What Do You Know?

Because it's Mother's Day, we would like all the moms to stand, please. Would you stand as we honor you this morning? Stay standing; we want to pray a blessing upon you in just a moment. Before we do, we also have a gift for all of you this morning. For the moms, we've got some Hershey Kisses for you. Since my mom disappeared—she was here a second ago—but for my wife and my wife's mom, happy Mother's Day! We also have some flowers. Where did my mom go?

Happy Mother's Day to you, moms! I recognize that for some ladies, Mother's Day can be a hard day to come to church. We want to acknowledge the sorrows of the day as well. We have some white roses in vases up here. There are some women who don't come to church on Mother's Day because it's a difficult day for them. They may have desired to be a mom but were never able to be, or they remember miscarriages or stillborn deaths. Some may remember children who are not walking with the Lord.

In acknowledgment of the sorrows of the day, if that's you today, we would like you to take a white rose this morning. We will pray for you. If you see a woman carrying a white rose, please lift up a prayer for her.

Now, we want to pray a blessing upon the moms here today. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you so much for these moms. We acknowledge and recognize that being a mom is tough work, and some of us kids made it more difficult than others. We pray a blessing this morning. We are so grateful for these women, as they give so much that is not even seen or acknowledged.

Acknowledged sometimes, but Lord, you've created them with a desire to do that. We pray that you would just pour out upon them today the small token from us, some chocolate. But Lord, we want to lift them up to you, and we pray for your blessing in Jesus' name.

Now, don't sit down. The rest of you, stand up if you would. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. Open your Bibles with me to the book of First John, as that is where we are studying today.

I just sent my good friend Victor Marks a message while that video was playing. We were praying for him and his team, who are right now in Syria at this moment, doing the work with Victor Marks Ministries. Please be praying for them. He texted me immediately afterward and said, "We feel your prayers, and we greatly appreciate it."

Now, First John chapter 2, verse 1: "My little children, these things I write to you so you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world."

Now by this, we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning.

Father, we pray as we look into this text today that you would speak and guide us into all truth. Jesus, that's exactly what you prayed—that the Holy Spirit would do, that He would guide us into all truth and teach us all things. So we ask that you, Holy Spirit, would be here today, that you'd open our ears, our minds, and our hearts so that we would hear your word, receive your word, and that it would begin to have its work and its way in us.

We pray that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that for the rest of this day and the rest of this week, we would be able to show what is your perfect will in our lives. So God, work in us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen."

You may be seated. I've had the really unique and blessed privilege for the last 20 years now, which feels weird to say, but it has been that long, to be able to every single week regularly stand up before groups like this and open the Book of Books. That's what we call this—the Book of Books. I go through the Scriptures and preach the Scriptures, and I have to say I'm so grateful to be able to do this work, to share what I believe is God's Word and what He desires for us and through us.

There are many times the thought goes through my mind that it does seem to be, just like Paul called it in his letter to the Corinthians, the foolishness of preaching. That's how the world saw it in his day, 2,000 years ago. There’s kind of a foolish thing that we do, and there’s a way in which some people can see it as a foolish thing when we gather in this way to study through the Scriptures. But we do this because we value this as the inspiration from God that is useful in our lives to bring about transformation, that God would make us more and more into the men and women that He desires us to be.

So, it’s an amazing thing to me what we are able to do when we gather like this. Now, aside from that point and just the gratitude that I have for being able to do this for the Lord and for the church, one of the things that I've begun to discover after now having done this for two decades is that you begin to see trends that are happening within the church and within the culture as it relates to how people see the Scriptures, the Word of God.

The segments of American Christianity that I would say are the most faithful and committed to the Scriptures are experiencing a shift in the way that they see the Bible. It’s very much seen in a group within this segment. We are a part of this group that really does value and hold highly the Bible, but there’s a segment within this group that they often refer to themselves as Reformed Christianity. Now, in some sense, I’m kind of bummed that they’ve co-opted that term because really every single Christian who is of the Protestant faith of Christianity—there was a split in Christianity about 500 years ago between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant church. Every single Christian that’s in the Protestant stream of Christianity...

