By This We Know

All of us want to have confidence that we know God and that He knows us as His children. How can we have that confident assurance? Open with me to First John, chapter 3, as we discover that together.

Please stand with me this morning and take out your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. Welcome to Cross Connection Church! We are so glad that you are here, and we are praising God for air conditioning this morning. Even though it feels a little warm in here, that's because there are a lot of people present today.

We are in the book of First John, which is near the end of your Bible. Open to the very last book, which is the book of Revelation, and just turn a little bit to the left. You will find the letters of First, Second, and Third John. We are in First John, chapter 3, and we will pick it up this morning in just a moment in verse 16.

As you turn there, I have one quick petition for the second service crowd. As you may have noticed, it is a little crowded in here, and it might be harder to find a parking space during the second service on Sunday morning. I want to encourage you that we have two other services. We have a service in the morning at 8 o'clock, which has lots of openings and plenty of parking spaces. We don't have children's ministry at that one, but if you are not coming with any kids, you might consider attending the early service. If you do have kids, you might consider coming to the 11:15 service.

I'm just going to throw that out there, and maybe some of you are thinking, "You know what? That 11:15 sounds really good." I want you to know we hold the best donuts until the 11:15 service gets out. We really don't, but that sounded good!

Now, First John, chapter 3, verse 16. John writes, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart and He knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask we receive from Him."

Because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight, this is the commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment. Now, he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. By this, we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given to us.

Father, we pray this morning for wisdom. Lord, You promised that You would give us wisdom as we recognized our lack. We come to You and ask, "God, would You give us wisdom?" You promised You will give it fully and liberally. Much wisdom that is from above is peaceable. Lord, You impart that wisdom through Your Word and by Your Spirit. We pray, God, that You would guide us into all truth and teach us all things as it relates to this section of Scripture before us today. God, You want to do a work in each of our lives, beginning in our minds and our hearts, overflowing into the way that we live and interact with our family members, our spouse, our kids, neighbors, and friends. Lord God, do that work in us that only You can accomplish. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You may be seated.

This last Friday afternoon, I had the joy of officiating a wedding for a couple here who are a part of our church. Jacob, who helps lead worship from time to time, and his fiancée, Erica, got married this last Friday. It is one of the privileges of being a pastor to officiate and lead in a wedding, to have the best seat in the house, if you will.

Although we are living in an increasingly secular culture, there is still that inclination for people, even if they may not go to church often or are not part of a church, to ask someone who is part of the church or ministry to officiate their wedding. It is a great privilege to do that. One of the things that stands out to me, having now done probably about 40 or more weddings over the last 20 years, is interacting with the couple as they lead up to the day when they exchange their vows. We often go through a premarital counseling period of time.

With couples, I meet with them as they're planning their weddings, and we go through all this stuff together. You see very quickly, when you're interacting with a young couple about to get married, that their understanding of love can be rather sentimental and impractical. If you chuckle at that, it probably means you've been married for a while. We can see this not only in individuals, especially as they're younger and preparing for marriage, but also in our culture.

Our culture as a whole has a rather sentimental, impractical, and unrealistic view of what love is. There seems to be some confusion in our culture regarding the true nature of love. This confusion is often on display when you interact with someone going through a separation or in the midst of a divorce. It's very sad to say, but many marriages do end in divorce, and many of you have been affected by that—whether it be your own parents, yourself, or someone close to you.

Sometimes, when you interact with people who are experiencing the turmoil of divorce, they will say things like, "I just fell out of love with him" or "I just fell out of love with her." That statement alone indicates confusion surrounding the whole concept of love. What exactly is it?

Our views of love can be sentimental, impractical, and unrealistic. We don't only see this in younger couples preparing for marriage; part of it is a joyful thing, but we probably saw it in ourselves as well. I think all of us, when we were approaching marriage, may have had an unrealistic and impractical view of what love is. This is true for our whole culture, and we see it very clearly.

The text we are getting into this morning answers some of those all-important questions about the concept of love. What exactly is it? What's the point of it? Before we dig deep into the text, I think it's helpful to refresh our minds with the context of this passage. John, the author of this passage, provides insight into these questions.

In the section just prior to verse 16, John makes a contrast between two groups of people. He states that the entire world is basically divided into two groups: the children of God and the children of the devil. At this moment, there are seven and a half billion people on the face of this planet, and in John's view, they can be divided into these two categories.

