Shabbat Shalom! We will open our Bibles today to the Epistle of 1 John. Today we are in 1 John chapter 4 and we are going to begin from verse 17. into chapter 5 and verse 5. Yohanan, the Hebrew Apostle, is writing to Mishpachat Elohim, to the family of God, and he is continuing to deliberate that important subject of love, of Ahava, as we say this in Hebrew. The love of God is so important, not only that we receive the love of God, but also to communicate this with each other. And today, in this ministry meeting, we are going to speak about that true love is fearless and submissive. And so Yohanan, that is John, is continuing to speak about this, and he began here from verse 17.

And he says, listen to this, beloved brothers and sisters. He says, herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he had not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.

Chapter 5, in verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of God. And everyone that loveth him that beget loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Yeshua is the Son of God. This is the end of the portion of the reading for today.

Beloved brothers and sisters, John, though he talks a lot about love in his first epistle, there's a lot of doctrine and teaching that is found here in the text that we have read today. And it is very important for every one of us, beloved brothers and sisters, to know doctrine, to know teaching. It's not enough just to talk about love without to understand doctrine, doctrinal teaching that we have in the Word of God. I mentioned this before, that we are linked with Yeshua the Messiah in twofold links. There is the link of union, and there is a link of communion. The link of union is once and for all, it is a positional relationship that we have in the person of Yeshua the Messiah that is no one can ever separate from the child of God.

But with the link of communion, that is where we fail much as believers. And that's why Yohanan, that is John the Apostle, is really speaking to the Mishpacha, the family of God, and he wants to instruct them, to help them to understand these fundamentals that are found in the Word of God. And it's very helpful for us to grasp it in our learning of the Word of God. Well, John now is pointing to a test of true love for God. You see, how do we know that we are walking with the Lord and enjoying the things of the Lord? What is the evidence in our own life to really prove to ourselves, to others, that we are really enjoying our relationship with God, with our Lord Jesus the Messiah?

So, just in the previous verses that we have read, John said, God is love. You remember that? 1 John 4:8 God is love. He that loveth not knoweth not God. Why? Because God is love. Then, the last verse in our ministry meeting that we have had in our previous meeting together, in verse 16, he said, And we have known and believe the love that God has to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. In other words, because God, in his essence, his love, and therefore the people who dwell and enjoy him, it will be evident in their own life.

And so, now he continues, and he's really dwelling upon the important fact that how do we test, in a practical way, in our life, what is really our true love towards the Lord, and true enjoyment of the fact that God is love. And so, he gives us really four points that he highlights for the family of God to understand it. Well, the first point that I would like to mention here in 1 John 4:17, 18, and 19, it is important. Here is a doctrinal truth that we have to grasp. Every believer should grow in boldness, in confidence, in our life, in the fact that we have enjoyed the love of God towards us.

Notice he says in verse 17 that a believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, need not to be afraid of judgment. And look what he says. Herein is our love made perfect, or mature, in that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Why? Because as he is, so are we in this world. See, this is a very important verse that we must grasp. Everyone will have to stand in judgment before the Lord one day. We know from Hebrews chapter 9 that every person must be one day stand before the living God. Yes, it is appointed unto men once to die. But after this, the judgment, the writer of the book of Hebrews said to the Hebrew believers of first century.

Every person in this universe will have one day to stand before God, and if he is not saved, if he or she are not belonging to Yeshua the Messiah, they are going to have to face the judgment because of their sin nature and their sins that they have committed. But he is speaking to the family of God, to those that have already embraced Yeshua as their Messiah and Lord and Savior. And he says, here is our love made perfect or mature in that we may have boldness. When we are going to have boldness? In the day of judgment. The judgment. Now, there are more than two judgments that we have in Scripture, but two judgments that are clearly awaiting the human race.

The first one is called, according to 2 Corinthians 5:10, the judgment seat of the Messiah. Paul said, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah." The judgment seat of the Messiah is only for believers. And there at the judgment seat of the Messiah, we are not going to be judged for our sins, but we will be judged for our works. How did we live our lives as believers in Yeshua the Messiah? From the day that we have accepted him until the day that we left this world. And everyone, that all, are all believers. The writer said, "For we must all, we, me and you, all believers must appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah." There Yeshua is going to evaluate our lives as believers.

