Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.22.20 1 John 4:7-11 Pastor Nathan Anderson

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1.22.20 1 John 4:7-11 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  We are going to be doing just four verses tonight, verses 7 through 11. 1 John 4, 7 through 11. Title for our message is taken right smack dab in the middle there. God is love. God is love. John, by way of recap, if you guys have missed anything to this point, we're not going to recap the whole thing, but we'll go over a few things. As we recall,
• 0:26
  John, the epistle of John, really is all about contrast, right? It's all about giving us these vivid pictures of difference. Light versus dark, hate versus love, righteous versus sin, forgiveness versus condemnation, doubt versus knowing. These are things that John constantly contrasts through his first epistle to this point.
• 0:48
  As John has transitioned to sonship, we talked about that, that the beginning of the book is really about fellowship. The second portion is about sonship. He has really fixed on a statement, by this we know, or we know. And he says this over and over again. We're going to see it especially in the coming verses, especially in chapter 5 and the end of 4. But by this we know.
• 1:19
  Whereas those first ones, there's a lot of ifs in there. John has, as we ended in our study last semester, writes of the Holy Spirit for the first time in his epistle in verse 24, chapter 3, in which he told us the...
• 1:35
  By this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. The Holy Spirit lives in us, we learned about. And then we looked at John 3.34 and the fact that the spirit which God gave us, he gave us beyond measure. There was no measure to the gift with which he gave us the spirit in the believer's life. And then we obviously looked at no sooner than...
• 2:02
  Does the Spirit come on the scene? But John then gives an example of why the Holy Spirit is so important to the Christian's life and what one of his purposes for indwelling the believer. And as we looked last week at the importance of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life, the need for us to be aware of the truth in Scripture and to test the spirits, the messages presented as truth, we saw that again the devil is out to deceive and to destroy and to convince us of what is a lie.
• 2:31
  that we would exchange the truth for fiction. We looked at that. John encouraged us last week in those first six verses of chapter four to test the spirits. He tells us that not every spirit is from God. Not all things that claim to be true are truth. And so we must test the spirits. We saw, though, that God, through his word, has made it clear what is truth and what is not.
• 2:59
  That light and dark are in contrast just as truth and lies are in contrast. That by the Spirit and those whom confess Jesus Christ as God and man are of the truth. That the test is simply, what do you say about Christ? You want to know if somebody's message is true. More than likely, if they confess Jesus Christ coming in as flesh and God, fully man, fully God, believing in his sacrifice, they are most likely telling truth.
• 3:29
  Test the spirits. What do they say about Christ? Because of this, John says we can know. Because if we test the spirit and because we have the spirit, we can know. Because God reveals the truth in his word, we can know. That those who listen to the apostles, John says, is he says, those who listen to us, those who listen to us, the apostles teaching, know God. John says, by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
• 4:02
  We see again from last week that God does not create confusion or doubt in the believer. That the Lord fortifies and convinces us, giving us firm truths with which we can build our lives upon. Let me say that again. God does not...
• 4:22
  create confusion or doubt. If we are experiencing those things, we must test where that spirit comes from, where those feelings come from. They are not from the Lord. Yes. Yes. Yes. I like, I actually did. You're talking about Andy. Yeah. No, no. Oh, Tom Barber. Tom Barber. Yes. Yes. I love it. God draws.
• 4:57
  Satan nags. God draws us to himself. Satan nags. Nags. Yeah, I like that. That's good. That sounds like a Thomism. Yeah, that's good. That's good. I like that. And I think that's absolutely true. Satan pokes at us.
• 5:33
  causes doubt, God draws us and creates firmness of truth, fortifies us. We again discuss the truth that John has built our house, right? We've been talking about this every week. John built a house, he built a foundation, he built walls, he built a roof, that he has built the foundation, the walls, and all that stuff, and he now spends time in detail adorning that house.
• 6:03
  This week will be no different. That gives us a good reminder of where we have been and sets us up for where we are going tonight. Let's read our passage, our four verses. We will pray and begin. 1 John 4, verse 7 says this, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
• 6:32
  Love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this love, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved.
