All right, let's open our Bibles
one more time to first John, chapter four. As I told to class this morning,
as I read through this epistle of first John, looking for a
message from the Lord, I noticed two words being used over and
over and over again. The first one we dealt with in
a lesson was on. No, there's some things we know.
And the second word is love. I've entitled the message The
Cause and Effect of God's Love. This word love is used 46 times
in these five short chapters of 1 John. The only book in the
Bible that uses the word love more frequently than 1 John is
the Gospel of John. I believe the Spirit gave the
beloved apostle something to teach us about love, didn't he?
Now the love of God, I think this is a good subject for us
to look at. Because the love of God is something that man
has always misunderstood and misused. The emotion that we
call love, and that's really the only way a human being has
to identify love is the emotion that we call love. You know,
that's always a self-love. I love my wife. That's a self-love. Of course I do. We're one flesh.
That's a self-love. I love my children. Of course
I do. They came from my body. That's
self-love. I know what you're thinking.
They came from her body, but they're a product of our love. It's a
self-love. I'm going to get in trouble for
that. We love those who love us. So that's a self-love, isn't
it? But that's not God's love. Our
love is not pure. God's love is pure. And I want
us to look at some of these verses in 1 John C. if the Lord might
not be pleased to teach us something about love. It's a very, very
important subject. Now, first, if we're going to
find out anything about love, I tell you what, we've got to
begin. We've got to begin with God. Here's my first point. True love can only be found in
God because God is love. 1 John 4, verse 8. He that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. God is love. The nature
of God His love, that's his nature. Just like God's nature is holy,
just and merciful, God's nature is love. So God doesn't feel
love like the way we feel love. God is love. And the reasons
for God's love, the reason he shows that love to others are
reasons that are only found in God. Now God is love and this
is the miracle. God loves sinners. That's the most amazing statement
I think we can make. God loves sinners. We can't love
us because of any good in us. The only reason God can love
sinful men and women like us is God is love. That's the only
way it's possible that God can love us, that He is love. Now,
God does not love sin because God's holy. Those two attributes
of God, God's holiness and His love, can never contradict one
another. So God cannot love sin. God loves
holiness. God loves himself, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. They love one another. Our Savior
said the Father loves the Son. The Father loves holiness. That's
why he loves his Son, because the Father loves holiness. God
doesn't love sin, but he does love sinners. He loves sinners
how? In his Son. That's how he loves
sinners. The only reason God can love
sinners is God is love, and he put those sinners in his Son. Now, God's love is the opposite
of man's love. We do not love those who hate
us, do we? God does. God loves those who,
by nature, hate God. The only way that's possible
is God is love. Now, you'd be hard pressed to
find somebody who'd tell you they hate God. And they would
tell you I don't hate God because they don't hate the God of their
imagination. But they hate God. They hate
the true and living God as he's revealed in his word. Men hate
God because what did John say? Men love darkness. Men rejected
the Lord Jesus when he came to this earth because men love darkness
rather than light. They hate God. And they hate
God for no good reason. We have no reason to hate God.
Our Lord said they hated me without a cause. Yet that's what we do
by nature, hate God. But God loves those who by nature
hate him. Our nature is to hate just like
God's nature is to love. Our nature is to hate God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not at enmity with God.
It is enmity with God. Our carnal mind, our nature hates
God. Men hate God. That's why they
don't bow to God and worship God. If men by nature loved God,
this place would be full of people. You couldn't keep them out. But
men by nature hate God. That's why they don't worship
Him. That's why they don't bow to Him. Our nature says we won't
have this man to reign over us. That's what our nature says.
We're not going to submit to Him. By nature, men don't believe
God. That shows our hatred of God.
We don't believe Him. If we loved Him, we'd believe
Him. Look at chapter 5 verse 10. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath to witness it himself. He that believeth not
God hath made God a liar. He doesn't believe God because
he thinks God's lying. He made God a liar because he
believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. The only
person you call a liar is somebody you hate. Men don't believe the
gospel because they hate God. Men cried, crucify Him, crucify
Him. You know why? Because man by
nature hates God. We want to kill Him and be done
with Him. Yet God loves sinners because
God is love. Isn't it amazing that God could
love sinners? Well, the only reason God could
love sinners is God's love is like himself. He is love, so
his love is like himself. God's love is a sovereign love.
