Bible Teaching

Let's turn to 1 John and begin to survey our lives, asking ourselves from a Scriptural perspective whether or not we are truly in love with Father. Love is a very interesting word, isn't it? It is thrown around so cheaply today. "Oh, I love ice cream." Ice cream is not that good. How many of you know that ice cream doesn't deserve to be loved, but you can like it a lot? I really like you with the love of the Lord. What is that song? "I Love You With the Love of the Lord." I really like you with the love of the Lord, and the "like" aspect. We love too much today. We love this, and we love that.

God is love, the Scripture says, agape. I want to define the reference for love right now. You can't understand love without understanding infinity. God, as love, is infinite love. Our minds can't comprehend infinity in its entirety, but it is exhaustless. There is no end to it. It is beyond the ability to fathom, to comprehend. When the Scripture makes that little statement, "God is love," don't limit it to your perception of love, your experience with love--having either loved or been loved. God's love is limitless. That's why He can love the unlovely. That's why He is immutable in His love. All the attributes of God are applicable to love. God's love is omnipotent love. God's love is omnipresent. When we begin to understand the love of God and how vast it is, it should cause us to be humbled; especially when He says we are to love as we have been loved. That's scary. That is how we begin to measure our love.

You tell your children, "I love you." Most of us really do mean that. We tell a spouse that we love them. Tragically, it is probably not said enough, or it is said too much without real meaning and commitment. It is very important. It has to mean something, and there has to be evidence of it. Someone I knew was in the habit of saying "I love you" every time they went out of the room. "I love you." As they were going away, they would say, "I love you. I love you." I had to tell this person, "I appreciate you saying that, but let's back it up. Let's see a little evidence by being obedient, by being Christlike." No, I wasn't talking to Janet. "I love you" can become cheap, a way to say "goodbye," or "I hope you haven't found out how bad I was today." We cheapen this power, this force, called love. Until we begin to experience the love of God and express the love of God, we will never be free from that spirit of strife and self-exaltation which is the fruit of self-love.

Let's go ahead and take a look at 1 John. Chapter 1, verse 5, says, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." "God is light" and "God is love." Scripture explicitly makes these two statements about God. God is light and God is love. Therefore, love is light, and light is love. There cannot be true love in darkness. You cannot move in darkness and love a person. You cannot be in a relationship and in darkness, and say that you love somebody. You can't say you love God while preferring darkness because your deeds are evil.

Remember, this whole epistle is written to deal with Gnosticism (the belief that you can live a life of lasciviousness while being right with God or being "right with God in your heart"). Some people express, "Spiritually, I'm right; but physically, I'm in rebellion and living a life of lascivious behavior." John says that you can't do that. God is light. John said, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another [communion with him], and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all son. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." The doctrine that was being propagated taught that once you are redeemed you are perfect, and there is really no sin in your life.

As John is writing this, he is dealing with the character of sin--the sin that's in our members; and the disobedience, or the commission, of sins. He expresses his comment on both of these aspects in these three verses. Look at it. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [action, disobedience, rebellion], he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned [committed sin], we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." He begins to focus on the inward problem of this lack of love. That is the sin problem that prefers darkness--one who wants to give an impression of itself that isn't really the truth, wants to be part of the fellowship without surrendering its life or dying to self and living in preference of the brethren. John says we have to understand that there is no place for this type of a relationship. He said that once you realize Jesus is that propitiation (chapter 2, verse 2), the appeasement for your sins and for the whole world, then you understand (verse 3) that you can only know Him in His fullness if you're keeping His commandments. What does the Scripture say? "To he that has shall..." what? "More be given." If you know Him, then you will keep His commandments. The more you keep His commandments, the more you know Him--which will allow you to keep His commandments more. You begin to walk in light progressively, in obedience.

As you go on in this chapter, you will see that the true fruit of obedience is death to self, and love of the brethren. Don't say you know Him if you don't keep His commandments. "But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." Let's start with what John is emphasizing. God is light.

"He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness [or deceived] even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." "If your light be darkness," the Scripture says, "how great is that darkness." How can you say you love God whom you have not seen and not love your brothers? How can you say you love God ("I'm keeping His Word; I'm obeying His commandments") when there is no love of the brethren? You hate your brother. "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." This tells us that you are incapable of loving your brother if you're not walking in the Spirit. There's no way you can love someone if you are not regenerated. You can lust after someone; you can use people; you can have affection for people. You can prefer to have them around because you don't like being alone. You can enjoy the conversation you have with them. You may do all of these, but there is no love outside of the light of God, outside of walking and pursuing perfection in both your life and those that are around you. That is what John is trying to say. The Gnostics wanted to tolerate everybody's sin. John says that if you are going to move in love of the brethren, then you must confront sin. You will have to deal with it first in your life, and then recognize that it's in our midst. Each of us will have to be encouraged into the life of obedience and selflessness.

