Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able to remain standing,
please do and give your attention to first
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John, Chapter Four. First John
Four. So I'm reading versus eleven,
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through eleven through sixteen. As we
continue to read through this book and and
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hear it expounded and applied to our
hearts, Lord Willing M John Discusses a
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love here, abiding in love.
It's a theme that he's been talking about
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for it for some time. Let's
give our attention to it, let's here
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what God has to say to us
this morning and here with open ears of
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faith. So this is first John
for beginning in verse eleven. Beloved.
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If God so loved us, we
also ought to love one another. No
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one has ever seen God. If
we love one another, God abides in
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us. His love is perfected in
us. By this we know that we
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abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his
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spirit, and we have seen and
testify that the father has sent his son
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to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son
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of God, God abides in him
and he in God. So we have
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come to know and to believe the
love that God has for us. God
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is love, and whoever abides in
love, abides in God and God abides
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in him. May God bless this
word to us. You may be seated.
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So there are two words that come
out in this passage. I'm quite
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strongly worred, abide and the word
love. In just six verses we see
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them appear, these two words,
abide and love, over and over and
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over again, and there glued together, we might say, by a third
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word that appears a lot in these
verses. God. Abiding in love means
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abiding in God, as we read
in Verse Sixteen, abide and Love and
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God. Verse Sixteen, I'll read
it to you again, says this.
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So we have come to know and
believe the love that God has for us.
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God, God, is love,
and whoever abides in love abides in
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God and God abides in him.
What does this mean? Abide in love?
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Well, help to start with the
word abide. What does it mean
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to abide in something? That's very
simple. It means to dwell in something,
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to be positioned in a place or
or a thing. When you abide
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in your house, you live there. It's where you get your protection from,
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your shade from, it's where your
nourishment comes from. That's both for
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our bodies and, in a way, our souls, is we sit around
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a dinner table or we go into
the family room and spend time together.
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This abiding in our home means lots
of different things. It's where we live,
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it's how we live. Well,
the same kind of word, or
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the same word abide, is applied
here to love, abide in love,
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or abiding in God, or God
abiding in us. Now, the way
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in which we abide in God isn't
different in some ways, and which he
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abides in us. But I want
to focus primarily on this idea abide in
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love, to give some clarity to
that from from this passage. What does
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that mean? What does it mean
to abide in love? Well, one
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thing we ought to say from the
very beginning is we're not talking about just
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love in general, as if to
abide in love is to have abide in
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a principle. For example, we
are abiding in love, we abide in
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God. A tryune, a try
are try you and God, we abide
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in him. We also aren't abiding
in the love of the world, the
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love of things of the flesh,
other things that we are tempted to love.
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We are to be situated here,
dwelling here in love in the love
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of God and God who is love. To understand further what this means to
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abide in love and what it means
for our lives, we have to go
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back a two verse eleven, where
are I began reading and where we have
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a new section, beginning with this
word beloved, a way that John has
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been marking and developing things. So
he grabs our at tension. Then right,
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beloved, and notice the word love
there. Right. He addresses us
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as those who are loved by God, Beloved, and he says that this.
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He says this. If God so
loved us, we also ought,
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we also ought to love one another. So we have to start there,
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right. What does it mean to
abide in love? Well, part of
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what that means is loving one another. Now I want to point out that
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this is not the first time that
you've heard this, of course, in
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your lives, but I mean in
particular in First John here love one another.
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But I'm not I want to really
impress this point, if you will
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allow me for a moment. This
point that we ought to love one another
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in this very short book has appeared
many times already. Let's look at those
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examples just so you can see how
important this is to God and should be
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to us. So we just read
first John and eleven. Let's work backwards.
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Look at first John Seven. Beloved, let us love one another.
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Okay, keep going backwards to chapter
three, Verse Twenty Three. And this
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is his commandment that we believe in
the name of his son, Jesus Christ
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and love one another, just as
he commanded us. Now go back in
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chapter three to verse Seventeen, where
we read but if anyone has the world's
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goods and sees his brother in need
yet closes his heart against him, how
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does God's love abide in him?
Right, we are to love one another,
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and if we don't, how can
God be abiding in us? He
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says they you see, how they're
connected US abiding in God, and God's
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love is ennected to our loving one
another. Let's keep going. Verse Fourteen
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says we know that we have passed
out of death into life because we love
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the brothers. Whoever does not love
abides in death. Now Verse Eleven,
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for this is the message that you
have heard from the beginning, that we
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should love one another. Verse Ten. By this it is evident who are
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the children of God and who are
the children of the devil. Whoever does
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not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not
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love his brother. Now go back
to chapter two. Start at verse seven.
