I hope that is your prayer, that the Lord will give you a servant's heart as well. If I could get someone to get me a cup of water, will you do that? All right, Jay will do that. I think the singing already took the better part of my voice away from me this morning. All right. It's hard for me to stand up here, though, and hear everybody sing and not try to sing myself, even though it's a noise, a joyful noise, hopefully. Alright, if you would turn in your Bibles to 1 John as we continue on there. Today we'll be looking at verses 7-11 of chapter 2. So 1 John chapter 2 verses 7-11. You may recall last week we talked about the real McCoy. How to identify the real McCoy. Remember? I told you how that whole phrase, the real McCoy, how it came about. Today, I believe essentially John is continuing on with how to identify a real McCoy. That is one who says that they know God, one who says they are walking in the light. How do you know that? I mean, anybody can say anything, but there should be something to back that up. If we say something, our life should back that up. And that's what John has been delineating for us here, spelling out for us. Last week we saw in verse 3 that the one who says they know God will, what? Maintain a personal relationship with Him. And then in verses 3 and 4, we said that one who says that they know God, they will continually keep His Word. This is one of the things He pointed out for us. And the third thing we saw last week was that they who claim to know God, they will grow in their love for God. Thank you, Brother Jay. And then the fourth thing we saw last week, and according to verse 6, is that they would live as Jesus lived. I was tempted just to go off of that today and say the next part is that they will love as Jesus loved. And that would be very fitting, because that is exactly what the main part of verses 7 through 11 is talking about. If you say you know God, how do we know it? You're going to do these things He's already mentioned, and in verses 7 through 11, you're going to love like Jesus loved. Whoa, that's a tall order, isn't it? Have you ever really thought about how Jesus Christ loved? It is hard to really understand how He could love the way He loved. And when we look at ourselves and each other and things, it's, He loved the unlovely, didn't He? He loved those who hated him, persecuted him, mocked him, killed him. He loved them, no matter what. He loved the good people. He loved the bad people. He loved the sinners. He loved everybody. And this is what really the gist of 7 through 11. Now, I want you to notice something though. Note some parallels here between verses 3 and chapter 2. Verses 3 and 4, it says there, He that saith, I know him. We talked about that last week. And then in verse 6 of chapter 2, it says, He that saith, he abideth in him. We're going to see these four phrases where He that saith, that's what I'm pointing out to you, okay? And then in verses 9 and 10 of chapter 2, He that saith that He is in the light was going to do certain things. And then chapter 4, verse 20, He says this again, If any man say, I love God, there's going to be certain things that should come out of that. So your walk, needs to back up your talk, is basically what John's saying through all of this, okay? So, I believe when you look at these four passages that I just pointed out to you, you see then that to know Him is the same thing as to abide in Him, which is the exact same thing as to be in the light, which is exactly the same thing as to love God. These are all the same things, in other words, just different ways of saying the same thing, looking at it from slightly different angles or whatever, and using a variety of terms to say the same thing essentially. So essentially John is continuing on with what we talked about last week in verses 3-6 of chapter 2. Now in verses 7-11, John is giving us basically one more, or a couple of ways, depending on how you want to look at it, way of knowing or identifying the real McCoy. Okay, so just like last week, there should be evidence of knowing God and fellowshipping with God in a person's life, especially those who claim to know God, shouldn't there? I think, let's go ahead and read these verses now, and then we'll point out a few things for you. It may at first sound a little confusing, and we'll try to explain it as we go. Verses 7-11. 11. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I have written unto you, which thing is true in him, and in you, because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. Let's pray. Father in heaven, once again we pray to you. We pray that you would open our eyes and help us not to be people who walk in darkness, but rather people who walk in the light and help us to love as Jesus Christ loved. We pray, Father, that our actions would back up the words that would come from our mouth. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, I believe then, those who claim to know God, who claim to walk in the light, who claim to have fellowship with God, going all the way back to chapter 1, I believe this is all continuing on with the idea of having fellowship with God. How do you know if someone has fellowship with God or not? Okay, they, first of all, will heed the old commandment that he mentions here in verse 7. Again, look at verse 7 of chapter 2, "...Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. If you're going to know God, if you're going to say you know God, you need to be keeping the old commandment, in other words, that he's talking about here. This, I believe, is the central focus of this passage, 7 through 11, this little paragraph here. John is driving and driving and driving as you read verses 7 and 8 and 9 to the point where he reaches verse 10 and he says, "...he that loveth his brother abideth in the light." That's the point he's reaching to. So that's why I'm saying the old commandment is love. Now we don't really have to guess though. You look over in chapter 3, verse 11, and compare that with verse 7 of chapter 2. It says in verse 3, 11, it says, "...for this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." You see, both of these are the messages, the Word that we had from the beginning. The Old Commandment is love, in other words. Is that true? Well, let's look back in Deuteronomy 6.5. You don't have to look there, but I'll read it to you. Deuteronomy 6.5 says, "...and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." It's back in the Old Testament, way back in the giving of the law. The book of Leviticus there, for example, Deuteronomy and Leviticus 19.18, "...thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord." Mark 12, 28-34, another passage, I believe, that backs up this idea that the old commandment is love. It's been around since the beginning of time, in other words. Matthew, Mark 12, 28-34. And one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, like it. And namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these, and the scribe said unto him, Well, master, thou hast said the truth. For there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, his more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. You see, that is the Old Commandment, to love. That's the commandment. John is driving home right here in verses 7 through 11. The commandment to love God and to love your fellow mankind is essentially, that summarizes the entire Old Testament. That's what it's all about, folks. Loving God and loving other people, too. In what way is love old? I've kind of already hinted at it, but it is old because it was written where? In the Old Testament, right? I don't know that they, in this day, called it Old Testament, New Testament, or anything. I don't know exactly when those terms came about, but it's old because it had been around for a long, long, long period of time obviously. So this command to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself was an old and familiar responsibility to the Jews. They all knew about these two responsibilities, these two areas in which they should love. Love God and love man. a vertical relationship, a vertical love, and a horizontal love as well. So they knew about it. It's an old... It's been around way prior to the New Testament. It was around prior to Jesus coming, this responsibility to love. It was around from the beginning of essentially creation, I believe, and especially the giving of the law that we read back in the Old Testament. So the Old Testament is filled with commands on how to love God and how to show love to our fellow human beings. Mark kind of pointed that out this morning as he was talking about Deuteronomy and Leviticus and all that. That's essentially what's all in there, how to fulfill this love requirement that we have. Secondly there, the second part under that, in what way is love old? It is also old because it is written in their heart. They already knew, I believe, that this is what God wanted them to do. Don't you really, even before you became a Christian, didn't you know that God wanted you to love Him? Didn't you? Really? That's why most people have worship in some sort or another, right? And I believe it's written on our hearts that we should love God, and most of us know that we should love our fellow human beings as well. We just find it very difficult to do, don't we? And that's why there's a lot of good moral people out there that do things and treat people ethically and morally and all, because they know this is in their heart, it's written in their heart. Acts 24, 16 says, "...and herein do I exercise myself, and have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men as well." Romans 2.15, and I could read a lot of other verses, but Romans 2.15, "...which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." We all have a conscience, I believe. Now, we know we can sear that conscience and mess it up so it's not as effective as it ought to be, but we all have one, or at least started out with one, okay? But this conscience, I believe, points us to love God and to love our fellow human being. And that's why we're convicted when we don't. And that's what part of the reason drives us to Him in the first place. So, if you know God, if you say you know God, you're going to keep the old commandment that John tells you about in verse 7. But not only that, you will also heed the new commandment in verses 8 through 11. The new commandment, as I believe, is also the same as the old commandment. The old commandment was to love, the new commandment is to love as well. Now that might sound strange to you, but the word here is agape, so let me talk to you about what love is first, and then maybe we'll talk about in what way love is new, because he said it's an old commandment, but it's also a new commandment. That sounds a little confusing, doesn't it? I mean, I've got an old car, but it's a new car. I went, OK, what does that mean? Same idea, OK? But love works better than a car, though, obviously. But the word love there is agape, which is, as all of you know, I'm sure, is that very highest form of love that there is. This is a love like God loves. This is the selfless love. This is a sacrificial type of love that drove God to do what he did. and for us and all. So this is a self-sacrificing, giving kind of love. It implies a strong feeling, but it is a love that is based upon the will, not on emotions. Okay? You have other forms of love that in the Greek, differentiates here, and the wording and all, love that is based upon feeling and so forth, that is not this kind of love, okay? This is a love of the will, that a person chooses to show love for someone else. Okay? So this is the kind of love that regards others with favor, and goodwill, and benevolence. This is the kind of love that God had for sinful mankind, and sent, that caused Him to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross of Calvary. It was His will. It's not based upon His emotions. God's... I won't go there, I'll just go on. I'll probably say something here that I'll regret if I don't. But this kind of love, agape love, is again based upon the will, not emotions. You choose to love like this. This is the kind of love that God has for the Church, and that Christians are supposed to have to one another, according to Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 33, and I'll leave you to read that later on. But this is the kind of love that caused Christ to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, not my will. but thine be done." He willingly submitted himself, his will, to God's will. In other words, he didn't feel like dying. It wasn't something that was going to be joyous to him, right? He chose to do it. So, that's what the New Commandment is. The New Commandment is to love, but in what way is it new? Since it's supposed to be old, but it's also supposed to be new, according to this passage. I believe it is new in its character. In the Greek, there's two words for new. The first word that I think I put in your outline there for you is neos. And it means new or recent. And it has to do with something that's a relationship to time. Okay? It's not very old. In other words, it's new. Okay? And so it's referring to something which has recently come into existence. That is not the word that is used here. So when he's saying you've got an old command, but yet you've got a new command to love, he's saying it's not something that's just now come into existence. Okay? So that's not what he's saying. If he did, that's the word he would have used there. But he used the word kainos, which means new in quality. And when it says new in quality, it implies something that is better quality. Like new and improved. That's the idea here. This is the word that is used here in 1 John for us today. So it's new. It's new in its depth. as well. Agape is a present active participle here. I don't want to go into too much technical terms or anything, but when you have this participle and when it's a present active participle in particular, you're talking about something that's an ongoing activity that just goes on and on and on and it becomes a habit It becomes part of your personality, in other words, in your life. That is why I said it is new in its depth. Love is how this person's life is characterized. So when you look at this person who says, I know God, Who says, I'm in the light. Who says, I have fellowship with God. Who says, I love God. Their life should be characterized by love. That's what he's saying here. If your life is characterized by love, or if it's characterized by hatred, the opposite of love, you can tell if you know God or if you just say you know God. This is how you determine whether the person is a genuine article, the real McCoy or not. Do you wonder sometimes, am I really saved? Have I really been born again? This is how you tell. All of these things that we talked about last week, the thing that we look at today, love, If love does not characterize your life, then you're probably not saved. That's what John is telling you. Look at your life. Examine your life. If your life is filled with hatred and bitterness, there's something desperately wrong. God loved. We love Him because He first loved us. Because He loved us and forgave us, we ought to be able to extend forgiveness to other human beings as well, right? The things they did to Him didn't matter, He forgave. Aren't you glad? Because you know what? Your sins, my sins, that's why He went to the cross. Has anybody ever sinned against you worse than you've sinned against God? I doubt it. But yet He was willing to extend love and forgiveness. That's what should characterize your life. It is new, this love. It's old? Yes, because it's been around for a long time. And everybody already knew about it. And you have it written in your heart. But yet Christ comes on the scene and we see that this love is new. new in its quality, new in its depth. It should characterize your life, day in and day out. It is new in its scope. You see that he will love, who? It says here, his brother. Obviously, meaning more than just physical brother, right? That's why a lot of times we'll say, hey brother old, I'm a brother whoever, brother this and a lot of, some denominations they call everybody brother and sister. And this is the idea here, more than just the men, This includes all fellow Christians, that's what he's referring to here. Okay, so a Christian should not be marked by hatred and bitterness and venom against any other, who? Believer. That's what he's talking about. When a person is marked by that sort of behavior, unforgiving spirit, against another fellow Christian, something is wrong. That's what John is saying. You're probably not in fellowship with God. You may not even know Him at all. You may not have ever been born again. I know that some of you are probably saying here, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, Pastor. I can kind of agree with you to a certain extent, but old so-and-so, you know, they They've wronged me. They have done certain things to me that you just don't know about. No, you're probably right. I don't know about it, maybe. But according to this verse and this passage, what should be your response to that person? Should it be hatred? Should it be unforgiveness? Or should it be love? According to this verse, what should it be? You're right, I don't know you. But God knows what happened. Some of you are probably saying, wait a minute, Pastor Joe. They have a different belief in this certain area. Maybe they believe something different. Their belief about the Bible is different than mine, in some way. Maybe their belief in this eschatology, the view of end times, it's different than mine. I cannot love that kind of person because of what they believe. According to this