Book of 1 John - Ch. 2, Vs. 3-14 (08/11/2002)

First John chapter 2 and I believe verse 3 and hereby we do know that we know him

If we keep his commandments He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him

But whosoever keepeth his word in him truly or barely is the love of God perfected

Hereby I know we that we are in him he that saith he abideth in him off himself

Also, so to walk even as he walked brethren. I write unto you no new commandment

But an old commandment which he had from the beginning The old commandment is the word which he have heard from the beginning again a new commandment

I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is passed and the true light now

Shineth he that saith he is in the light and hated his brother is in darkness even until now

He that loveth his brother Abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him

But he that hated his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth because the darkness

Hath blinded his eyes. I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven

You for his name's sake I Write unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning

I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one I write unto you little children because you have known the father

I have written unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning I've written unto you young men because you are strong in the

Word of God Abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one.

So we'll cover see how much of that material we can cover this afternoon. I I Didn't have a clear note on exactly where we stopped last time

Let's let's start with verse 3, but I'm working my way towards verse 8 actually But let's look at a couple of these hereby

We do know that we know him if we keep his commandments and as brother Otis has already taught on this verse

This is not a teaching about eternal security. It's a teaching about assurance Much of 1st.

John is a book about assurance of your salvation. What's the difference between eternal security and assurance?

They're very similar and yet there's an important difference Eternal security of the believer is something that God does that you can't change

It has to do with what we talked about in the message this morning where it says you were in Christ But you are preserved in Christ You cannot lose it

If it's genuine salvation it was from before time began anyway because the

Bible teaches all through page to page that God knew you before the foundation of the world and So you cannot lose your salvation.

That's eternal security. It's easy as this ask yourself. Did I save myself? And if the answer is no, then who saved me

God, so then I can't unsave myself My salvation is not based on I anyway, it's based on him

It's not based on me and what I've done is based on Jesus Christ and what he has done He is the one who paid the price.

I can't pay any part of it. So I can't unpay it either. So it's nonsense So that's eternal security.

But what about assurance? How is that difference assurance has more to do with how you feel turn? Security has nothing to do with how you feel

You're secure whether you feel like it or not If you're born again, you're born from above you were saved by something

God did to you that just as miraculous as your physical birth and you had just as much to do with it as your physical

Birth figure that one out. You'll know how much you had to do with it You didn't pick the color of your eyes.

You didn't pick your mama or your daddy You had nothing to do with it and your spiritual birth is the same way

The Bible teaches we're blind we're dead we're we're lame we are lost

How can a blind dead lame lost person do something that only living people can do so God has to do a miracle and Bring you from the dead to life and open your eyes to see

Jesus as who he is and then you respond By saying yes Lord, but by then you already say

God did the work you're just responding So you can't save yourself. All you can do is respond to your salvation.

It's like a baby comes out and starts crying He start he's responding to the environment.

He finds himself in he finds himself there. You found yourself saved one day and That's the way it is.

Now. I understand you have to hear the gospel That's God's means of salvation Just like there are many things that have to happen for a baby to be born, right?

There are means involved, but the baby doesn't have anything to do with it And with your salvation there are means involved

But it all happened because of God's hand on your life and you were his child before the foundation of the world

He knew you as his own and there came a day when you were birthed You were born again into his family

Now no matter what happens in your life from that day forward you're in God's family You may be an obedient child or you may be a disobedient child, but you're a child

The others who never saved never were children of God. They were children of the devil They were not much more than a creation like a tree or a rock

They were not the Lord's and the Lord knew them not in fact think about the verse I mean we don't think about verses we read but what about that verse it says there would be many who come to me in That day and say

Lord Lord have I not done many wonderful things in your name And he says depart from me.

I never knew you You see it didn't have anything to do with the stuff. They were doing It had do it rather.

He knew them as his own or not and that's the way it is now. You can't change that You cannot be bad enough to lose your salvation, but you weren't good enough to get it

But you know what? Assurance is a whole different matter because assurance means how you feel about your salvation

Am I sure I'm saved now that I'm saved well I'll tell you what if I've just gone through a season of rank disobedience.

I'm not going to be sure I'm saved That's only healthy It makes me search it out and makes me question.

Why am I doing these things that I'm doing that are not godly? So assurance can come and go it has to do with your emotions and your feelings and what the whole book of first John teaches

Is first of all it teaches you can't lose your eternal security But it teaches if you want to be sure of your salvation and in the in the sense of your assurance

Then obey the Lord live walk with him now. Look how it says it

Hereby verse 3 hereby. We do know that we know him. It doesn't say hereby.

We know him It does not say here's how we know him if we keep his commandment It doesn't say here's how we get saved if we keep his commandment doesn't say here's how we know him

It says here's how we know that we know him. That's assurance You see if it read here's how you know him and be talking about security

But it doesn't say that it says here's how you know that you know him. Here's how you believe that you know him Here's how you have assurance that you know him

If you keep his commandments if you find yourself doing Things for the Lord that you know, you hated before you got saved.

