The very sweet sound this morning, the music, the prayers. It's just so nice to be where people are worshiping and without a lot of hidden thoughts and anxieties. It's not the size of the crowd that matters. It's the spirit of the crowd. And you can just feel the worship. And I really, really do appreciate being here with my brothers and sisters. Isn't it a wonderful feeling? Just an uplifting feeling to be with other people that understand. We can't explain it all. We can't understand it all. But we believe it all by faith. We do believe it. The unseen things are more real than the things that we can see and hear. Let's have a word of prayer. Our Father, again, we thank you for the privilege that's ours, and it is an immense, unfathomable, behold, what manner of love you have bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons and daughters of God, the children of the Almighty God, objects of your eternal affection, your care, your eternal purpose, not because you saw any good thing in us, you didn't, We were dead in trespasses and sins. We were enemy, enmity against you, hostile. And yet in mercy, you called us and saved us with an everlasting love. Yea, I've called thee with everlasting love, with loving kindness therefore have I drawn thee. And we thank you, Lord, that no one can come to you except he or she is drawn by the Father. We can't claim any credit for our coming, but we bless you and thank you that you overcame all our confusion, our hostility, our ignorance, our unbelief, our sin. You overcame all of that and rescued us and gave us a new heart and a new spirit. And we praise you and bless you with that heart and with that spirit. Father, this morning we want to continue our prayers for Chris Osborne as he's Spoke with him this week as he's undergoing the more rigorous testing, chemotherapy. And Father, it just can't be easy having a port put in and that very strong chemical put into his body. We pray that the doctors will have guidance. We pray that the chemicals will work, that you would make his cancer to disappear and give him a long and fruitful life of service to you and give grace to Ruth as well. We pray for Jordan's wife who has a bad knee. We pray you'll guide the doctors, help her not to hurt it anymore. We pray that that fracture will heal, and that she'll be able to join us real soon. We pray for Chaplain Mayhew, who's gonna be here next Sunday to preach. Dear God, bless this dear Navy chaplain, this man of God, and may we have ears to hear what you would say to us through this, your servant. We pray for these two young mothers that are about to give birth. We pray, Heavenly Father, for Courtney. Later on the 28th of this month, we pray that she'll have peace. We pray that the baby will be healthy and born to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless their family. And also Ben and Miriam, we pray for their little child. Thank you, Lord, they're able to be here with us today after so much sickness. and RSV or whatever this virus is that kept them down for so long. But thank you that they're here and we pray that baby will be healthy, little girl, also born to serve and praise you. Now bless us as we continue our fellowship today. I'm sure I've forgotten things that I'll think of as soon as I quit praying. But we thank you, Father, that you don't forget us. You never forget us. and you never forget our needs. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I got my green on today, so I don't want anybody pinching me. Where I came from, if you went to school without a green on, they'd come and pinch you. And I don't know, must be a tradition from hell, because I'm usually black and blue. St. Patrick, as you know, it's an interesting story to study sometime. He was enslaved and sent to Ireland in chains and was saved, came back and became a missionary to Ireland and brought Christ to very pagan Celts in Ireland. And it is an interesting story. I don't know how much of it is myth and how much of it's true. But there's enough of it true that there was a man named Patrick and he was a man of God. That much we are sure of. Doing the best he could with the church he had at the time. Remind you that John, the Apostle John, the aged Apostle John, when he wrote the Revelation, he was probably 95. So the other apostles had all been dead for 30 years. But for some reason, God kept old John alive. And we're not sure exactly when he wrote his epistles, but he always gives a purpose for writing. He was that disciple whom Jesus loved. He was very close to the Lord Jesus Christ. He leaned on his breast at the Last Supper. He was one of the three inner circle of apostles that went with him up on the Mount of Transfiguration. And John had a memory. He wasn't so much concerned about the details of Jesus' life and ministry, but he remembered every word it seems Jesus said. If you have a New Testament with red letters, so much of John is in red. John remembered exactly what Jesus said. He had not a photographic memory. I'm still looking for a word. Does anybody have a word for being able to remember what you hear word for word? Is there a word for that? You can give it to me later if you find a word. I'm gonna invent a word for that, but I haven't