1 John 3, verse 10. For the last several weeks, we've
been working through verses 6-9, which is probably some of the
most difficult language in the epistle of 1 John, of which,
if you have not been in our studies, we would encourage you to get
the CDs from the last at least three weeks because we worked
through what is probably the most difficult language. Verse
nine says, whosoever is born of God, chapter three, verse
nine, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed
remains in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. And saints, you know, we have
worked through that language over the last three or four weeks.
And in essence, what your outline would say at the top is as our
title, the evidence of the children of the kingdom is love of the
brethren. the tension within and actually
that's what we've been dealing with with regards to verse 9. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because
he's born of God. And what we've said is once there
is a transformation that takes place in the context of regeneration
or rebirth or what we call salvation, There's a tension that we discover. A tension within. Does everyone
remember that? The tension within is the tension
between our new nature and our old nature. And that tension
within becomes for us an evidence that God has turned us in another
direction. We are now on a course for glory. We are on a foundation of grace
by which we are now headed towards eternity. But the conflict that
exists is a conflict that underscores the reality that while we are
in a state of grace, we are not yet free from sin, meaning that
sin still resides in us, even if it does not have dominion
over us. It does cause us to struggle. Sin resides in us, even though
it doesn't have dominion over us, it does cause us to struggle. Is that the reality for you as
a child of God? So if you want some axioms, I'll
simply say this. Before you were saved, you lived
in sin. That was your lifestyle. It was
your course, your way of life, the way you thought, the way
you desired, the way you pursued your life was a sinful lifestyle.
When you were born again, now you live in Christ, but sin still
lives in you. So Colossians chapter three says,
when we were dead, sin, we lived in sin, but now that we're born
of God, Sin lives in us. So there's a struggle, there's
a tension, isn't there? There's a battle. But this struggle,
this tension within is designed for us to discover some things
about ourselves in terms of who we are in Christ and what we
need. Why am I thus? Is what Rebecca said in Genesis
chapter 26 when she found herself, 25 rather, when she found herself
having conceived, right? She was bearing God in a miraculous
way, caused her to conceive, And now she has within her, what?
Twins. And those twins are struggling
in her womb. And remember what God said to give her an understanding
of the mystery? Now we're talking about the new
birth, aren't we? And so the new birth is described as a conception. And the conception for us is
often a mystery that has to be unpacked and unfolded in teaching. When I am a believer in Christ,
I am often asking the question, why am I thus, right? Well, it's
because two nations are in you. The one is of the flesh and the
other is of the spirit, and they are constantly at war with one
another. How do I resolve this? Well,
you resolve this a couple of ways before we get into our next
meditation. The way you resolve this, according
to the New Testament, is you yield yourself unto God. You
submit yourself unto Christ and you walk in the spirit. That's
how you resolve the internal conflict. Yielding means that
you are recognizing that in your own strength, even your new nature
cannot overcome your own nature if you don't derive grace from
God. So what the New Testament tells
us as believers to do is walk in the spirit and we won't fulfill
the lust of the flesh. Isn't that the language? There's
several times Galatians chapter five, Romans chapter eight. Walk
in the spirit means that we pursue God with a humble desire for
him to enable us to do his will. We pursue God with a humble desire
for him to enable us to do as well. What that means is even
though I have a new nature that desires to do right, that desire
itself is not enough for me to actually fulfill what I am called
to do. That means that the believer
has been called to fellowship with God as the way by which
he or she or they accomplished their calling. In other words,
I was not made in a state of grace to overcome sin by myself. I was not made in my regenerate,
renewed, born again, transformational self in this state of grace to
walk this Christian life apart from the presence of God, apart
from the presence of Christ and apart from the spirit of God
in my life. Now, being a new creature in Christ, I am going
to cry for that experience. I'm going to yearn for that.
I'm going to desire that God be with me, that God strengthen
me, that God help me to overcome. Am I making some sense? I just
want you to understand that to be a new creature in Christ is
not some entity or some being that walks around personally
so triumphant in their obedience to God that somehow they get
to merit a form of glory because they're better than other people
or wiser than other people or have found some secret to the
victorious Christian life apart from simple dependence upon the
Spirit of God. So when you do meet men and women
who actually are walking in what we would call relative obedience.
You'll see that when we get to the latter part of 1st John 3,
relative obedience. The secret to relative obedience
is dependence and complete recognition that the only way that I can
do it is by the grace of God. That way, I know that obedience
is the work of Christ in me, not so much as me mustering up
the strength to obey. The will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good. I can't find it in myself. So when Philippians 2 12 and
13 are given work out your salvation and fear and trembling for it
is God who worketh in you the will and to do of his good pleasure
when I discover that I am doing what God has called me to do
I am under no illusions that I'm doing it by my own strength
God's working in me Am I making some sense? This is what Paul
meant when he says, I can do all things through Christ. What
that strengthens me. So the Christian never steals
God's glory when it comes to obedience. All right, let's go
to work a little bit now. Again, if you really want verse
nine to come home, get our last three series on this, but we're
moving into verse 10, which is going to open up our context
in verse 10, it says, In this, the children of God are what?
Manifest, that is exposed, and the children of the devil. So
we have two classifications of people here. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God. Do you see that? And then he
says, neither he that loveth not his brother. Now the reason
why I have as our title, starting with verse 10, going all the
way through verse 24, the evidence of the children of the kingdom
is what? Love of the brethren. Do you guys see that? It's because
this text is giving us the positive and the negative side of what
it means to be a true believer. In the positive, a true believer
is the person who is working righteousness. In the negative,
a true believer is one who is not hating his brother. Do you
guys see that? Look again at verse 10. In this,
the children of God are manifested, and the children of the devil.
Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. So if a person
is not accomplishing what we will discover here in a moment,
what are works of righteousness, we can't say that he is of God,
right? Secondly, neither he that what
loveth not his brother. So now watch this. John is equating
certain kinds of works. Along with a certain kind of
attitude as determining whether or not you are authentically
a believer. John now is exposing what we
are getting ready to get into, not so much as the tension within. The tension within, this is what
we've been dealing with for several weeks now. The tension within,
he's getting ready to deal with the conflict without. So there's
a tension within, we call it a spiritual warfare, right? The
lust of the flesh against the lust of the spirit. That's the
tension within. He's getting ready to deal with the conflict
without and the conflict without is going to be an evidence. Now
follow this. Now here's going to be an evidence as to whether
or not you and I are authentically born of God. Here's the evidence
that we're born of God. Two things. We are working righteousness. Secondly, we are loving our brother.
You guys see that we are working righteousness and we are loving
our brother. Do you have your outline in front of you? Follow
your outline because it's going to help you if you are struggling
with this terminology. And by the way, you have to be
very careful when you read your Bible to understand the framework
of thinking behind the authors that are given to you. John,
John, like James and like Peter are extremely deeply Jewish oriented
in their thinking. So often their terminology is
going to derive out of a Hebraic or Judean construct. So terminology for them is going
to be exclusively Jewish. And if you are thinking in more
Hellenistic or Greek or secular terms, you're going to be thrown
off by terms like righteousness, works, righteousness, he that
worketh righteousness, or he that doeth righteousness. That
phraseology is going to cause you to shrink back. If you don't
understand that from a Hebrew perspective and from a Jewish
perspective, follow this now. To work righteousness simply
means to walk by faith. If you don't understand that
working righteousness from a Hebraic or Jewish perspective for those
who are truly believers in Christ simply means to walk by faith,
then what you're going to do is find yourself establishing
a false dichotomy between faith and words. Are you guys hearing
me? Now, this is very important for
you to understand, because one of the things we find ourselves
doing as Christians often, if we aren't careful, is we begin
to develop our own encyclopedia our own dictionary and we begin
to define terms in a narrow way that does not encompass the whole
of scripture terminology. And then when we run across passages
that are using phrases and terms different or alien to what we
would use, now we're in a battle. But that battle was because we
created a conflict out of an assumption that the formulation
of our terminology was sufficient to cover the whole spectrum of
scripture. What does john mean when he says he that doeth righteousness? Well, he means the same thing
that paul means when paul says now the just shall live by what? They are saying nothing different
They are saying exactly the same thing. Are you guys hearing what
i'm saying? So don't take the term works
righteousness when it's used by the apostles And say john
is promoting legalistic self-righteous words He's talking about what
comes from the life of people who depend upon God. He's saying
the same thing that Paul is saying, but Paul is targeting the Gentile
people, helping them to understand obedience from the grounds of
faith, while John is targeting Jewish people, helping them to
understand obedience through faith. not taking away the Old
Testament language. We can develop that, but I just
want you to take that and understand that because you're gonna see
that when we get into verse 11. Now, herein are the children
of God manifested to the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
righteousness is not of God, doeth not righteousness is not
of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Now, if you
aren't familiar with your Bible, you're gonna struggle with these
terms because I could easily raise the question to you, although
we're not gonna rest there, what is Righteousness. I'm just going
to leave that there. I'm going to assume that you
are a Bible believing Christian and that you have grown enough
in the word of God to know what righteousness is because Christian
folk love to bandy about and throw around biblical terms,
don't they? We love to talk to people about righteousness and
obedience and faith and keeping God's law and keeping God's commandment.
And the next one I'm getting ready to toss up to you again
is the word love. We love the bandy about love.
You know, everybody loves to tell people, Oh, just love them. Oh, just love them. What do you
mean by love somebody? Do you mean being permissive?
Do you mean being careless? Do you mean give them what they
want? Do you mean agreeing with them, even though what they're
doing is not agreeable, nor is it agreeable with God? Is it
love to let somebody go the wrong way? Am I making some sense? I would assert to you that if
you got your love, right, you've got your righteousness, right?
And if you've got your righteousness wrong, you've got your love wrong.
The two are not mutually exclusive. Biblical love is not antithetical
or hostile to our antipathetic, uh, uh, uh, antipathetic to righteousness. In fact, they are synonyms and
one is the foundation of the other. They're not hostile. They'll
never view righteousness as hostile to love in the biblical sense,
unless you're talking about producing your own righteousness, which
is what the text is about to get into. Now watch this. John
was dealing with previously the tension within. Then he gives
us this sort of a prelude to the next scenario that he's going
to paint, which is going to circumscribe a conflict without, which gives
us an opportunity to take a bird's eye view and look at two persons. These persons that we're about
to look at are historical persons that we can now ask ourselves
which one of these persons best describes me. That's what object
lessons are about. So in your outline, This is what
I would say at verse 11. Welcome to the walk, the war,
the witness, and the weight. Do you see that in your outline?
Welcome to the walk, the war, the witness, and the weight.
And I'll just describe all four of these W's in order to just
kind of get your head ready for where we are going. When John
introduces the antithesis in verse 10, between the children
of God and the children of the devil. He knows where he's going.
