SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and turn me in your Bibles to the book of 1 John.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Here at Sovereign Grace Bible Church, we practice expository preaching.
SPEAKER_00: That means we go through God's Word verse by verse, line by line, and word by word, in order to understand what God has said, what He means, and what we must do in light of it.
SPEAKER_00: It helps us to not have any agendas planned.
SPEAKER_00: You can never look at the pastor and say, You were thinking about me when you preached that.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's just God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the beautiful thing, is we allow all of the authority in this church to be founded on and rested in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Today we find ourselves in verses 7 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a beautiful moment where the Apostle John is known in church history as the Apostle of Love.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_00: If you read John's gospel and then you read his letters, you'll see that love is one of the ultimate things he's pointing to throughout all of his writings.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we talked about actually putting the rubber to the road, how our lives are meant to show love in action, right?
SPEAKER_00: The verse 6 there at the end said, Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about how that's what a Christian is.
SPEAKER_00: They're a Christ follower.
SPEAKER_00: And so the ways that Jesus acted, the ways he reacted to this world, are the same ways that you and I are commanded and expected to act and react to this world.
SPEAKER_00: Now in verse 7, he transitions a little bit to give a new commandment, but it's not exactly new.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and read with me God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: It says, 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: At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am 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: Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Our text will break down into the following outline.
SPEAKER_00: Verses seven and eight will be the commandment, and verses nine through eleven will be the clarity.
SPEAKER_00: We begin with the commandment.
SPEAKER_00: John says, 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: Now that word beloved is a beautiful word in the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: It means loved ones.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this affectionate tone that he's going into now.
SPEAKER_00: My loved ones, I'm writing to you no new commandment.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same way that when you're trying to emphasize something to your child, or if you ever had to teach younger people at any point in time in your life, there is a need for emphasis, both of the negative and the positive.
SPEAKER_00: John, in that way, is taking us through the basics of this and is saying, I'm not writing you a new commandment, this almost double negative, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: What is the commandment?
SPEAKER_00: Well, through the context, we're able to see that the commandment is to love one another.
SPEAKER_00: That is the commandment he is speaking of.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is that an old commandment?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Bill just read Leviticus 19, 18.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, there was this command to love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: God's people have always been expected to be living, breathing examples of sacrificial love and service to those that are around them.
SPEAKER_00: That has never been different.
SPEAKER_00: It will never change.
SPEAKER_00: That will always be what is expected.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm not writing, I'm 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, meaning that they have already been taught these things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you something new, as in something you've never heard before.
SPEAKER_00: This is important because you see the word new there, and you're like, Okay, John, like I'm not telling you something old, it's new, but it's not new, it's old.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, that's a contradiction.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to allow the the the John, the parent, to be the parent in this situation, and we're arguing with our parent about why seat buckles are unnecessary.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: He looks at us with this and says, This old commandment is one that you've heard.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, at the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you.
SPEAKER_00: What we learn from the Greek text, the language that the Bible was originally written in, is the word new here is not new as in time.
SPEAKER_00: It's not new as in never has happened, but new rather in like freshness.
SPEAKER_00: So, like uh, we would say uh when someone cleans their car really well and has that brand new car smell again, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um I have a new look, means I bought new clothes, and so now I have a new look.
SPEAKER_00: Well, do you actually look completely different?
SPEAKER_00: No, you have different clothes that are representing you in a different way.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so actually, I remember when I taught this to middle school boys at one point in time, I talked about deodorant, and I was like, new as in deodorant.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you put it on, and all of a sudden, like there's not wet spots everywhere, and like, you don't stay like it was very impactful for our middle school group, right?
SPEAKER_00: The only thing they remembered.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, it's a new commandment I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not new as in time, it's new as an essence.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's the essence?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's something that's true in him, Jesus Christ, and you.
SPEAKER_00: So, what we see here is that in the Old Testament, we have this expectation for all Christians to love each other, to love those around them.
SPEAKER_00: What we're able to realize on the other side of the cross is that the the most perfect manifestation, the most perfect example of sacrificial love was shown in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that there will never be a greater example in all of history.
SPEAKER_00: When time ends one day and God brings everything to a close, there will be nothing greater than the love that Christ showed for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a generation that's having an identity crisis.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're not sure who we are, how we fit into the system.
SPEAKER_00: We have young people that think that their lives are defined by money or sex or power, fame.
