If you would turn with me to
1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. I overheard a young lady this
week telling another young lady that she had fallen in love with
Jesus. And that Jesus in return had
fallen in love with her. As in many cases, friends, When
it concerns things of God, folks get things out of order. The
Bible is clear that we love Him because He first loved us. And you might say, well, isn't
that just a little technicality? No, it's much more than that. He loved me, and because of that,
I love Him. Her statement, however, did get
me to thinking about the love of God. And that's my subject
this morning. Now here in verse seven of 1
John chapter four, we read, beloved, let us love one another, for
love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. You see, true love, scriptural
love, the love of God, the love that John is speaking of is the
fruit of the Holy Spirit. The natural man and woman does
not possess this love. Now, did you know that we actually
demonstrate likeness to our God, the Father, when we love one
another? The unbeliever does not have
this love. By nature, I know that we know
very little about the love of God. Paul described very beautifully
this kind of love, God's love, in 1 Corinthians 13. So I want
you to stick your marker here in 1 John. We're coming right
back to it. But I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians
13 with me. I want just to read you a few
verses here and make comment, a few comments as we read through
them. I think this is very important
for us to look at and to understand. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, beginning
in verse four. When the apostle here uses the
word charity, it's the same word as love. And in verse four, he
says, charity suffereth long. And that word suffereth here
means long-spirited, patient, long-suffering and enduring.
Love endures long. And it's kind, it doesn't use
unbecoming words or act indecently to others. And charity envieth
not, it doesn't covet the things of others. Charity vaulteth not
itself, it doesn't push or promote itself. It's not puffed up, not
prideful and boastful. It doth not behave itself unseemly. That simply means rude and disrespectful. It seeketh not her own. You see,
one who has the love of God doesn't covet things to consume them
upon their lust, but they seek the heavenly blessings that are
found in Christ alone. Paul says charity is not easily
provoked. It's not irritable and it's not
touchy. Have you ever been around folks
that are just naturally irritable and touchy? You gotta watch everything
you say. You've got to walk on eggshells,
as they say. Love doesn't present itself that
way. Lord, help me to love. Charity's
not easily provoked. It thinketh no evil. It doesn't
keep a record of wrongdoing, but forgives and forgets the
faults of others. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, not
love. When someone falls, we don't
rejoice, but rejoiceth in the truth. Godly love rejoices in
the truth, the gospel of Christ and all that the gospel entails.
And it bears all things, beareth all things. And that word beareth,
I found very interesting to mean to roof over. or to cover with
silence. That was just amazing to me.
It's to cover with silence the faults and shortcomings of others. And love not only covers, but
it bears the burdens and the infirmities and the reproaches
and the persecution of others. Love believes all things, all
that God says in his word. Love hopeth all things, hopes
for the accomplishment of all the promises of God. "'Love endureth
all things, "'all things that are disagreeable to the flesh,
"'all afflictions, tribulations, temptations, persecutions, "'and
even death itself for the elect's sake "'and for the sake of the
gospel, "'and especially for the sake of Christ. "'It endures
all things.'" And then verse eight, "'Charity never faileth.'"
Friends, true love, the love of God never fails. Now, I want
to live and love like that. I do, don't you? Now, back in
John chapter four, verse eight, we read, he that
loveth not, he that loves not the way that we just read in
1 Corinthians chapter 13, knoweth not God. for God is love. That's why John said in the previous
chapter that we know that we've passed from death into life because
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. God is all that 1 Corinthians
chapter 13 described. And there's nothing in your eye
that draws His love to us. And there's nothing in you and
I that repels His love. Do you know why? Because God
loves us in His Son. He loves us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all the elect children of
God, like Jacob and Esau, before they were born, before any had
done any good or evil, they were loved of God, loved of God. His love is why He chose them. His love is why He gave them
to Christ. His love is why He called them
and saved them by His grace. And there's nothing in us that
would cause God to love us. God's love is eternal love. God says, behold, I have loved
thee with what? An everlasting love. everlasting
love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn you." There was never a time that God didn't
love his people. The child of God has always been
loved and God's love for them wasn't something they earned,
merited, or deserved. God's love is unconditional love. His love was and is not conditioned
on anything that the sinner has done or does. And that is really
good news to me, really good news to me. God's love is sovereign
love. He loved his people for no reason
outside of himself. It simply pleased him to do so. It pleased the Lord, child of
God, to make you his people. It seemed good in his sight.
