1st John, John, Chapter 4 verses 7 through 12.

Beloved, let us love one another,

for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God

sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we loved God,

but that he loved us and sent his son to be the expiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No man has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us.

And his love is perfected in us.

Last week, several people responded to the message with a question.

There are two things that seemed apparently inconsistent.

On the one hand, I stressed that our ability to listen with receptive hearts, chapter 4,

verse 6, and our ability to confess Christ come in the flesh with sincere hearts, chapter 4 verse 2, were a gift of the

Holy Spirit, which we cannot perform without his enablement.

And on the other hand, I pleaded at the end of the service for people to call upon the Holy Spirit, to believe

and to listen with receptive hearts.

And the question was raised, isn't it inconsistent on the one hand

to describe a person's condition as basically helpless, spiritually

death and blind and dead.

And then on the other hand, to argue with them, plead with them, to see and hear and live. Isn't it inconsistent to say you are dead in your trespasses and sins?

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