Perfect in Love (1 John 4:17-18)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:04.799 Please remain standing as we turn to God's word. Now from first John A, 2 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:18.550 chapter four, first John four versus seventeen, eighteen and nineteen. By 3 00:00:18.670 --> 00:00:23.980 this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the Day 4 00:00:24.019 --> 00:00:30.379 of Judgment. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. 5 00:00:31.739 --> 00:00:36.770 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, 6 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:42.409 for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected 7 00:00:42.530 --> 00:00:49.850 in love. We love because he first loved us. May God bless the 8 00:00:49.929 --> 00:00:57.359 Reading and preaching of his word. You may be seated. Theous few verses 9 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:03.200 here in John Versus Seventeen, and in eighteen in particular, have often been 10 00:01:03.310 --> 00:01:11.430 misapplied and misinterpreted, partly because they're a little bit difficult to understand and to 11 00:01:11.549 --> 00:01:15.349 apply. I will do my best this morning to give you their true meaning 12 00:01:15.510 --> 00:01:22.780 and and application. But there are several things that are are very obvious, 13 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:26.659 or should be obvious to us, about these verses. One is that John 14 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:34.609 is continuing his discussion of love right a section in which he is a theme 15 00:01:34.689 --> 00:01:41.010 which has come up many times throughout this letter, but began again, for 16 00:01:41.090 --> 00:01:42.769 example, in verse seven, where he said, beloved, let us love 17 00:01:42.890 --> 00:01:47.879 one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born 18 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:53.280 of God and knows God. We also know from Verse Nineteen there is this 19 00:01:53.439 --> 00:02:00.120 very, very clear truth. I'll read it to you again. He says 20 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:07.990 we love because he first loved us. Something has changed in us as Christians, 21 00:02:08.870 --> 00:02:15.150 if you're a Christian, something happens when we have been born of God. 22 00:02:15.550 --> 00:02:22.620 We we shift in a way, our environment changes. Something happens when 23 00:02:22.659 --> 00:02:29.620 God, by his love, works in us. And they're various applications of 24 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:31.490 this. One as that we have read is that we ought to love one 25 00:02:31.530 --> 00:02:36.330 another, and we've spent a lot of time thinking about that. But, 26 00:02:36.449 --> 00:02:39.930 as with most doctrines, there's lots of applications to a particular doctrine, and 27 00:02:40.009 --> 00:02:44.840 we have another one here this morning, and it has to do with the 28 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:50.280 end of our lives as well as the middle or the our life in this 29 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:53.560 age, in this world. It has to do with judge, udgment, 30 00:02:54.840 --> 00:03:04.430 the Judgment Day. He compares and contrasts in verse Seventeen, love with fear, 31 00:03:04.550 --> 00:03:09.110 or verse nineteen, rather one more time, verse eighteen. There we 32 00:03:09.229 --> 00:03:14.699 go. He says there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts 33 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:19.659 out fear, for fear has to do with punishment or in verse seventeen, 34 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:23.419 he says this love is perfected in us. For this reason, there's this 35 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:29.250 goal that God has so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment. 36 00:03:30.770 --> 00:03:34.289 So let me ask you this question. Are Those two things that you 37 00:03:34.569 --> 00:03:39.650 put together in your mind and in your daily life? Love and judgment, 38 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:51.479 love and fear? Are Those things that you think about in their relationship to 39 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:54.909 one another? Or, as a Christian, to be more specific, love 40 00:03:55.030 --> 00:04:01.030 and a lack of fear, love and the freedom of knowing that there is 41 00:04:01.349 --> 00:04:08.270 no punishment or, as Paul wrights and Romans, no condemnation for those who 42 00:04:08.310 --> 00:04:14.259 are in Christ Jesus. If it isn't, it should be, because this 43 00:04:14.340 --> 00:04:19.779 is a connection that God himself makes here in these words and he wants us 44 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:24.259 to understand end it, and I want to do my best this morning and 45 00:04:24.449 --> 00:04:29.410 helping you, through his word and by his word, to help