In Pastor Steve Hopkins' sermon on 1 John, he explores the profound theme of love, emphasizing that 1 John is a book that deeply focuses on this topic. The sermon begins with discussing God's love as the foundation, highlighting 1 John 3:1, where believers are called 'sons of God', a status granted through God's gracious love. Pastor Hopkins references Charles Spurgeon, noting the challenge of truly feeling this love, especially during difficult times. He reassures believers of their identity as children of God, despite spiritual battles, and emphasizes that God's love and grace ensure they are never left to fight alone. The sermon further distinguishes between the children of God and the children of the devil, noting that true Christians are identified by their righteous living and love for others. Hopkins encourages believers to exhibit genuine love not just in words but through actions, as evidence of their salvation. He draws on examples from history and scripture, like Cain and Abel, to illustrate the contrast between God's children and those of the world. The sermon concludes by affirming that love for fellow believers is a natural outcome of being born of God, a truth reflected in the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who exemplified ultimate love by laying down His life for humanity.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. First Corinthians chapter 13 is commonly referred to as the love chapter in the Bible. If 1 Corinthians 13 is the love chapter, then 1 John is surely the love book. No other book of the Bible so concentrates on the topic of love as the book of 1st John.

And I want to spend a couple of weeks going through the passages in the book of 1st John where we are taught about love. So let's begin with chapter three and verse one. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to 1 John, chapter three, beginning with verse one, the passage that we just read together as a congregation. Here in 1 John 3 1, The foundation of love is laid in God, in God who is love. Not in our love for Him, but in God's love for us.

And John says, speaking by the Spirit, oh, the manner of it. Behold, he says, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God?" John uses the word behold here as it's translated at least in the King James Version, behold that is stand in wonder at it. What manner of love God the Father has bestowed upon us, how could we not be astonished when we gaze at it? How could we not be astonished at His amazing love when we consider it? To bestow something is to confer it gratuitously, that is to freely give it.

And the apostle would have us, who are believers in Christ, to wonder with amazement at the extraordinary love that has been freely given us in Christ. What manner of love is this? What manner of love is this? He poses it as a question. What manner of love is this that the Father has graciously conferred upon has graciously conferred upon us that we sinners should be called the children of God.

Every one of us were children of disobedience, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2. Every one of us were children of disobedience and by nature children of wrath. We were all by nature children of wrath liable to suffer God's just anger. Oh, what manner of love is this, John says, that the Father has graciously bestowed upon us that we who were, quote, ruled by Satan, motivated by selfishness, and cursed by God, " end quote, as a note of my Bible puts it, that we should be called the sons of God, that we should be called the children of God, that we should be called the sons and daughters of God? That we who were children of disobedience should be made children of the adoption, taken into the number of the members of the family of God.

Spurgeon says, it's an easy thing to read, isn't it? It's an easy thing to read, but it's quote, not so easy to feel. It's an easy thing to say. It's an easy thing to read, but it's not such an easy thing to feel. And he once asked the flock, the congregation under his care, he said, how is your heart doing?

How is your heart doing right now? Are you in the lowest depths of sorrow or suffering? Consider now, are you a son of God, a child of God? I think Spurgeon was saying, wonder at the thought of it. Even in the most difficult and the darkest hours of your life, you are a child of God.

You're a son of God by adoption. You're a daughter of God by adoption. Wonder at it. Be amazed at it. Be astonished at it.

Spurgeon goes on, he asks, does corruption rise within your spirit? And grace seem like a poor spark trampled underfoot? Now are you a child of God? Spurgeon was referring to spiritual warfare, which every one of us who are children of God, true children of God, engage in every day of our lives. There is a battle, the spirit against the flesh and the flesh warring against the spirit.

He's saying, are you at this moment in time in some battle with some sin? Are you in a battle with some sin at this moment, with some remnant of corruption, with some strong temptation, possibly recurring? Are you in a battle? He's saying, are you in a battle with something, maybe right now, that exerts such power at times that you fear that it would drag you back into the pit from which you were delivered if it were possible. Disgrace, he's saying, seemed like a faint spark sometimes that's barely flickering and about to be trampled underneath your foot.

Beloved of God, you're a child of God. You're a child of God. Spurgeon is saying, remember who you are and what you are. You are a child of God. Take courage and be not afraid.

God will not leave you to fight alone, nor will He leave you to be totally or finally overcome. You believe in Jesus. You are a son, a daughter of the living God. Does your faith almost fail you, Spurgeon asked his congregation. Does your faith almost fail you?

