Let us turn again tonight to
1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 and with verse
11 we will begin. For this is the message that
you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.
not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because
his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Marvel not,
my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal
life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, How dwelleth the love of God in him? My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if
our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth
all things. Beloved, If our heart condemn
us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we
ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and
do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his
commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And
he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and He in Him,
and hereby we know that He abideth in us by the Spirit which He
hath given us." First of all, I want to remind us in the last
chapter of 1 John, if you turn to chapter number 5 and verse
13, We read, these things, that is this epistle, these things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you may know that you have eternal
life. Now tonight in the text we are
looking at, 1 John 3, 11 through 24, I believe that we've come
to the third mark that John gives in this letter, whereby we may
know that we have eternal life. If you look in chapter two, 1
John chapter two, And verse three, this is the first mark, and hereby
we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. And
then in chapter three and verse six, whosoever abideth in him
sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Whosoever practices sin, John
tells us, hath not known him. And now tonight in our text,
in verse 14, we know that we have passed from death unto life
because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Now in these verses that I've
read that we are looking at tonight, the subject, of course, is love,
love of the brethren. And I'm going to call our attention
to four things in these verses. First of all, the commandment,
verse 11. For this is the message, or if
you have in your margin, this is the commandment you heard
from the beginning. And then down in verse 23, and
this is his commandment that We should believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us
commandment. You notice in this verse 23 that
John doesn't say, and these are the commandments, plural. He doesn't say these are the
commandments. This is his commandment, singular. that we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave
us commandment. And yet in verse 22 and verse
24, he does have commandments, plural. Verse 22, and whatsoever
we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments. And
then in verse 24, and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth
in him. The truth is, the truth is that
faith and love are never separate. Faith and love are never separated. It is the commandment that is
singular because where one is, where there's faith, there will
be love. And where there is love, there
will be faith. They always go together. We know that the Lord Jesus commanded
his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature, whosoever believeth and is baptized shall
be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And so men
over these last 2,000 plus years now have gone out preaching the
gospel and calling upon men to believe the gospel, to believe
in Christ, to believe and be saved. As the Apostle Paul in
2 Corinthians 5 said, we are ambassadors for Christ. That is ministers of the gospel. We are ambassadors for Christ. as though God did beseech you
by us. When a man is called of God and
goes out preaching the gospel, it is as though Christ were preaching
the gospel. We are His ambassadors. And we beseech you, as He said,
we beseech you, be you reconciled to God. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Be reconciled. Be at peace with
God. That's what that word reconcile
means, isn't it? By nature, when we come into
this world, we are enmity with God. And so we go forth preaching,
believe and be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we beseech you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled unto God. Now we beseech men and women
to believe. And in Acts 13 in verse 38, we
have an example of Paul doing this very thing. When he went
forth, him and Barnabas on that first missionary journey, And
they entered into a synagogue in Antioch. And at the conclusion,
after he had preached the truth about Christ, be it known unto
you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, that is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God man, through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe. All that believe are justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. For by grace are you saved, he
wrote in Ephesians 2. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So men
are called and we go out preaching the gospel and we beseech men
to believe the gospel, to believe and be saved, to believe and
be reconciled unto God. Now I want us to look at two
verses of scripture which speak to us about faith. Faith is important,
isn't it? Faith is the empty hand that
lays hold upon Christ. As we sang in that course just
a little while ago, learning to lean. That's what faith is,
right? It's leaning upon Christ. It's
trusting in Christ. It's believing in him. But I
want us to look at two verses of scripture which tell us something
about this faith by which we believe and are saved, by which
we believe in Christ and are reconciled unto God. The first
verse is in Colossians. If you turn back in your Bibles
to Colossians chapter two and verse 12, remember that verse
that's so well known in Ephesians two, which says, for by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is
the gift of God. Faith is not of ourselves. Men do not have faith naturally. But the Apostle Paul tells us
here in this verse, in Colossians 2 and verse 12, that believers
are buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with
him through, now notice, through the faith of the operation of
God. In other words, faith is a gift
of God. Faith is created. It is given
unto men and women. All men, and Paul says this,
I believe it's in either first or second Thessalonians, all
men have not faith. That's the assumption that Arminian
preachers live with. The assumption that everybody
has faith, that everyone has faith. That's just not so, and
the scriptures flatly deny that. All men have not faith. Faith
to believe in Christ is a gift of God. It is of the operation
of God. God the Holy Spirit working in
the heart of those who he gives faith to, to lay hold upon Christ. And look at another one in Galatians
5, and especially this verse of scripture in Galatians chapter
5. And verse six, remember this
is the commandment John said, this is the commandment that
you believe on his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another. Here in Galatians chapter six,
chapter five rather, in verse six, the apostle says, for in
Jesus Christ, Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision."
