Book of 1 John - Ch. 2, Vs. 1-5 (08/04/2002) | NOTE: Original tape was recorded at very low volume

Park Meadows Church

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Today I'm going to start with 1 John, the 2nd chapter. I know David took the first two verses, but I want to read the first two verses.

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1 John 2 .1 My little children, these things write

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I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. First of all, he does not say that you cannot sin.

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John is writing to us that we may not sin. God wants us to walk in a manner that is well -pleasing to him.

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He wants us to walk in obedience to his word.

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I'm reminded occasionally when a speaker at a college was speaking, and he was touching on this subject.

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It finally became very dramatic, and he said, Is there anybody here who has ever seen a perfect man?

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Well, no one. Then at the back of the auditorium, a little man stood.

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You could tell he was very empty. The speaker asked him,

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Have you seen a perfect man? The little fellow stood to his feet and said,

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Well, I've never seen him, but I've heard about him. Who is he?

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Today, you and I may be able to say, I don't think I've done anything real bad.

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How about doing good? Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and good, but not to him to sin,

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James said, there are sins of commission, sins of omission. Every sincere child of God wants to have his fellowship with him, and yet he knows within himself that he has fallen far short of that kind of life, the kind that he should live.

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There's sin in his life, and sin, be it ever so small, breaks the communion with the

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Father. Verse 2, And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

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Notice that John does not say that if anyone repents, he has an absolute.

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Nor if anyone confesses his sins, he has an absolute. Neither does he say that if anyone goes to the ceremony to get rid of his sins, he has an absolute.

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What he does say is that if any man sins, before we even repent of that cruel and brutal word we said, the very moment we had the thought, the idea, the very first imbue of the idea,

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Jesus was there at the throne. Therefore, then because of the faithful advocacy of Christ the

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Holy Spirit brings conviction to us, we confess our sins to the

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Father. And as we have said before, to confess means that we get on God's side and look back at the sins and the injuries that we've done to ourselves.

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The sincere child of God wants to please the Father. He walks along with that in mind.

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Dr. Henry Ironside, which some of you have read, had an illustration or an incident in his family that illustrated this.

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He had trouble one evening with one of his boys, so he sent the boy upstairs and told him not to come down to supper.

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The boy did not admit anything at all. Finally, the boy called for Dr. Ironside to come upstairs and ask if he could go down to supper.

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Dr. Ironside said, well, it all depends on you. The boy said, well, if you think

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I have done something wrong, I'm sorry. Later the boy called him upstairs again.

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This finally changed the story a little bit. He said, well, since you and Mother both think

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I have done something wrong, I guess I have. I want to come down to supper.

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Once again, his father told him that that was a lie. Dr. Ironside went back downstairs, and later on he heard the boy almost weeping.

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He said, Dad, please forgive me. I know I have done wrong.

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Please forgive me. Three. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandment.

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First of all, let me point out the fact that this has nothing to do with security. Tom is talking about assurance.

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God's children were in us. How can we have assurance that we're in God's family?

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He's telling us that assurance comes by keeping his commandments. If we keep his commandments, it does not refer to the

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Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were given for the nation.

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And on these commandments, every civilized nation was placed with law. The Ten Commandments were for the other states.

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Now, God has something for his own family. They're commandments for his children.

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I feel that we are free to do as we please. If he doesn't do as he pleases, that is,

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Christ pleases. And hereby we do know that we know him.

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Remember that day without description. John's answering the gospel of that day and time.

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They claimed to have a supermodel. There was a paragon.

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Apostle John saying that the important thing is to know Jesus Christ. And how can we have the assurance that we know him?

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We cannot know that we are children of God if we are disobedient to him.

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Obedience to Christ is essential and is the very basis of our assurance.

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You cannot have that assurance, but you cannot have that deep, down -in -your -heart assurance unless you keep his commandments.

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For he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

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In the previous verse, John has said that we know that we know him.

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This is the positive side. There are a great many people who say that they are children of God.

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But we will take the survey just in that vocabulary.

