Delighting in God's Commands

6 · Cohen reads the primary text aloud in full, establishing the biblical foundation for the entire sermon

Before we get too far though, let's first read the passage. First read the passage of First John 5. First John 5:1:5. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep. His commandments and his commandments are not burdensome for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

7 · Cohen addresses God directly, asking for blessing and movement in the preaching that follows

God, would you bless? Would you move? Would you bless the preaching of your Word?

8 · Cohen reviews the context and major themes of First John—assurance of eternal life, warning against false teachers, ongoing faith as a lifetime walk, and affectionate love for God—positioning verse 5:1-5 as a summary of the letter and focusing on loving obedience as today's theme

All right, now to start out for today, I'm going to explore the context of First John 5:1:5 in many ways. One John 5:1:5 is a high level summary of like the whole, the whole letter that we've read so far. So just quick review first, as we've seen throughout the letter, John's intent in writing First John was to help believers test and ultimately to know that they have eternal life. John's been warning against teachers and teaching of people who've left the church and are seeking to lead others astray. And John wants to teach his church the true teachings of Christ and help them to know that they themselves have eternal life. In addition, John is taught in this letter that our faith is an ongoing belief, an ongoing faith. It's not some one time mental ascent, that's not some praying, a prayer to get out of hell, free card or EV believism, eternal fire insurance. It's not that instead the Christian life is a lifetime walk. It's a persisting belief, one that we live out step by step throughout the rest of our lives, reflected by faith that Jesus has forgiven our sin as well as freed us from to obey him step by step, daily, moment by moment, turning from sin and turning to obedience. And finally, third in his letter so far, John has shown us at this letter, in this letter that you've been born of God and have eternal life if you love the Father. And this love is, it's more than a mental assent, like we said, it's an affectionate love. That we love His Word, that we love to sing and worship to him, that we love his people and that we love to obey the Lord, that there's affection for Christ there. And it's this final point about loving to obey the Lord. That's where we're gonna spend most of our time this morning, as you can see from the scripture that we read.

9 · Cohen performs exegetical work on verse 3, focusing on the Greek word 'tereo' (keep) to demonstrate that keeping God's commandments involves loving obedience, faithful guarding, and careful attention—not mere grudging compliance

So if that's conceptual context for today's passage, now dig into the main idea for today. That everyone who has been born of God loves God's commands. I've got a bunch of points to unpack that statement, but I first want to observe where I get that. Those who have eternal life love God's commands. So check out verse three. Check out verse three. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome at first glance. You may not see a lot of like delight language in that scripture, but track with me here. Notice in verse three, John writes the word keep, that we keep his commandments. This word keep, man, it is a loaded term in the Greek. It comes from the word to keep. And it's much more than just doing God's good. It's much more than just muscling them out, gritting your teeth and knocking them out. It's much more than that, truly. In the original language, this word keep suggests loving obedience, faithful guarding and careful attention. I'll say it again, tereo keep means loving obedience, faithful Guarding and careful attention. These commandments are truly something we cherish. That this keeping is a love filled rather than grudging compliance.

10 · Cohen contrasts grudging compliance (workplace training videos) with David's delight in God's commandments as expressed in Psalm 119, showing biblical precedent for the kind of loving obedience 'tereo' describes

So unlike those videos that you watch at work, those compliance videos, you know that you click through, right? And really important content. Not going to downplay the importance of knowing the content in those videos, but I don't know how much we delight in watching them so unlike that. Consider what King David says in Psalm 119. We read some of it in worship this morning. Let's look at verses 47 to 48. For I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love. And I will meditate on your statutes. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Verse 97, verse 127. Therefore I love your commandments. Above gold, above fine gold. So David truly finds great delight in the commandments of God. David is so much more than grit his teeth, roll his eyes and obey. David loves God's commandments. He runs in the way of them. He truly keeps God's commitments faithful, guarding, loving obedience, cherishing.

11 · Cohen transitions from the 'what' (we delight in commands) to the 'why,' previewing his first reason—God's commandments come from His mind and heart which believers love

So then the question is why, right? Why do we love God's commandments? And that may just seem obvious, but I've got a few points to help us to think about that, to tease that out, that God's commandments are not burdensome to first, we delight in God's commandments because God's commandments are from his mind and heart, which we love.

