One comment on that passage in
Genesis 37, verse 3, Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his
children, because he was the son of his eternity. And he made
him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that
their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated
him. You could not speak peaceably to him. And I was thinking about
this. I don't understand how this can
be so, but the scripture says, thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. But when you hear of the father
having his son as the favorite and loving him more than anybody
else, there isn't any jealousy in your heart if you love him.
You think that's the way it ought to be. He's the son under any
other condition. We might be jealous, but not
like this. We love it. I turned back to
first John chapter four. I'd like to read verse 12. No man. has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us and his love is perfected in us. Three powerful statements are
made in the verse of scripture I just read. First, no man has
seen God at any time. John 1 18, no man has seen God
at any time. The only begotten son, which
is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared it. What do
the seraphims do as they fly around his throne? They cover
their face, don't they? They can't look upon him. He
said to Moses, no man can see my face and live. He said he
was going to put him in a cliff to the rock. And he said, I'll
show you my back parts. What are his back parts? Well,
it's his works, his works of creation, his works of providence,
his works of salvation that reveal who he is. But no man can see
his face. God is spirit. And among other
things, that means that nobody can see him. No man has seen
God at any time. And the second state that he
makes is if we love one another, God, dwells, lives within us. We are His abode. Now the love
that He is talking about is that love that's the product of the
fruit of the Spirit. Look in verse 7 of our text. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone, no exceptions to the rule, Everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. Now, the love he's speaking of
is that love that is the result of the new birth, of being born
of God, a new nature, a holy nature that does in fact love. And that one who loves, as John
speaks, God dwells. God lives in that person. He who the heavens cannot contain,
dwells, remains, continues in every single believer. Now isn't
that incredible? God dwells. God lives within
every believer. Christ in you. the hope of glory. And if God has taught you anything,
you know that if you believe it's because of him in you. It's
not because of you. You know that if you love It's
not because of something you've done. It's because of Him in
you. You're just dead sure of that. You give all the glory to Him.
You know no glory goes to you. God dwells in us. I live, yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life that I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I live, yet not I. Christ liveth
in me. And the third amazing statement
he makes in this verse is his love is actually perfected, fulfilled. It reaches its end, its goal,
its consummation in us. That's what he says. Paul said
in first Timothy 1 5, the end of the law, the end of the commandment
actually, the end of the commandment is, and it's talking about the
gospel, charity out of a pure heart. That's the goal. That's the end. That's the reason
that God saves sinners to make them just like his son. Now, for us to have any understanding
of that, we're going to have to have some understanding, some
real God-given understanding of what God's love is. I love this verse, verse 8. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. God is love. Not God loves. Not hears love and God reaches
that. No, God is love. God doesn't reach some kind of
standard of love. is love. Now, I've said this several times
in the last couple of weeks. Understand this. God's love is
in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
but His righteous condemnation. He's a holy God. He's a just
God. He's a righteous God. God's love is in Christ. Nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And God's love, now remember
His love is perfected in us. It says God's love, His reason
for love is found wholly in Himself. He doesn't have to find something
in you to cause Him to love you. Really love. Not just in word,
but indeed in truth. He doesn't have to find something
lovable in you. I love that scripture for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil. God's love doesn't come to me
because of some good I've done or because of some evil I've
avoided. God's reason for love is found in himself. God's love
is eternal. It never began. Behold, I've
loved you with an everlasting love. God's love is sovereign.
That means if he loves you, he willed to love you. Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. His love is sovereign love. That's
the only kind of love there is. His love is infinite. There's
nothing that can limit it. His love is immutable. He cannot
love you more. He cannot love you less. Right
now. There's no way God could love
you more than he does right now. And there's no way he can love
you less. God's love is holy and it's demonstrated
by what it does. It is saving love. And let's go on reading in our
text. Verse nine. In this was manifested the love
of God. And don't miss this toward us. It's always important for that
us to be identified. He's not talking about all men
with that exception because that would make his love meaningless.
If he can love everybody and send his son to be a perpetuation
for everybody and some of those people end up in hell, that would
make his love meaningless. The us is his people, his elect,
those who believe. 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. Now, God's love is to us,
the same us as if God be for us. who can be against this.
And I realize that in this day, there are a lot of people who
argue against this thing of God loving only the elect. They present
it as if it's harsh. It's not sympathetic toward humanity. It's unloving. It's against the
character of scripture. And the verse they usually go
to is found in Matthew chapter five. Would you turn with me
there? Matthew chapter five. Verse 43, you've heard that it
has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse
you. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. that you may be the children
of your father, which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. For if you love them which love
you, what reward have you? Do not even publicans the same?
