I think the greatest film that’s ever been made in the history of filmmaking, and this is my own humble opinion, is “Saving Private Ryan.” And the reason I like Saving Private Ryan so much is because it has one of the most potent theological statements ever made in film. The thing is it’s not an accurate theological statement, but it’s a potent one. If you don’t know the story, I will tell you the story.
It’s D-Day, and the allied forces have stormed the shore on Normandy. And after storming the shore, in that battle, in that terrible war and also in the war in Italy, there were three sons who died; three sons of a family of four sons. Those three sons died, and when the news of that reached the bureaucracy of the army, they discovered that not only were those three sons dead from the same family, but there was one brother who was still perhaps alive. And so they decided to bring him home. His name was Private Ryan, James Ryan. And so a small squad of men, a patrol, led by Captain John Miller (who is played by Tom Hanks) is told to go out through enemy territory and find this paratrooper, James Ryan, who has been dropped into enemy territory with thousands of other men, and bring him out. And so they go in and they go through a couple of other battles in the process, and they finally get to the town where he is with a small group of men, who are all that’s left of a group that’s trying to hold a bridge in this town. They’re trying to hold on to this bridge to keep the Germans from taking it. And if they aren’t able to hold it against the Germans, then they’re going to blow it up. Well, Tom Hanks (Captain Miller) and his men come and find Private Ryan and say, "Hey, you’re out of here! We’re taking you home." He says, "I’m not going. I’m here to do a job. These are the only brothers I have left. These men I’m fighting with here. And I’m not going." So, Captain Miller and his men decide to stay and they have a terrible battle. There are only about 20 of them against tanks and heavy guns. And, ultimately, near the end of the film (and I’m sorry to ruin it for you if you haven’t seen it, but here it is anyway) at the end Captain Miller (Tom Hanks’ character) gets shot trying to blow up the bridge just before the Germans take it. And then when he’s lying there dying, P-51s come in and bomb the tanks, and so the allied forces win. And there’s Captain Miller dying under the bridge. And James Ryan comes up to him and they’re talking together and Captain Miller whispers something and Private Ryan comes closer to him and he whispers again, and he says, "Earn this. Earn this." Well, I can’t give you a very accurate rendition of what happens next, so I want us to see that on the video.
Fifty years later James Ryan, with his family, goes back to the cemetery where Captain Miller is buried and finds the grave and talks to Captain Miller. (At this point we ran a video from the film, showing this scene.) Pretty sad. I don’t think that that man meant to put chains on James Ryan, but he really did. Didn’t he? Chains. And for 50 years that man woke up and wondered if today he would be able to earn what was done for him by those men. Most people would say, "Yes. That’s right. That’s what he should have done. Others died for him, so he owes them something. He has to earn what they did for him. And to spend 50 years trying, wondering that whole time if you were succeeding, it’s not only okay. It’s good."
Aren’t you glad that Jesus Christ didn’t say on the cross, "Earn this."? Aren’t you glad? And yet, I’m afraid some Christians believe just that. That we are to live a life and expect God to have that same attitude that says, "You’ve got to earn this now." You’ve got to wonder all the time if you’re good enough. You’ve got to spend your whole life in helpless insecurity, wondering if when you stand before God He will be able to look at you and say, ’Well, okay, you’re in.’" I’ve got some good news for you this morning. God doesn’t want you to think that you’ve got to earn it. That’s man’s idea. God is different. God is so incredibly different than that. And His response is, "Take it, it’s yours. It’s a gift. I am giving it to you. I am initiating this death for you to do for you what you could never do for yourself. And I want you to be confident, to be assured, to even be bold as you stand before Me."
You know, our lives are full of proofs that we are the targets, the recipients, of the overwhelming love and grace of God. We don’t have to spend 50 years, like James Ryan did, wondering and then find out at the end, "Okay, we made it by the grace of God." We don’t have to spend our time wondering, living lives of insecurity. In fact, just the opposite. God wants us to be secure if we have put our faith and trust in the only one who can save us, Jesus Christ.
How do we know? What’s the proof? What’s the proof that we can stand boldly in the presence of God. The first proof is this, from 1 John 4, the Holy Spirit of God lives in you. Ah, the Holy Spirit. We think of Him sometimes almost like the poor cousin of the Trinity. I don’t know how we have come up with these ideas. But, maybe it’s the fact that we used to call Him the Holy Ghost and so He seemed so almost like a non-entity. But He’s not. We were thinking, "He’s not really God." Sometimes we even make the mistake of referring to Him as an "it." But the fact of the matter is, brothers and sisters, that according to the Word of God, God Himself in the person of His Holy Spirit lives, resides, dwells inside of you.
