Prayer Requests
Vacation Bible School
Sarah and Tyler Going to China
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Text – 2 Thessalonians 1:3
We’re going to spend an entire lesson today on a word that is not there. We’ve already looked at this verse, twice, actually, but something flew out at me while preparing that we HAVE to look at, because it sums up the WHOLE letter of 2 Thessalonians, and it’s a missing word.
Let’s see if you can see it,
2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
What’s missing? Let’s look at First Thessalonians and First Corinthians;
1 Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Faith, _______, and Love. These three are a unit, they’re a trinity of good things; a three legged stool, remove one and the other two fall.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. If we lose hope, we lose faith, if we lose faith, we lose our justification, if we lose our justification, we lose everything. Have any of you ever heard of anybody being someone afraid of Hebrews 6 and what it seems to say? Hebrews 6 sounds like you might be able to lose your salvation, if you read it wrongly; but of course that is not true, for we trust in the perseverance of the saints, that he who began a good work in you will see it to completion on the Day of Christ.
Hebrews 6 is about how vital hope is to our salvation, and beloved, if we are without hope, then we are without salvation. Hebrews 6 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, because I’m not afraid of it because I know that the author could not possibly be saying that we can lose our salvation, so we see what this passage is trying to teach us.
It’s strange all of the sudden that we’re in Hebrews 6, but it’s so vital for hope, and because of what it says is why Thessalonica was without hope. It begins by instructing teachers not to spend all of their time on salvation. It is wonderful to preach repentance, faith in Christ, the resurrection, eternal judgment; but there is SOOOOOOO much more to the faith. It says that if you’re saved, that you can’t be resaved, so what is the point of then spending all of your time trying to get saints saved. We have a much better hope and infinitely better inheritance in front of us than just being saved.
Don’t get me wrong, salvation is awesome, it is huge, it is worth talking about, but Hebrews 6 says don’t fixate on one thing while ignoring the full richness of our inheritance in Christ.
Hebrews 6:11-12 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
I earnestly desire to see in each of you the full assurance of the hope we have, so that you might serve the church in love, that this faith and patience will lead to the full inheritance of all of the promises that are available in Christ, not just the salvation.
Hebrews 6:18-20 It is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Hope is huge. Where does it come from?
Ephesians 2:12-13 Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
We were without hope without God, but through Jesus Christ shedding his blood, purchasing us in his ransom, we have a full assurance of hope in him.
Hebrews 3:6 Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Hope does not disappoint.
Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Wouldn’t it be a little weird if I said, “I hope [student in class] comes to class today.” Of course it would be weird, because they’re here, I don’t hope because I see, I know, there is no patience required.
On the other hand, would it be weird if I said, “I hope [regular attender not present] comes to class today.” No, because there is a chance of that happening, but my hope is not perfect.
How about, “I hope Pastor Aaron comes to class today.” This is not really hope, because we know he is preaching right now and has made no obligation to come, and so while it would be nice if he’d stop in and say hi, this hope is small.
On the other hand, if before class I said, “I hope [student in class] comes to class today.” And I had talked to that student and he/she told me they were coming, because I trust them, and their parents, my hope was well founded and I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he/she came into class.
Hebrews 10:19-23 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
When Jesus Christ makes a promise, beloved, you’d better believe it is binding. He has promised to return, to gather his saints to him, to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before his Father. It is a big hope, and Thessalonica didn’t have it, and it wrecked their lives.
Jenny asked why they believed the false letter that said they had missed the rapture. I had to think about it a lot, and I think I have the answer. They were trusting in men rather than God, and Satan has many tricksters, tricks, and schemes to damage the faith of the believer and blind the eyes of the unbeliever.
My guess, and this is largely conjecture, but is founded on verses and also on past experiences, is that Thessalonica was trusting more in men than God. For example, I felt awful after our lesson on dating/purity when I said I wasn’t dating or even kissing another girl until I was pretty sure she was the one I was going to marry, then I went and dated a girl who I realized probably there was no future with, but because of circumstances I skipped some important steps. Beloved, I will do my best to be faithful, honest, and true, but I guarantee I will let you down again as I have in the past; so trust in Jesus, who will never let you down.
