Applying the Test, Obey His Commands
Notes
Transcript
1 John 2:3 –27
Moves in Passage:
1. Obedience or the Moral Test 2:3-6
2. Love or the Social Test 2:7-11
3. A Digression about the Church 2:12-14
4. A Digression about the World 2:15-17
5. Belief or the Doctrinal Test 2:18-27
Main Theme of Passage:
The claim to be a Christian will be authenticated in a life of obeying God, imitating Christ and loving our brothers and sisters.
Main Preaching Theme:
Let’s live authentic Christian Lives.
Main Preaching Intention:
I believe that 5 people will be encouraged & challenged to examine their lives and become more authentic.
Moves in Sermon:
1. The problem, many claim to be Christians yet they don’t act like it. This results in a negative witness.
2. The Apostle John was very aware of this problem so he set out 3 tests. The Moral Test, The Social Test & Doctrinal Test. 2:3-6, 2:7-11, 2: 18-27.
3. Those who live up to the 3 tests can genuinely claim to be Christians. They have a Positive Witness. This can be seen in the contrast between the Church and the World. 2:12-17
4. The question we must answer is this, Where do we stand in relation to the 3 tests? When People look at us do they see the true church of Christ or the World
1. The problem, many claim to be Christians yet they don’t act like it. This results in a negative witness.
The most common objection people have towards Christianity is that the church is full of Hypocrites!
I guess we have all been guilty of being one at one time or another.
And I know that such people really annoy most of us.
We all fall short of God’s standards.
But for most of us we are on a journey, we have not arrived but with God’s help we are making progress.
I think when we are honest with people about our journey they are far more willing to accept us and our faith.
People respect those who are genuine.
It is far more courageous to admit your failings and weaknesses and your need for God’s help to please him than it is to pretend that you are some how spiritually superior.
I think that is the thing that really gets up the nose of non-Christians when they look at the church.
I think for most of us most of the time we can take comfort from the fact that people look and see someone genuinely living out their faith and growing more Christlike each day.
The real problem is with those who pretend to be something they are not.
People who claim to be Christians and often claim to be someone in the church yet they do not live like they really are.
Or those who work their way into the church and appear to be genuine but turn out to be evil.
These are the sort of people that give the church a bad name.
2. The Apostle John was very aware of this problem
It was a major threat to the church in his day.
So he set out 3 tests.
The Moral Test, The Social Test & Doctrinal Test.
We find these tests listed in 1st John Chapter 2 verses 3 to 27.
The Moral Test is listed in verses 3 to 6.
It is primarily a test of obedience.
The Authentic Believer Keeps God’s Commandments (v.3).
John says, “We know that we have come to know him”
That means that we CAN KNOW THAT WE KNOW HIM!
Our relationship with God is not some subjective feeling but an objective reality.
This is the first of three marks of an authentic relationship that John will give us.
John is referring to a past experience.
The tenses of the Greek NT read literally, "we know that we have known Him."
The NIV translates, "We know that we have come to know him…"
In other words, we can know that we have already been saved in the past by what we are doing today.
What is the mark?
How can we know? "…If we keep His commandments."
We don’t know that we know God because we feel the presence of God.
We don’t know we know Him because we have read the Bible.
We don’t know that we know Him because we have prayed.
We don’t know that we know Him because we come to church or we give money for ministry.
We can only know that we know Him "if we keep His commandments."
The present willingness to keep God’s commandments is a certain mark of someone who has already begun a relationship with Him in the past.
Some people get this principle turned around.
Understand this clearly, you do not come to know God by keeping His commandments; you keep His commandments because you already know Him.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
When Jesus moves into our lives, He changes us.
One of the changes is an inner desire to "keep His commandments."
He gives us a new attitude about His commandments.
Though we still struggle with sin, we find ourselves drawn to His light.
Even though we often fail, there is an inner desire, born of God to "keep His commandments."
When John writes of keeping "His commandments," he is not speaking of sinless perfection.
No believer is sinless or perfect.
As we are told in chapter 1 and verse 8 that is self-deception.
When we do stumble, we are to "confess our sins" and know that our "Advocate" will "forgive and cleanse" even the stain of our sin.
Our obedience to God proves our authentic faith in God.
Faith always comes first, but faith is always validated by obedience and works. James 2: 26 says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
The surest mark of love is obedience. Jesus said in John 14: 15, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
In 14:21, He amplifies, Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
The Counterfeit Believer ignores God’s Commandments (v.4).
John says that the counterfeit Christian says, "I know Him" but "does not keep His commandments."
There are people like this in churches everywhere.
There may even be people like that in this fellowship
They look like Christians, sound like Christian and at least outwardly act like Christians.
Yet, it is all a show for there is no real change within them.
C.H. Spurgeon once said, "An unchanged life is the sign of an unchanged heart."
John says such a person is "a liar and the truth is not in him."
Even non-Christians can spot a phoney.
In 1805, a number of American Indian chiefs and warriors met at Battle Creek, to hear a presentation of the gospel by a missionary named Cram. After hearing about Jesus and His life changing power, an aged chief named Red Jacket stood and said, "We have heard that you have been preaching about the Great Spirit to the whites who are our neighbours. We are well acquainted with them. We will wait a little while and see if the effect of the Great Spirit is upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them honest and less inclined to cheat and belittle Indians, we will certainly consider what you say" (Great Stories, V.6; I.22; p.2)
The Social test is set out in verses 7 to 11.
It is quite simply The Old Commandment: Love Your Brother as Yourself
At first glance, verses 7-8 do not seem to make much sense.
