to 1 John chapter 4. We were here Thursday night in
this passage. I want to go back here again
this morning. At the end of verse 8, John says, God is love. God is love. God in His very being is love. Scripture tells us God is spirit. In His very being, God is spirit. Scripture tells us God is light.
In His very being, God is light. In the same way, God is love. His very essence is love. Verse
16 tells us God is love. And he that dwelleth in love,
dwelleth in God, and God in him. If we're born again of God, then
God dwelleth in us and we in Him. And God is love. He dwells in us and God is love. So when God who is love dwells
in a sinner, that new nature that He has created is love. God is love and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God and God in Him. That's why John speaks
with dogmatism. Up here in verse 7, and he declares
two things here dogmatically. He says, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. That's because God is love. And
likewise, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If God abides in me, then love
abides in me. And if love abides in me, then
without a doubt, I will love Christ and I will love my brethren. No doubt about it. It's impossible
to do otherwise. Verse 12 says, If we love one
another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. And therefore, for the same reason,
without a doubt, verse 8 says, He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. He says down in verse 20, If
a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. That's
pretty straight forward, isn't it? John is not mincing words
here. So where do we behold the love
of God? Where do we behold His love toward
us? And how do we know how to love
one another? Look at verse 9. Here's my text,
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. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, If God so loved
us, if God after this manner, that's what so means, if God
after this manner loved us. You know John 3.16, for God so
loved the world, that word so means for God after this manner
loved the world. And you read everything Christ
told Nicodemus and you'll find out the manner in which God loved.
And he says here, if God after this manner loved us, we ought
also to love one another. Now believer, we behold God's
love toward His elect in Christ. And he says, if God so loved
us, we ought to love one another after that same manner. Well,
let's look at this. First of all, God loved His people
by giving His very best. He says in verse 9, And 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. The love of God for His people
made God give the very best that God could give. The very best
He could give. His only begotten Son. This is that Son of whom God
said, This is my beloved Son. He gave the Son He loved more
than any other Son. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. He gave Him who pleased Him well. He gave the very best He could
give. Now Scripture says if God after
this manner loved us, then we ought to love one another after
this manner. Our very best doesn't have to be as good as somebody
else's. It just ought to be our very best. We ought to give to God our very
best. And we do that by giving it to
our brethren. By loving our brethren. We sing
this song, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life,
by all. Demands everything. Our very
best. Our very best. Look at this second
thing. God loved His people in this
manner. Christ was willing to come where we are. It says there,
God sent His only begotten Son into the world. Our Lord Jesus
Christ proved His love for His people by dwelling among his
people as our brother. He came to where we are and he
dwelt beside us. He participated in our poverty. That's how he proved that he
truly loved us. He who was rich made himself
poor that through his poverty we might be made rich. Scripture
says in Matthew 8 20, Jesus said unto He said, the foxes have
holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
hath not where to lay His head. You want to see how poor He became
for His people? This is God who created the world,
who owns everything. The cattle on a thousand hills
are His. He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. And yet when
He came here, He suffered what His people suffer. He came here
and emptied himself to make his people rich. He didn't have a
place to lay his head. He was homeless. He was not ashamed of his people.
He dwelt with simple fishermen. He dwelt beside publicans and
sinners. Go over to Matthew 9. You wouldn't
catch religion with these people. Oh, the religion of the day wouldn't
be caught with these people. Look here in Matthew 9 and verse
10. It says, you know, Levi was a
tax collector. And he was called at the receipt
of customs. That's where he was collecting
taxes. He was a thieving tax collector. And after God saved
him, after Christ called him, he invited Christ to his house.
Matthew 9.10 says, And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat
in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down
with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
now here's the most pious, holier-than-thou religious folks of the day. When
they saw it, they looked down their noses. They said unto his
disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? But
when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They that behold need
not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn
what that meaneth. Go learn what this means. I will
have mercy, not sacrifice. God's not interested in what
you sacrifice. He shows mercy to His sinful,
wretched people because of what Christ sacrificed. He's not interested
in our sacrifice. He said, for I'm not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's who He
calls sinners. That's why He wasn't ashamed.
