If you would, the 1st John chapter
3. 1st John chapter 3. It is the message. The message. We'll read verses 4 and chapter
3 to verse 15. 1st John chapter 3 verses 4 to
15. Whosoever committed sin transgresses
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And
ye know that he was manifested, that being Christ, to take away
our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doth doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. In this, the children of God
are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. For this is the message that
you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and slew his brother, and
wherefore slew him? Because his own works were evil,
and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hates you. We know that we have passed from
death into life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him. Now, we have seen all through
this epistle, as we've studied this epistle, that the Apostle
John has been bringing forth contrasts between different things. In chapter 1, he brought forth
the contrast between light and darkness. Between light and darkness. He also brought forth how God
is light and in Him is no darkness at all. He's absolutely holy.
He's absolutely holy. And that's what we looked at,
the light in that aspect is His holiness. And in Him is no darkness,
no sin. No sin. He's absolutely sinless. Now, when we're born into this
world, we're in absolute darkness. And there's no light in us at
all. At all. So if one says he's in the light
and he walks in darkness, then they lie, and the truth is not
in you, the scripture said. And think of how our God is light. You cannot walk in the light
unless you're in Christ, who is the light. If you're not in
Christ, you can't walk in the light. But we live and breathe
and have our being in him, don't we? And he is the light. He's the light. Remember what
verse 7 of chapter 1 states. Let's turn back there. Look what
verse 7 of chapter 1 says. But if we walk in the light,
that's Christ. As he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another. So if we're walking in the light,
we have fellowship with those who are walking in the light.
And that's in Christ again. And the blood of Jesus Christ
is somewhat cleanses us from all sin. So each of us who are
believers, we are walking in Christ. And it's the blood of
Christ that cleanses us from all sin. It's what he's done
for us. It's his work. And we'll see
tonight that John is... We'll continue to bring this
contrast forth in the verses that we'll look at tonight. Let's
read verses 10 to 15. In this the children of God,
chapter three, in this the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,
neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message
that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
And our master said that. That's what our master told us.
Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and slew his brother, and
wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil.
We'll look at that a little bit further on. And his brother's
righteous. Marvel not, brethren, if the
world hates you. Don't marvel at that. It hated
our master. It's gonna hate those who are
in him. We know that we have passed from death unto life.
Because we love the brother, and he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him. So again, last week, in the verses
we looked at, John brought forth the contrast between the believer
in Christ and the unbeliever. The believer abides in Christ,
and the unbeliever's outside of Christ, just like we talked
about, the vine and the branches. The branches cannot stay alive
without the trunk or without the vine. And our Lord told the
disciples, without me you can do nothing. And so we abide in,
and John was giving us a contrast of those who abide in Christ
and those who do not abide in Christ. We see in verse 14 of
this chapter, John brings forth the contrast between life and
death, between those who are in Christ and have eternal life
and have passed from death to life, and those who do not know
Christ, but they abide in death. They're still dead in trespasses
and sins, beloved. Look, it says we know that we
have passed from death into life, because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death, still dead
in trespasses and sins. Still dead. So tonight we'll
see the wondrous effects of God's grace. We'll see the wondrous
effects of God's grace upon the saved sinner. And we've seen
again in this study that God sees us in Christ, doesn't he?
When God looks at his people, he sees us clothed in the perfect,
spotless righteousness of Christ. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, and he sees us in Christ. We know that our sins
are forgiven, and we marvel at this because we know experimentally
that we could never say this about ourselves. Because we know
we're safe sinners. But God sees us in Christ. He
doesn't see our sin. But all we feel is our sin, isn't
it? So experimentally, we can't say,
oh yeah, I know that. No, we struggle all the time,
don't we? But it's true, beloved. It's true, God sees us in Christ,
and think of the wondrous power of the blood of Christ. All our
sins are forgiven, all of them. Every one. And we have a, beloved,
we have a full pardon. Full pardoned. Pardoned before
God. Accepted by God in Christ. Oh
my. all because of what our Lord's
done for us, all because of what Christ has done for us. So with
that in mind, let us now consider verse 10. In this, the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth
his brother. So again, John approaches this
contrast here in the negative viewpoint in this verse. He approaches the contrast now
here in the negative viewpoint, rather than the positive. We
can't prove our faith, can we? And yet it's manifested, and
yet it's manifested in the love that we have for the brethren.
