God Is Love

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Let’s pray. Father, we come to you tonight for your spirit to give me clarity in what I say about this chapter in your book. Help us to understand it in a deeper way. Help us to understand the broad scope of what’s being said and understand maybe a few details that maybe we didn’t see before. But help me to speak what you would have me speak. And we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Okay, well the first thing is to read the chapter, but before I read it, if you’ll look at your Bible, you’ll notice that 1 John 3.24 is actually the beginning of chapter four.

Remember chapter divisions and verses were put in way after the book was written, and a lot of people have different views about where paragraphs ought to be split, but if you look at what 334 says, it talks about the spirit by the spirit whom he has given us and then immediately launches into a discussion of other spirits. So I think if you were making your own Bible, that’s the way you would divide this chapter. You would go from 324 through 421. So I wanna read that first, And it’s interesting, after I read it, I’m gonna make a comment about that also. So here’s reading the chapter. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him and he in them.

And by this we know that he abides in us, by the spirit whom he has given us. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

They are from the world. Therefore, they speak from the world and the world’s listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God’s abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. And when we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God’s abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe that the love of God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected within us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as he is, so also we are in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

I’ve heard it said that possibly preachers ought to sit down after they read the passage because after this, they’re probably gonna make a mistake and at least reading God’s word, you don’t make a mistake. Well, probably true. So the first verse is 1 John 3.24. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him and he and them and by this we know that he abides in us. by the Spirit whom he has given us. It’s a bad chapter division, as I’ve said before, and it graduates to the next verse which speaks about the Spirit. Basically, the whole chapter is about the Spirit of God being in us and the love of God, how it’s being demonstrated in our body and how it should be demonstrated in our church and in our fellowship with other believers.

So, beloved, do not believe in every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. The interesting thing here is, this is written in the first century, and many spirits have gone, or many false prophets have gone out into the world. Right away from the get-go, Satan is planning and trying to defeat the gospel. So it’s not like it’s the curse of our time to have these false prophets. They were there when John was speaking. And think about it, if you were a new believer in those days, you didn’t have a Bible. You had the Old Testament maybe, if you had a Septuagint or even a Hebrew copy, but you didn’t have the New Testament.

You just had a few letters maybe that were being read aloud and the apostles preaching to you as John is preaching to these people and they would copy it down and send it on. So they had less to work with when they have than we have, and yet their clear instruction is, test the spirits of whether they’re from God, and you in your spirit will know that. This is the great tester. I’ve said it many times. As you’re being taught, if there’s that twinge inside of you that that doesn’t ring true, that’s something you need to follow up, ask questions about, and work that through in your own spirit. especially if you’re a Christian.

That’s one of the tests. So by this, by that you can test this, you know the spirit of God and every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Right away John gets to the issue. Jesus is both God and man. If you don’t believe Jesus is God, you got friends that are telling you, oh I believe Jesus is the son of God and all of that kind of stuff and they got the wiggle words to get out of that. If you don’t believe Jesus is God, you are not a Christian, okay? Christians are worshiping who? Christ in the name, Christian. And it’s amazing how many people when you get to denominations that are kind of floating out there, there are true believers in a lot of these places, but when you talk to believers that maybe haven’t thought this through and they wanna tell you, Jesus is the son of God, but I believe in God the Father, they’re not Christians, okay?

That’s just bottom line. And to be a Christian, you have to believe in the Trinity. The Spirit is God, Jesus is God, the Father is God, over and over, okay? Jesus is both God and man, is what he’s saying. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Now this isn’t to say that the Antichrist is in the world at this point. It says that the spirit of the Antichrist, there have been many Antichrists and still are, and probably more to come, that come and declare themselves, all kinds of things. And the interesting thing is a lot of times, people say Hitler was the Antichrist and all that kind of thing.

Hitler didn’t claim to be the savior of mankind. He didn’t do the things that you see in the book of Revelation, what the Antichrist is doing, but he was definitely Antichrist. But if you’re not for Christ, you are Antichrist. Okay, you’re either for him or you’re against him. All right, so, and it is in the world already. It’s already at work, And those things will be revealed, those people that are against it. If you’re patient enough and you are in a trial with somebody, just wait it out. I’ve been a Christian since 1984 and I have seen many people that were obviously not Christians and it doesn’t take long, about a decade, they will crash and burn.