He showed His love by dwelling amongst His sinful people, the
people nobody else would have anything to do with. He manifests
His love by bearing patiently with our faults. There is never
a time you find our Lord Jesus dealing harshly. He never rebuked
His people harshly. Now He rebuked the Pharisees
harshly. He rebuked those religious teachers
who were leading people away into lies and sowing discord.
He rebuked them harshly. Called them by name and rebuked
them harshly. But when it came to His people,
He didn't rebuke them harshly. He gently corrected them. And
He didn't do it that often, but He did correct them. Now brethren,
if anyone could have looked down upon us, if anybody could have
looked down their noses, it's Christ the Lord Jesus Christ,
Christ the Lord, our righteousness. He was righteous, we were sinners. He could look down upon us, and
He didn't. He didn't. Let us become poor. I'll issue you a challenge and
I know what I'm saying. I guarantee you this is so. You
try to make yourself poor in making your brethren rich and
you won't be able to accomplish it. I guarantee you. Try it.
Try it. Test God and see. You try to
give away everything you've got for your brethren and God won't
let you go poor. I guarantee you He won't. If
you're doing it from the motive of you just love your brethren,
you love Christ and you want to provide for your brethren,
He won't let you go poor. And let us never be ashamed of
our brethren. Remember, we're sinners. We're
sinners and remember how Christ dealt with us. And let us bear
one another's faults patiently like Christ did ours. Now here's
the third thing. Christ proved His love most by
willingly laying down His life that we might live. This is where
we see His love most. He willingly laid down His life
that we might live. He says in verse 9, And this
was manifested the love of God toward us because God sent His
only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. The only way we could have life,
sinners, sinful, wretched, guilty, hell deserving sinners, the only
way we could have eternal life is for Christ to die in place
of His people. That's the only way. God's law
had to be honored and we had to be crucified due to our sins. And that's the only way God's
law could be honored. And our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
both. He came and fulfilled the law for His people making us
righteous and holy in Him and He did so by bearing our sins
and bearing our curse so that justice is satisfied. Justice is satisfied. This is
love's crowning deed. What do you mean by it's love's
crowning deed? I mean this is the preeminent
deed of love. Christ said this, greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You can't top this love. We're
talking about laying down his life. Christ laid down His life
for His people and by that He proved the sincerity of His love. Go back over to 1 John 3 and
look at verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Here's how we see the love of
God. Because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth." Men can speak much of love and it's easy
to speak of love and to speak of loving somebody, especially
when times are good. But love is willing to suffer
for those you love. If you really love somebody,
you are willing to suffer for those you love. Love and self-denial
go hand in hand. It's natural. John 12, 23. John answered them saying, The
hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bring forth
much fruit. You get what he's saying. You
take a single kernel of corn, you have enough of those, you
can cook those up and just eat that and you have one meal of
corn. Or you can put that corn in the
ground and it dies and you get stalks of corn come up and you'll
have much more corn than just one meal of corn. And it was necessary Christ die
in order for Him to have many people. Very much fruit by dying. Listen to what He said. This
is what His lesson was from that. He that loveth his life. You
want to love your life? You don't want to lay it down?
You don't want to suffer? You don't want to deny yourself?
He said, you're going to lose your life. And He's talking about
to follow Him. You can't follow Him any other
way. I'm not talking about what this world talks about, but you
can't follow Christ if you don't lay down your life. But if it dies, it brings forth
fruit. He says, he that hateth his life
in this world shall keep it until life eternal. He that's willing
to let go of everything in this world for Christ, He'll have
eternal life. If a man served Me, He said,
let him follow Me. Where was He going? He was going
to the cross. He was going to lay down His
life. He says, if any man will serve Me, then let him follow
Me. Do as I'm doing. He's saying,
go lay down your life for the brethren if you want to follow
Me. And where I am, there shall also My servant be. If any man
serve Me, him will My Father honor." The willingness of Christ to
deny Himself under such great suffering proved the greatness
of His love. When a man lays down his life
for his friend, he lays down everything. You think about that. You give up your life, you give
up all your wealth. You give up your life and you
give up all your position in this world. Dead men don't hold
any office. They don't hold any authority.
