All right, let's look at 1 John
3. We've been talking about true
Christian love. And this morning I wanna talk
to you about the test of Christian love. You remember he says in
verse 13, after having referred to the example of Cain and Abel,
you know about Cain and Abel, the two brothers. physical brothers. Two men who were physical brothers
but who were not spiritual brothers. And that's the essence of what's
being taught here. We all have physical family members
who are not spiritual family members. You see, when God saves
a sinner by His grace through the blood of Christ and brings
us to a saving knowledge of Christ, He brings us into His fold The
sheepfold. He brings us out of the world
and our connection with the world into a spiritual family, a new
family. And that's what this is all about.
And so here's Cain and Abel. Cain is of the world, of the
earth. Abel was a sinner saved by grace. Cain hated Abel. And it was over the gospel. How
God saves sinners. Now, you understand that? I don't
know about these boys' personality. The Bible doesn't say anything
about Cain's personality. Doesn't say anything about Abel's
personality. I know preachers try to capitalize
on that when they go back to Genesis chapter 4. They try to
talk about how Cain was not sincere. Well, the Bible doesn't say that.
In fact, if you look at verse 12, in verse 12, he says, not
as Cain ever were to love the brethren. and don't be like Cain,
who was of that wicked one, that's the devil, and slew his brother. And then it answers the question,
now why did Cain slay Abel? Wherefore slew he him? Because
his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Now, what
was it about Cain's works that was evil? It was the work of
self-righteousness. You say, well, he wasn't sincere.
You don't know that. But even if he was the most sincere
man on earth, but he came to God pleading his own works, pleading
his own goodness, his own righteousness, his works were evil. They didn't
glorify God. They didn't humble him. They
didn't exalt Christ, the promised Messiah, the woman's seed, and
his righteousness imputed as the only ground of salvation.
Why was Abel's works righteous? You know what, righteousness,
technically speaking, I've been writing on this for so long,
and it's difficult trying to get it down to simplify for me. Righteousness in the Bible, technically
speaking, is not morality. Righteousness is the legal standard
by which God measures morality. In other words, we're talking
about love. You say, well, I love my fellow man. Well, how much
should we love our fellow man? What's the standard? Can I get
away with 50 degrees of love or 75 degrees? Well, the standard is righteousness
that can only be found in one person. And that one person is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the standard of righteousness.
So, in other words, if I'm going to plead my love for my fellow
man as being my reason that God should declare me righteous,
then my love for you has to measure up to Christ's love for His people. Perfection. So how could Abel's
works be righteous? Well, what did Abel do? He brought
the blood of the Lamb. He came to God in the righteousness
of another. That's what he did. And Cain,
not being spiritually connected to Abel, but being spiritually
connected to the world, which is spiritual death, he hated
him. He resented him. He rejected
him and to the point that he was so angry that he killed him.
And so in verse 13, John the apostle writes, marvel at, don't
be amazed my brother, if the world hates you. Over in the
book of John chapter 15, the Lord himself taught his disciples
this. You know what he was doing? He's
being proactive here. He told him, he said, I'm telling
you this so that when it happens, you won't be amazed and you won't
be so frightened that you'll run away. He says in John 15
and verse 18, if the world hates you, now the world there refers
to the unbelieving world in whatever condition or state it's in. It
can be the religious world. Why did Cain hate Abel? Why did
he slay Abel? It was over religion. You know,
people say, well, if there was no religion in the world, there'd
be no war. Well, that's crazy. But let me tell you something.
Human religion has brought about a lot of war. That's true. Human
religion. But true Christian religion has
never been the cause of war. Now, there have been men who've
raised arms in the name of Christianity, but my friend, that's a false
Christianity. So the word here refers to anything
in the world. that is opposed to the glory
of God in Christ as revealed in the gospel, that is opposed
to how God saves sinners by his grace through the blood, the
righteousness of another, that will reject the world. That's
why Abel rejected Cain. I would say Abel loved Cain,
his brother, but he rejected him as far as being in a right
relationship with God. Cain was angry. Well, Christ
says to his disciples in verse 18, if the world hates you, you
know that it hated me before it hated you. He says in verse
19, if you were of the world, the world would love his own.
