God Has A Loving Heart For Humanity Series

God Has a Loving Heart for Humanity

1 John 5:5-13

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The First Epistle of John

(Prepared February 7, 2024)

MESSAGE:

*Christians: Our God, the only true and living God, -- God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a caring God. He has a compassionate, loving heart for us, and for everyone else in the world. God cares about us infinitely more than we care for ourselves.

*The Lord is a compassionate God! Psalm 145:8-9 says, "The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works." In Isaiah 49:15 the LORD asked, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you."

*Micah 7:18-19 asks, "Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

*Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Our God is a loving, compassionate God! We find this truth many places both in the Old Testament and the New. Matthew 9:35-36 says:

35. . . Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

36. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

*In the Lord's great parable of the Prodigal Son, that young man repented of his foolish ways and returned to his father. The father in the story is a picture of our Heavenly Father. And Luke 15:20 tells us that the young man "arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."

*The original word for "compassion" in these New Testament examples has the idea of having gut-wrenching love and pity for someone. It's the same kind of love people have over a sick baby, or spouse, or parent, or anyone else we deeply love. That's the kind of compassion God has for us, -- only His compassion is perfect and infinitely greater than ours. That's why God wants everyone to be saved. In 2 Peter 3:9 God's Word tells us that the Lord "is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

1. GOD HAS A LOVING HEART FOR HUMANITY, AND WE CAN SEE IT FIRST TODAY IN HIS WITNESSES.

*I talked about these witnesses last time, but let's look at them again because they are such a crucial part of Christianity. One way to see the importance of witnesses is by how many times John mentioned them in vs. 5-11. Here John used the original noun and verb for witness 11 different times.

*Our translators used different English words for the original words, expressions like "witness," "bears witness," "testimony," "testified," and "record." But they are all based on the original word "martus." That's where our modern word "martyr" came from. And Christians who die for the cause of Christ are called "martyrs." But whether we live or die for Jesus, all of God's witnesses are crucial to Christianity.

[1] IN VS. 6-7, JOHN SPOKE OF GOD'S HEAVENLY WITNESSES.

*Here John said:

6. . . It is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.

7. For there are three who bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

*"The Word" is Jesus Christ. These three: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the one true God. And they are the heavenly witnesses of all that is good and true. So here John confirms the fundamental truth that God exists as a trinity; One God, as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

*And though the word "trinity" is never found in the Bible. The existence of God as a trinity is surely confirmed in God's Word. Matthew 3:16-17 give us a perfect example, and there the Bible says:

16. Then Jesus, when He had been baptized, came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

17. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.''

*There we see all three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And we have much more evidence from His Word. Nave's Topical Bible gives over 50 references to help point us to the trinity. And in vs. 7, John tells that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are now bearing or giving witness in Heaven. They are the heavenly witnesses of all that is good and true.