You lay down your life, you're giving that up. You lay down
your life, you're going to forsake the pleasures of this world. You lay down your life, you're
going to give up everything. That's what Christ did for His
people. That's what He did. There's no greater proof of the
greatness of His love than that He laid down His life. He gave
up everything for those He loves. He was willing to die. Not just
to die any death. He was willing to die under the
wrath of God who He loved. He was willing to bear the shame
of sin which He hated. He said, this cup, Lord, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. He willingly drank that
cup. That cup was not merely the wrath
of God. That cup was the sin and shame
of his people. The dregs in the bottom of the
cup of wine, you know, is yeast that's died and settled on the
bottom and that yeast represents sin. That's the cup Christ spoke
of in the garden. Christ drank that cup out of
love for His people. And so this is what He says to
us. Thus saith thy Lord, thee Lord, and thy God that pleadeth
the cause of His people. Behold, I have taken out of thy
hand the cup of trembling. Even the dregs of the cup of
my fury thou shalt no more drink it again. The only way you will
not drink the cup of God's fury is if all your sin has been borne
away by the scapegoat. That's the only way. And Christ
willingly submitted to having all the sin of His people laid
on Him and He took it away. He took it away. And so He says this, in this
mountain, in the mountain of the Lord, Shall the Lord of hosts make
a feast unto all kinds of people, a feast of fat things, a feast
of wine on the leaves. Wine on the leaves is wine, those
leaves are those dregs. And that wine on the leaves is
wine that has the dregs in it, but it's been well aged, so it's
fine wine, it's good wine. But he says, this wine on the
lees is also wine on the lees well refined. That means all
the dregs have been filtered out of the wine. There's no sin
left whatsoever. Men would drink wine and they
would always leave the last little bit of the wine in the cup because
there was those dregs in the bottom of it. You didn't want
to drink that. It was nasty to drink. That's why it was such
a good pitcher. It was dead yeast and that's
a picture of sin and that was a picture of what Christ drank
for his people. He drank the dregs of the cup. And so when he was instituting
the Lord's table and he said, this cup of wine represents the
New Testament in my blood. And what did he tell them? Drink
ye all of it. Don't leave any of it. There's
not any dregs in it. They're gone. You can drink this
wine to the very bottom of the cup because He put away all the
sin of His people. It's gone. And this is where
you behold His love. Paul said, I pray that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith and that you might be rooted
and grounded in love. Rooted and grounded in love. That you may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and the length the depth and
the height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge
that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. This
is where you see the breadth and the height and the length
and the depth of His love in what He willingly suffered for
His people on Calvary's cross. If His great sacrificial love
does not constrain us, to lay down our life for Him and for
His brethren. We don't know Him. That's just
plain and simple. That's what John is saying. If
this love doesn't constrain us to lay down our life for one
another, we're a liar. We don't know God. Here's the
fourth thing. God proved His love to us in
that He loved us when we did not love Him. He did all this
when we did not love Him. Look at verse 10. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sin. God didn't wait on us to
show Him love in order for Him to show us love. Isn't that what
we tend to do? He didn't wait on us to show
Him love for Him to show us love. Had He done that, He would have
never loved us. We would have never shown Him
love. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved
us. You know Romans 5, 8, God commendeth
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. While we were sinners. Much more
than being now justified by His blood. We shall be saved from
wrath through Him, for if when we were enemies we were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. If when we were enemies we were
reconciled, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
You see that? If He did this for us when we
were enemies, we shall be saved by Him, by His life. Some say they won't show love
until their brother shows that he's sorry, until he takes the
first step. Anybody who does that loves like
a Pharisee. That's Pharisaical love. That's
not how God loved His people. We hated Him and He loved us. He said, brethren, let us love
one another after the same manner. Some say they refuse to forgive
unless there is some sort of remorse shown and somebody comes
asking for forgiveness. That's self-righteousness. There's
no difference in that whatsoever. Holding a grudge and not forgiving
somebody, there's no difference in that if you said Christ died
for everybody and it's up to your will for you to be regenerated
and for you to be saved by your work. There's not a bit of difference
in that. Look over with me at Matthew 18 verse 21. Our Lord had just told the disciples,
He said, if your brother shall trespass against you, go tell
him his fault between thee and him alone. If he hears you, you've
gained your brother. And listen to this, Peter, he
said in Matthew 18, 21, Then came Peter and said, Lord, how
often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Until seven
times? Jesus said unto him, I say unto
thee, until seven Not until seven times, until seventy times seven. That means without end. Without
end. And then listen to this parable.
