Knowing, Believing, Abiding in the God of Love | 1 John 4:16-17

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Okay, let's turn over once again to 1st John chapter 4 1st

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John chapter 4 and I'll start in verse 15 again 1st

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John chapter 4 verse 15 God's Word says whoever confesses that Jesus is the

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Son of God God abides in him and he and God and we have come to know and have believed the love which

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God has in us God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God And God abides in him by this love has been perfected with us

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So that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as he is

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So also are we in this world? This is God's Word. Amen Okay, so I'm going to focus today's sermon particularly on verse 16 and a little bit of verse 17 and And You can see here there this this passage is just saturated with gospel

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Assurances, there are there are more to come here. This is a very awesome passage very assuring passage and the title

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For today's message. I had to I revised it a little bit, but it is knowing

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Believing abiding in the God of love Knowing believing abiding in the

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God of love and I wanted to actually clarify a few things from last week or from previous weeks

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Last time I had said that the word God in the Bible can mean different things in Scripture That it can mean different things in Scripture And this is true, but it has to be carefully explained or qualified because you do see references to false gods and to idols and to so -called gods and to You know judges and rulers who call themselves gods, but they will die as men like Psalm 80

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Psalm 82 tells us and so It can refer to different things like false gods and idols

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But whenever it's God with a capital G capital G God It only refers to one being and that is either of the divine persons of the

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Trinity father son or Holy Spirit right, so that's important to make sure that we understand and I Love what 1st

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Corinthians chapter 8 says if you turn with me there this this passage explains at all 1st Corinthians chapter 8 verse 4

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This is a very Powerful passage that Clearly reveals to us the oneness of God and the exclusivity of God himself

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God's word says we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no

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God capital G but one for even if there are so -called gods whether in heaven or on earth as Indeed there are many gods and many lords yet for us for us believers

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There is one God the Father from from whom are all things and we exist for him and one

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Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we exist through him.

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Amen So that passage explains it all that says it all And that was what

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I was trying to say, but I just wanted to make sure it wasn't Misleading there's only one true

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God and that is the triune God of Scripture and I wanted to clarify

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Another thing that I mentioned in a previous message because I had said that God God's means of grace are

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God's supernatural means of grace and This is This is true because they are they are supernatural.

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They are God's supernatural means of grace Because they are the means that God's Spirit The Holy Spirit the third person of the

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Trinity uses to sanctify us To edify us and build us up in the truth, but they are nevertheless even though they are

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Supernatural which is often associated with the extraordinary. These are God's ordinary means of grace

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Right. So these are ordinary God's ordinary means of grace by which we receive the truth of God's Word and we are edified by it the preaching of the

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Word the praying of the Word the reading of the Word the studying of the Word and the Lord's Supper and all of these things are

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God's ordinary means of grace supernatural yet ordinary okay, and then

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So I just wanted to clarify that also So to recap a little bit from last week

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We we've been seeing how in this passage We see a lot of familiar words familiar phrases concepts and Doctrines that the

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Apostle has previously laid out before that we've we've encountered before in this letter and in other parts of Scripture, of course, and so There is the concept of true believers of confession of assurance of this mutual abiding or dwelling in God and God in us of God of love of God as love and glorification and eschatology or the day of judgment, right so We also saw last week that in verse 15 the word

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Confess to confess is that Confessing that Jesus is the

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Son of God means that you willingly believe sincerely believe and Accept and receive everything he taught

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That Christ taught that Christ taught on his word God's Word even though we may not understand all of it perfectly and You are committed to keep all that he has commanded us which is what

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Christ said in Matthew 28 20 again, sincerely without Hypocrisy without hypocrisy and without denying or rejecting the truth of God's Word that you do understand

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So if you understand the Trinity and you reject it that makes you a heretic an unbeliever

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Right, we cannot deny primary truths of God's Word that would make us unbelievers or apostates or false teachers, etc goats wolves and so We we need to be aware of What God means by this it's not you can claim to believe