SPEAKER_00: I spent, I don't even know, an hour or two this week looking at different YouTube videos that younger people had sent me.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I was shocked by, there was one that was a music video by a Christian artist.
SPEAKER_00: And in the music video, it showed, like, I don't know, maybe a hundred people-ish that had recorded themselves singing this artist song.
SPEAKER_00: And they all are singing it into the camera and they sent in their video so they could get in the music video.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to tell you, the only thing that stood out to me of that entire thing was how nuts it is, how comfortable our generation is with publicizing themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Like there was a moment where public speaking was like a most people die when they try to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And now it's like uh an eight-year-old can have 15 million followers on social media and have more influence than you because they did a funny dance once or screamed in a silly way.
SPEAKER_00: It is a dangerous time that we live in where we are so comfortable with that, but those same people, you begin to have these deeper conversations of life and push into the reality of the pain and the struggle and the lack of processing they've done in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, the person who is a social media phenomenon shrinks up and can't communicate well.
SPEAKER_00: It is a strange day when we live in an era where we're more comfortable talking to someone that we've never met than we are the person next to us.
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is because real relationship is found in sacrificial love and accountability.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I don't have to do at all on social media?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to sacrificially love anybody, and I don't have to have any accountability.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not me demonizing social media and saying thus everyone should get rid of their Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's not where we're going, okay?
SPEAKER_00: All of these things can be redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: All of these things can be used for Christ, but I'm here to tell you if you're not using it for Christ, the natural inclination of this world is not toward love.
SPEAKER_00: It is not toward truth, it is toward a lie, and we'll get to that towards the end of our text.
SPEAKER_00: John is creating this picture for the Christians, and he's saying, there's an old commandment that God has always said should be of loving your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Now that you, dear Christian, are graced to be able to look back to the cross and see what God has already done for you, how much more so should you and I be defined by love?
SPEAKER_00: And you and I don't often think about growth in love as a metric that is measurable.
SPEAKER_00: We're not like, yeah, so like this last year I lost 10 pounds, I got the thousand dollars more in my savings account, the car's working great.
SPEAKER_00: And I think like my I got my love, my ability to sacrificially love people went up a little bit too.
SPEAKER_00: Like you'll you almost never hear someone categorically communicate about their growth in sacrificial love.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because it's very hard to quantify love, right?
SPEAKER_00: Love is not an emotion.
SPEAKER_00: We try to quantify it by that and qualify by that.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh, it's this overwhelming sense of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, that's not what the Bible says love is.
SPEAKER_00: Love is a sacrificial action for the benefit of another.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the sacrificial action for the benefit of another, according to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: When you and I choose to love one another, when we choose to love those around us, we are the definition of lights in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Because when the world has people around them that hate them, they respond back with hate.
SPEAKER_00: When the world has those who criticize them, they seek to defend themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Dear friends, what did Jesus do when he was criticized and mocked and betrayed and berated?
SPEAKER_00: Did he look at you and demand some sort of gratification?
SPEAKER_00: Tell them they're wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Stand up for me.
SPEAKER_00: Make them know.
SPEAKER_00: You see, one of the things that we see with love is that forgiveness is a great illustration and example of love.
SPEAKER_00: And we can think of forgiveness in a lot of wrong ways, but one of the greatest ways you can think of forgiveness is to absorb.
SPEAKER_00: You wronged me in this way.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of demanding equality, instead of demanding justification, instead of demanding understanding, I will absorb the penalty due to you.
SPEAKER_00: That is forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And it's one of the greatest illustrations and examples of sacrificial love.
SPEAKER_00: Because when Jesus was on the cross and you had nothing to give him, in fact, you and I were haters of God, he did not look at you and demand that you keep your account, that you fix your balance first, that you clean yourself up before you come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if anything, what he said is I will take all of your past sins, all of your current sins, and even every sin you'll commit after I save you.
SPEAKER_00: And I will pay for that.
SPEAKER_00: You will never hear of it again, you will never see it again.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no justification scale at the end of your life where all of your sins are piled up, because I have already cleared the balance.
SPEAKER_00: I am God, and I have loved you with a never-ending love.
SPEAKER_00: There is a need for a resurgence, a return to love.
SPEAKER_00: The current church is very interested, the current American church is very interested in two primary things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is to entertain and gather as many people as possible.
SPEAKER_00: And number two is to fight as much as possible about tradition, doctrine, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: One divides what is healthy, and the other creates a bloated church that says, look how much muscle I gained.
