SPEAKER_00: Well, as a preacher of God's word, a tool of teaching I appreciate is repetition.
SPEAKER_00: Uh years ago, when I was still living in California, I got my real estate license, even though I never sold a single house, but that's another story for another day.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but to study for the state exam, I bought a book and found out that the author of the book had an audio version of him reading the book, the study book, to prepare for the state exam.
SPEAKER_00: And so I downloaded the audio.
SPEAKER_00: And at the time I was working a job where I was traveling all over the place in a van for my shifts.
SPEAKER_00: And I would just listen to the book over and over again to the point where when I took the state exam, I would read a question, I could like hear the guy's voice in my head reading a chapter from the book and ended up passing the exam.
SPEAKER_00: And I often jokingly tell people repetition as a teaching tool is ordained by God.
SPEAKER_00: And where I get that from is Peter, when he is speaking to the church in Asia Minor, that he is encouraging in the faith, he's teaching them sound doctrine and the gospel, he says this because he is anticipating, they're probably at some point going to be like, Peter, you've already taught us this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.
SPEAKER_00: I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent to wake you up with a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's essentially saying, as long as I'm breathing, I'm gonna keep giving you guys the same gospel truth that you need.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at 1 John chapter 4, 7 through 21, the word love or loves, love together, the concept of love shows up over 27 times.
SPEAKER_00: So whenever you see something repetitiously show up in the text of scripture, you should take note of it because obviously the author is making a clear point.
SPEAKER_00: The dominant theme of this chapter in these verses is God is love.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want us to look at this morning is two things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, well, the big idea I want us to focus on that I think captures these verses is that the love that saved you was never meant to stop with you.
SPEAKER_00: So what we'll see in John's letter here is that God's love is meant to, yes, save us, but then it's also meant to produce something in us.
SPEAKER_00: So the love that saved you was never meant to just stop with you, it was meant to flow out from you.
SPEAKER_00: And John even uses our understanding of God's love and our practice of God-empowered love as a test as whether or not someone truly is a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna not necessarily walk through verse by verse and unpack every single verse in this, but rather I want to like just hold up that dominant theme of God is love, and then look at the imperative of that.
SPEAKER_00: What are we to do in light of being God's child?
SPEAKER_00: As uh Taylor read for you guys, you can use the pew Bible in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: If you do not own a Bible, please take that Bible home with you as a gift from us to you.
SPEAKER_00: The big number is the chapters, and the smaller numbers are the verses if you would like to follow along.
SPEAKER_00: But let's start with what does it mean that God is love?
SPEAKER_00: If you've been a Christian for any length of time, we use a lot of terminology that we're very common, or that's very common, we're very familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: We all would amen, like God is love, Christians should love.
SPEAKER_00: But I think sometimes we can take those things for granted and not really sit with those and think, well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Like what does it mean to say that God is love?
SPEAKER_00: Because notice John does not say God has love, or that God is like 75% love, or that God does loving things, though that is true, but he makes a pretty strong statement.
SPEAKER_00: He says, no, God is love.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's start with what it does not mean.
SPEAKER_00: I always find that helpful.
SPEAKER_00: And I try to condense myself here because I could I could preach a whole series on what does it not mean that God is love, but here's a few that I think some people can get trapped in, especially in our culture, of how people might think about God and his love.
SPEAKER_00: God being loved does not mean that God loves you because you're lovable.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what John means when he says, God is love.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just be honest, right?
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing about you that made you worth loving on the father's end.
SPEAKER_00: Just receive that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's humbling.
SPEAKER_00: But God did not look at any of us, if you're a Christian this morning and say, you know what, I'm gonna save them because of blank, or because they're gonna be really great at this.
SPEAKER_00: No, he does not love because any of us are lovable.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, according to Romans, he died while we were what?
SPEAKER_00: Sinners, enemies, rebels to his will.
SPEAKER_00: The statement that God is love doesn't mean total acceptance and no questions asked.
SPEAKER_00: I think people in society are drawn to, you know, the Bible's a big book, 66 books made into one.
SPEAKER_00: And I think most people who have like cultural Christianity will affirm two truths, rather, out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: God is love and do not judge.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's most American Christians' entire knowledge of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: God is love and don't judge.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what they actually mean by that.
SPEAKER_00: A loving God, they say, would never judge you for anything.
SPEAKER_00: A loving God would never oppose what makes you feel loved or what affirms you.
SPEAKER_00: He just accepts you exactly as you are.
SPEAKER_00: So judging anybody for anything becomes one sin that we can commit.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what John means when he says that God is love.
SPEAKER_00: God is not some affirming deity in the sky just rubber stamping everyone's desires and identity.
