Turn with me to a couple of passages, as you can see in the order of worship, Psalm 1, and also Matthew 25, verses 31-46, and then to our text, 1 John 4, verses 17-18. Before our background reading, Psalm 1, first of all, and then Matthew 25. Psalm 1, of course, being a very familiar psalm, one that many of us have learned in our early days of school, and then the portion in Matthew 25, the familiar portion about the sheep and the goats, the separation of the sheep and the goats, pointing to the Day of Judgment. We begin with Psalm 1. Hear now the Word of God. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked. They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Matthew 25, beginning at verse 31 to the end of the chapter. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited Me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. Then He will say to those on His left, Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me. They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you. He will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. In 1 John 4, our text, verses 17 and 18, allow me to begin at verse 16. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in Him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect. In love. Beloved of the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 6, verse 34 says, Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Our Lord's teaching in Matthew 6 is that we are to trust fully in the providence of God. He will take care of His people. He will provide what we need in this life. He will indeed give us this day our daily bread. But John now teaches in a manner of speaking that we are to consider tomorrow. We are to consider the future. Now this in no way of course contradicts what Jesus said in Matthew 6, but echoes what He taught in other places like Matthew 25. But the truth is, beloved, our today very much has reference to the future. And the future very much is to impact our today. And therefore, as we consider this text tonight, each one of us must reflect on our own lives and how we are living, especially with regard to the day of judgment. That day is coming. Even though many deny it or simply don't believe it, it's coming. We don't know when, but it will come when our Lord Jesus Christ returns in all of His glory. It will be real, but it will also be too late for those who rejected Him. John, as we know, has been talking about love. He's been talking about God's love and our love and how they fit together. You can't have one without the other. In fact, our love must and can only flow from God's love to us first. We've considered, even last week, we considered the believer's confidence of truly knowing God. The confidence that the believer can truly have of knowing God and being in God's love as it is demonstrated by loving fellow believers. As it is demonstrated through the testimony of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And as it is demonstrated by one's confession of the truth of Jesus Christ. All of those things are to give the believer confidence of truly knowing God. But in this text, verses 17 and 18, John now adds to what he has said by teaching about love's confidence for eternity and for time. Now before we consider these two points together, I would like to take a few minutes to recap and remind us of what John has taught us so far about love and about living in God and God living in me. And the reason that we should consider this again is because of the wonderful and the powerful blessing that flows from that for the believer. Last week I mentioned that verse 16 both summarized what had been said before and introduces what was to come. And the second part of verse 16 again says, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in Him. Again, love, true spiritual godly love is the connecting link between God and His children. What does it mean to live in love? First of all, it means to be an object of God's love. One upon whom He has set His love. As well, it means to be a recipient. One who has received God's love. To put it simply, it means that God is my home. He is my dwelling place. And this includes the fact that He has given me new life in the Spirit and He has awakened in me a sense of His holiness and He has given me a desire to be holy even as He is holy and to live a righteous and holy life. And all of this is because of His greatest demonstration of love on my behalf and that is He has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world and to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Do you doubt that God loves you? Look to Jesus Christ. Look to what He has done. And His love to me in Christ Jesus includes renewing me after the image of Christ so that I might have the mind of Christ. And the character of my new life of love is that I live in the atmosphere of love. My life is controlled by the principle of love. The controlling factor in the life of the unbeliever is hate, like Cain, which John talked about in chapter 3. And that hate is manifested in murder. But love is manifested in life and promoting life as we considered this morning, especially my neighbor's life. In essence, the believer demonstrates God's love for him by expressing that very same love for his fellow believers. And this is what it means when John says in the last part of verse 17, because in this world we are like Him. Now that's a powerful statement. But it is also to be quite humbling, especially when we stop to consider that God's love to us is not determined by us. It's not determined by who we are or what we were or what we have done, but it is given freely in spite of us. You see, the only explanation of salvation, beloved, is God and His love. We didn't ask for it. We didn't even want it. The only thing that we have contributed toward our salvation is our sin and our need to be saved. But that's the beautiful picture of God's love, namely His free gift of salvation. And in this world then, we are like Him. That means, at least in part, as one commentator says, that our attitude towards other people is not determined and controlled by what they are, but by the love that is in us. And therefore, we don't base our love for one another on what someone is like, or whether they are likable, or what advantage it will be for me. Our love for one another is to be a free gift based on the fact that the other is made in the image of God and just like me, possesses a soul. And our love, again, like God's love, is to be constant. Not on again, off again, not when we feel like it. Whoever lives, dwells, remains in love, lives in God. takes up residency and God in him. Even when we don't feel like loving. Or even when another is not loving in return. The believer's natural born-again attitude is to be nothing but love. And anything that is opposed to love is to have no place in my life. Now of course, any true believer is going to look at themselves and be humbled and say, my love. My love is so incomplete. My love is so imperfect. And I don't even begin to live up to all of this, yet John says, in