October 5, 2025 • 41 mins
Ever heard a “new” command that’s actually ancient? We sit with 1 John 2:7–11 and trace the throughline of love from Leviticus to Jesus, then feel the shock of John’s clarity: if we claim the light but hate a brother, we’re still in the dark. That’s not finger-wagging; it’s a reality check on what the gospel does when it truly lands. We unpack how love is old by command yet new by essence—freshly revealed in Christ’s cross-shaped sacrifice—and why that reframes our identity, our habits, and our relationships.
We talk about the cultural pull to perform instead of belong, to broadcast instead of be accountable. It’s easy to “share” ourselves online and never practice the hard work of patient, embodied love. So we build from ground level: love as sacrificial action, forgiveness as absorbing the cost, service without strings attached. Along the way, we challenge entertainment-driven church models and needless fights that sap unity. Instead, we return to slow faithfulness—three people at a time—choosing to be living sacrifices for the good of those closest to us.
There’s relief here, too. The gospel offers rest before it calls for action. Jesus doesn’t hand you a backpack and point to a treadmill; He sets you down and breathes peace. From that rest, assurance grows. John says the true light is already shining and the darkness is passing—even when the battlefield looks crowded. That vision changes how we face temptation, criticism, and conflict. We guard our words so we don’t make others stumble, we persevere when the world resists the light, and we trust the God who saves to do what we cannot. If He could love and rescue us, there’s real hope for our families, our neighbors, and our city. Listen, reflect, and then tell us: who will you love sacrificially this week? If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find it.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Go ahead and turn me in your Bibles to the book of 1
John.
1 John chapter 2.
Here at Sovereign Grace BibleChurch, we practice expository
preaching.
That means we go through God'sWord verse by verse, line by
line, and word by word, in orderto understand what God has said,
what He means, and what we mustdo in light of it.
It helps us to not have anyagendas planned.
(00:22):
You can never look at the pastorand say, You were thinking about
me when you preached that.
Because it's just God.
That's the beautiful thing, iswe allow all of the authority in
this church to be founded on andrested in God's word.
Today we find ourselves inverses 7 through 11.
(00:42):
And this is a beautiful momentwhere the Apostle John is known
in church history as the Apostleof Love.
And there's a reason for that.
If you read John's gospel andthen you read his letters,
you'll see that love is one ofthe ultimate things he's
pointing to throughout all ofhis writings.
(01:04):
Last week we talked aboutactually putting the rubber to
the road, how our lives aremeant to show love in action,
right?
The verse 6 there at the endsaid, Whoever says he abides in
him ought to walk in the sameway in which he walked.
And we talked about how that'swhat a Christian is.
They're a Christ follower.
(01:25):
And so the ways that Jesusacted, the ways he reacted to
this world, are the same waysthat you and I are commanded and
expected to act and react tothis world.
Now in verse 7, he transitions alittle bit to give a new
commandment, but it's notexactly new.
Go ahead and read with me God'sholy word.
(01:48):
It says, Beloved, I am writingto you no new commandment, but
an old commandment that you hadfrom the beginning.
The old commandment is the wordthat you have heard.
At the same time, it is a newcommandment that I am writing to
you, which is true in him and inyou, because the darkness is
passing away, and the true lightis already shining.
(02:10):
Whoever says he is in the lightand hates his brother is still
in darkness.
Whoever loves his brother abidesin the light, and in him there
is no cause for stumbling.
But whoever hates his brother isin the darkness and walks in the
darkness, and does not knowwhere he is going, because the
darkness has blinded his eyes.
(02:34):
Our text will break down intothe following outline.
Verses seven and eight will bethe commandment, and verses nine
through eleven will be theclarity.
We begin with the commandment.
John says, Beloved, I am writingto you no new commandment, but
an old commandment that you hadfrom the beginning.
(02:54):
The old commandment is the wordthat you have heard.
Now that word beloved is abeautiful word in the Greek.
It means loved ones.
And so there's this affectionatetone that he's going into now.
My loved ones, I'm writing toyou no new commandment.
This is the same way that whenyou're trying to emphasize
(03:15):
something to your child, or ifyou ever had to teach younger
people at any point in time inyour life, there is a need for
emphasis, both of the negativeand the positive.
John, in that way, is taking usthrough the basics of this and
is saying, I'm not writing you anew commandment, this almost
double negative, but an oldcommandment that you had from
the beginning.
What is the commandment?
(03:36):
Well, through the context, we'reable to see that the commandment
is to love one another.
That is the commandment he isspeaking of.
Now, why is that an oldcommandment?
Well, Bill just read Leviticus19, 18.
In the Old Testament, there wasthis command to love your
neighbor as yourself.
God's people have always beenexpected to be living, breathing
(04:01):
examples of sacrificial love andservice to those that are around
them.
That has never been different.
It will never change.
That will always be what isexpected.
He says, I'm not writing, I'mwriting to you no new
commandment, but an oldcommandment that you had from
the beginning.
The old commandment is the wordthat you have heard, meaning
that they have already beentaught these things.
(04:23):
I'm not telling you somethingnew, as in something you've
never heard before.
This is important because yousee the word new there, and
you're like, Okay, John, likeI'm not telling you something
old, it's new, but it's not new,it's old.
And you're like, that's acontradiction.
And so we have to allow the thethe John, the parent, to be the
parent in this situation, andwe're arguing with our parent
(04:44):
about why seat buckles areunnecessary.
Okay.
He looks at us with this andsays, This old commandment is
one that you've heard.
Verse 8, at the same time, it isa new commandment that I am
writing to you, which is true inhim and in you.
What we learn from the Greektext, the language that the
Bible was originally written in,is the word new here is not new
(05:07):
as in time.
It's not new as in never hashappened, but new rather in like
freshness.
So, like uh, we would say uhwhen someone cleans their car
really well and has that brandnew car smell again, right?
Um I have a new look, means Ibought new clothes, and so now I
have a new look.
Well, do you actually lookcompletely different?
(05:28):
No, you have different clothesthat are representing you in a
different way.
Um and so actually, I rememberwhen I taught this to middle
school boys at one point intime, I talked about deodorant,
and I was like, new as indeodorant.
You know, when you put it on,and all of a sudden, like
there's not wet spotseverywhere, and like, you don't
stay like it was very impactfulfor our middle school group,
(05:50):
right?
The only thing they remembered.
At the same time, it's a newcommandment I'm writing to you,
which is true in him and in you.
It's not new as in time, it'snew as an essence.
So, what's the essence?
Well, it's something that's truein him, Jesus Christ, and you.
So, what we see here is that inthe Old Testament, we have this
expectation for all Christiansto love each other, to love
(06:14):
those around them.
What we're able to realize onthe other side of the cross is
that the the most perfectmanifestation, the most perfect
example of sacrificial love wasshown in Christ.
And that there will never be agreater example in all of
history.
When time ends one day and Godbrings everything to a close,
(06:36):
there will be nothing greaterthan the love that Christ showed
for us on the cross.
We live in a generation that'shaving an identity crisis.
Uh, we're not sure who we are,how we fit into the system.
We have young people that thinkthat their lives are defined by
money or sex or power, fame.
(06:59):
I spent, I don't even know, anhour or two this week looking at
different YouTube videos thatyounger people had sent me.
And one of the things I wasshocked by, there was one that
was a music video by a Christianartist.
