In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Let Us Love One Another,' he explores the teachings of 1 John 4:7-16, emphasizing the divine origin of love and its centrality in the Christian faith. Brown explains that love originates from God and is a fundamental test of genuine Christianity, urging believers to love one another as God has loved them. The sermon highlights the manifestation of God's love through the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, as an act of propitiation for sins, serving as a pattern for believers to emulate. Brown also addresses the assurance provided by the Holy Spirit in the believer's life and warns against counterfeit love, which is based on self-interest rather than genuine affection. The sermon concludes with a call to seek the love of God, demonstrate it in the church, and prepare for the eternal world of love in heaven.

1 John 4, 7-16 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

And we have known and believed that love that God has for us, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Let you pray. Lord, I thank you for bringing us together, giving us another day of rest, another beautiful day to worship you. I pray that you would, that you would soften our hearts and help us to be responsive to your word that you would give us around the words to speak in Christ's name. Amen.

When John says, beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God." He's talking, I believe, to a church that really is demonstrating the love of God that is in Jesus Christ. He's already said the true light is already shining. He says in verse 17, he says, we have known and we have believed the love that God has for us. And I take that to mean that John is speaking to his little children as he calls them so many times. And he's really affirming them that they do have a spirit of love in that church.

And he's made it very clear that love is a test. And in the previous verse, in verse six, John is urging the church to test the spirits. And he now gives us an infallible test of true Christianity. He's just made it clear that it is loving to test the spirits and that those, that it is loving to be intolerant toward false teaching to those who've departed from scripture and those who do not genuinely confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. And now, John turns from how loving it is to be intolerant of false doctrine.

He turns now to the church itself and he is speaking about love in the church. This is the third time John has addressed this subject. You know, When we did our introduction of 1 John, we talked about how John raises a subject, and then he raises it again later on, and he raises it again later on. This is the third time. He knows that his church must need to hear this to continue to grow in love, to continue to excel still more.

In chapter 2 verses 7 through 11, he makes it very clear that the light of his love is already shining in their hearts and in their lives. And in chapter 3 verses 11 through 18 he explains that that love is the evidence of Eternal life and so so now he's turning to loving one another again The The phrase love one another occurs three times in the verses that we're studying today. First of all in verse 7, beloved let us love one another. In verse 11, beloved if God so loved us and then verse 12 it's repeated again that we would love one another and so he he states twice in these verses also that God is love So those two things are standing tall in this passage, that God is love and that we ought to love one another. And this is the essence of the teaching, that God demonstrates his love in the sending of his Son.

And God demonstrated his love for a reason. He did it for his church, so that his church would understand what love is all about. Now, what does it mean to demonstrate love? Now you children, I want you to listen to this because you need to know what it means to demonstrate love like what what am I talking? What is that?

What is he talking about? What does it mean to demonstrate love? So here's here's here's how you should think about it You know as you are young you need to have somebody show you how to do certain things. Like, if you know how to tie your shoes right now, it's because somebody, your parents probably, maybe a wonderful grandfather, taught you how to tie your shoes. And he sat you down and he said, we're going to learn how to tie our shoes.

And then he taught you. First of all, he tied the shoes, and then he said, now you do it and you tried it, but it didn't work out very well and so he showed you again and he might have even taken your hands and had you move your fingers so that you tied your shoes. He was demonstrating how to tie the shoes and he, you know, your parents did that they taught you how to brush your teeth, you know, they taught you how to do everything and But the first thing they did is they sat down and they tied your shoes and then they said, you try it. And then they did it again and then they said, now you try it. And then they said, now you try it.

And this is exactly what John is saying. He's saying God demonstrated his love for the church By sending his son and he says now I've shown you what love looks like now you try it That's what he's saying. This is one of the simplest passages of Scripture and so very very clear and here's what John is saying. Do you see the love of God? Have you experienced the love of God?

Do you know what it's like? Have you felt it? Have you known it? Now you try it. That's what he's saying.

And so this is how love is kept alive in the world. You keep your eyes on God and he shows you what love looks like and then and then he says now you try it. Try it every day in your life. So I've identified seven facets of love that are in this passage of scripture and we're going to walk through each of them and I hope to have some extensive time at the end for some application for it. But let's begin with the exposition first in verse 7.

