Not A Worker of Lawlessness!

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, brothers and sisters and dear friends. I'm going to invite you to please open up your Bibles to the first letter of the Apostle John.

Once again, the Lord has given us, by his grace, this opportunity to be gathered here together as brothers and sisters, that we may not take this for granted. Truly, that we may not take this opportunity that we have for granted. I'm going to invite you, brother, sister, dear friend, to open up your Bibles, as I said, to the first letter of the Apostle John. We continue with our meditations, with our studies through the first letter of the Apostle John. By God's grace, the last three sermons that I preached from 1 John, we have already addressed this glorious truth of adoption, this glorious truth that this love that the Father has bestowed upon us in making us His children.

We have spoken about the cost of what it is to be a child of God, namely the hatred that we receive from the world. And last week I had the opportunity, I hope to at least point you to this glorious promise that we have as children of God, that there's going to be one day in which we are going to see the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we're going to be moving ahead on the section that we have in front of us. We're going to be addressing verses 4 through verse 15. And the thought that the apostle has there in mind is a burden for the church.

He wants to leave something very clear. And that is that the child of God is not a worker of inequity. The burden of the Apostle John in this portion of the Scripture from verse 4 to verse 15 in chapter 3 is that the child of God, the one who has received the great love from the Father and has become a child of God, that the child of God is not a worker of lawlessness. The child of God, the son and the daughter of God is not a doer of unrighteousness. And what I'm going to do, brother and sister, is that I'm going to invite you to read with me not only the portion that we have in front of us from verse 4 to verse 15, but at the same time, I'm going to ask you with much reverence to also come with me after we read that to Matthew chapter 7 and read with me verses 21 to 23 in which the Lord Jesus Christ is going to speak about the future of the workers of lawlessness, of the workers of inequity.

The idea that the Apostle John has here in mind is that the Son of God is not a worker of inequity. So I'm inviting you to please read with me from 1 John 3, from verse 4 to verse 15. And after that, we will go to Matthew 7 and read the words of the Lord there in verse 21. So this is the word of the Lord, 1 John 3, verse 4. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous. as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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. Do not be surprised, brethren, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love his brother abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.

And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Come with me please to Matthew chapter 7, now to read the words of the Savior speaking about workers of lawlessness those whom the Apostle John is warning in 1st John this is the future of the workers of inequity the workers of lawlessness Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and do mighty works in Your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

My dear brother and sister, what we have just read there is perhaps the most fearful, the most terrifying reality that we find in the New Testament. The promise, the fact that there is going to be one day in which the false Christian is going to behold the face of the Savior who knows all things. The Apostle has rejoiced in the fact that the child of God will see Jesus Christ and He will be transformed as He is. But while the genuine children of God behold the beauty of Christ also, the false Christian will have an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. And on that day, he says, that many will have to depart from His presence because the Lord is going to produce this Kasem, this separation, depart from me.

I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness. All of these people that had professed to be Christians, all of these people that had engaged in lots of activities, Christian activities, religious activities, all of those Christians that would have made people believe that they were in the Lord with the things that they did and the things that they said. On that day, there will be no more time for them. There will be no more room for pretense and hypocrisy. The Lord has prophesied and said that many on that day will say to him, Lord, Lord, from a hypocritical heart.

And the accusation that the Lord Jesus Christ has against these many is that they were doers of lawlessness, that they were workers of lawlessness. My dear brother and sister, it is because of the fearfulness of this reality that the Lord graciously, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, calls us to examine ourselves while there is time. Because on that day, the last day, there will not be more opportunity. The one who has been pretending, the one who has been a hypocrite, the one whose heart has been empty of substance, will find on that day no other opportunity to come to terms with the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be no more room for pretending or hypocrisy.

That is the final day, and that's why The Scriptures and the Lord in His grace, in His mercy, brother, sister, dear friend from the Old Testament calls us continually to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24, the psalmist with this realization of the inequity that is within him, praise to the Lord, asking that the Lord will search the heart, that the Lord will inquire in the anxieties and the depths of the heart of the psalmist, asking that is the Lord the one that reveals if there is a way that is crooked, a way that is not according to the word of the Lord, so that you will leave me in the way everlasting. Same is for all the prophets of the Old Testament that were calling the people of Judah and the people of Israel to consider their ways. Haggai 1, verse 5, the prophet speaking from the Lord calls the people of Israel to consider your ways, to carefully consider your intentions. You have food, but yet you are hungry.

You have drink, yet you are thirsty. You have money and you have work, but when you put that in your pocket, it's like if you have holes in your pockets. Consider your ways. The prophet speaks on behalf of the Lord. Lamentations 3, verse 40.

Also, the prophet is calling to examine and search in his heart that we will turn to the ways of the Lord. continually, ongoingly, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, brothers and sisters, the Spirit of God, through the prophets and through the apostles, calls us to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5. Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourself.

Don't you know that if Christ is in you, even if perhaps you have been disqualified, test yourself. Examine yourself while there is time. While the day of Matthew chapter 7 has not arrived, the scriptures, not the preacher, the scriptures, the Spirit of God, brother, sister, friend, calls us to examine ourselves in our hearts to see whether what is inside of us is real. Please, brethren, pay attention to that, that on that day many people would have disguised themselves as Christians, and many people would have believed that they were Christians. And not only that with their mouth, but with their works and with their deeds.

Many will on that day depart from the Lord because they were workers of inequity. And my dear brother, my dear sister, I'm just simply asking you that you will have this in your mind, because many times the flesh is going to tempt us to say, OK, we have another sermon that is coming about righteousness, another sermon that is coming about holiness, another sermon that is coming about good works and good deeds, and many times, The false prophet that we have in our flesh will tempt us to just simply disregard the words of the scriptures that calls us very clearly to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Of course, brother and sister, when we examine ourselves, we are not to do it in the flesh. We're not to do it just trying to be a better person or trying to be a better Christian. We are to be compelled by the love of Jesus Christ, knowing that He died for us.

And if He died for us, now the life that we live, we don't live it any longer for us, but we live it for the Lord Jesus Christ. My desire, your desire as a Christian to be righteous and not to be a worker of inequity, not to be a worker of lawlessness, should not be derived, should not be produced in your moralistic desire just to be seen and observed by others as a good Christian was a good person. It should be begotten. in the love that you have for the Savior Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross to set you free, so that the life that you live, you will no longer leave it for yourself, but you will leave it for the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14 and 15.

This is the call of this apostle, my dear brother and sister. And once again, I give you this warning. Do not allow your flesh just simply to be offended by the way that the person speaks and with the faces that the person has. If what I'm saying is true, then the way that I see my accent and the way that I look does not matter. If what I'm saying is true and corresponds to the Scriptures, then your confrontation is not with me.

It is with the words of the Lord. And the Bible is very clear that we need to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. My dear brother, my dear sister, Proverbs chapter 27 verse 6 says that the wounds of the friend are fateful wounds. When someone that loves you comes and tells you the things that are wrong, this is not coming from hypocrisy. The wounds of a friend are fateful, but the kisses of the enemy are deceitful.

Brethren, we don't want people to come and speak into our ears, tingling things just for us to be happy and to have shallow relationships and to be okay so that we can gather a lot of people into our churches and have a lot of money and then progress with our own empires. We want to be told the truth, brother and sister, and the truth that comes from the scriptures. Because the wounds that are inflicted by the Spirit of God are wounds that are faithful. Because the Spirit is never going to leave us wounded just to die. The Spirit of Christ is going to wound us and pierce us, but he is also the one that is going to restore us and heal us through the person of Jesus Christ.

But it is necessary, my dear brother and sister, that we will look and pay attention to the Scriptures to examine ourselves, to see whether we are in the faith, to examine ourselves, to see if we are one of those workers of lawlessness that on that day will come before the Lord and say, Lord, we prayed so much. Lord, we preached every week. Lord, we share the gospel on the streets. Lord, I gave my money for the Christian church and for all of these things. Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

Might this never be the case for anyone that is within the sound of my voice, brother and sister, that it is required that as we have arrived to this portion of the scripture, that we will consider this, because this is the burden of the apostle John. The burden of the Apostle John is, after I have spoken about this glorious truth of adoption, after I have told these people about this glorious love that has been bestowed upon their hearts, after I have spoken to them about this glorious promise that they're going to see the Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary that I will remind them that the child of God is not a worker of inequity, because many, perhaps, in that early church were confused, were thinking that, I prayed a prayer, I became a Christian, I have received the love of the Father, I'm with the Christians, I'm doing all of these things with the Christians, and living their lives as workers of inequity. And not only that, but I don't know if you pay attention to verse 7, it seems that there were some false teachers in the context of the congregation that were telling them that they could live their lives as they want in the secret and public place while they considered to be children of God. So this is the burden of the Apostle John, my dear brother and sister. Kids, children, this is the burden of the Apostle John.

that the genuine Son of God, that the genuine Child of God is not a worker of inequity, a worker of lawlessness. And when I say that, before I get into the text, my dear brother and sister, of course, I have to say that when I say that the Christian, the Son of God, is not a worker of lawlessness, I'm not saying that the Christian is a perfect person. I'm not saying that the Christian is never going to sin. I'm not saying that the Son of God does not sin at all. I'm not saying that the Son of God should or must accomplish or obtain sinless perfectionism in this life.

The Apostle has made it very clear. that anyone who says that there is no sin in themselves is a liar. 1 John chapter 1 from verses 5 and onwards, the Apostle has made that very clear. If anyone says, I don't have any sin, I have no sin, that person in the best case scenario deceived themselves and the Word of God is not in them. And in the worst case scenario, verse 10 of chapter 1, that person makes God a liar and the truth, the Word of God is not in that person.

If anyone comes to you and says, oh, you're a Christian, you should be perfect. Have you seen? That means that you're not a Christian. That is heresy. But we are not going to, just because of that, just going to come and say that the Christian can live lives of unrighteousness.

No. The Son of God is not a worker of inequity. And when I say that, I'm just simply bringing upon your ears and to your souls the biblical teaching of practical righteousness according to the gospel. And that is that when a person has been saved genuinely, when a person has been visited by the Holy Spirit genuinely, that person is going to start a progress or a journey of conformity to Christ. That person is going to start a journey of becoming more and more like the Savior.

A progressive journey of sanctification, in which the person is not only growing in sanctification and in holiness, but the person is also growing in repentance. And this is the glory, my dear brother and sister of maturity, spiritual maturity, that when we are babies in Christ and when we commit a sin, many times we are just so troubled by the sin that we have committed. But the Lord progressively teaches us that he is just and faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the more that we grow in maturity, we learn that yes, I'm advancing in holiness. I'm advancing in sanctification.

But as I'm advancing in holiness and sanctification, I'm also advancing in the reality that I know, I know, I know that every time that I come to the Lord and I confess my sin, He's just and faithful to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. So the life of the doer of righteousness of the life of the worker of righteousness, of the life of the Christian that is alive, that is sanctified, is one of advancing by the Lord, by the hand of the Lord. That I look back, and I'm not a perfect person, but certainly I'm not like I was 5 or 10 or 15 years ago. The Lord has worked in my life. The Lord has worked in your life if you are a child of the Lord.

And you look back, and then you can see what the Lord has accomplished in me. could have not been accomplished in my own mind, on my own strength, on my own flesh. And then glory goes to Him. That is the concern that the Apostle has here with the church. That there might be some people that might be saying, because we're children of God, then we can live these lives of unrighteousness.

And he starts in verse 4 of chapter 3 by stating something very important. That the practice of sin is practice of lawlessness. Now, I know The verse four, we use it many times with your brother and sister as a definition, as a theological definition for sin. You know, when someone asks what is sin, many people will go to 1 John 3, verse four and say sin is a transgression of the law or sin is lawlessness. And it's all good that we do that.

