Let's open our Bibles to 1 John
chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. The title of
my message today is, How Can We Know? For many years, I've talked to
people about who Christ is. About who man is. What we really are. what Christ
really accomplished. And I'll say, how can you know?
How can you be sure? But John's writing to believers
in this epistle of 1 John, and he begins in chapter 1 and he
declares to us, Christ is the Word of Life. He declares to
us, Christ is our righteousness. And it begins in chapter two,
what we looked at last week, and he shows us Christ as our
advocate. He's our representative, our
lawyer to that judge. And he shows us Christ as our
propitiation, the satisfactory payment to that judge. And now John deals with assurance. He deals with how we know that
we know Christ and that we're found in Christ. 1 John 2 and
verse 3, "...and hereby we do know that we know Him." Here's
how we know, "...if we keep His commandments. He that saith,
I know Him, keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in Him. But whoso keepeth His word, in
him verily, truly, 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." Now a believer's
main want, a true believer's main desire is to know Christ
and to be found in Him. I want Him as my representative.
We love true doctrine. We don't discount it. I want
true, strong doctrine. Dogmatic doctrine. But not simply
for being right. When I was 15 years old, I could
argue the five points of Calvinism with the best of them. We'd sit
down with the Bible and I would dismantle your argument against
that for free will, I would dismantle it verse by verse, and it was
hard to whip me. But I wanted to be right. That's
what the book says. It's black and white. I can read
it. You can read it. That's what it says. I wanted to argue. I wanted to be right. I want
true doctrine. I want strong doctrine. But for
the sake of knowing doctrine, it won't do you no good. We love doctrine that makes us
know Christ. I want to have something that
points me to Him. I can learn more about Him. Learn
how He did some of these things. It is Christ we want to know
and Christ we want to be found in. But believers will be given
assurance that they know Christ. If you're His, you're going to
know you know Him. Not just know about Him, not
just know some facts about Him, not just be right about Him,
but you'll know Him. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi,
Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. What did
he have? He had his righteousness. Paul
didn't have his own righteousness. He wanted to be found in Christ,
knowing Christ, and having Christ's righteousness. That I may know
Him. I want assurance that I know
Him, that I'm in Christ. I want that. Now here in our
text today, the Spirit of God declares through John. The Lord
made John's hand, He made the pencil he wrote with, He made
that paper, and He pushed that hand in there. The Spirit moved
Him. But God declares through John that it is possible for
believers to know that very thing. We can know that we know Him.
I often struggle with assurance. Do you? All of us, all the blood-bought
children of God, at one time or another, we will lose our
assurance on our end. It doesn't change our assurance,
but we, from our point of view, we get weak. We get weary. Do I even know the Lord? We have
many moments of weakness. Sometimes we have many days of
weakness. Sometimes we have weeks or months of weakness. It's not
just for five minutes at a time. We have a little hiccup. Sometimes
that goes on for a long time. But a true believer can and will
have a season of doubt. If you have it yet, it's coming.
And that's why John wrote this. The Spirit moved him to write
it. So let us never judge a brother or sister that's wavering in
faith. Read that article I put in the
bulletin today. Weak faith, moderate faith, and strong faith. Someone's
having a weak time in faith. We don't look down our noses
at him. Because just as likely, tomorrow, I'll be the weak one. I'll need assurance. And when
that happens, do I want a brother that's strong in that moment?
Do I want him to condemn me? Or do I want him to lift me up?
Do I want him to put me down or do I want him to point me
towards Christ? And I pray the Lord enables me
to lift my brethren whenever He strengthens me. Because I
know I need it when I'm not strong. Now there are people out there
that say it's impossible for believers to have assurance that
they know Christ and that they are in Christ. They say we can't
know. Job wrote, for I know, for I
know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy
and said, For the witch cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless
I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed unto
him against that day. Job knew. Paul knew. John here knew, and we can know. John wrote in chapter 3, we know
we have passed from death unto life. And then he tells us how
we know that. In chapter 5 he says, these things
have I written unto you that you believe on the name of the
Son of God that ye may know that you have eternal life. And he
gives us another example of how we can know that we do know. But today I want us to look at
three points here in this text. I want us to see how we know.
Who makes us to know? Who gives that assurance? And
I want to see the result of having assurance. The result of knowing
Christ and being found in Christ. So first, how do we know? First
John 2 and verse 3. John writes, 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." God declares the way we have assurance that we know
Christ is if we keep His commandments. I mean, many people read this
and they'll say, see, we need to keep the Sabbath. See, we
got to keep the Ten Commandments. See, we have to be baptized.
We have to walk a church aisle or something, and the list goes
on. It's never ending. We have to
do something. That's what my thought, when
I hear that, you have to keep my commandments, the first thing that pops in
my head, the Ten Commandments, because that's been pounded into
me from birth, hasn't it? It's on, back home, it's on every
courthouse building, and it was in the schools, and it was all
over. The teacher got up and read it
to us in kindergarten every morning before we started class. What
are the Lord's commandments to His people? Christ came and He
fulfilled that law. That law is satisfied. But we
have some commandments. The Lord tells us there are some
things that believers will and must do. We shall do them. Just
as He said all the shouts and the Ten Commandments. Turn over
to 1 John chapter 3 verse 23. Just over the page. 1 John 3.23 And 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. Now this first
commandment here to those who know Him, those children of God,
those elect sheep of His, is to believe on Christ. He commands that. Now turn over
to John chapter 6. We're going to go back and forth
a little bit between throughout the book of 1st John back to
John, the Gospel of John. Why would we do that? Well this
is where John learned it. This is when that happened. John
chapter 6 verse 28. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do, that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent." Those who know Christ, believe Christ
is the Son of God, He's our Sovereign Lord, and He's our Savior. What
do we believe concerning Christ? We have to believe on Him. I
think Paul put it wonderfully in that letter to the church
at Corinth when he said, "...but of Him are ye in Christ who of
God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." What do we believe
on Christ? Any wisdom I have is His wisdom. It comes from Him and it's what
He knows, not what I know. I believe that all my righteousness,
any rightness that is in me to stand before the Lord is not
in me. It's given of Him and it's His
righteousness. I'm sanctified. It's not something
I do. Christ sanctified me. I'm set
apart. I'm made holy because He's holy. I'm made like Him in our redemption.
It wasn't a co-effort on man's part. It wasn't something I chose
to do. He did it. He redeemed me. And
then Paul wraps that up by saying, He that gloryeth, let him glory
the Lord. Christ has done all those things for you. Where do
I stand to glory? In Him. There ain't nobody else
to. I don't get credit. He gets all
the credit. Now we believe in Him. We believe
on Him. We believe through Him. And we
believe to Him. Children of the Lord, believe
Christ. Now, the second commandment to
those who know Him is that we love one another. If you're still
on John, turn over to John 13. You've got to believe on Christ,
love the brethren. John 13, 34. A new commandment I give unto
you, that ye love one another. How? Do I have to love them on
Tuesdays? I have to love them on Wednesdays
and Sundays when I see them at church. Do I love them when they
love me back? What's the rules for us to love
one another? He gave us a commandment and
I want to know how to do it. 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
you are my disciples if you have love for one another. He always
says that by this all men want to know. How is that? How can somebody know that I'm
the Lord's by how I love my brethren? Well, the only way is because
I love my brethren the way Christ loved me. And for me to do that,
I have to know how He loved me. I have to know Him first. He
has to love me, make me know Him, He shows me that love He
has for Him. Then He shows me that there are
brothers and sisters around this world that He loved the same
way. And now I have an obligation, I have a desire, I have a want
to love them the way He loved me. That's how they'll know.
But because we've been loved by Christ first, then we love
our brethren. How does it manifest? What's
true love? manifest in our brethren. We
show our love by obeying God's Word. We submit to His Word in
all things. We encourage one another with
His Word. The comforts that we find when we read the scriptures,
we lift our brethren up in the scriptures. Not just in man's
wisdom and worldly thoughts, we lift them up in truth. We
show our love by spreading the gospel that saved us. When I
meet someone new and I'm getting to know them, it doesn't take
long for the word Kimberly to come out of my mouth. It doesn't
take long for a story about one of them four children right there
to come out. Why? I love them. They love me. And it don't take
long for that to overflow out of my lips, for it just to ooze
out of my mouth. But when a sinner is saved by
God, they don't stand on a corner and hold up a sign and yell at
traffic. That's not how we spread the
gospel. But how they speak changes. What comes out of their mouth
changes. Why? Because their attitudes change.
Their hearts change. The Lord's put a new heart in
them. They have a knowledge now that they didn't have before.
They know something new. What do they know? Now they know
Christ. They truly know Him. And I've heard people say before
that the longer you spend with the Lord, the more you talk like
Him. And in part, that's true. We'll see that. But our Lord
doesn't speak in old English. We don't learn more about the
Lord, and we've walked with Him for 200 years, or however old
they are, and everything comes out of my mouth to the person
at the grocery stores are bows and shouts. No, that's not speaking
like the Lord. Talking like God talks. Speaking
in a way that declares God's sovereignty. Our conversation,
communication with one another, we speak about His redemptive
work. We speak about how Christ is
our sanctification. He regenerated us. He chastens
His children. When we're in a trial, we hurt. We say, well, if the Lord will
get me through this. Now we begin to talk like the
Scriptures talk, don't we? Praise Him in all things. We
show that love that's put in us by giving Christ all the glory.
That's how the Lord speaks. He's sovereign. He's glorious.
When that starts coming out of our mouth, now we're talking
like the Lord. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13, here is the love
that's put in our new hearts from our elder brother, the firstborn
brother we have, and for those that are made alive in him also.
Here's that love. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4. Charity,
that word is love. Love suffereth long in his kind.
Love envieth not. Love vaulteth not itself is not
puffed up. doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thanketh no evil, rejoitheth
not in iniquity, but rejoitheth in the truth, beareth all things,
but believeth all things." Does that mean that I believe anything
that somebody says to me? I saw something on the internet.
I believe it. I have love. I believe everything. No. I'll
be with the Lord in glory one day. and I'll be without sin."
I don't understand that. If somebody says I've got a good
grasp on that, don't pay attention to them. They don't know. We're
in this flesh. We don't know fully what that
is. I don't understand it. I can't comprehend it, but I
believe it. The Lord said so, didn't He? Hopeth all things, endureth all
things, verse 8, charity never faileth. But whether there be
prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they
will cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. But love remaineth. That's the
love that Christ has shown us. He was so long suffering to us
when we didn't love Him. He was kind to us when we were
unkind to Him. When we didn't rejoice in Him.
When we rejoiced in iniquity. That's when he died for us. But
that's how we desire this love that's put in us. That's how
we desire to love him. That's how we desire to love
our brothers and sisters that he died for. And you may say,
Kevin, I don't do that. I don't either. We don't love
him as we ought, do we? We don't honor him as we ought.
We don't love our brethren as we ought, but we love them. We
love them nonetheless. Alright, back to our text. 1
John 2. Now we've just seen how we can
have assurance. If we believe Christ, we love
Christ, and we love our brethren. You can have assurance. Now we're
going to see the opposite. Yes, there's a strong warning.
It's a stern warning to believers and unbelievers alike. There's
a strong warning. 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. Almost anyone in their sane mind
that you talk to in this country, or in other countries, many countries,
if you ask them if they know Christ, they say, oh yeah, I
know about him. Someone with a little bit of
sanity doesn't deny a God. They claim to know God, they
claim to know Christ, and they know some things. But some will
say they know Him historically. They say that through knowledge.
They say, I believe there's a God. I believe there's a man named
Jesus, and He was born on this earth, and I believe He hung
on a cross, and I believe He died. And some may even say,
I believe He died, went to a tomb, and came back out of that tomb.
He rose again. Others may say they know Him
by their profession, by what they profess. These are all say. They say they profess Him. They
made a profession of faith by their own will. They walked an
aisle when they were eight years old, and since then, they're
saved forever. Or they joined a church, or they're
very zealous. They never miss a service. There's
a lot of religious folks out there that put me to shame in
studying and the way they walk in this world. They're zealous.
