1 John chapter 4. 1 John 4. We're coming to the end of this
first letter and then we will move right along to the second
and third letters because they are addendums to this. 1 John is a letter to the church,
a letter to the elders of a church, to teach the church how they
ought to live in unity in the context of the love of God and
the gospel. And then 2 John and 3 John are
quick little notes that John wrote as he praised God for those
who took heed of his letter and lived accordingly. I want to entitle this message
many different things. I'd like to entitle where two
or more are gathered, there is love. I'd like to say, well,
maybe God is at home when we love one another, because that
is a truth that comes from this text. Last week I talked about
how we are to relate to God and how God relates to us. And so
this week I think a better fitting position would be how are then
we to relate to one another? How are we to relate to the brothers
and sisters in the faith. Now, there's often an elephant
in the room when we talk about love, isn't there? Do I have
to? Do I really have to love that
person? What does love really look like? The semantic range
of words is vast. Vernacular ebbs and flows like
the weather, like the economy, like politics, and like viruses.
There's never going to be a time where there is a consistency
in life on anything. There's never going to be a time
where we can say without a shadow of a doubt that everything is
the same. And this means that and that
means this. Yet we are called to be that strong. We are called
to have that type of structure. We are called to stand on that
type of foundation as Christians, as true believers, as those who
are born of God. We must always resolve to be
unshakable. As a matter of fact, the word
of God would say that the man who is tossed to and fro is like
a child. He's childish in his ways, he's infantile in his thinking,
and ultimately futile and useless. It would also warn us of being
dragged along by other sorts of philosophies and worldviews,
being stressed out or frustrated by things that have nothing to
do with the gospel. And so by just that little example
there, all of us have been indicted this morning. Congratulations,
we're guilty. But the good news is that God is not empowering
us to live perfectly and to take away from us all of the temptation
of the world. God himself cannot tempt us,
but God has decreed that the tempter would tempt us, and he
only tempts us that which is part of what we desire. Even
as Christians, when we are tempted, it's because that's what our
flesh wants. And then our mind says, no, I don't want this.
And our body says, yes, I do want this. And we are in that
constant dichotomy over and over again. And I sadly believe, I don't
sadly believe, I know, sadly, I am confident of this and would
put my name and reputation, not that it means anything, on it,
that almost every believer that I've ever encountered, including
myself, is at the infant stage in the context of understanding
how to read and live the word of God. Maybe some of us are
toddling around, but none of us can tie our own shoes. We're
just toddling around. We're toddling around and there
are many experts who can't even walk and many more greater experts
who can't even stand. And yet what we try to do is
rest upon their shoulders but they're not going anywhere either.
And I think it's time that we all grow up just a little bit.
And that's what John's writing about. That's why this letter
was written, so that we could all grow up just a little bit
and quit trying to be and do that which God hasn't explicitly
taught us to be and do. God has given instruction. And I know that it's exciting
to be in the midst of war, isn't it? I remember my father, you
know, he's retiring this year, 44 years of law enforcement.
He's worked the Bureau, he's worked drug enforcement, he's
been investigator, he's been sheriff, he's done it all. Gotten
recognition for the FBI, the Department of Justice, internationally,
nationally, all over the place, and a little old country sheriff
here in the middle of nowhere. And I remember growing up and
thinking that was the coolest job in the world. Even so much
that when I was in college, I worked intelligence some for some of
the local peace departments and did training with them when we
do those little paintball training and stuff. It was awesome. It
was so fun. Nothing like pretending to be
something you're not. And the first time I was ever
shot at, I made my mind up right then. I'm not going into law
enforcement. There's something surreal about that. Something
surreal about that. But the times when it was exciting,
you almost change your mind. I mean, look at it. We get excited
over the battles. Oh, what did you do today? Nothing.