The first facet of his love is the declaration of the source of love. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. In other words, love comes out of God. It exists in him and then it's like transported out of him. And then he says, and everyone who loves is born out of God.

For God, who is born of God and knows God. So first of all, there's this command, you know, beloved, let us love one another. Love is mentioned over 27 times in 1 John. And When you read that command, beloved, let us love one another. Here's how we should think about it.

Do you like your brothers and sisters in Christ? I mean, the ones you know, like the ones in this room. Not the ethereal body of Christ that you don't know, but like the real people that you know. Do you delight in them? Do you appreciate them?

Do you find joy in them? Do you long to see them like the Apostle Paul did for the people in the church in his day? Do you have affection? Do you have the affection of Jesus Christ for them? Do you have them in your heart?

Do you cherish them? Are they dear to you? This is the question that we should be asking. Now, there isn't a single person in this room who can't grow in love. We have, it's possible for you to receive the love of God through Jesus Christ in your heart, but still have so far to go in love.

And that's why John can say, the light is already shining, but excel still more. Beloved, let us love one another. And he gives the reason for the command. Why would he command such a thing? Command such a thing.

And that is this, that there is an undeniable, unbreakable reality in this world that God has established. And it is this, love is of God. Love comes out of God. And this means that love is something that's not just put on. It's not just something that you do.

It's not putting on an act. True love comes from somewhere, like it's real. It comes from a source. It comes as a result of being connected to the vine, to the branches. And he is, he's not just commanding an outward act, he's making it clear that you must go to the source of love.

You must go to the originator of all of love. And so, if anyone is in need of love, they should only go to God. If a brother or sister isn't feeling loved, then they should go to God. And you know, you often run across people, or you might think of it yourself, I just don't feel loved around here. I just don't feel, you know, the people love me.

And you know, what should you do when you have a thought like that? And if you want, if you want love, you must first go to God. You'll never get enough love from the people around you it just isn't going to happen and you know some people they get married because they think now they're going to have this source of, eternal source of love. And I think many of us can testify that that has happened. But if you look to your marriage as your source of love, you'll be disappointed because love is of God.

It comes out of God and he is the source. And you know, also, you know, people are very quick to go to a friend for counsel about how they might love, how they might somehow endure or deal with a problem like a relational problem. And a lot of times they go to a counselor because they've really forgotten that love is of God. And they want to go to a counselor because they want to complain again. They can't quit complaining and they want to find someone who will tell them what to do.

But God has already told them what to do. They need to go to God because God is love. If you want to learn how to love, go to God. God has given enough commands in His Word and given enough examples for everybody to understand what it means to love. Go to 1 Corinthians 13, go to Romans 12, go all over the place and you'll see what it looks like to love.

Most of the time when people are looking for a counselor, they really aren't looking for counsel. They're just looking for more complaining and more affirmation, and they haven't gone to God because usually when somebody really genuinely goes to God they can figure out how to love someone. And so a lot of money is spent and wasted as a result of that. And you know to love, to forgive, to have mercy, to be patient and patiently bear the wrongs that you have suffered. These things find their answer in God.

And so God, not only does love come from God, but God is love. So now he turns to the very nature of God. The very nature of God is love. You know, God is not only love. We also know, you know, from from 1st John 1 5 that God is light.

We also know from John 4 24 that God is spirit. We know from Hebrews 12 29 that God is a consuming fire. He is many things, but he also is love. This is part of his nature. This is what theologians call one of his communicable attributes.

There are two kinds of attributes of God. There are communicable attributes, the ones that are communicated to people and people actually demonstrate them, they display them. And then there are incommunicable attributes. Those are attributes that only God possesses. Like for example, only God is omniscient.

You're not omniscient. Only God is omnipotent. You're not omnipotent. God is omnipresent. You are not omnipresent.

Those are incommunicable qualities of God. But there are communicable qualities of God, and love is one of them. Love, justice, kindness, mercy, all these things are communicable attributes. And then there's sort of a third category. There are some that are both.

They exist in God and His perfection, but they also exist in you and imperfection. Justice is one of those. God is just. He is absolutely perfectly just. You are not perfectly just, but you can demonstrate his justice.

So there are these various categories of the nature of God and how it works out in people's lives. But God is love. And then he says, everyone who loves is born of God. So now we get to the whole matter of being born again. What does it mean to be born again and what happens?

