The Darkness of Hatred (1 John 2:7-8)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 HMM. If you're able to remain standing, please do and turn your attention 2 00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:11.429 again to first John, this time chapter two, versus seven through eleven. 3 00:00:11.589 --> 00:00:14.949 I have seven through eight printed in the bulletin, but I'm going to go 4 00:00:14.990 --> 00:00:34.219 a little further. Seven through eleven. First John Two, verse seven. 5 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:43.210 This is God's holy word. Give your attention to it, beloved. I'm 6 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:47.850 writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from 7 00:00:47.890 --> 00:00:53.039 the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At 8 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:56.359 the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, 9 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:02.039 which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing 10 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:07.510 away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the 11 00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:15.150 light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides 12 00:01:15.189 --> 00:01:19.819 in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling, but whoever 13 00:01:19.859 --> 00:01:25.379 hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness does not know 14 00:01:25.540 --> 00:01:32.060 where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. May God bless 15 00:01:32.099 --> 00:01:56.560 his word to us may be seated. The Apostle John is facing a situation 16 00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:00.629 that is similar to one that we face today. And it's a very simple 17 00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:06.750 thing. It's just that there are false teachers, there are people that pretend 18 00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:12.389 to know and love the Lord, people that know and tell us to follow 19 00:02:12.430 --> 00:02:15.939 after them, but people which we ought not to follow. And he's helping 20 00:02:16.060 --> 00:02:21.379 the Christians then, even as he helps us now, to understand how it 21 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:25.460 is we might know who to follow, that not everyone who says I follow 22 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:31.169 Jesus is actually following Jesus. He's helping us to understand that we might be 23 00:02:31.810 --> 00:02:36.569 wary, that we might be careful. But of course, in doing so 24 00:02:36.729 --> 00:02:39.849 he also gives us a test, not just for those people out there who 25 00:02:39.889 --> 00:02:45.599 are saying they follow Christ, but for the person right in here, for 26 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:52.159 us, for us who say we follow Christ. He's helping us to understand 27 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.960 what it means to know him, what it means to follow him, who 28 00:02:55.039 --> 00:03:00.509 he is and who we are in him. In the previous verses, he 29 00:03:00.789 --> 00:03:07.990 helped us to see that true Christians demonstrate the genuineness of their faith through true 30 00:03:07.030 --> 00:03:13.900 obedience. An apples tree demonstrates that it's an apple tree because of the apples 31 00:03:13.979 --> 00:03:19.580 that it produces. Christians Demonstrate The righteousness of God that has been given to 32 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:25.020 them by producing the righteousness of God. And so John says, for example 33 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:30.729 in chapter two, verse three, and by this we know that we have 34 00:03:30.930 --> 00:03:36.689 come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him 35 00:03:36.689 --> 00:03:40.210 but does not keep as commandments is a liar and the truth is not in 36 00:03:40.370 --> 00:03:47.960 him. Christians demonstrate the genuineness of their faith through acts of true obedience, 37 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:57.509 and that summed up particularly in love, as he says here. Whoever loves 38 00:03:57.629 --> 00:04:00.110 his brother, he says in verse ten, abides in the light. The 39 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:04.909 opposite of Salso true. Whoever hates his brother does not abide in the light, 40 00:04:05.030 --> 00:04:11.060 but walks in the darkness. If we abide in Jesus, then we 41 00:04:11.460 --> 00:04:14.620 walk in the way in which he walked. Is What John is saying. 42 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:20.779 Maybe you were remember the experience of dancing on your father or your mother's shoes. 