"But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes" (verse 11). That hatred brings absolute deception. Let's say it another way: self-love blinds you to others needs and worth. Take a moment and begin to analyze your relationships with others, even the ones you say you love. As they are held up to the infinite and pure love of God, can you say that your love is selfless? That's the goal that we are trying to attain. Most of us here that love, love selfishly. It's limited love. In many of our minds, we're not even aware of the limits we have put upon it, because it's never been pushed to the level of testing to where it has failed.

We see love that is natural. In many cases, it is even instinctive love like a parent throwing themselves in harm's way for a child, or a man doing the same for his wife, or vice versa. We say, "Look at the love they had for that person. They were willing to lay their life down." They reacted instinctively, but what about on a daily basis? How much were they laying their lives down? It is one thing to do it instinctively, and it's another to calculate death to self in choices and actions to prefer one another. That's what we need to do if we're going to walk free from this power that we called strife, self-love, or ambition, all of these things that cause conflict because of the promotion and love of self.

Let's ask ourselves the question, "Do I love the way I've been loved?" I think if we are all truthful, we would have to say, "No, I'm not loving to that capacity." Can we ever attain that? I would think not. It's very interesting that God commands us to love as we've been loved. The pursuit (the acknowledging of its requirement) and the confession that it hasn't been attained is what God is calling us to. We're going to have to own up to the fact that we're really pretty unlovely people. The worst thing about us is our love of self. It expresses itself in relationships in myriad ways. It's not always harsh, critical, obviously neglectful, hateful, murderous, or slanderous in statements. We're pretty moral in that we keep most of the commandments. If you stop and think about it, most of us keep all of the ten commandments most of the time? Don't you? Most of us keep all of them most of the time. To be out of fellowship with God, how many times do you have to break just one of them? The whole purpose of the law was to show us that we couldn't keep the law in the flesh. It is impossible to keep all of them all of the time--especially when Jesus comes up and makes things even harder. "Thou shalt not kill." "Okay. I felt like it a few times, but to the best of my knowledge I haven't killed anybody." I can say that: "To the best of my knowledge, I haven't killed anybody." So, I must be doing pretty well. Then Jesus comes along and says, "If you hate your brother, you're a murderer." "Thou shall not commit adultery." "Alright." "If you look upon a woman...." "Oh, man!" "Thou shall not covet." Just once, and you're guilty of all.

Then we come to the gospel. We say, "I can't keep those commandments all the time!" Jesus says, "I can, and if you'll believe in the propitiation of My blood--the fact that I appeased God, that I lived the perfect life, that I will vicariously attach my righteousness to you, that I will impute it to your account, that you can be righteous in Me--then I'm going to come and live in you. But if I'm alive in you, then there will be a redirecting of the course of your life. You will not sit here and say that it is acceptable to continue to love yourself. You have to love with the same love that you've been loved." This is a commandment; the new commandment that is given to us in the epistles of John and the gospel of John, that I think is not clearly understood.

"But he that hateth his brother is in darkness" (verse 11). What does that mean? Look over at chapter 3 for just a second, verse 12. What caused Cain to hate and to slay his brother? "Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." In the body of Christ, one thing that will cause some of the greatest conflict is the fact that others around us are doing a better job than we are. There's jealously and strife because we feel, "This guy gets all the breaks. It's easier for him." I sat in a meeting in Maine in the church that Forbe was pastoring. The people actually verbalized, "It's easier to be a Christian in Virginia than it is in Maine." They said it's just easier. How many of you found it easier to be a Christian in Virginia than in Maine? You haven't been in Maine, right? They really believed that, and they hated me because we brought them a doctrine that said they couldn't live the way they were. We told them, "You can't keep biting and devouring one another, living in self-exaltation, and neglecting the blood of Jesus and the commandments of God. Even though you live in Maine, you still have to pray and read your Bible and love one another." They said, "We don't like that so we're going to kill you. Somehow God favored you over us." If you'll analyze your own life, when you look around at those in this very room; and when you're struggling, when you're in the flesh, you feel that God is treating you like a stepchild. You feel that others are loved more than you, are favored, and somehow they get greater revelation. You think that somehow they've innately been given better character than you have. Then you justify your own misbehavior, your own sin, thinking that somehow God has preferred others to you. It causes that spirit of hatred, strife, judgment, and criticism. The problem is you. He that hates his brother is in darkness, walks in darkness, and doesn't have a clue where he's going. That's a paraphrase.

