Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along.
Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
This morning, we're going to be talking about true love.
True love.
And not what the world says about true love, but what God's word
says about true love.
And as I was looking about in this world and thinking about what
is a great example of the love of God, what came to mind is the
greatest love that I have ever seen in my life is a love of a mother,
like brother Michael just sang about here this morning.
That's a great example of what it means to have true love.
And I think that's what we do this morning, is not elevate necessarily
only mothers, but elevate the love of Christ, elevate the love
of God to show how a mom can love, to show how any of us in this
room can have true love in our lives.
And so what I would like to do here this morning is.
Is.
Is liken.
Yes, the love of a mother.
But ultimately see that the reason why a mom can love is because
the truth of God is love.
And this morning, I want us to look at that message.
You know, the Bible actually says in the book of Isaiah that the
love of God is actually similar to a love of a mother.
You can see that there in Isaiah 49, verse 15, that you can
write that down if you'd like, or you can follow along there with
me.
But in Isaiah 49, 15, we see that God likens the love of his people
to a love of a mother.
And I find this interesting because a lot of times we think about
God the Father.
And this doesn't mean that it's God the mother, by the way.
It just means that God's love is complex.
It's deep.
It's in a way that sometimes we cannot understand.
And so God and His love for us tries to explain it in ways that
we can understand.
And Isaiah 49, verse 15 says, Can a woman forget her sucking child
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yea, they may forget.
Yet I will not forget thee.
And so part of God's love for his people is the fact that he says,
I will never forget you.
Part of my love for you is that I'm not distracted, just like
a New mom is so focused on her child the same way God is so focused
on us.
There's not something that's going to pull him away from his love
for us.
I know that.
I learned a lot more about love watching Alicia demonstrate
the love for her children.
I love our kids so much, but she loves them in a different way,
right?
And as she was, you know, raising our children and as I'm raising
with her, I learned a lot from the love that she has.
A mom's love is sacrificial.
You know, as a dad, I try to love to the best of my ability.
But you know what happens when.
When my children fall and scrape their knee?
I remember this.
You know, Micah falls and scrapes his knee, and he's like 2
years old.
And I'm like, all right, he's going to run to me and I'm going
to pick him up and I'm going to console him.
He runs by me with the best move that a football player could
ever make and gets around me and goes, right, mom, help me.
And so he goes to Mom, Why?
Because he knows mom is there for him and there's compassion, and
she's willing to sacrifice her time and her talents and all of these
things for him.
And so God says Here in Isaiah 49, 15, can a mom forget about her
nursing son?
No.
A good mom cannot forget that.
And so therefore, God will not forget about us.
And there's another passage of Scripture later on in the book of
Isaiah.
Isaiah 66, verse 13, again, likens the love of God to love of
a mother.
In this case, comforting.
And I think that obviously we need to understand the comfort of
God through his love.
And Isaiah 66, and if you go down to this verse here, verse, well,
we can start in a few different places.
There's comfort there.
And.
And so when we look at God, we.
We say that, yes, God is.
We say that, yes, God is loving.
But there's a passage of scripture that tells us more than
just the fact that God is loving.
1 John, chapter 4.
This is going to be our main text here this morning.
First John, chapter four.
The Bible says something more about God, that God is love.
But we need to know this proper definition of.
Of love.
Love is not what the world says.
Love is not a feeling.
There's feelings with love, but true biblical love is a choice.
A mom chooses to love her child, even if her child is not reciprocating
that love back.
And so, so there's this sacrificial love, the word that we
get in The New Testament is the Greek word agape.
It's sacrificial.
It's saying this.
I will love this person even if they don't love me back.
I will love this person even if they are difficult.
I will love this person even if they come against me.
And the truth is is that, biblically speaking, that's how God
loves us.
We love him because he first loved us.
And so in First John, chapter four, we'll start in verse number
seven, it says, beloved, let us love one another, for love is
of God.
And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God.
For God is love.
And so the attribute of love is this sacrificial love, this selfless
love that not only does God demonstrate, but the Bible says that
God is this type of love.
And so for us to understand this love in a perfect way is to
understand who God is and what he has done for us.
And so when we look at a mom, the only reason that a mom can love
her child that way is because of the love of God.
