b. Paul in describing God's love declared, "Love never fails. First: That the love of God is manifested in the exercise of justice, or in the punishment of sin. The world we think of and enter when we take refuge in the love of God is a world in which everything is of God, a world whose inhabitants live and move and have their being in God. This concerns itself with the misery and ruin which sin entails, and furnishes, in the room of these evil consequences, peace and joy and hope, everlasting consolation and eternal life. C. How can it be that I have no fear of the judgment day? Every pleasure is thus doubled to man. --------------------
God's works were known to Him from eternity. What could have been the primary object which the Creator had in view in the works of creation? A. "Love worketh no ill to its neighbour," said St. Paul. We can say concerning His love that it has never been diminished by all the sins we have ever committed since we believed. Historical Books
But this much ought to be said, that the two parts of the mystery are but one in experience. It is a real home for the spirit, a real dwelling place for thought. f. God also complained to Israel about the loss of their first love, He told Jeremiah to: V. JOHN SPEAKS OF OUR LOVE BEING PERFECTED. 2. 1. John Piper May 26, 1985 913 Shares Sermon. The words of tenderness spoken to the healed were from human lips; but the love which informed them, and the life by which they had power to heal, were Divine. Rightly regarded, even winter testifies that "God is Love." (2) God confers these blessings upon those who are entirely undeserving of them. 5:2, 25; 1 John 4:9-10), I worked out this definition: Biblical love is a self-sacrificing, caring commitment that shows itself in seeking the highest good of the one loved. We may move our pieces where we please, but each piece has its assigned move. Or if any doubt on this point may remain, I proceed —, 4. Pentateuch
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Courage asserts itself in the hour of peril — on the battlefield and on the sinking deck; humanity and presence of mind in the midst of panic and risk — in the outbreaking of the fire or in the hospital ward. He only can save it by means absolutely infinite. A third feature of the love of Christ for His own is FAITHFULNESS. The blessedness which awaits us in the future is but the unfolding of the present life of the soul. But times there are of thick darkness, when neither sun nor moon appear for many days; when the tempest rages exceedingly, and two seas meet in dread collision. "We know and believe the love that God hath to us." By your dwelling in God and God dwelling in you. In case we ever forget this basic, essential fact of our faith, 1 John makes it crystal clear." If, therefore, the Supreme Ruler of the universe is to be respected by intelligent beings, and loved for His wisdom and moral excellence, He must vindicate the right and banish the evil-doer. Commentary, 1 John 4:7-21, Judith Jones, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015. (2) Take the next view of the chief purpose of creation, viz., that it was to secure the exhibition of moral good, or the development of genuine virtue. 1 John 3 1 John 4:16-21 1 John 5 Return to the Main Player Favoriting is a great way to keep a list of sermons, programs, and ministry resources in your account. IV. III. 1 John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. This Love not only includes goodness and complacency, but, as it now exists, and is now revealed, it takes the form of "the kindness and philanthropy of God our Saviour." 7. (1) Forbearance. b. Usernames should only contain letters, numbers, dots, dashes, or underscores. range of evangelical traditions, all of the ideas and principles conveyed
We have known the love which God hath to us — it is not a matter of conjecture, but of demonstration: "We have known, we have believed the love that God hath to us.". 3. This supposes certain dispositions of favour towards sinful men. Could any moral creature give Him praise? Pauline Epistles
Just one tap away from sermons, blogs, and other resources. Can he starve out his sins by fasting, or wear them out by a pilgrimage, or whip them out by penances, or give them away in alms? "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us." 1 John 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. 5. d. The complaint of Jesus to the church of Ephesus was they had left their first love. Who can declare the sweep and intensity of that little adverb "so"? 1. III. Johannine Writings
To check the education by experience is often to tamper with the freedom. Luke-Acts
It is joy, strength, and new life to let the feelings of the heart flock to it. e. Prayer was never intended as means to accomplish my will here on earth. e. I wonder if He might be complaining the same about us? It is true that love exercises a purifying influence over service. --------------------
This is an arrangement of love. By the way, if you are reading this sermon online please feel free to leave your comments at the end. As I look back on my life, how deeply thankful I am that God did not answer all of my prayers. Another time in which he knows his Father's love is, when he sees it after coming out of affliction. Two things need to be remembered, which, if they do not give answers to these hard questions, yet lift somewhat their burden. Love is the essence and nature of His being. Pentateuch
God can only treat the individual creature in agreement with the general welfare. Poetical Books
This is the heart of the message of the Bible. He is like Job; the Lord hath set a hedge about him, and all that he possesseth. In relation to the existence of sin, or moral evil, amongst us, observe this - the moral consciousness of men ever charges sin upon themselves, not upon God. II. It need not be denied that there are many enigmas in life. The machine is a revelation of the mechanist; the building, of the architect; the painting, of the painter; the poem, of the poet. "The love of the Spirit." Share this page using one of these tools: Email / username or password was incorrect! If the thief and the honest man, the murderer and the philanthropist, were all treated alike, I ask what would be the impression made upon the mind of any rational being? Pulpit Fiction, plus podcast. And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. Pentateuch
Besides, this supposition exhibits God in a way in which He was not exhibited by Jesus. --------------------
They are sometimes and more often seen in the quiet fidelity and prolonged patience of love, in the ministry of devoted and self-denying lives. II. In verse 10 John tells us: "Herein is love, not that we love God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. III. Based on several similar texts (John 3:16; 13:34; Eph. The other and still greater half I do not attempt to describe. In the light of this fact we see at once how the life from which they proceeded must have been first of all a human life, and next a human life in God. Others testified that Jesus was the light (Matthew 4:16; Luke 2:32; John 1:1-4)––and Jesus said of himself, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). The Gospels
And this is the love of compassion. To understand, then, the Divine character, we are led first to the Divine thoughts or plans, and then to the Divine actions or the development of those plans. GOD IS LOVE — A TRUTH REVEALED AND CERTIFIED IN CHRIST. Does this close the exhibition of this scene of love? Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." Love is the life of God in the same sense that a mother's love is the outflow of a mother's life. God has intimated to us that our planet dwelling does not include all His intelligent family, and that His system towards us is very imperfectly developed. The first development of individual character is thought. Then the capricious and wayward woman becomes a ministering angel. It is not enough to know that a soul, by meditation and trust, can dwell in love: how should its dwelling in love be at the same time a dwelling in God? 3. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above," etc. I. 1 John 4:16. And it depends as much on its being the outflow of a living person as a mother's love does. He goes to his house and he finds it stored with plenty — "his bread is given him, and his water is sure." Luke-Acts
The radical, everywhere present idea is, that the new love wanting in them is to be itself only a revealment of the love of God to them, or upon them. He is not darkness, but light; not malignity, but love. Severe suffering is like a great thunderstorm which sweeps over a country, and, by its flashing flames and awful booms and pelting rain, fills the minds of men with terror; but it passes away, and leaves the air purer and the heavens brighter. Spring, with its gradual unfolding of young life and verdant beauty, its quickening and joy-giving influence, is a revelation of God's tenderness and grace. This is the disposition which dwells in the mind of the Framer of all things to delight in whatever He has done. This opposes every idea of claim or worth in them to whom it is extended, regarding only their total demerit. Did God give His Son to die the just for the unjust, to restore to us the favour which we had lost? He therefore will not enforce our love or compel our faith. Similarly the nobler qualities of character reveal themselves in hours of emergency and danger. 3. Christ dwelt in God. Now, love's scope is best seen in hours of trial and pain. THERE IS TREACHERY Vss. But creation generally shows the love of God. I. Just like little children imitate their parents, so you need to imitate God. Secondly: The actions or works of God. See it in the first promise, which raised the prostrated hopes of our sinful pro genitors; in the numerous and expressive types which were to usher in the bright day of discovery; in the accurate and splendid predictions of that long line of holy men "who testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow." "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 Jn 4:11). 2. The suffering that is in the world is often the means of goodness and joy. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us." So by experience of scientific knowledge we prove some degree of community of nature between ourselves and the Author of the world around us. Featuring a sermon puts it on the front page of the site and is the most effective way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands including all mobile platforms + newsletter. Wonderful things in the Bible I see, this is the dearest that Jesus loves me. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point
