If you get an opportunity to
read the articles in the bulletin today, they kind of go along
with this message, and they'll help you in understanding. I'm
going to preach here from the first three verses of 1 John
5. In the bulletin, it says 1 John
5, 1 through 5. But in studying on this message,
I decided to break this up because I want to spend next week's message
talking about overcoming the world. There's a lot to say there. And in this message, too, on
the subject of a burden that is light. A burden that is light. And I took that title from verse
3, where it says, his commandments are not grievous. That means
they're not a burden. They're not burdensome. Now,
why is that? Now, we're going to look at that. There's basically
three things that are brought out in these first three verses
of first john five within the context of everything that he's
been talking about you know the the book of first john is a book
that uh... by virtue of god's uh... inspiration inspiring the apostle
john to write these words it's a book that describes in detail
the nature of the fellowship of believers the fellowship of
brethren brothers and sisters in christ it begins with fellowship
with God. That's number one, you see, as
far as the basis of our fellowship with one another as believers,
as a church. The word church means called
out ones. We've been called out of the
world and into the family of God. I'm going to talk a little
bit more about that when we talk about overcoming the world next
week. But the basis of our brotherhood, spiritual brotherhood, I'm not
talking about the brotherhood of man, humanity. That's a different
thing altogether. We are not all brothers spiritually
with the world. We're certainly not with the
world. The world's against us. In fact, if you look down there
at verse 19, listen to this, there's a separation between
the true church of the living God sheep of Christ, the elect
of God in the world. He says in verse 19, we know
that we are of God, that's our family, that's our citizenship,
that's our fellowship, and the whole world lieth in wickedness
or literally the wicked one and the world there is the unbelieving
world, the lost, cursed world. There's a separation And it's
just like I've always told you. There's only two types of people
in this world. There's sinners lost in their
sins and there's sinners saved by grace. And those who are saved
by the grace of God are in a fellowship with one another. But the ground,
the point of that fellowship begins with fellowship with the
Father and the Son. Now here's what he's saying.
If you don't have fellowship with the Father and the Son,
you don't have fellowship with the people of God. Because their
fellowship is based upon fellowship, each one individually having
fellowship, being brought into fellowship with the Father through
the Son. Okay? So that's what John starts
with, and then he begins to describe the fellowship. And you know,
his first point is that the fellowship that exists that binds believers
together is light. We walk in the light as he is
in the light. Now those who walk in darkness,
they're not with us. We walk in light. Well, what
is light? Well, the Bible talks about Christ is the light of
the world. John chapter one. He is the light. John the Baptist said, I'm not
the light. Christ is the light. I'm just pointing you to the
light. But now there's a sense in which
his people are lights. The Bible says, let your light
shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your father in heaven. And people confuse that. They
say, well, that people have to see my outward character and
conduct. And that's my light. That is
not the light that he's speaking of there. The light is the light
of truth, the light of the gospel, the light of Christ that shines
on. the works of believers and reveals
that these are the work of God to his glory. You see, we don't
want to point, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves.
We want to point sinners to Christ. That's what I mean. You know,
somebody told me one time, says, you don't have anything good
to say about anybody. Well, I have a lot of good to say about our
savior. And that's what I'm here to do. I'm not here to puff you
up or even puff myself up. I want to talk about Him. He's
the one who deserves all the glory. I don't deserve any of
it. God forbid that I should glory save in what? The cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're not here to applaud
men. We're not here to build monuments to men. We're not here
to brag on men. We're here to brag on Christ
and what He accomplished in His obedience unto death to bring
forth righteousness for His people. I'm not here to tell you about
my righteousness. Well, in a sense I am. But what
is my righteousness? My righteousness is Christ. He
gave it to me. He imputed it to me. I didn't
have anything to do with it. Now that's the truth. He alone
worked it out by his obedience unto death. By one offering he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. If we had anything
to do with that, it would be corrupted. So the light is the truth of
the gospel. We walk in the light. Now, there
are different Gospels. Listen, there's different Gospels
all over the world. Gospels all over the world. There's
different Gospels all over this town, folks. Now, I know people
don't like to hear me say that, but it's true. There's false
Gospels, but there's only one true Gospel. And that's what
I want to know. That's what I want to search
for. That's what I want to find. The true gospel of how God saves
sinners by his free and sovereign grace in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ without my help. You say, well, don't you have
any part of it? Well, believers, sinners saved by grace are the
fruit, the result, the effect of what he accomplished, what
Christ accomplished. I'm the vine, you're the what?