What did you do last weekend? Nothing. That's not true. You
didn't stand there and stare at the ceiling. But if you did,
that wasn't nothing. Let me tell you, man, I examined my ceiling
for about seven hours. It looked pretty good. There's
a water stain. I saw a fly. No, but when things are exciting,
when there's a scream across the street, when the call comes
in, help, get some help out here. When the crazy people show up,
there's always a story. And it's like a fishtail, it
gets bigger and better and our hearts are pumping and we're
excited about it. We can't wait to get there. There's a domestic
dispute downtown. Four alarm fire, police trucks,
fire trucks are coming. Nothing's burning, but they're
coming anyway because they got nothing to do. And I mean everybody's excited
about it and they live on that story on that high for weeks
and weeks and weeks until the next one comes. I've got stories
of my own. I won't bore you with them. Well,
they're not really boring, but I won't waste your time with
them this morning. I've got stories of when I've dispatched and been
around and been in the car at the wrong time when the calls
come in, riding with Georgia State Patrol and being in the
car when the guy gets pulled over and having to take possession
of the vehicle so that we didn't impound it. I'm like, I'm not
an officer of the law, what am I doing? But hey, felt like a
cowboy. Get him boy, get him. It's exciting. That is not the Christian way
to live. Nowhere in the New Testament,
anywhere in the New Testament, you find me one example, I will
resign my thoughts. Are we in a war with our own
intellect, with our own strength, with our own minds, and with
our own power? And the Spirit of God testifies
to this. The Spirit of God testifies this
to such a degree that when these things take precedent in our
lives, excommunication is the product because it divides the
very fiber of Christ. What is the fiber of Christ?
You are. The fiber of Christ, His essence
and body, His glory revealed is His people. And it rips at
it. That's what's happening. This
is 1 John from a different angle. It's the same message I've been
teaching for 22 weeks on this sermon, on this topic. John has
revisionists who have come in and revised the gospel. Revised
the gospel how? They've revised the gospel in
many ways. They always revise. They've revised the nature of
Christ. We see it today, don't we? Well, I'm a Christian, are
you really? And they say, well, Christ is,
and they're wrong. Well, Christ does. I like how
everybody can have an example or an answer of what Christ does
and what God does. Well, God does this, and God
helps those who help themselves, and so on and so forth. It's
not scriptural in its context from A to Z, from start to finish
in the whole thing. It's not a truth of the Bible.
There's not a truth of the Bible that contradicts another truth
of the Bible. And in the loving of God for his people and the
loving of the people for each other, it is the quintessential
reality of gospel life. Otherwise, there is no reason
for us to live. People revised the nature of
Christ. People revised the work of Christ. Well, Jesus died for
every person that ever lived. That's a lie. It's wrong. But that is the common knowledge
of our day. God put Christ on the cross to be propitiation
for our sins. All nations, all tongues, all
tribes, not just Israelites. but the elect of all time, to
satisfy his judgment for all time. When people revise that,
they are in error. People revise the purpose of
Christ. Well, why did Jesus come? I've recently been told, well,
Jesus came to teach us how to live. And my response to that,
well, how are you doing? Well, I'm not doing too well.
Then you haven't learned anything. Because if He's to teach us how to live,
which I'm not saying that's a wrong answer, He definitely came to
set the example, didn't He? The example to be followed, we
love as Jesus loved. That's what we're being instructed
to do here. But the issue is that people revise the work of
Christ and the purpose of Christ, and in doing so they revise the
glory of God. They revise it. What is it that God is trying
to show? Remember what glory means. To see the glory of God
is to see Him as He is. To see the fullness of His essence,
the fullness of His being, the fullness of His purpose. That
which He shows us is to see His glory. Is to be in awe. To understand Him and to know
Him and to envision, not with the imagination, but with clarity,
who He is. The glory of Christ is always
being revised. The name of Christ is always
being revised. I mean, we use, as a culture,
the name of Christ as an explicative. I hear the name Jesus spoken
every day all over the place. Somebody spills coffee, they
call out to Jesus. Somebody stumps their toe, they
call out to Jesus. Somebody pulls somebody else in front of traffic,
they call out Jesus and they give him his title, Christ. And
they don't even know, why are they doing that? It's just, it's
habitual. That's a revision. That's a revision
about the name of Christ. Who is Christ? The name of Christ
has been revised. We utilize it like we would,
ouch, or uh-oh, or oh my goodness. Even that has roots in divine. Believe it or not. Golly, you
didn't know Gomer Powell was being blasphemous. Well, golly, I mean, you know,
that guy. People revised. the people of Christ. Who is
the church? What is the church? What should
the church be doing? What should the church know?
What should the church think? What should the church say? What
should the church be involved in? Look at our culture today.
Well, what does the Bible teach us? We are to gather together,
we are to be intimate with each other's lives, and we ought to
care as much on Monday morning about what's happening in our
lives as we do on Sunday morning. There's 1 John. This is not new. I've said all this stuff back
in 22 different weeks, so just sometimes it's good to refresh
our minds. The revisionists always revise,
and they also revise the love of Christ. The love of Christ. And sometimes they revise the
love of Christ by trying to change the teaching, the doctrine of
scripture, and other times they revise the love of Christ by
the way they act. the way they speak, the concern,
or even better, the arrogant tenacity of their souls when
they think they're right, or they think someone else is wrong.