Are your graces like a candle that's close to being blown out by the wind? Fear not, he says. Fear not. It isn't your graces. It isn't your frame of mind.

It isn't your feelings upon which you are to live, but simply on naked faith on Christ. Just bear faith on Christ. That's what we're to live on. Beloved, now are we the sons and daughters of God. What can we not face in this world when we consider this wonder?

What can we not face in this life when we consider God as our Father? And Jesus our Elder brother, king, lord, savior, master, redeemer. But he's also presented it to us as our elder brother. Oh, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. John goes on, therefore the world knoweth us not.

But how could they? They don't know us because they don't know God. The world knoweth us not because it knew not him. And so they look at us in our manner of life and conversation, and we don't fit in. We don't fit the mold.

What communion, Paul asks, the Corinthian church has light with darkness. The darkness doesn't like the light. The world doesn't know us or have fellowship with us because the world doesn't know or have fellowship with God. Matthew Henry comments here, little does the world think that these poor, humble, contempt ones, it's not condemned but contempt, that is despised ones that are held with contempt by the world. Little does the world think that these poor, humble, despised ones are the favorites of heaven and will be its inhabitants before long.

The world doesn't think that. To the worldling, this is all there is. And the devil works hard to obscure the reality of the future state of believers just as he works hard to obscure their future state of eternal destruction. To the world, there's nothing to behold because they they've never known the love of God, the Father. In this the children of God, let's move on to verse 10, 1 John 3, 10.

In this the children of God are manifest, it is revealed, and the children of the devil are manifest. Children of God said against the children of the devil, it's all there is. You're in one camp or the other. You're in one family or the other. You're a child of God, you're a child of the devil.

There's no middle ground. In this, the children of God are manifest, they're revealed, and the children of the devil are revealed. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Two things, John says, that manifests or clearly reveals the identity of the children of God and the family they belong to, and the identity of the children of the devil and the family that they belong to. How they live and who they love.

Or as John put it here, how they don't live and how they don't love. Both are true. The children of the devil don't practice righteousness, and they don't love the people of God who do. These are identifying marks. In the verses between 1 John 1 and 1 John 10, John describes the children of Satan as those who live a lifestyle of habitual, unrepentant sin.

They're of the devil who sinned from the beginning. And so they walk in the devil's footsteps, and they don't like the people of God. They don't like the people of God. True Christians are identified by these two things as well, their lifestyle and their love. True Christians long to live obedient, pure, and holy lives, and their daily battle with indwelling sin proves it.

And they love the members of God's family who long to please God as well. John emphasizes these two as evidences clearly manifested in the lives of true and false believers. Two identifying markers that clearly distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil. The children of God strive for holiness and they love other Christians. The children of the devil don't.

Pretty simple. A five-year-old can figure it out if you explain it to them. Though the children of God are far from perfect on either front. Their lifestyle, their love, though the children of God are far from perfect on either front, as a style of life, they're doing one thing and the world is doing another. They're practicing righteousness and they're and they're loving the people of God.

They're striving to be more like Christ and they love the people of Christ. The unbeliever does neither. Verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning. Yes, even in the Old Testament, that we should love one another. John is just going to continue to drive this home.

This is the message that you've heard from the beginning. All of you, ye plural, have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. And he brings in an example in the negative, not as Cain, not like Cain, who was of that wicked one, a child of the devil, and slew his brother. Cain was also identified as a child of the devil by his lifestyle and his hatred of the godly. Why did Cain slay his brother?

Same reason we see a deep hatred for the children of God in the world today by the children of the evil one and throughout the history of the world because Cain's works were evil and his brother Abel's were righteous. The children of the devil have a Secret hostility towards the children of God, which is many times displayed openly and viciously. Why? Because of the way Christians live in the world. Because of the way we live in the world Even our lifestyle offends them Our lifestyle offends the children of this world so many times They feel condemned before we've even opened our our mouths They identify you as a as a Christian sometimes before you even open your mouth by just the way you are, the way you are in the world, the way you are with other people, the way you act in business dealings and such, the way you act with your fellow workers on the job side, they just, they know.

You haven't even opened your mouth yet and they know. You won't do things that the world will do. You won't say things that the world will say. Marvel not John goes on here saying if the world hates you don't think it's strange if worldly people don't like you because you're not like them. Marvel not if the children of the devil for instance stop following you on social media because of the things you say and the things you do.

Marvel not if people in your workplace set you at a distance because the things you say and do or don't say and do offends them. The unbeliever is dead in trespasses and sins and it is manifested in their treatment of the adopted family members of the household of God. They haven't passed from death to life. On the other hand, verse 14, we know, this is this is Christian saying, we know that we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren. Someone says I struggle with assurance of salvation.