• 7:00
  If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Father in heaven, we pray tonight. God, as we look at these truths revealed in your word, as you inspired John to write these down, Lord, you did so with a reason and a purpose that goes beyond even the church that received this letter from John. But God, you knew before beginning of time that we would stand here tonight and read this and study this together.
• 7:29
  And you wrote these words for us. God, that we might have the opportunity to know more about you, about who you are in your nature, about who you are as you express that to us. God, and then what you desire from us because of those things. God, guide our thoughts, guide our minds, guide our hearts, Lord. Convict us, inspire us, compel us by your love this evening. In your name, amen.
• 8:01
  John, as I said, has been building this house. Tonight we're going to get some more detail. John has, to this point, spoken of love twice before. Once in 1 John 2, verses 7-11, and also in 1 John 3, 10.
• 8:22
  through 14. The first mention is all about fellowship. The second is in connection with sonship. We see the first depicted as light versus dark, and the second is presented as shown as to be a matter of life or death.
• 8:38
  John has certainly not run out of things to say as he brings up love one more time. It's not as if he's out of it and so he's going to start back in on this topic once again. This is why it's so important for us to understand the reality of why I've been drawing this picture of a house. He's not here to be redundant in his words. He's not here to just simply say words that fill a letter. Rather, John here...
• 9:08
  continues to put in details filling the house so that as we dive deeper into each topic to build upon, to give us a deeper appreciation and understanding for those foundational truths. You know, when you take the time to, when you come into somebody's home and they've decorated it really, really nicely, right? Your eyes might be drawn to some of their pictures they've decorated with, some of their...
• 9:40
  some of the paint colors they've chosen, all of those things, they might elicit some sort of a response from you. But...
• 9:49
  If you've ever been part of actually seeing a foundation poured and then walls being built and then a roof being put over it and then seeing how that person who's been part of all of that chooses to decorate, you will notice that there is even greater care in the details with which they decorate their home as they get into the fine details of their house. There's something amazing about...
• 10:19
  being able to appreciate the picture that's on the wall after seeing an entire structure being built. There's more meaning as you see, if you come in and you just see a drywalled wall, it doesn't mean as much as if you've been part of and seen the building of that entire place. And I think as we look at John's first epistle and we look into this and his third,
• 10:50
  approach on the topic of love as he now presents it and writes it. As we consider these truths written about in more complete and deeper detail, I think we can appreciate this as we consider where we have been and the foundation which he has laid and consider that what he calls us to in these verses tonight. Here tonight we will see why those two things are spoken of
• 11:23
  are so vitally important as John now turns into detail. As we think about why he says that fellowship with God naturally spurs us towards love. And if we are sons of God, if we are adopted into God's family, we will naturally love.
• 11:47
  As we consider those two truths that John has already presented and we look into the detail of tonight, I think those things will pop out more to us. As I think about this and where we're going with this and where we've been, we have all done things to our bodies at different times that we bear scars and marks from, right?
• 12:17
  Things that can at times, when we remember them, remind us sometimes of good memories or perhaps bad memories. Things that remind us not to be so dumb or maybe are like, oh man, I was actually doing pretty good there. Most of my memories and most of my marks remind me about how dumb I am.
• 12:42
  And as I thought about this, there is one scar in particular that comes to mind. I got this one when I was around six years old. And when I was younger, my grandparents, who eventually retired and went to Arkansas, were still farmers, and they were farmers in Illinois. And so we would go down sometimes and spend a week or so down on the farm, and one of my favorite things to do on the farm was...
• 13:09
  go explore I would collect all kinds of rusty bolts and just about anything I could find my grandpa of course had like what every farmer has which is a scrap pile just of random metal and all of that stuff well there was one day where we were I think we were pretty much by ourselves on the farm just the kids or whatever I don't remember what everybody was doing but um anyway uh we decided my brother and I decided that we were gonna he talked me into uh
• 13:38
  Playing tag, which my brother's almost seven years older than me, so this is not a fair game. But he talked me into it, so we played for a little while. I don't remember exactly how I caught him, but I caught him, and so I was not it anymore. Ran off to go hide and ran into a barn that I wasn't supposed to be in.
