God is Love (1 John 4:7-12) with Dr. Conrad Mbewe

Thank you.

Well, brethren, as we turn in our Bibles to First John and Chapter Four, let me also add my word of thanks, bearing in mind that this is now my very last session with you.

And I do need to acknowledge that I've had a short but sweet visit to Sydney that I hope this time will remain for a longer period in my memory.

I went through my sermons and there was enough evidence there to convict an elder that I was here somewhere around 2013 or something like that.

So just old age that has erased that fact from the mind.

But I'm hoping that with this renewed visit, in many ways it's going to be something that will be treasured for a very long time to come.

This morning we looked at the topic or theme of God is light.

And I mentioned the fact that the Apostle John has this tendency of using picture language to bring out biblical truth, doctrinal truth, the revelation of God.

And we saw quickly in passing how that is true, especially about Jesus in the Gospel of John.

And now in First John we find a similar approach, and this time it is about God as a whole.

And we mentioned that the aspect of God is light, is to do with God being the truth, God being a good God, and then also God having absolute moral purity.

And each one of those you can see that when the Bible uses the word light or the contrast being darkness, it's being used in that sense.

We went on to see the implications of it.

And it is the fact that if we are not like that, and yet we are claiming to be Christians, we are deceiving ourselves.

If we are like that, the benefit is our fellowship with one another, which becomes true and rich.

And then also it drives us to our knees to seek forgiveness and cleansing in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's really what we looked at this morning.

In this session now, I'm looking at uh God is love.

God is love.

And in chapter four, it appears twice, but I want to handle the first one, which is in uh verse eight.

I'll begin reading from verse seven.

So we're really looking at the whole of this passage from chapter four, verse seven to verse twelve.

I'll read it and then go through it by way of exposition.

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.

Why?

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.

No one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

When John deals with the subject of love, he is dealing with one of the most foundational truths of the Christian faith.

We saw, if it wasn't this morning, it must have been yesterday, the way in which Jesus summarized the entire law of God as loving God with all our hearts and loving others as we love ourselves.

And he says, on these two, the entire superstructure of God's law rests.

You cannot speak about true Christianity without bringing in love.

And there's no real and true love apart from the revelation of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And therefore, it's an all-important test of our salvation.

You recall that I mentioned this morning from chapter 5 of this book and verse 13 that that's his very intention in writing this letter.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

These are the tests that he is giving.

With respect to love, he in fact began in chapter three.

If we can just quickly turn there.

Chapter three is truly a glorious chapter because it begins with John celebrating the fact that our being God's children is not something we look forward to becoming when we get to heaven.

It is what we are now.

Now we are the children of God.

And then he goes on to speak about two ways in which we get to recognize that reality.

The first is this moral transformation that he speaks about from verse 4 up to verse 10.

That a person cannot claim to know God and then continue living in sin.

Because Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.

And so he makes a big issue of this.

I love the way he puts it in verse 9.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning.

Why?

Because God's seed abides in him.

And as if it's not enough, he repeats.

And he he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

You can't miss that.

The emphasis there, the repetition there is to do with look at your own life.

Are you someone who's enjoying sin, pursuing sin, and loving one's sinful activities?

Because if that's true, then your Christianity is false.

It's not real.

It's not the true deal.

But the second test that he gives is that of love.

In fact, in verse 10, he combines the two, chapter 3 and verse 10.

He says there, by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, and here's the next, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

And from that point onwards, he abandons the issue of moral transformation, and he now goes into the issue of love, and he continues opening it up.

Verse 11, at least for now.

For this is the message we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

Well, that's where he returns in chapter four and verse seven with a very clear statement, Beloved, let us love one another.

It's an appeal that he is making to the church of God, and he's speaking there in terms of them having love for other believers.

And as he makes that appeal, he speaks about the source of that love.

Where is that love coming from that he is appealing for?

Well, he says there in verse 7, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

The point is making there is the nature of salvation is that God comes to dwell in the human heart.

He transforms us by his spirit dwelling in us.

Now, if God is in us, something of his attributes, communicable attributes, as theologians would put it, should manifest itself in our lives.

And in this particular case, because love comes from him, and if we are born of him, surely that should be seen in us.

Now it's it's pretty obvious that at a physical level, that's exactly what happens.

Our eldest son, when he was born, uh he probably still has some of my features.

I just don't notice it.

But when he was younger, it was pretty clear if anybody saw him, they would know who the father is.