The branches. Life comes from the vine. The
vine doesn't look at the branch and say, won't you cooperate
with me? No. Life comes from the vine. All
right, so there's the fellowship of life. Then he talks about
righteousness. The fellowship of righteousness. In other words, the light shines
in this way. The light shines to show me that
God is righteous and I'm not. Now that's the truth. The light
shows me that God is holy and just and must punish sin. He's just. And I'm a sinner who deserves
nothing but death and hell. You are too, whether you admit
it or not. That's right. We're all in the same boat together
in that way. There's none good, no not one. There's none righteous,
no not one, Romans 3. Man has no righteousness, man
cannot work righteousness, and here's the thing, man doesn't
want righteousness God's way, he wants it his own way, his
religious way, works way, his will, his works. Just give me
something to do, let me walk an aisle, let me get in the baptistry,
let me join the church, let me pay my tithe. Anything, just
give me something to do that I can say makes the difference
between heaven and hell. But God won't let you do that,
see. He's not gonna let you glory. He's not gonna let me glory.
If I have righteousness, it is totally the righteousness of
another, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called in Romans 1, 16 and
17, the righteousness of God. Not the righteousness of men.
Because it's God who purposed it, God who sent His Son to perform
it, and it's His Son who is God in human flesh, God-Man, who
worked it out. The old writers used to call
it an alien righteousness, because it comes outside of us. See, if you stand in fellowship
with God, here's what the light has shown you, that your sins
have all been taken away, not because of your tears or your
reformations or your changes of character, but because of
one thing, the blood of Jesus Christ. That's it. And you know what? That doesn't
leave me anything to brag about. If I stand in fellowship with
God who is holy and just and righteous, yes, he's merciful,
yes, he's gracious, yes, he's loving, but he must be both.
He must be a just God and a savior. What the prophet Isaiah said,
look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, I'm
God and there's none else. Look unto who? A just God and
a savior. One who's both a righteous judge
as well as a loving father. And how can he be both? How can
he do it? There's only one ground upon
which God can be both a just God and a Savior. And that's
the merits of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His obedience
unto death as the surety and the substitute of His people.
No other way. That's our justification before
God. You say, well, I don't understand that. All right, well, look at
it this way. Let's say you're standing before a judge and you're
accused of a crime. and you're guilty of the crime.
But the judge looks at you and says, not guilty. You say, well,
now, that judge would be unjust. That wouldn't be right if I'm
guilty of the crime. Isn't that right? And the judge
looks at me and says, not guilty. Now, I might like to hear it. And my family and my mother and
my dad and all my family, they might applaud. But I'll tell
you what, there has been an act of major injustice, hasn't there? But you know that's exactly what
God does for His people. He looks at His people who are
sinners. And He says, not guilty! But
now here's the difference. God does it justly. God does it on a right ground. Well, how could all that come
back? Well, before the foundation of the world, God chose a people
and gave them to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Made Christ
to be the surety of his people. You know what a surety does?
A surety is accountable, responsible to pay the debt of somebody else. And God appointed his son. And
here's the second thing, his son is able to pay that debt. You know, if another human being
took your place, that would just be one sinner taking the place
of another sinner, and he's not able to pay the debt. But Christ
is the innocent. The just. Remember the just for
the unjust, Peter said? He suffered the just for the
unjust. See, Christ is not a sinner. He was never made a sinner. He
never became a sinner. He was the innocent lamb. The
perfect Son of God in human flesh without sin. And He's able to
take the place of His people. He's able to pay the debt. That's
how God is just to look at a sinner like me and say, not guilty.
Because he does it on a just ground. Justice has been satisfied
by the death of his son. But not only that, God appointed
him. He's able to do it. He's also
willing to do it. You remember in the Garden of
Gethsemane when the Roman soldiers followed Judas and Judas pointed
him out? And he came out and he said,
who do you seek? They said, we seek Jesus of Nazareth.
Remember what he said? The King James version says,
I am he. The literal translation, he said,
I am. Remember what happened to them?
They fell backward. They couldn't touch a hair on
his head, except he willingly allowed it. He said in the book
of John, no man takes my life from me, I give it. John 13 1,
he loved his own, that is his own people, God's elect, his
church, to the end, to the finishing of the world. So God appointed
him, he's able to do it, and he's willing to do it. So when
God looks at a sinner in his court of justice, whom he saves
by his grace and brings into fellowship with him, it's on
the basis of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ imputed,
charged to him, accounted to him. God does it and he's still
just. A human judge couldn't do it,
but God can and does by his grace, by his power, through his son.