That's going to happen, by the way, after the rapture of the church, before the tribulation period. All of us who are believers in Yeshua are going to be taken out of here, and we're going to be at the judgment seat of the Messiah. And then he's going to reward us for that which we have done for our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And whatever we didn't do for Yeshua the Messiah, and all of us know very well how often time we have dishonored him as believers, all going to be burnt and set aside completely. But there's another judgment, and that's called the great white throne judgment found in Revelation chapter 20.

There, beloved brothers and sisters, all unbelievers going to have to appeal at the great white throne judgment. And it's not a matter of evaluating the works of those who are going to stand there before the Messiah, the judge. There, their question is going to be asked, "What have you done with Yeshua the Messiah?" "Have you accepted him as your Lord and Savior and Messiah?" "Have you confessed your sins?" "Have you invited him into your own hearts?" "Are your sins being dealt with?" "And everyone that is going to be standing before the judge at the great white throne judgment is going to be cast into the lake of fire because they have refused to accept him as their Lord and Savior.

Now you see what the Apostle Yohanan John is saying here, that every believer now, because we are part of the Mishpacha of the family of God, we need now to grow in confidence and in boldness because what's going to happen in the day of judgment, we are going to be there and we know very well that all our sins have been dealt with once and for all when we have accepted Yeshua the Messiah. You see, the believer need to understand that he or she now are not condemned at all because we took side with the Messiah. For example, I give you Romans chapter 8 and verse 1.

The Apostle Paul says to the Roman believers, "There is therefore now no condemnation for them which are in the Messiah Yeshua, in Christ Jesus." When God look at the believer, he cannot condemn us anymore because our sins have been already judged when Yeshua died for us on the cross. If he will judge us again, he must judge the Messiah again. And he died once, never anymore to repeat this. And so we see what happens sometimes, brothers and sisters, there are believers who know Yeshua the Messiah as their Lord and Savior, but because they are not enjoying the love of God in their lives, they don't have this confidence or boldness, you might say, or growth in their lives to understand that really God will not judge them a second time because their sins have been judged already when Yeshua the Messiah have died for them on the tree.

Look what Yeshua said in John 5 and verse 24. This is why doctrine is very important for every person to grasp. Yeshua is saying, "Verily, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that send me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." You see, so what's happened when we are enjoying God's love in our life? We grow, and that's why you notice 1 John 4 and verse 17, it says, "Herein is our love made mature or made perfect or mature and grow, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." In other words, what he's saying to the believers, to the family of God, to the children of God, he says, "Listen, you have to grow in your love towards the Lord and appreciation of His love for you and to have this knowledge in your life that when I'm going to stand before God one day, I will never anymore have to face the sin question because once and for all, Yeshua the Messiah paid for that." And how do we able to appreciate it?

You know, don't you feel sometime that when we dishonor the Lord and we sin against the Lord, and we have this sense of heaviness. We have this sense of unworthiness. And we say, "Lord, I missed it again. I've dishonored you again." And we know it's wrong. The important thing is to confess it, 1 John 1:9, and to forsake it so we can have fellowship with God and continue to mature and grow and realize that all the sins of the past, all the sins of the future that I will commit, and all the sins of the present, all have been once and for all dealt by the finished work that Yeshua have accomplished for us on the tree.

And that's how we mature every day as we are walking with the Lord, enjoying not even our love for Him, but His love for us. The proof of His love for us is when He was nailed to the cross 2,000 years ago. The just one. For me, the unjust one. For you, the unjust one. That's why Yohanan is saying, herein is our love. Notice, our love made perfect. Our love is maturing. The word for perfect is really the Greek word to mature, to grow, to develop. And he says that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Why? Because as He is, so are we in this world.

In other words, listen, when Yeshua finished the work on the tree, God had been so satisfied that He placed him at the pinnacle of the universe. And He says to him, for every work that you have done, everyone that trusts in you, his or her sins are totally removed. As He is, so are we right now in this world, accepted in the Beloved. Accepted because of the work that He has done for us, beloved brothers and sisters. Sometimes I hear of those people who belong to the Lord and confess that they belong to Yeshua the Messiah, but they have this constant lack of assurance that their sins are totally forgiven.