It's not always about thinking that, or somebody offends them,
or they're just offended. Somebody sins against us. I mean,
isn't that what we do? We all want the love of God on
our behalf, and we all say love, love, love, love, love, until
somebody who we're supposed to love didn't love us. That's where we left off last
week. Let's read the Word of God. Verse 8, chapter 4. Anyone who does not
love God does not know God because God is love. Now let me stop
there. I'm going to restate this. Just because you are born again
does not mean that you know in the sense of how John is talking
in this letter that you know God. Let's be honest. We learn about
God more and more how by the Spirit of God, but the Spirit
of God does not teach us indirectly through osmosis when we lay down
at night and wake up with knowledge. He teaches us directly through
a natural means, supernaturally. And what is that means? Through
the scripture And I'm gonna put it at the end, alone. See? That sounds like a city
somewhere, but alone. Through the scripture, alone.
God teaches us through the scripture, alone. So here I am, teaching
this morning. I'm standing in front of all
of you, and you're sitting here listening. This is, you know,
lecture, listener, lecture, listener. But I'm not having anything to
say that's of any importance if it is not derived directly
from scripture. And I'll be honest with you,
I think when we actually read the scripture, it does far more
for us than what I have to say about it. I would even suggest,
and I've been thinking about this, that it would do us much
more good to hear 20 minutes of scripture being read together
on the Lord's Day, rather than hearing me talk for 50 to 60. Just my thoughts. God will only
teach you through His Word. Now some of us say, well, wait
a minute, I've been learning and you've taught me a lot. I
have taught a lot. And you may understand it, agree
with it, and remember it. You may even put it into practice,
but that's not what the Bible means when it says they shall
be taught of God. That's not what the Scripture
shows when it says that the Word of God will manifest itself to
us, that we would have knowledge of God. There is an essence in
which the spiritual nature of learning is conjoined with peace,
is conjoined with a steady faith, is conjoined with contentment,
is conjoined with an understanding, and is conjoined with a living
out of the faith. And beloved, we're all toddlers. Some of us are more mature toddlers.
Some of us are growing and one day we will be mature to the
stature and the measure of Christ, Ephesians. Paul teaches us that. And so until the Spirit of God
arrests us in the context of our learning and reveals to us
divinely the reality of what the Word of God is teaching explicitly,
that we rest in it, we haven't learned God, we've just learned
about Him. Now I don't want to get too graphic,
but it's the context of the idea of knowledge in the beginning.
Period. The idea of knowledge for knowledge
points always to the marriage bed. And so I may know my fiance,
her name, her face, how her hands feel, her voice, but until she's
my wife, I don't know her any differently. You see the difference. And that is the gospel picture
in the union of husband and wife. The picture of God teaching his
people the intimacy of Christ and his free and sovereign grace.
So that as the word of God is taught and the subject is loving
one another, we need to understand that we must grow in our intimacy
with God. We must be personally invested
in our intimacy with God and it cannot be gleaned through
an academic adventure. It must be gleaned through an
intimate adventure where the body of Christ, the fiber of
Christ himself, lives together in a mutual love that is painful
and pleasant. has ups and downs. And then and
only then has God promised, only then has God promised that we
have a satisfying content knowledge of His gospel. And we grow in
that knowledge. Anyone who thinks they know the
gospel has not learned the gospel. And I hate to say stuff like
that because people go, yeah, but I know the gospel, let me write
it down for you. That's not what we're talking about. John's not
talking about salvation and the knowledge of God's finished work.
He's talking about knowing God intimately. And that if we're
going to love Him, we must love each other. And then we embark
on this idea, well, how in the world am I supposed to do this? Because God is love. That's why. That's why. Because God is love.
