Love Comes from God – Sermon on 1 John 4:7–21 by Pastor Colin Smith

Well, please open your Bible first, John and chapter four, this is the third week of our four-week series titled growing in

love

, we have now seen together that

love

is our distinctive calling. Jesus said a new commandment that I give you: love one another. and then he said that with this all people will know that you are my disciples, that you love each other, so love is our distinctive calling and as the world be

comes

harder, our calling will become even more distinct and Then last week we saw that love is our greatest need and we saw three reasons for that in First Corinthians in Chapter 13 first that love is essential to Effective Ministry our gifts our work the sacrifices we make none of it counts for nothing if we do not have love the apostle Paul says it if we want to have an effective Ministry we must grow in love and then we saw that love is our greatest need because it equips us for life what a wonderful truth this is love is patient love is Kind is not arrogant and what we saw together last time was that Paul is not saying that we need to be patient and that we need to have kindness and that we need to be humble to have love, what he is telling us is, in fact, the opposite: he is saying that if we have love We will receive all these other gifts with it, plus, in other words, love is like a tree, a living tree that is full of fruits, grow in love and you will grow in patience and kindness, grow in love and you will be freed from power.

From Envy grow in love and you will grow in the beautiful fruit of humility and then we saw that love is our greatest need because love remains forever everything else will pass away but Paul says that there are three things that remain faith hope and love and The greatest of these three is love, so for two weeks we have been analyzing why we need to grow in love because it is our distinctive calling and because love is our greatest need and today we finally get to the question. How are we supposed to now that we have all come together to the point of saying: I want to grow in love now, how is that going to happen?

That is the question before us today and, God willing, next week as well, I think first place. To look for an answer to this question we turn to First John and chapter four, so I hope you have your Bible open there in front of you as we look at these verses together. If you were to ask John the Apostle, how can I grow in love I think the answer he would give would be in the very precise words of verse 19 we love because he first loved us verse 19 is really a summary of everything John says in verses 7 to 21 that we are looking at together today or to put it another way everything in these verses is an exposition of what John says in this wonderful verse verse 19 we love because he first loved us this is how you love this is what he tells us He is saying understand this that love is not something that we somehow have to work out from within ourselves it is not something we have to try and produce or find it is not any love it is something that descends that is what he is telling us. saying here verse 7 love

comes

from God and then this wonderful statement that he repeats twice in verse 8 and verse 16 God is love God is love love comes from God and the love of God comes to us in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit now all of that is in these verses that we are looking at today and it is all summed up in these wonderful words from verse 19 we love because he first loved us now this wonderful truth opens a Door of Hope for each of us today regardless your past experience and the reality, of course, is that our experience of human love varies greatly some of us have been very loved from the day we were born others have felt a lack of love you have received little and that is why sometimes you fear that because you have received little you may have little to give Some among us have suffered neglect and some even abuse and their experience has been the opposite of love and has left deep wounds in their lives and sometimes they wonder if these wounds can ever heal, but these verses tell us. they say to everyone in a very wonderful way. you can love and the reason you can love is because you are loved you are loved with an everlasting love and as God's love flows into you so that same love flows through you now these verses tell us that there are certain things that God does and then there are certain things we can do in response let's look at God's part first and John makes it clear first that God loves us verse 19 he loved us first 10. in this love is not that we have loved God but that he loved us or verse 11 God loved us so much now you see what he is telling us here God loved you before you loved him he loved you when you had no interest in him at all he loved you when you ignored him he loved you when you rejected him you didn't win the heart of God loving him no God has won your heart by loving you this is what John tells Christian believers this is our experience he loved us first now how do we know that God loves us well?

Juan answers this same thing. clearly that God sent his son for us so we know that God loves us look that in verse 9 for example in this the love of God was manifested or shown Among Us that God sent his only son into the world so that we could live through of him o verse 10. in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins o verse 14. the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world now you see what this says here is how you know that God loves you you know that God loves you because he sent his son Jesus for you in other words don't try to discern God's love from the state of the world or From your life experience , the world is in Rebellion against God and is therefore suffering the severe and widespread effects of its own Rebellion and for that reason, because we all live in this world, our experience of life in this world is a strange mixture of good. and from evil but God has acted to give us what we need most and anything else that you do not have anything else that you have not received God in love has acted to give you what you need look what he says here he sent his son so that we can live Through him, that is why Jesus suffered, that is why he died on the cross, he died as a propitiation for our sins, that is the sacrifice that would eliminate the judgment and condemnation that sin brings.

