Let me read verse 7 through 13. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. 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. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God
at any time, If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love
is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell
in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. Let us pray. Our Father, which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Our Father, we thank you
for the opportunity and the desire and the ability to be here this
morning. Enable us as Thy family, as Thy children here this morning,
to give unto Thee the glory due unto Your holy name. Help us
to worship You in spirit and in truth. Arrest our attention,
Father. Bless Thy Word. Instruct us by
Thy Spirit. And Father, we pray for those
here in this congregation that are sick, We pray You would bless
those who are under heavy trials. You would bless them, keep them,
comfort them. Thou art the God of all grace
and the God of all comfort. And what we pray for ourselves
here this morning, we pray for Your children and Your servants
throughout this world. Help us to love one another.
Help us, Father, help us to grow in love toward Thee and toward
one another. In the name of Jesus Christ,
we pray. Amen. The title of the lesson
is God is love and love is of God. Now John comes back, before I forget this, I got this
written in my notes, no service Thursday night. Thanksgiving,
so if there's a holiday that's worth celebrating, it's one of
Thanksgiving. If we celebrate any, that would
be one, giving thanks. All right, now don't let me forget
to renounce that in the second service. All right, now John
comes back to his favorite subject, love one another. God is love
and we are to love one another. If we would sum up this epistle,
we would say it is to believe God and to love one another. To genuinely look after one another,
love one another, seek one another's good above all things. Now John
says in verse 7, Beloved, I like that name, Beloved. Solomon says that several times
in the Song of Solomon. My beloved is mine, and I'm his
beloved. Let us love one another, for
love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and
he knows God. Once again, John exhorts us to
love one another. There's no stronger bond. There
is no stronger bond than love. There is no stronger bond. It
will hold the family together under the most difficult times. Love will do that. The scripture
says love is stronger than death. There's no bond. There's nothing
that'll hold us together like love. I'm talking about the love
of God. That love that's shed abroad
in the heart. That's the strongest bond we can have. For it says
here, Genuine, true love is of God. It is a divine attribute
of God. It's who He is. When you think
of God, you think of God as holy. And He is. The Lord is holy. But He's also love. Which means
everything God does, whether it's in judgment or whatever
it is, it is in love to His children. in love. If a mad dog came into
this room and I shoot it, I do it because I love you, protect
you, to keep you safe from that dog. So whenever God acts in
judgment, it's an act of love toward us in Christ. As I said, love is a divine attribute. It's who He is. We cannot know
God And I think John is making this very clear. We cannot know
God and not love one another. We cannot know God and not love
all men in general. Can't do it. Because the love
of God is yet abroad in the heart. And where the love of God is,
there will be faith and growth in knowing God. Where it is now,
there'll be faith and there'll be growth in knowing God. If you love someone, if you really
genuinely love someone, you want to know them, don't you? I mean,
you want to know them more. You can't get enough of them.
If you genuinely love someone, you can't get enough of their
company. You just can't get enough of
them if you love them. Love is an evidence of the new
birth. Faith and love are the two strongest
evidences that I've been born of God or that I've not been
born of God. You cannot have the love of God
shed abroad in the heart and that love not come out, not express
it. It's going to come out. It's
going to come out. What we are will always come
out. It'll always come out. If God is love, and we are born
of God, then that's a part of us too, isn't it? That's a part
of our new nature too. There's love, that's a part of
that new nature. The scripture says over in Galatians, look
over in Galatians chapter 5, In Galatians chapter 5, look
in verse 22. It's the first thing mentioned. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love. It's love. It's the first thing
mentioned. The very thing that the Spirit of God works in us
is the love of God. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law,
but the first one mentioned is love. Paul said, if I have not love,
though I could preach with the tongue of angels, he said, I'm
nothing but a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. That's
all. Worthless. Absolutely worthless. Paul tells us in the Scriptures,
us who preach, to preach the truth in love. To love the people
you're preaching to. You know, Paul's heart went out
to his brethren. He said, I could wish myself
a curse from Christ for my brethren's sakes, according to the flesh,
if it would save them. And he meant this, if it would
save them, I could be cut off from Christ, be sent to hell,
if it would save my brethren. My brethren, that's love. That's love. To say, Lord, Moses
said that one time, over, I believe in Exodus, he said, cut me off.
