God So Loved Us

1 John 4:1-11 and the Call to Test the Spirits

Please turn in your Bibles to 1st John in chapter 4. I'll be reading verses 1 through 11. I want to remind you that this is God's inerrant, authoritative, sufficient, infallible Word. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.

Because 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 of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God, and he who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Love One Another Because Love Is of God

Now our text for today. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.

And.

Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God had sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we love God, 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. Please pray with me now.

Oh Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the splendor of your love revealed in the person.

Christ.

We thank you for loving us, even though we have not loved you and that our love now is a reflection of your love. Oh Lord, I pray that we would love you in spirit and in truth and that we would love our brethren.

Holy Spirit, I ask that you would work and move in our hearts to this end. It's in Jesus name that we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated. The title of the message today is God so loved us, drawn from the last verse of our section in verse 11, God so loved us. The theme of the message today very simply is Christ is the splendor of God's love.

Christ is the splendor of God's love. I've put the outline on the Slack channel if you need it for reference either now or later. First, I have three questions I hope to answer today. How do believers demonstrate a saving knowledge of God?

First question, how do believers demonstrate a saving knowledge of God? Second, how does God manifest his love? How does God manifest his love? And third, what must you do in response to God's love? What must you do in response to God's love?

Brethren, I am quite sure based on our study in 1st John that the Lord is very eager for us to have a proper love for one another. It's abundantly clear that this is the message of the hour that he has for us.

I'm thankful that this is our subject matter. I believe it comes at a very important time in the life of our body. We ought to love one another as a reflection of God's love to us. He loves us. Therefore, it necessitates that we love one another.

Let's dive right into the exegesis of the text. If you look at the first word in chapter 7, it says, Beloved. It says here again a term of endearment from John to his hearers. He says, you are the ones who have divinely been loved by God.

You are the ones who have experienced God's self-sacrificing love, that agape love. This is who you are and this is the way that that John addresses us. And so it's important that I convey that to you as well, that you are divinely loved ones.

Hear this message, you who have been loved by God, you need to hear the words that are being said. You have personally experienced God's love and if you haven't, there's great hope today because in our text we can find out just how to experience this love of God and that we could be called the beloved ones of God like John is to his hearers.

It says, Beloved, let us love one another. Now this word is a form of that agape love that we've been talking about repeatedly in our section and it means to actively do what the Lord prefers by his power and direction.

So sentimental notions of love and feelings that we have sometimes diverge from the truth and reality of biblical love. God is love and he defines its terms. We need to love one another because this is the active doing of what the Lord prefers.

We just read in prayed through the Ten Commandments. It's all about love. It's about loving God and loving our neighbor. It's at the very heart of God and his character and it's also at the heart of our moral and ethical obligations and duties to one another.

If we want to know what the mind of God is in an area, we have to ask the question. What is the God-glorifying way, the Christ-like way of love in this situation that I'm facing? True love is always defined by God.

Always.

This is used often in 1 John of the love of Christians towards one another. The same idea over and over again coming through loud and clear to us. Christians should love one another because this is pleasing in the sight of God.

It speaks of the benevolence which God in providing salvation for mankind has exhibited in the sending of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and giving him up to death that he might show his love to the world in the sacrifice of his son.

We trace the development. You'll remember a few times in recent years we go all the way back and asking questions about why does God save? Why does God show mercy? Why does he send Jesus? Why did he save you from his sins?

And the answer that it terminates in is he loves us. That's the why. The reason there is salvation in the world, the reason that men can be reconciled to God plainly and simply is because of God's love.

That's why there's salvation. And so it follows that this is so integral to God's character and his attributes that those who have been loved of him who could be called the beloved ones, they ought to love one another.

It says in the second half of verse 7, everyone who loves as God defines it is born of God and knows God. This in birthing from God is very interesting. It's God conferring upon men the nature and disposition.

Of sons.

To be born into God's family is to have your name, your identity, your person. God confers upon you the nature and disposition of sons. And therefore, we bear the family resemblance of our elder brother, who himself is the embodiment of love, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everyone who loves this question of how do we know who demonstrates a saving knowledge of God? Sometimes we look for a good answer to the justification question. It's not a bad thing to do. But the test that John is emphasizing is the test of love.

If we have been conferred, God has conferred upon us the nature and disposition of his sons, we will bear the resemblance and the likeness of his dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our lives will be characterized by love.

