Understanding Our Need of God

The God of Israel

Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 6

What is Spiritual Maturity? If we had one word to describe Spiritual Maturity that word would be “assurance”.

This assurance comes by just believing everything God has to say!

1Pe 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1Pe 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
1Pe 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
1Pe 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
1Pe 2:3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1Pe 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Even when we think we know all there is to know about our Savior, there is still much more to learn and we will not know all about Him until we meet Him in the clouds.

As long as we are in this body of flesh, we will feel the need to get closer to God and we had better pay attention to that need!

Israel had lived in the presence of God for some time now.

He walked with them, and He talked with them, and God does this same thing with each and every believer today.

He provided all their needs as He does for each believer.

Remember a believer is someone who believes “all” the Word of God not just bits and pieces.

We cannot select what we believe and what we do not believe.

He kept them safe from danger in ways they could not understand.

As Christians we have angels watching over us.

God gave them laws to set them aside from all other nations.

Those laws are still good laws to help us in this life!

God was faithful to this tiny nation of Israel.

God is faithful to every true believer!

The first thing we need to clearly understand about our God is that there is no other God in this universe.

Oh, there are many so-called little gods who are only figments of the imagination.

There is only the One God, Jehovah and it does not matter what the world has to say about it or what the world believes!

We have a Living God who has given to us His Living Word!

*Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Deu 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

We always forget what God says here. If we love Him in this manner, then we will certainly believe Him.

The Hebrew word “Elohim” is used to say that Jehovah is One God in three persons.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit which Israel still has not understood.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

That word “Hear” means to hear “with the intent of believing what God says is true”, and this is to be applied to all the Word of God!

Moses was God’s “messenger: just as every true man “called of God”.

1Co_1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

1Th_2:12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

1Pe_2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

1Pe_5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1Jn_3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

God has made a covenant with humanity and this covenant began with the Ten Commandments, which are now hated by the world because they teach us things not to do and the world refuses to be obedient to God.

We must understand that it is hatred not love, that guides this world today!

Have you noticed that even the “judges” of today look upon crime with a soft touch and none of us can understand it. Where did this come from?

It is a complete lack of observing the covenant with God! The Ten Commandments.

Most judges of today are not about laws but only their own interpretation of the laws which they should always avoid!

The Ten Commandments must be followed even today, and we need the Ten Commandments because we refuse to love one another!

There is no true brotherly love in America today.

Every group of people are trying to get what they want off the backs of all other groups of people!

God made this covenant with the Israelites who believed, after He freed them from the tyranny of Egypt!

Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

We should not miss the fact that God demands obedience!

God had saved and delivered them, and He expected them to follow His laws.

We see God expects the same for all those He saves!

God made this covenant!

This covenant was not something dreamed up by humanity!

There is no excuse for any child of God to be confused about the Word of God!

With those things that we do not understand, we are to just accept them for what they say!

We are to just accept the Word of God and be obedient to it!

It is all those who pervert the Gospel who instill confusion in the many believers.

Moses became a type of Christ as the Mediator of these commandments.

1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

When we are obedient to our Almighty God, then we become His personal possession, but:

He will treat us a king.
He will treat us as priests.
He will treat us as holy, sanctified, pure, righteous, the consecrated people of God!

These are all things that show us just how much God loves us if we love Him!

*Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

You see, it is our Holy God who produced those Ten Commandments and not some man or some group of men.

God will never change these commandments, nor will we ever find them useless as long as we are in these bodies of flesh.

These commandments work because they come from God!

Exo 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Jehovah is the source of all things good and proper!

God simply says, “I Am That I Am”, our self-existing God!

He is the source of all life because He is the source of all beings, and the source of all His creation!

Remember God created using nothing but His will!

This is why there are no true creators today, because they only use the things that God has already created for their creations

He created us.
He loves us.
He will save us.
He will deliver us.
He will redeem us if we love Him!

Isa 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

We must understand the Word of God as God’s Divine Revelation of His Creation and of Himself.

We must have the proper view of the Word of God, to experience the enormous truth that God has given to us!

