“The Manifestation of God’s Perfect Love”
(Sunday Morning February 12th, 2012)
Passage: 1 John 4:7-12
O.S. I am Sure That Most of You Would Agree With Me When I Say That the Most
Beautiful Truth We Find Contained in the Word of God Involves the Fact That
Our God is a God of Love and That Our God Loves Each and Every One of Us
More Deeply Than We are Able to Comprehend or Describe
-> In Fact, I Think That 99.9% of Christians Would Say That John 3:16 is Their
Favorite Scripture Verse, Because It Says This Very Thing
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”
Q.n = So, Why is the Fact That God Loves Each and Every One of Us so Special to Us?
Ans = I Believe This is Because God Created Us to Love and to be Loved
-> In Genesis 1:26,for Example, the Bible Says This; It Says,
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image,…’”
-> The Fact That We Have Been Created in the Image of God is Something That
Sets Us Apart From the Animals
-> We Have a Physical Body Just as Animals Have a Physical Body; But After
That, the Similarity Ends, Because We Were Created in the Image God
-> And That Means That We are Superior to the Animals in Three Ways
a. First, We Have the Ability to be Representatives of God (Elaborate)
b. Second, We Have Been Given Responsibilities by God (Elaborate)
c. Third, We Have a Capacity for a Relationship With God
-> God is a Trinity; and So, God Has Always Existed in Relationship to Others;
That is Why We Read That God Said “Let US make man in our image…”
-> And Like God We Have This Same Ability to Have a Relationship With God,
and of Course, Our Ability to Have Relationships is Not Limited to God
(Ex. We Can Love Others, and Appreciate Beauty, and Express Emotion Etcetera)
St = Psychiatrists Say That the Three Greatest Needs of a Human Being are: the Need
to be Wanted, the Need to be Needed and the Need to be Loved
-> Love is the Theme of More Songs, More Plays, More Books, More Films, More
Literature in General and More Poems in Particular Than Anything Else
-> Yet, Most People, Unfortunately, are Looking for Love in All of the Wrong Places;
Because God is the Only True Source of Love, and They’re Not Looking for God
-> And So, All That Most People in Our World are Ever Going to Find is Some Kind
of Cheap Substitute for Love, and They Will Never Really Come to Understand
Real Love for That Same Reason
Q.n = Do You Really Want to Experience What Love Is?
Ans = Then, Come to God Because God is Love
Q.n = Do You Really Want to Understand What Love Is?
Ans = Then, Study the Bible Because the Bible Describes Love
-> And the Best Book of the Bible You Can Study in Order to Come to Understand
Love is the Book of 1 John
-> For You See, Listen, the Word “Love” Appears Forty Times in This Small Epistle;
And in Addition to This, the Phrase “Love Your Brother” is Found Five Times,
and the Phrase “Love One Another” is Found Four Times
-> So, This is a Great Book to Study if You Want to Learn About God’s Love;
and in This Passage That We are Looking at This Morning, John is Teaching
Us About God’s “Perfect” Love
-> Look at the End of Verse 12(Read – “Perfected in Us”)
-> Look at Verse 17(Read – “Perfected with Us”)
-> Look at Verse 18(Read – “Perfect love casts out fear”and “Perfected in Love”)
-> John is Teaching Us Some Truths About God’s Perfect Love Here, and the Word
“Perfect” in the Original Language Means“To be Mature”or “To be Complete”
-> God Wants Us to Understand His Perfect Love, and God Wants His Perfect Love
to be Manifested, or Revealed, in This World Through Him and Through Us
-> That is What I Believe This Passage of Scripture is All About; So, With This in Mind…
I. TheDefinition of God’s Perfect Love
vs 7-8 (Read)
1) God is the Originator of Love
-> The Apostle John Begins With a Play on Words Here, Using the Greek Word
“Agape,” Which Refers to the Highest Form of Love, He Literally Says
“My Agaped Ones I Want You to Agape One Another”
-> He Was Saying, in Essence,
“I am Practicing What I am Preaching. I am Loving All of You in the Deepest Way
Possible, and I Want You to be Loving One Another in the Deepest Way Possible”
-> I Want You to Love One Another With This Same Kind of Love
-> And Then, He Adds This; He Says, “…for love is from God”
-> God, in Other Words, is the Originator of the Highest Form of Love