The only way that a person can love a spouse properly is because
of the love of God.
The only way that I can love a fellow brother and sister in Christ
is because of the love of God.
The only way that I can love the lost and try to win them to Christ
with the Gospel is because of the love of God.
The Bible says that the source of this love is Christ.
The source of this love is the love of God demonstrated in His Son,
verse number nine.
In this was manifested the love of God.
So God proved His love.
God demonstrated his love.
And so true love is sourced from God.
It's sacrificial.
And it serves as we see here in this case.
It says, and this was made manifest.
It's demonstrated because that God sent His only begotten Son into
the world that we might live through Him.
The Bible says that God demonstrated His love for us by sending
his only begotten Son, by offering us salvation.
And so we have the attribute of love.
That's the sacrificial love, the selfless love, the love that's
willing to do things that don't necessarily have things returning
back to us.
But then we see that there's the affirmation of love.
The affirmation of love is the proving of the love.
I can say all day that I love somebody, but the affirmation of
that love will be me demonstrating that love.
I can say all day that I'm the best husband in the world that I'm
the best father in the world, but that doesn't make me a good father.
What makes me a loving father, and I know this isn't rocket science,
is that I love.
What makes me a loving person is that I demonstrate love.
Not what I say, but what I do.
And so we have the attribute of love, but then we have the affirmation
of love.
And the affirmation of love is seen there in verse number nine.
And this was manifested the love of God toward us because that
God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live
through him.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 8.
But God commended or demonstrated his love towards us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Over and over and over again, the Bible reminds us that God proved
his love for us.
John 3:16.
For God so loved the world, what did he do that he gave his only
begotten son?
Right?
The the greatest act of selfless sacrificial love was that
God sent his only begotten son to us, for us, so that we might have
salvation.
Now, many of you this morning are saying, pastor, you're preaching
the gospel to us.
That is for unsaved people.
Yes, true, it is for unsaved people.
The unsaved person needs to understand the love of God through
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and we need to proclaim that.
But on the other side of things, we as Christians also need
to understand the gospel.
Just because you trusted in the gospel long ago or recently,
that doesn't mean that we wipe that out and we forget the love of
God.
Why?
Because there's going to be times in our life where we're tempted
to think that God doesn't love us.
Or there's going to be times in our life where we're tempted to
think, hey, you know what?
It's not worth loving this person.
And the truth is, is that all of us as believers today must rest
in the gospel.
Everything that we do must be driven in the gospel.
And I mentioned that word, gospel.
What is that word, Gospel?
It just means the good news, the good news of Jesus Christ, the
love and the sacrifice that he gave for us.
And so there's that affirmation of love in scripture
over and over again.
God is confirming that I love you.
I'm showing you that I love you.
I prove that I love you.
What if it was like this?
What if.
What if I told my wife on the day that we got married, I love you.
I love you so much.
Twenty years later, I haven't said I love you again.
I haven't shown that I love her again.
She's going to be tempted to think, maybe my husband doesn't love
me anymore.
Right?
So we need to be reminded of that original love throughout our
lives.
Same thing with the Lord.
Sometimes we are tempted to think that yes, God loved me 2000
years ago by sending his only begotten Son for me.
But sometimes I'm tempted to think about, does he love me today?
And folks, that's why the word of God reminds us over and over again,
hey, he has proven his love for us.
And so there's that affirmation of love.
There's that affirmation of what he has done for us in our salvation.
Another passage of scripture that puts it so clearly is Ephesians
chapter 2.
If you'd like to turn there with me, I'd like to explain a little
bit of this here this morning, because sometimes we forget actually
what God's love means for us.
We become so loved that we become almost to the place of entitlement.
You know what?
Yeah, of course God loves me.
Why wouldn't he love me?
You know, there's a time in our lives where we need to go back
and remember what God saved us from.
What God?
The way that God loved us in spite of who we were prior to salvation.
And in Ephesians chapter two, it tells us all about that.
Ephesians chapter two tells us this is what you were prior to God's
love being understood in your life.
This is what you are after that.
And, and the change came because of that offering of that
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
So Ephesians chapter two, we're going to start in verse number
one here and we're going to see more of this affirmation of love.
And this reminder of love says in verse one, and you hath he quickened
or brought to life?
