Walking in Love & Discernment

0:38We should not be like Cain, who also the evil one, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deed were evil, and his brothers righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

1:14By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our life for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's good and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, How does God's love abide in Him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him.

1:46For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandment and do what pleases Him. And this is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us. Whoever keeps His commandment abide in God, and God in Him. And by this, we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us.

2:33Beloved, do not believe every Spirit, but test the Spirit to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the Spirit of God. Of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming, and now is in the world already.

3:06Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. This is God's word, you may be serious.

3:46Everyone that hates his brother is a murderer, putting spirits to the test, the coming of the Antichrist. It looks like we're getting ready to go through a very sensational passage this morning. Maybe we get to take a little walk on the wild side. Nah. Actually, this passage is misleading. This passage, when understood in its context, is not sensational. It is actually quite practical. Given that many of us have been in and out across the summer, I think it's necessary for us to. Establish the context of this book, or maybe we will call it a working hypothesis of the events that surround the writing of this book to better understand this passage.

4:43So, if one assumes that there's a close relationship between John's gospel, the fourth gospel, and the three letters that John writes, we can surmise that there was a community of churches basically positioned in and around the city of Ephesus. These churches all were very staunch followers of the Apostle John. There was a relationship between John and these churches. And these churches in and around Ephesus, which is in the Roman province of Asia, was also, if you remember from some earlier sermons, the second largest city in the whole Roman Empire. Very influential, very powerful. Sometime after these churches right around Ephesus had received an early form of the fourth gospel, one of the first transcripts, disagreement arose within this community. Some of the members in this community took on beliefs that were completely different than what the Apostle John had set forth and what had been set forth. And the fourth gospel. In essence, these people began to question the person and work of Christ, and this was not acceptable to John. These individuals who departed from the church to take on a different followed, if you go back in history, a prophet called Cyrinthus. We won't get tied up into his history, but it is a Cyrinthian type of Gnosticism.

6:26John, in the first epistle, calls these people who have departed from the community antichrists in chapter 2, verses 18 through 19, false prophets in 4, 1 through 3, and those from the world, as we just read, in 4:5. For purposes of us, we're going to give them a title. I'm going to call them secessionists. These are individuals who were not content to keep their beliefs to themselves. Instead, they formed their own churches. They organized a group of itinerant preachers who circulated back amongst those churches around Ephesus and propagated their beliefs with a view to winning them over to their Cyrinthian theology.

7:19That is the context. For the secessionists, this is important. The most important Christological event was Jesus's. Baptism, when the Spirit descends on this human named Jesus, he's Jesus. Now the Spirit descends on him, and he becomes the Christ. And the Spirit remains with him. They then also de-emphasized not only the incarnation, but Jesus' death on the cross, because they could not imagine that Christ would be crucified. So they believed that Jesus was only the Christ between the baptism of the Spirit and right before his crucifixion. Because they did not believe that the incarnation was necessary. It wasn't necessary that God, the Son, comes in the flesh. We'll speak to this a little bit more. And that his death on the cross was necessary. So that's their theology. So as a result of this confusion caused by the secessionists in this community of churches around Ephesus, the believers began to question their own faith.

8:40They said, Do we really know God? Are we experiencing really eternal life? Are we really in the truth? Thus, John's purpose in writing this epistle was not to correct the secessionists, it was not written. To them. John's purpose was to bolster the assurance of his readers by two strategies. One, to show the secessionist claims are false and to show his readers that they are in the truth. I need to emphasize this again. When John is speaking about his opponents, it's not some unnamed they.

9:26He is referencing this breakoff group from these churches who have walked away from the theology proclaimed by the apostles, by John Himself, and the fourth gospel. Keep that in mind as we go through this. Okay, so that's our working hypothesis. What we now need to understand is John is going to explain some differences. So starting in 1 John 3:11, we will begin seeing once again the spiraling structure. Alan called it circular. I'll call it spiraling. The spiraling structure, it's one to six after the other.

