We're revisiting the text that we looked at last Lord's Day to get the big picture of it. But there are some things here we simply cannot pass up without going into a little more depth to enjoy the beauty that's here. 1 John 4, verses 7 and 8 will be our text today. Here at High Country Baptist Church, our desire is to know God and to make Him known. And so there's no better way to begin 2015 than by meditating on our great and good God in particular, focusing on who He is in His character. Charles Spurgeon opened his sermon of January 7, 1855, with these words, It has been said that the proper study of mankind is man, I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God. The proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. Well, that's just what we intend to do today. by meditating on the wonderful teaching of Scripture that God is love. Let me read verses 7 and 8 here of our text. 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. John will, in fact, make this astounding statement again, just down a little ways in verse 16. 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 in him. God is love. That is the truth we want to meditate on today. Now one of the most amazing, maybe I should say this, one of the most basic truths of our existence, and yet one of the most astounding truths of our existence, is that we, finite, limited humans can know the infinite God, that we really can come to know Him. The atheists and the agnostics of our world help us to remember actually how shocking it is to a natural man to think that we can know God. If God had not created us to know Him, If He had not created His world to reveal Himself and then spoken and acted in history to make Himself known inescapably, then it would indeed seem strange to think that we could know God. But the God that the agnostics say we cannot know is not the God of the Bible. You see, the God of the Bible has made Himself known. He manifests His glory. It's His very nature to do that. It's His very nature for His glory to be seen, to be heard, and to be tasted, and to be touched, and to be felt. The first letter of John was written so that we would have confidence in knowing that we have the true God and eternal life. What is the true God really like? Well, John has already told us back in chapter 1 verse 5 that God is light. God is light. John is also, by the way, the apostle who reports the one other statement like these ones we are considering in the Bible today, when he said in John chapter 4, or reporting what Jesus said in John chapter 4 to the Samaritan woman at the well, God is spirit. But here in our text, he now says God is love. God is love. This is a sweet, soul-sustaining revelation of God. So what I want to do today is think about it. Let's meditate on it for a moment. The first point I want to make as we think about the fact that the Scripture says, reveals God as God is love, is that God is what His attributes are. God is what His attributes are. God is revealed in the Scripture through His names, through His actions, through His descriptions, And when we talk about the attributes of God, we're talking about those descriptions, whether explicitly or implicitly in the Scripture, revealed in the Scripture, that are of God's essence. And since God has revealed Himself as He really and truly is, He's not trying to reveal a trick God to us. As He has revealed Himself as He really and truly is, these descriptions of God in the scripture are descriptions by God of God in himself. It's the Holy Spirit describing who he is. God is what his attributes are. Now, sometimes people have a problem with saying that God is what his attributes are because they have a tendency to think of his attributes in more abstract categories rather than personal ones. When we say that God is love, we mean that is His personal characteristic. Love suffuses His entire being. There is nothing about God that is not love. That's what He is like. It characterizes everything He is. When we say, for example, to pick another attribute, God is holy, we mean that holiness is a property of His person. It's who He is. He can't be anything else but that. Now, what that means, of course, think with me here, is that His love is holy, and His holiness is love. His holiness is loving. We can add into that mix other attributes. God is infinite. That means that His holiness is infinite, and His infinity is holy. and that His love is infinite while His infinity is loving. Let's pick another one. God is immense. Now, when we talk about, in theology, speaking of God as immense, we don't merely mean that He's really big. We're not even really saying that He's omnipresent. When we're speaking about God's immensity, we're saying God transcends space. That whole category of space is something that He transcends. And so, God's infinity transcends space. His love transcends space. His holiness transcends space. While at the same time, His immensity is infinite and holy and loving. Now, I've deliberately chosen here a mix of attributes of God, sometimes called natural or moral or other categories like that, because in the person of God, in the tri-personal God, all of these things permeate each other. All of this is an expression of God, the person, who He is. Years ago, my children learned a list of God's attributes in our family catechism. We would say that God is a great and good spirit who is Lord of all. Then we ask, what are the attributes of God's greatness? And the answer was, the attributes