Unburdened by Love | 1 John 5:3

Let's turn in our Bibles, Beloved, to 1 John chapter 5.

1 John chapter 5, we'll start in verse 1. Last Lord's Day, I finished preaching through a series on Scripture alone, and now we're going to pick up, we're going to continue on 1

John, on the last chapter. 1

John chapter 5, verse 1, God's Word says, Everyone who believes that Jesus is the

Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the one who gives new birth loves also the one who has been born of him.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love and do and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the overcoming that has overcome the world, our faith.

This is God's Word. Amen. So, I mentioned that we're going to continue through, go through 1

John in this last chapter, and my apologies, I had to make an adjustment to the title.

The title for today is actually, Unburdened by Love. Unburdened by Love.

And it's going to be primarily because the focus for today will be on verse 3. 1

John 5, verse 3. And there's some things there that I wanted to touch on and unpack for us, so that we can kind of get reoriented towards what this letter is telling us, teaching us.

So, in the previous chapter, in 1 John 4, we saw that the beloved apostle,

John, addresses God's beloved children. Those of us who believe that Jesus is the

Christ, like 1 John 5, verse 1 says. And have been born of God.

Have been born of God. Because of God's love for them.

And John is writing these things to us to teach us primarily about the all -important subject of love.

Of love. Both God's love and the Christians' love for God and for man.

Especially also the one who has been born of him. Like 1 John 5, verse 1 also says.

So, all -important subject matter that we're dealing with today. And the apostle is also distinguishing genuine love from other kinds of false and hypocritical so -called loves.

Perversions or aberrations of true love. And this is why I've called 1

John 4, the other love chapter. Whereas, you know, traditionally, 1 Corinthians 13 is called the love chapter.

This really is the other love chapter. And the apostle continues on in chapter 5 to deal with the subject of love.

As we will see today as well. So, never forget, beloved, which means loved by God.

In this is love. In this is true love. And the foundation for all genuine human love.

Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us first.

Right? And therefore, because of his love, he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Amen? This is the gospel. And this is why we love truly, because not perfectly, but truly.

Because of God's own love for us, his people. Even marital love is a picture of Christ, the bridegroom, and his love for his people, the church, his bride.

So it's all grounded. All true love is grounded in God's love. All of it.

It all comes from, is grounded in his love. And to put it succinctly and beautifully, we love because he first loved us.

Amen? Those verses were from 1 John. 1 John chapter 4, the other love chapter.

And the beloved apostle, John, continues to address the theme of love, like I mentioned in chapter 5.

And he concludes it in this passage, in verse 3, specifically. So, we're going to wrap that up today,

Lord willing. And we've also seen a repeated, ongoing emphasis in this letter on the very intricate, intimate, harmonious connection between love, faith, and obedience.

Right? All throughout. Love, faith, obedience. And on love, visibly manifested and applied in us and through us.

So what God's love for us looks like when it's working in us, right?

And working through us. Living it out in our faith and life.

In our faith and life. Kind of like our church's motto, right? We proclaim the whole counsel of God, the law and the gospel, distinction for all our faith and life.

It should reflect everything that we say, think, and do. Our lives as recipients of God's love.

Not that we earned it, but by grace. By grace alone. Amen? So, this is what this is all about.

Dealing with, specifically in verse 3, and several other places here in this letter.

Now, we come, so in verse 3, I'll read it again. For this is the love of God.

This is what it means to love God, in other words. That we keep

His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. They are not burdensome, okay?

Now, we have to bear in mind, sometimes when in the Bible you see phrases like, the work of God or the love of God, it could refer to different things, right?

There is the love of God, which is the love that God has for us, right?

And then there is also the love of God. In this sense, the love that we have, because of God's love for us.

So, what it means for us to love God, right? But, that being said, there is a reference here to commandments, right?

To God's commandments. So, what commandments is He talking about? What commandments exactly?