you understand 46 00:04:29.529 --> 00:04:31.850 it. So what I want to do is just walk through these verses with 47 00:04:32.050 --> 00:04:39.000 you as plainly as we can. We start in verse seventeen with these words 48 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:44.199 by this is love perfected in us. What does he mean by that? 49 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.439 I think John is thinking about the thing that just came before that. So, 50 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:51.639 in other words, by this thing that I have just said, love 51 00:04:51.910 --> 00:04:57.110 is perfected in us. So what is the this? We look backwards and 52 00:04:57.389 --> 00:05:02.709 it is this. At the end of Verse Sixteen, John Writes God is 53 00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:09.899 love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. 54 00:05:11.019 --> 00:05:17.339 Now that's heavy, you might say, a waighty thing. So, if 55 00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:20.889 you will indulge me as a teacher, I'm going to read it to you 56 00:05:20.930 --> 00:05:29.009 again. That might soak in a little more. He writes God is love 57 00:05:30.569 --> 00:05:43.079 and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. If 58 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.920 you want to have a complete discussion about love, it has to start an 59 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:51.350 end with this point, that God is love. It's the environment in which 60 00:05:51.389 --> 00:05:58.870 the Christian life is lived. That word abides signals that doesn't it to dwell 61 00:05:59.069 --> 00:06:02.589 in something, to live in something. It's love, the love of God, 62 00:06:02.790 --> 00:06:08.060 God himself, is the environment, we might say. We could put 63 00:06:08.060 --> 00:06:11.980 it other ways, but it's the environment in which we live. Like a 64 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:18.089 fish. A fish abides where in water right he swims in it, he 65 00:06:18.529 --> 00:06:24.610 gets his food from it, he gets his oxygen from it. It directs 66 00:06:24.689 --> 00:06:29.970 him, it's around him, it's in him. A fish lives by it, 67 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:35.160 fish dies without it. In a similar way, we when we abide 68 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:41.879 in God, when we abide in love. It's like that for our lives. 69 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:45.759 When God has worked in us in such a way and the ways in 70 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:48.990 which he's been talking in this letter, something changes in us in a way. 71 00:06:49.069 --> 00:06:56.310 Our environment changes. Now to the outside world that may not be immediately 72 00:06:56.550 --> 00:07:00.670 obvious. You know, the same hair color, our eyes don't change, 73 00:07:00.910 --> 00:07:06.860 our bodies are essentially the same. Not Forever, as we've considered, but 74 00:07:08.019 --> 00:07:15.060 for now there's things that it's remained basically the same. But nevertheless we know 75 00:07:15.259 --> 00:07:21.050 something spiritual has happened, a spiritual reality has changed the environment and which we 76 00:07:21.129 --> 00:07:26.689 will when which we once lived, is now different. As I read earlier 77 00:07:26.769 --> 00:07:30.920 in Phesians, you, who were dead and your trespasses and sins, are 78 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.240 now alive, together with Christ Jesus, in love, we might add, 79 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:42.680 or Ives Paul himself says in that love letter. In love, he predestined 80 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:48.149 you for adoption, to be chosen as sons. This is amazing language, 81 00:07:49.310 --> 00:07:54.509 that we abide in God and he abides in us, and all of that 82 00:07:54.709 --> 00:08:01.660 could be described as abiding in love. Some people take this passage to mean 83 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:07.459 that the real God is love in and of itself, and that's not true. 84 00:08:09.220 --> 00:08:13.970 We don't some people will say that all you need is love, Love, 85 00:08:15.930 --> 00:08:20.649 love is all you need, and so forth. Right. And what 86 00:08:20.889 --> 00:08:24.569 is meant by this, or at least what can be meant by this, 87 00:08:24.649 --> 00:08:30.879 is sometimes is that love is abstracted from Yah way of the Bible, from 88 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.440 God of the Bible, the God who made the heavens and the earth, 89 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:39.360 the God who delivered Israel out of Egypt, the God who brought them into 90 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:45.750 the promised land and told them of a promised Messiah, the God who is 91 00:08:46.029 --> 00:08:50.830 father, son and Holy Spirit, the God who sent the son