1 John 2:3-11 Experiencing the Light

Sing the son Come into my heart at the end

Sing Trust and Obey

Sing songs about love and obedience

Use John 13 14 or 15 as reading

I am CITIZEN of heaven! You know that I am proud of that. Heaven is my home it is my heart’s desire. I however am this strange man in that I am I think the most unusual pastor out there. I have a passion to be a pastor, but I am also a math and science teacher. Sometimes that makes me think different than all other pastors. I will tell you why: Theologians have to be RIGHT! I don’t like that. As a matter of fact my entire life I go to Pastor’s breakfasts or conferenes and I have a great time until these theologians start arguing about original sin, eschatology, and predestination. Because they turn into philosophical right fighters. Do I like learning about those topics and study what the scripture and learning and talking about what the scripture has to say about them and are they important. YEP absolutely. But I know that I don’t know everything and I hope I get them from Math and science. Science is the study of knowledge and math is so closely related to it. I am constantly learning and I learn things in two ways by logic and experience. Or in math class we call it induction vs deduction. Both have there place and both should be used.

So you may wonder Pastor why are you talking to me about this. Well my biggest concern for you is salvation. Are you saved? Some of you are saved and you are confident in your salvation. Others of you are saved, but you wonder am I really saved? Some of you don’t know if you are saved and you may not even know what being saved is. Others and this is the one that I think about think you are saved, but maybe you really aren’t. That is a big topic in John’s epistle and He looks at it inductively and deductively and when both are applied properly and together you can know, have confidence that you know you are saved. Let me tell you what I mean.

Deduction is logic. My teacher told me that cows are animals that go moooooooo...… Old Bessy out there in the field is going mooooo....… Bessy must be a cow. Logic is good but if that’s your mother in law out in the field you have a problem.

Farmer’s have experienced a cow. They have fed cows, they have cleaned the manure of cows, they have milked the cows, and if the farm you were on was anything like mine, you have been licked by cows, kicked by cows, helped cows birth a calf stitch them back together and watched them both be born and die. You know what a cow is… Unless what your dad taught you was a cow was really a lama and you just have never had anyone else say different. What I am saying is that John wants to answer your question in black and white, are you saved, and in John He will use both your experiences and authoritative logic to test your salvation.

Salvation Test #1 Experience

1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Remember I gave you that cute little phrase last week. Your walk talks and you talk talks but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. That is still true this week and John wants you to walk away from this book knowing if you are saved. You should all ask the question today..… Am I saved? I really don’t want to make you doubt your salvation. But if there is one person here who has been playing games, I want you to leave knowing that you are saved. The first test of salvation is obedience. Back in 2021 I did a series on Sunday nights call genuine Christians keep God’s commandments. That is still true today.

Genuine Christians, keep God’s commandments.

John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

You know what I love. Is my brothers in Christ here in this church who when we talk get out their Bible. How should you know if what you are doing is right? What does Jesus say about it in the one source of truth, GOD’S WORD! That is the absolute authority!

Keep God’s command, love one another!

John 13:34–35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If you know God, you will keep His commandments. It is interesting. People say I love God, I live for Him but they refuse to obey His commandments. Well how do you live your life in line with the Bible and in line with the commandments of scripture. If not not that’s a problem. When I accepted Jesus Christ, I accepted Him as my LORD and Savior. There is a phrase Lordship Salvation. Be very careful here. Salvation is by grace alone through faith you can not earn it. You want to know how you have accepted His free gift of salvation? Jesus changes you from the inside out. Salvation achieved not by any good that you have done. But if you want to know if it is genuine. Genuine followers of Jesus obey Him. John sees things very black and white. He says that if you follow Jesus you obey Him end of story. That isn’t what earns your salvation but it is a test.

Anyone can say YEP I’m a farmer!!!! But until you are out their scooping poop bailing hay and milking night and day, you are just pretending. This is experiential proof that you are a Christian. If you leave these doors and say oh I hate that person, that person disgusts me, and you treat people with contempt all the time. Well that’s not how Jesus treated you. He could have but He didn’t and that’s not how your master taught you how to live.

Liar!

1 John 2:4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Liars say one thing and do another. To lie is to say I’m a Christian and be a hypocrite. A hypocrite puts on a mask and pretends that they are someone they really aren’t. Don’t be that person who says oh yeah I’m a Christian I know Jesus but then you don’t act like it.

