Living in the Light – Commanded to Love PT. II

Again, to recap this series of message, we have learned that “God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all.” That means God has no dark side, no downside, nothing hidden away in His closest. Of course, you and I do. We have a dark side, a downside, we have junk in our trunk. Yet, God has called you and I to come out of the darkness and to live in the Light. Meaning that “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It means that “God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

We have now become the “Sons of God,” He had given us a new name, and He expects us to live up to that new name! And the only way we can live up to that new name is to allow Him to abide in us. And though you and I are living in the world, we are not to be OF the world.

In the last message, we talked about how God is unmaking us in order to remake us into the image of His Son. We talked about how God’s love is not transactional or relational, but it is unconditional. We talked about:

• God has loved us at our best, and He has loves us at our worst;
• God has loved us when we’re in and he loves us when we’re out;
• He loves us when we’re up and He loves us when we’re down;
• He loves me when I’m right and He loves me when I’m wrong;
• He loves us on the mountain, and He loves us in the valley.
• He loves me at my most loveable moments and my most unlovable moments.

And because of the constancy of God’s love, we have been called to constantly be in love with others! God doesn’t call us to something that He doesn’t model and empower us to do. John is calling us to “Love people because we have been loved.”

We talked during the last message how we are Commanded to Love, we have been Empowered by God to Love, and we discussed how Love and Hate cannot live in the same heart. During that last point we briefly discussed Cain and Abel. And it is there that I want us to pick up today. Let’s begin reading I John 3:11-15:

“¹¹ For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ¹² Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. ¹³ Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. ¹⁵ Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”

Let’s Begin with the point we left off on:

LOVE AND HATE CAN’T SHARE THE SAME HEART

During the last message, we talked about Cain and Abel, they were the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a Shepherd. They both brought a sacrifice to God – God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s.

We discussed the question, “Why did God accept one offering and reject the other?”

I think the writer of Hebrews gives us some insight in Hebrews 11:4, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.”

We talked about how some of us, when we are singing and really praising God, lifting worship to God from the heart – and some of us are just singing.  And there is a difference.

Since this message, I keep going back these verses about Cain and Abel and I realize there is so much more to unpack here. 

As I think about what would cause a brother to kill another brother, all I can think is that God accepting Abel’s sacrifice made Cain so angry, he reviled him, hated him. This is what happens in every local church when you get people that are filled with the Spirit and love the Lord and not their agenda – and begin to worship in church.  The religious folks start getting mad!

Let me tell you statistically what would happen if 400 people got on fire and started coming to this church – there would be some in this room today that would stop coming. Because you would be angry at the crowds that were coming. You would be angry that other people are getting access to where you once got access. They would be sitting in seats where you usually sit.

I remember the first church I pastored. I had a older gentleman who came to know Christ at an older age. Which means he had lived long enough to have done some really bad things in his life. He had had some run ins with the law and other stuff. And he heard the Gospel, and the Gospel changed his life and he was excited. I mean, like every song in church was his song! You know what I’m talking about?

I mean some of you came in today and we were singing “The Goodness of God,” and you are saying, “OK, we haven’t sung that one in the past two weeks,” so you start singing, “All my life you have been faithful, All my life you have been so, so good, with every breathe that I am able, Oh I will sing of the goodness of God.” And you sang it like you meant it. You were excited to be in the moment. But some of you, although you were singing, in your mind you were saying, “Good Lord, I wish they’d learn another song.” But new believers, they are like:

• “Well if they’re singing – I’M PRAISING!”
• “If the doors are open – I’M COMING!”
• “If there is an opportunity to serve – I’M SERVING!”

You ever met one of those? Are they not a little annoying? You know why they’re a little annoying? Because they are like rubbing up against your apathy! They are rubbing up against your indifference! What you see as normal they see as unique. They are giving honor where you now give, “Huh, whatever.”

You see folks, it’s very easy to sit in church and become Jesus’ hometown. The group of people that grew up with Him, and know Him, and they look at Him like He’s just another person and He is replaceable.

It is this attitude that caused Cain to murder Abel – that new believer in Genesis. You know what’s a shame, I can’t tell you as a pastor how many times I’ve had seasoned “Christians” come up to me and say of these excited new converts, “Give it time preacher, they’ll settle down.” Basically, what they are saying is, “We’ll make them like us – complacent, indifferent, numb.”

I hope I get in trouble by saying this, but I hope they NEVER slow down, I hope they NEVER calm down, I hope they NEVER stop being excited. I hope they RUN you out of here or get you running beside them!

Folks, if you are going to know the love of God, you have to realize the Love of God cannot exist where there is hate! Let’s read our text again:

“¹¹ For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ¹² Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. ¹³ Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. ¹⁵ Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”

Now what this Scripture is talking about, it is not about setting boundaries against someone who is doing wrong – we should set boundaries. What this is talking about is a deep-rooted, a deep-seeded hatred against another believer in Christ. What John is saying here is that if that is where you are, if you claim to be a follower of Christ, and you absolutely hate another brother in Christ, there is reason to question whether the love of God even exists in you at all.

