1 John chapter 4, begin reading
in verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the
Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. 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 already. is in the world. Ye are of God,
little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that
is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world,
therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We
are of God, and he that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not
of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. 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.
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. There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. We love him because he first
loved us. If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. Now as we've looked at this passage
for a couple of weeks now, and of course John beginning uh... this chapter uh... with the warning
that not every spirit that is not everyone who comes declaring
the truth of god or says that he is declaring the truth of
god is actually a uh... prophet of truth and so we need
to be mindful of that for there are many as he says many false
prophets are gone into the world And that was true in his day,
and it's multiplied a thousand fold in our day. It's much easier to find a false
prophet than it is to find a true one. Because a true prophet only
has one message, and that is Jesus Christ, him crucified.
He's not trying to get you money. He's not trying to get you to
follow him. He's not trying to tell you what
you need to be doing to make God happy. He's not trying to
tell you what you need to do to get to heaven. But he's telling
you what Jesus Christ has done in the behalf of sinners. And
that is what the message of the gospel is. And that's what Paul,
or John, I keep saying Paul, that's what John is speaking
about. He said, we are of God, he that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Now he's not saying that in a
boastful way, he's saying this is the message from God. And
it's here that we take our stand, it's here that we will not move
to the right or to the left. And whether anybody ever believes
what we say or not is not important to us in the strictest sense
of the word. Now, obviously, we preach the
gospel hoping and expecting that the Lord will call his people
out of darkness and into the light, and we rejoice. Even as
the scripture says, angels in heaven rejoice when a man comes
to repentance. And so it is that we delight
to see men shed the ways of the world and come to know the Savior. That's a glorious thing when
men walk with Christ and love one another. That is a glorious
thing. And so he says, those that hear
us, they are of us, but those that do not, they are not of
us. He said some went out from us
because they were not of us, because they didn't like that
message. Even as it was, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he began his ministry in the world, he was surrounded
by multitudes. Everybody was flocking to hear
him. But by the time he had gotten to the end of his ministry, there
was hardly anybody left. Because men had grown weary of
what it was he was saying. They didn't like it. You see,
men always want to be told what they can do. And that it's all
up to them. And the Lord Jesus told them
that it was up to him. They didn't like that. Men don't
like that today. Men like to think that they can
come to God anytime they get ready. All up to them. You know why? Everybody's got
a free will. We can just do whatever we want
to do. Well, the Lord said he'd have mercy on whom he would have
mercy and on whom he would he'd harden. And what can a man say
about that? Not a thing in the world. All
we do is fall down on our face and say, even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight. Oh, what a glorious thing that
he is a God of great mercy. A lot of people think God should
show mercy to everybody, but the truth is, well, there's no
reason God should show mercy to anybody. You know, mercy is
mercy. If a man's worthy of mercy, then
it ain't mercy. You know, mercy is that which
is given to unworthy wretches who deserve to be destroyed.
But God, who's rich in mercy, has demonstrated his mercy and
love in the giving of his son, Jesus Christ, as a savior of
sinners. And that's what he's speaking
about here. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit
of error. So if any man comes speaking, whether it be me or
anybody else comes speaking to you about something other than
that which Jesus Christ has done and accomplished on Calvary's
cross, don't believe him. Turn from him because it's not
the truth. Beloved, let us love one another. Now he speaks, John speaks a
lot about love. And of course, we live in an
age, you know, everybody talks about love all the time. A lot
of people say, you know what, I love everybody. You ever heard
people say that? You probably said it yourself.
If you hadn't, you thought about it. I love everybody. Well, you know, the person that
loves everybody really doesn't love anybody. Because love's
particular. God's love's particular. He loves
his people. He loves them with an everlasting
love and he will never forsake them. He'll never turn away from
them. And the love which he is speaking
about here is the love of God. It's the love that comes from
God. It's not just some little thing that men think. See, men
love men that love them. I mean, it's easy to love those
that love us, isn't it? But you see, that love which
is of God has no consideration of what people do, how they treat
us, or anything else. It comes from God. And a man
can't have that kind of love. You can't have it. You know,
no way you can love your enemies. I can tell you you should love
your enemies. You can read it in the Bible. It says love your
enemies. You can't do that. Man can't love his enemies because
those are his enemies. He just, when he thinks about
them, he gets, it tenses up, you know. That's just within
us. But that love which is of God
is that which transcends that. and it is that which the Lord
is pleased to bring to pass in his people. I can't explain it. Beloved, let us love one another
for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. Now does that mean that everybody
that says they love somebody or that they love the brethren,
that means they do? No. But it means that If a man
actually loves somebody, then that had to come from God, because
it's not a natural function of men to do that. Now, a mother
naturally loves her child. This is not that kind of love.
