Alright, brethren, if you will,
let's open our Bibles to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. We just sang that song by Miss
Crosby. Draw me nearer. We were made
to love. His love for us drew us nearer. Consecrated us to Him to serve
Him. And then we have a desire to
be with Him. That's our text today. I didn't
read that song before I got my notes ready. That's my points.
That's my points for this morning. Let's look at 1 John chapter
4. We're going to begin in verse 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. Beloved, if God so loved us,
We ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us and His love perfected in us. Every true child of God,
every true believer, those that are in Christ, they experience
three types of love. There's three true loves that
we all experience. That's the title of my message.
Three true loves. And those three experienced loves
are going to be our divisions. They're going to be our points
for this morning. Now the scriptures speak of a common faith that
all believers have. It's the same throughout believers.
There's a common salvation, common trials that we all experience
together. Those things have affected all
believers in all countries throughout all time. There are some things
we all go through as believers. Something each child of God experiences.
So what are these three true loves that are common to all
of us? Common to all His sheep, His children. We're going to
look at them today. The first one is the love of
God towards His people. He loved His people. Second one
is our love towards our Lord. He loved us. Second, we love
Him, the one who loved us first. And third, our love toward our
brethren, those that Christ died for, our brothers and sisters
in Him. Then at the end of those three points, look at a question. How can I know if I have this
love? It's what I've experienced, what I've felt, what I've been
put in me. Do I love Christ? Do I love my
brethren? How can I know? I want to know.
Alright, so let's begin there. Look at verse 10 again. There's
a love of God towards His people. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Herein is love. John's saying,
right here's love. What's love? Here it is. Not
that a man or woman loved God. Not that we did Him a favor.
We did something that pleased Him and He was just twiddling
His thumbs hoping we would. But that He loved us. He loved
His people. Almighty God loved His people
first. When was that? When did He love
us? He loved us before time existed. Before the foundation of the
earth. Turn over to Jeremiah. We know these things but it did
me a great blessing to sit and read through them. and look at
it as I read it. Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31 and we're going to
look at verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old
and said unto me, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, therefore, because
of this love that's been from everlasting, because of this
love for us, before we were created, because of this everlasting love,
therefore, with all loving kindness have I drawn thee. Because he's
loved us forever, he draws us. We're not drawn because we love
him. He said, I've loved you before you were ever a thought. And I drew you. I pulled you. That's our hap, like Ruth. We
didn't happen. Y'all ain't happen to be here
this morning. The Lord drew you here today. We'll see that a
little more later. But if God loves you now, that's an everlasting
love. Right now, if God loves you,
He always did love you. His love is everlasting. That
means it doesn't have a beginning. We know that part. It doesn't
end. There's no end to His love. He
loves you right now. He loved you yesterday. He's
going to love you tomorrow and it ain't going to stop. That's
assurance. It never began and it will never
end. And it doesn't change. That everlasting love, that's
the time limit of it, but that's the top of it too. It's an unchanging
love. Why? Why would His love not change? He doesn't change. Turn over
to Malachi chapter 3. few books over to the right just
before Matthew. Malachi chapter 3 calls God's
everlasting love for Christ and those put in Christ before the
foundation of the world were drawn to Him. We just saw that. Here Malachi 3 verse 6 says for
I am the Lord I change not He does not change. His love for
His people and Christ do not change. And because of that,
because of who God is, He's holy, He's perfect, He's immutable.
Change does not, it says there in verse 6, therefore, just like
in Jeremiah 31, because of this unchanged, this immutability,
therefore, because of this, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And the perfection of God's holy,
unchanging, everlasting love, His elect are not consumed. And
they're drawn to Him. Because of who He is. Because
of what He is. What He's done for His people.
God loved His people because He is love. And God cannot be
anything less than perfect. That means that His love is a
perfect love. It's a perfect love. Now back
to our text there in 1 John 4. This perfect love of God towards
His sheep draws us to the feet of Christ. And we're shown that
there's therefore now no condemnation. We're drawn and we're not consumed
before the Father. But how can this be? He said,
I know by no means clearly guilty. He can't be within sin, that
holiness, that unchanged ability. He can't be within something
that's corrupted. How can he love us forever from everlasting?
I know what I am. Spirit's convicted me of that.