They are not sure if they are really saved. So they are not growing in appreciation of the love of God towards them. In other words, they are really saying to God, really, God, the work of Yeshua the Messiah is not sufficient. I am not sure if what He has done is satisfactory. And you see, instead of trusting in the work of the Messiah, they trust in themselves and their ability to keep themselves saved. And that is wrong. We are not able to keep ourselves saved. Because the moment we leave this meeting, and we go out and we fail in sin, every sin demand the judgment.

Look at what he said in Ephesians chapter 1. The apostle Paul says in verse 5 and 6, "Having predestinated us unto adoption of the children by Yeshua the Messiah to Himself, according to His good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He made us accepted in the Beloved." We are not accepted in ourselves, but we are accepted in the Beloved. As He is, so are we in this world. God has accepted His work, and we are accepted in Him. Now, it's so beautiful to see a believer that enjoying the love of God in his or her life, and it's shining out in the relationship to others, and they communicate this with others.

They are not condoning sin. Not at all. Paul says, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Of course not. But they are appreciative of the love of God, which fully and completely have done away with all the sin questioned once and for all. We have been accepted in the Beloved. Just one more verse I want to read as well. Paul also writing in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12. He said, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which had made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who had delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us unto the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Listen, we either have redemption or we don't have redemption.

We are either in or we are out. We are either saved or we are lost. We are either going to heaven or we are going to hell. There is no in-between. This is important, beloved brothers and sisters to understand. So every believer should grow in his confidence that when we are going to stand one day before the Lord, we have no fear of judgment anymore because of the love of God through Yeshua the Messiah made us suitable, made us accepted in the Beloved as He is. So are we in this world. Accepted. Now verse 18. He continued, Yohanan, to tell them, "God's perfect love casts out fear." And you notice what he is saying here.

And I want to elaborate here a little bit about this because it says in verse 18, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love." You see, beloved brothers and sisters, this is again doctrine, this is teaching. Perfect love casts out fear. Not your perfect love or my perfect love. We don't have perfect love. You see, our love towards Him is very whiny. One day we love Him more, the next day we love Him less. Our love towards each other is also whiny. One day we like you, the other day we don't love you anymore.

But God's love is a perfect, perfect love. There is no greater love than the love of God. There is no greater love when He proved it, when He sent His Son Yeshua the Messiah. So that perfect love ought to cast out fear. Now the Hebrew word for fear is pachad. When a person has to be afraid of standing before God, he or she know that they are not right with God. You see, why are people afraid of death? Because, naturally speaking, we are all by nature afraid of death. Why? Because we know when we die, we are not sure about what's going to happen after death.

And that's why people, human beings, they are often trying to cover their fear, to appease God by doing all sorts of things. For example, the first time that we find fear is found in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned. What did Adam do immediately in his wife? They feared God, they hide. They hide behind the trees there, and they even cover themselves, and they began to pretend as if everything is okay. They are not naked. They are okay. You see, they cover themselves with fig leaves. That's how it began, right? In the Garden of Eden, when sin came into this world. When Chet had come into this world.

But you see what happened? The perfect love of God. Take away fear. You see, there is a difference between pachad, to be afraid, and yirah, to have the fear of God. In Proverbs 1:7 we read, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." That is a reverential fear. That is an honor to God. But the believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, when his or her sins have been dealt once and for all, there is no need to be afraid, because it says there is no fear in love. God loves us to such an extent that he doesn't want us to have this fear from him, because perfect love casts away fear.

We don't need to be afraid of God, because God becomes our Abba, our Father. And he loves us so much, He doesn't condone our sins. For this he judged the Messiah, the Mashiach Yeshua. But he loves us to the extent that he dealt with this question of sin. And he wants us to respond to him. Now you notice what it says in verse 18b. It says, "Because fear has torment." Now I've enjoyed explanation of another. You see, there is a difference between torment and torture. I don't know if you have seen just recently what we heard on the television, how they have burned alive a man, a pilot.

