Good morning. It's been a beautiful
week down here, I tell you. I tell you, the Lord gave us
some beautiful days, didn't He? Turn to 1 John 2. 1 John 2. I'm going to start
reading from verse 1 down to verse 14. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world. 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, or come to maturity. Hereby know we that we are in
him. He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also to
walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment
unto you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word of the gospel, which you have
heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write
unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the
darkness is past and the true light now shineth. He that saith
he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even
until now, He that loveth his brother abideth in the light,
and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that
hateth his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knoweth
not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his
eyes. I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. I write
unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the
beginning. I write unto you young men because you have overcome
the wicked one. I write unto you little children
because you have known the father. I have written unto you fathers
because you have known him that is from the beginning. And I
have written unto you young men because you are strong and the
word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked
one. Let's pray. Our Father, thank
you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity
to be able to gather here with our family, to read your word,
to be instructed out of your word. Teach us by thy spirit
this morning. Enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth. Give me freedom of thought and
speech. Our Father, we thank you for all your blessings. Everything
we have, our Heavenly Father has given to us, and we thank
you for it. Help us this morning, Father,
to worship you in spirit and in truth. That's the reason why
we're here, to give you the honor and the glory that's due unto
your holy name. Pray for those here that are
sick. Those who are under heavy trials, Father, you know who
they are. We pray for them. Pray your blessing upon them.
Pray that you make them to know that your grace is sufficient.
And those who are in the path of that hurricane, Father, we
pray for them. Lord, we know this. You have your way in the
whirlwind and in the storm. We know this. We know that all
things are under your control. And we are glad that it's so.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. John says here back in verse
7, he says, brethren, I write no new commandment to you. What I'm writing to you is not
new. It's not something we have come up with, us apostles. But
it's an old commandment. An old commandment, which is
the message, the gospel that you heard concerning salvation
in Christ from the beginning, from the first time you heard
it. He said it hasn't changed. Christ is our advocate. And you
know what? I was thinking about this last
night. Christ is our advocate. Christ is our propitiation. Christ
is our high priest. Christ is our mediator. That
which Christ is to me, He's always been. He's always been that to
me. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. When God made the covenant with
His Son, He established in that covenant with Christ, everything
I need, He is to me. The scriptures teach us that
He is. our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. That's what Jesus Christ, it's
not that he just gives me these things, that's what Jesus Christ
is to me. He is my wisdom. He is my righteousness. He is my sanctification. He is
my redemption. Jesus Christ is all I need. That's the simplest way to put
it. As it says in Colossians, in Him, you are complete. Now, if it's complete, how stupid
would it be of me to try and add something to it? If it's
complete, it's complete. If God says it's complete, leave
it alone. That's the wisest thing you and
I could do, leave it alone. If God says it's complete, if
He says I'm complete, that means I lack nothing. I'm not gonna
come up short at all. You know, I don't know when I'll
die, but I know I will die. And I know this, that when I
come up to die, one of my greatest comforts is gonna be this, I'm
complete. I'm complete, I'm gonna go before
God, spotless, holy, pure, And that's just going to be in a
little while now. That's going to just be in a little while.
But in Him we stand complete. And those who love God, He tells
us back in verse 6, those who love God are to walk even as
He walked. He says in verse 6, He that saith
He abideth in Him, that He lives in Christ, in Him we live and
move and have our being. Right? And He said we ought to
walk even as He walked. And I was thinking last night
before going to bed, and I had to write this down this morning,
how did He walk? How did He walk? Well, first
of all, Christ walked in faith. The man, He's God, very God,
and yet He's a man, as someone said, as if He were not God,
and God as if He were not man. But He's God, and He walked by
faith. He believed God. And His faith,
His faith, and His faithfulness is our righteousness. It's our
righteousness. He walked believing God, and
that's the way you and I ought to walk. Every day the just shall
live by faith, not once in a while, not on Sunday and on Wednesday. The just shall live by faith
day by day by day. trusting God to do just as He
said He would. And God has never broken a promise. God cannot lie. And then He walked in love. He walked in perfect love. You
know, the whole law is wrapped up in this, to love God with
all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your neighbor as yourself.
He did that. He did that. and that belongs
to me. I did that in him. That's imputed to me. That's
charged to me. I did it in my substitute, in
my representative, I did that. But as I walk through this life
now, I'm to walk in love. Love to
my brother, love to my brother, now listen, love to my brother
in Adam, He loved my brother in Christ. Scott Richardson one
time, somebody... Scott had called somebody a brother.
