First letter of John, 1 John,
chapter 2. I'm going to be there today as
we continue to move through this letter. And remember, these chapter
headings mean nothing. These chapter, verse, letters,
numbers, everything else, they mean nothing in the context of
how the scripture is written. They really don't. And this is
one of those areas of the scripture that really frustrates me, that
we have a big fat three at the end of chapter two. Because this
is right in the middle of the exact grammar and syntax of what
John is saying in the first three verses leading up to chapter
three. So I don't know how they determine. where the chapter
headings would go, but they did a horrible job, not just here,
but in almost the entirety of the Book of Romans and everywhere
else that you see in some of the epistles. It's a terrible
job. They don't mean anything. They mean nothing. But it is
a good thing for us to be able to go to Exodus chapter 5 verse
whatever, because otherwise it would be like, You see the word? So we would have to be very familiar
with the Bible. I would suggest to you that maybe
you get that familiar with the Bible. So that you could use
a Bible without verses. Without chapters. Just an idea. And you will forget the addresses. Because you won't see them anymore.
But you will know the word. There's a big difference. John,
writing the beloved, writing the saints, the elect of God,
writing to the elders of the church, writing to those who
are secure and the finished work of Christ, writing to those who
have been given to the son by the father, writing to those
for whom he died, for whom Christ died, writing to those who are
the saints. He has been reminding them of
the righteousness of Christ that is theirs by grace that they
know through faith. And he's reminded them of the
message of the cross. Jesus Christ is God who created
the world and He did become human and enter into the world and
He did submit to the Father's will to die for His people in
their place and He did, He did satisfy the wrath of God for
them forevermore. The wrath of God is put away
for the elect because of the cross. It is finished, Jesus
said. The proclamation of the gospel
evangelism is the teaching and the saying and the preaching
and the telling of this finished work for the elect of God. Gospel
is not an opportunity. The gospel is not an option.
The gospel is not an offer. The gospel is a proclamation
of the finished work of Jesus Christ for the elect. This is
the meta-narrative of Scripture from the beginning of days when
Moses writes of, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. And the creation of the heavens
and the earth is a picture of God's creating His elect people
to be good and righteous and perfect. This letter is probably the most
used letter by the enemy. I might have said that already
in the last 14-15 weeks, but I don't know if I have. This
letter is probably the most used letter by the enemy. Second then
to the book of James, then the letter to the Hebrews, then John
3, and then some of the writing to Timothy, 2 Peter. He uses them all. I think we
need to remember that, beloved, that the enemy of God uses the
Bible 400% of the time. Satan doesn't have to be in the
business of alternate texts. He doesn't have to be in the
business of cults and crazy stuff. He's in the business of using
the Word of God exactly like he did in the wilderness temptation
of Jesus the Christ. It is written. And there's nothing
that has been greater to his advantage in the context of God's
sovereignty, because this is what God has purpose and this
is what God has sent Satan to do is to deceive the nations,
making them think they know the Christ, but they do not. This
is the work of God Almighty using his enemy for his plan and purposes. And the theological term for
that that encompasses this reality is sovereignty. We see that in many places in
the Old Testament, specifically and literally in the writing
of Job or the writing about Job. And when we have the way we read
the Bible in our culture, we read a verse and then we expand
that verse based on our desire to see it say something that
it doesn't say. And we have a lot of verses like
that in this letter. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and the word is not in us. We hear those things. If we say we have fellowship
with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the
truth. We take those verses out of context. We see the verse
that says, and by this we know that we've come to know him if
we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but doesn't
keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. And we take those
out and create a pretext. And we have created a demonic,
a demonic false gospel of false assurance. and it is predominantly
Protestant and Evangelical by label. And then we keep on looking and
we see it over there. Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness
and walks in the darkness, does not know where he's going because
the darkness has blinded his eyes. And we conflate these pretexts
out of context. We conflate them to such a degree
with assurance and knowledge and proof of salvation that we
have come up being raised in our culture to use these same
tests to know that if we're even born of Christ. And I think that's why John likes
to use the plural, if we. Because, beloved, there's something
we need to understand about what the New Testament teaches. Christians
will sin. Christians do sin. Christians should not sin. Those
are all three true. Christians can put away sin to
a degree. But at no time do we see the
measure in which we are or are not sinning as our hope. That's what the law shows us. We are guilty. A little bit of
sin over here and a whole lot of not sinning over here is death. Sinning for a year and then not
sinning for 80 years is death. Being 450 years old and sinning
for the last six-tenths of a second of your life is death. Being
born under Adam is death. Being born in Christ is life.
That's the only thing that can save us. If we're born in Adam,
we're dead and we're dead forever. If we're born in Christ, we're
alive forever. And there is no other alternative. All right, to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven. Why? For his namesake. What does
God say to the prophet Ezekiel? I am not going to act for your
sake. See, God didn't love his people
so, so, so, so, so, so much that he had to do something for them
because they're so, so, so, so awesome and so, so, so, so, so
worthy of love. See, but that is the American
God and his name is Lucifer. And he's preached in so-called
churches every single day. That is the American God who
is the devil, okay? No, God doesn't say that. God
says, I'm going to act for my namesake. You have defiled my
name. You have profaned my name. You
have refused my promises. You have made me look stupid.
But I'm not stupid. And I don't need you to make
me look good. So I'm going to act for my name's
sake. Why? Because I'm God and I cannot
lie. And I do what I wish with whom I wish, when I wish, where
I wish, and how I wish. And that hasn't changed from
Ezekiel's day to John's day to our day. It hasn't changed. But
yet it seems to be in the mind of the delusion of the world
concerning Christendom that historically it paves that it's almost like
the enemy has paved a standard, which is a lie. And that Antichrist. All the
antichrists. The very nature of being against
Christ, of being not Christ. Is it a word? Does somebody give
you a word? You hear it? You hear that that
comes out of their mouth? They write it down. I got a word
for you. And they say the word. If it isn't truth, it's antichrist.