SPEAKER_00: But third, it doesn't mean that God will never judge.
SPEAKER_00: We act like love and judgment can't be two things true at the same time in the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: We tend to think God is either loving or he's a judge, but he can't be both.
SPEAKER_00: But that makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: If you watched a court case and you saw someone was guilty of a serious crime, and the judge said, Well, love is love.
SPEAKER_00: I just affirmed this person and what they did.
SPEAKER_00: I can't judge because then I wouldn't be loving.
SPEAKER_00: We would all say, Well, that's an unjust judge lacking the love of justice.
SPEAKER_00: God can be both loving and a righteous, holy judge at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: So we gotta we gotta be careful here because I do think for right now, for example, in our cultural moment, if you disagree with someone, it's almost like you're you're evil.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have no category for, well, I can still love you, but agree to disagree with you.
SPEAKER_00: No, love in our culture is no, you must affirm everything I believe to be true, everything I want to do, everything I want to believe in, every decision I make about how I want to live my life.
SPEAKER_00: And if you say anything opposite of that, you're actually doing me harm.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, now I'm triggered.
SPEAKER_00: So now we live in a culture where everybody is ultra sensitive because we don't know what truth is.
SPEAKER_00: God can be loving and a judge.
SPEAKER_00: So then what does and you know the danger there too is that is a subtle way of us as humanity projecting onto God a human understanding of what love is.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of coming to the scriptures and saying, God, teach me who you are, how you operate, how you are loving and holy and a just judge, instead we say, I will project onto you what type of God you should be.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard even loving Christians make statements about, well, my God would never do that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he probably wouldn't because he's not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: He's your God.
SPEAKER_00: So yes, your God wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: But the God of Scripture does do that according to his word.
SPEAKER_00: So what does it mean then when John says that God is love?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me just highlight a few aspects of that statement.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, God's love is an initiating love.
SPEAKER_00: He made the first move.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't get God's attention, he gave you his attention.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Before the foundations of the earth, he set his affections on you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ this morning, uh in the same vein, I would say, secondly, God's love is a electing love or an eternal love.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: He knew everything about you before you even dawned on this universe, and he still chose you.
SPEAKER_00: Before you existed, God put his love on you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can turn here if you want, but just real quick, Ephesians chapter 2, it's one of the most beautiful passages highlighting God's electing eternal love.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, if you're in Christ this morning, this is your testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love before him.
SPEAKER_00: He predestined fancy way of saying he chose us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: According to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the beloved one.
SPEAKER_00: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that is your testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Before the foundations of the earth, that is what God did for you.
SPEAKER_00: He chose you.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Spurgeon talks about this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I believe the doctrine of election because I am quite certain that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen him.
SPEAKER_00: And I am sure he has chosen me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: And he must have elected me before reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: That is the type of eternal electing love that God has set on you.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it is so dangerous when some people believe that salvation works by well, and I used to believe this before I was a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I used to think, well, you know, I'll become a Christian when I'm like 40.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'll take, which is like around the corner for me now, but I used to think, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: When I'm older, then you know, I'll take Christianity seriously.
SPEAKER_00: But until then, like I gotta work on myself.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta clean myself up a little bit so that when I hit 40, I'm like more presentable to God.
SPEAKER_00: Like that is foolishness, that is self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: No, God chose us before the foundations of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is an electing love, an eternal love.
SPEAKER_00: But third, God's love is a powerful love.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing in creation is strong enough to sever God's love for his children.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Romans A is getting at.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is essentially saying there is nothing in creation, in the spiritual realm or in the earthly realm, that is more powerful than God's saving love towards you, the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It is a powerful love.
SPEAKER_00: And not only is it powerful to keep you, but it's powerful to destroy the power of sin in you.
SPEAKER_00: Only God's love could do that.
SPEAKER_00: But God's love is also unchanging.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, I think this one's a little neglected for a lot of us.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is unchanging, means he doesn't love you more on his good weeks and less on his bad weeks.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean like God's love is like a vibe.
SPEAKER_00: Next year, like, ooh, like, you know, you're giving ick kind of thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like that's not that's not God's love.
SPEAKER_00: His love is unchanging.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if God's love was like us.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if it could ebb and flow, right?
SPEAKER_00: Depending on how you treat me, my love for you might change.
SPEAKER_00: No, God's love is an unchanging love.
SPEAKER_00: It's a done deal.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing you can do to make God love you more.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing you can do to make God love you less.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get me wrong, on our end of the equation, we can ebb and flow in our experience of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: If you're running towards sin, you might not experientially feel the potency, so to speak, or or the uh the power of God's love, but on his end, it hasn't changed one bit.
