Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
All right, so your Bibles will be in First John tonight.
First John, chapter two.
Thank you, Pastor Josh, for allowing me to share God's word tonight.
And it's been such an encouragement.
Pastor sermons in the last several Sundays to Second Corinthians.
And as I was praying about a passage that God wanted to speak
from, it was just incredible.
This morning's sermon, specifically how there were many
passages that just tied right in with the idea of abiding in Christ,
sustaining our lives in God's commandments through his Word.
And then he quoted the passage directly this morning in the sermon.
I was like, wow.
I was like, that's awesome.
You know, almost like a preview for tonight.
So it's amazing to see the Holy Spirit just working in those
different details like that.
But a question for you.
Have you ever had the responsibility to train an animal
or to train, whatever, like, fill in the blank.
Maybe as a child, maybe it's a worker, maybe it's, you know, whatever
it is, fill in the blank.
When I was a young boy, I had gotten this brand new puppy, Australian
shepherd.
And you talk about high energy.
And Nelson could probably come after the sermon if I'm wrong, but
I believe those are like more of an energetic type of a dog.
And so they're more of a challenge to train.
And so my parents, they tell me, we got this dog for you.
And I go pick her up and bring her back.
And as soon as they out of the cage, she goes running all over the
garage, you know, goes pooping everywhere, peeing here and there.
And you're trying to train this dog, trying to bring this dog
in and be like, hey, hey, come on, listen, listen.
And to my shame, I wasn't able to fully train that dog as I could
have done that.
But I remember the dog, they would put the dog in the backyard,
she'd be in this restricted cage, and she would just be barking
off like crazy.
I mean, barking to no end.
And the neighbor actually called us out because the dog would
not stop barking in the backyard.
Now, obviously, as a child, let's say I come in, I'm like, hey,
you know what?
Do you have a dog you want trained?
Why don't you come ask me.
I'm an expert, right?
Are you going to come to me when I tell you that experience,
that story from that dog who I didn't train very well?
No.
But if I told you about somebody else I know who's an expert
in training dogs?
They take these dogs they go out with and they have certain group
training classes and they go out and they take the dog out to
go shopping, right?
Maybe they take this dog to go to Home Depot.
They take it through more of a lifestyle, right.
More of a step by step training program.
Right.
And that's fill in the blank with that dog company.
And in many ways we are like that, right?
God compares us to being like a sheep.
And as we're a sheep, what are sheep?
They don't know what they're doing, right.
They get lost easily.
They need a shepherd to guide them, to direct them.
But just like that, we are called as God's people to follow
God's commandments, to follow after him.
And here in the book of First John, the author of this book was
the apostle of Jesus Christ.
And the beginning church Father Arrhenius wrote at the early
date.
And all of the evidence externally and internally concludes
in this book that John the apostle was the author.
Now who is John?
Well, John was the disciple who was right next to Christ the
night before his crucifixion.
He was in the Lord's Supper and he's laying right across Jesus,
right across Jesus chest.
This was the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Why?
How did he love Jesus?
Well, it was demonstrated through his life.
He loved Christ.
He was a faithful follower of Christ even to the end.
And this book, when it was written, it was actually written
when he was in a very old age.
They say he was around somewhere around 90 to 100 years
old, like much further on.
But a faithful man of God who loved Christ, who loved the Lord,
who loved his Word, and he was faithful to following after Christ.
First John 5:13, it states these things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know
that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of
the Son of God.
That pretty much summarizes the whole purpose of the book of
First John.
So John writes this book near the end of his life to encourage
believers to be real about their love for God through a genuine
walk with him.
In First John, chapter one, it talks about how a genuine walk with
God reveals a biblical framework for Christ and for sin.
As we get into chapter two, it talks about how a genuine walk with
God reveals a biblical framework for obedience and love.
In the last part of chapter two into chapter three, it talks
about how a genuine walk with God reveals areas of self deceit
and public deceit through Antichrist.
And the final portion of one John, it talks about how a genuine
walk with God reveals a biblical framework for proper doctrine.
So we're here in First John chapter two tonight.
And what does God want us to hear about this from?
1 John chapter 2 Is this God wants you to simply follow him.
How can you follow Christ?
Well, you can follow Christ by noting three results of somebody
who chooses to reflect him.
Somebody of three specific results that come of a follower of
Christ.
First, we're going to see that you must completely yield to Christ.
Second, you must remain in the light.
And third, you must follow God's will.
So the first point tonight is you must completely yield to Christ.
Now, Christopher Reeb, Christopher Reeve was an actor for
the Superman Superman film Man of steel back in 1978, right?
A demonstration of a Superman.
Somebody who was strong, somebody who was powerful, someone
who was able to conquer the world and be the world's superhero.
But one fateful day in 1995, Christopher Reeves ended up getting
paralyzed in equestrian competition.
Now, before this accident, Chris was known for his efforts and
activism as a rich screen career he had built before his accident.
But it only took a horse in this horse competition that was not
trained properly.
And I wonder today with this example that we see of how this man
who had been so strong, had such a strong built career and this
horse completely destroyed it all by not simply yielding to him
riding that horse for us, God has called us to be Christ followers.
And what is the testimony of Christ for your life?
Are you somebody who has demonstrated that you are a true
Christ follower, that you are obeying God's commandments, that
you're yielding yourself to him?