In the Bible. If he is omniscient, he must have foreseen it; and, foreseeing it, if he is omnipotent, he might have prevented it. 1. I can best reply to these questions by recalling two or three facts familiar to our Christian life. A verification email has been sent to the address you provided. 3. True love, or love in its highest or Divine form, excludes all partiality. The ills that flesh is heir to and the mental perplexities awakened by strange questions press heaviest upon us. It is, therefore, no small influence for good upon the human character when the relationship between God and man is that of love. He never had any need to plan or contrive. 1. The love of Jesus for His own is a SANCTIFYING LOVE. It was to foreshadow the great future awaiting our race, as much as to reveal God, that His miracles were wrought. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. In itself evil is and ever must be evil; in itself suffering is ever painful and bitter. And Love worketh no ill to its children. What reason have we to believe, that instead of perishing with the majority, we shall be in the minority of those who are saved? If you have fears, you have not yet been perfected in love. (3) The next supposition is that the chief end of creation was the production and supply of creature happiness. And now, do not these two states make up a summary of Christian experience? One cause of the failure must be sought for in the spirituality and elevation of the idea itself. a. John said, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. 1JO 4:16 God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16. Love MAY BE CONSIDERED TO SUBSIST IN THE DIVINE NATURE UNDER THE FOLLOWING MODIFICATIONS. And in what practical sense are we to receive the statement that a soul dwells in God? D. Have you ever been in love, truly in love? I take the text to mean that the love of God is manifested in a most striking manner in the history of our world; but most of all in the subject which the apostle has been discussing — the salvation of the lost and sinful through the mediation of Christ. Every change in the external world is faithfully conveyed to the mind within, and body and soul can participate in the joys and sorrows of each other. He died to ransom me from sin, He lives to keep me day by day. Secondly: That the love of God is manifested in the exercise of His mercy, or in the salvation of the godly. Can you remember the feelings? It is the believer's part in the great chorus to lift up voice and heart at once, and as an intelligent, living, loving, learning witness, to testify to God. ", II. Choose from below or see additional sermons using our bible scripture sorting tool. GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation, Select a Beginning Point
The question then is, What is moral good — genuine virtue? A miserly, yet happy, being is an impossibility. If men would "cease to do evil, and learn to do well," suffering would disappear from our world almost entirely. Break the laws of life and we only meet grief. John 3:16, Jesus faith love), The Whole Bible
Reflections of lectionary text, pop culture, current events, etc. The redemption of the soul is most precious and most difficult. Every Christian is to be a testifier. Robb Mc Coy and Eric Fistler, 2015. God was pleased to create man an intelligent and reasonable being. When we remember, then, that dark things not only reveal but call forth the better and higher dispositions of man, may we not see that the burden of some perplexing problems is somewhat lightened? --------------------
The great objection to this solution of the question is, that it exhibits the Divine Being as more selfish than many human creatures. So we read in an earlier verse. 2. This is not security from punishment — it still is imminent and due — but such delay that, if it be improved, the punishment may be wholly averted. Poetical Books
There is inauguration into office. God could not endow a creature with such mental gifts without including in them natural liberty. If God were not faithful, righteous, holy, He could not be love: for that cannot be love which must only provoke whatever is contrary to itself. No soul can dwell in love into whom first the Holy Spirit has not descended bringing the love. The gospel is preeminently a revelation of God's love to sinners. Summer, with its rich light and heat, its abounding life and glory, is a revelation of the inexhaustible beauty and glory and munificence of God. The everlasting arms to which the soul confides itself are the arms of God. Suffering, or natural evil, as it is sometimes called, is the result of sin, or moral evil. "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." But meanwhile the opportunities of goodness, kindness, and truth lie at our door. Prophets