And this specifically is referred to in our

Protestant and Reformed tradition as the moral law. The moral law of God is that unchanging law that has always been binding for all peoples, places, and times.

So, and more specifically, and ultimately, and comprehensively, you can sum it up in one single word, right?

And that word is love. The whole law of God, like Jesus said and taught us, is summed up all the law in the prophets.

The entire counsel of God is summed up in love. Love God and neighbor.

Love God and your neighbor. Love for God and for one another, right?

And that's what the previous message in 1 John that we left off on, on verses 2 and 3, was specifically about that.

About how love obeys God and keeps His commandments. And it also expresses itself horizontally.

You can't have vertical love for God without also reflecting it in your horizontal love for your neighbor, your fellow man.

And especially those who are of the household of faith, right? Our fellow brothers and sisters in the

Lord, in Christ Jesus. Especially, that is in fact what Jesus says,

Let the love that we have for your people be reflected in their love for one another, for each other.

The alelus, the one and others. And that's what I preached on last time. All the one and others of Scripture that we are instructed to live out because of what

God has done for us. And in this new covenant. So those are, in another way you could say, to sum up the law,

His commandments are the one and others of Scripture, right? Bear one another's burdens. And so fulfill the law of Christ.

Rejoice with one another. Weep with one another. All those things. Pray for one another.

So, and I've dealt with this at length in previous messages. The topic of loving

God and keeping His commandments. And like I mentioned, the previous message bound by love. Obeying God and loving one another.

And several others as well that you can also find. But here, in verse 3, there is an added emphasis.

And this is what I want us to really deal with today. There is the added emphasis. And His commandments are not burdensome.

His commandments are not burdensome. Amen. But, okay, let's ask ourselves, why not?

Why are God's commandments not burdensome?

Because when you think of the law, you think of like a taskmaster or something that's like scary, right?

If you break the law, there's consequences. So why are they not burdensome? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2.

So we can dig into this a little bit more. Ephesians chapter 2. We're going to dive into a number of passages today that will be familiar.

But with this particular context and issue in mind, it's going to shed some light on us that I think will be helpful to see this scripture in light of what this issue is.

And the fact that His commandments are not burdensome. And applying it there.

Ephesians chapter 2. Beginning in verse 1. And you, the apostle is speaking to you, believers, were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formally walked according to the course of this world.

Remember that word world. It's in 1 John as well, all throughout. According to the ruler of the power of the air, or the prince of the power of the air, like the

King James says, it's the devil. The spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among whom? Disobedience to what? To God's commandments, right? Disobedience to God's law.

Among whom we also formally conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh.

So we were sinners, meaning law breakers. Breakers of God's law.

Because we lived after our own lust in our own flesh. Doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

And were by nature children of wrath. Even as the rest.

Even as the unbelievers. We were enemies of God and His law.

Guilty and condemned by His law. Right? And that is a scary thing.

To fall in the hands of the consuming fire and the living

God. But God, this is the transition. This is the key transition now.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love, with which

He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

Amen. By grace, you have been saved.

Been saved. And... And... I'm sorry,

I lost my place. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with Him.

And seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us.

In Christ Jesus. Notice the emphasis. In whom? Not in us.

In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. Alone. Alone. So, verse 8.

For by grace, you have been saved through faith. Again, the emphasis on God's love and grace.

Through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It is...

That is, all of this salvation, by grace through faith, is the gift of God.

Alone. Not of works. Not of our works. So that no one may boast.

Because nobody earned it. It's by grace alone. For we are

His workmanship. His poema. His poetry.

His workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. Again, in Christ Jesus for good works.

And those good works are according to God's law. Right? God's law is to love

God and your neighbor. That is what good works are composed of. Which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Because He predestined us, like Paul says earlier in chapter 1 of Ephesians. Therefore, remember that formally...

Notice the past tense repeated there. Formally, you, the Gentiles in the flesh, that's all of us who are not

Jews, who are called uncircumcision by the so -called circumcision by the

Jews, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. He's referring to circumcision.