-> And This is Absolutely True
-> No One Can Love Any Other Person the Way That They Should Love That Other
Person Until After They Have Become a Recipient of God’s Love Themselves
-> Look Down Here are Verse 19 (Read)
-> Every Person, Listen to Me Now, Every Person Who Has Not Received the Love
of God by Regeneration Cannot Manifest the Love of God to Others, But Those
Who Have Received God’s Love by Regeneration Can and Should
-> That is Why the Apostle Paul Said This in Romans 5:5; He Said,
“…the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who was given to us” (His Love, in Other Words, Flows Out of Our Hearts)
-> So, if You are Not a Christian, This is a Fact; You Cannot Love Your Wife as Deeply
as I Love My Wife; You Cannot Love Your Children as Deeply as I Love My Children,
You Cannot Love Your Fellowman as Much as I Love My Fellowman, Because You
are Not Connected to the Source of Perfect Love Who is God Himself
2) God is the Orchestrator of Love
-> The Apostle John Goes on to Say “…for God is love”
-> Now, I Believe It is Important for Me to Point Out That John Did Not Say “Love
is God”; He Said, “God is Love”, and There is a Big Difference
-> These are Not Interchangeable in Every Sense
-> In Fact, We are Told in 1 John 1:5 That “God is Light, and in Him is no darkness
at all” But That Does Not Mean That “Light is God”
-> That Simply Means That God is the Epitome of Light; God Illumines the Minds
of Men; God is the Source of Moral Light as Opposed to Moral Darkness
-> That Does Not Mean That “Light” , in and of Itself, Describes Everything That There
is to Know About God Any More Than Any of His Other Divine Attributes Would
-> I Have Actually Had Some People Say This to Me When I Have Asked Them if They
Believe in God; I Have Had Them Say, “Well, I Believe in Love”
-> Well, I Think It’s Nice That They Believe in Love; But if They Never Receive
Jesus Christ as Their Savior, That is Not Going to be Enough to Save Them
-> No, Listen, When John Says That God is Love; He Means That God is the Epitome
of Love, and That God Himself is the Personification of Love
-> So, if You Want to Know the Definition of God, This is It “God is Love”Period
-> In Fact, I Don’t Think John Could Have Made That More Plain, Because There
It is; He Simply Said, “God is Love”
-> I Have Also Had People Say This to Me, and You Probably Have Too, “How Can
God be a God of Love When He Allows so Much Suffering to Exist in Our World?”
-> Well, One of the Problems With That Statement is That the Person Making It Isn’t
Qualified to Make It
-> For You See, Listen, No Human Being Can Define What Only God Can Define;
We May Have Some Concept of Love, But Our Concept of Love Cannot be as Deep
and as Perfect as God’s Concept of Love
St = Many People, for Example, Cannot Understand How Our God Could Send Anyone
to Hell; “If God is Love,” Many Will Say, “How Can He Send Someone to Hell?”
-> Well, It Might Surprise You to Know That Hell Exists Because God is Love
-> For You See, in Matthew 25:41, Jesus Said, “…the eternal fire (and That is Hell)
…has been prepared for the devil and his angels…”
-> God Originally Created Hell so That His Children Might be Forever Separated
From Those Who Had Rebelled Against Him
-> And Everything Else That God Does is Motivated by Love
-> This World Was Created, Because God is Love
-> The Fall of Man Occurred, Because God is Love
-> For You See, God Did Not Create Us as Robots; He Created Us With a Freewil
and the Ability to Love, and Love Demands a Choice (Elaborate)
-> Even Suffering and Death Have Come Because God is Love (Elaborate- Tree)
-> God Expresses His Love to All Men Thru What Theologians Call “Common Grace”
-> Jesus Said That “He (Meaning God) causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt 5:45)
-> God Gives Oxygen to Every Man and the Lungs That He Needs to Breathe It in;
God Gives Sunshine, and Rain, and Food, and Clothing, Because God is Love
-> God Withholds His Judgment for a Period of Time, Because God is Love
-> The Apostle Peter Said, “(God)…is patient toward you, not wishing for any
to perish but for all to come to repentance”(2 Peter 3:9)
-> The Bible is Filled With God’s Warning About His Wrath, and God Sends His
Gospel Into This World and Commands Us to Take It to the Ends of the Earth
Q.n = Why?