• 14:08
  and I was trying to get away and figure out a place to hide where he just would never find me. And as I'd run in there, I look up, and there's the loft. I'm like, man, I could probably get up there. And so I'm all amped up. My adrenaline was going. And so I just start shimmying up as fast as I can because I just got to get away from my brother. He's going to catch me. I'm going to be, you know. So I'm...
• 14:37
  Climbing up this thing as fast as I can, and I grab, but it's dark. There's no lights. My grandpa didn't have electricity or anything inside. So if you don't have the barn's doors open, you can't see anything. So I can't see up past a certain height. So I don't know that apparently I'm climbing as fast as I can, scurrying up towards what I don't know how big a board, but there was a board sticking out two by four or bigger, just firm. And I go up and I...
• 15:05
  Went to launch myself up a little bit higher and literally just nailed, nailed my head. Saw stars, fell. I thought I caught myself. I thought it because I stopped. And so I climbed down and then I hopped over a fence and then hid for a while and sat there and sat there.
• 15:37
  After a while, I was like, man, my cheek really hurts a lot. And my brother is not coming. I found out later. I mean, it was a game, but he just ditched me. So I finally am like, man, I've got to go inside. It's almost time for supper. I've got to get cleaned up and everything. So I come in, and man, now I'm walking, and my cheek really hurts a lot.
• 16:05
  Get inside, and I sit down, and, man, it hurts. But I don't want to say anything because I'm not supposed to be in the barn. So I sit there, and I wait for my turn to take a shower. And then I go in, get ready to have a shower, and I look at my pants, and there's this tear in my pants and blood. And I'm like, oh, no. I'm like, hey, Mom, I think I ripped my pants, and I may have cut myself.
• 16:37
  Well, come to find out, I had landed on a nail and had torn a huge old chunk of my cheek. And we had to go to the hospital. And I had to get a whole bunch of stitches. And I have a huge scar. And that scar reminds me, it's with me forever now. It's part of who I am. It reminds me.
• 17:08
  that I can do some pretty dumb things. But there are things that become part of us, who we are, that start to dictate, change how we act. That was a moment that really, honestly, something that I have thought about over the course of my life because I know I'm capable of doing some really dumb.
• 17:38
  And as we look at our passage tonight, I think that illustration will bear resemblance to as we consider this truth that God is love. As we begin to dig into these verses, verse 1, let me give you guys a basic outline for tonight. We just have two points. Verses 7 and 8 are going to be love's source. And then verses 9 through 11 are going to be love's expression.
• 18:08
  Love's source, 7 and 8. Love's expression, 9 through 11. Love's source is what we're going to look at first. It says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. And anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. As I said here, we find...
• 18:32
  The reason why love is so vital is John says that as we have fellowship, if we claim to have fellowship, we will naturally love. And if we claim to be sons of God, we will naturally love. Love is a valid test, a barometer for fellowship and sonship because here it says God is love. Love is the test of the reality or the quality of our spiritual life.
• 18:56
  Let us love one another, John says, for love is from God. Here John tells us the source of love. If you want to get water uncontaminated, undefiled by pollution of this world, then you go to the spring. You go to the source, right?
• 19:12
  El Dorado Springs water you see on a store shelf everywhere, and you can buy it from King Soopers and other grocery stores. And back in the day, if I'm not, you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but if I remember correctly, back in the day, you could go up to El Dorado Springs in the canyon, and there was a little tap, and you could go and get water out of there.
• 19:33
  And people swore by it, right? Like it was the best water in Colorado. If you want the best water in Colorado, go to El Dorado Springs and El Dorado Canyon and get the water out of the tap. And it was like once or twice a year or something like that. You could do it or maybe even back then you could do it even more. I don't know. But I just remember people talking about that all the time when we first moved out here 25 years ago. But rave about this water, the crisp, clean, and fresh taste to it. You want the best water you've ever had? Go get some from El Dorado Springs. Go to the source.
• 20:02
  Here John now is telling us why the Christian would display love if they are in fellowship with God. Why would they display love if they are sons of God? John tells us that God is love. Not that love is God, but that God is love. This is to say that God is the source, the spring from which love flows. That God is love means that God is love.
