Mm. La la la la la la la la la Hallelujah God ruler of the universe, you are. There is no one like you, God giver of the deepest dreams you are. There is no one like you. God thinker of tremendous thoughts you are Thinking for Friendly towards me, God rolled.
How holy true you are, and there is no one like you. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah Welcome to Love Never Fails. In these last days, revival will come. but begins with our individual walk and personal relationship with Jesus. Let's join Brother John now.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. You're listening to Love Never Fails with Brother John. I'm so glad you're out there. I hope you're having a great day and just. Man, it you know There's so many things we could say and do, and so many ways we could maybe complain.
There's ways we could just grumble. But man, we woke up this morning. He gave us another gift of another day. And I'm so thankful. And I'm glad that you're listening.
I hope today you're inspired, you're encouraged, and you just grow, grow, grow. You know, this whole Christian walk is not just about, oh, dear Jesus, come into my heart, be my Lord and Savior. And you pray that prayer, and you got a new birthday. We call that the born-again day. And then you never do anything else with it.
You never become anything else. You never go anywhere else. You struggle with the same things. Or maybe religion helps you clean up your language and live a little better. But what have you done?
What have you accomplished? Or, if I could use a word that's used in the Bible. What have you transformed into? What has become of you? Have you become what God desires for you to become?
Have you and I have we grown into this thing that Jesus and God they saw in us when they planted a seed in us? When He created man, God had a vision for man. Are you growing into that to become that? You got a birth date, you've got your fire insurance, you've got your policy, you're good to go. You know, Many times in speaking love and teaching love, people assume that that means.
I think they can do whatever they want. They can act any way they want. They can be whatever they want. And, you know, well, God's grace, God's mercy, God's love, it's unconditional. And I hate to tell you that, but yes, it is unconditional.
for salvation. But when you become a Christian, when you say, Father, come into my heart, be my Lord and Savior, and you make that commitment, there are requirements. There's things throughout the Word of God that it talks about that must happen. It's not just comfort Christianity. But there's a transformation.
That must take place. When you are born again, you now, just like when you and I, we were born into this world, in this physical world, and we were a baby, and we squawked and squalored and wanted our mommy and our daddy and all that. We were children and we were babies, and we had to grow, we had to mature, we had to learn things and learn what we were called to do or what we were supposed to do, and you began to grow in those things. In the same manner in Christianity, we have the same responsibility. When you're born again, God brings alive within your spirit, within you, certain things that only you can do.
You know Somebody the other day, I had, I got to share and spend some time with somebody, and It it came out of me that They were a worshipper. And not just to be an instrument of worship, but to become worship. And I said to God before I said this to him, I'm praying, I said, but Lord. You know I don't even understand that. And I don't even, because my gifting, my calling, my track is not that.
Oh, yes, I worship God, I praise God, and I spend time with God, but I'm not the kind of guy that can lead others into that area. And my gifting, my track is in this message of love. But here was a person that God had gifted them. To become worship and help others develop that and grow in that and become what God wants them to be. That's their calling, that's their place, that's their cross that they have to carry.
I have mine, you have yours. But as we pursue God and we grow, these things come about. It's not just, I got a new birth date. I have a very good friend that he goes, well, that was me, BC. And I looked at one day and said, What do you mean by BC?
He goes before Christ. I just started laughing. I said, I've never heard it put that way. I've never heard it put that way. That was me, BC.
You know, and when we become Christians... and we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Yes, it may be a holler and squalling and crying time, and you may need some Kleenexes, and you may have to go out and repent and ask people for forgiveness and stuff like that. I don't know. That's between you and God.
But. It doesn't stop there. It's not six weeks later, you're just going to church, paying tithe, and listening to a preacher, but who you really are has never changed. I mean, in a few years, you should begin to people should begin to see a difference. You should begin to see a difference.
Who you were BC is not who you are now. Because now you've started that path. You're walking. your own Via della Rosa. Or you're on your own road to Damascus.
And at some point, we begin to grow. And, you know, my desire today is to talk about Romans. I was driving down the road with a friend of mine the other day, and we just began to minister to each other in fellowship and just talk about, man, God is so good, and we're praying and worshiping. And it's just when I get excited like that, I just kind of, some people want to twirl and dance, and some people want to worship, and some want to preach, and which I do often. But I do this thing where I like punch the air over my head and just get all excited, and my friends just laugh, and I go, it's exciting.
Because what God is doing is exciting. What he's doing in your life should be exciting. It's not just a new thing, it's a great thing. It's not just Forgiveness of sins, which is the greatest miracle of all. It is the most important thing, but it's.
Oh. It's a revelation of change. It's a revelation of you becoming. what God saw in you from the foundations of the earth. Can you imagine?
Dead. In the beginning, God, the Creator, said, Let there be light. You were already in His mind. He said, bring shape to the earth and let the sea and the land separate from one another and and and then he created uh plants and vegetation and caused springs to bring come up through the ground to water the earth and then he created man and animals and he put man in charge and said man named them And he had you in mind. Adam may have been the first he created.
But he wasn't the only one he had in mind. We were in his heart. We were in his mind and in his. essence. He had a plan for you and I.