Remember that you were at that time without Christ. Alienated from the citizenship of Israel.

Of true Israel. And strangers to the covenant of promise. Having no hope.

And without God in the world. That was then. But now.

Now. In whom? In Christ. Once again. In Christ.

Jesus, you who were formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups, Jews, or the circumcision, and Gentiles, the uncircumcision,

He made them both one. And broke down the dividing wall of partition, of separation, by abolishing in His flesh, the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself, He might create the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God.

Through the cross, having in Himself, put to death the enmity.

So, amen. This passage is amazing because it is what the gospel is all about.

But it also describes, there is enmity there between God and man.

Natural, unbelieving man. There is enmity. And apart from the blood and the death of Christ, reconciling us through Him, through the cross, like it says here in verse 16, we are condemned, guilty.

So then, why then are God's commandments no longer burdensome for believers?

The answer is, God's love. Right? The answer is, the love of God.

Because of His redemptive, restorative, regenerative, and reformative, or renovative love.

Right? That's what I, in the previous love chapter, I preached on those four principal loves of God.

Redemptive, restorative, regenerative, and reformative love of God. That's why.

Because of God's love for us. Being rich in mercy because of His great love with which

He loved us. Not the other way around. It's because He loved us and made us alive together with and in Christ.

The unique Son of God. Like 1 John 5 also says, believing in the

Son of God because of God and His Son whom we believe in as the source for every good thing and every perfect gift which comes from God.

James 1 17. Especially, especially our salvation. That's what

Ephesians 2 just spoke to us. Very clearly.

Our reconciliation, our peace, and our love comes all from the reconciliation that God accomplished through Christ and through His cross.

Amen? That's where it comes from. That is the source. And this question of sources and origins is very important for us as believers.

It's important for God. It matters to God where things come from. We have to know where things come from.

Where does the source lie? Because often when you point to the source, the source is where the credit goes to.

And that's why Paul says you cannot boast because it doesn't come from you. The source of this goodness, this love, this salvation doesn't come from you.

It comes from God. That's why we boast in Him and not in ourselves.

So, so then, that is an awesome thing.

It is an awesome thing to have an awesome God like we do. The one true and only

God who alone sent His Son to die for our sins. No one else, no one else can claim that, beloved.

Not truly. God's law, therefore, is not a burden to us as believers because He is good and He loves us and His law is good and His commands are for our good.

They are for our benefit and they are for His glory. But just bear in mind that God's love,

God will be glorified through His law. Either in the satisfaction of applying

His love to the cross of Christ and granting faith and salvation and forgiveness to you who believe or by exacting vengeance and punishment and wrath on those who do not believe.

So God's love will be glorified through His law in both ways. Right? In both ways.

But, we are not burdened by His love by His law because He has loved us first.

He has loved us first. Now, okay, there's a big, there's a big however here because we all, all of us who have lived the

Christian life understand that, okay, wait a minute. Is it not true that believers still struggle in this life and have cares and burdens and sins in this life?

How do we reconcile that? Okay, God's law is not burdensome but why are we so often burdened by troubles and struggles in this life?

It's like, it's amazing because this wasn't planned but we sang the beautiful hymn from John Newton, Amazing Grace.

Right? One of the stanzas there says, through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come. Trials and temptations, right? Burdens. Okay, so why?

Is there a contradiction there? What's going on? And, that's where we have to remember the analogies of Scripture and of faith.

The principles of interpreting Scripture with Scripture in light of the whole council of God. It is also referred to in the early church throughout the history of the church as the rule of faith.

The regula fide. The rule of, like a ruler. Like the rule of faith.

Or in Spanish, regla. It's the rule of faith. It is the sound doctrine of the first and most important things contained in the gospel.

God, man, salvation. God's word. The sound doctrine that makes sound distinctions like these in these circumstances.

Accurately handling and rightly dividing the words of truth.

As 2 Timothy 2 .15 says. Right?

