Testimony (1 John 5:6-13)

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Testimony

Spencer Cary

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This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him, there is no darkness at all. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. So that you may know you have eternal life. Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are in 1 John chapter 5 verses 6 through 12.

We have two more weeks in 1 John and we have completed the book. So you can follow along with us on the screen. You can also put a blue Bible around you. It will be on page 593 near the back. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That's our gift to you.

We want you to have a Bible that you can read. Something that Christians struggle with from time to time, though we're not always honest about it, is doubt. It's something that maybe we're not even honest with ourselves when we struggle with this. But we do. If you follow Jesus long enough, you're going to struggle with doubt. Like, as a pastor, even pastors struggle with doubt.

And I have to ask myself sometimes, like, do I really believe this? Like, I preach this. My life is built upon this. Do I actually believe this? And I want to give you a window in into a little bit of how I think about this and some of the reasoning that I go through. My logic is certainly not infallible.

But this is how I process it. There are actually two possible options in how I've observed and studied. There's two possible options for what is true and for what is reality. The first option is that everything is the result of crazy, cosmic, random chance. That life on Earth and everything that we know in existence is just crazy chance. That in the vast expanse of the universe, we have this galaxy.

And within this galaxy, we have this solar system. And within the solar system, we have the Earth. Earth. And it's, like, perfectly positioned in the solar system and perfectly tilted at a 23.5 degree tilt to be able to sustain life. And that everything that we see is just one in, I mean, people try to run odds on this, one in trillion, quadrillion, ridiculous amounts of chance. That everything we see just is.

There's no such thing as love. There's no such thing as purpose or meaning or beauty. All of that's invented. You have to be consistent here. Everything you see just is. And then you die.

And then there's nothingness. All right. That's one possible option. The other possible option for me is that Jesus is who he said he was. That Jesus is the one true God. That when I look at this world, that it's so obvious to me that it's designed.

There's so many things that had to fall into place to the big picture of where the Earth is positioned and how it's positioned all the way down to, like, the design of the human eyeball. There's so many things that show that this was designed. And if I believe that this was designed, I need to work with who actually made this. And when you look at the different faith systems and the different creator type claims, I find Christianity to be the most compelling. Like, I studied world religions in college. I actually studied world religions and visited the different countries where these are practiced.

I studied Islam and then studied that in the context of Morocco and visited there. I studied Hinduism and visited Hindu temples in India. I studied Buddhism and went to a Buddhist temple in Thailand. Did anyone who makes the claim that all these world religions are just claiming the same thing, they don't know what they're talking about. They haven't actually studied these. They're making distinctly different claims.

And Christianity, even more so, is making claims that are distinct from the others. We believe in an eminent God who actually came. But the one thing I must concede in my faith is that my faith is built upon a testimony. That my faith is built upon the testimony of the scriptures. The testimony of our God. The testimony of people who saw Jesus live this life on this earth.

Who saw him die a death on the cross. Who saw him rise from the grave and ascend to the right hand of God the Father. That his body will never be found. I must concede that my faith is built upon that testimony. What I want us to see this morning is that testimony actually, this testimony is powerful. And this testimony absolutely can lead us to belief.

Some of you are not a Christian. And maybe you're just figuring this out. Maybe you're just exploring this. Maybe you are working through doubts. And I want to let you know this is a safe place for that. To be able to work through doubts.

And I want you to clearly hear. I think God wants to meet you here in your doubt this morning. Some of you believe the gospel. You're a follower of Jesus. But you struggle with doubt.

And it maybe shows up in a lot of different forms. I want you to hear very clearly this morning. Built upon the testimony of God. That he wants to continue to win you over. To faith in Christ. The passage that we're going to be in this morning is going to speak about the power of testimony.

My hope is that we would listen. That wherever you are in this journey. That you would listen and by faith respond. So let me read the text and then we will walk through this together. Verse 6. It says, This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ.

Not by the water only. But by the water and the blood. And the spirit is the one who testifies. Because the spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify. The spirit and the water and the blood.

And these three agree. If you receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God that he is born concerning his son. Whoever believes in the son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar. Because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning his son.

And this is the testimony. That God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life. Let me pray for us.

And then we will walk through this together. Lord. I pray that you would open our hearts to the scriptures this morning. That for those who are struggling with doubt. That they would be able to listen. To your word.

To your calling. May you win each of us over. Amen. Okay. So we're going to walk through this.

And see his argument. And then I want to sit in the power. And the importance of testimony. So I'm going to go back a verse. To where Chet left off last week. In verse 5.

It says. Who is it that overcomes the world. Except the one who believes. That Jesus is the son of God. That as John is wrapping up his final arguments. In this book.

One of the things we've seen over and over again. Is that he wants us to know. What it means to believe. That Chet walked us through last week. This really this triangle. That he's hitting over and over again.

That over and over again. He's been teaching us. And telling us. That this evidence of faith in our lives. That we would love God. That we would love one another.

That we would obey the commandments. And he's teaching us over and over again. And now he's going to switch gears. And he's going to show. What this evidence testifies to. And in these seven verses in our passage.

It says testimony eight times. The word testimony in some form. Shows up eight times. Anytime that you study the scriptures. And you see a word repeated over. And over.

And over. And over. And over again. Highlight it. Right. Circle it.

Underline it. Make a mental note. The Lord is trying to teach you something in this. He's trying to show us something about testimony. Now. When you hear the word testimony.

I would argue that most of you. Probably your mind runs to. The courtroom. It's one of the most familiar. Uses of testimony that. That we have.

Is in the courtroom. Someone who is giving testimony on the witness stand. Right. There's enough crime TV. There's enough law and order. There's enough things that you're just familiar with.

Testimony is something that you give. I actually think that's probably a very helpful picture. For this passage. That type of testimony on the witness stand. Is actually probably a helpful image. For this.

I think John. What he's trying to convince us of. In belief. Is putting. He's going to try to convince us of belief. By putting three different witnesses.

On the stand. Three different witnesses. They're going to give testimony. To. Christ. And we're going to see each of these.

The first is the water. The second is the blood. And the third is. The spirit. And by verse eight. Where he's going to help us see.

All three of these are in agreement. But we're going to take them one on one. And put them on the stand. And see what each one has to. Add to this argument. To compel us over to faith in Christ.

So let's look at the first. Which is. The water. The water is the first. To take. The stand.

What does he mean. When he says. This is he who came by. Water. What is John getting at. Now.

Like other parts of John. First John. Like other parts of the scriptures. It's debatable what he means. When he says. The water.

And there's some Sundays. I think it's valuable. To take a few minutes. To get into the weeds. Of interpretation. To go a little bit deeper.

To list out all the options. And when I do that. I find it fairly exciting. And there's about 10 to 20 of you. That also find it exciting. But the rest of you.

Inwardly. Or audibly. Grown. It's like. Just. Tell us.

What. He means. And move on. Well guess what. Sunday's for you. I'm not going to get in the weeds.

I'm going to tell you. What. I think he means. When he uses water. In this passage. All right.

Here's the most compelling argument. I found in the commentaries. This week. John is referencing. Baptism. When he says water.

He's referencing. Baptism. I think this encompasses. First. The baptism of. Jesus.

That initiated his ministry. And then what followed. Was a ministry of. Baptism. That John was. Baptizing his disciples.

Then he becomes lesser. Jesus becomes greater. After his disciples. Continue baptizing. And that what's being referenced. In the water.

Is the beginning of Christ's ministry. And baptism. And the continuation of ministry. That he baptized. Which is pointing to. Really.

I would argue. The whole. Of Christ's ministry. And the message. That accompanied. Those.

Baptisms. Which we saw. In the gospel of Matthew. That we walked through. Last year. And the year before.

Which was over and over again. Repent. The kingdom of heaven. Is at hand. It's this message. Of this kingdom.

That he is coming to establish. That will have no end. And all the goodness. That is found. In this kingdom. It's this message.

Of repentance. That he preaches. Over and over again. To turn from this world. Turn from your sin. Turn to me.

I am better. It's the message of the kingdom. It's the. The whole ministry. Of where he. Healed the sick.

That he cared for the forgotten. The outcasts. The outsiders. Others. It's how he healed the sick. It's how he challenged.

The self-righteous. Religious establishment. Over and over. And over again. It's like all the things. That we love.

That make Jesus. Punk rock. And awesome. We love it. That's all of his ministry. I think it's bound up.

It's summarized. In this word. Water. Jesus came. By. Water.

That's the first. To take the stand. The second. Is the blood. The blood. He says in verse six.

This is he who came by water. And blood. Jesus Christ. Not by. The water only. But by the water.

And the blood. Now. If you've been with us. In first John. For a minute. He doesn't write.

Very. Clearly. Times. It's like. Wait. What?

And this is one of those times. Where he says something. It's like. Why couldn't you just said. He came by water. And blood.

Let's move on. To the spirit. But he says. No. Not by the water only. That should clue us in.

To ask some questions. What are you getting out there? What are you not saying. When. You're saying that. Like there was a.

There was a picture. That was circulated online. A few years ago. And it was a picture. Of a. Of a notice.

At the library. At someone's public library. And it said. It said. In light of recent events. There will be.

No Oreos. Allowed. In the library. And it's like. Really. Tell me more.

What are you not saying. I want to know what happened. Like I want to know. What kind of mess was made. With Oreos. In the library.

Like I. I get a little messy. With Oreos. What I like to do. Is like to take the cup of milk. And I like to just.

I don't dunk it. I let it. I just drop it. I let it bathe. All right.

I let it. I let it get. You don't want it to fall to the bottom. Because it falls to the bottom. It gets a little messy. You got to get your hand in the glass.

And sometimes it gets stuck. And then you pull it out. Sometimes milk. And Oreo guts go everywhere. It is worth it. But it gets a little messy.

I want to know what happened. At the library. Right. When you see that. It begs the question. What's happening here.

That's what's happening here. In first John. Okay. Not by water only. What are you talking about? And if you've been with us in first John.

As we've walked through it. This should make a little bit of sense. Because what we've seen over and over again. In first John. As he's making this argument. That Jesus was real.

That he was a real physical person. That from the very first verse. All the way into the end. There's this theme. That he's hitting at. Jesus actually physically came.

Because there was a false teaching. At the time. That swept through. These churches. That John was writing to. That taught the opposite.

That taught that Jesus only came in spirit form. That he didn't come in physical material form. And we believe that was the early seedbed. The early beginnings of Gnosticism. So he's just making a point here.

Not by water only. He did come physically. In blood. So that's part of what he's saying here. But also when you get to the blood.

This is the easiest part to interpret. Because the blood is talking about. The blood that he shed on the cross. That he shed real blood. For our real sins. On a real cross.

That this actually happened. So what's happening here a little bit. Is the water. The beginning of Christ's ministry. Bringing through the ministry of baptism. Up to the event.

Which is the pinnacle event of salvation. In the scriptures. The cross. And the empty tomb that follows. That as we saw in 1 John 2. 2.

It said. He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only. But also for the sins of the whole world. The blood references this. That he teaches.

Over and over again. That we deserve wrath. That Jesus stands in our place. That blood was shed for us. That he made atonement for us. That he made it right for us.

By his blood. And not our own. He came by water. Not water only. He came by the real blood. That he shed for our real sins.

That should compel us into belief in Jesus. And then the third witness takes the stand. The spirit. He says. With the spirit. And the spirit.

Is the one who testifies. Because the spirit. Is. The truth. Now. It's capital S.

It's talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is. The truth. Now part of this picture. Undoubtedly goes back to when Jesus was baptized. When Jesus was baptized.

The heavens opened up. The Holy Spirit. Descends upon Jesus like a dove. This happened. And the people saw this. And this really marked.

This is the Christ. God the Father said. This is my son with whom I'm well pleased. This is the one who has come. Listen to him. That's part of the picture here.

Is the Holy Spirit. That descends upon Christ. At the beginning. But it's also a picture forward to. The Holy Spirit. That descends upon the people of God.

This is a picture. That looks forward to. Pentecost. When the fulfillment happens. Of God. And his temple.

God. And his people. The Holy Spirit. Descends upon the new temple of God. The people of God. The church of Jesus Christ.

And the Holy Spirit. Lives in his people. This spirit is the truth. And testifies. Over and over again. To us.

And through us. That he is the Christ. That he is God. Verse 7. For there are all. There are three that testify.

The spirit. And the water. And the blood. And these three agree. They're all three in agreement. When each one.

Takes the witness stand. They're all testifying. To the same. Truth. They're all in agreement. That this is.

The Christ. And then John. Goes on to say. In verse 9. If we receive. The testimony of men.

The testimony of God. Is. Is. Greater. For this is the testimony of God. That he is born concerning his son.

I think it's a general statement. That he's making to say. God's. Testimony. Is. Greater.

Than. Man's. If you are. Willing. To accept the testimony. Of mere men.

How foolish. Would we not. Would we be. To not. To accept the testimony. Of.

The God who created. All things. God's testimony. Is. Greater. And then he goes on.

To say. When you receive. This testimony. It comes. To live within you. Verse 10.

He says. Whoever believes. In the son of God. Has the testimony. In himself. Whoever does not believe.

God has made him a liar. Because he has not believed. In the testimony. That God is born. Concerning his son. When you believe in Jesus.

This is a picture. Of the Holy Spirit. The testimony. In you. The Holy Spirit. Comes.

Into your life. And makes you. New. This is the gift. That we are given. By faith.

The testimony. Comes to live. In us. If you believe in Jesus. You have this. Unbelievably.

Amazing. And powerful gift. Don't. In true. John form. You're a liar.

Which we've seen. Over and over again. In first. John. Is like. One of his.

Go to things. He's like. You believe this. Or you're a liar. Or you make God. To be a liar.

All right. As the young guns say. Cap. No cap. Which took me a minute. To figure out what they were saying.

But front run knows. What I'm talking about. Okay. Lie. No lie. Right.

That's the language he uses. Over and over. And over again. And he gets to verse 10. He says. Whoever believes.

In the son of God. No. Verse 11. And this is the testimony. That God gave us. Eternal.

Life. And this life. Is in his son. Whoever has the son. Has. Life.

Whoever does not have the son of God. Does not. Have. Life. That's how he finishes. This argument.

That if you believe this. You have eternal life. In Christ. If you believe this. You have this eternal life. That he offers.

