1 John

1 John chapter 2 verses 3 to 12. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for god is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him.

Whoever claims to live in him, must live as Jesus did. Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new command, but an old 1, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet, I'm writing you a new command. It's truth is seen in him and in you.

Because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in delight and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going because the darkness has blinded them.

I am writing to you dear children because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. Oh, good morning. My name's, Petewoodcock. I'm the pastor of the church. Just to really encourage you if you, no parents, of of children to go to that parenting course.

It it's it's really good. So, Dean and Chris don't, you know, they're not they don't come across as great experts that know everything, but they are experienced and they've got hundreds of kids, and, and, if they go right the way through from, you, you know, young to to adults now. And so they've got a lot of experience and that really counts. And, we're in confusing days where things a few years ago, you know, several years ago or a generation ago were common sense. It seemed very common sense.

You didn't really need to do lots of parenting courses because parents had passed on sort of common sense stuff. And largely, if you look, that common sense wasn't just common, actually. It came from the Bible. And that's where it got its roots. And now, of course, we've got rid of the Bible.

There's not much common sense. And people are quite lost in how to bring up and what you meant to do. There are all kinds of things and so I I really want to recommend that you invite people to this because it's it's it's really good way of hearing the truths of the Bible and, and how they really do fit. So, please please come along, but also please invite people So we're doing this series now in 1 John in in the mornings, and, I'm gonna pray. Father god help us now, please.

We need your help to hear. We need your help to not only hear with our ears and be accurate listeners, but We need your help to put this into our lives by your spirit. We're lost without you. We thank you for this word. We thank you that it can reinforce us.

It can bring us back to a sense of, who you are and what you want for us. And it brings life. So help us by your spirit to listen to your life giving word in Jesus' name. Okay. So we're in 1 John chapter 2 verses 3 to 11.

Here's a question. It's quite a philosophical question. How do you know Okay. How do you know anything? And how do you know you know?

Yeah? Now you can carry you can carry that on and some people do if you read some of the philosophy books How do you know you know you know? And you can go on and on like that. There is actually a whole branch of of philosophy called epistemology. And it deals with that whole working out how you know anything and there's all kinds of arguments that go on in in that Over the centuries, philosophers have sort of argued between 2 big groups, really, of knowledge, the objective knowledge versus subjective knowledge.

And we've sort of argued which is the best way to know? How do you know you know? Is it subjective? Is it objective. Objective knowledge is that which is verifiable.

It's the sort of scientific method, if you like. In other words, you can say, well, I'll give you an illustration. I I know that if you put a minto suite into a bottle of coke. I know what happens. Anybody else know what happens?

Hands up. How do you know you know that? Because you know it because you've seen it happen and some of us have done it, more than once. So it's great fun. You put a mento in a bottle of of coke and it just foams up and explodes and goes all over the place.

It's fantastic. Now I know that because I've seen it done. I can I have done it and I can do it if you give me a mentor and a bottle of coke? Yep. That's objective knowledge.

Largely subjective knowledge is this. I know I love her. I know I love her. How do I know I love her? Here's the question.

How do I know I I love her? I feel it in my heart. I feel it in my heart. So 1 knowing is objective and observable, observable, and the other is subjective and internal. 1 you can prove quite easily, the mento, The other, it's much harder to prove, isn't it?

Now that's largely what those things are about. There's a lot of the other definitions we could give, but that's largely it. And over the years in our country, in our culture, we've swung sort of from 1 to the other. So for instance, in the eighteenth century, subjective knowledge was the popular opinion amongst people. Then in the nineteenth century, the early twentieth century, we sort of swung over to objective knowledge.

So we've gone from subjective to objective. Now at the end of of, the twentieth century up to now with winging back the popular opinion would be subjective knowledge. Now you asked John then. Here's John, the writer of this letter to churches is now in the Bible. He's the apostle John.

He was 1 of the eyewitnesses of Jesus. And you say John, How do we know we know? Tell us how we know we know and he's dealing with the most important subject You can't get more of an imp doesn't matter about the mento in the Coke. He's dealing with how do we know we know god? How do we know that?