Though much of the world ignores the Word of God, for we who love Him, we do not know what it would be like to not know the truth of our creation!

Once you know the truth of God then it is easy to see the lies of this world!

Our God is not far off in outer space, unreachable or unapproachable, He is very near to those who love Him, even residing within us!

Deu 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

My God hears me even when I whisper to Him!

Jehovah is direct!

He Himself saved the children of Israel, He did not need help from some other source.

The Lord Jesus Christ gets personally involved with those who love Him!

When we study the Word of God, we can see that the Mosaic Covenant is a continuation of the covenant with Abraham.

The Church is a continuation of the covenant with Abraham!

The entire world had rejected God and God chose one man Abram to forsake the world and follow our Creator.

God is still fulfilling the promises He made to Abraham and his descendants!

There is still a “promised land” to the people of God, but it is not of this earth.

Abraham is a picture of salvation!

Moses is a picture of walking with the Lord according to His Word after salvation!

Today we have the Old Testament (Covenant) and the New Testament (Covenant).

The Lord Jesus Christ instituted the New Covenant, all by the hand of Jehovah God, the One God.

Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new “with you” in my Father’s kingdom.

It does not end with us, because we are to pass this information on throughout our families and our friends.

*Deu 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deu 6:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
Deu 6:9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Notice God makes it our duty to instruct our own children.

***We must first place the Word of God in our own hearts.

The commandments of God must be real to us.

We are to cherish the Word of God as the actual “Words of God” because they are!

We must be committed to obeying what God has revealed to us!

God insists upon this, not because He is some tyrant, but because by being obedient to the Word of God we will live a better life also full of joy.

Our own hearts are wicked!

Jer_17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

When we carry the Word of God within our hearts, it will replace that wickedness with the love of God.

God will look into our heart to see if His words are there.

Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

***We must next teach the Word of God to our children.

Some of the Word of God was at one time taught to our children until we allowed certain foolish people to rewrite certain laws to suit themselves.

Our Founding Fathers approved the Word of God.

The original Constitution of these United States is mostly ignored by a certain group of politicians as they seek their own failed glory.

We all understand that educating children is a necessity but indoctrinating our children is a crime!

Today we battle those who are perverted who try to teach even three- and four-year-old their own perverted sexual opinions.

America has surely become the new Sodom and Gomorrah.

We must stand up against these things no matter what names we are called!

Obeying the Word of God does not make us bigots or racist. In fact it is just the opposite!

Teaching is taking the truth of God and then living the truth of God, so our children will understand why.

We must be examples of what the Word of God teaches!

This is the greatest of all teaching methods and we must take the world out of the focus of our children, and place the Word of God in clear focus.

We need to take back control of our school systems and rid those systems of the entrenched perverted minds of immorality.

This may have to begin with school boards. Rid these boards of perverted people and replace them with Christians.

Our children need to know what God has to say, not what the world has to say.

We need to think upon the Word of God as we walk, as we work, when we are laid down, when we get up and when we are around our children and grandchildren.

We are to live by the commandments of God!

Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

***We are to use the Word of God as our strong witness while we are in the eyes of the public.

What has happened is there is so much evil in the world, that some of the things taught in schools now seem minor but they are not.

When the children of Israel were out in public, they were bind the commandments of God on their hands and their head.

It is important that we look more like Jesus Christ every day!

In fact, we cannot be Christians unless we begin to look like Him in our everyday walk in this world.

This is called repenting from our old life. Now people just want to cling to their sin yet receive the benefits of God and He is their JUDGE, and He has already JUDGED them!

Jesus said “ye must be Born Again”!

We should not call ourselves Christians.

It is our enemies who should notice that we are trying to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Orthodox Jews practice these things.

We must understand that the home is to be the center for our testimony of the truth of God and His Son!

1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1Pe 3:16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

Psa 66:16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

God’s blessings come to those who love Him and who are trying to be like Him!

*Deu 6:10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
Deu 6:11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
Deu 6:12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

It is the simple thing of obedience where we fail the most in our relationship with our Heavenly Father!

No matter what we think, God owns all of His Creation and can do with it as He pleases!

