1 John part 1
‘How may I know I am saved?’
Before I start my sermon this week I want to start by saying I am only talking about your personal salvation. I am not talking about salvation in general.
Romans 10: 6 – 9 is quite clear that it is God’s decision who will enter heaven. We can only be sure of our own salvation, who else God lets into heaven is his own business. 6But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7"or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? … 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
In Australia we seem to have an interesting view of our bodies. On the 24th of May 2008 the Melbourne Age Newspaper reported that Australians now have the 2nd longest life expectancy in the world. We are exercising more, dieting better and beating our bodies into submission. Compared to the rest of the world Australians are fanatical about being healthy, denying ourselves many of the pleasures the rest of the world takes for granted. We smoke less, eat less and are less idle, we are very harsh on our bodies to keep them in shape. Yet at exactly the same time the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports Australians are having more unsafe sex and diabetes is on the rise. So Australians are very hard on their bodies beating them into submission yet on the same side we are indulging in more unsafe pleasure than ever before.
This philosophy is not new. 2,000 years ago it had a name called Gnosticism. People would declare all human bodies as evil, anything to do with the material world as sinful. One day they would deny themselves all pleasure and beat their bodies into submission, the next day they would say that bodies are evil and would indulge in extreme pleasure, saying it is just human nature.
This leads to the question, ‘How does our Christianity fit into a world of denying your body one day and extreme pleasure the next?’
More specifically ‘if the human nature is so sinful how do you know you are a Christian?’
Read 1 John 1: 8 - 10
INTRO: One of the main purposes of the book of 1 John is that you and I might come to know that we are truly children of God. To know that we are born again. The Bible plainly teaches that it is possible for a Christian to really and actually know he is saved.
It would be inconceivable to go to one of the first century Christians and ask him if he were saved and get answers like, “Well, I hope so or I think I am saved.” Those early Christians had assurance because their salvation was solidly based on a real experience with the Lord Jesus Christ and the unshakable testimony of the Word of God.
Read 1 John 2:3-2:11
Notice a phrase that occurs three times in these verses. It is the phrase “whoever claims” It occurs in vv. 4, 6 and 9 and introduces us to a series of tests whereby we can know beyond a doubt that we are a child of God.
How can I know, I am saved?
1. What is salvation?
2. The test of attitude
3. The test of actions
4. The test of affection
1. What is salvation?
Many people do not really understand salvation as shown by a joke that was once told to me
Jesus and Satan have a discussion as to who is the better programmer. This goes on for a few hours until they come to an agreement to hold a contest, with God as the judge.
They sit themselves at their computers and begin. They type furiously, lines of code streaming up the screen, for several hours straight. Seconds before the end of the competition, a bolt of lightning strikes, taking out the electricity. Moments later, the power is restored, and God announces that the contest is over.
He asks Satan to show what he has come up with. Satan is visibly upset, and cries, "I have nothing. I lost it all when the power went out."
"Very well, then," says God, "let us see if Jesus fared any better."
Jesus enters a command, and the screen comes to life in vivid display, the voices of an angelic choir pour forth from the speakers. Satan is astonished.
He stutters, "B-b-but how? I lost everything, yet Jesus' program is intact. How did he do it?"
God smiled all-knowingly, "Jesus saves."
On a more thoughtful note
In the bible we learn that everyone is human. We all try to do good, but it is human nature to fail. We love our spouses yet we get grouchy, we love our children but we are not perfect parents.
Nobody wants world hunger, but we live in a world with surplus food and millions of starving children in Africa. We try so hard, but we are limited by our human nature. Even to our own families we cannot be perfect spouses or parents. When you watch SBS world news, or even the local news, we wonder how God can love such a horrible world. In Asia children are getting cancer because government politicians are trying to get rich quick and do not fear God.
In the kind of world we have today, transformation of humanity might well be our only real hope for survival.
Stanislav Grof
Czechoslovakian Psychologist (born 1931)
When I watch the world news I get sad. A portion of me wonders how God can tolerate such a sad and depraved world.
Read John 3: 1- 21
This is especially summed up in a few verses.
“16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned …” John 3: 16 – 18a
So today we are talking about, How do I know I am saved? How do I know I am right with God?
2. THE TEST OF ATTITUDE
The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
Charles R. Swindoll
American, Clergyman (born 1934)
“3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.” 1 John 2: 3 - 5
This first test that John talks about is the test of your attitude towards obeying the Word and will of God:
A person who is genuinely born again will have a heart attitude that desires to carefully guard and keep the commandments of God. It is not enough for a person to just say he is saved, but there must be the attitude of obedience in his heart.
In v. 4, John makes it quite clear that if this attitude of obedience is not in your heart you are not saved. He doesn’t mean that all of us keep the commandments perfectly all the time. But he does mean that there is going to be the desire for obedience in our hearts.
Look in John 14:15. Jesus said, “ "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Now look in v. John 14:23, 23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” It is more than just following a set of rules.
ILLUS: Suppose a young man comes home from school and his father says to him, “Bob I want you to take out the garbage and wash the car.” These are the specific commandments of his father, and he does them. But suppose Bob overhears his father tell someone else that he is not feeling well and wishes someone would mow the yard and rake the leaves. So Bob does that, not because he is commanded to, but because he loves his father and wants to do not only his commandments but also his word.
