God's Love Can Change Everything For You! Series

God's Love Can Change Everything for You!

1 John 4:11-16

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The First Epistle of John

(Prepared January 25, 2024)

MESSAGE:

*If we were to write down a description of God, there are many great things we could say. One of my favorite descriptions is Psalm 100:1-5. There God's Word says:

1. Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!

2. Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.

3. Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

*Getting close to my 73rd birthday, Isaiah 46:3-4 is also on my mind today. There the LORD says:

3. "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb:

4. even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you."

*There are countless more great things we could say about the Lord God, but here in 1 John 4, the Apostle John stressed God's love, and that is surely one of His most important qualities. God's love is such an essential part of His character that twice in this chapter, both in verse 8 and in verse 16, John simply says, "God is love." Thank God that He is love! And today's Scripture shows us four life changing effects of His great love. God's love can change everything for you!

1. FIRST: HIS LOVE CAN SHINE THROUGH US.

*We see this truth for Christians in vs. 11-12. Here John wrote:

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

12. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

*Notice first that when John said, "No man has seen God at any time," he was talking about God the Father. This is almost exactly the same thing that John wrote in His Gospel. John 1:18 says, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

*Jesus confirmed this truth in John 6:44-47, where the Lord said:

44. "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

45. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

46. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.

47. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life."

*This is also why in John 14:6, on the night before the cross, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

*Now, Daniel 7:9-14 does tell us that the prophet saw a vision of God the Father in a dream. There the Father is called "the Ancient of Days," and God the Son is called "the Son of Man." But no man has seen God the Father at any time in this world. This truth also means that every time God appeared in the Old Testament, it was the pre-incarnate LORD Jesus Christ. (1)

*It was the Lord Jesus who talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was Jesus who appeared to Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, David, and many other Old Testament heroes. Then the Lord came down and was born on the first Christmas Day. God the Son humbled Himself to become a human being, reveal Himself as the only begotten Son of God, and die on the cross for our sins.

*Now our Risen Savior has returned to Heaven. But Christians: People can still see God in us. They can see God in the way we live our lives, and they can see the love of God in the way we love one another. That's why in vs. 11-12 John said, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us."