How could this be? Look here in verse 10 again. Herein is
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son, the propitiation for our sins. This perfect love, this
drawing love, this love that now and forever has removed our
sins, this rests solely on Christ the God-man. That's our foundation
for Him being the payment, that satisfactory payment, that propitiation,
that mercy seat. Mediation between us and the
God that we offended. Now it's possible. How could
this wonderful love be possible? In Christ. In Christ. That's kind of simple, isn't
it? In Christ. That's kind of complicated
for us too, isn't it? We try to wrap our heads around
everything else. In Him. He's all. John wrote to us in
his Gospel. John chapter 3 said, The Father
loveth the Son. How does the Lord love His people?
In Christ. The Father loves the Son. "...and
hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life." The cause of our life is in His hands. The everlasting life is in His
hand, Christ's hand, and love is in His hands. He goes on to
say, "...and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abideth on him." Christ is the centerpiece,
the foundation, the cornerstone, isn't He? The love God has for
believers, for His sons and daughters, His children, is in Christ. Those that are not His children,
those that are not drawn, they're not kept, they're not preserved,
they're not provided, Christ has their propitiation. The Lord
does not love them. Everybody says God is love. Yes,
He is. That's true love to His people
that are in Christ. David told us in Psalm 7, God
is angry with the wicked every day. As we just heard from John
there in John 3, the wrath of God abideth on him. That's not
in Christ. That doesn't believe on Christ.
Those outside of Christ are not loved. It's only in Christ we're
loved. Paul told us there in Romans
8, he said, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God. Where's
that at? Which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. His love for us is in Him. Does
that start to sink in? I hope. Because of who God is. Because of the person and the
work of Jesus Christ our Savior, our sin atoning sacrifice, believers
are eternally loved. We are drawn and we're not consumed. Him. Because of Him. His love
for us. And additionally, if that wasn't
good enough, He's our propitiation. He's our mercy seat, our satisfying
sacrifice. Christ suffered the cross for
his people, bearing our sin and our shame. Those he loved before
the earth was, we were made his righteousness. I don't know why
you'd want to look for any other righteousness if the Lord gave
you his. Can you do better? He is righteousness. We're not
just set back to a clean slate. The Lord didn't just save us,
love us, and put us back to zero. Now it's up to you. We put you
on the right track. You've got to keep it straight.
No. We're made holy in Christ. Because we're made one with Him.
We're made joint heirs with Him forever, no matter what, if we're
His. Because it's everlasting love.
He loves. He doesn't change. He drew us. We ain't getting away. We don't
want to get away, do we? It's holiness forever. Does that
fluctuate? I feel like most days I'm down
so low I don't want anybody looking at me. I'm shameful. But does
it fluctuate? Do I have to do something? Do
I have to get better at it? No. Christ is all. What's that mean? Everything
that's required of a believer, of His child before the Heavenly
Father for eternity, forever. Anything that's required of us,
it's in Christ. Our life's in Him. Our salvation's
in Him. Our sanctification's in Him.
Our surety is in Him. I don't feel assured. Oh, I just,
I feel down. Some people may be offended at
me. I shouldn't be saying that, telling you all that. I do. I
have days of just horrible doubt and worry. It ain't in me. My assurance isn't, if I have
it, my assurance is Him. It's Him. When I look to Him,
I'm assured. He's able. The Lord's able. Christ
is able. Jude told us He is able to keep
us from falling and present us faultless, perfect, holy, without
fault, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. exceeding joy. That sounds like
love to me. Does it to you? Herein is love. He wasn't lying. That's it. So every believer, every child
born of God, they experience the love of God in Christ. We may not know it perfect. They
may not experience it long, but we've experienced it. Secondly,
every believer experiences a love towards our Lord who first loved
us. We experience His love to us
and we have love towards Him. Crossed sheep love Him. Apostle
Paul told us, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be anathema, marathoneth. That means let him be cursed
whenever the Lord comes. It's foolish, it's childish,
it's silly for a person to say they know God or they love God
and they do not know, believe, and love the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is God. Matthew 11, 27 says, All things
are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son.