Well, that's our first point tonight we're going to see, and God
having us follow after him, is that you must completely yield to
Christ.
Let's look at 1 John 2, verse 1.
It states, My little children, these things write unto you that
ye sin not.
And if any man sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.
And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world.
And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a
liar.
And the Truth is not in him, but whoso keepeth his word in him.
Verily is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in Him.
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk
even as he walked.
So you see here in verse one, John is writing this in his older
age, much later stage in life.
He's writing this to believers, and he's calling them.
He's calling us, his little children, younger believers, younger
individuals who were in the faith.
And what does he say?
He says, I'm writing these things to you.
Why?
Last part of verse one, it says that ye sin not.
Now is like Pastor Josh has been saying in the sermons.
Right?
Does that mean we can.
We'll never, ever.
We'll completely stop sinning in our entire lives?
No.
But we can continue to sin less.
Right?
And, but, and even in First John, verse chapter one, you can
see towards the end of chapter one, in verse nine, John gives that
remedy for sin in our lives.
He says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So John understands that there is sin that comes into our life.
But has God called us to harbor sin?
Has God called us to keep it to ourselves, to keep it quiet?
No.
God calls us to have a life of confession before God.
And that word confess there, it literally means to say the same
thing as.
And so as we confess our sins to God, we're being open with God
and we're saying, this is a sin that I have committed against
you, naming it out to God and saying, lord, please forgive me.
And John says there that he is faithful and he is just.
By God being faithful, every single time we sin, every single
time we fall, he is faithful to forgive us, but also he's just.
A lot of times, if you've been like me or other people who I've
talked to before, maybe it's the same exact sin you've done many
times over.
And you're like man, will God forgive me of this sin?
I've done this for the millionth time this year.
I've done this to my spouse for the 50th time.
I've done this to my child the nth time.
Will God still forgive me?
God is faithful, for he will forgive you of your sin.
And he is also just.
Why is he just?
Because he's the One who created the whole system.
He's the One who created the whole system of forgiveness of sins
by sending his own son Jesus, to die for us.
And it talks about that in verse 2 of 1 John, chapter 2.
It says, he is the propitiation for our sins, not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now we are called to live holy lives before God, right?
Like that horse that was supposed to submit to Christopher
Reeve, that was supposed to.
Was supposed to do all these cool tricks and everything completely
ruined the opportunity for Chris to be able to be showing and
having this fun and this competition.
We have to be careful because there are devastating consequences
for the cause of Christ if we do not choose to follow after him
and for ourselves.
Verse one, it says, if any man sins, we have an advocate with the
Father, with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
This word for advocate, it literally means to come alongside
a pleader or an intercessor.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you found yourself in a situation where you don't know the
answer, you have no idea what the solution is to get you out of
this problem?
Maybe it's recently, maybe it's in the next week, as we have
a huge question mark about the results of certain things happening
around us.
But where do we find our answers?
Do we find it in government?
Do we find it in man?
Do we find it in the man of steel?
No, we find it in Christ.
He is the wonderful counselor.
Isaiah wrote that as one.
As one of the titles of Christ, he is our wonderful counselor.
And every single time that we are going through a situation, if
there's anybody who knows better than we do about a situation,
it's Christ.
Hebrews chapter four talks about that.
It says, we have a high priest.
He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Why?
Because he walked this earth.
He went through suffering, he went through hardship, he went through
difficulties, he went through loss, he went through.
He went through separation, he went through isolation.
If anybody knew what it was like to be rejected, to be despised.
If anybody knew what it was like, it was Christ.
Have you ever asked him to help you get through your situation?
Have you ever prayed to him and said, lord, I find myself in
this exact same issue again, in this exact same problem again.
What's the definition of insanity is doing the same thing
over and over and over again, but expecting a different result.
Right?
Maybe you say to yourself, well, you know, I've been trying
to figure this out.
I keep going to TikTok, I keep going to YouTube, I keep going to
different books.
But take God's book, take God's Word.
Ask God to show you Pastor Josh was talking about thinking biblically.
Take God's word, ask God to show you as you go.
And you're looking for resources.
Maybe you're looking for a podcast.
Maybe you're looking for resources to be able to help to supplement.
Okay, what is something that ties in with what God's word is saying?
Well, I would encourage you, as you're looking at that resource,
to say, where is this?
Where are these thought processes coming from?
Is this just coming from generic, the world's wisdom, where
the world's saying, oh, you know what?
You have to do it this way because behaviorally this is the
right thing to do.
Because we know intellectually this is the right thing to do.
Even though it may not be in the practice of what God's word's
saying, it may not be in practice with, oh, God's called me
to be, let's say, for example, a godly parent.
Right?
I have to fulfill my role as a father, as a mother, maybe as a godly
grandparent.
And being a biblical guide and guiding them and following after
Scripture.
This is what we're talking about, is finding how we can follow
God's commandments and following through Christ.
And he says there in verse one, if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
We confess our sins to him.
We seek him for direction.
And maybe you say, well, you know what?
Maybe I've been having this one struggle.
Maybe I've been having this one addiction.
And you say, I keep trying to find other substitutes to find satisfaction
with this problem.
Well, God wants us not to be turning to substitutes, not to be
turning to other things, but turning to him, saying, lord, I'm
done with this struggle and I'm yielding this to you.
