Go with me, if you would now,
to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. As I mentioned to you at the
close of our service this morning, Our message tonight is going
to be on the subject of what it is to love Christ. What it is for a believer to
love Christ. That is a, that's a deep subject. That's a critical subject. It's an issue of life and death. It really is an issue of life
and death. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians
16 verse 22, he said, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ. let him be cursed when the Lord
returns." And you think about that. He said there in that verse,
anathema maranatha, that was the wording he used. And when
you look up those words, they mean banned, excommunicated,
cast out, cursed when the Lord returns. To those who were not
his people, our Lord said many times in the scripture to their
condemnation, this was to their condemnation. He said, I know
you that you have not the love of God in you. He said, you have not the love
of the Father in you. And what a thing to hear. What a thing for him to know.
He could see their hearts. He could see their minds. He
can see our hearts. He can see our minds. And what
a fearful thought that is. I don't want him to look on me
in any way, shape or form outside of Christ, my substitute. If
he's going to look at my heart, look at my heart inside his heart. But he said to the condemnation
of many, he said, I know you, that you have not the love of
God in you. The love that the father puts
in his people. Now, even though our love is
tainted by our sin, it is so tainted. It is not a perfect love. It
is just not a perfect love. It does not even come close to
comparing to the true love that God has given to us. But even though that's the case,
if God has given His true love to us, He has created a love
in us. He has placed a love in us. And He said that love will be
the evidence of our belonging to Him. Love for Christ. Love for Christ. That's the same
thing as saying faith in Christ. Love and faith go hand in hand.
They honestly go hand in hand. When I think about the description
or the definition of each of them, they don't sound any different
to me. It is a desire. It's a need to look to Him. That's love. That's faith. It's
a desire and a need to hope in Him. It's something in the heart
that says, I must have Him. I must. He is all my hope and
all my desire. That's what David said. That's
what all of God's people say. He is honestly all my hope. And all my desire, when he returns,
when the Lord comes back, if I'm not going to be anathema,
it's only because he's all my hope, all my desire, everything
I need to stand before God. He's not just a big part of my
life. He is my life. And it takes the
grace of God for anybody to be able to say that with sincerity.
because this flesh wants to go after everything else. But a
believer can honestly say deep in his heart, he that hath not
the son hath not life. If I don't have him, I don't
have anything. That's faith. And that's that
love. So even though we being very
disgusted with ourselves, and very disgusted with our sin,
knowing our unworthiness to even say that we love Him. Every time,
honestly, every time I say I love Him or we love Him, I cringe
inside. Every time. I, in my heart, in
my mind saying, I'm sorry. Um, I preface it to myself and
you know what I'm talking about. We, um, every time we say it,
we hang our head in shame. It's just shameful. But even
though that's the case for us, we still know in our hearts that
we love him. We still do. And we know that
he even gets the glory for that. because we willingly acknowledge
that verse 19 says, right here, 1 John 4, verse 19, it says,
we love Him because He first loved us. That's the reason why,
it's because He started the work of love in us. If I love Him,
or if you love Him, it's because He started a work of love in
us. He performed a work of love in
us. He's the one who starts the work. He's the one who performs the
work. If we keep on loving Him, it's
because He is performing that work of love in us. If our love for Him continues,
you know, His love for us will never fail. But if our love for
Him continues all the way to the end, it's only gonna be because
He finished the work of love. Performed it all the way to the
end for us. That's the only reason. So a
child of God has nothing to glory in concerning His love for Christ. Absolutely nothing to glory in. But thank God, He will be able
to say, love is in here. Thank God love for Christ is
in here. It is in here and it's because
he put it there. It's all because he put it there. Now, as we did
with the message this morning, I want to do the, I want to do
the same thing. I want to see first our love
for Christ being because of His love for us. I don't wanna even
remotely enter into my love for Him without first entering in
to His love for me. Verse 19 says, we only love Him
because He first loved us. And this was His true love for
us. Turn with me if you would to
1 Corinthians 13, where our brother just read. 1 Corinthians 13. Now this is a secret to the scriptures. We had one this morning. Here
is a secret to the scriptures, a secret to understanding the
scriptures, a secret to seeing the gospel in the scriptures.