43 00:04:21.579 --> 00:04:27.009 You stand up on their feet and then as they move, you move. 44 00:04:28.089 --> 00:04:31.649 You are in a way abiding with them or in them, your dancing 45 00:04:31.689 --> 00:04:36.850 in their steps. Well, it's like that. If we are abiding in 46 00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:42.040 Jesus, then we dance his dance or, as John puts it, we 47 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:46.160 walk his walk. Verse Six of Chapter Two. Whoever says he abides in 48 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:49.439 him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. If we 49 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:53.750 are not walking or if we are not abiding in the Lord, then we 50 00:04:53.829 --> 00:04:58.069 will not walk in the Lord. We will be out of step with the 51 00:04:58.149 --> 00:05:04.430 spirit, out of step with the things of God. Now, out of 52 00:05:04.509 --> 00:05:08.939 that same spirit of love that he has called us to in the previous verses 53 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:12.819 and the same spirit of love that he calls us to her then the commands 54 00:05:12.899 --> 00:05:16.819 to love in these verses, John is now giving a more of his apologetic 55 00:05:16.939 --> 00:05:23.290 you might say, his defense of what he's saying. He's saying that love, 56 00:05:23.610 --> 00:05:27.449 this love that flows from abiding in Christ, is an important one, 57 00:05:27.529 --> 00:05:31.529 one you must pay attention to, and he clears away in the passage today, 58 00:05:31.689 --> 00:05:38.639 seven through eleven, certain objections. Want you to think about these, 59 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:44.439 not just so that we might analyze John's argument and have fun being rhetoricians for 60 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:47.639 the morning, but so that we might apply his own arguments to our hearts. 61 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:54.750 Are we impressed by the things he is in pressing on us? Are 62 00:05:54.829 --> 00:05:59.110 we falling in love with the things that he is calling us to love? 63 00:06:00.069 --> 00:06:04.660 Consider that as you hear these reasons that John is giving. First, the 64 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:09.819 first thing John tells us is that that theme is that the command to love 65 00:06:10.060 --> 00:06:14.379 is not new, and by this he means it's nothing novel. This is 66 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:18.370 shouldn't be a surprise to you. Now. In our day and age, 67 00:06:18.689 --> 00:06:23.889 we love the new. Usually the new is used as an argument for the 68 00:06:24.610 --> 00:06:27.970 good of something. Hey, I've got something for you and guess what, 69 00:06:28.129 --> 00:06:31.209 it's new, and immediately we go oh, really, before I've even told 70 00:06:31.209 --> 00:06:35.360 you what it is. The very fact that it's new sounds appealing. But 71 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:42.120 maybe there are still vestiges of the ancient world among us and there's a sense 72 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:47.350 in which new things sometimes have the sense of untested. Right we still talked 73 00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:56.110 about Beta users, for example, or initial trials, experimental tests. It's 74 00:06:56.230 --> 00:07:00.699 new, but who knows? It's that kind of sense that John here is 75 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:04.939 saying. This is not new, this is something that's established, something that's 76 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:11.500 trustworthy, something God has been saying all along. The command to love is 77 00:07:11.620 --> 00:07:18.009 not some strange thing John Dug up somewhere. John Saying Christians, you ought 78 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:24.769 to love one another and not hate one another is not new. The command 79 00:07:24.889 --> 00:07:30.079 to love is not some hairbrained idea John figured out in his garage one day 80 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:32.600 while working on another project, and comes over to tell you, I got 81 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:38.480 this idea. What do you think now? The command to love is solid 82 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:44.670 established and certainly not from him. It's from God himself, who is the 83 00:07:44.870 --> 00:07:49.509 author of love, the one who brings love into the world, who births 84 00:07:49.629 --> 00:07:54.670 love, we might even say, into the world. The command to love 85 00:07:55.629 --> 00:08:01.939 is an old commandment, an old, ancient, reliable, foundational commandment. 