"I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake." He talks about the process, the maturation--the fathers, the young men, and the little ones. Then he begins to tell us what causes us to be unable to love one another. It's because we love the world, according to verse 15. The thing that keeps you from loving the brethren is that you love the world. When we talk about "loving the world," we're not talking about loving things outside of ourselves. That is a misconception. Let me ask you something. Do you love chocolate eclairs--whatever your "chocolate eclair" is (it might be clothing, shoes, golf, etc.)? We say that we "love" that thing. It's not really the chocolate eclair. What you love is how it gratifies you. It's not the thing; it's that inward lust, the value you put on your ease and comfort.

Jeff just told me that he has the boys out there working as a team, running laps out there. I don't know how many of you parents have heard about this; it's training like they might get in the Marine Corps. They all have to attach themselves to each other somehow (holding on to a shirt, hands, or whatever), and as a whole group they have to run around the parking lot for a mile. Some of the kids haven't made it. Some of them literally had to be carried along, dragged, or whatever. He's trying to teach them to move as a team. I just shared with him prior to coming into the service tonight, "You can try to discipline people to be a team, but you'll never really come to the true unity until there's a love for one another and a preferring of one another over self." Teamwork is not ninety percent of the people carrying the other ten percent. Teamwork is each one preferring others better than themselves and contributing what they can. There will always be people who want to take.

He shared with me that a couple people have perpetually been the burden. I said, "That cannot be allowed. They can't be allowed to be the burden, until you're completely convinced that they are giving one hundred percent of their ability." If they're giving one hundred percent and can't make it, then what do you do? You carry them. If they're not giving one hundred percent, then what do you do? You require them to give one hundred percent, and then you carry them. I told him, "Since they are not motivated by the love of the brethren to say, 'I'm going to work harder, so you don't have to carry me,' then you are going to have to motivate them." I gave him a suggestion, "Take these two people, and before they can eat their lunch, make them run a mile. Then they can eat lunch. If that doesn't bring them up to speed, then after they run a mile they can eat their lunch, and then they can run the mile with the team, then they can stay after school and run a mile." What is that doing? When a person is going to run before they eat lunch, run with the team, and run after school; in light of what we're talking about, what is that? That is an expression of love for the brethren. I'm not going to let you carry me, because I have the capacity. I just haven't been disciplined enough; I've loved me. I've taken it so easy on me because of my love of self that, really, I don't give a rip about you guys. It's not acceptable in PE or in our fellowship together as the body of Christ, because anyone who is capable of doing more but is catering to themselves while others are doing and making the effort, is expressing the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. It is sin. Why are we making such a big deal out of it? Is it a big deal to run around the parking lot? No. This is the root of sin that sends people to hell. This self-love and self-indulgence is what sends people to hell.

Isn't it great what God has given us here? You can't do this to kids that just show up one day for Sunday School. Look what we're able to do in the overall lives of some of our young people that will cause them to identify the root sins and deal with them so that they're not weak in these spiritual expressions. It's a blessing to be able to sow into the lives of these kids on a daily basis like this, identify some of these things, and deal with it from a natural perspective. You can say all you want. You can sit there and say, "I love the Lord." Can you love God--just using this as an example again--and let everybody carry you around? "I love you, Lord;" and your brothers and sisters have to pick up all the slack. Let me ask you something. Is that the love of God? No. Do we permit that in our homes? How many of you permit that with your little people? "I'm just loving them." Don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about having your two-year-old on a regimen to where he's working eight hours a day. We're talking about identifying self-indulgence and killing it in all of our lives. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life; that's what is in the world's system. It's what the flesh lives for, and you can't say you love God if you're involved in it. It's a disastrous deception that we move in.

Once we understand these principles of this love, we begin to look at the basics. I want you to see that the love of self is what causes us to embrace the love of the world. In this process of death to self, we all know the basics. If your eye offends you, what do you do? Pluck it out. If your hand offends you, what do you do? You cut it off. If self-indulgence is the real problem, then what do you do? We talked about it as we ended on Sunday. You--if you're not doing it, somebody who loves you helps you to--move on course to begin to serve others and prefer others. Tragically, when a person is in this condition, most of them, they're just not able to do it; so there must be external motivation. That's size 10, external motivation, POW! Right? That's the love of God. Not much of that goes on nowadays in our society, in our "army of one." As we look at the unity of the body of Christ, all of these members have come together for mutual edification. We're here to build one another up, to provoke one another unto love and to good works, the Scripture says. How can you let somebody operate in this particular manner and not bring them the instruction of God's Word and the healing process?

