Abide In Love (1 John 4:11-16)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.720 If you're able to remain standing, please do and give your attention to first 2 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:14.949 John, Chapter Four. First John Four. So I'm reading versus eleven, 3 00:00:16.030 --> 00:00:22.620 through eleven through sixteen. As we continue to read through this book and and 4 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:29.460 hear it expounded and applied to our hearts, Lord Willing M John Discusses a 5 00:00:29.620 --> 00:00:34.020 love here, abiding in love. It's a theme that he's been talking about 6 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:39.369 for it for some time. Let's give our attention to it, let's here 7 00:00:39.530 --> 00:00:45.250 what God has to say to us this morning and here with open ears of 8 00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:52.759 faith. So this is first John for beginning in verse eleven. Beloved. 9 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:59.119 If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No 10 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:03.989 one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in 11 00:01:04.150 --> 00:01:11.109 us. His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we 12 00:01:11.189 --> 00:01:15.790 abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his 13 00:01:15.909 --> 00:01:21.980 spirit, and we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son 14 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:26.980 to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son 15 00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:34.969 of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have 16 00:01:34.209 --> 00:01:41.329 come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God 17 00:01:41.609 --> 00:01:48.200 is love, and whoever abides in love, abides in God and God abides 18 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:53.959 in him. May God bless this word to us. You may be seated. 19 00:02:06.510 --> 00:02:09.669 So there are two words that come out in this passage. I'm quite 20 00:02:09.669 --> 00:02:16.580 strongly worred, abide and the word love. In just six verses we see 21 00:02:16.620 --> 00:02:20.620 them appear, these two words, abide and love, over and over and 22 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:24.819 over again, and there glued together, we might say, by a third 23 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:34.810 word that appears a lot in these verses. God. Abiding in love means 24 00:02:35.009 --> 00:02:43.689 abiding in God, as we read in Verse Sixteen, abide and Love and 25 00:02:43.969 --> 00:02:47.280 God. Verse Sixteen, I'll read it to you again, says this. 26 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:52.800 So we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. 27 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:58.120 God, God, is love, and whoever abides in love abides in 28 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:06.189 God and God abides in him. What does this mean? Abide in love? 29 00:03:07.590 --> 00:03:10.710 Well, help to start with the word abide. What does it mean 30 00:03:10.830 --> 00:03:15.300 to abide in something? That's very simple. It means to dwell in something, 31 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:23.219 to be positioned in a place or or a thing. When you abide 32 00:03:23.379 --> 00:03:29.169 in your house, you live there. It's where you get your protection from, 33 00:03:29.330 --> 00:03:34.330 your shade from, it's where your nourishment comes from. That's both for 34 00:03:34.449 --> 00:03:37.729 our bodies and, in a way, our souls, is we sit around 35 00:03:37.770 --> 00:03:42.840 a dinner table or we go into the family room and spend time together. 36 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:47.439 This abiding in our home means lots of different things. It's where we live, 37 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:52.759 it's how we live. Well, the same kind of word, or 38 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:58.349 the same word abide, is applied here to love, abide in love, 39 00:03:58.509 --> 00:04:03.030 or abiding in God, or God abiding in us. Now, the way 40 00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:08.430 in which we abide in God isn't different in some ways, and which he 41 00:04:08.590 --> 00:04:15.860 abides in us. But I want to focus primarily on this idea abide in 42 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:20.699 love, to give some clarity to that from from this passage. What does 43 00:04:20.860 --> 00:04:27.209 that mean? What does it mean to abide in love? Well, one 44 00:04:27.329 --> 00:04:30.250 thing we ought to say from the very beginning is we're not talking about just 45 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:35.610 love in general, as if to abide in love is to have abide in 46 00:04:35.769 --> 00:04:41.560 a principle. For example, we are abiding in love, we abide in 47 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:47.040 God. A