Chapter 4. We're going to be
in 1 John 4, and we're going to read
verses 7-13, and maybe more. And we're going to call this
this morning, Herein is Love. Okay, 1 John chapter 4, starting
with verse 7. It says, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and set his Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit. And this, There's a verse also that we're
going to look at later in this same chapter that goes along
with this, and that is verse 19 that says, we love him because
he first loved us. And I've mentioned before that
that's been misquoted in some places and by some commentators.
It says, we love because he first loved us. No, we love him because
he first loved us. And if that's the case, then
we're going to see some things today that deal with that. Let me start the first page of it
here. A couple of things that we're
going to notice today, and there's several things, but a couple
that, first, God's love to us in Christ. and some things that
the scripture have to say about that. And secondly, what God's
love brings about or brings to light in the church. God is the
cause and what we see and what is admonished to us to be is
an effect of that. And we're gonna see what it speaks
to. Two verses that bring out what
we're going to look at in what the text directly talks to. First one is in Jeremiah chapter
31. Turn with me to the book of Jeremiah chapter 31. We've seen some really plain
and dramatic statements in the scripture in
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, other places, in Isaiah, about what God has
done and does do for the church and for His people and what He's
done. And I'd like to look in In chapter 31, Jeremiah, verse
3 says, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. And it goes on in some of the
thoughts here. But here, as it says, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
I have drawn thee. That God's love has loved the
church. and has had a people, and we
say from eternity past, but actually before that. God ever was and
has ever been, and love or those different things that are attributes
of Him, didn't come over time, didn't develop over time or change
over time. His holiness, his justice, his
love, all those things were and are just part of him. They're
just who he is and that are put into terms that we can comprehend
somewhat in the language that we use. There never was a time,
and I put that in quotes, when God was not His love also is
the same. He did not come to a time or
place that He loved us, loved the church, but always has in
Christ. And it says here, as we will
read other places, God is love, as God always has been, so His
love for us in Christ always has been. And then, in Malachi chapter 3, verse 6,
where it says, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. His change is not, and all of
his attributes are the same. None of his attributes change
by anything that has happened or can happen or circumstances
or any of that. It isn't with the church and
God's people. God doesn't come to love people
in time. If they are of the sheep, of
those that were given to Christ as His bride, it always was. It never was a time. God's people
and those that were destined to be the church, the sheep, They never were under God's wrath.
They were always in that position of God's love. And we're going
to see how that love is manifested and how it's seen. And then in
the book of Ephesians chapter 2, oops, let me go the right way
here. And quite a bit, obviously, in
the book of Ephesians, it speaks about our position in the Lord
and in Christ from before the foundation of the world. But
in Ephesians 2, I'm not going to read the whole passage
through here, but Ephesians 2.7, Ephesians 2.7,
it says that, in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
And then it goes on, it says, by grace are you saved, and some
of the different outcomes. But what that referring to there
in Ephesians 2.7 that in days to come, his love would be manifest,
would be shown, would be shown that the exceeding riches of
his grace, it says, in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
And that whichever was and how he ever viewed the church was
going to be manifested in time. I mean, and to reveal and come
to light to his people. His love manifest in time. Christ
and the Church were one in God's love before all else existed. The Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. And one of the commentators I
read, and I think it was Brother Hawker, that said that, how did
he phrase that? It was like, I didn't write it
down. It was as the church and Christ were one in the womb before
time came about, before that ever existed. Before he ever
came in the flesh, before the church ever were created in the
flesh, they were there. They were in that position. in this, the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, and it's the exceeding riches
of His grace in all aspects of Christ. Everything that we have
or were needed for our redemption
are in Him. Turn to the book of 1 John again. And a couple of places I'm going
to look at for a thought or two. 1 John 3. And we covered some of
these thoughts, but they so continue from chapter 3 into this. In
chapter 3 and verse... It says, I'm going to start with
verse 9, 10 and 11. It says, Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and
he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this is the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth
not his brother. For this is the message ye have
heard from the beginning that we should love one another. And
we're going to get into that thought at some length. And then in verse 14, of the same chapter. It says,
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love
the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. And quite a bit of the chapters
of 3 and 4 and 5 deal with brotherly love. And it's not just—it's
a It's a complicated thought for us. It's not just a gushy
feeling or an emotion that we have. That's the level that we
perceive love on, is an emotional level in that level. But when
it speaks about love of the brethren or love of those, it's a reflection
of what God has done for us and what He has done and put us in
the position He has. In the book of John—turn back
to the book of John, Gospel of of John in chapter 3, and very
similar verses we're going to see in 1 John again. And I want to back up to verse
14 of John 3.14 and following a bit. It says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved. much is made, I think, sideways
or skewed a bit from what it speaks about in John 3.16, and
that's used as a place of convincing people to do something. And when
it is a statement of the position that God has seen the church
in, in Christ from, like I said, we say in eternity past or before
time began, but it always was in God's mind, in God's eye.
