Is there anybody here that doesn't
know that Kelsey had a baby? I think everybody knows that.
Alright. Kelsey had a baby. In case somebody
is watching that doesn't know that. Alright, 1 John chapter
5. As you can tell by the songs,
I was planning to preach on the Trinity out of this chapter,
but I just keep being drawn back to verse 2, and there's things
I talked with Brother Scott about Sunday that's been on my mind,
and so I want to preach from verse 2. 1 John 5, 2. By this we know that we love
the children of God. When we love God, we keep His
commandments. Now we know, we've seen this
and I don't want to spend a great deal of time in the introduction
but I do need to go over this for those that will hear this
for the first time. We know that John's not talking
about the Ten Commandments. We know he's not talking about
the commandments given at Mount Sinai because those, John says,
I mean Paul said, those commandments that were written and engraven
on stones are the ministration of death. They're the ministration
of condemnation. Contrary to what most believe,
it's not the law of Mount Sinai that's written on our heart in
the New Birth. It's the law of faith. It's a law of faith. So what does John mean when he
says we love God and keep His commandments? Well, there's a
lot of commandments of God throughout the New Testament especially
but even in the Old Testament. But these commandments are all
summed up right here in 1 John 3 verse 23. This is His commandment
that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ. That's what John's talking about
in our text. That's the commandment Christ
said is everlasting. Faith in Christ. Believe on my
son, the Lord said. Our Lord Jesus said, this is
the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Our Lord spoke from heaven on
the Mount of Transfiguration and he said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. That's a command. Hear him. In verse 1, John said
that we're brought to love God and to love our brethren by faith
in His Son. Look at verse 1 again. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that
loveth Him that begat. He says believing on Christ is
loving God. You see that? Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth
him that begat. Believing Christ is loving God. That's how we love God. We believe
on his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, and everyone
that loveth him that begat loveth him also that's begotten of him,
and we love our brethren the same way through faith in Christ. Then in verse 3, John tells us
again that he's speaking about faith in Christ. He says, for
this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and
his commandments are not grievous. The only commandments that are
not a burden to us is this, come unto me, that's a command, come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, that's
a commandment. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest unto your souls. That's the commandment
this night. Grievous, he's talking about
faith. And then to make it just abundantly clear that the commandment
that he speaks of is faith, he says in verse 4 and 5, Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who's he that overcometh
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Brethren, the doctrines and commandments
of men, you hear, you've heard these in churches and they're
telling sinners how to love one another and the doctrines of
men, the commandments of men. And they'll leave you doubting
and they'll leave you in bondage and they'll leave you thinking,
I don't really even love the children of God. If I've got
to reach this lofty thing they're telling me I've got to do and
all these different deeds I have to do to love my brethren, I
don't even really love my brethren. So John says, by this we know. By this we know that we love
the children of God. When we love God, how do you
love God? You believe on His Son. And we
keep His commandments, which is to believe on His Son. That's
how you know you love the children of God. Is there anybody here
that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ? He's all your hope. You've
got no confidence in your flesh, no confidence in anything you've
ever done. He's all your confidence, all
your salvation. Then you love the children of
God. That's what John is teaching us here. We love the children
of God by believing on His Son. and continuing believing on His
Son. And this is how we love God too.
Now let me show you this. First of all, go to John 15. We love our brethren by obeying
God's commandment to abide in Christ. John 15, 4. Our Lord Jesus said,
Abide in me, and I in you. There's God's commandment. There's
God speaking, and that's his commandment. Abide in me, and
I in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except
it abide in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me.
I'm the vine, you're the branches. And he that abideth in me, and
I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he's
cast forth like a branch, and he withered. Men gather them,
cast them into the fire, and they're burned. That won't ever
happen to one of God's elect. That won't happen to one that's
born of God. That's speaking of somebody who professed abiding
in him, but he never really did. Look at this, but if you abide
in me and my words, my doctrine, my gospel abide in you, you shall
ask what you will and it will be done unto you. I know John's
talking about this because a little later in chapter 5, he's going
to start talking to us about prayer. And right there Christ
said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you'll
ask what you will and it'll be done to you. It's by Christ that
we bear this fruit to begin with. That's what John was saying.