10:06Spiraling structure, because he's going to revisit over and over again the same themes. As Bo mentioned, in this book, John sets forth moral tests. Are you obedient to God's word? He sets forth social tests. Do you love God? The brothers. He sets forth doctrinal tests. What do you think about Jesus? In order to help the believers in these churches identify who are and who are not the true believers. He wants to explain the differences between what he and the other apostles have taught and what the secessionists have taught when it comes to obeying or not obeying the apostles' truth, loving and not loving the brothers, and the incarnation, just as an example. So, as such, we're going to look once again at what we've covered earlier in this spiraling structure. We're going to look at the second social test and the second doctrinal test. I'm going to call it the test of love and a test of discernment. So, first, let's look at the test of love. If we were standing back and look at 1 John 3:11 through 24 at a 50,000-foot level, we will see that brotherly love is first illustrated negatively by the example of Cain, who murders his brother. It's positively set forth by the example of Christ, who lays down his life for us. Each of these illustrations is kind of added with a corollary. Believers should not be surprised that they're going to be hated by people like Cain, and that they have to avoid the very same feeling. Of hatred, which are tantamount to murder. In the same way, the example that Christ sets positively should lead us to have a practical love, which goes beyond feelings, to share costly sharing of our possessions with needy brothers. Then he will finish this section up with a summarization of this test. So let's unpack this section right now. In verse 11, John reminds his readers that mutual love is a mark of true children of God. Now he sets forth the negative example. Notice in verse 12: Believers should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. John is telling us, I do not want you to be like the secessionists who hate the brothers, because they're trying to create discord. They're saying, we're in the faith and you aren't. They hate the brothers. And they have demonstrated this by an ongoing lack of love for the members, true members of the community. And they show that they have never really passed from death to life. I'll speak to that in a second. Rather, since believers have passed out of death into life, what does that mean? That means we have escaped condemnation and have obtained eternal life.

13:31Because that's what we're doing, we have escaped condemnation, we have eternal life. We are not to hate like the secessionists, we are to love our brothers. And John heightens the force of this in verse 15: everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. In other words, John is stating that anyone who does not love is like a murderer who is consumed with murderous intents. Individuals like that abide in death, and there is no eternal life abiding in them.

14:11A grammatical comment on verses 14 and 15. John uses the present tense verbs in 14 and 15. The emphasis here is not on a one-time completed event in the past. The emphasis here is on an ongoing lack of love or an ongoing practice of love. He's not emphasizing a one-time event. He's saying this is something that characterizes your behavior. And John believes that the characterization of you, of whether you are a true believer, and whether you do or don't abide in death, and whether you do or don't have eternal life, is an ongoing practice. That's the negative example.

15:01Let's consider the positive example. Look in verse 16. The sort of love exemplified in Christ's death is love which expends itself in the interests of others. When the author speaks of Christ laying down his life for us, he is almost certainly referring back to his own fourth gospel, where he focuses on the teaching of Jesus, where Jesus speaks of himself as the what? The good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, John 10, 11 through 15. He also is referencing Jesus' words at the Last Supper when Jesus says, My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. And you are my friends. John 15, 12 through 14. It is clear that John is alluding to these passages in the fourth gospel here. So, simply put, as Christ loved us and laid down his life for us, so we must do for one another. Now, John provides us with an example of self-sacrificial love in verses 17 and 18. Interestingly, he does not speak of the ultimate example.

16:30Sacrifice, that you have to die for your fellow believers. He doesn't reference that. He actually provides us something that's far more down to earth. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? John is emphasizing that believers cannot close their hearts to fellow believers with a material need and still rightly claim that the love of God remains in them. As was read just earlier at the beginning, James provides us with an illustration of that when he states: if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, notice I said, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warm, be filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

17:37That's the positive example that we see with Christ. And John wraps up this passage in chapter 3 with a really dense set of verses in 19 through 24. So I'm going to kind of quickly explain these verses, recognizing that 19 through 24 are keyed off of what has preceded it in verses 17 and 18. When you feel the fleshly, selfish impulse not to help your needy brother, that's what is meant by our heart condemns us in verse 20. You need to reason, persuade, or convince yourself to make the sacrifice willingly and not to succumb to the temptation to be greedy. So then the question comes: well, how do we reason, persuade, convince ourselves that God does not want us to share? Okay, you do so by recognizing that, verse 20, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. That is, you need to recognize that God does not share in the meanness that is so often found in our hearts. His generosity is far greater, his compassion towards the needy, far greater than ourselves. And the fact should function as a motivation for us to overcome the meanness of our own hearts and to seek to be like our God. And also, when John concludes in verse 20, and he knows everything, he's reminding us of the fact that any meanness on our heart will not go unnoticed by an omniscient God.

19:27And continuing on in this text, And if our hearts do not object to the call to be generous, if we actually, if our hearts don't, we're not going to fight that. That's what it says in verse 21. If our heart does not condemn us, that means we actually provide the material assistance needed by our fellow believers. We will experience confidence in our relationship with God. And this confidence will lead us to believe that God hears our prayers and grants our requests. If and because, look in verse 22, we keep his commandments and do what he pleases him, or do what pleases him. John concludes 11 through 24 with the summary statement of the second social test in verse 23. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And we know that he abides in us by the Spirit He has given us. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of the Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He commanded us.

20:39Thus, John sets forth that those who believe in God's Son and love one another are those who truly live in God and God in them, as distinguished from the secessionists who do not believe in God's Son and who do. Not love one another. Before we move on to the test of discernment, let's be honest this morning. Not every child of God is equally likable, much less lovable. In fact, I would go as far to say that there are some children of God that we don't like.

21:27There are some who may be saved. They believe in Jesus. They've repented of their sins. They're the children of God, and we simply don't like them. There are also those who don't like us. It may be they're not terribly mature in the faith. You know, some sin in their life is keeping them from liking us. Or it may be their sin in our life that causes them not to like us. I understand that this sounds difficult and awkward. It ought not to be in the kingdom of God. It ought not to be in the church of Jesus Christ. But it is a fact, isn't it?

22:16There are those that we don't like, and there are those who don't like us. It is easy to love people that we like. There's no real cost to love people that we like. There's none. But the test is when you love somebody that you don't like, or that you love someone who doesn't particularly like you. In either case, we are called to love our brothers as Jesus loved the church and gave his life on their behalf.

22:50I wonder this morning if God and His providence has brought a person like that into your life. I wonder if God has made you aware of a need that someone in this body has. Maybe they've lost a job. Maybe they have a member of their family who is difficult. Maybe they're going through a dark trial. Simply put, they are in need, and you have the means to meet that need. So, when this sermon is over, when all the conversations in, when the rubber meets the road, listen to John's test. What are you going to do with that need of the one who is not your friend, of the one you don't like, and of the one that doesn't like you? Will you love every member of this body of believers, or will you choose to only love your friends?

23:56That is the test of love. Now, let us look at the test. Of discernment. Aren't you glad that people have the ability to turn to God on their own initiative? Aren't you glad that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God? Aren't you glad that God knows all that happens, but does not determine all that happens? A couple of you are sitting there scratching your heads. Why? It's because these are three examples of statements that American evangelicals got wrong in a 2016 survey. 82% of evangelicals believe that people have the ability to turn to God on their own initiative.

24:55They are gravely mistaken. Paul writes in Ephesians, and you were what? Dead in your trespasses and sin. Have you ever seen a dead person do anything? The oldest picture is: there's someone out there in the water. They're dead. They're upside down. They're floating, right? You throw a life preserver out there and say, save yourself. Go do it. They're dead. We cannot and do not possess the ability to turn to God. 71% of evangelicals believe that Jesus. Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. Seriously?

25:36Haven't any of you ever heard that God is three persons in one essence? And we call that the what? The. 65% of evangelicals believe that God knows all that happens, but does not determine all that happens. Well, if that's true, don't even pray. Why pray? Don't waste your time praying. Because I can't do anything about it. 1 John 4:1 states this, put the spirits to the test to discern whether they are from God. 1 John 4, 6 says, This is how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood. In other words, John is instructing us in this second doctrinal test that all believers have the responsibility to test the spirits to determine their origin. It is our duty, all of us, to judge, weigh, assess, evaluate, and to exercise discernment. So, in this second doctrinal test, we're going to learn that discernment is a theological matter, a spiritual matter, and an instructional matter. Let us see how discernment is a theological matter. To assist us in this endeavor, I have to Find the term spirit used in verses 1 through 3. In the context of this passage, every spirit refers to human beings. John is not referring to angels. He's not referring to demons. He is referring to the very essence of the message of a human being.

