Just a little bit before the
book of the Revelation, 1 John chapter 4. This is the same John, the Apostle
John, that wrote the Gospel of John, and he also is the penman
for the book called the Revelation. And there are three of these
letters, so that gives us, what is that, five books out of the
New Testament. And on Wednesday night, this
past Wednesday night, we read Romans chapter 8, and our text
was 1 John 4, 19. And I spoke on that verse, and
I intend to do the same. A good many of you were not there,
so I'm going to try to just summarize what I've already covered and
leave ourselves enough time to finish. short but powerful verse
of Scripture. Look at verse 19, 1 John 4, 19. We love Him because He first
loved us. Now let's read the chapter in
which this is stated. 1 John 4, verse 1. Believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false
prophets are gone out into the world." And if that was true
at the end of the first century, what on earth must be true of
our generation without even coming close to overstating it? The
vast majority of today's professing is false religion, and Baptists
are at the top of the list. So don't charge me with being
unfair, picking on the Methodists and the Presbyterians and this
one. Many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby
know you the Spirit of God. Here's one test by which we can
determine if God is indeed a part of something. Every spirit, speaking
of the spirit of the believer, that confesses that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is of God. The Lord Jesus has a human nature
just like we have, He had no sin. And you and I are full of
sin. That's why He was born of the
seed of the woman and not the seed of the man. For it was through
the man that sin is communicated from one generation. We were
made sinners when Adam sinned in the garden. Yes, preacher,
but Eve sinned too. Yes, but she was not our federal
head. nor our federal representative.
Therefore, what she did, we did not. But what Adam did, we did. And you say, well, that's not
fair. Well, if you had more understanding, you might change your story.
Oh, it's far more than fair. It's the blessed grace and goodness
of God to the souls of men. If God counts us guilty, in one
federal head, he can count us innocent in another federal head,
namely the Lord Jesus Christ, whose name, by the way, in our
Bibles, in 1 Corinthians 15, he's called the second Adam and
the second man. God deals with all men through
Jesus. I lost my place. Let me read
verse 3 again. We've got to do it faster than
this. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is not of God. And this spirit that doesn't
confess this is that spirit of antichrist which whereof you
have heard that it should come and even now already is it in
the world. Now speaking to the church, to
believers, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them. Why? Because greater is He that
is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore, speak they of the
world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He that knows
God hears us. He that is not of God hears us
not. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God. Without the new birth, we are
not capable of loving. You know why? In the new birth,
we get a new nature, just like that of our Savior, the Lord
Jesus. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love. In
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. Look at this
with both eyes and both ears. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, the sacrifice that satisfies divine justice for
our sins. If God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. No man. If we love one another, God dwells
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."
With a capital S, that's the Holy Spirit. And we have seen
and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior
of the world. Whosoever shall confess, you
remember that statement back in verse 2? Every spirit that
confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. You've got to put this one right
beside it. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, there he's the Son of Man, and here
he's the Son of God. He's God and man, and yet in
just one person, two distinct natures. Whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in
God. And we know and believe the love
that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells
in love dwells 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 casts out fear. Because fear has torment, he
that fears is not made perfect in love. We love Him because
He first. If God waits to find something
in us, upon which to give us His mercy and His grace. You
and I are headed straight to hell and nothing can stop it.