Have you yielded that struggle to him?
As you yield that struggle to him, you ask him for wisdom.
You take his word, he's going to teach you.
He's going to lead you.
But in verse three, it says, hereby we do know that we know him
if we keep his commandments.
Maybe you say, well, am I a follower of Christ?
Is Christ truly leading me?
What's a good litmus test for that?
How can we know if God is leading us?
Well, verse three there it says, hereby we do know that we know
him if we keep his commandments.
A couple of things.
One, are you spending time in God's Word faithfully?
Are you spending time with God in prayer on a regular basis?
Are you being faithful in your walk with him as you're fellowshiping
with him, as you're going throughout your week Monday morning,
right?
You wake up Monday morning before work.
Maybe Monday night you're going to bed.
What's your first thought?
What is your closing thought to each day?
Is it on Christ?
Are you meditating on his word?
Are you spending time talking to him throughout your day?
Is it possible to, all the time, as the Bible says, pray without
ceasing?
I could be constantly praying, you know, throughout the whole day,
you know, throughout a whole work project.
Throughout the entire.
Throughout my entire workday.
No.
Right.
You have those responsibilities.
But as you were in the motion of life, we are yielding the end
result of what we're doing to him, saying, lord, take this project
and use this for your glory.
Lord, take this situation and maybe you don't have an answer for
it at work.
Maybe it's a family situation, maybe it's a financial situation.
Whatever scenario it is, as you are working through it, maybe
you have to be physically present, thinking through logistics
of things, but yielding it to him, saying, lord, I'm yielding this
to you on a continual basis as I'm working through this struggle.
But if we are truly following after Christ, if we're truly desiring
to follow after him, we need to yield it to Christ.
Have you given that problem to Christ?
Have you given that struggle to Him?
To saying, lord, I'm done doing this myself.
I want to give it over to you?
We see in verse one, Jesus Christ is titled as the advocate
with the Father.
But we see he's also Jesus Christ the righteous.
The last part of verse one, there we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now, this title talking about Christ is one who is upright, keeping
the commands of God.
His way of thinking, feeling and acting is wholly conformed to
the will of God.
Think about that for a second.
This description of Jesus Christ is somebody who is keeping
the commands of God.
However he's thinking, however he's feeling, he continually has
demonstrated a faithfulness to following after God's commandments,
following after what the Father has for him.
All throughout the Gospels, you can see that Jesus talks about
how I'm following after my Father's will, I'm seeking after
what he wants.
Even the night before his crucifixion, he was before the Father.
He was battling, drinking the cup of the wrath of God for the punishment
of the sins in the entire world.
And he was saying, father, if it be your will, let this cup pass
from me nevertheless, yet not my will, but thy will be done.
You see that really strong and difficult situation where Christian
Was praying and saying, father, this is not my will, but
I'm going to follow your will.
It was a very hard struggle for him, but he yielded it to the
Father.
Is there a hard struggle for you that God's calling you to walk
through?
And you've not been embracing.
You've been saying, man, this is a very difficult thing that you're
calling me to do.
Maybe you say it's in your marriage, maybe you say it's with
parenting.
Maybe you say it is a very difficult task and I'm ready to throw
the towel out, I'm ready to be done with it.
But God's called you to be in that relationship.
God's called you to work through that problem because he wants
to show you more through his word, through the growth, through
that.
And you have no idea what God's going to do as a result of
it.
If you choose to be faithful into saying God, you've called for
me to be in this situation.
I'm going to embrace it.
Because I know at the end of it, you're trying to show me more
about yourself.
You're trying to show me more of how I can be like you.
And it's not easy.
Going through the fire is not easy.
Going through a difficult situation is not easy.
Right?
Our direct reaction is to jump out, right?
To abandon ship.
But God calls us to endure through it, to push through it.
And that's what Christ did for us.
I love this.
In verse two that he says he is the propitiation for our sins.
He was the satisfying sacrifice to God the Father, the
perfect sacrifice that Jesus Christ did for us.
He endured the death of the cross.
He endured it.
He endured under it.
Just as God is calling us to go through difficulties, he's calling
for us to endure under it.
Why?
Because God likes to see us get tortured?
No, he calls us to be able to give him the glory through it.
He calls us to be able to follow after Christ.
As Christ went through that, he suffered.
Philippians 2 talks about that, how he humbled himself.
The death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath given image above every name.
He was lifted up and he was able to glorify God through that
situation.
And that's the design that God has for us.
He calls for us to not embrace our own desires, to not embrace our
own lusts, but to embrace what God's will is through it.
And sometimes God's will is for us to endure through that difficult
situation or that difficult circumstance.
So Christ is that satisfying sacrifice, but his perfect Sacrifice
which pleased God the Father.
Then it became accessible to anybody.
You see this awesome result that comes.
John 1:12 talks about this.
John wrote, he said, but as many as received him, to them gave
you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name.
John was saying that whoever believes on Jesus, he gave them the
power to become the sons of God.
Let me get a question for you.
What if God is calling you to go through that difficult situation?
You know what it is, and God's able to use your testimony, he's
able to use your life after you come out of this fire, after
you come out of this situation, to be able to encourage
others who are in that difficult struggle.
Christ is that for us.
Christ has demonstrated that he endured the death of the cross.