And in the music video, itshowed, like, I don't know,
maybe a hundred people-ish thathad recorded themselves singing
(07:21):
this artist song.
And they all are singing it intothe camera and they sent in
their video so they could get inthe music video.
And I'm here to tell you, theonly thing that stood out to me
of that entire thing was hownuts it is, how comfortable our
generation is with publicizingthemselves.
(07:42):
Like there was a moment wherepublic speaking was like a most
people die when they try to dothat.
And now it's like uh aneight-year-old can have 15
million followers on socialmedia and have more influence
than you because they did afunny dance once or screamed in
a silly way.
(08:02):
It is a dangerous time that welive in where we are so
comfortable with that, but thosesame people, you begin to have
these deeper conversations oflife and push into the reality
of the pain and the struggle andthe lack of processing they've
(08:22):
done in their lives.
And all of a sudden, the personwho is a social media phenomenon
shrinks up and can't communicatewell.
It is a strange day when we livein an era where we're more
comfortable talking to someonethat we've never met than we are
the person next to us.
(08:43):
Part of that is because realrelationship is found in
sacrificial love andaccountability.
You know what I don't have to doat all on social media?
I don't have to sacrificiallylove anybody, and I don't have
to have any accountability.
Now, that's not me demonizingsocial media and saying thus
(09:03):
everyone should get rid of theirFacebook.
Like that's not where we'regoing, okay?
All of these things can beredeemed.
All of these things can be usedfor Christ, but I'm here to tell
you if you're not using it forChrist, the natural inclination
of this world is not towardlove.
It is not toward truth, it istoward a lie, and we'll get to
that towards the end of ourtext.
(09:25):
John is creating this picturefor the Christians, and he's
saying, there's an oldcommandment that God has always
said should be of loving yourneighbor.
Now that you, dear Christian,are graced to be able to look
back to the cross and see whatGod has already done for you,
(09:48):
how much more so should you andI be defined by love?
And you and I don't often thinkabout growth in love as a metric
that is measurable.
We're not like, yeah, so likethis last year I lost 10 pounds,
I got the thousand dollars morein my savings account, the car's
working great.
(10:09):
And I think like my I got mylove, my ability to
sacrificially love people wentup a little bit too.
Like you'll you almost neverhear someone categorically
communicate about their growthin sacrificial love.
Why?
Well, because it's very hard toquantify love, right?
Love is not an emotion.
(10:29):
We try to quantify it by thatand qualify by that.
We're like, oh, it's thisoverwhelming sense of it.
It's like, no, that's not whatthe Bible says love is.
Love is a sacrificial action forthe benefit of another.
That's it.
It's the sacrificial action forthe benefit of another,
(10:50):
according to God's word.
When you and I choose to loveone another, when we choose to
love those around us, we are thedefinition of lights in
darkness.
Because when the world haspeople around them that hate
them, they respond back withhate.
(11:11):
When the world has those whocriticize them, they seek to
defend themselves.
Dear friends, what did Jesus dowhen he was criticized and
mocked and betrayed and berated?
Did he look at you and demandsome sort of gratification?
(11:33):
Tell them they're wrong.
Stand up for me.
Make them know.
(11:53):
You see, one of the things thatwe see with love is that
forgiveness is a greatillustration and example of
love.
And we can think of forgivenessin a lot of wrong ways, but one
of the greatest ways you canthink of forgiveness is to
absorb.
You wronged me in this way.
(12:16):
Instead of demanding equality,instead of demanding
justification, instead ofdemanding understanding, I will
absorb the penalty due to you.
That is forgiveness.
And it's one of the greatestillustrations and examples of
sacrificial love.
(12:37):
Because when Jesus was on thecross and you had nothing to
give him, in fact, you and Iwere haters of God, he did not
look at you and demand that youkeep your account, that you fix
your balance first, that youclean yourself up before you
come to Christ.
(12:58):
In fact, if anything, what hesaid is I will take all of your
past sins, all of your currentsins, and even every sin you'll
commit after I save you.
And I will pay for that.
You will never hear of it again,you will never see it again.
There will be no justificationscale at the end of your life
(13:21):
where all of your sins are piledup, because I have already
cleared the balance.
I am God, and I have loved youwith a never-ending love.
There is a need for aresurgence, a return to love.
The current church is veryinterested, the current American
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church is very interested in twoprimary things.
Number one is to entertain andgather as many people as
possible.
And number two is to fight asmuch as possible about
tradition, doctrine, whatever.
One divides what is healthy, andthe other creates a bloated
(14:05):
church that says, look how muchmuscle I gained.
And we say, No, that's TacoBell.
You did not gain what is good.
There is a need for a return tosacrificial love.
And here's the problem (14:19):
is that sacrificial love is like the
worst sales pitch in the entireworld to the average human
being.
All right, all right.
Here's the idea, okay?
If we're gonna entertain people,we could do this.
You could say, come to churchand you will be shocked and
amazed and wonder what happenedand want to come back next week.
(14:40):
You're like, whoa, that soundsgreat.
Also sounds exhausting, but itsounds great, okay?
Second thing.
We're the only right church.
Everyone else is wrong andstupid, and you don't want to go
there.
You want to go where it's rightand make sure you do what is
right at the right church.
Okay.
Also exhausting, but now we havethis kind of fear-driven thing,
right?
And we've turned Christiansagainst Christians for no godly
(15:04):
reason.
Sacrificial love sits in themiddle and says, No, no, no, no,
I don't want you just gatheringa crowd, and I don't want you
unnecessarily dividing.
Here's what I want you to do.
The three people that areclosest to you.
I want you to be a living,breathing sacrifice for their
(15:25):
benefit.
Don't demand a thank you, don'texpect it, don't try to receive
something back for it.
Jesus said that the world givesout to the world when they
expect some sort of paymentback.
(15:45):
That's not unique.
Jesus said, What is uniquethough is when you go and give
money to someone they couldnever pay you back.
What is unique is when yousacrificially give to people
that you know are not matureenough currently to love you
back.
When you forgive them, when theycontinue to hate you.
When you look them in the eyesand say, I love you, and they
(16:06):
ignore you and don't talk to youagain.
In all of those moments, and somany more, you and I have a
choice.
We can go this way, we can gothis way, or we can go God's
way.
It is necessitated by Scripturethat you and I live this life.
Why?
Because there's an absolutestatement that John just made.
(16:31):
He says, This commandment I'mwriting to you, he says, it is
true in Christ and in you.
Notice a couple of things here.
He didn't say it's all the waytrue in Christ and a little true
in you.
Like, so long as you got eighthours of sleep, you're fed, your
(16:51):
hair's brushed, the dogs didn'tdo anything stupid, the kids are
all acting well, and your job isjust there are no caveats to
love.
There's no conditions for love.
Again, imagine the response forus if Christ looked at us and
said, I've loved you with anever-ending love, and we go,
(17:14):
Oh, thank you.
I am pitiful.
I need it.
And he said, Okay, go ahead andwash yourself up, do a lot of
good works, and eventually youcan come to me.
You're like, this is just asbad.
I almost wish you would havenever told me this, because I
was okay being a filthy pig andjust kind of sitting in it.
And now you told me I'm dirty,but you told me now I gotta do
(17:34):
stuff to be not dirty.
So that I'm good enough for you.
The Bible says there is not onegood person in the world.
Not even one.
That there are none who seekafter God.
There is no one that's righteousin his eyes.
(17:56):
You and I do not qualify ourlove for others and say, I'll
love you if you do this.
