And verse seven, one John chapter four. We've looked at the prerequisites for service, a personal love and devotion for the Lord Jesus Christ. We've looked at the spiritual preparations for service, walking with God in the light. We've looked at his provision for that, the Holy Spirit in dwelling our lives. And now we come to the next little section of these meditations together, the motivation for service. All we've heard give us direction and guidance on how to go about service. Won't last. But the motivation that God gives us, that's what will get us out. Then we can put into practice. the things we have been hearing. One John chapter four verse seven. 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. In this we have manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein 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 ought also to love one another. verse sixteen, and we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Back to chapter two, verses which we never had time to speak about, chapter two, verse two, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only. but also for the sins of the whole world. God is love. God is light, we started with in chapter one. Three chapters later, God is love. The motivating force that should drive every one of us to do the work that God has planned for us as individuals to do. Twice in this chapter we read these words. We know don't read them anywhere else in the word of God, actually, just in this chapter. And twice, God is love. Words we'll find in no other religious systems in the whole wide world. You know, in the days of the British colonial empire, missionaries were not always very popular. We often had the question thrown at us, why go to these people? Why go and disturb their culture and try and change their way of life? Aren't they happy as they are? Why go to the heathen? Simply because God is love. And they don't know that. In nineteen eighty-nine the National Geographic had a series of pictures and an article on India. There was a full-page picture of one million people crowding down on one particular day in the year to the Ganges River, and all of them doing their best to get into the filthy polluted waters of that river, thinking that in some way that would help them attain their goal to reach their God. Did they know that God is love? And if you waited on when that million people had gone back to their homes late in the evening, you'd have found a lonely woman, tremendous anguish upon her face and a heart that was filled with sorrow. And in her hand she held her little baby son, And she holds him above her head. She's about to throw that little child into those filthy waters, some kind of a sacrifice to her God. Does she know that God is love? Go down to the south of India, to Kerala, come with me to a little church building, I guess we should call it. We see a little girl come in. to weep and to pray. And then she runs out. She's been there four times already today. She told us this many years later when she got saved. And she's going to come back another four or five times that same day. Her life was filled with fear. How can I possibly be right with God? And weeping and praying her way through life. That's how she grew up. Does she know that God is love? But we can leave the continent of India and work our way towards the states. We come to Africa, we go to a remote village in some dark corner of that continent. And there we see a man last year on his knees in front of an idol across the western side of the Zambezi, way on the western banks of the Lungi Bungu. And he's just made a blood sacrifice. He lives in fear. fear of his ancestral spirits. He lives in fear. He's going to die in fear. He was born in fear. And he's on his knees. The blood is dripping down that idol. The head of the chicken that he sacrificed is stuck on the top of it. Does he know that God is love? Fear grips his life, not love. We leave Africa and work our way north to the northern hemisphere and we come to Europe and come with me to Cologne. I was taken to see what is one of the most magnificent buildings, I suppose, in that part of Europe, the cathedral in Cologne. Though intricate workmanship in that building, absolutely tremendous. But my eyes weren't fixed on that magnificent building, because there on the side of the building, in a little chapel, I saw a woman. And there was a cement or marble statue that was supposed to be a replica of Christ. And surrounding this statue or candles, you had to buy a candle, pay money if you wanted your sins removed. And there was this woman hanging on to these cold marble feet, kissing them and weeping. She had no money to buy a candle, no way to do penance for her sins. And hopeless and helpless, she kisses those cold, cement feet. Does she know that God is love? And perhaps we can come back right over to the state. right up to nineteen ninety one august this afternoon and go down to one of our cities and it wouldn't have to be very far from here not even the big cities even the smaller cities and let's see there a young boy he looks like a big man a big man there's lines on his faces but he's only a kid And he knocks an old lady down and grabs her purse and takes the money and goes off to buy a crack or whatever the other drugs are that he needs. You