SPEAKER_00: And we say, No, that's Taco Bell.
SPEAKER_00: You did not gain what is good.
SPEAKER_00: There is a need for a return to sacrificial love.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the problem: is that sacrificial love is like the worst sales pitch in the entire world to the average human being.
SPEAKER_00: All right, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the idea, okay?
SPEAKER_00: If we're gonna entertain people, we could do this.
SPEAKER_00: You could say, come to church and you will be shocked and amazed and wonder what happened and want to come back next week.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, whoa, that sounds great.
SPEAKER_00: Also sounds exhausting, but it sounds great, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Second thing.
SPEAKER_00: We're the only right church.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else is wrong and stupid, and you don't want to go there.
SPEAKER_00: You want to go where it's right and make sure you do what is right at the right church.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Also exhausting, but now we have this kind of fear-driven thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we've turned Christians against Christians for no godly reason.
SPEAKER_00: Sacrificial love sits in the middle and says, No, no, no, no, I don't want you just gathering a crowd, and I don't want you unnecessarily dividing.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: The three people that are closest to you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be a living, breathing sacrifice for their benefit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't demand a thank you, don't expect it, don't try to receive something back for it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that the world gives out to the world when they expect some sort of payment back.
SPEAKER_00: That's not unique.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, What is unique though is when you go and give money to someone they could never pay you back.
SPEAKER_00: What is unique is when you sacrificially give to people that you know are not mature enough currently to love you back.
SPEAKER_00: When you forgive them, when they continue to hate you.
SPEAKER_00: When you look them in the eyes and say, I love you, and they ignore you and don't talk to you again.
SPEAKER_00: In all of those moments, and so many more, you and I have a choice.
SPEAKER_00: We can go this way, we can go this way, or we can go God's way.
SPEAKER_00: It is necessitated by Scripture that you and I live this life.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's an absolute statement that John just made.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This commandment I'm writing to you, he says, it is true in Christ and in you.
SPEAKER_00: Notice a couple of things here.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say it's all the way true in Christ and a little true in you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, so long as you got eight hours of sleep, you're fed, your hair's brushed, the dogs didn't do anything stupid, the kids are all acting well, and your job is just there are no caveats to love.
SPEAKER_00: There's no conditions for love.
SPEAKER_00: Again, imagine the response for us if Christ looked at us and said, I've loved you with a never-ending love, and we go, Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I am pitiful.
SPEAKER_00: I need it.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, go ahead and wash yourself up, do a lot of good works, and eventually you can come to me.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, this is just as bad.
SPEAKER_00: I almost wish you would have never told me this, because I was okay being a filthy pig and just kind of sitting in it.
SPEAKER_00: And now you told me I'm dirty, but you told me now I gotta do stuff to be not dirty.
SPEAKER_00: So that I'm good enough for you.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says there is not one good person in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Not even one.
SPEAKER_00: That there are none who seek after God.
SPEAKER_00: There is no one that's righteous in his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: You and I do not qualify our love for others and say, I'll love you if you do this.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of self-protecting, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because what's the knee-jerk?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Why is that the natural reaction?
SPEAKER_00: I'll love you once you.
SPEAKER_00: This would all be better if you would just, I can't until you.
SPEAKER_00: Why do those happen?
SPEAKER_00: Why are they there?
SPEAKER_00: It's because you and I fall for the trap every single day that somehow we think I am the primary protector and provider of myself.
SPEAKER_00: We're like uh the other day we're talking around our children, and uh I'm talking to Brie, and I said, she said she wanted to buy something or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, we don't have money for that right now.
SPEAKER_00: Wait until we get paid next time.
SPEAKER_00: Our children are children.
SPEAKER_00: So one of them, I think it was my son, looked over and was like, Oh no, how are we gonna pay the bills?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have any money.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, and he like legitimately is having a moment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, we're talking about buying something that's very extra, that has nothing to do with anything that's necessary.
SPEAKER_00: But what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, he overheard and said, We're in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friends, you are so much worse than that.
SPEAKER_00: You wake up on the average Tuesday and something bad happens at work.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, My life is ruined, I need to take this into control.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna control you, I'm gonna talk about you, I'm gonna make this better, I'm gonna eat some extra good food, I'm gonna watch a show for five hours and pass out.
SPEAKER_00: And I will control my life that way.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, uh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know there's a God who's in control?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know we have this thing called prayer?