And if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?
Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect. even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Don't you love that
passage of scripture? It shows the glory of God. I
want to love my enemies, don't you? I really want to love my
enemies. I want to do good to them to
despitefully use me, just like he said. But can you gather from
that passage of scripture that that means God loves everybody?
It doesn't even apply to that. When I'm loving my enemies, well,
that's what God did. If when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. Now this passage is telling us
you love your enemies. You pray for them, which persecute
you. You do good to them, which despitefully
use you. That's God's command that you
may be the children of the highest. That's the way God is. That's
the way he's been toward you. But does this teach that God
loves all men the same or loves all men in a sense? I said this in Sunday school. Matt, if Andrea said to you,
do you love me? And you answered, well, in a
sense, I love you because you're the mother of my children. I
love you in a sense. Would that not be the greatest insult? That'd
be evil. And to promote God's love, like,
well, yes, he loves all men in a sense. No. God's love is in
Christ and nowhere else. And all those in Christ, God
loves and they must be saved. It's a saving love. Now, the sending of his love
was that we might live through him here in his love. I love
to go back to our text in first John chapter two. Herein is love. Now you think
of a mother's tender love for her child. You think of a man's love for
his wife that'll cause him to die for that woman. You think of a martyr at the
stake being burned up, dying for the cause of God and truth
because they love the Redeemer and that really has happened.
But when John is going to define love, he said herein is love
and he defines it first by negative, not that we love God. The fact of the matter is we
didn't. And the fact of the matter is not only did we not love him,
we were all guilty of hating him. So he's not gonna talk about
our love when he defines love. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation,
the sin removing, The guilt removing sacrifice. Now I want you to
think and I want to think about the cost of God's love. To us. And I don't understand
this. But let me ask you this question.
Had the father stopped loving the sun? When the sun said, oh
Father, if it be possible. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, Not my will, but
thine be done. Did the father stop loving the
son at that time? Had the father stopped loving
his son when they drove the nails in his hands and feet and took
the cross and lifted it up and dropped it in the stand and there
his son was in all that agony? Had the father stopped loving
the son? What about when the son said,
I thirst? He was thirsting for his father.
Did the father stop loving the son at that time? What about when he cried out,
my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Darkness had covered
the land. When the father heard that cry
from his son, had he stopped loving the son? No, the father loveth the son. And who is he doing this for?
Giving up his son for? Who is he doing this for? Vile,
wretched, evil, hell-deserving sinners. Now don't think for a second
that God gave his son in order to make a way to love. No, God
gave his son because he did love. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have eternal life. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. But that he loved us and sent
the well beloved. Oh, how the father loves his
son. And he sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. And the propitiation of Christ
has removed the sin so thoroughly. It's removed the guilt so thoroughly. It's made it to where God can't
remember the sin. Now that's impossible to get
a hold of that, I realize that, but the only reason God can't
remember it is there's nothing there to remember. When He says
thou art all fair, my love, there's no spot in thee. You're perfect,
you're perfectly beautiful, there's no spot. There's no, well, I
remember one spot. Matter of fact, I remember, no,
there's nothing there for him to remember because he loves
his perfect bride and his love never goes unreciprocated. 1
John 4, 19 says, we love him because he first loved us. That's why we love him. We know
that. Do you love him? I'm not asking
you how much, but I'm asking you, do you love him? Do you
love his holiness? Do you love his sovereignty?
Do you love his justice? Do you love his grace? Do you
love his power? Do you love his wisdom? Do you
love his immutability? Do you love him as he is? Well,
if you do, you're sure of this. We love him because he first
loved us. And the only reason we have that
love for him is because He caused it and produced it in us by His
Spirit. Now, let me repeat. The idea of God loving somebody
and sending them to hell is too horrid to even consider. It's evil. Somebody that presents
God's love like that? If your child is in the road
and a car is coming at it and you've got a peevish child, a
bad child, and you tell the kid to get out of the road, you love
him, I love you, get out of the road. No! Well, I'm not going
to violate your free will. I'm going to let you get run
over. What kind of love is that? That's a love that you get put
in jail for. And yet people present God's
love in such a fashion. No, there will not be anybody
in hell that God loved. Verse 11. Beloved. If God so don't miss that word,
so. If God so loved us, if God loved
us in this manner, He loved us when we were dead in sins. He
loved us when we were enemies. He sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. We were reconciled to God by
the death of Christ. We were made perfect if God so
loved us. If he loved us like that, we
ought also to love him. Doesn't say that, does it? You
see, we can't love him the way he loves us. There's no way. He's not sinful. He's perfect. He's altogether lovely. He's
altogether glorious. I mean, if you did love him,
there wouldn't be any merit in it. You ought to love him. There's
no reason not to love him, this glorious being. It doesn't say,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love him in return. No.
