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Love One Another – Part 2
1 John 4:7-21 (12-18)
July 17, 2022

Last week we began our look at the tremendous passage of Scripture
Here in the 4th chapter of 1 John.

I told you that John writes in sort of a circular manner,
And by the time he is finished you can look at the page
And it is obvious what he has been circling.

“love one another”

The word love appears in some form 25 times here in this passage.
John is making it obvious.

And so we are discussing this reality of loving one another
And why it is so essential.

We’re breaking this passage down into 3 points.
We saw the first last week.
#1 ATONEMENT DESERVES IT
1 John 4:7-11

The point which John so clearly made to us last week is that
We have received a great love from God.

John said in verse 9 “the love of God was manifested in us”

Which is to say that
God has made His love known in what He has done in our life.

What has He done?
He sent His Son into the world “so that we might live through Him.”

THERE IS certainly the aspect in which we will “live”
• In the sense of not going to destruction, but having eternal life.
• It is the sense in which our death sentence is overturned.

BUT IT IS ALSO the sense in which Christ has come and made we who were dead alive.
• He has given us new life in Christ.
• He has raised us from the dead.
• He has freed us from our penalty.
• He has saved us.

And of course John also pointed out HOW Christ accomplished this.
Christ was (10) “the propitiation for our sins.”

He came and satisfied God’s wrath through His death on the cross.
He came and laid down His life on our behalf that we might be forgiven.

He was given death that we might be given life.

So John wanted us to stop a moment and focus on
The love of God to atone for His enemies.

We all have to stop and marvel at this.
• When I was dead in sin and a rebel before God…
• When I had no interest in loving Him…
• HE CAME AND LOVED ME.

• He loved me by pulling me out of sin and making me alive.
• He loved me by lifting me out of the miry clay and setting my feet on a rock.
• He loved my be atoning for my sin through the death of His Son.

Christ received God’s wrath so that I could receive God’s favor.

It is just the remarkable demonstration of God’s love for us.
He saved us.
And John would have you focus on that for a moment.

AND THEN HE SAYS:
(11) “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

And I’d remind you that the word “ought” there actually means “to owe”
Because God has so loved us, we owe it to our brother to love them.

WHY?
Because God loves them.
• When we love our brother, we don’t do it because they deserve it, we do it because God deserves it.

I think it’s also important to recognize the word “so” in verse 11.
For that speaks of the manner in which God loved us.

John is not only referring to the necessity of loving our brother,
He is also talking about the manner in which we love our brother.

We are to love them as God loved us.
• We love them even when they don’t love us.
• We love them by sacrificing ourselves for their benefit.
• We love them by focusing on their spiritual life and growth.

THIS IS OUR DEBT.
Our atonement deserves it.

So there is our first great motivation for loving one another.
• We love because we are loved.
• We love because they are loved.

THIS MORNING let’s move on to
The second motivation for loving one another.

#2 ASSURANCE DEPENDS ON IT
1 John 4:12-18

Here we come again to that GREAT THEME of John’s letter.
He is writing because he wants you to have assurance.

And even as we have seen before,
Love and assurance are very closely linked together.

We already saw a few weeks ago:
1 John 3:18-20 “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”

John already taught us once that the presence of love in our lives
Goes a long way towards providing us with the assurance we desire
To know that we are children of God.

But John isn’t finished with the topic.
Here in chapter 4 he circles back to it again.

In some ways we saw it LAST WEEK.
(7) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”

That is a statement of assurance.
Loving one another is a fruit of being born of God or born again.

So the presence of love is in fact an evidence of regeneration.

And here in verses 12-18 that issue becomes THE FOCAL POINT.
If you want assurance, then you must love your brother.

As we begin to look at these verses
I want to bring a word to your attention.

It is the word “perfected”

• (12) “No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

• (17) “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in the world.”

• (18) “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”

“perfected” is the word TELEOO (tel-ee-aw-oh)

Many times it is translated “accomplished” or “fulfilled”
A form of the word is what Jesus used on the cross when He said “it is finished”

What we are talking about is
The effect of God’s love being “perfected in us”
• Or God’s love being accomplished in us.
• Or God’s love being fulfilled in us.
• That God’s redeeming love has finished its work.

And this is a bit of A DIRECTION CHANGE for John.

Earlier in verse 9 John spoke of “the love of God…MANIFESTED in us”
• That of course spoke of God making something known.
• He revealed His love or made it known by what He has done in us.

But here the focus changes.
• Now in verse 12 it is “His love PERFECTED in us”

Now we are talking about God finishing something in our life.
Now we are talking about God accomplishing something in our life.

God’s love showed up by making us alive,
Now we see what it looks like when it is finished with us.

To aid in our understanding I do want to make some subpoints here.
More than anything to just help our train of thought.

Here’s the first sort of statement I want to make:
LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE REALITY GOD IS ACCOMPLISHING IN YOUR LIFE. (12)

And to begin let me just start with this question:
WHEN GOD COMPLETES HIS WORK IN YOUR LIFE, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IT TO LOOK LIKE?

Or perhaps I should ask it like this:
If God was finished sanctifying you, what do you think the most obvious aspect of your life would be?

I can tell you the answer: LOVE

When John speaks of “love perfected in us”
He is talking about when the love God has shown you
Finally completes its purpose.

TURN TO: 2 PETER 1:5-7

This passage isn’t very long, but I want you to turn there because I want you to see it on the page and make a mental note of it in your mind.

What Peter gives you here is a sort of spiritual progression list.
You can read these verses and chart your sanctification progress.
You can sort of measure your spiritual growth in these 3 verses.

Now just to get your mind thinking,
What attribute begins your spiritual growth process?

What is the first spiritual discipline that you must exercise?
FAITH

• When you believe, God justifies you.
• Without faith it is impossible to please God.
• Faith is the beginning of it all.

That is where Peter begins.
But then Peter begins to talk about your spiritual growth.
It begins with simple faith but it grows from there upward.

(5) “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence”

• So you start with faith but very quickly after that you start living a virtuous life.
• You begin to put away sin and to live more obediently, more morally, mor
righteously.

That is the natural progression.
You believe Christ and you start to put away sin.

“and in your moral excellence, knowledge”

Why “knowledge”?
• Because you begin seeking to know the will of God so that you might know how
to live more obediently.

The moment you were saved
You instantly knew of some things in your life that needed to change,
But you didn’t know about everything that needed to change,
So you add “knowledge”.

You seek truth so that you learn how to live even more righteously.

“and in your knowledge, self-control”

INEVITABLY in your quest for knowledge you will run across a command
Or requirement of God that will offend your flesh.

And in those moments you must “die to self” again.
In those moments you must buffet your body and make it your slave.

As a Christian grows in spiritual maturity,
He grows in the ability to know God’s will
And then to bring his body into conformity with it.

So he adds “self-control” to his “knowledge”

“and in your self-control, perseverance”

• You sense the battle raging here.
• But the more you fight it, the less you lose.
• The more you fight, the longer you hold on.

Early in your Christian life God’s word confronted a specific sin
And it was a battle to let it go,
But over time you begin to persevere in your victory.

And so you are actually conquering that sin continually.
That’s part of spiritual growth.

“and in your perseverance, godliness”

• We certainly don’t want to be those who persevere in sin.
• We persevere in “godliness”

This is more than just the “moral excellence” that began early.
Now we are moving BEYOND THE BEHAVIOR TO THE MOTIVE.
Early on it was ignorant obedience, now there is wisdom attached to it.

You have begun to know God and so you begin to walk like Him.

“and in your godliness, brotherly kindness”

This is the way your “godliness” begins to be manifested.
• God is love
• God demonstrated His love
• God loved sinners
• God Himself is kind to evil men

And the more godly you become, the kinder you become as well.

And then we see that final stage in your spiritual growth.
We see THAT CHIEF CHARACTERISTIC
That God is seeking to work out in your life.

“and in your brotherly kindness, love.”

You can chart your spiritual growth there.
Babes in Christ begin with faith, but they come with sinful behavior, ignorance, and a lack of endurance.

But as they grow,
• They seek the knowledge of God,
• They conquer the flesh,
• The seek to imitate God
• And that process of SANCTIFICATION CULMINATES IN LOVE

NOW, WHY DO I SHOW YOU THAT PASSAGE?

Because that is what John is talking about here as well.

He is talking about how you know
When God’s sanctifying work is at its best in your life.

“if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

• WHEN WE LOVE, for that moment, we are what we are intended to be.
• WHEN WE LOVE, we are demonstrating God’s effect in our lives.

The world doesn’t see God in the flesh.
But when we love they see the effect of what God does in a life.

Loving one another is the finish line.
Loving one another is the objective.

Now that should NOT be a foreign concept to you.
After all, we hear Jesus call it the second greatest commandment.

Beyond that, listen to this from Jesus:
Matthew 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

And listen to this from Paul:
Romans 13:8-10 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Or Paul again:
Galatians 5:14 “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

All of those passages make the same point.
That if you want to sum up the point of the Old Testament it is simple: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

Love has always been the expectation of God.
• Even back to Sinai, if you wanted to sum all that God commanded of His people, you could sum it up with the command to love.

Love has always been the chief demonstration of righteousness.

AND JOHN IS STILL SAYING THAT HERE.
In those moments that we love we are showing God’s work in our lives to be completed.

And, if we were able to love perfectly 24/7
Then we’d say we were a finished product.

Now we don’t always love as we should.
• But in those moments when we love,
• We are showing a picture to the world of exactly what God is doing in our life.

DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?

So let me make that statement again:
LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE REALITY GOD IS ACCOMPLISHING IN YOUR LIFE.

WHEN YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER,
• You give evidence that God is accomplishing his work in you.
• You show the world exactly what God is doing.
• You show people the God they cannot see.

Sanctification is happening…
You know that because you love one another.

Now, if you don’t love one another…
If you walk in selfishness…
• Where is your evidence that God is at work in you?
• Where is your evidence that you are being sanctified?

Is this making sense?

Here’s the next statement.

LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE TESTIMONY THE HOLY SPIRIT IS PRODUCING IN YOUR LIFE (13-16)

Look at these next 4 verses
(13-16) “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

There is another one of those assurance based statements:
“By this we know…”

“By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”

John has JUST SAID that when you love your neighbor you demonstrate who God is to a world that cannot see Him.

Now he is going to prove that
The only reason you are able to do this
Is because the Spirit of God is obviously at work in you.

And so loving your neighbor is actually evidence that you are redeemed.

And let me show that in these 4 verses.

John here is going to show you 3 effects that occur in your life
When you have the Holy Spirit.

(This, along with John 16 and Galatians 5, are the greatest passages
on helping you identify the Spirit of God in your life.)

