God's love is out of this world (talk for Youth Mix)

Tommy asked me what I was going to speak on this weekend.  I wasn’t sure.  So I told him that if he had any suggestions he should tell me.  He messaged me later and said, ‘salvation and assurance.’  So that is what I am going to do.  This evening I am going to talk to you about how wonderful it is to be a Christian and tomorrow I am going to talk about how we can be sure that we are a Christian.

I want to talk about how wonderful it is to be a Christian by thinking about one of my favourite verses in the Bible.  Behold, what many of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called sons of God.  And that is what we are’ (1 John 3:1).

The command of this verse is to behold, to look, to think about, the love that God has for you.  You need to keep on reminding yourself of how great God’s love for you is.  One preacher wrote that you need to preach the gospel to yourself every day.

Think about what manner of love the Father has lavished on you.  Apparently this is an idiom.  An idiom is a word picture.  Like the way someone might say, ‘it is raining cats and dogs.’  In the Greek it says, behold from what country the Father has lavished upon us.  God’s love is from a different country, or we might say it is out of this world.

In the Bible God’s love is pictured as being like that of a father for his son, a mother for her child, a shepherd for his sheep and a groom for his bride.  Think of the following verses.  ‘Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you’ (Isaiah 49:15).  ‘He tends his flock like a shepherd: he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those who have young’ (Isaiah 40:11).  ‘As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you’ (Isaiah 62:5).  But there is a sense that all this pictures fall short of what God’s for us is like for his love is from another country.  It goes infinitely beyond any comparison.  No one loves you as purely as God loves you!     

Of course the best place to look at the love of God is to look at the cross.  Later in this letter John will write, ‘this is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and gave his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (1 John 4:10).  ‘Amazing love, oh what sacrifice, the Son of God given for me.’

Now it’s the ‘me’ and the ‘you’ that makes this love so out of this world.  The book of Romans tells us that by nature we were hostile to God.  You might not have been aware of that hostility, but when God said, ‘you are evil’ you protested and said ‘no, I am a good person’.  You would not accept God’s verdict on your sin.  You tried to justify yourself.  You acted as if Jesus went to the cross for nothing.  You fell short of the glory of God.  You were a sheep that went astray.  You were an enemy of God.  ‘But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).

So what did God do for us when he melted our hostile hearts and caused us to run home to him?  He forgave us.  Blessed is the person who sins are forgiven.  He saved us from the coming day of judgement.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  He treats us as if we had always acted like Jesus acted.  But even more, he adopted us into his family.  God didn’t let you out of the prison of your guilt; he brings you home and accepts you at his table.  He has adopted us his sons.  ‘Behold what manner of love is this that we should be called sons of God.  One theologian writes, ‘in adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us to be his children and heirs.  Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship.  To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.’  God gave his one and only Son that you could become a son.  I say son, rather than son or daughter, because in that culture the son had all the privileges and the son was the heir.  Whether you are a woman or a man that is the status you have before God.

Do you realise that your problem is not so much that you do not love God enough, although none of us loves God the way we ought, but that you don’t realise how much he loves you?  We love because he first loved us.  Behold, look and see what love God has for you and it will change your life.  One of my great heroes is a man called John Newton.  He was a slave-trader who became a Christian.  He wrote the hymn, ‘Amazing Grace.’  At the end of his life he said, ‘there are two things I know: I am a great sinner and God is a great Saviour.’  That is beholding that out of this world that God has for wretches like you and me.

Never lose the wonder (1 John 3:1a)

Tim Keller was pottering about the house, listening to some Christian music, when his heart was stirred by a line from a song.  The song quotes Isaiah.  ‘He will see the results of his suffering and be satisfied.’  Jesus suffered infinite depths of pain on that cross.  He was in agony.  Worse than any physical pain is that fact that he was abandoned by his Father.  Yet he sees the results of his suffering and is satisfied.  How can that be?  Keller realised.  ‘It was because he saw me.’  Jesus saw those who would be saved by his death and it made it all worth it.  He saw our forgiveness, our justification and our adoption as sons and daughters of God, and it consoled him.  How amazing is that?

I want to encourage you to never lose the wonder.  We are going to look at a little outburst of delight that occurs in the middle of John’s letter.  He is writing with the purpose that we might have assurance that we have eternal life.  But in the middle of his reasoning he breaks in with an exhortation.  Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called sons of God.  And that is what we are.  

Be amazed that he poured out his love on someone like you

Max Lucado writes, ‘if anybody understands God's ardour for his children, it's someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us.  God has adopted you.  God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.’