SPEAKER_00: Because even the sins we commit, Jesus died for 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I commonly say, if you're in Christ, whenever you confess sin to the Savior, you should never be ashamed because you're confessing forgiven sin.
SPEAKER_00: He already knows about it, he already has dealt with it on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to him to talk about something he has already dealt with, which should motivate us to run to him in our confession because he's the one who gave us our healing from the power and effect of sin.
SPEAKER_00: So God's love is an initiating love.
SPEAKER_00: He moved towards you.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't first move towards him.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is an electing love, he set his love upon you before he created a single atom in this universe.
SPEAKER_00: And God's love is a powerful love.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing more powerful than his love, which means nothing can separate you, sever you from his love.
SPEAKER_00: And God's love is an unchanging love.
SPEAKER_00: It never changes.
SPEAKER_00: He never loves you more.
SPEAKER_00: He never loves you less.
SPEAKER_00: These are some of the things I believe he's getting at.
SPEAKER_00: John is getting at when he says that God is love.
SPEAKER_00: And again, it's important to understand.
SPEAKER_00: This is a, like if you really want to geek out, it's a fun study to just look at what theologians would call the attributes of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the incommunicable and communicable attributes of God.
SPEAKER_00: But there are things about God's attributes that can get a little tricky when we as humans try to study them because theologians try to compartmentalize like God is holy, God is just, God is love, God is good, and those are all helpful categories.
SPEAKER_00: But we can't fully wrap our minds around the character and attributes and power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Like just think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Like I think we can tend to think of God as like, you know, a diagram where it's like, okay, he's 25% love, he's 25% holy, he's 25% good, and then it all equals 100.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Like God's love embodies his holiness.
SPEAKER_00: His holiness embodies his love.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is embodied in his justice, and justice is mirrored in his love.
SPEAKER_00: They are interconnected.
SPEAKER_00: I understand why the scriptures say God's ways are above our ways, his thoughts are above our thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: But that shouldn't stop us from studying theology.
SPEAKER_00: It is, I remember the first book I ever read as a Christian outside the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Someone introduced me to a uh volume one of a series in systematic theology.
SPEAKER_00: Never heard that phrase before.
SPEAKER_00: I had no idea what that was.
SPEAKER_00: Never read a book other than The Hobbit when I was in seventh grade.
SPEAKER_00: And I could not put that book down because I was just learning all these great things about God.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't even pronounce the words.
SPEAKER_00: God's omni omni.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: He knows everything?
SPEAKER_00: He's everywhere present, he never changes.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know any of these things because I didn't grow up in a Christian house, so I didn't know the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And it just made me fall more deeply in love with the Lord when I realized He really is a great God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what John wants his audience, this church, to understand.
SPEAKER_00: But in the vein of thinking about God being love or the embodiment of love itself, let's not neglect the fact that God's love is proven in the sending of his son.
SPEAKER_00: Look down at uh 1 John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start in verse 7 real quick.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Dear friends, let us love one another because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
SPEAKER_00: So there you see again this test, these three tests John has been given all throughout this letter to test whether or not you truly are in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: In this chapter, he's emphasizing the love test.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love your brothers and sisters?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.
SPEAKER_00: God's love was revealed among us in this way.
SPEAKER_00: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice verse 8 is a rather matter-of-fact statement, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.
SPEAKER_00: And elsewhere he says, if you say you love God but you don't love your brothers and sisters, you are a what?
SPEAKER_00: A liar.
SPEAKER_00: This is a pretty matter-of-fact statement.
SPEAKER_00: It's a simple equation.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been saved by God's grace, you love others the way God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And that is evidence that you are of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other way to do it.
SPEAKER_00: But notice in verses 9 through 10, he's emphasizing the work of the Son.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 9, God's love was revealed among us.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that statement.
SPEAKER_00: He says God's love was revealed, it was demonstrated for the whole world to see.
SPEAKER_00: God's love was revealed among us in this way.
SPEAKER_00: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
SPEAKER_00: Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not forget the most popular passage in all the Bible written by this same author in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world in this way, he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that word gave is so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his one and only son.
SPEAKER_00: He gave the Son, the God man, Christ Jesus, as an offering on our behalf so that we can be reconciled back to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Because God revealed, He put on display his love to all humanity through the work of the Son.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ this morning, you'll never, you should never have to wonder whether God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can go back in human history and look at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that the Father gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life instead of eternal wrath.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of parents in this room, and even if you're not a parent, I know many of you have someone you love very deeply, and I doubt that you would voluntarily give your loved one to die on behalf of one of your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that's exactly what God did.
SPEAKER_00: That word, as I've been studying for this sermon, I mean, that just grabs me.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his one and only son.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't give him begrudgingly.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't give because, you know, like his fingers were pried open and he had to let go of his grip on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He voluntarily offered his son up.
SPEAKER_00: And the son voluntarily said, I will go.
SPEAKER_00: I will offer myself as a sacrificial offering on behalf of the bride, the church, so that any who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the first missionary was God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: When you read Genesis and you read about the fall, who was the first person to introduce hope and redemption?
SPEAKER_00: The Father, telling Eve, from your line, sister, will come the serpent crusher who will make all sad things untrue.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in Christ, you, and again, we all struggle.
SPEAKER_00: I I've been there, struggling with does God truly love me?
SPEAKER_00: But friends, that's just our emotions, that's just our vain thoughts trying to lead us astray.
SPEAKER_00: But God, the Father, put on display for all humanity evidence of his love when he sent his son to die on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: He already answered that question publicly at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And remember this love that can that costs nothing proves nothing.
SPEAKER_00: We never have to wonder if God loves us because he paid the ultimate cost to prove to us that he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: And the cost was his own son.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's an initiating love, it's an electing eternal love, it's a powerful, unchanging love that's proven when the Father sent his son.
SPEAKER_00: But love that just stops at a definition is not good enough for the Christian because we know the entire Bible, the Father is concerned with our hearts, not just having right doctrine, but living out the doctrine we say we believe in.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what John gets at, which part two, I want us to look at, okay, so what does God's love produce in his children?
SPEAKER_00: So kind of using that theme we talk about often in the Bible, you see indicatives and imperatives.
SPEAKER_00: Indicatives are declarative truths that then fuel the imperatives, the passages of scripture that are the commands, the exhortations we are to follow.
SPEAKER_00: But look down at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: He continues on in verse 11 of 1 John 4.
SPEAKER_00: Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
SPEAKER_00: No one has ever seen God.
SPEAKER_00: If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is made complete in us.
SPEAKER_00: God's love, brothers and sisters, must move through you and not just land on you and settle in.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be conduits, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5 talks about how God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, but we're we're not like to just contain the love of God within us.
SPEAKER_00: We're to express that love towards our brothers and sisters in Christ and those who are in our sphere of influence who have yet to know the Lord as their Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 12 echoes uh John 118 deliberately.
SPEAKER_00: Christ made the invisible God visible.
SPEAKER_00: So let's do some theology here.
SPEAKER_00: God the Father is spirit, he is not visible.
SPEAKER_00: So when you see the Old Testament sometimes using language of God extended his hand, that he doesn't literally have a hand.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word picture.
SPEAKER_00: God is spirit, but God the Son makes God the Father visible.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about this.
SPEAKER_00: According to John, no one has seen God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: But when you as a Christian love others through a God-empowered love, you make God the Father visible.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't please don't gloss over this reality.
SPEAKER_00: This is profound.
SPEAKER_00: Just like, for instance, it blows my mind to think that as Christians, we can grieve the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul says in Ephesians, right?
SPEAKER_00: Do not grieve the spirit, which means we are so interconnected to the Father that in our sin we can actually bring sorrow to the heart of our Father through our sin.
SPEAKER_00: But on the positive side here, John is saying, God the Father is spirit, he's invisible, but the way you love others, you put on display God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like every Christian has a superpower, and your salvation is like your origin story.
SPEAKER_00: You have the power, the capacity to put on display the preeminent glory of God the Father through your life.
SPEAKER_00: This blows my mind sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: God in a very real, experiential way is put on display through your actions.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it as a triangle for you note takers out there.
SPEAKER_00: So if you drew a triangle and put God at the top of the triangle and then put yourself on one end of the triangle and then others on the other end, I think that's kind of what John is getting at when he says God's love is made complete in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's when God's love indwells you, and then you extend his love and how you love, serve, disciple others, his love is made complete.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe what John is saying is we somehow complete God's love as if it's like insufficient and it's under you know construction kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, his love, he's perfect, but we complete his love and how we love others.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: People can, I'm sure some of you even have these stories.
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, here's an example.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been in a situation where maybe you're out at a store or you're at some event, you're somewhere outside of a church context, and you're getting to know someone, and you start wondering, like, I think they might be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a there's a level of love and joy and in their demeanor and how they talk.
SPEAKER_00: You know, have you ever had that feeling?
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe later you find out, like, oh, they are a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a that's a sampling, so to speak, of how our love can be displayed to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Christians, like, we're weird people when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: When we think about the fact that we're elect exiles, living in a world that's not our home, just think about things that we believe convictionally that the world does not agree with.
SPEAKER_00: How we even just think about what love is, how we extend love to other people.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't the Bible command us to love our enemies?
SPEAKER_00: Does the world tell us to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: The world says get vengeance now, get payment, right?