It will help you to circle these 3 words.
These 3 behaviors are how you know “He has given us of His Spirit”

(14) “testify”
• “that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world”

(15) “confess”
• “that Jesus is the Son of God”

(16) “believed”
• “the love which God has for us.”

Those are three things the Holy Spirit causes in your life.
John actually gives them in REVERSE ORDER
That they happen chronologically.

It’s like what Paul does in that famous Romans 10
“How will they call on Him who’ve they’ve not believed, how will they believe in Him whom they’ve not heard, how will they hear without a preacher, how will they preach unless they are sent?”

Backward chronologically.

That is what John is doing.
Namely because John has just said that
When we love we show God to a world who can’t see Him.

Or in verse 14 to say it another way, when we love “we testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”

Those statements mean the same thing.
And John now is WORKING BACKWARD to show you why you testify.

IT IS BECAUSE THE HOLY SPIRIT IS IN YOU.

THE FIRST THING the Holy Spirit did in you was to cause you to believe.
He caused you to believe “the love which God has for us.”
• He opened your eyes to Christ.
• He opened your eyes to the gospel.
• He granted you faith so that you might believe “the love which God has”

• In this is God so loving the world that He sent Christ.
• In this is God demonstrating His love by crushing Christ on the cross.
• In this is God making you alive that you might be saved.

That is God’s love and that is what you believed at salvation.
THE REASON you believed that is because the Holy Spirit caused you to.

Faith is not of yourself, it is the gift of God.

But it didn’t stop with belief.
Belief always manifests itself with confession.

After you believed God’s love, the NEXT THING that happened is that you confessed “that Jesus is the Son of God”

Remember, Paul said this very thing:
Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

You believe first, but once you believe you confess.
Those who don’t confess Christ don’t believe Him.

But if you believe then you confess.

And just like your faith, your confession
Is also evidence of the Spirit of God in you.

The reason you confessed Christ is because of the Holy Spirit.

But after you believe…
And after you confess…
THEN WHAT DO YOU DO?

You (14) “testify that the Father as sent the Son to be the Savior of the world”

• There is no such thing as a Christian who is not a missionary.
• There is no such thing as a closet Christian.
• Christians do not cover their light with a basket.

The same Spirit that caused belief also causes confession.
The same Spirit that causes confession also causes us to testify.

John 15:26-27 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”

DO NOT DECEIVE YOURSELF.

There are many people today who never testify of Christ
And yet assume they are saved.

Have you not read?
Matthew 10:32-33 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”

Charles Spurgeon said, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”

How can you say that?
Because the same Spirit that grants life also testifies of that life.

BUT LISTEN TO ME NOW HERE.

What sort of testimony is John talking about here?
• John IS NOT talking here about a verbal testimony.
• John IS NOT talking about a verbal sermon. (Christians should do that)
• John IS talking about the testimony of love.

John is merely pointing out that when God’s Spirit is withing you.
• He will cause you to believe.
• He will cause you to confess Christ.
• And He will cause you to love like Christ loved and thus be a testimony to the world exactly who God is.

I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE.
This passage is so circular and wordy that pulling it apart takes some real effort.

The reason love is proof that God’s Spirit is in you
Is because you wouldn’t and couldn’t love apart from Him.

And if He is in you, you will love.
And as you love, you show the world who God is.

Now, to sort of reinforce this,
Let me ask you to think about Jesus for a moment.

When Jesus came to this earth do you see His love for His brethren?
• He loved them to the end.
• He came to this world…
• He went from village to village preaching…
• He was moved with compassion…
• Ultimately He laid down His life for our redemption…

And you will be most certain that His Spirit is within you
On the day when you behave like Him.

• When you go in search of the lost sheep.
• When you proclaim the gospel in the world.
• When you show compassion and kindness to those who don’t deserve it.
• When you lay down your life for your brother.

When you do that…
When you love like Christ…

You will be a testimony to the world who can’t see God.

BUT YOU WILL ALSO provide yourself with tremendous assurance that Christ is in you, otherwise you wouldn’t do those things.

Now, let me bring all this together hopefully with these final two verses.

One more statement.
LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE CERTAINTY THAT YOU WILL ESCAPE JUDGMENT (17-18)

Look at these next two verses.
(17-18) “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”

We are back to the issue of “perfected” love.

John says “By this, love is perfected with us”

By what?
By living like Jesus
(testifying through love to the world and showing them who God is)

When we do that, we show that love has had its work in us.

AND when you love like Jesus.
Or as John says in verse 17, “as He is, so also are we in the world”

When you live and act and love like Jesus.
What does that give you?

“confidence in the day of judgment”

You won’t fear standing before God
If you’ve been living like Jesus in the world.

HOWEVER, there is a flip side.
The opposite of confidence is “fear”

If you “fear” the judgment of God
It is because you can’t see any evidence of Christ in you.

It might just be that you have a love problem.
“perfect love casts out fear”

When you love as God commands you to love, it will eradicate your fear.
• It will prove to you that the Spirit of God is in you.
• It will show you that you are being conformed into Christ’s image.
• It will grant assurance that you are a child of God.
• It will give you confidence to face the judgment.

And to that we say that loving one another is necessary.
ASSURANCE DEPENDS ON IT.

To put it another way.
You will never have assurance without loving one another.
• You may try to convince yourself that you are saved.
• You may try to ignore the conviction.

But without love there will always be fear of judgment.
There will never be confidence.

God is love.
Love is the chief thing Christ did.
Love is the fulfillment of God’s Law.
Love is what God is seeking to produce in your life.
You are never more like Him than when you love.
When you love it is only because God has caused you to do it.
Love is the result of the Holy Spirit abiding in you.
Love is the ultimate testimony that God has changed your life.

SO:
How can you say that God has given you new life?
How can you say that God has filled you with His Spirit?
How can you say that God is conforming you into the image of Christ?

IF YOU DO NOT LOVE YOUR BROTHER?

You can’t.
• Without brotherly love you have no claim on redemption.
• Without brotherly love you have no testimony of godliness.
• Without brotherly love you have no confidence in judgment.

So we say to love one another.
ATONEMENT DESERVES IT
ASSURANCE DEPENDS ON IT

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Anticipating Worship: The Privilege of Drawing Near
Psalms 132
July 10, 2022

Tonight we return to this group of songs which are designated as
“A Song of Ascents”

That unofficial hymn book of those who traveled to Jerusalem
Anticipating worship of God.

TONIGHT we come to perhaps the most important aspect of all of them.

Namely that these people anticipated worship
Because they were coming to enjoy the presence of God.

We’ve talked about rest and peace and encouragement and blessing and any number of benefits that occur when we attend the corporate worship service,

But in all honesty they all pale in comparison
To simply enjoying God’s presence.

This was a lesson that God sought to teach Israel repeatedly
And they have always seemingly had trouble grasping it.

The first major lesson
Came following the golden calf incident during the Exodus from Egypt.
• The children of Israel offended God with that hideous calf
• And in His offense God moved His tent outside of the camp.

TURN TO: EXODUS 33:1-16

Lesson learned.
If God isn’t with you, you have no business moving forward.

This truth was reinforced throughout The Wilderness Wanderings.
• When God would stop (the glory cloud) Israel stopped.
• When God moved Israel moved.

Perhaps the most famous incident of this occurs when Ezekiel actually saw the glory of God depart from the temple.

Ezekiel 11:22-25 “Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. The glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to the exiles in Chaldea. So the vision that I had seen left me. Then I told the exiles all the things that the LORD had shown me.”

• And when God vacated His city Babylon came in and destroyed the place.
• The entire ministry of Ezekiel then is an anticipation for that millennial city which will be called “Jehovah Shammah: The LORD Is There”
• It’s another drastic reminder of the importance of God’s presence.

But there is another incident in the Old Testament
Where this truth was taught again.

It was an incident that began with a priest who had corrupt sons.
That priest’s name was Eli and his sons were Hophni and Phinehas

• There came a day when the Philistines attacked as part of the judgment of God on Israel
• In order to try and manipulate the outcome of the battle Eli’s sons took the ark of God to the battlefield.
• Long story short, the Israelites lost and the ark of God was stolen by the Philistines.

TURN TO: 1 SAMUEL 4:10-22

• God’s ark was stolen.
• Eli’s grandson was actually named Ichabod which means “No Glory”
• It was a tragic day.

Now if you follow that story
You know how stealing God’s ark brought hardship on the Philistines.
• They started by putting it into the pagan temple of their false god Dagon
• They set God’s ark next to that pagan statue,
• But that pagan statue kept falling over in the presence of God’s ark
• And it actually decapitated and cut off the hands of their false god.

I love the Philistine response:
TURN TO: 1 SAMUEL 5:6-7:2

I know that’s a long portion of Scripture but it is quite interesting
Just reading about the power of God’s presence.

But by the end of the affair the ark of God came to settle for 20 years
In a place called “Kiriath-jearim”.

• This region by the way is referenced in our Psalm tonight under the name
“Ephrathah” and “field of Jaar” in verse 6.

So God’s ark has rested for 20 years.
In fact, it has actually been even sort of overlooked or forgotten.

• There is one incident in 1 Samuel 14 when Saul calls for the ark of God
• But other than that it disappears from the picture
• Until 2 Samuel 6 when David sets out to bring it to Jerusalem.

And you likely remember that story
• How David moved it on the cart, but the oxen stumbled
• And Uzzah touched the ark and God struck him dead.
• They then let the ark stay in the house of Obed-edom for 3 months and God blessed him while it was there.

Eventually David brought the ark of God into Jerusalem
And it wasn’t long after that that DAVID HAD A DESIRE.

David wanted to build God a house; a temple.
God told David no, but also MADE A PROMISE.

2 Samuel 7:12-17 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’” In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.”

• So David was certainly a man who pleased God
• And God made great promise to David
• And Israel benefited greatly from God’s favor toward David.

Now if you fast forward again,
• Solomon is king and he builds God’s temple
• And it is time to dedicate the temple to the LORD.

We don’t have the time to read the entire story but Solomon finished the temple,
They moved in the ark and God’s glory began to fill the temple.

Solomon then fell to his knees and prayed before God.
It is a prayer continually asking God to keep His eyes toward the temple
And His ears attentive to the prayers offered toward that place.

In short, Solomon knew God dwelled in heaven,
But the temple was to be a place
Where the children of Israel could meet with God.

It was a place where God would hear their prayers and respond to them.
It was the place of His presence on earth.

I want you to see the closing remarks of Solomon’s prayer.

2 Chronicles 6:40-42 “Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. “Now therefore arise, O LORD God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good. “O LORD God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David.”