The Bible says he knew the end from the beginning, which means he's rehearsed our life. He's rehearsed, he's business with us.
Well, Brother John, you don't know. Listen, you've got here, you know, and that's what I want to talk about today because Romans, it's such an incredible book, because here's Paul. And and You know Just to be blunt, w My friend and I as we were talking about Romans, I said, you know, so many people. live. in the first six chapters of Romans.
And he said, Yeah. He goes, they can't ever get past chapter six. When I try to do good, my old man is right there with me. My old nature is right there keeping pace with me, causing this and causing that. And they never seem to break free out of Romans chapter, those chapters of struggle, those chapters of you're born again, you've just received Jesus, but that old man is keeping pace with you.
But there's a change in Romans, and this journey that Paul takes us on in Romans, it so spiritually symbolizes our journey in life. And there's a point in time, and I love this when you get into Romans, and so many talk about, you know, he talks about in chapter five, he's talking about justification and salvation. He's talking about salvation and the divine method from deliverance in chapter six. Then he gets into chapter seven and he's talking about old relationships to sin and a new relationship to God, that struggle. But then when you get over there into chapter eight, he begins chapter eight by going, man, I love this.
He says, there. is therefore now no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And this is one of my favorite verses. I used to just lay in bed and repeat this verse because there was a point in time I was busting out of Romans chapter 4, 5, and 6, and out of 7, and I wanted to live past eight. I wanted to get out of chapter 7 and get over into chapter 8 and 9.
And oh my goodness, when we get to chapter 13, but it was like, how do I do this? And I would just lay in bed and say, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Did you hear that? The law of the spirit. The law of the spirit That's the Zoe life.
In Christ Jesus has made me free. Free. This is the revelation. This is where Paul, all that stuff about the justification and the redemption. And I know that I'm redeemed, and I know that he's justifying with reason all of what God has done.
And he's trying to explain to the Romans through their intellect and all this, but then he's pulling us into this life of the Spirit. He's pulling us into this. Life of the spirit where things change. And something is different, and you go, Thank you, Lord. And and My computer is acting up on this recording.
I don't know what's going on, but praise God, we're still recording. But he says for the law of the Spirit and life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, it was weak through the flesh. Listen, folks, if you want to be born again and you want to live in that place of salvation, the law will always be there. to outwardly force you Into religion.
And into something. The law is an outward. pressure or an outward Containment. Offence You can't cross this boundary, you can't cross that boundary, and you're locked into this corral of the law. And I can't do this, I can't do that, and I'm not allowed to do this, I'm not allowed to do that.
And it's all the do's and don'ts. You have to do this, you have to do that. But there is a law in the life of in the law of the life in the spirit that is so different because then all those shackles and all those all those. the the fencing, the corrals, the barriers come down. And you begin to live and move in something else.
And you say, well, Brother John, does it no? Let me tell you something. When you begin to live the life of the life in the spirit, the desire to do those things that Paul was talking about, struggling with, they're gone.
Now you're living in freedom. There is no need for a fence. There is no need for a barrier because the life that is in you guides you. Jesus, God said in Ezekiel, he said, and I will write my law on their hearts. He will write it on our hearts.
Think of that. And it's it's not it's like when we have ki kids and and the kids grow up and uh They get in trouble and people go, well, he should know right from wrong. Because our society teaches rights from wrongs.
Well, at least it used to. Most societies teach a moral law. And people should grow up learning right from wrong. Those boundaries are completely skewed these days. What used to be evil is now good, and what was good is now considered evil.
But You understand what I'm saying? And many times for many people, this Christian walk is nothing more than just. rules and laws. Do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that. You can't do this, you can't do that.
And there's no freedom in that.
Now, I had somebody one time come to me and argue and said.
Well, the law will, you know, and I'm going, you got to be free from that. And he got all upset with me, and I said, listen. I used to be a drill instructor. And we would have all these privates come in for eight weeks at a time. And in eight weeks we w every morning we'd wake them up with trash cans and Lids and chairs, and you know, you kick a chair down the hall the hall to wake everybody up, and privates jump up, and you know, and they're running around.
And actually, back then, they wouldn't have been privates, 'cause they weren't in the military until they made it through basic. But you you you then put them on a schedule and you make them do P T and then they go do eat and they have to be out of their locker at this time and that time and the shoes had to look away, the bed had to be look away and everything had to be done according to a standard. And I realized But at the end of eight weeks The only thing we had were young men who We were too terrified to break the rules, or who only knew how to keep the outward rules. And I realized, I said, this is. This is coaching by rules and regulations.
This is life by Threat, or if you do this, that's going to happen to you. If you screw up here, that's going to happen to you. But yet, God comes along and says, I'm not a drill instructor. I'm not that guy. He he comes along and says.
I give you liberty. I give you freedom.
Now, in reality, God's the only one who has liberty. We have freedom within that liberty. He says, I want you to make choices. I want you to make decisions. I want you.
To obey me. But those choices are yours. And somebody said, but that doesn't make sense. I said, but it does to me because I walk in love, I pursue God, I desire to please God. You know, Jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey me.
