[0:00] Good morning, a warm welcome to the service today and a special welcome to those who are visiting. We've got some from Scalladale, we've got some perhaps who are here for the first time and it's excellent to see all of you as we come together to worship God.
[0:15] The notices are on the screen, you've had them on the screen for the last few minutes so I'm not going to go through them all in detail. So I will just highlight that the service tonight is going to be taken by Phil Pickett who is here somewhere.
[0:33] He is here, so it's good to have Phil and Helen. Phil will be taking the service tonight and there's an after church fellowship after the evening service so please be encouraged to come along to that, we'll hear some testimonies and the young folks will be involved in that also.
[0:50] Ladies' Fellowship, Little Fishers, Road to Recovery, you've got the details on the screen, same time, same place. Wednesday is the National Day of Prayer and it's also the week that's been set aside for the week that we would mark Thanksgiving.
[1:07] So the prayer meeting on Wednesday will be a time for us to thank God for his faithfulness in the year past and also pray for the work of the Gospel in Scotland and across the world as we look forward.
[1:21] So there will be resources from the National Day of Prayer that we'll use for that and please be encouraged to come along to that service so we can thank God for all that he has done and is doing and pray for the work of the Gospel going forward.
[1:34] There's also in the vestibule a sheet. In the past we did a 24-hour, as a congregation we did a 24-hour prayer time so there's an hour slot and you take an hour, you can take two or three if you want but if we take an hour slot the aim is to have prayer continually through the 24 hours.
[1:56] I notice that there's not too many names on the sheet so if you're able to put your name on the sheet that would be excellent and we'll see if we can have as much prayer over the course that day as possible.
[2:12] Kids Clubs on Friday, you've got details there. Bethesda will be holding a soup and pudding lunch at Emory Hall. Kenneth Street on Saturday from 12 till 2. Bacon donations would be gratefully accepted and the services next Sunday will be taken, God willing, by myself.
[2:28] The church cleaning rota you've got there on the screen also and there was another notice about an appeal for Glasgow City Mission, I think it was. I don't have the details on my sheet but it was on the screen.
[2:41] So these I think are not all the notices because there's one more that I forgot and that's a community lunch tomorrow from 12 till 2.
[2:51] So the monthly community lunch tomorrow here from 12 till 2. So please note that also. Let's now worship God and let's sing to his praise.
[3:02] We'll sing from Psalm 84. Psalm 84 and we'll sing from verses 1 to verse 9 of the psalm. How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, to me.
[3:17] We'll stand to sing to God's praise. How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, to me.
[3:36] The tabernacles of thy grace, how blessed they be.
[3:49] My thirsty soul longs livingly, If it's thy porch to see.
[4:02] My very heart and flesh cry out, O living God for thee.
[4:16] Behold, the smile of thy death, and her sweat to rest.
[4:31] The swallow also for her son, a purchase set on this.
[4:45] In line on altars where she say, her young ones forth may bring.
[4:58] O thou almighty Lord of hosts, who art my God and King.
[5:13] Blessed are they in thy heart, O Lord of hosts, to me. Blessed are they in thy heart, O Lord of hosts, to me. The world may ever give me grace.
[5:28] Blessed is the man whose strength thou art, in whose heart are thy ways.
