I want to thank Jim and Dave. He's out working a fire today
for filling in a musical boy. That was the lack of our piano
player. I appreciate that. They have to go home and find
out what they're going to sing and then have to find the music
and put it together and write down the chords and practice
all week long to be able to come and help us out with the music
and I appreciate that. The title of this message is
God's Perfect love. What probably the message was,
I read a thing on Facebook this week. People like to put up religious
things. This was from a grace believer.
And they put, Noah got drunk. Peter denied Christ. David committed
adultery. But God still used them. And I was hoping when I got to
that last line was that they would say, and God loved them
all the time, that they were doing this. But that wasn't the sentiment.
So I began reading 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John and the Gospel of
John. And I found that all of the epistles
and the gospel, according to John, are full of the concept
of God's love for His people. I feel like Spurgeon did when
he approached this subject. He said, we're casting our tiny
bark on a mighty sea, and we are. And no one could ever really
explain or fully glorify God for the love that he's shown.
But what God says about his love in scripture is important because
it's so full of it. Our Lord said, by this shall
men know that you are my disciples. that you love one another. This
is how they're going to know. It does not mean that they'll
like it that we love one another. I've had as much grief and flack
from people in my close relatives who got mad at me and my wife
because we'd travel three or four hundred miles to go hear
four or five preachers for four or five days and come and spend
time with them. And when I explained to them, Love to hear the gospel,
we love the brethren. They said, well, don't you love
us? I love them too. I love them
too. But just because you love Christ
and love the brethren, don't think the world is gonna appreciate
that of you. Our Lord went on to say that
the world will hate you because I love you, because I chose you
out of the world. Therefore, the world will hate
you. John is called, the beloved disciple. He was the one who
laid his head upon the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he wrote more about the love of God and the believer's love
for God and the brethren and the believer's love for the brethren
than any other apostle wrote about it. Now all of them touched
on the subject, but John seems to have pitched his tent there
and there he stayed his whole time. Even in the book of Revelation,
he spoke much of the love. He started out with the love
of God. He loved us and washed us in his blood. John never approached
the subject as a general affection or a sentimental affection. When
he spoke of the love, when he spoke of love, he spoke of love
in action. Love as a vital verb. Love is
acting for and on behalf of the welfare of the one or the ones
who were loved and that is the description of love. This is not to say that God does
not have true affection for his children, nor are they for him,
for there is true affection. When we are privileged to hear
the gospel and rehearse in our souls what God has done for us,
the unimaginable extent he went to to save us. We are smitten
with love in our hearts and adoration for him. John referred to it
as our first love. Scott Richard called it our sweetheart
love, our sweetheart love for Jesus Christ. God speaks of his love for us
as caring, a word that defines affection. We are to cast our
cares on Him because He cares for us. And this means not only
that He takes care of us, but that He actually cares for us. He has an affection for us. He
loves us. He loves His people. They are
not worthy of His love. They could never be worthy of
His love. but he loves them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with
me to a few Old Testament passages that speak of the Lord's love
for his people. In terms of affection, turn to
Jeremiah chapter 32. Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 41,
he says this. Yea, I will rejoice over them,
that is people, to do them good. and I will plant them in this
land assuredly with my whole heart and my whole soul. That's the language of love.
