Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's read now. I remain standing. If you are able, please and
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will read together first John A,
chapter two. Just a few verses there,
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continuing to preach through first John,
First John Chapter two, verse three.
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I'm going to read verses three through
six. And by this we know
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that we have come to know him
if we keep his commandments. Whoever says
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I know him but does not keep
his commandments is a liar and the truth
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is not in him. But whoever
keeps his word in him truly the love
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of God is perfected. By this, we may know that we are in
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him. Whoever says he abides in
him ought to walk in the same way
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in which he walked. My God
bless his word to us. He may
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be seated. So here in First
John, John Addresses this really important question
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about how can we know that we
know God? How can we know that
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we know God? That's a very, very important question. But we have
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to start by thinking about what does
it mean to know him? What does
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it mean? What kind of knowledge
is John Talking about? And then we'll
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get to the test. There's different
kinds of knowledge. There is a kind
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of sometimes we say head knowledge.
There's also an experiential knowledge and knowledge which
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is sort of deep down in US
and which we don't just know something,
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but we know something. So,
for example, let's say there's a little
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boy, we'll call him Jose,
and Jose gets a bike for his birthday
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and he's really excited about his bike, but he's a little nervous about it
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too. He's going to learn to
ride it for the first time. So
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what does he do? He goes
to the library and he picks up books
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on the inner ear so that he
can learn about all the little ventibular systems
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that help a person keep his balance
right, and then he after he reads
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a book on that, then he
goes and he learns about Kinetic Energy,
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and the next week he goes and
he learns about aerodynamics, and the next
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week he goes and he learns,
week after week, learning more and more
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about how one rides a bike.
But of course he's never going to learn
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is he was. You can read
all the books in the world, he
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can become a very smart person in
a way, but he'll never know what
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it means to ride a bike,
even if he understands all the workings of
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the inner ear and how Balance Works, even if he understands physics very well
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until it gets on the bike and
pushes the pedal and starts to feel what
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it feels like to go this way
and overcorrect and go this way and overcorrect
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and find that place. His knowledge
will be good and true, but limited
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and limited in the thing he really
wants to do, which is to know
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how to ride a bike. He
can't go to his friends and say I
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know how to ride a bike,
or he can't go on a bike ride
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and say I want to go on
a bike ride. Let's enjoy this together.
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As long as it's only these facts, only this sort of head knowledge,
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it's like that here as well,
and it's true of people as well.
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Just to use one of the most
famous people now, Donald Trump.
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Let's say you are to ask me, pastor, do you know Donald Trump?
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I would have to say no,
I don't know him, and then
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I would use other words right.
I would say I know about him,
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I know of him, I know
who he is, but I don't know
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him. And it's in that sense
that knowledge, whether it's a personal knowledge
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from one person to another, knowledge
of a of an expert, a task
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or a thing that you might do, it's that kind of experiential knowledge that
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John Talks about here when he says, and by this we know that we
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have come to know him if we
keep his commandments. That's what it means,
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then, to know God. It's
not just to know about God or
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to know of God or to know
things about God or who he is,
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but it is to know him,
to experience him, to understand him.
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Even as you might understand or know
a family member or a friend. You
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don't just know their hight and their
weight or some the things that they like
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or enjoy, but you know them. Do you know God? Do you
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know the father? Do you know
the son? Do you know the spirit?
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In this way, in this personal
way, in this friendship way,
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in a family way? If this
is a very important question, because there's
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no hire, no better, no
more wonderful thing to know than God.
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Nothing's more wonderful, more beautiful,
more important. God is the source of
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life, of a holder of all
things, the King of Heaven and earth.
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He's the judge of the world,
he is your maker, he is
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the one who keeps you alive,
who sovereignly oversees every aspect of your life,
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every running knows every job change,
every trip you make. You ought
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to know him, especially since he
has made himself known to you. Though
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many people don't know God and the
way first, the way John is talking
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about, he certainly knows them.
He is intimately and personally aware of everything
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in your life. He knows every
thought, every word, every deed.