So why did Thessalonica trust the letter that was supposedly from Paul that said they’d missed the rapture, even when it was directly contradictory with his first letter, which said that saints would be caught up to meet Christ in the air when he returned?
First hint:
2 Thessalonians 3:2 [Pray] that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.
Second hint:
Romans 16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae.
Third hint:
Ephesians 6:21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.
The person that carried a letter was an emissary, an ambassador, a representative of the one who wrote the letter. It was a very important position to deliver a letter, and one that required a high level of trust. Not everybody Paul ever ministered with ended up being completely perfect in their theology, we see this Mark abandoning them, Barnabas temporarily falling in with the works-righteous crowd, Timothy starting out in the circumcision-party, and the fourth hint as to why the church at Thessalonica believed the letter;
2 Timothy 4:10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.
Demas had ministered with Paul for at least two years, and yet he ended up being a false convert. Could there have been a Judas in the mix of Paul’s disciples who delivered a false letter under the guise of being a real disciple? Quite possibly, Demas may have even been the one who delivered both letters to Thessalonica, albeit that is a pretty wild leap.
However it happened, I would bet you that the same person delivered the fake letter as the first letter, and so the church accepted it as being from Paul.
There is a powerful application in this, that me, and your other teachers/preachers who may faithfully bring you the word still shouldn’t be trusted above God. I may preach a rock-solid message one week, then next week I may tell you that in order to go to Heaven, you have to give me $100. The false message doesn’t make the true message false, but the true message also doesn’t make the false message true. Don’t let your guard down, and make sure your hope is in Christ alone.
I was preaching at the Superbowl and had a particularly gifted heckler. He really got me off track and I lost my place in my sermon. I had gotten through that you need to be perfect to go to Heaven, and taken them through some of God’s law to show them they stood condemned before God. At this point, they were without hope. A Christian chimed in from the crowd to get me back on track, he asked, “So you’re telling us we’re without hope?!?!”
It was one of my favorite times open air preaching, my response: “Hope? Hope! O blessed hope; there is hope! When we were without hope, without God in the world, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Christ paid our fine on the cross, God manifest in the flesh died for us and defeated death! We can be reconciled to him if we will repent and trust in Jesus Christ, that his payment on Calvary’s cross was entirely sufficient to pay our way into Heaven! I implore you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be reconciled to God! That’s hope!"
One of Dave’s favorite songs is My Hope is Built on Nothing Less by Edward Mote. Two verses of it go,
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteous;
No merit of my own I claim
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, his covenant, his blood
Sustain me in the raging flood;
When all supports are washed away,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, where was his hope and trust? In God and the resurrection. The same with Christ, his hope and trust was in the unfailing promise of God of the resurrection to come. When Thessalonica lost this hope, they lost everything, even their hope and joy in temporal things.
When you would go to Jerusalem on Mt. Zion in the days of David all the way through Christ, you’d have to walk well trodden paths that went through such wonderful sounding places as the “Valley of Death” and other such dangerous and wicked places. Pagans in the area knew that Jews would be making these pilgrimages at certain times, and would set-up for business, selling food, wares, and gods along the path, usually on the hills so that they could be seen. A song that David wrote was specifically designed to be sung when these things were encountered,
Psalm 121:1-2 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
We see this today in many ways; think about Christmas, what are we supposed to be celebrating on Christmas? The birth of Jesus Christ; what do the pagans want us to celebrate? Stuff. On Easter, what should we be celebrating? The resurrection of Jesus Christ; what do the pagan want us to do? Look for eggs.
I lift my eyes unto the stores, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of all this stuff.
2 Corinthians 1:7-10 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
Set your hope on Christ, on his death and resurrection. He is your help and shield, your life and righteousness. He is faithful, he is worthy of your faith and hope, hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into us through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
1 John 2:28-3:3 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Benediction: Now, may the God of hope grant you all joy and peace in believing, that through the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)
Showing posts with label First John. Show all posts
Showing posts with label First John. Show all posts
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday, September 7, 2008
September 7th - Assurance of Salvation
Prayer Requests:
Pastor Aaron
Orissa State in India
Taste of Kennesaw
Dave and Brooke in Mexico
Assurance of Salvation
Text: Jet Tour Through John's First Epistle
Last weekend we went to Celebrate Freedom and did a lot of evangelizing. One thing I noticed what the immodest dress of everyone there, and the joyless looks on many of the peoples’ faces. Nick and I saw a big group of high-schoolers and we could tell there was something different about them, for one thing, the girls all had on clothing that covered their bodies. Next I asked how they were getting to Heaven, and none of them said, “By being a good person.” One of them said, “On the merits of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.” There isn’t a better answer than that.
