I'm going to pick up here in
verse 7. And I was thinking, when God asked Solomon what he
would have, he said, what would you have me give you? And Solomon
asked for wisdom. And God blessed him with all
this all the treasures, all those other treasures. Because he asked
Him for wisdom. He said, because you do not ask me for these other
things, I'll give you all these things. If there was one thing
that I would ask for us this morning, as a congregation, it
would be the grace of love. That we would love one another.
That's what I would ask. That overcomes everything else. Now John says here in verse 7,
he says, Beloved, he's speaking to God's children. You know,
when we speak to God's children, we need to always keep in mind
they are God's children. You know, when you speak of my
two sons, speak well of them. And that's when we speak of God's
children. Now, you wouldn't want me to say anything bad about
your children, would you? It wouldn't sit well with you.
Not at all. Not at all. And when John speaks
to the Lord's children, he says, Beloved. Beloved. What endearing terms John uses
in writing to God's children. Beloved of the Father? There's no greater love than
that. Beloved of the Father. Beloved of the Son. Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And beloved of the Spirit. We cannot in this life comprehend
this kind of love. It goes beyond our human understanding,
our human comprehension. We can't grasp it. Can't grasp
it. But we are loved of the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. And when others' love fails,
you can be sure His love never fails. Don't judge His love by feeble
sense. Don't do that. I know we can
be guilty of that. I'm guilty of that. But we should
never judge God's love by feeble sense. We should never judge
God's love to us because of our situation. We may not have as
much as others have. That doesn't mean God loves me
less or doesn't love me. That has nothing to do with it.
In fact, when this is over, we will see that that was God's
love in not giving us these things. Don't you, with your children?
Don't you keep a lot of things from them that would not be good
for them, that they want? Well, that's out of love. That's
out of love. His love never fails. And even
when our love fails, and it does, His love never, it never diminishes. It never diminishes one bit. Never changes. Never. His love never fails. Also, here's
another test by which to try the Spirit's real love to the
brethren. Real love to one another. If
a person truly loves you, if they really love you, here's
the test. They'll not lie to you and they'll
seek your best. You know when a person really
loves you, they seek your best. The false prophets, the Antichrist
spoken of here, they seek their own. They fleece the sheep. They don't feed the sheep, they
fleece the sheep. But one who loves you will feed
you. You show me a husband or a wife
who makes all things revolve around themselves, I'll show
you one that doesn't love God. Because love doesn't have everything
revolving around myself, it has it revolving around you and each
other. Just like you have it revolving
around your children. That's what love is. And he says here,
let us love one another. Is this asking too much? Is this asking too much to love
someone who's made of the same lump you are made of? I'm just
loving someone who's made of the same thing I'm made of. Love
one another. And love, listen, love is not
only the command of God and is well-pleasing in His sight, but
love, this love here, which is really difficult to put in language,
truly comes from God. And this is the good evidence
that God's in you. You know, people look for evidences.
Do you love the brethren? Do you love God? Henry said that
one time on television back years ago. And I heard, when I first
began to listen to him preaching the gospel, he said, do you really
love Christ? Do you love Him? You know, I
never thought about that. I never thought about, do I actually
love Him? Peter, he said, Peter, do you love me? He said, then feed my sheep.
And when I heard that for the first time, it was like something
just hit me in the face. Do you love me? People make their professions. They go through what they call
repentance. But this matter of the Lord saving
a sinner has to do with the heart and it has to do with loving
Christ. It has to do with loving Him. And it's good evidence that a
person has been born of God. For it says this, for God is
love. It's the nature of God to love. It's not hard for Him to do this.
