August 14, 2024 • 26 mins
What if the world we live in is actively pulling us away from God's truth? This episode of "Living God's Way in an Ungodly World" offers a powerful exploration of 1 John 3:10-15, where I dissect the stark contrasts between the children of God and the children of the devil. I emphasize the non-negotiable need to practice righteousness and extend love to fellow believers, reinforcing that there is no spiritual middle ground—you are either with God or against Him. If you haven't accepted Jesus as your Savior yet, this episode could be a pivotal moment in your spiritual journey, urging you to make that life-altering decision today.
In the chapter "Love and Righteousness," I delve into the foundational Christian principle of love, remembering Jesus' teachings to love God and our neighbors. Through the biblical story of Cain and Abel, I illustrate the importance of offering our best to God and the catastrophic results of letting negative emotions control us. Abel’s righteousness contrasted with Cain’s jealousy and anger serves as a timeless lesson for us all. Finally, I provide insights on how to stand firm in your faith even when faced with worldly hatred, much like Jesus did. Join me for a compelling discussion that challenges and equips you to walk faithfully in an often opposing world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
B.R.Maul (00:29):
Hello and good day.
I am BR Maul and this is LivingGod's Way in an Ungodly World.
It's nice to have you here withme.
Today.
We are continuing our study inthe book of 1 John.
We're in chapter 3, and I'll bereading verses 10 through 15,
(00:51):
so if you want to open up yourBible, as you are doing that, I
hope all is going well for you.
My brothers and sisters in theLord, our walk with Christ is
the most important thing.
Of course, our destination tostart Christ is the most
important thing.
Of course our destination tostart with is the most important
.
Are we going to heaven or arewe going to hell?
(01:13):
If you are born again the Bibleway, that is, you have
confessed with your mouth theLord Jesus and with your heart
believe that the Heavenly Fatherhas raised him from the grave,
you are indeed a child of God.
If you haven't done that yet,then you've yet to step over
(01:35):
that threshold into God's family.
I encourage you to do that.
After all, it is not our churchmembership that gets us into
heaven.
It is not our works.
No matter how good we may feelwe are, no matter how much money
we give or time we dedicate toother people.
(01:56):
It really nothing of thatmatters if you are not born
again, because your destinationis still hell.
So my prayer is that, for thoseof you who are not born again,
that you would do it today.
Don't wait.
Time is short, time is ticking.
Here on this podcast, we focuson walking with the Lord,
(02:18):
because in today's world, thingscontinue to unravel faster and
faster and they move faster andfaster.
So all the more important thatwe take the time to stay in
God's Word, to stay close to ourLord and Savior with prayer and
supplication, that we cometogether with brothers and
sisters in the faith so wecontinue to grow and we pray
(02:41):
with one another so we may behealed.
And, of course, we worship him.
We are built to worship, and ifyou're not worshiping Yahweh,
if you are not worshiping theGod of peace, the God of light,
the God of love, the God ofrighteousness, well then you are
(03:02):
worshiping someone or somethingelse.
And that's a conversation foranother day.
And, of course, everyone iswelcome to get a hold of me at
my website, brmaul, that'sbrmallcom.
Just go ahead and click oncontact.
I invite you to send me amessage.
I'd be happy to discuss anyquestions you may have, or maybe
(03:26):
you disagree with somethingthat I am teaching.
Well, let it be known that I amonly teaching from the Bible.
I don't have works from othersthat I teach from.
I don't have my own works, myown agenda.
This is only from God's Word.
But I'm happy to discuss thatwith you because I myself
continue to be a disciple ofJesus.
(03:49):
So with that, let me jump rightin Today's reading.
1 John, chapter 3, verses 10through 15.
In this, the children of Godand the children of the devil
are manifest.
Whoever does not practicerighteousness is not of God, nor
is he who does not love hisbrother.
(04:12):
For this is the message thatyou heard from the beginning
that we should love one another,not as Cain, who was of the
wicked one and murdered hisbrother.
And why did he murder him?
Because his works were evil andhis brothers righteous.
Do not marvel, my brethren, ifthe world hates you.
(04:35):
We know that we have passedfrom death to life because we
love the brethren.
He who does not love hisbrother abides in death.
Whoever hates his brother is amurderer, and you know that no
murderer has eternal lifeabiding in him.
Here ends the reading.
(04:57):
Heavenly Father, please open upthe hearts of those that are
listening.
