The sermon text this morning is taken from John's first epistle, 1st John, chapter 3, way towards the end of the Bible. 1st John, chapter 3, beginning at verse 10, continuing on through verse 23. Somebody's going to say to me, wait, you left off verse 24. I've said this 1,000 times, and I'll guess if the Lord blesses me, I'll get to say it another 1,000 times. The chapter divisions in the Bible, except for the Psalms and certain parts of the Book of Lamentations, are not actually in the Bible. The verse divisions are not in the Bible. So when I stop at a particular verse, I'm not breaking any rules. 1 John 3, beginning at verse 10. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. 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 have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was 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. And 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 tongue, but in deed and in love, or in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For our heart condemns us. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasant, that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, your word is truth and in some ways so very simple. The problem is we don't listen. We are so lifted up in pride that we think we know better. So humble us, oh Lord. Make us like little children and cause us to listen to your word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So I had an opportunity the other day to listen to some lectures by Dr. Stephen Baugh, who is a professor at Westminster Seminary in California. And it was a very elevated lecture, and I went up to him afterwards and we started talking about First John, you know, picking people's minds. And I said, so why does John call us so many times little children? and refer to us as children. And he said, well, I have this odd view of the book of John. I think he was being literal. And I said, what do you mean? And he said, I think he was writing to children. Because a lot of times we think of the apostles as writing to pastors, or teachers, or elders, or bishops, which isn't a word that we use, but it's in the Bible. And yeah, I am a bishop, so yeah, whatever. But he said, I think that maybe he was writing to children, because he writes in such simple language. I'm not sure that Dr. Ball is correct, but I get his point. Sometimes we try to make our faith so sophisticated that we forget what the point is. I've heard arguments about things like predestination and election, or about the dispensations, or about the return of Christ, and all these elegant arguments. And it gets so elegant and so sophisticated that sometimes I think to myself, do they believe in Jesus or do they just like to argue about theology? I think it's kind of summed up in verse 23 where he says, and this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. This is the Christian faith. to believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another. And we could go home now if you would just pay attention. But John has other things to say. In verse 10 he says, in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. And he's talking to us as children of God. In verse one he says, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, He says, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called children of God. Ah, okay, good, good, good. That we should be, and so he's talking to us as children of God. And then I'm gonna pick on the translation. And the children of the devil are manifest. I don't know why the translators chose to use a lowercase d for the word devil. The devil is a real personage. He's a real thing. And by using a lowercase d, I think maybe they were trying to imply that, well, this is just sort of a way of speaking. It's not a way of speaking. The devil is indeed very real. Now, sometimes people blame the devil for things that they themselves came up with, so let's not go there. And sometimes people talk about conspiracies that the devil has organized that don't exist. Having said that, sometimes the devil does tempt us. Jesus himself was tempted by the devil. And if you don't think that the devil can tempt you, you think you're, like, better than Jesus? Think about that for a minute. And there really are conspiracies that are organized by the devil. Not every conspiracy, not everything you see, and that's the other extreme, is organized by the devil, but he's a prowling lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he tells us how we can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. nor is he who does not love his brother." And these are really equivalents. He's saying that to practice righteousness is to love others. Oh, there's another thing here, and that's the use of the word brother. A lot of times, especially in church, we use the word brother or sister in referring only to Christians. In fact, in Mexico, we have this little trick that we use in Spanish. If somebody is a Christian, we say hermano, brother, or hermana, sister. But if somebody's not a Christian, we say senor, or senora, or senorita. And there's nothing disrespectful about saying senor, or senora, or senorita, but right away tells everybody around you that you don't think this person is a Christian. And some people look at this passage and they think, well, he's saying, well, we should love the brothers, but we don't have to love, but Jesus said, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So when he says, who does not love his brother, the apostle Peter, when he's addressing the people on the day of Pentecost, he refers to them as brethren. He's not simply referring to believers as brethren, but to everyone in the audience. And he says, this is the message that we've heard from the beginning. that we should love one another. He says this is very clear. that what we should do, we should love one another because Christ has first loved us. If you're a child of God, you're going to love others. Now, you need to ask yourself, how was this clear from the beginning? And he uses the example of Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because Cain's works were evil and Abel's works were righteous. But But how is it true that we should love one another? How is this declared to us? The fact is that there's no specific declaration at the beginning of the book of Genesis that is written down where it says that you should love one another. I believe that what he's doing is he's arguing from the nature of creation itself. Okay, as the whole world knows by now, I used to teach first grade, all of my students were Mexicans, and sometimes they'd have a fight among themselves, and after, it was reported to me from the recess, and they'd come into class, and I was told to deal with my students, and I would say to them, what language do you speak? And they'd say Spanish, and say, what country are your parents from, or are you from? They'd say Mexico. And I'd say, what color are you? And they'd all say, brown. Actually, they'd