[0:00] I greet you in the name of Jesus this morning. It's good to be back. It's good to be here this morning.
[0:14] I thank you for praying for me last week. I know we had a lot of prayer requests last weekend.
[0:25] But I believe the Lord brought a message. He directed it. And I thank you for those prayers.
[0:42] This morning, I felt right to again bring the message that I preached in Florida last week.
[0:53] And, you know, it's always a little different, I'm sure. But let's start in Revelation chapter 2.
[1:07] Do you have the first love that you had when you came to the Lord?
[1:17] And are you walking in that? Are you walking in the love for our God and the love of God? We'll be looking at these things this morning.
[1:31] I want to start in Revelation chapter 2. We'll read the first seven verses. And I'll read the first one.
[1:42] Until the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, Who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
[1:55] I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, And how thou canst not bear them that are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, And hast found them liars, And hast borne and hast patience, And for my name's sake hast labored and hast not fainted.
[2:17] Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, Because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, And repent and do the first works, Or else I will come unto thee quickly And will remove thy candlestick out of his place, Except thou repent.
[2:37] But this thou hast, That thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, Which I also hate. He that hath an ear, Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
[2:49] To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, Which is in the midst of the paradise of God. So here we have, We have a letter to the church at Ephesus.
[3:06] And, you know, When we read the book of Ephesians, There's such a depth and such a, You know, This church, This church appears to be One of the ones that was doing better Than most of the rest.
[3:29] Earlier on. But here, We have Jesus coming, And he gives this, He gives this to John.
[3:41] And he tells him here, You know, Let's just notice here. So, First off, We have, In verse 1, It says here, Now the one that is talking Is the one that holds The seven stars in his right hand.
[4:06] And then also, He walks in the midst. So our Lord Jesus is walking in our midst. And he knows our hearts.
[4:17] He knows your heart. He knows where you're at. He knows if you have given your heart to him. He knows if you are living, If you are giving your life a living sacrifice to him.
[4:33] Or if you are living for self. He knows all of that. You can cover it up. You can hide it. You can hide it from me. You can hide it from your fellow man.
[4:43] But Jesus knows what's in your heart. And he knows what's there. And so that's how he comes to them here. He tells them that he is in their midst.
[4:58] He knows what's going on. And he commends them. He commends them for their works. And their labor. And their patience. And how they can't bear those that are evil.
[5:15] They reject them. They've had false teachers. And false apostles come. And they identify them.
[5:26] And they found them liars. And so they rejected them. Nevertheless, in verse 4, he says, He has somewhat against them.
[5:39] Why? Because they've left their first love. And, you know, many people, many people will make a good start.
[5:54] And I've heard people say, Oh, but, you know, you're on a high. Yeah, you just found freedom in Christ. And you'll eventually, you'll come back to reality.
[6:07] And you'll settle down again. But God never expects us to lose that first love and the joy and the freedom of our salvation.
[6:21] He expects us to grow. He expects us to grow. He expects us to grow deeper. He expects us to become stronger. He expects us to go on with him.
[6:32] And so here we have the Ephesian church. And he points out to them that they have left their first love.
[6:44] And let's notice how he words this. In verse 5, he says, Remember. Think back. Think back to how it was.
[6:57] Think back to how it was when you were walking in the fullness of the Holy Ghost. Think back of how it was when you loved Jesus with all your heart.
[7:08] Think back to those times, to that day. Think back to those times, to that day. Think back to those times, to that day. Remember. And then he says, Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen.
[7:22] You know, if we have left our first love, it's not that we've just settled down to reality. It's not that we've just become used to this life.
[7:34] No, but we have fallen. If we're no longer living in the fullness, in the full love that we had to start with, and we've continued on.
[7:49] If we're not there, we have fallen. And that is not a good place to be. He says, he calls them to repentance and to come back and do the first works.
[8:05] This is how Jesus will know when they come back, is by their works. By their works.
[8:16] By their works, he knows what's in our heart. By the things that we do. By the life that we live. By the places we go. By the company we keep.
[8:27] By the things that we spend our time on. That is how he knows if we have come back or if we are walking in our first love or if we have left him.
[8:41] He admonishes them to come back, to repent, and to do the first works. And if they will not, he says, I will come quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place.
[8:56] Verse 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear. You know, we all have ears, but are we hearing? We have the ability to hear the Word of God.