[5:42] Who aspire toeth, O Lord of hosts, to me. The last in thorough pay that's where Therein to take up wells Also the rain that falleth down The coast with water yields So did from strength the weak go Still for burden to strength Until its eye on day appear Before the Lord of them Lord God, oppose my prayer and rear
[6:47] O Jacob's God, give me air See God, our shield, look on the face Of thine united year Let's unite our hearts together in prayer Let's pray Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, your day And we thank you for the encouragement There in the psalm that we've sung That you're the Lord of hosts And you're the one who hears our prayers And Lord, we thank you for the confidence That that gives us That you are the Lord of hosts That you are the God who is almighty The God who is all-powerful The God who spoke everything that we see
[7:49] And everything that we are into being Who created everything from nothing And who sustains it by the word of his mouth We thank you that you are the Lord of hosts That you are the sovereign The almighty God The one who is able to do far more Than we ask or even can think And yet, Lord, we thank you That you hear our prayers You listen for us as we come To make our requests And as we come before you in worship So we thank you, Lord For the fact that That is a promise that you keep And that's a promise that is kept in Jesus We know that if we were to Seek to come into your presence In our own name And on the basis of our own lives We could not make an approach Because of the sin that is in us But we thank you that we come In the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, our Saviour The one who became sin So that we, as we believe in him Can become righteous
[8:51] We thank you for the cross That place that we come to Each time that we gather We thank you that on the cross Jesus took our sin He took the punishment For our sin upon himself He took the curse of sin From us into his body on the tree And we praise you that When we are trusting in Christ We have the assurance That the curse is removed That your blessing is upon us And that we are accepted And that we are received In and through Jesus' name And so Lord we pray That you would receive us That you would accept us We pray Lord that as we confess our sin That you would cleanse us And we ask Lord that as we wait Upon you in this hour That you would renew our strength As you have promised to We thank you Lord that we can pray For ourselves in our own need And Lord you know our hearts You know our need We pray for anyone here This morning who is still Outside of Christ
[9:51] Anybody who has not yet Confessed their sin Anyone who has not yet Trusted in Jesus We pray Lord that even In these moments As we read your word And as we meditate upon it That you may be moving In the power of the Holy Spirit And that you may be drawing People Lord to yourself We ask Lord that you would be working And that you would be seeking And saving those who are lost We pray for the young people Especially those who are with us And who have been in Scalodale Over the weekend We ask that they would remember That they would trust their creator In the days of their youth That they would come to know Jesus As their own saviour And that they would go through their lives With that friend that sticks closer Than a brother That they would go through their lives With that ambition Not to glorify self But to glorify God And to know the joy That comes with that We pray for those who are anxious This morning There are many things in our lives
[10:54] Which break in and distract us And can weigh us down And so Lord you Know what these things are As we even bring them before you In prayer just now And we ask that you would help us To cast all our cares upon you We thank you that we have a friend in Jesus Who is able to take all our sins And our griefs And our cares and our burdens from us And so we ask Lord That as we think of those Whom we love And whom we are concerned for As we think about The things ahead of us And this week Or over the coming weeks That give us a sense of anxiety We ask Lord That you would help us And that you would Help us to trust you And to lean upon you At this time We pray for those Who are grieving Once more Lord We are conscious Of those who are grieving Even in this week past In Scalpy And here in this area We ask for your comfort Lord For your presence To be with them And for your hope
[11:55] To be given to them And for those who are sick For those who are in care homes Lord as we think of them And as we name them Silently in our hearts We pray that you would help them For those in the hospital also That you would help them We pray for our young ones We thank you Lord For the sound of young voices In the church And in the creche And we pray Lord For your blessing upon them We thank you that As we've prayed For babies We've seen them coming into your house And we pray For those who are here today We pray for those Who will be here on Tuesday Who may not come any other day And we ask Lord That you would bless them And that you would help us To show them the love of Christ As they come in To this place So hear our prayers Lead us and guide us in worship And enable us to know Your presence with us At this time And we ask all this In Jesus name And for Jesus sake Amen Boys and girls That's the primary boys and girls
[12:56] Do you want to come forward please? Today there will be a Sunday school It's a holiday So today There will be a Sunday school For the primary school children Only So no S1s S2s S2s Sneaking out There will be a Shorter service To accommodate you But There will be a Sunday school For you guys Well for the younger ones Now Question for you How alert are you?
[13:23] How good are you At noticing things? Do you think? Quite good I think you're pretty good Michael Even though you could test otherwise Can you tell me Have you noticed anything different About Tarbird Over the last few days?
[13:41] Lydia your hand up first There's lights on the houses Yeah There's lights on the houses And on shops Michael There's no island bites But actually You're on the right track So let's just park that up Let's Let's Let's cast that awful Painful thought From our minds And just focus on the lights For a moment So You see lights Around the shops On some houses And all the way along The main street And There's all these Well Are they lights?
