Alright, if you will, we turn
to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. The title of
my message this morning is Dwelling and Perfecting. Dwelling and
Perfecting. 1 John chapter 4, we begin there
in verse 12. No man hath 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."
And John tells us here that love to brethren, the love we have
one to another, it's an active love. And that's because God
dwells in us and His love accomplishes this in us. It's perfected in
us. And hereby, this is how we know
that we dwell in God and He in us, is because He has given us
of His Spirit. That's how we're going to know.
And no man hath seen God at any time. Why did John make this
statement when he's speaking about believers' love to our
brethren? We looked at this briefly last
week. We're going to touch on it again this week as well. But
first, let's look at this love of God dwelling in us. What is
this? There in verse 12, it says, No
man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. And when God, who is love,
dwells in us, He makes us see His great love for us in His
Son, Christ Jesus. And through seeing our Savior,
through looking to Him, He makes us dwell in love. Love is of
God. He's the source of it. God gets
all the glory for making us dwell in love to Him and to our brethren. And we praise God for love when
we see it. My brother's loving me dearly
when I don't deserve to be loved. He's mercifully loving me. I'm
thankful for that brother or sister, but I praise God who
put that in them, that spirit that was given to them, to dwell
in love is to continue to the end of our lives dwelling in
love. Now, dwelling is not a temporary
thing. We dwell, we abide in our homes. That's why it's called our dwelling.
But we might spend the night in a motel. When I used to travel
down here, I spent the night at your house, and I spent the
night at your house. But while I was there, I didn't dwell there.
If I go to a motel, I don't dwell in that motel. I'm just staying
there for a night. But I abide, I dwell in my home. I stay there
always. And that's what the Spirit is
telling us through John here. God the Holy Spirit does not
just visit our new man. Our new man doesn't just see
the Spirit, doesn't just hear from the Spirit occasionally.
He dwells in us continually. Turn back here to chapter 2,
verse 24. We're going to look at this word, dwell. Verse John
2, 24. Let that therefore abide in you. That word is dwell. Same word.
Which ye have heard from the beginning, from the beginning
from that first hour, when we first heard that we should believe
on Christ and love one another. If that which ye have heard from
the beginning shall remain, That what you heard from the beginning
abides in you, if it dwells in you. He also shall continue. Same word. Abide. He also shall
continue in the Son and in the Father. Let's be turning over
to John 15. We'll be going back and forth
between John's gospel and this epistle of John. quite a bit,
so you can leave a marker there in John. John 15, our text is
telling us, if we dwell in love, it's because God dwells in us,
and His love has completed. That end has come to a completion
in us. That is because God dwells in
us, and by that same effectual word, makes us clean. And He makes us abide in Him. Look here in John 15, verse 3. Now you are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you." A lot of people try to
clean themselves. How do we clean? Christ speaks
to us. By His word, we're clean. Now
you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Here's another word. Abide in me. And I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine,
and you are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, where he dwells, he abides, the same bringeth forth much
fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. Christ dwells in
His people and His love is accomplished in us. He doesn't attempt to
dwell. He doesn't try to abide in us. He abides in His people.
The love we have towards God is a heart work performed in
us by Him. That's what we read there in
Deuteronomy last year. I keep thinking last month and
that's turned into last year. Deuteronomy 30 told us, "...and
the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of
thy seed." For what purpose? To love the Lord thy God with
all thine heart and with all thine soul that thou mayest live. That's what He's going to do
in us. Let's turn over to 1 Peter. When Christ dwelling in His people,
Through this heart work, through the circumcision of our hearts,
He makes us to dwell in Him, to love Him, and we love our
brethren with a genuine love, a fervent love. Through that
same work, God performs in our hearts. When He does this in
us, that circumcision of the heart, there's multiple things
it accomplishes. 1 Peter 1, verse 22. seeing ye have purified your
souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, unto genuine love of the brethren. See that
ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Colon. Peter's going to tell us how
we're going to obey the truth. He's going to tell us how we're
going to love Christ. He's going to tell us how we're
going to genuinely love our brethren. Verse 23, being born again, not
of corruptible seed, not of something we did, but of incorruptible
seed by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. It
liveth and it dwells forever. That circumcision work he does
in the heart, it ain't going to change. That's a capable surgeon. And whenever he performs that
surgery, it's performed in perfection and it's performed forever. Now
back to our text. Christ dwelling and abiding in
the hearts of His people is the reason we love Him and He's the
reason we love our brethren. Now let's look at this dwelling
love perfected. What does it mean that His love
is perfected in us? I wrote this down, I was going
over my notes this morning. So many people say, see, you
have to perfect your love. You have to lean towards righteousness.