It doesn't count for anything, circumcision or any other, let
me say that, any other work. It doesn't count for anything
in this matter of being saved. It doesn't count for a thing. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but here's something that does
matter, but faith which worketh by love. You see, faith is the
entire soul of man, his mind, his heart, and his will, trusting
in Christ. And true faith always is accompanied
with love, faith which worketh by love. This is the message
the Apostle John writes to these believers. This is the message. This is a commandment that we
should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love
one another as he gave us commandment. Now turn back with me to the
gospel of John. John said, as he gave us commandment. Turn with me to John chapter
13. And this chapter is at the very
end. close of our lives, earthly life. And just today he will
be crucified. This is just before he goes to
the cross and he's with his disciples. And in chapter 13, verse 34,
we read a new commandment. I give unto you that you love
one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all know that you
are my disciples if you have love one to another. This is what men have called
the true badge of Christians. The true badge of Christians.
It's not by the way we dress. It's not by a certain way we
talk necessarily. The true badge of real Christians
is love one for another. Notice our Lord said, a new commandment
I give unto you. It is not new in the sense that
the law did not command that we love our neighbor as ourself
because it did. But no group, no group has ever
been identified by this mark, this mark of love one for another. The Jews, they were identified
by circumcision, they were identified by those dietary laws and things
like that. But believers, the true church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that which identifies us is love one
for another. This is the way Christians, and
notice it says as, not the same degree. We know that. Look at
the words of our Lord there in verse 34. A new commandment I
give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Well, we know that none of us
have that kind of love to the degree that the Lord Jesus Christ
had. He loved us with such a love
that none of us could ever attain to that in this world. But it
is by love for one another that God's children are distinguished. And his love, love one another,
he said that you love one another as I have loved you. His love
was strong. That's the way we are to love
each other. His love was strong and his love was continued. That
verse in John chapter 13, and having loved his own unto the
end, his love wasn't today and not tomorrow, but no, his love
was continual. We are to love. one another as
He loved us. Not to the same degree, I understand
that, but His love was strong, His love was continual, and His
love was sacrificial. We are to love one another, and
this is the badge of true believers. We all have the same Father.
God is our Father. We all are dressed in the same
robe. We're all in His righteousness. We're all washed in the same
fountain, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're all going
to the same home, the Father's home. In my Father's house are
many mansions. And that's where we're all going.
And so we should love one another. And this is the special mark
of God's children. Now, go back to our text. So
that's the first thing, the commandment. The commandment, singular, that
you believe on His Son, on the name of His Son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another as He gave commandment. Now,
the second thing I want us to see is this negative example
in verse 12. This negative example. Not as
Cain, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his
brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because
his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. What a negative
example is Cain who murdered his brother Abel. He manifested,
Cain did, he manifested the spirit of the devil. Notice in verse
10 it said, in this the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil. And Cain manifested that he was
of the devil, the spirit that was in him. And what was the
particular sin that Cain, that caused Cain to kill his brother?
What was it that motivated Cain to kill his brother? Well, it
appears it was envy, wasn't it? He was envious because Abel's
sacrifice was accepted and God rejected his sacrifice. It appears
that Cain's sin was envy. And you know, that's something
that believers, we may be guilty of thinking, well, envy, you
know, that's not such an awful sin. Jealousy, that's not such
a bad sin. We have our ideas of what are
the most wicked sins, don't we? And most of us, if we made out
a list, envy and jealousy would probably not be high on the list.
But the very thing is, John's impressing upon believers that
the danger, the danger of allowing anything that would contradict
this love that believers are to have, that believers have
one for another, allowing any feeling in us, which is the very
opposite of love. And we may think of envy as a
small sin, but think of this, how large a fire a little match
can can cause. Just a little match
about that long, you know, can cause a fire, a great fire. A little break in a levee, just
a small break in a levee can cause a whole area to be flooded. And just a small hole in a boat
can cause that boat to sink, can't it? Envy, we may think
it's small, but John is encouraging us not to allow any feelings,
not to have any feelings in us. And when those feelings come,
when we're envious to confess that sin, to acknowledge that
sin and repent of that sin, ask the Lord to forgive us. Because
a small, what we might think a small sin, it may enlarge to
something very, very large. Cain evidently was envious of
his brother. But notice what it ended in. It ended in murder. And John tells us that as children
of God, we should not think it strange that the world hates
us. Notice that in verse 13. Marvel not. It shouldn't be amazing
to anyone that the world hates believers. Marvel not, my brethren,
if the world hate you. The emphasis is on the word you. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hate you. Don't be amazed at that. Don't
be amazed that the world hates you. Didn't Cain hate Abel without
a cause? Did Abel do anything other than
worship God? Did he do anything to merit to
provoke Cain to hate him? Of course he did. Well, don't,
don't be amazed if the world hates you. And I think we should recognize
this truth about hatred. It's murder. Verse 15, whosoever
hated his brother is a murderer. Our Lord said that, didn't he?