Instead of self-protecting,right?
Because what's the knee-jerk?
Why do we do that?
Why is that the naturalreaction?
I'll love you once you.
(18:16):
This would all be better if youwould just, I can't until you.
Why do those happen?
Why are they there?
It's because you and I fall forthe trap every single day that
somehow we think I am theprimary protector and provider
(18:36):
of myself.
We're like uh the other daywe're talking around our
children, and uh I'm talking toBrie, and I said, she said she
wanted to buy something orsomething like that.
And I said, we don't have moneyfor that right now.
Wait until we get paid nexttime.
Our children are children.
(18:57):
So one of them, I think it wasmy son, looked over and was
like, Oh no, how are we gonnapay the bills?
We don't have any money.
Oh no, and he like legitimatelyis having a moment.
I'm like, we're talking aboutbuying something that's very
extra, that has nothing to dowith anything that's necessary.
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But what did he do?
In that moment, he overheard andsaid, We're in trouble.
My dear friends, you are so muchworse than that.
You wake up on the averageTuesday and something bad
happens at work.
And you're like, My life isruined, I need to take this into
control.
I'm gonna control you, I'm gonnatalk about you, I'm gonna make
this better, I'm gonna eat someextra good food, I'm gonna watch
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a show for five hours and passout.
And I will control my life thatway.
It's like, uh, yeah.
Okay.
Did you know there's a God who'sin control?
Do you know we have this thingcalled prayer?
And you can talk to him at anypoint in time.
He is like the creator andsustainer of the universe.
(20:04):
He has more resources than youcould ever think of.
Did you think like I should gothere first?
Or is our immediate response tostress to self-medicate, to
self-protect?
I've got to keep me safe.
Why?
Because no one else will.
(20:27):
And we miss the point.
My dear friends, there is aperfect love in Christ that will
never change, that will neverfail, it will never falter.
And that perfect love, if youhave put your faith in Christ,
Ephesians 2, we are saved bygrace, by unearned favor,
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through faith, through believingin Jesus Christ alone.
Salvation is not work, it'srest.
If you wake up on the averageWednesday and you're like, man,
I gotta work really hard for myChristian life today, you will
end up being exhausted.
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Can you imagine?
Jesus, come to me, all you whoare weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.
And you come to him and you'relike, oh, thank goodness.
You get this backpack off, andhe goes, Okay, get on the
treadmill, start running.
You don't stop until you die.
You'll be like, ah! Like, wait,what do you I'll take the
backpack back?
I don't want to run, I don'tlike running.
(21:33):
I'll carry something heavy.
I don't want to run.
The Christian life is rest.
Why?
Because Jesus said so.
That's why.
And that's love.
You know what's not love?
Is when you have a loved one andthey come home and you're like,
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you just like throw up like 18million problems at them, and
you're like, and you just kindof regurgitate information.
And you like have barely saidhello.
You've barely said I love you.
Like you're just more, you'remore like the you're
self-focused.
Like, I got all this gonna comeout.
And you love me the most, soit's going on you.
(22:18):
Like that's not rest.
You know how nice it is,especially as a man, to come
home.
And my wife seeks to make like alittle sanctuary for me at home.
And it's quiet and it'speaceful.
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You know how wonderful that is?
Now, is that every day?
No, we're all human and we havefour small children, okay?
But that is such a love to restwhen you're at work and someone
just takes something off yourplate without you asking.
Like your hair's on fire, you'retrying to do seven things, and
(23:01):
someone just says, Oh, I tookcare of that for you.
You're just like, oh thank you.
That was that was nice.
Thank you.
Why do we react that way?
Because rest feels like love.
You and I have the perfect loveof Christ in us.
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Now, why is this important?
End of verse 8.
Because the darkness is passingaway and the true light is
already shining.
You see, dear friends, you and Idon't need to be looking around
us for security.
We can look instead to God'sperfect word and see that the
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perfect light of Christ isinside of us.
And that perfect light isalready shining.
The words for already shiningthere are the idea that it has
already begun, it is continuing,and it will continue to
continue.
Like this is like there's nobreaks, there's no pauses.
(24:07):
The light of Christ is perfectlyshining, and nothing will change
that.
Not only that, the darkness isalready passing away.
The darkness of this world, thesin that so easily entangles us,
the temptations that knock onour door every three seconds, it
(24:29):
feels like, those are alreadydying.
And so we're much like a soldieron a battlefield where we can
see our perfect general behindus who is unscathed and
impenetrable in his defense, andhe's leading the charge and
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saying, go forward.
And we look ahead of us, andwhen we look with immature eyes,
we just see so much darkness.
We see soldiers all around us,and it feels overwhelming.
But my dear friend, if you wouldjust put on the glasses of faith
and love, you would see that thedarkness is coming, and there's
(25:14):
soldiers everywhere, but they'restumbling because they're dying.
That the lust that so easilytrips you up is already dead.
The greed that pulls at youdaily is already dying.
(25:34):
How much fear would you have onthe battlefield if you truly
were able to see that your worstenemies were already defeated?
How would that change your life?
How would that change your nextweek?
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The light, the true light isalready shining.
The darkness is passing away.
These are the this is thecommandment.
We have the old and newcommandment here, but this leads
then to an example that Johngives us for clarity's sake.
Verses 9 through 11.
John says, Whoever says he is inthe light and hates his brother
is still in darkness.
(26:21):
Jason used that verse for thekids' message today.
It's a beautiful thing workingthrough with him on how to
interpret the scripture and howto explain it.
So I'll give you what I gave himfor the kids.
Read it like this.
Whoever says they're a Christianand hates another Christian is
(26:45):
not saved.
That's a bold statement.
That's aggressive.
Why would you say that?
The same reason that Jesus said,you will know them by their
fruit.
You see, when someone says, uh,my life is completely changed,
(27:06):
right?
The God who created everythinghas slammed into the soul of my
life and has transformed me fromthe inside out.
I am not the same person.
I am a brand new creation.
There is nothing the same aboutme when it comes to my soul.
If someone says that, and thenthey act exactly like what they
(27:30):
were before that interaction,again, my favorite illustration
is uh what I got from Ephesians2, listening to a sermon years
ago.
If you and I were here for aSunday morning, and I come in
late, and I'm supposed topreach, and Dan Ashton's up here
(27:52):
just kind of biting time,waiting for me to show up, and I
show up well into the service,and Dan pulls me aside for a
second and goes, What are youdoing?
Where have you been?
And I looked at Dan and I waslike, Dan, look, I've had a
morning, okay?
I was driving down the road andmy cell phone flew out the
(28:14):
window on the highway.
I had to go pick it up.
So I pull over, I go pick it up,and when I go to pick it up, a
semi-truck ran me over.
And you're acting like you don'tcare.
Okay?
I'm a little offended right now.
And so I got up, pulled myselfoff the asphalt, got into my
car, and eventually made ithere.
(28:36):
Thanks for your sympathy.
And Dan would look at me,probably with an eye twitching,
and say, What on earth are youtalking about?
There is no way you got ran overby a semi-truck on a highway
before you got here.
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That's impossible.
No, no, no.
I mean it, Dan.
Like in my heart, this is true.
I got ran over by a semi.
I know it.
And Dan would look at me andsay, people that get run over by
semi-trucks on the highway don'tlook like you.
(29:20):
Okay?