This is telling us 1 Corinthians 13. We just had it read to us.
This is telling us of the love that we ought to have within
ourselves. This is teaching us something
about love. And it's true. We should. We should. But the gospel here is in seeing
this as being the love that Christ has within himself. We ought to have this within
ourselves. But the gospel here is seeing
this as being the love that Christ had within himself. Now let's
read these verses, listening to Christ say this, all right?
Hear this in His voice as we read this. First Corinthians
13, verse one says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, and Christ does, He speaks the language of heaven
And he speaks the language of earth. He is the only mediator
between God and men. But he said in verse one, though,
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love
charity means love. If I don't have love and I, and
I'm going to finish reading this. in fear and in humility, acknowledging
that our Lord humbled Himself for us. And in His humility,
some of the things that He said concerning Himself, I say it
with fear, I repeat it with fear. But to emphasize the importance
that our God has placed on love. Verse 1 says, though I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love I am
become as sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. If I don't have the sincerity
of love in it, it's just sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. Verse two says, and though I
have the gift of prophecy and Christ does. All prophecy comes from him.
All prophecy comes from his spirit. This is his wording. These are his words. These are
the words of Christ. He said, though, I have the gift
of prophecy and understand all mysteries and Christ does all
the mysteries of godliness. He understands all of it. Verse
two. He said, and though I understand
all knowledge. And Christ does, as we said,
he knows our hearts. He knows our minds. He knows
the end from the beginning. He knows everything. He knows
all knowledge. Verse two says, and though I
have all faith and Christ does, it's all his faith. All faith
is the, if there is any faith, it's the faith of Christ. If
we have any, it's because he gave it to us. All comes from
him. Verse two goes on to say, though,
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and Christ can. I mean, he can, he can literally,
if he literally says to a mountain, be removed and cast into the
sea, then get ready because a mountain is about to be removed and cast
into the sea. But he said, though I know all
of this and though I can do all of this, he said in verse two,
if I have not charity, if I don't have love, I'm nothing. If I don't have the sincerity
of love in my heart, then I'm nothing. Verse three says, and
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and Christ
did. Though he was rich, yet for the
sake of his people, he became poor, that through his poverty,
his people might be made rich. Verse three says, though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned. And Christ did. He was. He burned in the fire of God's
judgment and God's wrath. for the sin of his people. I
love how in Revelation 1, I've always loved this. I remember
the first time I heard a man preach this to me. Revelations
1, John saw him and he was describing him. And he said, he saw his
feet and they were brass as though they burned in a furnace. Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into that fiery furnace. And
Nebuchadnezzar said, fellas, didn't we throw three men in
there? Why do I see four? And those three have no hurt.
It's because He took all the burn, every bit of the burn. He did, He burned for His people. But He said, though I did all
of that for my people, verse three says, if I don't have true
love in my heart, I mean the true love of God, it profits
me nothing. Lord, what is this love that
you have in your heart? What does this love cause you
to feel you just the thought of it's, it's so amazing and
awesome to me to think of the thought of the Lord's mind and
heart, what he thinks, just the, the man within himself. This
love that he has within himself. Lord, what does that love within
you cause you to feel? What does that cause you to think?
What does that cause you to want to do and want to be for your
people? Verse four, he said, love suffers
long. That's what it causes me to want
to do. It makes me want to be long suffering. It makes me want
to be patient. That's what the love in me does. It's what it makes me feel. I
feel like I want to be patient. He said, and is kind. So kind. It produces a loving
kindness in me. That's what love does. He said,
love envies not. I give it all. You take it all.