Verse 8. Because God is love. So to know
God is to know love. And to love is to know God. In
this, the love of God was made manifest among us. What? In what? So that we might live through
Him. That's why. But what is it? That
God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through
Him. So this is review. We've already
seen that the love of God is revealed in the giving of the
Son for His people. The love of God for the elect
before the foundations of the world. You understand that's
why God created the world and every human being in it, that
He may save His people, His special elect people out of the world. And it was made manifest, the
love of God. God sent His Son that we might
live through Him. In this is love. This is where we left off
last Sunday. Not that we have loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the satisfaction of
the judgment of our sins. Friends, this is the only gospel
that saves. God satisfies His wrath for the
elect in the giving of His Son. You have eternal life because
Christ died in your place by the will of the Father, by the
decree of God. And there's nothing you can do
to stop it. Nothing, nothing you can do to
lose it, nothing you can do to effectuate it, nothing you can
do to apply it, nothing you can do. God has done it all. He even gifts you faith in the
hearing and the occasion of his choosing. God has loved us first. So then,
beloved, verse 11, if God loved us in this way, that's what that
means, we ought to also love one another in this way. And verse 12, no one has ever
seen God. If we love one another, God is
at home in us and his love is perfected in
us. We are satisfied, God is satisfied,
and our love, His love is perfected in us. Whose love is it? It's
God's love for us. And that is the power, the motivator,
and the purpose of our love for one another. Now, what does all
that look like? What's our motivation? What does
it mean to be perfected? Well, ultimately this, that the
final outcome of saving faith is the glory of God. Agree or
disagree? Everything that God does is for
his own namesake. As we talked about last week,
that God loves himself. So that in his justice and his
mercy, he is fulfilling that which is absolutely proper in
the context of his holiness and his righteousness. Because he
is worthy of all love. And so what God does in the life,
in this world, for His elect people, in salvation, God does
for the sake of His name. We see that in the prophets,
in part. We see the temporary expression
of this gospel message in part. God is going to act to redeem
the remnant of Israel, not because of their worthiness and their
obedience and their righteousness, but because of His name. He made
a promise to satisfy His own justice by Himself so that He
would let a people go. Oh, I should have went there two weeks
ago with Pharaoh and Moses. Pharaoh couldn't let God's people
go, only God could let them go. There's some truth in that. So the final outcome of faith
in Jesus Christ is to glorify the Lord and the way that that
is done and manifested, God at home with us, we at home with
Him, is to produce a similar love for God through our love
for the body of Christ. How does that look? Well, there's
some C's that come off the top of my head. We can have concern
for people. We can give care for people.
We can have a covenant relationship with people. That's what it's
all about. Do you know our promise to be
part of a local assembly is just as strong of a promise to be
a spouse? I'm gonna let that sink in for
a minute. Because the spousal relationship
will die. This relationship will not. So there's a covenant love that
God has for us and in turn we should have a covenant love with
each other. To the saints, to the saints, to the saints, to
the saints. We write these things that our
joy may be complete. The problem with the American
church is no gospel. The problem with the true church
of America is no love. None whatsoever. And we're looking
for joy independently of God's promises. We're looking for fulfillment
and contentment independently of God's promises. we're looking
for a ride that puts us in a myopic sphere of almost like cookie
cutter-ness. It's not going to happen. In
John's Revelation he says, I heard the voice of great multitudes
and then I looked and I saw thousands upon thousands and myriads upon
myriads. from every nation and tongue
and tribe. You know what that shows us?
That there is a dynamic uniqueness in the individuality of the pieces
of the body. It's like our fingerprints and
our eyelashes and our skin and everything else. Everybody here's
got fingerprints, eyelashes, and skin. But this side of my
face could be dry and this side of my face could be oily. I mean
there is not even a continuity in our own bodies. There is a
diverse reality in our own makeup. And the body of Christ is no
different. But there is a unity and that is the free and sovereign
grace of God in Jesus Christ whereby and through which He
saved His people. And then we cry out as one. All glory and honor and wealth
and power belongs to the Lamb. Glory and honor belongs to the Lord. I heard,
I saw uncountable innumerable peoples from all walks and tribes
from every tongue but they sang one song and the song is praise
to the glorious grace of God. So if you haven't seen how Ephesians
1 and 2 sits on top of John's revelation, you just saw a little
piece of it. That's the point of the letter. To encourage the
saints in the tribulation of John's day to rejoice because
there is a time when the unity of the saints will be perfected
and there will not be marriage. And that's a commandment to love
that way. In the gospel we see this love.
In the marriage we see this love, in the family we see this love.
And I'll be honest with you, I've been doing ministry for
a long, long time, longer than the 22 years I've been in the
pastorate. Even since I was in high school doing ministry, you
know what we call that. When I see the New Testament
writing to the saints' collective, not to the individual saint,
but to the saints' collective, there is a sense in which we
need to understand that the Bible doesn't make sense when we're
not together. It doesn't make sense because
there's nothing to do. And I'll be honest with you,
too. Another thing is that the do's of the instructions of the
apostles far outnumber the don'ts. What do I mean by that? Do this,
do that, be this, have this, work this way, serve this way,
do that. Oh, and the tiny little list of don't do that. Why? Because
it gets in the way of what I'm telling you to do. Everything
in the New Testament instructed to the church to not do is because
it gets in the way of what we should be doing. And what is
that, love? How does my personal sin get
in the way of my love? You think I'm gonna pray for
you when I'm sinning against God in private? You think I'm
gonna have a heart to care about what's going on in your life
when I'm sitting in the house thinking, why did I say that?
