Grace and Peace Underlined by Love

And I'd like you to turn again back to where Will was earlier on in Proverbs—what was it, Will? Proverbs 15 what? Proverbs 15.28 Let's read it together. Proverbs 15 verse 28 says that the heart of the righteous studies how to answer. But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. And that is what my hope is this afternoon. And the second message is to deal with the heart, to deal with those that seek righteousness, and to study how to answer. So a part of this message is going to be preaching, a part of it is going to be teaching, and a part of it is going to be reaching so that again, we might be able to answer correctly as we move through life. Because when it's all said and done, everything that we're doing in that sense is making a statement. The title of my message today for those that are taking notes, so see if we'll stick to my notes, is simply this. Grace and peace underlined by love. Grace and peace underlined by love. And I dedicate this first and foremost to the great God, and secondly to our dear sister in Christ, Julie Joseph, who is now asleep in Christ. I recently wrote to the brethren around the world a German proverb that simply states this. The main thing is that the main thing always remains the main thing. Humanly, even Christians, we can lose focus of what God is doing and what His purpose for humanity is. We can wander away from the firmness of the trunk of the tree and become fascinated by twigs and by branches. That only have no staying power, other than in our imagination. Over the years, we've seen people that have come into our midst, but for one reason or another they have walked out on the lighter branches, or gotten fascinated with the twigs and have moved away from the wonderful works of God. This message is to help us plant ourselves firmly in the trunk of the tree of God's Word. The message I bring to you today is a combination of thoughts that are predicated on recent or upcoming events in our congregation and the church at large. Being your pastor and my other responsibilities, it kind of all comes together, and so I sometimes have to think in different veins in different ways, but it's all kind of come together. And I'd like to share some of the things that have recently come together that brings this message to you. Number one, that was the news that came to me back East regarding the death of Julie Joseph.

Also, there was, in a sense, the retreat that we had as far as how do we express the wonderful things of God? How do we grow in grace and knowledge as a collective people in the United Church of God?

Also, I thought about a young couple here who's about to get married in a week, and to think about their commitment to God and to one another, and to hold on to the basics of life that He has given us. So all of this kind of comes together in my mind, and I thought, how can I pull it together and share a message with all of you?

I'd like to share a little bit about our good friend Julie, who can't speak for herself, but I will for a moment. Julie was a unique lady, as I already mentioned. I won't belabor that point. But, you know, the one thing I remember about Julie the most are the letters that she would either hand me at church, hand us when we went to visit her, or she would send them in the mail. They were these big, bulky letters, because you know that Julie loved to write. And it's interesting that these letters always were just simply about one subject. She was a one-subject lady. If you ever went to her door, and I think of some of you that lived in La Mesa, East San Diego, and ministered to her during the week or on the weekend, you know what was on that door.

It said, this is the way. And there was a Greek word, agape, the godly love. It kind of reminded me of another senior citizen I knew many, many years ago that I always thought that he was going to talk about something new. And he kept on going back to the basics, kept on going back to the foundation of the tree. I always remember that he would get up and speak, and he'd say, I've really learned something new, and I'm here to share it with you.

And this gentleman liked to talk about the two trees that are mentioned in the book of Genesis. You've got to remember I was in Pasadena, so I heard a lot about two trees. We had a whole forest of two trees. And he'd get up and he'd be all excited. He'd say, I've got something really special to share with you tonight. And I thought, oh man, he's found a third tree. But it wasn't about the third tree.

It was about the two trees. Going back to basics, what it's all about. Julie was a little bit like that. And I think there's a reason why that happens sometimes as you get older, you get rid of all the fluffy stuff, and life kind of becomes distilled down to the basics of what it's all about. And you kind of recognize that you've gone through life and there's something that has come to you. And some of you that are older will remember what record players were like. You remember when the needle would get stuck on an old 33 LP or a 45, and it's just the same words over and over and over and over again.

And I thought about Julie that way, that she was kind of an over and over and over again person that never got tired of speaking something very, very special. And that's about godly love, otherwise out of the Greek known as agape. John Burroughs, who was a naturalist who lived in the last part of the 1900s and into the early 1800s and into the early 1900s, he he had a saying that goes like this, how beautifully leaves grow old, and how full of light and color are their last days.

The sun has shone through them for a lifetime and you just kind of know what they're about. And that was Julie Joseph. I'd like to share a little bit then about this love that she kept on writing to us about and all those letters with all those envelopes. And I'd like to couple it with a few words that I'd like to bring to you today. I'd like you, if you're taking notes, just put these words down. This will keep you in focus. And it is simply this, grace, peace, and love.

