We've all heard that children of God are known by the love they have for one another. But what does that really look like? Hi, this is the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. In our 1 John study, we're contrasting the children of God versus the children of the devil. We'll see today that one of the most profound ways children of God love each other is how they treat the teachings of God.
In other words, not spreading false teachings about the person and work of Christ is the primary way believers love one another. There's a lot more John Fonbuel wants to cover in this short series called Love One Another. Here's Part two Turn with me to 1 John chapter 3. We're coming back to verses 11 to 24 this week. Let's just back up for a second and look at some context of 1 John to help you get the big picture.
This is what John is doing here. John is not asking his little children. He's not asking his little children to test. themselves to determine the validity of their claim to salvation. He's not doing that in this letter.
However, he does exhort his little children to test the claims of the secessionists, these former church members who left the church and who have come back into the church to try to deceive them. As an example, look at 1 John chapter 4, look at verse 1. Look what John says to his little children there in chapter 4, verse 1. He calls them. Beloved, he says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.
He's talking about these false teachers, these we call secessionists, chapter 2, verse 19, these former church members who have left the church and come back to deceive them. He tells his little children, test their claims. He says, test the spirits to see whether they're from God because He says, many false prophets have gone out into the world. He calls these former church members who have come back false prophets. He calls them antichrists.
We'll come back to that. But to help his children test the claims of these secessionists. Look at 1 John chapter 3, verses 11 through 24. Here John sets forth three contrasts between what he calls the children of God and the children of the devil. Because he's trying to assure his readers, his little children, of their salvation.
Look at the first contrast that we looked at last week, chapter 3, verses 11 through 13. This is a contrast that he says. He says the children of God love fellow believers in the church. In contrast, he says, the children of the devil hate fellow believers in the church. And he says in chapter 3, verse 10, this distinction, this contrast is obvious.
In verse 12, John tells us what it means to love fellow believers in the church. He spells it out negatively. Look at verse 12. He says, Don't be like Cain. Right?
Why? Because he wasn't the evil one. He slew his brother. He murdered his brother. He hated his brother.
And John says, these secessionists, these former church members, now trying to deceive. He says, They're just like Cain. They're the epitome of the sin of rebellion. Because that's the sin that John is addressing here, the sin of rebellion, rejecting Christ, rebelling against Christ, hating Christ, hating Christ's people in the church. And John compares these secessionists to Cain.
He says they're filled with hatred for unbelievers in the church, and they're guilty of spiritual murder because of their false teaching. John says, look at this contrast. When you see this contrast, little children, you can be assured that you're a child of God because you love each other. That's what he's talking about here. Look at the second contrast, verses 14 and 15.
He says, he explains why the children of God. Laha of fellow believers in the church. In contrast to that, he explains why the secessionists Hey fellow believers in the church. And he says, we know that's assurance, that's confidence, that's a confident assertion. He says, little children, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren.
He who does not love abides in death. Fifteen says, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And he says, and look again, he tells them, he says, you know what they know. No murderer has eternal life abiding in him. He could contrast death and life.
He contrasts love and hate. He puts death and hate together, and he puts love and life together.
So what is John doing in this verses? This is what John's doing. He's contrasting believers with unbelievers. People who are not Christians. Look at verse 14.
He tells his readers why they love believers in the church. Verse 14, he says, Look, he says, the children of God love fellow believers in the church. Why? Because they've passed from death to life. This is a powerful statement that he makes in love for fellow believers in the church is a characteristic, he says, of those who have passed from death to life.
This statement that he makes raises lots of questions. Here's the first question that maybe you thought of. Aren't Christians supposed to be loving to everybody? Aren't we supposed to love everybody? Right.
The answer is yes, but Look what John says here. He says that the love of Christians is seen not just in this general type of love for all mankind. They have that, but look what he says. It's seen in this particular love for fellow believers in the church. I think this is such a strong exhortation for us post-COVID.
