Alright, let's go back to 1st
John 4. The title of the message is simply
this, God is Love. Taken from this passage. I want
to show you the context here, beginning at verse 7, where the
Apostle John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, addresses The people
of God, he says, beloved. Back up in verse one of this
same chapter, he said, beloved. There he commanded, or as God
commanded by the Holy Spirit through John, he commanded the
beloved, brethren in the faith, sinners saved by grace, to test
the spirits. And I dealt with that last week.
Here he says in verse seven, beloved, Again, speaking to true
believers, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Beloved, let us
love one another. I told the story, I think I read
it to you, David, about there was a lady who had missed a Sunday
service at her church. And when she returned the next
Sunday, Another lady in the church came up and spoke to her and
gave her a big hug. And this was a lady that normally
didn't give her the time of day, just ignored her, wouldn't even
speak to her. And she's wondering what was
going on. This lady who never spoke to her, never had anything
to do with her, came up, spoke to her kindly and gave her a
big hug. And so she sat down, listened to the sermon, and after
the sermon was over, the pastor looked out at the congregation
and said, now your assignment for this week is the same as last
week. Go out and find somebody you can't stand and give them
a big hug. Well, sad to say, and you might
want to find somebody you can't stand and give them a big hug.
It's all right with me if that's what you want to do. But sad
to say, That is a misshapen view of the love of God and the love
of the brethren. This beloved, let us love one
another, has first and foremost to do with a loyalty and a love
that binds us together as brethren under the grace of God in Christ
in the truth. Now that's what he's talking
about. When he says, for example, back up in verse one, Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits. One of the things
that is important in this love is that we stand together in
this. You know, whenever people seek
fellowship with us, And I desire for people to seek fellowship
with us. What is the basis of our fellowship? Well, it begins
with the doctrine of Christ. Doesn't begin with mutual likes
and dislikes, it doesn't begin with social sameness, it doesn't
begin with anything, it doesn't have anything to do with feeling,
It has to do with the gospel. Gospel fellowship. We believe
the same gospel. We stand together in the same
truth. The love that he's talking about
here is not the kind of love that you see in religion today
that says this. Let's forget our differences
and unite in love. That is not biblical. And when
I say differences, I mean in doctrine. Somebody says, well,
you believe salvation's this way, I believe salvation's that
way, but let's forget about that and just worship together. That
is not godly love. Beloved, let us love one another.
Now, Christians, in the fellowship of love, believers, brethren,
we should be kind to one another. We should be helpful to one another.
All of those things. Charitable. John had already
dealt with that back up here in chapter 3 when he talked about
verse 17, Whoso hath this world's good, talking about the material
things of this world, and seeth his brother in need, who is lacking
in these things, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from
him, in other words, you don't have any feelings towards helping
this person who's genuinely in need, And how dwelleth the love
of God in him? You see a brother or sister in
Christ who's destitute or who's in need of food, clothing, shelter,
and you have the means to help them and you don't, you just
say, go on your way. Remember James dealt with that.
