In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of accountability and the age at which individuals are responsible for their actions. He emphasizes the importance of submitting to God's authority and following His guidance in all aspects of life. The preacher warns against rebellion and selfishness, stating that true love for God means obeying His commandments and seeking His will. He concludes by highlighting the significance of loving God and loving others as the foundation of moral teachings and living a life that pleases God.

I say, then, hence, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you don't treat your neighbors the way other pagans do. You don't walk as the heathen do, in the vanity of the mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. No. Those that love God with all their hearts and minds and souls, and love their neighbors as themselves, are therefore going to be unable to take advantage of someone. A young missionary from Peru told me that a woman said to him, I'd like to sell you my body. And she said, he said, I can't do that, I love you too much. And, and she didn't know what he meant. And from that he explained what he meant, that as a child of God, he had to seek her highest good and blessedness and satisfaction and joy and fulfillment, and never, never, never could use another human being at the expense of their well-being. So, he said, having the understanding darkened, who, being past feelings, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, immorality on the mental level, to work uncleanness with greediness. When you love your neighbor as you do yourself, you cannot take advantage of that neighbor, because you love God and you want to please God and satisfy him, and you love yourself and want the best for you, and you've got to want the best for them. So you can't walk as those whose understanding is dark and alienated from the life of God that is in them. Then we go on down and we find that if so be you've heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former manner of living, the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind to what? To this loving your neighbor as yourself, which is to seek their blessedness and joy and happiness and satisfaction and well-being, even as you do your own. Wherefore, you can't lie any longer, putting away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor, because you want people to speak the truth to you. You can only build your life on truth, therefore you cannot allow the lie or the misrepresentation to pass your lips, because you love your neighbor, you're seeking their well-being and good and blessedness and happiness. And you cannot lie. Every man speak truth to his, with his neighbor, because he loves him, he wants the best for him. We are members one of another. Then you angry, but sin not. Your angry has to be creative. You have something against a brother, says the Scripture. You're angry because of something someone has done. Then, loving that neighbor as you do yourself, you must go to them and say, this separates me and you, I have this against you. And if you find they have ought against you, you're to go to them, because we're members one of another, and we have the desire for the greatest good and blessedness and happiness and well-being of another. You know something that's wrong with me, and I don't know it, or there's a possibility that I don't know it, then it's your moral obligation to come to me in the name of Christ and plead with me to deal with that in my life, which is going to rob the Lord Jesus of his glory, and rob you of joy in fellowship. And I the same with you, because if I love God, if you love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, the only way you can prove it is by seeking the greatest good and blessedness and happiness of your neighbor. Thus, there never can be in the child of God gossip and whispering and backbiting, not if they love God with all their heart and love their neighbor as themselves. There can't be. If you have that which you would see, feel, should be said, then you will say it to the one to whom it should be said. And if they will not hear you, then you will call them before the church and ask the elders to go with you. But you cannot be as those who walk, who in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding, darkened, beating, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. You can't. Because you love God, you want his blessedness and joy and happiness and satisfaction, and you love your neighbor as you do yourself. And what you want others to do to you, so you must do to them. Then it says, Let him that stole steal no more. It is impossible to take the goods of another because you realize that one of the things you want for you is the right to earn and save and hold and have, that you might use, as you see fit, that which is accrued to you. And therefore, you cannot take from another because your purpose is to seek God's blessedness and joy and happiness and to seek your own, but even as you would seek your neighbor. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. If you love God, if the purpose of your heart is to please God, then those words which have been unclean, those words which have been critical and sarcastic, injurious, no longer can so come because there cannot come both pure water and bitter from the same fountain. And if you have come to the place that you purpose to please God, then the words that you speak are going to be the evidence of the genuineness of your love for God. And to talk about loving God, to talk about having received his Son, having passed from death to life, and allowing corrupt communication to proceed from one's lips, is a contradiction that gives the lie to all the scripture one can recite and all the testimony that they might give. And those who have walked with us in school and worked with us in shop or factory or office are very careful indeed. They are quite sensitive to this. And we, if we have any love for them and concern for them and desire that they should know him whom we know, then no corrupt communication can proceed from our mouths because we love God. We want to please God and satisfy him, and we love our neighbor. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away with all that. Why? Because we love God. Our purpose is to please God, to seek his joy in us, his blessedness as far as we're concerned, his satisfaction, his happiness. And therefore we love ourselves. We want this kind of a relationship with others. We don't want others to be bitter with us and wrathful with us and angry with us and clamorous and evil speaking as far as we're concerned. And consequently the evidence of the genuineness of our love for God is that we do not permit in our lives bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking. We put it away with all malice. Therefore as the children of God we walk in love. What does that mean? Our daily walk is to seek the happiness and blessedness and joy and well-being of ourselves properly and of our neighbors. And as Christ has loved us and sought our blessedness and joy and happiness and well-being by giving himself for us as an offering to God, even so we would walk in love. Therefore fornication and uncleanness and covetousness cannot once be named among us as become a saint because we love God, because our purpose is to seek his joy and blessedness and satisfaction. And we love our neighbors and we cannot therefore deprive them of their rights. We cannot indulge in filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting. For we know that anyone that is a whoremonger nor an unclean person nor an covetous man certainly gives the lie when he says that he loves God or that he's partaken of the divine nature. Let no man deceive you with vain words. Don't let anyone con you. If you love God, if you love God, then you will love your neighbor. If you don't love your neighbor, there's every reason for you to be suspicious as to whether or not you do love God. If you are committed to seek the blessedness and joy and happiness and well-being of God at the end of your being, it's going to be manifest by your seeking the blessedness and joy and happiness and well-being of yourself and your neighbor. Therefore, that scripture said he, on these two commandments hang all the law and the process. Rightly understanding what it means to love God gives to us the testimony as to the nature of the new birth, the impartation of divine life, the partaking of the divine nature. And the manifestation of that is the love that we have for ourselves, wanting the best for ourselves in regard to incomplete conformity to all of our commitments to seek God's joy with us, and thus to seek the well-being of our neighbor. Now, as you understand this, then you understand why it is so extremely important for this great commandment to be understood by us and to be accepted by us, to be held by us, to be obeyed by us. Now let me ask you two or three questions. First question, do you know that you are a sinner? And the answer to that has to be yes. But do you know what sin is? Sin is not something you've done. Sin was the committal of your will to the principle and the policy and the practice of pleasing yourself without regard for the will of God or the rights of others. Now, the other thing were sin, the events, the deeds, these were the items. But the crime is the committal of the will to please ourselves, I will do what I want to do. I remember, for example, when we were living down in Orlando, Florida, I came out of a study where I'd been preparing to go on an evangelistic revival conference ministry trip several weeks. And as I came from my study, I looked down and saw my little daughter is then four and now she's a married woman, teacher, and a joy to us in her love for Christ. But then she was not quite four. And she walked into the dining room and she looked around and she was completely bored and didn't know what to do. And her mother had a plant, a large leaf plant on the floor. And Sarah walked over and she looked at it and she flipped it and she flipped it up. And then she reached over and she pulled off a leaf, just pulled it right off the stalk. And I'm sort of standing back there and she didn't see me. I was too late to put the leaf back on the stalk, so I went, well, she's going to do it. So my sweet little daughter, who looked so much like me that when they saw us they called us Pete and repeat, you know. She took that leaf and she tore it in two, just like that. She looked at one part and the other, then she put the two pieces together and then she tore them in two. She looked at them and she put them together and she tore them in two. And then it was getting a little hard to tear, so she took those pieces and she went like this and she watched them flutter to the floor. Smiled, made a pattern on the floor, looked around and reached for another leaf. And I said, Sarah, stop! All her eyes opened. She saw it was the day. And she understood I'd been standing there and I hadn't done anything up until now. I'd let her go. And so she looked at me and she put her little chin out and she put her little bare foot down on the floor and she started out for the, I said, Sarah, I told you to stop that. And she looked at me, and I was close to her by this time, and she set her jaw and she turned her face right up and she looked me right square in the eye and she said, I won't. Just like that. Well, she did because I got to the seat of the problem immediately. And I turned her over on my lap and paddled her. And of course, I understood what it was. You see, she'd been playing with some of the deacon's children and she picked it up. That's where all the problems came from. That's why preacher's kids are in such bad shape. So often. And so here's my little daughter putting her foot down, staring her daddy in the face and saying I won't. Now that's a picture of sin. That's looking into the face of Almighty God who said, look, I made you, I know all about you, and I've given you a proper way to satisfy every appetite. Now if you'll work with me and cooperate with