1 John chapter 4 and verse 7. And we'll read down to verse
16. 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. 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 loved 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 hath 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 hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour 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. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. Among the highest and the most
blessed privileges that are given to the church, given to God's
people here upon earth, is Christlikeness. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
like us that we might be made like him. He took our human body
that we might have his spiritual body. He took our flesh that
we might have his spirit. He became one with us that we
might be one with him. And whether we think of this
in terms of our being united to him, or growing together with
him, like the vine and its branches, or showing forth his likeness,
or being conformed to his image, or by bearing fruit by the indwelling
of His Spirit, all good New Testament images and pictures of this union
and relationship that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. What
we discover from New Testament reading is that God's great purpose
is to make us like Christ. We are His workmanship to that
glorious end. Created a new man in righteousness. Created in true holiness. I like that little reference
there. I think it's from Ephesians chapter four, verse 24. Created in true holiness. You see, men and women like to
imagine their own holiness. They like to think of themselves
as worthy of God's blessing by the things that they do. It's
the natural man's thorn. He always sees himself in any
good work that he can do. but true holiness is divine holiness. It's God's righteousness imparted,
imputed to the people of God at the behest of God. And so he has created a new man
in righteousness, true holiness, that is renewed in the knowledge
after his son. Now we struggle to come to terms
with that in our lives, I know. We struggle to discern that true
holiness in our own lives because we are aware of our sin and our
shortcoming. We're aware of our fleshy weaknesses,
our natural passions that rise up and often boil over. And that's why faith is so important
when we come to read these passages and consider these things, because
it is necessary for us to discern these things spiritually. Our discernment is by faith. based upon the things that God
has said. By faith, the sons of God hear
the gospel, hear what God has done. We trust in God's word,
by faith. And though we do not see outwardly,
that true holiness and though we do not consider ourselves
because of our fleshiness and because of our old man as being
holy yet we believe that in Christ the Father does see us as holy
and righteous in Him. And that is a great divide. We feel unworthy, we feel our
sin, we feel the weight of our flesh and yet we read the Word
of God and by faith we believe. that we are righteous and holy
and blameless in Christ. Why? Because this is God's great
purpose. This is the handiwork of the
Almighty. That we should be like Christ. His workmanship to that end. Now the passage before us today
is speaking about love and love is one of those spiritual gifts,
one of those characteristics of the new man, of the new birth. We are told that it is the principal
fruit of the spirit. And John here is writing to those
who are beloved of God. That's the opening word in our
opening verse here today. Beloved, those who are loved
of God, and in whom the blessings of grace have been implanted,
in whom the love of God dwells. This, as John shows in the previous
chapter, verse 14 of chapter three, leads the believer to
love God in return. And we respond in kind to our
brethren. That implantation, that grace
that has been bestowed, that has been created, that has been
birthed in us, shows forth in the way that we act. so that
God enables what he requires. Here is this principle again
that we've been speaking of for these past weeks. God enables
that which he requires. He looks to his church and people
for the love back to him, returning our love to him for what he has
done and loving one another. So he implants that love, his
love, in the soul of his people. He supplies what He desires,
what He desires from us. So that in verse 19, we didn't
actually read it today, but we will come to it in the coming
weeks, God willing, we love Him because He first loved us. And
John is writing to those who are beloved of God. Because He
has first loved us, He has communicated that grace, that love of God
into our hearts that we might love Him, that we might love
Christ, that we might love the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit,
and our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Now there are many
delightful statements and phrases in these verses that we could
dwell upon and pause upon and think about. But because my purpose
is to encourage the Lord's little ones who struggle with faith,
I want to follow the direction of the beloved disciple here
as he teaches us about God's love to us, what it enables in us, and what
it supplies to us. And I think we want to dwell
upon the source of that love, the nature of that love, the
effect of that love, and the experience of that love. The source and the nature, the
effect and the experience of God's love, God's affection to
us and in us. And as we do that together for
a few minutes this morning, we shall remember God's great purpose
that we touched upon in the introduction of bringing those that he loves
into conformity with his son and making us like him. So the first thing that I want
to think about today, this morning, this afternoon, is the source
of that love. And it's very straightforward.
