1 John 3.18 And 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 that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he 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 unto 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. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his vows of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in
truth. I want to speak to you on the
subject this morning, Love Manifests Love. If you have the love of
God in you, as he put it, then it will be manifest whose child
you are by that love. The love dwells in you and it's
manifest through you. Let's start with verse 10 and
just sort of work through this and look at what our Lord has
for us this morning. I pray he'll meet with us and
teach us by his Holy Spirit. In this the children of God are
manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God. He just said in the context before
this, don't be mistaken. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. And now he's going to talk to
us about what that means, doing righteousness. Look at the last
part of it. Neither he that loveth not his
brother. Righteousness has something to
do with love, doesn't it? It has everything to do with
love. Many will not even acknowledge
that there are children of the devil. But that's pretty clear
here, is it not? People go around saying, well,
we're all God's children. Says who? God didn't say that. Things like that. The Word of
God clearly contradicts. Our Lord told the unbelieving
Jews in John 8, 44, you are of your father, the devil. And the
lusts of your father you will do. And the reason I'm reading
this is not just to show that there are children of the devil,
but also as a parallel to our text, children of God do some
things because they're children of God. They love. And they love
in deed and in truth. Not just a feeling, and not just
words. The children of the devil, they
do something too. They lie and they murder. Murder
is just the expression of hatred, isn't it? Because our Lord said,
if you've hated your brother in your heart, you've committed
murder already. Didn't he not say that? Matthew
chapter five, I believe. So, love, hatred. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth. You're a murderer and a liar,
and that proves who your daddy is. Because there's no truth
in him, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he
is a liar and the father of it. And this verse here in John 8
is doubly appropriate, as I said, to our text, in considering our
text. What I just read in John 8 there
is doubly appropriate because it speaks of a manifestation
of whose child you are. In this verse, in John 8, where
I read it, it speaks of another way that that distinction can
be made. They were murderers, that's the
hatred, that's the opposite of love. But also, these were called
the children of the devil. Why? Because he's a liar. Because he's a liar. And that's
interesting because our context of our verse also deals with
that. John didn't leave that part out. Look at John chapter
2 again, verse 19. We've studied this already, but
I want you to see this again. John dealt with both of those
things. And you see what John is talking about. God's children
and everybody else, the devil's children. And how that can be
known, who they are, what they do, how are they defined in the
Word of God. Look at 1 John 2.19. They went
out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of
us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went
out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.
But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all
things. I've not written unto you because you know not the
truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. You see, John, just like our
Lord in that text I just read in John 8, he deals in our text
today with the love, the love that is manifest in and through
the people of God, and here he's dealing with lies and truth. This is another distinction between
the children of God and the children of the devil. No lies of the
truth who is a liar, but he that denied that jesus is the christ. That's why they went out because
they're anti-christ and By god's grace We're not Are we? I don't think that's in doubt.
Do you? We preach christ paul said he didn't say I think we
do we preach christ and him crucified if you're anti-christ You're
gonna you're not gonna be happy with that So they went out And
they're liars, they deny the truth of Christ. He is antichrist
that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son,
the same also hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth the
Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you
which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you
have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also
shall continue in the Son and in the Father. The truth that
abides in you, the gospel. And this is the promise that
He has promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written
unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing
which you have received of Him abideth in you, and you need
not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him. You see that? The truth
abides in you. What did He just say in our text
this morning? The love of God How does the love of God abide
in you if you don't love your brother? The love of God abides
in you and it's manifest. The truth of God abides in you
and it's manifest. It was manifest that it didn't
abide in these ones because they left it. But you, that which you received
from the beginning abides in you and so you abide in him. That's evidence that you abide
