1 John 4:7

Let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we 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 seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit. We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior into the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God abides in Him and He in God.

We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. He who fears has not been made perfect in love.

We love Him because He first loved us. God, we sang of Your amazing love, and here we are going to read and study about it. I pray that in these verses, You would open our minds and our hearts to comprehend what this love is all about. We live in a culture that seems to highly value love, but it also seems as though we may not fully comprehend what love is, especially according to how You reveal it. Lord, we trust, as we see even in this passage, that Your very nature is love.

It's not that you just love; it's not just something that you do, but it's actually your very nature. In that, I pray that you'd help us to understand a little bit more about who You are, a little bit more about how You work, and a little bit more about how You intend to work in and through us. So, God, would You speak to us today? I think we probably need to have a better conception or understanding of what love is. Teach us by Your Holy Spirit, who You promised would guide us into all truth and teach us all things. Do that today, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen. You may be seated.

I'm going to attempt today something unprecedented, at least in our study of 1 John. I'm going to attempt the death-defying feat of preaching through more than three verses at one time. Please understand, this will most likely fail. This endeavor has rarely been accomplished in the last six months in this room. I've been moving rather slowly through this passage, and I don't attempt this lightly. Hopefully, in all joking aside, I do believe God has something He wants to speak to us here in this passage.

John returns to a topic in the section of Scripture that we just read through, a topic he has been speaking to quite a bit in these verses and chapters: the topic of love. I say he returns to it because we've already seen it in a number of passages before. You're in 1 John chapter 4. Turn just a couple chapters to the left to chapter 2 and look at 1 John chapter 2, verse 5. There, John said, "But whoever keeps God's word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him."

Then in chapter 3, verse 1, he writes, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him." In the same chapter, 1 John chapter 3, verse 11, he states, "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."

This is the teaching that Jesus gave to His own disciples on the night that He ultimately would be betrayed by one of them, a man named Judas Iscariot. He taught His disciples that they should love one another. It's not just the teaching of Jesus, but it's also the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures, the first two-thirds of the Bible. Specifically, we find this command in Leviticus chapter 19.

As I was praying, I recognized that we may not have the fullest understanding or best comprehension of what love is. Our culture certainly thinks that it does. So, John explains for us what is meant by this love in verse 16 of 1 John chapter 3. It states, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

Then, two verses later, in verse 18, it says, "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." In verse 23 of 1 John 3, we find, "And this is His commandment, God's commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment."

With this backdrop, John says in 1 John 4:7, "Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."

If you grew up in a Protestant Bible church like I did, you know those verses, and you might hear a little song playing in your head right now. If you don't know that song, you should probably learn it, because it conveys a really important truth found in these verses. The song goes, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. Everyone who loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He who loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love."

These verses, 1 John 4:7 and 8, are good to commit to memory and to reflect upon. These truths are very important; they make up the core of the Christian faith and the core of the gospel. They teach us things that we need to hold dear in our minds and in our hearts.

It brings us to point number one on your outline: Christians love one another in response to God's great love. John has been making this clear in this letter so far, as he has talked a lot about this.

Now, what's fascinating to me is that in the last few weeks, if you were here, I have been discussing identifying false teachers, dividing from false teachers, and separating from people who bring in false truths. Because of our misunderstandings of what love is, some people could say that sounds very unloving. To separate from people, to disassociate from people, there needs to be discernment, discrimination, and division sometimes. People might say that doesn't sound loving. We live in a culture that claims love is most perfectly revealed by constantly accepting everything and everybody, and that is love. However, that is not what is taught in this passage of Scripture.

John teaches that Christians love one another in response to God's great love. Now, how exactly do we know God's great love for us? What shows us His great love? We read it just a few minutes ago in 1 John 3:16. By this, we know love—the love that John is promoting among Christians, or calling Christians to identify with, associate with, and manifest in their own lives. By this, we know love: 1 John 3:16 states that He laid down His life for us. Who? Jesus laid down His life for us. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

John reiterates that truth here again. He keeps promoting this reality in 1 John 3:4, verse 7: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." Then in verse 9, it says, "In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."

And in this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That word "propitiation" means the payment for. He deals with the problem of sin, which you and I could not deal with on our own. Man has been trying to address the problem of sin, trying to remove the stain of sin, since sin first came. How do we know that? Well, Genesis chapter 3 describes the first time that sin entered the world.

And again, what is sin? John tells us in this very book that sin is lawlessness. The first time that sin entered the world, death came through sin. What did man try to do to deal with that sin? He tried to cover it up. Adam and Eve, when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, transgressed God's direct commandment to not eat of that tree. Their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked. So what did they do? They sewed fig leaves together and tried to cover their nakedness. What is that but man's first attempt, among many, to deal with the problem of sin on his own? But it is insufficient. Every attempt by you, by me, or by all of humanity through their religious efforts to deal with the stain of sin and the shame of sin is insufficient.

So God sent forth His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, the payment for our sins. What is that? It is a demonstration of God's love. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. This is the core truth of the gospel. It is not a novel or fresh truth that I am bringing forward. For many of you, it is not at all unfamiliar. You have heard this many, many times before. The reason that you have heard this many times is that it is the ground upon which the entire Christian faith is built. It is the truth that Christians have sought to teach to their youngest children for centuries: the reality of the love of God.

It is vitally important that we have this understanding of God's love, but not only of God's love, also of God's nature. Here, John tells us that God is love. Those three words are not unknown in our culture, though more and more people do not know the Bible. They have heard that somewhere because it is so deeply embedded in American culture and Western culture: God is love. But have we ever really taken the time to understand what that means? It tells us something about the very nature and heart of God. This is who He is; at His core, He is love.

We even see this in what is called the doctrine of the Trinity, which I do not have time to go into today. Within the Godhead, there is one God existing in three persons. We see the reality of love existent in God. However, our culture has flipped the words around. Now they say love is God, basically. That is how we live. We live in a culture today that thinks love is really God. For most of our culture, the supreme form of love is sexual intimacy.

And they say that is God. You see a lot of people living that way in our culture, but that's not what the Scriptures say. God is love. When we begin to understand God in this way, it changes the way we understand reality. However, the further we move away from these truths about the nature of God, the more we will see the wickedness of man show through. We have witnessed this in a significant way over the last few weeks in our nation. We have been majorly confronted by the fallenness of humanity, the brokenness of society, and the wickedness of sin.

I think that the absence of this truth—that God is love, and that God's love is manifested through Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross—leads to dire consequences. Our ethical response or responsibility in light of that love is crucial. The further we move away from this reality, the more frequently we will see events like those that occurred in our nation last weekend and the weekend before. These occurrences will continue because we are distancing ourselves from this fundamental truth.

I'm not saying that the horrible atrocities happening in our world are the direct result of these truths being unknown, but they certainly are a cause. This is even reflected in some of the writings of individuals who are speaking into our culture. I read an article this past week in The Federalist by an individual named Thayne Bellamo. He wrote, "Once upon a time, you had meaning. You knew you had meaning because you had a mom and a dad who told you so, a God who loved you, and a community that needed you."

The more we move away from these realities, the more we will see the manifestation of the wickedness of sin in this world. Bellamo continues, "We have created a society that now offers almost none of these things that make people truly happy: family, community, spiritual belonging. These are the foundational and primal building blocks of human happiness, and they are rapidly disappearing."

As I was reading this, I felt that it perfectly encapsulates what we are witnessing in our culture. He goes on to say that the outcome is predictable: isolation, depression, anxiety, despondency, drug abuse, and death. We live in a culture that has more available to us than at any time in history, yet we are facing these profound issues.

In arguably one of the most significant times in human history, we live in an era marked by isolation, depression, anxiety, despondency, drug abuse, and death. Why is this happening? Something core to who we are and what we need has been removed.

When we talk about gun violence, just about no one addresses these root causes. We have discarded the regulating social institutions that have helped people understand their value and place in this world for thousands of years. The decline of these institutions is not only mirrored in the rise of mass shootings but is also evident in a host of statistics that reveal an epidemic of despair. People feel they have no place, no purpose, and no value in our world. Human beings are not designed for isolation; we require deep, meaningful connection. That sounds like something you'd hear at Cross Connection.

We need family and community. We are desperate for life and the love of others. We need people and institutions to help us navigate the world, to help us see that we have purpose, and to help us understand right from wrong. We need a sense of moral clarity that will support us during the desperate times we all will face.

As the article concludes, the author poses a critical question: Why would anyone be surprised that when we take away the foundational social structures that have allowed for the flourishing of humanity, bad things will happen? We know what occurs when communities deteriorate—isolation, loneliness, and the decline of social norms. When we destroy the church, the very institution that has been our bedrock of values, morality, and redemption for thousands of years, we invite despair, immorality, desperation, and evil.

Combine all these factors, and we know exactly what happens: an opioid epidemic so severe that it has literally reduced our average life expectancy, a suicide rate that continues to climb for almost all demographic groups, and mass shootings. The last line of the article states, "Destroy the family. Abandon the community. Raise the church to the ground. What could go wrong?" The answer is everything.

These truths are very important. Some people question this perspective. A few years ago, just a couple of days before Christmas, I found a big box on my front doorstep. In that box was a new computer.

And those who know me know that I kind of have a thing for Apple products. I have an Apple Watch, an Apple iPhone, an Apple iPad, an iMac in my office, and a laptop computer. It’s too much, really. So, what computer do you give a guy who already has all those devices?

I opened it up, and it was a Macintosh 512. It was the second edition of a Macintosh, practically useless, but it still worked, and you could turn it on. When you turn it on, it’s like, wow, it’s a computer! Beep! Remember those floppy disks? It’s interesting, but practically useless. More and more, that’s how our culture views this. It’s interesting; it kind of shows us where we came from. That’s what the Macintosh 512 does. It shows us our origins, but it’s practically useless.

That’s what our culture says about the truth we find in Scripture. I want to suggest to you that the things in Scripture are important. We see their value as our society moves further away from the truth of the Scriptures. In this passage, John shows that a follower of Christ exhibits a connection to God by loving other people. We see the very reality of God in the life of the follower of God through the love that comes from that person.

The inverse of that would be that if a person is not connected to God, what should we see? If God is love, which is His very nature, and love flows from Him, then those who are connected to Him display love. Conversely, if a person is separated from God, what are you going to see? You’re going to see a lack of love.

What do we see in our culture? That’s what you see. I exhibit my connection to God by loving others in a similar fashion as He has loved me. Conversely, I reveal that I do not know God by my lack of love, according to how He has loved me. John makes it very clear that the ethical response to God’s love is that I should, I ought to love others as I have been loved.

If I understand the love of God, if I comprehend what God has done for me as revealed in the death of Jesus on the cross, which is a demonstration of God’s love (Romans 5:8), then it will reveal itself.

My understanding of that truth will reveal itself in the way that I love other people. Why? Because love is of God. If I am of God, everyone who is born of God loves others because God is love. At issue here is the very nature of God. Who is God?

Point number two on your outline: Christians love as an expression of God's character. I have returned to this point a number of times as we have been going through the teaching of the Apostle Paul in his letter to a church in Galatia. In Galatians chapter five, verse 22, he says the fruit of the Spirit is love. He uses the word "fruit" in the singular, and singularly, the fruit, the evidence of God's Spirit, is love. From love flows joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and so on. But chiefly, supremely, solely, the fruit of the Spirit is love. Though it's metaphor and poetic language, the fruit simply means evidence. The evidence that God's Spirit is in my life is going to be love, and that love is going to produce in me and in others joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.

We cannot see God, the Scriptures say, because God is Spirit and because God is holy. Humanity cannot see God because He is Spirit and He is holy. Since we are not holy, if we were to see Him, we could not stand in His presence. However, we see the evidence of His presence through the presence of love in the life of the follower of God. This is why Jesus, in John chapter 13, verse 34, said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this will all people know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

The evidence that I have trusted in Jesus and am following the way of Jesus, walking as He walked, is the evidence of love. It is a self-sacrificial love. By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us. We also ought to—this is ethical language—lay down our lives for others. Therefore, in 1 John 4:11, back to our text: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." In fact, so important are those words "ought to," would you circle the words "ought to"?

Do it in your neighbor's Bible just so I know it's done.

First John 4:11 states, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." This is ethical language. What should we do in response to God's love? If we understand and comprehend what God's love is—that He laid down His life for us—then we ought to love one another.

In First John 4:11, when it says "beloved, if God so loved us," the word "if" could also be translated as "since." It is translated as "since" in the New Living Translation and the New International Version. So it reads like this in the New International Version: "Dear friends, since God so loved us, because He has loved us, we also ought to love one another."

This brings us back to the very first point I made just a moment ago: Christians love one another in response to God's great love. When I follow Jesus' example of love—loving God, loving His people, and even loving those who are outside of Him, who don't know Him, and who may consider us enemies—what follows?

Look at First John 4:12: "No one has seen God at any time." This is a theological truth. God is spirit; we cannot see spirit. Not only is God spirit, but He is also holy, and we cannot come into full contact with the holiness of God. So, no one has seen God at any time. However, if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

The word "perfected" means made manifest; it has been revealed. We have the opportunity to manifest God's glory by His love being resident in us and being seen in the way that we interact with one another and those who are outside. Yes, you cannot see God because He is spirit and because He is holy, but you can see His presence in the lives of His people through love. He is revealing Himself and desiring to show His very nature to this world through His people.

The New Living Translation says, "No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us."

God lives through us, and His love is brought to its full expression in us. It is most clearly evidenced that there is a God when you see the love of God manifested in the people of God. He lives through us by His love. Therefore, Christians love one another in response to God's great love.

Point number three on your outline is that the invisible God becomes visible through His tangible love expressed in His people. No one has seen God at any time; He is invisible. This poses a problem for modern Westerners who disbelieve the metaphysical and the supernatural. They may say, "There is no God because I cannot see Him," or "I don't think there's a God, so I'm agnostic. I just don't know."

Bertrand Russell, the great atheist, expressed a similar sentiment when he was asked, nearing the end of his life, what he would say to God if he were to stand before Him and be held accountable. He replied, "I will tell God you did not give me enough evidence." We may chuckle at this, but it reflects the thoughts of many people today who have disbelieved the reality of God. They often say, "I just don't see the evidence."

What is the supreme evidence? John states that it is the evidence of love, which is quite phenomenal. We all recognize the difference between a person who believes in God and one who does not. You cannot prove the existence of love through a scientific experiment; it is not empirically verified. Yet, we know it exists. We realize it is there, and we see its effects. Thus, God is revealing His nature to us. The invisible God becomes visible through His tangible love expressed in His people.

Since it is true that God is known through the love of His people, it makes sense that Jesus would command His disciples to love one another as He has loved us. This is not a suggestion. He does not say, "Well, you know, it would be kind of nice if you tried to maybe do this." Instead, He states, "A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another as I have loved you."

The awesome reality about the commandments of God is profound.

You and I, in and of ourselves, are unable to fulfill the commands of God. However, God working in us by His Holy Spirit causes us to will and to do His good pleasure. He enables us by His power to accomplish what we are quite incapable of doing.

It's very similar to the story in the Gospels. Jesus was in a synagogue of the Jews on the Sabbath day, and there was a man there with a withered hand. I want to suggest to you that he probably tried to stretch forth his withered hand every morning of his life, and it never worked. Then Jesus commanded him, "Stretch forth your withered hand." All of a sudden, the man stretched forth his withered hand. What happened in that moment? With Jesus's command came the enabling power to accomplish it.