[14:23] Yeah Because I went out for a walk Last night With Shoros About 10 or 11 o'clock at night And it was dark And Even the street lights Go off They go off there About 11 o'clock And when I came through The main street Do you think it looked Really Christmasy And Bright And shiny And Warm And Festive No Enough of Battling bikes Okay Do you think it did?
[14:52] Do you know why Do you think it did? Let me tell you It didn't It didn't And why? Because they weren't on Because they weren't on So When you look around Tarbert In the daytime You see Lots of Lots of Vulves On strings Like that But when it gets dark And you expect There to be lights And you expect to see Some kind of warmth And all the All that magic Light stuff Nothing No It's not Christmas yet So we understand why But Does anybody know When the lights are going on?
[15:33] Friday So we're looking forward To the lights going on And when the lights go on Everything at nighttime Just looks Looks lovely And bright And festive And Christmassy And so We're looking forward To the day When the lights shine Now who does the Bible Say Is the light?
[15:56] Jesus Jesus Jesus said In John chapter 8 Verse 12 I am the light Of the world Is that all? Does the Bible Just say That Jesus Is the light?
[16:12] No but Does the Bible Just say That Jesus Is the light And he's The only one Who is the light? So who else Is the light? God Well God Is the light God the son Jesus Is the light But did he say There's anyone else Who's the light?
[16:27] Okay This is news to you Listen to this Matthew chapter 5 Jesus is preaching A sermon On a mountain And he says To the people Who believe in him He said In Matthew 5 Verse 14 You are the light Of the world And then he says In verse 16 So let your light Shine Before Others So Jesus Is the light Of the world But Jesus Says to the people Who believe in him You are the light Of the world And I want you Says Jesus To let your light Shine Before others So what do we need To do this morning Boys and girls We need to We need to Trust Jesus So that his light Comes into our lives And What else do we need To do?
[17:27] We need to let her Pray We need to pray And stay close to Jesus But we need to Trust Jesus Believe in him And we need to let His light shine So we stay close To Jesus His light is strong Within us How can we let The light of Jesus Shine out through our lives?
[17:46] Kenny? Well we believe And what can we do That will let the light Of Jesus Shine out of here Into school And into All the places That you go How can you bring The light of Jesus?
[17:59] Tell people about Jesus And show people Jesus In the way That you Are kind To them And the way That you care For them So the message Today When you walk Around in the evening Is don't Be like A light bulb On a string That's never Switched on Trust in Jesus And let your light And let your light And let your light shine Believe in Jesus Tell people About Jesus And his Love for them So let's pray Will we?
[18:35] Lord we thank you For your love for us We thank you That you That you Lord Jesus Came into this world To overcome the darkness We know that in our hearts There is the darkness Of sin We thank you That you Lord Jesus Came into the world To be the saviour To take that sin away So that the light Of Jesus Would shine Into our lives And that we would know Everlasting light And life When we are trusting in him So help us We pray Whether we're young Or whether we're older To be believing in Jesus And to be telling other people About Jesus And to be showing Other people Jesus In the way that we live And we ask all this In Jesus name And for his sake Amen We're going to sing now Mission Praise 987 The words on the screen Hear as love Vast as the ocean Loving kindness
[19:48] As the flood Where the prince Of life for ransom Shed for us His precious blood Who his love Will not remember Who can cease To sing his praise He can never be forgotten Through and end Eternal days On the heart Of crucifixion Fountains open Deep and wide Through the flood Gates of God's mercy God a vast And gracious time Grace and love And life You never For it says And from above At them peace
[20:50] And perfect justice Is that guilty Thank you.
[21:25] Love and power on me, with a pleasure full of powerless, drawing out my heart to thee.
[21:42] Okay boys and girls, if you head through to Sunday school now, I'll be praying for them as they go. Thank you.
[22:25] This is God's word. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
[22:39] This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
[22:51] This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You dear children are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
[23:06] They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them. We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.
[23:18] This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
[23:32] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
[23:50] Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
[24:01] We know that we live in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world.
[24:13] If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in him and he is in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.
[24:25] Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made complete and is made complete among us so that we will have confidence in the day of judgment.
