Changed By Love

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, before we dive into His word together, let's spend a few moments in prayer asking God to open our eyes and hearts to teach us this morning.

Let’s Pray Together.

I want to invite you to turn with me to 1 John 3:11-24.

Hear the Word of the Lord....

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But 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? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 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. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us (1 Jn 3:11–24.)

Over the last several weeks we have been talking about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. John is giving to the church these “tests” by which they can test themselves against, and those who are in the church causing problems. John is trying to make it very clear who is actually following Jesus and who is NOT. This is his goal. He wants to clear up the confusion that is going on around in the church....and wants the church to walk in a greater sense of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

To do this, he has been setting up these contrasts throughout the letter.

There are those who walk in darkness....then there are those who walk in the light 1:6-7...There are those who say they have no sin....then there are those who openly confess their sin 1:8-9..There are those whose lives are characterized by rebelling against God’s commands....then there are those who are seeking to obey God’s commands 2:3-5...There are those who love the world.... then there are those who love the Father 2:15...There are those who have walked away from the local church body…then there are those that have stayed. 2:19...There are those who are Antichrist....then there is THE CHRIST. 2:22....There are those who deny Christ....and there are those who CONFESS Christ. 2:23...There will be those who are ashamed at Christ’s coming… and there are those who will stand confident at Christ’s coming. 2:28...There are those who walk in sin....and those are those who are stiving to live rightly before the Lord. 3:4-7...There are Children of the Devil....and there are Children born of GOD. 3:10...There are those who hate his brother....and there are those who love His brother. 3:10...

John is painting a very vivid picture for us to think about as we are going through this letter. He is spelling it out for us very clearly, You are either walking with Christ.... or you are against Him. For John there is no middle ground. You cannot be on the fence.

It is kind of like Phil was talking about last week we he covered the first part of chapter 3. God either deals with ALL of your sin.... or none of it. God’s act of salvation is one complete package. He saves you from the penalty of sin, he is saving you from he power of sin…and he will one day save you from the presence of sin. That is a great truth.... and we need to remember it. That is something that we need to preach to ourselves every morning.

Body:

It is that exact truth that our text for this morning hinges on. John is talking about how the great truth of the Gospel message should radically shape our lives.

Main Point: What John is saying through this text this morning is this.... As Followers of Christ we should expect to have.....A Changed Heart.

I know this sounds so simplistic to our ears. We have heard this type of langauge over and over again. But, we have to see that this is what John is talking about. This is what God is talking about here in this text. When a person has a relationship with Christ..... their hearts should be radically changed by what Christ has done for us.

Let’s look at how this is played out through the text. Look at verses 11-12 with me.

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous (1 Jn 3:11–12.)

What is the message that we have heard from the beginning? “That we should love one another!!!” Do you feel like we are on repeat here? How many times have we looked at this type of language just while we have been in 1 John?

Think about it, how many times in the New Testament are we commanded to love one another? There are around 100 commands that deal with how we are to treat one another. If God has to tell us that many times to love one another or give directions about how we are to treat each other..... what do you think that says about us? What does this tell us about what God thinks about how we treat one another?

God must think that this is really important for Christians to understand because He has spent so much time instructing on this matter. But you have to love how John drives this point home in these verses. He gives us another contrast to consider. He does not just tell us to love one another....he goes on to tell us that we should not be like Cain who murdered his brother.

This is an allusion back to book of Genesis....back to the beginning. Right after Adam and Eve sinned against God and ate the fruit that they were commanded not to eat.... we see the devestating effects of sin in the world. In Genesis chapter 4 we get to read the story of Cain and Able.

If you are following along with me, hold your place in 1 John and turn with me to the book of Gensis in Chapter 4 so that we can hear what is in John’s mind as he is writing this letter...

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him (Ge 4:1–8.)

We can read this account or listen to this account and be like, what in the world was wrong with Cain? Cain literally speaks to his brother…and when they are alone… he goes and kills him. This is just brutal.

And what John gives us in these verses is some commentary as to why this is the cause. What caused Cain to kill Able? It was because Cain’s own desires were evil and Able’s were righteous. Does that make any sense to you? Cain killed is brother because Cain didn’t want to do what was right....and the context of this has to do with an offering that they were bringing before the Lord. Able brought an offering and it was done in good faith....and Cain brought an offering and it was do will ill intent....his heart was not behind the action.

God spoke to Cain about this heart matter.... but rather instead of listening to God and dealing with the heart issue.... it was easier just to do away with the problem than deal with his sin issue.

Cain did not want to change his life. Cain did not want to do things the right way. Cain wanted to live life his own way....and when he saw his brother living righteouly before God it made him angry.

Christians shouldn’t be like that. Christians are not to act that way. We are to live in contrast to the way of Cain.

We are commanded to Love Our Brothers.