SPEAKER_00: How the Bible tells us to love our spouses, how we love and disciple our children, how we are to live a life where we are more focused on others' good than our own good.
SPEAKER_00: How we are to resist sin and temptation.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all these things encompass a biblical, God-empowered understanding of love that the world is like, why would y'all live that way?
SPEAKER_00: But as we do, we put on display our Heavenly Father and his love.
SPEAKER_00: So again, we aren't to just say, yes, I believe in God's love, I receive God's love, and then keep it to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's meant to produce love or loving deeds, rather, that go externally out from us towards our brothers and sisters in Christ and the unbelieving community.
SPEAKER_00: Now, but you can't give away a love you're not sure you actually have.
SPEAKER_00: So John points us to the one day that settles it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the weight of what God's love has actually accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to focus on verses 17 through 18 here.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 17 through 18.
SPEAKER_00: He's making some strong statements.
SPEAKER_00: He says, In this love, verse 17, in this love is made complete with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Because as he is, so also are we in this world.
SPEAKER_00: There is no fear in love.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, perfect love drives out fear because fear involves punishment.
SPEAKER_00: So the one who fears is not complete in love.
SPEAKER_00: We love because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: You can see these repeated themes, right?
SPEAKER_00: He keeps repeating, we love only because God loves us first.
SPEAKER_00: He keeps repeating, if you don't love, then you're not truly of God because love is born of God.
SPEAKER_00: But in 17 through 18, he's now talking about judgment, and he uses this phrase, perfect love cast out fear.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a passage of scripture that is commonly misused or misinterpreted.
SPEAKER_00: Many use it to say, this is a great verse to memorize to battle, you know, your anxieties about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, this verse has nothing to do about an anxious heart.
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe an anxious heart fearing the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: But when you read the context, what does he say there in verse 17 and 18?
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about perfectly love cast out fear for the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: This is a terrifying reality all throughout the pages of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: There is the day, judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: In your Bibles, the word day will often be capitalized because it's referring to the day when humanity will stand before Jesus Christ and be judged eternally, whether or not they embraced the gospel or whether they rejected the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And John is saying perfect love casts out fear on that day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So this verse isn't about your nerves, your emotions.
SPEAKER_00: This is about standing in front of a holy judge with confidence that you have eternal life, which brings up a problem for many.
SPEAKER_00: Because many objectors will talk like this.
SPEAKER_00: If God really is love, then why is he judging anybody at all?
SPEAKER_00: If God is really love, why is he sending people to hell?
SPEAKER_00: And some will just reject the concept of hell and eternal punishment altogether because they can't reconcile that with a loving God.
SPEAKER_00: And let's just be honest, in America, I think most American theology is all you have to do to go to heaven is simply die.
SPEAKER_00: Just be a decent enough person, and when you die, automatic heaven.
SPEAKER_00: No judgment, no gospel, just live a decent life according to your own standard, and you'll be in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, the Bible has no issue with holding two truths at the same time: God is love, and God will pour out his eternal wrath on unrepentant sinners forever.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just illustrate this.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus, when God delivered Israel by a mighty and powerful hand, and when he, you know, through a supernatural miracle, had them uh walk through the Red Sea, right after God collapsed the sea and destroys Pharaoh's army, judgment, wrath, do you know what Moses did?
SPEAKER_00: He sang a song about God's judgment and love.
SPEAKER_00: And in one line in Exodus 15, he says, Lord, who is like you among the gods?
SPEAKER_00: Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders.
SPEAKER_00: So Israel literally saw God's power, his love, because he's redeeming Israel, he's saving them and protecting them and guiding them.
SPEAKER_00: But then they also see visually right before their eyes his wrath poured out on evil Egyptians who were oppressing and seeking to kill these Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses responds to all of what they're witnessing by praising God for his holiness and love.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, who is like you among the gods, who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders.
SPEAKER_00: The same holiness that judged Egypt also rescued Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So if God's wrath is real and God's love is real, and they are, how does a holy God actually deal with your sin instead of just staying angry at you forever?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's how.
SPEAKER_00: Let's use some fancy words.
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 10, if you have the CSB and some other translations, the phrase is atoning sacrifice, or it is he was uh verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just read verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Love consists in this, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, or some of your Bibles might say a propitiation for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Both are very helpful terms.
SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about that for a second.
SPEAKER_00: How does God, a holy God, deal with sin righteously while still maintaining that he is love?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's just talk about two doctrines.
SPEAKER_00: Propitiation, Jesus being an atoning sacrifice on behalf of the Christian, simply means that God's wrath has been satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means that Jesus is a propitiation.
SPEAKER_00: His God's wrath, God the Father's wrath has been satisfied in another, Jesus, your substitute.