this way love is made complete in us. And we need to understand that he is not saying that our love is complete in the sense that it is of being perfect. But God's love is made complete in us. His purpose or goal is fulfilled in that the ultimate purpose, the ultimate purpose in salvation and in all that God has done for us in His Son is that we become people who live in His love, who love one another, and who represent Him and His love in this world. And at the same time, through sanctification, not only does the Holy Spirit cleanse us from the pollution and the stain of sin so that we more and more hate sin and run away from committing sin. But through that same sanctification, the Holy Spirit is making us more and more Christ-like so that we are more faithful in demonstrating God's love. Beloved, all of this is to give us confidence with regard to our standing with God and our assurance of salvation. But the crown of this confidence, if you will, the crown of this confidence is that believers are given confidence for eternity. Verse 17, In this way love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like Him. Those who are like Him will have confidence on the day of judgment. Again, Judgment Day will be an actual day with an actual event which the Bible describes will be very universal and very public. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Jesus Christ Himself will be the Judge. John 5, verse 27 says, And He that is God the Father has given Him, That is Jesus' authority to judge because He is the Son of Man. In Acts 10, verse 42, Peter says, He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One whom God appointed as the judge of the living and the dead. And then Paul adds in Acts 17, verse 31, For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men And by raising Him, the one He has appointed to be judged from the dead. And the Bible is clear that Satan, along with his host, all of the fallen angels will be judged as well as every single person, every human being who ever has lived or will ever live. Believers and unbelievers alike. And the standard of judgment will be the revealed will of God. What did you do with what God gave to you? You confessed to believe in God. How did you demonstrate that in your life? Now admittedly, in some ways, it's hard to understand what judgment day will be all about because on the one hand, the Bible says that God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west and He remembers them no more. And on the other hand, Jesus says in Matthew 12, verse 36, But I tell you that men will have to give account on that day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. And 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Beloved, we must understand that judgment day will not determine our eternal destiny, whether heaven or hell. Judgment day will not determine that. God has already determined that from before the foundation of the world when He chose to save some and pass over others. And Jesus Christ secured that eternal destiny on the cross. And that eternal destiny is made clear at least to believers in this life as they are born again. So that at death, there is comfort for the believer that his soul will be in the very presence of God. But the unbeliever's soul will suffer the torment of hell. As well, physical death is not judgment day, as some say. Physical death is not that day, but it's kind of like the key that locks the door of one's eternal destiny, which has already been determined. Because death puts all men into the place and position in which, in a sense, we can do nothing about it anymore. In other words, it's too late. Those who did not repent of their sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ on judgment day, at death, after death, it's too late. No more opportunity. Our eternal destiny is determined in eternity past. It is fixed, if you will, at death. And it is universally pronounced on Judgment Day. As our Lord Jesus Christ separates, as the shepherd separates sheep and goats and says to the sheep, well done, enter into the joy of your Lord. And He says to the goats, to the unbelievers, those who rejected Him, depart from Me into that place prepared for the devil and his angels. But on that day, believers will have confidence. Why? Because of the confidence they enjoyed in Christ Jesus in this life. Romans 8, verse 1 says, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the believer, every idle word or evil thought, word or deed has been dealt with in and by Jesus Christ. The Greek word translated confidence can also be translated as boldness. And the idea is to stand boldly and to speak freely and openly with nothing to hide. Nothing to hide. Some people like to hide deep, dark secrets and we call them skeletons in the closet. But the believer on judgment day will stand with confidence because he or she has nothing to hide. Because all of his sins have been taken away and paid for by Jesus Christ, the Judge Himself. And therefore, it is not the wicked, those who still have something to hide, it is not the wicked who will stand in the judgment, as the psalmist says. Instead, they will cry out for the mountains to fall on them, to cover them, to get them away from the glory and the majesty of the Judge. But the righteous will stand firm in Christ Jesus on that day. And whereas the wicked will be judged and condemned for their evil deeds, especially their lack of love for God's people, those who are in Christ Jesus will receive their reward for that which was evidence that God's love lived in them and they lived in God's love. That evidence is that they demonstrated love to the very brothers and sisters of Christ who were hungry, thirsty, sick, in prison, naked and lonely. Beloved, for those who are in Christ Jesus, on Judgment Day, there is nothing in them to judge. Because Jesus Christ has already been judged in their place. But on that day, our Lord will put away all of His enemies forever and ever, and therefore that day will also be final. No second chances. No second opportunities. Satan and his host and all those who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ will be cast into the outer darkness of hell and condemnation forever and ever. And those who know the love of God and demonstrated the love of God in Christ Jesus will receive the ultimate reward of eternal glory in heaven. This is the confidence of true godly love for eternity. But praise God, we don't have to wait for that day to have that confidence. Love's confidence is also for time, for today, for this very day. Verse 18, there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. Now this is not talking about the reverent kind of fear, the awesome kind of fear that we are to have for God, but it's talking about the terrified, scared, and being afraid kind of fear. It's the kind of fear that one has when they have done something wrong. Boys and girls, you know this fear. It's the kind of fear when you have done something wrong and know that there will be a punishment for it. And therefore, there is also guilt