That word quicken means just brought to life.
And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
So what does the Bible say that we were, before we came to Christ,
before we were brought to life, we were dead in our sins, Dead.
Not just bad people, not just hopeless, but dead in our sins, on
our way to destruction, on our way to judgment.
But verse two, he says, wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world.
It says here, before you came to Christ, whether it was when you
were a child or an adult, before you came to Christ, you were
walking in the way of this world, whether you knew it or not,
according to the prince of the power of the air.
The Bible says before we came to Christ, we were walking in the
ways of this world, guided by the prince of the power of the air.
Now who is the prince of the power of the air?
Satan, our enemy.
We were actually partnered with Satan whether we knew it or
not.
The Bible says that we were enemies of God then it says the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
We were children of disobedience.
We, we.
We didn't have our Father in God.
We had our father in the prince of the power of this.
Of the.
Of this world, of the prince of the power of the air.
Verse 3.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the
lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind.
And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Meaning this.
The only thing that we could do prior to salvation was feed our
flesh, feed our desires.
The way that we think, the way that we act is only based in what
we feel and how we want and how we desire.
It's not about anything else beyond us.
And so it paints a pretty bleak picture of who we were prior
to Christ.
Not me.
This is what the Bible says.
We were dead.
We were serving ourselves, we were serving Satan.
We were in this world.
We were children of disobedience.
We were by nature children of wrath.
And then we see in verse four, two words that change everything.
Two words that can change everything for you.
Two words that can change everything for anyone who trusts.
And it says, but God.
So.
So this is who you are in your own strength.
This is what you can do in your own strength.
This is who I am outside of God.
But then God comes on the scene.
But God who is rich in mercy, for with his great love, wherewith
he loved us.
I love how that's worded.
With his great love, he loved us.
With his abundance love, he loved us.
With his infinite love, he loved us that sacrificial love, that
selfless love.
But God through his love, verse five, even when we were dead
in sins, have quickened us together with Christ.
He brought us to life by grace you are saved and have raised us
up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus.
So he takes us from darkness and he moves us to light.
He takes us to hopelessness and he moves us to hope.
He takes us from death and moves us to everlasting life.
That is God's love for us.
Verse 7.
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.
He says, here, look.
So for all time we are able to see the love of God through Jesus
Christ.
You want to.
You wonder if God loves you.
Look.
Look at Jesus.
Look at what he did.
Yes, he loves you.
The Bible says that father and mother may betray you, that friends
may turn their backs upon you, that God, though, is still there
with you no matter what, that God's love can never be taken away
from us.
And then it says in verse 8, for by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Meaning there is a purpose to God's love.
It's not just for us to sit and say, thank you, Lord.
It's for us to glorify him, to praise him, to show other people
about that love.
And so we see the attribute of love.
We see the affirmation of love.
But I also want you to see here this morning the access of this
love.
What do we get with this?
Well, we know we get salvation, but what does salvation
really even mean?
It means that we have access to God.
First John.
Go back to First John.
We were First John, chapter four.
Go to First John chapter three with me.
This is what we have in the love of God.
We have access to Him.
And I think a lot of times what we think is that when we're
saved now we're part of the family of God.
And.
And now I have a ticket to heaven.
And, and now I can be part of the church.
And these are all good things.
Obviously, everlasting life is an amazing thing.
But I want you to see here this morning that the greatest gift
is not just I get to live forever.
The greatest gift is that I become a child of God.
And now I'm in the family of God.
And now I get to be with my Savior forever.
That's the best thing is a lot of times it's all about selfishness.
I get to live forever.
I do get to live forever, but with my Savior.
And so here in First John, chapter three, what does it say?
It says, behold, wake up.
Take notice of.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
What is.
What is John saying here?
John is saying this.
Wake up to the greatness, the type of love that God has given you,
that we should be called the sons of God, that we should be called
the children of God.
Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not meaning
this.
When we are identified with Christ, we are now children of God.
We are now part of the family of God.
That gives us some sort of access.
My children have different access than.
Than you guys have in this room.
Okay?
My children see me at my best, and my children see me at my worst.
My children see me in my home.
My children see me everywhere.
My children have access to me.
They can come into my office, they can throw the door open, jump
up on my lap, say, dad, where's the candy?