SPEAKER_00: Think of a lightning rod, for example.
SPEAKER_00: When lightning strikes a lightning rod, that rod observes the strike rather than whatever the rod is attached to.
SPEAKER_00: That's a way to picture propitiation for the sinner.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ when you believe the gospel, God's wrath had to fall on something.
SPEAKER_00: But if you trusted in Jesus Christ, it fell, it struck him instead of you.
SPEAKER_00: So God doesn't just delete his wrath, he doesn't just sweep it under the rug.
SPEAKER_00: God's wrath must be poured out on sin.
SPEAKER_00: He must punish sin.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way to be saved from such wrath is either Christ stands in your place or you stand and you take the wrath of God yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That handles the wrath part.
SPEAKER_00: But there's still a record of debt against you, a charge, so to speak, with your name on it, a debt you owe to God the Father that you must pay.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where expiation comes from.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a fancy theological word, expiation, which simply means that your sin has been wiped clean.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, theologians would say this more refers to the moral aspect of your sinful state.
SPEAKER_00: So through Jesus being your propitiation, which deals with the wrath part, you're actually made clean through expiation.
SPEAKER_00: Think of a criminal record that's been expunged, it's deleted, it's gone, as if it never happened.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody can run a background check on that person and nothing will come up because their record has been wiped clean, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a pardon is.
SPEAKER_00: Think of Paul in Colossians when he says he, Jesus, erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That's what expiation means.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took the wrath on your behalf and wiped the sleigh clean through his work on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Now, notice in verse 14 that John refers to Jesus as the world's savior.
SPEAKER_00: He says he's the savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just to be clear here, because some might misinterpret and some have used this passage to teach what's called universalism, that pretty much all humanity will go to heaven because God is a God of love.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody might find their different path to him.
SPEAKER_00: So you can believe in Islam, you can believe in this, or you can just be a good person.
SPEAKER_00: God knows your heart, God is love, so he is the saviors, he's the world's savior, and everyone will receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, as I said earlier, every last one of us in this room has a concept of justice.
SPEAKER_00: There is no way you would want to worship a God who doesn't punish sin.
SPEAKER_00: But this is not teaching, John is not teaching universalism here.
SPEAKER_00: He when he says, because some will say that, oh, he's the savior of the world, so I'm probably fine.
SPEAKER_00: I can just live a decently good life, and Jesus is my savior because he died for the world.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what John means.
SPEAKER_00: He's not teaching automatic salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Most Americans, as I said, believe that, hey, as long as you're a decent human being, when you die, you're good.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to go to heaven, irrespective of a category of sin, repentance, and the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what John is getting at.
SPEAKER_00: He is saying that Jesus is the world savior in the sense that there's only one savior.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other name under heaven by which man shall be saved but Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the world savior that the Father has offered up.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other.
SPEAKER_00: So when people say things like, well, there's many paths to God, I always agree there are as many paths to God as you want to create, but only one leads to him as your heavenly Father and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: There is truth and error.
SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing this up just to encourage you, but also to anyone who's an unbeliever in the room this morning, we are always grateful that you are here.
SPEAKER_00: But know this if you don't have Christ, expiation means your record could be erased.
SPEAKER_00: Propitiation means that the wrath you deserve will land on Jesus instead of you.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you're good enough, not because you're a decently good person, but because God gave his one and only son to be the savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to any Christian in this room.
SPEAKER_00: None of us is good.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even meet our own standards at times.
SPEAKER_00: We're struggling just to follow Jesus according to his word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't want us to clean ourselves up, he doesn't save us because we're good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Because he sent his son to stand in our place is why we are humbled as believers.
SPEAKER_00: And the beauty of the gospel is that that offer stands open to everyone today.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, God is still in the business of redeeming sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Most people hate the message of God's wrath and eternal punishment, and I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, you can hate traffic.
SPEAKER_00: And if you try to run across the highway, it's not gonna work out good for you.
SPEAKER_00: Just because you don't like something or you don't want to believe something doesn't make it not true.
SPEAKER_00: You can stop believing in prison.
SPEAKER_00: If you go commit a crime, guess where you're going?
SPEAKER_00: Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's not true.
SPEAKER_00: However, I would agree, hell, eternal punishment, the most terrifying reality in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that God will pour out his eternal wrath on sinners forever to no end, like that's not something easy to sit with and to think about.
SPEAKER_00: But I think we we can't neglect the fact that though hell is terrifying, though it is a terrifying thing to fall in the hands of God, friends, hell is terrifying, but it's also avoidable.
SPEAKER_00: The thing that shouldn't shock us is the fact that hell exists.
