God Wants Everyone To Know His Great Love Series

God Wants Everyone to Know His Great Love

1 John 4:14-21

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The First Epistle of John

(Prepared January 31, 2024)

MESSAGE:

*The other day an old Gaither song came to mind. Part of the lyrics say, "Everybody ought to know, Everybody ought to know, Everybody ought to know, Who Jesus is. On the cross He died for sinners, And His blood makes white as snow, Loving, living, coming Savior, He's the One you ought to know." (1)

*Those words are surely true. But a few hours earlier, I had been reading some of the judgment chapters in the Book of Ezekiel. Chapter 25 tells about God's judgment against the Ammonites. In vs. 5 the LORD said, "Then you shall know that I am the LORD." In vs. 11 the LORD said, "I will execute judgments upon Moab, and they shall know that I am the LORD.'' And in vs. 17, God spoke of judging the Philistines and said, "I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I lay My vengeance upon them.'' Over and over again, "They shall know that I am the LORD," I found it over 20 times in the Book of Ezekiel, and the fact is that everybody IS going to know. But the terrible truth is that it's going to be too late for most people, and they will spend eternity in hell.

*God does not want those people to go to hell. That's why in John 3:16 Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." God doesn't want anyone to perish. We know this because of Scriptures like Matthew 28:18-20 where Jesus gave us the Great Commission and said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.''

*God wants everybody to know His love, before it's too late, and today's Scripture can help.

1. YOU SEE, GOD WANTS EVERYONE TO KNOW HOW HIS LOVE WAS GIVEN.

*And the Apostle John tells us in vs. 14, where he said, "We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." The grace-filled love of God is the only reason why John could say this. And the original word for "Savior" is based on the original word for "save." It includes the ideas of someone who delivers, protects, heals, preserves, makes whole, keeps safe, rescues from danger, and rescues from destruction.

*Think about the amazing joy and gratitude of being rescued. Have you ever been up close when someone was about to drown, or thought they were anyway. I have a been couple of times.

*The first time was in Daytona Beach. We lived there for two years when I was a kid, and most of that time we lived a block away from the ocean. I was in the 5th grade and my brother Jon was in the 3rd grade. We went by ourselves down to the beach or over to the river all the time.

*You have to understand that this was in the early 1960s, and parents didn't watch over their children like they do today. Today we will barely let our children out of our sight, but back in 1961, it was "We're going to the beach, Mom." -- "Okay. Be back for supper."

*One day Jon and I went to the beach. He really didn't know how to swim yet, but we liked to go out as deep as we could without going over our heads. We were up to our chins, when all of a sudden Jon stepped in a hole. It was a big hole where the sand had been washed away, way over his head. By the grace of God, I was only about 10 or 15 feet away, and I got over to him as fast as I could. But I can still remember the desperate panic on his face.

*Imagine how he felt. Some of us know, because we have been there. Jon was in real danger, and he needed to be saved. But my brother was in much greater danger most of his life. He was in eternal danger until he believed in Jesus and called on the Lord to save him. That happened on March 3rd, 2008, just 8 months before Jon died at the age of 55.