Advent 2025: Love – 1 John 4:7-11

Good morning and Merry Christmas.

I hope that you all have been enjoying this Advent season.

!

Considering our Savior's Advent, it's an honor to be filling the pulpit here this morning.

! I got to preach on the Advent theme of love last year.

I'm really excited to be at it again.

Today, as we consider the love of God in light of Jesus' Advent,

we're going to be looking at 1 John 4, 1 John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

This text is probably the text that most densely uses the words God and love.

This chapter uses love or beloved about 27 times.

And the text we're going to be looking at, verses 7 through 11,

uses love or beloved 13 times and God 9 times.

So about 20% of the words here, the actual words in our text, are God or love.

John, after all, is the disciple whom Jesus loved.

And so it's only fitting he would reiterate his self-given title so many times.

So I think this is a good place to observe and to contemplate the love of God.

There's a lot to be said on this topic.

But from our text this morning, we are going to be considering

the contrast between the world's view of love and God's true agape love.

And with that, let's read our text.

1 John chapter 4, verses 7 through 11.

1 John 4:7–11

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.

And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

In this, the love of God was made manifest among us,

that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

In this is love.

Not that we have 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.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you for your word this morning.

We pray by the power of your spirit that you would enlighten us,

reveal yourself to us, show us the weight and the glory of your love.

And we pray these things in Christ's name.

Amen.

All right, so for context here, briefly,

these verses are in the midst of God giving the audience a test to see

if an individual is in Christ or not.

And in fact, throughout the whole book,

he is contrasting those who are in Christ from the world.

In our text, he is doing that in the context of love.

What does the believer look like in regard to love?

And why is it not so for the world?

Verses 7 and 8 come with presumptions that the audience is already aware of.

The previous three chapters provide descriptions of who knows God

and who is born again in contrast to those who do not truly know God,

who have not been born again, and who does not love.

So we're going to paint that picture really quickly from the previous chapters.

In chapter 2, it says that those who know him keep his commandments.

Those who say they know him but don't keep his commandments are liars.

Those who confess Jesus is the Christ has the Father also.

Those who deny Jesus is the Antichrist.

In chapter 3, those who have the love of God are children of God.

Those who do not know God are not children.

Those who abide in him do not keep on sinning.

Those who keep on sinning do not know him.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God.

Those who love have passed from death to life.

The one that hates his brother is a murderer, and murders do not have eternal life.

Those who confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

Those who do not are the spirit of the Antichrist.

So there's some context for those who know and those who are born again.

And the contrast is it's a stark dividing line.

And when we come to this text, we're not here to determine how mature a believer is or how sanctified they are.

It is to distinguish those who are from those who aren't.

And so we come to our text in 1 John 4 where we distinguish those who love and those who don't.

And back in chapter 2, John tells us that the world does indeed love, but is not the same kind of love addressed in chapter 4.

In chapter 2, it says that if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

There's something different about the world's love and the believer's love.

And a common thread throughout Scripture as we notice God's agape love is that it's wildly different than the world's understanding of love.

And the premier indicator of this difference is that the world's love is a selfish love.

Always looking to satisfy oneself and not to outwardly serve and care for another.

And one of the most iconic influences regarding love that we have in our common day is Romeo and Juliet.

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Whether or not Shakespeare was a believer or if his work properly reflects some good gospel themes elsewhere is a discussion for another time.

But in Romeo and Juliet, these two young lovers are so emphatically smitten with one another that if they can't have one another, what's the point in life itself?

They discovered their love for one another only after one night of meeting each other.

And then go on to commit suicide within the span of a week from then.

Love at first sight.

Is that what true love is?

Are we so consumed with something or someone that if we don't have this self-satisfying relationship, we might as well kill ourselves?

That's more a crazed idolatry of seeking the pleasures and benefits that someone can offer than it is a self-sacrificial pursuit of serving someone else.