So there's the question. Now listen to his answer, verse 3 of chapter 2. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. That's how we know we know. Then verse 4, whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person.

So it's objective knowledge. It's seeable. It's demonstrationable if there's such a word. You can see it. You can demonstrate it.

We know we know because we have a changed life. We've changed from not keeping his commands for keeping his commands. And you can see that there's a change word there. Look at verse 3. We know that we have come to know him.

So there was a point where we were far away and didn't know him and didn't obey his commands. So something's happened. We know that we have come to know him. There's a change. We know that we've come to know him if we keep his commands.

Then look down at verse 6, Whoever claims to live in him, that's god, must live as Jesus did. Again, there's an obvious change. So if I if I if I've come to live in him, if I'm living in him, then I'm now changed and I'm starting to live like Jesus. Now, why I'm saying all this is, but there's a group that was infiltrating the church, in John's day. John's towards the end of his life, and there's this group that's infiltrating the church that are later to be called theostics.

They're later gonna be entitled theostics andostics means no knowledge, no. An agnostic is, I don't know. Anostic is, and these people are claiming to say, I know, and they know god they're saying, but they separate knowing god from any objective evidence, any life change. They know, but it's got nothing to do with life change. So you can know god internally, they would say.

You can know god and love god without any change of your life. Of course you can. I love god. I love god. I love him more than I've ever loved him before.

I love I love god and you can't prove I don't love god. I do love him and I've experienced him in my heart. So theostics are into subjective knowledge. But not only that, they claim a superior knowledge. They claim their knowledge is superior than just looking for objective evidence in life change because they have come to this experience or this mystical sense of knowing god and that knowledge trumps any evidence that's seen in a life.

It's got nothing to do with your life. It's to do with the experiences that I've had of god. So they had claimed this exclusive. They they had this this initiation group if you like where you come to know god in the way they they would know god. This elite group, we were really are in the know.

We are in the no group. And if only you would be in the no group, you wouldn't bang on about morals and life and all of that graceless stuff. We understand grace more than you. We've we feel it. We don't have to work out any morals or change of life?

What are you talking about? If you were in the know, if you knew god like I knew god, you wouldn't bang on about lifestyle. That's graceless and law. So what they've done is, and we've seen this already, They separate their lives into 2 floors, 2 stories, if you like, of a building. The upper story is the spirit.

The the lower story, the basement is the body. In the body, You can do anything you like. It doesn't really matter what you do. You can indulge in lusts that the world is doing. It doesn't really matter.

Not if you're you live in the upper, in the upper where you can soar and know god and know truth and love god and experience god doesn't matter what happens in the body. So they separate the their lives into 2 stories. Now the trouble is with their knowing is that it's completely different to what the apostles taught, the historic Christian teaching. The apostles taught that lip and life have to go together. And if lip and life, in other words, confession and words and saying you know God and life don't go together, they don't work at all.

Now hold it. I know what's going on here because this is me. I panic here. And so I'm asking you not to panic to hear me out. Okay?

So don't panic and start running away. When I hear the words keep his commands, I think, oh my goodness. And then I list all of ways I've broken them. And when I hear the word obey, I think, oh my goodness. But remember why John is writing this letter and we'll see what these words mean He's writing this letter, believe it or not, to reassure us, to give us an assurance that we're Christians.

Just go over to write it to the end, near the end. Anyway, 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13 and he tells us why he writes the book. 1 John 5 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of god so that you may know you have eternal life. So he's writing this to assure us Yeah.

He wants us to have genuine Christian assurance, and he absolutely believes that you can have genuine assurance that you can know you know god. Okay. There are 4 words then that will help us break this passage up. 4 words, really there are only 3, but there are 4. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Keep obey, walk, love. This will help us get through this passage. 4 words, but only 3. Keep obey walk love. Do you know what I mean by that 4 words but only 3?

No, because you're not in the no, you see. But I know what I mean. Anyway, first, don't forget that. Keep a bay walk love. If you want genuine Christian assurance that you do really know god, then those 4 words are gotta be in place.

