“We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” And this is the gospel witness, therefore. This is the message that we have to give. This is the purpose of our love. It’s not something that’s sloppy—and again I have to come back and say it again—Christian love is not sentimental; it’s not sexual; it’s not social; it’s not something that you have at the church banquet. It is something, my friend, that reveals it when we take Christ to a lost world—to sinners. That is the way we manifest our love today.

“By this know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” And that, my friends, is the real test. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer. Remember “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” You’re indwelt by the Spirit of God. Now, the Spirit of God can produce this love in your heart. You can’t produce it. I can’t produce it. I can’t love like that. My natural bent is that when somebody hits me I hit back. But the Spirit of God who indwells us, if we are filled by His Spirit, we’re going to manifest that kind of love to the world out yonder.

My friend, though God loves you, He does not save you by love and He cannot save you by love. God had to do something about the fact that God is holy and righteous and what He does is right. So God gave His Son to die on the cross for you and me to pay the penalty for our sins, so that a holy God can now reach down and save us. And it’s only on that basis today that a holy God can save us, friends. Christ is the mercy seat. Now, that’s where God reveals His love. He “gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, that God sent his only Son, his only begotten Son, into the world, that we might live through him.” Now God has proven His love. And as Paul says, “He lay down His life for us.” God has proven His love. He gave His Son to die for you, and He gave Him to die for you not after you won the Sunday school bar for attending Sunday school and not missing a Sunday for about five years. God loved us when we were yet sinners—while we were without strength, while we were lost, while we were absolutely unlovely—God loved us.

John is making it very clear to us that the important thing is that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be. That’s important, my friends. John was sure of who the Lord Jesus was. John could say this: “The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John had indubitable, indestructible, inevitable evidence that Jesus was who He claimed to be. John knew that. And that is something you and I need to be a little more sure of today.

The thing is that every child of God is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Now, since that is true, and that’s the reason you don’t need an angel to appear to you tonight to tell you that you’re in the wrong place. The thing is that you need to have the Holy Spirit teach you. And, friends, the Holy Spirit teaches through His Word. And you can’t just stay away from the Bible and be ignorant of it and ignore it and expect to have the Spirit of God lead you and guide you. That’s the reason that we’re trying to get people in the Word today. Because the Spirit of God opens people’s hearts.

A great many folk today are talking about the coming of Christ, but they don’t seem to be doing anything. Now, when you and I come into His presence, it’s going to be a very awesome experience. Because He’s going to demand some fruit. “What have you been doing? ‘If you love me, keep my commandments.’” And one of them is to get the Word of God out, take it to the ends of the earth. Are you involved in that in any way? Are you involved in anything that reveals that you’re a child of God? That is the important thing. A great many Christians are not getting involved in actually the thing that the Lord is interested in, and we’re going to have to give an account before Him someday.

Paul found out in the seventh of Romans that there are two things: There’s no good in the old nature. And the second thing was there’s no power in the new nature. You’ve got to have help. I don’t care who you are. You can’t live the Christian life yourself. You must have help. It’s only the Spirit of God working in you that can do that. Therefore, he wants you to produce fruit, and that’s the reason the Lord Jesus said, “I am the genuine vine, you are the branches.” Now He says, “I’m going to prune you.” And I pruned that tree above, and it bears better fruit when it’s pruned. And He prunes us to get good fruit. But sometimes down there in that old nature it will bear fruit, too, and it’s called the works of the flesh.

“Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.” Now, we’re dealing with something that’s very important. Now, what does he mean by that? Well, the believer who abides in Christ does not practice sin. He doesn’t live in it. The sinner lives in it all the time. The child of God’s got a new nature. He cannot live a sinful life. Again, I must say it. Pigs live in pigpens. Prodigal sons come home. Oh, they can get in the pigpen, but they’re not going to stay there, and while they’re there, they’re miserable—always, if they’re God’s child. Now, if you can be happy in sin, then, my friend, you’re not God’s child. Because God’s children, they have the nature of their Father.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Now, He died for the sin of the world. He is the propitiation for our sins; not ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. He died a redemptive death, to pay the penalty of our sin. But He also died for our sins that He might deliver us right here and now from the power of sin. And He wants us to live for Him. He was without spot and without blemish, and He offered Himself for yours and mine and that you and I might live for Him today.