And I'm happy for that to be so. Envies not. Love vaunteth
not itself, is not puffed up. He said, that love in me creates
a meekness. It creates a lowliness. It creates
a humbleness toward my people and for my people. Verse five
says it does not behave itself unseemly. It does not at all
behave itself unlovely. Verse five says it seeketh not
her own and our Lord did not. He did not seek His own good. He sought the good of His people,
only the good of His people, to the hurt of Himself. Verse
5 says, it is not easily provoked. Isn't that wonderful? He said, that's what my love
in me produces, a slowness to anger, very slowness to anger.
Verse 5 says, it thinketh no evil. Can you imagine the thought that
when our Lord looks at us and sees us covered in His own blood,
He thinks no evil. When He looks at us and He sees
the righteous robe that He put on us and that total, complete
covering of blood that He poured on us, He sees no evil, therefore
He thinks no evil. The only thoughts that He has
toward His people are thoughts of peace. That's all He has.
at all times, even in those moments, those moments of sin that we
have thoughts of peace. Verse six says, love rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth Love beareth all
things. There is nothing that it won't
bear. Lord, what does that love, that
true love, the love of God that you hold inside your heart, what
does that love create in you? It makes it so that I'm willing
to bear anything. There is nothing that it will
not bear. It beareth all things, it believeth
all things, it hopeth all things, it endureth all things. That's
what His love does for us. It believes for us. Honestly, do you know why we
believe? Not every person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know why God's people believe? Because He's doing it for them. That love believes for his people,
that love hopes for his people, that love endures for his people. Verse eight says the love that
is in our Lord for us will never fail. Everything else will, but
not the love of Christ for his people. We love Him because He
first loved us. And because He first loved us,
because of that, let's see something of our love for Him. Truly what
it is to love Him. Go with me back to 1 John 4. Now, after seeing all day now,
our Bible study Sunday morning tonight, after seeing all day
what his love is for us, what is our love for him? What is
it truly to love Christ? This chapter tells us two things. I'm going to tell us what it
is and I'm going to show us what it is. It tells us two things. Number one, it's to love Christ
for who he is. What is it to truly love Christ? Number one, it's to love Christ
for who he is. And number two, this tells us
over and over again, it's to love his people for who they
have been made to be in him. That's what it is to love Christ.
Our Lord was very clear on that. If you look with me at verse
12, first John four, verse 12, it says, no man had seen God
at any time. All right. No man had seen God
at any time. Father, son, and spirit God.
So it goes on to say, 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 has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world.
That, that those two words to be are in italics. The, the translator
added those he did. He was sent by the father to
be the savior of the world, but he was sent because he was the
savior of the world. Verse 15 says, whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. Now the word God is in this one
chapter 29 times, if I counted it correctly. That's not counting
all the times that it says he, him, his, just the word God. 29 times. He says it over and
over and over. That is what he is establishing
in this thing of God's love for us and our love for him. It is
God who loved us. Not just God's son. It is God
who loved us and it is God that we love. It is God that we love. His true amazing love for us
is in the fact that in Christ, he loved us as we were in Christ. You know, we gave the illustration
of the ark this morning. Noah and his family were no different
from anybody outside the ark. No different. It was the ark
that made the difference. And in Christ, he loved us as
we were for what we were. While we were yet sinners, he
loved us. If we have a true love for him,
It can only be in us loving Him as He is for who He is. He had to love us as sinners. We have to love Him as God. God,
it all boils down to this. You know, if you're going to
love somebody, honestly, if you're going to love somebody, then
you're going to have to love them for who they are. You know
that you have to, if you are going to love somebody, you have
to love them for who they are. They can fake it for a little
while, but after a while, they're going to settle back into who
they are. And if you're really going to
love them, you're going to have to truly love them for who they
are. And if we're going to truly love
Christ, we're going to have to love him for who he is. who he truly is. Anybody can
love the fact that a good Samaritan named Jesus came who was trying
to do good for everybody and loved everybody, died on
the cross for everybody, you know, trying to fulfill his cause
in saving everybody. But that's not what it is to
love Christ because that's not who Christ is. That's not who he is. That's
not why he came. That's not what he did. That's
not him at all. People love this man, Jesus,
that they've made up in their mind, thinking that he's God's
son. And they, they, you know, love
these things about him that are not consistent with the scripture.