He's getting ready now to paint a scenario for us that really
constitutes the life of the believer. First, the life of the believer
is a walk of faith. It's a walk of faith. But according
to 1 John chapter 1, 6, it's called walking in the light. Okay? According to 1 John 1,
6, true believers walk in the what? Now, who is at light? Christ is at light. So true believers
walk according to Jesus, they walk according to a knowledge
of Jesus, and they walk according to the words of Jesus. Now, I'm
gonna help you now, because John knows where he's going, and this
is gonna help us when we get to biblical theology, ladies.
because the scriptures are consistent. To be a believer is to be a person
who follows Jesus, right? Jesus says, I am the light of
the world. And what that means is he actually illuminates the
darkness. You won't find anywhere in the
scriptures where light is mentioned, where darkness is not a fundamental
assumption because the light exposes the darkness. The believer
walks in light. He walks by faith in the light
of God's word, in the light of who Jesus is. We walk according
to Jesus. The preponderance of your life
and mine is learning who Jesus is and asking God to make us
like him. The preponderance of my life is learning who Jesus
is and asking God to make me like him. Because I'm his disciple,
guess what? I want to do his will. So Jesus
has told me if I follow him, I will never walk in darkness.
So a believer that walks with Jesus is gonna walk in the light,
but as you walk in the light, guess what? You are going to
be exposing the darkness. Hence, we have the conflict. Second one, the believer is also
engaged in a warfare. See the word war? Warfare. It's
called a spiritual warfare. So now the new believer who is
walking with Christ, who is the light, who gets to cut the lights
on in terms of discerning and recognizing the ways of the world,
the devil, the sinful lifestyle, the conflict of the enemy, the
hostile battle in heavenly places. When the lights are cut on, guess
what we see? A warfare. You remember when you first got
saved, you thought you were on a honeymoon with God and everybody
was going to be your friend. But then over time you began
to realize, whoa, God called me to a war. I thought I was
headed to a wedding and I'm in a warfare. Because once he cuts
the lights on, he shows you the dark principalities and powers
and principles operating in both the world and in your own heart. The real struggle is when God
opens your eyes to the warfare in the church. So we can really work with that
right now. Because what happens is, once
you realize that there's a warfare, it's one thing for us to recognize
there's a warfare, but it becomes intensified when the enemy is
closer to us than we are comfortable with. It's one thing for my enemy
to be several hundred yards away, or a continent away, or a dimension
away. In other words, I might perceive
the devil to be somewhere in the celestial realm of the second
heavens, or the first dimension. never in the third dimension.
The third dimension is where God is, unmolested, gloriously
seating in his sovereignty over all things. But I can rationalize
the devil being way up there in that spiritual dimension,
going to war with Michael and Gabriel and all those other cats,
right? But it gets a little bit more harrowing and a little bit
more nemesis and a little bit more threatening when I realize
the devil is in the church. And he might even be in my house.
And he might be sleeping in my bed. And he might even be roaming
around my ear because of the weakness of my fallen nature,
inclined to want to listen to him and not God. Now that warfare
becomes a lot more intense, doesn't it? But it's the reality. So
now that I'm walking in the light and I'm learning things that
I had never known before, the path of the justice as a shining
light that shines more and more into the perfect day. So I'm
seeing darkness in a much more vivid, much more pristine sense. I have actually now have to call
upon God to give me more grace to deal with so many enemies. So Ephesians chapter 6 verse
10 says that we are to be strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might. Right? That we might be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil because we are wrestling
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. And in order
to be able to do that successfully, we've got to put on the whole
armor of God. Isn't that what it says? You guys know that.
So you're not in glory yet, you've been born again, and God promises
you a white togos. That's a victory roll, but you
don't get it. You get a whole set of armor.
You ain't never fought a battle in your life. And God just plops
out a complete uniform, said, put it on, it fits you perfectly.
And by the way, you got a battle to fight until you get the glory.
You're going to have to make up your mind to go to war or
you're going to get your butt kicked. Am I telling the truth? And so this is where we are.
We have a walk of faith that's walking in the light. We are
warring in the spirit. The objective then is to bring
all principalities and powers into subjection. Every thought,
every idea, every notion, every false assumption, every false
argument, every false doctrine, every heretical notion, every
unbiblical concept into captivity to Christ. That means we've got
to learn. Thirdly, we are called to witness. You guys see that? That makes it even a little bit
tougher, because some of us are not. Listen to me, ladies and
gentlemen. Some of us are not very outgoing. We are not extroverts. We don't have the gift of gab. We aren't gifted to talk. We
really would love to just make our way through this world, meander
our way through this world without even being noticed. Lord, I would
like to just take the back roads. Can I take the back streets to
glory? Right. Yeah. Please let me take the
back streets. No. The Lord tells us this is
one way. It's the straight and narrow way. where all the warfare
is and your security from point A to point B is walking with
God. See, the key is walking with
God. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk. He makes me,
he leads me, he guides me. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you
are what? Two words, with me. That's what
he's saying. See, when you become born again,
you enter into union with Christ and Christ promises to take you
all the way. But you're going to go through
a warfare because this is a walk of faith. Am I making some sense? When you and I are called to
witness, we are now actually taking on a more offensive approach
to the battle. When you and I are called to
witnessing, we are taking on a more offensive approach to
the warfare. It'd be cool if we could just
stand sentry and watch And as the enemy gets closer, send a
pigeon with messages to those who actually fight, let them
know, Hey, the devil getting close. Y'all better send somebody
out there to fight. No, it don't work like that.
