Sermon notes from Sunday, September 8th.
In the hymn, Trust and Obey, it says, “When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
The main idea of our Scripture today is that “True followers of Jesus will have assurance in their salvation because they know, love, and obey Him.”
In I John, we come face to face with it is one thing to say you know God, but it is another to really know Him. In order to help us have a deep assurance of who we belong to and the assurance of our salvation, John presents to us a threefold test that he returns to again and again through the book of 1 John.
The first test is theological—Do I believe the right things about Jesus?
The Epistle of 1 John was written not only to bring the light of Christ to the forefront, but it was also written to counter the heresy that was coming against the first century church. Gnosticism was one of the most dangerous heresies of the first 2 centuries of the church—what exactly is that and what was the message that was trying to counter true Christianity?
Gnosticism in a nutshell was a combination of oriental mysticism and Greek philosophy. It blended in just enough of the Christian perspective to make it an effective counterfeit Christianity. The Gnosticism of the first century was an early form of what became more developed in the second and third centuries.
Gnosticism has two basic beliefs:
1. Knowledge was the one condition for salvation and the one test of fellowship with God. Faith was inferior to knowledge, and salvation was attained through enlightenment. The knowledge, however, that brought faith and fellowship with God was not an intellectual achievement, but it was a secret knowledge gained as a gift of revelation by God. It was considered different from and superior to the revelation found in Scripture.
a. This belief led to a two-class division of Christians: the “haves” and the “have nots.” Those with knowledge were considered the spiritual ones, and those without were called the carnal ones. This distorted emphasis led to arrogance, a lack of love, and exclusivism.
2. The second belief of Gnosticism was that all matter is inherently evil. Theologically, their most significant error was the denial of the real incarnation of God in Jesus. Since the body was evil, they believed the perfect God could not be united with it.
a. This belief, that matter was evil, led the Gnostics to treat their bodies harshly and moral behavior with great immorality. They believed that since the body and the spirit were separate, it didn’t matter what they did with their bodies. They set themselves above morality and agreed that nothing they did was sin.
These heretical beliefs are what John is countering in the verses we are looking at this morning.
All things are declared true or false based upon a standard. John is presenting a standard against the false claims of Gnosticism with the presentation of God as the standard and his self-revelation of morality and holiness.
“The threat of Gnosticism that attempted to rewrite the truth about God and Jesus in the first century is alive and active just as much so, or more so, today. Gnosticism is a belief system that is built on the concept that spiritual truth is not absolute but constantly changing. And the source of such truth is not found in the time-tested words of the Bible, but comes from within our own selves.”
The second test is a moral test—Do I obey the commands of God?
The goal of John is that you and I would live in the assurance of our salvation and thereby be happy in Jesus all the days of our lives.
I would like to break this down into two overarching ideas:
1. Obey Christ’s commands and enjoy the assurance of salvation.
a. In 1 John 2:3-4, is the aspect of you will know that you know Him.
i. Chuck Colson wrote a book called Loving God—in it he says this, “But how do we love the Lord?” we ask. Jesus answered this in a discussion with His disciples: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15). Or, as the apostle John wrote later, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” 1 John 5:3).”
b. Both to know Christ and to love Him is to obey Him.
c. Knowing God and loving God are intimately wed ideas throughout the book of 1 John. He will use this idea 40 times in this 5-chapter book.
d. This obedience, John teaches, reveals the genuineness of our faith, the authenticity of our confession, the maturing of our love, and our growth in Christlikeness.
e. For John there is a massive difference between merely saying and actually doing.
f. John saw the importance of the gospel’s connection to obedience. The word “keeping” conveys the idea of guarding. We should guard God’s commands as a precious treasure. And as we do, the treasure of our assurance of salvation is strengthened with it. Obedience is an important avenue of assurance. Because I know Christ in all of His beauty, glory and majesty, I delight in obeying Him. To obey Christ is not a burden. It is a blessing. It should be mine and your natural response to what He has done for us.
g. Keeping the commands of God is not a condition of knowing God, but it is a clear sign and indication that we do know God.
i. It is a life of true worship that delights in the commands of God for no other reason than it delights in the God who gives those commands.
ii. John says, “But whoever keeps (as a habit and a pattern of life) His word (His commands) truly in him the love of God is perfected.”
iii. The context of the love of God that John is talking about in our verses today indicates our love for God. As we consistently obey God, carefully guarding His word in our lives, our love for God grows and is brought to maturity and completion.
iv. Here is the beauty of it all—the more I know Him the more I love Him, and the more I love Him, the more I know Him.
h. When God saved us, He did not save us simply to take us to heaven. He saved us that we might be conformed to His perfect image—that we might become like Jesus. He saved us so that we might walk as Jesus walked. The idea is continuing in Christ—growing more and more into His image—having our lives more and more show forth who Christ is and the love He brought to the world and into our lives.
i. THE MORAL OBLIGATION FOR US IS THAT OUR WALK WOULD MATCH OUR TALK!
i. Listen to these few verses of Scripture:
1. John 15:4-5. “Remain in me and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”
2. 1 Corinthians 11:1—Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.
3. Ephesians 5:1—“Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children.”
4. I Peter 2:21—"For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps.”
ii. Christ’s life becomes my life, my example, my goal, and my pattern. It is abiding in Christ that enables me to live like Him. I don’t do it on my own strength. I do it in His! I don’t have to be like Him to be assured, I want to be like Him and I am assured.
2. The third test is ethical—Do I love others?
John is telling us that a right love for God is absolutely essential for a right love toward one another. The two are inseparable.
There is an assumption is John’s letters of what Jesus said that is written in the Gospel of John, John 13:34-35 Jesus said, “I give you a new command: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John basically is saying that the command to love one another is not new—rather is old. It is something you have had from the beginning, the beginning of your Christian experience as followers of Jesus. This command has its ancient roots in Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19:18 where Moses wrote, “Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord.”
The old command takes on new character with the coming of Jesus. The newness really is threefold. First, it is new and true in Jesus. Second, it is true and new in us, those who walked as He walked, and third, it is true and new in us because the “darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.”
In Christ the command to love one another is strengthened, deepened, expanded, and given a depth of meaning and understanding never seen before His coming in the incarnation. And now that same kind of supernatural love is being seen and experienced in those who love and abide in Him.
Perfect love as revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has dealt a death blow to darkness. The light of the world has come and His name is LOVE!
Love is not new, it is as old as God and rooted in the law. Yet it is new to us in conversion and new it is depth in Jesus. It is new in experience, emphasis, expression, and endurance.
The ethical emphasis comes in how we treat one another. John draws a stark contrast between those who walk in the light and those who walk in the darkness, between love and hate. Those who love are children of God, those who hate are children of the Devil—these are hard words to grasp.
But John doesn’t mince any words—if you continually hate your brother there are 4 things that are true of you: you are in spiritual death (darkness), you walk or live in darkness, you don’t know where you are going, and you are blind.
In darkness, in the world of continual hate, there is an absence of love and the absence of God in our lives. It is a true tragedy. Look around in our world today and you will see absolute examples between the light of love and truth of darkness.
Narrowing this all down…To trust Christ you must first know Him—know Him as the One who has been from the beginning; know Him as the One who is the Word of life and the eternal life; know Him as the Son of the Father in whom there is no darkness at all; know Him as the cleanser and forgiver of sins; know Him as your advocate and atonement. To know Jesus is to trust Him and to trust Him is to obey Him. And when you do, you will experience a happiness in Jesus that as the hymn writer says, “will indeed be a glory that He will shed on your way.”
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