God does everything because of who and what He is, not what
we are. If a man, verse 20, say, I love
God and hate his brother, he is a liar. For he that loves
not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has
not seen? And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loves God love his brother also." Now we've
got a verse with eight words in it. You think we can cover
that here in just a little bit this morning? Well, they might
be few, but they are absolutely mighty. Now before we begin again, Lord, we bless You and thank
You for the wonderful hymns of Zion. The words, the message,
such a blessing to our souls. What we're singing about our
Redeemer, about our God, this God who first loved us, and who
is the cause of any man's loving Him. Lord, as we come to this
blessed scripture this morning, we readily confess that we have
no power, no ability to accomplish anything regarding the welfare
of our souls. We are helpless to bring ourselves
to know and love you, and we certainly are helpless to bring
others to see and know. Lord, this is divine work. This is the work that only God
can do. We plead and implore your throne
of mercy to meet us in your holy word in this place. And this
whole world over, wherever your true gospel is proclaimed, you
would manifest yourself there. Lord, give us ears to hear and
eyes to see and hearts to understand and spiritual things. And most
especially this morning, to be able to understand a little bit
of your glorious, eternal, everlasting sovereign love, that what you
do in time is simply a revelation of what you are. And as you in
this book, from Genesis to Revelation, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Lord open Our mind and our hearts bless us for Christ's sake. What I tried to do on Wednesday
in regard to this statement in 1 John 4, 19 that we love Him
because He first loved us had to do with doctrine. We called
it doctrinal instruction. Or just the teaching of Holy
Scripture, the lessons that are taught in that one single short
sentence. Here's the first thing out of
that verse. All of this is found in that
verse. First of all, God's love to His people is first. Not our
love to Him and then He loves us. No. We love Him because He
first loved us. And we've covered a good many
scriptures to deal with that. And the reason that God's love
must be first, among other reasons, this is the most powerful and
the most because God's love, it's everlasting. It's unchangeable. God cannot begin to be something. If he's God, he is eternal. He has no beginning. and no end. And His love must reflect Himself. Therefore, God first loved us
because of the eternality of His love. Secondly, the love
of God precedes our seeking. Romans 10.20 says, and I quote, I was found of them, God speaking,
I was found of them that sought Me not." And yet the same Bible
says, unless we seek Him, we'll never find Him. So how do you
resolve the two things? God seeks us first and then we
seek Him because He seeks us. The work must be His from beginning
to end. The God of today's religion is
waiting at your heart's door wanting you to do something.
The God of the Bible is no such God as that. The false God wants
to save everybody. God saves whom He pleases. And
He doesn't leave out a single one chosen in eternity and gave
to you. Now if you can't see that difference
in true and false religion, you've got a problem, a big one, a very
big one. God's love precedes any repentance
on our part. Repentance, as well as faith,
are the gifts of God. And they are given to the sinner
in the new birth when we're born again. Therefore, it cannot be
anything that you and I have come up with or that we put on
the table and bargain with God if we repent. Fourthly, the love
of God had no reason to derive from us anything upon which to
ground itself. God loves us simply because He
would, not because I let Him, because He wills to, He purposes
to, and therefore He must. Divine love is its own cause
and does not derive anything from us. whatsoever. Because
it is uncreated, God's love is unneeded. If God loves me today,
I mean truly. And He has loved me forever.
There's a scripture in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6 that is
a glorious statement indeed. He said, I am the Lord, That is the Lord
God Almighty. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. See, God doesn't love today and
hate the same object tomorrow. If He loves me now, He loves
me forever. And another very important statement.
The love of God is the cause of our love to Him. It says we
love Him because He first loved us. Surely that's what it says. So you put these two things together.
What is the first one? God's love is always number two. God's love is causative. It is always the cause. of our
love to Him. Now if you can embrace those
two things, God's love is first and then our love flows out of
His. In fact, His love, here's the
second thing, causes us to love Him. We can't help ourselves. Now if you can handle those two
things, you ought to be able to handle anything in this book.
the precious, glorious Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ,
His person, God and man in one person. Not just His person,
but His gospel, which is everywhere proclaimed in our Bibles from
the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation 22. And not
just His person and His gospel, but His doctrine, His sovereign
grace, When God said, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy,
and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. You see,
the difference is not in ourselves. The difference is in the God
of all grace and all mercy. So let's bring those things with
us. And we'll work on, I believe it's three other things that
I want to try to address out of that one verse. verse
19 in 1 John chapter 4. Let me read you a little statement.
I forget who wrote this. I found it in some old hymn book.
