God Commands It

As you see, the title of the sermon today is God Commands It. God commands it. It's a unique command, but it is a command. And it's so unique that it only shows up one time in the entire Old Testament. Yet, it shows up nine times in the New Testament.

Anyone care to venture what that is? Pat said she would know, but I can see that she's hiding from me back there, so I guess she doesn't. Anybody? Yes, sir? Did you look at my notes?

Oh, oh, you got it. Oh, okay. Well, you are correct. Did you look at my notes the other night? I think you know. You just got it. Oh, okay.

Don't know whether you find that interesting. I found it interesting a couple months ago when I was doing my study. And that command is, love your neighbor as yourself one time, one time in the entire Old Testament.

So, I'd like to look at that today. I actually look at all the times because it is unique. And if you believe in the law of first mention, which actually stipulates the first time that something is given to us in Scripture, then it sets the tone for the rest of the way that will be used in the rest of the Scriptures.

Well, it appears in the book of Leviticus 19 and verse 18, if you don't mind going there. Leviticus 19 verse 18, I'll be reading from the New King James Version, but the book of Leviticus, you might find interesting, was actually written in one month period of time. There's a lot of stuff there. But it was actually written, as was the book of Deuteronomy, written in one month's time. It's actually believed, and I've got a Bible study or a sermon coming later on that, on the first five books of the Bible. The Torah, as it's called, various names. It actually says the unique part is Leviticus was written in one month, as Deuteronomy was written in one month, and they were actually given as a series of sermons by Moses. So I found that to be interesting. I don't know that I can totally wouldn't base my salvation on it, but that's what it was actually given as in historical. And it was given in the first month of the second year at the foot of Mount Sinai. So they were at the foot of Mount Sinai, ready to go, ready to go into the Promised Land. They had been there 11 months. They had put all the stuff for the worship of God. They had put the priesthood basically together. They had worked on the all the Ark of the Covenant, everything they needed, the tent, everything they needed. Had been put together over the 11 months. They were sitting there at the foot of Mount Sinai. So now, after preparing to leave this site that they'd been at for all this time, they were given these laws, these statutes, these commands on now how to live. What their conduct was to be. And that's what the book of Leviticus is about. So let's go to Leviticus 19, verse 18. And it says, You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Why? Why? Well, read the rest of the verse. Do you want to know why? He says, because I am the Lord. I don't think he said, Oh, I'm the Lord. Please do it. He's made this covenant with them. He's made this agreement. They've agreed to be his people, and he's agreed to be their God. And let's say one thing. He's large and in charge, and he's laying this forward. Now, why would he say that? Well, let's go to verse 2. Look at Leviticus 19, verse 2. Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, You shall be holy. Why? For I, the Lord your God, am holy. So he says, Guess what? I made you in my image. Now I'm going to complete it and make you like me. Holy, holy, holy, holy.

Wow, that's quite a goal. But that's what he says here, and that's the beauty of this thing. And part of that beauty is, he said, I want you to love me. That was understood. He'd said that many times, but now he says, I want you to love your neighbor as yourself. Pretty big and important stuff as they are about ready to leave and go into the Promised Land. And then they would set up this holy nation that God was planting.

But look what he said. He didn't just say, love your neighbor as yourself. He described how that was going to be done. How to be holy like him. Go to verse 9. Leviticus 19 verse 9, When you reap the harvest of your lands. See, they weren't in any land.

They weren't there yet. This is when they get there. This is how you're to act. This is how you're to conduct yourself. When you read your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Don't pick everything down to the bone. Don't pick every single fruit. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape from your vineyard.

You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. Why? What's it say? For I am the Lord, your God. You're going to act like me. This is what I do. God even said he feeds his sparrows. They don't have to worry. They're not sitting there, oh man, what am I going to eat today? So he's trying to bring his people so that they know what they can expect from him and then what he expects from them.

Like any parent. Okay? If you give an allowance, you're going to say, what? You're going to take out the trash, you're going to make your bed, you're going to do all these things. I'm going to give you this. But if you don't do this, guess what? You ain't going to give any allowance.