But don’t be overly romantic about this adoption.  He didn’t find us as a little baby, irresistibly cute, bundled at his front door.  We were more like an obnoxious youth who wanted nothing to do with him.  We were ugly, evil and rebellious.  We did not promise to be an easy child to deal with.  He knew that we would cause him much grief.

You see John puts full weight on the word ‘us’.  Before Christ came into your life you were a natural born rebel.  So was I!  Before he softened your heart you were hostile towards his holiness, his gospel and who he really is.  The apostle Paul says that before we became Christians we were objects (literally ‘children’) of God’s holy wrath (Ephesians 2:3).  You were both an object of his kindness and his righteous anger.  It is amazing that God would chose to love someone like you and me.

J. I. Packer writes, ‘We are not fit for a place in God's family; the idea of his loving and exalting us sinners as he loves and has exalted the Lord Jesus sounds ludicrous and wild – yet that, and nothing less than that, is what our adoption means.’

Be amazed that you are a son of God

Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called sons of God.  And that is what we are.  If you are in Christ then you are a son of God.  You have been adopted into his family.  In that culture sons had a special place.  That place is yours.  J. I. Packer writes, ‘In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs.  Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship.  To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater’.

 Of course no family adopts without considering the cost.  John Piper, who adopted a disadvantaged child when he was fifty, explains that ‘there were legal realities God had to deal with.  His own justice and law demanded that we be punished and excluded from his presence for our sins.  Righteousness was required and punishment demanded.  God had to satisfy his justice and his law in order to adopt sinners into his family.  This he did by the life, death, and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ’.  The Father gave his one and only Son that you might become a son.

Think back to Jesus’ most beautiful parable—the wonderful father of the prodigal son.  When that young son goes off to the distant land the father is heart-broken.  Every day he scans the horizon in the hope that the boy would return.  One day he sees the boy in the distance his heart is filled with compassion.  Jesus says that the father literally raced to the boy.  In that culture there was a proverb that said you could tell the dignity on a man by the way he walked.  This man would not have run for decades.  But now he lifts his robes and exposes his knees—it is all highly undignified.  Then, when he reaches his son, he falls into his neck and kisses him again and again and again.  Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished onto us.

His love is out of this world

Don’t lose the wonder.  Behold what manner of love this is.  John actually uses an idiom here.  Like when people used to talk about it raining cats and dogs.  John literally says, ‘behold from what country this love is from.’  He seems to be saying that the love that God lavishes upon us is from another country altogether.  We might say that it’s out of this world.

God’s love is compared to that of a shepherd for his sheep, but it is also from a different country.  This is a shepherd who has infinite affection for that straying lamb.  God’s love is compared to a father for his children, but it is also from a different country.  Even the best of fathers cannot love you the way your heavenly Father does.  God’s love is compared to the delight of a groom for his bride, but it is also from a different country.  Even the most adoring husband does not love his wife the way God loves you.  So do never lose your wonder at the love of God for you.  Behold what manner of love the father has lavished on us that we should be called sons of God.  And that is what we are.

1 John 5:13-21 'Be Confident'

Ray Orland writes, ‘God not only accepts you, he wants you to know that he accepts you.  Because you will never see liberating breakthrough to new levels of personal holiness except in the reassuring atmosphere of grace.’  John wrote this letter so that we would know that God is love, and that we can be secure in his love.  He wrote, ‘these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life’ (5:13).  When it comes to faith, confidence is a good thing.

I want this confidence to spill over into your prayer life (14-17)

John tells us that God accepts us as dearly loved children purely on the basis of what Jesus has done for us.  Jesus lived the perfect life and died a sacrificial death for sin.  We simply hold an empty hand in repentance and faith (which themselves are a gift from God) and we adopted as his sons and daughters.  He goes on accepting us even though we go on letting him down (1:8), but he also changes us from within.  The work of his Spirit caused us to love the truth that Jesus is our saviour.  The work of his Spirit causes us to treat sin seriously and gradually become more like Jesus.  The work of his Spirit causes to love his people.  He wants us to hear the Spirit’s assurance that God does indeed delight in us.  ‘God not only accepts you, he wants you that he accepts you.’  He wants this confidence to spill over into our prayer lives. 

God has been challenging me about the need for intimacy with him.  I often pray because I feel I must.  I feel guilty about my lack of prayer.  Sometimes I pray to get it out of the way, and so that I don’t feel like a phoney Christian.  However, one preacher explains that ‘you cannot go very far in the Christian life without realising that prayer is not a technique but a relationship.  It is not a matter of how to get my will done.  It is a matter of knowing God well enough to get his will done.’  John writes, ‘this is the confidence we have in God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know we have what we asked of him’ (14-15).