It's His nature. It's the nature of God to show
mercy. And we have received His nature in regeneration. That's what we have done. We
have received His nature in regeneration. A true child of God cannot help. I believe this. I believe this. You know, John,
in the earlier part of this epistle said, if a man say... You know,
we can say a lot of things. But John brings this down to
where you could say the rubber meets the road. He's talking
about, do you love? Do you love God or do you love
one another? And a true child of God cannot
help but love the brethren. And he cannot help but love men. All men and women are our brothers
and sisters, either in Adam or in Christ. Made of the same love. And everyone that loveth, he
says here, is born of God, and knoweth God. That means more
than just knowing that God exists or believing that God exists
or believing some things about God. That means, and knoweth
God, there's a relationship there. There's an intimate relationship
there that was not there before. A believer has the nature of
God in him. Let me read this to you. I got
this out of Henry's commentary. A believer has the nature of
God in him called the new nature. And he knows God in an intimate
relationship. And because of this new nature
that's born of God, this new nature is made up of the nature
of God. He loves God and he loves others. Now if the fruit of love is absent, If it's not a joy, a real joy,
to hear the gospel, to hear of Christ, and to be around the
brethren. If it's not a real joy to be
around here, if this is a burden, it's because that person's lost. Because the Spirit of God's not
there. He's not there. It's only an empty profession.
For it says in verse 8, He that loveth not knoweth not God. He has no relationship with God. There's no new nature there. He doesn't know God. There's no relationship there.
There's no union. There's no union there with Christ. There's no living union. For
it says here, God is love. And if God is in me, if He's
in you, you can't help but love. It's your nature to love. Now,
just as when I was born into this world, and you, we came
into this world, it was our nature to hate. It was our nature to
go forth from the womb, it says, speaking lies. That was our nature. But when a man or woman is born
of God, the nature is to love. You can't help it. You can't
help it. Just like breathing. I'm not
saying you don't get upset. And it's not this kind of weak,
lovey-dovey, smushy junk the world talks of. That's not what
it is. It's hard to explain what it
is. It's loving a person for who they are. You love God for
who He is, don't you? We don't love God because of
what He can give us. We love Him for who He is. And
we love one another for who we are. Sons of God. Children of
God. And we love all men because we're
part of them. You know, when Paul, priest of
the Jews, he told his brethren according to the flesh, he said,
I would to God that they hear the Gospel. I would to God they'd
believe. Don't you feel that way? We don't condone what they
do. You hate sin. You condemn sin. I wish every one of those Iraqis
would hear the Gospel and believe it. I do. I would if God did
hear it. If they would hear it, wouldn't
it be wonderful? Wouldn't it be just something
else? If God would send the Gospel
over there and power and save those bunch of people and look
at the fellowship we could have. That would be my prayer. My prayer is that God would save
them. I know most people are going
to pray that God would wipe them off the face of the earth so
we can get this thing over with. I wish He'd save them. I do. Because we'd be the same way.
We have the same nature they were born with. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. You and I know if we truly love
people. You know that. You know if you
truly love the brethren here. You know if you truly love being
here. You know if you truly love God. You know that. You know
who you love and who you love to be around. Who do you enjoy
being around? You know that. Now he says here, God manifested
His love. True love will always manifest
itself. You can't hide it. You cannot
hide it. In fact, you don't try to hide
it. You don't want to hide it. You don't want to. It says in
verse 9, In this was manifested the love of God towards us. Because that God sent His only
begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. God's
love was manifested indeed. Not just in word. Not just in
word. How many people have said, I
do? And then a little while later
say, I don't. That's word only. God manifested
His love indeed. Not just in words. It says in
the Scriptures in John 3, 16, that for God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son. He did something about it. He showed His love. He subjected
His Son to sorrow and grief. We can't comprehend that sorrow
and grief. We've experienced some sorrow
and grief, but not what He experienced. He subjected his son to suffering
and death so that we might live. We won't
taste of death. Oh, this body will die and we'll
struggle to live. It's in us to live. But as soon
as this body, this heart, this heart stops beating, at that
second, we're in the presence of God. Right in His presence. Not in
the grave. In His presence. This is just a house. This is
just a house like this building right here. It's just a place
for us to come together and meet as we are in here right now.