They were sacrificing themselves for the benefit of themselves, not each other.

They wanted to save themselves from the pain of not having their heart's desire.

They didn't even truly know each other yet.

Not enough, at least, to consider the weight of marriage.

And so, what is the world preaching about love?

It's sentimentalism.

I'm sure you've heard the statement, live and let love.

They say love is love.

Whatever you find desirable and infatuated with, that is good and that is love because it pleases you.

Love is based off how something makes you feel.

If you enjoy it, that's love.

If you don't, avoid it.

1 John 2 says this,

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world.

The world is passing away and also its lusts.

Another word for the way the world views love may be lust.

They have an ungodly love, a love for the world and self, self-seeking satisfaction.

Love and let love.

And if someone tries to disrupt relentless lust, they say you're hating people because you aren't letting them express their true selves.

That is a contradiction, by the way.

The world commands the Christian to stop expressing ourselves because true love allows the expression of oneself.

It's a little fallacious.

So why don't we get that same offer of love?

Sometimes the world, they are not actively hating someone and wishing ill upon another, but they also aren't purely seeking their good.

There's a common grace where we may see the world sacrificing themselves for another.

I think deep down there's still some sort of selfish motivation.

As the text says, all that is in the world is not from the Father.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

They may be in it for their own glory of their sacrifice.

It may be for some future benefit they seek in response from their sacrifice.

But I don't believe it can be the same unique agape love that the Bible speaks of later in our text because chapter 4, verse 7 says,

Love is from God, not the unregenerate world where Satan and sin abound.

So because love emanates from God, God himself has to be the source of love.

Verse 8 says it clearly, God is love.

God is not just loving, but he indeed is love.

And that is not all that he is, but it certainly is not less.

That is why those who don't know God also don't love.

Any love that we might impart to someone else isn't truly from us, at least not our natural selves.

It flows from the Spirit of God at work in us.

So God is the fountainhead of true agape love, and his love never ceases.

This is not a temporary condition of his character.

Instead, it is an incessant condition of who he is.

He is not just the light that shines from the sun.

He is the sun.

He embodies love all the time in every action.

And some might say, what about God's justice or his discipline?

Are they always loving?

If he is sovereign, is it loving that he allows bad things to happen?

Yes, to all of it.

He disciplines his children to reveal himself to us.

Knowing God is the sweetest gift we could ever fathom.

It comes with trials, but it draws us deeper into the pleasures of God.

Isn't it good that sin hurts and that rest in Christ is sweet?

Godly discipline is loving.

What about his justice?

Psalm 11.5 says,

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

He's a just God.

And we don't want an unjust God, do we?

Sin is lawlessness.

There would only be immediate, unruly disaster without a just God who has revealed his law to his creation.

Many people are hypocrites when it comes to condemning God of being just.

And by the way, this is another worldly contradiction.

We all, at times, advocate for justice.

And the world will sometimes condemn God's justice.

We all watch the movie of the bad guy, and we can't wait to see justice paid.

We watch the court trials of various criminals and eagerly await to hear how bad the sentencing is.

We all, at times, even unleash our own wrath against our neighbor when we've been offended.

But God sends the rain and sun on both the just and the unjust.

While he hates wickedness, he still shows love to all that he has made.

The wicked curse God, and yet God is benevolent.

He prays for his persecutors.

He is patient with them, but will ultimately serve them their due justice.

God's love is actually magnified by the reality that he is just.

Because we rightly deserve condemnation, and it has to be paid.

And Christ paid it on the believer's behalf.

Well, what about the bad things that happen in the world?

These are a consequence of sin in the world.

People are depraved.

And we may intend to do things for evil,

but God is so loving that he can use even the vilest things the world has to offer

for his glory and the good of his people.

The ground is cursed and natural disasters happen.

And if it feels unfair that God would allow this to happen to us,

remember that mankind sent Christ to the tree.