You know, grace and peace of and by themselves are the two great words of the Christian faith. That only demand faith and the exercise of love to match that. Grace and peace cannot be ours unless we really understand what love is all about and where it comes from. It is really noteworthy when you go to the epistles that are in the New Testament, how they always open and how they always end.

And we're going to go through that exercise in a moment. They're like bookends. They're like bookends that keep all the knowledge in between together. If you look at this way that any epistle that you basically look at in the New Testament, you start with grace and peace and you normally wind up with grace and peace. Those are the markers. Everything else is filler and or it flushes out what grace and peace is.

They're kind of the lighthouse. They're kind of the landmarks. They're kind of the bulwarks to to keep it together and to recognize that. And when you go through the epistles, you recognize that those words and those concepts were the first thought and the lasting hope and the final statement of many Christians that have gone before us. I'd like to share a thought with you for a moment about the word grace. So let's deal with that for a moment.

Grace. Grace always has two main features to it. And I'm paraphrasing out of William Barkley's commentary on the book of Ephesians. Grace always has two main ideas with it. The Greek word is charis. C-H-A-R-I-S. Charis. And that's where we get the word charismatic. It basically means either gift and or charm.

It means either gift or charm. It's speaking of the life that has been gifted and or the life that has been charmed.

In other words, as Barkley puts out, there must be a certain loveliness in the Christian life. There must be a certain loveliness in the Christian life. A Christianity which is not attractive is no real Christianity. A Christianity which is not attractive is no real Christianity. Let's think that through for a moment. God tells us that we are to worship in spirit and in truth. You know, we can have the truth. We can read the words. We can have God's revelation. But it's also got to have an attractive appearance in the life that has changed. Likewise, grace always describes a gift and a gift which it would have been impossible for a man to procure for himself and which he never earned and in no way deserves.

Grace is unmerited. Pardon. Thus, whenever we mention the word grace, we must think, number one, the sheer loveliness of the Christian life. The loveliness, the upliftedness, the elevation, the hope, the understanding of what God is doing. Number two, the sheer undeserved generosity of the heart of God. The sheer, undeserved generosity of the heart of God.

I want you to think about that for a moment because when you understand that and when you believe that and when you live that, then what you're thinking as Will brought out, what you're performing, how we are addressing one another as Christians, how we are addressing our family members, how we are addressing our fellow workers at the employment spot, how we are dealing with all that come into our life, is going to be handled in a different way, in utmost humility.

Let's talk about peace for a moment. When we think of peace in connection with the Christian life, what this means is that we need to be very, very careful. In Greek, the word is Eriene, but it's translated from the Hebrew word shalom. In the Bible, peace does not merely mean or describe the absence of conflict or trouble. Shalom means everything which makes for a man's highest good. Christian peace is something quite independent of outward circumstances. It's interesting what Berkeley concludes with in that paragraph. He says, Ultimately, peace is his will. His will, God's will, is peace. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke on Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. And what was the conclusion? Obey God and leave the consequences to him. Now, let's understand what Paul did here. Paul, who is a Jew of the diaspora, very Jewish, but had grown up in the diaspora, had grown up in Tarsus with its Hellenic influence, took the two great phrases of antiquity, the two greetings of antiquity, the hellos and the goodbyes, grace from the Greeks, peace from the Hebrews. He wished folks to be gifted by God and to have a peace, that path of understanding, to recognize that when a Jew says, Shalom, the Jew is not wishing you a problem-free life, but he's giving a blessing. He's saying, May the God that we worship grant you all in all in the capacity to be able to deal that which will come your way. Now, the proof is in the reading. Join me, if you would, in Corinthians for a moment, because what I'm trying to do here for a moment is to give you structure as to hopefully develop your own study of God's Word. Join me in Romans for a moment.

Seeing is believing. Let's go to the book of Romans and go through the exercise here. Romans.

