Note with me in 1 John chapter
4. Lily still doing okay? Healing
up pretty quick? Good, good, good, good. We'll start reading here in verse
9 and read down to verse 17. And this was manifested, the
love of God towards 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.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth 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 this world. What a wonderful thought to behold
God on His throne. What a wonderful, wonderful,
blessed thought to know when I rise to worlds unknown and
behold you on your throne. Oh boy, what a world we got to
look forward to. What a world we got to look forward
to. I want to look here at verse
16 and deal with verse 16 this evening. 1 John 4.16, 1 John
4.16, 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. My subject this evening is knowing
God's love, knowing God's love. The apostles and all the apostles,
that's what when John said up here in verse 14, and we have
seen and do testify that the Father has sent the Son to be
Savior of the world. And whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.
So we said a hearty amen to what the apostles testified to. Because
we confess the same thing that they confess. We confess that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And you know it says over here
in verse 3 of chapter 4, and every spirit that confesses not
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This
is the spirit of antichrist. You heard that he should come.
And so we confess, we agree, we confess what the apostles
testified to. They testified that they seen,
they handled the Word of Life itself, that they were eyewitnesses
of His Majesty. And we also confess that God
sent, the Father sent His Son into the world to be the Savior
of the world out of every type, kindred, nation, and people on
the face of the earth. And so we can be sure, and that's
what He goes on to say, that that Jesus is the Son of God,
God dwells in Him, and He in God. We can be sure when we have
this confession and say a hearty amen to the testimony of the
apostles, the Word of God, the Word of God, we can be sure that
God dwells in us and we dwell in God. But then he goes on to
say here, and we have known, not only do we confess this testimony
and confess that Jesus is the Savior of the world, sin of God,
and that he's the son of God by nature, but attributes. But he says, we have known and
believe the love that God has to us. Not just the apostles, but he
changes the story here and says, and we, we as believers, we as
Christians, we, we make this confession and we have known
and believe the love that God has to us. And I tell you what,
we go from believing to knowledge. We have known, we have known. He's dealing here with belief
and experience. Now I know this, that you cannot
believe the scriptures and not have an experience and know something.
And when you know something, you believe it. And when you
believe something, you know it. And when you know something,
then you believe it and you know it, you have an experience in
knowing that thing. And I want us to just think of
just a few minutes about what we call objective and subjective
truth in our lives. Objective is everything that
Christ done for us outside us on the cross. God loved us before
we ever knew Him. Here in His love, not that we
loved Him, but that He loved us. Everything Christ did for
us is outside of us. But also everything he did for
us, we've experienced it in us through the gospel. There are
some things that God taught us and we know. And that's what
John says, we have knowledge. We know, we've experienced the
love of God. It's something that we have in
us. And that's what he says, he that dwelleth in love, God
dwelleth in him and he dwelleth in God. So you know everything's
outside us, but there's also some things in us, like we believe
a body of truth. They call it the doctrines of
grace, they call it Calvinism, call it whatever you want. I
love calling it the gospel of the free grace of God. There's
a body of truth that we believe. And this body, it stands together
or falls together. Man's utterly and absolutely
ruined by sin, and since he's ruined by sin, God must elect
him unconditionally, since they're all in the same boat. And if
God elects him unconditionally, then Christ must shed his blood
for them and redeem them. and pay for them. And then if
He paid for them, then they must be effectually called to partake
of that death that He bought them with, and that electing
grace that God gave them. And then everyone that God hath
called, all of every single one of them will persevere. This
is a body of truth. We believe this. But we also
know it, and we've experienced it. Now, isn't that right? That's why we love these blessed
truths. We learned these things, God taught these things to them,
but we also experience them in our heart. And this body of truth,
the doctrine we believe, it's also experimental in us. Now
there's two types of people, we've met both of them. And you
know, there are those who are strictly doctrinal, strictly
doctrinal. They're intellectual. Everything
is based on, they're only interested in knowledge. What they know,
what they know, what they know. And that's, that's not good. That's not good. There's no heart
in it, no warmth in it. And then there are those who
are only interested in their experience. Don't talk to me
about doctrine. Don't talk to me about these
truths and that. I've had this experience. And
I know what I've experienced. But you, Truth and experience
go together. Faith and knowledge go together.