[9:11] We have the ability to read the Word of God. We have the ability. But do we? Do we give ourselves to the reading and the study of the Word?
[9:24] He that hath an ear, let him hear. What the Spirit saith unto the churches.
[9:36] To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. What a promise.
[9:48] What a promise. And we heard, we heard a lot of those two weeks ago. But we're not going on into the rest of them. But do we love?
[9:59] Do we love our Savior more than ourselves? Do we love him more than anything else? Do we love him because he first loved us?
[10:12] Do we love him because he gave his life for us? And now we give our life to him. You know, in Matthew 22, Jesus said, he said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
[10:29] How? With all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with everything we have, we need to love him. We need to love him.
[10:40] And I believe that, that loving God and serving him is how we give ourselves a living sacrifice. It is that if we give ourselves to him and we serve him instead of self, that is giving ourselves a living sacrifice to him.
[11:04] In Matthew 24, Jesus said, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. The love of many will wax cold.
[11:18] How does that happen? Because iniquity abounds. You know, we live in a day when iniquity abounds.
[11:28] And it's so easy to get used to the dark. It's so easy to get used to all the darkness and the iniquity and the rampant sin and people excusing their sin and saying they're serving God but living in sin and all of that.
[11:49] And he says, because iniquity abounds, the love of many will wax cold. We live in that day. We live in the last days. And we live in this day, the day that Jesus was talking about, that iniquity abounds and therefore the love of many will wax cold.
[12:08] But he goes on and he says, but he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved. The one that endures to the end, the one that loves Jesus more than self unto the end, that's the man that will be saved.
[12:28] You know, Jude, he said, when he thought about writing this letter, he found it necessary.
[12:43] In Jude, verse, well, let's read verse 2, 3, and 4, I believe. Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.
[12:54] Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
[13:14] You know, earnestly contend for the faith. If we do not earnestly, if we do not, like Peter says, he says, diligent, give all diligence.
[13:28] You know, if we don't earnestly contend, if we don't give all diligence, then we will be swept away. We will be swept away.
[13:39] But there are certain men crept in unawares, and this is probably, you know, referring to somewhat the same thing as what we read in Revelation.
[13:53] Men who had come and they brought in damnable heresies and things. It says, certain men, they crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.
[14:08] Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Men that have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, saying that the grace of God will cover and will forgive when they do not repent.
[14:31] You know, the grace of God will give us power over sin. The grace of God will give us strength to overcome. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. The grace of God does not make an excuse for our sin.
[14:46] It does not cover sin that we do not forsake and repent of. But it gives us power to live above sin.
[14:59] Now in 2 Timothy, in chapter 3, we have people. We have people that have left their first love. I believe this takes it a step further and it opens up what he's talking about, about having left our first love.
[15:20] Verse 1, This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. Perilous times shall come. And most times, if people talk about perilous times today, they'll talk about Iran, they'll talk about Russia, they'll talk about a host of other things, China, and all of that.
[15:43] But that's not what, that's not what the apostle wrote here. That's not what the Spirit of God gave him to write. What brings perilous times? He says, For men shall be lovers of their own selves.
[15:58] Men shall be lovers of their own self instead of lovers of God. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, haity, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such, turn away.
[16:34] Now let's notice what he says here. He's talking about people that have a form of godliness. He's talking about people that profess to be Christians.
[16:46] Maybe at one time they were Christians. Maybe they were born again but through the deceitfulness of sin and the abundant iniquity around them, they gave in and they drifted away and they lost their first love and now they are lovers of self more than lovers of God.
[17:12] Self is on the throne. They're self-serving. They love self more than they love God. this brings perilous times.
[17:29] They despise those that are good and they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God and in the midst of all of that, in the midst of all of that, they still profess to be a Christian.
[17:47] They still go to church. They still claim to have the power of God but they don't have power over sin. You know, if you have the power of God in your life, then the first place that I will see that power manifest itself in your life is that you live a life of victory.
[18:08] That you live a life that overcomes sin. You live a life that is true to the mandates of Scripture. You love Jesus more than you love self.
[18:21] And if you love Jesus, you love His Word. You love His Word. You can't separate Jesus and this Word. So if you ignore this Word or you deny this Word, then you don't love Jesus.
[18:37] But if you love this Word and you love Jesus more than you love self, then you can progress and you can grow in this Christian life.