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I'll read seven through eleven. Beloved, I am writing to you no
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new commandment, but an old commandment
that you had from the beginning. The
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old commandment is the word that you
have heard. At the same time,
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it is a new commandment that I
am writing to you, which is true
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in him and in you, because
the darkness is passing away and the true
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light is already shining. Whoever says
he is in the light and hates his
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brother is still in darkness. Whoever
loves his brother abides in the light and
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in him there is no cause for
stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is
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in the darkness and walks in the
darkness and does not know where he is
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going because the darkness has blinded his
eyes a lot of times. You see
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what I mean. It's like every
few paragraphs, John will say this again,
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let us love one another, let
us love one another, and not
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only is he commanding it, but
he's attaching it to very important things.
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These says if you are not loving
one another, if you are not loving
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your brothers and your sisters, then
God's love does not abide in you.
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It marks the Christian, it proves
the Christian. It doesn't make one a
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Christian, but it is the things
that a Christian does. And if we
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go forward from our passage in the
in this letter, we find the same
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thing. I'll read one more set
of verses to you. Look at chapter
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four again, back to where we
started, but a little bit ahead of
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our passage, in verses nineteen through
twenty one. So First John for Nineteen
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through twenty one. We love because
he first loved us. If anyone says
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I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he
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who does not love his brother,
whom he cannot see, who, I'm
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sorry, whom he has seen,
cannot love God, whom he has not
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seen. And this come this commandment
we have from him. Whoever loves God
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must also love his brother. Do
you get it yet? Is it clear
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enough yet? This should be very, very clear. This is like when
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your parents sit you down and tells
you the same thing for three hours straight
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because they see in your eyes that
you are just not listening. Maybe John
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is doing something like that here.
Listen to what I'm saying you have to.
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You're not listening. Listen to what
I say. Love your brother.
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If you don't and you say you
have got in you you are a liar.
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It's pretty clear right. There's no
beating around the Bush about this matter.
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What conclusion do you draw from all
of these things in this very short
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book? What the very least we
have to say that we can't help but
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seeing that loving one another is essential. It's essential, it must be there.
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It is of highest of the highest
importance to God and it should be
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of the highest importance to us.
If this is something that you are not
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thinking about on a regular, hourly
basis, some things misaligned, something's not
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working right, and if this is
not something that's a part of your life
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at all, then you are not
a Christian. You're not a Christian.
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God is giving us here the proof, the way to recognize the difference between
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a true Christian and a hypocrite,
a true Christian and a false Christian.
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Christians are known by loving, in
the same way of fish is known by
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swimming. It's just what they do, it's who they are. Love is
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a part of our nature. It's
a part of those who have been born
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of God. Why? Because,
as we have read several times now,
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God is love. This was Paul's
point right in Ephesians chapter five. Be
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Imitators of your father, walk as
his children. God is love, and
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so, as his children, we
ought to be of love. Now,
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these thoughts about being born of God
take us now to another way. That
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John Describes a reason for our love, and it's this. It's not just
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that we have been born of God, it's also true that we abide in
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God and he and us. This
has something to do with why we love
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and why we ought to love one
another. Take a look again at that
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last verse, Verse Sixteen. It's
a very deep verse. God is love,
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and whoever abides in love abides in
God and God abides in him.
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Okay, you see what he's saying. He's saying we love because we have
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been born of God, but we
also love because we abide in God.
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There's a difference, in a way, between those things. Let's look at
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human example for a moment. Sometimes, when children are born, they do
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not remain with their parents right parents
may die, they might become too sick
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to care for their children. Sometimes
kids are separated from their parents because their
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parents are unable to care for them
out of poverty or may be neglect or
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abuse. It's very different with God. Those who are born with God abide
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with God and always will be.
Why? Because God is not like us.
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He is a perfect are, a
perfect and heavenly father. Jesus says
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in John Ten, twenty nine through
thirty, that those who belong to God
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are perfectly protected by him. He
says, my father, who has given
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them to me, is greater than
all and no one is able to snatch
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them out of the father's hand.
I and the father are one. This
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is the protection that we have when
we abide in God. Here he describes
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us, US as being in his
hand. He's got us, he will
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not let us go. Why?
Because he loves US and, more than
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that, because he's sinless and he
never dies and he never gets sick.
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He doesn't even sleep. His love
for his children is complete and perfect from
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the moment of their birth, from
the moment before their birth, even eternally
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before their birth and eternally after their
birth as well. His love is comprehensive
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in a way that the word comprehensive
doesn't even describe it. John is telling
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us that Christians are not just born
of God, who is love, they
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abide in God, who is love. And so we must remember this.