God's sovereign. Then God's love is a sovereign
love. He loves whom he will. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated because God's sovereign. God's love is an unchanging love. In eternity, God chose a people
to love. You take comfort in this. If
God ever loved you, he'll never stop loving you. His love is
unchanging. God's love is always perfect
because God's perfect. God doesn't love one child more
than another one. No, all his love is always perfect. And God's
love is eternal. Those reasons, God's eternal,
the reasons for God loving a people, it's all in himself. God's love
is eternal. It didn't have a beginning and
it won't have an ending either. God's love is eternal. True love
is always found in God because God is love. Here's the second
thing about God's love. God's love is an electing love. God loves sinners. So he chose
some sinners to save and to make them holy. John 4, verse 19. We love Him. Every believer can
say that. I don't love Him like I should.
I don't love Him like I wish I loved Him. But we love Him
because He first loved us. John says God first loved us.
Well, when was that? When was this first? It was in
eternity. Before anything was created,
when all there was was God, God loved the people. How do I know
that? Look at Deuteronomy chapter four.
I know that God loved a people in eternity, chose them and put
them in his son in eternity before anything was created. Because God said so before he
ever created the world, God chose a people to say, that's what
God said. And the only reason he choose to save him is he loved
him. Deuteronomy four verse 37. And because he loved thy fathers,
therefore he chose their seed after them. Why did he choose
them? Because he loved them. God loved the people and he chose
to save them. He chose their seed after them
and he brought thee out of his sight with his mighty power out
of Egypt. Now I know he's speaking to national
Israel there, but all of God's dealings with national Israel
are a picture of his dealings with spiritual Israel. God loved
the people. Therefore, he chose them. He
elected them unto salvation and he brought them out. He brought
them out of captivity to sin with a mighty arm through the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. God loved the people and he chose
to save them, not because there was anything good in us, not
because we would do everything good. God loved the people and
he chose to save them just because God would, because that's his
character. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7. The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you are more in number than any
other people. For you were the fewest of all people. You were
the one least likely to be chosen, least worthy. But because the
Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath, the covenant,
which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty and redeemed you out of the house of the bondman
from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The Lord loved a people
and he chose to save them. Scripture can't be more plain
on that. God's love is an electing love
for a specific people. You know what that tells me? God does not have to love me.
God doesn't owe that love to me. He doesn't have to love me.
I've never given God a reason to love me. Yet God loved me
anyway, just because He would. And He chose to save me because
that's the character of God. That's God's electing law. Now,
I understand the natural man hates that. But for the life
of me, I do not know why. We think it's right. We think
it's just right that a man choose his bride. He gets to love who
he wants and choose her and marry her if she'll have him. We think
this is fine. But we don't want Almighty God
to have the same right. There's something wrong with
us. It's a totally depraved nature,
totally depraved understanding and thinking. That's what's wrong
with us. God is love. And God must display that love. He must. That's His character. Just as much as God must display
His justice, He must display His holiness, He must display
His sovereignty, God must display his love because God is love. So what did he do? To display
that great love, to make his love appear to us as great as
it can possibly appear, God chose to save sinners, to make his
love even more magnificent to us. He chose a bride. She was wretched and vile, but
he chose to marry her. He chose to join himself to her.
God chose children to make part of his family. They were rebels,
they were useless, they were the prodigal son, live not during
the pigs die. But God chose to save them, to
make his love appear even greater to us. Look at 1 John chapter
three. Verse one. Now get a hold of this, behold,
Behold what manner of love, behold how great the love, behold, it's
inexplicable the manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. Now that's love. God chose a sinful people to
make them his family because God's love is an electing love.
Third, God's love is a redeeming love. Now, because God is love,
God loves sinners. He chose sinners to save. But
now, don't ever forget this. God's holy. He does love those
sinners. But the sin of those people must
be put away out of God's sight. Has to be. Because God is holy. Now, those sinful people, here's
their problem. Their sin's gotta be put away,
but they don't have anything to pay. They don't have any way
to get rid of their sin. So God sent his son to pay the
debt for them because God loves them. That's why he did it. Look
here at 1 John 4 verse 10. You want to see an example of
love? Here is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and he sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. God sent his son to be the sin
covering, the offering, the sacrifice for our sins. We had a debt we
could not pay and God paid it for his people. Oh, but what a price he paid.