How evil man is that is able to torture. Torture has to do with physical suffering. But torment, it doesn't have to do with the physical suffering, but it has to do with the sufferings of the mind. Just the thinking. You know, sometimes when we are afraid of something, we don't have torment on our body. We don't have torture in our body, but we have torment in our mind. We are afraid. What's going to happen? And we sweat at night. And we feel so bad because we have these thoughts, the thinking that are tormenting us. So there is a difference between torment and torture. In Hebrew, it's enuit.

To do evil things to the body. To burn a person alive. This is not torment. This is torture. So what he is really saying here, because fear has torment. You see, what happens when we are afraid of judgment or something, we begin to think. We have a suffering of the mind. By the way, that word for torment is the Greek word, Colasis, K-O-L-A-S-I-S, in the biblical text, which speaks of the word for punishment. It is used only twice in the New Testament. The first time it's used in the Gospel of Matthew, and the second time it is used in 1 John 4:19. And I want you to go to Matthew, please, chapter 25, with me, back to the Gospel of Matthew, where Yeshua was speaking in connection is the tribulation period, and what's going to happen for those who are unbelievers when they're going to die without their sins forgiven.

Matthew, chapter 25, John said there in verse 46, this is the last verse of chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." That word for punishment is the same word for torment in 1 John 4:18. In other words, when someone is afraid, because his thoughts, Padre and his mind is afraid of consequences. But he says here in verse 18, there is no fear in God's love. The perfect love of God casting away all fear. We don't need to be afraid when we're going to stand before God because our sins have been dealt with once and for all. And then he says fear has torment.

The mind of a person is thinking about all the evil and the wrong that he has done and he or she not realizing that they have been already dealt once and for all on the tree when Yeshua himself finished the work for us on the cross. Now do you remember in Luke chapter 16, Yeshua was telling a story about the rich man and Lazarus. And you remember when Lazarus died, he was taken to Abraham's bosom, Luke 16. But when the rich man died, he was taken unto hell, unto Hades. And there he was, it used the word tormented. And he says, "Father Abraham, send Lazarus that he will dip the tip of his finger in water in my tongue because I am tormented here." And you know what Father Abraham told him?

He says, "Son, remember that when you were in your lifetime you had all the pleasures of this world but you didn't want God in your life." But Lazarus didn't have much. And now Lazarus believed in God Lazarus is here in Abraham's bosom and you are there away from the bosom of Abraham. You are in Hades. You are tormented. But the tormentation there was a tormentation of the mind. He was thinking and he looking back. And that's why Abraham said to him, "Remember." Where you remember? In your head, in your mind. You look back and you see, I had the opportunity to have my sins forgiven and I rejected the Messiah Yeshua.

Now it is too late. And this rich man is looking back and what does he see? He says, "Wow, I played the fool. I should have accepted the Messiah and I rejected him." So what he is really teaching us here, beloved brothers and sisters, fear for the unbeliever is really a torment, is a mind, is a suffering of the mind just thinking, "I have rejected God. I had an opportunity to accept him and all my sins are now laid upon me." And that's why John is saying, "Listen, there is no fear in love. Perfect love casts away fear. In fear, there is tormentation, but you should not have that because it is for the unbeliever.

The believer should grow and mature in appreciation of the love of God. Perfect love casts out fear. And therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, it is so wonderful to know that God once and for all has moved our sins away from us." Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7, he said, "For God has not given unto us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." God did not give us the spirit of fear, beloved brothers and sisters, but he gave us the spirit of power, the spirit of love, the spirit of sound mind. Those of us that are truly accepted Yeshua, the Messiah is our Lord and Savior, we do not have to fear from a day of judgment because the judgment has passed by.

The Messiah Yeshua bore our sins in his body on the tree. And therefore, perfect love casts us out fear. The love of God casts us out fear. In verse 19, we are still speaking about the first thing every believer should grow in appreciation of God's love. In verse 19, we love because he first loved us. Now you notice that I omitted the word him. In verse 19, we love him because he first loved us. In most of the older manuscripts, the word him is not mentioned here. because it's not a matter of loving God here only, but the point is here that he's trying to say, we love in general.