They will do some stupid thing and finally be caught at it or say some word that will expose who they are. So it’s good to warn people, don’t follow that guy, he’s this and that, but it is amazing how God takes care of them over a period of time. So then the next verse says, little children, you are from God and have overcome them. Overcome who? The Antichrist people, okay? For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. If God lives inside of you, who can beat you? They can kill you, they can do whatever they want to you, but you are of God and you will be with him forever. So there’s nothing they can get you on.

Take heart in that. And notice he calls little children. All of us, we are God’s little children, adopted, of course, but we are part of him. And we have the true spirit. So therefore, we can keep having that rebounded to us as we go through these things. It’s amazing how, I don’t quite understand this. You might be reading something or listen to a sermon or just listening to some guy talking, you’re going, I don’t quite get this. Just pray that God would give you wisdom to understand it and start looking into that, into stuff. And it’s amazing how many times the Bible speaks a little truth over here and a little truth over there and a little truth here, and then all of a sudden that connection happens And you go, oh my goodness, I never saw that before.

That’s the joy of what the scriptures do, over and over. You can read this book 100 times, and on the 101st time, you’ll read something, you go, hmm, I didn’t see that that time I read it. One of the great Bible study methods that has been recommended, John MacArthur, said it way back in the 70s, I guess, is that if you wanna study a book, read it every day, the complete book. So like 1 John, or like if you’re reading the Gospel of John, read the first five chapters. But read them every day for 30 days. About the 12th to 15th day, you’re going to go, I’m so tired of this, I’ve read it, I know what it’s going to say.

Then on the 16th day, you’ll read something and you go, wow, I never saw that before. And then the window opens up and you see all kinds of things, oh, I got to have a question about that. Why did I, why are the, you know. That is the great joy of Bible study. It just keeps peeling the onion and showing you more. So then we move on to, they are from the world, therefore they speak from the world. And the world listens to them, talking about the false spirits. So they’re all, oh, you’re so great, we love you. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

If the world thinks you’re great, be careful. Now, that doesn’t mean that you can, as a Christian, do something that’s wonderful for the world and be celebrated for it. But all the time they love what you’re doing, look out, you’re probably not following the true gospel at that point.

We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So always have those ears to listen. You’re never too old to learn something new. And that’s, I think, the joy of the Christian faith. God lets you get to different levels, and as you get there and you feel comfortable at that level, he lets you stay at that plateau for a while, and then all of a sudden he starts poking you. What about that? Oh, quiet, I’m doing really good. What about that? What about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you finally go, okay, what about that?

So then you investigate that, And now you go to that next level, and he gives you rest and keeps growing you. It’s part of the Christian life, okay? Beloved, let us not love one another, for, let us, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. This is one of the first reasons in this chapter why Christians love is God, why Christians love. Okay, we got five reasons why Christians should love each other. Alright, this is the first reason that love is God and Christians should love because God is love. There, now I said it right. Now this has been used by a a lot of cultic figures to say, God is love, therefore love is God.

No, no, no, you can’t do that. The Greek doesn’t allow you to take the verb to be and switch the predicate and the nominative like that. So the attribute of love is not God, but God has the attribute of love, okay? So God is love incarnate, I mean, he loved us, He died and brought us to him. But love is not the sum total of who God is. So don’t let people tell you that, oh love is everything and if we just love, then we’re all gonna be wonderful and we’ll all go to heaven, kind of. But we have to have the love of God that’s instituting that is. And it’s a supernatural event because we don’t want to naturally act that way between other humans.

In this love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. So by the act of God himself coming to earth and dying for us, we have the ultimate example of what we’re talking about, right? That’s just like crazy. That’s the second reason why Christians love.

And that is God’s example in sending his son. There’s, that is the craziest thing if you really start thinking about it. If you were God, God forbid, but if you were, you would come up with this plan, well, I have to kill myself to redeem these people. There’s no other religion in the world that would come up with that. I mean, it’s like so far out there, and yet that’s what he did to redeem us. That’s just, wow, okay. 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. So we didn’t love him, he sent his son before while we were yet sinners, right?

And planned it from the foundation of the world, okay? Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. If we are being conformed to his image, as we learned in chapter three, which we did learn there, that we are continually being conformed to his image, then we need to love each other. And by this example, most of the situations that we have, well, I can’t love old Bob because he’s a jerk or whatever your excuse is, is just meaningless when you think about the huge import of God dying for us to bring us to him. So beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another, which is a self-sacrificing love.