If you were spiritually connected to the world, if you were in
fellowship with the world, if you'd speak peace to the world,
the world would love you. I don't care whether you're a
Calvinist, an Arminian, or whatever. As long as you speak peace to
each other. And you know that, now you do understand speaking
peace, this issue. You know, Jeremiah spoke about
that. He was the prophet of God who spoke about God's wrath upon
Judah and Jerusalem. But the false prophets said,
don't listen to Jeremiah, everything's okay, God's pleased with you,
peace, peace. But there was no peace. But you
realize what? Satan's first message was when
he spoke to Eve, you've heard it said by God, he said, you
shall surely die. He says, thou shalt not surely
die. Here's what I tell people from
this pulpit and in witnessing, my friend, if you're not looking
to the Christ of the Bible, and the righteousness that he worked
out on the cross that God freely imputed to his people, if that's
not your hope, you will surely die. I'm telling you. And I'm not telling you that
because I hate you. I'm telling you that because that's the only
hope of any, that's my hope. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now, if your hope is built on
something else, No matter how good it looks to the world, no
matter how noble it seems or how moral it seems, you will
surely die. Now, I guarantee you'll find
false preachers who'll say, don't listen to that man. You will
not die. You're okay. Oh, he's just being
too technical. You've heard that, haven't you?
He's just a theologian. You've heard all the arguments.
Well, that's what the issue here is. Christ said in John 15, if
you were of the world, the world would love his own because you're
not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore
the world hateth you, the world rejects you. And he says in verse 20, listen
to this. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant
is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they'll
persecute you also. If they kept my saying, they'll
keep yours also. They believe the gospel, and
you preach the gospel to them, they'll believe what you say.
If they don't, they'll reject what you say, and they'll reject
you. And then he went on to tell them
some other things. He told them, he said, they'll throw you out
of their worship services, John 16. Well, look back at 1 John
3. So marvel not that the world
hates you. That means the world rejects
you. They reject the message of the gospel. They reject the
Christ we preach. You know, people want to say,
well, we're all going to the same God. We're just going different
ways and all that. That's not what Christ taught.
Christ said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto me, unto the Father, but by me. Our Savior is a specific person
who did a specific work as recorded in this book. And if you see
it any other way, I know it sounds, it doesn't sound, this kind of
language, the world hates. If you see it any other way, then you will surely die. That's
not arrogance, it's just truth. Somebody says, well, not everybody
interprets the Bible. The same way. Well, let me tell
you something. The Bible is not subject to our
interpretations. There are rules of interpretation,
ways to see it. But I'll tell you what, this
is a closed book until the Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see and
ears to hear, isn't it? Well, look at verse 14. He says,
we know that we've passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. We receive the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Now, I've mentioned
these, but think about this. First of all, this is godly love
that none of us have by nature. The kind of love that John is
speaking of is Christian love that comes to those who have
passed from death unto life. They've been born again by the
Spirit. It takes a work of the Spirit, bringing us to Christ,
confessing our sins, and pleading His righteousness, it takes that
kind of work established this love in our hearts. And like
over in 1 John chapter 2 when he says verse 5, 1 John 2 and
verse 5, but whosoever keepeth his word, that's the gospel of
how God saves sinners by his grace through the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ who is God in human flesh. That's
who Christ is and that's what he accomplished. In Him, barely,
is the love of God perfected. The love of God has reached its
goal. What is the love of God for? It's God's purpose to save
us and bring us to Himself for His glory. That's what the love
of God is for. It's not just a token. It's not
just an expression. It's not just an attempt to save
people. God's love for His people ensures
the establishment of their salvation. God's love sent Christ into the
world to establish His justice, His righteousness, in order to
secure the salvation of His people. And so when a sinner is brought
from death, spiritual death, unto life by the Spirit of God,
the love of God has reached its goal. perfected in us. Now, we know that this love is
only expressed by true children of God who have been born again
by the Spirit, who believe the gospel. It's love founded in
the truth. And it says in 1 John 3, verse
14, we know that we've passed from death unto life. If we've
passed from death unto life, that means this, before we were
dead, now we're alive. Before we were blind, now we
see. Before we were deaf, now we hear. Now he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. If you reject the true people
of God who abide in the truth of the gospel, what does that
say about you? It says that you abide in death.
You're still dead. That's what that means. you haven't
passed from death unto life. So this is godly love that no
man has by nature, it's given to us by the Spirit and when
we're born again and we see God's sovereign, free, grace, unconditional
love for us in Christ. The natural man does not have,
the natural man loves things, but he doesn't love the brethren. The natural man does not love
the true God or the true Christ. And let me tell you this, to
love Christ is to love his word. Did you know that? You say, well, I don't like what
God said there. Well, I know a lot of it goes
against our grain because even we who have passed from death
into life, we still have the sin nature that goes against
everything that God said. That's why we have a warfare.