God loved us. So that death may be our end, he sent his son so that we could live in eternal life and eternal joy with him forever and then notice the third theme that John draws from all that God has done here and that is that God abides in us. by his spirit verse 13. by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his Spirit which is the Holy Spirit or verse 12. if we love one another God abides in US and his love is perfected in us , that is why the love of God has been poured out and has been poured out in us, it was poured out on the cross when the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins and it is poured out by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and who comes. to dwell in the lives of all who believe the Holy Spirit brings the presence of God and therefore the love of God to the life of every Christian believer and John says in verse 7 that love is from God and he who loves has been born of God what a remarkable statement it is to be born of someone, that very obviously means that some of their life is actually in you, you are born of them and when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are born of God, who is life and The love of God Himself comes into your life, they are poured into your heart by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and what John is saying here is that this is how you can love regardless of your own past experience, because you are not only loved. by God and that was demonstrated by sending his son who died on the cross for you, but the love of God has really reached you, he has reached you, it has been poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit when you have arrived to believe. in his son Jesus Christ the spirit of God dwells in you that is the language here and if the spirit of God dwells in you then the love of God dwells in you a writer says that love cannot be raised it is the result of God entering and possess the soul that's how you can love and trying to get love above but by God Himself by the Holy Spirit coming in and possessing your soul now think about that what would it be like for the spirit of God to come in and possess your soul let me try it and I'll give you a somewhat ridiculous illustration of what it would be like to have Mick Jagger's spirit living in me, I mean, for anyone who hasn't been around for the last 60 years, by the way, Mick Jagger, the lead singer of The Rolling Stones and myself.

Pick him as an example because I really can't imagine anyone who is more different than me. I mean, the idea of ​​Mick Jagger's spirit living in me is totally incongruous. I mean, I go for a pretty stiff and starchy Mick Jagger. he moves like he has rubber joints um, I tried to speak in what we used to call the queen's English and Mick Jagger says things like let's rock that baby as much as possible and he doesn't mean trying to get a child to sleep In the Kindergarten, if he talked like Mick Jagger, people would wonder what went wrong with Colin on Earth and then someone might say, "Oh, well, you see the spirit of Mick Jagger who got into this, think about it if the spirit of Mick Jagger was in me.

He would be a totally different person and of course if something so incongruous happened he would be experiencing great stress, Mick Jagger's spirit of course would want to dance all the time and it would take time for this body. to adapt and we would find it quite difficult to participate in all that fluid movement and while I was in this body I think I would have a lot of difficulty, don't you think? And that's actually pretty good. analogy of what the Christian Life is really like that's why we say the spirit is willing but sometimes the flesh is weak now think about this to move from fantasy to reality what they are telling us here is that as you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ the holy spirit of God will live in you and for the holy spirit of God to live in sinners like us, that is totally incongruous, but here is the wonderful reality and the spirit of the Living God is in you, remaining in you throughout time .

It will bring big, significant, ongoing change, it will change the way you talk, it will change the way you think, it will change the way you act and it will change the way you love now, friends, do you see this? these are life-giving truths they are wonderful these are life-changing truths God loves us he sent his son for us he remains in us by his Holy Spirit and if you are a Christian believer you can personalize these truths you can put them like this God loves me God sent his son into the world for me the holy spirit of God lives in me now we have thought together about what God has done now let's look at the question what we can do let's look at our part together and here are three things that John highlights the first of them is that we love look at verse 19. we love because he first loved us or verse 7. let us love one another because love comes from God or verse 11. if God loved us this way we should also love one another or verse 12. if we we love one another God abides in us and his love is perfected in US God calls us to love one another as he has loved us we are in other words to give the first thing we have received and John says here that the love of God is perfected In us.

Do you see that in verse 12? What that means is simply that God's love serves its own ultimate purpose in us, that is, God's love was never intended to end you. The love of God that has come. it is intended to flow through you and in this way the ultimate purpose of God's love is wonderfully fulfilled. God's purpose is greatly fulfilled when we love one another and then the second thing we are told here is that in response to what God has done, look at verse 15 and verse 16. He who confesses that Jesus is the son of God abides in him and he and God or verse 16 so we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us these verses about confessing or believing in the Lord Jesus Christ believing means that you are persuaded that God really loves you believing means that you are persuaded that Jesus Christ gave himself for you means that you are persuaded that the spirit of God really lives in you and it is believing these central truths of the Gospel that will truly enable you to love, that is what he is saying here, the more The deeper you believe in these life changing truths, the more deeply you will be able to love, think about it this way, the love of God is like the waves of the sea erode even the hard rocks on the coast, they keep washing away, washing away, and over time their power erodes. even the hardest places of the human heart and then the third theme.

