All right, brethren. 1 John chapter
4. John says in verse 12, 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.
That's how we love. He's given us of his spirit.
So if we love, we know that God dwelleth in us and his love has
done this. His love is perfected in us. He's given us of his spirit.
I want to look at these verses again because I think last Thursday,
it was pretty obvious by the time we got here that a lot of
you were tired and I felt like I was rushing a bit. So I want
to look at something here and make sure I was clear. John is declaring here that when
we love our brethren, it's active love. God's people love one another
actively. And it's because God dwells in
us. And his love accomplishes this
in us. And this is how we know that
we dwell in God and he in us. This is of his spirit that he's
given to us. That's the only way we would
love. That's the only way we would continue in his love. I've
titled this, No Man Hath Seen God. Do you find that to be an
odd statement to go with this subject? That struck me when
I read it. Why did he begin to declare this
and he began with saying no man hath seen God at any time? It
just sort of jumped out at me that this comes, what's this
have to do with what he's saying to us? And I want to get to that
in a moment, but I want to review something here that we went over
last time. He says in verse 12, if we love
one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected
in us. The only reason a sinner loves
the Lord Jesus and loves one another is because of God. We
didn't love God. We didn't love our brethren.
We were the ones described back in chapter 3. We hated God. We hated the church. We didn't
want anything to do with God. That's all men by nature as we
come into this world. So if we have love now, if we
love God and we love His people, God dwelleth in us. God did that. God's given us of His Spirit.
He did that because we didn't have that before. So He gets
all the praise and all the glory. And you notice there He says
in verse 16, we've known and believed the love that God hath
to us. God is love and He that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God and God in Him. What does that mean to
dwell in love? It means if you're traveling
and you stop at a hotel, you're not dwelling in that hotel. You
stop off there for the night and then you move along the next
day. When you dwell, you dwell in your home. That's your dwelling. You're there from here on out. Unless you pack up, move, sell
it, you dwell there to the end. That's what he's talking about.
When you dwell in love, he means you continue in it. You know,
if you look at the Mississippi River, there's all kind of curves
in the Mississippi River, and sometimes it actually is flowing
north. But if you zoom out and you look
at the big picture, it's always going south. It may go north
for a little while, but it's gonna curve back and go south. Now, what he's talking about
here is there may be isolated acts in brethren where we don't
love as we ought to love, but we're not talking about isolated
acts. We're talking about the believer's
whole life. When God dwells in us and he's
given us of his spirit and he's accomplished this in us, he makes
you to dwell in him until the end. Loving your brethren until
the end. It's not an isolated act we're
looking at. Go back over there to 1 John
2 verse 24. Our Lord Jesus said, I mean Christ
said this concerning the Lord, John said this concerning the
Lord Jesus. He said, let that therefore abide
in you. Let it dwell in you. It's the
same word. Let that dwell in you which you've
heard from the beginning. John said, from the beginning
we've heard that we should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
love one another. The gospel, that's what we've
heard. Believe on Christ and love one another. He says, if
that which you've heard from the beginning shall remain, there's
another word, it means abide, continue, dwell. If that remains
in you, you shall continue. Same word, you'll abide, dwell,
continue, remain in the Son and in the Father. Our text says
if we dwell in love, it's because God dwelleth in us. We dwell
in love is because God dwelleth in us and His love has accomplished
this in us. That's why it's the God dwelleth
in us and it's by that, you know, when He cleans you, when He gives
you a clean heart to hear the gospel and believe the gospel,
He did that by speaking His word to you. Go to John 15. I want
to show you this. He did that by speaking His word
to you. Well, it's by that same Word,
once He's cleaned you, given you a clean heart, it's that
same Word that comes in an effectual command that makes you abide
in Him. Look here, John 15, 3. Christ said, Now ye are clean
through the Word which I have spoken unto you. When He speaks
His Word in power, we're clean. Now look, Abide in me. See, he's speaking his word again
at me. He said, I spoke of my word and
you're clean. Now he speaks his word again
to him. And he says, abide in me and I in you. And when he
speaks that word in you, guess what you're going to do? You're
going to abide in him. You're going to abide in him.
