I John 3:11-16
To Really Live…We Die

Introduction
1. God wants me 24 hours of everyday!
2. Life is Presented in vss 11-15, to do so “I” must die in v. 16. In v. 16 we are given the “Cross
Principle”. How do I love? How do I really live? “I” die at the cross.
3. The philosophy of much of Christendom is SELF centered. Do something for me. Make me
happy. Make me rich. Make me successful.
4. In I John 3:11-16 you will never really live until you die. Are you willing to die?

Do you want to really live? Are you willing to die?
I. THE EVIDENCE OF DEATH 3:12, 13, 15
A. The Message 11
1. The old, sinful SELF is in us. The Christian cannot habitually practice sin, but from time
to time the old man will rear his ugly head and ugly heart.
2. We should love one another…BUT we don’t always. At that time you will not look like
Christ.
B. The Murder 12
1. Envy, anger, wrath, bitterness, resentment, hatred and murder are all part of the story of
Cain and Abel.
2. The story of Cain and Abel is found (Gen. 4:1-9) read.
*(Heb. 11:4) Abel’s offering was of faith. Faith is always based on God’s revelation.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Cain knew!
*God must have given definite instructions.
*Cain disobeyed God’s revealed will. He decided to worship his own way.
*Abel’s offering was accepted (fire may have fallen). Cain’s offering was rejected.
*Cain is presented as a worshipper. He is religious, but lost. Note the real test of love.
3. Cain was of the wicked one (12) (8)
*The Devil did not create Cain. Cain allowed Satan to control him so completely that
he slew Abel.
* Satan wants mankind to lose their freedom…to destroy them…and then damn them.
*Slew is literally, ‘cut his throat’.
4. Why?
*Because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous. What is evil? Evil is not
doing it God’s way.
*Whether born of God (2:29, 3:3) or not, it showed up in Cain’s unrighteousness.
*They killed Jesus…Envy, bitterness, pride, jealousy, retaliation, cover up, lies,
hypocrisy…do any of those sound familiar?
*Do you see any of the above in you?
C. The Marvel 13
Do not be surprised…
1.(John 15, 18, 19; 17:4)…hatred.
2.Stop marveling…when we do wrong we expect to suffer the consequences. Here they are wronged for doing right.
3.They are different. The world doesn’t want their sin to be exposed. “Everyone is doing it.”
4.Do you want the old you to show up? Let someone get on fire for Jesus Christ and you are not. Let the young believer get around an older Christian who has dried on the vine. “That won’t last.” “Just wait…” Whether it is jealousy, envy or it was true of their own experience who knows, but they are miserable and they want others to be just as miserable.
D. The Motivation 15
1. Hatred, bitterness destroys man’s worth created in them by God. (Mt. 21, 27)
2. Murder in the heart…a lack of love is evidence of spiritual death.
*The issue is not can a murderer become a Christian and possess eternal life.
*The murderer did not once have eternal life and then lose it. He never had eternal life.
*No Way!
3. Love and hatred do not go together. A Christian is born of God. (v. 10) He is a New
Creation. He has a New Nature. You cannot go on hating and resenting those in God’s
family.
*To say we love God and hate another is not compatible. (4:21)
*Some Christian you may not agree with (they may be wrong).
*“You don’t know what he or she did to me.” No one can make you hate or be bitter. You choose
to hate and be bitter.
*This is a fellow believer. You both knelt at the Cross!

Do you want to really live? Are you willing to die?
II. THE END OF DEATH 3:14
We don’t have to live like everyone else. Know is to know intuitively. You know as a fact!
We Know!
A.The Entrance To Life 14a
Let the world hate. We have passed (crossed over) from death to life.
1.You were dead in trespasses and sin. (Eph. 2:2,3)
2.He made you alive by way of a new creation, a new nature.
B.The Evidence of Life 14b
Because we love the brethren (others in God’s family).
1.If there is no love for those in God’s family. You are lost!
2.I am concerned with many who call themselves Christians, but do not enjoy being with and around other Christians.
3.The true believer will desire Christian fellowship. Christian love is marked by an unselfish caring for each other.
4.Something brand new has happened to a believer: New Father, New Family, New Fellowship…LOVE. There is nothing like it in the world!!

Do you want to really live? Are you willing to die?
III. THE ENJOYMENT OF DYING 3:11, 16
The Cross Principle is found in (Gal 2:20) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who
loved me and gave Himself for me. How can I live? “I” died…to live “I” must die!
A.Love Selflessly 11
1.(v. 11) This was the message from the beginning (Jesus, Apostles).
2.(John 13:24; John 15:12, 17)
B.Love Sacrificially 16
Perceive means, to know, to understand by experience.
1.How can we know or understand God’s love…by experience!
2.Jesus voluntarily laid down His life for us. (John 3:16)
3.Ought is to owe as an obligation (16b)
*Lay down is to lay aside like a garment.
*Lives the Greek word is pseuche (Mt. 10:29; 16:25) We get our word psychology. It is our SELF…our ego (Phil 2:5ff).
*I lay aside envy, pride, bitterness, jealousy, hypocrisy.
4. “I” die to my will, my way, my rights, my feelings. “I” bow at the foot of the cross!
*His will, His way, His rights are resurrected (Gal 2:20). It’s in dying that we really live!
5.If “I” won’t die you will be miserable. You will make others miserable. You will merely exist and not really live.

God is waiting for us to come to the end of our schemes, our plans, our failures and our fears.
Broken…We Surrender Absolutely.
I wait for Him to fill me, revitalize me to walk in newness of life.
We will never love or really live until we die!