So that's the basis of fellowship. Light, righteousness, and then
love. John's talked a lot about love. Now look at verse 1 of
1 John 5. Here's faith, love, and the new
birth. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born
of God. How do you know you're born again
by the Spirit? Christ said you must be born
again or you cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven. Is the
new birth necessary for salvation? Yes it is. He says everyone who believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. But what is the new birth?
Well, the Bible says it's necessary because we're all born dead spiritually. Born dead spiritually in trespasses.
Ephesians 2, 1, you hath he quickened. The word quickened means giving
life. Enlivened. That's the new birth. The new birth is the operation
of God by the power of the Holy Spirit to give spiritual life
to his people. Now, where does that spiritual
life come from? Well, people today think it comes
from their faith, their decision. You remember the book, How to
Be Born Again? That's what it said, basically. Here's how you're
born again. You believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and as a result, you're born again. My friend, that is
not so. Dead men cannot believe. You must be born again or you
can't even see. You know, the reason you see
right now is because you have physical life. The reason you
hear is because you have physical life. Now, your physical life
did not come as the result of your seeing and hearing, did
it? Your seeing and hearing is just evidence that you're physically
alive. Well, my friend, the new birth,
is not by the works or the power of the wills of men. Turn to
John chapter 1 and look at verse 11. The new
birth does not come about as a result of your faith in Christ. Your faith in Christ comes about
as a result of your new birth. Look at it. Verse 11 of John
1. Christ came unto His own And
his own received him not. But as many as received him,
now some did receive him. They believed in him. To them
gave he power. Now the word power there is the
word right or privilege. It's not the word ability. The
word ability as translated power is a different Greek word. You
find it in, for example, Romans 1 16, the gospel is the power
of God. This word is right. In other
words, but as many as received him, to them gave he power. to
become or to claim to be the sons of God. I'm a son of God. John said, we are of God. What
gives me the right or the privilege to claim that? Well, he says,
even to them that believe on his name. Now his name is that
which identifies and distinguishes him from all counterfeits, who
is Jesus Christ. He's the son of God incarnate.
What did he accomplish on Calvary? He put away the sins of his people
and brought forth a righteousness by which they're justified before
God, which ensures their life and their glory in him. And all by the grace of God.
Now, it says in verse 13, which were born not of blood. This
didn't come through your pedigree. You didn't inherit this from
mom and dad or grandma and papa. It's not of blood. Why did he
have to say that? Well, because the Jews, what
was their claim of salvation? We be Abraham's seed. That means
nothing. It's not of blood. Doesn't matter
whether you were born a Baptist or you're born a Jew or whatever. That means nothing as far as
a right relationship with God. Secondly, nor of the will of
the flesh. That's the works of the flesh.
it's not of works for by grace are you saved through faith and
that faith not of yourselves it's the gift of God not of works
lest any man should boast nor of the will of the flesh or the
will of man it's not by your will or being willing that God
as a result gave you life you see God gives life and makes
his people willing in the day of his power he said it's of
God That's how the new birth comes about. And it comes about
in the preaching of the gospel. Now go back to 1 John 5. Faith
in Christ. He says, Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth
him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Those
who love Christ love those who are begotten of Christ. They're
bound together in the truth and the fellowship of faith. Faith
in Christ, love for Christ and his people are not the cause
of the new birth, they're the evidence of the new birth. And
we know this by the word of God. Now let me give you this. What
he's talking about here is sanctification of the spirit, being set apart
by the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel, given
life from the spirit, and here's a sinner, by a miracle of God's
grace, by the power of God's grace, comes to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's been set apart. And this is the issue. We are
all sinners who will not receive Christ, and yet those who receive
Christ, how are they made willing? In the day of His power. Christ's
righteousness imputed is the ground of our salvation, our
justification, but it's also the source of our spiritual life
given in the new birth. Romans 8.10 says this body, now
it's talking about the physical body, is dead because of sin. But the Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
is life because of righteousness. Some of the old writers used
to call it the resurrection life of Christ. Why did Christ, why
was He raised from the dead? You want to know why? It's because
of three words that He said on the cross. is finished. That's why he was
raised from the dead. That's why the grave could not
hold him. You know why? Because he paid the debt in full,
he satisfied the justice of God, and he brought forth righteousness,
and therefore he was raised from the dead on the third day. And
the life that he earned by his righteousness is given to his
people in the new birth at some point in time. You know what
happens? The Holy Spirit brings us under the preaching of the
gospel, the truth now, not a lie. And that's where he works his
power to give life, to give me eyes to see. Remember what Christ
said to his disciples? Blessed are your eyes, for they
see. Blessed are your ears, for they
hear. That's how he does it. He gives
them a new heart. Remember, Jeremiah said that
when he was talking to the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem. He said, you're
going into captivity. And we deserve to do it. We might
as well accept it. That's justice. But he said,
there's coming a time in the future when it's not going to
be like this. God's going to have a people,
a willing people, because He's going to give them a new heart,
He's going to put His Spirit within them, and He's going to
cause them to walk in His statues. What's He talking about? He's
talking about the new covenant day in Christ, and the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. He's going to
bring them to faith in Christ, He's going to bring them to submit
to Christ as the Lord their righteousness, and He's going to bring them
to repent of all their dead works, all their idolatry, even in their
false religion. And He's going to keep them clinging
to Christ, following Him. Look at verse 2. By this we know
that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
His commandments. Loving God. We know that's a
gift from God itself, isn't it? If any man loves God, if any
woman loves God. He said this over in verse 10
of chapter 4, he said, herein is love, not that we love God.