If the worldview from which it's seen is not truth, it's antichrist.
If it establishes any kingdom in any sense of equality or closeness
to Christ, it's antichrist. If it has any rhetoric whatsoever
that tries to pursue a different way other than the purity of
the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ alone, it is antichrist. So now let's put a list of disciplines.
Politics, economy, taxation, all these things, antichrist.
They're established by God for a purpose and we've got a different
spirit in us. I'm getting ahead of the preaching
by about a month, three months. We have the Spirit of Christ
in us. We have the mind of Christ in us. And next week, we're going
to show how that is revealed through the scripture. Every
turn, every letter of the New Testament shows these things.
It shows the absolute certainty of the righteousness of God for
His people. And it shows the absolute war and battle that
we will have until the day of glory with our flesh. Against
that that we want, which is holiness. And I used to pat myself on the
back sometimes. Like, you know what? I don't want to do those
things. I'm so glad I don't want to do those things. Look at those
people who are slaves to those things. You ever been that way?
Well, at least I'm not a slave to those things. At least I don't
talk like those in that way. At least I don't dress that way. At least I don't act that way. And if we're not careful, we'll
be deceived. And Christians act like that. If they didn't, John
wouldn't be writing these letters. Paul wouldn't be writing these
letters and say, stop acting like that. Throughout my entire
childhood, as long as I can remember, and I can promise you that I'm
not making this up, but I know that even at the age of four
and five, I was taught this. Son, that's what all my parents
and grandparents called me. You are a child of the king. Act like it. Act like it. Now my parents and grandparents
would see me acting the fool as a young boy. What are you
doing? See, I don't say that to my children.
I say, what's wrong with you? Have you lost your mind? Are
you the child of the devil? What are you doing? You don't
have to act that way. You're a child of Christ. You're
a child of God. You're a child of the King. You
don't have to act that way. What did you just say? You don't
have to speak that way. Why are you speaking that way?
You're a child of the King. I had a big head as a kid. As a teenager, man, I was a King's
kid. And I knew it. And if you ever want to know
what a Pharisee looks like as a teenager and didn't know it, that was
probably me in a lot of aspects. I would never do that. No, I'm
not going to rob the store to get some free beer. God help
us. You're going to hell. I mean,
you know, you have those friends now, 35 years later, go, thank
God for James for keeping us out of trouble. We all struggle with these things,
no matter what the truth that we rest in. These temptations,
these revisionists, these Gnostics, these liars, these antichrists,
they are in our world. They are around us all the time.
They are not at Kingdom Hall and they are not at the mosques
and they are not at the cult centers down the street. They
are everywhere and they are in every iteration of Christianity
that we know today. And if we were honest about it,
we could even point our finger to some who have been among us. And if it were not for the mercies
of God, we would also be counted in that number. And verse 28, and now little
children abide, abide in him. so that when he appears, we may
have confidence and not shrink from shame in him that is coming.
I'm going to stop there. And I talked about this last
week, but I told you that this right here, that and now is moving
into the word C. Three, one. Usually when we see the word
see or behold in the scripture, it's sort of like, I want you
to know something. No, John here uses an extremely
different term. And in the grammar, if your Bible
doesn't say see, you should probably just put a little word see there.
Behold is too weak. It's too proper of a word that
he seems churchy. Behold. I mean, you know, we
don't even, somebody says behold, we don't look over there. Behold. We're like, what is this guy? King James only? I mean, you
know, The other street preacher over
there, behold what? Behold, Hardee's has a sale. I mean, we don't
say that. We go, look here, we got free
hamburgers if you buy 20. You can die of disease for just
about nothing. And so the word behold doesn't
really mean a whole lot to us in our vernacular, but the word
look, see, I want you to see, that's where he's going here.
And now little children abide in him. So that when he appears,
when is that? This is the, this is the what?
This is the day of glory. We have really messed up what
the Bible teaches about the coming of Christ. Even Christians like,
oh, it's the day of judgment. It's the day of glory, folks.
We're not going to have to go through some pretrial to get
to Jesus. Well, now let's look a hair.
I mean, I was, I was taught this way by well-meaning big sweaty
man who scared me to death as a child. Well, look at here. You didn't
pay attention in church last Sunday. X. Your Bible has dust
on it. Proof you didn't read it. I mean,
and they go on and on and on. And God is not going to stand
there, and the Lord Jesus Christ is not going to stand there while
all these things are read out. So that we can be judged and
go, OK, shame, shame, shame. Where is shame in glory with
Paul saying there's no condemnation in the ones who are in Christ
Jesus? Where is the shame anyway? It's up here. Where is the guilt? It's up here. It's in here. Our
hearts lie. And tell us that we are not righteous. And then well-meaning antichrists
say, well, you're not. But we are. Because if we're
not righteous, we are not the children of God. The question is, what is our
righteousness? Or the better question is, who
is our righteousness? We are righteous because Christ
is our righteousness, you see. That's why it's called good news.
It's not, I got bad news and good news, which you want first.
Well, let me give you the bad news. That's not evangelism. That's
fear. And this is a work in progress
for me. Beloved, as I read the Bible, as I read it and read
it and read it and read it, and God reveals the simplicity of
what is written there on the pages with the synergy of what
is written on other pages, it becomes clearer and clearer and
clearer. And next week you're going, I mean, I would suggest
that you take a piece of paper with you next week because we're
going to look at statements that sound condemning and you're going
to read them at face value in context. You're going to go,
that makes so much sense. What does it mean to have confidence?