86 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:05.500 You remember, as we read back in Matthew, Chapter Twenty two, this 87 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:09.339 lawyer comes to Jesus and he says, I know how to trick this guy. 88 00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:13.449 What's the greatest commandment? Prioritize the law for me. You. Let's 89 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:16.649 see how you do. And what does Jesus say? No problem. Love. 90 00:08:18.490 --> 00:08:20.649 Love the Lord, your God, with all your might, with all 91 00:08:20.689 --> 00:08:30.800 your strength, love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all 92 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:37.240 the law and the prophets, everything that God ever commanded, and all the 93 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:41.950 prophets who came prosecuting that law, saying fail, fail, fail, Fail, 94 00:08:41.990 --> 00:08:48.230 all of that judgment at all's all about love. Not that judgmentals them 95 00:08:48.309 --> 00:08:52.190 is a loving thing, but what they were prosecuting was the lack of love. 96 00:08:52.590 --> 00:08:56.700 You've not loved the widow, you've not taken care of the orphan, 97 00:08:56.340 --> 00:09:01.259 you've loved your own ways, you've gone after false idels. Over and over 98 00:09:01.340 --> 00:09:05.299 again. The prophets had in their minds the breaking of the commandment of love, 99 00:09:07.379 --> 00:09:09.929 and when you understand this this way, you begin to see that love 100 00:09:11.009 --> 00:09:16.370 is not just a kind of gushy feeling that so nice. Sometimes that might 101 00:09:16.409 --> 00:09:22.450 be part of it. Our feelings are definitely engaged in love, but it's 102 00:09:22.529 --> 00:09:26.600 not just that. Love is not just a feeling that sort of drifts in 103 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:33.799 and drifts out like a breeze. Love is a action that we take towards 104 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:41.549 other people or other things or to God himself. Paul reiterates this in Romans, 105 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:46.909 chapter thirteen, verse eight. He Says No, or sorry, Oh, 106 00:09:48.789 --> 00:09:52.779 oh, no, one anything except to love each other, for the 107 00:09:52.899 --> 00:09:58.860 one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Sometimes people will say, I 108 00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:03.740 don't like all these commandments, all these things that God has told us to 109 00:10:03.820 --> 00:10:07.129 do, let's just focus on loving people, as if you could separate those 110 00:10:07.129 --> 00:10:13.929 things right, as if there was a way to love and not do the 111 00:10:15.049 --> 00:10:22.720 things that God has commanded. Paul says that they go together when you love. 112 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:31.480 If you love, then you fulfill everything. In this one act you 113 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:39.710 can meet every single commandment. There is he in fact lists various commandments, 114 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:45.669 particularly as we think about how we love one another. Talks about stealing, 115 00:10:45.750 --> 00:10:48.269 talks about coveting, I believe, adultery too. This is in Romans Thirteen, 116 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:54.580 and he says any other commandment in these included, are summed up in 117 00:10:54.620 --> 00:11:00.460 this world word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no 118 00:11:00.659 --> 00:11:03.289 wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. 119 00:11:05.529 --> 00:11:11.049 If your neighbor steals from you, is that just breaking some random commandment, 120 00:11:11.129 --> 00:11:16.009 or is that hatred? It's hatred, it's doing something harmful against you. 121 00:11:16.169 --> 00:11:22.559 It's not a loving thing to do. If someone lies, if someone steals, 122 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:30.440 if someone takes your wife, these things are not loving. But to 123 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:37.110 love is to obey these things. So now back to first John. So 124 00:11:37.230 --> 00:11:41.269 when John says that this is not a new commandment, he's telling US listen, 125 00:11:43.350 --> 00:11:46.500 I'm not just some fly by my teacher telling you to do something I've 126 00:11:46.539 --> 00:11:50.820 concocted up here. I'm telling you to do the thing that we all know 127 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:58.299 is essential to doing anything. When John says this is not a new commandment, 128 00:11:58.419 --> 00:12:05.450 he's reminding of its importance, of its permanence and its placement in the 129 00:12:05.570 --> 00:12:13.129 very will of God. Love is not some passing fad, but the oldness 130 