tryune, a try are try you and God, we abide 48 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:53.470 in him. We also aren't abiding in the love of the world, the 49 00:04:53.589 --> 00:04:57.910 love of things of the flesh, other things that we are tempted to love. 50 00:04:58.069 --> 00:05:02.589 We are to be situated here, dwelling here in love in the love 51 00:05:02.629 --> 00:05:10.699 of God and God who is love. To understand further what this means to 52 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:13.860 abide in love and what it means for our lives, we have to go 53 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:18.500 back a two verse eleven, where are I began reading and where we have 54 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:23.649 a new section, beginning with this word beloved, a way that John has 55 00:05:23.689 --> 00:05:29.810 been marking and developing things. So he grabs our at tension. Then right, 56 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:33.129 beloved, and notice the word love there. Right. He addresses us 57 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:39.240 as those who are loved by God, Beloved, and he says that this. 58 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:42.639 He says this. If God so loved us, we also ought, 59 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:46.959 we also ought to love one another. So we have to start there, 60 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:48.959 right. What does it mean to abide in love? Well, part of 61 00:05:49.069 --> 00:05:55.110 what that means is loving one another. Now I want to point out that 62 00:05:55.230 --> 00:05:59.589 this is not the first time that you've heard this, of course, in 63 00:05:59.709 --> 00:06:03.459 your lives, but I mean in particular in First John here love one another. 64 00:06:04.220 --> 00:06:09.300 But I'm not I want to really impress this point, if you will 65 00:06:09.300 --> 00:06:12.860 allow me for a moment. This point that we ought to love one another 66 00:06:13.019 --> 00:06:17.649 in this very short book has appeared many times already. Let's look at those 67 00:06:17.689 --> 00:06:25.769 examples just so you can see how important this is to God and should be 68 00:06:25.930 --> 00:06:30.529 to us. So we just read first John and eleven. Let's work backwards. 69 00:06:30.129 --> 00:06:35.000 Look at first John Seven. Beloved, let us love one another. 70 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:42.319 Okay, keep going backwards to chapter three, Verse Twenty Three. And this 71 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:46.639 is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ 72 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:51.029 and love one another, just as he commanded us. Now go back in 73 00:06:51.110 --> 00:06:56.110 chapter three to verse Seventeen, where we read but if anyone has the world's 74 00:06:56.110 --> 00:07:00.430 goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how 75 00:07:00.509 --> 00:07:04.220 does God's love abide in him? Right, we are to love one another, 76 00:07:04.259 --> 00:07:08.139 and if we don't, how can God be abiding in us? He 77 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:13.300 says they you see, how they're connected US abiding in God, and God's 78 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:17.089 love is ennected to our loving one another. Let's keep going. Verse Fourteen 79 00:07:17.930 --> 00:07:23.449 says we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love 80 00:07:23.649 --> 00:07:29.810 the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Now Verse Eleven, 81 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:31.839 for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we 82 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:38.839 should love one another. Verse Ten. By this it is evident who are 83 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:42.720 the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does 84 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.470 not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not 85 00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:53.110 love his brother. Now go back to chapter two. Start at verse seven. 86 00:07:53.470 --> 00:07:58.899 I'll read seven through eleven. Beloved, I am writing to you no 87 00:07:59.259 --> 00:08:03.180 new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The 88 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:07.100 old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, 89 00:08:07.259 --> 00:08:11.579 it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true 90 00:08:11.699 --> 00:08:16.449 in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true 91 00:08:16.490 --> 00:08:20.009 light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his 92 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:26.639 brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and 93 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.920 in him there is no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is 94 00:08:31.039 --> 00:08:35.960 in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is 95 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:41.669 going because the darkness has blinded his eyes a lot of times. You see 96 00:08:41.669 --> 00:08:46.870 what I mean. It's like every few paragraphs, John will say this again, 97 00:08:46.029 --> 00:08:50.149 let us love one another, let us love one another, and not 98 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:54.309 only is he commanding it, but he's attaching it to very important things. 