Most people aren't able to do that within the church.
Okay.
Not going to let you do that.
I'm going to say, okay, guys, all right, there's a.
There's an open door policy, but at least knock first, okay?
As you come in.
My kids don't worry about that.
Why?
Because I'm their dad.
They have access to me.
They know that I am there.
They know that mom is there.
And so therefore there's something different when we become
children of God.
And.
And I want you to show.
Want you to show you here this morning what that looks like.
If you go over to Hebrews chapter 4.
Hebrews chapter 4.
The love of God given to us and we become the children of God
brings us access to the Father, brings us access to his grace.
It brings us access to His.
His.
His mercy.
It brings us access to his wisdom.
It brings us access to him in a personal way.
Folks, if I could explain to you, one of the most important things
within the Christian faith is this.
It's not about religiosity.
It's not about trying to do.
It's not about trying to achieve.
It's about knowing him and having a personal relationship with
God.
That.
That is the point of all of this.
And so in Hebrews chapter four, we're going to look at verse
number.
We'll start in verse number.
I don't know here.
We could.
We could start all over the place.
Let's start in verse number 13.
Well, let's start in 4.
14.
Let's start in verse number 14.
Seeing then we have a great high priest, that's Jesus that has
passed into the heavens.
Jesus, the Son of God.
Let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin.
That means this.
Jesus understands where you are.
Jesus understands your pain.
Jesus understands your temptation.
The Only difference is, is that he went through all of that
without sin.
We go through it and we sin.
Jesus did not sin.
And so because of Jesus, and because of his holiness and because
of his sacrifice, verse number 16.
Let us therefore, because of this, come boldly or confidently
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.
So what does this mean?
Yes, you have eternal life, but you also have access to the Father
in every element of your life.
In time of need, in time of doubt, in time of pain, in time of
suffering, you can go to him and access Him.
Go to him in prayer.
Go to him and know that he will hear you.
If you come to him with a humbled heart, if you come to him
with a repentant spirit, he will hear you.
And so the Bible says here that we have access to the Father
because of his love for us.
So you have the attribute of love, you have the affirmation of
love, you have the access of love.
But then you know what the Bible actually says that we have
something that we have to do to demonstrate our love.
Because.
Because by the way, go back to first John chapter four.
We were in First John chapter three there, but now go ahead to
chapter four.
And it says, and this was manifested verse nine, the love of
God toward us.
Because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that
we might live through Him.
Herein is love.
Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be
the propitiation or the satisfaction for our sins.
Be loved.
If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
So the Bible very clearly tells us that yes, God loves us,
but there are expectations for us to demonstrate our love to others
and to Him.
Now you might say, what does that look like?
Well, John 14:15 tells us how we demonstrate our love.
Because just as God demonstrated His love, if we truly
want to have God's love in our life, we have to demonstrate love
as well.
And so John 14:15 tells us exactly what we are to do to show
our love to God.
We we are called to love God.
Matthew chapter 22 says that the greatest commandment is that
we love God with everything.
With our hearts, with with our souls, with our minds, with everything.
Okay, so, so God says, hey, you want to know the greatest commandment?
Love me, love me with everything.
And then second is this.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
And so if we could boil down everything in the Bible, all the
teachings in the Bible, you would say, pastor, that's A strong
statement.
He says in Matthew, chapter 22, all, everything, the law and
the prophets.
Hang on these two things, okay?
The Bible, in a succinct way, and the commands of Scripture say
this.
To love God with everything and to love your neighbor as yourself.
The, the Ten Commandments are that the first ten commandments are
about loving God with all your heart, with everything.
And the second ten, the second half of the Ten Commandments, the
second five commandments are about loving your neighbor.
You're not going to steal from your neighbor if you love them.
You're not going to murder your neighbor if you love them, right?
And so the idea of living out our Christian life is to love God
with everything and to love our neighbor as ourself.
Okay?
Now how do we show that?
How do we show that we love God with everything?
John 14:15 says this.
This is Jesus speaking.
He says, if ye love me, keep my commandments.
A way that we could put that is this.
If you love God, you will listen to him.
You will obey him.
If my children love me, they'll obey me.
Dad, I love you.
Okay, son, go do your chores.
Why?
Don't want to do that?
