I John, 2:3-6

Okay, now who would like to read? Let's read the first six verses in Chapter 2 of 1 John. And like I said, there's extra points you realize you get when you read. Okay, thanks Marie. And by this we know that we have come to know Him if we speak His commandments. The one who says, I have come to know Him and does not speak His commandments is a liar and he is not a teacher. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God is pure and perfect. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him loves himself to walk with the man that he loves.

Great. Okay. Alright, so here's our four verses for today. And, you know, if you look at the first two verses, this is kind of a transition. And the first two verses stated these marvelous truths about our Savior, that He was the satisfaction for our sins and also for the sins of the whole world. So now we kind of turn the corner and we're going to go into a section where, and this seems to be typical 1 John kind of approach, right?

He's going to make a statement and then he's going to say, well, what about this? And what about that? He's going to, I think the desire here is to give you assurance of your walk or your fellowship with Christ. And he's going to point out some things that you just, you can't, you can't walk one way or that's inconsistent with being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have some interesting parts here about keeping his commandments. There'll be some interesting things about that, but I've highlighted in blue, um, Kind of the assurance part that I saw in here, we have come to know Him, I have come to know Him, we know that we are in Him, who says He abides in Him. I think this section is much to do about giving us an assurance of our relation with the Lord Jesus, that we do have this relationship and He desires to live His life through us. even though he's going to say some hard things in here. He's going to say, you know, are you really walking with him? Are his commandments being lived out in your life? And one of the things we're going to ask, how are his commandments to be lived out? Okay, so let's go on to the next one. So the first verse is, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

And the word know here is this word in the Greek called ginosko, And there's actually two different primary words, and maybe there's more, but there's gnosko and another one called oia in the Greek. This no, the gnosko no, is one of what's called experiential knowledge. Knowledge is taken in, you're learning about something. In the Christian life, you're learning about the Lord Jesus, you're learning to trust him, you're learning to walk with him, you're learning who he is and what he's done. So this word is very appropriate for this passage. It appears twice here, and it's the same gnosko.

And just to give you a little feel for this, let's look at the Gospel of John, chapter 8. And I want to show you the two different kinds of no and see if this helps. I don't know whether hopefully this will. John, chapter 8. And can I have someone read? 54 and 55. And we're going to see both kinds of no, Gnosko and Oida, in this passage. Thanks, Bob.

Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, and whom we say He is our God. And you have come to know him that I know him. And if I say that I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you. But I do know him, and keep his word.

Okay. So actually in 55, in the first little phrase there, first several phrases, both the knows are there. It says, and you have come to know him, gnosko, but I know, oida, him. So the opposite kind of know in scripture is the one that is a definite thing. I know him. And Christ says, I know him. I know the Father. So that's kind of the difference in scripture. And it's a little bit subtle sometimes, but Gnosko is one. He's telling me they really haven't come to know him.

And here he's telling us this is how we're going to come to know him. So it's use of this taking in knowledge, experiential knowledge. Hopefully that's helpful. And it's a verb here, and it's in the present tense, so this is something that's to be ongoing. By this we know, it's interesting, we know that we have come to know Him. Seems a little bit repetitive, but...

And basically, I believe this is saying that we can know as a Christian about our walk in the Lord Jesus Christ, about our relationship. We can know that. That's something that a believer can know. And we're going to see As we go through these passages here, these things that we can look that will be a measure, if you will.

So keep got keep going on. Oh, here. It's in the perfect tense. There's actually two no's right here. There's a no. By this we know. The first no is in the present tense. The second no is in this perfect tense. Can someone tell me about the perfect tense or remember about the perfect tense? I know this isn't an English class, but... The present tense is pretty easy, right?

I know something right now. It's happening. I know that I'm here at Holly Hills in the basement studying 1 John. I don't know. The perfect tense is a little bit more interesting. And it's something that the Greek language, and the Lourdes use that in incredible ways to kind of convey some additional ideas.

Has completed action with abiding results in the present. So it might sound a little bit complicated, but basically it says, that you have come to know Christ, I believe, you come to know Christ as your Savior in the past, and that just doesn't stop there. You just don't say, okay, I know Christ, hey, now I just go, you know. That's going to continue on. The abiding results are up into the present. So that you came to know Christ and you're continuing to know Him, continue to understand and learn about Him. And I like, and I go back to my favorite So the least New Testament renders it this way.

