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Well. Good morning. Yes, I love enthusiastic crowd. I got to tell you, last night I was going over the sermon before coming today and watching the Patriots game. I spent yeah. Be quiet. Get out. I spent last night just one arm in the in the air raise because God was just excited me about this passage. And another arm raised because the Patriots are the Patriots. I’ve already lost my audience. Huh? Well, if you’ve got a Bible with you this morning, I’m going to invite you to turn to first. John. If you don’t have a Bible with you, I’m going to encourage you to pull one out of the seat in front of you. We’re studying the Book of First John together under a topic of the new generation or a new generation. If you pull one out of the seat in front of you, it’s page 185, in the New Testament. Make sure you’re not in the Old Testament because pages start over when you get into the New Testament. So it’s page 185. In the Old Testament, what we discover is that God gave us the law. In fact, when you study the history of Israel, you’ll see that the the laws that God gave fell under three categories. There was the civil law dealing with the nation of Israel and a theocratic kingdom, and how to follow God and their government. There was the ceremonial law, the law that God gave them to worship him in the temple.
And there was the moral law laws that you find in the Ten Commandments. Do not covet, do not lie, do not steal, do not murder. All good things right? Do not take the Lord’s name in vain. God gave all three of these laws for the purpose of directing the nation of Israel to him. Is my mic on? Okay, just making sure. Thank you. The purpose of the law was to point Israel to him and as a nation, in order to come before God. They were required to go into the temple and a priest had to represent the people of God before God, making sacrifices for sins and praying on behalf of the nation of Israel. Bible tells us in Romans 320 that through the law comes the knowledge of sin. That sin in Romans 512 entered the world and death through sin. And so death spread to all men, because all had sinned. God’s desire for us as a nation, for the nation of Israel, and for us as people were to look at these laws in which he would establish and us as people to recognize that we can never satisfy and fulfill the demands of a righteous and holy God. It was to put us into a place in which we recognize, Lord, we need your help. God, we need you. The Bible tells us in Galatians 216 that through the works of the law, no flesh would be justified.
When Jesus shows up on the scene a few centuries later, after the time of Abraham coming to to God and God, mentioning the the Ten Commandments to Moses, Jesus shows up on the scene and one of the traditions that had been established among the Pharisees and the and the leaders of the time was that they believed they could live the law and look righteous to God, rather than use these laws to point them to their need for God. They they sought within themselves to establish their own righteousness and prove to God that they were worthy. Jesus showed up to these Pharisees, and he made this statement in Matthew 27 and verse 27, woe to you, scribes! That’s like a one in the world. Do you think you’re doing right? And Pharisees, you hypocrites, can imagine. It’s got an exclamation point. Jesus saying this to me as a follower of Christ, I would probably melt maybe ball on the spot. He called me a hypocrite, but he says, why do you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites? For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. The man has the ability to even take good things that God intends for us, to direct us as people in our hearts to him and make them bad. And he’s saying to the Pharisees, all of these religious rules that you’re living.
Everyone in this world may be fooled. They may think that you’re beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you’re as dead as dead gets. You look like this glorious tomb that someone established on the side of the cave. But when you get inside, all that there is is the stench of death. It’s empty. What is the purpose of the law? The purpose of the law is to direct us to Christ. It says in Galatians three 2222 But the Scripture has shut every one under sin. So the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. It’s saying, you look at this law and you look at this demand of everything that God requires in you, in this life. And you begin to realize, I can’t meet a holy God standard. I need a Savior. I need someone to save me from this situation. And it says Jesus Christ might be given to those who by faith believe in him. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to faith, which was to later be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. I give us that introduction to lead us into First John, because John writes the book of John with this passion. John’s an older man. He’s about to be before the Lord, physically present before God, and see him face to face.
History tells us that John in his old age, the church in Ephesus where he ministered with Mary, Jesus, Jesus’s mother, that he got so old. Mary had since passed, but he got so old that the people would run to his home on Sunday morning. And John just wanted to be in the church, but he couldn’t walk there, and they would carry him to the church, and they give this image that they would prop him up on stage and say, John, just tell us what it was like to be with Jesus. And John would just begin to share the messages of the Lord with these people, because John spent three years ministering with Christ. John is the only apostle that was at the death of Jesus and at the empty tomb when Jesus was resurrected. And he shares these stories. And as John gets older, he realizes that he’s going to this, this church, and he’s an older man, and there’s a new generations of believers that have come into the church, and none of them these are these people are so young that none of them had seen the resurrected Christ. None of them had seen Jesus do ministry on this earth. And so John began to share with them. Does John got to the end of his age? He also wrote a letter to them. And his passion was this, that a new generation of people, a new church for Christ, would rise up and make Jesus the center of their lives.
Because John had noticed something in, as he wrote the book of First John, was that there were people coming in to what they called God’s church, and they didn’t really follow after Christ. There were people coming into God’s church that were saying they were followers of Jesus, but encouraging the body of Christ to live contrary to him. John’s heart for his new generation and this church, was that they would seek the face of Christ, that they would become a discerning people and be able to recognize when someone is truly standing for Jesus and someone isn’t. And so when John wrote the book of First John, he really dealt with three primary categories. He says to us, If Jesus is your God and you’re following after God. The second was a moral check. If if you hate sin in your life and your desire is to pursue God, the second or the third was a social check. And it was if you love other people for the sake of Jesus, then then you love God. This morning I want to deal with the latter two our moral check and our social check cheque, for the purpose of growing healthy in our relationship with Jesus, and to become a discerning people and to evaluate our own lives and and not live hypocritically as we’re going to see some of the people did in the in the second chapter of John saying they love Jesus, but denying them with our lives.
But but to to love God and to actually live for him. John begins to write, and Jesus, he himself is the propitiation for our sins. That’s a clever word. It means propitiation, means God is looking down on this earth, and he’s demanding justice for the sin that’s being done. Jesus dies on the cross. When Jesus dies on the cross, the father looks at the son’s payment on the cross and he’s satisfied. He he turns away that your sins have been propitiated and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. When Jesus died for sins, he died for all your sins, past, present, and future. But not just yours. Everyone’s. And so when you look in verse three, John says this. By this we may know that we have come to know him. Let me just pause there for a moment. Point number one this morning is that God’s followers would want to obey him. And the first step is in obeying God and the desire to want to obey God. The Bible tells us that when you place your faith in Jesus, you become a new creation. Behold, all things pass. All things become new. God gives you a desire, a new desire in your heart to pursue him. He says, by this we know that we have come to know him.
This is different than the Pharisees were living. We saw in Matthew 2727. They were following all these religious rules and reaching out to God and saying, God, is this enough? God, is this enough? God, is this enough? When you read in John chapter two and verse two, it’s saying that Jesus instead of us reaching up to him, has come to us and to those who believe we may know him. This is a personal statement for each individual to understand. God desires to know you personally and to know you intimately. When he says in verse three, by this we know that we have come to know him, and he gives us a clause if we keep his commandments. Obedience to Jesus says, you know, Jesus, if your life has changed because you’ve come to know Christ, it’s a good indicator that you know Christ. Non-christians, people who don’t trust in Jesus don’t want to do what Christ says. It’s as if John is saying this when you come to know Jesus in your desires to love Jesus and to and to grow with him, you hate the things that he hates. As a matter of fact, you welcome rebuke. You say, God, what in my life needs to change? What in my life needs to draw closer to you? What in my life do I need to let go so that I may pursue you in this world? We welcome rebuke because what we desire is to walk in the light as he is in the light.
The goal is not to obey commands. The goal is to draw near to Jesus. And the way that we draw near to him is to follow him. Christians, this is funny desire in their hearts to be rebuked. We first started our church here. There was an individual that came to me and said, I want you to preach to me hard. I want you to. I love difficult preaching. I love it when you speak right to my heart and it pricks it and it hurts. And my first reaction was, you’re crazy, you know. It was the people don’t want to come to that. They want to just feel good. Right? But it’s biblical. When you love Jesus, God gives this desire in your heart, no matter if it hurts to understand what’s keeping you separated from knowing him, and to release that from your life, that you may pursue him in this world. Excuse me. Question in this morning is if obedience says I know God. Why do I struggle to obey him? If obedience says that I know God, then why don’t I want to obey his commands? Why does the word obey seem so scary? I grew up in a generation. My generation today hates authority. I think the 70s for that, right? Anything that has to do with any authority over our heads, we question it, we doubt it.
And you’ve got to earn your respect in my life individually before I begin to trust you. Why in the world does the the command, the the desire for God to obey us and his commands scare us sometimes as people? What’s wrong with God or us? The Bible tells us in verse five the reason that we desire not to follow God is because we fell in our lives. We forget to recognize the purpose of God’s commands is not for you to earn his love, but to experience the love he already has for you. You know, when God gives you a command, it’s simply for your best interest. Jesus didn’t die on the cross for himself. When God gives you a command, there’s a purpose to it. And his desire is for you to begin to experience his love. When you give your children a command as a parent, your desire in that command is also to bless your child’s life if they were to follow it. Last week I was working and I came home from work and I walked into the house. And when I get into the kitchen, I see my son walking around with oven mitts on his hands, saying he’s working on the sink. And I thought first. My first thought was, that’s pretty good. His hands are now proportionate to the size of his head. So this is my is going to be what it looks like when he grows up later in life.
And he’s just walking around back and forth behind behind my wife and he’s saying art, art, art, art, art, art, art. And I’m a little freaked out that my son does have oven mitts on. And so I asked Stacy, what what in the world is he doing? She told me that he loves to be in the kitchen when she’s in the kitchen. Grayson loves the presence of his mom, but in order to be in the kitchen, Stacy is cooking. And so for Grayson to be in there, there’s one simple command that he has to understand that if she wants to, if he wants to enjoy her presence, he can’t get near the oven because it’ll burn. And I like to think that my son is so intelligent, to keep his hands from being burned that he put these oven mitts on. But I think it was more for fun. But but the point was that he may not have totally understood the command, but he knew that he wasn’t supposed to touch the oven, and so he began to walk around and repeat the command that Stacy had given him so that he could stay in the kitchen and enjoy her presence. Maybe you should practice that as Christians, when you know that God wants to enjoy you, to enjoy his love and you’re feeling tempted, put on oven mitts and say, I just don’t do that.
Don’t do that. But the point is this when you give your child a command, it’s to bless them. We hear the word command with God. It’s not simply to think, oh, now what does God not want me to do now? But simply, what does God want to bring into my life? Amen. Bible says, but whoever keeps His Word in Him, the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. If Grayson had touched the oven, he wouldn’t be enjoying the company of Stacy any longer. We in our lives, when we walk in darkness and touch things that burn us spiritually, we in that moment aren’t enjoying the presence of God’s love in our lives. When we seek to obey God in this world, it’s not about what we’re not getting. It’s about what we’re enjoying because our pursuit is after him. And you know, the truth is that God is more gracious to. To us than we are to ourselves. We struggle in our lives to see the worth of who we are as human beings. Sometimes we deal with self-esteem and issues that relate to that. We oftentimes do harm to ourselves for the sake of temporary pleasure. Believing a lie is more loving to us than the truth of God’s Word. And so we’ll go for it, for that, and satisfy ourselves with those sins rather than the love of God.
The reason that the commands of God scare us when it relates to God is truly because we haven’t spent the time and the presence of God experiencing his love. Because a Christian, when they understand how much God loves them and the desire that God has to lavish that love upon them, they they run from the darkness. They love to be rebuked in the darkness, that they may go into the light and experience the grace and love of Christ in their world. Second reason is this we forget that God’s commands are for us to enjoy a healthy relationship with him and not experience life without him. You know, you can go through this world and really not experience our relationship with Christ. You may know Jesus and not experience a relationship with him, but it says in verse six, the one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. God’s desire for us is not only to experience that perfect love, but to abide in him, to experience the relationship that’s involved with that love. Goal of God’s commands are for you to know him. John 17 three says, this is eternal life, that you may know him. Eternity is all about God. It’s relationship. It’s about knowing him. You know, I notice in Scripture some of the some of the times that we look at the words command in the Bible and the reasons that we are afraid of the of the word command is because in our lives, people have given us commands to do things, and they were commands that brought us harm rather than good.
Maybe you’ve had an authority figure over your life that has abused you through the possibility of giving you commands. I was reading an article about the idea of parenting because God reflects himself as our father. For us to draw some instances from parenting, authoritative commands can oftentimes be difficult for us to handle as people. But when we understand that God’s love is for us to enjoy him and to experience love from him, it makes his commands much easier to embrace and run into. And as I was thinking about parents and the authority that they have over children and, and how that authority can be misrepresented. I found an article on focus on the family and it said this if you struggle with being an authoritative parent, it will be helpful to understand that love is a huge motivator for obedience. That’s biblical. We love him because he first loved us. It tells us in First John, perfect love casts out fear. That’s that’s biblical. And it says and disciplining in anger without love will cause children to become rebellious. Many authoritative parents have the upper hand with their children when they are small, but as they the children grow older, they lose control.
Why? Because children will only obey out of fear for so long. Then they will rebel. The point is this all discipline needs to begin and end with love. The main goal should not be to love your kids into mature adults. This means that you discipline. Your discipline can be firm without being harsh. This means that you never insult, you never make threats or react. Instead, at times you remain at all times. Excuse me? Your remaining control. That’s God. God’s desire for us is to understand. He gives these the commands because he is in control. God is handling all things. He knows the beginning from the end. And he says all things work together for good for those who what? Love God. And in his perfect love, he he casts out fear. We love him because he first loved us. The the love of God as we understand it. And the relationship that God desires for us, compels us to walk from darkness into the light and experience that relationship with him through bad command giving. When we think about the word command with God, it often can strike fear in our hearts. What kind of commands does God want to give? It’s as if God is saying to us, listen, I love you. Do you love me? Yes. Well, if you love me, there’s this desire that I have. I want you to walk with me. I want you to stay away from that darkness.
Don’t touch the oven. It’s going to burn. Come into the light that we can enjoy one another. Because the moment that you leave the presence of my light and you go into darkness, there’s going to be difficulty in our relationship. The third point is this why do I find it difficult to obey God when he gives commands? You see it in verse four. You thought I skipped it, but I didn’t. This is the one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commands. He is a liar and the truth is not in them. John is saying to us as believers, listen, people are going to walk into your church and they’re going to say that they love Jesus, and their lives aren’t going to suggest that they love Jesus and they’re liars. The reason that we reject the commandments of God, the reason we desire not to follow God, is for one simple reason you’re rebellious. I’m rebellious. Maybe I should point to me for a while in my heart. As much as I might desire to know God, there is a seed of rebellion that that desires for me to love things more than Christ himself and those who aren’t loving God, those who aren’t pursuing God in this world, those who aren’t walking in his light, aren’t experiencing a relationship with him no matter what they say.
And we see this word command, and it scares us because of the 70s, and maybe because authoritative people over us have taught us to to fear the word command, because it always it wasn’t always intended for our good. But when God gives you a command, it’s intended for your good. God works in structure. Do you realize? I think about even in our generation, I meet a lot of people who say, I don’t like to come to church. I like to do church at home. It’s completely contrary to God’s plan for this world. Jesus built this church. Jesus died for the church. Jesus loved the church. Jesus set the organization of the church up for us, under the authority to come in and learn how to pursue and worship and grow with him, and to be encouraged, because apart from ourselves, we will rebel. We will pursue things contrary to God. We’ll be okay with secret sins in our life and just say, you know God, you’ve got about 75% of me. Isn’t that enough? And God’s desire for us is is to be given. All of us. All of us is taken into him. Do you realize Jesus Himself when he walked this earth? Jesus attended church. We called it the synagogue, but he went. Jesus wore Sunday clothes, pretty much, and the Jewish tassels that dangled from the robe, the robes that the Jewish people wore. Jesus was faithful. And to reading the Bible.
Jesus took communion. He he was baptized. He was accountable to people because Jesus understood that he needed the church to encourage him to pursue a life after God, because in and of himself he was a whitewashed tomb. Not Jesus, but people could be. Jesus was an example to us. We shouldn’t be satisfied with anarchy. You know, we say the word command. It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t strike total fear from us. And we think to ourselves, wait a minute, wait a minute. Uh, Christianity is about a relationship. It’s not a religion. And in most aspects, we’re correct. Man makes religion. Man tells us if we do all these things that that that God might be satisfied with us. But God also structured a place for us to come. And and it teaches us that God is pursuing us in this world. We shouldn’t be interested in chaos, but be a part of something that encourages us to the Lord. When a government think about a government for just a moment, they establish laws on one of their laws is you cannot kill people. Don’t all of a sudden rise up and say foolishness. That is a command I am free. Why? Because we understand the purpose of that command is to protect the people. And so they say, Bravo. I think I might want to live there. If you’re interested in the preservation of the life, so am I. It’s wonderful when God gives us commands.
It’s the same. It isn’t to strike fear into your heart. It’s to love you and to bless you, and to lavish his relationship upon you and let you know in the eyes of God, how beautiful you are to him. The reason we forget to walk with the Lord, or we don’t walk with the Lord and we refuse to walk with the Lord, is really because we’re rebellious. People who know Christ want to follow after him. They get to a place in their lives where they stop asking the question, what do I want? And they start asking the question, God, what do you want? But look at all the decisions that they have to make throughout their day. And rather than figure out what decisions are going to make them happiest, or what decision they think might be best to make them satisfied, they. They include God in those decisions and ask God, what do you want me to do here? The more you listen to God and love him, the deeper your relationship with him grows. Learn. Learn to love the word command as it relates to God and see how Jesus loves you. He gives you a command because he loves you. He gives you a command so that you can enjoy him in a relationship. And the light. He gives you a command because he cares enough about you to speak into your life. He gives you a command because he’s interested in you and wants to bless you.
He gives you a command because you’re rebellious and your heart will destroy you. He gives you a command because he wants to give you his best, which is himself, because he is the giver of all good things. He gives you a command not to burn you, but to fulfill you. There is no hope in religion, but there is in Jesus. Learn to love, to be rebuked, that you may walk from darkness and into his light. You guys want those commands now. I’ve said all these things about these commands, and I now we’re wondering, oh my goodness, how many commands are there in the Bible? Do you know when Jesus walked the earth, the Pharisees that he confronted in Matthew chapter 27 believed in over 600 commands. They had the moral law and the civil law and the ceremonial law, and that wasn’t enough. History tells us that they added laws on top of those laws. How crazy. What commands is it that God wants us to obey his people? Maybe this will blow your minds this morning, but it tells us in John first John chapter two and verse seven, John begins to allude to some previous commands that he made. He says, behold, I am not writing a new command to you, but an old command which you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word which you have heard.
So John is saying, it’s nothing new. That’s good. When you study God’s Word, God’s word doesn’t change. His truth is timeless. Nothing needs to come in addition to it. It’s old and it sustains. When God says something, it lasts for eternity. It says in Matthew that not one jot or tittle will pass away till everything’s fulfilled in God’s law. It’s old. How old are you? It’s way older than that. Verse eight. On the other hand, I’m writing a new command to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. And you can say, aha! You told me that God doesn’t add anymore, and now it’s saying it’s new. What I’m saying to you this morning is that when John talks about it being new, he’s talking about those who are new in Christ. Listen, God has given us command and it is sustained throughout eternity, this command. But for you who have come to know Jesus and are beginning that relationship with him in your life, it’s going to seem new. What command is John referencing? What’s in the Gospels? It’s also in the Old Testament. It’s so old. It’s in the Old Testament, right? Deuteronomy six four and Leviticus 1918. You’ll find this quote Jesus requotes it. It’s in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus quotes it when he’s asked the question. Jesus, out of all the commands that we Pharisees follow out of the 600 and some commands that we’re trying to live up to to satisfy God, what one command can we follow to? To the most to make God happy? Which one command does God want us to do above all the others? Jesus gives this statement.