That's the language of affection. If you turn over to Zephaniah,
Zephaniah chapter three. In Zephaniah chapter three, in
verse 17, he says this, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee
is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. That's a wondrous statement concerning
God Almighty. We don't think of it in those
terms, but that's how He represents Himself in these passages. The
passage that we have here in 1 John addresses the effect of
love. of God's love and our love to
Him. It addresses the result of God's
love to us and in us, as well as the saddest state of those
who know not this love or wrongly view this love. Verse 17 is an
awe-inspiring wonder, for it sets things in order that if
religion believed this, the world would be a wonderful place. Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment, because as he is, that is, as Christ is, so are
we in this world. It's an astounding statement,
an astounding statement when you consider it. One man said,
everyone has a life to live, a death to die, a judgment to
face, and an eternity to spend somewhere. And the judgment of
God, the great white throne, the judgment of God, the judgment
seat of God, is a fearsome place if you don't know Christ. It's
a fearsome place. Most people in religion cannot
embrace what this passage says. It's not the attitude of most
people who profess to know Christ. For I hear men talking about
the judgment all the time, and they talk about it in fear, and
yet they claim to know the Lord Jesus Christ. But this verse
says here, if we know Him, this love perfected in us, if we know
Him, we do not fear the judgment. We have boldness, just the opposite
of fear. We have boldness before God in
the day of judgment. That's a wondrous thing. When
you think of yourself and I think of myself, I wonder how in the
world can that be? How can that be? Many fear the
judgment and rightly so, and rightly so. It's a terrible thing
to fall in the hands of the living God. God presents himself in
scripture as the holy and terrible God several times in the Psalms
and David's poems concerning the Lord. We find God to describe
himself as a terrible God, a terrible God, the God with whom we all
have to do. We looked at Wednesday night
after the Lord said to Israel in Amos that he sent them cleanness
of teeth and took water from them, put them in a drought,
and they had to go to another city where water was, and he
took their young people and he sent famine and canker worm to
their fields, and they wouldn't turn to him. He said, so prepare
to meet your God. Prepare to meet your God. And
what they suffered were minor judgments. Not even hardly could
be called judgments. When God judges men, when men
stand before God in judgment, there will be no grace and no
mercy. Grace and mercy aren't mentioned
in the judgment. There will be no grace. If you
stand before God as you are in this world without Christ, you
stand without any possibility of anything other than justice
coming down on you. And that's a fearful thing. That's
a fearful thing. It's justice from the hand of
the sovereign God who cannot and will not forgive sin apart
from a perfect sacrifice. And you will stand to be cast,
as we just sang, the tares into the fire. It's a fearful thing. Many fear and should fear those
who have no hope in Christ. I've long been convinced that
it's not death that men and women fear at all, but it's what follows
death. And one of the reasons I come
to that is because I've said at the hospital bed of many who
are dying, and all they can talk about is how they wish they'd
done something different. Why? Because they believe somehow
that would have set them right for that day of accountability. That day when the books, and
the books are opened. Now we don't know what's going
out of those things, but God says He'll judge men for their
sin out of those books. Out of those books. Many fear
the judgment who profess to know Christ. Because they are held
under the law as a rule of life. The law can never give peace.
It will never give you peace. It cannot. It cannot. For law
is the strength, sin is the strength of the law, and law is the strength
of sin. You have not known sin except for the law. The law will
only tell you what you are, and you're not gonna find that to
be a pleasing thing. The law can never give peace
to those who hold to it as the rule of life, and even less so
as they consider the judgment, because the judgment is going
to be exacting law, intractable, absolute law that must be satisfied. There will be no grace or mercy
at the judgment, and there has never been a moment in the human
being's life, no matter who they are, where they ever knew or
experienced the unbridled justice or wrath of God. Now, we may
look at the acts of God in this world, We may look at the tornadoes
and the thunderstorms, we may look at the hurricanes, and those
are just mere small examples of God's power, God's wrath. When an earthquake comes, we
ought to look to the Scripture and see why God sent earthquakes
into Scripture. Because there was a reason for
them. They are the judgment of God, but that's not... We had
never really known it, because we're still alive on the other
side of that for most of us. The judgment of God will fix
it so you'll die and die and die and never die if you don't
know Him. Death is the judgment of God. We've never experienced that.
There's only one human being in history that's ever been forsaken
of God. Find me anybody in scripture who was forsaken of God except
for one man. That man was the Lord Jesus Christ. When he was
made to be sin for his people, when God laid upon him the sins
of his people, God turned his back on his beloved son in his
greatest moment of triumph and sacrifice. The adorable, precious Lamb of
God gave his all, gave his soul an offering for sin, it says. And God, in that moment of Christ's
most beautiful obedience to God, God turned his back on his son
because God's too holy to look upon sin. And Christ was made
to be sin for us. He's the only man that's ever
been forsaken of God. You've never been forsaken of
God. In fact, scripture says that all of humanity is in the
hands of the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, until he calls
all his elect in. They're in the hands of Christ.
So you'll have sustenance and you will be used and you will
be cared for in that sense until your job is done. But you don't
know anything about the judgment of God, but it's coming. And
only one man has ever experienced it. And it was so bad that God
shut down the sunlight so no man could see. What's it going
to be like? I don't know. Nobody knows. but
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who knows the
judgment of God. When the law is your rule of
life, fear of judgment will rule your day. Many fear the judgment because
religion has taught them to do so. Religion's the biggest gun
in all of this. The judgment is held over many
as a sword. a goad or a goad to make them
behave morally. Or worse yet, men are applauded
and lauded for keeping the law and promised reward for doing
so. And nobody has kept the law save
for the Lord Jesus Christ. How did he keep it? He fulfilled
it in every jot and tittle because he died, which was the law's
demand. For sin, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Whatever the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth might be stopped,
and the whole world become guilty before God. The whole world. Religion has taught men that the judgment is coming,
but they taught them they can avoid it by doing good, and they
can't. Or if they do stand before judgment,
their good deeds will outweigh their bad deeds, and God will
let them in. Let me tell you, the best you
can ever do is so full of sin. Nothing you can do is not sinful.
