Now look with me at that passage
that Brother Randy just read, 1 John 3. These next verses in the book
of 1 John, chapter 3 and chapter 4 mainly, deal with one of the
most difficult subjects that you will ever find in God's Word. And that is the reality of true
Christian love. Now, most people would say, well,
why is that difficult? I mean, love, that's something
pleasant. Most preachers, when they preach on love, they really
make you feel good about yourself and themselves. And this issue
of true Christian love, it's not hard to understand once you
read what the scripture says about it. and what we need to
know about it. It's essential that we do know.
Look at that verse 14 of 1st John 3. We know that we have
passed from death unto life. That's the new birth. We know
we've been born again, saved by the grace of God. Why do we
know that? Well, he says here, because we
love the brethren. And he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. He's still dead. You would agree, just based on
that one verse alone, that this is essential, that we understand
something about this brotherly love, is what we call it. This
brotherly love that's grounded in the love of God to his people. But it's difficult because when
you see the reality of it in scripture, it's not what, you
know, it's like the old preacher preached up north in Michigan
when he was preaching on Naaman. It ain't like you thought it
was. That's what he said, that's what he titled his message. I'll
never forget, years ago, I can't remember who preached this, but
the preacher was talking about Christian love and he got up
and he made this statement. He said, let me tell you something
right off the bat here. true godly love, Christian love,
is not a hallmark card. I wondered what he meant. And
what he means, it's not that sappy, romantic, compromising,
spurious love that people like to hear about. Now, it's not
that I'm totally against all sappy, romantic love, don't get
me wrong. I like it just as much as the
next person. But when we talk about Christian
love, we're talking about something else, something altogether different. As you know in the Bible, there
are different words for love. There's love of, most people,
most everybody, one of the Greek words that just about everybody
knows is agape. That's godly love, and that's
what this is. Agape love. It's love that is
the gift from God. It's a love that nobody who is
not born again has. If you're not born again, that's
what he says, we know we passed from death unto life because
we have this love. This love is a gift from God. John mentions
that up in verse 1 of chapter 3. He says, behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. This is an amazing love. And
it's love that comes from God. It's not natural to us, this
kind of love. But there are other kinds of
love. There's brotherly love. You know the word phileo. The
city of Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. And then there's
the eros love, there's the romantic love between a man and a woman,
a husband and a wife, and those things are beautiful. And those
things are to be promoted by true believers. But when we talk
about the love that identifies and evidences a person as being
born again, having passed from death, we're talking about something
altogether different. and so that's what we're going
to be studying in the next few messages as we go through this
passage in first john chapter three now listen to this there's
there's three things that we need as professing christians
there are three things that we need in order for us to have
joy real joy spiritual joy i don't mean to be smiling all the time
or happy all the time but i mean i have spiritual joy joy and
peace in believing There's three things we need to have that joy,
to have that peace, the peace which passes understanding, and
the assurance of salvation. Now let me be careful here and
let me be very specific. Assurance of salvation is never
derived scripturally from what I see in myself. Assurance of
salvation is always derived from Christ and what he accomplished
on Calvary through his blood and righteousness. He is my assurance. He's my surety. He paid my debt. But in order to have this assurance,
and what we need to know is that we're professing Christian. Now,
what we want to know is that our professed Christian faith
is true. And that we're not just fooling
ourselves with pipe dreams and fantasies, personal desires and
myths, looking into a mirror and seeing somebody other than
who's really there. There's three things, and the
first two are objective. That means they're totally outside
of us. There's something that has nothing to do with how we
feel or how we see things. And here's the first two. Number
one, we need to know what is truth. Now the world says we really
can't know that. There was a man in the Bible who expressed that
kind of philosophy that most people, even professing Christians,
kind of adhere to today. His name was Pontius Pilate.
And you remember when the Lord was on trial and they brought
him before Pilate, and Pilate was discussing these things with
him, and Christ was telling him the truth, the only truth, and
Pilate, remember his question? What is truth? And what Pilate
was expressing there is what we call relativism. In other
words, there's no objective, dogmatic truth. Whatever's truth
for you is truth. Whatever's truth for me is truth.
