and for the reading of God's Word. Scripture tonight comes from 1 John, chapter 2, verses 7 through 11. Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you've heard, that you've had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you've heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him, there's no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. We're going to pray it by your hands. Heavenly Father, thank you for the stay, Lord, and for the rain and how you take care of your plants that you've created and more so you take care of us. God asks now you to open our hearts and minds to the gospel that is the good news of freedom we have in your Son, Jesus, in your name. Amen. Thanks, John. Well, our high schoolers just got back from a trip to RYM, Perform Youth Ministries in Florida, and it poured buckets on us the last two days we were there. But there was a one of the main speakers was Brent Harriman, who was the RIF campus minister at University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and he gave an illustration that I wanted to open with, but I'm not really stealing the illustration from Brent Harriman because he told a story of being at a U2 concert and about the story I'm about to tell you, but Brent was sitting up in the bleachers of the stadium, and I was in the inery elliptical at the U2 concert about 10 feet away from Bono. So mine carries a little more weight, so if you're at RYM, you think Brent's illustration was good. I had closer eye witness account. Well, it was a couple of years ago in August, at Vanderbilt Stadium, U2 concert, I love U2, and we got to go to the concert in the first thousand people got to get into this inner elliptical right by the stage, and so my nephew and I got to go to the concert because my wife was eight months pregnant and didn't want to stand in the heat in August at a U2 concert, I thought that might send her into labor. So we're at the concert, and there's this guy up on the front row holding up a sign that says, blind guy wants to play your song, and he's set to the whole concert, and it got to the end of the concert, and the guys still stand there holding the sign, they play, you know, they go off stage, they're about cheers, they come back for the encore, play a couple more songs, and then the band, the rest of band walks off stage, and Bono comes down to the front, down to the front where this guy is, and you can hear him barely over the loudspeakers, but because I was so close, I could hear him, very clearly. And Bono said, hey Robert, no, he didn't really, he looked at the guy and he said, do you want to come up and play a song? And I couldn't hear the other guy, and so the guy starts to climb up on stage, and Bono takes this, I assume, because it was green, I was like this Irish guitar, or something, a really, really cool guitar, and he takes it off of him, it's green, it's really neat looking, and he straps it on the guy, and the guy puts it on, and he starts playing a song, and the guy, you can hear it out of the loudspeakers, he says, I'm really nervous, dude, and he said, what do you want to play, and he says, I want to play a song from my wife, and so he starts playing a song, and Bono starts singing the song with him, as he's starting to play it, and then all of a sudden kind of out from the ramp, all the other guys from the band, Larry, Curly, and Mo, start coming back out, they start coming back out, and they all, as the song progresses, all the instruments join in, and this guy's playing in front of all these people, with you two, up on stage, and it was really cool moment, but the coolest moment was at the very end, when he finishes the song, and he finishes the song and starts to take the guitar off, and hand it to Bono, and Bono pushes the guitar back to him, because he's blind, pushes the guitar back to him and kind of says, no, you keep it, and so the guy is standing up there on stage, holding Bono's guitar, and in cool Bono fashion, he just turned around, and walks off, and so the crowd is going nuts, right, and there's just one guy standing on the stage holding Bono's guitar, and it was a really cool moment to see, but we saw that guy after the concert, and you could just tell he was just beaming, and this guy had had experienced playing guitar with you two on stage, and his life was probably changed from that point forward, because he had encountered Bono, he had encountered you two, right, the illustration makes the point tonight of what I want us to look at tonight is the love of Christ that is true in him, and is it true in you? Because this guy named Adam was transformed probably by an encounter with another human being, an artist. How have you been transformed by an encounter with Jesus Christ? Has it transformed you? Well tonight I want to look at those two things from the passage that John read that love is true in him, and love is true in you, or is it? It seems to be the point John is making this evening. All right, look back with me at verse 8, if you would, it says in verse 8, at the same time it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you. So it says, he talks about this beloved, I'm writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment he had from the beginning, the old commandment is the word that you have heard, and at the same time it's a new commandment, it's like, okay John, where are you going? Is it new or old? What's going on? And then he has, in good John fashion, he always brings us back to that grounded foundation, right? Remember the great wall of Chattanooga and those big steel beams that are driven into the ground, right? John always brings us back to that huge foundational truth of Christ. Every time he does it in some way, last week it was, if you sin you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, this week he does it in a more subtle way, but he does it again at the same time as new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you. So he reminds us that this new commandment of love is only possible because it's true in Christ. John in chapter 4 defines God as love, chapter 4 of this of this epistle, he defines God as love, right? And we looked at a couple of weeks ago about this love, this communion of love that has existed for all eternity between the Godhead, between the persons of God, the love of the Father, for the