There are times when you got to open your mouth and tell it
true. And you and I know that's when
the battle is on, right? So we're called not only to walk
in the spirit, that is to walk in the light, to war in the spirit,
to wage war against these principalities that would seek to dethrone God,
deny Jesus and send men and women to hell through falsehood and
error. But we're called the witness. So we know that at the moment
we open our mouths and talk about Christ, the battle is on, on
a personal confrontational level. I need, I need Jesus. I need
Christ with me. Don't I? I need Christ to uphold
me as I share the truth with men and women, or people, or
judiciaries, or institutions, or whomever it may be that God
has called me to tell the truth to, because they may then want
to respond unkind to me for what I have to say. So we are walking,
we are worried, we are witnessing. Here's the fourth one. This one
here is a little hard, but you just gotta suck it up. You gotta
wait. So here you are in a war. Let's
hypothetically say this war is thousands of miles away from
home, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, anywhere, Vietnam,
in some region you've never been before. God's dropped you off,
he dropped you out of the helicopter, you had the parachute, you dropped
down, you caught up with the troop, you're running with your
boys, you see casualties along the way, right? You've learned
how to fight, you've learned how to survive, You've actually
learned how to advance because you realize when God dropped
you on that island, the only way is forward. You look back
at all that water and you don't see any end is forward. My, my friend forward. So you
learn how to proceed forward. But in your journey, what you
begin to discover is there are casualties. You're losing brothers
and sisters left and right. Many are jumping in the water,
trying to swim back. And we know that's a death wish.
Am I making some sense? And so you and I are in this
battle and the only orders we have are to walk, to war, to
witness and to wait. Believers are waiting on the
Lord to come, aren't we? We're waiting on the Lord. Now
that too requires faith because a whole lot of people quit. Are
you with me? Whole lot of people quit. They
go into the enemy's camp. A whole lot of people quit. The
scenario now is getting ready to be narrowed down to two hostile
enemies by which we will learn the lesson. These two hostile
enemies are a pattern that run from Genesis to the New Testament.
And it's the conflict between Cain and Abel. And they serve for us as a pattern.
Don't be stuck on the two men. You and I want to derive the
pattern from them. So here's what John says in verse 11. For
this is the message that you have heard from the beginning
that we should what? OK, John is preparing you and
I for the method by which we successfully engage in the walk,
the war, the witness and the way. Verse 11 is preparing you
for the methodology that will successfully allow you to walk,
war, witness, and wait. I'm gonna say it one more time.
The way you and I will successfully engage in this walk, will successfully
engage in this war, will successfully engage in witnessing, and successfully
engage in waiting, is by embracing the principle of love as our
foundation and our motive and our method for everything that
we do. How many of you are clueless
to what I'm talking about right now? Help me now. You can be
humble. There you go. Thank you, sister. God bless you. You see
what I meant earlier when I said we bandy about the term love?
Righteousness and other biblical concepts and we have no reference
points for them. We have no foundation No presupposition
out of which they have any kind of cogent coherent Relativeness
or reference point in our life. So when I said that love is our
marching orders if you have an understanding of the gospel what
you understand is that The gospel is the expression and manifestation
of God's love to this world, which is at war with God. And
it's the only means by which we can successfully engage this
war to the glory of God. See, John has shut us up to two
basic characteristics. One is love. The other is hate. He shut us up to two basic characteristics. And here's what he said. I'm
going to help you. He says, the one that is operating out of
love is the one who is owned by God. The one who is operating
out of hate is the one who is owned by the devil. When he uses
the phrase, the children of God, that's a genitive word there
of, and it means to be owned of God. When he says the children
of the devil, they are owned of the devil. And if you take
those two, there we go. We are dealing now with a paradigm
or a model, the children of God and the children of the devil.
What we have now from God's perspective is a love hate relationship. Are you guys hearing me? It's
important for you to keep these simple terms as a foundation
because this will help you Watch this now stop vacillating between
two camps Because we do don't we See John is getting ready
to shut us up to the Criterion and the empirical evidence of
what constitutes our sonship versus the evidence that constitutes
being children of the devil before he goes into this this pattern
of Cain and Abel, he says, for this is the message that we heard
from the beginning that we should, what? Love one another. That's precisely what we read
in the example of 1 John 2, verse nine. Notice what it says, 1
John 2, nine through 11. He that saith he is in the light,
and what? Hates his brother, It's in darkness
even till now now watch what john says in verse 10 he that
what? Do you see the paradox? Do you see your pattern here? He that loveth his brother, what?
Abides in the light. Watch this. And there is none
occasion of stumbling in him. So you see what I've told you
before? John, just like Paul, just like Peter, they don't think
in irrational terms. They work in concentrics. They'll
give you a concept. They'll move forward. Then they'll
back up and develop the concept that they had given you before.