Ans = Love
Pt = None of Us Should Ever Even Begin to Think That We are More Qualified Than
God is to Define Love, Because “God is Love”
II. The Demonstration of God’s Perfect Love
vs 9-10 (Read)
1) God’s Love isSacrificial
-> This Attribute of God’s Nature is so Important for Us to Grasp That God
Did Not Allow It to Become Lost as an Ambiguous Abstract Concept
-> He Chose Instead to Give Us a Visible Example
-> And I am Referring, of Course, to Jesus Coming to This Earth and Dying
on the Cross for You and for Me
-> Three Times in Just a Few Verses We are Told That God Sent His Son to Us
-> It is Mentioned Here in Verses 9and 10 and Also in Verse 14 (Read)
-> Now, One Thing This Should Tell Us is That Jesus Pre-Existed as God
-> Our Lord’s Life Did Not Begin When He Was Born in Bethlehem
-> When God the Father Chose to Demonstrate His Love, He Looked Around Heaven
and He Said, in Essence,
“What Can I do to Show My Children on Earth the Depth of My Love in Such
a Way That They Cannot Possibly Miss It?”
-> And Then, He Said, in Essence,
“This is What I Will Do. I Will Send My Only Son, Because This is the Most
Costly Gift That I Can Possibly Give”
-> The Hippes, Back in the 1960’s and Early 1970’s Used to Talk About “Free Love”
-> Well, Let Me Tell You Something Friends, There is no Such Thing as “Free Love;”
If It’s Love, It’s Not Free, Because Love Costs
Q.n = And What Does John 3:16 Say?(Quote)
-> Listen, You Cannot Love Your SpouseWithout Giving, or Your Children Without
Giving, or Your Friends Without Giving, or Your ChurchWithout Giving
(Illustration = All I Ever Hear is “Give, Give, Give”…the Best Definition of Christianity)
Ill: As Most of You Know, I Have Two Sons, and the Thought of Giving Up Just One
of Them for Someone Else is Hard for Me to Even Comprehend
-> There are Some Places That My Mind Just Won’t Allow Me to Go, and This is One
of Those Places
-> But Nevertheless, I am Moved Emotionally by the Thought That God Sent His Son
to Die, Not Just for His Friends, But for His Enemies
-> For You See, Romans 5:8Says That God Demonstrates His Own Love Towards Us
in That While We Were Yet Sinners Christ Died for Us
-> And in Verse 10 of That Same Chapter, Paul Said,
“…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death
of His Son,…”
-> The Thought of Having Even One of My Own Sons Abused and Brutally Killed
for the Sake of an Enemy is Hard for Me to Even Imagine; Yet, That is Exactly
What God Did for You and for Me
Ex = There is an Old Illustration, Most of Have Probably Heard It, About a Man
Who Worked for the Railroad, and It Was His Job to Lower a Drawbridge
so That the Train Could Cross Over a Ship Channel
-> One Day the Man’s Son Asked if He Could go to Work With His Father,
and His Father Said “Yes”
-> They Had a Great Time Together; But When the Father Saw the Train Coming,
He Noticed That His Son Had Crawled Down Into the Gearbox
-> And Suddenly, He Found Himself in a Position Where He Had to Make One
of the Most Difficult Decisions That a Father Could Possibly Have to Make
(Elaborate)
______
-> This is What God Did for Us
-> AndThisis Why Paul Broke Out Into a Doxology in2 Corinthians 9:15and He Said,
“Thank be to God for His indescribable gift!”
______
2) God’s Love is Satisfying
-> I Realize That the Word “Propitiation”is a Big Word, But It is Also a Biblical Word;
So, We All Need to Learn What It Means, and It Essentially Means “To Satisfy”
-> This Word Teaches Us That God Did Not Send His Son Into This World and Have
Him Die on the Cross Just to Provide Us With an Example of Love
-> He Also Did This for a Very Practical Reason
-> We Had a Great Need
-> We Were Lost in Our Sins and Alienated From God, and There Was Nothing That
We Could do to Help Ourselves
-> God, Being a Just and Holy God, Could Not Ignore Our Sin, and God, Being
a Loving God, Wanted Very Much for Us to be Reconciled to Him
-> So, He Needed a Way to Demonstrate Both His Perfect Justice and His Perfect Love,
and the Cross Was the Answer; It Satisfied God’s Wrath Completely (Rom 8:32)
Quote ______
-> Someone Has Well Said That if a Judge Let’s a Guilty Man go Free, the Judge
is Condemned
-> So, Listen, at the Cross, the Light of God’s Holiness Met the Love of God’s
Forgiveness and Gave to All of Us Who Want It the Life of God’s Salvation
Quote ______
-> And Listen, Because Jesus Was a Perfectly Righteous and Infinite Human Being,
His Death Was Sufficient Enough to Provide Salvation for Anyone Who Will Repent
-> And as I’ve Point Out Before, This is Why I Don’t Believe in a Limited Atonement
-> In 1 John 2:2, the Apostle John Said This, Listen,
“and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only,
but also for those of the whole world”
-> And Look at Verse 14 (Read)
III. The Distribution of God’s Perfect Love
vs 11-12 (Read)
1) God’s Love is Reasonable
-> Now, God Never Intended for His Perfect Love to End With His Great Gift to Us
-> God’s Desire Has Always Been for All of Us Who are Christians to “Mature” to Such
a Degree in Our Spiritual Life That We Will Begin to Distribute Some More of His
“Mature”(Tele-aw-o) or “Perfect” Love Throughout This World
-> And So, the Apostle John Brings This Right Down to Where We Live
-> In Verse 11, He Says “Beloved IF” Which is a Word That Could Probably
be Better Translated “Since”
“Beloved, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another”
Q.n = Now, Can You Think of Someone in Your Life Who is Difficult to Love?
-> We Hear These Referred to Sometimes as “High Maintenance Relationships”
Q.n = Can You Think of Someone in Your Life Who is Like That?
-> Maybe, a Person at Work Would Come to Your Mind, or a Neighbor, or Your
Mother-in-Law, or Your Spouse (I Hope Not, But They Could be the One)
Q.n = Well, Guess What?
-> God Wants Us to Love Others Unconditionally, and This is Only Reasonable
Since God Has Loved UsUnconditionally
______
Ill: I’ve Heard a Lot of Christians Try to Get Around This by Saying, “I Love Them
in the Lord”(Elaborate = That is a Cop Out if I Have Ever Heard One)
______
-> Jesus Even Commanded Us to Love Our Enemies in Matt 5:44; and in Matt 5:47,
He Really Gave Us Something to Think About When He Said This; He Said,
"If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even
the Gentilesdo the same?” (Elaborate = Our Love is No Better Than a Lost Person’s)
2) God’s Love is Revealing
vs 12 (Read)
-> In That Verse, the Apostle John Tells Us What God Wants From All of Us
-> God Wants All of Us to “Manifest” or to “Reveal” His Perfect Love to This World
-> God Wants Us to Follow His Great Example by Distributing This Same Kind
of “Perfect,” or We Could Say, “Mature” Love to Other People
-> And the Reason God Wants Us to do This is Because He is a Spirit, God is Invisible;
Therefore, No One Will be Able to Come to See God Unless He is Revealed to Them
-> And the Way to Reveal Him, John Says, is by Showing the World That We
Genuinely Love One Another and That We Genuinely Love Them