1 John 1:1-2:2

We spend the summer taking a little bit of a break. We don't do mid weeks on the summer to give our leaders a break. So that's life groups, skin and kids, youth on Wednesdays and nursery. So during the summer, if you have vacation, go on vacation.

If you have time to spend with family, go spend time with family and our encouragement to you is that if you are gone, be gone. It's OK. You don't have to feel bad about not being here. You know, in some ways, man, I haven't seen these people in a while.

Where are they? No, nothing like that. If you're gone, be fully gone. But we also want to remind you that as a church, we are committed to bringing 120% every Sunday when we do gather, whether it be me or somebody from the preaching team, the worship team, I think they gave 120% for sure this morning.

Wow. What an incredible time of worship. Or audio visual or first impressions or whatever ministry, Sunday school. We are going to bring our best.

And we're going to try to do it with excellence because we serve an excellent God. So if you're gone, be fully gone. But if you're here, especially with this series, we're going through, be fully here. Be engaged because I think God has some great things that he wants to do in and through us this summer as we prepare for the next church calendar year.

Amen, church. All right. So you see the graphic on the screen starting a new series nine weeks this summer. It's called Love Illuminated.

And we're going to be walking through the book of 1st John. Very excited about this. I'm excited about all the things that we teach because we teach in priests, the gospel of Jesus Christ around here. And our messages are always straight from God's word, the Bible.

And we don't skip passages or verses because they may be uncomfortable to us. And during the summer, what we typically do is pick a book of the Bible and walk through it together. Last summer, we actually did the first chapter of the gospel of John. That was fun to dive deep into just one chapter.

But excited to do this with the book of 1st John this summer. And what we're going to do today is we're going to start with an intro to 1st John. And then we're going to get into the first passage we're looking at. Number one in the first two verses of chapter two.

Y'all ready? Let's do an overview. So 1st John was written by the Apostle John, not John the Baptist. And it is the one and only Apostle John.

I say that because it reminds me of a funny story. So everybody knows my wife Kate, her younger brother Daniel. He's in his 30s. He's a miracle baby.

The doctor said he wouldn't live 30 days. He's in his 30s now. He was at Kingdom Kids Camp this last week. He got one of the two of the leader awards.

And everybody's just chanting, Daniel, Daniel. I mean, he's powerful in ministry. All the kids love him. And he's just living a full life.

Well, when he was younger, Kate's parents took a few of the kids to Rome, Italy. And they saw the Colosseum and some of the sites. We just went there back in May. And they went to the Vatican.

It's all Sistine Chapel. Went into St. Peter's Basilica. And Sally tries to make sure that she spends some time with Daniel to explain some of the things that they're going to be doing so we can get the most out of it.

So they're in St. Peter's Basilica, largest church in the world. And they're underground. You can actually go underground and they have the remains of Peter.

And so they go underground and, you know, in Sistine Chapel and this one, they're very strict. You do not talk if you talk, then you're going to get in trouble. If you cause too much of a ruckus, they're going to kick you out. And so they're in there and they're right in front of where the tomb of St.

Peter is. And then Daniel says to Miles, hey dad. Yeah, man. That Peter?

Yeah, that's Peter's tomb. First Peter or second Peter? I love it. A student of the Bible.

Amen. That's one of my favorite stories. And they actually got kicked out because they laughed so hard after he said that. And I think that's awesome.

It's so good. He was written by the one and only Apostle John. And so his first John, second John, and third John and the Gospel of John. So John was the closest to Jesus.

He's the one whom Jesus loved. That's what the Bible tells us. And he was the longest living apostle. Not long after Jesus rose again and he ascended to heaven.

Many of the other apostles or all of the other apostles, pretty shortly after that, they were persecuted in their martyred and different ways. But the Apostle John, he lived a long and fruitful and powerful life. And it's not that they didn't try to kill him. They actually put him in a vat of boiling oil and he did not die.

Wow. The second century historians testify that his skin was not even damaged. So they're like, wow, we can't kill this guy. So they did what was customary at that time.

And they exiled him to the island of Patmos. And contrary to popular belief, a lot of people think John died there, but he didn't die Patmos. He actually survived. And he made his way back eventually to the city of Ephesus.

