Let us turn in God's Word this morning to 1 John chapter 3. Our reading will be verses 10 through 18. 1 John chapter 3, verses 10 through 18. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word. What a blessing to have Him already have confirmed that Word to us this morning in baptism. Now we have His Word, then we'll have the Lord's Supper together. Hear God's word, 1 John 3, 10. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest, or made known, or revealed. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life. abiding in Him. By this we know love because He laid down His life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth. May God bless His word to our hearts. You may be seated. So three very, very simple points this morning. One, brotherly love shows that we are God's children. Brotherly love shows that we are God's children. A second point, brotherly love is hated by the world. And we'll see why in verses 12 through 13. We're going to look in verses 14 through 18 at brotherly love practiced. How do we practice brotherly love in our midst? I'll ask a question at the end. How do I get brotherly love? And we'll look at that also. So brotherly love shows that we are God's children. It will be hated by the world. We're hated by the world. And brotherly love, we need to be shown how to practice it, which verses 14 through 18 help us with that. And then at the end, how do I get brotherly love? Now in verses 10 and 11, the apostle begins by telling us that brotherly love shows that we are God's children. Now remember John's talked a lot about the new birth. And he's looking at tests, how that we can know we belong to God. Two of those were mentioned in verse 10, righteousness and love, but there's also two fathers mentioned in verse 10, I believe. He mentions the children of the devil, and he mentions the children of God. Now again here, two very different fathers, two very different sets of children. Children of the devil are known by their disobedience to God and by their lack of love for one another. It says in Titus 3.3 that before God saved us, we were hateful and hating each other. It probably doesn't need a lot of illustration to see that operative in our world today. The great hatred and vilification as well as the disobedience. Now we may not think of that, Again here, men and women and young people who don't obey God, who worship other gods, they're children of the devil. That didn't come from me, that comes from scripture. Those who don't keep the Sabbath day. If I would really prefer to be in a football game, I don't want to worship God. I may go to church to keep up appearances or be guilt, but again, not keeping the fourth commandment is a sign that we're not children of God. We're children of the devil. But notice the children of God, they love God. They want to obey Him. Now, not perfectly. Please don't read perfection into John. John's already told us, and if you're a visitor this morning, John's already told us that if we say we have no sin, we're a liar. But remember, in Christ, as Lynn read this morning in Psalm 32, our sins are forgiven. And our Father in Heaven doesn't look at us and say, well, you're not perfect yet, you don't count. Or, you've not earned your right to be my child. We're forgiven. He accepts even our imperfect works. as those of a loving father, a gracious father, receiving and accepting us through the Lord Jesus Christ. But make no mistake, there are two fathers, two sets of children, two very different ways of life. And John here very much pains to remind them here as he moves into a discussion of another mark of God's children that we love each other. And this is not just sentiment. This is a heavenly gift. This is a mark of God's family that that we love one another. Look there at the end of verse 10. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. Now that may seem a strange combination today. Wait a minute, he's joining obedience and love? One of the reasons we perhaps have more difficulty with this today is because in much of the church, obedience has been extracted from grace. Grace basically means you're accepted the way you are and you have other people like you for who you are. And that grace means no duty, grace means follow the Holy Spirit. turn to Titus 2, that's not what grace means at all. That's a satanic doctrine of grace. It's not a Bible doctrine of grace. It's certainly not God's true grace. Titus 2, verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation, so this is God's true grace that brings salvation, has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'd love to talk more about this passage, but just notice at the moment here, what does God's grace do? It means, right, no duty. It just means follow your feelings. It means affirm everybody. Be kind to everybody. Will kind people into heaven. No confrontation. That's not what scripture teaches. Scripture says God's grace, when it comes to us and teaches us, it does what? That we deny. Our ungodliness, our lack of reverence for God, our worldly lust. Well, that's just, let me be me. God says, I'm not gonna let you be you and bring you into my heaven. I'm gonna change you into the image of my son. Okay, God doesn't let you be you. I mean, that's a very, very dangerous