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There are certainly fine people who say they know

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Christ. One thing to say that they are a child of God is quite another.

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You have a new nature that cries out to the Father for fellowship and wants to obey him.

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All of these church members who have no love for the word of God and are disobedient to Christ are really good church members.

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I do not believe they have had an experience of regeneration.

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John is making it very clear that we know him because we keep his commandments.

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May I repeat that John is not talking about the king's commandments. They were given to the nation of Israel, but in the

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Old Testament, John is talking about the commandments that Christ gave to the church. If a child of God does not have love for his commandments, he will be the very gall of criminals.

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The Lord Jesus, when he was here, in the flesh, said of the

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Father, I do always those things that please him. In John 8, 29,

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I can't say that, but I can say that I want to please him. I have dedicated my life to that.

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Although I sometimes stumble and fall, I want to please him.

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For it is true that he that believeth not on the Son, and believeth on the

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Son hath everlasting life. It confirms his faith that his heart knows that he wants to please him.

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The natural man never did want to do God's will. This is a strong statement that John makes.

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He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar.

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And the truth is not in him. And John will tell us that the Holy Spirit is the one who prompted him to say it.

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The truth is not in the man who claims to be a child of God, but does not keep his commandments.

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5. But whosoever keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.

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Nearby know we that we are in him. Now, I feel there is a big difference between the word of God, and the fact that commandments are the word of God.

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As far as the word of God is not all commandments. It is more than that.

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I hope you can see the distinction. There are commandments in the word of God, but the word of God is not only commandments.

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The word is the expression of the will of God. In the word of God, you have the complete revelation of what the

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Bible says. In John 14, 15, the

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Lord made statements. If you love me, keep my commandments. In John 14, 23, he said, if a man loves me, he will keep my will.

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The difference, the distinction here, let me illustrate this.

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Suppose the home of a young boy lives in the country.

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One day, when the boy is home, his mother says, son, I'll melt the cow when

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I come in from the field this day, but when you get home from school, I want you to take a chunk of wood, put it on the back porch, and tell your mother so she can make a fire in the cook's stove and make a firebrick.

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When the boy comes home, he weighs his father, and he chops wood.

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He spends about an hour and a half chopping wood. He stacks it on the back porch.

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Then one morning at the breakfast table, his father says, I don't feel well today.

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I feel so bad that I don't think I can go out and work. But he goes out anyway.

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Now, when the boy comes home from school, although his only command was to chop wood, he knows that his father is sick and doesn't feel well.

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So he's not only chopped the wood, but he melts the cow also. He chops the wood because there's no man at the field, but he melts the cow because there's no man.

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In just this way, a child of God not only wants to obey the commandments of God, but he also wants to please the

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Father in everything. The impression of many folks that they want to live as much life as they can will never give an answer to the one person who asks me, is it all right for me as a

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Christian to do that? He's asking the wrong question.

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The right question is, what can I do to please the Father in advance, whatever, and still be a

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Christian. There are many

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Christians in our day who feel that they need to be broad -minded. They're against Christianity, but they use fear and want, which gives them the feeling of being broad -minded.

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And, of course, they feel that I'm very narrow -minded. So it's not a question of being right or wrong.

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It's not a question of that. The question is, does it please my heavenly Father, I want to do this thing, does it please him, to bring joy to his heart and fellowship and joy to my own life.

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All this is on the basis of love. If you love me, if a man loves me, he will keep my word.

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If you love me, you will do more than keep my word. I'm not dealing with a

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Christian who is having their faith as only the son of the commission. They're not the sons of all the church.

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What's the difference? James puts it like this, to him that it ought to do good and good did not, to him that it was a sin.

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There are many things I know I should do. The Bible makes no distinction between the good and the sins of the commission and the sins of the

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Lord. Verse 5 is very important.

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Let me repeat it. No, but loose let it keepeth his words.

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In him there is the love of God perfected, that realize and practice thereby.

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By this we know that we are in his. And the love of God is perfected in you.

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Amen. Amen. Amen.

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Amen. Amen. Amen. Lord, do this with us, please.