Children of the Devil?

What if the world we live in is actively pulling us away from God's truth? This episode of "Living God's Way in an Ungodly World" offers a powerful exploration of 1 John 3:10-15, where I dissect the stark contrasts between the children of God and the children of the devil. I emphasize the non-negotiable need to practice righteousness and extend love to fellow believers, reinforcing that there is no spiritual middle ground—you are either with God or against Him. If you haven't accepted Jesus as your Savior yet, this episode could be a pivotal moment in your spiritual journey, urging you to make that life-altering decision today.

In the chapter "Love and Righteousness," I delve into the foundational Christian principle of love, remembering Jesus' teachings to love God and our neighbors. Through the biblical story of Cain and Abel, I illustrate the importance of offering our best to God and the catastrophic results of letting negative emotions control us. Abel’s righteousness contrasted with Cain’s jealousy and anger serves as a timeless lesson for us all. Finally, I provide insights on how to stand firm in your faith even when faced with worldly hatred, much like Jesus did. Join me for a compelling discussion that challenges and equips you to walk faithfully in an often opposing world.

Chapters

• 0:29 Living God's Way in Ungodly World
• 9:24 Love and Righteousness

Transcript

B.R.Maul: 0:29

Hello and good day. I am BR Maul and this is Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. It's nice to have you here with me. Today. We are continuing our study in the book of 1 John. We're in chapter 3, and I'll be reading verses 10 through 15, so if you want to open up your Bible, as you are doing that, I hope all is going well for you.

B.R.Maul: 0:58

My brothers and sisters in the Lord, our walk with Christ is the most important thing. Of course, our destination to start Christ is the most important thing. Of course our destination to start with is the most important. Are we going to heaven or are we going to hell? If you are born again the Bible way, that is, you have confessed with your mouth the Lord Jesus and with your heart believe that the Heavenly Father has raised him from the grave, you are indeed a child of God. If you haven't done that yet, then you've yet to step over that threshold into God's family. I encourage you to do that. After all, it is not our church membership that gets us into heaven. It is not our works. No matter how good we may feel we are, no matter how much money we give or time we dedicate to other people. It really nothing of that matters if you are not born again, because your destination is still hell. So my prayer is that, for those of you who are not born again, that you would do it today. Don't wait. Time is short, time is ticking.

B.R.Maul: 2:13

Here on this podcast, we focus on walking with the Lord, because in today's world, things continue to unravel faster and faster and they move faster and faster. So all the more important that we take the time to stay in God's Word, to stay close to our Lord and Savior with prayer and supplication, that we come together with brothers and sisters in the faith so we continue to grow and we pray with one another so we may be healed. And, of course, we worship him. We are built to worship, and if you're not worshiping Yahweh, if you are not worshiping the God of peace, the God of light, the God of love, the God of righteousness, well then you are worshiping someone or something else. And that's a conversation for another day.

B.R.Maul: 3:08

And, of course, everyone is welcome to get a hold of me at my website, brmaul, that's brmallcom. Just go ahead and click on contact. I invite you to send me a message. I'd be happy to discuss any questions you may have, or maybe you disagree with something that I am teaching. Well, let it be known that I am only teaching from the Bible. I don't have works from others that I teach from. I don't have my own works, my own agenda. This is only from God's Word. But I'm happy to discuss that with you because I myself continue to be a disciple of Jesus. So with that, let me jump right in Today's reading.

B.R.Maul: 3:53

1 John, chapter 3, verses 10 through 15. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Here ends the reading. Heavenly Father, please open up the hearts of those that are listening. Let them hear your word. May they feel the tug of the Holy Spirit if they are not born again, lord.

B.R.Maul: 5:09

So let me back up. Take a look at verse 10. So John tells us in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. What is manifest? If something is manifest, then it's something that we can perceive. Then it's something that we can perceive, we can see or understand it with our senses, and often it is the sense of sight. So often something that is manifest, we correlate with being able to see it. What John is saying is, in this the children of God and the children of the. And what is that he says? So those are the two areas that John wants us to look at and focus on those who do not practice righteousness and those who do not love his brothers and sisters in the faith.

B.R.Maul: 6:38

Let me just make a side note here, because John does say in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. He's saying that if you practice righteousness and if you love your brothers and sisters in the faith, you are of God. If you do not practice righteousness, so lawlessness and you do not have love for the children of God, then you are a child of the devil. It's important to know here that there is no other choice. There is no third option. John makes it very clear that we are in one arena or the other. So know this you are either a child of God or you are a child of the devil. Yes, that can be difficult to hear and I'm sure many are even saying well, that's just unbelievable, because I know people who are not a Christian, but they are certainly not a child of the devil and I hate to say it, but that would be incorrect, because Jesus even said that you are either with me or against me. So there is no middle ground.

B.R.Maul: 7:55

And if we are not following God, if we are not following Jesus Christ as our Savior, if we are following any other religion out there, if we are following a different person, or, for those who are convinced they're not following anyone because they don't believe in any higher power, which in and of itself is a religion, again for another time. But atheism is a religion either way, it is of the devil, because everything that is not of God on this planet earth is of the devil. I know that can sting, but it's the truth. I'm not one to sit and talk around circles and give you a whole bunch of fluff so you can feel good about yourself. The Lord has put it on my heart that I speak the truth, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much it stings and no matter how many people dislike my message. But it's not my message, I'm just the messenger. So that's how we can tell Child of God practices righteousness, john says. And a child of the devil does not practice righteousness, will take things into their own hand. Maybe the rules don't apply to me. It applies to the common people in life. Or I don't like that law, I don't like that rule, so I'm just not going to follow it.

B.R.Maul: 9:24

And then also the love. That's very important Love. We hear that a lot in God's Word. After all, jesus made it all the easier for those of us who are following him, those of us who want to glorify his name. He said love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and all your soul, with all your might, and love your neighbor as yourself. And that fulfills the entire law. Love, john goes on in verse 11,.

B.R.Maul: 9:57

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. It's not a new message. We see love from the beginning of the Bible to the end, from Genesis to Revelation and everything in between. Love is a common string that continues to be thread through God's Word that ties everyone and everything together. It is the love of Jesus Christ that saves us of our sins. It is the grace and the love of God that gives us the ability to love Jesus and to follow him, and it is the one thing that it is our will to either keep for ourself or give to God, and that is our love. So John says this is not a new message.

B.R.Maul: 10:49

But it's interesting because John does add something in addition to kind of clarify this. Because he says in verse 11, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, verse 12, he adds not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. Interesting, isn't it? So, instead of showing us an example of who it should be like that we love, he says not as Cain, that Cain was of the wicked one, of Satan, and Satan is the father of lies, the father of hate. So not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. We cannot murder, right? We can't run around and just killing people because they make us angry. And just killing people because they make us angry, or it's unfair, or they got something that I want and so I'm going to just go take their life away. We can't do that. So John goes on a little more to help us out. He says and why did he murder him? That's a rhetorical question, because he answers it right away.

B.R.Maul: 12:04

John says because his works, that's Cain's works, were evil and his brothers righteous. Well, there you have it. Abel was righteous before the Lord, if you recall the story of Cain and Abel, cain being the firstborn of Adam and Eve being the firstborn of Adam and Eve, but Cain, right from the get-go we can see, just sort of had a bad attitude, wanted to do his own thing, his own way. And we see that in a couple of the verses in Genesis, genesis, chapter 4, verse 2. Now, abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of Verse 2. So in that few verses there, what we see right away then is that yes, cain wants to do things his way.

B.R.Maul: 13:28

It says Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Now, several things. First of all, it doesn't mention the first fruit, it just says an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Now Abel, he brought the best of the best. He brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

B.R.Maul: 13:53

Now I've heard this taught two different ways, that what Cain did wrong was the fact that he just didn't bring the best of what he had. But I've also heard it taught that it wasn't blood, and I don't know if that's the case, because the first sacrifice was God himself, when he had to kill animals, to put the skins of these animals on Adam and Eve after they sinned. And in verse 3 in the Genesis 4, it says and in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. So I don't know that for sure, but either way, that's not what this teaching is about. I just want to show the very fact that Cain, right from the get-go, did not bring the best of what he had. So whether it was he just didn't bother bringing an animal sacrifice, that I don't know. It seems to fit more that it was just he didn't bring the best of what he had because he was a tiller of the ground. So he planted and grew crops.

B.R.Maul: 15:00

Where Abel was a shepherd, he had sheep. That's why Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. He brought the best of the best and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell More proof that once again he wanted to do things his way and he was just upset because God didn't accept it. Now what's interesting is Cain, if he would have just been repentant and apologized, said Lord, I'm sorry, please forgive me, and then turned and remedied the situation, all would have been fine. But Cain allowed his flesh, his heart, his anger to take over, and he followed that instead and became bitter and angry at God. As the story goes on, cain ends up killing. He was the first one to murder his brother, abel. Abel was the first martyr, so rather unfortunate. But that is why he murdered his brother, because he was jealous. He, cain, was not righteous, and so he decided to take the life of someone who is righteous.

B.R.Maul: 16:19

John goes on in verse 13, do not marvel my brethren, if the world hates you. Interesting advice, isn't it? He's saying don't be shocked if the world hates you Because the world hated Jesus. Jesus already made it clear to us that the world will also hate us. And the world, if we are showing our true colors as born-again believers of Jesus Christ, will hate us because we will not go with the flow of the world. We will not live that way. We know better and that's why Jesus, who spoke the truth, was crucified, and was crucified by the very people who should have known him, who should have recognized him from the scriptures as the Messiah. But that goes to show us how the human heart can hold such animosity and hatred for that which is good, unless that human heart has the Holy Spirit.

B.R.Maul: 17:28

Verse 14, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. So now he's reminding us about how to identify, as he said earlier, whether we are a child of God or a child of the devil. So he's reminding us. We know that we have passed from death to life. We know that we have passed from death to life death being born into this world physically, but death spiritually. But then we pass from death to life being born again, so spiritually being born again. And we can know that because we love the brethren, our family in God, our brothers and sisters in the faith. That's why, when I speak teaching in this podcast, I use the terminology my brothers and sisters in Christ, because that's what you are. If you're born again because you passed from death, being dead to God, to life when your spirit was born, which means you were born again, because you were already born physically and then you became born spiritually, so you were born again.

B.R.Maul: 18:44

The second part of 14, he who does not love his brother abides in death. That means the person who isn't born again is still dead to God because there's no love in him and we need the Holy Spirit to be able to love others. We need the Holy Spirit to be able to love God, but it is by the very grace of God, through faith, that we are able to come to him and to be born again. So a person who does not have the love for other people, and especially children of God, they're not born again and John says they abide in death. I've heard some preachers call it the walking dead. The thought is truly horrible. Despite how often movies have come about with the walking dead, this is for real. Somebody who abides in death. They're physically walking around, they are physically eating, they are breathing, they are working and they are loving, but only on the level of the world.

B.R.Maul: 19:56

That's that phileo love or the brotherly love, but it's not agape love. And agape love is what he's talking about here. Agape love is not selfish in any way. There's no connection to it. There's no. I'm loving you because I'm getting this, and if you stop giving me this, whatever that is, well then I'm not going to love you anymore. That's more the love of the flesh. That's the love of lust and that ebbs and flows. That can come and go. During the holiday times and Christmas time, people, suddenly love is in the air more. People are so easy to forgive and forget for that time of season because people are being more loving. Or Valentine's Day, for those countries who celebrate that, and love is in the air again. But that's a different kind of love Now. That's a lustful love and again, that comes and goes, depending on what a person gets in return. This here is that agape love.

B.R.Maul: 21:00

It's important that we are able to love people. We love because we choose to love and we can choose to love others when we have the Holy Spirit in us. So verse 14, we know that we have passed from death to life being born again. Because we love the brethren, we love the children of God, because we ourselves are a child of God. He who does not love his brother abides in death. They are still hell bound because they have not been born again.

B.R.Maul: 21:35

And then John verse 15, says Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Those who can break God's commandments, such as thou, shall not murder and just keep on going that way, well then, eternal life is not in them. They are not born again. But interestingly enough, john reminds us of something that Jesus said.

B.R.Maul: 22:05

Do you remember Jesus, when he was talking about the Ten Commandments? And by breaking one of them, we break all of them. And of course, there were those thinking well, you know, hey, I never murdered anybody. But he said, however, if you have even hated somebody, you are so angry at them that that is equivalent to physical murder because in your heart you have killed them. Powerful, very powerful. So John is reminding us about that Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. A good reminder, because we can do damage in our hearts to other people If we let our emotions get the best of us, then our words or the look that we give them, or the absence of any love or the absence of any help, whatever it might be that we do because we allow hate into our heart is murdering them. So John makes that reminder to us, and that's a reminder that we should appreciate, because it is from Jesus Christ, our Savior. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

B.R.Maul: 23:26

If you have hate, if you are one who's holding on to that, you are harboring hate in your heart. Then I suggest that you take the time and you pray to the Lord. If you believe yourself to be born again, ask for forgiveness and turn away from that hate and leave that hate as you look to God. Leave that hatred at the foot of the cross or at the feet of Jesus. Don't take that hate with you. And if you're not born again, well, that hatred is probably impossible to get rid of, because until we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, beloved, we are slave to our sin. We may be able to cover it up for a short time, but we are a slave to our sin. So then, pray to God, confess the Lord Jesus as Lord of your life and your Savior, and you need to believe in your heart, not your mind, but truly believe that the blood of Christ has washed away your sins, because the Heavenly Father raised him from the grave and he, jesus, has overcome death. And then leave that hatred at the feet of Jesus. That's about it for today. Thank you so much for joining me.

B.R.Maul: 24:46

Remember to keep on reading God's Word. Talking to a good friend of mine, he and I had coffee again today and we continued to remind each other about how important it is for those around us to continue to read God's Word. So we reach out and tell people that, because we want everybody who is walking with the Lord to continue to grow in their faith. Because look around you as this world continues to crumble and fall down. If you are not in God's Word, you will not know the truth and you will be deceived. You will be caught up in all the chaos and evil that is in the world today.

B.R.Maul: 25:28

So being born again isn't enough. It's enough to get you into eternity, but it's not enough to survive here and now. So that is, your greatest weapon is opening up God's Word. Communicate with Him. Pray to Him, ask Him for guidance. He will guide you. He will grant you that wisdom and understanding of His Word. You will become stronger spiritually. Get with brothers and sisters. Pray with one another so you may be healed. Lift each other up and worship the Lord, because he is so worthy of our worship. He loves us so much. And until next time, god bless. Thank you.