Right? So let's go down. So he said, you're not going to take all this, you're going to help all these people. And then in verse 11, you shall not steal nor deal falsely nor lie to one another. Boy, wouldn't that be great if that was in just in this Broward and Dade? Where only Broward and Dade did that? Where nobody would lie, nobody would steal, none of this would happen.

You know, the only problem is we couldn't keep people out. They'd want to come. Right? Oh, it's a beautiful plan God had. Except he promised the Holy Land and he was going to... this was his plan was to do it over the entire Holy Land, okay, that he promised is 300 million acres. That's a lot. They never took, they never conquered any near that. So there's future time ahead of that. Okay, so verse 12, and he said, you shall not swear by my name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God. Why? What does he say? Because I am, I am the Lord. You shall not defraud your neighbor, nor rob him.

The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the death. Put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God. Why? Because I am the Lord. He's laying out this behavior. Except you're going to find it's not just for the Israelites. This is his plan for all mankind. Why is this? Why am I going through this? Because this is what, this command we will be teaching in the kingdom of God.

The Melchizedek Priesthood, the royal priesthood, kings and priests will be teaching this. You're going to be teaching because that's the way God wants it. And why do we do that? Why will we do that? Because he is the Lord, and it is a command. This is what we are to do. That's why it's so important for us even now to learn this. Curse the deaf. Put a stumbling block in front of the blind. No! He said, you shall do no injustice in judgment.

You shall not be partial to the poor. Whoa, wait a minute. I thought we're supposed to give to the poor. Wait a minute. I thought we just give everything because they just need it.

No. Are we to help the poor? Yes. But are we to be partial to the poor? No! He says, no. He says, you shall not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty. The poor, the rich, you're all treated the same. That is God.

And he wants us to be like him. Very powerful. Because today, what do you have? The rich. The rich go to court. They get the best attorneys. They get the most expensive. They're going to get the least amount of time. It's the way it is. This isn't practice. But in righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor. Wait a minute. I thought the Bible says you don't judge. It says, when you judge, judge righteous judgment. You don't judge off your own. Well, you know, I don't like that shirt David's wearing. I wouldn't wear green. Nobody wears green. I'm fairly disgusted with David's shirt. I am. Why? What am I doing? That's my judgment. Just because I don't like green doesn't make it bad, good, right?

But when I have to judge between right and wrong, you go to the book. You go to the Word of God. That's how we judge. Every decision you have to make next week should be from this book. And you may say, oh, that's some, you know, I don't know. There's some stuff not in there. Everything is in there. Everything you need. He says, you shall not go about as a tailbearer among your people, nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor, because I am the Lord. The reason you do this is because you're mine. I'm yours. It's an agreement. You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall not surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself because I am the Lord. Powerful, powerful statements there. Laid out, when you read that and you read it in two or three translations, it's so easy to understand. It's simple. Why we act the way we do or why we should act the way we do. Because I am holy. And you know, it's so much that thought that if you go to 1 Peter, let's go over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter, the letter that Peter wrote here, he brought this up and brought it out. In 1 Peter, and you can see in the first few verses of Peter, he's not addressing Jews. He's addressing Gentiles and the churches. You can read about the whole chapter where he's actually addressing Sylvanias and addressing those in Babylon and addressing the various people and even the ministers, the shepherds in this as you read in verse two, where it's Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Asia. But he says, as he writes this letter, he says in 15, 1 Peter 1, verse 15, But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your...what? conduct. Everything you do, he's saying, be holy just like me. Because it is written in Leviticus 19, verse 2, Be holy for I am holy. Brethren, that's such an elevation. That's such an elevation from what the world, how the world lives out here. And it's also an elevation to how we want to live because the flesh is like battle. And I could give you multiple scriptures in that, but you can do that yourself. It's a battle that he gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can win, so that we are led. Just like we want to do this like, uh, no. No. Not going to do that.

So this was written to Gentile converts. Love your neighbor as yourself. God commands it. You know, this verse is quoted nine times in the New Testament, six times in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Zero times, though, in John.

