If you were told to prove that you loved God then what would you point to in your life? I go to church? I call myself a Christian? I tell God I love Him! Those are facts….you can’t deny a person goes to church or calls themselves something or even makes certain statements to God but is that proof they love God?
Would this work with a husband and wife to one another: Prove you love me? I use the same last name as you? I live in the same house? I even have told you that I love you?
How do we find the proof in the pudding (by pudding it there).
What kind of pudding is God looking for? PROOF PUDDING
(3) And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments, (4) The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him”, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; (5) BUT whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected, by this we know that we are in Him;
John deals with the issue of how a person can really know that they are saved.
By this we know that we have come to know Him…
The Greek word for 'we know' occurs twenty times in this letter. John is saying that knowing you are a Christian is not a matter of doubt but a believer can be certain.
I have occasionally come across the same path with famous people:
Lou Rawls – Red Foxx –Garth Brooks-Ralph Hendricks
Working at Tennis Club near Seminary: Man walked up next to me dripping wet in speedo swim suit. Didn’t pay much attention to him but someone on court spoke to him.
He responded with familiar voice. I turned to look Robin Williams eye to eye. He said ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ I said, ‘You know who you are……actually I was thinking…’Do you know how hairy you are?’ That was back in the early 1980’s
Seen most of his cleaner movies and am very familiar with him.
But if you asked him about me he would say, 'Who?' 'Never heard of him'.
I don't know him in the way that I can experience fellowship with him.(without a stalker or trespass charge)
Many know about God, are familiar with Him, what He has done and what He stands for but they don't 'know' Him and thus can have no real fellowship with Him. One builds into the other.
Jesus said in Matthew 7 that you can do lots of things and never have a relationship with Him: Miracles in My Name, cast out demons…prophesy…..I NEVER KNEW YOU
What are some proofs, clear indicators of a relationship with Christ out of which can develop real fellowship?
#1: The things that we say are proven by the things that we do:
(3) By this we know that we have come to know Him, If we keep His commandments.
(4) The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him;'
1. John likes to compare the things that people say with the things that they actually do.
Jesus said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do the things that I say?'(Luke 6:46)
2. Look at the phrase, 'By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments'.
'Come to know' is in the PERFECT TENSE meaning 'something done in the past' while 'keep His commandments' is PRESENT TENSE meaning ‘continuous action’.
A sign that you have in the past come to know Him(relationship) is your present behavior. Your actions have not changed because you have not been changed.
3. Intensity in the word 'keep'. It carries a very unique meaning. More than just to keep as a possession or to place a guard over. Literally 'to value as a treasure'.
It was a word used in SAILING. The phrase 'keep the stars'. In John's time the stars were the only thing between you and being lost at sea. You learned to 'keep them' or to set your course by them. You would treasure them.
Imagine meeting the President in the Oval Office and while speaking with him you notice that famous button that is able to start nuclear war. He said he has to step out for a moment and asked you, ‘keep an eye on that button, don’t let anyone near it’. How would you treat that button? If anyone walked in what one thing would you keep them away from? guard, keep, treasure that button. You would guard it with your life.
This is more than an attitude but is an intense desire to do what is asked. Not just doing something because it is the thing to do or it might bring us certain benefits but it is the passion of our heart. It is a holy desire to obey God because of your love for Him.
John 14:15 - If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:21 - He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.
4. John becomes much more confrontive in verse 4:
'The one who says, 'I have come to know Him' (boastful assumption) and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him'.
How many people can you put in this category right now in your mind? Every time they tell the world they are a Christian it makes you want to cringe. It is obvious to everyone except them that there is so much in their life that very ungodly.
Changes from the plural to the singular(from ‘WE’ to ‘the ONE’ and confronts the individual who might have made such a statement.
Have you every seen a counterfeit 7 dollar bill? You won’t because counterfeit bills are never made in odd denominations($3 or $8 or $12) but are meant to imitate the real thing.
At first glance they seem real but there is always something bogus about them, some blur or omition, something that doesn't exactly correspond to real money.
Phony Christians fool many people: right places, with right crowds, know right words
(John says they say 'I know Him') but their life is an unchanged life. Unchanged on the inside(They lack a desire to surrender before the Lord).
Paul says, 'they profess to know God but by their deeds they deny Him'.
SPURGEON: An unchanged life is the sign of an uncleansed heart'.
They have no deliverance from the self-centered life although they may claim to have a relationship with God. They have not been delivered from bondage and the power of sin and set free to serve Jesus with a surrendered heart.
They don’t have a new heart to serve God and obey Him.
In 331 B.C. Alexander the Great and a small company of soldiers approached a walled city. They approached a fortified walled city at which time Alexander demanded that the king surrender the city to his little band of fighting men.
The king of the city responded? ‘Why should I surrender to you? You can do us no harm!' Alexander ordered his men to line us in single file and to start marching towards a sheer cliff. Without hesitation one after another marched over the side to his death. After 10 died Alexander ordered the line to stop and for the rest to return to his side. The townspeople and king were shocked and immediately surrendered.
1. When we consider what a true walk with Jesus consists of we can be sure that there are many counterfeits out there and that the Bible compels us to ‘test ourselves to see if we are in the faith’.
Psalms 37:31: ‘The Law of His God is in his heart, his steps do not slip’.
Not in the head but in the heart. Somehow that is very significant.