Who are we to think that we deserve him to preserve us from any of the bad consequences of sin?

And do we praise him by his grace when he does preserve us?

So yes, God is love, and that never ceases.

Even if we don't fully understand all that he is doing through discipline and serving justice,

we're allowing bad things to conspire.

God is love.

So we've talked a lot about love so far, but what is agape love?

In verses 7 through 8, we see who actually has love, where it comes from,

but it doesn't quite tell us what love is.

The modern world seems to think that love equals lust,

so we're not going to find out what agape love is from the world or even ourselves.

In order to understand love, we first need to understand more about God himself and the world he has created.

As verse 7 says, whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

We need to know God to know love.

And this text gives us the implicit details to answer these questions,

and it is more explicit the more we read our Bibles.

So here are two big distinctives about God's love that we see in our text.

Number one, it is both inward and outward.

It's both inward and outward.

And number two, it is vast beyond measure.

So to start, I think there are two main elements of true, godly, agape love.

There is the inward and outward reality to it.

So first with the inward, we could call it affection or compassion.

It's a benevolent sentiment or empathy that God has for people.

At the beginning of verse 10 here, we have a definition being posed.

In this is love.

Well, what is it?

Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.

Love's affections are a one-way ticket in heart.

You don't have love for someone with anticipation or on the agreement that they will return some benefit to you.

It is an inward compassion and affection for another just because.

We obviously had nothing to give in return to him if he came to propitiate for our sins.

So God has this love harbored inside of himself, not on the basis of what we can do for him.

It's because he loves and he himself is love.

I'm going to take us through a couple of passages throughout scripture.

You can stay in 1 John to kind of capture God embodying this inward compassion.

In Matthew 9, 36, when Jesus was going about healing people and proclaiming the gospel,

it says,

Then what?

Then Jesus wept.

And so the Jews were saying,

See how he loved him.

They recognized Jesus' love through his compassion.

To God's covenant people in Isaiah 43,

God declares,

Because you are precious in my eyes,

and honor rules in exchange for your life.

Psalm 145,

The Lord is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and rich in love.

The Lord is good to all.

He is compassion on all that he has made.

In Deuteronomy 7,

and again in 1 Peter 2, 9,

God says that his covenant people are a treasured possession.

And then further in Deuteronomy 7,

it says,

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession.

Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth,

it was not because you were more in number than any other person

that the Lord set his love on you and chose you.

For you were the fewest of all peoples.

But it is because the Lord loves you.

Even when being put to death,

Jesus prayed for his persecutors that they may be forgiven,

for they know not what they do.

Psalm 103,

As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

For he knows our frame.

He remembers that we are of dust.

And these are just a few places that we see the Lord having the inward sentiment

that is benevolent towards someone outward.

But it's all throughout Scripture.

And then there's this second component.

It's this outward manifestation.

An outward display of the love inside.

Beginning of our text, verse 9, it says,

In this, the love of God, the inward love of God,

was made manifest outward,

was made manifest among us,

that God sent his only Son into the world.

God's love is never passive.

It never stands by the wayside.

And if we don't necessarily perceive God acting,

he is actively withholding an outward sign in love.

We are to blame if we read the Bible

and fail to see this outward love.

For starters, he created mankind.

He gives mankind an opportunity to know his majestic glory.

And when mankind turned its back on God

and everyone was doing only evil continually,

God preserved Noah and his family

and thereby preserving all of us,

everyone beyond Noah's day,

that we could have an opportunity to know the majestic glory of God.

When the Israelites were enslaved,

he miraculously fed them

and freed them from bondage in Egypt.

And he kept them alive

until they reached a land flowing with milk and honey.

And then when they got to that land,

God offered them rest on all of their borders from their enemies.

When David was being hunted down,

God preserved his life.

God acquired a big fish

to bring a reluctant preacher to the Ninevites.