Now we’ve seen as we’ve gone through the book of 1 John that there are three proofs that John keeps on repeating over and over in this book about us. What we have, what we manifest in our lives as believers. One is that we love other people. Another is that we believe in the incarnated Son of God, Jesus Christ. And thirdly, that our behavior and our attitudes reflect the righteous character of God. We’ve seen this and he repeats these over and over again. John is different than Paul. Paul is very linear. John is really kind of random. Maybe that’s why I like John so much. He says something and he says it again, he goes over here and he says it again. But, there is a certain order to it and he is repeating these over and over again.
These are not the ways we become acceptable to God, by the way. And that’s very important. I think we’ve seen that many times in this book. These are not how we become acceptable to God. "Oh, I have to love other people, then God will accept me. Or no, I have to behave myself, then God will accept me." No. These are proofs that as John 1 says, that we have a relationship with God. They are the body of evidence really of something amazing. They are the outward manifestations, and the proofs, and the evidences that the Holy Spirit of God has taken up residence in you.
Verse 13, "We know [that word is the experiential knowledge] We know that we live in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Holy Spirit." That verb ’has given’ is a tense that John just loves to use in this book, the perfect tense, which is a tense that means ’it happened in the past and the effects of that event are still continuing to roll out.’ Like last night we had our Valentine banquet and we were all together there as married couples. We were married. When we say, "We were married," that doesn’t mean that I was married once. It means that we were married (in August 16, 1975 for example) and here 28 years later we still are. That’s what the perfect tense is. When John says that God has given us of His Spirit that means it was a past event that continues to affect us today. And that past event is the giving of the Holy Spirit to take up residence in us.
Now, when we hear that word ’take up residence’ or ’dwell’ we have kind of a funny picture we come up with. Frankly, we think of maybe somebody who’s a couch potato. He dwells. That means he’s laying there on the couch watching TV. Or he’s laying there on the couch eating ice cream. Or he’s just laying there on the couch doing nothing at all. That’s not the picture of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never just indwells you and then He sits there on a chair in your body until it’s time to take you to heaven. That’s not what the Holy Spirit does, because this is the same Holy Spirit that wrote a Book, the Word of God of which is said, "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. And it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Now, if that’s the Book that’s that active, what do you think of the Author? Wouldn’t the Author have been just the same?
You see, we’ve received an anointing. And we saw this back in 1 John 1 that this anointing we have received, "remains in you and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real and not counterfeit, just as it has been taught you, remain in Him." That anointing we saw a few weeks ago when we did this passage, is both the Holy Spirit and the Word of God working in concert. It’s one thing to say, "Oh, the Spirit told me something." Well, okay. But, some people say, "The Spirit told me to do such and such." And we can go right to Scripture and find that that very thing that they are planning on doing, that they are claiming the Holy Spirit told them to do, is exactly the opposite of what the Lord tells us to do in His Word. God cannot contradict Himself. If He tells us to do one thing in His Word, then the Holy Spirit’s not going to tell us to do another.
But the Spirit and the Word of God have changed our lives. Amen? Are you different today than the day you received Christ? Are things different? Are your values different? Are your priorities different? Are your behaviors different? Are your attitudes different? Is your speech different? Why? Because you’re a good little church-going man or woman? No. Because the Holy Spirit of God has come into your life and is applying the Word of God to you.
We saw a few weeks ago that the Holy Spirit of God is evidence that we have put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Christ. "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." Can I see a raise of hands? Do you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God? If you’ve got your hand up, that means you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. It doesn’t mean if you can turn handsprings down the center aisle, or swing from the chandeliers, or even speak in a different language. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, you are a Spirit indwelt believer. The Holy Spirit lives in you.
Verse 15, "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love that God has for us." Here’s the bottom line, brothers and sisters, if the Holy Spirit of God lives in you, you’re going to change. You’re going to change. You’re in the process of changing. You may look at your life and you may look at some other believer’s life and you say, "Man, they are so much more mature than I am. They are so much more godly than I am. They are so much more knowledgeable about the Bible than I am. I am such a loser." And all I would say is: give it time. The Holy Spirit is living in you, He’s not lying around. He’s active. He’s at work. He’s changing things. Sometimes He’s a very uncomfortable presence, is He not? Sometimes, when we have chosen a path of sinfulness, He is a very uncomfortable presence. But, if we yield to Him, that presence will once again become a comforting one and an encouraging one. Our resistance to the Holy Spirit can make the process a little slower and increase our pain in the process. But, even that pain is a sign that God is at work in us.