We're born of God, Christ affectionately commands us, and we believe on
Him, and we begin abiding in Him. This initial fruit is of
Him. And then, as Christ said there,
the rest of our fruit bearing is of Him. We're going to abide
in Him by Him. And by Him, we're going to bear
fruit. This is what God's people do. But you see, obeying Christ's
commandment here to abide in Him, we love Him. This is how
we love God. Christ said, He that hath my
commandments and keepeth them, that is, abiding in Him by faith,
He it is that loveth me. John said, by this we know we
love the children of God when we keep His commandments. when we love God and keep His
commandments. And Christ said, you love me if you keep my commandments,
if you abide in me. If you believe on me and abide
in me, that's how you love me. And that's how we love our brethren. Go over to 2 John. Let's see
this. 2 John. Verse 1. the elder unto the elect
lady and her children, whom I love in the truth. See that, whom
I love in the truth. And not I only, but also all
they that have known the truth. They love you in the truth. For
the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever,
This is taken directly from what Christ just said. You abide in
Me and I'll abide in you. He said, the truth's sake, for
the truth's sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever.
That's how come we love one another. We love in the truth, we love
for the truth's sake. Grace be with you and mercy and
peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the
Son of the Father in truth and in love. I'll rejoice greatly
that I found of thy children walking, and that means continuing
in truth, as we've received a commandment from the Father. Hereby we know
we love the brethren when we love God, keep His commandments.
We've received a commandment from the Father to continue walking
in the truth. And now I beseech thee, lady,
not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we had
from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love,
that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment that
as you've heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. He's saying
this is it. This is how we love one another.
Walk in the truth. Walk in the truth. John says
the way we love one another. is in the truth. We receive our
brethren for the truth's sake. For the truth's sake. We love
one another by walking in the truth, by continuing in the truth
until the end. Even as Christ said, abide in
me. This is how we love our brethren. Christ is the truth. We talk
about abiding in the truth and loving one another for the truth's
sake. We're talking about for Christ's sake. He is the truth. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. We walk through this world in Christ who is the truth. He
said John started out his epistle talking about us walking in the
light. Christ is the light. He said,
he that doeth truth comes to the light, comes to Christ that
his deeds may be manifested. They're all worked in God. And
Christ is our God who worked out all these deeds. We come
to him the light. And he says, and he that follows
me, he shall not walk in darkness. He shall have the light of life. And so we're going to walk in
the light and we're going to walk in the truth. And this is
how John says that we love one another. I like how John said
in 2 Corinthians 5, he said, whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God. You think we're crazy? You think
we're fanatical? It's to God. Everything we're
doing, it's to God. He said, or you think we're too
sober? Too serious. Take this thing
too seriously. He said, it's for your sake. It's for your cause. For the
brethren. Why? Because the love of Christ
constrained us. We thus judge that if one died
for all, if he died for all his people, then all his people are
dead. Our body of sin is dead. We're dead. And those that live
now, we're not raised again to live unto ourselves, we're raised
again to live unto Him. And so Paul said if we're beside
ourselves, it's to God because the love of Christ constrains
us. We're walking in the truth, we're walking in the light, we're
abiding in Christ. And we're doing this for the
cause of our brethren. This is how we love our brethren.
You can't love your brethren any other way than through faith
in Christ. And it's only when the Spirit
of God's brought us to bow and obey Christ in truth that we
love our brethren. Go to 1 Peter. I'll show you
that. I know I've read this about every
time we've looked at these passages, but there's just a little something.
I'm showing you something different in it every time. It applies
to our text, though. Look here, 1 Peter. I said to
you, only when the Spirit of God has brought us to bow and
obey Christ the truth, only then do we love the brethren. Look
here, 1 Peter 1.22. Seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth. There it is. We're brought to
obey the truth. How? Through the Spirit. Irresistibly
through the Spirit. And what do we start doing then?
Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. It's only when the Spirit brings
you to believe on Christ and obey the truth, bow to the truth,
Christ the truth, that's when we start loving the brethren.
Now, so that's the first thing. We love our brethren by believing
on Christ and abiding in Christ. We love one another in the truth.
We love one another for the sake of Christ the truth. Now look
at this next thing in 1 John and just look at verse 7. It's
not love now to compromise the truth or comfort men in a refuge
of lies in the name of love. That's not love. You get what
I'm saying? It's not love to compromise the
truth, to compromise the gospel, and to comfort men who are in
a refuge of lies in the name of love. That's not really love.
Look here in verse 7. For many deceivers are entered
into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things which we've wrought, that is, the things
that we've gained, the things that God worked through the gospel,
but that we receive a full reward, that we receive Christ, our reward
at the end. He's saying persevere in faith
so you don't miss out on Christ. Now look, verse 9. Whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. But he that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." Now isn't that
just plain? If a person transgresses and
abides not in the doctrine of Christ, he doesn't have God.
It's not love to compromise the truth and to turn from Christ
in truth and to comfort people in a refuge of lies. That's not
love. He said, who serveth transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ hath not God. But he that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. I was reading this
invitation this week to a conference that some church leader is having. He sent out and he had this statement
in this invitation. There will be nothing preached
or done that is controversial or offensive. I believe it. I believe it. That means they will not preach
the gospel at this conference because the gospel is offensive.
The gospel is offensive. When you preach the three R's,
you teach sinners that they're ruined by the fall and that there's
no way in themselves that they can recover themselves from that
fall. They're dead in sin. They're just like those dry bones
in that valley that Ezekiel walked through. The only way they can
live is if God makes them live. They're ruined completely. They're
unrighteous and unholy. That's offensive to a proud sinner. You tell a sinner the necessity
of redemption, that Christ came and redeemed His particular people
and He accomplished it. He brought us out from under
the law and He's the sanctification and the righteousness of His
people and that offends a wheel worker because he's wanting to
have glory for doing what he does. And if you declare the
necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit and declare that
it's an absolute necessity that the Spirit of God come and just
irresistibly give us life and faith and draw us to Christ,
make us willing in the day of His power, that's offensive to
a man who worships His will. So when a man tells me we're
going to have a conference but we're not going to preach anything
offensive, You're not going to preach the
gospel then, because that's the only way. But here's the thing,
speaking the truth in love, that's the only way we can show a sinner
true love. That's the only way. Now they
won't think it's love when they first hear it. You and I didn't
either. We didn't like it, did we? We
were offended by it. But speaking the truth in love
is the only way you can truly love a sinner. And it's the greatest
way we can love is to preach the truth of Christ. But it's
not love to make men who are in a false refuge to compromise
with them and make them think that they have a good hope. That's
not love. Many think that you show love
by receiving all denominations and all brands of Christianity
and all brands of religion and after all we're all brethren
and we're all going the same way and we're all looking for
the same end and they say that's love. They say don't offend anybody,
don't tell them that God first loved us. Don't tell them that
God first loved His people and that He didn't love all people.
Don't tell them that. Don't tell them that God first
chose His people and He didn't choose all people. Don't give
Christ all the glory now. That might run them off, they
say. That's going to offend them and
they won't stay. You get them to stay now if you
just don't preach that. Well, what's the point of having
people gathered together if they're not hearing the truth? Go to
Jeremiah 23. I'll tell you exactly what that
is. Look here. Well, God tells us
what it is. It's unbelief. Look here. It's
not believing that God saves through the preaching of the
gospel. Jeremiah 23, look at verse 29. God said, Is not my
word like as a fire? saith the Lord, and like a hammer
it breaketh the rock in pieces. Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one
from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say he saith. Behold,
I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord,
and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and
by their lightness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith
the Lord." If you believe Christ, you've experienced the power
of the gospel. You've experienced that hammer. You've experienced
the hammer of this word breaking your hard heart. And you know,
the only hope any hard-hearted sinner's got is preach the truth. Speak it in love. Don't try to
be offensive. Just speak the truth. And God
will use this hammer to break the rock in pieces. But men that
won't do this, men that water it down, one, they hadn't experienced
it themselves. If they had, they wouldn't do
that. But two, they don't believe God saves this way. This is how
He saves. Does the Holy Spirit teach us
to receive men who preach and promote lies? That's what the
world says. Is that love? Look at what the Spirit of God
says here in 2 John verse 10. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is a partaker of his evil deeds. That's not being mean, brethren.
