Reading
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Should we ask the Lord's blessing?
And reading in first John chapter 4.
And I suggest we begin this morning with verse 6.
First John chapter 4 and verse 6.
We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby no way. The spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. This was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his Son or His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him here in His love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation.
For our sins, beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in US. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He and us, because He hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God?
God dwelleth in him, and He and God, 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. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we. In this world. There is No Fear and love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath made, because fear hath torment.
Either here it does not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If the men say I love God and hated his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, How can he love God whom he have not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
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And with the the words in verse.
Six, we are of God.
Everything has a source.
And everything flows from the source.
So with the exception of God himself, who is eternal.
Always has been, always will be. At no beginning, no end.
Yesterday we saw the person of the Lord Jesus as eternal, as Son of God, having no beginning, no end, but in time he became a man of flesh and blood.
But his source, even in becoming a man, begins.
With God himself, God the Son.
But everyone of us had a beginning. Everyone of us, in one sense, had the same beginning.
We are beginning was when we were conceived in the womb of our mother.
And that was our beginning. However, we will not have an end.
There's not a single person in this room whose existence now that you exist, will not continue forever.
In the future, sometime either perfect joy and happiness in the presence of the Lord Jesus or.
Eternal misery as separated from God because of your sins. But in when it says in this verse, we are of God.
It includes the thought that we are of God because we have received eternal life.
And that now defines where we come from.
We are a people who are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and here he's contrasting those who are of God in this verse with those who are not.
And so a person who does not belong to the family of God doesn't have a place in this verse.
But we are of God, and because of the source of what we are and the life of Christ that we have in us, we judge everything by it. And so he says, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error because we have the life of Christ in us.
That eternal life which is now ours and He, that life in US, differentiates between what is truth and what is error. If we don't know the Lord Jesus, we're not of God at that point in our life, and we don't have the capacity to differentiate properly between what is truth and what is error, because we only have the sinful life that we were born with to judge things by.
And it doesn't have a right standard and consequently judges wrong about the things that it sees and is exposed to and can't differentiate between truth and error.
As I believe our brother Don just said, we have a contrast in verse 5 is that they are of the world.
Verse six, we are of God, but they have got a particular group of people. But we can generalize that to say that people who are not in Christ are of the world and we are of God. And I had an experience in my life that kind of drives that home.
After getting out of school, got into the workforce and as the years rolled out, I happened to notice the topic of conversation of all people that I worked with and I won't be specific, but the goals that they had for what they spent all their evenings on and what they plan to do with their summer and looking forward towards retirement years. All that I had to do with self and I mentioned this one time to an older brother.
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Ultimately my father and said that is kind of depressing seeing how low their.
Thoughts were and he gave a simple remark that stuck with me quite a few years, he said. What else do they have?
And so that's something to think about, because if we belong to the Lord, we do have something more than they do.
If somebody were to follow me around through my days and make a note of the things that I talked about where they find me and reflecting the fact that I belong to the Lord and have a heavenly purpose and calling. If they were to hear me talking about plans for the future, would it reflect again the fact that I belong to Him and and of God?
It's just something sobering to think about for all of us.
Might take notice that as you say in verse one, it says that there because many false prophets are gone out into the world and then it speaks of in verse five they are of the world. So the false prophets are of the world, therefore they speak of the world.
Their prophecy has to is brought down to the level of the world and the world here at them. So they're popular in the world. The world has its own profits, and the world will come up and take things up in a religious wave and name the name of Christ. But really?
They are of the world. And so in verse six we are of God. I believe the apostle here is bringing in the fact that the world is against Christ, against the doctrine of Christ, and it's also against the the apostles and the doctrine of the apostles. And so he says we, the apostles are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us, hears the apostle's. And so it's necessary for us to read the epistles.
So that we know what the apostles taught. And so he that is not of God heareth not us. And you'll notice that there's a little bit of a test, you might say, as to the reality of someone's faith is do they want to read the epistles of Paul? Do they want to read the epistles of John and be clear as to the character of the person of Christ, his work, his deity, his eternal sonship? Are they willing to read?
