God's Love And His Commandments

Christ is a continual source of atonement and forgiveness when we repent and confess our sins!

Fred R. Coulter—August 3, 2019

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services! Before we talk about what's wrong with the world, let's talk about what's right with God! This will give us a good perspective as to why things are all upside down.

1-John 4—here is the verse that all the Protestants love, even Catholics love. Let's look at the difference; here's the contrast:

1-John 4:4: "You are of God, little children... [all of those who have been baptized and received the Spirit of God] ...and have overcome them..."—the false prophets! Of course, fake Christianity is 99% of that which is in the world.

"...because greater is He Who is in you than the one who is in the world. They are of the world; because of this, they speak of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God; the one who knows God listens to us..." (vs 4-6).

How many times we had different people write and say, 'I was listening to this preacher and blah, blah, blah! This didn't line up with the Bible,' etc.

"...the one who is not of God does not listen to us…." (v 6). What do they say of us? We're 'legalists'!

"...By this means we know the Spirit of the Truth and the spirit of the deception" (v 6).

Who is the one who's deceiving the whole world? Satan the devil! When God says the whole world, the only ones that excludes are those who are truly God's.

Verse 7: "Beloved, we should love one another because love is from God; and everyone who loves has been begotten by God, and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God because God is love" (vs 7-8).

What is love? Love is expressed in an emotion! But that's not all that there is. As we have seen, Jesus said, 'IF…[condition] …you love Me, keep the commandments, namely Mine.'

So, someone's going to say. 'Which ones?' And a famous one that they hate most of all is the one that announces that this day that we're all here on today, the Sabbath Day, is of God!

I want you to focus on this: God is love, keep that in mind.

Verse 9: "In this way the love of God was manifested toward us: that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him."

As we know, no one goes to the Father except through Christ, and no one comes to Christ unless the Father draws him. Now, that's pretty exclusive!

Verse 10: "In this act is the love—not that we loved God; rather, that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

God is love; God is also Lawgiver (James 4:12). God spoke the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai. No one disputes that. Well, some may in their ignorance. But, most people will accept that. Let's look at it this way: God cannot lie, ever. It's impossible! He will always speak the truth. In creating the laws that He gave us, He based them all on love! Now think about that for just a minute.

Let just look at the Ten Commandments. Did God love Israel? Yes! He said He loved Israel 'with an everlasting love'! Now remember, everlasting is not unconditional. It means God always has His love!

As we examine each commandment, let's look at the fact that it's based on love. Why don't people like the commandments of God? If they want love, surely you would think they would want that! But why? Because:

• human nature is hostile to God
• human nature always likes to think that it has something that it can add to a perfect God

You can't add anything to a perfect God!

• What are you going to add? You're the created thing; He's the Creator!
• Is the created thing going to tell the Creator, 'What are you doing?'

He's [the Creator] going to say, 'I'm working out My plan. You want part of it, or not?'

First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods before Me."

Exodus 20:1: "And God spoke all these words, saying, 'I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage'" (vs 1-2).

Now that's a pretty good deal—isn't it? He spared all the firstborn of Israel. He executed the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast. Why did He do that to them? Because He brought upon them the judgment of their own ways!
Verse 4: "You shall have no other gods before Me." That's in love!

If God is love, which He is—we'll use it on a suppositional basis just for the topic here—and God is the only God, what are all these other gods doing? What are they? Idols of stone, and brass and gold and silver!

• they have to be carried around
• they can't walk
• they can't talk
• they can't think

God is Creator of everything! All human beings, everything on the earth, even the smallest little particle.

• Don't you think that's based on love?
• That God wants you to worship Him instead of some stick and stone?

But of course, that's love!

Second Commandment: Make no idols nor bow down to them

Now #2 is really quite a commandment here. I never will forget when I was on 'Religion On The Line' in LA, over 40 years ago. They had 'Father' DuMeyer, a big six-foot-four hefty German priest. Then they had a rabbi, I forget his name, but he was kind of a small guy. And I was the middle one there. And someone always calls up to talk to the priest about two things.

• Why do you call yourself 'father' when Jesus said call no man on the earth your father?—that is in a 'religious' sense. Of course we have our fathers and mothers, that's fine, no problem with that.

Never can get a good answer. And now today, we know four out of five are homosexuals. So it's a complete misnomer.

• Why do you have idols? Why do you bow down to them? 'Oh, we don't bow down to them. These are to help us remember things. And we venerate them.'