And Ephesus is where we get the letter to the Ephesians, right? Ephesus was the epicenter of the early church. It was a big city in the world for trade. And there was this huge temple there that was erected for the goddess of Artemis.

That was the Greek goddess of Artemis. And then the Romans eventually renamed that temple for their goddess, Diana. But this temple of Artemis, it was massive. It was one of the wonders of the world at that time.

And it was a big center for pagan idolatry. So one day the apostle Paul shows up to this temple and he warns everybody inside, if you want to live, you better get out right now. And as all these people are flooding out, he places a curse on the temple and the entire structure falls. It collapses and it was never rebuilt.

So it just shows how powerful of man of God that John was and how powerful he walks with Father God. Amen? And he was a well-seasoned Christian. He was an elder statesman in the church, one of our early church fathers.

And much like the gospel of John that we talked about last summer, his writing style is very black and white. Okay? I mean, he is straightforward to the point. I like this kind of writing because I tend to be the same way.

And we have a lot to glean from this book going through it in the next nine weeks. And it's interesting. This first John is a very unique book of the Bible. It's five chapters written somewhere between 90 and 110 AD.

But it wasn't originally written as an epistle or a letter to one of the churches or to a group of people like we see with some of the other books in the New Testament, like Corinthians with the church in Corinth or Philippians with the church in Philippi and so on. You'll notice in those books, they are written to a group of people, those churches, because you see, you know, it'll say like Paul in Apostle of Christ to the church in Corinth, grace and peace to you. And then with some of those churches, he just starts ripping them apart. But first John, it's a kid laughing church.

That was funny to me. Maybe not to you. First John, it's different because it's written more. I mean, he just takes off from the gate.

There's no pleasantries. He just takes off. And it's written more like a booklet of information, almost like he wanted this past around from church to church or from Christian to Christian. And it's a book that is dealing with specific issues that were happening toward the end of the first century in the church.

And one of those, one of the biggest ones was Gnosticism. Christian Gnosticism had shown up on the scene. There's a lot with Gnosticism where I can spend too much time on that. But one of the main tenets of that way of thinking is it teaches that anything that is spiritual is good and anything that is physical or material is bad.

And this is clearly heresy because the Bible teaches us that the earth is the Lord's and everything that is in it belongs to him. And he created it. And in Genesis, he called it good, right? So the natural created order reflects God's design, his beauty, his power.

So Gnosticism, in a lot of different other ways, it is heresy as well. That's one of the big ones. But it's arrived on the scene among with a lot of other heresies and the Apostle John takes on the task of writing this letter in 1 John. And if you'll read different Bible commentaries, it'll mention that Gnosticism was the primary reason why John wrote this letter to kind of battle against it.

But if you really do, you're studying, it's not the primary reason because you see when John writes 1 John, it's following a time in the church when a number of people left the church. So that's happened in the history of the church of Jesus Christ. People leave and then the people who are still in that church are thinking, man, why did they leave? What's going on here?

And one of the questions in their mind at that time was, those people left, but they say they're still in the faith. So how do we know that they are one of us? How do we know that they are a true Christian? How do we know that?

So John writes this booklet in 1 John that contains many spiritual tests for us. And the purpose of this, it was written so that we can tell the difference between a genuine Christian and a bogus Christian, someone that has real faith and a real relationship with Jesus Christ and something that is a counterfeit. And it's almost like a spiritual lie detector booklet. Okay, so that is what we're focusing on because that's kind of how this book is written.

And we're going to look at 10 spiritual tests this summer and it's scattered through 22 different passages. So we have five chapters, 22 different passages, 10 spiritual tests. So there is going to be some repetition going on. It's trying to get these things into the minds and into the hearts of the people that he's writing to.

And it's also important church for us to understand that this was not just written for unbelievers. Okay, it was written for believers as well. It was written for the people of that day, but also it is for us. These spiritual tests test our own hearts so that we can determine are we genuinely Christian?