We are in this body. Someday God's going to release
us from this body like releasing a bird from a cage. And we're
going to fly out of it. We're going to be in His presence. God manifested His love. His
love, listen, His love is the standard whereby all others are
to be measured. I can't talk about my love, but we can sure talk about His.
We can talk about His. If you want to talk about love,
let's talk about His. Talk about His love. If you want
to measure, if you want to put a measure on love, The disciples
did that one time, didn't they? How many times, let's see, how
many times shall I forgive my brother? Let's put a number on
it. Let's put a measure on it. How many times? If my brother
sins against me, seven times seven? Oh, he's... It's measureless. The Lord said
seventy times seven. There's no measure. True love
can't be measured. It really can't. But if we want to talk about
love, let's talk about His. It takes that kind of love to
save a wretch like me. It takes infinite love to save
someone like me. Yes, it does. Herein is love. Now let's talk about love. Herein
is love. Not that we love God. Let's not
go around bragging about that. Or how I love Jesus. And we do. Let's not brag about that. That's
not it. We ought to love the one who's
altogether lovely. Let us talk about this. That
He loved us. He loved us. Now I know that
naturally we think we're lovable. We think everybody ought to love
us. until God saves us. Then we're amazed that anybody
loves us. But that He loved us and He did something about it.
He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. By what sacrificial love He gave
His Son. This is a love beyond comprehending
that God would give such a one We're such a wretch. That's beyond
us comprehending. And I like what John says here
in verse 11. Now beloved, if God so loved us, so sacrificially,
so freely, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
If it is so, that God loved someone like me
and gave his son to be the propitiation for my sins, I should have no
problem loving you. I should never have a problem
loving you. And we should never have a problem loving one another
if God so loved us in such a manner. He loved us freely. He loved
us sacrificially. And we should do the same. That's
what John is saying. It should not be difficult for
those who have tasted and found the Lord to be gracious
to be gracious. It shouldn't be difficult for
those who have received mercy to show mercy. It shouldn't be. This is the fruit of the Spirit
of God. And if it's absent, it's because
God's absent. Because He's absent. Now, he
says, no man has seen God at any time. John the Baptist said
this. He said this once. And he was
talking about knowing God by revelation. That no one has seen
God at any time. That if we were to know God,
it would be by revelation. God would have to reveal Himself
here. But here, John is saying that a man cannot know that God
dwells in him by seeing or talking to God. That's not how you know
it. Here's how you know it. He can know that God dwells in
him by the Spirit of God in him and the love that it produces.
That's what he's saying. You know it by the Spirit of
God that dwells in you and the love. You know when When you hear the Gospel, you
know when you hear the Gospel, you love it. When Henry preached
here, was it two Wednesday nights ago? I sat there and I just,
and you did too, not just me, you did too. You bathed in it. It tasted so good. I told him
when we went out, I said, Henry, that was a well-cooked meal.
That was a well-cooked meal. It was good, wasn't it? Well,
I hope and I believe that there's some evidence there that the
Spirit of God's in me and in you. You enjoy the Gospel. You love it. It tastes good. And you love the brethren. Hereby,
he says in verse 13, Hereby know we that we dwell in Him. This is how we know we dwell
in Him. Not by sight. Here's how we know we dwell in
Him. He in us. Because He's given us of His
Spirit. The Scripture says He is shed
abroad in our hearts. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He's given us of His Spirit.
Witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And when
His Spirit is present, when it's present, love is present. Love is present. True love for
the brethren. True love for the gospel. And
if the Spirit of God is in you, and in me, we cannot help but love one another.
You can't help it. You cannot help but show mercy.
It troubles me. It troubles me. But I see people
make professions. And yet, that spirit of love and mercy
and kindness just doesn't seem to be there. John said it in
one place, you can say what you want to say. You can say this
and you can say that. You can say what you believe.
But if this is absent, if this is absent, God's absent. I don't
want to be fooled. I don't want to be fooled. Personally,
I don't want to make a profession, go through life, go through the
motions, and never possessing Christ. And one of the evidence of it
is that you love one another and that you love God.