The Pillar of Christianity

Can agape love, a divine and selfless love, truly transform our lives? Join me, B.R.Maul, as we journey through 1 John 4:12-16 to uncover how experiencing God's love through the Holy Spirit can make His presence palpable in our everyday interactions. We discuss how the Holy Spirit guides our understanding of the Scriptures and the importance of personal study in growing our faith. Discover the profound connection between believers and God, grounded in love and obedience, and explore the transformative power that comes from keeping His commandments.

In this episode, we also confront the spiritual battles that challenge our faith. We expose Satan's strategies to mislead believers and emphasize the vital need for genuine repentance and a personal relationship with God. Reflecting on global conflicts and their spiritual implications, I reassure you of God's ultimate sovereignty and love. Listen as I offer insights on navigating these challenges and the role of the Holy Spirit in helping us stay true to our faith. Reach out with your questions as we deepen our understanding and commitment to living God's way.

Be a part of my team!  With your prayer, passing along the message, and financial support you can help get these messages in the hands of all those who need them! And remember, you can text me questions and comments by clicking on "Send Us a Text Message".  Until next time!  God bless!

Chapters

• 0:29 Living God's Way
• 11:41 The Power of God's Love
• 24:20 Battle for Souls

Transcript

B.R.Maul: 0:29

Hello and good day. I am BR Maul and this is Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. Thanks a lot for joining me. Good to have you here.

B.R.Maul: 0:40

We are continuing in the book of 1 John. We're in chapter 4, and we'll be going over verses 12 through 16 today. John continues to guide us in how it is that we can know that we are born-again believers, and the theme in the book of 1 John is love. The book of 1 John is love, how important it is, this agape love, the kind of love that only God can gift us, and that we must have the Holy Spirit in us to be able to love in agape love. So last week we talked a lot about that, but we're going to continue on with this theme because that's what John talks about in 1 John. It's important enough that John continues to go over this something in modern societies we can take for granted because we're so used to books and movies, because love has taken on something that is different, that isn't godly, that has become selfish. Love has become an emotion that we shoot for, that we want to obtain, but it's not something that we do, it's not something that we exercise as agape love, because agape love is a choice for born-again believers. It's not a choice for those who are not born again. It's impossible to love the way God loves and the way God commands us, his children, to love each other and others. So if you're not born again, unfortunately you just won't understand agape love, these messages that we continue to go over in 1 John, because 1 John covers so much of love that it doesn't make sense for those who are not born again. So, as usual, I will read the verses and then I'll backtrack and go over them.

B.R.Maul: 2:47

But something newer I have been doing recently is encouraging you, my listener, to get a hold of me. There are several ways of doing that. There is a Message Me tab for those who are visiting my Buzzsprout page and for anybody who is listening from a directory, podcast directory, like Spotify. That's one of the popular ones and there's others On my home area. There is a tab and I called it Message Me. There's no way of me getting back to you. That is an anonymous way of you, listener, of contacting me and you can share how you feel that I am doing. But I'm also encouraging you to use that to send me questions. If you send me a question through the message me tab, there's no way of me knowing who you are, there's no way of me responding as well Now, unless in your message leave an email, for example, that I can respond back if you're looking for a response. But if you just use the message me tab, ask me anything in God's word and I will share that in the next podcast. So you'd only have to listen to the next podcast to get that answered. Otherwise, you can also contact me just going to my homepage my website is brmaulcom and click on contact, now that I will get your email, because you do need to include your email for that, and I would be happy to also share your question on a podcast.

B.R.Maul: 4:42

Don't be shy. This is the way that we help each other learn as brothers and sisters in the faith, or for someone who is seeking out who Jesus Christ is, it's a great way to learn. So with the reading 1 John 4, 12-16, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, god abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. By this, we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, god abides in him and he in God. 16. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. So thank you, heavenly Father, for this chance to teach from your word these words are from you.

B.R.Maul: 6:01

The Bible is written from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that these are not merely words of man, but they have been inspired by you, god. So help us learn, help us to grow and, for those who are born again, continue to sanctify them and make them more like your son Jesus, as they read your word and as they grow in these teachings. For those who do not know your son, lord, I pray, help them to take their guard down, whether it's pride or insecurity, whatever it may be, lord, but help them by opening their heart and receiving your word today, and I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So in verse 12, we are told by John that no one has seen God at any time Seems to be an obvious statement. There's a lot of people, perhaps, that want to claim they have seen God or have seen Jesus, but that's not happening because scripture would tell us otherwise.

