How Do You Know?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you may have heard recently in the news of a very unfortunate and smelly accident.

[SPEAKER_00]: It happened on January 19th, just outside of Washington, DC.

[SPEAKER_00]: A portion of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line collapsed causing its contents to flush freely into the nearby river.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is not like the sewer pipe in your basement.

[SPEAKER_00]: 72 inches in diameter, 60, about how tall I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it's pipe is six feet in diameter and officials estimate that around 300 million gallons of raw waste or dumps straight into the river.

[SPEAKER_00]: Horrible, just like the stuff of nightmares.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to imagine being there for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Say, you know, you're out kayaking with your body on the river.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just having a good time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, you're just smacked by this repulsive odor.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is that?

[SPEAKER_00]: And you think, oh, well, maybe your body just ripped one loose.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how do you?

[SPEAKER_00]: But then it just won't go away.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, something's wrong here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you just keep going.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want to waste today.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you keep kayaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you notice the waters.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's getting a little bit muddy or it's getting a little browner and you look closer and you realize that's toilet paper and all of a sudden it hits here.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are kayaking in poop.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere, something upstream must have broken, even though you don't exactly see the source, you just look at all the downstream effects.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, something's wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something's really, really wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: The evidence everywhere around you is more than enough to tell you what is going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do I say this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the beloved apostle John makes a similar argument in our passage tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Has nothing new, poop, thankfully.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what he's trying to address is that we can have an understanding what's happening at the source based on the downstream effects that we see.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you aren't already there, open your Bibles up to first, John, it's a little book, almost at the very end of the Bible to hit Revelation, you've gone too far or a map definitely gone too far.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go back a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna be covering the next nine verses of this letter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last week Scott did a phenomenal job preaching on the section before this with the big question where are you walking, are you walking in the light, are you walking in the darkness?

[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight's message is a follow up.

[SPEAKER_00]: My title is how do you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: How do you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the first section that we're going to see where John really begins to encircle this idea of assurance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Christian assurance simply means having confidence in whether or not God has saved you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of John's biggest purposes, if not the number one purpose in him writing this letter, this book, is to provide his church's certainty of who they belong to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last week, Scott drew out a theme that is going to continue to surface over and over again through this letter that there is no in-between, there is no kind of darkness, there is no sort of light, there is no little bit of hate or a little bit of love, it is one or the other, humans are either spiritually alive or they are spiritually dead, everyone in this room is either walking with Jesus or walking away from Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: John wants you to know where you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants the Christians to know that they really are Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he also wants the non-Christians to know that they are not Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would that be helpful?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if someone has never convinced that they are a sinner in need of a Savior, they will never be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says in Mark 217 that the healthy, they don't have a need for a doctor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sick people do.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ones who think that they can handle their salvation themselves will never receive it from him.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ones who insist on cleaning themselves up before coming to God will never be cleansed.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's because the requirement for cleansing is coming to God and saying, I'm dirty.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's only those who cry out to Him and ask for mercy.

[SPEAKER_00]: and express their need that are going to be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the really good news.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is never, ever, ever been a single soul that has genuinely said those words to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, I need you.

[SPEAKER_00]: God saved me, that he hasn't saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every single one of them, he reaches down and saves.

[SPEAKER_00]: God does not let them slip through the cracks.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in order for you to see this clear the John R, use as does Jesus, as do I, you have to come face to face with your sin, with the reality that it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would not be willing to undergo the horrible treatment of chemotherapy without first receiving a cancer diagnosis.

[SPEAKER_00]: and how unmoving would it be for God, or for any of His spokesmen, to see you in a condition of sin and a pravity, and instead of addressing what's really going on, pretending that there's no problem, pretending that it's fine, pretending that there's nothing wrong because we don't want to be offensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why John wants non-Christians to see their unbelief is not so that he can make the church smaller.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that every single person hearing the message can be brought face to face with the consequences of their sin, cry out to Jesus, and actually the church would grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how he does it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how God does it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is why we preach the way that we do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it may come with some rough edges, it may come with some offensive points, it may come with some things that kind of hurt to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: But by God's grace, as much as we possibly can, we aim to present this book, the Word of God, as clearly and unapologetically as it is laid out.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's my job.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's my mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reason we do this is because we want more people to see Jesus as he really is and treasure him about everything else in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that in this, we're totally going to be dependent on God's spirit to help us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We surrender to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: We surrender to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, long introduction.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it needed to be said.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm not trying to be Scotts time record from last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I promise, still get you out here with some time to discuss.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to read.

[SPEAKER_00]: First John, chapter two, looking at verse three to begin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by this, we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever says I know Him, but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But whoever keeps His word, in Him, truly the love of God is perfected.

[SPEAKER_00]: By this, we may know that we are in Him, whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

[SPEAKER_00]: For seven, beloved, I am writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, it's also a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there's no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, help us to see now, as we study this word, open blind eyes tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, for those who are in the light, would you give them a greater and clear vision of you?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, what we all love are save your Jesus Christ and more through this word that you've given us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus name, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do you know who you belong to?

[SPEAKER_00]: Point number one, you know by talking,

[SPEAKER_00]: you know by talking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says in Luke 645 that out of the abundance of the heart, what the mouth speaks.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what he's communicating is the dominant thoughts and desires that you have in your heart are naturally going to bubble up and make their way out of your mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever meet someone that learns about something new, or gets something new, or has this new experience?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then for like two weeks, they just won't shut up about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll have to forgive me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had been this person, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's an example, leading up to my birthday.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little before Christmas.

[SPEAKER_00]: My wife said she would be willing to go in with her mom and purchase a softball bat for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was very excited and ever had a softball bat before.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I started researching and I found one that I wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as soon as I picked it out, even before I got it, I found I couldn't stop thinking about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was like so excited that I was gonna get this back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm looking forward to next season and it was like six months away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just cannot wait to hold it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was on my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to show people.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to tell people about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I did, sorry, if you were one of those people, I apologize.

[SPEAKER_00]: But thankfully, as I went through this whole process, the Lord revealed something, he was gracious to help me see that this neon stick is not going to satisfy me.

[SPEAKER_00]: OK?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so in that, I had to repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: I asked for forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the point of the story is that when we are fixated on something, when we're passionate about something, it comes out of our mouth, naturally.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we connect out with what is in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are people who are professing to know God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're saying that they are near Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are saying that they are in the light.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're saying the right things.

[SPEAKER_00]: They had the right proximity to the right things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as John writes this letter, a little background, there's this group of people in the church that he's really trying to address.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're promoting this false teaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's called Nosticism.

[SPEAKER_00]: Big word starts with the G, even though it sounds like an N, Nosticism, and it means to know.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the root word to know.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it was condemned a long time ago as a heresy in the early church, but people still fall in a believing this lie today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what it means.

[SPEAKER_00]: At its core, it is believing that salvation comes through this secret spiritual knowledge.

[SPEAKER_00]: This like elite level knowledge that you have to be in the know in order to get instead of trusting in Christ by faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: They also believe that physical things in this world were bad, only spiritual things were good, which would of course go directly against what God said when he created the world and he looked at his creation and what did he say?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was good, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It would also go against God's design to work in his creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: He tells us to imitate that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not six would say that's bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Working is bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Creating is bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: The physical world is bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or John really opposed their view to bring it down was their claim that having the special knowledge about God is the thing that you need in order to be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look again at verse 3.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, by this we know that we have come to know Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: These people, the nonsense we're saying, we know God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're friends with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's on our side.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's on our team.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the evidence, the reason, the proof that they would point to you is because they knew a lot of things about you.

[SPEAKER_00]: They knew things about him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I imagine there might be some of you in this room tonight that would think the same way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe if you wouldn't even articulate it, but in your brain you might.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've grown up here in the Word of God preached, discussing it with others, maybe even reading it for yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if someone were to ask you, do you know God?

[SPEAKER_00]: You would say, yeah, yeah, I know God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes knowledge about someone gets mistaken for actually knowing them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when it comes to us relating to God, one of these will say you, and the other one will leave you in condemnation.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can know about God just by proximity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that superficial knowledge of God may even come out in the way that you talk.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you spend enough time and Christian circles, it will.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's gonna rub off on you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's think about this example.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jude has spent three years of his life living with Jesus, walking with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hearing from Jesus, only to betray them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that he knew God in this way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or did he just observe him closely?

[SPEAKER_00]: The sad reality is that there are millions of souls who have examined Jesus and observed Jesus like he's a science project or they've they've thought about him like he's this philosophy that can entertain your mind

[SPEAKER_00]: But unless that brings you to the point where you submit to Jesus as King and as Lord, you will not be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know him.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well talking about the right things might be a reflection of the right heart, but it's far from definitive.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, John, he's going to give us something else to point to as an evidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Point number two, you know by walking

[SPEAKER_00]: First one, you know, by talking now, you know, by walking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look again at verse three.

[SPEAKER_00]: Following what I just read by this, we know that we have come to know him, how, how John, if we keep his commandments.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he goes on further, jumping down middle of verse five.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, by this, we may know that we are in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which Jesus walked.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is one thing to make a good confession.

[SPEAKER_00]: The good confession claiming to know God, to desire to be His, but John wants the church to know that your action is to be louder than your words.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've ever played sports, you can probably remember playing against that one kid who talked a big game, a weekly, not, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Practice, just chat and atcha, just taunting you, then the game comes and you just get hooked.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, yeah, I saw that comment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that comment.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't remember him, maybe you were him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it doesn't matter how big of a game you talk, you've got to walk the walk for there to be any merit to what you're saying, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Your actions have to back that up.

[SPEAKER_00]: John is telling the church, you might say that you know Jesus and tell you are blue in the face, but if your actions, your behavior, your conduct is consistently undercutting that claim, you don't know him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are deceived.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that this person who claims to know God but doesn't keep his commandments is a liar.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what John says.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even more than that, the truth is not in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says the same thing in Titus 116, they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.

[SPEAKER_00]: They might have the appearance of Godliness, but they deny it's power.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not changed them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus himself even said, not all who say to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: But those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven, obedience to God's commandments is a serious issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's first priority.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, John is pretty clear in explaining that the outward difference between a true Christian

[SPEAKER_00]: is this test obedience, so here's a question if you would take an honest look in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even just the visible things like your words and your actions, even your priorities and your schedule, would you find that those pretty much mirror and unbeliever?

[SPEAKER_00]: The way that you talk and act, even schedule your life, is it the same as an unbeliever?

[SPEAKER_00]: It is, that's a reason for concern.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the words that you use contain the same crude jokes, and explitives is someone who doesn't know Christ, wouldn't we all agree that this is a problem?

[SPEAKER_00]: If the goal of your time is to be sent, spent on sinful, or selfish pursuits isn't that concerning.

[SPEAKER_00]: For those of you who have a job, do you approach your work with the desire of stacking up bills, or being able to provide or buy the next thing that you want?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is the point of your athletic training to put your name out there so people can see you and be amazed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't mistake me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not saying genuine Christians never fall into these wrong patterns of thought and action.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a Christian realizes his heir, his mistake is sin, it causes him to repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to live like the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: When she swears or gossips with her friends, she feels convicted over it.

[SPEAKER_00]: and she goes and she brings it back to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then she even goes to her friends and apologizes for what she said.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he realizes that he is purely working to build his bank account, he brings it to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, instead of just stacking money in my pile, I'm gonna start giving to God to fight the greed that's in my heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, you see the difference in the response for a Christian versus a non-Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to do well to remember that the passage Ron tonight, I mean, you didn't follow his last week's passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Saying that all those who sin can find forgiveness of their sins and confession to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Full confession, full forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not about keeping God's law without fail.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the overall direction of their life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where is it pointing?

[SPEAKER_00]: When you hear God's commandments,

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a genuine desire to obey them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to please God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want honor Him?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that come into your brain as you live your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Not because you're trying to earn your father's approval, but because he's changed your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's changed your desires, and you already are fully approved in Jesus Christ, and you're working out of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of verse eight, John describes the reality for those who are in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The big picture trajectory of your life is increasing in godliness, not wickedness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, because God has already done something definitive for you, He's justified you, He's made you right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, over the course of time, He is slowly but surely,

[SPEAKER_00]: sanctifying you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Making you more like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: That happens for every Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we are God's sons and daughters, it's only natural for us to bear a family resemblance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk like he talks.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to walk like he walks.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, we're going to love like he loves.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's point number three.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do you know, you know by loving?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know by loving.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look with me at verse 7 of our passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, notice that word, John saying, you are loved in that first word, because you are loved, those that are loved, I am writing you know new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning,

[SPEAKER_00]: The old commandment is the word that you have heard, and at the same time, it's also a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why does John say that this commandment is both old and new?

[SPEAKER_00]: John's kind of funny as you read it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It sounded funny to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's building off something that's already been slowly but surely revealed in scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: All throughout its history,

[SPEAKER_00]: and it is revealed that the summary of obedience to God, the very heart of its definition of what does obedience to God look like is contained in one word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where do you get this from?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, when God liberated the nation of Israel from their slavery to Egypt, he gave them very specific rules, how they were to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is called the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses gives a summary of the law and due to anonymous, specifically due to an anonymous six, where he tells the people this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here is the summary.

[SPEAKER_00]: People, here is the summary.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the heart of the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God commands.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're prone to think that love is over here and rules are over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: obedience is over here, God says they're like this, they go hand in hand, they're together the way that you reflect the love that's in your heart is by obeying God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We display the love that we have towards God by following His commandments and through the power of the Spirit, by putting to death the things in us that aren't pleasing to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here, as we look at this passage, the love that John is addressing most specifically is pointed towards love for other people, for brothers and sisters.

[SPEAKER_00]: First nine addresses those that claim that they are in the light claiming that they're Christians, but the problem is they hate their brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: John's conclusion, they're not in the light, they're not a Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: They walk in darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: What then does that hate look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a pretty big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, maybe a better place to start.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does the love look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: Contrary to what our society tells us, love is not something that you just happen to fall into.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not primarily an emotion, though.

[SPEAKER_00]: It does have emotions attached to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the other wrong view that this world has is love is not first focused on you.

[SPEAKER_00]: focused on other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is by very nature, self-sacrificing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is why we should have a problem with the idea of self-love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because what self-love is is the intentional pursuit of your own interests rather than the interests of others.

[SPEAKER_00]: What self-love is is preferring your own opinion, taking first place, even at the expense of the last place, of who has to deal with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: These ideas are anathetical to the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are the opposite of the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're the opposite of love.

[SPEAKER_00]: What self-love really is, and it's an expression of extreme selfishness, not self-love, self-fistness, and our culture has endorsed it by giving it a new name.

[SPEAKER_00]: So many people are deceived by this.

[SPEAKER_00]: They love their life, and they give themselves a blank check and they say, do whatever you want, because it's out of self-love.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get the true model of love in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was in a position equal with God in heaven from all eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet he willingly gave that up that he could come to this earth that he could take on a form like you and me that he could suffer hunger and pain and sadness and sorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he could go without the things that right belief rightfully belong to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, one step further, he perfectly obeyed God's law and his commandments.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, in the most unjust act in the entirety of human history, he climbed on the cross for sinners, taking their place, willing me.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is what Christ has done.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this, he doesn't just become the model that we're just supposed to be like Jesus, but he also becomes the fuel, the motivation, the desire, the dried in us that helps us to love other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reason that loving one another is a fundamental reality for those who walk with Jesus is because when God changes your heart, He gives you a new heart when you call out to Him by faith, He changes your DNA.

[SPEAKER_00]: And part of that new spiritual DNA includes the desire to see more people follow Jesus and to follow Him better and to see their faith strengthened.