Here, for our part, we must comply. again verse 16. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him o verse 15 he who confesses that Jesus is the son of God God abides in him and he in God o verse 13. by this we know that abides in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit now abiding simply means to abide or live abiding is whatwhat you do in your home you live there what that means is that you rest there you eat there you find joy there now John says we abide in God that means we find rest in God we find joy in God we walk with God we feed ourselves in God we enjoy in other words a relationship live from Heart to Heart communion with God there is more here than simply believing In a Creed there is a living relationship between us and the Lord Himself that is exercised by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, so here are three things What God does and Here are three things we do God loves us God sent his son for us and God abides in us by his Holy Spirit and because God has done these wonderful things, we are there out of love, therefore we believe and therefore we remain now, these are the six main ones. themes of these wonderful verses and John in each of these verses weaves these themes together, you could think of them as six threads, each a different color, and what John is doing is weaving these threads into a cloth in each verse a As you look at the verses, each verse weaves together one, two, or more of these themes.

Let me give you some examples so you have an idea and can trace this throughout the various verses of this passage. Take verse 7 as an example. Love comes from God. and whoever loves is born of God and knows God, so what John is doing here is making the connection between God's love for us and our ability to love, so that love is not there for something that somehow way we have to elaborate from within. now it really comes to us and that connection is really important to understand how you can grow in love or look at verse 11. beloved, if God so loved us, we should love one another well when John says if God so loved us.

If you look back, in verse 10, he is referring to the fact that he sent the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer and die for us. That's the point of verse 10, so the connection here is between God sending his son for us and our call to love. or if you look at verse 12, if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in US, now you see this verse begins with us loving one another and John tells us that when we love one another, God abides in WE, so here it is. making the connection between us, truly seeking a life of love and the continuing and deepening work of the Holy Spirit within us or look at verse 15.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God, now John is telling us that there is a direct connection between us believing or confessing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the holy spirit in our hearts and in our lives if you do not believe in these great truths of what God has done do not wait the Holy Spirit to be producing a lot of love in your life these things are connected is how you believe the work of the spirit will deepen and advance in your heart and in your life or verse 16.

God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God. abide in him here John is making the connection between our walk with God, our abiding in God and the work of the Holy Spirit within us his word deepens in us as we walk with him or verse 19 of course the most simple of all, we love him because he first loved us and here John shows us in this wonderful verse the connection between our ability to love and God's great love for us now these threads, beautiful threads in each verse are being woven together into a beautiful fabric and if you pull any of these Threads, well then you destroy the entire fabric.

The six wonderful realities play together. They are intertwined in the answer to the question: How can we grow in love? We grow in love because God loves us because he sent his son into the world for us. because his Spirit lives in our hearts we love as we believe and we love as long as we remain now, based on what John has said here in this wonderful passage, I want to simply offer by way of application six very practical strategies for growing in love. The first is to reflect frequently on how God has loved you have seen that everything flows from God's love for us we love because he loved us first God loved us first and Jesus says love one another as I have loved you you know in any relationship there is always someone who makes the first move and then there is another person who responds and you know sometimes you see this at wedding receptions the newlywed couple is embarrassed by being bombarded with questions about do you know who was the first to say I love you and so on and so on and um who came first how long did it take the other person to get the idea you know someone said I love you and then someone else said I love you too much God is the one who said I love you God loved us first God loved us when we were enemies and sent his own son to save us, so when you love first, that is, you take the initiative, you show patience, you show kindness, whether they don't show it to you, well, you see that it is an expression of the love of God in you I mean, how else could you love the ungrateful, unattractive or callous, except that the love of God that comes first is in you, loving as God loves is therefore the clearest possible evidence that you have been born of God and here you have a second very simple and very practical application remember that love is a commandment of God look at verse 21 we have this commandment that he who loves God must also love his brother it is a commandment it is not a option this is our Central calling from God the Lord Jesus Christ died to redeem us from the curse of the law, that means he freed us from the condemnation that our breaking the law would have brought, but God gives us his holy spirit so that the righteous requirements of the law are fully fulfilled in us. that is Romans chapter 8 and verse 4. he bore our sins in his body on the tree why so that we can die to sin and live for righteousness that is First Peter chapter 2 and verse 24. our new life in Christ is a gift and it is freely given but it is also a calling and the Heart of our calling is to love, so here is a third strategy to grow in love, we are trying to be practical about what it is like to grow in love, ask God, ask God.