Are we genuinely followers of Jesus Christ? Are we really of the faith? So these tests in 1 John we're looking at, they are good for you and I to chew on, to pray about, to ask Father God about, okay, where am I out on this one God? Where am I out on this one?

To make sure that I know that I know that I know that I'm saved because the Bible teaches that the heart is deceitful above all things who can understand it. So I know this isn't any one of you, but have you ever met someone who was deceived? That was another one that you can laugh at. We've all been deceived before, right?

Something that we thought was good, we thought was true deceived us in life. And church, we need to know who we are. We need to know who's we are. We need to know that we are firmly rooted and seated with Christ.

Okay? And you might wonder, well, why do we name this series love illuminated? You know, why wasn't it named something like spiritual lie detector test or something like that with like a different graphic and instead of a light bulb you have like a guy sitting there with a polygraph? Well, there are these spiritual tests, but we want to get to the heart of why John wrote this book.

And he is making an argument that church, the light that Jesus put inside of us, it should shine forth to the world around us so that all can see it. Okay? So these tests, they are to help us find out who really loves God. Who really loves God?

And how can we know what loving God looks like? What does it mean to love God? How do we love God? That's what we're looking at here.

So we're still in the overview. We haven't gotten into the first section yet, but let's look at a few verses together. Y'all would gain for that. We're going to read out of the message version to start with here in a minute.

We're going to look at the whole passage. We're looking at read the whole thing in the NIV. But the message version is really interesting with this book because John's writing style is so straightforward, the message really in a unique way captures the heart behind what he is saying. So let's look at this.

First John, one, verse three. It says, we saw it. We heard it. Now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us.

This experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. So he's giving us this book. He's giving us these spiritual tests not to divide people, not to set one people against another. He's going for those people who are on the bubble.

Maybe they think they're of the faith or they're one foot in, one foot out, and he's telling them to come in. See, if you're on the fringe and you realize with these spiritual tests, whoa, I'm not who I thought I was. I'm not in a relationship with God. Like I thought I was.

John is saying, come in. The Savior is ready to receive you. There's a better life waiting for you. Come and taste and see.

Amen. Nothing compares to this life in Christ Jesus. Man, y'all don't have to wake up today. It's good news telling you.

First John, two, one to two. I write this, dear children. One of my favorite things about John, he's one of the only people in the Bible that wrote books in the Bible that actually tells you, hey, this is why I'm writing this. This is my purpose behind it.

I love that. I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. Y'all say that with me. Guide you out of sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have a priest friend in the presence of the Father, Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good, not only ours, but the whole world. And somebody shout hallelujah today. Amen.

Come on. Christ died once and for all. He died for your sins. He died for my sins.

He died for the sins of the world. And John is trying to keep them and keep us off of the wrong track in life. He's saying, I want you to come and join us in this relationship, not only with each other, but with our Heavenly Father, with Jesus Christ. So you fast forward to 1 John 5 verse 13.

And you'll see this. Here we go again. My purpose in writing this is simply this, that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality, and not the illusion. Oh, come on.

The real deal, not the fake version or the bogus version. See these tests that we're going to look through, I don't want them as we're going through this summer to just get you into all of these mind games. This point behind this is not to muddy the waters and confuse us. These tests are designed to make things clear and make us certain so that if we're in, and we search our lives and God searches our heart with the spiritual test, if we're in, then we can have assurance of our salvation.

You can be assured that you are going to heaven and that you are one of God's children. And if we find out that we're out because of these spiritual tests, then we can recognize that we can repent of our sins and we can come to a place of restoration with the Father. That's what these tests are designed to do. To give assurance to true believers and to bring people who are on the bubble on the fringe or unbelievers to a place of repentance and to the feet of Jesus.

Amen? So John's in game here is not to confuse us. It is so that we can have spiritual confidence. We don't hope we're right in God and right with God.

We know that we're right with God. Amen? So today we're going to look at 1 John chapter 1, all of chapter 1, and through the first two verses of chapter 2. And if I were to give a title to today's message, it would be this.

Be an authentic believer. Be an authentic believer. Well, that's exactly what we're going to look at today. What does it mean to be an authentic believer?