I haven’t called any of you Christians yet in this class, I don’t know any of you well enough to do that. We’ve spent about four hours together, and while I’ve very much enjoyed it and have been impressed by you all, I haven’t had the opportunity to see how you react if someone steps on your toe, or how you talk with your friends at school, or how you treat your mom and dad.
It is very dangerous for me to say that you’re a Christian if you’re not, I would hate for you to fool me into saying you’re a Christian if you’re not, because I don’t want any of you to go to Hell thinking you’re saved because I haphazardly told you you were. The worst thing you can do for your soul is pretend to be godly without being regenerated. These tests are for you, I don’t need to know the answers unless you want to go deeper into them, because you can fool me, you can fool your parents, you can even fool yourself, but you can’t fool God.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. – 1 John 5:13
First John was written so you can KNOW you’re a Christian, it uses the word gnosko, which means “know”, 32 times. God wants you to know you’re regenerated. First John has several tests to see if you’re a Christian, here are 11 of them…
1 John 1:7 “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” You enjoy being in church around other Christians.
1 John 1:8 “we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Remember we were talking about how almost every person will proclaim their own goodness. God’s definition of good is perfect, so if you claim to be a good person, you’re claiming to be blameless, or sinless, and not only do you deceive yourself, but the truth is not in you.
Check out Revelation 19:11, my favorite verse in the whole Bible. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” Jesus’ very name is True, in John 14:6 he said, “I am…the truth…” If you claim to be a good person according to God’s standards, there is no way you are a Christian; tough statement, but the Bible said it, not me.
1 John 2:3-4 “by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…” Strive to keep the commandments, don’t purposefully break them. Look at verse 1, it is written in a somewhat strange, but exceedingly beautiful, way, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” May not sin means our goal is perfection; but we still have a sin nature, we will sin.
Paul said, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more...”(Romans 5:20) should we then sin all the more so that grace may further abound? Heaven forbid! If we are dead to sin, we will do our best to keep the commandments and stop sinning.
There is a colloquialism that says “Heathens dive into sin while Christians fall in.”
If we slip into sin, we know that we have an advocate, a mediator, a great high priest pleading our cause and washing away our sins, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, who died to redeem us and defeated death three days later.
Compare 1 John 2:29 “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”
1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” This is a tough one, especially when there are so many interesting things in the world to love, especially above God. You watch Hannah Montana instead of reading your Bible, you work on Sunday instead of going to church, you do things the way your non-Christian friends do them instead of trying to make them Christians…there are a lot of different examples,
but ultimately James said, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” A good test is whether you would rather do ministry or go to the mall.
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” AW Tozer said, “You knew one thing about a man carrying a cross outside of the city, you knew he wasn’t coming back.” If you’ve been crucified with Christ and resurrected in his life (Romans 5:10), then it is permanent, because it isn’t you who lives anymore, but Christ who lives in you. (Gal 2:20) If you are a Christian, you will continue being a Christian.
1 John 2:23 “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Jesus Christ is One Person of a Triune God, he is eternal, co-existent, and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but a distinct Person from the Father and the Spirit, fully man, and fully God. If you don’t believe this, then you don’t have God the Father either. There are lots of people who believe Jesus was created, some believe he was just a good man, others believe he was an angel, they are believing in idols named Jesus Christ, and this idol cannot save them. The infinite payment that was due for our salvation could only be paid by God himself.
Compare Isaiah 43:11 “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” with John 4:42 “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” and 2 Peter 1:1 “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ…”
1 John 3:2-3 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” We’re growing in holiness to be conformed to the Living Christ, in hopes of being pure as he is pure, which will be completed when he returns.
1 John 3:8-9 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” These are planned sins, purposeful sin, with no effort to stop sinning. If you’re looking forward to sin, then you’re in trouble because you haven’t been born of God.
