The Love of God for Us (1 John 4:7-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Music Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles, go to 1 John chapter 4. We've been working our way through the letter, 1 John, and we'll be on page 592 if you have one of the blue Bibles that's tucked under the seat in front of you. We are going to start in verse 7.
And we've made it. We've made it to the place in 1 John, the place in the Bible, where we're told that God is love. And if you live in the United States, which most of you do, we love this. The Western world loves this idea that God is love. Even people who don't really believe in God aren't Christians. They're fine with this idea.
They appreciate this idea. You'll hear things like, well, if there is a God, He's a God of love. Or you hear things like, well, all I know is that kind of the core of all faiths and all religions is that God is loving. Or people would say, well, if I was going to believe in a God, the only God I'm willing to believe in is a God of love. And so we've made it to that passage where we're going to learn about and talk about the love that God has for us. And this is good news.
This is a good morning for us to study this together and try to sit in this idea, to soak in the idea that God loves us. But we're going to see that John anchors this love of God, that he has the foundation of this love of God, that he rests this love of God on something that culturally we're less excited about. And when we say God is love, everybody goes, yes, yes, He is. And then we say, and we know that because, and we finish this out the way John finishes it out, our culture goes, ooh, no, stop it. And so we're going to get to see what John says is the anchor of this love. So let's go ahead and we'll pray and we'll jump in and discuss the love that God has for us and how we know this love.
So let's pray. Father, I don't think that conceptually we have a problem with the idea that you love us or that you're loving. I don't think that we have any kind of issue as we come this morning with the concepts that you in general are loving or that your disposition is loving. Lord, I do think that there's a good chance that personally some of us don't feel loved or that personally some of us have a hard time understanding how greatly we are loved or that practically we don't live as if this is true. And so Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit to minister this morning. That you would do a work this morning as we study your word, that it would come alive.
And that we would know the love of God that is for us. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. First John chapter four, verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
And anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. Now, we're going to spend the majority of today on this concept of God's love for us. And then next week, as we kind of study through this passage into the next passage, we're going to talk about this command for us to love one another. So today we're going to try to wrap our head around that he loves us first, that God has love for us. And then out of that, so he says, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
So he's anchoring this idea of us loving each other in the love that God has for us and the love that is God, that God is love, the character and nature of God. And so if you're here this morning, that's what we're going to talk about. And next week, we'll talk about our response and how we love one another. And some of you were like, that sounds great. I get to hear today that God loves me. And next week I was planning on having COVID.
So I won't be here for the stuff I'm supposed to do. So I'm glad to be here this morning. But they tie together, but we're going to look at this idea of God's love for us. So he says, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. This defining character trait of God is that he is loving. That when God Acts in love, in kindness, in mercy, when he pursues in love, when he has his position of love towards us, he's acting inside of his own character and his own nature.
And every example we've ever seen of love, every beautiful picture we've ever seen or experienced of love is all downhill from God because he is the fountainhead of love. That God is love and that love is from God. And what he's pointing, he's making here is that if we aren't loving, you can't say, you know, God, you can't say that he dwells in you. You can't say that you abide in him. You can't say that you're facing him. You can't say that he's redeemed your heart and changed your heart.
If you aren't loving. And so he's going to press on this idea of us loving one another. But let's keep following this idea that God is love. And therefore, as it is something that marks him, it's something that marks his people. That those who belong to God are loved and loving. That because we belong to him and because he's like this, we're like this.
I in seminary, I had a friend named Darby Jurels. And I remember he and I got along. We weren't the best of friends, but we talked in class. That's kind of how I've had a lot of friends, which is I'm your friend while I see you. And then as soon as you leave, I'll see you when I see you again. Kind of friendships.
I used to have friends in high school when summer came, they'd be like, see you when school starts because they knew they wouldn't see me all summer. And I'm sorry. That's the problem I have. But anyway, he's my friend in school and we were walking out leaving one day and his wife showed up and started unloading children from the car. And it was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. She she unloaded three boys and it was like you had taken Darby's face and just stamped it on a two year old, a four year old and a six year old.