He says, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it
abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I'm
the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. So when our God dwells in us,
and he speaks his word and says, abide in me, let that abide in
you which you heard from the beginning. We're gonna be delighted
that it abides in us. And we're gonna abide in him
because that's what his word will make us do. Now, last time
I made the statement to you that when God dwells in us and he's
created in us a spirit in which is no guile. That's what the
scripture says. That means no sin. A spirit in
which is no guile is a spirit in which is no sin. That's that
new spirit he gives. And when he does that, he's giving
you a pure heart. And in that pure heart, God dwells. God who is love dwells there. If God who is love dwells in
us, everything about that new spirit's gonna be perfect. It's
gonna be without guile. And so he makes us dwell in love
to the end. And in that new spirit, which
is no guile, he makes us love God with all our heart. That's
what he said, Deuteronomy 30 verse 6. He said, I'll circumcise
your heart. to love the Lord thy God with
all thine heart, and with all thine soul, and that thou mayest
live. And he does the same thing, making
us love our brethren. First Peter 1.22 says, you've
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit
unto unfeigned love of the brethren. Unfeigned love. This is from
a spirit in which is no guile, We love with unfeigned love,
a pure heart, we love fervently, and it's because we've been born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and, what's the next thing? Abideth forever. That word abideth forever, and
it makes us abide in love forever. Now that doesn't mean, here's
what I want to clarify, make sure you understood it. It doesn't
mean that we still don't have sin. We do have sin in our flesh. So sin's mixed with everything.
I just want to make certain nobody misunderstood that I was saying
that we love without sin. In that new spirit, there is
no sin. There is no guile. We love God
with all our heart and with unfeigned love to our brethren. But sadly,
we have flesh, which oftentimes reigns over us for a little while,
and we don't love as we ought. But in that new man, we do. Now,
here's something else I want to look at. What does it mean
that His love is perfected in us? It says, if we love one another,
God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. What does
that mean? It means God's love has accomplished
this in us. That word means accomplished.
Listen to John 19, 28. Christ was on the cross. And after this, Jesus, knowing
that all things were now accomplished. Same word. Knowing that all things
were finished. All things were perfected. When
our Lord said, It is finished. Same word. It is perfected. It's
accomplished. That's what He means. That's
what He means. When we dwell in love to God,
and we dwell in love to our brethren, It's because God dwells in us
and God's love, His love, has accomplished this in us. He makes
us behold His love in Christ and His love accomplishes this
in us. Down in verses 17 and 18, we're
going to see in another message sometime, we're going to see
that God's love is perfected in us when His love removes from
us a fear of judgment. And that's what he does when
he does this work perfecting love in you, he does this work
removing fear as well. So perfected does not mean that
we're sinless or that we're gonna have perfection. That's not what
that word means at all. It just simply means when we
love one another, it's because God dwells in us and God has
accomplished this end in us. Robert Hawker said, all that
we can call love or affection in us, either to God or His people,
are but the mere effects from Him and His love to us as the
cause. That's what he's talking about.
Now, here's the next thing. I want to say, why does God support,
why does John support this truth by saying, no man hath seen God
at any time? Let's read it again, verse 12.
No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us and his love is perfected in us. Well, no man hath seen
God at any time. God is invisible. God is spirit. That's why we can't see God.
But we do behold the invisible God. We behold the invisible
God in Christ Jesus, the God-man, in whom God abides, in whom God
dwells. That's where we behold him. John
said, in John 1.18, he said, no man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. Paul said
in Colossians 2.9, for in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead in a body. That one who walked this earth,
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is God in human flesh. The full
trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit
dwelt in that fleshly body and went by the name Jesus the Christ. That's him. John also said God
is love. And he said, and we know God
loves his people, but no man has seen God at any time. So
where am I going to behold the love of God? I can't see God. Where am I going to behold the
love of God? Verse 9. And this was manifested, made
open and clear to us, 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 sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sin. The way we know that God dwells
in Christ and that, and, and, The way we behold God's love
for His elect, the way we behold this is in Christ and the works
He did. We behold it in Christ laying
down His life for us. We behold God's love for us in
the action Christ took by coming here and laying down His life
for us. We behold the love of the invisible
God. Go to John 5, I want you to see.
Our Lord Jesus said this. He said this very thing, this
very point John's making, he got it directly from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Look here in John 5, 36. He says,
John 5, 36, I have a greater witness than that of John, speaking
of John the Baptist. for the works which the Father
has given me to finish. There's that word again, perfect,
to perfect, to accomplish. The works He's given me to accomplish,
the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father
has sent me. John 10, go there with me. John
10, verse 37. How do we know we can't see God? How do we know God dwells in
Christ? How do we know God sent Christ?