He called him Brother So-and-So. And someone said to him, said,
he doesn't believe the gospel, why'd you call him brother? He
said, well, if I don't get him in Christ, I'll get him in Adam. That was a good answer, wasn't
it? Why do you call him brother? If I don't get him in Christ,
I'll get him in Adam. And we do, God's people have,
they have a genuine love for men. They do. They're my brother in
Adam, my brothers and sisters in Adam. And I'm a part of that
family. We have the same genetics. You
know, if I have to have a blood transfusion, I'm not gonna say,
is he lost or saved? How would I know? It wouldn't
matter, would it? Because I have his genetics,
he has mine. I can take a blood transfusion from him. He's my
brother. We have a love, a genuine love,
either in those who still belong to Adam or those who belong to
Christ. A real love. And Christ did that. He did that. He wept over Jerusalem. He wept
over Jerusalem. He stood there and said, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you together, but you
would not. And he wept over Jerusalem. There
was a rich young man came to him and asked him, what must
he do to be saved? And the Lord quoted the law.
And he said, what's the law say? And he quoted it. And he said,
all these I've kept from my youth up. And one of the ones that
he quoted was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and
your neighbor as yourself. And he said, all these I've kept
from my youth up. And the Lord said, well, go sell all you have
and give it to the poor. And he went away sorrowful, he said,
because he's very rich. He said, come follow me. And
he went away sorrowful because he was very rich. Well, so much
for loving your neighbor. Lord proved to him right there,
you don't love him. You don't love your neighbor. And then
when he walked away, he said the Lord loved him. The Lord
loved him. As a man, as a man, the Lord
loved him. From one man to another man,
he walked in love. And then he walked in humility.
It says over in Philippians 2, let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who thought of not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, but took upon
him the form of a servant. A slave, that's what that means.
Took upon him the form of a slave. He said, I came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many.
I came to serve. It was not beneath him to serve. He stooped down and washed the
disciples feet. Vicki and I, Years ago, we took
care of a man. He had MS. We took care of him for four
years. And from time to time, I had to wash his feet. And when
I did, I thought about that. I thought, how humiliating and
how humbling, how humbling it is for the Lord of glory to stoop
down. But you know what he was doing?
He washed their feet, but he's washing the feet of his children.
Think about that one. You know, we don't, we wouldn't,
it would be too humiliating to go around washing each other's
feet, but I tell you what, when you wash your children's feet,
it doesn't trouble you, does it? It's not humiliating this. It's a pleasure to wash their
feet. It's a pleasure to take care of them. But we walk in
humility, and then we walk in hope. It is written in the Psalms,
thou will not leave my soul in the grave. Thou will not leave
my soul in hell. Thou will not leave my soul in
the grave. He knew that. He knew he was coming out of
that grave. We should walk in the same hope.
Walk with the same attitude. Walk with the same spirit. He
said, let this mind be in you. He didn't say, let this doctrine
be in you. What he's saying is, let this spirit, this attitude,
and attitude is a spirit, good or bad. He said, let this spirit
be in you, which was also in him. And then he walked in self-denial. Self-denying himself. That's
the hardest thing, I would say, probably, for us to do, to deny
ourselves. but for one before another. It
is so against human nature. It's so against human nature
to do that. But our Lord had no place to lay His head. No
place. And that's why John says we should
walk even as He walked. But then he says here, he says
here, The old commandment is the word,
the gospel, which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment. Now he says that old commandment,
I'm not writing an old commandment, but now he's saying I'm writing
a new commandment, which I write unto you, which is true in him
or realized in him that's realized in you. Because the darkness
is past or passing, and the true light now shines. The gospel
we preach, is not new. It's not new. It goes back to
the beginning. It's called in Revelation 14,
the everlasting gospel. That's what it's called. The
everlasting gospel. The way God saves sinners now
is the same as from the beginning. I had a man back when I was in
my 20s. I'd just heard the gospel. Just
coming to an understanding of it. And I went to school with
this gentleman. And he was telling me that, and
he claimed to be saved. He said, back in the Old Testament,
they were saved by the sacrifices of those animals and keeping
the law. They were saved that way. Now
we're saved by grace. They were saved by grace too.
Everyone who God saves, He saves exactly the same way. Through
faith in Christ, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness. The same thing happens to us.
Abraham, saved, called by the grace of God, the same thing
happens to us. It's nothing new. Grace is not
new. Salvation in Christ alone is
not new. It's not a new gospel. The principles
of grace are all the same. From the beginning to the end,
it's the same. But now, there's a sense in which
Christ has come, and he's given us a better understanding. When
he says, I write anew, he's given us a better understanding now
of the law, of the grace of God, of salvation. He's given us a
better understanding. Let me show you a little bit
of that in Matthew chapter five. Matthew 5. Look in verse 21. And this is
what I'm saying when I say He's come and given us a better understanding.
In verse 21, He says, You have heard that it was said by them
of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of judgment. But I say to you, see this is
the law giver interpreting his own law. I say to you that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother Rekha and
his vain fellow shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever
shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. You see
up here in verse 21, they said, whosoever shall kill shall be
in danger, but if you don't kill, you're okay. He said, that's
what you've heard. That's what they said. It's amazing
how things get twisted. The more they get said, it come
down to this. If you don't kill anybody, it's
okay. Well, that's all right. Maybe in this life, we'll deal
with each other, but not with God. Not with God. Our Lord, look here in verse
27. You have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou
shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you that whosoever
looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart." Until He came and gave us these
definitions, we didn't know that. We thought if we just did not
outwardly commit adultery, we were doing fine. There's gonna
be people standing in judgment, guilty of murder, guilty of adultery,
who never did it outwardly. But God's gonna expose their
heart. This is your heart. This is who you are. You wanted
to kill him. You killed him in your heart. And with God, that's
the same as doing it. That's the same as doing it.
Look in verse 38. You have heard that it hath been
said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you
that you resist not evil. Whosoever shall smite thee on
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." That's just a new revelation
there. We never heard that before. And that's what John's saying.
He said, and I am writing a new commandment to you. It's newly,
it's more brought to light by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over
in 1 John 5. Look here in 1 John 5. In verse 20, And we know that the Son of God
is come. We know this. They're still looking
for the Messiah over there in Israel. They're still looking
for that Messiah to come. We know that He's come. We know
that by God's grace, God's mercy. We know who the Messiah is. His
name is Jesus Christ. They deny that. Still to this
day, they deny that over there. But we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding that we may know
Him that is true, the true God, and we are in Him that is true. even in His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God. Jesus Christ is the true God
and eternal life. And if you have Him, you have
God, and you have eternal life. You have Him. And by His example, we have a
better understanding of what love is. Before, it was like, you know,
we just love each other, but the Jews, I tell you what, the
Jews hated us. They loved their own, but they
hated us. But our Lord came and dispelled that, didn't he? He
loved the Gentiles as well as the Jews. He brought us, they
hated us, it was like letting the dogs in the house. That's
how they felt about it. That's what the Lord called that
Syrophoenician woman. He said, it's not right, it's
not fit to give the bread, the children's bread to the dogs. That's what they called us. Christ, we have him as an example
and a better understanding of love. Love your enemies. That's
why he said, pray for them who despitefully use you. They never
heard that before. And the question John asked is
this, how can a man love God? How can a man say, I love God and hate his brother? His brother, he's saying his
brother in Christ, hate his brother. This is a question John said
you must face. And he was dealing with it. Here's
something. Here's the wisdom of God. John
lived the longest of the apostles. He lived to be an old man. But
there was a lot of heresy that got started back at that time.
And I look back now at that, and I understand, and I see the
wisdom of God in allowing all that heresy that got started
in John's time so that he might be able to deal with it for us. Because there's nothing new under
the sun. There's nothing new. And he says, it's not possible.
It's not possible to say you love God or how I love Jesus. And then you can't stand that
guy standing beside of you. He said, that's not possible.
John said, that's not possible. That which is in Christ is also
in his people. Does Christ love? Then that's
in you too. If Christ is in me, if He's in
me. And then He says here in verse
8, the darkness is past, or passing. The darkness of the ceremonial
law has passed. We understand. We understand that Christ is
the fulfillment of all the types in the pictures. We understand
that. God has given us an understanding. We understand what the Passover
land was all about. We know the one who fulfilled
that, God's land. We know what the tabernacle represented,
Christ. All these things pointed to Christ,
the blood of atonement. It all pointed to Christ, the
priesthood. It all pointed to Him. He's the fulfillment of
it, and they're done away. But now here's to me is the,
it's an amazing, this is kind of amazing to me. They, over
in Israel now, over in that part of the country, the Jews, they
reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Why are they not offering sacrifices?
If they, if he's not the fulfiller of those things, why are they
not doing them? Why are they not offering the
lambs today? They better be doing something if He's not in. Who gave them the right to stop
all that stuff if Christ is not the fulfillment of it? But we understand. We understand. We don't need ceremonies. We don't need to go through a
bunch of hoopla. We don't need to go through a
bunch of rituals. Christ is the fulfillment of the law, the ceremonial
law, the moral law. Jesus Christ is all we need right
here today. That's it. That's it. The darkness of sin and ignorance
has passed. Christ, the true light, has come.
and he has illuminated us. You are light. You know the scripture
says you are light in the Lord. You're children of light. You're
not children of darkness anymore. It says over Colossians that
he has translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of his dear son. You realize that we live in another
kingdom. We operate in another kingdom.
And I know we live in this world in the kingdom of men, but we
also live in another kingdom. We live in a spiritual kingdom.
