Would you take God's Word this morning, please, and open to the book of 1 John chapter 2, and we're going to look at verses 7 down to verse 11. 1 John chapter 2, and would you stand please for the reading of God's Word. We'll read verses 7 down to verse 11. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye have heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passed, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in darkness and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. Verse 11, but he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. Thank you so much. You may be seated. Would you pray with me today? Father, we come with holy reverence to your inspired word, and we know that when the Lord Jesus speaks to his people, it is through the word. So give us ears to hear, and Lord, help me, a servant saved by your grace, to make the word clear and exalt Christ. And I pray in Jesus' name, amen. I heard of an evangelist who was broke down on a highway and he was close to a church. He went down to the church and there was a parsnage there. So he knocked on the door of the parsnage and the pastor answered the door. And the evangelist introduced himself and told him what had happened and asked for help. And the pastor said, you know, there's a lot of people that come by here claiming to be Christians that aren't really Christians. So I want to test you to find out if you're really a Christian. He said, how many commandments are there? And the evangelist said, there are 11 commandments. And the pastor said, aha, I got you, there are 10 commandments. And the evangelist said, no, there's an 11th commandment. Jesus said, a new commandment, I give unto you that you love one another, and I'm asking you to obey that 11th commandment. There are Christians who seem to forget that there are more than just the Ten Commandments, that there is an Eleventh Commandment that Jesus gave us. Francis Schaeffer, the great apologist, wrote a book called The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, and in that book he made a statement that he said, the mark of Christianity is love, and the way that the world will know that we are truly Christians is by our love. But I would like to take that a step further. Not only is that the mark in which the world can know that we are true Christians, but love is the mark by which we as Christians can know whether we are truly Christians. In other words, it is a mark of assurance. Remember part of the purpose of 1 John is found in 1 John 5 13, these things have I written on you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you might know that you have eternal life. And the last sermon I preached here last Sunday we were talking about the issue of assurance and I want to continue on that issue here because the most important thing that you can know is that you have salvation and you're assured of that. And that that assurance is based on, not an experience, but based on the word of God, a biblical assurance. And that's so important. Last time I made three statements on assurance that bear repeating. I want to give them to you again this morning. First of all, it's possible to be saved and not have assurance. Again, there may be some people here that you are saved, but you haven't yet got to the place where you have that full assurance of salvation. That's altogether possible. William Garnell said, we might be at peace with God and yet not at peace with our self. It's possible that you are a true believer and yet not have that full assurance. The Westminster Confession says that a believer might wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he'd be a partaker of it, talking about the assurance of salvation. And secondly, it's possible to have assurance and not be saved. There's some people that have full assurance of salvation and yet they don't deserve that because it's a false assurance. Everybody talking about heaven isn't going there. According to a recent survey, 88% of all Americans believe there's a heaven and that they are going there. That means 88% of all Americans are saved. I look out in the world today and see the moral corruption of our world and I don't think 88% of all Americans are saved. And so a lot of people have a false assurance of salvation. Jesus said, not everyone who saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father which is in heaven. Paul said, let a man examine himself. He said in 2 Corinthians 13.5, examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. And then thirdly, it's possible to be saved and have full assurance. And that's what I want for every person here in this room. I want you to be saved, and I want you to know that you have a true assurance that comes from God that your salvation is real. And again, there are some out there that believe that you can't have that assurance, but that goes against everything that John writes here in 1 John. John says, I write these things that you might know that you have eternal life. God wants you to know, He wants you to be absolutely certain about that, and He wants it to be a true assurance. And I said before, there are two means of assurance. There is subjective, which means inward assurance, and that's given to us by the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit works inwardly to tell us that we are children of God. 1 John 5, 10 says this, he that believeth on the Son hath this witness in himself. So God gives a subjective means, that is the Holy Spirit. He bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. He teaches you to cry out, Abba, Father. That is the most intimate expression that you can give towards your heavenly Father. And if you have a desire in your heart welling up to reach out to God in prayer, in the most intimate way, to call upon Him, that, the Bible says, is a work of the Spirit