And after reading that we look down at verses 8-10 and we read:
(8-10) “Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, And let Your godly ones sing for joy. For the sake of David Your servant, Do not turn away the face of Your anointed.”

Solomon quoted Psalms 132 in his prayer for God to be attentive to Israel.
• This may have even been a Psalm written by Solomon as he contemplated that great day of God’s presence.
• Or perhaps Asaph wrote it, we remember his great statement.

Psalms 73:25-28 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.”

Whoever wrote it, it is a reminder that
It is a blessing to be able to draw near to God.

It then became a Psalm that was added to these songs of ascents
For Israel to sing as they traveled to Jerusalem to remind them yet again
Of the importance of God’s presence in their lives.

This Psalm commemorates the blessing of God’s presence.
• It is a blessing to be able to commune with Him.
• This journey to Jerusalem is not a burden, it is a blessing.

And the song itself became a commemorative appeal to God
To meet with us as we come to You.

3 points tonight
#1 THE REMINDER
Psalms 132:1-5

The reminder is clearly stated at the beginning of the song.

“Remember, O LORD, on David’s behalf, All his affliction;”

Very simply the call is to remember DAVID’S RESOLVE.

When you read the next 4 verses David’s “affliction” becomes clear.

(2-5) “How he swore to the LORD And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “Surely I will not enter my house, Nor lie on my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes Or slumber to my eyelids, Until I find a place for the LORD, A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

It’s NOT so much “affliction” like we immediately assume
As some form of personal suffering.

Rather, the Psalmist is talking about David’s lack of rest in his spirit.
• He was burdened of soul…
• He was afflicted of heart…

It bothered him that God had built him a house
While he had allowed God to continue dwelling in a tent.

2 Samuel 7:1-2 “Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.”

You see an obvious respect and devotion and love for God from David.
And even though God did not allow David to build it,
It is clear that God was pleased with David’s intention.

Remember later, after the exile, when the Jews returned to Jerusalem and out of fear of their neighbors they quit building God’s temple.

To those refugees God said:
Haggai 1:4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?”

In fact, because they had neglected God’s house God had withheld the rain and was causing extreme economic hardship on them.

So even though David wouldn’t actually build the house,
His heart and his affliction were certainly in the right place.

Nathan the prophet even initially endorsed the idea as a good one.
It wasn’t until God approached Nathan that David was called to change plans.

And even Solomon noted that God was pleased and David’s heart was right in this.
2 Chronicles 6:8 “But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart.”

DAVID’S HEART WAS RIGHT TO BE AFFLICTED

And certainly we pick up on the DEGREE OF HIS AFFLICTION.

• Words like “I will not enter my house, Nor lie on my bead”
• Or “I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to by eyelids”

Which is just poetic language to suggest that nothing matters more to me
Than to see God rightly honored with a house.

But THE SIMPLE POINT to begin the song is that
David greatly pleased God by being so afflicted
Over the honor that God deserved and was not receiving.

And in response to David’s desire God made a promise to David.

You won’t build My house, but…
2 Samuel 7:12-13 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

And this is the promise that the Psalmist is banking on.
• As they approach Jerusalem…
• As they anticipate standing in the presence of God…
• Their desire is that God will meet with them at His holy temple.
• Their hope rests on the fact that God will do it out of favor for David.

So the song begins with a reminder to God that David was so pleasing; and that God should meet with us on his account.

So there’s the reminder.
#2 THE REQUEST
Psalms 132:6-12

There are several aspects here of this request, let me break them down a little further to help you see them.

1) OUR REGRET (6)

“Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah, We found it in the field of Jaar.”

What is “it” that the Psalmist refers to?

• “it” here is nothing less than the Ark of the Covenant.
• “Ephrathah” and “the field of Jaar” is a reference to Kiriath-Jearim where the ark came to rest for 20 years after the Philistines sent it back.

So why use the phrase “Ephrathah” and “the field of Jaar”?
• “Jaar” literally speaks of “the woods”
• “Ephrathah” was a surrounding area to Bethlehem

THE POINT in using the word “it”
And in speaking of these rural places out in the woods
Is to reveal that for 20 years we didn’t give the ark much thought.

• For 20 years we weren’t really concerned about Your presence
• Or appearing before You,
• Or whether or not You were rightly honored.

Sure Saul sought to benefit from God’s ark in his battle at Gibeah in 1 Samuel 14, but as far as honoring God was concerned…we weren’t.

It wasn’t until David showed up
That we were reminded that Your presence
Was to be sought and honored and enjoyed.

Verse 6 is a statement of dishonor and regret.
It’s AN ADMISSION that we’ve not always sought You as we should have.

But as you can see, THANKS TO DAVID,
Our mindset has completely changed on the issue.

2) OUR RESOLVE (7-9)

“Let us go into His dwelling place; Let us worship at His footstool. Arise, O LORD, to You resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, And let Your godly ones sing for joy.”

That is quite an attitude change.
• Previously we were content to let “it” dwell in the woods.
• Now “it” is “the ark of Your strength” and we are traveling to get there.
• It is now our objective to “worship at [Your] footstool”

There has been quite a reformation take place among the people of Israel.
David has changed the mindset of the entire nation.
David has led them from apathy to intense devotion.

And now the chief concern is that
When we travel to Jerusalem that God would meet us there.

(8) “Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place, You and the ark of the Your strength.”

The ark is referred to as a “resting place”, because the horns of the altar pictured arm rests even as a place where God sat in His temple to dwell with us.

The Psalmist knows, as Solomon had stated, that “heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built”

God didn’t dwell in the temple, but God would meet us there.
AND THAT IS THE REQUEST.

And notice the new heart attitude of the people.
Indifference is totally eradicated.

(9) “Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness”

• We will no longer apathetically approach You.
• We will come to You in holiness.

Psalms 96:9 “Worship the LORD in holy attire; Tremble before Him, all the earth.”

Psalms 15 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”

• We aren’t going to come like Uzzah with disrespect for the ark.
• We aren’t going to be like the men of Beth-shemesh who looked in the ark and of whom You killed 50,070.

We’re coming in true honor and reverence before Your presence.

“And let Your godly ones sing for joy.”

We will remove all hypocrisy from our worship.

Later in the days of Jeremiah
• The people would come to “the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” as a safe haven from God’s wrath.
• They treated it like a den of robbers.
• They could sin it up for 6 days and then come to the temple and say they were delivered.

In Jesus day
• They had turned the temple into a flea market
• And Jesus declared war; turning over tables and driving men out with a whip.

The Psalmist can conceive of nothing so vain or vulgar.

God we are traveling to meet with You
And we are coming in righteousness and in sincerity.
We are coming to commune and to worship and to sing.

And certainly you understand the accuracy in their request.
When Jesus talked with that Samaritan woman by the well,
Her concern was all about the location of worship.

John 4:20-24 “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The Psalmist here seems to understand that.

Certainly we are approaching Jerusalem for You have promised David to meet with us there.

But we would not dare assume
That just because we stand in Jerusalem
That we have any right to expect Your presence.

• We are coming to worship.
• We are coming to worship in righteousness or truth.
• We are coming to worship in spirit with songs of joy.

You can see there has been quite a HEART CHANGE among the people.

Our regret, Our resolve
3) OUR RELIANCE (10-12)

“For the sake of David Your servant, Do not turn away the face of Your anointed. The LORD has sworn to David A truth from which He will not turn back: “Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne. If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I will teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever.”

It is the Davidic covenant.

It is that SAME TRUST that is issued at the beginning of the Psalm.
• We are coming to you sure enough…
• We are coming in spirit and truth sure enough…

• But again, the only reason why we would expect that You will accept us is because of David.

WE TRADE ON HIS DEVOTION.
WE TRADE ON HIS FAVOR.

The only reason we would expect that You would meet with us
Is because You made promises to him that we know You will keep.

THIS IS SUCH A PICTURE OF THE GOSPEL
• Is not Jesus the true Son of David?
• Was it not Jesus of whom God announced “In Him I am well pleased”?
• And do we not approach God based on His favor?

Certainly we approach in sincerity…
Certainly we approach in spirit and in truth…
But we still approach only on the merit which Jesus earned.

We “draw near to God through Him”
• It was His obedience that pleased God.
• It was His blood which satisfied His wrath.
• And based upon the favor which He earned, we come before God.

Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

I realize that
• Our worship is no longer bound up in a specific earthly location as Israel’s was.
• Jesus made that clear to the woman at the well.

But even so do you not see that
We never draw near to God based upon our own merit?

• We also come through Jesus.
• We always pray in His name.
• Our acceptance is only because He is accepted and we are in Him.

Listen to Jesus speak to the disciples:
John 16:26-27 “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”

• You can go to the Father…how? “in My name”
• The Father loves you…why? “because you have loved Me”

And then read Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17 and listen to Him intercede before the Father asking that the Father accept us on His behalf.

This is certainly the basis for our access to God.

Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

It is all through Him and only through Him.

The Psalmist understood that ages ago, we still see it today.
• They desired to come to God.
• They certainly desired to come the right way.
• And they only expected to be accepted because of God’s favor toward David.

The Reminder, The Request
#3 THE RESPONSE
Psalms 132:13-18

Here is God’s answer to their request.
And I do want you to notice how specific His answer is.

In verse 7 the Psalmist said “Let us go into His dwelling place” and “worship at His footstool”

(13) “For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation.”

God said, “Indeed, Zion is the place I chose for you to come.”
You are correct in coming here.

In verse 9 the Psalmist asked God to meet them there also saying, “Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place.”

(14) “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.”

God said, “Yes, I will meet you there.”

God even added to His answer what was not asked by the Psalmist, but which must have surely been on his mind.

God said, (15) “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy with bread.”

In addition to meeting you there, I will care for her forever.

In verse 10 the Psalmist said, “Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, And let your godly ones sing for joy.”

And God answered (16) “Her priests also I will clothe with salvation, And her godly ones will sing aloud for joy.”

God will grant the righteousness He requires.

Do you see justification there?

The only place we get the righteousness God requires is from God.

It was Augustine who prayed: “Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!”

That is the request of the Psalmist and God granted it.

In verses 10-12 the Psalmist asked that God would accept them on behalf of David and that God would honor His promise to David’s descendants.

And we read God’s answer (17-18) “There I will cause the horn of David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed. “His enemies I will clothe with shame, But upon himself his crown shall shine.”

God will certainly honor David forever
And will certainly always accept us on David’s behalf.

AND OF COURSE NOW YOU REALIZE THAT
This Psalm was never really about David,
Just as the Davidic covenant was never fully about David.