The whole problem that King Saul had, he proved that he didn't love God. He made just as many mistakes as King David, but King David proved that he loved God. They were both kings. They could do whatever they wanted. They had the freedom to do whatever they wanted.
They were the kings. But one king loved God and one did not. King Saul did not. How do we know that? Because he couldn't obey God.
He couldn't obey God. What are you talking about, Brother John?
Well, he didn't kill the kings that he was supposed to kill. And God even said, took him off the thrones and then it's so amazing that years later Jesus says, If you love me, you'll obey me. How do we prove we love somebody? How do we prove that love is real in the way we act? We have the freedom to go a hundred different directions.
with that freedom, with that love. But When it comes to God, we obey Him. And it's not that He's there every second. Go and brush your teeth this way, you know, comb your hair this way, wear that sock on this foot. You know, I mean, if He tells you to do that stuff, you do it because there's a purpose behind it.
But He's not there every second telling you what to do. He's not saying You know, every second you must talk to that person, that person, that person, do this, do that. He gives us free will, he gives us that freedom. To live and make mistakes. And then there's times he says, Hey, you know, like the other night, he says, John.
I need you to say something to this person. And I was like, Lord. And I saw what I was supposed to say, and I saw all the people that would be in the room. And I said, okay, God, I'll do it. And I said, but I'm going to do it exactly the way I see it.
You need to bring this circumstance about, you need to bring this situation about. And I got to my destination, and I've been praying about and thinking about it. I said, okay, God, this word that you want me to deliver this person, I'll do it. And at one point, I sat down on the couch, and as I sat down on the couch, The things I began to see the situation arising because it was a matter of people showing up who. I didn't know we're coming.
And it had to do with these, these were the people I was supposed to minister to. And I'm like, going, so I told God: I said, I'm not going to invite them. I'm not going to force it. I'm not going to coerce the situation. I'm not going to make it into something that's not.
I'm going to let you do that. And so at one point, there was a phone call about, well, they're not coming. And I'm going, okay.
So I got up and I went in another room and I just began to pray. I said, Lord, I'm not going to do it. And you better give me scripture for it. And, you know, I'm not going to force it. I'm not going to force it.
I'm not going to make it happen. You have to make it happen. I'll deliver your word because the word says out of the mouth. And he gives it to us to do. And so ended up, they came.
And and we're sitting at the table But the two people One person was at the table, the other two weren't. I said, This is not the situation I saw. I'm not going to force it, Lord. And Then some other people in another room got done eating and these other two people came in. And they sat down.
When there's one person... Sat down next to me, then at that moment, because I thought I was out of it. I thought, okay, I'm not going to have to do it. Then at that moment, I looked up and I realized it was all exactly the way I'd seen it in prayer.
So I was supposed to ask a question. I asked the person, one of the people, a question. And the question was this, how do you know you're born again? And I knew the answer they would give me. And they gave me exactly the answer.
So then I looked at another person. And I said Here's what I heard the Lord say.
Now, the neat thing is, before any of this had happened, about an hour prior to that, I had. Written something down and basically put it away, and I told somebody, I said. I told them what the Lord told me to tell them. And then I, and praise God, it worked, or not worked, but it ministered to them. And I asked somebody else, would you go over there?
And I wrote something about an hour ago. Would you, and they went and got it. They go, wow. You know, and I just wanted them to know that it wasn't me. It was God.
And the freedom there. But I said, God, I said, you've asked me to do something. I'm not going to play games with it. I'm not going to coerce it. I'm not going to force it to happen, but I will obey you because I loved you.
And then God spoke to that person and it ministered to them. And the only thing I was doing was being obedient. But do you know, he hasn't told me anything like that today. He didn't tell me anything like that the day before, the day before that, or the day before that. He doesn't do, you know, yes, I believe God's always talking, but he's not always telling me, hey, I need you to do it.
And it's not like 24-7 as a drill instructor, I was on top of people 24-7, making sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing. But God gives us free will to choose: do you want to obey or do you not want to obey? King Saul didn't want to obey. He wanted to do things his way. David made mistakes.
He did things on his own. But when God spoke to him about doing something, he obeyed. And how did he prove he loved God? By being obedient. But there's freedom in that.
I tell you, I was talking with someone the other day about, you know, when you obey God, He gives you the desires of your heart. And you I remember for so long, several years, several times in my life, I've had long seasons of prayer. And I remember the first one I ever went into in the just 30 years ago, I was concerned, I was worried, I was scared. Because it was like If I do this, if I actually start, if I spend this eight weeks fasting and praying and doing this, Is God gonna ask me to do something that I don't wanna do? I was I that thought scared me.
It scared me. If I actually for the next eight this summer break When I was in college, if I do this, Quit my job and do this. What am I going to turn into? I don't want to be a preacher. I don't want to be one of these people.
I could care less about any of that. I didn't want it. And after eight weeks of going to the church every day, and I would fast and pray, and I'd read the Bible, and I was like, Lord, I love Paul. I want to live like Paul. I want to experience what Paul experienced.