Well, if we're Christians, if we're believers, we need to know
what truth really is. John is talking about fellowship
here in 1 John. The first thing he says about
fellowship, he says it's fellowship with the Father and the Son,
and based upon our fellowship with the Father and the Son,
it brings fellowship with one another, and he describes it
as the fellowship of light. We walk in the light. What is light in the scriptures?
Truth. And it's always truth as it is seen and revealed and
determined and settled in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel light. How does God save a sinner? There's
not but one way. By his sovereign grace through
the God man and his righteousness imputed to us. His blood shed
for my sins. That's the only truth when it
comes to salvation and a right relationship with God. So we
walk in that light. Now anybody else who walks in
that light by the grace of God, that person is my brother or
my sister in Christ. Do you know that? And that relationship
is stronger and longer lasting than the relationship I have
with my physical brothers and sisters. That relationship in Christ is
gonna last forever. The relationship with my physical
family's not gonna last forever. It's gonna be gone. I have an
older, my older brother who passed away a couple years ago. That relationship's gone. Oh,
I think about him. I loved him. Admired him. He was a genius. He got all the
brains in the family. But I think about him a lot.
And I miss him. And I sorrow over him. But the
relationship's gone. And it'll never be again. You
know, people have these ideas about him, I'm gonna see mama
and I'm gonna see daddy and all that. Well, if you do, and I
hope you do, I hope they were believers. But they're not gonna
be your mama or daddy anymore. That relationship's gone. But
the relationship that we have in Christ, forever and ever and
ever, You understand that now. You say, well, I don't like to
think about that. Well, that's what I told you
at the beginning of this message. This is one of the most difficult
things to deal with, but it's true. And then John talks about
the fellowship of righteousness in chapters two and three. In
other words, those who stand in Christ before God, washed
in his blood, clothed in his righteousness, and they cling
to him. holding on to Christ, believing
in Him, resting in Him, submitting to Him as the Lord our righteousness.
And anyone, anybody else in this building or in this town or in
this world who's doing that, that's my brother or sister in
Christ. You understand where I'm going to from this? Now he
talks about the fellowship of love. Well, we need to know what
is truth as revealed in God's Word. What is the truth? Well, Any truth that we have
and can rely on as far as salvation and a right relationship with
God and whether or not we're in the family of God, the spiritual
forever family of God, has to come from this word. Isn't that
right? Because God said it, thus saith
the Lord. If they speak not according to
this word, no light in them. In other words, if I get up here
and I tell you things that I cannot back up with this word, then
you really can't rely on it. And it's basically a lie if I
tell you something about salvation and a right relationship with
God or a right relationship with each other that's not based upon
this word, what is it? It's a lie. So I need to know,
number one, that what I believe is truth. And secondly, if that's
the case, I need to know that this record is true. That's the
second objective. Is the Bible the right way to
go? I mean, why don't we just get
the Koran up here and the Bhagavad Gita? Let's get the sayings of
Confucius. Let's get a bunch of books and
let's just pour over them and let's feel our way through the
dark and do the best we can. Is that the way to go? Well,
you know better than that. I believe this book is the book
of God. Paul told Timothy, this book
is able to make you wise unto salvation because it leads you
to the salvation that God has freely and fully provided for
sinners in Christ. And I'll tell you something now,
you know, most of you are not going to get into a detailed
study of the providential coming together of Genesis through Revelation. and even the King James Version.
I'm pretty sure you're not going to do that. Maybe some of you
will. I've done it. If you study the process that
man has gone through to bring this Bible to where it is today,
you're going to be confused and disappointed. But I want to tell
you something. I know That even through the
ignorance, and I'm saying this, I'm not saying this because I
know it all, because I don't. Even through the ignorance, the
sinfulness, the messing up of human beings, in bringing this
thing together, you know what I see? I see the providential
hand of a sovereign God. You know how I know that? Because
of the end result. This is the book of books. This
is the book of truth. Genesis to Revelation. It takes
some time, doesn't it? It takes some work. Study to
show yourself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not to
be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth. But I want
to tell you something. There's no book like this book.
