Series: 1 John
Title: Love is of God
Text: 1 John 4: 7-16
Date: January 31,2019
Place: SGBC, NJ
Our text is written
by a sinner saved by God to sinners saved by God.
1 John
4: 7: Beloved, let us love one
another: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of
God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8: He that loveth not knoweth not God;
for God is love. 9: In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God
sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might [shall] live through him. 10:
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son, the propitiation for our sins.
If we are truly God’s
chosen, redeemed, born again child then we say, Amen! We did not love God. Scripture says we hated God—but God loved us. The cause was in God alone. He send his only begotten Son into the world,
so that all for whom he died, shall be given eternal life through Christ. Christ is the Propitiation—the atonement, the
expiation, the satisfaction—for our sins.
1 John 4: 11: Beloved, if God so [after this manner]
loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12:
No man hath seen God at any time. If we
love one another, [here is the cause and why we continue] God dwelleth in us, and his love is
perfected in us. 13: Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he
hath given us of his Spirit.
There are two things
the Spirit of God makes us do: one, he makes us believe in the new heart which
God has given us, and from our new heart, we testify that Christ is the
successful Savior of his people all over the world. He successfully saved, not
all the world, but all kinds of sinners—those from among the Jews who God regenerates
to life and faith in Christ, as well as some from among the Gentiles who God
regenerates to life and faith in Christ.
This is what John declares that the Spirit of God makes us do.
1 John 4: 14: And we have seen
and do testify that the Father sent the Son, the Saviour of the world. 15: Whosoever shall confess that Jesus
is the Son of God, [what is the cause?] God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
The second thing the Spirit of God within us makes a believer do is to
love our brethren who are also born of God. We do so because God has made us to know and
believe the love that God hath to us.
Therefore, constrained by God’s love for us, we love our brethren. That
is the next thing John declares the Spirit of God makes us do.
1 John 4: 16: AND we have known
and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Proposition:
John’s purpose in our text is the same throughout his epistle: he declares that
it is God alone who makes his child believe on Christ and love our brethren and,
likewise, it is God alone who makes us continue believing on Christ and loving
our brethren.
This is the “manifest” difference between the child
of God and the child of the devil. The
child of the devil may confess Christ but he goes out from us, he denies Christ
and/or he mistreats the brethren. By
this he manifests he never was born of God, he never believed on Christ and he never
loved the brethren. But God preserves his
child so that we continue to the end believing on Christ and loving our
brethren.
For context, let’s
begin in 1 John 3. The Spirit of God
moved John to declare in 1 John 3:
23: And this is [God the Father’s] commandment, That we should believe on the
name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as [his Son Jesus
Christ] gave us commandment. 24: And he
that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in [God], and [God] in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by
the Spirit which he hath given us.
The Spirit of God makes
us keep God’s commandments—believing on Christ and loving our brethren—and the
Spirit of God makes us continue believing on Christ and loving our brethren. By the Spirit making us do so, we know that
God abideth in us.
So, first, in 1 John
4: 1-6, John told us to try the spirits by whether or not they believe and
confess Christ in truth.
Now, he exhort us to love one another—1 John 4: 7: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God. We may test preachers by love as well as
by what they preach concerning Christ. This is not something we can discern over
the internet. But if a preacher preaches for selfish gain at the expense of
brethren, the love of God is not in him. But we will focus on God’s grace making
believers love one another
LOVE IS OF GOD
1 John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is
of God.
Understand, the love spoken of
here is not of our sinful flesh but is of God.
This is a spiritual love which is produced in a believer of God, the
same as faith is of God.
Galatians 5:22: The fruit OF the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, FAITH, meekness, temperance: against such
there is no law.
John is speaking of faith and love.
Not only is faith of God but also love to brethren. Both are OF God. Both are fruit produced in God’s child OF God the Holy Spirit.
Notice, in Galatians 5, Paul listed many fruits but he called it the “fruit”
of the Spirit. It is like the doctrines of God which are called the “doctrine” of God. They are all one with the other so they are spoken
of as singular. For example, in 1 Corinthians
13, the Holy Spirit says through Paul that faith without love is nothing. But faith which is of God includes love which
is of God and love which is of God includes faith which is of God. As long as we are in this body, faith and
love are inseparable; we cannot do one without doing the other.
But this love is not of our sinful flesh.