Christian, take a honest look in the mirror.

James 1:22–25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

I am a guy I don’t always look in the mirror. Sometimes I get to church and some kind lady will fix my collar or fix my hair, but I like to think that when I do look in the mirror I change it. Some people need to buy a mirror, but the mirror to our Christian life is the word of God. I will tell you what I don’t take God’s name in vain, because my master said so! I don’t have idols and try to live a sexually pure life because my master said so. I will try to look my best before God not before you. I don’t care what you think of me and you shouldn’t care what I think of you. No offense. I LOVE you all so much. But when we look good before God we will look good before men.

Be careful to obey the LORD God.

Deuteronomy 5:32 Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Don’t compromise this book.

Christ is the example of obedience.

1 John 2:5–6 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

What does it look like to be obedient to God look no further than being a Christ! To be a Christian be obedient like Christ.

Be obedient like Christ.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Always be obedient even when it is difficult.

Matthew 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

God said Go to the cross and Jesus said. This is going to be hard, is there any other way. Well if you told me to than ok! some people don’t have that die to self and live for the Lord attitude.

A relationship with God is characterized by love and obedience.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

You are saved by grace through faith end of story I can’t stress that enough, but have you truly believed in Jesus Christ the Son of God and accepted His free gift of Salvation. If you have, love and obedience are a natural apart of your life because God lives right here and He keeps you from stumbling.

Obey the new commandment.

1 John 2:7–8 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

The old renewed!

John 15:12–14 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

We need Christ’s kind of love in this old world if we are going to be the friends of God. I read a lot of authors who said that Jesus took the law that has been around from the beginning the summary of the law love God and love others and made it new put skin on it when He died on the cross and we have a better picture of it. That is why in Christ it is new but it really the old from the beginning the message hasn’t changed but what it looks like is new on the cross.

Darkness is passing away.

Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

Look especially at the end of that verse. the former things have passed away. Sin will be no more!

If you still hate your brother, you are still in darkness.

1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.

You can’t hate your brother and be in the light. It is an experiential test to see if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ. I and more importantly John are not saying you can lose your salvation or that you have to earn your salvation, NO! This is a test. I used to have a swimming pool at children’s summer camp. During the summer it usually looked good. It was vacuumed everyday and had a filter, BUT it was a children’s summer camp if you know what I mean so we had to test the water to see if it was safe to swim in so I would grab a vile of water and put a little tablet in, if it turned pink good, if it didn’t uh oh. That is what 1 John 2 is saying. If you don’t obey God especially God’s command to love one another as Christ has loved you greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends. You had better go uh oh. Being a Christian means little Christ. You should obey like He did and Love like He did.

Loving your brother is walking in the light.

1 John 2:10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

I have said if you walk around a house with kids in the dark, good luck. If there is a leggo on the ground you will step on it and there is nothing worse in this world than stepping on a leggo in the middle of the night. But if you have the love of Christ you are walking around this world in the light. Do you love these people? I will tell you what I don’t want to be weird or creepy so I am cautious about throwing out the word love. But I tell 10 people a day, I love you! Not in some romantic way, but like the apostle John never got over the fact that Jesus loved him and wanted to pass that love on to other people.

Hatred will keep you in the dark, you will stumble,

1 John 2:11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Hatred will leave you in darkness. Darkness will cause you to stumble. If you are walking down a dark and dangerous road you will fall. I just hope for your sake the fall isn’t into the abyss of the lake of fire, that you find Christ before it is too late. Don’t rest in your own good deeds. I’m a pretty good person, by whose standards yours.

This darkness is inescapable.

Proverbs 4:19 The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.

You can’t escape the darkness by your self.

God is calling you out of the dark.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Let Jesus bring you to the Light!

Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

I have stressed this! I’m am not trying to tell you that you can lose or earn your salvation. This is a black and white test. Do you belong to Christ are your walking in His Kingdom of Light. Two things test that. Stick the test strip into you life the word of God and ask the question, “am I a Christian?” Well are you harboring hatred or do you have the love of Christ. Do you obey your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? If you want to know Christ and have Him save you come to the altar for Salvation! If you are harboring hatred Come to the alter and confess. If you need to surrender and Obey come to the altar! He will deliver you, He will save! If you are tired of stumbling in the darkness let Him bring you into the light