Because what we have seen post-COVID is 40% across the board in our country, 40% across the board of believers have left the visible church. completely just walked away and left it. And John says that the characteristic of those who have passed from death to life is this: listen carefully, that they love fellow believers. in the church. Jesus' command that John talks about to love believers in the church.
It comes from his teaching at the Last Supper in John 13, verses 34 through 35, which we saw last week. He says this. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another. 35 He says, By this, all will know that you're my disciples. How?
If you have love for one another, fellow believers in the church is what he's talking about. Following Jesus' teaching, John says the reason why I love fellow believers in the church is because of this reason, they have passed out of death. into life. Which raises this second question. What does it mean to pass out of death into life?
What does that mean? If you can, turn over to John chapter 5, look at verse 24. Because this is where John gets this from his gospel. John chapter 5, verse 24. Listen to what Jesus says.
He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word. And believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed. Out of death into life. And this is where John gets this from, from the teaching of Jesus. And so to pass out of death into life refers to those who have escaped judgment, those who have escaped condemnation.
Why? John says, because they've come to know God through the incarnate Christ. They've come to know God through Jesus who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, come in human flesh. And because of this belief in Jesus, The incarnate Son of God in human flesh, John says, You have escaped condemnation, you have escaped judgment. This is what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8, verse 1.
He says, because of your faith. Faith in Christ, he says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so, contrary to their claims, John says that the secessionists. who claim to know God. Right.
He says they don't know God. Why? Because they've rebelled against and rejected Christ. Jesus as the Christ. Jesus as the Messiah.
Jesus as God come in human flesh. And John says, Therefore, they abide in death, which is evidenced by the fact that they hate fellow believers in the church.
Now, some background is helpful here so you understand what is taking place. What it appears is, is that John was addressing his letter to some early Jewish Christians who had just gone through a church split. And the church was split over this particular argument. Is Jesus truly God in human flesh? The apostles preached that Jesus is the Son of God coming in human flesh, that He's Christ the Messiah.
But the secessionists said, No, He's not. We've come to know God in a Deeper way, in a greater way, apart from Christ coming in human flesh. And so the church split over this. Because this group of Jews in the church couldn't be convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. And so, what did they do?
They left the church. Why, for example, in 1 John 2, verse 18, Jesus calls their rejection of Jesus when he says that reject Jesus as Christ. As the Christ, the Messiah, he refers to them as Antichrist. Why? Because they're against Christ.
They're guilty of the sin of rebellion against Christ. They have rejected Christ. And this is what we have to understand. If there's something, if there's anything central to being a Christian, it's this. It is confessing, it's receiving, believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
And John teaches here very clearly that if you reject that claim, Jew or Gentile? He says you place yourself outside of Christianity. He says to reject Jesus as the Christ, God in human flesh, is to demonstrate that you abide in death, that you're in a state of spiritual death. And that's the background that Jonah is addressing here. And he's assuring his little children that they have passed out of death and alive.
They're free of condemnation. Because they have trusted in Jesus as come in human flesh to save them from their sins. And he says the evidence and the fruit of that is this: He says that they love their fellow believers in the church. And so he confidently says, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He's saying, Little children, he says, Look, little children, we the apostles with you.
We love each other. And this is evidence of the fact that we have all passed from death into life. And he says, we have passed from death into life because of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, come in human flesh. But second, look at the contrast in verses 14 and 15 with the devil, the secessionist. John says the children of the devil Hate believers in the church.
Why? Because they abide in death. Verse 14, he says, He who does not love abides in death. Verse 15, he says, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And John says to his little children, you know that what?
No murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And John says, hate for our fellow believers in the church is characteristic of those who are. Um Hiding in death.
So again, what is John doing? He's describing the secessionist. He is providing a description of what it is to be an unbeliever. John says that their lack of love for fellow believers in the church demonstrates that they have not passed out of death in their life, but that yet they abide in death. What is John doing?
He's assuring his little children. With this contrast, by showing them this confirmation of this fallen spiritual state of their former church members who are now trying to deceive them. Look at verse 14 again. He says, He who does not love abides in death. What does it mean to abide in death?