Who's he talking to? He's talking to people who have
no condemnation. So the issue at hand is not,
you better do well so you don't have to run from God's judgment.
That's not even being discussed here. Why do we infuse that?
Because no matter how much truth we're taught by the Spirit of
God, we still have all this garbage in our brain that we've been
taught as little children, young children, young adults, adults,
and old people. Thus saith the Lord is not coming
out of my mouth unless I'm reading it. So, I would say pastorally one
of the greatest trials of the body of Christ throughout all
the decades of ministry is this. People feel destroyed. People feel defeated. People
feel fearful. People feel haughty. Then people
feel guilty. And they feel unworthy and they
feel like, well, now I am lost or maybe I'm not even saved.
You see why we don't gauge our security on how we feel or how
we think. We gauge our security on what
is true and what is true is that Christ has purchased us and there
is no refund. There is no return policy. There
is no way that any person for whom Christ died could ever,
ever, ever, ever lose life. Cannot happen. So what is John doing? He's saying,
beloved, I've been telling you how you need to center your life
on the cross and the glory of this good news of Jesus, what
he did for his people, who you are, and in doing so you will
ward off these diseased, ridden, internal battles. You will put
them aside. You will keep these things at
bay. You won't sit at home wringing your hands going, oh, am I saved?
Am I saved? Am I saved? Am I saved? If you
just listen to what I'm saying. And there's one primary indicative
that I'll get to at the end of my sermon today that will launch
us into next week. One primary indicative that is
absolutely true of all saints. And then there's one primary
imperative that is commanded of all saints. So we must abide in that indicative. We must abide in the truth of
the gospel. That's what we talked about last week. We must hold fast to the
confession of our hope, who is Jesus Christ raised from the
dead. We must know that he has satisfied the wrath of God for
the elect alone. We must understand that the gospel message is like
a newspaper going out over and over and over again for every
generation, through every tongue, through every tribe, through
every nation, so that the elect of God may hear and believe by
the will of God, by the spirit of God, who are born again in
that context where they hear the truth and then they know
that they belong to him. And I've had many accusations
against me through the years in the context of my teaching.
Many. It's almost like, what's next?
But one of the most frustrating, the other elder brothers in this
church and even some of you can attest to this too, is when people
say we're not evangelistic. Or people say, well, you can't
teach election in evangelism. That's not saying I can't teach
grace. Can't teach grace. Grace is all about election. See, these are the verse and
number people. These are the guys who have taken the Bible
and have never been taught by God and they know a whole lot
of verses. And they wear it in front of their face because that's
what the Bible says to do. They put it near their heart because
that's what the Bible says to do. Literally, wear it like phylacteries. And
then they come to the place where evangelism is to take a benign
offer to share the greatness of such sympathy. See, Christ
has sympathy for the elect in the world because He has struggled
the way we have struggled, but yet did not sin. I read Hebrews
12 this morning at the beginning of our service. And what do we
see? None of you, Paul says there,
have ever sinned to the point of shedding your own blood. I
mean, been tempted to the point of shedding your own blood. Have
tried to overcome sin to the point of shedding your own blood.
But Christ has. And the discipline of the Lord
is that which grows us. The word discipline and the word
discipleship are the same thing. They're the same word, they're
the same purpose, they're the same thing. And the way that
operates is what Trey talked about Wednesday night that has
caused some great discussion based on the very quote that
I put up about him, that he said. Is that that is all done in the
context of intimacy. Intimacy, koinonia, life together,
fellowship. The reason I'm preaching today
is for discipline. Discipline. Discipleship, growth,
maturity, joy, happiness, freedom, guiltlessness. This is discipline. We grow in the knowledge of grace
only through discipline. And when we grow in these things,
we're not worried about the coming of Jesus. We're wanting the coming
of Jesus. See, there are Christians who
are a little bit worried. There are true born-again people
who go, well, I just, I haven't done enough. They're confused. They're wrong. Well, they're
right in that none of us have done enough. So let us continue
to labor, not that we may please our God and appease His wrath,
that we may honor Him and thus please Him. And the cool thing
is that John gives us the entire list of what we are supposed
to do. He gives us everything. So that we may have confidence,
if we abide in the truth of Christ, we can have confidence not to
try to hide, not to be worried, not to have that little butterfly
in our stomach. That when Jesus barks into the scene of time
and says, I'm here, we're running to him, not from him. And I go,
oh, goodness. You know, parents doing, licking
their kids' faces and stuff. We're not doing that. We're just
like, I guess, what is it, Fannie Crosby? Just as I am, I guess
she got it right on that one. I don't know if she wrote that
or not. There is no plea. There is nothing that we can
do except what Christ has done. And we trust and believe in what
he has done. And so we will not shrink back from him and shame
in his coming if we hold fast to the gospel. And we won't feel
the draw of trying to stay away or worried if we're not quite
ready. If we just listen to these two things, abide in the gospel
of free and sovereign grace and love each other. And you know that every decision
that we make as Christians, every decision that we make, every
word that we speak in person or right on the internet, everything
that we think with our mind, every prayer that we utter from
our soul is either loving or unloving. And the context of judging that
is, is it beneficial? Is it done, asked, received,
or desired in the context of my church family? John continues in verse 29, that
if you know that he is righteous, this is the troubling, this is
where the troubling stuff comes in. See, everybody's feeling
pretty confident right now. And then he says this, if you
know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who
practices righteousness has been born of him. And then we're back to what? You know what John doesn't say,
you know, for for 20 years, I've said this, hear what I'm saying,
not what I'm not saying. Don't put words in the words
that I'm saying, listen to what I'm saying, clear and simple.
I've never spoken in intentional ambiguities, and I never speak
in code. Let your yes be yes, let your
no be no. Speak the truth alone. Say it. Otherwise, it's deception. The same thing is true with the
Bible. You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has
been born of it. You know what he's not saying?