If you don't. You don't have this. So John's closing argument. As he's finishing up. First John. Is.

Believe this. Believe this. John wants us to believe this. God wants us to. Believe this. So much so.

That three take the stand. The water. The blood. And the spirit. And the hope. Is that we would.

Believe. Now. That's the argument he's making. I want to look at four conclusions. That we can draw from this defense. That we can draw from this.

Argument. That deal with the power. Of testimony. The first is this. The testimony. Is of a real.

God. The testimony. Is of a real. God. Verse six. He says.

This is he who came by water and. Blood. Jesus Christ. Not by the water only. But by.

The water. And the blood. Y'all. This isn't just something. The early Christians. Needed to be convinced of.

That Jesus came in the flesh. We need this. Christians. We. Need. To believe this.

Because what happens is. Is that we start to. When life gets difficult. We start to believe. That God is so distant. He's so big.

He's so glorious. He's so powerful. He's so mighty. And all of that's true. That he can't possibly understand. What I'm going through.

He can't possibly understand. My circumstances. Like God. Don't you want to change. What I'm walking through right now. Like don't you understand.

How hard this is. How hard. Life. Is. And because of the water. And the blood.

He does. He does understand. How hard this life is. Because he came. Because he didn't stand distant. In the heavens.

Where. He could have rightly. Ruled and reigned from. He. Came. And he lived.

He took on flesh. And dwelt among us. And he lived a life. And he experienced loss. He knows what that's like. I mean the reason why you don't see his.

Earthly father Joseph. Pass. When he's a child. Is because he died. He knows what it's like to lose. He knows.

What it's like to endure loss. He knows what it's like to endure. Betrayal. Someone that he invested in for three years. Discipled. Loved.

Served. Sold him for 20 pieces of silver. He knows what it's like to be abandoned. It's abandoned by all but one of his disciples. He knows what it's like to endure temptation. For those of us who struggle in the.

Throes of temptation. Like I just. It's so hard. It's so hard. It's so hard. To continue.

To pursue what is good. It's so hard to endure this. He knows. What it's like to endure it. For we don't have a high priest. Who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

But one who in every respect. Who is tempted and tried. And yet was without sin. Hebrews 4. He knows. What it's like.

To be human. Because he came. And when God feels distant. And he feels foreign. We need to remember. He is a real God that came.

We need to remember the eminence of Christ. Meaning that he descended in bodily form. That he knows what it's like. It's not just us that needs to know this. The world needs to know this. I mean.

He stands apart. He is not Allah. That stands distant. And demands submission. This isn't a system of Buddhism. That leads to nothingness.

This isn't any false projection. That our culture puts upon him. That he's vindictive. Or that he's cruel. Or he doesn't care. He does care.

Because he came. And the world needs to know that. That he needs to know that he came. That he was baptized. He spent three years ministering to the least of these. And that he laid down his life on the cross.

For us. And he rose to give us new life in him. That is a testimony y'all. And it speaks to a real God. The second conclusion we need to draw. Is that this testimony is true.

This testimony is true. Back in verse 6. And the spirit is the one who testifies. Because the spirit is the truth. Verse 7. For there are three that testify.

The spirit. And the water. And the blood. And these three agree. John makes this point. The three in agreement.

The spirit is the truth. They line up. This testimony is true. And that's so incredibly important. Because we live in a time. Where there's so many false testimonials out there.

There's so many false things that are put out there. And believed. I mean. Choose your adventure. I mean. There's.

I was listening to a short story. I was working in my bathroom. Remodeling. And I wanted to listen to a series of short stories. Because that's what I do for fun. And.

And I was listening to this short story that came up. Called The Egg. And it turns out this story is like one of the more critically acclaimed short stories. In the last two decades. And this story is about a guy who dies. And he immediately appears before God.

And he starts to have a conversation with God. And what he learns is. Is that he's about to be reincarnated. And he's going to return to the sixth century. And he's going to be back in time. Reincarnated in the form of a Chinese woman.

And what he learns is. Is that every human that has ever existed. Is the same consciousness. And that when she dies. He's going to reincarnate to something different. And get better and better and better.

Until the very end. He's become this God-like figure that he's talking to right now. And I listened to it. And I was like. This is the most baseless. Ungrounded.

Ridiculous. Argument. And I just. When I realized. That this is one of the more critically acclaimed short stories. That last draw their entire faith and reality.

From movies. And from novels. And as Christians. We have to winsomely. Boldly. And lovingly say.

That's not. True. That's not true. As this passage. Teaches. The testimony of God is greater.

For this. Is a testimony of God. That he has born. Concerning his son. That we say. Jesus is better than everything else.

We need to boldly. And winsomely. Argue that. That he is true. What he offers. Is better.

This testimony is true. That it's rooted in historical reality. They're not going to find his body. This is rooted in a historical reality. This is rooted. This is rooted in a supernatural reality.

The Holy Spirit at work within us. It's anchored in a living hope. And a real person. Who took on real flesh. Don't miss that. For a moment.

This testimony. Is true. The third thing we need to see. Is this testimony. Is in you. This testimony.

Is in you. Verse 10. Whoever believes in the son of God. Has. The testimony. In himself.

And as we said earlier. That's talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. That. The testimony. In us.

Y'all. The implications for that. Are. Massive. It's huge. That the Holy Spirit.

Comes to dwell. In us. Comes to minister. Within us. Is. It's a similar language.

To. To Romans 8. And the argument. That Paul is making. In the middle of Romans 8. When he says.

In verse 14. For all. Who are led. By the spirit. Of God. Are.

Sons. Of God. That when you are led. By. The spirit. That when he.

Dwells. Within you. That. You're no longer. A slave. To this world.

As he argues. For you do not. Receive. The spirit. Of slavery. To fall back in fear.

You're no slavery. Slave to this world. A slave to your. Flesh. You've been. Freed.

And more than that. That you belong. To him. The spirit. Within us. Reminds us.

Of. This. By whom we cry. Abba. Father. 16.

The spirit himself. Bears. Witness. And the Greek word. For witness. Is the same Greek word.

We have in 1st John 4. Testimony. Same concept. Bears. Witness. Testifies.

With. Our. Spirit. That we are the children. Of God. That the Holy Spirit.

Lives. And reigns. Within us. And testifies. Within us. That we are the children.

Of God. That is. Huge. Because there are moments. In this life. Where we fail to believe that.

There are moments. In this life. I feel this. There are moments. Where I'm in the midst. Of doubt.

And I. I'll go back to. My reasoning. Right. That I believe. That the faith claims.

Of Christ. Are way more compelling. To the wide leaps. Of faith. That it takes. To have.

Nothing. I'll reason there. I'm like. No. This is. The most reasonable.

Argument. This compelling argument. The reason. In and of itself. Is not enough. It's not.

Always. Enough. And sometimes. I feel. This doubt. It's like.

A dark haze. Of hopelessness. That just. Lingers. In the midst. Of that.

Doubt. The spirit. Goes. To work. One of the more. Beautiful songs.

That I've. I've heard. In the last few years. Is this song. By ghost ship. We.

We sing. Some ghost ship songs. From time. To time. They had this song. That came out.

A couple years ago. Called. Belief. And I love. What the songwriter. Works to.

Because he's working. Through this doubt. He's working. Through this. This darkness. That he's.

Struggling through. And he. In the first verse. He says. Darkness. Haunts me.

Again. Today. So. Confused. Have I lost. The way.

If you're. There. And you're. There's God. If you're there. I can't see.

Your face. I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes. It's hard. To believe.

Help me. In my. Unbelief. And he's quoting. The father. Who brought a son.

Jesus. And said. Oh Lord. I believe. But help.

My. Unbelief. Like I feel. First. Like I. I feel that.

It's just so. Hard. To believe. Sometimes. That we. We feel this.

Doubt. That just. Hovers over us. Where we question. The. Goodness.

Of God. Or the. Existence. Of God. Or the. Faithfulness.

Of God. Or the. Love. Of God. Or the. Character.

Of God. We begin to. Question. Who. God. Is.

And this. Doubt. Just. Lingers. Over us. And it.

Leaves us. In this. Place. Of desperation. And it's. In those.

Moments. That the. Holy Spirit. Comes. Into his. People.

And begins. To do. His. Work. He begins. To minister.

Within us. And I love. How this. Him. In the midst. Of his.

Doubt. And has. Gone. To work. Because he. Finishes.

The song. By saying. There are. Only. A few. Things.

I. Know. I know. That he. Rose. Which.

Is a testimony. Of true. Events. He came. By the water. And the blood.

That he. Really. Did come. And. This. Really.

Did happen. I know. That he. Rose. I know. That he.

Loves. Me. So. I know. That he. Won't.

Let. Go. And. Those. Two. Statements.

I know. That he. Loves. Me. So. And.

He. Won't. Let. Go. You. Can.

Read. Those. But the. Holy. Spirit. Makes.

Us. Feel. Those. He. Makes. Us.

Feel. The. Love. Of. God. In.

A. Way. That he. Is. Close. That we.

Can. Feel. His. Presence. He. Makes.

Feel. That he. Holds. Us. That he. Won't.

Let us. Go. That is the ministry of the Holy Spirit at work within us. And the spirit wins us over and over and over again. And he testifies to our soul. To our spirit.

That you belong to me. That you are my child. That no one is going to snatch you out of my hand. That I love you. Because I love you. Because of my great love.

And I will carry you all the way to the finish. The people of God have the Holy Spirit at work within us. Testifying at work within us. And the last thing I want us to see. Is that the testimony grants us eternal life. That this testimony gives eternal life.

Verse 11. He says. This is the testimony. That God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life.

Whoever does not have the son of God. Does not have life. And as Chet is going to pick up next week. In verse 13. He says. I write these things to you.

Who believe. In the name of the son of God. That you may know. That you have eternal life. The argument he is making over. And over.

And over again. In first jump. God. Gave us. Eternal life. In Christ.

The testimony of God. Is greater. For those of us. That trust. That he came by. The water.

That he lived. A life. He fulfilled. The law. Perfectly on our behalf. For those that believe.

That he came by. The blood. That his blood was shed for us. On the cross. That our sin. Is what puts him on the cross.

And his blood was shed for us. For those who believe. The Holy Spirit comes. And makes us. New creations. In Christ.

And testifies. To our spirit. We have. Eternal. Life. The three take the stand.

The water. The blood. And the spirit. And they're all in agreement. And they're all. Compelling us.

To believe. Some of you. Some of you have never. Surrendered to this Christ. Some of you have been around church. Your entire life.

Some of you are just checking it out. For the first time. But you've never. Surrendered to this Christ. And I want you so. Clearly to hear this morning.

Jesus. Wants you. This testimony shows. He. Wants you. That he.

Desires you. That he doesn't. That your past. Does not have to define you. That your life right now. Does not have to define you.

That faith in Jesus. Is putting all of our hope. And what he has done for us. That by grace. He saves us. That there's nothing that you bring to the table.

But your sin. And he wants you. He wants to take your sin. On the cross. He wants you. Believe this.

That God has you here this morning. That he desires you. That this testimony is good. It is pure. It is perfect. And it is for you.

Don't. Stop running. Stop running from God. He wants you. Believe this testimony. It is worth your life.

Some of you. Are Christians. And you got to be honest about the doubt. That you are facing. And John so clearly. Is teaching of this morning.

He's teaching us. Keep believing. Continue. To believe. Believe is not a one-time event. That happens.

It is a continual. You believe over. And over. And over. And over again. The testimony.

Is of a real. God. Who came. Who died for us. Who took on flesh. The testimony.

Is true. And the testimony. Is in you. And this morning. He so clearly. Wants you to know.

That is true. And that what is held out. In front of you. Christian. Is a testimony. That does not end.

That heads into. Eternity. We continue. To fight. To believe this. By the power.

Of the Holy Spirit. Matt's going to come up. And he's going to. Take that song. Belief. That I just.

Read through. And he's going to sing it. Over us. And as he does. I want. Us to listen.

Listen to the voice of God. That for those of you. That are here. That have never surrendered. To who this God is. That never fully believe.

In the testimony of Christ. My hope and prayer. Is that you would. Believe. That this song. Would be a confession.

And you confess. It for the first time. Maybe. Maybe you are a Christian. You've been struggling. For.

Years. You've been struggling. With doubt. Make this your prayer. Help me in my unbelief. Help me believe.

In what the water. And the blood. And the spirit. Testify to. Help me believe. In this Christ.

May this encourage. Your soul. Remind you. Of your savior. And remind you. How good this testimony is.

Let me pray. Father. We need you. We need you. In a world. That has.

Darkness. And doubt. In our lives. Where there is darkness. And doubt. May you cut through it.

And we see you so clearly. And so beautifully. Right now. For those who have never trusted in Christ. May they believe. Right now.

For those who have trusted in Christ. But are struggling. May you help them. To continue to believe this testimony. In Christ's name. Amen.

Three Essentials of the Christian Life (1 John 5:1-5)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Three Essentials of a Christian Life

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him, there is no darkness at all. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. So that you may know you have eternal life. Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in 1 John.

We are coming towards the end of this letter. And we've got just a couple more weeks of walking through this. And John is kind of summing up some of his ideas. But I want to begin this sermon by talking about Daniel. And not Daniel from the Bible, but Daniel LaRusso from the Karate Kid. Also very important.

Not quite as important as the other Daniel. In the Karate Kid, the original one. Some people also like to call that the good one. Mr. Miyagi is teaching Daniel karate. Karate.

Daniel actually really wants to be like a kid who's all about karate. And so he's teaching him karate. And what he does is he makes him paint his fence. And he makes him wash his cars. Karate. And I thought, man, I could teach somebody karate.

If that's all. Chores. Come do chores at my house. But that's what it seems like. And he's having him do wax on, wax off on these cars. And he has a specific way he wants him to do it.

And he's doing paint the fence. He does this specific stuff. And he makes him do it with both hands. And there's this scene. It's one of the best scenes in the movie. It's up there with the this scene.

It's one of the best scenes in the movie where Daniel just says, I'm done. All you've done is make me do chores. I'm done. And Mr. Miyagi says, show me the stuff I've been making you do. And he starts to do it.

And he goes, no, you're doing it wrong. Show me the way I showed you. And he starts making him do the stuff that he showed him how to do. That he made him do this repetitive motion over and over and over and over again. And then Mr. Miyagi starts throwing punches at him and just starts trying to assault him.