In the love that we have for the brethren. We see that brought
forth in verse 11. Look at verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we are also to love one another. Oh my. And we know from our study
that the brethren that when we do righteousness,
we looked at how this is just believing in God. It's not something
we do. We just believe in God. And even
that faith that we have to believe in God is given to us. It's a
gift. Look back at chapter 2 and look at verse 29. If you know
that he is righteous, You know that everyone that doeth righteousness
is born of Him. Christ is perfectly righteous,
isn't He? We're born again of the Holy Spirit of God. And I
like what Brother Tim had brought out in that verse. Brother Tim
James, he brought out the fact that doing righteousness is just
believing on Christ. It doesn't add anything to our
salvation at all. We just believe what the Word
says. It's wonderful. See, works mongers will take
that and say, well, look, you've got to do all these things. No,
we just trust in Christ. We just rest in Christ. We rest
in what he's done. Praise be to God. He's done it
all. And we believe what God says. We believe what God says,
even though experimentally, again, we go, oh, my, we're such sinners.
But the scripture says God don't see our sin anymore. Isn't that
amazing? But that's the truth. That's
the wondrous power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are totally forgiven, beloved. Now we know, again, from our
study in 1 John 2, 29, that's believing on God. We just believe
God. We believe what he says in the
scriptures. There was a time when we didn't, but now we do.
We believe. We believe what the scriptures
say. We believe what the scriptures proclaim about the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he was God incarnate in the flesh. We believe that.
We believe that he came here to save us from our sins. We
believe that. We believe that. We believe what
the scriptures proclaim about Christ. We also believe what
the scriptures proclaim about us, don't we? That in us there's
no righteousness. That there's no one on this earth
who seeks God. That there's none good, no not one. We believe
that. There was a time when we didn't, when we would have recoiled
at that. But praise be to God, we believe
it now. And we ceased from our own labors, haven't we? And we're
trusting in His, His works, what Christ has done for us. And we
trust in Him alone, no one else, only Christ, only Christ. And we're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. We're granted faith to believe.
We're granted repentance to turn to God. And we believe, we believe every
word in this book. We believe it. Marvel at that. Did you believe it before the
Lord saved you? Did we even read it? I didn't. No, it was just paper and ink. Before the Lord saved me, but
now, is it so for you? It's wondrous. Do you not read
the Scriptures and find great comfort as the Scriptures tell
us about what Christ has done for us? As the Scriptures proclaim a
full pardon in Christ? As the Scriptures proclaim that
we were once dead in trespasses and sins and now we've been made
alive in Christ? And as the Scriptures proclaim
one day we'll be with him in glory forever? We marvel at that,
don't we? It's absolutely wonderful. And
we believe what God says in the scriptures. We believe it. So we see here the negative employed
in this verse before us, as those who are the children of the devil
do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They do it not righteousness,
which is manifest in the fact that they do not love the brethren.
They do not love the brethren. So we see then the great contrast
between the children of God and the children of the devil. And
this is manifested in the one loving the brethren and the other
hating the brethren. And think of this. One who abides
in Christ, who's in the light, is the believer who loves the
brethren, and the other abides in darkness of their own sin,
who hates the brethren. My. One loves the brethren, one
loves the scriptures, one loves the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the other hates it and doesn't even want to hear
it. But wonder of wonders. God takes
those rebels, that's what this guy was, and I know that's, we
all were, we were rebels by our nature, right? He takes those
rebels who he's chosen as his people, and he makes them will,
And He gives them a desire to just hear Christ proclaimed over
and over and over again. And nothing else can satisfy
us, beloved. Nothing else can satisfy us but
the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. It's sheep food. It's sheep food, beloved. And
we love it. We absolutely love it. One believes
that Christ is all our salvation and him alone, that he's the
way, the truth, and the life. We who are his people know we
could never save ourselves. And the other is deceived in
their own self-righteousness. They're deceived in their self-righteousness.