Somebody will say, well, that's just so harsh. No, that's not
mean at all. Now, if somebody comes along
and preaching lies and we received them in here and I said, now
get up, you preach for us tonight. And we all shook his hand and
called him brother and he stood up here and preached lies, that
would be utter hatred toward that man to make him walk out
of here and think he preached the truth when we knew he preached
a lie. You don't comfort people in a refuge of lies and make
them comfortable in a refuge of lies and call that love. That's not love. It's anything
but love. So love is to remain faithful
to Christ as we speak the doctrine of Christ in truth. The doctrine
that declares Christ is all and all in salvation, apart from
any work or any will in man or any worth in man, that Christ
is all. He's everything. He's the Alpha
and Omega, the author and the finisher. He is the perfection
of holiness and the perfection of righteousness that God has
provided and that God gives His people freely through God-given
faith in Him. I preach this message. And this
is love. This is how we love one another. Lastly, I want to go to just
right here, 3 John. We love our brethren by keeping
God's commandment which is that we do whatsoever we do in faith
to Christ being fellow helpers to the truth. The reason we're
here is because of this gospel. We're here not only for us to
be saved by this gospel, but then God assembles us and he's
going to use us as fellow helpers to send it out to bring others
in. And that's what we're here for.
That's the cause that we're on this planet for, is to preach
the truth of the gospel. And what we're all here together
doing, this is not my ministry, it's not your ministry, we're
fellow helpers to the truth. Look here, 3 John verse 1, The
elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Look at verse 3. I rejoiced greatly
when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee,
even as thou walkest in the truth." Again, that's Christ. The truth
that's in you, remember John said in chapter 4, you've overcome
the world because greater is he that's in you than he that's
in the world. I rejoiced when I heard about
the truth that's in thee. Christ, the truth in you, and
you walk in the truth. Look at this. Beloved, thou doest
faithfully. You know what to do something
faithfully is? It's to do it faithfully to God. It's to do
it faithfully to Christ. It's to do it with faith in Christ.
He said, whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers,
you do faithfully. He said, whatever you do to the
brethren and to strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity."
You see, that's love. That's charity is God-given love.
And he's saying, they've borne witness of your love. And he
said, here's what it is, that you do faithfully whatever you
do. You do it trusting Christ. That's
charity. whom if thou bring forward on
their journey, after a godly sort, thou shalt do well, because
that for his name's sake, for Christ's name's sake, they went
forth taking nothing of the Gentiles, we therefore ought to receive
such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth." Whoever
this was that had come through there, They had gone and they
had preached the gospel and they didn't take any offerings from
anybody along the way because they didn't want to be a burden
to the Gentiles and it says here They took nothing of the Gentiles
and so John says, and so therefore we ought to receive them and
we ought to be fellow helpers of the truth. We ought to send
them on their way after a godless sword. We ought to provide whatever
they need and send them forth because they're going forth preaching
the truth. This is charity. This is God's
charity. This is how you love the brethren. Somebody will hear this and they'll
hear me say that we love our brethren through faith in Christ
and they'll be able to go back to 1 John 3 and say, well John
said that you love in deed and in truth. You don't think you believe in
deed? You don't think you actually
do something to believe? There's a lot involved with believing
on Christ. There's a lot involved with promoting
this gospel and being fellow helpers of the truth. All these
things that he's talking about that we do in faith to Christ
to promote this gospel, it requires a lot to be done. And this is
how we love one another. Charity is the love God gives.
And it loves by doing all things to the brethren and even to strangers. in faith to Christ for his namesake,
that there might be fellow helpers of the truth of Christ, that
we might get this truth out, that Christ might be exalted
wherever the gospel goes forth. And this is love. God's entrusted
us with the gospel. Think about that. Paul said that. I've been entrusted
with this gospel. We've been entrusted with unsearchable
riches. Carrying unsearchable riches. And we're to spread this wealth
forth. The wealth of this gospel. and
we're to do it in truth and to be faithful. Paul said, seeing
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint
not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. This commending ourselves
to every man's conscience using the truth, a manifestation of
the truth. I have one question for anybody
that hears me. Did I not show you in the Word
of God that this is so? That's what he's talking about.
You take the Word of God, you preach it, you show it in the
Word, and then you say, now you be honest in your conscience.
Have you not seen the truth of what God's Word says here? Paul preached the gospel to all
men and he let nothing be a distraction. He would not, at Corinth, he
didn't take a dime from them because they were so money-grubbing. He didn't want them to just be
going around talking about that. Wherever he went, he did nothing
to distract from the gospel and he said, and this I do for the
gospel's sake. It's all in faith, it's all for
Christ, it's all for the brethren. He said, and I do it that I might
be a partaker thereof with you. I want to partake of this gospel
with those I preach to. That's love, isn't it? Paul called
it in Ephesians 4, speaking the truth in love, that we might
grow up into Christ in all things. He said, we preach not ourselves
but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. That's what John said there.
Do everything for His sake. Paul said in Colossians, whatever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. And that's
love. Go to Matthew 16. I'm going to
close. I'm going to give you one last
illustration here. I'm not going to get too too
involved in this passage because I'm going to hopefully preach
it soon, but Matthew 16. The Lord asked His disciples,
He said in verse 13, He said, Whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man am? And they said, Some say you're
John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets. When you are looking at falsehood
and you have people that don't have spiritual discernment, there's
always a disagreement. They never can agree on anything.
And they're always trying to make some decision amongst all
these different choices. This is what they said, some
say you're John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. But even amongst those men, they
still weren't giving Christ the glory due to his name. Nobody's
compared to him. He's far above any of those men.
But look at this, and he said to them, but whom say ye that
I am? And Simon Peter answered. And he said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. Now that's the gospel. That's
the gospel. You are the Christ. You're God's
anointed. You're God's ordained Savior. You're the Son of the living
God. the God-man mediator, God come down in human flesh, that's
who you are, to save your people from our sin. And Jesus answered
and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter. Peter's name means rock. And
here's what he said. He's saying, I say to you, your
name is the rock, Peter, But, it's up on this rock that I'm
going to build my church. On this rock, Peter testified. He proclaimed, You're Christ,
the Son of the Living God. He set forth, You're Christ,
the Son of the Living God. And Christ said, it's on that
rock right there. the foundation, Christ the Lord, the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified. I'm going to build up my whole
church right there. He's saying, you well said, Peter. You spoke
right. That's a good saying what you
said. This is the message by which I'm going to save my people.
And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Christ commended
Peter because of his testimony, because he exalted Christ in
truth. Now, look at this contrast, verse
21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem. What did he tell Nicodemus? As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but may have
everlasting life. Look at that. I must go to Jerusalem. And I must suffer many things
of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed. I
must be killed. And I must be raised again the
third day. He's saying, I must be exalted. I must be lifted up. Verse 22,
Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it
far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Now, there's
no doubt Peter thought That what He was saying was love to the
Lord. That it was love in Him trying
to prevent Christ from being lifted up and exalted on that
cross. Surely that was love. And that's
just what men are saying all over this world. That it's love.
Don't exalt Christ quite so much. Don't lift Him up on that cross
quite so much. Don't preach Christ to them crucified
quite so highly. And that's great love. What did
Christ say about it? Christ turned and said to Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me,
for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men. Now listen, here's his lesson. Verse 24, Then said Jesus unto
his disciples, If any man have come after me, let him deny himself. take up his cross and follow
me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. That's what we're going to do
if we compromise the gospel of Christ. That's what we're going
to do if we turn from the truth and we try to show some kind
of what they call love by not telling the truth on Christ.
We're trying to save our life and we're going to lose it. But
look at this. Whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a
man give in exchange to his soul? It's not love to sinners to compromise
the gospel simply because I want to save my own life and save
myself being persecuted. That's not love. Love is loving
the brethren by God's irresistible grace being willing to deny myself
to take up the cross. Those brethren that were fixing
to send those preachers on their way, that John said, send them
on their way now, make provision for them, those men are fixing
to deny themselves. They're fixing to give something of their property
away to the preachers to send them on their way to be fellow
helpers with the truth. Christ said, you're going to
follow me, you're going to have to deny yourself. That's what he
did for his people. He said, you're going to follow
me, you're going to have to take up your cross. That means you're going
to have to suffer. You're going to suffer rejection. If they
rejected Christ, they're going to reject me. And you, and he
said, you're going to have to be willing to suffer this. That
means you can't waver on the truth. You can't waver in this
walk in the truth of the gospel. Doing everything for his sake,
being fellow helpers of this truth. We can't waver on this.
And he said, and you follow me. You follow me. See, that's love,
brethren. Willing to suffer, suffer, suffer,
suffer, whatever you have to suffer so that the gospel can
go forward. That's love. That's love. It's only through the testimony
of Christ that He builds His church and it's only through
the truth of the gospel that we love one another in faith
to Christ. Amen.