Well, where's the love of God? It's not evidenced there, ignoring
them. Now there's a sense in which
we as believers are commanded to love everybody. Isn't that
right? Love our neighbor as ourselves. That's what the law commands. And Christ made it clear in the
Sermon on the Mount that neighbor includes your enemy, your worst
enemy. And of course that shows us first
and foremost the standard of righteousness in the law that
we cannot attain. How many times can we say when
our enemy does something to harm us or our children, can we say
our first thought, our first reaction is to love them? You see, we've all sinned and
come short of the glory of God. But in loving our neighbor, even
our worst enemy, especially those who are lost and in unbelief,
we don't have any connection with them as far as fellowship. We reject them as far as fellowship,
because this right here, look at it again, verse seven. Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone
that loveth, this kind of love that he's talking about, is born
of God and knoweth God. This kind of love comes from
God. This is godly love. It's loyalty
and truth standing together against the world. And we can still love
our enemies because we want the best for our enemies, especially
in salvation. Why would I lie to somebody if
I know that they are clinging to a false hope? Why would I tell somebody to
sleep soundly and well if I know their house is burning? You see what I'm saying? This is the fellowship of godly
love in Christ as Christ is the truth and that His gospel wherein
God reveals Himself as the God who justifies the ungodly upon
one ground, the righteousness of His Son freely imputed to
His people. Now if your one ground or your
ground of salvation is anything other than that, then we don't
have this fellowship, this kind of love. Because this love binds us together
in Christ. We are mutually sinners saved
by the grace of God. We are mutually washed in His
blood. We are mutually standing together
clothed in His righteousness justified before God in Him alone. Now you say, well, I want to
be part of that fellowship. Well, that's the test of it right
there. Oh, I know there are minor points
of doctrine we can agree to disagree, but not on the essentials, not
on this gospel, not on how God saves sinners, not on who Jesus
Christ is and what He accomplished on Calvary to justify us before
God, save us, His person, His work. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God in human flesh. You
believe that? What did He do? What did He actually
accomplish? By his obedience unto death as
the surety and substitute of his people who God gave to him
before the foundation of the world, he satisfied the justice
of God. He brought righteousness that
enables God to be just to justify them and that secures their salvation
unto glory. Why did he do it? He did it to
the praise of the glory of God's grace. And where is he now? He's
seated at the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession
for his people. They cannot be lost. They cannot
perish. You believe that any whom God
loves, for whom Christ died, could perish? That's not the love of God. That's
not the fellowship of the brethren. And he's coming back again. to
judge the world and to receive his people. This love is a commitment. It's a commitment to Christ,
his truth, and his people. And he says here in verse 7,
for love is of God. This is not just any kind of
love, this is divine love. It's love which comes from God,
who's the source and originator of our salvation. This love is
not natural to man. No one has this love shed abroad
in their hearts except those who are born of God, that's the
new birth, and they're evidenced by their knowing God. And that
knowing has to do with fellowship with God. It has to do with an
intimate relationship with God. Realizing and being assured that
I'm accepted with God based upon the merits of Christ's righteousness
alone. It's not natural to us. It's
not of man, it's not in man until God puts it in man, in his heart. It comes to us in the new birth.
Back over in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 14. He said, we know that
we have passed from death unto life. That's the new birth. Because
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. It's that divine grace which
God the Holy Spirit sheds abroad within our hearts as He reveals
our sinfulness and our depravity and our deservedness of death
and hell in light of the greatness and glory of Christ to save us
by His blood and His righteousness alone. It's that love again that
binds us together in true Christian fellowship which causes us to
stand together against the world in the truth that the world hates. In the truth that glorifies God,
in the truth that exalts Christ, in that one truth that is used
of God in the salvation of his people and the edification of
his church. Do you know God? It's what he
says here. Everyone that loveth is born
of God. If you have this love, that means you're regenerate.
You're born again by the Spirit. And it means this, you know God.
To know God savingly is to know Him as both just and justifier
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to know and submit to God's
righteousness. You remember Paul wrote in Romans
10 that the lost, unbelieving Israelites They were ignorant
of God's righteousness, evidenced by their going about to establish
a righteousness of their own, and have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. And then he identifies it, as
he'd already done in Romans 10, 4, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Is Christ your
only hope of salvation? Is his blood your only forgiveness? Is his righteousness imputed
your only ground? That's what it's about. Look
at verse 8. He says, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for
God is love. God is love. Where this love
is absent, there's no spiritual life. Where this love is absent,
there's no true saving knowledge of God. God is love. It doesn't just say God loves.
He does. But God is love. It's His nature.
It's part of who He is. But now here's the thing, we
need to learn to think biblically concerning this issue of God's
love, not humanly. You know the biggest mistake
that most people make when it comes to seeking a knowledge
of God is that they reason from the ground up, not from heaven down. You see, knowing God has to do
with revelation from God down to us in His Word. So whatever
God says about Himself in His Word, that's the truth. Now,
men reason from themselves. And so when they think about
God's love, well, it's got to be like my love. Well, it's not. Our love is changeable, mutable.