He's throwing punches and kicks. But because he had painted the fence, he knows how to block stuff. It's a little hard to believe, but this is what happens. And this is what he does. And there's this whole scene where he shows him that I was just teaching your muscles to do this thing over and over again. That's why I said it over and over and over again.

And we're in that scene in 1 John. Because I don't know if you've been reading John. He says the same thing over and over and over and over again. He has said it over and over and over and over. And we're getting to the scene where he's the part in John where he starts going. He's just saying it again.

But he's helping us see clearly. I've been saying this repeatedly. I've been connecting this this whole time. And this is what it looks like to be a Christian. These are the identifying markers of a Christian. And he's said it so many times that at this point, if someone tried to assault us with something that was against this, we should be able to karate kid that stuff.

We should be able to say, no, this is how it works. So that's where we are. We're going to read through this section together. And we're going to kind of paint a picture to help us see. He's saying it again. But we want to put some weight in this and put this in our heads clearly as he's kind of coming to his letter.

So let's pray. And then we'll be in 1 John chapter 5. God, I pray that you would help us this morning. That you would help us to hear from your word. That you would help remove distraction and our desire to wander and to think about other things. But that you would help anchor this reality in our souls.

And then, Lord, I pray that you would, through the power of your spirit, would make it true of this church. That this is what we look like as we abide in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. 1 John chapter 5. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. So he's said this idea multiple times, but he's saying it again.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. So that we believe that Jesus, the man who walked on earth, lived and taught, was crucified on a cross. That he rose again. That he's the Christ. That he's the one that God had promised to bring salvation through. That he's the one who is fulfilling Christ.

Jesus is a name. Christ is a theological office. It's a role that he plays. That he is the Christ who has been the promised Messiah who was going to come and fix everything for us. That from the very beginning when God promises in the garden that there's going to be a son who's going to be born. And he's going to crush the head of the serpent.

That there's this promise throughout the Old Testament that this Christ is coming. This is who John is saying. Whoever believes that that's Jesus. That he's the one who's come to save. That he's the one who redeems. That he's the one who forgives sin.

Whoever believes that. Trusts in that. Hopes in that. Puts their faith in that. And I think we've got to just appreciate that word believe for a second. Because all we're doing is coming to a news that has been told to us.

That Jesus has done this. And if we believe it. If we say no that's true. I'm going to wrap around that. I'm going to hold on to that. I'm going to anchor in that.

He says whenever that happens. Then we've been born of God. Everyone who believes that Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. That this is one of the commentaries I have on this says. To believe is to be acted upon in a dynamic transformative way by God.

That God does this. So here's what he's saying. Is that we believe in Jesus. But then this happens. So Jesus brings us to the Father.

And so that if you have faith in Jesus. And we're going to kind of draw this whole picture out. Because this is the stuff he's been saying over and over again. But Jesus brings us to the Father. You don't have the Father without Jesus. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ.

Has been born of God. You've been made new. You've been born again. As he would say in. Jesus would say in John chapter 3. Not 1 John chapter 3.

But John chapter 3. That you are born again. That you are made new. That's this idea. That we belong to God if we believe in Jesus. Then he says this.

So verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. Has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father. Loves whoever has been born of him. So if you love the Father.

If you believe in Jesus. He brings you to the Father. You're born of God. And if you love the Father. Then you love everyone who's been born of him.

So that looks like this. You love the Father. You love the Father. They are connected. You can't disconnect that. This is how it works.

So if you say I love the Father. You love the brothers. That's not a new idea if you've been here. John has said that. Over and over again. Then he says this.

Verse 2. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God. So by this we know we love the children of God. When we love God. So it goes the other way too.

One of the ways that you love the children of God. Or the brothers. Brothers and sisters in Christ. Is that you love God. So it goes back the other way.

You can almost put arrows. But there's this channel of love. Running back and forth. That if you love the Father. You love the brothers. And then he's going to say.

If you love the brothers. You love the Father. And this is. This is the circle he's been running. He said this over and over and over again. Then he says this.

By this is verse 2. By this we know. That we love the children of God. So this marks us as loving the children of God. When we love God. And.

Obey his commands. So it looks like that. If you love. If you love the Father. You love the brothers. If you love the brothers.

Then you'll love the Father. And. You'll obey his commands. And this is how you know. That you love the brothers. This is how you know.

That you care about your church family. You obey God's commands. That's a little startling for us. I think sometimes. To think that obeying commands. Is something different.

But he's saying. No. This is one of the things. That marks. A love. For your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Is that you obey his commands. Verse 3. For this. This is the love of God. That we keep his commandments. So then it goes.

From commandments. Back up to the Father. John has said this. So many times. This is. This is his point.

This is his thesis. This is. He's landing the plane. And. This. I.

I've said it. I don't know how else to say it. I've said it forwards. I've said it backwards. I've said it positively. I've said it negatively.

I've accused you of being a liar. Multiple times. Which we're going to read those in a second. But this is what he says. You believe in Jesus. You get the Father.

You don't get the Father. If you don't have Jesus. If you have the Father. If you belong to the Father. Then you love the brothers.

If you love the brothers. Then you love the Father. If you love the brothers. You'll follow his commands. The way you know that you love the Father. Is that you follow his commands.

Yeah. Wax on. Wax off. He said it. Over and over. And over.

Again. There is a faith. Love of God. Marking. For believers. That if you're a believer.

Then you have faith in Jesus. And you love the Father. There is a relational. There is a relational. Love of church family. Marking.

For believers. And there is a moral. Ethical. Marking. For believers. My uncle.

Who's. Yorba. People group. From Abomasaw. He's one of the last. Generations born.

That they put tribal marks on. So he has tribal marks on his face. And it was meant to be. That you could look right at him. And you would know. Right where he was from.

And that is. What this is. For Christians. That we. Are to be. Marked by.

These three things. And you can't. Get rid of any of them. But I want to show you. That John has said this. Over and over again.

I'm just going to read. I want you to listen. I'm going to try to move. Fairly quickly. But I'm going to read.

Things that we've read. In chapter one. Chapter two. Chapter three. Chapter four. To just try to refresh.

In your head. He said this. This is his whole point. And just as I read it. Try to figure out. Okay.

Yeah. That's from there to there. That's from there to there. Because he's just running. This track. Back and forth.

Different ways. Chapter one. This is the message. That we heard from him. And proclaim to you. That God is light.

And in him. There's no darkness at all. So he's talking about the father. If we say. We have fellowship with him. While we walk in darkness.

Meaning that we. Sin. And are following sin. And not obeying his commands. We lie. And do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light. Meaning following him. And are walking in openness. He is. As he is in the light. We have fellowship.

And you would think he would say. We have fellowship with him. We have fellowship with one another. So he runs this way. And the blood of Jesus. His son.

Then he takes us back up there. Cleanses us from all sin. Chapter two. By this. We know that we have come to know him. So you know the father.

If we keep his commands. Keep his commandments. Whoever says. This is chapter two. Verse four. Whoever says.

I know him. But does not keep his commandments. Is a liar. The truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word.

In him. Truly the love of God. Is perfected. By this. We know that we are in him. Whoever says.

He abides in him. Ought to walk. In the same way that he walks. And he jumps down to verse nine. In chapter two. He says.

Whoever says. He's in the light. So I know the father. That's being in the light. And hates his brother. Is still in darkness.

Whoever loves his brother. Abides in the light. And that's his idea. Of walking in openness. And following the commands. And knowing God.

That's it. Being in the light. Verse 15. No. Not verse 15. 29.

If you know that he is righteous. You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness. Has been born of God. So. If we know the father. Then we practice righteousness.

Chapter three. Everyone who. Thus hopes in him. Purifies himself. As he is pure. Again.

This following his commands. Verse four. For everyone who practice. Makes a practice of sinning. Also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.

You know that he appeared. In order to take away sins. In him there is no sin. No one who abides in him. Keeps on sinning. Then verse 10.

Whoever does not practice righteousness. Is not of God. So. You're not doing that. You don't belong to him. Nor.

Is the one who does not love. His brother. Verse 11. Chapter three. For this is the message we've heard from the beginning. That we should love one another.

Verse 23. This is the commandment. All right. So here's the commandment. And he's been talking about commandments. Is not sinning.

So it's a general idea of commandments. And then he specifically. Is going to highlight. One of the major parts of the commandment. And here's what he says. This is the commandment that we have from him.

That we believe in the son. Jesus Christ. And. Love one another. Just as he's commanded us. So he snuck the other two in the commands.

We can make this more complicated. He didn't hide them as subsections in that one. Chapter four. This is the summation of it. But he says this.

We love because he loved us. So. Us. Being loved by him. That he's done this first. He's brought us in.

He loves us. If anyone says I love God. And hates his brother. Is a liar. He who does not love his brother. Whom he has seen.

Cannot love. Whom he has not seen. And he says. This is the commandment. That we have from him. Whoever loves God.

Must also love his brother. I trimmed it up. There are more. Because it's the entire letter. This is what he says. This is what you look like.

If you belong to Jesus. This is what you look like. Jesus. Brings you to the father. The father makes you new. And now.

Your life is marked. By a love for God. A love for. The church. Your brothers. His children.

And obedience. And he specifically. Goes out of his way. And I read some of these. I'm going to read them again. To say.

If you try to remove. One of those. And say it's fine. I'm still a Christian. He says. Liar.

Like the scariest scene. In Princess Bride. Where that guy's talking. And then what's his head's dead. And then that crazy lady. Comes running out of the back.

Yelling. Liar. When you're a little kid. That's really the scariest scene. All kinds of things happen there. It's like.

Oh my goodness. That's what. That's what John does. Verse. Chapter 2. Verse 22.

Who. Who is the liar. But he who denies. That Jesus is the Christ. You try to take Jesus out. Liar.

2.4. Whoever says. I know him. But doesn't keep his commandments. Is a liar. In chapter 4.

Verse 20. If anyone says. I love God. And hates his brothers. Is a liar. He specifically covers all of them.

And says. You can't. You just can't take one of these out. Now. What. Will happen.

Mostly. Is that people. Will claim. The top one. And ignore the bottom ones. And for our purposes.

That's the thing. That's most helpful. Because. Most of us. Subtly. It's not going to sink.

Sneak in. That we're to not love Jesus. But we're to obey his commands. That. That exists. This idea.

That I can just be moral. And that's fine. Or that I can just be loving. And that's fine. But. For our purposes.

We're just going to kind of look at. Trying to claim the top. And for John's purposes. That's what he cared most about. Whoever says. They know the father.

Whoever says. They're in the light. Whoever says. They know the father. Like he's consistently saying. You're claiming this.

But you're trying to remove. One of these. But here's. Here's what you have. You'll have people say. That you don't need Jesus.

That he's not. You can. Every. Everybody. Every. All paths lead to God.

Everybody believes the same thing. So you believe in Jesus. That's fine. This other person believes in something else. But we're all going to end up in the same place.

We're all going to be in the same spot. Everything's fine. And John specifically says. No. That's. That's a lie.

That is not how it works. So if anybody tells you. Or if you're inclined to believe. Or you like the idea. That. Really what the Bible is just telling us.

Is just to love each other. And that if you really read the Bible. All you'll get out of it. Is it to love each other. And to. To just have a good relationship with God.

And with others. John says. That's a. That's a lie. That's not. That's not what this is saying.

You need to know Jesus. You need to believe in him. He's the one who. Who brings us. To the father. Now the southern version of this is.

Oh I'm a Christian. Oh I love me some Jesus. What church are you a part of? Well. Well. I don't really do that.

Follow that up. We don't ask this. We follow that up with. How's obedience going? Don't really do that either. I mean.

Unless you mean. The way I vote. America. It's like. Okay. Hold on.

We can't. We can't just. Separate. Like there's. We have to follow these things. Like.

You can't. It can't just be. I say I know Jesus. Because you will meet people that say. I'm a Christian. And those other things don't show up at all.

So let's just. Let's take one. Sometimes they show up a little bit. Sometimes they'll have one. But let's just pick on one for a second.

Let's just cut out brothers. And let's talk about what this looks like. This is the. Oh I love Jesus. Church messes me up. Church is just a bunch of hypocrites.

You know. I tried to be a part of church. It just made it worse. I found that a church. Was a hurdle. To me loving Jesus.

And I'm just better off without the church. Because all that stuff is just man made. Just practices. And stuff that just ends up. It just messes me up. And I want the authentic stuff.

I want the real stuff. I want just me and God. John says. That doesn't exist. You don't get the father without the family. That's not how it works.

See. If you love him. Then you love his people. But this shows up all the time. I read this article this week. It was by John Pavlovitz.

And it's. It's. The title of the article is. Relax Christian. You don't have to go to church. It says.

This Sunday. You may be snuggled in your bed. With your family and dog. Telling stories. And giggling away the morning. You may be jogging with your best friend.

Through the wooded paths. Just coming to life. In the early morning sun. You may be driving through the empty back roads. With the roof open. Blasting the 80's metal.

That reminds you. Of when you had hair. For the breeze to blow through. You might be having breakfast with friends. And giving thanks for life. And family in the day.

You might be in the garden. Your knees pressed to the damp soil. Smelling the leaves. Just popping up. Through the ground. These places are all sacred.

They are all waiting sanctuaries. For God to be seen. And heard. And experienced. They are common cathedrals. Fully saturated.

With the presence. Of the divine. Part of us really likes that idea. Because part of that. Is kind of true. There is nothing magical.

About this building. It doesn't have like a funnel. That makes our prayers work better. If we decided as a church. To meet in the evening. Or in the middle of the afternoon.

On a Saturday. Okay. There is some historical reasons. Why we get there on Sunday morning. There is some flow of life stuff. But.

The church is the people. But to argue. That you don't need that. He says later. It is good to have some community. I read this to Spencer earlier.

And he almost lost his mind. He started frothing at the mouth. He was so mad. And he was like. A group of friends. That you have brunch with.

Is in a church. So. If you kind of like this idea. And you want to get yelled at. Go talk to Spencer about it. But the truth is.

Some of this is evil. And unhelpful. To try to weasel in. And say you don't really need that. You can be a Christian. By yourself.

That's a tactic of the enemy. Because everything I think is a good idea. Is a good idea. When I'm by myself. I need some people around me. To go hold on.