It's only written once in Mark and once in Luke, but it's written three times in the book of Matthew. Matthew was there and he heard it, and these are his words. So it obviously tells us that Jesus Christ said it at least three times that's recorded.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. You think they got it? No. Why do you think they put him to death?

So let's go to Matthew, because you, uh, most scholars will tell you the book of Matthew is written to the Jews, and it was also believed to be the first of the Gospels written, so it makes sense why they wouldn't, Mark and Luke, wouldn't continue with it, but they do mention it, the same story. But I'd like to explain this thing here today in Matthew 5. Matthew 5, it's mentioned in verse 43, so let's go there. Matthew 5, this is a sermon on the Mount, most important sermon, greatest sermon ever given in the last 2,000 years, probably before that. Okay? But here it says in verse 40, you have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Well, God, he said, heard it wasn't written. God didn't say, hate your enemy. You can study that yourself. It's a good study as you go back and see that. But verse 44, then Christ makes it crystal clear, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you, and persecute you. Why? Why? Verse 45, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, recreating Himself. Julio's got kids back there that he wants to grow up and be productive citizens, right? Good people. So, he's going to make sure that He gives them the things they need to know and to learn and educate them so that they're not out here incarcerated. They're not laying on the street shocked somewhere because those things can happen. And God says, my sons, I don't want you to just exist. I want you to live and live life abundantly. That you may be sons of the Father in heaven, for He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do this? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do this? Therefore, what is all about? Therefore, you, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. That actually means become you perfect. It's a process. He's training us just like these kids in here today. They're learning. They're learning how to live life. They're learning from their parents. They're learning from their family. And all God says, hey, kids, read this and love your neighbor as yourself because then you're like me.

Now let's go over to Matthew 19 because he mentions it again. So Matthew heard it in the sermon on the mount. Matthew 19. Then he heard it again. Matthew 19. It's actually in Matthew 19, 19, but let's start in verse 16. Matthew 19 verse 16, Now behold, one came and said to him, good teacher, what shall I do to have eternal life? How do I get to heaven? They might say today if you were on the radio. Or we might think, how do I get to the kingdom of God? And he said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one that is the God. But if you want to enter into life, eternal life, keep the commandments. It's a far cry from doing away with them, isn't it? Keep the commandments.

So this one said, he said to him, which ones?

I wonder if Christ paused and went, which ones?

And he said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your mother and father, and what? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Well, I thought that was what it was about.

But you see, those are those commands. This encompasses even more. Love your neighbor as yourself. Hmm. Matthew 22. It happens again. Matthew 22, verse 39. Well, let's go up to 34. Matthew 22 and verse 34. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them said to him, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. And saying, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the entire law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your being. This is the first and great commandment. And, there's that big and, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

He just raised this to the same level as the commandments. And that command is actually in Mark 12 verse 31, Mark 12 verse 33, Luke 10 verse 27, which basically is retelling of the story of Matthew 22, 39 here. But Paul goes on, if we can, turn over to the book of Romans. Paul talks about this and gives us even a greater understanding of it, how important it is, in Romans 13. Romans 13, Romans 13 verse 8. He says, oh, no one anything except to love one another, that he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, they are all summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If there's anything else, this covers it. This is a blanket commandment. This isn't like, okay, honor my father and mother, okay? I can do that, but that'd mean I have to honor my grandmother and my grandfather. I just do it exactly. No, this is saying, guess what? When I say, love your neighbor, it's all encompassing. It covers everything. Then he says, verse 10, love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, and look at this verse. Anybody got their finger on it? Anybody got their finger on it? Pretty big stuff. It says, love is the fulfillment of the law. Love is the fulfillment of the law. You want to obey God? Keep this commandment. It fills it up. But you know, Paul didn't write that in the first time he wrote it. If you go over to me at the book of Galatians, because Galatians by most theologians believe it, it was the first book written on paper or wherever it was written on. In Galatians 5 and verse 14, we'll actually go to 13. So for you, brethren, you've been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for flesh. What does that mean? You've been called to liberty. That means we can do anything we want. And that's what the big battle people love to go to Galatians, because, oh wow, the law and all this kind of stuff and circumcision do away with this. It's so simple. He says we have liberty because he's saying we're not under the law. We're not under the penalty of the law. We're under grace. Before I was baptized, before I was called, before I knew anything, I was under the law, the penalty of the law. If these, we have two doors here. If I put, instead of that exit, I put law, and under that one, I put grace. Maybe you could understand it more, because it's not I'm under the penalty of the law. So before I have Jesus Christ as my Savior, I'm under here every time I say, every time I sin, guess what? I'm guilty of breaking the law. I'm guilty. The penalty is death. But now we're not under that. We're under grace, which means all we have to do is ask to be forgiven, and it's taken away. We're not under the penalty of law. He took it death for us. It's a beautiful plan. It's beautiful. And Paul is just telling them here, just don't take liberty with it and go, oh, well, I can go sin because I can be forgiven. I'm under grace. Well, let's go sin! Because we're not under any penalty. No, you do that long enough, and you'll find out you're no longer under grace.