He is able to give eternal life to anybody who would receive
him.
And as we who are Christ's followers, we're trying to follow
in the example of Christ.
He's calling us to endure through hardships, to endure through
the difficult things, so that we can in turn, turn around to tell
others about it.
To be able to say, look at what God has done through my life.
And you know what the reality is that that situation you're in,
right?
You think to yourself, man, this is so humanly impossible for
me to get through this.
And maybe you've gone through it.
I've gone through it.
Earlier this year, Pastor Josh went through it.
But by the end of it, you can turn back and say it was only God.
You can turn back and you can say, you know what?
That was so worth it.
That was so worth the struggle.
Even though it was hard, even though it was fiery, even though
I got scars, even though I got burns, I can give God the glory through
it.
And I can say, thank you for helping me to get through this, God.
And then when anybody asks you now, right, man, how did you make
it through?
How did you get through that difficulty?
You seem so strong.
You say, no, it wasn't me.
It was the power of Christ that helped me to get through that
situation.
And so we see that Christ is the advocate, and he's the righteous.
He's the pleasing sacrifice.
But next we see that in verse three, it says, hereby we do know
that we know Him.
If we keep his commandments, we do know that we know the word
for both.
Knows here means this is a knowledge gained through experience.
So you know what this means, kind of tying in the idea of as an
experiential knowledge, right?
So going back, continuing that talk about how we're going through
the difficult times.
It could be easy times, honestly, it could be just throughout
the regular, regular span of life.
This knowledge that God confirms in us in verse three here,
it says, we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
It is something that is of a faithful nature to it.
We are consistently following after God's commandments.
We are consistently confirming in our life with God's word.
Right?
Biblical thinking, right?
As you maybe, maybe have a conversation tomorrow at work, maybe
have a conversation at home tomorrow night on the dinner table.
And maybe it's a certain trigger issue that you don't want
to talk about, but God's been working on your heart about it all
day as you've been thinking about this conversation coming up.
Maybe it's at work and maybe, and maybe you've been thinking about
it.
Maybe this morning as Pastor Josh is preaching, that specific
thing came to mind and now you're not even praying about it
for 24 hours until that conversation comes.
Right?
How are you processing?
Are you thinking biblically?
Are you asking God to show you through the experiences of your life
it isn't just something that happens on Sundays and Wednesday
nights?
And it's supposed to be something that's happening all the
time.
What is the first great commandment?
The first great commandment is God has called us to love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.
What does that mean?
That is an all encompassing requirement for us.
It is a command for us to love God with all of our hearts, our affections,
our desires, all of our mind.
How we're processing, right?
I know some of us are really deep, deep intellectual.
Some of us are deeper emotional, but it doesn't matter
what kind of a person you are.
God wants us to love him with all of our being and to ask him to
show us in that entire aspect of our entire being.
God, what is your will concerned in this situation?
Because sometimes it doesn't require.
I'm gonna say this carefully so I'm not coming across wrong, but
sometimes it may seem like it's the least logical thing to do,
but God's calling you to do it.
And you're like, this makes no sense, but God's calling you to do
it.
Maybe you may not feel like it's the right thing, but God's word
says this.
And so I'm gonna follow because this is what God's word is
telling me to do.
And ultimately what it comes down to is obedience to Christ.
Example I give you is Abraham.
Abraham in the Old Testament, right?
God told him, you're going to have a son, and you're going to have
a son with your wife in her old age.
Crazy, crazy thing.
But God blesses him with a son.
And after he has the son, he tells him to go sacrifice his son,
to go kill his son.
Was that logical, guys?
No, that made no sense.
God, maybe if it was you.
If it was me, like, you've given me the son.
This is the son of the promised God.
Why are you calling me to do this?
This does not make sense.
In my heart of hearts, I love my son.
I don't want to kill him.
But Abraham obeyed God because it was what God told him to do.
And by faith, Abraham knew that he was going to work through
that situation.
He told his son, he said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb.
And sure enough, as soon as Abraham raises that blade, it literally
took to the moment where he was about to kill his son that the
angel says, don't kill him.
And over in the distance is a ram.
Its horns are stuck in the thorns and the briars.
And Abraham's like, that's it right there.
That's why God called me here.
It may not make logical sense, it may not make emotional sense,
but we have to follow God.
We have to obey what he is telling us to do.
And that's why it's so important that we don't lean upon
how we.
How we feel necessarily, or upon how we think.
But it's according to what God's Word tells us.
Now, I'm not saying you're throwing out logic and throwing out
emotions.
It ties in.
But what really is guiding you is God's Word with His Holy Spirit
that's leading you and directing you.
And so we see here in verse three, we do know that we know him
if we keep his commandments.
But what does that mean for us?
The only way to know if you know Jesus is if you're faithfully
keeping God's commandments.
I love the next part of this verse of verse three.
It says, if we keep his commandments.
It's one thing to say, okay, you know, every Sunday morning, Sunday
night, you know, I'm coming out Wednesday night, I'm learning
God's Word, I'm learning God's commandments, right?
But the word keep there means to attend to carefully, to guard
and to observe.
Let me ask you a question.
Can we keep God's word only on Sundays and Wednesdays, and then
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday?
Not.
No.