Sin is fun, I know it’s been popular in the church to say that sin is no fun and that you won’t find happiness through sinning. I don’t know where they found that in the Bible, but the truth is that sin is fun, if it wasn’t fun, people wouldn’t do it. I guarantee you that you will fall into some sin sometime in your life that will temporarily consume your affections. The enjoyment of this sin can last a lifetime, but the consequences at the end are not worth it.
God hates it, it grieves the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ died for it. If it doesn’t hurt your conscience to sin, the very thing that crucified your Saviour, then you haven’t been born of God.
If it does hurt your conscience, then you will work to stop doing that sin, no matter how enjoyable it is. Because God is so good, he has given us many things that are good, but these can be abused. For example, water keeps us alive, but used wrongly you’ll drown, fire keeps us warm, but too much will burn you, sex is a wonderful gift between husband and wife, but abused it will lead to your damnation.
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.” Remember that word love, usually when it’s referring to God and Christians, it is not the ushy gushy love, but a love in action. Not only do we deeply care about our brothers and sisters, but we’re willing to help them in their time of need.
Compare 1 John 3:18 “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 4:6 “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Our beliefs and theology are in line with other Christian’s beliefs and theology. There should be no parts of the Bible where you say, “I’m not sure I believe in this…” You will have doubts in your life, but they should not be lingering doubts, find the answer, be content with it, and move on. If you have any doubts, like I said in a previous class, there is an answer to every supposed contradiction, and the Bible is 100% trustworthy, please don’t hesitate to ask me, Dave Snyder, Jenny, Channing, your parents, whoever you want, and we’ll be able to find you an answer.
As you read your Bible, you’ll be able to pick out true and false preachers, you’ll know they’re true because their sermons will be about Jesus from the Bible, and not about them with some Bible verses sprinkled in. Compare Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
1 John 4:15 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” Confess, out loud, telling people what Christ has done for you, what he’s done for them, what he requires, what the consequences are for rejecting him, and who he is. Don’t confess it to me, confess it to a friend a school, a stranger in the park, an unsaved aunt. Preaching Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2) to everyone who will listen should be your highest priority as a child of God.
Charles Spurgeon said, “If you do not have a passion to see lost souls saved, you are not saved yourself, be sure of that.”
Those are the tests, I want to let you know why they are important…
First, if you are a Christian, having taken these tests allows you to stop worrying whether or not you’re saved or can lose your salvation.
Second, if you’re not a Christian, you have some repenting and trusting to do. Think about the sinless Jesus Christ hanging on a cross stained red by his blood which was poured out because of your sin. The Son was cut-off from the Father because your sin made him repulsive to the Holy God of the Universe. The wrath of God was demonstrated against his perfect Son, because he hates sin and will not allow it into his presence. This was accomplished so that you can be reconciled with him and made blameless in his Son. Compare 1 John 2:12, "your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake." CJ Mahaney said, "Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, leading us to faith and worship, we have to see it as something done by us, leading us to repentance. Only the man, the woman, who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross may claim his share in its grace."
Third, once you know you are saved, you can stop worrying about your salvation and start worrying about the salvation of others. If you’re still not sure if you’re saved, start evangelizing; history is replete with preachers saved under their own preaching, and the Holy Spirit will testify with your spirit if you are saved during your witnessing when he emboldens you and helps you to remember Bible verses and push forward with the conversation.
Fourth, you will know better how to act as a Christian so that you are not representing God’s name wrongly.
Questions Afterward
Is the world going to end on December 21st, 2012?
Jesus said, "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32) We have no way to know when Christ is returning, the only thing that keeps him from coming back right now is so that more people can be saved. (2 Peter 3:9)
Every generation has believed they were the last generation, so we might be, we might not be, we'll be discussing this more as we study First and Second Thessalonians over the rest of the year.
In the 1850's, William Miller predicted a date and it ended up being a bust, but out of his false prophecies, we've seen the birth of the cults of Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and Branch Davidians. Watch as 2012 draws near and we'll probably see some pretty wild cults rise up.
Follow Up Video:
True and False Conversion Video
Next Week
For next week, please read the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians.