And we need to grab onto that. We need to hold onto it tightly and walk in it. So two questions that we're going to look at. They separate those who actually started their journey from those who never left Basecamp.

Anybody heard of Basecamp before? Right? You think of anybody watch those documentaries on Mount Everest and they talk about Basecamp. They say these days that if you're going to climb Mount Everest, it's like a $60,000 investment to be able to do that.

And one of the things they do when they get you there is you have to spend an amount of time, actually 14 to 16 days at Basecamp so your body can acclimate to the elements before you make the climb. And what they have there are these Basecamp junkies. So they know the lingo. They can talk the talk.

They're wearing their Patagonia or their North Face. They got all the gear and all of this, right? And they're there and they actually have no intention of doing the climb. They're just excited that they're at Basecamp and they never leave Basecamp.

They never actually make the climb. And Church, I would contend that we have some Christians out there who are Basecamp junkies. It looks apart. They talk the talk, but they don't really move forward.

There's no spiritual fruit in their life. There's no real love for the Lord. There's no passion for him. Passion for his people, passion for his will in his ways, passion for the gifts of God that he put inside of them.

They just stay at Basecamp. It also reminds me, you know, in Texas, you all know this because we're Texans. We have a lot of funny sayings, a lot of Texan idioms, right? You don't realize how many you have until you go overseas to preach a message in another country, right?

And I'll tell you, the bulk of my work when, you know, adjusting my messages is not just shortening them because I'm going to have a translator, but trying to get all these idioms out there. And I start realizing how many of them I use all of the time. It's one of the reasons why it's hard to learn English because you're not just learning a language. You're learning all of these sayings that people use that literally mean nothing to somebody outside of that country.

But I think we have some Texan ones that are not even in other areas of the United States. So it reminds me, you know, we had a group of pastors from Austria 15, 20 years ago that came to Texas. We took them around. They came to GCF Wharton, the first church in our church network.

And we took them to San Antonio and the Riverwalk. And while they were at the Riverwalk, they saw this guy. He had a 10 gallon hat, cowboy boots, and I mean, I mean, just starts jeans, the whole thing, right? Delt buckle.

And they go, Miles, the president of our church network, Miles, is that a real cowboy? And then Miles looks at him and goes, I don't think so. That's a drug store cowboy. Now many of us in here know exactly what I mean when I say drug store cowboy.

But those Austrians were going, what in the world does that mean? What that means is that dirt on that guy's cowboy hat is because before he left the house, he like rolled it in the dirt a little bit. He's never ridden a horse. He's never held a lasso.

He's never done any of the cowboy things. He's just looking the part. He knows how to talk with a draw, right? But he's not a real cowboy.

And I would contend with you again, here's another example that we have some drug store Christians out there. They look the part, they talk the talk. I'm blessed, brother. You blessed?

I'm blessed. Yeah, I couldn't be more blessed. But they never, they don't walk closely with the Lord. And they never really begun their journey.

They have a Christian fish bumper sticker, right? They use the praying hands, emojis all the time in their text messages, right? They know the lingo, but they don't have a real, genuine relationship with Jesus. And I'm not trying to beat anybody down when I say all this today.

It's just, I'm trying to get to the heart of what the Apostle John is trying to get us to today and why he wrote this. If you are on the fringe and you don't have a real relationship with Jesus, that can start today. That can change this very moment. So these first two tests and questions, they're designed to reveal the difference between a bogus Christian and a real Christian.

And so we're going to read the whole chapter and the first two verses of chapter two. Don't worry, this is a short chapter, it's only ten verses. And then we're going to come back and look at those tests. Y'all ready?

Alright, first John, chapter one, and then the first two verses of chapter two. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched. This we proclaim concerning the word of life. The life appeared.

We have seen it and testified to it. Who's he talking about? Great answer. Jesus, that's right.

And we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you that we have seen and heard what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declared to you.

God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Thank you, Jesus. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Thank you again, Jesus.

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. Ouch. Chapter 2, my dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. Amen. So we are going to get to those first two spiritual tests. I promise I am not stringing you all along.

It is just after reading all of that, there is something extremely important that we have to get here. If we desire to have an ongoing deep relationship with the Lord, come on. Is anybody there today? Anybody want to have an ongoing deep relationship with the Lord?