And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. I know God, but I don't know
Christ." He hasn't revealed Himself to you yet. They're one and the
same. If a man does not know Christ,
he does not know God. If he does not love Christ, he
does not love God. Our Master told us, He said,
I and my Father are one. They're the same. In John 8,
those scribes and those Pharisees brought that adulterous woman
to the temple. And they started bombarding our
Master with questions. They gave him about 46 verses
worth of questions, arguing, just picking at him. Shameful. But they finally said, oh, we're
Abraham's children. We'll see to Abraham. And our
master told them, he said, if you were Abraham's children,
you would do the works of Abraham. You'd be like your father. And
how was Abraham? Abraham believed on Christ, and
that love that was bestowed on him and he had for him, it spilled
out. it come out of him. He believed on the Lord. And
so they replied. They said, well, we have one
Father. God's our Father. Christ told those. He said, Jesus
said unto them, if God were your Father, you would love me. For
I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself,
but He sent me. I'm of Him. Why do you not understand
my speech? He told him as plain as he could.
He said, why don't you understand what I'm saying? And he answers
it. He said, because you cannot hear my word. Why can't you understand
what I'm saying? Because you can't hear it. He
told him. If you're a son of God, if you're
a child of his, if you love Christ, and your new man hears him speak,
we have some understanding of who he is. We have some understanding
of what he accomplished. We are given ears to hear His
Word and we love our elder brother. We love to hear him speak. Turn
over to John chapter 21. John 21. Our Master is going
to ask Peter some questions here. Our Master is going to ask Peter
some questions here and he cuts right to the chase. You want
some catechisms or some questioning board of counsel to examine you? Here's our Master doing it. So
when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And he saith unto him,
Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he said unto
him, Feed my lambs. And he said unto him again a
second time, just ask him. He said, You feed my lambs. Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And he saith
unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. And he said unto
him, Feed my sheep. Christ did not ask Peter if he
felt really bad about his sin. He didn't say, Peter, do you
mourn your sin? Do you have enough guilt in you? Do you feel guilty
enough, Peter? He didn't ask him that. He didn't ask him if
his faith was strong. Do you have strong faith, Peter?
He didn't ask him if he had assurance. Are you comfortable all the time?
Are you confident in Christ all the time? Peter didn't ask. Are
you saved, Peter? People ask me all the time. Are
you saved? Do you know Jesus? Do you let Him in your heart?
They have all these questions. He didn't ask me that. Look here
in verse 17. And he asked me a third time. Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because the
Lord had asked coming to him a third time. He don't believe
me when I answer him, does he? Why does he keep asking the same
thing over and over and over again? He grieved. Lovest thou
me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things. He said that every time, didn't
he? He said, thou know I love you,
thou know I love you. And here he says, Lord, thou
knowest all things. You know I love you. You know
everything. You don't just know my love,
you know all things. And Jesus said unto him, feed
my sheep. Same answer. Peter went from saying, Lord,
you know I love you, to you know all things and you know I love
you. After he was grieved. He had
come weeping. He had to have some grief there.
The Lord asked Peter three times, do you love me? And every time
he said, you feed my sheep. This is the foundation of a believer's
motive in the Gospel. That's a foundation of our motive
for furtherance of the Gospel. For everything we do is love
in Christ. Love from God manifests in us
into a love for Him. Then we have a heart to serve
Him. We want to feed His sheep. That's why I preach. I love you
all. I care for you deeply. But I
love my Master. I want to honor Him. I want to
praise Him. And if I do that, you'll be fed. If He enables me to do that,
you'll be fed. That's why a child of God attends service. That's
why you're here today. You love Him. I'm not that appealing. You love Him. You want to hear
more about Him. You want to hear those words
from Him. That's why we support the work. Of course, we have
to. It's not something to do. We
love Him. We love Him and we love our brothers and sisters
in us. His love constrains us. His love motivates us to serve
Him and to love our brethren. There's an illustration, growing
up, my past reviews of a nurse and a mother was in a hospital,
small baby, little boys there on a bed, sick. And that mom
sat next to him and the nurse sat next to him. Nurse is fishing.
She's trained. She does a real good job, cares
for that child, sometimes better than the mother can. She knows
more of it. Three o'clock comes, she punches that time card and
leaves. Mother stays there. Next one comes. Next nurse comes
in. She cares for that child. Diligently
takes care of that child. 11 o'clock comes, she punches
the time clock, she leaves. Mother's still there. What's
the difference? That mother's not earning a wage. She ain't
getting paid. It's not a reward system. Love. Love's a reward. That's the answer
to it. Alright, now back to our text there. If we love Christ
and He dwells in you, then I love you. You see that? This leads to our third point.
What are these three true loves that all believers have in common?