If you know something, you've experienced it. If you believe
something, you know it. So they go together. And that's
what John is saying here. We confess something and we know
the love of God. We experience it. We know it
in our head. We know it in our hearts. And
we've experienced it by our very will. And all this is the glory
of the gospel. is that it deals with the whole
man, not just with his mind, but with his heart, his emotions.
It deals with his will, deals with his understanding. You keep
1 John 4, and look over with me in Romans 6, just for a moment.
Look in Romans 6 here. Let's look at this verse of scripture,
Romans 6, 17. Here's a perfect illustration
of what I'm talking about. And that's what John is telling.
from confessing and having this testimony, this truth that we
believe, to coming down to what we know. To what we know. Look what he says
in verse 17. But God be thanked. That's the
first thing we do. Thank God. Thank God. That you
were the servants of sin. That's what we were. But now
listen to this. You have obeyed from the heart.
That's our emotions. That's our emotions. That's our
affections. And that form of doctrine, that's the truth that
comes to the mind. And then it was delivered unto
you, and that involves your will, because you take that for yourself.
So it deals with the mind, it deals with the heart, and it
deals with the will. And that's what, when we talk about things
that we have known, and that's what he goes back over here to
say. An objective truth. Herein is our, and we have known
and believed the love of God. Now back over here in 1 John
4, John says, we have seen and do
testify. That's the message that we've
heard. That's the message that we heard. That's the message
that we heard. That's the message we believe.
But what am I to know and what am I to believe to experience?
And I'll say this at the outset, that the love of God that he's
talking about here is only known and experienced and felt completely
in and through our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. You cannot
know the love of God. When he says we have known, you
cannot know the love of God. You can't feel it, you can't
experience it, you can't know it apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's where God manifested his
love for. Ain't that what he said in verse
nine? And this was manifested, the love of God. How was it manifested? Toward us. because that God sent
his only begotten son, his only son into the world that we might
have life through him. So if we're gonna see the love
of God, know anything about the love of God, it's only known
and experienced through our Lord Jesus Christ. And beloved, and
that's what John said, we have seen and do testify that the
father sent the son to be the savior of the world. And any
religion, any love that a man says he has, that bypasses the
Lord Jesus Christ is false, it's anti-Christ, and it's unscriptural. You cannot do anything that bypasses
the Lord. People say, well, I love this
and I love that and I love the church and I love this, but you
cannot love anything or anyone If you're a Christian, if you
bypass the Lord Jesus Christ, God has nothing for us. He don't
have love for us, He don't have mercy for us, He don't have grace
for us, apart from His blessed Son. And that's where the love
of God was manifested at. He told Nicodemus, God so loved
the world. The gospel is in verses 14 and
15. He said, As Moses lifted up the serpent, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him.
Then he says, this is the manifestation. That's the gospel. This is how
much God loved the world and the sinners in the world that
He put His Son up there. And this is the manifestation
of that love. And that's why we're talking
about the love of God. And I also know this. Any emotion
I have towards God, any feeling I have toward God, any love that
I have toward God, any emotion I have toward God, I distrust
it if it's not based solidly and completely upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, ain't that right? If you
get some feelings and you have some emotions and you come to
God, but I tell you what, If it's not based solidly upon Jesus
Christ, it's not right. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Unto you therefore which believe,
He is precious. When you believe something and
you know something, when you know Christ and you trust Christ
and you believe Christ and know the love of God's manifested
in Christ, then, beloved, you believe and He becomes precious
to you. He is precious to you. And John
says, we have known and believe the love that God hath to us.
I've not only believed it, John says, but I know it. Let me show
you something what the apostles said. I'll get into this here.
Look over in Philippians 3. See, knowledge and belief go
together. When you believe, you know what you believe. Look what
Philippians 3. Here's a perfect example of what
we're saying. Knowledge and belief go together.
We know and believe. Why did He put knowledge before
faith? You know it and you believed
it. Look what Paul said here in verse 8. Philippians 3.8. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. for whom I've suffered the loss
of all things, and to count them done, that I may win Christ."