Well, if you look up in a dictionary, venerate means to worship.

Verse 4: "You shall not make... [even to make it is wrong] ...for yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth." Not even to make it, so now they make it!

Verse 5: "You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God am a jealous God..."

Why is God jealous? People say, 'Isn't jealousy a bad thing? Not of God.' Why? You compare the living God, who created everything that there is, to a stupid idol that someone had to carve and dress and make look like whatever it looks like, and then they come and bow down to it and reject the true God! That's insanity!

"...visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me" (v 5).

Now that's kind of nasty—isn't it? But if they hate God, it carries right on. Yes, indeed!

Verse 6: "But showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments."

John 14:15: "If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments." There it is, New Testament doctrine in the second commandment. Amazing!

Third Commandment:

Verse 7: "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."

What's the worst way of doing that? Saying that God says something that men have devised and invented, and say God approves it!

Isn't that taking God's name in vain worse than a complete non-believer swearing just because his golf game is off today? Yes, that's the worst way!

Now, you go on Church at Home {churchathome.org}, and Randy put up the new one. It starts right out with a preacher saying, 'God's love is unconditional, unconditional, unconditional. It doesn't matter what you do, where you go, whatever it is, God loves you.' Really?

• What is sin? Sin is the transgression of the Law!
• What are we reading? The Law!

Transgression means you're disobeying the Law. But this is given in love to keep you in contact with God! And also to give you a blessing from God! Didn't we read that there?

Verse 6: "Showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments."

Fourth Commandment: "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy."

Here's the one they don't like, the one that they hate! Do you have a mortgage on your home or make payments on a car, or rent? Nearly all of us have something. Or you have a car paid for, and you still have to buy your license every year. You have to do that.

God says, 'Remember!' The Protestants believe that word means forget! Ask every Protestant, ask every Catholic, 'Which day does the Bible say is the Sabbath? Saturday? or Sunday?' They will tell you Saturday. 'But we keep Sunday.'

Well, they ought to read Rome's Challenge to the Protestants {truthofGod.org} where Cardinal Gibbons goes through the Bible and shows to all of the Protestants, that there is no such thing as a Sunday sanctified day by God in the Bible, New Testament—period! 'We Catholics are the ones who instituted Sunday. So, if you want to keep Sunday, come and join us.'

Guess what's going to happen? They're all going to come and join! If you want to keep Sabbath, then you better keep Saturday, because God says if you don't it's sure death. To say that Sunday is Sabbath is insanity.

If you reject love, is that not insanity? Huh? Think about that for a minute! If you reject the love of God, and what we're reading here is God's love to Israel and all people—because this goes to all people—don't you think rejecting the love of God is insanity? If you're rejected and things don't go right in your life, why will you blame God?

It's like, I've got an old 1991 Nissan Maxima, and I let the oil get a little too low. If I hadn't got it filled up with oil, I would have ruined the engine completely. So David, my mechanic, says, 'Now, Fred, you can drive around Hollister, and go to Salinas and San Jose, but don't try going to Los Angeles, because the bearings are not quite like they should be.

Now then, if I disregard what he says, drive to L.A., get on Highway 5, 124 degrees—BANG!—the engine goes out. My fault! What he told me was good, loving advice, if we could put it that way, so you don't get stuck with a broken down rattle trap. He said I ought to buy a new car. And I said, well, I drive one and a tenth miles to work and back. So if I bought a new car that'd be $37,000. think how much per mile that would be!

So, I'll take my old, semi-limping-along 1991 Maxima, treat it tender, like we do when we have an injury. But what he told me was true. What God is telling everyone here concerning the Sabbath is true!

Verse 8: "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy."

There's a great dispute: When does the Sabbath begin? Midnight? Sunset? Sunrise? Three stars? It begins at sunset! Does everybody know when the sun sets? You don't have to have much intelligence for that, do you? All you have to do is look up and say, 'Oh, the sun is about ready to go down.'

"…to keep it Holy."

• Is God Holy? Yes!
• Did He makes the Sabbath Holy time for us? Yes!
• Can we say we take the Holy time on the Sabbath, and make Sunday 'Holy'? No!

That's like saying you get married today and divorced tomorrow. Makes no sense!

"…to keep it Holy." For what purpose? We're here on the Sabbath Day today!

