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September 29, 2024 Pastor Jeff Rice Covenant Reformed Baptist Church
All right. Hallelujah.
I love that.
If you will, at this time, take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 13. We will consider verses 31 through 38. The Gospel of John, chapter 13, verses 31 through 38.
This is number 80. This is our 80th. I can never get that right, right? Yeah, it's pretty good, right? Let's try the parking, right? I can't ever get that right, but this is the 80th message in this glorious, God-honoring Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let me open this up in prayer. Glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, we call upon the name of Jesus Christ and ask that you speak through this broken vessel to your people to feed your people.
Lord, they have not gathered here to hear from me. They have gathered here to hear from you. So, Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you, through your Holy, Holy, Holy Spirit, speak forth the magnificent works done by your hand, proclaimed by the Apostle John through me.
In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's begin with the text, John chapter 13, verses 31 through 38. And when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I have said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered, Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow afterward.
Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
This past week I heard a, I guess you could say a myth, but it's more of a legend, and it's about something called the Rat King. No, it's not the Ninja Turtle Rat King, right? If you grew up watching the Ninja Turtles such as I did, they had a little character called the Rat King.
But at this time in a village, if your village was overran by rats, they would dig a hole, and they would take ten rats, and they would throw the rats into the hole. Before too long, there was only one rat left in the hole.
Then they would throw ten more rats into the hole, and eventually there would only be one rat, and then ten more rats, so on and so forth, until this one rat just had the hunger and the thirst for blood of his own kind.
And they would let that rat go into the village, and eventually there would be no more rats. Our theme for this Lord's Day, I'm going to leave you hanging there for a minute, is a call to love. Kind of different than what we hear in our society today, right?
If you're a Christian, to hear today, you are called to love. And my proposition is this. A follower of Jesus Christ is someone who loves the brethren. It's someone who loves other Christians. That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
You love the brethren. Also today, what I hope to show you is that He has given a new commandment, and this new commandment is not a new commandment, and yet it is a new commandment. And if that sounds confusing, please pay attention.
I will do my best to clear up any misunderstandings. So in our outline today, I want to point out how the disciples of Jesus were confused by the words of Jesus, and their confusion is seen by Peter. Peter, in his response, and I have outlined this message in three headings.
The first, what Jesus said. The second, what Peter heard. And the third, what love is. So point number one, what Jesus said. Point number two, what Peter heard. Point number three, what love is. And as we transition, last week we talked about our call to service, that you and I as Christians, we are called to service, serving one another.
And we saw that a servant of Jesus Christ is someone who leads by serving. How does a leader lead? By serving. A leader is not a boss, but a boss can be a leader. And I mentioned the guy that I worked with for nearly 20 years in rooting Danny Barnhill, and how my dad was the one who raised me, but Danny Barnhill taught me how to be a man.
And my dear friends, we all need people to teach us how to be men and women, right? Jesus is a leader because Jesus led by example. And you and I as Christians, even if you are called to be a leader, such as I stand before you today as a pastor of this church, I am to lead by example.
I should not tell you to do something that I am unwilling to do. And that's how Danny was to me. Danny never told me to get on those 24 -12 pitches without getting up there with me and struggling with me and sweating with me and bleeding with me.
Danny taught me what it's like to be a leader. And a leader is someone who leads by example. Jesus, in our text, has given the disciples an earthly example. How? By washing their feet.
Washing their feet.
Imagine that.
None of us would even dare to stoop that low. And Jesus steps down from his position as their leader, as their master, and he washes their feet. And that's what they saw. But what they didn't see was that Jesus is God and that Jesus steps down from the throne of heaven and he becomes humanity and he lives the life that we cannot live and he takes upon himself the punishment that we deserve, and on the third day he rose again, proving himself to be God.
He leads by example. That's the kind of God we serve, the one and only true God who leads by example. And guess what he calls his followers to do? To lead by example. We're followers of Jesus, meaning there's others following after us.
Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. Christ has always given us an earthly example to look to for someone who is actually living that godly life that the scriptures call for us to live. But immediately after he washes the feet of his disciples, the disciples begin to have a dispute among themselves about who the greatest is.
And if you just look at that for a minute, the greatest is he who serves. Jesus steps down from his throne in heaven. He becomes humanity. He steps down from his position as their master and washes their feet.
