Chapter 2, 1 John 2. Now John is writing to believers. He's been declaring the Word
of Life. He's been declaring Christ our Advocate, Christ our
Righteousness, Christ our Propitiation. And now he's going to deal with
assurance. And he says here in 1 John 2,
3, He says, And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we
keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and
keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in
him verily is the love of God perfected. and hereby know we
that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him,
ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. Now, a believer's chief desire,
you and I that know Christ, our chief desire is we want assurance
to know that we know Him. We want assurance to know we
are in Him. A believer wants to know Christ. Now we love true doctrine. We
love true doctrine. But we don't just love doctrine
for doctrine's sake. We love teaching that teaches
us to know Christ. That teaches us Him. And we love
doctrine that makes us to know that we know Him. and that we're
in Him. We don't just love doctrine. It's not what we know that is
our salvation. It's who we know. The believer
wants to know Him. We want to know Christ. Paul
said, I count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ. He said, I count all things but
done that I might win Christ and be found in Him. Not having
my own righteousness, but His righteousness. I want His righteousness. I want to be found in Him. So
that's our desire. We want to know Him. We want
to know that we know Him. And we want to be found in Him.
Now here the Spirit of God declares that it is possible for believers
to have assurance that we know Him and have assurance that we're
in Him. I have some brethren that have
trouble with assurance. They struggle in having assurance. And you and I who believe and
may have assurance, sometimes we lose our assurance. So it
is possible for a believer to be a true believer and not have
assurance. So if you ever encounter one
of your brethren who is having difficulty with assurance, don't
think they are not a believer just because they don't have
assurance. Because a believer can struggle with assurance or
waver in assurance. But we want to know and we want
to understand. Now some people insist that a
believer cannot have assurance that he knows the Lord. But Job
said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. He said, I know. I know
that my Redeemer liveth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. He knew
that. He had assurance of that. The
apostle Paul said, I know whom I have believed. I know whom
I believe. I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. And
John had assurance. And that's one of the reasons
he's writing this epistle. He wants his fellow believers
to have assurance. He said over in chapter 3 and
verse 14, we know that we've passed from death to life. And he gave a reason why we know.
He said over in chapter 5 and verse 13, Those things have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life. That's why He was
writing this epistle. So that we would know that we're
in Christ. And know we have eternal life. So in our text, the Holy Spirit
of God is declaring to us it's possible for a believer to know
that we know Christ and that we are in Christ. And that's
my prayer tonight. I want the Holy Spirit to give
you and I assurance that we know Him. I especially want this for
my brethren who struggle with assurance. I want you to know
if you're in Christ, I want you to know it. If you know Him,
I want you to know it. I want you to have some assurance
of it. Now I want to show you three things in this. First of
all, the way we know. And secondly, by whom we know. And thirdly, the result of knowing. Now first of all, the Spirit
of God declares to us through John that we have assurance that
we know Christ if we keep His commandments. He says here, hereby
we do know that we know Him. Hereby we have assurance that
we know Him if we keep His commandments. Now, when you hear the word commandments,
what do you think about? Most of us probably, first thing
you think about is the Ten Commandments. You think about the law given
at Mount Sinai. Well, turn over to 1 John 3 and
look at verse 23. This is the commandment. This is His commandment. 1 John 3, 23. This is His commandment
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as He gave us commandment. That's the light
and easy yoke that Christ gives His people. The first commandment
to those who know it. those that have been made to
know Christ. The first commandment is believe
on Christ. Go with me to John chapter 6.
John chapter 6. As we go through 1 John, I'm
going to refer to the gospel of John a lot because this is
where John learned these things that he's writing to us. He was
with Christ and he heard Christ and he learned these things from
Christ. Look over here at John chapter 6 and look at verse 28.
This is after He had fed the multitude and all this group
of religious folks was following Him. And they said, therefore
unto Him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God. that you believe on Him whom
He hath sent. Now this is the first commandment
of our God, believe on Christ. Now you and I, mark your place
there in John at the Gospel, we'll come back to that. But
you and I who have been made to know Christ, we've been made
to know Him. And we've heard this commandment
come effectually to believe on Him. And by that effectual command,
we're given faith and we believe Him. And we believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's God in human flesh. He is the mediator between God
and His people. He is the surety. He is the one
God chose and sent forth into this world to redeem His people. You and I that believe Him, we
believe He is our sovereign Lord and our sovereign Savior. He is as sovereign in salvation
as He is in providence. He is our sovereign Lord and
our sovereign salvation. That means He's the Alpha and
the Omega of our salvation. He's everything. He is our salvation. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. This is what true faith believes
concerning Christ. Salvation is of our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. We believe that He is our shepherd.
