His Commandments Are Not Burdensome

Please remain standing for the reading of the word We are now in 1st.

John chapter 5 the last chapter in our study in 1st.

John this is

God's holy and infallible word 1st. John chapter 5 whoever believes that Jesus is the

Christ is born of God and And everyone who loves him who begot

Also loves him who is begotten of him By this we know that we love the children of God when we love

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

For whatever is born of God Overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith

Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the

Son of God This is he who came by water and blood Jesus Christ Not only by water, but by water and blood

It is the Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth

For there are three that bear witness in heaven the Father the Word and the

Holy Spirit And these three are one and there are three that bear witness on earth the

Spirit the water and the blood and these three agree as One if receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater

For this is the witness of God which he has testified of his son

He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself He who does not believe

God has made him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his son and This is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son

He who has the Son of God He who has the Son excuse me has life he who does not have the

Son of God does not have life These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the

Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and That you may continue to believe in the name of the

Son of God Let's pray with me now. Oh Lord our

Lord. How majestic is your name and all the earth? we believe that Jesus is the

Christ and Therefore we are born of God. Oh Lord I pray that that faith would yield love for you and love for the brethren

But also a love and an earnest desire to keep your commandments

Oh Holy Spirit we ask that you would do a work in us that we would mortify sin

And clothe ourselves in the righteousness of Christ. We ask all this in Jesus name

Amen, please be seated. I Originally intended to preach first five verses when

I started thinking about chapter five, but I'm going to do Two shorter messages instead of one longer one

And I think it'll be more focused for us to consider verses 1 through 3 today in our message

It's important that we remember that God has given us his word

Not to confuse us but to reveal himself to us

He is Disclosing about his character and he is telling us what we are required to do as his children so any time we crack open the word be it in our own devotional life in our family time of devotions or Particularly under the preaching of the word on Sundays.

We should be attentive We should be sitting on the edge of our seat because God is speaking to us

Through his word and today we have three verses only to consider in 1st

John 5 The title of the message today is his commandments are not burdensome

His commandments are not burdensome For those of you who need an outline,

I forgot to put it on slack first very simply born of God It's right there in verse 1

Second is found in verse 2 loving God and keeping his commandments and Three the third verse his commandments are not

Burdensome born of God Loving God and keeping his commandments his

Commandments are not burdensome It's important again for us to reflect upon the reason that John has written what is his purpose in writing and as we've gone through the book, we've seen how prominent love is, but He's also started at the outset and it's here in our text today eternal life is found in Jesus Christ alone

There is no salvation There is no eternal life apart from Christ We sometimes think about our

Jewish friends. We think they're misguided because they haven't fully embraced Jesus They don't know

God They don't know God the Father because they have rejected Jesus the Son.

We must remember that we have friends who seem well -intentioned who seem to have a

Modicum of a Christian worldview But if they do not believe in the exclusivity of salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ They are not saved

They are in danger of the judgment they need to be Implored they need to be convinced.

They need to be admonished to repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and John has said it at the outset and it's been interspersed

We must never be untethered unanchored from Christ and his gospel

Think about that section as we read in chapter 5 how many times he said that you continue to believe in the name of The Son of God we too believe that Jesus is the

Christ But that genuine faith in Christ alone brings about something else

It brings us into fellowship with God the Father the Son and the

Holy Spirit and Which has been so central to John's thinking It causes us to be in fellowship and in communion with one another with all of those who believe in him

And it seems that understanding of our fellowship with God and with his people is a

Source and leads to the fullness of joy According to John, but there are also if you'll remember three threats against that fellowship first false teachers who deny

That Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he's come in the flesh all of the implications of Christ in the gospel

It's not just disbelieving the incarnation. It's a disbelief in Christ Second and this hits very close to home for us

There's a danger and a threat to our fellowship with God and with one another and it's worldliness Worldliness is a real and legitimate

Threat to our communion with God and one another and third and maybe most prominently in John the want of Christian love we have to remember that love is really the linchpin of Our faith in Christ we have been loved of God Therefore we love

God and we love his people and today John tells us again

We love and keep his Commandments If you've been born of God you have three loves

God Father Son and Holy Spirit the brethren and again very heart -searching today his

Commandments Let's get into the exegesis of the text first.

