Audio Access Available Above
“Loving Our
Brothers” • 5.24.20 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday
Morning Service
Intro.
- As John brings his first epistle to a close,
he focuses the Ephesian's attention upon the twin pillars of Christian life:
Love for God and love for our fellow brethren.
- In the first thirteen verses of chapter five,
John has spelled out with great clarity, what it means for God to be loved.
- God receives our love, when we keep His
unburdensome commandments, when we love one another indiscriminately, as He has
loved us and when we believe His testimony about His Son!
- Today, we examine the final portion of the
book of First John and look into
what John is authorized to command us with regard to how we love our brothers!
Verse 14.
Text
•
I John 5:14,15 : "Now this is the confidence that we
have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." : John begins with our posture before God. There is confidence
that we have in Him!
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We have taken note of this word "confidence" before. It is defined by
being outspoken. It is related to being blunt. There is an unreserved quality,
a lack of fear to fully speak one's mind.
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Additionally, the grammar indicates that this is what we have and will always
have in Him. This isn't a characteristic that should lead to arrogance. We are not
confident in ourselves, but in Him!
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It's akin to when your older brother shows up right before your enemy is about
to enter into conflict with you! Our posture of confidence issues in how we
conduct our prayer life.
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Because of who He is to us, we know that it's open season for us! We can ask
anything according to His will and He hears us!
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Please do notice that all of our prayers are heard by the Lord Jesus and we can
ask anything. But remember that we will only have that which is according to
His will and purpose!
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When we pray toward things that are according to His will, He is consistently
and continually hearing us! Does that not comfort you?
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Your prayers reach the very throne room of heaven! When they are refined enough
to be submitted to seeing His will accomplished through your life, they will be
answered!
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We can be sure that our requests have been granted when they line up with His
will. John gives us an example of this in verse 16.
•
I John 5:16,17 : "If anyone sees his brother sinning
a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for
those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do
not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and
there is sin not leading to death." : Let's look
at the perameters that are given to us regarding our prayer in this situation. "If
anyone."
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John begins this scenario with a call to anyone in the body of Christ, who
understands that their brother is sinning. This is a reminder that the body of
Christ is meant to regulate itself.
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This is not reserved for the spiritual elite or the properly trained minister.
This is for any person in the body of Christ. John assumes that you will take
responsibility.
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Note again the need to be present in your brother's life. You cannot perceive
when a person is in sin unless you are near to him! Christian service is not
for someone else!
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It is your responsibility to consider your family in Christ, to look out for
them and to be instant in prayer for them! The Bible knows nothing of remote
Christianity!
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That doesn't mean that you are "looking into them!" This isn't a call
for investigation. John is not commending a "sin sniffing" campaign
to us. This person "sees his brother."
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The idea here is that in the normal course of life, there is understanding. He
understands the spiritual implications that his eyes see. He's a first hand
witness. What is that person to do?
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'He will ask!" It's not that they will spread the news around or seek to
impress others with their hyper spirituality and concern. Go to the Lord
privately and ask. What are we to ask?
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On the part of the person, we are to ask the Lord to intervene! Ask Him to
reveal more of Himself to this person, to allow their heart to receive the Word
for their situation!
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For our part, we are to ask if there is anything that is required of us! We've
already looked at John's earlier exhortation, but let us remember it here:
•
I John 3:18 : "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in
deed and in truth." : We must ask the Lord if there is
an action for us to take on their behalf or at the very least, a set of scriptures
to pray that apply to their situation!
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Prayer is our first and best response, but it may not be our final response!
The hope of course is what John promises will happen here: God will give this
brother life!
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These words are reminiscent of what James wrote to the early church in his
epistle.
•
James 5:19,20 : "Brethren, if anyone among you
wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a
sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a
multitude of sins." : James' brother Jude made a
similar statement in his epistle about pulling people from the fire! (Jude 23)
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Our prayers play a part in affecting the spiritual life of our brothers! Let us
not be negligent!
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This should not be forsaken especially for the one whose sin is not leading to
death. I know what is surely at the forefront of your mind. "What is a sin
not leading to death?"
