but they did because they loved their Master. And it was a sacrifice of praise unto
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God. It was a sweet -smelling aroma. This is the kind of love that can respond to a commandment.
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Love fervently from the heart. It means to stretch out to the very limits. Don't you love that?
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Fervently means to stretch it out as far as you can go. It makes me think of what Jesus spoke of when
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He taught, you know, when someone is in need, you know, give them your cloak.
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Give them your coat, in other words. And go the extra mile. You know, you see this on billboards.
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It really, to me, I don't like people using this for their businesses, but I saw a car insurance billboard and it says, car insurance.
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We go the extra mile. And I said, you know, that's not original. That really comes from the mouth of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And He's telling the disciples, you know, that's what we have to do. We have to stretch it to the furthest limits and to meet someone's need.
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Isn't that what love is? And we looked at the parable of the Good Samaritan. He didn't bypass the
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Samaritan and the mixed breed. That was a reject and he was hurting. And he came by and he took care of his wounds and he took care of his needs.
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He took him to a place and bought him the place of the hotel and went further.
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He went to the extra mile. He stretched himself to the furthest limits. And that's what we got to do.
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It's sacrificial, isn't it? Real love is sacrificial. It reaches out to those that are in need.
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It reaches out to the orphans and the widows. And it reaches out to those that are poorer. And now we have to be wise nowadays, right?
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Because there's a lot of people that take advantage of Christians. I've been there and you've been there. And they're out there and they don't want to work.
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And the Bible says if you're not going to work, you're not going to eat. And especially a person that's very capable and not handicapped.
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Now I can understand if a person's in a very bad, handicapped way and they're not capable of working.
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And we're to reach out to them. But people that are out there just trying to take advantage of the system and take advantage of you and me, we need to be wise as serpents.
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Tell them, look, the Lord expects you to get out there and get a job. What about people that's out there bumming and they've ruined their record?
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Well, we need to reach out to them as well. But we need to show them and give them some wisdom. And if you need needs, if there's a need that needs to be taken care of, there's a
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Salvation Army. Now a lot of times Salvation Army will kick them out because they're criminals. And it's really a sad thing, a sad case we see today.
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There are a lot of criminals out there that are in a bad way, aren't they? And it doesn't mean we're to give up on them, right?
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We're to reach out, but we've got to be wise. We've got to give them some answers from the Scriptures. So you have to really discern the situation.
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I could tell you all multitudes, and you know this, there's multitudes of situations, but God's love reaches out to those that are in need, and especially the beggars that are desperate for God and are trying to use
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God, but they're in need. I think Brother Keith brought out this leper. He was in need, wasn't he? He was in need of cleansing.
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And he reached out to Jesus. And Jesus touched him and was willing to cleanse him. God's love is very practical, isn't it?
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I'm not going to sit... I'll stand before you today and tell you that this is just a theological matter.
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It's not. It's a very practical, simple, warm thing that we are to do.
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It meets people's needs, others at the point of their need. In other words, it's not fake, right?
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It's not phony. It's real, and it's genuine. And that's what people...
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You know, a lot of people out there in the world that's lost, a lot of times they know when it's genuine. They do.
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They know when it's fake. You know, I like what the
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Apostle John says in 1 John 3, 16 -18. Listen to the Word of God on this. It says much, much more than what
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I can tell you. The Apostle John says, we know, we know love by this.
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And then he tells us that he, speaking of Jesus Christ, that he laid down his life for us.
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Who is he talking about for us? The sheep. We ought to lay down our lives for who?
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The brethren. Notice what he says. The brethren. Now that's the kind of love that we are to have.
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That we're to sacrifice ourselves even to the point that means we are to lay down our lives for the brethren just as Jesus did.
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Now think about that. Search your heart. Would you be willing to lay down your life for the brethren this morning?
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Verse 17, but whoever has the world's goods... Listen to where John's going on this.
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Whoever has the world's goods, in other words, God's blessed you with plenty, and sees his brother, his brother in need, and closes his heart against him.
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How does the love of God abide in him? Oh wow. Little children, he says, let us not love with words or with tongue.
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Talks cheap, right? But in deed and in truth.
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There it is. In deed and in truth. That's the kind of love that we demonstrate as children of God.
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And true love is not limited just to supreme sacrifices, oh no. But it shows up in the lesser ones.
