We're going to be in 1 John chapter
4. I want to actually begin our
study in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. If you'd be turning there,
let me just quote something that Paul wrote in verse 11 when he
said, other foundation can no man lay. Then that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. Christ is the foundation. And in the context where this
glorious truth that Christ is the foundation, in the context
where that's written, we find out how we are to build upon
that foundation, that foundation of Christ. And we're going to
build it with either eternal things, lasting things, spiritual
things, or we're going to build on it with the flesh. One is
going to stand the fiery judgment. One will not stand the fiery
judgment of God when he proves it, whether in that day which
is to come or even here and now. There's times where the Lord
proves us, even now we're proven. and our words are proven, and
our actions are proven. Things are proven even now, and
we see things fall, and we see that they were but flesh, and
then we see things that are of God, things that are precious. And let's just read the context
beginning in verse 9, 1 Corinthians 3, 9. For we are laborers together
with God, ye are God's husbandry. Speaking to
the church, you're God's husbandry. You're His care. You're His garden.
He's protected you. He's gathered you. You're God's
building. According to the grace of God
which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take
heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. From the foundation
of the earth, from the foundation of the world, the foundation
is Jesus Christ. It all rests upon him. And we
can't change that foundation. There's no changing it. We might
think we do, but we don't. We don't. And Paul is dealing
with others. He's dealing with probably a
variety of types, but one of which would be the false apostles
who were coming into the churches after him to make fair speeches
and eloquent words to take and draw people away after themselves,
because it was a thing of glory to have a following, a great
following of people. So they wanted to bring many
people to themselves for their own glory, and oftentimes they
erred in using the Law of Moses to peel people away, to turn
them from grace, to turn them from Christ, is what they were
doing and to turn them to the law of Moses for salvation and
righteousness. But as the foundation is Christ,
so is the building which is constructed on that foundation. And he says
in verse 12, now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, Every man's work
shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because
it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is. And the man's work will either
abide, or it will be burned up. And it sounds there like what
he's saying there is There's times when even a pastor can
put up something that's wood, or hay, or stubble. And when
the Lord proves it, it'll just come undone. It'll just fall
apart. It'll burn up. But we want to
build on Christ the things of Christ, the gold, the silver,
and the precious stones. So I want to also hearken, before
we go back to 1 John, I want to hearken your attention back
to that word which Paul commended the Ephesian elders to when he
said in Acts 20 verse 32, Now brethren, I commend you to God
and to the word of his grace, which is able, his word of grace
is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among
all them which are sanctified. And so the The work is the Lord's,
and the word of his grace is how we build on that foundation. That's why I'm going back there
again. That's the gold, the silver,
and the precious stones. That's how you are built up on
that foundation of Christ, by the word of his grace, through
the hearing of faith. That's how the people of God
are edified and grow strong. and in understanding and in a
knowledge of these things which are made most precious unto us. So this brings us to what John
writes in our text. And the next several verses,
I would say the next four verses, 14 through 17, These lay down a foundation and
begin building upon that foundation, which is Christ. And if we're
building with gold, silver, and precious stones, there will be
no suffer of any loss. There won't be a loss there.
So verse 14, we have seen and do testify that the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world. And so this is the will
of God the Father. This is his will and his purpose
that his people should be saved by his son, Jesus Christ, whom
he has sent for this purpose. This is God's will and purpose
to save his people, to give them life. Life by the Lord Jesus
Christ, because we don't have life in Adam. We don't have understanding. We're in darkness by nature.
were dead in trespasses and sins by nature. And we don't have
this understanding, so he gives us an understanding by Christ,
by sending Christ to accomplish our redemption, that we might
hear, hear and understand and know these things. And our Lord
successfully accomplished the redemption of the world, just
as he came to do. He accomplished the redemption
of the world he came to save. It's the world of his elect children
of God, those whom he chose out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation unto the praise and glory of himself. And so,
this being God's will and purpose, John adds verse 15, whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. Now, again here, we're seeing
a great repetition, a lot of repetition by John in this epistle. He's repeating himself over and
over. There's a lot of similarities.
When you read this many times, you begin to see these similarities.
And this goes back to what he said in verse two. In 1 John
4, verse two, he said, hereby know ye the spirit of God. every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
of God." And now he's saying, whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him. That's our confession.
And we saw how it's not just saying that. It's not just a
near mindless saying that Jesus is the Son of God. No, there's
understanding which the Lord reveals to us in the hearing
of faith. He lays the foundation and he
begins to build upon that. We're fellow helpers with God
and as wise master builders, we're building on that foundation
gold, silver, precious stones. And so there's an understanding
here, and that confession understands that we're declaring who he is,
who he is, this Jesus. Who is he? He's the son of God. He's not just a man like you
and I. He is eternal God, eternal God,
the son of God. And he took on him the form of
a man. And we understand why he came.
