Perfect Love
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Open your Bibles to 1 John chapter 4 tonight…I’m going to be taking the message tonight from verses 17-21, and speaking on the thought of “Perfect Love”, but before I get into that, we have been here talking about love for several weeks, and before I get into the message tonight, I just want to read this entire passage, just so we can read it without breaking it up like we have in our study...
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 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. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
The Bible has a lot to say about love in these verses; two times, in these beautiful verses, we find the phrase, “God is love.” Once in verse 8, and again in verse 16...
Now, we can never adequately explain, talk about, preach about or sing about the wonderful love of God! When we deal with the subject of love, we are dealing with a subject which is unfathomable.
I love what the old songwriter, F.M. Lehmen said in the words of the song, “The Love of God” -
Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Should we continue week by week to preach on the subject of the love of God, we would never fully tell it all. We would never exhaust the subject.
In these last five verses of the chapter 4, some eleven times the word “love” is given to us. The particular emphasis in our text is upon perfect love, love which has reached maturity; love which is complete.
The Perfect Love is not generated in our hearts; it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.
If I want to know about perfect love, I don’t look inward, I look upward.
I don’t look at me, I look at Him.
Notice three things with me tonight about perfect love...
I-With perfect love, we can have confidence for our future
I-With perfect love, we can have confidence for our future
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
John is saying that God’s love is been accomplished in us by the Holy Spirit that indwells us. God has given us His love in the person of the Holy Spirit. We did not received part of the Spirit, but all of the Spirit. Because we have the Spirit of God we can have confidence at the day of judgment.
The Bible teaches us there is going to be a Day of Judgment.
Mt. 12:36 says, “every idle word that man shall speak, they shall give account”…there is the Day of Judgment.
Acts 17:31 says that God has appointed a day…in which He will judge the world in righteousness “by that man whom He hath ordained.”
Heb. 9:27 says “it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.”
The Bible here says, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment...
This is the same boldness we see in Hebrews concerning approaching the throne of grace...
It means confidence or freedom of speech…John is writing about fear of judgment right here, but he says for a child of God, we don’t have to fear...
Because Jesus bore our sins on the cross we will never be judged for our sins. Jesus faced the judgment for us so that we would not have to face the judgment of God. Jesus took the wrath of God for us so that we would not have to face the wrath of God. Christians have been freed from sin and condemnation.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Having confidence and boldness in the day of judgment does not mean that we will strut and prance about before God. This means that we have trusted Jesus in life and we will be able to trust Jesus after this life. He is there for us now and He will be there for us then. It is because of Jesus that we will have boldness before the throne of God.
This thought goes into point number 2 tonight...
II-With perfect love, there is no fear
II-With perfect love, there is no fear
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us.
Fear is an emotion—so is love.
Love casts out fear—it conquers fear.
You think about this, if I were to see on of my children in danger; it may be a situation like being caught in a burning building; at that time, my love for them is going to cast out the fear of me running into a burning building; I’m going to anything and everything to save my children; why? Because I love them!
Because we have experienced the love of God by receiving forgiveness of our sins, a home in heaven, and Jesus as our Lord, we have no fear of ever being in torment. HAVE NO FEAR! JESUS IS HERE! There is no fear in love!
People have fear of death.
People have fear of punishment.
We live in a world that is full of fear. We fear what a day may hold.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “If people are afraid, it is because of something in the past that haunts them, or something in the present that upsets them, or something in the future that they feel threatens them.”
For those who know Jesus and have the love of God in them need not fear. The power of love is seen in its work of removing fear from among us. Many do not have an overcoming love because they are bound up and paralyzed by fear.
Love conquers our fear...
And then, in verse 19, we find that
Love came from the Father...
Love has its fountain head, its source, its origin, in God the Father!
You do not have to do anything to get God to love you. “God so loved…”
God loved you first.
God’s love has so sought us and bought us, that we cannot help but praise Him and worship Him, and serve Him.
We don’t serve Jesus, love Jesus, and worship Jesus because we have to, but because we get to.
He has so loved us that those who have experienced God’s love can do nothing but express that love to others.
Christians are those who have been overwhelmed by the love of God, indwelled by the Spirit of God, enthralled with the Son of God, and have embraced the Word of God.
We know love and we show love only because He first loved us.
III-With perfect love, our fellowship is blessed
III-With perfect love, our fellowship is blessed
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
Here we see that perfect love relates to our fellow man!
There is a startling contradiction that we find in verse 20...
“If a man say” – seven times it says, “if a man say” or “he that sayeth.”
It is talking about profession, to love. But mere profession does not prove possession.
Verse 20 gives us another one of those thought-provoking question from God...
How can you claim to love the invisible if you don’t love the visible?
The word of God is teaching that if we say we love God and yet hate our brother we are liars. We know that no liar has eternal life abiding in him. John uses strong language in calling them liars.
There is a startling contradiction here, but we also see in verse 21, a simple commandment...
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
For the Christian, love is not an option. We are commanded from above to love those here below. There is a mandate for loving.
We are instructed by Him to love and we are inspired by Him to love.
We are commanded by Him to love and we are compelled by Him to love.
We have a mandate from Him to love and we have motivation from Him to love.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Love is perfected when we love God and love our brother!
With perfect love, we can have confidence for our future!
With perfect love, there is no fear!
With perfect love, our fellowship is blessed!
Would you commit today to practicing what you profess?
Can you say that you love God and show that with your life?
Do your lips and lives contradict one another?
God wants our profession, but He also wants possession of us.
Would you begin to love others with the perfect love of God?