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It shows up in the mundane. It shows up in the little things. God sees the little things.
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Genuine love expresses itself in a sacrificial giving to other Christians and the brethren, to the household of faith, the scripture says.
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His brother, his brother. It is practical and it finds motivation from a pure heart in helping others, doesn't it?
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And that's the way we are to love. So where it does not exist, can
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I say this? It's very questionable that God's love is present. It's very questionable.
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We have a right to question it if it is present in a situation there.
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If it is so, it is also questionable whether the person is a child of the living
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God. Now, why do I say that? Because love is of God.
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Love is of God. And not only is love of God, because He is love, but love is the very fruit of the
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Spirit. You know the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long -suffering.
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Did you notice in the divine pattern, it's not by mistake, love is at the top of the list.
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It is like the fruit of all the rest of the fruit in which the other fruits come out of, like a cluster.
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Love is that overall fruit, the most important,
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I believe. All of them are important, but they all come out of love. Love is...
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Now, where do we think John got this? He got it from Jesus. He got this from Jesus, preaching on the
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Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7, verse 17 through 20. Listen to this, the greatest sermon ever preached.
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Jesus made it simple, and He made it black and white, didn't He? This is what
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He said in verse 17 through 20 in chapter 7. Almost His conclusion, but not quite, but He's getting there.
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Now, in context, He's speaking about false teachers. And He's actually telling us how to have righteous discernment, and how we could tell a good tree from a bad tree.
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Notice what He says. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
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A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
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Verse 19, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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So then, here's His point, you will know, that word know means you will recognize, you will discern them.
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Now, who's He talking about, them? He's talking about false teachers. He's talking about,
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He said, beware, when they come to you in sheep's clothing, they're wolves, they're ravening wolves.
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They're false teachers. There's a lot of them today, aren't there? They've been around for a while. Well, Jesus says you're to judge righteous judgment, you're to have discernment, and it's one of the problems of the church today.
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We don't know how to discern from truth in error. That's sad, isn't it?
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Because, what does that tell you? People don't know the Word of God. Not only do they not know the Word of God, I really believe they're not born of the
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Spirit of God. So, how can they discern truth from error, if they're not born of the
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Spirit of God? Well, Jesus says you recognize them by the fruit. What kind of fruit do they have?
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What kind of fruit? Is it good fruit? Bad fruit? Jesus says there's only two kinds of trees here.
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There's only two kinds of fruit. Is it bad or good? Is it a bad tree?
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It's a good tree. I think to myself, our Lord made it so simple, didn't He? I really believe this.
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A child can be right there and understand what He's talking about. He made it, and so beautifully
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He goes to the illustration of a tree. A tree.
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Something we can see. Something feasible. And He breaks it down in the spiritual realm.
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We're talking about false teachers. This is how you can tell a false teacher. You don't have two different kinds of trees here.
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I'm sorry, you do have two different kinds of trees. You have a bad and a good tree, and you have bad fruit and good fruit.
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There's nothing in between that. So, not three kinds, only two kinds.
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The genuine or the false. A bad tree, a good tree.
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What Jesus is saying is, you're saved or you're not. You're regenerated or you're not.
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You're in Christ or you're not in Christ. You're dead to sin or dead from sin, right? So, let's look at the last question today.
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The last question is, why should believers love? Why should believers love, right?
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Isn't that a good question? Why? Well, Scripture tells us. We should love.
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Our text gives us the answer once again. Don't you love it? The Word of God gives us the answer.
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The Word of God is sufficient. It is sufficient. Verse 23,
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For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable. That is through the living and endearing
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Word of God. Verse 24, Then He quotes from the prophet Isaiah, For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass.
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And the grass withers and the flower falls off. But the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the
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Word which was preached to you. Literally, that word preached to you means, preached as good news to you.
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It is preached as good news to you. So, believers in Jesus Christ are to love one another to the fullest extent because it is consistent with the new life in Jesus Christ.
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New life in Jesus Christ. Now, this is not going to be something new for each and every one of us here today, right?
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We all know this. It's ABCs of Christianity, but don't we need this?
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I never get tired of hearing this. Because really, to be honest with you, this is still the problem within the church today.
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People come within the church, they go through the motions, they think they've been baptized in water, they've been baptized as an infant, and they think it's all settled.
