Turn with me to the gospel, or if you want to say that, the gospel writer John, but in his shorter epistle in 1 John. John 1, chapter 2. 1 John is sometimes called the epistle of certainties. You ever heard it called that? the epistle of certainties, absolutes, things that he's certain about and he's telling these Christians these certainties. I would say, or put it in our contemporary language, I would say this is the epistle of the things we can know, things that we can be sure about, things that we can know. John uses the word know over 30 times in this epistle. So it's a theme, it's a running theme through the whole letter to these Christians then and today. Just as you think about what he's doing here, has anybody had any medical blood work done in the last year or so where they do exhaustive testing of your blood work? I knew, I knew I'd get... What doctors are doing is they're trying to get all this data, all this information, a comprehensive look at your physical condition. Well, here in 1 John, we're getting a comprehensive look at our spiritual condition, wonderfully, so helpful, so right where the Christian is living in these things that we can know. 1 John 2, I'm gonna read verses three through five. May God bless His Word. And hereby we do know that we know Him, If we keep his commandments, he that says, I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily or assuredly is the love of God perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him. Amen. We'll stop there. Let me pray. Father, again, we bless you. We thank you that you're the giver of words of life. These written, recorded words that come from you, God breathed through your servant John and living on today by the power of your Spirit. to help your people throughout the earth. Thank you, Lord, for this letter, for these truths. Lead us in the understanding of these things. Help us, Lord. Purify us in the truth. Let your word be for us today. Great help, meat and drink to us. Lead us now. Thank you for our great Redeemer. Shepherd us onward and for your glory. Amen. assurance, Christian assurance, or being assured that you're a Christian. It's often a struggle for true believers. It is. It's often a struggle. You might have questions, probing questions, things that are hard that you're grappling with. Am I really a Christian? How can I be sure? Is my life showing this or what should my life be reflecting to show that I'm a Christian? These are real questions. It's prevalent. We hear this a lot. Sometimes in our visiting with each other, we go through things and we share questions or thoughts like that. You might even have friends or family that come to you and ask you, I'm not even sure that I'm a Christian. How can I know that I'm a Christian? Good question. How do you answer them? What do you say to them? That's a very important question. What do you do for somebody that's asking that question? Well, where in the Bible would you take them? Where do you take them in the scriptures? This thing of trying to know, am I in Christ Jesus? Am I a true child of God? Well, through the years, I have often taken people to the book of 1 John because there are certainties here that mark the Christian's life, new in the faith or older in the faith. There are certain realities of how the Christian lives, who they are, what the Holy Spirit is doing in their life. Let me read to you chapter five, verse 13. Here's a purpose clause for his letter. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. So John is getting to these very questions. He's dealing with this and these Christians in this first century time period. And he uses this phrase, by this we know, or whereby we know as it says in the King James. He uses this almost 20 times. He goes through a series of truths about the Christian life. And he goes one after another and he comes and he kind of repeats these themes and it holds together in this glorious epistle that the Holy Spirit gave him, this letter. Here's just a few of these by this we know. Because we walk in righteousness. A person can know that they're in Christ Jesus because they're alive. They're walking in a path of righteousness or in his path. Chapter 2. Another one. We can know that we're a Christian because we love the brethren. We love other Christians. We love each other. Chapter 3. Here's another one. We know that we're Christians because we have the Holy Spirit. He deals with this in chapter 3 and in chapter 4. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit. We can know this. It's a certainty. And in chapter five, another one, we can know that we are a Christian because we don't go living, continuing living in a pattern of sin. Notice I didn't say sinless perfection. The path of our life, the course of our life is in Christ growing in grace, not being captive to sin any longer. These are truths that John gets to and so we may come back to a couple more of these in the coming weeks. I'd love to spend some time where we look at these, by this we know. But today the first one, really the first one that John elaborates on is in verses three through five here in chapter two. And John is saying that we can know you, whoever you are today, you can know that you're in Christ if you keep his commandments, because you keep his commandments. What a statement, what a phrase to use, to know that you're in God, in the Lord, because you're keeping or obeying his commands. What a truth. So today I'd like us to really just focus in on this truth out of these three verses, particularly verses three and verse five. Keeping his commands or his commandment, this phrase. this truth, and we're going to see it a couple of different ways as John addresses it. These are essentially the same truths, verse 3 and verse 5. He's saying the same thing. He says it in a little different language, a little different terminology, to show the mark of the child of God. If you have this, you have this. Right? As I say, the coin has both sides. To be in him is to have certain realities to that. You have this, and it's seen in this. And that's what John is addressing here and getting to, and he will deal with this as he goes throughout the letter, keeping his commands or commandments. Go back to verse 3. We do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. The first verse on this is about this knowing of God equals keeping his commands. Meaning, if I know the living God, then the things that he says and his commands are real in my life. These go together. It's not that I can know God and I'll eventually get to these things. It's absolutely two things that are connected. Knowing God connected to keeping his commandments. Hereby, or by this, we can absolutely know this, is what John is saying. He's saying it as a certainty, an absolute. The person who has truly come to know God, to know the one great God who is, shows it in his life. And Paul, I mean John, bear with me here, I've had Paul on the brain for so many different studies the last few years, but John is gonna speak to this relative to keeping and obeying what God gives us in his truth, his commandments, his precepts and his word in total. The true knowledge of God. What a statement. You wanna stir up a crowd and get people thinking, do you know the one true God? How do they know this God? What is John actually getting to? We know that we know Him if, that's that pivot word, we know Him if things are happening in our life. This truth is throughout the Scriptures, even the Lord Jesus and how He was speaking of those that are followers of His, this is what they do. We're going to see some of these. Now let's be clear, this thing of knowing God. the knowledge of the absolute reality of knowing the Lord God who reigns supreme. It is not just an intellectual knowledge, right? It's not just I know some facts, I know some things about God, I know some truths that I was taught years ago. Every now and then I've glanced at the Bible. We're not talking about this intellectual It's just kind of like a historian would be. I know a little bit about so-and-so. That's not what John is getting at here. It's not an acknowledgment or an assembly of a bunch of facts. Now, knowing God is experiential. Knowing God is relational. God makes himself known to us in and through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He quickens us unto life. We come into him and we know the living God. And it's a process of more and more and more of knowing God. That's what John's getting at here. We can know that we know him, that we truly know God, if we're keeping his commandments. So dead theology is not what we're talking about here. There are professors and theologians in our state and across the United States this week that will be teaching in classes and they're full of theology or dead theology, not the true knowledge of God. There's nothing about their life that really walks with him. They don't feast upon his truth. They don't know him relationally. They just know some things about God. That's the point we gotta be really clear about here. John is getting into the experiential living out of knowing God. He makes himself known to us. He gives us life and his son and he gives us his Holy Spirit. So this is an ongoing, living, active relationship. Early in Alan's teaching today, he talked about an active faith, a vibrant, or this thing of it's experiential in terms of day-to-day life. day-to-day obedience, day-to-day following Him. So it is active and living. And He lets us know Him more and more, right? You don't get all of this in just one experience. The new birth is coming into Christ. But then the growth and grace is going on with Him as sons and daughters of the Most High. Beloved, the relationship of God, we've got to get this established. Knowing God has realities to it, but to know God is personally. He reveals himself to us personally. My granddad was a great hero of mine, a dear man, a man who walked with God, but I don't know God through my granddad. I know God because he's made himself known to me. He's revealed himself to me. He's made himself real and the realities of his spirit and his truth and his holiness and his glory is to be known. And therefore I walk with him and you walk with him if you're in Christ and you're in him because he's living in you. And these things are flowing out of a life that knows God. So we learn about him and we love him and we obey his word. What he says is what our ear is tuned to, what our heart is given to. He has planted this. He's impressed this upon our hearts. And more and more, growing in grace is going on in that. Matthew Henry put it this way, obedience to the commands of God show that the knowledge of God has been graciously impressed imprinted upon our soul. We say that again, obedience to his commands shows the knowledge of God or the knowing of God has been impressed, marked, made real in our hearts upon our soul. It's something that's alive. It's real. So then, this thing of knowing God, which is knowing the one true God in relationship with him, it has a lifestyle associated with it. If we know this great God who reigns, we keep his commandments. What are his commandments? Right here, it's easy to kind of get stumbled. When he says we keep his commandments, what comes to your mind? What are you thinking about? That's a big word, isn't it? Is John taking us back to the Old Testament mosaic law, that we're going to go back and we're going to go back through all of those laws and requirements, like what the Pharisees would have done? You've got to do this, this, this, and this. You've got to do this, this day. Now that's not what John, that's not the language really of what John is dealing with here. This word commandment that John is giving us, it comes from the Greek word entole. Entole, meaning authoritative words, divine words. It's comprehensive. It's not the scribing of the Old Testament law that John's taking us to. It's the word of God in total, and most particularly, given through his son. The commandments, what God says, but chiefly, in New Testament language, what the Lord Jesus Christ has said. Those are the commands. Those are the truths. Those are the authoritative words that the Christian is in tune with and obeying and loving and following. You hear this, saints? Otherwise, if we think it's commands of regulations and precepts and requirements, we're going to become legalist. That's not what John is going into. He's not talking about legalism, that you're just going to check this and check this. He's talking about walking in the ways of God through the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's getting at here. You talk about authoritative words. Just read through the gospel accounts and people would marvel he spoke like no one else ever before. That's true today. You stand up in any crowd in any place in the world today, read a chapter out of one of the Gospels, and you can say to your audience, whatever language, whatever translation they're going to have to hear it in, you can say, these are words you'll never hear other men say, cannot, will not. This is the Son of God speaking. Those are authoritative words. If we know the one true God, then we keep what he is commanding or what he has said. Because it's a part of the whole lifeline of knowing the one true God and hearing always from him, loving his word. So this is a comprehensive term. Keeping his commandments. We don't put it in a few categories. It's the whole of the counsel of God through, primarily through, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Authoritative words. So commandments, you young people, hold on to these truths. Following the Lord Jesus Christ and hearing his word and taking it and living by it is walking in his commandments. That's what we're getting at. That's the heartbeat here of what John is bringing out in this first to know, what we can know. And we see this, this reality of this, following the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, hearing him, obeying him, following him, keeping what he said. It's throughout the gospels. He was the one saying it over and over again, the Lord Jesus. It's what He says to mankind today. But I say unto you, it is written, men say this, people say this, but I say unto you, He is the authority. Everything that He said, everything that He has given us in His word. John chapter 14, Saints, is wonderful on this. There's several phrases, statements the Lord Jesus is saying there about his authority, his words, the total of his commands of what his followers will be marked by. John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. Same word, same word, my authoritative words, keep what I say. John 14 verse 21, he that hath my commandments and keeps them, he that hears them and keeps Him, they walk by Him. He it is that loves me. That's what Jesus said. He goes on, you just go back to these. Even in John chapter eight, you remember? There were some that had come to believe on Him and they began to follow Him and what did He turn and say to them? If you continue in my word and exactly what I have given you, what I've taught you, what I give to you in my proclamations of the whole truths of God, redemption, my life, my sacrifice, if you continue in these things, Then ye are my disciples indeed." So you see, beloved, knowing the one true God, the one true Savior, is to follow what he says. We can know that we know God if we keep his commandments. It's just important for us to be washed afresh in truths like this. And at the end, I'm going to try to apply just a few thoughts that I have. What does it mean to walk according to his