see, that's the only way he's going to find comfort for his heart. He's never known his father. He's never known anybody put his arms around him and say, I love you. Does he know that God is love? And if we wait a little longer and the sun sets, And the sleep lights come on, we'll see a young girl. And she's going to be spending the night on that street trying to sell her body. And if you talk to her about love, she'll laugh at you and press curse you. The only love she knows is the lust of greedy men who've misused her all her life. And yet deep down in her human heart, crushed by the tempter, feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Touched by a loving heart, awakened by kindness, cords that are broken could vibrate once more. If only she knew that God is love, if only there was someone who would be willing to go and tell her, God is love. Their life could be changed. And that's what this section is about. You know, there's no greater motivation for you and me to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people for whom he died and to meditate for a while upon the love of God. And that's what we need to do this morning. This is the truth that will motivate us to go out and rescue the perishing. Look at verse nine and ten. God tells us two great aspects of his love. First of all, verse nine. In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world. Why? That we might live through him. We've already thought about that. We were dead, utterly dead in trespasses and sins. And the people we've been talking about are dead in their trespasses and sins. There's no way they're going to be able to change. None whatsoever, and all the social programs in the world won't help those people to change. They are dead in their trespasses and sins. You find a dead body. You can pour money into the cause of trying to revive the dead body. It's not going to revive. And we can pour money into our social programs. We're not going to bring life to those people. They're spiritually dead. And it's no good sitting back and talking about them and criticizing them and these young people on the streets. That won't bring them life. Criticize a dead body as much as you like. It's not going to get up and walk. They are dead. And you know some of them have tried so hard to come alive. That little girl in India for more than thirty years trying and trying and trying to live a life pleasing to God and failing and failing and failing until finally she got to Zambezi, five hundred miles out in the bush in Africa, and discovered God is love. their life was changed. And that's what we read in verse nine, isn't it? In 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. We are alive. Think back to when you were saved. You know, I often find I have to do this just to remind myself that God is able to reach down to those people. Think back to when you were saved. Think back to before you would say, did you try to improve? I did. I was only a high school kid. But I was doing what all the other high school kids did. And involved with all that, I became a person with a mouth that was so filthy, with cursing and swearing, I blushed to think of the thing that came out of this mouth. So bad it was that my friends at the school gave me a nickname based on some of the words I used, a filthy, vile name. But that was my nickname. And I tried so hard to control that mouth of mine, but I was dead. There was no way. I hated myself. And then I graduated from grade twelve. went to a little town, or a bigish town, I guess, in the middle of Zimbabwe, southern Rhodesia, and there was a little group of people who knew that God is love. And one Sunday night, as I sat listening to one of them speaking from the word of God, I learned that God is love, and that he loved me, although I'd used my mouth to curse him so many times. I became a liar. I didn't realize it. But that night I got saved. I didn't know what was happening. All I knew was that everything was different. Later on, I'd go on my motorbike riding back from my job, and I would sing that song. Heaven above is softer blue, earth around is sweeter dream. Something lives in every hue. Christ's eyes had never seen. My life was just transformed. It was only about a week later. when I sat down to take stock and I thought, you know, for one week not one silky word of cursing God or cursing my fellow man has come out of this mouth. The thing that fifty or a hundred times a day had conquered me and kept me from in that pathway of sin, I suddenly realized I was alive. Alive because Jesus Christ and come to this earth to die for me. Yes, God is love. That was thrilling, absolutely thrilling to my soul. I got light. And that's what verse nine is telling us. I am come that ye might have light. And we looked at chapter five, verse twelve the other day, didn't we? He that hath the sun hath light. And we have light. And let it be a reminder to us when we see these people and our first reaction is to look down upon them, despise them, criticize them, criticize the social program. Let's remind ourselves they're dead. And nobody has the answer but you and me because we know that God is love. And as we see them down there in the gutter, we should ask ourselves if only somebody would go and tell them that God is love. And because of his love, his son died that they might live. And perhaps we can go a little further and say, what about me going to tell him? You see, the love of God can reach down to the vilest, lowest pit to human degradation and lift up a man like Isaac Newton. Those of John Newton. slave of slaves. A man who sank to the lowest pit could lift a man like that up, could lift a person like you and me up. Can't it lift up those people? Certainly. And that's what verse nine is telling us, you see. God manifested his love, sent his own son. Why? That we might live. And not just you and me, but all those. who are dead in trespasses and sins. But look at verse ten. Another great aspect of the love of God. Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Here now is the second thought. Verse nine, sinners are dead and they need life. Verse ten, but the sinner is guilty. And he needs forgiveness. He's under eternal condemnation. And he needs some way to be justified. And where is the way? Verse ten. God loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. The great eternal question in the hearts of many of those I mentioned in the introduction. is the question that came out of the mouth of Job many years ago. It's a two. It's a double-barrel question. Listen to what he said in chapter twenty-five and verse four. How then can a man be justified with God? How can a man be justified with God when he knows he's a sinner? And secondly, how can a man be clean that is born of a woman, born in sin? The two great questions, you see, in the hearts of those people, and in the hearts of probably most people in this world, although they cover them up and suppress them and often don't even want to think about them, but those are the questions that are there. That's the question in the heart of that woman as she kisses and weeps on those cold, concrete feet of that statue in Cologne. How can I be justified before God? And that's the question in the hearts of those kids in the streets. Perhaps not so much how can I be justified, but the second question, how can I be clean? I'm filthy. I'm dirty. I'm rejected. And those derelics in the streets, that's what they're saying. And the only answer they have is to anesthetize the pain of all that rejection and filth that they feel in their hearts with drugs and alcohol and prostitution. How can they be clean? You and I know, but they don't know. Look again at verse ten. He sent his son to be the propitiation. How can a man be justified before God? That's the question. What can a person do to satisfy the demands of a holy God? That's the word propitiation. And as that woman on the banks of that Ganges River holds her little boy, her baby son in her hands, that's the question she's crying out to the world to give her an answer to. How can I be justified before God? What must I offer as a sacrifice? Must I offer my son? Is there no other way? We know the answer and we cry out. No, don't offer that son. There is another way. God offered his son nearly two thousand years ago. But you see, we're too far away. She doesn't hear us say that. And she throws that child into the river. Fruit of her womb. And our hearts go out to that woman. Do our hearts go out to God? gave of his son. You need to meditate this morning on the love of God. Do our hearts go out to his son? He took his son, his only son, and he gave him as a sacrifice. You know, when I think of the love of God, my heart so often goes back to the story of Abraham. Abraham had a son. An only son, Isaac. Isaac means a lost son. Joy, happiness. That little boy brought joy and happiness into our home, which had been childless for so many years. And God says to Abraham one day, Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, lost son. joy whom thou loveest, and offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will tell you. And Abraham obeys. Abraham knew what it was to walk in the light. Abraham knew what it was as God shunned the flashlight on his pathway to simply obey and take the next step. And Abraham doesn't argue. He takes the dearest thing in his life, Isaac, the one upon whom all the future depends, all the future promises of God as well, for that matter, and all his hopes and love. And he takes that child, probably about fifteen years old, as we believe, and he takes him on a journey to offer him as a burnt offering. He leaves the servant at the foot of the hill and he climbs the hill and as they climb the hill, Isaac says, well, we've got the wood and we've got the fire and he sees the big knife. He says, Father, where is the burnt offering? And listen to the words of Abraham. Thrilling words. God will provide himself a land, my son. God will provide himself a lamb. He didn't know what he was saying. But in faith, he said those words, we know what he was saying. And he gets up to the top of the mountain and he ties Isaac onto that stone and he puts the wood around the altar and he picks up the knife and he's about to do what God told him and offer his son as a sacrifice. How can a man be justified before God? Is that going through his heart? And suddenly a voice from heaven says, Abraham, Abraham. Let me read the words. Thrilling words. Here I am, he says. Lay not thy hand upon the lad. Neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God. Seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And