SPEAKER_00: And you can talk to him at any point in time.
SPEAKER_00: He is like the creator and sustainer of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: He has more resources than you could ever think of.
SPEAKER_00: Did you think like I should go there first?
SPEAKER_00: Or is our immediate response to stress to self-medicate, to self-protect?
SPEAKER_00: I've got to keep me safe.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because no one else will.
SPEAKER_00: And we miss the point.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friends, there is a perfect love in Christ that will never change, that will never fail, it will never falter.
SPEAKER_00: And that perfect love, if you have put your faith in Christ, Ephesians 2, we are saved by grace, by unearned favor, through faith, through believing in Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not work, it's rest.
SPEAKER_00: If you wake up on the average Wednesday and you're like, man, I gotta work really hard for my Christian life today, you will end up being exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: And you come to him and you're like, oh, thank goodness.
SPEAKER_00: You get this backpack off, and he goes, Okay, get on the treadmill, start running.
SPEAKER_00: You don't stop until you die.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be like, ah! Like, wait, what do you I'll take the backpack back?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to run, I don't like running.
SPEAKER_00: I'll carry something heavy.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to run.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is rest.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus said so.
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: And that's love.
SPEAKER_00: You know what's not love?
SPEAKER_00: Is when you have a loved one and they come home and you're like, you just like throw up like 18 million problems at them, and you're like, and you just kind of regurgitate information.
SPEAKER_00: And you like have barely said hello.
SPEAKER_00: You've barely said I love you.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're just more, you're more like the you're self-focused.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I got all this gonna come out.
SPEAKER_00: And you love me the most, so it's going on you.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's not rest.
SPEAKER_00: You know how nice it is, especially as a man, to come home.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife seeks to make like a little sanctuary for me at home.
SPEAKER_00: And it's quiet and it's peaceful.
SPEAKER_00: You know how wonderful that is?
SPEAKER_00: Now, is that every day?
SPEAKER_00: No, we're all human and we have four small children, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But that is such a love to rest when you're at work and someone just takes something off your plate without you asking.
SPEAKER_00: Like your hair's on fire, you're trying to do seven things, and someone just says, Oh, I took care of that for you.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like, oh thank you.
SPEAKER_00: That was that was nice.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we react that way?
SPEAKER_00: Because rest feels like love.
SPEAKER_00: You and I have the perfect love of Christ in us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is this important?
SPEAKER_00: End of verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
SPEAKER_00: You see, dear friends, you and I don't need to be looking around us for security.
SPEAKER_00: We can look instead to God's perfect word and see that the perfect light of Christ is inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: And that perfect light is already shining.
SPEAKER_00: The words for already shining there are the idea that it has already begun, it is continuing, and it will continue to continue.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is like there's no breaks, there's no pauses.
SPEAKER_00: The light of Christ is perfectly shining, and nothing will change that.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, the darkness is already passing away.
SPEAKER_00: The darkness of this world, the sin that so easily entangles us, the temptations that knock on our door every three seconds, it feels like, those are already dying.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're much like a soldier on a battlefield where we can see our perfect general behind us who is unscathed and impenetrable in his defense, and he's leading the charge and saying, go forward.
SPEAKER_00: And we look ahead of us, and when we look with immature eyes, we just see so much darkness.
SPEAKER_00: We see soldiers all around us, and it feels overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: But my dear friend, if you would just put on the glasses of faith and love, you would see that the darkness is coming, and there's soldiers everywhere, but they're stumbling because they're dying.
SPEAKER_00: That the lust that so easily trips you up is already dead.
SPEAKER_00: The greed that pulls at you daily is already dying.
SPEAKER_00: How much fear would you have on the battlefield if you truly were able to see that your worst enemies were already defeated?
SPEAKER_00: How would that change your life?
SPEAKER_00: How would that change your next week?
SPEAKER_00: The light, the true light is already shining.
SPEAKER_00: The darkness is passing away.
SPEAKER_00: These are the this is the commandment.
SPEAKER_00: We have the old and new commandment here, but this leads then to an example that John gives us for clarity's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 9 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: John says, Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Jason used that verse for the kids' message today.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing working through with him on how to interpret the scripture and how to explain it.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you what I gave him for the kids.
SPEAKER_00: Read it like this.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever says they're a Christian and hates another Christian is not saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bold statement.