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And they're into the kingdom. No, not so, beloved. As you well know. The text tells us,
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For you have been born again. You have been born again. He's talking to believers here. In other words, they've been regenerated by the
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Holy Spirit of God. Literally, from the Greek text, it means born from above.
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They have new passions, new desires. They have a new mind, and they're renewing their minds.
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But everything that they have now is a gift from God, and God willed it. Not something that they willed.
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We're going to look at this. And it's what God has done. Now, 1 John chapter 5, verses 1 through 3, says this.
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Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, that's important. We've got to believe that He's the
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Messiah. We must believe that He is the Anointed One from God. There's no other
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Messiah. He is the Messiah. He is the Chosen One. He is the Righteous One. He is the
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Anointed One. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, Peter says, that's the great confession. He is born of God.
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He is born of God. In other words, you've got to believe and know who Jesus is.
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That's why you have other people out there that so -called call themselves
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Christians, and they're not Christians, that do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
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Son of the Living God. They do not believe that He's God in the flesh. They are anti -Christ, what the
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Bible says. They are false. I don't care if they can say that they're
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Christians until Jesus comes back, folks. It does not make them a
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Christian. They must believe that He is the Son of the Living God. He is the Messiah.
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He is the Anointed One. He is the Christ. This is what John says.
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He is born of God. You know, you really cannot be in the kingdom unless we believe that great truth, right?
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It's a great supernatural truth that is revealed and given to us by the Holy Spirit. It's not a flesh and blood.
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It's what Jesus told Peter. And John goes on to say this, and whoever loves the
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Father, loves the child born of Him. By this we know, there's that we know again, that we love the children of God.
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When we love God, we observe to do, in other words, His commandments. Verse 3, for this is the love of God that we keep
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His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. You know, you hear the opposite today.
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You know, you do not hear definitions of the sort that truly to love
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God is to keep His commandments. To keep the commandments of Jesus Christ and then do a study of all the commandments of Jesus.
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Why? That would eliminate quite a few people, wouldn't it? You know, what's he talking about not burdensome?
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For example, what he's talking about in his mind, I really believe this, that John the
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Apostle has in his mind, in contrast to the burdensome man -made traditions of the
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Jewish leaders and scribes and the Pharisees in Jesus' day. By their traditions, what the
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Word of God says, they made the law of God of no effect. Because the love of God was not in them.
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That's what Jesus said. The love of God is not in them. He told that to the Pharisees, right? I know that the love of God is not in them.
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He knew what was in their heart. That's why He never committed Himself to them, right? Well, but Jesus also says in Matthew 11 .30,
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His yoke is easy, His burden is light. That doesn't mean
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He doesn't have a yoke. And it doesn't mean He doesn't have a burden. We are to have the burden of the
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Lord. And we are to be yoked up with Jesus. But you know what I love about Jesus? You know, things may hit us hard, externally.
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But you could go to our Lord, and you could know His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
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Praise God. We could go to Him, and we can rest in Him. And know that He gives us rest.
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And He said that. He said, He'll give rest to your souls. He didn't say physically.
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It's going to cost us something physically. But see, the internal strength comes from the love of God.
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You see that? You ever wonder why a martyr, back in those days, and even today, even today, the modern day martyrs today, that they can lay down their lives for Jesus Christ.
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Because their eyes are upon Jesus. Their eyes are upon His sacrifice He made at the cross.
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And who are we but the creature of God, born in His image, and born again from God.
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And then we know that the Son of God, God Himself came down here and laid His life down for our souls.
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Little sacrifice we have. And that's why Paul says, you can do all these things, you can give your body to be burned, if you don't have love, you don't have nothing.
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It profits you nothing. Well, I tell you what, if I'm going to be burned to the stake, and if I'm going to give my life,
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I'm going to make sure I love God, and I love the brethren. That's why these men, when they were getting ready to burn them, they said, how can
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I do any injustice to God, and not love Him, and love those who, even those who were doing the crime.
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As Jesus said, Forgive them Father, for they do not know what they do. What kind of love would do something like that?
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His yoke is easy, His burden is light. The Pharisees was opposite. Their yoke was hard.
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And their burden was heavy, right? I don't want nothing to do with tradition and religion.
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In our text, it's almost as if the Apostle Peter anticipated his readers, asking them why they should love.
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Why should they love? He had commanded them, and therefore He told them that they should be expected to love that way, because they have been born again.
