WWUTT 442 Whoever Loves the Father?

1 John 5 says everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the

Father loves whoever has been born of Him. One of the evidences that we've been born again is that we'll love other

Christians when we understand the text. This is

When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. Continuing our study of the book of 1

John 5, in verses 1 -5, once again, we're reading today as the

Apostle writes, Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the

Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love

God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep

His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the

Son of God? Such deep meaning in just these five verses. We could spend weeks on just this particular paragraph.

So yesterday we looked primarily at that first half of verse 1, so you see how quickly we're getting through this paragraph.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

And as John had talked about previously in chapter 3, he said, 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 work 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.

Peter also put this a particular way when he said that we have been born again, not of perishable seed, which is how we were born the first time, and that is a corrupt seed in which all are born as children of Satan.

We've not been born of a perishable seed, but we have been born again of an imperishable seed.

How do we know those who are born of God, but that they do not practice sinning and cannot keep on sinning because they are born of God?

Those who are born of the devil do not practice righteousness and continue on in the sin that they were doing before they came to Christ.

Those who are born again really are new creatures, they're new creations. As Paul talked about with the

Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation.

The old has passed away, the new has come. So we're no longer in those behaviors and practices that we were in prior to coming to Christ, but the evidence of the faith that we have is in the righteousness that we practice, for it is a righteousness that is not our own, does not come from ourself, does not come from our abilities, does not come from our ability to change our thinking and just go, hey, today

I think I'm going to do this. For the Bible explicitly states that even if we decided that we were going to follow the law and do that, thinking that we were going to gain the favor of God, that that wouldn't be enough.

For we see the Israelites in the Old Testament doing that very thing, they were following the law of God, and yet through the prophet

Isaiah, Isaiah 1, who is required of you this trampling of my courts.

I don't care for your sacrifices, I don't care for the music that you sing, it's noise to me as it says in Amos 5.

And so this was the Israelites following the law of God, but their heart was far from God because they did not actually have a heart that had been transformed to worship

God in a holy and righteous way. They were doing all these things for themselves. They were doing it to show their own religiosity, not because they truly desired

God and worshiped him with their whole selves. It is only by a transformation of the heart that happens by the spirit of God that makes us worthy to worship

God. Otherwise, all those practices, everything that we do is nothing but filthy rags before a holy

God, as is talked about in Isaiah 64 6. So before we came to God, we were children of the devil and everyone is born that way of perishable seed of the work of the devil.

It says in Ephesians 2 1 and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

That was who we were before we came to Christ and everyone is like this verse four. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So God prepared us for this work beforehand, but it still took a transformation of God to change us from the children of the devil that we once were rescuing, rescuing us out of that darkness.

And we have been adopted into the family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ, born again into his family.

And those who are born again do not do the works that the devil did, but they are doing the righteousness that Jesus did.

So once again, in chapter three, no one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him.

When we get to verse 11 or verse 12 rather, it says, 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 brothers were righteous. Do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers, whoever does not love abides in death.

So we are to love one another. And if we do that, then we show, we demonstrate that we have been born again of the imperishable seed of God.

Cain is the example that is used here in 1 John 3, 12, because he was born of the seed of Satan and Abel was born of the seed of God.

He was born of the promised seed. Cain was born of the perishable seed.

And this was all by the sovereign choice of God who decided which line was going to be the children of the promise and which one was not going to receive the promise.

And so after we read this story in Genesis chapter four, when you read the story of Cain and Abel, after that, what you have is the genealogy of Cain.

And then Adam knew his wife Eve again, and they gave birth to another son whom they name

Seth. And this is the line of the promise seed. Abel was not because Abel was killed.

Although he was a righteous man, he was not the line of the promise seed for there was no children of his to carry on his name.

So Adam and Eve had another son who was Seth and he would be the line of the promise seed, not

Cain, but Seth. And it is from the line of Seth that Noah would eventually come.

And he's the only righteous man on earth through whom God is going to preserve the human race.

And along with his wife and his sons and his son's wives, eight people on an ark with all the animals, the floodwaters destroy the earth.

Noah and his family survived, the only survivors of that global catastrophe.

And when they land on Mount Ararat and they get off the ark, Noah builds an altar to the

Lord. It is the line of Shem, one of Noah's sons, that God is going to bless and continue this plan of the promised seed.

And from the line of Shem, you're going to have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah.

And then from the line of Judah will eventually come to Boaz and then

Obed, Jesse, David, Solomon. And then eventually through that line, you get to Joseph and Mary and Jesus Christ.

This is the chosen line that God had decided he was going to use to bring about the salvation of mankind who had fallen from grace, listening to the devil instead of obeying the

Lord. And when Adam and Eve fell there in the garden of Eden, along with Satan, they became the children of the devil.