If the love that's in me, that's in you, in your new man, is God
dwelling in you, you gonna make him better? To say that I can
perfect myself, that I can, the Lord did this for me, now I have
to perfect my righteousness, I have to perfect my love, is
saying his love and his righteousness ain't good enough. I've got to
tweak it a little bit. I've got to push it further.
But what does this mean? His love is perfected in us.
God's love has accomplished this end in us. Now in John 19, our
Master was on the cross. And John told us that after this,
Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the
same word is perfected, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled,
saith I thirst. After receiving that vinegar,
Christ said, it is finished. That means it's accomplished.
It's perfected. Same thing. When we dwell in
love to God and love to our brethren, it's because God dwells in us
and God's love has accomplished this end in us. This is a culmination
of it. In this life, we will not love
to perfection. You say, I don't love you because
I don't love you the way Christ loved us. Well, you don't want
to see that in me. It ain't possible for us to live
that way. That grace of love put in the believer's new heart
will not be perfect until we are fully conformed to the image
of Christ in glory. When that night comes, when our
soul is required of us and we go to the Lord, we come to Him,
then perfectly we'll love, perfectly we'll know. Perfectly will worship
him, but while we're here on this earth We don't have complete
knowledge. We don't have complete love,
but we're grown in grace We get a little bit of grace the Lord
grows us in grace and we're grown in love towards Christ As we
walk through this world, he teaches us and he whittles away Everything
we're clinging to and we're grown in love towards our brethren As we grow in knowledge concerning
our Savior, we also grow in grace, and those fruits of the Spirit
grow. So perfected does not mean that we become sinless. It doesn't
mean we've become perfect. Our sin nature is always with
us until death. But it means God dwelling in
us, God's love for us has accomplished making us dwell in love to God
and love to our brethren. We read that article in the bulletin
from Hawker this morning. It's old English, but he said,
there really ain't no need for me touching on this. That's what
he's getting at. But if we have any love, it's
of Him. If we see anything, it's of Him.
Now back to verse 12 again. 1 John 4, 12. 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 is in us, because He hath given us of His
Spirit." Now John's telling us these truths of God dwelling
in us, how His love is perfected in us, how the Spirit is given
to us in our new hearts. That's the reason that we love
Him and we love our brethren. So why does he begin this with
saying, no man hath seen God at any time? That seems out of
place, doesn't it? We cannot physically see God. So where do we see God? If we
can't physically see Him, where do we see Him? Where is He manifested
to His people? We behold the invisible God by
beholding the God-man, Christ Jesus, in whom God dwells. John
the Baptist told us that no man hath seen God at any time. The
only begotten Son, which is of the bosom of the Father, He hath
declared Him. We don't see God unless Christ
has come to us and declared Himself to us and then in Him we see
God. John the Baptist was declaring
that God cannot be known except He reveals Himself in Christ.
That triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,
they are one. But you and I can see the invisible
God in and through Christ, the God-man. All three walk this
earth together in a man's body. Imagine that. Could you imagine
being in His presence? He says He grew in knowledge
and stature. How's that possible? He's God. He knows all things. And there's a time He couldn't
read. He's both, because He had to fully become man. It's not
pretend. He had to fully become a man
and live perfect as a man for this wretch, for this worm. He had to come do that. Paul
wrote, "...for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily." That means that whole triune Godhead We can't even
imagine, much less see. It's all wrapped up in one body
in Christ Jesus, the God-man. But John also told us God is
love, and God loves his people. He was clear about that. He said,
but no man hath seen God at any time, so where do we see the
love of God towards his people? We see it in Christ's actions,
which manifest God's love towards us. Not just is it the person,
it's who we preach Christ and him crucified. That's who He
is. What did He do? What was His
work? Look up there in verse 9. In this was manifested, revealed,
the love of God towards us. Here's how He showed us. Because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, to be that satisfactory payment, that bloody sacrifice
for us. That's the, people try to keep
the law, well to keep it for us is to die. I want to satisfy
the law, death's required. Here's that perfect God man that
lived perfectly as a man and he died for me. What I deserve, that payment.
You and I can see the love of the invisible God towards his
people in the works of Christ. We see it in his action. He came
here and he laid down his life for his people. 1 John 3.16 says, Hereby perceive
we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and
we ought out of that debt of gratitude to lay down our lives
for the brethren. No, you ain't gonna love your
brethren unless you see how undeserving God's love to us was and how
great that love was and what true mercy is. That's when the five points of
Calvinism stop being a doctrine and you say, whoa, I'm a sinner. He's an awesome God. Turn over to John chapter 5. John chapter 5. The way we know
that God dwells in Christ and Christ dwells in God is by beholding
Christ's work. We behold God's love for His
elect by beholding Christ lay down His life for us. There in
John 5 verse 36, our Master says, but I have greater witness than
that of John, speaking of John the Baptist, for the works which
the Father hath given me to finish. There's that word again, to perfect.
to accomplish. For the works which the Father
hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness
of me that the Father hath sent me." It's not just his person,
it's his work and they bear witness of him because he willfully and
with joy laid down his life. Turn over to John chapter 10.
Just a few pages. His work in laying down His life
for the elect bear witness of who He is and that He accomplished
that love of salvation through His death for us. John 10, verse
37. If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not, If I don't do the works of God, don't believe
me. If I don't preach Christ to you, don't believe me. If
I'm telling you to do something, don't believe me. But if I do
not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you
believe me not, believe the works that you may know and believe
that the Father is in me and I in Him." We see what Christ
accomplished on that cross at Calvary. The Lord sent Him because
He said I was going to send Him. And we know He dwells in the
Lord because He's risen. It was accepted. It was perfected. John's point in our text is that
no man hath seen God at any time. When we see God by beholding
the God-man in whom God the Father dwells, when we see Christ and
we behold God's love for us by the actions that Christ performed,
His work throughout His whole life and by laying down His life
on that cross and that He satisfied divine justice. He was accepted. That sacrifice was accepted for
us. We haven't seen Him, but we've
seen the one He sent. I'm back to our text there in
1 John 4. Therefore, when we read, no man hath seen God at
any time, how are we going to understand that God dwells in
us and that God's love is perfected in us? It's by us loving one
another, not in tongue, not in word only, but in deed and in
truth. It says there, 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. It's not simply by what we say,
but by what we do in love to one another. It's not just saying,
I love you. It's an act of love. If God has
given us His Spirit, there will be a likeness to our Father who
created us. We understand that. Jeff Sy is mine. If you all knew
me when I was little, there ain't no denying it. He's mine because
I'm his father. And if we bear the likeness of
our father, we love as he loves. It's an actionable love. We will
love one another indeed as he has loved us indeed. He didn't
just love his people in word. That's what the world says. I
love you. I want to do something for you. I want to be kind to
you. Let me." He loved indeed. We've read this a lot lately,
but it bears repeating. In John 13 it says, A new commandment
I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.
