I invite you this morning to
turn with me to 1 John chapter 4. My subject is this, the love
of God. Without a doubt, this is one
of John's favorite subjects. of all the disciples, of all
the apostles, John is the only one who referred to himself as
that disciple whom Jesus loved. Nothing so fascinated and captured
the heart of this evangelist than the thought that the true
and living God might love him. Now you think about it. God's love. It's so immense. It's so eternal. It's so beyond anything that
we could possibly know. The thought that God who created
the world, God who has an everlasting purpose. God who is so far above
us could love me. Huh? But you say God loves everybody.
Is that true? Huh? Most people say it is. The overwhelming majority of
people say that it is. But according to the word of
God, that's just not so. If it were true, let me just
give you a few things to think about. If it were true that God
loves all mankind, then none could ever perish. If that's true, if God loves
all mankind equally, then none could ever perish because nothing,
the word of God says, can separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, Romans 8, 35 through 39. If he loves everybody, then nobody
can perish. because nothing can separate
you from his love. If it were true that God loved
all people everywhere, then the scriptures are broken because
he plainly tells us in Romans chapter 9 that he loved Jacob
and hated Esau. And he plainly tells us in the
scriptures that he hateth all the workers of iniquity. If God loved all mankind indiscriminately,
then why would Christ refuse to make intercession for them
in his intercessory prayer in John 17? Listen to this, John
17, 9. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me. for they
are thine. He wouldn't pray for the world.
He didn't make intercession for the world. Why? Because he didn't love the world. That's why. If God loved all
of Adam's race, then none could ever fall away because I just
read to you a few moments ago that love never faileth. If God's love was universal,
then He would, without a doubt, save all men, redeem all men,
and reconcile all men, and justify all men, because He says in our
text here in 1 John 4, in this was manifested the love of God
toward us, because if God sent His only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through Him. And then lastly, if God's love
is for every man, woman, and child, then there can't be a
hell and there can't be a judgment because the scripture says he
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. The love of God. What would it
be to know, I mean to know, that God loves you. Huh? Wouldn't that mean something? It'd mean everything. Now God is love. That's what
scripture said. God is love. It is the very essence
of His being. He could no more cease to love
than He could cease to be just or righteous. God is love, but His love, like
His grace and His mercy, is particular. It's sovereign love. He loves
whom He will. In His high priestly prayer in
John 17, He makes this statement in verse 23, talking about those
that the Father gave Him. He said, I in them, and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. God is gracious. But He's not
gracious to all men. God is merciful, but not to everyone. God is kind, but not to all people. And God is love, but His love
is sovereign love, and He shows it to whom He will. And I know
this about God's love. His love is unchangeable. Absolutely unchangeable. God
doesn't change. This whole generation pictures
God changing. You do this and you do that,
you exercise your will, you do this, you quit, you quit your
sinning, you quit your drinking, whatever you're doing, you quit
all that and you seek God and then God will change his mind.
God doesn't change. Only thing I can find changing
in the scripture is men that God changes. God doesn't change. He's not gonna change to save
his son. And I know he's not gonna change
to save you. He doesn't change. Whom he loves,
whom he manifests his love to in time, he's always loved. Let me read you something. This
just came to me over in the book of Ephesians. Let me read you
something over here. in Ephesians chapter 1. He says in verse 3, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Now we're talking about all the
blessings of God, all of them. And all of these blessings are
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy. He chose us in him that
we should be holy. He chose us in him that we would
be without blame. Now watch this. Before him in
love. Is that talking about before
him you loving him? No. I'm talking about before
him being loved. Because this is what we have
in Christ before the foundation of the world. He chose us in Christ that we
might sit before him in love. And where is that love? It's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that right? He says in the book of James,
with God there is no bearableness, neither shadow of turning. And
then the old prophet said this. The Lord said to his old prophet,
he said, I am the Lord, I change not. That's pretty clear, ain't
it? Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now there's
three things that I want you to see in our text concerning
the love of God. A vast subject. We can preach
on the love of God for months and months and months. It just,
you can't exhaust it. And I'm not gonna attempt to
exhaust it this morning. I just wanna show you a few things
about it. And three things in particular that I found here
in 1 John chapter four. First of all, the Holy Ghost
makes it abundantly clear that the only way that you can know
the love of God toward you personally That's what we're interested
in, isn't it? I wanna know if God loves, I
don't wanna think he does, I don't wanna assume that he does, I
wanna know. And the only way that you can
know the love of God toward you personally is by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The first six verses. Now, you
can read John chapter 10 And those Pharisees got angry, and
they said, if thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told
you. But you believe not, because
you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. And they all do. And because
they hear his voice, he manifests his love to them. And they know
something about the love of God. The first six verses of 1 John
chapter 4 are about discerning the difference between preachers'
sin of God and preachers who say they're sin of God but are
not. And he tells us to believe not every spirit. Strange way
to start a chapter about love, isn't it? No. No, it's right
on the button. Right on the button. Just because
a man says he is of God doesn't mean that he is. That was a man
that outrun everybody. Come to David, and David said,
what news do you have? And he said, well, I don't have
any news. And he said, well, you stand right over there. I'm
looking for somebody that has the news. Man decides to be a preacher.