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He knows you. He knows you
better than you know yourself. This means
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that he will ultimately hold each of
us accountable for our lives, but it
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also means that he holds the key
to salvation, so the forgiveness of our
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sins and eternal life of knowing him, of being intimately connected and loving and
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being with him. Some people don't
want to know God, even though they
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know of him or about him,
for maybe the sound of the same reasons
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that are little boy Jose doesn't want
to ride his bike, even though he
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wants to ride his bike. He's
afraid. Sometimes we accumulate knowledge or,
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as John Calvin puts it, we
empty prattle, vain speculations. We pile
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on things. Even true knowledge,
we might say, has a kind of
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vanity to it when it's ultimately keeping
us from the thing that we ought to
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really know in a personal way.
Some people do lots and lots of study
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and learning and go into all kinds
of experiences and retreats and they read books
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and they think a lot about God, but they do it so they can
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avoid knowing God. Don't be that
person. Don't be a person who avoids
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the most wonderful, the wonderful,
most wonderful God and your maker. Don't
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be the person who avoids the one
who holds the keys to life and death,
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to heaven and to Hell. So
how can we know which kind of
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knowledge of God we have? How
can we know whether or not we merely
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know about God or of God or
whether we really know God? Well,
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John's answer, writing, by the
very power and will of God, is
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very simple. If we keep his
commandments, if we keep his commandments,
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that's how we know that we've come
to know him. That's exactly what John
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says, and he says it's several
times and he'll say it in other ways.
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In fact, the Bible says this
over and over and over in many
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places and in many ways. John
says the opposite thing or the corresponding opposite
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in verse four. Whoever says I
know him but does not keep his commandments
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is a liar. That person who
says this thing, but does this thing.
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The truth is not in him.
And then he repeats in Verse Five.
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But whoever keeps his word in truly
in him. Truly, the love
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of God is perfected, or we
might translate it, God's love for him
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is perfected. There's various ways there, but he continues on. By this
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way, we know that we are
in him. Colon, whoever says he
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abides in him ought to walk in
the same way and he which he walked.
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These two phrases, walking in the
way in which he walked and keeping
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his commandments are just two ways of
saying the same thing. We use this
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kind of language all the time.
In English we talked about I'm on the
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right path, meaning to say we're
going the right direction, we're headed the
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right way. We use this language
of walking is to describe a way of
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life. What's your walk? What's
your line of work? That's we talked
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about it in terms of our faith
sometimes. How is your walk with Christ
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going? How's your walk going?
It's a way of describing a trajectory,
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a pattern, and that's true here. John, of course, isn't saying
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that we must keep every single commandment
and every part of our lives to have
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certainty whether or not we know God. John's not talking about perfection here.
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He's talking about habits, he's talking
about ways of life we know. He's
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talking about perforce. He's not talking
about perfection, because just in the verse
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is previous to this, he said. But if anyone does sin, we
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have an advocate with the father.
This is verse one, then verse two.
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He, that is Jesus Christ,
the righteous, is the propitiation for
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our sins. John knows that we
sin, our sins are sins that Jesus
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has died for and that we belong
to him, that he that he is
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in us and that we abide in
him. But what he's saying here is
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that that manifest itself in a kind
of evidence. There's fruit that's born from
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that relationship. So for a let
me give you another example. If I
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tell you, if I tell somebody
I'm the pastor of Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church,
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okay, they may or may not
believe that, but there should be
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certain evidences that prove that right.
Can I see a business card? Look
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at the website. Oh, he's
preaching there that morning. He's caring for
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the saints, whatever it is.
There are these evidences that that show that
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I'm being the pastor here. These
evidences aren't necessarily the ground of the work.
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The ground of the work is that
I was called here. I didn't
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start doing these things and then somebody
said, well, you must be the
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pastor, let's make him the pastor. No, I was called here to
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be the pastor and then that was
evidenced in pastoral work. Or husbands and
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wives, you didn't you you got
a wedding ring and you express your love
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and you do various things as evidences
of your relationship. It's like that here.
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He says that if we know him, then we will live for him,
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we keep his commandments. Now you
might think it needs to be more
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complicated than this. Or, if
I might be so bold, some of
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you want to make it more complicated
than this because you don't want to have
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to deal with the actual test John
Gives, which is obedience. Some people
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think that in order to know God, they need to engage themselves with some
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kind of rich and symbolic liturgy,
or they need to engage themselves into a
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sort of history, or maybe it's
philosophy, or intellectually come to the highest
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places about God, whether that's through
any number of things, whether that's learning
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or belonging to certain churches or being
in certain groups or knowing certain people or
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reading certain books. And those people
who think this, that it's about sort
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of obtaining this kind of knowledge or
engagement with God on this level, they'll
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go through all kinds of strange contortions
in order to reach that higher place,
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all the while not doing the very
things he's called them to do. Maybe
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you've known people like this. They
have a lot of good theology, they've
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read a lot of good things,
but they're just jerks. They're hard to
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deal with, their impatient, they're
mean, they don't treat other people well
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and you kind of go doesn't make
sense to me. Other people take a
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more mystical route. They think that
knowing God is all ultimately about. Is
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US ultimately tested not on knowledge but
on the basis of one's mystical experiences,
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the kind of transcendence they might feel
in worship or in their daily lives,
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and so they're constantly trying hot to
reach higher and higher levels of those feelings
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and when they don't, they get
discouraged, they feel they feel beat up
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and disappointed because they're trying to find
their assurance on this kind of experience with
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God. The more mysterious that is, the more magical it is, the
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more transcendent is, the more meaningful
it is to them, the more they
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feel that they know God. These
are people who go to church and they
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look very holy and they look very
participate. They're participating in everything, but
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then in at home all that emotion
and all of that connection sort of drains
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away and they don't follow his commandments. Now, of course, there's a
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very rich body of knowledge and thoughtfulness
and meditation about God. We have books
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back on the book table I would
encourage you to read, and there's more
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that I would recommend. We ought
to learn theology, we ought to strive
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to grow in it, we ought
to press onward more and more, and
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the same's true with experience. One
can experience more or less closeness with God.
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One can feel the face of the
Lord turned towards them or turned away
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from them, even as David describes
in the psalms. It's not that knowledge
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or experience don't matter, but it's
that we can't divorce them from obedience.
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And the fact of the matter is
is that John's test, the only one.
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He gives. The primary, singular
test is obedience. He doesn't say
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by this we come to know him. If we come to church and we
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just feel great. Now he says
if we keep his commandments. He doesn't
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say by this we have come to
know him. If you've read and memorized
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John Calvin's institutes, that's not what
he says. It's just so simple.
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Says if we keep his commandments.
Now, as I see these things are
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not divorced from each other. We're
they're not separated because they're very connected.
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Think about it this way. Think
about someone that you admire, that you
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really respect, someone you know.
That person walks like Jesus. That person
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keeps the commandments of the Lord.
I would bet all kinds of money that
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you would also be able to say
of that person at this is a person
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who knows God's will, someone who
knows God's character, God's Love, God's
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purpose. When we follow the commandments
of the Lord, we come to know
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the Lord. We come to know
him to have a knowledge of him.
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We study him and learn about him. We go deeper and deeper into the
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knowledge of God as he reveals himself
to us in our obedience obedience isn't just
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about a purely following simple command.
Sometimes commands are very hard to follow.
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It's difficult to know what to do, and that requires understanding God and his
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character, his will and his purpose. In history, more and more people
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who bay the Lord come to know
the Lord. The same is true of
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experiencing his favor, his light,
his joy. Knowledge of God comes in
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submission to God, not by standing
over him as though we were scientists,
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studying him, as though he were
the the pure object of us. The
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sames true of experience. Experience of
God, true experiential knowledge of God,
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comes in submission to him. Far
Too many people want knowledge or experience without
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obedience. They use these things as
a way to look holy, as a
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way to pretend holiness, as a
way to show a connection with God,
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when it's not true. Now,
of course, there's people that also pretend
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on this final thing. They pretend
to know his commandments, or they may
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even keep a measure of the commandments
in their life, but ultimately don't know
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him. But just because there are
people that fake these things, people that
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live somewhat obedient lives but ultimately don't
know God, doesn't mean that they don't
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serve as evidences, because John says
that they do. They're not the ground
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of our faith, but they're the
evidences of our faith. We don't believe
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in Jesus because we're amazing, but
because of Jesus and because of our faith
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in him, he produces amazing things
in us. John says that will be
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born out in our lives, that
should be borne out in our lives,
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and if it's not, then we
don't truly know God. If we are
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pretend ending, if we walk and
live in ways of disobedience, if we
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don't care about his commandments, if
we aren't trying to keep them, if
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we don't ask for forgiveness when we
fail. If that's true of you,
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then you don't know God. That's
the obvious application here. We are called
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to test ourselves and others, as
it is necessary for fellowship and for teaching.
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We are to examine our hearts and
see whether or not we belong to
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him. So let me not leave
that merely at the head level, but
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ask you personally again. Do you
know him? Do You keep his commandments?
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Do you feel and see and know
the fruit of faith being born in
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your life, as you love the
Lord, as you trust in him.
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Do you experience and do you see
the product of that? If you don't,
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then John says you may not know
him. How do we respond to
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this kind of test on our hearts
that John gives to us, that God
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gives to us here? Well,
if we look at our consciences and we
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say yes, I know God,
I know him intimately, I know him
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personally, I see the things that
he's doing in my life. In fact,
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I see the sins in my life
because of who he is, because
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of what he's doing. I see
the ways in which he's producing goodness in
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me. I see the ways in
which he's teaching me patience and which I'm
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learning self control, in which I'm
learning forgiveness, when I strive, when
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I stir up obedience, when I
love, when I keep, when I
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walk, when I grow. It's
not always perfect, in fact sometimes I
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failed miserably, but ultimately it's being
driven by the fact that I belong to
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Jesus, that he died for me, that he's my savior and he's my
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Lord and that I'm united to him, even as a vine is. You
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grafted into a branch and that branch
gives to that or that vine gives to
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that branch. It's life, it's
sap and fruit is produced. That's me.
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Then rejoice, praise the Lord and
let love, the love of God
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in You, have its full effect. When you see obedience being produced.
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Give your heart with thankfulness to him. Turned to him and say, I
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see what you're doing here and it's
amazing. I see that I don't walk
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as I used to walk. I
see that you're changing me, you're helping
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me to grow. I feel the
light of your countenance, I see your
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face, I see the amazing ways
in which You keep preserving me, though
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my flesh seems to be on selfdestruct
mode all the time, though I sin
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again and again and again. There
you are forgiving me, keeping me.
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I praise you, my Lord.
I give myself over to you again,
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my God, for watching over me, for protecting me, for continually revealing
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yourself to me in the grace and
the knowledge of Christ. My heart is
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yours because you have given yourself to
me. You have loved me, and
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so I love you. I praise
you for it. That's what our hearts
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say when we read John's words here
and we say yes, I belong to
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Jesus, and we can say that
the same sorts of things and give similar
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kinds of praise. When we think
about other people or spouses, are children,
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friends and family, when we say
praise God, they know Jesus too.
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I see it in their lives.
I experience the blessings of it as
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God blesses me through them whom he
has known. But if you look in
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your lives and you say I'm a
Faker, I'm a hypocrite, this is
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pretend. For me, I struggle
and strive for a measure of morality,
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but ultimately it's not because of faith
in God. I do good things,
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sure, but I also love bad
things. If you consider John's command and
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you think, do I walk like
Jesus walked? Am I even trying to
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walk like Jesus walked? Is that
something I care about? And you're answering
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no, no, no, no, then I hope that you won't answer
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that and then callously walk away and
say whatever, but that you will hear
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them, that your heart will be
impressed and you will say no, that's
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not true. I don't walk after
him, I don't keep comes commandments,
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but I want to. Then my
promise to you is the promise that God
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himself gives in scripture that Jesus himself
gives, and it's simply this. Seek
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and you will find. Do you
want to know God? Then know him,
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seek him. He is readily accessible. He has proclaimed his word and
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proclaimed that's the salvation that we have
right here in the Bible. Page after
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page after page speaks to the salvation. You don't have to turn far,
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just go back one verse. He
is the propitiation for our sins, and
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not only for ours only, John
Speaking there of himself and his immediate audience,
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the people they're first reading the letter, but for the sins of the
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whole world. Jesus Christ came to
save our sins. So when we look
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at our lives and we say I
don't keep his commandments and I am a
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sinner, we have a solution given
by God himself. He says, come
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to me. Fruit is born from
the branch of a tree because it is
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connected to the tree. Jesus says. Those that are connected to him produce
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fruit because he produces fruit, Jesus
and isn't going to go and save a
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person and then go oh, I
forgot about that project. I forgot that
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I loved them, I forgot that
I'm going to do something wonderful and amazing
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with them. No, he does
what he does and he always does it.
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When he saves us, he produces
that fruit. And so that means
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that if we want to be saved, we don't come to God bearing our
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fruit, are rotten fruit, are
bug filled, falling apart fruit, and
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say here, save me, I'm
Ti ampt I. that's my kids words.
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Aren't I amazing amped? We don't
bring him our dirty dead works and
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say aren't I amazing right. Who's
going to be impressed with that? Here's
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my failure to keep your commandments.
Be impressed. We can't be saved that
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way. The wrath of God is
not going to be turned away from our
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dead works by US presenting them to
him as though they were acceptable. Now
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the wrath of God has turned away. That propitiation happens when God himself comes
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and saves us, when we go
to him, when we find ourselves in
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him. We're not even saved when
we bear it, when we bring forth
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his fruit produced in US and say
look, see what you're doing. Will
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you now save me? No,
we're safe purely on the righteousness of Christ
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alone, by his good works,
by his walking. We Jesus doesn't walk
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in the way in which we walked. We walk in the way in which
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he walked. We follow after him, we live and walk and abide in
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his righteousness. So if your heart
con vix you and you say I'm a
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sinner in need of God's grace,
I'm someone who needs to have his eyes
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diverted away from my terrible fruit,
my breaking of his commandments, so that
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he might accept me because of Jesus, will then do that. Put Your
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faith in him. Put Your trust
in him and as you do so,
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as Paul says, as you received
him. So walk in him. The
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faith in which we believe, the
faith the faith in which the faith which
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we exercise, in the faith which
we receive all of God's blessings and the
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salvation is not just about the beginning. Jesus is work for us. is
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also in the middle, in the
sanctification, in the fruit bearing years,
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in the walking, in the ways
in which he walked, ears and it's
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a way that will move, a
salvation that will go all the way to
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the very end. As many of
you know from an email that went out
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this week, Dwayne vetters, I'm
died suddenly, brain aneurysm. He was
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helping his daughter, was something and
in a matter of moments he was gone.
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None of us got to say goodbye, none of us got to wish
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him well or say some last thoughts
or anything. WHO's just gone. We
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don't have time to play around with
tests like this, to come up with
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our own means of assurance, to
find other ways of knowing God, to
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come up with our own philosophies and
ideas. We don't have time. We
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don't have muth know how much time
we have. What we have, what
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each and every one of you has
here today, is a word from Jesus
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that tells you that he will save
you if you trust in him, not
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just at the beginning of your life, not just in a in, not
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just in the in being regenerated,
but a continual renewal of your life so
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that you will walk in him.
Dwayne experience that. This week he came
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to a new experience that's even close
the right word of sanctification. He came
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into glory knowing Jesus, knowing that
Jesus, who is there for him at
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the beginning and through the middle of
his life, is now there at the
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end and will be there with him
forever. This is a promise that Jesus
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has kept for Dwayne, and it's
a promise that Jesus keeps for all of
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us who trust in him. So
hear his word, beloved, test your
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hearts and cling to the only one
who has the ability to save you and
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to keep you walking in the way
in which he walked. Let us pray