of God's greatness, God is self-existent, infinite, perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, wise, eternal, immutable, incomprehensible. And then the next question was, what are the attributes of God's goodness? The answer to that was holiness, truth, love, righteousness, including justice, faithfulness, mercy, and grace. I rehearsed these today because all these attributes can be seen from the perspective of love. God is love. that characterizes everything about Him. You see, there is no separation of God's attributes. Now, this may seem like a little bit of abstract theologizing, but this is crucial, that you know the true God, that this is who He is. There is no separation of His attributes. Also, every attribute is present in every other attribute, for these are simply who God is. In other words, let me try to explain it this way. God should not be thought of as the product of a recipe. Like if we just took all these attributes, I've got this attribute of holiness in this container, and I've got this attribute of love in this container, and this infinity in this container, and I pour these all in the bowl, and I mix them all together really well, and bake it at the right temperature, And then what comes out? This beautiful concoction called God. No, that's not the God of the Bible. Nor should God's attributes be thought of as components of an engine. You know, I've got my engine block right here. I've got my piston heads over there. I've got my different components right here. I bolt them all together. I give it power. Boom. It works. Now we've got it. That's not what we're talking about when we talk about God's attributes. It's not just different components that you can separate out and then bolt them together and somehow get God out of it. You see, God's attributes are the expressions or the characteristics of God. This is what is known, what I'm talking about here is what is known as God's simplicity. That is, He's not composed of parts or capable of division. He is one God. God is what His attributes are. And as the God of perfect integrity, all of who He is is present and active in everything He does. Which brings me right down here to the manifestation of God's love. Get what we've just learned so far. God is what His attributes are. All of who He is is present and active in everything He does. So, John says, God is love. If love is who God is, in all dimensions of who He is, then how does He show that love? Well, the Bible tells us that the whole world is full of God's glory. That's what the angels in God's presence cry out before Him. The whole world is full of His glory. That is, the radiance and the splendor of His Person, who He is. That means that the whole world is full then of the glory of His love, for God is love. God created this whole world out of nothing. Out of nothing. Think about that for a minute. That means that His existence as God, His own character, the God of love, is the source and the structure of His whole creation. It didn't have anything to make it what it was before. It didn't have some kind of inherent characteristics that God took and then worked with. God made it what it was, and it was all a manifestation of His glory. And what that tells us is that this whole world is a gift of love. That's where it comes from. That's what it means. You don't understand the world and you don't understand your life if you don't understand it as a gift of love. In fact, that's what you are. You are a gift of love. You were created by God, by God's infinite love overflowing, and you were created for God to love Him. You're a gift of love from God for God. That's what you are. And by the way, don't let the scientists of this world tell you anything less than that. You are nothing less than a gift of love from God and for God. And that love is not thwarted by sin. God's love overcomes sin right at its source. Which is why the Scripture in our text here today speaks of God sending His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Why does John go right into that? Because that's the love of God in action. You see, what does love do? Love seeks union with the beloved. And so the death, or the eternal separation from God, of God's own people is not what God desires. So God gives Himself, overcoming the boundaries that separate us, to bring us into His eternal life. God manifests all of His love all the time. That's who God is. He cannot do anything other than that. This whole world is full of the glory of God's love. Which means, bringing this down to our lives today, and here's where I want to challenge you with in this sermon, to enjoy the glory of God's love in everything this year. You see, what we've been talking about means that sin and pain and death and darkness and despair and destruction, this is not the ultimate meaning of what you experience in this world. Everything that happens to you as God's child has its place in the love of God. He could not be God and have it be otherwise. And I want to challenge you this year, the start of this year, to see that, to truly grasp what it means to be in a life-giving relationship with the God who is love. You see, not only was this letter written so that you would have confidence in knowing that you have the true God who is love, it is also written so that you would have joy in knowing that you have the true God. The true God is love. And that means your life is a life of love. There is so much we can apply this to, in fact, literally