That was half the hands in the room. Come on. We are talking about Jesus here. Come on.

Not trying to pressure you into it, but he died for you. Let's have an ongoing deep relationship with the Lord. There is one thing if we want that that we must know and never forget. In church, that is this.

God is good. God is good. And as I was preparing for this message, of course, it is on the week when my best friend's son dies. And I am so proud of Tusti because in the times of my life when I was younger and being stupid, he was following the Lord and he is the one that was always pushing me to get back in relationship with Jesus.

Come on, don't give up on it. I am not saying he was a perfect saying. He made me a text to you. We all do.

Right? And then the unthinkable happens and I am talking to him throughout this week and he is saying things like the devil is not getting a win here. He is not coming between me and my wife. He is not coming between me and my kids.

God will be glorified because God is good and the most impossible circumstances. He is still good. And he had a moment this week where he is sitting in his car because there are so many people around him. He locked himself in the car and he played worship music and he said, I couldn't do it.

I was trying to lift my hands because I knew that I needed it because he deserves it and I need him more than ever before. See, he took the most impossible circumstances and it didn't draw him away from God. A dream closer to God because he knows down deep in his knower that God is good. There is no darkness in him at all.

There is only light. And if you want to go from good thing to good thing, blessing to blessing and go deeper in your maturity and your understanding of God's ways and your understanding of what he has for you, you have to know deep down in your knower that God is good, church. Verse John 1, 5, this in essence is the message we have heard from Christ and are passing on to you. God is light, pure light and there is no trace of darkness in him.

That's the message version of the NIV says, in him there is no darkness at all. And light here has to do with goodness, church. God is good. He is only good.

He is good all of the time. God is holy and completely good. There is not a shred of darkness in him whatsoever. God is good and there is nothing but goodness in him.

Why do I keep reiterating this? Because this is extremely important. We can't get to those spiritual tests yet unless we get this one down first, church. We have to have this one nailed down in our lives because this is the reason.

The moment that I start to doubt God's goodness, I am headed for spiritual trouble. The moment that I start to think that he does have darkness in him and he has bad intentions and he has any shred of darkness in him, I am headed for disaster. I'm headed for bad things. I'm headed for not the things that God has for me, but what the world has for me, what the enemy has for me.

I'm not headed to a good place. Headed for spiritual trouble. We got off the right track. We got on the wrong track.

And when you get to that place, you start thinking things. I never heard dusty say any of these things I'm about to say to you. Unbelievable. You don't know how you're going to respond until you face a situation like this.

You can say, well, I think I would do this, but you don't know until you're there. Much like people say when they've served in the military, you don't know until you're in a firefight how you're going to respond. When you get off on the wrong track, you start doubting God's goodness. You start thinking, man, I thought God loved me.

How could he be good if this is happening? I thought things would be better. If God really loved me and he has a wonderful plan for my life, then I think that it would look like this or that. Why is this happening to me?

Why is this happening to my child or my spouse or my family member? I thought that God was good. And you begin to doubt his plans and doubt the person of Jesus Christ. And in church, we need to understand this.

This is part of the enemy's plan. It's exactly how he got out of need to fall in the garden of Eden. He said, man, did God really tell you you can't eat from any tree? I said, well, we can eat from any tree, but not that one right there.

Oh, come on. You don't believe that, right? You won't die. You'll become like God.

Here's the deal. You know, this is a fact. Right? He probably said something like that.

I mean, this is a he is holding out on you. There's darkness in God. That's essentially what he was trying to get them to believe, wasn't he? And if you don't believe in God's innate goodness, church, you're not going to get too far down the road with your relationship with him and young people in the room, every single person in the room, but especially young people, you have your life ahead of you.

You're excited. I mean, there's so many strong young people. We have in this church. I'm so grateful for our kingdom kids and our youth, but listen to me.