And I've never forgotten on one occasion a friend of mine who I hadn't seen for many years came into my residential area looking for me.

He didn't know my actual house number, he just knew the street.

And as he was coming along the road, our son was playing just by the gate.

And the gate was open.

And he says, as when I got there and I saw him, I said to my friends, it's here.

This is where Conrad lives.

Because his characteristics were clearly from my DNA.

Well, surely if you are born of God, something of God should have rubbed off on you.

You can't have the life of God in you, and then you are living like the devil himself.

And then even when he says, born of God and knows God, you will recall this morning, I spoke about this knowledge as being experiential knowledge, the knowledge that we have at the point when we become Christians.

So it's a non-negotiable friends, because it's of the very nature of Christianity.

Now, I've already dropped the hint, but John himself goes on to tell us the implication.

If you do not have this practical love, what is it saying about you?

Well, look at verse 8.

He says, Anyone who does not love does not know God, why?

There's the title of our sermon.

Because God is love.

In fact, if we can go back to chapter three, where we stopped, in chapter three, verse 11.

This time I'm going to verse 12.

He is mentioning Cain as an example, and he is essentially saying that this man was a murderer.

Verse 12, we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous.

Do not be surprised.

He now gives the example of the world, that the world hates you.

Why?

Well, it's because it is dead in sin.

It's dead in sin.

We know that we've passed out of death into life, he says, because we love the brethren.

Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.

You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

The way he is putting it here, we may begin by saying, Well, yes, I'm not like Cain, I've never killed anybody.

But he's making the point that it's not simply actual physical murder.

If you're a person whose life is being dictated by hatred for other people, that same hatred is as good as murder in the eyes of God.

So he's making the point there that if that's your life, surely it must be saying to you, you don't have eternal life.

Jesus has not yet changed you.

This morning, when I was dealing with the topic of God is light, one of the aspects of that light that I spoke about is goodness.

Goodness.

A life that spreads joy.

It is the opposite of a life that spreads gloom and sadness.

And I mentioned the fact that there are sometimes people who claim to be Christians, but they are always hurting other people.

Very difficult to get along with.

And that's their agenda in life.

Well, that's not Christianity.

Because that's not the God who is there.

When we sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, the first agenda item that he dealt with was the clothing of Adam and Eve, but also with the promise that he was going to send the seed of the woman.

He was already exuding with goodness, with love, with hope and promise for the very people that have harmed him.

That is God.

In our text, if we can go back there, John would have easily said, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is loving.

That is a verb.

But that's not what he says.

He's saying God is love.

In other words, it is of the very essence of God.

You cannot think of God without thinking of love.

It's not something that he he added to himself.

It's of his very nature.

And this friends calls for some deep reflection.

It's like an ocean.

You can't say an ocean is full of water.

No.

Because an ocean is water.

It's not a bucket in which you're throwing water.

It is in itself made out of water.

You can't think of God and then eliminate the aspect of love.

Then it's not God you have, it's an idol.

An idol of your own making.

He is of the very essence God.

Now how do we know that?

We can begin with creation.

Look at the world as God gave it to us.

Look at its beauty.

Look at what He has provided for us in that creation.

We can also look at the way He ensures we have genuine satisfaction and joy in the midst of living in His world.

He's given us, for instance, marriage.

Is there any better gift before we deal with the fall that we could have had than the marriage relationship?

What a God.

What a God.

Look at the way He brings us into the world.

He brings us into the world through parents who love us and care.

For us and provide for us and nurture us into adulthood.

Not because they are hoping to get something out of you, the way in which we we grow bananas, because we're planning to plunder those uh bent little things that come from there.

No.

It's just genuine interest and care and love and tenderness that makes up these lives that we call family life and living.

There's so much that shows that he is a God of love.

The seasons that he gives to us, the sun with its throwing effect upon us, and so forth.

What does he get out of it?

We are the beneficiaries.

He loves us, he gives and gives and gives again.

But the height of the manifestation of his love is in the giving of his son.

And that's what John comes to here in verse nine.

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

This is not when the love began.

This is him drawing the curtains so that we may see the love that has always been there.

But now it is being shown to us, being made manifest.

It's being revealed, it's being made visible, it's coming out in the open.

It's him saying, see.

Back home in Zambia.

Often when you're doing your weddings, there is a whole process.

You sign things at uh um the major streets place that and so on.

You do a lot of things in the context of the families themselves, you you send your middleman and you you do your bride prize and so on.