Jesus says to you and to me, "Love one another as I have loved you." I am wholly incapable of doing that in and of myself, but by His power, we have the ability to do so. As we walk in love, what is evidenced to this world? The very nature of the invisible God becomes visible.

All of the commandments of God can be reduced down to two. A story is told in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 22, where a lawyer came to Jesus. A lawyer was an expert in the Hebrew law. The first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch, which is the law of God. Most of the time, when people hear of the law of God, they think of the big ten, the Ten Commandments. However, the real lawyers of the Old Testament law, like the one who came to Jesus in Matthew 22, knew that there were 613 laws prescribed in the first five books of the Bible.

You and I may know maybe ten, or perhaps a few more, but 613 is a lot of law that you and I have broken without even realizing it. This man came to Jesus and asked, "What is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." The second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." He was quoting from Deuteronomy chapter six and Leviticus chapter nineteen. Then He said this: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

So, all of the law can be summed up in two commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

And love your neighbor as yourself. All 613 laws are summed up in that, but not just the law. He said in this, all of the commandments and the prophets are fulfilled. What are the prophets? They are the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Haggai, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and down the list to Habakkuk and Malachi. All of what they have to say, Jesus said, can be wrapped up in this: love God and love one another.

You might say, "Well, I don't even know what Zephaniah says." Well, I can sum it up for you: love God and love one another. That makes it rather simple. Then Paul says in Galatians chapter five, verse 14, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself." So, we sum it all up in one word: love.

Now, that can be problematic because we have a misunderstanding of what love is. Therefore, we have to go back to the Scripture and ask, "What is meant when God says that?" This is what we've been doing in First John. By this, we know love: that He laid down His life for us, and we also have to lay down our lives for others.

When we fulfill the command, we read in First John four, look at verse 13: "By this, we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit." And the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love. We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Point number four: the abiding presence of God's love in my life assures me of my connection to Him. This is very important. The abiding presence of God's love in me gives me assurance of my connection to God. How do I know that? Well, First John four, verse 13 says, "By this, we know that we abide in Him." By what? By love being manifested in my life. It reveals that I am plugged into and connected to God.

There are two assurances that John gives in First John.

Two assurances that I am given, that you are given, and that we are connected to God are righteousness and love. These two things will prove to you and prove to me, giving me sure and steadfast confidence that I'm plugged into Him.

Where do we see that? First John, chapter two, verse three. Look at this, just two pages back: "By this, we know." You might want to underline those words. "By this, we know that we know God if we keep His commandments." What’s that? The assurance that I know God is righteousness. "By this, we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments."

Verse five, just two verses later, states, "But whoever keeps God's word, truly the love of God is perfected in him." And "by this, we know that we are in Him." How do I know that I know God? How do I know that I'm plugged into God? Love and righteousness. The evidence of these two gives me assurance that God is in me.

Now, skip down to First John, chapter three, verse eighteen. "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." It’s not just saying, "I love you, man." It’s the evidence of love, which is what? Laying down my life for others, as stated in First John three, sixteen.

So, First John three, eighteen continues: "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." And "by this, we know that we are of the truth." By this, we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given to us. And what’s the fruit of the Spirit? Love.

Then, in First John five, one, we read, "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."

So, what is the assurance that I have that I'm plugged into God? Righteousness and love. These two things I cannot produce apart from God's power working in me.

It proves to me that I am connected to God when I see the overflow of His power, helping me to walk in rightness. What is righteousness? It is rightness before God and the demonstration of love. Both of these things come from God.

Religion says you need to try to make yourself right before God, and some of you live religiously trying to do that. This leads to great frustration and a lot of despair because you can't possibly do it in and of your own strength. It's like the man with the withered hand trying to stretch forth his withered hand without the enabling power of Jesus. However, when God is in you by His Holy Spirit, He enables you to love and to walk in rightness. He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure, as stated in Philippians chapter two, verse 13.