SPEAKER_00: The thing that shouldn't shock us is the fact that God is punishing sinners for all eternity with no second chance.
SPEAKER_00: The thing that should surprise us is that God offers salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that any of us who were rebels to his will can be redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and made new creations who love Jesus and treasure him and his gospel and will live with him for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, yes, hell is real, God's wrath is terrifying, but it's avoidable.
SPEAKER_00: But when we turn to Christ, we don't, for those of us who are Christians, we didn't turn to Christ to just escape hell.
SPEAKER_00: We're not interested in fire insurance.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I used to do street evangelism, uh a lot of street evangelism many years ago, and I realized, you know what, a lot of people would say yes to receiving Jesus Christ and pray with me when I my theology is a little different.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because think about it, like, oh, so this dude's telling me that like I may, I'm like God is mad at me and he's gonna punish me one day, but if I say this prayer with him, I go to heaven and I don't have to go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: Like, who would say no to that?
SPEAKER_00: But friends, that's why we share the full gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We don't water down wrath, but we also highlight what repentance is.
SPEAKER_00: This is what John is doing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, if you're born of God, then you love and you treasure God.
SPEAKER_00: So to the unbeliever, God offers the way of salvation to all today.
SPEAKER_00: And today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But to the believer in the room, if you are in Christ, don't let this pass by like old news.
SPEAKER_00: We can be guilty of this.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, I got the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I understand all that love stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get to the more important stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the wrath that should have been poured out on you in great power and fury landed on Jesus instead.
SPEAKER_00: That is a reality we should never move past.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reality, a statement of truth that we should never think of as old news, right?
SPEAKER_00: It shapes our entire Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That's not just a fact to remember, it's the reason we worship, it's the reason we gather every week, it's the reason we testify to God's goodness, it's the reason we don't keep our mouths closed and we share the gospel with all those who will hear.
SPEAKER_00: It is the reality of our very lives.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just, oh, yes, repent of your sins, believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He rose on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, it's the reason when you see Jesus in the new heaven and new earth, you're going to fall to your knees and throw your crown at his feet and say, Worthy is the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: When you see the wounds in his hands and his side and his feet, it will remind you of what took place on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: And you will praise him for that reality for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is the very focal center of the Christian's life, not something we study as the prerequisite to all the more important classes we got to take in the school of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage all of us, be fluent in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Love the gospel of Jesus Christ, study union with Christ, justification, expiation, propitiation.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you can't spell or pronounce those words, at least understand what they are, where they're at in Scripture, so that you understand when you say I'm saved, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: So many Christians say I'm saved, but they don't even think that means I'm saved from the eternal wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's where that statement came from.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saved from the eternal wrath of God and saved to love and serve my God and Father for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is a glorious message.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I can do that all day.
SPEAKER_00: In verses 19 through 21.
SPEAKER_00: So John keeps giving us, as I said, three ways, three tests throughout this entire book, how we can know that we are truly in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's helping these Christians know how they can have assurance of their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And the three tests are what do you believe about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe he's the Son of Man who came to take the sins of the world?
SPEAKER_00: Whether you obey Jesus, he says, if you love Jesus, you will keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: But then third, whether you love your brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: And in these verses this morning, he's focusing on that third test.
SPEAKER_00: And he makes it very clear.
SPEAKER_00: If you say you love God, but you do not love your brothers and sisters, you are a liar.
SPEAKER_00: That is not Pastor Cam this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That is inspired scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And let me be clear, friends.
SPEAKER_00: When John says loving your brothers and sisters, you don't get to determine what love is.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to receive that.
SPEAKER_00: We can't say, like the Pharisees, oh, here's God's law, but I'm gonna kind of like bring it down a notch and make it more palatable so I can actually feel good about myself, knowing I'm checking the right boxes.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You look at scripture and submit to it and ask yourself, am I loving my brothers and sisters the way this book commands me to love them?
SPEAKER_00: And if the answer is no, John says, Well, then you might need to question whether you truly are born of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's people love God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: A tree's fruit doesn't make the tree alive.
SPEAKER_00: It gives evidence that the tree is alive.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the same for a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Our deeds of love, our love of our brothers and sisters don't make you a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: So doing good things doesn't make you a Christian, but it's evidence that you are a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You tracking with me?
SPEAKER_00: A tree doesn't make itself alive.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, a tree's fruit doesn't make it alive.
SPEAKER_00: It proves that the tree is healthy and good.
SPEAKER_00: Loving your brothers and sisters doesn't create God's love in you.
SPEAKER_00: It shows whether God's love has ever been poured out in you in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the order in these passages.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19 comes first.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 4, 19.
