All right, if you have your Bibles with you, please turn with me now to First John Chapter 4. If you don't have a Bible with you, we do have pew Bibles. Those are the black books there in the pews. You're welcome to use those. We're in the midst here in Haines Creek Church and the sermon series on the book of 1st John, we're actually continuing that today, so those of you who are visiting with us are jumping very much in the middle of something, but hopefully it will be a blessing to you nonetheless. So again, this is 1st John, not the Gospel of John, but further towards the back of the Bible, 1st John chapter 4. When you've found your place there, please stand with me for the reading of God's Word today. Let us pray. Oh God, we are your workmanship, as Paul said, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And so we pray now, may your spirit and word come into our hearts to shape us according to your will, that we might show forth your praise, oh God, not only with our lips, but also with the obedience of our lives. It is as a redeemed people in Christ. We pray this in the name of our Redeemer, amen. So our scripture reading today is 1 John chapter four, verse 19. And we'll continue to read on into chapter five, verse three. So 1 John four, beginning at verse 19. Listen now to the word of God. We love God because he first loved us. Someone says, I love God and hates his brother. Well, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves him, who begot, also loves him who is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. So Christmas is most definitely upon us, as I'm sure you're all aware. And by Christmas, I mean not so much the Christmas ideal of the idyllic Christmas card, but I mean the reality, this great conflicted monstrosity that is Christmas in the 21st century, and I say that with some affection for it. For all that is strange about our Decembers, We do still speak of the Christmas spirit here in America, and I think I felt that in the air. There's something like excitement, dancing about the fringes of all the holiday stress. For my part, I can't say that people really seem a lot more cheerful for Christmas sake so far. Some are even more ornery and aggressive than usual this time of year. But hopefully there are moments when the so-called magic of Christmas prevails with even these hard souls to make them a little merry and bright. But what is unmistakable in all the Christmas this year is the love out there. And I mean the love of Christmas itself. The love of Christmas lights and presents and festivities and the very, very faint hope of snow. People's love for these things is obvious and on display. But what I ask this morning is, what are the higher loves of human life? Is there any of that left in the American Christmas spirit? What of love for other people? And higher still, what of love for God? If you put the question to the average holiday shopper and say, I see that you love shopping, but do you love God? Few would say candidly that they do not love him, they hate him. Some would say that they didn't know whether they love God or not. But I think still the great majority of Americans rummaging through the clothes racks at Old Navy would answer, oh yes, I do love God at Christmas, even more than I love all these other things. And so, my question, saints, is what should we make of that? From our study of the Apostle John's First Epistle, make this observation today. As John is listening, he finds some things that people say more significant than other things that people say. In particular, when John hears a person say, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that is significant. Because a person who doesn't, who won't say that, is definitely not a Christian. For John, this is the essential Christian confession. that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And John, it seems, would have us embrace as Christian brothers any church members who confess this as their faith. But far less significant to John is hearing someone in this world say, I love God, even at Christmas. Because John knows that anyone can say that, and just about anyone will, whether they know what they're saying or mean it at all. Talk is cheaper than old navy merchandise in this case. And so the apostle requires something more if he's to take such a claim seriously. So what does John require? Well, this morning we learned that what the Apostle John wants to know is whether this person who claims to love God keeps God's commandments or not. And why is that important? Because among the many people in this world who will say that they love God, it's only those who keep his commandments who actually do. And that's the main point this morning. Among the many people in this world who will say that they love God, it is only those that keep his commandments who actually do. So, like you, these six verses from John's first epistle at first strike me as something of a word salad, as they say. More of a lovely apostolic rant than a straightforward argument. And even so, I think that the gist of John's teaching comes through. But what we're going to do is we're going to slow down here, consider each part of this passage in its place, and I think you'll find that it does make more than an impression, it actually makes good sense. A couple of warnings before we get into this. It will not do to get lazy midway and fall back on popular platitudes about love. So we're going to let John explain himself fully here before we say that we understand him. And then secondly, this is not a passage that resolves itself easily into the standard three-point sermon, so the outline for this lesson is somewhat complicated. But we'll get through it together, and then come back around to our thoughts about the Christmas spirit towards the end, and hopefully leave you, for your attention this morning, a little more merry and bright. So the first thing that John suggests about those who truly love God is that they know that God loved them first. Those who truly love God know that God loved them first. Or to say that more pointedly, they know that God loved them even when they didn't love God. Even when they hated him and were in rebellion against him. Verse 19. John says, we love him, that's God, because he first loved us. So I ask, who knows this? Who is it that knows this? And how do they know it? I answer, it's really only Christians who know this, and that only Christians have been to the cross where Jesus Christ died and seen with the eyes of faith God's love for them, not as lovers, but as sinners. The Apostle Paul articulates the Christian understanding of God's love this way when he says in Romans 5, 6 through 10 that Christ died for the ungodly and that God demonstrated his love towards us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so it is that Paul says when we were God's enemies, Yet He reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son. And so, pretty much everybody else in the world claiming to love God sees it the other way around. Whether they are subscribing