Series: Things That Accompany Salvation
Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
REVIEW:
Message #1: An Argument in Eternity. Mt. 7:21-23 Many who say “Lord, Lord ...”
Message #2: The Cost of Freedom in Christ. John 8:31-37 True believers continue in the Word!
Message #3: Let’s go to supper! Luke 14:15-24. We must accept Jesus’ invitation.
Message #4: The Cost of Serving Christ Luke 14:25-35 Following Jesus has serious demands!
Message #5: Sixteen Signs (#1) 1 John 1 True Believers fellowship with God and with other believers, and they are not comfortable with sin!
Message 6: Sixteen Signs of a True Believer (Part II)
(2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 1:3-10)
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
• “Examine” - peirazo = to test, to scrutinize.
• We are to examine our faith.
• But with what are we to test it?
• We are to examine ourselves by the revealed word of God.
• 28 times in 23 verses John tells us that we can “KNOW” that we are saved!
• We cannot afford to ignore what John, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is telling us!
• There is the danger that we may be “reprobates.”
“reprobate” - to be tested by God and rejected as unapproved, found to be worthless and cast away.
ILLUS: These are the gauges on the dash of your life!
NOTE: These tests are not for you to judge your fellow church member’s salvation. They are to be applied by each person to himself!
I. Sign #3: The Cleansing Test (1:9)
NOTE: We included this on our first handout but did not finish that sermon.
• Have I experienced forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration after confession? (1:9)
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
A. The Condition of Our Forgiveness (1:9A)
“confess our sins”
• To confess means not just to admit our sins, but to say the same thing about them that God says.
• It is to stop excusing sin, stop winking at sin, and deal with it.
• We must stop putting band aids on places where God knows we need a cast!
ILLUS: Wiersbe tells of a counselor who was trying to help a man who had come forward during an evangelistic meeting. "I’m a Christian," the man said, "but there’s sin in my life, and I need help." The counselor showed him 1 John 1:9 and suggested that the man confess his sins to God.
"O Father," the man began, "if we have done anything wrong—"
"Just a minute!" the counselor interrupted. "Don’t drag me into your sin! My brother, it’s not ’if’ or ’we’—you’d better get down to business with God!"
The counselor was right.
—Bible Exposition Commentary - New Testament
• Confession is not praying a lovely prayer, or making pious excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians.
• True confession is naming sin—calling it by name what God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be.
• Confession simply means being honest with ourselves and with God, and if others are involved, being honest with them too.
• It is more than admitting sin.
• It means judging sin and facing it squarely. (BEC)
B. The Confidence of Our Forgiveness (1:9B)
• “He is faithful and just”
• You can count on Him and what He does for you will be right!
ILLUS: You ever play a game with someone who is distracted. You cough, or clear your throat, or touch them. When they finally look at you, you say, “It’s your move.”
• Friend, if you want cleansing this morning, “It’s your move.”
• God is faithful!
Proverbs 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh [them] shall have mercy.
C. The Completeness of Our Forgiveness (1:9C)
Psalms 32:5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
• One may say, “I can never forgive myself.”
• You must understand that you are using the wrong criterion.
• Yes, there is restoration to be made where possible.
• Yes, there is asking the offended party for forgiveness where possible.
• But ultimately, you must accept that GOD has forgiven you!
1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
• The true believer will have experienced and accepted the forgiveness of God!
HEAR these excerpts from Solomon’s Prayer at the dedication of the Temple(1 Kings 8)
1 Kings 8:23 And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:
35 When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: 36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. 37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; 38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: 39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) 40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
II. Sign #4: The Commandments Test (2:3-6)
Am I keeping his commandments?
NOTE: (Points B, C, D from Arthur C. Dalton, Brief and to the Point
A. The Conditions We Are Given (3)
1 John 2:3-6 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
Wiersbe tells us that there are three motives for obedience:
• We can obey because we have to (someone makes us)
• We can obey because we need to (our position makes it necessary)
• We can obey because we want to (we love God and fear displeasing him)
• We are commanded to be saved, to live a separated life, to read the Word, to pray, to be kind, to control our speech, to assemble with other believers for worship, to tithe of our income for the work of the ministry.
• The test of true faith is conformity to God’s Word!
B. The Claims that We Make (4)
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(Inconsistency Condemned)
1. What Man Says
“I know him”
• Repeatedly in this series we have seen how little our words catch God’s attention.
“Many will SAY to me Lord, Lord”
“If a man SAY he hath faith”
“If a man SAY that he has no sin”
2. What God Says
“liar, truth not in him”
James 2:14 What [doth it] profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be [ye] warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what [doth it] profit?
Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny [him], being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
C. The Conscience We Must Have (5)
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
• Some may say, “How dare you set up a checklist to determine if someone is saved?”
• Please note that every one of these tests, God Himself is telling us, “Here’s how you know!”
• There must be an equality of Word and Walk!
• And if one should be lacking, let it be our Words!
• Let our walk speak for itself.
(Integrity Confirmed)
D. The Christ We Must Follow (6)
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Luke 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
III. Sign #5: The Conformity Test (2:17)
Am I doing the will of God?
1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
A. There is a Conformity to the World
1. The World pushes sensuality (the Lust of the Flesh)
• Nothing is considered wrong.
• The only thing wrong in the world’s eyes is to speak out against wrong!
2. The World pushes materialism (the Lust of the Eyes)
Luke 12:19-21 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
3. The World pushes egotism (the Pride of Life)
Psalms 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
• Paul tells us in 2 Tim. 3:2 that pride will be a mark of the last days.
• Man is fully confident that he can order his world without God!
B. There is a Conformity to the Will of God
1. Purity
Psalms 32:2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
2. Contentment
1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
• A pure life, with a calm dependence on God, and a satisfaction at what He has given us, this, God says, is great gain!
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
3. Humility
Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Proverbs 16:19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
• Am I seeking and doing the will of God?
• Do I even care what God wants me to do with my life?
ILLUS: Some lay out their plans and hold it up to the sky for God’s rubber stamp. This is not the way that our Heavenly Father operates.
Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
CONCLUSION:
• How have you done in the companionship test? Do you love the brethren?
• How have you done in the comfort test? Are you comfortable with sin? If so, you need to reexamine your faith.
• How have you done in the cleansing sin? Have you experienced God’s forgiveness and moved on from your guilt.
• How are you doing with the Commandments test? Is God’s Word a book of suggestions to you?
• How are you doing in the Conformity test? Are you taking on the image of the world or of God’s will?
• There are measures of your faith.
ILLUS: When you want to know how effective your anti-freeze is, you use one of those little droppers with the colored balls in it. The more you have floating, the higher the percentage of anti-freeze to water. But God does not use a little dropper. If even one of these tests are failed, we must take God’s warnings very seriously!