done it yet. But somebody that remembers what they hear. John remembered. He always gives a purpose for writing. When he wrote the gospel to John, he said, if all the things Jesus did were written in a book, or books, the world could not contain the books. Jesus every day did and said remarkable things. But John said, I have, selected certain events from the life of Jesus that you may believe that He is the Son of God and that believing you might have life through His name. So John was very selective in the things he recorded about the life of Jesus and the words that Jesus said accompanying those miracles. When he writes 1 John, of course, there's multiple purposes. He says in chapter one, I want you to have fellowship with us. I'm writing this that you may have fellowship with us, that is, those who held the apostolic doctrine. And truly, our fellowship, our koinonia, is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we want your joy to be full. So he wanted, John wanted to see some very happy Christians. In chapter two he says, these things, verse 26, have I written to you concerning them that seduce you. Because he says, you know, you were warned that Antichrist would come. He said even now there are many Antichrists in the world. And friends, in case you haven't noticed, they've multiplied. Almost every ism and schism and spasm going on out there is against Christ and his truth. We're surrounded with it in the media, movies, magazines, TikTok, you name it, wherever you turn your eye, idols, idols, idols, idols, idols, whether it's Taylor Swift or whoever it is. It's not godliness. Your children are not seeing in the culture. You go to the 7-Eleven store, you gotta look at the magazine rack and look at all that trash. that's polluting the minds of generations of people. The Antichrists have multiplied. But John says, I want you to be able to tell who the true disciples are and who the false believers are. So John, that's another reason he's writing. But the overarching reason is found in chapter five, verse 13. These things have I written unto you, my little children, who believe on the name of the Son of God that you might know that you have eternal life, that you might have assurance that you have eternal life. So all of 1 John, everything that he wrote, falls under that umbrella of so that you will know that you have, not will have, not may have, have. Whosoever lives and believes in me, Jesus said, will never die. Your eternal life begins when you're saved. The box you live in is gonna have to go and turn back to dust. That's only the box, that's not you, that's the box you live in. But Jesus said, whoever lives and believes in me, he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He did that at the resurrection of Lazarus. But whoever lives and believes in me, I assume that's almost everybody in this room. Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Martha said, well, I know at the resurrection of the just, we're all gonna live. And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. So you better take care of yourself, because you're gonna be around a long time if you believe in Jesus. Try to take care of the box you live in. John Wesley once said, God's given me a message to preach and a horse to ride. If I kill the horse, I won't be able to take the message very far. So consider your body as the horse God's given you to ride, or as Martin Luther said, me and my jackass. Don't kill it, don't work it to death. Feed it, exercise it, take care of it. Because the longer that it's intact, the more good you'll be able to do in this world. Now I'm way off my subject with that. It's true though. By way of review, last Sunday I spoke to you from the preceding verses about the assurance that flows from a clear conscience. Those of you that were here will remember that in chapter three, where he says, Hereby know we, verse 19, that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts, there's that assurance, assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, if our conscience is all messed up, that's paraphrase, not Greek, That's a Joe Gwynn semi-redneck paraphrase. If our conscience is messed up, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. There are a lot of people walking around feeling guilty that don't need to, and there are a lot of people who feel great about themselves who ought to be ashamed. Our own perception is not very accurate of ourselves. We are very poor judges of ourselves, which is why he says, search me, O God, Psalm 139, 23 and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. You try me, Lord, and know my thoughts. You see if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Introspection is dangerous. but asking God to inspect you, that's the way to go. He is faithful, the Holy Spirit is faithful. When you pray that, if something's wrong, you'll know it just like that. Lord, is there anything in my life right now that displeases you? Don't be afraid to wait a few seconds, and very often something will just pop into your head, uh-oh, yes, I do remember, I need to go fix that. If our conscience condemns us, God is greater than our heart or conscience and knows everything. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God, assurance, confidence. We feel like our prayers are gonna be answered because we don't know of anything blocking our fellowship with God. Why should he not hear us? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But if we don't have any iniquity that has not been confessed. By the way, we're not talking perfection. Chapter 1 says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just. He's just because Christ paid for that. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The only sin that is not forgivable is the one that you don't confess. the one you won't acknowledge. We have to bring it to God, and we find out that his blood has already covered that, and he says, I forgive you, even David with murder and adultery. God says, your sin is put away. Wow. King David, your sin is put, yes, your sin is put away, but evil will never depart from your house. David had to watch horrible things happen in his family because God forgave him, but God doesn't always undo the consequences for our sins. That's why sin, young people, listen to me, children, sin is very, very costly. It's costly to do the right thing, to obey and do the right thing, but it's far more costly to do the wrong thing. I can't afford that. My heart, my old heart won't take that, doing the wrong thing. We should hate sin, not only because it offends God, but because of the consequences that it brings upon ourselves and the people we love. Now this morning, so I wanna come this morning to the place of your obedience in the assurance of your salvation. Your obedience, your obedience. Trust and obey, we just sang that. I love that. The music this morning reached my heart. Perfectly consistent with the word being preached. Every true Christian obeys. Every true Christian obeys. That's a word we gotta get used to. You children aren't the only ones that have to obey you. Your parents have to obey. If I don't love my wife, I'm not obeying. If my wife doesn't submit to me, she's not obeying. If you children are not obeying your parents, you're not obeying God. And the one thing we have to do in life, the one thing that must happen in our lives, we must obey God. Luke 6 verse, By the way, I want to digress a minute. I've copied down. There are 14 times in 1 John alone that commandments and commandment, commandments singular and commandments plural, appears in the letter of 1 John. 14 times. Three in chapter two. Let's see, no, no, one, two, three, four, five, six. Six times in chapter two, in chapter three, one, two, three, four, four times in chapter three, once in chapter four, and three times in chapter five. So like all of 1 John, we keep coming back to the same themes woven together with the other truths in every chapter. There's just no wiggle room with God. We must obey God. Every true Christian obeys. Jesus said in Luke 6, 46 to his disciples, why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? Isn't that a good question? Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things that I say? What is a Lord? A Lord is your boss. The Lord is your master, is he not? So don't call him Lord if he's not your Lord. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? Matthew 7, 22, many will say to me on that day, what day? The day of judgment. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord. They like that word Lord. Once seems like it would get it for me, but these people frequently use the name Lord. Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your, we preached in your name. If you think all preachers are going to heaven, you're greatly mistaken. Every age of the church has been plagued by false apostles and false preachers, every generation He's plagued with that. Have we not preached in your name? And in your name, have we not cast out devils? Man, we were on fire. We had healing meetings. We cast demons out of people. Lord, Lord, didn't we do that? And in your name, didn't we do many wonderful works? Man, we gave money to the poor. cook food, took to the sick, we did this, we did that, we did that, Lord, Lord, but I will say unto them, I never knew you. Now friends, if that doesn't sober you up, you're not thinking. Notice what they base their hope of salvation on, what they did. Lord, didn't we, didn't we, didn't we, but I never knew you. Activity is not a substitute for obedience. John 15 verse 14 says, it's also in red, you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. You wanna be a friend of Jesus? You want to be saved on that day? Not say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this and didn't we do... Do you want Jesus' approval on that day? Then you must do whatsoever he commands you. Now we learn in 1 John chapter five, verse three, that Christ's commands are not grievous, it says in the King James. I love that. The way of transgressors is hard. But the way of following Jesus, if your heart is right, is a breeze. Just love God and do as you please. The Christian life is not harsh like the Jewish religion. Man, they had sacrifices for this, sacrifices for that, feasts for this, feasts for that. Don't clean all the corners of their fields out, leave it for the strangers. Do this and do that and give four times back what you took over