We are really all Reformed Christians, if you will. However, there is this segment within Reformed Christianity that generally refers to themselves as Calvinists. They typically describe or define their theology through an acronym: TULIP. TULIP stands for Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.

Now, I'm not going to go into TULIP today and teach that whole thing. For some of you, you've never heard of it, and that's perfectly fine. For others, you know all about it. Over the last 20 years, especially, there has been a resurgence of this Calvinistic view of the Scriptures within Reformed Christianity and Protestant Christianity in America. As a result, more and more people hold this kind of view of the Scriptures, including Total Depravity and so forth.

I want to say that those who hold that position, and there are some in this church who embrace a more Reformed, Calvinistic view of the Scriptures, are God-loving Christians who value the Scriptures. I highly respect that. While I don't agree with the concepts of Total Depravity and Limited Atonement, I do recognize that this group values the Scriptures.

The problem I have observed over the last couple of decades is that as this view of Christianity has gained traction, it has really taken root in the theological institutions. The seminaries in our country, which are primarily responsible for producing the pastors who will lead churches, have been teaching this view of the Scriptures. Those students going through seminary receive this perspective, and then they go out to pastor churches, write books, create commentaries, and preach messages that end up as podcasts.

Whether you hold to the TULIP way of seeing the Scriptures or not, if you're a Christian, you will be exposed to some of this view through that filter. It affects the way we see the Scriptures, and I want to suggest today that it influences our understanding of the call that God has for us as followers of Jesus.

We are connected to two larger groups of churches: Calvary Chapel and the Southern Baptist Convention. Both of these groups have traditionally not held to a Calvinistic view of the Scriptures, but you can begin to see some of these ideas seeping into the way we perceive ourselves.

In light of the New Testament, John is responding to something similar, though not the same, that he was seeing 2,000 years ago when he writes this. The issue I am observing, as I look at the landscape of Christianity today, is that the first letter in TULIP—T for total depravity, or what some people call total inability—has taken such root in the teaching of many churches and in the minds of many Christians that they now begin to view themselves as necessarily unable, due to brokenness and depravity, to do what the Scriptures command.

It is absolutely true that you and I, in and of our own strength, cannot meet the righteous requirement that God has for us, as expressed in the law of the Old Covenant. When you read through the Old Covenant, Paul even says in the New Testament that all these things were written so that you and I would recognize our need for Christ. In the book of Galatians, Paul states that the law is our schoolmaster, bringing us to Jesus. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans chapter 3 and Romans chapter 7 make it very clear: if you read the law of God as presented in the Old Testament, the right response is to realize you are a sinner. I’m sure that many of you have experienced this; you read through the Scriptures and realize, "Man, I don't live up to this."

That realization is good and should drive us to Jesus, because He is the propitiation for our sins, as we read in 1 John chapter 2, verse 2. The whole point of the law is to help us see our plight, our difficult problem—the issue of sin. This goes back to a Reformed teaching that emerged during the Reformation 500 years ago, which we call original sin. Paul discusses it in Romans chapter 5, stating that through one man, sin entered the world. That one man, as described in Genesis chapter 3, is Adam. Sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death and sin have spread to all humanity.

All the brokenness we see in this world, including the issues that Victor Marx is dealing with in Syria and the things we see on the nightly news, are the result of the fall. Because of sin and the fall, we cannot live up to God's righteous requirement, and that is true. Many Calvinists teach this, and that is absolutely right.

But here's the important inflection point in this whole teaching: when we receive Jesus, the law drives us to Him. We realize we're sinners, we receive Him, we repent of our sin, and we confess our sin. First John 1:9 states that He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. When we receive Jesus Christ and His righteousness by faith, we are no longer, as stated in Romans chapter 6 and Romans chapter 7, slaves of sin; we are servants of righteousness.

My concern, as I look at the teaching of the New Testament in some good churches and even among some of my friends and peers, is that out of a desire to emphasize our inability to save ourselves—which I agree with—and out of a desire to exalt Jesus's saving grace—which I also agree with—they opt to see every call to obedience and every command in the Scriptures as an ongoing reminder of their inability to save themselves.