But there are only 3. So let's have a look at these 4 words. Number 1, keep. We know that we know God if we keep. Look at verse 3.

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. So it's observable. Yeah? It's objective truth. We know that we know him if we keep his commands.

It's it's that's the proof. That's the assurance. It's not your experience. That's not how you know. It it's it's not feelings, because sometimes we feel good and a lot of time we feel bad.

It's not feelings. It's not sensation. It's not some kind of vision that you've had. It's not amazing answers to prayer that prove that you know god. It it's it's not thrills.

It's not unusual things that tell you that you know God. So many of those things are around us and unfortunately in the church and they're saying if you have them if you seek them then you know you know if something extraordinary happens to me or some miracle happens to me, then I know I know. It's not even theology. However, important that is, you may know all about the details of god and the trinity and and sanctification and the difference between sanctification and justification and all of the shun's propitiation and all of those other shunts, redemption, you may you may be able to say, oh, that song is rather simplistic. Of course, I could write a better song.

Because you know stuff but it's not that. That's not the evidence. Look at verse 3 again. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. And then verse 4, he shows us the false Christian, the pretender.

Verse 4, whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person. I mean, that strong language. It really doesn't matter what you claim, he says. If a person claims to know him but doesn't keep commands, it's not the lord they know. They don't know god as their god.

They may know about him. They could argue for him. They may have had some kind of religious experience in god's name, but if they don't, keep his commandments. They don't know him. Listen to Jesus.

Jesus says it even stronger than John. At the end of his sermon on the Mount, his very famous sermon in Matthews's gospel, Matthew 7. Not everyone who says to me lord lord. See, they've got their theology right. They're saying he's lord.

Lord. Not everyone who says to be lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the 1 who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, lord lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In your name, drive out demons, and in your name perform many miracles, then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doer.

It's extraordinary, strong language because here are people and it looks like they must know god because they're doing miracles. They're expelling demons. They're doing miracles. They're speaking in the name of god. They're preachers like me and they must know god.

He's a preacher. He's a fine preacher. Not me, but you know, this person. Lord lord, lord, they say. And he says, I don't even know who you are.

And because I don't know you, you're an evil doer, whatever you do. Means nothing unless you know me and I know you. So this is really important It's very important that you know you know and the way you know is that you keep his commands. If you don't, you're a liar. You don't know him and he doesn't know you.

Now hold it. At the moment, John hasn't told us specifically what the command is that he's banging on about here, but the principle's clear, and I want you to get the principle. Your claim is pretty spurious and suspicious. If you're running around in your own life ignoring the lord and what he wants in your life. If you claim to know him, you know him in your heart, but you're not living as he wants you to live can't be your lord.

Can he? Now let me say this. Please get this. I need to say this. Biblical Christianity never ever suggests that we attract god's attention we attract his mercy or we attract his love by being a commander.

Never suggests that. It never suggests that you win some kind of knowing god points or religious points, and you'll secure your place in heaven by doing stuff. If assurance was based on that, we're all gonna be in trouble because we fail and fall. Our assurance is based that Jesus is the perfect, obedient 1, but Get that. I after saying that, biblical Christianity nevertheless does insist that we obey that something in us so changes that there is a transformation that we have come to something where we are transformed and our orientation now is not around self and self rule, but around the lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is not just savior, He's lord and savior. You can't just have him as savior, like in the upper story, the upper floor, but there's no lord in this world in my life. He is lord and savior. Absolutely. But going back again, no 1 obeys god's commands perfectly.

No 1 does that. Only Jesus obeyed god's commands perfectly. So this isn't just a list of rules that you've got to tick off and try and work out that you can obey. All of this, if you notice, is very relational. It's come to know him.

In fact, the word keep here isn't just obey sort of just blandly obey? It's it's more than that. It's hold on to it's guard in your life. It's it's uphold. It's continue to walk in.

So what he's saying here is that we come to know god through the lord Jesus Christ. He's forgiven me. He's adopted me all of those shunned words that we've just just sung. He's done all of that and in coming in to know him by his work for me, then I wanna do the will of the father. It's relational.

My life now shows that something's happened He's come to know me. He's done all this for me. And out of love for knowing him, I wanna change my life. So let me put it this way. It's real obedience.

But it's not necessarily perfect obedience. Let let me try to give you an illustration. I'll give you an illustration from Lucas. So here's the drydens that are gonna do that fantastic course that I recommend you go on. Here's the drydens, and they say to Lucas.

Lucas go and tidy your room. Now it's possible for him, I think, to obey. Is that right? As possible. And he may go to clean his room.

It's real obedience, and he may spend some time, in fact, the whole day. Cleaning his room, and it's real obedience, but it's never gonna be perfect. He never he never tied up to the way that the mother wants it tidy. But is this real? He'll get distracted.

He'll he'll he'll he he might even get grumpy. There'll be seasons of grumpiness and see, I guess, and seasons of really wanting to obey. It's real obedience, but it's not perfect obedience. And that's what John is saying. If you keep, if you god, if you uphold, if you continue, If you're going for these commandments, they've re orientated you.

You've come to know god. It's the will of the father. It's relational. You love god. You want to serve him.

You will be trying, real obedience, but not perfect obedience. So that's the first word. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands Whoever says I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. Here's the second 1. A bay.

The word obey. We know that we know God if we obey him. Now that's the same word as keep. That's why we got 4 words that is 3. It's the same word.

It's the same word. But I just wanted to emphasize verse 5. Look at it. If we if anyone obeys his word, the love for god is truly made complete in them. First word is keep.

Second word is obey, but it's the same word, but look, obeys his word. The person here, by their action, by their obeying the very word of the lord shows that the love of god is completing him Now, that word complete is a very interesting word because it means it's done its job. It's it's finished the race if you like. It's done that which it was meant to do. Our our translation says our love for god, but it can easily be translated god's love for us is made complete.

So the ESV, which I think is better, says whoever keeps his word in him truly, the love of god is perfected. Now, what that means is Now there's arguments over, is it all love for god or god's love for us? I I think if you read it, it should be, god's love for us. But I can't decide. I'm no expert, so I'm gonna take both and apply both.

That seems to be the best thing to do. So If it's god's love for us, it means that this love is now complete in producing the fruit that god wanted to produce in us. So god's love has come down in the lord Jesus Christ. We have come to know him, and as we know him, then that love of god is completed in us as it does the job that god wants us to do, which is to obey Jesus. The fruit of the love of god and the evidence of the love of god in our lives is god's love is completed when we love his son and do what his son wants us to do, which is in fact, to love others, as you'll see in a minute.

So god's love is completed in me, and you know that it's completed in me when I become a lover myself and love the lord Jesus and love other Christians. Do you see that? That's how you know you know. Or it could mean, as our version says, our love for god. Now if it means that it means that our love for god is not just words, it's not just saying I love god.

It's not just singing the hymns that I love god. It's not just mere affirmation. It's not just emotion that I love god. That the the completion of my love for god is that I love other people and I love the word of god. Do you see that?

Whichever way around it, it's basically the same application. The completion of god's love in me is that I love his son, I love his word, and I love others. The completion of my love for god, the evidence of it, the objective evidence of it, is that I love his word, and I love his son, and I love other people. Now hold it, and this is quite heavy. I know.

1 of the arguments, which is often used for doing away with commands and rules, is that they are inconsistent with love. And this you can hear, you can you can hear the gnostic saying this. You're bringing it back to commands. I thought it was grace. You're bringing it back to commands.

I thought it was love. And so they often quote verses, I mean, all kinds of verses, but a verse like Galatians 5 verse 18. If you are led by the spirit, by the Holy Spirit of God, you were not under the law. Gotcha. If you're led by the Holy Spirit, god, you're not under law.