[24:36] Because in this world, we are like him. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
[24:49] We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
[25:02] And he has given us this command. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Amen. And may God bless that reading of his word. To us, we're going to sing again now to God's praise.
[25:15] We'll sing the last two stanzas. The last three stanzas, actually, of Psalm 84. The psalm that we sang.
[25:26] And we'll sing these verses in Gaelic. I'll read them in English. These three verses of Psalm 84.
[25:59] For we sing in Gaelic. And we'll sing in Gaelic.NINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNING CHOIR SINGS
[27:03] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS
[28:08] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SNING CHONING CHONING I yet belong to the mountain Who wishes to give us all Who wishes to give us all
[29:17] Who wishes to give us all Who wishes to give us all Who wishes to give us all
[30:47] Who wishes to give us all Who wishes to give us all
[31:51] Who wishes to give us all The simple message of the Bible And that they would believe And that they would come to know Jesus We pray for others as well as they meet in different places The congregations that we're from In different areas We pray for each one We pray for those of our members who are away just now on holiday That you would bless them and that you would refresh them We pray for those who are visiting with us And we ask that you would bless them and refresh them also And we pray for those who preach in other places We think of Duncan as he opens your word in Carlow just now We ask that you would speak through him We pray for Stuart as he preaches over in US today And we ask Lord that you would also minister your word through him And for every other place where your word is open Where Christ crucified is preached Of whatever denomination Lord we pray That you would be at work Building up your church And seeking and saving souls
[32:51] And we ask all this in Jesus name Amen Does anybody remember these?
[33:06] Do you remember these things? What are these things? You can talk to me just for the first part of the service And then you can be quiet after that These are COVID test kits I found one on the bottom of the bathroom cupboard In the last couple of days And going back a year or two years ago We would be regularly taking these tests And then we'd be nervously waiting To see if the test was positive enough To justify taking another week off school When you feel pretty much okay So a test kit COVID test kit One John The book Is a bit like a test kit But John is writing So that we will know That we have eternal life This book As we step through these chapters It's designed to help us
[34:08] To know That we have eternal life And it's also designed to help us To know If we don't have eternal life So that we Can come to Jesus And ask him for eternal life The key verse In this book of 1 John Is in verse 13 of chapter 5 And John writes And he says I write these things to you Who believe in the name Of the Son of God So that you may know That you have eternal life So that's John's purpose In this chapter And in every chapter Of this little letter John as God the Holy Spirit Inspires him He wants us to know Not think Not wonder Not be in doubt But he wants us to know Where we stand before God He wants us to know
[35:09] That we are saved So let me Just begin with That opening application And ask you the question Do you Do you know That you are saved?
[35:24] Can you give a straight And a clear answer To the question Are you a Christian? Do you know If you were called From time Into eternity Today Do you know That you would have Eternal life in heaven And not eternal death In hell See John Doesn't want us To be in doubt Over any of these things He wants us to know That we have eternal life And so he asks us Questions In the course Of this book That help us To diagnose Where we are And I want to Consider four questions Today If we have a time Three if we don't Depends how fast You listen Question number one Who are you listening to?
[36:18] Question number two Is where are you from? Question number three Is who do you love? And question number four Is how are you living?