He's not teaching anything right there theologically. He's already
secured the saints theologically, hasn't He? And He's going to
do it again. But He says very clearly, put this in context.
Listen to these words now. Let me just say it. And now little
children abide in Him so that when He appears we may have confidence
and not shrink back from Him in shame at His coming. And if
you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone
who practices righteousness has been born of Him. See what kind
of love the Father has given to us that we should be called
the children of God. And so we are. See the context
there? Makes a lot more sense when you
actually get the beginning of the point that he's making. And
see. He is not saying in any way,
whoever does not do righteousness is not born of him. He did not
say that. And if he did say that, I'm tearing
all of John out of all of my Bibles and I'm going public for
the first time ever. If John said that, he's a liar. Because that has got nothing
to do with anything. But why do we hear it that way?
Because that's how we've been taught to read the Bible. How
can he say one thing so certain on one side and something so
stupid, contrasting on the other? And that's why he says what he
says. See what kind of love the Father has given to us? That
we should be called the children of God and so we are. We are
the children of God because of the love of God. We are the children
of God. He's already told them, little children. Fathers and
sons, young men, daughters, we are little children. We know
the message of the cross. We know our Lord. We know the
righteousness of God. We know we ought not to have
anything to do with unrighteousness and darkness, but we know that
we also will battle with those things because anybody in the
hearing of this letter who says they have no sin, who says they
have no darkness is a liar. You see, that's what he says.
You a bold faced liar or is a bald face? We don't know. It depends on what part of the
world it's come from. Like we always said growing up,
you're lying right through your teeth. And I would always respond
like this. Am I lying now? And then I'd
be in trouble. That's where my daughters get
it. My six-year-old loves them. Goes around, comes around. So
what does he mean there? What does it mean to practice
righteousness? We know who Christ is. We see
how Christ lived. We have the mind of Christ. We
know what Christ commands. Let's do it. And when you have certainty that
you're doing that which God has called you to do, you're not
going to sit around with guilt. You're not going to sit here and wonder
if I'm saved. I mean, that is like I could
write an album of that in the seasons of my life. Y'all think
I'm joking, but I mean, there are some times in life where
I'll go months going, I'm not even converted. And you can follow me around
and you can take notes, you can video me and record my voice,
and you would never, ever, ever, ever probably go, well, he is
lost, look at him. I mean, you wouldn't say that,
but inside my heart, I'm going, I am the vilest of murderers. I hate everything. I hate everybody. Paint me green and call me Oscar.
I'm living in a trash can. I mean, we are, I am sometimes
so driven in my spirit and in my mind to hatred, but I can
smile and talk to you. Not that I'd hate you and talk
to you, but you know, that's going on and I'm warring with
it. And he's like, well, I could
never have that in my heart. Let somebody hit your child.
Let somebody cuss at your wife. Let somebody put their hands
on somebody sitting next to you who can't defend themselves.
Oh my goodness. What's the old word? Hell hath
no fury? Hell hath no fury. Like jealousy. Or protection. I said that at my mother-in-law's
funeral. Sweetest woman you ever met,
unless you mess with her daughters. She'll get you. Same thing with
my mama and her boys. And I'll be the same way with
my children, be the same way with my bride. I'll be the same
way with you. It's something that none of us are above. And
yeah, it may be good and honorable, but listen here, I don't go to
the good and honorable state in my brain. I go to the vigilante
state. You see what I'm saying? Let's
be honest. Now, it may only last a tenth of a second, but it's
there. Cause in some sense, when I go to bed at night and I'm
feeling pretty good and I wake up the next day with a good night's
sleep, which is about four times a year, I'm just like bad to
the bone in my brain. And I felt like I could just
bust through the walls, stop a bus, let the children go on across,
rescue cats out of trees by shaking the roots. I mean, you know,
and then you go bend over to tie your shoes and go, oh, okay,
I'm not. But you feel that way. You feel that way in your defense
of the weak and the lowly. Sometimes you feel murderous
just because people aggravated you or cut in front of you in
the line, or the bank closed the window when you pulled up
to the thing. It's $3.59, not for what in the
world? We're closed. We're closed. We're closed. You're standing right there.
Computer. Computer. Computer. You know. It's not
like I'm asking them to count $10,000 with the pennies. I just
want to put this in the bank or get a $50 bill out. We're murderous. But when we're not, when we're
really trying to love, when we're really fighting against this
fleshliness, and how do we do that? We fight against the fleshliness
by abiding in the truth of Christ. And see, this is why Paul reiterates
this thing. John is writing in similar fashion, almost identically
to what Paul has written, but he does it in his way. And so
it sounds so different. where Paul would say, therefore,
I want you to walk this way. John does it as a series of affirmations,
attestations. But that's why I started out
the series some months ago saying this is the therefore of John's
gospel. Therefore, because of you being in Christ alive, therefore,
this is now your instruction. And we have to get to the place
where we hear what John is saying in his context. That's why he
goes back and forth. So let us walk in a manner worthy,
as Paul would say, this mind among you, I want you to have
it. And it is yours in Christ. You
see, he didn't say, I want you to get the mind of Christ. He
said, this is your mind in Christ. And I want you to have it and
I want you to live it. And I want you to love each other
in that context. This is Paul, that though Christ was God, he
let that go and became a slave and died as a thief on the cross.
So you have the same mind. Got it? Now what does that do
for us? Well, when somebody gets up on
me and says, Tippins, you just, that's just a bad attitude. I
don't want to hear that. And you know what comes to mind?
When somebody, like if your spouse says, that's just a bad attitude.
If I go to Robin and say that's a bad attitude, or she comes
to me, you know, we've got a pretty good system of communication
through 25 years almost of marriage. And it doesn't rub as bad as
it used to. Have you ever been in those early
days, or maybe your neighbor or somebody else who just doesn't
ever have anything to do with you, and they say, you just got
a bad attitude. You know what? You prove it to them. You do. You prove it to them. And your
nose gets all big. And you prove it to them. You
really show that, but you don't want to hear that. You don't
want to hear, you need to check your attitude. You need to check
your attitude. Why do you have such a poor attitude?
Why can't you be happy? Why can't you be joyful? Why
can't you be loving? See, that's the wrong approach. The apostles
don't go down that approach, do they? They say, you know what
Christ did? Christ came from heaven. He removed himself from glory.
He came into the creation. He was hated by all. And he had
to live 33 years. teaching, and being hated, and
being followed, and hungering, and suffering, and being tempted.
And then he died, and was killed, and he was murdered. And he never once barked back
at his persecutors. He never once went to say, oh,
you people just wait. See, that'd be me. I'd be up
on the cross, and I'm like, I know what's about to happen, but I'm
going to let them know. Y'all just wait. You ain't seen nothing
yet. It's about to be finished on this side, the other side,
You better not answer your door. Because I ain't selling magazines.
You see? That would be me. Christ didn't
do that. So when somebody comes to me
with a gospel, look what Christ did. Praise the Lord. And automatically,
by the Spirit of God, you're just softened. And then they
say, and your attitude stinks. And you go, you're right. We put the cart before the horse
trying to manipulate behavior because we just want everybody
to be good. We're not good. We know that we're not good.
We're righteous because of the imputation of Christ's righteousness.
So if we want to rest and live in that mindset and with that
lifestyle, then we need to always keep the efficacy of our righteousness
up front and behind us. So John does the same thing.
We abide in Him. We know that He's righteous.
We have His righteousness. We hold fast to the truth of
the gospel of Christ. Now because of that, you can
be sure that everyone who practices righteousness is born of it.
Everyone's like, oh, I try my best. Well, your best didn't
get enough. So where's the hope? The next thing, see. And this
is the text for today's sermon, see. Look and see, not behold,
not Something you need to understand. No, look, physically look, see
what kind of love the Father has given to us. How do you do
that? Look at the cross. How is it that we've been adopted
by the righteousness of God? How is it that we've been grafted
in to the holiness of God? How is it that we are able to
stand in the majesty of his presence? How is it? Because he loves us.
And His love is not how He feels toward us, it's what He did for
us. The love of God is that He crushed His Son so that we would
live. He crushed His Son that He may
be just in forgiveness of our sins. He crushed His Son that
He may be the justifier of all who are in Christ, who will be
granted and gifted the gift of faith to believe in that very
proclamation. So John doesn't play with the
minds of the saints. He doesn't play with the hearts
of the saints. He encourages the hearts of the saints. He
disciplines the hearts of the saints. He exhorts the hearts
of the saints. See what kind of love the Father
has given to us. We have to define what that means
and He's already done that. He's already done that. He's
already shown that God has brought us near through Christ. I like
Paul's teaching to the church of Colossae. He says that God
has snatched us out of the darkness and planted us into the light
of the kingdom of His Son. He's reached down in there and
plucked us out. He's rescued us. He's raptured
us out of death. That's what it means, to be snatched
out. We don't have to worry about some physical rapture. We've
had spiritual rapturing already, beloved. Nothing in the Bible should cause
fear for the saint. It's understood in context. It
should never cause fear. Doesn't mean that we don't test
ourselves. Doesn't mean we don't test our motives. Doesn't mean
we don't exercise discipline that sometimes is I encourage
you and you're awesome and I love you and boy, your attitude stinks. Straighten it up. That's what
loving people do. It's funny how sometimes we can
invest in somebody else's life and help them learn how to get
a job, or dress for an interview, or put together a resume, and
we'll encourage them and say, no, no, no, no, this is a better
way to say that. Or they come in with their hair all messed
up, like a kid trying to learn to wipe his own backside or brush
his own teeth, and you look at it and you've got a stick of
butter over here on the left side. Buddy, you need to brush both sides of your
mouth. And we do it in a way to encourage so that these children
and these young adults, as they're moving in through life, we do
all sorts of planning and training and coaching and all this kind
of stuff. And we help them in every way. But when it comes
to the gospel, you better get that right. We have to coach each other in
the faith. By reminding each other what the faith is and what
God's love has done, what God's love has accomplished, God's
love is the death of Jesus. For you. Beloved. And I love how he says it here.
See, look at and observe what kind of love the Father has given
to us. And this is what it does. Observe it that we are his children. He's calling us his children.
And so we are his children. See, I told you earlier that
as a kid, everybody who was in authority, I mean, they called
me son. I say that a lot sometimes. I mean, it's just habit. What's
up, son? Son, let me tell you something. I mean, you know,
it's just that when I hear those words, it's endearing to me. Somebody's about to give me some
advice that's going to help me. When I hear boy, I know I'm in
trouble. Boy, son, I'm going to train you. I'm going to teach
you. I'm going to give you some advice. I'm going to help you out. You're
going to be a better person after this. Boy, you might not make it through
the day. That's what it means. God calls us children. He doesn't
use these terms flippantly. God says, oh yeah, those are
my children, those are my children, those are my children. I don't
want to claim them, but they're my children. The Corinthians
were just as much children of God as the Thessalonians. Corinthians
did not know what love was when they stepped in it. And the Thessalonians
had so much, they couldn't even see it. But what does Paul say
to the Thessalonians? He said, I want you to love each
other more than you're doing. And they didn't take that and
going, oh, you're so unloving. I'm like, yes, we're gonna stay.
How do we love? How did God love? He gave his
life. He gave his son. So we love in the same manner.