Then that's a great sign that you're saved. I So vividly remember what it was like to go to church before I got saved.

It was just I hated it It was the most boring thing in the world. I would sneak off when

I was little and go hide in the third floor and Rummage around the junk on the third floor of that the attic of that big church

And my mom my grandmother thought I was sitting with Stevie on the back row But Stevie and I were in the attic running around hiding from the janitor

She still doesn't believe that she thinks I was born saved I do not where'd you get that?

I thought about born again. I Give up on her.

I'm not I'm not gonna be able to raise my mom, right? It's just not working out but anyway

When I got saved all of a sudden I like being in the church all of a sudden. I like reading my Bible Hereby, you know that you know him if you keep his commandments verse 4 he that saith

I know him and Keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him

I mean people do you know in the Bible belt you ask them? Are you a Christian? They say no, no No, I'm going straight to hell when

I die Have you ever had one day I've had one actually tell me that you know, I'm going to hell and proud of it one

But he was totally an idiot Frothing at the mouth practically, but you won't hear people around here say.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. My dad was a preacher My grandpa was a preacher. Yep. I'm a Christian Every time

I've heard that many times. Oh, man, my grandpa. I am a great grandfather were preachers. Yes, I believe

I'm a Christian I believe I'm a Christian You know, they don't know and yet their life, you know, they're sitting there and they're holding

The can of beer smoking a cigarette and got a big old beer belly near the yeah. Yeah. I'm a

Christian My grandpa was a preacher Well, that's what this verse addresses He that saith

I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not anywhere They say well, yeah,

I'm a Christian. My grandpa was a preacher I just don't go to church because a bunch of hypocrites down there So I go to the lake and fish because those fish are not hypocrites

I Well, you know the problem with that is he says that I believe But the problem is the verse says he that says

I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is Not in him Jesus is the one that said forsake not the assembly of ourselves together is the manner of some is so much the more as you

See the day approaching. Well, we see the day approaching. We ought to be in church more today than we were last year You know really if you think about it

The guy said well, I just don't you know, you don't have to go to church to be to go to heaven Well, how are you supposed to answer that?

I mean, yeah, that's technically I guess that's true You don't get to heaven by going to church.

We know that's true. But that's not the issue The issue is why aren't you going if you're saying? Why why don't you find a church where there's brothers and sisters if you're safe?

Oh, let's go on here It's about to dress this look at this whosoever Keepeth his word in him truly is the love of God perfected

So if you're in the word, you love the Word of God and you're walking the parts of it. You're learning Then God perfects his love in you and hereby know we that we're in him.

So here's another I used to call this whole book Symptoms of salvation like when you have a cold somebody comes up says

I got a bad cold But they don't have a runny nose. They don't have itchy eyes. They're just great You say I don't know if you got a cold or not

You just don't want to go to work or you don't want to come to school But now if they come to you and this green stuff is coming out of their nose and in their eyes

Just when you look at them all sudden you feel like you got a cold or if you hear him talk You say oh man now I'm getting sick and you just hear him then

You know why because they got some certain symptoms that go with it Salvation has symptoms.

One of the symptoms is that you keep the commandments. It doesn't mean you're perfect What it means is you don't want to break them in your heart

You don't want to break them and when you do you get right with God and you predominantly are in a place in your life where God is removing the sinful habits and placing in their habits of righteousness righteous living and Then secondly here in verse 5 is talking about the

Word of God All of a sudden you have a love for his word and you want to keep his word There's another symptom verse 6 he that saith he abideth in him

Ought himself also so to walk even as Jesus walked So how can a person say on the one hand that he abides in the word abide in the

Greek is the word may know Which meant literally means to stay in a given place state or relation to stay.

How can you say? Well, I'm staying in Christ But I don't walk like he walks. I mean, how can

I be in Christ and not be going where he's going? I'm not in him if I'm not going where he's going I'm just in myself

That's the problem with a lot of people and a lot of born -again people They're in the self life and they have no victory.

You have to be in Christ not in self He that saith he stays in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walks

Symptoms of salvation look at verse 7 brethren I write no new commandment unto you but an old commandment which he had from the beginning

There are a lot of times when the New Testament writers are trying to point out especially to the Jew that we're not creating a new religion here

Yes, they may not say it this way. Yes, we have a different dispensation a different way in which God deals with us

Because the cross made a difference, but it's not a new religion It's not even new commandments from the beginning

God has taught to love your brother as yourself and all of these sorts of things So I don't have a new commandment for you, but an old commandment from the beginning love your brother

Verse 8 and again a new commandment I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you Because the darkness is passed and the true light now shines he says the only reason it is new is because of the cross and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus into heaven and the sending of the

Holy Spirit and now when you get born again you get baptized into Christ like we talked about this morning and when you get

Baptized into the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit indwells your body and your body becomes the temple of the

Living God You can't be the same anymore All of a sudden the darkness is passed and there's true light in you and notice what it says a new commandment

I give you which thing is true in him and in you is because you have the light of Christ in you you have him in You and that which is true of him now becomes true of you because he's in you

It's not so much about you It's just that you benefit so much from it It's about him and he is the light and you are in Christ and he is in you

So therefore you have this same thing It's as with him is so with you

Because the darkness is passed and the true light now shined it is passed in the sense of the

Old Testament Darkness where they had mysteries. They didn't understand That's passed But it's also passed in the sense that the darkness that you personally had in your life before salvation is gone

And now you're walking in the light All of a sudden you can understand something now the Bible when you read it.

