10.20.2024 Renew Your Walk

[0:00] 아멘 1st John chapter 2 the whole book is supposed to be a book of encouragement to encourage us as believers how we should act to encourage us as believers what we believe and who we serve you know many are saying that we want to see revival in our land but it starts with believers to start living like Christians and renewing our walk here in 1st John chapter 2 many times he talks about this is what I'm writing to you he just introduced what he's talking about notice in verse 1 he says my little children these things write unto you that you sin not if any man has sin if any man sin we have an advocate with the father

[1:52] Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world wouldn't it be great not to sin wouldn't it what a pleasant life that would be but here he just says listen I'm writing you to encourage you not to sin now John is not saying that you you will not sin but you should not sin yeah later on he tells us that when we accept Christ as our savior we have our sins forgiven our spirit is made new but we're still strapped with his flesh and the flesh sins and it's important to understand that because of what Jesus did we have the possibility of living a sinless life he says

[3:10] I'm writing this stuff so you sin not and we know he's not saying that as soon as you're saved as soon as you're born again as soon as you accept Christ you'll never sin again because the very next line he says but if you do sin if you do sin that's sinning in the flesh that's not doing what the word of God tells us we need to do sin not that literally means to be so holy in your lifestyle to be so pure that even the thought of sin is repugnant even if you start thinking about sin even if you start thinking about doing something God you know God doesn't want you to do suddenly you just become so grossed out as we used to say that you don't even want to consider it anymore that's what sin not where we need to get to be so holy in your walk to be so pure to be so close to God as he told us in the previous chapter to always be walking in that light so close that you become afraid of the dark remember as a little kid many of you maybe some of you still

[4:37] I can't sleep without a light on because I'm afraid of the dark well in the previous chapter we learned that we had he is the light and in him is no darkness at all and when we fall into sin we fall into darkness so we need to be like that little kid when it comes to spiritual matters and be so afraid of the dark that we want to stay in the light we want to walk in this path but it says if you do sin you have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous if if kind of says that yeah it's going to happen but the sin that should happen in a believer's life is the accidental sins the things that sort of catch you when you're not looking like I mentioned in the nursing home talking about this a little bit you're driving down the road and suddenly somebody else does something really dumb and your first reaction is to get very angry we shouldn't be angry at that for one thing you can't help if they're dumb right

[6:10] I know the other day on the way to the nursing home I'm trying to get there I thought I was going to be late and what happened just ahead of me this woman was sitting on the side street and decided I know it's a woman because I saw her okay I'm not saying all women are this way and so she was on the side street so she decides to pull out to go the opposite direction I was going that's no big deal you pull out and you move well she decided she wanted to go at a snail's pace to the point I had to stop or almost stop and I'm like what is she doing so I had to repent of being angry but you see things like that just pop up but we should be wanting to be in the light so much that even if situations like that pop up we don't react in the wrong manner and so that's why he says if you do sin you have an advocate with the father that's a legal term that's somebody who comes alongside of you to help you in your time of need isn't it good we do that here's another good thing do you know that word advocate is also translated other places as comforter when it describes when Jesus was about ready to leave the earth he says well I go but I'm going to leave another with you a comforter the Holy Spirit that's the same as an advocate so you have someone dwelling within you if you're a believer the Holy Spirit that can help you through a situation if you just let him an advocate or when our sins come up to the father before they even get to him the advocate grabs hold of him and says they're still mine that person is still mine and what do we do well we go back to previous chapter 1 John 1 9 if we what confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness how can he cleanse us from all unrighteousness because he is Jesus

[8:40] Christ the righteous so when you do sin you go to the Lord you say I'm sorry he forgives you it's as simple as that but it also has the idea of this when you say I'm sorry and I confess you're also implying I will try better next time not to do the same thing you know it's not like sometimes people will go oh I'm sorry I'll never do that again the next day they're doing it again God wants us to learn from these situations once again to become so afraid of the dark we want to stay in the light we want to stay close to Christ and why does he do this why is he the righteous because verse two and he is the propitiation for our sins that's a big word it basically means he is like the mercy seat remember the old time

[9:46] Jews in the old testament it tells us the way they sacrificed on the day of atonement the lamb was killed the blood was taken into the holy of holies by the high priest he sprinkled it onto the mercy seat and the sins of the people were forgiven that's the propitiation when Christ died on that cross and shed his blood literally it was it's like his blood was taken to the father he is our propitiation he is our mercy seat it's because of that he can give us grace for forgiveness of sins and it says he's not only offered the forgiveness of sins to you and hopefully H1N here has accepted it because if you haven't when you die you're not going to heaven but not only is that he's made it available to the don't misunderstand when he says he's been the forgiveness of sins for the whole world doesn't mean the whole world has had their sins forgiven it's a two way street forgiveness is only active when you accept the forgiveness okay so when he's been he died for the sins of the whole world that goes against what some of our