And you and I have a much easiertime understanding the
semi-truck analogy thanunderstanding that the impact of
Christ changing your heart fromthe inside out is greater than
that.
The Puritans were famous forsaying that you change more when
(29:45):
you're saved from death to lifethan you will change one day
when you die and go to heaven.
That is a fascinating statement.
And yet it's really true.
You see, what happened on theinside of me is my soul was dead
and now it's alive.
(30:06):
When my physical body dies,nothing changes about my soul.
I just get a new heavenly body.
Very, very different.
You will never change more thanthe moment that Christ changes
your life and saves you.
And it is a much greater impactthan a semi-truck running you
(30:27):
over on the highway.
Whoever says they are aChristian and hates their
brother is not saved.
Why is that important?
1 John chapter 5, verse 13.
John said, I wrote this that youmay know that you have eternal
life.
I want you to be assured of yoursalvation.
(30:49):
I want you to know that you aresaved.
What does that mean?
It means I need to do two thingsat the same time.
I need to, number one, try toassure those that are saved.
Hey, if you're doing this, likeyou didn't used to do this at
all, and now you're doing this alittle bit, like dead people
don't live.
So you did it.
Good job.
(31:10):
On the other hand, I need to puta test, an expectation before
the world that will reveal tothem that their faith is not
true.
You see, if your faith has nottransformed you to where you do
love people more, to whereyou're willing to sacrifice for
people more, if your faith hasnot radically transformed your
(31:32):
life, the God of the universemight not be the one that saved
you.
And that is not a salvation youwant.
Verse 10.
Whoever loves his brother abidesin the light, and in him there
is no cause for stumbling.
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So whoever loves their fellowChristian is showing that they
are remaining in the light ofChrist, that they live and
breathe and die Jesus.
Why does that matter?
Other than the assurance aspect,other than the test aspect?
(32:14):
Look at the second half of thatsentence.
And in him there is no cause forstumbling.
There's a sense when you firstbecome a Christian that you
think like you're not that bad.
If you're like, like, I mean,I've changed like these three
big habits.
I used to be alcoholic and nowI'm not.
I mean, I'm doing pretty good.
And the further you get on theChristian life, you're like,
dude, I am terrible.
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Like, how did, like, I can'tbelieve I just did that.
How did we get here?
After all these years, you wouldthink, like, I wouldn't.
I didn't.
There becomes this point whereas we grow in maturity, we're
able to see our sin all thegreater.
So thus the big sins that we gotrid of now are gone, but now the
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smaller sins that we're tryingto get rid of look gigantic to
us and overwhelming.
One of those aspects is that ofmaking another Christian
stumble.
You see, you and I don't oftenthink of it, but our thoughtless
words, our insensitive remarks,our lack of compassion and mercy
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and grace can and will oftenprovoke others to sin.
My dear friend, it is one thingto have to deal with the fact
that you yourself are sinning.
It is a whole nother thing whenyou realize that you can be a
regular reason that someone elsesins.
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And that is why we needcommunity.
That's why we need each other.
That's why we need to makepromises to each other, where we
stand by each other and we standin the gap and we pick each
other up when we're in the mudand we hold each other
accountable and we say, you arenot alone.
Because daily you and I willfail at this.
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And we'll be the reason thatsomeone else stumbled.
There's a sense in which, as afather, uh, I have no problem if
you hurt me.
But if you hurt my children,there's a lot more
sanctification to work out.
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My dear friends, let us fear Godenough that when we think of God
the Father, and we have littlechildren all over amongst us in
the faith, that we think, let meguard my tongue.
Lord, please keep thoughtlesswords from my mouth.
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Lord, please help me to go aboveand beyond to love them.
That is necessary if we wish tosucceed in this Christian
mission.
Last verse, but whoever hateshis brother is in the darkness
and walks in the darkness, thatwould mean, number one, that
they are not saved, but also,number two, that they enjoy and
(35:13):
live in and breathe in theatmosphere of this sinful world
and do not wish to leave it.
A lot of times we can think ofthe gospel as a sales pitch.
It's like, get your best lifenow.
If you'll do this, you'll feelway better.
And it's like, actually, that'snot the case.
(35:34):
What we need to do instead inthis moment is realize that the
gospel's not a sales pitch.
In fact, if it was, it would bea terrible one because no one
wants to buy it.
They don't want your gospeltruth.
They're in the darkness.
There is nothing more offensivethan in six in the morning or
five in the morning when myalarm clock goes off on my phone
(35:56):
and I go to turn it on, and forwhatever reason, the iPhone
decided not to turn thebrightness down.
And the brightness just likeattacks my eyeballs, and I'm
barely awake, and I want tothrow my phone.
And most of the time I don't.
When you're in the darkness,light is offensive.
It's not enjoyable.
(36:17):
Nobody's like, yes.
Uh, if when I first wake up, ifyou could shine a light in my
eye to wake me up, that'd begreat.
I would that that's that's likeoozing me into the day.
I'm just ready to go.
No one has ever said that in theentire existence of humanity,
okay?
Whoever hates his brother is inthe darkness.
(36:38):
When you and I choose to hate aChristian, we are showing that
we are at the very least actinglike the world.
And at the most, that we need tokeep our eyes on Christ and go
back to do I actually trust thisgospel?
Has it transformed my life?
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Verse 11 continuing, they walkin the darkness next, and does
not know where he is going.
Why?
Because the darkness has blindedhis eyes.
I've shared this story before ofuh me sharing the gospel with a
young man.
He's a teenager.
I'm super excited.
We were having this likerelational moment, and I had
finally got in, and I'm like,yes, like I'm about to like just
(37:23):
pitch this gospel down middle.
It's gonna be a fastball downthe lake, just nail it.
You got it.
It was a beautiful moment, Ithought, where I asked him about
the gospel, and he said, I don'tactually know the gospel.
And I was like, perfect, this isgreat.
Do you want to hear it?
He goes, Yeah.
I was like, This is the best dayever.
I'm about to nail this.
(37:44):
And so for the next fiveminutes, I explained the gospel
to him.
And I'm like, and you need torepent and believe.
You need to turn from your sinand trust in Jesus alone.
And he looked at me and he wasnodding and goes, Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I think I'mgonna get back into
(38:05):
skateboarding.
And I was like, no, no, no, no.
That's not how this is supposedto work, okay?
You're supposed to listen, Ipitch, and you you just what
happened?
And it's like you and I forgetall the time that the Bible says
these things.
Like the world is in thedarkness and they don't want the
light.
(38:25):
We're like, no, Jesus doesn'tmean that.
What he means is that, like, heneeds me to pitch it, and if I
can pitch it real good, they'llbe saved.
And it's like, uh, no.
People are not saved by Danthrough faith in Jesus Christ.
(38:48):
No one will be saved because youdid the work of saving them.
You and I are simply faithfulstewards who have a message of
hope and of peace and of love.
And we throw it out to the worldand say, I hope and pray and
(39:11):
wish that you will respond.
My dear friends, we can'tcontrol if they say yes or no.
And you'll never have a hardertime recognizing that or having
peace with that until you havechildren, and you realize I
can't save you.
(39:33):
Thank God we serve a sovereignGod.
Thank God we serve a God oflove.
Thank God that his mercies arenew each day, and I am always in
desperate need of them.
Thank God that if God can save asinner like me, there is more
(39:54):
than hope for my children, forthis community, and for the
world around us.
But they will not listen if wedo not love them first.