That's not helpful. I need some people. Who I know are going to ask me some questions. If you've walked in church family long enough. And you've been around people. Who are going to ask you.

How things are going. You have learned. That that helps you not sin. And you've learned. That there are things. That you have chosen to obey.

Because you love your church family. You've actually begun. To live some of that out. Where it's like. No I actually am showing. That I love my church family.

By following this command. And so what happens is. There's this tendency. For us to say. Well we don't really need that. Now.

We're all here. Some of us were like. Wait. Can I just. Lay in bed. And giggle.

Or whatever he said. Is that. Where's this going. Now this is good for us. To belong to a group of people. But let me show you.

Where it gets sneaky. Where it can creep in. Where this idea. You might would have like a. Not as bright little X. It's penciled in.

You don't really need that. Let me show you how this. This shows up. You can show up on Sunday. And participate. Because you're trying to do the bottom right.

That you think that being here. Is just about your personal devotion. To the Lord. There's a way for us to do that. It shows up in some sneaky ways. You might would say.

I don't get there early. I like to just show up. And walk right in and sing. Because I don't want to talk to people. But that betrays a little bit of.

You think that talking to people. Is just for you. And not also for them. There's some people who show up. On Sunday mornings. That are a part of our church.

That need to be talked to. That need somebody to come by. And care about them. And if all we care about. Is how I'm interacting. With things that are happening here.

We can miss it. Some of you haven't committed to a group. Because you don't really need that. I'm doing okay. I feel fine. I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

I get that that's good for lonely people. I'm fine. I'm stable. I had. I had a person. That I was.

When we were talking about. Planting a church. And I told him. We were going to be group space. He said. Groups are great.

He said. But I have a question for you. He said. My dad. Teaches seminary level classes. What would you have for him?

Because he doesn't need to be a part of a group. And I was young. And in seminary. Now I'd say. Liar. He needs to belong to a group of people.

Where he can love them. They need him. And you'll find. That as he. Commits to loving a group of people. He also needs them.

That. A love for the Lord. Is not just mental. We. We hear this show up sometimes. In the way we talk about church.

Sometimes we'll talk about it. Like it's a gym. You should be a part of my church. The way we would talk about. You should be a part of my gym. Oh.

You should be a part of my gym. The fees are low. It's 24 hours. They have the best machines. The smoothie. They sell smoothies.

Some people are like. You should join my gym. Because we don't work out. And we eat pizza. And it's cheap. People have pitched that to me.

It's like. I can do that at my house. For cheaper. But we do that with church. You should come to my church. The music's the best.

Oh. You should come to my church. The preaching. You should come to my church. We renovate it. Now everybody knows where the bathrooms are.

We pick. Pick different things. To try to highlight for somebody. As if. The church is just the experience. And what I'm getting out of it.

And not. You belong to a group of people. And I'm not saying it's bad to like things. And some of you are like. I'm doing great. I don't like any of this stuff.

That's what I mean to say. It's not bad to like things. And to appreciate stuff. But if that's the way you think about it. There's a possibility. That you are just approaching it as.

What am I getting out of this? And this is just about personal devotion. And has nothing to do with me loving people. And you can't. You can't get rid of that one. This is actually.

One of the reasons why I appreciate some things. That I don't like. On Sundays. I'll give you some examples. On Sundays. I like.

And always enjoy. When I go to a church. And they cut off all the lights. And we sing in the dark. I like that. But I actually appreciate.

That we don't do that. Because part of the reason we're singing. Is because we're singing to each other. And we're being reminded. We all believe this. And this isn't just true for me.

And it's not just about my relationship to Jesus. It's about us. That's why we're told in the scriptures. To address each other in Psalms and hymns. And spiritual songs. Part of the reason we're singing.

Is not just singing to God. We're singing to each other. I don't like corporate readings. I think they're kind of awkward. I definitely hate leading them. I accidentally led one one time.

I wouldn't even plan on people reading them. It wasn't even underlined. But I had like cued everybody in. Read this with me. And it was just like. Oh my gosh.

I don't. I don't like them. But I appreciate them. Because we're collectively saying. We believe this together. And this isn't just true for me.

It's true for us. And it's true for all who belong to Jesus. And we belong to each other. And that's what we're practicing. When we get together with our community groups. So that when your group's doing something.

It's like. If you just only want to show up to your group. If you know they're studying stuff. You might have tricked yourself into thinking. It's just about your personal obedience. If you say.

Well I don't have to go to that. Because I don't like board games. Do you love your brothers and sisters? I don't have to go to that. I don't like. I don't like that show.

But do you enjoy. Like can you go serve. And love them. And connect with them. And pour into them. Right.

So we do that. And sometimes we miss. That we belong to people. Sometimes we talk about churches. If we belong to the philosophy. Or the type of music.

Or we belong to the type of preaching. Or whatever. And we miss that we actually belong to a group of people. That's why you should show up early. Talk to people. Sing songs you don't like.

Because that's part of us. Of loving one another. Well. Okay. Sometimes we remove commands. We just say.

We don't really need that part. And what we'll say. It's just about loving God. And loving people. And he says that. Right.

Like he says. To love God. Love people. That's all the commands. John even highlights those as really important ones. And so what we'll say is.

Really all God wants. Is for us to get along. For us to love people. For us to be kind. For us to be open. For us to be accepting.

And that when we add in all the rules. That's when people get bigoted. And angry. And prideful. That's when we get the mean old. Stereotypical church lady.

Excuse me. It's from the rules. And there's some truth in. That it's not about rules. Rules don't save us. And there is a way to be pharisaical about the commands.

There is a way to get this wrong. And to be bigoted. And angry. And hurtful. And think that the rules somehow save us. He's actually going to get there in just a little bit.

But he includes this. This is still here. So you can't just say. Well there's a bad version of that. So get rid of it.

You say there's a bad version of that. Well then what the heck is he talking about? What's the good version? What's this supposed to look like? Because you'll hear things like. Well it's not about the rules.

And rules just divide people. Or. One of my personal favorites. I prayed about it. And it just. I don't feel like it's wrong.

I prayed about it. And I just don't feel convicted. I know you're like reading a verse at me. But I prayed about it. And I feel fine. Which is really.

Verbally the claim. I know the father. He and I talked about it. I'm cool. I don't have to do that one. John says.

Liar. That's not how it works. And I know we get there sometimes. And I will tell you what I always tell people. You should be terrified. That you've so drifted from God.

That even when you're looking at a direct command. You don't feel anything. Repent. And repent quickly. Don't look at me and say. Hey my heart's cold and dead.

And I feel fine. It's like. Oh my. Oh Lord help us. But that's what we say.

I prayed about it. I don't feel. I don't feel like it's wrong. We'll also say. Well I know God just wants me to be happy. I know God just wants me to be happy.

I've been looking at this. And I just don't see. How I could be happy without it. And I know that God loves me. And he wants me to be happy. So I can have this thing.

God does want you to be happy. I used to yell. When we first planted this church. If you've been around a long time. I yelled at you. That God doesn't care about your happiness.

I'm nuancing that now. Because he really does. He just doesn't care about it the way you're defining it in that moment. God loves us so much. That he would die. For our delight.

In him. And he actually knows that you won't be happy. Outside of him. He's willing to go to greater lengths for your happiness than you are. And his commands fit in that category. They're for our good.

So there's some assumptions that come in. When you're going to obey the commands that the Lord gives you. One. We assume that he's good. That he loves us. That he's for our good.

The cross definitively proves that. John says that multiple times. This is how we know love. This is how we know that he loves us. That he died for us. But we're assuming he's good.

Because if you're going to obey his commands. You've got to start there. I've got to assume that he's good. And that he's for my good. Secondly. I've got to assume that he knows some stuff I don't.

Considering I can't create things by speaking. Or keep them together. I'm just going to go ahead and assume he probably knows some things I don't. And he's capable of doing things that I can't. There's some jokes about people who posted on Twitter. I finally got to perform a tracheotomy at 3,000 feet or whatever.

Like someone asked if there was a doctor. And I stood up and I was able to perform this. And they'll put being a doctor of philosophy. That was a wild ride. And it's this idea that you just claim you're a doctor and just go for it. And there's with any lack of information that you would actually need to do this well.

And so sometimes when I'm saying I just want to chase after this thing that he tells me no. What I'm saying is I think I have all the information I need. And that I'm now smarter than him. Or maybe he's smarter than me. But he's not for my good.

But Christ on the cross definitively proves that he is. So that we can just put his commands in the category of I have a three-year-old, a four-year-old. This is easier for me because he only wants to eat the four food groups. Waffles. French fries. Pizza.

And Swedish fish. Which at my house, and this is why I tripped up for a second, they're called poop fish. Because we use them to teach him to be potty trained. That's all he wants to eat. He'll say yes to any of those. I have a rule at my house, which is you can only eat waffles one time a day.

I'm a very strict parent. But there's a reality to it. His older brother would never choose to sleep. So this one is going to eat just junk all the time. His older brother, I mean, he could look ragged. And be like not able to talk without crying.

And be like, buddy, you need to go to bed. No. I'm fine. It's like, okay. We have rules. Because I'm smarter than them.

And I love them. Really. Eating Swedish fish for dinner might make you happy right now. That will ruin your life. It just will. That path does not lead to joy.

It does not. It leads to a lot of places. Joy is not one of them. And there are times where God steps in and all we can see is what would be on the plate right in front of us. And he says, I love you. And that path does not lead to joy.

And so to say, well, he wants me to be happy. So obviously this universal command can't apply to me is silly and short-sighted. So we obey. And that's why obeying displays our love for him. I love you and I trust you. And even though I don't understand why you're saying I can't have that or do that or why you're not letting this work out right now.

I'm in. And we obey in a way that helps us love his children. And I want you to see this. That's what John has said over and over again. And we can't get rid of any of those. We've got to keep all of them.

But I want to add something. Or he adds to it. So I want to read it and talk about it. What he says at the end of verse 3. So he says, this is verse 3.

For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. That's what he says next. So we keep his commandments, but his commandments are not burdensome. Now he's going to define that for us. Because some of you are like, then I must be doing them wrong. Because I've got a few I really do not like.

And I have found quite, I would describe them as a burden to try to keep doing them. He's going to define this. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. So that for is very important. His commandments are not burdensome. For.

He's not changing the subject. He's defining what he's talking about. For. Everyone who has been born of God. Who's been born of God? We read this earlier.

Everybody who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. So. Everyone who believes in Jesus has been born of God. That's the same group here. For everyone who believes in Jesus or who has been born of God. Overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Hold that for a second. Here's what he means by it's not burdensome. When he talks about the world. What he means is the stuff that would tempt us to sin.

Evil desires. Which tempt us to sin. He also means the enemy. He talks about the antichrist. He talks about the devil being sons of the devil. That we have an enemy that's.

Trying to destroy us and lead us to hell. And we have ourselves. That's trying to destroy us and lead us to hell. Like our own desires. Corresponding with the world. This is what we're trying to do.

And if it's you going toe to toe against that. Via obedience to win. You lose. If you've got to beat the world. Save yourself through obedience. You lose.

That's a burden. The reason his commands are not burdensome. Is they do not carry the weight of our salvation. They do not bear that burden. He does not mean they are not difficult. This is where Jesus can say.

Truly. Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest. For my burden is easy and my yoke is light. And he can truly say. That the path is narrow.

And the way is hard. And that those who find it are few. That there is some difficulty. To obedience. There is some hardship to obedience. There is some difficulty to following Jesus with our life.

But it does not bear the burden of our salvation. There is great freedom and hope in this. If you believe in Jesus. You overcome the world. And in a real way. Not like when Americans announced themselves world champs of things.

That we only. Only us competed in. But like in a real way. That you overcome the world. That you are not. Destroyed by sin.

And if you have made any real effort. To fight your sin. You know. There are moments when you think. Oh. I am going to be lost.

I am going to. I am going to. I don't. There is something wrong with me. And that is when he steps in and says. Do you love Jesus?

Do you believe in him? These commands are for your good. But they are not able to carry the weight of salvation. Jesus carries the weight of salvation. So then he goes on.

Verse 5. Who is it. That overcomes the world. Except the one that believes Jesus. Is the son of God. Do not read John.

And look at this triangle of identity. And go. I am going to do better. All I got to do is. I am going to go do better. Truth is.

We can get together on Sundays. We can yell. Go do better. And you will. A little bit. Ish.

For a while. You will have some more motivation. You will have some energy. You will have some. I don't know. Guilt.

Or pride. Or something that is driving you to. I am going to show my group. I will love better than any of them. Okay. You are mad at them.

To love. I don't. Good luck. But ultimately. That just adds to the burden. That I am going to go do better.

Just adds to the burden. This is an invitation. Into an identity. That has been accomplished. By faith in Jesus. And being born.

Again. By the power of God. So. Faith. Is what you need. You need faith in Jesus.

And then this is an identity. That is why John doesn't say. If you do not do these things. Get it together. He says. If you do not do these things.

If this. If your life is not marked by love for the brothers. And I am trying to help you see where they can creep in. And where we need to grow some. But he says.

If your life is not marked by this. Not marked by obedience. Not marked by the brothers. It is not. Do better. He says.

You are a liar. And what you need is Jesus. What you need is him at work in you. What you need is the empowerment of the spirit. Not. I am going to do these things better.

So if you are in here. And you are going. I believe in Jesus. Then what you ask. Is for his help. For him to empower you.

For you to grow in your love. Not. Watch me. Watch me do this. That is not the response. The response is faith.

And delight. In the fact. That through Jesus. We overcome. That you are not destroyed. By your sin.

So I don't know. If this is your first time. Being around. Or if you have been around for a while. I don't know where you are. But.

Don't leave with. I am going to do better. Leave with. I am going to love Jesus. And I trust him for salvation. And this was so encouraging for me.

As I worked on this. Because y'all. That is our church family. Sometimes kicking and screaming. That is our church family. Some of you have seen that in yourself.

And people in your group. Some of you. For real. You are obeying commands. That you hate. Some of you.

That is you being here this morning. You had to fight. Your children. And your wife. And yourself. To get here.

Or your husband. Or traffic. Or whatever. Not traffic. It is not busy on Sundays. But to get a group.

Sometimes. Yeah. And you are like. I don't know why I am here. I will tell you why you are here. You have placed your faith in Jesus.