view to let people live unconfronted with that false reality. God teaches us to deny our worldly, selfish, self-oriented lives and instead live watchfully, righteously, and godly. So back to 1 John 3 when we see here how John unites righteousness and love in the same passage. We shouldn't go, I can't believe he would do that. Now on the other hand, see we've also taken love and we've extracted law from it. So we've extracted obedience from grace and given a very false view of grace. We've also taken God's law out of love, and love is sentiment. Love is accepting everybody. Love is, I want to be accepted, so I'm going to accept you. Love is person to person defined. Your definition of love, my definition of love. But again, that's not the Bible's view. It's not God's view. It certainly wasn't Jesus' view. Jesus didn't say, I love you so much, I'm going to do what I feel like and not do what I don't feel like. If he had done that, he would never have gone to the cross. Okay, because if you read in Gethsemane, that was the last thing he wanted to do was to take the sorrow of hell and the sorrow of our death upon himself. He knew the righteous judgment of God. He knew the terror of the Lord. And in terms of his feelings and what felt good, it was the farthest thing. He begged to be released from that terrible cup. But because he loved us, and loved his father, he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And so we need God's law to teach us how do we love our neighbor. I think this would be a loving thing to do. That may be actually the wrong thing to do. Well, I really love my boyfriend. I really love my girlfriend, so I think this would be inappropriate. Back off, okay? Because we don't know what love is until God takes us in hand and teaches us by His Spirit, by His Word, this is what love is. This is not love. That's why the Ten Commandments, most of the second table, which are the ones that pertain to how we love each other, are stated negatively. There are some things we just don't do. But I feel like doing it. I feel like it would be a good thing to have this relationship, to take this, to desire this. God says no. Okay, and that's why John here says, hey listen, children of God are very different than children of the devil. The children of the evil one, they live for their lust, they live for their passions, they live for themselves. God comes to us in his mercy, he gives us a new heart, and he puts a love for his law in our hearts. It's not perfect in this life, we struggle, we can stumble and fall many, many times. But the root of it is there, that we love Him, that His grace is teaching us to hate our sins and to love Him and obeying Him. So brotherly love, it marks us out. And it even says in verse 11, this is the message you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. The Christian faith was not marked out from the beginning for its political conservatism. That's not what, oh, they're conservatives, they're Christians, okay. They're Republicans, they're Christians, okay. They follow, that's not, they do this kind of education. Now these things may be true in some way, even though I really hesitate to even say that, by implication, three or four levels down, but that's not the essence. of what the Christian faith is. I can know I'm a Christian because I vote this way. I can know I'm a Christian because I'm really cynical toward people that I think are idiots. Now, by the way, when John was writing this, that was a dominant philosophy in the Roman world. You may or may not know this, but that was Seneca, who was looked at as one of the better of the moral philosophers. And by common grace, he probably is, but that was as high as hell's love was able to rise in Seneca. Seneca said, hey, when you look out at the world, you realize there's a lot of buffoons out there. and a lot of idiots. And so the best way to cope with that is just to hold most men at arm's length with disdain and with a certain degree of skepticism and even mockery. And maybe, you know, you've got a group of people that you can meet and y'all's hobby is making fun of all the failures of others. That was cynic. That's how you cope. That's how you cope with the ridiculousness of the world and life. You basically become a mocker. You basically become, in some respects, somebody who uses satire and ridicule to, you know, that human folly is your fodder and your diet. So there were other options available. You know, Jesus could have said, oh yes, yes. By this all men will know you're my disciples." Follow Seneca, okay? Most men, frankly, are idiots, okay? And need to be treated that way. And a little mockery goes a long way. That's not what Jesus taught his disciples. Jesus taught them from the beginning. This is the message, because think about it. Everybody here this morning, including me, If God were to give us what we deserve, you deserve, I deserve, we deserve to be utterly mocked and ridiculed in hell forever. We deserve to be the subject of the scorn of angels, the laughter. Look at these people made in God's image and look what they've done to themselves. done to God's world. Look what they think is important. Look what they think is relevant. Look what they spend their time doing when there's a God of heaven that they could be serving. That's just the tip of the iceberg. That doesn't even take into consideration our active sins against God and our active rebellion against God. We deserve to be held by God. Well, just like it says in Scripture, God holds all the heathen in derision. God laughs at His enemies. That's what we deserve, but He didn't do that, did He? He didn't save the world by scoffing it into heaven. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. For God so loved the world. And so the message from the beginning, John says, is for us to love one another. And of course, the Lord taught that repeatedly, the disciples that last night, arguing about who's going to be the greatest, and He just goes low, and He says, I'm going to wash your feet and show you. You're claiming a lot for yourself. You're exalting yourself. Let me show you the greatest. is the one who is the servant of all and washes your feet. So this is the DNA. And I want you in this age and in this hour in our own particular nation of hatred, vilification, ridicule, mockery, scorn, derisiveness, everything. When you hear all that, you should smell sulfur. Okay, because this is just the spewing of hell coming through mouthpieces of the children of the devil who are spewing the words of their father. And I'm sorry, but it could be on both sides of the aisle. That's not what marks us. What marks us as being children of God is that we practice brotherly love. Now, don't think this brotherly love is going to be particularly loved back. Verse 12, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. The verb there actually is butchered. And he butchered his brother. Why did he butcher him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. Why did Cain kill Abel? Cain was of the devil and he hated the light. Now, it may be that Satan, obviously the instigator of this as well, may, because he doesn't know everything and he doesn't know as much as he thinks he knows, he may have thought, wait a minute, Abel may be the promised seed, so let's kill him. But Cain, he just saw the light. He watched his brother's piety. He watched his brother's obedience. He watched his brother offering a blood sacrifice for sin. And something in him says, I am not going to tolerate the light. It's like, you know, when somebody comes in, maybe you sleep in a really, really dark room and somebody comes in. in the morning your five-year-old with a flashlight say hey I got the batteries working and shines it right in your eyes okay and you just wake up and say oh I love it when people shine light on me after I've been asleep all night that's kind of what the moral equivalent here of here's here's Cain who's going about his business in the darkness and they both bring their their sacrifices and here's Abel who's obedient and humble And God accepts him, I will not tolerate this, and he lashes out and he kills his brother And that leads him in verse 13 to say, so don't be surprised brethren if the world hates you That's a hard thing to bear, isn't it? Because you really want to do the world good Okay, we don't just believe these things because we've got our preferred set of books and the world's got its preferred set of books. And we're like, hey, we've got to win an argument here. No, no, we understand that if you follow those set of books, okay, if you follow the devil and his word and his lies and his hiding and his blaming and his shell game, angel of light, let's make the utterly deadly smell like it's as fresh as a flower garden, you know, let's make hell look like heaven. Those set of books, if you believe that light, it'll lead you to hell. And so as Christians, you know, we look, oh man, we want you to come to the light and we want to do good and yet to be hated back. You know, it's a hard thing to be hated, particularly in our Facebook culture, where to be unliked or disliked or deliked or whatever they call it is like basically to be excommunicated from the world for those who, you know, are interested in those kind of things. I would actually consider that a badge of honor, but that's a different story. It's hard to... And usually the church makes two very different, you know, oh wait a minute, if the world doesn't like us right now, let's privatize our faith. And so we'll have a Sunday morning faith that we wear, but then, you know, we have a survival, a kind of a survival faith or survival persona that we do the rest of the week. And so we And it's a struggle, isn't it? Because if we know the world hates the Christian faith, and yet I'm supposed to love my enemy, that's a hard balance. Of course, the other side would say, well, you know, let's be nicer. Let's change things. Let's get rid of the offensive doctrines, and maybe the world will like us better. But we already did all that. From 1880 to about 1940, the church bent over backwards getting rid of, oh, y'all don't like Genesis? Okay, Genesis is a story. It's not God's word. Okay, we'll let y'all have science. Oh, by the way, while you're at it, we really don't like substitutionary atonement either, said the liberals in the church. Because that means that salvation is not from within. That means we need a moral. Yeah, we're fine with Jesus, but make Him a moral Jesus that just shows us to love each