B.R.Maul: 7:05

It's one of the things that I love about God's Word is that there's no mystery. You just need to read it and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can understand God's Word. You do not need advanced training. I am testimony of that because I have not received advanced training. I'm not some graduate of some theological school, a seminary. I was attending a seminary, but God has shown me in that process of just how corrupt things have gotten and that mankind we have decided to make church into a business Like all businesses. Now, for those who want to teach God's Word, the big business, big denomination, now has their own seminaries and they make it clear you must first and foremost receive this advanced education so you can teach God's Word. But by reading God's Word beloved.

B.R.Maul: 8:08

We know that the first century church did nothing like that. For hundreds of years that wasn't even heard of. Just take a look at the apostles, the twelve that Jesus hand-picked to be those that he would use to spread the gospel. He picked common men. Four of them were fishermen. He did not choose society's elect. If he would have, he would have gone right to the Pharisees, because the Pharisees were the elect. They're the ones who could recite the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, verbatim, word for word, and they took great pride in that. And that was part of the problem, that they took pride in that.

B.R.Maul: 9:00

So when John says no one has seen God at any time, yeah, that's a pretty simple statement and he makes it for a very good reason the very fact that no one has seen God. And yet we know God exists. You ever think of that? So no one has ever seen God, but we know God exists. Now, of course, there's getting into his creation. I believe it's Psalm 8, talking about the moon and the stars and just how great God's creation is. And yet he takes the time to love us people. And, yes, I think we're pretty amazing when it comes to how he has made us. The human body is very sophisticated and we know very little about it, but when you think of the stars and the moon, what's all out there in the second heaven space, just how much power and energy is in the sun alone, for example? And of course, the sun is a star, but it's a big star to us, but overall it's not that big when it comes to the universe. So we're pretty small and no one has seen God, but we know God exists.

B.R.Maul: 10:20

Because John says if we love one another, god abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. So, even though the world doesn't see God directly, if we love one another, john is saying well then God abides in us. He's saying people will see God through us because of the love that we have for one another, how we take care of one another as in brethren, by the way, brothers and sisters in the faith, are you in a church today that you love one another, and does the world see you, your brothers and sisters in the faith, and how you take care of one another, how you love one another, how that love for each other and for God spills into your community. Because John's saying that, with that love, that's how people see God. People see God when we love each other and that is how his love has been perfected in us. That's how he lets the world know that he's God and that he is love from his obedient children.

B.R.Maul: 11:41

Verse 13,. John says by this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. With the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, that is how we can love other people. Agape love, not the Hollywood love, not the cheap love that the world knows. But we know because of his spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit. But that's how we know that we abide in him, in God, and that he abides in us, because the Holy Spirit tells us that. The Holy Spirit communicates that to us. We're never alone. That is us born-again believers, because the Holy Spirit's in us.

B.R.Maul: 12:31

I hope that's quite remarkable if you think about that. The maker of the universe, god Almighty Yahweh, abides in us, abides in us. It is absolutely amazing and yet goes unnoticed so often within the circles of Christianity. But there's such power in that Verse 14, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. So verse 14, I'm sorry, verse 13, mention of the Spirit and God.

B.R.Maul: 13:12

And now we're talking about Father and the Son. There's our triune, god working together, father, son and Holy Spirit. How they work together. God has chosen that he will abide. He will make known to us, make known to our spirit, upon being born again, who he is in his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit communicates that to us.

B.R.Maul: 13:36

And are you listening to that, beloved? Do you take the time to listen after maybe reading God's Word or praying, meditating on what God has told you through His Word? Do you let the Holy Spirit speak to you? Do you block out the world? You should. If you're not in the practice of doing that, I recommend that every single day, you find a certain time of day where you can be alone for some time and find yourself a comfortable place and start to either read God's word or verses that you have memorized, think about them, meditate on them, say them out loud, perhaps, and listen. Listen with your heart to what the Holy Spirit tells you, because love certainly is the foundation. Love is the pillar of Christianity. Now, not for salvation, that's the blood of Christ, and it's the believing in the blood of Christ and that true repentance that a person is born again, when they believe in their heart that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, bodily resurrected from the dead, but once a child of God.

B.R.Maul: 14:53

I argue, then, that love, because what we have been learning in just John alone, but Paul talks a lot about love and loving one another and loving God. Those are even commands. Jesus says that to fulfill the law, love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your might. And second to that is love your neighbor as yourself. And yes, loving yourself is a requirement. Then, of course, not the kind of loving ourself like prideful love, but appreciating who we are, because God himself made us. God knew who you were before even time itself existed. But this whole thing of love, one needs to grab a hold of it and remember that, because it is the pillar, it is the foundation of the relationship with God. We can go back to the book of John, so the gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 23,. And Jesus is speaking If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. That's just awesome.