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God's Word and to confess the name of Christ But if you don't rightly understand who he is, you don't have the true

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Christ 1st John 2nd John 3rd John all warn us and several other passages warn us if you do not have the doctrine of the

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Son You do not have the Father either right, so because God is a

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God of truth not of lies or of deception and so That being said now

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We have come to know and have believed is how verse 16 starts in this passage

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And we have come to know and have believed right the we here obviously is referring to believers those of us who are in Christ Jesus who have repented and believed in the gospel of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the forgiveness of all our sins and so we believers have come to know and have believed now if you recall from the the previous times that I've preached on this

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We understand that this is one of one of one of the axioms of Scripture The most basic fundamental definitions of Scripture is that of faith or belief?

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What is faith? What is belief? Those two terms by the way are synonymous faith and belief are synonymous and They Can also mean different things they can refer to The faith which was once for all delivered to the

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Saints like Jude says that's referring to the objective body of knowledge The system of doctrine that's revealed in the

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Word of God but it can also mean to our faith our belief what we believe and There are of course true faiths and false faiths.

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There are true beliefs and there are false beliefs, right? So but but faith true faith requires knowledge it requires knowledge or understanding

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That's one of the most basic doctrines in Scripture faith requires knowledge

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Knowledge of the truth specifically After all To believe is to understand something that is true or false

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That is a proposition something that is a declarative sentence that can be true or false and Also not just to understand it but to agree with it to agree with it to consent to it to affirm it as true in This case namely it is that the love which

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God has in us Right. That is what we believe the love which

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God has in us as believers And so you'll notice that I said Having faith means believing something that is true or false.

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And yes, we can believe something that is true or false But we must renew our minds to conform ourselves to the truth of God's Word and renounce what is false

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And In this context we're talking about the love which

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God has in us in us believers again in us believers

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God's love is not in unbelievers God's not God's love is not for unbelievers

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He did not die for them like I covered a few weeks ago if you recall in this passage

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Neither is his spirit and unbelievers God's spirit is only in his chosen people

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Whom he has called and saved, right? and so The love which

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God has in us is itself a proposition God God's love is in his people in his believers his chosen people

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Because God's Word is always true God's love is always true and Let every man be a liar

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God's Word never fails and is and is never false. It is always true.

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Although it must be rightly known and understood

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Right because there's all kinds of false religions that use the Bible but twist it to their own destruction like Peter warns us about So God's Word is always true and we believers believe the truth of God's Word now faith or belief also in turn seeks a deeper understanding of the faith itself of God's Word and This is actually an old motto

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It's an old slogan faith seeking understanding and this is actually a theological maxim

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Which comes from Anselm of Canterbury? Anselm of Canterbury he was a medieval monk

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Theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury who lived from 1033 to 1109 ad now

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He believed some weird stuff because this was the medieval Church of Rome But he had some fascinating Treatises that he wrote one of them being is one of his most famous ones was

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Cordeo's homo That's Latin for why did God become man? why did

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God have to become man and he essentially argues much of what we believe as Protestant and Reformed believers that the incarnation of Christ was necessary in order to satisfy our sin debt to God the

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Father and the wrath of God It's the satisfaction theory of the atonement

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God's wrath had to be satisfied on our behalf and the only mediator the only sufficient sacrifice and atonement and propitiation that could appease

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God's wrath was that of Christ himself Christ in his perfect life and Propitiatory death on the cross

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So that's what he argues essentially in that in that treatise and He also is the one who famously coined that phrase faith seeking understanding more understanding deeper understanding but centuries before Amselm there was

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Augustine Augustine an early medieval theologian

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Rhetorician philosopher and Bishop of Hippo. He was the Bishop of Hippo Which I believe is by Carthage in North Africa and He lived from 354 to 430

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AD so this is not a new concept. This is nothing new. This is a very old tradition in the history of the church

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Augustine Had a similar he coined a similar Maxim. I like to call it a fraternal twin

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Maxim. It's not identical, but it's similar He said believe that you may understand

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Believe that you may understand because Augustine believed that Knowledge of God comes before faith in him before faith.

