The Word of God — Bill McLeod

I remember way back there in 1971, in December of 1971, when the crusade was on here in Winnipeg, Bill McLeod was our speaker, and God the Holy Spirit moved in a mighty way, and in my own heart as well.

I remember those years, and we don't look back at that time as that being the ultimate, that was the beginning of something that God wanted to do. And it all began in Bill McLeod's church, an Ebenezer Baptist church in the city of Saskatoon, and spread throughout the other parts of Canada.

Since that time, for the past 18 years, Brother Bill has been traveling full time in the interest of revival throughout this country, and not only in this country, but throughout the world. And it is a great privilege that I have now of introducing our speaker tonight, Brother Bill McLeod.

Well, good evening. Brother Don is going to be with me, God willing, in Quebec the first two weeks of April, and he'll be going several days before I get there to sort of prepare the churches. There's five or six French churches going together for these revival meetings, and I know it's going to be a real blessing to have Brother Don go there a little early and prepare things.

Then he'll stay for several days, possibly a week after the meetings are over, to work again with the people who have responded in those meetings. I know that some of you people pray for us on a regular basis.

Somebody told me just before the meeting tonight they did that. We appreciate it very, very much, and think of the first two weeks of April, and ask God to really bless his people in Quebec. You know, Quebec is one of the neediest mission fields in the world, but we don't think it is because it's in North America.

It's far needier than any Central American country. Far needier. And very little has been done there in the past. Now the province is open to the gospel, but the laborers are very, very few. And we need to be praying that God will move on the hearts of many people to become pastors, evangelists, and so on, church planters in the province of Quebec.

While we're praying for that, let's not forget to pray for Eastern Europe. That's been suggested already. I think we get excited about it. We thank God for it. We think it's a great thing, and often that's as far as it ever goes.

I think we ought to be praying daily, and as often as God brings this to our mind and attention, praying for a great, a deep and powerful work to be done in Romania and Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Poland, East Germany.

And then in some of these communist countries that haven't yet folded up, you know, like Albania. Albania is the only country in the world that's declared themselves officially on a government level to be totally atheistic.

Not even Russia did that. They say we're not reforming. Well, God can change that. We should be praying for Albania. It's an extremely needy and a cold, hard country. What about Cuba? My pastor says they're not going to reform either.

Well, God can change His mind in a hurry. Let's pray for Cuba. Let's pray for North Korea. Let's pray for Vietnam. Some of these countries that haven't really responded yet to what God is doing, I think God really wants to do this around the world, not only in communist lands, but in Buddhist countries, Hindu countries, Muslim countries.

And we need to be informed, dear people. We need to be praying. We need to get behind any honest effort to take Bibles or send teams and so on to these particular countries at this time. You know, there's a power vacuum in all these countries, and it isn't going to be there forever.

We don't know what will happen down the road. That's why we need to be praying constantly for God to overrule, because no doubt at all, Satan's got other plans to try and get these people from the frying pan into the fire.

The Word of God as Fire, Hammer, and Living Seed

And that'll happen unless the kids from God here in North America and other countries are awake and alert to what Satan's trying to do and what God wants to do. I would like to read a couple of portions of Scripture.

You don't have your Bible, don't you? I see a few Bibles around, but not too many, from Jeremiah, chapter 23, and then from 1 Peter, chapter 1. Jeremiah 23, 23. Am I a God of hands, says the Lord, and not a God of fire?

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, says the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord? I have heard what the prophet said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for days.

The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream. And he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, says the Lord? Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Then I want to read from 1 Peter, chapter 1. Verse 22. See, you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again.

Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which lives and abides forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away.

But the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.

If so be you accasted that the Lord is gracious. See him coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. You also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Let's just pray. Father, since you said your house was to be called a house of prayer for all people, we feel it's right at any time to pray. The prayer of the F-word, you said, is your delight. And Father, we come before you in the name of the Lord Jesus and ask your blessing on your word.