B.R.Maul: 16:15

Obedience is integrated in agape love. Obedience goes with agape love. It is hand in hand. We can't have one without the other.

B.R.Maul: 16:28

God is righteousness and he is love. Love and righteousness go together. And if we are not obeying, if we are not obedient to God, first of all, then we're not being righteous and we are commanded to be righteous, but then that also means that we're not loving him. So we can't claim to love God and yet not follow his ways? Beloved, are you following God's ways? Are you embracing what God's word says and then doing it and not just reading it, and then it becomes just some rule that floats around in space somewhere, but that you embrace it and living that way becomes a necessity for you. If anyone loves me, jesus says he will keep my word, very crystal clear, not maybe or partly. He will keep, and whose word? My word, that's the Bible, the scriptures. We will do everything possible to do that, and when we do that, jesus says and my Father will love him. Remember Jesus is the only way to salvation. He is our Savior.

B.R.Maul: 19:01

No one goes to the Father except through Jesus Christ, and that's why all other religions are just that. They are only a religion, because they don't see Jesus Christ as the Savior. They don't recognize Jesus as the Son of God, and for that very reason it's only a religion. Son of God, and for that very reason it's only a religion. They do not have access to God, the Father. They have access to their own God, but that is their own made-up God. That is an idol, and yet they believe that that idol is the God. But if they don't recognize Jesus which they don't. Or even for those who recognize the name Jesus, they still don't recognize Jesus which they don't. Or even for those who recognize the name Jesus, they still don't recognize Jesus for who he truly is.

B.R.Maul: 19:50

And Jesus says my Father will love him and we. So the Father and the Son, will come to him and make our home with him. And it comes to mind that we, I believe, would be the Holy Spirit as well, because a person is born again and the Holy Spirit takes resident in that person. God himself, God, the Father, makes sure at that point in time his spirit is in you. So that's how important this love is. And love encompasses obedience.

B.R.Maul: 20:27

So, going back to 1 John, verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, god abides in him and he in God. There's more of that connection that confesses, by the way, that's believing in one's heart. That's confession with the mouth. What one believes in their heart, that's not head knowledge. So whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, god abides in him and he in God. And of course that is the ingredient of being born again, right, being able to confess. Romans 10 tells us that with the mouth one confesses the Lord Jesus. There's that confession. So that is part of being born again.

B.R.Maul: 21:18

I say part because confessing the Lord Jesus meaning that a person confesses from their heart that he is their Savior and Lord of their life, and by doing that one needs to recognize and they do recognize at that point that they are broken and that they need their Savior and there's repentance. So that repentance is offered up to God. The person turns their life and they are looking at God the Father and they are saying I can't do this alone. And then in their heart, with their heart, they know that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and his blood was the sacrifice to pay all of their sin. So whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, god abides in him and he in God. It's amazing we are connected with the triune God by the triune God Verse 16, and we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, the love that God has for us, god is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

B.R.Maul: 22:37

John is really trying to make it clear, beloved, that love is the pillar, that love is the foundation, that we need that love because God is a God, of a relationship. He is not a distant God up there, just kind of once in a while peeking in at us. He is with us. He is enduring the pain of our life with us. He is guiding us through his Holy Spirit. He is loving us through the Holy Spirit, through reading his word. He is loving us, and not only love but abide. Isn't that something that is the acceptance of each other? It's an intimate relationship and I love that. God wants a relationship with me and he wants a relationship with you. In the last part of this, verse 16, john reminds us that God is love. So when we abide in love, we are abiding in God. That's why we are told in scriptures that we cannot claim to be a child of God and not have the love of the Father in us.

B.R.Maul: 23:50

In today's time, right now, with Israel being at war, there are many people of course the enemies of Israel who want them completely wiped off the face of the earth. It's no surprise. Anybody who's read the Bible. That's already been a prophecy. We've already been told that that is. The goal of the enemy of God is to annihilate, to wipe out Israel.