What a price. In order to redeem the people
that God loved, God had to give the very best that he had. He
had to give the unspeakable gift of his son. The apostle Paul
called Christ the unspeakable gift. And he called him the unspeakable
gift because human language cannot express how precious and how
valuable the Lord Jesus Christ is. Yet that's what God had to
give in order to put our sin away. Brethren, that ought to tell
us something. That ought to tell us how vile and wretched we are
by nature. It took the unspeakable gift
of Almighty God to pay for our sin. Now that ought to humble
us. That ought to break our hearts
how vile we are. It took the unspeakable gift,
the gift that's so valuable we can't express it. That's what
it took to pay for my sin and all my soul. But God did that
because His love is a redeeming love. God loves sinners. And he's going to happen. Oh,
they're held captive by sin. Yes, they have a sin debt. Their
sin has separated them from their God. But God loves those people. But in their sin, they cannot
and they will not come back to God. So God did the most amazing
thing known to man. The father made his son sin for
his people. He took that sin from his people
and he put it on his son. And then the father, who's one
with the son, turned his back on his son, forsook his son,
abandoned his son, separated himself from his son so that
his people could be brought back to him, redeemed from sin and
brought back to God. Brethren, that's unspeakable.
There's just no way to comment on that. That's unspeakable redeeming
love. God loves a sinful people. Now
He loves them. Then He cannot leave them as
they are in their wretchedness and vileness and filth of sin. You parents, try to imagine this. You love your children. Ah, you
love them. Will you imagine something happens
that causes one of those precious babies to be living down in a
sewer If it is at all within your power, are you going to
leave them there? Of course not. Our love for our children cannot
compare to God's love for His children. He's not going to leave
His children in that sin. He's going to redeem them from
their sin. He's going to wash them from their sin in the blood
of His Son because God's love is a redeeming love. God sacrificed
His Son to accomplish the redemption of the people that He loves.
And the only reason that we know God loves sinners is God sent
His Son to redeem them. Chapter 3, verse 16. Hereby perceive we. Here's how
we perceive the love of God. Because He laid down His life
for us. That's how we perceive the love
of God. He laid down the life of his son. He gave his son to
redeem his people. This love is an unspeakable love.
Our Lord defined it as this. Greater love hath no man amiss
than a man lay down his life for his friends. Christ laid
down his life. The father gave his son to redeem
his people from their sins because God's love is a redeeming love.
Fourth, God's love is a calling love. God went so far to redeem
his people. He went to such lengths to redeem
his people. He sent his son to die for him.
And you can rest assured if God did that for you, he's not keeping
a secret from you. He's going to call you. He's
going to reveal himself. God will not allow anyone that
his son died for to perish. Never. He'll call his people
to himself. See, God is just. Now, it would
be unjust for God to damn somebody if Christ already died for him,
wouldn't it? That would be unjust. Well, God's
not going to do that. God is almighty. He has a purpose
to save the people. He has a purpose to call out
and give life to those people his son died for. Nothing is
going to stop him from doing it because he's the almighty.
There's nothing that can stop his purpose. God will call all
the people that He loves to Himself. He's going to call them to Him.
He told Jeremiah, Jeremiah, I loved you before you were born. Before
I formed you in your mother's belly, I knew you and I loved
you. I loved you with an everlasting
love. Before I ever created the world, Jeremiah, I loved you.
