Sermon Tone Analysis

Christian artist Shai Linne in his introduction to doxology wrote these words,

Theology is the study of God and it's very important;

Doxology is an expression of praise to God

So, the point here is that all theology should ultimately lead to doxology

If theology doesn't lead to doxology, then we've actually missed the point of theology

So if you have theology without doxology, you just have dead, cold orthodoxy;

Which is horrible, right?

On the other side, we have people who say: "Ugh!

Forget theology; I just wanna praise!"

Right?

But, if we have doxology without theology, we actually have idolatry!

Because it's just a random expression of praise; but it's not actually informed by the Truth of who God is

So, God is concerned with both!

He's concerned with an accurate understanding of Him;

And that accurate understanding of Him, leading to a response of praise, adoration and worship towards Him

And friend, every time we gather on Sunday, we aim to build both - our understanding of God, and our praise to Him.

We desire to build one another’s theology and doxology.

When we Fellowship, and when we sing, and when we read the scriptures, and when we give our offerings, and when we hear the Scriptures preached, and when we partake of communion, and when we see believers baptized - what we are doing is building in one another a biblical view of God and opportunities to praise Him for Who He Is and What He Has done.

And friend, your Creator God has been so good to you!

Now I recognize that not everyone here today has responded to that goodness in faith, but many of us have.

And one way God has been good to us, as a predominantly assembled gathering of followers of Jesus, is that He has brought us into close fellowship with Him through faith in Jesus.

All of us who have responded to the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in repentance and faith, have been born into the family of God and with that new birth, have been given a privileged relationship of close fellowship with Him.

And a central theme of this book that we are studying is all about the GENUINE ASSURANCE we have of this FELLOWSHIP.

As we have talked about frequently, We can be sure that our relationship with God is genuine by four primary means:

1.

A believing faith in the scriptural truth about Jesus (2:20-27)

The original followers of Christ believed particular truths from the apostles centered around Christ’s virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, victorious ascension, present intercession, triumphant return.

2. A commitment to obey God’s commands (2:3-6; 2:29-3:10)

As John writes to the church, we learn that we cannot live habitual lifestyles that are openly defiant to God and say that we are in fellowship with Him.

There will be certain evidences that are shown in our lifestyle and grown from our origin now as being born of God.

3. A true love for fellow believers (2:9-11; 3:10-18)

We were given the distinguishing contrast of love from hate in the example of Cain, and defined by the example of Christ.

We were admonished that we are to keep our hearts open to the needs of others, and help those God brings before us through actions, not just words.

Our love for others is proven for the actions we choose.

1.

A believing faith in the scriptural truth about Jesus (2:20-27)

2. A commitment to obey God’s commands (2:3-6; 2:29-3:10)

3. A true love for fellow believers (2:9-11; 3:10-18)

4. The indwelling Spirit of God (3:24; 4:13)

At conversion God comes to live within us, through the indwelling Spirit.

And as the Spirit of God takes up residence within us, he provides assurance that we are the children of God.

Not only does he provide the internal assurance of being children of God, but as we continually submit ourselves to His leading, He produces particular external fruit through us that also provides assurance that we are God’s.

These four means of assurance could be personally reflected on in this way, and again, I’d encourage you to write them down and think about them this week:

1. Do I believe what the Bible says about Jesus?

2. Is obedience to God the rule or exception in my life?

3. Am I sacrificially loving my faith siblings?

4. Is there fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life?

All of John’s letter is weaving together.

Three weeks ago, we learned all about loving one another, and how our love toward others is not to be expressed solely through our words, but through our actions and truth.

John carries that idea of true loving into the next passage that we studied two Sundays ago.

Then John gives us a two part command in v. 23

Believe in Jesus

Love One Another

Believe and Love

And he follows that up in v. 24 with:

Now, what we see in chapter 4 is a further explanation to this belief and love.

Last week, in vv.

1-6, John gave us a deeper look into what it means to believe or trust in particular truths about Jesus.

And those particular truths centered around the four crucial details that Origin Matters, Confession Matters, Possession Matters, and Profession Matters.

We are not supposed to blindly accept everything we hear, but we are to test what we hear against what the Bible says, particularly about who Jesus is.

One way we do this is by knowing what the Bible says, through memorizing.

And in chapter 4 of 1 John, we kicked off what we are calling CHALLENGE 21.

I hope you tried to work on 1 John 4:1-6 this past week.

ANY QUOTERS?

Facebook - screen savers.

This next week we are memorizing vv.

7-12

And so, last week we learned that:

I’m responsible to discern what I hear and believe.

Believe was the first theme we saw in 3:23 that is being further fleshed out now in chapter 4.

And to dive deeper into the second theme, John will now write for the remainder of chapter 4 on love.

Now friend, it is no secret that we worship an invisible God.

In fact, this is one attribute that the New Testament emphasizes throughout its pages.

John 1 and 5, Colossians 1, 1 Timothy 1, Hebrews 11, and 1 Peter 1 all point to this theologically rich truth that we can be sure of Him, yet not visibly see Him.

There are a lot of questions that stem from the invisibility of God.

And added to these is the question asked by the writers of the Teach the Bible Commentary, how can we relate love to this invisible intangible God?

They go one to write that 1 John 4:7–12 takes our difficulty seriously and reminds us that the love of the invisible God has in fact been made visible in Christ.

And our love for the invisible God will be made visible in our love for one another.

Mervyn Eloff, Teaching 1, 2, 3 John: From Text to Message, ed.

David Jackman and Adrian Reynolds, Teach the Bible (Ross-shire, Scotland; London: PT Resources; Christian Focus, 2016), 154.

And this is really helpful as we gain a perspective on love that is crucial in how we understand God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for one another.

This study and next week, Lord willing, come alongside these three expressions of love and give us everything we need to obey the command to love one another.

And how this builds in our passage today is really beautiful.

If you are struggling to love someone today, I hope you will pay close attention to the presentation that the apostle John gives on this overflowing love.

He begins that:

1. Love Originates in God (vv.

7-8).

John not only gives his readers a command, but the rationale behind the command.

Isn’t that helpful.

It’s as if John knew that there was a little child inside of all of us, ready to ask the question, “WHY?”

You’ve been there, right.

You are stuck with a kid, maybe your own or someone elses, and you say something, and their response is, “WHY?”

I was always told in every parenting class I ever took, that “Because I said so” wasn’t a helpful way to instruct kids.

But friend, I will tell you, there have been multiple times when my kids asked one to many “WHYs”

The first three or four times, I tried to oblige and explain things a little better.

Eventually the answer simply had to be, because daddy loves you, and that’s just how it is…

“WHY?”

BECAUSE I SAID SO, ALRIGHT!

THERE, I SAID IT.

BECAUSE I SAID SO....

And it is almost like John knew we would ask why.

WHY DO I HAVE TO LOVE HIM… DO YOU REALLY MEAN THAT I HAVE TO LOVE HER??? YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME.

And John says, yes, love them.

And here is the reason, love originates in God, it doesn’t originate in you.