And while you're turning, let
me make a couple of announcements here, some things that I need
to call your attention to. Janet Dishman has got shingles. She went to the doctor Monday,
and they started on her hip, and they go around her upper
stomach. And they say that's one of the
most painful things that you could possibly have. Shirley's
mother still has them. And she was pretty encouraged
about her dad when she left. But her sister called this evening. He's been losing blood. And because
of his age and his physical condition, they can't go down through there
and find out where he's losing his blood. And he's been in a
VA hospital, and they're going to send him back to the nursing
home. But he asked them today to put him in hospice because
he just didn't want to be dealt with anymore and wanted him to
take a bunch of iron treatments. And he don't want to do that.
She's pretty devastated about that, and certainly grateful
she got to come home. But she wished she could have
stayed another day or two, but she didn't know this she would
have. But you remember her, Dad. Remember her. He's 89, and he
just don't want to fight it. He's just wore out. He's just
wore out, and just don't want to deal with doctors and doctors
dealing with him. And very hard on her and her
sisters and brother. I've been crying all afternoon
for it, and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. All right.
Let's look together here in John chapter 2. My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye 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. Hereby know we that
we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him
ought himself also so to walk even as he wrought. Brethren,
I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment,
which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word
which ye have heard from the beginning. 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. Let me
mention Debbie's sister, Pam, too. She's had that hip replacement,
and the medicine's really messing her up, and she's having a time
with it. We're glad to see Larry back,
too. He's been awful sick. So let's
bow our hearts together and pray. All right, let's look back here
at 1 John, and we're going to deal with three verses tonight,
God helping us. Verse 3 through 5, 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 or truly, is the love of God perfected. Hereby
know, know we that we are in him. I want to talk about knowing
God, knowing God. The apostle says that God is
light, that if we walk in that light, the Light of God, the
Light of Truth, the Light of His Word, that we would have
fellowship with God the Father and with His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then because of our sin,
He tells us that we have an Advocate with the Father. Little children,
don't sin, but if you do, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He told us that He was the
propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for
the whole world. Now when he says for the whole
world here, he's talking about believers all over the world. We know that Christ wasn't a
propitiation for unbelievers. We know that Christ wasn't a
propitiation for those who will never believe. We'll know that
he wasn't a propitiation for people he didn't die for. So
when it says the whole world, he means out of every tribe and
kindred, tongue, nation, and people. and out of all the people
that will believe he was the propitiation for their sins he
was the reconciler the one who pees the wrath and justice of
God but so is for the whole world and then he comes to words that
he uses often there like in verse three and hereby we do know that
we know him and then he talks about knowing his commandments
and then he talks about his love being perfected be and he's our advocate with the
Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, hereby, John says this in
verse 3, Hereby, we do know, hereby, since in light of everything
we said, hereby knowing that God is light, hereby knowing
that he is a faithful and a just God, and that if we confess our
sin confess it confess who we are what we are he's faithful
and just to forgive us our sin and hereby we know that we have
this advocate so we don't despair over our sin and whereby since
we have this propitiation for our sins this mercy seat that
reconciled us to God And he says, and this is the thing that we
know. We do know that we know him.
Now, how can we know that we know him? That's what he wants.
That's the thing he's doing. He said, there's people here
that have false professions. He makes this, if you walk in
darkness here, he's talking about keeping the commandments. If
God is light and if you walk in darkness, you don't know him.
And here he says that if you keep his commandments, you know
him. If you don't keep his commandments, then you don't know him. So he's,
this is a form of, he's given us some assurance here, how we
can know that we know him. He said, hereby know that we
know. Now there's some things we know
and we know we know. And some things we're not so
sure about. But that's what John says. Hereby we know that we
know who? Him. Him. we know he is virgin
born, know that this time of year they sang about put him
in a manger and have all these nativity scenes round about.