And they believe they can save themselves by trying to gain
merit and favor with God by what they do. And if God leaves them
in that state, They'll perish in their sins and go right to
hell. What mercy God's had on us, isn't
he? his people what mercy now we know that our love is fickle
we know that we know our love is fickle we know our love for
God is fickle and we know our love for the brethren is fickle
yeah I don't know of any believer who points to his own love and
says oh yeah that's that's me I I definitely that's me I haven't
heard no unbeliever ever say that because we know we're fickle
we're up and down beloved We mourn actually over our lack
of love, don't we? We mourn over our lack of love
for God and for one another. But we know that we love the
brethren. Why? Because he's granted us
faith to believe on him. On him. It's all in Christ, beloved.
It's all in Christ. Listen to what Brother Tim James
says about this love for the brethren. He says this. The believer
knows he loves the brethren, verse 14, because God has said
he does. Because God said he does. That's
why we know we love the brethren, because that's what God said.
I like that. That's easy to understand, isn't
it? That's what I love about Tim's writings. He just brings
stuff right to my level, where it's easy to understand. It's
beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. But the approach of verse 10
does not mention the believer's love. Look at verse 10. It doesn't
mention the believer's love. It says, herein is love, not
that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for, oh, I'm in the wrong chapter. I'm in verse
four, or chapter 10. In this, the children of God
are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doth
do his righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth his
brother. So he doesn't mention the believer's love. He goes
on to say, it simply states by omission that it exists. that
it exists, as it holds it up against the fact that the sons
of the devil do not love the brethren. So there's the contrast
again brought forth before us. This negative approach is a positive
acknowledgement of the believer's love without overtly declaring
it. So it's an acknowledgement that
the believer loves the brethren by showing the contrast of the
unbeliever who hates the brethren. And he goes on to say this, the
truth is that it is the world that sees the believer's love
for the brethren, but the world is none too happy about it. That's
the end of the quote. The world does not like the fact
that we love the brethren. They wonder, why do you ever
want to be with them, folks? Because they're my family. You're my family. We're going
to spend eternity together, beloved. We have the same Father. We have
the same Savior. And we have the same Spirit dwelling
within us. Oh my. So let us rest assured,
and let us rest assured though our love is fickle and it changes
with circumstances sometimes, let us rest assured in this absolute
fact, our God's love for us never changes. It doesn't change based
upon circumstances. It never, ever changes. This
is why John's bringing forth, behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. What manner of love? This is an unchanging love. Nothing
can alter it, beloved. Our sin can't alter it because
we're covered in the precious blood of Christ. Now again, that
doesn't give us a license to go crazy, but think of that. This love that God has for his
people does not change based upon circumstances. Ever. Ever. That's wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful.
And so again, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. And this, again,
this love, this love leaves the believer in absolute awe. It's
eternal love. It's eternal love. It's everlasting
love. Everlasting. And then think of
this. This is the thing that just sends
me off into just awe of our great God. And you guys have heard
me mention it 1,000 times. You've heard other grace preachers
mention it 1,000 times. He's loved us from the foundation
of the world in Christ. He chose us by His grace and mercy, and His
love was set upon us. We were born into this world,
heirs, and we did not even know it. We had no clue. My, oh my. Oh, what manner of love is this,
beloved? It's like no other love. Turn,
if you would, to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. Now Paul brings forth in the
book of Galatians that faith worketh by love, right? And we
know that our faith has one object, and that's Christ, and he's the
object of our love. And we know from our text here
that John is bringing forth how the believer in Christ loves
the brethren. Well, who are the brethren in?