So, what does this have to do with anything? When you read through the New Testament, not just the Old Testament, there are over a thousand imperatives. What's an imperative? It's a command. There are over a thousand commands in the New Testament. A lot of times, because of this teaching on total inability or total depravity, people look at the commands of the New Testament and say these are merely an inducement to conviction. When the command is given, they realize how unable they are to fulfill it, and so they beg for God's mercy but never seek to walk out the command. They never seek to apply the Scriptures to live out the obedient righteousness that Christ calls us to, and this is a very clear problem.

John was dealing with a similar issue in his day. There was a form of teaching that had begun to grow within the early church when John wrote this about 2,000 years ago. This teaching flowered into a full-blown heresy about 50 years after John died, and now we look back on it and call this heresy Gnosticism. The basic teaching of this was that everything in this world is so completely fallen that it cannot be transformed, redeemed, or reformed, and the only thing that can be transformed, reformed, or redeemed is your spirit.

Intellect comes through gnosis and knowledge. As you receive secret knowledge from God or elsewhere, it can be reformed. However, eventually, all of this needs to be obliterated because it cannot be transformed anyway. John is addressing this issue because there were many people who had shifted Christianity into a collection of spiritual-sounding platitudes. They claimed to walk with Him, to have fellowship with God, and to know Him, but their lives did not reflect what they were saying.

John emphasized that one cannot merely profess to be a follower of God and claim to have a relationship with Him while living in unrighteousness. Yet, these individuals allowed themselves to do just that. In a similar way, there are people today who, because of the doctrine of total depravity or total inability, argue that we are so incapable of doing anything righteous that we constantly need God's grace and must confess our sins. However, there is often no call to personal responsibility to live out righteousness.

The Bible and the New Testament are filled with exhortations and commands that encourage us to take responsibility and to live out the Christian faith as enabled by God. The conflict surrounding this teaching within the church today arises because the statements made by those who adhere to the total inability position are true, but they do not go far enough in emphasizing the need to live out our faith.

Paul articulates this beautifully in my favorite two verses of Scripture, Philippians 2:12-13. He writes, "As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." We must live out this faith in obedience, for it is God who works in us, giving us both the will and the ability to do His good pleasure.

God works in us, instilling a new desire and enabling us to walk in obedience. We have a responsibility, empowered by the Spirit of God, to walk in that obedience. John teaches this, and Paul reinforces it in the New Testament. The author of the book of Hebrews also addresses this when he writes in Hebrews 5:12, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. You have come to need milk and not solid food." He continues, "For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is just a child."

Little babies need milk, but solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is, those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the basic principles of Christ, let us go on to maturity. Let us move on as a church to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God.

Note what the author of Hebrews is saying: when you begin to follow Jesus, you're just a little baby in Christ. That's the metaphor the Scripture uses. As you begin to grow, you move away from just needing milk to taking solid food. You learn how to discern what is right and what is wrong, and you need to walk in that. We need to leave behind the constant cycle of going back to repentance and confession.

However, this total inability teaching often takes the law of God and the New Testament commands of Scripture and suggests that all you can do is repent, ask for God's grace, and plead for His mercy. This mindset can lead to a place of habitual sin, where one continues to practice sinful behaviors such as lust, covetousness, and anger—things that the Bible clearly instructs us not to do as followers of Jesus. Some may say, "Well, I guess God is gracious," and while it is true that He is gracious, He has also called us to maturity.

It's Mother's Day, and just like every mom in here with your children, our Father in Heaven desires our increasing maturity and righteousness. This is what God is looking for from His kids. The Bible calls us His children, as stated in 1 John: "Beloved, now we are the children of God." As His children, what does God desire to see from us? Having saved us by grace and chosen us for adoption, He desires that we would move on to maturity. Let us step away from the initial things. His expectation for maturity does not diminish His grace or His saving power, but He desires, by His grace and saving power, to work in us. Paul told us...

In Titus chapter 2, we learn that the grace of God teaches us to live righteously. By the enabling power of God, we can achieve this. In John's day, people believed there was no possible way to reform or redeem this fallen body and world. Therefore, they thought they would always be in a place of continually practicing sin. However, your mind can be transformed, your intellect can be saved, and you can look forward to the day when you will be released from this body.

It is not acceptable to simply succumb to the realities of the flesh and always practice sin. That mindset is a defeatist and condemning place to live, and God does not want us to remain there. He desires for us to be saved by grace from our sin and to live in righteousness unto Him, enabled by the Spirit of God. This is why John writes in 1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin." He does not want us to walk in darkness; we have fellowship with God and a connection with Him. Now, we are called to walk in the light as He is in the light and to have fellowship with one another.

John's desire is for our increasing maturity and righteousness. When we fail, as every single one of us has this week and will today, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. In 1 John chapter 2, we see that Jesus is the payment, the propitiation for our sins.

The response of those in John's day, who were being drawn into a false view, was to object to the call to walk in the light and in righteousness. They would say, "But we have fellowship with God." In 1 John 1:6, John addresses this by stating that if we say we have fellowship with Him, we ought not to walk in darkness. Yet, those who objected would claim, "But we know God." In 1 John 2:4, John responds, saying that if someone claims to know Him, it is essential that they walk in righteousness. God desires that those who are connected to Him have a genuine relationship with Him and live accordingly.

This section of Scripture brings a test whereby we can validate the claim, "I know God." Look at it here: 1 John 2:3. "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Point number two on your outline: a desire for and commitment to obedience are the prime evidences of a connection with God. If there is no desire for obedience, if there is no commitment to following the Lord in obedient righteousness, then the claim "I know God," according to John's test, is invalidated.

We have all heard the saying before that actions speak louder than words. With our words, we can profess, "I'm connected to God; I have fellowship with God." We can say, "I know God," and people might hear that and think, "Wow, that's pretty amazing; he knows God." But John says, "Alright, let's test that." We have a very simple test: if you say you're connected to God, you will not walk in darkness. If you say you know God, you will not perpetually practice sin. There will be evidence in your life of walking in righteousness.

Now, does this mean that the one who truly knows God will live out perfect practical righteousness all the time? No. You may say that you know God, and your actions may often show that you are still fallen. However, there should be a desire in us to follow Him in a right way. When there is a conviction in us that we have done, thought, or said something contrary to His nature and His law, that conviction tells us that God's Spirit is within us. His Spirit resides in us and is grieved when we think things that are wrong, when we say things that are outside of the character of Christ, and when we do things that are in opposition to His will.

That's the Spirit of God dwelling in us. His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God—how? By convicting us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and pushing us to seek His forgiving grace.

Enabling power to live out what is right, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you to desire and to do His good pleasure. One commentator on this passage said that knowing God is evidenced by our heartfelt desire to obey Him. He goes on to explain that knowledge, for John in this passage, is experiential; it is a relational knowledge. When he says, "He who says I know God," he is using a very particular Greek word, "ginosko," which speaks of experiential, relational knowledge.

John is speaking experientially and not speculatively or abstractly. This knowledge reveals itself in a relationship with God, which manifests in present activity, namely the continuing reflex to obey God. I like the way that he expresses this idea: you can know. Remember, this is a personal test. In this, we know that we know Him. It is a test that we can run on ourselves. We can personally examine ourselves: Do I know God? The best evidence is that there will be an increasing reflex in our lives to obey Him.

Whereas there used to be a time when any temptation would arise, or any outside circumstance would occur that might cause us to be angry, irritable, or covetous, the reflex would be to give in to that temptation and sin. However, now that you have the Spirit of God in you, the reflex has changed. By the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, you will progressively begin to see that when the same temptation comes, the reflex is to turn away from that thing toward God. We are no longer slaves of sin but servants of righteousness.

John is trying to drive this point home, and this is exactly what God, through the Old Testament prophets, prophesied would take place under the New Covenant. You see, the Bible is divided into two sections: the first two-thirds is the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, and the last third is the New Covenant, or the New Testament. Under the Old Covenant, when you manifested your fallen nature by sinning, you had to deal with your own sin by offering a sacrifice. Then, you would seek to live in the law and walk out the law. But we all know that the law is spiritual, and we are carnal. It shows us just how far we fall short.