And the Holy Spirit is changing you. That is why you are looking at some commands. And you are going. I don't like this. I still don't like this. This is one of the ones I said.

I would never be a Christian. Because. And I actually now believe that he is good. And so I am going to try to follow this. Some of you are like. I don't.

I hate people. But I love these people. And I hate that. But I love it. And it is so weird. It is like.

Yeah. It is the Holy Spirit. It is working you. Some of you. Every time. It is time to go be around people.

You are like. I do not want to do this. And then you show up. And there is something magical. It is not magical. It is Holy Spirit empowered.

And it is good. This is us. Because this is what Jesus does. Among a group of people. I am going to leave you with this. I found it.

So. It is an encouraging. I was reading. The Pilgrim's Progress. A children's version. So it is a big poem.

Of the Pilgrim's Progress. To my son. And we read through it. And we talk through it. And it is confusing as mess. So we get a lot of discussion about.

What the heck is he talking about. But then there is a guy named Evangelist. And he sings this. There is a guy named Christian. Who is trying to become a Christian. He has got a burden of sin on his back.

That he is trying to get rid of. Somebody told him. Just go follow the law. Go do. Go obey. And you will be fixed.

And then Evangelist sings this to him. He says. To run and work. The law demands. But gives us neither feet nor hands.

Far better news the gospel brings. It bids us fly. And gives us wings. Obedience. Loving others. They are in response to the work of the Holy Spirit in our heart.

Because we place faith in Jesus. He is calling us to fly. But he is going to give us the wings to do it. It is not the thing that saves us. It is not the thing that rescues us. Jesus does that.

But it is good. And it does work among his people. And where we see us drifting in a direction. We need to repent and run towards the joy that is offered to us in him. Matt and Kelly are going to come back up. We are going to sing.

Because we have a champion in Christ who has gone before us. And who has rescued and redeemed. And made the way for us. And we are going to delight in the fact that this is who we get to be as his people. And yeah. If there are some areas where you see.

I need to grow here. Then ask the Lord to help you. And if you don't have any of those markings. Then place your faith in Jesus. And let him go to work. Because he is our only hope.

In a moment we are going to take communion. Which is where we celebrate collectively. That Jesus Christ redeems sinners. That he has. The gospel has called us to fly and given us wings. That he has rescued us from our sin.

That he has given us hope. That he has given us a new heart. That we have been born again. And that we are not saved by our work but his. That is why we picture it. With the bread and the cup.

That we remember his body and his blood. Work that he accomplished for us. And so we come and we once again say. Lord I need the gospel. I don't need to be better. I don't need to be smarter.

I don't need to be stronger. I have a hero. I have a savior. I overcome the world through faith. I just need you. And I need you to cleanse me.

And I need your mercy. And I need your grace. And I need your empowerment. And I need the gospel. So if you are a believer.

We would invite you to come. After you have taken a moment to reflect. After you have taken a moment to maybe repent. To talk to the Lord. To adjust your heart as you go before him. But then come.

And celebrate that you are saved through his work. Not yours. That his commands are not burdensome. And that we get to be born again. Into the work that he has accomplished. Let's pray.

God we thank you for. The faith. That saves us. We thank you that we get to come. And trust in the work of Jesus. And that you then make us into a new people.

And Lord we pray that we would look like that. And that for those who have. One of those completely missing. And it does not Mark their life. Lord we pray that they would not say. Well I'm going to get it together.

But that they would come to Jesus. And be saved. To not try to carry the burden. Of their salvation. But to let him accomplish it for them on the cross.

May we grow. In our love for one another. May we grow. In our love for you. And may we grow. In our obedience.

Through the empowerment. Of the spirit. In Jesus name. Amen.

The Love of God for Others (1 John 4:19-21)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Love of God for Others

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Excited to be here this morning. We're in 1 John chapter 4. We're going to pick up right where we left off last week, and we'll spend most of our time in 19 through 21 today. But I do want us to go ahead.

We're going to look at verse 7. We read this last week. We're going to start there and read from verse 7 to verse 11 to kind of recap this idea that John's talking about in this letter about the love that God has for us and how we know love and abide in love. Because what we're going to look at today, what he says at the end of chapter 4, kind of anchors in this. And so we'll start there. Verse 7.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. So we read this last week, this idea that love comes from God. All the human love that we enjoy and partake in is downhill from the love of God. And so whoever knows God abides in love, lives in love. Whoever's been born of God knows God. Whoever loves, it says anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

So that we can't claim to know God and be unloving because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. So the way we see and know the love of God is through the person and work of Christ. That he makes the love of God palpable, tangible, visible. And so that it's in Christ that the love of God is made manifest. And John's kind of said these ideas over and over again.

He's talked about the love of God over and over again. He talked about it in chapter 2. He talked about the love of God. And he talked about how we see the love of God in Christ who gave himself up for us so that we might give up our lives for the brothers. He keeps going here in verse 10. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

That's the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we know the love of God in the work of the cross where he takes our sin on himself, is punished for our sin and offers us forgiveness. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. So that's what we looked at last week, and he keeps going, but let's pick up in verse 19. We love because he first loved us. I want us to read that so that we understand the love that he has for us is shown to us in the cross. It's a sacrificial love.

It's a love that gives up yourself for the sake of another. That's the love that we know that we have in Christ for us. That we love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. John just calls it how he sees it, doesn't he? He's done this the whole, his whole book.

He'd be like, if you say this and you do that, lie. You will lie. That's what my dad would say to me growing up. You will lie. And that's what he says. You will lie.

You say you love God, but you hate your brother. You're a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. What he's saying is that your brother is in front of you. You see them. You see their needs.

They're actually on the same level with you in sinfulness and neediness. That you actually get to show your love to them in tangible ways. And if you say, no, I don't love them, but I do love God. He's saying you're actually, that's not how it works. That if you genuinely love God, then you will love your brother. And anyone who doesn't love their brother, but says they love God is a liar.

That's not, because that's not how it works. That it's in some ways harder to love God, to genuinely relate to God. And that if we do love God and relate to God, then we will love each other. Verse 21. And this commandment we have from him. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

So John has said this over and over again. And now he's saying this is the commandment we have from him. That whoever loves God must also love his brother. You have to love your brothers that you have seen. Now, this is a beautiful theological reality for the church. That if you belong to Jesus, that every person in this room who's placed their faith in Christ, who's been redeemed by him, who's had him be the propitiation for their sins.

That every person gathered in the city and other rooms to proclaim Jesus. That every person around the globe, throughout all of history, who's placed their faith in Jesus, is our eternal brother or sister in Christ. That that word brothers in the Greek includes both male and female. That it's siblings. That's the way that word works. So that we belong to each other as family.

And that's a beautiful reality. That's why we talk about we want to be in community groups where we practice this reality. Where we try to walk out commands like this to love one another. We try to live in light of the fact that we belong to each other eternally. That there is no single solitary Christians. I always say that yes, you can be a Christian on an island.

But you aren't on an island. Which means that yeah, you can be a Christian with no one else around. But that's not your circumstance. So you actually have to have other people around. That you're meant to be in real relationships. Loving your brothers and sisters in Christ.

And I want to say that I'm so grateful to have been a part of this church. Where we try to live this out. Where it's not, we don't just get together on Sundays. Leave, see you next week. But we try to be in relationships with each other.

Try to commit to community groups where we're around one another. Try to make our community groups where we don't, aren't just meeting once a week with them. But trying to be around each other in life. And sometimes we get that going better. And sometimes not as well. But we're actively shooting for practicing this together.

This is something that we've taken seriously. That we're going to practice being in real relationships with each other. And it's one of the best things about our church. And it's quite possibly the most annoying thing about our church. That if you've been a part of our church for a while. The best thing that's been most helpful and most life giving.

And most joy filled for you. Is the relationships that you've built. Is you've committed to people. And the thing that you have been most frustrated with. Most annoyed by. Most often try to talk yourself into not being around.

Is because of the people that you've invested with. And built relationships with. That's what makes this so beautiful. And so good. And so helpful. And so what I want to do this morning.

I want us to look at this idea. And let's take seriously this command. To love one another. This is the seventh time. John in this letter. It's not a long letter.

I know we've made it seem like a long letter. With how slow we're going through it. You're thinking no this is a long letter y'all. It's not a long letter. This is the seventh time he's told us to love one another. It's the seventh time we've been commanded.

To love one another. To love the brothers. Love the brothers. Love the brothers. Love the brothers. It's the fourth time he's said it negatively.

Which is. If you don't you ain't. You don't love. You a liar. He's done that four times. Seven times he's said it in a positive direction.

Four times he's been aggressive with the. You don't get to be a part of things if you don't love people. Why? Well. My first answer to that. Is I think it's because it's important.

I think it's close to the heart of God that we love each other. I think it. It's as serious as he says it. Which is if we don't love the brothers. Then we don't know God.

So it matters that we're loving. But secondly. And encouragingly. I think it's because it's difficult. Isn't that encouraging to you? It's encouraging to me.

At times I think that you know the first. The early church just had it together. And everything just worked for them. And we're scrubs. And they were great. And the Holy Spirit was really working.

And they didn't have to try to. Like they just said no to sin. And when they saw their brother. They just bubbled up with love juices all inside. And how much they cared for each other. And it was just like.

I just came to our group. And I just looked at you. And I just love you so much. Seven times. The apostle John. It's the apostle who walked with Jesus.

Is going love one another. Love one another. It's a command y'all. Do it. And quit saying that you love God. And not loving each other.

He's repeatedly saying this. Because we need the correction. And the encouragement. And because this does not necessarily come naturally to us. Tim Keller in his book. King's Cross.

Where he's walking through Mark. I love one of the ways that he talks about this. He says that there are few people in your life. That are a genuine delight to love. That they're great. You enjoy them.

It's easy to love them. They enhance your life. He says that's wonderful. Love those people. Everyone else. It's going to be a trial to love.

It's going to be hard. It's going to take sacrifice. It's going to take difficulty. That loving people is difficult. And so I want us to look at this. We're going to put these verses together.

It's the beginning of 19. We're going to kind of hold this in our head. We love because he first loved us. And the reason I want that there. We're just taking out the negative statement in the middle. Where he says.

If you say you love. Then you don't. Then you're a liar. But I want us to have that there. Because as we talk about taking seriously the command to love one another. There's going to be a genuine temptation.

To try to anchor. Our ability to love people. In ourselves. Okay. I'm going to be loving. I'm going to do this.

And if we try to anchor this in ourselves. It will not work. We have to understand that the energy. The power to love is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Through the work of Christ. That we love because he first loved us.

That's got to be in your head as we talk through this. And then. That's the command we have for him. Whoever loves God. So secondarily.

First he loves us. Secondly we love him. That's the appropriate response to the love of God. Is that you see the love that he has for you. And you respond loving him. Because he's so wonderful.

Then. Whoever loves God. Must also love his brother. So third. Is that we love the brother. So.

There are. I want us. He said this a lot. We've talked about it a lot. We've talked about the theology of it. We've talked about the straightforward ideas of it.

And what I want to look at today. Is as we look at this. And hold in our minds. This idea. And take seriously this command. To love one another.

I just want to bring up four things. That I think. Make it difficult. Culturally. For us to love each other. That there are four kind of.

Currents. In culture. That we're used to. But that actually. Harm. They're enemies of.

Our ability to love each other. Things that we've gotten used to. That seem normal to us. As Americans. As Americans in 2022. But.

Ultimately though. Aren't in step. God. With the scriptures. And this. This happens to us.

I am. My wife and I. Have been married. For. I don't know. Just a year or two.

Something like that. And we went to go eat. Dinner. At my parents house. And when we got there. My dad said.

Hey I want to show you something. Come here. And he took us over to this. Like. Glass. Hutch.

Display case. Thing. That my mom has precious moments in. Precious moments. Are little big headed glass dolls. Uh.

My dad would give my mom. One every year. To celebrate. A precious moment. That had happened that year. So she has this little display case.

Of precious moments. He says. Come over here. I want to show you something. He says. Look at that.

And he points. And in this little display case. With light shining on it. Is a dead hummingbird. And he says. Look at it.

Isn't that cool? I found that. You don't usually get to see hummingbirds. Up close. And their wings flap so fast. You can't see them.

Look at how pretty their wings are. And I was like. Yeah. That's great. That's beautiful. You know.

Moved right on with our time there. We ate. We get in the car. We're riding home. And my wife goes. Oh my goodness.

I could barely even eat. While we were there. I said. Why? I said. What do you mean?

Why? Why? Because there's a dead hummingbird. Four feet from me. And I was like. And she goes.

That's weird. And it was at that moment. That it clicked. Oh yeah. No. That is kind of weird.

It's not weird to me. Because. That's not weird at all. To find a dead hummingbird. And put it in a glass case at our house. That was the.

The last in a long line. Of dead animals. My dad had excitedly shown me. But I had to have her next to me. To go. Do you see that this.

You see. You can see this right. Please tell me. You can see that this is a little bit. But. And that's what John's.

In some ways. I think if he were to sit next to us. In American culture. He. He'd have some things. Where he goes.

You see how that's going to make it hard. To love each other. Right. And so I'm just pulling out. This is just things that. I think.

We need to take. As we take the command. To love seriously. We need to be mindful of. There's some things. That we have gotten used to.

In culture. That are actually. Counter. To our ability. To follow. What he's telling us.

So. First one. Busyness. Busyness. Is an enemy. To your ability.

To love people. If you are. Moving at a frantic. Hectic. Pace. You cannot.

Feel loved by God. Spend time with him. Rest in the love that he has for you. And you do not have the time. To love other people. And we're busy.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Age group. Gender. Race. You talk to people.

How are things going? Good. Just been really busy. Things are fine. I'm just really busy. I've just got a lot going on.

That's the pace of life for us. That we are busy. And we have a lot going on. And we. You may be the type of person. Who tells yourself.

I won't be busy. Soon. And you've been telling yourself that. For years. And to borrow a phrase from John. You're a liar.

If you're more honest. You'd say. Well I'm busy now. But in a couple of weeks. I'll be busy also. But after that.

I'm going to be even more busy. But eventually. I'll die. That's the pace of life that we have. And if we have that pace of life. That's an enemy.

To our ability. To love one another. That if you are. Frantic. And hectic. It messes you up.