And not like, oh, I could see how they're your children. And one day they'll grow up to look like you. No, like your little kids have little man faces. And it was amazing. And at that moment, I thought, I hope one day I have a child that runs around and looks exactly like me. It was like a life goal of mine when I saw this.
I mean, they looked so much like him, like he wouldn't have even been able to. Maury Povich wouldn't even let him on the show that he just said, we're not paying for a paternity test. Those years get out of here. But that's the way as Christians, we're supposed to look. If we belong to God and he is this loving, we're meant to look like him. It's meant to be stamped on us that we belong to him.
We love in this way that God is love. And therefore, it flows out of those who belong to him. But let's keep going, because this is where it takes a bit of a turn for us in our culture. And if you're familiar with the Bible, it doesn't. But if you've kind of bought into some of this idea of just a general love of God, it does.
So let's see. Verse. Nine. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us. We have to talk about the word manifest in just a second. That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
So John says, this is how we see it. This is how we know it. This is how, this is when love puts skin on. That we had these promises of God that he was loving. We had these promises in the Old Testament that his love was renewed. His love was everlasting.
That he had this love for us. And then we, in Christ, we see it. We know it. It was made manifest for us that God sent his only son so that in him we might live. In him we might have life. So the love of God is anchored in the person of Christ.
But it's not just the person of Christ. John's going to carry this further. So he says this. This is where it showed up. This is how we know it. This is how we, as he says at the beginning, we saw it.
We touched it. We felt it. We heard it. This is the love of God for us is that Jesus came so that we might live through him. Verse 10. In this is love.
Not that we have loved God. But that he has loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Okay, so there's a handful of things that we have to define and kind of unpack from that passage. First. First.
One of the beautiful bits of news here is that in this is love, not that we have loved God. That should wash over your soul and refresh and restore and give you hope. The promise of the love of God, of the hope of scriptures, that the declaration of what God has done for us is not. God loves those who love him. If you'll understand how holy he is and you'll change your life to pursue him, to follow him, he'll love you. He'll respond to your initiative.
If you'll see what he's like, if you'll change your behavior, if you'll turn from this, if you'll change how you are, if you'll become like this, if you'll... He'll love you. That's not what it says. It says in this is love. Not that we've loved God. But that he's loved us.
That's good news. It doesn't come from you. It's not initiated by you. It's not fixed by you. It's not solved by you. It's not recognized by you.
It's that he pursued us. That he chased us. That he came for us. That's how we know love. The other thing that he says is in this is love. He's about to define love for us.
And this is extremely helpful for us. Because we get this backwards culturally. It says God is love. And then we have to trust the Bible to define love for us. By who God is. But what we want to do is take our definition of love and decide that's who God is.
God is love. Love isn't God. We don't get to take our understanding of love and say, well, this is how God would act. Because this is how I understand love. This is how God would act towards me. This is how he would act towards others.
We don't get to do that. That we understand that God is love. So then we have to see how God Acts. And what he does. So that we can fill in our definition.
Learn the definition of love. And then he says this. We've already talked about this once as we went through 1 John. I'm glad he talks about it again. Because it is so good. In this is love.
So he's about to define love for us. Not that we've loved God. But that he's loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a wonderful reality for us in Christ. Propitiation is that Jesus was the atoning sacrifice that absorbed the wrath of God.
The atoning sacrifice that absorbed the wrath of God. Meaning that through Jesus he has made us right with God. He has been the sacrifice for our sins. And the wrath of God for sin was poured out on Jesus. So that in Jesus we're forgiven.
And loved. So this is how the Bible defines love for us. And pictures love for us. It says this. It says we have sin. Judgment and wrath.
Sacrifice and forgiveness. That you have sin. And I have sin. That we've actively worked to make the world worse. That we've stepped out of the bounds of what God designed for us. That we've messed things up.