I've read a lot of books in my lifetime. There's no book like
this. And I never, I didn't always
have such a high regard and respect for this book. I remember one
time I threw one at the refrigerator and said, damn, the Bible wish
it had never been written. I made that statement one time.
Somebody said, well, it's a wonder God hadn't opened up the floor
and swallowed you. Well, God doesn't work that way,
you know. I sometimes wonder why he doesn't
just open up the pulpits and swallow down false preachers
sometimes, but that's just not the way he works. He brings rebels,
enemies. Christ died for me when I was
an enemy. You know, this book is so unique.
It's so precious. Turn over to 1 John 5 verse 10. Listen to this, 1 John 5 and
verse 10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. That's the witness of the Spirit.
that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his son." What is that record?
Well, here it is. We've got the record. This is the word of God
recorded. And he says in verse 11, this
is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life
is in his son. That's where it's at. So that's
what I need to know. I need to know I need to know what truth
is, and I need to know that this record is true. But now here's
the third thing, and it's subjective. Now the third thing is subjective.
I claim, you claim to believe the gospel. I claim, you claim
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to know that my
claim of salvation is not just simply a sham profession. I need to know that. That's why
I say examine yourself, examine myself, whether we be in the
faith. I don't want to have that kind of faith that results in
hearing on the judgment day, depart from me, ye that work
iniquity, I never knew you. How about you? I don't want that. Well, John gives us two things
here as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 10
of 1 John 3. Now listen to what he says. 1 John 3, 10, he says, in this,
whatever this is, in this, the children of God are manifest. That's made known. And the children
of the devil. They're made known. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God. Now what is doing righteousness
then? I need to know that. People go
all over the map with that phrase, don't they? And here's what it
means. We talked about that in the messages
doing righteousness. It has to do with a sinner saved
by grace, believing in, resting in, clinging to Christ for all
righteousness. That's what it is. I don't have
any righteousness of my own. There's no righteousness in me.
It's all in Christ. And that's what the children
of God, that's how they're made manifest. They cling to Christ. That's a work of the Spirit,
isn't it? When we're born again, He shows
us our sinfulness, our depravity, even our best works cannot save
us, cannot make us righteous, and He drives us to one person,
Christ, crucified, risen from the dead as our righteousness,
no other. I can tell you, if you're driven
to any other place to find righteousness, it's not of the Spirit. So if you don't do righteousness,
if you don't cling to Christ for all salvation, for all spiritual
blessings in heavenly place, if you don't cling to him, you're
a child of the devil. Now to most people, that sounds
hateful. It does, doesn't it? I know,
I used to think Brother Mahan was the meanest preacher that
God ever put on earth. But you know what the Bible says?
I've just given you the greatest expression of godly love that
I can give you. I've told you the truth. Remember
when Paul was writing to the Galatians, they were being swayed
away? seduced away from this clinging
to Christ for all righteousness to go back under the law. And
Paul told him the truth. He said, you do that, you were
never saved. You're falling from grace. You're
denying grace. Some of them apparently said,
Paul, well, you're just being mean. You know, you need to show
Christian love. And he said, am I your enemy?
Because I tell you the truth. Are you getting the idea? Well then he says in verse 10,
he says, those who do not righteousness, they're not of God, neither he
that loveth not his brother. Neither he that loveth not his
brother. Well, who is my brother? A unique God-given love. That's
what he's talking about. A unique God-given love here
that only true believers have for one another as it springs
from having been born again by the Holy Spirit and faith in
Christ. We know, verse 14, that we've passed from death unto
life because we love the brethren. And he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Now again, this love is not natural
to man. No unbeliever has this love.
It's a gift from God. Look over at 1 John 4. Look at
verse 5, 1 John 4. Now listen to it. He says, they
are of the world. Now when the word world is used,
you've got to keep it in its context. All right? Here he's talking about the unbelieving
world. the world in opposition to Christ
and his church, the world in opposition to the gospel, the
true gospel. And he says they, now he's talking
about false preachers here, who come claiming to preach in the
name of Christ, but they deny either his person or his finished
work. And he says they're of the world.
