Ways we can know we are in relationship with God
Notes
Transcript
1 John 2:28 – 4:6
If we pass the tests of being righteous in our actions, showing love to our brothers and recognising false teaching we can have assurance of our position in Christ
Have you ever felt that you embarrass God?
Many Christians I meet often are a little unsure about their faith.
Some have serious concerns about their acceptability to God.
Some have a few doubts about the credibility of the gospel story.
Many feel that they don’t measure up to God’s standards and are therefore at risk of missing out on heaven.
I can remember a lot of times when I have sat with people and listened to them as they have told me about their doubts about their faith.
Usually they are a bit confused about where they stand with God.
They have often been like all of us and made a few mistakes.
But rather than being reassured about their standing with God they have come to believe some lie that tells them that they are a liability to God.
Perhaps you are a bit like that.
You know that your life is not totally together and that you should do better.
You may be tempted to look for some special extra that will help you to “make it”.
You keep looking for this or that latest extra experience that will take you to a higher level.
Or this or that special teacher who will give you some wonderful “new revelation” that will enable you to do better than the average Christian.
Or like many Christians something in your background has always left you feeling inadequate.
And you are not yet secure enough in your faith to accept the truth that God can bring healing and release from all in your past.
Christians in these sorts of situations are vulnerable.
They are confused and need reassurance that the gospel they have received is genuine and their faith is real.
Reassurance in the face of heresy that says you need “more” to be acceptable to God
The Apostle John knew that some of his people had been a bit confused by the claims of the heretics that threatened the New Testament Church.
These people needed reassurance that their faith was genuine.
So John elaborated on the test of obedience, love & doctrine so that his readers could be assured of their salvation.
Let’s take a look at the three sections to this test so that we to can have assurance that our faith is real and is not in vain.
In 1st John chapter 2 verses 28 through to 1st John chapter 3 verse 10 we have the first part of the test.
It deals with righteous living.
Let’s read this passage and see what it says to us
1 John 2:28–3:10 (NLT)
28 And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame. 29 Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children. 1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. 7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
Put simply obedience or Righteousness is a sign of being born of God.
Verse 28 makes it plain that if we continue to walk with Christ then we can stand tall when he returns.
Not on the basis of our own works, because that is never enough to earn God’s favour.
But on the basis of the righteousness we have because of our relationship with Christ.
Verse 29 states clearly our position if we know Christ.
We are born of Christ, that is, saved from the penalty of our sin.
We are in fact his children and as the first few verses of chapter 3 tell us we will be changed to be like Christ when he returns.
I find it incredibly exciting to know that when Jesus returns and the end of the world as we know it comes, I will be changed.
No longer will I be a short, slightly overweight, very unfit, and balding man who is beginning to feel his age.
I will be made physically perfect and I will never grow old.
I think that for most of us, we will find our heavenly bodies to be a vast improvement on what we now have.
Verses 4 to 10 have presented difficulties to many people.
Verse 10 makes it plain that anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, they are in fact a child of the devil.
People read these verses and think they are lost because they still sin.
John speaks in very straight terms.
And if we are honest every one of us still sins.
Are we all lost and no longer children of God?
No, of course not.
If you read chapter 2 and verse 1 you will see that John accepts that we will sin.
So what does this passage mean?
Who are the children of God and who are the children of the Devil?
Over the years a number of ways of looking at this passage have been attempted.
I won’t bore you with all the details but will give you what I believe is the correct way to look at verses 4 to 9 of chapter 3
The sin a Christian 'does not' and 'cannot' do is habitual and persistent sin.
He may sin sometimes, even with the consent of the mind and the will, but he is overwhelmed by grief and repentance afterwards (Ps. 51).
The commentator Plummer puts it this way,
“Although the believer sometimes sins, yet not sin, but opposition to sin, is the ruling principle of his life”.
His whole life is one of 'truceless antagonism to sin' (Law).
Calvin says;
It is not that Christians are 'wholly free from all vice' but that they 'heartily strive to form their lives in obedience to God'. 'Sin does not reign in them', for the Spirit does not let it flourish'.
That this is what John meant is evident from his use of tenses,
This is not some subtle twisting of the Greek language to fit a particular viewpoint, but one which John’s readers will have readily grasped.
It is confirmed by linguistic specialists today, e.g. 'The present tense in the Greek verb implied habit, continuity, unbroken sequence' (Blaiklock).
Hence the NIV translations, that no true believer 'keeps on sinning' or 'continues to sin' On the contrary, 'he cannot go on sinning'.
The believer may fall into sin, but he will not walk in it. (Smith)
So the children of God are those who live free from habitual sin as a way of life.
If you are aware of your sin and want to be rid of it then I believe that you fit this passages description of a child of God.
If you live your life with no awareness of the sins you daily commit then I believe that you are in trouble.
Love for Others
The next section deals with a favourite theme in the Bible.
This is that Love for others is a sign of having eternal life.
Verses 11 to 18 of chapter 3 are fairly straightforward.
If you have love for your brother then that is a sure sign that you have eternal life.
If you hate your brother then you are in God’s eyes a murderer and are lost.
Let’s read these verses and see what else they say.