[11:02] Calvinistic friends teach Christ only died for a few people he's picked Peter's going to heaven sorry sorry Josh you're not appreciate you being here though God's not that way he says I died for the sins of the whole world whosoever comes to him will be saved isn't that good to know but it also encourages us if he died for the sins of the whole world it should encourage us to share that good news with the whole world you know in our early stages of our country they didn't believe in missions because some of the early churches the denominational churches they were Calvinistic and it's like why should we go anywhere else if God's going to save them God's going to save them until suddenly somebody got God got hold of them and they said wait a minute how are they going to be saved if they never hear and the missions programs were started throughout the world and that's why we send missionaries that's why we're missionaries locally why because

[12:22] Jesus Christ the righteous is a propitiation for the sins not only ours but for those of the whole world are you saved this morning if the trumpet should sound and the Lord come back would your seat be empty or would you still be sitting here wondering what happened I'll tell you what happened if you're still sitting here you don't know Christ as your savior you've not had your sins forgiven you didn't believe he died for your sins you didn't believe he!

[12:50] was buried you! didn't believe he rose again the third day but I hope you have so because he's accepted us because we're his I know I say this over and over but it's good to remember once you have had your sins forgiven you have developed a new relationship with God the father now you truly are his child people who say we're all children of God no we're not only those who have accepted Christ as their savior are a child of God that's what the!

[13:30] everybody is a! creation of God and God loves everybody but you're not part of the family until you believe and because you're part of the family there's things that we need to do because we have this relationship and if we fail God by not doing what he wants we will never lose that relationship but we might lose the fellowship you might know a lot of families where the kids don't talk to the parents anymore haven't talked to them for years and that's sad but it happens are they still their children yeah till the day they die but do they have a good fellowship no and that's the same way it is with God that relationship will never be broken once you accepted him once he becomes your father you're always his so when you die you're going to be where he is but we need to have that fellowship and how do we do that fellowship verse three hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments he that saith

[14:45] I know him and keep not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him well if we are part of the family we need to do what the father tells us to do it's as simple as that just saying well do I have to do that to maintain my relationship with him so I can maintain my salvation no if you don't you sin but you still have the relationship the reason we have to do the commandments is not to maintain the relationship to maintain the fellowship so we can still walk in the light not in the darkness that's why we follow his commandments not to get salvation not to keep salvation but because of salvation and there's a big difference amen now he says if we know him that word know is a great word that means to have a close relationship it tells us in 2nd corinthians 4 6 for god who commanded the light to shine out darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ we are to do what christ tells us to now this isn't talking about the old dietary laws of the old testament although they are good to follow many of them except that one about not eating pork we gots to have our bacon right but do I get any more no but there are a lot of commandments given to us in the new testament that come from god the biggest one is jesus said they'll know you're my disciples if you what have love one for another that means you care about each other sometimes in churches that doesn't that's not always there and that's sad but that's a commandment in fact he even tells us later in john we'll find out if you say you love god but you hate your brother you never need to check your salvation i summarized it but that's the gist of it he says keep his commandments how about this one in first thessalonians four when paul wrote the thessalonians he said this for you know what commandments we gave you by lord!

[17:35] jesus for this is the will of god even your sanctification that you should obtain from fornication that's a commandment from god don't sin this one was fornication that basically is sexual activity outside of marriage but there are others if you read through the whole new testament there there there are all these things where paul teaches where john teaches where peter teaches this is the will of god for your life those are commandments!

[18:12] they normally have to do with sin you say well what if I'm doing most of those well are you doing good are you doing good for people scripture also says for him that know to do good and do it not to him it is sin he expects us to do good he expects us to be in communion with other believers he expects us to fellowship together during our different services all of those things are the commandments of god well that'd be a good study try to find all of the commandments just from the new testament i think they probably make some of us a little sad oh man i gotta do that yeah but remember you're not doing it because you have to to keep salvation or to get salvation because of salvation you're doing it because you love god many times and and we look at our lives not just while we're there not just when we're living under the house in the house with our fathers but many times as we get out and go other places we still do what our fathers wanted us to do what he taught us to do

[19:38] I remember my dad he he taught me a lot of things well he taught me a lot of bad things but the good things was one of the things he always taught me he says if you ever have to borrow something from somebody always return it in better shape than when you got it and that stuck with me my whole life his reasoning was that way they're more likely to lend it to you again but we learn these things and we try to keep these commandments my dad told me when I was younger save money now because if you don't it's going to be harder when you get older okay dad I didn't but he was right it does become harder you see our earthly fathers give us commandments that stay with us our whole life things to help us live things to help us get by think how much more the heavenly father gives us and it says if we know him if we have a relationship with him and how do you get that relationship with him you spend!

