1 John chapter 4. You can put
a marker there, we'll come back to it in just a little bit. 1 John chapter 4. Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God. Because many false prophets are
gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come into the flesh is of God. Now that includes all the reasons
why he came and what he knew he had to do. Everything concerned
with Jesus Christ being born of a woman and coming into this
world. If he confesses that, That Spirit is of God. And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is coming to the
flesh is not of God. And this is that Spirit of Antichrist,
whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already
is, in the world. Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because greater is He that's in you than
he that's in the world. They are of the world. Therefore
speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are
of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God,
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God
dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. I'm going to read that again.
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. We love him because he first
loved us. If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he'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 have we
from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. I invite you to turn back with
me now to 1 John chapter 4. If I were to give John's first
general epistle a theme, it would be this, and we know. What separates believers from
unbelievers? Believers know. They know. They know God. He said to know
God's eternal life. We know, John said. We know. He uses the word know concerning
the faith of God to let more than 20 times in these 5 short
chapters. More than 20 times. And he uses
offshoots of this word many more times. Hereby we know he uses it in
nearly every way it can be used. Hereby we know, because you know,
if you know, we do know. He that knoweth, and on and on
he goes. Why? Why? Because to know God is eternal
life. That's why. Look over in chapter 5 of this
epistle in verse 20. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 20.
Just hold your place there in chapter 4. Most of you will be
on the same page. 1 John chapter 5 verse 20, And
we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given to us an
understanding, that we may know him that is true. And we are
in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is
the true God and eternal life. And in John's Gospel, he quotes
our Lord saying the same thing in John 17. He said, this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom He has sent. So eternal life is not how long
it lasts, it's the quality of it. It is to know God. My subject this morning has to
do with the love of God. And in particular, our love. And even more to the point, our
love made perfect. Oh my soul. Is there anybody
here? that can look inside and say,
my love is perfect. I want us to think according
to what we know by the Holy Scriptures and by the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and by the work of the Holy Spirit in us as to discern these things. So let's begin here with the
source of our love. over in 1 John chapter 4 verse
16. He said, And we have known and
believed the love that God hath to us. What do we know? He says, God is love. God is love. And he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Now here's where
we go wrong, and this is what I want to dig at this a little
bit this morning. Love is not an attribute of man. Get that out of your head. Love
is not an attribute of man. There is no ability in man to
love. It's not in his character. based on people that the whole
world believed to be God's elect. Godly people, holy people. And here's what he said to them.
I know you that you have not the love of God in you. What a horrifying revelation
to one who thinks he knows God. One who's used the term so often,
like a mother might put icing on a cake. Everything they did
in religion, they put that love on there. Smear that love on
there. But Christ said, And he got come
into the flesh, he looked them right in the eye, and he said,
I know you. Boy, if that don't make the hair
stand up on the back of your neck, I don't know what will.
I know you. You don't know you, but I know
you. I know you're downshitting and
you're uprising. I know you. He understood as
I thought afar off. I know your motives as well as
your deeds. I know your heart. I know your
mind. And I know that you have not
the love of God in you. Oh, they said, we be not born
of fornication. We have one Father, even God.
And Jesus saith unto them, if God were your Father, where I proceeded forth and came
from God. Neither came I of myself, but
He sent me. In John 16, our Lord said that
the Holy Ghost will reprove the world of sin. That is, those
He is calling out of this world. He is electing. When the Holy
Ghost comes, He is going to reprove you of sin. How? Of sin. Because they believe
not on Me. They believe not on Him. It is
the love of God that caused Him to send His Son into this condemned
world. I don't know if you've ever read
and studied John chapter 3, but in verse 16, probably the most
famous verse of Scripture, I see it everywhere. I see it on signs,
on church signs, I see it everywhere. For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world. That's not why He came. But that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. How? Way back yonder in Adam. By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Now watch this. Verse 19. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light. Christ said, I'm the light. I'm the light. And men say, no,
we'd rather have darkness. We'd rather have darkness. That's
what we love. We love darkness. Love is not
an attribute of man, but of God. God is love. And you and I are
sinners. Whether you know it or not, you're
drowning in a cesspool of iniquity. We're sinners. Salvations of
the Lord. He doesn't find his elect seeking
Him, calling upon Him, loving Him. He finds them as they are,
depraved rebels, enemies of God. God-haters, like Barabbas of
old, he judged and locked up in the prison cell of his nature,
held there in chains of darkness. The only reason Barabbas walked
free is because another was chosen to die in his stead. That's it. God is the source of all love.
He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. There
is no love anywhere else but in God. That's my point. It's not an attribute in you.