The apostles, do they agree with what the apostles taught? And so hereby we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. You and I are indwelled with the Spirit of God. And it says in chapter two, I think it is, yes, chapter 2, verse 20, ye have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. So you and I have painted with the Spirit. That's what the unction is. You're anointed with the Spirit, you're indwelled with the Spirit of God, and you have the power of discernment.
The Spirit of God gives you the power of discernment between that which is true doctrine and that which is false. And so when it says and you know all things, it doesn't mean that once you're saved, you know everything there is to know. And you don't need to read any ministry and you don't even need to come to meetings like this because you know everything. That's not what it means. It means you have the power of discernment. And if you walk in communion with the Lord, in fellowship with what the apostles taught.
You will have the power of spiritual discernment to detect error that is being presented. And so this is so necessary for us to recognize the authority that God gave to the apostles. We, he says, are of God. John puts himself in that company of apostles. He that knoweth God heareth us. It's evidence of divine life. Someone wants to hear.
And agrees with what the apostles taught.
And someone give us a good definition of the world as used in this verse.
Well, we know that the world is spoken of in several different ways in Scripture three that I can think of One is God so loved the world. That's really the people in the world. He's not talking about the globe, but God so loved the world of people that he formed And then it speaks of, you know, the world speaks of the system of things that man has raised up and God the.
Prince of this world, Satan has raised up a system of things, religiously, politically.
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And.
Economically, a system of things to keep man in a state of contentment while he's alienated from God. So man lives in this world, he's alienated from God, pays no attention to the rights that God has in his life, doesn't even get thanks for his food, doesn't recognize the food comes from God. And so there's a world system that's opposed. And so I believe that this is really what he's Speaking of.
Here this world system that is opposed to Christ.
There's another aspect of the world. I've forgotten what it was. Maybe someone else knows.
It's created world.
The created world, yeah.
It's the same. This one in chapter 4 is the same one as in chapter 2 verse.
15 that says love not the world. It's that same system of things that has been built up so man can be.
Self-sufficient without God.
But I think that's important. But you bring out Robert, it's in verse six. It's the apostles doctrine that is so important to keep. There is a norm, there is a standard. What is it? What the apostles have said and we read it yesterday, but there is quite a few that weren't there. Go back to chapter 2 and I think you have the same thought in verse.
18 and 19 it talks about Antichrist.
Little children, it is the last hour and a I'm reading other Dartmouth translator feed out of King James.
Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrist, whereby we know that it is the last time. Now notice in verse 19, as we read it, us is mentioned five times.
And it's helpful to know that it is the apostles that is referred to. They went out from us, but they were not of us. It's not talking about somebody leaving the meeting, it's talking about somebody leaving the apostles doctrine. For if they had been of us, they would have no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
So that's that's helpful to see that because our fellowship, if you go back to chapter one, a verse that we often quote is verse three. And notice what is our fellowship based on that which we have seen and heard, Declare we unto you what they saw, what they heard, they declared it. The apostle John is one of the witnesses, but he was not the only one. There were others.
That ye also may have fellowship with us, So the apostles.
Fellowship is based on the apostles doctrine. Those two things go together intimately and I think that is really important to see in the day in which we live, there is a standard. What is it, the apostles doctrine?
It's helpful to see that in chapter one, the very first verse, brother Bob, it says that which was from the beginning which we have heard. And So what had taken place was that in the time of the apostles and John is the last apostle that writes.
He's the last writer of the New Testament, and there had been a decline. There had been those that taught something else, something that they presented as a further light new truth.
They were Gnostics, and they sought to override and set aside what the apostles had taught. But isn't it wonderful? The Lord preserved John right to the last, you might say?
And there he is. He's saying this is what Christ said at the beginning, and I'm telling you right from the beginning, this is the doctrine that he spoke of. This is the doctrine he taught. And so it's absolutely vital for a believer to know what the apostle John taught. It's vital for him to know what the apostle Peter taught. It's vital, absolutely vital for him to know what Paul taught. And the only way that you're going to know those things.