If we are hurried. I got some of these ideas. That I'm about to share with you. From a pastor named John Mark Comer. He wrote a book called. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.

That would be helpful for. Everyone to read. But. There's this concept of hurry sickness. Which was. First brought around by a doctor.

Who was a cardiologist. In the 50's. He started connecting. Being hurried all the time. Being busy all the time. With heart disease.

He started realizing. That stress. Of always having things going on. Was causing problems. And so there's a book. Written by Rosemary Sword.

And Philip Zimbardo. They are time perspective therapists. So that's a thing. But they said this. They said. These are three ways to tell.

If you have. Hurry sickness. One. When you're. In a checkout line. You move from one checkout line.

To another. Because that one's moving faster. The second one they give you. Is that when you pull up to a light. You count how many cars. Are in each lane.

And you swap lanes. To be in a lane. That has fewer cars. The third one they give. Is that you multitask. To the point.

That you forget. What some of the tasks are. And when I heard this. My first thought was. Those are so normal. Why would you.

Why would I be in a line. At the grocery store. That was longer. What kind of an idiot. Does that. But that's the whole point.

Is that we are moving. So quickly. That this is so normal. For us. To be at such a. Breakneck pace.

We have no ability. To relate. To people. One of the ideas. He brought up. Which I had never considered.

Is he says. We do a thing. Called energy hoarding. Which is. We know. We're going to be.

So stressed out. That we won't give energy. To anybody. We have the time. Right now. But I know my week's so busy.

I just can't spend energy. On you. I. I just got to. Hold on to this. Because I know.

What's coming. In the next couple of days. Because we're so busy. It robs our ability. To love each other. I'm probably going to.

Pronounce this wrong. There was a. A man named. Kosuke. Koyama. Who wrote.

A series of essays. Called the three mile an hour. God. And he titled it that. Because. That's the speed.

At which you walk. Is three miles an hour. And he said. God walks. Slowly. Because he is love.

If he was not love. He would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed.

Than a technological speed. It is slow. Yet it is the Lord. Over all other speeds. Since it is the speed. Of love.

And I just appreciate. The concept of. Jesus came and he walked. We're told to walk with God. We're told to. To wait on God.

We're told to be still. And know that he is. God. That there's this. Franticness. That we've all accepted.

That. Robs us of the ability. To be loved. And to love. And if we're going to take seriously. The commands.

To love one another. We're going to have to evaluate. What's in our schedule. And how fast we move. And we're going to have to figure out. How to walk a little bit.

And to not base. All of our value. Off of our productivity. Have you ever not been busy. And you felt like. There's something wrong with you.

That's. That's a cultural sickness. That's not a biblical concept. We're meant to have time. To love one another. Second one.

Self-care. Because. Of our chaotic. Frenetic. Pace. We have responded.

By needing to care for ourselves. And. That's kind of true. So. If you. Use this term.

The self-love. Self-care. And what you mean by it is. I need to exercise some. I need to eat. Healthy foods.

And the appropriate amount of foods. I need to sleep at night. I need to rest. Self-care. Okay. I mean.

If the idea that you have. Is like. When you're on an airplane. And they say. When the cabin pressure drops. And the bags drop down.

Put your mask on. Before you put on the little kid's mask. It's not because you love yourself more. It's because if you pass out. No one puts the kid's mask on. So.

If that's what you mean by self-care. Is that. I actually need to be a healthy person. Who's mindful of this. So that I can love.

Okay. Then. Then that's not what I'm addressing. What I am addressing. Is the. I have run at such a chaotic pace.

So anxiously flipped through my phone. So anxiously kept up with my calendar. That I now have no more energy for anyone. And what I have to do is cut ties with everyone. And just be a hermit for six months. I just can't.

I just got to care for myself. So I can't talk to you. If what you mean by self-care is. Relationships shouldn't be difficult. So if there is any difficulty in relationship.

Then I don't have to have that relationship. That sounds good to Americans. And it's very foreign to the scriptures. That if Jesus' approach was. If relationships are difficult. I don't have to have them.

We're not here. We're not singing to his glorious name. For redeeming sinners. There is no hope in propitiation. We don't even understand what love is. Because he shows us love.

And that he gave himself up for us. There's a book called boundaries. That I've recommended to people. It's been around for like 30 years. It's a good book. It is helpful for people who.

Don't have any boundaries. And don't understand how to say no to people. And how to set up kind of being a coherent. Separate entity from the people around them. It is a helpful book. But sometimes what happens is people read that book.

And they go I have boundaries now. I'm no longer friends with anyone. I'm just completely cutting everyone out of my life. And it's like yeah. That's a boundary. It's a bad one.

And the reality. To being a believer. And to loving others. Is that if you love people. They're inside your boundaries. For us to love people.

They're inside our boundaries. That's how it works. That there are some amounts of inherent difficulty. In loving others. And yes. There are some people who need to grow.

That are in your community group. And the first time they ask for help. You need to absolutely just help them. And the second time. Everything's an emergency with them. Well love is not.

I either give you everything you ask for. Or I cut you off. Love is. Hey. I actually am invested in helping you grow. So I'm here.

I can't help you. Bail you out every time this way. But I'm here. And we're going to help you become a more healthy person. That's. That's love.

And that's carrying out some boundaries. But this idea of. Love shouldn't be costly or difficult. Or. I'm exhausted. I'm just worn out.

This is too hard. That's a reality. To following Jesus. That there are times when we're exhausted. That we're pushed beyond what we can bear. And that we have to lean into him.

To feel the love that we need. To be able to move forward. And that he empowers that through his spirit. That there are times. That you're going to get hurt. If you think.

You know. I didn't realize this was going to be so painful. That's. That's. That's part of love. That if we're actually going to know people.

And care for people. That's part of love. And that brings us to our next one. Which is. Consumerism. Third enemy.

Of love. That culturally. We're just. So used to. We talk at. Give series.

Every year. We're raising money. We talk about consumerism. We're mostly having in mind. Just the spending money on things. We don't need.

That kind of. Our whole. Economic system. Is built around consumerism. That you. Buy more shoes.

Than you have feet. That general idea. And you buy shoes. Based off of the way they look. Not that they've worn holes in them. That kind of a thing.

So. It's consumerism. But it's a broader category. Which is a way to understand the world. In a materialistic way. And what I mean by that is.

The world. And this is all around us. It's not what we say we believe. But it's creeping in. It's infecting how we believe. It's that the world.

Is only what we can see. And feel. And taste. And experience. That there is nothing transcendent. There is nothing spiritual.

There is no eternity. This is what our culture. Beliefs. So that. You want to get rid of suffering. As fast as possible.

Because there is no purpose in suffering. Because there is nothing that happens after that. There is no eternal hope. There is nothing beyond. What we have right in front of us. So we should pursue pleasure.

We should get stuff. We should. This is the advice columns that will say. If you're not getting what you want out of your marriage. You're free to go. Because it's a belief that.

I'm only here for a limited amount of time. I got 60, 70, 80 years. And I better enjoy what I can enjoy. And I better not stay in a difficult relationship. And this has. Soaked into us.

Tim Keller says. That there's sometimes when it's raining so hard. That even if you're wearing a raincoat. And you're holding an umbrella. You're going to still get wet. This is one of those culturally.

Where it's raining so hard. That even as much as we try to defend ourselves against it. This still soaks into us. That we are consumers. One of the ways that I know this. Is that you could tell me you went to a new restaurant.

And I could pepper you with questions. And you'd be able to answer almost every single one of them. And you did not walk in there thinking. I'm going to write a Yelp review. I need to pay attention to everything. But you did.

You absorbed price to value ratio. How much food did you get? How did that compare to other places you've been to? If you would tell me this fried rice was good. But it's not as good as that fried rice at this other place.

And they were able to get things quickly. But the ambiance wasn't as good. Like you'd be able to tell me all kinds of information. About how much you enjoyed and appreciated your experience. The reality is you've done that this morning. That we everywhere we go.

We soak in how much am I enjoying this? How much do I appreciate this? This chair is comfortable. Didn't like that song. Did like that song. But they didn't like that part.

We just do this. The coffee is good. The coffee is bad. Coffee is too hot. Coffee is too burnt. I like this place because I like the coffee.

We constantly are taking in the information and processing it from a consumeristic viewpoint. Because we've been trained to do this. So what happens if you approach the church that way? Is you destroy your ability to follow this command. Because love is not about consumption. It's not about taking.

It's about giving. There's a real danger for us to read passages like this in John where he says, I command you to love and go, yes, I want to be a part of a church like that. Yes, I want to be a part of a place that loves. But somehow have flipped it in our head to not be a command about loving like I'm supposed to love, but to be a command about receiving love. I'm supposed to be in a loving place. Yes.

And if this place doesn't love me the way it's supposed to, I'm free to go. I've pastored long enough that I've sat down with multiple people who would say to me, we say we're a church family, we're a family, we need to be family, who would say to me, I just can't be a part of this group anymore because they're not being family. They just aren't family. And can't hear that that statement is the most unfamily statement ever. What is the qualification for family? Who your daddy is?

What are the other qualifications that have to be met? The bar for family to get in is so low. You're just in. Expectations are really high. But when someone says I'm going to leave because they're not being family, it's a consumeristic mindset of I'm not getting out of this what I want, so I'm free to go.

And if you want to be miserable and if you want to miss out on love, that's a good way to approach it. This is one of the reasons why we just place people in groups. We do a little bit of like what night can you meet? Where do you live? But then we just say get in this group.

And people are like, well, I want to go visit a couple of different groups. We really discourage that because it's like, well, that's putting you in sideways because you're going to somehow trick yourself into thinking you're looking for a group that meets your needs. And you'll set yourself up on the wrong foot to be miserable wherever you are. But if you show up with I'm supposed to give, I'm supposed to pour out, I'm here to love these people, you're going to love your group. Isn't that crazy? That if you just choose to love your group, you'll love your group?

See how that works? That there's a reality to a joy that's offered to us in this and that when we're looking for what we're getting out of it, we're robbing ourselves of it. It becomes transactional rather than sacrificial. And I don't know how we, and I'm including myself in this, how much we can talk about sacrificial love and appreciate the idea of sacrificial love and then balk every time I have to sacrifice to love. Yes, Jesus. Thank you so much.

Sacrifice, love. Yes. Hey, can you help me with this? Nah. Hey, I need to talk to you again. You too needy.

I can't be, you know, giving of myself. That might make me love you and then I would have something that Jesus offers to me. Like, I don't know how. We just, we roll out of it every time we get the opportunity. Last one. Freedom.

We have been sold that the route to happiness is freedom. And there are times in history and around the world where what people need is freedom. I'm a fan. I loved Braveheart. I'm good. Like, freedom is good.

But we have an unprecedented amount of freedom. And we're still told what we need is more freedom. I mean, off the charts amount of freedom. To go where we want to go. Do what we want to do. Wear what we want to wear.

Fit in, not fit in. You can pick the thing that you want to make you the weirdest person you can possibly be. There's 30 other people that will go do that with you. Like, it just, we have the amount of mobility that we have to pick a different Job, to move, to go on vacation, to choose. We have so much freedom. And what you're told over and over again is you just need a little more.

The reason you're unhappy in your marriage, you need a little more freedom. The reason you don't like your job is you need a little more freedom. You need a job that offers you a little bit more, a little bit more openness, a little bit. Well, guess what? You have to give up freedom to have a relationship. You have to.

Like, I couldn't have asked my wife when I proposed to her, I want to marry you. I love you. I want to spend my life with you, but I don't want you to infringe on my time. I want you to be there for me when I want you there for me, but then I want you out of my face when I don't want you there. Will you marry me? Like, if you're going to have the depth of joy that comes with having children, which it's not for everybody, and the Lord doesn't have that for everybody.

But if you're going to have that, oh, boy, you're going to sell some freedom. I remember looking at my wife when we had like a five-month-old and being like, I didn't realize how much I used to sit down. Why won't he let me sit down? Like, I don't feel like I've sat down. Like, what has happened here? But if you're like, I want the depth of relationship that comes with having a child.

I just don't want that to affect my time. Okay. You can have one or the other. And if we're going to have meaning and relationships, if we're going to have love, we've got to give up some freedom. I want to be a part of a place where people know me and I know them, where we serve each other, where we really love the way the church is meant to love. But I also want to be able to join an adult sports league and not be around my group for six months at a time.

Okay. You can have freedom or you can have a relationship. You can't have both. I want them to be there when I need them. I want to be able to show up and have everybody there. But I don't want to have to be like, I have to be there when they need me.

But it short circuits everything. You actually need to commit. If you are a Christian, you need to commit to a church. And if it's not here, you need to find another one, but you need to do it quick. You don't need to shop around because you'll convince yourself the way you're looking for is something that meets your needs and you will miss out on what he's commanded us to do. But you need to commit to a church.

If you want to commit to this church, you need to commit to a group. Because that's where we actually try to live this out. And by commit to a group, I don't mean just say I'm going to be in a group. I mean show up, be around, get to know the people, talk about yourself, be honest, listen, commit. And let me tell you what will happen. Love.

Empowered by the Spirit, life-giving love. And we will miss out on it if we don't do that. And some of you have been, I've been a Christian forever and I feel so dry and I feel so empty. I've been a Christian for however long. I've been a part of this church for however long. And by a part of this church, I don't know what you mean.

But if you haven't been pouring yourself out, Jesus says blessed. It's more blessed to give than to receive. That there's something that he does as we sacrifice and pour ourselves out where he fills us back up. And I want to help you see something. Some of you are like, no, I tried. I tried to love those people.

I tried to love those people and they just didn't reciprocate. That's not how this works. It says we love because he first loved us. That the power for our love comes from him. Whoever loves God must offer love his brother. It doesn't say whoever loves his brother will also be loved by his brothers.

That there's a personal freedom to the responsibility to love that isn't dependent on the response. And that actually sets us free and gives us the ability to love in a way that's so much better than if it's transactional. Well, I'm going to love them and we'll see. We'll see. I'll give it three months. I'm going to love them and then we'll see.

It's like, well, you're setting yourself up. That's not how it works. I'm going to love them because he loves me. And when I don't feel loved by them, I kind of expected that anyway. I'm going to go back to being loved by him and be empowered by him. And every time for some of us, we've had the opportunity to actually pour ourselves out and to have the power of the spirit to dump love in us and to channel love through us.