27:26Thus, John 4, 1 John 4:2b through 3 can be read as: Every human being who acknowledges Jesus Christ incarnate derives from God. But every human being who does not acknowledge Jesus does not derive from God. Also, to test the spirits means to evaluate the utterances of human beings, specifically teachers and prophets. That's going to be important in this text, obviously, because of the secessionists, to see whether they are from God. So having defined this term, notice the criterion that is to be used in testing the claims of teachers, spirits, teachers and prophets, is first stated positively. Look in verse 2. This is how you can recognize the spirit which is from God. Every spirit who acknowledges Jesus Christ incarnate derives from God. That is, the object. Of the confession is that Jesus of Nazareth is himself the incarnate Christ, the incarnate Son of God. Now, I told you I'd get back to this. Look at the slide behind me. Why is this important? It was the teaching of the secessionists that Jesus was merely a man. He was born a man.

28:55And then at the baptism, when the Spirit comes down, he becomes the Christ. And then, because no Christ can ever be crucified and killed, the Spirit now leaves Him prior to the crucifixion. The secessionists could not envision that Christ would die on a cross. Thus, their heresy consisted of a denial of the permanent assumption of human nature by the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. That's the incarnation. It's not a temporary assumption. It was a permanent assumption. So let me define it this way. The point John is making is that Jesus Christ is not a mere man upon whom divinity descended and then left before he was crucified. He was, Jesus, was the God-man, one person with two natures. One human, one divine. Jesus was born the Christ, lived as the Christ, was baptized as the Christ, died as the Christ, was resurrected as the Christ, and ascended as the Christ. The secessionists did not agree with that. They simply did not. So when you look at verse 2, now it'll make more sense to you. This is how you can recognize that which is from God. Every human being, every spirit, every teacher, every prophet who acknowledges that Jesus Christ incarnate derives from God.

30:42But then he states it negatively. Look at verse 3. And every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus as the incarnate Christ is what? Not from God. Now, we can get real confused at the latter part of verse 3. Hey, rather, this is the spirit from the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is in the world. We immediately go to that, you know, romantic, that sexy, that exciting passage. But this is a reference to Antichrist with a little A, not the future beast of Revelation with a capital A.

31:16In verse 3, John is merely stating that the secessionists who refuse to acknowledge Christ as the incarnate Son are embodying the same characteristics that the Antichrist. Christ one day in the future will set forth. So, with this positive and negative test, John makes the incarnation a doctrinal test, not only because false teaching regarding the incarnation had surfaced in the church and had to be contradicted, but stay with me now, but because of this. Even more than the cross, even more than salvation by grace, even more than the resurrection, even more than justification by faith, everything in the New Testament and the gospel depends on a right understanding of the person of Jesus Himself. Everything we know about salvation, every part of the good news depends on Jesus being one and at the same time God Himself and a true and genuine human like ourselves, with one exception, no sin.

32:34Without this incarnation, there's no cross, there's no empty tomb, there's no good news that we could ever proclaim about the eternal life. The incarnation is the very bedrock of any and all authentic Christian faith. Get that wrong, and everything else is wrong. And John said, they have it wrong. This is why you have to believe in the incarnation. Friends, somewhere in this room, there are some of you who may not have placed your faith in Christ. You may not fully understand the incarnation. This is not a prerequisite to be saved. All that is necessary is for you to recognize that you are a sinner, that you have offended God in your very heart, in your very thoughts, in your very actions, and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved. Romans 10:9.

33:36Discernment is a theological matter, it's also a spiritual matter. Look at verse 4. You, dear children, are from God, and you have defeated or overcome such as these, because he who is in you is more powerful than the one who is in the world. Let's make three quick comments. Number one, John wants to impress upon his readers that they are from God. That means, if you go back to chapter 3, verse 10, they're children of God, verse 3:9, they're born of God. In 4:12, next week, you'll find out they're indwelt by God. Believers, true believers, are where? From God. Second, John does not say, greater are you, but he says, greater is he.