Son, and the love for the Son, for the Holy Spirit, in perfect love that has existed throughout all eternity, love is in him. And as history has rolled itself out, right, there's been this amazing picture of love given throughout all of redemptive history, right? We're living in history in 2013, but redemptive history began a long time ago, right? It began with a promise in Genesis 315, right after the fall, right after Adam and Eve had sinned, God gives a promise that he's going to send someone to crush the head of Satan, and it's a promise of a seed that can be traced all the way through scripture and brings great hope, and it's this promise of love even in the midst of screwing up at the very beginning of time and space history that we know it, God gives the promise of love. Love was from the very beginning, right? And we know that it, is it any wonder as we look at that rolling out that John expresses this in a very cool way when he says he says it in this passage that darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining, right? If you're in high school, you've seen this drawing, if you've been in the new members' class in the past a couple of times, you've seen this drawing and it really can be translated here as God's covenant love from the beginning of history, right? When I was little in Knoxville, Tennessee growing up, it actually used to snow in the winter. It doesn't snow that much anymore in the winter here, not because of global warming, but just other stuff. But as in my backyard, my brothers and I used to grab these snowballs and we'd start rolling them and then we'd get them rolling downhill and we'd get into the bottom of the fence and we'd have a snowball this big and we'd climb up on top of it and be a blast to do. Well, as we look at history, redemptive history, the promise of love in Genesis 3.15 as it rolls through history, the love of God is seen more clearly and more evident as it gains momentum through history as we come to know in the flood, we see God's love preserved and knowing His family. As we go to an adulterer and a murderer, David, right, we see God's love. We see it before that in Abraham and you see it in David and you see it in and God's love for even a prostitute, right, in Rahab. God's love starts to carry momentum and as it rolls into the New Testament, by the time we get there, we get the huge fan of light shining in the darkness and the darkness passing away as God's love goes into the Gentile world and you open up the book of Acts, right, the book of Acts is simply put is God's love being spread through His word and through His Spirit to the Gentile world and it busts on the scene in the book of Acts and I wonder where are you and I in that history, right? That snowball is still rolling. It's ultimate fulfillment, right, happens at the cross of Jesus Christ because it's true in Him, that promise all the way through Scripture, that promise of love, as it's rolling through history culminates at the cross of Jesus Christ, but God's love continues to be more gracious, continues to pour itself out on humanity in common ways and in saving ways. So today this evening, I want you to be gripped by the love of Jesus Christ because the only possible way that John could be giving a commandment, an old commandment, right, that starts in the in Genesis 315 and rolls through history, is also a new commandment because Jesus is the one who continues this love because it is Him who in true and Him first and also in us, right, is it rolls throughout that history, the law of love supersedes. John puts it this way and John first John 316, by this we know love that lead lay, he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our life for the brothers. Why does he call it new? It's a new demonstration of love because Jesus Christ kind of takes this love and there's this radical demonstration of love upon the cross. At no other point in history had this happen where Jesus Christ comes, takes the sin of his people upon him at the cross and love is demonstrated in a manner that has never been seen before in history and that a holy God takes upon the sins of the world upon himself and dies for people like us. Love is only true in us because it was first true in Him. Truth of love, the truth of love is that there is tonight the second thing I want you to see that there is a direct relationship between the love of Christ and those who have been transformed by his grace and his love, right? Just like that guy on that stage with Bono was likely transformed in some way, right? His whole life he'll remember that moment. How much more have you been gripped by the love of Christ and has it transformed you? Has the reality of the fact that throughout history starting in Genesis 315, love has rolled through history and God has graciously opened up love through his son. And if you're here tonight and you've put your trust in Jesus Christ, that began before eternity, right? That began an eternity passed with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. He had you in mind before the foundation of the world. His love was set upon you and it's driven all of history. Every single action, every single thing, every single particle of this world that is occurring right now is happening because redemptive history and the love of Jesus Christ is being rolled out. And we get to be a part of it. If you've been drawn into that, if you've been transformed by the love of Christ, by repentance and faith, you've been united to him. You've been joined to Jesus Christ. And what John is getting at, there's no way for you to love your brother unless you've been united to Christ because he is the one where love is first true. God is love and the only way that you and I can love is if we're united to him, right? When verse, in verse 8, when he says it's true in him, and it's true in you, true literally means they're genuine. Really interesting interpretation of that, isn't it? At the same time as a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is genuine in him and in you, is the love of Christ genuine in your heart. He later says, why John is calling this genuine because Jesus earlier had said in John 13 and John was a witness to this. He says in John 13, a new commandment I give to you, why does Jesus say it's a new commandment? A new commandment that I give to