The brethren are in Christ alone. Look at this in Galatians chapter
five, verse six. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
So what Paul's bringing forth here is that believer in Christ
by grace, by grace and faith, has this love, this love, and
our faith worketh by love. We're motivated by love for our
God beloved. We're motivated to do what we
do for Christ and for the furtherance of the gospel out of love. Out
of the love that Christ has for us, more so than anything. And it's evidence, this love
is evidence and expressed by our love to Christ and our love
to one another. Now in the context of this verse
here, in Galatians chapter five, Verse six, Paul is writing to
Galatians who are Gentile believers. Now again, as we looked at in
our study in 1 Peter, think of this again, we have to keep this
in context too. Gentiles did not have the scriptures
that we know of. Now maybe some wealthy Gentile
might have bought some Jewish scrolls or something, but most
Gentiles had no scriptures at all. The Jews did, but not the
Gentiles. So when Paul and the other preachers
came and they would preach, they preached the gospel to them.
Remember we looked at in 1 Thessalonians, they didn't hear the word of
God as words of man, in man's wisdom, but they heard it as
the words of God, and in truth, because the Holy Spirit illuminated
the scriptures. They were born again of the Holy
Spirit of God, and they were taught by God of who Christ was. So these were Gentile believers
that Paul's writing this to. And they were being told by the
Judaizers that they must be circumcised to be saved. And Paul's bringing forth that
to be circumcised would profit them nothing. Would profit them
nothing for salvation. You can't add to the perfect
finished work of Christ. No one can. So to be circumcised
would profit these Gentiles nothing. Now these Judaizers who were
teaching that it was necessary to adopt Jewish customs and practices,
because that's what they were doing, they were teaching that,
oh yeah, you believe on Christ, but you have to adopt certain
Jewish customs and practices, especially from the law of Moses,
in order to be saved. That's what they were telling
them. But think of this, beloved, I want us to think about this.
Those Judaizers were no different than false preachers of our day.
They were no different. They were no different than the
false preachers of our day who say you must be baptized to be
saved. That's a lie from the pit of hell. They were no different
than the false preachers who say you must worship on Saturday
to be saved. That's a lie. Christ is our Sabbath,
beloved, not a day, Christ is. Christ is. They were no different
than those who say you must belong to a certain sect to be saved.
Our salvation is in Christ and Him alone. We look to Him. We
look to the finished work. We look to the work that He finished.
We look to the one who finished the work, don't we? Christ. That's who we look to. Salvation
is by grace alone plus nothing. Through Christ alone, past nothing.
That's how it is. So Paul brings forth to observe
or not. To observe these things commanded
in the Levitical law does not commend us to God. That's what
he's telling them. And you can add anything else
to that. No, our salvation's in Christ,
in Christ alone. We come to, we come, God's people
come, God's people come to God before God is helpless sinners,
don't we? We know our need. We've been
shown our need. And we've shown that all we find,
all we need we find in Christ. He's our all in all beloved.
Let's go back to our text. Now let's look at verse 11. So Paul brings forth in Galatians
5.6 what's also brought forth here in verse 11 of our chapter. Look at this. For this is the
message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love
one another. That we should love one another.
So we've seen in this epistle the contrast between light and
darkness, between a true believer and a false believer, between
a true preacher and a false preacher, and those who are the sons of
God and those who are not. We've seen the contrast between
those who abide in Christ and those who do not. And then we
see in verse 14, those who have life in Christ and those who
abide in death. And we see here, those who love
the brethren. And we know that there's a flip
side of that, those who do not love the brethren. The word message here in the
Greek is an announcement. An announcement. It means a proclamation
and command in the Greek. Note the words that we should
love one another. And this is a repeated theme
of this epistle. This is a repeated theme of this
epistle. It's in the form of an admonition that we should
love the brethren. But what we see here is a distinction
between God's love, as the word should or ought, do not ever
enter into the equation when it comes to God's love for us. Yeah, there's a difference, isn't
there? There's a big difference. The word should or ought never
enters into the equation of God's love for us. This love spoken of too in this
verse is not normal affection. No, this is spiritual love. This is spiritual love, beloved.