We choose our God, and then we're blessed. And in His courts we
dwell. Lo, here we find perpetual rest,
and of His goodness tell. How came we the Lord to choose? Why did I choose him? We who are for sin accursed,
this mystery we will soon disclose because God loved us first. So let's test ourselves. in regard to this verse. We love
Him because He loves us. This statement is a principle
that applies in many things as we find them in our Bibles. But
testing our experience by this verse of Scripture, we conclude,
number one, all true believers love God. They cannot help themselves. We must love Him. We cannot know
Him and not love Him. You cannot. Oh, you can know
about Him. You can know what somebody else
said about Him. Do you remember in the 21st chapter,
I believe it is, of John and the disciples had gone back to
their boats and were fishing and the Lord is on the shore
at the break of day hollers out to him and he says, children,
do you have any meat? Do you have any food, any fish? And they said no. Now this is
after his resurrection, maybe about the fourth time that he
had revealed himself. They said no, indicating they
didn't know who he was. They could have said, had they
recognized him, no Lord. Our Lord said, cast the net on
the other side of the ship, and you shall find." And they caught
a school of fish too great to even bring to land, so they jumped
out of their vessels and began to pull that net to the land. And all of a sudden, Peter discovers
who it is. And after that breakfast, our
Lord asked Peter, do you remember what it was? Do you love me?"
And Peter said, yes, Lord. Do you love me? Peter said, Lord,
you know that I love you. And our Lord said a third time,
Peter said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love
you. Now if Peter needed that, don't
you suppose we do too? But there's a special kind of
love that is essential to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every Christian. It is an humble
form of love. And yet believers never boast
of their humility. To do so is to shoot it dead. If we want credit for being so
humble and somebody gives it to us, it's gone, disappears. But a genuine, humble form of
love having to do with our text, 1 John 4.19, is a gracious sense of being
unworthy of God's love. Lord, I'm not worthy of your
love. Why did you love me when you didn't love me? Oh, wait
a minute, preacher. You correct that. God loves everybody. That's a lie straight out of
hell. And I'd be happy to spend my afternoon proving it to you.
I'll tell you one thing. If God loves you, I mean if He
actually loves you, He either has or He will save you. and
you will be in eternity in the presence of Christ, all his children,
all his people. This humility that this kind
of love demands is represented in a beautiful picture in 2 Samuel
chapter 9 when Prior to that chapter, David had inquired if
there were any of Saul's descendants alive anywhere in that part of
the world. David's purpose was to carry
out a promise that he had made to Jonathan. They both promised
each other that they would honor the other, and Jonathan was killed.
And David inquires if there are any of the house of Saul. was
Saul's son. Now the king in that day could
eradicate, murder, kill any descendants of the former king. But David
has no such intention. But this man that he found out
about who was Jonathan's son, his name is real easy to spell,
it's Mephibosheth. And they said, he lives way down
there in a place called Lodabar, which is a place of no pasture.
He got as far away from David as he could possibly get. And
David said, go fetch him. And no doubt Mephibosheth came
back to Jerusalem. But instead, David gave him all
the lands that had belonged to his grandfather Saul. He gave
him a place at his own table continually. for the rest of
his days. And Mephibosheth is overwhelmed
to find out what David wanted with him. And he said to David,
What is your servant? A dog? That you should do such
things as these unto me? You would show me this kind of
favor when my grandfather did his best to kill you? a faint picture of how it is
with God. We do not, we have not, we will
not, and we cannot deserve it. It's free and it's sovereignly
dispensed. Thirdly, the love of God, wherever
it is found, is a sure evidence of the salvation of the person
who possesses it. Number four, if I do not love
God, if I do not love God, what does this mean? Well, it means
that I'm spiritually dead, I'm spiritually blind, and I'm spiritually
blind. May God deliver us. The hymn
writer put it this way, let not conscience make you linger. nor
of fitness fondly dreamed. All the fitness he requireth
is to feel your..." But listen, that's not all of it. This He
gives you, that is, this feeling of our need of Him, this He gives
you, this He gives you, "'Tis the Spirit's rising beam." And
that song is in this hymn book and the one we used to have,
but they butchered it up so much that you can't find that statement
in there anywhere. You can find part of it, but
not all of it, because the editor of that hymn book didn't like
what it went on to say. You and I cannot even of ourselves
feel our need of God. God must give us that as well. Therefore, His love is first,