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Is to read those epistles and to read the teachings or to come to the meetings like this where there are those that have walked in the truth and are disseminating the truth that they have walked in the same things. Let's look at it in, I think it's in Second Timothy. Just I know we're stressing this point, but not everyone that names the name of Christ is speaking the truth.
So Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 2.
Let's read verse one, Second Timothy 2 verse one. Thou therefore, my Son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
That and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. And so you have generation after generation after generation, and they're teaching the same things. And so we live in a day.
Sad to say that there are new things, new departures, new truth, and what others might say is essential truth, that we should go on and and so on, brethren, is all essential. And if the apostles brought it forth, the apostles taught it, particularly in connection with the person of Christ. We ought to pay attention to it and enjoy it in our souls. Now why is it?
That John speaks so much of the person of Christ because what you think about the person of Christ, the work of the cross and his holy person will govern how you live. It will govern how you think and the fruit for God in your life. That's why the Spirit of God has given us John's ministry, because it will affect your whole life. What you think of Christ will affect your whole life.
Like to go back for a moment to the beginning of the world.
And it's given to us in Genesis chapter 4.
And it's perhaps the simplest and easiest way to understand what the world is.
Genesis chapter 4.
And a verse.
15 This is after Cain slew his brother.
And the Lord spake unto him. Therefore whatsoever whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife. And then we have the history of Cain's family. This is the beginning of the world.
As referred to not the natural world, but the world we talk about, we live in a world of people.
Cain disobeyed God because his sacrifice was not accepted and he slew his brother.
And as a consequence, God's hand was on him. And So what did he do? The world is what he did. He went out from the presence of the Lord. And that's what the world is. It is a place where man has gone out from the presence of the Lord.
And establish something for himself, leaving God out. And what follows we see the development of industry and commerce and so on in in Cain's family.
But connecting it with first John 4.
Is we can be connected in this way?
When Adam disobeyed God, he went out was put out of the garden himself, where God had fellowship with him.
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Adam did not know God in his fullness.
He did not have a full understanding of who God was. He knew him, but he knew him with certain limited limitations to his knowledge of God.
God set apart a people for himself that became the Israelites and gave a further revelation of Himself to them, but not a full one.
They had absolute fear of being in God's presence.
They did not know God as we know Him and having this chapter, God is love. They experienced the love of God. They experienced the care of God, but it couldn't be said of them that they truly enjoyed, as we do this morning, that God is love.
Because God had not yet made himself known in that way.
It was a test to see whether man was capable of being righteous with God, as God had revealed himself to him under the law and we know the answer. He was not capable, he could not, and consequently God in love.
Began again in a different way, to make himself known to us mankind.
His son came.
And his Son came to make God fully known to us.
But there was a hindrance to him, full liberty of God, God Himself having liberty to make Himself fully known to us, and that was because we were separated with from Him by sin.
And so God himself was not at liberty to make himself known as he is in his very character. God is light and God is love.
And he gave his son in coming into this world, a job, a work to do.
And when the Lord Jesus finished the work, he said, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
Is almost last words on the cross where it is finished, because the work that was His to do was to establish what was necessary, that we could know God as love and God is light in fullness.
So what? How does that take place when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead?
There was now a risen man.
In a glorified body.
Who could impart to us that same character of life which we now call eternal life?
It's life in resurrection power. It is life also in which part of what God did.
And they had to wait. They didn't get it on resurrection morning. They waited till the day of Pentecost.
When the head in heaven then sent the Spirit of God to indwell each one who was to be part of the family.
And so that then changed two important things. One is we know God is love and we know God is light because we have the very.
Life of Christ, who is love and light in His person.
And 2nd, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us to make that good and realized in practical way in our lives and in our souls and in our eternity. And that's particularly what's before John here in this chapter. The difference, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
How can I differentiate? Because I can see things as God sees them.