Well, there had to be something, some cause on our behalf that
would cause God to love it. Nope, it's unconditional. It's not conditioned on anything
in us. He simply chose to love his people. And as God, he has the right
to love whom he will. And having not been born, having
not done any good or evil, God said, Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated. And here we see sovereign love. Sovereign love. God loves whom
he wills. God's love is predestinating
love. predetermining love. He determined
before the world was ever created to love His people. In love,
having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
It just simply pleased the Lord to love us, love those who are
His. God's love is saving love. There
will be no one in hell whom God loves. To think otherwise is
to deny the sovereign, saving power and love of God. Everybody
that God loves, God saves. I want God to love me. How is this love manifested?
Well, look at verse nine. 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. It's
important to understand who this us is that's spoken of here.
We've discussed this many times. If the us here is everyone in
the world without exception, then God's love really doesn't
mean much. If he loves everybody in the
world and he loves them all the same, then it doesn't mean much. If he can send his son to be
a propitiation for you and you can still be lost, what good
is God's love to you? Now the us here is obviously
and definitely a reference to God's people, God's chosen. These
letters, these epistles were written to God's people. You
can pretty much go to the beginning of every one of them and see
who God wrote these letters to. He wrote them to his elect. When
the word of God says, God's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance, he's talking about his people.
He's not talking about the whole world. He said, I'm not willing
that any of mine elect should perish, but they should all come
to repentance. And he's gonna see that that
occurs. So the us is a reference to God's
elect. You know, this is the same us
that Paul spoke of when he said, if God be for us, who can be
against us? This is the same us that is spoken
of in Romans chapter five, verse eight, when it says, God commended
his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Well, this is the same thus of
whom it is said, he that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all. all God's elect, all God's chosen,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? This is the same us of whom it
is said that cannot be separated from His love. 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, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us,
us, from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. You see the
love of God to us is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Never forget that, never forget
that. This is speaking to the same
us that has been blessed with all spiritual blessings. This
is the same us that was chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. This is the same us that God
has predestinated unto the adoption of children as we read a moment
ago. This is the same us that has been accepted in the beloved,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the same us that
has been quickened together with Christ. As Paul wrote, or as
Paul read, Paul wrote and Paul read. Two different Pauls in
the men's meaning. This is the same us that has
been raised up together and made to sit in heavenly places in
Christ. This is talking about you, dear
believer. The same us that God shows the
exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward through Christ
Jesus. The same us whom God here in
verse 9 has manifested His love toward all of God's people, all
of God's elect. Now look at verse 9 again. And
this was manifested the love of God toward us because the
God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. Now child of God, I want you
to see in verse 10 how John describes you and I, his elect to whom
God sent his son. Look at what it says here. Herein
is love. Now this is what love is. Not,
this is what it's not, not that we love God, but that he loved
us. There's that word again. And
sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, God's people
are identified by two things in this verse. First, they had
no love for God. not that we love God. Even if we did love God, there's
nothing praiseworthy or commendable in that because God ought to
be loved. God is altogether lovely. He's glorious. He's merciful. He's gracious. He is love. Every man and woman according
to God is guilty of the same great sin and crime because by
nature they have no love for God. And the child of God knows
it so. Now the religionists may get
mad at you for saying that. I had someone tell me one time
that they'd love God all their life. Well, that's not only too
long, it's not so. Let God be true in every man,
a liar. God, the Holy Spirit said through
John, the apostle, the beloved John, here in his love, not,
not that we love God. By nature, not only do we not
love God, but we hate him. The carnal mind is enmity. against God that word enmity
you know what it means we've we've mentioned it before it
means hostile hostile the carnal mind is hostile against God for
it's not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be
Romans 8 7 can you be hostile to one that you love what kind
of love would that be And that's what makes this gospel of ours
so wonderful. Those who are hostile against
God are the very ones that God sent his son for. They're the
very ones that God loves. They didn't love God, they hated
him. And this is seen so clear on
the cross of Calvary. The one time that God allowed
mankind to do what they would, with his son, they by wicked
hands took and crucified and slayed God's beloved son. Now you wanna see something about
the will of man? You wanna see something about
man's love for God? You look to the cross. My, my. And then the second thing by
which God's elect are identified in is that in spite of their
hatred of God, He loved them. Oh, if you ever see what you
are by nature, and if God ever shows and reveals to you that
he loves you, you'll never get over God's love. I had a little
article in the bulletin about the beloved John. He always refers
to himself in the scripture as the one to whom Jesus loved. Does that mean that he thought
he was the only one that the Lord loved? No. but he just couldn't
get over God's love for him. His name wasn't worthy to mention. He referred to himself simply
as the one that Jesus loved. I can't believe he loves me.
