If you will, take your Bible and turn to 1 John this afternoon. We continue to look there several weeks in a row and it's helpful as we want to discern properly who is a christian and ultimately what does the christian life look like certainly first john will uh... point us in the right direction so first john chapter three and good lord willing this afternoon will take a look verses eleven through eighteen thank you sir I'll begin reading at the beginning of chapter 3. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself, as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. Again, Father, we bow before you and call upon you, asking for your blessing. You are the great God who can bless. You are the great God who should be blessed. Lord, we thank you for you sending your dear Son that we might be the children of God. Our sins might be forgiven. All of our rebellion against you can be forgiven and there'll be no punishment for us For eternity, for Jesus has received our punishment. He indeed is our Savior and our Lord. Father, we do ask that you would open your word to us. May we see what the Christian's life looks like. May we understand clearly, Lord, if there be confusion among us. Remove that. Give clarity, we pray, based upon Your Word. We thank You again for this time to look to Your Word. Will You give us eyes to see and ears to hear? And ultimately, will You grant us obedience? Thank You for Your love through Jesus. It's through Him that I pray. Amen. Last week I asked the questions, who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil? And we could answer the question by saying that the children of God live a righteous life, they make a practice of righteousness. The children of the devil make a practice of sinning. The children of God live a righteous life, they practice righteousness. And so what is the righteous life? I did point your attention last week to chapter 3 verse 23 and it says, this is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, 1 John 3 verse 23, certainly part of the righteous life is belief upon the Lord Jesus. But there is another part and will be the emphasis of this afternoon. You see it also there in verse 23, "...and love one another." So the righteous life is a life of love. The righteous life is a life of love. As we begin to look at 11 through 18, verse 11 sets things up. This is the message that you have heard from the beginning. Oh, John is reminding his readers of something. The message that he's told them from the beginning, he must be referring to the gospel. Back in chapter 1 at the beginning, he talked to them of the word of life. He talked to them about eternal life. He talked to them how to have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. John must be reminding them. This message that you heard from the beginning must be reminding them of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No, actually in these verses we see the gospel will come up, no question, but we see this emphasis on the righteous life as a life of love. John is reminding the readers of the command that comes to those who have believed the gospel. So those that have believed the gospel need to live in this way. John says that those who are in fellowship with God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, how does their life look? It looks like a life of love. I know sometimes that we get a little concerned when we hear preachers only saying, love, love, love. And speaking of love just generically is be kind, never speak the truth. Certainly you would not want to offend someone with the truth because that wouldn't be loving. Any offense would be a lack of love in some people's mind, but in our minds we want to be very clear on what is a life of love from the Scriptures. And so the rest of verse 11, all of verse 11, this is the message that you've heard from the beginning that we should love one another, that we should love one another. Once we have been given the righteousness of Christ, we begin to live a righteous life and the righteous life is a life of love. I hope this phrase will stick in your mind because if we say that we know Him, then that means that we have been made righteous. And once if we say we know Him, we say we know the Lord, we will begin to live a righteous life. And so we have to think, what is that? It is a life of love, not a life of hate. The children of God live a life of love. On the other hand, the children of the devil, they don't love. And that's what we see in verse 12. So we're looking at 1 John 3, verse 12. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. We see we ought to love one another but also through verse 12 we see the children of the devil don't love. They don't love. What is this reference to? Of course Cain and Abel. We can turn back to Genesis chapter 4 just to be reminded because John is making reference to this. Let's all turn to Genesis chapter 4. What is this that John is referring to? It is Cain and Abel of Genesis chapter 4. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground. So we see here who is being spoken of, Cain and Abel, children of Adam and Eve, and we know something about them. We know that Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. We've seen that much. And then we're going to see that they both make an offering to the Lord. So let's begin in verse 3 and read on. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard." I'll stop there for a moment. The Lord inspected both offerings. There's two offerings that have been given. The Lord inspected and what did He find? We see that there was a difference between these offerings. Cain and Abel, there was some difference. And so the Lord looked favorably on the offering of Abel, but the Lord did not like what he saw when he looked at Cain's offering. What was the difference? What was the difference? Does the Lord only like meat offering, not plant-based offering? That does not seem to be the case or the point. From the Bible, we see two words that describe Abel's offering. This will help us. Look back to verse 4. Abel also brought of the firstborn, you see there, first of his flock, and of their fat portion. So the fat. Those are two words that describe the offering. And so what we see is that the first and the best should always be given to God. This is a principle of offering to the Lord, the first and the best. Abel gave the best to the Lord, but Cain must have been given something less than his best. Abel worshiped the Lord in a proper way, but Cain worshiped the Lord in a half-hearted way or a wrong way, we could say. Sometimes we don't think much about how we are supposed to worship the Lord correctly and come before Him. Worship of the Lord is not casual. Worship of the Lord is not casual. You can wear casual clothes if you choose, but worship of the Lord is not casual. We are coming before the true and living God, the one who created all things for His own glory. And God has shown us in His Word how we ought to worship Him. And so the true worship we know is spirit and in truth. You could say it's heart worship. And it's a heart that has been made alive by the Holy Spirit. We worship from within. The heart, true worship is the heart made alive by the Holy Spirit according to the truth of God's word. It is the gospel that we must receive. It is the Holy Spirit that must give us life. And then we can respond back to the Lord properly. Heart worship, not half-hearted worship, not something less than the best, the first. And the point is that Cain is worshipping the Lord in an improper way. He's worshipping the Lord in an improper way. This is just the context of what John is writing, so we can say that Cain's heart was not in the worship. And why was his heart not in the worship? Well, we know it is because Cain did not have a heart for the Lord. It says that he was of the devil. Let me go ahead, since we're in Genesis 4, and continue to read through a few more verses, and then we'll go back to 1 John. So we found in verse 5, for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. And the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. And so we see that account of Cain and Abel, and now let's go back to 1 John chapter 3 and let's see what is... that's what John's referring to. Let's read again verse 12. We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one. 1 John 3, 12. We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. And so he had half-hearted worship, he did not have a heart for the Lord, and how can we know that he didn't have a heart for the Lord? It's because here in 1 John we see that Cain was of the evil one. He was of the evil one. He murdered him because he was of the evil one. Cain was a child of the devil. Cain and Abel were biological brothers, but they were not brothers in the family of God. John says that we should not be like Cain because we are the children of God. John's writing to this church or to these Christians, and he's saying that we shouldn't be like this, for we are the children of God. We are not of the evil one. We're the children of God. We don't act like the devil. No, we've begun to act like God in a righteous manner. The one who practices righteousness we saw last week. We begin to live a life that is a life of love. Cain murdered his brother Abel. Why? Why? Well, the verse tells us. Verse 12 says, Why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil in his brother's righteous. We even have this explanation here. Cain's offering to God was evil. His offering was less than the best, but Abel's offering was righteous. It was that Abel's offering was acceptable to God. You put it another way, it was pleasing to God. Cain murdered his brother because his brother was doing the right thing. and not just that his brother was doing the right thing but his brother living in a right way shed light on the fact that he was living in a wrong way. When a person is confronted with their sin there can be different responses if a person is confronted. Cain was confronted with his sin and what happened? He got angry, so angry that he murdered his brother. But the Christian has a different response when confronted with their sin. The Christian, when confronted with their sin, they confess their sin. They say, yes, I see it as God sees it. That was a transgression of the law of God. That was a lack of love. If you want to summarize sin, sin is a lack of love. Lack of love to God and lack of love to neighbor. I have broken God's good commands. Yes, the Christian's response to their sin is to confess it. It's also the Christian response is to repent. Because their mind, the Christian's mind has been changed, our mind has been changed. We see sin for what it is and then our behavior changes because our mind has been changed about sin. And then the Christian always doesn't just put away their sin, confess their sin, but they have faith in Christ. They depend and trust on Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sin. That's the Christian. The only way that I can be right with God Almighty is that if Christ has taken away my sin as we saw last week, you know that He came to take away our sins and also to destroy the works of the devil. This is the Christian response to sin, but Cain's response was very different. The Christian believes and trusts in Jesus' perfect life, His death in their place. He was dying for their sin. The Christian trust and the hope of eternal life for Jesus rose from the grave to conquer death. So the children of the devil, like Cain, don't love their brother. The introduction from verse 11 on this section was love one another, you should love one another. Then verse 12, we find that the children of the devil don't love those like Cain. But then verse 13 goes further and says, actually, the world hates Christians. And so let's look at verse 13. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. So with the example of Cain and Abel in mind from verse 12, then we find, do not be surprised that the world hates you. Cain hated his brother and the world will hate Christians. Cain hated his brother because his righteous life showed that he was living an unrighteous life. The church's righteous manner of living will shine light And it will also, that light will shine on the fact that the world is living in an unrighteous way. So we're talking about an external lifestyle that comes because you have spiritual life, inward life. Please do not get bogged down in, oh, let's just act this way and ultimately we'll be right with God if we can act a certain way. No, the righteous life indeed is in conformity to the Word of God, but it comes from the inward work of the Holy Spirit. We are motivated, we are changed within, and so then we begin to live without. And we call out to the Lord when we find out, when we see Either our motivation that we're doing things, if we're just coming to church just for the sake of making mom or dad happy or to check off the box if I ought to come to church, stop right there. And say, oh, I want to live the righteous life. I want to live a life of love. But I want to be properly motivated. Certainly, we want to be properly motivated, and that is God's love toward us, because God has given us His grace in Jesus Christ. And so, don't be surprised, John writes to these Christians, and you should not be surprised when the world hates you. We see Cain's hate for Abel. We see the world's hate for Christians. And John Gill says that immediately after the fall we see this great enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And he says of course Cain and Abel was an issue nonetheless that made this clear. The world hates Christians or those that trust in the Lord and come before the Lord properly. He also brought up the example of Ishmael born after the flesh. also persecuted Isaac, and Isaac was born after the Spirit, the promised child. And then Gil brings it all the way up to Jews persecuted the prophets of old, and then they hated Christ and His apostles. And so don't be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. And Gil goes on and says it's common, this is a common lot for all saints that will live a godly life in Christ Jesus. This is somewhat helpful as you receive resistance from living in a righteous manner. Those that live in an unrighteous manner will not encourage you on in the righteous life. So don't be surprised. And the language is so strong, don't be surprised that the world hates you. Thankfully, we have been free from severe persecution or much persecution at all. All of us gathered here, but there are brothers and sisters around the world when they read in their Bible, do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you. They get it because they have actively the world hating them in physical ways. Certainly, as we begin to spread this gospel and share the good news, you'll feel the hate of the world as well. Of course, you'll also know the joy of Jesus Christ and His power to save, for that is the means by which He will save souls. The world hates, but Christians love. And that's the direction I think that this passage is going for sure. The righteous life, is a life of love. And so in verse 14, John writes, We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. The children of God have new life in Christ, therefore, they love the brothers. How can we know if we've been born of God? I might ask you, are you born again? And don't be offended if I ask you that. If I ask you, how do you know you're born again? I'm wanting to see what is the state of your soul? Are you resting in Christ? How can we know if we have been born of God? We know, the verse says, we've passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. We can know that we are Christians because we love. And this specifically is referenced to love of other Christians. We are spiritually alive. We care more about the Lord and others than we do about ourself. You know, Jesus did say deny yourself. He didn't say hate yourself, but he said deny yourself because you need to turn your love to the Lord and ultimately to others. So we're spiritually alive. How can you know if you're born of God? Love for brothers does not give us life. The act of loving the brother does not give us life, but love for brothers is evidence that we have been made alive in Jesus Christ. You hear this over and over again, and I hope that this is helpful for you. As you live life, we're always tempted to Get again, get a list of rules in our head and say, I must just follow this list of rules. Well, the truth is, if we're sinning, if we're breaking the law of God and we need to confess that, we need to turn away from that repentance, believe in Christ and say, Lord, I need more enablement from the Spirit. I need further sanctification to be set apart. Please, Lord, it's a continual, it should drive us to Him. Not to just try to do better to follow the list of rules, but it should draw us near to the Lord, call out to Him to continue to change us. So love for the brothers does not give us life. Love for the brothers is evidence that we have been made alive in Christ. Whoever does not love abides in death. Some people are spiritually dead and some are spiritually alive. Those who do not love are spiritually dead. that is spiritually dead, not