We must confess, Father, that our depths in the Bible we don't understand, and heights we've never really climbed to. But we ask for the ministry, Father, of the blessed Holy Spirit in our hearts tonight.

False Prophecy, Spiritual Deception, and the Coming Harvest

Teach us, we pray. We cripple to serve you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. You know, from the earliest times in the history of the human race, there's been a tension between light and darkness, Satan and God, righteousness and unrighteousness.

And, of course, it's going on today. And, if anything, it is somewhat accentuated because we are nearing, as we all know, the end of the age. Michael, the son of Imla, and the lying prophets back in the days of King Ahab, a good example, what was going on then.

Or Elijah, with the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the Gulf, 850 false prophets seducing the nation of Israel, raised up by Satan, and one man of God to answer this need. Elijah. The problem was then, all through the Old Testament scriptures.

And if you notice in Jeremiah chapter 23, there were prophets, many false prophets, in the days when God had Jeremiah. And these men were constantly criticizing what he talked and said, and criticizing him personally.

As a matter of fact, Jeremiah said, everybody in the nation curses me. They hated him because he was standing for God and truth and righteousness. And one of the things these false prophets were doing was constantly referring to all the dreams they had.

And God said, you're causing my people to err by your lies and by your likeness. There was no weight to these people. It's written of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he was just a noise, just a big noise. And these prophets were something like that, just a noise.

There was nothing to them. There was light as the air. But they were getting a lot of attention because they were telling the people things the people wanted to hear. And they were prophesying things out of the deceit of their own hearts.

There's so much said in the Old Testament regarding this, and I don't want to spend much time on this, just to refresh your mind, because we see the curse going on even today. And the wheat and the tares will go together until the harvest when Christ comes back.

Then the angels will make a separation between the wheat and the tares. And the wheat will be taken to the God barn, and the tares will be burned. I mean, Jesus told us that in Matthew chapter 13, and we know this from other scriptures in Revelation as well.

The kingdoms of this world are designed to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. That day is coming, and we need to be thinking about it, praying for it.

It's right to pray, thy kingdom come. It's a good prayer to pray. Satan's day has just about ended, you know. The nations were angry, it says over there in Revelation, and thy wrath has come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that God should give reward to the servants of prophets and to those of fear, his name small and great, and should destroy those who corrupt the earth.

If that not, that we've corrupted the air and the water and the soil, it's far worse that we've corrupted the minds of men. That's worse, much worse, in the eyes of God. And when God's day is ushered in, all of this will end.

In Matthew chapter 13, the Lord Jesus Christ indicated that when he came back, he would send the angels with a great son of a trumpet, and they would dry clean the world. Now it doesn't use that exact phrase, but it says they would gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, all scandals, one translation says, anything that causes sin will be taken out of the world by the angels of God, and those who commit sin will be taken out of the kingdom of God by the angels of God, and it says, then shall the righteous shine forth as a sun in the kingdom of their fathers.

I don't know if you noticed when we read from Jeremiah chapter 20, there's something very important. Here we have these false prophets, and they're talking about dreams and visions that they were having, purportedly from God, and they were basing their authority on the dreams and the visions that they had.

I wonder what God said to the prophets. He said, that is to Jeremiah, he said, the prophet that has a dream, let him tell the dream. He that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?

The dreams and visions are chaff, the word of God is the wheat. And there's a parallel even today, because sometimes as Christians, we get all caught up in this, you know, dreams and visions, and so on, and we neglect the word of God.

The wheat, I repeat, is the word of God. The chaff, visions, and dreams. Now God may speak through visions and dreams, I do not deny that, but I don't think he speaks nearly as frequently this way as some people are saying.

I've talked to people who tell me they have dreams and visions almost every day of the week. Others a day, once a month, once a week, whatever. You know, back in the days before the Bible was written, all they had at this particular time was the Law of Moses, five books.

God only appeared to King Solomon twice in 40 years, by way of dreams and visions. Twice in 40 years. Now today, we've got the completed Bible, a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Why is it some people are talking about having visions and dreams and prances all the time?