It is excellent. Every time that we want to define what sin is, we should go to 1 John 3, verse four. But the Apostle's intention is not to give us a theological definition of what sin is. Actually, if you want to pay more careful attention to the text, the most important word through this text is not sin, but it's actually the word commits or practice. Commits or practice.

The Apostle is concerned with a practice, with a habitual practice of sin. The Apostle is not so much concerned about the fact that Christians sin, but rather with the possibility that someone might say that I can be a Christian and yet live my life in the practice of sin. So the Apostle wants us to show in verse four the seriousness of what it is to sin, because sin is not only an offense against people around me, but sin is a transgression of the will of God. And if only one sin is a serious thing that I have sinned against God, now imagine how serious and how fearful it is for a person who professes to be in Christ, yet engaging in the secret place in habitual, continuous, ongoing sin. This is the concern that the apostle has.

And I'm not speaking here about external, visible sins that everyone sees. The apostle is concerned with sins of the heart, sins of the eyes, sins of the hands, sins of the whole person. If a person is engaging in habitual, that is how you pronounce it, right? Habitual, ongoing, constant sin, and that person is not bothered with the reality that that person is in habitual, ongoing sin, then we have a problem. And that is what the apostle is trying to address here.

That is the seriousness of what it is to sin. It is not only an offense against other people, but it's an offense against the Lord. And the most important thing here, brothers and sisters, is that that is a reality that is contrary to the message of the Gospel. Verse 5. The apostle says in verse 5 that you know that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared or was revealed to take away sins.

That is contrary to the message of the gospel. If a person is engaged in sin in such a habitual, ongoing, continuous way, that is contrary, opposite to the message of the gospel. Because Jesus Christ, the one that is sinless, the one who did not have any sin, already came to the world to die upon the cross and to defeat sin. He did not only pay for the penalty of our sins, the wages of sin is death. He did not only come to pay the legal requirements of our sin, but he has also come to conquer sin.

And now as Christians we are not living under the dominating power of sin. Romans chapter 6 verse 14, sin shall not have dominion over you. That is the promise of the gospel. That is the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, that for those who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, those who have been ascended or been taken out of the waters, the watery grave with the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are in newness of life with the Lord Jesus Christ, sin will not have dominion over them. The idea that a person who professes to be in Christ and to live a life of habitual ongoing sin when they know that they are sinning and continue to sin and sin and sin and sin against the Lord is contrary to the reality of the application of the gospel.

My dear brother and sister, it's very good that we uphold the message of the gospel and that we say the gospel is that the Son of God came to this world and made himself like one of us and lived under the law. He fulfilled all the requirements of the law, died upon the cross, was mightily resurrected, and now he's ascended to the right hand of the Father. It is very good that we uphold the truth of the message of the gospel, but it's equally important that when we come to the Scriptures, we acknowledge the application of that gospel to the one who has faith. Because we may be upholding the truths abstractly of the message of the gospel and denying what the gospel is supposed to do in the person who claims to be a son of God through the person of Jesus Christ. the truth of the applied gospel to the Christian is that the Lord Jesus Christ has not only paid for the penalty of our sins, but he has also conquered the power of sin, and sin shall not have dominion over us.

Once again, I'm not saying that the Christian will be perfect. I'm not saying that we are going to live lives of no sin at all, but sin shall not have dominion over us. Yes, it is true that sometimes a genuine believer might fall into backsliding and go into ways of darkness for a period of time, but it's also true that the Spirit of God will bring conviction upon the Christian in the context of the local church or whatever means that the Spirit of God will use to restore the person who was generally saved into the ways of righteousness and into the ways of light. If we are going to uphold the message of the gospel, we are to also uphold, brothers and sisters, the application of that message. The Lord Jesus Christ came to take away our sins and that's why the apostle says that no one who abides in him, in verse 6, No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. This is the glorious truth of what the gospel, once it is applied to a person, produces. The one who has seen the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who has known by faith the Lord Jesus Christ. Has access to abide in the person of Jesus Christ.