B.R.Maul: 24:21

Satan failed miserably. He can't do anything to God himself. God the Father, because he was tossed out of heaven. God the Father, because he was tossed out of heaven. And a third of the angels, those who agreed with Satan. So then Satan decides okay, since I'm the ruler of this world down here. Oh, here comes Jesus manifested in flesh. Well then, I'll just take him out. And Satan tried him out. And Satan tried, he even tempted Jesus. He tried getting Jesus to bow down to him. He tried everything he could and then he thought he had him. He thought this is it. The guy is hanging on a cross, he is dead and gone. But lo and behold, look what happened. Jesus conquers death, so defeated once again, again. Now he knows Satan knows for sure I can't conquer God, I can't conquer his son. So I'm going to do everything I can then to wipe out those that he loves. And there's two different ways. He tries to wipe out us, his children, god's children. He does that. He hates us. So he does everything that he can to either make it so people think they are born again.

B.R.Maul: 25:39

He has done an amazing job over the centuries at convincing people of some great lies, such as be baptized as a baby and that's it. You will go to heaven. Well, that's a big lie that, unfortunately, has taken millions to hell because they believed on that and they decided good enough for me, and so they just believed in their baptism. To this very day, there are denominations that teach and preach. Remember your baptism, look to your baptism, but it's not the baptism. Baptism of water does absolutely nothing. But Satan has done a great job, hasn't he? Baffled a whole bunch of people, or he'll put it in the hearts. He keeps on whispering to people and hey, as long as you keep going to church every Sunday you go to church, unless you're sick or something really important comes up. You attend church pretty regularly. Oh, and look it, your church is pretty big. Yep, your pastor, he's pretty famous, and so you're going to that church. You're good to go, don't worry about it. Oh, just volunteer every once in a while, do this or do that. You know what? Yeah, you're good with God.

B.R.Maul: 26:54

Again, another great lie that Satan has taught over the centuries. And people continue to bite into it. Why? Because they love it. They love the taste of that fruit, because it's easy. They don't have to look at their sin, they don't have to admit that they are broken and that they need a savior. They don't have to repent and, let's face it, too, that's tough, isn't it? For those of us who are born again and have gone through that process of repenting, I tell you that's not easy. The flesh, very prideful, doesn't want to do that. We want to be our own boss. We want to be able to control our salvation and our destination. So Satan continues to go after those that God loves.

B.R.Maul: 27:40

And with the war that's happening right now, well, satan's going to do everything possible through the hearts of mankind. There are protests around the world for Palestine. They deserve their land back to wipe out the Jewish people. Satan, I think he believes that if he actually can wipe out all the Jews technically, if he were able to do that, I guess he would win, because think about it. If he were able to do that, I guess he would win Because think about it. Think about it just for a moment beloved, because there are prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled, and one of those is for Jesus to be able to come back and rule. He will sit on the throne of David, and it's not in existence yet. It was in history, but it's not now, but someday it will be. So Satan figures, if I wipe out every Jew, guess what? That can't be built, but we know that's not going to happen.

B.R.Maul: 28:44

God is love. He loves you so much. Don't buy into what the enemy is telling you. He loves you so much. Don't buy into what the enemy is telling you. Look away from the world. Remember, the devil owns this world right now. The war yeah, we know how the war ends, but there are still battles and there are certain battles that, yeah, he's winning, but it's all under the guidance of our Heavenly Father.

B.R.Maul: 29:12

And if Satan can convince billions of people, all these fake religions out there, and keep them from believing in Jesus Christ, the only way to heaven, well, yeah, he's preventing a lot of people. It's not just his fault, because he can't make anybody go to hell, but he knows that the human heart is quick to grab onto whatever it is that we like, and, just like with Adam and Eve, there's that fruit that he dangles in front of people and they grab a hold of it and that's what they chew on instead of doing what they need to do and should do, and that is, read God's Word and find the truth for themselves. So in my teachings, I continue to encourage you to do that. You get into God's Word. You read God's Word, beloved. I'm here for you if you need any help. I continue to offer up a place where you can contact me and my website or message me and the anonymous message text there that can be sent and I answer questions. I am more than happy to answer questions, but so many people are afraid to, and I don't know why.

B.R.Maul: 30:29

But open God's Word, read it for yourself. You pray to God, you speak to the Holy Father. You don't need a priest, you don't need anybody else to intercede, because Jesus Christ is our intercessor. Well, that's about all I have for today. Beloved, please get a hold of me with any of your questions or comments. You're not in this alone and I'm not the only one that is out there teaching God's Word and reaching out to people in order to help them to understand the truth, to get through all these lies that have been generated over the centuries. There are a lot of other good teachers out there, good pastors, good, just Christians. So open up God's Word, learn who he is, love Him, pray to Him, worship Him and grow with other brothers and sisters in the faith. This world is only going to get tougher. Things are only going to get worse as Satan continues to work overtime, and if you try doing this by yourself, you won't last. I'm here for you and until next time, god bless, thank you.