Oh, they're hard workers. But they say they profess. They
say they know Christ. Others may say they know Him
theologically. There's a whole lot of folks in this world that
know the five points Calvinism, and they can quote scriptures
better than I ever thought about quoting them, and they say they
know Christ because they've studied it. A regimented theological
study, they have determined these things, and they say they know
Him. But there's a massive difference
between knowing about Christ and knowing Christ. Huge difference
between those two. The difference is they lack the
works, which are the fruit of truly knowing Christ. It says
there, he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments.
James tells us, we'll look here in a little bit, faith without
works is dead. Now, I planted an avocado tree out in front
of my house. That is an avocado tree. I had
to double check. It may grow. It may be strong. It can hold up against the wind.
But if an avocado in three to five years doesn't come out of
that tree, it looks like it's alive, but it might as well be
dead to me. Why would I get up every morning
and water that thing and prune it and care for it and fertilize
it if there's never no fruit? I might as well cut it down.
It'd be easier for me to cut it down. There's no fruit. If
there's no fruit, there's no lie. But the person who does
not believe on Christ does not know Christ. It's as simple as
that. They don't believe on Christ
alone. They look to an experience they
had in the past. They look at that decision they
made for Jesus or a whole host of other spiritual experiences.
They look to an experience. Or they think they need to continue
under the law. They've still got to uphold that Sabbath. They've
got to keep the traditions of men. They believe in a denomination. So many... I hate it when people
ask me what kind of church I go to. It gets complicated real
quick to answer correctly, doesn't it? I grew up, primitive Baptists
were all over the place and some of them preached the truth. But
there's primitive Baptists, strict Baptists. Presbyterians, Orthodox
Presbyterians, so many things and people will get one of those
sects, one of those channels of man's religion and falsehoods
and they'll cling to it. They'll also, a person that doesn't
know Christ will build their lives, I'm sorry, they'll build
the worship of Christ and the care of their brethren, the concerns
of their brethren around the life that they live. When they
can squeeze it in, they'll squeeze it in. They can squeeze in time
for services. If the football game ain't on,
I can go to church. But it's playoffs. I can't miss
that. I'll go next week. They build
their worship around their lives. Now that leads to the second
commandment. First, we see that person that doesn't believe on
Christ is because they don't know Him. Christ told her, He said,
you have to know Me and love Me. You have to believe Christ.
The second one says you have to love the brethren, doesn't
it? So a person that does not know Christ does not love Christ's
brethren, His sheep, His people that He died for. A person is
full of self-love rather than love for the brethren, and they
don't know Him. They look down their nose on
brethren. They don't forgive brethren.
They're not kind to them. They don't bear their burdens.
That's like submission. It's easy to submit when the
person over you is doing what you want them to do. It's hard to be long-suffering
if suffering is not involved. But they plant fear and doubt.
They plant questioning in the brethren. and they divide instead
of unify. That's what they'll do. They
can take them or leave them. But when a person, and I am a person
that's like that, they don't know Christ and they don't love
the brethren, they can permanently, I made that in bold in my notes,
they can permanently forsake the assembly of the saints, public
worship. And that's for two reasons. The
only way that somebody can walk away from the gospel permanently
is for one of two reasons. Either they don't believe Christ,
They don't love the brethren that have Christ in them. That
boils it down to one point. They don't love Christ, they
don't love Christ in you, in the brethren. Christ is a problem.
If somebody walks away from the gospel from a faithful pulpit
and they don't return, it's because they have a problem with Christ.
Alright, let's turn over to James chapter 2. James chapter 2 beginning verse
14. Now there's going to be, when
the Lord does a work in a person's heart, there's going to be proof
that a work's been done. You're going to see some results.
It may not be much, but there will be proof. Look here in James
2.14. What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith
save him? Look down at verse 19. Thou believest
that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. They don't just believe, they
tremble. There's a response there to the devil's note. Verse 20,
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? What if someone believes the
true Christ that they don't believe? What if someone does not believe
in Christ, but they love the brethren? That could happen,
couldn't it? Or what if someone claims they
believe Christ, but they can't stand those that believe in Him? They can't stand the brethren.
The Holy Spirit in our text says He's a liar. He says the truth
is not in him. He's not born again. He's not
been made to believe Christ. So how do I know if I can trust
an experience I had? Am I trusting an experience I
had when I was 14 years old and I got baptized in a free will
church? But that's when the Lord saved me. Now He taught me the
truth when I was 30, but I was saved then. Am I trusting that
experience? How do I know if I'm trusting
something I did or if I'm trusting in Christ alone? Here's how you
know. If the Word of God contradicts
our thinking, if the Word of God contradicts our experience
and we side with our thinking and our experience over the Word
of God, now we know. Do we bow to His Word as to what's
true? Or do we side with what we think? We either take sides with God
against ourselves, we take sides with God against our works, against
our desires, against our experiences, and we look only to Christ and
His Word. Or, we cling to what we think
is right. We cling to what we know, and
we defy and we reject the Word of God. It's either or. It's
black and white. Do you believe on Christ as your
only acceptance with God? Do you love Him? Do you love
your brethren in whom He dwells? If so, the Spirit of God says,
hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.
That's His commandments. Believe Christ, love the brethren.
And faith is the evidence. We believe Him. I have faith
that He's right. That's proof. He's given that
to us. That's how we know. Now how does
it come to us? How do we get this knowledge?
I'll try to go quickly. 1 John 2 verse 5. But whoso keepeth his word, in
him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that
we know him. Now some will say, see, we have
to make ourselves perfect. No, no. The word perfect, perfected
there means the love of God has brought him to its purposed end. He's perfected it. The Spirit
of God declares it is God shedding his love abroad in our hearts
that we know Christ and keep his word. The end to which God's
love brings His child is to make His child keep His word by believing
on Christ and bearing all kinds of manner of trials out of love
for the brethren. That's what they do. That's how
it's perfected. Let's turn over one page of John chapter 3. When
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, we behold God's
great unchanging love in Christ for His people and for the first
time we behold His great love in making us sons of God simply
because He loved us. We were made sons and daughters
in Christ because He chose us in Christ in eternity without
any merit in us. 1 John 3 verse 1 Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God? Therefore the world knew us not,
because it knew Him not." The world doesn't know these brethren,
because they don't know Christ. Now when this love is given to
His people, we see how the Father sent His only Son to die in our
stead. to satisfy holy justice with
His blood, all the while we didn't love Him. We didn't honor Him. Turn over one page there to John
chapter 4, verse 9. 1 John 4, 9. And this was manifested,
the love of God towards us, because that 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 propitiation, satisfaction for our sins. Now when this love
is given to His people, we see the only reason we love is because
Christ sent the Holy Spirit. He gave us a new heart to believe
Christ and to love our brethren. Look there in verse 12, 1 John
4, 12. No man hath seen God at any time,
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected,
it's completed, it's manifested in us. And when this love is
given to His people, He removes fear by teaching us that as Christ
is perfect and accepted in God, so are we perfect and accepted.
That's what takes our fear away. Look here in verse 17, 1 John
4, 17. Herein is our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as
He is, so are we in this world. How can we have boldness to die?
We can have boldness with a person that cut in line with us at the
grocery store. I can have boldness with my family. I can have boldness
with things that happen on this earth. But to face judgment,
that takes true boldness. How do we have that boldness?
