God's School of Love - 1 John 4:7-12

0:55Learn their schools. But where do you go to learn how to love? Wouldn't it be nice if there was a school out there that you could just check yourself into for a period of time and come out someone who loves? Wouldn't it be nice if you could check somebody into a school like that that you know? School of love, where is it? Well, God has instituted his church as the school of love, the school where we learn to love one another with a godly kind of love. Love. And why the church? The church, we are not a group of people because we are similar. We are a group of people from all different walks of life. We are a real eclectic group, all different nationalities, all different economic backgrounds, all different personalities, all different genders, all different ages, generations. Very different.

2:01So God uses the church. If He can reconcile those in the church to one another, He can reconcile the whole world. He can teach the world how to love, which the world desperately needs to know how to love one another. In fact, it's not our similarities that even bring about love, right? You look around, the tribes around the world, there's war among the tribes, but you look within the tribes, there's war within the tribes. You look within even family groups and clans, there's war within the clans. Sadly, to say, there's war within even those who all like Dr. Pepper.

2:46There's war within, I mean, there's no love, right? Even within the smallest family unit, oftentimes the sibling rivalry is frightening, shows a lack of love. Husband, wife. Life. I mean, it's not just our similarities. There's people that should love one another, and when we get down to it, we don't know how to love. So God has instituted his church as a place where we will truly learn to love one another. Let me read to you 1 John 4, verses 7 through 12. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

4:10As John has said in verses one through six of this chapter, that a proper confession of Christ will lead to proper relationships. Faith in God will result, faith in God, or faith in God. Is the result in love for our fellow man? We're in the chapter that's dealing with testing the spirits. You can know what spirit a person is of by two tests that John gives us. Number one, by their confession. A proper confession of Christ, a confession that agrees with the testament of the Holy Spirit, is an indication that one belongs to God. Second is the way they relate to one another. Does a person, does this spirit love the way Christ loves? If you have a proper confession of Christ, it will lead to loving the way he loves.

5:17Look at verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another. Beloved, we should be loving one another. Question to you and to me this morning: Are you a loving person? Are we loving people? Are we completely loving? Do we love? Do we know how to love? I think some of the tragedies in the church is the world knows that the church speaks about love and that we hold ourselves to the standard of loving one another. And some of the greatest tragedies is when we look inside a church and a church doesn't meet up to its profession. And I'm asking that question on a more personal level to you. Are you a person? Are you a loving person? What would other people say about you? Are they seeing in you evidences that God's Spirit dwells in you? Are they hearing it in your confession and exaltation of the person of Christ? Are they seeing it in the way you love like Him in your relationships? Are you a loving person?

6:34John says, Beloved, let us love one another. We should be loving one another. And he goes on now in the rest of this chapter again, dealing with this issue of love, dealing with that the outward manifestation of being rightly united with Christ is a love for one another. It's a school of love. The church is God's school of love. Where can you go? How do you learn? Well, there are three aspects of this school of love that John walks us through this morning. And I want us to walk through these aspects so that we will grow in our ability to love one another.

7:32Testing the spirits. Second part. Test the spirits by their confession of Christ. We test the spirits by the way they love. Three aspects of this school of love. First of all, I want to talk to you a little bit about the headmaster of this school, the headmaster. Look at verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

8:11Notice the we. John is including himself in this. Beloved, let us be loving one another. We should be loving one another. Why should we be loving one another? John gives three reasons. Number one, love is from God. Love is a gift that comes from God. God himself gives love. It emanates. It comes from him. And God himself is worthy of imitation. Love is from God. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. God himself is worthy of imitation.

8:52Second reason, verse 7, and everyone who loves is born of God. We are. Born of God. If you have confessed Christ, if you agree with the testimony of the Holy Spirit, you have been born again and put into the school of love. That's what discipleship is about. You want to know how to be admitted into this school? A right confession of Jesus Christ. And it takes you into this school, his school of discipleship. Who do you say I am? You're the Christ, the Son of the Most High. Great, blessed are you. Come and follow me. As he goes to the cross and reconciling people to himself, love originates from God, and so do his people.

9:53Love is from God, and so are his people. That's why we should be loving one another. We are from Him. Third reason he gives verse 7: because we know God. And everyone who loves is born of God and is knowing God, knows God. You see, we have been born through true knowledge of him. It's when we receive the testimony of God's word, when the spirit of truth and the words of truth are embraced by us, we are born again. We are born of the That truth. And our nature takes on the characteristics of that truth, the spirit of truth.