Let them hear your word.
May they feel the tug of theHoly Spirit if they are not born
again, lord.
So let me back up.
Take a look at verse 10.
So John tells us in this thechildren of God and the children
(05:32):
of the devil are manifest.
What is manifest?
If something is manifest, thenit's something that we can
perceive.
Then it's something that we canperceive, we can see or
understand it with our senses,and often it is the sense of
(06:03):
sight.
So often something that ismanifest, we correlate with
being able to see it.
What John is saying is, in thisthe children of God and the
children of the.
And what is that he says?
So those are the two areas thatJohn wants us to look at and
(06:28):
focus on those who do notpractice righteousness and those
who do not love his brothersand sisters in the faith.
Let me just make a side notehere, because John does say in
this the children of God and thechildren of the devil are
manifest.
He's saying that if youpractice righteousness and if
(06:52):
you love your brothers andsisters in the faith, you are of
God.
If you do not practicerighteousness, so lawlessness
and you do not have love for thechildren of God, then you are a
child of the devil.
It's important to know herethat there is no other choice.
There is no third option.
(07:14):
John makes it very clear thatwe are in one arena or the other
.
So know this you are either achild of God or you are a child
of the devil.
Yes, that can be difficult tohear and I'm sure many are even
(07:34):
saying well, that's justunbelievable, because I know
people who are not a Christian,but they are certainly not a
child of the devil and I hate tosay it, but that would be
incorrect, because Jesus evensaid that you are either with me
or against me.
So there is no middle ground.
(07:55):
And if we are not following God,if we are not following Jesus
Christ as our Savior, if we arefollowing any other religion out
there, if we are following adifferent person, or, for those
who are convinced they're notfollowing anyone because they
don't believe in any higherpower, which in and of itself is
(08:16):
a religion, again for anothertime.
But atheism is a religioneither way, it is of the devil,
because everything that is notof God on this planet earth is
of the devil.
I know that can sting, but it'sthe truth.
I'm not one to sit and talkaround circles and give you a
(08:39):
whole bunch of fluff so you canfeel good about yourself.
The Lord has put it on my heartthat I speak the truth, no
matter how much it hurts, nomatter how much it stings and no
matter how many people dislikemy message.
But it's not my message, I'mjust the messenger.
So that's how we can tell Childof God practices righteousness,
(09:02):
john says.
And a child of the devil doesnot practice righteousness, will
take things into their own hand.
Maybe the rules don't apply tome.
It applies to the common peoplein life.
Or I don't like that law, Idon't like that rule, so I'm
just not going to follow it.
(09:24):
And then also the love.
That's very important Love.
We hear that a lot in God'sWord.
After all, jesus made it allthe easier for those of us who
are following him, those of uswho want to glorify his name.
He said love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your might,and all your soul, with all your
(09:46):
might, and love your neighboras yourself.
And that fulfills the entirelaw.
Love, john goes on in verse 11,.
For this is the message that youheard from the beginning that
we should love one another.
It's not a new message.
We see love from the beginningof the Bible to the end, from
(10:09):
Genesis to Revelation andeverything in between.
Love is a common string thatcontinues to be thread through
God's Word that ties everyoneand everything together.
It is the love of Jesus Christthat saves us of our sins.
It is the grace and the love ofGod that gives us the ability
(10:33):
to love Jesus and to follow him,and it is the one thing that it
is our will to either keep forourself or give to God, and that
is our love.
So John says this is not a newmessage.
But it's interesting becauseJohn does add something in
addition to kind of clarify this.
(10:54):
Because he says in verse 11,for this is the message that you
heard from the beginning, thatwe should love one another,
verse 12, he adds not as Cain,who was of the wicked one and
murdered his brother.
Interesting, isn't it?
So, instead of showing us anexample of who it should be like
(11:17):
that we love, he says not asCain, that Cain was of the
wicked one, of Satan, and Satanis the father of lies, the
father of hate.
So not as Cain, who was of thewicked one and murdered his
brother.
We cannot murder, right?
(11:39):
We can't run around and justkilling people because they make
us angry.
And just killing people becausethey make us angry, or it's
unfair, or they got somethingthat I want and so I'm going to
just go take their life away.
We can't do that.
So John goes on a little moreto help us out.
He says and why did he murderhim?
(11:59):
That's a rhetorical question,because he answers it right away
.