And how do we see the love of God toward us in Christ? We see it by the works Christ
did. Look here, John 10, 37. He said, If I do not the works
of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe
not me, believe the works. that you may know and believe
that the Father is in me and I in him." We're talking about
how we know God dwells in us and we dwell in God. He said,
here's how you know God dwells in me and I dwell in the Father,
by the works that I do. by the action I take. This is
where we see the love of God toward His people by the works
Christ worked for His people. So John's point is in our text,
no man has seen God at any time. No man has seen God. We see God
by beholding the God-man in whom God dwells. And we behold the
love of God toward us by beholding Christ Jesus coming here The
Son of God come down, took human flesh. The Son of God, He served
God and He fulfilled the law for His people. He went to the
cross. He satisfied justice and made
us righteous. We behold the love of God toward
us in Christ propitiating God, appeasing God, making full atonement
for everybody He represented. There's where we see the love
of God. So when John comes now to verse 12, And he says, verse
11, he says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to
love one another. And he takes this principle and
applies it to us and our love for our brethren. He says, No
man hath seen God at any time. How then are we going to discern
that God dwells in us? How are we going to discern that
God dwells in us who believe Him and love one another? How
are we gonna know that God's love is perfected in us? Verse
12. If we love one another. That's how. If we love one another. 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's given us of his spirit.
That spirit that makes us love. I can't see God dwelling in my
brethren. He's invisible. I can't see the
love of my brethren. Because you can't see love. I
can't see your heart. I can't see it. How then am I
going to know God dwells, how do we know God dwells in us and
we dwell in God? It's by our love in action toward
one another, just the way we behold Christ. It's not merely
by what we say, it's by what we do in love to one another.
If God's given us of His Spirit, there's going to be a likeness
to God. When you, when Will was a boy,
when he was a child, an infant, and growing up, everybody that
saw that boy said, you can't deny him, he is yours. And if you had known me as a teenager,
you'd say, you can't deny him, he's yours. But when you have a child, that
child's gonna bear an image to the Father and to the Mother.
And so when we're born of the Spirit, God's given us of His
Spirit, we're going to have a likeness to Him. And that's what He creates
in us. He is going to make us love one
another and love those He begot. He said, A new commandment I
give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By this shall all men know. How do I know He dwells in my
brethren and my brethren dwell in Him? By this shall all men
know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. So brethren, since no man has
seen God at any time, nobody has seen God at any time, the
only way we are going to know that God dwells in us and we
dwell in God The only way we're going to know that God's love
is perfected in us is that we love one another, not merely
in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And if
He's given us of His Spirit, we will. We will. Now here's
the last thing I want to show you. I want to apply this to
faith and apply it to love to God and to our brethren. In the
preacher, and in the people. If this is so, then it's so of
God's preacher and it's so of his people. Now look here. Now
when it comes to a preacher, no man hath seen God at any time.
So how am I going to know God dwells in a man? How am I going
to know that God has accomplished making this man love God and
love his brethren? How am I going to know that?
How am I going? I can't see God. I can't see
love in Him. Well, what does the Spirit of
God always make His preacher and His people do? Look at verse
14. He said, Hereby we know. Verse 13, He says, Hereby know
we that we dwell in Him and He in us because He's given us of
His Spirit. What does His Spirit always make His people do? Verse
14, We've seen and do testify. We've seen. We've seen with faith.
That's what he's talking about. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth does what? Speaks. We've seen, we believe,
and we testify. We declare, open, publicly, unashamedly,
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God
dwelleth in him, and he in God. You know, when I came here, I
spent five years at least looking and listening and trying to find
some faithful preachers in the area. And one thing I've observed
is their statement of faith may be solid, but they seldom preach
what they claim to believe. publicly. When they get up publicly
to preach, they seldom preach what they say they believe. They leave out things. They won't
say things. They won't just preach the scripture
as it is. They leave things out. No man
has seen God at any time, but God's given us a sure way that
we can know that God dwells in his preacher. He's given us a
sure way. God says, That's God's people
as well as the preacher. Whosoever is not ashamed to testify
publicly, to confess publicly that Jesus is God in human flesh. Whosoever is not of... Scripture
says that no man can call Him Lord but by the Spirit. And a
man that's speaking by the Spirit cannot call Him accursed. That
means you cannot call His blood common if you're speaking by
the Spirit of God. You cannot, speaking by the Spirit
of God, say that Christ came into this world and laid down
His life for everybody and for every sinner. You can't do that
speaking by the Spirit of God. You mean Christ laid down His
life for people who were already in hell? Oh, well then I guess
maybe He didn't lay down His life for everybody. You mean
He laid down His life for people who's going to end up in hell?