[36:32] So these are the four questions These are the four points That we'll work through In the time that we've got So first of all Who are you listening to? Today there's lots of people Who want to speak Into our lives You can't avoid Knowing the fact That this is The weekend That Black Friday's on And Cyber Monday So there's constant Emails coming through They're trying to Speak into our lives Speak into our inboxes So that we'll buy the things That they're telling us Are such a good deal There's lots of people Who want to Speak into our lives Young people especially Seeing as we have Quite a high proportion Of them this morning They're very familiar With the term Influencers And social media Is full of people Who would call themselves Influencers And some want to Influence your fashion style Some want to Influence your food choices Some want to Influence the way
[37:32] That you think about Issues like gender And identity And ethical issues And these influencers Many of which Are not very good They want to Speak into your lives And they want us To listen to them You could say John is an influencer God the Holy Spirit Is speaking through John And John wants us To listen to him So verse 1 If you've got your Bibles open You'll find it easier To look at the Bible Than to look at my face Dear friends Verse 1 Do not believe Every spirit But test the spirits To see whether They are from God Because many false prophets Have gone out Into the world So John He starts on that note And he's He's speaking a word Of caution About who we Who we listen to He speaks about He speaks about
[38:33] Spirits He says Don't believe Don't listen to Every spirit So what does he mean When he's talking About spirits Is he talking about Ghosts and And ghouls Well no He's speaking about People The spirit With which They're speaking See back then About Just a little under 2000 years ago This was written About AD 85 AD 90 There were people And John Calls them False prophets They were A cult Called Gnostics And they were Telling lies About Jesus And these Gnostics These false Prophets They were saying That Jesus Was never really A man They were denying The message And the glory Of Christmas They were denying That the word That God Became flesh And made his Dwelling among us
[39:33] And so John Is writing To oppose These false Teachers John is Showing us How to spot A fake Now there's Lots of Fakes In this World You can go On eBay And you can See a whole Lot of Fake Designer Jackets And trainers You can Go into Marketplaces In London Or Glasgow And there Will be People Offering you Apparently Genuine Rolex Watches For £30 They're just Fakes I remember Being on a Beach years Ago And a man Came along And he Offered me A pair of Genuine Ray-Ban Sunglasses I needed a Pair So I Bought a Pair £10 It was a Good deal And I Took them Home And had a Closer look At them It didn't Actually say Ray-Ban On the Lens It said Roy-Bonn They were Fakes And there Were people And there Still are People Who say That they Are bringing A message From God
[40:34] But it's Fake John helps Us to Spot them He says In verse 2 This is how You can Recognize The spirit Of God Every spirit That acknowledges That Jesus Christ has Come in the Flesh Is from God But every Spirit That does Not acknowledge Jesus Is not From God This is the Spirit Of the Antichrist Which you Have heard Is coming And even Now is Already In the World Now some Of us Might be Saying Why is John Getting so Hot Under the Collar About this Why is John So Bothered About this Why is He so Intent On Making This Point That Jesus Came Into The World As a Real Man That He's That He's Real Flesh Why is This Such a Big Deal For John And the Answer To that Question Is because Our Salvation And Eternal
[41:34] Life Depends On This If Jesus Was Not Human If Jesus Did Not Come In the Flesh He Couldn't Take Our Sin From Us He Couldn't Stand In Our Place He Couldn't Take The Punishment That We Deserved He Couldn't Be Our Substitute For Those Who Are Watching Match Of The Day Last Night You See The Game Going On And Sometimes The Game Stopped On Comes A Substitute So Man United Are Playing And They Break For A Substitute The Guy That Comes On As The Substitute Is From Man United He's Wearing The Same Strip He's Of The Same!
[42:23] He's Not Of A Different Team He Doesn't Come Down From The Stands He's Part Of That Team And Jesus Had To Be The Same As Us He Had To Be Human To Be Our Substitute He Had To Come On The Flesh To Take On Flesh Like Us And John Is Making Clear That Jesus Was Human That Jesus Was Man That Jesus Was And Is The Savior And John Wants Us To Listen To What He Has To Say About Jesus John Wants Us To Listen To Jesus John Wants Us To Come Under The Influence Of Jesus John
[43:25] Wants Us To Believe In Jesus So He Asks Us This Question Who Are You Listening To Who Are You Listening To If Your Social Media Account Was Stuck Up On The Screen And You Scroll Through All The Stuff That Speak!
[43:46] Into Your Lives Who Are We Listening To We Listening To Jesus We Trusting In Jesus As Saviour He's The Only One He's Able To Take Away Our Sin He's The Only One Who Is Able To Give Us Eternal Life So Who Are You Listening To The First Question Second Question Is Where Are You From Now Today We've Got Visitors With Us And People When They Meet With Visitors At The End Of The Service When We're Having A Cup Of Tea Almost Always The Question That I Hear The Visitors Been Asked Is Where Are You From And That's The Question That John Asks And He Draws Attention To Only Two Places He Talks About Those Verse!