You know, back in Jonathan Edwards' day, really interesting, there were all kinds of people back in his day, there was a great revival moving on, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield and so on, and many, many people were talking about, you know, having prances and visions of God.

You know what Jonathan Edwards said? He said not more than 3 was genuine. The rest was a self thing. Not from God, that's not even from Satan, except indirectly, 3 was genuine. But dear people, when we turn to the Word of God, it's not 3%, it's 100 genuine.

Studying Scripture as a Source of Spiritual Strength

We can stand on it and be positive about it. Now I want to get on something a little more positive, we can use that word, the Word of God. You know, Watchman Nee used to study and paraphrase 18 chapters of the New Testament every day.

George Newell, the famous man of faith and prayer, he read the Bible through 200 times. Does he know how many he wants? I don't know how he ever did it, but he did. Besides praying 4 hours a day, 3 hours by himself, and an hour with his wife and so on, and sometimes praying with other people, he read the Bible through 100 times while on his knees.

Now these men, obviously dear people, they looked at the Bible differently than we look at it today. I've got lots of books in my library, but I tell you, they take second place as far as the Bible is concerned.

I spend most of my time trying to understand the Book of God, and asking God to be my teacher. You know, George Newell said, this helped me as a young Christian, he said, after I learned who the teacher was, that is God the Holy Spirit, he said, I learned more in 3 months than I've learned in 4 years.

Think of it. Spirit of God, my teacher be, showing the things of Christ to me. And we need to live with it. And I'll tell you why. What's my need? What's your need? Supposing your need is to be born again.

It says in James 1 .18, of his own will, he begat us, that is, he brought us to the birth by the will of truth. That we should be a kind of first group of his creatures. Paul said, from a child, reading to Timothy, from a child you've known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make you wise unto salvation, to faith which is in Christ Jesus.

You want to get saved? The Bible will sure show you how. It'll work that miracle in your heart. We read in 1 Peter 1, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the will of God, which lives and abides forever.

If my need is to be born again, to be saved, I can have that experience by the will of God. It's all there, so clear. Wonderful. What is my need? To stop sinning? Sometimes people say, well, I'm a Christian, but I sin all the time.

Well, the Bible says in 1 John 2 .1, my little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not. Now, the average Christian plans on sinning the rest of his life. He says, well, I know what I'm like, I've failed in the past, I'll fail in the future, and God will have to put up with it, and I'll get to the end where there's no more sin.

The Bible says we should not plan on sinning, we should reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Romans 6, 10, and 11. Not many Christians ever come to that. We just sort of put up with a low level, a low standard, and we get more or less satisfied with that, instead of coming up to God's standards in the Bible.

Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. You want to stop sinning? Then get into the Bible, begin to read it. Read a chapter a day, read five chapters, read ten chapters a day.

You know what the kings of Israel, where they were required, Deuteronomy 17, they were required to handwrite a copy of the Law of Moses. And there were a number of reasons given for this. One of them was, so their hearts wouldn't be lifted up above their bedroom.

The five books of the Law of Moses are almost as long as the entire New Testament. Start with the New Testament. Why don't you start doing that? Write it out. Ask God to teach you what it means. Christians are the most illiterate people, biblically speaking, in the world.

You know, among the Muslims, children, Mohammedan children, by the time they're nine or ten, and some by the time they're seven or eight, they know the entire Quran off by heart. The whole thing. The average Christian, if you're promising $1 ,000, he probably could not accurately quote 25 Bible verses.

And then we wonder, do you see, why we're so weak? We've got time for everything under the sun, we don't have time for the Word of God. And that's why we're weak. You know, we feed our bodies, we munch and crunch and brunch and all the rest of it, you know, three, four, five, six times a day, and our body is going to go down on the desk like somebody said, food for worms.

But the soul of man, which is eternal, we starve it. Moses said, Jesus quoted Moses, Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You need to know what the Book of Job says.