Verse five, therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth
them, the world listens to them. Now you know that's true. You'll
find these huge congregations, and listen, I'm not against huge
congregations if the truth is preached, but what do most people wanna
hear? They wanna hear what pleases
them, what makes them feel good, what makes them feel positive.
They don't wanna hear what they need to hear. You see, you know
the scenario, but they're of the world and the world hears
them, listens to them, follows them. Verse six, we are of God. Now, who's the we there? That's sinners saved by grace,
chosen of God, justified by His righteousness imputed, sanctified
in Him, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
We're of God. And he that knoweth God, heareth
us. Now, if anybody else is of God, all right, listen, he that
knoweth God, they'll hear you. When you preach Christ, when
you speak of Christ and His glory and His blood and His righteousness
as the only way of salvation, they'll hear you, they'll listen
to you. They'll be right with you. And he says, he that is
not of God, heareth not us. They won't listen to you. Y'all
have any people that won't even, they don't even want to bring
it up around you? They won't hear you. Hereby know
we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Look at verse
7. He says, Beloved, let us love
one another. Now what's he talking about?
He's talking about what we're hearing here. The word of God. The gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ. How God saves sinners. How God
justifies the ungodly. His person, who is Jesus Christ? He's God in human flesh. What
did he accomplish on Calvary? He brought forth everlasting
righteousness to guarantee and secure the salvation of all for
whom he lived and died and arose again. All whom he makes intercession
for even now. Let us love one another, okay? For love is of God. That kind
of love, that's of God. That's not of man. No preacher
can preach a sappy enough message to get you into that love. He
can't tell you enough stories that will tug on your heartstrings
to bring you that that's of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God. There it goes again. This kind
of love, that's an evidence that you've been born of God and know
God. where this love is absent that's
evidence you have not been born of God and you do not know God
and he says in verse nine in this was manifested the love
of God toward us and listen to what he says because that he
God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him this love brings life not death this love is not given
to anybody who abides and finally ends up in eternal death It brings
life. How? Verse 10, look at it. Herein
is love. Not that we love God. Now, this
love is not God's love to us in response of our love to Him.
We don't have this love by nature. We're enemies of God by nature.
But this love is the effect and fruit and evidence of His sovereign
love to us in Christ, here in His love. Not that we love God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation. I love that word, propitiation. A sin-bearing sacrifice that
satisfies justice for our sins. That's a security of salvation
based upon His death, His burial, His resurrection. So verse 11
says, beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another. Loving one another. Verse 12,
no man hath seen God in any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us and his love is perfected, completed in us, reaches its
goal. You see that? Turn to 1 Corinthians 13. I want to show you something. Now, human love, mere human love,
in whatever form it takes, is never the same as this godly
love. Alright? Mere human love. You cannot substitute it in any
way. You cannot measure or define
God's love in terms of human love. Now, it is true that God
and his love for his people, Christ and his love for his people,
is sometimes illustrated in human institutions of love. For example,
marriage, the love between a man and a woman. That's a picture
of Christ, the husband, loving his bride, the church. It is. But he's still putting it in
a different context. The love between a man and a
woman in the institution of marriage is the romantic, the eros love. And it goes even beyond that
in marriage, it does. And especially when two people,
a husband and wife, are believers, then it's even better. It's even
greater. Something to behold. But what
I'm saying is you cannot substitute human love and what we know on
this plane in an unregenerate state for the love of God. But
human love can do some awesome things. Let me show you 1 Corinthians
13. Verse one. Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity. Now that
word charity is the same word as love, agape. I am become a
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." Is it possible for a
person to speak in tongues and not be a true child of God, not
have this love? And the answer is yes. Now, granted I'm not going into
this subject this morning. What people call speaking in
tongues today is not even close to what it was in the New Testament.
All that is is just religious gibberish that somebody uses
to try to show themselves spiritual when it's not. But can a person
do it and not have agape, godly love? He said, yeah, but that's
all they are. You might as well just bang a
big gong or get you a drum set and hit a cymbal. You do just
as much good, which is no good. Look on verse two, and though
I have the gift of prophecy, That means foretelling the future
here. And understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
love, I'm nothing. That's the faith of miracles.