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When we think about this command to
love one another, notice how it begins.
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If God so loved us, we
also ought to love one another.
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What God has done in love is
there for a reason that we ought to
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act in love. But it's more
than that. God's love is not only
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the reason why we ought to act, it's also the power by which we
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act. It is his strength,
US abiding in his strength, that allows
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us to do this difficult thing that
he's commanded us to do, namely to
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love. In other words, we're
not just born of God and then we
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sort of move about in the world
as best we can. We are born
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of God and then we continue to
abide in him. Even remarkably, he
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says he abides in us. That's
how closely connected we are. Let me
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explain this by telling you a story. Once there was a little flower was
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very sad. It hung its petals
toward the ground. It's leaves were all
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shriveled up by its side. A
little bee comes along and notices the flower
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and says, little flower, why
are you so sad? Because I do
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not grow says the flower, you
do not grow, replies the Bee,
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because you do not have the sun. The Flower lifts up its head and
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sure enough, it could not see
the sun, for it was night,
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the sky was dark. Don't worry, says the Bee. The Sun is
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faithful and when it is time he
will come. And sure enough, when
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it was time, the sun did
come, and when he did he shined
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on the flower, so that the
flower was able to lift up its drooping
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head, to raise its leaves with
thankfulness, in a way, to the
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light. And it was in sort
of this position that it remained thankful for
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the life that the sun unbought and
now, living by the power of its
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rays, its arms opened, its
head uplifted, ready to receive the power
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of the Sun. The love of
God for us in Christ is like this.
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His initial coming and work for US
changes us. It regenerates us,
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it makes us a grateful people.
It gives us a reason to lift up
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our heads, to lift up our
hands in praise, to lift up our
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hands in ready service, in love
for others. But God's work doesn't stop
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there. He continues to shine on
us. By lifting US up, he
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also makes us ready and able to
do more as we continue to draw our
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strength from his life giving power.
Like a flower in the sun, we
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abide in the light and the life
of the son of God, as he
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sends his spirit, like rays of
light, into our souls. Verse Twelve
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says God abides in us and his
love is perfected in us. The love
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of God is perfected in you.
That's an amazing thing to consider. If
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you want to know how much God
loves you, consider or that. And
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how do we know that's to be
true? Because of what verse thirteen says.
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He has given us of his spirit. In other words, when we
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are at work for him in love, it's because he is at work in
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us in love. Now we're all
prone to forget this, and I know
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that the same is true of me. And when we do, it's because
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we are forgetting to look up.
We find ourselves struggling to love as we
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ought. And when that happens,
what happens? We begin to wilt,
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don't we, in disobedience and shame
and guilt. We get pulled down.
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Now each of us have our own
struggles in this regard. Each of us
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have our own specific sins of unlovingness. What are yours? Be Honest,
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now before the Lord. What are
the ways in which you know you ought
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to love, and yet you don't, but make excuses instead? Maybe there's
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a situation that requires patience with someone, but you are being impatient. Maybe
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there's a situation that you're in that
requires an urgency of love, but you
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are being slow to respond. Maybe
there are things that you know you ought
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to give and yet you're scared to
let them go. Whether it's these things
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or maybe something else that you know
about, when we act and of unloving
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ways, were often, in reality, trying to abide somewhere than in the
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love of God, and I have
to warn you that this is a sinful
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thing and a dangerous thing. Whenever
we look to something other than God to
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provide our protection, our nourishment,
our pleasure, our satisfaction, you will
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begin to wither because you're not in
the light. We were designed to live
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in the light. We were designed
to live and to love and abide in
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God. Seeking that same thing in
other people or in the things of this
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world is idolatry and it means death
for us. Going back to the fish
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metaphor, it's like a fish trying
to live out of water. If you
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try to abide in something or someone
other than God's Love, you will find
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yourself dying. If you stay there, you will die. It's an important
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warning. It's a way in which
we have to take seriously what he is
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saying about what it means to abide
in him. But if you find that
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you are choking, so to speak, on the things of this life and
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want to breathe the clear air of
God, if you are now ready to
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leave the false promises and thin walled
protection of idolatry, then know that God
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is ready to receive you. But
there is hope for the hopeless, that
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you can live and dwell in him, that you can come to him in
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your sadness and in your shame.
