Keep sharing good news without ads.
Reading 1 John 2:3-4 about keeping the commands of God and knowing through obedience that we have saving faith. Visit wwutt.com for all of our videos!
Jesus Christ has freed us from the law of sin and death. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a law for us to follow. It means that now we're able to keep the law in a way that's pleasing to God when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .tt .com.
Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. We continue our study of 1 John 2, verses one through six again today. The apostle writes, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also the sins of the whole world. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
Whoever says, I know him, but does not 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 may know that we are in him.
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Looking again at verse one, which we looked at yesterday, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now, someone may look at this verse and they might see in this verse a license to sin. I can do whatever I want to do because God's gonna forgive me for it anyway.
I'm covered with the grace of Jesus Christ so I can sin freely and not have to worry about the wrath of the judgment of God. Well, John qualifies exactly what he's talking about here in verse three. By this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. No, we do not have a license to sin or do whatever it is that we want knowing, hey, God is just gonna cover over my sin anyway.
It's the religious version of it's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. This is a false doctrine known as antinomianism, or as I've also heard it described, greasy grace. I can sin and do whatever I want and God's greasy grace is just gonna cover over me and forgive me for whatever it is that I do.
Paul stated plainly in Romans chapter six, to no longer submit your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but submit your members to God as instruments for righteousness. If we are dead to sin, how can we still live in it?
We need to live to God and to his righteousness and those who are in Christ will do the things that he did, just as John is saying here in first John chapter two. There was a woman in my church, as a matter of fact, she was very influential and motivating me to apply for the pastor position that I have.
And it was while I was preaching through Romans that she got very frustrated with me. One of her favorite verses of all time was Romans chapter six, verse 14, you are not under law, but under grace. And so then she would get very frustrated when I would go on from there to read, what then, are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace, by no means.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.
And then I would clarify with the congregation that Romans 6, 14 is in no way saying that we are free to sin or we have license to sin. Rather, we still must obey the commands of God. It is still upon the followers of Christ Jesus to obey his commands.
Jesus said to his disciples, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. And this woman got very upset at me that I would do that. And so then as I continued preaching through Romans, I would preach through Romans chapter seven and I got to the end of chapter seven and the last two verses, Paul says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. And she came up to me after service and she said, why didn't you resolve that passage with Romans chapter eight, verse one?
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And I said to her, if I had resolved chapter seven with chapter eight, verse one, I would have to keep going into verse two. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
And so I said to her, do you not see that the word of God says over and over to us that we must obey the commands of God? And she got very angry with me about that and left the church and never came back.
She had been at the church longer than I had been there. And yet she was so angry that anybody would say to another Christian that you have to obey the law of God. You still have to obey his commandments.
The difference between who we were before we came to Christ and who we are in Christ is that before we came to Christ, we could do nothing to please God. In Christ, we're able to keep the commands of God in a way that keep the commands in a way that are pleasing to him.
I was trying to find the right verb there, the right verb tense, in a way that is pleasing to God in a way that are pleasing to God. Anyway, we are able to obey God's commands in a way, I'm gonna do the same thing here, in a way that is pleasing to him.
Whereas before Christ, we couldn't do that. Our deeds were as filthy rags. Before the Holy Spirit was living within us, we could do nothing that was pleasing in the sight of God. It is only since we have been transformed in his spirit and are being made more like the Savior, as it goes on to say in Romans 8, verse 29, being shaped, conformed to the image of Christ, it is only in this that we are pleasing and acceptable to God, because Christ has made us that way.
Again, we read in 1 John 2, 1, if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We have righteous standing with God because Christ is righteous, not because we've done anything righteous.
And then those who are in Christ will do the things that he did. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. So my brothers and sisters, don't ever let it be said to you.
Don't ever let yourself be deceived into believing that you are free to sin and God's just gonna forgive you for it. Sin all you want. The difference between before you came to Christ and who you are now is now you're able to sin and be forgiven for it, where previously you were sinning and you were gonna go to hell for it, but now you're gonna be forgiven your sins.