I'm not saying you understand every Word on every page. I learned something new in Sunday school this morning.

I learned that about a particular phrase I was thinking it meant wrath I forgot the verse now something to do with wrath, but I thought it's talking about my own wrath

But it was talking about the wrath of God. I never saw that till today So yeah, you're not gonna get all of it on every page, but you know what if you're born again

You're gonna get something on every page Something that's for you right now today and then next year

Maybe you pick up that other thing God gives it to you as he knows It that he wants it there to fulfill his purposes in your life

Symptom of salvation the Word of God is being taught to you by the Holy Spirit So here we have this old commandment and now it becomes

New only in the sense that you have the teacher living in you that can teach you the same Word of God that we have

Had from the beginning Verse 9 he that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even though now so now we have another

Symptom of salvation is a true born -again person loves other true born -again people Now what's interesting about that is they say well, yeah,

I'm born again But I just don't go down there where those hypocrites are Well, you know my definition of love

I mean one small part of the aspect of the definition of love is that I want to be with the person

I love don't you think that's true? I think that's true. I Look back there at miss

Sharon and brother Raymond look at him sit and be still just look back there at him Don't they look cuddly?

That's one of the best greatest examples of a happy marriage I mean Charlotte and I have a tremendously happy marriage and we've always been thankful and but we've always thought of Raymond and Sharon and It's an example of a happy marriage, but that's only because we're not there behind closed doors at home.

No, I'm kidding But when he's when he's off on that truck hat sometimes she goes with him on that truck

Why because love means they want to be with each other and now I have these people claim to be

Christian They don't want to be around other Christians. They don't want to go to church on Sunday where there's other Christians there They just have their own thing going with the man upstairs

Well, they don't know What they're talking about because one of the great symptoms of salvation is loving the brothers

In fact, it gives the opposite or the negative side of that in verse 9 Yeah, okay. You say you're walking in the light the same light we talked about in verse 8

You're walking in the light, but you hate your brother The Bible says you're not in you're in darkness.

You're not walking in light. You're in darkness even to this now Look at the phrase even till now. That's a scary phrase

Because that takes you right up to the very moment of the breath you're taking right now if you're a person who hates the brothers and We're gonna get into that definition of hate in a minute because it's so easy to read that so I don't hate anybody

That's not me because I don't hate anybody Well, no, let's maybe we won't use the word hate

Let's just look and see what the definition of that is and see if we do that to anybody here in a minute But before we do that think about this.

He says I'm in the light But he really from God's viewpoint

God knows he hates the brothers now. He'd never admit it I don't hate anybody. You got to realize that's how it is.

You you know, I don't hate anybody But God's looking down. He says you hate that person and God knows and God says if that's true, then at the very breath you're taking right now.

You are lost in Darkness, you are you are in hell already.

You are lost in darkness Because you don't have God's love and you know what you can't do anything

But hate people if you don't have God's love because people are not lovable They are not not when you really get to know them

So you have to have God's love to really love people now Look at the positive side of verse of this concept verse 10.

He that loves his brother Abides in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him

But he that hated his brother is in darkness is present tense right now even so to this moment

He remains in darkness and he walks in darkness and he knows not where he's going

It's like a blind man stumbling in the dark because that darkness has blinded his eyes

It's the very same thing that makes him hate his brother It's the same darkness that's blinded his eyes to everything

So these I write into you little children because your sins are forgiven for your name's sake let's let's start with verse 11 for today

Because this next passage Changes the subject but think of it as symptoms of salvation if you ever have a friend that Is doubting their salvation?

They claim to be a Christian, but they have doubts Ask them to go home and and honestly read first John the book of first John and Usually if they'll read that book

They'll know I Mean if they are saved they'll know they're saved if they're not saved

They won't understand anything they read in the book But maybe it give you a clue from their response that they're not really saved even though they're claiming to be a

Christian It's full of symptoms of salvation a love for the Word of God a love for the people of God two of the key ones

Let's pray together father. We thank you for your word We ask you to Make it a part of our lives as we go forth from this place

That we might bear fruit and that it might bear fruit in us that your word would bear fruit in us we thank you that it is a spiritual book and your

Holy Spirit makes it alive and straight from your mind and heart to ours and We thank you that you teach us from day to day through your word through the experiences in life

It caused us to understand your word even better And be with our young people and our children to help them to grow quickly because they do live in these last days

And they must be strong and have the full armor of God we ask you to bless those that are not well and not with us today such as June and others that we've mentioned and be with them and give us your protection as we go on our ways in Jesus name.