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Now, that's key, isn't it? That's key. We need to tell our world this, folks.
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This is the point in which we should take them to the cross of Jesus, and say, look, you must,
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Jesus said this, you must be born again. You must be born again. Emphasizing that the new birth occurs in the past, but it has ongoing results, right?
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It has results, it has effects. We see the effects of it in the present.
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And one of those results is that believers will demonstrate genuine love for one another. One another.
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And that means sometimes, not always in giving sacrificially, sometimes it means warning our brothers, right?
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Warning them in love. The one that loves me the most warns me the most. You'll hear that a lot here.
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And that truth is hard, it's hard truth. But Paul says speak the truth in love. And he said do it in kindness.
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And make sure it's from the heart. And that you pray for them. And you fervently love them.
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And probably shedding some tears for them. Give them warning. You know, you're going down a path here, brethren.
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And you're going down a wrong path. And it's leading you astray from God and from the brethren.
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Stop it. Stop where you are and resist that temptation. That's love.
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That tells me to stop going down a direction that I can't see. I may be blinded to.
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And I would appreciate a brother or a sister saying, hold on, pastor. You're doing something here wrong.
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Let's go to the word of God. And let's take it, what does God have to say about this?
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And let's pray about it. You see, it's not being mean and harsh and bombastic.
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But it's in love. Now, Jesus blasted the Pharisees pretty hard.
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But that was love. I say blasted them, but He did this from the heart of God. But you know, there's times it has to be sharper than others.
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Right? You know, and these Pharisees were so engrossed and hardened in their tradition, hardened against God.
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And it took a harder sword, a sharper sword to break through it. And Jesus knew how to temper it.
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You know, you don't see Him doing this to the woman at the well. Even the Pharisee Nicodemus that came to Him at night.
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We're going to look at that in just a minute. Now actually turn there. Turn to John chapter 3. Don't you love this chapter?
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This is one of my favorite chapters in the word of God. Oh my,
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I tell you what, you could just open up John chapter 3 and you could take someone right to Jesus.
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Right to Jesus and right into His kingdom. Isn't it wonderful we have this wonderful chapter?
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John chapter 3, the gospel of John. And you know, there's something wonderful about this story.
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Here's an old religious man. He comes to Jesus by night.
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I'll just read it. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He's a ruler of the
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Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi...
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Now he's given some respect now. He's calling Him Master, Teacher. That's the way the teachers were called,
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Master, Rabbi. We know that you have come from God as a teacher.
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Now he's already got it wrong there. This is God that came to teach, but just not as a teacher, but He is the teacher.
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For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Now he's already looking at the signs, alright? He's looking at the miracles. Now they were barren evidence of who
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Jesus was. They were manifest evidence. But he really didn't understand or know who
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Jesus really was at that point, right? But notice what Jesus said.
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Jesus by no means was flattered by what He said to him. Jesus answered and said to him,
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Truly, truly, and as you well know, some translation says, Verily, verily.
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Verily, verily, truly, truly. What He's saying, Amen, amen.
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Bless his heart. Bless her heart. Ah, bless him.
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Taking care of a need. Taking care of a need. Only mommy can do, right? Truly, truly, amen, amen.
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Everything Jesus said, I heard Sproul say this, everything Jesus said was important. Everything. But, when
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Jesus says, Truly, truly, amen, amen. He gives the amen twice before He makes the statement.
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This is the truth. The truth speaking. He said we are to pay a special attention to this.
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Amen, amen. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born from above, born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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First, He says he cannot see the kingdom of God. In verse 5, He said he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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First, you've got to see it, then you enter into it. Nicodemus said to him, Now, Nicodemus didn't get it, right?
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Because he's thinking carnal, he's thinking fleshly. He's thinking, he's not relying upon the spirit of God upon this because he hasn't been born again.
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He sees as everybody else sees. How can a man be born when he's old? He just doesn't get it, does he?
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No, he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?
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That's what he says. And it's a question. There's two questions together. How can a man be born when he's old?
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And he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? No. Jesus answered.
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Again, He says, Truly, truly, amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
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I love how Jesus mentions water and of the spirit because that water is speaking of purification.
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It's speaking of cleansing. The washing of regeneration, Paul said. The washing of regeneration.