Well, it's very simple. It refers to the spiritual condition in which all of us are born. This fallen spiritual condition to which. All of us that were born and conceived in this world is called original sin. This is what David laments in Psalm 151, verse 5.
Listen to what he says. He says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. And so after this, after the fall in the Garden of Eden, Not just at naive, but Every human being. is spiritually net in sin. abides in death, and that's what John is talking about here.
In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, prior to our passing from death into life, listen to what the Apostle Paul says. He says, and we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Wasn't the result of being dead? Listen very carefully. The result of being dead in sin.
Is this, is that all of us are born into this world inclined to hate God and to hate our neighbor. This is what the Apostle Paul says in Titus chapter 3, verse 3. Listen to how he describes our spiritual state prior to our conversion. He says, for we too were once prior to our conversion, foolish. Disobedient.
Misled. Enslave to various passions and desires. He's going to spend our life. In evil and envy. And he says this: hateful.
and hating One another. Prior to our conversion, All of us. Are inclined because of this fallen condition of abiding in death to be hateful and to hate each other. That's what's wrong with our world. That's why, when you turn on the news every evening, you see report after report after report of what?
People being hateful and hating each other. It shouldn't surprise us because this is what it means to abide in death. And John says, the mark of those who abide in death. He says, Is they have hatred for fellow believers in the church? Look at verse 15.
He just. He reinforces what he says in verse 14. He says he says it Everyone who hates his mother is a murderer. And he says, and little children, look, you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. What is John referring to?
Back to verse 12. He's referring back to Cain in verse 12. Where Cain talks about murdered his brother Abel. He says, These secessionists who teach you false gospels, false truth, or falsehoods about Christ, the person and work of Christ. He says they're just like they're just like Cain, who hated his brother Abel.
and murdered him. Why? Because the secessionists are consumed with these murderous intentions to deceive God's people. John says that repeatedly through this letter. And John says they do this because they abide in death.
They're enslaved to their fallen nature. And what is the fallen nature? is inclined to hate God. and hate their neighbor. And John says that is exactly what these secessionists are doing.
Chapter 3, verses 16 through 24, when we get to it, he says, as their hearts are closed to the needs of fellow believers in the church, they don't care about the needs of fellow believers in the church. In chapter 3, verse 10, he says this contrast is obvious, it is clear. They don't have eternal life abiding in them, which raises this last question. What does John mean by eternal life? What is eternal life?
Go back to chapter one. Verses 1 through 4 because John begins and he concludes his letter by talking about eternal life. Look at chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. He tells us this, he says, This is the apostolic eyewitness account of Jesus come in human flesh. All right, this is what your whole salvation is based upon.
And John says, in the apostles' eyewitness account of Christ, he says, what was from the beginning, that is his incarnation, what was from the beginning, what we have heard. What we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at. And touch with our hands. Look at this phrase: concerning the word of life. And he says, verse 2, and he says, and this life was manifested, and we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you.
Look at this, what do they proclaim? The eternal life which was with the Father. And he says, was manifested to us. That's incarnation. John describes Jesus Uh three different ways.
He says he's The word of life. He says he's the life. And then he says he is the eternal life. Why? Because he says he was with the Father.
What is the Father? The Father has life in himself, and the Father gives the incarnate Son to have life in himself. What is John saying eternal life is? John is saying eternal life is Jesus come in human flesh. Eternal life is tied up in the incarnate Son of God who has been manifested to us that we can see him, we can touch him, we can examine him, we can look upon him.
He, this eternal Son come in human flesh, he's eternal life. It's a person. And that's how John begins this letter. Look how he concludes in the letter. Look at chapter 5.
This key text, chapter 5, verses 11 through 13, and verse 20. This is what John says. He says, The testimony is this. What testimony? The apostolic eyewitness account of Christ coming in human flesh.