This is about knowing him well enough to understand the sort of things he would have us ask for.  If we ask anything according to his will.  This is about knowing God well enough to know that he delights to give good gifts to his children.  This is about trusting that he knows the best way to answer our prayers.  This is about the sort of prayer that is consumed with a desire that ‘your will be done.’  We can have confidence when we pray like that.  He is not reluctant or unwilling.  However, he alone knows what is in our best interests.

Having told us that prayer is in line with God’s will John gives us an example of the sort of petition God loves to answer.  If anyone sees his brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life (16).  When you see a fellow Christian sinning, don’t dare gossip about it (that would to fail John’s command to love our brothers and sisters in Christ).  You may need to confront them.  You always need to pray for them.  Pray for the wandering believer in the full assurance that if they are really born again then God will respond to our prayer and restore them.

But tragically some who wander are simply revealing that they were not actually born again.  Remember how John spoke about those who ‘went out from us, but did not really belong to us’ (2:19).  Some show that they are not born again because they don’t take God’s call to holy living seriously.  John speaks of a sin that leads to spiritual death (16).  Bible Commentator, Howard Marshall, points out that this is not referring to someone who is overcome by temptation against their will, who wants to love God and neighbour and be freed of sin.  God always forgives those who come to him in genuine repentance.  But a person can harden themselves to the call of God to a point that they are beyond recall.  ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’ (Hebrews 3:15).

We can be confident even though we live in a world entrapped by the devil (18-19)

John gives us a rather offensive picture of the world.  In John ‘the world’ refers to people in rebellion against God’s loving rule.  In love God sent his Son to die for the world (John 3:16).  The world is under the control of the evil one (19).  We live in a hostile world that is controlled by a hostile power.  Don’t be surprised when people oppose what you believe.  But be confident because Jesus keeps us safe, ‘and the evil one cannot harm you’ (18).  Nothing can separate you from the love of God.  I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, that is Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

There are a wonderful couple of verses in the book of Revelation that speak of how Jesus protects us from the devil.  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, “Now have come the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.  For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night before our God day and night, has been hurled down.  They overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:10-11).  In other words the devil’s power to accuse is broken by the fact that Jesus has taken all our past, present and future sin upon him, the punishment has been paid and we cannot be condemned.  Now we no longer need fear death itself.

We can be confident about reality (20-21)      

Finally, we come to the end of this great letter.  And John seems to give a random command—Keep yourself from idols (21).  It is not actually a random command.  It is a very fitting way to end this letter.

You see, John is not warning his readers about bowing down to statues made of wood or stone.  He is using the term idol to speak about anything that takes the place of God in our lives.  He is telling them not to forsake the reality of what is, for the unreality of what is not.  In verse twenty he uses the word translated ‘true’ three times.  There is a world out there that is held by a strong delusion, which offers pleasure that can’t truly satisfy and that offers a life that perishes.  But Jesus is the real thing!  Don’t be so foolish to set the sail of your life to the winds of this condemned world.  That’s what John says to these readers who were disturbed by those false-teachers who said that sin doesn’t matter and whose followers revealed that they had never been born again!

Conclusion

Friends, I ache for you, for I want you to place nothing in the way of being drawn into a living, loving and life-transforming relationship with Jesus.  I want no idols to stop you enjoying life in him.  I want you to know the joy of being assured that you have eternal life.  Jesus does not promise a life without sorrows (he was a man of sorrows familiar with grief).  But nothing will sustain you more, as we walk in this valley of the shadow of death, than knowing that you are loved and accepted by the gracious God who has revealed himself to us in his Son Jesus Christ.

Believing for life (1 John 5:1-12)

If you have been here over the last few weeks you should be getting familiar with John’s three tests for the genuine Christian—the behaviour test, the love test and the belief test.  A changed life, a love for our fellow-believers and a correct understanding of the person of Jesus are indispensable marks for those who are born again.  John wants us to be able to look at these things and know assurance that we really have eternal life.  He wants us to have the joy of Christian assurance!

But I fear that some of you may misunderstand the nature of these tests.   You may think that these are three things that you have to do in order to get saved—that someone is a Christian because of their good behaviour, their pleasant attitude towards those in the church and their orthodox beliefs about Jesus.  That would be to misunderstand the nature of salvation.  John is not saying that we are born again because we behave, love and believe. but that we behave, love and believe because we are born again.  These are the fruit (or evidences) that testify to God’s grace at work within us!