That we've broken God's good design for the world. And that God Judges sin and sinners. And that there is wrath coming. We read this together. This idea that we were by nature children of wrath. But that God in his great mercy made a way out of that.
That there was sacrifice and forgiveness for us to redeem us from the wrath of God. God. So. You say. We know God is love. And really.
Nobody. If you meet one of your neighbors. And you're talking. And you say you're a Christian. They for a second. Might you know twitch a little bit.
They might not. But they might. And if you say. I just believe that God is love. They. They untwitch.
Okay good. And if you go. Because he sent Jesus. To take the wrath of God in our place. They retwitch. Like we.
We can gain and lose people. If you're doing a talk show. If you see someone say. Well I just believe that God's loving. And that he just. You know.
He sends out good. Energy. Sparkles into the universe. And every morning. I just soak him up. And I just know that he wants me to be happy.
Everybody goes. Yeah. And if you say. I know that God is love. Because he sent. His one and only son.
It's like. Well hey look. We're running out of time. There's technical difficulties. We got. This is where we lose people.
But this is where John anchors this. But I want. I want to take a second. And I just want to address the concept. Of a loving God. Without.
The sacrificial work of Christ. Which is a cultural concept. That we seem to be okay with. But I want to help. Point out. That that has no legs to stand on.
So I'm not addressing. This is this middle ground. Of there is a God. And he is loving. But without the sacrifice of Christ.
Without the effective. Manifested love of God. In the person and work of Christ. On the cross. We're going to remove that part. And we're going to talk through this.
First of all. The concept. That there is a God. Who is loving. Comes from your Bible. It does not come.
From anywhere else. There are no other world religions. That teach that. Islam teaches that God can be merciful. But not that he knows you personally.
Loves you. Cares about you. That you can talk to him. Like this personal relationship. Seems a little foreign. And in some ways.
Seems like it degrades God. Buddhism doesn't have a personal God. Most other cultures and religions. That have. Creation didn't come out of love. It came out of strife.
And struggle. There's. There's this idea. That we have a loving God. Comes from the Bible. First of all.
Also. You just wouldn't look at history. And pick that. None of you would look at your life. Or the way history is played out. And say obviously.
So this idea of a loving God. Comes from here. And then what happens is. He anchors it in the atonement. And when you remove the atonement. When you remove the work of Christ.
If he says. Work of Christ shows it. Love of God is displayed. And sets it on top. And if we remove that. Then we're just hoping.
That the love of God floats on its own. Without what was holding it up. To display it. And to show it. And to give us. So here's what happens.
You remove. Sacrifice and forgiveness. But you're going to still have God. Now you need to remove sin. So that you can get rid of judgment.
And wrath. So that we just kind of say. Okay. We have a God. And he's loving. But we have to remove sin.
Because. We need him to just kind of be okay. With everything. We need like. Sleepy. Compliant.
Doting. Grandpa God. That whatever you want to do. Is good. If you really believe it. And if it's in your heart.
And you know. The people say like. God made me this way. And God doesn't make mistakes. Which we only apply to certain things. Like.
You. You. You nod along when someone says that. About certain things. Like God made me this way. And he doesn't make mistakes.
Part of us culturally wants to go. Yeah. You're right. You feel that. You find that in your heart. But we don't nod along when someone says.
Yeah. I just hit women. God made me this way. And he don't make mistakes. We're like. No.
No. You got. You got to stop that. And so the reality is. If we want to get rid of sin. We ultimately just want it to be.
Certain cultural sins. That we've decided are okay. We want to draw the lines differently. But we can't fully get rid of sin. Because every single one of us. No matter where we draw the lines.
We do draw a line. If you're going to believe. That there's a God who made things. At some point you're saying. This is wrong. Because it's wrong.
Not because we've culturally decided it's wrong. We actually at times. Have culturally been okay with it. It was still wrong. Slavery. Oppression.