into the 92 00:08:50.870 --> 00:08:54.740 world that he in love, he might live and die on a cross for 93 00:08:56.139 --> 00:09:00.659 the salvation of those whom he loved and chows before the foundation of the world, 94 00:09:01.139 --> 00:09:07.419 the Bible is very specific about who God is. God is he expresses 95 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:13.250 love to us, is very specific and concrete about who he is. Love 96 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:18.649 is not a abstraction, it belongs to God. Sometimes people will say, 97 00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:24.440 though, that you don't need this God because all you need is love, 98 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.360 and look here the Bible. But that self proves it right. God is 99 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:33.840 love, but that's of course, not what the Bible is saying. That's 100 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:39.629 misreading and misapplying the very words of the God who says them. John is 101 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:45.190 not talking about biding in love in general, love separated from God. John 102 00:09:45.350 --> 00:09:50.070 writes about abiding in love by abiding in God, who has made us to 103 00:09:50.269 --> 00:09:56.700 love, who has saved us by love and loving actions. I think that 104 00:09:56.860 --> 00:10:03.779 when we think in our own minds that all we need is love abstracted from 105 00:10:03.779 --> 00:10:07.889 the God who is love, it's a fuzzy idea in a lot of ways 106 00:10:09.090 --> 00:10:15.090 that ultimately ends up hiding a lot more than it reveals. It's sort of 107 00:10:15.169 --> 00:10:18.210 one of those nice things that's sort of easy to say, but in practice 108 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:22.120 you kind of end up we're reordering wondering how is this really working out? 109 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:26.679 That's what I mean by it says it it hides more than it reveals. 110 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:33.679 What exactly is love abstracted from God? To say that all we need is 111 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:39.269 love sounds Nice until you ask, well, what is love? By what 112 00:10:39.549 --> 00:10:43.590 standard? How do you get to determine that? who gets to decide what 113 00:10:43.870 --> 00:10:48.789 is loving and what is not? If love is a law, if love 114 00:10:48.909 --> 00:10:52.460 is a principle by which we ought to treat one another, well, then 115 00:10:54.059 --> 00:10:58.940 who gives that law? who gets to decide by what? A power and 116 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:03.370 authority? Is One thing loving and another not? If love is a feeling, 117 00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:07.210 well then how is it animated? Where does its power come from, 118 00:11:07.250 --> 00:11:13.929 especially in hearts that are often unloving? If love is a mere power will, 119 00:11:13.929 --> 00:11:18.919 then how is it accessed? How is it known? How is it 120 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:24.120 used? Now, there's no such thing as love in the abstract even love 121 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:28.159 is just a power. Love is just a feeling. Love is just a 122 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:33.950 law. The love is a very personal thing, isn't it true? Love 123 00:11:35.149 --> 00:11:39.509 is a very personal thing. It always is, even as we just relate 124 00:11:39.629 --> 00:11:45.870 to one another. All the more true when we remember that love is established 125 00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:54.940 in God himself. Who is love? To say that all we need is 126 00:11:54.059 --> 00:11:58.740 love apart from God? Who is love? Ends up really saying all we 127 00:11:58.940 --> 00:12:05.889 need is me and what I want and what I decide. It sounds Nice 128 00:12:05.970 --> 00:12:09.250 until it plays out in practice, and then what we find out is we 129 00:12:09.409 --> 00:12:13.370 don't really love each other very much and we fight and we squabble over who 130 00:12:13.370 --> 00:12:18.879 gets to decide what. The morald the world may want us to try and 131 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:22.799 separate love from God, a very unloving thing to do, I might add, 132 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:26.960 but the Bible doesn't do this. The Bible tells us that the only 133 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:33.230 way to know and experience love is through God and his son. Do you 134 00:12:33.230 --> 00:12:39.389 remember what he said in Verse Ten of the same chapter? In this is 135 00:12:39.590 --> 00:12:45.460 love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved US and 136 00:12:45.700 --> 00:12:52.460 sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is love that, 