1st John, 1st John. We'll be reading the small portion
in chapter 4, but we'll be starting chapter 5. Tonight is where our
lesson will be. And we will see tonight that
the Apostle Paul brings forth that faith in Christ and love
for the brethren are intertwined. They're intertwined. They're
interwoven. You will not find one without
the other. And we know that that's been
a theme that the Apostle John has been bringing forth through
this book. Loving the brethren. And the
fact that Christ alone is the Messiah. And those who are born again
by the Holy Spirit of God will have a genuine love for Christ
and there have a genuine love for God's people. And chapter 5 brings forth that
those people are those who are begotten of God, born again by
the Holy Spirit of God. We know from chapter 4 that God
loved us first before we loved Him. That's where we'll be starting
tonight, but we know that's a fact. that the scriptures declare that,
that we love him only because he first loved us. And there's no getting around
that. Because in our natural state,
there's none that love God, none, no one, no one. But when we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, we have a love for Christ and
we have a love for his people. And it's made known to us the
fact that God loved us before we ever loved him. We know, as the people of God,
that regeneration always precedes faith. And faith and repentance
is a gift from God. We looked at that on the weekend.
It's a gift of God. It's a fruit of the Spirit, beloved.
It's a work of the Holy Spirit of God. And we've seen in our studies
in the past in this book that the love we have for God and
for his people is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.
It's the love of God shed abroad in our heart. It's a fruit of
the Holy Spirit of God. Keep your finger in 1 John there,
but turn to Galatians real quick. Galatians chapter 5. We're going
to look just quickly again what the fruit of the Spirit is. What
the fruit of the Spirit is. Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Look at verses 22 and 23. And this is the fruit of the
Spirit. So this is what the Holy Spirit
works in us, okay? We cannot muster this up. This
is a work of God. This is a work of God in us as
a result of being born again. But the fruit of the Spirit,
notice the capital S, it's His work, is love, love for God,
We know from our study, in love for the brethren. Love, love,
true love, genuine love. Joy, happy in the fact that the
Lord has saved us. Peace, all peace with God. Long-suffering
with people. We're not short-tempered with
people. We don't fire off on people. We're short-tempered. We're long-suffering with people.
Long-suffering. Gentleness. We're gentle with
each other. Goodness. Kind to one another. Faith. We see there that love and faith
are both fruits of the spirit. My. Meekness. Quiet strength. Quiet strength. Temperance. Against such there
is no law. So that's the fruit of the Spirit.
So we see there that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance is all the fruit of
the Holy Spirit of God. So with those truths in our mind,
let's go back to 1 John. With those truths of Galatians
5, 22 and 23 concerning the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God worked
in us. Let's read our text tonight.
We'll read from verses 19 and chapter 4. to verse five in chapter five. The Apostle John pens in verse
19, we love him, being God, because he first loved us. The man say
I love God and hated his brother, he's a liar. No matter what he says, no matter
what his testimony may If a man says he loves God and hates his
brother, he's a liar. Very clear. For he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen? In this commandment we have from
him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. Now verse
one continues the same vein. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him
that begot loveth him also that is begotten him. So he's just
reemphasizing what he said all through this book. By this we
know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. They're not grievous. The Word of God's not grievous
to God's people. We rejoice in it. We rejoice. We rejoice when we read it. We
rejoice when we hear it preached and proclaimed. We never get
tired of hearing the Gospel. Just preach me the Gospel every
single time. I'm content. It's one of God's sheep. Right?
That's how we are. Just preach Christ to me. And
it's not grievous to us. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? We're seeing this last chapter
of 1 John, that the object of God-given faith is the Lord Jesus
Christ. We see that presented very clearly
to us in this chapter. the object of God-given faith,
not man's mustard faith, but God-given faith, the object of
the true believer's faith is Christ and Christ alone. And
we see that those who are born again by God the Holy Spirit
and love God and love the brethren are those who he's regenerated. We see that in verse one. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone
that loveth him that begot loveth him also that is begotten of
him. We know that a person believes
that the Lord Jesus is the Christ because he's born again. And this is clearly brought forth
in the first chapter of John, who wrote the same epistle, when
John, he wrote this in his gospel. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
being Christ, to them gave he. Christ gave them the power to
what? Gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. That's just a short way of saying
salvations of the Lord. And then he went on to say, in
case people get confused, because oftentimes people like to muddy
the waters. It seems like they muddy the
waters a lot in scripture, unfortunately, to their own destruction. But
John goes on to say in verse 13, which were born not of blood,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
That ties right in with our verse tonight in 1 John. Again, let's read it again. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Born again, born
of God. Note those words, born of God.