Therefore, after you were born out of your mother's belly, after
you lived a life of rebellion, Therefore, because I've loved
you with an everlasting love, I drew you to me in loving kindness. I wish I could say this like
it's in my heart. that God would take a rebel and
He wouldn't break them, He wouldn't whip them, He wouldn't beat them,
He wouldn't scare them into coming to Him. But that He would, in
loving kindness, draw them, make them want to come to Him. When
the sovereign King calls, we'll come to Him in obedience. But
not just in obedience of fear. The sovereign king is also our
loving father. When he calls, we come to him
in loving obedience, loving obedience. Fifth, God's love is a life-giving
call. He gives life to the dead. God
loves the sinful people. We've seen that God loves sinners
because God's love. But those people, they're dead,
dead in trespasses and sins. Well, God, just like He's not
going to leave His children in the sewer, He's not going to
leave those He loves as a dead, stinking, rotten corpse in His
sight. No, God's going to give them life. God gives spiritual
life and the new birth to everybody He loves. 1 John 4, verse 9. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because the God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. and will live
through him through the new birth. Verse seven, Beloved, let us
love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth
is born of God. They've been born again and they
know God. Chapter five, verse one, whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The only reason
you believe that Jesus is the Christ is you've been given spiritual
life. You've been born of God. born
in the new birth. And that's the life that John's
talking about here is the new birth. The new birth is a new
man being born who never existed before. It's a new man being
born, being formed in us. Actually, it's Christ being formed
in us. Isn't that what Paul told the
church at Galatia? It's the new birth is Christ
being formed in you. Paul said, I'm going to labor
and travail again until what? Christ be formed in you. That's
the new birth. The new birth is the Holy Spirit
dwelling in us. It's God dwelling in us and us
dwelling in God. Chapter 4, verse 16. And we have
known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God and God in him. That's the new birth. It's a
union with Christ. And that life that God gives
his people can never be lost. It'll never die. When God gives
spiritual life, it'll never die. God's not going to give life
that can die. Adam does that, but God doesn't do that. God's
not going to cause a new man to be born by his Holy Spirit,
by the seed of his word, so that man can sin and then be damned
and die. God's not going to do that. That new man born of God
can never die. because he can never sin. The
only reason for death is sin. That new man can never sin, so
he can never die. Chapter 5, verse 18. We know
that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
That new man is born of God, cannot die. You can never lose
the life God gives you, because that new man can't sin and can
never die. Here's the sixth thing. God's
love gives a sure salvation. What kind of love do you reckon,
how would we term it? You know, if God loves the people,
maybe they'll be saved, maybe they won't, you know, maybe they'll
be saved, but maybe they'll go to hell. I don't know if that
love's all that great, is it? God's love gives a sure salvation. Chapter four, verse 17. 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. Now that's some statement John
makes here, that we can have boldness in the day of judgment. That's right, boldness. The believer
has no reason to fear the death of these bodies and the judgment
that's sure to follow. No reason to fear that whatsoever.
Now that's hard for us to get a hold of, to fully get a hold
of as long as we're in this flesh. We fear death. Death is not something
we really look forward to. The natural man is scared to
death of death and the judgment. And with good reason, because
we're guilty. We deserve to be damned because
of our sin. That's what we deserve. But the
believer has absolutely no reason to fear death or to fear judgment
because of God's love. God's love for his people moved
him to send a substitute to suffer in their place, to put their
sin away. The Lord Jesus Christ has already
stood judged in the place of his people. He's already died
for the sin of his people. Then we can never die. Now if
Christ died for us, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Well, no condemnation, you got
nothing to fear, do you? You have boldness in the day
of judgment because in Christ we're not guilty. In Christ we're
accepted. God's elect have nothing to fear
of judgment. because God's love moved him
to provide for them a just salvation. God's elect are saved because
their sin is put away. You have no reason to fear judgment
because Christ put your sin away. God has no reason to damn you
if Christ put your sin away. If God was like you and me and
he just overlooked our sin, we could still have something to
fear I heard a story one time about a man. He got a speeding
ticket and his license plate were expired. And he was going
to have to pay this huge fine because the fine for the license
plate was bigger than the fine for the speeding fine. But he
knew somebody at the courthouse. And the woman said, here's what
we'll do. She said, I'll hide that. She
said, you have to pay the speeding ticket. Nothing I can do about
that. But this thing about your license plate, I'll hide that. The judge won't see it. You just
pay the speeding fine, get your tags renewed, and it'll all be
OK. Well, came down for the trial, the stand before the judge, and
the man pleaded guilty to the speeding ticket. But something
made the judge start rifling through all his papers. He said,
oh, I see here your plates were expired, too. I don't know how
he missed that. And then he levied this huge
fine. Well, justice was served, wasn't it? If God overlooked
our sin, justice could still start rifling through the pages
of our lives and say, wait a minute, justice could demand death, condemnation,
damnation, couldn't it? But that's not God's salvation.
God loved His people. He provided for them a sure salvation
because their salvation is accomplished in justice. When justice starts
looking through the pages of the life of a believer, all it
sees is not All it sees is perfection. All it sees is obedience because
the blood of Christ has blotted out the sin of God's elect. So
our salvation is accomplished in justice. That's what makes
it sure. Then last, God's love for his
people makes his people a loving people. Now, this is our last
point, but just because it's the last point, don't think this
is an unimportant point. No, this is very, very important.