That's why John is Saying here for us as believers, that if we are
truly following after Christ, truly desiring to be Christ followers,
that we are keeping God's commandments consistently walking
his commandments on a regular basis.
So what happens when you, when tomorrow morning you wake up and
you see a work email and it just completely throws you off guard
and you're like, really?
I did not expect this on a Monday morning.
My morning coffee.
Maybe you did Monday morning.
Right.
But what's your initial reaction?
What's your initial response?
Oh, you know, I'm just going to respond, you know, out of my gut
feeling, uh, oh, that person, you know, that person was saying
this, by doing this, this person was meaning that or whatever.
No God, what are you trying to show me through this?
How can I respond in the best way biblically, in the best way of
how you've called me to be as your follower of Christ?
It needs to be consistent at work, at home, across the whole board,
not just at church, but behind the scenes and behind closed doors
and nobody else sees it.
Let's look at the next verse there.
In verse four, it says, he that saith, I know him and keepeth
not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.
So what does this look like?
This is somebody who claims to be here in our midst, right?
They're here at church with us on Sundays, Wednesday nights.
They may look the part, they act the part, they know the right
Christian vernacular, they know how to talk properly and everything.
But when that person leaves the doors of this church week in
and week out, they, apart from the word of God, they leave their
Bible closed, gathering dust throughout the week until the next
Sunday.
Is that you?
Is that me?
For me as a pastor, it's very easy to get so involved with Bible
lesson preparation, sermon preparation, that I completely, I
completely forget to take that personal walk with him for myself
to take the Bible and to say, God, isolate the pastor role.
And what is my role as your son?
What about for you when you're.
Maybe you say, man, you know what?
I get so consumed with work.
Work is just eats up my time.
It's literally around the clock.
Maybe it's 12 hours a day.
But is Christ at the forefront of your heart, at the forefront of
your minds?
Is his commandments consistently leading you and guiding
you in your thinking, how you're responding to different situations
in your life?
The same is true also for spouses, for children, right?
Maybe your spouse comes to you and asks you a question.
What do you think about this?
Specifically husbands, Your wife Comes to you.
They're looking to you for spiritual leadership.
And they're asking you.
And they're asking you a question.
What do you think about this?
What's your response?
Yo, honey, I'm gonna go hide in the bathroom for the next half
hour.
Or you say, honey, let's open the Bible together.
Let's talk through this, let's pray through this.
Or maybe more of a thinker processor.
Get me up till tomorrow night.
Maybe tomorrow night, dinner.
That gives the opportunity over the next 24 hours to be digesting
and thinking about God's commandments, right?
Maybe it's your children.
Maybe it's a teenager, a child, right?
And they come to you as a father.
What's your answer?
Oh, you're just a kid.
I'm not going to answer your question right now.
I'll get to you when you get older.
No, you're responsible as that child's father to give them that
answer from scripture.
Just as Deuteronomy 6 talks about how we're supposed to have
the scriptures up all around our room, the scriptures are supposed
to be at the center of our home, the center of our family.
You as the man of God, me as a husband, as a father, you as a husband
and a father, maybe a grandfather, maybe an uncle, maybe,
maybe as a.
As a spiritual father.
We're responsible for that in wives as well, right?
We're responsible in our marriage relationship to hold each
other accountable in those relationships before God.
We've taken that responsibility on biblically, when
we get married, when we have children, we have those responsibilities
that come.
That come on for us.
And maybe your son and daughter, maybe they've been asking
you the same question over and over and over again.
Just take a few minutes and pray about it.
Ask God.
And if anything, maybe it's a good opportunity to take your child
out for coffee or for coffee, for breakfast maybe, or for dinner
or whatever it is to spend time talking to them, saying, you
know what?
I'm going to cut out one hour of my day to go out on a date with
my daughter because she has a question for me that I got to answer.
That is our responsibility as being followers of Christ and being
faithful in God's word.
So in this verse, it states that this person knows Christ, but
when they don't actually follow God's commandments, they're
a liar.
And do you know what?
If we have this pretence, if we have this pretension where we're
coming to church and we're portraying like we're following Christ
but then we go home and we're not the same at home with our children.
They know that.
And they know that we are lying, we are deceiving our children.
And not only that, but your co workers know that you're a Christian.
Your co workers, I hope they know, right?
Maybe through your life, but just maybe in conversation.
But if they know that you're a Christian, they know that you go
to church, that you're following after God.
But they see you, they see you not demonstrating what a true Christ
follower is.
They know that you're lying.
They know there's something that's measuring up.
This person claims to be following Christ, claims to be following
after God's Word, but they're not actually doing it.
But I wonder how many in here would be considered as somebody who
is keeping God's word, who is keeping God's commandments faithfully
in their home, faithfully in their workplace, that they are the
real deal through and through.
Guys, I'm going to be completely transparent and tell you
tonight.
The last six weeks have been very, very challenging for me as
I have been praying through this with pastor sermons the last
several Sundays, and really when I was coming to present this
sermon tonight, asking God to help me to be who I'm supposed to
be.
Because the reality is that I'm nowhere near perfect.
But I strive to follow after Christ, striving to follow his commandments,
and I mess up.
But I'm thankful for Christ, how He is that perfect example for
us.
Look at verse 5.
It says, Whoso keepeth his Word in him.
Verily is the love of God perfected hereby knowing that we
are in him.