of God. And so there's the subjective means of assurance, but then there's also the objective means, that is the outward means of assurance. That's things on the outside of us. These are things that we, the tests that we can give ourselves to see whether our salvation is real. Now in 1 John, John gives a list of objective tests that we can use to examine ourself to see whether our salvation is real. For example, one test that John gives, I call it the doctrinal test, and that is, you know, what do you believe about Jesus? And that's one of the themes that we see in John. In fact, the structure of 1 John is it's very circular. He keeps coming back around again to the same three things. Christ, the doctrine of Christ, who is Jesus, obedience, do you obey Jesus? And then we could say the social test of love. Do you truly love God and do you love God's people? And so over and over again, John keeps circling back around to those three things. The first thing is, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Do you believe in the Jesus that the Bible talks about? You don't have a right to make up your own Jesus. There's a lot of people out there that do that. They kind of form a Jesus in their mind and say, oh, that's the Jesus that I serve. The only problem is, it's not the Jesus revealed in scripture. That's what the Gnostics were doing. And John was writing this letter against Gnostic teaching that had risen up in that early church community that said, oh, you know, Jesus was not really a man or maybe he was a demigod or a demi-urge or something like that. They were making all these different views about who Jesus was, that the Spirit of Christ came upon Jesus at His baptism and left Him right before the crucifixion. Those are all false Christs. And one of the tests that John gives is, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Do you believe that He has come from God? Do you believe that He is God in the flesh? What do you believe about Christ? That's one objective evidence. And then we talked about another objective evidence last week. That's the moral test. Do you obey God's Word? Is that the pattern of your life? 1 John 2, verse number three, hereby we do know that we know him. Here's how you can know that you know Jesus. Here's how you can continually know that you've already come to know Jesus. That's the Greek tense there, those verbs. How? If we keep his commandments. And that is, you'll have a desire in your heart to obey Jesus. The word for commandments is not talking about the 10 commandments, it's talking about the commandments of Christ. It's talking about obeying Jesus. You will have in your heart a desire to obey Jesus. It won't be a perfect obedience because none of us are there. We're not talking about perfection, we're talking about direction. In your heart, your direction now is you wanna obey Jesus. You wanna do his will. And that leads to a third test. And this is the one we're gonna look at today. In verse seven. Brethren, I write no new commandment on you, but an old commandment, which you had had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. Now, what is the next test that John is going to give us here? This is the test of love, the test of love. And the question is, do you love God's people? It's very simple. Do you have a genuine love in your heart for the people of God? And so in giving this test, John's gonna lay out some principles. Here's the first one. Love is a foundational principle. Notice where he says brethren. He's introducing a new thought here. I write no new commandment unto you. John's saying, look, I'm not teaching anything new here. Gnostics are always talking about new truth. And even today we have preachers trying to give us new truth. Listen, if it's true, it's not new. It's been around for a long time. That's what John is saying here. I'm not really giving you anything new here, but something that is old, from the beginning. Again in verse 7, but an old commandment which you have heard, which you had from the beginning, the old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. The word for old here, paleos, where we get the word paleontology, the study of old things, ancient things. John is saying, what I'm gonna tell you about really is old. It goes all the way back to the beginning. What beginning? He's talking about the beginning of the Old Testament, the word that you heard from the beginning. All of Old Testament scripture bears witness to what I'm going to tell you about. This is something that goes all the way back there to the Old Testament. Now, John doesn't really say what it is. In fact, he doesn't say it till you get down to verse 10. So drop down to verse 10 so we understand what he's talking about. Here it is. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. This is the only time love is mentioned in this passage, and that's what's in view here. It's love. Love is an ancient commandment. It goes all the way back to the Old Testament, the word that you heard from the beginning. Word means divine revelation. It originated in the Old Testament. You see, love is commanded in the law of God. Leviticus 19.18, thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. Did you get that? You should love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19.34, but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. God said, you're not only to love your neighbor as yourself, you're to love strangers in the same way. Love is the fulfillment of all of God's law, we could say. If you want to summarize all of the law of God, you can summarize it very simply that way. Love is, or excuse me, the law is loving God with all your heart, loving your neighbor as yourself. That's it right there. Because the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments are all vertical. They deal with loving