When he said, you have heard of all that have been said unto
you, thou shalt not commit adultery. But he said, even to look upon
a woman, to lust after her, is to be guilty of adultery. And
the same thing has to do with this hatred. To hate is the same
as murder. Aren't you thankful? Now think
with me just a moment. Everybody here. Aren't you thankful
tonight that God saves murderers? Aren't you? Moses was a murderer. He murdered
that Egyptian, didn't he? I expect to see him in heaven,
don't you? I expect he's there tonight. God saves murderers. And is there anyone here in this
room tonight who hasn't, in our heart, hated someone, had hard feelings against someone,
malice towards someone else, which if we had acted that hatred
and that malice out, it would have ended just like Cain murdering
Abel. But thank God for God's restraining
grace. One man said, any man may well
shudder at the remembrance of the secret sins of his own heart,
and at the thought of what he would have been, but for the
restraining grace of God. What he would have been. That
does cause you to shudder, doesn't it? Because remember this, anything
any other son of Adam has been guilty of, we have the same propensity,
the same fallen nature that that person has, but for the grace
of God. I've told you before, but let
me remind us of that preacher. I can't recall his name right
now, English preacher, but he lived on a road where convicted
felons were taken out to be hanged. And every time that cart would
come rolling by his house, you know, taking that prisoner out,
he'd been convicted of some crime and he's going to be hanged.
And that preacher would always say the same thing, there go
I, but by the grace of God. And that's true of all of us.
And I know we know that. And I'm thankful we know that,
aren't you? I'm thankful God has taught us
something about grace. There's a whole world of religious
people who They sing about grace and they talk about grace, but
really they've never understood what true grace is. Grace saves those who have no
hope in themselves. No reason to hope in themselves,
but every reason to despair. But God's grace reaches down
and reaches down into the depth of sin and calls and saves his
people. All right, that's the negative
example. Now notice the perfect example
here in verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. Do you notice in that verse that
there are two, well there's three, but look at the first two words
that are in italics, of God. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. That tells us that those words
have been added by the translators. They're not in the majority of
the ancient manuscripts. Now, John Gill said they are
in some, but Albert Barnes, his comment was he felt like they
would be better left out because he said it emphasizes the love
of God or the love here. It's more expressive and more
emphatic. It could be, by this we know
love. Wanna know what love is? By this
we know love. How? Because he laid down his
life for us. What true love is, it's real
nature, it's power, it's sacrifices, it's influences was seen in Christ
laying down his life for us. Look over in the next chapter,
chapter four, 1 John 4, 10. Here in his love, you can search
the world over And you may find a lot of examples of love. But John said, here it is. Here
it is. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And John is telling us as believers,
if circumstances called for us to lay down our life for the
brethren, then that is what we ought to do. That is what we
should do. The Savior, our Savior did, and
he gave us his example. Now the fourth thing, this love
assures the heart. This love that John is writing
about, love for the brethren, it assures the heart. In verse
19, And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall, and
notice there's a little number before that word assure, the
margin is persuade, and shall persuade our hearts before him. It is by this love that believers
have one for another, that our hearts and our minds are given
peace and assure us that we are of the truth. Those who do not
love the brethren, they have no cause to believe that they
are of the truth. But those who do have cause and
assurance and persuasion that they are of the truth. And then
in verse 20, he said, for if our heart condemn us, If our
heart condemn us that we don't have any love for the brothers,
we don't love the brethren. And this is something I, you
know, I think is so critical today because so many people
make professions of faith, but the last people they want to
be around are the brethren. They'd rather be out here in
the beer joints and the hog pens and the places of this world
with that crowd. That's where they feel at home.
They run with their own. And yet, John tells us if our
heart condemns us, well, I really don't love the brethren. I'd
rather be with the worldly crowd. I'd much rather be with those
who have no use for God. I feel more at home with that
crowd than I do with those people who love God. If our hearts condemn
us, John said, well, know this, God is greater than our hearts.
He knows everything. He knows all about us. If our
heart condemn us not, concerning our love for the brethren, yes,
we do. Not like we want to, I'm sure.
We'd all confess that. But yes, we do love the brethren. We're like Ruth, aren't we, when
she told her mother-in-law, thy people shall be my people, and
thy God shall be my God. And where thou lodges, that's
where I want to lodge. And that's what we say to the
people of God, isn't it? We want to be because we love
the brethren. And if, if we do, then we assure
our hearts. We have confidence. Notice that
the last thing we have confidence in prayer. Whatsoever we ask, verse 22,
that's our Lord's promise, isn't it? Whatsoever you ask in my
name, that shall the Father do. Now we know that has a limitation
to the will of God. Only a person that's very uneducated
in the scripture would believe that that's just a carte blanche
to ask anything in the world you want. No, we are taught to
pray Not my will, but thy will be done. But we have this confidence
when we ask according to his will. We have that which we ask. And we receive whatsoever we
ask, in verse 22. Whatsoever we ask, we receive
of him, because we keep his commandments. We love the brethren. We believe
on his name, Jesus Christ. and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight. And it is pleasing in God's sight
that we believe on his son and love one another. May the Lord
bless his word to all of us here this evening. We'll sing a hymn
and be dismissed.