99 00:08:54.990 --> 00:08:58.580 These says if you are not loving one another, if you are not loving 100 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:01.980 your brothers and your sisters, then God's love does not abide in you. 101 00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:07.940 It marks the Christian, it proves the Christian. It doesn't make one a 102 00:09:09.019 --> 00:09:13.450 Christian, but it is the things that a Christian does. And if we 103 00:09:13.570 --> 00:09:16.649 go forward from our passage in the in this letter, we find the same 104 00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:20.210 thing. I'll read one more set of verses to you. Look at chapter 105 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:22.970 four again, back to where we started, but a little bit ahead of 106 00:09:24.009 --> 00:09:28.759 our passage, in verses nineteen through twenty one. So First John for Nineteen 107 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:35.080 through twenty one. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says 108 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:41.029 I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he 109 00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:46.309 who does not love his brother, whom he cannot see, who, I'm 110 00:09:46.350 --> 00:09:50.710 sorry, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not 111 00:09:50.870 --> 00:09:56.220 seen. And this come this commandment we have from him. Whoever loves God 112 00:09:56.580 --> 00:10:03.980 must also love his brother. Do you get it yet? Is it clear 113 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:11.409 enough yet? This should be very, very clear. This is like when 114 00:10:11.409 --> 00:10:15.889 your parents sit you down and tells you the same thing for three hours straight 115 00:10:16.730 --> 00:10:22.080 because they see in your eyes that you are just not listening. Maybe John 116 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:26.519 is doing something like that here. Listen to what I'm saying you have to. 117 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:31.480 You're not listening. Listen to what I say. Love your brother. 118 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:37.870 If you don't and you say you have got in you you are a liar. 119 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:48.269 It's pretty clear right. There's no beating around the Bush about this matter. 120 00:10:48.269 --> 00:10:54.100 What conclusion do you draw from all of these things in this very short 121 00:10:54.259 --> 00:10:58.059 book? What the very least we have to say that we can't help but 122 00:10:58.259 --> 00:11:07.330 seeing that loving one another is essential. It's essential, it must be there. 123 00:11:07.850 --> 00:11:13.289 It is of highest of the highest importance to God and it should be 124 00:11:13.450 --> 00:11:18.409 of the highest importance to us. If this is something that you are not 125 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:26.120 thinking about on a regular, hourly basis, some things misaligned, something's not 126 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:31.080 working right, and if this is not something that's a part of your life 127 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:35.710 at all, then you are not a Christian. You're not a Christian. 128 00:11:39.629 --> 00:11:43.269 God is giving us here the proof, the way to recognize the difference between 129 00:11:43.309 --> 00:11:48.740 a true Christian and a hypocrite, a true Christian and a false Christian. 130 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:52.820 Christians are known by loving, in the same way of fish is known by 131 00:11:52.940 --> 00:11:56.580 swimming. It's just what they do, it's who they are. Love is 132 00:11:56.620 --> 00:12:01.139 a part of our nature. It's a part of those who have been born 133 00:12:01.299 --> 00:12:05.450 of God. Why? Because, as we have read several times now, 134 00:12:05.090 --> 00:12:11.809 God is love. This was Paul's point right in Ephesians chapter five. Be 135 00:12:11.009 --> 00:12:18.919 Imitators of your father, walk as his children. God is love, and 136 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:24.159 so, as his children, we ought to be of love. Now, 137 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:28.039 these thoughts about being born of God take us now to another way. That 138 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:33.750 John Describes a reason for our love, and it's this. It's not just 139 00:12:33.909 --> 00:12:37.830 that we have been born of God, it's also true that we abide in 140 00:12:37.990 --> 00:12:43.669 God and he and us. This has something to do with why we love 141 00:12:43.909 --> 00:12:46.500 and why we ought to love one another. Take a look again at that 142 00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:52.620 last verse, Verse Sixteen. It's a very deep verse. God is love, 143 00:12:54.539 --> 00:12:58.850 and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. 