Then look what he says down in verse 10. He says there he knows
God, he knows Christ, and he has this knowledge of Christ,
and he's thankful for the knowledge that he has in Christ. And then
he comes down in verse 10, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection. He knows, he said, I do know
Him, but yet I want to know Him. And so he says, I know something
and I believe something, but yet when we know everything that
we could possibly know, we still have so much more to learn. You
know, we believe the message. that God sent His Son to be the
Savior, and then we confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
That's what Peter said when they said, Oh, Lord, you want to go
away? And, Lord, we can't go away.
We believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God. We can't
go. No, we believe, but, beloved, we grow in our belief. We grow
in our belief till we know, and then when we know, we go start
all over again and go grow it again. We know the love of God,
that's what he says, we have known and believed the love that
God hath to us. We know the love of God and yet
we don't know it at all, as we should. How much do we know about
the love of God? Paul says, you know, you plumb
the height, you plumb the depth, you got the breadth, you got
the length, you got the height. He said, it's like looking at
an ocean. You can't measure an ocean. And that's what he says
about the love of God. It's too big, it's too high,
it's so broad, it's so deep. But thank God we know and yet
we don't know. That's one of the mysteries of
the gospel. We say we know and then yet at the same time we
look through a glass darkly. You know, we're always looking
and always believing and always knowing. And John here puts knowledge
before belief. And what he's saying is, and
what the Apostle said over there in Philippians is, I know much
more than I've experienced. I know a heapsight more than
I experienced. My belief is greater than my
experience. But yet, he says, I'm reaching
out. I'm stretching out. I'm pressing
toward the mark. I haven't attained yet. And that's
what John's saying here. We know, and we also believe. And I have, and I know, and yet
I want to know. But let me ask a couple of questions.
Can we say with John, we know the love of God does? Can we
know the love of God does? Do we know the love of God does?
Can we say that? We know, individually, personally,
we know the love that God has to us. We live in a difficult
world. We live in a wicked world. We
live in a world with a lot of troubles, a lot of trials, a
lot of wars, a lot of rumors of wars, and a lot of fussing
and fighting and disagreement. But how can we live in this world
that's so difficult, this world that's so wicked, this world
that would try to destroy our peace? But how can we live in
this world and have joy and have peace and walk with some confidence
through this world? Well, I tell you how I do it,
and of course I believe you do it this way too. Knowing that
God, the love that God has towards us. Knowing that God loves no
matter what happens in this world. That's what John says. We have
known and believed the love that God hath to us. Knowing that
love that God has towards us and towards me. He said, that's
why I'm persuaded that neither life nor death nor angels nor
principality. No thanks present, no thanks
to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me
from the love of God, separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ. And that's why we can go through
this world, nothing, all the difficulty and all the trials
and all the things that we go through in this world, it's not
going to separate us from God. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. It's not our love to Him, but
His love toward us. And that's why it's so wonderful
that we know that God hath love toward us. His love to us. You know, Galatians 2.20. I've
quoted this so many times, but look at this. Here's another
thing about knowing God's love and experiencing God's love. Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. I died with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet it's not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son
of God, now listen to it, who loved me, who loved me. Gave himself for me. He knew
the love of God and by knowing it He experienced it and experienced
it was because he believed it and he knew it cry he said that
God Christ loved me and Gave himself for me and every Christian
can say he loved me and gave himself for me and John says
we've known the love that God hath to us and And this affected his whole life.
It affected his whole life, and that's what the love of God does
to us. It affects our whole life. When we know the love of God,
experience the love of God, what a change! What a change! What a motivation! Our faith
even works by love. And oh, that's why I said, whom
having not seen, we love. And that's why Paul said, I know!