This was always that way, and in time it was carried out. The
necessity for the lamb, for the taking care of the sin of God's
people had to be done in time, but it was in God's eye. It wasn't
It wasn't. The church was under God's wrath
until Christ died, and then it took care of that. The church
was never in that position of God's wrath as far as eternal
wrath. We were lost sinners. just like all of
the world is, lost sinners, for sure, until he revealed himself
to us. But we were always sheep, never
goats turned into sheep. And there's never gonna be goats
that are turned into sheep either. It's just that we're always God's
sheep. And then in 1 John, back in 1
John 5, a thought here, It says in just this one verse,
verse 11, and it comes out of the greater context here, but
it says, and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal
life. And this life is in his son.
And again, the love of God is not detached from Christ. It's the only way that it can
be and the only way that it exists. His love has been demonstrated
in all that He has done. All the workings that have been
done, as the one passage says, that these things fell out for
the furtherance of the gospel and for the saving of the church. That's ever been, all things
that have taken place in the world have been to that end and
to God's glory. And we've often mentioned or
said, would God start a war or have a war to save somebody?
Yes, he would. Whatever he would determine needs
to be done in circumstances to bring that about, that is done. It can be done. The demonstration
of it to his own came or comes about through Christ, to us in
Christ, through Christ, and by him. The object of God's love
has always been Christ and the Church, and the Church in Him,
of course. But the demonstration of how
it comes about, as we're going to continue reading
in 1 John in a minute, it always comes about to us through Christ,
by Christ, and That's how everything has come down to us is because
and through Him. In Romans chapter 8, a passage, and much that Paul
writes about our position in Christ and how it has come about, in Romans chapter 8, a familiar
spot, and I think a lot of people just take a part of this, not
as the whole, but Romans 8, starting with verse
28 and reading down a bit here, it says, And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom
he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things, if God be for us, who can be against us?" And we saw
in earlier lesson, earlier in chapter four, where it says,
greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
And this reminds me of that, if God is for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Who shall lay any charge to the
charge of God select? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are
counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities,
nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height
nor depth of any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And
again, that lays out what some of the things that
God has done, all of God's working and none of our working that's
all been done for us, but shows here all these things that must
be accomplished and provided for us that said, in love, God
did these things. And that's all an outworking.
These are all outworkings of God's love toward us. And when
we're told that we should love the brethren or love others,
it's in reflection of what He has done for us. That's going
to be the effect of His doing these things for His people.
And we say, as Paul said, and talks
about the weakness and the inability to do things that we are called
upon or says that we are to be like, and the things that we
would prefer to do or not prefer to do. And He is the only salvation
from that. He is the only salvation from
the flesh and from our inability to love as God does love and does love
His people. That's, I think, a lot of times
is used as a cop-out, but He also said in another place, we
don't use these things for a cloak of maliciousness. We're not saying,
well, It's just the flesh. And I think a lot of people kind
of do that. Or the devil made me do it, or
whatever they want to say. But it's not a cop-out. It is
the truth of our inability to perform these things. But there's
a reflection of those things. Their desires are there, and
there's going to be evidence of life there. And when it talks
about being born again, it's life from above, and there's
a difference here. Our ability is zero sometimes,
or all the time. Our personal ability is not as
we see it, and it's a poor reflection of what God has done and what
his love to us is, but the desire's there. As Paul says, that's the
way we're leaning that way, even if it doesn't look like we're
making much progress of those things in the love of the brethren
or the love to God. It's It's even though we're born again,
these things are foreign to us. It's not on our level that we
don't operate on God's level, but He does, and in the passage it says,
Christ in us, the hope of glory. It's not, I agree with what God
says, and the plan sounds good to me, and so everything is fine.
It has to be, born again. We have to be born from above.
We have to have God and His Spirit in us or we cannot have any resemblance
or any desires or acknowledgment of God's love. In Galatians chapter
5, Galatians chapter 5, it talks about being led of the
Spirit. We're at liberty. We're not under
the law. We're under grace. And the things
that he has done, but down in verse 22, it says, but
the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.
And here, it's a package deal of the fruit of the Spirit. It's
what is given to us in Him. And as the scripture says, we
have all spiritual blessings in Him. It's in Him we have this. And the Spirit indwelling us,
we have those fruit of those. It's part of that. When we are
born again, And we look at these and you read down through and
say, well, I don't see an awful lot of parallels there sometimes. But that's not, and we don't
have these things of ourself. These are in Him. He is all these
things to us. He is our whole life, our whole
salvation. In verse 9 of 1 John, again go
back to 1 John if you would, 1 John chapter 4. In verse 9 it says, Verse 8, He that loveth not knoweth
not God, for God is love. And verse 9, In this was manifested
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. that's the
manifestation of God's love that we see and that was done in the
flesh. It says, this was His love manifested
toward us. He sent His only begotten Son
that we might live through Him. And that's the highest level,
I guess you could say, in words that we can put what love is,
is what God has done for his people, that that is just the highest level that we
can put into words. And it says here
in verse 10 with that, here in His love, not that we love God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And that carries that down, that
continues that thought that He has been the payment that's taken
care of the sin. And in these things, God's love
is carried out by the other things that are manifest in how we are
redeemed, what Christ has done to redeem us, but God's love
before that was manifested. Like I said, in time past, in
God's mind, that it ever was there and it was carried out,
we see it in time. But the love that he has for
the church and for his sheep was at this level, always was. It didn't grow into this. It didn't say, well, now we've
got a problem. We've got to figure out how to
get these sheep out of the big problem they're in. It was always
in His mind, in God's mind, and in the covenant, eternal covenant. This is part and parcel of that,
that His love to a people would would bring about their salvation,
would bring about their redemption. And this is the method that it
had to have and that it did have. And then he goes on to verse
11 and says, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.