Because we cannot save ourselves, he came to save his people from
their sins. And we understand what he accomplished. He accomplished that redemption
perfectly and to this day is accomplishing that salvation
in our hearts by revealing these things, manifesting his grace,
showing forth that he has given his spirit to his people. Revealing that. And how do you
know it? They confess Christ. They confess Him. Who He is,
why He came, what He accomplished. And so He's making that known
through the hearing of faith. In other words, the preaching
of the Gospel. And making it effectual in your hearts to hear
it. And believe that. To reveal faith in you. And so
it's not just a fleshly confession made by man according to some
carnal wisdom or some intelligence. There's a lot of base people
that believe. There's a lot of people who are
not noble, not wise, not wealthy, not influential, who believe
Christ. Whereas there's a lot of people
who are doctors and lawyers and people of great understanding
in the world that don't believe these things. How hard is it
for a man who's rich to enter into the kingdom of God? And
that's true in the riches of this world, and those rich in
their own works, and those rich in various understandings and
philosophies, so-called. But that's not what saves us.
We could be as dumb as a rock, but if the Lord loves us, we're
going to hear Christ and know, I don't know anything, but I
know I was a sinner, and I know that Christ saved me. and gave
himself for me. And I'm thankful for that, because
I'm not so smart. I might think I am sometimes,
but the Lord shows me otherwise. And so we see that it's a confession
revealed in us by the Lord, by his grace. When our Lord asked
his disciples, he said, whom say ye that I am? They're saying
what others thought of him. And he said, well, who do you
say that I am? you that are following me, you that are with me. And
Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed this to you. Not your flesh and blood, not
another man has revealed this to you, but my Father hath revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven, he's the one that
revealed it. It's a heaven-born confession.
You that truly believe that Jesus is the Christ and he came because
I cannot save myself and what he accomplished by his death
and burial and resurrection on the cross in my room instead,
and what he accomplished in that and what he does, that's a heaven
born confession. He's really your hope. If he's
really your hope, and it's not just some religious saying, but
you really believe it, that's a heaven born confession. Praise
God. Thank him for that confession. And so, It's what he does for
us, and he grows us. He continues to grow us in the
blessings of Christ, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. He continues that. And that is
quoted from Matthew 16. And let me just, while we're
there, just comment on verse 18, because it's relevant to
our text here. And he said, Matthew 16, 18,
I say unto thee, thou art Peter. and upon this rock I will build
my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
And this rock that he's talking about is the confession that
the Lord reveals in his people. It's the confession which Peter
confessed and which Don is now writing about, that confession
of who Christ is, why he came, and what he accomplished. And
more than that just being a confession, it is the Christ of our confession
who sanctifies that word, who makes it effectual in the hearts
of his people. who reveals these things to us. He makes it holy. He gives the
power so that we confess these things of Christ with understanding,
spiritual understanding, and a true hope and confidence that
He's all my righteousness and all I need to stand before God.
And anything I'm lacking, He will see to it that I have it
on that day. He will provide it. That's our
hope and confidence. And so this glorious heaven-born
confession wasn't only wrought in Christ's apostles, but it's
the confession of every disciple, born again of our Lord's seed.