He is the greatest, none greater. My dear friends, if you want to be great in this life, guess what you are called to be? A servant.
A servant.
Counterintuitive to the American way, right? Well, that's why Christianity isn't that popular. And we also see Jesus confront Judas, telling him concerning the betrayal, what you are going to do, do quickly.
Jesus knows he's got one night left. Jesus knows who it is who is going to betray him. And Jesus tells him what you're going to do, do quickly. Our application for the past two weeks has been focusing on the positive command given to us in this chapter, and that is to serve one another.
And we looked at three ways that this could be done. The first way was to provide food, provide for the needs of others, food and clothing. We just heard this read by Job, right, in Matthew 25. And when Jesus says, you've done this to the least of these, he's the least of these here.
It's not necessarily the homeless guy on the street, which I would say do those things for him. But he's speaking of his body. The body of Christ is the church. My dear brother, my closest neighbor is my wife and kids.
Outside of that, it's not my neighbor who lives next door to me. It's the members of this church. Then it's the person that lives next door to me. My dear friends, if we're Christians, we're called to love one another and to take care of one another's needs.
The book of James tells us if we say we have faith, but we do not help each other, our faith is dead.
We don't have a living faith.
If we have a living faith, we have a dead faith. Our faith is a corpse like dead. And the second way that we can serve one another is by being friendly. Imagine that. Friendly people make friends. Most people are not going to confide in you if you walk around grumpy, right?
You walk around with that ming-mong on your face, guess who's going to confide in you?
No one.
No one at all.
What is it hard for a Christian to smile?
To say, hey, how are you doing?
Can I help you with anything? Can I be a blessing to you? These are ways that we can serve one another. And I would say, yes, take that example and leave the door with it. The third way, which is the most important way, is to preach the gospel.
We saw that this is good for the unbeliever as well as the believer. For the unbeliever, it's speaking according to justification. How are we justified before God? The gospel is God's power for salvation.
No one is going to be justified before God, made right by the blood of Christ, outside of the gospel being preached. The gospel must be preached. But also for the believer, because this is also a way for us to grow in our sanctification, how God has taken us from being in Adam to being conformed to the image of Christ.
Everyone, when we're born, we're born under our first federal head, the man of dust, Adam, and to that we will return to the dust. But some of us, those who are in Christ, although we were born in Adam, when we are born again, we are being re-conformed, re-made, created in a new image, the image of Jesus Christ, which we will fully have when we return from the dust.
So yes, this proclamation of the gospel is to be preached both to the unbeliever as well as to the believer. This is something that I preach to myself daily. I want to be conformed. I want to live a holy life.
I want to read this book and be about what I read about, right? When I was in gang violence and when I was doing all these things and I represented a set, guess what I was about? That set. My dear friends, why would I become a Christian and not bang as hard or harder?
My dear friends, Jesus is my whole life.
And if you're a Christian, He should be your whole life. Your life should be wrapped up in Christ. You should not know where you began and He ends, vice versa.
We should be sold out to do the work that Christ has taught us to do in His word. I also mentioned that the only way that any of us could do these things were if we were humble, selfless, and sacrificial.
Meaning you're not too good to wash feet. Meaning that it's not about us, that it's about others. As followers of Jesus, as servants of Jesus, we should be seeking to serve others, putting their needs above our own needs.
So let's begin with our first heading, what Jesus said. What Jesus said is taken from verses 31 through 35, but let's just begin with verse 31. It said, When He had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
As most of you already know, Jesus has already been speaking about this, and we actually covered this in chapter 12. So if you will turn back one chapter to chapter 12, and we'll just touch on a couple spots here.
Chapter 12 of this gospel, verse 23 and 24. Chapter 12, verse 23 and 24. So here, some Greeks have caught wind of Christ, and they come wanting to speak to Him. They go to Philip, and Philip goes to Andrew, and they come to Jesus.
In verse 22, it says, Philip went to Andrew, and they went to Jesus to tell Jesus. They're telling Him that some Greeks want to speak with Him. This is Jesus' answer. And Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Also look in verse 32 through 33 of chapter 12. He says, Now is the judgment of this world.
Oh, that's verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world, and now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Speaking of Satan, verse 32. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
Verse 33 is going to tell us what it means for him to be lifted up. And he said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. This glorification is speaking of his resurrection. He says, Now it's time for me to die, to be buried into the earth, and to come forth, to sprout forth.