God was going to deal with Israel, and Moses asked God to cut him
off. And that was a rebellious people, and they gave him such
a hard time, and they murmured against him, and yet, he loved
them. That kind of love only comes
from God. To be able to love your enemies
only comes from God. You can't do that naturally.
Naturally, it's in us to hate those who hate us. To be opposed
to those who are opposed to us. It is not in us naturally to
pray for those who's causing us a lot of problems. It's just
not in us, naturally. To be able to do that is a work
of God. It's a work of God. It's a fruit
of the Spirit. The Spirit of God works it in
us. And then love is an act of grace. It must be expressed. Must be
expressed. We'll see this in verse 9. But
it must be expressed. It'll ooze out of you. It'll
just ooze out of you. And he that loveth not, that
is void of love... Now, let me say this about love.
It's a fruit of the Spirit, but it grows. It's a grace that grows. As time goes on, you sit under
the gospel, God exercises you under trials, that grace grows. It grows. For he that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. Two cannot be one and
not be the same. Christ said in John 17, Father,
I pray that they be one as we are one. As we are one. Now, if we are one with God,
then it's evident we're going to love one another. I want to preach the gospel to
this community. I want to preach the gospel to
everyone in this community if God would open that door and
pray that he would bring his sheep in. We have a love to not
only just the people sitting here, but the people that are
out there. Our Lord said, over, let me find
this scripture. It's on my mind, and I don't want to misquote
it. Over here in Matthew chapter, let me go to chapter 5. Let me
see if I can find it first. I didn't write this down. Let me go to verse 38, chapter
5. Matthew chapter 5, verse 38. He said, You have heard that
it has been said, Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. I've
had men quote that to me. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you that you resist not evil, but whosoever smite
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now, brother,
that takes a work of grace to do that. That's not my inclination,
naturally. None of us. And if any man will
sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have your
cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee, go with him, too.
Give to him that asked thee, and from him that would borrow
thee, turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say
to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you,
and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and the unjust. Now here's the verse I want to
get to. If you love them which love you, what reward have you? Now let's look at this translation. For if you love them which love
you, what grace have you? Do not even the publicans the
same. Do not even those who do not believe God. Don't they do
the same? They just love those who love them. And if you salute
your brethren only, what do you more than others? What grace
have you more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect. Man, what a sermon. What a sermon. He that loveth not knoweth not
God." We can claim to know God, we can claim to be born again,
but that doesn't make it so, does it? Doesn't make it so.
John makes it very clear. Where love is absent, God is
absent. And it'll show up in our attitude
towards others every time. And we will fail this test. I was hungry and you fed me not. I was naked, and you didn't clothe
me. I was sick and in prison, and
you did not visit me. Where love is absent, we'll fail
that. But where love is present, Christ said, I was hungry, and
you fed me. And I was naked, and you clothed me, sick and
in prison. They said, Lord, wouldn't we ever see like that? If you've done it to the least
of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. There's the evidence
of love. Now we have love manifested.
See, God does not, and did not, say, I love you. And leave it
at that. And leave it at that. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us. Because that God sent, God did
something about it. God expressed His love. He manifested
it. He revealed it. Because that
God sent His only begotten Son into the world. that we might
live through Him. We who were dead in trespasses
and sins might live. God proved He revealed His love
toward us by sending His Son into this world. This is the
greatest expression of love ever. Calvary is the greatest expression
of love as well as the greatest expression of God's wrath at
the same place on the same person. Jesus Christ. Look where God sent Jesus Christ,
our Lord. The world. A place of sin. A place of hatred. He came to
us in all our sin, all our bigotry, all our hatred. He came where
we are. In this cesspool of sin. I can't even begin to explain.
There are no words to explain where Jesus Christ was in paradise,
in heaven, in the bosom of the Father, and what He came to.
What He came to. A world of hatred. He came to
His own and His own received Him not. They said, away with
Him. We'll not have this man reign over us. Having loved His own, He loved
them to the end. He didn't quit. He didn't go
back and say, forget it. They're not worth it. Having loved His own, He loved
them to the end, all the way to Calvary. God sent His only
begotten Son, His well-beloved Son. Not an angel. His Son. His Son. The Son of God came from glory.