He imparts to us a real and genuine spiritual life by his own holy power. He prompts and persuades souls to put their faith in Christ and live a new life consecrated to himself. This is what it means to be born of God.

The question of point one is answered. The first question, how do we know genuine faith? Distinguish it from a false belief. Everyone who loves is of God. True believers love one another. The one who loves demonstrates that he is born of God and he knows God.

And this knowing is knowing through personal experience. It's not just knowing about, it's actually knowing. You and I can know about God and we can know about salvation. We can know about the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's a whole different, deeper level of intimacy to know him in this way. This is personal experience. This is the word that Mary used when she was talking to the angel about the prophecy of the Messiah of Jesus being born from her in her womb.

And she says, I have not known a man. I don't have that level of intimacy with a man. I don't know how I could be pregnant. So that's the depth of this intimacy, this knowledge. It's to know God in a true and profound and experiential way.

You don't know God in this way. There's still hope for you coming in our text. What takes us to our next question, there's a transition given to us in verse 8. And the same truth of verse 7 is stated negatively.

It says in verse 8, he who does not love does not know God for God is love. So if we could say it positively, everyone who loves is born of God, we have to say it negatively. He who does not love does not know God.

And again, this definition of love is given to us in the scripture proceeding from the character of God himself. It says in verse 8 that God is love. I'm going to make much of that statement next week, Lord willing, because it reappears in verse 16 of our text.

But I'll just say this, the way in which we say God is holy or omnipotent or omnipresent or just or good or all of those descriptors of God, we can say it about love. God doesn't just love. He himself is love.

He doesn't just look holy. He is holy. It's very much tied to his essence and his person and we'll develop this more and put a pen in it for next week. For God is love. It comes from his character. So that which is contrary to love is contrary to God.

The Manifestation of God's Love in the Sending of His Son

God is love. But now we get to the part I'm most eager to look at. The second question, how is God's love proven? How is God's love manifested? Children, look at the text and see if you can answer the question.

How is God's love manifested? Well, it says it here in our text for us. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us. Are you ready for it? That God has sent his only begotten son into the world.

That we might live through him. Oh, that we should give thanks that we read Genesis 22 today. What a great kind providence in our liturgy. Abraham was called of God to take his son Isaac to the altar and to offer him there.

And God provided a ram caught in the thicket. And so the angel of the Lord says to Abraham, I know that you love me. I know that you believe me because you've not withheld your son, your only son. Abraham doesn't have to go through with it.

The sacrifice of the ram is provided. How great is the love of God for us? Where Jesus Christ goes to the altar of the cross. And there is no substitute. God goes through with it in his mercy. He spares Isaac, but he does not spare.

He does. He he does not withhold his son, his only begotten, his beloved son. And he he puts him on the cross for our sin and our death and our shame and our guilt. You and I know nothing of this kind of sacrificial love, but God has demonstrated his love.

God has manifested his love. He's proven his love for us in the sacrifice of his son. And he sent his only begotten son into the world. That begotten is monogamous. And think about all of that, the creeds and all the Christological heresies.

We touched on that last week. It'd be helpful to read the definition of Chalcedon. Remember the Nicene Creed again, the Athanasian Creed. The church has labored and toiled to preserve this doctrine. It seems that John, even at this early date, is eager for us to understand that the one who came in the flesh is the Lord from heaven.

Without a difference of two different persons. He is one person, but he is both God and man. He has two natures in one person. He wants us to know that he is the only begotten. And he has sent him into the world.

He has sent him on this mission that you and I might live through him. He doesn't want us to stay in our death. He doesn't want us to stay in our sin. He wants us now to have a spiritual resurrection from the dead.

He wants to number us among his people. He wants to commune with us. He wants to make his home with us. And he wants us to dwell with him forever. And he wants us to have a bodily resurrection, just like our trailblazer, the author of our salvation, has had in his resurrection.

Oh, the love of God for the people of God. He doubles down. Look at verse 10. And he says, in this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us. There's a great country song that says in the lyrics, do you love me?

Check yes or no. And little boys and little girls, they start to have feelings for one another. They like to feel out and whether the other person likes them or not. If God were to pass us the note to check the box, our answer is no.

Do you love me? The answer is no. And for little teenage romances, that ends it because I'm only going to love you if you like me back. We say no to God. We don't love you. By our sin, our rebellion, our fail to honor him or fail to worship him.