00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:20.840 of the command to love. Also applies on another level. Our personal experience 131 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:26.480 is Christians. While the law of love has been proclaimed ever since God first 132 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:37.149 expressed his will to man, there's something that happens. There's something that happens 133 00:12:37.190 --> 00:12:41.190 when a person is reborn by the spirit of God. Their relationship to the 134 00:12:41.230 --> 00:12:50.220 law, their relationship to love, changes. Apart from Christ, the law 135 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:54.779 is good, it's always good. Look because love is good right, even 136 00:12:56.059 --> 00:13:01.129 apart from somebody believing and trusting in Jesus, the law is perfect, the 137 00:13:01.250 --> 00:13:05.529 law is holy. The problem is is that, apart from him, we 138 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:13.039 are not lovely or holy or loving. And so when the law comes to 139 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:20.440 US and says love, Love, love, and we hate and steal and 140 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:28.470 Covet and lust. This is why Paul speaks about love bringing or love in 141 00:13:28.549 --> 00:13:33.909 a way, the law of love bringing forth death in us, not because 142 00:13:33.909 --> 00:13:37.389 of any problem with love, but because of how we react to that, 143 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:43.460 how we respond to that in our sinful nature, because the person before we 144 00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:48.059 are in Christ, the person who it is in it is commanded, does 145 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:56.009 not desire love, nor does it love is there in a way, of 146 00:13:56.129 --> 00:14:03.730 course, but it's disordered, it's focused on ourselves, it's sinful. Let 147 00:14:03.769 --> 00:14:11.159 me explain it this way. Imagine I point to a husband and I say, 148 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:16.759 look, that husband is loving that woman. He just gave her flowers, 149 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:22.039 he just gave her chocolate, they just went on a date for four 150 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:26.669 hours at the most romantic restaurant in town. Isn't that loving? And then, 151 00:14:26.669 --> 00:14:33.549 I tell you, but it's not his wife. Right. So it's 152 00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:39.659 love, I suppose, but it's all the wrong kind. It's a terrible 153 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:43.299 kind of love. It's a disordered love of it's a it's a hatred against 154 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:48.059 not only this person with hitch, with which or with whom he's committing adultery, 155 00:14:48.500 --> 00:14:54.610 but it's a hateful act towards his wife, towards his community, towards 156 00:14:54.690 --> 00:15:01.250 his family and towards God, who created the very institution of marriage, that 157 00:15:01.570 --> 00:15:07.320 this bond which is supposed to bind people together and love. There are many 158 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:15.919 people walking around today who say I'm loving, I do loving things. Well, 159 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:22.230 that may be true, but love is not abstract from whom God is 160 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:26.110 and the things he has told us to do. The only kind of love 161 00:15:26.230 --> 00:15:31.230 that matters is love that's directed towards its proper end. We give no credit 162 00:15:31.350 --> 00:15:37.220 to the man that's committing adultery with this woman. We don't say, well, 163 00:15:37.259 --> 00:15:43.419 at least you really were dazzling and charming. There's no no benefit or 164 00:15:43.539 --> 00:15:46.179 in from that, no credit that's given, no way in which we say, 165 00:15:46.220 --> 00:15:50.210 well, at least there was some love there. No love must be 166 00:15:50.769 --> 00:15:54.970 directed towards the right place, in the right person. And that's why, 167 00:15:56.049 --> 00:15:58.809 when God says that we are to love him with all of our heart and 168 00:16:00.090 --> 00:16:03.490 all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength, 169 00:16:03.529 --> 00:16:08.759 and then we go and love other people, other things. We Love Mu 170 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:17.279 any, we love power, we love ourselves. That's not love. It's 171 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:22.669 not it's misdirected, its selfish, it's adulterous, it's idolatrous, it's everything 172 00:16:22.950 --> 00:16:32.350 that the Bible condemns, it's hateful and it ought not to mark a Christian. 