He does not need our permission to take our land and give it to someone else!

Remember God had told Abraham that everywhere his feet would touch would belong to His children.

It is the residents of Canaan Land who were the trespassers!

What worldly gifts did God offer these people?

1) God gave them the land promised to Abraham.
2) God gave them cities that were prosperous.
3) God gave them houses already stocked with good things.
4) God gave them wells that were full of water.
5) God gave them plenty of food.

What do we learn from these things knowing that God will not do for one that He will not do for others?

The believer who is obedient to God will be blessed by God!

Greatly blessed in this life and even greater blessing in that eternal life to come.

Jas 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Moses also taught these who would receive all these blessings, that there was a downside to so many blessings.

Owning so many treasures of this world can lead to the danger of forsaking God, and this is where the Church stands today.

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

We have this tendency to get so relaxed after receiving such blessings, that we forget that they came from our Savior and begin to put ourselves before God which is a great sin.

Sudden prosperity can be fatal to Christians!

A Christian can not only forget his salvation, but they can in fact forget God after He has blessed us so much.

As Christians we are to openly declare the Lord our Savior.

Prosperity can put us in a position of compromise!

Again, this is a sign of today’s Church who have compromised with the world and allowed what God has called an abomination into the pulpits of the Church.

When we begin to think too highly of ourselves, we begin to forsake God!

We may even think that we are so high on God’s list that we will never chastise us.

No one can get too high for God not to act against them!

Remember God loves those He chastises!

We may drift too far from God and feel nothing, and we must certainly never test God nor test the love of God!

We are to never give back the control of our lives to this world!

We must be incredibly careful if it seems we are making demands of God!

The fear of God from the heart is the most powerful principle of obedience!

Pro 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
Pro 30:9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

We must always remember our righteousness comes by our faith.

No one can keep all those old laws, and no one can keep the law perfectly.

It is by Jesus Christ that we are accepted by our Heavenly Father.

BUT once we have been accepted by Him we must seek to be obedient to Him and fulfill the commandments of God which is based upon our relationship with Him and with each other.

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

And these things will never change!

Amen

Are You Getting Closer to Jesus

Spiritual Growth and Assurance

Book of 1 John Chapter 2:1-14

Have you noticed how many lessons we see about spiritual growth? If we are not growing spiritually every day, we are not just at a standstill, we are actually going backwards.

Last week our lesson was about being cleansed from sin and once we are cleansed from sin, then we need to grow spiritually in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Remember because of Adam and Eve we had lost fellowship with God! That fellowship can be restored because of the work of Christ Jesus!

As long as we are in these bodies of flesh made from the dust of this sinful world, we will remain sinners. God knows this and through the Cross, when Jesus died the veil of the Temple was rent in to and Jesus made a way for us to enter into the throne room of God, where we can humbly go before the Lord and ask Him to forgive us of our daily sins.

We are to do our best to refrain from sin, but this is impossible while we are in this sinful flesh!

What else has the Lord done for us? He went back to Heaven to be our advocate!

*1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

We know that the Holy Spirit is our Comforter while we live on this earth, but in Heaven while we are still alive, we have an Advocate and this Advocate is the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Holy Spirit is here pleading our case to God while we are still in these bodies of flesh and in Heaven’s courtroom the Lord Jesus Christ is doing the exact same thing!

As an Advocate, the Lord Jesus pleads our cause to God the Father, defending us when we do things out of ignorance to God’s Laws.

Sometimes we may intentionally do foolish things and we can be forgiven of those also, but we will still suffer for those sins!

Jesus is our Owner and He stands in our place before God the Father when we fail Him!

Remember God is not a mean and hateful God, His name is Love.

Jesus is not guilty of anything, yet He stands in our place because when we are washed in His blood then we are also innocent of sin and pardoned of our past life and Born Again into new Life!

Jesus is the only person who can represent us before God the Father, there is no other in Heaven and certainly no one upon this earth!

For whom does Jesus plead? He pleads for His children. All those who have accepted Him as their personal Savior.

We are the little children because compared to all the people in the world, the true Christian is among the smaller group!