other. And so, oh, we'll get rid of, okay, okay, okay. We'll get rid of substitutionary atonement. Don't panic. And by the way, you've got to get rid of hell, too, because hell is... that is really offensive, because if there's a hell, that means there's a God in heaven who judges, and we can't have that, because that would mean that some people's lives on earth are bad, and that's not good, because we affirm the universal... Oh, by the way, you've got to get rid of original sin. and you've got to get rid of sin anyway, and really, and then you blow that up into post-modernism, oh no, no, there's no bad people, there's just different decisions and different definitions of what's authentic and being true. You see, pretty much, to make the world like us, what does the church have to do? it has to stop being the church and be the world. That's the only way. Jesus has already said, hey, the darkness hates the light. And I've made you children of light. So John warns them, and isn't it interesting? First century, first generation, facing a very, very, the apostles are getting older here. They're all about to die in the next five to 10 years by the time John writes this. And John says, hey, we've got to find a way to make this easier to accept. No. He says, hey, don't be surprised if the world hates you. If you try to tell it about Christ and sin and judgment, what the Holy Spirit's doing, and John, remember what Jesus said in John 16, I'll send the Holy Spirit, verse 9, 10, and 11, and He will convict it of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So again here, John says you're gonna have to, pardon me for saying it like this, but you're gonna have to be manly like Christ was. gentle, tender, loving, servant, but at the same time, this is God's truth. And we can't back down from this just because the world hates us. Now, how do we get to, how do we practice brotherly love? Well, let's look at just four things that verses 14 through 18 point out to us this morning. First of all, notice again, verse 14, we know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Is there another believer you hate? But you hold with disdain in your heart? I just wish I would never see him again. We've got to be really, really careful. Because in Jesus' mind, heart murder is pretty serious. Just like heart adultery. Just like heart covetousness. He says in verse 14 that brotherly love marks our passage from death to life. Let that sink in. Not how much money you have, not how strong you are, not how well-behaved your children are in church, none of those things. Wait a minute, love? We know we have made a passage, we have crossed over, the verb means, from death, hatred, disobedience, to life, because we love fellow Christians. Because we love them for our elder brother's sake, the Lord Jesus, and we love all those who are in Jesus' family. You know, we love our primitive Baptist brethren right across the way there. We love our Methodist brethren who love the Lord Jesus. We don't agree with everything, and we're really concerned about some of the doctrinal things that some communions of the church hold to. We love those who love the Lord Jesus, and we're bound to them. Our Baptist brethren, all of them, those who love God and who love the Lord Jesus, we love them. This is what marks God. God who saved us by loving us. When He makes us His children, He puts His own love in our hearts. So that we love one another. This is not, brethren, this is not a, okay, so now go out and do this and feel better about yourself. This is what God does. This is why what John is saying is so in your face at one level. God does this in every child of God. He makes us to love one another. Now what does that love look like? We have to stop momentarily. Go to Colossians 3 with me for just a second. We can more about this at another time, but just to see it all laid out. What would that look like? What would brotherly love look like and does it look like in our midst? Colossians 3, verse 12. Colossians 3, 12. There's several passages of scripture we could turn to, but this one's been on my mind much the last several months. Colossians 3, 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, the chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, Okay, that's a bowel word. Okay, we don't like bowel words, but it means deep, visceral, gut, compassion toward each other. Kindness can mean gentleness, goodness, humility. Okay, we pass over that when humility. Prefer others to myself. You take the last cookie. Okay, oh that trash bag next Sunday night, it's leaking out everywhere and it looks really delicious. Okay, let me take that out for you. Okay, that kind of lowly, oh, you mean like the Lord Jesus who didn't say, mm, let him do that. Hey, I'm waiting on which one of y'all is gonna do the serving. No, he did it in lowliness. Meekness is humility teachable. Long-suffering, I really don't like that person. He or she really gets on my nerves. You wanna get over people getting on your nerves? Just remember how much you get on God's nerves. I'm just being perfectly honest. I mean, if we were looking at it from a purely human perspective, just think how much you get on God's nerves. Now, again, I'm not saying that because I know secret things about