We love mankind. We love others. We love God. Why? Because God first loved us. His love has been proven in the fact that he gave his son for us on the tree. And therefore, he said, we love because he first loved us. Wonderful truth to understand. In 1 John chapter 4, in verse 10, it says, here in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Really, brothers and sisters, we love in general, because we appreciate God's love, unconditional love towards us. And that's why it is awful, when we, not appreciative of God's love towards us, and we treat each other in a bad way, an unbecoming way, that is not growing in appreciation of the love of God.

It has only proved to us that we haven't grown, and mature enough to appreciate what God has done for us. As he began here in our verses, verse 17, here in our love being made perfect, being mature, because we have appreciated what God has done for us, in loving us and giving his son for us. So, every believer should grow in appreciation of the love of God. I hope we all do so. I hope we all grow in this. If we don't grow in this, then something is lacking. We are not appreciating his love for us. We got to check ourselves, and ask the Lord to help us in this.

And so he is moving on now. Not only that every believer should grow in confidence, because of the love of God, but every believer is called to a true practice of love, the love of God in our own life. This is verses 20 and 21. Every believer is called to be true to this love of God in practical way. The last two verses here in chapter 4, verses 20 and 21, look what he is saying. If any man say, I love God, and hate his brother, or we can say his sister, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he had not seen?

And verse 21 said, and this commandment we have from him, that he who loveth God, loveth his brother or his sister also. Now, you see, sometime in our behavior, in our pretension, we actually really approve that we really don't love God in a proper way. You see, we have never seen God. No man has seen God and live, we read in the Gospel of John. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he had declared him, this is Yeshua the Messiah, we haven't seen God. So how do we show our love for God? You see, we just read in verse 19, we love because he first loved us.

Well, how do we show that we really love God, and love God's people, if we have friction among each other, and not only friction, because here it says, if any man say, you notice the word saying, you know, it's easy to say words, oh, yes, I love God, but at the same time, I'm turning around, and I hate a brother that is made in an image and a likeness of God. So he says, you know what, and John is very clear. John does not beat around the bush, he doesn't say, it's not nice. And he says, you are a liar. He's saying to me, he's saying to you, you are a liar, if you say that you love God, and you harbor hatred against your brothers and your sisters, who are made in an image and a likeness of God, who are forgiven just like you, who are part of the body of Messiah, who have been redeemed, just like you have been redeemed.

If you have hatred towards them, actually, you are a liar. Notice that word here. And by the way, John is saying it more than once. Notice in chapter 2 and verse 4, he said, he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, he's a liar. 1 John 2 and verse 22, who is the liar, but he that denies that Yeshua is the Messiah. John, Yohanan, is using the word liar, shakran in Hebrew, many times in his epistle, in his letter. But this time, he's really speaking to the believers, to the family of God, and he's saying, listen, really, it is a lie that you say that you love God, and you harbor hatred against your brother or your sister.

This is making you a liar. And brothers and sisters, isn't it true, the danger that we have, and the time it happened. That's why we need to judge ourselves, and examine ourselves again, and again, and again, and confess it before the Lord. Thank God for the throne of grace, where we can come to the presence of the Lord, in a time of need, and tell him, Lord, I fail you. Lord, I dishonor you. And we can be restored into fellowship with the Lord. He's the Lord. And that's why he's saying, hating a brother is lying. That expression, if any man say, is mentioned so many times in the epistle of John.

Chapter one, verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie. Chapter one, and verse eight, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Chapter one, and verse 10, if we say that we have not sin, we make him a liar. Chapter two, and verse four, he that sayeth, I know him, and keep not his commandments, he's a liar. Notice he used the word, if we say, if we say, if any man say, you know, it's very cheap to talk, right? It's another thing to, walk with the Lord. And how often time we say things, that we really don't mean them.

And therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, every believer, is not only called to grow, in boldness, in confidence, that he is not going to be judged anymore, because Yeshua judged it. But every believer, is called to be true, to God's love. And practice this towards, our brothers, and our sisters. So, if any man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he had seen, how can he love God, whom he had not seen? You know, the proof of our fellowship with the Lord, is our love towards one another. And you know, Yeshua said this many, many years ago, in the city of Jerusalem, Shaline, when he was, with his own Hebrew disciples, in the upper room, in that city, he says, "Listen, by this shall all men know, that you are my disciples, if you have love, one towards another." It's beautiful, to see, beloved brothers and sisters, turn with me, to Matthew chapter 22, and verse 36 to 40, and that is in connection, with the last verse, of 1st John chapter 4, verse 21.

Somebody came to ask Yeshua, and he said to him, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Remember, the church was not born at that time. He is speaking to the nation of Israel, as a Jewish man among his own people, the Messiah came, the church was not born, the Gentiles' world was not yet in, the body of Messiah have not begun as yet. He is there, in the midst of his own people of Israel, and they were talking, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah, the Torah that God gave our people Israel. So Yeshua answered, and he says to him, "Thou shall love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." This is the first, and a great commandment, but he didn't stop there.

And the second, is like unto it, "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." In Hebrew, "Ve ahavta l're'achah kamochah." And so what Yeshua is saying in verse 40, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." You see, it's not only a New Testament teaching that the believers are exhorted to love one another, and proving that they love God by loving one another. It was given to our people Israel a long time before God gave the law to our people Israel. Loving God and loving the neighbor or the brothers, the family and the people around him is an evidence of really love for God.

The first commandment is to love God. All the remaining is the love for God will be evident in the way that we behave towards one another. "Love your neighbor as yourself." In Matthew chapter 22 verse 36 to 40, Yeshua mentioned it. "Ve ahavta et Adonai Elohecha." Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. "Ve ahavta l're'achah kamochah." Leviticus 19 verse 18. "Love towards God is proven by love towards one another." And this is very challenging, brothers and sisters. We know this in our very own personal life, how we often fail. And may the Lord help us never to harbor hatred towards our brothers and sisters. We might dislike what they did. We might not appreciate how they behaved.

And they might not appreciate how we behave or what we have done. But never to harbor hatred against anyone. But especially not against the mishpacha, the family of God. How many families are broken because of hatred? How many homes are broken to pieces? Because the family cannot deal with each other. This hate this one and the other one hate this one. And listen, beloved brothers and sisters. This commandment have we from him. That he who loveth God loveth his brother also. Verse 21 of 1 John chapter 4. We have to be so guarding ourselves against hatred. We see what's going on in the world when it's come to hatred.

Hatred produce all sorts of evil. Hatred bring about such a sadness and sorrow. Hatred is not something that should be part of the life of the believer. When hatred rises up, we should go to the throne of grace. And we should confess it before the Lord. And ask the Lord to help us to produce love in our hearts. The God's love to shed abroad in our hearts by the help of the Ruach HaKodesh. The Holy Spirit of God. And so now that he mentioned in verses 17 to 21 those two things. Namely, every believer should grow in boldness, in confidence, in the love of God. And that every believer is called to be true to the love of God.

Now in chapter 5, he adds two additional things that every believer ought to have in his or her life. First John chapter 5, verses 1 to 3, every believer needs to submit to God's commandments. Oh, submission. It's so difficult for us. Submission is one of the greatest problems. Obedience is our problem, right? Brothers and sisters, disobedience plunge the human race into sin. And so obedience is very important. So the first three verses of 1 John chapter 5. Every believer needs to obey, to submit to God's commandments. And I'm reading this. Verse 1. One. Whosoever believeth that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of God. And everyone that loveth him, that beget loveth him also, that is begotten of him.

They began by saying, listen. Submission to God is being proven by obedience to God's request to love those that were born from above. Born of God. You see, whosoever believeth that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of God. You have a new life. I have a new life. We are born from above. And if we are born of God, born from above, everyone that loveth him, that beget loveth him, that begotten of him. In other words, we are to love in obedience, in submissiveness to God. We are to love other ones that have been born of God. You see, he's talking to the mishpacha, to the family.