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I can see things as God sees them, and it's a good question to ask sometimes. To ask the one soul when the matter comes up and you wonder what's the truth of it, is to ask yourself the question, well, how does God see it? How does God see this? And if it's entered into properly in communion with God, it will be seen in the character of how it affects light and how it affects love.
And that's why it's the spirit of truth here, and spirit of error, the actual revelation of the details.
We're committed to the Apostle Paul and what's been referred to this morning as the apostle doctrine that flows from it. But if you don't have the beginning point of God in his character, then you'll misrepresent or get wrong the apostles doctrine, even if you read it every day of your life.
You have to begin at the right point, and that's with God. And then in the reading of it, the Spirit of God, through the life that's in US, will be able to understand the doctrine that was given, that we might walk in it in its detail.
I was thinking of some examples in the Old Testament.
That and thinking of what our brothers have emphasized on, which is.
The doctrine of the of the Apostles.
Point to Christ, point to God.
And I was thinking of one example in in terms of profits in Deuteronomy chapter 13.
Because they also had a standard, a brother mentioned Adam.
Mentioned the Saints in the Old Testament and the greater revelation that we have received through the apostles doctrine.
And there is some similarity in the sense that the Lord gave some light to each one of them. He gave some light to Adam. He gave further light to the Saints. So they're Israelites. He has given us the fullness of things through the apostles, the fullness of the truth.
And but going to Deuteronomy chapter 13.
And thinking of the false prophets there at that time.
He says in verse one, Is there a rise among you, a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and give her the sign or a wonderful, and the sign or the wonder come to pass where obvious speak unto thee the sign or the wonder come to pass.
So why he said came to pass? Is that our standard? It was that their standard. Were they supposed to look at the sign and say, well, this is a true prophet because the sign came to pass?
That's not what he says here.
It says and when and the sign comes to pass, and he says saying let us go after other gods, which thou has not known, and let us serve them. So what he's saying comes to pass, but he's what what he's also saying is let us go serve other gods.
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord or God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Nowadays there are prophets that way too. Are we to look at them and see the signs that we go after emotions only? Or are we to go after what the Scripture says, what the apostles have said?
So from verse seven of our chapter we get some of the very basics of the apostles doctrine.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God.
Or God is love.
A statement that is repeated twice in this chapter.
I find that very interesting. I.
Suppose that to define love.
I don't know that I've heard a very good definition.
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Maybe some comments could be made as to that. I remember a number of years ago.
Hearing some brethren discuss this.
And they said love and light are not attributes of God, they are what God is in his very person.
God is love to me. It is tremendous to understand that because so much that is spoken of like we mentioned yesterday.
Of love in this present day.
Is reference to emotion. There is emotion.
In connection with love, I don't deny that, but love here is not in itself an emotion. It is, I suppose, and I'd like to have other brother and input on this. It is the.
Uh, disposition of favor towards those that are loved.
And that's God's disposition towards us. God is love.
And as he loves this world, that verse was mentioned. God so loved the world. The world was at enmity with God. How could he love God? I mean, in this world, if you'd be nice to me, I can love you. Yeah. But if you do me and I'm going to try to do you in, too.
And so that's not love that we're talking about.
It's a unchanging disposition on God's part toward this world. I mentioned it yesterday, and I repeat it sometimes in the prison we tell them in.
God loves you.
And nothing you do can ever change that fact.
You may reject Islam, you may decide to go to a lost eternity, but you will never be able to say nobody ever loved me because God loved you so much that he gave his only begotten Son. So it's a love that is sacrificial. So often love is spoken of with an interest that I'm going to get something out of this.
That's not what we're talking about.
And so I would like to hear more comments on what love is. How do you define love?
We might say that the God, the nature of God is love, the nature of God is light, and so his very nature.
Is love. And why does the apostle John say in his ministry here that you can love the way God loves? He says he that loveth not, knoweth not. God doesn't have his nature. And so you and I are indwelled with the Spirit of God. But we have the very life of Christ and we can think the way he thinks, as you've already mentioned, and we can love the way he loved. We have that capacity because we have a new nature, a new life.