And in Jesus' ministry,

Christ heals the sick,

he raises the dead,

he feeds the hungry,

he casts out the demons.

And in 1 John 4,

his love was made manifest

by sending his son into the world

to be the propitiation for our sins.

God shows his love for us

that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

He shows it.

God's love is never passive.

He does not just say he loves,

he shows it.

Agape love is always active.

So in the world,

you may only see one of these two components at work.

It could be that inward compassion

or it could be an outward action.

You can have a warm affection on the inside for someone

but not have agape love

if it is never actually manifested.

Conversely,

you can do a lot of things to serve other people

and not be in it

to sincerely serve those people.

In the first case,

in the first case,

affection without manifestation,

you have that person

who wants to admire someone

and delight themselves

in the beauty of another person.

You might think they're really talented

or beautiful

or they just have a way with words

that stirs you.

You consume all that they are

to feed your own interested,

fleshly appetite

and never actually commit

to outwardly serving that person

with intentional loving actions.

That's a selfish consumption

of someone else's character.

I might say,

I love my co-worker.

He's a hard worker,

doesn't complain,

makes the stress of work less daunting

but am I willing to wake up early

on a Saturday morning

to help him move into his new house?

Do I have affection

but not manifestation?

JR, you're welcome.

I work with JR

and I just committed to helping him move.

In the second case,

manifestation without affection

might look like legalistic,

mechanical box checking.

The Boy Scout helps the elderly

cross the street to get a badge.

You know,

give me the checklist of stuff to do

so I can just knock it out

and show you I love you.

Acts of service can be heartless

and just simply like systematic

out of requirement or obligation,

personal gain or even fear.

So true love not only serves

but it's paired with a true desire

to care for the one you are serving,

not just to get your brownie points.

If the Boy Scout truly had loved

that elderly lady,

he would have done it

without the incentive of personal gain.

As 1 Corinthians says,

and we even read that this morning,

if I give all my possessions,

if I do all this stuff,

if I give all my possessions

to feed the poor

and I surrender my body

to be burned,

if I do all this outward stuff

and do not have love,

it profits me nothing.

So furthermore,

manifested agape love

also seeks to fill

tangible, practical needs

someone has.

You can turn with me really quickly

to 1 John 3.

It's just one chapter back.

1 John 3, 16-18.

By this we know love

that he laid down his life for us

and we ought to lay down our lives

for the brothers.

But if anyone has the world's goods

and sees his brother in need

yet closes his heart against him,

how does God's love abide in him?

Little children,

let us not love in word or talk

but in deed and in truth.

So, love manifested

fills real, practical needs.

And this brings us

to our second distinctive

about God's love

is that it is vast beyond measure.

He doesn't just provide food

when we are hungry.

He also fills

an eternally greater need than that.

And what is our greatest need?

We need to be reconciled to God.

And the barrier here

is that in order to be reconciled,

we need to have our transgressions pardoned.

There needs to be a propitiation

for our sins.

And that's exact,

but that he loved us

and sent his son

to be the propitiation

for our sins.

It's a big word.

A propitiation

is like a sacrificial offering

to pardon iniquity,

to pardon sin and transgression,

to make things right

and reconciled.

For example,

once upon a time

in a town

named Whoville,

there was a Who

that committed a serious crime.

The Grinch,

after recognizing his wrongdoing,

wanted to make things right.

He wanted to propitiate

for his transgressions.

There's only one problem.

He could only offer

what he had stolen.

And like the Grinch,

we don't have anything

that we can offer to God

to propitiate for ourselves.

And we certainly can't provide

the kind of propitiation required

that would exonerate us

from transgressing

the all-powerful creator

of the universe.

What do we have

that he doesn't?

How can we,

the creature,

appease the creator

who gave us all things,

who has given a gift to God

that he might be repaid?

He is a holy God,

and transgressing him

comes with a holy consequence.

We did not love God,

but he loved us

by providing for us

this propitiation.