10:41We have been born of God, and now we live in the knowledge of God. And because we are knowing God, because we are understanding, because we are in an intimate relationship with Him, we should love one another. We are knowing Him. Love is from God. We have been born of God, and we are knowing God, and we are coming to know God. We are on a trajectory of growing intimacy with God, and therefore we should be loving one another.

11:12But there are those who do not love. Look back at verse 8. The one who does not love does not know God. Why do people not love like God loves? Why is there such a chasm in our world? Why is there such two very different kinds of love? Well, because they do not know God. You cannot know what love is unless you know who God is. And if you do not know who God is, you will not love like Him. Makes very sense. If you don't know God, you're not going to love like Him, right?

11:49And if you don't, and the Bible holds forth one kind of love here, and it's the love of God. There are those who do not know God, they don't love. They love themselves, but they don't love with this kind of love. The one who does not love does not know God. Verse 8. And they never have. The verb is: they never have known. Those who do not continue to love never have known God. But look at what he says at the end of verse 8: for God is love.

12:36God is love. This is the headmaster of the school. God is love. God is headmaster. And John takes us to three of his mountain peak confessions of the nature of God. This is the third. Remember in John 4:24, he said, God is spirit, right? God is spirit, speaking of his metaphysical essence. He is spirit. He is not material. He is spirit. As John's going to say, that's why we don't see him. He's going to come to that a little bit later, but God is spirit. And then look at, again, second mountain expression is that God is light. Look at verse 5 of chapter 1. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. God is light, metaphor for truth, metaphor for righteousness. God is light. There is no darkness, there is no error, there is no deceit, there is no wickedness in him at all whatsoever.

13:53God is light. God is spirit, speaks of his substance, his metaphysical substance. God is light, speaks of his nature. And then John adds a third: God is love. He's going to say it again in verse 16, but God is love. Another mountain expression to the nature of God. Again, about his character, his nature. It's not that John is saying God is loving. He's saying God is love. The very essence of his being is love. The reason why we see any kind of love in this world today that reflects this is because we've been made in his image. And even though we are fallen, we still see vestiges of this kind of love.

14:49Love. But it is to be the main thing in the way we relate to one another. What it's saying is, God is love. It's not just that he's loving, but all of his actions are loving actions. That's what he's saying. He is love. Everything he does is love. Everything he speaks, everything he reveals, every aspect of all of his being can't help but be an expression of love because God is love himself. And even in judgment, God is love.

15:30All of his actions are loving actions. Even in his discipline, all of his ways regarding us, love. Love. Because God is love. Now, you hold this. It's not to say that you take his love and then say, okay, well, he's not light. Light is an expression of his holiness, his truth, his righteousness. God is completely holy, completely loving. God is spirit. God is holy. God is love. That is the foundation of understanding God. And those who confess to know him will resemble him.

16:22Now, suppose one of you wanted to go out and buy a dog, and you wanted to get a Fast, beautiful, graceful dog. And somebody presented this picture to you. I've got some offspring of this champion of champion greyhounds. Beautiful dog, right? He can run like the wind, send your money, and I will give you one of his puppies. So you go, you send the money, you go over there, and you get there, and you're given this: a Chinese crested. I got that right. See, in the first service, I called this a chihuahua.

17:13I had my error pointed out on a couple of occasions, but it was my search engine's fault. I looked for chihuahua, and this is what came up. So my deepest apologies go out to the chihuahuas. I slandered you. This was an ugly animal, in my estimation, even one that I think a mother would have a hard time loving. Happy Mother's Day, by the way. And thank God that there are mothers that can love faces like this. But anyway, here's the deal. Imagine you are delivered this dog, and you're like, wait a minute.

18:01This doesn't look like the greyhound. No, you're assured. No, this really is a greyhound puppy. What's wrong with that picture? This dog does not manifest any of the characteristics of this beautiful dog, right? Of this beautiful, graceful greyhound. This dog doesn't manifest any of these characteristics. So don't believe for a moment that this dog is from this greyhound. Likewise, it is with God. A person cannot come into contact with the loving God without being transformed into a loving person.

18:42You do not know him if you do not exhibit the kind of love that God is himself. You don't know him. You haven't been born of him. Are you a loving person? That's what John is telling these churches. Don't believe every spirit that comes in. Be testing the spirits. And if you're not seeing evidences, real, practical evidences of Christ's love, of God's love as manifested in Jesus Christ, the spirit is not from God. And we need to evaluate our own spirits. Sometimes I think we sit in church and we go, and we haven't learned love.