The source of love is God. And the Apostle John repeats
that several times in these verses that we've read together. He
says God is love. God is love and that is a divine
attribute. of our God. It is characteristic
of him, it is at the very heart, the very heart of that which
is God, the very nature of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Now we need to be careful here
when we think about God and the attributes of God and the nature
of God because we always have to be humble and we always have
to be a little bit circumspect that we don't become presumptuous
in imagining that we can know God in all of his infinite glory
and majesty because that just isn't going to happen. Yet we
discover that John here in this passage speaks much about us
knowing God. So here is the balance that we
have to make. We need to recognise with some
degree of humility that what we know of God is what he reveals
to us of himself. He has spoken and he has revealed
himself through the prophets in the Old Testament, through
the workings of his handiwork in this world, particularly through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He has revealed himself but we
come to the great, glorious, infinite God with a degree of
humility because he is unfathomable and his love is unfathomable. He is inexplicable. It's my job to come to you today
and endeavour to the best of my ability to explain what I've
been studying, what I've been thinking about, what I've been
reading about in the Word of God, desiring to bring a message
to do your heart's good, to encourage and comfort you, a message which
I believe the Lord has given me. And yet I feel so inadequate
to do that because I am wrestling with things that are incomprehensible
of the omnipotent, omniscient God. He is infinite and all we
can begin to know of Him is what He has revealed and we will spend
eternity getting to know our God. God exists and the God who exists
The God who is almighty rules, directs, sustains and
loves. God loves. It is the guiding
principle, we are told, of the true God. He loves. And I think perhaps it might
be interesting or useful just to make a quick contrast here
because the idolatrous gods of the heathen people, they were
perceived as playing with men and women. teasing men and women,
even tormenting men and women, dealing maliciously, dealing
capriciously with the lives of men and women, playing dice with
their lives. But that is not the God that
is revealed in Scripture. That is not our God. Our God
is a God of love. And our God has revealed that
love to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And yet I cannot any
more explain the love of God as explain God himself. Why does
God love sinners? Because he does. Because it is
who he is. Because God is love. Whom does he love? He loves whomsoever
He chooses to love. It's His prerogative to love
whomsoever He will, because He is God. And there's no pre-existing
criteria here. There's no, as it were, set conditions
or playbook that comes into effect in this matter. This is God that
we are speaking of. This is the love of God, the
love of the infinite God who is answerable to no man. So John twice says to us in this
passage, no man hath seen God at any time. He cannot be comprehended. He cannot be understood. He cannot fit into our comprehension. We can't explain him, nor are
we in any position to judge him because he is God and he judges
us. Paul, he uses the image of the
potter and the clay to make this point and it's a well-made point. The potter makes the pot according
to his desire and sometimes it's a good pot and sometimes it's
not a good pot. But it's God's prerogative. The
potter makes the pot. Some to honour, some to dishonour. God is not obliged to explain
himself to man. He is not answerable to man. He has revealed what he has revealed
and we are to take these things with humility and we are to take
them with an attitude of worship. Job, in the Old Testament, had
to learn that lesson from God, and he had to repent because
of his presumption. Let us never presume to be able
to comprehend God. Listen to what Job had to say.
He said, I have uttered that I understood not. Things too wonderful for me,
which I knew not, All we know is what God chooses to reveal
and all we know is what God has chosen to do and therefore we
look to the effects of that love and the way in which it has been
revealed. Just before we think about the
effects of that love, I want to just briefly think about the
nature of God's love also. And this was the second point
that we had. The nature of God's love. We've thought about the
source, it comes from God because God is love. And the nature of
God's love, well, we were thinking about it with Abraham a little
bit earlier. It is covenantal. Agreements and promises and divine
undertakings have been made by the triune God based upon his
love for his people. Because he is love and because
he has a people upon which he has placed that love, he has
entered into covenants to do them good. That covenant or that
great covenant is called the everlasting covenant and God
spoke to Abraham about the everlasting covenant. That's an amazing statement.