I want to know you the way Paul knew you. After eight weeks, I or after about six weeks, I was convinced I wasn't even born again. Because studying the Bible, I had never in my life studied the Bible and read the Bible, and I said, Lord, I can't get through 1 John. I cannot get through 1 John. I couldn't get through Ephesians.
I couldn't. And I was flabbergasted. Said, Lord, I've been a Christian, I had a born-again date. But I was like I don't think I'm a Christian. Because when I held the word up to my life.
I didn't see it. I saw my life I didn't see God in my life. Oh, there were times he was working with me. He was working. And that's a season.
That's back when I was in Romans 4 and 5 and 6, and I was still struggling. And I didn't want to accept the call of God in my life. I still wanted to be able to go to a bar, and I still wanted to do all that stuff. But God was working on me. And it was during that season that I broke out of that nature, not completely.
But I broke out and I began to realize and see some things, and God began to speak to me. And He told me some things, and I'm like, oh, wow. And of course, I made mistakes and all that. But I began to. say there's something more than just being Born again.
or havin' a date. And Romans, he does such a good job. I mean, he's masterful. Thank goodness he was listening to the Holy Spirit when he wrote this down for the Holy Spirit. But.
It's amazing because in Romans 5, let's listen to this. Because in Romans 5, he really begins to talk about the born-again experience. And he says this: he goes, Therefore, being justified by faith, I mean, he's talking about salvation. We have peace through God in our Lord Jesus Christ. You're born again.
By whom we have access in his faith, this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
So he's talking about. He's talking about tribulation, he's talking about patience, he's talking about the whole gamut. But it's interesting because he says this: he goes, And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given into us. You might want to look at Hebrews 10:16. Let's go there real quick.
And I love this scripture because what's he saying? He's saying, when you were born again, God deposited, and we're going to see another scripture here in a minute, God deposited something in you. And here's this. I made reference to this earlier, Hebrews 10:16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts, and on their minds will I write them. And he's talking about salvation there, but it's so cool because here Paul is saying that. While we were yet sinners in chapter 5, verse 8, but God can love for sinners, Christ died for us. How much more than being justified by his blood should we be saved? How much more than if you go through Romans 5, he said that so many times, how much more so?
How much more so? How much more so? How much more so should you just having a new birth date? Have you ever I don't know, cup of coffee. Maybe you were sitting in a bar, driving down the road, walking on a path, or out jogging.
Have you ever thought there's got to be more than this? That's a very righteous and holy question to be asking. There's got to be is this as good as it gets? Because I mean, that's really what he's saying right now. It's not just about being, okay, I'm born again.
I go to church, I do what I'm supposed to do, I'm a good man, you know, maybe one day I'll be able to. It's not The doing, and even it's not about being an American, it's not about the Western mindset, it's about transformation. We'll get into it later here in a few minutes in Romans, but Romans even says that all of creation is waiting with eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. Who do you think they are? We're in the last days, folks.
I mean they look around at what's going on in the world. If you don't know. If you don't understand any of this prophecy, if you don't understand what's going on, let me just assure you, even non-Christians know something's coming, that we're towards the end. Everybody talks about it. I saw a play earlier today.
And it had Buddhist influences all in it. And even they referred to the end of the world. Listen, folks, it's easy to be blind to what's going on because of Facebook and Twitter and the T V and all of that stuff. You can entertain yourself into comfort. But not the kind of comfort that God can give you you can entertain yourself into spiritual blindness But God is telling you there's something coming.
You know it, I know it. The world knows it. And it says. But God commanded his love towards us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, being justified by his blood?
Verse 10 is: if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. How much more being reconciled shall we be saved in life? That to me says if you basically are the same thing you were B.C. As you are now. Where's that justification?
Where's that home? How much more so in this life? Hmm. Brother John. You're not being nice.
You're not being fair. That's just not listen. I can't address every issue on a forty five minute radio show. But what I can address is what the word says right here. And I will say this to who, if you're out there listening and you want to get upset with me because I'm saying that you're not transformed or whatever, I'm not saying that.
That's between you and God. What I am saying is, I'm a signpost and I'm going to point you in the right direction, and I will tell you the truth. If all you did was go to the altar and say, Dear Jesus, be my Lord and Savior, you got up and walked out the door, and you go back every Sunday and pay your tithes. Your insurance policy may have expired before you stood up. Because there is fine print on that insurance policy.
It's called the Bible. It's called the Word of God. And He says that He will write that Word on your heart. And if you don't follow after that Word, if you don't nurture it, He said right there in Romans chapter 5 that He shed His love into your heart. That is not.
Love like we see on TV, love like we see in Hollywood. That is not love like we brotherly love. I love you, man. That's not that kind of love. The love that was shed abroad in your heart.
Is agape. Agape is a noun. And he put a seed, a mustard seed portion of it, in your heart if you were sincere about that. What do you do with a seed? You cultivate it, you fertilize it, you make it grow.
And at some point, have you ever read the Word of God and you see all these scriptures about trees and Trees that produce fruit, at some point, that seed is supposed to become a tree. We've done whole episodes on this, and we'll revisit it in the future. But at some point, that seed is supposed to grow. What have you done with the agape seed nature that was planted in you? What have you done with it?