A father naturally loves his children. I mean, you know, unless
he's somehow corrupted in his mind or whatever, he can't help
that. A mother can't help but love
her child. That's just the way that it is, unless, again, you
know, as the scripture tells us, even mothers sometimes cast
off their young. But that's not natural. You know,
that's not normal. because it is that which the
Lord has given in a natural sense. But it says here, everyone that
loveth is born of God and knoweth God, if we actually do love the
brethren. Had to be. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. Man that lives with hate in his
heart, no way that he can say that he loves God. Even as he
goes on to say over here, he said, he that in the next to
the last verse, if a man say I love God and hateth his brother,
he's a liar. Pretty straightforward, isn't
it? If a man hates his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen. In other words, if you
don't love Your brethren, and he's talking about brethren in
the Lord, he said, if you don't love the brethren whom the Lord
has made you one with in Christ, if you don't love them and you've
seen them, how on earth could it be possible that you would
love God whom you have not seen? Impossible. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. That's a glorious statement.
God is love. But that is a statement that
has been totally perverted in our day and time. And the love of God has been
turned into just this, like this big sympathy type thing, and
that God, he can't do any different. He just got to love everybody,
because that's what he is. He just can't help it. Well listen,
the Lord loves on purpose. He sets his love on his people,
and he does it on purpose. And he said, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. God is love. And his love transcends
our understanding. It's beyond our comprehension.
Because it is a love that never fades. It's never fickle. It doesn't change from one day
to the next. God is love. In this, now here
is how His love is manifest, how it's made plain to us. In 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. Here's how the
Lord manifested His love. He sent His only begotten Son
into the world. Now what does it mean, His only
begotten Son? Now we, the scripture says that
we are begotten of God, but when the scripture speaks about Jesus
Christ as the only begotten Son of God, that's speaking of a
relationship which is not the same as the relationship between
men and God. Because we may be begotten of
God, but yet He is the only begotten Son of God. It does not mean
that He was created. It just means that He is the
representation of God. He is that one who has come into
the world to manifest The father, you can't know God apart from
knowing Jesus Christ. There's no other method, manner,
means, or person by whom you can ever know who God is other
than in Jesus Christ. Men cannot know God apart from
him. Doesn't make any difference what
they might profess or what they might think is true. 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. Now a lot of
people think that they're just gonna live because they got,
and I don't want to make this a big point of contention, But
it is a true thing. A lot of people think that everybody
has an immortal soul. You've heard that. You might
believe that. And that's okay if you do. I
mean, there's a lot of people that do believe that. I don't
find anything in the scripture that indicates that to be true. Life is in Christ. He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Now that's pretty plain. Men
don't live forever because they're just made to live forever. Men
live forever because God is pleased in Jesus Christ to give them
eternal life. Whosoever believeth. in him shall
not perish but have eternal life because he gave it to them they
didn't get it because of something they did but they believed because
the Lord gave them life now that's a glorious thing dear brother
see a dead man can't do anything you can go out there to the graveyard
this afternoon and you can take You can take a cook up the best
steak that you've ever cooked. Baked potato, I mean you can
get the whole thing. You can bring it out there and
you can carry it around to those graves in that graveyard and
there won't be one person that will take a bite of that thing.
Why not? Because it did. And a man will
not taste of the gospel and the glory of it in Jesus Christ apart
from being given life to do so. Can't do it. Why? Because he's
dead in trespasses and sin. He doesn't care. Doesn't mean
anything to him. I mean, he hears it, you know.
And he might from time to time be concerned about his His soul,
as it's said. You know, it might be that a
man is from time to time, but a man can't believe the gospel
and embrace it and love the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ
apart from the gift of life. That we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God. Now a lot of people think that
God loves us because we love Him. God blesses us because we
love Him. No, dear brethren, the blessing
of God is that we love Him. A man's gotta be blessed of God
to love Him. Because otherwise, he's just
gonna love himself. He's gonna love his own way.
He's gonna continue on his rebellion against God. Now, he'll, from
time to time, he'll get, you know, in a bind, and he'll call
on God to help him. Oh, Lord, help me. But even when he's calling on
the Lord to help him, he doesn't love God. He loves himself. And he wants to get out of the
bind that he's in. Oh, for a heart to love the Lord,
only He can give it. And if He gives it, no man can
take it away. Can't be destroyed, because it's
eternal. And it's given by the one who
is eternal, and the one who gives eternal life. Here ends love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us. We didn't do anything. Not a thing in the world did
we ever do to cause God to love us. He said, I saw you when you
were in your blood, when you were cast out to the loathing
of your flesh, and you were as an infant whose mother had abandoned
it in a field somewhere, and you were dying and dead in your
trespasses and sins. And he said, behold, it was the
time of love. And he said, I spread my skirt
over thee. And I said to thee, live. Oh, what a glorious picture of
the mercy of God in saving a sinner who can't save himself. But he saves those who can't
save themselves. You know, when I was growing
up, from time to time, they'd say, well, you know the Lord
helps those that help Himself. That sounds pretty good to a
man that don't know himself to be helpless. But you know, when
a man comes to the place where he realizes he can't do one thing
in the world to help himself, that's no comfort at all, dear
brethren. God doesn't help those that help Himself, He helps those
that can't help Himself. He helps sinners. He comes to
those who are in need. He heals the blind, the sick,
the lame, because they can't come to Him themselves. You see,
the man that his brethren led him down on that pallet through
the roof to the Lord, he couldn't bring himself there. The Spirit of God has to bring
a man to the Lord. Thanks be unto God that he does
that. He loved us and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sin. That's a big word. Do you
ever use that word? I bet you you've never wrote
that word down anywhere. Because that's just not a word
to use. In fact, it's not even in the Bible but two times. Propitiation, what does it mean?
It means an expiation. It means a putting away. It means
a covering of it. The same word that is translated
propitiation is also translated in the scripture as reconcile.
Now, this is one of the glorious things about this word. Now, a propitiation and an atonement
are very closely related. In fact, you could say they're
synonyms of one another, but they're not exactly synonyms
of one another. Because in the Old Testament,
an atonement was basically and primarily a payment for sin according
to the law. And they would take a bull or
a goat or whatever they were gonna offer, and they would offer
this sacrifice before the Lord and burn it before the Lord as
a sacrifice or an atonement for their sin. Now, we know that
the blood of bulls and goats actually never took away anybody's
sin. It didn't take their sin away.
But insofar as the law was concerned, It was, at least in their religion,
as they practiced it, it was a taking away of sin, but it
was temporary. Because every year, they had
to do the same thing over again. So it never took away any sin,
and even in their mind, they knew it didn't take away sin,
because they knew next year, they was gonna have to come back
and do the exact same thing. And so when we think about atonement
as it's spoken of in the Old Testament, it relates primarily
to just the taking away of sin as far as the law is concerned.
Now Christ did indeed come into the world to do that very thing
for us that he might be just and the justifier of them which
believe in Jesus. He did come to do that, most
assuredly to satisfy the claims of the law. But there's more
to what he did than simply satisfying the claims of the law, because
that wasn't the only thing that we needed. He came, as we read
in Hebrews, not simply to satisfy the law, but to satisfy the conscience. The law couldn't do anything
for your conscience because you just had to go back and make
the sacrifice again next year. But you see, Christ has come,
and he has applied that atoning work that he did to the conscience
of man, and he is the propitiation. He's the reconciling of man to
God. Be ye reconciled unto God. Is
there anything you can do to reconcile yourself to God? Not
a thing in the world. He's the reconciler. But you
know what reconciliation is, is when two parties come together
and see the same thing. See, now over in the Mideast,
the problem they've got is they cannot come together. You know,
one of them, each one sees what the problem is, but they can't
come together on it. What Jesus Christ has done is
that he has taken away the penalty of the law. There's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. There's
none, why? Because Christ has died and there
is redemption. But that's not all that he did.
Because you see, he came to declare to men that he has taken away their
sin. And the reconciling work, it's
the work of God as well, but it's operational in the heart
and mind of the people of God. Because when we read about the
fact that Jesus Christ died for our sin, what's glorious is when
the Spirit of God applies that to our heart. And he gives us
a heart and mind to believe it. And we say, oh, praise God. He's died for our sin. He didn't
just die for sin. See, that's the whole error of
the modern day concept of what Jesus Christ did. Oh, well, he
just came into the world and died for everybody's sin. Well,
that didn't do what good's that? Just died for everybody's sin.
Well, if that be true, then everybody's sins paid for and there's, you
know, what's the big deal? But that's not what the scripture
says. See, there are some who are, who will continue in their
path of destruction and their sins are not paid for. Because when Jesus Christ came
into the world, he came into the world to save his people
from their sins. And he has done exactly what
he came to do. And the salvation of God's people
is not just the fact that he died for them, but the fact that
he sent his spirit into the world to call them out. And to bring them to the place
where they believe it. And they say, oh, praise God
from whom all blessings flow. We've been redeemed. We sang
about it a moment ago. I will sing of my redeemer and
his precious love to me. He died on the cross to save
his people from their sin. And not a one of those for whom
he died on Calvary's cross shall ever perish. And I believe it's
not a one of them that he will not bring to himself in his own
time through his own method. He will bring them to a place
of repentance, and he'll bring them to a place of calling out
upon his name, and they will confess that Jesus Christ is
the Lord of glory, the King, the Savior, the one in whom I
trust. Oh, what a glorious thing. He
is the propitiation for our sin. He didn't just die for our sin
and then go back to heaven. But he sent the Spirit of God
to teach us that. To burn it in our heart and mind
that we might believe it. For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. Oh, what a glorious thing. He says to sinners, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. And he will. Every sinner that
calls on his name, he'll hear them. Everyone that the Spirit of God
is working to show them what they are by nature and who he
is, He'll lose none. Oh, what a glorious Savior He
is. May the Lord help us, give us a mind and heart to believe
the gospel. You know, it would be my prayer,
it would be my desire that every person in this room would be
given faith to believe those things. There's not a thing in the world
I can do to give that to you but the spirit of the living
God. That one sent down from heaven. He can teach you that you're
a sinner and he can draw you a cord of love that can't be
broken. He'll save sinners.