God is not mocked, and you will not consider the blood of Jesus Christ common, as he mentions also. But it is beautiful.

Now, let's go back to there, verse 13. Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another, for all the law is fulfilled. In one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Man, it's powerful. Can we do it? I don't always do it. That's why it's, you know, it's just like, oh, well, you know, you seem like a nice guy. All of you seem nice. I know most of you fairly well. You're not going to go over here, take a stick, beat somebody up, go out selling drugs, go out trying to do other things, right? Well, yeah, that's pretty much a given. But this is where it gets a little more difficult. Love your neighbor as yourself. Even those that are difficult neighbors. And we all have them, don't we? Well, some of those are the difficult neighbors. Hopefully we won't stay that difficult, that we're transitioning here. Even James mentioned it. Love your neighbor. Sounds so simple. Love your neighbor.

In Luke 10, we won't go there. Verse 27, you know, hopefully the story, the same thing. It's basically what we read. Where a man comes to Christ, and says, what shall I do to live forever? And he said, keep the commandments. He said, which one? And in this story, he says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your might, your being, and love your neighbor as yourself. To which the guy said, look, who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor?

To which Christ gave him a parable, didn't he? The story of the Good Samaritan, right? And the Good Samaritan is the story about a guy going from Jerusalem to Jericho, travel of 17 miles through a curvy road. And it was actually called, at the time, the road of blood, because that's where people robbed people. Because there were so many curves, and it took so long, and you actually went from all the way here down to the lowest part on earth, which is about 800 feet below sea level, which was Jericho. And so he tells the story that everyone could relate to, because people were scared to travel, unless they came in with a group of people down that way. Everybody knew. So here this guy travels, and he falls in among thieves, and they beat him, not only half to death, but probably three-quarters to death, and leaving them.

And as he's laying there in the ditch, dying, a priest comes by as Christ is telling this story. And the priest looks over and moves over to the side of the road and passes him on. This is a holy man, supposed to be a holy man, and then next, a Levite who teaches the law. He comes by. He didn't want any part of it.

Here's who shows up next.

The Samaritan comes by. Samaritan's not a holy person. They're even despised. And what does the Samaritan do? He helps him out, picks him up, takes care of him, and even pays money out of his own pocket to care for the guy. Nurse him, took care of him.

And then Christ asked the man after this story, which of these three is his neighbor?

And the old guy goes, can't even say it, the Samaritan. He says, I guess the one who took care of him. Can't even say it!

And you know what Christ said? Go and do likewise. And do likewise.

See, that's our neighbor. And that's how we're to love our neighbor.

Beautiful story. A beautiful lesson. In the Greek word for love in this phrase, shall love your neighbor as yourself is, not agape. It's agapeo. Agapeo. And it means godly love in action. Doing something in action.

God commands it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Did God command this because he knew human nature was and is self-centered? I believe that. Did he command it because he wanted us to be like him since he says he and his son is love? And they do this. I believe that. Or did he even do it because he knew good fences make good neighbors thousands of years ago? Not a recent scene. He knew we needed it.