• 20:29
  also defines love, not love defining God. These are important things for us to keep in proper understanding, that God is the source and the defining definition of love, not the other way around. Because if we explore love without the source, then we begin to define it and live it out based on how it feels, how we react to it, to what it feels like to love.
• 20:59
  Certainly the love of God feels like love. It feels good. But there are many other things which can be substituted for the source, contaminated versions of the source's definition. We can allow ourselves to think that water in the ditches is clean. Trading the clean, crisp, refreshing, soul-purifying refreshment of God's love for the love of convenience contaminated with all the worldly and sinful definitions.
• 21:28
  Christian love, brotherly love, God-originated and defined love is special. It is life-giving. One of my favorite verses is in Romans chapter 5. We're going to go over there. Romans chapter 5 is an incredible, incredible chapter. It talks about peace with God through faith. Romans 5 says,
• 22:01
  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And then verse five, and hope does not put us to shame.
• 22:30
  And this is it. Because God's love has been what? Poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. I love, I love, love that imagery of God's love being poured into us by his Holy Spirit. God's love has been poured into our hearts. If we have fellowship with God, we are sons of God.
• 23:02
  who is love, then by being connected with the source of love, we will naturally act loving. We should naturally act loving. We must. We are compelled, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.14, by this love to act, to live, to reveal, to magnify the truth that God is love and we have experienced it. The truth for us as believers is,
• 23:32
  That the Christian's life is not a once-for-all crisis of faith, a turning towards God through his son's sacrifice, and then we're simply done. That is not what the Christian life is about. That is a moment, a transition from death to life, but it is not what it's all about.
• 23:50
  It's about us, as we grow in our understanding and experience of this love, which we believed in, we then act more and more loving, more and more like our Father, who is love. This then reveals that true theology, the study of God, God who is love, is anything but dry and boring. Being filled with impractical truths which bear no impact on the daily life. That is the opposite of true.
• 24:21
  Rather, each day gives opportunity to, in a deeper way, understand the vastness of the love of God expressed through His Son, Jesus Christ. That is the truth and the reality of the Christian life. Warren Wiersbe tells a story in his commentary on John's epistles of a hospital which was robbed by somebody. This man robbed the hospital and unknowingly...
• 24:50
  took radiation with him to which the doctor told the police please make sure if you're able to find this guy or contact him to let him know that he is unwittingly being changed he's being affected by what he is transporting if we are christians the love of god will be affecting us it will move us shape us pull us motivate us
• 25:23
  not compile, compel us. If you are tapped into the source, the source will affect you. Love's source is a truth which none of us should take for granted. The fact that our God is love and so acts loving towards us because of the object of his perfect love is Christ, whom he...
• 25:51
  whom because of his gracious, humble, and merciful act on the cross now stands as our propitiation, as these verses say, for our sin, our condemnation heaped on him. And we now, because of belief in this truth, have the seal of the Holy Spirit, which is in loving communion with God the Father and God the Son, expresses this love now through us, brothers and sisters.
• 26:18
  which he expresses to us and he views us with, we are now capable of expressing to those outside, those of us who also believe and those who are still lost. We are taken from an object of this perfect love to a participant in the expression of this love in a lost world. This is our next point, love's expression. Love's expression. Flip back over to 1 John.
• 26:49
  So love's source, love's source is obviously God. God is love, it tells us. That is literally who defines love and where it comes from. It's God alone. Then in verses 9 through 11, we see love's expression. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God.
• 27:18
  but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Because God is love, he communicates in a loving way, but not only communicates in love, but he also does so in deed. Love is action, and thus...
• 27:46
  to communicate His love accurately towards us, He must act upon His love. God has revealed and reveals His love to mankind in many ways, in many centuries, through many people and situations. God's love is revealed in His choosing and dealing with Israel, Deuteronomy 7-8. The Lord did not set His love upon you, He's talking to Israel, nor choose you because you were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord...
• 28:15
  loved you. There was nothing special about Israel, apart from the fact that the Lord chose to love them, express His love to them. Obviously, the greatest expression of God's love is seen in the person and work of Christ Jesus. Romans 5.8 says, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans tells us,
• 28:42
  that God showed, demonstrated, manifested His love in Christ. This means, manifested means to make known or to come out into the open, to reveal, to announce. Jesus is the announcement, the demonstration, the revealing, the manifestation, the public proclamation of God's love for the entire world. In verse 10, it says that Christ was sent.