Let's look again at verse 1 whoever

Believes that of course is that Greek word that we get faith from pistis in a form of that word

But believing here is to entrust It's used by John of various degrees of faith

Whoever believes That Jesus is the Christ from its first beginnings its

Incipient stirring in the heart and soul of a man up to the fullest of assurance

It is this idea of believing we think about believing as a one -time act

Believing is the characteristic of the Christian life we believe

He admonishes us to continue to believe at the end of this section to continue to believe in the name of the

Son of God It also believing also repudiates all the various things which

Aside from Christ are commended as a means of salvation We're not saved by our obedience.

We're not saved by coming to church We can attach religious things and say these are the ways in which we're saved when in fact

The person of Christ and his work and his grace the love of God Shed abroad in our hearts.

This is the only means of salvation. So there is an exclusivity in believing

That Jesus is the Christ and it is a belief that trusts in an absolute sense

I am jumping into eternity trusting that I will land safely in the arms of the

Lord Jesus Christ What takes us to another word that we say so much and the name of Jesus is often attached with it

Christ It's not his last name Sometimes we think he's maybe it's his last name, but the

Christ means he's the anointed one Jesus is the anointed one.

Jesus is the Messiah He is that coming King that Israel long waited for who the

Jews expected to be the Savior of their nation and the author of their highest good

John here declares that this Jesus the Son of God is the long -awaited

Messiah He's the one who's going to bring life and life Abundantly, we must look upon Jesus as our life

Not only as our salvation from hell But our our life itself our life in this earthly body and in the future and eternity

Jesus is Our life. He's our Messiah. He is our

Savior he is the anointed one and we are blessed because we are united to the anointed one the

Christ If you believe this It says in our text you are born of God This is an amazing thing for us to consider

We've already discussed this in John 1st John that we are children of God We usually think about this in procreation a descendant

But here we should understand that we have been inborn with God's Spirit we have been made alive in Christ We are

God's offspring and in that Jewish sense one who brings others over to his way of life as a father bears resemblance to his children as children to their father

So to those born of God began to be brought over to God's side of things and there's something peculiar about John's usage of born in both the gospel and in this first epistle

It is God conferring upon men the nature and disposition of his sons

This is a work of God himself When David preaches the gospel in the streets, it's not because of the craftiness of David's message

If someone is born of born again, it's because God has conferred upon men that nature and disposition of Sonship he imparts to them

Spiritual life by his own holy power So if you are a Christian if you're here today

You have been born of God and it's been because of God's Powerful working in you.

He has made you his son He's done it by his own holy power

That's why the exclusivity of faith is how we're saved. We don't earn it.

We don't merit it It's only because God has worked powerfully in us.

This is how we become born of God His own holy power prompts and persuades souls to put their faith in Christ and Which we are talking about today, which so central to this

Message today in our section is and to live a new life that is consecrated to himself

It's not only the get out of hell pass. It is a new manner of living

Christ is our life God has taken us to be his sons and daughters

Consequently, we've been born of God. That means that we live a new and a different kind of life as a result

First one continues. It says everyone who loves him Referring to God certainly referring to Christ the begetter the one who begot

Also loves him this is the brethren who is begotten of him And I think we tend to think about this as first being

Christ certainly We love the Son of God But I think the interpreters of the

New King James did it right when they capitalized the first him and not the second the second him is

The people of God those who have been begotten of him and we've been talking about this at length in 1st

John The rationale continues in verse 2

The Christian born of God is united to the only begotten Son He also loves those who are born of him and that takes us to verse 2 which says by this

We know that we love the children of God see how that connects to the verse before We love those who are begotten of him.

We love all of the children. I have to stop you again and ask Do you love all of God's people?

Do you love the Arminians? Do you love the dispensationalist? Do you love those who have different?

Theological stripes than you if they be in Christ, they are our brethren

We are called to love them in spite of our differences. I implore you to shed your hatred and discuss with some of God's people if They be in Christ.

We love them. We can take great exception with them. We can have great debates with them We can challenge them in their errant doctrine

But we can't stop loving them because they have been loved by God just like we have

By this we know that we love the children of God And here it is the central part of our message today when we love

God and Keep his Commandments, I like us to turn back to John's gospel in chapter 14, please

John chapter 14 We believe in a faith that works

Believing is not a work, but genuine faith produces a work

John 14 beginning at verse 15 it says If you love me keep my commandments

Sounds like our text doesn't it? There is no loving

God without an yearning and earnest desire to keep his commandments

We all should be challenged here We all have been products and experience easy

Believism we believe in a gospel. It's very easy when in fact, it's so hard that it took the

Son of God going to the cross and If we believe there is an ethical a moral

Obligation for us as those who are born of God who have their life identity rooted and founded in Christ to now

Love all of the things that he loves He fulfills every demand of God's law because it was required of him and so we too must desire and seek after obedience to all of his

Commandments Verse 16 of chapter 14 of John's gospel says and I will pray the father and he will give you another helper

That he may abide with you forever just for a sneak peek We're going to be talking more about the

Spirit's work Lord willing Next week it comes up in our text So you see John has this mind here that this teaching of Jesus that he heard with his own ears

He's really expounding on it in his epistle in 1st John 5 the

Spirit of truth verse 17 Whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and Will be in you

We are the sons of God verse 18. I will not leave you as orphans.

I Will come to you so this sonship is also a promise of that we will not be orphaned and this

Prevention of orphan like behavior in us is accomplished by the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit Again, more of that will come next week Lord willing a few more verses here in verse 19

Starting in John 14 again a little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me

Because I live you will live also At that day you will know that I am in the

Father and you and me and I and you isn't that glorious It sounds like the high priestly prayer of John 17.

I am in the Father and you're in me and I'm in you We are united to the

Christ the anointed one the Son of God and because we're united to the Christ the Son of God We're united to God the

Father and because we're united to God the Father the Holy Spirit dwells within us spectacular

And all of its elements verse 21 He who has my commandments and keeps them

It is he who loves me young ladies

Someday a young man will come into your life making a lot of promises About how much he loves you, but there has to be accompanying actions

Talk is cheap Men have learned that they can use words and they can convince ladies to do things

Talk is cheap Jesus says my love will not be cheapened by mere words

If you say you love me the actions have to accompany the words

He who has my commandments and keeps them. Those are the ones That love me we make great boasts in our theological knowledge

We take great stock in our learning does our Actions match our words.

Do we really love him? Do we want to keep his commandments? Now we know we can't do this perfectly

We know we need a Savior but we have one in Christ that should spur us on to greater heights of obedience because he has

Trail blazed the path for us that we might walk in these works If you love me keep my commands

The one who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him

Judas not Iscariot said to him Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus Answered and said to him If anyone loves me He will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him

Isn't that what this is all about why we've gathered here today That God the dwelling place of God dwells with men

We are the abode of God God dwells with us his people because of this love

We've been united to Christ in faith. We have the Holy Spirit. We are the sons of God But listen to verse 24

He who does not love me does not keep my words And the word which you hear is not mine

But the father who sent me Don't turn there, but make your way back to our texts and I'm going to read something from the

Sermon on the Mount Very early it happens And it kind of puts to rest this idea that obedience doesn't matter

We don't have a cheap grace here. We don't have an easy believism We have a miraculous work of God transforming sinners into sons

So we have the power now and the ability because God dwells within us

He's come and making it made his home with us We now have this great capacity for obedience and in fact an affinity and a love for it.

We should Jesus says Early in the Sermon on the

Mount do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I Do not come to destroy but to fulfill for assuredly

I say to you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or One tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled

The jots and tittles are the small marks over Hebrew and Greek words horns and accent marks in Excruciating detail

Christ is going to keep the law. So Commandments are not insignificant to God Commandments are important to God so much that Jesus is going to fulfill it to the letter and even to the breathing marks

The horns of the Hebrew out. He's gonna bring every detail. He's going to fulfill whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and Teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven

But whoever does and teaches them he shall be called Great in the kingdom of heaven for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven

You should already be back at 1st John when we love

God we keep his commandments a commandment is a charge an injunction a prescribed rule

In an ethical sense in a biblical sense it's used of the commandments of the

Mosaic law the Ten Commandments And all of the implications of them.

It also means the commandments of God especially as is promulgated in the

Christian religion Think about the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is clarity and fullness

Which he adds not taking one jot or tittle away from the law but showing the depth and breadth of it

This is what Jesus preached His commandment keeping the moral precepts of Christ here the commandments and his apostles the whole body of the moral precepts of Christianity We don't pick and choose some commandments and not the others and that's very popular in our day.

We emphasize some we're very Zealous about a few of them and we're not so zealous about the others

Commandments Commandments don't have that Wiggle room we have to keep them which means we have to carry them out.

We have to execute them as they are given We have to perform and accomplish what they require.

We have to do the thing of keeping commandments This should be very challenging for you.

We're not we didn't pray through the Ten Commandments today, but If we were to take some stock in inventory of the

Ten Commandments I can think of glaring violations in the Ten Commandments even today

Not thought rightly about God. I'm not thought rightly about my neighbor You and I must have greater discipline greater integrity about keeping the commandments of God Well, it takes us to the third verse

Really where the message lands in our hearts But this is the love of God that we

Keep his commandments Do you love the commandments?

Do you view them as? restrictive The commandments of God are not burdensome to the

Christian because of the relationship the communion He enjoys with God the mind of God is revealed to us in the scripture

The Holy Spirit dwells within us. We look to the Exemplar Jesus and we see the commandments being perfectly fulfilled.

We see it being walked out in flesh We see it being performed perfectly

There are three reasons why the commandments could be burdensome to us And it's because of the three enemies that we face on a daily basis

The world the flesh and the devil The enemy has a predictable plan he's been using it

He keeps going back to the playbook because it works. He says to us did

God really say He says to us that's not really that important There's an implication he tries to deceive us by saying that God is withholding something from us

We have to Fundamentally believe and have a different view of God's law and his commandments.

This is the better way to live The world has nothing for us.

I say that to my children all the time that world out there has nothing for us God has given us everything we need and this is the better way to live

This isn't a restriction that takes away our joy When we get into this river of blessing of obedience we find fullness of joy

How do you think? Adam and Eve felt

Prior to being deceived by the serpents and willfully in Adam's case

Disobeying the command of God you think they felt better after the fall They didn't

Why are we so foolish? Does Israel do better when they disobey the commands of God or are they crushed under the chastening?

Are they crushed under the weight of exile and being conquered by enemies? Why do we fall for the enemy's deception?

God is not withholding one good thing from us. In fact, he's given us everything and giving us his son and giving us

Christ The enemy has a predictable plan

He's like a roaring lion prowling around seeing who he could devour and we say

Oh enemy We see your wiles We know your deceptions

You say the commandments of God are burdensome we say they're not in faith

Second his commandments become burdensome to us when we succumb to the sins of the flesh the sin nature of fallen man

In you the old man in you inclines your hearts for sin

Often think of the illustration of the heroin addict. It's going to kill him, but he has to take it

We have to be convinced again and again we have to believe that Feeding our sin nature is destructive to us

Sabotaging our joy it sabotages our peace It causes a fissure between us and the

Lord We view God's commandments as burdensome when we feed the flesh

In fact, it seems that this is the precursor to a lot of Great Falls even the recent fall of a prominent pastor

It's to forget that Christ is better That the new life that he gives and supplies by the power of his spirit is better than the old one

We have to wage war against our own flesh because our flesh still wants things that are bad for us and Finally the world

Everything you consume all of the images on the billboards what's on the radio?

What's on your phone? the Unbelieving system says that the commandments of God are burdensome.

It's too heavy a load to carry It would be too heavy a load if it not be not for Christ But we have

Christ and his yoke is easy His burden is light

Do you believe that his commandments are not burdensome? It requires some some effort

Burdensome and the original means properly heavy It's weighty

It's even described in the scriptures as something that is grievous it presses down on a person with an oppressive force and an

Unbelief feels the weight of God and it presses him down But the Christian has a new affinity because he sees it for what it is

It's an act of love for God from God to his people Burdensome is such a grievous burden that it makes a person unable to function or enjoy free movement

The lies of the world the flesh and the devil said God's commands are burdensome

They're weighty they're heavy but faith faith in Christ lifts the weight

And the pressure gives way to true freedom again,

Christ's yoke is easy and His burden is light you think obedience is painful

Wait to experience the pain of disobedience This requires some soul -searching and maybe a little bit more time in application.