He's talking about regeneration. What's regeneration? It is to be made new, to be born again. There's a divine power that is exerted when a person repents and turns to Jesus Christ. It transforms their life and they are born again.

They are a new creature and it changes everything about the way they think, everything about the way they act, everything about the way they do everything. And what happens when you are born again, you're born into a new family, God is now your father, and now you become like your father. That's the whole idea of being born of God. That's the doctrine of being born again. This is what's so wonderful about being born again.

You have a new father who teaches you a whole new way. You get a father that you never had before. This is the beauty of Christianity. Whatever kind of father you had growing up, he might have been abusive, he might have been a neglecting father, he may have been absent, he may have been a vindictive father, but guess what, when you are born again, you get a father like you never had before. You get a perfect father and he promises to be your father.

And you are born of God and something new happens. No matter what your father did to you, you have a new father. And that's the beauty of being born again. We, and we be, he is our pattern. We look, we look to him and we reflect him as in a mirror.

We walk like our father, we talk like our father. We think like our father. That's what it means to be born again. Now, it's often interesting to me to watch a father and a son walk away from me. And I look at them, And very often the son walks just like the father.

He has that same gait. And it always makes me smile. But when you see that, and you'll see it, remember this, that when you get a father, You start walking like your father. You start talking like your father. And God, I think God does that in life in order to teach you a greater truth about what it actually means to be born again and to have a father and begin to walk like your father and to talk like your father and to consider things about your father.

So he's talking about being born of God. Now, John teaches more about the new birth than any other New Testament writer. And you can go to many places. In John chapter one, verses 12 and 13, you learn that your being born again was not by the will of man, it wasn't by the flesh. It was purely the initiative of God.

God caused you to be born again. Nobody forced you into it. God drew you and he caused you to be born again. In John chapter three, there's maybe the most famous story in the Bible, Nicodemus, who went to Jesus by night. He didn't want to be smoked out as having desires for God.

And Jesus said to him, you must be born again. And by all understanding, he was born again. So you are born again, that's the first thing. And then you know God. He who loves is born of God and knows God.

That's the second thing. These are two things that happen as a result of the knowledge of God. Now knowing God is to have a relationship with Him. It is to speak to him. It's to have fellowship with him.

It's to calibrate your life according to his ways. Knowing God is not just intellectual assent. It's loving and trusting God. It's desiring God. It's seeing Him as the greatest and most wonderful being in the world.

That's what it means to know God. It's not an intellectual thing primarily, it does include the intellect, but it goes far, far deeper than that. It is far, far more profound than just intellectual ascent. Yes, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That's not believing.

That is not knowing. It's the beginning of knowing and the beginning of believing. But it's not the way that it ends. So, the first facet of love is the source of love. So do you see it?

Do you see the love of God? Now you try it. That's what he's saying. And then we go to the second facet, the lack of love. So he turns from love toward God to the lack of love toward God in verse 8.

He who does not love does not know God for God is loved. Now in John there are many positive tests and negative. Now this one here is a negative test. He in the previous verse gave a positive test. If you're born of God you'll love.

Now he says if you don't love you don't know God. And so there is an infallible test and having a lack of love is a proof, Positive test that you're not of God Lack of love proves who you are lack of love proves what family you belong to It proves that you are actually in the family of Cain, not the family of Christ. Because love proves who you are. It is a test of knowing God. You can have an orthodox confession and not have true love.

Because love is an evidence of the new birth. And John is appealing to love here that love is something that comes from God, and if there is no love, then there is no God in you. At least there is no salvation in Jesus Christ for you. And so to be without love, it makes you a stranger to God. And it makes you a stranger to the life of God that flows from his throne, because you are not of God.

You are of the devil. You know, John always paints things in black and white. There's no middle ground. There are only two grounds upon which you can stand. And the ground upon which you stand sorts you out by families.

You are either in the family of Jesus Christ or you are in the family of Cain himself. In the 4th century AD, Augustine preached a sermon on 1st John 4. It's really a good read. He says this, all who do not love God are strangers and antichrists. They might come to churches, but they cannot be numbered among the children of God.