Here's the problem with that. You're not truly loving Christ.
If you're going to love Christ, you have to love Him as He is,
for who He says that He is. To love Christ is to love the
God who came, the God who left His throne to come down here,
the God who accomplished salvation. You cannot love Christ for a
man who's trying to save somebody. The only way to love Christ is
to love Him for a finished, accomplished salvation. A salvation for a
particular people that were chosen and given to Him. And He accomplished
their salvation in His death by Himself. You have to love
Him for doing it by Himself. That's one of the offenses of
the cross when you tell men and women He did it by Himself. There's
nothing for you to do. It wasn't your choice. The ball
is not in your court. I love Him for that. If you put
the ball in my court, I won't take it. I'll reject Him every
time. He finished the work. There's
nothing left to be done. Therefore, we can't share any
of the glory with Him. We don't get any credit for salvation. We don't get any credit for being
saved. Well, at least I made a decision. Nope. Well, at least
I believed. Nope. He did it all. He did it all. The decision of
it, the execution of it, the accomplishment of it, it was
all his. All we can do is bow. That's
all we can do. and be thankful and love Him
for who He is and what He's done for us. That's what it is to
truly love Christ. Truly love Christ. It's to believe
on Him, not believe on myself. It's to believe on Him. It's
to truly trust Him and not trust myself. It's to bow to Him. It's to find safety in Him and
rest in Him and peace in Him. It's for Him to be our all. It's
to know Him and desire Him and to have Him as He is for who
He is. As His Word declares Him to be,
that's what it is. And He said, it's to love His
people for who they have been made to be in Him. Now, I don't
expect you to love me for who I am in my flesh. I don't. But to love Christ is
to love His people for who they have been made to be in Him.
What the end result will be because of Him. Verse 15 says, whoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, equal member of the
Trinity. You got the Father of God, the
Spirit of God, the Son of God. God dwells in Him and He in God. 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. Herein is our love made
perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because
as he is, so are we in the world. 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. We love him because
he first loved us. And because he did that for us,
John ends once again with what our response should be in return.
Verse 20, he said, if a man say, I love God, Right now, the title
of our message is, what is it to love Christ? What is it to
love God? That's what we're saying. What
is it? He said in 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?
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth
God love his brother also. May the Lord make this to be
so because in my flesh, by my nature, I have not the love of
God in me. God's gonna have to put it in
me. But Hebrews 13 one says, let brotherly love continue. Let it continue. Love for Christ,
love for his people. By that shall all men know that
we're his disciples. Our Lord said in Matthew 25,
he said, if you have done something for one of my brethren, you've
done it for me. If we want to love Christ, love
His people. If we want to do for Christ,
do for His people. What could we possibly give to
Him? If we want to give something to Him, give it to His people.
You've done it to them, you've done it to me. And why is that?
We're one. I'm in them. They're in me. When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting
the Lord's people, the Lord stopped Saul in his tracks and he said,
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I was persecuting them. No, you're persecuting me. We're
one. We're one. I've broken down that
middle wall of partition. I've made two to be one. So to
truly love Christ is to love Him for who He truly is, God
Almighty, manifest in the flesh. And number two, it is to love
His people for what they've been made to be in Him, made to be
in Him. May the Lord make that so. I
can be pretty unlovely at times, and I'm sorry. I really am. I'm sorry. I heard a wise preacher
say one time, you don't have to like each other, but you do
have to love each other. And I'm sorry. I can be unlikable
sometimes, but for Christ's sake, may the Lord make it so. Really,
may he put a love in us. I want it. I want to be unified
with Christ. I want to be unified with his
people. Put that love in us for Christ's sake. All right, let's
all stand together.