From His Heart

Speaker 1

Okay, so you know the truth, but are you walking in the truth? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Now, I know that there are many who are true born again believers, and they want to walk in the truth, but they seem to walk in the darkness. So much of the time, they're walking in the darkness. They want to walk in the truth and they're torn and they're dealing with sins in their lives and maybe they're not doing so well.

And they say, oh, this is so hard. I want to be somebody who pleases God. I want to be somebody who takes my faith seriously, is the most important thing in all of life.

So here's the question as we look at those verses that I read. How can you be a person who walks in the truth and pleases the Lord? We love real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

Yesterday, from his heart, Pastor Jeff Shreve helped us determine if we actually knew the truth—the uncompromised truth found in God's Word. Today, we'll see if we're also walking in that same definitive truth. You see, in churches today, you have Christians who are genuinely walking with God, but then you have those who are simply going through the motions.

Now, if that statement caused your heart to feel a slight twinge, then today is a great day for you to hear Pastor Jeff Shreve as he shares how we can be a people who don't just know the truth, but also walk in the truth throughout our lives because of our love for the Lord and wanting to be pleasing to Him. Wouldn't that be something?

Well, this is from us Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and today's teaching is part of the three-message series called "Nothing but the Truth." We're in this series all this week. Today's message, "Are You Walking in the Truth?" is a powerful addition to the series and part of the thank-you gift we have for you when you support From His Heart this month with a gift of any amount.

With that gift, we'll also send you the booklet "Sticks and Stones: What to Do When the Going Gets Tough." You can get these copies in the format of your choice at fromhisheart.org. But first, open your Bible to the book of 2 John, as Pastor Jeff begins asking a question that demands an honest answer: Are you walking in the truth?

Speaker 2

Let's begin reading in verse one, the elder. That's how John refers to himself, the Elder, to the chosen lady, her children. We don't know if that is an individual person or if that's an individual congregation or if that's to the church at large. We're not sure about that. But it doesn't really make a difference because the message is the same whether it's to a lady and her children that had a house church there in her house, or whether it's to a local congregation or whether it's to the church at large. The elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father. In truth and love.

I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. And now I ask you, lady, not as writing to you a new commandment, but the one which you have had from the beginning, that we love one another, and this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning that you should walk in it. Well, today we want to ask this question. Are you walking in the truth? To walk in the truth means that you're living out what you know to be true. You're living out the commandments of God. You are walking in the light as he himself is in the light.

Now, you have two sources of material, two sources of information that are in our universe. You have God, who's creator of all. And then you have a created being, a fallen angel named Satan. Those are the two sources of information. Now, God is truth. God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. Everything God tells us is true. Because it's impossible. The Bible says in Hebrews 6 it's impossible for God to lie. So you have two sources of information: God, whose truth, and the devil. Not equal with God. He's a created being, but the devil is a liar and the father of lies. There's no light in the devil. It's all darkness. There's no truth in the devil. It's all darkness.

Two sources of information. Two roads to travel. The broad road that leads to destruction. The narrow road that leads to life. Two ways to go. There's light on the narrow road. There is darkness on the broad road. So you can walk in the light or you can walk in the darkness. You can walk in the truth or you can walk in lies. John said, hey, I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth. He says in 3 John chapter 4, I have no greater joy than to hear of my children walking in the truth. Man, they're really walking with God now. He says some I found that some of your children were walking in truth, as some commentators said. Well, that means that maybe some weren't. You know, in any church you have people who really walk with God and then you have people who don't.

And some of those people who don't walk with God might truly be believers, but they're not walking with God. And here is what I found in the life of a true believer. Because in any church, somebody came up with a statistic. I don't know where they came up with it, but they said in any given church, about half the people who come are lost. They've never been saved. Half. That's a lot. Half. And so you have people that they can look the part, they can dress nice, they can know how to sing the songs, they can know when to say praise the Lord and those kinds of things, and when to say amen. But it's not real in their hearts.

But when you have really given yourself to Christ, when you really know the truth and Jesus is real in your heart, there is a desire that you didn't have before to walk in the truth. There's a desire to obey God. There's a desire to please the One who saved you. And if you don't please him, it grieves your heart. Now, I know that there are many who are true born-again believers, and they want to walk in the truth, but they seem to walk in the darkness. So much of the time they're walking in the darkness, they want to walk in the truth. And they're torn and they're dealing with sins in their lives, and maybe they're not doing it. And they say, oh, this is so hard. I want to be somebody who pleases God. I want to be somebody who takes my faith seriously, is the most important thing in all of life.

