1-3 John - 1st John 4:14-16 Redeeming Love - part 2
1 John 4:14-16 · Roger Henderson · Aug 14, 2011
1, 2 & 3 John, No. 33
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926243332212

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This is kind of the outline for Chapter 4. We're down about the middle. If you notice, this is the love section of Chapter 4. Actually, starting at verse 7, through the end of the chapter, John talks about God's love, and how we're related to His love. So it's really a pretty amazing section. I was listening a couple of weeks ago, and it's just incredible. The verses are so incredible. There's a lot here and so we'll touch on part of it. I'd like to actually get someone to read starting in verse 7. So we read 7 through 16 in 1 John. Chapter 4, 7 through 16. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love, does not know God, is loved.

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 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 is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. Thanks Winnie, that's great.

Okay, so we're going to look at these three verses today. And actually, I've underlined, you know, there's just a bunch of really interesting words that we're going to look at. The idea that, and John's talking here, we have seen, we testify, and then he talks about confession, agreeing with God. Then he goes into verse 16, we know and have believed. and then abiding in God's love. So I thought these were kind of key words in the whole passage. And we're going to look at probably each one of those. Some things to kind of point out here just before we get into it. You'll notice a couple places, like in verse 14, some words have been added. They're in italics.

To be. So it actually reads, so we have seen and testified the Father has sent the Son, the Savior of the world. So that to be, And actually I think there's probably a better translation, he was sent as the Savior, not to be the Savior. He didn't have to... work up to becoming the Savior. He wants the Savior. In the eternity past, that agreement was made between the Father and God the Son. Some of the translators picked up on that. A to be has been added. It's not in the original.

And then down a little farther, we're going to see that down in verse 16, we have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. That word for is actually the word in the Greek. Is it the word for in? So it's actually probably better translated, the love which God has in us, which is really pretty powerful. I mean, that's really having for us to say, well, I might get a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow. Well, this is the love that God, he has in us. We have the very life of Christ. So that's a couple of little words there really can make a tremendous difference.

And we're going to amplify on that as we start into this. But before we start, I felt it was This is a chart that Hal Malloy put together back in the mid-90s. And we're going to see a couple of tenses that are probably important to kind of contrast. So I wanted to just kind of start off. We're going to look at the present tense. It's pretty straightforward. We're going to see it in our passage.

We're going to see God is love. So in the Greek context, that's in the present tense, in the time of the writing of scripture. God is love. Well, he wasn't just love in the time of scripture, he continues to be love. So hence, in the Greek there's kind of two aspects. There's a kind of action of the verb and there's a time of action. So for the present tense, it's present time right now, and in this case, God is love. He continues to be love. In fact, He will never cease from being love, right? If He was love in the eternity past, He'll be love in the eternity future. That's the attribute of God, and we're going to look at that in some detail later on.

So we're going to come across, Tom? Well, it seems like Yogi Berra would have a tough time in the Greek past, because if anybody ever asked him what time it was, he'd have to say, you mean now? okay all right all right interesting okay so so present you know don't forget in the present it has the idea he's given previously in nine and ten well what's a big and actually Jim did this one what's a big fat word theological word Jim talked about So he was sent to be the officiation for our sins, the satisfaction. The other one is that we might live through him, might have life. So some of the purposes for God sending his only begotten son were already, we talked about them earlier in verses 110.

OK? So Savior is this rule, sepere, Savior, deliverer. And world is, in this context, I believe, is the cosmos is the human race and mankind. So there's some verses that what I kind of found as I looked through this idea of savior of the world actually was a term that was used of Roman emperors. They claimed to be, quote, savior of the world. So when Christ came along, actually, when I was reading this one little commentary, it said, that was shocking. Here you are. There's a new savior of the world. This earthly savior, this Roman guy, He's not Savior of the world. The true Savior of the world is the Lord Jesus.

And they would point out how that's why Christians were so despised by Rome, so hated by Rome. So I thought that was kind of interesting to recite like that. Yes. So was that a title? Apparently, it was a title. In Greek words, I don't have them in my head. Well, it's cosmos. Basically, it's soter. And there's only one word in between. What other words are there? Savior. Savior. Cosmos. So that's a title given to some Roman inference. So were both those words combined together? Were both those words combined together or just savior? Was it savior of the world? No, it was three Greek words. It was two Greek words.