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, verse 1, chapter 1, called to be an apostle, separate it to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born at the seat of David according to the flesh. It's very interesting that really the essence of what Paul is saying here in the beginning when he says, I am a slave. I'm a slave. I'm no longer a free man. I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. He's coming from a position of humility, not of, oh, look who I am. Look at my office or look what God is doing with me. He is overwhelmed, overwhelmed by God's mercy and God's grace, recognizing that he had been the one to persecute the early Christians. Thus, when we come down to verse 7, notice what it says, grace to you, gifts to you, God's gift to you. May you be in that sense charmed. May that inner and outward person be one that expresses what has been visited upon you and the peace from God, our Father, unto the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got to read in context to understand why Paul says what he does up in verse 1. He says, I'm a slave. I am an apostle. I am one cent bearing authority, as it were. But what he's really saying is, it's in spite of myself. It's not because of me or what I have done, but because of God's grace and the peace that he set before me. Let's go to the end of the book of Romans. End of Romans. Romans 16, verse 24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. And now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest and by all prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God. Notice, for obedience to the faith.

Jesus Christ never said that it would be easy. He said it would be worth it. And he says, obedience to the faith, not my will but your will be done, to obey God and to leave the consequences to him, to God, alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. The Apostle Paul begins with grace and peace, signs off with grace and peace. Now, as we go through this exercise for a moment, question for you, dear brethren, how do you start your day? How do you say hello to God? How do you say hello to one another and those that come into your life? Can they tell, can they experience God through you that you are an individual of grace and peace? And even when we get tired through the day and all of the machinations that come through the day to us, this world that can wear us down, much less our own human nature at times, how do we end the day?

How do we not only say hello to one another and goodbye to one another in a letter or in a conversation, but how do we wake up to God and how do we go to bed? 1 Corinthians 1. Let's notice what it says. Verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace. Gifts. Gifts that we don't deserve of and by ourselves. Something that we can't buy. Something totally undeserved. And peace from God. It's nothing that we can work up on our own. When we go through the New Testament Passover service, we always go to John 14, and we always mention that verse of Jesus Christ saying, I give you my peace. My peace, the peace that comes from above, is different than the peace that's down here below. Let's go to the end of the book of Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. Again, notice what it says. Verse 23. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And then notice verse 24. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. We begin to see a tie-in of grace and peace and love that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians. You say, isn't he going to stop? I haven't gotten the point. No, we're going to go further. 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The end of 2 Corinthians. Join me if you would there, please. Verse 14, chapter 13. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, agape, outflowing, outgoing, concerned, away from self, not self-directed, not like a yo-yo that comes back to you, not like a boomerang that comes back to you, not, well, I'll scratch your back if you scratch my back, but freely given, outflowing, outgoing, concerned, away from self. Notice what says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion, the canos, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. But you cannot have that communion. You cannot have that canos or that fellowship unless you understand grace, unless you understand the peace that God offers us or have that love of God. Galatians. He says, he's not going further. Yes, I am.

Verse 3. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The reason why I'm being repetitive is to understand, for you to understand, that Paul understood always the source of all living and all loving. It wasn't down here below. It's not something you could take down in the basement of your mind or your heart and crank it out like so much counterfeit. If you're cranking it out on your own, it's counterfeit, and it will not stay in that day of adversity when the heat comes up. Let's go to the end of the book of Galatians. Galatians 6 verse 18. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Ephesians 1 and verse 2. Grace to you, peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a hello, but the hello and the blessing is an understanding of why Paul has become a doulos, or a slave, an instrument in the hands of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 6 verse 23. No, excuse me. Ephesians 6 verse 23. Peace to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Philippians 1 verse 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of Philippians, Philippians 4 verse 23. And this is written as a prison epistle. Paul is bound either in a house imprisonment or in a Roman cell. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always. Amen. Colossians 1 verse 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, he states that again at the end of Colossians 4 verse 18. Again, he states that at the beginning of 1 Thessalonians 1. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Goes on and on and on. I want to share something with you to save a few minutes in this message. Show me if you would in Peter. Well, you think, well, this may just be Paul's idea. Show me if you would in Peter. The first epistle of Peter chapter 1 verse 2 at the bottom. Grace to you and notice what it says. And peace be multiplied.

We are to grow in this grace and knowledge and in this faith and the embracement of God's love that he will never leave us nor forsake us. That Peter is sharing this opening blessing that I don't want you just to have this little piece. It needs to be multiplied.

