Testing Waters

When Love Requires a Hard Truth

Opening: Getting Close to God

You know you're getting close to God is when he's showing you stuff you ain't seen before. When he's giving you a testimony you didn't think was possible. When he's blowing your natural mind. He says you're going to see me. I still know how to turn things around when the son of God is valued for who he is. He is the living son of God who knows how to touch earth while grabbing heaven at the same time.

The Book of John: From Event to Experience

The book of John is not about how to become a Christian. The book of John is now having become a Christian, how do you grow in your experience with the Lord? It's about intimacy.

We've explained it like marriage. Marriage is an event but growing in intimacy is a process. Getting saved, converted, redeemed, regenerated is an event that happens in the moment you come to Christ. But arriving at experiencing God is a process.

And just because you had the event doesn't mean you've got the experience. Just because you've accepted Christ as savior – which guarantees your eternal destiny in heaven – doesn't mean you're experiencing much of him in history.

So first John is about the experience of God to those who are converted.

Two Critical Things for Experiencing God

He has said there are two things that are absolutely critical for that experience to happen. There must be vertically an abiding with him.

We've explained the word abiding means you got to hang out with him.

Yeah.

Visiting him once a week won't do. He's got to be your BFF. You must abide. You've got to hang out with him. That is, include him on all of life, pursuing obedience in that process because he says if you love me you will keep my commandments.

So what does he want in the pursuit of that? As you're pursuing him, that's the vertical – that's our relationship with him. But he's also said in first John there must be a concomitant correspondence with our horizontal relationship with his family. That is, if you are wanting to pursue him but being disconnected from his family, then what you're doing is say his family doesn't matter and you make yourself an only child.

The Danger of Disconnection

That is the reason why God wants every believer to be a functioning part of a local body. A nonfunctioning believer that's disconnected is like a body part that's unattached. A body part that's unattached doesn't get the life of the blood. And a Christian that is disconnected doesn't get the life of the blood. Some things God will do for you just because you're his child. But there are other things he will not do for you if you're disconnected from the rest of the family.

So you can actually limit God's work in your life by being disconnected from either him vertically or his family horizontally.

But when the two are in sync – the vertical abiding and the horizontal loving – then you are in a sweet spot with the Lord for experiencing eternal life. Possessing it comes at salvation, but experiencing it comes through a process.

The Warning About Sin

He comes to now this final segment with a warning related to our horizontal relationships. He says in verse 16, "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, chapter 5 verse 16, not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will for him give life to those who commit sin, not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make requests for this."

There are warning labels on appliances that we get about how it's to be handled, the danger of handling it incorrectly. And so he wants to give a warning. Now, he's going to warn about a number of things. He's going to warn about sin. He's going to warn about Satan. He's going to warn about the world. And he's going to warn about idolatry. In the last verse, little children, guard yourselves from idols. So he's going to give this warning, but in giving this warning, starting off with sin, he says that Christians have a responsibility not only to love one another, but to correct one another.

The Responsibility to Correct

That we have a responsibility in the family of God to help Christians on the wrong path to reroute themselves to the right path. That there is a responsibility of Christians when we see Christians who are crooked to help straighten them out.

Now he clarifies it when he says if you see your brother commit a sin. So he ain't talking about I think I feel, you know, he's talking about a sin, not a preference.

If you see your brother commit a sin, he says, "I want you to do what a dentist does when he puts braces on your teeth. Straighten them out."

You've had crooked teeth or indented teeth and you put on braces. You're trying to make something crooked straight. He says we have a responsibility in the loving of believers to love one another enough to correct one another.

He says I want you to care about one another enough in the house of God that when you see someone going astray, you don't tell your child who's running out to play in traffic, boys will be boys. You begin a process of correcting their direction so that they're not hit, hurt, or run over. That one of the responsibilities of the church is the correcting responsibilities because of the love. Not because of the anger or the resentment, but because of the love. And he's saying that that is a responsibility. He says, "I want you to do this before the person reaches the point of death."

Sin Removes Us from God's Covering

Sin that is, he says, "All unrighteousness is sin." Sin is when you detour from divine direction. In other words, God says this and you say that. When God says this and you say that, you go in the opposite direction. That's called sin.

Sin removes us from God's covering. Sin removes us from God's favor. In grace, he doesn't whip us every time we sin, but it does remove us. And he wants us to be brought back in place.

If we're going to love one another as the church of Jesus Christ, then we want to help people whose sins we see and who are clearly violating the will of God to clean it up because we don't want them to live a soiled life.

The Sin Unto Death

He says, "I want you to commit yourself to this because that is part and parcel of the responsibility so that they are detoured from death." Spiritual death is separation, but then there's physical death. The Bible talks about the sin unto death. He says in verse 16, the sin under death is the sin that you enter into where you refuse to repent from it, which gives Satan authority over your life.

When there is the refusal to repent and there is the pursuit of the sin, you can go to the place where prayer can't bring you out of it. He calls it, I say not to pray for that one. In other words, they have entered into a pattern of rebellion that God has to address directly or even allow Satan to address on his behalf.

He says the scripture has illustrations of this – Ananias and Sapphira when they dropped dead because of their theft. The Bible has Achan who dropped dead because of God's judgment of refusal to repent.

So God understands that we have this issue of sin. We're going to talk about that more in a moment. But what he wants is us to be in an environment where people love one another not to skip their failure, their rebellion, and their sin, but love one another to want to correct it and help them and guide them back into the right direction with God.

B. A Biblical Responsibility

So if you're a member of the body of Christ, this is a biblical responsibility that you and I have incurred as people who possess the jaws of life.

Many people have died before their time. They've died before they would have normally been allowed to live because they pursued rebellion against God and would not allow themselves to be corrected or didn't have anybody in their life willing to correct them.

Amen.

So this love thing involves caring enough to correct, caring enough to resteer and to bring it into the right path.

He says this is what we are to do.

Comfort and Correction

Many people come to the hospital called the church who've been broken by sin. Their own sin or the sin of others that have affected them, and they come in broken.

Our job while comforting is also to correct – to say this is what God says. This is how we are to maneuver this so that they are restored.

He says we are to commit ourselves to bring people to a state of repentance, to turn them.

C. What Is Repentance?

Repentance from the Greek word metanoia means an internal decision to go in another direction.

Repentance starts with a decision.

I'm sorry is not repentance. I'm sorry is apology. But that doesn't equal repentance.

Amen.

Okay.

I'm sorry means I recognize it. But that doesn't mean I've turned. I just recognize it. Repentance is an internal decision, having recognized it, to turn.

Now, sometimes you need help to turn 'cause you're too weak to turn. You need somebody else to help you with the steering wheel 'cause you don't really want to turn, but you decided to turn, so you need help to turn. It is the internal decision to turn. Now, how do you know you've made a sincere internal decision to turn?

Because the Bible says you bring forth fruit of repentance.

The Fruit of Repentance

If you're driving down the highway and you recognize I'm going in the wrong direction, I'm going the wrong way and I feel so bad that I'm going the wrong way. I'm so sorry I made the wrong turn, but your foot is still on the accelerator headed in the same direction. You may feel bad about it, but there has been no turn.

But when you see confession offramp and you get off and you cross over grace overpass and you get back on restoration on ramp, you've turned. And it is the turn that shows that the internal was sincere because of the turn of the external, the fruit of repentance. So the goal is to bring people to the turn, to the change of direction.

But the reason he tells us to do it is because people need help. People often are in a stronghold, in an addiction, in something where they have been trapped, don't want to be there, but don't know how to get out.

That's why Galatians 6:1-5 says, "You who are spiritual and you see your brother caught in a sin" – when you're caught, that means it's a stronghold. It's an addiction.

James 5 on Turning a Sinner

In fact, James puts it another way in James chapter 5. James says in verses 19 and 20 these words, "My brethren, if any among you, fellow Christians, strays from the truth and one turns him back, turn, let him know that he who turns – turn – a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."

Boy, he says two things. He says, "When we love each other enough to correct one another, we save the soul from death – spiritual departure, and it could be physical death." But then he throws in another line: "And you cover a multitude of sins." In other words, you don't just cover what you addressed, you cover a bunch of other stuff you don't even know about.

You cover stuff that has happened that's not known or stuff that would happen if they would keep going in that direction.

And we all know people – if they keep going the direction they're going, it's going to be a bad situation.

And so he calls on us as part of this horizontal loving to be part of that process, to be authentic believers.

C. Satan and the World

He then talks about Satan. He says in verse 19, the world lies in the power of the evil one.

So the whole world lies in the hands of the wicked one. He owns the value systems of this world and he tries to suck us in it.

He says we know that he is over the jurisdiction and the value system that is anti-good, and he wants us to buy into it. He wants those values to become our values. Their worldview to become our worldview. Their perspective to become our perspective. Their truth to become our truth.

He says that is what he does.

Idolatry Attracts Demons

And one of the main ways he does it is that last verse: little children, guard yourselves from idols. He does it through idolatry.

He says, "Keep yourselves from idols." Now, the reason he's going to tell you, "Keep yourselves from idols" – 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 19 to 22 – idols attract demons.

Idols attract demons.

Garbage attracts roaches. Garbage attracts ants. Garbage attracts mice. Enough garbage will attract rats. Garbage stinks on its own merit, but it is amplified by what it attracts.

So when Satan gets us to rebel against God, taking the values of the world so that something in the world becomes our source, demons have been invited to the party.

So what many people don't understand is they're not just struggling with the sin. They're struggling with the demons that have joined the sin that they feel that they've been invited to because idols invite demons. 1 Corinthians 10 says, he even goes as far as saying, "And Christians are eating at the table of demons" because they're eating at the table of idols. They have chosen a different source other than God, and the demons feel at home with them.

Fighting Problems with Demonic Association

So many of you, many of us who are fighting problems are really fighting problems that demons have joined us in. And we wonder why we can't get rid of the problem because you have to also get rid of the demons who have been attracted to the problem or the rebellion against God.

So he calls us now. There's sin, there's Satan, there's the world, there's idolatry. How do we deal with this?

Notice verse 19, "We know." Verse 20, "We know." In the middle of verse 20, "That we may know." He brings up knowing.

In first John, knowing is a term of intimacy.

As Intimacy Grows, Victory Grows

His point is that as intimacy grows, victory grows. Okay? As intimacy grows, victory grows over sin. That's why he says you who are spiritual. When we are able to bring the spiritual, as intimacy grows, victory grows.

Now he goes into some details. "We know that no one who is born of God sins, but he who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him." Man, that verse don't sound right.

It says, "The one born of God does not sin." Well, there ain't nobody in here that does not sin. And then it says, "And the evil one does not touch him." I don't know about you, but he touched me.

Okay. So, what does he mean? The one born of God does not sin and the evil one does not touch him. Okay. If you go back to chapter 3:9, we went over this, but let's review it. "No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God." So, let me explain.

The Seed Analogy

Have you ever seen a watermelon? We've all had it – that big – from a seed this big. Seed is this big. But in that seed is this. But this seed doesn't become this without a process, right? Sun, rain. There's a process that takes this and turns it into that. Yeah. Yeah.

He said in chapter three, you have a seed.

What is the seed? 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Any man who's in Christ is a new creation. Old things pass away, and behold, all things become new." The new nature comes in. But here's the problem. The new nature comes in in seed form.

So the new nature, the God part that can't sin, has to grow.

So many times we're trying to fix problems when we have a stunted seed. And if the seed has not grown, then it has not manifested itself in the soul. And the growth comes through the abiding and through the loving.

So if you're only abiding but you're not loving, then the seed will not manifest full growth. If you're loving but you're not abiding, it can't manifest full growth. It must have both. Yeah.