In John 4.42, here's an example, I'll read it. They said unto
the woman, and so this is the men of the city in Samaria, who
are now speaking to that woman of Samaria that the Lord met
at the well, when he must needs go through Samaria. And they
said unto her, now we believe, not because of thy saying, for
we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Savior of the world. And if you're the Lord's,
it ain't going to be because of my saying, it's going to be
because you hear him yourself in your heart. Not with an audible
voice, but he's going to reveal himself to you that he's the
Savior, your Savior, and that you need him and what he's done
for you. You'll hear him yourselves. You'll
know that he is your Savior. This confession here contains
these foundational truths, brethren, and God is able to give the gift
of faith to his child, to hear this word, to hear the hearing
of faith of Christ, and show you your need of him, make you
to hunger and thirst for righteousness, which can only be satisfied in
Christ. We may turn this way and that
way and go various ways to satisfy that hunger, but he'll keep shutting
it down to bring you to Christ, to shut us up to Christ, to none
but Christ, to believe him. He does that faithfully, faithfully,
for our sakes, brethren. And so go back to what we read
there in 1 John 4, verse 14. When he said, and we have seen
and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior
of the world, that's what our God makes Christ unto us, our
one true hope and confidence. We have that same confession,
that same confidence that he is the Savior, my Savior. And
then he gives us an understanding of who he is, and we confess
him. why he came and what he accomplished. And it grows further. Now look at the next verse. We're
looking at four verses here that lay the foundation and begin
to build upon it. Verse 16, and we have 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. And so, As we receive the hearing
of faith through the ministration of the gospel, through the preaching
of this word, of declaring Christ, the word of his grace, the word
of his grace, declaring these things, the redemption of Christ
is understood more and more of what he accomplished for us,
more and more. And in understanding that, we
see more and more the love of God for us. The more, when you
look at how Paul grew, he saw more and more what a sinner he
was. The confession, his confession was that he was the least of
the apostles, that he was a sinner, then he was the chief of sinners,
and you just see him as the latter epistles. he saw more and more
just how insufficient he is. And as we grow, we see more and
more just how insufficient we are, because we don't realize
all the ways that we were an offense unto holy, perfect God,
and how ignorant, how willfully ignorant, how foolish we are
by nature, and how the Lord suffers long with us, and it shows us
how loving he is. how long-suffering He is, how
kind and gracious He is to put up with our nonsense, and our
sins, and our folly, to do that. And so we learn this love of
God. Look back at verse 10 of this
chapter, 1 John 4, 10. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. so that while we were yet enemies
in our minds and in our works, when we were covered with that
veil of flesh over our heart and over our minds, darkening
our understanding to the things of God, thinking that God could
be satisfied or pleased with our works of dead-letter religion,
thinking that that's how we came to Him, and we were puffed up
with vain, foolish pride and arrogance, Thinking we were something
when we were nothing, at that time, God sent his son to be
the propitiation for our sins. When we were yet in darkness. And all the Gentile nations lay
in darkness. We were all worshiping stumps
and stones and sticks and foolish things. Foolish things. And yet God provided his son
to be the propitiation, to turn the wrath of God which was against
us against his son in our stead. That's what that word propitiation
means. Would you sacrifice your only
child to atone for the sins of your enemies? Would you do that? No, none of us would do that.
Not willingly. What we see in this The love
of God, how that it's an eternal love, how that even when we fell
in Adam and rebelled against God, it did not turn God's love
from his chosen people. It didn't change his mind. It
didn't cause him to draw back. He moved forward in exactly what
he purposed to do. And so we see in this the love
of God. And we see that this love is
a sacrificial love. We see that this love is a weight-bearing
love. He bears that load. We see it's
a long-suffering love that puts up with us and patiently turns
us from dead things to the light, to the truth, to our Savior. Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians
13. I'll read a couple verses from
here. 1 Corinthians 13, beginning in
verse 6, he said, love rejoiceth not in iniquity. but rejoiceth
in the truth." And I can hear someone asking Paul, saying,
how can you love that person who's a sinner? How can you put
up with that person? How could you stand that person
who's a sinner? Aren't you excusing their sin
by loving them? Aren't you excusing their sin?
And the answer isn't that love just ignores the sin, that it
just pretends it isn't there. And that's what he means by love
rejoiceth not in iniquity. It's not that we're excusing
sin. It's not that we're rejoicing in iniquity, but we do rejoice
in the truth. And the truth is, is that Christ's
blood is sufficient to save to the uttermost, to put away our
sin, to cover our sin with his own blood. And so in that hope,
that Christ has prevailed for that sinner, just as he's prevailed
for me and overcome my sin, that he's able to overcome their sin
and put it away. We don't rejoice in iniquity,
but we do rejoice in the truth. And the truth is Christ saves
his people. And all his people are sinners
saved. Sinners saved. And so that's our rejoicing. And so the joy is that Christ's
death made a way of reconciliation, made a way for there to be peace
and reconciliation between one another and between us and God. And that's why it says in the
psalm, Psalm 85, 10, mercy and truth are met together. Mercy and truth. Well, truth
is, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. Well, mercy covers that sin. Mercy. Mercy and righteousness
and peace. What do those two things have
to get together? Righteousness brings wrath and retribution. Well, righteousness and peace
have kissed each other in Christ, in Christ, so that God is just
and justifier of them which believeth in Jesus. which believe him. And so while God's people are
still being called out of darkness on these things, still struggling
with these things, still saying, I don't know. I don't know if
I can believe that. And while we're still growing
under the hearing of faith and coming to a knowledge of this,
for them that do believe this truth of God, that do trust and
believe that Christ is able to overcome the world, just as you
overcame the world, and to overcome the world in my heart, overcome
everything that stood opposed to my acceptance with God, who
overcame that, for you that do believe, love beareth all things,
love believeth all things, love hopeth all things, it endureth
all things, love never faileth. I mean, you think about that.