Well, that's.
Son, that's how you show your love.
If you say you love me, you obey.
It's the same thing with God.
If we say we love God and God says to love him.
You see that circular thing?
God, I love you.
Okay?
If you love me, obey me.
Well, I'm not willing to obey.
Then you don't really love him.
God, I love those Christians around me.
Well, do you love them as you love yourself?
Because we all want to take care of ourselves.
If I'm hungry, you know what I do when I'm hungry?
Sometimes I try not to eat as much, but I feed myself, right?
I'm hungry, okay?
I need to eat.
So if I love someone and they're hungry, what should I do?
I should treat them the way that I would want to be treated.
I give them food, okay?
You see, that's a basic principle.
God wants us to love people the way that we love ourselves.
And that means we try to take care of them.
We put actually our needs behind their needs and we try to
take care of them.
So that's the idea here.
And so if we love God, we keep his commandments.
So.
So if I love God, I have to, number one, know his commandments.
Number two, I have to obey his commandments.
We're studying the parables in our small group on Sunday morning.
There's two elements to understanding A parable.
Number one, understanding the truth that Jesus is teaching in the
parable.
And then number two, applying that principle to our lives.
It's the same thing with all scripture.
We have to understand what the Bible says.
Yes, that's the first step.
You can't obey God unless you know what he is saying.
But then second part of that is, now that I know what he is saying
in His Word, I.
I have to do my best and everything that I have to try to
obey him to the best of my ability to follow him, to trust in
Him.
And so the Bible very clearly teaches that the action of love is
obedience.
The.
The action of love is obedience.
And so I know that as a believer, my love for God is seen
in my actions.
My actions are not the thing that actually is dem.
Is.
Is the love, right?
So for example, me helping somebody out, that's not me necessarily.
That's not me loving God.
What's what?
I love God in my heart, but the action thereof proves that love.
It's the same thing with faith, right?
Okay, so my works don't save me.
My faith saves me.
But the way that I show that I truly have faith in God is by my
works, right?
So faith will produce works.
The works don't produce faith.
And so it's this way.
The actions don't produce love.
It's the love that produces the actions.
And I hope that you can follow me with that.
And so a lot of times what people will do is they'll say, well,
I'll just try my best to do all these things.
And hopefully the love comes about.
The truth is, is that if we don't love God properly, we will
never do the things that he wants us to do with the right motives.
We'll.
We'll do it in emptiness.
We'll do it for other reasons.
We'll do it so that people will notice us.
The Bible says that love is again that agape is that love that's
selfless, that doesn't need to be recognized.
And that's what we see here.
The action of love.
The action of love is believing in my heart who God is
understanding his love for me.
If you go to first John, chapter four, Beloved, let us love
one another.
For love is of God.
And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God.
So the Bible says the only way that we can properly love is by knowing
God and knowing his love in our life.
And so it's not a fake.
It.
So you make it scenario.
It's letting God change me from the inside out.
And.
And that's the action of love.
But then I want you to see here the assignment of love.
The assignment of love.
The assignment of love is this Matthew, chapter 22, verses 37 through
40.
To love God with all of our hearts, with everything that we are.
To love God with everything.
And to love our neighbor as ourself.
Okay, what does that look like?
To love God with everything means to obey Him.
One of the things that God calls us to do is something found
in Matthew chapter 28, called the Great Commission.
I want you to go there with me.
Here, Matthew, chapter 28.
Look at this, with me.
I love God.
Okay, great.
If you love God, everyone, why do you love him?
Why do you love Him?
Well, I love him because he gives me this and he gives me that.
The Bible says we love him because he first loved us.
And so the reason why.
So.
So the motivation behind our love for God is because he loved
us and he sacrificed for us.
But then the next step would be like, okay, great, you love God,
but how do you demonstrate that love?
Well, I obey Him.
What do you obey?
Well, you know, I don't steal from people.
I don't lie.
Okay, that's great.
That's good.
That's a start.
But there are sins of commission and omission, right?
So sins of commission are things that I do that are wrong.
Sins of omission are things that I don't do that I should be
doing.
It's the same thing with demonstrating my love for God.
There are some things for God that I don't do because I love him,
but there are some things that I do because I love Him.
You understand what I mean by that?
And so the idea would be this way.
If I love God, I'm just going to not do all these bad things.
That's one side of it.
But what are the things that we are doing to show God our love
for Him?
Well, Matthew, chapter 28, Jesus says here in verse 18, all
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
And then here's the challenge.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.
That's.
That's make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever.
I've commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
So the Bible says that the greatest act of love that we can
demonstrate for God is to lead other people to him, to Tell other
people about the love of Christ to demonstrate.
And why do we love others?
We love others because Christ told us to love others.
But we love others so that other people can see the love of
Christ.
Matthew, chapter 5, verse 16.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
The whole point of showing love to other people is not so that
they'll love you back.
Because that's sometimes what we, we think as a Christian.
Well, if we love this family over here, one day they'll come around
and they will be benefiting the church by loving us.
That's not the biblical model of love.
The biblical model of love is I'm going to love this family.
I'm going to love this person, even if they don't ever show me love
back.
Why?
So that they can see the true love of Christ.
So that they can see what sacrificial agape love looks like.
And so what we do as a church is we do this.
We point people to the love of Christ so that we can see disciples
forming within the church.
Folks, my vision, my goal is not to build things and do things.
If, if God took everything else, what's the vision of the church?
To make disciples for Jesus Christ.
That's what it is.
Everything else is a conduit to get people to the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Every ministry that we have is to make disciples.
Every fellowship we have is to make disciples.
Every.
Every service that we have is to make disciples.
Whether we're edifying the saints for the work of the ministry
or we're reaching the lost so that they can come in and start that
process of spiritual growth is always about that.
And so you say, what are you talking about this morning?
I thought we were talking about love.
That is love.
The greatest thing that I can do for someone is to speak the truth
to them in love.
If I love you enough, I'm going to tell you the truth.
Sometimes it's hard.
Sometimes it's hard to tell someone the truth.
But if I love them enough, my fear of their reaction will go away.
If I love them to the point of saying, you know what?
I don't care what they say.
I don't care what they do.
I've got to tell them the truth.
I'll use my children as the example.
I love my children so, so much.
I really do.
And, and sometimes if I see them doing something or saying something,
I don't fear.
The way that they're going to respond to me.
I don't care if my children say, dad, I don't love you anymore
because you told me this.
I'm going to tell my children the truth because I love them.
Same thing with the idea of the person who was unsaved.
Because we're called to love the unsaved, right?
God loves those who are lost.
Why?
So that they can come to him.
The Bible says that he was moved with compassion upon those
that were lost.
And so are we moved with compassion.
Are we willing to tell someone the truth of Jesus Christ or are
we saying, you know what?
I don't love that person that much?
Are you willing to love your family enough to tell them the truth
of Jesus Christ?
Some of you have unsaved family members that you come across.
Are you willing to tell them the truth of Jesus Christ?
Some of you have other Christians in your life that they're
trusting Jesus Christ as their savior, but they're not walking the
way that they should walk.
Are you loving them enough to tell them the truth of Jesus Christ?
The Bible says I need to love God so much that I tell others, and
I need to love others so much that I continue to tell them of who
Jesus is and what he has done.
And so the assignment is this to.
To proclaim the love of Christ everywhere that we go, to show by
what we do and by what we say and by how we sacrifice.
And so it kind of comes full circle there in First John, chapter
four.
First John, chapter four comes full circle.
And I want us to end here this morning.
First John 4.
7.
Beloved, let us love one another.
Okay.
What's the assignment of love?
To love one another.
Why?
For God is love.
God is of.
For the love is of God.
And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
So if you have God's love in your life, love other people.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God.
For God is love.
So here's the.
Here's the contradiction that he's talking about here.
Well, I love God, but I don't love other people.
I love.
I love God's Word, but I don't like the church.
I understand that sentiment.
There's been a lot of people over the years that have been hurt
by people within the church.
There's a lot of people that have been wronged inside of the confines
of a church building.
That doesn't mean that we stop loving other people.
It just means that some people have not been good examples of the
love of Christ.
What we need to do is we need to break that chain.
We need to break the cycle.
We need to say, you know what?
Yeah, there's been a lot of churches that have hurt people over
the years, but we don't want to be one of those.
We want to be above and beyond loving people for the best of our
ability, for the cause of the gospel.