So you can actually use the very book of 1 John to interpret itself. We don't even have to go outside
of 1st John. John tells us that the constraints by which he is
helping us to understand and affirm our sonship are categorized
by terms like love and hate, walking in the light versus walking
in darkness, being children of God versus being children of
the devil. And some of us who are slow, we need those kind
of ABC terms. We don't need the highfalutin,
real complex terminology. Just give us some basic ABCs
and we'll work with it. And here's what John says, if
you are walking in the light, then you're not gonna hate your
brother. And the one that is walking in love is not going
to cause his brother to stumble, verse 11. But he that hated his
brother is in darkness and is walking in darkness and does
not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his
eyes. Look at chapter 4, verse 7, and
then verse 12. Chapter 4, verse 7 and 12. I'm
probably going to come here a little later, but chapter 4, verse 7
says, Beloved, let us what? Let us love one another. That's
your horizontal love. that is to be assumed among all
Christian people. And here's the premise upon which
all Christian people are called to love one another. Watch this
now. For love is of God. Got it? For love is of God. And everyone that love it is
what? Born of God. There it is. See how he ties
it together? He says the regenerate person, the born again person,
the person who has begotten of God loves. Now follow this, if
you are still struggling, is not Jesus Christ the epitome
of love? Is not his life the quintessential
expression of love? Then when we talk about biblical
love in a gospel sense, in the sense in which John is talking,
ultimately our narrative for love is Christ. You and I are
not free to define love outside of the boundaries of that which
is revealed in the person of Jesus. We are not free to limit
love and diminish love in terms of what Christ has revealed to
us that love is with respect to who he is and what he has
done. In other words, I don't get to do like liberals do and
like socialists do merely talk about love from the standpoint
of how Christ fed the poor and opened the eyes of the blind
and healed the lame and healed the sick. That's all true. And
those are components of love. But I must never narrow love
to the mere exercise of his human benevolence and altruism to people. His love is epitomized by his
connection to his father. By the real needs of human beings,
which is spiritual in nature, for which he manifested his love
in this, that he laid down his life for his friends. For the
definition of love is this. greater love hath no man than
this than that he what lay down his life you need to you need
to hear this because what I'm doing right now is gradually
moving into a biblical definition of love a biblical definition
of love so when John talks about He that loveth is of God. He
is not telling us to be free to derive our definition of love
from the world or from politics or from any of the examples that
you see going on in the culture. I must derive my understanding
of love from the scriptures, from Christ, from God. This is why I told you when you
think about love in a biblical sense, you must always think
about righteousness. There's no such thing as biblical
love. apart from righteous. There's no such thing as a love
that is unrighteous. You guys understand that? So
this is why John is setting this up. And in fact, the reason why
John continues to bear upon us the concept of love, which we're
getting ready to unpack now, is because I've told you before,
John, first John, second John, third John, the book of Revelation.
Well, John was one of Christ's most intimate disciples. So when you read 1st John, 2nd
John, 3rd John, I've told you this before, essentially what
John does is echo Jesus. There's very little of John's
own terminology, phraseology, or speech. He simply reiterate
virtually everything Jesus told him. My children, remember how
you were told at the beginning that you should love one another?
Well, that's what Christ said several times. John chapter 13,
John chapter 15, John chapter 17, John chapter 20, John chapter
13. Jesus says, you guys don't understand
what I'm doing. Remember John 13, the last Passover,
first Lord's supper. He took off his clothes, put
on a robe, washed the disciples feet. They were, they were tripping
out because they didn't understand the characteristic of love that
Christ was demonstrating to them. because they were on this high
horse interpretation of love that basically said we love God
and we want to exercise dominion over the peoples of the world
in order to demonstrate how God rewards us for loving him. But
that kind of love is Christless and it's crossless. And that
is that is not a love that is revealed to us by God through
his son and his word. Biblical love is revealed to
us by God through Christ in his word. And this is what it looks
like. A laying down of one's life for his friend. Now we are beginning
to embark upon the biblical concept of love. Are you hearing me ladies
and gentlemen? In other words, don't even entertain
the notion that love is selfish. that love has as its objective,
its own personal goals and gratification. That biblical love terminates,
watch this, biblical love does not terminate in the preservation
or satisfaction or exaltation of myself. Are you hearing me
a little bit? Who here is not understanding
where I'm going right now? Spirit of God, give you help.
Because what I'm talking to you is about the ABCs of the gospel
right now. These are fundamentals. These
are fundamentals to the Christian faith. The Christian faith is
not even remotely entered into until we understand these fundamentals. This is really the Torah. Hear, O Lord. Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is one. Him
only shall you serve. You are to love the Lord your
God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. and your
neighbor as yourself. Upon these two hang all the law
and the prophets. So when we are talking about loving our
neighbor, we are not talking about something that is alien
to the whole tenor of scripture. What we are talking about doing
is manifesting the reality of Christ in our life. Are you with
me so far? So a biblical concept of love
is going to be a love that looks like Christ, and acts like Christ. It is a love that is going to
be giving rather than taking. Of course, we'll build that into
our outline there too. So go with me now back to our
text. We're in first John chapter three. Let's move forward a little
bit. We've got about 15, 20 minutes. Now I want to start now at verse
12, since John has given us an understanding of love, And he
has told us that the evidence of our sonship is that we have
this gift of love operating, which we'll unpack a little further.
He says, watch this, verse 11. For this is the message that
you've heard from the beginning, the beginning of the gospel,
that we should love one another. It's the message that Christ
gave us, not as what? So now he's introducing us to
the Cain-Abel conflict. The Cain-Abel conflict. I want you to hear the way he
phrases that, and then we'll look at the few verses that underscore
this. We're not to love as Cain did,
who was of that wicked one. Do you see that? Watch this.
And what? So you see how once he gave us
the pattern of what it means to be born again, That's back
in verse 11. To be born again is to work righteousness
and to love your neighbor. To be born of the devil, watch
this now, is to practice sin and kill your brother. You stand
with the dichotomy? And he says, let me help you
understand this. Let's go all the way back to the Genesis account.
Let's go all the way back to the first two boys that walked
planet Earth. If you don't understand this
simple dichotomy, Cain and Abel come out of the same womb, but
they have two different fathers spiritually So what John is doing now as
he explains biblical love he is telling us what biblical love
is not Biblical love is not selfish and Biblical love is not defined
by one's own assumptions. Biblical love is not based upon
self-preservation. Biblical love is not based upon
one seeking to merit approval by his own human efforts. Biblical
love does not say, I do not agree with God. Now, all that I've
just shared with you was the attitude of pain. Let me see
if I can help you. You remember how the Cain Abel
conflict emerged in Genesis chapter four? Go there. I just want you
to see John is getting ready to set the context. He's not
going to make this so broad that we can't understand it. But if
you are not a person that practices studying the scriptures, it can
still be too much for you to handle. Chapter four, Genesis
chapter four, verses one through verse Eight, watch this. And Adam knew
Eve, his wife, she conceived and bear Cain. Cain was the what?
Firstborn. And said, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. And she again bear his brother Abel. And Abel was
a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the field. Two boys,
same womb, two different professions. And in process of time, which
could have been hundreds of years, Remember they live to be hundreds
and hundreds of years old. Don't be bound by your present
chronology It came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground and offering unto the Lord Do you guys see that
and Abel also brought of the firstling of his flock and of
the fat thereof now watch this verse 3 and 4 do not give us
details of that process of time that transpired and It assumes
that you are a careful enough Bible student to recognize what
you are gonna learn in biblical theology, ladies. Watch this
now, is a running historical narrative of unfolding redemptive
truth that connects all history together so that you don't have
to explain every epic as if the epic is brand new. Cain and Abel
were worshipers of God because their mama and daddy worship
God. If I want to derive from this text the implications thereof,
if you want your children to worship God, you better worship
God. Are you hearing me? They didn't
just wake up one day out of the blue, just kind of extemporaneously
concluding that I'm going to worship God. You know, I think
I'm going to bring God some of my fruits, some of my vegetables.
You know what, I think I'm gonna bring God one of the firstlings
in my flock. No! They had learned from their
mother and their father what a Christ-centered, gospel-based,
God-exalting worship was all about. It was about coming to
God through the blood on the grounds of an innocent lamb who
would be a representative of the sinner's substitute by which
God accepts us through the merits of the death of that innocent
lamb, which typified and pointed to the death of God's darling
son, which made their worship acceptable to God. because they
knew that the worshiper was coming to God on the grounds of something
that God had revealed to them, not something that they had produced.
Watch this now. They were coming to God on the
grounds of what God had revealed, not something that they had produced.
Like in religion today, people produce their worship. They produce
their offering. They produce how they want to
serve God. They conjure up methods by which they're going to serve
God. You know, I think I'm going to serve God this way. Did God tell you
to serve him that way? You don't think I'm gonna bring
this to God. Did God give that prescription of sacrifice to
you from the scriptures? True believers worship God according
to revealed revelation. True believers only come to God
based upon what God has revealed to them from the scriptures.
Are you guys hearing me? The difference between obedience
and disobedience is you and I coming God's way versus us coming our
own way. You and I offering God's sacrifice
versus we offering our own sacrifices. Are you guys hearing me? If this
is true, then what we know is that the problem inherent in
what these two boys had done was this. Cain came to God with
his own good works, whereas Abel came to God based upon revealed
revelation, that which was revealed to his father Adam. For God has
slain a bullock and clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin, implying
the death of an animal as an atonement for their sin, which
revealed to them that true worship is always based upon the death,
the death of an innocent victim to atone and satisfy the sin
of the worshiper who himself, themselves are by nature sinners. I cannot come to God on the grounds
of my own goodness, on the grounds of my own emotions, on the grounds
of my own feelings, on the grounds of my giftedness. I can't give
God my gifts. I have to give God his gift. And that's what Abel did. I want
you to watch this. The simple act of these two men
created a revelation that takes us back to our text. Their act,
exposed for us their hearts. Their acts exposed for us their
heart. We get to see Cain's heart by
what he brought. We get to see Abel's heart by
what he brought. One practiced righteousness. The other practiced sin. Are
you hearing me? One functioned in his worship
towards God based upon a love for God on a vertical level that
was also predicated upon God's revelation to him of what pleased
God. The other worshiped God according
to his own mind, his own assumptions, but in order for him to worship
according to his own mind and own assumption, he had to reject
revealed revelation. He didn't just do it in the naivety
of his own freedom to do it because he was ignorant No, he had rejected
God's revelation and he had brought his own to God Are you hearing
you guys listen? Listen, that's what John is trying
to get across to us And here as we stay on the concept of
love You cannot define love on a horizontal level apart from
a vertical level and it'd be biblical. You cannot say I can
love somebody on a horizontal level and yet be out of kilter
or out of sorts or be in hostility towards that revelation of the
vertical love of which God has called you and I to. In other
words, here's what God is saying. You can't love a human being
and hate God and not ultimately hate that human being. That's
why he is saying not as Cain loved. Did you hear what John
said? Don't love as Cain loved. What did Cain love? Cain loved
his own good works. Cain loved his own human achievements. Cain loved what he thought was
right in his own eyes. There's a way that seems right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. See, Cain
really thought He was wiser than God. It was in the core of his
being not to worship according to the gospel. For the gospel
is always the special revelation of God in the person of Jesus
Christ revealed to us as the basis by which we are accepted.
Cain really thought he could come another way. But all Cain
was doing by coming this other way was proving that he was of
that wicked one. Are you following me? He was
of that wicked one. Now Abel, what did Abel do? He simply worshiped God according
to biblical revelation. That's all he did. But this is
where now we move from the internal tension to the external conflict. So look at what happens. We read
over in verse four or verse five, verse four rather, And Abel also,
as he brought of the firstling of his flock and of the fat thereof,
do you see what it says of the fat thereof? Don't ever listen
to interpreters. Please do not listen to interpreters
who feel free to interpret scripture apart from the gospel. Do not
listen to them. Because we have a lot of interpreters
today who are very successful and very prominent and very well-known
who will tell you that you don't have to have a Christocentric
hermeneutic, a Christ interpretation in the text. This can be merely
a human effort that's based upon people's motives and actions.