144 00:13:01.210 --> 00:13:03.090 Okay, you see what he's saying. He's saying we love because we have 145 00:13:03.289 --> 00:13:09.370 been born of God, but we also love because we abide in God. 146 00:13:09.370 --> 00:13:13.159 There's a difference, in a way, between those things. Let's look at 147 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:18.120 human example for a moment. Sometimes, when children are born, they do 148 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:22.759 not remain with their parents right parents may die, they might become too sick 149 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:28.509 to care for their children. Sometimes kids are separated from their parents because their 150 00:13:28.669 --> 00:13:31.629 parents are unable to care for them out of poverty or may be neglect or 151 00:13:31.710 --> 00:13:37.789 abuse. It's very different with God. Those who are born with God abide 152 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:43.460 with God and always will be. Why? Because God is not like us. 153 00:13:43.580 --> 00:13:50.620 He is a perfect are, a perfect and heavenly father. Jesus says 154 00:13:50.659 --> 00:13:54.139 in John Ten, twenty nine through thirty, that those who belong to God 155 00:13:54.340 --> 00:14:00.490 are perfectly protected by him. He says, my father, who has given 156 00:14:00.570 --> 00:14:05.370 them to me, is greater than all and no one is able to snatch 157 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:11.559 them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. This 158 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:18.200 is the protection that we have when we abide in God. Here he describes 159 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:22.320 us, US as being in his hand. He's got us, he will 160 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:28.870 not let us go. Why? Because he loves US and, more than 161 00:14:28.950 --> 00:14:33.629 that, because he's sinless and he never dies and he never gets sick. 162 00:14:35.029 --> 00:14:41.340 He doesn't even sleep. His love for his children is complete and perfect from 163 00:14:41.340 --> 00:14:46.580 the moment of their birth, from the moment before their birth, even eternally 164 00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:52.730 before their birth and eternally after their birth as well. His love is comprehensive 165 00:14:52.889 --> 00:14:58.409 in a way that the word comprehensive doesn't even describe it. John is telling 166 00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:03.289 us that Christians are not just born of God, who is love, they 167 00:15:03.330 --> 00:15:09.159 abide in God, who is love. And so we must remember this. 168 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:16.519 When we think about this command to love one another, notice how it begins. 169 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:20.240 If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 170 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:24.909 What God has done in love is there for a reason that we ought to 171 00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:30.870 act in love. But it's more than that. God's love is not only 172 00:15:30.950 --> 00:15:33.870 the reason why we ought to act, it's also the power by which we 173 00:15:33.990 --> 00:15:39.460 act. It is his strength, US abiding in his strength, that allows 174 00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:45.299 us to do this difficult thing that he's commanded us to do, namely to 175 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:48.659 love. In other words, we're not just born of God and then we 176 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:54.129 sort of move about in the world as best we can. We are born 177 00:15:54.250 --> 00:15:58.649 of God and then we continue to abide in him. Even remarkably, he 178 00:15:58.929 --> 00:16:10.480 says he abides in us. That's how closely connected we are. Let me 179 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:17.000 explain this by telling you a story. Once there was a little flower was 180 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:22.470 very sad. It hung its petals toward the ground. It's leaves were all 181 00:16:22.629 --> 00:16:26.710 shriveled up by its side. A little bee comes along and notices the flower 182 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:33.019 and says, little flower, why are you so sad? Because I do 183 00:16:33.179 --> 00:16:37.059 not grow says the flower, you do not grow, replies the Bee, 184 00:16:37.179 --> 00:16:42.580 because you do not have the sun. The Flower lifts up its head and 185 00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:47.769 