Let's turn tonight to 1 John 4. 1 John 4, reading together verses 7 through 19. As we consider verse 9 as the text of the sermon tonight. 1 John 4, beginning at verse 7. And once again, we give our attention to the Word of God. 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. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. We know that we live in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and He in God. 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. We love because He first loved us. The text, verse 9, again, 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. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, many question the truth of God's love. They look around at all the tragic and sad events that take place in this life and they say, how can a loving God allow these things to happen? For example, how can a loving God allow millions of children to starve in third world countries? I had someone ask me that very question one time. Or how can a loving God allow innocent children and people to die in those countries engaged in civil war? How can a loving God, if He's really in control, allow thousands to be killed in an earthquake or in a terrorist activity or allow so many to lose their homes in fires and hurricanes? How can a loving God allow so many to be swallowed up by cancer or AIDS or Alzheimer's or abortion? How can a loving God... You fill in the blank. The point is, beloved, God is blamed for all of the temporary effects or consequences of sin that plague us in this life in different various situations. His love is questioned because how could a loving God allow bad things to happen, especially to good people? We considered this somewhat a month or so ago. God's love is questioned. Therefore, He cannot be a God of love is the answer. But John teaches throughout this epistle that the love of God is indeed the very foundation of the Christian life. In fact, John makes it clear that we can only love one another if God's love is in us. Our love for each other and for Him can only flow from His love poured out upon us. Notice again what John says. Verses 7 and 8, 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. Very strong language. If you do not love, you do not know God. The second half of verse 16, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in Him. And then verse 19, we love because He first loved us. Yes, beloved, so many blame God for the temporary consequences of sin, but John teaches us in this text the truth that God's love removed the eternal consequence of sin from His people. And congregation, this is the joy of our Savior's birth. In a season when the world indeed expresses a form of superficial love through presents and parties, as Christians, we celebrate God's demonstration of true love. Some of you are familiar with the song which includes the words, Love was when God became a man locked in time and space without rank or place. Love was when Jesus walked in history lovingly He brought a new life that's free. love was God nailed to bleed and die to reach and love one such as I. We consider together the teaching of this text, the coming of Christ, the demonstration of God's love. The demonstration of God's love. Considering the recipients of God's love, the commission of God's love, and the gift of God's love. Now I trust that it's clear to each and every one of us gathered here tonight that the greatest manifestation of God's love is the Incarnation, without a doubt. Boys and girls, the Incarnation, God becoming man in the flesh. In Hark the Herald, we sang of the Incarnate God, God becoming man in the flesh. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. But that greatest manifestation of God's love includes more than simply the fact of Christ's incarnation. It also includes the purpose and the result of the incarnation as this text teaches us. Jesus Christ is visible proof of God's love. But before we consider the purpose and the result of His incarnation, we need to consider the recipients of God's love. Now the text begins, this is how God showed His love among us. Now the word for love here is the word agape, agape love. This is self-sacrificing or selfless love. It is love that doesn't seek to selfishly get for itself, but seeks to selflessly give of itself to the object of love. It is love that assigns value or worth, considers valuable the object of love. And John says that this love, this agape love of God, was shown. Or as another version says, manifested. That means it was made visible or clear. It was revealed. And the idea here is that something is revealed that was previously hidden. Previously not seen. In Colossians 1, verse 26, Paul speaks of the Gospel and says, "...the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints." As well, 2 Timothy 1, verses 9 and 10, there Paul talks about God's purpose and grace and says, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Now, congregation, we know that God's love, His demonstrations of love were not completely hidden. That is, throughout the history of the Old Testament, throughout the history of God's dealing with His people, His love was revealed in various times and ways. For example, in Israel's rescue from Egypt. In the numerous judges God sent to her. In her release from captivity later on, for example, from Babylon. All of these things again, as we talked this morning, which the people deserved. They deserved Egypt. They deserved to be left in their misery. They deserved captivity. Whenever God's people called upon Him, He came to her rescue. But God's love is also demonstrated even today in His creation and in His providence. But you see, all of these things didn't speak as loudly and clearly about His saving love as the coming of Christ did. It's only when men see Christ by faith, by the light of the Holy Spirit, that they know the love of God. The saving love of God has become manifest through Jesus Christ in His manger, in His cross, and in His empty tomb. And our Bibles are correct when it says that this was showed among us, or again, as another version says, manifested in us. Not just to us, but among us or in us. The manifestation of God's saving love is only seen within the eye of faith as the Holy Spirit of God reveals and applies this saving love to our hearts and souls. A congregation, although the Lord walked this earth for all to see, and although the Gospel message is to go out for all to hear, not all will see the manifestation of God's love. Not all will listen. Not