God's people are loving people. Chapter four, verse seven. 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. Now, love is so important. If we do not love others, all
it proves is we don't know God. This love for one another is
so important. If we don't love one another,
all that proves is we've not been born of God. Now, if God
has saved us, we must be loving. Now, if we think we saved ourselves
or we saved ourselves because we believe some doctrinal creed,
you're going to be mean. But if God saved us, we've got
to be loving. God is love. A person who's born
of God, who's been made a partaker of his nature, has got to be
loving. I mean, is that too obvious?
If God has caused us to be born again by his seed, the seed of
his word, then we've got to be like him. We've got to be loving.
Scripture tells us the fruit of the spirit. Fruit can only
grow from something that's living. The fruit of the spirit is love. Well, if the fruit of love is
lacking, what does that tell us? It tells us we don't know
God. Now, brethren, love one another. Now, that's not just a good idea.
I mean, well, here's a way to kind of keep peace in the church.
Y'all act like you love one another. No, it's not just a good idea.
This is a commandment. Love one another. John chapter
15. I'll tell you where John got
this from. Let's go back and see the source. Where did this
come from? John is not only saying this
from apostolic authority. I'll tell you where he got it
from. He got it directly from the lips of the master himself.
John 15, verse 12. This is my commandment, that
you love one another. How should we love one another? as I have loved you. Love one
another without reason. Did you give God a reason to
love you? No, you did not. Love one another without a reason.
Love one another as Christ loved us, sacrificially. Love one another as I have loved
you. That's the commandment of the Savior. Now 1 John 4 verse
20. John heard that. Now look what
he writes in this epistle. If a man say I love God and he
hates his brother, he's a liar. That man's 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 we have
from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. And you know God's children obey
that commandment. They absolutely do. First John
3 verse 11. God's children obey that commandment. For this is the message, that
ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, slew his brother,
and wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil,
and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hates you. We know that we've passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. He that doesn't love his brother
hath not been born again. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.
And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in
him." Now that's the commandment of the Savior. And everyone who's
been born again obeys that commandment. Now look back in the Gospel of
John again, chapter 13. I say to this congregation, to
each believer here, this is the commandment of our Savior. Love
one another. If we don't love one another,
we've not been born again. So let us not be weak. in this
grace of love. Let's not be weakened because
love is the mark of a believer. John chapter 13 verse 34. A new
commandment I give unto you that you love one another. As I have
loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all
men know that you're my disciples. If you have love one to another. Now, I want you to see the commandment. And God's children obey that
commandment. But let's not be weak in this love or grace of
love. And I want to make this application
to each of our daily lives. Love is not a feeling that we
feel for one another, but keep hidden in our heart. If I love
you, you're going to know it. You can't keep that hidden in
your heart. When a man loves a woman, for
all the gallant things that men do, here's one thing men can
do. If a man loves a woman, she's
going to know it. He's going to do everything he
can so that she knows he loves her. And if you're not showing
attention to somebody, I can tell you why. You don't care
about them. You don't love them. That's the way we're to love
one another. Not just a feeling in our heart that we never express,
but that we show, we go out of our way to be sure. Everybody
here knows you love them because you show them, you give them
demonstrations of that. Let's go out of our way to show
one another that we love each other. Didn't Christ our Savior
give us an example of that? He says, as I've loved you, that's
how you love one another. You reckon he went out of his
way to redeem us, to show he loved us? Yes, he did. First John 3 verse 16. Hereby
perceive we the love of God. He went out of his way. He did
something self-sacrificial. He laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. We ought to love one another
self-sacrificially because Christ loved us that way. And the next
verse, verse 17, starts with the word but. I'm not the greatest
English student in the world, but I thought this, and I looked
it up before I said it publicly. The word but is a conjunction.
So the thought in verse 17 is tied to verse 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. But, now this
is tied to perceiving God's love for us. Whoso hath this world's
good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels
of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. Now Christ is our Savior. First
and foremost, Christ is our Savior. But he is also the believer's
example. And we're to love one another
as Christ loved us. Not just in word. Not saying
I love you and then forgetting about you until I see you here
next Sunday. No, we're to love in deed. True love always acts. Love is an act of grace. True
love gives everything it can to those we love. Someone here
might have a physical need. They're in want for whatever
reason. Something happened, they have They need some repairs at
the house. They need help paying an electric
bill or gas bill. They need some food. For whatever
reason, whatever the physical want is, love will do everything
it can to provide for that need. It will. There could be emotional
needs. Someone needs some fellowship.