1. God calls you to pleasure (1-5)

My guess is that many of your friends pity you because you are a Christian.  They think that you have given up in the search for pleasure.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God saved us that we may experience life in all its fullness.  He has called us to joy.  His ways are designed to satisfy.  'This is love for God: to obey his commands.  And his commands are not burdensome' (3).  As John Piper writes, 'God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.' ‘God’s love in his people gives them a desire to love and please him... Rightly understood and followed, God’s commandments bring believers great joy and freedom, not a sense of oppression’ (ESVSB).

Jesus asked his disciples, 'who do people say that I am?'  That's a massive question.  We believe 'Jesus is the Christ.'  Only those who believe this are born of God.  Who do your friends say he is?  If they think that he is a great leader like Gandhi, a religious leader like Mohammad, or just a myth of history then they are still lost.  We need our eyes opened to see the real Jesus!
'Everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well' (1b).  The English Standard version translates this, 'Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever is born of him.'  We love because he first loved us.  When his love pours into our lives it must flow out of us.  Love is a good and pleasurable thing.  We were made for the special love of Christ's people.
In John's writings 'the world' refers to humanity in rebellion against God.  But we have 'overcome the world.'  We are not defeated by the world's hostility.  We are not fooled by the world's lies.  We see the emptiness of its selfish pleasures.  As a friends said to me, 'this living for self thing just doesn't work.' The psalmist wrote, ‘many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him’ (Ps. 32:10).

2. You are called to reasonable faith (6-12)

The world pities us because it, mistakenly, thinks God is against our pleasure.  The world also looks down on us because it thinks that we have lost our reason.

In a letter to the Irish Times a Mr. Michael McGuire from Donegal wrote: ‘Science is based on reason, logic, intellect and proof.  Religion is not.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Religion is not based on proof.’  Similarly the Collins English Dictionary defines faith as ‘strong or unshakable belief in something, especially without proof.’

However, John opened this letter talking about what he seen and touched (1:1).  In the gospel he wrote he said, he knows he tells the truth and is to be believed (19:35).  he is not calling for a leap in the dark.

He talks about the one who came by water and blood--probably a reference to his baptism and crucifixion.  There was an early heresy that said that Jesus was only a man before his baptism but then the divine Son of God came upon him.  This false-teaching also said that the divine Son of God left Jesus before he was crucified.  John is counteracting this false-belief.  It is important that we have the facts of history right when it comes to the person of Jesus!

We take the facts of history seriously.  Christianity is no myth.  We look to reliable testimony.  But there is another witness too.  There is the inner witness of the Holy Spirit (10a).  One preacher puts it like this:  “[Faith] isn’t a conclusion reached at the end of chain of deductive reasoning or scientific evidence. It’s not that I struggle to convince myself to things that are highly dubious.  Rather I surrender to things which by divine illumination I now inwardly perceive to be glaringly self-evident … Faith isn’t like wrestling with a geometric theory until we arrive at the end and say ‘there I have worked it, there’s the proof!’  Faith is more like having cataracts removed from your eyes.  When we joyfully declare, ‘I can see things now that I couldn’t see before.’  Faith is an experience of divine revelation. It is hearing God’s testimony in your heart and surrendering to it.”

While faith may be a gift of God, people are still responsible for not believing.  ‘Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar because he has not believed the testimony God has given about the Son (10b)’  One commentator says, ‘There is ample evidence for faith, but mankind’s problem is not ignorance, so much as rebellion; not that we cannot believe but rather that we will not’ (Jackman).

Think of the implications of all this.  You long for someone to come to faith.  Then I suggest you present them with a reasoned case for Christianity.  Don’t simply ask them to take a leap in the dark.  Listen to their questions and talk through their issues.  But don’t imagine that it is your reasoning and wisdom that will make them a Christian.  They need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to open their eyes and show them the truth of these things.  Therefore prayer is an essential ingredient in our evangelism because we are dependent upon God to work! 

Conclusion (12)

Of the ten references in this letter to believing seven are in this chapter.  The ESV Study Bible explains that this belief 'is not a vague religious commitment but a wholehearted trust in the saving work of Christ.'  We have seen that this belief brings us life in its fullness and is a gift from God.  Finally, remember what depends on this belief and see the urgency of presenting the eye-opening truths of the gospel. 'He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life' (12).

(1 John 4:7-21) 'God is love'

Charles and Sandra are walking along a beach on their honeymoon.  Feeling relaxed and happy Charles turns to Sandra and says, ‘I love you!’ What does he mean?

He probably means, ‘Sandra, I need you, you complete me.  You are so beautiful.  Your smile knocks me out.  Your good humour, your laugh, your beautiful eyes, the scent of your hair—everything about you transfixes me.’