Don't look inside and try to stir it up because it ain't in
there. Alright, here's the second thing
I want you to see. I want you to see whose love
he's talking about here in 1 John 4, 17. Herein is our love made
perfect. Whoa. I know you. You have not the
love of God in you. But herein is your love made
perfect. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. Those who know God know that
God is perfect in His character. His character is called by the
commentators His perfections. His perfections. All His attributes. What God is dictates what God
demands and what God will accept. Salvation is not a flaw in the
character of God, but a manifestation of the glory of that character.
Now watch this here in Ephesians 1-3. This is talking about way
back yonder in eternity. There was not an earth yet. Nobody
was created on it. There wasn't any fish or oceans
or trees or anything. There was nothing. A great void. And He said, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
That, uh-oh, there's some reasons involved. Now here's why. That,
that we should be holy. Nothing in us or about us contrary
to the character of God. You think about that. God looks
on you this morning, Russell, if you're in Christ. God looks
on you just like looking in the mirror. That we should be holy. That,
here's the second reason. We should be without blame. We're all sinners. I told you
that. We're drowning in a cesspool
of iniquity. I told you that. Nothing about it. Everything
we say, do, think, it's all sin. It's all polluted. All polluted. But God has never, not the first
time, ever charged any of his saints with sin. That's unbelievable. Unbelievable. But God's holy. He has to be just. He's perfect
in His justice. How can that be? He charged Him
to His Son. To His Son. That we should be without blame.
That's why He chose us in Christ. And then thirdly, that we should
be before Him in love. Now this is before the foundation
of the world, so I'm fairly positive he ain't talking about your love
for him. He's talking about his love for you. Now I used this
once before. I had a bunch of grandbabies,
and still do, but they were little then. They were nice then. And we'd get some Pygal buckets
of water and they'd play in those buckets, you know, and I'd sit
there in the chair and I'd just look at them and I'd just love
them. They didn't do anything. for me, except disobey. But I loved him. I loved him. I never had a thought of not
loving one ever. This is what God's talking about. When He chose us in Christ, He
did so that He might set you before Him and you'd be there
being loved forever. Forever. The only way that can be so is that our sins are charged to
Him. Charged to Him. He blessed us
according as He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy without blame before Him
in love. And believers know that. They
know that God's love for them is in Christ. It's in Christ. That way it can never change. God's unchangeable. I used to hear that word change
all the time when I was in false religion. I was all the time
talking about God changing his mind. God doesn't change, period.
Never. And you and I have been chosen
in Him and put into an eternal union with Him. And that being
so, we see God's perfect love for us in Him. But now watch
this, and here's where we err all the time. Also, our love
for God is in Him. Now let that sink in. We not only see our righteousness
in Him and our justification in Him, but also that supreme
love. He could not have a perfect obedience
on our behalf except the motive be love. Is that right? The whole
law is hinged on love. Love for God and love for your
neighbor. If that obedience is not motivated with 100% pure
love, God wouldn't accept it. But He accepted His. And He did that on my behalf. He gave to God what I can never
give Him. Perfect love. Perfect love. Never a time when He didn't love
His Father. When His wrath was being poured
out on the cross, He loved the Father. Love held him there,
not them nails. Love kept him there. Love fastened
him to the tree. Love was behind everything he
did. He loved us and gave himself
for us. And knowing that love. That's
what John's talking about here. We know that love that God has
for us. Do we? Knowing that love He has for
me. I love Him every time. But oh,
how pitiful. How pitiful that love is. In 1 John 4, verse 7, He said,
Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and every
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. You can't know God and
not love. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. Now watch this. He's going to tell you what this
love is. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He loved us. So what does all this mean? Here's
what it means. It means that the everyday affairs
of my life should be performed out of love for God. That's what
that means. Am I going to see you in need
and not give to it? Not if I love God. It's going
to dictate all my affairs in this world. My love for Him. Did God manifest His love for
me while I was yet an enemy of God? Then let me love my enemy. Did God commend His love for
me and that while I was yet a sinner Christ died for me? Then let
me love even the lowest sinner. And if love is the fulfilling
of the law, let me obey God out of love. Now this is the first thing it means.
It means that all the everyday affairs of my life should be
performed out of love. If I have the gift of prophecy,
Paul said, and understand all mysteries, and have all knowledge,
and have all faith, so that I could say to this mountain, be you
removed, and that mountain would move. And have not charity, I'm
nothing. It was all a show. And even if I were a great orator, I'm not.