I know! whom I have believed. And I'm
persuaded, I'm convinced that whatever I've committed unto
Him against that day, He's able to keep it. So what I'm saying
is that when you know this love of God, and you know that you
believe Christ, and you know you've confessed Christ, and
God dwells in you and you dwell in God, then you know and experience
this love of God in your very heart and soul. And how do we
know that God loves us? Well, I can tell you one way
I know, and I believe you'll agree this. I do know this, to
know that the love that God has to us, I turn right around and
say, I owe everything to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that
I owe everything to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we he
did everything. We're utterly we know how we
know that the love of God's in us And we have this love towards
us is that we are holy and completely dependent upon our Savior the
Lord Jesus Christ We're dependent upon his person. We're dependent
upon his blessed work dependent on his life Dependent upon his
death on his resurrection and this is how God's love was manifested. I How do I know that God loves
me? Because I turn around and attribute
everything to the Lord Jesus Christ, that God gave His love
to me in His Son. And I have to turn around and
say, Lord, You did it all. You did it all. And how do I
know God loves me? Because I have a sensation, a
feeling. No, the first thing is Christ. What Christ is to me. If the
love of God is in you, the first thing you experience is that
you want You attribute everything to the Lord Jesus Christ and
what He did. You're utterly and absolutely
dependent upon Him. If you love God and God loves
you, it's because of Christ. God never, never, even from eternity,
He loved us in His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll
tell you another reason how I know God loves us and has a love to
us is because our sins are forgiven. Our sins are forgiven. Our sins
are gone. Our sins are gone. God forgive
us our sins. Have it forgiven us all our trespasses. They're gone. My sins are gone. All gone. Why? Because the love
of God to us in His blessed Son. It was love that caused Christ
to His Father and to us to bear our sins away in His own body. And I tell you another way that
we know God's loved us is we're very, very thankful and we have
great gratitude and thanksgiving to God for this great love that
he loved us with. And you know that maniac of Gideon,
Saul and Tarsus both, that maniac said, Lord, let me follow you.
Just let me follow you. I don't care what I have to do.
I just want to follow you. And Paul said, Lord, what would
you have me to do? I'll do whatever you have me
to do. And since God has such love to us, we are so thankful
and so grateful that, Lord, whatever you'd have me to do, that's what
I will to do. It makes no difference to me.
I've told you this before. God sent two angels down here,
one of them to rule a kingdom, the other to sweep the streets.
It would absolutely make no difference to either one of them which one
they did, because they did what the Father told. And that's what
we do. We're so thankful and full of gratitude toward God.
And I'll tell you another way that we know that the love of
God hath to us is we have a hatred of sin, and it gets greater.
It gets greater. How can we love God and have
God's love in us, and God's love dwell in us, and us in Him? and
not hate what He hates. If He abhors sin, do we not abhor
sin? If He hates sin, do we not hate
sin? And I tell you what, the older
you get and the farther along you get, the more you say, how
in the world could I think like that, I feel like that, and say
things like that? How could I do that in light
of such love toward me? And here's the last thing. In
knowing God's love to us, that my love to Him is so very poor. My love to Him is so very poor,
so very weak, so very frail. You know, a hypocrite don't care
whether his heart's cold. A hypocrite don't care whether
his love towards Christ is so poor. And our love toward Him
is so poor. That's how we can know He loves
us. Because we care. We care. We want to love Him
back. We desire to love Him more. And
it grieves us when we're so cold and so lifeless. And that's why
John says, we have known and believed the love that God hath
to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth
in love lives in this love. The love of God, the love of
God dwells in this love of God. God dwelleth in him and God in
him. Three places it talks here about
God dwelling in us and us dwelling in God. Verse 12, God dwelleth
in us. Verse 13, God dwells in us and
us in Him. And here in verse 16, God dwells
in us and us in Him, when we know His love, because He is
love. And we dwell in that love of
God. We dwell in it. We dwell in it. Father, thank you. Oh, so thankful
for the love of God, so rich, so pure, the saints and angels
saw. Thank you for the great love
for which you loved us, even when we were dead in sins. And
Lord, thank you for letting us know your love, the love that
you have toward us. And we believe that you love
us. We believe it, not because we are worthy, not because we
have anything in us that would cause you to love us. just because
you would. You've made us to know your love,
and we believe that you have a love toward us. God bless these
dear saints as they go their ways, meet every need of every
home and heart. Oh God, we pray again for little
Lily and pray for our children and our grandchildren. Lord,
you're the only one who can do anything for them. And we continue
to pray until you do, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.