Let's be turning to 1 John chapter
2. 1 John chapter 2, and here the
Apostle John says, beginning in verse 3, I'm going to read
our text. Verse 3, 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. 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. God is able to fulfill his promise
that he makes to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's able to make
us obedient to his commandments to his children and when I read
this word, I think it must be met by us with humility. With humility, because if it's
going to be received and followed by us, when we begin to understand
the power of the Lord and the will of the Lord, it's humbling.
It's humbling. When we begin to understand His
salvation, it makes His new creatures humble. It humbles us because
He is able to perfect His word in us. It's not of us. We find
ourselves to be sinners. We find ourselves to be incapable
of working a perfect righteousness ourselves. But He is able. Now, I want to first seek some
clarity on what the Lord's commandments to His people are. What commandments
is John speaking of here? Well, Paul tells us that we are
become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Therefore, we know
that it's not speaking of Moses' law of the Ten Commandments written
on stone, written and engraved in stone. It's not of Moses.
So first, right, we know it's not that. But first, if there
is a law our Lord tells us, then it's in the new covenant established
for us in the blood of Christ. It's established for us in grace. And he tells us that our Lord
writes his word. He writes his law upon the hearts
and minds of his people. He tells us that in his grace,
in the new covenant established for us, he writes his law on
our hearts. Hebrews 8, verse 10 says, for
this is the commandment that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws
in their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be
to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. There is one
of those I will and you shall. What God wills, you shall. you that are his people you shall
you shall do what he wills because he works it in you and he adds
in verse 11 there Hebrews 8 11 and they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord
for ye shall all shall know me from the least to the greatest
and so we're not going to be teaching one another the law
you that are born again of Christ because you have it written in
your hearts. You're not looking to a law of commandments engraven
in stones. It's written in your hearts,
your new creatures, your spiritually alive creatures born again of
the spirit of Christ, born of the incorruptible seed of Christ. And he gives his spirit and his
spirit leads us in newness of life by his spirit, in faith,
in faith and hope and love. Faith and hope and love were
led of the Lord. So this law we read in the scriptures,
it's called the law of faith. The law of faith by Paul and
Romans. It's called the law of liberty
by James. And it's called a law of love. the law of love. And so this
speaks to the grace and the spirit whereby we are given to understand
what our Lord is speaking to us. For example, when he answered
that Pharisee in Matthew 22, in verse 37, our Lord said unto
him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. and with all thy soul." Luke
adds, with all thy strength and with all thy mind. This, he says, is the first and
great commandment. And if you think about that,
it sums up those first four commandments written in the Ten Commandments,
doesn't it? The first four commandments to have no other God before the
true and living God and to rest in his son Jesus Christ, our
Sabbath rest. It's all summed up, the first
four commandments, to love your God. And the second, he says,
is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And that sums up the other six
commandments, to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
hang all the law, and the prophets, so that the child of God doesn't
need to look to engraved stones. He's taught of God having the
law of God written on his heart. He's led by the spirit of God
who leads him to bear fruit, the fruit of faith, hope, and
love. To believe all things, to hope
all things, to bear all things. Love never faileth." So, what
then are these commandments that we keep? Well, to begin, let
us affirm that these commandments are spiritual in nature. They are to be heard by the people
of God and kept by the people of God according to the Spirit. according to the Spirit. Look
at 1 John 5 because he mentions these words again in chapter
5 and this gives us an understanding of the nature of these commandments.
John 5 verse 3 through 5. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. Just think about that. Is your
religion grievous to you? Is it grievous to you? Does it
burden you and weigh you down with a heaviness by the law?
If we're looking to the law, it is grievous. It is grievous. And I was thinking about this
because believers go through very difficult, difficult trials. Trials that could be described
as grievous, as troublesome, as a burden, right? They could
be, but what I believe the Lord is speaking of here, when He
says to us, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. If it was dependent upon us under
the law, that would be grievous. because we are not perfect and
we do sin and we do offend and we do make bad decisions and
if it was resting on us there would be hell to pay literally
literally and what our Lord is saying is it's not on you Come
to me. I'm your salvation. I'm your
salvation. I'll bear it. I'll do that which
is perfect and right. and just. And the other sense
is that we have one. When we're under the law, we're
carrying that burden, that weight all ourselves. We know that there's
difficulties and hardships and trouble. There's trials and there's
afflictions and hardships and contrary winds blowing against
us. But we have one that we may turn to. says cast all your care
upon me and trust him to do it because we will make mistakes
we will mess it up if it can be messed up and it's left to
us we can ruin it like that we can ruin it very quickly but
we have one that cares for us cares for us and so he says come
unto me ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest and lift that guilt and lift that punishment and lift
that threat and that thundering off of your shoulders because
he bore it for us on the cross and put away that sin. and delivered
us from it. And he's able to accomplish the
will of God for us and in us by his spirit, by his grace,
by his power, according as it pleases him, exactly as it pleases
him. And he goes on in verse 4, 1
John 5, 4, for whatsoever is born of God over cometh the law. Under the law, we, I'm sorry,
overcometh the world. Under the law, we labor grievously,
right? We labor grievously because this
world is wicked. And when we're trying to outdo
it and overcome it by the works of the law, you'll be destroyed. You won't be able to do it. You
can't bear up under it because that's how wicked and overwhelmingly
wicked this world is. But you know who overcame this
world and this world's wickedness? The Lord Jesus Christ. So that you won't be overwhelmed
and destroyed by the evil of this world because He has you. You're His child. You're kept
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he said, this
is the victory that overcometh the world. Not our law keeping,
even our faith, our faith, that's what overcomes this world. You
look into Christ, you trust in Christ, that's what overcomes
this world. He does, he does. Not our works,
his work. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. It doesn't get any clearer than
that. Look to Him, look to your Savior, look to the Lord. He
is the one that overcomes the world. He's the one that overcomes
the world in our hearts. He's the one who overcomes the
world and this sin and this wickedness in Adam, in us, by nature. He overcomes all of that by his
grace and power. Praise be his name. So when heard
by faith, this passage puts our minds in a right understanding
of God's commandments. They have to do with the love,
our love toward God and God's love toward us and our faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's three commandments
which are spelled out in the scriptures. There's three commandments
that are given in this light. The children of God hear and
obey God's commands without fail. Without fail. He works this in
us by his grace. So the first is God's command
to repent. Repent. Turn to Acts 17. Acts
17. And let's go to verse 30. What
exactly are we called to repent of? What is the nature of this? repentance. Well, the Apostle
Paul is preaching to these idolatrous Greeks, these idle, false, God-worshipping
Greeks that are there. And they're practicing their
idolatry, and they think that by their idolatry they are pleasing
God, or the gods. They have false image of God. They have set up a false imagination
of God in their hearts. And they're thinking, this is
our salvation. And Paul opposes that idolatry
with the preaching of the gospel. And he says in Acts 1730, and
the times of this ignorance, this ignorant practice of your
idolatry and thinking that this is your righteousness, God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. because
he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. You and I need a perfect righteousness,
and playing around in little religious games in the flesh
is not going to cut it. It's not going to gain us acceptance
with the true and living God. And the Lord says, repent of
that. Stop trusting your works of righteousness
to gain you acceptance with God, to justify you of your sins. It's not going to work. Turn
from that and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe him. whom
he has sent." Now I'm getting into the second one, but it's
to stop trusting your false works of religion, of righteousness. It's not going to work. Repent
of those things. That's what his repentance is
saying. Turn from dead works that cannot save. And by this
gospel, men are commanded to repent of those things. So, this
goes to our second command. The scriptures teach that God's
people are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ died for the ungodly. Therefore, all your works under
the law, everything you do to make yourselves righteous, are
not accepted by God. They're not required by God. He came not for the righteous,
but for sinners. He came for the ungodly, for
those who are exasperated, who've come to the end and say, I can't
save myself. I can't do it. Lord, I need your
grace. I need your salvation. I need
the blood of Christ to cleanse me of my sin, to cleanse me of
my unrighteousness. And so the Lord's showing us,
look to Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. And that's how we come. We don't
come by our own works, by our own hand. We come by Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That's the command of God to
the sinner. You that have no righteousness,
you that need salvation, believe on Christ. You that need a perfect
righteousness, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved. You shall, that's his word, and
that's his command, believe. Believe him, trust him. And in
scripture now, Believing Christ is called obedience to the truth. When you read of obedience to
the truth, it's believing Christ. That's where it all begins. And
He does all the work in you. And over in 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter
1, at the end of that chapter in verse 21, Peter says, who by him do believe
in God, that raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
that your faith and hope might be in God. Not in your works,
in God. Your faith and hope might be
in God, in Christ, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying
the truth. There it is. Faith is obedience
to the truth. That's what faith is. You're
being obedient to the truth that God has declared to us and revealed
to us in the face of his darling son Jesus Christ. you're believing
the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the spirit unto
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that word that liveth and
abideth forever. He's the one that we believe.