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It's requisite For faith it is necessary in order to believe but faith in God also leads to a constant desire for deeper understanding of God's truth as a whole as a systematic whole

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Christians in other words seek to understand what they believe right

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What they believe that's exactly what Anselm said and Anselm very much looked up to Augustine we seek to understand what we believe deeper further and Anselm of course agreed.

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He argued Anselm argued that faith is required for understanding But reason is essential for understanding and for faith

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We need to understand these things In order to believe them

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To Anselm the Christian faith is a journey to know and understand God and what we must believe about him

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So faith causes believers to seek understanding Faith remember is a gift of God Right.

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We don't believe on our own not the will of man But the will of God that causes us to believe and to repent to change our mind.

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So We seek understanding and the joy of knowing

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God and loving him in spirit and in truth Amen in spirit and in truth.

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That's the gospel of John 4 24 out of the mouth of our Lord Christ himself Now we saw we're seeing here verse 16

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Says we have come to know and have believed right but if you turn with me now to the gospel of John in Chapter 6 verse 69.

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We'll see a similar Somewhat of a parallel passage there in the gospel of John chapter 6 verse 69

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God's Word similarly says These are the Apostles speaking

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Peter speaking on behalf of the Apostles And we have believed and have come to know that you are the

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Holy One of God That you are the Holy One of God He you being

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Christ the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Holy One of God, so this we see a parallel but notice that the

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The the verbs there are reversed right it here It says we have believed first and have come to know and while in verse 16.

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It says we have come to know and have believed So what's going on there? Is there a contradiction?

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Did the Apostles contradict Christ? Is is this Is one true and one false?

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What's what do we make? How do we make sense of this? Well, I just we just recently saw that God's Word is always true.

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It's never a lie So we have to understand this in light of the whole counsel of God and What this is essentially saying it's the same thing the word order can be switched, but that doesn't matter.

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It doesn't make a difference We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God and we have come to know and have believed

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That the love which God has in us right now

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Here's how we can prove this Because even though the order here is reversed

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What is it that the Apostles believed and came to know? What is it?

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What did they believe and come to know? They came to know they can't they believed and came to know knowledge

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Right knowledge of someone it is knowledge of someone Namely that you are the

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Holy One of God Amen so they came they believed and came to know a

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Truth a proposition that Christ is the Holy One of God That's what that means so to reiterate again true faith presupposes it presupposes and requires

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Understanding it requires understanding ordinarily Right God can save infants he can save Handicapped mentally handicapped, but ordinarily faith requires understanding

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Because a blind or implicit faith is Not true faith.

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This is the kind of faith that the Roman Catholic Church teaches a blind or implicit faith because to require an implicit faith or absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also

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That's straight out of our Baptist confession of faith Right, that's tyranny to require blind faith is a tyranny

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Because you just you're just subject to the whims of whatever the church tells you or the magisterium tells you or the priest tells you

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Whatever there's no reason or rhyme when it's blind faith faith is based on the truth and faith requires

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Content it requires something to believe Right an object something to grasp intellectually with our minds intellectually something to hold on to Namely that Christ is the

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Holy One of God and the love which God has in us believers Right among many other things that the

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Bible teaches Now what exactly is the love which

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God has in us what is this love that God has in us and Much of this is coming full circle once again to what

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I've already covered before in the previous messages we have come to know and have believed the love which

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God has in us and We we understand that first of all

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God himself is love Right. That's what first 16 says God is and it repeats earlier from verse 8

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I believe God is love God is love love is from God God is the source of true love.

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He defines love He is love Love is of God For God is love and God loves us

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God loves us. We are the objects. We believers are the objects of God's affections of God's grace and mercy and favor so we have come to know as God's chosen people and Have believed

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God That we are the objects of his amazing love

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The love which God has in us and never ever ever forget this beloved

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God's love is final immutable Unchangeable and never ever fails us.