We give our lives. We give our lives. And it doesn't
mean that we're gonna be called to die. It doesn't mean that
we're gonna be called to give everything away. If we all gave everything
away, we'd be hard pressed right now, wouldn't we? It might work
out for a while. When the cupboard goes dry, we
wouldn't even have a can opener. We'd have to sell that for water.
Be like cavemen banging on a rock with a can of beans trying to
get it open. That's not the call to all. Everybody has needs,
and everybody has gifts, and everybody has treasure, and everybody
has talent, and we're to give all that we can as we're able,
especially in the faith. We're supposed to give our time
and our focus and our prayers to one another. It's a sacrifice.
Do you know it's a sacrifice to pray? Because Netflix is putting
out stuff all the time. Amazon Prime, man, they're all
in a war together. This is better and better movies
every time turn around and they'll put like 12 episodes hour and
a half apiece Start on Friday. We're done by Monday. Oh Man
I hadn't prayed all weekend. I can't even see See that in
and in your eyes and you close your eyes you see the in or the
prime smile Y'all know I'm telling the truth And if it's not us,
it's our kids. Hey, would y'all come? Hey, come
watch this. That's what we do. And if it's not that, we've got
permanent ear bulbs. They've grown into our ears.
We're listening to music. We're chilling out. We're doing
what we do. We have time. So it's a sacrifice
to pray, because you know what I can't do? Play jazz sax and
pray. I can pray on the lawnmower,
but not as effective as I could if I just stopped and just sat
still for three or four minutes and I prayed. So it's a sacrifice to pray.
Don't think, well, I don't have a whole lot to give. You got
a lot to give. Can you can you talk to our father on our behalf? And if I pray for you and you
pray for me and we are all praying for each other, everybody's getting
prayed for and everybody's getting what they need. And the power
of God is moving our hearts to be the children of God, to live
in the same household, to live under the same roof, to deal
with the things that we have to deal with. And God's life
in the house is nasty. Some of us don't bathe as much
as we should. Some of us don't clean the way we should. Some
of us put our dishes in the sink until tomorrow morning. Some
of us wash them as we're eating off them. And it's just always
different. We are different. But we have
one thing in common that will never change, and that is the
love of God for us in Jesus Christ. And I've said this a thousand
times over. I have a lot of hyperbole today, but I've said this a thousand
times over, is that I believe sometimes People get into the
Fellowship of Grace Truth Church as a family, and they want intimacy,
and then when they see it, they go, don't think I want that. Because see, some churches call
intimacy high accountability. Now we're going to get that microphone
out, and here we go, guys. I want to hear what you've done
bad since we met last. That's terrible. Shame on you.
Pray for this guy. He's almost going to hell, but
thank God for the mercy. I mean, and I'm making jokes,
but I'm serious. This is how people live in the
fellowship. What kind of fellowship is that?
I mean, at least pull out a bacon cheeseburger or something to
eat. I got some hot dogs, and you're miserable. And we get
to this We get to the place where we're actually being real. We're
actually encouraging each other to hold fast to the gospel. We're
actually encouraging each other to exercise the gift that God
has given us for the sake of one another. We're actually showing
people there is an out of your guilt because of the finished
work of Christ. The cross settled the debt. So why don't you just
relax for a minute. Christianity is about rest. That's
the eternal image from creation before there was even a man to
behold the witness of God. God had determined to rest. And the whole point of Christ
is He is the Sabbath. He is the rest. He's the break. He's the reprieve. He's the load-lifter. He's the knee-strengthener. He's
the arm-raiser. The gospel does this. None of
our problems are going to go away. All of our diseases aren't
going to be healed. All of our relationships aren't
going to stay intact. All of our children and family are not
going to live. But Christ is alive. Christ stands. Christ spread out His arms and
rose from the dead. Christ promised this all. Our
primary job is to encourage each other to rest. Just calm down. Relax a few minutes. Listen to
the Word of the Lord. We're too tense. Like Peter wanting
to build some tents. We're too tense. That was a bad
joke. Thanks, Dr. Queller. I appreciate
you getting that for me. But we are. We're too tense. I can't
get up. All right. We are. We're too
tense. We're too intense. We're too
upset all the time, worrying over what it is that we should
be living. And I'm not making light of good
reflection and proper introspection, but we need to look through the
lens of Christ. We need to pour the blood of
Christ into the goggles that we're looking through and realize
that the blood of Christ is the remedy, that the love of God
takes away all of our sin and that true love amongst the body handles a multitude of sins. So we are the children. He calls
us that because that's who we are. So what are we supposed to be
doing? What is this righteousness? We know what it looks like. Look
at Jesus. Look at Paul. Paul says, follow
me as I follow Christ. Let's follow one another. I mean,
it's an obvious thing, isn't it? Love each other. Well, I'm going to do what I
want to do. That's not loving. Whether what you want to do is
sin or not. That's not loving. Well, I'm going to have what
I want to have. Well, I'm going to start what I want to start
because I'm the Adams family. I'm going to do what I want to
do and be what I want to be and say what I want to say and play
how I want to play. That's the American way. I've
got rights. We forget it's a collective constitution. We the people, not I the one.
I mean, we've seen those movies, the apocalyptic guy and he's
the only one left. It ends in death. The church ends in death. Why do so many congregations
fall apart? Because they're doing everything
but what the Bible told them to do. They're not preaching
the truth of the word of God in context so that the church
is not being taught the gospel. The church therefore is not embracing
the gospel. The church half the time is not
even born again because they've never heard the gospel. And so
then they live in a way going, now what? We've got to do something
extravagant. We've got to do something amazing.
We've got to do something incredible. We've got to raise some money.
