beginning in verse 10. Brethren, let us hear the word of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that we 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 hate 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 ye 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. May the Lord bless the reading of his perfect and holy word to us this morning. practice lawlessness. Likewise, God's children love their brethren. The children of the devil do not. Because of the anointing of the Spirit, God's children have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in loving obedience to his commandments. They do not live in lawlessness against their loving father because his seed, the Holy Spirit, remains in them. John is not about talking concerning the fact that Christians can and do sin. He is talking about their natures as those born of God and the natures of those who are children of the devil. And in what they are by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, they do certain things, they believe certain things, and in that sense are clearly distinguishable from the children of Satan. While there are certain questions that arise in our own mind when we read absolute statements like this, we should not miss John's driving point. Your life ultimately speaks who your father is. Now remember that John has given us a series of tests regarding our fellowship with God. In them, he shows us what Christians ought to do. Walking in the light, confessing our sins, trusting in the blood of Christ, loving one another, keeping Christ's commandments, and rejecting the world. He now repeats those same things, but his emphasis moves from what we ought to do to why we do it. We do them because now are we the sons of God. This is his point at the beginning of the chapter. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Now, we are to do these things because we are alive in Christ in union with Christ, empowered by Christ, and because the anointing of His Spirit abides in us and instructs us. As I pointed out last week, he's not talking about the, yeah, but, yeah, but, I have weakness in my flesh, I struggle with sin, I still find sin in my life. He's not talking about that issue. We can turn to Paul and deal with some of those things. He's talking to us about the core of what we are. And we are, by the guiding hand of the Spirit, God's children, and we will walk in His Word. To do otherwise is to live in delusion and self-deception. John's recurring theme of loving God's children is one of the most important in all the Bible. And it is a central feature of his teaching. Now, he first brought this to our attention in chapter two, and he reminds us of it throughout the entire epistle. Now, it is sad, but true. We must often be reminded of the most fundamental tenets of the faith, don't we? Paul wrote to the Philippians to write the same things to you is to me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you, it is safe. And brethren, that's surely a principle that John is practicing. It is safe for us to hear this fundamental tenet of the faith over and over. He repeats it in every chapter. Now, why? Because, brethren, regardless of what the world thinks about itself in its pride and what you and I still think about ourselves in the flesh, it is impossible for a human being to love as God commands, apart from the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. You can change the definition of love and then live by that. But if you walk according to the word of God, the only way to live in what he calls love is by the supernatural grace and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It is against our nature to love those people in the pew two or three rows behind us when they grate on our nerves. And when they have these practices that bother us and they're not like the way we do things. Or those people across the street. People that we run into from time to time. Inevitably, the nature of our flesh is to raise up our own standards by which to judge everyone else. Rather than to look at ourselves through the glasses of the Word of God. to dig at the log in our own eyes first, and then to deal with the splinters of others according to the word of God. So, throughout this blessed epistle, John brings us back to the theme that surely burned in his own heart, that which he learned from the beloved Lord Jesus Christ himself. We should love one another. That's the title of our message this morning, and we want to consider it under these three heads. The distinguishing factor of loving one another, the command for loving one another, and the illustration, the sober illustration, concerning loving one another. Let's take up first this idea of the distinguishing factor of loving one another. As we have seen, John is a master of summing up one section of his epistle while simultaneously introducing us to the next. He does this over and over, and we have seen this throughout our study thus far, and we'll see that all the way through. Now, verse 10 is an example of this. Verses 4 through 10, John has shown to us the difference between God's children and the devil's children. So, he sums up that difference in verse 10 and introduces us to his next theme. He says, in this, the children of God are manifest. We can see them. We know who they are. Light maketh manifest. And the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." Let's consider for a moment this issue of doing righteousness one more time. We've looked at it several times because it is such an important point to John. He's been talking to us about it since chapter 2, verse 29. Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. So John's primary thought in verses four through ten is clear. The children of the devil are lawless. They're lawbreakers. They have neither seen nor known Christ. And what that means is that they've never known the transforming power of Christ. And the children of the devil prove by their life of lawlessness that the devil is their father. Now, don't go out and buy ten commentaries to explain away what John is telling us plainly. Your life speaks who your father is. Well, aren't you burdening us since we're saved by grace? Aren't you making us feel bad? Well, take that up with John. Take that up with the spirit that inspired what he's saying. Brethren, John understood grace. He's telling us that grace transforms lives. And that if you are in fact a recipient of the grace of the living God, while we will never reach perfection, this side of heaven, our lives will speak of the presence of God dwelling within us. He that created the heavens and the earth, cannot take up residence within these frail vessels of dust without there being a change. So the children of the devil are ultimately characterized by a life of lawlessness. Now, this doesn't mean that they're as wicked as they can be, but ultimately it means that they do not live from the heart according to the Word of God. We can have an external attachment to the things the Bible says without ever having a heart for them. This is vital. By contrast, God's children do righteousness. He likes that term. John has shown us in chapter 2, verse 27, that because the anointing of the Spirit abides in God's children, They abide in Christ. Then he told them in chapter 2, verse 29, as I read a moment ago, that they do righteousness because they are born of God. Now, because of this, because of this anointing, because of the regenerating power, because of being born again, they are the sons of God now. Now. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Now, again, because of this anointing and because of this new birth, they are in union with Jesus Christ, the righteous. They are in union with Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now, we need to stop and do some thinking along with John. This is what we spent several weeks working through in verses 4 through 10, and now, We want to see it summed up here in this one statement in verse 10. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. Christ is righteous. Christ did righteousness. We, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are in union with him. So we will do righteousness. This is John's point. Now, likewise, by the virtue of our New birth and union with the sinless Christ, our new nature in union with Christ, is not sin against God. If you're visiting with us, I took some time last week to explain I do not believe in sinless perfection. This is not what I'm teaching. But we must come to grips with the fact that John says that whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. And then in verse 9, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. He is talking ultimately about who and what we are as in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. When we sin, it is never the urging, it is never the leading of the Holy Spirit. There is that tension in the believer all of his days between what he is as born of God's Spirit and what remains in his flesh of the sin. And there is that struggle which Paul has laid out for us very plainly. in other places. Now, this is because God's seed, God's spirit, dwells within God's people. We are, in fact, the temple of the Holy Ghost. This is His address. Now, rightly understood, this does not lead to the error of sinless perfection. We know that throughout our lives there's always going to be that struggle between what we are as the new man in Christ and what the flesh still retains. John's not overlooking the fact that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, but he is speaking about our identity as those in union with Christ. In him there is no sin. The nature of our new heart is to walk with Christ in righteousness. This is why those who are born of God's spirit desire the word of God. This is why they desire to cast off their own will and walk in God's will. This is why they desire to pray. This is why prayer is the breath of their lives. The nature of the devil's children. is to walk in their own desires and in lawlessness. Nobody tells me what to do. I do my thing. These are clearly the children of the devil, even when they wear religious rags. So, verse 10 sums up these things that John has been saying since chapter 2 actually but especially from chapter 3 verse 4 about doing righteousness and then he introduces the theme of love for God's children in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother John couples doing righteousness with love for the children of God. Doing righteousness and loving God's children are two sides of the same coin, and they are inseparable. Just as we may study justification and sanctification as separate items, which they are, we must never separate them. The justified man will be sanctified. The sanctified man is a justified man. And so it is in the same way with this. Those who are truly God's children do righteousness and they love God's children. And those that truly love God's children do righteousness. They go together. They reflect the two tables of God's law. Let's never forget who John is. Never forget who the writers of the New Testament were and what their Bible was and what they were instructed in. There's a structure that the Lord Jesus Christ himself gave us, he said, summing up the entire 39 books of the old covenant scriptures. We have two commandments. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, thy mind, thy strength. And loving God does not mean having nice feelings toward him. Though, of course, we ought to have supremely wonderful feelings toward our God, this is not what love is. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. We show our love to our God by walking according to what he says. The Lord Jesus Christ said the second commandment is is likened to the first. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Love for God, which is doing righteousness, walking according to his word, and loving our neighbors. And we see that plainly set forth here. He that doeth not righteousness is not of God. Neither he that loveth not His brother. So let's consider, then. This command for loving one another, you look at verse 11, says, for this is the message that we heard from the beginning that we should love one another. John says this is the message. This is the message that he heard from the beginning. And the word translated message here means a proclamation or a command. And in this context, it's certainly pointing to the idea of an imperative, a command. He's saying, now, listen, false teachers have come among you. They've got a false Christ and flowing from the wretched and polluted fountains of this false Christ and their false fantasies. Is is a wicked and a wretched life. You can never have a life in harmony with the Word of God when you don't have the right Christ. These false teachers have come among you and they're beginning to sow the wicked thoughts that somehow or another you can walk with the God of heaven and earth while living in a sinful lifestyle. John takes that head on. This sinful lifestyle, because of the structure, breaks down this way. Brethren, when we do not truly love the living God, we cannot truly love men. Not God's way. Like I said, we can redefine it. But we cannot truly love men as God loves and as he has commanded us to love. We don't have the right Christ. We do not have the right love for our God. We cannot love our brethren as we ought. And so, John says plainly, I want to bring your minds back to antiquity, if I can say it that way. I want to bring you back to what you've heard from the very beginning. John's point is that loving one another is foundational and imperative not optional to Christianity. Today, because of our decisionism mindset, because today as long as we signed a card or raised our hand in a meeting or walked an aisle and shed a few tears, God's got to save us no matter how we live the next 50 years. This is utter destructive delusion. It is unbiblical. But because we tend to think that way, we think, well, I did something 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 30 years ago, and I'm OK on the way to heaven because salvation is by grace, right? It's not the way I live. And therefore, all right, I've lived like hell for the last four or five decades. But I signed that card. I wrote it in the front of my Bible. God's got to bring me to heaven. And brethren, that is damnable thinking. And I fear that it is damned. thinking. John is saying, you had a message from Christ. John is speaking powerful language here. This is not just a nice seg, verse 11, so we can get some of the meatier things. This is John's whole point. As he's now introduced this thought to us, You have a message! Loving God's children is not a suggestion, it is not an option, it is not a simple by-product of the Christian life when it's convenient or comfortable. John is saying that Christ commanded it, the apostles declared it, and believers from the earliest days of Christianity received loving God's children as the central tenet of being a Christian. Now, of course, our gospel is about the life, the death, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what was all that about? The pardoning of our sin. But don't stop there. And that's where so many do today. He saved us to make us like Him. To be a Christian is to do righteousness and love God's children. This is the Christian life summed up. To do righteousness and love our brethren. Neither one of those things saves us. But those things declare whether we be God's children or the devil's children. This is John. Now, let's consider the content of this message. He's simply alluding to it. He says, this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Now, this message originated in the eternal counsels of God. The life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, were the outworking of God's sovereign purpose, and they were the great revelation of God's love to this sin-cursed earth. As Jesus stood a man upon this earth, He was the incarnate word of God, manifesting unspeakable grace, mercy and love to sinners. Brethren, what extravagant, what extravagant love and kindness to sinners, what holy condescension, what extraordinary humility. God who is holy, speaking His great mind, His holy mind to men in the person of His Son, whom we deserve nothing but His wrath and His fury in His mercy and His goodness. Christ came and all of His life spoke of God the Father's great love to His children. Brethren, we need to know and understand that. We cannot look to people. We cannot look to our circumstances. We certainly cannot look at the overall providence of our lives, whether or not to say, well, I know the love of God because of here, here or here. Certainly there are moments where that is very clear to us. But then there are times when it isn't, especially when we're suffering. Where do we look to be utterly certain of the love of God? We look at the cross of Calvary and the empty tomb. That is the unshakable, immutable declaration for all of eternity of God's infinite love for His children. So that when they're wrestling with the sin that remains within them, when they struggle at the waves of suffering and Trials fall upon them. They look and see His unshakable love. It's in Christ. And this God, whose soul loved us, through His incarnate Son, said this. Let's hear the proclamation of the incarnate Son of God. A new commandment. I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you." Stunningly simple. It would take all the grace of God that He will give us for us to live that out. Love one another, and He doesn't stop there. If He did, many of us would be comfortable. Because then we could say, well, I do this and I do this and I'm comfortable with that. And I do this with this brother or I ignore that brother or I do this because of these things or those things. And we can get comfortable. But he says, love one another and then gives the eternal guard to it. As I have loved you. That draws us to his feet, brethren. That draws us to search his word and to search his life. and to sit before Him and say, teach me Lord, I don't know how to love like that. The love commanded by Christ is not a feeling, but the self-sacrificing choice of self-denial, servanthood, and obedience to God's commandments. Now John records, now before the feast of the Passover, When Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of the world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Now Christ demonstrated that love. This is not saying Jesus had a nice, warm, mushy feeling about this group that at many times could be defined as anything but blockheads. just like us. Christ demonstrated what this love looks like. Brethren, He rose up from supper with them. He girt Himself with a towel and He washed His disciples' feet. Who was on His knees the incarnate Son of God. Who was washing the filthy feet of His disciples? The Master. Who was at their feet when all of them should have been at His? The Lord of Glory. Who humbled Himself and served sinful men, even His betrayer? Judas was at the table. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the Lord God omnipotent. What was the point of this extraordinary display? Let's hear his testimony. Know you what I've done to you? Do you understand what I've done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. You're right. You're right to call me Master. I am the Master. You're right to call me the Lord, the Boss, the Ruler. If I then, your Lord and Master, second person of the Holy Trinity, very God, very God. If I have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example. Do you get confused? Even though my Spirit dwells within you, Do you get foggy on what love is? I've shown you. Look. Look at me. Look what I've done for you. I, your Lord, have served you. The kings of the earth want the sons of men to serve them. The kings of the earth want their enemies destroyed. The kings of the earth want your wealth and your labor and your service. The king of heaven washed his disciples feet and gave them all his riches. Know ye what I've done for you. I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. John recorded this. John knew it by heart. John lived it and is now saying To those to whom he writes, including us, we heard this from the beginning. From the top, this is the basis of our walks. Our master served us. We're to serve one another. We're to love one another as he loved us. Let's hear his proclamation again. We need to hear it. Brethren, we live in a day when the love of many has grown cold. A new commandment I give unto you. Commandment. Commandment. Commandment. Not suggestion. No option. Commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. that ye also love one another. This is driving John's heart as he writes his epistle. This is why John proclaims, we should love one another. Christ's commandment burns in his own bosom as he writes to God's beloved children. This is no dry discourse. His heart is on fire as he warns and corrects God's children from the false doctrine creeping into the assemblies. What John is ultimately saying is this. Many antichrists have already assailed. Christ's churches, they went out from us because they were not of us. This is his whole point. They were not anointed by the Spirit. They were not born of God's Spirit. They were not of us. The life in them did not come from the source. The life that burns within us came from. They went out, they were not alive in Christ, anointed by Christ, in union with Christ, abiding in Christ. They've proven that they are the devil's children because they profess to be the children of God, but they do not love the children of God. And in that, they contradict Christianity. They rebel against the master they say they serve. Don't fancy yourself a Christian and live in rebellion against what the master has said. If you're a child of God, repent and cast yourself upon His dying love. Calvary. Always see your sin finished there. Now, brethren, we must examine ourselves. We must examine ourselves, especially in this day. What mockery we make of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. if we do not love one another as He loved us? What scorn and ridicule we heap upon the cleansing blood of Christ if we do not humble ourselves and love His precious children? Look at Him on the floor washing the feet of His disciples. Look at Him hanging upon the cross of Calvary, bearing the sins of His people, as I have loved you. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, humility. Can there be a greater hypocrisy or a more extreme contradiction than a loveless Christian? Can there be a greater hypocrite on the planet that says, God in his sovereign grace has come and opened my heart and yet not serve God's children. What a miserable hypocrite. We are no better than the antichrists, if this is true of us. John says, we should love one another. The supreme example of it is on the floor washing his disciples' feet, is hanging upon the cross of Calvary in the place of his people. Well, to bring this all home, beloved brethren, let's consider John's sober illustration concerning one another, loving one another. If you look with me, he says in verse 12, 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. The Apostle now illustrates Christ's command to love one another by directing us to Genesis chapter 4 and the tragic figure of Cain. Genesis 4 verse 1 says, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain. and said I've gotten a man from the Lord and she again there his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of sheep that Cain was a tiller of the ground and in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up, against Abel, against Abel his brother, and slew him. But the first thing we need to consider is Cain's example. This is the only place in John's epistle that he goes directly to the Old Testament. And he is giving us a negative example. He says, we should love one another not as Cain, not as Cain. Now, when we read Genesis 4 and we look at Cain's life, there are some difficulties in that passage. And some have tried to explain it based on some fault in the substance of Cain's sacrifice. In other words, they say that Cain brought the fruit of the ground while Abel brought a blood sacrifice. This is why God accepted one and rejected the other. But this not only seems to miss the point, but to contradict scripture. God later commanded men in his law to bring the firstfruits of the ground, there's nothing wrong with bringing unto God, offering and sacrifice from the ground, according to the law. So it was not the content of the sacrifice as such, Brethren, if we stop and look at the words carefully and read the rest of Scripture, it begins to become clear, I think. The content of the sacrifice was not the issue. It was the state of Cain's heart. The state of Cain's heart. Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 4, the Holy Spirit tells us there that the difference between Abel's sacrifice and Cain's sacrifice was Abel's faith. That verse says, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. That he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts. God received what Abel brought. He rejected what Cain brought. I remember as a young Christian, in fact, I even remember as a child reading that passage and saying, why didn't God take his sacrifice? This didn't seem fair. I don't understand this. And while many have wrestled with very complex explanations, ultimately, the issue is simple. And it's John's point. Abel had faith. Cain did not. Abel's life and his sacrifice showed that he was a child of God. Cain's showed that he was a child of the devil. He was a faithless, graceless one. Let's consider Cain's sin for just a moment. John writes in his epistle, not as Cain, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one. How did John know? Well, by the inspiration of the Spirit, he understood some things about the Genesis passage. God said, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? But what does doing well mean? Well, the Arminians, the Pelagians, and all of those that think in their terms have run to this verse for years to say, see, Cain was not radically depraved. Cain could have done what was right if he wanted to. Cain had a will, and a will that could have chosen what was right and what was wrong. I've got a commentary sitting on myself that says this. I'm not exaggerating their position. Brethren, from Genesis to Revelation, doing well is never an outward, an external conforming to what God says. It must always begin with the heart. It must always begin with the heart. Doing well in Scripture means beginning in faith. As two verses later in Hebrews chapter 11 plainly tells us, without faith it is impossible to please God. Why did Abel please the Lord? It wasn't because he had a free will that chose what was right. It was because by faith he brought a righteous sacrifice. Cain, as a faithless one, came bringing the fruit of the ground. Abel's sacrifice was acceptable, not because of the content as such, but because it was offered by faith. And this brings us down to the motive. See, John tells us why Cain violently murdered his brother. He says, Wherefore slew he him? Why did he do that? Now, let's not miss the point. The context of the whole story of Cain and Abel is in the context of religion. They're bringing sacrifices. This is worship. They're both coming to the God who made the heavens and the earth. Cain and Abel were both coming to offer sacrifice. But John sees the stark contrast between those who profess to worship God and those who really do. Cain's unjust anger with his brother gave bent to brutal murder. The word slew means slaughtered, butchered, killed by violence. And when God confronted Cain with his crime, he remained unrepentant. I don't know where he is. I mean, who made me my brother's keeper? Brethren, we have people that sit in churches all the time. They come just like Cain and Abel. They come supposedly bringing their worship. And yet in their hearts, there burns a year-long, two-year-long, a ten-year-long, fifty-year-long anger and a hatred towards someone. If you've ever been through the horror of a church split, you can see people that can kneel together, and then in a couple of months, find people in murderous rages yelling at each other. We become angry, we become angry with ourselves, angry with others, and what happens is we begin to show what we really are. Here is a display in Cain and Abel of what the Lord had said in Genesis 3, verse 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. And brethren, in the very next chapter, the first child born on the earth. Became the first murderer. And he murdered his brother. Why? Because there was enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Abel had faith. Cain had none. Abel was faithful. Cain was faithless. The enmity between the family line, or I can say it this way, What we see in Cain and Abel is the very enmity between the family line that will give birth to Antichrist and the family line which gave birth to the Christ of God. Fourth chapter of the book. And what is John saying to us in his epistle? There's an Antichrist all over the place nowadays. How do they show what they were? They were among us. They went out. They don't do righteousness. They don't love their brethren. Don't be like Cain, the very first child born, who proved himself faithless, so angry that he killed his brother. Abel, through his sacrifice to God by faith, showed himself what? A child of God. He did righteousness. And God gave witness of it. Cain brought a faithless sacrifice, showing himself a child of the devil. And when it was rejected of God, his faithless heart swelled with anger and burst into murderous rage. Brethren, don't take comfort that you're a Christian simply because At some time or another, you've had an emotional experience. Because at some time or another, someone has pressed you to sign a card or raise your hand. John says we can see who those who truly love the Lord are, not because they're perfect people, not because they're perfect people, but because they do righteousness and they love God's children. Oh, it'll be faulty. It'll be flawed. There may be moments where if you just see that moment, they look like the children of the devil. But they'll repent. They will walk after Christ. Brethren, John's illustration, I think, is clear. We may distinguish between the children of God and the children of the devil. Of course, this is speaking in generalities. We cannot see men's hearts, we don't profess to. But the children of the devil hate the children of God. Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, faithless, and his brothers righteous, faithful. The children of the devil hate the children of God, and their lives reveal who their father is. Those who are born of God do righteousness and love God's children. If we profess to be those who are saved by the glorious grace of God through faith alone in the Lord Jesus, we should love one another. May God bless His holy word to our hearts this morning. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, Thank you. at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.