[18:49] But here we have people and they still profess to know God but they deny the power of a victorious life.
[19:00] They deny the power of God to overcome sin. And as they do that, just like Jude said, they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.
[19:16] They make excuses for sin and they say that it's okay. God is a loving God and He will forgive. Well, He will forgive if you repent and you forsake.
[19:28] These people, they are proud. They're false accusers.
[19:41] Despise those that are good. You know, because they are not living right, because they're not living in submission to God, they despise those that are.
[19:55] You know, the false church has always persecuted the true church. The church that has the life of Christ, they've always persecuted the true church.
[20:08] And that's what He's talking about here. They're despisers of those that are good. They're high-minded. They're heady. They're proud. They're lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
[20:22] Lovers of self more than lovers of God. You know, who is on the throne of our heart? Is it the Lord Jesus or is it self?
[20:34] How is it today? How is it today? They have left their first love. Is our life centered around Christ or is it self-centered?
[20:53] Is it serving Christ or is it self-serving? Do we live a servant life, serving one another, serving our Lord Jesus?
[21:05] How is it? Do we despise those who are living for God? That's what He's talking about. These people He's talking about, they've left their first love and now, now they, they want to, they want to justify themselves in that and so they condemn those that are living right.
[21:29] They despise those that are good. Oh my. Let's turn to 1 John chapter 2.
[21:53] In Matthew 16, Jesus said, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. deny self, put self on that cross, and follow Jesus.
[22:15] Follow Jesus. Do we love Jesus more than self? Do we love Jesus more than this world? Do we love Jesus more than the pleasures of this world?
[22:29] Now let's look here. And, you know, we could read a lot, but I think, well, we'll start, we'll read, we'll read part of this chapter.
[22:47] We'll start in verse 1, then we'll skip some, we'll keep going, but, in 1 John 2, verse 1, My little children, these things write unto you that ye sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
[23:03] He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.
[23:16] He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. Whoso keepeth His word in Him verily is the love of God perfected.
[23:29] 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.
[23:40] You know, you know, John wrote this epistle, this letter. He wrote it so plain. He wrote it so straightforward.
[23:51] He says, Hereby we know if we know Him. This is how we know whether we know Jesus or not. Do we keep His commandments?
[24:03] Do we keep His commandments? Do we keep this word? This is His commandment. Is this word, the Bible, that He has given us?
[24:15] He that saith, I know Him and keepeth not His commandments is a liar. You know, He doesn't, He doesn't use a lot of extra words here.
[24:28] But He just comes straight out and He says, if there's a man, if there's a man that says, that says, He knows God, He loves Jesus, He loves Jesus, but He does not keep His commandments, He doesn't keep this word, that man is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
[24:52] But whoso keepeth His word, the word of Jesus, the Bible that He has given us, if we keep His word, then the love of God is perfected in us.
[25:05] You know, if we will walk in obedience to this word, He will build us up. He will make, He will build up our character.
[25:17] He will strengthen us and He will bring us to a perfection that can only come by the Spirit of God. Hereby know we that we are in Him.
[25:31] Hallelujah. He that saith He abideth in Him ought Himself also so to walk. If we say we abide in Him, then let's show it by our life.
[25:45] The fruit that comes out of our life, the works that we do, they tell the story. They tell the story whether we are abiding in Christ or not.
[25:58] Yes. Verse 9, He that saith He is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
[26:18] He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness has blinded his eyes.
[26:30] You know, if we refuse to yield to Him, if we refuse to allow Jesus to be on the throne and we give Him, we surrender, we confess things that those hindrances like Hebrews talks about and we might look at that verse after a while but if we hold back and we keep, we allow that darkness a place in our life, then it will blind us.
[27:06] It will bring a blindness that we cannot see the truth, that we cannot walk in truth as He would have us to walk.
[27:18] We cannot fulfill all the will of God. Why? Because we are allowing darkness in our life and we are being blinded by it. I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.
[27:35] I write unto you fathers because ye have known Him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because ye have overcome the wicked one.
[27:45] I write unto you little children because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you fathers because ye have known Him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you young men because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one.
[28:05] How do we overcome the wicked one? I see two things here. One is to have the word of God abiding in us. That is one of the big things that will help us to overcome the wicked one is to have the word of God in us.