This is a stark contrast, but it is the way he divides them, inspired by the Spirit of God. He explains that the children of God do righteousness, which is most perfectly represented or manifested through the righteousness of love. In contrast, the children of the devil manifest their nature by not doing righteousness, which is evident through a lack of love or through hate. This hate can sometimes be manifested in the form of murder. Thankfully, not everyone expresses hatred in such a drastic way, but murder can be seen as an expression of hatred.

Thus, we have this division: the children of God, who walk in righteousness as manifested by love, and the children of the devil, who walk in unrighteousness or without righteousness, as manifested through hatred and ultimately murder.

The general response of people who begin to understand this dichotomy—the separation between the children of God and the children of the devil—is often to assert, "Of course, I am one of the children of God! Of course, I am a lover, not a hater. I am not a murderer, so I must be among the children of God." However, the problem here is that, as is clearly evidenced in First John, John gives very little weight to one's profession over their practice. He emphasizes that what a person says carries less significance than what a person does.

This is made clear in the opening words of First John, particularly in chapter 1, verses 6, 7, and 8, where he discusses a certain group of people who claim one thing but live another way. First John 1:6 states, "If we say we have fellowship with God and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." John indicates here, and continues to show throughout this section of Scripture, that the way in which we live speaks more than the words that we speak.

One on our outline is that my practice proves my identity better than my profession. I keep coming back to this point because John is emphasizing it in the text. I have revisited this idea in various forms a number of times. Just last week, if you were here, the first point in my message was that our descent, or our lineage as the children of God, is demonstrated in our conduct. Essentially, the same point: my practice proves who I really am.

What is my true identity? I am a child of God. What is my true nature? It is shown in the way that I live and the way that I walk, more so than in the words that I speak. Whether we are children of God or children of the devil is seen in our conduct. The children of God walk in the practice of righteousness, loving God and loving His people, which is sometimes referred to as the body of Christ, the Brethren.

John says in this passage that we are to love not just God and those who are like us—followers of God—but also those who are not like us, those who are not followers of God, and even those who might place themselves in a position as the enemies of God. By nature, they are our enemies. Jesus says that we are to love our enemies.

It is also evident, not only to us that we are the children of God by the love of God being worked in us, but it is also evident to the world that we are the children of God by the love that we have for one another. This is exactly what Jesus told His disciples in the Gospel of John, chapter thirteen, verse thirty-five: "By this all people will know that you are my followers, my disciples, by the love that you have for one another."

So, love becomes the chief representation of the people of God. It is the manifestation of those who are practicing and walking in righteousness. However, since we can be so easily pulled into an impractical, sentimental, and unrealistic understanding of love—as our entire culture has—John wants to help us define or understand exactly what he means by love at the deepest, most essential level. He says in First John, chapter three, verse sixteen: "By this we know love." Those words are...

It is very important that we live in a world that doesn't fully comprehend or understand what love is. John says, "I'm going to explain it at the deepest, most essential level: What is love?" By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for others.

One of the things that becomes very clear as you read through the Scriptures, especially the New Testament but also the Old Testament, is that God highly values love. This is a good thing, whether we fully understand it or not. God, as He is revealed in the Scriptures, highly values love. We see this in the things that God commands, and God's commands are always in alignment with God's nature. Who God is, is revealed in what God commands.

So, what does He command? Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4 says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This means with your entire being. Moses commanded the followers of God 3,500 years ago to love God with their entire being.

Another commandment found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, is given in Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18: "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." By the time that Jesus came 2,000 years ago, the Jewish people, the followers of God in His day, understood that the whole of the law was important. When we talk about the law of God, we are not just referring to what most people think of as the law. Most people, when they think about the law of God as revealed in the Bible, think about the Big Ten—the Ten Commandments. They may not know exactly what the Ten Commandments are, but they have heard of them before, perhaps recalling that old Charlton Heston movie.

However, when you go through the first five books of the Bible, as many Jewish rabbis did for centuries, you find that there are a lot more than Ten Commandments. In fact, according to the rabbis, there are 613 commandments. Now, how do you remember all 613 commandments? For the most part, you probably don't. There are a whole bunch of obscure ones here and there that all of us likely break.