Let's go back, if you will, back to Matthew 22. Matthew 22 that we looked at. Matthew 22. See the beauty. It's laid out before us. Matthew 22. As we see the story, and you know we already read it, about the lawyer, which of the two, which is the greatest commandment. He says, you love the Lord, your God with all your heart, your soul, and your might. And 37, and the first is like it, and the second is like it. He said, you shall love your neighbor on yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, all of the first five books of the Bible, all of the prophets, not just the minor, the majors, all of it. It encompasses it all. It's a purpose. There is a purpose being worked out here. But I want to bring up this point and look at this because in 1967, the Beatles, or anybody, is anybody here a Beatles fan? Oh, okay. One, two. Never liked the Beatles. I listened to them. You had to back then. This was on the radio when I was a kid, you know, and I had an older sister that loved that shaggy look, thought she'd marry Paul McCartney one day. Well, she didn't.

But they wrote a song, and the song by John Lennon, and he wrote it, and when they asked him about it, he said, I wanted a song so simple that no one can misinterpret it. So the song was, All You Need Is Love. Remember? Ever hear it? All you need is love. You don't want me singing, but love is all you need. Love is all. I just remember that. Love is all you need. I don't know how many times I said that. Well, I have to tell you the Beatles were wrong. John Lennon was wrong. Because if love is all you need, then you're going to determine what love is, and only God can determine what love is.

Christ clearly shows us through the scriptures we've gone through today that we need law and love. We need God's law and love. Love towards neighbor. Love towards God. It's all about law. The focus of it, the focus of God's law is about love. It's what it's all about. It's the reason he did it. It's the purpose. And he showed us if we will do this, we don't, we are keeping his law. But you see, when you have love your neighbor as yourself in your heart, you don't have to worry about, oh well, I think I'll go steal something from them. Now look at that riding lawnmower. Boy, I've seen Vicki riding around on it. I think I'll just get that. But I'll show them love. I'll tell them I, you know, they can use it if they'd like to. You see how things can get messed up. Agapeo is an active word. It's a verb. But you see, we sometimes, we see love and we are so polluted by this world. We are so polluted by the songs. We are so polluted by everything we see and read everything else. Because, oh, don't you love me, brother? We have symbols.

What's that a symbol of? Peace! Everybody, peace, brother. Peace, peace, brother. You know, just like when I grew up. Okay, everybody knows that here, right? That's a symbol of peace. Nobody argues that. Yeah. Well, I'm not the best drawer in the world, but it's going to get better. How about that symbol? What's that a symbol of?

Gay. The gay movement, right?

That's not what God intended. That's not what God said in his book, is it? He said that was what? That's a sign for me. That's a symbol I'm going to give you. I'm not going to wipe you out with water. But no, everybody, if you took this today, what's that mean? If you said no, that comes from God. You go, well, yeah, you got to have love. We need to love everybody. So I guess that's where it's from. No, right? And then what is this? Heart. What's that mean? What's that a symbol of? Love! Right? Everybody knows that. And they all recognize it. You see it on Valentine's Day. You see it all over. You see little things you can buy for somebody to show, or you may write this little thing here.

What's that? A rose. Mary drew that. She's thankful you said rose, so she can figure it out. So rose. What's that a symbol of? Love. Love, right? You give somebody a rose. They even got some, I don't know, some crazy old show or something that's out there, somebody dating somebody, and if they want to keep them, they give them a rose or something. Okay, or if you want to show, oh, this is it. You know where this came from? You know how rose became a symbol, red rose of love? It came from the temple of Aphrodite. When they would come and worship, they needed a symbol, so you would bring a red rose up to the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of what? Love.

Goddess of fornication. Goddess of prostitution.

Well, that's what I told my wife, got home, and said, man.

So everyone recognizes this, and you may say it and give somebody a rose and say, what? I love you. Okay. Does that really mean you love them? No. It's a symbol, right? It doesn't mean a thing unless you do what? You show it. You show that you love them. Because that's easy. Guy gets in a doghouse for doing something wrong. Guess what? Bring flowers, chocolate, with a heart, right? Oh, I messed up. Take this. It means I love you. Let me do it again. You didn't get it, right? But where's the action? Where's the action? You know if you're loved when they show you in no uncertain terms. Well, you know, God has a symbol for love. And I hope you will remember, because that is the purpose of this message today. God's symbol for love.