12 · Cohen uses the personal story of writing birthday letters to his children to illustrate that God's commandments, like a father's letters, are expressions of love and guidance that should be cherished, not merely acknowledged

Consider I write letters to my kids on their birthdays every year. I haven't written one for Annie this year on her first birthday. My wife was like, duh, you should do that. She can't read. But it's her first birthday, she gave her a letter. And I put a lot of thought and energy into writing these letters. And I tell them things I love about them and respect about them and appreciate about them. And then I give them instruction for the year ahead, things I think will be good for them to know and think about for the year ahead. And my kids, they cherish these letters. Sometimes they even last to the next year. They'll hold on to the letters till the next year. They'll make it the whole year. And they know my affection, my heart for them. And they get instruction through them. God's commandments are a lot like his letters. They're an expression of our loving Heavenly Father, his guidance, his instruction, his commands for us. He teaches us how we should walk out our relationship with him and how we can live in godly community. And because of this we not only acknowledge them, they're from God's heart. We not only acknowledge them, we don't just comply with them, but truly we delight in them.

13 · Cohen asserts that God's commandments refine believers' taste for God Himself—walking in obedience makes God sweeter and prepares us for eternity, while disobedience brings bitterness

Now another reason we delight in God's commandments is that God's commandments help us to savor God more fully and truly and deeply. The more we walk in the ways of God, the more we walk in the ways of God, the more refined our taste for the things of God become. The sweeter God's commits are to us, the more they prepare us for our eternal home. And unfortunately, we all also know the bitterness of breaking God's commandments. The travail of heart. When we don't follow the Lord, we hate that we want to be close to God. We want to walk faithfully with God. And we know that God's commandments help us to do that. And so we delight in God's commandments. We relish them truly they are not burdensome. So listen how Jesus puts it in a very familiar passage he says in Matthew 11 Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So we love God's commandments.

14 · Cohen expounds verse 4, explaining that overcoming the world through faith means the world's desires (flesh, eyes, pride) no longer rule believers—instead God's beauty and honor now govern their affections and choices

One third reason we delight in God's commandments is as John writes, we have overcome the world. We've overcome the world. Check in verse four. For everyone who's been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Now what does it mean to overcome the world? To have victory or Nike over the world? What does that mean? Well, we've already learned about in the letter. The world is the desires of the flesh, desires the eyes and the pride of life. Truly it's the fallen human order that is opposed to God, that wants to dethrone God and enthrone self. That's the world. And in our faith, in our ongoing persisting daily, moment by moment, walk with Jesus, we've overcome this world system. Truly the allures and pleasures of this world, they no longer rule us. Rather God's beauty and honor and pleasure, that's what rules us.

15 · Cohen tells a fishing story to set up the analogy—fish are deceived by plastic lures that look appetizing but are actually dead, flavorless, and connected to a deadly hook

So think about this. A couple months back I went fishing with some co workers. We went up to Weatherby Lake in the northlands, went fishing. My coworkers, they manned the fishing rod and they cast out the lure. I had the net Because I'm a very, very skilled fisherman. I had the net picking out fish out of the water. I got one. These fish, they're just not that smart, you know? Like, think about the lures. They're like. Yes, they're like red and. Or, sorry, green and brown. And they kind of look like worms, but, man, they are. They're plastic. They're just dead. Like, they kind of look like a worm, but they have no flavor. They're not alive. And worst of all, it's connected to a hook that when they chop down on them, it's going to lead to potentially their death. Unless you got a nice fisherman, throw them back out.

16 · Cohen applies the fishing illustration—before conversion, believers were like fish deceived by the world's deadly allures, but faith opened their eyes to see worldly pleasures as deceptive and deadly while revealing obedience to God as truly life-giving

So, friends, before we were converted to Christ, the allures of this world, we were like those fish. We were chomping down on the desires of the flesh. Desires, the eyes and the pride of life. They appealed to us. They ruled us. We thought they would be delicious. We thought they'd give us life. We thought we should truly chomp down on them. But they were dead pleasures. And everyone in here who's been born of Christ, you felt it, you've known it. They were dead pleasures. They were deceptive, they were suicidal. They were connected to a hook that would reel us all the way. Yeah, to hell. Praise God that when he gave us faith, he woke us up to deceptive pleasures of this world. He showed us the lure on the hook of this world, of disobeying God's commandments. He shows that was a plastic one and ultimately a deadly one. And he showed us that obeying God is just so much better, that obeying God brings life and health and peace, that obeying God fosters our walk with him, our delight in him, and brings us closer to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

17 · Cohen applies the sermon by first addressing unbelievers (urging conversion), then giving believers a three-part bonfire metaphor for growing delight: stack wood (study God's commands in specific passages), pour lighter fluid (to come), and light the flame (to come)