• What are we doing on the Sabbath Day? We're studying the Word of God!
• What is the Word of God? The Word of God is the voice of God!

Jesus said, 'Obey My voice.' God said in the Old Testament, three words: Obey My voice!

Someone's going to say, 'Well, I've never heard the voice of God.' God knows that. God's more clever than you, He had it printed, and in your language! In a way you can understand it, because He loves you! Think of that. That's why God gave His Law. He loves us, and He wants us to love Him. And we'll see what that is in a little bit.

Verse 9: "Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your manservant, nor your maidservant…" (vs 9-10).

It didn't say anything about your neighbor. The Jews have a little law that you can have a Gentile do it on the Sabbath for you. That's how human nature works to try and get around keeping the commandments of God!

"...nor your livestock, nor the stranger within your gates" (v 9).

Why does God want us to keep the Sabbath?

• to always remember Him
• to understand that only God created everything that there is

During the Feast of Tabernacle for day seven, I've got a sermon on The Job Syndrome. Job thought he was almost as good as God. He got to the point in arguing that he became convinced he was more righteous then God. Job said, 'I wish that God would come and talk to me!' Well be careful what you wish for!

Did God come and talk to him? He did! He came in the whirlwind and said, 'Job!' Job said, 'Yes, Lord.' God said, 'Where were you when I stretched out the heavens? You didn't even exist, yet!'

Verse 11: "For in six days the LORD made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them..."

Think about that! Think about how you marvel at the creation of God! You see these fantastic mountains and the heights and everything, and you think: awesome! You go to the Grand Canyon and look down there, a mile down. How did that get there? God made it! You look at the stars at night and you can see probably one-trillionth of 1% of what God has created, and yet, you're all 'Whoa!' Marvelous things! You go out to the ocean and hear the waves and everything there, and the ocean can only come so far, because God said that was far enough and no more.

Look out at the ocean, especially if you get in a plane. You look down at the earth, you can see the curvature of the earth. But there are so many so-called 'intelligent' people today—self-intelligent—that believe the earth is flat, trying to make themselves better than God!

"...and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath Day and sanctified it" (v 11). That means He made it Holy, Holy time to God!

• For what purpose? So we can do learn of God!
• Isn't that a great deal?
• Don't people get so busy doing so many things, that they forget about God?

That's why God made it every seventh day. That's about how long it takes for people to start forgetting things, because our minds are physical.

Let's look at the other ones here, because these are great. You can understand this love easier because it's person-to-person. But the most important is God to you, and you to God! Then person-to-person becomes a different thing.

Fifth Commandment:

Verse 12: "Honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long upon the land, which the LORD your God gives you."

Look at it today. Look at how many people die young for whatever reason. They die in accidents, they die on drugs, they die in stupidity. Yet, everyone wants to live long! Only problem is when you really get old, all the gold is gone and you're left with rust—the golden years! Think how wonderful a community would be:

• if mother and father stayed married,
• if children were loving and obedient
• if we didn't have all the trauma and all the expense, and stupidity that it costs parents today:
  • because their school system tells the children to do whatever they want
  • because the school system tells them you don't have to have any morals

So we end up with unwed mothers and unwed fathers, and children that are disobedient—won't listen—and you can't discipline them. Look at where we are.

That's why God gave this in love! This is a great commandment.

Sixth Commandment:

Verse13: "You shall not murder."

Wouldn't it be great if there weren't any murders? Do you know how many murders there were just this year up to now in Mexico? 17,400 murders! How many are happening every day? And you can count a drug overdose as a murder! Think what it would be like that there are no murder.

Seventh Commandment:

Verse 14: "You shall not commit adultery."

'Oh, I can't have that!' God said, all sex in marriage. And if you do go out and you fool around and you get a girl pregnant, you marry her and you shall not divorce. That's a good law. Don't you think that would make the young woman and the man think about letting your emotions get carried away.

But if you're married, you're going to have all the sex you want and need. No upside down families, father and mother there.

Eighth Commandment:

Verse 15: "You shall not steal."

Think about that for a minute! Remember the case in Los Angeles where they had the Brinks truck go by with a door open and out flew a whole bag of money. This one guy came along and picked it up, and turned it in. The talk show that they had, they were condemning him: What a stupid guy! He had all that money in his hand. And he gave it back. Thousands calling in, because they're all greedy and wanted to have it!

Ninth Commandment:

Verse 16: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

• What's one of the worst things you can do? Lie about somebody!
• How do you feel whenever you find out that someone has lied about you?