It's called transformation. Have you done with it? Have you begun to grow? Are you turning into that which was planted in you? Maybe you've heard the expression, that which was on the inside of me is consuming the outside of me.
It's an all-consuming fire. Father, let what's inside me consume the outside of me.
Well, what's inside of you is the love of God. That's what he deposited into your heart that night that you said, Lord, be my Lord. He put a portion of that in there.
Now, what have you done with it? Because, see, if you don't love, then you've done nothing with it. If you don't love others, you've done nothing with it. If you can't obey God, then you're proving you've done nothing with it. 1 John says, if you hate, Then you've done nothing with it.
It says, if you shuttle up the bowels of mercy within you, Then you've done nothing with it. It says, how, if you see your brother or sister in need and cannot give to them, then you've done nothing with it. The love of God, the agape love of God. was planted in your heart. And when it was planted there, it was planted with an expectation.
to grow. to become Full Mature Love. That's a whole teaching out of Ephesians, but it's also here in Romans. And we'll keep working through this, but he didn't just give you that seed so that you could die. In that old man nature, he gave you that seed so that when you pass on to heaven, when you pass on and you walk into heaven, he's going to look at you and he may say, Well done, thy good and faithful servant, but I believe he'll say something else.
He's going to ask you Did you learn to love? Jesus said in John 13, 34, this is my command that I renew with you. I know it says in most Bibles, my new command, but that word new is actually the word bosco, which means to renew. Renew something that always was. Because what love always was, love always will be.
And if you think you're walking into the throne room of God when you die to sit on your daddy's lap, I hate to tell you this, but the only thing that's walking into the throne room, and we can study this in Hebrews sometime, is love. Pentecostal doesn't walk into the throne room without love. Baptist doesn't walk into the throne room without becoming love. charismatic doesn't walk into the throne room without becoming love. Chinese persecuted Christians do not walk into the throne room unless they become love.
or they're under the bench. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, what you've done. This show goes into Central and South America and it's heard around the world. And let me say something to you, wherever you are in the world, whatever ethnicity you are, whatever color your skin is. whatever language you speak, If you don't become love.
You're missing out on so many incredible things. I could sit here and teach you that so many different things out of the Word of God that maybe many of you are praying for them. You're begging God for things. God, it says in your word this, it says in your word that. Maybe you're running around carrying these three by five cards, confessing these scriptures every day, and they're not working.
But by golly, I'm not a quitter. I'm going to stick to it. Good. How about you add a little love to the mix and see what happens? How about you quit being so self-centered and start loving others and watch what happens to you?
Because there's an expression that says the garden hose gets just as wet as whatever it's watering. If you will go out and give love away, I guarantee it you'll reap love. If you'll go out, that's the whole paradox of Christianity: whatever you give, you get back. Oh, I'm not giving that up. I love it.
Yeah, you love things more than you love that.
So you know, many people They serve, they say that they serve God all their lives, but yet they don't love. And the Bible is very clear that someone who says that they love. It has to show it, has to produce it. It says in Psalm 1, it says in Ezekiel 47, it says, and your leaves will be for healing, and your fruit will be for life. Your fruit is love.
Now I know And we've done this before, we'll do it again. You're going, well, no, the fruit of the Spirit, and you start quoting that scripture, but you're quoting that scripture wrong. That scripture, go look at what happened. It's like, okay, you know, I guess it's just the nature of the world we live in now. Everything is upside down and everything is wrong, and everybody accepts it that way.
The fruit, that's singular. Fruit is singular. The fruit of the Spirit, all of that is singular. The fruit of the Spirit is love. There's not a single plural in there.
So I guess the King James people are just they were just a bunch of idiots and they didn't understand English grammar. But if you go study it out in other languages and in other versions, that's not what it says. The fruit of the Spirit is love, simicolon. The rest of the things make up the love of God. They are all parts of the love of God.
Let me explain it to you like this: if I invite you to my house tonight. And I say, hey, come on, we're going to have dessert at my house tonight, dessert and coffee. Come on. When you get there, you don't even have to bring anything. Just bring your favorite mug.
We'll fill it up with coffee and let's have dessert. And it's exciting. You know, all these people are going to be there. You've been waiting all day. I'm going to hang out.
It's going to be fun tonight. And you show up in my house and the coffee's ready. And you pour your coffee. You get your cream and your sugar in it. And you go around the counter looking for.
The dessert. Where are the desserts? And instead of desserts, you see a bowl of flour, you see a bowl of sugar, you see a bowl of butter, a bowl of raw eggs, and you see a bowl of cinnamon and spices. You go, where's the cake? And I say to you, oh, here, put a little bit of flour on your plate, put a little egg on your plate, put a little cinnamon on your plate, here's some baking powder, put it on your plate.
Just mix it up and eat it. You would think I was a nut. You would think I was a nut. Hmm. But yet that's how we teach that Scripture.
It is the love of the Spirit, the whole cake. I mean the fruit of the Spirit, the whole cake. is love. The other things are parts of love. It's like an apple.
If you bite the apple is love. If you bite into the apple, you taste the self-control. You you taste the joy, the juice. You you taste the meat of the of the apple which is the patience and down inside is the seed and and and so all those different parts make up the apple. But It's still the apple.