But, what we have to see is that when we love… we should expect no less treatment from those of the world than what Able expereinced. We see this down in veres 13-15.

13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (1 Jn 3:13–15.)

We see two things in these verses that I want to talk about.

Christians should expect to be hated by the world.

That sounds strange to say outloud doesn’t it? If Christians are to love others....why should we expect to be hated?

This is why Able experienced from Cain. This is what the prophets experienced from the people of Israel. This is what John the baptist experienced by Herod. This is what Jesus experienced in His life.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours (Jn 15:18–20.)

Why did they hate Jesus so much? What was He doing wrong? He says earlier in the Gospel, they hate Him because he testifies that their works are evil. Jesus is calling them out on their sin. He is revealing their hearts to themselves....and they do not like what they are seeing.... so instead of dealing with the sin issue..... it is easier to deal with the one making them feel guilty than to deal with the real problem.

This is what John is talking about here for us. We should not be surprised that the world hates us. That is to be expected. We are standing up for the truth of God’s word…and the Word exposes their sin… and they don’t like what they see. So, they take it out on us....because it is easier to deal with us… persecute us than it is to let go of their sin.

This is why Paul can write...12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Ti 3:11–13).

We should not be shocked when we undergo persecution for the name of Jesus.

The second thing that I want us to see from verses 13-15 is..

Love Is A Mark Of A Changed Heart.

If you have come to know Christ as your Lord and Savior....then your life should be marked by love for other Christians. We have said this a few times before....so I do not want to linger long on this point.... what John is saying here is that if we love those who love God…this we can KNOW that we have passed from death to life. It is not natural or normal to love. That is why the one who does not love....which is hate..... abides in death. He does not have the love of Christ in him because everyone who hates is a murderer…and no murderer has eternal life. That is not a characteristic of the believer. We cannot come into an encounter with such a force as powerful as God and not be unchanged.

Yes....this will take time. No…this will not happen over night. You are not going to give your heart to Christ and then the next day you are just going to be walking on clouds and rainbows....and nothing is ever going to bother you again. That’s nto real life!!! If that were real life…then I don’t think that God would keep reminding us of how we are to be living. We wouldn’t need these instructions. We would just go on about our day and live little prefect lives..... but that is not going to HAPPEN.

What we are talking about here is a motion of change in our lives. Christians are able to see....like man… I really do not like that guy....and we are not ok with that feeling. It causes some flags to go up for us. It makes us aware that there is a greater problem here and it causes us to go back to the cross.

This is where John goes in this passage… he turns to the cross to remind us of what love looks like.

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers (1 John 3:16).

Let the truth of that verse just sink into your heart this morning. This is how we define love....this is how we know what true love really is: Jesus Christ. When we are talking about what it means to love our brothers and sisters....we do not have to look very far.... we just look at how Jesus has loved us.

How has Jesus loved you?

The Bible tells us that when we were wicked, rebellious sinners against God..... when we were doing nothing AT all to please Him..... In fact....when we were in complete and total defienace against Him.... Jesus went to the cross to die for our sins. He laid down HIS LIFE!!!! FOR US!!!!

John now looks at you and I and says..... you ought to do the same thing for your brothers.

We Are Called To Lay Down Our Lives.

What does this look like on a more practical level…because we know that John is not telling us that we need to go and die for the sins of others.... Jesus had done that. How do we demonstrate this type of love to our brothers and sisters?

Look at verses 17-18 with me.

17 But 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? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 Jn 3:17–18.)

John begins talking about love in real, concrete ways. He is not talking about some high lofty opionion on what love is.....no he is talking about getting your hands drity and loving people sacrifically.

James would put it this way.

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (Jas 2:14–19.)

Do you see what Scripture is teaching here? God is telling us that love is expressed in some real tangeble ways.

One person expresed it this way, “I would die for you sounds noble and spiritual. It sounds awesome. But while you are willing to die for me, would you give em something to eat? Could you share an extra shirt or better yet,a coat? Could you let me sleep on your coach until I get back on my feet? Could you help me out with my electic bill lor a few meds for my sick kids? You see, I don’t need you to die for me. I just need a little help.”

What the other is saying here, is we often have this high aspiriations. We would give our lives… but how often is that going to be asked of us? When will we really get the chance to demonstarte that type of love to our brothers and sister? We can talk about it all we want… but until push comes to shove… we have no way to express that love. However, if we see what the Bible is saying here… if we have the world’s goods…the things that are needed for life.... life’s provisions.... and yet we choose not to help out brother and be selfish..... we really need to ask ourselves, “Do we have real Faith?” Real faith in Christ will result in real good workds in the world. There is no way around that truth. God is very clear on this matter.

Now, that does not mean that good works saves us. We are not trying to earn our way into heaven.... but when we have encouterned the living Christ in such a way that we understand His love for us.... that love drives us to go and love others. It is out of the overflow of our faith in Christ that we do good works. That is real faith.