God that you may grow in love I take this from the very obvious fact that the apostle Paul expresses prayers that God's people may grow in love over and over again in the New Testament more than we could list here, but just a couple of examples Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9. it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more or first Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 12 that the Lord would cause you to grow and abound in love that the Lord would do it is praying for it or II Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 5 that the Lord directs your hearts to the love of God ask God to help you grow in love you want to grow in love ask him for help here tell him this is what you want and then pray for particular people and ask God as you pray for them that he will help you love them more deeply ask and you will receive seek and you will find a flame and it will open to you growing in love is an effect of the work of the holy spirit in your heart and in your life so ask him so that he can help you grow in love, ask Him to reveal to you anything that may be stopping you from growing in love, ask Him to make you aware of anything in your life that is grieving the Holy Spirit and deal with it so that nothing can stop you from following your calling. . of growing in love and then a fourth strategy is to simply be intentional in your pursuit of love and I take it very simply from the language of the New Testament.

You see, the New Testament speaks to Christian believers in a way that you cannot. to any other person because Christian believers are indwelled by the holy spirit of God and are therefore able to do more than would otherwise be possible and therefore the scriptures are seen to read over and over again simple instructions to love the spirit. of God Lives within you so Above All Colossians chapter 3 and verse 14. clothe yourself with love you go out to a new day to a new week go with this intention and this purpose I am going to live a life of Love Today or Colossians in chapter 3 and verse 19 husbands love their wives be intentional in doing this make sure it is your conscious purpose every day of your life or 2 Peter in chapter one where there is a long list of things the Apostle says we should add to our faith and let me just give you a couple of things that he says here he adds make every effort that he says to complement your faith with piety and piety with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love see how a believer does it in the Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit lives in you and if you remain in it then loving is something you can do, you can grow in love and never let the enemy tell you that you can't because God tells you that you can and by his grace you will do it. so make it your intentional way of life to seek the good of others, think more about their interests than your own, seek to bring blessing to others in every way you can in every day of the life that God gives you and then number five.

God willing, we will return to this next week. Get in touch with your deepest desire. You know, Peter says in his first letter to the believers. Even though you haven't seen it, you love it, love it, love it, that's true for you. you are a Christian believer. A comment from Dr. J.I Packer has helped me a lot. He says this over and over again, it seems that Christians are not in touch with themselves enough, they don't know themselves enough to realize that because of the way their nature has been changed, their hearts now they are against every known sin.

Packer says this: the regenerated heart cannot love what it knows God hates, it cannot love what it knows God hates and you will see that Satan wants to deceive you into believing that what you really want to do is live for yourself and what we are seeing today in the scriptures here is that nothing could be further from the truth when you are born of God at the deepest level of your being, what you really want is to live for him is to please him, is to live a life of love and when you feel that pond that tells you simply live for yourself, in reality you are living to hear a voice that is foreign to your deepest desire, the regenerated heart cannot. love what you know God hates and finally find joy in the privilege of your calling verse 12 of 1 John 4 no one has seen God if we love one another God abides in US and his love is perfected in US no one has seen him May God never take it that none of your neighbors and your colleagues at work, no one at school, no one has seen God, so how will the love of God be made known?

How will it be experienced in this world? John gives this amazing answer that God loves others through God's love will come into someone else's life this week through us, you will find joy in the privilege of that calling, that's what he means, you see when it says that the love of God is perfected in US, completes its intended purpose, comes into the lives of other people comes to you and comes through you when we love one another we see the presence and love of God Himself and He makes himself known wonderfully wonderfully May the love of Jesus fill me as the waters fill the sea he exalting himself humbling himself this is the Victory may his Beauty rest upon me while I seek the lost to win and may they forget the canal seeing only him, let us pray together father, today we have come to this scripture with a great desire in our hearts that we grow in love and we ask that it be so through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we believe, abide and reach out in love for others that you have placed around us, so be God for these things that we ask of you.

In the name of Jesus, amen