Not born of a decision. Not born because some false preacher
told you, well, now you're saved and you're part of the family
of God. Born of God. To them gave He
the power to become the Son's God. And don't overlook the mercy
that is shown in this verse to God's people. Born of God. Born of God. Just as natural life precedes
all aspects of natural existence, so also spiritual life precedes
all aspects of spiritual existence. Therefore, we conclude that faith
is the evidence of regeneration. You must be born again. And in
faith, which we know is a gift, which we saw as a fruit of the
Spirit, right? Which we know from Ephesians
2 is given to us. You know that. You always compare
scripture with scripture. Faith is the evidence of regeneration. Listen to these words. Jesus
answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. Man or woman cannot see the kingdom of God unless you're
born again. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Natural man's response,
right? That's a natural man's response,
right there. The Lord's talking about spiritual
things, about heavenly things, and Nicodemus is thinking about
earthly things. Jesus answered, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
capital S, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit, capital Spirit, is spirit. He must be born again. Jonathan
Edwards was tossed out of his church, the first church he pastored
at, because he demanded a regenerated membership. He demanded, he wanted people
that were going to partake of the Lord's Supper, that they
were born again. Well, that's what even we do. You must be born again, eh? You
must be born again. Otherwise, you eat and drink
damnation to yourself taking the table. No, you must be born
again. Paul wrote that over there in
Corinthians. Oh my. Marvel not, our Lord continues,
that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. But the key verse two, one of
the key verses there in John chapter three, verse six, is
that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. The flesh can never produce anything
spiritual. Right, never. So the fruit of
the spirit that we looked at in Galatians can never be produced
by the flesh. Only by the spirit. My, does
that not make your heart sing? When we, and see, remember, we're
told in scriptures to examine ourselves, right? And examine
ourselves whether we be in the faith, right? My. The believer has a love for God
that he didn't have before, she didn't have before. The believer
has a love for the brethren that they didn't have before. The
believer has a love for Christ and his gospel that they didn't
have before. The believer has faith in Christ through all the
trials and tribulations of life that they never had before. It's
wonderful, isn't it? And then when we consider the
great white judgment, when all will stand before God and we
know that God's people are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, And when we consider all the
multitude that will be, oh my, that will perish in the
second death, will be cast into the lake of fire, we know it's
only the mercy of God that we're not there. It's only the mercy
of God, beloved. It's only the mercy of God. Our master brought forth that
when we're born, The first time we receive from our parents their
nature. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, John 3, 6. So when we're born again, we
receive from God his nature. We're born again, the Holy Spirit. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Wonderful. Very simple, though, isn't it?
But people muddy it up so badly, so badly. But it's wonderful
to the Lord's people. The Spirit of God begats within
us a spiritual nature by His divine power. Therefore, that
which is born of man is human, earthly, and that which is born
of God is divine and spiritual from above and from God. That's
why we have the war we have in our flesh. That's why we battle
our flesh. Because we have a new nature
now. We have a new nature within us. And we saw when we looked in
Galatians that faith and love are fruits of the Holy Spirit.
They're fruit that he works in us. And our faith is given to
us. It's a fruit of the Spirit. And
we will see as we look through this chapter again that the faith
that God's people are given, the God-given faith that's given
to God's people has one object. And that's Christ. He's the one
object we look to. We don't look to other things.
No. We don't look to ourselves because,
boy, we'd be sore on, won't we, all the time. No, we look to
Him. We look to our Savior. And that's
what gospel preachers do. We point you to Christ. Look
to Him. So faith is centered in the singular
in its aspect, because faith looks to Christ alone. And God-given
faith, which the scripture claims, again, is a gift from God, believes
Christ. We believe him. We believe what
he says in the scripture. We believe him. We believe what
God says in this book. We believe it. This is the word
of God. We believe that. And it's wondrous. And it's a mind full of vast
glories of Christ, because it speaks of Him, beloved. It speaks
of Him. And so the believer believes
Christ. We believe what God says in the scripture. And faith,
which is centered upon Christ, does not consider itself, as
I said earlier, because we have no confidence in the flesh. It
only looks outward to Christ. It only looks outward to Christ.
And we look to Him, beloved, during all circumstances, don't
we, in situations. We just keep looking to Him.
Now, there may be time when we forget, you know, we do, we get
caught up in situations and, oh, we get our eyes off Christ,
but He has a peculiar way of bringing His people to look back
right at Him, doesn't He? It's like He's that little crook
in that staff, just gently guides us back. You know, He doesn't,
you know, We have a great God. We have a wonderful shepherd,
beloved. We have an absolutely wonderful shepherd. So in times
of happiness, in times of sorrow, when disaster strikes, it's the
Lord who gets us through those times, beloved. It's Him who
gets us through those times. And again, he's the object of
our faith. He's the one we rest in. He's the one we trust in.
We don't trust in our faith, do we? We trust in the one who's
the object of our faith, Christ, in him crucified. Many say my faith got me through
this situation. You ever hear that? You hear
that a lot in religion. My faith got me through this
situation. But God's born again saints, we possess God-given
faith. And that faith is fixed on Christ
and we say our Lord got us through that situation. He got us through
that. He's the one. He did it all. Oh my. It's fixed on Him. And it's fixed on Him. Our faith
is fixed on Him so He receives all the glory. And all the honor
and all the praise. Let's read verse one again of
1 John 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begot loveth him also that is begotten of him. So God's
born-again people, we believe. Remember that Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness? He believed
God. He believed what God said, didn't he? Turn, if you would,
to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. And everyone
who has faith believes God concerning what? Concerning His testimony
of Christ. We believe God concerning His
testimony of Christ. We believe God concerning His
testimony of Christ. We just trust Him. We just rest
in Him. He's our great God. Genesis chapter
15. And verses 1 to 6. We know that He's the only means
of our salvation, don't we? We know that. We know there's
salvation in no other. We've been showing our desperate
need for Christ. And then the balm of Gilead's
been showing us, which is Christ and Him alone. Look at this. After these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not.
I love those two words. We're going to do a study on
those two words. Fear not. I know I already did one, but
we could examine that whole section in just those two words, fear
not. It's incredible how many times that comes across in scripture. Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield
and thy exceeding reward. Remember who's saying this to
him? Jehovah. Jehovah's saying this to him. And Abraham said,
Lord God, What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and
the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?' And Abraham
said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born
in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the
Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but
he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be
thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad,
and said, said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if
thou be able to number them. And he said unto them, unto him,
so shall I seed be. And he believed God, right? Look at that. And he believed
in the Lord and he counted to him for righteousness. Now turn
to Galatians real quick, just Galatians. Galatians chapter
three. Galatians chapter three. We'll read verses 1 to 9, and
then we'll read verses 28 and 29. Look at this. Look at this. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, the gospel,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you? Paul preached Christ and Him
crucified. He set him forth before his ears. This only would I learn
of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith. Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the
flesh? So he says, you're born again of the Holy Spirit, but
are you now made perfect by something you do? Absolutely not, right? Absolutely not. This is what
he, now there's been people who crept in and told him, you must
be circumcised to be saved. Mixing the law and grace, and
this is what Paul's combating here. Again. Are ye so foolish,
having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?
He, therefore, that ministereth to you in the Spirit, and worketh
miracles among you, doth he it by the works of the law, or by
the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Look at that.
Know ye, therefore, that they which are of the faith, the same
are the children of Abraham. The ones who the Lord said, look
and see the stars, they're innumerable. Look what it says there below. Abraham had the same faith you
and I have. In the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. That's us. So then, they which be of the
faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Now, with that in our
minds, look at verses 28 and 29, this same chapter. Look,
this is marvelous, beloved. This is absolutely marvelous.
We're spiritual Israel, beloved. God's people. Look, there is
neither Jew nor Greek. The middle wall petition's been
broken down, Ephesians says, right? There is neither bond
nor free. There's neither male nor female,
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. That means he's the head
and we're the body. Look at this though. And if ye
be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. Oh my goodness, hallelujah. Hallelujah. My oh my. Who's our Christ? All who are born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. in granted faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the heirs according
to the promise, beloved. That's what that's bringing forth.
That's what that's bringing forth. It's absolutely wonderful. Let's go back to our text then.
And take note in our text that the first portion deals with
regeneration, which means to be born again. That's what born of God means
you're regenerated of the Holy Spirit of God. Let's read that
verse again Whosoever believe it that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God. It's God's work in Everyone that
loveth him that begot loveth him also that is begotten of
him Now faith believes a report remember Isaiah said who had
believed our report And whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Faith believes the report, a report which comes from this book, of
who Christ is. Who Christ is. We believe that. Because again, who's the object
of our faith? Christ. See, it continually makes
a circle back to him. It all just circles right back
to Christ. Always, always, always. Look at verse Let's read verse
one again and then we'll read verses nine to 11 of the same
chapter. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him
that begot him loveth him also that is begotten of him. Look
what John brings forth here in verses nine to 11. If we receive
the witness of man, the witness of God is greater. What God testifies
about his son is greater than anything man says. That's what
that's saying. For this is the witness of God
which he hath testified of his son. He's testified of his son. He that believeth on the son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. You see that? Because God testifies
of who his son is. Look at that. Look what the scripture
says there. He that believeth on the son
of God hath the witness in himself. We're born again of the Holy
Spirit of God. and we believe what God says. But look, look
what it says here. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. My, oh my. Because they don't believe the
testimony that God says of his son. Because he believeth not
the record that God gave of his son. And this is the record that
God gave, that God hath given to us eternal life and this life
is in his son. Look at that. Now we know that
John dealt with false prophets in chapter 3, and here we see
in verse 1, let's go back to verse 1, we see that John makes
a distinction between the true Messiah, Christ, as opposed to
false messiahs, who also claim to be Christ. Now look what he
writes here in verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, singular, singular, he's the Christ, which means
he's the Messiah, It's not up. I was talking to Brother Billy
today. He said, Isn't it wonderful the word of God's not up for
debate? I said, Amen. It's not up for debate. We believe what
it says. And we proclaim what it says.
And there's no debate about it. No, no arguing about it. God
said it. And I'm not going to say that
saying, God said it, we believe it, and it's final. No, God said
it, it's final. Period. It's over. It's done. Take us out of the equation over
here. God said it, that's it. There's no argument, there's
no debate at all. None. Absolutely none. None. So when it says that Jesus
is the Christ, What's meant by Jesus as Christ
is he's the anointed. He's the Messiah, beloved. John's
proclaiming who he is. And God-given faith rests upon
Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. We believe, again, the
testimony that God has given of his Son. We believe it. And remember, the scripture says
that he's a prophet. We believe. Scripture says that
he's the priest. We believe it. And the scripture
says he's king. We believe it. We believe it. We believe what God says. And
in all three of those senses, he's the anointed one. Prophet,
priest, and king. He's the Messiah. He's the only
one who could fulfill all those offices. He's the sinless, spotless
lamb of God. sent by God, again we saw in
chapter 4, to be the propitiation for our sins. Hallelujah. What
a Savior. What a Savior. Jesus Christ is the one true
Messiah. He's the one true Messiah. And
those who are born again believe the report that God has given
of Him. We believe it. That's what we
saw further down there. In 1st John 5, didn't we? We
believe it. We believe it. And when He's preached, we rejoice. With joy unspeakable. And we
give Him all the glory and all the honor and all the praise.
So true saving faith believes what God has said concerning
His Son. Believes what the Scripture says. We don't argue with it.
We might not understand it all. Because we know we read the scriptures
sometimes and go, boy, I've read that 100 times and I never saw
that. But it's wonderful. But we believe
what the Word says. We believe it. And God's preachers,
we preach it. We just proclaim the Word of
God. What it says, not our opinion. What does the Word of God say? It says He's the Messiah. He's
the Christ. Says in this verse, he's the
Christ. Acts says this, to him gave all
the prophets witness to Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He's the one they all spoke of,
beloved. All the prophets gave witness to him. And we believe it. By God given
faith, we believe the report We believe the testimony that
God has given us through his word. He's the Messiah. To him gave all the prophets
witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. Praise God. Whosoever believeth
in him receives remission of sins. Oh, that means all our
sins are forgiven, beloved. All through him. And it's very
evident and clear that Christ and Him crucified was the distinguishing
message of the early church, and the reason that believers
were called Christians. Do you know that's why? The reason
why we were called Christians, early Christians were called
Christians? Is because of the distinguishing message? Turn,
if you would, to Acts. Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11. The early Christians
believed and declared that Jesus was the Christ. They declared
the same thing we declare, beloved. Jesus is the Christ. Listen to what's penned in Acts
2, verse 36. It says, therefore, let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. We don't
make him Lord. God made him Lord long before
we ever call him Lord. If someone says, just make them
lord of your life, just say, well God beat us all to that.
Oh my. Look at this though in Acts chapter
11. Look at this in verse 26. And when he had found them, he
brought them unto Antioch, and it came to pass that a whole
year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now the distinguishing message
of Christians was that Jesus is the Christ. Up to this point,
up to this point before Acts 11.26, the Christian religion
had just been looked upon as another sect of Judaism. They
just looked upon it as a sect of Judaism, just like the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. Just sects. Because most early believers
were Jews. But these converts in Antioch
here, they were not Jews. They were Gentiles. They were
Gentiles. They had no background in Judaism. They had no relationship to the
Mosaic laws. They lived as pagans. They lived
as pagans. They were idolaters. They were
engaged in idol worship and they lived godless and vile lifestyles. And it was among these people
that our great sovereign God was pleased to raise up a people
and regenerate them by the power of the Holy Spirit of God and
give them faith and repentance in Christ. Therefore, they became followers
of Christ. Now, think of this too. This
was not a name that they gave themselves. They didn't call
themselves this. As a matter of fact, they usually
called themselves followers of the way. followers of the way. No, this
was the name that the enemies of Christ gave them. The enemies of Christ gave them
this unto these professors, for they called them Nazarenes and
Galileans out of contempt. And we see that they. That our
sovereign God would have his people be called Christians. It all came about by the power
of God. And what does the name Christians
do? Well, it gives glory to Christ.
His name is even within what we're called Christians. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. John Gilbert thought that these
were their enemies who gave them these names. My. So let's read verse one. Knowing, knowing that God the
Son, God incarnate in the flesh is the one who has all power.
He's been given all power in heaven and earth. So let's read verse 1 over there
in 1 John 5 again, knowing that the first part of this verse
teaches us the result of regeneration, which is faith. Now let's consider
the second portion of this verse, which teaches us the results
of faith, which is, we love the brethren. Look at verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God, and every one that loveth him
that begot loveth him also that is begotten of him." Now we know
again that these two topics, John has been spending a lot
of time on it, they're a constant theme of this epistle. And the
fact that those who are loved by God love him because they're
born again, and those who love God also love the brethren. They
love those who are born again by our great God. So this verse
here before us is a statement of fact. It's not up for debate. It's not up for debate, beloved.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
And every one that loveth him that begot loveth him also that
is begotten of him. This is a statement of fact.
Again, it's not up for debate. Not at all. Not at all. And it
stands as an impenetrable fortress of God's gracious work for his
people and in his people. Because faith worketh by love. Now let's read verse 2. By this
we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and
keep His commandments. So John ties the second verse
in with the first, with the words, by this we know. By this we know. This refers to what he's declared
in verse 1, which is, by this we know that we love the children
of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. So he's
tied it right into the first verse. We know that we love God
because He first loved us. That's in 1 John 4, verse 19. And take note that no works on
our part are listed as evidence that we love God. Take note of
that in this verse. There's no mention of our works
listed as evidence that we love God, because we know by nature
we don't love God. But I'm still over there. Galatians 1st John chapter 5 verse 2 by
this we know that we love the children that we love the children
of God when we love God and keep his commandments so there's no
mention of our works no mention of our works no no mention of
our works is evidence that we love God only that we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ which we know again is a gift from
God is a gift from God Why do we love God? Why do we love God? Because he
first loved us. He first loved us because we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Now think, beloved, how
profound this statement is in light of the manifold proofs
and evidence that religion requires for its adherence, right? Man, they're always fruit inspecting
people, man. Always. But we see here very
clearly and plainly brought forth the believers evidence that he
loves the brethren is is the fact that he loves Christ. That
he loves Christ. And we see again and again, it
all comes back again. I said this earlier. It all makes
a circle back to he who is the object of our faith. The Lord
Jesus Christ. It always goes back to Him, beloved.
Always. Always. It says, by this we know that
we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.
In John 14, listen to these words, verses 22 to 24. Judas saith
unto him, not ascared, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest
thyself unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and
said unto him, if a man love me, listen to this, he will keep
my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him
and make our abode with him. Remember, we believe what God
says. That's basically what, that's
what that verse is saying, by this we know that we love the
children of God and we love God and keep his commandments. We
love his word. We love what his word says. We love him. The Lord went on to say, he that
loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. They don't believe on
him. They don't trust him. They don't
believe the testimony. That God has. Given us of his
son. And we saw there in first John
five that they therefore make God a liar. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but
the Father's which sent me. Oh my. So true love is when God
holds the supremacy in the preeminence, beloved. When he holds the supremacy
in the preeminence. Now natural man will never understand
that the Lord manifests himself to his people through his word.