People that's going to go through this world and never be brought
to faith in Him? That means He failed if He did
that. God's going to bring His preacher
to say Christ is the successful Savior. He's the successful Savior. and He's the Savior of the world. That means wherever His elect
people are in the world, all over this world, all kinds of
people, some rich, some poor, male, female, those that are
free and those that are bound, it doesn't matter what kind of
person they are. He's got all kinds of sinners
that He's saving. But our Lord Jesus Christ came
to this place and He went to the cross with a particular people
on His heart that He knew who He was dying for. That high priest,
when he went into the holiest of holies under the law in the
Old Testament, he had the names of specific tribes on his breastplate. And he didn't have the names
of everybody on his breastplate. That's a picture, brethren. That's
showing us that Christ Jesus is the High Priest. And He had
the names of a particular people on His heart. Go to Ephesians
chapter 1 real quick. Ephesians 1. Look at this. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accept in the beloved." When
did He do this? God blessed us. Whoever this
us are, He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places, in Christ, according as He chose us in Him before
the world began. If you have been blessed with
all spiritual blessings, God's scripture says the gifts of God
are without repentance. God doesn't take His gifts back.
And He blessed His people with all spiritual blessings, justification,
redemption, everything we need. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heaven, in Christ, before this world was made by
choosing us in Christ. Now that's the Word of God. That's
the Word of God. The only way I can say I don't
agree with that is to say, I don't agree with God. That's the only
way I can deny that, because that's the Word of God. And God's
preacher is going to stand up and He's going to declare this,
that when He went to that cross and He cried out, it is finished,
and He said, it's perfected, it's accomplished, He meant He
had propitiated God on behalf of His people. So what's He doing
now? dwelling where His Spirit is,
that preacher is going to stand up and say, He's risen and He's
seated at God's right hand and He has all power in all places
over all and He's working right now sending this gospel to His
people in this earth and He's sending forth the Holy Spirit
and He's calling them out. He's calling them out. And He's
not going to lose one. He has the ability to keep His
people and preserve His people. And where He's planted that incorruptible
seed, it liveth and it abideth forever and so do those in whom
that seed has been planted. And wherever God's given this
heart, look back up at verse 2. Verse 2, Hereby know ye the
Spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God. That's what I'm saying. It's
not just saying Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Almost
everybody says that. It's preaching why He came in
the flesh, what He accomplished in the flesh, for whom He accomplished
in the flesh, is to declare the gospel of Him. But whoever does
this, he says, is of God. And every spirit that confesses
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Antichrist is not some big horned
demon creature that everybody's scared about that's going to
show up at the end. Antichrist is anybody that's
opposed to the gospel. It's anybody that hates the gospel.
That person is possessed with the spirit of anti-Christ. He's
anti-Christ. He's anti-God having all the
glory. He's anti-Christ having all the
glory. And the same is true of God's
people as we hear His preacher. Look at verse 4. You're of God,
little children, and have overcome them. The world. You've overcome
those preachers and those hearers of worldly men. Why? Because
greater is He that's in you. He's talking about God dwelling
in us. Greater is God that dwells in
you. Greater is Christ that dwells
in you than He that's in the world. They are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world
and the world heareth them. I get up and I preach, and every
time after I preach, I'll ask different ones I talk to, and
I'll say, well, what did you think of the message? Believers love the spiritual
thing. Believers love to hear the spiritual
thing. They hear the spiritual things
and they're blessed by them and they delight in them. But somebody
who's not born in the spirit, the only thing they ever comment
on are the earthly illustrations. That's it. Because that's all
they heard. That's all they heard. And that's all the world preaches
is just worldly stuff. Men can hear that, they can understand
that, they delight in that. Men go and hear one of God's
preachers and they say, I didn't understand a thing he said. We
are of God, and he that knoweth God heareth us, and he that is
not of God heareth not us, and hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. So when God dwells in a sinner,
and God's love is perfected in that sinner, he's going to declare
Christ, he's going to confess Christ, he's going to testify
of Christ in truth according to the Word of God. That's right. You know a man may say he believes
God, but he won't confess him and believe his baptism? What's
wrong? Something's wrong. Because where
God's planted, where the Spirit of God is, they ain't going to
confess, they're not ashamed to confess it. And the same is
true concerning our love for one another. Go back down to
verse 12. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another,
God dwelleth in us and His love has accomplished this in us.
