If you would, please turn again
to the first epistle of John, chapter two. I just want to read
verse three, four, and five. 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. That's exactly right, Mason,
amen. Today I want to consider the last five words, that's where
I'm gonna start, the last five words of verse three, and hopefully
go on just a little bit. If we keep his commandments. Now, I will confess to when I
first read these verses, some 30 years ago, and I've read them
since then, I was scared of these verses because of the Arminian
nature of some places I had been. Because I heard people talk about
this verse and I'm sure somebody somewhere is probably doing it
today. They're saying if we keep his
commandments is a prerequisite for knowing him and it ain't
so. That's bad English, but it's
a good truth. It's not that way. It's not a prerequisite. John
did not write and is not saying we know him because we keep his
commandments. But that's the way it's preached.
And that's a lie. You can call it, what is it?
No, it's not that. I done forgot. Eisegesis, exegesis. Eiseges, where you take something
out or you put something in a scripture that's not there. That's what
they're doing. Like I said, here, we call it
a lie because that's what it is. That's not what John is saying. Now, also, as a preface, I don't
want to be misunderstood. I am not advocating lawlessness
in this message. But I do have to say this. I
don't keep the law and neither do you. That's not what John's
referring to here. I know a lot of people wanna
make it that. Whenever they see the word commandments in the
scriptures, they think 10 commandments. That's not what John's talking
about. We'll get into that. But I wanna say that up front.
I don't keep the law and neither does anyone else walking on this
planet. Make no mistake about it. If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And those 10 commandments not
only talk about what you're supposed to do, they talk about what you're
not supposed to do, but they also talk about what you're not
supposed to think. And there's no man been born
except one who could control his thoughts. Not happening. You may be able to hide every
sin you commit from all of your neighbors, all of your friends,
maybe even your family. I don't wanna go into it, but
I mean, I've watched the television and you hear the news. This man
had two families. One in Oregon and one in Utah.
Or one here and one there. And for 25 years, kept it hid
from both. You can do that, but you can't
hide anything from God. And whether anybody else knows
it or not, it's still sin. He sees all. He is the light. God casts a perfect illumination
upon you and that ought to scare you to death. Except for verse one. We have an advocate with the
Father. And that advocate's name is Jesus
Christ the Righteous. So, let's get started here. Because it does say, if we keep
his commandments. That's the phrase. So, what are
we supposed to say about that? I've already said it. You can't
keep the Ten Commandments. You say we can't keep the law.
Yes, I say that. because it's true, it's absolutely
true. I can't keep the Ten Commandments,
you can't keep the Ten Commandments, I can't keep the law, and you
can't keep the law. So what's John writing here?
What's he talking about? Well, first of all, the negative.
It's not the Ten Commandments. It's not the law. Jesus Christ kept the Ten Commandments. Jesus Christ fulfilled completely
every jot and every tittle, every little tiniest bit of the word
of God, the law of God. He fulfilled all of the scriptures
up until this time that were spoken of the Christ who was
to come, the Messiah of the Old Testament. And Paul wrote, that
Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believeth. You
gotta put that part in. A lot of people wanna say, oh,
he's the end of the law. He is, to everyone that believeth. He's not the end, the law hasn't
gone anywhere. The law is holy, the commandment is holy and just
and good and I still can't do it. even with the Spirit of Christ
within me as a believer. That's Romans 7. And if you wanna
say Romans 7 is before Paul got saved, you don't know what you're
talking about. I'm sorry. Because if we say we have no
sin, what? We deceive ourselves. And that's
one thing, thank God, I am not deceived And if we say we have
no sins, we're calling God a liar. But we have an advocate with
the Father. John knew all this. So what commandments was John
referring to? Well, in order to talk about
this, I'm gonna have to jump ahead a chapter. First John three and verse 23. These are the commandments to
which John was referring. Verse 23, 1 John 3, and this
is his commandment. This is it. This is it. You understand? You read back
the Gospel of John, you'll read this is eternal life. This is
the work of God, that we should believe on him. This is his commandment. And who's this his? It's Jesus
Christ. That we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave
us commandment. You mean Jesus Christ gave us
commandment? Yes he did. He did indeed. You understand
what John wrote here, he says we know that we know him if we
keep his commandments. Key word in that is his. commandments. We're not talking about the commandments
or traditions of men. We're not talking about the 10
commandments. We're talking about his commandments. And who's that his? Well, if
you back up to where it says we know that we know him if we
keep his commandments. Verse two, and he is the propitiation. It's the same person. So you
have to back up to verse one to get the name. Jesus Christ
the righteous. It's his commandments. His commandments. And he spoke this commandment
to his disciples himself to John personally. How does this book
start out? That which was from the beginning
which we have heard. which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the
word of life. John's not making up stuff. John's
just telling us what Jesus Christ said. If we keep his commandment, and those are his commandments,
believe. on my name, believe on the name
of the Son of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and love
one another. That's them, that's them. These
are Christ's commandments to his brethren. These are not commandments
to the world. They don't fit the category.