[28:27] Another one in verse 13 ye have known the Father. You know if we know if we know our God and we're walking with our Lord Jesus and we have His word in our heart we can overcome we can overcome the wicked one.
[28:46] Verse 15 Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.
[28:59] So we have one or the other. It can't be both. If we have left our first love then we've gone back to that love that we had before we were born again and that is love of self love of the world.
[29:18] And here he says we can't we should love the world because if we love the world then the love of the Father is not in us.
[29:28] It's one or the other. You can't have both. You can't love the world during the week and love God on Sunday. It doesn't work that way.
[29:40] It does not work that way. If we love the world the love of the Father is not in us for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.
[29:59] Those things that that that that that exalt self the things the pleasures of this world the pleasures of sin the lust of the flesh the things that the old man desires those things they are a love for the world and if we love them and we follow after them the pride of life you know there's there's nothing stronger there's nothing stronger in that world than the pride of life that wants to be in each and every one.
[30:37] that self that pride that big I that big I that is the root of all sin you know you can trace back I don't know of any sin that you can't trace back to that I being on the throne of your heart it's all of the world and if we love it the love of the father is not in us the world passes away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever so we have this choice to make will we hang on to the things of this world will we hang on to that pride will we hang on to the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life will we hang on to that if we do we will perish but if we if we love our Lord Jesus and we love God more than ourselves and we love him more than the things of this world we will abide forever oh hallelujah he that doeth the will of God abideth forever do we love Jesus more than self in the things of this world
[32:04] I have a quote here I'm not sure where I got it anymore but the number one reason for apostasy is not loving the truth you know if we love the truth if we allow the truth to change us if we accept the truth when it is preached if we accept the truth when we read it if we allow the Holy Ghost to bring that truth into our heart and to change us that will keep us from apostasy but if we do not love the truth and we reject the truth we will drift away from our God you know Satan has questioned the word of God right all the way back to the Garden of Eden he has questioned the word of God he has questioned this word oh but did God really say oh is that really what he meant is that really what he says oh but that's not really the way it is and he goes on and on you know he's been doing it for these thousands of years and he's still doing it today trying to get people to question this word trying to get people to turn away from it trying to get people to believe that oh it's not that important oh you know one of his one of his one of his most used questions is oh what's wrong with it oh there's really nothing wrong with it is there you know the devil has always questioned the word of God and he will bring those questions to you will you listen to him or will you reject him he is defeated we can defeat him if we will 2nd Corinthians says casting casting down imaginations casting down all those things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God casting them down and bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ you know if we can bring every thought under the obedience of our Lord
[34:44] Jesus that will bring victory in your life yes it will yes it will in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 you know the psalmist says oh how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day that was the psalmist a man after God's own heart he loved the law of God he loved the word of God do we love the word of God do we meditate on it all day how is it with us so in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness and their word will eat us doeth a canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus who concerning the truth have erred saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some nevertheless the foundation of God stand assure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity now let's look at this a little bit he admonishes us to study and to show ourselves approved unto God rightly dividing the word of truth you know today many people will take they'll take a small portion of scripture and they will they will expound upon it and you know you can you can you can justify just about anything if you don't take the whole word if you just take a couple verses and you take those and you follow that you can you know that's how you know the devil would have nothing rather than to teach the Bible yes he likes teaching the Bible why because he twists it he you know that's why it says here rightly dividing the word of truth you know if we allow this word to to do in our heart what he desires and we don't just we don't just pick and choose out of this word what we like but we take all of it and we accept it and we allow it to to change us we embrace the word of God we embrace the word of God but here he's talking about a couple of men who were teaching false doctrine and says they overthrow the faith of some you know men can teach false doctrine they can teach this word wrong but that doesn't change the word of God he says here the foundation of God stands sure it will not change it will not move this word is forever settled in heaven and it will be there when we get there on the judgment day it will judge you it will judge us by the things that we've done our lives will be opened and we will be judged by our
[38:44] works by this word the foundation of God stands sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity let everyone that names the name of Christ you know if we profess to be Christians this is this is step number one depart from iniquity you know he goes on and you know we already read a part of chapter chapter three a people a people that had lost their first love and they were making excuses for sin and they loved self more than God but he says here if we if we profess to know