The end of 1 Peter 5 verse 14. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Again, in 2 Peter 1 and verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. Again, this aspect of multiplication. And then at the very end of 2 Peter 3 and verse 18, a scripture that is familiar to many of us. But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. One thing that came to me, if I can share a thought with you, brethren, that I think of the mission statement of our church, that we are to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God, to make disciples in all nations, and to care for those disciples. I had an epiphany come to me. I didn't say a vision, just an epiphany. That means the lights came on, just like that word that I used earlier. And so often we think of making disciples as those that have not yet come through our doors, or had a full understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. So often in our own church culture, we think, oh, somebody has heard the world tomorrow, not the world tomorrow, has heard the Beyond Today program, or has picked up a good news. And they are just at the very beginning process of the trail. They're ready to kind of climb the mountain, and here they come. I want you to hear me carefully, please. Making disciples is a process that never ends as long as we live. Making disciples is what God, the Father, and Jesus Christ is still doing with this disciple. I have not yet arrived. A disciple is one that is a student. A disciple is a learner. A disciple is one that has finally gotten off his high horse, sat in that proverbial chair before God, the Father, Jesus Christ, and is convicted by the Word, convicted by the Spirit, and says, teach me. I'm only halfway up this mountain. I am not yet what I shall be. Be patient with me, Lord. I find more than ever that all of us, a pastor, a minister, are members 30, 40, 50 years in this way of life. Thus, and also, dear friends that have just joined us today, the process of discipleship is something that is always ongoing. We have never yet arrived, and we can never take that next step forward if we do not understand God's grace, if we do not understand that peace that comes from God, if we do not understand his mercy, and we do not have the attitude of the Apostle Paul who says, yes, I am a servant of God, but it is in spite of myself. It's not what I know. It's what I am. There is this gift that I recognize that God reached down and called me. God gave his Son for me. Not that he had to, but he wanted to. Not because of my good looks.

Not because of my high IQ. Not because of where I went to school. But in spite of all that, in spite of that, God called me.

And that his word is ever before me like virgin snow, that I can walk across and have the wonderment and not be a know-it-all, and not think I have grasped it all. But that, as the Apostle Paul said, I run the race but have not yet obtained. Brethren, do you know how exciting that is for people when they walk into our door and they come into the midst of people that understand that they still have not fully arrived? Oh, yes, we're on the way. We're on the mark. But there's a humility and there's a love of God and there's a love of the truth and the opening of this precious holy word that we might be convicted by this word, that we might be convicted by the Spirit of God and grow in grace and knowledge. It's kind of where my mind is at, as your pastor right now. I've kind of gone back to saying, God, you know what? I've been in this way of life for 40 or 50 years, but you know what? Sometimes I need to approach it like I'm still a kindergartner. I need to have the wonderment of my mind opening up to look at Scripture anew, to look at it as God intended it rather than how Robin Weber thinks it ought to be. I remember one thing that when I was in Ambassador College, probably the best bit of advice I ever got was in an educational block class to where Dr. Floyd Lochner, who had been my principal in high school, too. But Dr. Lochner said, always have a Bible that is not marked. Always have a Bible that is not marked. You know, we sometimes teach and we say, not only in our church communities, but I know other church communities do as well. We talk about the inspired margins, because we do want to learn, and we'll jot this down, and we'll jot this down. Mr. Clark has given a message, or Mr. Coolwell gave a message, or Paul gave a message. I should say Mr. Smith, or whoever, or Bob, or whatever. Oh, that's what we write it down. But when we do that, we meet as good as it might be. It's still what man is saying about God, rather than just having that non-interference, taking God up close, personal, and letting the word and letting His Spirit convict us. That's what our dear friend Julie was doing every day.

She liked to be God-trained, Bible-trained. Sometimes, my dear friend, my sister in Christ, those trainer wheels could kind of come off a little bit and be a little exciting for an aviare that talked to Julie. And I say that with a lot of love and a lot of humility. But you know what? She loved God. And at the end of the day, when she distilled everything down, she said what it's all about is the love of God. What kind of a congregation, what kind of a family could we be? What kind of a congregation could we be? What kind of an instrument within the body of Christ can we be and grow into if we will focus on the trunk of the tree of grace, of peace that is united by love? I'd like to go through John 3 for a moment, because it is this understanding that allows us to understand what grace is about, to understand the peace that we can have, even when it doesn't seem peaceable, to know that all things work together for the good. In the Gospel of John, chapter 3, and let's pick up the thought in verse 13. No one has ascended to heaven.