first, this passage, should you hate that person? No. You're still supposed to show love to them, right? Because if they're a real believer, then they deserve that. They are your brother or your sister. You can go on and on. I can give you lots of examples. You can say, well, Pastor Joe, you know, someone took advantage of me, or someone, oh, so and so, they used to be in the church and, you know, I loaned them some money and they kind of ran off. They never paid me back. Well, that stuff happens. Or I had a business dealing with this guy and he's supposed to be a Christian and, you know, things fell through and, you know, so now you get this hatred and this bitterness, unforgiveness. Something's wrong. You ought to be willing, at least come to that point in your heart, that you're willing to extend forgiveness to that person. Because this hatred will eat you up. I'm telling you. It will manifest itself in so many ways. Maybe you would even say, somebody's physically abused me in some way or another. I cannot forgive because of this past abuse that's in my life. And this person claimed to be a Christian. And I know that's despicable and that makes it even more deplorable, doesn't it? A person who claimed to be a Christian and did these sorts of things. But you know what? You need to extend forgiveness. You need to love. Don't hang on to this anger and this bitterness. It will eat you alive. And it will ruin every relationship that you hold dear. If you don't, let it go. So there's many possible objections you could say here. But we have to put our personal feelings aside. This is a love based upon the will, right? I understand. You've been hurt. Maybe you've been hurt terribly. And maybe you technically have the right to be angry. But I don't believe you have the luxury to be full of resentment and hatred and bitterness. You need to extend love to these people. This should be what characterizes your life. To fellow believers and even you will extend this love to enemies. The agape love that John talks about will reach out even to those that you may consider an enemy. Matthew 5.44 says, But I say unto you, Love that is agape your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. So, did you get off the hook? Maybe you said, well, boy, this person, you know, I know they said that they were a Christian, but they did this terrible thing to me. Therefore, they probably weren't really saved and therefore that gives me the right to hold on to this anger and this bitterness. No. Look at that passage there. It doesn't matter really whether the person's a believer or an unbeliever. You need to be marked by love in your life. That's what your life should be characterized by. For the one who truly knows God and is fellowshipping with God, hate is not an option according to this passage. And why is it not an option? Look at verse 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and There is none occasion of stumbling in him. I believe this is telling us why hatred is not an option and why love is really mandatory for the Christian who is fellowshipping with God and knows God. That phrase there, none occasion of stumbling in him, can be taken in a couple of different ways. First of all, Love helps you, you yourself, to keep from stumbling. That's one view here. But hatred and bitterness will only hurt yourself. And you already heard me say, right? If you hold on to anger and bitterness and all, it will eat you alive. I believe that. I mean, there's just too much evidence out there. It can manifest itself in so many ways. It can make your hair fall out. It can make you do all kinds of things. Right? And there's all sorts of diseases and heart attacks and various things, physical ramifications that come from hatred and bitterness in your life. So that is one possible thing there. And I definitely believe that that would be possible. But the second view is that it's really focused upon the meaning of the word stumble. To stumble or stumbling comes from the Greek word skandalon. You may think of an English word that we get from that, scandal. Okay? And it really means to trap or to cause, to trip up, to cause someone to trip up. And this word almost always exclusively refers to causing someone else to trip up. It's like you set out a trap and someone else comes along and trips over it or gets tangled up in it. That's what scandals typically do, right? You think of scandals in the church or whatever, it really affects many people out there, doesn't it? And this is the word that is used here, skandalon. And with that, since it almost always means others causing someone else to trip up, then that gives you the second view of this passage here, or this particular phrase. So it could be then that that love in the Christian's life helps to keep others from stumbling, but hatred and bitterness in the Christian's life causes other people to stumble. And I believe that's really the primary meaning here, and it could be a little ambiguous for a reason, so that it encompasses all of that. It will hurt you, and it will hurt others as well. There's no room for hatred in the Christian's life. It ought to be part of your daily life. When people think of Melissa, they should think of a loving person. When somebody thinks of Effie Oldham, they should think of a loving lady. When somebody thinks of Mark Thomas, they should think of a tech sergeant with short hair, that loves people. And when they think of you, they should think of a person who loves God and loves other people. Is that what characterizes your life? If it doesn't, you can hurt yourself to take the first meeting or to take the second meeting. You can cause many other people to stumble as well. You can cause others to forsake their church. You can cause church splits. You can cause all sorts of problems. If you visited a church and you felt like, man, these people just aren't very loving, would you go back? That's why we have some people