Real Faith results in Real Love.

It is this truth that John turns to. Look at verses 19-22 with me.

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him (1 Jn 3:19–22.)

John is giving this as a test of our faith before God. He is our love for others as a test by which we can see if we are truly following Jesus or not. You see, the difference between those who have placed their faith in Christ and those who have not is found in their love for others. When a Christian reads these verses..... we can start to question our love. Our hearts start to condemn us. “ I know that I am not loving others the way that I am supposed to be… I want to do better. I want to love people. .God help me to love others.” Something like that goes through our minds.

When a perosn is not following Christ… they have no concern for if they are loving others. Their focus in normally on themselves and their religious performace. “I have done enough. I did my part. I went to Church. I gave some money. I am good to go.” There is not scarifice in that. Everything that is done with that mindset is set on ME.

Christ calls us to more!! And for a Christian… we have all expereinced that guilt and shame when our hearts condemn us. We have gone through that beating ourselves up over something that we have done.... But look at what Scripture says...... “When our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.”

When we fall short of the glory of God.... and it is going to happen.... we don’t pick ourselves up by the boots and just try harder next time… NO!! We run back to God! He is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. He is our source of salvation, joy, and comfort. We run to the CROSS.

But, if we are walking with the Lord, we walk with confidence… we are more able to go boldly to the throne of grace…and we have confidence before God…and we are able to go and pray to Him Boldly…and the scriptures tell us that “whatever we ask we receive form Him because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.”

Does this mean that as long as we are doing all that we can do keep the commandments that we can ask God whatever we want and He is obligated to give it to us? NO. That idea has its origins in what is called the prosperity Gospel. That is not what John is telling us here in these verses.

What John is describing here is that when a person is walking with God.... keeping His commandments.... living a life that is pleasing to Him.... shouldn’t that be what we are striving after....that would be so good… but anyway, when we are doing those trype of things… the Bible tells us that God actually changes our desires to where we are wanting the things that God wants. His desires becomes our desires. We are wanting His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. So, even in our prayers we can have confiedence that God hears us and will answer us because we are not praying our own desires… but that of the Father.

I would say two things here about how Love Changes us.

Love Reassures Our Hearts Before God.

Love Give Us Confidence Before God.

If we are talking about keeping his commandments and doing what pleases Him… it would be right for our minds to wonder exactly what God wants us to do. What John has in mind here is found in verses 23-24.

23 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. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us (1 Jn 3:23–24.)

What does God want us to do?

That is a pretty legit question if you ask me. Shouldn’t that be a question that everyone wants to know? John’s answer is pretty simple.... BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

That is the summation of Scripture. All of Scripture is pointing us to Jesus Christ. God shows HIM as the SAVIOR of the World. The ONE who has come to deal with our sins and reconcile us back to HIMSELF. Jesus paid the pently for us our sins on the cross and rose three days later defeating sin and death so that we could be saved.... and NOW God commands all of us to repent of our sins and Believe on HIS SON. Trust Jesus to save us. That is the Gospel. That is what Christianty is about. It is not a selfhelp program. This is a give your life to Christ and be changed program.

But, real faith in Jesus results in real action toward others. Jesus changes us from the inside out… and this is shown by how to treat other people. The two ideas: Loving Jesus and Loving Others are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other.

And this is shown to be true by verse 24. Keeping God’s commands is evidence of someone who is abiding in God.... there is that langauge we have seen over and over again.... and God is abiding in Him… how is that done… By the Holy Spirit.

This is why Christianty is not a self-help program. God does not say clean yourself up and then come to me. NO. He say’s come to me and I will come and dwell inside of you. I will change you from the inside of your heart. I will cause you to walk in my ways.

Do you see that? Do you see how different this is from the way the world wants to think? God says when you believe in Christ… I will give you another helper…I will give you the power to walk in my commands. It is not you doing it. It is the work of GOD.

Conclusion:

As Followers of Christ we should expect to have.....A Changed Heart.

Do you remember that from earlier? Maybe a better way to say this would be....

As Followers of Christ we Should expect to Be Changed By Love.

Love Should Be The Destingused Mark Of A Believer.

The world whould be able to look at your life and know that there is something different about you based on how you are treating other people....and this is shown in real tangible ways…not some theory that we never live out. Christ demonstrated his love for us that while we were still sinners HE DIED..... That was not a theory… that was action.

Christ calls us to do the same thing. We are not to love in word or talk… but deed and truth.

Do You Know Christ In This Way?

Has Christ changed you and saved you from your sins? Have you given your life to Him?

Do you love others the way that Christ loved you?

Christ Changes Our Hearts. We Are Changed By Love.

Let Us Go And Show This Love To The World.

Christ Calls us to Come and Follow Him… Are You Willing To Go?

Let’s Pray Together.