Two individuals may know the same truth and even quote the same Scripture passages BUT the one who has that truth in their heart is the one whose life will be different from the world.
#2: The things that He said are presented in the life that we live:
(5) but whoever keeps His Word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.
By this we know that we are in Him; (6) the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
1. The 'perfecting' of the love of God in our lives is evidence that something real has happened in us. It means to come to a place of completion or to realize it's goal.
It gradually takes over our lives and changes us, perfecting from within.
2. You can be doing a lot of good religious and spiritual things but until you get the loving thing down you can be sure you are not a completed Christian.
Paul said, 'the outer man is decaying but the inner man is being renewed day by day'.
He also said in Romans 12 that we are to be 'transformed by the renewing of our minds' and that it happens when we become 'living sacrifices'.
Living sacrifices sacrifice themselves because of their love for God and others.
There is a law which says that a mother and father have to take care of their children and keep them up and send them to school. But do you take care of your children because of the law or because you love them?
A slave obeys because he has too…employee because he needs a paycheck….Christian because of love?
One black pastor in Houston paid white people to come to church services: $5 all hour….. What if we paid people to come to church on Sunday nights? Paid people per hour to pray? Would their prayers do any good? Paid people to make visits?
When Lynne and I went to seminary we arrived in the KC area in August. It ended up being 4 months before I would be pastoring a church in the area. I immediately tried to find a place to preach at…I ended up calling a Rescue mission and asking if I could preach there. That phone call began a relationship that lasted for almost 8 years until we left the KC area. What was my motivation? Money? Was none. Fame? Preached to the lowest on the social ladder. LOVE OF GOD PERFECTED.
God desires a process in our lives and the pace at which it happens depends upon us.
Some are resistant to God's work in their lives and it can take years or tragedies to bring progress.
3. The secret is found in verse 6: ABIDE
Same word Jesus used when He spoke to His disciples about staying with Him to
watch while at Gethsemane. They failed by falling asleep on the job.
To abide has the same meaning as to 'have fellowship'(koinonia)
John 15:4 'As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abide in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me'.
You can be a member of the vine and only bear leaves but if you want fruit in your life you have to abide in the vine. You can lay a limb ON a tree but unless the limb is IN the tree it will not bear fruit.
Many today who have only the outer symbols of Christianity but no fruit in their lives.
Reason is they have a superficial surface relationship with Christ.
MCGEE: I get the impression from many folks that they want to live as much like the unsaved as possible and still be Christians.
4. How do I learn to ABIDE? Learn to walk as Jesus walked. 'he ought to walk in the same manner as He walked'(2:6)
WWJD, What would Jesus do? If Jesus were sitting next to you on the couch at home you might ask, 'What would Jesus watch?' (plastic Jesus on TV)
Or if you were speaking to someone you might ask, 'What would Jesus say?' What would Jesus pray? What book would Jesus read? What size house would Jesus live in? What football team would Jesus root for? Would Jesus root for Texas or A&M? Neither: OSU! But this approach does not always work
I took one of my kids to a batting cage once and decided I would get in a different cage that threw the ball the hardest. I hadn't swung at a fast moving baseball in almost 25 years and it showed. I could ask, 'What would Josh Hamilton do?' And it wouldn't help because I am not Josh Hamilton and nobody watching doubted that for a second.
If we are truly going to do as Jesus would do, or as John puts it 'walk as Jesus walked' then our only hope is to Abide in Him that His life might be lived out through us and accomplish the miracle that Christianity is meant to be.
Jesus walked in total, unrelenting, unbroken fellowship and dependence upon the activity of the Holy Spirit. An absolute surrender to the Father's will
.
1) This is the secret of victory over sin, over self. To learn to depend completely on Him for all that we need in order to live for Him and serve Him.
A relationship in which He lives out His life through us.
2) What would Jesus do if He were here?
He is here, living out His resurrection life through our daily steps.
GAL 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me.
3) It is learning to live in expectation of His working in our lives and our consent to it being done. It is to absolutely renounce the self-life, our self-centeredness around which our lives have been built around so long.
Do you know that you are saved today? Is there any evidence in your actions?
The question is not do you know about Jesus but do you know Him? And if you know Him is your life surrendered to His will and is His life being lived out through you?
Chris Carrier of Coral Gables Florida was abducted when he was only 10 years old. He was burned with cigarettes, stabbed numerous times with an ice pic, shot in the head and left to die in the Florida Everglades. Miraculously he survived although he lost sight in one eye. He grew up and became a youth minister. Recently a 77 year old man confessed to the horrible crime. Christ went to see the man who was now in a nursing home and years beyond the statute of limitations. Chris began to visit him often and read the Bible to him until he led the man to Christ. When asked about it, ‘While many people can’t understand how I could forgive, from my point of view I couldn’t not forgive him. If I’d chosen to hate him all these years or spent my life looking for revenge then I wouldn’t be the man I am today, the man my wife and children love, the man God has helped me to be. At some point Chris decided to lay down his life regarding the man who had harmed him. He knew Jesus had laid His life down and we should do the same.
Paul said that the goal of this life and all God's work on us is that we might be made into the image of Jesus Christ.' Rom 8:28-29
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?
The question should be WHAT IS JESUS DOING THRU YOUR LIFE?
What did He do this week? What has He done today? THRU YOU?
If Jesus had come to church today would He have only done what you did or would He have touched more lives, taught more truths and exalted God much higher?
