Proof By Love

INTRODUCTION

Time will not permit an expository sermon which will tell the complete message of any book of the Bible, unless it an epistle like Philemon. This is particularly true of the First Epistle of John, this dynamic little epistle of hope and assurance. We have seen that the Gospel of John was written to convince people that Jesus is the Son of God, and to persuade them to trust him for eternal life, and the First Epistle of John was written that we might “know that we know Him.” In the first six verses of chapter four we have seen that Satan will distort either message. He does not want this message to get out, and we will use any method to try to pervert the message.

I spent a lot of time studying Marxism back in the sixties and seventies, reading R. N. Carew Hunt, J. Edgar Hoover, and other informed authors. I also had the opportunity on numerous occasions to talk about this with someone who had worked with “a high level secret organization within our government”, a man who was hand picked to do high level translations with key leaders in an effort to protect the interests of the United States. I have been amazed at how little many political - and Christian - leaders know about the theory behind the bloody practices of a satanic movement which openly prophesied that they would take over the entire world through revolution.

A Viet Nam veteran, in an interview on AFR Radio, recently talked with the hosts about a speech by David Horowitz, who by his own admission was a former Bolshevik. He said that Horowitz told a group about a meeting at which leading American Communists made plans to take America by taking over her institutions. When asked about their success they insisted that they had control of all institutions except the military. With a person from both the Senate and House committees on defense in the meeting they declared that they would make their move on the military by pushing gays in the military and women in combat. Do you remember what happened to our military during the nineties?

Then someone asked, what about the church. The spokesman, with a wolfish smirk, responded, “We took that first!” Could that be true? And if so, how did they do it? How successful have they been?
In First John 4:1-6, we read about false teachers, false teachings, and false spirits. Have we not seen doctrinal distinctives between the true and false doctrine distorted? Have you considered the National Council of Churches? Barry Lynn? Liberalism in old mainline churches? And what about all those churches who can quote all the verses on praise, but can find nothing in the Bible about being silent before a holy God?

The Mormon Church pays for ads on Television, offering a King James Version of the Bible to anyone who calls their 800 number. If people would call and request the Bible, and read it seriously, it would destroy the Mormon Church. Jehovah’s Witnesses push a new translation of the Bible which misrepresents the divinity of Jesus Christ. In John 1:1, Jesus is called “a” god. That is a satanic lie. New Agers (excuse me, postmodern religious types) tell us if you really want to discover Christ, look within and you will discover that you are your own Christ, you are God (that is monism).

Now, we are being told that the last thing young Americans want to hear is that Christianity is superior to other religions. This is more widespread than many Christian leaders have understood.
Some motels and hotels are pulling the Gideon Bibles from rooms. As one hotel spokesman said, they want to pull Bibles from rooms and offer materials from all religions in their lobby. He said, “We have a menu that tells guests what foods we offer and we would like to provide a religious menu and let people select what they want.” My response is that all Christians should make it a point to never stay in one of those hotels, and be sure they know why. I would hate to see a poll of professing Christians which asks if they agree with the hotel’s policy. You can be sure a lot of church members would be on the side of the hotels.

With all this in mind, let us look at verses 7-13. In verse 6, we read, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

I. LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER, 4:7-10.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

A. Love Is of God, 4:7-8.

1. Those who have godly love are of God.

We have covered this before, but let me review it briefly again. There are four basic kinds of love mentioned in the Greek language. First, there is romantic love, and obviously one does not have to be godly to experience romantic love. Dr. R. R. Pearce used to lecture students at Mississippi College on the subject, The Romantic Fallacy. We did not have any Sociology where I grew up in the Green River community, seven miles west of Sledge, MS, so they just said, “She is in love with love” (she was romanticizing love).

Next, there is family love. Some people, Paul said, did not love the people they were naturally supposed to love. He also talked about unnatural love, meaning homosexuality. Family love is too important to overstate it here. I really believe one of the reasons we are having so many moral problems among young people today is that there are too many homes without a father’s love - and discipline.

Then, there is brotherly love (philew). There are a lot of lost people who demonstrate brotherly love more practically and earnestly than many Christians. That is unfortunate, but it proves that you do not have to be a Christian to experience brotherly love.

Finally, there is the agape’ love, which some interpret as Christian love. In fact, agape’ is godly love when one is loving God or other people as God loves them. However, in John 3:19, we find ungodly people loving ungodly things with agape’ love. There are passages in which we see that God loves His Son with both agape’ love - and phileo love.