So that’s one. The Holy Spirit lives in me. That’s one proof. And you don’t have to be wildly enthusiastic person to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You know, I’ve noticed something about this church. This is a church, we’re a pretty quiet bunch aren’t we? There’s a few "crazies," but there’s a lot of people here … let’s admit it. We’re introverted. Well, not all of us. Some of us are not introverted, but a lot of us are. And so we think, "I just can’t bring myself to do those …. I can’t raise my hands or I can’t clap or I can’t do this or I can’t do that." You know what? The evidence of the Holy Spirit is love for others(which is a very active thing), believing in Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God, and a change in my behavior and attitude. You got that? You’ve got the Holy Spirit. And don’t let anyone come along and tell you, "You don’t have the Holy Spirit because you don’t do X."
Another thing that’s happened. My view of God has changed. This is another proof. My view of God has changed. Verse 16, "So we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in Him." Those first two verbs, ’know’ and ’rely’ are also in the perfect tense. That means that there was a point at which you began to know and a point at which you began to rely, and that knowledge and trust continues on in your life. You now have a different view of God. You know and rely on what? This is very important. "On the love God has for us." This is an amazing thing.
Listen to what J.I. Packer has written in his book, Knowing God: "There’s unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There’s tremendous relief in knowing that His love is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself and then quench His determination to bless me."
We have developed so many wrong views of God. The cruel God who is perhaps best remembered in the song by the group Blood, Sweat, and Tears, called "Spinning Wheel." I tried to find the whole song on the web. Every web site that I went to has expunged this line where David Clayton Thomas writes, "I can swear there ain’t no heaven, but I pray there ain’t no hell." What’s he saying in that? Is he saying, "I know God can’t be kind enough to have a heaven, but I sure hope He’s not mean enough to have a hell." I got news for you. God is love and God has made a heaven and dwells in heaven and has made the way open for us to go to heaven.
Of course there’s another view of God, that He’s kind of a cosmic grandpa. And everything is just fine. "Aren’t they so cute? Look at them sitting down there. Aren’t they having fun? Sure! Everybody come on into heaven. It doesn’t matter." That’s not the right view either. Another view of God are the scales weighing good and bad, and judging accordingly. "Well, you’ve done a little bit more good than bad so you’re in." All of these views are either inaccurate and put the pressure on us to perform, to earn it, to earn God’s favor. Something the Bible tells us from the very first chapters, is something beyond the capacity of sinful man to do. So none of these are based really on the revealed Person of God. They are things that we think of and that seem right to us.
But, look at verse 17, "In this way love is made complete in us so that we will have…" Wait a second, I can’t be reading this right. "In this way, love is made complete in us so that we will have…" Read that word. "boldness, confidence." When? "On the day of judgment." Can you believe that? That when you stand before God, God has made it so that you can stand before Him. "Bold, I approach the eternal throne and claim [claim?] claim the crown through Christ my own." Hey, man didn’t make up that system, I’ll guarantee you. Because in man’s system, we come dragging all our works in and say, "Look at all I did for You, God. I healed people. I cast out demons in Your name." And what does the Judge say? "Depart from Me. I never knew you." "You mean I’ve got to know You?" Yeah. Works don’t cut it. Relationship is what it’s about. And it’s terribly sad that many believers remain here, remain thinking that it’s up to us to earn it. And the sad thing is that many preachers even preach this as normal, that I can earn it if I try hard enough. Which do you think honors God more – our fearful attempts to add to the sacrifice of Christ by our own efforts or to rest our whole weight in complete trust in the sacrificial death of Christ on my behalf? Which honors God more, God’s way or our way? It’s pretty clear.
If you struggle with this, I want you to get a book. It’s called The Best of A.W. Tozer, edited by Warren Wiersbe. The greatest thing that A.W. Tozer ever wrote is on page 120 of this book, chapter 27 "God is Easy to Live With." Now, we’re not going to bore you with the whole thing and frankly, I’d cry if I did. But, I want to read a part of it. "How good it would be if we would learn that God is easy to live with. He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust. He may sometimes chasten us, it’s true. But even this He does with a smile, the proud tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is." That’s the miracle of salvation, that God clears the debt of sin we owe, clears the way to put in us His very own Holy Spirit to come and live inside of us and to change us. The twin punch of justification and sanctification. No wimpy works could ever come close to beating that. Justified, standing before God in perfect righteousness. Imputed, clothed in the righteousness of Christ and given the Holy Spirit of God to bring our lives into conformity with the image of God’s Son.