[44:40] Four Who Are From God And He Talks About Those Verse Five Who Are From The World And He's Asking You And I To Think About Where We're From So Verse Four As He Writes To Those Who Believe He Says You Dear Children Are From God And Have Overcome Them Because The One Who Is In You Is Jesus Is Greater Than The One Who Is In The World So John As He Speaks To Christians As He Speaks To Believers He Says You Are From God What Makes Them From God Well Just Simply The Fact That They Believe In Jesus You Are In Christ Says John And Christ Is In You That's What Makes You Christians That's What Makes You Children Of God And Then There's The Contrast Goes From One Extreme To The Other We Have Some Artists
[45:40] In The Congregation Today Some Artists Love To Use Lots Of Colors And Shade And The Lines Are All Blurry Other Artists Just Like Black And White Sharp Lines John Is A Black And White Sharp Lines Contrast Kind Of A Guy And So He Says You Are From God That's One Extreme And Then He Looks At Another Group And He Says!
[46:12] So John He Looks In The Direction Of The False Teachers The Gnostics The Fakes And He Says They're From The World So What Was It That Identified Them As Being From The World Well It Was The Fact That They Didn't Believe In Jesus They Didn't Believe That Jesus Was The God Man They Didn't Believe That Jesus Was The Savior And That's What Made Them From The World That's What Put Them Outside Of The The The Category Of Christian So He Says You Believers Those Who Are Believing In Jesus You Are From God You Belong To God They He Says!
[47:03] Who About Himself And All Of The Apostles Just A Small Group Of People That Included Peter And Paul And John And A Few Others!
[47:44] And He Says We Are From God And The Reason That We Are From God He Says Is Because We're Telling You The Truth About Jesus We're Telling You To Believe In Jesus So There Were Two Very Different Distinct Groups Of People Back Then And There Are Too Very Distinct Groups Of People In This Room Here Today There Are Those Who Belong To God Who Are Trusting In Jesus And There Are Those Who Belong To The World And John Is Asking You And I The Question Which Group Are You In Where Are You From And It's A Massively Important Question Because
[48:45] Where You Are From Will Determine Where You Are Going If You Are From God If You Are Trusting In Jesus Then When You Die All Of Us Will Die We'll Go To Be With Jesus We'll Enjoy Eternal Life In Heaven In That Place That Jesus Has Prepared For All Those Who Are Trusting Him So If You Are From God That's The Course You Will Take Upon Death But If You're From The World If You're Here And You Are Someone Who Is Saying Week By Week I Don't Actually Want To Know Jesus I Don't Want Him In My Life Then When You Die If You Haven't Changed Jesus Will Say Well Depart From Me
[49:45] You Didn't Want To Know Me And I I Didn't Ever Know You And There'll Be No Eternal Life There'll Be No Place In Heaven There'll Be No Escape From Hell So Where Are You From Who Are You Listening To Third Question Is Who Do You Love Love Today Is Today Is A Huge Enphasis On What Love Is How Love Is Expressed Before You're Even Told How To Read And Write You're Told What To Think About These Kind Of Things Today and the big issue that the world pushes on us is that you're free to love whoever you want, whatever gender, whatever way you want to love.
[50:37] It's fine. That's the philosophy of our age. So today, the culture that we live in says love is God. Love is God.
[50:52] And love is all about self. It's all about satisfying self. It's got to work for me. The Bible says the opposite.
[51:04] Dear friends, verse 7. Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
[51:19] So the world says love is God, and it's all about getting what I want. The Bible says God is love.
[51:32] It's not all about getting. It's all about giving. Then there's this amazing statement in verse 9, as we think about what love truly is, as God defines it, in the giving of his son.
[51:48] This is how God showed his love among us, verse 9. He sent his one and only son into the world, that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son as the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins.
[52:05] So John is saying, if you want to know about love, it's not about what you feel. It's not about some funny feeling in your stomach. It's not about what this culture is telling you.
[52:16] It's about what God is telling you. God is love. And we see that love so clearly and so powerfully marked out on the cross.