It tries to capture, remember we learned about this as this experiential know. So he tries to capture that and he tries to capture also the tenses, the present tense and the perfect tense. So he renders it this way. And in this we know experientially, moment by moment, that we have come to know him experientially and are in that state at the present time. So we're in the state where we're experientially coming to know him.

To me, that's really helpful. I don't know. I don't think that's all that helpful. But to me, that really just nails it to the wall. He said, OK, we can know him experientially, moment by moment. We've come to know him in the past, experientially. And right now, we're in a state where we're continuing to know him. Now, what's interesting is he just doesn't stop at that statement.

He conditions this statement upon something. OK, if you look at this verse, there's actually a main clause part and a subordinate clause part. And this is one of our old friends that we had from chapter 1, where it's this third class condition. And he conditions our knowing him based upon keeping his commandments. And it's a third class condition, which is fulfillment is uncertain, but likely.

So he's saying that keeping his commandments, this is how we can know that we have come to know him. A Christian ought to be keeping the Lord's commandments, is what he's saying. I mean, it makes sense. Christ is to be our life, to live our life. It makes sense that we're keeping his commandments, because Christ is able to keep all the commandments perfectly.

So he's conditioning that based upon that. Keep is this word to row, to observe, to give heed to. It's in the present tense, so we're to be keeping presently His commandments. God's desire is that we keep His commandments in our Christian walk. Basically, a verse that speaks to that. If you love me, if there's this relationship between me and you, you will keep my commandments.

It should be a natural outflow of a believer's life. Now, we know from the first chapter that always doesn't happen, right? We can be out of fellowship, and he's provided for that. But he's talking about the normal condition of a believer's life is that he's keeping his commandments. OK. All right, now we come down to one of the questions here. His commandments, what does that mean? Now, you can't peek ahead. You probably are. So, what do you think? Are there any clues, you think, in the way it's structured there?

What does it mean when you say, keep his commandments? What does that mean? His commandment was that we love one another. Okay, that's good. He said that and he said other things too. Do you think it's just that or do you think it's maybe larger than that? Do you see a distinction maybe in scripture between his commandments and other commandments that are talked about? It's not the law of Moses.

Okay, and we're going to go there. Law of Moses? Okay. Well, one answer could be, hey, I'm going to keep the law of Moses. There's several problems with that. First of all, who is the law of Moses given to? It's given to Moses. It's given to the Jews. What did Christ say? He said, I came to fulfill the law. So there's really no issue that the law is not going to be taken care of. But we're not to be in Israel's mode. We're not to be out there keeping the law of Moses.

Because it says in Romans 6.14 says, For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace." So our whole perspective as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is grace. We're not under law.

And there's a cool verse that I came across in the study. I just entered it, really interesting. And I haven't totally digested it all, but it's really interesting. It kind of contrasts Moses's law and Paul's gonna tell us here when I show you this verse. He's gonna tell us, you know, I'm not under Moses's law I'm under a new law. I'm under Christ's law. It's it's mind-boggling this verse.

I mean, I'm building up you like a first Corinthians 9 I Get someone to read this first Corinthians 9 And let's read 20 and 21 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win thee. To those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law. OK. So Paul's talking here, and he says in verse 20, and to the Jews I became a Jew, that I might win the Jews. His desire was that he wanted, and he was very concerned about the nation of Israel.

He says, to those who are under the law, as to those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law. So Paul says, I'm not under the law. So he validates that Romans passage, that I might win those who are under the law, to those that are without law. He's speaking to unbelievers, it seems like, as without the law. Though not being without the law of God. He's saying, I'm not without the law of God, but under the law of Christ.

So I saw that it's kind of parallel to my commandments. And what also you're going to find here, There are several word pairs that really kind of nail this down. The Lord Jesus, when he's here on earth, when he got to the upper room with his disciples, he started using this phraseology. His commandments and my commandments.

And boy, that's just like a little red beacon almost. This is something new. He's talking about a relationship now where a believer will know His commandments and my commandments. And it's like almost a peek into the Church Age. He lays down truths in the Upper Room Discourse that look forward to the Church Age, look forward to the Holy Spirit being given.

And that we're going to obey His commandments and follow my commandments. And that phraseology is used. And it's actually used, and I kind of put that in here. These words appear in the following passages. The Gospel of John and the Epistle of John. And actually, they appear in a few other places, but not with the exact his and my. They appear in other little aspects, but primarily in John's writings. And I wanted to look at one here. And this is back to it. Vicki kind of mentioned this a little bit. Let's look at 1 John 3. And if someone could read 1 John 3, I want to read 22 to 24.

And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, and so we keep His commandments, and do the things that are good for mankind. For this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded." OK. That's fine. Actually, it's verse 23 that I wanted to focus on. The phraseology here is, And this is His commandment.

So He's defining one of His commandments. And one of the primary focuses here is its belief in the name of the Son of God, knowing Him. And that doesn't stop at salvation, right? That continues on in our exercise faith for our entire Christian life, faith that God will accomplish His purpose. So this is saying that, and this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

So I thought that was really interesting. It kind of gives you a little indication that he's talking about a different way that he's going to accomplish his purpose. He's going to accomplish it in grace. It's not going to be with a list of – you're not going to have your – it's what I call the refrigerator list, a list of all these, and you say, well, which commandment – I'm going to keep this one, and you're going to do that mechanically. You're going to do it – trusting and walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, walking by faith in Him.

That's the Christian life. It's not pulling out the list of commandments and saying, okay, boy, I got a ton here. I got to do it. And it's overwhelming. You can't do it. And you come to the conclusion you can't do it. And the Jews couldn't do it either. So if they can't do it and we can't do it, you know, that's the whole point. That's why he says, I've given you my commandments.

And they all have to do with a relationship with the Savior. Sure, go ahead. I think it's a foreshadowing. It appears in Revelation that that phraseology does not appear, but I think it's a precursor, if you will. And Paul's going to develop that right in his epistles. He's going to develop walking by faith. He's going to develop how we're able to obey his commandments. But Christ used that in those places. That phraseology, my commandments and his commandments, is used there. These are most of the places. I didn't get every single one, but that's the majority of them. It's very interesting. It's unique.

And also what's interesting is if you look at Christ's interaction, I actually didn't do this. Maybe we should do this too. When Christ interacted with the Jews of his day, he never used this. He told them to obey the law of Moses. It's really interesting. We kind of got this earlier on. Vicki asked a couple of weeks ago. In the Gospels, you're going to see Christ interacting with the Jews.

And he's going to say, obey the law of Moses. He tells believers, looking forward to the church, he says, my commandments. There's a distinction between that. He points the Jews back to the Old Testament, back to the law of Moses. So let's look at another one of these verses here.

This is John 15.10. Let's kind of just step through this one. It says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

So the first thing is, observation is, there's no reference to the law of Moses here. He doesn't say, as he did to the Jews, he doesn't say, go back, what did you learn? He doesn't recite the Ten Commandments, for example. He makes no references. He references his commandments or my commandments.

Keeping Christ's commandments speaks of relationship. I've kind of pointed this out many times with the Lord Jesus. Christ's commandments represent who he is, his very character. He came to fulfill the law. His very character, he's going to do what's right and holy and just. And Christ says he kept his father's commandments. Well, his father's commandments were all that he is, God's very nature, his righteousness, his justice. All the law of Moses included in that, all that's in there. So Christ never said, hey, I'm going to have a new deal here. You know, there was the law over here.

He says, no, I totally fulfill that. I always do what the father did. I look at the father. I do exactly what he does. disconnect between myself and the Father. And when he said that, the Jews were ready to stone him. They said, hey, this guy says he's God. And he did. So there's no disconnect between what Christ said, what the Father said. Would there be some confusion on people's part by came in with Matthew 5, and when he sat down his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and began to teach them the same, and went on with the Sermon on the Mount. Those are the same people we started with, John.

Yeah, it is interesting, and I ponder that too. It's interesting that a time came in his ministry when He told the same people, he told them a new, this is a new, I have a new commandment for you. Actually, that's coming up next week, a new commandment. Because prior to that, he was telling them about, and that's why I said the Gospels, you have to be very careful of the Gospels. And the Sermon on the Mount is direct to the same people, the governor of this place.