Our natural tendency is to say, no, God, we don't love you. And he says, it's OK. I love you anyway. This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us. And sent his son. It's another thing that we need to think about here in verse 10.

When we are at odds with someone, we want them to repent and we want them to come to us and apologize. In order that the process of reconciliation might start. But God doesn't do that. The offended party steps forward and he enacts, he brings to pass the reconciliation.

We don't know this kind of love because if we're offended, we wait. We want them to come to us. We are the offending party. God is the one who has been offended and he approaches us. He sends his son to save us and to redeem us.

What wondrous love is this? The offended party enacts, performs, fulfills all that's needed for reconciliation. Oh, the wondrous love of God. The splendor of God's love in the person of Jesus Christ. The offended one offers the one who needs to be appeased.

He offers the appeasement, Christ. The one who needs to be reconciled to sends the reconciliation in the person and work of Christ. God loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the reconciliation of our sins.

Christ's atoning blood appeases God's wrath by the sacrifice of himself. To the unbeliever, he enters into eternity facing the just wrath of God. Be reconciled to God. He sent his son in the world to bring life.

Be reconciled to God. He sent Christ into the world to satisfy divine justice, to appease his wrath. Be reconciled to God. God has sent his son for this very purpose. And so the logic follows. And the last question in point three has to be asked.

The Christian Response: Love One Another and Believe the Gospel

What should we do? What must we do in response to God's love? Look at verse 11. It said, Beloved, if God so loved us, and oh, he has loved us, we also ought to love one another. The next time you're offended and you've been hurt, run to the offending party and show them the love of God in Christ.

What a different world that would be. The next time you give offense, remember that Christ has come to forgive you, to save you, to wash you. Be reconciled to him. Repent quickly when you offend. Be eager to restore those broken relationships.

And this phraseology, love one another, is the most common of all of the biblical one and others. And I could argue, I should say, I am arguing that it is actually all the other one and others are applications of loving one another.

Let's listen to a few of them taken right from Scripture. Honor one another. What must you do to in response to God's love for you? It says in our text, we are to love one another. So we're considering the love one and others and the other one and others of Scripture.

Honor one another. Greet one another. Welcome one another. Show hospitality to one another. Have fellowship with one another. Agree with one another. Live at peace with one another. Be kind to one another.

Forgive one another. Bear with one another. Bear one another's burdens. Comfort one another. Care for one another. Confess your sins to one another. Pray for one another. Encourage one another. Build one another up.

Exhort one another. Instruct one another. Teach and admonish one another. Sing to one another. Stir up one another to love and good works. Do good to one another. Serve one another. Wash one another's feet.

Wait for one another. Be humble toward one another. Submit to one another. Speak the truth to one another. Do not speak against one another. Do not judge one another. Do not provoke one another. Do not envy one another.

That's how you love one another. You do those things. Today we consider Christ the manifestation, yea, the splendor of God's love. And we're about to approach the table now. This expression of Christ's sacrifice, of our union with him, and of our bond to one another because of this great work he has done.

See how beautiful and fitting that this would be the culmination of our time of covenant renewal in light of these things. A few words of application to close and we'll move to the Lord's Supper now. Is your life characterized by love for God, the fruit of which is your love for one another?

Say, I love God. I love talking theology. Do you love one another? You need to act on that. You need to repent and sharpen your focus or change your direction. You need to show your love for the brethren.

Christ was sent that you might believe and be reconciled to God. I'm asking every Christian today to believe the gospel again. We need the gospel every Sunday. Believe the gospel again. If you are not a believer today in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a beautiful occasion.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Put your trust in him. He was sent for this very purpose to give you life, to atone for your sins. Believe the gospel again. Believe it for the first time.

Take it out and share it with the lost of this world. And finally, ask the question and ask the Lord to reveal to you, how can you more actively love the people of God? How can you practice those one another's?

Amen.

Let's pray together now. Oh Lord, we rejoice in your word and we thank you Lord for the inescapable reality of your call upon our lives through your word today. We are called to love one another as an expression of our love for you.

Oh Lord, I pray that you would grant us this, that we would change, that we would love one another appropriately. We ask you in your power of your spirit to work in us to make these changes for the good of your church corporately and for the good of our families and our members individually.

Oh Lord, help us to lay down our interest and sacrifice our own desires for the good of the brethren. Help us to lay down our lives for our friends. We ask this all in Jesus' name.

Amen.