attached to this kind of fear. But again, for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live in the love of God, Not only will they be confident on the very day of judgment, but they can be confident already in this life because they know that in Christ Jesus, there will be no punishment for them. One commentator said, The men and women who are the most happy to be in this world are those who are most happy about the next world. That's something those who have the most confidence about their eternal destiny are also the most confident in this life. So many are ignorant about the future and eternity. And I would even say that they're scared about what's next after this life for them. Let's be honest. Man cannot prove scientifically that death is the end of the matter. We know why, because it's not. But man cannot prove that scientifically. Therefore, there's so much doubt. And it's a mystery associated with death. And that's why so many in unbelievers fight death, try to fight death, and even try to cheat death. Now, by nature, all men should fear the day of judgment, because apart from Jesus Christ, it will be a day of terror beyond imagination. And as He will say to those who rejected Him, Depart from Me, for I never knew you. And it will be final. The truth is, many unbelievers who, as Paul says, suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness, they also suppress the truth of Judgment Day. They are blinded to the dangers that are in front of them and therefore they ignore that which awaits them. For example, one who is ignorant of electricity will not be as careful around electricity as one who knows about it and respects it. And therefore, the one who is ignorant about it is in danger of getting electrocuted. But in the same way, those who are ignorant and don't care about the judgment day, those who are not careful, those who ignore the dangers that await them, they will not stand in the judgment. But they will face eternal condemnation. But for those who know God and His love, this fear and love don't. In fact, they can't go together. I read what I believe is an appropriate illustration talking about how fear and love sometimes don't go together. Think of the mother who nurses the sick child who has an infectious disease. Does she think of the possibility of catching the disease from the child? Not at all. Her love for the child casts out fear. Jesus Christ has cast out all fear for time and eternity for those who believe in Him and trust His saving sacrifice alone for their salvation. The believer has confidence and knows that God does not and will not punish the believer. Otherwise, Christ's work is incomplete and good for nothing. But the truth is that all of Christ's work was to prepare and equip all of God's people to stand with confidence in the judgment. Jesus Christ bore my sins. He has given to me the white robe of His righteousness that I shall stand before God clothed and perfected in my Lord Jesus Christ. This is the believer's confidence already today and this is a confidence worked in me by the Holy Spirit who assures me of my justification that my sins are forgiven and I have been given Christ's righteousness to stand before God. But it is also a confidence that increases more and more by the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification. As more and more I become aware of God's love in me and Christ's work for me and I'm given more and more a desire to be like Christ. You see, apart from Jesus Christ, one can only fear because that one cannot escape his guilt for sin. and the punishment that must be paid for that sin. And for that one, there will only be shame on Judgment Day. We must confess that many of God's people have struggled with doubt. Maybe some of you, even at this moment, struggle with doubt about your eternal security. I've heard a number of believers answer the question, are you confident about your home after this life, or are you confident of your relationship in Christ? These are older people that I have dealt with at times, and some of them have said, I hope so. I hope so. Believers their whole life. That's really kind of a sad answer. You see, if you're depending on what you have done, that's the best you can say. In fact, you really can't even say that. But if you are anxious or nervous or scared or have any question about your eternal security, the truth is you are still depending upon yourself, even if it's only a little bit. And you are not trusting completely in Christ. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to His cross I cling. But praise God that His Spirit will make the love of God complete in us so we never have to say, I hope so, but I know so. And have the confidence, along with Paul, that I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day. Beloved, as God's people, we are called to live in the shadow of Judgment Day. knowing that it's coming and knowing that we will give an account for this life. And our love, our love is to demonstrate that we understand that coming day and what it's all about. We are to live humbly, knowing what we truly deserve, but also live thankfully in the joy of God's grace. And we are to live confidently, again, not because of what our hands have done, but only because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. How true it is that when you have confidence in the life to come through Christ, then this life, even with all of its trials and burdens, is so much more joyful. God's people have no reason to worry or be sad because we have confidence of the joy that awaits us. Beloved, all will stand. Every single one will stand before Christ the Judge on that day. The wicked will see what they never thought they would see. And that is the truth of Christ, the only Lord and Savior. And they will then realize their terrible end. The believers will rejoice in their faith, become sight. And that joy is ours already today by the grace of God. Allow me to end with a quote from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. He says, The natural man should fear the day of judgment. The Christian should not fear the day of judgment. And Christians should not fear it because they are justified by Christ and sanctified by Christ and made like Christ and will ultimately be with Christ. Beloved, praise God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Shall we pray? Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed prepare us, even now, for that day. Give to us that confidence that is only in Christ Jesus. That confidence that not only allows us to stand before You even today in this life. That confidence which allows us to come to You knowing that You will hear us, that You will bless us, that You will indeed provide us for our daily well-being. The confidence which knows You will protect us from the evil one. The confidence which will also allow us to stand hiding nothing on that judgment day, the day of Christ Jesus. Father, we thank You for life. We thank You for this life. And we thank You for the life to come. In Jesus' name alone we pray, Amen.