“Knowing You Know” - FBC Morning Light (11/21/2023)

Faith Baptist Church

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A good Tuesday morning of Thanksgiving week. What are you thankful for today?

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How do you start your day? One of the ways I try to begin each day is

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I start every day with a good cup of coffee and my

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Bible and my notebook. One of the things I try to make a practice of doing is writing down at least three things that I'm grateful for each morning.

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It can be anything, large or small. What are you thankful for today? Well, I wanted to take each day this week, take a few seconds and express gratitude for something particularly that comes up in our

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Bible reading. Today in our Bible reading plan, we're reading Ezekiel 47 and 48, so we're finishing up the book of Ezekiel today, and 1

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John chapter 2. It's in 1 John 2, the first verse, that brings up something that I am exceedingly thankful for.

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That is that I have, by God's grace, I have an advocate with the

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Father. Remember that verse? He says, I write these things that you don't sin, and if you do sin, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.

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There can't be anything better than that, anything greater to be more thankful for today, that I have an advocate with the

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Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we continue in 1 John, a couple of things

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I wanted to mention is that John talks a lot about love in this book, love for God and love for the brethren.

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How do I know that I know God and love him?

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John brings that up in this passage, because he says this in verse 3, he says,

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By this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says,

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I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

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That's a pretty good test. If somebody says, I'm a Christian, I know God, I'm a

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Christian, but they have no desire or evidence of obeying

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God's Word, then there's no basis for them to say,

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I know God. That should be a pretty good test for them.

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If you have no interest, no desire whatsoever to obey God and do what he says, then you have every reason in the world to doubt whatsoever that you know him.

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He goes on here in this passage, and he says, Whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.

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That is, it's made complete in him. By this we know that we are in him.

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He who says he abides in him, ought himself also so to walk just as he walked.

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Again, a good evidence of knowing God is going to be seen in my life.

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Am I obedient to his word as a practice of my life, as a general rule of my life?

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Am I obedient to his word? Not as a slavish thing, like, oh,

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I got to do this, or God's going to get me. No, not at all. But I am obedient to his word in gratitude and in love for his love for me.

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I respond to his love and his grace extended to me by loving him in return with loving, willing, delightful, joyful obedience.

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I obey because I love him. Later on in the chapter, near the end of the chapter, beginning in verse 15,

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John points out that we can't really say we love God if we love the world.

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You see that in verse 15. He says, Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world.

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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He goes on to give a little bit of a very general, broad definition of what he means by the things of the world.

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He says, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the

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Father, but is of the world. Going back to our tests, how can

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I know that I love God? How can I know that I know him? Do I willfully, joyfully practice an obedience to his word?

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Does that mark and characterize my life? A second question, it's not unrelated whatsoever, is do

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I love God or do I love the world? Am I more passionate about fulfilling the desires of my eyes and the desires of my flesh?

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Am I more passionate about exalting and lifting up myself and the things that make for the pride of life?

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Or do I love the Father? If I love the things of the world, John says,

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Don't claim to love the Father. Love the Father is not in him who loves the world. These are some pretty good, challenging, and pointed ways to evaluate the reality of our knowing and loving our

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Heavenly Father. Again, I want to close the way I began. I'm grateful that in those occasions when

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I allow a love for the world to so infect me that I sin, that I have an advocate with the

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Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Verse 9 tells me that if I confess my sins, that he, my

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Heavenly Father, is faithful and just to forgive me of those sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

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If I really love the Father, then I'll want to do that. I'll want to confess so that I can be cleansed.

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I hope you know that joy and that blessing of the advocate with the

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Father that we have in Christ. Our Father and our God, we do thank you today for Jesus. We thank you that he is the advocate for the believer in Christ.

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Father, thank you for the way that you have provided for the cleansing of our sins.

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Bless these thoughts to us today. We ask in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Have a great