in him. You see that? But now another distinction is
drawn in our text. And as I said, both are shown
right there in John eight, where we read, the Lord said to them,
you're the, you're the children of the devil. And that's what
our, our text is talking about. They're children of God. It'd
be manifest who they are children of the devil. It's manifest who
they are. And our Lord said, you're children of the devil
because you hate your murderers and you liars. All right, here's the love part
of that right here in our text. The doing of righteousness is
equated here with loving your brethren. And this shouldn't
be any surprise to us. Look what our Lord said in Matthew
22. Turn over there for just a second. Matthew chapter 22.
It shouldn't surprise us to see righteousness and love connected. Matthew 22 verse 36. Verse 36. Master, which is the
great commandment in the law? Jesus saith unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment,
and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. What's righteousness? keeping
God's law, obeying God. God said, that all boils down
to this, you love God and you love your neighbor. It's all
contained in that. If you love, you do. This same principle of truth
that our Lord laid out right there where we just read, prompted
the Apostle Paul to write in Galatians chapter 5, listen to
this, verse 13, You have been called unto liberty. Let me start
over. I don't want to be confusing about that. For brethren, you
have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. All of the law that has to do
with others, he's talking about serving one another here, is contained in this, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. And you see, in verse 11, back
to our text, 1 John 3, 11, a continuation of this thing
of Equating works of righteousness with love for one another because
he starts out talking about doing righteousness He used to ever
do is not righteousness is not of God But look at verse 11 for
this is the message that you've heard from the beginning that
we should love one another That we should love One another Not only is love the fulfillment
of righteousness he said but it always has been I From the
beginning. From the beginning, what is this
beginning? What does he mean from the beginning? Is it from
the beginning of Christ's ministry? There's not a lot about love
in the Old Testament, is there? Wait a minute, no, he's talking
about the beginning. 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 brothers righteous." In other words, his brother loved
and he hated. Cain hated his brother, not only in spite of Abel's love,
but because of it. Because of it. What are these
righteous works of Abel? He said his own works were evil. His brother's works were righteous.
We're talking about doing righteousness in our text, aren't we? He that
doth not righteousness is of the devil. Well, what were these
works? What does he call them? The righteousness
of Abel here. His brother, Cain's brother was
Abel, his brother's righteousness. What are they? Well, here's where
we can learn specifically what they are. what these works of
righteousness that our text is talking about are because Paul
summed it up this way in Hebrews 11.4. What did Abel do? We don't
know except this. We know he did this. You find
me something else Abel did besides this in the scripture now. So
this is what he's talking about. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts and
by it he being dead yet speaketh. Abel is still what he did still
teaching us. What is it teaching us? That
Christ is our acceptance before God. And when you teach somebody
that You have expressed love in the greatest way that a man
can express it. First of all, we see here in
that, in what we just read, this is the only thing we know that
Abel did. Where did he go after that? I don't know. Where did
he come from? Where did he live? What was his address? I don't know. But I know this. He knew how
a sinner was accepted with God. He knew how God could be just
and justify a sinner. And he proved it. And he showed
that he was a righteous man. He showed that he was in Christ
by what he did. And first of all, it was an act
of faith. Notice that he said, let's read the next two verses
after that one. And if you turn there, you can
look at them. But that was Hebrews 11, four that I just read. Look
at Hebrews 11, five. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death and was not found because God
had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony
that he pleased God but without faith it's impossible to please
him. Abel offered that sacrifice by
faith. By faith he offered a more excellent
sacrifice and by faith Enoch was translated And without faith,
it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that's what Abel did. He came to God
with a sacrifice. He believed that God is, and
that God can only bless if we seek him God's way, if we come
God's way, by God's prescribed way, which is through the blood
of an innocent sacrifice. Secondly what he did showed forth
Christ and his love for sinners did not The whole message of
the gospel was contained in that act of sacrificing an animal
before God And God accepted says God had respect unto Abel and
his offering Without that offering there is no God had respect unto
Abel There's God had respect unto Abel and his offering without
that offering there's no No acceptance with God. There's no remission
of sin and therefore there can't be acceptance with God. And this,
this whole, the whole, the gospel was contained in that. Like when
we come to the Lord's table, what did the Lord say about that?
When you do this, you do show the Lord's death till he come.
And about what Abel did, he said, he's still speaking. Abel ain't
shut up yet. By offering that lamb before
God and shedding its blood, an innocent victim before God, the
blood of the lamb was set forth. The glory of Christ and his sin
atoning death is set forth there. And he still ain't shut up about
it. Now, the Lord's table is different.
I want to make that clear in that a life is not sacrificed
at the Lord's table. He already gave himself an offering
for sin. We don't need to kill anything. But our Lord said, as often as
you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's
death till he come. And the sacrifices did that also.
They set forth a picture, they foreshadowed the Lamb of God that takes away
sin. And think about what Abel's sacrifice said to Cain. We know what Cain did to Abel.
What did Abel do to Cain? He showed him how sinners can
be accepted of God and righteous in the sight of God. And that's
the greatest act of love that any sinner can do for another.
If you love someone, see to it that they know of Christ and
his sin atoning death. See to it that they know the
one way that God can be just and justify a sinner. And this is why Cain slew Abel.
Abel set forth the truth that God can only accept what God
provides. The perfect lamb sacrificed to
satisfy God's justice for the sins of his people and to perfectly
honor the Father's will as the perfect righteousness in which
his people can stand before God, holy and without blame. Cain
brought something else before God. He brought the fruit of
his own labors. Cain was insistent. He rejected the innocent victim,
that way of coming to God by blood. And he was insistent before
God upon the will and works of man. And we see the outcome.
One is a martyr and one's a murderer. In this, it shall be manifest
who's a child of God and who's a child of the devil. Love and hate And in this same line of thought
we have verse 13 marvel not my brethren if the world hate you
Cain hated Abel Why because he was right you because he was
in Christ and because Cain Absolutely rejected now now think about
this. I Hey, even after he knew that
God rejected what he brought and saw that God accepted Abel
and his offering, did he repent? Did he say, oh no, God, what
am I doing? Here's my lamb, let me go get
my lamb. And God may have still sent him to hell, I don't know.
He has that prerogative. But he never gave that a thought.
You know what happened when God didn't accept him and what he
brought? He got mad. He got mad. And he hated his
brother for it. And so he says, don't be surprised if the world hates you too, for
the same reason. Abel is an example of a child
of God, and Cain is an example of a child of the devil, clearly
from our text. And so if you love like Abel
did, If you have faith from God like Abel did, we saw that's
what distinguished his, by faith now, by faith in Christ, he offered
that lamb. If you were righteous in Christ
as Abel was, which is evident in that God received him, you
will also be hated like Abel was by those who reject Christ. You say, well, Chris, I'm pretty
good friends with some people who I'm pretty sure don't know
God. I am too. I am too. And that's fine. That's
fine. But we need to understand the
scriptural truth here and not be surprised. Don't let it devastate
you. Don't let it catch you off guard.
You see, there are many who don't know they hate God either. You
ask them, do you hate God? No, I love God. But do they? And in that same way, they don't
know they hate you. If they know you, if it comes
right down to it. You see what I'm saying? It comes
right down to it now. I'm sure Abel and Cain got along
just fine together as little children, playing together and
Running around, you know, doing mischievous things like brothers
do. But when it came down to God and what he accepts and doesn't
accept, when it came down to Christ, do you come before God
in Christ or are you coming your own way? Is it God's will or
my will? When it came down to that, playtime's
over now. I'm just telling you how it is,
because there's people in this world I love, too. I know you do. Love
them. Love them. And we're not to separate ourselves.
Our Lord ain't with sinners. If it's good enough for Him,
it's good enough for me. We're not to separate ourselves
and be holier than thou, or better than them, so we're not going
to... Don't misunderstand me. I have some dear friends who
don't know God. A few. Best I can tell, they
don't know Him. And that's fine, and that's good.
And I hope that I'm a witness to them somehow. In some cases,
I've been flat out a witness to them. Ain't no somehow to
it. I've just flat told them. Here's
who my God is. In some cases, that's ended very
badly, but in one or two, it hadn't. And so understand this, too.
We can be Too chummy with this world, too. I've been guilty
of it. You've been guilty of it. And
some of us may be guilty of it right now. If you love this world,
that'll be evident, won't it? I pray it'll be evident to us. And here's another truth about
this now that I want to impress upon us. If you love your lost
friend, whoever it is, maybe several of them, maybe quite
a few of them, if you love them, if you love them now, if you
love them, sooner or later, you're going to have to tell them. You're
going to have to. There just ain't no two ways
about it. You're going to have to tell them that which may cause
them to hate you. You're going to have to. And it should be done in the right
way at the right time, and the Lord will guide you in that.
But I don't see loving somebody and watching them die and go
to hell. Do you? I can't see it. And I'm not saying
that I may have done that. I don't know. But if we love them, and don't
be discouraged or shocked If this world hates you, when they
do, they will. If they knew God, if you present
God to them as He is, they're going to hate Him. And if you
present yourself to them as you are in Him, they're going to
hate you. Or God's going to do something
for them, one of the two. And I've seen both now. I've seen
both. These things I command you, that
you love one another, If the world hate you, you know that
it hated me before it hated you. We're in good company. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own, but you are not of the world. But
I have chosen you out of the world. Is that why King hated
Abel? Abel came God's way by blood,
and King came his way. Look what I did. And God said, I love Abel and
I reject you. I have chosen you out of this
world, therefore the world hateth you. We're chosen in Christ. We're chosen in Christ now. Verse 14, we know that we have
passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Now if you love God's
people, it's because of a miracle of God's powerful grace. It's
called here a passing from the death unto life. You see that? If you love, it's because you
have passed from death unto life. Now, everybody knows that if
a dead man is going to come to life, God's going to have to
do it. Everybody knows that. Even people
that don't know God know that. And so this is the first thing
we must acknowledge here unless we get to thinking we're something
special and somehow we distinguish ourselves from the children of
the devil. Oh, the children of the devil and the children of
God are different in what they do. Yes, but that's not the reason
they're different. That's the result. God makes
the difference. You've passed from death unto
life if you love God's people. God raised you from the dead
if you're righteous. God, you become a child of God by
being born of God. And as a child of God, You manifest
the works that distinguish you as a child of God by being raised
from the dead spiritually with Christ Jesus, raised with Him. Remember, we're raised together
with Him in newness of life by the Holy Spirit of God. That's
what has taken place. If these evidences exist, Now
if God has done this for you, in you, to you, you're gonna
love his people, not like Cain. You remember what it said there?
Not like Cain, who murdered his brother. Cain saw that God chose
Abel. I've chosen you out of this world,
therefore they hate you. And Cain saw that, that God chose
Abel, that God loved Abel, that God accepted Abel, and it infuriated
him. I've seen that same hatred in
the faces of many people. They come and they find out who
we are. They come to this church and
they hear about the God that chooses a people, that loved
a people from the foundation of the world, and accepts them
only in Christ, only by that precious blood. That's everything
that Cain saw in Abel. The election of God, the infinite
eternal love of God, And the only way that God accepts sinners
by the precious blood of his son. And for those things, Cain
slew Abel. And that's why with grit in their
teeth and with a look of anger on their face or just complete
dispassionate rejection, they walk out of here and don't want
anything to do with us anymore. I've seen that same hatred for
the same reasons. If they learn that God has loved,
chosen, and accepted a people in Christ, and they learn why,
that God just loved them and chose them in eternity. And that
that love, and the death of Christ that expressed that love, herein
is love. That God, not that we love God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. When they see that, Christ didn't
provide salvation, He actually is the difference. They learn,
as Cain did, that their works not only do not and cannot satisfy
God, but that God utterly rejects their works, all of them, what
they call sinful and what they call good ones. God rejects all
of them. In other words, they learn that
God's love is in Christ and only in Christ. They don't identify with us and
join us. They loathe us and they leave
us. a child of God is going to identify
and love. See, that's the truth. I belong here. Vicki and I were
talking about this, I think, yesterday. The first time I believe
I ever heard the truth preached, I thought I was going to float.
Do you remember the first time you ever heard the truth? It
wasn't just, you know, that sounds right. It was glory, hallelujah. I didn't know who that man was
preaching. And I don't believe I'd ever heard what he was saying
before, except in some discussions with my dad. But when I heard
somebody get up and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, I wanted to hug everybody in there. It was just right. It's the truth. That's the truth. And before that, I would hear true things. I know I heard my dad tell me
before that correct things that had been said, and I agreed with
it. But when the Lord turns the light
on, There's a sense of belonging
in there. There's just a sense of... That's it. That's it. That's
him. That's who I've been looking for. And it's hard to explain. But you immediately, everybody
that knows him and loves him, you're family. You're family. Before that, it's not that way. Verse 15, whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer. You see that? What did I say
a while ago? Maybe you thought I was making
it up. When Cain murdered Abel. What is that? It's the opposite
of love. It's hatred. If you hate your
brother, you're a murderer. It's not you just don't have
anything in common with him. You're a murderer before God.
And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in
him. This is the same hatred that was in the heart of Cain.
That's what it is when people manifestly reject the truth.
And I've had people confront me about it. Some just leave,
which is better, as far as I'm concerned. But I've had some
confront me with it. I don't want anything to do with
a God like that. Gritten their teeth and red in
the face. God says you're a murderer. Your Cain is what you are, your
Cain. And the only reason they don't
express it outwardly, as Cain did, is because of the consequences. That's the only reason. But God
sees the inside. He doesn't just look at what
happens outwardly. He sees what you are on the inside. He says
you're a murderer. And I want to point out here
that though we differ vitally from this world, from children
of the devil, because of what God did, because He has brought
us from death unto life, that was clear in the text now, we're
vitally different. Their doctrine is damnable. We despise their doctrine, we
despise their God, but we don't hate them. That distinction is
clear here. Did Abel hate Cain? God's people don't hate. Not
like that. Now, our flesh does. We still
have that in us. We always have to acknowledge
that. God's people don't hate like
this. There are those who claim to be the children of God who
hate, and it's obvious they do. Everybody that doesn't agree
with them is, oh, you're a blasphemer. Well, I'd be careful about that.
I'd be real careful about that. And I'll tell you this, I've
known some people like that and claimed it to not only be believers,
but Calvinists doctrine, you know, staunch doctrine. The doctrine
has become a law to them. They're legalists just in a different
way. And they hate everybody that
doesn't agree perfectly with them. And if they keep nitpicking
long enough, I've witnessed it, they keep nitpicking long enough,
they'll end up hating everybody. I know people that can't fellowship
with anybody because they can't find anybody that agrees with
everything they say. I could give you names. Because for a
while they're in a little group of people that hate everybody
else. But then they nitpick long enough and they end up hating
themselves too, each other too. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Because he laid down his life
for us. You talk about a difference now.
You talk about a difference between religious now, religious, and
I don't care if you're Calvinist religious or Baptist religious
or Presbyterian religious. I believe what we call the doctrines
of grace, what some would call the Calvinistic five points of
Calvin, of grace. I believe those things. But I
know religious people that are Calvinist. I know religious people
that are Catholics. I know religious people that
I suspect by the word of God that they don't have the slightest
idea who God is. By these evidences, We're going to look at what love
is first, and then we're going to see how that would be manifest
in us. Love is this, not that we love God or anybody else,
but that he loved us and gave himself for us. That he laid
down his life for us. Now here's our part in that.
We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. You want to
see the difference now real quick between somebody that says they're
a child of God and somebody that is a child of God? Look at the
love we're talking about here. Look at the love we're talking
about. If you want to know what love
is, you got to look to Christ, not me, not yourself. First John
410, let me quote it. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Because he laid down his life.
The act of love here, the act of love is the laying down of
life. That's what he did because he
loved us, right? That's the act. And that's a great thing. That's
a great and wonderful thing. But the greatness of it, we can
never understand or perceive the greatness of it until we
understand the words he and us. Think about it, the act of laying
down of a life. That's a great act. But until
you know who he is and who we are, you're not going to know
how great what this love is we're talking about. The act of laying
down of life here becomes what it is in that it was he who did
it. And in that it was us that he
did it for. We ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren, but if we do, we will not have done what he
did. No. It's the same act. And this is what I'm trying to
get across. It's the same act, laying down a lie. It's the same
act, in a sense, in that he lived as a man, as a living human being, and
he died in a scientific, biological sense, just like we do. But if
we die for the brethren, it's not the same thing in that we're
not him. We're not the son of God. We're
not the spotless hope. We're not the prince of life. Peter said you've killed the
prince of life. And also you are not to me what
you are to him. Not in your sinfulness. Nor in
your righteousness. Which is him. In other words. You haven't sinned
against me. And I can never love you like he
does. And he loves you in himself because
of what he did. And this is what's being expressed
in Romans 5, 6. Listen to it. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And Paul said, wait a minute,
let's think about that for a minute. Christ, Christ, God's Christ,
died for the ungodly. And he said, scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure may be for a
good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward
us. And that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. If we ever get a hold of that,
then we'll know what love is. If we find out who died and who
he died for, we'll know what love is then. If we ever do lay
down our lives for a brother and do it, not just out of a
sense of duty, and that's an honorable thing in and of itself. Soldiers die for their country
that don't have a clue who God is. I'm grateful for them, aren't
you? Grateful for their service. And
don't mind telling anybody that I am. That's admirable, that's
honorable. But if we're able in the spirit
of our text to give ourselves simply because we love our brother,
it will be because Christ loved us and gave himself for us. Look at verse 17. But whoso hath
this world's good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? I think about this, there's a
couple of lessons in this. First of all, if we ought to
lay down our lives for our brethren, but we won't even help them when
they're in need. You see that? He's arguing from
the greater to the lesser here. What we ought to do is be willing
to give ourselves for them. But we see them have need and
won't even do anything about it. How in the world are you
going to even talk about God's love? You don't know anything
about God's love. There's no evidence there of
the presence of God's love. Our love is a sham, because God's
love doesn't act like that. And you see, it's not that you're
better or that you're something, it's that God's love is present
or absent. That's the difference. It's a
presence or absence of God's love in you. Also, how great a need ought
we to be willing to help with? How great a need? Where do we draw the line, you
know? Well, I'm willing to do this, but I, you know, I don't
know. The word here says up to and including laying down your
life. That's pretty strong, isn't it?
That's what we ought to be willing to do. It may not come to that, but
whatever it comes to, we ought to be willing. That's what it's
teaching us here. And to love like this, to love
like this, the love of God must dwell in you. Because you don't
love like that by nature. I don't either. And if it does,
if his love dwells in you, it's because of his love for you.
That's why I said what I did a while ago. If you're willing
to love like that, it's because he first loved you. That's what
we read in 1 John 4, which is our text, the context of our
text. 1 John 4, 19, we love him because
he first loved us. And if I love you, it's because
he first loved me. If you love God, then you love his people. And
if you love both, it's because of his love for you. Yeah, but
Chris loving God and loving you is two different things. Well,
maybe distinguishable in some ways, but look at the next verse
in our, in 1 John 4 there where I just read, we love him because
he first loved us. Next verse, verse 20, if a man
say, I love God and hate his brother, he's a liar. So loving
God and loving your brother is not that different. If you say you love God and don't
love your brother, you're a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Let me close with this, verse 18. My little children, let us
not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. There's a lot of talk about love
in there, lots of talk. Lots of songs written and sung
about love. And lots of people saying I love
you. And I'll be honest with you, I love to hear people say
that to me. But let's learn something here
in verse 18. You do not express your love
by saying it. It can be and it is often a welcome
reminder, but love is not expressed that way. If you say to me, I love you,
and my reaction is, oh, that's good to know, then you don't
love me. I better already know it, or it's not true. But just because I know it now
doesn't mean I don't wanna hear it. I like to hear it, don't
get me wrong. And let me bring this verse to
bear upon us this morning let us love one another indeed And
in truth If your love is not indeed in
other words in what you do Then it's not in truth It's a
sham it's a lie That's clearly taught here And even deeds will
not alone define love because sometimes we do things for people
for other reasons than love. That's why it says in deed and
in truth. What is it to love in truth?
Well, it's to love like he does. He is the truth. And his love
is the truth about love. So only love like his can be
true love. If his love is in you, then you
can love like that. Everything else is, well, something
else. So my prayer is, oh Lord, teach
us and cause us to love you and to love like you. Let's pray
together.