Passing the Test
Text: 1 Jn. 5:1-5
Introduction
1. Illustration: There is a story is a guy taking a class in ornithology, the study of birds. The teacher has a reputation for being extremely difficult, so this guy studies his brains out for the final. He comes the classroom feeling prepared, but instead of having normal test, there are 25 pictures on the wall of Bird’s feet. He is supposed to identify the birds by their feet----- this kid goes nuts, and he says to the teacher, “This is crazy. Nobody could take this test. The teacher says, “ nevertheless, you have to take it. " The kid says,” I am not going to take it.” And the teacher says, “You have to take it, or you fail. "The kid says go ahead and fail me. I am not going to take this test. Teacher says, all right. That’s it. You have failed. Tell me your name.? The Kid roll his pants up to his knees and says, “You tell me.”
2. You don’t have to be in school to take tests. We take them all the time. People are always putting us to the test.
3. As Christians, we take tests too.
a. Test of believing
b. Test of obeying
c. Test of conquering
4. It’s these test which show if we are truly living a Christian life.
5. Read 1 Jn. 5:1-5
Proposition: True Christians must pass the test of believing, obeying, and conquering.
I. Test # 1: Believing (1)
A. Whoever Believes
1. The most important test that any Christian must pass is the test of believing.
2. John says, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God..."
a. In John believing is "always connected with an object" (Bultmann, p. 59).
b. Faith requires not only that something is held true, but that someone has entered into one’s life (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-Rom).
c. Faith is not believing in a concept, but in a person - Jesus Christ.
3. Many people say, "Oh, I believe in Jesus," but by the way they live their lives they prove that they do not have the essential ingredient for faith - a personal relationship with Jesus.
a. They show by how they act.
b. They show it by how they speak.
c. They show it by where their priorities lie.
4. You cannot say, "I love Jesus," and never
a. Go to church
b. Read your Bible
c. And the only time you pray is when you want something or you’re in trouble.
5. Another part of the test of faith is how we treat one another. John tells us this when he says, "and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him."
a. A person who loves God will love other believers as well.
b. Note why: because God has given other believers a spiritual birth as well.
c. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They too have been born of God and made into new creatures.
6. Under most circumstances we feel differently about our family than we do other people.
a. Someone can say something about you and you pass it off like it never happened.
b. However, let they say something about your brother or sister and "them’s fighing words!"
7. The point is that if we truly have faith, we not only love God, but we also love the family of God.
a. Nothing keeps us from loving one another if we have truly been born of God.
b. The person who is born of God loves God, and he loves all those who love God too.
B. Living By Faith
1. Illustration: These are the signs, these are the signs of life, The love that proves there is a living faith inside..." -Steven Curtis Chapman
2. 2 Cor. 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
3. If we are truly born again then we trust God to:
a. Never leave us or forsake us.
b. Supply all our needs according to His riches in glory.
c. Heal all our diseases, because by His stripes we are healed.
4. If we truly have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ we will:
a. Love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength
b. Love others because Christ first loved us.
c. Love our brothers and sisters because they are a part of the family of God.
5. If we truly have a relationship with Jesus we will:
a. Have compassion on the lost because Jesus did.
b. Witness to the lost not just so that they won’t go to hell, but because we want them to know the joy we have in knowing Christ.
Transition: If we believe our actions will show it.
II. Test # 2: Obeying (2-3)
A. Keep His Commandments
1. What John tells us in verse 2 may take us by surprise: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God..."
a. We know that if we are going to love God we need to love our brothers and sister in Christ.
b. 1 Jn. 4:20-21 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
c. However, here John says the opposite is also true; if we are going to love our brothers and sisters we also have to love God.
d. John was not contradicting what he had written in 4:20-21; rather, he was insisting that love for God and love for fellow believers cannot be separated.—Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary
2. But how do we love God? John answers that question when he says "keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments."
a. In fact in verse 3 we have virtually a definition of love for God: it is to obey [God’s] commands (IVP NT Commentary).
b. This echoes what Jesus said to his disciples, as recorded in the Gospel of John.
c. Jn. 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
3. The person who really believes God, who really trusts God and relies upon God, does what God says.
a. He depends upon God’s Word; he believes that God’s Word works. Therefore, he obeys God.
b. If we really love God, really care for Him, then we want to please Him.
c. Therefore, the person who really loves God is the person who keeps His commandments.