God. And then the next commandments are all horizontal. They deal with loving others around you. Loving your neighbor as yourself. Romans 13.8, Oh no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another has fulfilled the law. And then he says this, for this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And so Paul says it right there in Romans 15. It's all summarized in this one expression, love your neighbor as yourself. In doing that, you're fulfilling all the commandments. That's how you do it. That's it. So, love is a foundational principle. It starts all the way back in the Old Testament. Then here's principle number two. Love is a fresh principle. Look at verse 8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you. You say, now, wait a minute. He's contradicting himself. By the way, the word again is, on the other hand, Yeah, this is from the beginning. It's old. On the other hand, it's a new commandment I'm giving you. You say, wait a minute. In verse 7, he said, no new commandment. And now here in verse 8, he says, a new commandment I'm giving you. I'm confused. What does he mean here? Well, John is not making a contradiction. John is kind of giving us a play on words to get across his point. There are two words most often used in the New Testament for the word new. One is kairos, and that deals with new in terms of chronological time. And then there's kainos, which is new in terms of quality or freshness. It's not dealing with newness of time. Kainos is dealing with newness in or we could say freshness. This is the exact opposite of pelios, and this is the word that John uses here. It's not new kairos. It's new kainos, new in quality, new in freshness. It's an old commandment, but it's demonstrated in a new way. And how is it new then? Well, it's new in its example. Look again in verse 8. Again, a new commandment I read on you, which thing is true in what? Him. It's true in him. Who is the him? Who's the him in that verse? Well, it's the same him that's in verse 4 when the Bible says in verse number 4, He that saith, I know him, who is that? That's Jesus, right? Same as in verse five, when it says, hereby know that we are in him. Again, that's Jesus. Verse six, he that saith, he that abideth in him, who's the him there? That's Jesus. Well, again, the him here in verse eight is Jesus. It's Jesus. It refers to Christ. Love was commanded in the Old Testament. It was taught in the Old Testament. It was the duty of everyone under the law in the Old Testament, but never was love really fulfilled. You know why? Because sinners, those under the law, they could not fulfill that because of our sin nature. But when Jesus came along, Jesus showed the world what perfect love looked like. It was all demonstrated in the life of Christ. He was the walking embodiment of love, and he showed it every day. He showed it to all the people around him, and he demonstrated it to his disciples who were with him. You remember in John 13, this is right before Jesus was going to be crucified. This is during the last week. In fact, it's at the Last Supper. This marks the official end of Jesus' ministry. And this is where Jesus turns to the disciples. He's getting them ready because He's going to go away. And that whole section in John 13, chapter 16, is beautiful because He assures them of heaven. He assures them that He's going to take care of them. He's going to leave a comforter of the Holy Spirit who will be with them all the time. He promises them peace and joy. The common theme throughout that whole section is the way Jesus loved his disciples. In John 13 when it says this, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour has come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end, the word end there, teleos. He loved them completely. He loved them fully. And then it says this in verse two, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot's Simon's son to betray him, Judas is now satanically inspired to betray Jesus. Verse three, Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands, that he was come from God and went to God, he's reiterating what he said in verse one. It's time for his passion. It's time for him now to suffer and go to the cross. None of these things were by accident. This is all in the providence of God that Jesus would be the sin bearer. He would soon return to the Father. Verse 4, Jesus rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. What was Jesus about to do? He was going to wash the disciples' feet. a loving act. He wasn't doing it to shame them, because you know what the disciples were doing at that time? And by the way, when you ate in this time, you didn't sit down at a chair at a table. I know we see pictures of the Last Supper with guys sitting down at a chair at a table. That's kind of a European idea of the Last Supper. but they would recline, they would lay down. It would be a U-shaped table. There were pillows all around. They would kind of lay down, recline on the elbow. Their feet were pointed outward from the table. Their face and head were pointed inward. And always, at a banquet like this, a servant would wash the feet of the guests. You know why? They wore sandals back then. The roads were dusty. To eat supper with dirty feet was considered unclean. Normally, a servant was assigned to wash the feet of the guests. But at the last supper, there was no servant assigned to do that. They were all laying there getting ready to eat. And Luke tells us they were arguing over who would be the greatest in the kingdom, the disciples were. Evidently they forgot that Jesus said the greatest is those who serve. The greatest is the servant. That kind of, you know, left them. They didn't get that. So what does Jesus do? He gets up. He girds himself with a towel. The Bible says he begins to wash their feet. Can you imagine