And what's he saying here?
Whoso keepeth his Word?
The person who is truly following after Christ, who is truly
abiding in God's commandments.
It says here that.
That verily is the love of God perfected.
The love of God is perfected through the person who chooses to
follow God's commandments.
Because God's love cannot be artificially manufactured.
I wish it could be.
Wouldn't that be nice?
It's okay.
I can just show God's love.
But it's not natural.
It takes work.
It takes that faithful diligence in living by God's commandments
and following after God for His love to be demonstrated in and
through us.
Whoever abides in Christ will walk in God's commandments.
The one who keeps the Word will see God's love perfected in
and through their life.
God's agape love here, that self Sacrificial love is demonstrated
perfectly through this individual.
As you demonstrate a self sacrificial love, you will demonstrate
that you are keeping God's commandments.
Our second point is this.
You must remain in the light.
Look down at verse seven.
It says, brethren, I write no new commandment unto you but an old
commandment which ye had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the
beginning.
Again, a new commandment.
I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you.
Because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth.
He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in
darkness even until now.
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light.
And there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness
and knoweth not whither he goeth, because thy darkness hath
blinded his eyes.
I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven
you for his name's sake.
So what is John saying here?
He's saying, well, I'm not writing a new commandment.
This is something that's been faithfully declared through the life
of Christ.
It's been taught through the apostles.
It's been taught in the church.
This is something foundational that we should be doing as Christ
followers.
We should be following after God, obeying his commandments, loving
the Lord our God with all our heart, so mind and strength, loving
our neighbor as ourself.
That's what God has called us to do.
And the Bible says how God is light.
Back in chapter one of John, verse five, it says, this then is
the message.
We have heard of him and declared unto you that God is light.
And in him is no darkness at all.
Who has demonstrated.
Who has demonstrated this light?
Who has demonstrated this perfect light?
It's been God himself.
It says that within him there is no darkness at all.
Now let me ask you a question.
Is the world light?
No.
The world is filled with darkness.
The world is filled with deceitfulness.
But God is one who is, who is open, who is honest, who is very
straightforward and saying, look, these are my commandments.
Just take my commandments and abide in them.
Live by My commandments, live by my word.
And this is part of who God is.
He gives us transparency.
He gives us authenticity through his life.
But it says there, but if we walk in the light as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
If we walk in the light, the question for you is this.
Are you walking in God's light?
Are you walking in his commandments?
If you're living in his word, if you're abiding by his commandments,
then his light is going to naturally show in and through you.
As you have this open before the Lord, and as you have this openness
before the Lord, it's going to naturally reflect an openness towards
others around us.
If you're hiding yourself from God, you're going to hide yourself
from others.
And that's why it's saying here when it says in verse 11.
Well, verse verse 10, it says, he that loveth his brother abideth
in the light.
You have this love before God, this openness before God, you're
going to have this openness before those around you, this love
before those around you.
But 11, it says verse 11.
He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness
and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath
blinded his eyes.
This is the contrast here that we see is if we, if we're not abiding
in God's commandments, then what's guiding us?
Well, it talks about that later on in verse 15 where it says,
love the world.
Do the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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 Father, but is of the
world.
What are the lusts?
Those lusts are just mere.
Those are desires.
Desires that are not the right desires to have.
And I would say this way, desires of things that we should
not be desiring after.
Or it's desiring in the wrong manner from what God has called us
to do and to desire in the right way, but as we have those wrong
desires.
That's what Pastor Joshua mentioned this morning from the book
of James, chapter 4.
When James calls Christians, he calls these liars who are not
flying after God's commandments.
He calls them adulterers and adulteresses.
Because it says, know you not that friendship of the world is enmity
against God.
Therefore, who is the friend of the world is the enmity is the
enemy of God.
That's where you see what's going on here is there's this reflection
that if you are, if you are loving the world, if you're abiding
in the world, you're abiding in your Lust, then you're going to
be hating your brother because your brother is striving to live
after God.
They're striving to love God, but you're going to be hating them
because this is conflict.
And ultimately it's because you're the enemy of God.
And so in order for us to truly love our brothers, to love
our sisters in Christ, we need to be abiding in his commandments.
And I love verse 10 there, where it says, he that loveth his
brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling
in him.
You know what that means.
You don't get easily offended.
Or if you do go.
If you do get offended by something, you go and you talk to
them about it, and you.
And you resolve it, right?
You don't harbor bitterness in your life.
You don't harbor this unforgiveness before somebody else.
Hebrews 12 talks about this.
Hebrews 12, verses 14 and 15, it says, follow peace with all men
and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently
lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.
Maybe you've known someone like this.
Maybe you've known someone who has been offended and this root of
bitterness has just completely consumed their life.
And it's been evident, maybe in your workplace, where it's like,
you know, there's this one person who has clearly been offended
and it affects the entire work environment.
Right.
Monday morning.
Oh, I don't look forward to talking to Joe, because I know how
Joe's going to respond.
Right?
Or maybe you're that person and people like walking in eggshells
around you.
Is that how God's called us to live?
No.
God's called us to be abiding in Christ, to be loving after God,
following in his word, following his commandments.
It is through this pursuit of peace and holiness that we forgive
others.
And this protects us from having a heart of bitterness against
a brother.