And you know what? I can't believe he loves me,
but he does. I love to do word studies in
the scripture. I love to see what the translated
words of scripture actually mean in the original language. And
that word herein, in the Greek, shines great light on the magnificence
of the statement herein is love. The word herein, it's called
a primary preposition and that doesn't mean anything to me.
I barely got through English in high school. But that denotes,
it says that it denotes a fixed position in place, time, and
state. And I thought, that's pretty
amazing. You see, the place, fixed place,
it was in Christ that God loves His people. That's where God
loves His people. Fixed, those fixed in Christ. The time? Well, it was before
the foundation of the world. Before any of us had done any
good or evil, God loved us in Christ. In the state, it's then
and there that God made us one with Him. So that kind of makes
that word herein a little more special to me. Herein also means
to give yourself wholly, completely to something. Give yourself wholly
and completely to the love of God. How do we know that God
loves his elect? How is God's love manifested
to those whom he loves? Look at the last part of verse
10. It tells us plainly, he sent his son to be a propitiation
for our sins. His love was unsought by us. He sent his son. We didn't send
to him. We didn't send to him. He sent
his son to us. Christ didn't come to be sought. You know, that's never really
thought about that, but that's so. Christ came to seek and to
save that which was lost. Christ came in the world to save
sinners. That's the faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, what Christ came to do. He came to
seek and to save lost sinners. God so loved his people in the
world that he sent his only begotten son to be a propitiation for
their sin that we might live through him. Now, Christ is the
brightness of God's glory and he's this express image of his
person. And the father loves the son
and the scripture says he gives all things into his hand. Jesus
Christ, friends, is the God with whom you have to do. And as I
asked in the first hour, the most important question ever
asked on the pages of Scripture is, what do you think of Him?
What do you think of Jesus Christ? Whose Son is He? What has He
done for sinners? Now that word, propitiation,
is one of the most important words in all the Bible. You won't
hear it much preached in religion today. There is some great joy,
some great peace, some great assurance in this if God will
enable us to understand something of this propitiation. It'll give
us some sense of God's amazing love for us. which is found only
in Christ and in the putting away of the believer's sin that
we often refer to as pardon. Now, I love that word pardon. And if I was a criminal in prison,
I would want to be pardoned. But you know, pardon doesn't
mean that there is a satisfaction made for the sin. One who is
pardoned from prison still carries the guilt of their sin. So pardon
can imply that sin is still there and therefore guilt still remains.
You know, oftentimes the forgiveness of sins is referred to as atonement,
but atonement means a covering. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew
word for atonement was translated pitch. You remember that in our
study in Genesis? That black substance, tar, whatever
that was used to cover the Ark of Noah to keep the water out. It was a covering. And I like
the idea, don't get me wrong. I like the idea of having my
sins covered. But what if they're still there
and become uncovered? In the Old Testament, every year,
every year, there was another atonement. There were other sins
that had been yet atoned for that needed to be covered. So
what about this thing called propitiation? The word means
an appeasement. What is an appeasement? Well,
it's a complete satisfaction. Complete satisfaction is more
than a covering. It's a complete satisfaction. The sacrifice of
Christ made an appeasement, a complete satisfaction for sin. And I need
my sin to be gone. Not just covered, but gone. Think about this. If I have no
sin, then there cannot be any guilt of sin. The only way we
can feel no guilt for sin is to not have any. Now that's so. I can be forgiven of my sin,
I can sin against you, I can do something and you can forgive
me and even forget it, but I still feel the guilt of it. I still
feel the guilt of sin that I did years ago. Every now and then
they come to mine and I thank God that he forgave me for it.
Well, why couldn't God just forgive sin? That's a good question. Why couldn't God just forgive
sin? Because God's too holy to forgive
sin. His holy justice won't permit
him. We talk about that every service.