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In the life of a believer, there will be failures that fill our days. The word
"sin" means to "miss the mark." We will shoot to be
entirely pleasing to God, but our flesh will reliably get in the way!
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Notice that this brother is "sinning a sin," not "sinning and
sinning!" You and I are capable of falling short and generally, these
lapses will result in our conviction and subsequent confession.
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For those that did not memorize I John
1:9, it would be wise to do so. Confession of our sin leads to our being
cleansed from it! In that way, these are sins that do not lead to death.
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They are momentary lapses, failures to subjugate our mouths, hearts or minds.
We immediately, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, repent and confess.
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These type of moments don't lead to death. They actually lead us back to life!
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In fact, God is so gracious in His forgiveness, each time we experience His
forgiveness, we have been restored to the joy of our salvation! (Psalm 51:12)
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When you are watching a believer struggle through sins like anger, lust,
bitterness and covetousness, pray for him to have victory over these areas of
sin!
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Then, it is God who will give that person life! He will infuse Him with the
grace that he needs to embrace the life that He intends him to have and to
repent from the life his flesh would desire!
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John's instructions however, take a turn here when one understands that there
are sins leading to death. In order to understand this, I'd suggest that we
review a few cases.
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In the Old Testament, Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered unauthorized fire
upon the altar of the Lord and fire devoured them before the Lord. (Leviticus 10:2)
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When David was set to bring the ark into Jerusalem from the home of Abinidab,
he constructed a cart that nearly keeled over when it encountered uneven road.
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When Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, he was struck dead by the
Lord on account of his error. (I Samuel
6:7)
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There are two examples in the New Testament that I'd have you recall, the first
of which occurs in Acts 5.
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Annanias and Sapphira conspired to pretend to give all of the proceeds of their
recent land sale to the church. When their hypocrisy was uncovered, both fell
dead at the feet of Peter.
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Later, in the book of First Corinthians,
Paul explained that certain members of the congregation had become sick and
died because they treated God's communion with contempt!
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It was for that reason that many were weak, sick and many had slept, ie. died.
(I Corinthians 11:30) What is the
commonality between these seemingly disparate stories?
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Each person or group of people greatly misrepresented the holiness of the Lord!
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Nadab and Abihu, according to the context following their demise, may have been
drunk when they offered to the Lord. (Leviticus
10:9-11)
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Uzzah should have allowed the ark to fall to the ground instead of
communicating to the watching nation that he could lend a holy, omnipotent God
a hand!
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Annanias and Sapphira made the church their little cheering section, taking
attention away from their Holy God when they sought to pull a fast one on God's
men!
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The people of Corinth betrayed the very meaning of the Lord's supper when they
came to get their own fill of food and drink, leaving little or nothing for the
poor!
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Christian people die for two reasons on this planet. The first of which is that
they have run their course and finished their race. That was Paul's testimony
to Timothy in II Timothy 4:7.
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It was said of King David that he died "after he had served his own generation by the will of God." (Acts 13:36) This is the kind of
testimony that we want.
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We want to lay our heads down in peace on our last day, knowing that we lived a
life that was pleasing, honoring and fruitful to the Lord. This leads to the
second reason that a Christian dies.
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These leave or are about to leave such a stain upon their own witness, as well
as the reputation of the Lord, that God just decides to take them home!
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These people are the ones that specialize in the sin of presumption, moving
ahead of or in spite of God's plan and then asking Him to clean up their mess
or bless their path nonetheless.
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In II Chronicles 34, the Lord brings
a beautiful breath of fresh air into the line of the Kings. Josiah's reign was
one of reform and revival.
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Everything went well until Josiah went out to specifically challenge Egypt
during the battle of Carchemish. Josiah was warned to keep away by the King of
Egypt.
•
II Chronicles 35:22 : "Nevertheless Josiah would not turn
his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and
did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in
the Valley of Megiddo."
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Additionally, there are the people who will not allow the Lord to cut off their
former life of temptation, but will continue to run back to it, forsaking any
victory that the Lord would secure.