The fountain of life does not belong to them. A bad person can have baptism and prophecy. King Saul had prophecy even while he persecuted the Holy David. He was filled with the spirit of prophecy and began of prophesy, 1 Samuel 19. A bad person can receive the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.

For it is said, all who eat and drink unworthily eat and drink judgment on themselves. A bad person can have the name of Christ and be called a Christian. But then he says that he is actually anti-Christ. So that's the idea that he's dealing with here is that a lack of love is a testimony to yourself and most likely to others as well. And then the third facet of love speaks of the manifestation of love in verse 9.

In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And so God manifested his love, God demonstrated his love in the sending of his son. And children, again, we go back to this simple, interpretive key to this passage is this. Do you see the love of God? Now you try it.

That's the idea that he's speaking of here. And so, God is demonstrating his love by the sending of his Son. John is telling us that God proves his love in history. He performs an act in history where love shows itself in the world. And the first is that God sent.

God sent his son. God took action in order to initiate love. That is what you should do as God has done, to take action. And then second, that we might have life through him. And so his love is demonstrated in life, that God gives life to those who are around him.

And That's why it was said of Jesus, in him was life, and the life was the light of men, because we might have life through him. And that means that love is a life-giving thing. It does not cause death. Love is patient. It gives life.

Love is kind. It gives opportunity. You know, God in His love loved people who were sick, and he brought life to them. God loved the sick people of this world and he gave them a physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, God loved the demonized.

He loved that Gataring demoniac who needed to be clothed and in his right mind God loved Matthew the tax collector and all of his messed up friends and God came to him and God God comes and demonstrates his love through his kindness, which is why we read in Titus 3, verse 3, For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And so this is the manifestation of love that God has manifested his love to us by the sending of his Son. And if you want to learn how to love, then you think about how God has loved sinners, and this is how you love one another. That's the whole idea that he's dealing with here.

You know, God did so love the world that he gave his only begotten son. But here's a problem. It's a problem. It's not just a problem in those who do not believe. It's not just a problem with those who hate God.

But this problem that I'm just going to raise, it really is a problem that we have in the church, and it's this. God often gets a poor return on his love. He pours out his love and then he gets a poor return on it. And we don't in turn demonstrate the love that he's loved us with. We forget who we are.

We forget what has happened to us. We forget the mercy. And I think there are two ways that this works. On the one hand, you have people who can't... They can't demonstrate mercy.

It's because they've never received it. And then you have people who need to grow in mercy. They've received it, but they spend the rest of their lives learning how to demonstrate it. And That's what life in the church is all about. And that's why sometimes life is hard in the church, is because people are learning how to love.

They're learning how to demonstrate the mercy and the truth and the love of Jesus Christ. And sometimes it comes hard. Sometimes hard things happen when people are learning how to love. But you know, you should never give up on the church because somebody couldn't figure out how to love. Because everybody's in the same boat.

Everybody's trying to figure out how to love. Like you husbands, Have you got the love of your wives figured out or mothers? Do you perfectly love your children or your children? Do you love your siblings or do you love each other enough in this church? No, we don't.

None of us do. And we are always giving a poor return on God's love. And for that, our only hope is the mercy of Jesus Christ and His substitutionary sacrifice for all of our sins. He is patient with us even though we don't love each other like we ought to. But it should be pretty clear about this.

This one thing is true. You cannot out love God. It's impossible. You cannot out love Him. And this is what he's saying here.

And so what John is saying is, do you see the love of God? Do you see it? Now you try it. Now you go and love the way that God loves. And then the next facet, the fourth facet of love, really speaks about the depth of the love of God in verse 10.

And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So this is a declaration of the love of God. Now first John identifies the radical nature of love and how deep, how deeply deep the depth of his love is. And so he says, here is love. Do you see those words?

Here is love. Look at that. The first, the first four words, in this is love. So it's almost like John is, he's thinking about, you know, everything in the world. He's flying over the world and he's looking at all that's going on.

He says, here's love right here. It is, it's the love of God who sent his son. And he didn't point to himself, he didn't say, I'm the example of love. He didn't say that at all. He points to God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ.

And we sing songs about this. Some of our favorite songs in this church are about this. We just sang one of them this morning. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.