137 00:12:52.580 --> 00:12:56.019 when we didn't deserve it, God sent someone to us who was all 138 00:12:56.259 --> 00:13:03.409 honorable, all deserving of all glory and power and praise, and he then 139 00:13:03.529 --> 00:13:07.649 his son to us to die for us, people that didn't deserve it, 140 00:13:09.409 --> 00:13:13.919 so that his wrath could be turned away from us. That's very personal and 141 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:20.960 that will make a difference in your life to know that your darkness, your 142 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:28.350 sins, the hatefulness that's in your heart, is being taken care of by 143 00:13:28.429 --> 00:13:33.789 the God who would have judged you for your sins but now is forgiving you 144 00:13:33.950 --> 00:13:41.539 for them through the very own blood of his son. That's pretty personal, 145 00:13:41.659 --> 00:13:48.299 isn't it? And it's life changing and it's loving, and that's why John 146 00:13:48.379 --> 00:13:54.779 puts it this way, in this in this way, when he says God 147 00:13:54.019 --> 00:14:01.370 is love. He has loved us in this way in the sun and whoever 148 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:09.850 abides I'm sorry. Right, God is God is love, and whoever abides 149 00:14:09.970 --> 00:14:16.039 in love necessarily is abiding in God, because you cannot separate the two, 150 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:22.159 and God abides in him. That's the by this of verse seventeen. Following 151 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:28.429 me so far? Okay, now we go on to what he says on 152 00:14:28.549 --> 00:14:33.710 the basis of this, on the basis of us being like a fish in 153 00:14:33.909 --> 00:14:39.299 water, only a human in Love, God's love. He says, by 154 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:48.860 this this work of God, love is perfected with us. Love is perfected 155 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:54.730 with us. This word perfected means exactly what you might think it means. 156 00:14:54.769 --> 00:14:58.409 It means that love, as defined by God, as coming from God, 157 00:14:58.529 --> 00:15:05.250 as lived in God, is brought to perfection. And also notice that he 158 00:15:05.330 --> 00:15:11.080 doesn't say love is perfect completely in you right now. Nor does he say 159 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:15.600 everything is terrible and till the very end when it will finally be made perfect. 160 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:20.399 No, he says there's a process of perfecting, of perfection that is 161 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:24.269 begun and is happening right now, and it's happening to such a degree that 162 00:15:24.429 --> 00:15:30.990 we are enjoying the benefits of that love right now in this life, in 163 00:15:31.149 --> 00:15:35.340 this world. Let me give you an example. Imagine you are given a 164 00:15:35.500 --> 00:15:41.539 new job a job that no doubt you need to grow in and get better 165 00:15:41.700 --> 00:15:45.419 in, that you need to improve him, a job that, as you 166 00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:48.100 grow in, you will enjoy more and more of the benefits of. Maybe 167 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:56.649 you'll even get increased salary or a better office or what not. Now you're 168 00:15:56.730 --> 00:16:02.210 not yet completely perfect in your job, you have never not yet reached the 169 00:16:02.570 --> 00:16:08.360 idealized form of whatever it is you do, but nevertheless you are doing the 170 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:14.639 job, you are getting a paycheck, you're enjoying the work, you're feeling 171 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:21.789 the honor from doing it. It's like that with God's work in us. 172 00:16:22.789 --> 00:16:27.950 It's something that we have right now, I'll perfect love that has been given 173 00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:33.940 to us, and we enjoy the benefits of it. We enjoy what it 174 00:16:33.059 --> 00:16:37.419 means to learn to love one another, to feel the love of God, 175 00:16:38.220 --> 00:16:42.779 to be reminded that we are his children, to receive his promises by faith 176 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:48.450 and all the rest. But it's also something that will be perfected in the 177 00:16:48.610 --> 00:16:56.529 future, and that all is expressed in this amazing promise, this very powerful 178 00:16:56.570 --> 00:17:00.720 thing that he says when he talks about the goal of this love being perfected 179 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:07.519 in us. And that's what comes next. This love is perfected with us 180 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:14.839 so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment. Because as he 181 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:21.950 is, so also