Christ said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and the
result is they follow me. And we've heard His voice. And
He's known us and made us thereby to know Him. And so we believe
on Him. We follow Him. We look to Him. We believe that He's our prophet,
our priest, and our king. Everything we need to be accepted
of God and to come into God's presence, the Lord Jesus Christ
is. Faith believes we're complete
in Him. There's nothing to be added by
us, nothing that can be added by us. We're complete in Christ
and all our acceptance with God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is our sanctifier and our sanctification. We believe He's our Redeemer
who redeemed us from the curse of the law and He Himself is
our redemption. He is everything to the believer
so we obey Him by believing on Him. This is His command. Believe
on Him. And we believe Him. And we obey
Him by publicly confessing Him in believers' baptism. We confess
that He's all our salvation. That we're walking after Him
in newness of life. We obey Him when we come to the
Lord's table. And we partake of this table
remembering Him as He commanded. This is what we do through faith
in Christ. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we don't just believe on
Christ and then turn back to ourselves or to the law. We walk
by faith. From the day He calls us to faith
in Him, we walk by faith. We don't stop walking by faith.
That means we're led of Christ. We really believe we're led of
Christ through the hearing of the gospel, He corrects us, He
strengthens us, He turns us when we need to be turned, and He
directs our path, and we follow Him. We walk by faith. That's how we understand the
Scriptures, is through faith, looking to Christ. He's the key
to the whole Word of God, to the Gospel, and we follow Him. We walk by faith in Christ. And then we've been seeing in
Romans 3.31 that it's through faith in Christ that we establish
the whole law of God. Because He came and established
it for His people. So it's through faith in Him
that all the commandments given at Sinai are all fulfilled. Now the second commandment, it's
part of that one commandment back in John 13, is to love one
another. John 13 verse 34. He said, A new commandment I
give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another. When somebody says, well, how
do you know how to love one another? He told us. Love one another
as I have loved you. We learn how to love one another
by seeing how He loved us. We look to how He loved us. He
said, Love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. He said, By this shall all men
know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. Now, when He has made us to know
Him, first and foremost, the brother that we love is Him. He's our elder brother. He's
the firstborn among many brethren. The firstborn of God. The elder,
our eldest brother. And we love Him first and foremost. And loving Him, we do whatever
His Word teaches us. Constrained by His love for us,
whatever Christ teaches us in His Word, in His Gospel, that's
what we do. That's our command that we're
to follow whatever He teaches us. We obey Him constrained by
His love. We further His gospel, send forth
this gospel into this world out of love for Him. And we want
to do nothing to distract from it or turn our brethren from
it because of love for Christ. We want Him to be honored. We
want Him to be glorified. We want all to see Him high and
lifted up. And secondly, we love our brethren. We love those that are in Him
and begotten of Him. Our brethren in Christ. And so,
He said there, you love as I have loved you. Now, how did He love
us? Turn over to 1 Corinthians 13. And here's how He loved us. And
this is something of what His love works in us. 1 Corinthians
13 verse 4. He says there, charity, and that's
speaking of love, charity suffereth long. It's long-suffering. And
it's kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
vaulteth not itself. It's not puffed up. Doth not
behave itself unseemly. Seeketh not her own. Is not easily
provoked. thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not
in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. When it comes to your
brethren, you don't think evil against them. And you don't want
to rejoice in iniquity if you hear something. You don't want
to rejoice in their fall. Or you want to rejoice in the
truth. And look here, and it bears all
things. Love beareth all things, and
believeth all things, and hopeth all things, and endureth all
things. This is how Christ loves us. And this is how we love our brethren. Charity never faileth. It never
fails. This is the best way. Charity
is the best way. It never fails. Now, back in
our text, 1 John chapter 2. So those two things, hereby we
know that we know Him if we love our brethren and we believe on
Christ. We believe on Christ and we love
our brethren. And believe in Christ, that means
we obey any word He speaks in the Gospel to us, we are to obey
it. We love one another. And everything
that goes along with that. And that's everything He teaches
us is teaching us to love one another. And chiefly the way
you love one another is by believing on Christ and pointing your brethren
to Christ. Helping them to behold Christ
and to believe on Christ. That's the best way you love
one another. Is to help one another to Christ. To seek Christ, to love Christ,
to rest in Christ. But He shows us the opposite
here. 1 John 2 verse 4. He that saith, I know him, and
keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. Most everybody says they know
Christ. It's hard to come across somebody
in this world that will say, I don't know God and I don't
know His Christ. Most everybody you come in contact
with says they know God and they know the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
some people claim to know Him historically. You'll hear people
say, I believe there's a God. I believe that there was a man
named Jesus Christ that walked this earth. That's not believing
on Christ. Just to believe some facts about
Him. There's those that believe Him professedly. Some folks have
made a profession of Him. And they say they know Him. They've
joined a church. and they profess that they know
Him. They may go to church services on a regular basis. They are
very diligent to do things in the name of Christ and they say
they know Him. And then there are those that know Him theologically.
There are folks that know the five points of Calvinism that
we preach. There are folks that know true
doctrine and know the Bible and are able to quote the Bible to
you. But knowing doctrine and knowing a system of doctrine
and knowing facts about God is not necessarily knowing Him. There is a great difference between
knowing about Christ and knowing Christ. He that saith, I know him, and
keepeth not his commandments. That person that says he knows
Him. He says he knows Him. He says he believes on Christ.
But he doesn't believe on Christ only. He believes on Christ,
says he believes on Christ, but he's looking to some experience
in his past. A profession he made or some
religious experience he had. He's looking to his self-wisdom,
to his self-seeking. He doesn't believe on Christ
only. To believe Christ, to believe Him alone, trust Him only. The one who thinks he's obligated
After he believes Christ, he's obligated, he must keep the law
of Mount Sinai or he can't be saved. He doesn't believe on
Christ only. He doesn't believe Christ. Because
he's looking to Christ and he's looking to His works. He who
has a mercenary spirit, he's trying to indebt God to give
him a reward better than others. That's a mercenary spirit. Believers
are going to have Christ. He's our reward. Our Lord said
in this life, you're going to have reward. You're going to
have houses and friends more than you ever had before. And
after this life, you're going to have eternal life. That's
the reward. Eternal life with Christ. But
a mercenary spirit is trying to indebt God to have more. That's not trusting Christ. He's
not believing Christ. That's looking to your works. Some people trust their denomination.
They trust in their denomination because they are such and such
Baptist or such and such Presbyterian or whatever. Salvation is not
in a denomination. Christ is salvation. There are
those who They arrange the worship of God
and the fellowship of brethren around their life. When they
have time, they fit it in. That person is not drinking and
eating the body of Christ. He is not living on Christ when
he is just fitting Christ in when he has a little space available.
We arrange everything around the worship of Christ, around
the fellowship of brethren. Everything's arranged around
Christ and not the other way around. And secondly, he doesn't
love Christ's brethren. A person that says he knows Christ,
but he's full of self-love rather than love for brethren. He thinks
he's more righteous and he looks down on his brethren. He suspects
of his brethren. Always suspecting something. Or that one who will not overlook
sin and will not bear the burden of his brethren. He's easily
offended. Makes a man an offender for a
word. Separates himself from brethren. Forsakes the assembly
of brethren. A man who can take them or leave them. That's not
love of brethren. It's just not. James said, What
does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith? Right here, John says, you've
got a man who says he knows Christ. He says he knows Him, but he
doesn't keep His commandments. What does it profit a man if
he says he believes Christ, but he doesn't have works? Is faith
going to save him? Thou believest there's one God,
thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Faith without works is dead.
The Spirit says in our text, God the Holy Spirit says in verse
4, He's a liar. He does not know Christ and the
truth is not in him. Here's the problem. He has not
been born of the incorruptible seed. He hasn't been made to
know Christ by the truth giving him a new birth. That's the problem. Now, how do I know if I'm trusting
an experience in my past or profession that I made some years ago. How
do I know if I'm doing that? This is how you know you're trusting
something other than Christ. Whatever it is. If the Word of
God contradicts it. If you come, you hear the Gospel,
and the Word of God contradicts Whatever it is, or however it
is that we say we were believed, or say that we trusted God, or
say that we came to Christ, or that we say we're trusting in,
or we have to do, if the Word of God contradicts it, and I
deny the Word of God to defend whatever that thing is, that
profession, or that experience, or that work, or whatever, I
deny the Word of God to defend that, then I'm trusting in that.
I'm trusting that. I believe that's my salvation.