say, trigueno, but that's neither here nor there. And then I'd say, and how, if you can't get along with other Mexicans and other people who speak Spanish, and then I'd always say, do any of you speak Chinese? And I'd say it to them in Chinese and they'd all laugh. And I'd say, if you can't get along with other Mexicans, how are you going to get along with Chinese people or white people or black people? And the point I was trying to make is that if you can't get along with people like yourself, how can you get along with different people? But in a sense, that is what he is saying in this passage, that from the beginning, you've heard this message that you should love your brother. And then he uses a literal example of Cain and Abel. I mean, come on, how many brothers were there in the world at that time? Two, and one killed the other. The point being that the very nature of reality, the fact that they were brothers, should have taught them that they should love one another. And this is a lesson that we should have learned as believers in Jesus Christ. And he says, but then he says, do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. Now wait a second, where did that come from? Why should the world hate us? The world should hate us. Please listen to me. The world should hate us because we love them. The world should hate us because we love them. When they see our love, our love which is not done because we hope to convert them or because we hope to get something from them or because there's something in it for us, the world should hate us because they don't understand what love is about. Our Savior, says this in John chapter 15, verses 17 through 19. These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Listen to the connection here, because a lot of times we see these verse numbers and we forget that he's saying something that is connected. These things I command you, that you should love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, verse 19, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Dear brothers and sisters, the world should hate us. And if it doesn't, it means that we're not loving enough towards the world. Verse 14, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. Again, a lot of times we depreciate ourselves and we say that, well, you know, we're sinners, and that's true, and we are undeserving of salvation, and that's true. But as sinners who have been saved, our lives have been transformed. In Romans chapter six, verse four, the apostle says, therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Christ has changed us. He has transformed us. In verse 14, he says, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren, because our whole attitude has changed because we love the brethren. And he adds, he who does not love the brother abides in death. You're still dead in your trespasses and sins if you don't love the brother. Whoever, verse 15, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. It's fascinating to me that people have misused this passage to condemn everyone who's committed suicide. There are people who commit suicide because they are murderers. They are simply murdering themselves. And they cannot be saved because they have murdered themselves. There are also people who commit suicide because they are confused or depressed or because there are things going on in their lives. And to say that such a person cannot be forgiven is not what this verse is saying. So don't misuse the scriptures. What he is saying is that if you hate your brother, You're a murderer, and you're still dead in your trespasses and sins. But then the question remains, and we talked about this last week. What is true love? I love the English language because we basically only have one word for love. I mean, it tells you something about English. We have a broad vocabulary. I forget how many words there are in the English language. Some people say, 150,000. Some people say 300,000. I don't know. But we have one real word for love. We have some synonyms, but they're not very good. We have one word. Even Greek, which has a very limited vocabulary, has three words for love. And other languages have many words for love, kinds of love, and degrees of love. So how do you know what love is? Well, the answer is very simple. Verse 16. By this we know love. Listen. because he laid down his life for us. That's very simple. We know what love is because Jesus Christ gave up his life for us. You know, it's really easy to talk about love. It's really easy to use the words. It's really easy to speculate it. When you're in a romantic relationship, everybody says, I love you, until, you know, I love the next person. I'm sorry, but that's true. The word love is used in very ephemeral ways, in ways that really can't be nailed down. But this kind of love can be nailed down. Somebody says, you love me? Good, give me a million bucks. This never happened to me. I go to restaurants, and people who work in restaurants oftentimes are very abused by the clients. And so I try to entertain them. And they say, what would you like? And I'd say, a million dollars. And they say, well. Some of them say, no. But others say, if I had it, I'd split it with you. And I'd say, oh, that's nice. Others say, well, if I had a million bucks, I'd give you 10. You know, what I'm trying to do is get them to think about what they just said. They said, well, what can I do for you? What do you want? And I say a million bucks because it gets them distracted. So also with the word love. You can talk about love all day and all night. Do you love me? Well, yes. Are you willing to die for me? And even saying that isn't quite enough because we have the example of one of our brothers. who said that. His name was Peter. And Peter said to Jesus, if I have to die for you, I will. And then when the moment came, this little servant girl said to Peter, you were one of his. And Peter swore by the name of God, I never knew him. He never was willing to die for him. Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus didn't just say he was going to die for us. He laid down his life for us. And because this is true, those who follow Jesus, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. We should give to others. You know, I have a Spanish website. And I hate the questionnaire because they're always asking questions about tithing. And I hate those questions. Because I give them the biblical answer, yes, you should tithe. They know that. And then they argue with me. And then I tell them, you know what Jesus wants from you? And they're like, he doesn't say he wants a tithe. He doesn't want 10%. I say, that's right. You know what Jesus wants? He wants everything. He wants everything you have. And how much should you be willing to give to your brother or sister? You should not just be willing to give 10%. There are people like that. They'll love you 10%. They'll love you a tithe. And that's not what people need. What people need is true love. Somebody calls you at two in the morning and says, Steve, can I get a ride to the hospital? And you say, well, there's 911. That's not enough. If they call you at two in the morning and they say, Steve, can I get a ride to the hospital? You should say, I'm heading out the door. I'll be right there. And if you can't, tell them, look, my car is broken, but I know somebody who can. And you'll do for them as Christ would do for you. Christ laid down his life for us. And then he gives some very clear examples, and he's getting almost, well, personal. He says, but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart for him, how does the love of God abide in him? I've always lived in poor communities since I left home, and this was not an accident. I believe that the Lord has called me to live in poor communities. Of course, now I live in a wealthy community, I do, but I'm very used to going to McDonald's or Burger King or Jack in the Box and there's the guy standing out in front and he says, hey man, I'm hungry, can you help me? And I think of this verse, and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him. Now does that mean that I give him what he asks for, which is money? The answer is no. I help him. I don't shut up. Because you see, actually giving the guy a buck is a good way of just getting rid of the guy. And I say to him, well, what do you need? And they're like, well, I'm hungry. I said, well, oftentimes, especially when I was in East Los Angeles, I would say, well, would you be willing to work? I have trash in the empty lot across the street, and I'd like you to pick it up, and I'll pay you. We started at four bucks an hour, and I think when I left, it was six bucks an hour. Okay, this is a long time ago. But I would pay them to pick up trash. And you say, well, why didn't you just give them the money? Well, because I wanted to love them. And sometimes I'd sit down with them and I'd say, so what's the problem? And they'd tell me the problem and I'd tell them solutions. I'd tell, look, you go to Home Depot, you stand out in front, you'll get a job. And they'd be like, yeah, but, but, but, but, and they'd come up with excuses and I can't get there. I said, I'll take you. You see, what he says is not that we should give to everybody everything that they asked for, but what does he say? Whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him. because you should be willing to give to everyone what they need. How does the love of God abide in him if he shuts up his heart? And I understand, too, the phenomena of shielding yourself. I've been asked for money so many times. A lot of times I think, ah, they're drunk, they're a drug user, they don't want to work. And then you begin to treat everybody the same, and everybody's not the same. And even if they are a drunk or a drug user, Who says that you can't be the one that God is going to use to help them get out of that? And it's not necessarily, in fact, I would suggest that it's not primarily by giving them something, but by giving yourself. And so he says, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The truth is that we should be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when we are transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we will live as those who have been made new creatures. In Romans chapter 12, verse 2, he puts it this way. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Listen to what it says at the end of the verse, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. When your mind is renewed, when your life is changed, you can prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In Titus 3 verses 4 through 7, He says much the same. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. If this has happened in our lives, then how can we shut up our heart? How can we not have the love of God in us? We have to love in, not just in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth. And so he tells us, and by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him because the Lord has transformed our lives. Now there are times that our heart is going to condemn us. If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. In other words, sometimes you're going to feel badly and your conscience is going to accuse you, but you have to remember the words of Jesus in John chapter 8. He says, if you abide in my word, you're my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If you're abiding in the word, you're abiding in the truth of God, and if you're abiding in the truth of God, you're free because Jesus Christ has made you free. And so he says, beloved, if our heart does not condense, we have confidence before God. This is an amazing statement. How can you have confidence before God? You're a sinner, you're undeserving of his grace. but our heart does not condemn us because we know the truth and the truth has made us free. And then he says, and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. We sang that hymn earlier today. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it will be opened unto you. For everyone who asks, receive. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now, the danger here is that we begin to think, even though I just quoted that verse from Titus, we begin to think, well, then our good works save us. No, this is his commandment, that we believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another. The two can't be separated. There are those who try so hard to love everyone around them, but they get frustrated because it doesn't seem to work. But it doesn't work because they haven't first believed in the name of Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you have to love others. Now when I say you have to love others, I want you to be careful. When I say you have to love others, it's not that there's a requirement. It's not that there's a commandment. That's true. But you don't love them because there's a requirement or because there's a commandment. You love them because Jesus Christ has changed your heart, because you have come in faith to him, because he has given himself for you and transformed your heart and your mind. And because Jesus has saved you, you can't help it. You have to help. others. You have to love others because Christ and his love dwells in you because the Holy Spirit has transformed your heart and mind and now the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Amen. Let's pray. O Lord, these are words of encouragement and also words of warning. But we give you thanks that this is the work that you have done, that you have transformed us because you have made us new creatures through the rebirth in the power of your Holy Spirit. And we pray now that we would live as those who have been transformed, that we would live as those who are no longer of this world, but as those who belong to Jesus Christ. We pray that we would be assured by these words and that we'd cast all our cares upon you. We pray this now in Jesus' name, amen.