But then you have to decide, okay, when is the Sermon on the Mount to be fulfilled? One of those things he said, when is that going to happen? I understand. Right. And that's another topic. But that's true. Okay. Actually, I gave you the answer. Shucks. How is a believer to accomplish keeping his commandments? That's a question I came through. You go through this and you say, well, okay. Fine, how am I going to do this?

And I think Galatians 2.20 is a wonderful, and actually I think Ben, how long did Hal spend in Galatians 2.20? Several years, ten years ago, what was it? He spent over a year, a long time. A long time. Okay. Okay. So I believe this is how the believer is to accomplish keeping his commandments. First one. Okay.

First of all, it says I've been crucified with Christ. So basically that says that when Christ died, I died. There was a death that occurred in every believer's life. He died. He died to his sinful nature in Adam. And he was, it says he was carried up and put on the cross with Christ.

There's some beautiful, beautiful pictures in scripture. So I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. That's really key. Because if it's the old I from Adam, he's going to try to keep the law. That's what the Jews did. They tried to keep the law on their own power. And they failed. And we'll fail too. We can't do it. Christian life is an impossible life. We can't live it of ourselves. It's no longer I who live.

But Christ lives in me. Key point. Christ lives in me. Christ desires that His life be lived out in me. Christ lives in me. And here it is. And the life which I now live in the flesh, as I walk around here, I live by faith in the Son of God. of keeping his commandments is to exercise faith in the Son of God, moment by moment. That's the only way we can keep his commandments. And the last part of the verse, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

And then I put in this This is one of my favorite pictures. This is a how picture. And maybe it's a maybe it's a bit busy. Actually, I even eliminated some stuff. It's more. I eliminated some stuff. OK. OK. Well, you saw Vern's picture. I thought it was just perfect, right? Here's a guy. He's either on or off. Hey, no problem. Here's a lady. Oh, my goodness. I thought that was fabulous. That was a fabulous picture. Anyway, OK.

So the reason I wanted to show this is to kind of indicate that, you know, another key point is if you don't If you don't come to an understanding or are convinced that you have a sin nature and a new nature and that you're to walk by faith and either walk by faith in the new nature or abide by faith, there's just a little switch. Actually, I need to have a little pointer here. I didn't turn it on either. There's this little abide switch. And what energizes that is faith. It's a faith operation. Are you walking by faith in your new nature?

And 1 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creature, our new creation, as we walk in Christ, his life can be lived through us, and we will keep his commandments. As we walk in the Adamic nature, in the sin nature, I mean, anything's possible. And that's why 1 John is so much about fellowship, fellowship, fellowship. The whole thrust of 1 John is that we walk in our new nature. We walk by faith, abiding in our new nature. And we're not pulled away by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those don't pull us away from the Lord. We walk by faith. And Josiah showed the picture.

You can look at that interaction of faith over time, and there'll be a moment in time when you'll be walking by faith, and then you may, another moment in time, not be walking by faith. You'll be walking in your own nature or sin nature. So this picture has helped me, I know. Over the years, things have come up. What energizes, what causes that to go from the new nature to the sin nature. And so that faith on the little blue line there, this line right here, is to show that's what you're exercising. You're exercising faith. Either you have faith in what Christ has done for you, and you're walking in fellowship, or you're having faith in whatever, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Well, how about this? Sometimes, you know, the policeman stops you, you know, you've been going too fast, and at that moment, you know, you might say, well, I could say my speedometer was incorrect, or, you know, you're tempted, right? You're tempted to say, hey, I could maybe get out of this. Well, is that, you know, where's that coming from?

You know, that's the desire, and you can put faith in that. Well, I'll have faith in, you know, an untruth, and I'll, you know, get out of this ticket or whatever. Yeah, but you're saying put unbelief on the old nature? Because that's what it comes down to. Exactly. If you know the facts, then... Right. All right. Okay.

Okay, we still have a few more things to say about this. Let's see what's left here. What is my part as a new creation in Christ? I think I've actually already said this. This is kind of a reiteration. My part is to live by faith. That's the way the Christian life is lived, by faith. Not by keeping a set of rules, but by having faith in one who can perfectly live all of God's laws, all of His rules. And actually, there's several other phraseologies in scripture that talk about this living by faith, abiding in Him, You know, it says in John 15, for there abide in me and I in you. And that's how, you know, how is fruit produced in the believer's life?

It's not some fruit, it's not say, hey, I'm going to be really loving today. I'm going to be really at peace today. No, it's, it's abiding with him, hanging out with the Lord and his life, he'll have the peace, his peace, his love will come through you.

And I'm convinced that you really don't know that's happening, because every time I know it's happening, I kind of try to tweak it a little bit, try to make it a little bit better. Well, I can be a little bit nicer, or I can be a little bit better, and it doesn't work. I'm convinced that this happens without you really knowing it, because you're trusting, Lord, I'm trusting you that I know that you, your life will be lived through me. I mean, if you're in there trying to modify it and tweak it and make it better, it doesn't work, as I've seen.

And also it's described in Hebrews as resting in him, that living by faith is resting. And there's actually other phraseology that I didn't actually include, like, as we behold him, there's a wonderful picture, and as we behold him and we intently gaze upon him, we see who he is, and that allows us to rest. He's going to be perfect in living his life through us. So it makes our part actually a pretty straightforward part. We don't have to think up or invent stuff. We just have to trust Him and know Him and know what to trust and to trust the truth and not tweak something and have it something different. So it makes it easier. Okay. Oops. All right.

So that's verse three was really key in the sense that we had to kind of deal with the issue of His commandments. We didn't kind of get that kind of squared away. I mean, we're going to have this repeated a lot of times. The first John, if we don't get squared away at the beginning, I mean, we're going to be off, you know, who knows where.

This is an interesting verse. And this one. The one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. So let's see if I can do this just right. Who's speaking here? Who do you think would say that? But he's not keeping his commandments. So he's saying one thing, doing the opposite, and it says that he's a liar and the truth is not in him. What kind of person would say that?

That's my question. Okay. Okay. All right. That's that's a possibility. That's a good point. Actually, in studying this, I think that's one possibility. Other possibilities, there were people, and I don't know, maybe Josiah done a little bit of this, the Gnostics, it could be the Gnostics were kind of had that phraseology, I've come to know him.

Hey, I've come to know him. I'm your brother. I've come to know him. And you look at their life and it's a mess. It's totally inconsistent. So apparently there may have been some people that were saying they have come to know him, but their lives are totally the opposite of that. But I also saw, as Bud was saying, I also saw this could be a person maybe who's a young believer, maybe a person out of fellowship, and that's kind of what I put in here. Unbeliever, it could be an unbeliever in John's day or today.

You know, some people, they say, hey, I'm a Christian. I grew up in a Christian country. I'm a Christian. What's your problem? But their life is contrary to that. And then it could be a believer out of fellowship. I mean, that they're deceiving themselves. They're somehow thinking that they can do both. Or maybe they're a young believer and the teaching's been bad. I mean, I actually didn't list, there probably are more possibilities here. But what's interesting is this is a person who isn't in fellowship with the Lord, or isn't a believer. Because I don't see how a believer can say that.

In fact, what's interesting, I kind of came to that conclusion, and then I looked up Some of my references, and somebody said almost the same thing. For this verse, they have all these pages and pages. This verse, they have one paragraph. I go, whoa! They said, I'm a believer. I mean, it was interesting. I was kind of amazed. There used to be volumes and volumes on one little verse, and you think, man, how did they... This is the first chapter.

Isn't that all of it? Okay, and I would agree, I would agree, a believer out of fellowship may walk, absolutely, absolutely. I don't know if Brian can remember this, back in Virginia, we understood when we were taught our position of Christ and identification of truth, but we were also taught that there was a huge disconnect between actually learning about the truth and then years go by until the truth actually affects your life. No, I agree with you, Ben.

All of us have been there. All of us have said one thing, and we do it. I was there this morning. Actually, I was there this morning, too. Because, Bonnie, I'll tell you what happened. Well, I don't have an alarm. I just wake up. I want to get up before 6, because I want to review my notes and stuff. So I overslept to 6.20. So I, oh, it's 6.20. I've got to get up there and review my notes.

And finally he says, Roger, it's OK, it's OK. And I said, no, it's not OK. I got to do something. And so I went and I said, oh, Lord, here I am. Here I am saying this stuff, and I'm doing exactly what he's talking about. So we're all there. We're all there.

So a believer in fellowship with the Lord shouldn't be doing this, shouldn't be doing that. That's not part. Sure. Are you saying that a believer of fellowship does not know him? Well, OK. He's saying that I have come. He's making a statement about where he is. And once again, I think 1 John is all about fellowship. Right. It's not a believer of fellowship. OK.