Love that comes from our sin-nature is marred by sin. God created man in his own image. In that state, Adam had love which is of God. But
when Adam disobeyed God, the image of God was marred in Adam by sin. Before the fall, he loved Eve with love which
is of God. After the fall, he blamed Eve
for his fall. We are all born of Adam’s
corrupt seed, conceived in Adam’s corrupt image. Therefore, love from our sin-nature is selfish,
full of lust, pride, envy, jealously and all sin. Sin mars our love.
Compared to “love which is OF God”
the truest, deepest, sincerest love produced of us is so marred by sin that it
is not worthy of being called love. Take
the love of a mother for her newborn baby.
That is the truest love our flesh produces. But sin is so mixed with it, that even that love
is not worthy of the name when compared to love
which is of God. Some mothers do not
even love their newborn child.
So be sure to get this point. The love
John speaks of is of God. The love with
which a believer loves God and loves our brethren is not of our sinful
flesh. Love is of God.
EVERYONE THAT LOVETH
IS BORN OF GOD AND KNOWETH GOD
1 John 4: 7: Beloved, let us
love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God. 8: He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Love which is of God is produced in us by God making us to be born again
of the Spirit of God and by God making us to know God in spirit and in truth.
Notice, this is so of “everyone” that loves with this love which is of
God. All who possess this love have it
by being born of God, and knowing God;
for God is love. Therefore, a person
that does not love, does not know God. He
has not been born of God. Therefore, he
knows not God in spirit and in truth.
Therefore, he does not possess the love which is of God.
The Lord Jesus declared that in order for a sinner to know and enter into
spiritual things we must be born again of God the Holy Spirit.
John 3: 1: There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of
the Jews: 2: The same came to
Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come
from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with
him.
Christ is more than a
teacher come from God. Christ is
salvation. By this confession, Nicodemus
manifest the spirit of error. He manifest that he did not believe nor love
Christ because he had not been born again. Christ told him so.
1 John 3: 3: Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is not of this world but is spiritual. Christ declares that except a man be born
again, he cannot see, know, or believe anything spiritual. That tells us this new birth is not of us. God alone makes us to be born again.
1 John 3: 4: Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he
is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Again, Nicodemus
proved Christ true: he did not understand spiritual things.
1 John 3: 5: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.
Except a man be born by
the grace of God, of the Spirit of God, he cannot enter into spiritual things.
1 John 3: 6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Every man is born the first time of flesh, of our earthly father. Therefore,
"that which is born of the flesh is
flesh.” But by God’s grace, the
Spirit of God births some a second time, "and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Those born of God
have a fleshly man and a spiritual man; an old man and a new man; we are partakers
of Adam’s sinful nature and partakers of the divine nature. Every believer has two natures. To deny this is to deny this very word of
Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 3: 7: Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
again. 8: The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every
one that is born of the Spirit.
The Spirit of God
enters whom he wills and irresistibly births a sinner a second time. The new birth is all of God. We had nothing to
do with our first birth. We have nothing
to do with being born again. Our first
birth was of sinful parents so we were born in their image. The second birth is of God so we are born in
his image. Our first birth was fleshly
and made us carnal. The second birth is
spiritual and makes us spiritual. Our first birth gave us carnal minds which
scripture says is enmity against God. In
the new birth, God gives us the mind of Christ and in that new nature, God
gives us love for Christ and love for our brethren. Therefore, as John declares in our text, “Every one that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
GOD
GIVES LOVE BY GIVING US KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S LOVE IN CHRIST
1 John 7:
9: In this was manifested the
love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through him. 10:
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. 11:
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
When God gives his
child life, God’s love is manifested to us, “because God sent his only begotten Son.” God sent his only begotten Son, meaning,
Christ is God of very God. “Begotten” speaks
of something inconceivable and inexpressible by us. But it means Christ is the Son who is, of
himself, one with the Father.
God manifest his
great love for his people by sending his Son “into the world”: this cursed, vile, place of sin and death. He manifest his love for his people in that
he sent his Son into the world to take a body, a human nature, like unto his
brethren, to humble himself and take the form of a servant. God manifest his love for his people by
sending his Son into this world where he would be tempted and touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, yet without sin.
God’s love is
manifested toward us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, “that
we might live through him.” It means
God sent his Son to die in the place of God’s particular people so that God
could give us life. God sent Christ to
manifest God’s righteousness by fulfilling God’s law and satisfying God’s
justice, so that God could justly give life to each one for whom he died. Christ bore the sin of his people so that God
could justly pour out the wages of sin on him in place of his people so that God
could justly pour out mercy on his people due to Christ taking our place. Oh, what love!