I told you Sunday about these different marriages and some problems that they were enduring because of this very subject. Tragically, last night one of those marriages ended. It's a sad thing to watch covenant be broken and the inability to love beyond ourselves. As you look at this process, and you see the commandments where the Lord spoke in John 15, down around verse 12, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you." What is it that God is doing in our midst when we confront conflicts of this nature? We talked about the marriages, the different problems. We referred to three different situations. We talked about the youth and some of what's going on there. You don't have to be real astute to pick up from our meeting the other day that Jeff was very frustrated with some of our young men on the trip to Tennessee; how so many were reverting back to this very self-indulgence and preference. Some were even murmuring about whether they were getting enough playing time, moving into that type of a carnality--stuff that reeks of the flesh and stinks. Playing time is not the issue; self-love is the issue. Self-love causes you to rise up and say that maybe there's not justice being administered by the overseer of this team. Now you are at strife with leadership and those that are in authority. What does that come from, beloved? Where is the source of this? It's walking in darkness.

That darkness isn't just deception, where I'm trying to live a hypocritical life. Walking in darkness is the inability to see our own hearts. That's walking in darkness. It's not that you're deceiving others first; you're deceived first. Let me explain it to you this way: You are not the source of sin; the devil is. Listen to me. You didn't make yourself deceived; the devil deceived you because he is your lord. He's the prince of darkness. He's the one you identify with. You think it's you. "I decided. I conned this guy here. I was living this life of hypocrisy, this lie." No, the enemy was living it through you. You were already dead. Let me tell you something very clearly. If you cannot love your brother, that is the condition you are in--you just haven't seen it yet. Why? Because you're in darkness.

When somebody comes loving you, provoking you unto love and to good works with the Word of God (the light, the lamp of the Word); and holds it up to you and says, "Look, here's what you're doing. I know what you're saying. I know what you think about yourself, but here's what you're doing." If there's no response, grief, brokenness, humility, carefulness (that Corinthians chapter 7 repentance aspect), desire to turn away, vehemence toward this thing saying, "Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me? I am the man;" but, instead there is justification, pointing to others--"They're doing this too!" "They did this to me."--then you are DEAD! You're dead.

Therefore, the Scripture says that we have to move in a self-examination of whether or not we're loving and keeping His commandments. The commandment is this: to love the Lord, and our neighbor as ourselves. "I love the Lord." The Lord said, "That's fine. I hear what you're saying. How can you say you love Him who you haven't seen when you can't even respond properly to your brothers and sisters whom you have--those whom I've sent to bring life, light, and comfort to you; whom I've placed in a position to receive the expression of your love for Me?

The Levitical priesthood is an indicator of that. Let's just look real quickly at the tithe. What is the tithe all about? We know that the tithe is God's way of supporting the priesthood, but it was much more than that. How many of you know that God could support the priesthood without the tithe. He wouldn't have any trouble. God's able to provide anything. What is the tithe all about, then? The tithe is the Lord's. What did God do with the priesthood? He set them there as what? He set them as visible representatives of His person--to whom you can minister, give, and express your love. I'm here for you to show your love to God. Just pour it on me. Amen. I'm not talking about the tithe. You all ought to be loving me. I don't mean everybody come squeeze me after service. That would be fine too, if you want to. I probably wouldn't right now; I'm really sick. I wouldn't advise getting real close right now. (Who's carrying this stuff around here? What's this, like the fourth time around or something? Let's find them.) How can you say you love God whom you haven't seen when you can't love the brethren (His ministers, your husband, your wife, the brethren) whom you have seen? The whole issue is that if the love of self is still dominant, you're in darkness.

John started the whole epistle off saying that you can't say there's no sin in you. We all have that tendency. Some of us are more selfish than others, more self-serving than others. It's something that we battle but there's an absolute recognition of that. You say, "I hate that thing, and I'm going to do something about it. I am making provision--I am repenting and turning to make provision--to serve others. You know what? I just really don't like to be around people." So what am I going to do if I don't like to be around people? "I like myself. I like my space. Don't bother me. Don't talk to me. If I decide I want to recognize you as a resident of this planet, then I'll let you know. Other than that, just back off!" We have people like that. If you're like that, what do you have to do in the community? You have to now begin to be a social butterfly. You have to start hanging out. You have to get in the Friday thing. All of these things are expressions of death to self, of serving others. "I'm not participating in that stupid talent show!" "Why not?" "I'm too good. I'm too proud. I'm too intelligent; they're a bunch of idiots. Besides that, I don't want to grace the rest of them with my beauty anyway." I'm being a little facetious, but that's what is in our hearts when we're incapable of loving others. Beloved, if we don't see it, then John 13 says that neither will the world. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another."