This is to be the attitude which is to be in the heart of the child of God. Because of our love for Him we want to keep His word, we read specific commandments in the Bible but also we learn some of the desires of Jesus concerning our lives and we want to do these also.
If we really love God and if God’s love accomplishes its intention and reaches its goal in our hearts, there will be the attitude of obedience to the commandments and to the Word of God.
Once again, I make reference to 1 John 1:8-10 “8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We are not saying that all Christians ‘are to be without sin’, we are saying ‘It is our life mission to struggle against doing wrong’.
3. THE TEST OF ACTIONS
Watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become y.our actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
Anonymous
Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did 1 John 2: 6
The academic journal ‘Organisation science’ in 1995 published an article about Imitation in the business world. What they found is that westerners concentrate too much on innovation and fail to understand the principles of imitation. Everyone is imitating someone, yet we fail to understand who we are imitating and why. The authors Zander and Kogut go on to say that everyone needs to know who they are copying and why.
Who is a role model that influences your actions? Who do you allow to become a leader in your life?
“6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:6
If you are a child of God, there is a sense of obligation on your part to live as Jesus lived. Our walk and talk ought to coincide. Our lives ought to be consistent with the way we talk.
In April 2010 the Boy Scouts of America were sued for 18.5 million dollars for negligence regarding sexual abuse. The courts were frustrated that the Boy Scouts of America portrayed themselves as a wholesome family organisation and yet did not take abuse seriously enough.
ABC news reports that
As Christians our lives should reflect the life of Jesus whom we are trying to imitate. Anything less would be hypocrisy. You cannot say you are a Christian and then deliberately get drunk regularly. You cannot say you are a Christian and then not practice hospitality.
In Ephesians 5:1, the Bible says,
1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
James 2: 14 - 17
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Think about the walk of Jesus. In childhood He walked in submission to His parents. In His earthly ministry He walked the dusty roads of Galilee healing, preaching and doing good to all people.
As Saviour. He steadfastly walked to Calvary for our sins. “We ought to walk even as He walked.” This means that there ought to be a desire on our part to imitate the life of the Lord Jesus.
4. THE TEST OF AFFECTION (vv. 7-11).
I want affection and tenderness desperately, but there's something in me that prevents me from handing it out.
Ethel Waters
American, Jazz Musician (1896 – 1977)
7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2: 7 – 11)
Your love will be an indication of whether or not you are really a born-again child of God.
When John talks about the new commandment he is talking about the commandment of love.
Notice that it is new In Essence. Compare vv. 7 and 8. It seems that John is contradicting himself.
The commandment of love is very old.
Leviticus 19:18 “'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
Before Jesus the command to love your neighbour was simply one of many commands and was not special.
Even Muslims say their God is all about love
In the Koran Say: If you love Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your faults, and Allah is Forgiving, MercifuL (Imran 3.31)
Yet also it says O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. (Chapter 5.51)
So the command to love is simply one of many commands.
On the 28th of May 2010 the BBC reports that devout Sunni Muslims killed 70 people with machine guns in Pakistan. Their targets were a Muslim group called Ahmadis who were saying prayers on Friday afternoon.
Gunmen opened fire indiscriminately at the mosque, before security forces managed to kill one militant and capture two others, eyewitnesses told the BBC.
They were said to be armed with AK-47 rifles, shotguns, grenades and possibly other explosive devices.
Pakistani Police said some of the attackers took up position on top of the minarets, and fired assault rifles at police.
But for the Christian a totally new way of looking at things is given
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12: 29 – 31)
New In Emphasis. There is a new emphasis on love in the N.T. In the O.T., the Word of God was on the basis of laws, God spoke to His children through laws. He commanded them to do certain things. In the N.T., there is an altogether different emphasis. The emphasis now is not upon the commandments but upon the love of God.
It is a lot better to live under love than to live under laws. If you live by love, then you are not disturbed by laws.
ILLUS: There is a law which says that a mother and father have to take care of their children and send them to school. But do you take care of your children because of the law or because you love them?
It would be horrible if you only took care of your kids because of laws.
8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. (verse 8)
New In Example. This commandment is new not only in its emphasis, but it is new in its example. Look at v. 8. This love is “true in Him.” When Jesus came into the world and started loving as only He could, it was something new on the face of this earth!
This world had never seen such a demonstration and display of the love of God as Jesus gave in His everyday life. He loved His disciples in spite of their bickering and fighting. He loved other people, too. The poorest of the poor, the lowest of the sinners could feel the warmth of the love of Jesus Christ. Jesus not only laid down His life for His friends, He laid down His life for His foes. The greatest accusation they could ever bring against Jesus was, He is a friend of sinners.
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. (verses 9,10)
New In Experience (v. 9). Contrast the difference in vv. 9 and 10. There is a contrast between light and darkness, between love and hatred. These things do not mix. They are mutually exclusive.
How may I know, I am saved?
1. What is salvation?
2. The test of attitude
3. The test of actions
4. The test of affection
If you have any questions after the sermon today feel free to come up to me and ask for prayer.
Let us pray
