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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