But having been convinced of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment by the Holy Spirit that brought us to Christ, that's
where the warfare is. And we know better. Secondly,
this is love that the world does not recognize. And no, this is
the kind of love that the world will call hatred. The world will
call it pride. In fact, the world will see it
as hatred. And it's love that brings out the world's hatred
of us. We saw that in John 15. And then thirdly, this is a special
particular love that is only for brethren in Christ. Here's
what it does. It binds us together in the truth. Look at it again, verse 14. We
know we've passed from death into life because we love the
brethren. And he that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
It binds us together in the community of faith and truth bound together
by the truth. Love of the brethren and love
of the truth come together. Look over at the book of 2 Thessalonians. Let me show you something here.
2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The people of God are not bound
together in personality necessarily. The people of God are not bound
together in social aspects necessarily. Now they can be. The people of
God are not bound together in their own personal likes and
dislikes necessarily. That's not what this is talking
about. People of God, we see in the Bible all kinds of exhortations
and admonitions about how true children of God need to stop
arguing, fussing, fighting, and get along. Don't we? And why
is that? It's because we're human still.
We're still sinful human beings. Now you all have earthly families.
You ever been at odds with a brother or a sister or a mama or a daddy?
Does that mean you're not members of the family? Does that mean
that you don't love them? Well, no. No. Well, it's the same way in this
spiritual family. What is it that binds us together? It's God's truth by the power
of the Spirit. We stand together in the truth. I may be mad as a wet hen at
you, or you may be mad as a wet hen at me, but we're going to
stand together in this gospel. So it's connected with love of
the truth. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 and verse 9. He's talking about the coming
of Satan into the world in the last days. And Antichrist and
the spirit of Antichrist. And in verse 9, listen to this.
He says, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan.
Alright? Remember John said in 1 John
chapter 3 that he that loveth not is of the devil. and signs
and lying wonders. And verse 10, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish, that's unbelievers. And
look, he says, because they received not what? The love of the truth. Now that love of the truth, he
says that they might be saved. This love of the brethren and
love of the truth go together. And that's how he In 2 Thessalonians,
he distinguishes between the world and the people of God by
love of the truth. Now in 1 John 3, he distinguishes
between the world and the people of God by love of the brethren.
They go together. And he talks about in the last
days how many will be deceived because they will not receive
the love of the truth. But look at verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians
2. He says, but we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Here's
the election. Somebody says, well, how do I
know I'm elected? Well, here it is. Through sanctification
of the Spirit, the Spirit sets you apart from the world. And what's the evidence of that?
and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." You see
that? That's what sets us apart. You know, somebody enters into
a religious service like we're having today. And let's say the
people are just overly friendly. And that's okay. We ought to
be friendly. We ought to be concerned with
people, all of that. And they walk away and they say,
oh, that's the most loving church I've ever been in. Well, let
me tell you something. Unless the truth is believed
there and that church is founded upon this gospel and it's preached
from the pulpit, it's not the kind of love that John's talking
about. You understand that? Go back to 1 John 3. He says
in verse 15, 1 John 3. He says, Whosoever hateth, now
think about it this way, rejects his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him. Now what he's talking about
here is soul murder. Now it's true that Cain physically
murdered Abel, but you know Cain murdered Abel before he physically
murdered him. He had hatred in his heart for
his physical brother Abel. He rejected Abel. And it was
based upon a false ground. It was based upon a lie. Cain
just knew that if he brought the first fruits of his work,
that means the best, that means Cain decided to bring his best
to God for salvation, for blessing. He just knew that God would receive
that and like that and smile upon that and be pleased with
that. And God said, oh no Cain, that's evil. And Abel sided with
God against Cain. And that's where the hatred came
from. And it's soul murder. Soul murder. Turn to John chapter
8. That's the work of Satan. John 8 and verse 44. Christ here is speaking to the
Pharisees. You understand the Pharisees
were religious people who essentially walked in the way of Cain. Salvation
by work, salvation conditioned on man. Righteousness by their
efforts. And here's what Christ says to
them in verse 44. They claim to be children of
Abraham, which in essence was saying we're children of God.
Christ said in John 8, 44, you're of your father the devil. Boy, I'll tell you, that'll bring
on the hatred of the world, won't it? And the lust of your father
you will do, the unlawful desires of your father you will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, look at the next line, and a
bode not in the truth. That's what John's talking about.
He that hates his brother, he doesn't abide in the truth. He's
a soul murderer because he preaches and believes a message that will
kill the soul. And he says, because there's
no truth in him, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.
He speaks what's natural to him. You know, when false preachers
preach a false message, they're only doing what's natural to
the fallen, sinful, natural man. What I'm preaching to you this
morning is not natural to man, it's of God. Salvation totally,
100% by God's grace through the righteousness of another. That's
not of man. That kind of thing has never
entered into the mind of man, 1 Corinthians 2 says. And he says here, for he is a
liar and the father of... To tell a lie to people about
God and how God saves sinners is soul murder. Back to 1 John 3. So those who reject the brethren
reject the truth and opt out for a lie. Verse 16 he says,
hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his
life for us. The love of God is seen in the
justice of God, satisfied in the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what the love of God is
all about. Look over in 1 John 4 and verse 10. Herein is love. Not that we love God. In other
words, God's love to His people is not a response. He says not
that we love God. By nature, we don't love God.
