A Heart Conditioned By God
Notes
Transcript
Today we wrap up 1 John. A letter in which John has tried to bring assurance of our salvation. He used 4 tests to provide clarity.
The belief test. Do you believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, became human, died, on the third day rose again, was seen by many believers and ascended into Heaven?
The obedience test. Did that belief set a type of love in your heart where you no longer desire the sins of your life. You no longer make a practice of sinning?
The love test. Do you love one another?
The theological test. Has the Holy Spirit opened your eyes to the truth of the scriptures so that you don’t fall victim to cleverly designed philosophies of men?
And today we bring the book to a close with...
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
John has been writing to the believers to give them assurance in their salvation. With that salvation we are give a new heart and that along with the Holy Spirit allows us to see, understand and respond to certain things in a Godly manner due to the new condition of our hearts.
And today as we finish up this letter he still leaves us with some things we can be sure about.
We Can Know Victory over Sin
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
For the final time in this letter John addresses the “new birth.” The apostle wants us to be sure that we have been born again, and he catalogs 13 evidences of the new birth in this letter. Those are born of God are new creations and there is visible evidence of that new birth.
1. Those who are born of God keep His commands (2:3–4; 3:24).
2. Those who are born of God walk in the same way Christ walked (2:5–6).
3. Those who are born of God are lovers not haters (2:9; 3:14; 4:7–8, 20).
4. Those who are born of God love the Father not the world (2:15).
5. Those who are born of God confess the Son and have Him (2:23; 4:15; 5:12).
6. Those who are born of God do what is right (2:29).
7. Those who are born of God do not continually practice sin (3:6, 9–10; 5:18).
8. Those who are born of God have the Holy Spirit (3:24; 4:13).
9. Those who are born of God listen to the Word (4:6).
10. Those who are born of God believe Jesus is the Messiah (5:1).
11. Those who are born of God overcome the world (5:4).
12. Those who are born of God believe Jesus is the Son of God (5:4–5).
13. Those who are born of God know that Jesus protects them from the evil one (5:18).
Here in verse 18, John makes three powerful affirmations that assure us once again of our victory over sin.
First, we know that the person born of God does not keep on sinning. Sin is no longer the pattern of his or her life.
John is affirming the purity of our lives, not perfection, something he addressed in 3:2–3. Future glorification (perfection) impacts present sanctification (practice).
Second, “the One who is born of God keeps” or protects him. I like the fact that the HCSB capitalizes “One” because I believe the reference is clearly to Jesus and not us. We do not keep ourselves. Jesus keeps us. This is a theme repeated several times in the New Testament.
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
Jesus, by His work on the cross, obtained my salvation. Now, by His work in heaven, He maintains my salvation.
Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten of God, protects me and keeps me safe.
Therefore, and this is our third promise, “the evil one does not touch” me.
The word “touch” has the idea of grabbing hold of something with the intent to harm. Alexander Ramsay says, “He is well kept whom Christ keeps; the enemy of souls cannot lay hold of him: he assaults but cannot seize”.
Satan may grab at us and tempt us through doubt, friends who fall away, idols, fleshly enticements, and worldly allurements, but because of the power of Christ he cannot get us.
There again is a beautiful logic to this verse. The Devil does not touch the Christian and harm him in any ultimate sense because he is protected by the Son. And because the Son keeps the believer safe, he cannot persist in or continually practice sin. It is contrary to his nature. It is contrary to his Protector.
Now we know why we have victory over sin and why we have victory over Satan. “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works”,
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
and He did a perfect job!
When we hear verses like this I think we think of this idea of no longer sinning as a behavior modification. I’m no longer to do this because I’m told not to.
But the problem with that is we aren’t sinners because of our behaviors. Our behaviors are sinful because of our nature.
But the I’m no longer going to sin I want us to get in the habit of is the I’m so deeply in love with God I don’t ever want to do a single thing that hurts Him.
The God I love you and you’ve been so good to me even when I didn’t deserve it I want nothing more than to show you how much that love means to me by not hurting you with my actions.
This has always been about a relationship. Not about religion.
It’s always been about a creator that said I love you so much I’ll give my only son to save you.
We get the scriptures all wrong when we see the bible as a book of do’s and dont’s. When we see it as anything other than the greatest love story ever.
It’s always been about love.
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
The most important commandment we have is to love God. Without it we can’t do any of the the others.
True love! True love that comes from pure adoration. God I love you so much because even at my worst you showed me a type of love that I’ll never be able to fully comprehend.
But unfortunately we can find ourselves in the type of relationship where we are trying to tip toe a bunch of rules because if we don’t we are going to end up in Hell. And hell nobody wants to go to Hell.
So now our entire relationship is based on fear.
Look at it from a parental point of view if you have kids. You want your kids to obey what you tell them, right?