I do think it's important to note that there are three different kinds of law represented in the Old Testament. There are ceremonial laws, which dictate how one approaches God according to the Jewish religion. There are national laws, which govern their interactions with people. Finally, there are moral laws, which guide how we are to interact with God, before God, and with other people to be right before Him.

By the time that Jesus came, the rabbis understood that they had to find a way to sum all this up. The best summation of it was found in two commandments: Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. If you were to ask any Jewish person in Jesus's day what the greatest commandments of the law were, they would say to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus would say that on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

What this reveals is that God highly values love. Jesus, God incarnate, taught this as well. In John's Gospel, chapter 15, verse 12, we see that Jesus highly values love when He says, "This is my commandment, that you love one another." He adds to it, "as I have loved you." God's command is to love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your being, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus reiterates, "This is my commandment, that you love one another."

God highly values love, but not only does He value it, but pretty much all cultures at all times and in all places have also highly valued love, even though they may have different understandings of what it actually is. Our culture, for instance, highly values love. We write poetry and prose about love, we write songs about it, and we watch movies where the underlying current or foundation is love. However, our culture is, I think you would probably all agree, a little confused about what love truly is.

John gives us a simple summation of how we should understand love at its deepest, most essential level. Point number two in your outline is that Christ's passion reveals the extent of His love. Now, that word "passion" is also difficult because it is associated in our vernacular here in the 21st century with how people view love. However, that word in our day does not mean the same thing it meant when Christians were using it.

History reveals the true meaning of passion, especially when we look back to the King James language from over 400 years ago. The word "passion" speaks of Christ's suffering. In our day, it often refers to an intense desire, as in "I am passionate for this or that." However, that is not how I mean it in this context. Christ's passion, His suffering, reveals the extent of His love for me. This is what John is conveying in this passage of Scripture.

This is how we know love. The best way for us to understand and wrap our minds around love, as God intends it, is to see it demonstrated in what Jesus did through His passion and suffering. This is why we refer to the week leading up to Good Friday as the Passion Week of Christ. It is also why the movie that came out a number of years ago is titled "The Passion of the Christ." It focuses on the suffering of Jesus.

We all understand that actions speak louder than words. Christ's suffering on the cross demonstrates the greatness of His love for us better than any words ever could. If you have been around the Bible or the Christian Church for any length of time, this isn't news to you. You know this; you have been exposed to it. This is the core message of the gospel: God's love demonstrated.

This is a truth that never wears out, a truth we always need to revisit. "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us." I referenced John chapter 15, verse 12, where Jesus said, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." He immediately follows that with, "Greater love has no one than this, than a man would lay down his life for his friends."

Even though our culture is experiencing a decline in Bible literacy, as recent research from Barna, a Christian research organization in Ventura, shows, people still understand this truth. Even those who haven't read the Bible have heard the phrase, "Greater love has no one than this." We all recognize the reality of that statement, which is demonstrated in much of pop culture.

I hope I'm not spoiling the movie, but it's been out for a while, so I will spoil it anyway. In "Toy Story 4," I listened to the story, and I really like Pixar movies.

I think they're great, but Toy Story 4—if you haven't seen it, I encourage you to watch it. I mean, I think it's a great movie. Pixar movies are awesome! Who doesn't like Woody, the sheriff? He's fantastic. At a certain point in the movie, he has to lay something down for a friend.

What are we seeing in that? We're seeing love demonstrated. Greater love has no one than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends. Scarcely for a good man would someone dare to die, but God demonstrates His love for us not when we were His friends. God demonstrates His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). God's love goes so much further because God's love is so much greater than our expressions of love. He demonstrated His love towards us when we were enemies; when we were still sinners, He died for us.

To grasp the greatness of this, I think it's helpful to go back to the beginning—to one of humanity's oldest stories and one of the first times in all of literature that the concept of love appears. It's certainly the first time that the concept of love appears in the Bible, and it's found in the very first book of the Bible: Genesis.

So, if you wouldn't mind, turn to the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapter 22. This is the first time that love ever appears in the Bible, and I think it is very important that it appears in this text, as you will see. Not only is this the first time that the concept or the word "love" appears in the Bible, but it is highly likely that this 4,000-year-old story is the first time that the concept or word of love appears in all written literature. Think about that! The first time that love is found is in this passage: Genesis chapter 22.