You can come to him in your disobedience
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and in your withering life. You
can come in your sins, because he
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is merciful. His light shines and
exposes the darkness, but it also lifts
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us up, it makes us live. The God that we turn to is
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a god of grace. He lifts
up the downcast by the power of his
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love. What do I mean by
this exactly? I mean what John has
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said in the previous passage, in
verse ten. In this is love not
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that we have loved God, but
that he has loved us and sent his
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son to be a propitiation for our
sins. The son he speaks of is
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a man named Jesus of Nazareth,
who was born of a virgin, who
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lived a perfect lie and died a
sacrificial death so that the sins of the
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children of God could be paid for, so that the wrath of God could
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be turned away from us and that
he would take it on himself. You
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might remember that when Jesus, the
son of God, died, he died
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in the middle of the day,
somewhere between noon and three PM, and
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that was the exact moment when the
sun in the sky was shining its brightest,
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that everything went dark, black as
night. It was God's way of
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making the world understand what was happening
on the cross, judgment for sins.
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But you know what happened? The
light came out again, even as Jesus,
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Christ rose from the dead, the
light of grace, the light of
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the new day, the light of
Christ. And this was possible because it
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is written that Jesus came into the
world as a light which shines in the
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darkness, and the darkness does not
overcome it. Now that is grand language,
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but it's very simple idea. Think
about it. If you are in
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a pitch black room and you turn
on a light, what happens there is
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light. It's as simple as that. It is the nature of light to
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overcome darkness. It doesn't take a
lot. You can have the darkest room
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but the smallest light, and the
light will overcome it. Of course,
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Jesus isn't the smallest light. He
is the light that revelation says will be
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so bright in the new heavens and
the new earth we won't even need a
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son because we will live by the
light of his glory. Of course the
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light shines in the darkness and of
course the darkness does not overcome it.
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And as John says, for in
verse fourteen of our passage, and so
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we have seen and testify that the
father has sent his son to be the
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savior of the world. That's why
there's hope for the hopeless. That's why
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I like that little flower. We
can receive the news from this prophet be
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and know that our heads will be
lifted up because the sun not only is
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coming but for us has already come. He is in the world and he
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promises. He has come into the
world and he promises that when we turn
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to him, we will receive light
and life. How do we receive this
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salvation? How do we become overcomers? How do we walk in the light,
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as he is in the light?
Simply by faith in him. We
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cannot work for it, we cannot
prove ourselves worthy. We can only grasp
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hold of these promises by faith and
believe him. Believe him when he says
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that we will be saved. Or, to use the language from our passage
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and verses fourteen and fifteen, the
father has sent his son to be the
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savior of the world. Whoever confesses
that Jesus is the son of God,
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God abides in him and he in
God. This promise holds true. Beloved
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John and the Christians in the first
century saw and testified to the truthfulness of
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these things, and if we have
eyes of faith to see, we can
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see them as well. We see
that he has overcome the darkness and so
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that we also overcome the darkness by
believing in him. As he walks in
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the light, so we walk in
the light. As he has loved us,
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so we ought to love one another, and so we do, as
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John says again in Verse Sixteen.
So we have come to know and believe
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the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides
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in love abides in God and God
abides in him. This is what it
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means to abide in love. It
means to obey the command to love,
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to be living out of this position
of love, to have this to be
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living in this light in a way
that the light of love naturally shines in
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your life, because that's where you
live. But it's not just doing that
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thing, it's living in that place, in that one in God himself.
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We abide in love because God abides
in us and he is love. So
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let me finished by asking this question. Does God abide in you? Have
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you experienced the light and the warmth
and the sustaining power of the love of
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Jesus? Have you come to know
him? If you haven't, is it
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not time? Is there some reason
that you need to dwell in darkness when
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the sun has already come out?
Is there a reason to dwell and disobedience
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and hatefulness when you can be forgiven
and learn to walk in love? There
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isn't sinners, give your life over
to Jesus Christ, confess your sins to
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him and confess he is loved toward
you. Come to know and believe,
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as John says, in the love
of grace and the love of God that
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he is offering you today, and
join us who already are here, who
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already believe, join us in abiding
in love and abiding in God. And
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if you are already one of God's
children, if you are one of those
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who abides in God, knowing that
God abides in you, then lift up
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your hands and rejoice in him,
lift up your drooping head and raise your
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hearts, lift up your wilting soul
and praise his glorious name, for he
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is shining on you, whether you
have been born of God already or whether
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you are about to be. And
know and know these things. Know and
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remember this. When your love is
weak, his is ever strong. When
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your love is missing, his is
ever present. When your love is conditional,
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his is always there. So abide, not in the love of yourself,
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not in the love of the world, not even in the love of
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love. Abide only and always in
the love of God, as it comes
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to us, in Jesus Christ,
who died for us and dwells in us
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so that we might live and dwell
in him forever. Let us pray