Let us pray.
Father, we come before you,asking, begging, and pleading,
(40:20):
that you would change us fromthe inside out, that you would
help us to be a body ofbelievers who truly and
sacrificially love each other,that we would live our lives on
display for the watching worldaround us, that we would choose
to bless those who curse us, toforgive those who reject us, to
(40:46):
be patient and kind and gentlein a world that is fast-paced,
impatient, and aggressive.
Lord, help us in our weakness tobe your hands and feet.
Help us to be truly transformedby your word, by your truth, and
by your life.
Lord, we hold all of this inopen hands and say, You give and
(41:10):
you take.
But no matter what, we willpraise your name.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Go ahead and turn me in your Bibles to the book of 1
John.
1 John chapter 2.
Here at Sovereign Grace BibleChurch, we practice expository
preaching.
That means we go through God'sWord verse by verse, line by
line, and word by word, in orderto understand what God has said,
what He means, and what we mustdo in light of it.
It helps us to not have anyagendas planned.
(00:22):
You can never look at the pastorand say, You were thinking about
me when you preached that.
Because it's just God.
That's the beautiful thing, iswe allow all of the authority in
this church to be founded on andrested in God's word.
Today we find ourselves inverses 7 through 11.
(00:42):
And this is a beautiful momentwhere the Apostle John is known
in church history as the Apostleof Love.
And there's a reason for that.
If you read John's gospel andthen you read his letters,
you'll see that love is one ofthe ultimate things he's
pointing to throughout all ofhis writings.
(01:04):
Last week we talked aboutactually putting the rubber to
the road, how our lives aremeant to show love in action,
right?
The verse 6 there at the endsaid, Whoever says he abides in
him ought to walk in the sameway in which he walked.
And we talked about how that'swhat a Christian is.
They're a Christ follower.
(01:25):
And so the ways that Jesusacted, the ways he reacted to
this world, are the same waysthat you and I are commanded and
expected to act and react tothis world.
Now in verse 7, he transitions alittle bit to give a new
commandment, but it's notexactly new.
Go ahead and read with me God'sholy word.
(01:48):
It says, Beloved, I am writingto you no new commandment, but
an old commandment that you hadfrom the beginning.
The old commandment is the wordthat you have heard.
At the same time, it is a newcommandment that I am writing to
you, which is true in him and inyou, because the darkness is
passing away, and the true lightis already shining.
(02:10):
Whoever says he is in the lightand hates his brother is still
in darkness.
Whoever loves his brother abidesin the light, and in him there
is no cause for stumbling.
But whoever hates his brother isin the darkness and walks in the
darkness, and does not knowwhere he is going, because the
darkness has blinded his eyes.
(02:34):
Our text will break down intothe following outline.
Verses seven and eight will bethe commandment, and verses nine
through eleven will be theclarity.
We begin with the commandment.
John says, Beloved, I am writingto you no new commandment, but
an old commandment that you hadfrom the beginning.
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The old commandment is the wordthat you have heard.
Now that word beloved is abeautiful word in the Greek.
It means loved ones.
And so there's this affectionatetone that he's going into now.
My loved ones, I'm writing toyou no new commandment.
This is the same way that whenyou're trying to emphasize
(03:15):
something to your child, or ifyou ever had to teach younger
people at any point in time inyour life, there is a need for
emphasis, both of the negativeand the positive.
John, in that way, is taking usthrough the basics of this and
is saying, I'm not writing you anew commandment, this almost
double negative, but an oldcommandment that you had from
the beginning.
What is the commandment?
(03:36):
Well, through the context, we'reable to see that the commandment
is to love one another.
That is the commandment he isspeaking of.
Now, why is that an oldcommandment?
Well, Bill just read Leviticus19, 18.
In the Old Testament, there wasthis command to love your
neighbor as yourself.
God's people have always beenexpected to be living, breathing
(04:01):
examples of sacrificial love andservice to those that are around
them.
That has never been different.
It will never change.
That will always be what isexpected.
He says, I'm not writing, I'mwriting to you no new
commandment, but an oldcommandment that you had from
the beginning.
The old commandment is the wordthat you have heard, meaning
that they have already beentaught these things.
(04:23):
I'm not telling you somethingnew, as in something you've
never heard before.
This is important because yousee the word new there, and
you're like, Okay, John, likeI'm not telling you something
old, it's new, but it's not new,it's old.
And you're like, that's acontradiction.
And so we have to allow the thethe John, the parent, to be the
parent in this situation, andwe're arguing with our parent
(04:44):
about why seat buckles areunnecessary.
Okay.
He looks at us with this andsays, This old commandment is
one that you've heard.
Verse 8, at the same time, it isa new commandment that I am
writing to you, which is true inhim and in you.
What we learn from the Greektext, the language that the
Bible was originally written in,is the word new here is not new
(05:07):
as in time.
It's not new as in never hashappened, but new rather in like
freshness.
So, like uh, we would say uhwhen someone cleans their car
really well and has that brandnew car smell again, right?
Um I have a new look, means Ibought new clothes, and so now I
have a new look.
Well, do you actually lookcompletely different?
(05:28):
No, you have different clothesthat are representing you in a
different way.
Um and so actually, I rememberwhen I taught this to middle
school boys at one point intime, I talked about deodorant,
and I was like, new as indeodorant.
You know, when you put it on,and all of a sudden, like
there's not wet spotseverywhere, and like, you don't
stay like it was very impactfulfor our middle school group,
(05:50):
right?
The only thing they remembered.
At the same time, it's a newcommandment I'm writing to you,
which is true in him and in you.
It's not new as in time, it'snew as an essence.
So, what's the essence?
Well, it's something that's truein him, Jesus Christ, and you.
So, what we see here is that inthe Old Testament, we have this
expectation for all Christiansto love each other, to love
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those around them.
What we're able to realize onthe other side of the cross is
that the the most perfectmanifestation, the most perfect
example of sacrificial love wasshown in Christ.
And that there will never be agreater example in all of
history.
When time ends one day and Godbrings everything to a close,
(06:36):
there will be nothing greaterthan the love that Christ showed
for us on the cross.
We live in a generation that'shaving an identity crisis.
Uh, we're not sure who we are,how we fit into the system.
We have young people that thinkthat their lives are defined by
money or sex or power, fame.
(06:59):
I spent, I don't even know, anhour or two this week looking at
different YouTube videos thatyounger people had sent me.
And one of the things I wasshocked by, there was one that
was a music video by a Christianartist.
And in the music video, itshowed, like, I don't know,
maybe a hundred people-ish thathad recorded themselves singing
(07:21):
this artist song.
And they all are singing it intothe camera and they sent in
their video so they could get inthe music video.
And I'm here to tell you, theonly thing that stood out to me
of that entire thing was hownuts it is, how comfortable our
generation is with publicizingthemselves.
(07:42):
Like there was a moment wherepublic speaking was like a most
people die when they try to dothat.
And now it's like uh aneight-year-old can have 15
million followers on socialmedia and have more influence
than you because they did afunny dance once or screamed in
a silly way.
(08:02):
It is a dangerous time that welive in where we are so
comfortable with that, but thosesame people, you begin to have
these deeper conversations oflife and push into the reality
of the pain and the struggle andthe lack of processing they've
(08:22):
done in their lives.
And all of a sudden, the personwho is a social media phenomenon
shrinks up and can't communicatewell.