John says because his works,that's Cain's works, were evil
and his brothers righteous.
Well, there you have it.
Abel was righteous before theLord, if you recall the story of
Cain and Abel, cain being thefirstborn of Adam and Eve being
(12:28):
the firstborn of Adam and Eve,but Cain, right from the get-go
we can see, just sort of had abad attitude, wanted to do his
own thing, his own way.
And we see that in a couple ofthe verses in Genesis, genesis,
chapter 4, verse 2.
Now, abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of Verse
(12:48):
2.
So in that few verses there,what we see right away then is
that yes, cain wants to dothings his way.
(13:28):
It says Cain brought an offeringof the fruit of the ground to
the Lord.
Now, several things.
First of all, it doesn'tmention the first fruit, it just
says an offering of the fruitof the ground to the Lord.
Now Abel, he brought the bestof the best.
(13:48):
He brought the firstborn of hisflock and of their fat.
Now I've heard this taught twodifferent ways, that what Cain
did wrong was the fact that hejust didn't bring the best of
what he had.
But I've also heard it taughtthat it wasn't blood, and I
don't know if that's the case,because the first sacrifice was
(14:12):
God himself, when he had to killanimals, to put the skins of
these animals on Adam and Eveafter they sinned.
And in verse 3 in the Genesis 4, it says and in the process of
time it came to pass that Cainbrought an offering of the fruit
of the ground to the Lord.
So I don't know that for sure,but either way, that's not what
(14:35):
this teaching is about.
I just want to show the veryfact that Cain, right from the
get-go, did not bring the bestof what he had.
So whether it was he justdidn't bother bringing an animal
sacrifice, that I don't know.
It seems to fit more that itwas just he didn't bring the
best of what he had because hewas a tiller of the ground.
(14:57):
So he planted and grew crops.
Where Abel was a shepherd, hehad sheep.
That's why Abel brought thefirstborn of his flock.
He brought the best of the bestand Cain was very angry and his
countenance fell More proofthat once again he wanted to do
(15:19):
things his way and he was justupset because God didn't accept
it.
Now what's interesting is Cain,if he would have just been
repentant and apologized, saidLord, I'm sorry, please forgive
me, and then turned and remediedthe situation, all would have
been fine.
(15:40):
But Cain allowed his flesh, hisheart, his anger to take over,
and he followed that instead andbecame bitter and angry at God.
As the story goes on, cain endsup killing.
He was the first one to murderhis brother, abel.
Abel was the first martyr, sorather unfortunate.
(16:04):
But that is why he murdered hisbrother, because he was jealous
.
He, cain, was not righteous,and so he decided to take the
life of someone who is righteous.
John goes on in verse 13, do notmarvel my brethren, if the
(16:25):
world hates you.
Interesting advice, isn't it?
He's saying don't be shocked ifthe world hates you Because the
world hated Jesus.
Jesus already made it clear tous that the world will also hate
us.
And the world, if we areshowing our true colors as
(16:45):
born-again believers of JesusChrist, will hate us because we
will not go with the flow of theworld.
We will not live that way.
We know better and that's whyJesus, who spoke the truth, was
crucified, and was crucified bythe very people who should have
(17:07):
known him, who should haverecognized him from the
scriptures as the Messiah.
But that goes to show us howthe human heart can hold such
animosity and hatred for thatwhich is good, unless that human
heart has the Holy Spirit.
(17:28):
Verse 14, we know that we havepassed from death to life
because we love the brethren.
So now he's reminding us abouthow to identify, as he said
earlier, whether we are a childof God or a child of the devil.
So he's reminding us.
We know that we have passedfrom death to life.
(17:48):
We know that we have passedfrom death to life death being
born into this world physically,but death spiritually.
But then we pass from death tolife being born again, so
spiritually being born again.
And we can know that because welove the brethren, our family
(18:17):
in God, our brothers and sistersin the faith.
That's why, when I speakteaching in this podcast, I use
the terminology my brothers andsisters in Christ, because
that's what you are.
If you're born again becauseyou passed from death, being
dead to God, to life when yourspirit was born, which means you
were born again, because youwere already born physically and
(18:39):
then you became bornspiritually, so you were born
again.
The second part of 14, he whodoes not love his brother abides
in death.
That means the person who isn'tborn again is still dead to God
because there's no love in himand we need the Holy Spirit to
(19:00):
be able to love others.