Look at verse 16. We've known and believed the
love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Think of the certainty
of that statement. Just look at the certainty of
that statement. Sovereign, irresistible God dwells
in us. Not only are we partakers of
the divine nature, but God is present in that new nature. He's
there. He's washed us in His blood and
Christ has come directly into our new heart and He dwells there.
You imagine that God who made heaven and earth and made all
things, God who's controlling everything that is right now,
do you imagine He can come into a sinner's heart and yet be unable? to make him love God and his
brethren. Do you think that would be even
remotely possible? That a sinner could frustrate
him and keep him from making you love God and your brethren?
Stop the sun from coming up tomorrow. If you can't do that, you can't
stop God either. You can't stop Him from working
in you. This is what He does. Look down at verse 20. If a man
say, I love God, and hateth his brother. He's a liar. For he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen? Here's a brother across town.
He's got a need. He's one God loved. He's one
God sent His only begotten Son to save. He's one Christ laid
down His life for and redeemed. He's one in whom Christ dwells. And he's got a need. He's got
a need. I can't see God, but I can see
Him. I can't love God in person and do something for God in person,
but I can do something for my brother in person. And if I don't,
there's a reason. If a man says he loves God and
hates his brother, he's a liar. If I say, how can I love Him
I have not seen and hate Him who I have seen? That's an impossibility
with God. If God's given us His Spirit,
we're going to love. He's planted that incorruptible
seed and He never has a crop failure, brethren. There's going
to be life spring up and faith and love spring up. and He's
going to cultivate it, and He's going to bring forth love, and
He's going to make His child dwell in love. God won't allow
His love to be choked out by our flesh. He won't allow it
to be choked out by this world. He won't allow it to be choked
out by our nearest dearest loved ones. He won't allow it to be
choked out. That ground where the thorns grew, the cares of
this world choked out the word and it became unprofitable. That's
not the good ground. The good ground where God's planted
the seed, where He's made the ground good, He won't allow His
love to be choked out. The stony ground here endures
for a time, but He has no root in Himself. And so afterward,
when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately
they are offended. Oh, you mean I'm going to have
to suffer? I'm not going to suffer. Oh,
we're peaceful people. We don't want any trouble. If you don't suffer for Christ's
sake, you don't know Christ, is what he's saying. But his
child Where Christ abides, He makes us be rooted and grounded
in love for Christ. And when He does that, despite
Satan's best efforts to try to turn his people against one another
and turn his people against God's preacher and turn his people
against God's church, it can't be done. God won't allow it to
be done. God's love perfected in us makes
a believer love strangers and another land that he's never
even met before. more than his own family that
lives on the same block with him. When he sees his brother under
attack, when he sees him slandered, God's love makes him stand with
his brother and comfort his brother, not question his brother. Many
waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a
man would give all the substance of his house for love, If somebody
came and Satan uses everything he can to try to offer you and
just see what your price is and offer you and offer you and offer
you a greater price and a greater price and a greater price just
to get you to part with love, just to get you to turn your
back on Christ and your brethren and leave this all behind. God
says if a man would give all the substance of his house for
love, try to make a believer part with Christ, he would utterly
hold him in contempt. Ain't no way he'd do it. He said,
no, I'm not parting with Christ. I'm not parting with my brethren.
No matter the price offered to part, he won't do it. Paul said,
I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing
can do it. Nothing can do it. Brethren,
I got three things to tell you. Let's endeavor to abound in love
toward one another more and more. We have a young congregation. We got some energy here. Let's
love one another. Let's abound in doing whatever
we can. I'm talking about actively for
one another. Paul said, oh no man anything
but to love one another for he that loveth another has fulfilled
the law. And then secondly, pray for one another. And pray for
one another, Paul said to Thessalonians, the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all men even
as we do toward you. and pray for one another that
the Lord increase our love toward one another. Are you satisfied? I'm like Paul, I don't think
I've attained. I want to know him more, and
I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings more, and I
want to love more. I want to love like my Redeemer
loved, don't you? And tonight when you lay down
your head, Before you go to sleep, thank God for His love. Thank
God that He's given us love and give Him all the glory for it.
If we love one another, here's why, God dwelleth in us and His
love has accomplished this in us. Amen.