They don't fit the description. But this is the way we know that
we know him. It's not the way we know him.
It's kind of a tough thing to explain. This is how we know
that we do know him. Because we keep his commandments. Believe on Jesus Christ and love
one another. So I told you John got this from
Christ speaking, so let's look back at John chapter 15 for just
a moment. Let me get to the right spot
here. John 15, and let's begin in verse 16. Well, no, wait a
minute. Yeah, that's right, 15 verse
16. Because I love this part. The gospel of John, chapter 15,
verse 16. Ye, this is Christ speaking,
ye have not chosen me. But I have chosen you and ordained
you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit
should remain. That whatsoever ye shall ask
of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things
I command you. that ye love one another. He didn't stop there though.
What's it mean to love Christ? Well, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hates you. Now isn't that a dichotomy? If you know Christ and you love
one another, the world hates you. Now I'm talking about the
real Christ here. I'm not talking about the fake
Jesus. I'm not talking about a false Jesus. Oh, oh, this one,
here's Christ, there's Christ. No, uh-uh. We're talking about
this Christ right here. In John chapter 15, and well,
the whole gospel of John, my goodness. These things I command
you, and I command you after choosing you. After ordaining
you. Isn't that something? And then he tells you, love one
another. How important is this? It's vital. It doesn't seem like it is. And
to most people's natural minds, how important it is that I love
my brother. Jesus Christ said, I command
you. I command you. Now do you wanna do what he says?
Do you care about what he says? Most church people don't. Most church people and the rest
of the world won't. Because they don't know what
he said. Because you'll quote scripture to them and they'll
look at you like you just quoted something from a science magazine
or something. Or something you made up. No,
that's scripture. I command you, love one another. And then he says, the world hates
you. Marvel not, marvel not. The world hated him before it
hated you. Now, how and why do we love him? I think that's an important question.
Well, just back up a chapter to John chapter 14. I did it
this way on purpose, because I wanted to see where he commanded
us to love one another. But you look at John chapter
14, he'll tell you how and why. John chapter 14 and verse 15,
it says this. If ye love me, keep my commandments. He doesn't say, if you keep my
commandments, then you can love me. No, if you love me, keep
my commandments. And I will pray the Father and
he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever,
even the spirit of truth. whom the world cannot receive
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you, in you, in you. I love that. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Those who know they are sinners,
those who know they do sin, it's from 1 John chapter one. They are those whom the spirit
of truth has come into. How can we love God? The natural
mind is enmity, hatred against God. It doesn't just actually say
that he hates God, he does, but the mind is hatred toward God. We are cursed beings, naturally
speaking. How can we love God? How can
we love one another? The spirit of truth in you. the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit
of truth, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Ghost. It doesn't matter what you wanna
call him, if he's not in you, you're not loving Christ. Because
you don't know Christ. And if he's in you, you love
Christ. He'll show you. There's the spirit
of bondage unto fear, but then there's the spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba. And I like what Earl used to
say about that, Abba, it's a personal term. Like Papa, Daddy, Abba,
Father. What did Christ tell us to pray?
Believers. Now, he's talked to his son.
When you pray, start this way. Our Father. We are told to call
him father by the Lord of glory himself, his beloved son. That's
how and that's why, the spirit of God, because of the spirit
of Christ in us, we have the mind, the understanding of Christ. I think that's just amazing,
that's glorious. that we have this in earthen
vessels. In earthen vessels. You can read
Romans seven. I find then a battle between
the law, between my flesh and the spirit. It's there. And if you don't
have that battle, if you don't know the struggle, the difference,
that which is flesh is still flesh. And that which is spirit
is spirit. And if you don't have both those,
the only one you can know is the flesh. That's all you can
know. But believers know both flesh
and spirit. Verse four, he that saith I know
him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar. John is so sweet. You know he's the apostle of
love, don't you? That's what people say. They
say John's the apostle of love and they usually say it that
way because he does talk about loving the brethren and loving
Christ and all of that is true but he also says if you say you
know him and you don't love the brethren and you don't know Christ,
the Christ of God, the Christ of this Bible, you're a liar. Just lays it flat out. What'd
he say in the first chapter? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. That means you're lying to yourself.