You need to know what the Psalm says. You need to know what the Book of Ecclesiastes says. You need to know what the whole Bible says. We have become literate people concerning the Word of God. And there's no way that can be done second hand.

You can't do it in an armchair style and have someone else do it for you. This is the age of computers. The computers won't put it in your mind. You've got to make time, take time, get this book, master it, and more than that, let it master you.

You know, I've heard of some churches in Mexico, and they have perennial revival. You know why? Because the Christians in those churches, they have taken a stand. They will not read any further in the Bible than they are currently willing to obey.

If they read something, hey, I'm not doing this, if it takes three months, they will not read any further than that verse, until the verses master them, and they're able to say, now I'm doing that. Then they read on.

No wonder they have perennial revival in their churches. I can understand. You want to be clean? I met a fellow down in Denver, Colorado. He was a Jew converted, had taken seven or eight years training, Christian college and seminary, eight years training, but he was in a secular job.

And I asked him why. He said, well, I came to go and preach because I don't have a clean heart. Well, I said, you can have a clean heart. Oh, he said, show me how. No, Christ said, now you are clean to the words which I have spoken unto you.

How do I get a clean heart? I get it through the word of God. Individually, collectively, in Ephesians chapter 5, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.

It's the word of God that cleanses churches and cleanses individuals. If that's my need, and I'm sure it's a need for many Christians and no doubt for many here tonight, to be clean. Well, my song leader and I, we prayed with this converted Jew.

And when he got to his feet, it's just one of those things made such an indelible impression on my mind. I don't remember his name. But he said, I have never ever felt so clean in all my life. And the last we heard of him, he was serving a church in Albuquerque, New Mexico in a Jewish community.

Well, thank God for that. But God can do that for any person who's willing to yield himself to the cross and become a God-made Christian. Not a self-made Christian or a church-made Christian, but a God-made Christian.

And there's a difference. We are supposed to be living epistles of Jesus Christ, known and read of all men. No, the world isn't going to read our Bible, but they will read you and me. And they're reading us all the time.

And the message they get is often blurred and slurred. It's unclear. They really don't know where we're at. We have different gods than they have. The only difference is we baptize ours, and they haven't baptized theirs.

We spend money just as foolishly as the world does, not on liquor but on other things. And the world has got so often just languishes because God's people who have it, they've got so much glue on their fingers, it never gets away.

It makes me sick. You know, here's Christians, they buy a lottery ticket or something, you know, and then they promise the Lord, Lord, if I win this, you know, maybe a million or $3 million, Lord, I'll be sure to give you $10 ,000.

You know. It's incredible that we fall into this kind of thing. You know what it says in the bottom of the book of Proverbs? He that makes hate to be rich, sin. I guarantee it. If you make hate to be rich, you'll sin, because the Bible says so.

Get rich quick, get seen, you'll sin. Every time you get involved in one of those things. The Bible says so, and I believe it. What does mine mean? To be revived? Nine times in Psalm 119, the letter says, you've revived me with your words.

You want to be revived? Expose yourself to the Bible. Pray first for God to speak to your heart. It won't probably be very long before you experience some kind of revival, small or great, in your life.

I will never, David says, I will never forget your precepts, for with them, you have revived me. I was in Mendoza, my wife and I, in Argentina years ago, on a crusade in the Baptist church. Oh, about eight or nine months after I got home, a fellow wrote me a letter, perfect English.

I don't know if he knew English or got some missionary, somebody to translate it for him. I don't really know. But anyway, here's what he said. I went through your crusade in Mendoza. I listened to all those hundreds of Bible verses you gave us, and it rolled off me like water off a rock.

He said, it didn't do a thing for me. But he said, the other night, God woken me up in the middle of the night, and he told those hundreds of Bible verses, it was just like you were standing there teaching, and they flowed through my heart, over and over for hours, and he said, I was powerfully, powerfully revived.

What is that? It's a time bomb. It's the word of the living God. In Jeremiah 26, we didn't read this part, but God said, you have perverted the words of the living God. And the word of God has been weakened and perverted in our day, even by some who profess to be his friends, by exalting other things than the word of God.