But then He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, the sin-bearing sacrifice who brought satisfaction
to justice. Righteousness established. Christ
is our advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous. How
do we perceive the love of God? Only as we look to Christ. That's why it's such a false
message to tell everybody without exception, blankly, that God
loves them. God's love is in Christ. Outside
of Christ, there's no love from God, it's only hatred. God will
reject you, just like He rejected Cain. Just like He rejected Esau. Just like He will reject all
workers of iniquity, Psalm 2. You say, but I want to experience
the love of God. Okay, look to Christ. Here it
is. Look to the advocate. Look to
Jesus Christ the righteous as the propitiation of our sin. Because the love of God is in
Him. Nowhere else. So verse 16 of 1 John 3, Hereby
perceive we the love of God. because he laid down his life
for us. Why did he lay down his life for us? Because our sins
were imputed to him, charged to him, and he had to die as
guilty on that cross as the substitute of his people and the surety
of his people. And we have righteousness in
him, not in ourselves. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. Now that's how far our love for
the brethren, our love for the truth, our love for Christ should
go. Now I'll be honest with you, I don't want to be a martyr,
and I hope you don't either. True Christians are not those
who have a martyr complex. But when the occasion arises,
we know, especially in the past, that many Christian brethren
had to give their lives for the faith. And I want to tell you
something, that's only by the grace of God. You see, when the Apostle Paul
was beheaded for the cause of Christ, that is not a testimony
to the power and the goodness of Paul. That's a testimony to the power
and the goodness of Christ. And that's the only way that
this old sinner up here would be able to do anything like that
by the grace of God. You too. But look at verse 17. Now he brings this love that
binds us together as brethren in Christ from the highest act
of giving our lives down to the most menial things of necessities
of life. He says, but whoso hath this
world's good the abundance of the world. He's talking about
material things. And seeth his brother have need,
here's a needy brother. First of all, this is talking
about brethren. This is not talking about everybody. And let me say
this, as human beings, we ought to be charitable to give out
of our abundance to help the need of others. But what John
is talking about is the relationship of brethren in the church, in
the family of God, in the faith. And here's a brother or a sister
in need. Now, this had a real present
application in John's day because at that time, being under the
pagan governments that they were under, and being persecuted by
unbelieving Jews, There were many times that brethren, brothers
and sisters in the faith, they lost their homes, they lost their
means of income, they were put out on the street. And they had no way of making
a living over the gospel. And so here's a brother or sister
in need and you have the ability to help them. What does he say
in verse 17? If you shut up your bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in you? He's
not talking about welfare here. He's not talking about promoting
laziness to those who can work, but he's talking about brothers
and sisters in need. You know, back then, you know,
James talked about this in the book of James chapter one and
two. And it's often mentioned in the New Testament about helping
widows and orphans you know back then they didn't have government
programs like we had when a woman a lot of times when she was widowed
she was just put out on the street she was destitute an orphan too
and what he's saying here it's up to the church to take care
of people like that who are in need brothers and sisters in
Christ And here's what he says in verse 18, my little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and then
we'll look at the last line, and in truth. You see the key
there? In other words, don't look at
your brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need and just
say, I love you, now go your way. They need a coat, give them
a coat. They need food, give them food.
They need help, give them help. Don't just love him by saying
it. Love is not just a word. Somebody said love is not a noun,
it's a verb. Well, in that case, it is. But he's talking about
here the connection that we have as brothers and sisters in Christ
that's founded upon the truth of the gospel word that drives
all of us in unity to Christ for salvation, for forgiveness,
for righteousness. You see, we have that connection
if we're believers. Now, if you're looking somewhere
else, or to someone else, or to the church, the baptism, or
to yourself, you don't have that connection with us. I tell people
all the time, I said, you know, Brother Mahan used to teach us,
he said, never assume that everybody, no matter how small the audience
is, never assume that everybody in the audience is a believer.
And so I tell unbelievers here this morning, I'm glad you're
here. I welcome you here. I want you to hear the gospel,
but I pray for your salvation. If you're an unbeliever, you're
not my brother, you're not my sister in Christ, but you're
where you need to be. You need to be under the truth.
Isn't that right? And the love I express for you is not the
love that connects us in the truth, but it's a love because
I desire the best for you. I desire your salvation. And
I want to tell you the truth that God uses to bring a sinner
to salvation.