Why did I do that? Why did I look at that? Why did
I think that? Why did I act that way? No, I'm
thinking about me. It's all about me at that time.
And the accuser comes in and whispers real sweet nothings.
You're such a loser. You're a horrible Christian.
You've got nothing going for you. I can't believe that you
even call yourself saved. You're probably lost. There's
probably not even a God. And then the only thing that
arrests that is the gospel. It's to remember the promises
of God. And God is purposed for that encouragement to come from
one another. that we might grow in our knowledge
of God that when we are not together we're strong enough for that
short season that we can encourage one another in that sense. Because
ultimately the joy of the Lord is the result of His love being
perfected in us. Because isn't that what we want?
We want our problems to go away. Well that's not the joy of the
Lord. The joy of the Lord is knowing
The righteousness of God, thus knowing the love of God, for
God's righteousness required the death of Jesus. So His light
required Him to kill His Son so that He could love us. And that is His love for us. And when we know who we are,
and we know what we are, and we know how far away we are,
It's because the Spirit of God has shown us those things, and
the gospel is the remedy for that stinking thinking. The gospel
intimacy, the love of one another. Because if I'm busy, like when
Paul teaches to the Thessalonians, he says, you don't need to be
busy bodies. I said this a couple of weeks
ago on social media, I think. but be busy about the work with
your hands, tending to the needs of your own home and the homes
of others so that you're not occupied with margin to the point
where you start looking out for everybody else's business. That's it. How can I serve you
today? How can I pray for you today?
What can I do? What do you need? What questions
do you have? How can we study the word of
God together? How can we pray? There's nothing in your life
that should not be brought to the attention of your brothers
and sisters. I'm not saying all of them, but somebody. Somebody
needs to know your burdens. Otherwise, we say, Lord, help
me here, and there's a hundred other people in your life who
He is prepared to help you, and they're just not there. That's God's means. We must have
a concern for one another. and the perfection of God's love
is joy. That your joy may be complete.
And so when we learn the love of God, then we learn to love
as God has loved, then we learn that it is by the grace and the
mercy of God anyway that we can even manifest this idea in our
heads. and that we rest in the sufficiency. That's why chapter
one, I mean chapter five, John goes back to the gospel as the
solid foundation of our hope and assurance. But we know, we
all know, when we're not serving and when we're not loving, We
have great opportunity not just to be busybodies about other
people, but just like I mentioned before, guilt-ridden busybodies
in our own heart. We start tearing ourselves apart.
It is not the will of the Lord that we do that, no matter what
the Puritan-esque people of today try to say. We should not occupy
our time trying to stop all of the things that are wrong with
our hearts and minds. We should occupy our time when
we recognize those things with the remedy, which is to put our
mind on that which is eternal, not on that which is temporal,
which is our flesh. And we should put our hearts
and minds and attitudes and treasures and talents on the relationships
that are eternal, not the relationships that are temporal, except where
they are necessary. You see what I'm saying? I'm
not saying you throw one away for the other, but we must focus
on these things. And I know this type of teaching. Not everybody likes it, but the
sheep want to hear it. We like the war, don't we? We
like the call. We like the 911. We like the
police run. We like the blue lights and the
sirens. We don't like the sitting on the side of the road with
the hood up and the hot water boiling out. And honestly, brother
and sister, that's where most of us are and that's where most
of us are going to be for the rest of our lives. We're sitting
on the side of the road and the cars run hot and the brakes are
bad. And when we do go driving, we're going to have to drive
real slow because we can't stop very quickly. And that's all God's ever going
to permit for us to do. I promise you, you don't want
the long, dragged out, boring life of the Apostle Paul. Yeah, he got whipped and chased.
And then for 15 years he sat in prison. I mean, you know? What's exciting about that? Scratch
day one, scratch day two, scratch day three. It seems exciting
because it fits on two pages and it's always about Goliath.