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which
would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon,
one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. A big sum. But for as much as
he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and
his children and all that he had in payment to be made. The
servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
have patience with me. I will pay thee all. Then the
Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him
and forgave him the debt." You know what Christ did to us? We
owed Him a great sum. And God in free grace For His
great love wherewith He loved us, He forgave us. Now look what
happened. But the same servant went out,
found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence,
a lot less. Whatever any of our brethren
owes us, I guarantee you it's a lot less than you owe Christ.
I guarantee you that. Look at this. And he laid his
hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that
thou owest. That's what some people say to
their brethren about the way they treat them. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and he besought him saying, have patience with me
and I'll pay thee all. He did to him exactly what that
man did before his Lord. Verse 30 says, and he would not.
but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very
sorry, and they came and told unto their Lord all that was
done. And then his Lord, after that he had called him, said
unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt
because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on
thee? And his Lord was wroth and he
delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was
due unto him. Now listen to Christ speaking
to you and me. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you From your hearts, forgive not every
one his brother their trespasses. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
That's pretty clear. And be honest with you, the man
who won't forgive don't know a thing about forgiveness. He
don't know a thing about the mercy of God. Not a thing. Where would you and I be if God
waited for us to love Him? Where would we be? Where would
we be if God would not have mercy on you and me? What if He waited on us to show
remorse and come and beg forgiveness? Where would we be? But God, but
God, but God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
He loved us even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us
together with Christ. By grace are you saved. Now lastly, God's people love
one another by God making us a new creation. Verse 7, 1 John
4, 7 says, Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. That's how we love. We're born
of God and we know God. Verse 12, no man has seen God
at any time if we love one another. Here's why. God dwelleth in us
and His love is perfected in us. Now believers have many faults
and we have many failures. Many. Many. But God's people
love one another despite our faults and our failures. We do. We do. That's what John's saying.
He's saying if you're born of God, You do love your brethren. You do love one another as Christ
loved us. Not to the extent that Christ
loved us, but you do in comparison love your brethren. That's what
he's saying. Peter denied the Lord three times.
We have some faults, don't we? We got a few, don't we? Peter
boasted first, oh, I won't ever do that. These probably will. I won't do that. And then he
denied the Lord three times. We have a few faults and failures,
don't we? But our Lord went to him. You know what he asked him?
Peter, do you love me? He didn't say, do you know the
five points, Peter? He didn't say, have you signed
a church creed, Peter? He didn't say, are you converted,
Peter? He said, Peter, do you love me? And Peter said, Lord,
you know I love you. And then what did he say? If
you're going to show me your love, Peter, feed my lambs. You have mercy on my people.
You love my people. You feed my people. Do I love the Lord Jesus Christ?
That's what every believer should ask ourselves. If I'm asking
that of you, I'm a Pharisee. I should be asking that of myself.
Do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? How did the Lord tell Peter to
prove it? He said, feed my sheep. Love for Christ is proved by
loving our brethren. And a lack of love is proved
that way too, if we don't love them. If we love Christ, we'll
do what is the most natural thing for love to do. This is not something
that has to be strived for. Not at all. If we love Christ,
we'll do the most natural thing you do when God dwells in you. God who is love, when He dwells
in you, making you to dwell in love so that you love Christ,
we'll do the most natural thing there is to do. We'll love those
Christ loves. My study and my preaching is
motivated by my love for Christ and by my love for you. That's
what motivates me to study. Our giving to our brethren in
whatever capacity and every capacity is determined by our love for
Christ and our love for His people. Our conduct in this world is
a result of our love for Christ and our love for our brethren.