Christ states the case. But he who came down from heaven, that is, the sud of man who is in heaven. Nobody's gone up, but someone did come down. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, when Israel was dropping like flies, even so the son of man be lifted up. Speaking of that which would come later on in his earthly ministry, the crucifixion, that he would be lifted up, that death might not reign on humanity, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. When we understand, dear brethren, here in San Diego, that God, the word, he who was and is and now is, divested himself of that which is and lured himself to our earthly state. He did not have to. He wanted to. And he came down to this earth and he gave himself for you and for me. Quite incredible. Sometimes people ask in moments of angst, moments of challenge, moments of not understanding God's love. How do I know that God really loves me? I'm sure all of us have been there at one time or another. When life is not going according to oil, plan, life is what's happening that we have not planned for. I only have one answer, brethren, as one member of faith, as one who is a believer. And I have to always go back, how do I know that God loves me? It comes back to this very basic that he gave his son. It begins there and it ends there and you and I are along for the ride if we do believe that. He did not have to. There was nothing down here that oven by ourselves drew him to us. He made a choice and he made a decision and Jesus Christ did not hold on to Godhead. He didn't say, oh, Father, don't push me down. No, no, no, no, no, I'm holding on. No, no.

Let go. He let go. And not because he had to, but because he desired to. Romans 5. Romans 5 spells this out even more. Verse 1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace. Here's that word. See, it's fleshed out now. We had it in the opening. We have it in the end, but it's fleshed out here. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through what? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. How do we have that peace? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes you and I in Santee or El Cajun or La Mesa, San Ysidro, and we'll throw in Fallbrook. It can look a little shaky down here.

And we have conflict in our lives, and we wonder and we get concerned. But the peace that we have with God Almighty comes through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. This grace in which we stand that was unmerited, that was undeserved. This is what we stand in, in humility and rejoice in hope in the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produce perseverance, perseverance, character, character, hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So how does it work? This love of God that's been poured out, what did the Holy Spirit convict us of? For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. I think this is a lesson that we have to learn in a spiritual community and in a church. Sometimes people think that they've come to church just to kind of clean themselves up a little bit. And sometimes we, as Christians, can think we're just cleaning up and Jim Dandy. We've got to go back to these roots of what grace is about, that God sent his Son, not that he might make good men better. Are you with me? But that he might give life to dead men walking. What a difference! When you understand that, when I understand that, when you understand and I understand that we have been liberated.

Can I tell you something? May I?

You're not going to be looking at the other person wondering what they're doing wrong, but you're going to be rejoicing in that you are in the process of salvation, and that God elected you and had mercy on you, and that when we speak the wonderful things of God, the truths of God, the grace, the peace, the mercy, the reconciliation, the full restoration. When we think, when we speak of the commandments of God, when we speak of the commandments of God, like the seventh-day Sabbath, when we speak of the wonderful, beautiful biblical festivals, when we talk about, shall I say somewhat, the things that we do in response to God's grace, we will speak to them, to others lovingly, with understanding, with knowledge, but with humility and kindness and thoughtfulness, and that those people will, even if they do not agree with what we share with them, they will say, this is a charmed existence. These are a people that have a relationship with God Almighty.

We will approach others as God has approached us. We will be loving. We will be kind. We will be warm. We will be thoughtful. We will recognize other than by the grace of God, go you or I. I think this is very important, brethren, as we move forward in the United Church of God.

Church is not about numbers. It's about what we're doing with what God has given us.

The most important way to grow a church is not to be concerned about who's coming in the door, but be concerned about what God Almighty and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is doing in each and every one of us, and that we are growing in grace and knowledge, that we are being discipled by God's Spirit right now, leading us, developing us, molding us, shaping us, perhaps convicting us, perhaps in a message like this to give us the tools that we need. Okay, I have been studying recently a whole litany of Hebrew. That's great, but, you know, maybe, and that's all right, but maybe I need to get back to basics.

What did I do? I'm glad I'm under grace.

Wasn't that fun?

That reminds me of the time when I was in college and I was giving a speech and I went like this. I used to be young. The whole podium broke. So, when you understand that, this is near not half as bad. Now that you're laughing with me rather than at me, let's go to 1 John 4. I think how often our dear sister, Julie Joseph, would quote to us 1 John. I think I'll conclude with this.

This is the heart work that's before us, 1 John 4 and verse 6. Let us hear the words of God and ask God to reach down to us today, brethren, and to open up our hearts, our minds, and allow Him to go to work on us.

It's kind of amazing that the Apostle John wrote this nearly 2,000 years ago and just having to remind us of who we are in spite of ourselves. This is just incredible. Look at this. We are of God. We are of God. And He who knows God hears us, and He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error.

Verse 7, Beloved, let us agape one another.