And this is how brotherly love is shown and demonstrated.
Now he goes on, in verse 14, he says, I have written unto you
fathers, because ye have known that it is from the beginning.
I have written unto you young men because you are strong and the
word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
Why is John writing this to fathers?
Why is he to dress fathers here?
Because fathers are the leaders of their home.
They're the leaders in society.
They're the leaders that God has called to lead their Family,
that is our responsibility as men is to lead our wives, to lead
our children, to lead our homes.
That's what God has called us to do.
And he addresses fathers, here, I've written unto you because
ye have known him, that is, from the beginning.
You know what is right.
And the question is, are we going to faithfully follow after
God's commandments as fathers, or are we going to say, oh, I know
what is right, but I'm not going to do it?
And then what results is broken families or broken relationships,
skewed things that mess up.
And what you have to do is you have to go back and to realize, man,
you know what?
Maybe you made mistakes in your past.
Maybe you have.
You just say, God, please forgive me.
God will forgive you, right?
Confess, Confess before God to say, I made this mistake.
Lord, please forgive me.
Help me to move on.
And God forgives us.
We're able to move on from that point.
We don't have to get caught up with guilt, with depression, with
anxiety, thinking about, oh, I should have done this.
Because it's before God.
It's been given to him.
And so fathers, they've lived life longer.
They know, they have known that God, they've known him since
they were young men.
He also says to young men, he says, these young men, they have
great strength with more energy and vitality than their fathers,
right?
Younger men, they have the energy, the excitement to get out
there.
They have less experience, but they have practiced demonstrating
their strength.
The word of God abides in these young men because they don't
have knowledge and understanding necessarily.
So they have to rely heavily on God's Word to guide them.
And it's through the use of the Word, how these young men have
overcome the wicked one.
Let's look at our last point.
Here it says, you must follow God's will.
Look at verse 15.
Love not the world, the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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 Father, but is
of the world.
And the world passeth away in the lust thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever for all that
is in the world.
A commentator once said this.
We are not to love the world with congeniality and sympathy in
its alienation from God.
We cannot have this latter kind of love for the God estranged
world, and yet have also the love of the Father in us.
There's several areas here that we have to be careful of.
When he addresses not loving the world, verse 16, it says, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, the
lust of the flesh here, that is us looking and desiring, and desiring
to fulfill a mere fleshy desire, right?
Maybe you say, you know what?
Maybe you know that nice piece of cake, right?
Maybe you go to a coffee shop and maybe you're a coffee drinker.
You see that, that nice, big, juicy piece of cake, and you're like,
oh, man, I would just love to eat that piece of cake, but it's
1600 calories.
This is actually the other day, I was looking at this piece
of cake, and I'm like, man, I can really eat that cake.
But it's 1600 calories.
That's an entire day of calories for me, guys.
I can't eat a piece of cake, right?
Even though I'd love to, but I have to be responsible for my body.
But likewise, there's desires that God gives us.
Maybe as men, you have sexual desires.
We find that fulfillment, that relationship with our spouse.
Maybe.
Maybe we have to yield those desires to God and to say, God, I'm
content with where you have me.
Maybe we need to do that.
The second one there, it says is the lust of the eyes needs to
pertain to what is visually pleasing to the desires of our sight.
Maybe.
Maybe some of you guys are Tesla fans.
I don't know.
I know Elon Musk has came out with some nice, nice new gear, and
you're like, man, I look at that and I just desire that.
It's a really nice vehicle, man.
I want to buy that and I want to go spinning across the way right
now.
Am I saying buying a Tesla is wrong?
No.
But if it's something that you're idolizing, you're desiring
over what God has given you, right?
Then your bank account can afford.
Maybe that's a problem, right?
We need to desire things that God has for us to be with contentment,
with Satan.
In Matthew chapter four, Satan tempted Jesus, right?
Satan brought him up and showed him all the kings of the world.
And he said, you can have all these kingdoms, right?
You can completely skip, completely bypass your death, completely
bypass the punishment, your death on the cross, and just bow
down to me now, and I'll give you all the kingdoms in this world.
You can have it.
But did Jesus do it?
No, he quoted scripture and he did not do that.
He didn't.
He didn't fall to that Temptation.
But a bad example of that is David, right?
He saw Bathsheba bathing on a roof.
That desire came and he fulfilled that wrong desire.
And so we have to choose for ourselves.
One, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, but finally the
pride of life.
This is an arrogant disposition of self being at the
center of everything.
These self vain motives for personal pride and gain, this does
not come from the father, guys.
This has not come from the father.
God's not like, oh, yeah, you know, you have that pride coming
up in your life.
Go on and act upon it, right, man, you know, I'm a guy, I gotta
go and I gotta buy big, massive, you know, I have to go out
to, I don't know, fill in the blank.
I gotta spend all this money, you know, blow my bank account, you
know, and just be a waster of everything.
I have no right.
God has called us to be responsible with what he's given
us.
But these are self vain motives for personal pride and gain.
Maybe it's a status, A status symbol.
I know Joy and I were talking earlier this year about we're looking
at possible vehicle upgrades and for us, our decision.
Nobody else who made a different decision than we made,
but I was dying to get a Ford Expedition for my next vehicle upgrade.
And Joy is like, what?
You know, the minivan is very economical.