We need the Holy Spirit to beable to love God, but it is by
the very grace of God, throughfaith, that we are able to come
to him and to be born again.
So a person who does not havethe love for other people, and
especially children of God,they're not born again and John
(19:24):
says they abide in death.
I've heard some preachers callit the walking dead.
The thought is truly horrible.
Despite how often movies havecome about with the walking dead
, this is for real.
Somebody who abides in death.
(19:45):
They're physically walkingaround, they are physically
eating, they are breathing, theyare working and they are loving
, but only on the level of theworld.
That's that phileo love or thebrotherly love, but it's not
agape love.
And agape love is what he'stalking about here.
(20:05):
Agape love is not selfish inany way.
There's no connection to it.
There's no.
I'm loving you because I'mgetting this, and if you stop
giving me this, whatever that is, well then I'm not going to
love you anymore.
That's more the love of theflesh.
That's the love of lust andthat ebbs and flows.
(20:27):
That can come and go.
During the holiday times andChristmas time, people, suddenly
love is in the air more.
People are so easy to forgiveand forget for that time of
season because people are beingmore loving.
Or Valentine's Day, for thosecountries who celebrate that,
(20:47):
and love is in the air again.
But that's a different kind oflove Now.
That's a lustful love and again, that comes and goes, depending
on what a person gets in return.
This here is that agape love.
It's important that we are ableto love people.
We love because we choose tolove and we can choose to love
(21:09):
others when we have the HolySpirit in us.
So verse 14, we know that wehave passed from death to life
being born again.
Because we love the brethren,we love the children of God,
because we ourselves are a childof God.
He who does not love hisbrother abides in death.
(21:30):
They are still hell boundbecause they have not been born
again.
And then John verse 15, saysWhoever hates his brother is a
murderer.
And you know that no murdererhas eternal life abiding in him.
Those who can break God'scommandments, such as thou,
(21:52):
shall not murder and just keepon going that way, well then,
eternal life is not in them.
They are not born again.
But interestingly enough, johnreminds us of something that
Jesus said.
Do you remember Jesus, when hewas talking about the Ten
Commandments?
And by breaking one of them, webreak all of them.
(22:13):
And of course, there were thosethinking well, you know, hey, I
never murdered anybody.
But he said, however, if youhave even hated somebody, you
are so angry at them that thatis equivalent to physical murder
because in your heart you havekilled them.
Powerful, very powerful.
(22:35):
So John is reminding us aboutthat Whoever hates his brother
is a murderer.
A good reminder, because we cando damage in our hearts to
other people If we let ouremotions get the best of us,
(22:58):
then our words or the look thatwe give them, or the absence of
any love or the absence of anyhelp, whatever it might be that
we do because we allow hate intoour heart is murdering them.
So John makes that reminder tous, and that's a reminder that
we should appreciate, because itis from Jesus Christ, our
Savior.
Whoever hates his brother is amurderer, and you know that no
(23:22):
murderer has eternal lifeabiding in him.
If you have hate, if you are onewho's holding on to that, you
are harboring hate in your heart.
Then I suggest that you takethe time and you pray to the
Lord.
If you believe yourself to beborn again, ask for forgiveness
(23:43):
and turn away from that hate andleave that hate as you look to
God.
Leave that hatred at the footof the cross or at the feet of
Jesus.
Don't take that hate with you.
And if you're not born again,well, that hatred is probably
impossible to get rid of,because until we have the Holy
Spirit dwelling in us, beloved,we are slave to our sin.
(24:07):
We may be able to cover it upfor a short time, but we are a
slave to our sin.
So then, pray to God, confessthe Lord Jesus as Lord of your
life and your Savior, and youneed to believe in your heart,
not your mind, but truly believethat the blood of Christ has
washed away your sins, becausethe Heavenly Father raised him
(24:31):
from the grave and he, jesus,has overcome death.
And then leave that hatred atthe feet of Jesus.
That's about it for today.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Remember to keep on readingGod's Word.
Talking to a good friend ofmine, he and I had coffee again
(24:53):
today and we continued to remindeach other about how important
it is for those around us tocontinue to read God's Word.
So we reach out and tell peoplethat, because we want everybody
who is walking with the Lord tocontinue to grow in their faith
.
Because look around you as thisworld continues to crumble and
(25:14):
fall down.
If you are not in God's Word,you will not know the truth and
you will be deceived.
You will be caught up in allthe chaos and evil that is in
the world today.