are we in this world. As God is love, 182 00:17:22.190 --> 00:17:29.589 so also are we love. Not exactly like God is, there's always a 183 00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:34.140 great difference between him and his creatures, but as those who have John, 184 00:17:34.299 --> 00:17:37.779 as John has been emphasizing throughout this letter, have been born of God, 185 00:17:38.259 --> 00:17:44.410 born of God, born of God, his children resemble him as he is, 186 00:17:44.650 --> 00:17:47.930 so are we, as he is love, and as we abide in 187 00:17:47.970 --> 00:17:51.529 him and as he abides in us. We are like fish swimming in this 188 00:17:51.690 --> 00:17:56.250 great ocean of God, of Love, and it affects us. It changes 189 00:17:56.369 --> 00:18:03.960 us, even now in this world, in such a way that it affects 190 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.920 us as we think about the future. How so, this way we have 191 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:17.390 confidence for the Day of Judgment. Now, how does love give you confidence 192 00:18:17.509 --> 00:18:25.589 for the Day of Judgment? John, Lord God, explain that to me, 193 00:18:26.869 --> 00:18:30.099 help me to understand what it is that you have done through your son 194 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:34.740 in love affects the way I live my daily life as I think about the 195 00:18:34.859 --> 00:18:45.130 future. How that answer is given to us in verse eighteen. There is 196 00:18:45.250 --> 00:18:53.210 no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. Why? Because fear 197 00:18:53.490 --> 00:19:00.680 has to do with punishment. And whoever fears therefore has not been perfected in 198 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:10.309 love. Why are you scared of fire? Because it might burn you right. 199 00:19:11.549 --> 00:19:15.029 Why are you perhaps scared of water, if you're not a fish, 200 00:19:15.309 --> 00:19:19.589 because you might drown? Why are you scared of Heights? Because you might 201 00:19:19.670 --> 00:19:29.900 fall? We fear things because they might hurt us. So why might you, 202 00:19:30.900 --> 00:19:36.779 this is going to sound ridiculous, fear the judgment of God? Well, 203 00:19:37.690 --> 00:19:45.809 because he might hurt us. Well, how? So? Well, 204 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:49.410 because, as the Bible tells us and as we know in our hearts, 205 00:19:51.210 --> 00:19:56.279 our sins deserve punishment. When you're flying down the freeway, not paying attention 206 00:19:56.359 --> 00:20:00.279 to your spedometer and you see a highway patrol officer off the side of the 207 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:06.559 road, what happens in your heart? Boom right and you catch a glimpse 208 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:08.150 in your rear view mirror and you'll please don't pull out, please don't pull 209 00:20:08.150 --> 00:20:11.950 out, please don't pull out right, at least that's how I feel. 210 00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:22.420 Why? Because we fear punishment. We don't want to get pulled over, 211 00:20:22.660 --> 00:20:25.819 we don't want to have our insurance rates go up, we don't want to 212 00:20:26.259 --> 00:20:29.500 have the shame and embarrassment of sitting on the side of the road. We 213 00:20:29.579 --> 00:20:32.579 don't how to have to pay the fine or go to the school or have 214 00:20:32.779 --> 00:20:38.450 this thing marked on our record. We fear punishment. Now if you're driving 215 00:20:38.490 --> 00:20:44.569 a reasonable speed and you know it. Even still, I find I sometimes 216 00:20:45.650 --> 00:20:49.400 my heart races a little bit going by those officers. Why? I guess 217 00:20:49.480 --> 00:21:00.440 I still fear punishment. If this is true with something as low level as 218 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:08.670 a speeding ticket, how much more so is that true when we face the 219 00:21:08.829 --> 00:21:18.859 god of this world, who knows every thought, every intention, every desire 220 00:21:18.099 --> 00:21:30.019 of our hearts from the moment of our births onward, who is not dissuaded 221 00:21:30.380 --> 00:21:37.650 by excuses, who doesn't blink when we say, but look at this other 222 00:21:37.930 --> 00:21:45.450 thing that I did, who knows everything. There's one other verse in the 223 00:21:45.529 --> 00:21:52.759 Bible that uses this same word punishment. I want to read you some of 224 00:21:52.880 --> 00:22:00.920 this section from Matthew A, Chapter Twenty Five, so that you are reminded, 225 00:22:02.950 --> 00:22:07.029 from Jesus is own words, what it is that we know to be 226 00:22:07.190 --> 00:22:14.549 true, that the wages of sin is death. The word punishment is used 227 00:22:14.589 --> 00:22:19.140 in Matthew Twenty five orse verse forty six, when he says and these will 228 00:22:19.180 --> 00:22:26.220 go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. And this 229 00:22:26.380 --> 00:22:32.049 follows on the heels of what he says. I'll begin in verse thirty one. 230 00:22:32.329 --> 00:22:37.769 I won't read this whole section, but you'll get enough. He says 231 00:22:37.490 --> 00:22:41.609 when the son of man comes in his glory, this is what John Refers 232 00:22:41.650 --> 00:22:49.720 to. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels 233 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:57.160 with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will 234 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:03.349 be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another, as 235 00:23:03.390 --> 00:23:07.829 a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep 236 00:23:08.029 --> 00:23:12.740 on his right but the goats on his left. Then the king will say 237 00:23:12.819 --> 00:23:18.140 to these was on his right, come you who are blessed by my father 238 00:23:18.579 --> 00:23:25.740 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And then 239 00:23:25.859 --> 00:23:30.130 he gives a description of the righteous and the UNRIGHTEOUS. And then ends in 240 00:23:30.250 --> 00:23:33.609 verse forty six, when he says, and these of the unrighteous will go 241 00:23:33.849 --> 00:23:40.089 and away into eternal punishment, the goats, but the righteous, the sheep, 242 00:23:40.769 --> 00:23:47.160 into eternal life. They're all kinds of ways to draw your attention to 243 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:52.000 the reality of this. Besides the fact that Jesus himself has said this, 244 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:56.109 that it's declared plainly throughout the word of God. One of the strongest arguments 245 00:23:56.230 --> 00:24:02.470 from sort of natural law and reason is one Paul makes when he says in 246 00:24:02.589 --> 00:24:07.230 Romans, you know well how to judge others. Hey, that's not fair, 247 00:24:07.630 --> 00:24:11.619 that's not right. What means you can do that and I can can't 248 00:24:11.619 --> 00:24:15.740 do that? If you know how to judge others, what makes you think 249 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:21.220 you will escape the eternal judgment of God? That's Paul's argument, one of 250 00:24:21.500 --> 00:24:26.329 several. He says you have the law written on your hearts, you know 251 00:24:26.490 --> 00:24:30.210 right from wrong and you're exercising that power, that judgment, that discernment, 252 00:24:30.569 --> 00:24:34.809 constantly, all time, every day. All you have to do is open 253 00:24:34.890 --> 00:24:40.000 a newspaper and start reading headlines. If it's not in the headline itself, 254 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.480 it's in your interpretation of that good, bad, good, bad, good, 255 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:48.680 bad, all the way down. If you are capable of that, 256 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.950 if you know a standard for what's right and what's wrong, what makes you 257 00:24:53.029 --> 00:25:00.029 think that, when that God will simply ignore right and wrong? God who, 258 00:25:00.349 --> 00:25:04.630 since the beginning of the world, has expressed himself over and over and 259 00:25:04.829 --> 00:25:11.819 over again in perfect righteousness, who always judges fairly, who always sees the 260 00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:21.259 heart and not excuses. Every single one of us, as Jesus says here 261 00:25:21.339 --> 00:25:26.650 in Matthew Twenty Five, will stand before the glorious son of God when he 262 00:25:26.730 --> 00:25:33.609 returns. Can you imagine? Perhaps you've seen a picture of an earthly king 263 00:25:33.849 --> 00:25:38.640 on His throne, with his armies and his people and his courtiers spread out 264 00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:45.400 before him. This is a million times grander when all the nations of the 265 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:52.910 world are spread out before him and his myriad of angels, millions upon millions 266 00:25:53.190 --> 00:26:00.509 standing there with him. And at that time he will judge the Earth. 267 00:26:03.859 --> 00:26:10.339 Will you be a sheep or will you be a goat? Will you be, 268 00:26:10.539 --> 00:26:15.059 though, one of those who goes to eternal punishment or one who will 269 00:26:15.099 --> 00:26:22.490 be ushered into eternal life? This is the reality that John is addressing, 270 00:26:23.210 --> 00:26:27.890 the reality that we know in our hearts is coming, and with that the 271 00:26:27.930 --> 00:26:36.079 scriptures promise is well, and that's why, when John says that God's love 272 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:40.799 is being perfected in us so that we can have confidence for the Jay Day 273 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:45.640 of judgment, we should jump up and click our heels and maybe love one 274 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:55.269 another. There is