In communion with God, and so God's nature is love in him is no sin.
It's impossible for God to sin. He can't think like you think. And I think if we could put it that way, his nature is love. His nature is light.
There's another word that is used in the New Testament for love. It's filial.
This in this chapter, it's agape love, but phileo love is brotherly love, and it's often connected. It's the mutual appreciation of each other, and that's proper too. It says in Hebrews 13, Let brotherly love continue.
I learned to know you and I appreciate you and perhaps you appreciate me. There's brotherly love. The interchange. There should be that, but it's a different word. I just like to point out a couple places where it's the two words are used together. First is in First Thessalonians chapter 4. Notice in verse 9.
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Says But as touching brotherly love, there's the phileo love.
You need not that I write unto you.
For ye yourselves are taught of God to love. There's the agape love one another so they go together, but they're not exactly the same. Another place is second Peter chapter one just to point out a couple because they are often connected in scripture.
Here Peter is telling them what to add to their faith.
And in verse seven he says, and to godliness add brotherly kindness, there's the phileo love and to brotherly kindness, charity, that's the agape love. So they go together. But it's there's a difference. And I find it helpful to understand that both.
Are recognized in the New Testament. Maybe there's others that can help on that.
Might be helpful to turn to Second Chronicles chapter 18. You have a little example there of a wicked king, King Ahab and.
We've spoken a little bit of the spirit of truth, the spirit of error, but you also have the fact that this king did not have love for the people of God and for the prophet of God.
Second Chronicles chapter 18 and it's a long story, but let's just look at.
Verse 18.
Second Chronicles 18, verse 18 Again he said, Therefore hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing on his right hand, and on his left. The Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spoke spake, and saying, After this man, or another saying after that manner, then came there out of spirit, and stood before the Lord.
And said, I will entice him. The Lord said unto him, Wherewith he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. The Lord said, Thou shalt entice him, thou shalt also prevail. Go out and do Even so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord has spoken evil against thee. Then Zedekiah the son of Canaan came near, and smoked Makaya upon the cheek, and said, Which way went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?
And then just verse 26 and say, thus saith the king, put this fellow in the prison, feed him with bread of affliction, with water of affliction, until I return in peace. Then just back a little bit.
It says.
In verse 7, the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesied good unto me.
So you have the hatred of Ahab for a prophet of the Lord.
Evidence that he had not divine life. Ahab was a wicked man and even in the Old Testament you see that divine life. The Saints, the Old Testament Saints, they had divine life. They didn't have eternal life. They didn't have that relationship with the Lord Jesus. They weren't indwelled with the Spirit of God. They didn't know God is the Father.
But they had divine life.
And so an expression of divine life is the expression of love for one another and love for the world, for those that are in the world that need salvation. We don't love the world system, but we love those that are in the world. And so in first John chapter 4 here we have beloved, let us love one another for love is of God verse seven. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. So it's evidence of divine life if you love your brother.
You love them.
And you prove it. You prove it by how you treat them. You prove it by obeying the word of God, as in Fellowship chapter one. And it's a test of divine love.
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We began with the words in verse six. We are of God.
That's true of us now. None of us were born that way.
We were born dead, spiritually speaking.
But.
God worked with us as dead people and through faith given of God in the Lord Jesus, He gave us life.
And so verse 7.
Says Beloved, let us love one another. I'm going to put it this way.
Brethren, be what you are. Be what you are. What are you? You're a child of God with the life of Christ, and that life loves. Period.
It loves because it is the life of the character of God, of light and love. It loves and it loves in a holy way. And so he's saying.
To his brethren, as it were, be what you are. Everyone that loveth is born of God. In other words, if you have that life as born of God, then you love.
There may be things that hinder it. It's working in US, and He wants to bring them out so that we live the life that we've been given. But it's not here a character of exhorting us to have something we don't have, but rather to live the character of the life that we do have, which is given to us of God. If the flesh in US works, it hinders.