[39:47] God if we know him then let's depart from iniquity and purge ourselves from those things that defile if we would read on verse 20 21 22 flee also youthful lust and and all of that I think we will move on in first Peter first Peter chapter two wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the
[40:47] Lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious ye also as lively stones are built of a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed but ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light now let's look at these verses a little bit he starts here verse 1 laying aside laying aside all malice all guile hypocrisy envious evil speaking you know laying all that aside why because of what he wrote before about how we are born again by the precious blood of
[42:36] Christ we're redeemed by the by incorruptible things from our vain conversation and and all of that but now we are verse 5 we are lively stones lively stones in this temple of God you know Jesus the chief cornerstone like he says here in verse 6 Jesus is the chief cornerstone in this in this temple the temple of God the church of Jesus Christ he is the chief cornerstone and we are lively stones being fitted into this building being brought in and being fitted into this building now a chief cornerstone that's the first stone that is laid in the foundation and so that stone is there and it will not move and everything else is measured off of the chief cornerstone that's how it works that's how a building is built and so in this temple that we are now a part of we are measured off of the chief cornerstone
[43:51] Jesus Christ and we are lively stones and we are being fitted and put into our spot in this building that we might be a part of the temple of God ye also verse 5 lively stones build up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ is our life acceptable to God by Jesus Christ are we living a pure and a clean life are we living in defilement are we allowing defilement how is it the chief cornerstone and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded you know you know there's so much there's so much false there's so many false teachers and and apostles out there and false doctrine and false teachings but if we if we will be what he wants us to be if we will be yielded to our
[45:17] Lord Jesus if we believe in him we will not be confounded to us to us who believe he is precious but to those that are disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same as the head of the corner you know the Jews they rejected Jesus they rejected him but their rejecting him did not change anything Jesus is still the chief cornerstone he still became the head of the corner and our rejecting him today does not change anything our trying to explain away the word of God does not change anything he is still the chief cornerstone and this word will still stand forever whether we believe it and accept it or not those that reject him verse 8 he becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed so today we have many people rejecting the word they accept part of it but they reject part of it and if they reject part of it they might as well reject it all they stumble over this rock
[47:04] Christ Jesus they stumble he's become a stone of stumbling for them why because they somehow they try to explain him away somehow they they try to to force God to accept them without them accepting the Lord Jesus completely you know you can't you can't be partly born again you can't accept Jesus part way either he's a hundred percent on the throne of your heart or he's not verse 9 but we are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light oh hallelujah we're a chosen generation we're a royal priesthood we're a holy nation we are a peculiar people you know if we have the if we if we have the life of
[48:13] Christ within us and we have Jesus on the throne of our heart we will be a peculiar people in this dark world yes we will and we will show forth his praises hallelujah we will show his praises to a lost and a dying world yes and again you know those those that reject him let's turn a couple pages over to 2nd Peter chapter 3 here we have Peter writing and we have him writing something that that that is very very profound I believe very profound we'll start start in verse 15 an account that the long suffering of our
[49:14] Lord is salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you so now he's referring to to the apostle Paul and things that he wrote says as also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable rest as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction you know the apostle Peter even in his day there were already people explaining away the word of God they were explaining away and rejecting the epistles the letters that Paul wrote and Peter says here he says that these people that reject the word of God these people that reject the letters that Paul wrote they are unlearned they are unlearned they haven't given themselves to study and to learn the word of God but they are unlearned and they are unstable and they rest as they do also the other scriptures to their own destruction you know if we reject this word if we reject a portion of this word it will do nothing to destroy this word but it will destroy us this word is infallible this word will stand forever
[51:01] Jesus will always be on the throne the devil will never bring him down you know all the false doctrine that the devil can bring up it will not affect our Lord Jesus it will not get him off the throne the right hand of the father our Lord Jesus he's on the throne and he will always be there and anything that we reject in rejecting this word we do it to our own destruction and people that reject the word it's because they don't love our Lord Jesus if they did love him they've lost their first love and drifted away they've drifted away and they've lost their first love in 1st
[52:03] John in chapter 5 verse 1 whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments there it is again this is how we know that we love the children of God is when we love God and if we love God we keep his commandments we keep this word this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of