What he certainly does not mean is, ‘Sandra you have the worst case of bad-breath—you would embarrass a herd of garlic-eating elephants.  Your nose is so bulbous it deserves to be in a cartoon.  Your hair is so greasy you could lubricate an old Massie-Ferguson.  Your knees are so disjointed you make a camel look elegant.  Your personality makes Genghis Khan look like a wimp. But despite all this I love you!’

What does the God of love mean when he says he loves this world?

He doesn’t mean, ‘I need you, you make me complete. Heaven would be boring without you. Your personality transfixes me.’

No! Rather he means something like, ‘Morally speaking, you have the worst case of bad-breath.  Your sins have made you disgusting.  It is as if you are people of the bulbous nose, greasy hair, disjointed knees and abominable personality.  You are morally repugnant. But I love you despite your sin.  I love you not because you are attractive. I love you because it is my nature to love’(adapted from Carson).

Cheer up!  You are a lot worse than your realise, but God is more gracious than you know!  Because of his love we can experience assurance.  We can come to him knowing that he will forgive all the evil that we have done.  We can trust him knowing that he is committed to changing us.  We must have him as our king and then he will delight in us as his children.

The cross is to be our model for loving each other (7-12)

God is love.  ‘It is not simply that God loves, but that he is love’ (Jackman).  Love is at the very essence of God’s being.  Indeed our God lives in a Trinity of loving union.  The Father loves the Son and the Spirit, the Son loves the Father and Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Father and Son.  God did not create the universe because he needed someone to love—he lives in a perfect relationship of love.  We should be blown away by the fact that God is love and in his love cares for this wicked world.

God is love.  He has demonstrated that love in sending his only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is not a deserving world but a rebellious world. In love God looks upon a filthy people and wants to make us pure.  He sees our spiritual deadness and wants to give us life.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus was an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  God has pardoned our sin against him at his own cost.  On the cross God gave his Son, who bore his righteous anger at our sin, so that we the guilty ones might go free.  ‘Amazing love, O what sacrifice.  The Son of God given for me.  My debt he paid and my death he dies.  That I might live.’

The great Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones never tired of telling people of the importance of preaching the gospel to ourselves daily.  We are to keep on reminding ourselves of the gospel.  We are prone to forget it.  A forgetful people will be an ungrateful people; an ungrateful people will be an unloving people.

For it is as we remind ourselves of God’s love, demonstrated at the cross, that we should be moved to love one another—since God so loved us, we ought to love one another.  The cross is our model for Christian love.  Look at the cross and try to justify why you won’t forgive a fellow-believer—it can’t be done!  Look at the cross and try to explain why you would not go out of your way to help one of God’s people—it won’t make any sense!  The cross is our model of love to the unlovely and goodness to the undeserving!

Indeed as one commentary points out ‘it is only when a person loves his fellow-Christians … that he fully experiences the love of God in his own heart and knows the presence of God with him.’   That is what John says in verse twelve.  No-one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. It may seem like some Christians are a hindrance to our relationship with God—they test our patience and get on our nerves.  But God is experienced through living in the community of his people.  Showing love to his imperfect people provides us with an opportunity to experience him more.

Look at those words again, ‘No-one has ever seen God…’  John has used this phrase before.  Not in this letter but at the beginning of his gospel.  There he wrote that ‘No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known’ (1 John 1:18).  As Jesus makes God known to the world, so when we, the body of Christ, love one another we, we make God known to the world (albeit in a less perfect way).  Our sharing in love is essential to our witness!  People ought to see God among us as they witness how we serve one another!

God’s love gives us confidence (13-18)

We have had the behaviour test, the love test and the belief test—we are to look at these areas of our lives and see evidence of God changing us.  These tests are complimented by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.  We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us the Spirit.

The Spirit gives an inner witness that we are children of God (see Gal. 4:6).  When we start thinking that God is our heavenly policeman waiting to catch us out the Spirit says, ‘No! He is your Father.’  When we are tempted to think that God is our heavenly prosecutor waiting to condemn us the Spirit reminds us saying, ‘No! He is your Father.’

Of course if our assurance is to be real it must be grounded in a true understanding of the historical person of Jesus.  ‘If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.’  You might feel that doctrine doesn’t matter, that there are more exciting things to do that listening to sermons and studying the Scriptures but if we don’t guard our doctrine we will be led astray, and being led astray will demonstrate that we are not born again!  It is through this message of Jesus that we know and rely on the love God has for us.

‘God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him’—as we saw when we looked at the love test, a person cannot come into a real relationship with a loving God without being transformed into a loving person.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like him.  The fact that we are like Christ in love is a sign that God, who is love, lives in us giving us confidence that we are saved.  John says that if we are afraid that God is going to punish us on the day of judgement then we are not aware of the fullness of his everlasting love.