here kill that traitor over there. They had a list of commandments that were a long, long list of things they had to do in their religion. And the Pharisees multiplied that list and made it even longer than Jesus ever did. But the commands of the Lord are easy. He said, let's see, Matthew chapter 11, I'll read it. Verse 27, all things are delivered to me of my father. No one knows the son except the father. Neither knows any man the father except the son. And whosoever the son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy. My yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Don't you love that? Jesus worked in a carpenter shop with his dad when he was growing up as a young man, and no doubt he fashioned many a yoke. And I imagine those farmers that came in there and got a yoke from that shop that Jesus worked on, they got a nice piece of work. That yoke fit those oxen so that they could pull a heavy load, but it didn't gall them, didn't hurt them. He knew how to make some great yokes. But the yoke he puts on his disciples is amazingly light. And if Christianity becomes a struggle, and you just can't quite please God, you're always just feel like you're just not measuring up. It's not his yoke you're carrying. It's what you've imagined his yoke to be, or what other people have told you that yoke has to be. And there are plenty of people around that will tell you what you have to do. You can't drink that. You can't watch that. You've got to be here at this time. You've got to be there at that time. You've got to kneel, stand, sit. The list is endless, what people say you have to do to please God, right? We had a woman once came to me after the service, and she says, you know, we're not coming back here anymore. She says, your women in this church wear pants. I started to say, well, you'd like it a lot less if they didn't wear any. But I was glad the Lord restrained me. But I said, well, you know, I said, I know the ladies in our church pretty well. And if they knew, if you went to them, one of them, and said, look, this really offends me, I think they'd probably pray about it. Who knows, they might even do the right thing. But I says, if they start wearing men's pants, you come talk to me and I'll get after them. She says, and another thing, your deacons don't come to church on Sunday nights. I said, well, first of all, dear lady, they're not my deacons, you elected them. And they serve God, they're serving Christ. They don't belong to me. But if you could show me in the Bible where it says you have to meet twice on the Lord's day, I'll get after them. She took her family by the ear and off they went, never to return. I knew she was going anyway. There's no pleasing a person like that, that wants to lay a yoke on you that the scripture does not lay. Be aware of that. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. I told a pastor friend of mine, I said, I'd much rather have 10 people here on a Sunday night who want to be than 50 who don't. Nothing poisons the atmosphere like a bunch of duty-bound people who come together because they're afraid you'll talk about them if they don't show up. If that's your motivation, that's a sorry church. That's a sorry fellowship. I know Stephen agrees with this. I'm here today because I want to be here. I can't wait for Sundays to roll around. I enjoy this crowd of people. I feel something's wrong if I don't come. But if something happened, God called me to something else on a Sunday, I had to do it. I don't feel like I'd be judged. I wouldn't be getting five calls tomorrow, where were you yesterday? Somebody standing at the door with a checklist. Perfect attendance, wear a pin, perfect attendance. You know what that little pen of some perfect utensil will get you in eternity? Nothing. I better quit while I'm ahead on this one. Legalisms, Christian legalisms. His commands are not grievous. Also in Hebrews chapter five and verse eight, I want to remind you that Christ himself obeyed. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And when I first read that years ago, I thought, what do you mean Christ learned obedience? Was Christ ever disobedient, even as a child? Was he ever disobedient? No. He did no sin, there was any deceit ever found in his mouth. What does it mean that he learned obedience? I think it has to be understood like this. This is my own sense of this. He learned how hard it is sometimes to obey. The perfect example is in Gethsemane when he sweat drops of blood. He knew what was waiting ahead. He knew they were going to be beating him within an inch of his life His back was raw and putting crown of thorns on his head and piercing his hands and his feet and sticking a spear in his side and mocking and spitting and he knew all that. And in the garden of Gethsemane was his last chance to flee. He knew they were coming. He knew Judas had betrayed him. The other disciples didn't know it, but he did. And he was sweating drops of blood. It was his last chance to get away. And the other apostles were sleeping. They couldn't even bear with him while he agonized. But finally he says, oh father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. He obeyed, even unto death, even death on a cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. But he learned how hard it is to obey sometimes. And by the way, friends, brothers and sisters, sometimes it'll be hard for you to obey. You'll have your many Gethsemanes If you obey, it's going to be costly. But the only thing that can sustain you in that hour is knowing that disobedience is far costlier. You either obey God and suffer and then reign with Him, or you disobey and your conscience is destroyed and you're miserable for the rest of your life, even if you're sleeping on feather beds. Obedience is costly, disobedience far more costly. And by the way, Jesus, it says, who for the joy that was before him endured the cross, despising the shame. He was crucified naked, you know. The most horrible death they could imagine was the humiliation, the suffering, the agony, the slow, grinding death of the cross. He went through all that. He despised the shame. and he sat down at the right hand of God. He looked through, he saw the suffering and dreaded it, but he looked through the suffering to what was on the other side. Dear friends, that's what we have to do. If we suffer with Christ, we'll reign together. We have to look through the pain of our obedience to what's on the other side. Everlasting glory, peace of conscience now, and eternal reward, amen? Christ's commands are not harsh. Christ himself obeyed. Now I want to talk in verse 23, which is the main substance of my sermon this morning. Verse 23. This is his commandment. Okay, you have to obey his commandments. You have to obey the Lord. So what are his commandments? This is his commandment. that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. People make the mistake of thinking God's up there begging people to be saved. He's up there weeping and hoping that someone's going to come. Oh, please, please. No. No, that's not the picture at all. Paul said to the Athenians, those philosophers at Athens, there was a time when God winked at the ignorance of man in all their idol worship and all their sinfulness, but now commands, he now commands all men everywhere to believe because he has appointed a day in which he's gonna judge this world in righteousness by that man that he ordained, even Jesus Christ, who he raised from the dead. And he's given incontrovertible evidence to all men because he raised him from the dead. It's so well documented, so well proven in history that he rose from the dead. What turned that band of apostles, a bunch of cowards that all ran away, what turned them into fearless people willing to die? A lie? Would they do that for a lie? Not hardly. They saw him, touched him, put their hands in his side. They saw him after his resurrection. They were convinced of eternal life, that everything he said was true. And that Pentecost, when all those people at Jerusalem were converted, all the miracles that were wrought by the apostles were proof that he in fact did. There's a man named Stone, a lawyer from England, a barrister in England who wrote a book called Who Moved the Stone? He was not a believer in Jesus. And he decided to study the matter like a lawyer would and disprove the resurrection. And as he went through all the evidence and read the gospels and read history books and all, he came to the conclusion it really happened. People had been convicted on far less evidence. In his book, Who Moved the Stone, which you can still get a copy of, masterfully done. So intelligence is to believe, it's not intelligent not to believe the gospel. It's just an unwillingness to think because he's given incontrovertible evidence to all people because he raised him from the dead. So quit messing around. He commands you to believe, so believe. I have a Jewish friend, and I used to walk at Lynnhaven Mall together. He's a hard-bitten Boston cop, David Silverman. And we used to walk laps. And he knew I was a Christian, I knew he was a Jew, so we used to have a little banter back and forth. So one day we're walking around, he says, hey, hey Joe, what are you doing today after you leave here? I said, well, I'm gonna do the works of God. He said, what? I said, I'm gonna do the works of God. He said, you can't know that. I said, oh, contraire. Oh, contraire, I do. What are the works of God? I said, well, you know, a bunch of your people, Jewish people, asked Jesus that one day. What shall we do that we might work the works of God? I said, you know what he said? No, what? I said, nah, you don't wanna know. Yeah, I do. I said, no, no, no, no, you really don't wanna know. Yes, I do. You have to understand Jewish people, I've known several of them. I said, no, you really don't want to know what Jesus said. Yes, I do. I said, all right then, you know what Jesus said? This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. John 6, 28 and 29. I knew I had him. When I say I had him, the Holy Spirit engineered that. I knew that arrow got through. That thick skull. Sandy and I took him to celebration of Christmas celebration down at, where was that? Chrysler Hall. And at all these flags of the nations, I think First Baptist Church of Norfolk put on this big Christmas pageant. And so we took Ingrid and Dave down there to listen to this music. And Ingrid said, one thing I don't understand is why is there a Hebrew-Israeli flag up there with all those other flags? I said, well, it's just to show that all the nations, there are Christians in every nation. She said, there are no Christians in Israel. I said, oh, contrary. I told her about Baruch and Bracha Maos in the city of Rehoboth, and I told her about some other Christians. She said, well, to each his own. I don't know that Ingrid was ever saved, but we hope Dave was. because his son was a Christian and had been praying. I found out later his son had been praying for him to be saved, which is probably why I happened to cross paths with Dave Silverman. So Christ says, this is what I command you, verse 23. This is his commandment, that you believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, Jesus the man. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, Yeshua, Joshua. Jehoshua Savior Call his name Jesus For he shall save his people from their sins and Christ. He's God's anointed one This is his commandment you should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and secondly to love one another as He gave us commandment Now friends That ain't rocket science. Oops, that ain't. Oh, Sandy, another dollar. That's not rocket science. His commandments are not grievance. He says, listen, believe on the name of Jesus and love your brothers and sisters. Now, that's not all there is to do of Christian obedience. Of course, we have a Bible that tells us many things. But if those two things are missing, you'll labor and struggle with all the rest of it. If you get those two right, that Jesus commands, the rest of it will come real easy. You'll know how to apply the rest of those things if you really believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Not that everybody who calls himself a brother or sister, mind you. He tells us in here how to discern true and false people. If a man calls himself a brother, one place he says, and the same as a fornicator, a adulterer, a swindler, a liar, a scandal monger, if he's this, don't even eat with such a one. Just because he calls himself a Christian doesn't necessarily mean he is a Christian. But you'll know if you love the Lord and you believe and you're obeying him, you'll know, you'll know who are his, you'll sense people that are sincerely his, right? It consists of believing the gospel and loving our fellow believers. All other obedience in our lives springs from these two great commandments. By the way, Jesus had his two great commandments, if you remember. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, and the second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus had those. But he has a deeper commandment expressed by John, the way we might understand that. It's special, peculiar, we're to love everybody, but especially those that are the household of faith. That's where our priority system is. Now I want to close with talking about Christ's motivation and yours for obedience. Psalm 40, verses seven and eight, which is a prophecy, by the way, of Jesus Christ. And it says this, then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book. Jesus Christ is the volume of the book. The Old Testament is telling all about Jesus Christ and ever so many symbols and signs. It's a book about Jesus Christ. He expounded to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus all things written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms, all the things concerning himself. Did not our heart burn within us while he opened to us the Old Testament and showed us Christ? Then said I, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. That's Jesus' attitude towards the Father. How was Jesus able to always obey the Father? Because he loved the Father. He loved the Father. And he delighted to do the will of his Father. By the way, if you think about it, what makes obedience hard? Children, why is it sometimes so hard to obey your parents? In a nutshell, because you don't love them, and you're not convinced they love you. You think you've got life figured out better. You don't understand. But if you love your parents, obedience comes easy. You always want to do what pleases. Honor your father and your mother, because you love your father and your mother. So you honor them. You want to make their lives pleasant. You wouldn't think of doing anything to make their lives miserable, right? So you children understand this. Wives understand that. What makes a wife have a difficult time submitting to her husband? She doesn't love him. Right? If you know your husband loves you and you love your husband, is obedience really that hard? And the answer is? And the answer is? No. When you have a love relationship with the authority over you, it becomes easy to obey them. But if there's distrust, doubt, uncertainty about that in that relationship, disobedience is hard. Psalm 119, verse 16, I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. A Christian that says I love God and has no time for his word, is highly suspect. You sailors know this. Dave, I'm sure you remember the day. Sailors, Jacob, he's gonna go to sea, what, next month? And I can tell you when the mail call comes and he gets a letter from home, I don't know now with cell phones