The testimony is this: that God has given us eternal life. Look at this, and this life is in his son. Verse 12: He who has a son has a life. He who does not have the son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Verse 20, he says, we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And he says confidently to his little children, we are in him who is true, in his son, Jesus Christ. Listen, this is the true God and eternal life. And so John concludes his letter. Just how he began his letter, how, by stating that the eternal life is found in Jesus Christ, who has come in human flesh.
In 1 John 2, verse 25, John tells us how we can receive this eternal life. He says that eternal life is promised to those who believe in him. And listen, when God the Father gives us eternal life, He gives it to us through His Son. By faith. Trusting, receiving, confessing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, come in human flesh for our salvation.
And John says, to believe the Son is to have eternal life. To reject the Son, to rebel against the Son, is to not have eternal life, is to, he says, abide in death. And so in contrast, the secessionist, John says, reject Jesus as the Christ, who is the God and eternal life. Therefore, John says they abide in death. And John says, little children, look at this contrast.
What is your confession of faith? Who are you trusting in for your salvation? Who are you confessing as your Savior? Is it Jesus the Christ the Messiah come in human flesh? And he says, if that's so, he says, I've written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, coming human flesh, so that you can know that you have eternal life.
And so the test that I was talking about doesn't apply to you, it applies to those who reject Christ.
So, as we consider John's explanation for why the children of God love fellow believers. All right, and why the children of the devil, the secessionists, hate fellow believers? We have to keep in mind this larger context in the letter. Every contrast that John makes in chapter three. Is intended to make a distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil.
Why? So that you can have assurance of faith, not to test the claim of the validity of your faith, because your faith is in Christ. It is to test the false claim of the secessionist whose faith is not in Christ. Come in human flesh. Do you see the difference?
And so, here, listen carefully. Here's the important lesson for us. If this is for our assurance, This is the lesson for us to take away today. John says the evil ones trying to deceive them. If the enemy of our faith, and the evil one, the devil, If false prophets, antichrists, false teachers in the church...
If they can't keep us from trusting in Christ for eternal life, This is what will happen. They will seek to make you doubt that you have it. That's what's going on here. John is assuring his children with these confident words of assertion. He says, We know, we know, little children, we know.
He's confident about their faith in Christ. He's not doubting their faith in Christ. They're doubting their faith in Christ because of the deception of these false teachers. And John says, little children, If the enemy can't keep you from trusting Christ for eternal life, They're going to seek to deceive you to make you doubt it. Say it like this: if the enemy cannot keep you in a state of spiritual death, What happens?
They'll make you feel like you're walking in spiritual death. What is it? Here's the question as we finish. What is it to lack assurance? What does it feel like to lack assurance?
Why does John want to assure his little children? What is it like to lack assurance? Lacking assurance feels like spiritual death. That's what it feels like. Lacking assurance makes it feel like you're still under the condemnation and judgment for your sin, that you're not in favor with God the Father, that you're not his child, that chapter 3, verse 1, that this great love that the Father has for you isn't for you.
If the enemy can't keep you from receiving God the Father through the incarnate God the Son, he'll make you feel like you haven't done it. He'll make you think that it's not true for you. You see, you know, all of us, as David laments in Psalm 51, verse 5. Confess this. We are brought forth in iniquity and conceived in sin.
But this is what John is teaching. This is the good news and the assurance and the comfort that John teaches us: is that those who trust in Jesus, who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, come in human flesh. He says, As you have passed from death to life, you have escaped death, you have escaped judgment, you have come unto the favor of God the Father. See how great a love the Father has loved us that we should be called the children of God and such. We are.
And what is it to have eternal life? To have eternal life is to not perish, the comfort words that we're about to hear at Holy Communion. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should what? Not Perish. But have everlasting life, have eternal life.
What is it to have eternal life? It's not, it's eternal life as this, and we don't have to endure God's wrath. Why? 1 John chapter 2. Mercy one and two of my little children.
I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He Himself is a propitiation for our sins. The word propitiation means that Jesus, through His death on the cross, has forever exhausted every last drop of wrath against you forevermore. And again, this is the comfortable words that we hear each week in Holy Communion as we come to receive Christ through these means of grace.