all will believe. Well, who, again, then are the recipients of God's love? The text says us. Us. Who is the us? Well, John identifies his readers in chapter 2, verse 1, as my little children. And in chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, we read, How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. You see, John is talking to the church. If we want to get more detailed, we could go to Ephesians 1 where Paul says, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. And those predestined, as Paul says, are those the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph about when He said in Matthew 1.21, and she will bring forth a son and you shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. And His people are then further defined in that familiar verse, John 3.16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The recipients of God's love are those given by the Father to the Son who then hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and come to Him. These are the ones to whom God demonstrates His love and that demonstration includes seeing and understanding by faith the commission of God's love. The text says, He sent His one and only Son into the world. Now, beloved, if we considered nothing else tonight, this phrase alone radiates the love of God to His people. Notice again, it says, He sent. Whereas another translation makes it a little more clear, God has sent. We find that three times in the short passage that we read together. Verse 9, verse 10, and verse 14. Specifying clearly that God sent His Son. Remember, God was the offended party, not you or me. God was the one who had been sinned against, not you or me. He was not obligated to us to do this, to send His Son. In fact, we deserved that He turn His back on us. That He shut the door of His kingdom to us. That He throw away the key forever. But He didn't. God demonstrated His own word to us, which we find in Matthew 18, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Did you notice what that said? if your brother sins against you, if he is the offending party, you take it upon yourself to go be reconciled with him. Seek his repentance and forgive him. God took the initiative and came to us with His assurance of forgiveness, of forgiving love. He planned the way of salvation and He took the first as well as all the steps to accomplish salvation. And beloved, that's what we must see in our celebration of Christ's birth. God's initiative. If we glance at verse 10, we see that God sent His Son not because of anything that we have done or could do to merit His coming. It was of His own goodness. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And what makes this even the more amazing is our condition when God sent His Son. Romans 5, verse 8 says, But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. But there's more to this commission of God's love. It's no secret that God sent His Son. Again, as we've seen from the short passage, verse 9, verse 10, verse 14, but the text amplifies the significance of this when it says, His one and only Son, or His only begotten Son. And this points to the intimate father-son relationship within the Godhead. He is not one Son among many, but the one and only. And the Greek word for one and only, or only begotten, has the idea that He is one of a kind. He is unique. And the Nicene Creed says it this way, One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. You see, beloved, part of what John was doing here was fighting against the heresy of the day called docetism. This heresy denied the incarnation and therefore denied the humanity of Christ. Denied that He is one person, two natures, human and divine. But John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is teaching here that God Himself became man and that Jesus Christ Himself is the only begotten Son of God. God gave His Son to us. He sent Him. Even when we didn't want Him. This is amazing. And He sent Him into the world with a particular mission. He was given a task to perform which only He could accomplish. Now the Greek word translated sent comes from the same root word from which we get the word apostle. Apostles are sent ones. But the uniqueness here is that they are sent with a commission to perform a particular task. The idea is to send an official, authoritative representative to do a specific task, kind of like a foreign ambassador for the United States going to another foreign country. And beloved, in the text, the tense of the verb sent, this is very important, the tense of the verb sent tells us, teaches us, that the only begotten Son of God not only completed the task, But the results of that task continue on and on and on. The results are never-ending. Jesus Christ came as the authoritative representative of the triune God and He came with credentials to prove His divinity. And those credentials included His miracles, His knowing the thoughts and hearts of men, His teaching and preaching, and above all, His sinlessness. And because of who He is, He was the only one qualified to perform the commission given to Him. We read in verse 10 that God sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Now, other translations say it a little bit differently, that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Those who are a part of the Inductive Bible study are familiar with this because we studied this not too long ago. Here, propitiation in one translation, atoning sacrifice in another. Now, there are two biblical theological terms which can sometimes be confusing. One is expiation. The other is propitiation. Both have very beautiful comforting meanings though. Expiation is talking about the removal of the guilt and the offense of sin. Sin is the object of expiation. The removal of the guilt of sin. while propitiation is talking about the removal of God's wrath because of sin. God is the object of propitiation. But expiation, we must understand, is included in propitiation. But here in our text, that which is translated propitiation in another version, has the broader meaning of Christ's sacrifice of atonement, which includes both the removal of the guilt of sin, And the removal of God's wrath. You see, beloved, both are necessary for salvation. The guilt and the offense of sin must be removed before the wrath of God is removed. Christ's commission was to die for sinners. To free His people from the dominion of sin and Satan. To secure salvation for you and me based on satisfaction. God, who was dissatisfied because