And it has to do with esteem. It has to do with esteem. Turn,
if you would, to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter
2. What does the scriptures proclaim?
The scriptures proclaim that we're to esteem others better
than ourselves. Meaning the brethren. We're to esteem the brethren
better than ourselves. Look at this. Philippians chapter
two, verses one to four. If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any boughs and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that you be
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and
of one mind. We're one body, aren't we? So
Paul's bringing forth here that we're to be of one accord and
one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, So let nothing be done through fighting and
arguing or someone seeking all the glory. Don't ever do anything
to seek the glory, because God gets all the glory. He gets all
the glory, beloved. So let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man unto his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Look at
that though. We're to esteem others better
than ourselves. More so the household of faith,
eh? My, let's go back to 1 John. Let's look in chapter two here.
And this message which we know comes from the scriptures and
from the words of our master that we should love one another
is based upon the word of God, isn't it? It's based upon the
word of God. Look at this in 1 John chapter
two. Look at verses four and five. He that saith, I know him,
and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. But whosoever keepeth his word
in him, verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we
that we are in him. Well, remember when we looked
at that about keeping his word, that's just trusting and believing
in his word. It goes back to what I said earlier
today. Tonight, we believe what God says. We believe what he
says in his word. We don't always feel like God Experimentally, again, I'm gonna
say this again. Experimentally, we know we're sinners. We know
we're sinners. We know we're absolute sinners.
But God says he's forgiven us all
our sins. It's absolutely wonderful. It's
absolutely wonderful, beloved. But whosoever keepeth his word,
in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we
that we are in him. So we're not to occupy ourselves. We are not to occupy ourselves
with being loved. We are to occupy ourselves with
loving Christ and loving the brethren. Because the brethren will love
us just as we love them. Now look at verse 12. In verse
12, we see by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, that
John brings forth an example in which one does not love his
brother, but hates him. Look at verse 12. Not as Cain,
who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore
slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brother's
righteous. So John brings forth here, before
the saints of God, the record of Cain and Abel. We know that
Cain does not love Abel because he slew him. But why did Cain
kill Abel? Well, because we know that he
hated him. But why did Cain hate Abel? Why
did he hate Abel? Again, the text has the answer
for us. Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. First, Cain was of the wicked
one. He's not a son of God, which
is what a believer is, but he's of the devil. He's a murderer
from the beginning. And the second point brought
forth in our text is that Cain's works were evil and his brothers
were righteous. Now here's something for you
to think about. Do you think that Cain approached God knowing
that his works were evil? Do you think that he approached
God knowing that his works were evil? Cain was given what he considered
his best to God. He was given what he considered
his best to God, but he knew when God rejected his offering
that his works were evil. He didn't think they were. He didn't think they were. And he
knew that his works were evil when his was rejected and his
brother's was accepted. That's when he knew. But Abel offered the proper sacrifice,
didn't he? Abel Abel's sacrifice was a lamb
without spot and without blemish. And what did that picture? That
pictured Christ. Cain offered the labor of his
hands with no blood sacrifice. But it was the very best that
he could offer. How many people, beloved, will
enter eternity thinking like Cain? How many people have already
entered into eternity thinking like Cain? And how many more
people will enter eternity thinking like Cain? Thinking that their works which
they offer up to God will give them merit before God, only to
find out that they are condemned by that
which they thought would make them acceptable to God, their
own self-righteousness. God will only accept God will only accept that which
Christ has accomplished in the place of his people. He will
only accept a perfect, spotless sacrifice. And Christ is the
Lamb of God. And he came here, he came here
to pay everything that God demanded of us, beloved. We who are sinners. He was manifested to take away
our sin, beloved. To take away our sin. And he's
sinless. He's the only Savior of sinners.
He came to this world to save His people from their sins. Just
as verse 5, look at verse 5 in this chapter. And you know that
He was manifest to take away our sins. Ours. Ours. Mine, the believer says. Mine. Every one of them. And in Him
is no sin. Perfect. Spotless. Listen to this quote on this
verse. Cain hated God, but he could not lay hands on God, so
he killed the one that God loved. Cain hated God, but could not
lay hands on God, so he killed the one whom God loved. Marvel
not, my brethren, if the world hate you. It hated our Savior. Marvel not, if the world hate
you. It hated our Savior. That's what, look what verse
13 brings forth. Marvel not that the world hates
you. You who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because it hated
him first. Look at that. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hates you. Don't be surprised. Don't be
surprised if the world hates you. Especially the religious
world. More so than anyone else. But don't be surprised if family
members turn on you too. People you didn't think would.