And by being in the presence of Christ, then that person will not be in the presence of sin. The Lord has given us the spirit of freedom, not of slavery to fall in bondage, just to be living according to the flesh, but rather he has given the spirit of freedom, the spirit of liberty, the spirit of the Son, Jesus Christ, so that we, by abiding in Jesus Christ, will be able not to be workers of lawlessness. The worker of lawlessness is one that abides in the presence of sin. And my dear brother and sister, I join there the Apostle John in verse 7. Let no one deceive you.

Let no one deceive you with the things that the Colombian says from the pulpit, brothers and sisters, because I have not done anything other than just to simply put in limited words and thoughts what the text says. Let no one deceive you. Let no one deceive you. The one who is righteous is righteous because the one who has begotten is righteous. If someone does righteousness, it's because the Father is righteous.

Our righteousness is not ours, but if we are His, we are going to be righteous. Let no one deceive you, brother, sister, friend, not even from your own heart. Your own heart is going to testify to you as a false prophet. You don't need to have a false prophet on television or a false prophet across the road. You have one inside of you, and it's called your heart, that is going to tell you, you can be a Christian.

You can be a Christian and live lives of unrighteousness. You can call yourself a Christian and do all of these mighty things and then you can be bitter to your wife and say all of these difficult words to your wife in the secret place. Nobody sees. Nobody's observing after all. You can be a Christian.

You can do all of these things so that everyone sees that you're a very good Christian while you watch pornography in the secret place. You can continue doing so. Let no one deceive you, brother and sister. The Son of God is not a worker, doer of unrighteousness. The Son of God is not a worker, a doer, a practitioner, a slave to unrighteousness.

And of course, like in the first entry, let no false teacher deceive you, my dear brother and sister. Because when you open your eyes, you're going to see other churches in which Christians are just living their lives whatever way they want, and they confess to be Christians. And even though this may be prevalent in Western Christianity, my dear brother and sister, the message of John is the one that is according to the will of God. that the Son of God is not a worker of inequity, and we should not allow anyone to deceive us. That's why we should come to the Word of God and submit to what the Word of God says.

The Apostle, from verse 8 and onwards, is going to give us the reason why. The reason why the Son of God is not a worker of inequity. Brother, sister, children, dear friend, this is the reason that the Apostle John gives of why the Son of God is not a worker of inequity. In simple words, verse 8 and 9. The Son of God is not a worker of inequity or a worker of lawlessness because the Son of God is not a son of Satan anymore.

Verse 8. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. Brethren, imagine if we just put that message and we just put it on social media on the website and we give this to people. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, they will kill us. Really, they truly will hate us.

This is the word of the Lord. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for this devil has been sinning from the beginning. Why is that? That the Son of God is not a worker of unrighteousness. Why is it that the one who claims to be a child of God is not a worker of unrighteousness?

Well, very simple. Because by nature, you are a son of Satan. By nature, you are of the devil. And by nature, you are going to be a worker of inequity. And by nature, you are going to be a worker of lawlessness.

But this glorious God has bestowed upon us such a love. that has taken us from the dominion of darkness, and has inserted us into the kingdom of His Son, and has made us His children. Satan has no claim anymore on us. Satan has no power on the Christians anymore. The devil is not the owner of the Christian anymore.

And for that simple reason, for that simple reason, the Lord now can say that the one who is his son of God will not be a worker of lawlessness, will not be a worker of inequity, will not be one that is given entirely to habitual the practice of sin. And if you were going to believe, and if someone is going to believe, brother and sister, that you, if you are enslaved in such a way in which Satan is your landlord, in which Satan is your Pharaoh, in which Satan is the one that has dominion over you. If you think, if you think that you can rescue yourself or that you can liberate yourself, let me tell you that you are completely ignorant. Because this is what the scripture says, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. The only one who can liberate the soul that is imprisoned to his or her own nature, the only one who can liberate the son of Adam, the only one who can liberate the daughter of Adam that by nature is the son or daughter of Satan, He's the Lord Jesus Christ who has already come to destroy the works of the devil.