So being born again isn't enough.
It's enough to get you intoeternity, but it's not enough to
survive here and now.
(25:35):
So that is, your greatestweapon is opening up God's Word.
Communicate with Him.
Pray to Him, ask Him forguidance.
He will guide you.
He will grant you that wisdomand understanding of His Word.
You will become strongerspiritually.
Get with brothers and sisters.
Pray with one another so youmay be healed.
(25:56):
Lift each other up and worshipthe Lord, because he is so
worthy of our worship.
He loves us so much.
And until next time, god bless.
Thank you.
Hello and good day.
I am BR Maul and this is LivingGod's Way in an Ungodly World.
It's nice to have you here withme.
Today.
We are continuing our study inthe book of 1 John.
We're in chapter 3, and I'll bereading verses 10 through 15,
(00:51):
so if you want to open up yourBible, as you are doing that, I
hope all is going well for you.
My brothers and sisters in theLord, our walk with Christ is
the most important thing.
Of course, our destination tostart Christ is the most
important thing.
Of course our destination tostart with is the most important
.
Are we going to heaven or arewe going to hell?
(01:13):
If you are born again the Bibleway, that is, you have
confessed with your mouth theLord Jesus and with your heart
believe that the Heavenly Fatherhas raised him from the grave,
you are indeed a child of God.
If you haven't done that yet,then you've yet to step over
(01:35):
that threshold into God's family.
I encourage you to do that.
After all, it is not our churchmembership that gets us into
heaven.
It is not our works.
No matter how good we may feelwe are, no matter how much money
we give or time we dedicate toother people.
(01:56):
It really nothing of thatmatters if you are not born
again, because your destinationis still hell.
So my prayer is that, for thoseof you who are not born again,
that you would do it today.
Don't wait.
Time is short, time is ticking.
Here on this podcast, we focuson walking with the Lord,
(02:18):
because in today's world, thingscontinue to unravel faster and
faster and they move faster andfaster.
So all the more important thatwe take the time to stay in
God's Word, to stay close to ourLord and Savior with prayer and
supplication, that we cometogether with brothers and
sisters in the faith so wecontinue to grow and we pray
(02:41):
with one another so we may behealed.
And, of course, we worship him.
We are built to worship, and ifyou're not worshiping Yahweh,
if you are not worshiping theGod of peace, the God of light,
the God of love, the God ofrighteousness, well then you are
(03:02):
worshiping someone or somethingelse.
And that's a conversation foranother day.
And, of course, everyone iswelcome to get a hold of me at
my website, brmaul, that'sbrmallcom.
Just go ahead and click oncontact.
I invite you to send me amessage.
I'd be happy to discuss anyquestions you may have, or maybe
(03:26):
you disagree with somethingthat I am teaching.
Well, let it be known that I amonly teaching from the Bible.
I don't have works from othersthat I teach from.
I don't have my own works, myown agenda.
This is only from God's Word.
But I'm happy to discuss thatwith you because I myself
continue to be a disciple ofJesus.
(03:49):
So with that, let me jump rightin Today's reading.
1 John, chapter 3, verses 10through 15.
In this, the children of Godand the children of the devil
are manifest.
Whoever does not practicerighteousness is not of God, nor
is he who does not love hisbrother.
(04:12):
For this is the message thatyou heard from the beginning
that we should love one another,not as Cain, who was of the
wicked one and murdered hisbrother.
And why did he murder him?
Because his works were evil andhis brothers righteous.
Do not marvel, my brethren, ifthe world hates you.
(04:35):
We know that we have passedfrom death to life because we
love the brethren.
He who does not love hisbrother abides in death.
Whoever hates his brother is amurderer, and you know that no
murderer has eternal lifeabiding in him.
Here ends the reading.
(04:57):
Heavenly Father, please open upthe hearts of those that are
listening.
Let them hear your word.
May they feel the tug of theHoly Spirit if they are not born
again, lord.
So let me back up.
Take a look at verse 10.
So John tells us in this thechildren of God and the children
(05:32):
of the devil are manifest.
What is manifest?
If something is manifest, thenit's something that we can
perceive.
Then it's something that we canperceive, we can see or
understand it with our senses,and often it is the sense of
(06:03):
sight.
So often something that ismanifest, we correlate with
being able to see it.
What John is saying is, in thisthe children of God and the
children of the.
And what is that he says?