That's where a lot of my pastor peers go. I've got to do something
incredible for the Lord. We're going to raise a million
dollars. And we're going to build something bigger. And we're going
to have a watermelon patch for the summer children. And
we're going to have a soda fountain. I mean, I'd love to have all
those things, but not in the name of Jesus. And not with the
church's time and talents. Could you imagine? Alright, everybody
come next Sunday. We're not going to have service. We're going
to have a lemonade stand outside. We're going to give lemonade
to all the people walking by. And you think it's a joke, but
we've done something very similar. and some congregation, not we.
It has been done. Thanks, Jesse. Jesse's like,
no, we haven't. No. It has been done. I have seen it. Behold,
watermelon and lemonade. Y'all getting me on. So, the church is so loved by God,
is so different, is called to such a standard of loving each
other. It is the hardest thing to do in the world. Loving each
other selflessly is an impossible task. But by the witness of Christ
through the word and the encouragement of the saints, we can be trained,
we can be taught to be children who brush both sides of their
teeth. To comb their hair, to put on and tie their shoes, to
walk instead of crawling. To wash their hands before they
eat, because that's godly. and all sorts of things that
we know that we need to do because we are the children. Let us who
are mature as children teach others who are children, who
are a little green around the edges, not to become what the
world says they ought to become or what the culture says they
ought to become, but to become lovers of the brethren. And it's so different from the
world and it's so different from the world's churches, so different
from the whole of evangelicalism. And this is why he finishes this
sentence in verse one of chapter three this way. The reason why
the world does not know us is that it did not know him. We are the children of God. And
I'm going to say this as a way of explaining an application
of this text this morning. When we see the culture of Christendom,
and what I mean is popular Christianity, the whole, the normal, the thing
that's very obvious, friends, it's like the world. And it's
like the world in that it has used the Bible to transition
people's lives and focus and times and time management into
something else that's extravagant for the Lord, rather than resting
in that which is most extravagant, which is the blood of Jesus on
the cross. There's nothing greater than what Christ did on the cross.
There's nothing greater that a Christian could do than to
lay down his life and become a nothing for the sake of his
brother, sister. Because in those things, we actually
fulfill what's called the law of Christ. We are upholding who
we are. We are children of God. So we're
acting like it. You see. We're a child of the
king. You don't have to act that way.
You don't have to feel that way. You don't have to. But we're
going to. So how do we overcome it? Are
we going to go up one day? Are we going to wake up one day
and everybody's going to be in the spirit of Christ and unity
and never have a problem? No. As a matter of fact, the
more we mature, the more problems that sometimes fall out of the
Lego box. And we're stepping on those things.
We're tripping. We're going down the wrong side. We're trying to go down the up
escalator. We're running on the moving sidewalk
at Orlando, Universal Studios. We're tearing our right knee
out and ripping our pants. True story. Because I was running 40 miles
an hour. Actually, I was running on the
other side of it. My wife was running on that. I was running on the pavement.
We're doing all sorts of things, but if we're doing them for the
sake of love, we're resting in Christ. And we're not like the
world. We're not going to do what the
world does. We're not going to be what the
world is. John's already said don't love the world. Don't love
the world and its sinfulness. That's obvious. Don't love the
world and its religion. Don't love the world and its
practices. Don't love the world and its liturgy. Don't love the
world and its worship. Don't love the world of Christendom. Love each other and in doing
so you love Christ. That's been one of the hardest
things to communicate to adults my entire life. But yet I could
take 500 five-year-olds right now and I could teach them the
aspect of Christian love in 20 minutes. And I could teach them
for an hour and they'll sit there and listen. If I'm talking to
them. And then they'll get up and they'll
be able to explain it. Do you love Jesus? Yes. How? Because
I love my mom and dad and obey them. How about that? I was rebuked many, many years
ago by telling my children in public, if you love me, you'll
obey me. Because your love for me is obedience. Don't you tell
your children that. Matter of fact, one person wrote
me a letter and said I was psychologically abusing my child. And I asked this person, I said,
am I asking them to do anything wrong? No. And what it was, is they were
running amok in the building during a service. I mean, I'm
trying to preach, church trying to listen, and it looks like
the day the squirrel went berserk in the First United Church or
whatever, you know that time, everybody's doing, I thought
there was a ball game going on, there's a wave going on, my son
is rolling under the pews. And you see, he's rolling. So the heavy, name was Tony,
big guy, played for the Padres, you know, 11 foot 3, He sort
of catches him up at the end of the thing and picks him up
with one hand and carries him outside. Well, I never had a problem with
my child again. Tony took care of it. I don't know if he threw
him up to the atmosphere and then caught him again or what,
but I never had a problem with my son rolling under the pews
again. But I told him, I said, if you
love me, you'll obey me. And I asked that person, I said,
have I told him to do anything that was wrong? No. He said, well,
have I asked him to do anything that was overly burdensome? Is it okay to say, don't roll
under the pews? Yeah. Is it loving for him to
obey me? Yes. I said, then what did I
do wrong? Well, it's just not right. And you just love anyway, right? If you love me, you will obey
my commandments. If you're a child, I expect you to live like one.
I expect you to act like one. I expect you to speak like one.
I expect you to do that which is required of you. And it's
so simple. It's such a simple thing in expectation, but it
is one of the hardest things we'll ever do. It's easy to look
the part, and speak the part, and sing the part, and walk the
part. It's hard to love. But it's the
only thing. And the world doesn't know Him,
so they don't know His righteousness. They don't know what love's all
about. So they put on the regalia of righteousness that seems to
fit their view of what holiness looks like. And they're wrong. They're wrong. Pastors ought
to wear suits. Well, not this one. I had enough
of that. Dry-cleaning bill out the wazoo.