Who was it in the book of Acts that wanted to buy that? Simon,
what was his name? Simon Magus, yeah. Verse three,
and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, can human love
be just charitable, to bestow all my goods to feed the poor?
I can tell you stories of human beings who have given up a prince's
ransoms, prince's wealth, to walk the streets in poverty,
but did not believe and know the true gospel. And though I
give my body to be burned, can a person be martyred? for his
faith or his country, and have not love, it profiteth me in
nothing. Well, later on in this series, I'm gonna go through
1 Corinthians 13, but what I wanted to show you, this human love
can accomplish some miraculous things, some marvelous things,
but it cannot be substituted for this love that John is talking
about. go back to first corinthians
three this godly love is godly love the gift of god that is
founded upon the truth of the gospel it's a mutual love for christ
as he's revealed in the gospel as the lord our righteousness
look at verse eleven for this is the message that you heard
from the beginning that we should love one another and look at
the example he uses Verse 12, not like Cain, who was of that
wicked one, he was of the devil, and slew his brother, he murdered
his brother Abel. Now, you can say anything you
want to about Cain's personality, Cain's sincerity, but here's
the point, whatever you say about it, in trying to understand what
Cain did and why he did it, you will be wrong unless you go straight
to the scriptures. And that's the question that
comes next here in verse 12. Why? Wherefore means why. Why
did Cain slay his brother. Why did he do it? Well, Cain
was a mean guy, or he was hateful, or he was selfish, or he was
not sincere, whatever, whatever, whatever. What does the scripture
say? Here it is, because his own works were evil, and his
brother's righteous. There's the reason. That's the reason God gives.
And let me tell you something, God knew Cain's heart. He knew
Abel's heart. Well, is that simply saying that
Abel was a better guy than Cain? Well, if that's true, then here's
the precedent. We're all going to be saved if
we're better people than each other. Is that what the Bible
teaches? Is that the gospel that John
promoted here? Righteousness by being better
than others? By making better decisions than
others do? Is that what this book says?
Well, no, that was Cain's problem. He thought he could be saved,
forgiven, righteous by being better than other people. And
so he worked hard in the fields and he brought his crop, the
first of his crop, the first fruit. He brought the best. And
he presented them before God. And he asked God to bless him
and to save him and to be pleased with him based upon that hard
work that he did. And God said, Cain, not accepted. Your works are evil. Well, what
about Abel over there? He just brought you the blood
of a lamb. And God said, Abel, accepted.
Accepted. That's the righteousness of my
son, who's coming to wash away your sins. and to establish the
righteousness upon which I'm justifying you, Abel." That's
grace. Your works are righteous. What
was Abel's works? The blood of the Lamb. What's
my works? That I expect God to look at
me and say, accepted, blessed, saved, righteous. It's the righteousness
of my Savior imputed to me. It's not my preaching. It's not
my charitable giving. It's Christ. Now, if there's
anybody else in here who feels the same way, you know what? You're my brother and my sister.
I accept you. That's what Christian love is.
Now, there's more to it now. But I accept you as my brother
and my sister in Christ. And if any of you don't believe
that, if you take the way of Cain, I reject you. I love you. With that human love that the
law commands, we're gonna get into that, all of that. I want
the best for you, but I do not accept you into my spiritual
family. In this, as the children of God
and the children of the devil may benefit. You see what I'm
saying? I don't wanna do any harm to you if you reject this. I'm gonna pray for your salvation.
I'm gonna ask you to come to church and hear the gospel and
pray that God will save your soul. but I do not accept you
into the family of God as my brother or sister in Christ.
Why? Because you reject my Heavenly Father, who only accepts and
justifies people based upon the works of my elder brother, who
is Christ the Lord. Now what I've described to you
is the foundation and fundamental truth of Christian love. That's
where it all has to begin. And if we reject that, See, in
this are manifested the children of the devil. You understand
that? We'll go on through this chapter
as we learn more about this, but pray that the Lord will give
us all the grace and the knowledge to receive what he has for us. All right.