We sing how deep the Father's love for us, How vast beyond all measure that he would give his only son to make a wretch his treasure. We sing, oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, flowing as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me is the current of thy love. You know, I don't know how this started this morning, but all morning long I could hear the people in my house, they were humming, you know, here is love vast as the ocean, loving kindness as a flood.

You know, These are our favorite songs. And this is the depth of the love of God. Here is love. You know, who would not love God? Who would not stand in awe of the God who created everything that you see out here the one who causes the rain to fall the rivers To run the Sun to shine It's it's it's amazing.

You know we were just talking this morning about all the all the the remarkable insects that are all over all around our the property you know we're gonna you know I'm gonna take my grandchildren we're gonna go look for insects there are so many amazing insects who Who would not love a God that was so astonishingly wise and powerful? You know, this morning I was thinking about this. I was just working on this message and I was looking out the window and I was looking at our cows. Our cows are out there in the pasture and I saw something that I just hadn't really occurred to me before about those cows And it always has been a marvel to me. Whenever you look at cows, they almost always have their heads down.

They're eating. They're eating. God has made cows so that their heads are always down. I think they're most comfortable when their heads are down eating. And that's pretty much all they do all day long as long as there's grass.

And you know there they were in the morning fog with their head, all of them had their heads down. And I thought, you know, why did God do that? And then I thought about what, you know, our family is drinking milk from those cows. We have butter from those cows. We have cheese from those cows.

We have meat from those cows. But God made those cows to just always constantly be eating. And in doing such a thing, those cows are providing nourishment for people like me. How about that? God is showing his love.

God and his love made the cows have their heads down. That's the deal. And all of us experience so many manifestations of God's love every day. But God is love. It is a depth of love that you cannot even plumb the depths of and Who who would not love him?

Who would not look out in this world and not love him? That's That's very much the same thing that John later on writes in the book of Revelation. He says, who would not fear God? Who would not fear the King of Saints? He is astonishing.

He says, great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty just and true are your ways oh king of the saints who shall not fear you oh Lord and glorify your name for you alone are holy for all nations shall come and worship before you for your judgments have been manifested. Who would not love God? Well, here's the truth about love. Love always starts with somebody who loves. It doesn't just appear out of thin air.

There has to be somebody to initiate love. By the way, that's how most of you got married. Somebody initiated love. Somebody did it and then it started a ball rolling and that ball never stopped and you got married. Well, somebody has to initiate love or love just doesn't happen.

That's the way love is. And that's what God did. God initiated love. He sent his son into the world, and it started an unstoppable ball rolling. But love initiates, love goes, love starts.

If you're worried about people, If you're worried about not getting love, you need to go start it. You need to go do what God has done. Stop complaining about how people don't love you. You go start it. That's how love works in the world.

Spurgeon said, to find love, you have to send a lover, and that's what God has done. And there's so much that we could say about Christ's love. He loved the loveless. Spurgeon gave an illustration of this. He said, if an ant were to fall in love with an angel, okay, just think about that for a second.

An ant has fallen in love with an angel. That's the scene that Spurgeon is speaking of in his sermon. And he says, if an ant fell in love with an angel, it wouldn't obligate the angel at all to love the ant. It wouldn't. The gulf is too great in every possible way.

Okay? And so he says, there's no difference between an ant and an angel compared with the difference between us and God. You know, If we loved God, there's no obligation for God to love us, but God initiated his love toward us. He reversed it. He initiated love and this is the depth of his love.

He loved us first. We responded to his love. We were unlovely. We were worthless. We were rebellious.

We were dead in our trespasses and sins. And the angel loved the ant. It went the other way. And then he speaks of this love being expressed in propitiation. Do you see that word there?

He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, God, what is propitiation? We need to understand this. Now, in technical terms, propitiation is to soothe the wrath of God. Okay, now We've gotten that out of the way.

That's the definition. Propitiation is to soothe the wrath of God. You deserve God's wrath. Jesus Christ took the wrath for your sins. He propitiated the anger of God.

But Let's think about this for a minute. God, what is the forgiveness of God? Well, God didn't just let sinners off the hook. God didn't just say to sinners, no problem. He didn't say that at all.

He didn't minimize your sin at all. There was wrath, real, live, condemning devastating eternal Wrath and damnation. Okay. God didn't just say hey no sweat You know, it's cool. That's not what God did Propitiation is far far deeper than that.