And so what does it say here?
It says, he that loveth not, knoweth not God.
This is not a hyperbole.
This is saying you are not walking and fellowshipping with God
if you're not loving other people.
It's not a give and take.
It's not buffet Christianity.
I like buffets because I can pick the food that I want.
And then if I really like that food, I'm gonna come back and get
more of that food.
And it's not limited.
That's sometimes how we want to live our Christian life.
We want to go down the line of the buffet and go, okay, all right,
so I like loving this person because this person makes a lot of
sense for me to love because they're going to bring something
back to me, this person.
And not so much I want to love God, but I don't want to love this
aspect.
I want to do this.
And the truth is, is that the Bible very clearly teaches here that
if we are not walking with love for other people, we're not
walking with God.
It doesn't mean that we're unsaved, that we're no means to be
familiar with.
I think.
And so I think that here in this case, verse number eight is
saying, if you have a hard time loving other people, you need
to go back to understand the love of God and the love that he
has shown you in your life in this.
And by the way, if we forget what the love of God really is, he
says in verse 9, in this was manifested the love of God toward
us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world
that we might live through Him.
So he goes back.
What does he go back to?
The heart of everything.
The gospel, the heart of the love of God is the gospel.
The truth of our salvation, the truth of his sacrifice.
Anytime we're tempted to doubt, go back to the gospel, herein
is love.
Not that we love God, okay, we didn't earn this love, but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
We could go down that whole line of what that word propitiation
means.
It essentially just means the satisfaction of God's wrath.
God had to Punish sin.
Jesus was that one who took that punishment for us.
So then, verse 11.
Beloved Christians, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another.
Verse 16.
And we have known and believe the love that God hath to us.
God is love.
And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.
Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness
in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this
world.
There is no fear in love.
But perfect love casteth out fear.
Are you afraid of what might happen if you show this love and
this vulnerability?
The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear because fear
hath torment, folks.
I can tell you from firsthand experience, I have been tormented
by fear in my life.
The fear of man is a snare that will hold you back.
Well, if I show this, this, I'll be abused here.
I.
I've done this 100 times and this will be the 101st time that
I'm going to be rejected.
The Bible says that perfect love, God's love, complete love,
understanding who he is and what he has done, cast out that fear.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love him because he first loved us.
If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment hath we from him that he who loveth God,
love his brother also.
Summarize right there.
Can't even give a better analogy than what the word of God
says.
He says, don't be afraid.
We can have confidence because of our access to God.
And therefore the assignment would be to love God with everything,
to love God and love our neighbors.
And therefore that connection would be that if we have this new
commandment, if we love God, we'll obey his commandments.
Verse 21.
And this commandment have we from him that we that he who loveth
God, love his brother also.
So the way we can connect dots with this is God says to love him
because he loved us.
If we love him, we will obey him.
If we obey him, verse 21, we obey his commandments.
What do we do?
We love our brother also.
We love our fellow Christians.
We love those around us.
And that's the aspect of true love.
And I hope that here this morning, I know that you hear love
a lot in the church.
We talk about God's love all the time.
And we should, we should celebrate God's love.
But what we have to understand is that God's love does not mean
acceptance either.
So if I get up here this morning and say, God loves everybody,
which we believe he does, in the extent that he has offered salvation
to all.
But God does not love what everybody is doing, okay?
God does not condone what everybody is doing.
So.
So, for example, if I can love my children, but at the same time
not be happy with what they are doing and try to lead them to
a better place.
And so the same thing with God.
God loves individuals, but yet he might not love what you are doing.
Therefore, there is that sense of repentance.
There is that sense of conviction in our life that we have
to turn away from that.
And so you, in your life, you might say, you know what?
God loves me for who I am, and that doesn't matter what I'm doing.
It does matter what you're doing.
God cares about you.
Don't fight the conviction of the Spirit in your life.
Don't fight that.
You know that.
That thing that you feel in your life that, that you know what?
I should be loving my neighbor.
But, but you know what?
And you have all that justification not to do what God
has called you to do.
Don't fight that conviction.
The Bible says that when we submit ourselves to him, that's,
that's talking about dying to the flesh and living in the Spirit,
walking in the will of God.