But if the flesh is not at work in us, we love our brothers. We I love you because that's the life I have. You love me, You can't help but love me because that's the character of the life that has been given to you. But there are things that can come in, and if they do, it's an evidence that we're not living the life that has been given to us, but we are acting in the flesh of the old man, as scripture calls it.
The former life that was ours before we came to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. So we live not independent of our Savior, we live through Him. And when the Spirit of God is free to work in us because we're not hindering the Spirit by disobedience, then that Spirit working in US automatically works in us to see and care about others.
The Lord Jesus did not live a self-centered life. He lived a life that was perfectly occupied with obedience to God the Father and interest in God the Father's love for souls. And that's the life he lived and that's the life we will live.
If we do not walk in sin.
One other comment that to me is a wonderful thing about this subject, and that is.
God from eternity had perfect enjoyment in love and light with His Son.
They enjoyed each other, we'll say, day by day, even though eternity doesn't have time connected with it, but they enjoyed each other day by day in perfect harmony and perfect love.
And I believe that God created us because he said, I want to share my son with others. I want others to enjoy with me that which is the delight of my heart. And He created us. But having created us, He had to do a work that we could truly enter into His purpose of enjoying His son as He does. We had to have the same life.
I saw this morning down the by the lake.
Some Canada geese.
They're not really interested in me and so I couldn't go down and talk to him.
But even if I had gone down with them, there is no possible way that I could have communicated my heart to them. They don't have a nature, a life that's capable of understanding me. So they can understand each other to their limited extent. They don't know God exists, so they don't have any relationship that way with God. But God wanted us to enjoy what He enjoys in the way He enjoys it, and so He has given us.
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A life.
The life of Christ that we can enter in and will enter in without hindrance and glory to an eternity of fellowship with God and common enjoyment one another in the exact same things that God is cares about, we care about.
Few minutes ago, our brother Bob expressed the difficulty of defining love.
And problem, when we try to give a definition of something, we're putting limits on it in an extent, to an extent.
Find something you're saying, well, it's this and it's not that and.
God's love can't be defined in that sense. It's infinite.
The world sees love.
And I'm hoping I get the attention of the young people here.
The world sees love as a feeling, and it comes and goes.
And that's not the love we're talking about.
Love is to start with an attitude. An attitude is a deliberate choice.
You say regardless of what that person does to me, I'm going to love it. That's the love of God, a coffee love. But it's more than an attitude. It's more than just a setting of the heart. It's dynamic, It's active.
God's love is dynamic, and I think it's helpful to see that in John first. John chapter 3.
Verse 16.
Hereby perceive we.
The love of God.
This is how we recognize the love of God. This is how we perceive it, comprehend it. We can't define it, but we can comprehend it to a certain extent. Hereby perceive with the love of God, because he.
Laid down his life for us. That was an action.
It was a deliberate action. It was an action that.
Is overwhelming.
He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives.
For the rather love is God's love is dynamic.
And in our chapter we have the two following verses give.
Ways that it is manifested 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.
Did God know what they were going to do to His Son?
Absolutely. They knew he knew exactly what was going to happen.
Did He withhold giving them? No, He went through with it. And then verse 10 as well here in His love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. It wasn't a matter of a response on our part to love God, no.
He loved us in spite of our attitude of enmity toward him.
It really accentuates in a greater measure, God's luck. Amazingly wonderful.
Brother and I just.
And exercise that.
In John's Gospel and John's Epistles.
We have seven times.
Definite command to love one another.
Let's see the first one in John's Gospel, chapter 13.
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It doesn't say love each other if you can, if it's humanly possible. He doesn't say that.
Look at how he puts it.
Chapter 13.
And verse 34.
A new commandment are given to you.
That is love one another.
As I have loved you.
That ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love one to another.
Not interesting. It's a command.
It's something that it is for us to do.
You know somebody that doesn't exactly strike you very well.
You know somebody that's done you in.
That's where we are to manifest this lot.
And it's a command. Notice though the reference point in verse 34.
Because in the Old Testament there was the command to love your neighbor as yourself.