So those are the two areas thatJohn wants us to look at and
(06:28):
focus on those who do notpractice righteousness and those
who do not love his brothersand sisters in the faith.
Let me just make a side notehere, because John does say in
this the children of God and thechildren of the devil are
manifest.
He's saying that if youpractice righteousness and if
(06:52):
you love your brothers andsisters in the faith, you are of
God.
If you do not practicerighteousness, so lawlessness
and you do not have love for thechildren of God, then you are a
child of the devil.
It's important to know herethat there is no other choice.
There is no third option.
(07:14):
John makes it very clear thatwe are in one arena or the other
.
So know this you are either achild of God or you are a child
of the devil.
Yes, that can be difficult tohear and I'm sure many are even
(07:34):
saying well, that's justunbelievable, because I know
people who are not a Christian,but they are certainly not a
child of the devil and I hate tosay it, but that would be
incorrect, because Jesus evensaid that you are either with me
or against me.
So there is no middle ground.
(07:55):
And if we are not following God,if we are not following Jesus
Christ as our Savior, if we arefollowing any other religion out
there, if we are following adifferent person, or, for those
who are convinced they're notfollowing anyone because they
don't believe in any higherpower, which in and of itself is
(08:16):
a religion, again for anothertime.
But atheism is a religioneither way, it is of the devil,
because everything that is notof God on this planet earth is
of the devil.
I know that can sting, but it'sthe truth.
I'm not one to sit and talkaround circles and give you a
(08:39):
whole bunch of fluff so you canfeel good about yourself.
The Lord has put it on my heartthat I speak the truth, no
matter how much it hurts, nomatter how much it stings and no
matter how many people dislikemy message.
But it's not my message, I'mjust the messenger.
So that's how we can tell Childof God practices righteousness,
(09:02):
john says.
And a child of the devil doesnot practice righteousness, will
take things into their own hand.
Maybe the rules don't apply tome.
It applies to the common peoplein life.
Or I don't like that law, Idon't like that rule, so I'm
just not going to follow it.
(09:24):
And then also the love.
That's very important Love.
We hear that a lot in God'sWord.
After all, jesus made it allthe easier for those of us who
are following him, those of uswho want to glorify his name.
He said love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your might,and all your soul, with all your
(09:46):
might, and love your neighboras yourself.
And that fulfills the entirelaw.
Love, john goes on in verse 11,.
For this is the message that youheard from the beginning that
we should love one another.
It's not a new message.
We see love from the beginningof the Bible to the end, from
(10:09):
Genesis to Revelation andeverything in between.
Love is a common string thatcontinues to be thread through
God's Word that ties everyoneand everything together.
It is the love of Jesus Christthat saves us of our sins.
It is the grace and the love ofGod that gives us the ability
(10:33):
to love Jesus and to follow him,and it is the one thing that it
is our will to either keep forourself or give to God, and that
is our love.
So John says this is not a newmessage.
But it's interesting becauseJohn does add something in
addition to kind of clarify this.
(10:54):
Because he says in verse 11,for this is the message that you
heard from the beginning, thatwe should love one another,
verse 12, he adds not as Cain,who was of the wicked one and
murdered his brother.
Interesting, isn't it?
So, instead of showing us anexample of who it should be like
(11:17):
that we love, he says not asCain, that Cain was of the
wicked one, of Satan, and Satanis the father of lies, the
father of hate.
So not as Cain, who was of thewicked one and murdered his
brother.
We cannot murder, right?
(11:39):
We can't run around and justkilling people because they make
us angry.
And just killing people becausethey make us angry, or it's
unfair, or they got somethingthat I want and so I'm going to
just go take their life away.
We can't do that.
So John goes on a little moreto help us out.
He says and why did he murderhim?
(11:59):
That's a rhetorical question,because he answers it right away
.
John says because his works,that's Cain's works, were evil
and his brothers righteous.
Well, there you have it.
Abel was righteous before theLord, if you recall the story of
Cain and Abel, cain being thefirstborn of Adam and Eve being
(12:28):
the firstborn of Adam and Eve,but Cain, right from the get-go
we can see, just sort of had abad attitude, wanted to do his
own thing, his own way.
And we see that in a couple ofthe verses in Genesis, genesis,
chapter 4, verse 2.
Now, abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of Verse
(12:48):
2.
So in that few verses there,what we see right away then is
that yes, cain wants to dothings his way.