commands? Jesus said those who continue to follow Him and what He says, those are His true disciples. So it's a moving, active, living faith, obedience, following of Him. The other thing that John is emphasizing here in this theme of knowing him and keeping his commandments is the person who doesn't do this is proven right there they don't know the one true God. It's an absolute impossibility for somebody to say I'm a Christian or I know God and don't walk in his ways. It's an utter impossibility. It's a certainty from this text. Go back to verse four. John says the true and the false Christian is proven in this very truth right here. John says, he that says, think about people in day-to-day life, a family member that you were recently with, maybe in the holidays, people that you're around at your work, whatever. He that says, I know him, oh yes, I'm a Christian, and they keep not his commandments, says he's a liar. That's strong language. And the truth is not in him. We'll pause right there. The false convert or the false Christian is proven out day by day because they don't love and serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ. They say one thing and they do another. They profess this, I did this when I was years ago, yeah okay, I kind of believe that stuff and they don't walk in it. It means nothing to them. They don't plant their life on it. They don't order their life by it. They don't devote themselves to joyful surrender. As Alan said about the first Peter, slaves to the master, servants of the most high. That's not in their thinking. They say this and they do this and they're proven to be a liar, meaning there's no truth in them. There's no reality. It dishonors the grace and power of God and salvation to say that person is a Christian and they never walk with him. That makes God look weak, like He can't make a new creation, something set apart for holiness. The New Testament is replete with the realities that God makes a new creation and they walk therein. People all over our land, at the political level, at the corporate level, at the family level, and all over society, say they know the living God, and they don't walk in His ways, and they don't exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. We may come back to this other one. Those that say that Jesus is the Son of God, those are Christians. Those that are fuzzy, they never acknowledge the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, they're not Christians. That's how certain this letter is. Read it this week. Read it. Let it blow you away. John is giving us this truth for our good, for our help. God has revealed Himself to me, and I'm walking in His commands. I love His ways. I love His truth. But those who don't obey don't know the living God. Those that obey the Lord Jesus Christ, they know Him. They know Him. So that's the first way that John deals with this. Knowing of God. We can know that we know the living God if we walk in his commandments or we keep his commandments. Chapter of verse 5, go back to verse 5, but whoso keepeth his word, We got the verse three example in the verse five with the verse four false non-Christian in the middle. But in verse five, those who keep his word, notice here saints, he now uses word instead of commandments, word. I'm gonna come back to this. Those who keep his word in him or in that person, verily is the love of God perfected. Stop there. The second truth. John restating again the glories of verse 3, he says it in a different way in verse 5. Who so keeps, he starts with that part, who so is keeping his word, verily or truly the love of God is in this person. It's being worked, God's love, God's redeeming grace in all aspects of their life. God is at work in them. He flips it. The first one, if we know God, we keep his commandments. Here, he is saying, when we walk or keep his word, obey it, we know that the love of God is in that person. Same truth, same glorious truth of the Christian life. I'm going to pause. I had many, many thoughts this week as I was looking at these, oh, 15 or whatever different hereby we know. Philip kind of did his own medical blood. You know, you get that, I talked about, you get blood work back. It's not one page, is it, Jonathan? And those doctors, you know, they got this, they're scanning their, this number's a little low here. We're gonna have to help that. We're gonna have to do something. And they do this, you know, and they're just buzzing through it. We're not, we really don't even understand what one line is talking about. Some of you do, but guys like me don't. But they look at it and they think about it. And what I was doing this week, and I was thinking about you, I was thinking about you dear ones. We come to these and we're looking at lines of the spiritual test, of the spiritual scoring, numbers or reflections of the reality. Christianity is not about numbers, don't let me lose you here. But the realities of living the Christian life are seen in living it out. And that's what John is going to be dealing with. And I was coming to these. Hereby do we know that we've passed from death to life. What's the rest of it? If we love the brethren. I was thinking about that theme, loving God's