19:30Woe to us if we do not learn love. This is the school of discipleship. You want to know what following Christ is all about? It's all about walking in his ways, and specifically with the major explanation point: loving like he loved. Are you a loving person? Well, the headmaster of this school is. Everything is geared to transform us into what God is, and he is love. Now, I want to talk to you about the core curriculum of this school. Core curriculum. It's here. We learn the character of love. Verse 9: look, by this, the love of God was manifested in us or revealed in us. By this, God showed his love in us. But it's important to understand: John does not allow his readers to go down the road of defining love in their terms. And I think that's the mistake that we make in our day as well, right? We have this idea, this concept of love. Oh, yeah, I love by my definition of love.

20:47But that's not how we are to understand love. By this, John is saying, in this, by this, the love of God is manifested. This is how love is revealed. It's not saying that everyone who loves by today's definition of love loves. Listen, tolerance is not love. Tolerance is tolerance. Now, it may be an aspect of love, maybe, some instances. But tolerance is tolerance. Warm feelings are warm feelings. Love is something different. Oh, love may have warm feelings, but love is something far more profound, far more deep. And there are two errors that we see today, many more, I guess, but there are those who think they can have truth without love.

21:48Many of us fall into the trap of thinking we can have truth without love, that somehow we can assent to some certain theological truths and somehow be all right with God, even though our love life completely lacks anything resembling God. No, truth without love is not real love. There are those who have another error, those who think they can have love. Without truth. That somehow love, all we need to do is love, forget the truth part, but all we need to do is just have love and we're fine. No, because we don't understand love, what love really is unless we understand the truth. You cannot have truth without love, you cannot have love without truth. They go together, and that's what John is saying. This is how you test the spirit, this is how you test your own heart, this is how you really look in to see, is God really dwelling in you.

22:59And since God is love, it's the last thing he said in verse 8. John describes how this love manifested itself. That's what he's going to do: this character of love, this core curriculum of the church. We can talk about many ways that God's love has been manifested, but John takes us to that ultimate expression of God's love. And he takes us there in three movements of thought. But notice something before we move on. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, to us, in us. It's fascinating. Us.

23:41It's the study of how God has loved us. That's what John's taking us on. It's what the school is all about. This is what we talk about in the church: how God has manifested his love to us, and what a special privilege it is. God wanted to demonstrate, he wanted to make himself known, so he had to make objects of his mercy so that he could show the universe, show the spirit realms, how generous, how kind, how deep his love is. In us, God has manifested these. God wants to make himself known, and so what a privilege it is to be an object of his love, and you can be an object of his love this morning. Just receive the testimony of who Jesus is. Receive the confession that the Holy Spirit is testifying to. He is the Christ. He is risen because he was crucified to remove our offenses.

24:56But it is in us. What a privilege. Look at these. God is where John has taken us, showing this ultimate expression in three movements of thought. Look at verse 9. Again, there's a past action with a lasting benefit, a past action. Look at this. By this, the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. Past action, God has sent. His son, and his son never ceases to be the sent one. It's perfect. He sent his son for the benefit of those God loves, and Christ never ceases to be the sent one, sent one in history, continuing to be the sent one for our benefit in the present and in the future. For all times, he is the sent one.

25:52But the importance of this mission, the importance, the depth of God's love for us is seen in whom God sent. He didn't just send a deputy, he didn't send an envoy of lesser expense. He sent that which was most precious to him. The Son came at great cost to the Father, his only unique Son, sent into the world, into a world of completely undeserving people. And we, we, who are we? At first estimation, we might say he sent him, he sent his son to a people who were far less valuable than his own son.

26:47And yet he sent his son because they are valuable to him on par with his son. Unworthy? Yes. Worthless? No. Very precious. Second. He sent his son that we might have life. The second movement of thought, look at this. There's something that love is not. Something that love is not. Verse 10, and this is love. Not that we loved God. Not that we loved God. Our love for God is not the manifestation of love. Substituting human love is not the way we're going to learn what love is. We must learn what love is from God's side of the fence. We are fallen people. We are selfish. We're masters at loving ourselves. And even our sacrifices for others are many times tainted with selfishness. I mean, we are a codependent people. The sacrifices we make are largely more contractual. We want something from somebody, and so we give, because we want something from them. And we go through life with a whole bunch of codependent individuals, but often very few people really learn to love like Christ loved.

