In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the love of Jesus and how it should inspire love in return. The speaker also mentions the importance of memorizing and keeping God's commandments, as well as the need for a change in behavior after accepting Christ. The sermon highlights the contrast between the passing nature of the world and the eternal nature of doing God's will. The speaker concludes by discussing the choice individuals have to make between choosing Christ or the world.

Have you learnt a chorus recently? I need help in passing these out. Thank you very much. I'll take one. Thank you. This is a very nice chorus, especially to use at the breaking of bread, I think. I first heard it back in Cudahy, Wisconsin, after a breaking of bread when the Lord was very, very present, and an old German brother started singing it. It really spoke to my heart. He showed me his hands that were pierced by my sinning. He showed me his feet that were nailed to the tree. Then he showed me his brow and his side deeply wounded, and now I love Jesus because he loves me. And it's to a familiar Irish ballad, The Rose of Tralee, I think, isn't it? The Rose of Tralee. Thank you very much. And Don is going to play it for us. Maybe you'd play it through once, Don, and then we won't follow the timing exactly. If you'll listen to me when we sing, we'll just adapt it a little. Okay, Don. Correction, we will sing it the way it's written. I like it the way you played it just then, and you followed the timing. Okay, let's try it. He showed me his hands that were pierced by my sinning. He showed me his feet that were nailed to the tree. Then he showed me his brow, and now I love Jesus because he loves me. Let's try it again. He showed me his hands that were pierced for my sinning. He showed me his feet that were nailed to the tree. Then he showed me his brow, and his side deeply wounded. Now I love Jesus because... This time, just you sing it. I won't sing. Ready, Don? Okay, stand up and sing it, and turn up the volume. Give it all you've got this time. Don't be afraid. You're doing very, very well. Ready? It'll grow on you. You'll like it, and you'll be singing it during the week. Let's see. Just hold those sheets to the end of the meeting. Maybe we'll sing it once more at the end of the meeting, and then we'll collect them and use them again next week. I'm really impressed by the scriptural memory work of Mike and David. Are any of the rest of you working on any... Remember we gave McDonald's hamburgers for Ten Commandments, and the Beatitudes, and 1 Corinthians 13. Was there something else? Anyway, if some of you haven't done those and would just like to do those, there's good french fries waiting for you. Anybody working on scriptural memory? Yeah, I thought there was somebody. Just let us know when you're ready to recite, and we'll be glad to have it. Turn today, we're going through 1 John, John's first epistle, and please turn today to 1 John chapter 2, and we begin in verse 3. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 3. I'll read the chapter. I'll read it, not from memory. Now, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandment. He who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandment is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him. He who says he who abides in him ought also to walk, just as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong. The word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it, that he who does the will of God, abides forever. Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father." And this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from him abides in you. You do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him. Now, little children, abide in him that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. Years ago a man wrote a commentary on John's first epistle, and he called it The Test of Life. And that's very good. I think it's the best title that you could have for this particular book, The Test of Life, because in this book John gives various things that characterize those who are really born again. Christ makes a difference in the life. And when a person is saved by the grace of God, his life changes. Not maybe all at once, but he'll notice changes coming into his life bit by bit. Now, the first test of life he gives is in verse 3 of chapter 3. Now, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. This is interesting. It doesn't mean keep them perfectly. Nobody keeps them perfectly. But John speaks a lot here about characteristic behavior, habitual behavior, the tone of a person's life. And an interesting thing is that when you're saved, you get a new nature, and you love to do the will of God. It's like a mother taking care of her baby. You don't have to tell a mother to take good care of her baby. She does it. It's born right into her, isn't it? Well, when you're saved, that's true. You have a different attitude toward the commandments of the Lord as they're found in the word of God. Those are the things that the new nature that you have really likes to do. You say, yeah, but I slip. Well, we all slip. But it's just the change that has come over your life. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. John is always contrasting reality with profession. There's a difference between possession and profession. A lot of people who profess to be Christians today, but you'd never know it by looking at their lives. They're professors, but they're not possessors. There's been no change apparent in their lives. Now, there's a difference between keeping his commandment and, in verse 5, keeping his word. There are certain commandments given in the New Testament. Let him that stole steel know more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands a thing that is good, that he may have to give to anyone who has need. That's the commandment of the Lord. Let no filthy communication proceed out of your mouth, but rather that which is good to the use of edifying. The commandment of the Lord. But there are some certain things that aren't mentioned in the Bible, and yet you know, if you're saved, you know that's what the Lord would want you to do. That's his word, keeping his word. If it's written down in the word of God, it's the commandment. Otherwise, you think, what would the Lord Jesus do in a situation like this? You know, for instance, there wasn't any television when Jesus was here on earth, so you won't read much about television in the Bible, will you? But you say, well, the real test for everything is how it appears in the eyes of the Lord. And so when you're watching a television program and it's pornographic, and you think of the Lord sitting there beside you, you say, something about TV in the Bible? It must be okay. No, I don't know. If you're saved, you know that that's the time to get up and switch it off, you know, when something like that comes on. That's keeping his word. Whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfect in him. What does that mean? Does that mean his love is perfect? It means that God's love toward him has reached its goal. That's what it means. God's love is working in our hearts, and it has a goal before it, his love. He wants us to be more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see, when we respond in this way to the word of the Lord, and do those things that we know are pleasing in his sight, God is pleased. His love is perfected in that. Now, watch out for that perfected. That doesn't mean absolutely perfect. If it did, none of us would be saved. None of us would be saved. We sin every day in thought, word, and deed, don't we? We do. But it's not what characterizes our lives if we're saved. It's not what characterizes—and that's what John is always talking about here—habitual behavior. I don't know whether I used this illustration last week. You see, I don't have a good memory like Mike can. I forget what I said last week, but what helps me is that you go to work, and you have a testimony at work, and the people know that you're a Christian. They just slip up once, and they say, ah, I thought you said you were a Christian. All you did was maybe mouth off something you shouldn't have said, you know. And immediately they'll jump at you. What is that? They recognize the difference between you and themselves. They recognize what is characteristically sure, you made a slip. They don't hesitate to tell you about that slip. But that's not you. It's not the real you. The real you is the person who is honest, decent, clean, has a good thought life, and watches his speech. So, it says, whoever keeps his word, that is, even if there's nothing written in the New Testament, but you know whether it would please the Lord or not. I like what somebody said, I wrote down years ago. He said, the only real test for anything for the Christian is how it appears in the eyes of Christ. That's good, isn't it? The only real test for anything for the Christian is how it appears in the eyes of Christ. And that has been a guide in my life to a lull. The Lord knows I fail, but I seek to keep that before me all the time. By this we know that we are in him. I like the use of the word know in John. Remember I told you that he speaking in the context of the Gnostics, the cult that existed in his day, a cult that professed to have superior knowledge. And John is forever ringing the changes on that word know. We know we have passed from death unto life because we love the present. By this we know that we are in him. Verse 5. The world professes to know a lot, but what is its authority? You know, everything eventually comes down to authority. Let me explain that to you. Did I mention this last week? I was with a fellow in the Navy. I prayed for his salvation for 50 years. I prayed for his salvation for 50 years, and within the last month he died. As far as I know, he didn't have Christ. He didn't have Christ. And his widow called me a week later, and she said, I just thought I had to call you and tell you that I think it's almost insulting for you to claim that you have the only way to God. I said, well, Leslie, it's what the Bible says. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. She said, I think it's insulting for you to think that you have the only way. She said, there are many ways to God, and she said, everyone has to work it out for himself. That's what she said to me on the phone. She was a grieving widow, and I didn't want to add to her sorrow. Then I got a card from her, and she signed it, Love, Leslie. I felt like asking her, Leslie, what's your authority for what you're saying? What's your authority? That's what you think. But how do you know? I tell you, it's wonderful to have an authority, isn't it? Wonderful to have authority. Have the word of God, the surest thing in all the universe. You know, I rest my whole eternity on this book, in a way, don't I? On what this book says. If you go by the opinions of men, friends, you're spunk. Because the opinions of men are as varied as the faces that they carry. If you go by the word of God, never, never changes. He who says, see, profession, he who says he abides in him. He who says he abides in him. Abiding in him there is the same as being saved. The same as being, it's a synonym, it's equivalent to being a Christian. He who says he's a Christian ought to walk as he walks. And that refers to the life of the Lord Jesus here on earth. Now, friends, we can never, never do it perfectly. Paul, he's