God must remain just. God's law must be honored. God's justice must be satisfied. Does that ring a bell with you?
Payment for sin must be made. The soul that sins, it must die
in order for God to remain just. Sin is hated of God and sin is
hatred of God. That's what sin is. Sin is hostility
toward God, enmity against God. Sin hates God's word. Sin hates
God's holy law. Sin hates God. And the only hope
any of us have of being saved from our sin and from the holy
justice and wrath of God that demands payment and justice for
our sin is to find a way that God can remain just and still
justify the ungodly. I found it. It found me. It found me. So God made out of love for His
elect a way that He can punish sin. and still completely love
and accept and receive the people that Christ made a propitiation
for. That it's the gospel. As the
righteous judge, sin must be punished. Out of love, he gave
his only begotten son that he might be punished and put away
sin in our room instead. And he can now deal with those
for whom Christ died in perfect love and in perfect justice. Only God could come up with something
like that. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. Oh, you talk about
love. The Lord Jesus was willing to
go to the cross and to die for those who hated him without a
cause. You see, we didn't only hate
him, but we hated him without a cause. There was no reason
for us to hate him, none. That makes our hatred even worse,
doesn't it? He was willing to die the just
for the unjust that he might bring them to God. Friends, that's
love. That's true love. You know, I
hear young people talking about true love. We don't know much
about love. Not true love, not God's love.
God was willing to send His darling Son, the one that He loved without
measure, to die in the place of those that didn't love Him
at all. That's love. Look at verse 10
again. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation
for our sin. I know you noticed there that
the words to be are italicized. We know what that means. It means
that they were added by the translators to make the verse to read easier. If he sent his son to be a propitiation,
then maybe it hadn't happened yet. See what I'm saying? If He sent His Son to be, maybe
that hadn't occurred yet. But if you take those words,
to be out, and how they were originally written, look at what
it says. He sent His Son, propitiation. His Son is the propitiation for
our sins. As the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world, Jesus Christ was propitiation. The only way the Father has ever
dealt with His children is through propitiation. And because of
that, they've never been guilty. What? I confess to you, I don't
understand that. Can a finite mind understand
the infinite? But if God in eternity predestinated
me to be conformed to the image of His Son, and He did so by
making me one with Christ, then before you and I were ever born,
before you and I had ever done any good or evil, God the Father
gave us to Christ and we were made perfect in Him. When did
God predestinate us into the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ unto Himself? When did we obtain an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of God who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will? You know the
answer to that? Before the foundation of the
world. How do I know that? That's what God said, according
as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be what? Holy and without blame before
Him in love. When were God's elect made holy
and without blame before Him in love? When He chose them before
the foundation of the world. God didn't say that we would
be holy and without blame when we accepted Jesus or gave Jesus
our hearts. That's what a lot of people think.
He made us holy and without blame before the world ever was. And
because of that, you ain't ever had any sin, Linda. God didn't
say that he would make us without sin when we loved him. God said
that we love him because he first loved us. God didn't say that
he'd choose us when we chose him. Christ said, you've not
chosen me, but I've chosen you. And by my union with Christ,
oh, I love to think about that. I have the union that I have
in him. I've always been holy. and always
been without blame. And I'm telling you, friends,
I didn't write this. I just report what God has written. Herein is love. Give yourself
wholly to this divine love. It's not that we loved God, perish
the thought, but that God loved us. And He loved us so much that
He sent His Son to be propitiation. No, He sent His Son who is propitiation. Christ is the propitiation. Don't skip over those little
definite articles there. He is the propitiation. There
is no other. He's the only propitiation. Christ
is the appeasement of God's wrath and judgment against our sin. There's no other propitiation.
There's no other appeasement. There's no other way to be found
holy and without blame before Him in love. There's no other
way to be reconciled to God. He is the way. There's no other
truth to be believed. He is the truth. He is the life.
And no man cometh to the Father but by Him. Is there anything we don't understand
about that? So, by His grace, I'm going to
love Him. I'm going to trust Him. I'm going
to worship Him. And as long as God gives me breath,
I'm going to. What about you? What about you? Let's worship Him together. That's
why we meet, isn't it? We meet to worship Him who loved
us and gave Himself for us, the One who was propitiation for
us. May God be pleased to add his
blessings to his word.