Love One Another

Today, we're talking about your love of God, why it's so important, and how we as the people of God should respond to it. Let's open to 1 John, chapter 4. Follow along, amen.

How many of you this morning are grateful that God's love never fails? Amen. Would you stand with me and take out your Bibles today? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are in the New Testament of the Bible, which is the last third of the Bible, and very near the end, in a little book called 1 John. If you open to the very last book, the book of Revelation, and then turn just a little bit to the left, you'll find 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.

We are actually going to be talking about the love of God this morning in a section that may be familiar to some of you, especially if you were ever involved in children's ministry at a church.

1 John, chapter 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." 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 testify 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, and God's 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.

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.

So God, would You speak and teach us? Speak to and 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 First 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...

Failing in this endeavor has rarely been accomplished in the last six months. In this room, we have been moving rather slowly through this passage. 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 this section of Scripture that we just read through, which he has been discussing 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. If you turn to First John chapter 4 and then just a couple of chapters to the left to chapter 2, you can look at First 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, First John 3:1 states, "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, First John chapter 3, verse 11, we read, "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; it is also the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures, specifically found in Leviticus chapter 19, which contains this command to love one another. However, 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 First John chapter 3. First John 3:16 says, "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, just two verses later, in verse 18, he writes, "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Finally, in verse 23 of First John 3, we find this commandment: God's commandment that we should believe.

On the name of the Son of Jesus, His Son Jesus Christ, we are called to 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."

It's good to commit truth to memory and to reflect on these important teachings. These truths form the core of the Christian faith and the gospel, and they teach us principles that we need to hold dear in our minds and hearts.

This 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, emphasizing this theme repeatedly.

What fascinates me is that in the last few weeks, I have been discussing the importance of identifying false teachers, dividing from them, and separating from those who bring in false truths. Because of our misunderstandings of what love is, some people might say that it sounds very unloving to separate from or disassociate with others. They argue that there needs to be discernment and discrimination, and sometimes people react by saying that it doesn't sound loving.

We live in a culture that claims love is most perfectly revealed through constant acceptance of everything and everyone. However, that is not what is taught in this passage.

Scripture teaches that Christians are to love one another in response to God's great love. But 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 calls them to identify with, associate with, and manifest in their own lives.

1 John 3:16 continues, "Because He laid down His life for us." Jesus laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. John reiterates this truth again, promoting this reality in 1 John chapter 3. 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.

In verse 9, we read, "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. The word "propitiation" means the payment for our sins. 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 and remove its stain since sin first entered the world. How do we know that? Genesis chapter 3 describes the first time sin entered the world and death 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 not to eat of that tree. Their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked, so 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? However, 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 inadequate. So, God sent forth His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, the payment for our sins.

Demonstration of God's love is essential. 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's not a novel or fresh truth that I'm bringing forward; for many of you, it's not at all unfamiliar. You've heard this many times before, and the reason you've heard it so often 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—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've heard that somewhere because it's so deeply embedded in American 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's called the doctrine of the Trinity, which I don't 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, and now they say love is God. Essentially, that's how we live. We live in a culture today that thinks love is really God. The supreme form of love for most of our culture is sexual intimacy, and they say that this 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. The further we move away from these truths—the nature of God, and not only that God is love, but also what God did according to His love, which is that Christ died for us—the more I believe we will see the wickedness of man show through. We have seen 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.

The absence of this truth—God is love, and God's love is manifested through Jesus's sacrifice for us on the cross—highlights our response or responsibility in light of that love. The further we move away from this reality, the more frequently we will see things happen like what occurred in our nation last weekend and the weekend before. These events will continue to happen because we are distancing ourselves from this truth.

I am not saying that the horrible atrocities that happen 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 last week in the Federalist by someone named Fame Bela Mo. 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, and a God who loved you in 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. Bela Mo 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 thought, "That's exactly what we're seeing 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 human history, yet we see a rise in isolation, depression, anxiety, despondency, drug abuse, and death. Why? Because something core to who we are and what we need has been removed.

When we talk about gun violence, just about no one discusses 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. Their decline is not just 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.

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, to help us understand right from wrong, and to imbue us with a sense of moral clarity that will hold us up during desperate times that we all will face.

As he finishes up his article, he says, "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 happens 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. 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. His last line of the article says, "Destroy the family, abandon the community, raise the church to the ground. What could go wrong?" Everything.