Believing Christ is also called in Scripture, obedience to the
faith. It's obedience to the faith.
Paul speaks of this in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1,
the beginning there, we'll pick up in verse 3. Paul says, concerning his son
Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh. and declared to be the Son of
God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name." Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is obedience to
the faith. And that's what Paul preached.
He was preaching Christ, Christ crucified, that through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. and that
all that believe in Him are justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is obedience to the faith,
believing Him. Among all nations for his name,
among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. You that believe
him are the called. You are those that are called
by the Spirit of Grace to the Son, to the Father through Jesus
Christ the Son. And so all men of all nations,
whoever they be, are called to repent of trusting their vain
religious works that cannot save those things we thought pleased
God and brought us into the presence of God. He says, put them away. Repent of those things. Be turned
from that foolishness. and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ for righteousness. Believe, this is the word of
God unto you, that Christ Jesus is our very righteousness and
acceptance with the true and living God. He's our salvation,
the salvation for our souls. And then this leads us to the
third commandment. The third commandment for God's
people, God's people are commanded to love All men. First, all men
as their neighbor, and secondly, all brethren as Christ hath loved
us. All men as our neighbor, and
then secondly, as all our brethren as Christ hath loved us. So regarding
our neighbor, Paul writes this in Romans 13. Romans 13, verses
8 through 10, he says, O no man anything but to love
one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt
not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there
be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor,
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. If you seek to love
men in the light of the gospel, then you're not looking to take
advantage of them. You're not looking to harm them.
You're not looking to offend them. You're looking to do them
good. And you're looking to, hopefully, do things that speak
of the hope you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hopefully, you're
bearing that testimony unto them and praying to that end. But
the point is, we'll treat them well. We will treat them well. If you're not seeking to do any
man any ill, then you're going to, by default, fulfill the law
onto them. You're going to treat them as
you would want to be treated. and you'll bear the fruits of
the spirit. And that ought to be our highest
desire, that Lord, help me to walk by faith in you and bearing
fruits of your testimony, adorning the grace that you've given to
me in Christ, that that fruit would be yielding rather than
what is so natural and easy to my flesh, the works of the flesh. Galatians 5 22 and 23 is where
Paul writes of the fruit of the Spirit saying that the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, and temperance. And he says against such there
is no law. Who could charge you for sin
in loving another? in showing love and kindness
to another and seeking peace with them and being gentle with
them or showing them goodness. I had to look that word goodness
up because I wasn't sure what Paul meant by it. And it said
it was to be beneficent. So I had to look that word up
because I didn't know what beneficent was. But apparently it means
to show acts of kindness and acts of charity. It's another
form of love. To show kindness to others, to
do things that are kind and gentle for them. And so, what we see
in this is that we must be looking to Christ. Look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Pray to Him because none loved
the way He loved perfectly, perfectly. In 1 John 2, 6, again, coming
back to our text, He that saith he abideth in him ought himself
also so to walk even as he walked." Well, how did Christ walk? Well,
one thing we know that He did was He was dependent upon His
Father. That was part of His humiliation
in taking upon Him this flesh was that He depended wholly upon
the Father. And He prayed to the Father and
He sought the Father. that he might speak according
to the words of the father and do the father's will. He was
dependent on the Lord. How much more ought we be dependent
upon him? Upon him. And the other thing
that we see is he walked humbly. He walked with humility. And
that's very contrary to this flesh, which is proud and arrogant
and boastful and does things for itself. not for others, but
if we would walk toward others as he walked toward us, we would
be humble and kind and truthful and honest in love, in love. And he tells us, our Lord says
in John 13, verse 34 and 35, this is where he says, a new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I
have loved you. that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another, one to
another. So how did Christ love the disciples? Well, one, we know he spoke the
truth to them. He spoke according to the truth.
