Love's Reward 1 John 3d

1 John 3:18-24

Obedience, Results

A little boy was riding his tricycle furiously around the block, over and over again. Finally a policeman stopped him and asked why he was going around and around. The boy said that he was running away from home. Then the policeman asked why he kept going around the block. The boy responded, because mom said that I'm not allowed to cross the street. The point of all this is clear, obedience will keep us close to those we love, especially God!

Last Sunday morning we saw how John emphasized the importance of love. Love is the only acceptable response we can share with our brother. Murder, hatred and indifference belong to the devil and his children, not God's children. John says that love requires deeds, not words. The Good Samaritan expressed love for his neighbor through his loving deeds. John summarizes his message on love in 1 John 3:18: My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. But, does it not cost a great deal for the believer to exercise this kind of love? Yes, it does. It cost Jesus Christ His life. But the wonderful benefits that come to you as by products of this love more than compensate for any sacrifice you make. In today's passage, John talks about three wonderful benefits that God gives to believers who love their brethren. They are Assurance, Answered Prayer, and Abiding Life.

Firstly Assurance

a. A Confident Heart

3:19: And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

How can a believer have an assurance that they are living in the truth? When we love our brother in deed and in truth. Our relationship with our brother cannot be separated from our relationship with God. When we love our brother through good deeds we are really doing it for God. Jesus said when you did it to the least of these My brethren you did it unto Me. A man who is not right with his brother should go settle the matter before he offers his sacrifice on the altar. A Christian who practices love grows in his understanding of God’s truth and enjoys a heart filled with confidence before God. God blesses His children when they practice love by filling their hearts with assurance. They sense God's peace and love in their own lives. Conversely if we don't love our brother God withholds His assurance from us.

Flying A Kite

A boy was out flying his kite one day in an open field. The kite soared so high that it disappeared into the clouds. A man walking passed asked the boy why he was holding on to a piece of string. The boy answered him by saying, I've got a kite up there. The man looked up and said, I don't see it. The boy replied, well I know it's there because I can feel it tugging. This is what it is like for a believer who loves his brother. God assures his heart that everything is fine. This is because the tie of love between heaven and earth is strong.

b. A Condemning Heart

1 John 3:20: For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

A condemning heart is one that robs a believer of peace. When we don't love our brother we experience this. An accusing conscience is another way to describe it. Sometimes the heart accuses us wrongly, because it is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? The answer to that question is, God knows the heart! More than one Christian has accused himself falsely, or been harder on himself than necessary; but God will never make such a mistake. A Christian who walks in love has a heart open to God and knows that God never judges wrongly.

A Conscience That Won't Stretch

Adam Clarke was an assistant in a dry goods store, selling silks and satins to a cultured clientele. One day his employer suggested to him that he try stretching the silk as he measured it out; this would increase sales and profits and also increase Adam's value to the company. Young Adam straightened up from his work, faced his boss courageously, and said. Sir your silk may stretch, but my conscience won't. Adam listened to his conscience and God approved of his decision. A strong Christian listens when his conscience advises him and doesn't talk back to it. Do you listen to your conscience when making decisions? Or do you ignore it when God challenges you to love your brother? Is God prompting it now?

Peter's Conscience

Peter felt both condemnation and confidence in his heart. Firstly, Peter wept bitterly after he had denied his Lord, and no doubt he was filled with remorse and repentance for his sin. Then, Jesus knew that Peter had repented, and after His resurrection the Lord sent a special message to Peter that must have assured the hot headed fisherman that he was forgiven. Peter’s heart may have condemned him, for he knew he had denied the Lord three times, but God was greater than his heart. Jesus, knowing all things, gave just the assurance he needed.

Application

The first benefit God wants to give to His children is assurance. What will assure our hearts before the Lord? In a word, love. When we love our brother in deed and in truth we can have great confidence before God. What causes our heart to condemn us? Disobedience to God's commandment to love our brother. We can't expect to have God's peace in our hearts when we don't love our brother through good deeds. To know we are practicing the truth we must love one another. How are you loving your brother? How are you meeting his needs? With words or deeds. Remember, we can't hide our disobedience because God knows all things.

Secondly Answered Prayer

1 John 3:21-22: 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.

Love for the brethren produces confidence toward God, and confidence toward God gives you boldness in asking for what you need. This does not mean that you earn answers to prayer by loving the brethren. Rather, it means that your love for the brethren proves that you are living in the will of God where God can answer your prayer. John says to pray according to God's will.

1 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.

A believer’s relationship to the brethren cannot be divorced from his prayer life. If we are serving the Lord through love then we will ask for the needs of others and not just our own. Consequently when we don't love our brother we pray selfishly and God can't answer our prayers. James 4:2-3 warns us about praying selfishly out of God's will: You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

If husbands and wives aren't obeying God's Word, their prayers are hindered. 1 Peter 3:7: Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

Prayer For A Wayward Son

An evangelist had preached on the Christian home. After the meeting a father approached him. I’ve been praying for a wayward son for years, said the father, and God has not answered my prayers. The evangelist read Psalm 66:18 — If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Be honest with yourself and the Lord, he said. Is there anything between you and another Christian that needs to be settled? The father hesitated, then said, Yes, I’m afraid there is. I’ve harbored resentment in my heart against another man in this church. Then go and make it right, counseled the evangelist, and he prayed with the man. Before the campaign was over, the father saw his wayward son come back to the Lord.

How do we pray according to God's will? By praying for God's glory and His kingdom. It means praying for the things that are important to the Lord. Love is the fulfilling of God’s Law; therefore, when you love the brethren, you are obeying His commandments and He is able to answer your requests. These verses don't give us all the conditions for answered prayer, but they emphasize the importance of obedience. One great secret of answered prayer is obedience, and the secret of obedience is love. John 15:7, 10: If you love Me, keep My commandments. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.... If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love.

Love, obedience and answered prayer are all related in God's will. When we love our brother we are obeying God's commandment to us. God is pleased and answers our prayers.

Answered Prayer -- With Cattle

Shortly after Dallas Theological Seminary was founded in 1924, it almost came to the point of bankruptcy. All the creditors were going to foreclose at noon on a particular day. That morning they met in the president's office with Dr. Chafer for prayer that God would provide. In that prayer meeting was a man by the name of Harry Ironside. When it was his turn to pray, he prayed in his characteristic manner: Lord, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are Thine. Please sell some of them and send us the money.

While they were praying, a tall Texan with boots on and an open collar stepped up to the business office and said, I just sold two carloads of cattle in Ft. Worth. I've been trying to make a business deal but it fell through, and I feel compelled to give the money to the seminary. I don't know if you need it or not, but here's the check! A little secretary took the check and, knowing how critical things were financially, went to the door of the prayer meeting and timidly tapped. When she finally got a response, Dr. Chafer took the check out of her hand. It was exactly the amount of the debt! When he looked at the name, he knew the cattleman from Ft. Worth. Turning to Dr. Ironside said, Harry, God sold the cattle!

Application

The second benefit God wants to give His children is answered prayers. Is there a condition to this? Yes, the same one, love. We must obey God's commandment to love one another. Believers who don't love their brethren pray selfishly. They ask for their own pleasures. Because they disobey God's commandment to love, God can't answer their prayers. Love fulfills the Law and gives great assurance before God. It also obtains answers to prayer.

Thirdly Abiding Life

1 John 3:23: And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

a. Faith And Love

Faith toward God and love toward men are two sides of the same coin. In John 5:24 Jesus says that those who believe in Him have passed from death to life. In 1 John 3:14 John says that we can know that we have passed from death to life when we love the brethren. It is easy to emphasize faith, correct doctrine; and to neglect love. Yet others say doctrine is not important and that love is our main responsibility. But both doctrine and love are important. When a person is justified by faith, he should know that the love of God is being shed abroad in his heart. Romans 5:5. These two things are emphasized in the New Testament.

