1John 4:16-21
Seeing the Invisible God
John tells us that we are the beneficiaries of a great, loving God. In this text,
he details several intimate things about God.
1. \\#14\\ God sent His Son, Jesus, to be the Savior of the world.
2. \\#15\\ If we will confess Jesus as God and Savior, He will dwell within
us.
3. \\#17\\ By having Jesus in our hearts, He has made our love perfect.
Yet, despite all that God has done for us, \\#20\\ says that we have not SEEN
God.
Of course, we know that is true. John tells us in his epistle that God is a
spirit and that they who come to Him must come in spirit. Human eyes cannot
behold spiritual beings. So we are invited to have a relationship with a God that
we have never seen. Yet, we can see Him. Perhaps not with human eyes but we can
see Him none-the-less.
The title of the message this morning is Seeing the Invisible God.
How can we see this invisible God today?
I. You can see the invisible God by His mercy.
A. God’s mercy has been abundant to everyone.
1. Of the poorest, most miserable lost person, the merciful God has
given them life and held off their untimely death.
2. Why? Because you are still alive and not in hell. The Bible says:
Psalms 78:38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and
destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not
stir up all his wrath.
a. Perhaps you are one of those who thinks God has not been
merciful, but allowed death, famine, natural disasters, or
mayhem to come upon them.
b. I would answer you in two ways:
(1) I would say it was not the Lord, but mankind that brought
these plagues upon mankind.
(2) I would say that those without Christ have no promise of
God’s goodness, only His wrath, and that may break forth
on them at any moment.
c. So you see, if you are here lost and still alive, you have
received of the Lord great mercy.
3. Of the poorest, most miserable saved person, the merciful God has
given them eternal life and blessings beyond all comprehension.
a. Maybe you are a believer but live a most miserable life.
b. Good news! God has something much better for you.
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
6 And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly
[places] in Christ Jesus:
B. Now, I have just declared that the most miserable sinner or saint has
experienced the mercy of God, so much so that anyone here can see this
invisible God of which we speak.
1. But I can attest that none of you are the most miserable of either
sinners or saints.
2. Without doubt, all in this building today can count a multitude of
blessings from the merciful God.
a. Food in your stomachs
b. Jobs to work
c. Happiness in life
d. Family that loves you
e. Good health most of your life
f. Strength of body
g. Soundness of mind
3. These are just a few of the mercies that God has sent our way.
4. So our vision of the invisible God should be very clear.
C. The truth is that God’s mercy is about us everyday and so is the
invisible God.
1. Sadly, most don't see the invisible God in their life because they
won't acknowledge the mercy that God has shown them.
2. But anytime God keeps some from us that we do deserve or gives us
something that we don’t deserve, God has been merciful to us.
3. With that little bit of knowledge, look at your life one more time.
4. You will see the hand of the invisible God all over it.
II. You can see the invisible God by His great love.
A. Remember:
1. \\#1John 4:16\\ said that God is love. (That makes God the Source
of all true love.)
2. \\#1John 4:19\\ said that we love Him because He first loved us.
(That means our ability to love is derived from being loved by
God.)
3. Those statement together imply that every right thing we do in the
area of love is us mimicking God!
a. Let that thought sink in.
b. I don’t say that an unsaved person cannot love.
c. I do say that an unsaved person cannot love, but I do say that
unsaved person cannot love like God created him to love
because He has not accepted the true Source of love.
B. The love that God wants us to love with is a picture of the love that
God loves us with.
1. Paul lists 16 qualities of love in 1Cor 13.
1Corinthians 4:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not;
charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth….
2. These 16 qualities are derived from understanding the kind of love
God has for us.
a. God suffers long with us because He loves us.
b. God is kind toward us.
c. God thinks the best of us, giving us opportunity after
opportunity, even when He knows what the future holds.
d. God never rejoices when bad things come our way, even if those
bad things are from His hand, intended to chastise us.
e. God’s love never quits.
3. You can see the invisible God from the love He has for you.
C. This is the Sunday before Valentine’s Day.
1. Valentine’s Day is, more or less, a celebration of love.
2. While some do not celebrate Valentine's Day, I think it is a good
thing to celebrate love.
a. It is interesting that we do not celebrate other noble
qualities like truth or loyalty with a holiday, but we do
celebrate love.
b. I think that is a testimony to the power of love.
c. I don’t know that we have to celebrate like the world might
but I do believe we ought to celebrate it.