of our sin, had to be satisfied. His wrath had to be removed. In order for that to be done, the guilt and the offense of sin had to be removed. By His saving sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ did just that. He canceled our alienation from God and reconciled us to God. And the enmity between God and His children has been forever removed. And beloved, we need to understand that this was a result of God's love. You see, the fact that Christ expiated our guilt and propitiated the wrath of God did not then earn the love of God. But these things flowed from, began with the love of God. Christ satisfied God's wrath against us by taking our sin and guilt and suffering the wrath and punishment of God that was against our sin, beloved. And that's why the very Son of God had to come. The Catechism makes this very clear. Lord's Day 6, question 17 asks, Why must He, that is, the mediator and deliverer, be true God? The answer, that by the power of His Godhead, He might bear in His human nature the burden of God's wrath and that He might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life. Righteousness and life, beloved. That's the gift of God's love. Jesus Christ is the demonstration of God's love and the gift that flows to us from Him is that gift of life. The text says God's only begotten Son was sent that we might live through Him. This was the divine purpose. Our eternal life. And only the Son of God could accomplish this. And the beauty here is that He who is God's one and only Son by nature makes many sons of God by grace and adoption. And that includes all who are united to His body by faith. Notice the text talks about living through Him. Through Him. You see, apart from Him, we are dead. Paul says in Ephesians 2, Even when we were dead in trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. Dear people of God, we don't just live on account of Him. He didn't just do His work and separate Himself from us in order to fend for ourselves, but we live through Him. United to Christ. He is the agent of life just as His blood is the agent of redemption. As Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse 7, in Him we have redemption through His blood. We live through Him and from Him just as the branch lives through and from the vine. In other words, this life that we live through Christ is a life that abides in Him, takes up residence, permanent residence in Him. Jesus said, Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. In reality, we live through Christ in two ways. We live through Him in a legal sense on the one hand. For the sake of His perfect righteousness which is imputed to us, freely given to us, and for the sake of His perfect sacrifice for sin, we are justified. Our sins are forgiven And we are clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ. And this means that our standing is changed before God. We are no longer guilty before Him, but not guilty. Yet along with this, we live through Him in a spiritual, ethical sense. This is sanctification. Sanctification necessarily flows from justification. We abide in Christ the vine by the powerful inner working of the Holy Spirit of God who works that wonderful work of transformation, cleansing us from that pollution of sin. And He changes our desires and our actions so that daily we can form more and more to the image of God. Congregation, what a gift. Can you say that? What a gift. You see, we deserved the flaming sword of judgment. But we received the shining sword of grace. Jesus Christ fulfilled His duty and we still enjoy the results today and we will continue to enjoy the results forever. His task was to restore His people to life and that begins already now, doesn't it? Eternal life has already begun for those born again by the Holy Spirit who have repented of their sins, confessed them before the Father. And God's love continues as we enjoy the result of Christ's commission. which is life this life is lived through Jesus Christ for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ and we anxiously look forward to that day when we will enjoy the complete fulfillment of that life with all of the saints around God's throne of grace beloved the angel told the truth Jesus Christ came to save his people from their sins what wondrous love is this and this is a fact of life for you and me who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ those who build their life on the foundation of Jesus Christ are insulated with the love of God but those who reject Him are isolated from the love of God and whenever we look upon the Lord Jesus Christ in faith we must see that love of God for us. For our Savior is proof and He fully confirms to us the love of God which is greater than the hardships of the consequences of sin. Any consequence that we might be called upon to endure in this life. The world celebrates what it calls Christmas without Christ. It does not see the great redeeming love of God in the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. But do we see that? Do you see that, boys and girls? How about you? Do you see that? The great redeeming love of God in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Do we see in our celebration of Christ's birth that we were sinners whom He loved? We don't know why. And to whom Christ came to make God's saving love known to our hearts. Now again, the world is working hard to steal your attention away from the true meaning of Christ's coming. But know, beloved, that the greatest gift is God's love. Demonstrated in Jesus Christ. Demonstrated through giving us life forevermore. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Now, congregation, that's a reason to celebrate. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we praise You for the great demonstration of Your love, even Jesus Christ. We thank You for the love with which You have loved us, a love which You have placed in our hearts in order that we might love each other and our God. We pray that You would work that love in us more and more every day through the Holy Spirit. We pray that You would draw us closer to Yourself through that love. And that we too would be willing and ready to demonstrate that love to all with whom we come in contact. Father, again, we praise You for Your Word. So rich, so wonderful, so true. We thank You that You have blessed us with Your Word. May we never take it for granted. But may we always have an earnest desire to feast upon that Word. Hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.