But if I were, and have not charity. I'm sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal. And then secondly, that's our
love. Our love. That's what it does. It governs
all our things, everything we do. Secondly, it means as I look
to eternal issues, sins forgiven, judgment, Resurrection
at the last day. I must look to that love which
is mine in my representative. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus. Listen to this. This is our Lord's
high priestly prayer. John 17 verse 22. And the glory
which thou hast given me, that is the character God and a man,
the glory of that I've given to them, that they may be one,
even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou
has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me. And I have declared unto them
by name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Verse John 4, 17. Herein, this
wonderful revelation of God's love in Christ. Herein is our
love made perfect. I have to have perfect love. If I have perfect obedience,
I have to have perfect love. And both were in Christ, weren't
they? Now watch this. 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. All right, here's the third thing
I want you to see. I want you to see the effect of perfect
love. There is no fear in love. But perfect love, perfect love
now, not this pitiful little affection
that we call love, but perfect love casteth out fear. Because feareth torment, he that
feareth is not made perfect in love. Why do we so often fear things
which are beyond our control? And I'm talking to you here this
morning that are believers. What do we fear? Judgment? Death? Hell, and even everyday unbelief. We're all prone to it. John Newton
wrote one of the most beautiful hymns. It's in every hymn book
I've ever owned. Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace. But he also wrote this hymn. Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord, or no? Am I His, or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless form? Hardly sure can they be worth
who have never heard His name. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I
deem myself a child? My friend, this is where we go
wrong, when we look within. Did you read that in his hymn,
When I Look Within? Don't look within. Ain't nothing
in there, it's a black hole. Don't look within. When we look within for evidence
of God's work, Christ is the only evidence there is. That
pitiful, frail emotion that we call love is not going to extinguish
the fires of hell in our conscience. Oh, but His love, His love, which
is mine, will. It will. This love which is ours by faith
will yield to our minds and hearts a perfect rest even in judgment,
even in death. In Christ is manifested God's
love for us and our love for God. Both had to be true. A sinner's a sinner. There's
no changing it. We need to substitute all the
way, not halfway. All the way. Our love for God in Christ is
manifested in his obedience unto death. Am I obedient? Boy, I wouldn't want anybody
to see it on the screen on the TV. Was he obedient? Perfectly. Our love for God in Christ was
manifested in His obedience unto death, even the death of the
cross. And then lastly, I want us to see the objects of our
love. Verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And every one that loveth is
born of God, knoweth God. And he that loveth not knoweth
not God. God's love. And this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Everything that God is,
is manifested in Christ. He's the way, He's the truth,
and He's the life. There's no knowing God outside
of Christ. The mercy of God manifested in
Christ. The grace of God is shown in
Christ. The justice, wrath, and righteousness
of God is revealed in Christ. And so is His love. He loved
us, sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. He loved us, gave
Himself for us. The object of our love is God. But our only knowledge of God
is in Christ. We love God as He manifests Himself
in His Son. He manifested everything that
He is toward us in His Son. And we manifest everything that
we are in the Son toward Him. He's the mediator. He's the intercessor. Paul wrote to the saints at Colossae
and said, For it pleased the Father that in Him should all
fullness dwell. The love of the Father is made
known by the Son, and the work of the Spirit is made known by
the revelation of Christ in us. And it's not a breach of the
character of God to love the Son of God. You'll never make
me angry loving my son. And you won't make God angry
either. His Son's very name is the Everlasting
Father. Now let me see if I can pull
all this together. In Ephesians 4.12 he tells us to edify the
body of Christ. Keep on preaching to them. Keep
on rightly dividing the truth to them. Keep on teaching them
about these attributes of God. About his accomplished redemption
in Christ. You just keep doing that until
they all come into the unity of the faith. What's that? The knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect unto the measure, now listen,
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. If I'm looking for
something to make me acceptable to God, to please God on my behalf,
it must be that which was accomplished for me in His Son. That does
not do about anything. He did it all. When He cried,
it's finished, He meant it. And if I'm looking for peace
and rest and assurance before God, I must look to what was
accomplished for me. And everything He demanded from
me, He gave me in His Son. And if I'm looking for perfection
in this life, it can only be found in my Savior. And all those
who know this love, love Him. They love Him. But I'm telling
you, when you're getting older like I am, and you begin to look
toward that hole in the ground, look toward death, they're going
to shovel dirt on my box. I've seen it done so many times. Am I going to look to that little
pitiful bit of love that I have toward God and find comfort? But I can look to His love that
He accomplished for me and I can rest in it. I can rest in it.
And you know what? Resting in it, that love is produced
in me. Even though it's pitiful because
it's mixed with flesh and sin, but I have it. I have it. And it governs and dictates everything
that I say and do. I love Him. Let me read this one more time
and then I'll stop. But it's one we love to fulfill.
We love one another. Oh, may God give us some understanding
of this miraculous work that Christ has done.