Love never faileth. It never comes to an end. And we rejoice in that truth
of Christ and long for him to teach us this in truth, and to
understand this, and to enter into that love of our God and
Savior. We might know him in this depth,
what John is speaking of here. and understand it more and more. And so that understanding of
being able to love your brethren as God loves you helps us now
to understand this next verse that Paul writes in verse 17.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. Because, you know, how we look
at the sin of another really has a lot to do with how we look
at Christ's blood and its sufficiency to cover my sin, right? And the hope we had that the
more we see the darkness of our heart and the more our Lord turns
us from the lust of this flesh, and turns us to Christ, and causes
us in that hope to see the love of God in Christ, and to behold
His love. That has everything to do with
the day of judgment that we're looking at, that we know is coming. And how confident are you in
Christ's blood? How confident are you in Christ's
blood? And that'll have a lot to do with how we treat our brethren
and how we go to the Lord. And it gets to the core of our
hope and confidence in Christ, because it will dictate how we
speak to others, both in the faith and outside of the faith. In other words, how confident
are you to declare what Christ has done to another sinner? and
to turn them to Christ. Are you going to turn them to
Moses, or are you going to turn them to Christ? Are you going
to exalt Moses and say, well, the way you fix that is you've
got to bring yourself under the yoke of the law, and that'll
correct that for you. Or are you going to tell them
of Christ and the hearing of faith? What is it that saves? Who saves? Is it Moses that saves,
or is it Christ that saves? And how you speak in that hour
is going to dictate a lot. I mean, we show all men that
they're sinners, that we may bring them to Christ, that we
may show them Christ. But if they're a sinner broken,
if they're a sinner crying, if they're a sinner hungry, show
them Christ. Declare Christ to them. Because
as He is, so are we in this world. And that's a sweet meditation,
to see that as perfect as Christ is in the eyes of the Father,
so am I now in this world. He's that Christ. He gave his
son to be the propitiation for my sins. And that he gave me
his spirit. And that he teaches me this truth.
And shows me these precious stones of Christ and these bars of gold
and bars of silver, all building on this foundation of what Christ
has done and accomplished in us. Christ is the son of God
by very nature. By Christ, we are the adopted
sons and daughters of God. And Christ is loved of the Father,
and so are we. This world didn't know him. They
still don't know him. And the reason why they don't
know you who speak of Christ and declare the glories of Christ
and what he's done and trust him, they don't know you either. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we, we, we sinners, that
have been turned from death and darkness, that he hath bestowed
on us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the
world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. We're talking
about a hope that's apart from our works, and a hope that's
fixed in Christ. And so the father is well pleased
in the work of his son. Well, we are the work of his
son. We are his workmanship. We are and we're saved by grace.
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God. And so as he's perfect, just, and holy, so are we by
faith in him. And he hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And so, John says in 1 John 3,
2, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And so, what John has declared
here in these four verses, these are foundational truths. for
us, and it's building up the body of Christ in this truth,
in this light, in these truths here. And we see what John's
talking about here. He's showing how Christ is the
Savior, and that in this salvation, we see the love of God. That
was his focus here, and he's laying this foundation and building
this building of God up in these words. And so, this is the word
of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you
an inheritance with his saints, with them that are saved. That
word of grace there, that Christ is all. That's our salvation. You won't
go astray in Christ, in trusting Him and looking to Him for all
things. And crying out to Him, He will keep you because He's
able to do it to the uttermost. And John says in verse 18, there
is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because
fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. And so this is a sweet confidence
that John commends us to here in Christ, that God is just to
justify them which believe in Jesus. And God is reconciled
unto us through the blood of his son. That's why he provided
him. to reconcile us to himself in peace, in joy, in comfort,
trusting him to provide all that we need, to turn us from the
love of this world by his grace and power through the hearing
of faith and that rejoicing which he gives to us in our hearts
that we have peace with him because the curse of the law is removed
from us. There's not a cloud, there's
not anything waiting to, I gotcha, tricked ya, you know, God doesn't
play those games. He declares Christ fully through
this word. Throughout this word, he declares
Christ and shows us how that Christ hath borne away that curse
which was against us by himself on the tree and he clothes us
in perfect righteousness so that that slavish fear that we were
under by nature in religion when we heard these things but didn't
hear these things, when it was all confusion and darkness and
we didn't lay hold of these things because it kept turning us from
Christ to the law, from Christ to religion, from Christ to what