[20:46] time with him just like you get a relationship with anybody you spend husbands and wives they know a lot about each other before marriage but after marriage they learn even more because you spend more time with them so if you know him but if you say that you are in relationship with the father through Jesus Christ and you refuse!

[21:14] to do whatever he says to do you're a liar it says don't get mad at me it's what it says! so we need to keep his word tells us for example in Luke Jesus said why call you me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say you say we have a relationship but you just totally ignore me and everything else it tells us verse 4 he that saith I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him we learned a little bit about this this morning in Sunday school about the Holy Spirit if you say you're a believer but you don't live it the truth not in you what is the truth and that the question that who was a

[22:24] Pontius Pilate asked when Jesus what is truth well Jesus Christ is truth but also when John 16 says how be it when he the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he hears that shall he speak and he show you things to come so when we have the holy spirit we have access to the truth that's why it tells us don't be filled with wine which is an excess but be filled with the spirit because when you allow the spirit to activate to exercise his abilities within you you have access to all truth and and Jesus also said when he was praying to the father sanctify them with thy truth thy word is truth so the two great things if you want to know the truth do you want to know if it's in you how close are you to allowing the

[23:33] Holy Spirit to work within you the spirit of truth how much do you study his word the word of truth and you say well I don't need that I don't need the Holy Spirit well the truth is not in you if the truth is not in you you don't know God if you don't know God you don't have salvation and that should scare!

[23:57] you because hell is not a pretty place just thinking about it gives me the creeps verse five and six but whoso keeps his word and him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know that we are in him he that saith he abides in him but also to walk even as he walked I like the way John always says if you say it's a lot of people have a lot of words but they have little doing and that's what he's saying don't just say you're going to do the truth do the truth don't just say you're going to follow Jesus Christ follow Jesus Christ don't just say you're going to do his commandments!

[24:55] do his commandments don't just say you're going to love God and love others love God and love others it's not just saying it has to be followed by doing I'm sure all of you know people who talk a lot and make a lot of promises they do a lot of saying but when it comes to the doing they fall a little short and so we have to understand even with God and serving him and being more spiritual we don't just say we do Christianity is a life of action and serving God and doing what God wants and that's how we prove that we love God we keep his word and the more we keep his word the more

[26:00] God's love is perfected in us the more God's love is projected from us and we get to show it to others so it says if you say you abide in him you are in him part of him like he taught about abiding in John earlier about how he is the vine we are the branches we abide in him in other words we get all of our power all of our energy all of our life from him that's abiding so ask to ask to ask yourself this question first the most important question do I know Jesus Christ as my savior am I 100% sure that when I die I'm going to heaven if not none of this other stuff matters because that's where it starts salvation then if you are saved if you are born again if you have accepted

[27:07] Christ if you are a child of God are you living like that are you walking like Christ walked think about the way he walked there were people that were calling him names for what he was teaching he used a few words of God to counter it and moved on he didn't get angry he just moved on he was arrested falsely and he just continued to follow the father he said some things against the religious leaders that would curl your hair but he said this is what you're doing wrong he stood up for the truth because he is truth and that's what he wants us to do let's bow our heads please for just a moment we need to walk renewed we need to walk in such a way that the world will see us and instantly say there's something different about them but in order to do so we need to choose not to sin we need to choose to obey

[28:47] God we need to choose to love one another but more than just choosing we need to put these into action as we go to the Lord in prayer ask yourself do I live a life of obedience to God do I follow what he teaches do I live so others will know in all of my actions that I truly am a child of God if not now is a good time to go to him ask his forgiveness ask for his direction ask for his guidance let's pray together heavenly father Lord God we thank you for what you teach us in your word we thank you

[29:50] Lord for the salvation that we have through Jesus Christ when we trusted him his shed blood was a propitiation for our sins they're gone we're thankful yet still in the flesh Lord we may have problems we're thankful Lord that you are our comforter our advocate but Lord as we live here on earth sometimes it gets tough to follow your word help us Lord to draw ourselves closer and closer to you through prayer through fellowship through study of your word through allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us in all things Lord help us to be like you we ask this in Jesus name amen to to you to you