a sinless son of God. Never made a mistake. Never had to apologize. Never regretted anything he said, or felt sorry that he should have said something that he didn't. And I can't live perfectly like that, but I can imitate his life, I can walk in his footsteps to the extent that the Holy Spirit makes it possible. Brethren, I write now, this is kind of complicated, isn't it? Verses 7 and 8. Brethren, I write, no, no, it seems like double talk. He says it's an old commandment and it's a new commandment, and you say, well, how can it be both? It's almost like a contradiction in the Bible, but there are no contradictions in the Bible. What is it saying in this? Well, he's talking about love. This is one of the great tests of life. It goes all through the epistle. Love, one of the great tests of life. But you see, it's a different love than the world has. The world has kind of a silly love, but this is a supernatural love. A supernatural love. This is a love that goes out to enemies as well as to friends. This is love that goes out to the unlovable as well as the lovable. That's a love that you couldn't do if you didn't have Jesus. Now, from the beginning here, I think refers to the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. And you've heard this message from him. Why? Because he was always telling loved one another. He was always telling his disciples, love one another. So, John's readers, it was old for them in that sense. It was an old commandment. They'd heard it from the beginning. Or from the beginning of their Christian life. But I really think it goes back to the beginning of the Lord Jesus' public ministry. But he says, which thing is true in him and in you? A new commandment, write I to you, which thing is true in him and in you? This is how it's new. Formerly it was true in Jesus. Now it's going to be true in you, too, he's saying. That's what makes it new. The Lord Jesus exhibited that kind of life when he was here on Earth. Now, it's to be exhibited by those who are his followers. I know I've used this illustration of this supernatural love before, but I had the privilege of knowing C. McCully who was the father of Ed McCully, one of the martyrs of Ecuador. Ed McCully laid down his life seeking to reach the Alca Indians with the gospel. One night I was on my knees praying with C. McCully after Ed had been killed. And we were praying about some of the problems that we were facing in our ministry. And then his mind went down to Ecuador to the beach at Arahuno where the men were killed. And he prayed this, he prayed, and Lord let me live long enough to see those fellows saved who killed our boys that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my Christ. That's the love that is talked about in the New Testament. Any father loves his child. It doesn't take divine light to do that. But to pray that, Lord let me live long enough to see those fellows saved who killed our boys that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my Christ. You know, C. McCully told me that Ed never caused his parents an anxious moment. He was kind of an ideal son. He never caused his parents an ideal moment. He was a fellow who could have become famous in the world. He was studying at Marquette University in Milwaukee, I think for a law degree if I'm not mistaken. And he turned his back on it all to go and reach a savage tribe with the gospel and they killed him. They speared him to death. His body was never recovered. And you know God allowed C. McCully to live long enough and he went down to Ecuador and those fellows had professed to be saved. The killers had professed to be saved in the meantime. And C. McCully took them and put his arms around them and hugged them and welcomed them into the kingdom of God. That's divine love. That's what the Lord is talking about here. Another illustration comes to mind. Dear Corrie Ten Boom, you know her sister? She in concentration camp being treated horribly. One day her sister Betsy said to her, Corrie, you know when we get out of here we've got to do something for these people. Corrie thought of course we've got to do something for these poor people suffering here in the concentration camp. Many of them dying. But that wasn't what Betsy meant. She meant we've got to do something for those guards that were treating them so spitefully, so cruelly. We've got to get the gospel to them. That's what Betsy meant. Corrie said, I wondered about my daughter living another world, my sister, living another worldly life while I couldn't rise above flesh and blood. I think that's love. When you can be in a concentration camp and see people dying and being killed all the time in the ovens, you know, the ovens and the gas chamber and all the rest, and be anxious to see those fellows saved. Divine love. So John says, Brethren, I write no new commandment to you but an old commandment which you've had from the beginning. What? Love one another. The old commandment is the word which you heard some versions say from the beginning. And again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you. It was always true in him, but now it's going to be true in you, that you know the Lord Jesus. Because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. You can understand that latter expression two ways. The darkness is passing away in you. I mean, when we're saved, it isn't a momentary change, it's a process after that. Like Lazarus, when he was raised from the dead, he didn't get rid of his grave clothes all at once, did he? I mean, it was a process. He rose from the dead, but he was still bound in his grave clothes. When you're saved, you often have grave clothes, and it takes a while to get rid of those grave clothes. But it could also mean the darkness is