Let's go to that now What is your?

Disposition toward the commandments of God in Scripture Do you see that there is life think about Psalm 119?

We've sung a portion of that recently It's a big long Psalm from A to Z in the

Hebrew alphabet It tells us the blessings of God's law and his commandments

There's life to be found there because they point us to Christ the one who keeps the law and give us a pattern of living a fruitful and joyful and thankful pattern of living

Children do not fall prey to the lies of the enemy Put down even your young flesh

Do not listen to the world the commandments of God our life and Liberty They are not burdensome to the child of God What is your disposition toward God's commands second part of that question

And this is harder. Are you actively and earnestly seeking to obey them?

We have to acknowledge in some ways. The answer is no we need to repent of that today

We need to earnestly seek out search out the scriptures that we might know what those commandments are

And we must earnestly desire to obey them Trusting him to bless us in our striving for obedience third part of this question

Do you truly believe that God's way is not only right There's kind of this resignation sometimes among the people that I know

I should obey the commands I know that it's right. It just doesn't feel as good. I know it's right

But do you actually believe in faith in Christ because you're children of God that it tends toward your highest good

It's an act of faith. It's an act of believing that God's way is better It's better for one man to be married for one moment to one woman for a life than it is to have a bunch of Girlfriends, it's so much better You believe it tends toward your joy and highest good it's an act of faith

It does Second remember in our study of James that just as faith without works is dead so to Love for God without obedience

Turns out to be not love for God at all. You cannot say that you love him without actions

The sentiment must be matched with action You must keep his commandments and when you fail you must run to Christ again in faith and say thank you

Jesus for keeping the commandments Enable me to keep them more

Competently help me to be more faithful to walk in your ways Third we have to be honest with ourselves.

We know we've learned recently that God loves us and he Wants us to come to him and Integrity and honesty.

He actually knows our sin and he understands our sin We too have to be honest about our sin in what ways today.

Are you? committing or cherishing sin Holy Spirit, I pray that you would uproot this in the hearts of these your people today

What are you failing to do? There are sins. There are great sins of omission There are things we should be doing that we're not doing

These are great sins of omission and we need to know what they are that we might start acting appropriately

What may be more heart -searching for us are what commandments are we? Rebelliously Blatantly defying

What sins are we committing? Are we comfortable with? I pray that today you would no longer be comfortable in your sin

And the Holy Spirit would pluck it out of you and uproot it and you would set fire to it

Never to turn back again Act today

Do the good you ought to do turn from every transgression repent adopt

God's precepts his commandments as your own finally all of this requires faith

It requires a powerful working of the Holy Spirit and we've learned

That God has furnished both of those for us. He's given us faith He's given us his

Holy Spirit We now have the power within us by God's help

To keep his commandments to turn from sin You need today to believe that the

Lord's way is far superior to the ways of the world to the ways of our old man the flesh and To that great deceiver the ways of the devil brethren the whole of human history is a proof positive of the failure of men

When they've said that God's commandments are burdensome Every pain every suffering you see is a result of this

You have previously become expert at seeing sin in others

You can identify sin in the culture It's very easy, but can you hold up the mirror of God's Word and see the sin in yourself?

Oh, Holy Spirit. We ask you again to show us our sin Give us the courage and the resolve the faith to mortify it finally you and I have been great sinners, but It's been said many times the most famously by Newton we have great need of Savior we have a great

Savior for our need Christ asked for forgiveness today

Trust in Christ the one who saves Do not wallow in guilt and self -pity

But today turn from those things and walk in the newness of life That God has furnished and supplied for us in him

The Lord has given us many commandments

His commandments are not burdensome to us We have believed we must believe again

And we need to believe again tomorrow and the next day until we die that Jesus is the

Christ We love everyone who has been begotten of him

We love his children. We love his people and all of our deficiencies Oh Lord, we ask that you would shore it up by your grace and mercy

Help us to have an earnest and sincere love for you and for your people Give us a holy desire stir up affection in us that we would keep your commandments and Oh Lord help us to exercise this great faith and See and attest and prove

That your commandments are not burdensome We ask all this in the name of our