Word of Salvation – Vol. 30 No. 39 – Oct 1985

 

God’s Love And Ours

 

Sermon by Rev. B. Gillard on 1John 4:9-11

Reading: 1John 4:7-21

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, brother and sisters and young people.

The Bible has quite a bit to say about loving one another.  You can read about it right back in the Old Testament in the book of Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 18.  There we read:
            “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people,
              but love your neighbour as yourself.”

God gave the Israelites many laws to look after one another and the things that belonged to their neighbour.  This loving and caring for one another was to be one of the chief characteristics of God’s people.  So then it isn’t a new idea when we read about it in the New Testament.

When the Lord Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment, he replied by saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…, and a second one is like it, love your neighbour as yourself.”

So then it isn’t hard to see why the Apostle John would also have so much to say about this matter.  No doubt he wanted the believers to be really outstanding in this matter, because they lived in a world where love for one another was not the leading characteristic.

Ever since Cain rose up and murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy, this world is characterised more by hate than love.  Man selfishly puts himself first, and doesn’t want to go out of his way, or be put out for someone else unless there’s something in it for him.  Do what you have to do and no more.  Isn’t that a fairly accurate description of man’s fallen sinful nature?

But not so amongst you believers.  No, you are to shine against this background by your love for one another.

Well then, how does John go about promoting greater love for one another in the congregation?  Does he reprimand them and tell them off for not loving one another?  Does he preach the law to them?  No he doesn’t, because you see he is writing predominantly to believers, and so what he does is he preaches the love of God to them.  When he wants to motivate them to greater love, he knows that the only way to do it, is to point them to the love of God.  And that’s what I want to remind you of again tonight / this morning: God’s great love for us, so that we might be reminded of how we ought to love one another.

How then has God loved us?

First of all he has loved us sacrificially.  In verse 9 John tells us, “in this is manifested the love of God that He sent His Son, His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

Not only did God send his Son you notice, but He sent His only Son.  He only had one Son, who was truly unique.  Only one like the Lord Jesus, who shares with Him the deity.  And he sent Him into the world.  And for what purpose did he send Him into the world?  In verse 10 we are told, “to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Now there are a couple of things that I would like to highlight for you about this.  First of all notice that God sent His Son into the world.  God the Father didn’t acquiesce to the request of the Son to come into the world.  No, it was God’s work and God’s doing.  He sent His only Son into the world.  And for what purpose?  To die for sinners.  To accept the blame for their lies, and their theft, and their adultery and their murder, for their cheating, and tale bearing, their greed, and whatever other things we would care to mention.  God sent His Son into the world to take the blame for all of that, and suffer and die for it.

Why did God do it?  Didn’t He care for His Son?  On the contrary He loved Him as much as any parent here (tonight / this morning) loves their own children, and suffers when they suffer.  Jesus was His darling Son, and it caused Him great grief and pain to do it.  This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Now let me point out something else to you.  The word that is used here to describe what Christ did is ‘propitiation’.  That He might be the propitiation for our sins.  Now to propitiate means to placate someone’s wrath and anger, by removing the cause of that anger.  Sometimes we wait until a person’s anger cools down.  This reminds us, you see, that God is not only love, but He is also a God of justice, and every transgression must be dealt with.  God’s love does not mean that He passes by the sins of men.  No, His love found a way for man to avoid the penalty.  God sent His own Son to bear His wrath and appease His just anger.  Now the anger of God, beloved, must be the most terrible thing in the world when it is aroused.  Just look at what God did to this world at the time of The Flood?  And just look at what He did to Israel after their repeated idolatry.  He brought war into their land and all its horrors.  Some of you have experienced the horrors of war.  At the end of the world He will destroy everything by fire.

God’s anger against sin is intense and furious and, you see, His own Son was delivered up to appease it and face if for us.  That’s how much God loved us.

But notice it doesn’t say the Son was a propitiator.  He was that, but He was more than that.  He was the propitiation Himself.  In olden time, the superstitious heathen tried to propitiate their imaginary gods by offering up a sacrifice.  But God’s Son was the sacrifice.  He Himself was the propitiation.  He died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.  When you next meet together around the Lord’s Table and the bread is broken and the wine poured out, remember that God loved you so much, that He allowed His only begotten Son to be broken by His anger for your sins, so that you would never have to face the anger of God.

Notice then in the second place that God loved us unconditionally.  John said, not that we loved God, but He loved us.