It was always about David’s descendant; the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

• He was the One who pleased the Father.
• He was the One who elevated worship to those who had forgotten it.
• He was the One who called the people back to God.
• He was the One who earned God’s favor.
• He was the mediator…
• He brought propitiation…
• He is the intercessor…
• He purchased peace between God and man…

And now through Him we are once again invited to commune with God.
• Through Him we pray…
• Through Him we draw near…
• Through Him we hear from God…

He is Prophet, Priest, and King to us.
And He is the one whose work & favor we rest upon.

And this speaks volumes to us about our anticipation for worship.

What we do here is nothing short of worship of the transcendent God.

We are NOT a club…
This is NOT an entertainment venue…
THIS IS A TIME FOR WORSHIP.

• We seek to draw near to God and we gather to do it in one accord.
• We congregate that we might all worship together as God commanded.

• And we understand that this is to be done in righteousness & reverence & truth.
• And we understand that this is to be done in spirit with joy and singing.

We have learned repeatedly the attitude and manner
In which we are to approach Him in worship.

But we also know that our right to even attend and draw near
Is not earned by who we are.

• We have no right to draw near…
• We have no right to this place…
• We have no right to prayer or worship or supplication…
• We have no right to hear from Him…

• We are sinful and fallen.
• We neglected His presence and we rebelled against His rule.
• We offended and draw away His presence.

We were forced out of the garden away from God’s presence
And the flaming cherubim stationed themselves to see to it
That we didn’t try to return in our fallen nakedness.

BUT JESUS ARRIVED.
• He came in human flesh and satisfied God.
• He fulfilled His righteous standard and satisfied His wrath.
• And now we come to God through Him.

We pray, “Remember, O LORD, on Jesus’ behalf…”
Let us come to You because of Him.

And God’s answer to us is the same as the Psalmist.
• You are welcome to Me in Him.
• I will never forsake Him.
• I will remember My promise to Him forever.
• And when you come to Me in His name, you are welcome to come.

Do you see now the total privilege of worship?
Do you see now that this is no burden, but it is indeed an honor?

We live in a day when corporate worship has become a burden to many.
• It takes too much time, it’s too long, it’s boring.
• Sunday night congregations prove that even to those who value worship, there seems to be better things to do than return on a Sunday night.

Corporate worship has lost it’s sense of privilege before God.

Perhaps God should move outside the camp for a time until His children again learn what a blessing His presence is.

Perhaps God should depart from His temple for a season and let the Babylonians come in.

Perhaps God should allow His presence to be kidnapped to a foreign people and lost in the woods for a time.

Until we again learn that being able to congregate and worship God is a blessing.

Until we again learn that there is no greater privilege than being able to draw near to God.

Until we again learn of the infinite value of Jesus whose life and death allow us that privilege.

That is actually the very point of the writer of Hebrews
In that famous passage about gathering together.

Hebrews 10:19-25 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Download Here:

Love One Another – Part 1
1 John 4:7-21 (7-11)
July 10, 2022

The church throughout the New Testament
Is described with various metaphors.

We are familiar with the analogy that the church is “God’s Building”,
As those whom God is constructing with Christ Jesus being the corner stone.

We know about the church described as “the flock of God”
With Jesus as the Chief Shepherd.

We see the church referred to as “a body”,
Of which Jesus Christ is the head.
And of which each person is a member.

We know of the church as “the bride”,
Of which Jesus Christ is her husband.

But none of those analogies are even close to the favorite analogy
Used by the writers of the New Testament.

Of all the ways in which the church is described,
None of them is used more than the imagery of the church
As “a family” of which Jesus Christ is our elder brother.

Alexander Strauch wrote:
“The reality of this strong, familial community supersaturates the New Testament. The New Testament writers most commonly refer to the believers as brethren. Peter refers to the worldwide Christian community as “the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17; 5:9). The terms brethren, brother, or sister occur approximately 250 times throughout the New Testament.”
(Strauch, Alexander [Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call To Restore Biblical Church Eldership; Lewis and Roth Publishers; Littleton, CO; 1995] pg. 110)

Strauch would go on to point out how:
The early Christians met in homes
They shared material possessions
They ate together
They greeted one another with a holy kiss
They showed hospitality
They cared for widows
When appropriate, they disciplined their members
(ibid; pg 110)

And certainly based upon this reality
We see throughout the pages of Scripture the same repeated call
That as member of God’s family we are to love our brothers.

Hebrews 13:1 “Let love of the brethren continue.”

1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 “Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more,”

1 Peter 1:22 “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,”

We are certainly called to emulate our Elder Brother Jesus Christ
Who humbled Himself and laid down His life
That His brothers might be saved.

This truth comes to the forefront for us this morning
Here in our study of 1 John.

• As John writes to make it clear what is and what is not genuine Christianity,
• As John strives to provide assurance to those who are genuinely redeemed,

No topic becomes more important to him than the topic of brotherly love.

It is this command, perhaps above all others, where John will rest
In order to deliver his strongest evidence regarding genuine Christianity.

And so we will spend the next few weeks learning from this apostle
Who in the gospel accounts could only identify himself as
“The Apostle Whom Jesus Loved”.

TO JOHN THIS IS THE BIG ONE.

I don’t know how long it will take us to study the text,
• But I will give you the 3 main points here at the beginning
• So that as you read and study and meditate on your own,
• You’ll have some idea where we are headed with all of this.

There are 3 reasons John calls for brotherly love in these 15 verses.
1) Atonement Deserves It
2) Assurance Depends On It
3) Authenticity Demands It

This morning we’ll begin with that first main point.
#1 ATONEMENT DESERVES IT
1 John 4:7-11

The point John is making is this: Brotherly love is the most fitting response to the love which Christ has shown us.

To put it in secular terms.
• If you went today and chose to adopt a child from dreadful circumstances
• And introduced them into your home as one of your own children.
• At the top of your list of expectations would be that your natural children and your adopted children might love each other and grow to treat one another as family.

And so it is the expectation of our Heavenly Father as well.
Not only that we love our Father for the gift of adoption,
But also that we love the other children He has adopted as well.

And looking at our text, I would first point out to you
THE TITLE JOHN GIVES us by which this first segment is bookended.

• In verse 7 John begins with our title: “Beloved”
• And in verse 11, he closes this section with that same title: “Beloved”

AGAPETOI in the Greek
It means “loved ones”

That is who we are.
We are those who have been loved by God.

1 John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.”

Paul does such a wonderful job of speaking to this great love.
Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

We are loved ones.
God set His love on us.
• We are His children.
• We are adopted into His family.
• We are forgiven of our trespasses.
• We are endowed with His inheritance.
• We are filled with His Spirit.

We are “Beloved”
There’s no debating that.

That reality is not only that which John will prove in these 5 verses,
But also that which John will use as
The main reason why we should love our brethren.

John simply says, “Beloved, let us love one another”

I don’t know if there is another command in the Bible
That is more widely known and yet more widely disregarded than this one

For at the same time,
It may also be the most difficult command to obey.

In fact, it is such a difficult command to obey
That it is only possible if God’s own Spirit dwells within you.

But let’s talk first THIS MORNING about how God’s atonement of our sin deserves a response of love from us.

We get our first explanation here in verse 7.
“Beloved, let us love one another, FOR love is from God;”

Love is spoken of here as a gift to us.
NOT simply as something we receive and benefit from, though we do,
But as a provision we receive from Him that we employ to others.

That which we are called to give one another
Is that which only comes from God.
• It is not natural within ourselves.
• It is not natural within our world.
• You can’t learn it at school.
• You can’t achieve it through hard work.

It is one of God’s supernatural attributes.
It is one of the fruits of God’s Spirit.

Incidentally the word for “love” here is AGAPEO, it is the God-like love.

• We are NOT talking about worldly fondness.
• We are NOT talking about worldly craving.
• We are NOT talking about emotional attraction.

We are talking about the perfect love which God demonstrates toward us.

And FIRST we learn that
We can only get the capacity for this kind of love from God.

In fact, TO PROVE that this love only comes from God,
John lifts it as a characteristic of salvation.

“everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

This is a love which is supernaturally provided by God.
• If you have it, it is because you know God.
• If you do not have it, it is because you do not know God.

And that opens up for us a host of questions.
Namely: WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

After all, we hear the world talk about love all the time.
The world will unanimously tell us that love is a good thing.

But John insinuates that
The love they speak of is NOT what he is talking about
For the world boasts of love but does not know God.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT JOHN?

(9) “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

Here we see God’s love MANIFESTED.

“manifested” comes from a word that means
“to make visible” or “to realize”,
Especially something that was unknown.

So John says that God’s love has been made visible.
And he says it has been made visible “in us”

Now that is different from that famous passage we read in Romans.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Paul says that God put His love on display in front of us
Through the crucifixion of Christ.

• The entire world was allowed to see that demonstration of the love of God.
• He crucified His Son on behalf of sinners.
• That was a demonstration of God’s sacrificial love.

BUT HERE JOHN SPEAKS OF SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
Not just demonstrated to us, but
He speaks of love being manifested or REALIZED IN US.

While I certainly never take my eyes off of the cross of Jesus,
John says that I can now realize God’s love
Through something He has done in my life.

WHAT IS THAT?

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

We certainly still see that demonstration of love.
• Namely that “God has sent His only begotten Son into the world”

But what has God accomplished in us through sending His Son?
• “so that we might live through Him”

The answer is: LIFE

God’s love is now made visible in us
By reason of the life that He has given us.

And here we are NOT referring to physical life, which all men have,
But that new spiritual, abundant, eternal life which came to us through Christ.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

John 4:10 “Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

John 6:35 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”

John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

It is what we read about a moment ago from Paul.
Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”

Jesus didn’t come just to model good behavior.
Jesus didn’t come just to improve living standards.
Jesus didn’t come to educate the ignorant.
Jesus didn’t come for political reform.
Jesus didn’t come for social injustice.
He came to take dead men and make them alive.

What do you mean dead men?
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

The dead are characterized by:
• The worldly pattern they follow (which is Satan’s pattern and a demonic one)
• The lusts of the flesh they indulge
• The wrath they incur

To be dead indicates one with no comprehension of the things of God.
• They have no love for God.
• They have no understanding of God.
• They have no desire for the things of God.

Christ came to take those dead men and make them alive.
All of this occurs “through Him”

We have repeatedly said God’s love is
• A redeeming love
• And a transforming love.
• We might also call it a resurrecting love.

• It is NOT empty infatuation.
• It is CERTAINLY NOT apathetic approval of whatever you want to do.
• It is NOT some enablement of your sinful dreams.

No, Christ came and approached you in your sin and made you alive
That you might now be different.

God did this for those He saved.
He sent His Son to raise us from the dead.

Colossians 1:13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,”

Romans 6:12-13 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

Do you want to see the distinction a little more clearly?

TURN TO: EPHESIANS 4:17-5:10
• You see the obvious difference between life and death.
• You see the obvious difference between lost and saved.