He did not take sin Lightly and let you go your way because sin is not trivial it and it You know couldn't have God just what waved his hand and forgiven, you know, the whole world. That's not what he did. He does not forgive all sin. He propitiates. And that's far different than just saying no big deal about Your sin because your sin is a big deal.

It is such a big deal that he would send his son to propitiate the wrath of God towards sinners. And because there must be a true cleansing, there must be something that wipes out the need for the punishment to soften the wrath of God, because sin is so deep, And man cannot escape the wrath of God on his own. He can't escape the wrath of God by becoming a better person. You can't do it by becoming a better husband, a better dad, a better worker, you know, a better guy. It just doesn't work because the wrath of God goes as deep into your heart as the smallest molecule of sin.

And the problem is you're born in sin. You have no hope. You're completely without, you cannot hide from God because your sin is part of your nature. Many of the issues that God has against you, you don't even know about because they're part of your sin nature. You'll never be able to confess all your sins.

You can't. It's impossible. God hasn't given you a mind and an ability even to know all of them. Because you have a deeper problem than just sins. You have a sin problem.

And that is you have inborn sin. And so by the crucifixion of God's son He demonstrates how cursed sin is Sin is cursed and it might and it requires propitiation. It doesn't require with, hey, you're okay. That's how man operates, but that is not how God deals with sin. And so God did not treat sin lightly, and therefore he sent his son.

He loved us with such a deadly seriousness that he would send his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And This is the basis of John's command, beloved, let us love one another. He's explaining it because God's love is so deep. And then the next facet of God's love, the fifth facet of God's love is the pattern of God's love. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to also, ought to love one another.

Now by the way, this idea has already Been repeated is and John wants this to be very clear That the love of God is our pattern. We're to love one another the way that God has loved us. Now what God has done is he doesn't just give you doctrine, he gives you examples. He gives you ways to see his love. And so here he gives a pattern.

And the pattern is how he has loved you, how he has been patient with you, how he has been kind with you, how he has spoken truth to you, how he has corrected you, how he has disciplined you. These are all marks of love. Now all through the Bible, you read about the various illustrations of love. We just went through Isaiah with hundreds and hundreds of illustrations in nature, in government, in social life. Every imaginable illustration of how the love of God works was given in Isaiah.

But we have been given a pattern of love. And he says this, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another ought now camp on that word ought do you see it there in verse in verse 11 we ought to love one another That means that we owe it to one another. That means to have a brother is to have an obligation. We're obligated to love one another. It's not dependent on your feelings, it's not dependent on how you connect with people socially, your interests and things like that, it has nothing to do with that.

God always gives a pattern of love and he gives it in his son. Number six, the sixth facet of love is the display of love displays God. Verse 12, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. So you can't see God, but you can see love.

And when you see love, you have some sense of God. Because God manifests his love in us and love can be seen He's perfecting his love in us so that it's seen more and more a Christian should be someone who's growing in love If someone's not growing love either they're not a Christian or they're sowing worldliness. It's not rocket religion. It's one of those two things. And you know John had already said in John 1, no one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he has declared him so Jesus Christ declares the love of God in human form he came in the flesh and he showed us what God was like in his love He this is why this is why it's so critical that you must confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh as John spoke of in the previous verses. It matters whether he came in the flesh because he demonstrated the love of God in real terms. And Christ has his hands and his feet, and he demonstrates it through his people. And then the seventh facet of love is the assurance of love in verses verses 13 through 16. And these three verses have an emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

And the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is mentioned three times in this paragraph. And he's speaking of the role of the Holy Spirit in your assurance. And notice that The doctrine of the Trinity is here. You see the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in these verses. He says, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his Spirit.

Now notice John's confidence. He says, we know. We know. We know it because of the Spirit. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God.

And he is saying that a proper confession of Christ must be accompanied by the Spirit bearing witness. That means that your spirit cries out, Abba Father, your spirit cries out for God. You want God. It's not a God-rejecting spirit. It's a God-longing, a God-delighting spirit that you're given.

And so those who abide in love abide in God. Okay, so I want to I want to talk about ten applications, okay? The first application surrounds orthodoxy without love. You can have an orthodox confession but have no love. You can have all the outward manifestations of Christianity but not have love and therefore not have Christ.