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And of the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. First, He says,
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You cannot see the kingdom of God, nor cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You've got to be born again.
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You must. A must. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
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It's that simple. Do not be amazed. Do not marvel. Don't be surprised that I said to you,
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You must be born again. You must be born again. And then He says this,
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The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it. It's the mystery of how this happens, alright?
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We can't control the wind, can we? Have you ever tried to control the wind? No. Nobody can control the wind.
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God controls the wind. You know, but there is something
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Jesus said. You can hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it's coming from, or where it's going.
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You can't see it. It's invisible. And He says, So is everyone who is born of the spirit.
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That's the way it is. It's the spirit of the living God. It's a mysterious thing that takes place. But God doesn't.
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Aren't you glad? I'm so glad that salvation is outside of us. I'm so thankful that it is
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God that makes this happen. And Nicodemus said to Him, let me finish reading this,
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How can these things be? How can these things be? That's really a great question.
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And Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Now, what is
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He referring to? He's referring to Ezekiel chapter 36.
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Let's go to chapter 36. I read it last week, but let's go to it to emphasize the point. I was going to end my sermon on this, but I thought
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I'd better go ahead and get right to it. I love this. And He's talking about the new covenant.
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Look at chapter 36 verse 22. Let me begin with verse 32 and take it all the way to verse 28.
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Therefore say to the house of Israel, Salvation is of the Jews, right? Yes.
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Thus says the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God. The prophet is speaking and he's speaking as an oracle of God.
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Thus says the Lord God. I love that. Don't you? This is God speaking. Is it not for your sake,
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O house of Israel, that I am about to act? But for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went,
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I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.
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You know, God's going to vindicate His name, isn't He? And then the nations will know that I am the
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Lord, declares the Lord God, when I proved myself a holy among you in their sight.
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I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.
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This is what God does. Then, here's the miracle right here, what
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Jesus is referring to, the Nicodemus. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols.
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Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
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I will. Don't you love how many times God says, I will. God's going to do it.
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I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances and you will live in the land that I gave you to your forefathers so you will be my people and I will be your
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God. And I'll stop right there. Isn't that right in line? Exactly what Jesus said.
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And He was talking about, unless one is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
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Supernatural. It's supernatural. And this is what Jesus tells Nicodemus.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, testify of what we have seen and you do not accept our testimony.
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If I told you earthly things, you and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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Wow. You know, Jesus is basically, He brought it down to a level where Nicodemus, and he still didn't get it.
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You know, and what are you talking about? Well, the Apostle Paul said this in Romans 6, 3 and 4,
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Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
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Father, listen to this, so we too might walk in newness of life.
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There it is. Newness of life. Being born of the Spirit of God. Now, let me say this, and you know this as well if you read the text, what he's saying here.
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Paul's not speaking of water baptism. I had a big discussion about this years ago in the mid -90s at a nursing home.
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We were going to visit my aunt, my great aunt, before she died.
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And right next to her, there was another elderly lady, and this minister, he was a little older than me, and he was a minister of the
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Church of Christ. And we got into this discussion, and he said, you know, you have to be water baptized to enter into the kingdom of God.
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And I said, hold on now, hold on. I said, in other words, you're trying to tell me that I've got to add to the gospel.
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I have to add something to what Jesus did. He said, no, that's a command. Jesus said, go into all the world and baptize them in the name of the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I said, that's afterwards, my friend. I said, you've got it way off chart.
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I said, he's not talking about water baptism. And then I went to this verse here, and I actually read this scripture to him. And he said, didn't you hear it?
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He said, all of us, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ has been baptized into His death?
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And I said, that's not talking about water baptism. Paul's talking symbolic of what happens in the
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Spirit of God. He's talking about the Spirit of God, a supernatural work. Oh, he wanted to,
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I never will forget this, Teresa's looking at me, she remembers this. I was discussing,
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I lovingly disagreed with him. I said, look, you're adding to the gospel, my friend. And then
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I went and I said, what about that thief on that cross? I said, he didn't go to water. And you know what he tried to tell me?
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He said, but that was under the law. And there wasn't grace that came yet.
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And I said, no, no, no, no, no. You've got it all wrong. I said, this man was not water baptized, my friend.
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He called on the Lord Jesus Christ right there and repented and realized he was a sinner.