You know, when the Spirit makes you to know Christ, when the
Holy Spirit brings you to know Christ, a believer is made to
renounce everything else that this Word of God contradicts. We're made to renounce it as
being vanity and as being worthless. Just like Paul said, I count
it all dumb. It's no loss at all because it
was no gain to me at all. And the Spirit of God makes you
see what the Word of God says, and anything that doesn't line
up with the Word of God, He makes you renounce it. He makes you
renounce it. It's called repentance and faith
and submission to God. And when we're baptized, baptism,
is the public renouncement of everything that we formerly had
confidence in and formerly was associated with. It's the public
renouncing of all our former false confidence. And it's a confession that from
here on we're walking in newness of life, believe in Christ, trust
in Christ alone for all our salvation. That's what Baptism is confessing. So let me hurry along here now. You remember whenever Christ
in John 6 back there, when He said, this is the work of God
that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. Just about everybody
Christ came in contact with said they knew God. And said they
knew the Messiah that was to come. That was their hope. That
was what they claimed they knew. But by rejecting Christ, They
showed they didn't keep His commandments. And those that He said, they
came to Him saying, what works must we do that we might work
the works of God? He said, this is it. Believe
on Him whom He sent. And remember what they did? They
said, this is a hard saying. And they went away and they didn't
trust Him. And they proved by that, by not keeping His commandments,
they proved that they were liars and the Word of God wasn't in
them. But you remember what the apostles did? The Lord said,
will you go away also? And they said, to whom can we
go? You have the words of eternal
life. And we believe and we're sure
you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. See, they kept
His commandment. They believed Him. They believed
Him. And they loved one another so
much that they wouldn't forsake one another. They believed Him. So, do you believe on Christ
that He's your only acceptance with God? Do you love those in
whom Christ dwells, your brethren that are one with Christ? I've
said this to you often. Believers, our fellow brethren,
are the closest thing we have to Christ on this earth, in person. Now, He's with us all the time
in spirit. He dwells in each of us. But
I'm saying, because He dwells in our brethren, In person, that's
the closest thing we have to Christ, is our brethren. Do you love your brethren? Do
you believe on Christ and love your brethren? Well, listen to
what the Spirit says. The Apostle says here, the Spirit
says to the Apostles through the Apostle John, Hereby we do
know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. This is the
assurance. Faith is the evidence. Faith
is the assurance. Don't look to anything else for
assurance. If you believe it, then you know Him. That's what
He's saying. That's how we know we know Him.
If you believe on Christ. Now secondly, I want to show
you this. The Spirit of God declares by whom we know Christ. Here's
how we know Him. Here's how we keep His Word.
Verse 5. 1 John 2 verse 5, Whoso keepeth
his word, that is his commandment, same thing he meant up in the
other verse. Whoso keepeth his word, in him
verily is the love of God perfected. That means the love of God has
brought him to this intended end. The love has brought him
to this perfect, this purposed end, right here. to where he
keeps the Word of God. That's what the whole end of
the love of God is about. It's to bring His people, His
child, and make His child keep His Word. The love of God works
to bring His child to believe on Christ and love our brethren. That's the perfect end to which
the love of God brings His people. Now, he's not talking here about
some you perfecting love or you being perfect. He is talking
simply about this is the end to which the love of God brings
us. Right here. To believe Christ and love our
brethren. Go to Romans 5 and look at verse
1. We are just about to this. I don't think we will get there
Sunday, Romans 5 and verse 1. But we see this, faith and love
right here, and we see why. Romans 5.1. Therefore being justified,
By faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. There is
faith. There is the first commandment.