So here's the question as we look at those verses that I read. How can you be a person who walks in the truth and pleases the Lord? Because John is echoing the heart of God. I have no greater joy. Hear of my children walking in the truth. I was very glad, he says, to find some of your children walking in truth. Three insights that I want to give you from the passage that we just read, verses four through six.

Insight number one. How can you live a life that is pleasing to God? Insight number one. Understand the progression to walking in the truth. There is a progression to walking in the truth. Look at it again in verse four. I was very glad to find some of your children, this chosen lady, to find some of your children walking in truth. Just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. There is great joy there for the some that were walking in the truth. The people that were walking in the truth had joy. John had joy to hear that they were walking in the truth. But there's a progression to walking in the truth.

And remember this, walking in the truth is just another way of saying walking in the light. It's another way of saying walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. It's another way of saying you're living by faith and you're pleasing God and you're obeying God. Those are all just synonyms. So step number one in this: hear the truth of God's love. Now remember this. Everything begins with truth. Truth is the starting point for anybody's relationship with the Lord. It starts with truth. Without truth, you and I have nothing. God is the God of truth. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life, and the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth. Everything starts with truth.

And so the progression for a person walking in the truth, number one, you hear the truth of God's love. John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That verse has been called the Gospel in a nutshell. It tells you everything you need to know in one verse about the love of God and the saving power of God as he sent his Son to die on the cross for your sins and mine to give his son. Give him what? Give him up as a sacrifice for you and for me. And so you have to hear the truth of God's love.

Romans 10:14 says this: How then shall they call upon him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? You have to hear to respond. So that's the very first step: you hear the truth of God's love.

Second step: you receive the truth of God's love. See, it's not just enough to hear it, you have to respond to it. You have to make a decision concerning the truth of the love of God. You have to receive that love. Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 13 says, in him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. I preached a sermon on Ephesians 1:13 and 14 years ago. I called it the evolution of Salvation. You have to hear the truth and then you respond to the truth. You believe in the truth, you receive the truth. You have to make a decision. It's not just automatic because you hear the gospel, even because you know the gospel.

You may know that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and he rose again on the third day. And you believe it in your head. It's all up in here. Oh, yeah, I believe that that's the plan of salvation. I believe that. Adrian Rogers used to say, you're not saved by the plan of salvation. You're saved by the man of salvation. You have to respond to his invitation to save you. So you hear the truth of God's love. You receive the truth of God's love.

Now, very, very interesting. Paul says in Second Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 10, talking about those who perish, he says this: for those who perish, why did they perish? Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And he goes on to say, why didn't they receive the love of the truth? Because they took pleasure in wickedness. They loved their sin and chose their sin over God's Son. We have an example of that in the Bible, Mark chapter 10, the rich young ruler, when he came to Jesus, lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He said, well, you know the commandments. Oh, I've kept all those commandments from my youth up. One thing you lack. Sell all you have, give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me. He didn't want to do that. He said, no, I love my stuff. And he sold his eternal soul for temporary stuff. He said, I'd rather have what I have than to have eternal life who did not receive the love of the truth but took pleasure in wickedness.

So the progression: you hear and then you receive and you respond. And then thirdly, you express the truth of God's love. What does that mean? Well, we love First John 4:19, because he first loved us. And when you hear the gospel and hear the message and hear John 3:16 and understand that God loves you and gave his Son for you, and that if you would receive him and believe on him, he'll give you eternal life. And you respond to that. I was 17 years old when I responded to that message. Then what happens? You're sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. God gives you his spirit. And the Bible says, Romans 5:5, that the spirit of God has come into our hearts and the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

So I respond to God's love, and I repent and believe, and God gives me his spirit. And the love of God is put into my heart, poured out into my heart. And the natural response is to love God back. The natural response, I don't have to work that up. That's just a natural thing. So we had our first grandson in the family. It was pretty cool. Little Jack Cannon Van Hoy. Cannon was Debbie's maiden name, so it's a big deal. And Travis, his dad, is saying, man, he's got to be a quarterback if he's got the name Cannon in there, you know? And so he's all excited about that. But he is born into a family where his mother loves him to death, his father loves him to death. His papi, that's Debbie's name. I got stuck with Gigi and Gigi, they love him. And on the other side, Travis's parents, Clinton, Dan. I'm not sure what they're called. Grandpa and Grandma, I'm not sure. But they got some name, and they love him to death, and his aunts love him to death. He's just surrounded by love.

It's so normal and natural and easy for little Jack to love mom, to love dad, to love Poppy, to love Gigi. Because he just responds to that love. He doesn't have to work that up. He just responds to it. And when you're born again and born into God's family and you understand how much he loves you, you love him back. And you have the power source to love him back. Because he's poured out his love in your heart through his spirit, whom he has given to us. So you express the truth of God's love back to him.