SPEAKER_00: That's aggressive.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you say that?
SPEAKER_00: The same reason that Jesus said, you will know them by their fruit.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when someone says, uh, my life is completely changed, right?
SPEAKER_00: The God who created everything has slammed into the soul of my life and has transformed me from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: I am not the same person.
SPEAKER_00: I am a brand new creation.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing the same about me when it comes to my soul.
SPEAKER_00: If someone says that, and then they act exactly like what they were before that interaction, again, my favorite illustration is uh what I got from Ephesians 2, listening to a sermon years ago.
SPEAKER_00: If you and I were here for a Sunday morning, and I come in late, and I'm supposed to preach, and Dan Ashton's up here just kind of biting time, waiting for me to show up, and I show up well into the service, and Dan pulls me aside for a second and goes, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Where have you been?
SPEAKER_00: And I looked at Dan and I was like, Dan, look, I've had a morning, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I was driving down the road and my cell phone flew out the window on the highway.
SPEAKER_00: I had to go pick it up.
SPEAKER_00: So I pull over, I go pick it up, and when I go to pick it up, a semi-truck ran me over.
SPEAKER_00: And you're acting like you don't care.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a little offended right now.
SPEAKER_00: And so I got up, pulled myself off the asphalt, got into my car, and eventually made it here.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for your sympathy.
SPEAKER_00: And Dan would look at me, probably with an eye twitching, and say, What on earth are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: There is no way you got ran over by a semi-truck on a highway before you got here.
SPEAKER_00: That's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I mean it, Dan.
SPEAKER_00: Like in my heart, this is true.
SPEAKER_00: I got ran over by a semi.
SPEAKER_00: I know it.
SPEAKER_00: And Dan would look at me and say, people that get run over by semi-trucks on the highway don't look like you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And you and I have a much easier time understanding the semi-truck analogy than understanding that the impact of Christ changing your heart from the inside out is greater than that.
SPEAKER_00: The Puritans were famous for saying that you change more when you're saved from death to life than you will change one day when you die and go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That is a fascinating statement.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it's really true.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what happened on the inside of me is my soul was dead and now it's alive.
SPEAKER_00: When my physical body dies, nothing changes about my soul.
SPEAKER_00: I just get a new heavenly body.
SPEAKER_00: Very, very different.
SPEAKER_00: You will never change more than the moment that Christ changes your life and saves you.
SPEAKER_00: And it is a much greater impact than a semi-truck running you over on the highway.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever says they are a Christian and hates their brother is not saved.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 5, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: John said, I wrote this that you may know that you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be assured of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that you are saved.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means I need to do two things at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: I need to, number one, try to assure those that are saved.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you're doing this, like you didn't used to do this at all, and now you're doing this a little bit, like dead people don't live.
SPEAKER_00: So you did it.
SPEAKER_00: Good job.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, I need to put a test, an expectation before the world that will reveal to them that their faith is not true.
SPEAKER_00: You see, if your faith has not transformed you to where you do love people more, to where you're willing to sacrifice for people more, if your faith has not radically transformed your life, the God of the universe might not be the one that saved you.
SPEAKER_00: And that is not a salvation you want.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever loves their fellow Christian is showing that they are remaining in the light of Christ, that they live and breathe and die Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why does that matter?
SPEAKER_00: Other than the assurance aspect, other than the test aspect?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the second half of that sentence.
SPEAKER_00: And in him there is no cause for stumbling.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sense when you first become a Christian that you think like you're not that bad.
SPEAKER_00: If you're like, like, I mean, I've changed like these three big habits.
SPEAKER_00: I used to be alcoholic and now I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm doing pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: And the further you get on the Christian life, you're like, dude, I am terrible.
SPEAKER_00: Like, how did, like, I can't believe I just did that.
SPEAKER_00: How did we get here?
SPEAKER_00: After all these years, you would think, like, I wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: There becomes this point where as we grow in maturity, we're able to see our sin all the greater.
SPEAKER_00: So thus the big sins that we got rid of now are gone, but now the smaller sins that we're trying to get rid of look gigantic to us and overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: One of those aspects is that of making another Christian stumble.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you and I don't often think of it, but our thoughtless words, our insensitive remarks, our lack of compassion and mercy and grace can and will often provoke others to sin.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friend, it is one thing to have to deal with the fact that you yourself are sinning.
SPEAKER_00: It is a whole nother thing when you realize that you can be a regular reason that someone else sins.