that? The Messiah, the creator, the ruler of the universe. humbly begins to wash their feet. Again, he wasn't doing this to shame them or to humiliate them. This was a genuine act of love. This is like a mother who sees her child with a dirty face and what does she do? She washes his face, gets a little rag and wipes his face. That's just an act of love. And this is what Jesus does. And then he says this in John 13, verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you. that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Jesus said, this is the manner in which you are to love one another. And here, Jesus gives us an understanding of what true love is. What is it? It is selfless acts of service towards another. It's action. It's what you do. Selfless sacrificial acts on behalf of another. And that's Christ's new commandment. And maybe John is thinking about this when he writes here in 1 John, a new commandment I give unto you, which thing is true in him? We saw it demonstrated in the life of our master, Jesus Christ. It's new in its example. He shows us what it's about, but it's also new in its expectation. Look again in verse eight, Again, a new commandment I run unto you, which thing is true in him and in who and in you? God expects you to follow the example of Jesus. I'm so grateful that here at Grace we have a loving church. I'm so thankful for that. And I grew up in this church. It's always been very loving from the very beginning. And I think that's part of the legacy of Pastor Johnson and Mrs. Johnson and the way they started this ministry. And I pray to God that that never changes, that we always have a love one for another, because I think it rejoices the heart of God. When I see one of my children lovingly doing acts of service for another child, that gives me great joy, and I think that also is true of God the Father. That's what He expects. It's true in Him, and it's true in you. It's also new in its empowerment, because again in verse 8, notice what it says, because the true light or excuse me, because the darkness is past and the true light now shines. What is the true light? That's salvation. God not only expects it from us, but he's given us the power and the ability to do this. How? Because now we're saved, the darkness is past. That's our past life. Now the true light shines, John says. We are now walking in the light. We now have salvation. And because we've been changed by the Spirit of God, and we're walking in the light, we now have the empowerment to show this kind of love. Whereas before, when we did not know Christ, we were very, very selfish. You know, we live in a selfish world, a narcissistic-type world. You know who Narcissus was? In Greek mythology, he was a god, and he fell in love with his own reflection. He had an enemy named Nemesis, and Nemesis saw how he loved him, how Narcissus loved himself. Nemesis brought him to a clear pool of water, had him look down, and when Narcissus saw his face there, he couldn't pull himself away from that reflection. So he died right there by that reflection because he couldn't pull himself away. That's where we get the word narcissistic, obsessed with self, We live in such a narcissistic world and selfishness is the great destroyer. It destroys homes, it destroys relationships, it destroys churches, it destroys all kinds of things. And before salvation, we have this inordinate self-love. But when we come to know Jesus Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit of God and the mind of Christ that teaches us to be selfless. I read down in Florida they have these orange trees that are really sour. You bite into one of those oranges, you get instant lockjaw. It's so sour. They figured out a way to take those sour oranges and make them sweet. You know how? They take a branch from a orange tree that produces sweet oranges, and they graft that branch into the sour tree. And guess what? It changes the nature of the tree. It no longer gives sour oranges, it gives sweet oranges. Because the nature of that tree was changed. That's what happens to you and me at salvation. The nature of Christ is engrafted into us. And now we have a new empowerment, now we have the ability to be like Jesus in this area. It's new in its empowerment. Now after all of that, John then gives us the test. And by the way, this love will be demonstrated in how you think about others, you'll think about the feelings of others, you'll think about the needs of others, how you talk to others. and the things that you do for others. You won't be abusive in your speech. You won't lie. You will see some gossip or slander, and you'll look for opportunities to serve and to do good and to be zealous for good works. That's how it's all demonstrated. That is Christlikeness. But then again, having said all that, love is a foundational principle. Love is a fresh principle. It's new in its example, new in its expectation, new in its empowerment. And having said all that, John now gets to the test. So here's the test. Am I truly a child of God? Well, look what he says in verse number nine. We could also say that love is a fellowship principle. Look at verse nine. He that saith he is in the light, what is in the light? That's saved, I'm saved. Again, we see in 1 John many synonymous terms for salvation, knowing him, abiding in him, walking in the light. Here again, this term, he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. And again, look in verse number 11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness has blinded his eyes. So anyone who says that they are in the light, or they're saved, and they hate their brother, John is very dogmatic. He says, no, no, you're in darkness. John is very antithetical in the way he presents truth. You either walk in the light or you walk in darkness. That's it. You're either confessing your