He sent his only son to die

and suffer the wrath of God

so that we might live

and be reconciled to him,

adopted into his holy family.

That gift of grace is profound.

So let's consider

a little more deeply

just how sacrificial that is.

A little rule about agape love

is that it is magnified

by the greatness of the sacrifice

in proportion to the obligation

to make that sacrifice.

It's magnified by the greatness

of the sacrifice

in proportion to the obligation

to make that sacrifice.

It would be shallow

or less loving

to give a cheap,

last-minute Amazon delivery

as a Christmas gift.

For most, that is,

it's not much of a sacrifice.

In addition,

it's easy to give a Christmas gift

to a loved one.

Even the tax collectors do this.

Well, how much more is the love

that would give an excellent,

practical, needed gift

that you had to spend

a lot of time

and resources

and energy on

to someone who hated you?

You don't do that

because you're selfish.

You would only do that

because you have been shown

an immense amount of love

and it is that love

that abides in you.

And God sent

his only son

to die

for you and me

when all we brought to him

was rebellion.

We hated God

and we loved ourselves.

We were his enemies,

yet he sent his son

into the world

that we might live through him.

How great was that sacrifice?

It's incomprehensible.

When we see children

dying at moments in Scripture,

how does a parent respond?

We've got three examples

of this throughout.

I'm going to go through

in the New Testament.

Feel free to say

in 1 John.

I'll read these.

In John 4, 46-49,

it says,

So he,

this is Jesus,

came again to Cana

in Galilee

where he had

made the water wine

and at Capernaum

there was an official

whose son was ill.

When this man heard

that Jesus had come

from Judea

to Galilee,

he went to him.

So this official

from Capernaum

went to Galilee

which was

somewhere between

12 and like

24 miles.

It depends on the geography

and where it was all going on.

It was a long ways.

It was a lot to commit to

especially without a car.

And so he asked him,

the man,

the official,

asked Jesus

to come down

and heal his son

for he was

at the point of death.

So he traveled

this very long way

to ask Jesus for help.

And so Jesus said to him,

Unless you see signs

and wonders,

you will not believe.

The official said to him,

Sir,

come down

before my child dies.

In Mark 5,

we have another.

It says,

Then came one of the rulers

of the synagogue,

Jairus by name,

and seeing him,

he fell at his feet

and implored him

earnestly,

saying,

My little daughter

is at the point of death.

Come and lay your hands

on her

so that she might be

made well

and live.

Luke 9,

On the next day,

when they had come down

from the mountain,

a great crowd met him.

And behold,

a man from the crowd

cried out,

Teacher,

I beg you

to look at my son,

for he is my only child.

I beg you.

And behold,

a spirit seizes him

and he suddenly cries out.

It convulses him

so that he foams at the mouth

and shatters him

and will hardly leave him.

And I begged your disciples

to cast it out.

But they could not.

Which one of us

wouldn't have

that same urgency

for our children?

I've been in that situation

a couple of times.

One with my own daughter,

Charlotte,

who did die.

And second with Waylon,

a little man running around

giving out free high fives

nowadays.

He had a stroke

when he was two weeks old

and he nearly died.

It is tragic.

You would do anything

to see your child

live the next day.

And I want to encourage

you guys now

as we're together

to be particularly considerate

of how you might be

serving and mourning

and praying

with the Truets

as they're going through this.

It's insufferable.

And our sympathetic God

knows the pain

of child loss.

Here's the profound reality

of God's only begotten son.

Being rich in mercy

with which he loved us,

he willingly

sent his only son

to suffer

and die

for a people

that did not deserve it.

That actually deserved it

at least.

He knew that,

he knew

all that was

ahead of him.

He took it on.

He was born into

a poor family

in a manger,

immediately hunted

by Herod,

living a life

of persecution

and dying

a humiliating death.

And more than that,

consuming God's

spiritual wrath

on himself.