SPEAKER_00: And that is why we need community.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we need each other.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we need to make promises to each other, where we stand by each other and we stand in the gap and we pick each other up when we're in the mud and we hold each other accountable and we say, you are not alone.
SPEAKER_00: Because daily you and I will fail at this.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be the reason that someone else stumbled.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sense in which, as a father, uh, I have no problem if you hurt me.
SPEAKER_00: But if you hurt my children, there's a lot more sanctification to work out.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friends, let us fear God enough that when we think of God the Father, and we have little children all over amongst us in the faith, that we think, let me guard my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, please keep thoughtless words from my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help me to go above and beyond to love them.
SPEAKER_00: That is necessary if we wish to succeed in this Christian mission.
SPEAKER_00: Last verse, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, that would mean, number one, that they are not saved, but also, number two, that they enjoy and live in and breathe in the atmosphere of this sinful world and do not wish to leave it.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we can think of the gospel as a sales pitch.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, get your best life now.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll do this, you'll feel way better.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, actually, that's not the case.
SPEAKER_00: What we need to do instead in this moment is realize that the gospel's not a sales pitch.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if it was, it would be a terrible one because no one wants to buy it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want your gospel truth.
SPEAKER_00: They're in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing more offensive than in six in the morning or five in the morning when my alarm clock goes off on my phone and I go to turn it on, and for whatever reason, the iPhone decided not to turn the brightness down.
SPEAKER_00: And the brightness just like attacks my eyeballs, and I'm barely awake, and I want to throw my phone.
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time I don't.
SPEAKER_00: When you're in the darkness, light is offensive.
SPEAKER_00: It's not enjoyable.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's like, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if when I first wake up, if you could shine a light in my eye to wake me up, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_00: I would that that's that's like oozing me into the day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: No one has ever said that in the entire existence of humanity, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: When you and I choose to hate a Christian, we are showing that we are at the very least acting like the world.
SPEAKER_00: And at the most, that we need to keep our eyes on Christ and go back to do I actually trust this gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Has it transformed my life?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 continuing, they walk in the darkness next, and does not know where he is going.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I've shared this story before of uh me sharing the gospel with a young man.
SPEAKER_00: He's a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited.
SPEAKER_00: We were having this like relational moment, and I had finally got in, and I'm like, yes, like I'm about to like just pitch this gospel down middle.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a fastball down the lake, just nail it.
SPEAKER_00: You got it.
SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful moment, I thought, where I asked him about the gospel, and he said, I don't actually know the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, perfect, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to hear it?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, This is the best day ever.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to nail this.
SPEAKER_00: And so for the next five minutes, I explained the gospel to him.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, and you need to repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: You need to turn from your sin and trust in Jesus alone.
SPEAKER_00: And he looked at me and he was nodding and goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I think I'm gonna get back into skateboarding.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how this is supposed to work, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to listen, I pitch, and you you just what happened?
SPEAKER_00: And it's like you and I forget all the time that the Bible says these things.
SPEAKER_00: Like the world is in the darkness and they don't want the light.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, no, Jesus doesn't mean that.
SPEAKER_00: What he means is that, like, he needs me to pitch it, and if I can pitch it real good, they'll be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, uh, no.
SPEAKER_00: People are not saved by Dan through faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: No one will be saved because you did the work of saving them.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are simply faithful stewards who have a message of hope and of peace and of love.
SPEAKER_00: And we throw it out to the world and say, I hope and pray and wish that you will respond.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friends, we can't control if they say yes or no.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll never have a harder time recognizing that or having peace with that until you have children, and you realize I can't save you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God we serve a sovereign God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God we serve a God of love.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God that his mercies are new each day, and I am always in desperate need of them.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God that if God can save a sinner like me, there is more than hope for my children, for this community, and for the world around us.
SPEAKER_00: But they will not listen if we do not love them first.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come before you, asking, begging, and pleading, that you would change us from the inside out, that you would help us to be a body of believers who truly and sacrificially love each other, that we would live our lives on display for the watching world around us, that we would choose to bless those who curse us, to forgive those who reject us, to be patient and kind and gentle in a world that is fast-paced, impatient, and aggressive.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us in our weakness to be your hands and feet.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be truly transformed by your word, by your truth, and by your life.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we hold all of this in open hands and say, You give and you take.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter what, we will praise your name.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.