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And he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And it was like three or four, and when we got into a deep discussion,
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I looked over there, and there was like four or five nurses, I kid you not, peeking in, listening. And I said, well, praise
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God. You know, I said, come on in, we can finish this debate.
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I don't like to get in debates, but that was one time I had to say, no, I had to stop that man respectfully.
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We departed, we agreed to disagree, but I'm right. Not because David Harris is right, but because the word of God says it.
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I'm telling you, if you think you have to be water baptized, that's a command that follows.
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Yes, we are to obey that command, but that's not what gets us into the kingdom. Right? If that was the case, then the thief,
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Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise, as in hell. But I don't believe that, because Jesus said, you're going to be with me in paradise.
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No, it's the spirit of the living God that brings us into the kingdom. Well, immersion into Christ means believers are placed into His death.
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We are placed in which we die to our old life. Right? And then, because we die to our old life, we are raised with Jesus in the resurrection by faith, and what
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He did, because we're risen in Christ, we believe this by faith. Right?
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By which we share the new life. Right? Oh, that's wonderful.
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Thus the new birth entails a complete radical transformation describing this. Now, 2
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Corinthians 5 .17 says this, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is what? A new creation.
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A new creature. A new creation. I like that translation. Because the creation is new.
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Isn't that what Jesus does? He makes us all new. He didn't say some things become new.
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What is He saying? All things become new. The old things passed away.
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The old is gone. The old man tries to hang on, and he's still swimming.
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But that's where sanctification comes in. And no, He's not eradicated.
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He's not eradicated until we go on to be with Jesus in glory. That's when
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He's eradicated. But until that point we come to death, that moment of death, we have to work on that sanctification.
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That's why Paul says, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's what he says.
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Now, he's talking about sanctification. All things have become new. In Christ.
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In Christ. There's the key words. Those two words. Right there. In Christ.
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Those two words comprise the brief, but most profound statement of inexhaustible significance of the believer's redemption.
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Believers, we put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, created in righteousness and holiness, of truth,
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Ephesians 4 .24. And those who are born again go from being godless, lawless, isn't that the truth?
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And selfish, to manifest in genuine repentance, trust in God, and love.
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Love toward one another. First, love to God. But how is that demonstrated? Loving our brethren.
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Loving our brethren. I can't say that enough. The Holy Spirit enlightens us to discern spiritual truth.
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And you see this in 1 Corinthians 2, 14 -16. But the natural man does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God, for they are, what? Foolishness unto him. The foolishness to him.
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And then notice what Paul says. And he cannot. That is so key.
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He cannot understand them. Why? Because they are spiritually discerned.
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They are spiritually appraised. Spiritually examined. But, he says, he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
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For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He will instruct him? Then he gives us the answer.
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But, we have the mind of Christ. Don't you want to have
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Christ's mind? I do. But we have the mind of Christ. You do. Because Christ lives in you.
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Christ lives in me. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. And that is the abiding presence of God.
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And it is Christ in us, the hope of glory, that gives us that understanding.
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It is not something up here. It is not our intelligence. I love what R .C. Sproul says. He said, you don't have to give up your intelligence to be a
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Christian, but you got to give up your pride. It is well said. We need to give up our pride.
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Well, the Holy Spirit empowers us also, to believers, to serve the law of God.
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Truth contained in the Word, rather than the law of sin. Right? Romans 6, 16 -18.
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Do you not know, that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?
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You know, what are we obeying? Is it sin? Or is it righteousness?
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Sin or righteousness? Either of sin resulting in death? That is to the point, isn't it?
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Or obedience resulting in righteousness? Great question. But thanks be to God, that though you were slaves of sin, now he gets to it, you were the slaves of sin.
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Jesus says, if you are a servant of it, if you love it, you are a servant of it.
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Jesus is the one that brings freedom from it. He is the only one that can bring freedom from sin.
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Who else can break those shackles? Who else can break those chains that people kiss and love their sin?
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He says, well, you became obedient, what? From the heart. There it is. From the heart.
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Not from the brain. Not from the head. You became obedient from the heart to that,
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I love, I appreciate him saying this, because a lot of people try to throw out teaching, right? You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching.
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People have to be taught. That's it. Faith comes by hearing.
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Hearing by the word of God. They have to hear the truth. In other words, they have to have a word from God to break that power of sin in them.
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So he says, from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.