anybody. I'm talking about myself, how much I get on God and He just overlooks it. He knows Psalm 103. He knows our frame. I'm sorry, that must be me. He knows our frame that we're but dust. Do you remember that about other people? Well, I expect that you would. Yeah, but I'm only a dust clot and so are you. I'm redeemed and I want to do better. But how about a little compassion within the body of Christ? How about a little patience within our own family? Bearing with one another? What? Start stepping on each other? Yeah, but you don't know how long I've borne this. How long has God borne you? You don't know how long I've put up with Him. How long has God put up with you? Yeah, but I'm not God. Yeah, but he'll help you if you're his child. Bearing with one another, okay. Forgiving, now that puts a difference. Not only am I supposed to, I like, actually, I will bear it a little bit because I'll kind of pull it out when I need it, okay. Yeah, you asked me to forgive you this time, but did you forget the last 10 times? Okay, I've already put up with this so long, I'm in saint status. Okay, but forgiveness means what? Forgiveness means to put away. Forgiveness doesn't mean, well, I'll bring it out. I reserve the right, yes, I'll forgive you because I'm so magnanimous, and I'm just a bigger person, but I reserve the right to bring it out again later. No, no, God does not, again, as we said last week or the week before, if the Lord, you ask forgiveness for something today, and you're very convicted, and maybe you're broken, and you cry, and you ask forgiveness, and you come to Him through the Lord Jesus, and He says, I'll freely forgive you, He knows six weeks from now, six hours from now, six minutes from now, okay, you may commit another form of that sin in your attitude, and He doesn't say, eh, I don't think I'm gonna forgive you, until you're perfect. We'd all be in hell. We forgive. We put away. He says, if anyone has a complaint against any, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Anybody got a complaint against anybody? How about your own family? How about here? I really, I got it. I've got a case here. I got a case. Well, God had a case against you, but he laid it on Christ. And if there are things that need to be dealt with, we need to deal with it in a God-honoring way and bring it to each other's attention. But the point here is, as God forgave us in Christ, we put away our complaint. Keep going, we're not done. And above all things, okay, I'll do all that. Okay, I'll bear with it. I'm a magnanimous, I'm a big person. I'll forgive. I won't bring it up again, at least out loud, okay? I'll let go of my complaint, but above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. He goes higher. Love is, now you gotta do good. You gotta think good thoughts. Think positive thoughts. Think God-honoring thoughts. As God thinks about us, his thoughts toward us are good and not evil. Again, meditate on that passage later, but back to 1 John 3. This is what marks our passage from death to life. Now, what's the ultimate motivation? Look in verse 16. We ought to really just stop here. John just throws this in. By this we know love because he laid down his life for us and we ought also to lay down our lives for one another. So here we've got a defining mark is brotherly love but here's our discipleship the way Jesus laid down his life for us. Look in Philippians 2, I don't know where else to go. My Sunday school class, apologies this morning, we were already here, but we will look at this again. I mean, how did Jesus lay down his life for us? Do you see how different we are from Seneca? And the cynicism, and the world's disdain, and the mockery, and the just, you know, looking down on, you know, the human folly and the human, how different? Look at Christ. Philippians 2. As he begins by saying, therefore, if any consolation in Christ, if any comfort in love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy, be like-minded. Having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, sounds great. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition because I want to be recognized, or vain glory because I'm so great. But in lowliness of mind, think small of yourself, Let everybody esteem others higher, better than themselves. Let each of you look not out only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. Okay, sounds like a t-shirt. Verse five. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, because it just cuts against the grain of our fallenness, not to be recognized, to take out the trash and not get a gold star, to have an opinion and not have it respected, to make ourselves low and unrecognized as long as God is honored and others are served. to look out for others better than for me? The other people and what happens to my wife, my husband, my children are more important than I am and so I have to give up my desires even if I really, really love them. Because I have to put others first. How? Verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. I need to be changed, don't I? Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who? Being in the form of God. did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. He was already everything God was, so he didn't have to grasp after equality with God. Recognize me, look at me, love me. But what did he do? Verse seven, he made himself of no reputation, nothing. And taking the form of a bond servant, remember in those days a bond servant had no rights. If you displeased your master, you would die. If you raised a hand against your master, not only would you die, but every slave in that middle or upper class Roman household would be put to death within the hour. You had no rights. You had no time. When the clock said six, you didn't stop. If your master wanted to abuse you, you had to let your master abuse you. Because if you didn't, he could kill you. He took the form of a slave. and coming in the likeness of men as if that's some great shake. So this is further of his humility. He was God himself and instead he came like us and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Again, this is the kind of love that obviously saved the world, and it's the kind of love that will confront the world today, a love like Christ, a love in our families you want to secure your children. The opposite of it is arrogance. The opposite of it is meism. I'm a real man. I stand for my rights, doggone it. Instead of, let me be like Christ. and prefer others to myself doesn't mean I'm a wimp, it doesn't mean I negotiate truth, but it means that my attitudes, my expectations, the way I treat and serve others in my home, it's not all about me. My home may be my castle, but that means everybody in the castle, I'm a servant of everybody so that I can be like my master and have this mind in me. Jesus says that's your model for love. Not to sit back and give orders and pontificate and tell everybody else how they need to submit to you. but to take the lowest place and be a servant for God, his glory, his truth. But this is the mark of discipleship. And by the way, so we don't get lost in the clouds. I know we need to move to our conclusion. He says in verses 17 and 18, let me boil it down for you real practical. Verse 17, if your brother needs something, give it to him. Okay, if somebody, Notice, interesting, he says in verse 17, if you see, if you have something, if you have some of this world's good and you see your brother in need and you shut up your heart, again, another bowel word in our text, you shut up your bowels. I'm a little scroogeous here. He or she would not be in that condition if they not make these really bad decisions and so yeah we're just gonna know. If you've got something like the early church and your brother or sister need it, it's more important than your retirement account, your savings plan, you give it to them just like they did in the early church. We may come to that again. It will be a great blessing if God does bring us to that again. A different kind of blessing, admittedly, but a blessing where we are taught in practice to love. Verse 18, because he says, don't just love in word or deed. John Bunyan said about that verse, many, many Christians practice love like Judas. It's a flick of the tongue on the cheek of Jesus. But very few, as we're told, not just in words, oh, I love you, love you, brother, praying for you, love you, brother, okay, thinking about you, brother. No, love in deed, in action, and love sincerely, because it's your heart. Now, how in the world, I'm gonna focus on that last word, and we'll be done this morning, how do I get brotherly love like this? The sincere love, because quite frankly, again, I'm speaking here not according to truth, a little bit cynically for just a minute, okay? I'm really smarter than other people, and they, you know, they don't respect my opinion. I just have brotherly love. I mean, I like Christians, but it's kind of like being in a cattle car, because, you know, I'm better, and I know more, and I'm smarter, and if everybody would just do it like me, nobody would have any problems. That's kinda how we live, or think, some of us do, instead of putting on this one-anothering, this brotherly love, this treating one another as the brothers and sisters of Christ. How do I get brotherly love? Let me suggest three things quickly. One, you gotta come to Jesus and be made new. Because brotherly love is not a sentiment, it's not a, You know, okay, give me these three things and I'll go do them. Hallelujah. Now I love my brothers. As everybody backs away in sheer fear like they would from a barking Doberman. Okay, everybody, don't you see I love you? Okay, that's not, okay, I've got to have a new heart. That's the whole point of John 3, 1 through 18 to this point. True religion is not something that we generate by following formulas, following rules, having personality tests to find out where we click and reach our ultimate potential. That's a naturalized, satanic religion. True religion is when God gives us a new heart and so we love one another with a pure heart fervently. So we've got to get a new heart. So I encourage you, come to Jesus for that heart. Repent of your lovelessness. See your lovelessness for what it is. Are you a cynical person? Are you a mocking person? Do you look down your nose at other believers and the way they live and decisions that they make? When you're on the playground as your kid and you're the biggest and the strongest and the fastest, yeah, when they measure up