1John 3:11-20

11 This is the message that you have heard from the beginning: We should

love one another.

The gospel message that was preached from the beginning was: God so loved that He gave His only Son, that all should come into His family as sons, children of God, that love one another with the love of God.

12 Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous.

Cain’s hatred for his brother was over the issue of righteousness. Cain’s attitude and actions were of the evil one. Genesis 4 tells the story of the two brothers presenting their offerings to the Lord. Abel’s offering, most likely a lamb, was received and respected by God but Cain’s offering, from the fruit of his garden, was rejected.

I believe this offering to the Lord was to speak as a prophetic drama of the offering of Christ the Lamb of God for the sin of mankind. Cain presented fruit from cursed ground that required much toil and the sweat of the brow. Abel brought the first born of his flock as an offering, which spoke of Christ, the first born Son, who shed His blood for the sins of many. Cain’s offering declared that, by toil and sweat, man could pay for his own sin. In other words, Cain was saying that he did not need a savior but that enough hard work would make up for the failure in man. Abel’s offering spoke of trusting in the work of Christ to save man from sin.

Abel was righteous because he trusted in the offering of Christ, while Cain remained unrighteous because he trusted in his own efforts to conquer sin. Cain became very depressed and angry at being rejected, but the Lord told Cain that he must learn to master sin or it would be his master.

13 So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.

Brothers, sisters, family of God, do not be surprised by the opposition and hatred from that same spirit that was in Cain which remains in the whole world today. We who are righteous by trusting in the work of Christ on the cross will cause an anger to rise up those of the world and the evil one. Those, especially, who have a form of godliness but lack the fruit of righteousness, which is love, a holy life and a willingness to die for a brother or sister, not to murder them.

14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. The person who does not love remains in death.

It takes God’s love to love others. The children of the world are under the curse of sin and death and do not have God’s love at work in, and through, them. They remain in death because sin continues to work death in them. The evidence that proves we have passed from death unto life is that we love one another.

15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.

Those who have eternal life want everyone to live; to end a life would be contrary to the eternal life that is within us. A murderer does not have the life and love of God

controlling them, so they do the works of their evil father.

16 This is how we have come to know love: Christ gave his life for us. We, too, ought to give our lives for our brothers.

God’s love in us is evidenced by our willingness to give up our own life for others, just as Jesus Christ did for us. There is a special bond of love through unity in the body of

Christ, but there is also a love for the lost.

Rom 5:7-8 For it is rare for anyone to die for a righteous person, though somebody might be brave enough to die for a good person. But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

17 Whoever has earthly possessions and notices a brother in need and yet

withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God remain in

him?

God’s love, at work in us, motivates us to lay down our lives for our brothers and

sisters. That includes giving of our earthly possessions to meet a need if it is in our

power to do so. God’s love will remain in those who give it away because we will reap

what we sow.

18 Little children, we must stop loving in word and in tongue, but instead love in action and in truth.

Our faith must be more than a confession; it must have action as well. James 2:20

says: faith without works is dead. Faith believes that God is our source: we need not

look upon what we have as if it were given us totally for our own consumption

because every part or member of the body of Christ is part of us; we are one.

19 And this is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we

will be able to establish our hearts in his presence.

Our acts of love, meeting the needs of others, is the evidence that we are walking in

the truth and, therefore, we will have boldness to stand in His presence.

20 If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows

everything.

If we have somehow failed to love the way God loves, our heart may condemn us or

we might feel guilty when we read this portion of scripture, but God is greater than

out guilty heart. He knows us better than we know ourselves and doesn’t give up on

us. Therefore we should not allow condemnation to remain but remember that God is merciful, giving us another opportunity to get it right.

1 John 2: 29-3: 10

2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born from God.

All have sinned and there is none righteous without God; therefore, anyone who practices righteousness has to be a product, or an offspring, of God, the only source of righteousness.

3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given us in letting us be called God's children. And that is what we are! For this reason the world does not recognize us, because it did not recognize him either.

It is an amazing privilege to be called God’s children. We were formerly opposed to Him, walked in rebellion against Him, but have turned around to walk with Him. Since our change of heart and direction, the world no longer identifies with us or considers us part of their family: we have a new Father and they do not acknowledge or obey Him either.

2 Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when Christ is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

Becoming His child, thus far, has been a hidden work on the inside of us. We are new in our spirits, walking in the light and love of Christ. We have eternal life now, on the inside, yet our mortal body is still waiting to be changed: to put on immortality. When He appears before our eyes at His coming, we will be changed: given a body like His glorious body. (See Philippians 3:21)

3 And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure.

The second coming of Christ has been called the blessed hope of the church.

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 says that we should not be like those without Christ who have no hope of eternal life, because all who have died in Christ, will join us who remain alive and we shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, to be with Him forever. Everyone who has this kind of hope will remain pure because He is coming for a bride that has made herself ready, without spot or wrinkle. (See Ephesians 5: 27)

4 Everyone who keeps living in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience.

The children of God hope for everlasting life, but the children of the world (those who are formed and fashioned by the ways of the world) do not live with eternity in mind. Their motto is to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. They go on living in sin because they have no concept of purity or being free from sin. They are not expecting Jesus to come looking for them, as a bridegroom for a bride, without the spots and wrinkles of disobedience.

5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him.

Jesus came into this world to take upon himself all our sins and to pay all our debt. He could only accomplish that because He had no sin debt of His own. Jesus is also known as the “Word” and we are washed and cleansed by the water of the Word. John 15: 3 Now you are clean through the word I have spoken unto you.

6 No one who remains in him goes on sinning. The one who goes on sinning hasn't seen him or known him.

Anyone who abides, or remains, in Christ will not bear bad fruit but the good fruit of righteousness. The fruit identifies the tree. Those who continue sinning have not been grafted into or are not abiding in the tree of righteousness, Jesus.

7 Little children, don't let anyone deceive you. The person who

practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Do not be deceived by those who claim to be righteous, based on their good works. Righteousness is not achieved through good deeds; it is a standing or a position we enter into. We are made righteous. God imparts righteousness to us as a gift as we enter into Christ and abide in Him. A righteous person no longer has a sin debt but has received God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation. A gift can not be earned by good deeds, just received.

8 The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy the works of the devil.

The devil is called the father of lies in John 8:44 and Jesus tells a group of Pharisees that they belong to their father, the devil. Everyone has inherited the curse of sin by being born into this sin cursed world. Satan is called the father of lies and sin because he was the one who first sowed the seed into the earth. Once sin got rooted into mankind it was passed on to us all.

Jesus, Son of God, and son of righteousness, was sent into this world to destroy what the Devil planted. Now we can have a new Father through receiving the cleansing of Jesus blood to wash away sin. It is the blood, and the cross, of Jesus that has power to destroy the works of the devil.

9 No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's

seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has

been born from God.

All who have come into God’s family through the blood of Christ cannot go on

sinning as if nothing happened. God’s seed, “The Word”, remains in him and will

continue to do a cleansing and purifying work. God is a good Father who loves

and corrects his kids. Hebrews 12:6 for whom the Lord loves He

chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives."

10 In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the

Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God, also he

who does not love his brother.

Verse 10 seems to sum up what John has been saying in a nutshell.

God’s children are distinguished from the devil’s by their love one for another and their righteous standing, which produces good works. The father of lies has some offspring that try to appear as children of God. They have to strive at good works and fake their claim of God as their father, like the Pharisees who could not love the Son of God, yet claimed God as Father. No child of God can hate those who are born of Him.

A prophetic word given by Nancy Horne at SRC

Sunday 2/10/08 am service.

During the worship before the offering, there was an anointing of majesty and royalty that came while DJ was playing the keyboard and my spirit was tuned into it. It was so glorious and beautiful and I wanted to hear more of this majestic playing and I sensed the glory the majesty and the royalty of the Father and the whole Kingdom of God coming into this place. Then I saw in the spirit a row of stair steps and at the bottom was this little white square. And I said Lord what is that? And He said my people are just at square one of what I want to show them about my royalty, the wealth of my kingdom that I want to give to my children. If you will soak in my presence and allow me to pour into you the knowledge of who you are adopted into, the wealth that is yours so that I can open your eyes to see that this truly is yours, the riches of the kingdom are yours and when you can receive your place in my Kingdom of all that belongs to you because you are joint heirs with my Son, then I will break off the poverty spirit and be able to give you what I long to give you, the wealth that belongs to you. And the Lord says it is the time to turn over the wealth of the wicked over into the hands of the righteous, says the Lord.

A few thoughts on this word.

God is allowing us to sense His majesty, royalty and His awesome presence now as a taste of what is available to us. Let us not be satisfied with a taste but let us go after the full meal so to speak. We are at square one at the lowest step on the stairway and God wants us to come up higher in our knowledge and understanding of what He has to give us. He wants us to understand what the wealth of our inheritance in His Kingdom is.

God wants to turn over to the righteous the wealth of the wicked but He can only do that when we are ready and able to receive it and handle it. The poverty mentality is not only in regard to material wealth but possibly refers foremost to the wealth and riches of wisdom and the understanding of God and His Kingdom. When we are able to receive and take our place in His Kingdom as a joint heir with Jesus then that poverty spirit or mentality will be broken allowing us to receive the inheritance our Father so longs to give us.

There is probably nothing that can keep us from moving higher more than to assume we are already there. That little white square at the lowest step marked our position. I didn’t take that to mean we have made no progress in our walk with God to this point but that we are at a place in our journey where up is our only choice if we want to proceed. What He has in store for us will not be attained at our present level of understanding God and His glorious Kingdom.

1 John 2: 18-27

18: Little children, it is the last time. And just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, from which we know that it is the last hour.