So now you're putting us back under commandments. You see, you don't really know god and you don't know what you're talking about. If you knew god like I knew, you wouldn't bang on about commandments. Do you see what's going on? But John says that rules and commands are obeying are not contradictory to love, and if you think about it, of course, they're not.

Love doesn't abolish rules and commands, love obeys them. Jesus himself boils down all the 10 commandments to love What do they mean? Love god? Love your neighbor? The commandments mean love.

You see that? The way to love god is to study his word, to study the example of Christ and then seek him with prayer and seek the Holy Spirit to help you put those commands as utterly object give guidelines into your life that you're aiming at, you're walking to, you're moving towards, you're upholding, you're guarding, you're annewing. You're keeping them. You're obeying them. There, what you're about.

That's what you're wanting to conform to. It's like a jelly going in a mold, isn't it? You've got to pour it and you have to shake the bits to get into the little difficult bits of the mold and that's what we want There's the mold, there's the guideline, there's the laws of god, there's the loving laws of god, and I need to shape myself a bit. I need to get in line with it. Get the bubbles out so that I can get fully in there.

That sort of stuff or take marriage. How do you know I love my wife? How do you know I love her? By by fulfilling the promises I made to her? The rules, the laws.

That's how you know, isn't it? It's not through feeling because very often feelings go, don't they? On the wedding day, the feelings are there. Gorgeous. Look at her.

Wow. You know, of course you love her. My mind's made up as the song says, by the way that I feel. Of course it's made up by the way that you feel. You've never seen anything more gorgeous and you'll never see that gorgeous again ever.

Yeah? And it's it's absolutely wonderful. Your mind's made up by the way that you feel, but if it's that fickle, you'll be giving up on her in 5 years time or less. You know that you love by keeping yourself for her, for him, By following the promises, Jesus said, if you love me words from Jesus, If you love me, you will obey what I'd command. So John takes out this super spiritual, subjective experiences that people are claiming to have, even miracles that they're having, and says, no, you know, by your obeying his word, keeping his commandment guarding, continuing working towards it.

Of course, you fail. It'd never be perfect obedience, but it's real. It's genuine, and you're broken when you fail. The working out of god's love for me As I love him, I obey. And as I obey, I love him.

It's that sort of weird thing. The best illustration I've got for that, and I've used it before is Corrie 10 boom. Corrie 10 boom was a a woman that was, Dutch. And, she and her family rescued lots of Jewish people, they're Christians, and they rescued lots of Jewish people from the Nazis in the second world war. But her sister was captured and put in a Nazi camp.

I can't remember which 1 it was now, but it's something like Auschwitz, and she was in don't think it was that, but she was in 1 of these Nazi concentration camps. But it was an all women's camp, I think, and there was the Nazi woman that was terrible to her sister, treated her terribly, nearly killed her. But she survived. And the Nazi woman later in life became a Christian believer, trusted in the lord Jesus repented of her sin. And, Corey 10 boom used to go around doing talks, and she was speaking.

And afterwards, this Nazi leader who really saw the death of her of her sister really instigated the murder of her sister came came up to Corey 10 boom and Corey 10 boom recognized her and said, in her heart, I hate this woman. She killed my sister. She's claiming to be a Christian to repent and have faith. I hate this woman. I how can I put it?

And god was saying, love her. Forget her. And she said, I cut there's no way I can do it. I can't do I can't forgive her. I just can't forgive her.

How could I do how could I do this? She said, I can all I can do is obey you, and I'll put my hand out to shake her hand. And that's what she did. And as she obeyed the lord, she said as the hands touched, the love came, and she loved this woman as a sister in Christ. Now that's not saying that forgiveness is easy and any of that and not dealing with that subject, but love came.

As we love him, we obey him as we obey him, we love him even more. Do you see what's going on here? It's a demonstration that you know God. It's tangible. It's real.

It's a change like third word. Walk. Walk. We know we know him if we walk. Look at verse 6.

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. Now again, that's not a good translation, and the ESV version of the Bible is a way better translation. It says this. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. The the NIV really muddles up live and walk very often in all kinds of places.

Walk is such a better word. It's progress, isn't it? That's the wonderful thing about walk. It's progress. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way that he walks.

Again, how am I sure? How do I know that I know God? That I'm abiding in him. I'm living in him. I'm remaining in him.

How do I know I live? I remain. I am united to him by my walk. If I walk in a totally different direction to Jesus, it only says I don't know him and I certainly don't know him as my lord. If I fall and fail and he says, come this way and I trip up and fall and I'm scared and maybe back off a bit, it that of course that will happen.

But my general walk, my gate is that way. That the walk I'm going in. You get the same idea that Jesus says, except he changes the illustration in John chapter 15. Listen to him, he says, I am the vine I'm the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. And then he says if anyone doesn't remain in him, that branch will be cut off and thrown in the fire. It's the same thing that John is saying. That if you claim to walk with him, if you claim to abide in him, remain in him, live in him, then you will bear fruit If you claim claim to walk with him, then you'll go the direction of Jesus. Christianity, you see, is life It's not just rules, you see, it's life, it's living, it's walking, it's growing, it's producing fruit.

It's remaining. It's relational. And you get that throughout the whole bible. Enoch walked with god, Noah walked with god. Abraham walked with god.

Jesus says this in John 8, I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have light of life. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5 for you were in darkness but now you are in the light of the lord, walk as children of the light, walk, grow. Go down that route. If you're going in the exact opposite direction, you're not walking with the lord.

Do you understand that? So you are not in him And if we walk with Jesus, we will have the same mindset of Jesus. Which is to give ourselves away to other people generously. That's the third word. And it leads me to my final word.

Love. Love. We know that we know him if we love. We know that we know him if we love. Now I'm gonna miss out verses 7 and 8.

They're intriguing. Gonna come back to that next week and then carry on, actually, with verses 9 to, 12 next week, and we're gonna hit them again. I just wanna miss those 2 verses because it's so complicated and we've had enough complication. But just go to verse 9 and listen to him. It's love.

Anyone who claims to be in the light, but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. If you hate, a brother or sister you're in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light. And there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness, they do not know where they're going because the darkness has blinded them.

Now, we're open those words up as I say, fully next next week. That they're they're amazing words. But the big point here is that you can't be walking with Jesus. You can't be following Jesus You can't say you know the god that forgave you all your sin if you don't forgive and love your brothers and sisters in other words other Christians. Just just go over to 1 John chapter 4 and verses 7 to 9.

Just turn to that. Because he spells it out. 1 John chapter 4 7 to 9, dear friends, let us love 1 another for love comes from god. Everyone who loves has been born of god and knows god. Whoever does not love does not know god.

Because god is love. This is how god shows his love amongst us. He sent his 1 and only son into the world. That we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved god but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for sins, dear friends.

Since God so loved us, we also ought to love 1 another. No 1 who has ever seen no 1 has ever seen god, but if we love 1 another, god lives in us and his love is made complete in us. There's the complete word again. The logic is very simple. God is love.

Number 1. Number 2. God shows his love to us in the death the atoning giving up his life sacrifice of Jesus. Number 3, therefore, we ought to love because we've been loved. And number 4, by us loving others, his love is completed in us.

It's its fruit, that's its purpose, that's its end goal. Is to love other brothers and sisters. Love comes down in Jesus. I come to Jesus and I love. I know that I know him because I love.

I love brothers and sisters, badly, poorly, frailly, but I want to love more. I want to love you more. I want to give my life more to you. I fall, I fail, I dislike people. I dislike everyone, as far as I can see, I don't like anyone.

But I'm to love, I'm to love, I'm to forgive. I'm not to stomp away, walk away, You're my brother, you're my sister. You will hurt me and I will hurt you, but we love and we forgive because we're walking like Jesus walked. We wash each other's feet. And that shows, if I don't love See, get this right.

A Christian congregation. How do you know this is a Christian congregation and not and not just a a religious group that meets together? On a Sunday morning because it's got not much to do with just meeting on a Sunday morning. It's got nothing to do with the clothes that we wear. Nothing to do whatsoever with the clothes that we wear.