Friends you didn't think would. Don't be surprised. Don't be
surprised. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hates you. Don't be surprised if they despise you. Don't be
surprised if they persecute you. You know why? Because your faith
condemns their self-righteousness. That's what it does. Your faith,
trusting in Christ alone, plus nothing, plus nothing. And when
we say that, when we tell people that we believe in salvation
by Christ alone, through grace alone, plus nothing of us, you
know what it does? It condemns their self-righteousness,
beloved. It absolutely does. Because they
think some way they're going to make themselves better before
God. No, they're not. No, they're not. They're just
sinners who've tried to shine their filthy rags of righteousness.
But it don't do nothing. It don't do nothing at all, beloved.
They're still just sinners. And you know what else it does?
It exposes their faith. It exposes what they believe
is a false hope, is a refuge of lies. I can't tell you how
many times I've heard this. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard this. Heard these words. If what you preach, meaning
sovereign grace in Christ, is true, then I'm not saved. And
I always say, well, you said it. You just said that. I'll tell you this. If you're
coming to God with your works, be it anything, anything, anything
at all, anything at all. If you do anything laboring to
gain merit and favor with God, If you make a decision supposedly
that brought you into favor with God, or if you got in a jam and you
told, Oh Lord, I'll live this way from now on. Just let me get through this. I'm telling you right now, if
you believe that, you've got a false refuge. because the believer's entire
hope is in Christ and Him alone, not by anything we do at all. And us believing that again exposes
the self-righteousness and the false hope that people have. We can't redeem ourselves, we're
redeemed in Christ. We can't sanctify ourselves,
we're sanctified in Christ, beloved. We can't justify ourselves before
God, we're justified in Christ before God. Beloved, praise be
to God, salvations of the Lord. And we'll just keep trumpeting
that, won't we? We'll just keep proclaiming that. That's what
we're doing. Salvation in and through Christ
alone. And what able author pictured
this, beloved, came the wrong way to God. And because of that,
he was rejected. His offering was rejected. And that was the cause, beloved.
That was the cause of Cain's hatred towards Abel. So marvel
not. Marvel not if the world hates
you. Don't marvel. It hated our Lord. And we'll
just keep resting and trusting in salvation by Christ alone,
plus absolutely nothing. And so we see here next in a
statement in verse 14 that the believer has passed from death
to life. We pass from death to life. And
here we see a contrast of he who does not love his brother
abides in death without sin. They're still dead in trespasses
and sins and they still have no hope. Look what it says. We know that we have passed from
death unto life. We know this. We know it. Because of what? We love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brethren abideth in death.
Those who have faith in Christ love the brethren. Again, it
all focuses on Christ, beloved. He's the head and we're the body.
It all focuses in Him. Now this is a statement of fact
before us. And this knowing that we have
passed from death to life, this is a knowledge born of being
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. It's not based upon our feelings
or brought forth by much study. No. It's a principle of contrast,
beloved. It's a fact. It's a fact. It's a statement of fact. We
know that we pass from death into life because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brethren abideth in death. Well, we know that we're born
dead in trespasses and sins, and we know that we have spiritual
life. We know we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and
we know this is all a work of God, don't we? This is a work of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. salvations of the Lord. So we
see then that this life spoken of in verse 14 is life in Christ,
it's spiritual life. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. We pass from death, dead spiritually,
to being alive spiritually. We have life in Christ. But he
who hates his brother is still dead. Still dead. And look at this, we passed from
life to death. We're assured this because God
has given us faith. How are we assured that we passed
from death to life? How are we assured? Because we
believe God. We believe on Christ. We believe. It goes back to the question,
what think ye of Christ? Well, he's my God. He's my Savior. He's my Lord. He's King of Kings. He's everything to me, as Paul
wrote. He's my all in all, and I am
complete, complete in Him. Are you? Praise God! It's wonderful, it's absolutely
wonderful. So we see then the life spoken
of in verse 14 is life in Christ, spiritual life, eternal life,
beloved. And the death spoken of is, of
course, spiritual death. Spiritual death, those who do
not love The people of God, they abide in death. Now note in verse
15 that those who are spoken of in the end of verse 14 have
no eternal life. They perish in their sins and
they go to a Christless eternity. Look what the scripture says.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that
no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. They don't have
eternal life. So contrary to the religious
world where no one goes to hell, I heard this story one time. They call it graveyard regeneration.
