We continue tonight the sermon that we began last Sunday evening with the text being 1 John 4, verses 7-11. 1 John 4, verses 7-11. And I'd like to also have us read 1 Corinthians 13 once again in connection with this text. 1 Corinthians 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. 1 John 4, verses 7-11 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle John makes another case for loving one another. As you know, we began, as we said a moment ago, this text last week. And remember, John is talking in this epistle to the church. He's talking to those who believe in God. And he makes it clear, as we considered last week, that those who truly love their neighbor as themselves, specifically their brothers and sisters in Christ, that love testifies. is a testimony to the fact that they have been born of God and that they know God. Evidence of being born of God and enjoying fellowship in the light of His truth is seen in godly love. Those who are born of God and know Him will love their fellow Christians, and those who love their fellow Christians have been born of God and know Him. Sounds like we're going in a circle. We are. But that's what Scripture teaches. those who are born of God. Well, then, of course, all this makes sense, doesn't it? Because as we considered last week, the origin of the believer's love is God Himself. John says God is love. The very essence, nature, and being of God is that God is love. And therefore, those who are born of Him are both able to love and indeed do love. They can't help but to love. But you see, John doesn't end there. He doesn't simply give us in this text the origin of the believer's love and the testimony of the believer's love. But he goes on to talk about then the demonstration of God's love. Again, he says God is love and he uses that for the reason why it is impossible for one to know God but then in turn not to love. Again, verse 8. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. We talked briefly last week about those who indiscriminately preach God is love, God is love, and at the same time, they minimize sin and the need for God's justice. But then there are also those on the other side who look at all of the terrible things that go on in the world and they conclude that either there is no God or if there is a God, He certainly is not a God that loves. He is not love. He simply cannot be loved. They say, how can a loving God let such bad things happen, especially to good people? And maybe some of us here have been guilty of saying the same thing as we have faced some of the difficulties of life. But they also say, for example, in a time of war, how could a loving God allow innocent people, especially children? It always comes back to children, doesn't it? But how could a loving God allow innocent people, especially children, to suffer in the midst of bomb blasts or chemical or nuclear warfare or to be killed by stray bullets? How can a loving God allow millions of unborn children to be slaughtered every year? How can a loving God allow 3,000 people to be killed in terrorist activity with planes and buildings? We may not have an answer to this, at least not an answer that we can fully understand or that we can fully reason in our own minds, but we must remember, beloved, that this world is fallen in sin not because of God, but because of man. And each one of us, even the most faithful of believers, will suffer the effects of sin in some way, shape, or form. God is love, but He also has a righteous anger. He is angry with sin, and again, it's a righteous anger because He is love. And as we said last week, God's love and justice met at the cross. At the cross, on the cross, God proved His love. There on the cross, He demonstrated His love for His elect as His justice against our sin was poured out on His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. That was the ultimate demonstration of God's love. We were reminded so beautifully this morning about Pentecost and the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit equips the church to preach and to teach and to witness to that ultimate demonstration of God's love. We're going to consider this more in detail in just a moment, but notice also what the text says in addition to everything we have said both last week and already beginning tonight. Verses 9 and 10, this is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God sent His Son into the world. Why? Was it because sinful man deserved it? Was it because man recognized his need, his desperate condition, and then pleaded with God for a Savior? Absolutely not. God's love and His demonstration of love, which indeed is very, very real. God's love was not a response to man's love. God's love comes first. You see, apart from the demonstration of God's love, man is not born of God. He doesn't know God. And therefore, man himself has no love. God's love precedes our love. Or let's be more specific, God's love precedes the believer's love. How has God demonstrated His love? Well, one of the ways we could say is in creation. His very act of creating the world was an act of love. And we know this when we consider with the intelligence He has given us, when we consider the order and the arrangement of all that He has made. We can think of outer space, which most of us really