The apostle Paul. And his words breathed out by God himself.

And, it is, I cannot state it any more clearly than what

Paul, the apostle himself has already laid out for us once again. This time in Romans.

Romans chapter 7. Turn with me over to Romans chapter 7 verse 12. And have this question in mind.

Why do we still have burdens in this life? Remember the question of origins, of source.

Where do these burdens come from? Romans chapter 7 verse 12.

So, the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? OK, so Paul is directly addressing this issue.

Right? What is good? Is that becoming a cause of death for me? Of burdens, dangers, toils and snares?

May it never be. Rather, it was what? Sin. It was sin.

In order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good.

So that through the commandment, sin would become utterly sinful. So there

Paul, an expert theologian, an exegete of God's word is saying, look, it appears as though the law kills us.

Yes, the law condemns, but it's because sin takes opportunity through the law to work death through that which is good, which is the law of God.

So there we see part of our answer. Verse 14.

For we know that the law is spiritual. Beloved, it is spiritual.

It is good. Not bad. It's not a burden. It's good. But I am fleshly,

Paul says. I am fleshly having been sold into bondage under sin.

Under sin. The dominion of sin. For what I am working out,

I do not understand. Okay? He's struggling to make sense of this.

There's a principle of discovery, of learning something for the very first time. Okay? Keep that in mind.

For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing that I hate. But if I do the very thing

I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now, because the law says not to do bad things, right?

Not to sin. And to do good instead. So now, no longer am

I the one working it out, but sin, which dwells in me.

Okay. Origin. Source. Right? Sin.

Again, which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me.

That is in what? My flesh. Key term there in Scripture.

My flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not.

For the good that I want, I do not do. But I practice the very evil that I do not want.

But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out. But sin, again, which dwells in me.

I find then. He's finding this out, right? He's discovering it.

The principle or a law, like King James Version says, that in me, evil is present.

In me, who wants to do good? For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.

But I see a different law working in my members. Notice the distinction there.

Contrast. Inner man versus members. And more specifically, physical members. Flesh. Fleshly members.

Waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin, which is in my members.

Contrasted with the inner man. Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

He's despairing again as if for the first time. Like he's discovering this. Who can deliver me from this body of death?

The body of this death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. Amen. So then, on the one hand,

I myself with my mind, my inner man, am serving the law of God.

But on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin. My flesh. Contrasted.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Amen. This is an amazing summary of this very issue.

So, what is our answer then? The source, the source of our burdens and our troubles is not the law of God.

It's not the law of God because the law is good. So if the law is good and you are seeing the law as a burden, there's something wrong with you.

Because the law is good, the Bible says. How can God's law be bad?

Wouldn't that make God bad, evil? That doesn't make any sense. And that's what

Paul addresses in Romans as well. People who pervert that into making it evil. So, the source of our burdens and troubles is not the law of God, which is holy, righteous, just, and good.

But rather, it is sin. That little three -letter word, sin.

The deceiving, killing power of sin. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment of God, which is good, deceived me and through it killed me.

That's verse 11 in Romans 7. Right? We must understand then that the law of God convicts us of our sin when we disobey

Him, even as believers. And our struggles with obeying God stem from the law of sin working in our flesh, which we are instructed to mortify and subdue and put to death.

How often, beloved? Daily. Daily. Right? That's what

Paul focuses on Romans 6 through 7 and 8. Especially. And in several other places.

Galatians and on. The issue becomes we have a problem as believers because we're not fully there yet.

We're not fully glorified yet. There's still a part of us that is unredeemed. Yes, our inner man has been renewed and is being renewed because it's been regenerated by the

Spirit of God. Our inner spirit is renewed and is good. But we still wrestle with the unredeemed part of our nature, our flesh, which is primarily our physical bodies, which also operates, which is where sin operates.

That's where the dominion of sin tries to entangle and ensnare us and burden us.

Right? Take us captive and bondage to sin and so on.

That's the problem. It stems from our flesh.

