Please remain standing for scripture lesson out of 1st John chapter 4 verses 7 through 12 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. Amen. Amen. Dear Saints, you may be seated. While Elder Craig was reading that, I was realizing the beginning of verse 10 was something that I hadn't focused a lot on in the sermon. I mentioned it's such an amazing text that this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. And if it wasn't for that initial love of God for us, there would be no hope. And He has loved us in the incarnation as well of giving of Jesus. So all hope is in Christ and God has taken the initiative for us. It's very providential that by God's sovereign mercies we came to this text that twice refers to God sending us his beloved son. What do we celebrate at Christmas? That exact glorious historical fact. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you've given us the bread of life, Jesus. Now next Sunday we get to eat of his flesh and drink his blood spiritually in the sacrament, and today we want to do the same spiritually through the ears and heart as we hear of the glorious Word of God, Jesus Christ. Now grant us grace, Father, to eat deeply of Him today on this Sabbath day, this Lord's Day, this Resurrection Day, which also is Christmas Day. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. So we usually associate the glorious Christmas story with the tender words of Luke in chapter 2, also in chapter 1, and also the Gospel of Matthew, which relates, as Deacon Brian mentioned in his prayer, that the wise men who showed up later to bring their gifts to Jesus Christ and These are wonderful stories that we usually, as I mentioned, relate to those two Gospels, but the author of this epistle that we're studying today also wrote the Gospel of John, where in chapter 1, verse 14, these amazing Advent-related words are found. And they are this, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory is of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. The incarnation of Christ and the love of God are closely joined in today's Holy Scripture lesson that we have just read, and now we're studying in a few moments. And these are all to lead us to even greater love for each other. That's really a huge point of this text because it is the love of the saints in the church for each other's result of God having first loved us, unlovable people that we are in ourselves. Therefore, with all this wonder in our hearts and minds on this day, let's make it our gospel goal to live in the love of God and the Christ who was sent to us. And with that sweetness before us, let's study together in a few moments 1 John chapter 4, verses 7 through 12. Hopefully everyone got the outline. Christmas in 1 John. Notice the doctrine. Love and Christmas both center on Christ who was sent to us. Of course, as we would expect, Jesus is highlighted in the Incarnation and in God's tender affection for us in the church and even in the world as the gospel is given to the world. And the Christmas story is a great example of that. It's sincerely offered to all people everywhere. The Bethlehem Saga is a lovely one, but no one in the story comes close to Jesus. Not Mary, not Joseph, not the shepherds, not the angels, and as we mentioned, not even the three wise men who showed up later. No one comes close to the absolute star of this story, and that was the little babe born in the manger in Bethlehem. He is primary. Let us now relish how love and Christmas both center on Christ who was sent to us. Jesus brought the love of God down here to earth with him. Do we ever think of this when we think of the gospel drama? That Jesus brings, in the Christmas drama, that he brought the love of God down here to earth with him. but not independent of him, not like a package he's bringing to a friend or a family, a gift or something that we would do at Christmas, but himself, the love of God is personified. When Christ came as the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Word of God, through whom God the Father and the Spirit and the Son and His deity crafted the entire universe, He came as Jesus Christ now, the God-Man. For all eternity past He was Christ, the Word. Now He is Jesus Christ, the God-Man. Something new is to happen in history. And now He's risen to the Father's right hand. And in His very own person, He fully and completely conveys to us the full love of God. all of God's love ever experienced by anyone, any saint in the church, or anybody who was affected by the church's ministry even before the incarnation of Christ. That love also was found in and centered on the Son of God who would come, but it was completed and perfected when the Son of God became a human being, in the womb of Mary nine months before his birth in Bethlehem. He became one of us, just like us, yet without sin, but one who could experience all the same suffering and grief and trials and tribulations and temptations even worse than we would ever experience them. He became just like us. When we think of God's love, we must, of necessity, think of God's Son. Those two can never be separated. God's love is a wonderful thing because in its fullness, he has the fellowship with us in love all through the person of love, Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus brought the love of God down here to earth with him, and this love leads all the elect to the triune God. Now, what good would God's love be for us if we could not know it or respond to it? You know, a person, sadly, if a person is blind, the sun still shines, but that person never sees it. If a person is deaf, glorious music can be played, but that person can't hear it. What good would God's love be if we could not know it or respond to it? Thankfully, the Lord is taking care of that