And we've been translated out of this kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of God's dear son, kingdom of light. And you're
children of light. God's taught you something. God's
taught us something. God has taught us the truth. Just like that lady who had sent
you those texts. She's in darkness, religious
darkness. That's the worst darkness. I'm
telling you, the worst darkness that you could be in is religious
darkness. Thinking you're going the right
way when you're going totally the opposite direction. Thinking
that you are clothed when you're naked. Thinking that you're rich
when you're poor. How terrible is that? You see
what God has saved us from. That ought to humble us so much
that God has taken us and taught us and revealed to us the truth. The truth. We've been enlightened. We've been illuminated by the
Spirit of God. Now, verses 9-11 is the application
of this truth. The person who says he's been
illuminated, they know God, they've been saved, they have a true
knowledge of the gospel, that they walk in the light, yet he
hates his brother. Christ said, John says here,
of course, he's under the influence and writing of the Holy Spirit,
that man is walking, he's living, he's living in darkness. If the light, our Lord said this,
if the light in you be darkness, how great is that darkness? How
great is it? But he who loves his brother,
whether it's in Adam or in Christ, he reveals a work of grace in
his heart. The number one mark, I think,
of sonship is love. It is brought up, and you'll
see as we go through the book of John here, this first John,
it's love, love, love, all the way through it, all the way through
it. Love is the rule of our life.
Love produces obedience. It does. And I said this, I believe,
last week, it's not hard to submit and obey someone you love. Wife, if you love that husband,
first, let me say it this way first, if you love Christ, if
you love Christ, you're gonna love your husband. It's not hard
to submit. to one you love. It's not. It's not hard to serve the one
you love. Not hard at all. Now John reminds us here in verse
11. He reminds us that whatever appearance we may demonstrate,
if love is absent, everything else is absent. A work of grace
has not been done in us if that's absent. And this commandment of love
to God and love to one another belongs to believers. He's writing
to believers. And notice how he describes them
here. He says first, little children. Children. He writes to the little
children. He writes to the young men. He
writes to the father. John urges them to obedience
because of what God has done for them. Look here in verse,
I think it's verse 11. Verse 12. It's not hard to obey
when you understand what God's done for you. Listen, verse 12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins, and if you
know what sin is, it's gonna mean something. If you really
don't know what sin is, it's not gonna mean anything. But
I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven
you for His namesake, for Christ's sake. That's the only reason
God has forgiven me, for Christ's sake. I write to you, He said, then
I said, I write to you fathers because you've known Him that
is from the beginning. The fathers are the ones, they're
settled. They've been around a while. They know God. They're mature in faith. They
know how to handle some things. I wrote Henry a few, probably
two or three years ago. We was going through a very difficult
time and I wrote Henry about it and he wrote me back and he
said, well, It seems the Lord's been pleased to send you some
difficult trials. His grace is sufficient. That's
the wisdom and the steadiness of a father in Christ. Not excited,
not saying, well, I don't know what's going on. The Lord's just
been pleased to put you through some trials, and it'll be all
right. He can say that, and He knows
that by experience. And I've written to you, Father,
because you've known him, that's from the beginning. And I write
to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.
That is, through faith, you've overcome the wicked one. I write
to you, little children, and this must be important because
he repeats this. You know, when you repeat something,
it's important. Somebody's repeating something,
they want you to get it. I write to you little children because
you've known the Father too. You don't know Him like the old
man in Christ. I don't mean by age, but I mean
by years in Christ. I've written to you, Father,
because you've known Him from the beginning. I've written to
you, young men, because you're strong and the Word of God abides
in you. And you've overcome the wicked
ones. You know, the world is after young men, young men, young
women. You can just watch television.
Who's it geared up to? It's geared up to the young youth,
young men, young women, 20s, 30s, you know, it's geared up
to them. The world's after them. But he's saying here that you're
strong, you're strong in faith. God has done something in you,
a word of grace in you, and the word of God abides in you. This is how you overcome. The
word of God's... You know, it's one thing to have
the word of God on the pages of this book. I'm telling the
truth. It's another thing, this word
would be right here. And where it's active and working. and
it motivates and it moves us. There's a difference. The person
who just religious, he reads these words as words on a book.
They're no more to him than the laws written on stone. That's
what the, you know, when Paul said to the Thessalonians, the
word, the gospel came not into you. It came unto you not in
word only. but in power and in demonstration
of the spirit. There'll be some people sit in
this congregation, maybe sit in this congregation for years,
the rest of their life, and the gospel will not be any more than
the word coming to them. In word only, no power. Then
there's some. It comes in power. And it changes
your whole life. You'll never be the same again.
Never, never. Children, young men, fathers,
make up the body of Christ. They make up the body of Christ.
They make up the family of God. And as we wait on our Lord's
return, we are to serve God and one another in love. And that's the one thing, that's
the one thing you're gonna get out of the first John. We serve
God, we serve one another in love. Glad to do it. Glad to
do it.