to some other form of religion or just making up their own as they go, people are Sure, that it is they who first loved God and in this way earned God's love for them as approval and so forth. But the Christian uniquely knows that that's backwards because he sees the truth about God's love in Jesus Christ. And so it's he, the Christian alone, who would say, says John does here, yes, I do love God, But it's not I who first loved him, but he who first loves me. The second thing that John teaches about those who truly love God in this passage, then, is that they also love their brother. So those who truly love God know that God first loved them, and also they love their brother. And this is the point, really, around which John's rant revolves, verse 20. You look there, John says, if someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. So note that. A person can say, I love God, and be lying. And a liar is not to be believed. And if a person says that he loves God, and yet you can see that he hates his brother, then he is lying. He doesn't love God. And so that we derive this principle that among all the people in the world who say that they love God, it's only those who also love their brother who actually do. Now, why is this so? Why is it impossible that a person could sincerely love God and at the same time sincerely not love? Their brother hates the guy, especially if the brother is a sinner. So John gives us two reasons. First again, in verse 20, he asks this. He says, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? So that's interesting. John suggests that it's actually easier to love a fellow human being than it is to love God. for the reason that you can see a fellow human being, whereas you cannot see God. Now, you can argue with John about that if you like, but John's right. Think of it this way, which is easier to love, a piece of chocolate cake on a plate in front of you, or the suggestion of infinite spiritual chocolate cake, which you at the moment can neither see nor taste. You see his point. If you can't even rise to the level of loving this other human being like you in the pew next to you, then seriously, what makes you think that you've risen so much higher in your heart to love the invisible, incomprehensible, unreachable God? There's a second reason that John gives for why it's impossible that a person who does not love his brother could not love God. And of the two reasons, this is the one upon which John most dwells. I'm looking at verse 21. He says, and this commandment we have from God that he who loves God must love his brother also. All right, so here's the thing about love. Obviously, there are different kinds of love. Just as there are different kinds of things that are loved. And there's a particular kind of love that's proper to every particular kind of thing that we might love. So love for chocolate cake is different from love for your children. And love for your children is different from love for your country, et cetera. So what is the love that is proper to God? If we, whom he first loved in Christ, should begin to love him, what sort of love would that be? Should that be? And how would it most naturally express itself? And this, as I said, is where you have to lay aside the popular platitudes and the things that we've come to expect people to say when called upon to say something about loving God. All that sentimental driven. John ignores it, and we should too. So what we're shown in the Bible is that as Jesus taught John, so John taught the church. that the way true love for God is expressed in our lives is in obeying His commandments. That's not how you love chocolate cake or a child or Santa Claus, but it is how you love God if you truly know and love Him. Why? Because He's God. And as God, He is our King and our Heavenly Father. So love for God is tempered with reverence, and it burns with a desire to please him. And what does please him? What has God commanded of those who love him, of his loyal subjects and his adoring children? The answer is, as you love me, God would say, so love your brother also. If you revere me, if you desire to please me, if you love me as I have loved you, then you must love your brother also. That's my commandment. And if we do love him, then we will. Now the question becomes, and who is my brother? And again, don't answer until you've heard John's answer. We're moving now into chapter five. John says in verse one, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, so that would be Christians, right? Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten by him. So while there is something like the family of the human race, and all of us are descended from Adam and Eve, verse one tells us that John is not talking about the members of our species merely, our fellow homo sapiens. His scope here is narrower than that. John is talking specifically about the family of believers in Christ's church. He says, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, a child of God, born of God's Holy Spirit. It's a spiritual birth that John is speaking of here and only such as Christians have experienced. And so it is these born again believers and these only who are here considered as the beloved children of God. And John's point in verse one is that everyone, who truly loves God, who fathered all these spiritual children in his church, will also naturally love the children. For how could we love him but not his little ones, knowing how much he loves them, and that his spirit dwells in them, and that furthermore he has commanded us here in his house to love one another? So how can we not do that if we love him? Now, verse two seems backwards to me. And maybe I don't understand, but I expected to say at this point, by this, we know that we love God when we love the children of God and keep his command. Because that's the direction in which we've been reasoning to this point. But instead, John says, by this we know we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. So suddenly the reasoning is in the opposite direction. Perhaps, and that's as much as I can offer this morning, perhaps John is here emphasizing that God's commandment, which is what we're talking about, to love one another, includes how we are to love one another. So the idea is we only love them, our brothers and sisters in Christ, when we love God and do it His way. In other words, is it enough to merely like my brother, my Christian brother, and call him brother and wish him well? No, not according to God's command. That's not enough. So what is it to love my Christian brother in the way that God has commanded? Well, four things I'd mention, and all of them come from the writings of the Apostle John. First, as we're commanded, we're to love one another in deed and not just in word. In deed, in action, not just in word. 1 John 3, 17. Remember John said, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from Him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." So very clearly, fine-sounding sentiments are not enough. Your Christian brother