But I want you to hear me now. Abel did not bring a fatted calf
to God alive. He killed him. The blood was
poured out. That animal suffered and died.
And the fat, which is part of the Levitical code, was separated
from the body and given to the Lord as a sweet smelling savor,
which is what the priests were to do in the Levitical code.
The fat belonged unto the Lord. That animal was dead when it
came to God. Because Abel fully believed that
he was a sinner. He fully believed that he needed
a savior. He fully believed that the only
way he could be right with a holy God is the death of an innocent
victim. He believed that God's justice
had to be satisfied. His holiness had to be vindicated.
And the only way that could be done was through the death of
an innocent lamb. Who does that lamb point to?
You got it? Abel knew the gospel. And he
worshipped according to the gospel. And this is where the conflict
comes in. Here it is. Listen to the language. But unto
Cain, I'm sorry, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to
his offering. Do you see that? And the Lord
had respect. You know what the word respect
literally means? It's to look at more than once.
The little prefix re means again, like return a rebate to respect
the word specter is the term specter. It means spectacles.
It means to see when you respect someone, you look at them twice.
When you don't respect anybody, you might look at them once.
Am I telling the truth? Oh, when God respects you and
looks at you twice, It's because you did something to demonstrate
that you respected God. Are you hearing me? Don't tell
me that you respect God and you hate revealed revelation. God
loves those that love him. Proverbs chapter eight. God loves
those that love him. And God respects those that respect
him. And when Abel offered the sacrifice,
you know what God saw? His son. When Abel offered that
bullock, God saw his son and everything in the father's being
was poured out to Abel because of Christ. He respected Abel's
offering. Are you there? God looked at
the offering of Abel and said, Christ crucified. I love that. I love that. He came according
to what I have revealed to him. He respects me as God. He respects
me as righteous. He respects me as holy. He respects
me as just. He respects me as merciful. He
respects me as righteous. He respects me as forgiving.
He has a revelation of the true nature of God given to him and
revealed revelation. I respect Abel because of his
offering. Are you hearing me? Now watch
what goes on here. We're almost done, but watch
what goes on. Verse six, verse five, I'm sorry. But unto Cain
and to his what? See these two words, these words
offering can correspond in 1 John chapter three as our works righteousness. Are you there? Our works righteousness. We're gonna go back and see that.
But unto Cain and to his offering, what does it say? He had no respect. God did not regard it. God did
not respect it. God did not look at it twice.
Do you know why? There was no blood. Without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. There was no
death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. Without the death of an innocent
victim, there's nowhere to reconcile a holy God from a sinful people.
He couldn't respect it. Are you guys hearing me? There's
no blood. There's no death. Why would God respect vegetables? Get it now. Why would he respect vegetables? but I came into his offering,
he had no respect. Now watch this. We're getting
ready to get into the fundamental crisis of the human race. The fundamental crisis of the
human race. Now people may not know this
themselves. They may not know this personally,
but we know this according to scripture, that the riff, The
rift, the hostility, the enmity, the separation, the conflict of human beings is really with
God. Let me say that again. Human beings may not admit it.
They may not even really know it if they aren't brought to
the light enough to see it. But their real rift, their real
hostility, the anger, the rage, the disagreement, the antagonism,
the internal tension, the confusion is against God. All human beings
continue to fight against God. That's what a real rift is. And
the reason that rift is alive and well, I want you to hear
this now, is because of the light that the people of God walk in
by which revealed revelation is made known and exposed to
those who are walking in darkness. Are you hearing me? The rift
that the unbeliever, the lost sinner, The man or the woman
that's outside of Christ that does not have a right relationship
with God, that has not bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ,
that has not submitted to the righteousness of God in Christ,
that rift is sustained and strengthened and exacerbated by the light
of the life of the people of God who continue to worship the
true living God based upon revealed revelation. Are you hearing me? Do I have to say that again?
As we continue to worship the true and the living God as Abel
did the lights are on And the worship of the pagan is seen
to be exactly what it is Not acceptable with God Who here
understands what I'm doesn't understand what I'm saying, you
don't understand what I'm saying Okay, keep listening get the
tape listen to it ten times. That's how we say, right? If
the Christian church who actually believes the gospel is removed
from the world, the world will walk happily in darkness, having
a seared conscious and a doled conscious because there's no
light. The light is fused into the conscious
by the worshiper of the true and the living God and the manner
in which God has called us to worship. It becomes the light. That's why I said, welcome to
the walk. Welcome to the war. Welcome to
the witness. Welcome to the way. All Abel
did to get killed was to worship his God, right? Did you get that? All he did to be killed was to
worship his God, right? See, God is the God of all flesh. He's the father of every spirit.