problem, too. And in fact, we see it right there, as I mentioned earlier, in verse 10. It's not that we love God. It's not like we got smart and figured it out, got a little better than other people, and attached ourselves to God. That's the last thing in our minds. We don't want God. We're rebels and sinners. That's the glory of the gospel, is that God saves people that hate Him. that are running away from Him, that are seeking to get as far from Him as He possibly can, just like our first father and mother, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. This is a great God who's taking care of this problem. You know, it is true that in our fallenness in Adam, our brains were so beat out of us, and we were so slain and killed and slaughtered to absolute spiritual death, that there was no life left in us at all. Period. None. Totally gone. Nothing good left in us. No righteousness, no goodness, no justification. Nothing worthy of God's affection. He doesn't love us or choose us because there's something in us. No, absolutely not. He does it for his own good pleasure. The sovereign work of God in our hearts by virtue of the Holy Spirit's regeneration of them by his wonderful, sovereign, gracious, merciful means. But once we are the gracious recipients of God's amazing grace in Christ Jesus, as he has conveyed to us in his gospel word, then we become secure Christians, comfortable in our skin and who we are. And as secure Christians, we begin to love God, our Father, with more confidence and we can tell him anything that's on our hearts. We can pray to him through Jesus Christ and we can be completely at home and at ease with him. This is a process. It's not something that happens overnight. The world and the flesh and the devil try to convince us that no, that can't be done, but it can be done. And it's a wonderful thing. And not only do we become secure in our love for God, but also in His Church for each other, which is really the main message of today's scripture lesson. And even for the unregenerate people of the world. who are in the position we used to be in before the Holy Spirit sovereignly regenerated us by his mere grace. The obvious emphasis admittedly in these verses is on ecclesiastical love, in other words, love of the saints for each other in the church, which is a result of God's love for us, and then as that has grown in us, and we understand we love Him, and then we can't love God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, without loving each other in the church. And that's the main point of 1 John. Really, if you look through this book, it comes out over and over again. So with that perspective, let's look into these delightful verses of Holy Writ on this Christmas Day, this Lord's Day. And behold, how Christmas in 1 John resembles Luke chapter 2. We're going to be looking at verses 7 through 12 of 1 John 4. Now I just thought it might be neat to do that. I mean, John and Luke knew each other. Luke was the beloved physician who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. And John, of course, was the beloved disciple who was very near to Jesus, and he wrote the Gospel of John, he wrote the Book of Revelation, he wrote 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and so they knew each other, and of course all the Bible correlates together. It's a seamless, glorious web where God used different personalities, and yet all of them have the same ultimate message, that Jesus Christ is that message. He is the object of the gospel, the one to whom they spoke. Therefore, let us consider today, in light of the adorable and familiar Advent story as we usually think of it from Luke 2, how Christmas in 1 John resembles Luke chapter 2. Well first, Covenant love propelled Christ's incarnation, Luke 2.10 verses 7 and 8. 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. Now next week the title of the sermon is God is love because John says it again. later in this chapter. But we see it right here as well. The word love or its cognates, which just simply means different types of words that are related to the word love, are found a stunning six times in these first two verses of our scripture lesson today. Six times! The word love or its related terms are found. So we're talking about covenant love here, and the covenant has many dimensions. It's like a multifaceted diamond. And we looked a little bit at a dimension last night from Isaiah 9-6, and the dimension we're looking at here is the covenant of the gracious life that believers in the church enjoy with each other. And as God's love is highlighted here in verses 7 and 8, it is covenantal in that God has always been inclined toward love for all of his people, his elect people, that he would draw to himself in time and space. to Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the promise of this love is sincerely made and offered to all people everywhere. Any and all who will have God's love may have it in the person of Jesus Christ alone, if they will lay aside all other idols, works, law, anything that they would add to the glories of Jesus. It is a beautiful thing, and that's reflected in Luke 2.10, where we find the glorious words of the angel. The angel said to the shepherds, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. All the people, after all, Even the elect and redeemed church is made up of Jews and Gentiles, and from people of all races and ethnicities, and from every place on the globe. This new covenant church has covered the earth. and the gospel has gone forth. Hence, when the angel said, for all people, those words are now confirmed in Jesus and his new covenant church, of which you, many of you, at least, are members. And what is to characterize us more than anything else, assuming saving faith in Christ? Well, it's love for God and for one another. Love. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. How Christmas in 1 John resembles Luke chapter 2, covenant love propelled Christ's incarnation, and atoning love glorified Christ's incarnation, Luke 2.11 verses 9 and 10. 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. So two times in these two verses were told the Christmas story that God sent his son to us. to us in this world. And verse 10 even tells us that he was the, quote, propitiation or perfect satisfaction for our sins. So God the Father is satisfied and no longer wrath-filled at all against the saints because the wrath of God has fallen upon his son as the perfect substitute for us. And then his sacrifice is applied to us by imputation, where the benefits of his atonement on our behalf are given to us. Not only is that true, but even his keeping of the law perfectly is imputed to us as well. God gives us every good and perfect gift in Jesus. And we unite this glorious truth of the verses we just read from 1 John 4 with Luke 2.11, and we are overwhelmed, because that verse says, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Dear, sinners need a Savior, and that Savior has to be a perfect God-man Savior, Jesus Christ Himself. There is no one else that could do it for us. He alone would suffice. He's the perfect one to represent us to the Father. He has presented His precious blood before the holy tribunal of the absolutely righteous God. And He, Jesus Christ, has purchased us, His church, for God. He's bought us. We are His. We're not our own, but we are free people with a good shepherd, a good master. And notice also that we, quote, live through him at the end of verse 9. All our life and all our love is in Jesus Christ alone as we constitute his beloved church. How Christmas in 1 John resembles Luke chapter 2, Covenant love propelled Christ's incarnation. Atoning love glorified Christ's incarnation. And finally, visible love empowered Christ's incarnation. Luke 2, 12 verses 11 and 12. Beloved, and notice how often the gentle apostle John, the son of thunder, uses that term. 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. So when the Apostle John says, as he does here at the beginning of verse 12, that, quote, no one has ever seen God, unquote, he obviously does not mean this in an absolute sense. This is one of those cases where we have to employ the analogy of faith. We compare scripture with scripture and we come to understand what the apostle is saying. What he is emphasizing here is that the love of God is seen when the saints in the church love each other. As per John 13, 35, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. It's our greatest evangelism tool is the love that we have for each other. And I love the love that we have in this church for each other. It's a glorious and wonderful thing. and it's something that comes to us because God has loved us. So he doesn't mean this in an absolute sense. Rather what the Apostle John is intending to communicate here is that God is seen as the members of the faithful church love one another. Now it is true that in his divine essence no human being has seen God. I mean we would be dissolved in a in a heartbeat if he was to present himself before our flesh in that sense, especially our fallen flesh. Now in our resurrected bodies, which will be these same bodies, and yet they'll be glorified, we will see Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, as He is, and we will be like Him. Our bodies will be like His. There'll be these bodies, just like He rose in His body, but we'll be able to see Him, and we'll even behold the wounds on his hands, his side, his feet that bore our sins on the cross. The beautiful Savior. Jesus in his incarnation revealed God to us. Did he not? Is that not what Christmas is about? That God became man and revealed himself in a little baby born in Bethlehem in a manger? The exquisite words of Luke 2.12 teach us this truth. They read, and this will be a sign to you, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. There is God in the flesh, a baby, tiny little human being, born in a manger in Bethlehem, in time and space, just a couple of thousand years ago. It's a beautiful thing. You know, there's another notable verse that should really draw our attention and amazement and delight, especially in this joyous season of Advent, and it comes from Hebrews 1, 3a, and I'll quote it for you. The Son is, the Son, Jesus Christ that is, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. So even though John says here that no one's seen God, he doesn't mean that absolutely, because we have seen God. We've seen him in the God-man, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the perfect imprint of the nature of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the radiance of who God is. As always, let's do some more application. and appreciate how Christmas in 1 John graciously blesses us today. The stress in our text for this Sunday is on love, and so we can easily see how love would abundantly bless us, but the heart of God's love is his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he has mercifully and kindly totally given to us, and we're celebrating that truth today. So as we wrap up this Christmas Lord's Day sermon, let us savor together how Christmas and First John graciously blesses us today. First, by reminding us that love characterizes our great God. Can you think of a trait that you would rather have exemplified in God than love? I seriously doubt it. I mean, He has all these other great traits, and they're all together, and they're all equal in a certain sense. You know, His power, His righteousness, His holiness, His mercy, His justice, His grace. But is there anything, as far as practicality for us, more