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It never fails us It sees us to the end because he who began a good work in us will finish it he will bring it to completion

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Until that day Even until the day of judgment and beyond Amen, because we are sealed by the third person of the

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Trinity the Holy Spirit Never fails like 1st

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Corinthians 13 8 beautifully says Next Next the love which

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God has in us is once again the for ours it is a redemptive restorative regenerative reformative love

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This is the love which God has in us. It is a redemptive restorative regenerative reformative love

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It is redemptive by because of verses 9 and 10 If you go back with me there to verses 9 and 10 and then 1st

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John chapter 4 By this the love of God was manifested where in us in us

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That God has sent his unique one -of -a -kind son his monogamy son into the world

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So that we might live through him and that by the way is

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God's reformative love So that we might live according to his word and through him

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In this is love not that we have loved God But that he loved us and sent his son to be the what?

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the propitiation the wrath satisfying sacrifice atonement for all our sins

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That beloved is gospel gospel Assurance and reassurance that is the only reason we can be saved

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Because God the Father sent his son to be the propitiation for all our sins

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Amen now now This is the manifested

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Incarnational gospel love of God that we receive by faith alone apart from any works of the law

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This is it The love which God has in us is also a restorative love

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God restores to us the blessings and statuses of a child of God He sanctifies us.

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He sets us apart as his adopted children sons and daughters of God Even the fact that we are called beloved

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We are called beloved. What does that mean? We are loved by someone loved by God himself beloved

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You are loved by God if you believe in him If you repent and believe this gospel you are loved by God beloved

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That's one of my favorite words in all scripture beloved and We are

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Meaning that we are loved by God himself. This is it's this itself this title this this term of affection given to us by God is itself a

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Restoration of God's approval of us It is his approval of us as his children

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No longer does he Caesar? Does he see us as criminals? Guilty criminals

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He sees us as his adopted children by virtue of what his son did on our behalf on our behalf, so This is what our first parents

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Adam and Eve had lost in the fall of the garden They had lost the status in the fall of the garden.

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They had not yet attained perfection because they were being put to the test To earn that righteousness

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But they were still in God's favor in the garden until they fell they sinned and fell disobeyed but but now as Believers we are no longer by nature children of wrath even as the rest even as unbelievers reprobates

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We are no longer children of wrath Like Ephesians 2 3 says we were we all were children of wrath

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But now we are children of God's divine Intercessory restorative love and now like Adam known as the

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Son of God You beloved are a son or daughter of God Just like the

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Gospel of Luke says when it lists the genealogy of Christ the genealogy of Christ and it gets to Adam and it refers to Adam as the

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Son of God that is what we are now and If you turn back to the previous chapter in 1st

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John chapter 3 verse 1 we will see this glorious reality

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Unequivocally communicated to us in this precious letter See how great

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See how great a the love the Father has given to us

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He gave it to us remember that by grace through faith alone that we would be called what children of God and Guess what beloved we are

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We are God's children Beloved now we are

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Children of God. Amen. That is a glorious Gospel assurance

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Now this love which God has in us is also we the these are the forensic excellencies of God's love now we move on to the

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Regenerative the transformative the renovated excellencies of God's love God's love is

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Also regenerative like 1st John chapter 4 verse 7 tells us

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Everyone who loves God has been born of God and knows

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God Everyone who loves God who loves God a neighbor an enemy has been born of God and knows

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God Being born again, that is regeneration

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Receiving a new disposition new inclinations new moral nature new desires

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We no longer desire the filth and the sin that we used to crave but now we desire

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God and his word and his truth and we renounce sin and we Confess sin because yes, we still sin

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But we confess it we repent of it. We mortify it. We put it to death now because God has regenerated us

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He has made us new and is making us new and we are renewing our minds in Him such that we now have and continue to grow and in having the mind of Christ right, so God's love then not only does it initially regenerate us because regeneration is a one -time thing.