A believer out of fellowship could be saying, I've come to know him. I'm doing what he wants. I'm walking in fellowship with him. He's claiming that. I don't think this is addressing his position, if you will, his eternal position. If he's a believer, if he's in the believer category, he's saying, I'm walking. I've come to know him. But his life is the opposite of that. To me, that's what it's saying.

I don't know. His commandments is different than the commandments of verse 3? No, it's the same commandments. Verse 3, he said the commandment was to believe. And that's part of his commandments. His commandments speak of a relationship with him. That's what that phrase is, his commandments.

So what you're saying there is condition or position? I think this is condition. That's what you're saying, it's a condition. See, it's condition. Why? Because we wrote fellowship, you're in condition. You mean he don't believe anymore? That's what I'm getting at. That's exactly what I'm saying here. That's exactly what I'm saying. You don't know him anymore. You're claiming you know him, but you're out of fellowship with him. You're not in fellowship with him, so you're claiming that you know him, but you're doing the opposite. So you're out of fellowship. Once again, we've got to be real careful here. We've got position and condition. Back to the picture. The position, if it's the eternal position for a believer, that's settled. Once he believes, even if he doubts it again.

You know, many people say, like I have our children, you know, when they were young, maybe five or six, they trusted Christ as their Savior, they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. They become a teenager, I'm not sure I really trusted Him. And they doubt their, and I've been there too. We doubt our salvation, but God says once we've done that, we are a believer regardless of whether we doubt Him for the rest of our lives. Unfortunately, some people do.

That's independent of our eternal position in Christ and our condition. This is, I believe, speaking of our condition. Our moment-by-moment walk with the Lord. If it's a believer out of fellowship, he's making a statement about his relation to the Lord, conditionally, that, hey, I've come to know him.

And that's Gnosko again. I've come to know him. I'm walking with him. But he's not. He's not keeping his commandments. All right. Sure, go ahead. I'm sorry, Matt. Can I mix it up? Sure. All right, go ahead. Go ahead. Where it says the truth is not in him. Okay. And Jesus is the truth. Okay. If Jesus is not in you. Okay. Then Okay, and then we're back to position-condition. In condition, his eternal position is secure.

But if I don't believe, if I'm not saying the truth, if I'm saying something that's untrue... Conditionally, I'm at a fellowship with him, but it doesn't affect my eternal position. I mean, we just have to be real careful about not trying to take what John is saying. You know, the focus of 1 John is fellowship over and over and over again. He's not talking about your eternal position.

That is stated in many other places in scripture, that once you believe on him, you're secure, and that's it. This is talking about conditionally that for that moment in time, you're saying one thing, but you're doing the opposite. And then furthermore, the truth is not in him, John's just basically stating that for emphasis. It's the same thing as he's a liar. So the focus is not Christ not being in the person, he's just saying you're lying. The truth is in him, you're lying. So it must have been Christ being in him.

Thank you. Okay, so this is how Wiest renders that verse. Well, actually renders the first part of that verse. I'm sorry. I have come to know him. I have come to know him experientially. So actually this helps a little bit. So what the person is really saying is what Wiest has here. I have come to know him. Wiest is expanded right here. And he says, this is what this person is saying, I've come to know him experientially, and right now I'm in that state. I'm knowing him, walking with him, I'm okay.

Why are you giving me a hard time? Just because I'm not doing his commandments. That person is self-deceived. It doesn't match up. A Christian life is that we do his commandments, we obey his commandments, we trust him. This verse is the opposite of that. Okay. Basically, the one saying, but not keeping... He's saying, but not keeping. I kind of like that kind of summary.

He's saying one thing, but not keeping his commandments. He's a liar. The truth is not in him. Liar is a falsifier. And truth is aletheia. Hello. Aletheia. Truth is unconcealed. Objective reality. All right. Verse 5. So now we're kind of back on the positive vein.

And this is what he really wants. He wants us keeping his commandments. I think as Josiah pointed out last week, his desire is that we walk in fellowship with him. That's his desire in 1 John, that we are walking in fellowship moment by moment. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. So he's going to point out here that that when we see Christ living through us, that's God's love being fully carried out in the believer's life.