The flesh weakens us spiritually and physically as well.

But that is what burdens us as believers. It is the world, the flesh, the devil, and sin, the mortal enemies of the

Christian. The world, the flesh, the devil, and sin or the law of sin, the principle of sin, like the

Apostle Paul reveals to us in Romans. So, therein lies the source of our troubles, our temptations, our burdens.

It is not God's law. God's law, the believer, the law of God, now sanctifies us because Jesus said in John 17, 17, sanctify them in thy truth.

Your word is truth. Right? What is God's law? Is God's law not

God's word? And that word, does it not sanctify us? Absolutely.

Yes and Amen. So the law is good for us as believers. It's a good thing.

It sanctifies us and it teaches us God's holiness. Right? God's perfection.

And so, that being said, turn with me now to the letter of James. The letter of James in chapter 4 where we dig into this a little bit more.

James chapter 4 beginning in verse 1. Again, remember the question of origin.

Source. James chapter 4. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?

So he's directly addressing this kind of issue. Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

Ah! There's that same word again that Paul uses. Members. The flesh.

You lust and you do not have. So you murder. You sin. You hate.

You are envious and cannot obtain. So you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

And you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives.

With fleshly motives. Contrary to God and his word. So that you may spend it instead on your pleasures.

Your fleshly lustful pleasures. You adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world.

Remember the world is enmity toward God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God.

In other words, he is addressing professing believers in the church who are in reality hypocrites and enemies of God.

This is not believers that he's addressing. He's rebuking them as adulteresses. Cleanse and purify yourselves you sinners, he says later on.

They are enemies of God and therefore they need to repent. What are you doing? Why are you quarreling like this?

Verse five. Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us.

But he gives a greater grace. A greater grace.

Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Be subject therefore to God and his law.

That's what it means. Subjecting yourself to God is subjecting yourself to his law.

His word. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Ah, okay, so there's a direct correlation again.

When you subject yourself to God and his word, his law, the devil flees from you.

That's a good thing. Right? We have to be careful not to judge our experience by our emotional perceptions.

People do that all the time. They live by what they feel and how they feel and how something makes them feel.

It's like that is a sad way to live and it's a childlike way to live.

It's immature. We don't live by how we feel because there's nothing so deluding as feelings like Spurgeon once said.

We don't go by that. We go by what is objective and revealed to us by God and his word.

His law. That is what we go by and the law helps us to see that ourselves as a mirror clearly so that we can judge ourselves to see if we are in Christ or not.

Are we burdened by the law or do we realize that the law is a good thing for us?

That helps us to examine ourselves and so we further understand that even though God requires perfect obedience to his law in each and every single one of us he is nevertheless so loving and gracious that he sends forth his own son to fulfill his righteous demands on our behalf fully, completely because we as sinners always fall short.

We are fallen, wretched, guilty sinners. That is why God needed to save a wretch like me and you like the hymn says, amen, in Amazing Grace.

We're all wretched sinners and all wretched sinners do is sin and what does

Paul say in Ephesians 2? We all walked as sons of disobedience.

We disobeyed God's law. We didn't keep it. We didn't want it. We wanted our own fleshly lusts and passions and interests until God intervened and sent his son and gave us his spirit by grace so that now his love transforms us to not be burdened, unburdened by the love of God and our love for our fellow man, him,

God himself, and for even our enemies. So then, okay, let's close the loop here.

So yes, through many dangers, toils and snares, trials and temptations, burdens,

I have already come but what does the second part of that stanza say?

Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.

Amen? Amen. It is by his grace alone, like we just saw in Ephesians and Romans, who will deliver me, who will save me from this wretched body of death.

It is thanks be to God because of Jesus Christ alone. And what he did for us through his perfect life and his death on the cross, his active and passive obedience culminated in the cross of Christ.

So that is our answer there. Beloved, that is our answer. I hope that's very clear for us.

We need to always bear in mind the question of origins and of sources. It's very important that we understand this to make the proper distinctions biblically and in our lives.