Many sensitive Christians fail to grasp that they are loved and accepted by God.  Perhaps you are one of them!  You doubt that a perfect God would ever be interested in a failure like you.  You struggle to believe that anyone would love you if they knew what you were like—and God knows perfectly well what you are like.  You have grown up with parents who were impossible to please and can’t imagine that God is ever pleased at your efforts to live for him.  You have a distorted view of God thinking that he would rather condemn you than forgive you.  You are insecure and have projected your insecurity towards your relationship with God.  You struggle to love God because it is hard to love a God you are not sure loves you.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones would tell you to preach the gospel to yourself.  Daily remind yourself that God has demonstrated his love for an undeserving sinful world of people like you and me.  Cheer up! You are a lot worse than your realise, but God is more gracious than we know!  God was not attracted to us because we were morally beautiful but because he is love.  Christ has made atonement for our sins.  He delights in the change he is bringing to our lives even as we continue to struggle with sin in this life.

Conclusion (19-21)

Finally, our passage ends where it began—with the inextricable link between loving God and loving his people.  We love because he first loved us. ‘If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And he has given us this commandment: Whoever loves God must love his brother.’

Do you say that you are willing to take up your cross and lay down your life for the God of love?  Prove it!  Love his people, including the insensitive ones who get on your nerves.  After all he loves us in spite of our many failings!

Do you claim that you are born again? Show it!  Don’t bear grudges.  Forgive, as we have been forgiven.  After all God has forgiven us far more than we will be ever asked to forgive another!

Do you enjoy singing God’s praise?  Demonstrate that those words aren’t hollow!  Speak words of encouragement to people in the church.  Don’t seek to knock them or compete with them.  Weep when they fall and rejoice when they do well!

God is love.  Let us demonstrate in our actions that we understand and have experienced that love!

God opens our eyes to his truth (1 John 4:1-6)

A man was giving his testimony as part of an interview for a ministry opportunity.  He explained that he had been in a liberal theological seminary training to be a pastor when he became a Christian.  

'I can't believe that no one had explained the gospel to me.  In fact, I can't believe that the reformer Martin Luther didn't get the gospel.  I did an assignment looking at Luther's Commentary on Galatians and there was nothing about the gospel in it.'

Now Luther's commentary on Galatians is actually full of the gospel.  Luther was a man who understood very well that we are saved by grace through the life and death of Jesus.  So one of the leaders involved in the interview suggested that the young man go home and read over his copy of Luther's commentary on Galatians.

He did, and he discovered that he had read and underlined statement after statement where Luther clearly explained the gospel of grace.  

How had the young student missed this?  He missed it because the scriptures teach that the god of this age has blinded the mind of the unbeliever (2 Corinthians 4:4).  Remember what was said about Lydia in the book of Acts?  'The Lord opened her heart to respond to the Apostle Paul's message (Acts 16:14).  

John is writing to those who believe in the name of the Son of God so that we know that we have eternal life (1 John 5:13).  One of the evidences that we have been born again is that we accept what the Bible says about Jesus and his gospel.  John writes as one of the apostles uniquely commissioned by Jesus.  He says, 'we are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us' (4:6).  You are not a Christian if you stubbornly refuse to accept what is written down in the Scriptures.

1.      You must see who Jesus really is (1-3)

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

There were false-prophets who were trying to disturb the church in the first-century, and there are false-prophets who try to disturb the church in the twenty-first century.  So be on your guard and don't be gullible.  I would be very careful about watching religious television.  There is an odious thing called the prosperity-gospel, which encourages the lust for wealth and makes the false-promise of live without pain.  

The central test for biblical truth centres on a person's understanding of the person and work of Jesus.  'This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the anti-christ, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.'

The particular false-teachers that were troubling John's readers were saying that Jesus only appeared to be human, but he was not really human.  We need to be clear that Jesus is fully human and fully God.  He is the only mediator between God and humankind.  He is the only one who has lived a morally pure life and died a sacrificial death for sin.  He is unique and eternal.  Without him as your Saviour and Lord you are alienated from God and on course to pay for you sin in hell.

2.      You must let the Holy Spirit keep you in the truth (3-6)

One thing that really encourages me is to sit down with a young Christian and see how the core truths of the gospel resonate with them.  There is a gospel instinct that is given to those who believe.  I am not saying that all genuine Christians will agree on everything, but there are certain truths that all genuine Christians know by the Holy Spirit.  Indeed the Holy Spirit makes us agreeable to the central truths of the gospel of grace. 

John has confidence that his readers will resist the errors of the false-teachers.  'You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.'