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There's a commitment to it. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
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Hallelujah. Aren't you glad that you're a slave of righteousness today and not a slave to sin?
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Praise God. Now you can shout right there. Paul is giving us, actually,
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I like to put it this way, a class of 101 sanctification. We need to hear sanctification 101, don't we?
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That's what it is. Well, going back to the new birth, as the theological word says, monogeristic.
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It's a work of the Holy Spirit. It's a work of God. Sinners do not cooperate, right, with their spiritual birth.
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How can someone say they can cooperate with God in their salvation? Well, they can say it, but how can it happen?
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So in other words, they made themselves to be birthed? Let me give you an example.
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Did you and I today have any control of our birth here today? When you were born, back in whatever date, whatever year, did you have any control of that?
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Absolutely not. Do you have any control of the second birth? Absolutely not.
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Who controls that? God. It's of the will of God. It's of the will of God.
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It's not of self. It's not of a decision we make. Salvation is of the
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Lord, beloved. That's why Jesus said, the wind blows where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it's going, so is everyone who is born of the
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Spirit. It is supernatural. And Peter says it in verse 23, if you look back to 1
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Peter 23, for you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable.
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This is an imperishable seed. In other words, it is eternal life. It's not going to fade away.
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Now, what we were of, we all began as a seed, right?
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At the moment of conception, life took place. Then that seed began to grow.
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The largest oak trees out there were once a little seed. You and I are a seed.
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We all came from a seed. Whether it be the material creation or you, created in the image of God and myself, but we all began as a seed.
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Now, the way it is with being born in the Spirit of God as well, but let me talk to you about the seed.
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The seed represents the source of life, right? The source of life. Everything that comes to life in the created order begins with that seed and the basic life source that initiates it, that plant, whether it be plant life or animal life.
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Again, I love, at times I look at a mighty big oak tree and it's amazing.
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That little thing was a seed. That big thing, I should say, was once a seed. Well, that's the way we all were.
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But nothing in the material world has the capacity to produce spiritual or eternal life.
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Does it? God has to do that. So what is the text actually saying?
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It actually says, eternal life comes from above, from God, the
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Father. The Father of lights, which there is no variableness, no shadow of turning. Now, when
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James is talking about the supernatural life here, he's talking in contrast how an earthly father initiates human birth with his corruptible seed.
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God initiates the spiritual birth with imperishable seed. That is of God.
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Aren't you glad? And it's God that does this work. But the imperishable seed of the living and enduring word of God will live forever and ever.
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Now, if you look at this text, and I need to hurry up and conclude here.
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The text is so pregnant with truth because he begins to quote from the prophet.
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What did he say? All flesh, he says, of grass, and all of its glory like the flower of the grass, and the grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the
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Lord endures forever. So what is this telling us? There is a brevity of life and that we are to love, but you see, all this flesh.
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We have this generation, but if you look, it's amazing. Sometimes we look at these old films years ago, and the earliest is probably back in the turn of the century, right?
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When they just started to create sound and so forth, and to be able to put these things in film.
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But you look at that whole generation, I think of that many times, and that whole generation is gone. All that flesh is in the ground.
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Jesus is going to come back and He's going to raise it up. Well, all flesh, He says, of grass. The exercise of God's will,
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He brought forth, He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
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So to strengthen the point, Peter quoted from this prophet Isaiah from chapter 40, verse 6 through 8, as a familiar biblical principle.
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Read this in your devotional time, but Job chapter 14, let's go there very quickly,
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I don't have much time left, but chapter 14, listen to what he says. Man who is born of woman is short lived and full of turmoil.
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Like a flower, he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
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You also open your eyes on him and bring him into judgment with yourself. And who can make the clean out of the unclean?
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No one. Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and his limits you have set so that he cannot pass.
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You know, and this should be a sober reminder to all of us that our time here on this earth and our stay on this earth is very short.
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The brevity of life. So, the word of God endures forever. So, we love
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Him because He first loved us. Well, let me very quickly, there's so much more
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I could say about this, but let me give you in a short nutshell ten ways we can love one another.
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Ten ways we can love one another. And if you've got a pen, you can write these things down. The call to remembrance, but they're really good.
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I wish I had time to preach on each one of these, but I'm going to give them to you very quickly. Number one, you can listen without interrupting.
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Now, I'm still working on that one. I don't know about you, the Scripture says be slow to speak, quick to hear.