(13:28):
It says Cain brought an offeringof the fruit of the ground to
the Lord.
Now, several things.
First of all, it doesn'tmention the first fruit, it just
says an offering of the fruitof the ground to the Lord.
Now Abel, he brought the bestof the best.
(13:48):
He brought the firstborn of hisflock and of their fat.
Now I've heard this taught twodifferent ways, that what Cain
did wrong was the fact that hejust didn't bring the best of
what he had.
But I've also heard it taughtthat it wasn't blood, and I
don't know if that's the case,because the first sacrifice was
(14:12):
God himself, when he had to killanimals, to put the skins of
these animals on Adam and Eveafter they sinned.
And in verse 3 in the Genesis 4, it says and in the process of
time it came to pass that Cainbrought an offering of the fruit
of the ground to the Lord.
So I don't know that for sure,but either way, that's not what
(14:35):
this teaching is about.
I just want to show the veryfact that Cain, right from the
get-go, did not bring the bestof what he had.
So whether it was he justdidn't bother bringing an animal
sacrifice, that I don't know.
It seems to fit more that itwas just he didn't bring the
best of what he had because hewas a tiller of the ground.
(14:57):
So he planted and grew crops.
Where Abel was a shepherd, hehad sheep.
That's why Abel brought thefirstborn of his flock.
He brought the best of the bestand Cain was very angry and his
countenance fell More proofthat once again he wanted to do
(15:19):
things his way and he was justupset because God didn't accept
it.
Now what's interesting is Cain,if he would have just been
repentant and apologized, saidLord, I'm sorry, please forgive
me, and then turned and remediedthe situation, all would have
been fine.
(15:40):
But Cain allowed his flesh, hisheart, his anger to take over,
and he followed that instead andbecame bitter and angry at God.
As the story goes on, cain endsup killing.
He was the first one to murderhis brother, abel.
Abel was the first martyr, sorather unfortunate.
(16:04):
But that is why he murdered hisbrother, because he was jealous
.
He, cain, was not righteous,and so he decided to take the
life of someone who is righteous.
John goes on in verse 13, do notmarvel my brethren, if the
(16:25):
world hates you.
Interesting advice, isn't it?
He's saying don't be shocked ifthe world hates you Because the
world hated Jesus.
Jesus already made it clear tous that the world will also hate
us.
And the world, if we areshowing our true colors as
(16:45):
born-again believers of JesusChrist, will hate us because we
will not go with the flow of theworld.
We will not live that way.
We know better and that's whyJesus, who spoke the truth, was
crucified, and was crucified bythe very people who should have
(17:07):
known him, who should haverecognized him from the
scriptures as the Messiah.
But that goes to show us howthe human heart can hold such
animosity and hatred for thatwhich is good, unless that human
heart has the Holy Spirit.
(17:28):
Verse 14, we know that we havepassed from death to life
because we love the brethren.
So now he's reminding us abouthow to identify, as he said
earlier, whether we are a childof God or a child of the devil.
So he's reminding us.
We know that we have passedfrom death to life.
(17:48):
We know that we have passedfrom death to life death being
born into this world physically,but death spiritually.
But then we pass from death tolife being born again, so
spiritually being born again.
And we can know that because welove the brethren, our family
(18:17):
in God, our brothers and sistersin the faith.
That's why, when I speakteaching in this podcast, I use
the terminology my brothers andsisters in Christ, because
that's what you are.
If you're born again becauseyou passed from death, being
dead to God, to life when yourspirit was born, which means you
were born again, because youwere already born physically and
(18:39):
then you became bornspiritually, so you were born
again.
The second part of 14, he whodoes not love his brother abides
in death.
That means the person who isn'tborn again is still dead to God
because there's no love in himand we need the Holy Spirit to
(19:00):
be able to love others.
We need the Holy Spirit to beable to love God, but it is by
the very grace of God, throughfaith, that we are able to come
to him and to be born again.
So a person who does not havethe love for other people, and
especially children of God,they're not born again and John
(19:24):
says they abide in death.
I've heard some preachers callit the walking dead.
The thought is truly horrible.
Despite how often movies havecome about with the walking dead
, this is for real.
Somebody who abides in death.
(19:45):
They're physically walkingaround, they are physically
eating, they are breathing, theyare working and they are loving
, but only on the level of theworld.
That's that phileo love or thebrotherly love, but it's not
agape love.