And if that happens, that fruit, it's going to bear much fruit. Our resurrection from the dead is dependent upon Jesus rising from the dead. And so this glorification is speaking of his resurrection. And the same goes for you and I.
In order for you and I to be raised from the dead, when you and I are raised from the dead, we will be glorified, speaking of the image of Christ. Again, however, in order for him, Jesus, to be glorified, he must die.
The God-man must die. The Bible says, you probably say this quite often, the Bible says God cannot die. And yet man cannot keep God's law. And there's no way for any of us to be righteous if there's not a law keeper.
Our first federal head is Adam. As goes the king, so goes the kingdom. Through Adam, sin and death has entered into the world. We are born sinners because of our first federal head, Adam. Someone has to keep what Adam broke.
The Bible calls Jesus the last Adam. My dear friends, it takes Jesus being truly God and truly man. This is what's called the hypostatic union. It takes him being truly God and truly man for him to do what had to be done.
As truly God, Jesus keeps God's law because man cannot keep God's law. And as truly man, Jesus is hung on that cross because God cannot die. Jesus is going to be glorified, but in order for that to happen, he must die.
Again, the same can be said about us. In order for us, you and I, to be glorified, we must die. Our death is necessary. The soul that sins will die. The wages of sin is death. Death is the arresting officer, which is either going to take you to the presence of God or take you to the prison called hell.
This means, if I have interpreted that correctly, this means the glory of Jesus begins in his death. And we don't often imagine glory beginning in death. It began at that cross. Concerning this subject, John MacArthur said this, a true disciple finds completion in the Lord's glory, end quote.
A true disciple finds completion in the Lord's glory, speaking of his death. We find completion in the death of Jesus Christ. You and I, who are truly Christians, we find completion, we find completeness in the death of our Savior, Jesus, here.
As we're reading, he's approaching his last night. This is his last night. The next day in the morning, he's going to be put to death. He's going to hang on a cross. And he's not going to be mostly dead, for my Princess Bride fans.
Got it right this time, did my research. He's going to be dead. Regimortus is going to set in. His body is going to stiffen and begin to soften again. He who sat on the throne, who took off his royal garb, his signet ring, and his crown and wrapped himself in humanity is going to die.
And the disciples were arguing about who the greatest is. Jesus turns their attention to his glory, to his death. Now, if glory begins at the cross, and it does, and in order for Jesus to be glorified, he must die and be buried and rise again.
How is it that God the Father is glorified in him? And I would say that God the Father is glorified in his son, in the fact that his son has indeed accomplished the purpose that he was sent forth to accomplish.
When studying covenant theology, this overarching covenant over all the Bible is the covenant of redemption that God the Father has chosen to save a people. And listen to me, he did not have to choose to save any of us.
He has chosen to save a people. And in order to save them, he sends his son into time, first century, born of a woman,.
Born under the law to keep the law,.
To live the life that we could not live, as a substitute in our place, and to be crushed by his fathers for our iniquity, for our sins, for the sins that I committed were laid upon Jesus Christ. He was buried, and he rose again on the third day.
And the preaching of that message, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit applies that purpose to those whom the Father chose to save. Oh, how important it is to preach the gospel, to be a part of this redemption that is so great.
But let's read a little more of what Jesus had to say. Again, turn back to our chapter, chapter 13. Look at verse 32. If God is glorified in me, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.
Again, Jesus speaking of his glorification and how the Father is going to glorify him. How? In his work. Remember, I just told you that covenant of redemption, that the work of Jesus that he performs as a substitute, right?
A substitute means in place of. If your teacher was unable to be at school to teach you, they would send a teacher in your teacher's place, and that teacher was called a substitute who taught in the place of.
Jesus is our substitute. The life that he lived, he lived for us. The death that he died, he died for us. God the Father is glorified that Jesus Christ fulfilled his purpose. We saw a glimpse of the glorification of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
The text tells us that Jesus transfigured before Peter, James, and John, and that his face shined, or it says shone, but shined with work, shone like the sun, and that his clothing became white as light.
My dear friends, what else could that mean? What else could that mean? What else or what other than the glory of Jesus Christ could this be talking about? They saw his glory. That moment was pointing forward towards something that was going to take place when he came forth from the grave in its totality when he sits on that throne of David in heaven.