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Who doesn't remember Samson's story? How did he keep coming back for more? He
wasn't conquered by the Philistines. He was conquered by his own lust! (Judges 16)
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The Lord was gracious enough to redeem his death, to vanquish His own enemies,
but a person like Samson is a "woulda, coulda, shoulda" story!
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Germane to this group of people that John was writing to were the former
Ephesian church members who were falling into an apostasized state, running headlong
toward the antichrist spirit!
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There is no prayer that can be uttered for a person who decides to foolishly
follow heresy! All unrighteousness is sin, but not all sin leads to death. Verse
18.
•
I John 5:18-20 : "We know that whoever is born of God
does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the
wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under
the sway of the wicked one. And we know that
the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him
who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is
the true God and eternal life." : Let's
begin with what we know. The classic way to interpret scripture is to interpret
scripture with scripture!
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Allow the clear passages to dictate the meaning of the unclear. When you don't
know what to think, fall back on what you know! "We know."
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We have this understanding that a person who is born again, does not practice
or involve themselves in habitual sin. Does this not further clue us in on the
sin that leads to death?
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Habitual, rebellious, unrepentant sin will lead you directly, if not slowly, to
death's door! A believer will not live their lives that way. This leads us to a
tricky passage.
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As it stands, it seems to read that the one that is born of God "keeps
himself." This assumes that a person is guarding, attending to himself.
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He knows where he is weak and will not allow himself to be in a position that
affords his weakness any strength against him.
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He is vigilent to protect himself and diligent to strengthen himself. This is
true. We are to take on a regimen that protects our soul from the barrage of
sin.
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There are some however, that interpret this passage, because of the grammar, in
this way: "But HE (Jesus) keeps him." This is reflected in the NASB,
CSB, NIV and NLT.
•
I John 5:18 (NLT) : "We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning,
for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them."
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This translation sees Jesus as the One that guards over our souls! Jesus says
as much in John's gospel.
•
John 10:27-29 : "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and
they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has
given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of
My Father’s hand." : So which is it? Does Jesus
keep us or do we keep ourselves? BOTH!
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We believe in the power of God to keep us in Him AND we live in such a way that
His power is made manifest through our obedience! What is the result? The
wicked one does not "touch him!"
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The word refers to "adhering" or "clinging" to something!
There is no place for the Devil to grab ahold of! He has no foothold in this
person's life.
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This person will not perfectly follow the Lord. He will slip up, but it won't
be a habit. The other person, the one who is sinning a sin that leads to death,
will allow himself to be given to it!
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That person who plays with fire will be burnt! The Christian knows that they
are of God, but the rest of the world lies outstretched, powerless against the
Devil!
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John is saying that a person who leaves the boundaries of Christian practice
for the uncharted waters of sin, puts themselves in the same danger as those in
the world!
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On the other hand, Christians have come to understand that the Lord has come
and has given us a mind, an understanding, an insight that the world doesn't
have.
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He has given us understanding of His being and nature. He is true! We know that
we are in Him who is true, the One True God and eternal life!
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A Christian that follows his Lord closely, has obeyed the truth and is safe
within it! This is why we are to pray until the Lord's truth prevails over the
enemy's lies in our brother's lives! Verse 20.
•
I John 5:21 : "Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen." : John completes his epistle
with this final, abrupt command to his "born ones."
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When it comes to loving the family of faith, John concludes with what amounts
to a gallon of prevention! "Keep yourselves from idols."
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"Keep" comes from a word family that refers to a soldier's duty to
stand watch over a prisoner, making sure that the prisoner does not escape.
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The Lord Jesus keeps you in Him. We must seek to keep ourselves from seeking
any other place of comfort and solace.
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This is such a difficult topic to consider, because you and I are hardwired to
immediately reject the notion of idolatry, simply because we believe it to be
isolated to figurines.
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Most of us are offended at the thought of bowing or offering allegiance to a
physical statue. Yet, there is still idolatry to the concepts that are embodied
by those statues.
