I'm going to read the first 15 verses of 1 John 2, and my intention is to return to the verses I looked at last Sunday, to consider them in a different way. I was struck with how important they are and how we need to hear them again. May God bless what I have prepared, even as I read these 15 verses. 1 John 2. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, Excuse me, which thing is true in him and in you? Because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is an occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the father. I've written unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I've written unto you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you. and you've overcome the wicked one. May his word abide in us today. Because of the sobering clarity of the verses I considered before you from chapter two of the Apostle John's first general letter to the churches, to true confessing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, Verses that expose the folly of just saying you are walking in the light of just saying you are a follower of the light of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I mentioned last Sunday, talk is cheap. But displaying hatred in some way towards another brother, whether that brother is still an atom or is a fellow confessing redeemed sinner. For when Paul was preaching to the Athenians, what did he declare about all mankind? regardless of where or when you or anyone else was born. Acts 17 verse 28. And it's made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and to determine the times before appointed in the bounds of their habitation. As I've mentioned more than once, if you had adequate records and enough paper You could trace your relationship to everyone else who has lived, who is living, or may yet live on this unique earth. Now, I don't doubt in the least that finding that connection, that relationship, may have to go all the way back to Noah through Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and then to Adam. I have no problem with that. And friends, if you were able to meet Adam, How many greats would you have to use before his name to greet him correctly? You're my great, great, great, great, great. He is. He is your great to what power father. This truth is not only established genealogically, if you had large enough records and enough time, But it's also established by the teaching of the Lord Jesus as to how He expects those who profess Him as Lord and Savior are to act towards others, even to towards non-believers, to those who you are related to by blood. Matthew 7, 12, Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even as to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Then you have the teaching of the Apostle Paul that reinforces the misused term, the brotherhood of man, usually in idolatry, by what he teaches in Galatians 6.10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Or what most likely were words written by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 12.14. follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. The fact that you can have someone related to you. Treating you as an enemy is an evidence of what John writes of in second jar. First, John, second chapter, verse number Eleven, but he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness. And knoweth not whether he goeth, because that darkness has blinded his eyes, has blinded his eyes to the reality that we are all related through Adam. Now, who hates everyone? Who hates everyone made in the image of God, regardless of who they are, whether believer or not? who hates every man, woman, boy, and girl on the face of the earth who has ever lived, is living, or will yet live. The devil, the father of lies, the one who was a murderer from the beginning. Hatred for your fellow brother or sister who is still an Adam, or worse in Christ, has the depraved darkness of the devil shining all over it. But there are two questions I want to ask and answer because of the sobering, serious nature of the truth that John declares in these verses I've returned to. Verses 9 and 11 expose the darkness. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brothers in darkness even until now, then verse 11, but he that hateth his brothers in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth because the darkness hath blinded his eyes, And what needs to be displayed towards your fellow image bearer to show forth the truth that you're not walking in darkness, but are abiding in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 10, he that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. The first question I want to ask and answer is how, is how is it possible for men, using the word men in the generic sense of referring to all made in the image of God, whether male or female, descended by natural generation all the way back to Adam. How is it? What fuels or facilitates or is used to justify the ease with which man can hate his fellow man? And do the many things that display that hate and not love rules in their hearts. No, I can't be exhaustive on this, just descriptive of it. For it would not surprise me that I will miss some of the ways that fallen men in sin will use to justify their sinful, dark hatred towards their fellow man. The first, that I'll give as an example, excuse me, is forgetting, or worse, ridiculing and mocking the truth that all of us, regardless of who we are, share the same bloodline back to Adam. For let fallen men buy into the demonic lie that we are not all related through Adam, but just the product of blind chance and time fueled by the demonic lie, the survival of the fittest and the preservation of the favored races taught by the false teacher, racist Charles Darwin. And the ease with which men will