Our love for God is not the source of his love for us, it's not
the cause. But that he loved us and sent his son to be what?
The propitiation for our sins. What is propitiation? It's a
sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction to justice. That's
what it is. Satisfaction. Christ is our propitiation. He's satisfied. And when the
Holy Spirit brings us to see our sins put away by the blood
of Christ and His righteousness imputed to us, you know what
He does? He sheds abroad within our hearts the love of God. We
love that God. You know, not everybody who claims
to love God really loves God, especially the God of the Bible.
We were talking about it last night. I mentioned, you know,
when I was in school and I was an unbeliever, my favorite author
was Mark Twain. And, you know, Mark Twain, he
wrote a lot more books than what most people think, a lot more
articles. But they were interviewing him one time about religion,
about the Bible. And he read the Bible. Now, he
was an atheist. I don't know if you knew that.
Mark Twain was an atheist. But he did read the Bible. He
thought it was some pretty good literature. And a reporter asked
him, he said, well, Mr. Twain, what about the parts of
the Bible that you don't understand? And he said, well, those don't
really bother me. He said, the parts of the Bible
that bother me are the ones that I do understand. And that's the
problem. Tell somebody, God is love. Everybody applauds. But tell
somebody that God hates all workers of iniquity. Oh, I had a preacher
in town here say, God doesn't hate anybody. I said, well, you
better read Psalm 5. Well, that's not right, he said.
I said, wait a minute. We're talking about God here,
aren't we? Now, it's not right if you hate.
If you hate another person, that is. It's not right if I do. But
I want to tell you something, if God does it, it's right. God's hatred is not like your
hatred or my hatred. My hatred is sinful. When I hate
somebody else, that's sin. But when God hates somebody,
what is it? It's his rejection of that person on the basis of
justice. That's what the Bible says. Oh,
we don't like to read that part? Why not? Because you don't love
that God, do you? But He's the same God that loves
His people with an everlasting, unchangeable, immutable, successful
love, who loved them in Christ. My friend, here's the point.
There is no love from God to sinners outside of Christ. I'm telling you. Read the Bible. That's what God says of himself.
That wasn't just put in there by some Gentile hating Jew. That's
the word of God. If any of us are recipients of
the love of God, it ought to overwhelm us, shouldn't it? Well,
he says you keep his commandments. Well, what are his commandments?
Well, his commandments are the gospel. It's to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of our sins and to follow Him.
Somebody said, well that's talking about the Ten Commandments. Well,
if it does, you're condemned. Because that's why the Ten Commandments,
that's why the Law of Moses was given. Moreover, the Law was
given that sin might abound. It was given because of the transgression. Why was it given to the Jews?
To show them their sinfulness, their depravity, and the impossibility
of salvation by their works. To convict them of sin and drive
them where? To Christ for salvation. If salvation is conditioned on,
or listen to me, evidenced by your keeping the law perfectly,
Then none of us are saved. We might as well close the book
up and go home. We sing a hymn called, Only a
sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.
This is my story. To God be the glory. You know
what we are? Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
will deliver me from this body of death? I thank my God through
Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. His commandments. You know Christ,
the Father, the Son, nor the Spirit have ever commanded any
sinner to try to be saved or to be righteous by their works.
That's always been forbidden. That was set in stone after Adam
fell. Remember Adam and Eve put on
their fig leaf aprons to cover their shame, their nakedness.