I want to read now a very helpful section from our Baptist Confession of Faith.

This is chapter 19, section 6 on the Law of God. Although true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works to be justified or condemned by it, we are no longer judged under the law or condemned by it or required to fulfill its obligations because Christ already satisfied them for us.

Yet it is nevertheless of great use to them as well as to others, to unbelievers as well, because as a rule of life it informs them of the will of God and their duty and directs and binds them to walk accordingly.

The law becomes our friend. That's what the Psalms are all about, how they rejoice in God's law and how a blessing it is to dwell in the obedience of God's law and the blessing that comes from obeying

God's law. It also exposes the sinful defilements of their nature's hearts and lives.

It's a mirror. It exposes our sin. It lifts the blinders from our self -deception of how most people think that, oh,

I'm good. I don't need help. Or, yeah, I have my mistakes.

I make my... I'm not Hitler, though. I'm not as bad as Hitler was. I'm not that bad.

You know, God understands and He loves me anyway. It's like, the only way

God can love a wretched sinner like you is if He accomplished everything through Christ.

And that subjection to be born under the law and bear the wrathful punishment of the

Father Himself, there is no way, no way that you are an enemy of God.

That's it. That's the only two options. You're either an enemy of God or a child beloved by God.

And it is only because of Christ alone. Now, it exposes the sin in our lives and the flesh in unbelievers.

And as they use it to examine themselves, they come to greater conviction of sin, humiliation for sin, and hatred against sin.

That's an awesome summary there, a phrase. They also gain a clearer insight of their need of Christ, even as believers.

We have need of Christ each and every day. And the perfection of His obedience to the law of God that we could never accomplish on our own.

Similarly, it is of use to the regenerate, to us as saved believers, to restrain their corruption in that it forbids sin and it sanctifies us as the

Word of God. The threatening of the law served to show that what even their sins deserve, and what troubles they may expect in this life because of their sins.

There are earthly consequences as well as eternal consequences to sin.

And even believers can suffer earthly consequences even though the eternal consequences may have been already paid for on the cross.

Sin has consequences. Ultimately, death and eternal death.

So, we So, we know what troubles we may expect in this life because of our sin.

Even though they are freed, we are freed from the curse and undiminished rigors, demands of the law of God.

The promises of the law also show believers God's approval of obedience to Him. And what blessings they may expect when the law is kept, although these blessings are not due to them through the law as a covenant of works.

Because otherwise we wouldn't deserve them. Because you have to keep it perfectly. It's by grace.

And His gracious spirit, it means a grace that we are enabled to obey, not perfectly, but increasingly in conformity to conformity to the image of His Son.

And then section 7 of this chapter in the Confession. These uses of the law of God are not contrary to the grace of the

Gospel, but are entirely in line with it. For the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the human will to do freely and cheerfully or unburdened.

Right? Right? What the will of God revealed in the law requires us to be done.

That's the beauty of the law and the Gospel. Of the law and the Gospel.

So important. The law and the Gospel distinction. This is the power of the answer to all our problems and even our burdens.

It is the power of the law and the Gospel rightly distinguished, understood, and applied in our lives.

That the Gospel of Christ itself is the power of God for salvation to everyone who what?

Believes. Apart from works. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.

The just shall live by faith. By faith.

Romans 1, 16 -17. These verses are what sparked the

Reformation and Luther to realize that Rome, the Church of Rome, had lost the

Gospel and buried it in works of penance and confession and all this stuff and not realizing that grace alone is what saves us through Christ and faith alone.

It is the Gospel that saves us, not our own works by believing it, understanding it truly and agreeing with it and the

Gospel consequently being the power of God transforms us now into sanctified believers and saints who now, sanctified saints, who now love and rejoice in the law of God and strive to please our

Heavenly Father unburdened by love and bound by love.

His love and the law of God to please our

Heavenly Father for everything that has been born of God overcomes the world.