Abuse. Assault. They're wrong because they're wrong. And we're going to draw that line somewhere. Well as soon as we do that. And again.
We may draw it further out or closer in. But as soon as you draw the line. And say there's sin. As soon as sin comes back. Okay. Well if we have sin.
And we say there is sin. And then we go. But God doesn't judge. He's not a God of judgment and wrath. Well now we have another problem. Is he good?
Is he powerful? Because if he's good. And he's powerful. And he loves us. But he doesn't care about actual bad sin.
That's questionable. People say. Well it's bad for him to be angry. Well I want to read a quote. That I think is very helpful. This is from the book.
Hope has its reasons. It's a quote from Becky Pippert. She says. Do you think how we feel. When we see someone we love. Ravaged by unwise actions.
Or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance. As we might towards strangers. Far from it. Anger. Isn't the opposite of love.
Hate is. And the final form of hate. Is indifference. God's wrath. Is not a cranky. Explosion.
But the settled. Opposition. The settled. Opposition. To the cancer. Which is eating out the insides.
Of the human race. He loves with his whole being. That if something. If something harms. Something you love. It's actually the love.
That produces the wrath. Now we can love things. That we shouldn't love. But this makes perfect sense. I have two little boys. If I saw one of you attack them.
I wouldn't go. Hey dude. Quit. You're hurting him. I would respond. With anger.
Because of love. And that's. The reality of God. Is that if he loves us. And if there are actual wrong things. That need to be addressed.
We actually want a God. Who has judgment. And wrath. That is actually his wrath. Sits on top of his love. That without his love.
You wouldn't have wrath. And if you have love. Genuine love. Then you do have wrath. For the actual sin. That is destroying.
And harms. And that we want a God. Who rightly Judges. So then what happens is this. If you're going to try to keep. That there's a God.
And that he's loving. You got to get rid of sin. But if you say. Well no. There are actually things that are wrong. Then you have to suddenly.
We need God to. To love. Which means we need God. To have some. Wrath and judgment. So then what happens is.
We kind of try to draw this line. Between like. Misdemeanor sins. And felony sins. Like these are the ones. That he just needs to forgive.
That God. You know. He just. He forgives all of us. We draw a line around some things. That we say.
Those aren't even sins. The Bible says they are. No they're not. And then we have this section. Of like misdemeanor sins. Where it's like.
Yeah it was wrong. And it was bad. And you shouldn't have done that. But. God loves us. He forgives us.
But then we've got to turn at some point. And go. Okay these are like the. And so we have this giant list. Of kind of unforgivable sins. These are the ones.
These are the ones. These are the ones. These are the ones. Disind Šok. Those are the ones I need him. To be angry about.
And the reality is. We do have sins. That we need him to be angry about. But the problem is. The Bible says. That all sin works like that.
That all sin. Is wickedness. And brokenness. And works to destroy. The world. And that God.
Isn't just loving. But he's also righteous. And a righteous judge. Condemns sin. And if we're honest, if you've been in enough relationships, if you have enough self-awareness, you understand that you have made things worse. You haven't just been a restorative part of creation that's made everything around you better.
Like a magical Disney character that the flowers bloom when you walk by. Like there's something, if you're self-aware enough, there's something wrong with you. One of the examples that I think of is how self-centered I am. Like I will hear news and there's no way I have yet to be able to filter it without thinking of myself first and how that news affects me. You ever hear bad news but it's not bad news to you and you're like, oh, okay. And then someone has to state out loud for you the thing you were supposed to notice about how that's terrible for another person that you care about.
You're like, oh, oh, that is bad. One of the real simple examples of how self-centered we are is the ability for us to take a group picture, look at the picture, and say, this picture is good. But you've only looked at your own face. If there's a group picture and they say, what do you think? You just look at your face. I've done this with my wife.
She's taken a picture and I've said, this is a good one. And she said, my eyes are closed. And it's like, oh, I forgot you were in this picture. You had to bring your existence to my attention once again. I just meant I'm handsome. That's all I got.