Sitting there in the pew, he heard something the pastor said.
He heard some pleas. He heard some relatives put their
arm around him and said, boy, you'd make a good preacher. You'd
make a good preacher. So he decides to be a preacher
and he goes to seminary, goes down, signs up, pays his tuition,
goes to school, graduates with honors, gets a degree, sent to
pastor a church, recommended by some denomination somewhere, gets to the church, hangs his
diploma up on the wall, doctor whatever of divinity, hangs it
right there on the on the wall in the pastor's study, puts on
the robe that the church provided for him, steps up behind the
pulpit and declares that he's God's ambassador to the world. Does that make it so? No, no,
no. Does that make him God's preacher?
John said, believe not every spirit, Try the spirits, whether
they be of God. And John calls them spirits.
You ever wonder why he calls them spirits instead of preachers?
Because every man who stands before men is indwelt by spirit. And it's either the spirit of
God or it's the spirit of Satan, one or the other. It's a foul
spirit, it's a lying spirit, or it's the Spirit of God. In
Ephesians 2, 2, Paul writes of believers before their conversion. He describes them this way, walking
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
who now worketh in the children of disobedience. Paul talked about those who would
come preaching another Jesus. Now listen, with another spirit. Isn't that what he said? Now, the Lord told the Pharisees
that they were of their father, the devil, and the lust of their
father they would do. Try the spirits, he said, whether
they be of God. All right, now watch this. 1
John 4, verse 2. Hereby I know you the Spirit
of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come into the flesh is of God. Now, that's a general statement.
But I'm gonna help you to understand it a little bit. I'm gonna give
you three things here that's contained in it. First of all,
by saying he came into the flesh, means it speaks of his pre-existence. Does it not? You can't come into
the flesh if you weren't already somewhere. Where was he? He said, I come
down from heaven, isn't that what he said? That's what the
scripture says, he came down from heaven. This is talking
about his pre-existence. John said, in the beginning was
the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. You
can't preach Christ coming into the flesh, except you preach
Christ in heaven before he came. He was one with the Father, he's
the second person of the Godhead. All things were made by Him.
He's the Creator. In saying that He came into the
flesh, He's saying that He always was, that He dwelt before with
the Father, co-equal with the Father, and second person of
the Godhead. And then secondly, in saying
that He came into the flesh, He's saying that He become one
with the people. There's some reason for Him to
come into the flesh. He didn't just come into the
flesh so you could see Him. There's a reason why He came
into the flesh. He took not on Him the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He took on Him our flesh, our
bones. Made one with us, a real man. And then thirdly, he's saying
that because he came in the flesh, he came on purpose. I came not
to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. The cause of his coming, his
doing and dying is declared in this simple statement, he came
into the flesh. In verse 20 of 1 John chapter
5 he says this, he sums all this up and he says this, we know
that the son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know him that's true. That we're in him that's true,
even in his son Jesus Christ, this is the true God. and eternal
life. So then we determine whether
or not the Spirit of God accompanies the man we're listening to by
the gospel he preaches. If he's not preaching Christ
crucified, he's not sin of God. If he's not preaching Christ,
the God-man, he's not sin of God. And I'm gonna tell you something,
all this tongues and all this stuff, people are talking about
the Spirit and the Spirit working independently in the world and
popping into men's minds in their closet and out of books and everything
else. It's a bunch of malarkey. The Spirit of God will only speak
of Christ. And when He speaks, He'll speak
through a man. Now you can do what you want
to with that, but it's so anyway. 1 John 4, verse 5. They are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world,
and the world heareth them. Those, John says, who come with
the spirit of antichrist have no gospel light. They are of
the world. They fit in so well with the
world that the world hears them. The world loves them. The world
embraces them and the world follows them. Their message denies the
very nature of Christ as God come into the flesh and they
deny the effectual and sufficient and substitutionary work of Christ. They always leave the final welfare
of men's souls to their free will and to their works. or in some way man's assistant
to accomplish his own redemption. Their message is all man. It's all man. It's all about
man. Man's will, man's decision, man's
glory. All about man. What's man gonna
do? It's all up to you. Isn't that
what they preach? All right. That's enough about
that. The second thing I want you to
see about this love is its source. Now it's going to come, this
love is going to come, this understanding is going to come through the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way you can know
Him, that's the only way you can hear Him. How are you going
to call on Him in whom you have not believed? And how are you
going to believe in Him of whom you have not heard? And how are
you going to hear without a preacher? I didn't ask that, the Holy Ghost
asked that. And then I want you to see the
source of this love. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7 Beloved,
let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God. is of God. You're not born with
it. That's what we really thought
at one time. That's what this world believes.