The apple is the love. The love is the fruit of the Spirit. That is what was shed abroad in your heart when you were born again. And over the next, if you'll keep listening, you keep learning, you'll go, wait a second, what? You mean everything?
It's all about love. It is all about love. And we're going to have to jump to this next episode. We're going to have to do this because we're still over here in Romans 5, and I want to get through this exciting experience of what Paul talks about: where we learn that we're justified. We pray the sinner's prayer and we ask God to come in our heart and we're reconciled to Him, is what He talks about, and what the law couldn't do for us now.
We have freedom in the life of Christ Jesus, and you're growing and learning, and that love has been shed abroad in your heart. And he says this in, let's jump to chapter eight. He says, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do. That's what I was talking about. When I was a drill instructor, I realized I could put rules and regulations on people, but I could not change their character.
The only thing I did was control them. I could not change the inner man. Let me tell you something, folks. You could be anywhere in the world and be under a communist regime, under a Western mindset, under a whatever, a fascist or whatever. You could be anywhere in the world and the one thing they can never control is your inner man.
Oh, you may do everything right on the outside and obey their rules and regulations, but nobody's ever been able to control the inner man. The mind. And the inner man, the spirit of man. They might break your spirit, they might mold you. But there are always those who rise up there because why?
Because no matter what they do, the law, the regulations, the oppression cannot do that. And that's what Paul's saying right here. He says, for what the law could not do, it was weak through the flesh. Why? Because the law affects the flesh, the outward man, the outward man.
So religion and all these rules and regulations is about the outward man. But God, sending his own son in the likeness of the sinful flesh and sin, condemns sin in the flesh. By sending Jesus here, he condemned all of that. And he said, For the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the law or the flesh, but after the spirit. And what is the spirit?
What is the spirit? Who is God? What is God? He's love, agape. And he put a portion of his nature in you.
That's what the spirit is. The Holy Spirit, however, you want to say it, and if it's God, if it's Jesus, if it's the Holy Spirit, it's love. Jesus was the greatest, he was the example of love set forth for us. He was the demonstration of the potential of love that you and I could walk in. And he said, and you can do greater works.
He wasn't just referring to miracles, signs, and wonders. He was referring to the God nature. What is the God nature? The God nature is the God inside of you that you can live by. And what is that?
Love. Agape, agape, agape. Agape, it's all, it's agape. And remember, agape is a noun. It says in verse 5: for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
Why? If you're after the law, you're out after the outward appearance, you're after everything that's on the outside, you're after the flesh, which is why you have that struggle with all those things. Why? Because those struggles are not from the outward, they're from inside you, they're from down inside your old nature. And the only thing that can overcome that.
Is to grow love, is the nature that was shed abroad in your heart. Remember the story, and I hope I explained this correctly where Jesus is saying: if a man's house is cleaned out, the demons leave him and it's all swept clean. That's what religion does. Everything's swept clean. You've prayed and asked God to forgive you, and now everything's swept clean, but you don't begin to fill that house with something else.
When he comes back, what's he going to find? He's going to find a nice, clean house, and he's going to bring more demons with him. You're going to end up worse off than you were before. Jesus was talking about that.
So, what do you put in there? What goes in there? What spirit? Have you ever read that and go, what's he talking about? What do I put in here so I don't get filled again with all these bad things?
You put love in, you put the spirit of love in. You fill it with love. And when love grows in there, listen, love and hate cannot coexist together. They are opposites. That's why Jes God says in 1 John, you cannot hate your brethren and love God.
You cannot do it. You cannot be cruel to other people. and love God. It's impossible. I don't care if you're wearing a suit and a tie and preaching this Sunday.
If you hate people, you're not born again. You are deceived, is what 1 John says. If you treat people like you're cruel, you're mean, and all those things, the Bible says that it's obvious that you're not born again. You do not have the nature of God, the love of God in you. Yeah.
For he who is carnally minded is death.
Well, there you go, right there. That's the next verse, and yet we just explained it. What is carnally minded? It's, you know, everybody goes, well, that's drinking, that's smoking, that's drugs, that's thieving. Yeah, but that's also cruelty.
hate, gossip, slander? Religion? Carnally minded is referring to the world's nature, the old way, the BC man. That's what it's worth. referring to.
It's death. It's death. But he that liveth is spiritually minded is life and peace. Oh, I love that because, you know. What is life?
The Zoe life. How do you tap into the Zoe life? By loving. And we're running out of time, but when we get to Romans, further into Romans, you're going to be like, oh my gosh. What is being spiritually minded?
It's endeavoring to walk in love. See, there's two different words for love.
Well, there's actually 32 different words in the Bible used for love. The two that I'm referring to that you've heard is either agape or agapeo.
Now, you've probably also heard phileo, and a lot of people preach on the brotherly love nature, which is phileo, and all the different words, Philadelphia, all of that. But I'm speaking, I'm preaching on the victorious love, the God kind of love, the transforming kind of love. And the nature of God is agape. When we were created in his image in man, when Adam was created and Eve were created, they were created in agape, in the image of God. That's what the image of God is: is love.
