Am I a Christian?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Am I a Christian?
Am I a Christian?
Do you know that you are a Christian?
This is a most essential question, is it not?
Matthew 7:15:23
15 “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.
16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.
18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’
23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’
Did you notice the statement Jesus made in verse 21?
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.
And then verse 22.
On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’
And now notice His answer.
Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’
Do you know if you’re going to heaven? How do you know you won’t hear — “I never knew you! Depart from Me?” How can you know?
1 John gives us Tests of Authenticity of being a child of God — so that we might know — that’s a very important phrase in 1 John. Nearly 30 times, John tells us that we can know we are God’s children.
For example.
This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.
And
But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:
Also,
We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
All throughout John’s letter we have these “We Know” statements that constitute the evidence or the litmus test of a true Christian.
Before we get into these let me give you a little background behind John’s letter.
Background
John was advanced in age when he penned this epistle and the sole remaining apostle. The time frame of the writing of the epistle is between AD 90-95. AD 95 becomes important because this is the great persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Domitian. But there’s no mention of the Domitian Persecution, so this is generally accepted to be right before AD 95.
The church fathers John Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius all indicated that John lived in Ephesus in Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey. Papias, another early church father described John as a “living and abiding voice.”
Ephesus was within the intellectual center of Asia Minor. And as Paul predicted, false teachers would rise up among the church at Ephesus with false doctrine that would pervert fundamental Scriptural teaching. These False Teachers advocated “new ideas” that would become Gnosticism, which is from the Greek word for knowledge.
Now you see why John kept using the phrase “We Know.” Gnosticism was the most threatening heresy to the early church during the first 3 centuries. Gnosticism was heavily influenced by Plato who advocated dualism. Dualism stated that matter was inherently evil and spirit was good. As a result false teachers denied the humanity of Christ to preserve Him from evil. They also advocated a “higher knowledge” known only to those in on the “deep things.” The result was a mystical knowledge of truth that was higher even than Scripture!
Therefore — instead of divine revelation standing as judge over man’s ideas, man’s ideas judged God’s revelation. This is always a danger lurking. This is why it is so important that Scripture hold preeminence. And so, John begins his prologue in chapter 1.
Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life—
2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us —
3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
5 Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.
1 John 1:1-5
In these verses, we can see John countering the attack of the heresy. It’s not so much that he is writing a critique of the heresy, but rather — he is giving a warning and — encouragement to believers in Ephesus. And he does it in such a way to give them tests that they may KNOW if they are God’s Children.
As we can see, as John gives these “We know” statements — He is dealing in certainties, not opinions or conjecture. He gives them the absolute character of Christianity in the most simple terms. He is clear and unmistakable, leaving no doubt about the truth. And yet he is warm and loving in tone, conversing like a father with his children in intimate conversation.
He is also pastoral writing with the heart of a pastor. He desired them to have joy. And so the letter is positive, but he is also polemic — not sweeping past the issues. He refutes the error with sound doctrine, and tolerates no perversion of the truth. He labels the heretical defectors identifying them by their source — Doctrine of Demons.
Let’s consider these Tests of the Christian.
How do I know that I am a Christian?
John gives 7 Tests of a Christian.
And they run in a spiral fashion, much like a screw being screwed into a piece of wood and as it digs in and keeps digging in. This is much like what John does. His approach is
spiraling down and down going through every test of being a true Child of God.
He begins with a Test of Doctrine to believe and Doctrine to live, in what we’ll call the First Spiral, and then another Test of Doctrine to believe and then Doctrine to live in the Second Spiral, and then another Test of Doctrine to believe and a Test of Doctrine to live in the Third Spiral - then the Final Test in the Fourth Spiral. All total — there are 7 Tests: 2 in the first Spiral, 2 in the second Spiral, 2 and the Third Spiral and the 1 Final Test in the 4th and last Spiral.
Now that you may be thoroughly confused — just hang on. Let’s look at the 1st Spiral. and at Tests 1 and 2.
I. 1st Spiral — Tests 1 and 2
I. 1st Spiral — Tests 1 and 2
We’ll look at these
This is the first Test of Doctrine to believe.
Test 1 — The Doctrine to Believe
Test 1 — The Doctrine to Believe
The Biblical View of Christ
Who is Jesus Christ?
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life—
2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us —
3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
From the beginning
Though
Like the phrase found in his Gospel, “in the beginning,” the phrase means eternity past. In context it refers to the beginning of gospel preaching, but there is also the emphasis of the stability of the gospel message — it never changes. It’s not subject to change due to the current fads of the world or philosophical ideas.
And so the idea here is “we know.” The message of redemption is unchanging.
What makes the message unchanging is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ — He is unchanging.
Notice the phrases: “what we have heard, what we have see with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life.” John reflects on the person of Jesus Christ some 60 years later, the memories permanently etched on his mind as if the events had just happened. Each phrase refers to Jesus in bodily form — His humanity. Spirit cannot be heard, or seen, or touched.
And this Word of life, refers specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And John says in verse 2 — “that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.
All of it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One you must believe in. This is the First Test of being a Christian — Believing in the Biblical Jesus, not a historical one or what you personally think He is or a vision you’ve had of Him. What does the Bible say of Jesus?
He is the Word of Life who was with the Father and was revealed to us and this is the Jesus Declared to you.
Do you believe in that Jesus?
The Biblical View of Sin
Biblical Doctrine does not stop with the Person and Work of Christ.
Think about this.
Why has Jesus Christ been revealed? Why did He come?
Now that gets us into our condition. We are sinners. But what does that mean? What does that entail?
Notice how John starts this in verse 5, and this is essential to understanding sin — Biblically.
5 Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.
This gives us everything we need to know about sin. God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him. This is the character of God. God is holy — He is holy, holy, holy — Thrice Holy. This superlative description gets at the utter essence of God — there is absolutely no darkness in Him. And because He is that kind of Light, absent of all darkness, now we understand biblically — Sin.
In order to be in true fellowship with God, “you cannot walk in darkness.”
In other words, you cannot live in sin. First and foremost you must be cleansed of sin by the “blood of Jesus.” This means Christ’s death has to have been for your sin. And this gets to the tremendous truth of Christ’s Substitutionary Death.
This greatest problem for the church is Christians don’t fully understand the Gospel. Meaning they don’t understand the nature of God, the nature of sin, and the nature of the death of Christ. This is something that is a recurring issue for the church. It was this way in John’s day, this is why he is writing 1st John and it’s the issue today.
My sin was so bad, so dark, so unholy, so personal against God, that I needed Jesus Christ’s death which was — look at 2:2, was a propitiation for our sins.
Why is this necessary?
It’s because our dilemma is that God is just and we are unjust.
This dilemma was so great that Jesus came as our Propitiator to turn God’s wrath from us to Himself. The term propitiation means to “appease” or “satisfy.” Christ’s sacrificial, substitutionary death on the cross satisfied the demands of God’s justice, thereby appeasing God’s holy wrath against believers’ sins.
So you know you’re a Christian is you believe in the Biblical Jesus and Biblical sin.
Test 2 — The Doctrine to Live
Test 2 — The Doctrine to Live
Doctrine is not merely believed — but believed in such a way that it is lived out.
The Biblical View of Obedience
3 This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.
Obedience reveals the reality of the belief. The believer obeys God’s truth. He lives by it. Look at verse 5.
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:
This is simple and clear. No life of obedience reveals you are not a Christian.
The Biblical View of Love
Doctrine Lived really plays out in how we love fellow believers.
9 The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
In other words, if you do not love your brother, but hate him, you have not been brought out of darkness — you’re not in the light. Wow! That’s really to the point, isn’t it?
Not only love your brother but love God. John puts it in the negative.
15 Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:
Love of the world is in direct contrast and contradiction to having the love of the Father. This tells us of what love is. True love is “Of the father,” that is — it comes from God. Everything else is classified as a love of the world.
16 For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1 John 2:16
If you don’t have the “love of the Father” then the love you have is for the world — which is revealed in not love but lust and pride — “lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride in one’s lifestyle.” This refers to the sin disposition of man, the rebellious self dominated by sin and in opposition to God.
And you see he classifies this as “not from the Father.”
But listen — that kind of thing will pass away. But love of the Father is eternal.
This is Tests 1 and 2.
You know you’re a Christian if you obey God’s commands and love your brother.
II. 2nd Spiral — Tests 3 & 4
II. 2nd Spiral — Tests 3 & 4
Test 3 — The Doctrine to believe.
Test 3 — The Doctrine to believe.
Antichrist Depart from the Christian Fellowship
Chapter 2:18
“many antichrists have come.”
Antichrist rise from within the church teaching false doctrine and they depart from the true fellowship and lead people out with them. This emphasizes the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. Those genuinely born of God endure in faith and fellowship and the truth.
The ultimate test of Christianity is endurance to the end. Departure of people from the truth and the church manifests the reality of who they are, and even more importantly, Whose they are.
13 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
The distinguishing marks between the genuine Christian and those who are marked as antichrists are:
The Holy Spirit guards them from error.
27 The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.
And the Holy Spirit guides them into knowing “all things.”
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit —the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
The Christian has a built-in lie detector and persevere in the truth. Those remaining in heresy and apostasy manifest they were never born of God.
The antichrists deny the Christian Faith
They deny the Father and the Son.
22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.
23 No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
The Antichrists try to deceive the Believers
26 I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
27 The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.
And so what does the Christian do?
;26-27
He walks in the truth.
The 3rd Test is the Christian endures to the end by believing the Truth.
Test 4 — The Doctrine to Live
Test 4 — The Doctrine to Live
The Christian has the Hope of Christ’s Return
Here is the Test of Doctrine to Live by. Look at 3:3
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
Every Christian has a “Purifying Hope.” This is a hope of Christ’s return. See in verse 2.
2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.
“When He appears.”
This is the hope of Christ’s return that has a sanctifying effect on the Christian’s living. The Christian seeks to walk in holiness. It’s motivation for the Christian. The absence of this motivation indicates an unsaved life.
Why wouldn’t a Christian have a hope of Christ’s return?
This is His Lord.
And this, John emphasizes the Christian to, “remain in Him.” In other words, the Christian abides and remains. He perseveres in the faith.
And the Christian manifests this perseverance by practicing righteousness. Why does he do this? Because, John says in verse 29, “he has been born of Him (born of God).” And here we have that wonderful relationship between Sovereignty and Responsibility. John is saying, because he is born of God, he then practices righteousness.
And therefore
The Christian’s Live is Incompatible with Sin
6 Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.
8 The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works.
9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.
1 John
5 You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.
6 Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.
8 The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works.
9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.
10 This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.
1 John 3:6-
This is so clear. The fruit manifests whose they are.
If a man is practicing sin, then he is of the Devil.
If a man is practicing righteousness and not sin, then he is born of God.
And so, John continues to say things like:
10 This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.
And then
16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.
17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?
18 Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.
1 John 3:16
The 4th Test is the Christian’s perseverance is Manifested in living Righteously.
III. 3rd Spiral — Tests 5 & 6
III. 3rd Spiral — Tests 5 & 6
Test 5 — The Doctrine to Believe
Test 5 — The Doctrine to Believe
The Source of False Doctrine is Demonic
This is why God’s Truth is so important to believe. The source of the Truth is Divine. The source of the lie is Demonic.
Genesis 3:
3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.
— The Devil “is a liar and the farther of lies.”
So, John says,
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
How will we know?
1 John 2:2-3
2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
3 But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
If there is one thing in the church that has been so greatly detrimental is there is not Biblical Discernment.
Do you know what I mean by “Biblical Discernment?”
I mean there is so gross ignorance of the Bible — that is what God says, that people in the church here something and because it sounds good or sounds spiritual or names the name of Christ — they believe it to be the truth.
The measuring stick to determine whether the message is from a demon or the Holy Spirit is clear.
First, the teacher must be a true teacher. They proclaim Jesus is God incarnate in human flesh. This means they proclaim Jesus as truly God and truly man. In other words, the proclaim Jesus as revealed in Scripture.
Anything other than that — this is a false teacher, and has the spirit of antichrist.
And so, there is a need for Sound Doctrine! See that?
Look at verses 5 and 6.
6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
John gives a second test of a True Teacher: They Speak God’s Word.
The 5th Test of a Christian is he knows the source of True Truth and the source of what is false — and he knows this by what they teach.
Test 6 — The Doctrine to Live
Test 6 — The Doctrine to Live
God’s Character of Love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
This is clear. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
BUT — There is a lot in the world that is declared to be LOVE.
How do we know what is truly Love?
The Sexual Revolution that’s in full throttle at this time says, “Man loving man is love too.” “Can’t people just love who they want?” And now the question has moved to the demand.
How do we know what is true love is?
Andy Stanley says, “Because the Bible says is not enough any more.” We know because because they Bible says, “God is love!” Let John explain.
1 John 4:9
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
That’s God’s Character of Love, but His Character demands a requirement.
God’s Requirement of Love
And so, John concludes in verse 11
11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
That’s the Doctrine to Live, since the source of truth is God. That truth is lived out in the Christian’s life by living the Character of God — If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
IV. 3rd Spiral — the Final Test
IV. 3rd Spiral — the Final Test
Test 7 — The Certainty in Christ
Test 7 — The Certainty in Christ
13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
And the Result of this certainty in Christ is
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
We know
Christians are not people who are in a state of uncertainty. They are not hovering in the dark. They know what they are, where they are, and what they’ve got.
John writes to people so that they may be absolutely sure. Christians are not seekers and enquirers. They have ceased to doubt. They believe God.
Look at what they know.
We know that we are of God.
We know that we are of God means nothing less then we are born of God, partakers of the divine nature, born again, born from above, born of the Spirit, a new creation — Children of God.
Paul says in
10 But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me.
And they know something else.
We know that the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
However much the world changes on the surface this is the reality — the whole world is under the devil’s power. The world will never get better. tells us it will “wax worse and worse.” Christians have this understanding of the world they live in, they people they live with — they are under the power of the devil.
Social reform will not change this reality. War will not change it. Governments and politicians won’t change it. Democracy won’t change it. Education won’t change it. The only thing that will change is the Gospel when preached to individuals.
This we know.
4 because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
Well that’s the Test.
How did you do?
Read 1 John again. Study it. Get in deep. Live it out.
Let’s Pray.
Our Father in heaven,
We thank you this morning for John’s wonderful repetitive use of the word know.
These things were written that we might know we have eternal life. How beautiful this is!
We know the Son of God.
We know that we are in Him.
We know that we are born of God.
We know that no one born of God continues in the same unbroken pattern of sin.
We know that we are of God because we hear the voice of Your Spirit in Your word. We know that the Son of God has come in the flesh. We know You — the Father of mercies, our ever-present God, eternal Savior, reigning Lord, the Judge of all things, and Justifier of all who believe in Jesus Christ. We thank You again for what we know. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
We know that the Son of God has come in the flesh.
We know You — the Father of mercies, our ever-present God, eternal Savior, reigning Lord, the Judge of all things, and Justifier of all who believe in Jesus Christ.
We thank You again for what we know. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen.