"Where To Find Purpose In Life” Series

In this special emphasis on living life on purpose, we are going through the Dave Ramsey course, “Financial Peace University.” When people think about Dave Ramsey, they often think about getting out of debt, etc. But what people need to know is that the teaching he shares through financial Peace University is based on biblical principles. In fact, through-out the course, he quotes Scripture after Scripture. The course was developed by him after having made money in real estate, only to go bankrupt. He met Christ during this time, and as a result, when he found himself at rock bottom, turned the Christ and God’s Word for answers. Those answers that he found in the Bible are what he now teaches. He often says that he met Christ on the way down, and came to really know Christ on the way back up. That’s why Dave always ends every radio broadcast with the words, “There’s only one way to truly know financial peace, and that’s to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.”

Today, we’re starting this series about living life on purpose by thinking about where one finds purpose in life. Here’s the answer: you find purpose in life by connecting with the One who gave you life, and that’s God. And you connect with God through trusting in Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior and Lord. It is only by meeting Jesus and then walking with Jesus that you can live life on purpose. That’s John’s point in verse 5 of our text for today’s message.

And the Bib1e teaches that the child of God has a “know-so” salvation. In the book of 1 John the word “know” is used almost 40 times. We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are a child of God.

(READ TEXT)

In these verses, the Lord gives us divine authentication of the fact that we can know we are a child of God. The word, “testimony” or “testify” occurs ten times in these verses. John is referring here to the witness of the Holy Spirit, that authentication given by God to His children to let them know they are indeed His. There are three simple aspects of the witness of the Spirit are important to keep in mind.

1. The Holy Spirit bears witness to the Son - vs. 6-7

Every time the Holy Spirit is prominent in the Bible, He is doing the work of exalting the Lord Jesus (John 16:13-15). He will not speak of Himself, but will bear witness to Christ.

The Holy Spirit bears witness to the Son in a twofold manner:

A. The Spirit bears witness to the Lord’s coming.

There is a heresy which lies in the background for this letter. A group called the Cerinthians, believed Jesus was a mere man. At His baptism, the eternal Christ came upon Him, stayed with Him until the cross, and then was withdrawn, so that Jesus died as a mere man. One purpose of John’s gospel and His letters was to refute such false teaching.

He tells us that Jesus came by “water and blood,” an allusion to the beginning and the climax of our Lord’s ministry. The Lord Jesus inaugurated His public ministry by a public baptism. When He was baptized, the Spirit bore witness to who He was by descending upon Him in the form of a dove, and the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). John also says Jesus came by blood - a reference to the cross. What’s emphasized here is that Jesus was just as much the Christ in the moment He died on the cross as He was when He was baptized. He did not cease to be the Christ. He did not cease to be the eternal Son of God. Jesus was God before His birth (John 1:1), He was God at His birth (John 1:14), He was God at His baptism, He was God on the cross, He was God in His resurrection and He is God for all eternity! God was intimately involved in the sacrifice of Calvary!

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” - 1 Timothy 1:15 (NIV)

The whole purpose of God taking human form in the person of Christ was to pay the price for the sins of the world! The Spirit testifies the cross was no accident of history, or “plan B” in the work of God; it was God’s primary purpose!

His holy fingers made the bough, which grew the thorns that crowned His brow. The nails that pierced His hands were mined, in secret places He designed. He made the forest whence there sprung the tree on which His body hung. He died upon a cross of wood yet made the hill on which it stood. The spear which spilled His