1 John 4:7-21,5:1-3 “…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, tht 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. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 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. 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. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is nodt made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. 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? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
One thing I want to say from the gitgo, from the very beginning, is that this LOVE, this AGAPE’ LOVE that I will be talking about in this message, is not a love that is just a word or just something that we say or vocalize, but is a word of ACTION a word that causes me, and anyone who posseses it, to get up off of our BUTTS and do something for HIM. GOD did not just remain in HEAVEN on HIS THRONE, but HE placed HIS LOVE into action. Even in the beginning of time we see that HE came down to the GARDEN OF EDEN to be with and do for ADAM and EVE, for mankind, and also, HE physically placed the sacrifice in the brush so that Abraham would not have to sacrifice his son, and when HIS leader MOSES was rescuing HIS people from Egypt GOD did not sit up there in HEAVEN and say sic-um Moses, NO SIR, HE put a pillar of cloud between the ISRAELITES and the EGYPTIANS to protect HIS people, then HE physically parted the RED SEA so that HIS people could escape on dry ground and then destroyed HIS peoples’ enemies by releasing the walls of water and drowning Pharoah and his army of men and destroying the chariots. GOD’s love is an active love and a participating LOVE. So should it be with us, I sometimes think that we forget that the LOVE of GOD, the AGAPE’ LOVE was placed with in us and is supposed to motivate us to use that LOVE, to help others and HE has given us enough of the AGAPE’ LOVE to care about other’s spiritual state and make sure they are spiritually founded on the right rock, which, of course, is Jesus of Nazzereth, the CHRIST.
And never forget this that GOD loved us while we were yet in our sins, HE did not wait till we cleaned ourselves up and got ourselves presentable to HIM, GOD loves us with an EVERLASTING LOVE, sometimes we think it is all about us loving GOD, but it is really all about GOD loving us, caring for us, and protecting us. When I didn’t give a whit about GOD, HE loved me; When HE was never on my mind, I was continually on HIS HEART; When I was envolved in nothing but wordly things, HE was envolved in sending HIS only BEGOTTEN SON to this sin-ladened earth to be the propitation for my sins, and for everyone that would call upon is name. He did all of this because HE loved and cared for me, and all of creation. I didn’t cry out to GOD because I loved GOD, I cried out to GOD because I was broken, because I was held in the dread sway of sin, taunted and abused by Satan and his ministers of evil and I could not, in my own strength, break away from Satan, but then, through the WORD of GOD, I saw JESUS high and lifted up on the cross of CALVARY, writhing and suffering in pain and shame, not because HE had ever sinned but because HE loved me and you and was paying the wages for my and your sin, not HIS, but mine and everyone else’s, and I saw the strength and LOVE HE possesed and heard HIM say “…come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden…” and I placed my heartfelt faith and trust in HIM, and HE saved me HE borned me again. THANK YOU JESUS!!!! HE will do the same for you if you have not yet allowed HIM to do so!
Surely if GOD loved us as sinful, as scarred and uncaring as we were, we can love one another. In fact if we don’t LOVE our brother we or not GOD’s children, we have not been “BORNED AGAIN”, or either we are out of touch with what GOD requires of HIS children. John says that very thing in this chapter in his 1st EPISTLE in verse 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 who he hath not seen?” and then goes on to say “And this commandment have we from HIM, That he who loveth GOD love his brother also.” Now GOD has given us HIS WORD, HIS WRITTEN SCRIPTURE, that we might try ourselves, put ourselves on trial, to shine HIS WORD, HIS WRITTEN SCRIPTURE, on our own heart, not other peoples’ hearts, we are to shine the truth of GOD’s word on our own hearts and our own lives so that we can know, FOR SURE, whether the LOVE of GOD abides’ within us, an active, “A GO GIT IT DONE” LOVE, and then we can know that we are the children of GOD. Let us have that same kind of LOVE in us that GOD IS. And let our life be as a beacon, a bright shinning light unto the world so that the world can find a “SAFE HAVEN” through us, through our lives, and find the narrow way that Jesus has left for all of us to walk. Let us LOVE GOD, with an active LOVE, Let us LOVE our brethren with an active love, let us love our enemies with an active love and let us love the lost souls of the world with that same active love, “THAT SAME LOVE” that GOD loved us with and let us be found doing that when our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS, comes again to receive us to himself. We are not to love the world and the things of the world but to love those who are lost and bound for an “ETERNITY” in hell. And let us not fear what man can do to us or what man will THINK of us, but take the living WORD of GOD outside the walls of Walnut Grove Baptist Church and, into our homes, and into our communities, and into our county, and into our country and yeah even unto the whole world. Take it to where we live, to where we work, to where we play and to whereever we go.
When you leave this morning, when you walk out these doors back out into the world, I want you to take with you and dwell on these THREE things, roll them over in your head and heart and ponder on them. Because really that’s what we’re here for this morning is to get something to help us through our “JOURNEY” until we can return again for another refilling, or refueling from GOD. It is imperative, and I say again imperative, that I mention some things before I give you these three things,
1: That you must be “BORN AGAIN” or all is in vain. You must have at one time placed your wholehearted belief, trust and faith in JESUS the CHRIST. Knowing that HE he died on calvary’s cross to be the propitiation for your sins, and paid the debt you owed for your sins. 2: And think on this, if you have been “BORN AGAIN” that your journey will be a lot easier, a lot sweeter, if you know that you are walking with GOD, following his directions and following the steps HE has laid out for you, that’s not an easy thing to do, by the way, but it can be accomplished. Think back to Gideon and the WALLS of JERICO, to Moses and crossing the RED SEA on dry ground, to Noah and he and his family getting ready for the GREAT FLOOD, it was not easy for them but they did it. 3: And know this that the next step for you, after you have been saved is to confess it before men and be baptized as HE commanded. If that is something that you haven’t done, please, come this morning and publicly notify the world that you have believed in JESUS OF NAZERETH and want to declare by your life and actions that YOU love HIM because HE first LOVED you. Now on to the three things I spoke of before:
#1: GOD loves you with an EVERLASTING LOVE. Never let this knowledge leave your mind and heart, you don’t serve GOD because you are afraid HE will stop LOVING YOU, HE never stops loving you, and HE will never stop LOVING YOU. HE never leaves nor forsakes you, no matter what! Now let me REITERATE those WORDS: HE never leaves nor forsakes you, no matter what!
#2: GOD will protect you, just as HE protected HIS people when they left Egypt. Just as HE protected PAUL, PETER and the other disciples. HE is always AVAILABLE to take care of you in all that you do and where ever you go!
#3: GOD has empowered you, HE AS IMPOWERED you by placing the HOLY GHOST of GOD within you SO THAT YOU CAN live the kind of life HE wants you to live, and to be that SHINNING LIGHT for HIM so that others may see Christ in you. By the way that is what the APOSTLE PAUL said in his letter to the Colosians in Chapter 1 and verse 27: “…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:…”