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That's the initial change of our of our disposition but God's love continues to reform us and Sanctify us and perfect us until the end right and that is once again

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From 1st John chapter 3 the the beginning of 1st John chapter 3 verses 2 through 3

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It has not been manifested as yet what we will be Already not yet.

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Remember that already not yet We know that when it is manifested

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That's a that's a bit of a mistranslation there. It's not he it's when it is manifested that we are that we will be

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That what we will be When that is manifested we will be like him

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Like God because we will see him Just as he is

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What does that mean? We will see him. We will know him We will know him as he truly is

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Remember that sense perception in the Bible more often than not refers to knowledge

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Knowledge of the truth. We will see him. We will know him just as he is and Everyone who has this hope fixed on him

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Purifies himself. Oh, you see that Look at that right there

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Purifies himself reforms himself Just as he is pure now, obviously do we purify ourselves by our own efforts?

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No, we cannot How then do we purify ourselves?

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We do it by God's sanctifying love his reformative love and means of grace

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We participate in God's means of grace in Prayer in scripture in the preaching of God's Word in fellowship the

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Lord's Supper all of these things Sanctify us Even in marriage

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Marriage is a sanctifying Institution is it not beloved it is a sanctify.

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It is a school of character like Luther said It's a beautiful thing and it sanctifies us it exposes our

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Selfish tendencies in our self -centeredness because marriage is an act of dying to self and for our spouse

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Giving ourselves up for a spouse That is why marriage is a picture of the gospel of what

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Christ did on our behalf so That's the beauty of God's reformative love that's just a taste of it that we've we've already been seeing these past messages

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Now this brings us back to our current text for today in verse 16

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Where God's Word says the one who abides in love in?

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God's love Demonstrates that he abides in God and God abides continually in him and sanctifies him

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Because of his reformative love continually in him that abiding is Continual by this then by this abiding continuing reformative love of God This mutual abiding love love has

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God's love has been perfected Completed with us or to us or toward us

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Because as he is as Christ is so also are we now in this world in this world

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So there are blessings. There are perfections that we receive now in this world and Lord willing we will see dig more into that next

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Lord's Day, but but this this union of God and man

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Mutually abiding in love God and us and we and God and us and we and God This Union of God and man mutually abiding in love is also an expression of God's Reformative love because this union is an ongoing sanctifying union right so That itself is

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God's reformative love in action as well as the other excellencies, too now

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Consider with me the frequently repeated emphasis on our mutual abiding fellowship that we have in God and He has in us

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All throughout this passage all throughout this chapter all throughout this letter

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This is one of the major emphases of John's letter This mutually abiding fellowship, and it is probably the most strongly the most strongest articulation finds itself in this passage this mutually abiding love and fellowship of God and man

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That is a beautiful thing Made possible only by God's redemptive love because he first loved us and gave his son to die for us

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Amen now this This particular passage is highly emphatic about God abiding in us and we in him in his love

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United to him in Christ in God through Christ How many times does it tell us this

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Count with me here how many times This passage mentions this mutually abiding love

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I want to read through it again and and take account of The number of instances of this mutually abiding love so pay close attention with me as I read through this passage again starting in verse 15

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Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God God abides in him and he in God number one

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Right there and we have come to know and have believed the love which

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God has in us God has in us number two

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God is love and the one who abides in love

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That's actually number three abides in God number four and God abides in him number five

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Precious truths beloved By this love has been perfected with us.

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That's number four the love of God being perfected with us toward us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as Christ is as he is so also are we in this world?