That's representative, symbolic of man's efforts to hide his
sin under some cloak of self-righteousness. God took off the fig leaf aprons
and what did he do? He slew an animal and made coats
of skin. That's a type of the blood of
the lamb slain for sinners. The only way that I can claim
righteousness before God is in the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, my friend. Should I be obedient to God's
commands, to God's Word? Yes. But not to be saved. That's all Christ's work. He's
my salvation. Not to be made righteous before
God because Christ is my righteousness. Not to wash away my sins because
He washed away my sins. The waters of baptism didn't
wash away my sins. Christ washed him away. What
does that mean? It means he paid for it. He satisfied justice. Verse three,
for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. Love
is a verb. Following Christ, seeking to
honor him, that's evidence that we love him. And his commandments
are not grievous. Well, they're not a burden. You
know, there are a lot of burdens described in the Bible. Jeremiah spoke of the burden
of the Word. You know what that is? It was
a burden to him because he had to tell people the truth. And
he knew it was the truth they didn't want to hear. It's like
John 3, 19. It's the light that men by nature
hate because it exposes them for what they are. I know when
I first heard it, I hated it. I did. I told my mother, I said,
I'll never go back to hear that guy. She said, you better go back
to hear him. I remember telling her one time we were on our way
home, I'd heard this message. I thought he was the meanest
preacher in the world. I said, Mom, if what he said this morning
is true, I'm lost. She looked at me and she said,
well, you just might be. Yeah, well, I was. It exposed me. The Bible speaks of the burden
of sin. We can't get away from it, can
we? We try, but we can't get away from it. The Bible speaks
of the burden of the law. Here's the burden of the law.
The burden of the law is this, it condemns all sin and all to
whom sin is imputed. And it requires perfect righteousness. That's a burden. Paul said, you remember in Acts
15 when they had that council about those Jews who claimed
to believe in Christ but they said you had to keep the law
to be saved. Peter and James and Paul stood up and they said,
you know what? That was a burden that even we
as Jews could not bear. And we're gonna put it on the
Gentiles? If righteousness comes by the
law, by our law keeping, then Christ died in vain, Galatians
2.21. Do you know if you think that
your salvation at any stage, to any degree, in any way is
conditioned on your law keeping, you're denying the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary. The burden of the law, conditional
salvation, You see, the gospel tells us that all conditions
of salvation were placed on Christ and he fulfilled all the conditions.
What we are required to do in the gospel is not the condition
we must meet to be saved or to be righteous, it's the fruit
and effect and the evidence of what Christ has already accomplished. But Christ spoke of a burden.
I read it over in Matthew chapter 11. When he said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden. Are you labored, heavy laden under the burden of sin?
Have you been all your life trying to do what's right in order to
get right with God? Sometimes you might feel good
about it. Then other times you might feel like, well, I've got
to go back to square one. Well, he says, come unto me,
come unto Christ. He said, I'm going to give you
rest. I'm not going to put you under a burden of works in order
to gain or attain and maintain salvation. I'm going to give
you rest. Christ is our Sabbath. We rest in his finished work.
I have a righteousness complete. Unchangeable. They cannot be
contaminated. It's His righteousness charged
to me. He says, take my yoke upon you.
You know what a yoke is, they put it on the oxen. Learn of
me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest
in yourself, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Here's
what John says. He says the same thing here.
His commandments are not grievous. His commandments are not a burden.
their rest for the souls of God's people who know their sins and
their depravity and their inability. Everything I need, everything
God requires of me to attain or maintain salvation, I find
complete in Christ. Well, aren't we supposed to serve
Him? Exactly, but not as forced slaves. not as mercenaries trying
to earn our station or our rewards. We're to serve Him as children,
loving children, motivated by grace, motivated by love, and
motivated by gratitude. Are you serving Him because you
think if you don't, He'll kick you out of the family? Boy, would you want your children
to love you down that basis? Well, my friend, God has a people,
and he's given them the rest that can only come in Christ
Jesus. And yes, they're required to
serve him, not to be saved, not to be made righteous, but because
they have his grace through the righteousness of Christ. And
he shed abroad that love. Paul said, the love of Christ
constrains me. What constrains you? What motivates
you? Somebody says, well, if I believe
that, I just go out and sin as much as I want to. Well, you
know why you do that? Because you don't have any godly
motive to do so. The only motive you've got is
a legalist or a mercenary. And that's iniquity in God's
sight. Serve the Lord with gladness,
the scripture. His commandments are not grievous. They're not a burden placed upon
people trying to get themselves saved or to earn their rewards. They're a yoke that's easy, a
burden that's light. Okay.