So terre, cosmos, and there's another small article. Thee, of thee. Some of them in Greek. Some of them are already You know, the words come kind of tightly packed, so to speak. They bring along their, sometimes they have that mark, sometimes they're not. It really depends. I haven't actually looked, but another small Greek word, soter, question mark, cosmos. That's what they call the embers.

Is that what it is? Okay, so let's just look, there's plenty of these verses here that kind of capture some of this. Let's look at, let's look at John. John 4.42, Gospel of John chapter 4. And said unto the woman, Now I believe, not because of thy saying, but we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. So that's kind of cool, this is when we're going back, we see the right context.

The Samaritans were still part of the Roman Empire. But apparently they really weren't that beholden to the savior of the world business. They were ready to change their mind at the first concrete instance. Here's where the truth is. It ain't Caesar.

Well, I like it here. And actually, with that little piece of information about the culture, you take this word indeed, well, that brings a lot more across. Was it he's indeed? So you may have thought, well, Rome claims to be savior of the world. Well, wait a minute. This guy specified he's indeed the savior of the world. He's human people, and I don't think so. So I think that's kind of it. And then a couple of other verses talk about the savior of the body.

And then let's look at 1 Timothy 4.10. And for this we labor and strive, that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the savior of all humans, especially those who believe. OK, so here's a question. It has a little phrase. Savior of all mankind. And especially believers. So what's that about? How do you doctrinally put that together, right? I don't think it's a hard question, but some people might find that. What's going on here?

How can we especially get believers? Christ died for the whole world, but why do the believers have to get that? Exactly. She said basically that Christ died for the sins of the entire world, So Sims, actually more precisely, he paid the price for it.

But does that help an unbeliever? Does that help him? Only in the present time, because by the influence of Christians around him, he may get some of the temporal benefits of living under the influence of Christians nearby, even though he hasn't integrated Christ into his life. All right, so an unbeliever has not trusted what Christ has done for him, paid for his sins. So the fact that his sins are paid for, it's like having your bank account paid for, and you go around living as if you were in debt. The person that has available Christ has already concluded that work, and all this payment for his sins is available, but before he accepts it, he doesn't benefit.

That last part is great. Savior of all mankind, especially of believers. All right. So now on to verse 15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God. So now what I'm going to say, this is very, very characteristic as we run through this section on love. John will make a statement. As has been pointed out before, he makes summary statements. He doesn't give you all the details. OK? Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, he and God. So that's just the first part.

Whoever confesses, and this is this word homo legeo, they speak the same thing. Can you think of a place in first John, what's the first place in first John this word was used? So basically, in 1 John 1, 9, it says, if we confess our sins, we say the same thing. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So it's not agreeing with God. It's agreeing with God about our sins. So that's a first grace. So this is talking about agreeing with God about another aspect, that Jesus is the son of God. We agree with God about that truth about him. And he's going to equate that. That's going to be, as we've covered before, he's going to equate that and say, well, I don't see the gospel in here. I see that that talks about maybe the deity of Christ, but I don't see the gospel in here. And it goes on that God abides in him, and he and God, it seems like he's bleeding out some information.

But John is talking that he's very One-liners, I mean, he assumes you can fill in the details. He's certain you can do that. Because based upon that, you say, well, all right. God advises him, and hey, God, that's a believer in your fellowship with him.

And we've seen that before. He'll make a statement about that, and he doesn't really fill the details in. OK, let's see. What else here? Let's go back to 2.23. So this kind of contrasts confession with something else. Whoever denies the son does not have a father. The one who confesses his son has a father also. So here we are. Another comparison between confessing, agreeing with God, or denying it. And he basically doesn't give any details. These are two camps here. Denying a voice is confessing.

Agreeing with God, and that would, you know, if this comes up, it would be a believer who agrees with God. Denying Him would not be a believer. Just a point of clarification here. I think there's some of those that when the word confesses comes out, You can build a theology on that, as far as how salvation is obtained through confession.

Can you just kind of clarify how that confession works? Because some would say we need a verbal confession in order to... So, is this a verbal confession, or is this an acknowledgment that could be even mentally confessed? I would, you know, in Romans it talks about confessing with your mouth. I would take this He doesn't talk about what has to be verbally, I guess, without having gone through and compared all those aspects.