Someone needs a kind word. They're lonely. Somebody can
go spend some time with them or take them out to lunch. It's
just they have emotional needs. Love seeks to fill those things.
This week, I got an email from a very dear lady who lives in
another city. And she wrote the sweetest email
thanking me for some messages she'd heard me preach. I can't
tell you what a help that was when I really needed it. I just
was discouraged. And our brethren have emotional
needs. Let's see that we fill it. And
we will if we love them. Someone may have spiritual needs.
They need prayer. They need some fellowship. They
need somebody they can sit down and talk about the Savior with.
True love will seek to fulfill that need, to give what each
other needs. Brethren, let's not be lazy about
this matter of love. We're not only to show this love
for one another in these four walls. No, we're to show it outside
of We're to seek out ways to show our love one to another.
And I tell you what that's going to take. That's going to take
leaving the comforts of our home and going somewhere and giving
up some time to do something for somebody else. And nothing
thrills me more other than someone coming to me and saying, you
know, the Lord revealed himself to me. I want to confess him
in baptism. Nothing thrills me more than to hear about one of
y'all going to help somebody. I hear about this now that thrills
me. That's showing our loved one to another. Isn't that exactly
what our Lord did for us? Who left the comforts of glory
to go to the depths of hell to redeem his people. The Lord did
that for me. I believe I can give up something
to show my love for you, don't you reckon? How do we show that
love to each other? I'll give you just a good rule.
You know, if you really love somebody, I don't have to tell
you how to show it, but let me give you a good rule of thumb.
See everybody in this room? Treat them like they're a visiting
preacher. That's how we show our love one
to another. And somebody will say, well, you know, some people
are just really difficult to love. I mean, even believers.
I don't deny that. Some people are easier to love
than others. But God's family will strive to love one another.
We just love each other. We just can't help it. Yeah, I know somebody is not
as loving as somebody else. Easy to love somebody else, but
I love them anyway. I can't help it. 1 John 4 verse
11. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. We're to show that love one to
another. And you know, not only are we
to love one another, we're to love even our enemies. We're to love all men, especially
those who are of the household of faith, but even our enemies. Now that's very difficult to
do, isn't it? Love our enemies. But you remember in this matter
of love, we're to follow the example of our Savior. Right
back to where we started. Aren't you glad God is love so
that he loved his enemies? Love in the heart and love put
in action is very important to the life of a believer. Bonar
said this, religion without love is a body without a spirit. A
body without a spirit is offensive. You got to bury it away. The
claim of religion without love is a body without a spirit. Religion
without love, Bonar says, is a contaminated well. You better
not drink it, it's poison. Religion without love is the
kiss of Jesus. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
13. We're going to read this in closing. I can't think of
a better way to end than this chapter on love. And let's pray
that the Lord give us a love, a love in the heart, and a love
that will act this way so we're not just an annoying, tinkling
symbol, a well without water, a body without spirit. Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, if I have not
love, I'm become as a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. And
though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could
remove mountains, if I have not love, I'm nothing. Though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing. This is
the kind of love I pray that God will give us. This is love
in action. Love suffers long. It's kind. Love envieth not. Love fondeth
not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth
not in iniquity. but rejoiceth in the truth. Love
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and
endureth all things. Love never fails. Let these words
never escape our lips. I used to love you. Love never
fails. But whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they
shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as
a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith,
hope, and love, these three. But the greatest of these is
love. May God be pleased to give us
that love. Let's bow in prayer. Father, what can we say but thank
you. Thank you for your infinite, matchless, unspeakable love to
your people. How thankful we are that God
is love. And because of that character
of your love, you love sinners. You sent your son to redeem those
that you chose to save. You call out those that you love
through your gospel. That you give us life in the
new birth. That you give us boldness in
the day of judgment because you love your people. You provided
a perfect, full, free salvation for them that can never be lost.
Father, how we pray How we beg of thee that you give us this
genuine love for you and for one another in our hearts, that
you give us ways to show our love one to another. Make us
a loving people, a caring people who care for one another, who
hold one another up, who pray for one another, who are with
one another to help and strengthen and encourage one another on
this trip below. Father, thank you for your word.
Bless it to our hearts and to your glory, we pray.