And if you ask yourself, “Why do I live different from the world?”
It is because God loved you and sent His Son to make you alive.

• He didn’t leave you dead
• He didn’t leave you in sin
• He didn’t leave you under wrath

• He rescued you
• He raised you
• He made you alive

Your new life is EVIDENCE of how God has loved you.

And that is a remarkable thing in and of itself.
BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER.

(10) “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

If you want the full effect of John’s point here then first you need to EXTRACT from that verse the two statements that describe us.

• The first is “not that we loved God”
• The second is “for our sins”

When God set His love upon us
We see that we were sinners who did not love God.

GOD DID NOT RESPOND to our love with His own.
God initiated love to those who did not love Him.

GOD DID NOT RESPOND to people striving to do their best.
God initiated love to those who were adamantly rebelling against Him.

That means when God determined to love you
It was at a point when you were absolutely unlovable.
He loved you in spite of you.

You see that first.

Well, what love did He show toward us?
“He…sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

There is that beautiful word again: “propitiation”
It means appeasement or satisfaction.
To settle down or relieve the wrath of God.

So God looks upon this world and sees rebellious sinners who have kindled His wrath toward them.

And everything about the holiness of God
Would rise up and crush them immediately.

His holiness would SEND RAIN and drown them all…
His holiness would SEND FIRE from heaven and incinerate them…
His holiness would OPEN UP THE GROUND and swallow them alive…

And we certainly know that God would be just in this
And that He has proven His willingness to do this before.

And yet, instead of global destruction, He sent His Son to earth
To bear our punishment and satisfy His wrath.

I just gave you a list of some of the most terrible expressions of God’s wrath revealed in the Bible.

• We know of Noah and the flood where God killed everyone.
• We know of God burning Sodom and Gomorrah.
• We know of the ground swallowing the opponents of Moses alive.

Do you understand that the cross fits in that list?
Do you understand that the cross actually belongs at the top of that list?

Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

Isaiah 53:10 “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”

All the wrath for all the sin of all the redeemed
Was poured out that day on Jesus Christ.

And this was God’s love for us revealed.
Just as the holiness of God would reach back and strike us with the whip,
God sent His Son to go and cover us and take the blows for us.

That in itself is remarkable.

Which is what Paul said in Romans:
Romans 5:7 “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.”

But what God did goes so much farther than that.
• For God did it for those who were His enemies.
• God did it for those who did not love Him.
• God did it for those who were in open rebellion against Him.

God sent His Son to take the punishment for sinners.
And through His Son to raise His enemies from the dead
And give His Spiritual life to those rebels.

AND WE MARVEL AT THIS LOVE.

We use words like UNDESERVED – since we did nothing to earn such a sacrifice. In fact we actually behaved so as to deserve the punishment.

We use words like UNRESTRAINED – that when God set His love on us He held nothing back. He gave even His only begotten Son.

We use words like UNPROVOKED – since it was not our love which motivated God to love us back. He loved us only because He chose to love us.

We use words like UNLIMITED – since it is a love great enough to cover all the sins of all the elect for all time.

We use words like UNHINDERED – since nothing stopped God mid-action. Even when Jesus came He was ill-treated and hated but He did not abort the mission. He finished His exercise of love.

John 13:1 “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”

SO THE FIRST OBJECTIVE this morning is simply for you and I
To ponder this great love with which God has loved us.

Even when we did not love Him…
Even when we were dead…
Even when we desired sin and were rebels…
Even when we deserved wrath…

God’s love manifested itself by making dead men like us alive.
God’s love demonstrated itself by dying in our stead.
God’s love took sinful rebels and made us His children.

And now that this great undeserved love is in the forefront of your mind,
HERE COMES THE MAIN POINT.

(11) “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

That is what they call one of those “mic drop” moments.

Incidentally, “ought” there is (o-FILE-o)
It means “to owe; to owe money; to be in debt for”

Romans 13:8 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”

And that brings up a good point to us here.
Another place where that word is used.

TURN TO: MATTHEW 18:21-35

Now obviously the main theme there is not necessarily love, but forgiveness.
However the principal behind it is identical.

We have a man who owes the king “ten thousand talents”
• A talent was worth more than 15 years wages of a common laborer
• This guy owed 150,000 years wages.
• He could work for 3,000 full lifetimes and still not pay off that debt

But the king was merciful and forgave him.

That man had a colleague who owed him “a hundred denarii”
• A denarii was 1 days wage.
• So somewhere around 4 months wages.
• It’s not nothing but it is certainly payable in time.

But the slave would not forgive.
And when the king heard about it, he was livid!

The point there being YOU OWE HIM FORGIVENESS
Not because he deserves it,
But because I gave it to you when you didn’t deserve it.

John uses that same reality as he talks about brotherly love.

How much has God loved you?

I promise you this: it is infinitely more
Than you will ever be asked to love anyone else.

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

And now you see THE POINT.
ATONEMENT DESERVES IT.

You brother may or may not deserve your love.
But God definitely deserves it.

Think about a normal family relationship.
• You may have a sibling that irritates you or is difficult to love.
• You may not be compelled to love them or get along with them because they
deserve it,
• But you are compelled because your momma wants it.

In an infinitely greater way we discuss our obligation to love our brethren.

What we are talking about here
Is someone who is of tremendous value to God.

When you look around this room I hope you grasp what you are looking at.
• You are seeing people whom God chose to love.
• You are seeing people who did not deserve love, but He gave it anyway.
• You are seeing people that God paid a tremendous price to redeem.

DOES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR PERSPECTIVE?

Nick Batzig wrote:
“The key to our loving other believers with brotherly love is to train ourselves to think properly about the other members of the family of God. God calls us to view each and every believer as one “for whom Christ died” (Romans 14:15; 1 Cor. 8:11). In Christ, God has laid down His life for the brethren. We, too, are to lay down our lives for one another. Jesus has patiently born with us. We, too, are to bear with one another in love. Jesus has died to forgive us our sins. We, too, are to forgive one another. Jesus continues to build us up in truth. We, too, are to build one another up in the truth. Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. We, too, are to intercede for one another. Jesus has given us every provision for our lives in this world and in the world to come. We, too, are to share our provisions and lives with one another both now and for all of eternity.”

What Is Brotherly Love?

THIS IS THE CALLING.
You are those whom God has loved.
And so is your brother.

And God has called you to love him.

But he doesn’t deserve it?
Neither did you.

But he irritates me?
As did you.

But he actually acts like my enemy?
So where you.

You don’t love him because he deserves it.
You love him because God loves him and God deserves it.

DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?

Well THAT IS THE THEOLOGICAL ASPECT of this passage.
Now we have understanding.

But THE GOAL of this passage is not just that you know the answer.
THE GOAL of this passage is that we love our brother.

• God sent Jesus to people who did not deserve it.
• He sent Him to move us from death to life.
• He sacrificed Himself for our spiritual benefit.

So here’s the question.
HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR BROTHER’S SPIRITUAL LIFE TO YOU?

Are we to be like Cain who was of the evil one?
When God asked him where is Abel, Cain answered, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

That was the opposite attitude of Christ.

Christ became His brother’s keeper.
He came to this earth to save His brothers.

And the question is am I willing to do the same?
• How important is the spiritual life of my brother to me?
• How much would I sacrifice for my brother to walk in fellowship with God?

And incidentally, don’t just limit that to those who are redeemed.

Clearly John here is referring to those who are our brothers in Christ.
But what about the elect who have yet to place their faith in Christ?

When Christ came did He come only to love those who were already trusting God or did He not also come to seek for those who were lost?

They were unredeemed, but remember how He referred to them?
He called them “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”
They were the 1 whom He left the 99 for.

So the command to love our brothers…
The command to love God’s children…

THAT HAS TO INCLUDE NOT ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE TRUSTED,
BUT ALSO THOSE WHO WILL.

There must be a missionary commitment here.
There must be a love even for the lost.
We must love God enough that we eagerly search for His wayward sons.

YOU KNOW THE PICTURE, IT IS SO CLEAR.

Luke 15:25-32 “Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. “And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. “And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ “But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. “But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. ‘But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”

DO YOU SEE IT THERE?
• There is the father who loves that younger son.
• And the father appeals to the older brother to love his brother also.

No the younger brother doesn’t deserve it, but will you do it for the father?
• Will you rejoice for the father?
• Will you celebrate for the father?
• Will you help your brother for the father?
• Will you invest in his life for your father?

• Will you get down in the ditch?
• Will you help him financially?
• Will you intercede?
• Will you bear his burden?
• Will you listen and help?
• Will you confront and teach?

And will you do it for the Father?

THOSE WHO DO REVEAL THAT
GOD HAS POURED HIS VERY OWN LOVE INTO THEIR LIVES.

THOSE WHO DO NOT REVEAL THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW GOD.

(7) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

We cannot be a people UNCONCERNED about the Father’s will in the lives of our brothers, we must be CONSUMED with it.

No matter the cost, these men are family.

Download Here:

Anticipating Worship: Finding Rest
Psalms 131
July 3, 2022

I typically like to try and build some framework to introduce a Psalm
To sort of get our minds working in the right direction before we dive in.

But I honestly think the best way to introduce this Psalm
Is simply by reading again verse 2.

(2) “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.”

I think with just that verse this Psalm really sort of “sells itself”.

Our culture knows a thing or two about chaos and stress.
• We calculate our time and plan our days down to the minute.
• We budget and plan and appropriate our funds.
• We plan for the future.
• We prepare for a rainy day.
• We labor and strive.
• We live in a cutthroat world of deadlines and quotas and expectations and requirements.

In short we live in a stressful environment.

Not only that but we live in uncertain times.
There was a day when we smiled at the future and expected great things from tomorrow, but I’m not sure that’s today.
• We sense spiraling inflation.
• We sense supply chain problems.
• Some talk about food shortages.
• We see rising gas prices.

In short, we know that peace or rest is NOT
A natural consequence of the days in which we live.

People are tired, they are stressed, they are on edge,
They are worried, they are angry.

It seems like we are miles away from
“My soul is like a weaned child within me.”

And yet I would remind you that “Peace and Rest”
Have always been God’s intention for His people.

We quickly remember the promise of Jesus:
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Even in the Upper Room He said:
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

This has always been the expectation, that a believer would live in peace.

In one sense certainly that refers to what we might call POSITIONAL PEACE or “peace with God”.

• That which Jesus purchased for us through His death on the cross.
• That now there is no longer any condemnation.
• That now there is a “cease fire” with God.
• We have peace with Him.

But Christians aren’t just supposed to enjoy positional peace we are also supposed to enjoy PRACTICAL PEACE.