And the truth is not in us if we confess our sins. He's faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we're calling him a liar. That's what we are naturally. We are liars who call God a liar. And if we say we know him and
we don't keep his commandments, we don't love him as he is, we
don't know him as he is, the Lord of glory, we don't love
his brethren, our brethren, you're a liar, and here's the condemnation,
and the truth is not in him. How serious is this love thing? Dead serious. It's dead serious. Lots of people say lots of things. But here, if you say this, if you say you know him, but
you don't love the brethren, you're a liar. The truth is not in you. What's that mean? Well, the deeper
meaning of that is that the truth isn't in you. That's what it
means. And who's the truth? Jesus Christ
said, I am the way, what? The truth and the life. If the truth isn't in you, Jesus
Christ isn't in you. Because there's no way under
God's green earth, on God's green earth and under God's blue heaven,
that, there's no way, okay? I mean, I'm serious. There's
no way that you can have Christ in you and not have the truth
in you. He won't have it. It don't matter
how smart you are, it don't matter how dumb you are. That's got
nothing to do with anything. I'm living proof of that. If Christ is in you, the hope
of glory, he's gonna see to it you know his truth. And he can do that when you're
sitting under a lie. If somebody's lying to you from
the pulpit, his scripture will witness to you his truth. even
when you're sitting there realizing that man's lying about that truth
he just read. I've been there and done that.
And by God's grace, I won't do it anymore. But the truth not being in you
is a condemnation. Forget about being a liar, the
truth's not in you. How can you do anything but lie? That's how serious loving the
brethren and loving Christ and loving his gospel is. The truth's not in these people.
Because there are those who do not believe him. And I'm talking
about the Jesus Christ of the scriptures. Mentioned it last
week. They believe their own Jesus.
Ellen. spoke to me after service about
somebody preached on this not that long ago. You understand,
the Jehovah Witnesses talk about Jesus, but they don't talk about
this Jesus. I mean, that's blatant. The Mormons
talk about Jesus, but they don't talk about this Jesus. Now here
we go, let's get personal. Baptists talk about this Jesus.
Don't talk about this Jesus. They talk about their own. And
Pentecostals, I mean, let Jesus have his way. Oh, go ahead and
get in his way, see what happens to you. I dare you. I dare you. If you got that kind
of attitude, step in front of him. Step in his way. When he's
on the way to pick up a lost sheep, you will get run over.
Because he will step right through you to get to one of his sheep
that he's seeking right there. They love their Jesus, but you
gotta know this one. You gotta know this one. They don't love those who preach
his sovereign grace. They don't love those who believe
his sovereign grace. They don't love the sovereign
Jesus Christ, who's both. Christ and Lord. Matter of fact, it's not the
fact that they just don't love him, they hate him. They hate
him. There is no neutrality. People
will act like they're standing on a fence or straddling the
fence and I'm not gonna talk about anybody getting castrated
from sitting on a fence. But here's the thing, there's
nobody there. Because you're either on one
side of the fence or you're on the other. That's what this book
teaches. That's what this book says. He
that's not for me is against me. Who said that? Jesus Christ
said that. And you know what he meant when
he said that, right? He that's not for me is against
me. Sometimes it gets deep around
here. People are crazy. I don't hate
Jesus. No, you don't hate yours. But
you hate this one. I've seen it. I've seen it in
their eyes, looking right at me. They hated Christ, but they
weren't real fond of me at the time either. Walter's been there,
and I know others have too. This is what the world does.
This is what the world is all about. They talk about this being
The me generation. I'm gonna tell you something.
They talk about that every generation. When I grew up in the 60s, it
was the me generation. The 70s, it's me. The 80s, it's
me. The 90s, it's me. The 2000s and the millennials
or whatever they wanna call it now. Oh, it's all about me. It's
always been all about me. Unless he meets you It's always
gonna be about me. But once he meets you, all of
a sudden it becomes all about him. You understand? God never meets
a man. Jesus Christ never truly meets
a man without changing that man. For the better. I figure I better
turn that in. For the better. See, if you think
you've met Christ and all of a sudden you're a worse person
than you ever were, something's wrong with you. You didn't meet
the Christ of Bible. You might have had a dream about
Jesus in a knothole or something, I don't know. But Christ never
came to a sinner that he didn't save. He did. And guess what? They love him and they love his
brethren. Jesus Christ is the truth. And if you don't believe him
and love the brethren, you don't know Christ. It's that simple
and it's that deep. It's that profound and it's that
serious. Dead serious. But John doesn't
leave there, he's gotta go on. But whoso keepeth his word, in
him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that
we are in him. He's explaining it. If you love
Christ and you love the brethren, you know you're in him. That's
what he's talking about. He explains it himself. You know,
I didn't have to preach all this. I just could have read this.