We know that he taught in the temple as he taught the the old
men and that there and he confounded the wise and he confounded all
those doctors and lawyers when he was 12 years old. We know
that he was a carpenter. We know he worked miracles. And
we have this knowledge. We have this knowledge. We know
these things about him. But that's not what John's talking
about. What he's talking about is having a personal knowledge
of God himself. Know God. Do you know God? And that's what hereby we do
that we know him. And that's something personal,
it's something direct to you, to me, to know Him, a personal
acquaintance with Him. Intimacy with the Father and
with the Son. Look what He says over here in
1 John 5, verse 13. It's a personal acquaintance,
know God, it's one thing you know. to have this person actually
know Him, not just some things about Him, know Him. We know
that He's sovereign, but do we know Him who is sovereign? We
know that He's faithful and just, but do we know Him that is faithful
and just? We do, we know him personally
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And he said here in 1 John 5,
13, these things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that you may know things we know,
that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name
of the Son of God. And you remember over in John
17, our Lord Jesus Christ says, thy has given him power over
all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him, and this is life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent.
And he says that he, they says that he says that in verse three,
four, look what he says. He that says, I know him, I know
God, I know the Father, I know the Son, I know Him, and then
keeps not His commandments. John says he's a liar. And not
only is he a liar, but the truth's not in him. But then he turns
right around after he talks about the commandments in verse five,
but he says, but whoso keepeth his word. So he goes from the
commandments to the word. He brings the commandments down
to one thing. Very simple to understand that
the commandment is just his word. Obeying his word, believing his
word. And how are we gonna know God
apart from his word? And that's what he's talking
about, this word. And then when he talks about these commandments
here, I'm going to say a few things about that if I can, hope
I can make it understandable. It's not so much the things that's
commanded as the command itself. what I mean by that it's not
the commandments but it's God who does the commanding, it's
who does the commanding, it's who tells us what to do, it's
not the command so much but who is telling us, who is commanding
us, who's directing us, you see it's not speech but God speaking
in his word and that's why the psalmist says this, wherewith
shall a young man cleanse his heart, cleanse his way by taking
heed thereto according to your word. And then I've hid thy word
in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Thy words I
esteem are more than my necessary food. Look in Psalm 19, Psalm
19. And that's, you know, he's talking
about, and our Lord Jesus said it this way, the words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit and they're life. So when we're
talking about His commandments, we're talking about John turns
around and says, it's His Word. It's His Word. He that keepeth
His Word. You want to keep his word. That's
what he's talking about. He's not talking about a list
of commandments and things that we're supposed to do and not
to do. You know, that's not what you know. If we wanted to start
out with God's commandments, where would we start at? We know
one thing he commanded us to do. And this is the thing that
John says later on. He said, he commanded us to love
one another. This is the commandment that
I've given unto you, that you love one another. He said, you
got no option in that. And then to create that love
in us, he says, we know we've passed from death unto life.
Why? Because we love them. You can't love apart from God.
And look what he said here in Psalm 19 verse 7. The law of
the Lord. And you know what it says in
the margin? The doctrine. The law of the Lord. The doctrine
of the Lord is perfect. What does it do? It converts
the soul. It restores the soul. The testimony
of the Lord is sure. It makes wise, simple people.
Oh the wisdom, where's wisdom at? It's found in knowing God,
fearing God, walking up right before God, depending on God,
living your whole life absolutely in submission and desiring God
to know, you know, and if you know Him, that's what you live
for. And he goes on to say, the statutes of the Lord are right.
They rejoice the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure. It enlightens the eyes. So when he talks about the commandments
here, he's talking about keeping his word. That's why he said,
if a man says he keeps his commandment or keep his word and don't keep
his word, he says he's a liar. He's a liar. And this is how
we know if we know him. That's why, you know, that's
why when all those disciples walked away and our Lord asked
them, said, will you also go away? They said, Lord, to who
are we going to go? You've got the word. You got
the word. You got the word. And this is
how we know if we know Him. You know, look back up here in
verse one and two of chapter one. You know, here's the thing.
And now John says, you know, that this word, this blessed
son of God, that God in Christ came and we've heard, we've seen
and handled, looked upon, our words have handled the word of
life and this life, and that's what he called the word of life.
For the life was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father
and is manifested unto you. We know that we know him because
we know he's come. He has come. The Word came down
here and became flesh and dwelt among us. And how do you know
the Father? Look in Matthew with me, 11.
Matthew 11, 25. How do we know the Father? This
is what our Lord is saying. This is what John is saying here
about the Word. You know, people are getting...
I read some... I always look at a lot of things, you know,
when I'm getting ready to preach from certain verses. And I was
looking at a lot of different people And of course, the reason
for obedience is love. We do what we do out of love.
It's not being afraid about going to hell. It's not a fear that
God's going to punish us. It's not a fear that God's going
to take something away from us. It's a love that we have to keep
His Word, to delight in His Word. And we see somebody that's living
contrary to the Word, absolutely against the Word, and everything
that's right and trust and true according to the word. We know
that fat fellow says that I know God and he don't keep his word. We know that that fellow's lying.
But look in Matthew 11, 27, excuse me, Matthew 11, 27, not 25, 27.
All things are delivered unto me and my father. And no man knows the Son, but
the Father. And listen to this, neither knoweth
any man the Father, only the Son does, only except the Son.
And He, to whomsoever the Son will reveal. And so what God
does is God comes down and deals with me and you personally as
He's known in Christ. He deals with us as individuals
personally. You know, I'm not talking about
having Christ as your personal Savior, but God deals with us
as individuals personally as He's made Himself known in Christ.
He's kind to us. Oh, how kind He is to us. How
compassionate He is to us. How gracious He is to us. He
saw us afar off. And then He saw us afar off,
He wretched out His arms and embraced us and brought us to
Himself and His Son. Oh, and I know this, this is
how we can know God. I know God in the giving of his
son for us. He gave his son to me and for
me. He gave his blessed son to be
our friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He gave him to
be a brother to us, an elder brother. We know God because
He gave Christ to be a surety for us. This is how we know God. This is things He done. This
is things He done for us personally. Gave Christ to be a surety, to
bear our guilt, to bear our sin, to bear our debts. And He gave
Him to be our Redeemer. Our Redeemer to wash us in His
blessed blood. And then He gave Him to die on
the cursed, cursed tree. Oh my, well how do we know him
like this? With this new mind that he gave
us. With that understanding that he enlightened. With that new
heart that he created in us. With that new creature, that
new nature that he put in us. By his spirit, and we know God. Where do we know him at? In his
blessed son. That's where we know him at.
We know him in his son. And I tell you what, and he says
this, he says but down there in verse five, but whoso keepeth
his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby
know we that we are in him. And it talked about his love
being perfected. How's his love perfected? By
keeping his word, by keeping his word. Now we know that the
love of God towards us is perfect. His love towards us is perfect.
Anything about God, His love towards us is perfect. He loved
us everlastingly with a perfect love. He loved us with an eternal
love. But He says, herein is our love
perfected. Verily in Him is the love that
keepeth His word. In Him, in that person, in God,
in Christ is the love of God perfected, who keeps His word.
What is it to keep His Word? And this is how our love is perfected.
It's by His Word, His commands, that we know Him. How do we know
we know Him? We do what He tells us. We love
His Word. We love what He has to say. We
search this book to find out what he has to say. We look through
this precious word to find out what he says. And we, by God's
grace, we submit to his word. We submit to him and we submit
to his word. And we walk in his word. We walk. Wouldn't it be awful that everybody
that gets up here, almost everybody prays, say, Lord, lead me not
to myself. We want to walk according to what God says. We don't want
to walk in darkness. I don't want to walk in darkness,
do you? I don't want to, I don't want, I don't want, what would
it be like if you didn't have this Bible? You'd be in darkness
and walking in darkness. But he gave us this light, gave
us this blessed word. And we want to walk by that word.
We automatically, I believe that believers are this way, people
that know the scriptures and understand the scriptures and
hears them and delights in them, I believe That every believer,
whenever he's in a situation, his mind automatically goes to
scripture as to how he's supposed to deal with that situation.
Now, don't you think that's right? Our mind goes to the Scriptures,
how to deal with this situation. These two fellows are going to
preach Sunday. They're not going to preach their opinions. They're
not going to preach what they feel about something. They're
not going to preach how high hope things will be. They're
going to get up here and deal with God's Word and tell us what
God has to say to us in His Word. And that's why He says, you know,
He that walketh, walking implies action. It implies movement. And not only we walk by His Word,
but we live by His Word. The psalmist said, the Word is
a light under my feet and a lamp under my path. That's how we
get by in this world. It's our food, it's our drink.