So, someone may ask, what is so special about agape’ love? First, it is a mental attitude kind of love, it is not driven by emotions. Have your not know some people who really turned you off, yet you had a deep spiritual burden for them? God commands us to love others, and you do not command emotions. God wants us to have a mind that is open to every impression of His Spirit. He wants us to seek the highest good for others, especially for Christians. Of course, the highest good for the lost person is for him or her to come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

If you reach out to others, witnessing and ministering to them, as you know in you mind God wants you to, He will take care of the emotions. Begin with the mind and the will. You know what God wants you to do, you are willing to do it, and you do not wait until there is an overwhelming emotional motivation to get involved.

2. Those who do not have godly love are not of God.

We have looked at false spirits, false prophets, and false doctrines. Now we come to false professions. If you do not show godly love for others, you are a hypocrite when you claim to love them. A friend told me he was talking with a lady he had know for several years when the lady brought up the name of another choir member. She said, “You know we love each others dearly, but...”

My friend told her she needed to stop lying about loving one another. He said, “You can’t stand each other and you know it!” Who was right? I was aware of the fact that they did not seem to love one another, but they may have had a mental attitude love for each other which was concealed by the envy and jealousy that was manifested in their relationship.

3. God is love.

The Bible reveals many things about God, but nothing is more amazing than this. William Barclay, the late Bible teacher and author of a devotional commentary often called the pastor’s Saturday night friend, was once asked, “What is the greatest thought you have ever had?” He answered, “Jesus loves me.” I think I read somewhere that Immanuel Kant offered a similar answer, “God love me.” It is amazing that our great Creator loves us and gives us the privilege of loving Him. They don’t call it Amazing Grace for nothing!

B. God Manifested His Love For Us in a Marvelous Way, 4:9.

1. To manifest love is to demonstrate it.

2. To manifest it is to reveal it.

3. To manifest it is to proclaim it.

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

C. Here Is The Greatest Manifestation of Love Ever Seen, 4:10.

1. It is not so amazing that we would love God.

We eat His food, we drink His water, we breathe His air, we are held on earth by His gravity. We were created with a need for Him. He is the source of our physical life and He is the Author of our salvation. Why wouldn’t we love Him?!! We would be very foolish not to love Him. Sadly, millions today do not love Him. That is incredible, but it is true. And there is nothing new under the sun! Read the prophets and see that fallen man does not naturally love the very One he should love most.

2. The amazing thing is that God loves us.

God created man in His own image and placed him in the only true utopia the world has even known. He visited with Adam and Eve daily, talking with them, and without a doubt, teaching them His ways and revealing His blessings. God has continually blessed those who continually turn from Him, curse Him, and rebel against His nature, character, and commandments. Paul states it like this:

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

3. He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Ryrie explains that propitiation “refers to God's wrath being satisfied by the death of Christ (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2). Expiation emphasizes the removal of sin by the sacrifice that satisfied God. Sin interrupts normal relations with God; expiation removes sin and restores the relationship.”

II. TO KNOW GOD IS TO LOVE HIM, 4:10 - 13.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God 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.”

A. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another, 4:10.

I read a cute little story with a powerful message:

Frightened by the clamor of thunder in the night, a little child cried out. Holding her securely in his arms, her father explained that she needn't fear. God would take care of her because He loved her greatly.
"I know God will take care of me and love me," she replied. "But right now, Daddy, I want someone with skin on to love me."
We are to be God's love, with skin on!

B. God Loves Us, But No One Has Seen Him, 4:11-13.

1. We cannot see God because He is Spirit, 4:11

John (1:18) writes, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” God is Spirit (John 4:24), no on has ever seen God in His essence, His Spirit-being. Yet God did assume a visible form which men saw in Old Testament times (Gen. 32:30; Ex. 24:9-10; Judg. 13:22; Isa. 6:1; Dan. 7:9), and in Jesus men could see God (John 14:8-9).

2. Though we cannot see Him, He abides in those who love one another, 4:12.

Here is an amazing story:

Corrie Ten Boom shares this true story in her book, The Hiding Place:
It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there -- the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie's pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. "How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein," he said. "To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!"
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

3. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit, 4:13.

According to verse 12, we know that God abides in us if we love one another. According to verse 13, we know that we abide in Him and He in us - a mutual abiding - because he places His Spirit in the hearts believes, those who love and serve Him.

CONCLUSION

The Gospel of John was written that we might know God. First John was written that we might know that we know Him. God does not leave assurance of our salvation to chance. He stresses this in His Word, through His specific promises, and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers.

Before you leave here today, I would like to urge you to pause right now and consider your relationship with Him. Are you sure you have a relationship with Him? You can know. I must know! If you have His Spirit in your heart, He will testify that you live in Him and He lives in you.
If you do not have this assurance, today is the day of salvation, this is the accepted time. Will you call on him right now.

“WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED” (Rom 19:13).