Now, a little bit of context before we read it. The main character in the story in Genesis chapter 22 is a guy named Abraham. We're not talking about Abraham Lincoln; we're talking about Abraham, who is seen even by all secular histories to be the father of all monotheistic religions. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all trace their roots back to a man named Abram, or Abraham, who started his life in what we would refer to as Mesopotamia. So, the Fertile Crescent, the ancient Near East—Mesopotamia, Babylon, or the Chaldees. He was a Chaldean moon worshipper, literally.

In the midst of this, God, the Creator, reveals Himself to a man named Abraham in a spectacular way and speaks to him when Abraham is 75 years old. It's recorded in Genesis chapter 12. He says, "Abraham, I want you to take your wife and all that you have, and I want you to leave your father and your family and come follow Me to a land that I'm going to show you. I'm going to direct you. You're going to step out by faith, trusting Me. Follow Me, and if you do, I have a promise for you. Come follow Me, and I will make your name great."

Now, what man wouldn't be excited about that? "Alright, let's do this! I'm going to make you great. I'm going to make your name great. I'm going to bless you, and you will be a blessing to all peoples. You will have descendants more in number than the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea. Come follow Me."

Abraham was 75 years old when God called him. This man, whose name meant "father of many," had no children. His wife, who was ten years younger, was barren. He was 75, and she was 65. God says, "You come follow Me, and I'm going to give you descendants." Alright, let's do this! Sign me up.

So, he follows God for the next 25 years, but still no child. He has some times when his faith falters because he's just like us, but still no child. Then, when he is 99 years old, about 24 years later, God comes to him again. God says, "Abraham, I'm going to make good on My promise. This time next year, your wife Sarah, who is 90, is going to conceive and bear a child."

Sarah is not there when God says this, but apparently, she is close enough to hear the conversation. A man who appears to Abraham, who is God's representative—His angel or God Himself incarnate—makes this announcement. Sarah hears this and laughs, saying, "What do you mean I'm going to have a child? I'm 90! What kind of sick joke is this?" She laughs, and so they name him Isaac, which means laughter.

Now they have the son of the promise. Time passes; we don't know how much time, but now we come to Genesis chapter 22. It is clear by this time that Isaac is not a little child.

The baby is not a little child; it's very likely he is a teenager or older by this time. In the very next chapter, Sarah, Abraham's wife, dies, and she is 127. This means at least 37 years pass from the birth of the child until she dies in chapter 23. So, somewhere in there, this story happens.

Genesis 22 begins, "Now it came to pass." In Genesis 22:1, it states, "It came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham." Would you underline those words in your Bible? They are important. God tested Abraham, and He said to him, "Abraham." Abraham replied, "Here I am." Then God said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love." Underline that word "love." This is the first time love is found in the Bible and very likely the first time the concept of love is found in ancient literature.

I think it's important that God, the one who inspired Scripture, would have this story be the first time the concept of love is found in ancient literature. Why? Well, let's continue to look. God instructs Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves, and go to the land of Moriah. He is to offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that God will tell him about.

Why on earth is God doing this? We know the reason God tested Abraham. In verse 1, we see that God is testing Abraham, but later on, God reveals in His commandments that He detests human sacrifice. So, what is He doing? He tells Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves, and offer him as a burnt offering. I think He is testing the extent of Abraham's faith. I think He is testing the extent of Abraham's devotion.

I want to suggest to you that love is manifested in our faithfulness and our devotion. So, He is testing the extent of Abraham's love. What did Abraham do? In verse 3, it says, "So Abraham rose early in the morning." He saddled his donkey, took two of his young men as servants with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for a burnt offering, and he rose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day...

It is important to note that Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off, the place that God said, "I want you to take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him as an offering on one of the mountains in Moriah that I will show you." On the third day, he saw the place afar off, and Abraham said to the young men who were with him, "You stay here by the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder, and we will worship." Notice this: "We will come back to you." There's a statement of faith.

So, Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. Isaac was old enough to carry the wood for the burnt offering; he was carrying the instrument of sacrifice. Abraham laid the wood upon his son, took the fire in his hand, and the knife, and the two of them went together.

But Isaac spoke to his father and said, "My father." Abraham replied, "Here I am, son." Isaac continued, "Look, we have the fire, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" There was something missing. Abraham said, "My son, God will provide Himself the lamb for the burnt offering." So the two of them went together and came to the place of which God had told them.