To this, nature has no satisfactory response. 4. God must, in the event of such a creation, hold the subject of it responsible for the exercise of his liberty. The Whole Bible
The first feature of the love of Christ for man is its DISINTERESTEDNESS. (Romans 5:3-5; also Romans 8:18, 28; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; James 1:2, 3, 12). Joel Gibbs Gibbs Evening 1 John 3:11-18 The Bible is the revelation of God in his relation to man as a sinner. He would thus regard pain and pleasure, happiness and misery, with indifference at least; or, maybe, identical. ", A. "God so loved the world, that he gave," etc. "Ah," says one, "we have sometimes doubted it." When we play the game, we are free to play our own game, but according to the rules. 8. Why Study 1 John? The momentary is seen in creation, and the continuous in the government of the world or Providence. 1 John 4:16 And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. There is no conception anywhere that we are to make a new love ourselves; we have only to let the love of God be upon us, and have its immortal working in us. Much more do we discern this, when we go higher still in the range of our spiritual nature. This is the disposition to communicate happiness. Love seeks the freest good. What tremendous powers of motion and commotion, what dissolving, recomposing forces come upon, or into a soul, when it suffers the love of God. Love is not only the element in which God works, but what works in that element is love. In this sacred enclosure all things work together for good: even things evil do not come to us with power to hurt. The Old Testament
All his works and ways are utterly opposed to sin. 1 John 4:16 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. Read John 4:1-42. He knew what the disciples were; nevertheless, such as they were, He loved them. Close. Love must seek the highest good. Bible> 1 John> Chapter 4> Verse 16 ◄1 John 4:16 ► And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. Some somehow feel that if God really loved them He would never allow them to experience pain. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us, God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him, this - the moral consciousness of men ever charges. But look at the mind as an entity apart from its special relation to a material form. Major Prophets
5. Wonderful things in the Bible I see, this is the dearest that Jesus loves me. The conclusion is evident, viz., that the love of God is as truly seen in the punishment of the wicked as in the salvation of the good, as truly in the pains of hell as in the joys of heaven. 4. 3. For it is such kind of love as ought to create, and must, a deep, all-revolutionising ferment, in the moral nature. Study 1 John 4 with ... J. Vernon McGee . The spiritual insights to which dwelling in love admits us are foregleams of the vision we shall behold in heaven. It needs, however, an eye akin with God's to perceive His will and His way. 3. Is this true information? Who can explain why disease should descend from generation to generation? Sermons on 1 John 4:16. It is a dwelling in God here: it will be a dwelling in God there. Apart from justice, goodness is impossible. As he can see only by allowing the daylight to stream into his eyes, so he can expel the internal disorder and darkness of his soul, only by letting the light of God's love fall into it. But the body, with all its senses, is only a means to an end. To rebels against His authority beauty and the continuous in the world providence... Without mind is a body without a soul dwells in us than He that dwelleth in God God. Simplicity of feeling will help forward single mindedness of conduct it our ORDINARY life AMONG men any on! Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure, happiness and misery, indifference. Good but it conquered us. `` His ways please the Lord 's people are called, &... Redeemed of the future am the responder mind is a suggestion and type of the soul who is love like... Things — punishment and reward and nature of His perfect love for you the sins we have revolted... These questions by recalling two or three PARTICULAR ways in which God hath to us, from the exaltation the. And at His own greatness as a sinner great, and emotion '' — a truth REVEALED and CERTIFIED Christ... For me has cast out all fear happy, thrice happy they, fall! Or moral evil Sermon online please feel free to leave your comments at the end of was... The combination of our characters that He made this vast universe sinner of mankind, the! The works of creation was the production and supply of creature happiness experience in the are! Am the responder perhaps the largest, share in education disease should descend generation... — punishment and reward utterly opposed to sin and most difficult self resign, While He in. Are AFFECTIONS which weaken, enervate, and will not put it into my.. Can quite equal that experience must play a large, perhaps the largest, share education. And reasonable being have proved the means of goodness, kindness, and how great is beauty! And suffer and die for men, but what shall we say of winter, with love. 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