Take your Bibles, open to 1st John, 1st John. For those that were here last week, you already know that we are on part two, as I implied that I wasn't confident. that I was gonna get all the way through, but I listened through the message again and I noticed in the introduction, I said I was hoping to get to verse 17. And as you were, those who were here last week know, we didn't even get through a third of the sermon. We only got to point one and I touched on point two and closed three or four times on you. So today I am shooting to do the last two points. I did not add a third. This is not going to be your typical Baptist sermon, so I apologize for those that are going to struggle with that. I only have one conclusion written out, so we'll see how that goes. 1 John, as we're looking at a large chunk of verses here, verses 12 to 21, but as I mentioned before, it's also part of chapter 3, verse 11. It starts in verse 11 of chapter 3 and goes right to verse 21 of chapter 4. there's that portion of scripture verses 1 to 6 it's kind of like a parentheses in the middle as John is emphasizing this necessity of love it's not an option it's a necessity amongst Christians in verses 1 to 6 he pauses for a second and tells them to make sure you test the spirits and I believe that to be absolutely on point and it wasn't that he's just an older guy and He got ADD and thought about something else, wanted to make sure he talked about it, and then came back. No, because with love, what is the number one thing we hear today is the driving force of love is emotions. Emotions, which means a inner feeling, and then so many will say that, well, I don't have this inner feeling, therefore it's not there, or therefore I am not a Christian, or therefore I'm not feeling this way, so therefore, the Spirit is not leading me. And so, John stops and says, listen, just because there's something going on on the inside doesn't mean it's 100% accurate. Okay? The one place we know we can go, as Christians, always, to find the truth is the Bible. And even there in chapter three, in those passages, he emphasized we gotta be careful of our own heart. Our own heart can condemn us. Our own heart can condemn us. And then verses one to six in chapter four, he says, listen, there's only two spirits on this earth, the spirit of God and the spirit of this world, which is the devil. We must test these spirits. Make sure it's, if it's a spirit of God, the spirit of God is not going to be offended that you're testing the spirit of God. Okay. We see that in the old Testament, but God told the Israelites many times, test me, test me. Go ahead. Does the Lord test us? Yes, even here in 1 John we see many tests given to us to make sure that we know we're in the faith. Why? Because knowing that you have a home in heaven is so crucial, so crucial, so important. So as we're going to be looking here in these verses, we will see that the Holy Spirit last week as we talked about was the connection, the connection. connection that's given to us and mentioned in verse 12 about how we are abiding in God but then in verse 13 it says he has given us the spirit and last week I showed us the Trinity how we see in John 3 16 God gives his son first John 3 16 Jesus gives himself and then we got here and 1st John 4 13 where the Holy Spirit is given to us there's the Trinity God sends his son the son gives himself the Spirit is sent to reside in us so there's awesome work of God and to remind us before we get too far into there is why why was this letter written John doesn't have a specific reason in each portion he gives us one focus in 1st John 5 13 right he he wrote these things I write these things to you who believe in the name of son of God so he's writing to Christians so that you may know you have eternal life why did he need to write this is because we as Christians if we're honest there's times we struggle in the faith we struggle in the faith we do not go out and look in the woods for confidence we look in the Word of God The Word of God tells us how to have that confidence and we'll be looking at today. So today I'm going to continue on. Last week was connection. today will be confessing and confidence, confessing and confidence. A child of God will have, I'm sorry, confessing and confidence. A child of God will confess that Jesus is the Son of God, as written right there in the text for us, which is the same thing John started with in the beginning of this letter, right? In chapter one, we looked at that. John says, I'm not coming to you to tell you something new, afresh. No, I'm telling you what we've seen, what Jesus told us, and now we are proclaiming it to you. And that's our job, the same thing as Christians, isn't it? We don't just say, well listen, last night I've got this new word and this is what I'm gonna share with you. As your pastor, that's not what you should want from me. You want me to proclaim the word of God that's right here written down. The same word that you can go to and test to make sure that what I say is true and accurate. John was proclaiming to them the same message that Christ had. And then last we look at confidence. Confidence. a Christian can have on a day of judgment. Confidence a Christian can have on a day of judgment. And this is something that truly separates us from all other faiths out there. Many people you'll talk to, when we were in the Altamont Fair, set up that booth, we talked to people, asked them, would you, do you know you have a home in heaven? Many will say, I hope so. I really do hope so. And some will say that, well, that's just arrogant that you can say without a doubt in mind. No, no, no. It's not arrogant, it's truth. It's truth. They may come across as arrogance because you have such boldness, but you can show them it's not my truth. It's the Word of God. It says it right here. Okay? So those who can stand, please stand with me as I would like to read 1 John chapter 4. And let's start right in verse 12 and go right to 21 to just help us in our minds put all this together. Verse 12 says, No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us. so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. In this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. Let us pray together. Father, we do thank you for your word. Lord, please, what we know not, teach us. Guide us through your text today. May I speak what you once spoken. We thank you so much, Father. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen. You may be seated. Confessing. Confessing. We see that started right there in verse 15. But in verse 14 John kind of tosses in again what we heard in chapter 1. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. He says we've seen it and we're testifying it to you. What we've seen we're testifying to you. And But right after that, he says, in verse 15, he says, whoever confesses. Okay? So, in verse 14, he says, listen, what we've seen, we're testifying to you that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Savior of the world. He's the Messiah. And is this something that they gained? Something that they learned? No, it's something that's a work of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians Paul tells us in chapter 12 verse 3, Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Even when Jesus turned around and asked the disciples, Who do you say I am? And Peter spoke up so proudly that he knew the answer. He turned around and let Peter know, you did not get that of your own wisdom that was given to you of the Father. Which is a good reminder of us, that some may be proud of the knowledge they have. No, the knowledge you have is all from God. Everything is from God. Everything good, as James says to us, everything good is of God. So we see this abiding work of God. It causes us, as we saw in verse 13, a spirit comes within us, Verse 14 he says he's proclaiming it, and then verse 15 he says you proclaim it. You proclaim it. So the Spirit of God comes in and guided Peter, guided John, guided all the disciples to proclaim, and now he says in verse 15, you will proclaim. But what will you proclaim is important, very important. You must proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God. And you say, well of course pastor, it only makes sense. But church, there's so many out there that call themselves church, that call themselves Christians, that will say Jesus is their Savior, but not their God, not their Lord. He's not in charge yet. He's my Savior, but he's not in charge of me yet. That doesn't make sense, does it? No, if he is God, then he is in charge of it all. He is the Savior, He's the prophet, he's the priest, he's all of it. He's all of it. Look, just turn over with me to John. The John. I don't have it on the screen for you, because I want you to look at it. If you mark in your Bible, you may enjoy putting little marks there for this. In John chapter 1, I want to show us this confessing, how important it is. How important it is. John chapter 1 I want to go through and here's Jesus starting the ministry going out and getting his disciples and what happens here in John chapter 1 look at verse 19 and it says and this is a testimony of John when the Jews sent the priest and the Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who are you so here's John the Baptist not the Apostle John John the Baptist here's a testimony about him The Pharisees, they come there, the priests send them out, and they say, go find out who this man is that's preaching in the wilderness. Verse 20 said, he confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. So he wants to make sure they understand, I am not the Christ. So what does he confess? Look at verse 29. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Lamb of God he's calling him the Son of God he's calling him the Lamb of God who is going to take away the sins of the world he's calling him the Savior go down to verse 35 the next day again John was standing with the two with two of his disciples so here's John the Baptist he has two disciples that are following him there and he looked in verse 36 and that Jesus as he walked by he said behold the Lamb of God and what is his disciples to verse 37 the two disciples heard him say this and they follow Jesus that was enough oh that's the Lamb of God John thank you for pointing us in the direction we're gone look at jump over to verse 41 so one of the disciples was following John he goes in verse 41 and first found his own brother Simon and said to him we have found the Messiah verse 42 and he brought him to Jesus well I thought Jesus went out picked each one no no see One of them follows Christ because of the confession of John the Baptist, and then he doesn't just stay there, before he gets following, he runs home and gets his brother and says, listen, I have found the Messiah. And who is this one? His brother. He brought him to Jesus, verse 42, Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John, you shall be called Caiaphas, which means Peter. Peter. Peter came along because his brother went out and got him. You can go down to verse 45. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses is the law and also the prophets, wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So Philip is called and follows, but he goes and finds Nathanael and says, listen, we have found him. You must come. So we see this work right from the very beginning. How did this happen was the confession of the mouth, telling people, listen, we have found Christ. Is that what John's telling us there in 1 John? Go back to 1 John. What does he say? Verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. That's what he's saying. It's not a complicated message, but yet it's a deep message, isn't it? Because so many will say that, no, well, Jesus is one of the gods. Jesus is one of the ways. Jesus is a truth. No. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, He is the Son of God. If you declare him to be the Son of God, then you must follow and do what he says. Because see, that confession leads you to what? Following him. In order to follow him, you must obey him. You must hear his words. You must do his words. You must go after him. So there's a doctrinal test here. Number one, confessing Jesus as the Son of God must happen personally, but also must happen publicly. Because of something that happens personally within you, you want to tell others. You do. Because you truly believe it to be the only way. I mean, some people ask you, listen, why can't you just keep it to yourself? It would be like walking by a house, right, and seeing it on fire, and seeing somebody reading a book in the second floor of the house, and you being like, well, I don't want to offend them. They look like they're really enjoying their book. I must tell them. They have no idea what's coming their way. You say, well, pastor, they already know. It doesn't matter, right? Would you just say, hey, listen, the house is on fire, and they say, I don't care, I'm enjoying my book. Oh, okay, and just keep walking? You couldn't, could you? You would persist and persist and encourage them, but you can't get to them because the fire's there. You have to, they have to make, they gotta do something. They've gotta repent and turn away from the house and get out of there, right? Let's say, oh, I'll believe that, that's good, and I'll stay here. Does that work? No, it doesn't work. They've got to get out of their situation. In church, the issue is that the world is in sin. And if they stay in their sin, there is no way out. They're on their one and only path to hell. They must come to know the love of God. See that verse 16? It says, so whoever confesses this, verse 16, it connects to so we have come to know. Come to know what? Know the love of God. And this is something that's so important because so many try to do things, do things. So because they're doing things, then they feel the love of God. Because they're doing this and doing that, they just feel like God is pleased with them. But this is a deeper thing, it's knowing God's love. There's so many I've heard of missionaries that have gone out to the mission field and worked and worked and worked and worked themselves right to the ground before they really come to know the love of God. The love of God should not cause us to just sit, it shouldn't. And that's where so many people are scared. There's leadership that are scared to say that, I don't want to emphasize that too much to the congregation because then they won't do anything. So I'll tell them they got to do so they can experience it. But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that a Christian who confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, they will come to know the love of God. They'll know it, and through that, how do they come to know it? They come to know it through time with God, through the study of the word of God. Just reading his word, studying it, these new little things, as so many of you come and talk to me about little things in 1 John that you haven't seen before. These nuggets, these aren't things, these aren't new truths that I'm come up with. No, it just comes through the studying of the scriptures. You study it, you come to know it, you come to love it, and you come to love Him. This comes with time. Secondly, is you believe. It says you've come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. This is so often a battle in the mind, isn't it? Because you'll find a Christian that also, through time, will say that they don't believe God loves them. Because of what? Usually it's past sin. because of what I've done in the past. See, that's the work of the devil, isn't it? That's the work of the flesh, to remind you of what you've done. Jesus, when he died on the cross, he paid for past, present, and future sins. It's all paid for, all of it. All of it. I like as Jonathan Edwards put it this way, for a Christian to wallow in sin and misery is for a butterfly to crawl miserably along the branches if it were still a caterpillar. Jonathan Edwards' mind, I just, I wouldn't come up with that, I'll put it that way. That just, it puts it right there, right? I mean, you are new birth, here's this caterpillar, new birth, becomes a butterfly, and just continues crawling around like, I just can't. I'm just, it's just, life is terrible. But that's what you look like as a Christian. Even reminding God about the sins. Oh, the sins that I have committed that you've already confessed. Press on. Press on to make the name of God known. Lastly, what happens to a true follower of Christ, it says they know. Okay, one, they confess. Two, they know. Three, they believe. Thirdly, they abide. God abides in him and he in God. Again, as we talked about this last week, there's this beautiful connection, but this connection comes through the outward expression of your faith. Because as you talk about who God is, as you proclaim who God is, it's amazing how as you say the words out loud, it helps your mind, it helps your body, it helps everything come together. I mean, when you have to answer, when you have to answer questions, It causes you to think. God wants you to. The Apostle Paul says, I exercise my faith. Exercise. I go out, I preach, I proclaim, and it causes them to exercise. I build up my faith. It's not that I am making my faith. No, it's the work of God happening within me because God's abiding in me and it's helping my flesh see that I am a child of God. See church, so many, you come to salvation and then you sit and then you wonder why you're not feeling the presence of God. You don't even talk about God. You say, well, I talk about God here in church. If you just sat down and did the math just for a week, a week, think about seven days and think about the hour, hour and a half that you're here and compare it to the entire week of how many hours you spend, includes sleeping. You think that's gonna be enough? Would that work in any relationship? No. Imagine telling your wife, I'll see you for an hour and a half a week, the rest of the week I'm gonna be busy, right? This is not gonna work. It doesn't work. You've got to actively, and it's not that Listen, again, I'm gonna pull on Edwards because his mind is brilliant, more brilliant than mine here. Look at, don't, this second quote, it's a little bit large, you'll have to follow along with me, I have it on screen. Don't only inquire whether you ever have felt any affection to God or Christ, but whether a high and exalting esteem of God and the Redeemer and a thirsting appetite after God and a complacence and a delight in him to be the spirit that dwells in you. Do you esteem Christ precious? Do you esteem him above all? Does your heart go after him more than all? Do you choose before all? Do you choose him? Is Christ precious to you? I mean, you think about that. If God's love abides in you, okay, which we understand, as the Bible said here in 1 John, if you abide in God, he abides in you, you become a child of God. You're born of God. Therefore, his love abides in you. So what is God's love? Does God love his son? Yes. So if his love is abiding in you, you ought to love his son. So therefore, you confess, you talk about his son because you love his son. Who does Christ love? He loves God. So therefore, God's love is there, Christ's love is there, so you should love God. Who else did we find out in verse 13? Came to reside in you because he gave him to you, the Holy Spirit. So the Spirit of God, you should love God in his entirety. And that's what you talk about. To the point that it's almost annoying to people because it's something that you think about, you talk about, you dream about, you sing about, when you pick up your head in the morning, you lay your head at night, you dream, everything about it is because you love the Lord so much. Because His love is abiding in you and growing, it's something that you talk about. So we see this connection of this abiding, the connection of abiding, and then we see the confessing, saying a hearty amen to who God is. Then we see the confidence, verse 17. Verse 17, it says, by this. By what? By this, by this that we just talked about, but also by this, again, we're seeing as we saw in verse 12, this perfected love, he's gonna talk about it again. By this is love perfected with us. by this is love perfected. Again, as I talked about last week and we've been looking at this, this is not meaning perfect. King James says that it's perfect. The literal meaning is that it's perfecting. God's love is perfecting in you. It's becoming, it's maturing, it's growing in you. So when we read this verse, verse 17, It says, so that we may have confidence for what? The day of judgment. I say, well pastor, that's talking about the pagans outside. You know, that's not talking about us church goers. Do I need to read 1 John 5 13 again? Who's this letter written to? Okay, well then it's just in 1 John, right? No, I'm not going to, I don't have a screen for you, but you can write it down. 1 Corinthians 3, 9 to 15, Paul goes through in detail explaining that you will be judged for your works, your actions, your deeds, your voice, your