True Love 7

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

1. His love is a CHOICE that allows us to follow His LEAD.

1 John 4:7–11 NASB95

Main Idea: The love that God had for us was totally His choice. God loved us even though we were unlovable. God chose to love us. We model this same kind of love for others. We choose to love them, without them earning it.

· God is love. Love is from God. God is the ONLY source of love.

· God doesn’t love us in our response to Him. God loved us before we ever loved Him. God didn’t love us because we are loveable.

· Propitiate, Expiate, Atone

· Reciprocate the love we received - perpetual motion

· At the Cross we see the satisfaction of God’s wrath by God’s love through God’s Gift.

· We don’t live FOR God’s love, we are to live FROM God’s love.

· His love is the fuel that empowers fruitful works.

Ephesians 2:4–6 NASB95

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

2. His love is our TESTIMONY that allows us to reflect His LIGHT.

1 John 4:12–13 NASB95

No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

Main Idea: Scripture tells us that no one has seen God. We are His image barriers and His reflection (of love) is our testimony to a dark, unbelieving world.

· The Holy Spirit is a gift given to the believer. It is not earned through works.

· “You are the only Bible some Unbelievers will ever read.” -John MacArthur

· A church that is always trying to be like the World has absolutely nothing to offer a World that’s dying.

o That is like a nurse trying to mimic the sickness of a patient…it is silly.

John 13:34–35 NASB95

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Matthew 5:16 NASB95

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

3. His love Is our GIFT that allows us to confirm His PRESENCE

1 John 4:15–16 NASB95

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Main Idea: God has a general love for the world, which is seen in His common goodness and grace. His world for the love will eventually come to an end. However, God’s love for us through Jesus Christ is present at a deeper level and a longer timespan (eternity.) We have come to know and believe that God’s love for us through Jesus is a perfect love.

· A huge lie in our culture: God is love and love is God.

· This is like saying “grass is green and green is grass”

· “We have so elevated the love of God over the wrath of God that we have air-conditioned Hell.” -Steve Lawson

Ephesians 3:17–19 NASB95

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

2 Corinthians 9:15 NASB95

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

4. His love is our COMFORT that allows us to trust His SACRIFICE

1 John 4:17–21 NASB95

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Main Point: God’s perfect love for us gives us comfort during the most anxious and stressful time in our life, the day of judgment. It is our trust in Christ sacrifice that calms our fears, on this most important day, when the sheep and the goats are separated.

· Love makes us bold. Love gives us confidence. Love casts out fear.

· Close love creates complete confidence.

· The CLOSER your love for Christ, the more confidence is CREATED.

· When you are close to someone whom you love, who has a lot more power than you do, you will not fear.

· If your child was trapped in a burning building, you would run in immediately…WHY?

· Because the love you have for your child would cast out the fear of fire.

· Any fear that makes us DISTRUST God’s promises and DOUBT His Word is a fear that will begin to DESTROY our joy.

· During Covid, everybody was getting tested for the virus. There were false positives and false negatives. Therefore, the tests were not all 100% accurate.

· However, there is one test that proves 100% that we are Believers: Do we love our Brothers and Sisters in Christ?

John 3:16–18 NASB95

“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. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

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