here. Do you realize that? Because some of you folks have visited other churches, and the people weren't friendly, they weren't very loving to you, so therefore you kept looking, and you eventually came here. You see how love can cause other people to stumble? I mean, not love, but the hatred part. And it can get in a church. And this is why I have to keep an eye out for this, an ear out for this, however you want to say it. When I feel like there's problems between families or between individuals or whatever, I've got to get in there and try to reconcile that situation. Because hatred and anger, bitterness, in the church is like a cancer and it will just fester and spread and pretty soon, you know, people are talking about each other and it will split this church down the middle. It will cause others to stumble. So, we have to be careful about this. There is no room for hatred in the life of a Christian. So, when did love become new? I believe the answer is in verse 8. It says, "...darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." You can compare this verse with like John 8, 12, "...then spake Jesus unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Do you not see some parallels here? John 12, 46 has another verse. I am a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. You see, we've been talking about that, right? Light versus darkness, the contrast here. You say you're in the light. Why? Because Jesus came into the world. Because Jesus came into the world, you have a new and quality commandment to love, agape love. That's what he's talking about here in John. So when you look at Jesus Christ, you see a love embodied and exemplified and modeled by Him and His behavior. Jesus never showed hatred or malice to any individual. He hated their sins, but He did not hate the individuals, right? I've heard people say that, you know, hate to sin, but why is that? Yeah, exactly. Hate to sin, but love the sinner. Something like that. I was thinking it went slightly different, but that sounds good. I think that's right. But you see, Christ's love was very broad, wasn't it? I kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier. His love, I believe, is very personable. He reaches out to every person in an individual way. He understands you for who you are, you for who you are, you for who you are. He loves all of you in spite of your differences in personality and things. He loved publicans, he loved sinners, he loved babies, he loved small children. He loved even, this is probably the hardest one for him to love, I would guess, hypocritical religious leaders in His day. He loved them too. He loved those who spit upon Him, those who mocked Him, those who crucified Him, those who drove the nails in His hands and His feet, stuck Him in the side with a spear. He loved all of those people. And He cried out, Father, forgive them. That shows you His love. He did not hang on to anger and bitterness, did he? He extended love and forgiveness to those individuals that did that sort of thing. How do you know if we have this new kind of love that John talks about? We're not to compare our love to the love of some other person. Don't compare your love to me, okay? I'm going to let you down. You're going to probably see some areas, wow, that wasn't a very loving thing to do. You might think of yourself as having arrived, so to speak. You don't compare it to other people. Our love should be compared only to Jesus Christ. Based upon that, do you love? Are you the real McCoy? Are you the genuine person who is having fellowship with God? Are you walking in the light? Are you? One who knows God and fellowships with Him will be marked by love. And love is a very old commandment that's been around since the beginning of the Old Testament. But love is a new commandment that was modeled by Jesus Christ Himself. Do you love? Do you know God? If I could have every head bowed and every eyes closed. Maybe there's someone that would say, you know, Pastor Joe, pray for me. I want to really know God like John has talked about. I'm not sure if I'm even saved. I'm not sure if I know Him at all. but I want you to pray for me. I would like to know Him. Any at all? Would you raise your hand and say, Pastor Joe, pray for me. I don't know if I know God, like what John has talked about at all. I'm not sure if I'm saved. Anyone? Just slip up your hand if that's the case, and I'll be glad to pray for you. I won't mention you by name. Alright. I hope that means everyone's saved then, and they really know God. Perhaps someone else would say, Pastor Joe, I've been struggling with some some anger issues, I've had some hatred or bitterness in my life. And I know God wants me to extend love and get rid of this anger and bitterness that I have for whoever it is. Would you pray for me that God will help me to do that very thing? Alright, I see your hand. Any others? Okay, several hands. Any others? Lastly, okay. Alright, I see your hands. All right, let's pray. Father in heaven, it seems clear today that you've spoken to some hearts. And Father, there are many hands raised because people are struggling with some anger and bitterness in their life over whatever the case might be. You know. But Father, you know what they ought to do and how they should respond. And Father, I know it won't be easy. But yet, you've commanded us to love. That is the new commandment, to love like Jesus Christ loved. I pray, Lord, that you would just help these people to do that very thing. Go and seek reconciliation, if that would be your will for them. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Which one would you look more like? Which one? If you look more like this one, you ought to be really concerned, whether you've been saved or not. because you're either a carnal, bag-slidden Christian at best, or you may not have ever been saved in the first place. Only you can really answer that question. Let's pray. Father in heaven,