If you would turn your Bibles with me to 1 John chapter four. We'll take as our text this morning, 1 John four verses seven through 19. Hear the word of the Lord. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved 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 ever seen God. 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. And we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son to be the savior the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence in for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. In an article on corporate worship, R.B. Kuyper once asked, what greater joy God's people than that afforded by communion with God." And he went on to suggest that communion with God is what makes heaven heaven, and therefore whatever communion we enjoy with him now is a foretaste of heavenly bliss. But it isn't only our joy that's at stake in this. In chapter 2, paragraph 3 of our confession, our communion with God is mentioned in connection with our comfortable dependence on Him. Comfort is used in an older sense there, as I know you well know, not just of consolation in affliction or grief, but of a more general assistance and encouragement as a source of support or strength. And we need such strength and support. We're dependent on it, as the language of the Confession suggests. And perhaps more so as ministers of the gospel, for who is sufficient for these things? And we will have it as we hold communion with God. This is an immensely practical topic for us. And by that I mean that we have such a need as ministers to have communion with God if we neglect this vital walking with Him in fellowship with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we will be ill-prepared for the challenges that we face in ministry. But notice, though, that in the confession, the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him is said to be the doctrine of the Trinity. In other words, Trinitarian confession makes possible Trinitarian communion. And it is particularly in communion with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we find this heavenly joy and this earthly support that we as ministers of the gospel need so desperately in our ministry. So how do we have communion with God? And what is it? In his book on communion with God, John Owens suggests that our communion with God is comprised in actions. that God communicates himself to us and communicates other good things to us, and we receive and respond to these gifts, and herein lies our communion with God. But here's where things begin to get complicated. And I thought at first whenever I was asked to give these devotionals, Sure, this is gonna be easy, a cakewalk, thanks AC. Nathan's the one that's got the hard job tonight. But I realize that in some ways Trinitarian devotion is as vexing as Trinitarian dogmatics. To wrestle through these issues theologically, how can we relate? to the three persons of the Trinity distinctly, when strictly speaking, they don't relate to us in a distinct, but rather in a unified manner. It's one thing to think of our relationship with God just considered in a general way, but to have a distinct fellowship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit's more difficult than one might imagine. We say that the external operations of the Trinity are inseparable. So for example, everything that God the Father does in relation to us, is at the same time and to the same extent a work of the Son and of the Spirit. The only absolute distinctions between the persons exist within the Trinity in the personal relations which define them. So for example, generation, inspiration and so forth. And these are helpful for constructing our theology. And I'm not saying that you can't be moved and find immense practical value in considering the internal operations of God and his personal relationship, because certainly you can, but they don't give us much to go on in terms of our experiential communion with the Trinity of persons ourself. So it's a little abstract to think of what makes God the Father distinct, for example, is his unbegottenness. And so sort of good luck relating to God on that basis without some further teaching. Well, John Owen touches on this dilemma briefly and I was also helped by the discussion of the doctrine of appropriations in Richard Muller's post-reformation reform dogmatics and Glenn Butner's recent book, Trinitarian Dogmatics, an excellent book that I would commend to you. But the consensus among all of these theologians is to argue that within the inseparable operations, it is fitting to attribute certain of God's works towards us to one or other of the persons of the Trinity on whom that action terminates. And when we speak of the works of God toward us, or his relation to us in this way, there are three things here that we're doing. One is that we're following the lead of Scripture, which everywhere connects the outward and external works of God to distinct persons within the Trinity. Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that in doing this, we're not speaking, nor does Scripture speak, in a strict or absolute way, but in an accommodated way. But that's helpful to us because the third thing is that by this accommodation we are better able to relate to the persons of the Trinity on a more concrete basis since these appropriated works imperfectly but really manifest the personal distinctions that exist within God. We might know him as he is in himself better. It would be too much beyond the scope of these devotional messages to spend really any more time on this, and I already have, but I do hope that thinking about this this morning has been suggestive to you so that if you aren't already familiar with this theological difficulty, that you might profit from a closer study of these things. What I think will be most helpful for us now, though, is to reflect devotionally on one of the works of God, that is appropriated to the Father, which manifests the Father to us so that we can better walk with Him in fellowship and in communion with God the Father, and that is His love. And this is what John Owen argues in his book, Communion with God, is that the love of God is the matter in which we walk with the Father in communion with Him. And I disagree with John Owen at first, a little foolishly. I thought it sounded a little arbitrary. Doesn't the Bible speak of the love of the son also? And of course that's true, but in, again, doing the spade work of thinking through this theological difficulty, it helped me to see that God has graciously manifest his love in connection with the father so that we might know him as father more deeply. As the unbegotten one, it is fitting to consider the father as the source and to view the treasury of grace that we have in Christ as coming to us ultimately from the love of the Father. It is the love of God the Father which serves as the motive for all of the blessings which we have in the gospel. And so I wanna look at 1 John 4 7-19 this morning and let's reflect on six aspects of the love of God the Father. so that we might walk with Him and communion with Him, hold communion with God the Father in love by understanding His love better. The first aspect of this love is that it is a received love. Look with me at verse seven. Here John says, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And this theme of love finding its origin, its source in God, something that is not first of all offered to God, but it is received from God is a theme of this passage. We see it woven throughout. So for example, in verse nine, John speaks of the love of God. In verse 10, most clearly, John says, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. And then in verse 19, concluding our section, we love because He first loved us. So brothers, the foundation of your communion with the Father is not your love for Him. Such an important point. And praise God that it's not our love for God that is the foundation or the basis of our communion with Him. Our love is not sufficient. nor is it consistent enough to support the weight of this fellowship. And if our love were the basis, that foundation would soon crack up and erode away. The communion with the Father consists in, first of all, receiving the love that he has for us, a perfect, eternal, free, unchangeable, and most tender love. which is the foundation and starting point of our communion. So as you think about this, and I wanna conclude this morning by giving some practical guidance on walking with God in this, but first of all, we need to just recognize, we need to acknowledge, know, learn the love that God has for us that will serve as the basis for our communion. And it is a love that is received. Not only is it a received love, it is a rich love. In verses nine and 10, John says that He sent His only Son. Verse nine, in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only Son into the world. And again in verse 10, that He loved us and sent His Son. This love which the Father has for us spares no expense, but rather cost Him dearly. the sending of the Son, the giving, and the sacrifice of Him for our sake. The way that we normally evaluate things, we will say that the value of something is what someone will pay for it. And that would be a bad logic to bring that sort of thinking into our salvation, to assume from the cost that somehow we have an intrinsic value and worth that's great, that it actually speaks to something great in us, but rather It says nothing really about our intrinsic value, as one might assume, but says much about the quality of the Father's love for us. It is a rich love. Third, it is a reviving love. In verse 9, John says, in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. I will say, and I know that many of you, perhaps all of you who are married could echo the sentiment that the love of my wife has made an incalculable difference in my life. And I'm not just saying that because maybe she'll listen to this later. I don't think she will. She might. I couldn't even begin to describe how I've benefited from her love or what her love has brought me through, how it has changed me. And the best love will do that. And the love of the Father stands in a class all its own. It has made the greatest difference in the lives of those it touches because it has brought us from death to life. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter 2, Paul speaks of this exact thing, a work of God in us that finds as its source, it springs from God's love and it results in our life. Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 5, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Dead. Verse four, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, and I think he's talking about the Father here because this is in distinction with Christ, who's mentioned later in this verse, or in the next, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. The life we now enjoy as believers springs from the vital source of the Father's love. Fourth, it is a redeeming love. In verses 10 and 14, in describing what the Son has come to do, what the Father has sent the Son to do, it is to be the propitiation for our sins, verse 10. It is to be, verse 14, the Savior of the world. The Son did not act according to His own will at odds with a merciless Father, as is sometimes wrongly suggested. But the Son came to fulfill the loving purpose of the Father, to put away our sin. We, sinners by birth and by choice, alienated from the life of God, we have been forgiven and cleansed, reconciled, redeemed. And it was the love of the Father which did this by means of the person and work of the Son. It is a redeeming love. Fifthly, this is a relational love. 16, look with me at verse 16. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love. This is not an essential statement because we're talking about one of the persons of God here. This is God the Father. The Son is mentioned in this context. We're not talking about the nature of God, It's talking about the way in which the Father is manifest to us as love. God is love. The Father is manifested to us by the love of God, by this relation of God toward us. And then John says, whoever abides in love. Whoever receives the love of the Father and has experienced this love abides in God and God abides in him. He enters into a relationship characterized by intimacy and mutuality. And what an incredible thought that the love of God has as its goal familiarity and relational closeness. And we can imagine, we can imagine a God who might have pity for us and bless us in all kinds of ways, but not desire to have a relationship with us. That might be too much. We can understand, if we know ourselves well, why he might wanna bless us from a distance. Might wanna be an anonymous donor of grace, so to speak. But as we know, in fact, he has desire to adopt us. He has adopted us. So that we cry out, Abba, Father, he draws us near. Sixthly, this is a reassuring love. Verses 17 and 18. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Confidence. This love is such that it inspires sureness, confidence in us in the face of judgment and the uncertainty of standing before God on that day, but we have a boldness before him. because of his love, because as he is, so also are we in this world. Verse 18, there is no fear in love. The perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. No fear in love. The love which is the basis of our communion with the Father is irrevocable and sure. And so as we just reflect on the character and the quality of the love of the Father, how sweet is this love? And this is the basis of our relationship to Him. I wanna conclude this morning with a few practical marks. I'm just gonna rip them off straight from John Owen. Jerry, you encouraged me to use John Owen, so I'm gonna use him quite a bit here. Three practical suggestions here. Number one, In light of the love that the Father has for us, John Owen says, I, the Father, I, the Father, am as love. Look not on Him as always glowering, as an always glowering Father, but as one most kind and tender. Let us look on Him by faith as one that has had thoughts of kindness toward us. So first it begins with, what we've just done, to reflect on this love so that we have the proper, the biblical conception of the love of the Father to us. We hold that thought in our mind's eye. Two, Owen says, so I it as to receive it. Unless this be added, all is in vain as to any communion with God. We do not hold communion with Him in anything until it be received by faith. This is a long quote, but it's really good. So, this then is that which I would provoke the saints of God unto, even to believe this love of God for themselves and their own part. Believe that such is the heart of the Father toward them, except of his witness. His love is not ours in the sweetness of it until it be so received. Continually then, continually then act thoughts of faith on God as love to you, as embracing you with an eternal free love. When the Lord is by his word presented as such unto you this morning, let your mind know it, and assent that it is so, and your will embrace it in its being so. And all your affections be filled with it, set your whole heart to it, let it be bound Let your heart be bound with the cords of this love. So there needs to be a looking to it, but also a receiving it by faith with our whole heart. And then finally, let it have its proper fruit and efficacy upon your heart. Because community is not just receiving, it is a receiving to us, himself and other blessings, and then a response to them. And so we make some return of love to him again. And John Owen concludes, he says, so shall we walk in the light of God's countenance and hold holy communion with our Father all the day long. Amen. Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for your love to us. And as we reflect on your goodness, a goodness which does properly belong to Father, Son, and Spirit, but which particularly manifests you, our Father, as the source of every good thing that is ours in Christ, we ask that you would remind us frequently of this depth of love, this vastness, God, that you would assure our hearts give us a confidence. He would warm our affections. He would stir us. God, that it would drive us not away from you, but God, deeper into your heart as we seek to receive it more and to respond to it in kind. God, as your people, we need the joy. and the support which your love provides, as ministers of the gospel especially, we pray that we would have it. As we draw near to you, we pray that you would draw near to us this morning. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen.