Well in the passage that Brother
Jim read in 1 John 4 and the whole book of 1 John has a lot
to say about the love of brethren. And that's what I want to talk
about this morning in evidences of the new birth. Now this is
again coming basically from John chapter 3 where Christ told Nicodemus
you must be born again or you cannot see or enter the kingdom
of God. The new birth, which comes by
the power of God, not by the power, the works, or the will
of men. He sends his spirit, God sends
the Holy Spirit from the Lord Jesus Christ to bring sinners
under the gospel, and he gives them life from the dead. Because
by nature, we don't have that life. We have physical life,
but we don't have spiritual life. And so in the new birth, he imparts
spiritual life, a new spirit, as one put it in the Old Testament,
a new heart, mind, affections, and will. And that new birth
can only be seen and known by its evidences. And that's what
I've been talking about. We talked about first the evidence
of a revealed knowledge of God, and faith in Christ, the gospel,
which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith, looking
to Christ, resting in Christ for all righteousness. And the
righteousness of God there is the merit, the value, the worth
of what Christ himself accomplished on behalf of his people, what
the God-man, God manifest in the flesh, that's who Jesus Christ
is, and what he accomplished in his obedience unto death as
the surety of his people, the substitute of his people, the
redeemer of his people, shedding his blood. You mentioned it there
in 1 John 4.10, he's the propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice who
brought satisfaction to the justice of He paid the debt in full. And as a result, because of his
death, he was buried and he arose again the third day and established
because of his righteousness that resurrection life that he
gives to every one of his people in the new birth. And we know
it because God reveals himself. He teaches us. of how he can
be just to justify the ungodly, how he saves sinners according
to his glory, his justice, his mercy, his grace, his love, and
brings us to faith in Christ. And then secondly, repentance
of dead works and idolatry. This is when he changes our hearts,
he changes our minds. From idolatry to serve the living
God. to turn from ourselves, even
our best selves. And that's what people don't
understand about repentance on the whole today. We know we have
to turn away from our worst selves, in our view. But God in Christ,
when we're born again, we turn away from the best that we can
do. The best self. Because at my
best, I'm altogether vanity. At my best, I cannot attain the
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
So I have to repent of that. Even what I called the good things,
I now see in comparison to Christ, those things are evil. And I
turn from even my religion. Salvation is not by works. So
I have to turn from my works to His work, to His person and
to His work. And that's what God brings us
to. If you're born again, that's what you'll do. God brings you
to that. And then thirdly, He establishes
within the hearts of His people the motive, the holy motive of
grace and gratitude and love. He gives us a reason to serve
Him. a reason to obey Him, not by
legal threats of punishment or mercenary promises of earned
reward, but out of love and grace and gratitude to serve in newness
of life. And then today I want to talk
about a fourth evidence, and that's love of the brethren in
faith. Listen to these words. He says
in verse 13 of 1 John 4, Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him and He in us. This is how I know that I dwell
in Christ. I want to be found in Him. You
remember Paul said that in Philippians 3? That I be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. So I, hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He dwells
in us. How does Christ dwell within
his people? By his spirit and by his word
in the new birth. Because he had given us of his
spirit, you see. And verse 14, and we have seen
and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior
of the world. That's his God's children all
over this world. And this is what he's talking
about. Go back to verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another.
Love is of God. Love is not of man. Now this
love that he's talking about is not of man. It's of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. That's plain, isn't it? Look
back at chapter three. Look at verse 13. He says in verse 13 of chapter
three, marvel not my brethren if the world hate you. We know
that we have passed from death unto life. We know we've been
born again. Because, here's the evidence,
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Pretty plain, isn't it? The Bible
has a lot to say about brotherly love. Let me just read you some
scripture. This is John 13 and verse 34,
the Lord speaking to his disciples. And he said, a new commandment
I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you
that you also love one another. Now, why is that a new commandment?
Hasn't God always commanded us to love brethren, even in the
Old Testament? Yes, but it's new in this sense. When we're born again, this is
a love that we never had before. It's, as old guy said, it's brand
spanking new to us when God sheds this abroad in our hearts. And
he says in verse 35 of John 13, he says, by this shall all men
know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another.
Now, did you hear that? He says, by this shall all men
know that you're my disciples, you're followers of Christ, you're
believers in Christ, if you have love one to another. Now does
that mean that as I live my life, that the unbelieving world, he
said all men there, that the unbelieving world, is he talking
about brethren there or is he talking about the world? Well
listen to me. Does that mean as I go through my life, that
the unbelieving world will look at my life and say, now there
goes a real Christian. He loves his brothers. He's a
real believer. I admire his love. Is that what
that means? Well, if you look at 1 John 3,
listen to this. 1 John 3 in verse one, since
we're right there close, you can read this. Now listen to
this. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew
him not. Now there was nobody who ever
walked on this earth who was more loving than our Lord. in
every way. Love incarnate, the perfection
of love, and the world didn't recognize it. And he says here,
the world knoweth us not. You know the unbelieving world
doesn't even know what a Christian is. They think they do, but they
don't. And then you consider other passages
of scripture where the Lord said, To his disciples, John chapter
15 verse 18, he said, marvel not if the world hate you. It hated me before it hated you.
He said in John chapter three, the passage that I based all
these messages on, I'm going back to when he says, this is
the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love
darkness and hated the light because their deeds were evil. Think about that. Is he saying
that the unbelieving world will recognize Christian love? And
the answer is no, no. God's people will recognize it.
And in a sense, the unbelieving world will sometimes recognize
that we're together in this love. I think about it this way. You
remember when the disciples were brought to court before the Sanhedrin
and Peter began to speak the same gospel that Christ, the
Lord spoke, They didn't recognize that as love, the Sanhedrin,
the judges, the unbelieving, legalistic Jewish judge, they
didn't recognize that as love, but you know what they did recognize?
They said, you've been with that Jesus of Nazareth. We can tell
from your talk. You're a follower of Christ.
Now that was Peter's love. They didn't recognize it that
way, so don't get the idea. You know, this thing about love,
listen, this is 1 John 3, look down at verse 23. It says, and
this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave his
commandment. Love and faith, faith and love
come together. Over in 1 John chapter 5 and
verse 1, it says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. That's an evidence we've already
talked about. Faith in Christ. If you believe in Christ, you've
been born again. You're a miracle of God's grace.
You're a new creation in Christ. And he says, and everyone that
loveth him that begat, who's the one who begat? That's Christ,
that's God. He begat us. So everyone that
loveth him that begat also, loveth him also that is begotten of
him. That's our brethren. So he's talking about brotherly
love as an evidence of being born again. Now, if I have this
brotherly love, I've been born again. If I don't have it, I
haven't been born again. That's simple, isn't it? The
problem is this though. Most people don't understand
either the origin or the nature of this love. First of all, the
source of this love is not us. It is grounded in God's love
for his people in Christ. That's right there in our text,
1 John 4 and verse 10. Look at it again. Herein is love,
not that we love God. In other words, the origin and
the source and the nature of this love is not to be measured
by man. Somebody says, well, I know he's
a loving person. Well, he may be in certain ways,
but is he in this way? Well, here in his love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us. This is God's unconditional
love towards his people in Christ and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. We're gonna read it in a couple
of weeks here concerning 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. That's
talking about his people. God's chosen people all over
this world, Jew and Gentile. It's not talking about everybody
without exception. And I'll prove that to you by scripture. God
proved his love toward his eternal love. He told Jeremiah, I've
loved you with an everlasting love. There never was a time
he didn't love his people. But his love is founded and grounded
upon his justice satisfied in Christ. Without Christ, there
is no love from God. Understand that. Those who live
and die in unbelief are not objects of God's love. And they're not
objects of God's unfulfilled desire, God wanting to save them,
but he wouldn't let them. So we're not the source or the
cause of this. Look at verse 19 of 1 John 4.
We love him because he first loved us. So what am I saying? Well, this
love is not natural to us. This is a love that nobody by
nature has. Now, there are different kinds
of love. Jim mentioned that. Unregenerate people can love,
but not this way. Unregenerate people can love
themselves. They can love their families.
Unbelieving husbands can love their wives. Unbelieving wives
can love their husbands. Unbelievers can love their country.
Love their fellow man. Unbelievers can give their lives
for a just cause, martyrdom. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, though
I give my body to be burned, but have not charity. That's
love, this love, it's for nothing. People have given their lives
in the cause of false religion because they love their God,
but their God is an idol. which is in essence themselves.
So there are all kinds of different love. And we want to promote
love of humanity, love of people. We're to love our neighbor as
ourselves. That's what the scripture says. But this love, well, let me read
you that 1 Corinthians passage in chapter 13. Let me read this. Unbelievers can be charitable.
Look at where it's in first Corinthians 13 3 and though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned
and have not charity a profit of me nothing. Now we as the people of God we're
to be charitable we're to be giving We're to help when others
are in need, but that's not what we're called to do as a church.
Our call is not to open up soup kitchens and clothing drives. Our call is to preach the gospel.
That's what we're called to do. But this love that we're talking
about, that evidences the new birth, is something that man
by nature does not have in any degree, in any way. It's this love that comes from
God and is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Listen
to Romans chapter five and verse five, when he says, hope maketh
not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. This love is
listed as part of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22,
the works of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit
sheds this love abroad in the hearts of God's people by the
revelation of the gospel truth in Christ. And this is love in
Christ alone. There's no love from God to sinners,
I wanna emphasize this, apart from Christ as revealed in the
gospel. Think about it. I think about
that passage in John 5 when Christ was confronting the Pharisees
concerning their misconceptions. of the word of God and they would
not receive him. They would not believe in him.
They would not submit to him as the Lord, their righteousness.
And he told him in John chapter five and verse 42, he says, I
know you that you have not the love of God in you. Now we could
say that he is omniscient and he knows the hearts of everybody.
But the reason he told them they have not the love of God in them
is because they didn't believe God's word. This love here is love that loves
the truth and believes God. You can't separate this kind
of love from believing and loving God's truth. Look over at 1 John 1. 1 John is a book that
establishes the foundations of fellowship. And that love of
the brethren is a fellowship. We're in the same family, in
other words. Now, that doesn't mean we're
always gonna get along, sad to say. It doesn't mean we're always
gonna like the same things in the world. It doesn't mean that
we're always gonna act right. But it means we're in the same
spiritual family. And we recognize that family
because we love the truth of God. We walk in the light together. Now listen to this in verse five
of 1 John 1. This then is the message that
we heard of him. What's the message? It's the
gospel. How God saved sinners. Are you my brother? Are you my
sister? Well, if you are, we believe
the same gospel. The same salvation. By God's
grace, through the blood of Christ, His righteousness alone, we don't
differ there. We believe that God saves us
by his grace, keeps us by his grace, and will bring us to glory
by his grace, not conditioned on us. If you believe otherwise,
you're not my brother or sister, or you give no evidence at this
point. And he says this is the message that we declare unto
you, that we've heard of him and declare unto you, God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have
fellowship with him, And that's where our fellowship is grounded.
It's in fellowship with the Father and the Son. And walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all
sin. What cleanses you from sin? If it's anything but the blood
of Christ, you and I are not walking in fellowship. You understand
that? You say, well, I prayed three
hours last night and I just feel clean now. Well, I could pray
all day and it's not gonna make me feel any cleaner. What can
wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's our fellowship, you see. And I love that truth. And I'll
go even further than that. Whatever this book says about
God, that's what we love. It says that God is sovereign.
I love that, how about you? You don't like that? You're not
in my family. And I'm not bragging about that.
How does one get into God's family? By his grace, based on his righteousness
alone. Who are my brethren? Christ said,
those who do the will of my Father. Well, what is the will of his
Father? That they believe on him whom the Father has sent.
rest in Him. How are you made righteous in
God's sight? One of our folks was telling
me about talking to a preacher who was talking about being made
more righteous by his works. Well, I hate that truth because
it's not truth. The Bible says this, if righteousness
come by your works, by the law, then Christ died in vain. How
could I have fellowship with an individual who believes he's
made righteous by his works? When the Bible says that if that's
what you believe, you're saying that my Lord and Savior, who
is my righteousness, died in vain. Well, we don't know everything
yet. We know what God's taught us
in His Word. Well, you don't have to be so
strict. Don't we? What does God's Word say? You
cannot love Christ without loving His truth. God chose a people
before the foundation of the world and gave them to Christ.