Jesus does not plead our innocence.
Jesus does not plead our good works.
Jesus does not plead our goodness.
Jesus does not plead our righteousness.

Jesus pleads His own righteousness as our Owner!

Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How is this possible?

*1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

It is because of the shed blood of Jesus that we are at peace with God, and that peace can never be changed to wrath because of the sacrifice of God’s Dear Son!

Heb 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Propitiation means the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was the payment that satisfied God the Father and made appeasement for all our sins. Not just those who accept this truth but the sin of this entire world past, present, and future!

It is the “Blood of Jesus that has reconciled us to our Holy God!

The Lord Jesus Christ has removed every barrier that was once between us and God the Father!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the beginning of every promise of God!

God the Father required blood to be sacrificed for all our sin!

Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Not just any blood would do! It took the pure, undefiled, sinless, blood of the Lamb of God to wash away our sins!

Gen 22:8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb” for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

God provided Himself to be the Lamb that was to wash us from all our sin!

By the sin of Adam, we were cut off from God!

God sacrificed Himself so that we could be saved!

This is the meaning of propitiation. A debt that none of us had the ability to pay, had to be paid by God Himself!

It was God the Father who had to be appeased.
It was God the Son who provided that appeasement.
Jesus Christ covered our sins with His own blood so our sin would be forever out of sight of God the Father.

The only “type” of propitiation in the Bible is the “Mercy Seat of God.

Heb 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

Because of the work of Jesus Christ, we can now go before the Lord and claim that “Mercy”!

Luk 18:13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

If we know all these things, we should be keeping the commandments of God!

*1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

How do we know we love God? We keep His commandments without questioning them!

How do we show God that we love Him, by being obedient to the things He has said!

We must walk in this world as true believers, being obedient to the Word of God.

We must go before the Lord everyday as sinners, to be washed from the sin and filth of this world that we are in contact with every day.

We are justified when we truthfully ask Jesus to come into our heart, but we are still sinners saved only by His “Grace” until He comes to take us home!

Our lives must be centered around the fact that we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior.

God lives in the Spiritual world that surrounds us.

We live in the physical world separated from our Holy God.

God the Father sent God the Son into this physical world, so that we to can one day be a part of that Spiritual world with Him!

There is no one upon this earth that has ever crossed over into the world of God except the Lord Jesus Christ!

Joh 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

To know the Lord in truth is to have fellowship with Him and His Father!

To not keep His commandments is to still walk in the darkness of this world!

Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

In order to know God we must accept His Son and keep His commandments!

We must believe what Jesus says!

As far as God the Father is concerned, if we reject His Son then we have rejected Him and continue to hold onto the lies of the Devil who has lied from the beginning of his existence!

So how do we know if we love the Lord? We keep His commandments. It’s just that simple!

The more we walk with the Lord the more we show God that we love Him!

It is impossible to say we love God and then reject His commandments.

America is full of those people today reject the truth of God, but say they are one of His children.

The Holy Spirit says they are all liars!

Mar 7:6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Mar 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

We must be obedient to “all” the Word of God if we say we love Him!

*1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Some would say from the last passage that all we need do is just keep the 10 commandments and that would be a great start, but the Holy Ghost says, do not be mistaken we must keep all the Word of God!

Without this obedience then the act of love is not in us.

Most people always get the word love wrong. Love is an action word!

The only way to love God is to get nearer to Him!

We must study Him.
We must learn all about Him.
We must know His will for us.
We must know His nature.
We must know His desires.
We must know His wants.
We must know His thoughts.
We must know how He behaves.

These things should be the same for anyone who says they love someone!

God shows us all these things about Him, just so we can get up close and personal with Him!

In the end this is the most important decision we will ever make!

Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

When we declare that we are a child of God, then we need to be measured by God’s standards! That standard is Jesus Christ!

That word “ought” says, every child of God is obligated to live according to the written Word of God!

That word “ought” says, we will willingly live as God says to live.

Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

These are things that we know and accept because we love the Lord!

God has had this same message since the time of Adam and Eve!