you're doing or not doing, and it put all the focus on us rather
than on Christ and looking to him. We don't get to where we're
going looking down at our feet. We get to where we're going looking
at the goal, which is Christ, by keeping our eyes fixed on
him. And so we see this piece when it says in Hebrews 2, 14
and 15, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil. and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
When your conscience was awakened and you saw what a vile sinner
you are and all you had was religion, there was no peace. no peace,
because you were laboring, whipping your back, and doing all kinds
of things. That's why you see people crawling
up concrete stairs on their knees and whipping themselves with
things to try and purge themselves of sin and do all kinds of stuff,
because they're trying to find peace in their religion, because
they don't see Christ. They don't hear Christ. They're
not hearing of faith. They're hearing of works. And
so it's through the hearing of faith And so he did this and
gives us faith to deliver us from that tormenting fear and
that constant looking for punishment and everything rather than looking
to Christ. And let me just say, we absolutely
hate our sin. I hate my sins. When I think
of my sins, I'm ashamed of my sins. I don't want to do those
things, because by the grace and power of God, he makes me
to know my shame, to what shame that is. I don't want, I don't
love my sin, and I don't want to use the righteousness of Christ
as a cloak for sin, but driving you or me back to the law isn't
gonna reveal righteousness in us. showing you Christ, turning
you to Christ, that's what seeing that love of God, because this
is what John's saying, not me, not Eric. This is what John is
saying is we see the love of God in this, and that drives
away the slavish fear. That turns away, that drives
out that slavish fear. We're only afraid when we're
looking at our works. When we're looking at Him, we
see Him who is all sufficient. And when we see sin and lust
in us, we cry out to him, Lord, save me. Deliver me from this,
please. Put this stuff away from me.
And he does. He gives his spirit. And when
we forget, he turns us back to Christ again. And he keeps turning
us to Christ because that is our hope. And we don't abandon
that hope. To go back to the Sinai is to
withdraw. It's to pull back and think,
uh-oh, I went the wrong way. I better get back to Sinai. and
get back to Moses. And so that's what he's, when
you read Hebrew, that's what Paul's saying. Don't go back,
don't draw back, brethren. Stay in Christ, stay on Christ,
keep looking to him. And so that's our sure hope as
an anchor of the soul which has gone before us through the veil,
pierced through, and says, I got you, I got you. This is the salvation
which is promised to you from the beginning of the world. back
there in the garden. This is the salvation. I've got
you. And Paul said, whether the forerunner
is for us entered, even Jesus made an high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. And so he's the one ministering
these blessings, this hope, this confidence in him to say, if
you go off, I'll correct you. Trust me. I'll keep you. I'll
show you. I'll turn you right back to me.
And he does it. He does it, right? Whenever we
put stubble or hay or wood in there, he'll burn it up and show
us, that ain't it. Look to me. Look to me. He does
it. And so it's a spiritual work
of God in us, this hope that we have, this faith and confidence
in Christ. We didn't initiate it. It's not
of our flesh. It's a hope which he gives to
us. And John says that, verse 19, we love him because he first
loved us. Without his love to us first,
we'd have no understanding of these things. We would have been
happy and content in dead things, handling the creeping things
and the unclean things, and thinking that our works were works of
righteousness and religion, and all they were were works of wickedness,
trusting those things, those things. And therefore God manifests
his grace in us by giving us love to God in our hearts and
love to our brethren in Christ. Verse 20, If a man say, I love
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen? My understanding on that is,
in your brother who confesses Christ, there is an image of
Christ, the image of the new man of the Lord Jesus Christ
there. How can you despise that image, which is Christ's? And
it's Christ. Christ saved that man, that sister
or brother. Christ did that. How can you
despise that image of Christ? And so we look to him and we
consider ourselves, did he not love me when I was foolish and
help me and turn me from wickedness? Right when there was only an
image of Adam there. right at that time, a fallen Adam. Verse
21, in this commandment have we from him that he who loveth
God love his brother also. That's God's command to us. Those
are the two commands. If you look back in chapter three
at the end of the chapter, verse 23 and 24, this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
that's one, and love one another as he gave us commandment. And
he that keepeth his commandments, those two commandments, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and love your brethren. And when
I say believe on Christ, I'm saying who he is, why he came,
what he accomplished, and does accomplish in me. He that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given
us. And so the Holy Spirit, which
burns up the things that are of another spirit, proves them
and brings them to nothing, but takes the things of Christ, the
gold, silver, and precious stones, and reveals them to you, he's
not going to lead you astray. He's the one keeping you. and
you're dwelling in Him, trusting in Christ. Keep looking to Christ,
keep trusting Him, and He'll reveal this to you more and more. Effectually, in your hearts,
brethren. Amen.