Abraham built an altar there, placed the wood in order, bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But, oh, praise the Lord for that! The angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" He replied, "Here I am." The angel said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son—a substitutionary sacrifice. Abraham called the name of the place "The Lord Will Provide," as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided."

What shall be provided? A substitutionary sacrifice. This is one of the most beautiful types in all of Scripture, a foreshadowing of what was to come. Perhaps you see the connection: the Father takes the only Son on a mountaintop to be offered as a sacrifice.

Fascinatingly, in the land of Moriah, what is that? If you ever have the opportunity to go to Jerusalem, you'll find that there are three mountains in Jerusalem, separated by valleys. On the east in Jerusalem is a mountain called the Mount of Olives. Then there is the Kidron Valley, followed by the area where the Temple Mount is today. After that, you have what is called the Turopein Valley, and then you have Mount Zion, which is in the midst of Jerusalem.

Additionally, there is the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. The mountain upon which the temple is built is called Mount Moriah. The crest of the mountain, the highest point, is a place called Golgotha, Calvary, the place of the Cross. In the mountain of the Lord, it shall be provided. What did God provide to Abraham and Isaac that day? Not a lamb, but a ram. However, Abraham's words were still correct. Why? Because two thousand years after Abraham, the Son, the Lamb of God, came to take away the sin of the world, carrying the wood for the sacrifice.

The cross went up to the top of Mount Moriah to do what? To die on a cross for you and for me. By this, we know love: that He laid down His life for us. Christ's passion reveals the extent of God's love for us. God provided a lamb for a substitutionary sacrifice to die in our place. So then, by this, we know love because He laid down His life for us.

What is our response? Look at 1 John 3:16. Turn back there if you're in Genesis. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Point number three on your outline: the demonstration of Christ's love compels me to demonstrate love towards others. John is saying there is a contrast between followers of God and non-followers of God, the children of God and the children of the devil. The children of the devil do not practice righteousness; they walk in hatred towards others, sometimes manifested in the form of murder, like Cain in the Old Testament.

The children of God walk in righteousness, as most beautifully represented or manifested in love. But what is love? Is it just mushy sentimentality? "I love you, man." What is it? By this we know love: that He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

What does this demonstration look like? It is not just in what we say; it is not just in our profession that we love the world and love people. Let's make it practical. What does it look like to lay down our lives for others? Does that mean I need to die? Well, in a sense, yes. How so?

Look at what He says in 1 John 3:17: "But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in that person?" My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Point number four on the outline: His sacrificial love stirs me to love others as He has loved me. How do we know? How do I know? How do you know? How do the people of this world know that we are the disciples of Christ, the followers of God, the children of God? They will know that we are His disciples by the love that we have one for another.

That love is not just in the things that we say; it is demonstrated in the way that we live. His self-sacrificing love compels me to live self-sacrificially, and it comes with a certain form of death. Sacrifice is never easy or painless. If it is easy for you to do whatever it is you're doing, or painless, it is not sacrifice.

So, whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? The immediate thought for most of us is to think, "Okay, whoever has the world's goods, we have riches and wealth, and I see someone in need, then I should give to them." Yes, that may be one way that God calls you or me to sacrifice. He may call us to give of the wealth that we have, and we live rather wealthily here in our society.

Nation, even if we feel that we are less wealthy than other people, say those who live in Rancho Santa Fe or fly on private jets, the fact is that if you make more than fifty thousand dollars a year, you are in the top one percent of all wealth earners in the world today. So that's okay; we are pretty wealthy.

Maybe the sacrifices we make of our wealth are important, but perhaps the needs we see in this world are not necessarily addressed by financial giving alone. It could be that these needs are better addressed by giving of our time. It is a reality that when people increase in financial wealth, it is easier and less of a sacrifice to give money than to give time. It may be more difficult for you to serve those who are in need in this world or to serve the Kingdom of God in His mission than it is to simply write a check or use Apple Pay. Sometimes, it is just easier and less painful to let someone else do it.

However, we must recognize that God may be calling us to give of our time to those who are in need. The greatest need that people experience is not a physical or felt need; rather, the greatest need that all people have is the problem of sin. Therefore, the sacrifice may have less to do with wealth or time and more to do with sacrificing something of our social standing by sharing the gospel.