That's His law. His Ten Commandments. They are about love. But they're about doing something. You keep these. You're doing it. Love towards Him and love towards your neighbor.

See, that's a beautiful symbol. But some people are like, oh, law, that's bad. It's bad. We're under law. We have to keep the law. We can't do that. Yes. Thou shall not. No. It's not what God... God gave these so that we could love each other. So we could... Can you imagine this country, if they did that? Locksmith, out of a job?

Police. Sit.

It's a beautiful plan. And it's still His plan. He's just having to wait, because God's pretty patient. The kingdom is coming. Jesus Christ will return. And this will be learned and taught.

You know, James actually called this the royal law. And he says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, as he talks about in James 2. He actually refers to that. You know why it's called the royal law? Because Christ gave it. Christ is the King of kings. But that's not fully it. This is a royal law because this is what the kings will be teaching. This is what the kings and the priests will be teaching in the wonderful world that is coming. It is what we will be teaching. It's royal law because it's about love. And that's what's going to create this beautiful world that man dream about. So as I wrap this up today, I'll ask you another question.

What does the word amateur mean? Amateur. Rookie, novice, inexperienced. Anybody else? Somebody not paid? Right? Unprofessional. Okay. You know the word amateur has been redefined over the years. And actually lost its original meaning. And the English word that we have for amateur comes from the Latin word amore. Anybody know what amore means?

That's what it means. Amore. Who was it? Dean Martin used to sing that, didn't he? See, I'm showing my age. Amore. And it actually means to love, to do something. Okay?

And the reason it is, is that it was an amateur amore was someone who did something simply for the love of it. They didn't do it for pay. You did it because you loved doing it. Brethren, do we love our neighbor because we love doing it?

Do we obey God because we love doing it?

Love your neighbor as yourself is about action, doing something. God's law is love. It's all about love toward him, toward others. I guess that's why I John 4.8 actually said, God, when John is trying to explain it to everyone, he actually says, God is love.

He has to. I could go around to some of the women here and say, how do you... give me an example of how you know your husband loves you. Right? And there are those little things that he'd probably not want you to say in front of everybody because it's not mindly or, you know, you make us all look bad when you hear things like that. But you see, this is what he wants out of us. Can we do it? Will we do it?

Our God is a God of action. That's why he wants us to be like him so that we will show that. You know, it's amazing this week.

An incident happened that I read on the news and it was here in Florida, which doesn't surprise me. Everything seems to happen here in Florida. But there were some young boys. They were 15, 16 years old, a group of them, and they had a video camera out by a lake and they saw another 30-year-old man who was swimming out in the lake and he got into trouble. And they filmed it. Did they help him? Did they help him from drowning? No. But you know what was so bad is that they actually, their comments as they're holding this camera, watching this guy struggling, swimming for about 10 minutes, but the last minute or two, he was really struggling to stay afloat. Another human being. And all they could do is make jokes and laugh and say, he's going to die. He's a goner. Look at him. Like it was a video game or something.

You know, when they found the video on what actually happened, the guy did drown. The boys never even reported it. Didn't do anything. The family were looking for their brother for their son because he didn't come back. Finally, his body did come up and they found him three or four days later. And it wasn't until the boys put the video out on the internet because they thought it would be funny. Did they actually find them? You know what's going to happen to them? Not a thing. There is no law. His state attorney general said there's no law against somebody not helping someone. There's no law. And he said there should be. Brethren, there is a law. There is a law. And God gave it. And that's what we've been talking about today. So am I talking about something as big as saving someone from drowning? No. Talking about even the smallest of things, of showing love. Showing love to someone, caring. Brethren, in case you think, this doesn't really pertain to me, pertains to all of us because we're made in his image. And it relates us back to our Creator and why we're here. It's not just about us. It's about them, our neighbors.

Let's put love into action this week, brethren. Love thy neighbor as yourself. Why? Because for no other reason than God's love. Command it.