It's not just five fingers, toes, hair, eyeballs, all that. I mean, I don't have a sword coming out of my mouth and fiery eyes like Jesus. But I do have the image of love. I have the potential to be recreated and born again and develop the image of love in my life. And so I have the potential.
So that love nature was lost when Adam ate of the apple. Why? Jesus said, if you love me, you'll. Obey me.
So, what did they do? They disobeyed God. And the funny thing is, that liar, the devil, and he'll do this to you. They were created in the image of God. And what's the first thing the devil attacked?
He goes, well. If you do this you'll be like God. The first thing out of Adam's mouth and uh And I'm not condemning Adam. I'm not any of that. But the thought comes to me: Adam, why didn't you just say, I'm already like God?
Like kind is what Genesis says. I'm already like God. But no, he didn't do it. The deception was so strong, like just like it is in the media and in the world, the deception is so strong, you don't realize you already are, so you fall for it. But we get into Ephesians talking about love, and he tells you that you won't be swayed back and forth by the cunning teachings.
Why? Because you're rooted and grounded in love. I love that. Rooted and grounded. That's the image of that seed growing.
That seed that was planted in your heart is growing and coming into all the fruition of what you're supposed to do. And after a while, as you keep practicing and developing, what happens? That tree that was you begins to produce fruit. But he it so I I I and running rabbit trails, but I started out by saying that it's agape.
So, how do we develop that? How do we nurture that? How do we?
Well, that's the other word. Agape is a noun, it's a description of who God is and what we are to become and what was shed abroad in our heart. But. Then there's a Gapaheo. Used almost many times is the word agape.
So you've got agape and agapeo. Agapeo A G A P K-P-E-O is a verb. It's an action. It's what you do. I call it the daily practice.
and endeavoring to mimic or imitate love. Could see You don't want to wake up in the morning. When we wake up in the morning, most of us don't just wake up and go, Oh, you know, we wake up and it doesn't take long before something comes at us and something breaks forth and says, I'm going to steal your joy, I'm going to cause this, I'm going to cause that. And you want to lose your love. And so every day you have to remind yourself, you have to choose and say, Okay.
And what happens is you renew your mind to it, and the old ways pass away. And now the love nature begins to take over and grow and mature within you. And the next thing you know, you're walking in love. And people are going, why did you let them do that to you?
Well, I'm not worried about it. I forgive them. You know, somebody said to me, John, every time you help people, one out of two of them. Rip you off. I said, Yep.
You're right. I mean, it was the truth. He goes, then why do you do it? I said, because. For the one that does it right, the one that doesn't rip me off, it's worth it.
And it's not for me to decide what they do with what God tells me to give them. That's between them and God. I'm not going to curse them. I'm not going to say anything bad. I'm going to bless them.
And I'm going to move on. If God told me to give something away or help somebody or do something to bless somebody, then who am I to question? How God deals with them or handles any of it later. You know, I prefer that people don't steal from me, lie to me, cheat me, do all of that stuff. I'm sure Jesus preferred that he didn't.
Well, we know he preferred not to have to hang on the cross because he sweated blood. But could you He still did it. Because he sees the potential. He saw that it was worth it.
So, when people do us wrong and we don't feel like walking in love and we're stressed out or whatever, we. It's okay. They know not what they do, Father.
So we're going to have to pick some of this up in the next episode. But as we go forward and we start talking about the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwells in you, that he raised Christ up from the dead and quickened your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you.
So he said over there in Romans 5:5 that he shed that spirit, that love, that seed in you. And now he's talking about, why? Because now he's no longer talking about the struggle. He's beginning to start talking about the victory. He's starting to talk about the transformation, the journey.
Where in the early parts of Romans, he's talking the law, he's talking justification, he's talking the struggle, he's talking about the sin nature and the law couldn't help. Then in Romans, he here in Romans 8, he cuts it off. He goes, Because what the law couldn't do, the Spirit has done. And will do. And so he's talking about the life of Christ in you, which is love, the life of love.
Folks, the life of Christ was a demonstration of love. For God so loved the world he gave. Jesus said, I renew with you my original command. To love one another, even as I have loved you. He loved you, even as I have loved you.
Even as Think of that. And then, so as we kind of speed through this, and I'm just trying to get something out to you, and I know I'm skipping a lot, I'm hitting the high roads of this journey through Romans because I'm trying to get something through to you. I don't know if you're going to be listening next week or whatever, but he says, And if you go through Romans, so he's coming down, he's talking about the Spirit. He says, For you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you live through the Spirit to do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. How do you, what is the spirit?
The spirit is love. And then he says this in verse 14: And for so many years I pondered this, I studied this, and I was focused. And he said, on getting this secret, he said, For as many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of bondage again of fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we say, Abba, Father. For the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
No more struggle. Salvation experience. He's now talking about your adoption, and he says that you be led by the Spirit. The Spirit of what? The Spirit of love.
I hear people teaching that two of my favorite things to teach on is love and being led by the Spirit. And I always teach them together because you can never teach someone to be led by the Spirit. apart from love. Because there's many spirits out there. But you can always test the spirits how love.