Jesus speaking to his Father in John 17, verse 5, says this, Now, and now, Father, so Jesus is speaking to the Father, and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had before the world existed.
John 17, when he's praying this, it's the same night that we're in in chapter 13. We're going to be in this night for a while. Jesus took on humanity. Jesus will be glorified when he is raised from the dead.
He has glorified God the Father in his completion of the work which he was sent to accomplish, and God will also glorify him in the ascension of Jesus Christ when Jesus returns to be with his Father. And Matthew 17 gives us the clearest picture of what Jesus looks like in glory.
His face shines like the sun. You ever wonder what Jesus looks like?
Stop it.
It tells you his face shines like the sun, and his clothing is white like light.
Anything else is blaspheming.
It's blasphemous. It's blasphemous. You're breaking the second commandment.
It tells you what he looks like. His face shines like the sun, and his clothing is white as light.
Let us finish reading. It's hard to go back to reading after taking that in, but let's go back to reading what he said. Verses 33 -35. He says, These little children, yeah? A little while longer I am with you.
You will seek me, and just as I have said to the Jews, so now I say to you where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. My dear friends, what we're going to see is that the disciples only heard half of what I just read to you. They're still not understanding what it means for Jesus to be glorified, nor are they understanding what it means for Jesus to go back to his father.
They did not want Jesus to leave. Now this might just be me, but before the Holy Spirit came upon those disciples, those disciples were dumb.
They were dumb.
Now I say this as someone who was dumb concerning the works of God before the Holy Spirit came.
Upon me.
The only difference is, is there's no written recorded record of my life to show you how.
Dumb I was.
There is of the disciples. They were dumb. Jesus has been explaining this all the way through his earthly ministry that he's going to die. He's going to be buried. He's going to rise again, and he's going to go back to his father.
And even in this section, we see in chapter 13, verse one, it says, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, right in chapter 12, his hour had not come yet. Chapter 13, his hour has come to depart out of this world to the father, having loved.
His own.
He loved them in the world and he loved them to the end. Look at verse three, Jesus, knowing that the father has given him all things into his hands, that he had come from God and was going back to God, speaking of the father.
So when you see in our verse where in verse 33, it mentions in a little while, this little while here in our text is speaking about the time that Jesus is going to have with his disciples before his ascension, before he is lifted up from the earth, as we see in Acts chapter one, and goes to the father.
And so there's a period is going to be a period of a little over 40 days that he's going to be left with them. So he's saying in a little while, I am for a little while I am with you. And in chapter 14, which will begin next week, we're going to see that this, this language here is heavy.
Chapter 14 deals heavy with this language of Jesus leaving and how it's going to be better for them. It's going to be better for them. It's going to be better for you and I, that he goes to be with the father because he is sending the Holy Spirit.
So one verse I want us to look at in chapter 15 is verse 26, John chapter 15, verse 26. Jesus speaking, he says, but when the helper comes, speaking of the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me.
So one of the rich things that the Holy Spirit does is that when it's in us, it bears witness about Jesus Christ. It's better for him to go so that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, right? The God who tabernacled in tents and temples now tabernacles and those who are his through his Holy Spirit.
And so if you would please listen to what I'm about to say, but as I say this, I want you to begin to turn in your scriptures to John chapter seven. What I want us to do is I want us to listen to Jesus say the same things he just said to his disciples, to the religious Jews.
Then I want us to compare how different it is when he says the same thing, speaking to two different parties. So in chapter seven of this gospel, look at verses 31 through 36, chapter seven, 31 to 36.
It says, yet many of the people believed in him. They said, when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him and the chief priest and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Jesus then said, I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who.
Sent me.
You will seek me and you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks to teach the Greeks?
What does he mean by saying you will seek me and when I find me and where I am, you cannot come. I look in chapter eight, beginning in verse 19, we'll read a verse 21. They said to him, therefore, where is your father?
Jesus answered. Now pay attention. He's answering the religious Jews, those who said they had God. As we've been looking, if you do not have the son, you do not have the father. When you deny the son, you're anti-Christ and you do not have God.
Listen to how he responds. You know, neither me nor my father. He's telling the Jews, you don't know God. If you knew me, you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple.