Now, two greatest commandments. Jesus said when he was asked, what is the greatest commandment? You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and you love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Everything hangs on love. Love for God and love for people. The vertical relationship and the horizontal relationship. And that is what John is saying. He says, when you love God, you obey his commandments. And what is his commandment? That you love one another. Jesus said to the disciples, a new commandment I give to you. That you love one another even as I have loved you. That you love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

And John is picking up on that phrase from Jesus and that command from Jesus when he talks about the command that they've had from the beginning. That we love one another. Now, remember this. It's easy to say that you love God. I mean, if you had asked the Pharisees, hey, Caiaphas, he wasn't a Pharisee. He was a Sadducee. But, hey, Mr. Pharisee, do you love God? Of course I love God. What kind of a cockamamie question is that? Why would you ask me if I love God? Of course I love God. Did he love God? No. No. The Bible says that the Pharisees were lovers of money. They didn't love God. They loved money. And the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many a pang. But they said they would love God.

How do you know that you love God? And how does God know that you love Him? The love of God is shown when you obey his commandments. See, you love God by obeying his commandments. Talk is cheap. Jesus said, John 14:21. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me shall be loved by my Father. And I will love him and will disclose myself to him. If you're not keeping his commandments according to Jesus, it's because you don't love him. Because if you loved him, you would keep his commandments. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

First John 5:3. Loving God means obeying his commands. So if you love him, you're going to do what he says. And his commandments are not burdensome. His commandments are a blessing. That's how we show we love God. We obey his commands. And we also show we love God by loving other people. See, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. So vertical, the greatest, horizontal, the second greatest. And everything is built on those two things. On those two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.

So you love one another to show that you belong to God. As evidence that you belong to God, look at second John 4, 6 in the easy to read version. This is what it says. I was very happy to learn about some of your children. I am happy that they are following the way of truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I tell you we should all love each other. This is not a new command. It is the same command we had from the beginning. And loving means living the way he commanded us to live. And God's command is this, that you live a life of love. You heard this command from the beginning.

Here's the progression that I want you to have in your mind. There is truth, then there is love, then there is obedience. There's truth, there is love, and then there is obedience. And that is important to remember because we tend to have a breakdown with obedience. And what do we do when we have a breakdown with obedience? We grit our teeth, we try harder, we dig our nails in. Oh, I'm going to white knuckle this sin problem. I have this difficulty. I have this difficult person I have. I'm going to try so hard to obey. And we forget that obedience flows out of love. And when you have an obedience problem, you have to go back to the love component of that progression. Truth and love and obedience. And when you focus in on love, as we're going to talk about in just a moment, that changes everything.

So understand the progression to walking in the truth. Adrian Rogers once said this. I've never forgotten it. It's a similar type of progression. He said, to know God is to love God, and to love God is to trust God and obey God. And to trust and obey God is to be blessed. So it begins. I have to know him in order to love him. And when I love him, I trust him. I trust his word, I trust what he tells me, and I obey what he tells me. And then I'm blessed. Jesus said in John 13:17, if you know these things, you're blessed if you do them. The blessing is not in the knowing. The blessing is in the doing. But the knowing is important in order to do. You can't do what you don't know. So if you know these things, you're blessed if you put those things into practice, if you do them.

Speaker 1

The challenges to walking in the truth are difficult. Knowing the Truth is one thing. Walking in that truth can be a different thing altogether. It separates the believers from the pretenders, those who have drifted from the faith or actually never truly had it to begin with. And there are surely way too many people going through the motions. The real tragedy of this is that non-believers see this out in the world. They're recognizing the hypocrisy and becoming disinterested in the integrity of the Christian faith.

Hey, are you walking in the truth? If so, it means you're living out what you know to be true. And you know it because the Creator of the Universe has whispered that into your heart. Pastor Jeff Shreve is in his three-message series this month, Nothing but the Truth. All three messages in this series are available on CDs, DVDs, or USB flash drive, as well as an immediate MP3 download. When you make your gift of any amount to From His Heart this month, we so greatly appreciate it.

To get your copy, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org and request the series Nothing but the Truth. Everything you give goes to help us spread these messages around the world each day, and this truth will really set you free by giving you a peace that passes all understanding.

Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, and it looks like we've run out of time, but we hope you'll join us tomorrow for part two of this timely and essential message for Christians around the world called Are You Walking in the Truth? Join us on Thursday as we'll again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

Speaker 2

There is tremendous truth. There is hope that you always dream of. We can heal every scars.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and He has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out about that when you go to fromisheart.org.