Like this immediate self-centeredness that we have, that we've actively made things worse around us, that there's something wrong with us, that we only care about ourselves, that we've lied, cheated, stole, harmed people. And honestly, if you'll see it, the people you've hurt the most are the people you would say you care the most about. It's like, I love you. I want you to marry me so that I can inflict everything wrong about me on you for the rest of your life. I picked you out of all the people so that I could most aggressively harm you. I wanted to know what you cared most deeply about so that I could destroy it in front of your eyes.
That's really, that's what we do. And God is righteous and he has judgment towards sin. And we don't want the picture to stop there because if it does, we just get judgment. If he actually loves. Now we can have, we can stop here and he can be righteous.
He can be good. But what we're told is that he loves us. And here's how we know that he loves us. Jesus came to be the propitiation for our sins. That he came on a rescue mission. He's not a benign, sleepy, foggy, vague love.
It is a specific, redemptive, rescuing love. He's the, he's Liam Neeson in Taken. He doesn't get the phone call and go, oh, well, okay. You know, don't, I, you know, I care about her, but you know, y'all got to do what you got to do. You know, keep your, your trade going or whatever. He doesn't do that.
He, he says, I, I'm going to destroy you. And, and not learn my lesson because I'll have to do this four or five times. But that God redeems because he loves. He rescues because he loves. He comes to, to bring us home because he loves. So we can ask the question, why does it play out like that?
If he really loves us, why is there sin in the first place? Why is there so much pain? Why does it, why does it play out like this? And the reality of the Bible, the answer for us is we don't know. But we know that it's not because he doesn't love us.
Because he stepped into the story to take the brunt of the pain and the wrath and the brokenness and the sin on himself to bring us back. I don't know. I know he's wiser than me. I know he has good reasons. I know he's good. And I know that he loves me because he came to make a way to pay for my sin that I actually deserve punishment for.
He came to be a propitiation for me so that I don't receive the wrath of God that I deserve. I know that he loves me. And I know that I know that anchored in the person and work of Christ. So I want you to settle that in your heart if you are a believer. If you've trusted in Christ, I want you to settle in your heart the way that you know that he loves you is that Christ came. That's how we know love.
That's how we know what love is. That's how we know that we're loved. Don't anchor it somewhere else. Don't let people tell you that it comes in, does he answer your prayers or not? Don't let it come in, are we blessed or not? Some people look and go, well, why did this happen to me and it didn't happen to them?
I don't know if God loves me. It's like, no, he doesn't say that's the way to know that you're loved. He says, I came to rescue you out of your sin that you deserve just punishment for. And I came because I loved you. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is Jesus who has taken the wrath of God for us so that we might be made whole and we might have life.
And so that we cherish and love and worship him and know that we are loved. So this is where it goes from here. 11. 11. Beloved. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. I want you to see that. He says, beloved. I want to address that. No one has ever seen God.
He means the unadulterated, full view of being in the majesty of God. That we have seen God through Christ, that he's the perfect imprint of God's nature, but that we haven't been able to just see God in his full glory. But that we have seen the glory of God in Christ. That's what he's getting at. But that we live this out as we love one another.
That we don't get the opportunity to love God in the way that we ought to, but we get to love one another. That's what he's pushing on. But I want you to look at verse 11. Beloved. This is your title. We don't use that word.
But it means loved one. Cherished. Apple of his eye. He lights up when he sees you. That he cares about you in Christ. That he delights in you.
Because of the work of Jesus. And don't theologically try to diffuse that by saying, yeah, but it's beloved like the whole church. It is. It is beloved like the whole church. Are you in the church? Beloved.
Do you belong to Jesus? Personally loved. I love where he says that he redeemed the church and he washed her and made her clean without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing. Because I love that when anybody says, well, I'm in the church, but I'm secretly a wrinkle. It's like, not if you belong to Jesus. Jesus, I'm kind of a spot at the back of the dress just trying.