Our love is emotional. A lot of times our love is no
more than a hallmark or a valentine card. That's not God's love. Our love is conditional. It really
is. Now, the closest we can get to
unconditional love, I believe, is to our children and our grandchildren. But it's conditional. They're
extensions of ourselves. We don't love everybody else's
children and grandchildren like we love our own, do we? But that's not the nature of
God's love. God's love is not an emotion. It's not driven,
motivated, or enacted by anything outside of Himself. He is love.
That's what that means. God is love. It resides within
Himself. It comes from within Himself.
First of all, consider the objects of God's love. You know the first
and foremost object of God's love is Himself. You know, self-love is natural
to all intelligent beings, and it's not sinful unless it takes
us to the point of elevating ourselves and neglecting others.
Doesn't the command of the law say, love your neighbor as yourself? But we're sinful creatures. We
don't deserve God's love, and we cannot earn God's love. But
God deserves his own love. He's pure and holy. Therefore,
the chief end of all that God does is to do what? To glorify
and honor Himself. Everything God does will ultimately
glorify God. And He will not share His glory.
He's stingy about His glory. And you know why? Because He's
the only one who deserves it. He won't share His glory with
you or with me. We don't deserve it. But God does. The Bible says
in Proverbs 16, 4, the Lord hath made all things for himself. Listen to this. Here's one to
chew on. Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Now that racks the foundation
of a lot of religion today, doesn't it? You know what this basically
tells us? That this thing, salvation, Ephesians 1, And verse 6 says,
it's all to the praise of the glory of God's grace. It's all
about God. It's not all about man. You know,
that's why in religion today, even false Christianity, it's
humanistic. It's all about man. It all revolves around man. How
you can have your best life now. How you can do this or do that
for God. How God's just up there trying
to do His best to get you to receive Him and accept Him. God loves Himself. It's all about
His glory. It's within Himself. And then
next, the objects of God's love, the Bible says God loves His
own. That's His elect. The people of His choice. You can't talk about God's love
without talking about God's hatred, and you can't talk about God's
hatred without talking about God's love. Somebody says, well, God doesn't
hate anybody. Well, What does God say? What does He say? I know this. If you read Romans chapter 9,
there's a verse there that says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Now, are you going to reason
from the ground up or from God down? Preachers will tell you,
well, that word hatred there, that means that he just loved
Esau less. Well, that's still humanistic,
isn't it? Do you know that God loves all the objects of his
love equally? The Bible never says he loved
Peter more than he loved John. No, he loves them equally. Who says he hated Esau? And we
feel sorry for Esau. Well, that's okay. Feel sorry
for him. We ought to. But let me tell
you something. God's love is not like our love
and God's hatred is not like our hatred. His love is his purpose
to save his people through Christ. His hatred is his justice. Think
in terms of justice. That's what people have lost
today. It's his just wrath against the sins. those whom he hates. Psalm 5 and I believe it's verse
5 said he hates all workers of iniquity somebody asked me one
time said well aren't we all workers of iniquity well in ourselves
we are but here's our only hope how can I a sinner stand before
God and not be charged as a worker of iniquity There's only one
way. David stated it in Psalm 32.
He said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the person to whom
God doesn't charge with iniquity. Well, how can God do that and
be just? How can God not hate me or hate
you? Well, let's read on. He'll give
you the answer here. Verse 9. in this was manifested
the love of God toward us that's the objects of his love that
God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him and verse ten here in his love not that we
love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins there's your answer there's the only way that any
sinner can stand before a holy God and not be charged as a worker
of iniquity. It's all based upon the substitutionary
work of a surety named Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in
human flesh, standing in my place, in my stead, having my sins,
my iniquities charged to Him, accounted to Him by God, the
Judge of all, and paying the penalty, paying the price in
full. That's called redemption. Through his death. Obedience
unto death. That's the only way. And me,
being charged with his righteousness. In myself, I'm a worker of a
nigger. In myself, I'm a sinner. But
before God's law and justice, I stand before him in Christ. Washed in his blood, clothed
in His righteousness. And therefore, the Bible says,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
works. The Bible says in Romans chapter
8, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather it's risen again,
seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for
us. You see the nature of God's love.