I love that truth. That's election. I love election.
Don't you? The Bible tells me to give diligence
to make my calling and election sure. I've had people call themselves
Christians look at me and say, well, I'm not gonna worship a
God like that. I said, I know you don't. The one you worship
is an idol. If you think I'm being too hard,
show me from the scriptures. That's what I say. Christ died
for his people and everyone for whom he died shall be saved.
I love that. You know why I love it? Because
I know if that weren't true, we'd all be damned. I love it. What does it say in
2 Thessalonians 2 about those who deceived? It says, because
they love not the truth. This is love that is founded
upon truth. And it's the specific love to
our brethren in the faith. We are to love our brethren and
love not the world. And we cannot rightly claim to
love God and not love our brethren, but love the world. You can't
do it. And look back at 1 John 4. This love requires godly judgment. Now what is godly judgment? It's
not judgment from my own ideas or thoughts or standards. Godly
judgment is judgment based on God's testimony in his word. And here's what he says, look
at verse one. Beloved, believe not every spirit. Don't believe
everything you hear. Don't believe every preacher
you hear. But try, that means to test. the spirits. I'm to put him to
the test. Now, what is the measure? Well,
I don't like his clothes, or I don't like his manner of speaking.
I don't like the way he wears his hair. No, no, it's the word
of God. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, there's no light in
them. Isn't that right? He says, because many false prophets
are gone out into the world. How are you gonna test them and
find them to either be true preachers of Christ or false prophets? He says in verse two, hereby
I know you the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And that's not
just his humanity, that's included. Here comes a preacher, he says,
well, I believe in Christ, he's the son of God, but he's not
God. He's not in our fellowship. Or he's not man. Most scholars say this was spoken
of concerning the Gnostics, who believed that any physical material
was evil, and so they would say, well, Christ couldn't have been
a human, because that's evil. Christ was every bit human without
sin. He's God-man. And in the gospel of his glorious
work, What did he accomplish on the cross? We agree with that,
don't we? What the Bible says about what
Christ accomplished, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
This is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he
hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. You believe that? I do. The ground of my justification,
what is it? It's the imputed righteousness
of Christ. That's what the Bible teaches. We're in agreement,
see? That's our fellowship. Look over
at 2 John, listen to this, talking about judgment. This love requires
us to use godly judgment. And most people in Christianity
today, or what's known as Christianity, they'd say any judgment is unloving.
Most people have that attitude. I had a fellow that was emailing
me from Africa. claiming to believe what we believe.
And I started a correspondence with him. And he wanted to come
here. He was coming to the United States.
He wanted to come to Albany. Well, I didn't know that individual
well enough, but I know that if anybody comes here from Africa,
they're going to be expected to be supported. And so I started
asking him some pointed questions about what he believed. Because
I know there are many deceivers that have gone out through the
world. Test the spirit. And one of the things I asked
him, I said, well, what other churches in the United States
support you? And man, you should have seen
it. All the hodgepodge of different denominations, different beliefs,
different gospels. And so I knew what I was getting.
So I wrote him, I said, look, you're welcome to come to Albany
and sit here and hear the gospel, but we cannot support your ministry.
And here's what he wrote back. He said, how can you be so judgmental? And I wrote him back and I said,
because the word of God commands me to be. You understand? This love, look
at 2 John verse 9. He says, whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. What is the doctrine of Christ?
It's these doctrines of the gospel that I've been talking to you
about. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both
the Father and the Son. Now a person can claim to believe
the doctrine of Christ, but not abide in those things. And he
says in verse 10, listen, if there come any unto you and bring
not this doctrine, Receive him not into your house. Now, I don't
believe he's talking about our individual homes there. I mean,
we'll have unbelievers in to do different things. What he's
talking about is the church. You don't receive them into your
fellowship. Brother, sister, neither bid
him Godspeed. Don't promote that ministry.