Well, you are part of the family of God, and I'm part of the family of God. All of them that have been born again are part of the family of God. Now, in the mishpacha, in the family, the only way to enjoy fellowship with each other is evident by our love one towards another. Sacrificial love. Not only feeling of love, but a sacrificial love. And so, if we are born again, we are born from God, and we have this new nature, while the other brother and sister have the very same nature that you and I have. They have been born of God. And can you imagine?

We are going to spend with each other eternity in glory. And yet here, we oftentimes fail to love our brethren. You remember what one has said. "Oh, to dwell with saints above, that will be glory." But how to dwell with saints below? This is another story. You see, to dwell with saints, we are going to go to heaven, we are going to be above with all the saints. That will be glory, we say. Wow, to be with all those that have been born from above. But how to behave here with saints here below? This is another story. For this, we need to enjoy the love of God and to practice this in our lives.

So every believer needs to submit to God's commandment to love the brethren. Notice what it says in verse 2 of 1 John chapter 5. Loving God is keeping His commandments. His obedience to His commandments. Look at this. It says in verse 2. "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments." In submissiveness to Him, we keep His commandments. Now, God's commandments are vast. We are not called today in the present day dispensation of the church age to go three times a year to the city of Jerusalem, to the temple, because that was given to Israel the nation. It was a commandment.

But we are called. All the other commandments that God had given to us in Scripture are given to us as believers today, to submit to. And so, he's saying, when we love God, we love Him out of joy, and we submit to Him, not because we have been forced. You see, God can force us at any time, but He doesn't want us to submit to Him because we have been forced. He wants us to submit to Him because we love Him. And so we respond. You know, every father here can tell you that. Every mother here can tell you that. When our children submit to us because they love us, it moves our hearts.

It gives us joy. See, can you imagine if your son and your daughter come to you one day and say, "Hey, Mommy, what can I do more for you today?" "Hey, Abba, can I help you more with some of the problems that you have?" "Can I wash the dishes?" "Can I clean for you the house?" "You just rest." "I love you. I appreciate you." Now, I know we hardly hear those things. Or we hear, "Hey, I didn't get enough." "I want more." "Why didn't you give me this?" "Why didn't you do this for me?" "You know, you are just not good enough." But it's so beautiful when we love the Lord and we submit to Him just because I love God.

That is a wonderful submission. You see, so when he says that loving God is keeping His commandments, it doesn't mean to keep His commandments out of necessity. But we are to keep His commandments because we love Him and we want to honor Him and we want to do Him good, to give Him pleasure. You know the story that had been said of a son that disobeyed his mother all day long. And the mother says, "Okay, watch it. When dad is going to come home, you are going to watch it." So when dad comes home from his work, the son is not staying by the door, he is hiding in his room.

He knows very well that when dad is going to come home and how mom is going to tell how the boy behaved, that he is going to get some discipline, pain. But it's another story when all day long he obeyed his mom and he had been helpful at home. And when the father comes, guess who is at the door? The child is waiting, "Hey, Abba, Dad, what can I give you?" He is bringing the newspaper to his father, bringing the slippers for his father. He sits down and makes him feel rejoicing because he just wants to submit to his father. And you know, when we don't obey the Lord, we don't have easy time at His presence.

We don't feel good. We don't have joy to have Him, as it were, coming at the door and have fellowship with Him and enjoy Him. Why? Because we disobeyed Him. Look at the man by the name of David when he was in a suitable situation in his life in Psalm 119. You know, David was not always obedient to God. There was a time he dishonored the Lord. But when he was in a suitable condition, he said in Psalm 119 and verse 97, he says, "Oh, how loved I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hath made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.

I have more understanding than all that my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancient because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgment for thou hast taught me." Listen to this, beloved brothers and sisters, verse 103 of Psalm 119, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yet sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way." You see, David, David, Melech, Yisrael, David, the king of Israel, writing this psalm, who said those words, he says, "Oh, how I love thy Lord!" Now, while we don't have David as a heading of the writer of this psalm, David is known to be the psalmist of Israel, and oftentimes this psalm is attributed to him, and David says, "How I love thy Lord!" You know, the word "law" here is "Toratecha".