to me, be careful. Satan starts sowing some seeds of his cynical, maniacal mockery sometimes very early in our lives. We need a new heart. We have to keep coming back and saying, Father, make me your child, make me more like you. And second, grow in your knowledge of Christ. That's why we read Philippians 2, read and study the life of Christ. If you're spending a lot of time right now reading ravings on the internet, there's ravings on both sides. You may think, well, my ravings are the right ravings, okay? And there may be a place for some of that, but keep in mind, you're gonna, bad company corrupts good morals. And we're not told in scripture, hey, you can have the truth and you can have it in a biting, critical, yeah, and you're right. We're told to speak the truth in love. And so make sure, along with the other stuff you're reading, make sure you're, oh, I need a heavy dose today, I need to read maybe a little bit of Robert Rollock, as we were reminded years ago, who traces the life of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Hugh Martin, The Shadow of Calvary, and other books that emphasize the true character and humility and love of Christ, because that's how all men will know that we are his disciples, not because we out-argued them, because we skewered them with our superior intellect, because we, no, it's because our own hearts are broken of their pride and of their lawlessness, and we love one another with a pure heart, fervently. By this, Jesus said, all men will know you're my disciples. Along with growing in your knowledge of Christ and love for him, pray for your brothers. Make sure you speak well of them in your heart. Make sure you don't smile publicly about them, and then when you get home, yeah, we love to pick them apart. It's a family pastime, okay? So-and-so said this, preacher said that, elder said this, so-and-so said this, which really is just a different way to build up our own sense of, yeah, I knew I was better than they were before I went to church this morning, and just being there this morning totally proved it, okay? That's not how we're supposed to We are supposed to think well of others, be kind to one another, think charitable thoughts, and if you do hear something, you're like, oh dear, I wish I hadn't heard that. Bury it before the throne of grace, if you can, and pray for them. And I would add, you know, as you're thinking about growing in grace and knowledge, 2 Peter 3.18, maybe you've got to regain your first love. Maybe the cynicism and the hate of our age. It's hard to breathe out west. I know the Disher family and others have had family members who were out there in the bad wildfires last year, and the reports are it's very difficult to breathe when there's major fires in the area. Our nation is burning with just the sulfur of hell right now. In many respects, it's hard to breathe. It's hard for love, and it's easy. Remember what Jesus said? Matthew 24, 15. Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold. He got on to the Ephesians in Revelation chapter 2. He says, hey, you guys are super smart. You've got theological schools. You test those who say they are apostles and really are not. And you've shown yourself to be completely orthodox. But let me tell you something, your heart is as cold as ice. you're making me sick because you've lost your first love which was me and God's love for you and and so in many respects I think to love one another we we need to return to Christ we need to return to him with honest confession of our sin confession of our hatefulness that we have been influenced by the the smokiness of hell blowing over our culture we've not been Christlike We need to consider, can I suggest something toward the end here? We need to consider what a terrible thing it is for a professing Christian not to love other Christians. I don't know that there's a worse sin. You might say, well, yes there are, there's a lot worse sins than that. Not when it was love that saved us on the cross. And then within our midst there to be rivalry and the desire to be heard and recognized and to be all these things that divide and this is like the ultimate insult. I loved you by laying down my life for you and serving you and yet you're gonna puff yourself up and it's all about you. I said three things, come to Christ, he's gotta give you a new heart. Second, you gotta grow in his grace and knowledge. And third, we gotta have self broken, don't we, more and more, to seek nothing for ourselves, but stand ready to serve. I don't know that I signed up for that. You know, Peter, he didn't sign up for it either, did he? Jesus came around washing feet, not mine, kid, okay? You're not touching my feet. As we've said before, I think Peter's looking at this, one, he's embarrassed. Two, if this is kingship, if this is, I've already confessed that you're the Christ, the Son of the living God, get up off the floor. This cannot be what it is to be a follower of yours, because if you do it, I got to do it. And I don't want to do it. That's not, I thought, I'm gonna sit on your right hand, I'm gonna sit on your left hand, you know, John is, and I'm gonna hold the scepter, and I'm gonna have a crowd, and everybody's gonna say, oh, Saint Peter, okay, and we're gonna build