Take your Bibles, please, and turn to 1 John, chapter 2. Continuing our study in the book of 1 John, and we'll not be here long tonight, and I know, famous last words, but I'll do my best to just kind of touch some high points of the mountains, so to speak, and here in this passage. We finished last time with verses 1 and 2 of chapter 2, and we began reading verses 3 through 6, 1 John chapter 2, while you're getting that, let me just tell you, sometimes things come out of our mouths not quite right. And I understand that that happens. Sometimes things come out slurred out of our mouths, and that happens in my communications as well. Sometimes it's a cultural thing. Have you ever heard the term spitting image? She's a spitting image of her mother. Okay? Now, that's a crude kind of expression. And it's traced back to the Appalachia area. I'm not so sure if it's West Virginia or not. But it's traced back to Appalachia. And it comes from the actual phrase, she is the spirit and image of her mother. The spirit and image of her mother. And over time, as people talk quickly and talk fast and slur their, it got to be spirit and image, spirit and, spit and image. That's where that came from. And, you know, as we get older, it's amazing how we tend to take on the characteristics and even the appearance of our parents. As we get older in Christ, as we grow in Him, as the Word of God flourishes and blooms in our heart, it should be something that takes place as we mature in Him that we get more and more like Jesus in our actions, in our attitudes. I don't know that any of us would be able to be in our appearance, but one day we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Until then, there's an inner battle inside each and every one of us. And it's that inner battle that John is dealing with here in this passage. Paul dealt with it. We might look at that as well. Look, please, in verse number three, the Bible says, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked." We see three positions here in this passage. The first is a possessor. I hope you're a possessor of eternal life. 1 John tells us, He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. All one-syllable words, very easy to understand. You either... My wife often said this. She makes a comparison sometimes when she's talking with ladies. She said, you're either pregnant or you're not. You're not kinda or sorta. You is or you ain't type of thing. And the Bible says you're either a possessor of the Holy Spirit of God, of the gift of salvation, like with the song we sang first, your name written in the book of life in heaven, or you're not. If you have a hope so salvation, that won't carry you through the pearly gates of heaven. 1 John 5, 13 says, These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Now, you might say, I remember when I was, say, born again by the grace of God. I reached up my little hand of faith. He reached out his strong arm of faith, and he saved my soul through his grace. And so the Bible says in verse 3, Hereby we do know that we know him. From time to time, Satan might perch himself or one of his little emissaries upon your shoulder and whisper in your ear and say, Are you really sure you're saved? Are you really sure you're going to heaven? He is the one who wants to cast doubts. May I interject something? Whenever Satan brings doubts into your heart and mind, you quote the Word of God to him. For by grace he is saved through faith, not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. I'm thankful that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I asked a judge one day. He had been a lawyer. He was in our church. And his wife was a member, was saved, but he was not, and his name was Tom. Tom came to my office, and he was broken, and we'd been praying for Tom. And we sat there on a Saturday morning in my study there in West Virginia. And I said to him, I said, Tom, I presented the gospel. And when I got down to the end, I showed him Romans 10, 13. We knelt down there in our chairs in the office, and he gloriously and humbly received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Before we got up off our knees, I opened my Bible up again. I said, you're a lawyer and a judge. I said, would you look at this verse? I said, you're used to finding and identifying loopholes. I said, would you tell me, are there any loopholes in that statement? And he read it for about a minute. He didn't rush. He looked at me and said, nope, no loopholes. I said, that's good. That's a promise of God. I said, did you ask Jesus to save you just then? He said, yes. I said, did God promise he would save you? He said, yes. I said, are you saved? He said, yes. And God used Tom in a marvelous way as a judge, and continuing to use him as a beacon of light, of righteousness in our area, because the Holy Ghost of God came to live within him. But now, hear me please. The Bible says that we can have some outward assurance, some outward assurance of what God has done inwardly, hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Jesus said this in John 15. He said, You're my friends if you do what I commanded you, if you keep my commandments. Now, I want to caution you on something, and I do not want to be in any way untrue to the text. I want to be exact with the text. Anytime that you take one verse out of a context, And you try to build a whole thought and a whole doctrine upon that. You take it out of context. You have a pretext. You have something that can be twisted. I want you to see something here. It says about keeping His commandments. I want to remind you of what we just read a few verses prior. Look at chapter 1, verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. He is not talking to lost people. He's talking to the church. He's talking to the bride of Christ. He's talking to people who are saved, born again. And he says, if we say we have no sin, he said, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. And so verse 9 is there for a wonderful reason. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise God for the cleansing that can come. Keep short accounts with God. May the Holy Spirit always have His clarity of conviction in our heart, in our life. May we not grow insensitive to the Lord. May we become more sensitive to His Holy Spirit and have a conscience that is sensitive to God's leadership and God's speaking. And in verse 10 he says it again, So he's establishing something here. He's saying we can take our halos off. and look at each other realistically and say, we're still in the body of a sinful flesh, living in the midst of a sinful world. And that old nature that is within us has an inclination to do things against God. And God provided cleansing. The penalty for all sin was paid at Calvary. The penalty is all settled. But the fellowship must be kept vibrant, must be kept unbroken. And our willful sin can break that fellowship and can grieve the Holy Spirit of God to where the Holy Spirit of God stands over in the corner of our heart and He's not going to use an unclean vessel. When you get done running your life, Mark, let me know. And after I fall on my face and after I realize that I'm straying from God, I say, God, I am so sorry. What caused this? And He brings this to my mind, and He brings that to my mind, and I confess it to the Lord as sin, and turn from it, and repent of it, and ask for its cleansing. The Holy Spirit says, welcome back, son. I'm still a son, but now I'm in fellowship with Him. Okay? We cannot have been given that in a few verses earlier, just a few sentences away, and then develop a doctrine in verse 3 that says, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. It's not talking about faultless conformity. It's not talking about a perfect life. If we understood that word, keep, it has this meaning, has this thought behind it, to set a watch, to guard, to see something as vitally important and to guard that, to keep His commandments, that this is the most important thing to me. It's my guide, it's my compass. It's what will direct me through my life. The psalmist said it this way. It says in Psalm 119, verse 9, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. The psalmist told us over and over on the power of the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. So if we keep his commandments, we bind them to our hearts, we hide them in our hearts, we meditate on them like Joshua chapter one, verse eight. Keep them close, guard them, hold them. As opposed to someone who supposedly walks an aisle or supposedly goes through the motions. Sometimes one, two, three, pray after me. And they don't have a clue of what's going on in their heart. They have no repentance toward God. They have no understanding of their own sin, of Jesus as their Savior, of a new life in Christ. You know, they're just trying to be a people pleaser. And you wonder why they don't care about what Jesus said in His Word. But, you know, the Bible says, I don't care about that. That's not important to me. Folks, this is God's love letter. I want to keep it close to me. And hereby we do know that we do know Him, if we keep, guard, set a watch on His commandments. I'm not being untrue to the text. I'm being very true to the text. Because, you see, when there are times that we do stumble and fall, there are times we do fail. And by the way, as we grow in Christ, those times that we fall should be fewer and farther between. I was talking one day to the folks at Journey Through Christmas, all of our workers, and we were getting ready to go out for the journey that evening. I was trying my best to express to them the need to be animated, be into the story, be into the message, be part of it, and present it from your heart. And I was on these kinds of stairs up here. A bunch of you were here, I think, and I was so into it. I wasn't paying attention what I was doing or where I was, and, boy, I went down. I went, boom. I don't know, fell off the back or the front or something. I fell, you know? And I'm laying there on my back in front of everybody. I mean, there's 150 people out here, you know, all in costume. Then I went, and the Lord moved all in my heart, and I jumped up, and I said, you need to be just like that, right into it. They all thought I did it on purpose. I felt like Dick Van Dyke, you know, at the beginning of his show. Are you a possessor of eternal life? Or are you, in verse 4, a professor? Just, you have a profession. That's all you have. You just profess to know Christ. Verse 4 says, He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Yeah, I know this thing about Jesus, and it's a marvelous thing, and we go to church, we have a big time and all that kind of thing, but nobody's gonna tell me how to live my life. I don't want that preacher. He doesn't understand what I'm going through. And, you know, God's, he's the man upstairs. That's blasphemy. He's the, you know, I don't, I'll leave him alone, he leaves me alone, we're doing just fine. That man's salvation is a lie. He's a professor, not a possessor. You see, we ought to love His commands. It ought to break our heart when we break His heart. There ought to be a real sorrow over our sin. Turn your Bibles, please, to Romans chapter 7. Hold your place here in 1 John, but turn to Romans chapter 7 and verse 14. The apostle Paul is probably one of the greatest Christians who ever lived. In verse 14, he pulls back the curtain and he is transparent. You know, I'm glad when people can do that. Usually people can't do that because they're afraid that people will see too much. Usually because there are things that they really truly want to hide. You see, the Apostle Paul had a desire to serve God with all of his heart. And he said, I struggle with something. And he pulled it back, and you could see into his heart and life. In verse 14, he says, For we know that the law is spiritual, and I am a blind carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Now, don't get caught up in all this, you know, circular wording here. He's saying, I find that I can't help myself sometimes. Verse 16, If then I do that which I would not, I consent under the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. You still have a sin nature that will be taken away one day. When you die or when the trumpet blows, one of the two, your sin nature stays here. And all God's people said, Amen. Verse 18, For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." Look at verse 24. I can just imagine as he's writing this, He's probably with exclamation. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Verse 25. Read it with me. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Who shall deliver me? Thankfully, Jesus Christ is the one who delivers me. He goes on to say in chapter 8, verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. If you're a possessor, then you have God's nature, the personality and nature of Jesus Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within you that wars with the old nature that is within you. I was talking with a gentleman this morning after service, and I was using that old illustration about the black dog and the white dog within us. And every time we feed one of those dogs, that side of us gets stronger. I told him, I said, you feed that white dog. You feed that new nature. You get into the Word of God every day. You pray. You be under the sound of the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Folks, churches are closing their doors on Sunday nights. They're closing their doors on midweek services. They're closing their doors because they have to because God's people won't come. Listen, folks, we need We need to be in church more these days than we ever used to be. These days, things are very quickly. By the way, I'm just gonna give you a little preview here. There's a whole movement behind this gun thing. There's a whole movement about that. that they want to declare folks unsafe who don't have good mental health. And we don't want someone who doesn't have good mental health to have a gun. I'm not saying that that's necessarily all bad. If someone don't pass out guns in the insane asylum, I understand that. I understand that completely. It's how you define mental health. And you see, if someone has an end-time, prophetical, biblical view of prophecy, there's a huge part of our society that would declare us insane. And frankly, they're afraid of us. They shouldn't be afraid of me, but they better be afraid of my God. Are you a possessor? Are you a professor? Or are you a perfecter? Perfecter. See this last, please, in verse number 5. But whoso keepeth his word... Again, what are we talking about here? We're talking about having his commandments dear to our hearts. That's our target. That's our goal. I want to be like Jesus. I want to serve him. I want to please him. I want to feel the smile of his countenance upon my life and my family and my church. I want to have his boldness in my witness. I want to have his peace in my life. He said, if you keep his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Now that word perfected has the idea of complete, mature, all its parts, everything functioning, everything working. I mean his love, his perfect love, the kind of 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love. the kind of love that makes marriages work, the kind of love that makes parenting work, the kind of love that gives us a desire to share the gospel with someone, not just to punch our card or to make the pastors feel good about what you're doing or whatever. It's the kind of love that allows us to teach the Word of God and people sense that you love Jesus and you love them. If you love His commandments, It'll come through. It'll be the perfect kind of love. Hereby know we that we are in him. And he goes on to say in verse 6, he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. Now we're getting into behavior. Now we're getting into behavior. You see, most of the battle for our life happens right between our ears. It happens in our mind. It happens in our heart. It happens in our attitude. It happens in all those arenas. And that's where His commands, that's where His Word will do its best work. And if we abide in Him, like John 15, He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If we abide in Him, that has the thought of constantly, without intermission, It implies a lasting condition. Abide with me, stay with me. If Jesus is abiding in us, and we're abiding in Jesus, it's going to affect our behavior. They're not just gonna sense it, they're gonna see it. And you know what they're gonna say? They're gonna say, there's a grown-up Christian. You know what they're gonna say? I want that person to pray for my need in my family because I know that they're serious about serving God. I know that they will pray and God will hear their prayers. Have you ever been in that kind of a scenario? Have you ever had that kind of situation happen to you? Brother Farrell told me, he said, this is our, This is part of our life. We're calling it our experience with Jehovah-Rapha. Say it for me, please. Amen. Journey of faith with Jehovah-Rapha. Who would you want to get a hold of the throne of grace if they said that your child, that your loved one had cancer and the clock is ticking? You'd want someone that you could see Jesus outwardly in their life. You'd want someone that you sensed Jesus in their spirit and their attitude. You'd want someone who is real, someone who's not a professor but who's a possessor and who is perfecting Jesus in their life. That's what the Apostle John is telling Christians. He said, and when you fall, get back up on your feet, confess that, forsake it, learn from it, and turn from it, and continue on for Jesus Christ. The penalty is paid for. Don't live in the past. Don't repeat the past. Let God's power change the past into something new for Him in the future, and continue growing, and keep His commandments. Guard them. Hide them. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Keep his commandments. A love letter, not some dictator's mantra. This is God saying, I love you. I want the best for your life. So when the bad news comes to your friend, they will come to you and they will say, I know that you can get a hold of God. And when the bad news comes to your family, you will have direct access to the throne of grace. And you will realize that God has been watching you all along And He saw that coming and He prepared you. And you say, I'm going to continue on with God's grace and His strength. Are you a spittin' image of Jesus Christ? Are you of the spirit and image of your Savior? That's what He wants to make us. He wants to make us that. And He will mold us and shape us and carve us to look like Him. John, the apostle who Jesus loved. May I tell you that Jesus loves you too. Let's stand together with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. I don't know what God is doing in your heart and your life. But I have found this, that usually people who are willing to make a public obedience to God's call are probably the ones who don't even need it the most. They're just used to hearing the Lord's voice, and they're used to following Him. May I invite you, as we sing in just a few moments, I'm going to have a word of prayer. As we sing in just a few moments, would you do a check-up spiritually? And when you ask yourself, do I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that heaven is my home? Do I have it settled in my heart and life? You might look like you're a possessor, but you know if you're just a professor. Don't walk out these doors here tonight without Jesus in your heart and heaven as your home. And if you're a believer in Christ, Take that next step of growth following the Lord Jesus as your compass and as your guide. He has your best at heart. Heavenly Father, there would be some here who are burdened and discouraged. I pray, God, that you would lift up their hearts. May you tell them, I love you. I care about you. I have the answers that you need. I have the power to bring it to pass. Would you trust in me? Would you follow me? Lord, if there's anything that is breaking our fellowship and short-circuiting your power in our life, may we lay that at the altar. Say, God, deliver me from this weight or this sin which has so easily beset me. Lord, may I continue to run the race for your glory until you come.