28:26But there is a third. Movement of thought here, and he tells us what love is, showed us what love is not, not that we loved God, but verse 10, that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, to be the propitiation, to be the sin offering, to be the expiation. See, we need a propitiation. What does that mean? We need, we need, you need something that will remove our offense before God. And this should not be hard to understand.

29:05Certainly, I see it all the time in relationships, human relationships, husband and wife. Listen, if one person is offended at the other person, guess what? You can't move beyond in your relationship until that offense is moved or dealt with. You can't move forward with any relationships if you've offended or if somebody has offended you. And if you're harboring an offense against somebody, you cannot move forward in that relationship is doomed, right? We need to be saved from somebody's indignation over our sins, our offenses. Well, that's what propitiation is. That's what the sin offering is. Love is redemptive in nature. And it involved a great personal sacrifice for the well-being. Being of those God loved.

30:04God sent his son at great personal sacrifice to himself so that his son would absorb his own indignation against you and me. And we needed that. Listen, if God is frowned, if you live under God's frown, you have no future, right? We need something to change the countenance of God toward us. And how can that happen when a God who is completely holy? That's where Christ comes in. That's the core curriculum. That's why we study Christ from Genesis to Revelation. This is how God removed the offense from his own heart against us. This is how God changed himself to look upon us with great favor.

30:58Not because we were such swell people or righteous people. The Bible tells the story how God changed his heart toward us. And all glory be to Christ. This is why we cannot celebrate Christmas. We cannot celebrate the incarnation without the crucifixion. His love wasn't just that he gave us a baby, he gave us a sin offering. That would turn his heart justly and righteously. Take on the full force of God's fury and indignation against sin, and at the same time, sparing the objects of his love.

31:51He sent the sin away. It's a story of how God dealt with our offense. The personal sacrifice that God made is extreme. There can be no greater expression of love than this, and that is why John takes us there. That is why the Bible takes us there from Genesis to Revelation. The personal sacrifice is extreme. The offense is extreme. I mean, look at what humanity has done. We have really done some awful things. And he is infinitely holy.

32:30And you think you may have sinned beyond God. You have no idea about the love of God. The sacrifice is extreme. The offense is extreme. The unworthiness of the objects is so extreme. The chasm between the two parties is extreme. And God found a way to draw us close to him, to come into relationship with people that far away. It's at the cross we discover the deepest meaning of love. And only at the cross we can really understand the meaning of love. And that's where John is taking us.

33:14Love found a way to remove the offenses of the one loved. That's the core curriculum. You can never love like God loves until you understand how much he loves you. And those are not cheap, trite words. They are profoundly deep. And the purpose of what God has revealed from Genesis to Revelation. We'll be looking at this school of love. Talked about the headmaster, talked about the core curriculum. Now, I want to talk to you about the goal of this discipleship school, the goal of what we do here at the church, the goal of what God is doing. And you can see the goal of this program in two ways. First of all, you can see it in the obligation to love.

34:24Coming out of the church is an obligation. To love. Look at verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Beloved, behold the manner of love in which we are to love one another. Now, look back at chapter 3 and verse 1. John says, see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called the children of God, and such we are. What he's saying in chapter 3, verse 1 is, behold the manner of love that God has for us. And what he's saying here in 4:11, behold the manner of love in which you are owing to love everybody else.

35:13Behold the manner of love which we are owing to one another. What does loving one another in this manner practically look like? Well, first of all, God's love overcomes the offenses of others. I guarantee you, no matter who you are, no matter what offenses have been committed against you, the chasm between you and the offender is not near the span that God reconciling the world to himself was. We are to love one another by not letting the offenses Of people be reasons for sending people away. Oftentimes, we're far more concerned about justifying ourselves. We apply our minds to justifying ourselves, why we are right in sending this person away, or maybe why we're right in not pursuing deeper relationships with people.

36:23But what God is wanting us to do is to put our mind to work at removing offenses of others. That's what God, in his created wisdom, creative wisdom, was able to do. He was able to remove the offenses. Listen, humanity has accomplished a lot of great things. Put the man on the moon, we've come up with all kinds of technology, all kinds of great discoveries, but the one thing we haven't figured out is how to remove the offenses in our heart against somebody else. And we are to apply our minds to this. God found a way. And if we are going to be anything like God, we will find a way.

37:13God's love overcomes the offenses of others. Another aspect of God's love is that God's love was and is redemptive. God's love seeks growing oneness with people, not contentment and idolatry. Isolating ourselves. Another aspect of God's love is that God gave that which was valuable and precious to Him to achieve the relationships. We're going to love the way God loves. Guess what? We're going to be giving up things that are precious to us for the well-being of others.