Believe in Christ. Alright, here is love. Not only
so, but with glory in tribulations also. Tribulations that have
to do with our brethren and loving our brethren. Trials between
brethren. We glory in tribulations also,
knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience experience,
and experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame. Now why do
we have this faith and love? Here it is. Because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given to us. That's how we have this faith
and love. When the Holy Ghost is shed abroad
in our hearts, And the Holy Ghost makes us to know Christ. He brings
us to believe on Him and to love our brethren. He shows us the
sovereign, unchangeable, unchanging love of God whereby He loved
us. And this is how He brings us
to believe Him and love one another. He shows us His love for His
people. Here's what we see for the first
time. I'm just going to use John to show you this. First John
3, look at verse 1. For the first time we behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. When He sheds His love in
your heart, He makes you to see that before this world was made,
He called you and made you a son of God by electing you in Christ
simply because He loved you. without any cause in you whatsoever
is what He makes you to see. And then look at 1 John 4 and
verse 9. When He sheds His love in your
heart, He makes you see that in this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into
the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the satisfaction for our sin. That's what He makes you
to see. I didn't love God. And though
I was a rebel, though I was an enemy against God, and though
I hated God, God still sent His only begotten Son to lay down
His life and shed His blood and make satisfaction for me. That's
what He did for all His people. And you don't see this until
God sheds His love in your heart. It makes you see this. It makes
you understand this. Makes you understand it and believe
it for you personally. Makes it real to you. And then
look at this, 1 John 4, 12. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, if we
just remotely have love in our hearts for God and for one another,
we can't glory in it. It's because God dwelleth in
us and His love has brought us to that purposed end. He's brought
us to that end to where we have this love in our hearts. He's
the one that sent the Spirit. He's the one that regenerated
us. He's the one that Christ was formed in us so that we have
this love shed abroad in our hearts and that's where this
faith and this love comes from. We can't glory in it. But we
see this once He's shed this love in our heart. And then look
at this, verse 17. 1 John 4, 17. Herein, and there
again, our love made perfect. It means herein is this purposed
end to which God's love brings us when the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts. He gives us boldness in the day
of judgment. How come? Because as He is, so
are we in this world. As Christ is right now, holy,
perfect, perfect before God, accepted of God, so are we right
now in this world. And when He sheds His love in
your heart, He brings you to behold this. And that's what
casts fear out. That's what makes you quit fearing
God and quit fearing coming to God and you have some boldness
now in the day of judgment. You see Him, you know Him, and
you know that we're perfect in Christ, accepted in the Beloved.
And so when this love shed abroad in our hearts, this is what we
see right here, verse 19. In all of this, this is what
He teaches us. We love Him because He first loved us. That's what
He shows us. So, what the Holy Spirit is teaching
us here, and get this, be very careful to get this. He's not
teaching us to seek assurance in our obedience. He is not telling
us to seek assurance in the fact that we believe God and that
we love our brethren. He is not saying look to that
for assurance. What He is saying is the one
cause that makes His people believe on Christ is when God has shed
His love in our heart and made us to know Christ. He's saying,
if I believe Christ, it's because God shed His love in my heart
and made me to love Him. Back there in John 6, remember
when they kept murmuring and they said, we have to eat your
flesh and drink your blood and they didn't understand He meant
you have to believe on Me and live of Me. And He said this
to them. He said, it's written. He told
them, no man can come to me except my Father draw him. He said,
it's written, they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard, every man that's been taught of God, that Christ
is the Son of God who perfected us by His one offering, every
man that's been taught the gospel of Christ in our hearts, and
has learned effectually in our hearts. We've learned about Christ
and learned Christ of the Father so that we truly know Christ.
The sure result is this. Christ said, they come unto Me.
They come unto Me. They believe on Me. When you've
been taught of God in your heart and you've learned Christ by
God teaching you, you come to Christ. You believe on Christ.
And likewise, the one cause that makes us love one another is
because we are born of God and we are made to know Christ. Look
at 1 John 4, 7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth, everyone that keeps
his word, does so because he is born of God and he knows God. And you get what he's saying
here? Even though our love is nothing compared to His love.
Even though our faith is nothing compared to Christ's faith. He's
saying to us, brethren, we know that our love exists only because
we're born of God and we know Him. That's the only reason we
have any love. That's the only reason we have
any faith. And that's why the Spirit says in our text, if we
keep His Word, if we keep His commandments, Hereby we do know
that we know Him. You get what I'm saying? You
get what he's saying? This is how we know we know it. Because
if you can believe Him and if you can love one another, it's
because He's made you to know Him. And so that's assurance,
brethren, that you do know Him if you can believe Him and if
you love one another. You get what I'm saying? He's
not saying look to that. He's saying this is how you know
you really know Him. Because He's made you to do it.
He's made you to know it. So faith in Christ is the evidence,
brethren. This is the evidence that we
know Him. Now briefly, what is the result? When you know Him and you keep
His commands, you believe Him, you love Him, what's the result?
Verse 6. He that saith he abideth in Him
ought himself also so to walk even as He walked. That word
ought means as one bound by a debt of gratitude. He that saith he
abideth in Him ought by a debt of gratitude himself also walk
even as He walked. Now as the Father's servant,
how did Christ walk? By faith and love. That's how
He walked. By faith He obeyed His Father
and established the law for His elect so He could take it out
of the way so that we could live under Him. So how ought we to
walk? As a debt of gratitude for what
He did for us, we ought to obey His command and believe on Christ
whereby we've established the whole law of God and obey His
light and easy yoke. Whatever He commands us, we obey
Him because He's taken that a heavy yoke out of the way. He's obeyed
it. He's established it for us. And so as a debt of gratitude,
we believe Him. And then He loved His elect freely
without a cause in us by laying down His life for us. John said
back over there in 1 John 3.16, Hereby perceive we the love of
God because He laid down His life for us. And we ought, as
a debt of gratitude to Him, lay down our lives for the brethren.
Look at 1 John 4.10. He says, Herein is love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God, after this manner,
loved us, that is freely without a cause in us, we ought, as a
debt of gratitude to Him, also love one another after the same
manner. We ought to love one another
freely without a cause. That means even when they're
not loving us, just like we didn't love Him. That means even when
they're not giving us a cause to love us, just like we didn't
give Him a cause to love us. See, faith and love rules the
believer with a far stronger and a far superior rule than
law does. We see it by the joy that faith
gives a believer to be able to just wait on the Lord. And the
law doesn't give you that joy. The law doesn't make you just
wait on the Lord. The law puts it in your hand. And the trial that love endures
for brethren that are overtaken in a fault, you see how much
greater this rule of love is by how much a brother will endure
and suffer for a brother that's overtaken in a fall. Because
he loves him. Law won't do that. Law will make
him whip him and judge him and separate from him. Love will
make him suffer long with him. Let me give you an example. And
I'll close with this. Now you got somebody that says
he knows Christ. And this person knows doctrine
inside and out. He's got doctrine inside and
out. True doctrine. And he says he knows Him. And
here's you got a brother that says or he does something that
he doesn't understand or that he's offended by. He doesn't
agree with it. Well, instead of faith, trust
in Christ. Scripture says, to his own master,
that brother is going to stand or fall. Christ is able to make
him stand. But instead of trusting Christ,
believing Christ, to make the brother stand, instead of love
forbearing and suffering along with him, just like Christ did
with us and still does with us, instead of that, knowledge puffeth
up. Knowledge puffeth up. If I don't
have love and I have knowledge, all that's going to do is puff
me up. And so he separates himself from that fallen brother. And
you know what he does by his actions? You know what he's saying
by his actions? You stand over there. I'm holier than you are.
I'm holier than you are. And the lack of those works of
faith and love betray what he says he knows. He says he knows
Christ. But a lack of obedience, a lack
of believing Christ and a lack of love betrays his disguise. He doesn't really believe Christ.
The Holy Spirit says he is a liar and the word of truth is not
in him. But then you have another brother who says he knows Christ
and he hears the brother who is indeed in error, even worse
than the first. And he says, faith says, well,
if you put all my knowledge in a thimble, it rattles around
like a peanut in a boxcar. So I can't very well get upset
with somebody else if they don't know something. We know nothing as we ought to
know it. And I don't know much of anything, but I do know this.
My Savior bears long with this poor, ignorant sinner and He
teaches me. Here a little, there a little,
precept upon precept. And if He teaches me that way,
I trust He's going to teach my brother. I claim I believe a
sovereign God. I claim I believe God who is
sovereign. So I'm going to trust and believe that sovereign Savior
to teach my brother. And love says, when I see how
much Christ has suffered with me and how He's born with me
and my rebellion and my stumbling and my unbelief and all, how
can I not do anything but just bear with my brother? And just
cover the faults of him and just turn him to Christ and help try
to love him to Christ. How can I do anything else? And
James says, when you see that happen, you see how faith wrought
with his works and by works was faith brought to this perfect
end. He that saith he abideth in Christ
ought, as a debt of gratitude, himself also to walk even as
he walked. Let's stand together. Brethren, we bow our hearts before You, Father, and
we trust You will keep us and teach us and work this in us
by making us to know You and shedding in our hearts Your great
love and causing each of us and all of our brethren to stand
by faith and walk by faith and love one another. Lord, we ask
You, increase our love. Increase our love. Make us see Your great love and
increase our love and increase our faith. We ask You, forgive
us of our sins and forgive us for our coldness toward one another.
Forgive us our unbelief and we ask this, Lord, in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, Brother Hart.