TEXT: 1John 4:7-11 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 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 has 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.

Also see Romans 5:6-9 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1. First John is called the "epistle of love."

2. John addresses his readers as "beloved" 5 times. He also uses the term 3 times in his

third letter. The term is found 62 times in the New Testament.

3. This is fitting coming the disciple of love.

4. Love verses

a) John 13:34-35- "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I

b) John 15:9-17 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

c) Mark 12:29-30 - Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is:

5. One means of blessed assurance is the fact that God loves you enough to give His own

Son in exchange for your soul.

6. Since this is the case He's never going to stop loving

you.

7. Prodigal son was lost but his father still loved him and welcomed him back with

with open arms and a fatted calf when he decided to return!

I. When God made Man He Was Very Good (Gen. 1:31).

A. And because he was perfect, God gave him whatever his heart desired.

1. King of his environment (1:26).

2. Gave him someone special with whom to experience the fullness of that

paradise (2:20-22).

3.Gave him the privilege of fellowship with his Creator. Man did not have to seek

out God, God sought man (Gen. 3:9).

4. He was blessed with a nature above all other species - eternal spirit (1:26).

5. God made provision for his flesh to be rejuvenated (tree of life 2:9).

6. In essence, God in creating man, made him perfect & placed him in a

perfect environment.

1. What more could God do to make man happy?
2. He had given him the sun to wake him, a mate to share experiences, and the moon and stars to lull him to sleep at night.
3. God loved man and gave him the very best!

B. But Satan did not like God nor mans paradise and sought to wreck it. (today)

1. So he laid siege upon the object of man's supreme affection and appealed to her

vanity stating she could be like God.

a. Satan, in a round about way told the Eve that Adams God had cheated

both of them. You are not as smart as God, He gives you what is good and

bad for you. Did you get to make a choice in knowing whats in your best

interest? And, "I know something you dont - when you eat this beautiful,

succulent fruit, you wont die." "Go ahead try it,"

b. His words intrigued her - be like God! She liked what she saw,

enjoyed what she tasted, and offered it to her husband - and he did eat!

2. Then suddenly a strange thing occurred. They became as gods discerning good

from bad. And guess what - the first thing they discovered is that being naked

is not good! (Tell that to our society today and they will laugh at you).

3. Not only did they realize that they had become exposed and indecent,

they recognized they had violated the only negative command God gave them,

so they tried to hide from God.

a. Immediately they became separated from the God who loved them

and who sought them out daily to walk and talk with them.

4. And like a father who wishes to keep a good relation with his children

he calls out to them - "Adam, Adam come here. Let me see you....Adam?"

"We, we cant come out God," Adam replies. "Why not ?" God

asks. "We just cant, were naked" (shamefully).

5. Now God has a choice to make - start over or work with what he has made.

a. And because God loved his supreme creation, he decided to work

with what he had created.

b. You see if man was like a star that didnt function properly God could snuff

it out and put another in its place. If he were like a planet not keeping its

proper orbit, God could reach out and crush it and replace it with another.

c. But man is not some inanimate object. He was created in God's image, in his

likeness, with a spirit like unto Gods and because of this God loved the

man and did what was best for him - let him live!

C. No doubt God was displeased, but with a "tough" love he permitted man to suffer

the consequences of his sin.

1. Placing a burden on the woman of childbearing and rearing. There is

not a woman that will say that the only pain you will receive during your childs

life is only that of childbearing. There are the sleepless nights, anxious hours of

sickness, worries of schooling, the day they start driving, worry of the knock

on the door from the law (trouble or accident). Will they choose a good mate,

can they pay their bills, can they take care of their children.

2. Placing a burden on the man he said, "I gave you every convenience you could

imagine, now you are going to have to work until you drive yourself into the

ground for dust thou art and dust you will return." And man has become a

slave to himself, family, boss, country.

3. Then God removed them from paradise. Forbade them from eating of the tree

of rejuvenation and started their trek down the lone highway of death to the

grave.

4. Sounds harsh? Think how God felt because he had to impose those sanctions.

a. Loving parents take no pleasure in disciplining their children but they do

or their own good.

1. God loves his creation, but he is no push over. He is God, He is just,

A. So man began to sin, and he got real good at it.

1. Sin is transgression of law. God had given Adam moral laws to follow.

2. Man became vile and corrupt.

a. Shortly - we find the story of the first act of non love - murder.

B. Finally every imagination and thought of man was evil continually (Gen. 6:5).

1. It was said that it grieved God in his heart (6:6). He felt so bad about what had

happened to the object of his love that he even considered the annihilation of

the human species.

2. But Noah found grace.

C. So God in his great love and optimism for man provided a way that his species may

survive. - The flood.

A. Now the role shifts from God seeking after man to man seeking after God.

B. Man tries idol making (Jerm. 10:23) Man is incapable of getting it right by his own

wisdom. (Rom. 1:21-23)

C. Man tries practicing rituals and honoring sacred temples.

1. God gave people of faith a law, and ordinances to observe which would

help them to stay on the pathway of holiness and purity.