• 29:13
  Christ was sent. You see that at the end of verse, I'm sorry, verse 9. Is it 9? Yeah, no, 10. There we go. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son. This is an interesting word to use.
• 29:31
  that God sent Christ into this world to be our propitiation. Many throughout history have tried to discount Christ, to say that he was not divine, not fully man, that he did not intend to be thought of as the Savior of the world. Here, we see that Jesus was sent. Brothers and sisters, babies are born, not sent.
• 29:55
  Babies are not sent into the world from some other place. They are born into this world. Jesus did not happen upon this title of Savior. He did not stumble into this role which the eternal hopes of Christians are built upon. No, Jesus was sent. Jesus had a divine appointment. This was no accident. This was an appointment. Jesus was sent that we might live through him. We see this in verse 9.
• 30:27
  The end of verse 9. So that we might live through him. So that through him we might live for him. 2 Corinthians 5.15 says that. So that we can live with him. 1 Thessalonians 5.19. We are saved that we might live. Crossover from death to life. That's the first part. Then in 2 Corinthians 5.15. Now that we are saved we have a direction.
• 30:56
  We have received love and now we are an expression of his love that we might live for him. And then the eternal hope, 1 Thessalonians, because we will live with him forever. This is done so that we can have fellowship with the begotten because we are sons of God. So that as we experience the manifestation of God's love in Christ's sacrifice, we might live out this love in our lives and magnify.
• 31:29
  This is why John in verse 11 calls for us to love as we have been loved. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. For the second time, we are exhorted to love one another. This exhortation is made.
• 31:57
  On the basis, the reality of the nature of God. God is love. John says, you know God. Therefore, because he is love and you know him, we should love one another. It is important, though, to note here that this is not some legalistic command given. Some box to check off. This is not a burden to us as believers. Rather, John presents this as a privilege as well as a responsibility. We are certainly.
• 32:26
  not saved by loving Christ and others. We only saved through belief in the person and work of Christ, right? However, once we realize and believe upon that work, knowing what he lovingly endured for each one of us on the cross, our normal response is to love him back and to share that love with those around us. I did not tell Danny that I was going to read Ephesians chapter 2.
• 32:58
  I found it interesting that he read that first part. Man, Ephesians chapter 2 is fantastic. I'm just going to read it. I was going to read the whole thing anyway, but even though he read it, I'm going to read the whole thing.
• 33:19
  And we were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the...
• 33:48
  great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
• 34:16
  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that at one time...
• 34:40
  you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision, what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at the time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant's promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood.
• 35:09
  For He Himself is our peace, who made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law and commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in a place of the two, so making peace.
• 35:30
  and might reconcile us both to God and in one body through the cross, thereby killing hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off. That's us, brothers and sisters, far off. And peace to those who were near. For through him...
• 35:46
  We have access in one spirit to the Father, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens. You are fellow citizens. We are sons and daughters with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place.
• 36:17
  by the Spirit of God. As I thought about these four verses and where we're going to go, John is going to look further into love, the fact that God is love. As I thought about the reality of what he says is love is made manifest among us through God sending His Son into the world.
• 36:53
  When you think about what it means for him to be the propitiation for our sins, that he endured the cross for us, that love compelled God to do so. When there was nothing, as we saw in Romans, nothing lovely about us. When we were far off, as Ephesians says, God drew us near. And then, verse 11, I believe, just comes alive, beloved.
• 37:26
  God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. If we understand what we have been given, the Lord extends to us by His grace. Man, how can we not act loving towards each other? How can we not act loving towards the body? How can we not act loving towards those who don't know this yet? I asked Carla, because you guys don't want me to start off, we're going to sing a song. I know it's 8 o'clock, but we're going to sing a song.
• 38:00
  When I survey the wondrous cross, as I thought about applying this, the reality of God made manifest among men, that he came because he loves us, because he is the definition of love, that the cross is the very expression of his love. I don't think of any better way than to sing these four verses together.