If it's a spirit of love, then it's probably a spirit of what? God. There is only one spirit. But the point is: you can't be led by the spirit and not. Love.
That's impossible according to the Word of God. You're deceived if you are, or you're working through familiar spirits, or whatever it is. But the love of God is the Spirit of God. And and many of you, you still have a mindset that love is weak and all these different things that you don't ever want to be, but that's because you don't understand love. You don't understand love yet.
You don't understand the God kind of love.
So, to you, a lot of what I'm saying to you today, you're misconstruing love. Because of what the world has taught you, what love is, what Hollywood has taught you what love is, what Dr. Seuss taught you what love is. But in reality, love is not those things. That's the man version of love.
The God kind of love is something completely different. And I believe with all of my heart, it is what we will walk in before He returns. All of creation, he goes on to say this in verse. nineteen. For With earnest expectation, all of creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
What are the sons of God? If God is love, Then what should the sons of God be? If if the devil Is hate And since and all of that, then what would his children be?
So if God is love, His Spirit is love, His Son walked love and taught us love and gave us the example of love, and the glory of God is love. A whole nother thing. Many of you will probably be like, Oh, I love the glory of God, the Shekinah glory of God. Let me tell you, the Shekinah glory of God was the manifest presence of the love of God that sat on the ark. It's what descended in the Holy of Holies.
And that's why I, and we'll have to do a great teaching on this about why. Apart from love, you cannot walk into the throne room of God.
Well, Brother John, Hebrews says, therefore boldly. No, no, no, no, no, listen. First off, before you just go quoting scripture about what you can or can't do, are you where he was when he wrote that? And have you are you taking the whole counsel of the word of God? Because you are not bounding into the throne room of God.
If you haven't learned to love. Paul said that he was caught up into a different level of heaven. And I I I Maybe we'll do this teaching, but there are a lot of people you're going to get to heaven, and you're going to have to spend a while learning what you didn't practice here.
Okay. You know, because how many of us, when we get to heaven, God's going to look at us and say, Did you learn to love? No, you gotta go to school. And and I'm speculating here on some of this, but you're getting the point, I hope. The scriptures clearly teach us.
Love. Love. That is the new nature. It is who you were created to be. That's why so many of you out there listening, see, you became born again, you accepted Jesus as Lord, and then your life just turned neurotic and full of controversy, and you're at conflict with yourself.
You know something's not right. I'm telling you why. Because your new nature wants you to walk in love. Your new nature wants you to love, but you refuse to do it.
So, you struggle and you debate and you worry and you stress, and people think you're wacko or whatever, or people think you don't know Jesus, or people think you're not born again. Why? Because you're not walking in love. I mean, I know people who don't know these scriptures and couldn't teach this, and they walk in love in such incredible measures. But it's obvious.
You know why the world mocks the church? Because even the world knows. That we're supposed to be love. and become love. And we haven't.
Oh, there's been a few here there. And there's been restoration of the word and teaching of the word and different things. But what God's endeavoring to do in these last days before any kind of revival can come is. That people will rise up and begin to walk and talk and act like God. And what is that?
That's love. Walk and talk and begin to act like agape. For the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Has made me free from the law of sin and death you need to overcome something Then throw yourself into the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. What is that?
Love? What is the law that Jesus gave us? He gave us one command. That you love one another, even as I have loved you.
So, what is the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus? Love. The Spirit, the law of the Spirit, is love. That's it. And it's so simple.
It's confusing and complicated because people want it to be hard. Oh, let me tell you something. If you will walk in love, your life will have enough challenges and be hard enough. you'll be like, Okay, I'm staying right here. The abuses people will say, Oh, well, you know, they'll just walk in love.
I literally, I can tell you that in the last 25-30 years, people I've heard people say out loud, Well, John will forgive us, he'll walk in love. They'll make decisions to do me and my family wrong, and then they'll go, Well, they'll forgive us, they're going to walk in love. They know. I had a time. But do we do that all the time with Jesus?
We sin and then go, well, Jesus will forgive me. They'll do it to him, they'll do it to you. Walking in love. is the greatest challenge you could ever have. Both victorious.
and and edifying and encouraging, but people will not understand you. and they will come after you with everything they've got. Because they don't understand it. But it but it is what God wants us to be. He said, As they've hated me, they'll hate you.
So don't fret, don't worry. Let it go. And just walk in love. When we come back next episode, we'll pick up where we've left off and keep going because there's a journey here we've got to get through. This exciting journey in Romans.
Listen, we love you. We appreciate you. Thank you for listening. And may God bless you. And would you bless God?
Bless God by bl being love to somebody tomorrow. Love somebody today and tomorrow. and in doing so caused them to cry out to God and bless him. Live in a manner that causes people to praise God because of you. We love you and appreciate you and thank you for listening.
Remember, Jesus loves people, and love never fails. Thank you for listening to Love Never Fails as we pursue revival. Remember, Jesus loves people, and love never fails. For more information on Love Never Fails and ministry events, please email us at love neverfails with brojohn at gmail.com. That's love never fails with B-R-O-J-O-H-N at gmail.com.
Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah
