Obedience Born of Love

Of the book of first John.

And you probably have noticed that John is a fan, as I am, of repetition.

Throughout this letter, he has been making it clear that those who are born of God believe that Jesus is the Son of God, they love the people of God, and they love God through joyful obedience.

But he is also addressing this theme, as many of you have known.

The book of 1 John has throughout church history been seen as a very helpful book to go to to learn how you can have assurance of your salvation.

And John is answering a question that I think every honest Christian at some point has asked, which is, How can I know that my faith is real?

How can I know that I for certain am in Christ and my salvation is secure?

In the text that Sarah just read for us, verse 13, I would say is John's thesis for this entire letter.

He says, I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, implying that the Christians he's writing to can have assurance.

They can know that they have eternal life, they can have security in their salvation.

It doesn't have to be a guessing game.

But he talks about the Holy Spirit, uh, two or three witnesses in Deuteronomy 19.

And we see throughout the Bible, Jesus appeals to his testimony, Paul appeals to the testimony of God, John here appeals to the same thing for these Christians' assurance.

The Holy Spirit bears witness to the things of Christ.

But what I want us to look at this morning, we're not going to walk through all 13 verses per se, but I really want to hone in on verses one through five.

Verses one through five.

Focusing on this statement that John has been making throughout this gospel, this exhortation rather, he continues to come back to, which is if you are born of God, then you love God.

You love your love for God is evidence that you are a child of God.

Now, just to give a quick reminder, what are the three tests that we find that John gives for someone to have assurance of their salvation?

The first test is the theology test, the theology test.

You must believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God who came and died on the cross for your sins.

The second test is the love test, the outward love test.

Do you love the people of God?

So do you believe the right uh doctrine about Jesus?

And do you love the people that Jesus redeemed on the cross?

And then the third test, which I will focus on this morning, is you love and obey God.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And that's what we're gonna look at this morning.

If we love God, we will joyfully keep his commands.

And I want to just give some practical thoughts and applications as to what does John mean by that statement that if we and we see Jesus say the same thing in the gospels.

Well, what does John mean when he says in verse 2, this is how we know that we love God's children when we love God and obey his commands, for this is what love for God is to keep his commands, and his commands are not a burden.

Let's talk about that.

Starting with my first point, very simple and straightforward.

If you love God, you will obey God.

If you love God, you will obey God.

Now, what's interesting to me when I was studying for this sermon is how John, at least in this chapter, he adds that statement, if you love God, uh, I'm paraphrasing here, but if you love God, you will obey God.

But he he couches that in this statement of, but you will also love others.

Did you notice that?

For in this, uh, I'm sorry, verse two, this is how we know that we love God's children.

And we see this throughout this letter as well, don't we?

We see him making these exhortations about, hey, children of God love other children of God.

That should go without saying, shouldn't it?

But hey, praise God.

We need to be reminded of these things.

The implication, and just read the New Testament, friends.

I mean, just pick a letter, right?

Christians have struggled with loving other Christians in their local church.

This is nothing new.

The church has always been filled with problematic people, quote unquote.

Those who are struggling with sin and temptation, or those who are just not as mature in their walk with Christ, maybe than others, maybe who some who might have um poor theology or not a good grasp of whatever it could be.

And in their context, they have people who actually even left the church who have apostasized, they've walked away from the gospel in these three tests that John lays out.

But the ones who stayed, John is encouraging them, saying, if you are truly born of God, you love God's people.

Not because they're lovable, but because Jesus Christ purchased them on the cross with his very own blood.

So if they're precious to Jesus, they should be precious to you, is essentially what John is saying.

And that can be hard to sit with, right?

I mean, think of in our modern culture, we have terms now like church hurt.

Not that that's not a real thing.

People have been really hurt in churches of past.

But it just shows, though, like, you know what, relationships are messy.

People are messy because people are broken.

Everyone in this room has indwelling sin that is constantly trying to tempt you to go against God's word.

Even if you, like Paul in Romans 7, have that internal war of, yeah, but I delight in God's law.

I want to obey Him, but at the same time, I find this other law in my members making me, leading me to do the very things I hate to do.

And despite all the mess of human relationships, John says, a mark of a Christian is you love one another.

That is one of the marks that you are truly born of God, is that you love other Christians.

So we need to talk briefly about Christian community, what it is and its benefits and some guardrails to protect it.

We cannot love the father and avoid his family.

That's like a husband saying, I love my wife, but I'm not ever going home.

It's like you can wear the wedding band, you can go through the ceremony, but if you don't actually do life with your spouse and love and serve them, how can you say you truly love them?

Just like people who say, No, I love Jesus, but I want nothing to do with his church.

Well, it's it's a package deal.

How can you say you love the Lord but not love his people?

And you know what's startling?

You know, when you read the gospels, Jesus left us a really good example.

Think about it.

Think of the type of people Jesus spent his time with.

And I'm not just talking about, you know, him healing the sick and things like that, but think about his own inner circle, friends, his disciples.

When Jesus was at his worst, hanging on a cross, suffering in agony, where was his disciples?

We know John was there.

Give credit to the ladies, we know Mary and his mother were there, but where were the other disciples?

They scattered, they abandoned him.

When he was at his lowest, his community was not there.

And when you survey the ministry of Jesus, think about it.

I I'm bringing this up because I think as Christians, where we can wrestle, and we're human, I I've been here too, we can wrestle with, well, I want a church where everyone in the church is like my best friend.

I'm close to everybody, and no one ever offends me, no one ever makes me feel uncomfortable.

And I can understand all those things, but when I read the gospels, do you realize Jesus did not win friends and influence people?

Jesus had people who were difficult, who wronged him, who betrayed him, who slandered him, and yet he still moved towards them.

We time we tend to have this reaction, and it's understandable of I want to create my circle only with people who give me life, kind of thing.

We use all these weird phrases like who are people who impart life to me kind of thing, and they're not taking from me.

It's like, don't we take from Jesus every single hour?

But think about this.

Martin Luther, the reformer, said this in using Jesus as a picture for how we should understand the difficulties of human relationships.

He said, Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies.

At the end, all his disciples deserted him.

On the cross, he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers.

For this cause he had come to bring peace to the enemies of God.

So the Christian too belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life, but in the thick of foes.

There is his commission, his work.

The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies.

And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the kingdom of Christ.

He wants to be among friends, not to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people, but the devout people.

Oh you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ, if Christ had done what you are doing, who would ever have been spared?

Man, that stings, doesn't it?

If we viewed human relationships, if Jesus rather viewed relationships the way we tend to be tempted to view them, there would be salvation for nobody.

Jesus, in his at his lowest, was abandoned by his closest friends and surrounded mostly by enemies, mockers, criminals, those shouting, celebrating his unjust death.

And that's the example he left for us.

That's why when the Bible says love your enemies, like that's a pretty radical statement when you really sit about it.

And we need to be honest.

I think a lot of us put people in that enemy category that are not enemies, okay?

Like someone who's just hard to get along with is not your enemy.

Someone who might generally not like you is not your enemy.

An enemy where people like, you know, David is like on the run for his life, Jesus is being persecuted for, you know, proclaiming the gospel, the apostles being uh persecuted, those are enemies, not discomforts or people who inconvenience us.

So think about this too.

Another aspect of community, when John says, you know, an evidence that we're born of God is that we love God's people.

How do you know you're loving and treasuring Christ and maturing in the faith if you're never with God's people?

Think about that.

Sanctification, I would say, when I survey the Bible, sanctification is a community project, not a solo act.

I think sometimes our Western understanding of the Bible, or rather, we bring Western eyes to the Bible, we think of our sanctification as like it's this solo project.

It's just me and Jesus and my Bible and me pursuing the Lord and growing in the faith.

But when you survey the scriptures, you see all this community and family language.

You are the household of God, the bride of Christ.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ.

But if your sanctification is primarily a solo act, that is dangerous because then you become the primary judge as to whether or not you are holy, whether or not you are maturing in the faith.

And I don't know about you, but I tend to be pretty lenient when I'm judging myself.

But when you're with God's people, you get an honest uh when you get around God's people and a healthy church that's functioning according to the Bible, you get an honest, loving assessment of where you truly are in your walk with Jesus Christ.

Which is why I could see why God would design the church this way.

But when you are a solo act, it's just you and Jesus detached from God's people, well, then it's very hard to fulfill the one another passages of scripture if you're not with God's people.

It's very hard to forgive others as God has forgiven you if you're not actually with God's people.

It's hard to love and serve others and show hospitality if you're not actually with the people of God.

Those are operating.

This is why I like using the language, you know, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, yes, we are all adopted into the universal church, but the universal church is made visible through local churches scattered across the globe.

And there that is why when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, your brothers and sisters in your local church is like your gospel inheritance.

You inherit all these siblings, these brothers and sisters in Christ who have a mandate to lovingly disciple you and help you finish well.

And I know when whenever pastors talk about this, it's almost like, yeah, you're biased though, because you're the pastor.

But I encourage people do not neglect the ministry of attendance.

Gathering what we're doing this morning is formative for your Christian maturity.

The songs we sing, I pray that every local church has a commitment to do everything they do on Sunday morning to be centered around God's word, because God's word is inspired, God's word is authoritative, God's word is powerful to shape us into the image of Christ, to teach us who we are, who Christ is, and what his will is for our lives.

And we can encourage one another.

But this is why you even see the author of Hebrews, and sometimes people abuse this passage just to say, like, don't skip church, as if it's a box to check.

Like, no, check the box.

You went to church this Sunday.

But no, what the author of Hebrews is warning against is don't neglect the gathering of the saints, as is the habit of some.

He's saying, don't be like those who profess to be followers of Christ, but faithful attendance with the body of Christ is optional.

And we see this in our current culture.

It's sad to see that it is easier for some people to skip the gathering with their faith family than it is to call off work.

That is getting real quiet.

Okay.

But I understand the temptation, right?

We can think, you know, man, it's been a hard week.

I'm actually going to sleep in Sunday and use that to recharge because it's been a difficult week with the kids or with work or whatever it may be.

This is why we're very careful.

We don't advertise our uh live stream for people to watch because we want that to be reserved for people who are ill or physically cannot gather with the body.

We don't want anyone to think, well, I can go to church online.

You cannot gather with your faith family through YouTube.

What we are doing is formative.

It is the ministry of attendance and it shapes our community.

I can't tell you how blessed I have been over the years just to have random conversations with some of you after the service and just have these beautiful moments of encouragement or prayer, or you encouraging me, or someone encouraging you in your faith, or someone telling me, like, man, I was going through something really difficult this week, and I didn't even have the desire to sing half the songs we sung, but just standing next to my brothers or sisters who sang loudly, ministered to my soul.

Or I'm so grateful that someone pulled me aside and prayed for me.

Or I I love it when y'all tell me, like, were you in my living room this week?

Because what you said in that part of your sermon was directly applicable to me.

And by the way, no, I just be preaching the word, and it's funny how the Spirit applies his word to your hearts sovereignly.

But taking the Lord's Supper, gathering with the saints, seeing one another, being able to look each other in the eyes and say, brother and sister, how are you doing?

How is it with your soul?

What is the Lord showing you this week?

Having those loving but hard conversations to call a brother or sister away from sin and temptation or to encourage them in the truth when maybe they are embracing lies of the enemy in their flesh.

This is what it means to gather as a church.

This building we're in is just a physical location where Redeemer, the church family, gathers.

And we gather because we want to glorify God.

Now, the challenge with community, because again, John makes some pretty black and white statements all throughout this letter.

If you love God, you obey God.

If you're born of God, you love God's people.

And some of you might hear that and think, okay, John, easier said than done.

You don't know, so and so.

It is hard to love so-and-so.

But you know where we get in trouble sometimes as Christians is we can love our ideal version of community rather than loving the people in our community.

Does that make sense?

We can study the Bible and we can see, yes, God wants us to love each other.

He wants us to serve each other and to disciple one another.

Those are all precious things.

But we can take that to the extreme and think, and so the ideal church family community and the ideal relationships I want to have in my church community is this.

And then if we don't get the ideal, we get discouraged, get spiritually depressed, we might distance ourselves from people.

But listen to Diedrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together, one a Christian classic on community.

He says the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community.

But the person who loves those around them will create community.

Let me read that again.

It's a really insightful statement.

The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community.

But the person who loves those around them will create community.

You see what he's getting at there?

Instead of focusing on the ideal, love those who are in front of you.

Difficulties and all, the person, the people that God has united you with, if you focus on God, give me the grace and the wisdom and the patience and forbearance to love these saints, you will actually create community.

I like using the phrase, like, here at Redeemer, I would pray with God's help and with your help that we create a compelling community here that reveals the gospel, a gospel-revealing community, not a community that someone who's not a Christian can walk in here and say, Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

All the white people hanging out with each other, all the black people hanging out with each other, or all the empty nesters hanging out with each other, or all the new moms, the only they hang out with each other.

That says nothing about the power of the gospel, does it?

But when people walk in here and say, why is that black dude hanging out with that old white guy over there?

Why are those people hanging out with those people?

And we would say, an empty tomb over 2,000 years ago.

It is Jesus Christ who has united us and has broken down all these earthly barriers that normally in uh culture would separate us.

But for those who believe in the gospel, it actually unites us because we don't care about your skin color, we don't care about what city you grew up in, your education, how much money you make.

What we care about is you love Jesus, I love Jesus, you're my brother or sister in Christ, and we will spend eternity with one another.

So the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community.

We all know someone who maybe has spoken negatively of a church, and there might be some fair criticism, but sometimes when you listen, you realize, okay, it sounds like you keep bouncing around churches, and the common denominator is you.

You have this ideal of what a church community should be, and it doesn't meet your expectation.

And so now that church is bad, as opposed to maybe you understanding, maybe you're destroying community by having this ideal you're projecting on this church instead of just being a healthy Christian and loving those people you covenanted with.

That is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer is getting at.

And so that is one mark of being a true child of God.

If you're born of Him, then you will love God's people.

So here's something I tell myself whenever there's a difficult person in my life, which has never happened ever, but if it were to happen, I remind myself, you know what?

As difficult as this person is, as sinful as they might be, as immature in the faith they might be, Jesus loved them enough to hang on a cross for six hours, to spill his own blood on their behalf, to purchase them, to adopt them into his family.

So Lord, help me to love them in just the smallest measure in comparison to how you loved them 2,000 years ago and continue to love them.

And let's be humble, guys.

Let's also look at our own testimonies, right?

Let's look at when maybe we first were walking with Christ and we weren't as mature as we thought we were, we weren't as wise as we were.

And I look back and I'm like, wow, there was a lot of people who are very gracious with me.

There are a lot of brothers and sisters who were who are very humble and kind and long-suffering when I was this zealous, arrogant Christian who was extremely immature, and they probably thought he's problematic, and yet they mature, they matured me in the faith by making themselves instruments in God's hands for my discipleship.

So, friends, we don't come to love one another as completed projects, but rather as those who are under renovation.

Or to use language from the Reformation, those we are all in this room always reforming.

We are always growing and changing, and that's evidence of God's grace.

So when you meet someone who you feel like is not as far along as you think, think, wow, look at all the opportunity for growth in Christ.

How can I play a hand in this brother or sister's growth?

That's how you look.

Think about it.

It's not really love if you are selective in who you love.

It's not really love if you decide, well, I'm only gonna love these people because, man, I'm always joyful when I'm with them.

But these people, no, I'm good.

They're not invited over for dinner.

I don't want to be in their small group, kind of a thing.

No, we want to love all as Christ loved all.

Now, talking about community, let's let's shift a little bit because again, John is talking about love.

And he says, let's go back to verse two again.

He says, This is how we know that we love God's children when we love God and obey his commands, for this is what love, uh this is what love for God is.

Keep his commands.

And his commands are not a burden.

Because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world.

This is the victory that has conquered the world, our faith.

Now there is a debate within Christian ethics on the topic of, well, is love an emotion solely, or is it an action solely?

And some would lean towards saying, well, love is only an action biblically because you can't command emotions.

Therefore, love is only an action.

I would take the stance that I believe it's a both and.

I believe love is a form of Christian affection that is also connected to our actions.

So for example, Jesus commands in his word that we love him.

So he's commanding our affections.

But we see in this text, the evidence of that love is obedience, action.

But we see throughout the Bible, we are also as Christians commanded to rejoice, right?

That is a commandment.

He's commanding our affections.

And some might wrestle with, but yeah, but how can God command affections when we we don't have like the spiritual capacity to just flip a switch and make ourselves rejoice or to make ourselves, you know, blank?

And I would say, well, that's just evidence of our radical corruption.

Just because we don't have the moral capacity to make ourselves feel an affection instantaneously doesn't mean that God doesn't have the authority to command appropriate affections in response to his character and his will.

It's just a sign of the fall, the fact that we are radically corrupt and we don't function, I would say, as God originally designed us to function.

But I would say our actions and our affections do go together.

However, sidebar, we are never led primarily by our affections and emotions in obedience to the Lord.

So if you are led in your Christian life based on how you feel first, well, then you're gonna be a topsy turby Christian.

Where the Bible says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, and you say, Well, my wife frustrates me right now, so I'm not gonna love her.

Well, that's backwards.

You love despite the affections, and Lord will in the affections come.

So I do believe God is on fair ground when he commands our emotions.

I don't think it's a either or, it's a both and action and affection.

But notice this Jesus can demand supreme love towards himself because Jesus is supremely worthy of our love.

I mean, what is the greatest commandment?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

That's that's all encompassing.

That's both your affections and your actions.

Now, some might wrestle with, uh, I think it was Brad Pitt who years ago said the reason he didn't embrace Christianity because he thought Jesus is an ego maniac.

Like, how can he demand worship?

How can it's like, yeah, because he's the supreme object of worship in the entire universe.

It is completely appropriate if you are the standard of glory and holiness, if you embody those things, it's only appropriate to worship that being.

To worship anything else would be false worship, idol worship.

So Jesus can stand on authority and demand supreme love from his children because he's supremely worthy of our love.

He's supremely worthy of our worship.

This is why Jesus made radical statements like in Matthew, when he says, the one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

Think about that, how radical of a statement that is.

The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

The one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever doesn't take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it.

So is Jesus saying, oh, well, to be a true Christian, you have to hate your mom and dad or someone else?

And some of you might be like, Oh, that's easy, I can do that.

That's not what Jesus is saying.

Jesus is essentially saying your love for him should your love for your for any other human relationship rather should pale in comparison to your love and treasuring of Christ.

That's that's piercing, isn't it?

Because some of us can be in danger of, well, I love being a mom or a dad more than I love Jesus.

I find my identity in being a parent, it encompasses my whole identity.

I love being a spouse, or I love being an alumni of this school, or I love being in this career field, or whatever it may be.

I love that more than I love Jesus.

And Jesus would look us in the eyes and say, You are not worthy of me.

And he would have every right to.

Because if he, again, is the embodiment of everything this universe knows as glorious and holy and good, then to be his child and to ascribe worship to anything else is false worship.

It is spiritual adultery.

I love the first question in the Heidelberg Catechism.

It says, What is your only comfort in life and death?

The answer that I am my own, that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil.

He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head.

Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.

Therefore, by his Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.

That is the only appropriate response to a holy God who has redeemed our souls.

We recognize I do not belong to myself, but to him, body and soul, and everything I do every hour is for his glory.

This is why Jesus can make such radical statements.

This is why Jesus, the whole Christian life, is us fighting to make and maintain Jesus our treasure.

Think about it.

Why do people decide I want to leave my country and go to another country to take the gospel to someone who has to people who have never heard it?

Why should we start churches?

Why should I make certain career choices I make?

For many of them, it's because Jesus is their treasure.

And they want others to come to that same saving knowledge for Jesus to become their treasure.

It's how we spend our whole lives.

None of us will be on our deathbed wondering, man, I wish I got a couple more golf games in.

I wish I accomplished a few more house projects, or I wish I got a few more toys or whatever.

No, we're gonna be thinking, we're gonna be thinking about I'm about to behold my treasure, Jesus Christ.

And we're gonna be thinking about those who maybe have yet to come to treasure Christ.

He is the only thing that matters.

Imagine if Jesus sustained his divine providence right now for about an hour.

This world would just fly off the rails, and we would all peril everything is about him, from him, and to him.

Now, John does make a statement here that we need to talk about.

So if you look back down at first John, he makes a pretty radical statement about Jesus' uh the Lord's commands in verse 3.

For this is what love for God is to keep his commands, and his commands are not a burden.

And when you read that, do you say, Are you sure, John?

What God commands, God supplies.

Friends, love for God and obedience to God are never separated.

Love for God and obedience to God are never separated.

If there's no obedience, there is no love, whatever one might proclaim.

We live in a day and age, and this is not unique to us, but where there's lots of people who say, Yes, I believe in God, yes, I love God, but there's no obedience to God.

And John would say, if you say you love God but you don't obey God, then you are a liar.

You do not have the Father or the Son.

But when John says that God's commands are not burdensome, please don't hear John saying that obeying Jesus is easy.

I don't believe that's what he's saying.

Because I'm sure if you've been a Christian longer than five minutes, you know that obeying Jesus is not always easy.

But he says it's not burdensome.

Not easy, but not a burden.

But we must remember that God always supplies the power and the enabling grace for us to fulfill that all God requires of us.

Have you ever thought about that?

God never commands you as a child to do anything that he doesn't supply the grace for you to joyfully obey.

God is not just trying to set you up for failure.

God is not trying to give you commands that he knows you can never fulfill so that he can just judge you.

That's not a loving father, is it?

Think about an earthly parent.

If an earthly parent set a standard for their children that was just absolutely unattainable, we would frown upon that.

You are crushing that child's spirit, right?

That is not the father.

Think about 2 Peter 1:3, where Peter says his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1:3

Our father is so gracious.

I mean, the Christian life, when you think about it, it's impossible to one extent when you consider we can do nothing that God requires apart from his enabling grace.

But it's also like a sure shot because we have this cheat sheet, so to speak, where we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us and empowering us to do all that God requires.

Have you ever thought about like that?

That's crazy to me.

Like the Christian life is impossible in the sense of we can't do anything from the right heart posture that pleases the Lord without his help.

But we have his help.

So we can do it, and we can do it joyfully in a way that pleases him.

And he promises to supply all that we need to glorify him.

Peter says, His divine power has given us everything, not a few things, not half of the things, but you gotta go find the other half.

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through a knowledge of him, don't miss that part, who called us by his own glory and goodness.

So for us to learn how to obey God, for us to learn how to love God's people, we have to love God's word, don't we?

You don't know what you don't know.

You can't learn who God is and how to obey him if you don't know what his word says about obeying him.

If you're not going to the word, you're going to be creating your Christian faith on the fly of what obedience is and what disobedience is.

And this is why uh John Peter rather said, godliness through the knowledge of him, Jesus, which is also found in the inspired sufficient word.

I love how in Psalm 19, 8 through 11, it talks about the beauty of God's law.

It says the precepts of the Lord are rights, making the heart glad.

The command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are reliable and altogether righteous.

They are more desirable than gold, than an abundance of pure gold, and sweeter than honey dripping from an honeycomb.

In addition, your servant is warned by them, and in keeping them there is an abundant reward.

I believe that is what John is getting at when he says that the commandments of the Lord are not burdensome.

For the Christian, they should be a delight.

Even if they're not easy, they should be a delight because we understand God's word is a light to our path.

I mean, come on, all of us in this room who are in Christ, it started with a knowledge of the gospel, which is God's word, found in God's word that opened the eyes of our hearts, granted us the gift of faith.

So we should be asking God's help.

Lord, help me to talk like this about your word.

Help me to approach the Bible, not as a book of rules to keep because you don't want me to have any fun, but no, as a loving, inspired book that is meant to reveal the heart of the Father, to reveal your heart and God's will for your life.

But also, like I view God's commands, I've said this before, as like these loving guardrails that our Father has put in our life, where he's not saying, No, I don't want you to have any fun, so just stay in this box, but the exact opposite.

I want you to experience life to the fullest and walking with me, therefore, here's my word.

Stay within these guardrails, and you will receive blessing upon blessing as you live with a clear conscience.

But if you violate God's word, if you uh ignore his precepts, if you step over those guardrails, well then you're inviting sin, punishment, guilt, shame, disfavor from the Father into your life.

But listen to how the psalmist describes God's words.

The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad.

Man, praise be to God that he did not leave us on this earth without the Bible.

Like, I'm just picture this in the women's uh dessert in theology.

We talked about this a little bit.

Imagine for a moment as you're sitting there what you would not know about God, Jesus, salvation, yourself if we did not have the Bible.

So there are two categories in theology: general revelation, special revelation.

According to Romans 1 and general revelation, the created order reveals quite a bit about God.

We can look at the sunrise, we can look at creation, the universe, and know there is a God, he is holy.

Go read Romans 1.

However, general revelation is not enough to tell you how you can be saved from your sin.

General revelation is not enough to reveal to you who Jesus is and the gospel.

So just think about that.

What would you not know if it wasn't for the Bible?

Would you know that God is loving?

Would you know that God is kind and merciful?

Would you know that he sent his son to die on the cross for your sins and rise on the third day?

We wouldn't know none of these things.

So, friends, when we delight in the word, we should ask God in the Spirit's help, make my heart glad in your word.

I love this language.

The command of the Lord is radiance, making the eyes light up.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are reliable and altogether righteous.

They are more desirable than gold.

He doubles down and um abundance of pure gold and sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb.

This is how we should view the word of God, which is why in I'm preaching to myself here, we got to fight against viewing Bible intake as a burden, right?

And I get it.

Like, I I struggle with this too, where it's like, well, I've had a busy week, kids got activities going on, it's been a long day at work, like, man, it's been a rough week.

It's hard for me to really get into the Bible.

And I think it's really concerning as a pastor, like to see in a lot of Christian circles, there's like this um, this narrative, this theme that's accepted in a lot of church circles, where it's like, if it's really hard for people to get into the Bible, our response is like we're like real sympathetic.

And you like, like it's I don't know, I'm trying to find the right words because I know I'm gonna step on toes probably.

But what I mean is like sometimes we see people constantly, like, let's say you know someone for like three years, and all those three years are constantly saying the same thing.

Man, it's so hard for me to get into the word.

It's so hard for me to just really study the Bible.

And it's like, why aren't we like lovingly telling these people, like, well, let's figure it out?

Like, let's roll up our sleeves and and and get you talking like Psalm 19.

Because think about it, friends.

When we approach Bible intak as a burden, this is what we are saying to the Lord.

I lay claim to all the benefits of the cross.

Thank you, Jesus, for entering into human history, putting on flesh, living for 33 years, dying on the cross for my sins, saving me from eternal wrath, making me an adopted son or daughter of the king, giving me the promise that I will persevere to the end and I will dwell with you for all eternity.

But it's really hard for me to find at least one day this week to study my Bible.

Like, that's what we're saying.

Like, what type of gratitude is that?

Thank you.

I'll take all the benefits, but I don't really want to know you in your word.

That's something we got to push back against.

We have to delight in God's word.

You can only learn to obey God by growing in your comprehension of God's word.

So let me ask you, friends, in all love, how thick is your Bible?

Meaning, how much Bible comprehension do you have?

I'm not talking about can you name random facts?

Can you win Bible trivia if we did Bible jeopardy as a church?

That's not what I'm talking about.

But if someone was new to the faith and said, hey, could you disciple me?

Could you from scripture walk them through the Bible and help them understand the gospel?

What justification and sanctification is?

Could you explain to them what the book of Ephesians or Galatians is about?

Do you comprehend scripture?

Are you do you have a desire to grow in these things?

Because that's where your joy will be found.

You can't know a God if you don't you can't know God if you don't read God's word, is what I'm getting at.

It's connected.

But notice also, John is making it very clear that there's this sort of symbiotic connection between obeying God and the Christian's personal joy.

Obedience and joy are not rivals.

I think some Christians, maybe they wouldn't admit this.

I do think sometimes we might struggle with thinking obeying God means I don't have any fun.

Like God is a deity in the sky who's a killjoy.

He doesn't want us to delight in the world.

And that's false.

Because Jesus out of his own mouth said, If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love.

I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.

So we receive that, Christian.

Jesus wants you to have not just an ambiguous joy, he wants you to have his joy.

He says that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

So John, that's the gospel of John, John 15.

So John is saying there's like there's a symbiotic connection between your obedience to the Lord brings joy to your heart as a Christian.

Or rather, it should.

That should be the normal pattern.

Joyful obedience to the God to God cultivates joy in the heart of the Christian.

And please don't miss John's point.

To glorify God is to enjoy him, and to enjoy him is to glorify him.

So think about that.

To glorify God is to enjoy God, and to enjoy God is to glorify God.

So God wants relationship with us.

He wants us to love him, not just obey him to check a box, but we obey joyfully out of gratitude for what he has done in saving our souls.

I love how one author captures this.

He says the fire of lust pleasures must be fought with the fire of God's pleasures.

If we try to fight the fire of lust with prohibitions and threats alone, even the terrible warnings of Jesus, we will fail.

We must fight it with a massive promise of superior happiness.

We must swallow up the little flicker of lust pleasure in the conflagration of holy satisfaction.

That's another way of saying, and the way you want to love God as your chief treasure is you replace your love for lesser treasures with a greater love for Jesus as your treasure.

So if any of you ever feel a dilemma between the choice of obeying God or doing what's best for you, just know that that is a false dichotomy for a Christian.

What is best for you is joyfully obeying God.

That is what will cultivate joy and peace and love and a clear conscience.

We tend to think that true happy, and this is what our culture tells us, true happiness will be found in this life, will be found in the world, in our careers, in our bank accounts, in our investments, in our relationships, and money and sex.

Well, you know what?

There was a man in scripture who had all that stuff.

His name was uh I'm sorry.

Yeah, in Ecclesiastes 2, 10 through 11.

You don't have to turn here, but just listen.

Listen to this.

All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them.

I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles.

This was my reward for all my struggles.

When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile in a pursuit of the win.

There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

So my man Solomon had every resource imaginable at his disposal, at his disposal to pursue every fleshly desire he could imagine.

And the conclusion was it's all vain.

It's all emptiness and chasing after the wind.

I mean, listen to the lane.

All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them.

Whatever I wanted, whatever I lusted after, I could have it, and I did.

I didn't refuse myself anything.

And the conclusion it just left me spiritually depressed.

It's all emptiness in a pursuit in the wind.

Friends, your standard of living does not determine the quality of your life.

How much you love Jesus determines the quality of your life.

The Puritan Thomas Brooks said a man may have enough of this world to sink him, but he can never have enough to satisfy him.

A man may have enough of the world to sink him, but he can never have enough to satisfy him.

The deceptive evil lie behind sin's power and influence is the false promise that sin will bring more happiness than holiness ever could.

Think about that.

The deceptive evil lie behind sin's power and influence is the false promise that sin will bring more happiness than holiness ever could.

But the way God has designed us is that we will never love anyone or anything as we should unless we love God more than anything else.

So for those in this room, you want to be the best parent you can ever be, the best spouse you can ever be, the best friend, the best brother or sister in Christ, will then love God more than anything in this world.

Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and you will then love your neighbor as yourself.

If anything competes for your affections and love for Jesus Christ, you will not love others the way you should.

You can't.

You can't be splitting your devotions.

Well, I love God like 80%, and I love my family the rest.

It's like, well, then you you love either, neither rather, the way you should.

And all of this, friends, does not come by us pulling up our own boots ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

What we're talking about here is the power of the Holy Spirit changing our nature, aren't we?

Like John is not giving, like, hey, here's some great tips to be a better Christian by Thursday, kind of a thing.

Like he's talking about, no, this is how we live a God-centered view of life when you have been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit who illuminates God's word to your heart and mind, and you are renewed into the image of Christ day by day.

You are being molded into the glory of the Lord.

This is what he's talking about, a God-centered view of life.

If you love God above all things, then you will love all other things appropriately.

And none of this can be experienced by anyone in this room unless you have been supernaturally redeemed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he uses this language that throughout this chapter of uh referring to Christians as being those who have overcome.

So we can refer to ourselves.

I kind of like that.

We are overcomers.

That sounds cool.

But notice how he talks about yes, we are those who overcome, but he makes it very clear that look down at verse 11.

He says, and this is the testimony God has given us eternal life.

And this life is in his son.

The one who has the son has life.

The one who does not have the son of God does not have life.

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

He talks about faith being the object, or rather being what redeems us.

But friends, faith itself does not save you.

Jesus saves you.

I think sometimes as Christians, we've got to be very careful with our theology and our language.

You can't have faith in faith.

Faith is not this ambiguous secret thing.

You are saved by the object of your faith, your faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Faith is just the empty hand that takes hold of Jesus.

You are saved by the object of your faith.

Now I understand, I just want to end with a quick word here on something I believe that is a powerful influence in the Christian's life.

John is using this language of loving others, giving evidence you're born of God, loving God as, or obeying God as evidence that you love God.

Sometimes I believe we can wrestle with our understanding of the gospel, specifically in the category of, well, how do I deal with or think about my past or present sin and guilt?

I think one of the most powerful influences for negative in the Christian's life is the topic of shame.

We talked about this a little bit in the women's dessert and theology night.

I want to turn over to Luke chapter seven real quickly.

I just want to briefly touch on this.

Because shame is powerful, right?

Because listen, it's not easy to obey God, but it's it's not a burden.

But sometimes in our joyful obedience, our pursuit of obedience to the Lord, you know, we have an enemy, we have the flesh constantly in our ear, saying, Yeah, but you know, God doesn't really accept you.

Sure, you're trying to obey, but you know, he's probably going to punish you for that thing you did before you became a Christian.

Or, you know what, yeah, you think you're obeying and loving God, but don't forget how you prayed three times to God saying you would never do that again and you just did it last week.

I mean, we've all wrestled at some point in our Christian life, or we continue to wrestle with the idea of shame.

But friends, I just want to remind you, one of the tremendous beauties and benefits of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus didn't just die for your sins, but he took your guilt and he took your shame.

There is no shame for the Christian.

Jesus does not look at any Christian and on the new heaven and new earth, he's gonna bring out a list and say, you can come in, but don't forget you did this and did this.

Actually, a matter of fact, you got to wear this t-shirt.

You're the sexually immoral Christian, or you're the Christian who had an abortion, or you're the person who did this.

There is no shame for the Christian.

And one of the best pictures I can give you of this is Luke 6 uh 7, verses 36 to 50.

This is a situation in which a woman, we don't know the whole backdrop, but somehow she heard Jesus preach, believed in Christ, that he was the Messiah, the Son of God.

She's now a daughter of the king.

And Simon the Pharisee is having a dinner party, and Jesus is invited, and his intentions are not good.

He wants to, you know, give her a hard time and be disrespectful.

But notice the interaction here.

Luke 7, verse 36.

Luke 7:36

It says, Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him.

He entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house.

She brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears.

She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, This man, if he were a prophet, wouldn't know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him.

She's a sinner.

Now let's just stop there.

So the religious leader of the day, the Pharisee, Simon, is having a public gathering in his home with other religious leaders and townspeople who were able to walk in and observe this.

And this woman is coming clearly worshiping Jesus, showing her gratitude for what he has done in saving her soul.

And what does the religious leader do?

He shames her publicly in his heart.

But he thinks, oh, Jesus is really a man of God.

He wouldn't even allow this woman to be touching him.

Now we don't know exactly what her testimony is.

We can assume she likely was living a sexually immoral life before she came to faith.

Either way, she was known in the community as a notorious sinner.

I absolutely love Jesus' response.

Verse 40.

So keep in mind, Simon is thinking in his own head.

He's not talking audibly.

He's thinking in his head, judging this woman in his self-righteousness.

This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him.

She's a sinner.

So he's thinking this privately.

Verse 40, Jesus replied to him, Simon, I got something to say to you.

Now you know you're in trouble.

If you are privately thinking a thought, and Jesus audibly responds to it in front of everyone.

Verse 41, a creditor had two debtors.

One owed 500 denarii and the other fifty.

Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both.

So which one of them will love him more?

Simon answered, I suppose the one he g he forgave more.

You have judged correctly, he told him.

Most Christians gloss over verse 44.

Turning to the woman.

So he is looking at this sister.

Turning to the woman, he said, Simon, do you see this woman?

I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she with her tears has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair.

You gave me no kiss, but she hasn't stopped kissing my feet since I came in.

You didn't anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume.

Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven.

That's why she loved much.

But the one who is forgiven little loves little.

Then he said to her, Your sins are forgiven.

Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, Who is this man who even forgives sins?

And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace.

Let me just highlight a few things real quick.

She was not saved by the act of coming to the dinner party and showing her gratitude.

She came already saved.

He's reminding her, Sister, there's no shame here.

You are redeemed.

What does he call her?

He refers to her as what?

Daughter.

Sister.

Well, I lost track.

But here's what stands out to me.

When I first preached this text, I never noticed the love in Jesus in the action.

He's talking to Simon the Pharisee, but he's looking at this woman.

He's looking her in the eyes and lovingly rebuking Simon, but affirming this, sister, there is no shame.

You are redeemed.

And he tells her, Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace.

So all these people are here.

They're judging her.

They're like, man, we know who she is.

She's the ratchet chick from the streets.

What on earth is he even doing, allowing her in his presence?

Why would he allow her to touch him?

And Jesus defends this woman, defends her honor, and gives the entire group a Bible lesson in shame and forgiveness.

So that is what Jesus thinks about our shame.

So as you strive with the Holy Spirit's help to love God joyfully, and you have your flesh and your conscience, your uh misinformed conscience, and the enemy constantly reminding you of your past sin, just remember how Jesus spoke to this woman because that's how he looks at you and speaks to you.

Amen.

Let's pray.