But no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. So he said to them again, listen, I am going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come. Now turn back to our text.
When he says these words, these same words to his disciples, he says it with a different.
Tone.
And you can tell because he begins these same words by saying, little children. Verse 33, little children, yet in a little while I am with you, you will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, we just read that portion.
So I'm saying to you, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. That's what they heard. And that's what Peter responded to. They did not hear verses 34 and 35, and we're going to save those two verses for our last.
Point.
Heading number two, what Peter heard. We see this in verses 36 to 38. Look at verse 36, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him where I am going. You cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterwards.
See the difference?
Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.
Jesus answered, you will lay down your life for me? Talking about a rhetorical question for Jesus, right? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. The Apostle Peter, the great Apostle Peter, who had his hand in the gospel of Mark, who wrote first and second Peter, this great Apostle of Jesus Christ, who healed men, oh, silver.
And gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you.
If you stand up and walk, this man of God, he is going to deny Jesus Christ. Again, the night of his betrayal, the night of his arrest, the night that Peter will deny him three times. In saying this, Jesus points out to him, to Peter, that this night you will not die for.
Me.
As a matter of fact, when the shepherd is struck, his sheep will flee. Jesus points this out. This is a quote. We see this in clarity in Matthew chapter 26, verse 31, which is a quotation from Zechariah chapter 13, verse 7, but let's see the full quote from Matthew chapter 26.
Matthew chapter 26. The quotation is from 31, but let's begin in verse 30. Again, this is what Matthew is doing. It's filling us in the conversation that's actually taking place in our chapter. Verse 30, and when he had sung a hymn, when they had went out to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will scatter.
Look at verse 32, but after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. To the religious Jews, he tells them that where I am going, you cannot come. They cannot go where he is going.
Why?
Because they are going to die in their sin, in their rejection of their Messiah. Their Messiah had come. They did not listen to whom they said they listened to, which is Moses. They kept comparing Jesus to Moses, and Moses tells them that there's going to come one from among them who would be like him, and when he comes, they were to listen to him.
Jesus is this prophet spoken of by Moses, and he came, and they did not believe, and because they did not believe, they are going to die in their sin. But to his disciples, he says, where I am going, you cannot come now, meaning at that moment, meaning that there's going to come a time where we can follow him, but more specifically concerning his disciples in our text, they have a purpose, and that purpose is to go out and plant churches.
We see this in the book of Acts. They were to follow him. They were to go out and plant churches. They too had to accomplish the purpose that they were sent out to accomplish. They were to spread the gospel, convert people to Christianity, and plant churches.
So too, you and I, where Jesus is, we cannot go until we, you and I who are Christians, accomplish the purpose that we were sent out to accomplish. And listen to me, Christian. If you are a Christian, that purpose that you are to accomplish is not outside the church.
You and Jesus do not have your own thing going. You and Jesus do not have it all worked out. His function is through the church. The church is the body of Christ. You should not be able to tell, and sadly you can, where Jesus begins and the church ends.
We should not be able to tell.
The Bible says we're not only the bride of Christ, we are his body. We are his body, and what you do to the least of these, you have done to him. Our mission, our purpose is taken from the church, and we are to go out under the authority of the church.
Don't forget that, Christian. Now this might be just me, but as I was reading this, I was baffled that Peter did not acknowledge the new commandment that is not a new commandment, but is a new commandment, right?
Like, why didn't you say something about that? Like that's where my ears perk up. What do you mean there's a new commandment, but it's not new, and yet it's new? Heading number three, what is love? This is taken from verses 34 through 35, but let's begin by reading verse 34.
So John chapter 13, verse 34. Again, Jesus speaking, he says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also are you to love one another. The commandment is love.
You say, what is the sum of the ten commandments, the ten words, the decalogue?
It's love.
It's love. Love one another just as Jesus has loved us. And this word just as, it's the Greek word that means in as much. In as much. How much did Christ love his bride, the church? He gave his life for her.
My friends, it might not be a physical giving of the life that we have to give for the church, but I stand here today letting you know that my life is this church, and I am giving my life to this church.
To you, to the members of CRBC, I'm giving my life to you. It's the positive command given to us by God. And guess what you are to do?
Give your life to the church.
You should not be able to tell where you began and the church ends.
That's Bible.