cathedrals in your honor, and wear pointy hats, and have trick-or-treat worship services, and that's kind of what I envisioned, you know, as the church, not that Peter ever thought any such thing, but that's how he's been. Instead, the Lord, Peter, If I do not wash you, if I don't cleanse you, not only do you have no part of me, but you can't follow me. You don't understand this now, you'll understand it later. Now I will say, and I know we've got to close, it is a great fight to let the mind of Christ be in you. If you've read the Gospels at all, wait a minute, you're telling me that I can't wear my rites on my sleeve? You're telling me I can't ever be tired of putting out and getting up in the middle of the night and putting up with my husband's sins and my wife's sins and yes I can confront but I've got to do it gently and wisely and I can't come up with a rap sheet that I can present to my husband on a monthly basis or my children. You mean it's not, we can't live like? No. It's a fight. And some of you who work out in the world, you see the bad side of things, you know how dog-eat-dog it is. Ravenous wolves in some places. But again, by faith in the Son of God, I'll leave you with one verse this morning, if you'll look with me in Galatians 2.20. We can put on this love by His power, Galatians 2.20. Notice where the strength comes from? And for some of us, that means we gotta work on relationships. And we have to kill and mortify pride. Galatians 2 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life. Which I now live in the flesh. Those next four words, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. How do we as Christians live? Well, I live by three principles I learned Sunday morning, put it on a coffee mug and look at it every day and I'm good to go, okay? No, no, I live by the faith. Faith is an active looking to Him. Lord, I need strength here. I want to, something's in me is fighting. I'm tired of, you know, maybe some of you served all your life and now you can't serve. And so the other side of it is, now I've got to be served and I don't like that. Whatever God calls me to do, I live by faith in Him. I have to draw it from Him. And the same is true of brotherly love and kindness. So that, let's say, In conclusion, there's one cookie at home left, okay? Mama made three dozen cookies yesterday, and you had 17, and somebody else in your home had 18, and there's one left. And even though you're the majority owner of those cookies, because you had 18, and this is a 10 and an eight-year-old boy who are both very hungry, okay, and it's not my home, okay, and there's one, one cookie left. Well, obviously you could do the fair thing and you can split it, okay, that's the legitimate option. But there's also the Christian option, okay, which is, no brother, you have it. I need the last word in the conversation. We learned that over the cookie jar, didn't we? I've gotta have the last word. I've gotta be looked at as the one who's right. I've gotta have my rights, my opinion, my feelings respected. You don't know how I feel about this. Jesus says, you don't know how I felt about Calvary, but I loved you and I gave myself for you. Now you go do the same thing and the world will know because this is not imitable. The world cannot do this. It is absolutely impossible as we are seeing today for the world, those who do not know God and who are of their father, the devil, to deny themselves and put others, it's just not possible. So let us seek to have this kind of love and for the Lord to transform us. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we do thank you for laying down your life for us. None of us has arrived where we need to be, even the Apostle Paul, and probably certainly greater than any of us, said I've not, I've not reached the goal, I've not apprehended. I'm still striving. Lord, we pray that you would work this love, this fervency, of love in us, not just a passive acceptance, okay, I've got to serve, but an active likeness to you, a heart that's not a cold heart. You know, Lord, we think we know a little bit, a little worldly-wise, and we think we know how people are. Lord, you certainly know how people are, and you sent your son anyway. And Lord Jesus, you didn't come as a cynic. You didn't come as a dissector of the follies of others to make fun of them. You came to humble yourself all the way to the cross. So please work that in us. Work it in all of us. Work it in us as fathers so that our children will see, yes, we believe the truth, but there's a fervency in the way we also want to serve that gives a vitality and a real Christ-likeness in our homes that mamas would serve, and they have so much, Lord, of the discipline that falls upon them, and in many places, the teaching, and it's easy for it to become a burden, tedious to wear them out. Please refresh them this Lord's Day with no greater privilege than to be a servant like my master. Oh, Lord, please work in us, form us. May all men know as they see the church in this land, when there is so much hate The Lord, there would be love and mercy and longsuffering in the body of Christ. Dwell in our midst, we ask, and bring your mighty love with you by which you save the world, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.