Sermon Video From 1 John 3.11-24: Born to Love

Born To Love (1 John 3:11-24) from Epiphany Camden on Vimeo.

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The Balance of Experience and Doctrine

The following is an excerpt from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ: Studies in 1 John (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2002), 399-403. Dr. Lloyd-Jones is here speaking on 1 John 4:1: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (ESV).

The trouble with us as the result of sin is that we always seem to delight in extremes, and we tend to go from one extreme to the other instead of maintaining the position of scriptural balance. That seems to be the tendency of mankind, and perhaps it has never manifested itself more, and more often, than concerning this very subject which faces us as we look at this verse. The subject is the whole problem of the place of the Holy Spirit in Christian experience. Or if you prefer, there is a more particular problem here, and that is the problem of the respective places of experience and doctrine in the Christian life: experience, doctrine, and the Holy Spirit.  

Now the trouble has generally been due to the fact that people have emphasized either experience or doctrine at the expense of the other, and indeed they have often been guilty, and still are, of putting up as contrasts things which clearly are meant to be complementary. This is something which has been happening in the Church almost from the very beginning..... And thus when the whole emphasis is placed upon one or the other, you have either a tendency to fanaticism and excesses or a tendency toward a barren intellectualism and a mechanical and a dead kind of orthodoxy.... It is all the result of putting the whole emphasis on one or the other instead of seeing that the two are essential.... 

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Epiphany Fellowship of Camden - Official Launch 01-29-2012

Please come out and support the official launch of Epiphany Fellowship of Camden this Sunday in the Fairview neighborhood of Camden City (NJ) at 1245pm. We meet at the St. Joan of Arc church building at 3107 Alabama Road. Keep us in your prayers all this week for this special date in the life of our covenant community. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. 

Epiphany Camden Short from timothy shin on Vimeo.

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Born to Love: A Sermon From 1 John 3:11-24

This sermon was delivered at Epiphany Fellowship of Camden during Sunday worship on 22 January 2012 (audio here and video here). We meet every Sunday at 12:45pm at the St. Joan of Arc church building at 3107 Alabama Road in the Fairview section of Camden City, NJ. 

Scripture Reading

1 John 3:11 (ESV) For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 3:16-18 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 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? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 3:19-24 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Introduction

As some of you may know, Oprah Winfrey recently started her own television network.  Many television critics and viewers have been less than satisfied with what they believe is substandard programming on her channel.

So in response to this situation, many suggestions for better shows have been offered up. One such suggestion is a program that would be called “Born With It.” Every week, this show would feature someone who excels in their field or profession due to their natural, God-given gifts and abilities.

On her blog, the woman who is pitching this show gives several examples of who could be featured on the program: top-tier athletes who thrive because of their incredible physical characteristics, people who become cooks because of their ability to identify flavors, and musicians who are gifted to sing and play various instruments in amazing ways. Based on their gifting, it seems like all of these people were simply “born” to do these things. At the end of the sales pitch, the question is asked: “So what were you born to do?”[1]

I firmly believe that this question is answered in John’s first letter. As we walk through our text today in 1 John 3, we will find our answer to the question, “What were you born to do?”

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On the Sacraments

On the Sacraments.[1]

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances of positive[2] and sovereign institution, appointed by the Lord Jesus to be continued in His church to the end of this present evil age (Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 22:14-20; Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Cor. 11:24-26; Gal. 3:27; Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:21). For the protection of the spiritual health and witness of Christ’s church, these holy ordinances, or sacraments, are to be administered only by those stewards who have been properly reckoned as qualified and called according to the commission of Christ[3] (Matt. 24:45-51; Luke 12:41-44; 1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 3:5; Titus 1:5-7). The sacraments are to be celebrated by the church in obedience to Christ, but are not to be regarded in any way as a means of salvation (Luke 23:39-43).

Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ as a sign of union with Him in His life, death, and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12-13), as a sign of remission of sins (Mark 1:4; Acts 2:38; 22:16), and as a sign of the moral purification of our heart and mind wrought through regeneration by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 3:21). 