For he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker, a fellowshiper. That's what that is, of his evil
deeds. You see that? He's talking about
having religious fellowship. This love requires godly judgment. Who are our brethren? This is
what he says over there in 1 John 3. We know we've passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. Well, who are my
brethren? I've got to show you this. Look at Luke 14. I want
you to see something here. Luke 14. And look down at verse 26. Now
this is interesting. This is where we've got to interpret
scripture with scripture. Keep it in its context. In verse
25 of Luke 14, it says, there went great multitudes with him,
following the Lord. And he turned and he said unto
them, verse 26, if any man come to me and hate not his father
and his mother, and his wife, and his children, and his brethren
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
Now, how you gonna look at that? Wait a minute, preachers will
tell you, well, no, wait a minute, that couldn't mean hate, that
means love less. Well, that's not what the word
means. Is he telling me to hate my mother, my father, my children?
Well, listen to me very carefully here, and I think I can help
you with that. The answer is, is that we're never to express
any kind of sinful hatred towards anybody. And especially our mothers and
our fathers and our earthly family, we're to love our neighbor as
ourselves. So what does he mean, hate? Well,
what he's talking about is the same thing as God's hatred for
those to whom sin is imputed. It is a rejection based upon
a just ground. And here's what he said, I'm
to love my father, but now is if my father doesn't believe
this gospel, I'm to reject him as being part of my fellowship.
my spiritual family. I cannot speak peace even to
my father, my earthly father, if he doesn't believe in Christ. My mother, my children. I have
earthly relatives who don't believe this gospel, and I love them,
but I reject them as far as this fellowship, this love of the
brethren. Does that make sense to you? Because that's what it
means. The Lord is not commanding us to express any sinful hatred
towards anybody. We're to love our neighbors ourself,
but even that love will not tell a lie and speak peace where there
is no peace. You know why preachers speak
peace when there is no peace? Because that's what gets the
numbers in, that's what gets the money in, that's what gets
everybody, that soothes the itching ears. This love will not compromise
for the sake of unity or peace. That's what he's saying. So love your mothers and your
fathers and your children. Do everything you can for them.
Help them in any way you can. But if they're not believers,
if they don't believe this gospel, this love requires that you side
with us against them. That's what he's talking about.
This love that brings us together and keeps us together in the
truth. This love expresses itself. Let me close with this. Look
back at 1 John 3. He says in verse 14, we know that we've
passed from death into life because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. We're together in this
gospel. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer. And you 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. That's the ultimate
expression of love, laying down your life for a brother or sister
in Christ. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren, we ought to. I know he'd take the grace
of God, now wouldn't it? 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? A brother
or sister who's in need, what are we to do? We're to help them.
We're to take care of those needs. We're a spiritual family, you
see. And he says, he says, my little children, let us not love
inward. Let's not just say it. Neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth. This love expresses itself in
compassion, helping when help is needed. I had a couple one time come
here years ago, They left because they were mad because we didn't
help them in their need. And I told the lady, I said,
well, there's a problem with it. She said, what? And I said,
I didn't know you were in need. I had no idea. They didn't look
like they were in need. But if they needed something,
you've got to tell somebody. I know it's a matter of pride,
you know. But it's not going to come to
us by osmosis. If you need something, if you're
really need, Now don't let it be because you're just too lazy
to work. Because the Bible says then if you don't work, you don't
eat. Isn't that right? This is not welfare. But if a
brother or sister's in need, really in need, we're to help
them. We're to side with them in the
gospel. This love expresses itself in worship and obedience. I'm
gonna talk more about that next week. Fighting the warfare, seeking
to be like Christ. This love is perfected in us,
but not yet perfect coming through us. Over there in 1 John 4, he said,
God's love is made perfect in us. What that means is that when
God brings a sinner to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works, to shed abroad that love within his heart, That love has
reached its goal. The salvation of one of His sheep,
it's complete, it's perfected, it's completed, it's finished.
God's not finished with us yet, and He never will be, but His
love is complete to bring us into the family of God, and He
keeps us there by His grace. All right.