We're called to love one another.
And this commandment in and of itself isn't new. We see this in Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. Turn with me to Leviticus chapter 19. The book, no one wants to read, right? Talking about a hard book to read.
Don't start in this one. Chapter 19, verse 18. It says this, God speaking, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people.
Our own people, we should not hold a grudge or seek vengeance against the sons of our own people. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the Lord. I am Yahweh.
Now turn with me to 1 John. We're going to stay in 1 John for a minute. 1 John chapter 2. We're going to look at verses 7 through 12. 1 John, it's towards the end of the Bible. Chapter 2, look at verse 7.
John addressing Christians says, Beloved, I am writing to you no new commandment. Also this is the same author of the gospel that we're in. But an old commandment that you had from the beginning, we just read it in Leviticus, that you had from the beginning, the old commandment is the word that you have heard.
And at the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him, speaking of Christ, and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother, speaking of other Christians, is still in darkness, meaning you're not really a Christian. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Verse 12, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name sake. Look at chapter 3, verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, which is speaking of Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18.
Go back to chapter 2 and look at verse 3, chapter 2, verse 3, it says, and by this we know that we have come to know him. So what he's saying is not how you know him, but how we know that we have come to know him if, this is a conditional clause, if we keep his commandments.
Whoever says that I know him but doesn't keep his commandments is a liar and 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 have come to know him.
Whoever says that he abides in him ought to walk in the same manner in which he walked. Now turn to chapter 13 and look at verse, excuse me, chapter 3, John chapter 3, there's no 13 chapters in that first John.
First John chapter 3, look at verse 15, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. Is there Christians you don't like?
You're a murderer.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. We know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him, but whoever loves, by this we know love that he, Jesus, laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our life for one another, our brothers, in as much, verse 17.
But if anyone has the world's good and sees his brother, this is James 2 right here, right? But sees his brother in need and yet closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word and talk, but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are in the truth and reassure our hearts before him, for whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and we, and he knows everything. Verse 21, beloved, if your heart does not, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing to him.
You say, Jeff, it's impossible to keep his commandments. Verse 23, and this is his commandments, that we believe in the name of the son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us.
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. Notice with me the vertical versus the horizontal. We love God vertically, how?
By believing in the name of Jesus Christ. My dear friends, if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, I don't give a, I don't care, I about said something I shouldn't have, a trailer park in me. I don't care if you're a Jew, you're a Muslim, whatever religion you want to claim, if you don't believe in the name of Jesus Christ, you hate God.
You have no dealing with him, period. There's only one way to the father, Jesus says, and we will look at that next week. If you do not love God by believing in the name of the son, think vertically, Jesus, you do not have the father and my dear friends, this is how we are justified before God.
Romans chapter five, verse one says, therefore, since we have been justified, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I had to close my eyes to see the verse, so please forgive me there.
The only way to be justified before God is to believe in Jesus Christ. And we love one another horizontally, which is also how we are justified before man. Justified before God by faith in Jesus Christ, justified by man by loving one another.
So the question is this, how do we abide in God? Answer, by believing in the name of the son, Jesus Christ, and loving one another. Believing in the name of Jesus is vertical, while loving one another is horizontal.
We are justified, made right before God by believing in Jesus Christ. And that is a new commandment. You will not find that anywhere in the old commandment, in the law. Never does it reveal the name of Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus the Messiah.
It points to him, it tells us how we can recognize him, what lineage he's going to come from. There's a promise of him, but it never tells us who it is. It never tells us truly how we are to love God.
It just says, love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. And we show ourselves to be Christians by loving one another. This is horizontal, meaning in as much.
My dear friends, this is how we keep the commandments. And I would argue that in this new commandment concerning our neighbor, it's not just that we don't do wrong to people, but it's that we do good.
Kids, listen to me, pay attention. Where's all the kids at? Come on, kids, listen. It's not just that you honor your father and mother, but it's that you listen to them. And there's a difference between hearing and listening.
You can hear the words come out of their mouth and not obey what they said. That's the difference. When you obey them, you listen. It's not just that you honor them. It's that you listen to them. It's not just that we don't murder, but that we give life.
It's not just that we don't commit adultery, but that we pray for marriages. It's not just that we don't steal, but that we give. It's not just that we don't lie, but that we tell the truth. And it's not just that we don't covet, but that we are thankful that God has blessed other people.