And that's wrong. The calf of the weak. Which are we speaking of? Do you want to be free? David said, I will walk at liberty because I speak your precepts. A person who loves the word of God will be free.

If not now, down the road, he'll experience it. I will walk at liberty, for I speak your precepts. He was speaking the truth of the word of God. And consequently, one day, his chains fell off. And that's always what happens.

I don't care what your problem is, there's an answer for it, somewhere in the word of God. Do you know that there are secular psychiatrists, that is, non-Christian psychiatrists, who read the Bible regularly?

Do you know why? Because they've discovered it has a fantastic insight into human nature. Now, they don't know why it has this insight into human nature. We know why. Because John Davis' book. I don't care, I say, what the problem is.

There's an answer for it, somewhere in the word of God. But if I don't know the Bible, how am I going to find out? I can search for years, with all kinds of counselors, and get nowhere at all. Yet the answer is right here, somewhere.

That's why I say we need to expose ourselves to the Bible. Father Watchman needs that example, as I said before. Eighteen chapters of the New Testament, well, maybe you don't have that kind of time, but I'll start with one.

I thought the Christians hadn't read the Bible for two weeks. I thought the Christians, some of them were Christians, very prominent in their home churches, hadn't prayed in two or three weeks. There's a sickness in the Church of God in North America.

A missionary from Africa told us, he said, my greatest fear is this, that the Christians in my country, that's in Africa, that the Christians in my country that I'm serving, that they find out how Christians live in North America.

He said, they'll never find out, my ministry's finished. They think all the Christians in North America follow the Holy Spirit, and they're sacrificing, giving two and three-tenths of their income, and all must search for God and so on, and they just don't know what goes on.

Revival? Of course we need revival. Fear death with me. I think God is knocking on the door, as far as Canada is concerned. You ever ask yourself this question, why in the world did God give 26 million people the second largest country in the world?

One of the wealthiest countries in the world. Why did God give that to us? So we could be comfortable? I don't think so. I think we have a responsibility to give back to God what He's given to us, and if we don't, it'll be taken from us.

I believe that, with all my heart. I remember talking in San Sebastian with a specialist one time, and I got talking about the Lord, and he called a receptionist in and said, I don't want to be disturbed for 30 or 40 minutes, bring in some tea and some cookies, so she did, and she brought tea and cookies and talked about the Lord.

He didn't get saved, but he told me this. And probably some of you have heard me say this before, but he said, you know he said, I've been in many different countries, I'm from England, but he said, I've spent two years in this country, two years in that country, two years in this country, and he said, now I'm in Canada.

He said, beyond any doubt, the most amazing country I have ever been in. I still can't believe it. You know Canada, two people per square kilometer, you know what it is in some countries? I mean, it's very common to be 30, or 50, or 70, or 100, or 500.

There are some countries where there are 2 ,000 people per square kilometer, and we've got exactly two. Anyway, this fellow said, I've never seen a country like it. The mountains are beautiful, the lake country in the north, opportunities for making money, absolutely fantastic, and he said this.

He said, Mr. McLeod, I've never been in a country where people complain the way they do in Canada. He said, nobody's happy, nobody's satisfied, everybody wants more, and he said, you know what's happening?

I'm getting dissatisfied, I want more. I really felt, really felt bad about it. What could I say? It's true. We are the most strike-ridden country in the world. We're from Italy, whether you knew it or not.

And God's going to call a halt, if you'll mark my words, one of these days. I think we see some signs even now, in the Maritimes, Western Canada. I don't think the drought is over yet, because we haven't humbled ourselves yet.

A little down in the state, Fort Smith, Arkansas, had a crusade there a couple years ago, and they'd had a terrific drought in the area for several years, so the governor of the state issued a proclamation.

And this is the way he said it, he asked all the religious people in the state to take a certain Sunday as a day for fasting and prayer for rain. And it started to rain right after they had that same day or night, and it rained for two thousand weeks, day and night.