every one of them literally murders others like Cain did Abel. So don't be confused. But everyone who hates his brother as we see here, look in the verse, verse 15, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. All those that are spiritually dead might not literally murder, but the act of murder begins in the heart and it's hatred in the heart. Cain was angry about his sin being exposed by his brother's righteousness. Cain hated his brother. Then Cain murdered Abel. This is the outworking of his heart, his evil heart. Cain should have hated his own sin rather than hate his brother for doing the right thing. And so do we hate our sin or do we hate those that live according to God's Word? We should be serious about hating our own sin. The seriousness of sin was brought out last week. It's a continual theme. Sin is serious. And Albert Barnes says, any man may well shudder at the remembrance of the secret sins of his own heart. As we're pressed in on sin and how terrible it is, and even sin is such a thing as hatred of the heart, the one that hates the brother, we should shudder, he says. And think about what we would be, according to Barnes, apart from the restraining grace of God. Think about what you and I would be apart from the restraining grace of God. And then we can think about how wonderful the grace of God is toward us. Oh, we have had thoughts cross our mind that should not be told, that are terrible. And thank God that He has restrained us from acting out some of these things we have thought. And thank the Lord for His grace toward the Christian. He doesn't only restrain, doesn't only stop us from the evil, but what does He do? Barnes says He effectually subdues all these feelings and He implants in their place principles of love. God begins to work in us in such a way that we begin to love others from the heart. What a blessing! Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. So no one who hates his brother has been born of God. No murderer has been born of God. If eternal life is abiding in a person, then they will hate their sin and love their brother. John speaks in very black and white terms, doesn't he? what Christian among us would not say that there has been hatred that has welled up in their heart. I would say, certainly the temptation to hatred has welled up in our heart. I would say again the Christian's response to the temptation, or even if we have submitted to the sin, we've allowed the hatred to dwell there in our hearts, I would say the Christian, the hope for the Christian is that they are battling against this. They are able, by God's grace, to see their sin as it really is. They confess that sin, repent of that sin, put to death the deeds of the flesh, and they're trusting in Christ once again. But John says everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know no murderer has eternal life abiding in Him. So listen to what the Scripture says before you listen to what I say ultimately. The Christian hates their sin and loves their brother, so we need to know what does love look like. If John will write and he'll tell them to love one another, if he'll say, don't be like Cain, for he did not love his brother, rather he was a murderer because he had hatred in his heart, and the world will hate you, And actually the Christian can know that they passed out of death into life because they love the brothers. What is love then? Verse 16 tells us. Verse 16, By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. How can we know what love is? Don't look at the culture to know what love is. Don't think that love looks like finding the richest, best looking person and fall in love with them, get married and live happily ever after. That's not love. No, we need to know what love is. It looks like Jesus. Look to Jesus to know true love. that He laid down His life for us. So John is motivating them to live in a righteous manner and the motivation comes here. He laid down His life for us. Look to Christ. You will properly be motivated to live a righteous life then. Love looks like Jesus coming to the earth and humbling Himself. He became a servant. He made Himself nothing. Jesus sacrificially loved his people to the point that he would die for them. He did die for them. Jesus died bearing the sin of the people of God. He took their sins upon himself, took the punishment for their sins. Jesus preferred his brother and sister, his brothers and sisters in the family of God above himself. Jesus wanted the blessing of salvation for all who call on the name of the Lord. Jesus wanted the blessing of forgiveness of sin to be accomplished for the chosen people of God. So he laid down his life for us. We can see it. John is writing to Christians when he says us. This truth also applies to us. If we are hoping in Christ, everyone who trusts in Christ, everyone that confesses their sin and everyone who repents of their sin, he laid down his life for us. That is what love looks like. So if we are to live a life of love and that righteous life is the life of the children of God, the righteous life is the life of love, what does it look like? It looks like the life of Christ ultimately is laying down His life for us. John MacArthur says that this is the measuring stick for every expression of love. If you want to determine if something is love, compare it to the love of Christ. laying down his life for sinners to redeem the people of God. And our only response is the rest of verse 16, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. There is a special love that Christians should have for one another. We ought to lay down our lives for the Christians, for the brothers. Jesus, according to John Gill, Jesus is the example of love. His example of love is the strongest love and it