Because the church is a place of love. Now you should go to a church with an orthodox confession, no question about that. You should run from a church that doesn't have an orthodox confession. But you should recognize that orthodoxy can exist without love, in you and in other people as well. You can have some of the most articulate proponents of Christianity but they don't have love.

It happens all the time. A person's gift can carry them a long way. Don't be too impressed with gifts. Secondly, activity without love. Now, John is speaking to the Ephesian church.

And later on, John writes to the Ephesian church, he pens the words of Jesus to that church. He says, I know your works. In other words, they were a very active church. They did a lot of stuff. I know your works, but you have left your first love." Now I think that means that there were people in the Ephesian Church that did not hear what John taught them about love.

And they were very busy, but they had no love. And we can be very busy and have no love. And we can end up being a poster child for what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, without love you ain't nothing. And then four, or three, let's talk about worship without love. Love and worship are inextricably connected.

And if you don't love the people you are with, you cannot worship God. You are not worshiping God if your heart is full of hatred. You can't worship and hate at the same time. It's impossible. So worship and love are inextricably connected.

And that's why Jesus said, if you go to the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, go to your brother and be reconciled to your brother. Because you can't have true worship without love. Number four, witness without love. If we don't love, we have no witness in the world. John 17 says that the mark of a Christian is love.

That's the chief mark of a Christian. And he speaks of the unity of the brethren, that his disciples would be one with him, and his disciples would be one with one another. And Jesus is saying that the world won't believe us if we don't, unless we have love. All of your witnessing, all of your evangelism without love is contradictory. You know, one of the greatest troubles that people have in their witnessing is that they just want to get the information out.

They want to win the argument. As if winning an argument is how people are saved. That isn't how people are saved. And so love is lost in witnessing. You look at that person, they're just an object.

Maybe you're thinking, oh boy, our pastors are going to be so happy because I brought back a convert. I got another notch in my gun. I mean, this is evangelism without love. Do you love the person? Do you love them?

This is the question you should always be asking. Do I love that person? You're out there on the street preaching. We have many street preachers here. When you look at those people, do you love them?

Like when you look them in the eye, do you love them with your eyes, with your heart, with everything that you have? Or are you just doing something that you're supposed to do? And then worldliness. Worldliness is loveless. If we love the world we're not loving.

The love of the world and the love of God cannot coexist. If you say you love God and you engage yourself and your brethren in worldliness, you are not loving them. You're not loving them. You know, so much of worldliness just passes as some fun or something like that, but you have to recognize that if you are loving this world, you are not loving. You engage people in worldliness, It's not love.

You need to realize what you're doing Number six lust Lust is loveless Lust is loveless we The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life cannot coexist with the love of God. Lust is loveless. And, you know, there are probably a lot of different ways that you can apply that in your life. Because remember the categories of lust, the lust of the flesh about your body, the lust of the eyes, the things you see, and the pride of life, the ways you want to pump yourself up and make yourself so cool. The whole impulse of coolness is totally loveless.

Lust is lovelessness. Number seven, love of mammon is loveless. You cannot love mammon and love people at the same time. Number eight, counterfeit love. Now, on this matter of counterfeit love I wanna tell a story that Jonathan Edwards of a story of Jonathan Edwards you know Jonathan Edwards there was the great awakening in the 17 in 1740 and there's this remarkable outpouring the Holy Spirit but whenever that happens a lot of really weird things happen, okay?

Lots lots of weird things happen, so Jonathan Edwards writes a short dissertation called the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God and and He's he's writing about the great awakening and to help you know What is true? Awakening and what is false awakening and how to know the difference, But he says in times of awakening, there's something that looks like love, but it's a delusion. And I think this might be particularly relevant to us. He says that, He calls them enthusiasts, you know, really committed people, really serious people. He says they have a kind of union and affection that arises out of self-love.

So you'll have people in a time of revival, they're living differently, they have an affection for each other, but it's really self-love. He says it's a counterfeit love that's found in people who agree on certain things, because whenever there's a revival, people have to disagree on stuff, right? That's what Revivals have to do with going back to the old past and that means when you do that you you disagree with folk about stuff And he's he's saying there's a counterfeit love in situations like this where people agree on things and they relish in how they disagree with others and they disagree with others and they're so happy that they're ridiculed by the rest of mankind. They do believe things that are different now because they've been changed and their thinking has changed now they're ridiculed by the rest of mankind and they kind of like it and They he says they prize their peculiarities, that's what he says they prize their peculiarities He says they're like the Gnostics who praise themselves for loving one another and they boasted about it. And the Gnostics called themselves the family of love.