passing away. As the gospel goes out, more and more, the darkness passes away and the true light is already shining, and the Lord Jesus is the true light. In verse 90, he comes to profession again. The one who professes. He who says. Watch out for that expression. All through the epistle. He who says he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. See, here's another test of life, isn't it? To be in the light here is equivalent to being saved. This man claims to be a believer, but he hates his brother. He's in darkness until now. You see, hatred doesn't go with the light. Hatred is incipient murder. Hatred has the seed of murder in it. A man doesn't just go out and commit murder. He thinks about it first. Murder starts up here in the mind. And as it's thought about, and as it's nourished, and as it's nursed, it issues in the fact. So, John says, if you're a hater, if you're professing to be saved. I have a friend, Dick Faulkner, he was singing, he's a great singer, really he's got a wonderful voice, and he was on a tour to the Holy Land one day, one time and he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and they asked him to sing. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he was singing about the Lord Jesus. A woman came and sat in his face, and he just kept on singing. Wonderful, isn't it? He didn't hate her. He didn't go after her. He didn't retaliate against her. He just kept on seeing the excellencies of the one who had called him out of darkness into his marvelous light. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. This is a characteristic of a child of God's love. I noticed in this life when I was saved, before I was saved, I mean, I was brought up with Christians, they were the only people I ever knew, Christians, but I've got to acknowledge to you, they really annoyed me. Deep in my heart, they annoyed me. They'd say, Bill, you saved a man. I didn't like that when they'd say that to me. One of the things I noticed after I was saved, I had a completely different attitude toward the Christian people. I didn't do it. I don't take credit for it. It was just part of that divine life that God had planted in me. I liked them. I wanted to be with them. It wasn't always that way. And I'm sure that some of you know what I'm talking about here today. Before you were saved, I didn't think much of it. Hey, come on, mid-Victorian people living on another planet, as it were. And you get saved and you think, boy, the excellence of the earth in whom is all my delight. That's what I think about them today. But he who hates his brothers in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. When it says in verse 10, there is no cause for stumbling in him, you can understand that two ways. First of all, there's no reason why he himself should stumble, and there's no reason why he should stumble others either. Say, which is the right one? I don't know which is the right one. If two fit, I take both of them. No cause for stumbling in him. Boy, when you walk with the Lord in a life of love, you save yourself from an awful lot of problems. Most of the problems that people have in the world today are self-induced problems. They're problems because they're not walking according to the word of God, that's all. I don't mean that if you become a Christian you won't have problems. Of course you'll have problems if you save yourself from tons of them by coming to Christ and walking according to his word. Then John is going to talk about stages of growth in the members of the family of God. First of all, he says to all believers in verse 12, I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. All believers can claim this in a very special way. We can all know, having trusted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we have the forgiveness of sins. For whose name's sake? The father or the son? They're forgiven for the father's sake, and they're forgiven for the son's sake as well. Then he goes on to talk about the fathers. These fathers are people who are older, they're mature in the Christian life, and they're satisfied with the Lord Jesus. They've known him from the beginning. They're no longer out in the front lines fighting the battles. They're no longer out there, if it were, defending the faith you know, going into apologetics and all the rest of the Christian faith. Those days are behind them. Their days of warfare are over, and they say, I have Christ. What need I more? This kind of lives of quiet satisfaction with the Lord and with the father. Their roots are deep in God and they meditate on the things of the Lord day by day. I'm sure you've met people like that. I owe a lot to fathers like that. I write on to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. Now there we come to the word overcome, one of John's characteristic words, overcome. These are the young men who are facing all kinds of problems in the Christian life, doubts and denials that are brought on the Christian faith. These young men are there, and how are they overcoming? Well, they're overcoming because they use the word of God and go forth in the power of the Spirit of God, that's how. Doesn't mean that they have the power to do this themselves. They don't. I write on to you little children because you have known the father. Well, little children are those who are just starting out in the Christian path, but you know you can really be a Christian and not know very much. I often think of children five years old who trust the Lord Jesus as Savior. Well, don't talk to them about the great technicalities of theology. They don't know anything about it. All they know is that God is now their father. And that's a wonderful thing. One of the first things a person does is when he saves is call