Love, The Divine Hallmark
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein 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 ought also to love one another.
The slogan of Hallmark Cards is “When you care enough to send the very best.”
The Hallmark of God’s concern is that He did just that—He sent the very best.
There is nothing like the love of God! It is the most overwhelming thing I have ever encountered in my life. It is the greatest thing God ever did for any of us! The reason I can say that is this, because He loved us, He was moved to do everything else that He has done.
Love is mentioned in 1 John 46 times in 135 verses.
1 John was written to combat a heresy known as Gnosticism. The Gnostic believed that knowledge was power. They felt that they had a special knowledge of God and His ways. John is writing to put them into their place! And, as he does, he tells the rest of us about a great God with a great love for great sinners.
Much of the modern concept of love is “What pleases me?” That is why people “fall in” and “fall out” of love. God’s love is unselfish, sacrificial, and unending. God has shown us the true nature of love by how He loves us.
I want you to notice...
I-The Call of Love
I-The Call of Love
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Love is not an option for a child of God.
God requires that we love one another.
We are under obligation to God and to our fellow men. John calls on the church with the heart of a pastor. He tells us to love one another and then he tells us why we should love one another. Love is a vital part of the Christian faith.
Without love it does not matter what else we do. Love is required of God’s children because of who they are and because of what they have received.
As children of God we have received the love of God and now we are called on to display that love to one another. A watching world will never be won to faith in Jesus Christ apart from true and genuine love from the church.
We must love them that are in the world, but if we do not love one another, how can we truly love them?
The only way to show God’s love is to know God’s love. Those who show true love show that they know God.
This world would know nothing of love without the grace, mercy, and love of God. We are called to love because of who God is. Because God is love and because God loves, we that are born of God will logically be people of love.
We are called to love!
II-The Explanation of Love
II-The Explanation of Love
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
John says that love is of God. True love is of God. Love comes from God, it is founded and originated with God.
Much that is called “love” in modern society bears no resemblance or relationship to the holy, spiritual love of God.
Our world is trying to dignify immorality today by calling it love, but you can’t know love without knowing God, and God isn’t within a million miles of the festivals, and parades of our society...
Psalm 97:10 (KJV)
Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: ...
You can’t have both. If you love God, you’ll hate sin...
The word love in verse 8 is translated from the Greek word, agape...
This word speaks of a self sacrificing love, a consuming passion for the well being of another.
Agape is a divine love, it is a God given love. This word speaks of a love that is not of this world.
Lehman Strauss said the word used here, “It never was a common word in classical Greek literature. The pagan Greeks knew nothing of self-sacrificing love for an enemy. This love never has its basis in human personality, human passion, or human pleasurableness.”
John says that he who does not love does not know God.
This should be the test of salvation right here...
I want you to understand something...My first birth gave me the nature of my father—a sinful nature of Adam, but my second birth gave me a divine nature—“Born of God” – that is the New Birth, the nature of my Heavenly Father…It’s a nature that loves, because God is love.
Think about those who hurt you, lie on you, spread rumors and gossip.
You say, they don’t deserve love—you’re right. But we don’t deserve God’s love either.
Love is the fruit of the Spirit. If you belong to God, you will have love.
Maybe you are hurt right now and you are bitter; you are unforgiving; you are grieving the Spirit. What you need to do is hard but you can do it with God’s help.
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
I thought it was interesting, I ran across a story a while back about a muslim that converted to Christianity…When asked what got his attention, or got him thinking; he said it was the fact that Christians love their enemies and Muslims killed their enemies.
III-The Demonstration of Love
III-The Demonstration of Love
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God’s love can never be fully understood, but it can be seen! It is best seen at the cross!
God does not have a secret love and He is not bashful about His love towards us. John teaches us that real and genuine love has been demonstrated to us.
Jesus was on the ultimate mission trip when He left the splendor of heaven to come to the filth of the world. By the way John gets real specific here. God sent His only begotten Son. Only Begotten: means ‘unique, the only one of its kind. God sent His One and only Son.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Billy Graham once said, "God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, 'I love you.'"
The ultimate purpose for God sending Jesus into the world is that we might live through Him.
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Two purposes are given for Christ’s death on the cross:
That we might live through Him (1 John 4:9) and that He might be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).
His death was not an accident; it was an appointment. He did not die as a weak martyr, but as a mighty conqueror.
Jesus Christ died that we might live “through Him” (1 John 4:9), “for Him” (2 Cor. 5:15), and “with Him” (1 Thes. 5:9–10).
A sinner’s desperate need is for life, because he is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).
It is something of a paradox that Christ had to die so that we may live!
I can’t figure it all out, but I know this…He died for us!
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
God’s love sent God’s Son so that sinners could be saved.
Jerry Vines said, “When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary He absolutely satisfied the demands of God’s law. At the same time He made it possible for God to forgive us. That is how much God loves us. He was willing to send Jesus to be the satisfaction for our sins.”
Every sinner that calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be cleansed from all their sins. We need to constantly be reminded of God’s love for us.
We need to be reminded that Jesus has paid the price for our sins. We ought to be the most gracious, loving, and caring people in all the world because we have received the love of God and the forgiveness of sins.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
We are challenged to put our love on the line. John says that the logical progression and response to God’s love is for us to love one another.
How did God so love us? God loved us completely, selflessly, sacrificially, sincerely, steadfastly.
Because He loved us the Bible says we ought to love one another.
Oh the love that drew salvation’s plan,
Oh the grace that brought it down to man,
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!
God’s love is an…
Unconditional love –
Unending love –
Unchanging love –
Undeserved love –
Have you experienced the love of God tonight?