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That's the second one. Be quick to hear, slow to speak. That's the second one.
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The third one, give without counting the cost. We should always give without counting the cost.
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No strings attached, give and do not respect nothing in return.
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Four, pray for others, but pray something good for others without ceasing.
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We should pray without ceasing, but we're to pray for one another, right? Fifth, answer without arguing.
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Wow, that's a big one on self -control, isn't it? We need to learn how to answer people in love without arguing.
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You know, you can agree to disagree, just like I was telling you about that Church of Christ minister. I was still learning at the time,
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I'm still learning now, but I'm not always at complete self -control, but I really believe the
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Spirit of God did help me that day. But lovingly, tell him
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I spoke the truth in love, and he disagreed with me, and I said that's okay, you can disagree. I'm just telling you what the
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Word of God says. Verse 6 leads me to speak the truth always in love.
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Always speak the truth in love, right? We always should examine our own heart.
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Speak the truth in love. Ephesians 4 .15 As I mentioned earlier,
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Proverbs says, open rebuke is better than secret love. Before you rebuke somebody, always get on your face and knees and search your own heart.
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Before Nathan the prophet went to King David, it was a period of maybe a month or two, it was a long period of time.
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He didn't go immediately right before the king and rebuke him. Do seven, do all things without complaining and murmuring.
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Wow, that's a convicting one, isn't it? Eight, overcome all things by pure love.
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Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13 .7 Nine, this is a big one, this is a whole sermon, this is a whole series, but I want to tell you, forgive, we're to forgive one another as Christ forgave us.
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We're to forgive. You know, that's love in action, folks. Jesus forgave from the cross, we're to forgive.
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Peter said, how many times am I to forgive my brother? Seven times?
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Jesus said, seven times seventy. Do the math.
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I can't do that, but what's that, 140 times? 140 times?
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490. Wow. See how bad I am on math? Thank you, Brother Keith. 490 times a day?
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Yes. That's how forgiving we should be. Ten, be sincere in following Jesus.
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Proverbs 13 .12 That's love. God's everlasting love triumphs.
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Right? Romans chapter 8, you can read it. Paul gave the close of the section of believer's security and the love of God.
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We'll praise God for God's glorious grace that we have been saved by His wonderful grace.
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Let me close with a poem from one of my favorite missionaries. It was a she.
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I love Amy Carmichael. She never married in her life, but she devoted herself and she was raised in a very rich home.
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She gave up all her wealth to go to India to be a missionary to the people there.
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Read her biography sometimes. I promise you, you'll never get over it. What a marvelous, wonderful, selfless, godly missionary she was.
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One of my favorite poems is called, Flame of God. Flame of God.
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Try to memorize it. I can quote off some of it, but I wrote it down here for all of us to listen to in here and listen to this prayer.
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Let this be your prayer today as well as mine that God will make us
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His fuel for His flame. From prayer that asks that I may be sheltered from the winds that beat on thee, from fearing when
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I should expire, from faltering when I should climb higher, from silken self,
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O Captain Free, thy soldier who would follow thee, from subtle love of softening things, from easy choices, weakenings.
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Not thus are spirits fortified. Not this way went the crucified.
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From all that dims thy calvary. Oh, don't you love that? From all that dims thy calvary,
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O Lamb of God, deliver me. And I love this last paragraph.
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May this be our prayer. Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire.
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Let me not sink to be a clod. Make me thy fuel, flame of God.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning for your blessed
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Holy Spirit that's brought us into the kingdom for such a time as this.
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Lord, help us to demonstrate in a practical, meaningful, simple way the love in which you've loved us.
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You have forgiven us much. We love much. Lord, help us. Help us.
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Because in many respects to our own flesh, this is not an easy thing. It's not burdensome.
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And so many times we do make it a duty, Lord. And it is part of our duty to obey your commandments.
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But more than that, more than that, Father, it should be just not a duty, but a delight.
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It should not be burdensome to love you. Because when we truly love you, we love each other.
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We love one another fervently from the heart. Lord, forgive us for the times we have not obeyed this great commandment.
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Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, to truly demonstrate our love towards you as we demonstrate it toward one another.
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And Father, we would ask you to help us in these things by the power of your grace. Oh, for grace.
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Oh, for grace to trust in you more. And we ask this in the mighty name of Jesus.