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That's a whole not I counted five initially I miscounted there's even more than that that there are so many

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Reese emphatic restatements of this mutually abiding love just in this passage alone

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Not to mention all the other instances of this precious truth so Um So that being said now, this is something emphatic

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This is something that we need to understand right because believing something requires us to understand it

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Not perfectly not completely not exhaustively, but we need to understand the truth of it now

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Remember what this mutual abiding or dwelling means What does this mutual abiding or dwelling mean think carefully with me here our vital union with God in Christ is a mutually abiding fellowship

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Because God abides in us and we abide in him This mutually abiding union of love

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Corresponds both to God and to us and It must be true in both cases in both cases and in the same sense in the same sense

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What I mean by that Meaning it the the word dwelling or Mutual abiding needs to mean the same thing in both cases

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It must be univocal that's what univocal means not not ambiguous

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Univocal means it has one meaning So it does not necessarily mean that God's Spirit is in us because we aren't our spirit is not in God We're not

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Hindus, right? We're not we don't become part of the great soul when we die the great Dharma or Brahma Whatever they call it

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Our spirit is not in God himself God's Spirit is in us, but that's not what this means

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It's a mutually abiding Fellowship and it must be true in both senses and if you recall

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What this means is that? It primarily refers to a doctrinal unity of mind

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It is a doctrinal you unity of mind of Believing the same truths of having the same faith

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That God has revealed to us it is intellectual and Spiritual that's the same thing.

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It is intellectual Belief it is knowledge of something and that something is the truth of God's Word Whether it is the good the love which

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God has in us or that Christ is the Holy One of God the Holy One of Israel that is

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What this abiding love is? This abiding union with God is

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It is a conviction. It is a confession of who we trust and follow as well now

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It is to confess

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God and his logos Christ to be of one mind with God For who has known the mind of the

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Lord that he will direct him who can tell God what to do nobody

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Nobody tells God what to do But we have what we have the mind of Christ That's what this mutually abiding love and fellowship means

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We have the same mind That's 1st Corinthians 2 16 After all

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Abiding in love Abiding in love does not mean it does not mean to blindly obey

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God in fear This passage later on talks about fear It does not mean to blindly follow or obey

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God in fear, it's not implicit faith like like I mentioned earlier as We have seen and we will see continue to see

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But it means to love and believe the truth It is to love and believe the truth

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Which is the foundation of all our? obedience Remember beloved

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Does does our does obedience come first or does faith come first?

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Can we obey God apart from believing in him? No Because apart from God we are unrighteous filthy rags

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We are wretched fallen God -hating sinners Romans 3

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Isaiah the book of Isaiah the fifth gospel All over the

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Bible we see how wretched Humanity is apart from the grace of God apart from the redemptive restorative regenerative reformative love of God So that is the foundation of our obedience it is faith because God Regenerates us and sanctifies us through the means of first granting us that faith to believe in him and That truth of God's Word sanctifies us

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That is our foundation for all our obedience because true love

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What does true love rejoice in what is true love rejoice with? true love rejoices with the truth

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Amen first Corinthians 13 6 the original love chapter right

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This is again, one of the most basic truths of the Bible and so many people reject this now even people who call themselves

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Christians and churches You cannot divorce love from the truth

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Love is not an emotion Love is not a feeling love rejoices with the truth

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Love without the truth is not love at all. It is a lie It is a lie, so If we look back to verse 13 in 1st

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John chapter 4 We will see once again an example of this mutually abiding

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That we have in God and God in us Because by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us a portion of his spirit

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God has given us his spirit Amen, so and Then in 1st

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John chapter 3 verse 24 and the one who keeps his commandments Demonstrates that he abides in him and He God in him in us we know by this that he abides in us by the spirit

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Whom he gave us There you see the same gospel precious assurance once again

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Gordon Clark has a helpful Explanation of this this this this fellowship of love mutually abiding love that we have

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He says this intimate fellowship consists of having the same ideas the same thoughts of Thinking alike of Being in extensive agreement steps substantial agreement

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Hence intimacy with God to consist in knowing what

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God thinks That is to say in knowing a good bit of theology in Knowing a good bit of sound systematic doctrine

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That is how we love God. That is how we love one another and that is what it means to be mutually abiding in God We believe the same things the same system of truth revealed in his word the faith

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The faith once for all delivered to the Saints. It is that faith.