God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Now, his
love is a saving love, a love that sent his son to be the propitiation
of our sins. He saw our sinfulness. If God
so loved us, we ought also to love one another. He loved us
as sinners. We ought to love our brethren
like that. A love that recognizes their sinfulness, their infirmities,
things that they hate about themselves. And you see it and you love them
anyway because you know you're like that. You're just as bad,
actually worse. You know yourself better than
you know them and you know you're worse. and you love them as they
are in Christ. You know, the Lord said, this
is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Well, how has he loved you? Well, he's taken you just as
you are, and he's made you just as he is, and he's accepted you
in the beloved. That's the way he's loved you.
Love one another as I have loved. You. Love that covers a transgression. A love that cannot be extinguished.
A love that does all things necessary for the salvation of the object
of its love. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. Verse 12. No man has seen God
at any time. Well, if you've seen Christ,
have you seen God? Yep, you have. He said, he that
has seen me has seen the Father, but he's speaking as God as spirit,
God the Father. No man has seen God at any time. Now, if we love one another,
God dwelleth in us. There's one reason given as to
why we love, God dwells. God lives within us. A habitation of God through the
spirit. Now, John has instructed us to
abide in him. How many times in this epistle?
And the only way we'll abide in him is if he abides in us. The believer has God in dwelling,
then we're called the house of God, the temple of God, the habitation
of God. The body of Christ. Now, this
is just a mystery, isn't it? How God, the infinite God, can
dwell in me and walk in me. That's just mysterious. It's
glorious. I believe it. God. Do you believe God dwells in
you? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. God dwells in me. If we love one another, we realize
the reason we do is because God dwells in us. You see, it's the
new nature. It's the holy nature. It's God dwelling in me. That's
why I love. He says, if we love one another,
God dwelleth in us. And look what he says next. And his love is perfected. His love is perfected. That word
is generally translated fulfilled. His love is brought to an end
in us. God's purpose in salvation is
to make a people just like his son so that we love as he loves. Turn to John chapter 13. Verse 34, a new commandment I
give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you. That's some kind of commandment,
isn't it? That you love one another, that
you also love one another. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples. If you have this love I'm speaking
of. This love that's the product of God dwelling in you. This love that is the fruit of
God the Holy Spirit. By this shall all men know you're
my disciples if you have love one to another. Now turn with
me for a moment to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This is a chapter
we ought to always look at, but I believe that it will give us
some understanding if wherever we see the word charity in this
chapter, it's a good word placed there by the Holy Spirit. But
let's, and this is not taking away from this, this is making
us understand it. Let's use the name Christ wherever we see the
word charity. And I think it'll make us understand
this chapter more. And this is the love that he's
speaking of when he says, love one another as I have loved you. If you see Christ's name, wherever
you find charity, you're gonna find, you're gonna enter into
it. Verse one. Though I speak with the tongues
of men of angels, and had not Christ, I'm become as a sounding brass
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though
I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, and had not
Christ, I'm nothing. And though I bestow
all my body, my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my
body to be burned and have not Christ, it profits me nothing. Christ suffereth long. How long suffering has Christ
been with you? Nobody else would have been long-suffering
like he is. How long-suffering is, how much
has he put up with, with you? Christ is kind, gracious, mild,
meek, and lowly. Christ is kind. I think of the
kindness of our Savior to me. Christ doesn't envy. Why would he? What does he have
to envy? He's got everything. He's God. He has all things. There's nothing
for him. You've got nothing that he needs
to envy. What a base emotion envy is. Christ doesn't envy. Christ vaunteth not himself. Now, what somebody does when
they vaunt is they're a braggart. They're a braggart. You ever
been around someone who's trying to convince you of your need
to be friends with them and your need to love them? And what great people they
are? You've been around people like
that. Christ is no braggart. His presence is all that's needed.