And the whole line of mankind was cursed into sin. Yet there was one line of children that God had chosen from Adam and Eve all the way down, all the way up to Christ, that he would use to bring about the salvation of man, that he would use to repair the relationship between God and man that had been separated because of our sin.

And the blessing of that line would culminate in the birth of Jesus Christ, the

God -man who took on flesh to dwell among us, who lived a perfect life for us, who died on the cross for us, who rose again from the grave for us, who ascended into heaven for us and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us on our behalf.

And he will come back again for us and we will be united again with our Lord forever in glory.

And then we will forever be with the Lord. All of this to the praise of his glorious grace,

God has, by his mercy and love, preserved for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for the work of God.

And we would not even have a desire to do the work of God if it were not for the righteousness of Christ that we have received by the

Holy Spirit that dwells within us. And so the question now put to you is, are you of the line of Cain?

Are you of the perishable seed of Satan or are you of the imperishable seed of Jesus Christ, born again into his everlasting love and grace and righteousness?

And everyone who has been born again of Christ is going to do the things that Jesus did.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the

Father loves whoever has been born of him, just as Christ loved us.

So we must love one another. Jesus, washing his disciples' feet in the upper room after they broke bread and drank of the cup, and he gets up from the table, he ties a towel around his waist and he washes their feet.

And Peter outright refused. But of course, when Jesus said, if I don't wash you, then you can have no share with me.

Peter changes his tune. Well, don't just do my feet, then do my head and let's do the whole thing.

Wash me from head to toe. But Jesus said to his disciples, what I'm doing for you now, you do not understand, but soon you will understand.

And what I have done for you, so you must do for each other. The Son of Man, Jesus said, came not to be served, but to serve and to lay his life down as a ransom for many.

And so we must lay our life down for the cause of Christ, taking up our cross daily and following after him.

Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, Jesus says in Luke chapter 9, and whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ will save it.

And so we must lay down our lives for one another, putting the needs of others ahead of our own.

And this is an active thing that we must do. It's not something you just passively do. It's not, oh, well, whenever something comes along, you know, if somebody comes knocking on my door,

I'll be sure to give them a crust of bread and a cup of water. That's not loving the brothers.

Just when the opportunity comes along and, well, I have no choice, but somebody came knocking on my door and now

I'm going to show love to my brother or sister. Yeah, sure. You should absolutely show kindness to them in situations such as that.

But we need to actively be looking for ways that we can show love to one another.

And one of the most active ways that we show love to each other is by being filled with the word of Christ and encouraging and admonishing one another in that word, encouraging one another in the word of Christ, and when necessary, correcting one another as well.

When you see a brother or sister straying off the path of righteousness and needing correction to come back in step with Jesus Christ and walking in his righteousness.

So everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

And if we are in Christ, we are the children of God. Let's go to Matthew chapter 25.

Turn with me to Matthew chapter 25 here. Jesus is addressing his disciples on the

Mount of Olives. This is the discourse in Matthew that is referred to as the Olivet discourse. And as he gets to the end of the different parables that he's been using, the signs that they need to look for and those kinds of things, he gives a picture of the final judgment.

Matthew chapter 25 verse 31. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats he will place on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you have done it also to me.

And so we read once again in first John five, one, everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him.

And one of the evidences that we have this transforming faith in Jesus Christ, wearing his righteousness, doing the things that he did is that we will love those who are born of him, who are born again in Christ Jesus.

Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it also unto me.

There was a time when Jesus was teaching and some of his disciples came to him and said, master, your mother and your brothers are here.

And Jesus response to them was here are my mother and my brothers and, and indicating or gesturing to those disciples who were with him.

Those who are the followers of Jesus Christ, Jesus has identified as his own family.

I would much rather spend time with my own church family than with my blood brothers and sisters, none of whom are

Christians. I cannot call them family because at the final judgment, if they do not repent, it is not heaven where they will be going.

We will not be spending all eternity together. We may have spent a few years together when we were living in the same home, but unless my brothers and sisters come to Christ, which

I truly desire that they will, then I'm not going to be spending eternity with them. But I am spending eternity with those who are my brothers and sisters in the church where I pastor.

Jesus goes on in Matthew 25, beginning in verse 41 to talk about what will happen to those who did not do to the least of these brothers of Christ.

Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

Then they also will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

And then he will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these brothers of mine carry that over from verse 40.

You did not do it to me and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteousness into eternal life.

Previously in chapter 24, Jesus was talking about how no one knows the day or the hour that the master is going to return.

And so he says in Matthew 24, 45, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give him their food at the proper time.

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him in with the hypocrites.

And in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So if we are in Christ, we'll not be beating up our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Rather, we will understand what John says in 1 John 5, 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the

Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him.

So let us do so more and more. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

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