But why do you want them to obey? Do you want them to obey because they are scared of you or because the way you loved them has shaped them into good kids and their obedience is a sign that the appreciate your love and they want to do everything they can to bring you joy and not hurt your feelings.
That to me sounds way more relational much more like love than I’ll do it but only out of fear of getting my butt kicked. Fear based love isn’t love at all.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
When you think of it that way to how horrible of a parent would it make you if your children had to earn your love through their works?
This type of love we see in the bible gives us a type of peace that can’t be comprehended by unbelievers. That wait your whole world is crumbling in around your and yet your still placing all your trust that God is using it for your good?
This becomes especially true in a world that is a complete mess to most.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
In stark contrast to the safety of the believer in Christ, the whole world rests in the power of the evil one.
We are safe, but the world is a slave. Believers in Jesus have a certain and settled knowledge that they are God’s.
The NIV says, “We know that we are children of God.
We know that we are held firm by God.
Here is confidence, an inner assurance, that spiritual death has no claim on me.
Here is a certainty of the soul that sin cannot dominate me and the evil one cannot harm me.
Now I belong to Jesus.
Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity.
Tragically, on the other hand, those caught up in the lies and futility of this world-system are controlled and captivated by the power and authority of Satan himself
We see passages in the bible like
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
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. 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. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
But all this can be avoided by love. With Jesus I trust who you say you are, I repent of my ways. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to be yours, all yours.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Not surprisingly, John ends the letter as he began it: talking about Jesus!
He affirms again the reality of the incarnation (“we know the Son of God has come”).
He also affirms that it is Jesus who gives us understanding so that we may know Him who is true (God Himself) in and through Jesus Christ.
These words echo Luke 10:22 where Jesus said,
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Because of our union with Christ, we understand the truth of the gospel, we are safe from the claws of the evil one, we know the Father, and we abide “in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ.”
Of Christ it can be said, “He is the true God and eternal life.” Here is truth. Here is life. Here is knowledge and understanding.
All of this is ours by virtue of our union with Christ, because “we are in the true One.”
But he ends the letter with this one little snippet “keep yourselves from idols” but it makes sense because Satan is on a fishing trip and this is one of the baits he was using at that time. These false god’s and the idols people were creating after them.
But we have our fare share of idols.
Money- Look I’m about to wrap up this message hopefully with a heart of love that will deepen your relationship with the Lord. Maybe another 5 or 10 minutes or I’ll give you a $100 bucks now to just get up and leave.
We laugh, but a few of you thought about it. Like man it’s almost Christmas another $100 sure would be nice. Willing to reach out for some money that won’t even fill two Walmart bags these days and will be gone in one trip to the store. In exchange for knowing more and growing closer to the One who has promised us eternity is His presence.
What other idols we have? Our jobs, the boss can call you into work anytime or offer overtime that will eat up all your time with family. Put church, being a part of the body of Christ way on the back burner. Heck there’s no shot I’m telling my boss I can’t come in due to a church function. But don’t think twice to cancel on the church function for work. Putting God on the back burner for a job that could have you replaced by friday.
We have all these things, all these idols or sins we hold onto when God is saying drop those things your holding onto and embrace me.
We have all these things that try and get in the way. Work, family, money, lust, pride everything is trying to grab our attention so we take our eyes off of God.
It’s everywhere do we just run and hide, seclude ourselves from everything? No, the bible doesn’t say hide. It says focus.
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
It doesn’t say close your eyes to temptation, it says fix your eyes on Jesus. The founder and perfecter of our faith.
He says set your mind on the things from above, eternal riches. It’s this type of God I love you so much. Our relationship is so important to me that all these things are just that, just things.
I just want you God I don’t want anything else.
We don’t have to live a life of running from all these things that try and consume us. We can’t! We know we have a sin nature living inside of us. So what we’re just gonna spend a life time running from ourselves? That sounds crazy Just saying it. No we should live a life running towards Jesus. Our eyes fixed solely on Him! Jesus the author and perfecter of my faith I just want you.
The bible tells us love. Love God, fix your eyes on him. Love your neighbor, and if Your eyes are fixed on God you’re going to love them because you know the love he showed you.
These idols. These sins. They don’t stand a chance of distracting you when your gaze is fixed on the face of Jesus.
This letter by John has been great at helping us find comfort in our salvation. But it don’t matter if it’s John, or Peter or Paul they all have the same message.Fix your eyes on Jesus and He will work all things together for your good.
Coming up we will be gong through the short letters of second and third John. But as Tony and I have been planning what we teach beyond that one thing has became clear to us. The best way we can grow in our struggles. The best way we can grow as Christians. The best way we can grow as a Body is to get back to that simple truth of fixing our eyes on Jesus.
Falling so madly in love with Jesus that he is all we want and in a way that we trust him in all areas of our lives.
Putting him at the forefront of everything we do know that he loves us in such a way that what he provides will for outweigh any expectations we could have had for our lives. Amen?
Let’s Pray.