173 00:16:32.389 --> 00:16:40.220 John says, whoever loves his brother abides in the light and him there 174 00:16:40.340 --> 00:16:45.379 is no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness 175 00:16:45.659 --> 00:16:48.809 and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the 176 00:16:48.970 --> 00:17:04.400 darkness has blinded his eyes. But when we become Christians, the light of 177 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:12.640 God comes into our souls and begins to change us from these perverted, twisted, 178 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:21.309 self interested, hateful people into people that begin to see for the first 179 00:17:21.309 --> 00:17:33.299 time, the begin to love even as God has loved us. The impulses 180 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:38.339 to idolatry, the impulses to self love, these things begin to change. 181 00:17:45.329 --> 00:17:52.650 I heard Michael Horton say this week we're not brains on a stick. It's 182 00:17:52.650 --> 00:17:57.880 a good phrase. John is not telling us these things, saying you ought 183 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:02.400 to know Jesus so that you can be this brain on a stick and walk 184 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:10.039 around with your head full of doctrine love. When we know Jesus is produced 185 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:14.950 in our lives, in our bodies, in all of ourselves, we begin 186 00:18:15.109 --> 00:18:21.750 to give God our love, our souls, our strength. If you want 187 00:18:21.789 --> 00:18:26.579 to understand what a true Christian teacher is, or what a true Christian person 188 00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:33.019 is, you have to understand it's more than just figuring out a list of 189 00:18:33.259 --> 00:18:40.779 doctrines. It's more than figuring out just an intellectual puzzle. Knowing Jesus is 190 00:18:40.859 --> 00:18:42.650 not, as you've heard me say many times, I'm never going to stop 191 00:18:42.730 --> 00:18:48.730 saying it, but it's more than just checking the bunch of boxes and saying, 192 00:18:48.809 --> 00:18:52.089 look at these questions I memorize, look at these things that I've marked 193 00:18:52.210 --> 00:18:56.799 off, the books I've read, the people I know, and on and 194 00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:03.000 on and on. Listen to what John says, listen to what the word 195 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:07.039 of God says, and John Three, twenty three free, and this is 196 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:12.750 his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, 197 00:19:14.190 --> 00:19:21.190 and love one another, just as he commanded us. Whoever keeps his 198 00:19:21.509 --> 00:19:33.220 commandment abides in God and God in Him. John Speaks to them with this 199 00:19:33.380 --> 00:19:37.140 in mind when he gives us this verse. In verse seven, I'm writing 200 00:19:37.220 --> 00:19:41.849 to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the 201 00:19:41.890 --> 00:19:47.170 beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. The old 202 00:19:47.410 --> 00:19:52.730 commandment is to love, and that's the very thing that we have been receiving 203 00:19:52.769 --> 00:19:59.079 into our hearts ever since the spirit of God first spoke to us. Before 204 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:02.119 Christ, we hear the command to love and we hate it, we turn 205 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:04.839 from it, we move towards the things that we want. But in Christ 206 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:12.069 we hear the command to love and we love it. Think about the way 207 00:20:12.109 --> 00:20:18.069 David talks in the psalms. Your Law to me laws love. Your law, 208 00:20:18.190 --> 00:20:25.819 to me is as sweet as the drippings of the honeycomb. MMM Right. 209 00:20:26.099 --> 00:20:30.339 If you don't love the law like that, if you don't love love 210 00:20:30.619 --> 00:20:37.049 like that, if there's not something that's sweet to you about obedience, lovely, 211 00:20:37.289 --> 00:20:44.369 about love, and something's wrong. These are the test that John is 212 00:20:44.450 --> 00:20:48.329 applying to our hearts, that is impressing on our hearts even today. If 213 00:20:48.410 --> 00:20:52.680 we do not love love, if we do not love the commands of God, 214 00:20:53.279 --> 00:20:57.960 if we do not love God, who is love and commands these things, 215 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:08.430 something is wrong. When we become Christians, though, he says, 216 00:21:08.430 --> 00:21:14.710 this old commandment is the word you have heard, and there's something John says. 217 00:21:15.549 --> 00:21:21.779 Paradoxically, it's