If you are excited about your future, you're saying, I trust God and I'm excited for what he has for my life, you got to get ready and you got to get this nailed down because in that first big obstacle in your life and it will happen and you will not know what it's going to be and you will not know when it's going to happen and there will be more obstacles after that. But that first big one, how will you respond? Because for so many young people, unfortunately, doubt creeps in, hesitation creeps in, fear creeps in, it takes over until they eventually walk away from God. So young people and everyone in the room, please listen to me.

God is good. He is light in him. There is no darkness at all. We've got to get that locked down.

If you don't have that locked down, you can't start on the spiritual test. You have to have that locked down. Nothing can take me off of that. No life circumstance can convince me otherwise.

God is light in him. There's no darkness at all. He is good all the time. Men.

All right. Now you ready for the spiritual test? These are questions that separate spiritual posers, fake Christians from genuine Christians. Here's the first one.

So basic morality question. Am I walking in the light? Am I walking in the light? First John 1, 6, and 7.

If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and yet continue to walk in darkness, we're obviously lying through our teeth. We're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another as the sacrifice blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin. So what we're seeing here is something that we saw over and over again.

Last summer with the Gospel of John, we're singing it again in the book of 1 John. And that is John contrasting darkness and light. This is one of his favorite subjects, just darkness and light, darkness and light. And what he means by darkness is that which is widely recognized is wrong and light is that which is widely recognized as good.

And that's not based off of what the world says, it's based off of what God says. And he's making a general distinction here and scripture will back it up. Let's quickly look at a couple of verses that show this. Galatians 5, verses 19 through 21.

The acts of the flesh are obvious. They're obvious. Imagine you have a daughter who's college age and she goes off to college and is in another town and she meets this guy and he's so wonderful. He's so great.

And I just want my family to meet him and Mom says, well, tell me about him. Oh, he's so great. He's into sexual immorality and impurity and he debauches everything. And he has all these idols and he does witchcraft and he just hates all these different people and things and he's all about discord and he's jealous of people.

He has these really sweet fits of rage. And he's selfish. He's in his dissensions and factions and he's envious and he gets drunk all the time, has orgies and a bunch of other awesome things like that. Now after the paramedics come to revive Mom, I don't think there's much of a discussion about this guy.

After she mentions those things. Right? And that's a funny made up example that would probably never happen. Not all of them, maybe some of them.

Right? But when you look at your life and you look at that list and this isn't a conclusive, this is everything in the list. But when you look at that, are there any of those that are like men, they're defining characteristics of you? That's a tough question.

You know, if my daughter came, this would never happen. God willing, Lord, please. And something like this happened as a father, there ain't no way you're dating my daughter. But when we look at that for our lives, what's in here that we are doing?

The acts of the flesh are obvious. And notice this. What does it say? I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Not those who slip up every now and then and you know, just make a mistake. Those who live like this. This is what you do. This is who you are.

You will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is why we've said this many times, I'm shocked at how many people they believe they can live like hell. They can live in sin continually and still be a Christian. The Bible is clear.

This is just one of them, right? The Bible is clear about homosexuality. We're in pride month. Maybe the church should do humility month.

That's what Casey was talking to the elders about the other day. Homosexuality is sin. There's many other sins. But we're celebrating somebody's choice to live a lifestyle sin who will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That is not right. I will not be an ally to that. I'm sorry. I still love those people.

God created them. But that does not mean that I have to agree with their lifestyle choices of sin. And that's just one, right? It could be addiction to pornography or alcohol.

It could be their selfishness. It could be a number of different things. Look at that list, right? But I'm shocked at how many people live like hell and they still think that they can call themselves a Christian.

That's not what the Bible says. You can't indulge in all the ways of the world and still think that you're a genuine Christian. So the way we live is an indicator of whether we're in a real relationship with Jesus or not. And it's an important distinction here.

We have to understand this. Theologically, we have to understand this. Our good works cannot end up in earning us the right relationship with Jesus. He paid for that on the cross.

We believe in Him. We give our lives to Him. And then He starts transforming us through the power of the Holy Spirit. And He starts changing us from the inside out.

And then, and only then, we will be known by our fruit. The way we walk, the way we talk, the way we treat people. So let me use this as an opportunity to encourage all of us. Sign up for Holy Spirit 101 through 301 because we are going to dive deep into the Holy Spirit's function, his role in our lives to help us do this very thing and live a victorious Christian life and get everything that God has for us out of our relationship.