That is what love is, right? Love is not the ushi-gushi feeling that you have for little Betty Lou, because she’s, you know, that’s not it, okay? Love is self-sacrificing service to one another. Now, that love’s good too, all right? But that’s a different kind of love than we’re talking about here, okay? No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. This gets back to the situation where God is conforming us to his son, chapter three again. So we haven’t seen God, but we act out godly things when we love one another and perform his works to other people.

That’s the third reason why Christian’s love is demonstrated. God’s love is within us as we love one another. The world looks at us, hopefully, and says, what are you doing that for? Why would you help that jerk? And you say, because the love of God is in me and I want to perform a service for that person to possibly expose that to him. Or, I want to talk to you because I want you to be part of this family. That’s part of the witness that happens. And because his spirit’s in you, When he is jerking you in those ways, pay attention to those things. Do it. He will give you the strength and the words when you get in those situations.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. Again, that’s what I was trying to say, but John usually says it better and much more concisely. So because of that, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. The fourth reason why Christians love is our assurance because of his spirit is within us. If you know God’s spirit is within you, you are a pretty powerful individual. You can deal with pretty much any problem. And sometimes it will be sad, it will be hard, but as you pray and submit to his will, I guarantee you in the end you’ll come out of that on the other side a better person.

Those of you that have gone through that know that. Even little kids can know that. They’re guilty about they broke the toy. They didn’t tell mommy. They’re hiding it under the bed, whatever. How do you feel after you confess that and get that load off of you, you’re fresh, you’re ready to engage in the world and be in fellowship with everybody. That’s the joy of all of this. Those are the small increments that we do. And when you get to be a big person, it’s the same stuff. It’s always that, over and over and over. As he demonstrates in chapter one, if we confess our sin, he is faithful to forgive us our sin. But if we say we have no sin, we’re a liar.

Uh-oh. Now, how can that be? We’re of his and all the rest of this, And we’re a liar if we say we have no sin and all of this is telling us to love people and that we have all this power because we still are under the curse. We’re working it out. He’s conforming us. He is in the process of making us like his son. But until we get to heaven, we don’t get to be like that yet, okay? It’s a process.

So, and we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. Now, don’t, see, it says right there son of God, but remember he’s further defined it up a couple verses there that the son is God also, okay? So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us, God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. So he’s just twisting that around all different ways, telling you that once you get folded in like that, that you are part of his plan, part of his family, and by that we should act that out.

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. So as this is coming to perfection, you get stronger in it, you have more confidence, you’re doing that, the whole realm around you works better and it just multiplies and happens like that. And that’s the Christian body worldwide is doing that. And I’ve spoken of it before, when you go and visit somebody that’s a true Christian and you may never have met them and within 20 minutes of sitting down and talking, when we realize this person’s a real brother. That’s that spiritual thing that’s happening and you just get to be in that flow of that circle while you’re visiting them.

And then you go away and get to another circle. But that’s always happening in your sphere of influence. And that’s the other thing that I always encourage people that I disciple is that just work in the sphere that God’s given you. He will grow that sphere to however big he wants it, but it’s always that individual you’re having contact with that rubs off and that truth can be passed on by him and that relationship with him teaches you more about your relationship with God. The disciplee is always learning more than, I mean the discipler is always learning more than the disciplee, okay? Part of the great mysteries of the Christian religion, okay?

So let’s see, God who’s advising God and advising him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as he is, so also are we in this world. So by this love being perfected, we are confident that in the day of judgment we’ll be on the right side of that judgment. This is like all comforting. At that point, what can hurt you? What’s the worst thing? Okay, you kill me and I go to heaven. All right, well that’s bad. Or I get terminal cancer and three days from now I drop dead, or I drop dead right now of a heart attack. Oh terrible, oh we’re gonna miss Dave. But Dave gets to go to heaven.

That’s not a good, you know, not a bad deal. I’ll take it. But that’s the fifth reason is that we have assurance of the day of judgment. And that assurance comes from you living out the Christian life, loving your brother, going through these grinds that sometime you’re thinking, why am I in this? I keep trying to do this and it doesn’t work, but it just keep trucking, all right? One foot in front of the other.