Counterintuitive for us Americans. Turn with me to our last text, Matthew chapter 22. In this text, Jesus is questioned about the commandments. We're going to read verse 34, Matthew chapter 22, verse 34.
We'll read the verse 40. But when the Pharisees heard that he, speaking of Jesus, had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him, Jesus, a question to test him.
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And Mark will go on and tell us with all of our strength.
Verse 38. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourselves. On these two commandments depends all the law and the prophets. How do we love God?
With all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength. By believing in the name of Jesus Christ. So many Christians today, they don't make this connection. They say, oh, there's no way that we can love God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, with all of our strength.
My dear friend John tells us it's by believing in the name of Jesus Christ. I stand here today and I confess to you that I love God with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my strength, with all of my mind, because I believe in the name of Jesus Christ.
I believe in it.
I truly believe in Jesus Christ. And by doing so, I love God with all of my heart. But I also love my neighbors as myself. This is the one that I truly struggle with the most, though. Some of you guys are hard to love.
Yeah, especially. I know that I'm hard to love. And Jesus tells us in our text, John chapter 13, verse 35, that this is how people know we are his. Oh, you say you're with Jesus, but the proof's in the pudding.
Look back at our chapter, verse 35. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.
If you have love for one another.
Question.
Do outsiders know that you are Christians by your love for one another? Fair question.
Do outsiders, do unbelievers know that you're a Christian by your love for one another? He doesn't tell us that we will be recognized by some kind of outward apparel, such as a yarmulke or barka,.
But that his people will be known by their love for one another. Not even for our love for them.
We're not going to be known by feeding lost people, but by feeding sheep. That the goats are going to know that we are sheep because we love the sheep. Do the people of Tallahoma know that we're Christians?
The people of Tallahoma should know we're Christians, not because we go out and do evangelism, but because we love one another. Or how about this? Do other Christian denominations know that we Reformed Baptists love them, or are we training up denominational rat kings?
I love a good debate. I think every Christian should be a Reformed Baptist, but when we get into the Catholic small C church universal, the Presbyterians are our brothers. You don't have to be a Reformed Baptist to be a Christian, and if I said that you did, we would be a cult.
And just because you're not gathered here doesn't mean we don't love you, or doesn't mean we shouldn't show love to them. We do not need to be training up denominational rat kings. We're not sent out here to make everybody like us, to consume them.
We're not.
How much better would it be if we'd go out and we love the assemblies of God, love the Presbyterian?
How much better would that be?
Oh, to be known as someone who loves other believers in the same way that I'm known as believing in Jesus Christ. In closing, man, this hour goes fast.
I got one minute.
Let us not be like Peter, who only heard a portion of the text. Only heard a portion of what Jesus is saying, but let us know this book. Can we know this book? Let us know this book. Let us live our lives knowing where he is.
One day we will be also, but until then, let us believe in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as ourselves. My dear friends, do you love me?
Fair question.
Do you love me? Because that's how you're going to be known as a Christian. Look around, is there someone here that you just can't stand? That's sanctification. He's working on us.
We're to be known by our love for one another.
And my dear friends, you might be here today and you're not a Christian. Listen to me, there's no issue. You have no assurance in this life, nor do you have assurance after this life. The only thing that you can hope for is that this life will be heaven to you, and what you're hoping to be heaven for you is a curse-filled world where rape and murder and molestation and baby killing and all these things exist.
This is your heaven.
This is it.
When you die, your death is going to deliver you to a sentence of hell.
You have no assurance.
And the gospel is that Jesus Christ lived the life that you could not live.
You cannot please God.
God pleases God in sending his son as the propitiation, your payment for your wrongdoing, who lived the life that you could not live and who took the punishment that you deserve, was buried, and on the third day he rose again.
And my dear friends, if you would believe,.
If you would believe,.
If you would put your trust in what God has done for you, this day you could have life and have assurance. You can be forgiven of your sins by looking to Jesus Christ in faith. Because outside of that, you have no hope.
Repent. Believe the gospel and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are justified by faith and our baptism is the initial act of God sanctifying us. We are available to anyone who wants to talk.
Pastor Cal and myself, we have come to a moment before I pray that we're going to celebrate in baptism. If someone would help me.