and all that if it still works, but it used to. Don't do that anymore? So now just pick up the phone and call? OK, well, I guess my illustration will have to change. But back in the day when we'd get mail bags, when a sailor was at sea and you got a letter from home, man, the first thing you did was run and get in your rack and read that letter, smell it, put it under your pillow, read it again, read it again, read it again. Why? Because you love your wife and you miss your wife. and you want every word spoken in that letter. It grabs you at your heart. That's how this book ought to be to us, friends. This is God's love letter, God's love letter to you and me. And if we love him, then we're gonna delight in his statutes. I will delight myself in thy commandments, Psalm 119, 47. I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. Children do you love the commandments of God? Therefore you're good, you know God didn't write anything to make your life miserable. God wrote everything to make your life pleasant and To have a long healthy happy life and eternal future But you can't do it if you don't go by the manual If you don't love the Word of God and know that He loves you and this is given for your good. As the Father, so anyway, the key word is delight. Christ's motivation for obeying the Father was He loved the Father and He delighted. I do always those things that please Him. Sometimes it made people mad. But I do always those things, the words that I speak, they're not my words, the Father gave me these words. If a man hates me, you're not hating me, you're hating my father also. So Christ, his whole purpose in life was to please his heavenly father because he loved the father. By the way, the father also delighted in him, remember? At his baptism. This is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased. I am not just pleased, I'm well pleased. Psalm 37, 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. Have you thought about that lately? You as a disciple, you're following Jesus, have you thought lately about the fact that God delights in your life? He delights in every step you take. out of love and obedience to him. He delights in you. Don't you have to, isn't that hard to grasp? Well, the more you think about it, the easier it'll be to understand that it's perfectly consistent with scripture. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. We're gonna make mistakes sometimes, we're gonna do things wrong. God said, likened it to teaching a child to walk. You get your little toddler out there, and he takes his first steps. Hey! He takes a couple more steps. Boom, down he goes. Fortunately, the Lord's given him some pretty good padding. But you don't say, shame on you. You fell. No. You pick him by the arms. That's good. You got it. You got it. Come on. Let's try it again. Oh! Though he fall, or she fall, you will be utterly cast down, for God will uphold you with his hand. Do you delight in Jesus Christ? Do you delight in his commandments, which are not grievous, to believe, to truly believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love your brothers and sisters in Christ? Now he told us lately, if your brother has need, if he's hungry and you don't give him something to eat, what good is that? James says the same thing. If you say, be warm and be full, and you see somebody hungry, your brother, your sister especially, who's hungry, and you don't give them food, is that the love of God? Don't be fooled, that's not the love of God. Love compels us to reach out. Love is a giving thing. Well, I'll close with this. My sermon title is The Assurance of Obedience because he says in verse 24, he that keepeth his commandments, remember, how many commandments are there that he has to keep? How many? This is his commandments. This is his command that we believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ. Love one another as he gave us commandment. All the rest of them are just subsumed under those. Those are the great commandments. And he that keeps his commandments, verse 24, dwells in him and he in him. Hereby know that he abides in us by his spit by the Spirit which he has given us Not only do we have comfort in knowing that we're being obedient, but the Holy Spirit is telling us This is good. I Love you. You are obeying me Romans 8 chapter Romans 8 verse 16 the Spirit himself is Beareth witness with our spirit That we are the children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ What Do you know what a joint heir is? Everything that Christ inherits for eternity we inherit Try to get your mind around that. We are, of all people, the richest, most blessed people on the face of the earth, if we belong to Jesus Christ. It's all ours. We have to wait for it. But it's all ours. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we will be also glorified together. Father, thank you for allowing us to have this time to consider this morning how obedience, our obedience, contributes to our assurance of salvation, our confidence, our joy, our peace, our usefulness, and how you're pleased with us despite our falling and tripping May you delight in us and delight in our way. May we delight in you and in your truth. For Jesus' sake, amen.