4. The connection between love for God and obedience is meant as a protection against thinking of love for God as merely "emotional feelings" about God (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM).
a. True love (agape) requires action.
b. In referring to our brothers and sisters, it means willingness to lay down our life.
c. In referring to God, it means a life of willing obedience to Him.
5. Furthermore, John says "His commandments are not burdensome."
a. The word burdensome means heavy or oppressive (Rogers and Rogers, Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek NT, 598).
b. To the natural man the will of God is strange; the requirement for righteousness, foreign and hard.
c. Even the law of love is a burden.
d. But when God has entered into us and when we trust God’s Son, then his yoke becomes gentle and the burden light (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM).
e. Matt. 11:29-30 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
f. When we truly trust and believe in God, the commands of God are not a burden to us, but they become our joy and desire.
B. Obedience and Faith
1. Illustration: Charles Finney noted this about obedience and sacrifice, “Revival is nothing more or less than a new obedience to God!”
2. Revival happens when we lay down our wants and desires at the altar of obedience.
a. When God’s commands become our joy.
b. When God’s will becomes our desire.
c. When God’s word becomes our passion.
3. 1 Sam. 15:22-23 "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
4. God is not so much concerned with what we have or what we know, but are we doing what He says.
a. You can quote Scripture until you are blue in the face, but until you do what it says it has not hold in your life.
b. Just as James said, "don’t tell me about your faith, show it to me!"
5. If we are going to show that Christ has truly transformed our lives, we will do so by keeping His word.
Transition: Obedience is the true test of a changed life.
III. Test # 3: Conquering (4-5)
A. Overcomes the World
1. The third test has to do with overcoming the world.
a. John stresses the importance of overcoming by the fact that the phrase "overcomes the world" is repeated three times in these two verses.
b. These two verses are two of the great verses of Scripture, verses that should be memorized and lived by every believer.
2. John says "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world."
a. "It is not the man but his birth from God, which conquers" (Alfred Plummer, Commentary on the Epistles of St. John, CGT [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1894], in loc.).
b. It is not what we have done, but what Christ has done.
c. 1 Cor. 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Notice how we overcome the world: "And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith."
a. Notice that it is past tense; our victory is already one!
b. Faith, trusting Christ, provides the power source and the means to participate in the victory Christ won for us on the cross. —Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary
c. Rom. 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
4. This means that we have victory over:
a. Satan
b. Sin
c. Death
d. Sickness
e. World
5. In fact, John says "Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
a. "Continued victory over the world and its temptations comes not from faith in vague faith in an unspecified direction, but faith in Jesus" (Bechtle, Complete Biblical Library, 419).
b. As long as we are in Christ, we have the victory.
c. As long as we stand firm in our faith, we have the victory.
d. As long as Jesus is on the throne, we have the victory.
B. Victory
1. Illustration: "The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came...Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory.” Torrey, R.A.
2. If we do not have victory in our lives we have no one to blame but ourselves.
a. Christ has already won the victory.
b. Christ has already paid the price.
c. All we have to do is reach out and grab it.
3. We know that we have victory because:
a. His finished work on the cross
b. His word tells us
4. We don’t have to:
a. Live in defeat
b. Live in despair
c. Live in fear
5. We need to live:
a. In Victory
b. In Faith
c. As more than conquerors
Conclusion
1. Are you passing the test?
a. Believing
b. Obeying
c. Conquering
2. Are you living:
a. By Faith?
b. By the Word?
c. In Victory?
3. If you were tested today, what would your grade be?