Some of you, as soon as we start talking about really Loving God and Loving one another, you start getting real quiet and you start retreating into the bushes.

So that brings us to another point:

GOD’S LOVE IS TO BE SEEN, SHOWN, AND SHARED

I John 3:16, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

The ESV Bible says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

So, here in this verse we have an example, and then there is living up to that example. Christ’s love for YOU, cost Him His life, and Your love for Christ is demonstrated by laying down your life for others.

Years ago, Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song titled, “God is God.” And it goes like this:

God is God and I am not,

I can only see a part.

Of the picture he’s painting.

God is God and I am man,

This song he wrote was written for a family of missionaries that had gone to an unreached people. These missionaries had children, but they knew they had to go to these unreached people. So, they go. Well, the parents were killed by this tribe of natives.

Years later the children grow up, and they become missionaries as well. The son, of the parents that were slain feels led to go to the same unreached people that killed his parents. People thought he was crazy and surely God would call him to go there. Well, he went there – and praise God they did not kill him.

“When the son returned to the states, he was standing on stage to share his story. As he got up, I mentioned that as he was speaking to that tribe, over a period of several nights, several people had converted to Christianity. One night, an older gentleman came to him and told him that he was the one that had killed his father. The son then called that man to come up on stage and he said this, “Ladies and gentleman, I would like to introduce you to my earthly father, and my brother in Christ.” And he introduced the man who years earlier had killed his parents.”

Folks, that is the kind of love John is calling us to. The Bible is calling us to a sacrificial love.

 I John 4:9-10, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Gotta love that word PROPITIATION. It means payment! How many of you got some debt in your life right now? How many of you know the pressure of being under the crushing weight of a debt that you cannot pay?

We owe a debt to Holy God that we are one day going to stand before. But, God, although I don’t deserve it, I haven’t earned it, I didn’t even ask for it – He sent His only begotten Son to pay my debt. I’m glad thank God this morning that I can stand knowing my bill has been PAID IN FULL. And that is the GOSPEL – the Good News!

Back when I was in school, when we did something wrong, we got a whipping. In fact, my teacher has a paddle that had holes in it, and I’m telling you that thing hurt like nobodies’ business. My Teacher, Mrs. Pennington, would keep a scorecard so to speak on the chalkboard of bad deeds. At the end of the day, you got however licks you had coming to you. I will never forget this one particular day. We had one guy in the class that was very quiet, and very huge – much bigger than the rest of us. We had another little wiry redheaded guy that was an absolute terror. He got in fights all the time, always starting trouble. Well, he had 9 licks coming to him. Mrs. Pennington call him up to the front to get his licks, and as he was going, that big guy, asked if he could come up front and stand with him. The teacher said yes. That big guy, I think his name was Terry, came up and stood over that little wiry dude and put his arms around him and told the teacher to go ahead. With tears in her eyes Mrs. Pennington gave Terry those 9 licks – the little guy never felt a one of them. She then looked at us and said, “I want you to know that is what Jesus did for you. He paid a debt that we owed. He didn’t do anything wrong, yet he willing gave his life to pay my debt.”

Jesus didn’t just say He loves us, but He demonstrated that love toward us in paying our sin debt. Remember a few weeks ago when we talked about Him meeting us right at the worst moment of our lives? Well, He died so that moment didn’t define you.

I’m going to finish with this story from Luke 15. Jesus is being asked why he’s hanging out with bad people. He gets to this story about the prodigal son. This is a guy who robbed his dad’s fortune to go live life on the edge. He wanted no rules, no one to tell how to live his life, and he wasted all the money on riotous living. And he got to a place where he was doing things he never thought he‘d find himself doing. You see that’s what sin does – it takes you further than you want to go and makes you stay longer than you wanted to stay.

Listen, some of you here this morning have been there. You went further than you thought you’d go and you’ve done things you never thought you would do. That’s what sin does.

In fact, some of you might be there right now. You are probably thinking to yourself, I don’t deserve God’s grace, I don’t deserve His forgiveness. I don’t feel right being around this preacher are these Christians. But, in the back of your mind, you know we are right. In the back of your mind you are saying to yourself, “I can’t believe I’m down here eating in the pig pen of life.”

But back at home, you have a Dad that loves you. Once that young man came to his senses, he went back home. Daddy saw him and he went running to him, but new clothes on him, put shoes on his feet, and prepared the best meat for him to eat.

Listen to me church, Satan has convinced some of you that you’ve gone to far and there is no way home for you. Well, I’m here to tell you that the devil is a liar! I’m here to tell you that you are a child of the Most High God, and He commended His love toward in while we were yet sinners, while we were yet addicted to alcohol, while we were addicted to drugs, while we were yet cheating on our spouses, while we were yet liars and deceivers – CHRIST DIED FOR US. He paid the debt we owed – my sins and your sins – so that we can have life and have it more abundantly.