The law of God is written on every heart. The conscious has
the testimony of God in it. But the people of God are God's
means by which the lights are cut on in people's lives personally. This is where the antagonism
comes. Are you following me? Now we
are almost prepared to engage in what John means by beloved. He that loveth is of God and
he that loveth not is not of God. And when he uses that language,
he is assuming that you understand the foundation upon which that
statement stands. He's assuming that you recognize
that love has its origins in God and that not all men love
God and that the men and women that do not love God will demonstrate
the fact that they do not love God by hating you because you
love God. Are you hearing me? And they
cannot do but what they will do to you simply because they
can't get to God. Are you hearing me? And so it's
important for us to understand if therefore as the light is
cut on and I'm exposed to the light, we'll get into the complexities
next week. That light causes me to hate
my brother. I'm in trouble. I am in trouble. If the light
of love's righteousness manifested to me because I'm brought in
the proximity of someone who knows the gospel causes enmity
in my heart and hostility in my heart and antagonism in my
heart and conflict in my heart and contention in my heart. Y'all
know what I'm talking about. I'm in trouble. There are three other passages
where Abel is talked about. And they all have to do with
his offering. The quintessential model that
Abel carries is the model of being a lamb slain. Abel was slain, wasn't he? Abel was slain. Who slew him? His brother. Why did his brother
slay him? because he was of that wicked
one. Why did he kill his brother Abel? Because Abel loved him. Abel loved his brother. Are you
hearing me? He loved his brother because
he loved God. For to love God is to love your
neighbor. And when you love God and you
walk according to biblical truth, you're going to be loving your
neighbor But if your neighbor doesn't love God, they're gonna
hate you. And then you may have to love
your neighbor in the ultimate sense of love and point them
to Christ by your own death. Greater love has no man than
this, than that he laid down his life for his friend. See, Abel not only worshiped
God, But he believed the gospel enough to die for his brother
Abel. I mean, I came under that gospel. Welcome to the witness. Right. He walked with God, he warred. You don't think he went through
a spiritual warfare with his brother Cain? Read the text. Verse six, seven and eight, I'm
done. And the Lord said to Cain. Why are you angry? Why is your
continence fallen? Now, come on. Now, you know,
when folk don't like you and your God, they can't hide it
on that ugly mug of theirs. That mug changes, right? And I've told you this before. I just, I'm almost done here.
God cares enough to come to Cain and say, Cain, your face is saying
something that reveals your heart. Now here's how good God is. He comes to you and I before
we act out of our motive, to expose our motive to us so that
we might have an opportunity to change before our motive dominates
our life. See, this is the word of God
that is alive and quick. sharper than any two-edged sword
and is able to divide asunder soul and spirit marrow and bone
and is a discerner of the thoughts and the Intents of the heart
and it'll let you know before you do it that what you're about
to do is wrong but if you are a hater of God as Cain was you
gonna still do it and No man will be able to say when
they stand before God, God didn't warn him. Do you see it? Watch it. If you do what's right, shall
you not be accepted? Do you see verse 11? The whole
premise between Cain and God was on God's part, just offer
the right sacrifice. And that what verse seven is
saying. Look at how good God is. God is saying to Cain, Cain,
brother, all you got to do is worship me according to revealed
revelation. If you want to experience the
peace of acceptance in worship, where the spirit of God affirms
the sacrifice that you offer and brings about that relief
in the soul, then do what's right. That's the word righteousness.
Demonstrate that you love me by worshiping me right. And you'll
have the same type of joy and peace and rest and contentment
and satisfaction that your brother Abel does. Am I making some sense? He's telling us all you have
to do is all you have to do is submit yourself to my righteousness,
not your own. Abandon your words Cain if you
want me to accept you then worship me like your brother worships
you. It's amazing, isn't it? So the Spirit of God comes behind
Abel's witness to tell Cain He's about to get in trouble If you
do well, will you not be accepted and if you do not do well what
sin is lying at the door and And unto thee shall be his desire.
But I'm telling you, Cain, rule over sin. Rule over sin by obeying
the gospel. by trusting Christ, by walking
by faith, by warring a good warfare, by witnessing to the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by giving glory to God and acknowledging
your hell-bound state and your need of a Redeemer and a substitute
and someone to die in your stead. Rule over sin. Am I telling the
truth? Rule over sin through the power
of the gospel, by the grace of God, by faith apart from words,
Cain, all you gotta do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you'll rule over sin. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense? Here it is. You wanna know where the conflict
is? Verse eight. And Cain talked with Abel, his brother. See it? That's where the battle
came in at. Verse eight, part one. is the contention between the
flesh and the spirit, between the men of the world and the
men of God, between the believer and the non-believer, between
those who love God and those who don't love God. And notice
that the assault is on the part of Cain towards Abel. Cain is
coming after Abel. Cain is coming after Abel and
Cain talked with Abel. Well, I shouldn't have to tell
you what Abel talked to Cain about. Right? Abel talked to Cain about truth,
about redemption, about sin, about justice, about righteousness,
about faith, about substitution, about mercy, about the grace
of God. Revealed revelation, right? It was that exchange that
brought Cain to a fevered pitch with Abel and ultimately did
what? Kill him. Kill him. And it came to pass, there's
that phrase again, when they were in the field, that Cain
rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. See it? And slew
him. So we'll stop right here, because
there's a lot to talk about in terms of love, in terms of righteousness,
as we go back to our text. I want you to stay right there
with that and think that through. Meditate on it. Let's close in
prayer. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for your
word. Thank you for the message of the gospel on every page of
scripture. Thank you for warning us that
in this world, we will have tribulation, but to be of good cheer, you
have overcome the world. Thank you for letting us know
that to love you does not mean we're going to be loved by the
world. And you said it. If they have hated, you know that they
have hated me first. Thank you for letting us know
that the only way to overcome this world is love. And if we're
going to walk with you, we're going to have to lay down our
lives just like you did in order for this world to change. Give
us grace to express faith by walking in love to you and to
one another. Give us traveling mercies as
we go our way. Prepare us to worship you as you ought to be
worshiped on Sunday. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.