*1Jn 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

As the church, our salvation is not bound up in the laws of Moses or we would say the 613 commandments given to the Jews.

The Word of God does teach us that all the Word of God is to be used for our instructions on living, rightly divided!

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

What we should know is that all the Word of God is our love letter, and this is where the Apostle John is leading us.

There are some Old Testament laws that that never change even in the New Testament and this what John is talking about.

Lev 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Lev 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

The Lord Jesus Christ simplified all those old laws and any new law!

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

It is this love that will allow us to grow in “Grace” and “Knowledge” of our God!

*1Jn 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

What we need to understand is that, Jesus gave that word “love” a new meaning:

Jesus said not only love your brothers and sisters in Christ and in family, but also love your enemies!
Jesus said to not only love good people, but also bad people!
Jesus said not just love the righteous, but also to love the sinner!
Jesus said not only love those you accept, but also those you reject!

Jesus said if we are striving for perfection then this is the meaning of love we should understand!

Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

It is hatred that will lead us back into darkness!

*1Jn 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
1Jn 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
1Jn 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

How do we grow in Christ?

It takes faith, so we must believe in His works for our salvation!
We follow Christ in believer’s baptism.
We join a Bible believing Church.
We join Christ in the Lord’s Supper.
We study the Words of Christ.
We pray with Christ.
We live for Christ.
We tell others about Christ.

But then, if for some reason we allow hate to reenter into our heart for someone then once again we are walking in darkness!

We must not allow this to happen!

We must walk in the love of God every day!

God is love, the more we interact with God, the more our love will grow.

The more our love grows, the more we will object to hatred.

1Th 3:12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
1Th 3:13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

So if we want to be unblameable when the Lord returns, then we need to be walking in the love of Jesus Christ!

When we walk in hatred we are walking in blindness, and in reality, we do not know where we are going.

Whenever we walk into a group of people, that hatred will walk in front of us and immediately cause division. This walk is not of God!

Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

We must never walk like the world walks, in blind hatred!

*1Jn 2:12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
1Jn 2:13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

The Holy Ghost begins His caution by writing to everyone in the Church.

These little children are all the Saints of God, but here John means the Babes in Christ.

The first thing we realize upon our salvation our sins have been forgiven!

Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

In the Church there should also be Spiritual Fathers not just the old saints of God, who are mature in the things of God. These are those who have known God and have been faithful to the Word of God since their salvation day.

In the Church we always have a need for the young men who will be the Church, when the old Saints have passed on to glory and they need to grow in the “Meat of the Word” because they have overcome that wicked Satan!

In the Church there are the little children and even they must be taught the truth of the Scriptures.

Do not ever be fooled, a small child can understand the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of Creation!

Spiritual growth is required for all age groups and though these things mention males they are also writing for Spiritual mothers and the young ladies in the Church.

Not many Churches would survive without Christian ladies!

The intent is that we must all become rich in the knowledge of God!

2Pe_3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

*1Jn 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God is a Spirit and if we are created in God’s image, then we must be a spirit also!

If this were not so, we could have no communication with Him!

It is in our spiritual strength that we must grow!

Our flesh is only a tabernacle we will discard one day!

This is the difference between mankind and the animal world!

We must grow spiritually to get closer to God!

John is now reaching out to those who have grown in the Lord.

These fathers are those who have deep and rich knowledge of and have grown daily from the day of their salvation.

It is these who know that the best they can do to avoid sin and they will sometimes fail, but the Lord Jesus will still defend us before God, but they cannot use this as an excuse to sin more!

There is at no point in our lives that we can let our guard down!

We must know for sure where our strength comes from!

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Our young men must become strong in the Lord and they must hold God’s Word above the things in the world!

Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

We must not only overcome the wicked one (the Devil), we must live as overcomers!

We must listen to the Holy Spirit who is the power behind the Church!

Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Rev 3:6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Mat 13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

If we are to grow in the “Grace” and “Knowledge” of the Lord, we must listen to what the Holy Spirit is teaching us, and use His information to grow in Christ!

We must love the Lord far above any love we have for this world!

Amen

Let’s Pray!