I know you can often hang a lot on confession. They say, well, you really can't know you believe that you're a believer until you confess with your mouth. And scripture basically talks about faith and faith alone over 100 times. It talks about the requirement that God has of faith, or trust, or belief in what Christ has done for you. That's the focus of scripture over a hundred times. The confession part is evidence of that, but I don't want to hang it as another aspect. I'm going to have faith plus. And that's a danger. I don't want to have faith plus.

Well, more broadly, that's what James is talking about. Words are the evidence of faith, but so many people take that way. If you have faith, you're going to have work. So they focus simply on the work side. And they kind of work backwards. Well, the works aren't there, so the faith must not be there. You haven't confessed with your mouth, so the believing in the heart must not be there.

And certainly it is true that if we have that faith, if we confess in our heart and agree with God, it's going to exhibit itself outwardly. I mean, it's like you say, the Bible's emphasis seems to be on that belief, the internal man, not simply focusing on the external man. The human tendency is to work the opposite way. Right. A man wants to see evidence in the flesh, but his God lives upon the heart. So I think that faith in the facts of what Christ is known for, faith in the confession, may come publicly, I mean, he talks about that as evidence.

But to add that as a requirement, I don't think. But what's interesting is John, you said, well, John kind of blacklisted this guy a little bit. He just gives these one-liners. And he says, OK, confess that Jesus is the son of God. And he talks about an aspect of a believer's relationship with God. So that's what makes John's very challenging, because he He doesn't give you the whole story. He doesn't produce you to be somebody's savior.

I think what you said is so good because in this context, I mean you mentioned over a hundred times it's faith in Christ. But John says, well since you have faith in Christ, of course you're going to confess. That's what you do. That's how it works. Exactly. That's a natural outcome of a believer, who he is. But he doesn't tell you that, so that's where you get confused. That's right.

In this verse and others, we see other systems build an entire requirement for faith and we just have to be careful and that's helpful. It seems to me that if we say that a person has to confess out loud, verbally, then isn't that kind of like putting a boundary around what the Holy Spirit can do? Like, say somebody is a deathbed and we don't know. whether they accept Christ before they die or not. Or you have someone that lives in a situation where if they actually let it be known that they were believing it, they would have dire consequences on themselves or their family or whatever.

And so they don't say anything. And so then do we say, well, because they haven't told anyone, the Holy Spirit hasn't really saved them. Right, right. Or what if you can't speak? Exactly. Or what if they're Well, me and her face, we were not at that point where they'd actually believe.

But I had the privilege of talking to this guy who was dying of cancer. He was a friend of the Lord for over 20 years, 30 years, actually. To my knowledge, he never really heard the gospel. Well, the Lord and another believer went to his house and got a chance to present the gospel to him. After we did, he said, I never heard that before. And we were astonished, but he never And then within two weeks, he died. So we were left, from the human perspective, not knowing, well, what does that mean? I never heard this before. Does that mean that? So I don't know. So we were left with exactly that.

I don't know whether this man, maybe he accepted the Lord after hearing that. But he heard it. And so I had to trust the Lord that he was faithful. I wasn't there to hear him say, yeah, well, actually, I heard that. And I really believe what you said. He never said that. And went to his grave. But I never knew that. So that's interesting. I think scripture is extremely consistent.

When you look at works, or loving one another, or confessing, you cannot do those things unless your source is God. And if you're trying to manufacture those things out of your human nature, you can't. It won't happen. If your source is not God, if you're not in Christ, those things don't happen. So there's no way you can try and make it happen.

Excellent. So the statement is that Jesus is the Son of God. So there's just a pun. What's interesting here is that, in the interest of time here, And let's see, the first is down here. In John 11.27, this is Martha's confession. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God. And then what's interesting, at the end of the Gospel of John, that's John 20, 30, 31, at the end of the Epistle of John, the first John, there's a confession in a sense here about who the Son of God is. portion of that. In John 20, 30 and 31, this is the last part, it says, For these have been written to you that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing him may have life in his name. So that's the purpose of the Gospel of John. And then we want to find 1 John, is assurance.

It says, in 1 John 5.13, it says, These are written to you who believe. So you already believe it. These are written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know what you have in store.

So John is all about knowing what you have, assurance of what you have. You learned about the Lord Jesus, and you came to faith, in a sense, in the gospel of John. Now, in the letter of John, he wants you to know what you have. He wants you to have assurance of that. And you can testify of that, proclaim it. It's really cool, and it's all centered around who Christ is, and Jesus is the Son of God.

Roger? Yes. You know, I think it was a few years ago we talked about the Son of the Devil and the Son of God, and it was meant to indicate one's character. You know, you're the Son of the Devil, you're the Son of God. And in this sense, is there any question of whether you're saying literally Son of, or it's the nature of God? in chapter 3? Well, maybe it was one or two weeks ago. You were the son of the devil. This means literally. It means whether you're of the devil or of God. And I'm just wondering sometimes when they say son of, does it indicate that it can be meant either way? I would think in this case, this is literally He's deity. He's claiming to be God. He's claiming to be God and he's God's son. And this is a statement of who Christ is and he's deity.

It seems like sometimes it says we're all sons of God. I mean believers are. So it doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal to be a son of God if everyone that's saved is a son of God. Well, it seems like in this context he's saying Jesus is the son of God. But when we're referred to as the Son of God, it means that we're like in character to him. It doesn't mean that we are his actual son or daughter. So in this context, he's saying that Jesus is the Son of God. He's not just like in character to God. And the key there is the difference between a Son of God and the Son of God. Yeah, that's a good one. He is the Son of God. A quick thought here, too. Something about it being a title of deity. And I bring this up, I brought up the confession thing because it's a roadblock to be aware of, and I also bring up this one as another roadblock.

There are those that hang their entire content of faith on a verse like this, and saying that a person need only acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, who called the Crossless Gospel because someone believes that Jesus is the Son of God, but then they miss out on what the history of that title means.

So if you confess that Jesus is the Son of God right here, right now, not knowing what the history of the Son of God is or what that title means, you can still be saved. And there's a lot of erroneous theology being built on this verse and verses like it. But what John does, and you've taught us this, is that John expects that you already know what Son of God means. So it's not that you just confess that he's the Son of God and you're done, you're saved.

Yes, that's the case, but you need the seedbed of truth that... He assumes you've already read the gospel. That's right. And you've come to faith in him. And now he wants to assure you. That's right. And that's what's really cool. To study 1 John properly, you've got to have the gospel right inside of you. You've got to say, This is what I know from the gospel, and now I'm going to carry this over.

What is his goal? His goal is to assure you and give you confidence that what you believe here is true. And what you could say is that the gospel, John, in a large extent is like the Last, like the moon shot, you're getting above the atmosphere, but you're still vaguely under its influence until you get that final boost that puts you into a growth pattern to get into outer space and on the way to the moon. In other words, you don't need the boosters and you're still in danger of getting back into a lost system or going back to Earth.

You need to get past that. And to do that, well, then that's why he had the Gospel of John and the letter. I just read that. The reason is so that you may know that you have eternal life. Oh, when you came to, you accepted eternal life, now that you, the first time is that you know that you have eternal life. So you want to have that confidence, that assurance. And that's what he's, so he starts off, and what was mentioned, a person, a believer would confess that. And so he would have that total assurance.

I think it's important to understand confession in the context of the Scripture. We're agreeing with what the Scripture reveals. I mean, that's what you said, you have to have the Gospels there. Confession isn't separate from the God of the Bible. I mean, like Jim said, there are plenty of people that believe in God, but it's not anything close to the God as revealed in Scripture. Plenty of people, you're foolish to not believe in Jesus, not believe that He lived and existed. But if your belief is not in the Jesus as revealed in scripture, as the Son of God, and like you said, everything that goes with that, it's not the confession that John is talking about. We can't separate that from what scripture reveals and the truth of scripture.

That's really good. So the assumption here is you know who the Son of God is. In fact, you know it. When you confess it, you know you're agreeing. And then that says that you're in fellowship with him. And you're going to God as in him and you in him, the duality statement. So let's only have a little time. Let's just talk about this duality statement here.

God abides in him. And he abides, as implied in Greek, and he abides in God. So that phraseology, the first point, I'm not sure it's Maybe somebody else. But the first place I remember is back in the Gospel of John, when Christ said this. He says, abide in me, and I in you. The fruit and the vine, that's where that kind of duality, that's one of the most significant places. It talks about the vine and the branches as abide in me, and I in you. And then John kind of carries it over, and he mentions it here three times. He mentioned it back in an earlier verse. He's going to mention it in 15, and then 16.

This intimacy, this abiding in him, And he abides in you. His abiding in you already has happened. His abiding is unconditional. Our abiding is conditional. We may abide or we may not abide. So his desire is us to have this wonderful fellowship with him. And I have some pen. So abide is male. Remain is well. To be at home, to have a fellowship with the Lord.