So through the power of the Holy Spirit, He transforms us over time. It's a process. It doesn't happen in a week, doesn't happen in a month, it doesn't happen in a year. It's a lifelong process of conforming to the image of Christ.

And we will never actually get there, but we will progress over time. And one of the things that should be evident is that if you've really given your life to Jesus and He's transforming you, everyone will be able to see it. It will be evident. The fruit will be visible.

They will see it. They will hear it. They will taste it. Come on, there should be evident fruit coming from your life.

More and more darkness is purged out and more and more light is piled in. So if you're truly a born and believer, you won't live your life in sin as a long term pattern. You'll still make mistakes because you're not Jesus. And one of the things that we read is if we sin, we have Jesus to atone for those sins.

Amen? But that won't be an ongoing thing, but we will be progressing to be more and more Christ-like as time goes on. John 3 verses 19 through 21. This is the verdict.

This is not first John. We're back in the gospel of John. He has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because of their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

But listen here. Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done is from God. It will be seen plainly from the people around you when you live in light. Ephesians 5 verses 8 through 10.

For you were once darkness. Can anybody raise their hand on that one? I can definitely raise my hand. I was once darkness.

Now you are light. Thank you, Jesus, in the Lord. Live as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

And find out what pleases the Lord. So first of all, I love the end there and we'll get there. But that's what your life should look like. The fruit of the light, Christ moving in your life, the Holy Spirit transforming you from the inside out.

You should see more goodness. You should see more righteousness. You should see more truth just flowing out of you from inside of your heart, out to everyone around you for the world to see. And then a love verse 10.

Go find out what pleases the Lord. Go find out. Open your Bible and read it. If you don't have a Bible, we have Bibles in that box right there.

We'll love to give you one. Come get a Bible today. Start reading what pleases the Lord. See a lot of people I think they don't pick up their Bible and start reading it because they think, man, it's going to tell me to stop doing something that I really don't want to stop doing.

And we need to grow up. Come on. Let's not be babies in the faith. Let's grow up.

Let's remember the reason why we said, Jesus, I give up. I'm giving you my life in the first place because I mess this thing up every time. Let's grow up and let's find out what pleases the Lord and live in goodness, righteousness, and truth. 5 verses 14 through 16.

You are the light of the world. This is Jesus speaking to Christians. You are the light of the world. Come on.

Somebody say I am the light of the world. Do you believe that? Didn't sound like it. I am the light of the world.

Come on. Say it like you made it. That's right. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your good deeds and recognize and glorify your father who is in heaven. They will understand who father God is. They will understand who Jesus really is because you are the light in their life to show it to them through your good deeds, through your moral excellence, through your goodness, your righteousness. Come on church.

And these things don't get us into a good relationship with Jesus. He paid the price. We believe in him and then he starts changing us and our lives start looking like this through the power of his grace. So that's the first one.

Am I walking in the light? Here's the second one. The spiritual humility question. Last one this morning.

Do I see myself as a sinner? So John is saying one of the first things that shows whether you're a fake Christian or a bogus Christian is your answer to this question. Do you see yourself as a sinner? Back to 1 John 1 verses 8-10.

If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. So before we go to verse 10 that's a verse that we're familiar with. I mean I preached a lot, taught a lot, memorized a lot.

And whether we're committing a sin of commission or omission, commission is doing something that we know we shouldn't do. A sin of omission is not doing something that we know that we should do. We should either want to sin and confess those sins and God is faithful and just to forgive me of those sins and purify me from all unrighteousness. That is a powerful truth.

I'm not taking anything away from that truth. But that's not actually the primary application of 1 John 1 John 9 because John, you have to understand who he's writing to. He's writing to a people who think they don't need God. I don't need God.

You know, hey I'm a little rough around the edges but I'm a good person. I have a good, I treat people well. I have a good heart. I think I can get there.

I don't think I need all this religion. I don't need God. I don't need a Savior. And those are the people that he's writing to here.