Nope. Not how it works. You are personally loved. This is why Paul says that he, Christ, loved me and gave himself up for me. And you get to say the same thing if you belong to Jesus. He loved me and gave himself up for me.
That you are beloved and you are atoned for. You're forgiven. That there's propitiation for your sins. He doesn't just have vague, warm feelings for you. He's made you clean and whole and new. So let's talk about some of our humility when it comes to kind of having our head down in the church.
This kind of, I'm a Christian, but I'm the worst. I'm a Christian, but I'm just so covered by sin. I'm a Christian, but I'm just, Lord, have mercy on me. Yeah. Yeah, that's how it starts. That's how we come in.
That's a reality for us that we need to see. But if we don't ever lift our head, we're missing it. That humility actually becomes hubris. It actually becomes some form of self-focused pride that somehow you sin in such a great degree. You're small to such a great degree that he can't handle it. That he can't redeem me.
I'm so, uh, uh, uh. No, we can start there, but we turn and we celebrate with confidence that we have been atoned for. You say, I keep sinning. Yeah. He loves you. He's been the propitiation for your sin.
That's what he says at the beginning of this book, this letter. He says, I say this to you, you won't sin. Sin causes a problem. He goes, but if he does sin, we have a savior, Jesus Christ, who's the propitiation for our sins. That we are covered and atoned for. That we have confidence, not in ourselves, but in him.
Periodically when I'm doing pastoral counseling, I have to say, put your head up. Throw your shoulders back. Do you belong to Jesus? Don't, don't anchor that in yourself. But have a little bit of confidence in the fact that Jesus can redeem.
He can save to the uttermost those who call on his name. So he says this, by this, this is verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he's given us his spirit. So the Holy Spirit, it works in us. It testifies this to us. It applies this to us.
It works through us to continually lead us to repentance and to joy in Christ. He says, we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. All right.
This idea of a confession is not confessing sins or like when you watch a crime drama and they're like, confess. It's not that. It's a, it's a belief. It's, it's what, it's our confession, what we hold to, what we believe. In some ways, it's where do we anchor our hope? That all of us actually have a confession, whether you know it or not.
You have something that you believe. This is my hope. That God knows exactly what you would say. This is what I trust in. This is how I believe the world works. So we all have a confession.
And in some ways, it's like this. When you eat a meal out at a restaurant with some people and the server comes up at the end and goes, is this together? Or they go separate. You know, sometimes they guess. Sometimes they give you both options. It's that moment of, how's this bill going to be paid?
That there's a reality in judgment that we stand before God. And there's this moment of, how's this going to be paid? How's this debt going to be covered? And you know, that moment of awkwardness when this happens at your table. My uncle's from Nigeria and he told me that in Nigeria, if anybody invites you out to dinner, they're paying. That's just how it works.
But he learned in America, that was not the case. People would be like, hey, and also, just so you know, most of my understanding of Nigeria is like 30 years old. So it may have changed drastically. I realized that recently when I met a guy from Nigeria who spoke Yoruba. And it dawned on me that all of my phrases that I use might be from like 1985 or something. I might be saying off the hook and all that and a bag of potato chips and just random things that no one says anymore.
But whatever. So, but it used to be that if anybody invited you out, they were paying. And so he had to tell his fiancee when she came to the U.S., he said, if anybody invites you to eat, you have to have money in your pocket. Because you do not know. They may pay. They may not pay.
People invite me to eat. I said, that sounds good. I was hungry. I go. He paid for himself. He walked off tall.
And that's the truth. We don't know. We don't have a cultural way to know how this is going to work. So we wait until the end. And they say. And then sometimes you just say separate.
Sometimes you wait a second. Like you defer to the, if anybody was going to pay for everybody, it's this person. So there's like this moment where you act like you're getting a drink or like just like eye contact. You ever have the moment where you both say it at the same time, but it's different things? So then you're like, oh.