There's a lot of activity that happens there.

All the way to uh the day when you exchange vows, and then you are taken behind uh a room, and uh in that room you you sign the legal documents, and the the the practice often, in fact, there was a wedding yesterday between uh two of our former students at our university, they were getting married yesterday, and this is exactly what happened.

So they were taken to the back room like that, and then after everything was done, the the pastor came and stood, waited for the song that was being sung to be finished, and then he said, Ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce to you the latest couple in town.

Mr.

and Mrs.

It doesn't say, well, yeah, hopefully once they've gone out of that door, they will become Mr.

and Mrs.

No, no, no.

They are Mr.

and Mrs.

from behind there, Mr.

and Mrs.

So and so.

And uh when they came out, yeah, you people don't know that, but back home we do what is called ululetting.

Everybody is shouting like that.

You have brought into the open these individuals who are married.

When we look at Calvary, when we look at the cross, yes, it shows us something of the extent of God's love, but that love has always been in him from all eternity.

Look at the way he puts it here.

He says that God sent his only son into the world so that he might live through him.

And then he repeats, in this is love.

Not that we have loved God, I mean, our love is weak, it's embarrassing, it's a scandal to say the least.

You don't even begin to bring it into the picture, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

For our sins.

There's a friend who once gave this this picture and it stuck with me for quite some time.

He was trying to illustrate this, and he he said, imagine that you were a guy who works at the um a place where the railway line crosses a river, and there is a tow bridge that is there.

When a ship is coming, it opens and the ship passes by.

When the train is coming, you close it and the train passes.

And then he he says, here you are, you you you you you you have been waiting to have a child in your marriage, and at some stage, surprise, surprise, that your wife is expecting.

And finally, here is a son that you had prayed for for so many years that has been born to you.

Well, on that particular night, this little child or baby has become a toddler, and uh your wife is unwell and you need to go to work, and so you say, okay, since I work in a cabin, the the it's it's warm, let me carry my child with me.

And so at work, you're working up, down, up, down, up, down, you fall asleep.

Before you know it, you hear the train, and you know you have to now close, and then your son is missing.

Look around, you know, toddlers, it's crawled away, and then just as you are about to shut that thing, you realize that's where your son crawled.

If you save the people who are coming by train, you kill your son.

You shout and shout, toddlers, can't get the cue.

A son, even a daughter, who is the only son.

I hope you've read it in that text, his only son, that's going to be a heart-wrenching experience because of that affection of a father to a child.

If that man brought down the gear and that child cries with a cry that pierces the air, and it's reported in the newspaper the following day.

Well, people say you shouldn't have taken your kid or you shouldn't have dozed off, but one thing they will recognize is this person really takes his work seriously.

But then he added this, and that is what made me appreciate a lot more of the picture.

He says, but if while you are in that cabin, you hear that the people in the train who are coming are terrorists.

Al-Shabaab and all the others that are putting bombs everywhere, Al-Qaeda and so forth, all kinds of terrorists are the ones who are coming.

I know what I would do if I was in that situation.

I'll say, Well, I've got an excuse tomorrow now.

I'll come and say, What did you expect me to do?

It was my son.

What would you do?

As all the terrorists go into the river.

Well, friends, we were the terrorists, and it was God's own son who was there, his only son, and he brought down the gear, and his son cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And that cry went piercing through the sky.

He did not prevent his death.

In fact, it began even earlier when he sent him into the world.

We are told there that he sent his only son into the world, a world that hated him, a world that was full of sin, a world that made him an enemy literally from birth.

He was being hunted like a wild animal.

He had to go and hide in Egypt for a while in order to save those who have been insulting him and breaking his laws and doing everything else that would be considered disgusting to his very nature.

He sent his son to rescue them so that they might live through him.

He sends his son on that rescue operation for downright, wicked sinners such as us.

And how does he do it?

The phrase that is used there is that this is love, not that we've loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The word propitiation there is a theological word, but essentially what it means is it is that sacrifice upon which wrath falls in the place of others.

It's a way of taking away wrath by making it fall on a substitute.

Here is God who knows that there's only one way for sinners to come into heaven, only one way that a righteous one should take their place.

And there's only one who can do it, my son, my son.

And he sends him into the world, knowing fully well that a time will come when he has to go to that cross.

And even as Jesus is is now approaching the cross and bearing in mind what the wrath of Almighty God is, because he is God the Son, so he knows.