don't understand too much. The sun and the moon has lights for day and night. The stars that stay in their orbit. And as Isaiah says, God knows them all by name and not one of them is missing. Don't forget the balance of the ecosystem or the law of gravity or the DNA chain. The very puzzle of the human body. And also consider the beauty of the human body. How wonderfully we are made and how all of our bodily systems work together and depend upon each other. And we could talk about so many other things that demonstrate, show, prove to us that God is indeed love. The truth is, God created the perfect habitat for man to live. And all of this, again, is a demonstration of God's love. And then with this, we can also recognize the love of God in His providential care over all that He has made. A balance of rain and sun for the crops. Bread for our tables, clothing, shelter, jobs. There are many, many other things that we could sit here and list together. Our problem, you see, is that we often fail to even see God's love in the details, even the smallest details of daily life, because we don't look. But again, as we said a moment ago, the ultimate demonstration of God's love, apart from which we cannot recognize His love in nature or providence, The ultimate demonstration of God's love was that, as the text says, He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. And He sent Him as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, the love of God can only be finally understood and appreciated in our Lord Jesus Christ. And in what He has done. God demonstrated and proved His love at the cross. and at this very same time, He gave to us an example of how we are to love. So listen up as we discuss how God demonstrated His love. And because of the cross of Jesus, God's love continues to be remembered and made real each and every time one of His elect is given new life and brought to faith in Jesus Christ. The love of God was made clear on Calvary as Jesus Christ died that we might live through Him according to verse 9. That we might live for Him, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 15. And that we might live with Him, 1 Thessalonians 5, 9 and 10. But what does all of that mean? In verses 9 and 10 of the text, we find a whole lot of theology. Does that scare you? We find a whole lot of theology in verses 9 and 10. Today, many want Christ, but they don't want theology. They don't want doctrine. But John teaches the truth here that we can only understand the love of God in terms of theology. I'm talking about theology in the broad sense of all that God has taught. We can only understand the love of God as we understand the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of man and the doctrine of sin and the doctrine of salvation, which also means that what we do, namely here as we are commanded to love, flows from what we know. Well, first then, what does God's demonstrated love in Christ teach us about Christ? The text speaks of Christ as God's one and only Son. We also profess in our wording in the Apostles' Creed, His only begotten Son. We are sons and daughters of God by adoption, those who were completely outside of the family and brought inside, those who had no right to be inside, but brought inside only by the grace of God for the sake of the blood of Jesus. But Jesus is the unique, one-of-a-kind Son of God. You see, this points to His unique relationship with God in that He is the eternal Son of God, co-eternal with, equal with, one with God the Father. And this one and only Son of God was sent into the world. Now, the root of the Greek word used for sent is the same root from which comes the word apostle. We know that apostles were sent ones. And included in that sending is that they were official representatives of the sender, namely Jesus Christ, and they were sent with a specific task. Go and preach the gospel, make disciples. In the same way, the Son of God was sent by the Father, which first of all points to the fact that He already existed. The fact that He was sent along with the truth that He is the one and only Son points to the fact that He is God. Now, if there were nothing else, beloved, this all by itself ought to overflow us with wonder and amazement that God Himself came to this world. But that's not the end of it. Like the apostles, the Son of God came as the official authoritative representative to do a specific task. And we enjoy the blessings of His mission. Jesus Christ is one of a kind. He is unique. You know, in our world, there are things that are one of a kind. We call them collector's items. And society places a value on these things. From an original Picasso painting to the Barry Bonds record-breaking home run baseball to any number of things. There is a value or a worth placed on these things. But there is nothing worth as much as Christ's coming. His coming has had and it continues to have eternal value again for those who enjoy the blessings of His mission. Well, what are those blessings? Well, we can't consider these blessings without also then considering the doctrine of man and the doctrine of sin. Considering what God teaches us about ourselves. The text says He was sent that we might live through Him. And of course, this presupposes that apart from Him, we are dead. And that's also why