876. Divine Love on Display

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, Dr. Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University, is continuing a study series entitled Truth and Love, which is a study of the book of 1st John.

There's a study booklet available that Dr. Pettit has written for this series. If you would like to follow along, you can order a printed copy from the website thedailyplatform.com. Let's now listen to today's message entitled, Divine Love on Display. We're going to read here in 1st John chapter 4 verses 9 and 10 in just a moment, but I'd like to begin with an illustration as we prepare our hearts and minds to receive the truth that we find here concerning the love of God today. One of the most famous conflicts in church history took place in the 5th century between two men. Their names were Pelagius and the second man's name was Augustine. Both of these men were spiritual leaders.

Pelagius was from Great Britain and Augustine was from North Africa. Pelagius traveled to Rome and upon his arrival, he was so shocked by the moral depravity of the people that he began to fervently teach and preach a very strict rigid moralism calling the people to a purity of life. In his teaching, he emphasized the natural innate human ability and autonomy to attain salvation, that is that you can change yourself.

His view of man's nature was that he was basically good and therefore he could earn salvation without the internal workings of God's grace. Now when Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, and Hippo is a town and what we know is a city today in Algeria in North Africa, when he looked into what Pelagius was actually teaching, he realized that for all of his Christian language, Pelagius had fundamentally misunderstood the nature of God and the nature of the gospel. For Pelagius was teaching that we had done wrong things, we understand that, and we must start doing right things if we're going to enter into heaven. It did not seem to have occurred to Pelagius that man was created to actually know and to love God. And thus for Pelagius the aim of the Christian life was not to enjoy God, but it was to use God as the one who sells us heaven for the price of being moral.

Augustine obviously saw things very differently. Knowing that the nature of God is love, he held that we were not created simply to live under God's moral code, hoping for heaven. But we were made to have an all satisfying relationship with God where we actually find rest and satisfaction in Him.

Or as the Westminster Confession of Faith states, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Moreover, Augustine said that man's problem is not so much that we behave wrong, it's that we love wrong. Augustine argued that since we are made in the image of the God of love, then everything that we do is motivated by love. And he reached back to the very beginning to Adam and Eve and why they disobeyed God. They sinned because they love something else more than they loved God.

And Augustine showed that our profound need was not what Pelagius was teaching when he urged us to alter our behavior. What we need is a new heart that causes us to love and obey God. Now this entire section of 1 John chapter 4 that we are studying is teaching us that the motivating force and the driving cause behind everything that we do in our life as a believer should be love. Look at verse 7, he said, beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.

He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. Last week we focused on the love of God and we saw two things. Number one, that God's nature is love. Everything that God does is motivated out of love. Secondly, the believer's nature, his new heart, is a heart of love.

So that all of our actions should be motivated either out of a love for God or a love for man. Now this morning we're going to look at verses 9 and 10 where John gives us a deeper dive into understanding God's love. And that is God has communicated his love to us and he has displayed to us his divine love. So my message this morning is entitled Divine Love on Display.

And let's read verses 9 and 10. It says, and this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now what is John saying here?

Basically it's this, that it is designated point in time in human history. There was something that happened in human history, a special event where the God of the universe put his love on display to the world. And he did it in such a way that every human being on earth can get a grip on and a handle on the love of God. God did it in such a way that we can all understand it.

Look at verse 9. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that. The this statement is interpreted by the that clause and what God is doing is he is telling us how it is that God has displayed his love.

And we see that this morning in two specific ways. Number one, God's love was displayed to us through Christ's incarnation. And this was manifested the love of God towards us because that.

And then he says into the world that we might live through him. I think it's helpful to say that with the right emphasis. Now we do this all the time to emphasize a point.

So let's say it with an emphasis. He did that. I can't believe he would do that.

I have never ever ever heard of anything like that. What he is doing is pointing to something that happened. And what did God do? It says he sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. The word sent there is the word for apostle. It refers to somebody being sent out on a missionary. You could say that Jesus was a missionary sent by heaven's mission board. The father reached out to the world by sending his son down to this earth.

And the word sent is in the perfect tense which means something takes place at a point in time and yet its effect continues to this very hour. The effects of God sending his only begotten Son in the past is that people are still finding life in him today. He says that we might live through him. That is that action of God sending his son is the way in which we can find life in meaning today. So what does the word only begotten Son mean? It's one of those words that of course many of us have memorized John 3 16 and other verses but maybe not really grasp the meaning. The word only begotten is one word in the Greek. It's the word monogenes.

It comes from two words the word mono which means only or alone and the word genomai the verb which means to become. Defined it means one and only, unique, special, one of a kind, not another one like him. God sent into this world his unique special one of a kind not another like him.