(1) After all, all real love comes from God. If it is not a
by-product of knowing God through Jesus Christ, it is a
left over from being created in God’s image.
(2) For those of us who do know Jesus Christ as our Savior, we
are the beneficiaries of the greatest love ever shown to
mankind.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(3) And most who know and live in the love of God also live in
the love of others.
d. Why would we not want to celebrate something like that?
3. God wants us to love others with the kind of love that He has loved
us with.
a. Christian, this is sometimes a very hard thing to do.
b. To love another like God loves us requires the very character
of God to live within us.
c. But it is the desire and design of God for us to love like we
are loved.
d. If I had to pull one quality out to present to you this morning,
it would be don’t ever quit loving a person—no matter what.
(1) Understand me. I know that sometimes we have to quit
bailing a person out.
(2) I know that sometimes we must take a strong stand against
a what a person is doing.
(3) But never quit loving a person.
(4) Never quit demonstrating your love for a person.
(5) The harder the stand you must take with a person, the more
diligently you must work to demonstrate your love to that
person.
(6) Your godly love toward that person might be the only
connection that person will ever have toward God.
III. We can see the invisible God by His grace.
A. Grace is one of God’s most marvelous inventions.
1. I like to say that grace is God at work.
Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
[his] good pleasure.
2. God is always working in your life.
3. He works through the situations of life, the people in your life,
the problems, the blessings, even the places He brings you to.
B. You see, God has a plan for your life, whoever you are.
1. I do not know the details of God’s plan, but I do know some of the
general plans.
a. God wants every person to be saved.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord… is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.
b. God wants every person to serve Him.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service.
c. God wants every person to be happy with true joy.
Luke 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
2. God's grace is working to bring the plan God as for you to pass.
C. Since before you were born, God has been working to bring you to that
place.
Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest
forth out of the womb I sanctified thee….
1. God has planned out the people in your life,
2. …the circumstances you will go through,
3. …the opportunities you will have,
4. …the sermons you will hear,
5. …the path you would follow,
6. …even the teachers and preachers that you would come across have
been planned by God.
7. It is all a part of God working in your life.
8. It is all a part of God’s grace.
D. Why? God is determined to give you every opportunity to fulfill His
plan for your life—short of over-riding your free will.
1. You wonder why you can not attain to certain things in life?
2. Do you wonder why the same kinds of problems or people keep
coming into your life?
3. Do you wonder why, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem
to get ahead?
4. God’s grace is keeping you where you are so that you can see your
need for Him.
5. You may not like it, but God’s grace is working in your life to
bring you to Him.
6. Reject God and His grace if you want to, but you have to admit,
you have most certainly seen the invisible God.
IV. You can see the invisible God by His justice.
A. So far we have had a very pleasant discussion about God and His
character.
1. Might I say that I don’t want to bring up any topics that might
make our discussion unpleasant.
2. However, if you do not see the justice of God, you have not
accurately seen the invisible God.
B. There is much about God’s justice that I could say this morning, but
I want to give you one thought about it. This thought applies to
both the saved and the lost.
1. Lost person, the last thing you will see is the justice of God.
a. Think about that statement.
b. Looking through the Bible, I noticed that God most often shows
all of His OTHER characteristics before He shows His justice.
(1) He will show His mercy.
(2) He will show His love.
(3) He will show His grace.
(4) And if you have rejected all of these, then He will show
you His justice.
c. Consider Pharaoh. Yes, he is seeing the justice of God, but
not until God had showed him plague after plague in an attempt
to break his stubborn will.
d. Consider Pilate, Yes, he is seeing the justice of God, but not
until God had showed him time after time who Jesus was, in an
attempt to move him to do what was right.
c. And you too. If you reject Jesus Christ, you will see the
justice of God, but God has shown you mercy, love, and grace
over and over again in an attempt to bring you to Himself.
2. Saved person, the LAST thing you will see is the justice of God.
a. Those are the same words but with a different inflection.
b. By stating this, I mean that before you saw the justice of
God, you would see God Himself defeated by an enemy and
deposed from His throne.
c. In other words, you will never see God’s justice.
d. All of God’s justice against you and your sins was poured out
upon Jesus Christ.
What is the point of this message? It is to show you that God is real and that
you can see Him in your life, by His mercy, love, grace, and justice. God’s
desire, and ours, is that you respond to the invisible God today.
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