God's love is not and cannot be a response to our love because we had no love. As Paul says, we were dead in our transgressions and sins. Sin covered us completely like filthy garments. We were guilty and miserable with our blood upon our own head. We were polluted and unclean, not worthy to gaze upon the beauty and the perfection and the holiness of God. By nature, we didn't love God. By nature, we hated God. We were far from loving and far from being lovable. Instead, we were dead and unlovable. Those who were under the wrath of God and those who deserve the punishment of God for our sins. Now I suspect that not one of us would describe ourselves as unloving and unlovable. We all like to think that we're all pretty lovable. But apart from Jesus Christ, that's not the case. God teaches us the truth, a much different picture. But that also, you see, describes the world then that Christ, the Son of God, came into. The world didn't want Him. There was no room for His earthly mother and father in the end so that the Lord of glory had to be laid in a manger, really ignored by the world, not even noticed. As well, the wicked world through Herod tried to destroy Him by shedding the blood of many innocent baby boys in Bethlehem. He came and lived in the midst of a world of sin, a world that rejected Him, hated Him, put Him to death trying to get rid of Him completely. Think about all those things we just said regarding us and the world. Beloved, when we think of those things, then this is the amazing thing about the love of God. His love is so great that He set His love on that which is exactly opposite of Him. He set His love on an undeserving world that had fallen into sin and to that world He sent something valuable and precious in order to enrich the lives of those who look to Him. And His love is seen and that we might live through Him eternally. How? Because the Son of God came as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That's the same thing John said in chapter 2, verse 2, when he was speaking of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. And you may recall again that other Bible versions translate this as Jesus being the propitiation for our sins. And very simply, without being able to go into the doctrine of propitiation, And this means that Jesus Christ, by His saving sacrifice, removed our guilt of sin. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us. And therefore, with our guilt for sin removed, God's wrath is propitiated. God's wrath against our sin is also removed as He poured it out upon His one and only Son on the cross. And again, this ought to humble us. This ought to bring us to our knees because Jesus died for us, as Paul says in Romans 5, while we were still sinners. I'm not sure if we really consider that the way we ought to. While we were still sinners. We always like to think that maybe there was just something, even a little bit about us that was worth Christ's coming and going to the cross while we were still sinners, completely opposed to God. But there is still even more than that to the love of God because Christ rose again from the dead. He conquered the grave. What a wonderful assurance for us of life after the grave. And even today, Our ascended Lord Jesus Christ lives to make intercession for us and prepare a heavenly home for us. And in the meantime, His Holy Spirit, His Spirit of truth and love and holiness is working out our sanctification every day. Beloved, what does the blessing of God's love in Christ include? Boys and girls, it includes the forgiveness of all of our sins. Not one is left. It includes peace and reconciliation with God. No longer being at enmity, at war with God. No longer having His anger toward us, but instead His favor. No longer being able to approach Him, but instead being able in confidence to come to Him and Him hearing us. It means having new life, eternal life in Him. That's what's included in the demonstration of God's love. The very act of God in sending His Son, that alone gives meaning to His love. Understanding and enjoying God's love does not and cannot ignore the cross of Jesus, but the cross of Jesus is front and center when it comes to the truth of God's love. Because only the cross of Jesus gives comfort in the midst of all of the bad things in this life. You see, the wicked world, as we know was demonstrated 2,000 years ago, the wicked world hates and rejects God's love and the demonstration of His love in Christ Jesus because His very coming, you see, was an indictment. His very coming was an announcement of guilt upon the world. But as those who have been born of God by His grace and enjoy fellowship with Him in the light of His truth, Beloved, we are to be humbled and amazed at the love of God. A friend of mine at the Banner of Truth conference this week said he heard a minister say once that we who deserve His malediction receive His benediction. That means we who deserve His curse receive His blessing. And then congregation, it's that love that we are to teach to our children. That they too may see and understand the wondrous love of God in Jesus Christ and then embrace that love by true faith. We are called to imitate God and His love. And that love of God, you see, deserves our life, our entire life in praise and worship to God. Again, Paul says God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us. But then he goes on, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. God deserves our life of praise and worship. Love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. And that includes our love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. That's the requirement of God's love. Notice verse 11. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Now, we know this is what John has been calling for all along, even before this text. A number of times the command has gone forth to love the brother. You see, beloved, the cross not only reconciles us to God, but it also reconciles Christians to Christians. And verse 11 here really tests where we stand spiritually. Christianity is a gift of God's love and as well it is a life of love that is to be lived. And living the Christian life is the outworking of the truth that we confess and claim to believe. In other words, brothers and sisters, how good is your Word? How good is your Word? John is teaching here that if we say that we believe a certain something, then we must live in a way that supports that. If we say that we have been born of God and have fellowship with Him, then we must love one another. That's what the Bible says. That's what God's Word says. Plain and simple. No debate. And again, God Himself demonstrates how. His love for us defines what true love requires, which is the commitment to sacrifice one's most beloved possession for another's gain. He did that for us. For our gain. By sending His one and only Son. You see, God does not say that we are to wait to love each other until we feel like loving one another. Instead, we must make ourselves love one another. The text says we also ought to love one another. And the idea there is that of obligation. Kind of like when you owe a debt that must be paid. You are obligated. You must pay that debt. Well, beloved, because God loved us, because of that fact, since God loved us, because He demonstrated His love for us on our behalf, since we received that great something for nothing, we are obligated to love one another. It must happen. You see, as children of God, that's our new nature. Like God's nature. Just like children often imitate their parents because they are of the same stock, if you will, of their parents. God's children are to imitate Him. The truth is the believer can't help but to love. And we desire to love one another. Those are heavy statements. Does that describe you? Can you say that? That I can't help it but to love? and I desire to love my brothers and sisters? It's quite a test for each one of us. Especially for the boys and girls and young people. It's so easy to get upset at each other and to show hate for each other and therefore to exclude each other. Young people, for you especially at this time in life, what a test for you. You desire to love all of those, for example, in the youth group? Do you include each and every one without discrimination? You see, if you profess the Apostles' Creed as we did earlier this evening, but yet you do not love, then there's a big problem. Because you're lying. You're lying. God's people are new people. Transformed people. Those who were once selfish, but are now selfless. Does that describe you? The late, great preacher, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, describes the selfishness of the sinner using a number of terms that begin with self, and he gives a little description. Listen, as I give kind of an extensive quote. Self-centeredness. Looking at myself. Watching myself. Examining myself. Always regarding myself. Self-assertion. Asserting myself. I desire things and I must have them. Self-conceit. How ready I am to defend myself and to condemn the same things in others. Self-indulgence. I am very indulgent with myself. I prohibit things in the other person, but it does not matter if I do the same thing myself. Self-pleasing. Always doing things that please me. Self-seeking. Always out for self. Self-pity. Why should people treat me like this? I have done no harm. I am not in the wrong at all. Why should people be so difficult? I am having a hard time and it really isn't fair. Self-sensitiveness. How touchy I am. How easily wounded. Imagining difficulties and attacks. Seeing them when they are not there. An abominable sensitivity. Self-defense. Always on the defense of waiting for people to be unpleasant. And because we are like that, we almost make them unpleasant. We are on the defensive. And he also mentions self-sufficiency, self-consciousness, and self-glory. Beloved, all of these things belong to the old nature, which we know rears its ugly head more often than we would like to admit. And these selves can be summarized, as Dr. Jones says, as self-will, self-love, self-trust, and self-exaltation. Now, it is simply incredible, isn't it, that God could and would and has loved that kind of person. Each one of us who truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is that kind of person. And it's only when we recognize ourselves in that selfish description that we can then truly recognize God's love for each one of us. And it's only in Christ Jesus and by new life that we can and we are able to be what God says that we ought to be selfless. How can we demonstrate this love? Again, remember what Paul says love is like. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And we have said a few times throughout this series of sermons that love is giving up something that has value for my own life in order to enrich the life of another. And in some respects, beloved, what we give up is as individual as we are. And each of us must determine ourselves by the leading of the Holy Spirit what it is that we might give up if we see that another can benefit from it. But the truth is, if we just look around, God gives us many, many opportunities to serve Him in this way, to demonstrate the love that He calls forth from us, and especially in the church. For example, needs are routinely listed in the bulletin. Whether it is a need for meals for the sick or BBS teachers or helpers needed to clean someone's house or rides to the doctor for someone who cannot drive. And one of the most precious commodities, I trust, that we would all agree that we have, one of the most precious commodities we have in this day is our time. Well, how wonderful when you give up some of your time to visit those who are lonely. How precious it is to give a cup of cold water in Jesus' name. And there you have it in Jesus' name. You see, whatever we do, it must be done in Christian love and done for Jesus' sake. And of course, the most wonderful demonstration of love is to share the Gospel message of life in Christ Jesus with another. As a congregation, we can also show love even if it is only for one person. Let me give you an example from our previous congregation. For the holidays, Christmas or Easter, there was a gentleman in the church who would donate all kinds of flowers. Many, many poinsettias for Christmas time to put in front of the church auditorium. Easter, Easter lilies for a couple of weeks. Just many, many in the front around the pulpit area. Well, there was one lady who wasn't coming to church during those weeks around Easter. And I came to find out it's because she's deathly allergic to Easter lilies. She could not even sit in the back pew because she couldn't breathe. And therefore, she was not able to worship with us. So what do we do? Even though the gentleman enjoyed donating these, they got rid of them for one person. And some of you are aware of a situation here in our own congregation with one of our sisters. She's terribly allergic to perfumes and colognes and scented chemicals. And she desperately wants to continue to worship here with us and is doing everything she can to tolerate the perfumes and the colognes that we wear. But some weeks, she can hardly breathe. She almost cannot worship. Are we as a congregation willing to give up our perfumes and colognes for this hour, This one hour to help her breathe. That she might be able to worship with us. What love that would be. Believe it or not, there are churches that, some churches that have gone to a scent-free service because there are many with that kind of a problem. We just have one that we know of. But there are many out there. Beloved, God sets the rules for whom we are to love and how we are to love them. We don't decide who deserves and who does not deserve to be loved. Just as God's love did not discriminate against us and that He loved us when we were unlovable. In the same way, beloved, our love is to be without discrimination. That means that we too are to love those who are hard to love. We are to love those who are unlovable. You know, it might be you. It might be me. You never know. Your demonstration of love will be directly proportionate to your relationship to God, to the joy in your heart from His love, and your understanding of His sovereignty and wonderful work on your behalf. In God's love, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His atoning work has gone out and continues to go out without discrimination. In God's love, has reached your ears and my ears and by the power of the Holy Spirit it has reached our hearts. And God's indiscriminate promise is that whoever looks to the cross of Jesus and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. What love. So amazing. And so divine. Those who reject the love of God in Christ Jesus invite the anger of God against their sin for all eternity, but for those who repent of their sins and look alone to the Lord Jesus Christ for life and who enjoy then the blessedness of God's love, they cannot help but to pass on that love to one another. Consider this quote from one commentator, No one who has been to the cross and seen God's immeasurable and unmerited love displayed there can go back to a life of selfishness. Have you been to the cross? Have you seen, witnessed the love of God? Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, indeed, we are humbled. as we consider the majesty, the beauty, the glory of Your love poured out for us. Indeed, Father, help us to know how unworthy we are in and of ourselves, because only then will we understand the glorious nature of Your love and what You have done for us. Father, we know that our love for one another is so imperfect. So often we backbite. We put each other down. We are hurtful. Help us to put away all of those things. Instead, demonstrate godly love. Lord God, strengthen us in that characteristic. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.