Here's some help. If you can look around and say, I really love these people, all of them. I really love these people, all of them. Even the ones here who have as many blemishes and faults as I have. I even love them.

That's evidence for you to bolster your assurance that you're a true child of God. The children of the world can't say that. The children of the devil can't say that. They may fake it. They might fake it when they're around other Christians, but deep down inside they know it isn't true of them.

They know they don't love the people of God. They know they're more comfortable with the people of the world than they are with the people of God. They haven't passed from death to life, spiritual death to life, and their affections bear it out, whether or not they wear those affections on their sleeve or they bury them. He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death. Strong language, brothers and sisters.

He that doesn't love his brother, the one he's claiming is his brother in the Lord, abides in death. Other people who claim to be Christians, he that doesn't love them is living in death in a state of spiritual death. If you look around and you say, I love this person and then that person, but not this person or this person in the congregation, that's a problem. Do you love the people of God? This is one of John's tests of faith.

Is there any person in this church that you find difficult to love? That's a different question. And That's something that you can take before God and cry out to God. And he might give you grace. To ever overcome.

That sinful heart. Is there anyone in the congregation? You find it difficult to love. For whatever reason. You might say that's a very uncomfortable moment of silence.

It's something that we should all, brothers and sisters, think about and consider. Do I love all the people of God. It's important to stop here for a moment and be very clear. We don't abide in life because we love the brethren. We love the brethren because we abide in life.

Did everyone get that? We don't abide in life. It's not a reward for loving the brethren. Okay, now you're saved. No, We love the brethren because we abide in life.

We love the brethren because of what God has done in our hearts and our lives, because of the change that he's worked in us, because he saved us. Love of the brethren is an evidence of our salvation, not the cause of it. Very important that we understand that. Whoever hates his brother, verse 15 says, is a murderer. Again, this is very strong language, brothers and sisters.

Heart murder makes a person a murderer in God's sight. And whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And he says, and you all know that no murderer has eternal life in him, abiding in him, right? You all know that. That's what John's saying.

You guys understand that, don't you? You all realize that whoever hates his brother is a murderer. Heart murder makes a person a murderer in God's sight. And you all understand that the person who is a murderer or no murderer has eternal life in him. These are things we should look at in our lives.

You say, well, I don't hate this person, this fellow Christian, I just don't really like him. Things to consider and things to come before the Lord and, you know, later today, really before the Lord's table and just say, God, I don't love this person in the congregation as much as the others. Please help me, God. Please Forgive me. I confess my sin to you.

And I know that you're faithful and just to forgive my sins and cleanse me from this unrighteousness. And it is unrighteousness. Verse 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God, that is by this we know what love is. Here's how we came to understand what love is. Look at verse 16, because He laid His life down for us.

Because he laid down his life for us. That's how we perceive the love of God. This is how we came to understand what true love is, because Jesus laid his life down for us. We know what real love looks like, and we should imitate it. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, he says.

Jesus laid down his life for us and we should imitate him and lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ. But how do we do that? How do we lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ? Jesus went to the cross for us. How do we imitate that?

Christ died in our place, a death we couldn't die, to pay a debt he didn't owe, and a debt we couldn't pay, so that we could be saved from the eternal punishment that's due us. How do we imitate that? The obvious inference is that we should be willing to die for our brothers and sisters in Christ if by doing so we could deliver them from danger or death. And many Christians in history have done that. Many have done that.

Now let me go into the arena instead of her, instead of him. But John here gives us a practical example of how Christians can lay down their lives for their brethren, in verse 17, on a daily basis. And he puts it in the form of a question in the negative. Look at the question, whoso hath this world's Good stuff, food, clothing, resources, money, what have you. And he sees his brother has a need.

And he shuts up his bowels of compassion, his heart, from him. How dwells the love of God in him? How could the love of God truly be in a person who can can see his fellow Christians suffering or in need in his heart not go out to him in such a way that he's motivated to action. Brothers and sisters, It's easy to talk about loving others and to express our love in words to others. It's easy to say, I love you, brother.

As James said, go, be warm and well-fed. It's easy to talk about loving others, But how is it manifested in your daily life, my daily life? John speaks in the language, listen to this, of a father to his children. My little children, my little children, just like you would your parents, you set your small child down and you're trying to teach them something And you want to you want to reach their heart my little child my little son my little daughter my little children Let us not love in word Neither in tongue but indeed and in truth. Loving words are one thing.