[52:28] And you know, after the cross, where Jesus gave his life for us, John and the rest of the apostles, they never spoke about love without looking back.
[52:45] The apostles never tried to explain love without surveying again the wondrous cross of Jesus.
[52:58] Because that's where we see love. That's where we see God's love for us. God gave his only son, Jesus, to be our saviour.
[53:19] You've heard that a million times. But I pray that the Holy Spirit will take this truth and drive it into our souls so that we'll feel this.
[53:37] God gave his only son to be our saviour. When we had no hope and no possibility of eternal life, God gave his only son to be the sacrifice for our sin so that we who were, because of our nature, that was sinful, at war with God so that we could be made at one with God through the atoning, the at warning, sacrifice of Jesus.
[54:15] sometimes we doubt God's love for us. There might be somebody here this morning and you doubt God's love for you. Maybe you're angry towards him.
[54:29] Maybe you feel like he doesn't care about you. Maybe life has been difficult over the last while and you feel like he's a million miles away from you and the devil is whispering in your ear and he's saying he doesn't love you.
[54:42] Where do you go to get over these doubts? You go back to the cross. You go back to that place in history where we see the powerful love of God for us.
[55:01] And sing the verse from the hymn. Here is love vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood, when the prince of life, our ransom, shed for us, shed for me his precious blood.
[55:17] Who his love cannot remember? And when you and I see or when we remember God's love for us, how should we respond?
[55:34] Well, we should respond by trusting him. You can trust someone who loves you that much. We should respond by loving him who first loved us.
[55:51] And we should respond by loving each other. Verse 11. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
[56:05] Remember the COVID test? Remember you would do the liquid thing and you'd wait for five minutes? If you were positive, how many lines did you see?
[56:21] It's two lines, wasn't it, if I remember rightly? Two clear black, sometimes two clear red lines. And that indicated if we were positive and there are two lines, two markers that indicate if we are Christians, if we have eternal life.
[56:47] And one is that we love God. That's line number one. We love God because he first loved us and we've seen that. And the second line is we love each other.
[57:02] We love our brothers and our sisters in Christ. Even though they're a bit weird. Even though they can be quite annoying. You know, it's not always easy to love each other.
[57:19] In any family there are clashes. We annoy each other and it's messy. And the family of God is no different. We are all sinners. So it will be messy.
[57:34] Our patience will be tried. And we will try the patience of others. But we ought to love one another, says John. And when we do, verse 12, John says, the world sees a little reflection of God's love.
[57:55] The world gets a small sense, a little picture of what God is like. No one has ever seen God, verse 12. But if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
[58:15] So there's a lot at stake here. When we're dealing with this challenge to love one another. And John asks us the question, who do you love? Final point, it's only going to take me two or three minutes, is how are you living?
[58:31] So he asks the question in the course of this message, who do you love? Where are you from? Who are you listening to?
[58:42] And he ties it all together in the last section from verse 13 to 21 with this question, how are you living? And essentially what John is saying is if you are a Christian, if you have eternal life, there will be some things that you do.
[59:00] And you all have encountered people who say, I am a Christian. And they make a big noise about the fact that they are a Christian. And they may be a Christian who's belonging to a particular denomination, whose father was a minister and whose great grandfather was a missionary and I'm a Christian.
[59:22] And they speak it out. But John is saying it's not just about speaking it out, it's also about living it out. But he does begin by saying if you're a Christian you will speak about Jesus.
[59:40] Can I ask you this morning, when did you last speak to somebody about Jesus? Not about church, not about Scaldale camp, not about community lunch.
[59:54] When did you last speak to somebody about Jesus? Not denominations, but Jesus. The fact that God the Son came in the flesh, lived, died, rose, and promises that those who believe in him will have everlasting life.
[60:14] That's a message worth sharing. It's a message that we've been commissioned to share. When did you last speak to somebody about Jesus? Because that's a marker, that's a sign, that's an evidence in our lives that we are Christians.
[60:36] We're not to be bulbs on a string with no light to speak about Jesus. that puts the fear into actually all of us.
[60:49] But John anticipates that and he says, don't panic, you've got the help of the Holy Spirit. So there's three things in this last point, just to give you the headings.