This is keeping the present tense. We're continually keeping His commandments by faith. Actually, I just wanted to look at 1 John So let's turn to that, 1 John 4, 9. Can someone read that for us? 1 John 4, 9. So God's desire is that we live through Him, that His life be lived through us. So that's his love.

Now, it's really cool, this word perfected is really kind of interesting. Perfected is the word teleo, to bring to an end, to completion or to complete. The completion of what God did on the cross And when we trust Him as our Savior, it's carried out so that when His life is lived out, that's as being phrased here, that His love has been truly perfected or truly completed. It has its desired result. And once again, this is a perfect tense. the completed work of God in the believer's life, and the result of that, as that's happening, we know that we are in Him.

As His life is being lived out through us, we know that we are in Him. I think this is condition. See, all these verses here are to give us assurance. We're looking to to our daily walk, and we're examining our daily walk. That's what 1 John's all about, examining our daily walk. What's that all about?

Are we really doing, as Josiah was saying, if I'm doing something opposite to what God has told me to do, something's wrong. Now it doesn't say that we won't sometimes do something wrong, and God has provided for that. But the thrust of a believer's life is to be walking in fellowship with Him. and living his life through us. Okay, verse 6. I ask the same question here. This is verse 6.

The one who says he abides in himself ought to walk in the same manner as he walked. Once again, another kind of test or another kind of examination of yourself. This is a person who says he abides in him, His walk, he ought to be walking as Christ walked, because Christ is to live his life through us. If that isn't happening, then something's amiss. The believer's walk is walking in fellowship. It says a believer ought to walk in the same manner as he walked. And I want to show you something here. OK, let's look at it. OK, this word ought. I'll tell you how they are. It's too old.

And let's look just quickly here at John 14, 13. The same word is used in John 14, 13. And I'll just go ahead and read this. John 14. Actually, I think I may have that. Okay, actually, there's an error there. I interchanged those two. It should be 1314. So let's look at 1314. It says, if then, this is Gospel of John 1314. If then, let me go back. You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so am I. If then, the Lord and Teacher washes your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

So what I found here, what kind of, I was kind of thinking through this, thinking, you know, is he laying a heavy, is he laying a heavy burden? Is this a heavy burden on us? And there's another Greek word, D-E-I, D-E-I. And it's a much stronger word for ought. It's, it is necessary, one must. And I looked at this word and I thought, you know, as Christ said here, he said, you know, I washed, you know, I'm the Lord and teacher and washed your feet. You also ought to wash one another's feet.

So I found this a little, not as, he's not laying a heavy burden. This is something that the believer can do. I mean, he looks at what the Lord did. And he says, as he lives his life, he ought to walk in the same manner. So I found this not as, it doesn't have the law aspect in it. I saw grace here, is what I'm trying to say. If you're walking in fellowship and Christ is living his life, there's really no option.

That's it. But he does say, he does kind of put in this I first thought, well, is it law-like? And I don't think it is. There's actually another verse in Romans that kind of gives a similar kind of idea. It makes sense. That's his life being lived. Also, the other thing is, And this is maybe actually your point. It's in the indicative mood, it's reality. It has to be reality in the life of the believer. So that's an interesting little, and I wish I could do more of that ought thing, but... Isn't that interesting? Yeah. Well, that's wonderful.

And it's not law. That's the point I was trying. It's not law. Well, Christ is going to come around the corner and we're going to get law back in the picture. No. That's what we want to do. We want to get law. Well, I got to get a little law in this. Put on my yarmulke, as Spurgeon likes to show us there. This is the same manner. He saw the Father. He walked just as the Father walked.

Life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. Our part in this is faith. You know, what's interesting, God doesn't ask us, in a sense, to do any more than exercise faith. It's actually, He doesn't give us enough to do. We want more to do. I want to get more to do. I want to make this really good. I'm just not going to be loving, I'm going to be extra loving. No, he says, it's my life, and what I want you to do is, the life which I now live, you can be saying that, the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So that's it.

All right, let's close in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this time, Father. We thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you that you understand us, Father. You know us perfectly, Lord. You know that we can We can walk contrary to who you are and what you've done, Lord. We can not be in fellowship, Lord, but you tell us over and over again the wonderful benefits and how you want us to walk with you, Lord, and to allow you to live your life through us. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.