[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians 13 describes it as both patient and kind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, taking time for others, even when they slow you down, speaking with gentleness and respect, love is an arrogant.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't focus on elevating itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's content with the bottom.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not rude.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't insist on its own way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, it actually prioritizes the needs of others.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember the opposite of self-love, when others are annoying or wrong, love does not retaliate, when sin occurs, love lovingly confronts, and it mourns over that sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: It bears all things, even when it feels unfair and unjust.

[SPEAKER_00]: It believes all things, even when the track record says otherwise.

[SPEAKER_00]: It desires the best for others.

[SPEAKER_00]: It endures all things, especially the ab and flow of the emotions that may or may not be present towards a specific person.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ask how is this a test that's supposed to give certainty?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not a Christian on earth who actually meets this bar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let alone, and unbeliever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the key.

[SPEAKER_00]: in the gospel, the intention is counted for the action.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the gospel, the intention is counted for the action.

[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is you get credit based on just wanting the right thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's so unfair.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the reason that you want the right thing is because it's an evidence that God has given you a new heart and God has given you a new heart, and you are saved, you are walking in the light.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have the right desire, the right intention, accounts for the action, the intention is counter-cultural to our natural self and the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: The world is shouting at us, to treat ourselves, to prioritize our own interests, for considering others, even our own sinful nature once that too.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the ultimate test is what do we do when we see our shortcomings?

[SPEAKER_00]: When we see our sin, when we realize that we need to turn from them, the one who walks in the light will be like a deer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that from last week?

[SPEAKER_00]: Freeze.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one who loves the darkness and walks in the darkness will be like cockroach.

[SPEAKER_00]: Scurries off into the darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cockroaches are disgusting, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a really fitting illustration there, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: and find covering for them in his blood.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the unbelievers gonna run from him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's gonna run the other way in order to conceal his wrongdoing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the sad reality.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm gonna run and run and run and run away from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can stiff arm him as long as they want.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can part in their heart to not let anyone inside

[SPEAKER_00]: David asks, where can I go, Lord, that you won't be there?

[SPEAKER_00]: If I go all the way up to the highest place, you're there.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I go all the way to the lowest place, you're there.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why John says that unbelievers don't just walk in darkness, they walk in blindness.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can't even tell the darkness from the light.

[SPEAKER_00]: David continues Psalm 139.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, if I hide myself in the darkest of corners,

[SPEAKER_00]: because even the darkness is not dark to you, the night is bright as the day for darkness is as light with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's give me another minute, I'll land the plane, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't pack up, I don't want you, Mrs. God sees it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sees all of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to the unbeliever, that is terrifying.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it makes you want to run and hide, and you feel the exact same way that Adam and Eve did in the garden when they sinned against God and they were found out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they tried to cover themselves with their own works.

[SPEAKER_00]: They felt naked and ashamed and exposed and condemned.

[SPEAKER_00]: But to the Christian, though they're still in awe,

[SPEAKER_00]: in a reverence for the fact that God knows everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually a comfort.

[SPEAKER_00]: When David wrote Psalm 139, talking about God's scene and everything being everywhere, he's rejoicing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's thankful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is David thankful that God can see all of his flaws and faults and sins?

[SPEAKER_00]: Christian, why can you be thankful for the same reason?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because,

[SPEAKER_00]: It means that when God chose and saved you and set you's love upon you, he did so with his eyes wide open.

[SPEAKER_00]: There wasn't going to be a scene in the future that one day you were going to do and then God was going to disown you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now he knew everything about you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He still said, that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he did it gladly.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is love, student.

[SPEAKER_00]: That love is what provides the source of love that we return to him and others.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you for the great love.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've revealed to us, giving your son for our sake, that we had nothing to offer you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we pray that our lives would respond rightly, truly, accurately, to that love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I pray that you would convict the hearts of those in this room who have been pretending to walk in light saying that they're walking in the light, but really they're in the darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, you would bring them to see their sin, that they would cry out for Jesus, that they would trust in the work that you've done, and they would see you as you are, a loving and all sufficient Savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: Loves to save the week, more we are weak, we need you.

[SPEAKER_00]: An Ablast Lord, as we discuss this word, help us to be sponges, ready to listen, and Lord, would you have your way in us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus name, amen.