It's not tainted by sin. It don't mean you ought not try
to be good. You ought to try to be good. Ought to do your
best to be kind and gentle and loving and giving and philanthropic,
gracious. You ought to always do that.
but in the very best effort you make, nothing but sin, nothing but
sin. The preacher is often able to
control men's life by keeping them in a constant state of guilt
and fear or the ruinous refuge of self-righteousness where they
feel like they're going to be okay when this horrible fearful,
terrible day comes. Many fear judgment who profess
Christ because they've not come to fully grasp that where grace
is bestowed, it is bestowed on one condition. Grace is bestowed
on the condition of satisfied justice. God's not going to show
you grace unless justice has been satisfied for you. Justice
has to be satisfied. The law has to say, you're free. You're not guilty. It's done. Your debt has been paid. The
law has to say that. And grace will not come until
that is so. God cannot justify anyone where
he is not just to do so. And he's only just to do so if
he has received that debt or the payment for that debt that
all men owe. And that is, as Shakespeare said,
we all owe God one death, and we do. And some will experience
something called a second death. They will die naturally, and
that because of sin. Sin is in the world, and that's
why men die. But they'll also experience the second death,
which comes after the judgment, which is eternal dying and never
dying. And then there's this group here that John speaks of.
Here in John 4, verse 17. Who face the judgment without
fear, and instead face it with great boldness and confidence.
Their love is said to have been made perfect, and because of
that, they will have boldness in the day of judgment. They
will stand before God without fear. This is honey and honeycomb
to the believers. There's several things for us
here in this passage. First of all, the love spoken
of in verse 17 is called our love, our love. But it's better ended if you
have a marginal reading as love with us or the knowledge of God's
perfect love with us, with us. Back in verse 16, it says that
we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. We have known and believed the
love that God has to us. The love we have is derived.
We did not come into this world naturally loving God. And that
natural part of us, that carnal flesh, still despises God and
always will. Always will. You see, it's God's
love that causes us to love Him. I don't know how that works,
but for the child of God, he's thankful that it works. In verse
19, it says, we love him because he first loved us. We love him because our love
is reactive. His love is active. It is in this sense that this
is referred to as our love. It is also the sense that there
seems to be the language of our love becoming something or being
made perfect. God's love does not become or
change, but our understanding and appreciation of God's perfect
love to us can and does change. as we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The more times, the more often
we hear and contemplate and meditate upon the gospel, the more we
understand and grasp and appreciate the love of God. The imperfect
understanding of the love of God is divine, conversely, as
we look at the nature of God's perfect love. Verse 18 says,
there is no fear in love. No fear in love. But perfect
love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth
is not made perfect in love. As there is no fear in perfect
love, imperfect love is defied by fear. Slavish fear, depressing,
dread. No assurance, wondering when
the other shoe's gonna drop. That's the way people live in
this world. They live that way. If something good happens, they
wonder what bad is around the corner. It's just the human nature.
That's fear. Do you know the Lord said to
his people, fear not? 365 times in the Bible. Fear
not. Why? Because it's there. It's
there. The perfect love, if we can see
the perfect love of God, if we can understand that God has loved
us and he sent his son to die in our womb instead, has accomplished
our salvation. If we can see that and appreciate
that, we can live in this world without fear and without torment. Imperfect love is a life of torment.
People aren't ever really sure, ever really sure. He that feareth
is not made perfect in love, it said. We live in a fearful
world. It's a fearful place. In a couple
of days, we're going to elect a new president of the United
States. God's going to put somebody on that throne. And I'd say probably
half of America's not going to be happy with either candidate.
Whoever gets there, half the people are going to be upset.
Why? Because whoever, whichever side
you're on, you fear what would happen if the other person gets
in. You have fear. Can I tell you something, brethren?
God loves you, if you're his. With a perfect love. And you'll
never suffer judgment. Why are you afraid? Why are you
afraid? Why am I afraid? Why do I get
so vexed about these things? I'm afraid. And why am I afraid? Because I'm not contemplating,
meditating, considering the love of God for me. Perfect love casteth
out fear. Casteth out fear. Religion seeks
to have men look at themselves. at their lives, they're married
in hopes that God will love them for it. That's the language people
use, you know. I remember one time I was at
the house of a person, a woman, a man who used to attend church
here and they had children. And one of the children did something
that children do, you know. They act up and they become children,
you know. And they do something foolish,
and that woman said, Jesus doesn't love you when you do that. And I looked at her and I said,
I thought you said you believed in grace. I said, you know what you're making
that child think about God's love? That it's conditioned upon
what he does and does not do. No love is like that. How many
mothers here have perfect children? How many of you don't love them
when they do something wrong? I love even more except that.