Why is it that the Son of God is not a worker of inequity, a worker of lawlessness? Because the Son of God is not a son of Satan anymore, but verse 9, He's a son of God. has been born of God. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him. Glorious brother, sister, when a Christian as feeble as it is, when a brother, when a humble brother, a humble brother that no one sees, that no one is observing, when a brother is walking down the streets and then there is a woman that is dressed in an uncomfortable way, when that brother moves his eyes and does not fall into putting his eyes into that woman, that is a glorious victory.

And that victory, that simple, humble victory there, is because He died upon the cross. Because apart from that, that brother will be taken captive by the beauty of the woman. That brother will be taken captive by the way that she's dressed. But when a brother, when no one sees, and he turns his eyes, or when someone is tempted to look and he doesn't, or when someone is tempted to speak and she doesn't, whenever a Christian has victory overseen, it's a token. It's a token to the one who was victorious.

His name is Jesus Christ, because when He died upon the cross, He promised that He will send to us the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us, He gives us the life of God, and we become the children of God, because the life of God is in us. Being a Christian is not a moral reconstruction of your being. Being a Christian is to have the life of Christ in you by the Holy Spirit. So that's why the Son of God is not a worker of inequity.

Christ died, he was victorious, he was ascended, he sent his spirit, and now his spirit is abiding in us. The seed of God, the sperm of God, the life of God is in us, and we do not sin as we used to because the Lord has liberated us. And praise God for that, my dear brother and sister, because apart from the work and the grace of the Lord, we continue to be workers of lawlessness. And finally, the Apostle, after he has given us the reason why the Son of God is not a worker of inequity, namely that we are not sons of Satan anymore, he is going to give us the evidence. And this is where all of us come to this text, including yourself and myself, because now he's going to give us the evidence.

What is the evidence that I'm a son of God and hence I'm not a son of Satan and a worker of inequity or worker of lawlessness? What is the evidence that is given to us very clearly there in verse 10 and read it please with me so that we will see the words of the Apostle John verse 10. By this it is evident. Anyone has a different word than evident? By this it is manifested, evident, who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who, brethren, does not love his brother. Once again, by this it is evident who are the children of God. Evidence. The sons of God are revealed. The sons and daughters of God are seen, observed, they are tested.

The genuineness of their profession, not as workers of inequity, not as workers of lawlessness, but as workers of righteousness is evident, is seen, is observed by this. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Evident. A token.

Observable evidence. Every one of us can now, if we profess to be in Christ, we can in the secret place of your silence and in the meditations that I've had of these pastors in the last week and even as I speak, I can put myself and you can put yourself through the test and the evidence of verse 10. That those who do not practice righteousness are sons of the devil. And those who do not love the brethren are sons of the devil. This is very central to John.

Let me tell you two things about the theology of John. First one is that 4 John, love to the brethren, is the most immediate manifestation of being a Christian. If you're going to reduce these five chapters into something, if you were going to choose what is the main evidence of a child of God according to John in 1 John, that would be reduced down to the love that a person has for his brothers and sisters. Just read it when you get time, chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5. Love the brethren.

We love because he first loved us. If you say that you love God whom you don't see, how are you going to say that you love your brothers and sisters that you do see? Love to the brother and sister. For John, first thing that I tell you, loving brothers and sisters is the most immediate manifestation of being a son of God. Second thing that I tell you, The message of loving one another is not this romantic thing.

It's not just this little, you know, flowery thing that people speak because love, love, love, love, brother, brother, and sister. Love to the brethren is central to the message of the gospel. Remember what I said to you? One thing is to uphold the reform, Calvinistic, whatever type of doctrine you want of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and fight against those who oppose against the doctrine of truth. That is one thing.