It's gotten really not much to do with the spiritual experiences that we might have together. The congregation is a genuine congregation that knows god the sign, the objective evidence is that we love each other like Christ loved us. Therefore we serve, we wash each other's feet. We forgive We start afresh. Now, I'm that's a theme John picks on.

We're gonna deal with that. So I say next week a bit more fully, but I wanted to show you how this is see, It is possible, isn't it? To be ever so sound. It is possible to be an orthodox, a great theologian, but be so spiteful. It's possible, isn't it?

It it's possible to have a great discipline perhaps in prayer but be callous in the way you treat other people. It's possible. It's possible to say I I know god and yet it's all about me. I'm number number 1 and I want everybody to serve me. I turn everything around to me.

Every conversation is me. You tell me a story. I'll tell you a better story about me. What marks Christians and what marks a congregation is love for 1 another, and it's demonstrational. It's not just words, James says, you can say to someone, yes, I'll pray for you.

There's a hungry person in the congregation. I I love you and I pray for you, and he says, that's non you don't love them unless you feed them. Stop dividing lip and life. Jesus talks about the pagans. They love people that are lovable, that are like themselves, He says that again in the sermon on the Mount.

Let me read it. You have heard that it is said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Listen. If you love those who love you?

What reward will you get? If you just gather around the people that are like you that you like and love you, it's all nice, isn't it? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Not even the pagans do that.

Be perfect. Therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. Work on these laws, work on this love, work on the thing is church attracts more than its fair share of unlovable and strange weirdo. That's what the church does, and Cornerstone has attracted more than its fair share of the church load of that. There are weirdos and unlovable.

Yeah? But anyone can love those that we find lovable Our job is to love, is to serve, is to give ourselves and then the whole society will see god because his love is being completed as we love and serve and wash feet and forgive. So how do I know? How do I know I know God? 1 is you keep and obey, not perfectly.

But you're guarding those truths. You're upholding those truths. You're aiming at those commands, particularly the command of love. There is no point. Someone said to me not so long ago, they they've gone into an immoral life, and they said to me, I've never been more free.

I've never known more truth, and I've never loved god more. They're a liar. They lie. According to John, it's just not true. They're separating their experience, their love, their sense of freedom from their walk, from their obedience.

Now if someone said, brother, I just keep falling. I I fail. I I, you know, I really don't want to do this, but I do this. That's a totally different thing, isn't it? Because they're wanting to obey and they're wanting to keep and they're wanting to uphold and they want help to do it.

They want a hand, then we love them, and we teach them, and we help them, and care for them with whatever battle they're going through It doesn't matter what the immoral battle is. We're with you. We're brothers. We're go for this. But the person who says, no, this is not immorality.

I have no intention of keeping the commands. And you're a liar. Walk, walk like Jesus, love is completed in you when you love others. So what are you gonna do? Should we up our love Okay.

Let's not then. That's all. Let's close the church then because it's not a church. Not a church if it doesn't love brothers and sisters. It's not a church.

I'd rather be in a little group of 10 people that love each other than a massive group people that just go to church, wouldn't you? Let's have a think. How can we love that strange person a little bit more? Now, if suddenly loads of people come up to you and say, how can I serve you, then You know there's something a bit odd with you? Yeah.

How can we love each other? How can we love? You know, perhaps perhaps you need to give more. That's loving, isn't it? Perhaps perhaps you need to do over time Perhaps the way that you can love is to say, actually, I'm gonna do a bit more over time to earn a bit more money to give a bit more.

Perhaps you're gonna say, I tell you what, I'm not gonna do any over time. I'm gonna do less over time so I can get back and I can serve in a very practical way. You see, you've gotta work that out. But love, push yourself to love, like Jesus love. Give your life and desire to be a lover like Jesus.

Let's push ourselves a bit more. Let's go out of our way. Let's love. Let's keep obey. Let's walk, let's love.

Then we know we're know god. Father help us please in this very practical area in Jesus' name, amen.