And when he says you cannot sin, it's the seed that cannot sin. 'Cause he's already said if you see a brother sinning, so it's obvious you can sin, but not in the seed.

Caterpillar and Butterfly

You know what a caterpillar is? It's a butterfly wannabe. It's a butterfly wannabe. But until it crystallizes and goes through that process – chrysalis – it doesn't become what's inside of it. And what's inside of it is designed to fly, but it'll stay grounded until that process happens. And it will never take flight.

The Son of God Gives Understanding

It says one other thing in verse 20. "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him." The Son of God – the Son means Son by function, not by being. He's equal to the Father. But when it comes to earth, he's functionally the Son. So here's how this works.

He calls him the Son of God. When the Bible uses these terms, it doesn't just use them casually. Jesus is called the Son of God and the Son of Man 'cause he's divine – Son of God – and he's human – Son of Man. We call that in theology the hypostatic union: two natures unmixed in one person forever. A divine nature and a human nature. Son of God, divine. Son of Man, human.

So as a man, he had to eat. He had to sleep. He had to cry. He had to do stuff that people do. As a Son of God, he could raise the dead. He could walk on water. He could – you know – 'cause he's divine. So he can do both because it's one person with two natures. Okay.

When it talks about the Son of God, it's talking about his divine nature. He says the Son of God – the divinity of God – will bring understanding. But bring understanding to who? He's talking about you and me. So the Son of God – deity – will bring understanding to human beings.

Jesus: The Ladder

Now the reason he can bring understanding to human beings is because he's also the Son of Man, so he can understand – Hebrews 4 – what we're going through. Now I love – I'll give you this illustration.

John 1 talks about a man named Nathaniel. And Nathaniel is sitting under the tree and he's having devotions. And one of Jesus's disciples goes over to Nathaniel and says, "Guess what? We found Jesus, the King of Israel, the Son of God."

So Nathaniel comes over to Jesus. End of St. John chapter 1, Jesus looks at Nathaniel and Nathaniel says, "I believe you are the Son of God." He affirms the deity of Jesus Christ.

When he affirms the deity of Jesus Christ. When Jesus told him, here's what Jesus told him: "I saw you sitting under the tree." Now, Jesus wasn't near the tree, but he says, "I saw you sitting under the tree and I know what you were thinking."

He said, "Oh, you're the Son of God. You saw me when you weren't around and you know what I was thinking, and I know you're the Son of God." He says, "Because you take my deity seriously, you will see angels going up and down. Angels going up and down the Son of Man. You'll see angels going up and down."

Jacob's Ladder

Now, what he was thinking about was Jacob's ladder. You know, we are climbing Jacob's ladder, okay? Where Jacob was seeing the angels go up and down. Well, now they're not going up and down a ladder. They're going up and down the Son of God.

Well, what's a ladder do? It connects you from one location to another location. It connects you from what's down on the ground to what's up that you go into. Jesus says, "I am your ladder. I am the ladder from heaven down to history. And if you take me seriously, I'mma show you some stuff."

The Wedding at Cana

Okay. The next thing that happens is Jesus is at the marriage at the wedding of Cana. They've run out of wine and Jesus says, "Bring me some things full of water" – bring him barrels full of water – and he turns water into wine to let his disciples see what he can do.

When you take the Son of God seriously, when you take the Son of God seriously, he's going to let you see some stuff you ain't seen before. He's going to blow your mind like it's not been blown before. It may not make sense. Some of us have run out of wine. Wine in the Bible when it's speaking positively is talking about life and joy and meaning, and we've run out. Our get up and go has gotten up and gone, and we need something to replace it.

He says, "I know how to turn water – and I still know how to turn it into wine. I still know how to turn things around when the Son of God is valued for who he is."

He's not just a name we throw up in space. He is the living Son of God who knows how to touch earth while grabbing heaven at the same time.

Closing

When you get straight with Jesus, there's a lot of other stuff that comes with it. You give him the glory to his name. Let the seed grow and watch the transformation occur in your life and in your world.