We want the Goliaths. Goliath's been defeated. When
we go to war, Outside of loving each other because is that not
war enough? Is that not hard enough? We're really playing
darts Instead of fighting something that needs to be fought So the
love of God Produces the outcome of the Saints of God as we live
together as a covenant body that is eternal in its relationship
not just to one another but to the Christ himself and he to
us and that God is at home in us when we are living a loving
life for the sake of our brothers and sisters. And beloved, that
is something else to behold. And it is hard and it is not
easy because every one of us have our own problems and our
own burdens and our own cry and tears in the corner. And we are
hard pressed to even consider how we're gonna stand up and
go wipe tears from somebody else's eyes. But the chances are if
we're all together in this little roadside assistance plan, We
probably won't all be in the corner weeping at the exact same
time. So there'll be some snot rag holders and some snotty people. And then hopefully they'll seesaw
back and forth until one day we behold our Savior face to
face and we're finished. And then we'll all be able to
break dance, even if we can't. Even if we can't. The love of
God is perfected in us when we love one another. It draws us
to the joy of the Lord. I mean, think about it. What's
been worrying you so much this week? Something in your body? Something in your family? Something
in your pocketbook? Something with your neighbor? Something
with a relationship? Let me see. I mean, you know, it doesn't
take a psychic. Something with your job. Something
with the economy. Something with your politics.
Something with a virus, maybe. Anybody thinking about a virus?
I mean, you know, we don't have to be mind readers tonight, because
we're all dealing with it. The question is, what are we
doing with it? Are we rejoicing to know that a pandemic is a
gift of God? Are we rejoicing to know that
when our body gets older, it's actually grace? I mean, I loathe the fact that
I'm not quite 50 and my joints are destroyed, my eyes are getting
bad. New little plan I'm trying here with no glasses. But praise God that I'm here.
Praise God that I have intimacy with you. Praise God that I'm
able to see and read his word and hear it. Even if I couldn't,
there would be a fulfilling purpose in my love for the saints and
your love for me, even if I could not read or speak. to the glory of Christ. And in
that I find great joy. And in that joy I find great
contentment. But oh, beloved, when I sit on
my proverbial rear end and worry myself into a hole and contemplate
on how I can be the victor, I do nothing but spin the hole deeper. In this text, It says in verse 13, by this
we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given
us his spirit. And we have seen and testified
that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus
is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to
believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever
abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with
us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because
as he is so also are we in this world. I'm gonna stop there,
and that's a lot, but John's just repeating himself over and
over again. He's just repeating himself to the point where we
need to understand that our love is proven, excuse me, God's love
is proven through the giving of Jesus Christ. So then our
intimacy with God is proven through what? Our intimacy with each
other. Now some people hear what I'm
not saying there. Are you saying you gotta have that? No, you
ought to. You don't have to have anything,
but I promise you this, your joy is not going to be full.
You and Jesus and an orange juice is not going to get it. I couldn't think of anything
else that had the just sound to it. I should have said James, Jesus, and juice.
Anyway, it's not going to get it. It's not going to add up
in your soul. It's not going to be content. Our love For God is our love
for one another and it rests in the gospel. And what does
it produce? What does it create? What is this perfection that
God is connected with us? Remember a couple of months ago
when I said that the abiding, the at home with should be looked
at this way is that Jesus has connected himself to us. Jesus
has accepted us into his heart. On the cross the Father gave
him all the elect, all of their guilt, Their guilt, their judicial guilt,
their death sentence was put on Jesus. And we see that imagery
through the list of debts and things like that. We see Paul
using that in an imaginative form. The guilt of the elect
were put on the body of Jesus and he paid for it once and for
all so that God, the Father, is just. Romans 3. And the justifier
of all who have faith in Christ. And so when we think about Christ
accepting us into himself, that's the point. And then Christ's
death is our death. It's funny how the imagery of
scripture, how Paul uses these argumentative allegories and
argumentative statements and argumentative illustrations and
people take them so wooden literally to a fault or either to a heresy. God does not give us the detail
of his personal journal of how he satisfies logically the justice
of his righteousness. He just tells us what he did
and that it satisfied him. And so we are to rest in that.
And we ought to come to a place where we remember and know and
learn more and more and more that we are connected to Him.
And so when we're living in a manner unworthy of Christ, He is partnering
with us. We are dragging Jesus along in
an unloving relationship. Now how loving is that to the
Lord? This is a picture. I'm going to go cuss out my neighbor?
Come on Jesus, I know you can't get away from me because I can't
get away from you. I'm going to drag you over here. And then
some people use the idea of your witness or what have you. That's
good too, but your motivator shouldn't even be that. Your
motivation should be the fact that God has loved you when you
didn't love Him. In the giving of Christ. That
God has saved you when there is nothing worthy to be saved. that God chose you when He should
have and could have been righteous in leaving us in our sins. But we are joined to Him and
He is joined to us. That's what the verses 15 and
16 are talking about. Whoever abides in love abides
in God, is at home with God. He is with them. We are with
Him. He is with us. He is attached to us. We are
attached to Him. Christ is not cutting off pieces of His body.
It will always be one. But the ultimate outcome of that
is joy. Look at joy in verses 17 and 18. Gotta get my eyes. By this is love
perfected with us. so that we may have confidence
for the Day of Judgment. Because as He is, so also are
we in this world." Now think about that for a second. Now,
this eschatological... John's good at this. He always
denotes some of this stuff. This future time, when there'll
be a Day of Judgment. What is joy? Well, sometimes
it's easier to know what joy is by thinking about what joy
isn't. Joy isn't fear. Joy isn't discouragement. Joy isn't aggravation. Joy isn't frustration. Joy is
not animosity. Joy is not suspicion. All these
things are not joy. All these things are not of God.
God does not put these in us. They are of our flesh and of
the world. And what does it boil down to?
Hopelessness, despair, guilt, oh my goodness, I know I'm saved
but I really don't want God to look at me right now. Have you
ever felt that way? Of course you have. That's why
so many people don't come to the assembly often throughout
their lives when they find themselves in sin or sinful attitude. The
best thing you can do, beloved, especially you who are married,
is when you get up Sunday morning and the devil taps you in your
forehead and spits in your oatmeal, in the name of you and your spouse
get into a big argument. You need to load up with a scowl
and yelling all the way to the assembly. That's what you need to do. You
need to scream and yell at each other. I'm telling you shouldn't
yell at each other. But if you've got a fight, fight on the way. Get
out of the car, come in here with a grumbled face and let
us show you the joy of the Lord. But it's the opposite, isn't
it? When you find yourself in sin,
you find yourself in doubt, you find yourself in fear, and the
last thing you want to do is come be with the saints because
there's some weird, somewhere in the code of humanity, you've
got to have your best attire and your best game and your best
attitude to come worship. Where's that at? Do you know
what our best attitude of worship is? Hogwash to God. It's garbage. So if we put on our best, it's
still trash. The only way we can worship is in spirit, being
made alive by God Himself through the gospel of grace so that we
come together expecting God as an audience to show us the joy
that He's given us in the gospel. And then we came in here mad
and we leave happy until we ask, what do you want for lunch? And
then it's all over again, isn't it? There's always going to be
something. So even in the day of judgment,
when we look at ourselves and we measure our souls, we are
found wanting. We are always found wanting. We will never be complete in
our flesh, but God's love is complete in us. It is finished.
That's what this idea of being perfected is all about. The love
of God is finished, so then in our love for one another, for
the sake of the gospel, our love is finished. Now I'm going to ask a question.
With everything you do, and this is a big question, and I want
you to mull it over in your mind, with everything you do, every
single day, every single week, for every single year that you've
been a believer, in the name of Christ, how does it benefit
your brothers and sisters in Christ? Literally, in their everyday
life, this very moment. Ask yourself that question. That is where our focus should
be. I've had to go through it the
last few months myself. I'm doing a lot of junk that benefits none
for the sake of Christ. It's Christ stuff. It's godly things. It's theological
discussions. But are they beneficial for the
body? Nope. Then forget them. You see? And if I have time,
yeah. We can walk across the street
and say, hey, the neighbor. We can wave as we drive by, but
we don't need to pull off the side of the road and camp there. It's about the glory of God and
our motivation. Because love is perfected and
we're in this world, we are going to fear if we're not loving,
if we're not doing that which God called us to do, we're going
to fear the judgment. Even though we have the gospel,
we're going to have this sort of like, know daddy says that
the water doesn't have sharks in it but I know the doctor said this is
not gonna hurt but you see that's how we approach the judgment
of God when we're supposed to like get out of my way I got
to get to the judgment seat move hey dad isn't that confidence
So God has promised that we can have that type of confidence
if we just do what he's asked us to do simply, but it's not
that easy. Maybe simple, but it's not easy.
By loving one another. Makes my job a lot easier. Because I used to think I was
a manipulator of behavior. I used to think that I had to
be a mentor to the crazy. Got to teach everybody how to
act. And I get home, I think, I can't even teach myself how
to act. So I became an actor. What's the great word for actor?
Hypocrite. It's a never-ending saga. There's no fear in love. Verse 18. But perfect love casts
out fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Four, fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been
perfected in love. Now, beloved, I'm gonna tell
you right now, every one of the sound of my voice, including
my own ears, fall into that category. We have not been perfected in
love because there are moments when I fear greatly. There are
moments when I fear what I'm going to do tomorrow. How I'm
going to, Lord, you know, I pray like an idiot. I really do. Lord,
help me do this. Help me help this person see
this. Help me teach that. Help me,
you see who the focus of that is? Me. Father, this is yours. Father, this is yours, this is
yours, and that is yours, and they are yours, and you do that
which you have purposed. You teach them, you help them,
you grow them, you whatever. And as you see fit, use me. See
what a simpler prayer that is? Look who gets up from praying
there with confidence versus a task list that he can't manage.
It's horrible. And it's so ridiculous because
that's how we're taught in this culture to do, whether it's ministry
or machining. We're taught to be the one that
makes the difference. Perfect love casts out fear,
for fear has to do with punishment. And in this context here, it
does deal with the fact that when we feel guilty in our sin,
we need to go back to the gospel. We need to go back to the love
of God for us. We need to continually be in the basics of the gospel
as we grow deeper in our understanding of the gospel. You don't leave
the elementary ideas of the gospel. That's probably a bad word because
Paul uses that in a different context in Hebrews, but you don't leave
the foundations of grace behind. You build upon them. You see? You can't 3D print in mid-air
down to the base. You have to print the base first.
You build a house not from the roof and let it float and put
the walls down. You have to build the base. You have to build the
foundation. The same thing is true in our understanding of the gospel,
in our understanding of the love, and in our practice of our love.
We will grow and our confidence will be secure. And then John
reminds us of verse 19, 20. I'm going to teach these next
three verses next week. But John 19 says, we love because
he first loved us. He reminds us of that. And then
he reminds us again what he's already taught. If anyone says
I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar for he does not.
He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love
God whom he has not seen. And this is the commandment that
we have from him. Whoever loves God must also love
his brother. And so next week, I want to close
out chapter four with a little bit of a peek over into 1 Corinthians
where it talks about what love looks like. What love looks like. So let's hear that in our heart
today as we get through. 1 Corinthians 13. And there's a context here about
people having spiritual gifts, service to the body of Christ,
All sorts of incredible things and even powerful manifestations
of the Spirit. And Paul says these things are
worthless if you don't have love. Because love is patient, verse
3, and kind. That right there just sort of
stops us in our tracks, doesn't it? Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It
does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing. It rejoices with the truth. Love
bears all things. Love believes all things. Love
hopes all things. Love endures all things. Love
never ends. As for prophecies, they pass.
As for tongues, they cease. As for knowledge, it too shall
pass. For we know in part, we prophesy in part, but when the
perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child,
I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like
a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For
now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I
know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully
known. So now faith, hope, and love
remain. And these three, but the greatest
of all these three is love. And that's what we're learning.
That's what the gospel is. That's what the life of the church
is supposed to be about. And it includes all of those
things. So beloved, I want to read a poem that a brother wrote.
And he posted up this morning. He asked questions. He says,
from whence does gospel knowledge come? From study, when salvation's
done, from years of learning, battles won. from some great
teacher or his son? From whence? What source? And
what's the sum? Gospel knowledge is revealed
to those in him, his spirit sealed. God's good gifts are unconcealed. By him, by power, blind men healed. Dead men raised, see, forced
to yield. The sum of what God gives is
this. knowledge of His righteousness. By this I my sin do see, from
self-righteousness I flee. With God's justice I agree, Christ's
life and death on cursed tree, imputation clothing me, hearing
all, forgiven, free. Let's not let our lives speak
lies about who we are in Christ. but put our mind on the everlasting
hope of Jesus Christ who died to save us, his people, from
our sins. Beloved, you are the audience
of this sermon, but ultimately God is watching. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the truth
of scripture. I thank you for my brothers and sisters in Jesus
Christ. Lord, I thank you for every family
a part of this spiritual family and that we might live in our
homes in such a way and our lives in such a way as to not bring
reproach upon your glory and your name. And that we might
learn more and more about your love for us, that we may be tender
and long-suffering and patient, not bullies or frustration and
not let those things stand in the way of our intimacy. Father,
I thank you that you are loving toward us, that you loved us
long before the world began, eternally so. And then in that
love, you at the right moment, put your son to death to satisfy
your wrath against our sin. And so we are free forever. And Father, that freedom gives
us great joy. So draw us to your word, draw us to gospel conversations
with each other, and help us to truly live by your mercy. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.