highlights the saints obligation to love. How can we lay down our lives for the brothers? We have an example given in verse 17. How can we lay down our lives for the brothers? Verse 17, but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? So one way we can lay down our lives for the brothers is providing for those that are in need, the brothers that have need. Does this mean that every Christian should have exactly the same amount of money or possessions? That's not what it says. This means that if God has given the Christian enough to live on and more, then they are responsible to help other Christians that do not have enough to live on. We should give food and clothing and meet medical needs. These are simple principles. We don't have to wait. We should not wait for a person to ask for help. For we find there, if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, don't wait on the request. If you see a need, then we should meet the need. The Benson Commentary says, the very sight of want, the very sight of this need knocks at the door of the spectator's heart. That's the type of heart that the Christian has when they see the need. If they have been enabled by God, then they meet the need. It's life of love that we're called to. We don't always know the needs. We can't always see the needs. And so how can we know the needs? I would say a helpful principle is to act like a family. Act like a family. We are the family of God. Healthy family has a close relationship. So we don't go around and ask everybody, do you have any need? Do you have any need? Do you have any need? We actually need to get to know them. Spend some time with them. We'll know the needs if we spend time one with another. If there are physical needs, we will know what those are and we will know other needs as well. So if we don't meet the needs that we see, then how does God's love abide in us? There it is. That's the way that verse 17 really puts it. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Put it the opposite way, you'd say God's love can't really be abiding in the person who sees the need and won't lovingly go and meet the need. So how did John's readers receive his message? How did John's readers receive his message? Well, let's just say how Christians have responded to this message throughout the ages. Albert Barnes quotes Tertullian, he says, Behold, how they love one another! They are ready to die for one another. Eusebius says, In time of plague they visited one another, and not only hazarded their lives, but actually lost them in their zeal to preserve the lives of other. These Christians, it's being observed that the Christians love one another so much so to the point that they would not go away from the plague, but they'd go into the midst of the plague to try to care for those suffering under the plague and even died in those attempts. This is how we know love that he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Throughout the history of the church, there has been sacrificial love on display. And so Jamison and Fawcett and Brown says our life ought not be dearer to us than God's own son was to him. We do not live in such a way that we are trying to ultimately just preserve our life. No, the Christian life is a sacrificial life, a laying down our lives for the sake of the brothers. And so I am very encouraged by times that I see here and see fellowship and people spending time together talking. Spending time, people among the congregation really getting to know one another. Not just, hey, how are you? Fine, bye, and then move on. But actually dwelling with one another, getting to know one another. This certainly can take place outside of the Sunday worship as well. I was able to see this in China among the brethren. They would spend time with one another. They stayed at church all, you know, long part of the day. They'd get out the, not our tradition, but their tradition, they'd get out the little tea table, boil the water and start making tea, sit around and talk. Again, like we don't do that, but that's something that they would certainly do from time to time. And so once we care enough about one another to take time to know one another, then we can know how to meet the needs, how to love one another in that way. We can know one another's needs and then this is where sacrificial love comes in that we meet others needs. It doesn't always involve the world's goods. I mean, the example from this scripture is if you have the world's goods, you see a brother in need. So by implication, a physical need. But there are many needs that are spiritual, many needs that are spiritual. And so we could say some of the wealthiest people in the world have some of the greatest spiritual needs. Loving one another is not only bound to trying to meet a physical need, but no, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. We need to talk to one another, but love for fellow Christian is much more than simply talking. I've encouraged you, hey, get to know someone you can meet the need. But the truth is that love involves action. Love involves action. And so look at the final verse for this afternoon, verse 18. Little children let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. So simply saying, I love you, does not fulfill the command to love one another. Biblical love is not just saying to another, I love you. Certainly words are part of a life filled with love, but there is more to displaying love. So we find out the physical need, we meet it. Again, I like that quote. If you see the need, it should be just like a knock on your heart, you know? The need is just simply a knock that encourages you in that right direction. There are many reasons that a Christian might find themselves in need. And you have to