For this kind of love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. There is this new birth that comes from above. For those of you that may not know it, that when the Bible began to be written in this word of how do you describe God's love, they had to find a word because they didn't have it in the Greek language. They had to go way back. It was not a common parlance because it was a love that was from somewhere else, you might say, out of this world. And they had to find the term. They had to find the handle to match the pan. They didn't have it. And they came up with agape. In this the love of God was manifested towards us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love. And not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In other words, that way back, that return to Eden, which might be made possible. Beloved, if God so loved us, if God did this for us, he gave his only Son that we might be charmed, that we might be gifted, that we might receive that which we could never imagine on our own. We cannot buy it. We cannot earn it. We cannot even begin to think of it.

We also then ought to love one another.

I see Joel. I see Aubrey out here. I've been thinking about you this week.

And to think that this is the love that God wants you to have in this relationship that you're about to undertake.

And to understand that, and to give one another the benefit of the doubt, as all of us need to. And to love one another, and to give yourself to one another, as God Almighty gave his Son for both of you. And to recognize that in this life, in marriage, at least the one that Susan and I have been in for 40 years, there is not an absence of conflict. You bring two people together, you rock and roll. And marriage is not for sissies, but marriage is to come to understand the relationship that Christ has with the Church, and gave himself for it unto the end, and finish the course. And as he finished the course, you have that love of God in your life for one another. And to recognize that you never walk alone, to have that agape, Eros comes naturally. Philia comes naturally. But this godly love, this outflowing, outgoing concern away from self, is something that can only come from the head of your marriage. Because it doesn't take two to tango in marriage, but three. Jesus Christ, being the head of your life, the Lord of your life, the Lord of your marriage, the head of your marriage, and the constant example, the constant example of godly love. No one has seen God at any time. And if we love one another, God abides in us. Not whether or not we can count to seven and figure the Sabbath day is on Saturday. That's good and that's well. But you know what? You can also be a depressed, mean, Sabbatarian. You can show up at church and not have the love of God in you.

Counting to seven. I learned that in second grade.

You can keep the biblical food laws and you can make sure that you never inhale one shred of shrimp. God forbid. On this earth or in the next lifetime.

But if you are very good at separating beef from shrimp or from pork, and we're just working with these fleshly items here, but not as Will just brought out in his fine message separating that which is of God and separating that which is of man, then we've lost the lesson of what the biblical food laws are in godly love. That we are to continually, not just simply separate what goes into our tummy, but to learn to separate under the new covenant what goes in our hearts, what's seen by our eyes, what comes out of our mouth, how we walk towards people and embrace them. These laws come under the new covenant are now both of the spirit as well as of the letter. Verse 13, but this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us the spirit and we have seen and testified that the father has sent the son as savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that agape that God has for us. We believe it. It's a matter of faith. Nothing shall separate us from that. That's why we wake up in the morning. That's why we have a lift to our walk as Christians. That's why we have a governor to our mind in our words that we speak to our wives, to our children, to our grandchildren, to our fellow employees. Everything centers on this, this love of God that he gave us. Love has been perfected amongst us in this that we have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. God is love. We are to be love. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. But he who fears has been made perfect. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. Verse 19. I conclude.

Brethren, Susie and I are only able to be here with you every so often. We pray about you. We think about you. When I do come down here, I try to give you a message right out of the scriptures and read God's holy word. I can't be at every service in Southern California. There's not enough of me or Susan to go around. Well, there's enough of me to go around. But I mean, there's not enough of me to go around, and that's dead. So to you as God's servant and as your pastor, I try to set a tone, God willing. I try to set an atmosphere that I hope that I've given you heart work, homework, will, thoughts to more down in your life than to build upon. When I'm sharing this with you, brother, and you know, I boast of the San Diego congregation all the time. I tell them what a wonderful, wonderful congregation you are. In my excitement, my excitement should not be taken as de-leveling, but elevating that this is where I'm at. This is where I'm trying to grow as a person. We can continue to grow. We can continue to develop. And not only when we come together here, but at school, in our marriage, at work. That's everything in what we do. Let us grow in this grace and knowledge. Julie Joseph was one who came amongst us. She may not have understood everything that you wanted her to understand or thought that she needed to understand. But I say to you, she allowed the main thing to always, always be the main thing. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And to know God is to dwell in that love through Jesus Christ. It is the beginning of our life. It is the ending of our life, just as in the epistles, the grace, the peace, the mercy, was the first thought that the apostles of old wanted to share with the people of God. And they gave it till their dying breath. There can be no finer example, either of your or the one that just so recently walked amongst us, Julie Joseph.