God's love is eternal. Listen, if God loves you today,
that means he's always loved you. That's what the scripture
says. He told Jeremiah, I've loved
you with an everlasting love. And that was even before you
were born in the womb. The objects of his love, chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world, God's love is immutable,
never changes. We change all the time. We have
our good days and our bad days. But God's love never varies,
never wavers. And then listen to this, God's
love is omnipotent. That means it's all powerful.
Is there anything you wouldn't do? Think about your children
and grandchildren. Is there anything you wouldn't do to ensure their
physical well-being? If you had the power, And God
does. But if you had the power to remove
every obstacle that would hinder them and provide every means
that would promote them, would you do it? You sure would. That's the way God's love is
to the objects of His love. You know, preachers will tell
people all the time, they'll say, you know, if you don't come
down the aisle and accept Jesus as your personal Savior, they'll
say, I've heard this said, did God love you in vain? Did Christ
die for you in vain? My friend, God doesn't love anybody
in vain. Christ didn't die for anybody
in vain. Who shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ? I read that at the beginning
of the service. Who's going to do it? Nothing. You see, again, We need to think
biblically about God's love. God's love is not an empty, unfulfilled
love. God's love provides the best
for those he loves. It removes every obstacle and
provides every means. And so it's God's nature to be
merciful, to be gracious, to be compassionate towards its
objects. But let me tell you something else about the nature
of God's love. God's love is also just and righteous. God cannot enact or express His
love apart from His holiness, His justice, and His truth. And this is why John shows that
the holy and righteous nature of God's love in these verses.
In this was manifested, verse 9, the love of God toward us.
Because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that
we might live through Him. Now, let me say something here.
This is not teaching that the death of Christ, God sending
Christ into the world and His death on the cross was just a
token or an expression of God's love. It goes further than that.
Read verse 10. Herein is love, not that we love
God. In other words, God's love is
not a reaction to our love for Him, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be a what? A propitiation for us. What is propitiation? That is,
now listen to him, it's a justice satisfying sacrifice. You see, in order for God to
love us and to empower us, now Christ didn't die to get God
to love us, he died because God loved us, but in order for God
to express his love in accordance with his nature, justice had
to be satisfied. Righteousness had to be established. Because He's God. His love is
a holy love. His love is a righteous love.
And He sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him who might live His beloved. His love freely
provided for all that His holy law and justice require in the
full payment of the debt of our sins charged to Christ. And He paid for them by His obedience
unto death. And this love is revealed to
and manifested in all who believe in Christ. And there is no love
from God apart from Christ. There is no love from God apart
from justice being satisfied, righteousness being established.