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Rome worshipped "Bacchus," which is the god of drunkenness. Ancient
Israel worshipped "Ashtoreth," which is the goddess of fertility and
sexuality. The Canaanites worshipped "Baal."
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They worshipped him by sexual immorality, but Baal was the God of the economy!
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Are these gods not worshipped today? Is our society free from drunkenness or
insobriety?
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Are we free from sexual temptation when pornography remains a billion dollar
industry? Who isn't preoccupied with their own personal economy?
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An idol doesn't need a shape to wrest our attention and adoration away from
that which deserves the greatest affection! That is what an idol is: A
replacement for the true and living God!
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These idols that I have mentioned are the larger concepts that threaten our
allegiance to God, but these aren't all.
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Any item of any size, whether it's parked in a special place, or is wrapped in
a favored uniform, can unduly sap our desire to give the Lord our whole hearts.
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At the end, let me suggest that there was one more part of idolatry that
threatened the church of Ephesus. Their particular danger was to redefine the
God that they had been worshipping.
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They attempted to fashion the true God to be more accomodating to the accepted
cultural norms of their day.
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As they bought into Gnostic fever, they imagined a god that would tolerate
immorality because "God wasn't concerned with physical, material
bodies."
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They believed that these bodies were inherently evil, so why not enjoy all of
their appetites! In their thinking, this didn't really affect their spiritual
selves.
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Of course, on the other side of the Gnostic front, there were those who
believed that their God was a god of intelligence and knowledge and restraint.
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Therefore, they adopted an ascetic's life, clinging to the supposed higher
knowledge that their new culturally relevant Pastors peddled.
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Their allegiance, affection and attention were moving away from the True God of
the Bible and were being placed upon a god with the same Name, but with a very
different character!
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That is the kind of idolatry that each of us need to be careful of! Today, it
expresses itself in a statement that sounds like this: "My God would
never."
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Please notice the fatal flaw in this statement: "My God!" It's
telling from the moment it escapes one's lips! These have a version of God that
they have adopted.
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They have clung to one attribute that they love, but cannot conceive of God
having another attribute that runs in seeming contradiction. Their version of
God is a graven image.
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Their version of God is a static concept, similar to when one falls in love
with a picture trapped in time, but fails to love the person who is far more
than the memory within!
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Nobody can enlarge upon the true nature of God but everybody is in danger of
accepting a lesser version of Him! Why would anyone transfer their trust to an
inferior icon?
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This is comfortable to you and you control it! "My little children, keep
yourselves from idols!"
•
I John 5:21 (NLT) : "Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s
place in your hearts." : This includes anything
large, small or iconic! Trust yourself to the true God, who reveals Himself in
scripture alone!
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When the Bible says that He does something, accept that He is free to do that
thing. Let Him shatter any potential image that you have built up!
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Now, why is this related to loving our brothers? This prevents us from falling
to the trap of following or recommending a God that is only a figment of our
own imaginations!
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If I love something less than the true God, my heart toward my brothers will be
warped. I will love those that agree with me, that accept my version of God.
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I will adopt behaviors and embrace values that will run contrary to what has
been the acceptable practice of my fellow believers, causing them great grief
as they watch my life devolve!
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Watch over your theology, for your own sake! What you believe about God is
paramount and to believe in a god that you have made up is eternally perilous
to your soul.
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How much worse is it then should others follow your lead?
Conclusion
- How are we to love our brothers? We are to confidently endure in prayer! Pray for their eyes to be opened, for God to reveal the error of their ways.
- How are we to love our brothers? We are to confidently endure in prayer! Pray for their eyes to be opened, for God to reveal the error of their ways.
- Go to the throne room and say, "Lord,
here am I. Send me!" Be ready to receive orders, should the Lord want you
to do anything. But first, and foremost, pray and petition God for you family!
- Second, consistently engage in proper
theology! Never settle for what is less than God. Be careful to keep Him the
center of your heart's affections.
- Reject any notion that limits Him or makes
Him especially dear to you. This is vital to your brothers and sisters.
"Watch your life and your doctrine closely!" (I Timothy 4:16) Let's pray!