"Hatora shelcha", your law. He used the Hebrew word "Mitzvotecha", "Commandments", "Edotecha", "Testimonies", "Pikudecha", "Precepts", "Devarecha", "Word", "Mishpatecha", "Judgment", "Imratecha", "Commandments". He used those words, "All of them together are the commandments of the Lord." "The law of the Lord." "Torat Elohim", "The word of God." And so, John is saying, "Loving God, He's keeping His commandments." Do you know brothers and sisters, that the only ones that disobey the commandments of God are the human race? Everything else submit to the commandments of the Lord. Let me read you a verse in Psalm 148 and verse 8. Listen to this, brothers and sisters.

"Fire and hail, snow and clouds, strong winds fulfilling His word." "Fire submits to God's word." "Hail submits to God's word." "Snow submits to God's word." "Vapor, clouds submits to God's word." "Stormy winds submit to God's word." "All fulfill the word of God." "Except men." "Men do not obey the word of God." "Because man is a sinner." "And our sin nature proved to us by not submitting to God's word." "Proving that we are at a distance from the Lord." "And a believer have a new nature which enables us to submit to the word of God." "So loving God is keeping His commandments." "1 John chapter 5 and verse 2." "Go back to 1 John chapter 5

verse 3 now." "In connection with every believer's need to submit to God's word." "It says in verse 3, God's commandments are not grievous." "God's commandments according to verse 3 of 1 John chapter 5." "For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous." "You see, the word for grievous, another word for that is not burdensome." "See, God's commandments are not heavy and burdensome and grievous." "He doesn't ask us to do things that are bad for us." "He asks us to do things that are for our own blessing." "He doesn't have laid upon us burdensome things." "You know, the Pharisees, what they have laid upon the people were

burdensome." "Keep that, do this." "It's not a response to God out of love, but it's a response out of rules of men." "And that's why He said to them, the commandments of the Lord is not grievous, is not burdensome." "So, we had so far, every believer should grow in confidence because of God's love." "Every believer is called to be true to God's love." "Every believer needs to submit to God's love." "And finally, in verses 4 and 5 of 1 John chapter 5, "Every believer overcomes the world because of his faith in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah." "And look at this, it says in those final verses for this ministry meeting, "Everyone that is born of

God has overcome the world." "For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world." "And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." And I read also verse 5, "Who is he that overcomes the world but he that believeth that Yeshua is the Son of God?" There are two aspects of overcoming the world.

There is the positional truth and the practical truth. There is the positional overcoming, and there is the practical overcoming. First of all, the positional. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 5, "Who is he that overcomes the world but he that believeth that Yeshua is the Son of God?" "Every one of us who believe that Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, is God's Son, we have already positionally once and for all overcome the world." But there is the practical overcoming. And that is where again, we need the help of the Lord to overcome it day by day. This is in verse 4. "Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world." That's true, positionally.

And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. So, we positionally overcome the world because we believe in Yeshua the Messiah, but practically at times we don't succeed to overcome the world because we have not trusted God. We did not have faithfulness to Him. And that's why at times we end up falling and allowing the world to creep into our lives. You see, that's why John said in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15, "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world.

But the world passes away. And the lust of the world, but he that doeth the will of God abides forever." And what he's really saying, that there is a need for practical overcoming. Every believer is positionally victorious over the world, but how is it practically? That's why you remember to the seven churches of Asia Minor, the same apostle, Yohanan, John, was writing what Yeshua said in the book of Revelation in chapter 2 and chapter 3. You remember those verses? Every letter that was written to those local assemblies of Asia Minor ended up with the words. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, to him that overcometh." These are practical overcomers.

Where even though positionally the world has been dealt away once and for all because we have accepted Yeshua the Messiah, practically we need to overcome the world and faith in the Messiah and faithfulness to him will prove it in our lives. It will enable us to overcome the world. Every believer is positionally victorious because of his faith in the Messiah, but every believer needs to be practically victorious as well. "True love is fearless and submissive. May the Lord help us to have no fear for the Day of Judgment, to grow in it and appreciation of the love of God for us. There is no need to be afraid of the Day of Judgment because Yeshua had paid for this.

But also true love is submissive. Joyful submissiveness to the Word of God. May the Lord help us to be submissive to His Word.