That's the way we're going to love one another. That you also
love one another. By this shall all men know you
are my disciples if you have loved one for another. So since
no man hath seen God at any time, the only way we know that God
dwells in us and that His love has accomplished this work in
us is that we love one another. Not only just in word, but in
deed and in truth. If He has given us His Spirit,
then we surely will. Because it's His. It's His Spirit. Now lastly, let's apply this
to faith and love. in God's preacher as well as
in God's people. When it comes to the preacher,
no man hath seen God at any time. That's foolishness that's proclaimed
all over. God spoke to me. I saw him. He
came to my house last night and told me to tell you this. No
man hath seen God at any time. No, he didn't. How then am I
going to know that God sent and dwells in a man that's preaching
to me? That's not just for you folks. Somebody's listening to
this at home, online. If 50 years from now somebody
hears this message and they're in a false church, how can they
know if that man that they're listening to is telling them
the truth? Did the Lord send them 100 years
from now? Did the Lord send that preacher to you? Can you sit
underneath him? What does the Spirit of God always make His
preacher and His people do? We believe and testify publicly
the truth of Christ. Look here in verse 14, 1 John
4, 14. And we have seen, we've seen
this, and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the
Savior of the world. Now that doesn't mean that He
just came to save whoever. We say who He is and what that
work was for a people and that it was complete. He accomplished
it. It was finished. It was perfected
in Christ. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. And one thing I've noticed over
the years, we moved a lot and I'd try looking for a church.
You can find a statement of faith that'll be solid. You can go
on somebody's website and you'll say, boy, everything that's written
down there, that looks good. That's right. But seldom do they
preach publicly what they claim to believe. No man hath seen
God at any time. But God has given us a sure way
of discerning who God dwells in. If a man has a love of God
in him, then God says, whosoever, and that means his people, his
preacher, whoever it is, whosoever is not ashamed to testify publicly
that Jesus is God and human flesh is of God. That's his people. That means they preach the gospel
of Christ. They declare blatantly that Christ
is a successful savior. That's who he is and what he
did. He accomplished the redemption of His particular people, of
His elect, and God's elect alone. And it was completed. It was
perfected. He said, it is finished. It is perfected. They will declare
that Christ is risen, He's reigning, and He's calling out His redeemed
as we speak. If we're still on this earth,
He's pulling His people to Him. A preacher has a love of God
and Him will declare that Christ has all the power to keep His
people and to lose none of them, no matter what, until that last
day and raise them up again. John says there at the end of
verse 15, God dwelleth in Him and He in God. That's what he's
saying up in verses 2 and 3, 1 John 2 and 3. Look here at
1 John 4 verse 2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God, not just that he came. Everybody agree
to that, but why he came? and that he was successful in
coming. Verse 3, And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that
spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should
come, and even now is already in the world. People's worried
about an antichrist as some kind of goat with extra horns and
eyeballs and some scary thing. That ain't it. That's some nice
person that's saying a lot of good things, but they're against
Christ. They're anti-Christ. Anti-Christ
getting all the glory, whether that's in salvation, regeneration,
in glorification, sanctification. If he don't get all the glory
in it, they're against Christ getting all the glory. They're
anti-Christ. The same is true of God's people as we hear somebody
preach. Look there in verse 4. You are
of God, little children. You have overcome them. You've
overcome those false preachers, those people telling you to do
something. Here's the reason. Because greater
is He that is in you than he that is in the world. How could
I discern that this man has said so much nice things and it's
so close? How can I know? That's dangerous.
They said if it were possible, It would deceive even the very
elect. How is it not possible? Because greater is he that is
in you, that one that dwells in you, he's greater than the
world, than all of it. They are of the world, therefore
speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. Everybody
loves them. Oh, that's our brethren over
there. We ain't got the same father,
it ain't my brethren. So when God dwells in a sinner
and God's love is perfected in them, then we will declare Christ
in truth according to the Word of God. We'll say this is Him. Ain't what the Scriptures say.