Little son, little daughter, action. Now, motivated by heartfelt compassion and love, that's another. Here's an example, John says, of what laying down your life for the brethren looks like in practice. You take something out of your pocket and put it into the hand of a brother or sister in need. You offer help to a brother or sister that needs your help, and then you deliver.

You take something from from your house to their house. But notice from the text it isn't mechanical, is it? The Apostle isn't isn't talking about reluctant generosity in compliance to law. He's talking about compassion springing from the love of God dwelling in a person. You see that?

God's love in us is at the root of it, producing love and compassion in us that leads to action. If the love of God is in us, heartfelt love and compassion for God's family will move our hand. The love of God in us moves us to compassion and then compassion moves the hand to give, to serve, to do something. The following verse tells us once again that we can gain assurance when our hearts are moved with compassion to action for the members of God's family. By this, we have evidence that we are of the truth.

Here's another evidence that we are actually of the truth and not living a lie. That is that we are among the children of God and can reassure our hearts before God. Verse 23, John's next passage referring to love. This is God's commandment, Christ's commandment. This is God's commandment that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that we should love one another as He gave His commandment.

This is what God commands. Believe on the name of the Son Jesus and love one another. A note in my Bible commentary says, faith in Christ relates us rightly to God and His renewing grace enables us to love one another. First comes our relationship with God by faith in Christ, then our love for the family of God naturally follows. You see why everything that John's saying is true here.

It's just, it naturally follows. You're a child of God, you believe in Jesus, for sure you're gonna love the people of God. How could you not? Knowing what he's done for you, saving faith and love for the brethren go hand in hand, and where the one is not, the other is neither. You know it helps, I think, if you've ever been in a situation of need.

It helps because you know what it feels like. No person ever truly loves the people of God who has not experienced the love of God himself. I think that's what John's teaching right there. First John 4, 7-8 is the next love passage and we're drawing to a close. And it makes this more clear, this thing of if you truly have faith in Christ, you're truly a child of God, naturally you're going to love the family of God.

True faith expresses itself by love and is preceded by regeneration. And it's preceded by regeneration. John says, beloved, Let us love one another for love is of God. And look at this, and everyone that loves is born of God and knoweth God. You don't get born again that way, but that's a product of being born again.

Everyone that loves is born of God and knoweth God. Love for the people of God is evidence that a person has been born again. Quote, this is John Gill, love for the brethren is an evidence of regeneration. Close quote. In other words, those who truly love God's people give evidence that they've been born of God, born of the Spirit, born from above, that they truly know God.

And As Calvin says, quote, the true knowledge of God necessarily produces love in us. If you know God, truly know Him, you've been born of God, it necessarily produces love in us. Love like we never knew before, Christ-like love, which is supernatural in its origin. It's of God. Love is of God.

It's supernatural, John's saying. And thus a sign that something supernatural has happened to us. A sign that we're truly saved. So that it's no mystery, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." And we end with 1 John 4, 9. 1 John 4, 9, and 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.

By this John is saying God's love was demonstrated to us in that He sent His only begotten, that is, His only Son by nature. We're the adopted children of God. Jesus is the only Son by nature, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He sent his Son from heaven into the world, his only begotten Son into the world, that we who were dead in trespasses and sins might live here in his love. Not that we loved God, but that God loved us, that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

We didn't come into the world loving God. We were without love for God. Love for God is not natural to us. We were born enemies of God, at enmity with God in our minds by wicked works, meriting eternal punishment under the sentence of divine judgment, but herein is love, matchless love, that the justice of God should be satisfied by the propitiating sacrifice of God's own Son, willingly, who came into the world to save His people from their sins. This is amazing love, amazing love.

How can it be that Christ my God should die for me, to satisfy the demands of His justice, to pacify His anger, to reconcile sinners like me and you unto Himself. He left his Father's throne above, so free, so infinite is grace, humbled himself because of love. And bled for all his chosen race, his chosen. No condemnation now we dread because of what Christ has done. Jesus and all in Him is ours.

Alive in Him, our living head, we're clothed in righteousness divine. Amazing love. How can it be that Christ, my God, should die for me. Tis mercy all, immense and free. How do we know?

The hymn that says, for oh my God, it found out me. It found out me. Let's pray. Father, we know from your word that because you so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Our brothers and sisters in Christ for whom Christ died, help us God.

Help us today, Lord. Let your word find a place in our heart. Sink down deep into our hearts. Change us God. More into the image of him who suffered and died for our sins.

Help us God. In whom the Spirit of God, your spirit dwells to love one another For your love and everyone who dwells in love dwells in God And God in him Help us Lord to grow in that love, love for you