freedom, beloved, in being a sheep. There's freedom 275 00:26:55.390 --> 00:27:00.740 and being one of those who has been loved by God. There's freedom in 276 00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:07.740 being called the righteous. Now, if there's a part of you who says, 277 00:27:07.579 --> 00:27:11.980 but how could I be called righteous? How could I be a sheep 278 00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:17.210 when God knows the sins of my heart, when God knows the sins of 279 00:27:17.329 --> 00:27:21.009 my mind and the sins of my hands, the sins of my youth and 280 00:27:21.130 --> 00:27:26.890 the sins of my old age? How could I ever dream to be a 281 00:27:26.049 --> 00:27:32.119 sheep? How could I ever dream to be called the righteous one of God? 282 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:37.079 Will? In your own life and in knowing your in your own sins, 283 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:44.309 you can't. But in the love of God you can. When God, 284 00:27:44.750 --> 00:27:48.750 in his love, as he says in verse ten, loves US when 285 00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:53.549 we have not yet loved him, and sends his son to be a propitiation 286 00:27:53.750 --> 00:28:00.420 of our sins, to turn away all of that wrath, to not declare 287 00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:06.539 US righteous because we've done so well, but to be but to declare US 288 00:28:06.579 --> 00:28:12.450 righteous because the righteousness of God has been given to us in Christ. We're 289 00:28:12.490 --> 00:28:19.170 not just sheep who've done all right, we are the glorious children of light 290 00:28:21.369 --> 00:28:27.240 that God has transformed himself. That's what it means to abide in love. 291 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:32.240 That's what it means to be changed. That's what it means to be born 292 00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:37.079 of God and to be called a son, worthy of an inheritance, worthy 293 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:44.390 of immeasurable riches beyond your wildest dreams, beyond glories that you can even imagine, 294 00:28:45.470 --> 00:28:49.029 and that's why we can walk in this world and say it's gonna be 295 00:28:49.190 --> 00:29:00.299 okay. I'm not scared because God has loved me. I'm not scared because 296 00:29:00.420 --> 00:29:07.700 Jesus has died for me. I'm not scared because God's wrath has been turned 297 00:29:07.779 --> 00:29:15.369 away by the very blood of the lamb, by his own son. I'm 298 00:29:15.490 --> 00:29:22.089 not scared. In fact, I've rejoice and I have confidence and I'm living 299 00:29:23.170 --> 00:29:32.039 because of love. That's how great God's love is for me. There's no 300 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:40.869 condemnation for me, because God has taken care of it, beloved. That's 301 00:29:40.990 --> 00:29:45.950 what faith is, that's what trusting in God is. It's not trusting in 302 00:29:47.109 --> 00:29:51.589 ourselves, in our own works. It's not trying to excuse our sins or 303 00:29:51.670 --> 00:29:56.059 finding a way to wriggle out of them, it's admitting them fully and openly. 304 00:29:56.579 --> 00:30:02.539 I'm a goat and I need to be saved, and you have promised 305 00:30:02.700 --> 00:30:08.130 me that I can have salvation. Simply by receiving the gifts that you have 306 00:30:08.289 --> 00:30:18.609 freely given me. That's love, that's God's love, and it's being perfected 307 00:30:18.769 --> 00:30:26.880 in us. We love because he first loved us. We don't fear being 308 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:33.680 burned with the fires of hell, because we won't be. God has saved 309 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.750 us from these and many other things. This is why you do not want 310 00:30:38.789 --> 00:30:47.269 to separate and abstract love from God, because there's no love apart from him. 311 00:30:47.910 --> 00:30:53.859 There's no salvation apart from him. Apart from him, only fear, 312 00:30:53.940 --> 00:31:03.059 always fear. But in him, in his perfect love, fear is cast 313 00:31:03.140 --> 00:31:10.890 out and your life is changed here and now, your experiences are changed here 314 00:31:11.049 --> 00:31:17.410 and now because you have a living hope that's set before you. And if 315 00:31:17.450 --> 00:31:21.680 that's true here and now, can you imagine how it will be on the 316 00:31:21.720 --> 00:31:29.559 last day when your Lord returns and says to you you are a sheep, 317 00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:36.630 you are a son, you are a daughter, you are righteous because of 318 00:31:36.710 --> 00:31:41.670 my love for you, beloved. Put Your faith in him, not anywhere 319 00:31:41.670 --> 00:31:48.059 else. Put Your faith in him and he will save you. His love 320 00:31:48.180 --> 00:31:52.500 will be perfected in you. It is his will. He will do it. 321 00:31:55.779 --> 00:31:56.339 Let's pray