Love, Faith, Victory

5-5-24

Hoonah-Hadley

1 John 5:1-6 (John 15:9-17)

Call to Worship Psalm 98

Daily Verse 1 John 5:4

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”  We cannot do what God has done, nevertheless, He has done it. He is a God of order, not solely for His honor, glory and purpose, but for our salvation, the forgiveness of our sins. After all, we are the apple of His eye, His favor rest upon us, it is ever before us in the ordinary and the extraordinary. Revelation 3:7-8 “…These things says He who is holy, He who is true, ‘He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens: I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word and have not denied My name.’” (Isaiah 22:22) Praise God He has the keys to the doors we long to open, and, the ones we long to close. Read on here in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 and be the one He has called us to be. Chapters 2 and 3, entirely red letters describing the 7 churches. The loveless church. The persecuted church. The compromising church. The corrupt church. The dead church. The faithful church. And, the lukewarm church. Rev. 3:7-13 is the faithful church. As much as we are able, through the power He bestows upon us, by way of the Holy Spirit, the blood shed at Calvary, His only begotten Son, with reckless abandon, unshakeable faith, uncompromising belief, this is our Holy calling. John 15:9-17 and 1 John 5:9-17 might be titled “When Love Comes to Town”, or “The Love Train.”

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In fact, this epistle of John is like a runaway train loaded with love, spilling out its contents as it barrels through our lives. A brother said recently, “We’ve preached on peace, now let us hear from forgiveness”. Dear brothers and sisters, every word, every breath, every step, every tear, every drop of blood, every heartbeat, every prayer is knit together with the scarlet chord that runs from Calvary, the empty tomb, down the road to Emmaus to reach a lost and broken world with the love of God for the sole purpose of our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. From beginning to end God’s covenant, His promises, His blessed assurance rest upon the middle cross and the sacrifice of His dearly beloved Son who gave His life a ransom that we might join the heavenly chorus singing a “Hallelujah Song!”  Praise God the prophets of old spoke of it, the psalmist praised it, the gospels witnessed it, and the epistles teach its application. God’s word does exactly what He said it would do, it covers all bases, leaves no stone unturned, fulfills every promise, crosses every valley, ascends the highest mountains, descends the depths of the sea to rescue those that seek Him. Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” The equation is simple, His love is the victory through our faith. Love + Faith = Victory. The band U2 was heavily influenced by blues music and their meeting B.B. King inspired the song “When Love Comes to Town”.  The chorus: “When love comes to town I’m gonna catch that train, when love comes to town I’m gonna catch that flame.” Bono and B.B. go back and forth in the song but it’s verse 4 B.B. says: “I was there when they crucified my Lord. I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword. I threw the dice when they pierced His side. But I’ve seen love

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conquer the great divide.” At first listen the song seems to be about romantic love, we certainly can’t deny the influence that has on humanity, but as the song goes on it is clear, it’s about Agape love, Godly love, for God is love. 1John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” You can see the hand of God, the spirit of God, the love of God working His way into the lives of folks like Bono and B.B. King. As their careers go on, you can literally see the transformation taking place in their lives through the lyrics and hear it in the melody. Salvation has wrought it’s work in many famous artist, musicians, authors, leaders and so on, but you don’t have to be famous to catch that train. 1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him…also loves those who are begotten of Him.” As 1 Corinthians 13 is known as “The Greatest Gift” and defines love, the Gospel of John maybe the book on love, then this first epistle of John is the consummation of love. Believing that Jesus is the Christ is a sign that you are born of God. The natural result of this is that you love Him who engineers the train, but also, that you love those who are passengers on that train. Vs. 2 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.” If we were to do a word study on this epistle, we would find it saturated with the word “know” and “known”. It’s not about how you feel, it’s about what you know, and when you believe Jesus is the Christ, you know love has come to town. When you graduate from being served to serving, you’ll know. John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” 

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If we need to state the obvious, we will. Loving one another is a command, not a suggestion, but here’s the key, “as I have loved you.” This is not some man made love, this love comes from the Author of it, the fountain and foundation of it. If it does not come from the Author of it, it is not born of Him, it’s a lie. During a bible study on Ephesians 5 which states among other things, “Husbands, love your wives…”, the teachers asked why men are told to love their wives? He answered his own question, “Because they need to be told.” Why does Christ “command” us to love one another? Because we need to be told. A commandment by the way is an order. We may not want to, but we have to trust God knows what He is doing and allow Him too “direct” us. Oh yeah, Ephesians 5:1-2 “Be imitators of God…and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us…” There’s no love without giving. January 1st, 1977, the band Supertramp released a song called, “Give A Little Bit”.  Verse 1 “…give a little bit of your love to me…I’ll give a little bit of my love to you. There’s so much that we need to share, so send a smile and show you care.” According to God’s word, the bible study teacher, the song, loving one another does not come naturally. It comes from a conscious, deliberate, intentional effort to obey directions, orders, our Lords command. When the Lord gives us a command, our reply doesn’t need to be some rambling philosophical dissertation, a simple “ok” will suffice. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” True believers have observable characteristics: they love God, Jesus and His children. They obey His commands. They overcome the world. Our God is a God of order.

Love, Faith, Victory, in that order. 

Amen!