needs real help sometimes, and if you really love him, then you'll help him. We are in our love for one another, Christians, to serve one another. So not just do nice and helpful things, but serve one another. That's the lesson that Jesus taught his disciples. Remember when he got down on the floor and washed their feet. John 13, 14, he said to them then, if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. So if I love you sincerely with Christ's love, then I will not see it as beneath me to serve you, even if you are, in a sense, beneath me in, say, social standing or education or even in spiritual maturity. It just doesn't matter. If the Lord washed our feet, surely we all can assume the role of servant and serve one another. John reminds us in chapter 13 of his gospel that Christ's love is humble, it's a stooping love, A good thing it is, otherwise we would all be in our sins. Thirdly, in serving one another then, we should be willing to make real sacrifices for those whom we love. Love not just in word, but in deed. Serving one another, even to the point of making sacrifices for one another. 1 John 3.16, John says, by this we know love because Christ laid down his life for us And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So that's sacrifice. So how far will love go in service in the Christian church? The standard is the cross, according to John. In desperate circumstances, trying to help someone in trouble can be costly, but real love doesn't slink away. And you see that in families, how a person, rather than running away from a brother in trouble, will run right into the trouble, which can be quite perilous, because he wants to save his brother if he can. Depending on the size of the trouble, that can be dangerous, but it's almost like love doesn't see and doesn't care. Like a father running into a burning building to save his children, couldn't live with himself if he didn't do all that he could. And then fourthly, we are not to regard God's commandment to love one another in this way, deed and service and sacrifice, we're not to regard it as a burden. That also is part of the commandment. Verse three, John says, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome, or it could be translated grievous. So because God is Lord of a body and soul, so his commandments address both body and soul. He's called us not only to an outward love, but an inward love. Not only to an outward service, but an inward service. He's not called us to just get on the floor and make sacrifices for one another begrudgingly, as if we were being treated unfairly, or as if this love part were the small print of Christianity that we resent, but rather God has called us to love one another cheerfully, to love loving one another, to see Christ's love in it, to see the Spirit's life in it, to know that it pleases our Father in heaven. Saints, we should consider it an honor to be so nobly engaged in the duties of Christian service, as we love one another the way God has commanded us. So remember that this morning. If you cannot love these people happily, as God has commanded without sulking and feeling sorry for yourself and letting everyone know what a burden it is, then you don't love these people as you should. And you're not as obedient as you think you are. You're still withholding something from God that you owe both to him and to them. And so you need to repent of that sin this morning as we come to the Lord's table together and here get more acquainted with Christ's joyous love for you. So in conclusion, whether we walk through 1 John 4, 19, through 5.3 together today, whether this has straightened things out for you or this passage still strikes you as sort of a confused rant. I think you get the apostle's point. His point is that among the many people in this world who will say that they love God, it's only those who keep his commandments who actually do. That's not Jeff Morgan's teaching, that's the Apostle John's teaching. And what are God's commandments? John summarizes his own teaching nicely in 1 John 3.23, where he says this, quote, and this is God's commandment, that we should believe on the name of Jesus Christ, his son, and love one another as he gave us commandment. That's what the Father wants of you, his children. So, as we wrap it up here, we're gonna bring it back around to Christmas, this Christmas Eve, after all. By the way, tonight I'll be preaching, let's say, a proper Christmas sermon on Mary's son as the Prince of Peace. That service begins at 5 p.m. Lots of wonderful music, sugary cookies afterwards, the whole deal, so I hope you can make it. But those of you who have known me for a while know that I have a complicated relationship with Christmas. And again, I mean the 21st century American thing, not the ideal. I can't wholeheartedly embrace it, but neither can I reject it altogether. So I keep it, albeit somewhat awkwardly. But among other things in its favor, whether I like it or not, I have to admit that America's enduring fondness for Christmas makes this holiday the most significant evangelical event in the year. Even more than our regular Sunday worship services, which very few people attend anymore, who are not already convinced Christians. But when December rolls around, The nativity scenes, they come out again, the old Christmas hymns are played, they're wonderful, and there he is, Christ the Babe, Christ the Savior, worshipped and adored. It is something, and I'm thankful for that. But this morning, as Christians, let's be clear, let's not be confused about this holiday that believers and unbelievers seem to celebrate alike. If there is such a thing as the Christmas spirit, then surely it's not just holiday cheer, but the spirit of Christ himself, right? What else would it be? And what is the spirit of God's son, Mary's child, the one whom the Magi sought, bearing gifts worthy of a king? It is, as we've heard today, for us. God's love for us as sinners and God's love for us as his people. And that's what then must be with us and in us and among us if we are to be said truly to have the Christmas spirit this holiday season. Not just the love of Christmas itself, sometimes pagans out before perform us there. And not just saying that we love God at Christmas, which anyone can say and lots of people do, but let us be happily loving and serving those whom God loves and those for whom Jesus died. Let us get up on Christmas morning excited to do that. And then I'd say, you have the true Christmas spirit. That's a fitting Christmas charge, I think, if John were in charge of the holiday. Let us be loving one another, always, brethren, and in God's ways. Here in Christ's church, especially, where all believe in him and worship and adore him, where all are, as John has said, begotten of God, his beloved children. Let his Holy Spirit be with us and in us, and then in brotherly love may we say truly as Christians that we embody the Christmas spirit, keeping this holiday both merry and bright in this, that we keep the commandments of God. whom we love. Shall we pray?