John addresses those who had knowledge of the coming antichrist, the man of sin spoken of by Paul in 2^nd Thessalonians 2. It is possible their focus was on the one to come while overlooking, or not recognizing, the many antichrists already among them. The many antichrists were a sign of the times, revealing the lateness of the hour. Jesus warned that many false teachers and prophets would come and deceive many, claiming to be anointed of Him.

19: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out so that it might be revealed that they were not all of us.

To this point in his epistle John has been showing the incompatibility of light with darkness, love with hatred, truth with lies, and sin with righteousness. Now he seems to get right down to where the rubber meets the road: those who are not having intimate fellowship with the Father and the Son, while claiming to, will not remain for long in fellowship with those who are. The darkness will have to flee from the light.

20: But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.

The word antichrist means: opponent of the Messiah. It can also mean false Christ, or a substitute Christ. Christ is the anointed one of God but there is a false ministry anointing from antichrist. The bible speaks of false teachers and prophets, false brothers, and wolves in sheep’s clothing, but the anointing we have from the Holy One will give us discernment to know the true from the false.

When we surrender to Christ and make him Lord, we receive His anointing, the Holy Spirit is poured upon us and He lives in us. He becomes our teacher and leads us into all truth so that we can know Christ intimately. John seems to be saying that those who went out from their fellowship had a false anointing from antichrist and were led to deny the truth, but those who had an anointing from the Holy One remained, were teachable and knew the truth.

The anointing is always poured upon the head and runs down upon the rest of the body. Christ Jesus is the head of the body and we receive His anointing from being in fellowship with Him and His body the church. Where there is a lack of unity in the church, there is a disjointed body and lack of anointing, but where there is true, intimate fellowship with the head (Christ) and His body (the church), the false anointing (antichrist) will not remain with the true.

21: I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and know that no lie is of the truth.

John is not addressing his letter to those who are under the influence of antichrist, but to those who can bear witness with the truth. John is writing under the influence, or in the anointing, of the Holy One; therefore, those who also have that same anointing (teacher), will bear witness with what he is saying.

22: Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He who denies the Father and the Son is antichrist.

A lie is opposed to the truth just as antichrist is opposed to Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is opposed to Christ. John previously spoke of those who claimed to love God yet hated their brother, calling them liars. Those who practice sin, yet claim to have no sin, are liars and have come under the influence of the spirit of antichrist, because they have denied the power of Christ to cleanse them from all sin. It is the anointing that breaks the yoke of sin and these have not come under, or submitted to, the true anointing.

23: Everyone who denies the Son neither has the Father. The one confessing the Son also has the Father.

The Father and the Son are one; therefore, we can not claim God as Father and be opposed to Christ Jesus the Son. The Pharisees claimed God and Abraham as their father yet they opposed Christ. Their father was identified by their actions: they continually looked for an opportunity to kill Jesus. Their father was the devil, a murderer from the beginning. No one can oppose the Son and claim God as their Father.

24: Therefore, what you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will abide in both the Son and in the Father.

Jesus said many would come claiming to be Christs, or anointed ones, and would deceive many. False teachers would also deceive and lead astray many from the faith. John is saying to hold on to the teaching received from the beginning and not to be led astray from the doctrines of the apostles. Those who follow after false teachers will be turned away from the truth and become fruitless vines, whose end is to be cut off. (See John 15: 5&6)

25: And this is the promise that He has promised us: everlasting life.

This is not just a matter of believing or adhering to sound doctrine, this is a matter of life or death, a matter of eternity. The devil is not just playing with smoke and mirrors for entertainment: he is a cold blooded killer. He wants to populate hell with rebels who oppose God’s anointed one.

26: These things I have written to you concerning those leading you astray.

Those under the influence of antichrist are used by Satan to draw away, or beguile, those who are immature in Christ. This epistle exposes the tactics of the enemy and gives believers a tool to test, and know, the false from the true.

27: But the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and no lie, and as He has taught you, abide in Him.

Continuing his thought from the previous verse, John again points to the anointing as a teacher that will confirm that which is true. He is not saying we do not need teachers in the body of Christ, but that what ever we hear from man must bear witness with the word that was from the beginning and confirmed by the anointing in us. We cannot just rely on the anointing that may be on the one teaching: we must have that inner witness because there is a false anointing sent out to mislead God’s people.

The sheep most easily captured by the enemy are those who are not close to the flock, but may have wandered after something that appeals to the eye, the flesh, or to pride. The things that are not of the Father, but of the world, are used to lure us into dangerous territory by false teachers and draw us away from the truth. They oppose, or are opposite, to Christ in that they promise greatness and gain rather than promoting humility and servant hood.

28: And now, little children, abide in Him, so when He is revealed, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him in His coming.

In a sense, this verse summarizes everything up to this point. Abiding in Him requires that we love God and not the things of the world; that, if we confess our sins, we can be forgiven. We must walk in the light, as He is in the light, in fellowship one with another and listening to the anointing we have from Him. This will keep us from the deception of the spirit of antichrist. Then we will not be ashamed but have confidence that we are ready to meet Him face to face when He returns for His church.