Yes, that’s the way it was.  Did God see anything in us worthy of His love?  Did He see anything in this world worthy of the death and sacrifice of His Son?  No, it wasn’t because we loved God, but rather it was the opposite.

Are there some people that you find it hard to love, beloved?  Are there some people that you don’t click with?  Who irritate you and make you angry?  Are there some you feel like getting hold of by the throat at times?

Multiply that a billion or more times over, and you have the picture.  It as people like this that God loved.  It was a world like this that God loved.  Not nice, lovable people who were loving Him and doing His will and trying to please Him.  No, stubborn and stiff necked people, who would not serve Him willingly, but who go their own way and please them- selves.

God never said “you love me first and then I will love you”.  He never said “you be worthy of my love then I will love you”.  No, He loved the world unconditionally.  And he keeps right on loving His people and never lets go of them.  Not that we loved Him…!

Then in the third place His love was unlimited.  The Apostle Paul put it this way.  Where sin abounds the grace of God abounded all the more.  The more the law comes in, then the more our sins increase, but no matter how the law might cause our sins to increase, God’s grace is sufficient to cover them all.  A man may have sinned all his life.  He may be in his seventies, or his eighties.  He may have neglected God every day of his life.  But if he will only repent, God’s grace is sufficient to forgive him.  Another man may carry something terrible on his conscience.  He may have some hidden vice, some theft that pierces his conscience, it doesn’t matter.  If he sincerely repents and turns to God, he will find forgiveness.  God’s forgiveness is unlimited for those who truly repent no matter what they have done.  The dying thief found it, Peter found it, and millions of others found it.

Then finally let me say that God’s love is a spontaneous love.  Our love is to be modelled on God’s love but it will never match it.  Because our love, at best, can only be a response to God’s love.

John reminds us of this when he says we love because he has first loved us.  But God had no pattern to follow.  He was not responding to our love for Him.  No, just the opposite!  When man fell into sin, love spontaneously went out from the heart of God to the fallen creature, because as John tells us: God is love.

What then is the conclusion of the matter?  John mentions it in verse 11.  If God has loved us so sacrificially, so unconditionally, so spontaneously, and without limitation, then we ought to love one another and love all men.

Why is this matter so important?

Well John also saw it as a test of our Christian profession!  He mentions that down in verse 20 of this chapter.

If anyone says “I love God”, yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And again in chapter 2 and verse 10 he says, “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”

It’s one of the ways to test ourselves and see if we are a true Christian or not.  It’s not the only way, but it’s one of the ways.  If we really do love one another because we have seen how God has loved us, if we are not put off by difficult people and the wrong things done to us and our hearts don’t turn to hate, then by that we can be assured that we are a true child of God.  Even when our own conscience condemns us and makes us doubt our salvation.  If we can see in our hearts a true love for God’s children, fellow believers, then that is enough to silence the voice of our own conscience.  John mentions that also in chapter 3 and verse 20.

You see our salvation is something we can be sure about, even though it is not something to take for granted.  But by looking for the evidence in our life we can confirm God’s gracious promises to make us a child of God through faith.  Love of the brethren is a sure sign that we have passed from death to life.

And what does it mean to love one another.  Well if you’re a small boy or girl, then it might mean being kind and helpful to your younger brother or sister.  Don’t tease and torment them.  Don’t have fun at their expense, but help them and care for them.  Share with them when you’re playing together.

If you are an older boy or girl, it might mean don’t knock and belittle those who are younger than you are, just because they haven’t learned as much as you have, but be helpful to them.  Be considerate and try and include them in your fun and don’t push them around.  It might also mean doing as much as you can to help mum and dad around the house, and not complaining when you are asked to do a bit more.  Not looking at what others are doing and being jealous but being willing to put yourself out a bit.

And if we are older, then John mentions one thing in chapter 3 and verse 17.  “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”

If we see others in genuine need and we have the means to help them, no matter what the needs are, and we turn away from them, with a hard and pitiless heart, then we are not showing the love of God.

Let us not love with words or tongue, said the Apostle John, no but let us love with actions and truth.  If you have something against someone then go to them and speak the truth to them in love and try and make peace and live at peace with one another.  If someone has wronged you, be forgiving when they apologise and try and put things right.  Don’t criticise and belittle one another and try and be better than one another, but stick up for one another and be as helpful as you can.  And if we find this hard to do at times beloved, as I am sure we all do, then remember where true love is to be found.  For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His only Son into the world to be an atoning sacrifice for all our sins, so that we might live through Him.

Amen.