Those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit through a repentant faith in Christ (Col. 2:12), having had their hearts purified and circumcised with a circumcision made without hands (Col. 2:11, cf. Deut. 30:6; Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3; cf. Matt. 13:14-15), are the only proper subjects of baptism[4] (Matt. 3:1-12; 28:19-20; John 4:1; Acts 2:38, 41; 8:12-13, 36-38; 10:47-48; 16:14-15, 31-34; 18:8; 22:16).

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James 5:14 and "Anointing With Oil"

Jam. 5:14 (ESV) Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

As some commentators have pointed out, this is one of the most widely misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misapplied verses in the whole of the New Testament. My purpose in this short article is to scrutinize this text within its grammatical-historical context in order to bring out its original meaning, with application for our time today. My hope is that, by so doing, some of the fog of confusion that swirls around this verse will be lifted, for the glory of God.

The first thing that we should observe is that the sick person has been so weakened by his illness (astheneo means “without strength” or “feeble”) that he has to “call for the elders” of the church to come to him. Due to his illness, he is simply unable to come to the elders or to the assembly of the saints. And so we see that the prayer and the use of oil does not take place in a public or ecclesiastical setting (such as during a church service), but rather, in a private setting.

Spiros Zodhiates states, “This sick brother or sister must have been quite exhausted not to be able to go to the assembly of believers. He had to call the elders to come to him, to his home…. The fact that he cannot go to church is further evidence of the meaning of [asthenei as ‘without strength’].”[1]

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How to Deal With Grievous Sin: A Discourse on Separation and Gospel-Centeredness

The following short article outlines specific principles on how to deal with grievous and unrepentant sin in the local church in a God-prescribed manner. These principles are fully consistent with gospel-centeredness, and provide a living, concrete witness to a foundational aspect of the life-giving message that we preach.

While other methods of dealing with grievous sin may appear more attractive to some in the church, we are bound only to that which God has revealed in His Word. When dealing with unrepentant sinners, there are ways that may seem right to us, but their end is the way to failure and continued peril for all in the local assembly (cf. Prov. 14:12; 16:25).

The goal of biblical separation is godly repentance. God calls all men and women everywhere to continually repent, and He uses His Word through His people in specific ways to convict (or harden) consciences through the work of His Spirit.

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A Veteran's Day Prayer

Below is an invocation that I wrote and delivered today for a Veteran's Day ceremony at a local college: 

Our Father in heaven, we give you praise and thanks for the grace and mercy you have shown this fallen and wicked world through the incarnation, life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Your Son the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him You have shown Yourself to be completely righteous and yet loving in Your dealings with us.

Lord, we thank You for the sacrificial model that You have provided us in Christ. There is no greater expression of love than that someone would lay down his or her life for their friends (cf. John 15:13).

We thank You for the veterans who have laid down their lives defending our safety and security. We thank You for those who have given their own lives so that we might live and prosper in this land where You have placed us.

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The Gospel

          The gospel is “an announcement about certain historical events.”[1] The necessary consequence of this is that, at its core, “Christianity is not a resource for spirituality, religion, and morality, but a dramatic story at the heart of which is the claim that during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Jesus was crucified for our sins and, after three days, was raised bodily from the dead.”[2]

            (A. God) The gospel[3] begins with the one true God who created the universe and everything in it (Gen. 1-2). As Creator, He is our Ruler, and the One to whom all humanity, created in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27), is ultimately responsible and accountable (Rom. 9:21; Rev. 4:11). Under God’s direction and authority, humanity was placed in charge of ruling over and caring for the world so that we may enjoy all its beauty and goodness for His glory (Gen. 1:28-31).

            (B. Man) Although humanity had been wonderfully blessed by God and knew Him in an intimate way, we did not honor Him or give thanks (Rom. 1:21). We rejected Him as our ruler, rebelling against Him and His holy commandment, breaking our covenant relationship with Him (Isa. 24:5-6; Jer. 33:20-21, 25-26; Hos. 6:7)[4]. In our sin, we made ourselves God’s enemy and have, every one of us, fallen under His righteous and perfect judgment (Ezek. 18:4, 20; Rom. 3:9-18; Heb. 9:27). His judgment against rebels is death and separation from Him for all eternity (Rom. 5:12; 6:23; Jam. 1:15; Rev. 21:8).

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