[53:10] God hallelujah are we overcoming today you know we can overcome if you're struggling with sin if there's a besetting sin in your life you can overcome there is victory through the blood of Jesus there is victory by the grace of God Jesus has made provisions for us to overcome but notice what he says here whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world if we have the life of Christ in us we have the power to overcome you know Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil that's what he came for you know Satan came to Eve there in the garden of Eden and he questioned the word of God and he's still doing that today he's still questioning whether the word of God is true he's still questioning whether what God said will stand the word of God will stand forever and if we have the life of
[54:20] Christ in us we can overcome the devil we can overcome sin we can overcome the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life we can overcome if we give ourselves to him if we crucify that old man we can overcome now what is the key to victory let's turn to the gospel of John in chapter 15 I believe the key to victory is to abide in Christ the key to fruitfulness is abiding in Christ if we abide in him and he abides in us you know in chapter 14 Jesus said in verse 23 he said if a man love me he will keep my words this is how we know that a man loves Jesus is when he keeps the word of God when he keeps this Bible when he walks by this book then we know that this man loves
[55:35] Jesus if a man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him so if we love Jesus and we keep his words then the father will love us and notice what he says here and we will come unto him who will come Jesus and the father by the power of the holy ghost will come to us and make their abode in us hallelujah you know if we have the Lord Jesus we have the power of God in us we have the holy ghost within us we have the power we have the power of heaven in us we can overcome satan we can live a victorious life we can live in victory now let's get a few verses here and we'll just read part of this we'll start in verse 4
[56:45] John chapter 15 verse 4 abide in me and I in you as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing if a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned if ye abide in me and by words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples as the father hath loved me so have
[57:49] I loved you continue ye in my love you know you know let's just look at this little bit in verse five he explains he says I am the vine you all know a vine you know and we are the branches you know if you if you cut that branch off of the vine you know a natural vine it will die and if you are not attached to the vine our Lord Jesus then you are spiritually dead and so he says here he says to abide in him to abide in him he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit much fruit by their fruit ye shall know them you know what you can't
[58:51] I mean you can you can put up you can try to put up a front but you can't really change the fruit that comes out of your life you can't really change that by their fruit you shall know them he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit oh hallelujah abiding in him that is the key to fruitfulness that is the key to victory is abiding in him if we abide in him and his words abide in us we can ask what we will it shall be done unto you you know if we what does he say here if ye abide in me and my words abide in you do you love this word do you accept this word do you read this word do you study this word do you accept the word when it is preached do you allow it to enter your heart and to change you do you love the word do you love the truth do you have the love of the truth you know
[60:21] Thessalonians talks about a people that were destroyed because they they did not accept they did not receive the love of the truth they didn't love the truth and so they didn't receive the truth and thus they were destroyed do we love the truth even when it hurts even when it says we're wrong even when it says we need to repent even when Jesus comes and he shines his light in our heart and he says there's something there's some darkness here it needs to go here herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples are we bringing forth much fruit how is it how is it are we abiding in Christ are we keeping our eyes on him is he our focus you know
[61:26] Peter when he was walking on the water he did fine as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus but when he looked away and his eyes got on those waves he went down you know we must keep our focus on our Lord Jesus yes we must keep our focus on him Hebrews 12 1 and 2 talks about laying aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us and then looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith looking unto Jesus keeping our focus on him not on not on on the things that come against us not on the things of this world not on the things that would take us away but keeping our focus on him hallelujah oh yes just a couple more verses here if you keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as
[62:38] I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you that your joy might be full this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you oh hallelujah we have not chosen him but he has chosen us that we would bring forth fruit oh hallelujah well we will stop there but how is it do we love Jesus more than anything else is he our number one priority is he on the throne of our heart or is he an afterthought is he a Sunday morning person in our life or do we live our life every day for him how is it do we have our first love or have we lost it have we walked away from him are we allowing him the preeminence are we allowing him to be that chief cornerstone and to make us into what he wants us to be let's pray lord we thank you lord we thank you that you have made all provisions for us lord if we will give ourselves to you you will make of us what you desire us to be lord i pray lord search us and try us lord even as you did the churches there in revelation lord when you came lord you are walking in our midst today and lord you are you are you you you know our hearts you know you know what's in our hearts you know whether we have yielded to the to the onslaught of the enemy you know if we're struggling with sin you know if we are allowing self to be on the throne you know our heart you know what's there lord search us and try us and see if there's any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting we pray in
[65:23] Jesus name amen