19. 1 Jn2_3-6 Practical Assurance

Practical Assurance a Transformed Life

It is truly an exciting time. Last month we had the baptism of Lauren, yesterday we celebrated with Nathaniel and Elizabeth, their union in marriage and this afternoon we will rejoice with Elijah in his baptism and joining in covenant membership with this church. And not only here but the Lord is moving and working drawing His people to Himself throughout the world. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. Yesterday morning I met with 5 Afghan Christians whom God has saved from the domain of darkness that is Islam and transferred them to the kingdom of His beloved Son.

Now Elijah, your dad communicated to me that you said having grown up in church that you didn’t have an exciting testimony. That you could only say that church was no longer boring to you. But I am here to say that you were no less dead in your trespasses and sins than the vilest of sinners and your salvation is no less a miracle of God that His raising Lazarus from the dead.

This morning we will begin looking at 1 John 2:3-6 at the issue of practical assurance. Assurance is something that many Christians struggle with. I have seen that in those that have been brought up in church it is a particular struggle because there are always the questions of is this faith my faith or my parents’ faith. What do I really believe? How do I know that I am a Christian? The text before us will help in the area of assurance.

1Jn 2:1-6  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  (2)  He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.  (3)  And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.  (4)  Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,  (5)  but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:  (6)  whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

It has been several months since we were in the book of 1 John. I will spend a brief amount of time in review before we dive into the text. This letter was written near the end of the apostle John’s life in response to the growing influence of Gnosticism in the church. One particular flavor of gnosticism was Cerinthus, a contemporary of John. This view says that God could not create evil, so they devised a system where evil could be explained. God, or the pleroma, created an angelic being and from this first creation which was nearly perfect many more sub-angelic beings evolved, and these were called aeons or emanations. Each emanation away from God and closer to man became more evil. Jesus Christ was merely one of this sub-angelic beings. Thus Cerinthianism denied that Jesus Christ was true deity, because he had a sinful flesh. 1Jn 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 1Jn 5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? We still have a form of Gnosticism with us today. The Jehovah Witnesses believe that Christ was the first created being and from him everything else was created. Thus they deny the deity of Jesus Christ because they do not believe he was and is eternal.

Verse 5 begins with John’s first thesis statement that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. The verses following are a series of conditional statements directed toward the error of gnostic teaching and the proper response to those false teachings.

1Jn 1:5-10  This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  (6)  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  (7)  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  (8)  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  (9)  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (10)  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

There is a shift beginning chapter 2 where John begins addressing directly the Christians to whom his letter was written. “My little children”. In verses 2 and 3 we see Jesus Christ the Righteous as our Advocate and our propitiation. There is both a judge and judgement. Jesus stands as our Advocate before the Father and as the perfect, eternal atoning sacrifice which has satisfied God’s judgement, reconciled us and brought us into the household of God.

There are 4 Points this morning: 1) We can be assured we know God when we keep His commandments 2) We can be assured we don’t know God when we don’t keep His commandments 3) We can be assured we love God when we keep His Word and 4) We can be assured we are in Him when we walk as He walked.

Before we begin with the points I want to make some general comments. I do not want there to be any confusion here. John is not saying we earn our salvation through obedience. He is not saying that we are justified by the law or the keeping of it. He is not saying that we maintain our abiding in Him by our obedience. He is not saying that we can be perfectly obedient. He has made that perfectly clear in the previous verses. He is not asking how we come to know God. What John is saying is that we can have assurance of our really knowing God. Not just having a knowledge of God, not just knowing things about God but knowing Him relationally. Having a saving relationship and fellowship with our father in heaven. This is the central point that John is driving here. He wants to strip away any self-delusion and come to an honest assessment of do you know God or do you not know God.

I. We can be assured that we know God when we keep His Commands.

What does this mean? It means that salvation is evidenced by keeping His commands, keeping His commands contributes to our assurance. What does keep mean? Does it mean obedience? Yes, but it also means more. It means to keep watch upon, guard, Mat_27:36; Mat_27:54; Mat_28:4; Act_12:6; to watch over protectively, guard, 1Jn_5:18; Rev_16:15; to mark attentively, to heed, Rev_1:3; to observe practically, keep strictly, Mat_19:17; Mat_23:3; Mat_28:20; Mar_7:9; Joh_8:51; to preserve, shield, Joh_17:15; to store up, reserve, Joh_2:10; Joh_12:7; 1Pe_1:4; 2Pe_2:4; 2Pe_2:9; 2Pe_2:17; to keep in custody, Act_12:5; Act_16:23; to maintain, Eph_4:3; 2Ti_4:7; to keep in a condition, Joh_17:11-12; 1Co_7:37; 2Co_11:9; 1Ti_5:22; Jas_1:27.

To keep God’s commands has a fuller meaning than obey. It is not only an outward action but an inward attitude. It is to hold dear those commands. It is having the attitude of Rom 7:12  So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being. Is the Word of God your final rule for faith and practice. How many Christians do we know deny the 6 day creation account? How many deny the Law. Taking completely out of context that we are no longer under the law but under grace so they might justify living as they please? How many reject the plain teaching of the Scripture concerning the order and organization of the church? How many reject that church is for the worship and adoration of God rather than entertainment for man’s enjoyment? God’s commands reach further than individual actions but is central to how we live, how we work, our marriages, our churches, and our worship.