people. How does that play out in life? How does that seem? How do we show love to God's people? And hereby we know that we have the Spirit of God. He'll use that phrase. He goes through these, and saints, what I'm encouraging you is let these truths in new ways help you bolster your joy and your devotion to our great Savior. This one is about keeping the words of Christ and the love of God being perfected in us, his work in us. They go hand in hand. The truth of the Christian, the true child of God is they keep his word. This is a little different, not just that phrase commandments, but I want us to plant a little moment here on this word. If the first word was about authoritative words or truths given of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, now he says his word. The Greek word here is that familiar word seen throughout the New Testament, logos. The Logos, if we keep this Logos, if we keep this, it means divinely spoken truth. Y'all with me? We're not just talking about good ideas of men, we're talking about what God declares. His commandments are authoritative, and here, it's divinely spoken truth. And it centers on one man, the man Christ Jesus. It centers on him, all that he said, all that he did. His words, we could say it in the singular or the plural, his word being the whole embodying all that he said, or his words in the specific things that he taught. He taught his disciples and he taught through his encounters with people, continually speaking how his followers follow him. What do they do? How do they order their life? So this word Logos is glorious. You can't help but think of John chapter one, right? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, right? And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We think that Logos, Logos, Logos, it's about Jesus, the Son of God, coming as the incarnation of the Word, the fulfillment of God's Word, God's revelation in him. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This is not a lifestyle of going back to mosaic law. This is a lifestyle of following everything the Lord Jesus Christ said and did. Y'all with me? That's the Christian. When I meet people that are buried in the Old Testament, and that's gonna be their life, that's how they're gonna please God, wrong. The Old Testament is glorious, but it's not the ways that we please God, not the Old Testament, it's walking in the new, the new covenant realities, walking in the Holy Spirit's grace and power in our life. No, I'm not making light at all of the Mosaic Law. But it was a schoolmaster, it crushes you. We're following the master, Christ Jesus. That's who we listen to, that's who we follow. That's what we want, that's what we long for, his truth, more and more in our lives. So this phrase, whoever keeps his word, obeys the word, this divinely spoken truth that came through the Lord Jesus Christ, In him, in you, is the love of God being perfected. Amazing realities to this. John 1, as I said, is a great proof text on this very use of the word centering on the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, the true Christian The true Christian, two weeks into their Christian life, two years, or 42 years into their Christian life, the true Christian is striving, endeavoring to obey the teachings, the words, the truths of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the conduct and aspects of their life. That's a summation of everything John is saying here. The true Christian esteems and follows and submits himself in obedience to what Jesus has said in every area of their life. Every area. So if I go to Duke University tomorrow and I see liberal theologians, whatever, is your life, all that you are, centered on the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that not the fairest and best question to ask them? Otherwise they're just professors of stuff. that's dead religion, and it makes dead men deader in their own blindness. It leaves them lost and without hope. God is a God who reveals himself to us. He has opened his word to us. He's given us a son who is the expression of all that God has given, and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is to keep his commands, to keep his word. It's foundational to the Christian life. We know this. I'm saying things to you that you already know, but I want us to hear it with fresh help from on high. I want you young people to hear this. Those of you who are struggling, if you're a Christian or not, what are these verses speaking to you? Are you keeping his commands? Are you following what Jesus said? Is he the author and finisher of everything that's good and holy and just for you? The Christian will gladly say what Jesus said is true today and forever. Every now and then in these nonstop team calls and all that other stuff that goes on. Ian, bear with me here, brother. Man, there's some days I don't want to be on another call, not with you guys. I'd have to qualify that for somebody listening for the first time. What's Phillip talking about? But these team goals and meetings and work stuff and all that kind of stuff, it's every now and then, somewhere in that conversation, a true believer will be in on that call and they'll say something