This also has to do with court. You shall not bear false witness in a case that must be decided. But how many cases are absolute shams? All of those are violations of the Law! What happens?

God made it this way: If you won't obey and you go your own way, automatically things are going to happen. Bound to! That's how God made it!

It's just like if you drive a car properly, everything's going to be fine. But if you're going to have a hot rod, go 90 miles an hour on the street, and try and take a corner going at 70 and a car rolls over and you break your back and the rest of your life you're an invalid.

The natural events of breaking the laws of God are the consequences! All the laws of God are based them on love.

Tenth Commandment:

Verse 17: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

Look at all the lust that goes there. Wall Street wake up! You know, someone high up there said that the 10th commandment is no longer operable, because you couldn't have Wall Street if this were to be obeyed. Think about that for a minute.

Verse 17: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

That means his car, his boat, his truck, his property, anything that he has. Coveting is the first thing that leads to sin, regardless of what the Ten Commandments are. Take that and apply it to the whole world. Can you not see how the whole world is upside down? They will not keep the commandments of God!

How about some of them who keep some of the commandments? Their lives may be to a degree a little better, but some is not all. Think of this: Here's a big safe right in the middle of the room. And in it it's full of gold dust, the very finest!  You're given the combination. But the one who gives the combination leaves off one number. You're never going to get it. Or he gives the turn the opposite direction.

So what is the right combination to the Laws of God? All ten! What has happened to Protestantism because they failed on the fourth one?

Let's come back where we began. All the commandments that God has given expresses His love to us and to our neighbors!

1-John 5:2: "By this standard... [you have to have some standard] ...we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments."

That not just loving God alone, because you have to live, and living means the other commandments apply.

"...when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (vs 2-3).

For people who have never really thought about keeping the commandments of God, to shift from not keeping them, and just living your own life any old way you want to, to begin keeping commandments of God at first might seem burdensome. But it's not! In order to love God, we have to give up things that become idols against God!

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All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now sin means we have gone against the commandments of God! So, 1-John 1 tells us that God knows that we sin.

• What is God going to do about it?
• What are we going to do about it?

It's a two way street. You can't have the blessings of God when you're cursing Him. You can't have the blessings of God if you don't obey His voice. And not doing those things represents sin.

Now, let's see how we have to take care of it, and how God takes care of it. This tells us an awful lot about Christ and how important the apostles were. They have written down everything that Christ wanted them to write down, so we—down through time—would know what do we need to do.

We do have a book: Lord, What Should I Do?

1-John 1:1: "That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our own eyes, that which we observed for ourselves..."

Now 'observed' here has a connotation of just gawking. Okay? What do I mean by that? Little children, when they begin to be aware of things around them, they kind of just stare at you. Why? Because they're drinking in everything, because now they can see, and it brings some memory to them!

So, gaze means when they were with Jesus, they were watching everything He did, listening to every word He said! Later this became a deeper impression upon them, because right at first, when they were first called, they didn't know that He was the only begotten Son of God. They knew He was a Prophet. But by the time they got done and the Church began, they began to understand, yes, He was very God before He came in the flesh. So, this is what John is explaining here.

"...that which we observed for ourselves and our own hands handled, concerning the Word of Life; (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and are bearing witness, and are reporting to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us)" (vs 1-2). Think about how important that was for the apostles!

Verse 3: "That which we have seen and have heard we are reporting to you in order... [a good thing, love of God] …that you also may have fellowship with us; for the fellowship—indeed, our fellowship—is with the Father and with His own Son Jesus Christ."

Here we are today, in this meeting, and in between, we're talking and everything like this, that is fellowship! God wants a relationship of fellowship. God does His part; we do our part. Our part is to obey His voice! Another part of it is that we have direct access to God through prayer! Now, think about that for a minute. That's what it means to be under grace. What a gracious act it is that anyone can have direct access with God the Father by prayer. You might say, 'I don't know how to pray.' Well, it's simple. Just get on your knees, and start praying to God. If you haven't prayed much, maybe it'll be a short one.

I remember my first one was, 'O God, help me!' How's that for a prayer? Well, God heard it! And when the answer came, I knew God answered. That's what you would call fellowship. But notice, it's with God Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, Who's at His right hand. Do you want to know what that looks like? Go to Rev. 4 & 5. That's quite a thing!

Think about just little ole me or little ole you, little ole anybody else. All the big mucky-mucks in the world, they know nothing about it. They may get close at times, but they never stick with it. We can actually pray to God: He will hear! He will listen! And more importantly, we have to confess our sins! Let's see what John says about that.

Verse 4: "These things we are also writing to you, so that your joy may be completely full. And this is the message that we have heard from Him and are declaring to you: that God is Light, and there is no darkness at all in Him" (vs 4-5).

The pagan religions had various categories of 'God.' The Jews have the 'Kabbalah,' various degrees of enlightenment. And you have that with Masonic things and so forth. You're in darkness, and the way that you're going to come to understand is that you go degree by degree by degree and you get more and more enlightened.

Well, God is not that way! "…there's no darkness at all in Him."

Verse 6: "If we proclaim that we have fellowship with Him, but we are walking in the darkness..."

• Who's the prince of darkness? Satan the devil!
• What is darkness? That you in your own mind do not understand the way of God!

You think you're walking in a way that's pretty good. But you really are walking contrary to God. Because everything that a man or woman does, they think in their own mind that it's good. They justified it in their own mind—walking in darkness.

If we're walking in darkness, here's the worst kind of lie: we are lying to ourselves! Self-deception is the worst kind! Why? Because it's hard to get rid of! If someone tells you a lie, and you detect it's a lie, you could just dismiss it. But If you're living a lie, and you think you're going the right way, that's hard; that's hard to come to understand. That's why God gave His Word. So we can find out.

"…we are lying to ourselves, and we are not practicing the Truth" (v 6).

Now that's quite a sentence there! "…practicing the Truth"! What is the Truth? The Word of God is Truth! Everything about God is true! Fantastic thing!

Isn't it something that in so called 'Christian religion,' they preach part of the Bible, but leave out other important things. It just like that safe with the combination; you can never get to the gold. They say wonderful things that sound blessedly true. The statement may be true, but if they don't bring the whole story, it's false.
Let's use an example: You sign a lease for a house or an apartment, or to buy a house. You go through and you look at the contract, and it looks really good. Then comes on the signing day, they bring you a different set of documents, and you don't know they're different, and they leave out certain things. They leave out the one clause that after five years, they can come and repossess your house without cause. So you sign it, you move into your house and fifth year comes along, and BANG! Knock! Knock!

Who's there? We're coming to take back the house! What do you mean? Well, it's in the contract! What do you mean? It says right there that after five years, we can reclaim the house without cause! Now get out!

That just about the way that most preachers preach! They tell you get to God this way, but that's not the way you get the God! Let's see what we do. Here we are sinners, wretched and miserable and lying to yourself. The #1 thing you need to start doing is quit lying to yourself, or whatever that may be! You may be doing something that you know you not ought do, but you don't think consequences are going to come upon you. But sooner or later they do. So, you need to stop that! "…not practicing the Truth."

Verse 7: "However, if we walk in the Light... [the Light of God's Word] …as He is in the Light, then we have fellowship with one another..."

Notice how you have your sins forgiven. This is why Jesus came and died. Not just an ordinary death; He was beaten and scourged to a pulp so that we could come and have our sins forgiven! You look at some of the sins that God forgave. They were pretty nasty sins. And because he died for the sins of the world—which is combined all human nature in every human being—that applies to all of those who will repent!

But you have to come to God His way on His terms! He's willing to listen! You get on your knees, you pray to Him. He will hear! He will forgive! Let's see how that is.

"...and the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin" (v 7).

• Was King David forgiven for his sin with Bathsheba and killing her husband in battle? Yes!
• Was Manasseh, the worst king in the whole Old Testament?
  • dealt with familiar spirits
  • put idols in the temple of God
  • set up booths in the temple of God for homosexuals
  • desecrated the temple of God

God sent the Assyrians to carry him off into captivity and took him to Babylon—because Assyria controlled Babylon at that time—and he was thrown in the dungeon.

• What did Manasseh do? He repented! God heard his prayer. God answered his prayer!
• What happened to Manasseh? God caused the king of the Assyrians to take him out of the Babylonian prison and sent him back to Jerusalem to be a vassal King!
• What did he do?
  • he went and cleaned out completely the temple and the booths for the homosexuals
• he got rid of the idols
• he got rid of the Baals
• he got rid of the Ashtoroths

He was the worst king for over 40 years. The worst! Don't think you have sins that God won't forgive! He will forgive, but you have to repent!