11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. 16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? 18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
Verse 16 gives us a clear indication of what this love should be like.
It is simply the love of service.
Being prepared to count others worthy of our best efforts.
Because Christ laid down his life for us all, we should in turn be willing to follow his example.
Too much love throughout the churches history has been empty words.
God doesn’t take any positive notice unless you actually get out there and do something.
Verse 18 is very clear about this.
The practical application is this.
If you say you love someone else in this church.
And you should love everyone in this church, even if you think they are a pain in the neck.
Then you must do something about it, something practical.
The old saying of don’t say it unless you mean it applies here.
The teaching is plain; those who have eternal life will be marked by their love for those who share their faith in Christ.
Jesus said all people would know who his true disciples are by their love for one another.
Unfortunately society often sees only those who claim to be Christ’s disciples.
The last part of the test is about Recognising true and false doctrine.
Those who are from God will be able to tell the difference and they will stick to what is true.
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
The background of these verses, as of 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, is a situation in which 'prophecy' was prevalent.
The present tense of the command do not believe every spirit (1) suggests that John's readers were tending to accept uncritically all teaching which claimed to be inspired.
So John urges them to investigate the source of every pretension to inspired utterance.
Was it from God?
Or were the speakers false prophets?
This need for the critical assessment of religious teachers has always been felt.
The test given by Jesus was moral: 'by their fruit you will recognise them'.
John also applied moral tests, both righteousness (3:l0) and love (4:8).
But there are theological tests as well (as in Dt. 13:1-5 and Je. 23:9ff.).
In 3:23 John linked under a single divine command the duty to love one another, which had been his main theme during the latter part of that chapter, with the duty to believe in the name of God's Son Jesus Christ.
Now he takes up and further develops this central Christian belief as a searching test of the true Christian and the true prophet.
The test is applied in two ways, first with reference to the teachers and, secondly, with reference to the hearers.
This is how you can recognise true and false teachers, he says, and goes on to make the content of the teaching the decisive test.
'This is how we recognise' them (6b), he says again at the end of the paragraph, and goes on to make the character of the audience an almost equally revealing test.
The content John is referring to is this.
Jesus is the Christ, God incarnate.
From Birth to death and beyond Jesus is Christ in the flesh.
The heretics John opposed did not believe this truth.
Note that in our situation today as in Jesus’ day false teachers and demons will acknowledge the deity of Jesus.
But John is going one step further, he is saying that not only will true teachers acknowledge the deity of Jesus they will also voluntarily acknowledge him as Lord & Saviour.
God has given us his Spirit (3:24), but there are other spirits active in the world.
Neither Christian believing or Christian loving is to be indiscriminate.
So John tells his readers to test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
Every prophet is the mouthpiece or spokesman of some spirit.
True prophets of 'the Spirit of God' (2), who in verse 6 is called 'the Spirit of truth', and false prophets of 'the spirit of falsehood' (6b) or 'the spirit of the antichrist'.
So behind every prophet is a spirit, and behind each spirit either God or the devil.
Before we can trust any spirits, we must test them.
It is their origin that matters.
Today there are many voices clamouring for our attention, and many cults gaining widespread popular support.
Some of them claim a special revelation or in inspiration to authenticate their particular doctrine.
Many People are too gullible, and exhibit a naive readiness to give credit to messages and teachings, which purport to come from the spirit-world.
We should avoid both extremes, the superstition that believes everything and suspicion which believes nothing.
Objective Truth
So there we have the three parts of the test of obedience, love & doctrine.
It is the devils aim to keep you discouraged and downtrodden so that you are less of a problem for him.
You see he knows that if you are strong in your faith and totally dependent on God, instead of wondering around feeling defeated or being lead astray by trying to find something new, you will do damage to his evil kingdom.
So he has a simple strategy.
To keep you defeated by ongoing sin, doubt, strife or heresy.
If he can keep you second guessing yourself and condemning yourself when God just wants you to listen and grow.
Then he has the battle half won.
1 John 3:19-24 give us the answer to his deceit
19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. 23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
Verse 19 tells us that we can set our heart at rest when we are feeling condemned.
Our conscience has a simple purpose; it is to remind us of our need for God’s forgiveness and to call our attention to our sin.
And we should take this seriously.
If we feel we have done wrong then we can deal with it straight away by coming to God in repentance.
But Satan will try to deceive us and put nagging doubts about our relationship with God, or our actions or our worth into our mind.
It is in these situations that we need to remember verse 20 to 24.
What is the objective truth?
It is this, if our conscience is clear then we can confidently approach God.
If we have obeyed his commands we can confidently approach him.
If we sense his Spirit working within us we can confidently approach him.
If we have sinned and we have blown it then we can in repentance confidently approach him and he will forgive us.
There is no need to wonder or be in doubt or discouragement.
If we obey, love and believe what God has for us then we can have assurance.
If we get it wrong then God will forgive us because he loves us and wants us to grow and learn.
We will all fail at some stage or another, don’t let the devil use that to deceive you into believing that you are a liability to God.
We can have assurance.
If we consistently are Obeying, Loving and checking what we believe; then we are saved even when we sometimes get it wrong.
Be assured.