He must have done that

for someone

who was really worthy

and highly exalted.

That's a big sacrifice.

No.

He did it for people

who wished themselves

to be God.

He is the creator

and keeper

of all history.

He knew

your unloveliness,

my unloveliness,

and he knew

the pain

of suffering child loss

and suffering death itself,

but he did it anyways

to save you

so that you might

live through him.

And that

is the epitome

of selfless,

compassionate,

outward,

manifested love

that the world

could never imagine.

Remy and Juliet,

they didn't have

a tested love

for one another

because they didn't

really truly know

each other's shortcomings.

God, however,

knows every lie,

every bout of anger,

every discreet sin

in your heart,

every motive you've had,

and yet he loved us

and chose to be

our propitiation.

He didn't have

rose-colored glasses.

He knows all of you,

and yet he paid

to have you.

And that is how vast

beyond measure

it is that Christ

came to earth

as a man,

the creator

and humility,

becoming a creature

and becoming obedient

to death,

even death on a cross,

not for his own good,

but for others.

Sacrificing his son

so that we could

become sons

and daughters.

See what kind of love

the Father has given us

that we should be called

children of God,

and so we are.

Christian,

bathe yourselves

in this glorious,

mysterious truth

that Christ

saved a sinner

like you

and like me.

He loved

and showed his love

to a stubborn

and rebellious people,

and praise God,

he did.

Rest

in Christ's embrace.

He loves you.

Rejoice

in God's manifested love.

Non-Christian,

repent

and believe

and receive

the free gift

of grace

in Christ Jesus

our Lord.

It is the most

critical thing

you need

to be kept

from the torments

of hell,

but also to be

fully satisfied

in the love of God.

This world

is passing away

along with its lusts.

Drugs wear off,

money can be lost.

You won't

always be

young

and agile

and productive.

These things

will let you down,

but Christ

is eternal.

He is never changing.

He is an anchor

for the soul.

He offers

a life

of eternal

joy.

All the blessings

of a child,

an heir,

and none

of the punishments

of a criminal

in God's holy courts.

And non-Christian,

all of us here

were where you are

at one time.

We were dead

in our trespasses,

and we were overwhelmed

by the love of God.

And none of us

who know God

and have been born

of Him

would trade that in

even if we could.

So come.

Come and let us

adore Him.

Our text tells us,

and really the rest

of 1 John,

that this kind of love,

this kind of sacrificial

agape love,

is particularly

commanded

for those within

the body of Christ.

And verse 11 reads,

Beloved,

if God so loved us,

we also ought

to love one another.

In chapter 3,

John tells us that

we should not

be like Cain.

He, Cain,

in selfish hatred,

laid down

his brother's life

for himself.

Conversely,

Christ laid down

his own life

for his brother's.

Beloved,

let us love

one another

like Christ.

Do you love

being a part

of Providence Baptist,

but you never

actually play

your part in it?

Are you exercising

the gifts God

has given you

to bless the church,

or are you keeping

them to yourself?

Do you appreciate

the kind of people

that are here,

but never put in

the spiritual sweat

to love

and serve

these people outwardly?

Are you the one

on Slack

always replying

on the prayer channel,

but never on

the help channel?

Maybe it's the opposite.

Are you praying

regularly for one another?

Do you have

a compassion for them

that you rejoice

with those who rejoice

and weep

with those who weep?

Do you bear

with the weaker brother?

Are you patient

with them?

Christ was with you.

Do you give

each other

the benefit

of the doubt?

And do you

yourself receive

admonishment

and humility?

Do you gather

regularly?

If you're a member,

Hebrews 10 says

that we can stir

one another up

to love

by not neglecting

to meet together.

So do you come?

Do you come

to take the Lord's Supper

and remember

with your siblings

what Christ

has accomplished?

Do you gather

on the Lord's Day

in the mornings

to sing to

and with

one another

and then sit underneath

the preaching

of God's Word together?