He sent him into the world. So the question is what is it that made Jesus so special in the idea of only begotten? I think our natural response would say it's referring to Christ's unique conception.

That is Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin and I don't think that that's a bad answer but I think there's a better answer and that is the subject here is not Christ. The subject is the Father. It is the Father who sent into the world his only begotten Son and I believe that it is referring to what made Jesus special and that is he was the Father's he was the son of the Father's love. It's referring to the unique affection that God had for his own son. It's very interesting that this word monogenes is found nine times in the New Testament. Five of those times it refers to Jesus and only John used the word John 1 14, 1 18, 3 16, 3 18 and 1 John 4 9.

The other four times however it describes the unique relationship between a parent and a child and let me just make note of those those four illustrations. The first one is the widow of Nain and her son who died that Jesus raised from the dead and in Luke 7 and verse 12 it reads now when he came nigh to the gate of the city behold there was a dead man carried out the only son of his mother or the monogenes of his mother. The second illustration is in Luke 8 verse 41 where it's referring to a man named Jairus and his daughter. Verse 41 and behold there came a man named Jairus and he was a ruler of the synagogue and he fell down at Jesus's feet and besought him that he would come into his house for he had one only daughter. His daughter was a monogenes unique special one-of-a-kind and then the third illustration is a father who had a demon-possessed son. Most everybody who has a father who's a father and has at least more than one son feels like at least one of his sons are demon-possessed and you can understand that. Luke 9 38 and behold a man of the company cried out saying master I beseech thee look upon my son for he is my only child.

He is my monogenes. Now all of these illustrations center on a broken-hearted parent who uniquely loved their suffering child. The widow of Nain and her dead son. Jairus's daughter and his dead daughter.

Jairus and his dead daughter. The father who had a demon-possessed son they were all loved their suffering children and Jesus who is the beloved son showed them the father's love by healing them. But there's a fourth illustration that speaks not so much of the suffering child but of the suffering father and that's found in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 17 it says by faith when Abraham was tried by faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son. That's really unique to me that Isaac is called Abraham's only begotten son. No doubt Isaac had a unique conception.

I mean his father and mother were past childbearing years because dad was 100 and mama was 90. So obviously when he was born it was a unique conception but the focus of the Old Testament is actually the father's affection and we see that in Genesis chapter 22 when God comes to Abraham and tells him I want you to offer your son as a sacrifice and the words of the scripture are poignant. Listen to what it says take your son your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. How much did Abraham love Isaac?

I don't know. When his son was born dad's a hundred years old so he's kind of like the ultimate grandfather on steroids. His whole life was wrapped up in that boy but we don't really need to imagine all we need to do is take what God says for he says take your only son whom you love and if God said you love him you love him. The Septuagint reads and he said take thy son the beloved one whom thou has loved. Isaac was Abraham's unique special one-of-a-kind son whom Abraham loved but Abraham showed the depths of his love for God by being willing to offer his son as a sacrifice and I think that what God is doing through these illustrations is that God is transparently opening up his heart.

You and I understand this. We have surface conversation with people and then we have open-hearted conversation where we just sort of open up the inside and show you what's there and that is exactly what God has done for us. He opens his his heart to show to all the depths of his own love for us and how did he do that he sent his own son his unique special son of his love so that you and I through him can enter into eternal life and have a relationship with the Father and the Son.

John Stott said no greater gift was conceivable because no greater gift was possible. Never before was God's love so dynamically displayed as it was in the fact that he sent his son into the world so that you and I can live. If you ever question God's love all you have to do is look at Jesus for he is the demonstration of the Father's heart but then I want you to notice secondly that God's love was displayed not only in the incarnation of Jesus coming into this world but secondly love was displayed through Christ's propitiation. Look at what the scripture says in verse 10 here in his love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Here is love. Here's how God demonstrates it. At a point in time in human history God's Son became the propitiation for our sins. Now John's already mentioned that in 1st John 2 verse 2 he says he's the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. So exactly what does propitiation mean? Again it's a biblical word that we need to understand.

Perhaps the simplest way to define the words meaning is through an illustration. What is the illustration? It's the Jewish day of atonement in the Old Testament for on that day the high priest of Israel offered two goats as a sacrifice for the sins that Israel had committed against God. The first goat was killed.

His blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat in the room called the Holy of Holies for a reason and that is to satisfy God's wrath and anger against sin. The goat bore the guilt satisfied the law and took the wrath of sin in his own death. But then there's a second goat and that goat is commonly called the scapegoat. This goat had the sins of the people transferred to his head when the high priest laid his hands on the head of the goat and confessed the sins of the Jewish people thus transferring or what we would say imputing the sins to this goat. The goat was then sent out into the wilderness to show that God had removed the sin and he remembers the sin no more.