And agape love is what he'stalking about here.
(20:05):
Agape love is not selfish inany way.
There's no connection to it.
There's no.
I'm loving you because I'mgetting this, and if you stop
giving me this, whatever that is, well then I'm not going to
love you anymore.
That's more the love of theflesh.
That's the love of lust andthat ebbs and flows.
(20:27):
That can come and go.
During the holiday times andChristmas time, people, suddenly
love is in the air more.
People are so easy to forgiveand forget for that time of
season because people are beingmore loving.
Or Valentine's Day, for thosecountries who celebrate that,
(20:47):
and love is in the air again.
But that's a different kind oflove Now.
That's a lustful love and again, that comes and goes, depending
on what a person gets in return.
This here is that agape love.
It's important that we are ableto love people.
We love because we choose tolove and we can choose to love
(21:09):
others when we have the HolySpirit in us.
So verse 14, we know that wehave passed from death to life
being born again.
Because we love the brethren,we love the children of God,
because we ourselves are a childof God.
He who does not love hisbrother abides in death.
(21:30):
They are still hell boundbecause they have not been born
again.
And then John verse 15, saysWhoever hates his brother is a
murderer.
And you know that no murdererhas eternal life abiding in him.
Those who can break God'scommandments, such as thou,
(21:52):
shall not murder and just keepon going that way, well then,
eternal life is not in them.
They are not born again.
But interestingly enough, johnreminds us of something that
Jesus said.
Do you remember Jesus, when hewas talking about the Ten
Commandments?
And by breaking one of them, webreak all of them.
(22:13):
And of course, there were thosethinking well, you know, hey, I
never murdered anybody.
But he said, however, if youhave even hated somebody, you
are so angry at them that thatis equivalent to physical murder
because in your heart you havekilled them.
Powerful, very powerful.
(22:35):
So John is reminding us aboutthat Whoever hates his brother
is a murderer.
A good reminder, because we cando damage in our hearts to
other people If we let ouremotions get the best of us,
(22:58):
then our words or the look thatwe give them, or the absence of
any love or the absence of anyhelp, whatever it might be that
we do because we allow hate intoour heart is murdering them.
So John makes that reminder tous, and that's a reminder that
we should appreciate, because itis from Jesus Christ, our
Savior.
Whoever hates his brother is amurderer, and you know that no
(23:22):
murderer has eternal lifeabiding in him.
If you have hate, if you are onewho's holding on to that, you
are harboring hate in your heart.
Then I suggest that you takethe time and you pray to the
Lord.
If you believe yourself to beborn again, ask for forgiveness
(23:43):
and turn away from that hate andleave that hate as you look to
God.
Leave that hatred at the footof the cross or at the feet of
Jesus.
Don't take that hate with you.
And if you're not born again,well, that hatred is probably
impossible to get rid of,because until we have the Holy
Spirit dwelling in us, beloved,we are slave to our sin.
(24:07):
We may be able to cover it upfor a short time, but we are a
slave to our sin.
So then, pray to God, confessthe Lord Jesus as Lord of your
life and your Savior, and youneed to believe in your heart,
not your mind, but truly believethat the blood of Christ has
washed away your sins, becausethe Heavenly Father raised him
(24:31):
from the grave and he, jesus,has overcome death.
And then leave that hatred atthe feet of Jesus.
That's about it for today.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Remember to keep on readingGod's Word.
Talking to a good friend ofmine, he and I had coffee again
(24:53):
today and we continued to remindeach other about how important
it is for those around us tocontinue to read God's Word.
So we reach out and tell peoplethat, because we want everybody
who is walking with the Lord tocontinue to grow in their faith
.
Because look around you as thisworld continues to crumble and
(25:14):
fall down.
If you are not in God's Word,you will not know the truth and
you will be deceived.
You will be caught up in allthe chaos and evil that is in
the world today.
So being born again isn't enough.
It's enough to get you intoeternity, but it's not enough to
survive here and now.
(25:35):
So that is, your greatestweapon is opening up God's Word.
Communicate with Him.
Pray to Him, ask Him forguidance.
He will guide you.
He will grant you that wisdomand understanding of His Word.
You will become strongerspiritually.
Get with brothers and sisters.
Pray with one another so youmay be healed.
(25:56):
Lift each other up and worshipthe Lord, because he is so
worthy of our worship.
He loves us so much.
And until next time, god bless.
Thank you.
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