It is a strange day when we livein an era where we're more
comfortable talking to someonethat we've never met than we are
the person next to us.
(08:43):
Part of that is because realrelationship is found in
sacrificial love andaccountability.
You know what I don't have to doat all on social media?
I don't have to sacrificiallylove anybody, and I don't have
to have any accountability.
Now, that's not me demonizingsocial media and saying thus
(09:03):
everyone should get rid of theirFacebook.
Like that's not where we'regoing, okay?
All of these things can beredeemed.
All of these things can be usedfor Christ, but I'm here to tell
you if you're not using it forChrist, the natural inclination
of this world is not towardlove.
It is not toward truth, it istoward a lie, and we'll get to
that towards the end of ourtext.
(09:25):
John is creating this picturefor the Christians, and he's
saying, there's an oldcommandment that God has always
said should be of loving yourneighbor.
Now that you, dear Christian,are graced to be able to look
back to the cross and see whatGod has already done for you,
(09:48):
how much more so should you andI be defined by love?
And you and I don't often thinkabout growth in love as a metric
that is measurable.
We're not like, yeah, so likethis last year I lost 10 pounds,
I got the thousand dollars morein my savings account, the car's
working great.
(10:09):
And I think like my I got mylove, my ability to
sacrificially love people wentup a little bit too.
Like you'll you almost neverhear someone categorically
communicate about their growthin sacrificial love.
Why?
Well, because it's very hard toquantify love, right?
Love is not an emotion.
(10:29):
We try to quantify it by thatand qualify by that.
We're like, oh, it's thisoverwhelming sense of it.
It's like, no, that's not whatthe Bible says love is.
Love is a sacrificial action forthe benefit of another.
That's it.
It's the sacrificial action forthe benefit of another,
(10:50):
according to God's word.
When you and I choose to loveone another, when we choose to
love those around us, we are thedefinition of lights in
darkness.
Because when the world haspeople around them that hate
them, they respond back withhate.
(11:11):
When the world has those whocriticize them, they seek to
defend themselves.
Dear friends, what did Jesus dowhen he was criticized and
mocked and betrayed and berated?
Did he look at you and demandsome sort of gratification?
(11:33):
Tell them they're wrong.
Stand up for me.
Make them know.
(11:53):
You see, one of the things thatwe see with love is that
forgiveness is a greatillustration and example of
love.
And we can think of forgivenessin a lot of wrong ways, but one
of the greatest ways you canthink of forgiveness is to
absorb.
You wronged me in this way.
(12:16):
Instead of demanding equality,instead of demanding
justification, instead ofdemanding understanding, I will
absorb the penalty due to you.
That is forgiveness.
And it's one of the greatestillustrations and examples of
sacrificial love.
(12:37):
Because when Jesus was on thecross and you had nothing to
give him, in fact, you and Iwere haters of God, he did not
look at you and demand that youkeep your account, that you fix
your balance first, that youclean yourself up before you
come to Christ.
(12:58):
In fact, if anything, what hesaid is I will take all of your
past sins, all of your currentsins, and even every sin you'll
commit after I save you.
And I will pay for that.
You will never hear of it again,you will never see it again.
There will be no justificationscale at the end of your life
(13:21):
where all of your sins are piledup, because I have already
cleared the balance.
I am God, and I have loved youwith a never-ending love.
There is a need for aresurgence, a return to love.
The current church is veryinterested, the current American
(13:42):
church is very interested in twoprimary things.
Number one is to entertain andgather as many people as
possible.
And number two is to fight asmuch as possible about
tradition, doctrine, whatever.
One divides what is healthy, andthe other creates a bloated
(14:05):
church that says, look how muchmuscle I gained.
And we say, No, that's TacoBell.
You did not gain what is good.
There is a need for a return tosacrificial love.
And here's the problem (14:19):
is that sacrificial love is like the
worst sales pitch in the entireworld to the average human
being.
All right, all right.
Here's the idea, okay?
If we're gonna entertain people,we could do this.
You could say, come to churchand you will be shocked and
amazed and wonder what happenedand want to come back next week.
(14:40):
You're like, whoa, that soundsgreat.
Also sounds exhausting, but itsounds great, okay?
Second thing.
We're the only right church.
Everyone else is wrong andstupid, and you don't want to go
there.
You want to go where it's rightand make sure you do what is
right at the right church.
Okay.
Also exhausting, but now we havethis kind of fear-driven thing,
right?
And we've turned Christiansagainst Christians for no godly
(15:04):
reason.
Sacrificial love sits in themiddle and says, No, no, no, no,
I don't want you just gatheringa crowd, and I don't want you
unnecessarily dividing.
Here's what I want you to do.
The three people that areclosest to you.
I want you to be a living,breathing sacrifice for their
(15:25):
benefit.
Don't demand a thank you, don'texpect it, don't try to receive
something back for it.
Jesus said that the world givesout to the world when they
expect some sort of paymentback.
(15:45):
That's not unique.
Jesus said, What is uniquethough is when you go and give
money to someone they couldnever pay you back.
What is unique is when yousacrificially give to people
that you know are not matureenough currently to love you
back.
When you forgive them, when theycontinue to hate you.
When you look them in the eyesand say, I love you, and they
(16:06):
ignore you and don't talk to youagain.
In all of those moments, and somany more, you and I have a
choice.
We can go this way, we can gothis way, or we can go God's
way.
It is necessitated by Scripturethat you and I live this life.
Why?
Because there's an absolutestatement that John just made.
(16:31):
He says, This commandment I'mwriting to you, he says, it is
true in Christ and in you.
Notice a couple of things here.
He didn't say it's all the waytrue in Christ and a little true
in you.
Like, so long as you got eighthours of sleep, you're fed, your
(16:51):
hair's brushed, the dogs didn'tdo anything stupid, the kids are
all acting well, and your job isjust there are no caveats to
love.
There's no conditions for love.
Again, imagine the response forus if Christ looked at us and
said, I've loved you with anever-ending love, and we go,
(17:14):
Oh, thank you.
I am pitiful.
I need it.
And he said, Okay, go ahead andwash yourself up, do a lot of
good works, and eventually youcan come to me.
You're like, this is just asbad.
I almost wish you would havenever told me this, because I
was okay being a filthy pig andjust kind of sitting in it.
And now you told me I'm dirty,but you told me now I gotta do
(17:34):
stuff to be not dirty.
So that I'm good enough for you.
The Bible says there is not onegood person in the world.
Not even one.
That there are none who seekafter God.
There is no one that's righteousin his eyes.
(17:56):
You and I do not qualify ourlove for others and say, I'll
love you if you do this.
Instead of self-protecting,right?
Because what's the knee-jerk?
Why do we do that?
Why is that the naturalreaction?
I'll love you once you.
(18:16):
This would all be better if youwould just, I can't until you.
Why do those happen?
Why are they there?
It's because you and I fall forthe trap every single day that
somehow we think I am theprimary protector and provider
(18:36):
of myself.
We're like uh the other daywe're talking around our
children, and uh I'm talking toBrie, and I said, she said she
wanted to buy something orsomething like that.
And I said, we don't have moneyfor that right now.
Wait until we get paid nexttime.
Our children are children.
(18:57):
So one of them, I think it wasmy son, looked over and was
like, Oh no, how are we gonnapay the bills?
We don't have any money.
Oh no, and he like legitimatelyis having a moment.
I'm like, we're talking aboutbuying something that's very
extra, that has nothing to dowith anything that's necessary.