be careful because we know that there are... it's just because The person is out there on the side of the street with a sign that says hungry, need some money, just because they have that sign doesn't mean that two blocks away they don't have a Mercedes Benz parked. And they can fold up the sign after they've made their day's wages and go drive their Mercedes back to their nice house. So that's why I said we know needs in context of knowing the person. And we try to meet the real needs. Because the person holding up the sign that says hungry, need some food, their need is to stop lying and begin to tell the truth. And also to hear the truth of scripture. That the one that's not willing to work should not eat. A person can be in need for many reasons. There are legitimate needs, no doubt. A person could be sick or injured and unable to work. And in that case, they would not have money to meet their basic needs. A person could be living in some sort of sin, spend all their money on a sinful activity that might push them into need. And so whatever the case, the church can help meet the real need. The person in sin will need to be called away from their sin as they repent and turn to Christ once again. The church can help them back on their feet as they are repenting from their sin. And of course, the one who is in need for reasons out of their control, we certainly want to meet those needs. Love involves action. And also meeting the spiritual needs, again, is part of laying down our lives for the brothers. Every man that preaches in this church and teaches in this church is in need of God's blessing upon them for the preparation and for the preaching. And so it's not enough for us to say that we're thankful for those that preach and teach the Word of God among us, but we should lay down our lives for our brothers. You say, well how can I do that? I can't. I can't enable them to preach. No, God can do that. But God calls us to intercessory prayer. This is a way you can lay down your life for the brothers specifically in that role. Preach and teach at the conference ahead. This is a way to lay down our lives for the brothers. Intercessory prayer. We need prayer so that we might be able to rightly divide the Word. We want to feed your souls. We are not up here for us, we're here for the Lord's glory and for the good of the people of God. We want everyone to be built up and become stronger in the Lord. This only happens when God blesses the preaching of His Word. So pray for the blessing upon the preachers. And every person in this church needs God's blessing upon their life. Oh, the spiritual needs, the physical needs that are among us. Let's lay down our lives for one another. Of course, we can pray for one another that God would provide physically as we are able to help others. Let's do it for the spiritual blessings. Oh, pray that we might be a people, all the congregation, we can pray for one another, that you might continually confess your sin and repent of your sin. Pray for the brothers and sisters that they might have joy in Jesus, because Jesus is the Savior of sinners, for He is their Savior. May we have joy in the Lord. Many times we can be down and experience a darkness or a depression, oh, may we pray and ask the Lord that He might give us joy. And we know that comes from the truth, so we have to hear the truth and then the Holy Spirit takes that truth and rejoices the sinner's heart and the saint, for that matter, who's struggling with joy. Pray that we might have courage and boldness to be witnesses of the gospel You know, the children of the devil need to hear about Jesus. The children of the devil need to hear about Jesus so that they might become the children of God. What a privilege we have to share the Gospel. You know, this is the means by which God... One means that the faith comes from hearing, and hearing is the message of Christ, the Word of God. Pray that we would be strengthened in our evangelism. There are many things that we need to pray for one another. This is part, I would say, part of laying down our lives for the brothers. Spend that time to get to know one another, for we are the family of God. As we look around here, everyone that has confessed Christ, everyone that is trusting in Him, that's part of the family of God. Let us get to know one another. then we will know what needs might need to be met. The righteous life is a life of love. He said they've heard this from the beginning. So as soon as God's love is proclaimed in Jesus Christ, also what that life of the person who receives Christ trusts in Him, believes in Him, that we should love one another. And by this we know love, that He laid down His life for us. This is the proper motivation to love. You ever get mixed up and think, oh, how am I supposed to be living? Sometimes we just have to come back to the basics. God has loved us, and now we can be motivated to love others. We will be motivated. If we know the love of God, if we have trusted in Christ and received the forgiveness of sin, we will begin to love others. For the righteous life is a life of love. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your saving grace. We thank you that you indeed justify us, make us right with the perfect righteousness of Christ. You declare us righteous. Lord, I pray now that we might practically live a righteous life for your glory. Lord, thank you for telling us what the righteous life is. It indeed is a life of love, a sacrificial love of Christians toward one another. is one clear display of that. Lord, I thank you for this congregation, and I ask your blessings upon them. May we love one another. Jesus laid down his life for us. May we lay down our lives for the brothers. It's through Jesus that I pray this. Amen.