sure enough, it could not see the sun, for it was night, 186 00:16:48.769 --> 00:16:52.850 the sky was dark. Don't worry, says the Bee. The Sun is 187 00:16:52.970 --> 00:17:00.009 faithful and when it is time he will come. And sure enough, when 188 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:03.200 it was time, the sun did come, and when he did he shined 189 00:17:03.359 --> 00:17:07.640 on the flower, so that the flower was able to lift up its drooping 190 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:12.880 head, to raise its leaves with thankfulness, in a way, to the 191 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:19.109 light. And it was in sort of this position that it remained thankful for 192 00:17:19.150 --> 00:17:23.589 the life that the sun unbought and now, living by the power of its 193 00:17:23.630 --> 00:17:30.380 rays, its arms opened, its head uplifted, ready to receive the power 194 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:36.180 of the Sun. The love of God for us in Christ is like this. 195 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:42.220 His initial coming and work for US changes us. It regenerates us, 196 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:47.890 it makes us a grateful people. It gives us a reason to lift up 197 00:17:47.890 --> 00:17:51.890 our heads, to lift up our hands in praise, to lift up our 198 00:17:52.009 --> 00:17:57.130 hands in ready service, in love for others. But God's work doesn't stop 199 00:17:57.329 --> 00:18:03.759 there. He continues to shine on us. By lifting US up, he 200 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:08.880 also makes us ready and able to do more as we continue to draw our 201 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:15.670 strength from his life giving power. Like a flower in the sun, we 202 00:18:15.829 --> 00:18:21.789 abide in the light and the life of the son of God, as he 203 00:18:21.910 --> 00:18:26.740 sends his spirit, like rays of light, into our souls. Verse Twelve 204 00:18:26.859 --> 00:18:33.579 says God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. The love 205 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:44.650 of God is perfected in you. That's an amazing thing to consider. If 206 00:18:44.650 --> 00:18:48.609 you want to know how much God loves you, consider or that. And 207 00:18:48.849 --> 00:18:52.049 how do we know that's to be true? Because of what verse thirteen says. 208 00:18:52.289 --> 00:18:57.359 He has given us of his spirit. In other words, when we 209 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:03.119 are at work for him in love, it's because he is at work in 210 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:10.829 us in love. Now we're all prone to forget this, and I know 211 00:19:11.069 --> 00:19:17.150 that the same is true of me. And when we do, it's because 212 00:19:17.309 --> 00:19:21.750 we are forgetting to look up. We find ourselves struggling to love as we 213 00:19:21.869 --> 00:19:26.180 ought. And when that happens, what happens? We begin to wilt, 214 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:32.019 don't we, in disobedience and shame and guilt. We get pulled down. 215 00:19:33.019 --> 00:19:37.019 Now each of us have our own struggles in this regard. Each of us 216 00:19:37.059 --> 00:19:45.569 have our own specific sins of unlovingness. What are yours? Be Honest, 217 00:19:45.650 --> 00:19:49.089 now before the Lord. What are the ways in which you know you ought 218 00:19:49.130 --> 00:19:56.960 to love, and yet you don't, but make excuses instead? Maybe there's 219 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:03.920 a situation that requires patience with someone, but you are being impatient. Maybe 220 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:07.990 there's a situation that you're in that requires an urgency of love, but you 221 00:20:07.029 --> 00:20:12.990 are being slow to respond. Maybe there are things that you know you ought 222 00:20:14.029 --> 00:20:19.430 to give and yet you're scared to let them go. Whether it's these things 223 00:20:19.470 --> 00:20:23.539 or maybe something else that you know about, when we act and of unloving 224 00:20:23.579 --> 00:20:30.420 ways, were often, in reality, trying to abide somewhere than in the 225 00:20:30.579 --> 00:20:36.329 love of God, and I have to warn you that this is a sinful 226 00:20:36.450 --> 00:20:41.849 thing and a dangerous thing. Whenever we look to something other than God to 227 00:20:41.970 --> 00:20:48.369 provide our protection, our nourishment, our pleasure, our satisfaction, you will 228 00:20:48.529 --> 00:20:55.839 begin to wither because you're not in the light. We were designed to live 229 00:20:55.880 --> 00:21:00.039 in the light. We were designed to live and to love and abide in 230 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:06.109 God. Seeking that same thing in other people or in the things of this 231 00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:11.230 world is idolatry and it means death for us. Going back to the fish 232 00:21:11.309 --> 00:21:15.990 metaphor, it's like a fish trying to live out of