And oh, His love is perfected. His love for us and in us is
perfect. Well, how's our love perfected?
How's our love perfected? Well, keeping His Word. You know,
and you know how do we And how, you know, some reasons why, some
of the most glorious reasons why God in His Word freely gives
us all things. He spared not His own Son, but
with Him freely, freely gives us all things. Don't He? And
over in 1 Corinthians 6.20, look at this with me just a minute.
1 Corinthians 6.20. You see, we're not our own anymore.
We don't belong to ourselves. We're bond slaves of Christ.
We belong to Christ. And we want to belong to Christ.
We want to belong to Christ. And oh, listen, he says here,
for you're bought with a price. 1 Corinthians 6 20. You're bought
with a prize. God's Word cannot fail. You were
bought with a prize. And then he says, so what are
you going to do? Glorify God in your body and in your spirit.
Why? Because they belong to God. This
body belongs to God. This spirit belongs to God. And
you know what? I'm just a steward over what
God gave me. He gave me a body, I'm a steward
over this body. That's why I said a gluttonous
man would be just as soon for a knife to put the knife to his
neck. And so you see, beloved, we glorify God in our body and
our spirit. And God's Word cannot fail. It
cannot fail. There's no way in the world that
God will not keep His Word to us. So let's keep our word to
Him. We say that we love Him, say
that we know Him, we say we want to honor Him, we say we want
to walk up right before Him, we say we want to walk before
Him, say we want to walk in the light, say we want to glorify
Him. Well, let's do that. Let's keep that word that we
say in our heart, and we say that all the time. And God's
faithful to keep us. God help us be faithful to keep
His word, to keep His word. And then look what He says there.
But whoso keepeth his word, We know him because we keep his
commandments, his word. This is how we know God. This
is how we know that we know him, by keeping his commandments,
by keeping his word. A man don't keep his word, he
don't know him, don't know him. And then it says here, and whoso
keepeth his word in him, verily is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know, we, we know that we are in him. How in the world
does a man get in him? How do you get in Christ? How do you get in the Father?
Well, I'll tell you what. God put us there. And you've
read this many, many times, and I'll quote it too, and you've
had it quoted. But of Him are you of God in Christ Jesus. How do you get in Christ Jesus?
God puts you in Christ. God puts you in Christ. And then
He turned around and made Christ to us everything that we need. Wisdom, Wisdom to know God. Wisdom to know the scriptures.
Wisdom to know ourselves. Wisdom to know that the world
has no wisdom at all. He's our righteousness. They
keep talking about, oh listen, righteousness. It don't say it
in pewter. It says Christ has made our righteousness. And then
it says He's our sanctification. He's our holiness. He's what
makes us holy. He's what makes us saints. He's
what makes us who we are. And then he's our redemption.
And what that means is that he's gonna redeem this body when he
comes back. And we're in him. We're covered
under the shadow of the almighty, sheltered under his wings, hidden
in the rock. We're in him. We're in him. We're in his son. We're in his
heart. We're in his rest. And He's in
us by a new nature, by a new nature, and by His love for us. All hereby know that we know
Him. Why? Because we keep His Word. If
a man says that he knows Him and doesn't keep the Word, he
don't know Him. He's a liar. He's a liar. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ, thank You for allowing us another evening together Lord,
bless your word. Use it to your glory. Use it
to your glory. Use it to our good. And again,
we pray for those we mentioned before. Lord, you know them.
You know their hearts. You know what they go through.
You know their bodies. You know the heartaches. You
know the fears. You know the anxieties. You know the burdens.
And our Father, as these men come to speak this weekend, I
pray that you'd greatly bless them. And Lord, you'd bless the
saints as they gather to hear them. And the preachers that'll
gather it. Lexington at Todd's, Todd's Road,
we ask that you'd bless those preachers there, use them there.
And Lord, we have no one else to lean to, no one to come to,
no one to trust, no one to believe, no one to embrace, no one who
can keep us, no one who can love us, no one who can preserve us
like you. And Lord, we come to you, bowing,
oh God, bowing in our heart and soul. to your will, to your word,
delight in it, rejoice in it, find great comfort and assurance
in it. In your blessed name we pray, amen.