Every time we had that opportunity, we just moved out of the way. Because it was going to be too hard. I got a lot going on right now. I can't do that. And we've missed out on being filled with the empowerment of the spirit to know the love of God for us as we dig deep to pour it out for others. Because that's one of the best ways that we learn it is that as we love others, we get to see the love that he has for us.

We get to feel the love that he has for us. We get to know the love that he has for us. But for us to do that, for us to take this seriously, I do think, and there may be other ones. I'm sure there are. But I think you need to look at how busy you are.

I think you need to evaluate whether or not you're worried more about yourself than others. That if your love is based off of a self-love rather than a selfless love, I'll tell you that it's incompatible with what he's called us to. And if you're consuming, you're here to get what you can get, you miss out on what he's actually called us to. And if you want all your freedom, you won't have relationships. Those are things that were normal for us that we need to overcome, be mindful of, so that we might have what he has offered to us in our church family. And here's what's beautiful about this.

John needs to say it to us seven more times. The Lord's going to have to tell us over and over again this is how we're supposed to act. And he's going to have to empower it through his spirit for us to do this. And we're going to have to know the love that he has for us in order for us to be able to do this. And we don't love because we're loving. We love because we were first loved.

The empowerment for this is the gospel. And if you haven't trusted in Jesus and had him go to work in your heart, you will not be able to do this. And you will miss out on the real love that is eternal, that redeems, and that brings us home. Let's pray. God, I pray that we would be a people that love. That we would be, we would take seriously the command to love our brothers and sisters.

We're thankful that you have made us into a family and that we have hope in you. We thank you that you love us. And so the energy and the power and the ability to do this is not that we are loving people or that we're the good ones who can get it together. But that we are so loved by Christ who came to redeem sinners from self. That we get to live in that and be empowered by you to love one another. And may we pour ourselves out so that we might enjoy and delight in the love that you have for us.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Band's going to come back up and we're going to sing together.

The Love of God for Us (1 John 4:7-18)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Love of God for Us

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Music Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles, go to 1 John chapter 4. We've been working our way through the letter, 1 John, and we'll be on page 592 if you have one of the blue Bibles that's tucked under the seat in front of you. We are going to start in verse 7.

And we've made it. We've made it to the place in 1 John, the place in the Bible, where we're told that God is love. And if you live in the United States, which most of you do, we love this. The Western world loves this idea that God is love. Even people who don't really believe in God aren't Christians. They're fine with this idea.

They appreciate this idea. You'll hear things like, well, if there is a God, He's a God of love. Or you hear things like, well, all I know is that kind of the core of all faiths and all religions is that God is loving. Or people would say, well, if I was going to believe in a God, the only God I'm willing to believe in is a God of love. And so we've made it to that passage where we're going to learn about and talk about the love that God has for us. And this is good news.

This is a good morning for us to study this together and try to sit in this idea, to soak in the idea that God loves us. But we're going to see that John anchors this love of God, that he has the foundation of this love of God, that he rests this love of God on something that culturally we're less excited about. And when we say God is love, everybody goes, yes, yes, He is. And then we say, and we know that because, and we finish this out the way John finishes it out, our culture goes, ooh, no, stop it. And so we're going to get to see what John says is the anchor of this love. So let's go ahead and we'll pray and we'll jump in and discuss the love that God has for us and how we know this love.

So let's pray. Father, I don't think that conceptually we have a problem with the idea that you love us or that you're loving. I don't think that we have any kind of issue as we come this morning with the concepts that you in general are loving or that your disposition is loving. Lord, I do think that there's a good chance that personally some of us don't feel loved or that personally some of us have a hard time understanding how greatly we are loved or that practically we don't live as if this is true. And so Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit to minister this morning. That you would do a work this morning as we study your word, that it would come alive.

And that we would know the love of God that is for us. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. First John chapter four, verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

And anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. Now, we're going to spend the majority of today on this concept of God's love for us. And then next week, as we kind of study through this passage into the next passage, we're going to talk about this command for us to love one another. So today we're going to try to wrap our head around that he loves us first, that God has love for us. And then out of that, so he says, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

So he's anchoring this idea of us loving each other in the love that God has for us and the love that is God, that God is love, the character and nature of God. And so if you're here this morning, that's what we're going to talk about. And next week, we'll talk about our response and how we love one another. And some of you were like, that sounds great. I get to hear today that God loves me. And next week I was planning on having COVID.

So I won't be here for the stuff I'm supposed to do. So I'm glad to be here this morning. But they tie together, but we're going to look at this idea of God's love for us. So he says, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. This defining character trait of God is that he is loving. That when God Acts in love, in kindness, in mercy, when he pursues in love, when he has his position of love towards us, he's acting inside of his own character and his own nature.

And every example we've ever seen of love, every beautiful picture we've ever seen or experienced of love is all downhill from God because he is the fountainhead of love. That God is love and that love is from God. And what he's pointing, he's making here is that if we aren't loving, you can't say, you know, God, you can't say that he dwells in you. You can't say that you abide in him. You can't say that you're facing him. You can't say that he's redeemed your heart and changed your heart.

If you aren't loving. And so he's going to press on this idea of us loving one another. But let's keep following this idea that God is love. And therefore, as it is something that marks him, it's something that marks his people. That those who belong to God are loved and loving. That because we belong to him and because he's like this, we're like this.

I in seminary, I had a friend named Darby Jurels. And I remember he and I got along. We weren't the best of friends, but we talked in class. That's kind of how I've had a lot of friends, which is I'm your friend while I see you. And then as soon as you leave, I'll see you when I see you again. Kind of friendships.

I used to have friends in high school when summer came, they'd be like, see you when school starts because they knew they wouldn't see me all summer. And I'm sorry. That's the problem I have. But anyway, he's my friend in school and we were walking out leaving one day and his wife showed up and started unloading children from the car. And it was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. She she unloaded three boys and it was like you had taken Darby's face and just stamped it on a two year old, a four year old and a six year old.

And not like, oh, I could see how they're your children. And one day they'll grow up to look like you. No, like your little kids have little man faces. And it was amazing. And at that moment, I thought, I hope one day I have a child that runs around and looks exactly like me. It was like a life goal of mine when I saw this.

I mean, they looked so much like him, like he wouldn't have even been able to. Maury Povich wouldn't even let him on the show that he just said, we're not paying for a paternity test. Those years get out of here. But that's the way as Christians, we're supposed to look. If we belong to God and he is this loving, we're meant to look like him. It's meant to be stamped on us that we belong to him.

We love in this way that God is love. And therefore, it flows out of those who belong to him. But let's keep going, because this is where it takes a bit of a turn for us in our culture. And if you're familiar with the Bible, it doesn't. But if you've kind of bought into some of this idea of just a general love of God, it does.

So let's see. Verse. Nine. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us. We have to talk about the word manifest in just a second. That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

So John says, this is how we see it. This is how we know it. This is how, this is when love puts skin on. That we had these promises of God that he was loving. We had these promises in the Old Testament that his love was renewed. His love was everlasting.

That he had this love for us. And then we, in Christ, we see it. We know it. It was made manifest for us that God sent his only son so that in him we might live. In him we might have life. So the love of God is anchored in the person of Christ.

But it's not just the person of Christ. John's going to carry this further. So he says this. This is where it showed up. This is how we know it. This is how we, as he says at the beginning, we saw it.

We touched it. We felt it. We heard it. This is the love of God for us is that Jesus came so that we might live through him. Verse 10. In this is love.

Not that we have loved God. But that he has loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Okay, so there's a handful of things that we have to define and kind of unpack from that passage. First. First.

One of the beautiful bits of news here is that in this is love, not that we have loved God. That should wash over your soul and refresh and restore and give you hope. The promise of the love of God, of the hope of scriptures, that the declaration of what God has done for us is not. God loves those who love him. If you'll understand how holy he is and you'll change your life to pursue him, to follow him, he'll love you. He'll respond to your initiative.

If you'll see what he's like, if you'll change your behavior, if you'll turn from this, if you'll change how you are, if you'll become like this, if you'll... He'll love you. That's not what it says. It says in this is love. Not that we've loved God. But that he's loved us.

That's good news. It doesn't come from you. It's not initiated by you. It's not fixed by you. It's not solved by you. It's not recognized by you.

It's that he pursued us. That he chased us. That he came for us. That's how we know love. The other thing that he says is in this is love. He's about to define love for us.

And this is extremely helpful for us. Because we get this backwards culturally. It says God is love. And then we have to trust the Bible to define love for us. By who God is. But what we want to do is take our definition of love and decide that's who God is.

God is love. Love isn't God. We don't get to take our understanding of love and say, well, this is how God would act. Because this is how I understand love. This is how God would act towards me. This is how he would act towards others.

We don't get to do that. That we understand that God is love. So then we have to see how God Acts. And what he does. So that we can fill in our definition.

Learn the definition of love. And then he says this. We've already talked about this once as we went through 1 John. I'm glad he talks about it again. Because it is so good. In this is love.

So he's about to define love for us. Not that we've loved God. But that he's loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a wonderful reality for us in Christ. Propitiation is that Jesus was the atoning sacrifice that absorbed the wrath of God.

The atoning sacrifice that absorbed the wrath of God. Meaning that through Jesus he has made us right with God. He has been the sacrifice for our sins. And the wrath of God for sin was poured out on Jesus. So that in Jesus we're forgiven.

And loved. So this is how the Bible defines love for us. And pictures love for us. It says this. It says we have sin. Judgment and wrath.

Sacrifice and forgiveness. That you have sin. And I have sin. That we've actively worked to make the world worse. That we've stepped out of the bounds of what God designed for us. That we've messed things up.

That we've broken God's good design for the world. And that God Judges sin and sinners. And that there is wrath coming. We read this together. This idea that we were by nature children of wrath. But that God in his great mercy made a way out of that.

That there was sacrifice and forgiveness for us to redeem us from the wrath of God. God. So. You say. We know God is love. And really.

Nobody. If you meet one of your neighbors. And you're talking. And you say you're a Christian. They for a second. Might you know twitch a little bit.

They might not. But they might. And if you say. I just believe that God is love. They. They untwitch.

Okay good. And if you go. Because he sent Jesus. To take the wrath of God in our place. They retwitch. Like we.

We can gain and lose people. If you're doing a talk show. If you see someone say. Well I just believe that God's loving. And that he just. You know.

He sends out good. Energy. Sparkles into the universe. And every morning. I just soak him up. And I just know that he wants me to be happy.

Everybody goes. Yeah. And if you say. I know that God is love. Because he sent. His one and only son.

It's like. Well hey look. We're running out of time. There's technical difficulties. We got. This is where we lose people.

But this is where John anchors this. But I want. I want to take a second. And I just want to address the concept. Of a loving God. Without.

The sacrificial work of Christ. Which is a cultural concept. That we seem to be okay with. But I want to help. Point out. That that has no legs to stand on.

So I'm not addressing. This is this middle ground. Of there is a God. And he is loving. But without the sacrifice of Christ.

Without the effective. Manifested love of God. In the person and work of Christ. On the cross. We're going to remove that part. And we're going to talk through this.

First of all. The concept. That there is a God. Who is loving. Comes from your Bible. It does not come.

From anywhere else. There are no other world religions. That teach that. Islam teaches that God can be merciful. But not that he knows you personally.

Loves you. Cares about you. That you can talk to him. Like this personal relationship. Seems a little foreign. And in some ways.

Seems like it degrades God. Buddhism doesn't have a personal God. Most other cultures and religions. That have. Creation didn't come out of love. It came out of strife.

And struggle. There's. There's this idea. That we have a loving God. Comes from the Bible. First of all.

Also. You just wouldn't look at history. And pick that. None of you would look at your life. Or the way history is played out. And say obviously.

So this idea of a loving God. Comes from here. And then what happens is. He anchors it in the atonement. And when you remove the atonement. When you remove the work of Christ.

If he says. Work of Christ shows it. Love of God is displayed. And sets it on top. And if we remove that. Then we're just hoping.

That the love of God floats on its own. Without what was holding it up. To display it. And to show it. And to give us. So here's what happens.

You remove. Sacrifice and forgiveness. But you're going to still have God. Now you need to remove sin. So that you can get rid of judgment.

And wrath. So that we just kind of say. Okay. We have a God. And he's loving. But we have to remove sin.

Because. We need him to just kind of be okay. With everything. We need like. Sleepy. Compliant.

Doting. Grandpa God. That whatever you want to do. Is good. If you really believe it. And if it's in your heart.

And you know. The people say like. God made me this way. And God doesn't make mistakes. Which we only apply to certain things. Like.

You. You. You nod along when someone says that. About certain things. Like God made me this way. And he doesn't make mistakes.

Part of us culturally wants to go. Yeah. You're right. You feel that. You find that in your heart. But we don't nod along when someone says.

Yeah. I just hit women. God made me this way. And he don't make mistakes. We're like. No.

No. You got. You got to stop that. And so the reality is. If we want to get rid of sin. We ultimately just want it to be.

Certain cultural sins. That we've decided are okay. We want to draw the lines differently. But we can't fully get rid of sin. Because every single one of us. No matter where we draw the lines.

We do draw a line. If you're going to believe. That there's a God who made things. At some point you're saying. This is wrong. Because it's wrong.

Not because we've culturally decided it's wrong. We actually at times. Have culturally been okay with it. It was still wrong. Slavery. Oppression.

Abuse. Assault. They're wrong because they're wrong. And we're going to draw that line somewhere. Well as soon as we do that. And again.

We may draw it further out or closer in. But as soon as you draw the line. And say there's sin. As soon as sin comes back. Okay. Well if we have sin.

And we say there is sin. And then we go. But God doesn't judge. He's not a God of judgment and wrath. Well now we have another problem. Is he good?

Is he powerful? Because if he's good. And he's powerful. And he loves us. But he doesn't care about actual bad sin.

That's questionable. People say. Well it's bad for him to be angry. Well I want to read a quote. That I think is very helpful. This is from the book.

Hope has its reasons. It's a quote from Becky Pippert. She says. Do you think how we feel. When we see someone we love. Ravaged by unwise actions.

Or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance. As we might towards strangers. Far from it. Anger. Isn't the opposite of love.

Hate is. And the final form of hate. Is indifference. God's wrath. Is not a cranky. Explosion.

But the settled. Opposition. The settled. Opposition. To the cancer. Which is eating out the insides.