You're not born with it. It's not something undiscovered,
lying dormant in your nature. Not something you didn't know
was there or had ignored for whatever reason. and then suddenly
was brought out into the open. You can't understand love because
you have nothing to compare it to. What will you compare it to? You have nothing to relate it
to. He said, I'm God. Beside me there is none other.
To whom were you liking me? Huh? You can't liken His mercies
to yours. You can't liken His love to yours.
You have nothing to compare it to. It is of God. And if God's not pleased to make
it known, you'll never know it. It's of Him. He's the source. Verse 10, herein is love. Not
that we love God. But he loved us. He loved us. You cannot determine the presence
or absence of this love by self-examination because it was never there in
the first place. And it's not of you. And this
so-called love of God that men say they have, smile, God loves
you, God is love. Love is of God. Not that we loved Him, but that
He loved us. In order for God's love to be
known, God must be willing to manifest it because He is the
source of it. And this love, I'll remind you,
must be known by faith and it must be manifested by God because
He's the source. All right? And here's the question. Has God manifested His love? It wasn't in my nature. It wasn't
in anybody's nature around me. Has God manifested? We can't
know it unless He does. Has He manifested His love? Now don't miss this, 1 John 4
verse 9. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us. That's what we want to know,
ain't it? Boy, it's what I want to know. Because that God sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through
him. In spite of our sinful natures,
in spite of our evil deeds, in spite of our eagerness and darkness
in worship, in spite of our daily rebellion and love of the world,
in spite of our phony professions and religious practices, in spite
of our continual transgression of His law, God commended His
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Now there it is. There it is. Do you believe that? Huh? God commended his love toward
us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5 and verse 8. We were by nature the children
of wrath even as others, but God who is rich in mercy and
for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. Oh, my soul. I've been digging treasure in
the wrong field. I've been mining for gold in
the wrong mine. That love's not in me, it's in
Him. I've been looking in the wrong
place. Love is in Him. You want to know something about
love, look to Him. You want to know if God loves
you, look to Him. Love is in the same place grace
is. It's in the same field that mercy
is. Love is in the same vessel that
kindness is. Paul said when he discovered
it, he said, I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. God said, here's my love. It's
in my son. It's in my son. All my soul. And I look to him and I see eternal,
effectual, unchangeable, all-sufficient love. Those he loved, he loved
to the end. In 1 Corinthians 13, the Holy Ghost
inspires another term for love. I read it to you a while ago.
Charity. What is charity? That's active
love. That's love in motion. God's
love is active. It doesn't lie dormant in God
the way things lie dormant in us. It's active. It's always
been active. As unbelievable as it may sound,
Christ says in John 15, 9, as the Father hath loved me, so
I have loved you. Why? And then in John 17, 23, he says,
I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. Can you even imagine God the
Father pouring out the fury of His wrath on His well-beloved
Son? Forsaking Him on a Roman tree
with common criminals, making His soul an offering for sin? Can you even draw a picture in
your mind of it? Sitting on His righteous throne
of justice and making His Son a curse for us? All the lashing
and spitting and public ridicule, all the mocking and scoffing
and laughing at him while he suffered and died on the cross,
all the betrayal and lies and deceit, all of the denial, false
accusations and cruel judgments. Yet the scripture said they did
what God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done. Why? Because He loved us. Isn't that it? He loved us. Boy, I tell you,
that's a pool I want to look into. I want to look into that
pool. All the love. Has God manifested
His love? Can it be seen? Has He in some
way communicated this love? You're in his love. Not that
we loved him, but that he loved us. How do you know he loved
you, Luke? He called you. Huh? My sheep hear my voice. He called
you. He doesn't call people he don't
love. You don't believe because you're
not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I call them and they come
out. Who's he called? Whom he loved. Is that right? Who does he give
this gift of faith to? Those he loved. Because you're sons, and you're
not a son if you're unloved, are you? Because you're a son,
God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart crying,
Abba, Father. Not that we loved Him, but that
He loved us. Sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And that's where it's discovered.