How do I love myself? Well, you can see I dress fairly well and take care of myself.
That's the way I'm to love my neighbor.
But the reference point has changed here and I think that's why it says it's a new command.
That you love one another as I have loved you.
Oh, tremendous.
How can we ever come to that measure of love? It's by looking at the Lord Jesus.
When he stands.
There in Pilot's judgment hall, when those chief priests come up and spit at him right in the face.
When they slap him. When they crown him with thorns.
Does he still love?
This is the point, brother.
I have to confess.
I'm still lacking quite a bit there.
But this is the measure, this is the reference plan.
This ninth verse tells us that it was manifested the love of God toward us. Our brother Dawn mentioned that in the Old Testament they really didn't know God fully. They didn't have a full revelation of who God is, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They didn't know the character of God. They knew that God loved them, but how much he loved them they didn't really know. This is one of the reasons that the Lord Jesus came into the world.
To manifest the love of God toward us. And so it's the explanation is to be given in the by our older brethren. Oftentimes to be manifest would be something that taken the cover off. Suppose we had a table here and they had two dishes and that sort of thing under a tablecloth and you think you might see some a cup, the outline of a cup. You might see the outline of a plate. You think it's a plate.
That's how they looked at things in the Old Testament. They didn't have a clear perspective. But in Christianity, the covers taken off. We can absolutely see the heart of God.
Exposed completely, and it was the character of God's love that was shown in the face of the Lord Jesus. And so when they looked upon the Lord Jesus on this, in this scene, they saw the character, the very nature of love itself, divine love.
Now might just say that I think there's four different features of that love that are told to us, and some of it is it really found in the Old Testament, the features of divine love. We might look at Jeremiah chapter 31 and just look at one passage there and it tells us.
In Jeremiah chapter 31.
And let's just read verse three. The Lord of hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yeah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
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Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. So one of the features, characteristic features, of Divine Love is that it is everlasting. It will never cease.
It will never cease. That love for God that God has for you will never cease His love for those that come into this world, reject His love and sin against that love, and go into a lost eternity. That love will cease for those individuals. They'll be cast into the lake of fire and they'll be under judgment in separation from God for all eternity. But God's love for you will never cease.
And then in chapter one of Malachi it says.
There that.
Verse two, chapter one of Malachi, another feature of divine love. I have loved you, saith the Lord. And then we might just tie it in with chapter 3 and verse six, for I am the Lord.
I change not his love is unchangeable. It's impossible for him to change in his love. And so you and I that are married, we our love ebbs and flows and we're we're just so changeable.
So.
So changeable. But isn't it nice, the love that Christ had upon the cross before the judgment for my sins, That love didn't change. That judgment didn't change His love. Many waters could not quench love, and so it's unchangeable.
And then we find in Romans chapter 8 another feature of divine love, and that is the power of it.
Just for the sake of time, maybe we'll just read verse 39, Romans 8, verse 39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The power of God's love is such that nothing, not a demon, not Satan himself, can ever pluck you out of his hand. I and my father are one, and he could say that.
He's got you and I in his hand.
And the power of God's love is that He can never release us. He died for us, loves us, And so this Love Is All powerful. And then Ephesians, we have another. And I believe this is what we're Speaking of here. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it. Divine love is a sacrificial love.
It gives and it gives and it gives and it gives and it gives and it never stops giving.
Just think of it, brethren, Luke chapter 12. It says that he shall gird himself.
Sit down shall come forth to serve.
It's going to serve you and I with joy, with love, with everything that is possible to service in that heavenly scene, that divine love. And so it's everlasting, it's unchangeable. It's a power that will never let you go. And it's a sacrificial love. And you and I have the capacity.
Indwelled with the Spirit of God, with a new nature, you have a nature that is capable of loving in those ways.
Not that we have we're not sharing deity at all, but we have the capability to express divine love.
Sing #142.
Glory to God.
He's wonderful and the Lord.
Sink through.
Long time.
It's sort of never mind, can't stop. It's not. It's all it's going to happen. It's voice.