No, God said preach it. Because this is the way you, The word of God says what the
word of God means. It's man's word you have to have
questions about. There's no problem with the scriptures
that a man can't mess up. Even worse. Because the problem's
not with the scripture, the problem's with man. It always has been. There are those who keep his
word. John says it. back to his commandments which
he spoke to us. Believe him and love the brethren. There are
those who do that. That's keeping his word, that's
the reference, that's what John's talking about, just right in
deadline with each other. Sequence of events. John 14, let me look back at
that, in verse 21. See I, Well, you just read it. I will
not leave you comfortless. I will come to you yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me because
I live. Ye shall live also at that day. Ye shall know that I am in my
Father, and ye in me, and I in you. That's verse 20. John 14,
21. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him. Gotta love that. You gotta love
that if you know him. Because John goes on to say,
we love God because. John just lays stuff flat out.
You don't have to think real hard about it. You don't have
to interpret it. What you gotta do is try and not argue yourself
out of it. John says we love him because he first loved us. He that loveth me and keepeth
my commandments, why? Because Christ first loved him. He's the fountain. He's the source. of our obedience. Whoso keepeth his word, in him
verily is the love of God perfected. And that word is completed. It's
not that we're perfect in and of ourselves. We're not even
complete in and of ourselves. Not even close. You understand? Christ said, I will love you. And you know something? If he
loves you, he loves you to the end. And guess what? He's eternal. What's that mean? There's no end to the love of
Christ in a man, in his brethren, in his child, in his chosen people. And without love, there's no
Christ in you. Who keeps his word? That's a
good question. Those that are kept. First Peter, chapter one, verse
five. Who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. Ain't that a thing of beauty?
How are we kept? We're kept loving him. We're
kept loving the brethren. Oh, there's some days you might
get vexed with the brethren. Not with me, of course, but maybe
Walter. Some of us are more vexing than
others, and I'll plead guilty to that. But you shouldn't be
vexed with me. But that doesn't mean you stop
loving the brethren. You understand? You might need
to stay away from one or two, in particular, in order to love
them a little better. I'm more lovable from a distance,
okay? I understand that, I don't have
a problem with that. But we are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Those who keep his word are those who are kept. But look
at here at verse two of 1 Peter. Where did this all start? Elect. Elect. Chosen. You didn't choose
me, I chose you. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification, which is his work, not ours.
We don't help. Sanctification of the spirit. And here it is. Unto obedience. Obedience. Obedient. What do
we do to be obedient? You love him and you love his
brethren. You love him and you love one
another. and the sprinkling of the blood
of Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Ain't that a thing of beauty?
That is just, ooh. We're not perfect in ourselves.
We're not complete in ourselves. We are complete in him. And we keep his word because
we're kept. We quote that verse a lot, you
know. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. But
don't stop there. Don't stop there. A lot of people
won't say, you gotta work it out, brother! No, that's... For it is God that worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now that's
a thing of beauty, too. You know what I tell you? That's
a thing of grace. That's a work of grace. It doesn't say that he works in
you the will to, no, he works in you to will. And to do. And what are we to do? Love him
and love one another. Keep his commandments. How can
we keep his commandments? He puts it in us, both to will
and to do, of His good pleasure. God is pleased when you love
His Son and we love one another. God is glorified by hauling sinful
men, knowing and loving the blessed Son. It is, it is amazing. Hereby,
because of this, because of him, we know that we know him. We're the family of God. In Jesus
Christ. In Jesus Christ, we have eternal
life. And this is eternal life, that
you know the Father and you know the Son. and you love him. Believers know their father. Believers know their elder brother,
the son, the well-beloved son, the well-beloved only begotten
son of God. And believers love him. Believers
love one another. because he first loved us. He's the source. He's the fountain. We are the recipients of the
flow from the fountain of Christ. I think that's just glorious. And we have this in earthen vessels.
as we walk on this earth, awaiting his return, because he is coming
again. And we're gonna be with him,
we're gonna be like him, and so shall we ever be with the
Lord. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for this, our time that you've given us. to try to preach your
word and to try to worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank
you, Lord. In Christ's name we pray, amen.