You know how many suits you go through in seven days? South
Georgia? A bunch. $5 a shirt, $22 a suit. That adds up. You've got to take
an offer. What? Yeah, suit money. Cleaning services. I'm not buying groceries this
week. I'm getting the dry cleaners done. I mean, there's things
like that, but these are important to some people because they don't
know Christ. They don't know what love looks
like. They don't know what worship
is supposed to be. And we are God's children. Look at verse two, and this is
the last thing I'll say. So the question on the table, and this
is what we'll pick up next week. We'll go through all this again next
week as we move through. The question then is, so what
you're saying, this is what I get from unconverted people. And
I say that specifically. What you're saying is we can
just live how we want to live and sin how we want to sin. I
didn't say that. Matter of fact, I said love each
other. Walk in righteousness. Why? Because you love the Lord
Jesus. Why? Because He loved you first. And
the cool thing is, is you know, if I were John, I'd have written
that first, but he's going to say that. He laid down his life
for us. We ought to lay down our life.
So the next three weeks, John's going to explain exactly what
that looks like. And I've already preached it this morning, but
it'll be reiterated over and over again. You're thinking I've
already heard this sermon. It's going to be easy to follow then
because we've heard it already. But we're thinking now, when
am I going to be perfected? Aren't I supposed to grow and
look a certain way? Yes, you're supposed to look
like a loving brother or sister. You're supposed to lay down your
life for one another and you're supposed to abide in the truth of the
gospel and you're not supposed to conflate the idea of your
maturing with your assurance of hope and life. Because that's
sinful. Anybody who tells you that you
can know that you know that you know that you have eternal life
by the way you live your life is a liar and the truth is not in him. Be careful. Don't confuse gospel
assurance with confidence through obedience, with a lack of guilt,
with moving, with enjoyment. The Christian life of rest and
joy and happiness. I came that you may have life
and have it more abundantly. Some people have really confused what
that means. But I think the abundant life in Christ is chilling out
and loving each other. resting and loving each other
as we continue to learn and grow in the truth of the gospel as
given to us by the word. But verse two, beloved, we are
God's children right now. And what we will be. What we
will be, what we will become. As God's children has not yet
appeared. But we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And thus, everyone who hopes
in him sets his life as his life was because he is pure. See, that's the imperative. And that's the confusing part.
Well, how many things do I need to work on? Just one. Just one. Just one. Love your siblings
in Christ. Don't be like Cain. See, these
are the examples that John gives. Rest in the love of God and love
one another because of our gratitude. because of our knowledge, because
of our seeing and looking that we are children. Let's act like
children who belong to the King. Let's pray. Father, I pray your
mercy on my teaching. And I pray your mercy on our
hearing. Lord, that we would hear what your word has taught
us and that we would not impose our worldview or erroneous teaching
or just baggage into that which we've learned thus far. Father,
I pray for us. I pray that we would love each
other. I pray that we would learn what it means to lay down our
lives for one another. And Lord, that we would see that
it is the small things that you've called us to, not these extravagant
things. We don't need to feed a million
people, let's just feed one. They don't need to pray for the
entirety of the human race. Lord, let us just pray for a
few. Let's put our focus on those who are part of our assembly,
who are part of our family of faith. So Father, as we pray
today, we pray specifically for those who are sick with this
disease. That you would heal them, that you would secure them,
that you would give them the mercy that their bodies would
come to a place of of health so that they may proclaim the
excellencies of your name and tell of the works that you have
done, Lord, in Jesus Christ, not the healing of their bodies.
But Father, we pray that your will be done and that whatever
it is that you have established for those who are sick, Lord,
that you would see it fulfilled and that we would rejoice in
it. Even when our rejoicing is inexpressible because of fear,
because of sadness, because of trials and grief. Father, we
pray for those who are disassembled, those who are not able to get
out because of exposure, those who are fearful, those who are
dealing with just the emotional upheaval of all that this season
of life has caused. Lord, your commands and your
promises have not changed. You have promised that the only
means through which the church can have true joy is by intimacy. So Father, we know that that
which you have ordained and that which you have promised and that
which you have commanded is surely still good and proper and true.
So we trust in you to provide a way for that to come at any
cost. Lord, we pray for those sheep
who are not just disassembled, Lord, but those sheep who are
just In some sense, I say orphaned, but that's not as good a word
as that I should be using, Lord. But you know what I mean. Those
sheep who don't have a church home, those sheep who don't have
a family to come to, those sheep who don't know who is going to
be there when they need them. And Lord, I pray that you would
provide opportunity as your will has determined to bring them
to a fellowship of truth and love. Father, there are also many of
our brothers and sisters who are stuck, who are still dabbling
in the shadows of the world's church. who are seeing the truth
but, Lord, are fearful of what it may mean for them economically
and relationally and socially. Lord, give them the boldness
to step out and help them find a true fellowship of believers
that teaches the gospel, that preaches the context of the Scripture
by the power of your Spirit, Lord, that we may be encouraged
and that we may grow and that we may understand your righteousness. Father, that we would love each
other with a purity that is Just inexpressible in the world that
is odd to them that the world would look on with disdain and
say, look at those lazy Christians. Father, we pray all of these
things by the authority of Christ who gives us the privilege to
speak to you. And you do not hear even my voice
this day. You do not hear a created thing
that you despise. You are not listening to my prayers
and to the prayers of all of us as they agree with what they
hear today. Lord, you are not listening to our prayers this
morning with frustration or discontentment. You are not saying, OK, I'll
tolerate what I hear right now. These disgusting people, Lord,
you are pleasantly affectionate toward us. And you've loved us
with an everlasting love, proving this love and empowering life
through this love by giving your son Jesus Christ in our place.
And then planting, crediting, whatever word we use, His righteousness
to our account. So, Father, when you hear our
prayers this morning, it's just like your Son was speaking to
you. For we are your children. Help us never forget. In Jesus'
name, Amen. Thank you, Church.