and His love is the cause. of our love if we endear Him. Alright, the next thing, our
text, 1 John 4, 19 tells us how, you won't catch me using this
word much now, but this verse tells us how to love God. I saw a book one time in a religious
bookstore, it said how to be born again. I think that's a
little above us, don't you? No child ever born itself, physically
or spiritually. It is heaven's work. It is God's
work. How to love God? The Holy Spirit must reveal the
love of God to our heart and perform that miracle of grace
called the new birth and then All at once, everything at once,
that heart loves God. Next, we ought to spend some
time meditating and thinking upon this great, infinite love
of God revealed in Christ. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall
not perish, but have everlasting life." Now the next thing, having
to do with how to love God, there are some requirements that you
and I need to be aware of. Well, preacher, I thought you
said we couldn't do anything. Give me a moment. I'm trying
to make you think. And for me, that becomes more
and more difficult. The only thing required of you
and me is that we be nothing. Be nothing. And we can't do that
anymore than we can be something. It takes grace to be nothing. Have you got Sunday's bulletin,
this morning's bulletin? If you would, just pull it out
a minute. On the first inside page, at
the bottom of the page, is an article written by our friend
and missionary, Clay Curtis, who lives in New Jersey. A poor
boy from Arkansas living in New Jersey. No offense intended. I cannot say it this well. I
wish I could. The problem with sinners is not
that we are unwilling to do something to save ourselves, but we're
unwilling to do nothing that we might be saved by another. Faith takes nothing from you. Faith takes nothing done by you. Faith demands you add nothing,
only believe and continue believing. And that belief and that faith
is a gift of God. Not in anything you have done
or not done. Faith is casting our care, our
whole self, our whole eternal salvation into the hands of Jesus. That's some statement. So what
if our love to God grows cold? And that it will. Don't ever try to cure by beginning
to doubt God's love for you. That's the way to make doubt
worse. We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
as a poor, helpless, ungodly sinner. Even if we cannot trust
Him as a saint, we'll trust Him as a poor sinner, just like we
did the first time. Now I've got one more page, and
I've only got about two things on it. Now if you love this statement,
1 John 4, 19, we love Him because He first loved us. And if you
let the cat out of the bag in certain company, you just might
have to defend yourself. Most religious people don't like
that. They give it a different meaning or they just ignore it
altogether. Been there and done that. We've got time, so how about There's a book in the Old Testament
called the Song of Solomon. It comes after Ecclesiastes. Let's see, Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
Song of Solomon. Now, I fudged on you and marked
mine, so I'm already there. But if you'd like to turn, I'll
give you time. Now, just in case we're not all
conversant with the Song of Solomon, The king in Song of Solomon is
Christ. This Shulamite maiden is the
bride of Christ. You cannot possibly understand
Song of Solomon unless you understand some of these terms. This is like a couple, you know,
about to be married. It takes about nine chapters,
seems like, to cover the whole thing. But here in chapter number
five, there's another group of people in the Song of Solomon
called the Daughters of Jerusalem. They appear to be religious but
not interested in Christ. At least that's Curtis. Did I miss that too bad? Talk
to Curtis Rogers. He'll explain it to you. How
about that? That's the way to get rid of that. But these daughters
of Jerusalem have seen this bride, this bride-to-be of Christ, finding
her bridegroom, losing him, looking again, and she's inquired of
them, have you seen him? My beloved, have you seen him?
So in verse 9, They have this question to her. She's so intent,
nothing else can satisfy. I must have Christ or die. And they're struck by that fact. What is your beloved any more
than somebody else's beloved? What's so special about him?
Oh, you fairest among women. What
is your beloved more than another beloved that you do so charge
us? She put them under an oath that
if she sees him, they're to tell her. They don't understand this
intense seeking for Christ. But if they knew what she knew,
they'd be looking for him too. And that's how it is with this
whole world. If a man or a woman, young woman, teenager, whatever,
you'd be seeking Him with all your heart. I can promise you
God's already been seeking you. So if somebody asked me this
question, what is my beloved, the Lord Jesus, more than any
other What is He more than some other great religious figure? Here's the answer. I love Him
because He first loved me. This statement in 1 John 4.19
is nothing less than a Bible description. Christ is all and
everything, and if He's not that to me, then I don't truly to
understand that we love Him because He first loved us.