One commentator writes, we ‘children of God have conquered the false prophets ...  We still believe in the virgin birth, the atonement and the resurrection.  We have conquered them.  They could not conquer us.’

The Holy Spirit who opened our eyes to the beauty of the gospel will keep us from falling into error.  However, never be complacent, for if you want to be sure that the Holy Spirit is in you then you flee from any who distort the gospel.  Our understanding of the gospel is not like a test where if you show an adequate knowledge you pass and are accepted.  Instead it is evidence that the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes to see the beauty of Christ and his gospel.  

The absolute claims of the gospel are so counter-cultural to our society.  It seems shocking to tell people that when you turn to Christ you give up you right to form your own opinions.  There are many truths of the Bible that run our society opposes.  There are teachings in the Scriptures that our friends find offensive.  So pray that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes and change their minds.  Pray for each other too, for the culture we live in is always trying to reshape our thinking and only the Holy Spirit can keep us from error.

'Truth is a glorious but hard mistress.  She never consults, bargains, or compromises' (Tozer).  Luther wrote to one of his opponents and explained that 'the difference between you and me is that you sit above the Bible and judge it, whereas I sit below the Bible and let it judge me.'

What is your attitude to God's revealed truth?  That attitude provides evidence of where or not you have been born again.

Conclusion

Notice that John centres this truth on the person and work of Jesus.  The gospel is cross-shaped.  The apostle Paul told the Corinthians that he preached Christ-crucified and the Galatians that his message clearly portrayed Christ as crucified.  How do you know that God is a righteous judge?  We see it in the fact that nothing less that the death of his infinitely valuable Son will satisfy his demand that sin should be paid for. How do you know that God is a loving Saviour?  We see it in the fact that he gives his only begotten Son to die for wicked people like us.  How do we know that racism is a disgusting sin?  We know it because God sent his Son to die for people from all nations, that in Christ there is neither black nor white and that one day a great multitude will sing the praises of the lamb who was slain.  How do pride is repulsive and humility is glorious?  We see it in the humility of the Son of God, who descended from heaven, took the nature of a servant and died a humiliating death for us.  How do we know that we must forgive?  We know that we must forgive because Christ died that we might be forgiven.

The person and work of Jesus is not one theme among many in the Bible, it is the lens through which we see everything.  Our delight in this provides evidence that we have been born again!

Faith expresses itself through love (1 John 3:11-24)

John saw the extent of Jesus' love.  The author of this letter is also the author of the fourth gospel.  There he tells us of that time when Jesus said, 'a new commandment I give to you: love one another.'  Of course there was a sense in which that commandment was not new.  In the Old Testament we are told to love our neighbour.  But Jesus infused that command with new depths and meaning.

That night, when Jesus commanded the disciples to love one another, he washed the disciples’ feet.  Jews did not wash the feet of their equals.  That was a job for a lowly servant.  Yet Jesus stooped down before his followers.  John had experienced what it was like to have Jesus wash his feet.

The foot washing took place the night before the crucifixion, and it was a picture of the crucifixion, for as Jesus served us by dying for us the grim of all our sin would be washed away.  No greater love has been shown to humankind.  Now John teaches that the love that has been poured into our lives must flow out of our lives.

It is important to remember the order of things.  We do not purchase God's acceptance by obeying his command to love.  We obey his command to love because we have been accepted.  It is the fruit of what God has done in our lives.  It is our grateful response to the kindness he has shown us.  We love because he first loved us.  Love is like the beeping of the heart monitor that tells us that the person is alive.  If God has rescued us from our guilt and sin, lavished his love upon us, adopted us as his beloved children, and given us the Holy Spirit we will become people of love.  As we see this love grow within us we will grow in our confidence that we do know God. 

But what does this love look like?  John focuses on the particular and special love that Christians are to have for their fellow believers.

1. Our older brother commands us to love one another

'This is the message that you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.'

Love is a foundational truth of the gospel.  It is to be among the first thing that we learn about following Jesus.  We love because he first loved us.  As one commentator writes, 'a person cannot come into a real relationship with a loving God without being transformed into a loving person’ (Marshall).

John is going to use the word ‘brother’ a lot.  The Greek word translated ‘brother’ can refer to both brother and sisters.  It is a word that literally means from the same womb.  Christians are profoundly related to each other.  We have been born again through the Holy Spirit (we come from the same womb), we have the same Heavenly Father, we share the same older brother, and we should live by the same family values.  Like all parents, our loving Father longs for his children to enjoy one another.  It grieves him when we aren't getting on with each other.

I find it immensely challenging to realise that the bonds that we have with our fellow believers are even more significant and real than the bonds that we share with our natural blood relatives.