me. I love you, but I love all the others and I will not allow you to gratify yourself at the expense of others. If you will just cooperate with me, I will bless you. But if you don't, I'm going to turn you up and paddle you good. I'm going to punish you. So it's that little four-year-old who don't let you rule my life. I won't let you tell me how to use my time. I won't let you tell me what to do with my body. I'll do what I want to do. Now friends, that's sin. That's what it is. That choice, that committal of the will to rule and to govern and to control. And Christ said the soul is sin as it gets so tired. And therefore there has to be repentance. There has to be renunciation. Of what? The right to rule. The right to decide how to satisfy appetite. And what does this mean? A change from I'm going to do what I want to do to Lord, what would you have me to do? Well in that, in that context, this thing that we're talking about, to love God therefore is to purpose to please Him in everything as long as you live. And the evidence is that you seek the same for your neighbor. Now let me ask you, do you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind? Have you renounced the right to rule in your life? Have you received Jesus Christ as He's presented Savior and Sovereign, Lord and Savior? Isn't it interesting in the scripture that it's never, never, never, never, never the first time Savior and Lord? It's always Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because that's the essence of sin. That's what it's all about. Have you received the Son of God unto which many have received Him? Oh, you can't cut Him in part. The modernist says He's man and not God. You can't cut Him that way. You can't say that I want Him to keep me from hell and let me go on living in the crime that sent Him to the cross. There has to be repentance and faith until repentance is to renounce the right to rule. Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? Have you done that? Then, from the fourth chapter of Ephesians, even though you've done that, perhaps there's the possibility that you didn't understand the implication and some of these other things have been allowed to creep into your life. Now, if you've genuinely received Christ, the moment that you see that some attitude or action or relationship is wrong, you're going to deal with it. And you're going to deal with it the way God has prescribed, which is to judge it and to confess it and to forsake it and to know the cleansing of the precious blood. Now, that's the invitation tonight. If you're here and you haven't so received Him, we invite you to come and so receive Him. If you have so received Him and you know that you do love Him, but any of these things we've read and others the Spirit of God has brought to your mind have come into your life, then tonight is the best time, the best time for you to deal with it. And the evidence of the genuineness of your love for God is the instancy with which you deal with anything and everything that God shows you that grieves Him. Because if you love Him, you want to speak, you want to glorify Him and please Him. Last night, there were three people that had come to this altar. Not one word was mentioned about the reason for their coming, and I'm not going to tell you what it is. They were kneeling here one next to the other. They were all here for the same purpose. God had spoken to their hearts. I had not said it any more than I have said it to you. The Spirit of God had spoken. Now, if God has spoken to you about anything in your life, the wisest course for you is now to respond and to come. Because He has said that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If so be you have heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning the former manner of living, the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind to what? To this loving your neighbor as yourself which is to seek their blessedness and joy and happiness and satisfaction and well-being, even as you do your own. Wherefore, you can't lie any longer, putting away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor, because you want people to speak the truth to you. You can only build your life on truth, therefore you cannot allow the lie or the misrepresentation to pass your lips, because you love your neighbor, you're seeking their well-being and good and blessedness and happiness. And you cannot lie. Every man speaks truth to his, with his neighbor, because he loves him, he wants the best for him. We are members one of another. Be you angry, but sin not. Your anger has to be creative. If you have something against a brother, says the scripture, and you are angry because of something someone has done, then loving that neighbor as you do yourself, you must go to them and say, this separates me and you, I have this against you. And if you find they have heart against you, you're to go to them. Because we're members one of another, and we have the desire for the greatest good and blessedness and happiness and well-being of another. You know something that's wrong with me, and I don't know it, or there's a possibility that I don't know it, then it's your moral obligation to come to me in the name of Christ and plead with me to deal with that in my life which is going to rob the Lord Jesus of his glory and rob you of joy and fellowship. And I the same with you, because if I love God, if you love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, the only way you can prove it is by seeking the greatest good and blessedness and happiness of your neighbor. Thus, there never can be in the child of God gossip and whispering and backbiting, not if they love God with all their heart and love their neighbor as themselves. There can't be. If you have that which you would see feel should be said, then you will say it to the one to whom it should be said. And if they will not hear you, then you will call them before the church and ask the elders to go with you. But you cannot be as those who walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.