Folks, it's so easy for us to justify ourselves right out of what
God has called us to do.
But what we have to do is we have to see God's Word as the clear
and singular guide to our life.
And if the Bible says to love God with everything, we love him
with everything.
The Bible says loving God means obeying him, we obey him.
If obeying him means loving my neighbor, it means that I have to
love my neighbor.
And when we see it from that perspective, we're not going to be
perfect on it, but we can get back to a place in our life where
we're fully submitted to him and saying, lord, I need you.
I love you because you first loved me.
Go back to the gospel.
Some of us remember those days where we were broken with the fact
that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
But we have over the years being so desensitized to that message
because of the things of this world that we go, yeah, Jesus died
for me.
Yeah, that's the gospel.
But some of us have to get back to that brokenheartedness of
what Jesus did for us.
And that should drive us to service, that drives us to love,
that drives us to sacrifice.
And just as a loving mom says, you know what?
I'm willing to give this up for my children.
Just as a loving mom says, I'm willing to face pushback from my
children by doing this in their life.
I'm willing to clean up their messes, I'm willing to discipline
them.
I'm willing to do that.
The same thing goes for us as, as Christians, there's a time in
our life where we have to say, look, this love might not make sense,
but because of who I am and because of what God has done, I will
love.
And so I have the attribute of love.
I have the affirmation of love in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have access to God through His love.
I.
I have the action of love that we are to live out in our life.
And I have the assignment to love, to love God with everything
and to love my neighbor enough to show them who Jesus is and what
he has done.
And so here this morning, we're thankful for our moms.
We're thankful for the love that a mom can have.
My mom loved me so many.
She still loves me to this day, praise God.
That is a miracle in itself that she still loves me.
But through a lot, she loved me.
And I'm so thankful for that.
But even more so, I'm thankful for the love of God that He loved
me through all of that too.
Some of us would say, you know what?
Because of my life, God doesn't.
God shouldn't love me.
I don't deserve his love.
That's all of our testimonies.
But at the end of the day, God commanded His love towards us in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God knows our failures, he knows our struggles.
But he still loves us, doesn't condone those wrongs.
He wants us to get back to where we need to be.
But at the end of the day, don't ever doubt that God loves you.
Don't ever doubt that God is there for you.
How can he forget us?
He can't.
How could he turn his back against us?
He won't if you're his child today.
The Bible says in Romans chapter eight that, that nothing.
And we could go through the long list there in Romans, but nothing
can separate you from the love of God.
So what does the love of God mean for you?
Does the love of God change the way that you live your life?
Does the love of God change the way you love your spouse?
Does the Love of God change the way you love your children?
Does the love of God change the way you love your coworker?
Does the love of God change the way that you love the lost in
your community?
I hope that it does.
I hope that the love of God stirs you to service, stirs you to
sacrifice, serves, stirs you to commitment to the place where
we want to demonstrate that love to those around us because of
what Christ has done for us.
I'm going to ask you to stand, if you're able to, this morning.
Every head bowed, every head close.
As the music plays, we have an opportunity to respond to the love
of God.
I'm not going to sit here and give a long invitation.
All it is this morning is where do you stand in the love of
God?
Have you experienced the love of God today?
If you have, fantastic, wonderful.
How are you demonstrating that love to those around you?
Maybe you haven't trusted in the love of God.
Maybe today is the day where the Bible says you can know everlasting
life, that you can know forgiveness because of the love of
God.
The Bible says that you can be saved.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
Trust in him today.
Trust in that love today.
Rest in that love today.
Some of you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
But that love has grown distant from you.
You've become apathetic.
You've missed the point today.
Go back to that love of Christ, that simple but infinite
love of Christ.
If you do so, I know according to the word of God, that it will
change us.
He will stir us.
It will get us to a place in our life where we are desiring him
more and more.
The more I understand the love of a spouse, the more I want to love
her more.
The more I understand the love of God, the more I will want to love
him more.
And so this morning I pray that you can have that same desire
to love him more and to understand his love in a greater
way today.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
We thank you for your love.
We're thankful for your grace.
I pray that you can be with us this morning as we rest and ponder
and live in the truth of your love.
We ask all these things in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
To you can also email me directly at Josh massaro@middletownbaptistchurch.com.
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.