• We are to be at peace and to be at rest.

BUT SO MUCH OF THE TIME THAT IS NOT OUR LIVES.

Well tonight we look at a Psalm that not only EXPLAINS PEACE to us,
But tells us HOW TO FIND IT.

And it ends again with our Psalmist
Crying out to the congregation to obtain it too.

And since this is still a “song of ascents”

We are reminded that one of the reasons we gather together as a body
Is to Help One Another To Obtain The Peace
Which Christ intended for us to enjoy.

So let’s work our way through this 131st Psalm.

3 points tonight.
#1 THE PATH TO PEACE
Psalms 131:1

What we are talking about here is PRACTICAL PEACE.
We are talking about that SOUL REST which Jesus offered.
• It is a rest from labors.
• It is a rest from striving.

As we talked about recently with the youth
It is that which we gain from sitting on the back of the bicycle built for two
While Jesus is doing all the peddling.

It certainly begins with the peace of knowing that God is pleased with me based upon the finished work of Jesus.

But there is also the peace of knowing that God is in control
And I don’t have to fear the chaos of the culture.

It is that which the Psalmist is discussing.

Well the Psalmist here reiterates WHY HE HAS IT.
And he outlines 2 criteria for it.

1) HUMILITY (1a)

“O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;”

So let’s stop right there and make an obvious point.
• If you suffer from a lack of peace.
• If you suffer from a lack of soul rest.

One of the culprits that could be causing that is pride.

In a simple sense this should be obvious since we know
• That “God is opposed to the proud” (James 4:6)
• And “there is no peace for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22)

So obviously a person who walks in pride
Is going to suffer a loss of peace.

But we could probably seek to understand it even better than that.

How does pride steal peace?

Both of those words “proud” and “haughty” are synonyms in the Hebrew
And they both speak of “being lifted up” or “rising” or “exalted”.

And the idea is of one who sort of walks around with their nose in the air.
• It speaks of one who has inflated self view.
• It speaks of one who is entitled.
• It speaks of one who lives with great expectation of what life should offer you.

This is a quick way to lose your peace.
• When you live with this sense of entitlement for what is owed you by the world.
• When you live with this sense of entitlement for what is owed you by God.

It is very difficult to be content or to be at rest
When you feel like you’re being cheated by the world.

A positive illustration here would be the apostle Paul.
If you want to see how humility and peace are so easily knit together.

Philippians 4:11-13 “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

I know that verse is often quoted by athletes who can dunk a basketball or who score a touchdown or some other nonsense like that.

When Paul says I can “do” all things, what he is actually referring to is contentment.
• I can handle all things.
• I can endure all things.

It didn’t matter if he had little.
He was still at peace.

PRIDE AND ENTITLEMENT IS AN ENEMY OF OUR PEACE
And when we don’t get what we think we deserve, then
• Instead of peace we get bitterness.
• Instead of rest we get frustration.
• Instead of contentment we get confusion.

One of the reasons David was able to rest in peace with a contented soul
Was because he was humble.

It is no doubt the lesson that Horatio Spafford learned as he suffered the loss of his children when he wrote, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, Though hast taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

I certainly wouldn’t speak to any pride in his life, but regardless of what he was before the tragedy he clearly announces what he learned through it.

He learned humility and contentment in whatever lot God had assigned.
He let go of his “rights” and the result of his soul was peace.

IF WE STRUGGLE WITH PEACE
It might very well be that we struggle with humility.
It might be an indicator that we are entitled and not grateful.

David has peace because he is humble.

Another reason David lists here.
2) FAITH (1b)

“Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me.”

This actually runs very closely to pride as well.
• It is the need to be in control.
• It is the need to have understanding.

Remember Job?
• We know he was a righteous and God-fearing man.
• Yet he also walked through a tremendous lack of peace in his life and in the end earned a rebuke from God.

Do you remember why?
Job 42:3 “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”

Job said that one of his sins was that he involved himself in
“things too wonderful for me, which I did not know”

That is to say, “I tried to understand things I was never meant to understand.”

You do realize that life gives us many of those types of things.

Psalms 139:1-6 “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”

Paul said:
Romans 11:34 “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?”

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

Which means of course that God has put you on a “need to know” basis.
• He told us what we need to know for obedience and salvation, but He never intended for us to know everything.

I’ve told you before about J.I. Packer’s great book “Knowing God” and how he speaks of the train station at York and how it is all confusing unless you can get into the control room above the platform.

But God doesn’t let you into the control room. He asks you simply to trust that He is in control.

If you’ve read the book “Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom she tells the story of when she is a little girl and she hears someone speak of sex sins. She doesn’t know what that is so she asks her dad.

He tells her to carry his briefcase with heavy watch parts, but she can’t. To which he responds there are some things in life that are too heavy for you and it is my job as your father to carry them for you. She took that wisdom with her through all the prisons and German concentration camps which brought many circumstances beyond understanding.

We were never intended to understand everything in life,
But rather were intended to trust God that He does.

And when we do that, one of the results is peace.

Charles Spurgeon said, “The Sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the Christian rests his head.”

But when we demand to understand
And when we seek to control situations
We were never intended to control
This is when we lose our peace.

Let me give you AN EXAMPLE:
Matthew 6:25-33 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Jesus there speaks of something that you were NOT to concern yourself with and something that you ARE to concern yourself with.

First, what ARE you to concern yourself with?
“His kingdom and His righteousness”

What are you NOT to concern yourself with?
“about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.”

And yet I would venture to guess that if you sit here tonight stressed
It probably has more to do with paying the bills
Than it does living more righteous.

Our culture bombards us with this mentality
• Making a living,
• Earning money,
• Saving money,
• Securing a future, etc.

But there is no peace there,
Namely because that was not a burden we were meant to carry.

That is God’s burden, but when we insist on carrying it,
We lose our peace.

I THINK ABOUT MINISTRY OR EVANGELISM.

What is our responsibility in evangelism or in ministry?
Faithfulness to proclaim the gospel.

But the increase was never up to us.
1 Corinthians 3:5-7 “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”

Many a preacher has experienced frustration or burnout
Or even depression in the ministry
Because they try to carry burdens they were not meant to carry.

Numbers and results were never part of our burden.
• We were never tasked with securing quotas in the kingdom.
• We were simply tasked with faithfulness to preach the gospel.

I don’t remember where I heard the quote or who said it, but it has made a monumental impact on me as a preacher.
“It’s not my job to fill the pews, it’s my job to fill the pulpit”

There is rest in peace there
By letting God handle what only He can handle
And not involving myself in those types of great matters.

Matthew 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

I think about Zerubbabel rebuilding the temple
• And what a failure he must have felt like.
• He was in a hostile country
• He didn’t have an over abundance of skilled labor
• What he had built so far was unimpressive

And yet God reminded him of something.
Zechariah 4:6-7 “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”

Zerubbabel was just to be faithful,
God would see to it that the temple was built and filled with glory.

YOU GET THE POINT.
• There are things in this life that you don’t understand and you weren’t meant to.
• There are things in this life that you can’t fix and you weren’t meant to.

Peace occurs when you humbly trust that God is in control.
Peace occurs when you surrender your right to understand.
Peace occurs when you surrender your right to control.

Get on the back of the bicycle, not the front.
Get under Jesus’ yoke, don’t force Him under yours.
Let Him do the peddling, let Him do the pulling, let Him do the steering.
The result for you is peace.

And the Bible is continually trying to point this out to us.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Might I remind you that that verse was written
• While Babylon was slaughtering Jews.
• The city would soon be destroyed.
• The temple would soon be burned.
• The survivors would soon be exiled.
• And it would be 70 years before they would return.

In the meantime they’d face political hostility in Babylon.
• Things like bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue or be burned in the furnace.
• Things like don’t pray to anyone but Darius or be thrown to the lions.

It must’ve been hard to make sense of such horrific circumstances.
Indeed you wouldn’t have been able to.

All you need to know is that “I know the plans that I have for you”
You just need to know that God knows what He is doing.

That is always true for the church.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

• Why is the world being allowed to run into such wickedness?
• Why are we subjected to things like drought or heat or COVID?
• Why was that shooter allowed to murder those kids in Uvalde?

And what is the answer?
I don’t know, but peace comes from believing that God does and what He does is always good.

THAT IS THE PATH TO PEACE.
Let go of your pride and entitlement; trade it in for gratitude.
Let go of your need to understand; instead walk in faith.

Get on the back of the bicycle…
Let God carry the heavy baggage…
Trust that God doesn’t need you in the control room…

And you just enjoy the peace of not being in charge.

That is the path to peace
#2 A PICTURE OF PEACE
Psalms 131:2

It really is quite a comforting picture.

And make sure you see it correctly.
This is NOT a nursing babe on his mother’s lap eating or getting nourishment.

The child sitting here is “weaned”
• He’s not eating, he’s resting.
• This is not necessity for the sustaining of life, this is luxury.

This child is simply enjoying the absolute peace and rest
Of being held by his mother and being comforted in her arms.

• Everything there is ok
• Worries disappear…
• Pains fade away…
• Fears dissolve…

Because I am in the arms of the one who can take care of it.

I think back to my childhood or I think about my kids even up until today.

When we have gone on a journey they never ask:
• Do you know where you are going?
• Do you have enough gas?
• Do you think the car will make it?
• Do we have lodging?

They just crawl into the backseat and go directly to sleep.
They have complete confidence that we know what we’re doing.

We are most certainly called to enjoy this type of peace in our daily lives.
Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The simple application of that passage?
• Don’t worry, rejoice that God is near to you.
• And if you have concerns, lay them on God
• And you enjoy the peace of knowing that He is in control.

That’s a great way to live.

I think of Paul on the boat in the middle of the storm saying, “I believe God” and He has said no one is going to die.

Or Paul in prison able sing hymns of praise even while locked in the stockade.

It is a contrast to the disciples on the boat in the storm.
Jesus was sleeping but they were in total chaos.

Why? They were trying to handle things that were beyond them.
Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith and for their fear and immediately remedied the situation.

It is a strange reality, and one that I think we would have all failed at.
But the point was that when they should have been resting in Jesus,
They were striving to fix the problem themselves.

That is not peace, that is anxiety.
Peace comes when you crawl into His lap,
Let Him have your problems and you go on to bed.

• And if you have the humility to accept what He is doing…
• And if you have the faith to believe He will do good for you…
Then you will also be able to rest in His peace.

I always remember my dad’s testimony shortly after he was saved.
God was teaching my dad about financial provision.
He was having to walk by faith daily.
The oil field was struggling so his machinest job was laying off.
Horse trading is not on the list of secure occupations.