And I was there shortly after, just like the Garden of Eden, everything was so green and beautiful and lush, so I contacted the Premier of Manitoba, and told him what they did down in Fort Smith, and suggested we do the same thing here.

I got a flight note saying, well, the people know how to pray, they're probably praying anyway about the rain, that's enough. Last year, you know, they burnt an area of our forest that shines over Lake Winnipeg.

They did. And Lake Winnipeg's 200 miles long, 80 miles wide to the north end. If that keeps on, and it could happen again this year, we don't really know. God is speaking to us, trying to bring us to a Texas-style people, so we can put a spirit out on this country.

I think in a very unusual way. We're praying for it, we should be believing God for it, and also praying, Lord, what would you have me to do? How should I be involved in this? Everybody's got to get involved in some fashion or way.

The Word of God for Revival, Joy, Peace, and Love

Well, what does mine need? Revival, we touched on that. Liberty, we touched on that. Cleansing, stopping sinning, being born again. Maybe I feel, and I often feel that way myself, I wish I could praise God more.

You know what David said? Seven times a day do I praise thee because of your righteous judgment. And he's talking about what he calls, in the early part of Psalm 119, the judgment of God's mouth. That's the word of God.

God's judgment, God's will, God's way for the world. Seven times a day he's praised God for the word of God. You ever do that? I often praise God for the Bible. The lamp to my feet, and the light to my path.

I thank God for it. Sin, do you need more joy? Do you wish to have more joy? Jeremiah said, thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. You want to get joyful?

Get into the Bible. Sometimes I'm reading the Bible, you just have to close it, and spend a while praising the Lord, because it's truth that God brought to my heart. Things I'd perhaps seen before, but just struck me in a new way.

Joy, peace, great peace, have those who love your law, and nothing will offend them. You want peace? You get it through the Bible, my friend. And that's really what we need, is to expose ourselves to the word of God.

Let it work. You know, we rush to it, you know, like a fox chasing a rabbit or something. Rudy said, the average Christian reads his Bible the way some people pour a garden. They do such a poor job, they have to put a stick in the ground, so when they come back next day, they'll know where they left off.

I mean, we do the same. Many times, we've gone our way, someone said, to a chapter of the Bible. Thank God that's over for another day. Instead of looking at the Bible as being God's word to my heart today, Lord, what do you want me to do?

God, what do you want us to do? Speak to my heart. Never read the Bible, but pray a prayer somewhat along those lines. And God will respond to that. He just loves to answer people who are truly concerned about His word.

Joy, peace, love. Most Christians say, Oh, I wish I had more love. Alright, get into the Bible, because we're taught of God to love one another. Where are we taught? Precepts command examples. In the Bible, precepts, Oh, I love this.

Beloved. And the word beloved means divinely loved one. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God. And everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God. For God is love.

Listen, can I address some personal questions? If you had to get to heaven on that basis, would you make it? A lot of Christians would never make it on that basis. He that loves not, knows not God. That's what God says.

Because God is love. He that dwells in love, dwells in God. Do you know in that short book, the 1 John 5 chapters, there are 18 places where love is made the asset test of reality in the Christian life.

Precepts command, 1 John 3 .23, and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of the Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave His commandment. I used to wonder why God didn't say, these are His commandments.

That's not what He said. He said, this is His commandment. You can't divorce the one from the other. We've managed to enter evangelical circles, you know. We've divorced love from faith. You can't do that.

There are 32 places in the New Testament where faith and love occur together. Faith works by love. There's one, Galatians 5 .6. More love. Example, 1 John 3 .16. Hereby we perceive the love of God because He laid down His life for us and we are to follow this godly example, John says, we are to love one another.

We are also to love one another. More faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You lack faith, you're probably not reading your Bible enough. Somebody heard me say this, I'm sure, before, but there's 7 ,487 promises in the Bible, and if you took a new one every day, you can go for 21 years.