In v.7, John says, "I write no new commandment to you but an old commandment."
In v.8, he says, "A new commandment I write to you
The "old commandment" John says is one that we have had "from the beginning."
"From the beginning" means the beginning of our relationship with the Lord.
What "commandment" have we always known from the time we were saved?
We are to love each other.
Though the command to love is old, we are to make it new by fresh application.
The command to love is old, but as we apply it in our relationships with other believers it is new every day.
Verses 9 to 11 make it clear that a Lack of Love is a Sure Sign of Darkness
John says, "Anyone who claims to be in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness."
Love and light go together.
Hatred and darkness are partners.
We can’t claim to have an intimate fellowship with God and have hatred for a brother.
John tells us the person who claims to be a Christian in fellowship with God but truly hates another Christian is not even saved.
He’s a counterfeit.
He is "in darkness."
The "true light" has never really shined in his life.
The third test is the Doctrinal Test.
Now I will leave it to another time to discuss the issue of end times and Antichrist’s.
But in this section of the doctrinal test verses 18 to 21.
What John probably means by the term Antichrist is one who is opposed to Christ, there is still one to come who will be a counterfeit
The last hour that is spoken about is the time from the resurrection of Christ until his return.
The overall meaning is simple
These Antichrist’s have left the fellowship of believers because they have been unable to win them over.
Those who know the truth have stuck with the truth because they truly have the Holy Spirit as John says in verse 20.
Where as the heretics claimed to have the Spirit the true believers have proven that they are in fact anointed with the Spirit because they have persevered.
The second section of the Doctrinal Test reveals the true nature of the heresy and confirms what we learnt last week.
Verses 22 and 23 make it plain that the heresy was denying the deity of Christ.
The heretics held that Jesus was just a man, visited by the divine presence.
The true believers testify that Jesus was and is both fully God and fully man.
The heretics, those who believed in a secret knowledge which they called gnosis denied the reality of the incarnation.
Perfect Spirit & Evil Flesh could not mix in the unity that we know as Jesus who is the Christ.
Their denial of this fact was the central failure of their belief and the thing that refuted their claims to a relationship with God.
The final section of the doctrinal test sets out some safeguards.
Verses 24 to 27 call the readers and us today to hold true to that which we have heard from the beginning.
That is the straightforward apostolic preaching of the cross of Christ.
The Gospel
If we will only keep to the simple truth that saved us then we will be safe.
I have seen too many people lead off by this latest fad or that latest new teaching.
So many go around now days teaching all sorts of stuff about the end times or the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Or this gift or that new way of knowing God.
The warning is plain.
Stick to the plain and simple gospel.
Keep your theology plain and simple and conservative and you will not go far wrong.
We are told in verse 27 that the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we received at the beginning of our Christian life and that enabled us to recognise Christ for who he is, is the same anointing we now have.
If we have the word of God and specifically the gospel and the anointing of the Holy Spirit which we received at conversion then we can be reassured of our position in Christ.
We do not need any one to teach us is John’s way of saying; we do not need new teachings or new teachers.
We have the objective truth of God’s word; we have the inspiration of the Spirit to reveal that word to us.
Stick to what is known to be true.
3. Those who live up to the 3 tests (Moral Test, The Social Test & Doctrinal Test) can genuinely claim to be Christians. They have a Positive Witness.
This can be seen in the contrast between the Church and the World.
Verses 12-17 describes three levels of Christian growth in relation to sin.
The first level is compared to "little children" (verse 12).
Little children in the faith are characterised by having their sins forgiven and possessing a knowledge of God.
In other words, they are in the family of God and have overcome the penalty of sin, but they haven't grown to full maturity.
The second level is "young men" (verses 13, 14), those who have overcome the evil one.
These are aggressively growing believers who are strong because the Word of God abides in them.
They know the truth and how to use it to resist Satan in the battle for their minds.
They are no longer in bondage to uncontrollable habits, and they have resolved the personal and spiritual conflicts that keep many Christians from experiencing freedom in Christ.
They are free, and they know how to stay free.
The third level is "fathers" (verses 13, 14), those who have developed a deep personal knowledge of God.
Their faith is securely founded on a close, intimate, loving relationship with God; this is the goal of our spiritual growth.
Having challenged us to combat sin's power in our lives through a commitment to growth, John goes on in verses 15 to 17 to describe the avenues through which Satan tempts us: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.
The lust of the flesh preys on our physical appetites and their gratification’s in this world.
The lust of the eyes appeals to self-interest and tests the Word of God.
The pride of life stresses self-promotion and self-exaltation.
4. The question we must answer is this, Where do we stand in relation to the 3 tests (Moral Test, The Social Test & Doctrinal Test)? When People look at us do they see the true church of Christ or the World?
Do they see one who is consistent and growing in their faith?
Someone who obeys God’s commands and seeks to live them out in every area of their life?
Or do they see one who lives a life that is consistently the opposite of what it should be?
Do they see a person who shows love for their Neighbour?
Or do they see someone who cares only about themself, whilst paying mere lip service to the needs of others?
Do they see someone who is theologically stable and rellies upon God’s word?
Or do they see someone who runs around after this new teaching or that new movement?
Apply the 3 tests to your own life and apply it to the life of everyone who claims to lead or to teach.
What do you see in yourself, what do others see in you, what do you see in those who claim to teach or lead?
That is the test.
Parts of this sermon are from material by Coy Wylie’s Crossways Baptist Church Texas sermons on 1 John (Section 2) & Neil Anderson Freedom in Christ Ministries (Section 3).