mouth, what you say. I have in the screen here 2 Corinthians, Paul reminded them in 5.10, for we must all appear before the judgment scene of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body, whether good or evil. Hebrews 9 27th and just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. Now this judgment what is it talking about here? Well jump right to verse 18. There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. So this judgment he's talking about here, the day of judgment, is not a day of judgment that we must have a tormented, scared, fearful way. Also talked about in Romans 8. Because Jesus has paid it all. His son paid all of it. He's not going to bring you there and remind you of all the sins that Jesus paid for. That doesn't make sense. Because what is justification? Justification is a legal word. Jesus, when he died on the cross, when you are saved, God declares you justified. Because his Son has paid your sin, you are declared justified. Therefore the judge does not bring up what you have been justified for. It's done. It's paid for. It's dealt with. It's gone. But We do see, plainly written in scripture, that we will give an account. There's talk of rewards, there's talk of crowns, there's talk of a duty as a Christian that we ought to be doing. But again, you say, well, I'm trying to do those things, I'm trying, I'm trying. What he's saying here, church, it'll happen. It'll happen. When you meet that one, that girl, and you just, you fall in love, to use that term, it's not hard to be good to her. It's not hard to take care of her. It's not hard to go out of your way for her. It's not hard to think about her, dream about her, write to her. do anything for her, whether it be comfortable or not. It's not. John's saying, listen, when you become a child of God, God abides in you. When you become a child of God, the Holy Spirit is sent to reside in you. When you become a child of God, you confess Jesus is the son of God. that because of all that his love abides in you in such a way that is expressed outwardly. We talked about that last week, but we see that it's expressed outwardly so much that you will hear have confidence on the day of judgment. That just That'll throw people off in the world. You're telling me that you can say without a doubt in your mind that when you go before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, Jesus is the judge. You're telling me that you'll have confidence that day that Jesus will say, come, come, see the glory. Come and be with me. Yes, why? Not because of anything, not only because of the Holy Spirit working in me, but because of the word of God. We can have confidence. I mean, look at that. What a wonderful passage there. Verse 17. So that, because of his love being perfected in us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. So God's love is residing in me, working in me so much. It's outpouring out of me. I'm confessing who Jesus is. I'm telling the world. I'm loving on my brothers and sisters. We'll be talking about that next week. It'll happen. It won't be hard. It'll happen. I mean, this is such a major thing. John spends so much time in here. And people say, well, that's why he's known as the Apostle of Love. But he's not saying it's just something you do. It's something that happens within you that is expressed out of you. It happens because of God's love is in you. So as Paul would say, if this isn't happening, then I ask, is the Holy Spirit in you? I ask, are you a child of God? I ask, have you ever confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, outside of just words? Has he saved you? I mean, look, church, it goes even deeper. How do we have this confidence? Because, I love that, verse 17, because as he is, so also are we in this world. You understand the depth of that. Think about that. So as he is, who's he? Who's he? Jesus, right? Jesus, so as Jesus is, where's Jesus right now? He's at the right hand of the throne. How do we know that? Because when Stephen was stoned, he looked up to heaven, he saw Jesus get up off the throne and stand there to receive Stephen. So as Jesus is, so are we in this world. Who is Jesus? He's the Son of God. How did God treat Jesus? I mean, think about that. As Jesus... this is... this is amazing. That little tiny sentence there, a little tiny portion of words, you understand the depth of that. That's why you can have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because as Jesus is, so am I. As Jesus is the Son of God, I am a child of God. as Jesus confessed and proclaimed and told the world, you must repent, you must turn, you must look to Christ. But then comes also the other part, right? Wait. Jesus suffered. Jesus suffered for the message he proclaimed. Jesus felt some pain. Jesus' friends turned their backs on him. 2 Corinthians 5.21, Paul says this, right? For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Flip back one more passage, I want you to look at Romans 8. I have on the screen a portion of it, but I was reading it again in its entirety, Romans 8, and I wanted to include some more. Romans 8. This confidence is because, as he is, it's because of God's love being perfected. But Romans 8, which I encourage you, Grab that chapter and swim in it this week. Let's look at verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. Think about that, right? People say that, well, God, God's not loving. Oh, God gave his son for you. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Right? Think about it. Just think on that thought. Who can do that? Who remembers all those things? Satan can, right? You imagine the conversations. You read Job, right? You see Job and there's God talking to Satan, right? Job says, Satan, where you been? Ah, just going around to and fro on the earth, you know? Just seeking, what does he say? The Bible, Paul tells us, right? Seeking whom he may devour. Satan's just going around. Satan can easily say, come on, look at, look at your prophets. Look at, look at these men that you've called. Look at how they've turned their backs on you. Look at how bad they were, right up to the day they died. When could God turn around and say, Satan, but look at this. was the cross. The cross was the day God could preach to the whole demonic world and say, look, there is my son. He's paid for it all. Look at what Satan can say, well what about this? He's paid for it. What about that? He's paid for it. That is my child. What can you bring against my elect? God can say. What can you say? Nothing, Satan. No one of this world can say anything now. Verse 34, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who's at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Right, this is what is. Church, the love of Christ, the love of God resides in us. So what can separate us? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Verse 36, that is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. I mean, this is the church, right? The church, when it first was birthed, persecution came down so heavy. Church, we have no idea about that, unless we read about it. We have somebody at work say make fun of us or call us a name and we think all of a sudden like oh my goodness I've just been persecuted. We have brothers and sisters that are being burnt. We have brothers and sisters that they were stuck within the cavity of an animal and fed to lions. I mean the things our brothers and sisters are going through in this world, we have no idea. Look at that, regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Verse 37, no. No. No what? Who can separate us from the love of Christ was the question, right? Verse 37, no. In all things, we are more than conquerors to Him who loved us. For I, verse 38, am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth or anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I mean that's how when you read the stories like the Fox's Book of Martyrs you read those and you say how how could they sing a song how could they be so joyous it's because they were abiding in the love of God. And it wasn't so much that they just sat there abiding and dwelling and like a monk just hiding in a cave, just sitting there, oh God is so good. No, they abided in his love and because they abided in his love, they confessed his love to the world. And the world, because they love darkness, church, they love, they hate the light, they consider it to be judgment. Right? Just like the bugs. You turn the light on, they all creep and they run and they hide for the darkness, right? They look at it as judgment. The people of this world love the darkness. That's why when they say, you're judging me. No, no, no. Listen, there is a judge and his name is Jesus. And you will have to face him. And you will have to look upon those eyes that wept on the cross. that had the thorn stuck in his head, this blood ran down his face. You will have to look upon the hands that will still have the holes, still have the holes. And you'll have to say, you didn't love me? That's what we must proclaim to them now. They'll say, some will say that, well, I'll make the decision then. No, it'll be too late. It's too late. If you wait till that day, he'll say, depart from me, I never knew you. Depart. Now is the time of salvation. Today is the day. Not tomorrow. I close with this. Church, think about this. We looked at last week the connection, right? Are you connected? Are you a child of God? Paul encouraged it over and over. First John here, he has given us these tests so that we can know we have eternal life. Take the tests. Are you connected? Secondly, are you confessing? Are you confessing? As we saw in chapter three, it's not enough to just do it with your mouth and talk, but to do it with deeds and truth. Deeds are actions, truth is his word. Do it with deeds and truth. Live it out. Confess. Confess means that you not only say it with your mouth, but you do it with action. Because of what you're confessing, it changes your life. It changes your life. Look around this church. Look around. Have you shown love to every person in this church? We talked about it last week. It's hard, and some of us make it harder to love one another. But you, because of God's love in you, because of God's love for the person in the pew next to you, behind you, around you, that's where it is expressed. Is it because of your love that God loved you? Verse 19, what's it say? We love because he first loved us. When the world asks you, why do you love? You say, because he loved me. It's not because you've done X, Y, Z that I love you. No, it's because God loves me, so I'm gonna love you. That's why Jesus says, no, I go above that. You love your enemies, right? Well, that just made the list really long. He says that you're supposed to love your enemies. They should see the love. Thirdly, confidence. Do you have confidence? A confidence in what? Are you confident that the love of God is abiding in you? Does this confidence lead to boldness? Some may have a lack of boldness because they don't have the faith. Some don't have a boldness because they don't exercise their faith. When's the last time you've talked about it? When's the last time you shared with someone else your testimony, told them about what God has done, is doing, and will do in your life? Talked about it, shared with people. Do you have confidence? I want to close with a hymn. I'm not gonna sing it for you. Okay, relax. I listened to a hymn these past few days as a new album came out, Shane and Shane, redoing some of the hymns again. They did Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Helen was a pastor's daughter. She wrote over 500 hymns. She finished, this one was around age 54, I believe it was, that she wrote this one. This year in the States, she continued doing hymns and working with people till the day she died. I can't remember the name of the Baptist church that she worked in, but this was because of a missionary that wrote to her a letter that she came up with this. And I believe most of you will know this, but I just want to read it to you. Again, such depth. Oh soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There's light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free. Then the chorus is, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. Then the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Verse two, through death into life everlasting, he passed, we follow him there. Or a sin no more hath dominion, for more than conquerors we are. Verse three, his word shall not fail you, he promised. believe him and all will be well, then go to a world that is dying, his perfect salvation to tell. Of course, again, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Church, how much time do you spend just looking upon Jesus? Because when you spend time looking to Christ, the things of this earth will grow strangely dim. See, we are busy, church. We're the busiest nation in the world. We're also supposedly the most Christian nation in the world, yet we abort and kill more children than anyone else in this world. We claim to be Christians, yet our numbers within the church are the same as the world when it comes to divorce, it comes to all kinds of problems among this world. We are the same. How in the world is that Christian? According to the Bible, it isn't. No, it's not. It's the world. We're spending too much time looking upon the things of this world. we steer the eyes of our children to just praise the people of this world. That's why with some of these Christian authors and Christian leadership falling, it's caused so many to fall away because they were looking to a man and not to Jesus. They look to a person and not the person of Christ. We need to steer our children not to this world, not to love the things of the world, love the things of eternity. We need to steer our families as men to swim in the word of God regularly. And then we need to spend even more than that time in the word, looking to Jesus, studying his life and how he was, So that when people ask, why, why, you can say, because Jesus did this, because Jesus said that, because of Jesus. And people say, why do you always talk about him? Because of my love for him. Because he is my, he's my savior. He's my Lord. He's my God. Let's pray. Father God, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, God, that we as Christians can look at this scripture here. Lord, what a wonderful verse, 17. Our memory verse for this past week, Lord. By this, love is perfected, God, thank you. It's perfected, Lord, and that love that you have put in us It gives us confidence in that day, the day of judgment. Because God, as your son is, so also are we. God, it's so amazing, Lord. Amazing. Lord, as we study your scriptures and we see that you would hold us to a level such as that, and you would allow us to call upon you, that Jesus, you would leave this earth and go to intercede more. Lord, may we be busy, busy about doing your work, not ours, busy about doing the work that God, you have called us to, not the God of this world. God, may we spend time this week turning our eyes upon Jesus. just gazing upon who you are, swimming in your word, wanting to know you more and more. And Father, help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, because it is tough many times to confess. The flesh gets weary, gets nervous. Lord, help us get over that fear. the fear of a rejection of the person, the fear of rejection of this world, and just have such boldness because of who we are in Christ. Let us proclaim this to those that we work with, those that are our neighbor, those that we may be friends with, Father. Proclaim this to them. Emphasize, Jesus, your message. And may you, through the Holy Spirit, grant repentance, and may we see salvation come to many. We thank you, we praise you. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen, amen.