In 1 John chapter four, verse 17, it says, "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world." There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. He who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.

What is John saying? Simply this: God's love demonstrated in the past, specifically through Jesus on the cross, brings me assurance in the present. Right now, I can have assurance that I am abiding in God and that He is abiding in me. His presence of love in my life gives me assurance in the present, and this is the joy that we have. It gives us boldness for the future.

What exactly does that mean? Look at what John said in verse 17: "Love has been perfected among us in this, so that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." How many of you, at some point in your life—maybe today or in times past—have felt fearful about the potential of future judgment? Come on, be honest. Why do you have that fear? Many modern Westerners will say you have that fear because you live under this oppressive, patriarchal Christian culture that has forced you to have this view, this fear of judgment. But there is no fear of judgment.

You don't need to be afraid of that judgment. I want to suggest to you that the fear of judgment is actually written upon your very psyche by God, who created you. Yes, it is also accentuated by a culture that has 2,000 years of history that says that's what the Scriptures teach, but it's written upon the heart of humanity. This recognition of moral accountability and this concern for the day of judgment raise questions about what happens in a culture when you remove any moral responsibility.

People walk into Walmart and shoot 21 people when they have no moral responsibility, no moral culpability. They think, "I'm not going to answer to anybody someday. No big deal." I suggest to you that removing that cultural piece could have bad consequences. Do a little study of history, and you'll see that this is the truth.

But if I have received the love of God in Jesus Christ, I can have boldness in the day of judgment. Why would I have boldness in the day of judgment? Is it because I'm so perfect? No. Is it because I've kept the law so well? No. I have boldness in the day of judgment because of what Christ has done for me.

This is what happens when the Jehovah's Witness or the Latter-day Saint comes and knocks on your door on a Saturday morning, wanting to talk to you about the Watchtower Society or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is the major thing that they do not have in their faith. They are good moral people, have good families, and do a lot of great things. They tithe, they go on missions, and they do amazing things in the world.

What do they not have? They do not have assurance. And why are they knocking on your door? To hopefully get assurance. So I always ask them, "Are you knocking on my door because of your concern for me or your concern for yourself?" If they're honest, they have to say, "I'm knocking on your door because I need to do good works, hoping that those good works will save me."

Why? Because the Book of Mormon says you are saved by grace after all you can do. I, on the other hand, am saved by the grace of God as demonstrated in the love of Jesus Christ on the cross. Therefore, I have boldness in the day of judgment. Why? Because I'm so good? No, because He loved me.

So we have boldness in the day of judgment. Fear involves torment. Fear involves punishment, as John says, but Christ bore my punishment and your punishment on the cross.

If you're afraid of future torment and punishment, and are not very confident about your position with God today, you have not received the fullness of the love of God, the perfection of God's love. Paul, in Romans chapter 3, said, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." A few chapters later, in Romans 6, he says, "For the wages of sin is death." But God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, as stated in Romans 5:8, Christ died for us. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, Romans chapter 10, verse 9 tells us that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." In verse 13, it continues, "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Saved from what? Sin, death, and the wrath of God. Because Jesus bore my sin, died on the cross, and took God's wrath upon Himself, you and I could receive grace and forgiveness. This is the demonstration of the love of God, and this is good news.

This is the message that we are given to share with the people all around us who are in desperate need of the love and grace of God to bring them back into connection with God and connection with one another. And that's what He has given to us. We can have assurance now and boldness in the future because He has dealt with our past wrongs. Such good news!

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, thank You for the truth of the scriptures. We thank You, Jesus, that You make it possible for us to know assurance and boldness, confidence, that we would have hope and joy. God, we thank You for what You give to us in Christ.

We thank You that You have demonstrated Your love towards us, Jesus, and that while we were still sinners, You died in our place. If we trust in You and call upon You, You will rescue and save us.

Lord, we praise You today. I pray that You would help us to rejoice in the good news of the Gospel, to have assurance, boldness, and peace in believing. In Jesus' name, amen.