important than His love? And what better day than Sunday is there for us to appreciate this truth? And Christmas, though not a holy day, not a day where Christians are obligated to meet and worship, because the written word of God does not call us to do that. and we are not bound by any human strictures coming from a pope or a cannon, or C-A-N-O-N, not a shooting cannon, or any other kind of authority that would impose its will on us. You have to do this, otherwise you're under condemnation. No. Throw it all out. You're reformed Christians. We have nothing to do with that. Nonetheless, it is good that we celebrate this historical event. Now, we don't have to imagine it happened in December. In fact, it probably didn't. And the early church set that date probably because the pagans now entering the church in the fourth century after Constantine's conversion, and the emperors are now Christians. They had their pagan holidays at the end of the year. The church probably said, let's mark that. I have no problem with that. Makes sense. It's good theology. It's good practice. But it's not something we absolutize. So we should celebrate this. It's not like Sunday, which is a holy day. We believe that the Sabbath is still in effect in the new covenant, in the new heavens and the new earth, the eighth day, the new Sabbath day, the first day of the week, the new world of Jesus Christ. And so we get today to celebrate both of them, do we not? Incidentally, just another note, some people get all up in arms about trees, Christmas trees. Oh, don't they have pagan backgrounds? I don't care. I say, praise God. We'll baptize that, bring it into our church, we'll glorify God through it, no problem. And so when you hear these sorts of things, don't be put off by them. At the same time, keep the perspective of covenant and absolute requirement given in the Holy Book and those things that are just expedient for us. It's sometimes wise and good. So I share that with you as an extra bonus, some of which was not even in my notes this morning. So, returning to those notes, we notice that really, though, Christmas is gorgeously and meticulously recorded for us in Holy Scripture. I mean, Luke 2 is not a short chapter, and Luke 1, the Magnificat, is a prelude to that. And Matthew 1 has a lot to say about it too, and John 1 does, and 1 John 4 does, and other places do too. And so it's good that we do mark this day, and it's just convenient that we do it now. No problem with that. So as we celebrate this year, let us be ever mindful of God's tender affection for us as church and let us dear Reformed Christians realize with sincerity and honor that this gospel really is offered in truth to any and all who would embrace Jesus Christ by faith and just simply want him. and come to a faithful church, be part of the community. How Christmas in 1 John graciously blesses us today by reminding us that love characterizes our great God and that He gave us His very best love, Jesus Christ. Now this point, I think, just simply piles on the enormous benevolence of God our Father. How good and gracious and kind and generous He is to us. God didn't just dispatch to us sinners something good, He gave us someone who is supremely and absolutely good. And let us recall that the blessed Holy Spirit inspired today's scripture lesson largely for the purpose of furthering our own love for each other in the church, all in the person of Jesus Christ and as a result of his love for us first, our love for him, and then as we love God, we love his people as well. With faults and foibles and warts and every other thing, we love each other and we grow in that grace. Dear Saints, do you understand who and what you possess in the Lord Jesus Christ? According to the Word of God, you have everything. God's given you everything. The whole world is yours. The earth is yours. Heaven is yours. Creation is yours. But more than that, forgiveness of sins, a perfect relationship with God, a clean conscience, hope, joy, peace, Every good and perfect gift is yours. And on top of that, in Jesus Christ, God throws everything else in as a bonus. We get to enjoy everything. From each other, to gifts, to animals, to things that we give each other, all of them are good. We lift them all up and see Jesus Christ through all of them. Everything is yours. We learned that when we were studying in First Corinthians a while ago. But what is the greatest benefit of Jesus Christ's ministry on our behalf? Dears, is it not the forgiveness of our sins? Is it not that they're all gone? They're washed, they're remitted, they are paid for in and by the blood of the Son of God. Today, this Lord's Day, this Christmas Day, let us rejoice in the Christ who is the full object of our saving and regenerative faith, and let us bless God for his love to us in Jesus. Beloved, Christmas in 1 John is a lot like Christmas in the Gospel of Luke. Let us be thankful and joyful over and for Christmas in 1 John. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Christ the Lord for bringing us to this text providentially. In this great book, we're so thankful. Your people are loved by you so well. You've loved them so well. Continue to encourage them. when their hearts are down, they hear these words and they believe them, and yet when we're afflicted and sorely oppressed, we tend to forget them. That's part of our traverse down here. It's gonna happen, probably happen later today or this week sometime, and yet that does nothing to diminish this incredible love that we just spoke of and heard of in Christ for your people, your church. and the gracious benevolence you hold out for the whole world in Jesus and his gospel. We thank you, Father, that you have provided us every good thing in Jesus. We bless your church in that grace, in Christ alone. Amen.