When we rely on God we are free from fear. Listen to verse 18, "There is no fear in love. But, perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment." You know, I’ve sung "Amazing Grace" I’m sure several hundred times, but it wasn’t until today that one line really hit me. "’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear." First step, recognizing that there’s a holy God and that I’ve sinned against Him. And then that same grace my fear , what? "relieved." Isn’t that cool? Whenever you wonder if it’s okay not to be afraid of God, remember that line. "Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." Once you fear God and say, "Lord, I need to have this sin problem taken care of by You." And it’s grace that even brings us to that understanding. Then we can say, "Now my fear of You, that ’I’m afraid of You. I can’t be in Your presence’ fear is gone. That same grace that brought me to understand the nature of God now invites me to come into the presence of God, not by my own works, but by the work of Christ on my behalf."
Now, why does it drive out fear? Because fear has to do with punishment. When you are a child and you do something wrong, you don’t want to be caught by your parents because you’re going to get some kind of a disciplinary action. That’s what this word means ’punishment’ here, it’s chastisement for misbehavior. Now here’s the amazing thing about being a Christian. Why don’t I fear punishment? Because someone else has taken my spanking for me. Punishment has been meted out. The wrath has been poured out and I can stand in the presence of God. And when I try to remind Him of my sin, He says, "I don’t know what you’re talking about." And we think that our works can somehow compete with that kind of grace? Every person I know, including me, who has depended on his own works has come up against a very deep pit and great sadness and no confidence. Just the opposite of what this is talking about. Lean your whole weight on the initiating love of God.
These are the proofs that you can be confident that, "The Holy Spirit lives in me. That my view of God has changed. And that I am free to love other people." This freedom from fear, this power of the Holy Spirit working inside of me is going to cause a very visible change in me. John puts it in the form of a command, but he has talked about it before in this book. It’s a very natural part of being a believer. And that is that I am freed from the terrible slavery of worshipping myself and putting myself in the center of the universe and demanding that everyone else worship me too. And when you’ve got a room full of people demanding to worship them alone, you’ve got a problem don’t you? Selfishness butting up against selfishness. We’ve been freed from that to serve the living God. And the living God tells us to serve Him by doing just what He did, serving others. "We love because He first loved us." And then if anyone says, "I love God, says…" "Says," notice that. We’ve seen that before in this book. If we say, ’I love God’ but he doesn’t love his brother, then his actions give proof that he’s lying about loving God. If you love God and God loves you, if God is in you then you are going to reflect the character of God. And that character is to love other people.
We defined what love was last week. Love is a self-initiated, knowledgeable and sacrificial act which is costly to the giver and which meets the deepest needs of the undeserving recipient. That’s what love is. If you wonder if you are really acting in love then you can use that definition and say, "Well, is the person undeserving?" Typically. "Is it sacrificial on my part? Is it costly to me and beneficial to them?" Yeah. "Did I do it on my own? Did I have to be asked?" If the answer is, "Yes, I did it on my own. It was sacrificial." It was love. And that love is what continues to prove to us that we are the children of God, that we are in fellowship with God. Because the character of God is being manifested in us, being displayed through us.
Now, there’s always going to be a gap between the perfection of Jesus Christ and how we’re displaying love. There’s always going to be a gap. But the good news is that when we act in a way that’s not loving, the Holy Spirit who is active in us points that out to us and we say, "You know what? You’re right!C" And so maybe we go and apologize. Maybe we go and ask forgiveness. Maybe we try again and do it more like God would. And we see this change in our lives. We become more and more like Christ. He’s given us this command. It’s part of being a believer. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
John’s point throughout this book has been to give us security. I’m consistently stunned at how people can use this book to teach a works-based righteousness. This book is all about security. It’s all about confidence. It’s all about saying, don’t go chasing something else. Be absolutely sure and convinced in the glorious grace that you have received. Don’t be dissatisfied with it because when we think, "Man, I’m not so sure I can trust in this process," that’s when we go start looking for something else. "Maybe if I try Zen or maybe if I try EST or maybe if I try a little sprinkle of Mormonism or maybe if I try Gnosticism." And John has been saying it over and over again. "Man, you’re good. You’re good right where you are. You’ve got the Holy Spirit of God living inside of you and His presence is manifesting itself in all these great ways. Don’t go looking for something else. What you’ve got is all you need." Peter says the same thing, "He has given us everything we need for godliness." Be secure. Rest in the finished work of Christ. And if this morning you would say, Those things aren’t true of me." They can be by transferring your trust from your own miserable works (I can say they’re miserable because they’re just like mine) to the finished work of the Son of God who died in your place, paid for your sins, invites you to believe in Him and to receive confidence in trade for your insecurities.