That's not what John is saying. It's not what Paul says in Romans either. In fact, Peter says this. Peter says the following in 1 Peter 2. He says, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. He goes on in verse 16, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God, as slaves to God in righteousness, as Paul also talked about in Romans.
And so we who are in Christ must do the things that Christ did. If we love him, we will keep his commandments. By this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. And again, John is giving assurances to his hearers to know that they have Christ in their lives.
I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We're not righteous, he's righteous. It's one of the ways that we know that we are saved is because we have an advocate in Christ.
When you've sinned and you've made mistakes and you have broken God's law and you are grieved over your sin, there is no reason for you to have to weep on the ground and say, I've fallen out of God's favor.
He no longer loves me. I have lost my salvation. I'm going to go to hell now because of the sin that I have committed. There's no reason for you to feel that way about your sin if you know that the blood of Christ is covering you and is atoned for your sins and you stand before God as justified.
We have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, who is saying to God, I have covered his sins. I have covered a multitude of her sins. She is still right with God because of what Christ has done. He is our advocate.
And as we talked about yesterday, it doesn't just mean that Christ is taking our requests before God. It also means that Jesus is appealing to God on our behalf and speaking favorably of us, loving of us, because his righteousness has been imputed to us.
He is the propitiation for our sins. We read in verse two, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. There are many who are included in this family of God. There are many for whom Jesus Christ advocates, not just me, not just you who are listening to this lesson, not just John writing this letter, and not just those whom he was writing to, but many others from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and language have been drawn to the father by Jesus Christ for whom he is advocating before the father.
And by this, we know that we have come to know him. So once again, another one of these assurances that John presents to us that we know that we are saved. By this, we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandments.
Every once in a while, I will have someone come to me and will say to me that they struggle with matters of assurance. I don't know that I am saved. Please help me, pastor. How can I know that I am saved?
And I will take them through 1 John, and I'll go through various points in 1 John where John is talking to his readers about how they can know that they are saved. And I'll not necessarily present a list, but just kind of present the highlights to this other person.
But as I conclude going through those things and encouraging this person to read through 1 John themselves and understand these passages and have them written on their hearts, as I get to the end of that conversation, I don't say to them, well, according to what you've said to me, I think you're saved.
I don't say that because I can't actually know that. And how do I know that they're not just feeding me lies? They're not just giving me the answers that I want to hear. Rather, I am saying to them what the spirit says according to the word of God.
And they will be able to determine in their own hearts whether they truly believe this or whether they have refused to listen to the word of God and instead are listening to their own mind and conscience.
By this, we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandment. So as I give them the word of God, it's the word of God that's gonna convict them of sin. I can't popishly declare, like the Pope does, that a person is saved or not saved.
I can't do that. I don't know. The only person who can know that you are really saved is you. You're the only person that can know that. I can't tell you that. Nobody can tell you that. I mean, you can give all the right answers, but there's no one that can absolutely declare that you're saved or you're not saved.
This was what the rich young ruler wanted Jesus to say of him in Mark 10 when he came before Jesus and said, good teacher, what do I have to do to gain eternal life? And Jesus said, you know the commands.
Honor your father and your mother. Do not defraud, do not murder, do not commit adultery. The rich young ruler says, hey, all these and more I have kept from my youth. Jesus said, but I hold this against you.
Go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and then come follow me. And so Jesus, knowing his heart, knew that just because he had kept all of these commands, his heart was still far from God.
And he was not gonna tell the rich young ruler what it was that he wanted to hear. Well, it looks to me like based on this checklist that you're telling me that you have done, that, hey, you must be saved.
That's not the way Jesus approached the rich young ruler. He knew the young ruler's heart, which is why from the very beginning when the rich young ruler addressed him as good teacher, Jesus responded, why do you call me good?
He said, no one is good but God alone. In other words, Jesus knew this rich young man did not actually see Jesus as God and yet he was calling him good. So Jesus was challenging his heart from the outset by saying, why do you call me good?
No one is good but God. You have to know that I am God to truly call me good, to truly know what is good. And then he goes through the law with him and he holds out one command, do not covet and says, I hold this against you, you covet.
You have your treasures stored here on earth with the stuff that you possess. So go sell it and give it to the poor and then you'll have treasure in heaven because you won't be bound to your stuff here on earth anymore.
You will be, you'll be looking heavenward and thinking of the things of heaven rather than the things of this earth. Then come and follow me and the rich young ruler wouldn't do it. So Jesus didn't give him the answer that he wanted to hear.
And I'm careful as a pastor not to do the same thing. Whenever somebody asks of me or says to me, I'm not sure that I'm saved. Now in my own flesh, I'll tell you, I struggle in my flesh. Whenever a person is telling me, I do this, I do this and I understand this about the scriptures and we're talking theology and we're talking shop, in my flesh, I wanna say, well, brother, it sounds to me like you're a Christian.
You understand stuff better than most Christians I know have been Christians for 20 years. So surely you've gotta be saved. So in my flesh, I'm tempted to wanna say that, but I can't, I can't. It's not for me to know that.
Like I don't know that they're not just feeding me a line. It is only the word of God that can convict a person's heart of their sin to know the things of God and desire to follow after the footsteps of their savior to do the things that he did.
The word of God will lead them to that. I can't make them do it. I can't save anybody. So therefore I can't even declare that a person is saved or not saved. Now, as a pastor in my church, I will know them by their fruits.
That's something else that Jesus said to his disciples. You will know them by their fruit. A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. And so I can look at a person's behavior and I can hear the confessions that they make with their mouth.
And I can know that they're part of the brotherhood of Christ. And so therefore, yes, you can participate in this Sunday school class. Yes, you can teach these kids. Yes, you can start a Bible study. You know, I can see that fruit in their lives that leads me to know that they are truly walking in the Lord.
But when a person is coming to me doubting their salvation, I can't declare whether or not you're saved if that doubt exists in your heart. And this is why to those who are doubting their salvation, I will tell them to read 1 John, read it over and over and over again.
As we started this study, I talked about reading it every day, all five chapters every day for 30 days as this truth gets written on your heart. And it's these things that is gonna challenge you to know whether or not you're saved because John provides so many things here.
Here's how you will know that you are saved. And I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin. As you hear the word of God spoken to you and it's being written on your heart, you won't sin. You will think of the things of God instead of being tempted by the things of this world, drawn to the stuff of this world.
Instead of wanting to complain about your circumstances or fight or squabble with one another in your disagreements, you will instead be filled with the word of Christ and it keeps you from sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
We haven't lost our salvation. We haven't fallen out of favor with God. We now have Jesus Christ who is advocating for us before God. I read a quote from Burke Parsons that said that we need to no longer be asking for more of Jesus.
We can't have any more Jesus. He's given us all that he is gonna give us. We have all of Jesus. We need less of ourselves. Oftentimes we fall too much into ourselves. We rely too much upon ourselves. We're full of ourselves.
We need less of ourselves. So that we might focus on all of Jesus who has been given to us by the Father. And he is advocating for us before the Father. He is the propitiation for our sins and not ours only, but also the sins of the whole world.
And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. And then we'll conclude with the last two verses of this section, verses five and six tomorrow.
Our Lord God, we thank you so much for your truth and your word that we may know that we are saved. That we can know that in Jesus Christ, we've been rescued from our sins and into the righteousness of God.
And in this book, we've also been given the commands of God. And so by the transformation that has happened to us in Jesus Christ, we are able to do what you have called us to do in a way that we know is pleasing to you.
As it says in Ephesians 2 .10, that we are God's workmanship prepared by him to do good works, which he has fixed for us beforehand. So there are things that we are to do, commands we are to obey, a law we are to keep, a law that doesn't save us, but a law that we can follow in a way that is pleasing to God in worship to God, because we've been transformed in Jesus Christ.
So we thank you for the faith that we have been given, this transformation that has happened in us. And then the commands of God that we can delight in doing because there is great joy and obedience when we obey God.
Teach us to do this all the more in your precious name. Amen.
Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.