A New But Old Message 1 John 2:7-11

Adapted from a Steve Shepherd sermon

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/a-new-but-old-message-steve-shepherd-

sermon-on-truth-of-christ-145336.asp

1 John 2:7 NET Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an

old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have already heard. 8

On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him

and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already

shining.

9 The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness. 10 The one who loves his fellow

Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one

who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the

darkness has blinded his eyes.

New but old. How can that be? How can anything be new and yet old at the same

time? Go to a classic car show and you will see

many old cars looking nice & shiny with new paint, chrome & interiors. Just go visit Jim

sometime & I’m sure he’d show you several of his old cars that look like new.

OLD BUT NEW! Old but has a somewhat new look to it!

I’ve always opted for a used car over a brand new car because of the price. It may

be somewhat old or older but it’s new to me!

How about some old sayings that could be new to some people?

- You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.- A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. - A friend in need is a friend indeed.

- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.- Better late than never. - Better to give than to receive. Acts 20:35c NET 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "- Birds of a feather, flock together. - Clothes don’t make the man. - Confession is good for the soul. 1 John 1:9 NET But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

- Curiosity killed the cat. - Don’t bite off more than you can chew.- Don’t cry over spilt milk. - Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. - Don’t sweat the small stuff. - Eat to live, don’t live to eat. - Half a loaf is better than none. - Home is where the heart is. Matthew 6:21 NET For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

- Let sleeping dogs lie. - Monkey see, monkey do. - Never say never.- Nothing ventured, nothing gained. - Make hay while the sun shines.

In our text, we also have an old but a new message. It’s an eternal message. It’s the old truth that people need to believe in and

the old path that people need to follow!

What is this new but old message?

1- The truth is in Christ2- The light is in loving others3- The darkness is in hating others

THE TRUTH IS IN CHRIST1 John 2:7 NET Dear friends, I am not

writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had

from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have already heard. 8

On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him

and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already

shining.

“in him” probably refers to Jesus Christ since the last third person pronoun in 1

John 2:6 referred to Jesus Christ and there is no indication in the context of a change in

referent. (NET notes)

1 John 2:6 NET The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as

Jesus 15 walked. 15 tn Grk "that one." Context indicates a

reference to Jesus here. (NET notes)

“True in him and in you” This newness is shown supremely in Christ and in disciples when they walk as Jesus did. (RWP) When we “walk just as Jesus walked” we must look back to the “new commandment”

Jesus gave.John 13:34 NET "I give you a new

commandment — to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love

one another. 35 Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples — if you have love

for one another."

This is an old message. It’s been preached for two thousand years and yet, it’s a new

message to some people!

Two men had an argument. To settle the matter, they went to a judge for arbitration. The plaintiff made his case. He was very eloquent and persuasive in his reasoning.

When he finished, the judge nodded in approval and said, “That’s right, that’s right.”

On hearing this, the defendant jumped up and said, “Wait a second, judge, you

haven’t even heard my side of the case yet.”

So the judge told the defendant to state his case. And he, too, was very persuasive and eloquent. When he finished, the judge said, “That’s right, that’s right.” When the court clerk heard this, he jumped up and said,

“Judge, they both can’t be right.” The judge looked at the court clerk and said, “That’s

right, that’s right.”

This is the way it often is in our world. Everything is right to someone. The world is

quick to excuse any kind of evil as being right. It all depends on who you are talking

about.As a senior citizen was driving down the

freeway, his cell phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him,

“Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Interstate 280. Please be careful!”

“It's not just one car,” said her husband, “it's hundreds of them!”

When I taught instrument flying I saw it so many times. One of the toughest jobs was

to break a pilot’s reliance on what their body is telling them. If their inner ear says,

“You're level,” but the altimeter, vertical speed indicator & artificial horizon says, “You're going down,” the instruments are correct. Ignore what your body is telling

you!

The same is true in our spiritual life. One is not in a saved relationship with God just

because they feel a certain way. Subjective emotions can be terribly misleading when they become the basis for faith or action...

and the result can be fatal. Joy and confidence are the fruit, not the

foundation, of our walk with the Lord. We must not confuse the two.

Many things SEEM right to some BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN EVERYTHING

IS RIGHT OR TRUTHFUL!

Proverbs 14:12 NET There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the

way that leads to death.What instrument must we rely on?

Psalms 119:105 NET נ (Nun) Your word is a lamp to walk by, and a light to illumine my

path.

What is the truth of all truths? How can we know the truth in life?

John 14:6 NET Jesus replied, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one

comes to the Father except through me.Ephesians 4:20 NET But you did not learn

about Christ like this, 21 if indeed you heard about him and were taught in him, just as

the truth is in Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:3 NET Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior,

4 since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus,

himself human,The truth is in Jesus and His Word. He is

eternal truth. His word is eternal truth.Mark 13:31 NET Heaven and earth will

pass away, but my words will never pass away.

THE LIGHT IS IN LOVING OTHERS

9 The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness. 10 The one who loves his fellow

Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

One neighbor telephoned another at three in the morning and said, "Hey, your dog is

barking and keeping me awake." The other neighbor called him back at 3 a.m. the next

morning and said, "I don’t have a dog!“We’re supposed to love all people, including

our neighbors who have dogs. Obviously, some people are more lovable

than others, but the command to love others doesn’t put a qualification on whom

to love.

Matthew 22:39 NET The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

(Lev. 19:18)

Do you do that?

In today’s text, it says that we are to love our fellow Christian.

10 The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause

for stumbling in him.

If we are in the light of Christ and living the light of Christ we will demonstrate love to

others.