Pastor Aaron
Orissa State in India
Taste of Kennesaw
Dave and Brooke in Mexico
Assurance of Salvation
Text: Jet Tour Through John's First Epistle
Last weekend we went to Celebrate Freedom and did a lot of evangelizing. One thing I noticed what the immodest dress of everyone there, and the joyless looks on many of the peoples’ faces. Nick and I saw a big group of high-schoolers and we could tell there was something different about them, for one thing, the girls all had on clothing that covered their bodies. Next I asked how they were getting to Heaven, and none of them said, “By being a good person.” One of them said, “On the merits of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.” There isn’t a better answer than that.
I haven’t called any of you Christians yet in this class, I don’t know any of you well enough to do that. We’ve spent about four hours together, and while I’ve very much enjoyed it and have been impressed by you all, I haven’t had the opportunity to see how you react if someone steps on your toe, or how you talk with your friends at school, or how you treat your mom and dad.
It is very dangerous for me to say that you’re a Christian if you’re not, I would hate for you to fool me into saying you’re a Christian if you’re not, because I don’t want any of you to go to Hell thinking you’re saved because I haphazardly told you you were. The worst thing you can do for your soul is pretend to be godly without being regenerated. These tests are for you, I don’t need to know the answers unless you want to go deeper into them, because you can fool me, you can fool your parents, you can even fool yourself, but you can’t fool God.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. – 1 John 5:13
First John was written so you can KNOW you’re a Christian, it uses the word gnosko, which means “know”, 32 times. God wants you to know you’re regenerated. First John has several tests to see if you’re a Christian, here are 11 of them…
1 John 1:7 “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” You enjoy being in church around other Christians.
1 John 1:8 “we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Remember we were talking about how almost every person will proclaim their own goodness. God’s definition of good is perfect, so if you claim to be a good person, you’re claiming to be blameless, or sinless, and not only do you deceive yourself, but the truth is not in you.
Check out Revelation 19:11, my favorite verse in the whole Bible. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” Jesus’ very name is True, in John 14:6 he said, “I am…the truth…” If you claim to be a good person according to God’s standards, there is no way you are a Christian; tough statement, but the Bible said it, not me.
1 John 2:3-4 “by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…” Strive to keep the commandments, don’t purposefully break them. Look at verse 1, it is written in a somewhat strange, but exceedingly beautiful, way, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” May not sin means our goal is perfection; but we still have a sin nature, we will sin.
Paul said, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more...”(Romans 5:20) should we then sin all the more so that grace may further abound? Heaven forbid! If we are dead to sin, we will do our best to keep the commandments and stop sinning.
There is a colloquialism that says “Heathens dive into sin while Christians fall in.”
If we slip into sin, we know that we have an advocate, a mediator, a great high priest pleading our cause and washing away our sins, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, who died to redeem us and defeated death three days later.
Compare 1 John 2:29 “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”
1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” This is a tough one, especially when there are so many interesting things in the world to love, especially above God. You watch Hannah Montana instead of reading your Bible, you work on Sunday instead of going to church, you do things the way your non-Christian friends do them instead of trying to make them Christians…there are a lot of different examples,
but ultimately James said, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” A good test is whether you would rather do ministry or go to the mall.
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” AW Tozer said, “You knew one thing about a man carrying a cross outside of the city, you knew he wasn’t coming back.” If you’ve been crucified with Christ and resurrected in his life (Romans 5:10), then it is permanent, because it isn’t you who lives anymore, but Christ who lives in you. (Gal 2:20) If you are a Christian, you will continue being a Christian.
1 John 2:23 “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Jesus Christ is One Person of a Triune God, he is eternal, co-existent, and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but a distinct Person from the Father and the Spirit, fully man, and fully God. If you don’t believe this, then you don’t have God the Father either. There are lots of people who believe Jesus was created, some believe he was just a good man, others believe he was an angel, they are believing in idols named Jesus Christ, and this idol cannot save them. The infinite payment that was due for our salvation could only be paid by God himself.
Compare Isaiah 43:11 “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” with John 4:42 “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” and 2 Peter 1:1 “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ…”
1 John 3:2-3 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” We’re growing in holiness to be conformed to the Living Christ, in hopes of being pure as he is pure, which will be completed when he returns.
1 John 3:8-9 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” These are planned sins, purposeful sin, with no effort to stop sinning. If you’re looking forward to sin, then you’re in trouble because you haven’t been born of God.
Sin is fun, I know it’s been popular in the church to say that sin is no fun and that you won’t find happiness through sinning. I don’t know where they found that in the Bible, but the truth is that sin is fun, if it wasn’t fun, people wouldn’t do it. I guarantee you that you will fall into some sin sometime in your life that will temporarily consume your affections. The enjoyment of this sin can last a lifetime, but the consequences at the end are not worth it.
God hates it, it grieves the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ died for it. If it doesn’t hurt your conscience to sin, the very thing that crucified your Saviour, then you haven’t been born of God.
If it does hurt your conscience, then you will work to stop doing that sin, no matter how enjoyable it is. Because God is so good, he has given us many things that are good, but these can be abused. For example, water keeps us alive, but used wrongly you’ll drown, fire keeps us warm, but too much will burn you, sex is a wonderful gift between husband and wife, but abused it will lead to your damnation.
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.” Remember that word love, usually when it’s referring to God and Christians, it is not the ushy gushy love, but a love in action. Not only do we deeply care about our brothers and sisters, but we’re willing to help them in their time of need.
Compare 1 John 3:18 “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 4:6 “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Our beliefs and theology are in line with other Christian’s beliefs and theology. There should be no parts of the Bible where you say, “I’m not sure I believe in this…” You will have doubts in your life, but they should not be lingering doubts, find the answer, be content with it, and move on. If you have any doubts, like I said in a previous class, there is an answer to every supposed contradiction, and the Bible is 100% trustworthy, please don’t hesitate to ask me, Dave Snyder, Jenny, Channing, your parents, whoever you want, and we’ll be able to find you an answer.
As you read your Bible, you’ll be able to pick out true and false preachers, you’ll know they’re true because their sermons will be about Jesus from the Bible, and not about them with some Bible verses sprinkled in. Compare Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
1 John 4:15 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” Confess, out loud, telling people what Christ has done for you, what he’s done for them, what he requires, what the consequences are for rejecting him, and who he is. Don’t confess it to me, confess it to a friend a school, a stranger in the park, an unsaved aunt. Preaching Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2) to everyone who will listen should be your highest priority as a child of God.
Charles Spurgeon said, “If you do not have a passion to see lost souls saved, you are not saved yourself, be sure of that.”
Those are the tests, I want to let you know why they are important…
First, if you are a Christian, having taken these tests allows you to stop worrying whether or not you’re saved or can lose your salvation.
Second, if you’re not a Christian, you have some repenting and trusting to do. Think about the sinless Jesus Christ hanging on a cross stained red by his blood which was poured out because of your sin. The Son was cut-off from the Father because your sin made him repulsive to the Holy God of the Universe. The wrath of God was demonstrated against his perfect Son, because he hates sin and will not allow it into his presence. This was accomplished so that you can be reconciled with him and made blameless in his Son. Compare 1 John 2:12, "your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake." CJ Mahaney said, "Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, leading us to faith and worship, we have to see it as something done by us, leading us to repentance. Only the man, the woman, who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross may claim his share in its grace."
Third, once you know you are saved, you can stop worrying about your salvation and start worrying about the salvation of others. If you’re still not sure if you’re saved, start evangelizing; history is replete with preachers saved under their own preaching, and the Holy Spirit will testify with your spirit if you are saved during your witnessing when he emboldens you and helps you to remember Bible verses and push forward with the conversation.
Fourth, you will know better how to act as a Christian so that you are not representing God’s name wrongly.
Questions Afterward
Is the world going to end on December 21st, 2012?
Jesus said, "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32) We have no way to know when Christ is returning, the only thing that keeps him from coming back right now is so that more people can be saved. (2 Peter 3:9)
Every generation has believed they were the last generation, so we might be, we might not be, we'll be discussing this more as we study First and Second Thessalonians over the rest of the year.
In the 1850's, William Miller predicted a date and it ended up being a bust, but out of his false prophecies, we've seen the birth of the cults of Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and Branch Davidians. Watch as 2012 draws near and we'll probably see some pretty wild cults rise up.
Follow Up Video:
True and False Conversion Video
Next Week
For next week, please read the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians.
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