We talked about going to the GRACE agenda. I thought it was great that at the end, Doug Wilson stood in front of everybody and he says, I always get these questions after everybody gets all jacked up at these conferences and they wanna know what I can do and how I can do it. And his advice was, what you do is go to bed, say your prayers, get up in the morning, pray, and then get up and put one foot in front of the other and do what’s in front of you and be faithful to what God has put in front of you. It’s that simple, all right? So assurance in the day of judgment is the fifth reason. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

So if you have that fear, maybe God is trying to teach you another little wrinkle in your walk with the Lord. So don’t go, oh my goodness, what am I gonna do about that? Just keep putting the foot in front of, and keep greeting the issues, and those things will fade to the back as time goes on, as God grinds you through the mill, okay? We love because he first loved us. Little short verse, an amazing verse. If you think about it, it’s Yay for the Calvinists here, right? We love because he first loved us. We don’t even have a shot until he brings us to him. And then at that point, we can love, okay, properly. So we love because he first loved us.

He first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.

It’s an amazing way to just shorten and bang home the point here, right? If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, now what does that mean, hates his brother? Can we have fights within Christendom and have other Christians not even want to talk to us? We created a church in a splant, okay? Some people have been instructed not to even talk to us. I constantly, when those people, I see them and they say, you won’t talk to them, I say, absolutely, I’ll talk to anybody. I’d love to sit down with them. I don’t get invited, but I’m ready to talk about all that and would welcome that meeting. That’s, I believe, the loving stance.

If I went over and pounded on their door and demanded to talk to them, what kind of love is that? Because I’m starting off aggressively already showing that they’re not doing what they should be commanded on their side. So it’s a tricky situation in a lot of things. Now, does that mean that if your wife doesn’t want to talk to you, that you don’t talk to her for six months? No. That means you sit down and you have a talk. It’s tricky how you do these things. And again, I think it comes into that sphere of influence you have. I don’t know so-and-so that might be preaching heresy down the street. Does that mean I need to go down and find that guy and grab him by the collar and say, quit preaching this heresy.

No, I don’t have that sphere of influence on me. But when it comes into that sphere of influence, I maybe should have that guy to lunch, sit down and talk with him and hassle that through. And God will put you in those places where he wants you to act. Most of the time, especially when we’re young in the faith and we wanna do great things for God, we get all these visions about what we’re supposed to be doing, but we forget to do the things on the ground that need to be done to build that solid base. And as you build that solid base, he will give you the proper challenge and grow you that next level. So it isn’t like, oh, I just came to the Lord and now I have to go to Papua New Guinea and save all those people that don’t know anything about the Lord.

Well, maybe, but watch and see how God arranges that stuff, okay? And that the last verse, And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God, must also love his brother. Must. You have to, okay? And this also boils back to the same thing you hear me say like when I speak to the kids at ECS or just any kind of general discussion. The basic Christian life is due unto others as you would have them do to you, okay? The golden rule. If the world operated that way, It would be not a bad place if you think about it. If I don’t want to get punched in the nose, don’t go punch somebody in the nose. If I don’t want stuff people steal my stuff, don’t steal their stuff.

Do unto others as you would have them do to you. That pretty much cures the problem, right? So with that, it closes out the chapter. It’s very straightforward. I love 1 John in that it does that. Next time in chapter five, I’m gonna launch a little bit off into textual criticism just for fun, because there’s a verse in 1 John five that’s an interesting one. But this kind of teaching, we’re hoping as elders that we’re giving you a chapter in a teaching session so that you can look back on it if you wanna know something about 1 John when you’re reading through it or whatever, you can listen to that and get a broad overview so that you have some pegs to hang things on.

We’re not trying to give you 35 minutes on the first phrase in verse 16 or 45 minutes or whatever, one word at a time, that kind of preaching. You can get that on the internet and listen to people, why excel at going about that. But we’re trying to give you the whole package so that you can go away and keep that. is I’ve listened to a lot of sermons about, you know, one verse at a time over the years, and it is interesting that the older I get, having the basic meaning of a paragraph or the group of paragraphs that make up a chapter or a group of thought like that. If you have those principles in your head, it’s amazing how God will bring those to you and people will say, well, there’s a verse somewhere that speaks about that, I can usually go, yeah, that’s in 1 John 4.

I can’t tell you exactly which verse, but give me a Bible, I’ll find it. And that kind of thinking about the whole book really helps you out, especially when you start to then blend the Old Testament in with the New Testament. You’ll find that a lot of these things are taught. So that’s it for 1 John 4, and let’s pray and then we can be dismissed. So Father, we thank you for your word and how clear it is, especially in 1 John, how blunt you made your servant, and how seemingly he wrote this in his 90s when he was in prison done Patmos and he’s talking to these people and writing these letters. It’s amazing how clear he sees it and how he wants them to practice those simple things.

Help us to see that and to do that. We thank you, of course, most of all, for what you did through your son that allows us to even realize these things. Amen.