34:26It isn't you, but God in you that. Brings the assurance of victory. Yes, Satan is great, but God is greater. Yes, Satan is powerful, but God is infinitely more powerful. And then in verse 5, we notice the third thing. They, the secessionists, remember, derive from the world. And as a result, they speak the language of the world, and the world pays attention to them. By being from the world, John is saying, by all intents and purposes, they've thrown their lot in with the world, which is opposed to true belief.

35:06And as such, the world, not the believers, the world pays attention to the secessionists. Like listens to like. Believers, on the other hand, because they have God in them, overcome the secessionists by rejecting their message because discernment is a spiritual matter. And finally, discernment is an instructional matter. Look at verse 6. And anyone who knows God pays attention to us. But anyone who does not derive from God pays no attention to us. Who is the us?

35:46Now, there is some difference of opinion amongst evangelical scholars as to who the us is, but the far majority believe the us to be, as do I, the apostles. In other words, Those who are true believers listen to the apostles' teaching. Where do we find the apostles' teaching? In the word of God. What about those who are not true believers? Those who are not true believers do not receive the teaching of the apostles. They reject the very teaching of the word of God.

36:25This makes a lot of sense because there's an affinity between God's Word and God's people. Sam Storms notes that Jesus taught that his sheep hear his voice. That's John 10. That everyone who is of the truth listens to his witness to the truth. That's John 18. And he who is of God hears the words of God. That's John 8. That is, there is a correspondence between message and hearers. Those who are from God listen to the apostles' teaching. Those who are not from God do not. Discernment is an instructional matter. Let us close with one additional practical application. Obviously, New Life is not wrestling with a group of former members coming back here and teaching false theology. We have a former member kind of coming back tomorrow. He's still a member. He'll be preaching next week, but we're not going to hear false theology. That's good, right?

37:32And many of us really aren't struggling with the doctrine of the incarnation. Some may have walked in here and said, I have no idea what the doctrine is. I may have not understood what the importance is. Well, hopefully, you understand that it is important. But we're not wrestling, there's no arguments about the incarnation. So, how might this passage apply to us in the area of discernment? Let me propose one thing. Look back at verse 1 of chapter 4: Do not believe every spirit. Is that a question? Is that a suggestion? What is it? It's a command. Do not believe every spirit. So, brothers and sisters, my application is this: Do not believe everything you hear on Christian podcasts or at Christian conferences. Do not believe everything you hear at church. And please do not listen to every word from the Lord that some person has for you without being discriminating. When someone comes to our home, our life group, or our church and teaches, states, proclaims something as being true, I want you to become like the Bereans. And behind me is Acts 17, verse 11, who, when they heard Paul teach, they didn't run out and accept what Paul said right away. What did they do? They went back to their Bibles, to the earlier revelation they had received, and they checked and they said, hmm, all right, what Paul is saying is true. It's what the Bible says. What did they do? They tested what they heard to see if what Paul was teaching was in accordance with God's word. When you hear something on a podcast, at a conference, in a church, at a life group, from a friend, what's the first thing you should do? Compare that to the apostles' teaching, to the word of God. Brothers and sisters, be discriminating. Let us close. Lord, we thank you for this very lengthy passage.

39:52There is so much that could be covered, so much that was overlooked. May your Spirit use what little we covered this morning to challenge the believers in this room to be willing to love one another despite whatever relationship exists. May the Spirit also challenge each of us not to be lazy, that we would diligently. Compare, contrast that which we hear from that which we have been taught before, what has been read to us before, and what we find in the word.

40:45And Lord, there are some in this room who simply don't know Christ. And some of this information is somewhat beyond them. But may they know this: that we are either in Christ or we are not. Christ either abides in us or he does not. And may they sense a need due to their sin to turn to the cross and embrace the one and only solution that will allow us to have eternal life, and that is accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray that this morning, in your Son's name, amen.