He came from paradise, He came from the bosom of the Father,
into this cesspool of sin, that you and I might have life. I wish I was more affected by
that. The reason here is, as I just
gave it to you, that we might have life through Him, that we
might have the life of God, and have it, He said, more abundantly. We might have the life of God
in the soul, eternal life. God's love was set on us before
anything was made and before anything happened. He loved us
with an everlasting love and did something about it. He expressed
it. And He expressed it by sending
His Son into this world. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. We ought to love God. We ought to love God. He's our creator. We should never, and I don't,
I believe it was not going to brag on their love to God. We
will, in this life, we will never love God as we ought to. Never. Never. If we're going to talk
about love, we must start with God's love to us first in Christ. We have to start with His love
first. Because apart from God, apart from God Almighty, there
is no such thing as love. He's the very fountain of it.
He's the very root of it. He's the very source of it. Love
does not exist apart from God. God is love. He is love. Here is the essence
of love. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but He loved us. He loved us. You'll never appreciate that
until God makes you and me see how unlovable we really are. How rotten to the core we really
are. You'll never appreciate that. God loved us. Paul over in Romans
5. Look over in Romans 5. In Romans 5, look in verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength, In due time, according to the time appointed, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, that while
we were yet sinners, ungodly and haters of God, Christ died
for us. We didn't straighten up and then
He came and died for us, no. He died for us while we hated
Him. He died for us while we were
at enmity against Him. That's when He died for us, when
we were without strength, ungodly. Does that describe you? I can
tell you who Christ died for. I can tell you that He died.
The ungodly. You just find me a man that says,
I know I am ungodly. And I mean, he knows it in his
heart. He knows it. I know I'm a sinner. Peter said to the Lord one time,
Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. That's who Christ died for. While we were without strength,
Christ died for us. The origin of love is in the
very being of God. The expression of love is in
the coming of Christ to die for our sins. And he says to be a
propitiation, sin offering for our sins. I know this. I know that it will not be until
we stand in glory that we will finally understand the fullness,
something of the fullness of God's love to us. I know that. But we can have a measure of
it here. More than we know. More than we've ever really experienced.
We can have it. Now John turns back to the believer.
He says, Beloved, if God so loved us, if He expressed His love
in such a way, we ought also to love one another. That shouldn't
be a hard thing. John gives us a good argument
for loving one another. God so loved us that He gave. While we were ungodly, while
we were sinners, while we were at enmity with God, He did something
about our sins that separated us from Him. He sent His Son
to be a propitiation for our sins. Now we can come into the
presence of God. Even now, we can come into the
presence of God. That being so, it should not
be a hard matter for us to love one another. It shouldn't be a hard matter.
If we've been forgiven, it should not be hard to forgive. If we
have tasted that the Lord is gracious, it should not be hard
for us to be gracious, if we've really tasted it. Now he says
here, and I'll wind this down, no man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected
in us. When John writes about knowing
God, he's not saying that a man knows that God dwells in him
by talking to God or seeing God. That's not how I know God dwells
in me. That's not how I know God dwells
in you. I'm going to give you an excerpt from Henry's commentary. A believer can know that God
dwells in him when the Spirit of God produces in him the nature
of God and the fruit of the Spirit which is expressed in faith and
love. When that comes out of us, when
you believe God, you continue to believe God, and you genuinely
love the brethren, and you genuinely love men. That's evidence. That's evidence you've been born
of God. When you have no reason to love that person, that's caused you trouble. That's
evidence of the love of God. Where love is, it's gonna come
out. And he says here, love is perfected
in us. Now we know this, in this life
we'll never love perfectly. In this life we will never believe
God perfectly. But we will grow in love, we
will grow in faith, and these things will mature. God will
mature these things in us. That's what he's saying. The
love that is in a believer is real, is genuine, and it grows
and it matures in Christ until one day the Lord takes us home. And that's when it's really mature. Hereby know we, that we dwell
in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons
of God. And the evidence of that is that we believe God and we do
love one another.