The worst is a few times I've been with people and they deferred to me. It's like, what are you? I'm not paying. What is this? Separate. Separate.
But there's that moment. That's a confession in Christianity is we confess Jesus, meaning I'm covered by him. That when judgment comes that I stand before God, he pays the debt. That's propitiation. He's absorbed wrath on my behalf. I'm covered.
I just, the name of Jesus over me, the name of Jesus, the work of Jesus, the process of what he has done to come to redeem me, that I proclaim Jesus. This is what he says. Verse, back half of verse 12, verse 16. He says, God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God. And God abides in him.
By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
In Christ, we don't fear punishment. And we have confidence for the day of judgment. And it's unshakable confidence. Because it's not based on, do you love him enough? Did you figure it out? Did you behave well enough?
Did you get it together? Were you Christian enough? Did you spend enough time in church? Did you volunteer enough? Did you become a deacon? Did you serve in this way?
Did you participate in that way? Did you join a community group? None of those things that are good for our souls. None of those things hold up before the Lord. We don't get to stand and say, I'm here to show you that I've been good enough. We stand and we confess.
I'm here to show you that Christ has redeemed me through the blood of his sacrifice. And we have confidence. Can you imagine that? The sky is pulled back. We see God in all of his glory. And there are going to be those who are redeemed by Christ who walk forward like this.
Finally, the day of judgment. Finally, he's come to set all accounts right. And we don't walk forward. If I had to walk forward on my own account, I would hide in fear. I would fall. I would fail.
But we walk forward going, thank you that you're here to redeem those who you've covered by the sacrifice of Christ. I look forward to the day of judgment because there is no fear of punishment. Because that punishment was poured out on Christ on the cross. You say, well, I deserve punishment for what I did. You do. But it was that wrath was poured out on Jesus.
And that's why we gather and we sing his name. We celebrate how good he is. Because he redeems sinners. If you are in this room and you don't have confidence for the day of judgment. If you've anchored that in your good work. If you've anchored that in your morality.
If you've anchored that in your church attendance. If you think for one second you will stand before the king and announce you're a Baptist. I would invite you to trust in the name and the work of Jesus. And to have his blood shed for you in your place. So that you might have confidence for the day of judgment.
Where you were redeemed by the work of the redeeming king who came to save us and who loves us. I would invite you to leave today and be forever marked. Not by your sin. And not by what's been done to you. But be marked as beloved and forgiven for all eternity.
The band is going to come back up. And we're going to sing to Jesus. And we're going to celebrate communion. Where we remember this manifest reality. That God came. That he put on flesh.
That he died to redeem sinners. And we're going to celebrate this manifest reality. That he was seen. That he was touched. That he was heard. That he could be felt.
That's one of the reasons why we have this. It's real. It's tangible. At times it can feel a little messy. But it's to remind us that he was real.
And he was tangible. And he came to redeem. And that we have the love of God for us anchored forever in the person and work of Christ. That his blood was shed for us. So what we celebrate in communion is we take some bread.
And it reminds us of the broken body of Christ. The incarnation of Christ. And we take the juice or wine juice for us. To remember that his blood was shed for us. That it was spilled for us. That we have had the propitiation of our sins.
That we're covered by the work of Christ. As Paul says that we proclaim his death until he comes. That we're covered by it. And I want you to know that this is personal. And it's also collective. As you see the church going.
And you watch them go up. Participate together. As we understand that he has redeemed us. That we are loved. And that we get to live this out together. That we are rescued by his work.
So take a moment. Where you need to confess. Confess. Where you need to confess sins. Confess. But then don't end on that confession.
End on the confession of the work of Christ for you. If you are not a Christian. We would invite you to become one. To trust in Jesus. To place your hope in him and nothing else. And then you may partake in communion.
If you're not a believer. We would ask that you don't partake in this. Because it's a profession of Christ. And you haven't yet partaken in him. Let's pray.
God as we.