And if we're talking about issues that don't affect salvation, we can have differences and still have unity in the body of Christ. But if we're talking about a salvation issue, which this becomes a very big deal, life or death kind of deal, heaven or hell kind of deal, saying that God I don't think I really need you. You know, I have this car of my life and I'm in the driver's seat. You can hop in the back if you want, right?

You can send the back seat. I like some of the things that you say, especially the one that, you know, wives respect your husband, wives obey your husband. I like those. But you know, but I don't really agree with everything that you say.

And oh, you know, you can speak into these, you know, three, four, not five. Three or four areas in my life. But all the other areas are off limits. And you know what?

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, why don't you just sit back there and shut up? I'll do the driving. All the side where we're going and how fast. I don't need a back seat driver trying to tell me where I need to go and what I need to do.

Oh, it's starting to get serious in here. And I know the road of life can get really bumpy sometimes. And we might hit a pothole or something. I might get a flat tire.

So I'll call on you if I need you so you can fix my tire. Come on. Is that what we come to? Is that what we're saying?

I got only need you if there's a crisis in my life so you can come and fix my boo boo. I'm definitely not letting you get in the driver's seat. This is my ride. Nobody touches these keys but me.

I also understand this analogy. Come on. You just sit back there and I'll let you know if I need you. That's the kind of people he's riding to here.

And then verse 10, he says, if we claim we have not sinned, we may came out to be a liar and his word is not in us. And do you feel the weight of that when you read it? In other words, he's saying, if you say that you have not sinned, you're out. You're out.

Well, but I'm a good person. You're out. But I show up to church all the time. You're out.

But I go to all these events. You're out. You're out. What I mean?

Well, you're out. As long as you are in the driver's seat of your life, you're out. You got to give him the keys. And you got to say, I know who I am with you, Jesus.

And I know who I am without you, Jesus. And because of that realization, I'm going to give you my life. I'm going to live in humble submission to your will and your ways. Romans 3, 23.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every single person. It doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter what language you speak.

It doesn't matter if you are a human being. You have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin there comes from the Greek word, how Martano. And this means to miss the mark.

And this is an archery term. Imagine a target and you have a little red dot in the middle and you're trying to hit that mark. That is the picture for us with sin. We're aiming for that little red dot, but we can't hit it.

No matter how hard we try, no matter how much we want to church you and I, we can't. Come on, if you come to a place where you realize and you believe, I can't, I can't hit it. In my own strength, apart from God, I will always miss the mark. And so John is pointing out here, if we foolishly think that we're basically good enough, then we won't come to God and let him do the steering.

And when you run into someone, if that's you, let's get it right today. We want to pray with you and we want to get your life in the right direction. But if you come across someone who thinks this way, they are deceived and they believe that they're someone that they're not. They believe that they're good, but they're not.

They believe that they're going to be okay. I try to be a good person. I try not to hurt anybody. I'm trying my best here.

I'm doing my best. I have a good heart. I love people. And I'm sure that's going to be enough for God, right?

But then Jesus comes in and he says, I am the way. And the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me. No matter how good you think you are, no matter how many good deeds you've done, no one comes to the Father except through me.

No one gets to have an except through me. No one has eternal life except through me. So two spiritual tests, two simple tests. Am I walking in the light?

The way I live my life, my words, my actions are they consistent with God's ways and do I see myself as a sinner? Can I do this on my own or do I need God? Two simple tests. One more that we are going to look at through the rest of the summer.

And I just encourage all of us as we're going through this. Read through the passage that we covered today and look at these tests and spend some honest time with God praying. God, am I walking in the light? And they'll be willing to sit there and wait for an answer.

Do I see myself as a sinner? I can't do this on my own. I'm no good. I need you, Jesus.

Holy Spirit, I need you to lead me every single day. Those are our first two tests. And again, they're not meant to muddy the waters. They're not meant to confuse us.

They're meant to bring clarity to what we will actually look like and live like if we are actually safe. And I want to make sure that every single person in this church, every single person that listens to these messages, they have assurance. They know whether they're in, they know whether they're out. And we help as many people as we possibly can know get in and know that they're in and have assurance of their salvation.

And then what y'all saying with me?