He tells the story of one day working cows for a neighboring rancher and it came upon lunch time. Someone asked, “What do you want us to do with these cows we’ve gathered?” The rancher said, “Just leave them, they’ll walk over there under those trees and rest.”

Dad watched those cows do that very thing.
Sit down under the shade tree and go to chewing their cud without a care in the world.

His prayer was, “I wish I was a cow”

He wanted that kind of peace and security.
God was teaching him that; and he finally learned it.

By the way, this is MORE than just a financial or physical application here.

Perhaps what you want is spiritual peace?
You want to know that there is peace between you and God.

Well, it is obtained the same way.
HOW?

By trusting that Jesus is taking care of it.
Legalism robs peace.

When you place the burden for pleasing God on your back that is enormously heavy.

That is what the Pharisees did.
Matthew 23:4 “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”

But Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden was light.

If you want peace before God, then trust Jesus.
• He is handling it.
• He fulfilled your righteousness.
• He paid your debt.
• He is interceding on your behalf.

Either you believe He can handle it or you don’t.
Peace is obtained when you trust Him to do it.

And the rest there is sweet.
“Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like weaned child within me.”

That is a picture of peace
#3 THE PLEA FOR PEACE
Psalms 131:3

And here comes our cheerleader again.
He’s marching up and down throughout that caravan.
• He sees people in anxiety about the journey…
• He sees people anxious to leave their farms behind…
• He sees people anxious about approaching God…

And so he does what every believer ought to do for each other.
He encourages faith that we might all enjoy peace.

“O Israel, hope in the LORD form this time forth and forever.”

Just trust God, for peace is found there!

Psalms 42:5 “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.”

Psalms 42:11 “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”

Psalms 43:5 “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”

• Put down your burdens and let God have them.
• Humble yourselves that He may exalt you.
• Quit trying to handle things you weren’t meant to handle and entrust those things to God.

He does the work, you get the peace.

And this is one of the reasons we gather together.
We gather to encourage one another to this end.

We meet for encouragement.
But also we meet to worship God and exalt Him.
• And when we contemplate together the greatness of God, the bi-product is peace.

In every worship service
You should be confronted with the greatness of God
And His greatness should persuade your soul
To let go and trust Him.

I love the Sovereign Grace song that we sing from time to time.
“I Lay It All”

“When troubles come, when darkness crowds When fortunes fail and loss surrounds My soul is weak, but Christ is strong And so to Him I leave it all. For He Who holds all things Can bear each care I bring.

So, I lay it all on Jesus. Steadfast is the love of Jesus. He hears my cry, He’s faithful I lay it all on Jesus

When questions rise, when faith wears thin, When fears come fast, and truth grows dim. The One Who saved will not forsake I’ll trust His word and trust His way. For He Who bore my blame Can bear each care I name”
https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/i-lay-it-all/

That is a great reminder.

I do want to leave tonight with a GOOD ILLUSTRATION of how the WORSHIP SERVICE is meant to glorify God and thus produce peace.

TURN TO: ISAIAH 40

FIRST let’s look at the backdrop of the chapter.
Let’s look at the condition of the congregation.

(27) “Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God?”

Do you see there the problem?
They have anxiety.

Do you see why?
Do you see their pride? “the justice due me…”
Do you see their lack of faith? “My way is hidden from the LORD…”

They have no peace and now it is obvious to us why.

So the chapter is meant to restore their peace
By restoring their view of God.

In fact verse 1 makes it clear, “Comfort, O comfort My people…”

Now this comfort is going to come based on the people’s understanding of God’s greatness and that He is working on their behalf.

(1-11) – you recognize that is a reference to John the Baptist and the coming of Jesus.

It is a reminder that you can’t solve your problems,
God must come and solve your problems. And He will!

Israel had ADOPTED A DISTANT VIEW of God.
• They thought He didn’t care and that they were on their own.
• It’s no wonder they had anxiety.

Isaiah had to remind them that
• God had not abandoned them,
• But that He was certainly for them and would come and save them.

But also we see that Israel had ADOPTED A WEAK VIEW of God.
• That is that their idolatry had caused them to demote God to nothing more than the graven images they worshipped.

Isaiah also sought to correct that.

(12-26) – see how Isaiah elevates their view of God.
• You do not have a small God.
• You have an omnipotent God.
• You have a God who controls all things!

So in two major points Isaiah has
Elevated their view of God and reminded them that
God is intimately concerned with their struggles.

What great reminders!

And then the conclusion.
(27-31) – and there is that peace and rest we wanted.

Do you see how focusing on the greatness of God and the glory of God’s saving work restores peace in the hearts of the people?

The worship service ought to do that!
And that is a benefit you receive when you come and participate.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that a rise in anxiety in our culture
Is also proportional to a decrease in church attendance.

Some of this you can place on the church as well for failing to worship God in His glory and study His word where His greatness is proclaimed.

But at the same time do you expect to be encouraged by the greatness of God when you don’t go to church to worship Him?

Peace is a biproduct of corporate worship.
It will encourage you and it should encourage you.

And God most certainly intends for you to have this peace.

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From God?
1 John 4:1-6
July 3, 2022

As you know the overarching purpose of the book of 1 John is assurance.

• John is clearly writing to people whom he believes to be redeemed people.
• And John’s main objective is that by the end of the letter, they believe it too.

HIS GOAL IS ASSURANCE!

1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

And John has given no shortage of tests
To help us validate the genuineness of our salvation.

• We’ve talked about obedience…
• We’ve talked about purity…
• We’ve talked about brotherly love…
• We’ve talked about endurance…

And these are all VERIFIABLE things we can examine in our lives
By which we DETERMINE whether or not we are saved.

John even said that these things are concrete evidence that will overrule even our own CONSCIENCE.

1 John 3:19-20 “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”

It is clear that John is not interested in feelings.
JOHN IS INTERESTED IN TRUTH.

He wants you to know if you are saved
And if you are, he wants you to enjoy it.

LAST TIME we took a simplified look at Christianity and assurance.

While there are in fact many aspects we can look at in our lives to examine the genuineness of our salvation, all of those aspects in reality flow from one source.

There is really 1 actual proof of salvation
And that is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

• He is the One who causes us to walk in obedience.
• He is the One who causes us to live pure lives.
• He is the One who causes us to endure.
• He is the One who causes us to love.

The presence of the Holy Spirit is the absolute chief evidence of salvation.

John ended chapter 3 by making that point.

1 John 3:24 “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

John concluded chapter 3
With a concrete and absolute proof of salvation.

“We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

For all those who have the Holy Spirit
John has given absolute confidence
That you now know that you are a child of God.

You have the Spirit.
You belong to Him.
You are of God.

That is absolute fact and that is the very basis of our assurance.

AND AS YOU WILL SEE,
John is still building on that truth even here in chapter 4.

Look at (4:4) “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

That verse is packed full of encouraging truth
For those who have the Spirit of God.

Those who have the Holy Spirit
• “are from God”
• “have overcome” the false prophets
• Have a Spirit “greater…than he who is in the world”

Having the Spirit of God is the source of tremendous assurance and confidence not only before God but also in this world.

SO JOHN HAS BEEN RELENTLESS in imparting assurance to believers by reason of the indwelling Holy Spirit in their lives.

BUT…
But false prophets are relentless too.

Just as John would impart assurance to the church,
The false prophets had done their work to take it away.

Specifically the Gnostics with their supposed “inside knowledge”
Had done a devastating work on the church and had caused these believers to question everything including their own salvation.

And this is what false prophets do.
THEY WRECK EVERYTHING.

Ezekiel gave a tremendous synopsis on their work.
Ezekiel 13:17, 22-23 “Now you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who are prophesying from their own inspiration. Prophesy against them…“Because you disheartened the righteous with falsehood when I did not cause him grief, but have encouraged the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life, therefore, you women will no longer see false visions or practice divination, and I will deliver My people out of your hand. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.”

We understand the threat false prophets pose TO THE LOST.

THEY DISTORT THE GOSPEL
• You can’t call on Him of whom you’ve not believed
• And you can’t believe in Him whom you’ve not heard of,
• And you can’t hear without a preacher.

So a prophet who distorts the gospel
Effectively removes the opportunity for salvation.

Jesus said of the Pharisees.
Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

They do this by offering a false gospel which cannot save.
But the lost man then thinks he is saved
And now he is twice as hard to reach with the truth.

THEY WORK TO ASSURE MEN IN THEIR SIN

That’s what Ezekiel said. They “encourage the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life”

Jeremiah noted that:
Jeremiah 6:13-14 “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.”

That is to say that they commonly tell men in their sin
That they are fine and are at peace with God. But that is a lie.

Certainly you understand the horrific effect
That false prophets have on the unredeemed.

But John’s concern is NOT PRIMARILY that tragic effect.

JOHN’S CONCERN is the horrific effect that
False prophets have on those who are saved.

False prophets don’t just attack the unredeemed,
They also attack the church.

2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

• Peter said that false prophets lead God’s people into destructive heresies.
• Peter said they that they exploit you with false words

THEY ARE A TERRIBLE PROBLEM EVEN FOR THE CHURCH.

Was it not Balaam who counseled Balak to seduce God’s people into sin, for which God’s people suffered the punishment of God?

We think about the tragic effects of Hymenaeus and Philetus:
2 Timothy 2:17-18 “Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.”

Paul said that these false prophets “upset the faith” of some of the believers.

And we haven’t even begun to discuss the tragic effect that false prophets were having on the churches of Galatia.

• Leading them to legalism and circumcision so that they would not longer trust Christ alone for salvation, but would instead trust in their own goodness as well.
• Paul said the effect of that message was to fall from grace and for Christ to be of no benefit to you.

Those are horrible consequences of false prophets in the church.

And here in John’s day these false prophets
Were succeeding in steeling assurance from God’s children.

IMAGINE someone coming in to your home and convincing your child that they weren’t really yours and that you didn’t really love them.

That is what is happening here.

And if that happened in your home, what would your advice be to your children?
1) I do love you, you are mine, and here’s how you know that.
2) Don’t listen to everything you hear.

And with that you understand 1 John 4:1-6

(1) “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Don’t believe everything you hear.
Don’t trust every “so-called” preacher.

Just because someone claims to speak the truth
Doesn’t mean they actually speak the truth.

“many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

That is a just a reality that you need to come to grips with.
In this world there are “many false prophets”

There are “many” people who are telling you things that are not true so “do not believe every spirit”

Don’t believe everything you hear.
“but test the spirits”

In other words, YOU’VE GOT TO BE DISCERNING.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;”

YOU’VE GOT TO DO THIS.

And just a quick comment on this.
I can’t stress enough how true this is for our day.

There is an Old Testament verse which spoke of a past reality that I think fits our day so appropriately that it could be for today.

Amos 8:11-12 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.”

That passage is NOT about America, but that is what IS happening in America today.

You say, “How can that be? There’s preachers on every TV channel, there’s preachers on social media, there’s preachers on the radio, there’s churches on every other street corner.”
• This isn’t like atheist China or life behind the iron curtain in Russia.
• We’ve got all kinds of access to God’s word.

We’ve got all kinds of access to preaching for sure.
Satan isn’t deceiving America through DEPRIVATION.
Satan is deceiving America through DILUTION.

Imagine a man who wakes up in the middle of New York City this morning and decides he wants to inquire about God. How confident are you that he’ll enter a place that will give him the gospel?

You see my point.
America is overrun with false prophets.

SO when John says “test the spirits” you’d better TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY.

WELL WHAT ARE WE TESTING FOR?
Primarily 1 thing.
“test the spirits to see whether they are from God”

That is the point John makes over and over in these 6 verses.
• 6 times John uses the phrase “from God”
• 2 times John uses the phrase “from the world”

His contrast and point are unmistakable.

John says the main thing you need to determine
When someone stands to preach to you is this:
IS THEIR MESSAGE FROM GOD OR FROM THE WORLD?

Is there really anything more important than that?
2 Peter 1:20-21 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

Boy that’s what we want.
We want the men who “spoke from God”

We don’t want those who speak from their own imaginations.

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 23

You see pretty quickly that there is a sin problem in Judah
And God lays the blame for that problem directly at the feet of the prophets.
(READ 9-12)

That is not just true in Judah, but was also the problem of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and her capitol Samaria.
(READ 13-15)

But the problem is that these prophets do not get their messages from God.
(READ 16-22)

You see the main issue when listening to a preacher
Is very simply the source of his message.

Where does he get what he is telling you from?
OR PERHAPS BETTER: Who does he get what he is telling you from?

(READ 25-32)

We notice that definitive statement at the end,
“nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit”

And with that, John’s point rises clearly to the top.
“test the spirits to see whether they are from God”

WE UNDERSTAND THE NECESSITY OF THIS.

BUT HOW DO YOU TEST THE SPIRITS?
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

It sounds mysterious doesn’t it?

I’m going to need a:
• Two way radio
• A 4ft piece of concrete sewage pipe
• A bungy cord
• A candle
• And a live chicken

OBVIOUSLY NOT.

When John speaks of “the spirits”
What he is referring to is THE SOURCE OF THE PROPHET’S MESSAGE.

That is why he applies it by saying “because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

He is talking about their source for their preaching.

For a true prophet or true preacher that Spirit would be the Holy Spirit inside of them who guides them.

For a false prophet, his spirit would be his own intellect or imagination or logic.

When John says “test the spirits” he is simply saying
You need to test the source of every man’s preaching.

• You need to find out the origin of their message.
• You need to discern where their wisdom is coming from.
• You need to find out what authority they are standing on.

And that is what John will discuss with us next.
HOW TO TEST THE SPIRITS OF MEN.

OR: How to tell whether men are truly speaking from God of from their own imaginations.

And there are 3 tests John reveals here.
#1 THEIR DOCTRINE: Is it Orthodox?
1 John 4:2-3

John is again very definitive when he says:
“By this you know”

• There again are absolutes.
• These aren’t hypotheticals.
• These aren’t probabilities.

There is certainty here from John.
“By this you know the Spirit of God”

That is to say, “by this you know that the source is God”

“every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;”

This is a statement of doctrine.

I know in our current Christian climate the word “doctrine” has taken on a NEGATIVE connotation.
• People like to say, “Doctrine Divides”
• Or, we don’t focus on doctrine we just focus on loving people.

That exactly the type of thing that a false prophet would endorse.
The last thing a liar wants is for you to know the truth.

Doctrine is the standard by which we measure
Whether or not we are being lied to.

John references doctrine here.
SPECIFICALLY John speaks of what we call our “Christology”

That is certainly not the only doctrine we concern ourselves with,
But for John’s purpose and in John’s specific situation
This was the most prevalent.

Remember John battled Gnosticism and since the Gnostics believed everything physical to be evil they had no room for a literal human Jesus.

• Some proclaimed Him to be like a phantom person who wasn’t really human.
• The idea of God becoming a human was nonsense to them and the rejected it.

If you will remember however, it was with this very doctrine
That John opened the book of 1 John.

1 John 1:1 “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life”

• John spoke of a physical Jesus.
• John spoke of a Jesus who was not only heard and seen, but who was
“touched with our hands”

This was the doctrine under attack before John.

And just so we are clear, the doctrine of the humanity of Jesus
IS ABSOLUTELY CENTRAL TO THE GOSPEL.

WHY?
Because Jesus came to save men.
• He came to fulfill the Law as a man.
• He came to bear the punishment for sin as a man.
• He came to die as a man.
• He came to rise as a man.

He didn’t come to symbolically do that.
He came to actually do that.

Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

He had to be human to die as a human.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

He had to be human to be tempted as a human.

Hebrews 9:11-12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

He had to be human to shed blood as a human.

Hebrews 10:5-7 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”

He had to have a body to obey as a human.

Romans 8:3 “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”

If Jesus didn’t actually become human
He is no qualified mediator between God and man.

If He was merely a ghost or a phantom or an aberration or a hologram
• He might have been a good example to look at for righteous living,
• But He was no Savior who actually provides righteousness to us.
• That would be no different than what the Law does.

No, Jesus became human.
He took on flesh and blood.

• And in His flesh He fulfilled God’s righteousness on our behalf.
• And in His flesh He suffered God’s wrath on our behalf.
• And in His flesh He conquered death on our behalf.

This doctrine is absolutely essential to the gospel.

And so John says: THERE’S YOUR TEST.

“every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

You want to see how John expects you to use this test?

2 John 7-11 “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

So you understand,
• You look at the doctrine of the preacher.
• Are they preaching the true gospel or not?

Remember Paul’s litmus test to the Galatians?
Galatians 1:8-9 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

The revealed gospel becomes THE STANDARD
For all future gospel messages.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. “But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.”

But I thought a confirmed sign was the indicator that a prophet was true?
– In some cases it was.

But revealed doctrine trumps a confirmed sign.
Do you see that?

If their doctrine does not align with the gospel they are false,
I don’t care how many miracles they seem to work.

AND INCIDENTALLY, John only mentions Christology here and specifically His incarnation, but it would include all true doctrine.

• Things like the deity of Jesus.
• Things like the substitutionary atonement.
• Things like the resurrection and the second coming.
• Things like justification by faith.
• Things like the expectation of holiness.

The true gospel is the test.
If they preach a different gospel or a false doctrine they are false.

In fact John goes on to say:
(3b) “this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

It’s the second time John has mentioned antichrists.

But it is simply John’s point not to be naïve.
Not everyone who claims to preach the gospel actually preaches the gospel.

Be careful who you listen to and certainly don’t listen to everyone.
• You’ve got to test them.
• You’ve got to check their doctrine to see if they are orthodox or not.
• You’ve got to check the gospel they proclaim.

So the first test is their doctrine; is it orthodox?
#2 THEIR DISCIPLES: Are They Saved?
1 John 4:4-5

First you recognize a contrast or a distinction.
John refers to his readers and says, “You are from God, little children”

That is a statement affirming their salvation.
• You are saved.
• You are God’s children.
• You are redeemed, you have God’s Spirit

“and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

That is to say, “You have actually already defeated them
simply because you are saved in spite of their lies.”

Their chief goal would have been to keep you from salvation
And they already proved unable to do that.

FOR THE SIMPLE POINT IS: They don’t lead anyone to salvation.

(5) “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.”

John is actually reiterating a truth Jesus taught here.
Matthew 7:15-20 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

When Jesus speaks of fruit there He is speaking of what they produce;
Namely their converts.

When Paul’s apostleship was questioned he responded with proof:
2 Corinthians 3:1-3 “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

The simple point is that you look at their followers.
• Are their followers godly or worldly?
• Are their followers regenerated by the Holy Spirit or still in the flesh?
• Do their followers strive for brotherly love or live in selfishness?

You can tell a lot about a teacher by the people who follow him.

John says
• You know “They are from the world”
• Because “the world listens to them.”
• And the world listens to them because “they speak as from the world.”

This is the modern day WOKE preacher.
The one who is constantly spouting off worldly logic and worldly viewpoints to make sure and keep their worldly following.

[I’m amazed at preachers who came out criticizing believers for rejoicing that Roe V Wade was overturned]

It is a slippery slope that the church was led into when we became worried about being “culturally relevant”.

It is a slippery slope that the church was led into when we started surveying the lost to determine how to “do church”.

I’m just telling you that men who speak for God
Are not concerned about how the world will respond.

So look at who is following the preacher.
• Do they love Christ?
• Do they live holy?
• Do they walk in love?

You’ll figure out real quick where his heart is.

So you test their doctrine and you test their disciples
#3 THEIR DEVOTION: Do They Listen To The Apostles?
1 John 4:6

When John says “we” here he is NOT referring to all believers.
• He used the word “you” when referring to the church.

“We” here is referring to the apostles.
• These men whom Christ appointed and commissioned to preserve for us the New Testament.
• Those men whom God used to bring us the Scripture.

For our purposes we see this is DEVOTION TO SCRIPTURE.
(of which the apostles were authors)

John says:
“We are from God; he who knows God listens to us;”

That is to say the apostles were sent from God
And people whom God has saved listen to their words
Because they came from God.

THE OTHER HAND:
“he who is not from God does not listen to us.”

That is to say the prophet who does not come from God
Has no real interest in the words of the apostles.

They have no real desire for the truth of Scripture.
• They are far more interested in psychology
• They are for more interested in philosophy
• They are for more interested in being clever or cutting edge or WOKE

They don’t rightly divide the truth of God’s word.
There is no commitment to Scripture.

And this is HOW YOU KNOW they aren’t from God.

That’s pretty simple isn’t it?
• Do they cling to God’s Doctrine?
• Do they produce Godly Disciples?
• Do they Devote themselves to God’s word?

If they don’t…DON’T BELIEVE THEM
• Don’t let them upset your faith.
• Don’t let them rob your assurance.

“By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

That makes sense right.

GOD IS speaking truth in this world
AND He is doing so through genuine messengers,
BUT they are not the only ones speaking.

Satan has sent his messengers into the world too.

And just because someone holds up a bible
And stands behind a pulpit
And dresses up their language with religious sounding cliché
DOES NOT MAKE THEM A MESSENGER OF GOD.

AND THEY WILL DO YOU TERRIBLE HARM.

Test them.
• Test their doctrine
• Test their disciples
• Test their devotion

And spare yourself the heartache
Of being led into corruption and a lack of assurance.