he looks behind and there's a ram caught in a thicket. God never asks anyone to do something that he won't be willing to do himself. And many years go by. And when the fullness of time was come, God took his son, his only son, Jesus, the joy of all heaven, the apple of his eye, And he takes his son to another little mountain, Calvary. And he puts his son on that altar, a rough wooden cross. He's not tied with thongs. Three rough nails to his hands and his feet. Will there be a cry from heaven? Will there be a cry, as in Abraham's case? to stop the execution, to stop the sacrifice, there will be no cry this time. But suddenly we do hear a cry, but doesn't come from heaven. It comes from the cross. Eli, Eli, Lama, Sadak-San, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? The love of God. sacrifice of his son, the son of his love. To answer that question, how can a man be justified before God? How can a man be pleased? God, in the person of his son, goes to that cross. Look at verse ten. Here in his love, that's it. Look at the next phrase. Not that we loved God, Did we deserve it? Had we done anything to deserve that sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? Nothing whatsoever. Not that we loved God. We certainly didn't. We hated God. We loved our sin. We loved our rebellion. We wanted our own way. We would never want to submit to him. Romans five, if we needed another. A little commentary on this. And if you sometimes feel your love growing cold, go back to passages like that. Verses six to ten. That reminds us that we didn't love God. No. We were helpless when we were without strength. Absolutely helpless. We didn't love him. We had no way to love him. There was nothing we could do to make a sacrifice to find a way to appease him. Nothing at all. We were ungodly. when Christ died for us. Think of that. Unlike God. We were made in the image of God. But because of our sin we'd become ungodly. So ungodlike that nobody could see one single thing in my life which would even show me anything about God and whose image I was made. Godless. When we were enemies. That's when he stepped down and gave us that sacrifice. Covering all that, read in verse eight. When we were yet sinners, sinners, that just covers it all. You know, when God made the universe way back in Genesis one and two, six times it says that God saw that it was good. And then he made man. And then it says this. God saw that it was very good man. The ultimate of his creation. By the time you get to the New Testament. The ultimate of God's creation. Man is the cause of all the problems. Sin. Sickness. death, prisons, hospitals, all the results of you and I. We've become a monstrosity in the creation which God called good. And then he said, very good. And you and I are the ones who have destroyed what God called good. And all the vileness and misery and hatred we see in the streets are a result of what? Sin, you and me, sinners. Look again at verse ten. Herein is love, not that we love God. We certainly do. But that he loved that. And we ever get over the marvel and wonder of that love, but that he loved us, and look what it says, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's the word. The propitiation. Means what? It means he sent his son to appease, to make favorable, to satisfy the wrath of a holy God. God is holy, we've discovered that, and his wrath against sin can never be appeased by sacrifices of our children as that woman plunges that baby into the waters of the Ganges, can never be satisfied by the tears and sorrow of that girl as she weeps her way through life from Kerala right through to Zambia. No, the wrath of God can never be appeased by that. The wrath of a holy God can be appeased in only one way. He must inflict the just penalty for sin, for every sin. And that death under the judgment of a righteous God. That's the only way that his anger can ever be appeased. You know, we've thought about what our sin is caused. problem and perhaps in our own lives more problem because of our sin have we ever stopped to think that our sin caused God a greater problem than it's ever caused you and me here is a God who is holy he must judge sin but here is a God that we've just read twice God is love he willeth not the death of any How can he send a man to hell? He's love. But he's holy. What a problem. A tremendous problem. And there was only one way to want to solve that problem. And the words of Abraham, God will provide himself a land. And he himself came down to this earth. A land. a sacrifice on that cross, that God, who is love. And there on that little hill of Calvary, we see God showing that love, God making the way, the only way He gives it, Son. And what do we do? As a world, we must put ourselves in the shoes of the people who are there. We spat in his face as he dragged the cross down the road. We were there when they took him and offered him to Pilate and they stripped his back and they got the Roman lash and beat his back so that the Bible says his back became like a plowed field. And we were there when he goes on to the cross and they plucked the hair from his face. They gave him a crown, a crown of long, cruel eastern thorns. And he put him on the cross, and they pierce his hands and his feet. And he cries out, Father, forgive them. We deserve it. We deserve nothing. Nothing but an eternity in hell for what we have done. Father, forgive them. So they know not what they do. That's what this passage is telling us. God is love. God is love. Oh, my dear brother and sister, listen to this verse from the Old Testament. Lamentations one, verse twelve. Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by, behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Is there any sorrow like unto his sorrow? Well, yes. If you're looking at the sorrow of a physical death, others have died on a cross. Others have received the Roman latch. Others had hung in the most torturous, agonizing death the Roman people could ever devise. They'd hung on a cross like that. But listen to the verse. Behold and see if there'd be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. which is done unto me, listen, wherewith the Lord has afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger. There'd be none like that. Others had died the death and gone through some of the physical suffering. But here is God providing himself as a lamb. And in the day of his fierce anger, the Lord afflicts his own son on that cross. Go to Isaiah fifty-three, if you will. It wasn't the physical sufferings, my dear friends, brothers and sisters. We know that. Isaiah fifty-three, verse four, he was smitten of God and afflicted. Verse six, Jehovah laid on him the iniquity of us all. And in those dark hours, those three hours of darkness on that cross, The Lord Jesus took and bore in his own body your sins and my sins. He who knew no sins was made sin for me and for you. And he bore our sins in his own body on that tree. And heaven was silent. There was no reprieve. He had to go right to the end and finish the work that he came to do. And he did just that. And he made a way back into the presence of his Father, for you and for me. That's God, the God who is love that we read about here. We'll never know the judgment of God if we belong to Christ, because Christ knew it all. And as we see him in depth, suffering under our sin, under the judgment of his father, God. Listen to another verse from Isaiah fifty-three, a verse which thrills my heart, saddens my heart, makes me rejoice. Verse ten, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. As he pours out his judgment, upon his own son, the son of his love. God says in his word, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Why? Why? Because God is satisfying the demands of his own holiness, making propitiation, as the verse says. He's appeasing the demands of his own holiness. But at what a cost. And so verse ten says what? Here in his love, not that we loved God. but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now just go back one page. We read the verse, chapter two, verse two. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Go back to the other chapter, chapter four, verse eleven. As we meditate on the love of God, that's what should motivate You and me. Look at verse eleven. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. We ought. That makes us think of duty. But this is not duty. This is a duty which is motivated by the love of God. And you see, that's the only love that will keep us going on, taking the gospel to those who are dying without Christ. Yes, He has made propitiation, as we read in chapter two, but it's not for our sins only. It's also for the sins of the whole world. And yet the world doesn't know. They are dead. No one's told them they can be made alive. They're guilty in an utter despair. No one's told them that the sacrifice has been made and to appease a holy God. They can have forgiveness and be justified. How can I show them God is love? Is it enough for me to send a few donations to feed the starving multitudes of Ethiopia? Will that show them God is love? No. The governments of this world send money to feed the multitudes of Ethiopia, and they don't, they must. Believers, the love of God won't be shown in that way. Is it enough for me to drop some of my unused and unwanted clothing into the Salvation Army box? No. Beloved, we've got to do what is Diki, okay? I sat where they sat. We've got to be willing, driven on by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, to make it a point and go out after them, and to be willing to sit where they sit. Just as the Lord Jesus did, he sat on a lonely well in the heat of the day, speaking to a woman that nobody else in the whole city would speak to. a social outcast, a woman who had lived with five men in adultery and was living with a six. And I've got to be willing to go and sit where they sit and tell them of the amazing grace that reached down and saved a wretch like me. And I've got to be willing to tell them that I too once was blind, but now I see. I was once lost, but now I'm found. And only those of us who are saved can do the job, you know. What do my friends think? A dear sister up in New England some years ago got saved, thrilled with the love of God. She went into the streets and got the kids. and said, come to the garage. I've got something to tell you. They weren't too keen. Said, I'll give each of you five cents if you come. Anything in her first love for the Lord didn't know much, but she wanted those kids to know about the love of God. What did her friends think? I'm not sure what her friends thought, but I know what the police thought. They came and arrested her. And having learned a little more, she realized she could go about it in a different way and have a little Bible club in that garage, officially sort of noted by the police so that they wouldn't come after her. What would our friends say? If we go and spend time down in the gutters of society, telling them that God loves them, well, we know what the people thought about the Lord. They despised him, rejected him. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. We wouldn't want to look at him or associate with him down there with a woman who's been living in adulthood. But you see, she got saved. She believed. And she didn't know much. that as soon as she believes, she knew the love of God and forgiveness. What does she do? She goes right back where she came from into the city, and she tells them, come and see a man who told me everything I've ever done. Isn't he the Christ? He must be. And they come pouring out of the city. The disciples are already back. And as they come out of the city, the Lord turns to the disciples and says this, lift up your eyes and look on the field. White already to harvest. They're saying, wait for four months. Don't wait for four months. They're already white. What's he talking about? There they are. All the people from that Samaritan village. pouring out to come to the well. There they are, he's telling the disciples. Why to already to harvest? And you see, beloved, if the love of God drips my soul, I'll do just that. I'll lift up my eyes and look on the field. And if I'm sitting on my front porch in my rocking chair, right there I can lift up my eyes and look on the field. And what will I see? Well, I'll see my neighbors right there and there and there. And I'll see those kids running around playing in the garden. Lift up your eyes, he says, and look on the field. They white already to harvest. And you see, if the love of God has gripped my heart in life, I can do nothing else but obey. Don't wait for four months. Just when the farmers say the harvest is going to be, I'm telling you it starts right now. We don't need to wait, wait for our assembly to start an evangelism program in our area. No. Freud has mentioned this a good many times. You see, if the love of God drips my soul, I'll go after those people in the house next door. I'll lift up my eyes in the office and I'll see the person in the next office and realize he doesn't know the love of God in the workshop, in the school. Lift up your eyes and look on the fields. They wiped already to harvest. One illustration is closed. A group of missionaries from Europe were known as the Moravian missionaries. I'd love to tell you how they started, but we don't have time. But there was a little phrase which motivated the man, Count Zinzendorf, to get involved in serving God. The phrase was this. There was a picture of Christ, and above that picture was written, all this I did for you, a picture of him on the cross. All this I did for you, what have you done for me? see as we meditate on something like that. Older, Calvary, get them. I did for you. What have you done for me? Spurred on by the love of Christ, many people left their little country to go all through the world to reach the unfaith and tell them of the love of God. God is love. Two of them went to South Africa about the turn of the century. In those days, leprosy was a disease for which there was no cure. There is a cure today. And so in those days, when people had this dreadful disease, they would put them in an enclosure like cattle and keep them there, never to come out. There in South Africa was a vast enclosure filled with leprosy, hands and feet rotting away as the disease ate through their nerves and so on. These two dear believers, going past this enclosure one day, they climbed up to look inside and what they saw shocked them. There was a man who had no feet. And there was another one whose arms, hands and arms, had rotted away with that terrible disease. And the man with no feet was on the shoulders of the man with no hand. And it took two of them to make one body. So they had one pair of legs to walk with and one pair of arms to do other things with. And as those two missionaries looked over that wall, the phrase on that picture back in their hometown came back to their heart, all this I did for you. What has you done for me? And the love of Christ constrained them. It wasn't a love for the lepers. And don't let us wait for a love for the unsaved. We may never have a love for the unsaved. But if we get started, I'm sure God will give us that love. We know He will. You see, it's love for the Lord that drove them. And they said, what can we do? We've got to go in. And they did go in, never to return. Not allowed out again. They gave their lives. Why? motivated by the love of God. All that I did for you, what have you done for me? Shall we pray? Father, we don't know how to answer that question. except to ask thee to fill our hearts and souls with thy love. So that driven on by the love which thou hast for us, we may go out to the world which is dying. Because they don't know about it. We offer ourselves the fresh, Father. Take us.