Imagine men being able to conceive of an everlasting covenant with
God, not because we maintain our end of the bargain, but because
God in the triunity of persons has covenanted together to deliver
his people for the sake of his love. There is that resolute
determination on the part of the triune God to secure salvation
and do good to those whom he loves. The Apostle Paul in Romans
8 sets out what is sometimes called the golden chain of salvation. Election, foreknowledge, predestination,
calling, justification, glorification, all are founded on covenant love. And every gift Every grace, every
mercy that flows from God to the people of his choice and
the people of his desire and the people of his heart flow
to them from the love of God towards them. and they flow to
them in order to accomplish this end. Paul speaks about it in
Ephesians chapter one, verse four. He says, according as he
hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That's what God is doing. That's what God has done. That's
what the covenant purpose is. So God's love is in its nature
covenantal. That he might bless his people
and make them holy, that we would be blameless before him in love. The other thing about God's love
as far as its nature is concerned is that it is everlasting. Now,
that might appear obvious, but let me say it once again. As
God himself is eternal, and as God is unchangeable, so his love
towards his people is eternal and unchangeable. It is from
everlasting to everlasting. The love of God has no beginning,
and it has no end. and it has no alteration. Sometimes
we find that amazing because we think to ourselves, God's
love must ebb and flow towards me based on the way that I live,
the things that I do, the way that I talk, the disappointments
and the hurt that I cause around about me. But God is constant
and his love is constant. It won't run out. It won't wear
out. It won't bow out. I have loved
you, says the Lord, because I love you. I love you still and I always
will. God will not, cannot give up
on those he loves because he is love and it is of the very
nature of God to love his people. His love will endure. So drawing on Jeremiah 31 and
John 13, verse one, we can say this, if I can be allowed to
merge these two verses together. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee, and having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them unto the end. So God's love is covenantal
in its nature, it is everlasting in its nature, and it's purposeful
in its nature. It has a design, it has a purpose
and an intent. People talk about, oh, we wish
we knew the meaning of life. Well, this is the meaning of
life. God has a purpose. God controls and manages this
world to accomplish his purposes. And he does that personally,
purposefully, and powerfully. The world asks for meaning in
life. Let me tell you what the meaning
in life is. I'm reading from Ephesians chapter
two, verse four to seven. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages
to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
a staggering passage? God said to Jeremiah, I have
loved you with an everlasting love. And the purpose of this
world, the purpose of this life, the purpose of God's covenant
relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
is that, hark, in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. That's the purpose of God's love. Okay, now I want us to come and
think about some of the accomplishments of God's eternal love, his covenantal
love, and his purposeful love. because it is God's love, and
because God is sovereign and all-powerful, God's will and
power secures and delivers all that God loves and all that God
desires. Now, that shouldn't be questionable. That's not rocket science. That is just a clear statement
of the word of God. This is God's love. God is love
and God is sovereign and powerful and he will accomplish that which
he desires. He'd not be God. He would not
be God if that love was denied or that love was disappointed.
What kind of God wants to save everyone, tries to save everyone,
desires to save everyone, longs for all men and women to be saved,
but has to settle for the vast majority rejecting his appeals,
despising his offer of grace and mercy and life? What kind
of God is that? What redeemer spills his blood
to buy millions who go to hell? What divine spirit gives up on
those whom the Father loves and for whom Christ died, atoned
for and spilled his blood? What kind of covenant God is
that? So therefore let us think about
the effect of God's love. It is purpose fulfilled. What God loves, he does. Salvation was planned by the
Father, accomplished by the Son, and applied by the Holy Spirit. And that's what John is describing
here when he goes through these verses before us. That's what
he means. He means that, verse nine, we
have new life in Christ, that we might live through him, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the effect of God's love,
that we might live through him, that he might show his kindness
to us. Verse 10, we have peace with God. That's what God's love
accomplishes, peace with God, because he sent his son to be
the propitiation for our sins. Verse 14, a plenteous redemption. He sent the Lord Jesus Christ
out of a heart of love to be the saviour of the world. Now we're not going to get tangled
up in any foolishness of the universalists who look at that
little phrase in there and say, see we told you, the Lord God
is going to save everybody because he's the saviour of the world.