He doesn't have to convince you of anything. He doesn't vaunt
himself. Christ is not puffed up. Now the word puffed up means
swollen with pride. You know, swelling is always
a sign that something's wrong. If you become swollen, There's
something wrong. And there's nothing as swelling
as pride. You know, pride will keep somebody
from doing what they ought to do because they want to save
face. They think if I do that, it'll
make some kind of admission of being wrong somewhere. And I'm
not going to do that. I'm going to hold on. Christ never did
anything wrong. He never did anything wrong.
He has no need to be this way. And Christ is meek. He's not
proud. He's meek and lowly in heart
and you can be around him without feeling judged or threatened. He's not puffed up with pride. Verse five, Christ does not behave
himself unseemly. He's not indecent. He's not rude. Christ seeketh not his own, but
the glory of his father and the good of his people. Christ is not easily provoked. You've been around people where
you are afraid to say anything or pound them. You know, they
might pop off. They might get angry. They'll
take what you've said and twist it around and hold it against
you. Christ never does that. He's not touchy. He's not irritable. He's not easily provoked. You'll
never find him to be that way. Don't you want to be this way?
This description of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ thinketh no evil. You
know what that means? That means he keeps no records
of wrongs. Christ keeps no records of wrongs. Well, there's, I think, particularly
the female race. Sometimes I can remember everything,
it seems like. Don't take it personally. Everybody
but Lynn. But the point is, the Lord doesn't
keep any records of wrongs because there are no wrongs to keep record
of. It's called justification. That's
the blessing that every believer has. He keeps no records of wrongs. He rejoices not in iniquity. He rejoices not in the fall of
somebody. There's no secret pleasure when
somebody falls. You know, some people like they
find they find out you fall. They're glad because somehow
it makes their own candle shine a little bit brighter. You might
be that way. You might secretly rejoice when
somebody falls. How ugly. Not Christ. He doesn't rejoice in iniquity.
He rejoices in the truth. Verse seven, Christ bears all
things. And that means literally Christ
covers with silence. All things. Love covers the transgression. You know, it makes me ashamed
of myself when I think that I've ever repeated somebody's transgression.
How evil. How evil. Love covers a transgression. Aren't you thankful the Lord
covers your transgression? And His covering is not like
our covering. When He covers, it's gone. It's
not still there, just covered with something. It is gone. Love
covers a transgression. That's our Redeemer. Christ covers
a transgression. Christ believes all things. And you know what that means?
That means Christ believes in you. The Lord Jesus Christ believes
in you because He's in you and His grace is
in you. And He believes in you, and He's
going to cause you to do the right thing. You know, the Lord
really believes in you. He says, I don't believe in myself, but He does
if you're a believer. He does because of His grace. He believes
the best because He is in you. And next it says that Christ
hopes all things. Well, you know, the Lord knows
more clearly than you and I do that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. And he's not a bit worried. He
has perfect hope in you because he's decreed everything that's
going to take place. He's not worried. He's not dizzy.
He's in control. He hopes all things And the scripture
says in verse seven, he endures all things. That means his love
is never reduced to inactivity. He endures all things. You can't
put it out. You can't quench it. You can't
make it not to be. That's the love of Christ. Christ
never fails. Amen. Christ never fails. He's incapable of failure. Now
look at this chapter in light of His love. Don't you desire
to be just like this? That's what He's speaking of
when He says His love is perfected, it's brought to its end in us.
This is His purpose, to make a people just like His Son. Now
let's go on reading. Charity, Christ never fails,
but whether they prophecies, they shall fail. Whether they
be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, we prophesy
in part. I feel that so strongly. But
when that which is perfect has come, and I have no doubt he's
talking about the full canon of the scriptures. That which
is in part should be done away with. Now, when I was a child,
I speak as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
that's normal. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. For now we see through a glass
darkly in an enigma, in a riddle, in a paradox. Isn't that so? We see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope,
charity, Christ. these three, but the greatest
of these is Christ. You know, one of these days there's
going to be no such thing as hope. It'll be turned into experience. Faith is going to be no more. We're going to see him face to
face. There will be no need for faith, but something that's always
going to endure is Christ Himself and love to Him. Chapter 14,
verse 1, follow, pursue after Christ. Pursue after charity
and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. Back to our text. I hope this gives some meaning
of what this means. No man, verse 12, has seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us. That's the reason for it. And
his love is perfected, fulfilled in us. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for your
love to us. And Lord, we ask that you would
dwell in us and cause your love to be perfected in us. Lord,
cause us to pursue charity, cause us to pursue thy dear son. Bless
this word for Christ's sake, in his name we pray.