It is not manifested in any who perish. You know, To see the true nature
of God's love, we have to see that it is unconditional, free
towards us. In the Bible, the plight of man
is described as such, that when it comes to the best of mankind,
to the worst of mankind, there is nothing in us, in God's eyes,
that is lovely. that deserves His love. And from
the best of mankind to the worst of mankind, there's nothing we
can do to earn God's love. So herein is love, not that we
loved Him. His love has no cause outside
of Himself. And it provides freely and fully
that propitiation, that sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction
so as to ensure the eternal well-being. of everyone whom God loves. Look at verse 11. Beloved, if
God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. He's talking about so as to give
his life for us, to give his life for us, and then we ought
also to love one another. You remember, look back over
at 1 John 3, 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren. What about this giving our lives
for the glory of God in Christ and for one another? Think about
that. We know that many brethren in
the past have given their lives for the gospel and for their
brethren. We call them the martyrs, that's
what the scripture calls them. Now, when you talk about the
martyrs, remember that it is possible that even unbelievers
can and have been martyred for a false faith. I learned that lesson years ago
even before I was converted. I was watching the news. This
was in the 60s and the Vietnam War was going on. And I just
heard a preacher give a Sunday school lesson about martyrdom,
you know, he's talking about Fox's Book of Martyrs and all
of that. And how it took the grace of
God for, he said this, it takes the grace of God in salvation
for a man or a woman to lay down their lives for what they believe. And that same week I was watching
the local news, and this was during the Vietnam War, And I
think this was in Bangkok, Thailand. There were three Buddhist monks
who stood out in the street and doused themselves with gasoline
and set themselves on fire in protest of the Vietnam War. And that got me to thinking,
even back then. These were unbelievers. These
were idolaters. And you remember what Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians 13, he said, though I give my body to be burned
and have not love. Now that's talking about this
divine love of the brethren here. Love in the truth. Though I give
my body to be burned and have not love, it's nothing. So understand
now, people can be martyred for a false cause. They can believe
strongly in a lost cause and die for their beliefs. But what about this martyrdom
for the Christian faith, the true Christian faith? Many unbelievers
have given themselves sacrificially, but so have believers. Would we lay down our lives for
what we believe? If the situation called for it
and we were outlawed, for example, and they came in to arrest us,
and tell us that we renounce what we believe or we're going
to die, would we do it? Well, I'll tell you this much.
If we would do it, it is truly only by the grace of God. I believe that was true for every
martyr in the past. You remember Peter When Christ
was arrested and put on trial, and they came to Peter, and they
were gonna arrest them all, and they said, we've seen you, you're
with him, you're a follower of him. And Peter cursed him three
times, didn't he? I'd be more apt to be like Peter.
But you know, later on, Peter didn't. What was the difference? Well, Peter was a better man
later. No, it was the grace of God, folks. But I will say this. If it ever comes to that, and
I hope it doesn't, it'll only be by His grace. But there is
a sense in which we lay down our lives daily with our brethren
and for our brethren. We lay it down in repentance
when we renounce all false religion, all of our works. Just like,
you know, the Apostle Paul. He said, I count it all but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And
when his former cohorts in the Jewish legalism came, you know
what Paul did? He stood with the apostles against
them. He laid down his life. He said,
I stand with Christ. I stand with Peter and James
and John, Stephen, the man you murdered. I held his coast, but
now I'm with him. I was against him, now I'm with
him. I stand with him. Whatever Stephen said, I'm with
Stephen. Stephen said, we're lost, Paul.
Well, you are. I'm right with him on that. You
don't believe in Christ. You don't have the right ground
of salvation. So I'm with him. We stand with
our brethren and lay down our lives in seeking the greater
good of our brethren. And it's a warfare within us,
not to please ourselves, but to please others. And even with
unbelievers, we lay down our lives when we tell them the truth
and seek their salvation. Am I your enemy, Paul said, because
I tell you the truth? Well, there may come a time when
we're forced to lay down our very lives, but we only do that
by the grace of God. Well, let me conclude with verse
12, and I'm going to pick up here next week. He says, no man
has seen God at any time. He's talking about with the physical
eye. No, you haven't seen God with the physical eye. God is
spirit. God reveals himself to his people
in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. But he says,
if we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected
in us. Now what does that mean? Well,
I'm going to deal with that more next week, but here's what it
basically means. That if we love one another,
if we stand with one another in this gospel, If we support
one another in this gospel, and if we're compassionate towards
one another in this gospel, then the love of God that is shed
abroad in our hearts has reached its goal. It's not perfect as
far as being morally perfect. I can't tell you that I love
you perfectly, but I can tell you that I love you, and I stand
with you in this gospel, and that's the goal. And we'll talk
about that more next week, all right?