What saith the Scriptures? Tells us plainly. It was perfected
in Him dwelling in me that loved me first. Also, when the love
of God is perfected in us, we love one another. Look here in
verse 12. We have 1 John 4, verse 12. 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.
Now look down at verse 16. 1 John 4.16, "...and we have
known and believed the love of God, the love that God hath to
us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Now think of the
certainty of that phrase, those texts. Think of the surety of
that. Sovereign, irresistible God dwells
in His people. Not only are we partakers of
the divine nature, but God is present in that new nature. It's not just a shell that we
have. He's there. He dwells in it. Having washed
us in His blood, Christ comes directly into that new heart
and Christ dwells in us. Can you imagine that God's unable
to make His child behold that great love for us that He accomplished
for us, making us love those that God loves. He's done all
this work in us. You think He'd make us love our
brethren? You think He's going to make us aware of that love?
Christ did that work for a people. He's going to let the people
know. They shall know. John says if we don't, If we
don't love our brethren, if we don't love Christ, if we don't
look to Him for all things, there's one reason that we don't. Look
here at 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 we have from Him, that he who loveth
God loveth also his brother. Now, when we see a brother or
sister in need, we see them hurting, we see them in pain, we see them
in trial, and that trial could be pride. It could be something
we don't consider a trial. We think that's an offense. That's
a trial to the child of God. This is one that God loved and
sent His only begotten Son for. Someone's offended me. Someone's
in a trial. They're in a need. Christ died
for that child. He is the one whom Christ dwells. Christ is in that person. If
we don't love and provide for our brothers and sisters who
I can see, I have the opportunity to do that. The Lord's put that
in our hands. We can help our brethren. If we don't do that,
God says, then I don't love God and who I cannot see. If I can
see my brother, Christ was him, I will do nothing for him. The
God that I can't see, I'm not going to do anything for him.
I don't know him. I cannot see God, but I can see you. And that God loved and sent his
son to die for, we cannot love God in person, but we can love
our brethren in person. where Christ dwells. God has
given us of His Spirit, and if He has given us of His Spirit,
we will. We will love our brethren. God's love is perfected in us,
makes a believer love strangers in a place we ain't never been.
We've looked at this a few times. We've got brothers and sisters
all over. We don't even know. I can't even speak their language.
Down in Papua New Guinea and Russia, there's believers in
China. a big old mean monster of a country.
Christ dwells in people in that country. I don't know him, but
if we had a good report and they said, that's the God I love,
I'll give you the shirt off my back. Love him better than our
family here that we can talk to, don't we? When a believer sees Christ and
his brother under attack, Under slander, God's love makes him
stand with his brother and comfort his brother, not question his
brother. We have some brothers and sisters
that are under attack, and we don't question them. We stand
with them, because of Christ in them, don't we? I pray we
can strive to dwell in love towards one another more and more. Grow in that love. Paul told
us in Romans 13, I can't talk today. Oh, no man anything but
to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled
the law. Grow in that love. And I pray
that we are allowed to pray for one another. Y'all pray for me.
Pray the Lord's with me and gives me a message. I know you do,
but don't quit it. Keep after it. God will grow
us in grace, grow us in love for our brethren too. First Thessalonians
said, And the Lord maketh you to increase and abound in love
one toward another and toward all men, even as we do towards
you. To the end, he may establish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. So
let us love one another. Let us pray for one another and
thank our loving, gracious, merciful God. who first loved us, who
sent his son for us, who Christ has died for. Isn't that something? If we could stay focused on that,
if we could, I want to know nothing of you, but Christ and him crucified.
What are you going to argue about? Ain't nothing to, nothing else
matters. And then for the, that's why
this world is such a mess right now. You talk about this morning,
Bob, they're scared to death to die. Now, I ain't going to
accelerate it. I don't want to try to get my
point in time here beforehand, but death's sweet to a believer.
For us to live is Christ, but to die is a game. Isn't that
precious? Why? Because we look to Him,
Him alone. I pray He'll dwell in you. Let's
pray together.