There's plenty of space in the back of the van.
You know, we're always lugging stuff to go camping or whatever.
And I was like, no, I was like, that's like a soccer mom vibe,
you know, I don't want that kind of vibe for us as a family.
And.
But over time, you know, I realized, okay, it was more of a,
it was more of a status symbol than responsibility, right?
And obviously we could have gotten the expedition no problem,
but it wouldn't allow space for store, less space for the storage
in the back, and it would entirely impractical for us.
But I had to swallow my pride and I had to say, okay, you know,
if that's the next vehicle for us to get one day minivan, I'll be
content with whatever that step happens, right?
And it was a struggle, guys.
It took me a little while to say, all right, Lord minivan it is.
But what is there for you?
What is that level of pride that comes up in your heart and you're
like, man, I gotta yield this to God and follow his will with it.
So it says in verse 16, all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
Is not of the Father, but of the world.
Now, verse 17, this is a really awesome point here.
Almost done, I promise.
Almost done.
Verse 17, it says, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof,
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
Now, the world passing away.
This word for passing away, I just think of, you know, for example,
someone passing away, right?
Dying.
But the word for passing away here literally means to be misled,
to be led away.
And how often for us, right?
As we have that lust, we have a desire, and the world's holding
it right there.
Maybe it's like a dog.
You're trying to train a dog, right?
You have a little rubber ball, whatever, and you're like, all right,
here, boy.
Here, boy.
You know, maybe you have no ball.
You just kind of hiding it.
Go get it, right?
And the dog goes running after, but there's no ball, right?
The dog's gone running all the way over here, and surprise, you
know, there's no ball or anything, right?
And the dog's kind of like, comes back again, right?
Is that what.
But the world's like that, right?
Are you like that?
Do you allow the world to take you like that?
Whereas, you know, you're like, yes, I really want this.
I really need this.
I need the Ford Expedition.
Yes.
And then God's like, psh, you know, expensive, Too much for your
family.
No, you can't do that.
Minivan.
Okay, all right.
You know, what is there for you?
What is there for me?
What is God's will?
The world is passing away, right?
It may be nice.
It may be really, really nice to have this.
But what is God's will with it?
What is his will?
What is his desire?
Is his desire.
Is.
Is his desire for you to have to say no and to say yes to something
else and to saying, lord, I don't just want what is good.
Even better, I want what is best.
What is the best plan for what you have for me regarding what this
is?
In this situation?
People's lusts constantly mislead.
Many people think that the lust is supposed to guide them, right?
Oh, I desire for this.
I want this or I want that.
But we have to be careful because as we do this, I mean, we
have examples of this in scripture, right?
Different people who say, oh, you know what?
I feel like this is the right thing to do, and they completely
mess up.
But we have to consult the Lord.
We have to ask God and ask his word for direction.
Only God's will provides that right and proper direction.
I Love this.
It says in the last part of verse 17, he that doeth the will
of God abideth forever.
And do you want to hear the awesome thing apart the awesome part
about this last part here?
That word doeth there.
He that doeth the will of God.
The word doeth means to act rightly, and it means to do well.
And that reminds me of the verse from Joshua 1:8.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou
shall meditate therein day and night.
So then thou shalt make the way prosperous, and then thou shalt
have good success.
Right?
I don't know about you, but I want to be successful, right?
Successful in my Christian life.
I want to be successful with who God has called me to be.
And I can do that by following his will, following His Word, asking
God to help me.
The will of God here, that is the will or the desire for what pleases
God, simply put, is this.
If you're struggling with a decision, you need to ask God.
You have a desire in your life to ask the Lord what He wants you
to do with that desire.
You get to say, God, I'm yielding this to you, Lord, whatever
your will is.
And I remember back when Joy and I were supposed to get engaged
January 4th of 2020, and that engagement got put on hold for about
nine months.
I was holding on tightly to one way.
I was like, man, I really want to get engaged.
But God said, no, wait.
And it was hard.
But going through that process, it taught me a lot about
opening up both hands to God and just saying, you know what, Lord,
Joys of my relationship is yours, and I'm yielding it to you.
And then God brought her back, and God brought that relationship,
and we got engaged and we got married, and now we have kids.
And God's so good.
But that's what God does for us.
When we abide.
When we abide in his will, we will abide forever.
God will lead us to a sustainable future.
He will provide, protect, and lead with what he wants to ask what
he wants you to do.
God's will will reveal it to you as you spend that intentional
time praying and reading His Word.
And that goes back to 1 John 1:1.
It says, that which is from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and
our hands have handled of the word of life.
We have it right here, guys.
We have God's word right here.
And the question is, are you going to take the scripture for yourself?
Are you going to take it every day.
Are you going to abide in his word?
Are you going to ask the Lord faithfully to truly guide your thoughts,
to truly guide your thinking, to truly guide your desires, to truly
guide your life?
We'll close in prayer.
I'll turn to Pastor Josh Dear Lord, I thank you for your word,
Lord, I thank you for your commandments.
God help us to keep your commandments, Lord, to abide in your
will, Lord, that we can abide forever, Lord, with you.
We thank you for your word, Lord.
Help us to be faithful.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.
Thank you Pastor John.
Appreciate that.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at joshmissaroiddletownbaptistchurch
dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow
along for future podcast and updates.
Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.