God gives the grace to hope only in Christ. He gives us that grace
to know that He accepted Christ. He accepted His work. He accepted
His death, His payment, and He was satisfied with it. And because
I'm in Him, now I can have boldness in that day of judgment. When this love is given to His
people, we see in all this that it was not my doing, it was not
my initiating, it was not my obeying, not my choosing, not
my loving, but it was God that performed the work. He did it. Salvation originates with Him,
it's provided by Him, and it's sustained by Him. He did it all. Verse 19, 1 John 4, 19. We love
Him. because He first loved us. Now, the Holy Spirit is not teaching
us to seek assurance in our obedience. We may obey, but we're not to
find our assurance in the fact that we obey. But instead, our
faith is in Christ as assurance that we are His. Face the evidence. But this is because the only
way His people believe on Christ is by God making us to know Christ. Our Master said in John 6, it
is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. The only reason that we keep
his command to love Christ and our brethren is that we're born
of God, we're taught of God through the preaching of truth, and we
know Christ by his divine revelation. If you're still there in 1 John
4, look up in verse 7. 1 John 4, 7. Beloved, let us
love one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God. Now for the struggling believer,
if you don't have assurance, do you believe Christ? Do you
love Him? Do you love the brethren? Not
perfectly. None of us will, but we do. We
that believe, we that love. If so, the Spirit declares here
that you are Christ. The truth is in you. If we know
we have assurance in Christ and we know who provided that assurance,
what's the result in this world? I know I have it. I know who
gave it to me. What happens now? I set and twiddle
my thumbs? Look here, 1 John 2, verse 6.
1 John 2, 6. He that saith he abideth
in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. The
word ought here means from a debt of gratitude. from a debt of
gratitude. He that professes to abide in
Christ ought himself from a debt of gratitude also so to walk
even as he walked. As the Father's servant, how
did Christ walk on this earth? Christ walked by faith and he
walked in love. He walked by faith obeying His
Father. He established the law for His sheep. He fulfilled the
law for His sheep that it might be taken out of the way that
law is gone so we can serve only Him. We don't serve the law and
Christ. We serve just Christ. And Christ
loved His elect freely without causing us by laying His life
down for His brethren. He walked in faith. He walked
in love. In 1 John 3.16, We'll look here and we'll close. 1 John 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of
God because He laid down His life for us and we ought out
of gratitude for what Christ has done for us. We ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. What rules us now that a new
heart's been put in us? Faith in Christ and love for
Him and love for that brethren. That's what rules us. Isn't that
so much better than being ruled by the law? Isn't that so much
lighter? You have to do these things.
I love you. and you love them back. That's
easy. It comes natural, don't it? That
new man, that's its nature. It's love. Love Christ. So I
want to close this illustration. A person that says with their
mouth, say they know Christ, and they know doctrine inside
and out. They can quote the scriptures better than anybody on TV. They
know this stuff. For years they've known it. They
say they know Him. And a brother says something
or does something that they don't agree with. where they don't
understand and they get puffed up and mad. They don't wait on
Christ to correct his sheep. They want to correct them. They
want to look down their nose at them, bark at them. They try correcting
the problem themselves. Then they separate themselves.
They get so fed up. They're so frustrated with things
going on that they see and they hear and they feel. They see
in this world, they get so fed up, so frustrated, they separate
themselves from the preaching of the gospel for good. They
don't pack up and go to another state and sit underneath somebody
else that's faithfully preaching Christ. They're done. They walk
away. The Holy Spirit says they're
a liar and the truth is not in them. Kevin Thacker didn't say
that. The Holy Spirit of God said that.
That's the truth, isn't it? Now, there's another brother.
That person says they know Christ. Say they love the brethren, and
they don't do a good job of it. They waver, and they go up and
down the streets the day they're at work, and oh, they're just
wringing their hands, and they're worried. They have so much worry
in them. They say they love their brethren. And they say things
they shouldn't. They think things they shouldn't.
They don't love them as Christ loved us. But a brother falls. Brother has a stumbling stone
in front of him. And this stumbling stone is much worse. That error
is much graver than what happened to that first brother. That brother
says, Christ has always been the one to teach me. Little by
little, I fall. I'm made humble. He lifts me
up. The Lord will correct my brother. The Lord will correct
that sheep. By His love through a humble
heart, He bears the burden of his erring brother. Suffers long
with him. Because he knows how long Christ
suffered for us. His long suffering for us. And
perfect love towards us. And that makes us fair with our
brother, don't it? I pray the Lord will comfort you. Comfort
your hearts by making you believe Christ. Make you love Christ. And love those that He came to
die for. I pray He'll make you do that. And if you do, if you
believe God and love the brethren, not perfectly, but if you believe
Him and you love them, you have assurance. That's the proof that
we know Him. That's how we know. Let's pray
together.