SPEAKER_00: He says, We love because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone says, I love God and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar, for the person who does not love his brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
SPEAKER_00: And we have this command from him the one who loves God must also love his brother.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the strong language, must.
SPEAKER_00: Must, not, hey, give it your best shot.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, just try at least to love that guy in your church.
SPEAKER_00: No, you must love.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God first loved you.
SPEAKER_00: So how can we as Christians say, you know what, that person's problematic or that person's difficult to love?
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, what do you think God thinks of you?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to think.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us you were an enemy, the most difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And he moved towards you in a way that we will celebrate for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his son to die for you.
SPEAKER_00: God, the son of God, who stepped down from glory in heaven, put on a body, and was physically murdered on a cross to save you.
SPEAKER_00: That is the lengths he went to inconvenience himself to love problematic people.
SPEAKER_00: But then we say, Oh, you know, uh, I'm not gonna try to resolve conflict with that brother or sister in the church, because you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Just, I'm not interested.
SPEAKER_00: Well, John would say, Well, then when you say you love God, you're a liar.
SPEAKER_00: That's what John would say.
SPEAKER_00: We must guard against the subtle temptation of sin and the deception of our flesh to lead us to this Christian, uh, this pseudo-Christian life where we say the right things with our mouths.
SPEAKER_00: I love God, I love God's church, I love God's people.
SPEAKER_00: But then when God providentially puts opportunities in front of us to actually live those things out, and we never do it, kind of like what I talked about a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if someone was a firefighter, it was their dream to become a firefighter and they get their first gig and they get the first call to go to a burning down house and they just stand there and say, I'm not going in there.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, bro, that's kind of like the job.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say you're a firefighter, wear the suit, ride into the truck, and not actually do what firefighters do.
SPEAKER_00: It goes no difference for a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And notice, friends, verse 19, as I said, how it comes first.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ this morning, if you're a Christian, I don't care what your story is, I don't care when the Lord saved you, how that came about, you are in Christ because God first loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all have different testimonies and how the Lord drew us to himself, but we all have the same testimony in the sense of before the foundation of the earth, God showed an electing, initiating love towards us first.
SPEAKER_00: We love because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: That should humble us so much.
SPEAKER_00: So the love we show to others is not the price of admission, it's the proof that you're actually in the club.
SPEAKER_00: And just to highlight that, I just want to read one more time, my man Spurgeon here on God's initiating love.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I believe the doctrine of election because I am quite certain that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen him.
SPEAKER_00: And I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: And he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what makes your salvation all the more glorious.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this isn't common practice today, but you know, there used to be way back in the day, and still to this day for large buildings, especially houses that might be on um like mountainsides and things like that that are high altitude, but they will install lightning rods to protect the house.
SPEAKER_00: So lightning will strike the lightning rod and be directed into the ground instead of imploding the house.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I think of God's wrath.
SPEAKER_00: But think of it like this: if a house has a lightning rod or a a building, a skyscraper has a lightning rod, and the lightning rod does its job, that lightning rod doesn't protect the house next door, does it?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't protect the building next to it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the cross did with God's wrath that was supposed to be poured out on us.
SPEAKER_00: But again, a lightning rod can't protect the house next door.
SPEAKER_00: However, brothers and sisters, if you're in Christ this morning, you can.
SPEAKER_00: So God's wrath, propitiation was poured out on Jesus on your behalf, but don't let it just stay there and never open your mouth to share the message of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been there.
SPEAKER_00: I understand some of the intimidation of, well, what if the person doesn't like me?
SPEAKER_00: What if they ask a question I can't answer?
SPEAKER_00: Or what if they don't talk to me anymore?
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I understand all those things, but do not submit to those fears.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're talking about people's eternal souls, where people will spend an eternity.
SPEAKER_00: So how much do we have to not love someone to keep our mouths shut because we're scared of a little inconvenience or being embarrassed?
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I'm standing here today because someone was willing to open their mouth and share the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And many of you are as well.
SPEAKER_00: So in those moments, yes, acknowledge the fear of man, acknowledge the anxiety and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But man, what a joy it is to know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I hope the Lord, like when we get to heaven, there's like a movie theater or something like that, like Redemptive IMAX or something, where we can like just see, like, Lord, let me see the spider web of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Like who, like going all the way back to Jesus and the disciples, like who shared the gospel with me, who shared it with them, who shared it with that person, and trace it all the way back to Jesus and the 12.
SPEAKER_00: So you can just see like this.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so God before the foundations of the earth chose us, but he worked through means, which is his people sharing the good news, and now I can see it.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, let's be bold, let's open up our mouths.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not just say God is love and affirm that, but let's also live it out in our lives towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, but also loving others and sharing the gospel with those who have yet to come and see that God is love.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.