Verse 8: "If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us."

Well, it's like this: You ask a person: 'Are you a good person? They're not going to say, 'I'm a mean hateful, blankity-blank!' They're going to say, 'Sure, I'm good.' Don't all people think they're good? You ask them, they'll tell you. 'Do you have any faults?' Well, yeah, I got a few faults. 'What are those faults?' Well they're not too bad, don't have to worry about it. It doesn't work that way!

Verse 9: If... [conditional] …we confess our own sins..."

Why is this important? Because when you get on your knees and you pray to God, you can be totally honest! If you go to the Catholic priest in a little prayer booth, do you think you're going to be totally honest with him? I always like this one, I can't go on without telling this one:

A man went into the prayer booth, and they have this little shutter there and it's kind of dark and dank in there. The shutter opens and the priest says, 'Are you ready to confess your sins? And he said, 'Father, let's start with yours!'

You only tell enough of the sin, so you won't have to do too many 'hail Marys' or 'our fathers.'

With God you can confess all of them. Why? God knows them! Every sin we've ever done is recorded in the spirit of our mind and are there! Only God can erase them and only the Spirit of Truth can get rid of them. That's why we confess our sins.

"...He is faithful and righteous... [because He knows how human nature is] …to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (v 9). That's quite a statement! Think of that! Have the slate wiped clean!

One other king—King Ahab—was wicked. He married Jezebel, and she was the high priestess of witchcraft in the northern ten tribes. He took the field of Nabal and had him murdered to take it. And Jezebel was the one who did the execution and murder; she hired someone to do it.

God told Elijah, His prophet, 'You go to Ahab, and you tell him he's going to die.' Elijah went and told Ahab, 'You're the most unrighteous king that there ever is, and you're going to die, thus says the Lord,' and Elijah turned and left.

Guess what? Ahab repented! He put on sackcloth and ashes and 'walked tenderly.' Elijah is on his way, going back home and the Word comes to Elijah, 'Elijah, guess what? You go back to My servant Ahab.' What? 'Yes, he's humbled himself. You go back and tell him, that because he humbled himself, he's not going to die right away.' How about that! So, Elijah turned around and came back and told Ahab.

Think about it! All of those examples are in there for us to understand that if there is true deep repentance to God, He will forgive! But there's one other catch. As Jesus said, to those who had sinned, 'Go and sin no more,' which means that you're not going to be breaking the commandments of God!

Verse 10: "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us." Know for sure that if that's the case, judgment is coming fast, heavy, swift and hard!

Let's go on because all of this is connected. Remember, all of this is connected with the love of God, and keeping His commandments the way He laid them all out: the Ten Commandments and the other commandments He's given us! They're all done in love.

• Isn't it a loving thing that God wants you to have contact with Him?
• To have fellowship with Him?
• Can there be anything more important in the whole world?
• What's more important than that?

1-John 2:1: "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.... [a choice; if you choose to do right, you're not going to sin] "...And yet, if anyone does sin... [because human nature is there, and it's hard to overcome] …we have an Advocate with the Father; Jesus Christ the Righteous." This is why only God could do this. Can't be done any other way!

Verse 2: "And He is the propitiation for our sins..." That means a continual source of atonement, and forgiveness, when we confess our sins.

All of us in here have been baptized, but we still sin—don't we?

• Is it intentional? No!
• Does it happen? Yes!

And sometimes we do things we know we shouldn't do, but we get carried away and do it anyway—right?

That's why God has given this freely. Because He wants the relationship with us so that we can become the sons and daughters of God in His Kingdom and live forever. That's what God wants!

Verse 2: "And He is the propitiation for our sins..." Now, lest we get selfish and think, 'Ah hah, I have a connection with God, but these other people out there...' No! Don't take that attitude!

"...and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (v 2). That's why you need to understand the plan of God.

• When is He going to do that?
• How is He going to do that?

That's why we have the Holy Days! That's why they're there!

Verse 3: "And by this standard we know that we know Him: if we keep His commandments." Isn't that what Jesus said? 'If you love Me keep the commandments, namely mine.'

Verse 4: "The one who says, 'I know Him' and does not keep His commandments... [well intended—no] …is a liar, and the Truth is not in him."

But you go on to TBN, they've been telling these good sounding lies for so long, people can't tell it's a lie and they don't know the Truth, because the preachers don't preach it. They just don't preach it!