This can be challenging for all of us. Why? Because we are often afraid of what other people might think. It can be painful and embarrassing; it takes us out of our comfort zone to share with that family member, neighbor, co-worker, or friend about their need for the gospel. To tell them that apart from God, they are a child of the devil—who actually wants to say that kind of stuff? Apart from Jesus, they are going to hell because they are sinners. Nobody wants to say those things, and it makes conversations uncomfortable.

You might reason yourself out of the sacrifice, thinking that Abraham could have done the same—talking himself out of it by saying that God would never call him to do that.

Doesn't fit with what I know of God. He would never say to sacrifice Isaac, the promise. He wouldn't do that. Of course, that's not God. It must have been the hummus; it's not God.

We talk ourselves out of a sacrifice. Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that he would be betrayed, the night before he would go to the cross. He prayed three times, "Father, let this cup pass from me." In his humanity, Jesus didn't want to die on a cross. "Let this cup pass from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done." He shows us the path of laying down our will for the will of God.

Therefore, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Look at verse 19 of 1 John, chapter three: "And by this we know that we are of the truth, and we shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things." I love the way this reads in another translation, the New Living Translation, which says, "Dear children, let us not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions, and our actions will show that we belong to God. Then we belong to the truth, so we will have confidence when we stand before Him."

It's not in my words; it's in my actions. Point number five: my love in action will prove that I belong to God as His child.

Now, I want to make this point clear because it's so important. When talking about these sorts of things, we must emphasize that it's not my love in action that makes me a child of God. It is my love in action that proves that God has made me His child. There's a big difference in that. Even though the words may not seem that different in structure, there's a huge difference.

We do not love in action to make us the children of God; we love in action because He has made us His children by grace through His love demonstrated for us on the cross. Therefore, my love in action will prove.

I belong to God as His child. So, what do the actions of my life say about who I am? That's the question to wrestle with, and I hope you won't forget it when we leave these doors in just a few minutes. What do the actions of my life say about who I am—my nature, my identity, child of God or not?

It's very easy to say with my words, "I love God. I follow God. I know God. I believe in God." I can say those things all the time. Sadly, there has been a sense in which evangelism in America for the last almost hundred years has seemed to bring about a profession of faith where we just want to get people to say, "I believe." We think that is what saves them. No, there is a trust in God from the heart that leads to salvation, and that trust in God transforms the one who has it.

So yes, it's easy to say, "I believe in God," but are we acting as if God actually exists? Does my life actually represent the statement, "I believe in God," in the way that I live? It's easy to say, "I love God," but is His love actively working through me towards others—towards those who are like me, who I know, and who vote the same way and smell the same way? Or is it also working in me to love those who maybe don't vote the same way as I do or watch the same news channel as I do? Do I love them as well?

It's easy to say, "I'm a follower of God," but do my actions prove my devotion to Him and His work? I recognize these are challenging things. Notice that three times in this text it says, "By this we know." I don't want to assume that I'm a child of God. I don't want to think that I'm a follower; I want to know and have this assurance and confidence to one day stand before Him, my Father in heaven. So, God, would You work in me Your love to love those who are near?

Far the way that you have loved. Amen. Would you stand with me as we come before God in prayer?

God, I thank you for the grace that you give to us when we come to the Scriptures. Sometimes we encounter a passage of Scripture that is really challenging, and we need your grace. We need your mercy. I am so thankful that in all the areas where we fall short—every single one of us standing here today—we fall short of your righteous standard. We fall short of loving you and loving others in the way that you desire and even require.

God, we are so grateful for your grace and your mercy towards us when we fall short. When we sin, you are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of our sin as we bring that to you and confess it. So, God, in the areas where we have fallen short in loving you and loving those within the body of Christ, loving those that are outside, would you forgive us today?

Lord, there are people that we interact with every single day who don't know your grace. They don't know the truth. They are walking in darkness, apart from their recognition or understanding of it. They are not your children; they are children of, as the Scripture says, the devil. But you want to redeem and adopt them into your family.

So, God, would you give us boldness as ambassadors to go from this place to carry the good news of your grace to those who are in such desperate need? God, give us that passion, even if it means some sacrifice, because that reveals your love. Pour out your Holy Spirit upon your church; empower us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.