And verse 12, no man has seen God at any time. If we love one
another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.
Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because
He giveth of His Spirit. And that's verse 11 there where
it says, if God so loved us, or since God so loved us, we
ought also to love one another. That's a pretty high standard.
That's like the verse that says, be ye holy as I am holy. It's
not a possibility of ourselves. We're not capable of that. But
he has provided that. He has done those things. That's
what Paul was saying, I think, part of it, when he was talking
about not being able to do what he would like and doing what
he doesn't like. And who can save us from this? And he says,
I think Jesus Christ, our Lord. Well, that he has provided, he's
done all those things perfectly. And in Him, we have done those
perfectly. In the flesh, we're not profitable,
but we're not called upon to be profitable in the flesh, but
only in those things that He has done. Showing forth God's love to us
is not based upon any worth or value of love in us, but again,
only in Christ. This is the greatest expression
of graciousness in the face of total rebellion by created ones. I wrote that in a hurry, let
me read it again. This is the greatest expression of graciousness
in the face of total rebellion by created ones. The Lord himself says, He has done all that's needed,
provide all that's needed, and be all that's needed to redeem
His people. In Romans chapter five, it goes
along with this. Turn to Romans chapter five,
if you would. Paul speaking on this very, very
topic. by God's inspiration, words that
He was given by God. It says, okay, in Romans 5, I'm going to read, Starting with verse 5, it says,
And hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. For
when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And it goes on, but that, particularly there, that He commended His
love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And this was, like I say, this
again shows that there's no demands or qualifications or things that were, I guess, needful
to our salvation that we could provide. There just wasn't any. And these were done while we
were yet sinners, not while we were cleaned up. And when it
says, as Christ came to to redeem sinners, that's the case. That's the ones that he came
to redeem. And not that there are any that are not sinners,
but there are those that didn't need a physician. They were whole
of themselves. And by nature, that's our view
of it until he reveals himself to us. And then In Ephesians
chapter 2, one more time, go back to Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, it says,
starting with verse 1, it says, and you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins? wherein in time past we walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus." And this here not only, it again
says that his love was commended to us while we were yet while
we were in our sin and sinful, but his love and great love and
mercy, it says where he loved us. Verse seven, that in the
ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. And that in time
past, these things were done in time, In time as it came down,
these things were made, riches of His grace were made known
to us through Christ Jesus. Because God's love is toward
the church in Christ, our love should be toward the brethren
also. We should love those whom God loves. If God has eternally
loved those of his we should also likewise be affected. And some of these are hard for
me to put into words, some of what the scripture says, but it says if God's love toward
us, toward the church in Christ, we should have that same attitude. It's a little tough. of that
mind always, but we should likewise have those thoughts and have
that. And I think another way of terming that is that God's people be gracious
people. I think just a couple of spots
that I want to look at. Here where it speaks in verses
12 and 13 about God dwelling in us by His Spirit. Turn to Ezekiel. Turn to Ezekiel
if you would. Let me get to Ezekiel. What do I want? Ezekiel in chapter 36. A lot in the book of Ezekiel that
deals towards what God has done and God does do for His people. But in Ezekiel chapter 36, starting with verse just 26 and
27. Verse 25, 26, 27, it says, Then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from
all your filthiness and from all your idols. Will I cleanse
you? This is after he's gathered his
people in. A new heart will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away this
stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of
flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statues, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I give your fathers, etc., down through there. But here
I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues,
and you shall keep my judgments and do them. And we are caused to obey these things
because He has done it. It's not that now we can be holy. and of ourselves, but the only
way we can do and have done these things is that he has done them,
that he has provided and he has done this. But his spirit within
us and the new birth changes the attitude. It may not change
some of the abilities, but it changes the attitude in how we
see ourselves and how we see God and our situation. And it just... it, as I said, it puts a spirit
within us and causes us to have those desires and seek those
things. And then in Jeremiah, let me turn back to Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 32, It says, Jeremiah 32, 37, It says, Behold, I will gather
them out of all countries, whether I have driven them in mine anger
and my fury and in great wrath, and I will bring them again unto
this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they
shall be my people, and I will be their God, and I will give
them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever for
the good of them and of their children after them. and I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn
away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me." These are actions of
God that we cannot attain to. The new birth is from above and
born from above. And as it says there in 1 John, here in his love, here
in his love that what God has done through Christ for the church,
that is love. And that is hard to attain to. We cannot attain to it. And in
Christ only, we can love God as it needs to be, and in him
that he has done that. And thank you for listening one
more time. And as Mike has said, be free.