you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also all to love one another. By this, all people will know that you're in my disciples if you love one another. How has Jesus loved you? How has he gripped you by his love? His love transforms, right? Jesus says it's a new commandment, right? It's not as if the Israelites wondering around in the desert. It's not as if in history before Jesus came on the scene that we didn't know what love was, right? Because we know that all those expressions of love and the Old Testament are pointing forward to the ultimate love of Jesus Christ, right? They're always pointing forward to this deeper and greater love, the one who would come and perfect love for us. And we see as it rolls into the New Testament that love, this love that is transformed, that you and I have to start asking the question, has the love of Christ gripped me, this new commandment to love one another, has the love of Christ for me, gripped me so much that the description of my life is love for other people. Because Jesus says that's how people will know that you're my disciple, is if you love one another. Have you been united to Christ? If you've been united to Christ, then the primary characteristic by which you can see that that's evidence in your life and have assurance that Christ, that you've been united to him, is it over here that you love one another? That's the gist of what John is getting at. So have you been gripped by his love? Have you been transformed by it? If so, then the characteristics are given for us in the following verses, in the rest of verse 8 he says, which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the tree light is already shining. Then he says in verse 10, whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no calls for stumbling. So what does it characterize a person that has been gripped by God's love? They have love for one another, the light is shining and the darkness is going away, right? It's this picture of sanctification really. And I think sometimes when we look at the book of John, first John, I know Ryan led a high school small group in this book and it rocked their world a little bit. I think the reality of what we look at when we see these commandments that John gives, we kind of get frustrated with them and we wonder what's going on? What is John getting at by saying these things? And I think what he's what he's getting at when he he talks about this love for your brother abides in the light and in him there's no calls for stumbling and then he goes into this phrase of hating your brother and if you hate your brother, those kind of things you're you're a liar and the truth is not in you. And he has these kind of statements that he's making that are really hard for us to grasp and you kind of leave and you go, okay, I thought this book was about assurance and fellowship and I read through first John and now I'm not so sure because I'm a believer or not. And I think what John is getting at is it a pattern in your life? The positive side is do you see, if you've been transformed in love of Christ, do you see a pattern in your life that is love for others? Love for your brother, love for your sister, love for your enemies even, right? If you'll flip over, if you've got your Bible's first John chapter four, again just to emphasize that union with Christ is the reason and ability given you the ability to love one another, right? I don't want you leaving here going, I just got to love other people. Now I want you to see that God's grace is the thing that's transforming you in this process that you're in with a darkness is fading away and the light is shining forth, already shining. In chapter four, verse seven, he says, beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God. Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, beloved God has made manifest among us. All right, how do we know what love is? How do you and I share love? How does, how am I able to love my wife? How am I able to love my children? It's because of what John is about to say that God sent his only son into the world so we might live through him. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. And since his son, there's that word to be the perpetuation for our sins. We love it. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. So as you go through life and as you struggle to examine your own heart, if I've been transformed by love, by the love of Christ, that should grip my heart to love others. And I don't mean that you can't struggle right now in the process, right? I struggle in my heart with hatred towards people. And I hope that you're being honest tonight because I'm sure there's someone that you're angry with, someone that you're mad at, someone that you hate. I hope you're honest enough to at least go there because the reality is we're all in process and God is molding and shaping and conforming by His grace, us to the image of Christ. And that takes time. We're not all going to arrive one day and wake up and all of a sudden love our brother perfectly. We're right, we're reminded of last week, but if we do sin, what, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You have a quote in your book, in your hand out there by Doug Kelly, talking about this union with Christ and its relationship with other people, says this, we cannot look at our relationship with God and neglect our relationship with others. We can't take the attitude that others are not good enough for us. John asked, how can we love God whom we do not see when we don't love other people whom we do see? There will certainly be friction, but ultimately we are one. The reason that we have to learn to put up with others is because the love of the Father to the Son and vice versa. Their oneness is the example and commandment for us. The only way dear brothers and sisters that you're going to love others is if you have been gripped by the love of Christ. There's a negative aspect to this that I want to touch on lastly and that is John hits this negative section of this commandment, right? He says in verse 9, whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness, verse 11, but whoever hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. If you haven't been gripped and transformed by the love and the grace of Jesus Christ, you're probably having difficulty loving your brother.