He said, the foremost is hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Jesus wants all of you, and he wants all of you because he recognizes that there are some children rocking around the kitchen, getting too close to the oven, and they’re about to be burned. And Jesus knows that in his hand he holds the best for your life. God’s commands aren’t religious based. God’s command is relationally based. God wants you. It says in verse 31. The second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these. The night that Jesus was to be betrayed, he looked at his disciples, John included, and he said, this new command I give to you, that you love one another. Come back to first, John. And John says this, the one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother, is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
The way that we reflect God’s love in our hearts is to reflect his love to this world. When God created you, he said, be fruitful and multiply. You think about a miracle for just a moment. What are what is a miracle? So when you’re in a hopeless situation and God intervenes to cause this hopeless situation, to work out for the good, to meet your need, that is miraculous, right? To be a miracle, God’s presence has to be there. In the New Testament it tells us in first Corinthians 316 and first Corinthians 619 that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells within you. Now if a miracle takes place where God’s presence is made known and God dwells in you, where is God working his greatest miracle? It’s in our hearts. God is working in you that you may glorify him through this world. James said it. Faith without works is dead right. The evidence of whether or not you really know Jesus is how you’re loving other people. And let me just say, it’s not the people that are easy to love. Jesus. And the night that he was betrayed washed the feet of Judas. He stood on the cross through people who mocked and spit on him. And he said, father, forgive them. The way that I know that I love Jesus is that when people make it difficult to love even church people, I’m doing everything to love them back.
Verse 11 says this I feel like the room is heavy. Smile. Verse verse 11. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, and the one who is in the darkness and does. Let me read verse ten, stop. The one who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. Let me just add this real quick and say, when people come to our church or around you and we bring friends around you, friends of people that you may not be familiar with. The concern that we shouldn’t have is what in the world is going to come out of your mouth? I only say that with undertones. I hope you realize what I’m talking about. Hating on other people and the presence of other people causes people to stumble. You know what I mean? Mhm. Amen. We bring people to church to worship the Lord, and you have a spiteful spirit against someone else or a group of people. You are taking away from the beauty of Jesus and what his church is about. And the best thing that you can do is shut your mouth. Amen. That was harsh. That was my My heart breaks. For this state. And to know that God’s people, this church, would stand up and say, man, I’m walking in that light.
And when someone comes into our doors, we say, all I want to do is love you the way that Jesus loves you. And when I give my life to come to a place like this, to celebrate the presence of God and let his name be known, and people defame and choose not to love Jesus and call themselves a Christian. It breaks my heart. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going. It’s like the blind leading the blind because the darkness has blinded his eyes. You know, hatred isn’t always acting. Hostility. Hatred is an unwillingness to extend love. I love Mother Teresa. Listen to this quote. The hunger for love. She’s so soft. The hunger for love is more difficult to eradicate than the hunger for bread. I like that saying to us. As people within our hearts, we have a desire to love and to be loved to belong, and to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. God created us for that reason. God wants to bless his life and extend his gratitude, his favor upon you, and lavish his love upon you. And then as God begins to love you, your heart begins to grow for the love of other people and you begin to extend the love that Jesus has brought into your lives, into the arms of other people who are hungry for that love.
So here’s our conclusion. Do you realize this morning that we’ve really said the strength of God’s church is found in his people and in the Bible? The Bible contains his commands. The people contain his love, the The strength in his church is found in the Bible and his people. When I look at God’s commands, I don’t want to rebel against them. What we do instead is welcome them. Why? Because God is looking for our best interests. It’s not a command of religion. It’s a command of experiencing his relationship in love. I want to be in the light as he is in the light. I want to know his goodness as he is good to us. I want him to rebuke me when I’m in the darkness, that I may be able to experience him and walk with him all the days of my life. I want him to display his love upon me and upon upon other people as they come to know and grow and appreciate all that Jesus has for them. John writes to us this morning as a new generation and God’s desire for us is to experience as a new generation, Jesus at the center of our lives, and that we as people would stop. And rather than ask the question, God, what do I want? Or what do I want? And start asking the question, oh God, what do you want for me? Let’s close in the word of prayer.