2.  Those who are not our spiritual brothers will give us a hard time

John gives us the example of Cain as someone who did not love his brother. That was because while Cain and Abel were brothers by natural birth they were not brothers by spiritual birth. 

Both Cain and Abel made a sacrifice to the Lord. Cain's sacrifice did not demonstrate a heart filled with loving submissive penitence and faith whereas Abel’s sacrifice did.  Cain was jealous that God looked on Abel’s sacrifice with favour but was not pleased with his.  In his jealousy Cain murdered Abel.  This hatred showed that he did not belong to God but belonged to the devil.

Cain is an example of someone who did not love the Lord and so did not love the Lord's people.  Don't be surprised when people oppose what you believe.  Don't be surprised if your family aren't keen about what you believe.  Don't be shocked when people slag you for being a Christian.  Don't be upset when the media always portrays Christianity negatively.  The fact of the matter is that our message does offend.  We are telling people that they are not okay as they are, that they are separated from God if they are not in Christ, that if they don't have God as their Father then he will be their judge, and that they are helpless to reform themselves.

3. Showing love to Christ's people is evidence that we have received love from Christ

But we know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.

This might sound strange, but if you come to me and confess that you are struggling to love someone there will be a party of me that will be deeply encouraged for you.  For it will be evidence of the Holy Spirit doing a work in your life.

John has said that the Christian continues to struggle with sin. But he has also said that the Christian cannot continue in sin - meaning that they can't treat sin as if it does not matter.  Before you became a Christian you may have had no problem holding a grudge against someone.  Now you can't rest until you have done everything to be at peace with people. 

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life.  Not that there is no forgiveness for murder (Moses killed a man and was forgiven, and David was complicit in murder and was forgiven) but murder is incompatible with the Christian faith.  If you refuse to love other Christians, if you don't care about the bitterness you sometimes feel towards them, if you are happy to hold a grudge against them, then you claim to be a Christian makes as little sense as that of someone who murders and says it doesn't matter!

4. We love our brothers and sisters in Christ in practical ways John compares the love of Jesus with the hatred of Cain.

One of my favourite preachers explains, ‘Cain sees Abel in his righteousness and is filled with hate; Christ sees us in our unrighteousness and is filled with pity.'

Cain's hatred took the life of another.  Christ's love gave his life for another.  If we have truly encountered the love of Christ then that love that has been poured into us will flow out of us towards his people. 

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

The cross is our ultimate model for Christian love.  Christ loved us even when our backs were turned on him.  He loved us even though we had done nothing to deserve his love.  He loves us even though we have given him many excuses not to love us.  He demonstrated his love for us when he laid down his life!  Now he calls us to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

What will that look like for you?  How will that show itself in our words?  Can you see that this is incompatible with gossip?  How will that affect your use of time and money?  How does this shape your pursuit of pleasure and ambitions?  How does it affect the way you chose friends?  Whatever God calls you to lay down for others, remember that Christ laid down infinitely more for you!

5. The fruit of love for other Christians is growing sense of assurance

This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.

As we experience God making us love his people more then we grow in our confidence that we have really been born again.  John writes that we might have this assurance.  A growing sense of certainty that we belong to God is essential to having joy in him.  At times our hearts condemn us, for we know things about ourselves that others cannot see.  When our conscience is troubled we should be able to say, ‘I know what I did was inconsistent with being a Christian nevertheless I know I am a Christian—for God is drawing me into deeper relationship with his people.’

6. Don't expect God to listen to your cry for help if you ignore you brother/sister's cry for help.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence before God, and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

Don't imagine that we can earn answers to our prayers.  Don't think that we can force God's hand to say yes to all our requests.  Sometimes God says ‘no’ to the most heartfelt of prayers.  But don't imagine that God will listen to you if you are unwilling to listen to the cries of your brother and sister in Christ.  As we draw near to him he graciously draws near to us.  As his fruit displays its evidence in our lives he delights to bless us.

Conclusion

I was a border in school.  For six years I lived in close proximity with a group of other guys my age.  While I enjoyed school it left me with a poor view of what people are like.  I saw the bullying and the backstabbing.  I witnessed how the crowd fell in behind those who were dominant.  Sadly, I was self-righteously blind to my own failings in that situation.

Then, after repeating my leaving, I went to college and decided to get involved with the Christian Union.  I have to say that there was an infinite distance between what I experienced in the Christian Union compared to what I experienced in school.  There was a friendship, love, gentleness and patience in that college group.  The difference has to be the influence of Christ.

My prayer is that Christ will show his influence in our meeting in a way that leaves you in no doubt that he is working in you and in the lives of everyone else here.