from the Scriptures. And it's almost like I have to grab my laptop. Whoa, I'll just say, amen, brother, or whatever. Somebody will drop truth in because you talk about clearing the airwaves out. Say what Jesus said. Sometimes I'll end a meeting or say to somebody that they know me, I'll say something to them like that. Every now and there's six, eight, 12 others listening and they hear that. Why? Because the Christian gladly says what Jesus says today actively, he's living, he's reigning, is true today and forever. It's true forever. It's perfect, it's true. It's glorious. No man's ever spoken like that. Any critic of his is wrong. Period. End of subject. Every false religion that's ever been rolled out there is dead. It's damning. It's ruined. It's God-despising. Everything that Jesus said triumphed gloriously. Everything he said on any topic, he's the authority. Standing on the promises of God. Carolyn, thank you for playing. She's picked right up, just, man. Standing on the promises of God. That's what the Christian says and that's what they do. That's what they live. Would to God that the Christians in America would rise up more in these realities and walk with him, walk in his commands, walk in his ways. And not hold back of saying it, expressing it, living it. Jesus said this. Jesus said this, you remember what Jesus said? Oh, I like this part when Jesus said to that man, hey, did you read this part when he said to those lepers? Yeah, but what about the woman at the well? Did you see where I'm going with this? This is fresh, it's real. It's on our hearts, it's on our minds. So beloved, the Christian gladly, joyfully says, I follow what he says. We can know that we know him. And here, whosoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is being perfected in him. The love of God being perfected. Man, what a phrase. You'll read different ones on this, but in some ways you feel like you're just barely getting to it. This is huge. Those that are walking with him in obedience, God is at work in them. You know, there's this question, is this our love for him being perfected, his love for us being perfected? Is it both ways? Perhaps. But it's probably chiefly God's grace, the power of God, the work of his spirit in us perfecting love. And that would be in total love to him and love to one another and love to perishing people around us. It's being perfected. He's growing us in that. If you feel like today, well, I think my love is growing colder, then you need to just walk with God, love Him, love His truth, and let Him be perfecting you because the very truths that you're walking in are washing you, renewing you. We need this, don't we? Those who are obeying the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, they're experiencing active grace. The great term we'll use, sanctification. They're being ever washed the more. Their minds being renewed. They think, you know, five or 10 years ago, I used to see this subject like this. Oh, but now he's teaching me more and more of how God sees it. What does God say on the subject? I want to obey what he says. Saints what glorious truth for us to be walking with him and in that same pattern of living that he's perfecting in us. Love the truths of God influence or permeating all of your life. Just magnificent the realities the certainties that John's getting at here. And yet there's so much more. I felt like I should maybe, having seen this from both sides, knowing God and keeping his commands, and in this one, keeping his word and his love being perfected. These great truths that he says in these two verses, I'd like to just finish the time, beloved, on some aspects. How does this translate to us? We could say, what does it mean to be obeying his word? keeping his word. I want to in some ways just activate your thinking. Take this theme away today. Take this truth away and let it dwell in you richly and begin to apply it. Begin to think through how does this affect what I'm doing day by day? What does it look like in your life, a brother or a sister, somebody that's a young person or somebody that's been married or somebody that's in a new place in life, a new vocation or whatever, what does it mean to walk in his ways or to keep his word? I'd like to finish with three ways that this applies to any of us, all of us, if you're a true Christian. The Lord Jesus Christ's words shape all your thinking. Your thinking. Your starting point. Your starting and your finishing point. What you know. The Lord Jesus Christ, his words. Consider with me for a moment here. The Sermon on the Mount. Sermon on the Mount. You talk about getting loaded up there. The Sermon on the Mount is the Lord Jesus Christ giving us these divinely spoken truths. And these are the things that we can know. That we can know and that we can hear Him and we can walk in Him as children of God. The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes should shape the way you think. Who we are. They're expressing who the Christian is. The Christian is merciful. The Christian is a peacemaker. Christian in these realities of what Jesus is speaking about in the Beatitudes. Saints, they shape how you think, they shape how you walk. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, you just go back and look at it blocks and blocks of pieces. What is he speaking about? Inward purity versus things that are lustful and destructive. The sacredness of marriage. Jesus speaks about in the Sermon on the Mount. Benevolence, when you help others, giving, prayer, fasting, these aspects of living a holy, set-apart life, these shape your thinking. You'll hear people talk about fasting. They don't start with a God-centered view of it. God has the idea about fasting, not health professionals. God has the declaration about fasting. Hear me here, stay with me here. God ordains the right things and the holy things for us. And so he speaks to these things and it should shape our thinking. If we're going to be keepers or obedient to his word, we got to know it. We got to let it be full in our hearts and our lives. So Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, this thing of money, unnecessary worries, being anxious about things, contentment, We drive home, we're gonna drive home this spring, God willing, from here, and we're gonna see the lilies of the field. I mean that as in the flowers, still some wildflowers on this road out there. And they oughta preach to us. Why am I worried? Why am I worried about financial things? He's with me. Jesus, you see, saints, when we think about obeying his word, like I said, it's not a checklist. These truths, they're shaping our view of everything. You young people that wanna marry one day, let the word of God just have your thoughts in that, if he has you to marry. Men with your money, your time, your giftings, your sisters, all that your labors are about, your giftings. All these things the Lord Jesus Christ, he speaks to. This whole book speaks to this. People say the Bible's not relevant. It's probably one of the greatest statements of their ignorance that they could say. Not relevant, really. I tell you what, you read a couple of the gospels and you come back to me and tell me. You ever heard anybody talk like he talks? No way. So Jesus' word shapes all our thinking. That's what it means, saints, to walk in his word, to be obedient to it. What about the teachings of Jesus on the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is like, and he goes into parables, and he goes into stories, and he's absolutely blowing people away. The Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and all them, they're listening to him, and he's absolutely shattering their predetermined worldview. This is how you walk, and Jesus says, the kingdom of God is like and he shares parables and stories. Did these shape you? Did these make you think? Did something come up in the day-to-day living and life and you're grappling with something and does his word come forth? Do you think about what Jesus said this or are there places in the scriptures? Brother Ron Pulaski loved the Proverbs and they're just these incredible sermons of truth, little short blocks, proclamations of authoritative words from our great God and Savior. So that's first, how you think. obeying what Jesus said. Second, Jesus's words are food for your soul. What you love. If we're gonna be obedient to his word and we're gonna be followers of it, it's gotta be pretty precious to us. That make sense? Think about that. It's gotta be precious. No wonder people leave those Bibles sitting in the hotel rooms and never get them out and read it. It's not precious to them. I just, through the years, I just love to make sure that Gideon's got a Bible in that room. I still do it. Hadn't traveled in a while. I get that Bible, I just set it up there. Typically, I like to read in it, just to open it up and read out of that translation, and oftentimes leave a note for the worker who's gonna come clean the room up. Thanks for the scriptures. God's word is true. Whatever. But Jesus' words, the commands, the word of Christ is precious. It feeds our soul. So it's not a stiff ritual, it's his word just nourishes you, it speaks to you, it hits you right where you need it. It's what you love. The Lord Jesus saying when he was tempted, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You see, we're being nourished in living this life, walking with the one true God and Savior through his word. It feeds us, it helps us, it even defines for us the things that are lovely versus that which is not lovely. His teaching talks about what is pure and what is holy. It's totally reliable. Jesus makes us see things for what they are. I mean, he gets to the heart of it. When people try to dance around that, they have no interest in obeying him. Jesus gets to the heart of everything, right? It's sometimes hard to read through the gospels, because you feel like your life has just been put under a microscope. Glory to God for grace greater than all our sin, that he loves us, that he saves us, that he gives us a new heart, and he gives us his word, that it's living and active. It's precious. So He gives us what's holy. He gives us what's edifying and satisfying. You never read the scriptures and go, well, there's nothing there for me. That'd be on us, not Him. You cannot do that. You can't open any of the scriptures, but particularly when we get into the red ink in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus gives us words that are edifying and satisfying. He said He came that you might have life, abundant life. Not just salvation, eternity with him, but life here, joy in the Holy Spirit, truths of God, protection, grace, and help. Sometimes when you read the scriptures, you feel like you've just had the best meal that a human being could ever have. Your soul is absolutely nourished. And his words give you peace and comfort. This is under the theme that Jesus's words are food for your soul. I'm just trying to apply it, encourage you, encourage my own heart. This is how we obey and love his word. It's alive in us and it's making us more alive in him because of the grace of God and the power of God in our lives. His word gives peace and comfort. One of the saddest things to do is go to a funeral when the Bible is never even turned to. You talk about hopelessness. Hopelessness. I mean, of all moments where God's word, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, need to be sounded forth, it's at a funeral. So that those who are not in him would hear by the grace of the Holy Spirit and be drawn in. What are you living for and what are you dying for? Jesus gives words of peace and comfort. We want to walk in those truths that he gives us. Jesus's words are keeping you and I from evil. If we're obeying him, if we're following what he says, just that in and of itself is constantly keeping us from evil. Jesus speaks about sin, dangers of ruin in people's lives like nobody ever. The modern picture of Jesus being soft and never dealing with anything hard is absolutely heresy. It's wrong. Jesus dealt with sin straight on because he came to save sinners and bring them into his kingdom of light and that we could see things. And he's giving us in his word over and over again, truths, things that he has said to keep you and I from evil. What to avoid? Young people, listen to me here. Hide the Word of God in your heart. Meditate on it day and night like the Psalm 1 person. Grow in grace in the truths of God. Let these truths of Christ just fill you and help you see things for what they are, to have discernment, to have wisdom, to have grace, to have an awareness. I need to stay away from that. Jesus has warned me about that. The eyes, the ears, the activity of your life, who you're with, companions, Activities, what you read. You see, beloved, his word keeps you from evil. False doctrine and heresy. Jesus speaks to us about what's heretical. There's only one gospel message, as Paul said to the Galatians. Somebody else comes to you preaching another gospel or another message, let them be anathema. Let them be a curse. There is no other gospel message. There is no new revelation that men are going to come up with about pleasing God. He's given it perfectly in his son. So Jesus, he tells us, he warns us, he warned the Ephesian elders, but after my departure, ravenous wolves, those who will try to destroy the flock, they'll come in. Jesus warns us about other evils, worldly snares, worldliness, just worldliness, worldly snares. Jesus warns us. Have you ever been somewhere? I'm sure you have, maybe just literally in the last few days. You're in somewhere in society, could be going through a store, restaurant, whatever, go through an airport, and there's just such vanity and silly, foolish godlessness all around you. Things you see, the music they play, the artwork on the walls, whatever, it's all just utterly godless. And Jesus speaks to us, guard the eye, guard your thoughts, guard your activities, guard your companions that you're with. And Jesus warns us about those who would try to draw us away. Men, women, young people, those that would draw you away, would try to change your way of thinking. The Bible stands like a rock undaunted amid the raging storms of time. This stands, this is his word, it's authoritative. It's given to us. We want to have it in us and we want to think on it. We want to obey it. We want to cherish it. Oh saints, Jesus's words will shape your thinking. Jesus's words will shape what you love and Jesus's words will keep you from evil. Obey that. Obey him. We know that we know the one true God if we keep his commandments. We need to long more for that. We need to hunger and thirst more for that. We can know him more. He reveals himself more. Glory to God. Thank you, Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you this day for the truths in 1 John. the things that we can know because of what you've said. Lord, everybody in this room needs to hear this with an open ear and an open heart. I do, they do. That the things that you have given authoritatively in your word and your commandments are true and perfect and right, that they are the pathway of the Christian life. Help your people, Lord. Help us today to know these things and to walk therein. Lord Jesus, we think of you saying at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, He that heareth my words and doeth them is like a wise man that built his house upon a rock. Increase us, Lord, in the grace of obedience. and following your commands. For the glory of your name, Lord, help us. Help us, Lord. We love you. Amen.