That simply means, in John's language, and it's interesting
the breadth sometimes that John uses in these matters, but it
simply means that he is the saviour not of the Jews only, but of
the Gentiles also. And it's the Gentiles that are
chiefly intended by the phrase, the world. We can see that throughout
scripture. It's a reference the saviour
of the world to all the elect of God. All who are called his
people, his sheep, his friends, his church, the sons of God,
as John has already described us. All that John is writing
to under the title Beloved of God. all who believe in him,
all who hear the gospel and believe in him throughout the whole world. Men and women, boys and girls,
without distinction of nation or age or sex or state or condition,
rich or poor, old or young, wise, foolish. Here we see that the Lord Jesus
Christ is being set forth in the world as the only able, willing,
and complete saviour. He is the saviour of the whole
world. There is no other, and he saves
with an everlasting salvation. So my final point is this. John
tells us that this great and everlasting salvation that flows
from the heart of God, the love of God, and that accomplishes
the will of God does not come alone, but it brings personal
experience with it. Personal experience of conversion,
personal experience of faith, that we are led to confess our
sins. We are given a knowledge of God
through the preaching of the gospel. We have hope in that
which we have heard, that which we have seen by the eye of faith
in the person Jesus Christ. We have a Holy Spirit quickening
and an understanding given to us. At God's instigation, in God's
timing, the Holy Spirit brings sinners to grace. They experience
a sense of their sin, a pricking of their conscience, an awareness
of unworthiness. the weakness of their flesh.
They experience that. They have a knowledge of that. And they have a knowledge of
Christ because he is presented to them in the gospel. The arrangement
of God's providences has brought them to that place where they
have heard a message that they never heard before. Or maybe
they heard preaching before, but not like this. Maybe they
heard about Christ before, but not like this. We're given a
knowledge of Christ, who he is, what he has done. And we have
faith in God. And we have hope in that gospel
message of God's faithfulness. All that is needful for salvation
comes from the love of God, is provided by the love of God. is freely given to us by the
love of God to all and for whom it was eternally purposed, intended and granted with all
that has been purchased on our behalf as a result of it. All
the elect of God shall hear the truth. All the elect of God shall
believe the gospel. All shall find hope in the death
of the substitute and trust in the faithfulness of the Father's
love for the salvation they need and for the salvation that they
desire. And all shall confess that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. as only those who are loved of
God can. There is a delightful verse that
sums up today's message in the prophecy of Ezekiel. And I'm just going to give you
that verse now, and that's our sermon complete. The verse is
found in Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 8. and the Lord is speaking,
and here is what he says. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God. and thou becamest
mine. Oh, the love of God and the blessedness
of that love to our hearts and souls. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us. Now we will sing, no we won't,
we will recite another hymn together. It's hymn 195 in the Gadsby Selection. If you want to follow along in
the little sheet that's there, if you don't get that sheet,
if you would like that sheet, I can send it to you. I send
it out usually on a Saturday in anticipation of the service
on the Sunday. I'm happy to do that for you
if you just send me your email address. Here is hymn 195 from
the Gadsby Selection, a hymn by Samuel Medley. Assist my soul, my heavenly King,
thy everlasting love to sing, and joyful spread thy praise
abroad, as one through grace that's born of God. No, it was
not the will of man, my soul's new heavenly birth began, nor
will nor power of flesh and blood that turned my heart from sin
to God. Herein let self be all abased
and sovereign love alone confessed. This be my song through all the
road that born I am and born of God. O may this love my soul
constrain to make returns of love again, that I, while earth
is my abode, may live like one that's born of God. May I thy
praises daily show who hast created all things new and washed me
in a Saviour's blood to prove that I'm a son of God. And when
the appointed hour shall come, That thou wilt call me to my
home, Joyful I'll pass the chilling flood, And die as one that's
born of God. Then shall my soul triumphant
rise To its blessed mansion in the skies, And in that glorious
bright abode Sing then as one that's born of God. Amen.