There is no way that we can profess regeneration, the lordship of Jesus in our lives, and be habitually self-serving. It puts us in strife with the overall vision. Remember, I said it's not always conflict. The strife is not always conflict. You're in strife if you're moving in that spirit of sedition that the lust of the flesh speaks of. In other words, you've just separated yourself. You become an entity to yourself while everyone else is moving into unity. The whole message is body ministry, unity, and you're saying, "Yeah, but not me." You're at strife with the vision. You may not be criticizing and slandering, but you're in strife. Why? Because you love yourself. You've set yourself up as an authority. You've set yourself up as an exception.

The world sits there looking at us and saying, "Well, they don't seem to be any different than anybody else. Everybody's in it for themselves." Jesus says in chapter 13, verse 13, "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet." How many of you have ever been in a foot washing? Let me see your hands. Hold them up higher so everybody can see. Some of you are going, "What in the world are you talking about?" I've been in a number of foot washings over the years. People would come and wash one another's feet--and it just happened to be one of those days you had holey socks on. When you took your shoes off they said, "Holey! Holey! Holey!" You go through this action of washing one another's feet, and everybody hugs each other and says, "The Spirit really moved last night!" But what changed? Sunday night foot washing is okay, but what about Monday? Do you serve someone in the body; go out of your way to share the Gospel with someone who is lost and dying?

"The servant is not greater than his lord.... If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." We all know this, don't we? How many of you can say tonight, "I'm at peace. I have the joy and the strength of God. I know that I've been freed from that dominant power of self-love, and I'm able to love the brethren. I'm able to pour out my life and love as I've been loved"? Chapter 14, verse 15 says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Which commandments, Lord? What are you talking about, "Don't kill? Don't commit adultery? Don't covet? Don't lie?" "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode [take up residence] with him." Which words? "A new commandment I give unto you--not the ten commands, a new commandment. The greater commandment: love as you've been loved: unconditionally, infinitely. Sounds too big to start with, and to me it is. It's overwhelming. So how do you do it? You do it one decision at a time.

As we close for tonight, I'd like to encourage you with this thought: "one decision at a time." What is it that is self-serving in your life, that you're very aware of, that God has had His finger on, and you haven't done anything about? That thing needs to die tonight. It needs to be cut off tonight. It needs to be plucked out tonight. What is it that you can do that will humble you and allow you to serve another--husband, wife, child, friend, to begin to be a better witness on the job? What is that one thing that God has been dealing with you about, that self-love has held you in bondage? It may be this very thing that we talked about in the love of Cain. How long will you go on thinking that God has favorites, that everything is easier for them than for you? That needs to die tonight in your thinking, because God is no respecter of persons. How dare you judge the Lord of love!

Where are you tonight in death to self? Where are we in letting others see the love of God? Behold, how they love one another. That's not baking pies and rubbing brows when someone's sick. It's the choices that are made to assure that those around us are going to finish this course, that our children are going to be raised up in Christlikeness, that the Word of God is not compromised. "By this shall all men know that you're My disciples, when you prefer others better than yourself." Make it real, Father, and we'll give You the praise, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord tonight.

Is there an area in your life that the Lord has spoken to you about? Is there something that He has put His finger on? Let it die right now. Begin to make the quality decision, "Lord, that thing is going by the wayside, in the name of Jesus. I see in these areas where I've lacked, where I've vaunted myself and made my ease preeminent, and Lord, I want to begin to serve and love as I've been loved. Father, forgive me for the sin of self-indulgence, and let me begin to give as freely as it's been given to me, in Jesus' name."

As Janet plays for us, and we'll take just a moment here to hear what the Holy Spirit would have to say to us. --He said, "Don't say you love Me and not keep My commandments of loving one another. It doesn't work. I don't accept it." " I love you." He said, "Show some fruit. Let's see some evidence." The ability is in you. If the Holy Spirit lives in you, the ability is there. Don't get discouraged. Remember what we're talking about. We're comparing ourselves with the infinite love of God, and there's sin in our members. So do we excuse ourselves? Do we sin more that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? We say, "No, I don't accept that. That doesn't have to dominate my life any more. I'm not giving place to that. I hate it," I don't excuse it. Let that love be perfected in you tonight.

Before you go tonight, turn to somebody next to you, and see them as that visible of representation of Father. Just give them a hug and say, "I love you, Lord." Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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