These truths are very important. Some people question them. A few years ago, a couple of days before Christmas, I found a big box on my front doorstep. In that box was a new computer. Those who know me know that I kind of have a thing for Apple products: an Apple Watch, an Apple iPhone, an Apple iPad, and an iMac in my office, along with a laptop computer. You could say I have too much.

So, what computer do you give a guy who already has all those devices? I opened it up, and it was a Macintosh 512, the second edition of a Macintosh. It's practically useless, but it still worked. You could turn it on, and it was like, "Wow, it's a computer!" It beeped, and it had those floppy disks—remember those things? It was interesting, but practically useless. More and more, that's how our society feels.

Culture used to view this as interesting; it kind of shows us where we came from. That's what that Macintosh Feld's 512 does—it shows us our origins. However, it's practically useless. This reflects what our culture says about the truth we find in Scripture. I want to suggest to you that the things in Scripture are important, and we see their value in our own society as it moves further away from the truth of the Scriptures.

In this passage of Scripture, 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. Conversely, if a person is not connected to God, what should we see? If God is love—that is His very nature—and love flows from Him, then those who are connected to Him display love. If a person is separated from God, what will you see? You will see a lack of love.

What do we see in our culture? That is what you observe. 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 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, as stated in Romans 5:8—then my understanding of that truth will reveal itself in the way that I love other people. Why? Because love is of God, and if I am of God, everyone who is born of God loves others because God is love.

So, at issue here is the very nature of God.

Point number two in your outline: Christians love as an expression of God's character. I have returned to this point several times as we have been going through the teachings of the Apostle Paul in his letter to a church.

In Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, it says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love." He uses the word "fruit" in the singular form, indicating that the evidence of God's Spirit is love. From love flows joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and so on. However, chiefly, supremely, and solely, the fruit of the Spirit is love. Though it's metaphorical and poetic language, the term "fruit" simply means evidence. Therefore, the evidence that God's Spirit is in my life will be love, and that love will produce joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control in me and in others.

We cannot see God, as the Scriptures say, because God is Spirit and because God is holy. Humanity cannot see God because He is Spirit and holy, and 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 a 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, all people will 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, and we also ought to lay down our lives for others. Therefore, in 1 John 4:11, it states, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." It is important to note the words "ought to." You might want to circle those words in your neighbor's Bible just to ensure it's done.

In fact, 1 John 4:11 emphasizes that 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 1 John 4:11, when it says, "Beloved, if God so loved us," the word "if" could also be translated as "since," and it is translated as "since" in the New Living Translation and the New International Version.

Version so it reads like this in the New International Version (NIV): Dear friends, since God so 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 even count us as enemies—what follows? Well, look at 1 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.

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 get an 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 with those who are outside.

So yes, you cannot see God because He is spirit and because He is holy, but you can see His presence in the life of His people through the love that He is revealing. He desires to show Himself, 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." You could actually read that as God living through us, and His love is brought to its full expression in us.

It is most clearly evident 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.

Now, what follows? Point number three on your outline: the invisible God becomes...

Visible through His tangible love expressed in His people, no one has seen God at any time. He is invisible, and this is a problem for modern Westerners who disbelieve the metaphysical and supernatural. They 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. If I just had more evidence." This sentiment echoes the great atheist Bertrand Russell, who, when asked nearing the end of his life what he would say to God if he were wrong and stood before Him, replied, "I will tell God You did not give me enough evidence."

We may chuckle at this, but it reflects the views of many people today who disbelieve in the reality of God. They often say, "Well, I just don't see the evidence." So, what is the supreme evidence? John says it is the evidence of love, which is quite phenomenal. We all recognize the difference between the person who believes in God and the person who does not. You cannot prove the existence of love through a scientific experiment; it is not empirically verified. Yet, we know it's there. We realize it's there, and we see the effects of it.

God is revealing His nature to us. The invisible God becomes visible through His tangible love expressed in His people. Since this is true, it makes sense that Jesus would command His disciples to love one another as He has loved us. It is not a suggestion. He doesn't 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 that you and I, in and of ourselves, are unable to fulfill them. 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. This is very similar to the story in the Gospels, where Jesus was in a synagogue of the Jews on the Sabbath day.

There was a man there with a withered hand, and Jesus commanded the man to stretch forth his withered hand. I want to suggest to you that I assume 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," and 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. So Jesus says to you and 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. The story is told in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 22. 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; that's 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. But really, 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 know maybe ten, maybe a few more, but 613? There’s a lot of law that you and I have broken, and we didn't even realize we were breaking it. So this man comes to Jesus and asks, "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 is quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and Leviticus chapter 19.