So these two goats clearly picture the idea of propitiation. Number one, that is that propitiation means to satisfy the wrath of God through death. God's justice against sin demands satisfaction and that satisfaction can only come through death.

The innocent dying for the guilty. When Jesus died on the cross, he suffered the wrath of God against himself. He took it upon himself but what was he taking?

He was taking your deserved wrath. But then secondly, propitiation means to take the sin away just like that goat who was sent out into the wilderness removing the sin so God has forever removed our sin and taken away so no longer are we living under guilt and bondage but the power that sin has been broken and has been removed. The book of Hebrews makes it clear that no animal sacrifice can atone for sins. It says for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. It is in the only begotten Son of God that we find full atonement for our sins. The propitiation of Jesus means that the wrath of God was fully exhausted and the removal of sin is totally complete through and by Jesus Christ.

How do I know that God loves me? I need to look at the cross. The cross is the demonstration. It is the testimony. It's God putting it out visible. God opening his heart and saying I've forgiven you and justice has been satisfied. So let me ask you a question. How important is it that we preach on the incarnation and the propitiation of Jesus?

I mean it's life for us. What happens if we remove the preaching on the atonement? What does that mean today? What if we shallow down or water down the Word of God where we de-emphasize the message to the point that this is not the core of our preaching? When we water down the message and incarnation and propitiation is not being preached then people don't really understand the love of God. Here is love vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood. When the prince of life I ransom shed for us his precious blood. On the mount of crucifixion fountains open deep and wide through the floodgates of God's mercy float a vast and gracious tide. Grace and love like mighty rivers poured incessant from above and heaven's peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in love. So here's what John is doing.

He says I want you to dive deeply into this. That God has displayed his love for us by sending his son through the incarnation and through his suffering on the cross through the propitiation of Christ. That's God's love on displayed and here is John's what I call his arresting point and that is God displays this love to those who don't love him. Can I say this morning why it is that we're so bad? It's not just because we break God's laws and we do bad things.

Do you know why we're so bad? Because actually we really don't love God. We really don't. You say well who do we love? We love ourselves. John in 1st John uses a word to describe our love for self. He calls it lust.

The lust of the eyes, what we see, the lust of the flesh, what we feel, the pride of life, what we want to become. And here's what's amazing is that the world does not love God. It has never loved God. It will never love God.

It's not even capable of loving God. There is nothing in us that naturally loves God. Neither is there anything else that would naturally cause God to love us.

God is not drawn to us because of what he sees in us in the sense that he sees the good that is in us. John is saying that God loves those who did not, could not, and would not love him because we love ourselves more and yet despite all this God still loves us. God doesn't love you because you're good. God loves you because he's God. God is love. Love emanates from his nature. God set his love upon us.

It was his choice. It was out of his heart and what John is continuously doing is zeroing in on our own motivations. Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another.

And what should be the result of this? How is it that we should exemplify that love? And the answer is by doing exactly what Jesus did. Jesus came into the world on mission.

Do you know what? Our lives should have a mission to it, a purpose. Look, either you're gonna live for yourself or you're gonna live for God's glory. We should, we should in this world live on mission. Jesus came into the world and what did he do? He sacrificially gave himself. What should be our mission in life? It is the giving of ourselves to reach out to the world so that people could live through him. Jesus Christ is the ultimate missionary.

I'm not speaking of full-time missions or me going to a mission field as a missionary who's raising fund support. I'm just saying mission of life. That whether you're a doctor or whether you're a dentist or whether you're a lawyer or a businessman or an accountant or a nurse or a teacher or whatever you're doing in this world, the mission that we should be on is the exact mission that Jesus had and that is to give ourselves in love sacrificially why that others might live through him. That's love and that's the only thing that will really motivate me in life to live, the love of God. Father, thank you that you came and you displayed to us your love. You helped us understand it.

You put it in such a way that we could comprehend it and get a grip on your love because of what your son did. Father, I pray for each one of us that we would live on mission, that we would give ourselves sacrificially so that others might live. In Jesus' name, amen. You've been listening to a sermon from the book of 1st John by Dr. Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University. If you would like to order the study booklet titled Truth and Love written for this series, visit our website at thedailyplatform.com. I'm Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Thank you for listening to The Daily Platform. If you're looking for a regionally accredited Christian liberal arts university, I invite you to consider BJU, which is purposely designed to inspire a lifelong pursuit of learning, loving, and leading. For more information about Bob Jones University, visit bju.edu or call 800-252-6363. Thanks again for listening. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this study in 1st John on The Daily Platform.