Remember that? World. The flesh, the devil, the world. And that's 1

John 5, verse 4. And this is the overcoming that has overcome the world. Our faith.

It is the Gospel. It is the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

No condemnation now I dread. Jesus and all in Him is mine.

Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed with righteousness divine.

Amen? Righteousness divine, not our own righteousness, which is worthless filthy rags in the eyes of God.

Like Isaiah tells us and Jeremiah and all the prophets preach in Ecclesiastes and so on.

So as the hymn says, let's close out, beloved, in Gospel of Matthew chapter 11, verse 25.

The Gospel of Matthew chapter 11, verse 25, an awesome

Gospel promise from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Our Lord and Savior speaks to us and says, at that time

Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them instead to infants.

Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in your sight.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows the

Father, the Son, except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the

Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and burdened, and I will give you rest, true rest and peace.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find, you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke, my yoke is easy and my burden is what, beloved?

Light. Amen. Amen. For this is the love of God.

This is what it means to love God. Once again, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome because Christ puts

His easy and light burden on us instead.

He exchanges it. Our heavy laden burdens, He takes them on and He instead puts an easy yoke upon us to follow

Him with His staff, the Good Shepherd. He guides us with an easy yoke and light burden instead.

Amen. Verse 3 in 1 John 5 restates for us that love for God means that we keep

His commandments and that His commandments are not burdensome because instead of condemning us, our faith working through love for His commandments and God and our neighbor and our enemy and our growing obedience to them instead assure us.

They assure us. It assures us that we belong to God already.

We don't have to earn His favor or His graces. He gave them to us in Christ and that the law now is our guide and our friend and our assurance that we belong to Him already as His children covenanted by His grace for His glory and through the blood of His unique Son.

Amen. I'll close out with 1

Peter 5 6 -7. We can close out with another beautiful passage regarding how we as believers are now unburdened by love.

Bound by God's love and unburdened by this love that God commands us to follow for our good and our blessing and for the blessing of others, the good of others.

1 Peter 5 6 -7 Therefore, humble yourselves, just like James said, remember, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

Set aside any and all pride, so that He may exalt you to a place of honor in His service at the appropriate time.

I'm reading from the Amplified. Casting all your cares, all your burdens, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns once and for all.

Upon who, beloved? Upon Him because He cares for you, for us with deepest affection and watches over you carefully each and every day.

He is our loving Father and Christ the Son is our all sufficient, all powerful

Savior. And God's people said, Amen. Let's close out with a sanctifying word of prayer today.

Lord, we thank you so much, our Heavenly Father for your precious truths,

Lord, for your law and gospel. We thank you for your law, Lord, for the law that used to formally showed us our guilt and our sin and condemned us guilty by your perfect righteous standards, but by your grace and for your glory, through the precious work and life and death of your

Son, we have a new life in Him. We have been baptized and dead and buried to our sin and our old life and are now raised up in new, newness of life by your grace, your means of grace and your word, your precious promises,

Lord, and your new covenant of grace that Christ is our new and living head has bestowed upon us by grace alone through faith alone in your

Son, your precious Son alone for your glory alone according to your holy word alone.

We thank you so much, Father, for these amazing, precious promises and truths.

Help us, Lord, to live these things out, to recognize where the source of these issues and troubles lie, that we still wrestle and struggle with sin in our life, with the world and the flesh and the devil.

Help us to understand those things, to not be confused by the deception of sin, because it deceives even us.

Help us, Lord, to understand the source, to discern, Lord, to give us that discernment, to discern the origin and the source of where things come from, of these troubles and these burdens and struggles,

Lord, knowing that your law for us now is a good thing. It is good, precious, holy, righteous, and good for us, and it sanctifies us, and it teaches us your will for our life and your holiness.

We thank you, Lord, and we ask these things in Jesus' mighty name, who unburdens us by your love and to live in love in light of those your gospel promises.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Ephraim on the radio, and Thorn Crown Network podcasts, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com