water. If you 233 00:21:17.190 --> 00:21:22.940 try to abide in something or someone other than God's Love, you will find 234 00:21:22.019 --> 00:21:30.460 yourself dying. If you stay there, you will die. It's an important 235 00:21:30.500 --> 00:21:34.730 warning. It's a way in which we have to take seriously what he is 236 00:21:34.849 --> 00:21:41.730 saying about what it means to abide in him. But if you find that 237 00:21:41.809 --> 00:21:45.930 you are choking, so to speak, on the things of this life and 238 00:21:45.170 --> 00:21:51.279 want to breathe the clear air of God, if you are now ready to 239 00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:57.440 leave the false promises and thin walled protection of idolatry, then know that God 240 00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:03.069 is ready to receive you. But there is hope for the hopeless, that 241 00:22:03.230 --> 00:22:07.470 you can live and dwell in him, that you can come to him in 242 00:22:07.630 --> 00:22:12.150 your sadness and in your shame. You can come to him in your disobedience 243 00:22:12.230 --> 00:22:18.700 and in your withering life. You can come in your sins, because he 244 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:25.460 is merciful. His light shines and exposes the darkness, but it also lifts 245 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:30.210 us up, it makes us live. The God that we turn to is 246 00:22:30.250 --> 00:22:37.690 a god of grace. He lifts up the downcast by the power of his 247 00:22:37.970 --> 00:22:44.799 love. What do I mean by this exactly? I mean what John has 248 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:51.079 said in the previous passage, in verse ten. In this is love not 249 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:55.640 that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his 250 00:22:55.839 --> 00:23:02.390 son to be a propitiation for our sins. The son he speaks of is 251 00:23:02.589 --> 00:23:07.309 a man named Jesus of Nazareth, who was born of a virgin, who 252 00:23:07.349 --> 00:23:11.430 lived a perfect lie and died a sacrificial death so that the sins of the 253 00:23:11.549 --> 00:23:15.099 children of God could be paid for, so that the wrath of God could 254 00:23:15.099 --> 00:23:21.940 be turned away from us and that he would take it on himself. You 255 00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:25.539 might remember that when Jesus, the son of God, died, he died 256 00:23:25.619 --> 00:23:30.369 in the middle of the day, somewhere between noon and three PM, and 257 00:23:30.569 --> 00:23:36.690 that was the exact moment when the sun in the sky was shining its brightest, 258 00:23:37.009 --> 00:23:41.880 that everything went dark, black as night. It was God's way of 259 00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:48.880 making the world understand what was happening on the cross, judgment for sins. 260 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:56.390 But you know what happened? The light came out again, even as Jesus, 261 00:23:56.430 --> 00:24:02.029 Christ rose from the dead, the light of grace, the light of 262 00:24:02.109 --> 00:24:04.829 the new day, the light of Christ. And this was possible because it 263 00:24:04.990 --> 00:24:10.779 is written that Jesus came into the world as a light which shines in the 264 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:17.619 darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. Now that is grand language, 265 00:24:17.660 --> 00:24:21.980 but it's very simple idea. Think about it. If you are in 266 00:24:22.019 --> 00:24:27.329 a pitch black room and you turn on a light, what happens there is 267 00:24:27.410 --> 00:24:33.730 light. It's as simple as that. It is the nature of light to 268 00:24:33.049 --> 00:24:40.039 overcome darkness. It doesn't take a lot. You can have the darkest room 269 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:45.640 but the smallest light, and the light will overcome it. Of course, 270 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:52.200 Jesus isn't the smallest light. He is the light that revelation says will be 271 00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:56.109 so bright in the new heavens and the new earth we won't even need a 272 00:24:56.230 --> 00:25:02.069 son because we will live by the light of his glory. Of course the 273 00:25:02.150 --> 00:25:06.190 light shines in the darkness and of course the darkness does not overcome it. 274 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:10.700 And as John says, for in verse fourteen of our passage, and so 275 00:25:11.059 --> 00:25:15.059 we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son to be the 276 00:25:15.140 --> 00:25:22.009 savior of the world. That's why there's hope for the hopeless. That's why 277 00:25:22.049 --> 00:25:26.490 I like that little flower. We can receive the news from this prophet be 278 00:25:27.130 --> 00:25:33.410 and know that our heads will be lifted up because the sun not only is 279 00:25:33.650 --> 00:25:37.640 coming but for us has already come. He is in the world and he 280 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:41.799 