Sermon Tone Analysis

1 John 4:19-21

“We love, because He first loved us.

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

The Reality of God’s Love (4:19)

The Response to God’s Love (4:20-21)

INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away.

That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate.

They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away.

This is most unfortunate.”

The farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky.

What a great turn of events.

You now have eight horses!”

The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg.

The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.”

The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg.

Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!”

Again, he said, “Maybe.”

The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.

– Alan Watts

BODY

1.

The Reality of God’s Love (4:19)

a. Verse 19, this is one of my favorite Bible verses and I am so happy to be preaching on this text.

This verse helps us understand the meaning of the whole Biblical text.

Everything starts from this simple statement.

Everything we do, the reason we do it, starts with this verse.

b.

Once we grasp the understanding of this verse, we can understand the purpose and reason for the Christian life.

When we struggle in our Christian life, it is because of our faulty understanding of this premise.

When we turn away from God, it is because we don’t exercise this truth.

c.

With that said, we start in verse 19.

John writes, we love, because He first loved us.

Look at this statement.

John is covering the reason we love God.

John in the previous verses (16-18) told us that we have come to know the love of God.

This is the most glorious statement in all the bible.

This is John’s way of writing what Paul wrote in Romans 5:8-10.

d.

This is the most important aspect of the Christian faith.

Everything hinges upon this central point.

If I had to ask you what part of this statement makes it so glorious what would you say?

Why is it that we are not excited about the Gospel?

Why is it that we go cold when we think of God?

e.

We grow cold because we forget this verse.

What is the reality of God’s love?

The greatest truth to come out of the Bible is this simple point.

Dr. Lloyd Jones writes, “God’s love is entirely unmoved by anything in us – by any merit or worthiness in us, or by anything that God has ever seen in us.”

Do we understand what this means?

f.

You might answer yes, I do understand what this means.

Then where is the excitement in your emotions?

How is it possible that we can take a statement like this and not marvel at our salvation?

Have we grown cold to the truth of the Gospel?

Is it just some old truth that we’ve heard and now we have lost a sense of what it means?

g.

Well if you don’t understand completely what I am saying, let me tell you.

The reason why we don’t marvel at statements like this is because we think that we have some merit of worthiness.

What do I mean by this?

Well, we think to ourselves that we are good people.

We tell God, by our actions that we actually deserve our salvation.

Well, after all, I am a good father.

I am a good husband.

I am a good wife, daughter, sister.

I am a good child.

I am even a good church member.

I serve at church, I do things for others.

I am sacrificial.

And when we add this up, to some degree, without even thinking this, we think to ourselves, that God has loved us by way of response to who we are and what we’ve done.

What we do so well is that we tell ourselves we are actually good people.

We tell others that we are.

We don’t like to paint ugly pictures of ourselves.

We don’t like ugliness.

When we do this, we lose the grandeur of the Gospel.

h.

You see the reality is, you are a good father, husband, wife or whatever you are.

You are.

I am not saying you are not.

But you are only good because of the grace of God.

By the grace of God, because of His great love for you, you are these things.

But these things are not reasons for you to think that you deserve your salvation.

i.

The Bible teaches us the exact opposite.

We all know this.

We know our verses.

We know our Romans 3:10, 23.

We know that we are sinners.

We know that apart from God, we are dead in our sins.

But practically, we take much pride in our possessions, our professions, our families.

As we gain more wealth and recognition in this world, we start to be deceived thinking, that God is glorified because I am saved.

After all, I am a great person.

j.

And this verse dispels this very idea that God loves us because of our ability, or our wealth, or our morality.

It tells us, that God’s love for us started with Him.

John is telling us that we could not love God because we were all dead in our sins.

We could not love God because we were dead.