God his father. I think it's wonderful because you'll never find an individual in the Old Testament calling God his father. I don't think you'll ever find that in the Old Testament. You find people collectively calling him father. You won't find an individual ever calling him father. But today, with the Spirit of God in our hearts, when we're saved, one of the first words we utter in prayer is father. So once again I say you can be a young believer and you don't know a great deal, but you know the father. You know that you've been saved by the grace of God. I have written to you fathers because you have known him from the beginning. Of course, the beginning here is the beginning of the Christian era, or the beginning of their contact with him. And once again, these dear men and older saints, they're living lives of peace and poise, and they're absolutely satisfied. They might be living in very crude circumstances. They might not have much of this world's good. It doesn't mean a thing to them. They know him who is from the beginning, the Lord Jesus. I've written to you young men because you're strong and the Word of God abides in you. See, that's it. This is the secret of their victory. You have overcome the wicked one. When the wicked one comes to them with his temptations and all that, they're strong. Strong in their own strength? No. Strong in the power of the Lord. And how did they overcome? The Word of God. That's why I've been so encouraged to see these young men memorizing the Book of Colossians. I tell you, it's a wonderful thing. Wonderful thing to have the Word of God in your heart, and then the devil comes with all of these temptations, and the Lord knows he has a bag full of them, doesn't he? It's wonderful when you can bring forth the Word of God. And incidentally, he can't stand that. He can stand arguments and logic and all the rest, but he can't stand the Word of God. Remember when the Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness? How did he repel the enemy? Quoted, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And then John has this lovely little and important little section on the world. The world here is not, as I've often said, not the planet on which we live, not the world of beauty, the parks and the trees and the flowers, not that world. It's not even the world of sinful men, because God loved the world, sent his son to die for the world. But this is man's civilization in opposition to God, that's what it is. It's the system that man has built up in which God has no place. And if you want to know what it's like, just read your magazines and papers today and see this terrible anti-Christian spirit that's in them. The world hates Christ. It never loses an opportunity to lash out against him and lash out against the people of God. I tell you, the Bible's a great book, isn't it? It really tells it like it is. And so John is saying here, look, if you love this system that's in opposition to God, that hates God, you're a traitor to Christ. You mustn't do that. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. These two things are inconsistent. They don't go together. Love of the Father, love of the world. So when you're saved, you turn your back on the world. The world gave nothing to the Lord Jesus but a cross and a grave. And I can't expect anything more from it than that. I don't expect to be treated any better in this world than my Savior was treated. If he was persecuted, I should expect to be persecuted, too. If he knew the curled lip and the snarl, I should expect that, too. And that's part of the price of being the disciple of the Lord Jesus, to fill up that which is left behind of the sufferings of Christ. That's what Paul said. Fill up that which is left behind of the sufferings of Christ. Christians are people called from above and heavenly men by birth who once were but the citizens of earth. So all the world's charms should bounce off the Christian. No thanks. Your hands are stained with the blood of my Savior, world, and I'll have nothing to do with you. All that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, not of the Father, but of the world. This is all the world system has to offer. And how true it is, huh? Hollywood is a great little microcosm of the world, isn't it? What does it say? Good looks, sex, wealth, worldly success, that's what the world has to offer. What does it end in? Dust in an urn in a mausoleum. That's what it ends in. God help us to live for the passing things of this world. The lust of the flesh from within, the lust of the eyes from without, the pride of life. The world is egocentric, isn't it? All self, self, self. Not of the Father, but of the world. You found that back in Genesis 3. All of those three temptations came to Adam and Eve, didn't they? All of the three did, and they came to the Lord Jesus in Luke 4 when he was tempted in the wilderness. John says that world is passing away in the lust of it. Man's civilization is doomed. It's doomed. It has the stamp of death upon it. The world is passing away in the lust of it, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Aye, that's wonderful. Those are the words that are inscribed on Dwight L. Moody's tombstone in Northfield, Massachusetts. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So we have a choice to make. People have a choice to make in life, whether they'll choose Christ and say goodbye to the world, or they'll choose the world and say goodbye to Christ. We'll go on next week. I thought we'd make more progress than this, but we'll go on beginning in verse 18, Lord willing, next week. All of these verses are full of meaning for those of us who are the children of God and give tests of life for those who aren't sure if they're really saved.