(19:18):
But what did he do?
In that moment, he overheard andsaid, We're in trouble.
My dear friends, you are so muchworse than that.
You wake up on the averageTuesday and something bad
happens at work.
And you're like, My life isruined, I need to take this into
control.
I'm gonna control you, I'm gonnatalk about you, I'm gonna make
this better, I'm gonna eat someextra good food, I'm gonna watch
(19:40):
a show for five hours and passout.
And I will control my life thatway.
It's like, uh, yeah.
Okay.
Did you know there's a God who'sin control?
Do you know we have this thingcalled prayer?
And you can talk to him at anypoint in time.
He is like the creator andsustainer of the universe.
(20:04):
He has more resources than youcould ever think of.
Did you think like I should gothere first?
Or is our immediate response tostress to self-medicate, to
self-protect?
I've got to keep me safe.
Why?
Because no one else will.
(20:27):
And we miss the point.
My dear friends, there is aperfect love in Christ that will
never change, that will neverfail, it will never falter.
And that perfect love, if youhave put your faith in Christ,
Ephesians 2, we are saved bygrace, by unearned favor,
(20:48):
through faith, through believingin Jesus Christ alone.
Salvation is not work, it'srest.
If you wake up on the averageWednesday and you're like, man,
I gotta work really hard for myChristian life today, you will
end up being exhausted.
(21:12):
Can you imagine?
Jesus, come to me, all you whoare weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.
And you come to him and you'relike, oh, thank goodness.
You get this backpack off, andhe goes, Okay, get on the
treadmill, start running.
You don't stop until you die.
You'll be like, ah! Like, wait,what do you I'll take the
backpack back?
I don't want to run, I don'tlike running.
(21:33):
I'll carry something heavy.
I don't want to run.
The Christian life is rest.
Why?
Because Jesus said so.
That's why.
And that's love.
You know what's not love?
Is when you have a loved one andthey come home and you're like,
(21:54):
you just like throw up like 18million problems at them, and
you're like, and you just kindof regurgitate information.
And you like have barely saidhello.
You've barely said I love you.
Like you're just more, you'remore like the you're
self-focused.
Like, I got all this gonna comeout.
And you love me the most, soit's going on you.
(22:18):
Like that's not rest.
You know how nice it is,especially as a man, to come
home.
And my wife seeks to make like alittle sanctuary for me at home.
And it's quiet and it'speaceful.
(22:40):
You know how wonderful that is?
Now, is that every day?
No, we're all human and we havefour small children, okay?
But that is such a love to restwhen you're at work and someone
just takes something off yourplate without you asking.
Like your hair's on fire, you'retrying to do seven things, and
(23:01):
someone just says, Oh, I tookcare of that for you.
You're just like, oh thank you.
That was that was nice.
Thank you.
Why do we react that way?
Because rest feels like love.
You and I have the perfect loveof Christ in us.
(23:25):
Now, why is this important?
End of verse 8.
Because the darkness is passingaway and the true light is
already shining.
You see, dear friends, you and Idon't need to be looking around
us for security.
We can look instead to God'sperfect word and see that the
(23:46):
perfect light of Christ isinside of us.
And that perfect light isalready shining.
The words for already shiningthere are the idea that it has
already begun, it is continuing,and it will continue to
continue.
Like this is like there's nobreaks, there's no pauses.
(24:07):
The light of Christ is perfectlyshining, and nothing will change
that.
Not only that, the darkness isalready passing away.
The darkness of this world, thesin that so easily entangles us,
the temptations that knock onour door every three seconds, it
(24:29):
feels like, those are alreadydying.
And so we're much like a soldieron a battlefield where we can
see our perfect general behindus who is unscathed and
impenetrable in his defense, andhe's leading the charge and
(24:49):
saying, go forward.
And we look ahead of us, andwhen we look with immature eyes,
we just see so much darkness.
We see soldiers all around us,and it feels overwhelming.
But my dear friend, if you wouldjust put on the glasses of faith
and love, you would see that thedarkness is coming, and there's
(25:14):
soldiers everywhere, but they'restumbling because they're dying.
That the lust that so easilytrips you up is already dead.
The greed that pulls at youdaily is already dying.
(25:34):
How much fear would you have onthe battlefield if you truly
were able to see that your worstenemies were already defeated?
How would that change your life?
How would that change your nextweek?
(25:58):
The light, the true light isalready shining.
The darkness is passing away.
These are the this is thecommandment.
We have the old and newcommandment here, but this leads
then to an example that Johngives us for clarity's sake.
Verses 9 through 11.
John says, Whoever says he is inthe light and hates his brother
is still in darkness.
(26:21):
Jason used that verse for thekids' message today.
It's a beautiful thing workingthrough with him on how to
interpret the scripture and howto explain it.
So I'll give you what I gave himfor the kids.
Read it like this.
Whoever says they're a Christianand hates another Christian is
(26:45):
not saved.
That's a bold statement.
That's aggressive.
Why would you say that?
The same reason that Jesus said,you will know them by their
fruit.
You see, when someone says, uh,my life is completely changed,
(27:06):
right?
The God who created everythinghas slammed into the soul of my
life and has transformed me fromthe inside out.
I am not the same person.
I am a brand new creation.
There is nothing the same aboutme when it comes to my soul.
If someone says that, and thenthey act exactly like what they
(27:30):
were before that interaction,again, my favorite illustration
is uh what I got from Ephesians2, listening to a sermon years
ago.
If you and I were here for aSunday morning, and I come in
late, and I'm supposed topreach, and Dan Ashton's up here
(27:52):
just kind of biting time,waiting for me to show up, and I
show up well into the service,and Dan pulls me aside for a
second and goes, What are youdoing?
Where have you been?
And I looked at Dan and I waslike, Dan, look, I've had a
morning, okay?
I was driving down the road andmy cell phone flew out the
(28:14):
window on the highway.
I had to go pick it up.
So I pull over, I go pick it up,and when I go to pick it up, a
semi-truck ran me over.
And you're acting like you don'tcare.
Okay?
I'm a little offended right now.
And so I got up, pulled myselfoff the asphalt, got into my
car, and eventually made ithere.
(28:36):
Thanks for your sympathy.
And Dan would look at me,probably with an eye twitching,
and say, What on earth are youtalking about?
There is no way you got ran overby a semi-truck on a highway
before you got here.
(28:57):
That's impossible.
No, no, no.
I mean it, Dan.
Like in my heart, this is true.
I got ran over by a semi.
I know it.
And Dan would look at me andsay, people that get run over by
semi-trucks on the highway don'tlook like you.
(29:20):
Okay?
And you and I have a much easiertime understanding the
semi-truck analogy thanunderstanding that the impact of
Christ changing your heart fromthe inside out is greater than
that.
The Puritans were famous forsaying that you change more when
(29:45):
you're saved from death to lifethan you will change one day
when you die and go to heaven.
That is a fascinating statement.
And yet it's really true.
You see, what happened on theinside of me is my soul was dead
and now it's alive.
(30:06):
When my physical body dies,nothing changes about my soul.
I just get a new heavenly body.
Very, very different.
You will never change more thanthe moment that Christ changes
your life and saves you.
And it is a much greater impactthan a semi-truck running you
(30:27):
over on the highway.
Whoever says they are aChristian and hates their
brother is not saved.
Why is that important?
1 John chapter 5, verse 13.
John said, I wrote this that youmay know that you have eternal
life.
I want you to be assured of yoursalvation.
(30:49):
I want you to know that you aresaved.
What does that mean?
It means I need to do two thingsat the same time.
I need to, number one, try toassure those that are saved.
Hey, if you're doing this, likeyou didn't used to do this at
all, and now you're doing this alittle bit, like dead people
don't live.
So you did it.
Good job.
(31:10):
On the other hand, I need to puta test, an expectation before
the world that will reveal tothem that their faith is not
true.
You see, if your faith has nottransformed you to where you do
love people more, to whereyou're willing to sacrifice for
people more, if your faith hasnot radically transformed your
(31:32):
life, the God of the universemight not be the one that saved
you.
And that is not a salvation youwant.
Verse 10.
Whoever loves his brother abidesin the light, and in him there
is no cause for stumbling.
(31:52):
So whoever loves their fellowChristian is showing that they
are remaining in the light ofChrist, that they live and
breathe and die Jesus.
Why does that matter?
Other than the assurance aspect,other than the test aspect?
(32:14):
Look at the second half of thatsentence.
And in him there is no cause forstumbling.
There's a sense when you firstbecome a Christian that you
think like you're not that bad.
If you're like, like, I mean,I've changed like these three
big habits.
I used to be alcoholic and nowI'm not.
I mean, I'm doing pretty good.
And the further you get on theChristian life, you're like,
dude, I am terrible.
(32:34):
Like, how did, like, I can'tbelieve I just did that.
How did we get here?
After all these years, you wouldthink, like, I wouldn't.
I didn't.
There becomes this point whereas we grow in maturity, we're
able to see our sin all thegreater.
So thus the big sins that we gotrid of now are gone, but now the
(32:56):
smaller sins that we're tryingto get rid of look gigantic to
us and overwhelming.
One of those aspects is that ofmaking another Christian
stumble.
You see, you and I don't oftenthink of it, but our thoughtless
words, our insensitive remarks,our lack of compassion and mercy
(33:22):
and grace can and will oftenprovoke others to sin.
My dear friend, it is one thingto have to deal with the fact
that you yourself are sinning.
It is a whole nother thing whenyou realize that you can be a
regular reason that someone elsesins.
(33:45):
And that is why we needcommunity.
That's why we need each other.
That's why we need to makepromises to each other, where we
stand by each other and we standin the gap and we pick each
other up when we're in the mudand we hold each other
accountable and we say, you arenot alone.
Because daily you and I willfail at this.
(34:10):
And we'll be the reason thatsomeone else stumbled.
There's a sense in which, as afather, uh, I have no problem if
you hurt me.
But if you hurt my children,there's a lot more
sanctification to work out.
(34:31):
My dear friends, let us fear Godenough that when we think of God
the Father, and we have littlechildren all over amongst us in
the faith, that we think, let meguard my tongue.
Lord, please keep thoughtlesswords from my mouth.
(34:52):
Lord, please help me to go aboveand beyond to love them.
That is necessary if we wish tosucceed in this Christian
mission.
Last verse, but whoever hateshis brother is in the darkness
and walks in the darkness, thatwould mean, number one, that
they are not saved, but also,number two, that they enjoy and
(35:13):
live in and breathe in theatmosphere of this sinful world
and do not wish to leave it.
A lot of times we can think ofthe gospel as a sales pitch.
It's like, get your best lifenow.
If you'll do this, you'll feelway better.
And it's like, actually, that'snot the case.
(35:34):
What we need to do instead inthis moment is realize that the
gospel's not a sales pitch.
In fact, if it was, it would bea terrible one because no one
wants to buy it.
They don't want your gospeltruth.
They're in the darkness.
There is nothing more offensivethan in six in the morning or
five in the morning when myalarm clock goes off on my phone
(35:56):
and I go to turn it on, and forwhatever reason, the iPhone
decided not to turn thebrightness down.
And the brightness just likeattacks my eyeballs, and I'm
barely awake, and I want tothrow my phone.
And most of the time I don't.
When you're in the darkness,light is offensive.
It's not enjoyable.
(36:17):
Nobody's like, yes.
Uh, if when I first wake up, ifyou could shine a light in my
eye to wake me up, that'd begreat.
I would that that's that's likeoozing me into the day.
I'm just ready to go.
No one has ever said that in theentire existence of humanity,
okay?
Whoever hates his brother is inthe darkness.
(36:38):
When you and I choose to hate aChristian, we are showing that
we are at the very least actinglike the world.
And at the most, that we need tokeep our eyes on Christ and go
back to do I actually trust thisgospel?
Has it transformed my life?
(37:00):
Verse 11 continuing, they walkin the darkness next, and does
not know where he is going.
Why?
Because the darkness has blindedhis eyes.
I've shared this story before ofuh me sharing the gospel with a
young man.
He's a teenager.
I'm super excited.
We were having this likerelational moment, and I had
finally got in, and I'm like,yes, like I'm about to like just
(37:23):
pitch this gospel down middle.
It's gonna be a fastball downthe lake, just nail it.
You got it.
It was a beautiful moment, Ithought, where I asked him about
the gospel, and he said, I don'tactually know the gospel.
And I was like, perfect, this isgreat.
Do you want to hear it?
He goes, Yeah.
I was like, This is the best dayever.
I'm about to nail this.
(37:44):
And so for the next fiveminutes, I explained the gospel
to him.
And I'm like, and you need torepent and believe.
You need to turn from your sinand trust in Jesus alone.
And he looked at me and he wasnodding and goes, Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I think I'mgonna get back into
(38:05):
skateboarding.
And I was like, no, no, no, no.
That's not how this is supposedto work, okay?
You're supposed to listen, Ipitch, and you you just what
happened?
And it's like you and I forgetall the time that the Bible says
these things.
Like the world is in thedarkness and they don't want the
light.
(38:25):
We're like, no, Jesus doesn'tmean that.
What he means is that, like, heneeds me to pitch it, and if I
can pitch it real good, they'llbe saved.
And it's like, uh, no.
People are not saved by Danthrough faith in Jesus Christ.
(38:48):
No one will be saved because youdid the work of saving them.
You and I are simply faithfulstewards who have a message of
hope and of peace and of love.
And we throw it out to the worldand say, I hope and pray and
(39:11):
wish that you will respond.
My dear friends, we can'tcontrol if they say yes or no.
And you'll never have a hardertime recognizing that or having
peace with that until you havechildren, and you realize I
can't save you.
(39:33):
Thank God we serve a sovereignGod.
Thank God we serve a God oflove.
Thank God that his mercies arenew each day, and I am always in
desperate need of them.
Thank God that if God can save asinner like me, there is more
(39:54):
than hope for my children, forthis community, and for the
world around us.
But they will not listen if wedo not love them first.
Let us pray.
Father, we come before you,asking, begging, and pleading,
(40:20):
that you would change us fromthe inside out, that you would
help us to be a body ofbelievers who truly and
sacrificially love each other,that we would live our lives on
display for the watching worldaround us, that we would choose
to bless those who curse us, toforgive those who reject us, to
(40:46):
be patient and kind and gentlein a world that is fast-paced,
impatient, and aggressive.
Lord, help us in our weakness tobe your hands and feet.
Help us to be truly transformedby your word, by your truth, and
by your life.
Lord, we hold all of this inopen hands and say, You give and
(41:10):
you take.
But no matter what, we willpraise your name.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
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