[61:01] If we are Christians, what will be evident in our lives is one that will speak about Jesus. We know we live in him, verse 13, and he in us because he has given us of his spirit, and we have seen and testify, we testify, that the Father has sent his son to be the saviour of the world.
[61:25] If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in him, and he is in God.
[61:36] So if you're a Christian, you and I, with the help of the Holy Spirit, need to testify, to acknowledge that we are Christians, need to speak about Jesus.
[61:53] The second thing that should be seen in our lives is that we look forward to meeting Jesus. Verse 17, John speaks about a day of judgment, a day that will stand before Jesus.
[62:04] Some people, when they think about the day of judgment, are filled with fear and dread, a Christian, on the other hand, looks forward to that day, because that's the day that we're going to meet, and stand before the Savior, whom we love and we trust.
[62:24] So John says, how are you living? Are you speaking about Jesus? Are you looking forward to meeting Jesus? And finally, John says, are you loving like Jesus?
[62:37] And he goes back to this again, verses 19 and 20. He says, we love because he first loved us. If anyone says I love God, yet hates his brother, he's a liar.
[62:50] It's pretty straight talking, isn't it? For anyone who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
[63:03] And we almost want to say to John at this point, it's time to change the record. Every single chapter, you're back to this again and again and again.
[63:17] We've got the point, John, about loving each other, but the truth is we haven't. The reason John keeps on saying this over and over and over again, love each other, love each other, love each other, love each other, is because we keep on needing to hear it, because we're struggling to do it.
[63:41] We struggle to live this way. So let's finish with this thought. Is there someone just now in your life, another Christian, that you don't love?
[64:06] Is there someone in your life just now, a brother or sister, and you've fallen out with them? And they're at a distance, and you're happy with the distance.
[64:17] In fact, if it was longer as a distance, that'd be good too. Is there someone in your mind, and that's how you feel about them? Well, Jesus speaks through John, and he says to you and I, you need to love them.
[64:36] And we might respond by saying, well, they don't deserve love, because of the things they've said, and the things they've done to me. And Jesus will answer as he looks us in the eye, and says, neither did you deserve my love.
[64:59] but I loved you anyway. And he has given us this command, verse 21, whoever loves God must also love his brother.
[65:15] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for John, the apostle, the apostle of love, who speaks with such perseverance about love, who showed love in the way that he lived, and yet who spoke so directly and so bravely.
[65:40] We ask that you would minister to us as we meditate upon your word. Help us to think this afternoon about who you are listening to, the influences that speak into our lives.
[65:53] We pray that we would be those who are listening to and believing in Jesus. we pray that we would be those who are able to say that we are from God because our faith is in Christ and we're not those who are from the world because we are keeping Jesus at a distance and on the outside of our lives.
[66:13] We pray that we would be those who spend time even today surveying the cross again and trying to understand and grasp something of the height and the depth and the width and the wonder of the love that God has for us.
[66:31] And we pray that our response would be that we would love you, that we would trust you and that we would love each other. We pray that we would be people who in and through our lives would show that we are Christians.
[66:48] Yes, that we would speak about Jesus to a world that largely doesn't know about Jesus and what he did for them and that we would live each day mindful of the fact that there's coming a day when we will stand before Jesus.
[67:04] We pray that we wouldn't be fearful of that day but that we would be looking forward to that day as those who have trusted Christ. To hear our prayers, help us to love you, help us to love each other and we ask all this in Jesus' name.
[67:21] Amen. We sing to finish our mission praise 755 when I survey the wondrous cross. Amen. when I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the rest of glory died.
[68:10] My riches gave my current but lost and for content on all my price.
[68:27] Perfeited Lord that I should boast save in the death of Christ my God.
[68:44] all all all things that charm me most I sacrifice them to His blood.
[69:02] He promised this haste speed sorrow! sorrow and love flowing the down!
[69:19] May there's such love and sorrow meet for thorns composed so rich a crown and where the whole realm of nature mine that word and offering hearts is small of so amazing so divine demands my soul my life my own Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forever more Amen
[70:19] Amen