Very good, and I applaud that. Another thing is to acknowledge and to live the life, the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ when it is supposed to be applied to the heart of a person. There can be a chasm between the truth of the gospel and this applied to the soul of the person. And I'm telling you that loving your brother and sister is as central to the gospel as it is the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ and the future promises of our Savior. Brother and sister, once again, I'm sorry for the repetition.

This is the way that I work. My dear brother and sister, love to the brethren is fundamental, is central to the gospel. Verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. This is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. You want to summarize the Gospel of the Apostle John?

In the Gospel, the life, the works, and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. His letters? Now, because he died, we should love one another and stand firm in the truth. Apocalypse, what do you call this in English? A revelation, the promise of his second coming.

He came and he died and he's powerfully resurrected and ascended at the right hand of the Father. Now we need to love one another, live the life of Christ here on Earth as we wait for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the Gospel of John. That is the gospel of John that might sound very romantic, that might sound very simplistic, but brother and sister, let me tell you, the test of love will tell you where your heart is. And now pay careful attention to the words that the apostle used in verse 10, because he does not say that the sons of the devil are those who hate, and he does not say that the sons of the devil are those who do unrighteousness.

Rather, he puts it in the negative. Did you see that? He says that the sons of Satan are the ones who don't do righteousness, and the sons of Satan are the ones who do not love the brother and sister. One thing is to say that you are a son of Satan when you hate your brother and sister. That is obvious, and he's going to illustrate that with Cain.

That is very obvious. But another thing is to say that you are a son of Satan when you don't love your brother. You see that, brother and sister? One thing is to say you have active hate against your brother. Of course, you're dead in your sins and your trespasses.

Another thing is to say that you don't love your brother and sister. Why is he saying that? And perhaps this will help me explain this. Because for the Apostle, both hating brothers and sisters and indifference brother and sister for John, both hating your brother and sister and indifference to your brother and sister belong to the category of being in Satan, belong to the category of not having love, belong to the category of not having the love of the father. That is not my word is the word of John.

Verse 18. Pay attention to that little children. Verse 18 of Chapter three. Little children. Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

What has he just explained in the previous two verses? The sin of indifference. Pay attention to verse 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. But if anyone has the world's goods and his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, remember that word.

Remember that statement. closes his heart to his brother. This is building walls of indifference around your heart. It is literally what it says there. Building walls of indifference around you towards your brother and sister when you know that they are in need.

Yet closes his heart against him. Then the rhetorical question, how does God's love abide in him? Does God's love abide in that person, brother and sister? No, it does not. Because in the mind of John, both active hate and indifference to those who you say that are your brothers and sisters is in the category of Cain.

Cain, who killed his brother. So the mind of the apostle goes to Genesis chapter 4, now to illustrate what it is to hate or to be indifferent towards the brother and sister. And he's going to give us the example of Cain. Cain is not going to be someone that is used to speak about those outside of the church, but brother and sister. Here, the apostle is going to use Cain to illustrate and give an example of those who are in the context of brothers and sisters, who say that they are sons of God, yet their hearts are filled with hatred or with indifference.

Because when a heart is filled with indifference towards brothers and sisters, it's just simply that they love themselves so much. that I'm just going to relate to you insofar as our relationship means something to me. But if our relationship means nothing to me, then I don't care about this relationship. Brother and sister, the scene of indifference and the scene of hate illustrated there with example of Cain in verse 12. Pay attention to that.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder his brother? Because Cain's deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous. When did Cain sin? Did he sin when he rose up, it says there in Genesis chapter 4, and kill his brother?

Is that the moment in which Cain sinned against God? No, he had been hating his brother in the secret place and been indifferent to him for a long time. When he rose up to kill his brother, it just was the outcome. God says to Cain, sin will be knocking at the door and you should rule over it. Remember Genesis chapter four, sin is knocking and you should rule over it.

But Cain was a son of Satan. So he cannot rule over sin. Sin rules over him. And because sin rules over him, then his hatred, his envious thoughts were consummated and filling the cup to the moment in which he killed, he rose and killed his brother. Pay attention to that, my dear brother and sister.