How dreadfully sinful we are under the new covenant! God promised that He would deal with the problem of our sin through the death of Jesus Christ. He also promised to give us enabling power to walk out those things that are right before Him. He says it like this through the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 36:26, God says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." What a beautiful promise! God says, "Listen, in the New Covenant, I'm going to put My Spirit inside of you, and I'm going to enable you by the Spirit's power to walk in righteousness and to do My judgments."

Just before Ezekiel wrote that, the prophet Jeremiah spoke about this new covenant. In Jeremiah 31:31, he says, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them," says the Lord.

But this is the covenant, as stated in Jeremiah 31:33: "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days," says the Lord, "I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," says the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Point number three on your outline: to know God is to keep His commandments. I have to be candid with you; when I wrote that point in my notes this week, I was personally challenged by it. I have wrestled with it ever since I put it down and even thought of tweaking it, changing it, or taking it out of the outline today. However, the more I looked at it and the more I examined the text, that's exactly what John is saying: to know God, to say "I know God," is to keep His commandments out of an expression of love and gratitude for salvation. To know God is to keep His commandments, and much of the modern teaching of the Bible that is put forth is gospel-centered.

Preaching by those who are affected by the view of total depravity says, "Listen, you can't keep the commandments of God; you will always be a slave to your flesh." Thank God, God is gracious, and I thank God every day that He's gracious because I need His grace in abundance. However, if we're just going to live in the grace of God and continue to walk in sin, Paul objects to that in all of his letters, especially in Romans. He says, "Certainly not! God forbid!" This is the life of condemnation. For the Christian, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. He goes on to say a few verses after that in Romans chapter 8, "Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." God desires that we would be a people who walk in the Spirit.

To know God is to keep His commandments. Look at what John says; he continues in 1 John chapter 2, verse 5: "But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected, matured in that person." By this, we know that we are in Him. Another test we can use to know that we are in Christ is to see His enabling power working out through us to keep His word. In verse 6, he states, "He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He, Jesus, walked."

Point number four: love is the prime product of obedience. Paul summed it up like this: he wrote in Romans chapter 13, verse 8, "Do not be in debt to anyone, owe nobody anything except to love one another, for he who has loved has fulfilled the law." The commandments—"You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet"—might sound familiar if you've seen "The Prince of Egypt," or "The Ten Commandments," or read Exodus chapter 20. The commandments are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does not harm his neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Again, in Galatians chapter 5, the same principle applies.

Author Paul says that all the law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." John is writing to a group of people who are bringing forth a new teaching. This new teaching claims that you cannot follow God in obedience because of the fallenness of this world. John says, "I object," and he objects not with a new teaching.

In 1 John, chapter 2, verse 7, he writes, "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have from the beginning." What is this old commandment that John is writing to this group of believers? It is not new; it is old from the beginning. He wrote another letter just a few pages to the right. If you turn from 1 John to 2 John, you only have to turn about four pages. 2 John is only one chapter, so it would be really easy to find.

In 2 John, chapter 1, verse 4, John says, "I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in the truth, as we received a commandment from the Father." He continues, "And now I plead with you, lady." We will see when we get into 2 John in a few months that "lady" is probably a reference to the church. He is speaking in a coded language at a time when the church was under persecution. He says, "And now I plead with you, Church, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another."

This is love: that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment that you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. John writes, "I write no new commandment to you."

The teaching that was beginning to infect the church that John was ministering in two thousand years ago was that you cannot live in obedience unto the Lord. It was suggested that it is okay; just save your intellect, and someday you will shed this body and be regathered back to God. The teaching of our day is not the same, but it has a similar problem. It claims that you are totally unable, because of the depravity of your flesh, to ever do anything righteous. Therefore, you will perpetually live in a place of needing God's grace, and that's okay.

However, that is not what the Scriptures say. John says, "Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord, as enabled by the power of God, by the Spirit of God, to walk in a way."

That is obedient to the Lord as an expression of love. First John, chapter five, verse two, states, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome."

Point number five: we'll finish with this. Love is the fruit God desires to produce in our lives. That's what He is looking for. Love is the fruit because love is the fulfillment of the law. Do not murder, do not covet, do not commit adultery, do not lie. These things are summed up in this word: he who loves his neighbor will not do anything wicked to them. The commandment of Scripture is to love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself. So, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Love is the fruit that God desires to produce in our lives. I use the word "fruit" because some of you have read through the book of Galatians, so you know the reference. Galatians, chapter five, verse twenty-two says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love." The person who has the fruit of the Spirit of God, love in their life, will bring forth joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These things are the overflow of the fruit of love.