display their hatred towards their fellow man will be seen. For friends, treating your neighbor as yourself and doing good to all cannot grow out of the demonic soil of evolution. Any benevolence that fallen men show towards their fellow fallen men is because truth from the scriptures is plagiarized, not because it is natural of the fallen human heart of man. The exact opposite is the case. Men suppress the truth of their relationship to all men in order to justify their ongoing hatred of someone else. And this mark of sinful, dark depravity is seen in what the hate-blinded heart of man will do to sinfully justify his hatred to his fellow men, especially when hate-controlled leaders want those they are misleading to follow them in their display of hatred towards their fellow man. What am I referring to? A second thing that sinner man uses to deaden and deny facing the hatred and not love he is displaying towards others is to demean them verbally. Is to demean them verbally. Hate-dominated man will use words that demean and even deny the humanity of the ones that they desire to display their hate towards. And this does not need to be limited to wartime, friends. Because how many words of derision and demeaning have been used by one ethnicity of people towards another ethnicity of people to justify and camouflage what is being displayed by these terms? The fallen hate-filled darkness of the unregenerate human heart that is being displayed. How many even professing believers show that they are walking in darkness by having no problem by referring to a different ethnicity of people, a different group of people in pejorative and negative and in hate-filled terms. And friends, I'll just give you a few examples. This is descriptive, not exhaustive. Alligator bait, that's an African. Beaner, that's a Mexican. Bosch, that's a German. Cabbage eater, that's a German or a Russian. Cheesehead, that's a Dutch person. Chink, oh, that's a Chinese. Cooley, that's an unskilled Asian worker. Oh, he's just a cooley. We can mistreat him. We can hate him. Coon, black person. Cracker, that's a poor southerner. Good old northerners, right? He's just a cracker from below the Mason-Nixon line. Dago, Italian or Portuguese. Dink, a Vietnamese. Frog. Oh, that was useful in Canada. Those Quebecers. French. Gook. Koreans or Vietnamese. Gringo. Oh, that's, he forgets. Universal friends. Gringo, that's a white person. Half-breed. Oh, mixed race. Hebe. Oh, that's a Jew. Honky. Oh, that's another white person. Hun. That was a word used in World War I to refer to the German soldier. Jaime, a Jew. Jap, World War II, for the Japanese. Jungle bunny, another reference to black person. A kraut, that's the German in World War II. Mick, Irish. Nigger, black. Nip, Japanese. Paleface, a white man. Polack, oh, that's Polish if you've ever watched All in the Family. Raghead, Arab. Ruski, oh, those nasty Russians. Sand nigger, Arabs. Spearchucker, African. Spick, Hispanic. Squaw, Native American woman. Taffy, Welsh. Towelhead, Sikhs, Arabs, or Muslims. Wetback, an illegal immigrant. White trash, that's poor white people. Wop, Italian. Friends. Who can comprehend the derogatory words that have been used and passed on that display the natural born darkness and hatred of the human heart towards a fellow human being? Despite the warning of Jesus, Matthew 12, 37, for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. A natural born hatred that is put to death through regeneration and is to be repented of any time it seeks to display itself. Because if a person is walking in the light of the saving gospel of Christ, he or she knows that there is only one category of mankind, sinner, in one of two conditions, saved or lost. That's the only condition of man on the face of the earth. Yet different ethnicities, we can be thankful for them and be amazed at the different things some people eat and all the various things like that. But when you start thinking that you can demean a person simply because he's another ethnicity or he's a female or whatever, There is economic status. You're denying the gospel. Because, friends, there's only one category of mankind, sinner in one of two conditions, saved or unsaved. Someone who is your brother or sister in Christ, if you confess Christ, or someone you hope comes to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But how are these various dark themes exposed? By the saving gospel of Christ, by remembering what is true about anyone who is a Christian. You're one with them, believer. If they're a Christian, you're one with them. You might not be able to speak their language. As I've said, you might not enjoy their food. But if they're a Christian, you're one with them. You're going to be with them in the new heavens, in the new earth. They are your fellow, blood, blood, brother or sister in Christ, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their social position or regardless of their gender. And I know you're going to have churches in certain places where you could say that the idea is they're predominantly a certain ethnicity simply because of the geographic reality, but friends, You can have churches that are divided along economic lines. Oh, that's the rich church. That's the poor church. You go there, you don't go there. That's a denial of the gospel. Because we're all one through faith in Christ Jesus. Think of Onesimus and Philemon, slave owner, release him. Odo have had a camera as Philemon was reading that letter and saying, you got to release Onesimus because he's your brother in Christ. And friends, be very careful that legitimate terms that can be used to describe non-Christians such as non-believer or pagan or heathen or idolater are not used to hide secret hate, secret heart hatred towards them. When you use a term to demean that person rather than to accurately and truthfully describe him or her in love, you are using that term in a hate-filled, dark way. And not so that light of truth is being displayed. The words we use to refer to other people can be a display of darkness, not light. Remember, the Lord guided Jeremiah to say, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And oh, how that wickedness and darkness is displayed when terms are used and created to demean, degrade, and yes, even hate that other person. But the second question I want to ask and answer is how do you show? that you are walking in the light and not stumbling in the darkness of hate? Because verse 10 gives the answer, he that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But friends, how is love displayed? John says, you know, he's walking in love. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. But how is that love displayed? Yes, love is the opposite of hate. But how do you show that you are abiding in the light of love and not the darkness of hate? Because one of the most used words, but not biblically defined words, is the word love. Walking in the light is walking in love. Yes. But what does walking in love mean? How is such, if I dare put it this way, how is such love walking seen? John tells us twice in his letters. Once here in his first letter and once in his second. 1st John 5 2. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments, 2 John 1 6. And this is love that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. Friends, how many people wax eloquent about love? Oh, man, there's songs written about love. There's poems written about love. But the love they are talking about is not biblical love. but a distortion or a denial of it. Keeping the commandments of God are not a way of salvation. That's a true impossibility and the error of all lost religious people. But keeping the commandments of God are a way to display love towards both God and your fellow man, whether believer or non-believer. And John is not the only one who teaches this. One example from Paul. What does he tell believers to do in Ephesians 4.28? Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. You are not abiding in the light of love if you steal from someone else. If a person was to accost you and say, I'm holding you up in love, you'd say there's something wrong with what that person is saying. You're not abiding in the light of love if you steal from someone else. And oh, there are rabbits I could chase with that statement. What did Jesus say were the two greatest commandments? to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. You are not walking in the light of love towards either God or man when worshiping an idol or endorsing any form of idolatry. For friends, no idols are going to enter glory. So giving the impression to someone else that idolatry is acceptable to God, which it is not, but giving a person the idea or impression is not walking in the light of love, but in the darkness of hate. Friends, the ecumenical movement is not a display of light and love, but darkness and hatred, both for God and for man. Because if you believe the scriptures, you know that God is not going to share his glory with the idols endorsed by ecumenism. And so how many will use the word love even as they lie to and about other people? You're not walking in the light of love when you do not speak the truth in love. That's why Paul would tell the Corinthians, come out from among them and be separate, because God will not have fellowship with darkness. Abiding in the light of love means having what it means to love your fellow man illuminated by the light of the word of God. Because how many use the word love when they should really be using the word lust? Because what they are displaying is not love, but lust. How much fornication and adultery has been redefined as love rather than what it really is, a person walking in darkness rather than the light of the word of God and their unredeemed heart is guiding them, not the light of the word of God. They do not want to have their dark hearts illuminated and guided by God's word of truth. My mind's made up. Tell me what the scriptures teach. How does Paul illustrate this truth that abiding in the light of love means abiding under the light of the word of God's description of what is sinful? 1 Corinthians 6 verses 9 to 11, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. All these things are but examples of how unsaved people can and are walking in the darkness of hate and not the light of love. Because you can't do any of the things that Paul lists believers were saved out of and be walking in the light of love. As I said, is a thief displaying love towards you when he holds you up? No, he is not. John is crystal clear that if we harbor hate we are not walking in the light of the gospel and that hate can be manifested in so many ways by the words that come out of our mouths and by the way we treat others made in the image of God. May God give us the grace to walk in the light of his beloved son. May the Lord expose any area of your life, of your thoughts, of your words, of your deeds that show you that you're not abiding in the light of his word, even as Jesus did perfectly to save his people from their dark and hate. filled lives. Praise His name. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we need your help to walk in the light that you have shone into our hearts about your Son and about ourselves. Please do not leave us to ourselves. but show us by your word and spirit where we are thinking, speaking, or acting in ways that do not reflect love, but its opposite. And so fill us with your spirit, whose fruit is love, to guide us into the perfect example of your son, in whose name we pray.