Verse 4: "The one who says, 'I know Him' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him. On the other hand... [now this expands] …if anyone is keeping His Word..." (vs 4-5).

That's His whole message. Now, that's why we have:

• Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
• the Acts of the apostles
• the General Epistles
• the Epistles of Paul
• the Pastoral Epistles
• the book Revelation

All of that gives us understanding of what God is doing. So, what we're covering here today is how everything like this begins.

"...truly in this one the love of God is being perfected. By this means we know that we are in Him. Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked" (vs 5-6). Quite an obligation! Now think about that if you ever watch TBN.

I remember we did a series on The Mystery of Protestantism. I spent a lot of time watching TBN. I restrict my television viewing down to certain things, and I didn't even know we had TBN. So, here we've been paying for all these years, so I finally started watching TBN.

These guys are the slickest, smoothest liars in the world! There's this one guy named David Jeremiah. Oh, boy! He preaches when we all go to heaven. Listen, there's no going to heaven! It's going to be a resurrection. That's different!

Then there's Charles Stanley. Now, I'll admit he's one of the best. But when it comes to the Sabbath, and the Holy Days it's a 'high leap over the fence' and go on. He does well in telling people how to help solve their problem. But there's more to it! He tells them a little bit how to have contact with God. But if you don't tell them about the Sabbath and Holy Days, that's all limited.

It just like that safe right out there in the middle of the floor with the missing numbers and the wrong turn. You're never going to get to the gold. That's how it is.

Now I also saw, you'll see this on a Church at Home. Randy got a clip of one of these preachers, and he had the two tablets of stone and the commandments on both of them. He was telling them that the Law is done away. It started going right down through the Ten Commandments, and he said,

The Law is done away. What does that mean? Paul said Where there is no Law, there's no sin! So, you're not sinning!'

How slick is that? I mean, that clip blew my mind! If the Law is done away, then what I'm about to read here has also been done away. I want you to think on that.

Matthew 22:35[transcriber's correction]: "And one of them, a doctor of the law, questioned Him, tempting Him, and saying, 'Master... [coming to Christ] …which commandment is the great commandment in the Law?'" (vs 35-36).
If the Law is done away, and this is the great commandment, which it is, then this has been done away as well. But you can't do away with the Law because it's spiritual. It exists forever!

Verse 37: "And Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'"

That's a commandment! The greatest one in the Law, and if the Law is done away, this is done away!

Verse 38: "This is the first and greatest commandment." How you going to love your neighbor as yourself if you don't love God first? You can't!

Verse 39: "And the second one is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

How do you want to be treated? You don't want to be murdered! You don't want to raped! You don't want to have your possession stolen! Etc., etc.

Verse 40: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Every Law of God is based on love! Everything that the Prophets say is based on love. Repent, or suffer the consequences! That's the sum total of the Prophets. Remember the account, I think it's in Luke. A doctor of the Law said, 'Who is my neighbor?' What did Jesus say?

There was a man traveling to Jerusalem. And he fell in among thieves, and they beat him and took his things and left him on the road to die. And here came a priest, and he walked way on the other side, and let the man alone, lest he be unclean if he gets to the temple.

Here comes a Levite and he looks at the man and he goes to the other side himself so he wouldn't be unclean.

Then here comes the hated Samaritan and he came and put wine and oil on the man's wound, put him on his donkey and took him to an inn, took care of him and told the inn-keeper to take care of him and 'when I come back I'll pay you for whatever is necessary.

Which one loved his neighbor as himself? The hated Samaritan!

If you can do away with the law of gravity by an edict of man, then the laws and commandments of God have been done away. But you cannot do that! God has given all of His laws in love and in truth, so that we can be in contact with Him and love each other, and love our neighbors as ourselves! That's what God wants!

Scriptural References:

• 1 John 4:4-10
• Exodus 20:1-6
• John 14:15
• Exodus 20:7-17
• 1 John 5:2-3
• 1 John 1:1-10
• 1 John 2:1-6
• Matthew 22:35-40

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• James 4:12
• Revelation 4; 5

Also referenced:

• Article: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants {truthofGod.org}
• Sermon: The Job Syndrome (FOT-2019, day 7)
• Sermon Series: The Mystery of Protestantism
• Booklet: Does the Bible Really Say That? by Duncan MacLeod
• Book: Lord, What Should I Do? by Fred R. Coulter

FRC:po/bo
Transcribed: 8/11/19

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