2. But men began placing more faith in the rules and rituals rather than

the God who gave them.

D. Then man said lets make us a church of our choice.

1. So they named their church after their leader or after some specific

doctrine they followed. They called their spiritual leaders Reverend, Pastor,

Father, Your Eminence, President and so on. They generated church after

church until there are thousands of them each with conflicting doctrines, none

of which even have a semblance of the church Jesus built.

E. And since man has tried every way to get back to God and failed, how can that

paradise fellowship be restored?

A. God asked His son to leave His eternal place in heaven to come to earth rescue

mankind, the object of God's love.

1. Jesus knowing fully the great love his Father has had for man throughout time

agreed to free man from the shackles and bondage of sin and reunite his Father

with his creation.

2. So he laid aside his robe of eternal glory and slipped into the filthy rags of

humanity. Paul said he humbled himself and became fashioned as a man.

3. Jesus knew that he must comply with all the regulations God gave man

in the O.T. or his mission would fail. If he failed, he too would become a sinner

and not worthy to redeem mankind.

B. While on earth, he showed himself a man approved of God.

1. Helped the helpless, cast out the demons, raised the dead. He proved that God

still lived, he cares and he loves man as he tells Philip, "If you see me you have

seen the Father."

2. While he walked among sinners he taught more clearly the meaning of truth,

righteousness, love, justice and mercy.

C. But man was not impressed nor did he want Gods help in restoring their broken

relationship.

1. They mocked Gods son, tested him, ridiculed him eventually accusing him of

blasphemy, and under the cover of darkness, like a pack of wild dogs, seized

the savior of humanity and put God before human courts trying him and

convicted Him as being worthy of death.

2. They crowned him with thorns, put purple on his back, a cane pole in his hand

and mocked him, crying, "Hail king of the Jews."

3. Next they strapped him to a pole and mercilessly beat him with a whip

till his back was a sea of blood and mangled flesh.

4. Afterward they took Emanuel placed a beam across his back and after

carrying it as far as his exhausted body would permit, fell beneath its weight.

5. The procession followed him up the trail of tears to the spot where they placed

him upon a cross and drove spikes though his hands and feet and stood back

to watch if Elijah or God would come down and rescue him.

D. But Jesus was not sent to be rescued, but to rescue man, the object of Gods great

love.

1. What composure Jesus and his Father held. He could have called

down 10,000 angels. He could have waved his hand and turned them into salt.

2. But our beloved savior had witnessed time and time again the sure mercies of

his Father. He could see the love in his Fathers face for fallen humanity. Jesus

was the only way to reconcile God to man so he held his tongue, he quelled

any anger or animosity he could have had toward his tormentors and cried -

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

E. When they pierced his side, one can imagine Satan in the background laughing with

all his demons.

1. Satan had bruised the head of Jesus. He had injured him, he had him killed.

"God you cant win. Your greatest weakness God is your inseparable love for

this miserable lot of flesh you call man. They are not worth saving now. They

killed your own son. Admit defeat God. Man hates you as much as I do. They

are mine! All mine!

F. And God held his peace and watched as they laid him in a borrowed tomb.

1. Evening passed - God was silent. The next evening passed - God continued to

hold his peace. But on the morning of the third day, God said, thats enough!

And he sent forth his mighty angel, rolled away the stone and presented his

Son alive crushing the head of Satan declaring Jesus has power over death,

hell and the grave.

2. AND GOD WAS BACK WITH HIS PEOPLE!

A. Just knowing about it wont save you.

1. Just being thankful for it wont take you to heaven.

2. Man must act upon Gods love.

B. Salvation has two parts - God has done his, Jesus his, the Holy Spirit each have done

their part. Man must do his, he must call upon the name of the Lord. How? Acts

22:16.

1. Calling upon the Lord requires that the receiver of Gods love must

Believe Jesus is the Christ the son of the Living God, that he lived, declared

God to man by many mighty deeds, and suffered an atoning death for all the

sins you commit.

2. Calling upon the Lord requires also that you are willing to change your

behavior, your friends of questionable character, your social habits which God

calls wrong, man must repent of his spiritual laziness and move in the direction

of love, justice and mercy.

3. Calling upon the Lord requires one to confess that Jesus is the very son of God

before men and a continuing confession throughout ones life.

4. Calling upon the Lord is completed when man does the one act which

unites him with Jesus and God. Baptism.

A. Paul said Gal 2:20...

B. Yes if you were the only person left on earth, Jesus died for you.

C. If the love of God will not motivate us to obey, no amount of the teaching on hell

would sway your heart.

D. Why do you delay? Why keep Jesus waiting? Come just as you are but

dont stay just as you were.

E. You want assurance of eternal life? How's this for assurance? God loves you!!