37:54That's what the headmaster did. I ask you, why would a calf under the sacrificial system of the Old Testament not be sufficient to communicate God's love? Why? Well, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He owns them all. Here, yeah, take one of those. Let's give. No, if we give cheap things, it communicates a cheap love, doesn't it? But if we're going to understand love, love moves to the point of giving up even that which is most precious for the well-being of others. That is what love is. And that is something this world knows very little about.

38:38And even in the church, I think we struggle with this more than we realize. And this is a loving church. And if there's anybody in this church that should love, it should be me. I'm the one exposed to these truths far more long and deeply. I marinate in these truths, and I see in my own heart the inclinations to not love, to not pursue, to be content, to isolate. It seems like I'm always fighting. I want this idea, I want to go off in the woods and just do my own thing.

39:21So, if anybody on planet Earth should love, and I understand the tension, I understand the difficulty. And I tell you, no one is going to love like this unless we really focus ourselves and understand what God's love is for us. And then there's something amazing that transforms us. Oh, wonder of wonders that God should love me in this capacity. How can I help but want to share this? Because then I want everybody to have the same.

39:57What are some precious things that you may be asked to give up? I don't necessarily think that God's going to call each of us or all of us to the same kind of extreme sacrifice that Christ made. I mean, there may be a few, maybe, who'll pay the life, give their life for someone else, but largely we're called to much lesser sacrifices, aren't we? Daily sacrifices. You may be called to give up precious things. In fact, we are called. On a routine basis. Maybe that precious thing is your time. Maybe it's some of your resources. Maybe it's your reputation. Maybe it's your attention. People need attention. Sometimes we want to give our attention on something else. Maybe it's your energy. You're going to have to give up. Maybe you have to take time to rejoice with others. Rejoice. When someone is rejoicing, stop what you're doing and rejoice with them. And when people are mourning, take time to mourn with them.

41:03You may be called to suffer wrong, let offenses go, forgive, absorb loss, listen to people. You may be status, pursuits, many sacrifices. That's why, if you don't take up your cross and follow Christ, you'll never be able to learn to love like him. But here's the question I have out of verse 11: why? That question always gets you in trouble. Why? Why am I obligated to love like he loved me? Why does his loving me obligate me to do anything?

41:47So John's saying, we're obligated, owing the same kind of love to one another. Why? I mean, it's his prerogative if he wanted to love me. That's great. Why does this obligate me? Well, there are several reasons. Number one, I am not greater than my neighbor. I am dependent upon God's love for my very existence, and so is everybody else. And to somehow think that I deserve his favor and not be willing to extend that to other people is arrogant. In fact, many of the instruments that God uses to show his love on us are other people. We had loving parents, right? God has given you a loving mother, right?

42:39That's God's love expression, even with all the flaws, right? Not that there's any flaws in the mothers in here, but probably out there there might be. But the point being, parents, friends, family, pastors, even employers or teachers, all these can be expressions of God's love. And when we think that somehow we expect or we think God's love to us is due, that we are being treated by others in a kind way, and yet deny that same obligation to others, we are arrogant.

43:19So, one reason I am not greater than my neighbor, that's why it obligates me to receive his love. Second, I am not greater than God. Am not greater than God. God loved people. He's worthy of imitation. But to not love is to do what? Elevate myself above God. What a monstrously arrogant thought to think that I should say to God, God, loving people, that's good for you, but I'm not going to do it. I've got a whole nother way to do things. That's arrogance on a monstrous level.

44:06And that's exactly what Satan did. God created man. Satan hated man. He's the man-killer from the very beginning. No, I'm not greater than God. But there's a third reason why I'm obligated. It's good for me. Teaching me the way of loving is loving. I need to love. It's God's love that He brings me to a place that I can love. Jesus is the one who said it's better to give than to receive. Paul said that love is the more excellent way.

44:53But look what happens in verse 10. I'm sorry, verse 12. There's another reason. There's another reason why God wants us to love. That's part of the goal of this program. So we can understand the goal of this program is seen in the duty to love, the obligation to love, but it's also seen in the way God manifests himself. God manifests himself through the loving acts of his people. Why should we love? Why should we learn the way of loving? Well, this is God's purpose in you, God's purpose for you, God's purpose through you. This is the purpose for all of humanity.

45:42When we love like this, he's accomplished, creating man in his image. Look at verse 12. No one has seen God at any time. That's a historic reality. No one has seen God at any time. Remember, John 1:18, John said this: No one has seen God at any time. Only the begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. It's only one that's ever seen Him. That's Christ Himself, God, the Son of God, who came. He's the one who exegetes, He's the one who narrates God for us. Remember what He said to Moses. Exodus 33, 20, you cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live.

46:401 Timothy 6, 16 speaks of God dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. But it gives us a little bit of a preview of the privilege that's in store for humanity. Look at 1 John 3. Behold what manner of love, right? King James, see what a great love the Father has bestowed on us. Look what he says in verse 2. Beloved, now we are children of God. That's what we are now. And it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. A privilege. No man has ever seen God, but we're going to see him as he is.

47:30What a privilege. Jesus said, prayed, John 17, 24, Father, may they see my glory which you have given me. For you loved me before the foundation of the world. But how does the one see the unseen God? God is spirit, as John has said. God is spirit. So how do we see spirit? You cannot see spirit, but although God cannot be seen, his love can be seen. And that's what John is saying. No one has seen God at any time.

48:14If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. At present, we don't see God, cannot see God as he is, but we can see the love of God. I love what John Stott said on this verse. The unseen God, who once revealed himself in his Son, now reveals himself in his people if and when they love one another. God's love is seen in their love because their love is his love imparted to them by his spirit. The words do not mean that when we begin to love, God comes to dwell in us, but the reverse. Our love for one another is evidence of God's indwelling presence. Test the spirits.

49:10When you see love like Christ, you're seeing the Spirit of God at work. His love shows the world that we are his disciples, that we are true. Being tutored by him. But there's something more here. His love is perfected in us. Now, that expression perfected, what does it mean? The idea of perfection is it's completed, finished. It's something, it's a goal that has been achieved, it's maturing, it's his purpose, his goal. God, his love has accomplished its goal, his love has reached a conclusion, his love has matured, that kind of thing. It's on display. Accomplish the purpose.

50:16And it's here where John takes us to the high point of Christianity. You see, the high point of Christianity isn't in many of the traditional places that people throughout history have sought. Some thought if we go and isolate ourselves and run to the hills or the woods or the great clefts in the rocks and isolate ourselves, asceticism, right? That somehow we will be closer to God there. Some have thought, no, it's in the mystical experiences. Some have thought it's in the intellectual ascents of the theological mountaintops. But John shows us here that the summit experience is right there in the warm-blooded stream of a fallen world.

51:15The summit experience is when you love your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in very practical ways. That's where you're going to experience the love of God. That's where you're going to experience the love of God in your own heart as you experience what letting an offense go is like. There is communion with your heavenly Father. When you experience suffering wrong, there you experience the love of God. That's where you sense his abiding presence. When you set out to love like he did, and you begin to love like that, you will sense his presence in a way that you don't on the great mountaintop experiences of life. There will be a confidence and assurance.

52:12You see, when we love like God, God is manifested, and his school of discipleship has accomplished its goal. We've got this false notion that somehow, if I get away from Everyone in my life, and just escape to go love God. That somehow we're going to be closer to God. No, we learn to love God in a fallen world and in a fallen place where we're learning how to love one another in the church. We learn to love in a fallen world. That's where we get offended. That's where we get hurt. That's where we suffer loss. That's where the need is.

52:59And that's where we find fellowship with God. Well, the world needs to know how to love. And so God has instituted a school of love, calls it the church. And He has no will for, no pleasing will for you outside of His church. This is where you learn to do it. A vast people, very different. It's our differences that speaks to the glory that God can bring people from all different backgrounds and make them one and make them truly love.

53:40The headmaster of this school, God, and God is love. Core curriculum that we study day in and day out is his love for us. And it's there that you see his love for you that you are transformed. And the goal of all this is that you would learn to love like he loves. Well, are you a loving person? Or are you like that ugly little dog trying to pass yourself off as a greyhound? Well, I pray this morning that you would really come to know Christ, really come to know the person of Jesus Christ, because in knowing him, you will come to know your Creator and His immense and deep love for you.

54:39Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we marvel again as we stand at the foot of the cross this morning, looking at the great chasm, the great depth of your love for us. So, Father, thank you. Forgive us for thinking that we have sinned against you beyond remedy. How arrogant. Father, forgive our arrogance to think that somehow we outsend even your ability to forgive. Father, forgive us where we have replaced the love of anything over love for you. Please come have your way in our lives.

55:30In Jesus' name, amen.