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It is objective. It is not subjective We don't change it and make it whatever we want it to be we must conform our thoughts and our thinking to The image of his son to have the mind of Christ his mind his image

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So Amen This this this is very much like two people knowing each other so well

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That they know what the other thinks and can even can even finish each other's sentences

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It is a marriage of minds a marriage of minds

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Pun intended right because one of the most intimate Relationships that we have the most intimate is that of marriage

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And married couples often have the same thoughts The say that is of course if it's a harmonious marriage, right?

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if it's if it's not harmonious that that's not pretty but a Harmonious marriage even even the ones that don't like each other.

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They know what they're thinking sometimes but This is a marriage of minds.

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And so That Is much like the relationship that God has with us and we have with God and That is why marriage is a picture of the gospel and it's a picture of God's relationship to us to God and his bride the church and us the church his bride that submits to his headship his leadership and Christ laid his life down for us and washes us with the word and The husband likewise washes his wife with the water of the word and so This is a beautiful Truth here that is often misunderstood it gets taken to mean something mystical and ecstatic and Shaking and all this crazy

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Benny Hinn stuff and that's not at all what it means Like I mentioned that's demonic because God's The mutually abiding love that we have in God Produces obedience to God it produces the fruit of the

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Spirit self -control love peace joy gentleness temperance meekness faithfulness self -control

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All of those things that's a good memory verse for us to Internalize beloved and So this passage assures us further still that we have come to know and have believed already

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Already the love which God has in us in the future

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No, the love which God has in us now Even the love which

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God has had for us before we were saved because While we were yet sinners while we were yet wretched unbelievers

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Christ died for us and God first loved us God did not require us to love him first because we can't because we're wretched fallen sinners

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He loved us and caused us by his love to love him back and Our neighbor and our enemies and so on because God himself is love

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Amen, God himself is love This is our blessed.

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Hope this God of love is our blessed abiding confessing hope

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God is love and God's love for us Abides in us and we abide in the love of God and love

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God in return It continually reforms us as our faith seeks more and more deeper understanding of God his word his love and All his other attributes his wrath as well his holiness his justice and it perfects us

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God's love perfects us we who confess that Jesus is the

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Son of God and mutually abide in this love of God by faith

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We therefore beloved have Confidence we have confidence both now and in the day of judgment because by this

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Like verse 17 says by this mutually abiding love

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God's love Who is the source of true love has been perfected with us toward us to us?

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So that we believers may have confidence in the day of judgment

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Because as he is as his son is as Christ is so also are we in this world in this world by virtue of his reformative love and God's people said amen amen beloved

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With that said let us go ahead and bow our heads with a closing word of prayer Our precious

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Lord we thank you so much father for your love for your awesome

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Redemptive restorative regenerative Reformative love father God Thank you

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Lord for these precious promises these gospel promises and assurances assurances that you have revealed to us repeatedly and emphatically

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Knowing that we are weak that the spirit may be willing but the flesh is often weak knowing that we often are frail and struggle

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Yet you and your word have emphatically placed this placed These truths before us so that we may constantly

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Review them and renew our minds with them father Help us to know to believe to abide to confess and to abide in this mutually abiding love

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That that you have for us and that we have in you Thank you so much father for these for these truths.

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Help us Lord to Walk in love in in the truth of your word and to love you and obey you because those of us

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Who who love you will keep your commandments father help us to grow in these things and to also

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Confess our sin as we also prepare to receive your precious supper

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Lord Help us to Internalize these things to hide these things these truths in our heart to give us to help us to grow in our assurance and Our love for one another and for you father and to grow into a deeper knowledge a deeper understanding always

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Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior your son Christ Jesus We thank you father and we ask these things in Jesus precious

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Almighty name. Amen Thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown covenant

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Baptist Church Where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life.

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We strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional Loving discerning

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Christians who evangelize stand firm in and earnestly contend for the Christian faith

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If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area or for more information about our church Sermons and ministries such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and thorn crown network podcast

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Please contact us at thorn crown ministries calm and may the mercy peace and love of our triune