He comforts our hearts. And he assures our hearts, telling us from outside of us what we cannot convince ourselves of that this is actually true. That I'm under the favor of God the Father, that I have escaped condemnation for all my sins, that when I sin as a believer, I'm not condemned. This is what eternal life is. Eternal life, John chapter 5, verse 24, Jesus says, is to not come under God's judgment.
This is the third Sunday of Advent, which is about its emphasis upon judgment. And John the Baptist preparing the way for people to receive the Lamb of God. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You don't have to come into judgment. John the Baptist was pointing people to Jesus.
That's what the scriptures were about this morning that we heard read to us. And Jesus gives us this promise in John 5, verse 24. That if you just trust in his son, come in human flesh. You don't have to come under dog under God's judgment. John 5, 29, if you're trusting in Jesus come in human flesh, you don't have to experience a resurrection, Jesus says, to condemnation.
Question 36 in the Heidelberg Catechism asked this question. What benefit do you receive from the holy conception and birth of Christ? I just went over this question with my kids at the dinner table the other night. When we talked about it, it was a lot of fun. And I said, What was miraculous about Jesus and what was just the Common.
Right? Ordinary, not miraculous. And so we were talking about that and listen carefully. Everybody talks about the miraculous birth of Jesus. No, the birth of Jesus was very common.
It was very ordinary. He came through a birth canal just like you and me. Do you know what was miraculous? It was his conception. By the power of the Holy Spirit.
In Mary's virgin womb. That is miraculous. But what's the benefit? What's the benefit? That's what John's talking about here.
Jesus, the Son of God, has appeared to us in human flesh. Right? To be a propitiation for our sins, to help to save us from. Abiding in death or to come into life.
So, what's the benefit of Jesus being conceived and mourn? Coming into this world, what's the benefit of that? Listen carefully. This is the benefit that Jesus is our mediator. and with his innocence and perfect holiness hovers in the sight of God.
My sin. in which I was conceived. I want you to listen to David's lament. And I want you to listen to this answer side by side. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin, and my mother conceived me.
I'm spiritually dead in my trespasses and sins, David says. I'm dead to the life of God. I'm under condemnation. I'm not under favor. I'm under judgment.
John says, This is why Jesus has appeared, what we have seen, we have touched, we have looked at, concern this word of life that has been manifested to us. Jesus has appeared to us so that with his innocence and perfect holiness, he can cover in the sight of God my sin in which I was conceived. Amen. Covers all of my sin, all of your sin in which we were conceived. None of it is held against us ever again.
None. And so John says, this is where we find our assurance. In the direct act of faith, what? In God's promise to us in the gospel. What is it?
1 John chapter 2, verse 25. This is the promise. This is the promise which He Himself made to us. Eternal life. Escape judgment.
Escape condemnation. Be brought into favor, be received by the Father, receive love, have an eternal future with a great inheritance, loved just as Jesus is loved, given the same title that Jesus has, which is called Beloved. Jesus, beloved of the Father.
Now John says, Beloved, he addresses his little children as a beloved. He says, You are under the favor of God now, you have eternal life. You have it. Why? Because you've not, like the secessionist, you've not rejected Jesus, come in human flesh.
who has revealed the love of the Father to you. You have confessed him, you have received him, and you can be assured that this is his promise for you: eternal life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the promise of your Son. We thank you for this great gift that you have given to us in your Son, Jesus appearing in human flesh through his presence.
Perfect. Innocence and His perfect holiness, He covers our sin in your sight, in which we were conceived. And we thank you that we have this great assuring truth that through simple faith in Jesus. The incarnate Son of God, Messiah, come in human flesh. He is the propitiation for our sins.
We thank you for that great promise that you've given to us today, and I pray each of us here today wouldn't leave here with the comforting truth of knowing that we have escaped condemnation. That we've come into favor with you forevermore. For the sake of your Son, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the Hemi Proclaim podcast.
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