He said, all things that I have heard of my father I have made
known unto you. And so he was faithful to declare
the truth to his disciples. And so it's through the Lord
and through his spirit that we even know the gospel, that we
know the good news. And not only just know it. in
word only, but in spirit and in truth in our hearts. That's
by his grace that does that. It's by his power that works
his word, sows his word in good ground, in a heart prepared for
this word, that it bear fruit unto those that we minister to
and serve. And so we know the gospel, and
by him we make this word known unto you. We speak the truth
to our brethren in love for your instruction, for your edification,
for your growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3.18 that you grow in
the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And then we know that our Lord loved his disciples by laying
down his life for his brethren. He sacrificed himself for his
brethren. And that's what we're called
to do in service to one another. He said in John 15 verses 12
and 13, he said, This is my commandment that ye love one another as I
have loved you. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And through his sacrifice he
obtained the forgiveness of our sins and and and he he gained
life for us and and if we would serve our brethren we seek the
same for them and we seek to to be helpers of their joy and
that that regard through love and through serving them even
as as just your gathering here tonight is a service to your
brethren it ministers comfort to me to see your faces And just
as much as I pray his word comforts your hearts, that together we're
comforted with one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
when difficulties come, and they will, and you're offended by
your brothers, seek to forgive them, pray for them, and love
them, even when they don't deserve it. even when they're not lovable,
even when they are guilty of it, seek the Lord and how you
might love them and minister grace to their hearts. This word's
recorded for us here that we would hear it and none of us
is able to keep that word in this flesh or to keep it perfectly
or right. What I believe the Lord does
though is that He humbles us to seek Him for his grace, to
seek him for his spirit, that we might know how to minister
and show love to our brethren and serve our brethren in a right
spirit. And so we seek the Lord's blessing
for our brethren. We seek the Lord to teach us. We don't build up stories in
our minds. I mean, we do, but we pray not
to, that we might serve our brethren in love, and in joy, and in peace,
and in gladness, and in kindness, trusting that the Lord is able
to, by His grace, to cover our sins, to put them away, and to
grow us in the body of Christ. And so He's teaching us to love
them patiently, and He's able to do that. He's able to teach
us, and that's why sheep live and dwell together. We learn
through being together how to be patient and long-suffering
and loving one another because offenses do come. We don't expect
our brethren to do grievous things but We know that brethren do,
because we ourselves do them. We do them ourselves, and so
we're to understand there's a spiritual war going on, offenses will come,
and they are given to prove the Lord's faith in you, to prove
His work in you and it bears fruits of righteousness in your
heart. Those fruits of the Spirit in
Galatians 5. It's easy to love people when
they're lovable. It's easy to love people when they're perfect.
It's not so easy when they're not. And more often we're not
perfect. More often we need love and we
need the grace of God to help us to do that right. So pray for one another, seek
peace, and as much as it depends upon you, seek peace with one
another and treat your brethren in love, deal with them in love.
Now here's an example of what that love looks like, or would
look like, and Paul wrote it in Ephesians chapter four, verse
29, or verse 32 rather, and following, he said, be ye kind one to another,
tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ hath loved
us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Now, I'm no expert at love. And
I fear that I am often the offender rather than the one being justly
offended more often than not. But I know that to forgive and
love can be more difficult than it is to just brush someone off
or cut them off because it requires patience and love, and it requires accepting things or dealing with
things and bearing with those things patiently. It requires
prayer and going to the Lord and it can be hard. I understand
that very much, but I believe it's good for us to go through
those difficulties, to work through them with one another because
it does drive us to our knees. and cry out to the Lord to cast
our care upon Him. And so, when someone has offended
you or done wrong to you, that is the time to pray. It's a good time to pray. And
the Lord's given it to drive us to our knees to pray to Him
and to ask Him for a right heart. You know, it's very difficult
to stand up here and just spout off what could be done as a blanket
thing. for every individual thing, but
I know going to the Lord and being in prayer is never a bad
thing. And it's always a good thing
to ask the Lord for a right heart, to ask the Lord for that tender
heartedness, to forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you, to seek Him, Lord, how might I show kindness
and gentleness and goodness here in a right spirit, Lord? teaching
me here in this. And it's good. It's good to do
that because our Lord forgave us and we want to forgive others
too. And how did the Lord forgive us? Graciously. Meaning undeserved
grace. And so there are times when we
are called to forgive even though some don't, even though we may
not deserve it or have earned it. But the Lord is able to overcome
that and use that. And if they're His, draw them
out into the light and bless them in it. If there's something
for them to see, the Lord's able to make them see it. So I pray the Lord bless our
hearts to keep the Lord's commandments and to repent. of the works of
folly whereby we think we can come to God by our works and
think that that's our righteousness. Repent of that, he says. His
second commandment is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. And his third commandment is
to love one another, to love one another, to love all men
as thy neighbor, as yourself, and to love your brethren as
the Lord loved us. Pray to the Lord for that, because
he's the one that's able to teach our hearts in those moments,
in those times when it's needed. He is able to do that perfectly. Amen.