We love each other. God loves his people. But listen
to me. God loves no one based on what
they do or do not do. That's not why he loves you.
He loves you because he would. And he loves you in Jesus Christ.
God's love to us is in Christ and our works and deeds or sin
or will are not even a consideration in God's love to his elect. Over in Romans, Paul dealt with
this in Romans chapter five. And he laid it out pretty clear. He said in verse six, for when
we were yet without strength, that means no strength, Well,
who has no strength? Dead people have no strength.
When we were yet without strength in due time, or according to
the appointed time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now he gives
some scenarios here. He said, for scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. That's somebody who does things, has to have
everything done right, and is a person who holds it over people's
heads. One of those perfectionists,
just worry people to death about things. One of those people who
can't accept that something is out of their control and they
can't live until they somehow set it right or talk it to death.
One or the other, they're gonna do that. He said, that type of
person, hardly anybody would die for. Give up their life for
that kind of person, it just ain't gonna happen. He said,
yet pray adventure for a good man. For a person who's kind
and generous, he said, some might dare to die. For a righteous
man, nobody would. For a good man, some might. But
God commendeth his love toward us, that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. We didn't even come to the point
of righteous or good, And yet God loved his people. What a
thing. What a thing. Verse 17, again in our text. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. And the
reason given is because as Christ is, so are we. in this world as he is now where
he is now so are we now in this world now you think as he is
so is the reason why we have boldness in the day of judgment
because we're like him before God that's what this says well
how does that work well he's already accepted and in the presence
of God isn't he He's already seated at the right hand of God. We know that there's no such
thing as understanding the perfect love of God. It's amazing and
it's wonderful. But we do have an understanding
of it by what God says about it. And when God speaks of it,
He always speaks of it in terms of doing something. Of love acting. Of love acting. In chapter 2
and verse 20, In 21, it says, for if our heart condemn us,
God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved,
if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward
God. So only an uncondemned heart will have confidence toward God,
and that uncondemned heart comes only from the love of God, knowing
that God has loved us. In chapter 3 and verse 16, of
1st John, it says, Hereby perceive we the love of God. This is how
we know it. This is how we understand it.
This is how we grasp what it is. We understand it because
He laid down His life for us. This is how we understand it.
He loved us and gave Himself for us. He loved us and washed
us in His blood. He loved the world and sent His
only begotten Son. Love gives Love is the act of giving. Always,
love is never about taking. If God waited for a response
from us, he would never have loved us at all. If God looked to get anything
from us, he would never have loved us at all. God loved us
unconditionally. with a perfect love. How do we
know? He laid down his life for us. That's how we know. That's the
only way we know. The consequence of this understanding
is that those who profess it face the judgment without fear
and torment, but rather have boldness and confidence. They
believe that what the triune God did for them has made them
accepted before God, that the work of salvation is finished,
and they stand before God accepted because of the shed blood and
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The expression full of
God's love. This is God loved us and gave
himself for us. The understanding of this perfect
love of God, our love being made perfect is based on the knowledge
that our Lord is now, as our Lord is now, so are we in this
world. And this is love perfected. How
does this remove fear of judgment? What if you were already in heaven
and accepted before God? The judgment, the judgment would
have nothing to do with you. If you are in heaven, you would
actually come back with Christ when He came. And you'd be part
of that great jury, wouldn't you? Well, Scripture says that's what
we are. In Ephesians chapter 2, it says
we are seated in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. Why? Because
God's loved us. Look what it says in Ephesians
chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6 says, He's raised
us together. It says, in verse 5, it says,
Even when we were dead in sins, quicken us together with Christ
by grace, you are saved. Verse 4, For God who is rich
in mercy for the great loved one with whom he loved us. Then
in verse 6, He has raised us up together and made us to sit
in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. How can a person be two places
at one time? Well, you can. if you're both an old and a new
man. You can be here on earth and
you can be with God at this very moment. So if you're already
there, that's not going to change. One day your dead body will be
reinvented, for lack of a better word, and you will meet with
Christ in the air, be called to Him. And that'll be you. But right
now, you don't fear the judgment because you're already in glory. You're already in heaven. Christ is seated at the right
hand of the Father, so are we. Christ is there because 2,000
years ago He was judged for our sins and having withstood the
judgment of God, paid the required price, which was death. He paid
it in full and rose victorious over it. We just sang it. Jesus
paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. And we're there. Why? Because 2,000 years ago when
He was judged, He was not judged for His own sins. He was judged
for our sins. The judgment of God fell upon
Him for our sins. Now, He called them His own.