It's here at the end of this verse, and it's at the end of 16. And then there's some verses that talk about that. And I think there's some time. So let's look at 16. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. So now he's going to talk about knowing the love which God has for us. He's already talked about in previous verses that the source of love is in God. It's a God-made love. is sourced in God. It comes out of God.

And now in what she says, we have come to know and believed. And both of these are in the present tense. So this is, he's talking about, this is something that is an ongoing continuity. We have come to know and have believed. And that's an ongoing action. We have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. You mean perfect tense, right? No. I'm sorry. Yeah, okay, okay, I'm sorry. To be perfect and present and not going crazy. I thought, absolutely right.

Actually, that makes a lot more sense than you think about it, because there's a point in time that you come to know him and believe him, but that just doesn't stop, right? And the Christian life is, I believe, one point. Done deal. I just give him my card, you know, the pearly gates, so to speak. I give him my card, and I'm like, hey, sit back on 27, whatever. I don't believe, no. It's a life. So perfect makes a lot more sense. I apologize. OK.

And actually, the verse here in John 6, 69 talks about that you are the holy one of God. You can't believe, and I come to know that you are the holy one of God. So let's just talk. to know and believe the love which God has for us. And what's interesting is that word for is actually the word in. I mentioned this previously. It's in.

So it's better translated, the love which God has in us or as to us. And there's just a bunch of verses that talk about the love which God, I'll just read a few here. In John 5, 542, the love of God is in yourself In 1423, my father will love him, the believer, and come to him, and make our abode with him. And in John 1726, so that the love that you, the father, love me, Christ, may be in them, and I in them. So we have God's love in us, and we have the Savior in us. It's incredible.

And you could argue the reason we have love him because we have the very life of Christ, which would be his love. And there's the verses I just talked about. OK, so then the statement, which is kind of whiz, God is love. This is going to talk about his attributes, which this is also in verse 8, we had that earlier.

Love is an essential quality of God. It's one of his attributes. So there's, and this is a listing that Hal put together, holy, infinite, self-existent, love, There are different, you know, you look at different arrangements, you can arrange these differently. This is one arrangement. So love is one of, it's who God is.

He is love in his very nature. And it's expressed in his grace and mercy. The one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. So actually, this is a prepositional subject to a representational phrase. In other words, the one abiding in love. So the one abiding in love. So he's in fellowship with the Lord, abides in God, and God abides in him. So abiding in God's love. Once again, he's talking about a believer here. Abiding in God's love, and abiding in God, and God abides in him.

And then lastly, this is Elyse's translation. And let me just read through it here. And he tries to bring out all the Greek tenses here. And as for us, we have deliberately and steadfastly contemplated. That's the theater word, right? Deliberately and steadfastly contemplated.

And we are testifying with the Father and sent off the Son as Savior. Notice he puts as in there. As Savior of the world. Whoever agrees or says the same thing, I'm obligated, over this statement that Jesus is the son of God, God in him dwells, and he himself in God.

Number 16. As for us, one more point. All these as for us, the we there is this intensive we. I didn't even mention that. Listen here. This is something that we as believers have. As for us, we know experientially in love, which God has in our case, and have that knowledge at the present time. We have believed and at the present we maintain that attitude.

God is, as to his nature, love. And he who dwells in the aforementioned love, in God, is dwelling, and God is in him dwelling. I read something by Uist, he said that love isn't just something that God gives to us, it's his very nature. And in verse 16, love and God seem synonymous. Exactly.

If we have the very life of Christ, it's Christ in us, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but not I, but Christ lives in me. If Christ is living in you, that his love will be manifested. And that love will be shown out for you. And that's Christ's love, not our love. Love and Christ are synonymous. That's like if you take 1 Corinthians 13, you put Christ's love in there. Christ's love is kind. rather than just love.

Because love, you think, well, maybe I can do it. Maybe I can really be super good at theta. But Christ's love in there, that really, I think, emphasizes that passage even more. It amplifies it even more. But Christ's love in place of all those love. Three last things? Or? OK. Well, let's do this.

We thank you, Father. Thank you so much for our Savior. Thank you for all of his accomplishments. Thank you, please. marvelous passages speak about your love as we abide in love as we abide in our Savior as we by faith trust him walk with him and have this marvelous fellowship