Do you gather

outside of Sundays?

Do you

lay down your life

for these people?

Because our God

loved us

and we

have been born

of Him

then we will do

this for

the brothers.

And hear me,

I face these

questions too

and I myself

need to grill

in holiness

to love

you well.

And I want to

personally tell you all

that I

so often see

this love

amidst our body

and I'm thankful

to God for it.

the ways that you

have loved me

and my family

but also the ways

you have loved

one another.

It's very,

it stirs me.

And I want to

encourage you all

to press into

this love

for God's glory

for the good

of others

and more

and more

until the day

draws near.

This is the

inevitable result

of being born

of God

and personally

experiencing

His love.

My own children

have blue eyes

and blonde hair

because they are

my children.

They look like me.

All the whos

in Whoville

are the same way.

The siblings

are nearly identical

to each other

and their parents

they've all got

the weird nose

and the crazy hair.

They're filled

with joy

and merriment

but did you notice

which one

did not look like them

and was affiliated

with anger

and selfishness

who needed

a new heart?

The test of love

will be true

for the children

of God.

We will look

like God

by our love

for one another

because love

is from God.

Indeed

God is love.

Compassionate

and active

sacrificial

and effective

in His outward love.

Now love

is not to be confined

to those

within the body

of Christ.

Remember our text

we have not

loved God

but God

loved us.

When we were dead

in our trespasses

outside the family

of God

He brought us

in

and adopted us

and made us

children.

Our love

also ought to extend

to those

outside the church

in hopes

to bring them in

as brothers

and sisters

and perhaps

by extending

this love

their heart

may grow

three sizes.

To summarize

those who have

been regenerated

by the love

of God

will overflow

with the new love

that God

puts inside them.

Those who have

not confessed

Christ as Lord

and have not

took hold

of the love

of God

are still

in their natural

state

of loving

the things

of the world

and namely

themselves.

God's love

is unique

in its duality

of inward

and outward

compassion.

His love

is proved,

shown,

and exemplified

by Christ's

atoning

work for our

sins

and appeasing

a just

God

so that we

might truly

live.

The record

of sin

is washed

away

and the love

of God

now present

all because

Christ came

to this earth

as a baby

endured temptation

yet without sin

he suffered

the death

that he did

not deserve

to die

and he overcame

the grave

by the power

of the spirit

and has secured

his children

a seat

in eternal

glory.

This is the

significance

of Christ's

love

in his first

advent.

Let's praise

him

continually

until his

second.

I'm going

to close

with the

reading of

this hymn

that perhaps

we'll sing

in a couple

days.

Oh

holy night

the stars

are brightly

shining

it is the

night

of the

dear

Savior's

birth

long

lay

the

world

in

sin

and

error

pining

till he

appeared

and the

soul felt

its worth

a thrill

of hope

the weary

world

rejoices

for yonder

breaks a new

and glorious

morn

fall on your

knees

oh hear

the angel

voices

oh night

divine

oh night

when Christ

was born

oh night

divine

oh night

oh night

divine

led by the

light of

faith

serenely

beaming

with glowing

hearts

by his

cradle

we stand

so led

by light

of a star

sweetly gleaming

there came

the wise

men from

orient land

the king

of kings

lie thus

in a lowly

manger

in all

our trials

born to

be our

friend

he knows

our need

to our

weakness

he is no

stranger

behold your

king

before him

lowly

bend

behold your

king

before him

lowly

bend

truly

he taught

us

to love

one another

his law

is love

and his

gospel

is peace

chains

shall he

break

for the

slave

is our

brother

and in

his name

all oppression

shall cease

sweet hymns

of joy

and grateful

chorus

raise we

let all

within us

praise his

holy name

christ is

the lord

oh praise

his name

forever

his power

and glory

evermore

proclaim

his power

and glory

evermore

proclaim

let's pray

as