And that's where you can find it. And that's where you can
keep on finding it. Well, how do we receive it? Well, it's the fruit of His Spirit
and grace. That's how you receive it. Listen
to this, 1 John 4, 7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth, now watch this,
is born of God. Oh. Oh. Well, how's a man born? Tells
you in the Gospel of John right up front in chapter one. Tells
you. It's not of blood. and it's not
of the will of the flesh and it's not of the will of man,
it's of God. That's how you're born. We're
born of God. Born of His Spirit. And everybody
born of God knows God. Love is the sure evidence of
faith. If a man has faith, he has love.
If a man has love, he has faith. It's the fruit of the same vine,
is it not? He that loveth not knoweth not
God. It's that simple. He don't know God. He don't know
God. It's the gift of God. It's the
fruit of regeneration. Except you be born again, you
cannot perceive the kingdom of God. And as faith is the fruit
of God's Spirit in regeneration, so the fruit of the Spirit is
love. Isn't that what he tells us over
in the book of Galatians? Right up front, love, love. You cannot bear fruit without
being grafted into the vine. John knew all these things, see,
just almost all of these scriptures I'm quoting to you come from
John. That was his favorite subject. He loved to talk about the love
of God. Christ said, I'm the true vine.
My father's the husband man. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.
You can't bear the fruit of love apart from Christ, but if you
be grafted into him, you're gonna bear all the fruit. Not just
love, but faith, joy, all of these things. You're gonna bear
all the fruit. Now let me tell you something. The
gospel is the seed of regeneration. That's the gospel seed. Paul
said he planted, not live plants, but gospel seed. He planted,
and another watered, and God gave the increase. Where there
is no seed, there'll be no crop, and where there is no crop, there'll
be no fruit. Now that's just so. And that's
what John's teaching in this chapter. You discern whether
that man standing before me has the message of God. If he has
the message of God, I don't care if he looks like Clarabel the
Clown, you better listen to it. Because he's God's man of that
hour, he is, if he's got that message. Now if he don't have
that message, walk out the door. Get in the car and go home. But
if he has the message, you better sit down and tune your ears in. Where there is no seed, there'll
be no crop. And where there is no crop, there
gonna be no fruit. Now let me ask you this, and
I'll close. How can you and I know if we
truly have the love of God in us. Wouldn't you like to know
that? Well, you can. You can know it.
And it gives us two ways here in our text. First of all, obedience. You know how a man knows if a
woman really loves him? if she listens to him. That's
right, if she'll listen. Obedience, 1 John chapter five,
verse three. This is the love of God that
we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous.
What are his commandments? To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and love one another. Can you do that? Obedience and love. And then the second thing is
this. Everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that
is begotten of him. How does God love? How can he love a sinner? How could he love me? Unconditionally. The way he loves me is through
his son. Everything that that love demands
of you was provided in his son. Is that right? Well, how can I love you? Well,
if I know something about this love, the same way. I love you
because everything that I demand of you was provided in his son. Is that right? So I love you. You may irritate the life out
of me, but I love you. I love you. Be kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another. even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven us. Huh? We can love one another
with the same love because now we know what that love is. And
that love is made possible in Christ. And if I really believe
on Christ and I really understand that love, then I ought to be
able to love anybody begotten of him. Is that right? But we won't think of it like
a passion, don't we? It's not a passion. Not a passion. We love him because he first
loved us. And I love you for the same reason
he loved me. Christ died for you. Christ gave
himself for you. Christ's purpose to redeem you.
And you're a son and you're a fellow heir with me, all my soul. Why can't we love one another?
Huh? Because we don't know what love
is. That's why. May God be pleased to teach us.
Thank you.