But for those reasons, because God's commandments are from his mind and heart, because his commandments refine our hearts to delight in God more. And because God has given us faith, which is victory over this world, Nikkei has given us faith, victory over this world, we now keep God's commandments. God's commandments are not burdensome to us, but truly they're a delight. Now, let's get a little practical. Let's consider what does it look like to actually delight in God's commandments? And how can we stoke that flame in our hearts for God's commitments? So first, if you're here and you're an unbeliever and you truly have no delight in God's commandments, and you actually dislike God's commandments like you would rather lie to your boss to get out of trouble, or you'd rather look at stuff on a screen that is not gonna be good for your soul, or you'd rather, like, brag about your salary or something instead of giving humble thanks to the Lord for it. Consider have you truly been reconciled to God? Have you been reborn? Have you confessed your sins, repented of them, and trusted in Jesus, your Lord and Savior and treasure? Do you truly trust in an ongoing way that your sins are forgiven and you've been truly freed from them? If not, then I would urge you turn to Christ. If, however, you are a believer and you delight in God's commands, but you want to delight more, well, it's like building a great bonfire of delight to God's commands. You want to stack the wood, pour on the lighter fluid, and light the flame. We want it by studying, pray and obey. So stack the wood, pour on the letter fluid, and light that flame by study, pray and obey. So, man, I love when we have these bonfires at people's houses for the men. And I especially love when I get to see some kids getting to build those fires and they stack the wood, and I love them spraying the letter fluid on there and then sending a flame. It's really. It's really cool to see. Let's do that with God's commands. So first stack the wood by studying God's commands. Consider spending time in passages like Romans 12 to 15, Romans 12 to 15, First Corinthians 5 to 14, Galatians 5 and 6. Throughout all of Paul's epistles, lots of commandments. Think of James, think of first, Second Peter. All throughout the epistles, there's lots of commandments. And I don't want to divorce God's commandments from the gospel. You think of Romans 1 through 11 like that is a proclamation of the gospel. And then we offer our lives a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to the Lord in light of his mercies in the gospel. But it can sometimes be good to spend a little bit of time just thinking and meditating and studying God's commandments. Read about loving in a genuine way. Read about hating evil and loving good. Read about pursuing purity. Read about bearing one another's burdens. Read about giving grace to others through your speech. God's commandments are just good. They're wise. They're loving. So stack the wood by studying God's commandments.

18 · Cohen gives the second step in growing delight—praying through God's commandments using the ACTS pattern (adore, confess, thank, ask), pouring lighter fluid on the wood of study

Then pour the lighter fluid, lots of lighter fluid on the wood that you've just stacked by praying through God's commandments. Adore God. Praise God for the wisdom of his commandments. Confess. When you read a commandment, you think, man, I don't delight in this, or I don't do it as fully as I should. Maybe I do it to some degree, but not as full as I should. Confess that to the Lord, thank him for his forgiveness, thank him for his wisdom, and then ask him supplication. Ask him, help me to delight in this and help me to do it. So adore, confess, thank, ask, supplicate.

19 · Cohen completes the bonfire metaphor with the third step—obey God's commandments, which lights the flame by producing joy, assurance, and glory to God through visible obedience

Then third, light the flame of your love and delight in God's commandments by obeying them. And as you obey God's commandments, experience the joy of obedience, the joy of assurance. We talked a lot about assurance. As you obey God's commandments, God will grant you more and more assurance and he'll give you joy in glorifying God, which is what we're ultimately all about, right? We want to see God's kingdom spread. We want to see God glorified. We want to see more people come to know Christ. As we obey, that will bring God glory. So stack the wood, pour in lighter fluid, light the flame, read or study, pray and obey God's grimace.

20 · Cohen applies the sermon specifically to parenting and children's ministry, quoting Douglas Wilson to argue that the goal is not mere compliance but teaching children to love God's standard through modeling, instruction, and joyful accountability that consistently points to the gospel

Now, even a little more practically, and we're getting towards the end, but even a little more practically. For anyone here who encounters any of our kiddos, I have a special burden for them this morning and especially for the parents in the room. Are we teaching our children to love God's commandments? And that's a challenging question because it's one thing to teach our kids to just. Just please, just do. But no, we want to teach them to delight in God's commandments. Look at this quote from Douglas Wilson. He says our parental responsibility does not consist in getting young people to grit their teeth and conform to the standard. The task before us is to bring up our children in such a way as to love the standard. I'll read it again. The task before us is to bring up our children in such a way as to love the standard. And if you interact with our kiddos in any way, it's an opportunity to teach them how to love the standard. How do we do this? Well, we model it. We teach it to them, and we hold them accountable to it. We model it first. They need to see us studying God's commandments, us praying through them, us delighting in them and being happy to obey the Lord. We've got to model it for them first then. Or, sorry, truly, love for God is more caught or just as much caught as Taught love for God just as much caught as taught. So let's model love for God and His commandments to our children. Second, we need to instruct them in God's commandments. We need to connect the dots for them, help them to see how good God is and how good his commandments are for us and help them to see that. And third, we need to hold them accountable to obeying God's commandments with joy. This is not something probably new, but they need to obey right away, all the way, with a joyful heart. And every time they disobey or they obey with a sulking attitude, that's an opportunity to preach the gospel to them, to hold them to God's standard, to help them to confess their sin and then help them to trust in Christ both for forgiveness, for their sulking obedience, or for their delayed obedience. They can receive God's forgiveness as well as the freedom and the power through the gospel, through Christ, to obey and to obey joyfully. So parents, model this, teach it, hold your kids accountable to it and remind them that Christ died to forgive them as well as free them to love God's commandments. Remind me of that as much as possible.

21 · Cohen signals the conclusion by expressing pastoral warmth and preparing to summarize the sermon's major themes

All right. Well, it has been really wonderful studying God's Word with you this morning. As we wrap up, I'm going to remember a few things.

22 · Cohen summarizes the sermon's major movements—John's purpose for the letter, the transformation from burden to delight, overcoming the world, and the acquired taste analogy—and closes with a doxological charge that believers' delight in commands would grow their love for God Himself

First, remember that John wrote his letter that we would know that we have eternal life. Remember that at one time we had no delight in God's commandments. But now you keep them tirreo, you cherish them, you delight in them and you obey them. Remember that at one time God's commandments seemed burdensome, but now they're the way to know God better, to cherish and experience more the Lord. And remember your faith has overcome the world. You no longer need to be attracted by the allurements of the flesh or the world, or the pride of life or the eyes. But instead we can avoid sin and obey our Heavenly Father in all his love wisdom. So in the same way that coffee now brings delight to our taste buds, having been born again, we now can have a great delight and taste for God's commandments. And as you do that, may the flame of your love for God himself, God the person, God our Father, may that flame of our love only grow more and more. And may we see and taste his goodness more and more for his glory and for our joy, for truly Christians delight in God's commandments.

23 · Cohen closes the sermon proper with a prayer of praise for Christ's rescue, petition for strengthening by the Holy Spirit, and thanksgiving for the ability to delight in God and His commandments

Let's pray. Jesus, we just praise you because you are God and you are so Good Lord, we were dead in our sin, but you rescued us. You made us alive in you so that we could know your approval and acceptance and forgiveness and so we could walk with you in a persisting faith all of our lives. So would you strengthen us, would you fill us even now with your Holy Spirit, so that we can delight in you and delight in your commandments. More and more we praise you and we thank you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

24 · Cohen transitions from the sermon to communion, framing the Lord's Supper as a reminder of Christ as the source of everything the sermon has proclaimed—victory, faith, and joy

Now for communion this morning, I want to remind us of the source of our victory over the world, the source of our faith and the source of our joy in God's commandments. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

25 · Cohen shifts to shepherd mode, addressing those whose delight feels cold, pointing them to 1 John 1:9 and grounding that promise in Christ's propitiatory work on the cross which satisfied God's wrath and secures fatherly love

So maybe you've been sitting in this message and thinking, man, my love for God's commandments. We talk about this. They once were aflame, but now it just feels dull or cold. Well, take hold of First John 1:9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'll say it again. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Remember, this verse is only possible because Jesus is our propitiatory sacrifice. That Jesus took all of our sin, all of my sin, all of your sin, on himself, on the cross. When he hung on the cross and he bore the great weight of God's wrath against all of our sin, he satisfied it, he drank it, he finished it. So there would only be love and affection and God's fatherly care for us.

26 · Cohen gives communion instructions—those warm toward God's commands should praise Him; those cold should confess, receive forgiveness, and come to the table in faith not in their own condition but in Christ's completed work and pursuing mercy

So this morning before coming up for communion, if your love for God's commandments is warm, praise and thank God. Praise and thank God. That's a sign that you are alive to God, which is a direct result of Jesus. Hang on that cross for us. However, if you feel cold to God's commands, take this as an opportunity to confess that to the Lord. Bring it to him freshly receive his forgiveness and freshly turn towards him. Remember, first John 1:9, he's given his word. He will forgive us and that he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He will wash us fully clean. So this morning, confess and repent and cast aside all fear and doubt and come to the table in full faith. Not in ourselves, but not even in our repentance. But come to table. Faith in him, in his life, in his death and his resurrection, knowing that his mercy and that his grace has been pursuing you all morning and is truly pursuing you every day of your life.