Scripture says the love of Christ constraineth us. You take Kristen,
she's a nurse. She has somebody come in and
she takes care of them and she does everything she can for them.
She tries to provide them the most comfort she can, the best
medicine she can, everything's at her disposal. She's trying
to do everything she can for them. When her shift's over,
she goes home. A mother that has a sick child
loves that child and nurses that child until that child is well. What's the difference? Love. Love's the difference. How do I know if I really love
the Lord Jesus Christ? People want all these deep reasons.
How do I know if I love Lord Jesus Christ? How do you know
you love your husband or your wife? How do you know you love your
son or your daughter? How do you know you love your grandchildren?
How do you know you love your friends for all these years?
If you love a person, you enjoy thinking about that person. It's
all you want to think about. They dwell in your heart. You
don't forget them. Same if you love Christ. If you love a person,
you enjoy hearing about them. You love to hear people talk
about them. You love to read about them. If a loved one writes
you a letter, you'll read that letter over and over and over
and over. If you love God, you love His Word, you love to hear
His Gospel. You don't miss it unless you
absolutely have to. David said, I was glad when they
said to me, let's go to the house of God. His sheep will go far
to hear His Word preached. The psalmist said, the Word is
a lamp to my feet, a light unto my path. I'll hide Your Word
in my heart. I need it more than my daily
food. Do we feel that way? Do we? I've often said, if we can miss
hearing the Word of God, just for every time you miss hearing
the Word of God, just don't eat from one time to the next. Just
don't eat necessary food. Don't eat that. Because you really
need the Word of God more than you need that food. If you love a person, you love
those they love. Don't you? If you love somebody,
you love those they love. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of them that bring glad tidings. I have pastors,
I love them dearly. Why? They love my Redeemer. They
preach my Redeemer. God's people love one another
for Christ's sake. Some have traits and manners
that may be less lovable. They really are. I see people
sometimes that don't love certain pastors and certain brethren.
And I'll admit the reasons they don't seem to love them, I get
it. Sometimes brothers and sisters
don't have lovable traits about them. But if you don't think that you
have some unlovable traits about you, I promise you, you do. But
we love you anyway. If you love a person, you want
to please them and you hate to displease them. A believer loves to please Christ
and we just shudder at the thought of displeasing Him. That's our
motivation. And if you love a person, you
want to be with that person. You want to be with them. Believers
want to be with Christ now by being with His people. Our brethren
in whom Christ dwells are the closest thing we have on this
earth to being with Christ. Do you realize that? I want to
be with my brethren because that's where Christ is. And we are not
satisfied with anything in this world till one day we awake and
behold Him face to face. That's how you know you love
Him. How do you know you love your spouse? Next time you think
about something, you think about doing something to your brother,
your sister in Christ, say, would I do this to my spouse? Is this
worth whatever I'm about to do? Would I do it to my spouse for
the same reason? Most of the time, we'll say no.
If it's something negative, we'd say, no, I wouldn't do that to
my spouse. If it's something positive, we say, yes, I would
do that for my spouse. Do it for your brother. That's
how we know we love one another. All right, let's stand together. Our gracious Lord, thank You
for Your Word and thank You for Your great love for Your people,
for giving so abundantly and so generously and so graciously. Thank You for loving us though
that we don't love nearly as we ought to love Lord, increase our love. Make
us abound in love more and more and more. To do that, Lord, it's
going to be by making us behold how You loved us in Christ more.
Make us behold Christ more. Make us learn more of Him. Behold
Him more. Behold His great love for us
more. And grow us in love more. Forgive us, Lord, for not loving
as we are, for not loving as You've loved us. Forgive us our
sins. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.