First, God loves us. We're the object of His love.
Second, we love Him. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And third, our love towards our
brothers and sisters in Christ. Look here in 1 John 4, verse
11. Beloved, God so loved us after
this manner. This is how He loved us. We ought
also to love one another. We've experienced that love He's
had towards us. We've experienced that love we
have for Him. We ought to love one another after that manner.
All believers love one another. This is true. When God loves
you, shows you His love in Christ, and you love Him, then you love
everyone that Christ abides in. We have brothers and sisters
in Papua New Guinea, in Russia, Ivory Coast there in Africa,
the Yucatan, China. I can't talk to them. They can't
understand me. I can't communicate with them.
But if I've received a good report, if I went down to the Yucatan
and Walter said, this man's faithful, Kevin. He loves our Lord. And he told him the same thing.
I don't have to speak to that man. Don't have to talk to Him. I'll sit right next to Him. If
He goes to get water out of a well, I'll help Him carry it. Why?
I love Him. Why do I love Him? He loves my
Lord. Christ abides in Him. I love Christ. He loved me first.
That goes. What did our Savior say there
in John 13? He said, By this shall all men
know you are my disciples. If you, what? If you go to church
regularly. If you quit some kind of outward
sin, stop doing this. If you say more religious things,
quote more verses in public or something, no. He said, by this
shall all men know you are my disciples if you have love one
towards another. John had just told us that up
in verse 8, 1 John 4, 8. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Those that have a new spirit,
those that love their brethren. We see here in verse 12. No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells
in us and His love is perfected in us. Why did John put that
in there? Why did he say no man hath seen
God at any time? That seems kind of out of place,
don't it? He just said we ought to love one another. Why would
he say no man has seen God at any time? If we have love for
one another, God dwells in us. Look down at verse 20, 1 John
4, 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. I see ya. I can touch ya and
hug ya. If he loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
No man's seen him in flesh. We've never seen Him. If I ain't
gonna love my brother, what makes you think I'm gonna love Him?
It's an impossibility for a person to be loved by God, to love God,
and for them not to love their brethren. It's not possible to
love Christ and not to love Christ in our brethren. He dwells in
them. If He dwells in me and He dwells
in you, there's no way that we cannot love one another. Now,
our new man's gonna love one another. That's gonna happen.
That old man is just going to hinder it. It's going to get
in the way. But that new man is going to
love that new man and their brother or sister. So this three-fold
love is the same for all God's children. Someone that has had
that everlasting love of God bestowed on them, someone that
has a love for Christ, and someone that loves their brethren is
a child of God. Now I very seldom Use the word
Christian. You may probably never heard
it come out of my mouth. I rarely use that. Over the centuries,
it's been abused and misused and misinterpreted and it's just
slung around. I don't hardly use that word.
But this is who a Christian is. It's a person that was loved
of God. that cannot change from eternity
drawn by Him in Christ. A person that loves God in Christ
and a person that loves their brother Christ in them. To be a true Christian is to
have Christ abiding in you. It's Christ in. How does that
happen? How are we to have Christ in
us? There's a regenerative work that takes place. A new heart's
given in a man or woman, and that new heart's made alive.
It's quickened. There's a new birth. This is
a son of God, a child of God. They're born again in the heart
from and through that everlasting love of God. John told us there
in chapter 3, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. We're not just
called church members, sons of God. We're not just called someone
that was baptized. They don't just call us, oh,
he's the man that reads his Bible a lot. He's the man that prays
a lot. He's very vocal about church
issues. No, we're called sons of God,
called His children. Right now, if Christ has done
a work in our hearts, we are, right now, sons of God. And we don't know what, it doesn't
yet appear what we shall be, but we know when He shall appear,
we'll be made like Him. Because His children are saved
from wrath and we're made pure, both the water and the blood.
Salvation is the work of God alone done in the heart, believed
in the heart, known in the heart, experienced in the heart, and
lived from the heart. That's how we serve. It all has to do with the heart
of a person, not just their mind or body. Paul told us bodily
exercise profits little, but godliness profits in all things. He told us in Romans 10, if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved." He said, with mouth makes confession unto salvation,
but from the heart man believeth unto righteousness. It's a heart
word. All believers are convicted of
sin. We knew we fell in the garden. We know what we are today. I
know what this flesh is. You know what it is too. All
believers are convinced of the holiness of God. He's holy. I'm not. He is. I don't know
what that fully means, but I know He is. And we've heard the Gospel. We've believed the Gospel. We've
received the Gospel. And we confess Christ. But from
the beginning of all that, God has given a believer a new heart.