sins or you say you have no sin. You either love or you don't love. And if you say that you love and yet you hate your brother, you're not in the light, you're in darkness. There's no middle ground here. A true mark of someone who is born again, is they love the people of God. They just love others. And that's very, very clear. Now, again, John is writing against the backdrop of the Gnostics, people in that community who began to believe another doctrine, unorthodox teaching, and they began to treat others in that community with contempt and look down on them. And they were very critical of them. And John says, you know what? They're not really part of us. In 1 John 2, he says, they went out from us because they were not of us. Had they been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us, but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were never of us. And a true believer will obey the words of Christ and a true believer will love the people of God, not hate them and not treat them with contempt and not look down upon them in a proud way. That's not the spirit of true Christianity. That's not what Jesus does. God hates pride. He hates a proud look. And I read in 1 Corinthians where the church was divided because some of the rich, they would have an agape feast, they called it, a feast of love. We call it today potluck. You know, look, we should change it to agape, perhaps. I don't know, that sounds better. But they would bring all, you know, all come together and, you know, have their food. But the problem was in that Corinthian church, if you can imagine this, the rich people that brought their food hoarded it and wouldn't let the poor have any. And the poor went away hungry and the rich went away gluttonous. And Paul said, you know, this is why you're being judged. This is why some are weak. And then they pretended to have the Lord's Supper right after that meal. The most unifying thing for the church is the Lord's Supper. And yet before that, they're divided. And Paul says, look, you have houses. If you want to just have a feast, go to your house and eat. Don't do this, this is not of God. God hates a proud look. And anyone who has that kind of attitude, John says, you're walking in darkness, you're not walking in light. A sign of true salvation is genuine love for the saints. Now sometimes I hear people say, well, I love Jesus, I just don't love the church. I love Christ, but I believe in Christianity, I just don't believe in churchianity. Sounds very pious and very elite. The Bible knows no such thing as anything like that. And if you love God, you're gonna love God's people. And you're gonna wanna be with God's people. And you're gonna love the ones that are even hard to love. You're gonna still love them. That's all part of being a true child of God. Look in chapter, 1 John chapter four, look in verse 20, as we begin to wrap this up. Look at verse 20. If a man say, I love God and hated his brother, he is a liar." That's pretty strong. You say you love God and you hate your brother. What does John call you? A liar. You can't love God and hate your brother. He is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loved God loves his brother also. It's very clear. you're just gonna love God's people. That's gonna be part of who you are as a believer in Christ. When I first got saved, I couldn't get enough of being with God's people. This is where I wanna be. It's always been where I wanna be. My parents didn't have to make me go to church. You know, I wanted to be with the people of God. And I, by the grace of God have learned to love all of God's people. This is our family in Christ. So love is a foundational principle, love is a fresh principle, love is a fellowship principle. A church in Illinois was very excited because they got brand new church bells for their belfry. They couldn't afford them when they first built the church. They, for their 25th anniversary, was able to raise enough money to buy these bells. However, there's one problem. They're not real bells. They're artificial. They don't ring. Now, call me crazy, if it doesn't ring, it's not a bell. Looks like a bell, it just doesn't ring. And John is saying, you know, some people, you'd look like a Christian, but if it doesn't ring, it's not a bell. And what is characteristic of true believers is you will obey Christ and you will love the people of God. Those are the objective evidences of a true child of God. And again, my heart's desire is for you to have a true biblical assurance of your salvation. Let's bow for prayer together today. with heads bowed, eyes closed, I would just ask you to just take inventory of your own heart and life. And can you honestly say that I'm trusting in the Christ of Scripture, who bore my sin on the cross, and all of my hope is in what He has done for me? Not a Christ that I made up, but a Christ of Scripture, the Jesus of the Gospels. The sinless Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life and bore the wrath of God on the cross for my sin, was buried for three days and rose again, literally, physically, bodily, and He's coming back. And my faith is in Him. And my heart's desire is to obey Christ because He has saved me. I may not obey Him perfectly, but I want to obey Him. and I love God's people. I truly have the love of God in my heart for His church, for His people. And friend, if you're not certain of that, make it so. Get that assurance that you truly belong to Christ. Father, I just commit unto you these words. Thank you for the clarity of 1 John. John leaves no middle ground. And Lord, may we examine ourselves. May we be thorough. And Lord, I pray that every soul, under the sound of my voice, will know that they have eternal life. And we pray in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. Let's all stand together, Reverend Gorham.