Of the human race. He loves with his whole being. That if something. If something harms. Something you love. It's actually the love.

That produces the wrath. Now we can love things. That we shouldn't love. But this makes perfect sense. I have two little boys. If I saw one of you attack them.

I wouldn't go. Hey dude. Quit. You're hurting him. I would respond. With anger.

Because of love. And that's. The reality of God. Is that if he loves us. And if there are actual wrong things. That need to be addressed.

We actually want a God. Who has judgment. And wrath. That is actually his wrath. Sits on top of his love. That without his love.

You wouldn't have wrath. And if you have love. Genuine love. Then you do have wrath. For the actual sin. That is destroying.

And harms. And that we want a God. Who rightly Judges. So then what happens is this. If you're going to try to keep. That there's a God.

And that he's loving. You got to get rid of sin. But if you say. Well no. There are actually things that are wrong. Then you have to suddenly.

We need God to. To love. Which means we need God. To have some. Wrath and judgment. So then what happens is.

We kind of try to draw this line. Between like. Misdemeanor sins. And felony sins. Like these are the ones. That he just needs to forgive.

That God. You know. He just. He forgives all of us. We draw a line around some things. That we say.

Those aren't even sins. The Bible says they are. No they're not. And then we have this section. Of like misdemeanor sins. Where it's like.

Yeah it was wrong. And it was bad. And you shouldn't have done that. But. God loves us. He forgives us.

But then we've got to turn at some point. And go. Okay these are like the. And so we have this giant list. Of kind of unforgivable sins. These are the ones.

These are the ones. These are the ones. These are the ones. Disind Šok. Those are the ones I need him. To be angry about.

And the reality is. We do have sins. That we need him to be angry about. But the problem is. The Bible says. That all sin works like that.

That all sin. Is wickedness. And brokenness. And works to destroy. The world. And that God.

Isn't just loving. But he's also righteous. And a righteous judge. Condemns sin. And if we're honest, if you've been in enough relationships, if you have enough self-awareness, you understand that you have made things worse. You haven't just been a restorative part of creation that's made everything around you better.

Like a magical Disney character that the flowers bloom when you walk by. Like there's something, if you're self-aware enough, there's something wrong with you. One of the examples that I think of is how self-centered I am. Like I will hear news and there's no way I have yet to be able to filter it without thinking of myself first and how that news affects me. You ever hear bad news but it's not bad news to you and you're like, oh, okay. And then someone has to state out loud for you the thing you were supposed to notice about how that's terrible for another person that you care about.

You're like, oh, oh, that is bad. One of the real simple examples of how self-centered we are is the ability for us to take a group picture, look at the picture, and say, this picture is good. But you've only looked at your own face. If there's a group picture and they say, what do you think? You just look at your face. I've done this with my wife.

She's taken a picture and I've said, this is a good one. And she said, my eyes are closed. And it's like, oh, I forgot you were in this picture. You had to bring your existence to my attention once again. I just meant I'm handsome. That's all I got.

Like this immediate self-centeredness that we have, that we've actively made things worse around us, that there's something wrong with us, that we only care about ourselves, that we've lied, cheated, stole, harmed people. And honestly, if you'll see it, the people you've hurt the most are the people you would say you care the most about. It's like, I love you. I want you to marry me so that I can inflict everything wrong about me on you for the rest of your life. I picked you out of all the people so that I could most aggressively harm you. I wanted to know what you cared most deeply about so that I could destroy it in front of your eyes.

That's really, that's what we do. And God is righteous and he has judgment towards sin. And we don't want the picture to stop there because if it does, we just get judgment. If he actually loves. Now we can have, we can stop here and he can be righteous.

He can be good. But what we're told is that he loves us. And here's how we know that he loves us. Jesus came to be the propitiation for our sins. That he came on a rescue mission. He's not a benign, sleepy, foggy, vague love.

It is a specific, redemptive, rescuing love. He's the, he's Liam Neeson in Taken. He doesn't get the phone call and go, oh, well, okay. You know, don't, I, you know, I care about her, but you know, y'all got to do what you got to do. You know, keep your, your trade going or whatever. He doesn't do that.

He, he says, I, I'm going to destroy you. And, and not learn my lesson because I'll have to do this four or five times. But that God redeems because he loves. He rescues because he loves. He comes to, to bring us home because he loves. So we can ask the question, why does it play out like that?

If he really loves us, why is there sin in the first place? Why is there so much pain? Why does it, why does it play out like this? And the reality of the Bible, the answer for us is we don't know. But we know that it's not because he doesn't love us.

Because he stepped into the story to take the brunt of the pain and the wrath and the brokenness and the sin on himself to bring us back. I don't know. I know he's wiser than me. I know he has good reasons. I know he's good. And I know that he loves me because he came to make a way to pay for my sin that I actually deserve punishment for.

He came to be a propitiation for me so that I don't receive the wrath of God that I deserve. I know that he loves me. And I know that I know that anchored in the person and work of Christ. So I want you to settle that in your heart if you are a believer. If you've trusted in Christ, I want you to settle in your heart the way that you know that he loves you is that Christ came. That's how we know love.

That's how we know what love is. That's how we know that we're loved. Don't anchor it somewhere else. Don't let people tell you that it comes in, does he answer your prayers or not? Don't let it come in, are we blessed or not? Some people look and go, well, why did this happen to me and it didn't happen to them?

I don't know if God loves me. It's like, no, he doesn't say that's the way to know that you're loved. He says, I came to rescue you out of your sin that you deserve just punishment for. And I came because I loved you. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is Jesus who has taken the wrath of God for us so that we might be made whole and we might have life.

And so that we cherish and love and worship him and know that we are loved. So this is where it goes from here. 11. 11. Beloved. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. I want you to see that. He says, beloved. I want to address that. No one has ever seen God.

He means the unadulterated, full view of being in the majesty of God. That we have seen God through Christ, that he's the perfect imprint of God's nature, but that we haven't been able to just see God in his full glory. But that we have seen the glory of God in Christ. That's what he's getting at. But that we live this out as we love one another.

That we don't get the opportunity to love God in the way that we ought to, but we get to love one another. That's what he's pushing on. But I want you to look at verse 11. Beloved. This is your title. We don't use that word.

But it means loved one. Cherished. Apple of his eye. He lights up when he sees you. That he cares about you in Christ. That he delights in you.

Because of the work of Jesus. And don't theologically try to diffuse that by saying, yeah, but it's beloved like the whole church. It is. It is beloved like the whole church. Are you in the church? Beloved.

Do you belong to Jesus? Personally loved. I love where he says that he redeemed the church and he washed her and made her clean without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing. Because I love that when anybody says, well, I'm in the church, but I'm secretly a wrinkle. It's like, not if you belong to Jesus. Jesus, I'm kind of a spot at the back of the dress just trying.

Nope. Not how it works. You are personally loved. This is why Paul says that he, Christ, loved me and gave himself up for me. And you get to say the same thing if you belong to Jesus. He loved me and gave himself up for me.

That you are beloved and you are atoned for. You're forgiven. That there's propitiation for your sins. He doesn't just have vague, warm feelings for you. He's made you clean and whole and new. So let's talk about some of our humility when it comes to kind of having our head down in the church.

This kind of, I'm a Christian, but I'm the worst. I'm a Christian, but I'm just so covered by sin. I'm a Christian, but I'm just, Lord, have mercy on me. Yeah. Yeah, that's how it starts. That's how we come in.

That's a reality for us that we need to see. But if we don't ever lift our head, we're missing it. That humility actually becomes hubris. It actually becomes some form of self-focused pride that somehow you sin in such a great degree. You're small to such a great degree that he can't handle it. That he can't redeem me.

I'm so, uh, uh, uh. No, we can start there, but we turn and we celebrate with confidence that we have been atoned for. You say, I keep sinning. Yeah. He loves you. He's been the propitiation for your sin.

That's what he says at the beginning of this book, this letter. He says, I say this to you, you won't sin. Sin causes a problem. He goes, but if he does sin, we have a savior, Jesus Christ, who's the propitiation for our sins. That we are covered and atoned for. That we have confidence, not in ourselves, but in him.

Periodically when I'm doing pastoral counseling, I have to say, put your head up. Throw your shoulders back. Do you belong to Jesus? Don't, don't anchor that in yourself. But have a little bit of confidence in the fact that Jesus can redeem.

He can save to the uttermost those who call on his name. So he says this, by this, this is verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he's given us his spirit. So the Holy Spirit, it works in us. It testifies this to us. It applies this to us.

It works through us to continually lead us to repentance and to joy in Christ. He says, we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. All right.

This idea of a confession is not confessing sins or like when you watch a crime drama and they're like, confess. It's not that. It's a, it's a belief. It's, it's what, it's our confession, what we hold to, what we believe. In some ways, it's where do we anchor our hope? That all of us actually have a confession, whether you know it or not.

You have something that you believe. This is my hope. That God knows exactly what you would say. This is what I trust in. This is how I believe the world works. So we all have a confession.

And in some ways, it's like this. When you eat a meal out at a restaurant with some people and the server comes up at the end and goes, is this together? Or they go separate. You know, sometimes they guess. Sometimes they give you both options. It's that moment of, how's this bill going to be paid?

That there's a reality in judgment that we stand before God. And there's this moment of, how's this going to be paid? How's this debt going to be covered? And you know, that moment of awkwardness when this happens at your table. My uncle's from Nigeria and he told me that in Nigeria, if anybody invites you out to dinner, they're paying. That's just how it works.

But he learned in America, that was not the case. People would be like, hey, and also, just so you know, most of my understanding of Nigeria is like 30 years old. So it may have changed drastically. I realized that recently when I met a guy from Nigeria who spoke Yoruba. And it dawned on me that all of my phrases that I use might be from like 1985 or something. I might be saying off the hook and all that and a bag of potato chips and just random things that no one says anymore.

But whatever. So, but it used to be that if anybody invited you out, they were paying. And so he had to tell his fiancee when she came to the U.S., he said, if anybody invites you to eat, you have to have money in your pocket. Because you do not know. They may pay. They may not pay.

People invite me to eat. I said, that sounds good. I was hungry. I go. He paid for himself. He walked off tall.

And that's the truth. We don't know. We don't have a cultural way to know how this is going to work. So we wait until the end. And they say. And then sometimes you just say separate.

Sometimes you wait a second. Like you defer to the, if anybody was going to pay for everybody, it's this person. So there's like this moment where you act like you're getting a drink or like just like eye contact. You ever have the moment where you both say it at the same time, but it's different things? So then you're like, oh.

The worst is a few times I've been with people and they deferred to me. It's like, what are you? I'm not paying. What is this? Separate. Separate.

But there's that moment. That's a confession in Christianity is we confess Jesus, meaning I'm covered by him. That when judgment comes that I stand before God, he pays the debt. That's propitiation. He's absorbed wrath on my behalf. I'm covered.

I just, the name of Jesus over me, the name of Jesus, the work of Jesus, the process of what he has done to come to redeem me, that I proclaim Jesus. This is what he says. Verse, back half of verse 12, verse 16. He says, God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God. And God abides in him.

By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

In Christ, we don't fear punishment. And we have confidence for the day of judgment. And it's unshakable confidence. Because it's not based on, do you love him enough? Did you figure it out? Did you behave well enough?

Did you get it together? Were you Christian enough? Did you spend enough time in church? Did you volunteer enough? Did you become a deacon? Did you serve in this way?

Did you participate in that way? Did you join a community group? None of those things that are good for our souls. None of those things hold up before the Lord. We don't get to stand and say, I'm here to show you that I've been good enough. We stand and we confess.

I'm here to show you that Christ has redeemed me through the blood of his sacrifice. And we have confidence. Can you imagine that? The sky is pulled back. We see God in all of his glory. And there are going to be those who are redeemed by Christ who walk forward like this.

Finally, the day of judgment. Finally, he's come to set all accounts right. And we don't walk forward. If I had to walk forward on my own account, I would hide in fear. I would fall. I would fail.

But we walk forward going, thank you that you're here to redeem those who you've covered by the sacrifice of Christ. I look forward to the day of judgment because there is no fear of punishment. Because that punishment was poured out on Christ on the cross. You say, well, I deserve punishment for what I did. You do. But it was that wrath was poured out on Jesus.

And that's why we gather and we sing his name. We celebrate how good he is. Because he redeems sinners. If you are in this room and you don't have confidence for the day of judgment. If you've anchored that in your good work. If you've anchored that in your morality.

If you've anchored that in your church attendance. If you think for one second you will stand before the king and announce you're a Baptist. I would invite you to trust in the name and the work of Jesus. And to have his blood shed for you in your place. So that you might have confidence for the day of judgment.

Where you were redeemed by the work of the redeeming king who came to save us and who loves us. I would invite you to leave today and be forever marked. Not by your sin. And not by what's been done to you. But be marked as beloved and forgiven for all eternity.

The band is going to come back up. And we're going to sing to Jesus. And we're going to celebrate communion. Where we remember this manifest reality. That God came. That he put on flesh.

That he died to redeem sinners. And we're going to celebrate this manifest reality. That he was seen. That he was touched. That he was heard. That he could be felt.

That's one of the reasons why we have this. It's real. It's tangible. At times it can feel a little messy. But it's to remind us that he was real.

And he was tangible. And he came to redeem. And that we have the love of God for us anchored forever in the person and work of Christ. That his blood was shed for us. So what we celebrate in communion is we take some bread.

And it reminds us of the broken body of Christ. The incarnation of Christ. And we take the juice or wine juice for us. To remember that his blood was shed for us. That it was spilled for us. That we have had the propitiation of our sins.

That we're covered by the work of Christ. As Paul says that we proclaim his death until he comes. That we're covered by it. And I want you to know that this is personal. And it's also collective. As you see the church going.

And you watch them go up. Participate together. As we understand that he has redeemed us. That we are loved. And that we get to live this out together. That we are rescued by his work.

So take a moment. Where you need to confess. Confess. Where you need to confess sins. Confess. But then don't end on that confession.

End on the confession of the work of Christ for you. If you are not a Christian. We would invite you to become one. To trust in Jesus. To place your hope in him and nothing else. And then you may partake in communion.

If you're not a believer. We would ask that you don't partake in this. Because it's a profession of Christ. And you haven't yet partaken in him. Let's pray.

God as we.