A heart like our Savior that loves God. A heart that loves
God for who He is and what He accomplished for us. And this
new heart loves God's people. That leaves a lot of people with
this question. How do I know if I love Christ
and I love my brethren? I know these words you're talking
about. Do I do that? I ask myself that. Do I love?
Do I just think I love? There are many true believers
that ask this question at one time or another, or they may
ask it for many years. Is that me? Do I love him? How
can I know I love Christ and that I'm His sheep? That sounds like a hard question.
I disagree. I think it's an easy question.
How do you know you love your spouse? Do you love them grandbabies? How do you know? Do you love
your children? How do you know? How do you know
you love your children? You've got a long time friend, grew
up together. Do you love them? How do you
know? Well, I love them. A few points to that love. If
you love a person, you enjoy thinking about that person. You
don't have to be reminded of their name. You don't forget
them, do you? You think about them all the
time. My children are a part of me. They're an extension of
me, and I enjoy thinking about you. You are on my mind all day. I think about you all the time.
Christ in you is our hope of glory. We don't forget him. His children don't forget him.
Those that love him. We thank on him because we are
one with him and he dwells in us. It's like a pregnant mother. Don't forget you've got a baby
in you. It's with you all the time. If you love a person, you
enjoy hearing about them. My mother calls me and I could
talk to her about a new coffee cup I got for an hour and a half
and she would listen the whole time. I haven't seen her in a
long time, and I can just talk for hours about nothing. About
the family or about just meaningless things. And she listens the whole
time. Why? She loves me. She wants to hear
about me, don't she? She's on the other side of the
country. She wants to hear about me. When we love the Lord Jesus Christ,
we desire to hear Him. Hear His Word. Hear about Him.
Learn more about Him. Things that are probably insignificant
to most people. That's important to us. I want
to know those little things. Tell me more of him. Tell me
the truth of him. I want to know him. If you love
a person, you like to please them. Anything you can do to
make them happy, you'll do it. Bend over backwards for them.
And if anything that displeases that person you love, it hurts.
If I think I've offended one of you, that hurts me. I lose
sleep over that. That's why we understand so well
what Paul said there in Romans 7. We love our Redeemer and we
despise ourselves, don't we? We see what we are. We want to
please Him. We want to serve Him. If you
love a person, you love the people that love them too. Someone's kind to my family member.
Someone's kind to you. They love you. I want to be kind
to them. We have a lot in common. That
benefits me too, doesn't it? If I'm kind to those that are
kind to the ones I love, that benefits me. Just the same if
a man or woman loves my Lord, and He loves them, then I love
them. Even if we don't speak the same
language. Don't have to. I love them anyway. And if you
love a person, you are happy to be in their presence. You
don't avoid them. You long to be with them. You want to be close to them.
You go out of your way to be with them and to hear from them. 10 years ago, I was this zoom
stuff. I guess they got The technology's
got a lot better in the last 10 years. I was Skyping Kierma
and them children from the other side of the world. And I had
to go, I had to walk about a mile and a half to get to this hot
little tin can out in the middle of the desert to get on a computer
that barely worked. And about a 30 second delay and
a grainy screen and everything else. And I'd go over there every
chance I got. Why? I wanted to see them. As close
as that's all I had to be with them, I'll take it. I'll take
it. You think I got mad? I said,
well, that's too much work. I ain't talking to her. I ain't
looking at them children. I'd have stood in line. Do whatever
it took. Because someday I'll be with
them. Someday I'll be with them. We long to be with them. Many
of y'all traveled a long way to be here. And some of y'all
traveled dangerous roads to be here. But you come to hear about
Christ. Come to get a message from Him.
It's worth it because you love Him. If you love a person, you
want to be with them. You want to be in their presence.
Paul said, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. I long to be with Christ, to
be made like Him, to listen to Him, be close to Him, and truly
serve Him, minister to Him, be a servant, and please Him. That
day will come and it will be gained, won't it? Until then,
what do I have? No man's seen Him. I got you. Him dwelling in you. How I treat
you is how I treat Him. And I pray the Lord make me love
you, be kind to you. Amen.