He says it was a delusion, wasn't true love. He says it was really self-love. And he says they loved their distinctiveness. They loved their distinctiveness, and that was the basis of their relationships with each other. It was a stunted kind of love.

And Edward says that Christian love is not like that at all. It's not a friendship based on distinctives anymore than, and he gives this illustration. He gives an illustration of pirates, okay? Pirates. He says that pirates can be friends who are at war with everybody else.

And he likens Christians to pirates, right? They love what they're doing, but there ain't no love there, okay? And of course pirates will just soon string one another up, you know, for a farthing. Because their love isn't really based on the love of God. Their love is based on their distinctives.

That's what ties them together. That's what holds them together. It's not the love of Jesus Christ It's the love of this thing that they liked and Edwards is saying in times of revival you have people like that They just love their distinctives. They love the people who love that distinctive and they hate everybody else. They're not loving It's the delusion is what he says They all get together, you know They talk about what they're against and how those people are all so wrong and how they are so right.

But what John is saying here is that the love of God extinguishes that kind of thinking. Because Christian love doesn't spring from your distinctiveness. It springs from your awe and your gratitude of the riches of the love of God that are in Jesus Christ. That is the heart of the love of the church. It is explicitly Christocentric.

It's focused on the love of God. It designs to replicate the love of God in the world. And it doesn't have that much to do with distinctiveness. He says Christian love is is a love that's aware of our unworthiness, that we were enemies of God, that It renounces our own excellency and righteousness. It's a humble love.

It's a supernatural love. It annihilates any pride. It's not puffed up. It is not a love that seeks its own. It's a love that sees its own littleness.

I'm quoting Edwards right now littleness vileness weakness and utter insufficiency and so with self-difference and self emptiness self-renunciation and poverty of spirit These are the things that manifest the love of the Spirit of God. You know, I've been reading a biography of one of the pastors in the English Revival, William Grimshaw. Here's how Grimshaw expressed it. He says, I love, I love Christians, true Christians of all parties. Oh, I do love them.

I will love them and none shall make me do otherwise. And like his friend George Whitefield said a very similar thing, do not tell me you're a Baptist, an independent, a Presbyterian, a dissenter. Tell me you're a Christian. That's all I want. This is the religion of heaven and must be ours on earth.

And the whole question really is, do you delight in your brothers and sisters? And I think we have to start here. Do we delight in our brothers and sisters here? But beyond that, what about true brothers and sisters that maybe don't think exactly like you about everything? You know, David said that the saints were his delight in Psalm 16.

The Apostle Paul said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, because I have you in my heart. How greatly I long for you with the affection of Jesus Christ. He said that to the Philippians, Philippian church in Philippians 1, 3 through 8. Paul said to the Thessalonian church that he was like a mother who cherishes her children, so affectionately longing for you because you had become dear to us. This is the love of Jesus Christ in the church.

And the question before us is what, where is love? Where is it? It's in God. It's vast as the ocean. It's deep.

It's deeper than you can imagine. It's wide. This is why the apostle Paul said, I pray that you might know the height and the depth and the width and the breadth of his love. And that's what John is appealing to. That God would create here in a church a world of love.

Because heaven is a world of love and we're preparing for that world. So Let's confess any lack of love, let's turn away from it, and let's turn to Jesus Christ. And how does a church love? It gazes upon the love of God in Jesus Christ. It must see the love of God sending his Son.

It must see the propitiation. It must see the loveliness of Christ and all the loveliness of his works. But if it's obsessed with its distinctiveness, it will have a counterfeit love. I pray God would give us that love. Will you pray with me?

Oh Lord, Lord we thank you for playing before us the greatnesses of your love, and that you would help us to find all of our love in you. We thank you that love is of God, and we know where to go. I pray, oh Lord, that you would give us in this church such a heart to go there always, to find all of our love in you and then to display it right here in this place. And Lord, for anybody who's having a hard time loving, that they would run to you and find it where it is. Amen.