And as he he he he goes into the Garden of Gethsemane and he falls on his knees and and he is praying to the father, Abba, Father, if it be your will, take this cup away from me, but not my will, but yours be done.

He doesn't spare his son.

Jesus pleads to the point where his his sweat becomes like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

And the father sends but an angel to him to strengthen him for that final step.

And Jesus finally hangs on that cross, and the Father pours his wrath upon his own son.

Pours until the son says it is finished.

Now that's love.

That's love.

That's why I said to people, when you're going through a difficult time and you're beginning to toy with the idea that perhaps God just does not love me, I said, go and sit gazing at Calvary and try and say that again.

You can't, you can't, because he had the power, if he wanted, to simply recreate this world, he could have done it, send everybody into hell and instead have a new humanity.

Well, it doesn't have fingers, but at the click of his finger.

But no, he has loved us at great, great sacrifice on his part.

God is love.

I wonder how it was for for the angels to say that the father crushing his own son for sinners.

The son crying, Why have you forsaken me?

Why?

It must have been written even in heaven in letters of gold.

God is love.

What does John draw out of this now?

Finally, two implications.

And with that we must hurry on to close.

Two implications.

Verse eleven and verse twelve.

First of all, we must love one another.

Verse 11.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Or as he put it earlier in chapter three, this is the way he put it.

Chapter three.

And uh yes, verse fourteen.

Sorry, I think it's a little lower there.

Yes, verse 18.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

It's not simply, I love you, I love you, but it is seeing what my needs are and paying the price for it.

That's love.

Because that's what God did.

God didn't just write on on the sky of the heavens, God is love while we all perish and go to hell.

No, he sent his only son, not one of his three sons, his only son, to bear our punishment, to drink in our hell on our behalf.

That's the way it should be with us.

Oh, verse 17.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, and listen to this, yet closes his heart, closes his heart against him.

How does God's love abide in him?

How can you claim that the love of God has been born into my soul through the regenerating work of the spirit at the point I became a Christian?

How can you claim that?

When you are now seeing your brother, your sister in need, and you close your heart, you refuse.

He's saying, if we are truly born again, then our lives should show us loving one another.

That's the first implication.

And then the second and last is this no one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

The implication is this that in this on this side of eternity, we we will never see God walking on two feet.

Never.

But we will see God walking on two feet in one another's lives.

In one another's lives.

In other words, let's manifest the God who is there.

That's it.

Let's manifest him.

He's there, he's in our hearts, let him do with our lives that which he wants.

And may I plead with us that if we find ourselves in that place where our hearts are shriveled, and life is about me, myself, and I, and all the relationships I have about what I can get out of other people rather than what I can put into their lives, then let's run to Christ.

Let's go to Him and simply say.

From what I've seen about my life, I don't have you in me.

Save me, change me from the inside out.

Come and live in my heart.

Make me like you, Lord.

Make me like you.

That's the way we have to do it.

To go to Christ.

To look at the cross and say, if this is what the Father did for me, I am the exact opposite.

Lord, make me like you.

Go to Christ and let him make you Christ-like.

I'll end with a quick story.

And it is from the world of Sunday school.

Little Tom arrived late for the Sunday school class.

And the teacher was busy trying to describe Jesus, a man attested to you by God, whose life was full of good works.

Good works.

And as he was describing Jesus feeding the hungry and expressing different forms of love to needy people, defending those that were being accused for one thing or the other.

And little Tommy, who was now sitting there listening, you know, kids, finally just shouted and said, Teacher, teacher, I know where that man lives.

Well, the teacher thought he must be talking about heaven.

And said, Yeah, where does he live?

And the kid said, He lives down my street.

Why did he say that?

Because there's somebody this kid has been seeing who's been living a life of love.

May that be you.

May that be me.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, thank you.

That you are love.

You are not just loving, but it's of the very essence of your being.

And thank you that that is what you do to those whom you serve.

That you come into our lives to bear the fruit of love.

We pray, Lord, that as we have meditated today on various aspects that test whether we are truly saved or not, our prayer, oh God, is that if any of us have been found wanting on the wrong side, that we might flee, run to the cross, that Jesus might save us and save us now.

Lord, we plead that we may not hear messages like this, and then one day hear you say, get away from me, you worker of iniquity.

I never knew you.

Grant instead that where we are cut to the heart, we might flee to Calvary, and that you might be our Savior, that we might know you in that way, but above all that you might know us as those whom you have saved and changed and transformed.

We plead for this in Jesus' name.

Amen.