everything. Let me just give you one example that I was reflecting on a few months ago in writing a little article for a blog. I specifically asked to write about caring for elderly people, elderly people who are dying. In some ways, we might think nothing brings out the rich colors and the grains of true love, like caring for and committing yourself to those who cannot give back, humanly speaking, who have nothing to return for what you are giving them. But is it really true that they cannot give back? I believe that they can and that they do, actually. As images of God, The elderly are inherently gifts of love from God. Just their presence in our homes, in our churches, is a good thing. Their presence opens the door to experiencing the full dimensions of love. The full dimensions of love are loyal commitment to another's good, sincere and deep affection, and union, union with the beloved. Love seeks union with the beloved in order to give of who I am to enrich the other. So in the case of the elderly, that love takes particular form, of course, in honor. It takes the form of honor, but it also takes the form of edification. As Christians, we know that our aging relatives, are in the last laps of running their earthly race. And we want them to finish their course well. We want them to keep the faith. We want to spur them on to the award ceremony where they will receive the crown of righteousness. So contrary to popular opinion, the quality of life is not measured, oh I should say this, a good life is not measured by what is normally called quality of life. It is measured by our relationship to God, because that's where you find love, and that's where you find meaning and purpose. As we invest our lives, our love, into our elders, we are not throwing it away on a soon-to-be corpse. What good is this doing? It's going to die anyway, right? No, what we're doing is planting seeds which will bear fruit 100-fold in the resurrection. And I think this is particularly important in the culture of narcissism in which we live today. I think in a culture of narcissism, one of God's greatest gifts to us, to enable us to know love, real love, is the gift of aging parents, aging grandparents, Because even as they show in their bodies the effects of sin and the curse, God uses that evil for good. God means they're aging for our good as we die to our worthless, selfish desires and give ourselves for them. God means they're aging for their own good as they turn more and more to what matters for eternity. God means they're aging for the good of our society as people see living love in their midst. Ultimately, God means they're aging for His glory, as love to the dying testifies that death is not the last word. Death is not the end, for Christ has risen. This is what love says. Christ has risen. And so as Christians, as a church, we can show the world that we are Christ's disciples by the love we have for one another. You see, a great opportunity God has put before us to know and show His love in caring for our elders. So that's just one example of how this works. God is love. God shows His love in everything He does. And He calls us to participate in it. That's why the command is given in this very text. Love one another. You want to enjoy love? You want to come to experience all of who God is? You want to know the God who is light? The real God? Love. So what has God had before you this year? Obviously you don't know. None of us knows what will happen tomorrow. But you do know that the God you know is love. And that means that you can enjoy the glory of His love in everything. Enjoy the glory of His love in the work that your hands find to do. What occupation does He call you to fulfill? What means of sustenance? And though, yes, in this sin-cursed world, that toil may be by the sweat of our brow, God's love is still showing through that because God is love. It cannot be otherwise. As you go about your gardening, your teaching, your homeschooling, your housecleaning, your driving back and forth to places and running endless errands, it seems like sometimes. Meditate on this truth. God is love. This is the true God. And I think as your soul is pierced with the overwhelming glory of God's love constantly being communicated to you, you will be carried away on a river of love to be able to give love to others. That's the participation in the love of God, which is exactly what God commands of us. Did you notice in Deuteronomy 6, as Moses called Israel, to that pledge of allegiance to the true God, the God who had entered into the covenant with them. He called on Israel to love the Lord. And that showed him delighting in God's commandments, which Moses told them were for our good. Why would God command us to love? Let us love one another. Because He's calling us to Himself. because He's giving us Himself. Do you see how backwards we get it so many times? God, I can't love. It's too hard. And He's saying, no, by loving, I'm calling you to Myself. I'm calling you so I can give you everything of who I am. I am love. So love. And come to know Me. And it's people who love like that. who listen to God's commands, who see their God for who He really is, that begin then to have this kind of confidence that John is talking about. This confidence in knowing that you have the true God and eternal life. Folks, this is absolutely essential for us as a church. And I pray that in 2015 that this assembly would be a people who knows by deep and sweet experience that God is love.