Romans 13:8 NET Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who

loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Galatians 5:14 NET For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment,

namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19:18)

How do we love others? We demonstrate love or loving kindness anyway we can!

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ANYONE LATELY?

Have you done anything for an elderly person? Or a young mother who has her

hands full with small children?

James 1:27 NET Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for

orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Gayla and I have 2 neighbors who need medical attention now & then.

Gayla gets a phone call from one quite often & we’ve hauled him to the Dr or ER

several times. The other is a lady with Alzheimers. Her son asked Gayla, if

something happened to her & he was not at home, would she be able to take care of her until help arrived. Of course we told him that

any time they needed help just to call us. HOW COULD WE NOT OFFER TO HELP

THEM?

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you ’love’ your neighbor act as if

you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are

behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

What’s the message? We must work at loving others. And the more we work at it, the more we’ll want to do it. And if the light of Christ is in us it will demonstrate itself by

loving others.

THE DARKNESS IS IN HATING OTHERS11 But the one who hates his fellow

Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded

his eyes.An Englishman, on a tour of the Western

United States, came to a desert filling station. Above the door was a sign: “Joe

Bevins, 200% American.”

After the scowling and surly proprietor had filled the gas tank, the visitor ventured a

question: “Would you mind, Mr. Bevins,” he said, “telling me just what is a 200%

American?” “Well,” said the filling-station man belligerently, “You heard o’ 100%

Americans, I reckon—they hate all other nationalities. Me—well, I’m 200%—I hate

everybody!”Have you ever heard of anyone that hate-

filled?

Some time ago a Philadelphia woman in her will instructed her executor to take one dollar from her estate, invest it and pay the interest on this investment to her husband, “as evidence of my estimate of his worth.”

Wow!Another woman—also from Philadelphia—

bequeathed her divorced husband one dollar to buy a rope to hang himself.

Another wow! What do you call that? It sure isn’t love!

But there is worse than these two examples.

One of the worst cases of hatred ever found was in a will written in 1935 by a Mr.

Donohoe. It read, “Unto my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude toward a

doting father, . . . I leave the sum of $1.00 to each and a father’s curse.

May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering

malignant and torturous nature.”The last line of the will was even more

hateful. It read, “May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned

for eternity.”

Now, as we know, there are far less forms of hatred in the world today, but they may be hatred nonetheless. For example, what

about name calling? I’m talking very degrading name-calling! What about

insulting someone else or slandering them in order to put them down and make

yourself look good? What about wishing someone would die? What about seeking vengeance for what you consider to be a

wrong done to you?

Joseph Richardson, a New York millionaire lived and died in a house only five feet

wide. It was called the “Spite House,” and it deserved its name. Owning the narrow lot

of land on which it was built, Mr. Richardson wished to sell it to the neighboring property

owner. They would not pay him what he asked. ($5000)

“I shall build me,” he said to his daughter, “a couple of tall houses on the little strip which

will bar the light from Sarner's windows overlooking my land, and he'll find he would have profited had he paid me the $5,000.”

And so he put up this house, which disfigured the block—and then condemned

himself to a life of discomfort in it.

That house was four stories in height and was divided into eight suites, two on each floor. Now why would he do such a thing?

Greed and hatred.

The staircase and halls in the Spite House were too narrow to permit two people to

pass, and for some they weren't even wide enough for one.

The story is told that Deacon Terry, a reporter for The American, was sent to the

house one summer day to interview Mr. Richardson and got stuck in the winding

staircase. Despite the efforts of neighbors to push him one way or the other, the

broad-girthed Mr. Terry remained firmly wedged in. Only by wriggling out of his

clothes was he able to extricate himself, and he finished the interview on the roof in

his shorts.

Harry Emerson Fosdick said, "Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid

of a rat." Hatred never pays.

“Spite House”

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON005.htm

11 But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the

darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded

his eyes.If hatred is growing in a person’s heart, it’s a

growing problem and it’s a sign of something bad....namely, the absence of

the Lord. How can you hate people or have it dwell in your heart when you know the

Lord who is love?

A new but old message.

1- The truth is Christ2- The light is loving others3- The darkness is hating others

I’m seeing a theme in John’s 1st letter. Do you see it? We must be who we claim to be! If we claim to belong to Christ our life better

show it! 1:8 If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is

not in us.

9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and

cleansing us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a

liar and his word is not in us.2:4 The one who says "I have come to know God" and yet does not keep his

commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. 5 But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that

we are in him.

2:9 The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness. 10 The one who loves his fellow

Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one

who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the

darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do you remember the famous truth Paul wrote in his 1st letter to the Saints in

Corinth?1 Corinthians 13:13 NET And now these

three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

A quick reminder what these 3 words mean. Hebrews 11:1 NET Now faith is being sure

of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

Romans 8:24 NET For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we

eagerly wait for it with endurance.1 Corinthians 13:8 NET Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside. John says it simply “God is love” (1 John 4:8) hence, “love” like “God” is eternal!

Let’s plug Paul’s truth into the truth John is proclaiming. It takes “faith” to “confess our sins” with the “hope” that “he is faithful and

righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.” In

“faith” “whoever obeys his word” has “hope” “the love of God has been perfected” in them. If this has not, or is not happening then “the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

Our “faith” is in the Him who is “true.” Our “hope” is “eagerly waiting…with endurance” for what He has promised. As a result “love”

flows from us and: 10 The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light, and

there is no cause for stumbling in him.Jesus is old and yet

He is very new to some people. He was, is and shall forever be.

He is the Savior and the solid Rock.