also new. Well, so in Verse Eight. At 218 00:21:21.819 --> 00:21:26.019 the same time it's a new commandment that I am writing to you. It's 219 00:21:26.099 --> 00:21:30.380 old and that it's always been there, it's old and that it's always been 220 00:21:30.460 --> 00:21:33.009 established and always been the right thing to do, but it's new in the 221 00:21:33.049 --> 00:21:40.049 way that we relate to it. This is another way John is appealing to 222 00:21:40.210 --> 00:21:45.730 us and teaching us what it means to abide in Christ. He says it's 223 00:21:45.769 --> 00:21:51.720 a new commandment that I'm writing to which is true in him and in you. 224 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:59.680 True here in the sense of genuineness. The command is not novel, 225 00:22:00.839 --> 00:22:03.230 but it does take on a new US, in us as we are in 226 00:22:03.309 --> 00:22:11.670 Christ and John says this in a way that the new testament says it in 227 00:22:11.750 --> 00:22:17.059 a lot of places. Let me read it to you again so that you 228 00:22:17.220 --> 00:22:19.779 hear it. Has To do with light and darkness, he says. Here's 229 00:22:19.819 --> 00:22:23.619 the reason for this, here's why it's new for you as a Christian, 230 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:33.289 he says, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already 231 00:22:33.730 --> 00:22:41.849 shining. The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 232 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.720 The New Testament emphasizes this over and over and over and over. There are 233 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:55.880 two ages, two ages an age of darkness and sin and an Age of 234 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:02.430 light and righteousness. But these ages, the Bible teaches to teaches us, 235 00:23:03.029 --> 00:23:10.269 overlap. The age of darkness does not pass away completely before the age of 236 00:23:10.309 --> 00:23:15.619 light begins to advance its way into that realm into that age. Like the 237 00:23:15.740 --> 00:23:22.740 sunrise this morning, the light of God and the revelation of the sun causes 238 00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:27.609 the darkness to pass away by its very existence. What does it take for 239 00:23:27.650 --> 00:23:33.130 the darkness to pass away, for the sun to rise. As simple as 240 00:23:33.289 --> 00:23:40.730 that. But what John says here's that the true light is all ready shining. 241 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:48.559 Are you waiting for something else to happen before you put your faith in 242 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:53.640 God? Are you waiting for some experience, some special signs, some further 243 00:23:53.880 --> 00:24:02.589 knowledge or evidence, before you trust in the light that is come, the 244 00:24:02.670 --> 00:24:07.750 light that is changing our hearts, the light that is changing the world? 245 00:24:10.460 --> 00:24:14.740 Let me ask you another question. When the sun rises, it's in the 246 00:24:14.940 --> 00:24:18.660 rises in the morning and it's first rays of light come in through your window 247 00:24:18.740 --> 00:24:25.569 and hit your closed eyes. Do you ever ask yourself, I think I'll 248 00:24:25.569 --> 00:24:29.529 wait a little while and see if it's really a new day. Of course 249 00:24:29.609 --> 00:24:33.170 not. I think I'll wait until the fullness of the sun is at noon 250 00:24:33.369 --> 00:24:38.400 before I really believe that light has come into the world. I'm going to 251 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:44.039 just sit here in bed and see what happens. Of course not, because 252 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:45.640 we all know what the light is, we all know what it's doing, 253 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:49.440 and the fact that it's up means that it's up, means that the darkness 254 00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:55.470 for the darkness game over. Your time is over, you're done and the 255 00:24:55.549 --> 00:25:00.349 sun rises. We react accordingly. You Wake Up, you move, you 256 00:25:00.430 --> 00:25:08.299 rise, you you wake up because it's daytime. The Bible teaches this. 257 00:25:08.500 --> 00:25:14.700 In Jesus, this parallel that I've just described between one day in the next 258 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:21.059 applies in this big, epocal sense. EPIC is the word I'm trying to 259 00:25:21.099 --> 00:25:30.289 use. Their Eras Ages, the Day of light and age of light is 260 00:25:30.809 --> 00:25:36.960 beaming its way into our world and you couldn't mistake it, because when Jesus 261 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:41.720 was born there were angels in the sky and miracles happening, and when he's 262 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:47.799 doing his work in the world, people are being saved, rescued, changed 263 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:53.750 from sinful tax collectors and prostitutes and all kinds of terrible people into children and 264 00:25:55.150 --> 00:26:00.509 followers of God, people that, in their physical ailments, are broken and 265 00:26:00.789 --> 00:26:06.339 weak and blind, are standing up and opening their eyes and becoming whole. 