Lord's Day: August 10, 2025 Preacher: Carlos Montijo Series: First John Topic: Love Scripture: 1 John 4:11–13; 1 Corinthians 1:30–31; 1 John 4:8–9; 3:2; Romans 8:16–18; 5:1–5; Hebrews 12:5–11; Ephesians 2:3–13; Romans 9:23; 2 Peter 1:3–4; Romans 8:28–30; John 17:17; Jeremiah 23:28–29; Matthew 28:19

11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 1 John 4:11–13

I. The excellencies of God’s love correspond to the order of our salvation (ordo salutis)

• The order of salvation is a result of, the consequence of, God’s love being poured out richly on all of us who have been chosen by God, to be loved by Him—it is all God’s gracious gift to us! Because God is love (1 John 4:8)

II. Reformative: After regenerating us, God’s love continues to mold us, rebuke, chasten, discipline us, to conform us to the image of His Son

III. The path of God’s Reformative love refines, sanctifies, prunes and perfects us

• God’s Reformative love sanctifies us and “is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12) through suffering—but not as those who are without God and without hope in the world (Eph. 2:12)
• God’s adoptive love for us as our heavenly Father disciplines and reforms us (Heb. 12:5-11)

IV. God’s Law & Gospel of Love

• A Redemptive, Restorative, justifying love, and a Regenerative and ongoing, Reformative, sanctifying love that disciplines us unto holiness, to make us more like His precious, unique Son, “so that we may share His holiness” (Heb. 12:10)

V. God’s law and gospel both sanctify us in special ways, because they are both God’s holy Word

• God’s holy love transforms us by His holy law, His holy gospel, His Holy Spirit

Join us on Sundays for worship at 10:00am:

• ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church
  4712 Montana Ave
  El Paso, Texas 79903

Contact us at:

• web: ThornCrownCovenant.Church
  call/text: (915) 843-8088
  email: ThornCrownCovenantBChurch@gmail.com

Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com

Lord's Day: August 3, 2025 Preacher: Carlos Montijo Series: First John Topic: Love Scripture: 1 John 4:11–12; John 19:30; 1 John 4:7–9; Titus 3:4–7; 2 Corinthians 5:17; John 1:18; 4:24; 14:9; 13:34–35; Exodus 33:18–20

11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:11–12

I. Regenerative: God’s love regenerates us, recreates us, causes us to adjust our course and walk in newness of life as renewed creations

• God’s love gives us repentance and faith, new spiritual life, gives us a new moral nature, a new disposition, by realigning our deepest convictions, thoughts, words, and actions to His Word and will

II. No one has seen God at any time

• Even though “no one has beheld God at any time,” yet He also demonstrates His abiding love through us and perfects His love in us, because He chose us to be the objects of His love and affections, and His love is regenerative and sanctifies us with a holy love for others, especially for our precious brothers and sisters in Christ
• Although Moses spoke to God “face to face,” anthropomorphism (Exodus 33:18-20)

Join us on Sundays for worship at 10:00am:

• ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church
  4712 Montana Ave
  El Paso, Texas 79903

Contact us at:

• web: ThornCrownCovenant.Church
  call/text: (915) 843-8088
  email: ThornCrownCovenantBChurch@gmail.com

Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com

Lord's Day: July 27, 2025 Preacher: Carlos Montijo Series: First John Topic: Love Scripture: 1 John 4:9–10; Romans 5:8–10; Ephesians 1:7–8; 1 John 2:1–2; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Isaiah 53:4–10; 1 John 3:1; 1 Peter 2:9–10; Revelation 1:5–6; 5:10; Romans 8:30

9By 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. 10In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:7–10

• Great gospel memory passage

I. This “Other Love Chapter” explains what love truly is, and what it looks like

• What then is love? God’s love is gospel; our love is law (obedience)
• The Excellencies of God's love:
  • (a) Redemptive, Restorative (Justifying: Forensic [synthetic])
  • (b) Regenerative, Reformative (Sanctifying: Renovative, Transformative [analytic])

II. Redemptive: God’s love forgives all our sins

• How is our Redemption accomplished? One “Word”—Christ

III. God’s gospel of love is a gospel of propitiation

• The atonement is central to Christianity; propitiation is the heart of the gospel

• Propitiation is “the means of appeasing wrath and gaining the good will of an offended person; especially with respect to sacrifices for appeasing angered deities.”[1]

• You cannot be saved without a gospel of propitiation, you must believe the true gospel
• Against Eastern Orthodoxy
• 1 Corinthians 15:3
• God, Man, Salvation, His Word—a failure to grasp these primary doctrines can lead to a false gospel
• Isaiah 53:4–10
• You cannot understand God’s love unless you understand God’s wrath
• You cannot have God’s love unless God’s wrath has been satisfied through His Son whom He sent, to be the propitiation for our sins.

IV. Restorative: God’s love not only restores to us the benefits that we lost in the Fall, but surpasses them with more blessings and benefits

Join us on Sundays for worship at 10:00am:

• ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church
  4712 Montana Ave
  El Paso, Texas 79903

Contact us at:

• web: ThornCrownCovenant.Church
  call/text: (915) 843-8088
  email: ThornCrownCovenantBChurch@gmail.com

Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com

[1] Rick Brannan, ed., Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Lexham Research Lexicons (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020).