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.” We did not love God. Those for whom Christ died hated God. We hated this free salvation that cost his
Son his precious blood. Yet God loved his
people though we did not love him.
God’s Son is “the propitiation for our sins.” Notice, the italicized words. They were added by the translators. Remove them and it says that Christ is the propitiation
for our sins. Christ is the atonement,
the expiation, the satisfaction for our sins.
He made atonement for the sins of each person for whom he died and he is
the atonement for our sins. Before
Christ died for his people, God’s justice demanded our death. Since Christ died our death, now, God’s
justice demands he give us life.
The application John
gives by the Spirit of God is what all, who have the love of God in us,
heed. “Beloved, if God so”-- after this manner—"loved us, we ought also to love one another.” We ought to love and lay down our
lives for those Christ loved and laid down his life for. And by God’s grace, by the love God creates
in his people, his people do! We do not
love as we want to love. But by the
constraint of his love for us we do love our brethren.
GOD’S LOVE PERFECTED IN US
1 John 4: 7: Everyone that that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God…8:…for God is love…12: No
man hath seen God at any time. If we
love one another, [the cause is] God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
God is love. By God, who is love, dwelling in us and
making us behold his great love for us in Christ Jesus, God’s love is perfected
in us. God’s love brings us to the end
in which it is intended.
With God who is love dwelling in us, by his love being perfected in us,
in our new spirit in which is no guile, we love God with no guile, no dissimulation, that is, we love God with all our new
heart even as God declared we would.
Deuteronomy 30:6: And
the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to
love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou
mayest live.
Likewise, from the new heart which is pure and in which is no guile, we
love our brethren with no guile, that is, with unfeigned love.
1 Peter 1: 22:
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure
heart fervently: 23: Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth for ever…25…And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you.
TWO THINGS LOVE DOES
The love which God
produces in us constrains every believer to do two things by the Spirit of God.
One, we believe and testify (bear
witness) of Christ’s love for us; two, we are constrained by Christ’s love toward
us to love our brethren.
One, the Spirit of
God makes us see and testify, confessing unashamedly from a believing heart,
the gospel of God sending his Son who successful saved his people all over the
world. This is how we know that God
dwells in us and we dwell in God. It is
because God has given us the Holy Spirit and this is what his Spirit makes us
do.
1 John 4: 13: Hereby know we that
we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14: And we have seen and do testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15:
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and
he in God.
Two, the Spirit of God makes us know and believe the love that God has to
us. The love of God constrains us to
love Christ and to love our brethren.
God is love. Therefore, when God dwells
in us and us in God, God makes his child dwell in love. We never cease loving Christ and loving our
brethren.
1 John 4: 16: And we have known
and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God, and God in him.
Brethren, what does
this love which is of God make us do? When
we believe and confess Christ, when we love God and our brethren, what does
love make us do?
The love which is of God makes a believer cease loving the world. His love makes us use the things of this
world which God gives us for the cause of Christ and the good of our brethren rather
than for our own lusts. The man who
loves the world does not have the love of God in him.
I John 2: 15:…If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16: For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Also, constrained by
Christ’s love for us, the Spirit of God makes us lay aside our old man with his
guile and desire the word both for ourselves and for our brethren. The love which God produces in us will not
allow us to continue holding grudges and treating our brethren with guile. After speaking of the unfeigned love for
brethren that God produces in us when he rebirths us by the incorruptible seed
of the Word through the preaching of the gospel, the Spirit of God declares
through Peter what God’s constraining love makes us do,
1 Peter 2: 1: Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all
guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 2: As newborn
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 3: If so
be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 4: To whom coming, as unto a
living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5: Ye
also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
This love which is of
God will not allow a child of God to cease believing on Christ nor cease loving
our brethren. Therefore, it will not
allow us to use this world for ourselves at the expense of the gospel and our
brethren. Now will the love of God allow
us to sow discord among brethren. It
makes us lay aside all those things because we love Christ, we love his gospel
and we love one another. We desire, for
ourselves and for our brethren, the sincere milk of the word with the desire of
a newborn baby for his mother’s milk.
This work produces this fruit so surely that the Spirit of God moved
John to write, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that
loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for
God is love.”
Amen!