How Do I Know

How Do I Know

1 John 3:4-10 (NLT)

Intro: Will Rogers was an actor and cowboy. He is best known though for his humorous quotes. Let me share a few with you.

. “ Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need”

. “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment”.

. “Everything is changing. People are taking comedians seriously and the politicians are a joke”

. “A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people”

. Rogers was born in 1879 and like many who were born in that era, he had no birth certificate. He was applying for a passport and the clerk asked him for his birth certificate. He said that he didn’t have one. She said that she needed one in order to issue a passport. He asked why. She replied, “So I can have proof of your birth.” Rogers answered, “Well, I’m here, ain’t I?”

. Many Christians struggle with the same thing that the clerk was struggling with. Proof that they are saved.

. How do they know for sure that they have been adopted into the family of God and are a child of God.

. The apostle John uses this epistle we call first john as a letter of assurance or re-assurance for those who would doubt their membership in the family of God.

. In our scripture this morning, the apostle john tells us exactly how we can know that we belong to the family of God.

. How do you know that you know.

. Like the psychiatrist who took on a very disturbed man as a patient. The man thought he was dead. No matter what techniques the doctor tried, the man still thought he was dead. Finally the shrink tried one last desperate strategy. He asked the man if dead men bleed. "Of course not," said the patient, "they’re dead." With that the doctor pricked the man’s hand with a pin, and it started to bleed. "What do you say to that," asked the doc. "Well, I’ll be," said the man, "Dead men really DO bleed after all!"

. This man knew without a doubt that he was dead.

. John wants you to know without a doubt that you are alive in Christ.

. Lets read our scripture.

.1 John 3:4-10

4Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

5And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.

6Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

7Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.

8But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

9Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

10So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

. The first way that we know that we are saved is that we:

. Know That You Are A sinner

. Look at verse 4 again:

. 4Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

. Romans 3:23 reminds us.

. 23For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s gglorious standard.

.John also writes that if we say we have no sin, we are liars.

. There was a man who sent a check to the government for back taxes with a note attached that said:

“I felt so guilty for cheating on my taxes I had to send you this check. If I don’t feel any better, I’ll send you the rest.”

. A minister told his congregation, “Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17.”

The following Sunday, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went up.

The minister smiled and said, “Mark has only sixteen chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying.”