The fruit that God desires to produce in our lives is love. I think that the best way to bring this message full circle is with an exhortation that Paul wrote in Colossians. Note it down in your notes: Colossians, chapter three, verse twelve. Paul says, "Therefore, as the elect of God, chosen by God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were also called in one body."

Thankful, Paul gives the exhortation to the church at Colossae two thousand years ago, which I think is the exhortation that God would want to speak to us as well. We are those that God has loved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. As we are those who are the beloved of God, we have put our trust in Him, and He has chosen us to be His children. He has adopted us.

As we are now His children, we need to put on, as Paul says, tender mercies, meekness, and compassion. Just like you put on your pink pants in the morning, you need to put on these things. You need to make a determined effort, a willful change, to put on meekness and tender mercies, just like clothing. We put on humility and long-suffering because we need to bear with one another.

Listen, some of you are going to work tomorrow, and there is someone you have to bear with. You laugh because you know you see a person in your mind right there. Or maybe when you wake up in the morning, look to your right; that’s who you’re bearing with. Bear with one another, forgiving one another. How? Put on tender mercies, put on humility, and above all, put on love, which is the perfect thing that binds us all together.

Putting on love means we might need to put off some other things. The correlating passage to Colossians chapter 3 is Ephesians chapter 4, where Paul says to put off the old man, which is corrupt. Put away lying, deceitfulness, anger, malice, and wrath. It might be that at this moment, as we are sitting right here, you need to take an inventory. Ask yourself, what is characterizing my life today? Is it humility or is it arrogance?

If it is malice, arrogance, envy, strife, or covetousness, then by God's grace, we bring that to Him and say, "God, would You forgive me and cleanse me as I shed this? As I put it away, I am no longer a slave to this. I don't have to be under its power any longer." God, would You clothe me in Your righteousness? Would You clothe me in Your love?

Remind me by the Spirit of God that when that person does or says something that makes me so angry, my inclination, my reflexive move, should be towards tender mercy and grace, not towards anger and wrath. If you do that, I suggest you will experience the enabling power of God, but you will also experience a trial today, a test, probably right as you're reaching for that jelly doughnut and one of those kids comes and grabs it before you. May there be that reflexive reminder of the Spirit of God, who enables us by His power to walk in righteousness.

You see, Christ died to deal with our sin, to save us, to justify us, but He also died to sanctify us, to transform us, so that we would be more like Him. May God do that in us, because I would suggest to you that our culture is looking at the church and saying it doesn't seem like your beliefs or the intellectual games you're playing with Obadiah and Jeremiah are transforming you or this world. However, I would suggest that God wants to transform us and, through us, by His power, transform our world.

May it be that we would see a resurgence of that in American Christianity, because that's happening in China. Maybe you saw the article this week about Iran; they are concerned because in northern Iran, there is a huge resurgence of people fleeing Islam to Christianity, and they don't know how to deal with this. I say praise God! The greatest thing for Iran is not going to be more sanctions or more diplomatic moves; it's going to be the Spirit of God and the grace of God bringing about a transformation in the lives of people.

The greatest move in China is not going to be another ambassador going there; it's going to be the Spirit of God bringing grace and transformation. There are more Christians in China today than there are in the United States of America. Think about that! It's the fastest-growing religion in the world because God, by His transforming power, is transforming people. May we see it happen here. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, we thank You for a light Mother's Day.

Message today: we thank You for Your Word, which is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We pray, God, that You would cause Your Word to have a transforming effect in our lives.

You do not want us to be ruled by pornography. You do not want us to be ruled by lust, covetousness, greed, anger, malice, fear, or anxiety. You want us to be dominated by Your Spirit, transforming us in a way that brings love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, and patience.

God, work that work in us for Your glory and for our greater joy, because there is no greater joy than to walk in the Spirit, walking in the light with You in fellowship. So, God, do that work, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.