The world acts by sight. Show me. Then I'll believe. Well, hope is the evidence of
things not seen, right? We trust Christ. We trust him
alone. We believe what God says. We've
been given faith by God to believe what he says and to look to Christ,
even though we've never seen him. But I'll tell you what, we'll
see him one day. Face to face. And so will they. but they'll see Him in judgment
if they die in their sins. But we'll see Him in glory. And
we'll see Him the minute we breathe our last, the second we breathe
our last breath. To be absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord. Praise God. Praise God. So we look to Christ and His
word. It's our only confidence in life and death, Christ and
Christ alone. We keep His words, we believe
His word, and we believe the words of Christ. And this is
the assurance that you keep his commandments. Do you believe
his words? Do you believe what he says? Amen. God's people do. God's people do. We believe what
he says. And it's not what you do. It
is that you believe Christ. That you believe Christ. Marvel
at the simplicity of the gospel. Marvel at the simplicity of the
gospel. Look to Christ and live. Marvel at the simplicity of the
gospel. God's people, by God's grace and mercy toward us, we
believe that Jesus is the Christ. He alone is our all in all. We
proclaim to the world this wonderful truth, that we are saved by the
grace of God in and through Christ alone. Acts 15, again, it says this,
verses 5 to 11. But there rose up a certain sect
of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to
circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
And the apostles and the elders came together for to consider
this matter. So there's some that said, well, they've got
to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Listen to what they say in reply.
And when there had been much disputing, and I imagine there
was a lot of disputing going on, because Paul preached Christ
and Christ alone, and so did the apostles. Listen to this. Peter rose up and said unto them,
Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made
choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth our hearts,
bearer of them witness, giveth them the Holy Ghost, even as
He did unto us. They're born again by the same
Spirit. And put no difference between
us and them. Remember, Jew and Gentile, no
difference in Christ. One, one in Christ. Purifying
their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe. Listen
to this testimony. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.
Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone. That's Acts chapter 15
verses 5 to 11. We believe. That through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, bring it right home for every
believer, every believer that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Right. We shall be saved even as they. My, it's wonderful. Let's read
verse three quick and then we're finished. For this is the love
of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. So the love of Christ will constrain us from sin. And
we see here in this wonderful verse, in verse three, that God's
commandments are not grievous. His word is not grievous to his
people. It's not grievous to us. We love it. We love it. We are motivated by what? Love.
Love for our Savior. Love to our great God. We're
motivated by knowing that God has loved us from eternity, which
we looked at a few weeks ago, with an everlasting love. Oh
my. Oh my, that just sets your heart
on fire. To know the truth of that. And under the law, the motivation
to keep the commandments lay in a thread of judgment lay in
the threat of judgment or the attainment of a reward. That's
what religion says. The motivation to keep the commandments
lay in the threat of judgment or the attainment of reward,
but it's not so for the born-again believer, because we know there's
therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. No,
we're motivated by love, beloved. We're motivated by love for our
great God. We're motivated by love for our
great Savior. And the born-again believer who's
been granted faith to look to Christ knows that God's love
is manifested to us by the fact that God sent His Son to be a
propitiation for our sins. And we are motivated by love.
Love to Christ, we desire to be obedient to Him, don't we?
And it's not grievous to us. We read this word and the words
are not grievous to us, they're honey to our soul, beloved. They're
absolute honey. See, religion just yokes people.
But the Word of God sets us free. Grace sets us free, beloved.
My. Listen to what our Lord said.
We're closed with these words. Come unto me. All ye that labor
and are heavy laden. And I'll give you rest. I'll
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. Praise God, what a Savior. Heavenly
Father, again we thank Thee for allowing us to be here tonight,
allowing us to look in Thy Word, and oh Lord, we thank You that
we're born again by Thy Holy Spirit, and that we believe,
Father, the testimony that You give of Your Son, in the word,
in your holy word. Oh my, we know there's so many
who do not believe and so many who do not see what we see, but
we know that the only one who's made us to differ is you, Lord.
It humbles us, it brings us low, but we glorify thy name. For
revealing these truths to us, we glorify thy name. For revealing
Christ to us, we glorify thy name. That we're born again by
thy Holy Spirit, and we glorify thy name, singing and praising
that salvation is of the Lord. Oh, may these truths fill our
hearts with joy this week, Lord. We love you only because you
first loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.