266 00:26:07.259 --> 00:26:12.500 In Jesus, the new day has dawned. The Day of light and age 267 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:19.250 of light is beaming its way into our world and it shows itself in our 268 00:26:19.609 --> 00:26:27.490 lives. Praise God for that, the lives of changed people, people who 269 00:26:29.089 --> 00:26:33.640 no longer hate God and follow their own paths, but devote their lives to 270 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:37.440 him. And when they stray and when they fall apart and when they they 271 00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:45.200 hate, they returned to him and they love him because the love of the 272 00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:51.710 love that he has shown us. These people, John Explains To us, 273 00:26:51.750 --> 00:26:55.789 do not stumble or cause other people to stumble. Why? Because their eyes 274 00:26:55.829 --> 00:27:04.740 are open, they walk in the daytime. which will you be? which 275 00:27:04.900 --> 00:27:14.380 ought you to be? Who Do you want to be? Love is not 276 00:27:14.740 --> 00:27:21.130 optional for any of us. Love is be. Love is the most basic 277 00:27:21.329 --> 00:27:26.009 requirement of all that is good. It's essential to every living person, every 278 00:27:26.210 --> 00:27:32.519 true person, to do and live as they were designed. Love, in 279 00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:38.839 our humanity is no more optional than breathing or sleeping or eating. But when 280 00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:45.109 we do not love as we ought, when we neglect it, the same 281 00:27:45.309 --> 00:27:48.950 thing happens to those that don't breathe, that don't sleep, that don't eat, 282 00:27:51.029 --> 00:27:59.220 they die. Those that do not love die. They die inwardly and 283 00:27:59.380 --> 00:28:03.779 for their sins, they will die externally as well, in our bodies. 284 00:28:07.460 --> 00:28:15.650 This is true. It is sad and it's frustrating sometimes, this world that 285 00:28:15.730 --> 00:28:21.450 we live in and these bodies that we have and the sinful flesh that's still 286 00:28:21.490 --> 00:28:29.119 in us. It's very easy to be saddened when we look around at our 287 00:28:29.240 --> 00:28:33.640 lives or look around at the news or anywhere, and what do we see? 288 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:41.869 People Abusing Love, hating love, hating each other and hating God. 289 00:28:41.069 --> 00:28:51.309 Again and again and again. It's unlovely, that's terrible. But John Comes 290 00:28:51.390 --> 00:28:55.940 to tell us not only this command and not only that this was what we 291 00:28:56.059 --> 00:29:04.099 were made for, but that the New Light has dawned. Beloved, as 292 00:29:04.180 --> 00:29:11.650 John Calls You, as God calls you, as I call you, there 293 00:29:11.849 --> 00:29:17.769 is hope in all the darkness and all the hatred and all the evil that 294 00:29:17.890 --> 00:29:22.930 we are surrounded by. Again and again and again, John is proming, 295 00:29:22.049 --> 00:29:27.160 so promising to us that we don't have to wait until the end for love 296 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:37.279 to reign supreme, because Jesus has already come, the darkness is passing away, 297 00:29:38.549 --> 00:29:45.789 the true light is already shining. So wake up, enjoy the new 298 00:29:45.869 --> 00:29:52.230 day, get out of your beds, stand in the sunlight, know that 299 00:29:52.349 --> 00:29:56.779 the sun of Righteousness has been revealed to us and that when we trust in 300 00:29:56.940 --> 00:30:03.859 him, things begin to change in our hearts, we produce these things in 301 00:30:03.980 --> 00:30:10.329 us, and that one day, when the age comes in its culmination, 302 00:30:11.569 --> 00:30:15.490 the things that we fear, the darkness that still exists, the flesh that 303 00:30:15.650 --> 00:30:22.559 still fights, will be gone and we will be at peace and at rest 304 00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:30.400 forever, living by the light of Jesus, forever, in the noon of 305 00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:40.789 his righteousness. Beloved, you are beloved. Put your hope in the God 306 00:30:41.069 --> 00:30:47.670 who has loved you. Give yourself over to him, wake up and walk. 307 00:30:48.869 --> 00:30:51.180 It's a new day. Let's pray.