For some reason, you can get a guy who just absolutely hated
God all his life in the religious world to say, well, somewhere
he became a saint, somewhere. From him dying to either the
funeral home or the grave site, he's become, that's a lie. That's
a lie. You must be born again. God's
people are born again in the Holy Spirit of God. Turn if you
were to Matthew chapter 15. We'll look at these here and
then we're closed. Matthew chapter 15. And these are the words of
the Master, beloved. And we'll look at one other portion
in Matthew 5. So put your finger in Matthew
15. We'll go there first. And then we'll go to Matthew
chapter 5. Look at this. And think of us in light of verse
15, which we just read, which I'll read it again while you're
turning there. It says, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life, abiding in
him. Look at this, Matthew 15, verses
17 to 20. Do not ye yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is
cast out into the drought? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. So they're saying what we eat and drink doesn't defile
the man. It's what comes out of the man, the man's mouth,
which our words proceed from our heart. For out of the heart proceedeth
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness.
Blasphemies, these are the things which defile a man, but to eat
with unwashed hands defiles not a man. Now turn, if you would,
to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five, again,
the words of the master. Matthew chapter five, we'll look
at verses 21 to 24. You have heard that it was said of
them of old time, thou should not kill, Whosoever shall kill
shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever
shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. Wherefore
if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest
that thy brother has ought against thee, Leave there thy gift before
the altar, and go thy way, and be reconciled thy brother, and
then come in and offer thy gift. Why? Why go and reconcile? Because
you love one another. Because you love one another.
Because we're of the same body. So believers in Christ, they
continue to love the brethren. They'll continue to love the
brethren. But remember, we don't measure our love by our own fickleness,
do we? No, no. We look to Christ. And looking to Christ, and believing
in Christ, and resting in Christ, we will love the brethren. That's
how it is. And that's how God says we are.
Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful, beloved.
So believers in Christ will continue to love the brethren because
they abide in Christ. And unbelievers will continue
to hate the brethren because they abide in hate. They abide
in hate. They're in darkness. And let
me tell you this, there's no middle ground. There's no middle
ground. One either loves the brethren
or one hates the brethren. That's how it is. One's in light and one's in darkness. That's what the scriptures declare.
But praise be to God, beloved. Praise be to God. That verse right there, verse
14, I love that verse. Praise be to God, look at that.
We know that we have passed from death into life. Eternal life. Spiritual life. Because we love
the brethren. That's marvelous. That's wonderful. Beloved, let this bless your
soul this week, that we who are the children of God, we who are
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, have passed from death,
spiritual death, unto life, life eternal, wonder of wonders. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon you, that ye should be called the
sons of God. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for allowing
us to gather together and look in my word. Oh, it's so wonderful,
Lord. It's so wonderful, because we know that before you saved
us, we did not love the brethren. Lord, we didn't love you. Now
we have a love for you. And our love for you, it's manifested
by the fact that we love the brethren, Lord. And oh, Lord,
we're to esteem each other better than ourselves. Help us, Lord,
to esteem each one, each one of us, to help to esteem our
brethren better than ourselves. Oh, we love you, Lord, for the
mercy and the grace you've bestowed upon us. Praise your mighty name,
O Lord, for this wondrous salvation that we have in thee, in Jesus'
name. Amen.