You're probably having a lot of difficulty loving your enemies and it's because you're stumbling around and you're in darkness and the love of Christ has not gripped your heart. And I'll call you this evening to repent, to turn from that and turn to Jesus Christ who says come to me with all your hate, come to me with all your anger, come to me with everything because I will forgive and I'm your advocate before the Father and I'm your atoning sacrifice for sins. I forgive you. All right, I want to nail us all between the eyes for a minute because sometimes we look at this hatred for the war hatred of brothers and we kind of we can kind of all maybe you're thinking this in your mind right now. Boy, I hope so and so is listening to this. I got to let them listen to this once online. I want us to take our fingers right when we're pointing at others, there's four pointing back at ourselves. I want to look at ourselves for a moment and examine kind of the church culture that we've possibly created. This came up at RYM and in the midst of it coming up, I already made some notes that I wanted to address this issue. Is there hatred coming from the church towards towards others?
Where does this manifest itself? I believe that I believe there is a great inconsistency that's happening in the church today. The church has missed the mark. It has missed the mark on addressing certain issues in our culture. For example, the issue of homosexuality. The church has addressed the issue because we do need to stand for the truth, right? We believe God's word when it says the homosexuality is a sin. Do we believe God's word that that same sin is lumped in Romans 1 with those who are disobedient to their parents? I think what has happened in our world is that the tone in which we have addressed the issue has been a tone of hatred. It has been a tone of those out there that are homosexuals, those out there that are struggling with that sin, and we condemn it from within. Really, all we're doing is pushing them further and further and further away. Paul says in Ephesians, to speak the truth. How's he say it? In love. We've landed on the truth and said, dead gummit, we're standing for the truth and we have totally left mercy and love out of the equation because we're going to stand for the truth.
This is a hard statement and I might get in trouble for saying this. Could it be that our tone towards those social issues is the very thing that's driving people away from the church because they see the inconsistency? Could it be, here's the statement I might get in trouble for, could it be that liberalism and liberal theology and liberal society is growing to the astounding numbers that it is because the church has not shown love? Somebody looks at us and looks at the church and they go, there's a tremendously inconsistent thing going on here. The inconsistency is, I hear that Christianity is about love and they talk about this love of Jesus and this forgiveness of Jesus but they so strongly want to stand for the truth that when they come to those issues of homosexuality and other issues, they're so firm on it that they show no love and they see the inconsistency and they just go, why would I want anything to do with that? It's my hypothesis that they're flocking to liberal theology. They're flocking to the liberalism of our day because they see the inconsistency of the church that we're not marked by love. I give that as a warning in my heart and in your heart right, is manifest itself very clearly sometimes when you look at 1 Corinthians 13, I think Paul puts it in a very clear way, right, this clanging symbol. If I speak tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a noisy gong and a clanging symbol and if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy or boast, it does not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice at wrongdoing or rejoices with the truth. Love, so you might go, yes, see, love rejoices with the truth, we're going to stand by the truth, but it's very next line, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never ends, full circle the love of Christ, that beacon of light that burst into the darkness in Genesis 315, Paul says that that love is never going to end. I wonder today as we get ready to protect the Lord's supper, are you being a clanging symbol in the ears of your friends that are not believers, shoving the truth down their throat but have not love. If that's you, it's me, let us remember that if we sin against our brother we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous who forgives and calls us to repent and to love one another. Let me close this in prayer, Lord Jesus, we are confronted with the truth that perhaps we have not loved as the church should love. We are so good at condemning Lord Jesus. Please forgive us.
May we love even our enemies as Jesus has commanded or may the church from this day forward not be remembered because she was a stalwart of truth or may she be a light in the world because she is a reminder of love. Lord, I pray that my brothers and sisters here don't hear me saying abandoned the truth and just love but remember that the two have to go hand in hand. Help us to walk humbly before you and love those who are hard to love even if they're in our own families and forgive us and draw us to always remember that the only way possible for us to be able to love in the first place is that if we have been transformed by your love thank you Jesus for your transforming love may it continue to be at work in us all the days of our lives in Jesus name we pray amen.