Then He said this: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 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? It's the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Haggai, Zephaniah, Zechariah—go down the list.

Habakkuk and Malachi, along with all the other prophets, convey a central message that Jesus summarized: love God and love one another. You might say, "Well, I don't even know what Zephaniah says." I can sum it up for you: love God and love one another. That makes it rather simple.

Paul reinforces this in Galatians 5:14, stating that all the law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." So, to sum it all up, it comes down to love. However, this can be problematic because we often misunderstand what love truly is. Therefore, we need to return to Scripture to understand what is meant when God speaks of love.

In 1 John, we find clarity: "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for others." When we fulfill this command, we read in 1 John 4:13, "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit." The fruit of the Spirit is love. We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as the 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, 1 John 4:13 states, "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 1 John—two assurances that I am given, that you are given, that we are connected to God. These two things will prove to you and to me and give me sure and steadfast confidence that I am plugged into Him: one is righteousness.

The first evidence of love is found in 1 John 2:3. It states, "Now by this we know." You might want to underline those words: "by this we know that we know God if we keep His commandments." The assurance that I know God is righteousness.

In verse five, just two verses later, it says, "But whoever keeps God's word, truly the love of God is perfected in him." 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 are the evidence of these two, which gives me assurance that God is in me.

Now, skip down to 1 John 3:18. It says, "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." It is not just about saying, "I love you, man." The evidence of love is laying down my life for others, as stated in 1 John 3:16.

So, in 1 John 3:18, it continues, "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." By this, we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. How do I have confidence and assurance of heart that I know God and that God knows me? It is through righteousness and love.

In 1 John 3:24, it says, "Now he who keeps God's commandments abides in God, and God in him." By this, we know—there it is again—that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given to us. And what is the fruit of the Spirit? Love.

Then, in 1 John 5:1, it states, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who has 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 righteousness. What is righteousness? It is rightness before God.

To show love, both of those things come from God. Now, religion says you need to try and make yourself right before God. Some of you have lived religiously, trying to do that, and you know that it 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.

But when God is in you by His Holy Spirit, He enables you to do what? To love and to walk in rightness because He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).

In 1 John 4:17, 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, through Jesus on the cross, brings me assurance in the present. Right now, I can have assurance that I am abiding in God and 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 1 John 4:17: "Love has been perfected among us in this, so that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." Now, how many of you, at some point in your life—maybe today, maybe in times past—have been fearful about the potential of future judgment? Come on, be honest. Why do you have that fear?

A lot of 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's no need to be afraid of that judgment. I want to suggest to you that that fear of judgment is actually written upon your heart.

Very psyche by God who created you. Yes, it is also accentuated by a culture that has 2,000 years of cultural history that says that's what the Scriptures teach. However, it's written upon the heart of humanity—this recognition of moral accountability and this concern for the Day of Judgment.

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 that's 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, that's not it. 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 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, go on missions, and do amazing things in the world.

What do they not have? They do not have assurance. 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're saved by grace after all you can do. But I am saved by the grace of God, as demonstrated by 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 sins.

Punishment, your punishment on the cross. If you're afraid of future torment, future 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, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, Romans chapter 10, verse 9 states, "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" (verse 13). "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.

That's what He has given to us, so we can have assurance now and boldness in the future because He has dealt with our past wrongs. It's 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 that we'd have joy. God, we thank You for what You give to us in Christ. We thank You that You've 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 that good news of the Gospel, to have assurance, boldness, and peace in believing. It may be that as we stand here this morning, some of you are still fearful of judgment. You may be concerned and feel that you don't have that peace, confidence, or assurance in believing that Jesus died on the cross to deal with all of our sin, all of our punishment, and to make us whole in Christ.

If you would like to receive the grace of God, the forgiveness of God today, I want to give you an opportunity to do that. Paul, in Romans chapter 10, said, "Whoever calls upon the Lord shall be saved." If you'd like to call upon the Lord today in faith through prayer, would you just lift up your hand high so I can see?

I see you in the back. Anyone else? God bless you there in the middle. Lift up your hand high so I can see it. Say, "I need the grace of God and His forgiveness." Jesus said if you call upon Him, He will not put you to shame.

So if that's you, would you just pray with me where you're at? Dear Jesus, I know I cannot deal with my own sin. I thank You that You died on the cross for me and that You rose from the dead so that You could give me new life. I pray that You'd come into my life, that You would forgive me of my sin, and that You'd help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.