He called them mine iniquities in the song. That shows how He
identified with us as human beings. He called them His sins, but
they were our sins. God made His sins to meet, our
sins to meet on Him on Calvary's tree. I don't, when I think about
substitution, when I think about imputation, I know it's so, but
it boggles my mind still. how God could make all the sins
of all his people from eternity pass from the beginning of time
till the end of time to roll and to meet on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And there punished the transgressions of his people
with stripes. And his son died to satisfy God's
law. And God looked at it as if it
were our death, our punishment, and the putting away of our sin.
Our satisfaction of his law. That substitution and imputation.
And what a wonderful thing it is. That's how we are in this
world. Before God we have been judged
for our sin. In the Lord Jesus Christ. We
owe nothing to God legally. Think about that. Now we owe
him a debt of gratitude that it will be eternal. Eternal thanksgiving
and praise will be our song in heaven. But we don't owe God
anything to do in the matter of sin. We don't owe God a thing
on that. If we're His child, we don't
owe Him anything. Because He Himself came down
here in the person of His Son and paid the debt that we owe.
And paid it fully. And paid it one time. It's not
on any installment plan. He paid it one time. And it's paid. And He is there,
because though He was once made sin, He is now perfectly righteous,
and exalted as such. And so are we, who were born
in sin, yet made righteous by the work and the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin for us, that we might be made the very righteousness
of God in Him. God has made Christ to be unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. His name shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. Her name shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. Christ is there because He's
righteous. That's why we're there too. And
we're that in this world. And He's glorified. He's there because He's glorified. We're glorified also. Our Lord
said that in the past tense in Romans chapter 8. For whom he
did foreknow, he did predestinate, to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Whom he
called, them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. Right now, though we can't see
it except by faith, We believe it so because God said it. We
are enrobed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are righteous
before God. He couldn't have anything to
do with us if he wasn't. As Christ is, so are we in the
world. He's righteous, and so are we. He's glorified, and so
are we. And He's without sin. He was manifest to take away
our sin, and there is no sin in him first John chapter 3 verse
3 I think it is no sin in him and brethren according to the
word of God and this is the only way that we could ever think
that this might be so because there's certainly no evidence
of it in our lives you are without sin before God
because of the work of Jesus Christ. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He made remission for their sins.
He's put away their sin by the sacrifices themselves. He's buried
their sin at the bottom of the sea, cast them behind God's back,
separated from them as far as the east is from the west. And
God says, I will remember their sin no more. Now, whatever mission
of these is, there is no more sacrifice. There is no more sacrifice. As Christ is, sitting now at
the right hand of the Father without sin, you walk in this
world before God without sin. Why would you fear the judgment? Judgment's about the law. The
law's about sin. If you're a child of God, you
don't have any. Why would you fear the judgment? The law's
about sin, and you're righteous. You're righteous. Our love is made perfect with
the understanding of what we are in Jesus Christ. It only
comes by faith. The more we know of Him, the
more love is perfected. The more we study Him and spend
time and thoughts about Him, the more we call upon His name.
And this knowledge casts out fear and gives us boldness in
the day of judgment. And were it not so, clearly stated
in scripture, we'd be full of doubt every moment of our life.
Struggling, worrying, not about what's going on in this world,
but what's gonna happen the next. What's gonna happen when we shed
this mortal coil and we step from this life into that next
world, that next world where God lives and eternal sunshine
abides. That next world where men will
stand before God in judgment. What about that world? Like an old song says, don't
worry, be happy. Be happy because there is no
doubt as to why we love God. Because he first loved us. He
loved us. Get a hold of that, if you can. Grasp it. In this world of woe,
grasp it. Think about it. God has loved
us. And with an everlasting love,
he has grown us. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may
have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in
this world. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath tore men. We
love him, because he first loved us. I feel like that old Mexican
fella down at, down at, in Chiapas, Mexico, Milton Howard talked about one
time, said every time he'd get up to pray, he'd say, God forgive
me for what I'm about to say. I feel like that every time I
preach about the love of God. But the knowledge of it keeps
me going in this world. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.