People Need Love

Around the 13 th century King Frederick attempted to raise a group of children without maternal affection. He wanted to find out what kind of speech they would have when they grew up. He wanted to know whether they would speak Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Arabic. So he forbade the foster mothers to speak with them when they suckled them and washed them. In fact, they were to withhold all forms of affection and communication from the children. But he labored in vain, because all of the children died. They could not live without the loving embraces and kind words that mothers normally shower upon their children. In the same way people need to be loved. God knows this. This is why He commands His children to love one another. We can't live without love. In fact we barely exist without it.

Faith toward God and love toward man sums up a Christian’s obligations. This is the thrust of Christianity. Galatians 5:6: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Paul says to the Galatians religious ritual and tradition are empty, what really matters is faith working through love.

James says that a faith that doesn't work through love is a dead faith. James 2:15-17: If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

b. Obedience And Abiding

1 John 3:24: Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Abiding in Christ is a key experience for a believer who wants to have confidence toward God and enjoy answers to prayer. Jesus, in His message to the disciples in the Upper Room illustrated abiding. He compared His followers to the branches of a vine. So long as the branch draws its strength from the vine, it produces fruit. But if it separates itself from the vine, it withers and dies. Jesus was not talking about salvation; He was talking about fruit bearing. The instant a sinner trusts Christ, he enters into union with Christ; but maintaining communion is a moment - by - moment responsibility. Abiding depends on our obeying His Word and keeping clean. As we have seen, when a believer walks in love, he finds it easy to obey God, and therefore he maintains a close communion with God. Jesus spoke of this too. John 14:23: Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

The Holy Spirit is mentioned by name in 1 John for the first time in 3:24. John introduced us to the Holy One 1 John 2:20 with emphasis on the Spirit’s anointing and teaching ministry. But the Holy One is also the abiding Spirit. When a believer obeys God and loves the brethren, the indwelling Holy Spirit gives him peace and confidence. The Holy Spirit abides with him forever, but when the Spirit is grieved, He withdraws His blessings. What is our role in the abiding life? To remain connected to the vine. This requires dependence on God for strength to live each day. It is a moment by moment reliance. It also requires that we confess all sin to keep pure. Sin ruins our fellowship. It stops us from abiding in Christ. We must also keep his commandments, which is summarized by the commandment to love.

My Heart, God's Home

There was a woman who straightened up her house every night before going to bed. She did this because she didn't want the Lord to catch her being a messy housekeeper if He should return before the morning. Maintaining a well kept house for the Lord's glory is a worthy aspiration. But what's even more important than this is to keep clean our house that God lives in. In John 14:23 we find two ways to maintain our heart home. To love God and keep His commandments. Disobedience to God makes our heart home dirty. But obedience that is expressed in love for Him and our brother makes our heart a suitable home for God.

Each member of the Triune Godhead is involved in the love life of a believer. God the Father commands us to love one another, God the Son gave His life on the cross, as the supreme example of love. And God the Holy Spirit lives within us to provide the love that we need. To abide in love is to abide in God, and to abide in God is to abide in love. Christian love is not something we work up when we need it. Christian love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and this is your constant experience as you abide in Christ.

Reuben Welch said, Christians are not brought together because they like each other, but because they share a common life in Christ and are learning how to love each other as members of God's family.

Application

The third benefit God gives His children is His abiding presence. Is there a condition to this? Yes the same ones. Faith in Jesus Christ and love for our brethren. Love is essential for a happy home. This is especially true of God's family. But O the blessings for obedience. God makes our heart His home. Are you enjoying sweet fellowship with the Lord? Does He abide in your heart? Or has your disobedience to His commands kept Him outside? If this is the case can I encourage you to repent of your disobedience? Can I encourage you to love your brother from this day on? Will you choose to love in deed and in truth? Will you abide in Christ?

Conclusion

In today's passage, we saw three wonderful benefits that God gives to people who love their brethren; Assurance, Answered Prayer, and Abiding Life. Will you determine to receive these blessings from God by loving your brother?

Benediction

Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.