promises. He has come into the world and he promises that when we turn 281 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:48.319 to him, we will receive light and life. How do we receive this 282 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:53.230 salvation? How do we become overcomers? How do we walk in the light, 283 00:25:53.269 --> 00:25:59.109 as he is in the light? Simply by faith in him. We 284 00:25:59.269 --> 00:26:03.230 cannot work for it, we cannot prove ourselves worthy. We can only grasp 285 00:26:03.380 --> 00:26:08.460 hold of these promises by faith and believe him. Believe him when he says 286 00:26:08.500 --> 00:26:12.859 that we will be saved. Or, to use the language from our passage 287 00:26:12.900 --> 00:26:18.650 and verses fourteen and fifteen, the father has sent his son to be the 288 00:26:18.849 --> 00:26:25.089 savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, 289 00:26:25.250 --> 00:26:32.960 God abides in him and he in God. This promise holds true. Beloved 290 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:37.680 John and the Christians in the first century saw and testified to the truthfulness of 291 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:41.440 these things, and if we have eyes of faith to see, we can 292 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:47.470 see them as well. We see that he has overcome the darkness and so 293 00:26:47.630 --> 00:26:52.269 that we also overcome the darkness by believing in him. As he walks in 294 00:26:52.390 --> 00:26:56.789 the light, so we walk in the light. As he has loved us, 295 00:26:57.509 --> 00:27:03.299 so we ought to love one another, and so we do, as 296 00:27:03.339 --> 00:27:07.420 John says again in Verse Sixteen. So we have come to know and believe 297 00:27:08.019 --> 00:27:12.740 the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides 298 00:27:12.819 --> 00:27:18.569 in love abides in God and God abides in him. This is what it 299 00:27:18.769 --> 00:27:26.490 means to abide in love. It means to obey the command to love, 300 00:27:26.009 --> 00:27:30.039 to be living out of this position of love, to have this to be 301 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:34.880 living in this light in a way that the light of love naturally shines in 302 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:41.680 your life, because that's where you live. But it's not just doing that 303 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:48.309 thing, it's living in that place, in that one in God himself. 304 00:27:49.150 --> 00:27:57.349 We abide in love because God abides in us and he is love. So 305 00:27:57.430 --> 00:28:04.259 let me finished by asking this question. Does God abide in you? Have 306 00:28:04.420 --> 00:28:11.099 you experienced the light and the warmth and the sustaining power of the love of 307 00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:18.450 Jesus? Have you come to know him? If you haven't, is it 308 00:28:18.569 --> 00:28:23.170 not time? Is there some reason that you need to dwell in darkness when 309 00:28:23.210 --> 00:28:29.480 the sun has already come out? Is there a reason to dwell and disobedience 310 00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:36.480 and hatefulness when you can be forgiven and learn to walk in love? There 311 00:28:36.680 --> 00:28:45.630 isn't sinners, give your life over to Jesus Christ, confess your sins to 312 00:28:45.750 --> 00:28:51.630 him and confess he is loved toward you. Come to know and believe, 313 00:28:51.789 --> 00:28:55.740 as John says, in the love of grace and the love of God that 314 00:28:55.819 --> 00:29:00.779 he is offering you today, and join us who already are here, who 315 00:29:00.779 --> 00:29:07.859 already believe, join us in abiding in love and abiding in God. And 316 00:29:07.019 --> 00:29:11.009 if you are already one of God's children, if you are one of those 317 00:29:11.089 --> 00:29:17.609 who abides in God, knowing that God abides in you, then lift up 318 00:29:17.609 --> 00:29:22.930 your hands and rejoice in him, lift up your drooping head and raise your 319 00:29:22.970 --> 00:29:26.880 hearts, lift up your wilting soul and praise his glorious name, for he 320 00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:33.960 is shining on you, whether you have been born of God already or whether 321 00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:38.869 you are about to be. And know and know these things. Know and 322 00:29:40.069 --> 00:29:45.309 remember this. When your love is weak, his is ever strong. When 323 00:29:45.430 --> 00:29:51.910 your love is missing, his is ever present. When your love is conditional, 324 00:29:52.390 --> 00:29:57.259 his is always there. So abide, not in the love of yourself, 325 00:29:57.740 --> 00:30:00.619 not in the love of the world, not even in the love of 326 00:30:00.819 --> 00:30:07.369 love. Abide only and always in the love of God, as it comes 327 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:12.289 to us, in Jesus Christ, who died for us and dwells in us 328 00:30:12.890 --> 00:30:22.119 so that we might live and dwell in him forever. Let us pray