Assuming that you are in Christ Jesus, how do we keep His commands? It begins first inwardly. It is not a merely a matter of external conformity. Rom 12:1-2  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  (2)  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We have a saying regarding the databases we keep at our office: Put garbage in, get garbage out. We have to be precise with the information we put into our system so that it correctly stores, correctly calculates invoices and payables. When we put a lot of garbage from the world. The entertainment we watch, the music we listen to all leaves its mark. There are not great songs and movies I listened to and watched as a very young man that still come to mind to this day. We are foolish to think it does not affect our judgement. But when we are disciplined to exercise the spiritual means that the Scripture lays out in reading the word, hearing the word, memorizing, meditating, and studying the word, the faithful attending of the church, fellowship with the brethren that is guarding, watching over those things that are most important. It is then the outward actions match the inward attitudes of the heart. Will we do it perfectly? No. But the anguish of our soul over our sin testifies that we delight in the law of the Lord, and we acknowledge it as holy and good.

How do you know that you know God? Do you keep His commandments? Do you guard them in your heart, do you esteem them highly do you seek to walk in obedience to them?

II. We can be assured we don’t know God when we don’t keep His commandments.

Is John saying that if we break one of God’s commands, we are no at Christian? No. The verb tense indicates a continual disregard and lack of conformity to the commands of God. There are many who profess to know God but the life is devoid of any evidence. John says verse 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. It isn’t a matter of having head knowledge and no heart knowledge. It isn’t that he has accepted Jesus as Savior but not Lord over his life. It means that the person professing to know God yet shows no change in his life doesn’t have the truth to begin with. To quote Ligon Duncan, “There is no knowledge of God that does not also lead to the keeping of His commandments.” What he means here is saving knowledge, the truth. Where salvation is there is a transformed heart and a transformed life.

Grace always leads to obedience. Eph 2:8-10  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  (9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  (10)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Saving faith is always marked by the appropriate fruit. Jas 2:14-19  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  (15)  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,  (16)  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  (17)  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  (18)  But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  (19)  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

So we know that we do not know God if we don’t want to keep His commandments.

III. We can be assured we love God when we keep His Word

John is whittling down the stick. He moves from the first test of those who say they know God to those who say they love God. John is telling us exactly how we are to love God. Love to God is not working ourselves up into a religious lather. It’s not a spiritual experience. It isn’t primarily sentimental language. It is obedience. This Jesus states quite clearly

Joh 14:15  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Joh 14:21-24  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  (22)  Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”  (23)  Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  (24)  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

Every verbal expression of love must be backed by action to verify it. A husband who says he loves his wife is hollow who is not faithful to her, not committed to her. A wife who says she loves her husband but does not respect or willingly submit to her husband, that affirmation of love is just as hollow. Our knowing God savingly is relational. It isn’t theoretical but experiential. Love to God means we delight to do His will. What is His will? To love and walk in humble submission to His commands.

Joh 4:34  Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Is our love to God such that we would say it is my food to do the will of Him who sent me?

IV. We can be assured we are in Him when we walk as He walked.

What does it mean to abide in Him? John 15 Jesus speaks of the vine and the branches. Each branch draws its nourishment from the vine. It is a continual, unbroken connection from which the branches then produce fruit. When the branch is separated from the vine it dries up because it has no life in itself. It can produce not fruit in itself. It is completely dependent upon the vine.

What John is saying is that the whole of our life will be a reflection of our abiding in Him. The Lord is the source of every spiritual blessing. You are trusting in Him alone for your salvation. You are drawing near to Him in His Word and in prayer, and you are living as He lived, living in complete dependence upon God for our every need spiritual and physical.

A point of clarification from John Gill: The "as" walk as he walked is not a note of equality, but of likeness. It cannot be thought that saints should walk in that degree of perfection, in humility, patience, love, and in the exercise of every other grace, and in the discharge of duty, as Christ did; only that they should copy after him and make his obedience and life the rule of theirs.

This is a sobering passage. It means that there are those who profess Christ who may have been in church their whole lives or for a very long time that have no desire to keep the commands of God, to love Him or abide in Him. Remember the young lady whom I spoke that was demon possessed but said that she believed in Christ? Her profession showed it lacked merit. What we have seen here is that you don’t have to be demon possessed to show you don’t have a saving relationship with Christ.

1Jn 2:15-16  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  (16)  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

There are those who struggle with assurance because of their lack of perfection. Is your desire to keep God’s commands? Does your love of the Lord make you want to keep His truth? Do you want your life to reflect Christ’s life. Then you may assurance that you are in Christ Jesus and that He is in you.

We look not for perfection because we will not see it this side of heaven. What we look at is the heart for from it flows the issues of life. I will close with the following text.

Luk 6:43-45  "For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit; nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.  (44)  "For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.  (45)  "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.