What he did did not start with his hands. It started in his heart. When he opened his eyes, and he was envious at the works of his brothers that were righteous works. There is Abel doing all of these things that everyone likes. Nobody likes what I do.

Why nobody likes what I do? He's doing all of these things envy in the heart. And envy is begotting now pride. I should be the one that takes credit in all of those things. My name is the one that should be heard.

Why is this thing going on? And then, progressively and slowly, from envy, from hatred, from all of these things, all of these evil deeds, consummated, arrived to the point in which Cain killed his brother. Terrifying reality, that of my heart. Terrifying reality, that of your heart. Because you're not any different to Cain, brother, sister.

You're not any different to that man. You're not any different to that man. If it is not because of the work of God, then sin will rule over you and will come and crouch at the door and then will rule over you. That's why there's enmity between the world and between us children of God. There's enmity between the Cain's and the Abel's.

That is the enmity that exists, natural enmity, because the sons of Satan are going to be moved with this burning feeling inside of envy and hate and despising the life of the children of God. My dear brother, my dear sister, Loving brothers and sisters is the primary, most immediate manifestation of the Son of God who is righteous. Loving and caring the one that is next to you by virtue not of who they are, but by virtue of the grace that has been deposited to them and the love of God given to them it is a clear manifestation of the love of God. Now let me just finish with this and let us just simply read together verses 14 and 15. Can we do that?

Let us just read together. We know that we have passed out of death into life. I don't know why it says passed out. Passed out in my mind means another thing. But let me just say this.

We know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. And read it once again. We know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. Do you know that you have passed From death to life. Because there's something in you that testifies to that reality.

And that is that you love the brethren. Not in words. Not just simply with a doctrine. Do you know, can you join the apostle and the early church? Can you join them?

Do you know that you have passed from death to life because you love the brethren? Because if that is not the case, verse 13 speaks and says, everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. No person in whose heart abides envy. No person in whose heart abides hatred.

Because you remember that hatred in the heart is equal to murder. It is here and also in Matthew. No person who is continually given to these experiences of hate, envy against a brother and sister, either manifested actively or passively with indifference, Has the life of Christ abided in him? Because the one that is a genuine son of God is going to be righteous and is going to manifest that in love to the brother and sister. Now, is this a nice message to preach?

Of course that is not. But I have to say what the text says, maybe your brother and sister. Would I like to preach something else in which you are happier and then your faces are different? Of course, perhaps I would like to do that. I don't like the feeling of just leaving this pulpit, then with the things that I've just said.

But brother and sister, it is not about me. And there's someone that I have to give account for the things that I say. This is what it says in the scriptures. I don't want anyone within this room to arrive to Matthew chapter 7 reality. Depart from me, ye workers of lawlessness.

I prefer to take one stone and just simply not to be nice than knowing that someone, my children, my wife, or my brothers and sisters, or people that are within me, are going to arrive to that day and hear that from the mouth of the Lord. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So my dear brother and sister, my intention is not to harm you with the purpose of lift you there, but rather to tell you this, that if you confess your sin, he's just unfaithful to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Independently, what your situation is. Independently, if you are convicted that you have not loved the brethren as you should.

Independently, if you now are convicted and know that you're not in Christ. Independently, what the situation is. If you confess your sin, He's just and faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And while there is one more day, the grace of the Lord is still abounding. While the last day has not arrived, there's grace that is still abounding.

And that's why we preach Christ and that's why we preach the Gospel. Because as long as there is morning, as long as there is night, there's also salvation for the one who comes to Christ. So brother, sister, dear friend, and children, There's only one name in whom people are going to be saved, and that name is Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the one who came and conquered and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Governing and ruling until the last enemy that is death is destroyed so that he will deliver the kingdom to the father and we will be with him. We will see him as he is and we will be conquerors and victorious with our savior.

Not because we deserve it, but because he loved us so much and gave himself for us. Amen. Amen.