If I seem excited this morning, more than some other mornings, it is because we will finish our study in 1 John today. We started 1 John in June 2001. I don’t mind spending almost a year studying five chapters of the Bible. Taking my time teaching through the Bible provides great job security.
John wrote this letter to help Christians discern how to have a right and healthy relationship with God and with one another. And living according to these truths, John says, brings joy into our lives. 1 John 1:4 reads, "We write this to make your joy complete."
In the concluding verses, John summarizes for us three truths that provide real help for real need.
Many times, we have needs that are not real needs but are luxuries. We really don’t need to drive a Mercedes when another safe and reliable car will do.
Other times, we have real needs but not real help. Dr. Robert Gardere, a plastic surgeon, did a study of the people on whom he performed cosmetic surgery. Many people thought the surgery had been a failure even with obvious and significant improvement. Dr. Gardere found the dissatisfaction resulted from the clients’ dissatisfaction with themselves on the inside. They needed to work on their self-worth, not on their appearance.
A journalist asked the remarkable Christian, G.K. Chesterton, what one book he would want to have along if he were stranded on a desert island. Chesterton paused only an instant before replying, "Why, A Practical Guide to Shipbuilding, of course."
Our need determines the help we really need. And John gives us real help for real need that every person has. Let me read for us the last four verses of Chapter 5.
Yesterday, we had a meeting to discuss how to reach the variety of English-speaking Asians in Marin County to share the good news of God’s love. A team was formed to determine research methods, to set a timeline for doing such research and to train others to use the research methods. We also added that the team needed to test out these research methods before we train others. Then we will have the confidence of knowing the methods work.
John shares these real help with us out of his personal experience and the experience of others who were with him. He wrote for each of the three helps, "We know...." That is personal experience, not textbook knowledge. Let’s look together at what John personally knew and desires for us to know also.
First, because of the sin in us, we need new birth. We see this in verse 18.
Most of us who are aware and honest know something is desperately wrong within us. We can’t fix is with self-help books. We can’t fix it with counseling. We can’t fix it with a makeover. We can’t fix it with a new house. We can’t fix it by getting married. And we can’t fix it by getting divorced.
The Bible in "Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, "The heart [our inner being] is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
And one of the most law abiding religious persons, the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:15, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
Remember the last time you told God you wouldn’t lust anymore? Remember the last time you told God you would not allow your anger to get out of control? Remember the promise about gossip?
The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23, "... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
In other words, all of us, the Pope, Billy Graham, your pastor and the person next to you, who looks so perfect on Sunday morning, are not living as God intended for us to live. We were intended to trust God and live intimately with Him. But something in us, the Bible calls "sin," causes us to turn away from God and turn toward the evil one.
Sin is a real problem of mankind. No amount of money, good works or religious effort can provide the needed help. Not only is something intrinsically wrong with us, but the evil one in this world seeks to do us harm by leading us away from God, the only source of real help.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
We have a real need, and unless God comes in with real help, we are helpless. The Bible tells us that being born of God, becoming a new creation is the only solution. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
John wrote earlier in this letter in Chapter 3, verse 9, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."
John wrote in his record of Jesus’ life, John 1:12-13, "Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God."
Paul J. Meyer, who is considered the father of the personal development industry, wrote his newest book, Unlocking Your Legacy. In this book, Meyer reveals that only in trusting Jesus Christ and being born of God, can we live the life God intended now and for eternity.
John in the conclusion of his letter wants us to know that we won’t experience joy in life until we can deal successfully with our sin problem. Our need determines the help we need. And the only way we can begin to be free from sin is to trust in Jesus Christ to be born of God.
First, because of the sin in us, we need new birth. Second, because of the world around us, we need right association. We see this in verse 19.
To be born of God through trusting in Jesus Christ gives us a new beginning. But in order for us to be continually free from sin and free from the influence of the evil one, right association must follow our new birth.
The Apostle Paul affirmed in 1 Corinthians 15:33, "Do not be misled: ’Bad company corrupts good character.’" As parents, we are aware that the friends your children have will determine to a significant degree the character your children will have.
Our need for good company determines the help we need. Since we live in this world, which John, Jesus and Paul tell us "is under the control of the evil one," we are greatly influenced by this world and the evil one.
Many parents do not provide the needed help, but forfeit the responsibility of teaching their children about God’s commands from the Bible. As a result the only influence many children receive is from the world, which is controlled by the evil one. Magazines and movie screens now determine what is beautiful and good. What is right and wrong are defined in godless universities, work places and prime time television.
How can we prevent the influence of bad company? We are not to retreat into monasteries or caves. God’s solution is to set us apart to Himself. The Bible calls this setting apart, "sanctification" or "to be made holy."
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 says, "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."
In other words, God Himself will sanctify us or set us apart to be His own children and give us the right association and influence. God is the kind of parent who has great influence over His children despite the environment in which we live.
Are you a child of God through trust in Jesus Christ?
Almost ten years ago, I taught a Life Science class at Mission High School in San Francisco. The class was made up of students who didn’t want to take Biology and failed Life Science at least once before, some more than once. Many days, I would have students who came to class from the police department or came to class with knife wounds.
The school environment was not conducive to learning, but I determined that when these kids came into my class, they would be encouraged. I cleaned off all the graffiti in my classroom. I showed videos that taught them to have a good self-worth and to make good decisions.
After one year of this kind of effort, I was nicely surprised by the outcome. One student who promised to give to give me hell in the beginning of the year wrote me a thank you note for caring.
One teacher told me he stopped one of my students in the hall to ask if she had a pass. The student showed him the hall pass I gave her and replied, "I’m a good student. I’m not cutting class." And this was a girl, who, a year ago, was proud to be known as a bad student.
The students were changed despite the terrible school environment because of the one hour each day set apart in my class room. They received loving instruction that began to displace the lies and negative experiences in their lives.
Love and patient instruction have a way of setting people apart, even in a bad environment. God doesn’t take us out of the world, but He sets us apart with His love and instruction also. We need to be willing to daily go to God’s Word to hear His loving instruction and to talk honestly with God in prayer.
Jesus praying for his followers in John 17:15-17, said, "My prayer is not that you [God] take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."
First, because of the sin in us, we need new birth. Second, because of the world around us, we need right association. Third, because of the questions by us, we need visible incarnation. We see this in verses 20-21.
The word, incarnation, simply refers to the historical event when God took on human form in Jesus Christ. John is clear that Jesus was more than a moral teacher or a religious leader. John clearly states that Jesus is the true God and eternal life.
C.S. Lewis, in his book, Mere Christianity, said, "I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: [People say] ’I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say.
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
The Bible says in Psalms 14:1 and 53:1, "The fool says in his heart, ’There is no God.’" The question is not, "Is there a God?" The question is, "If there is a God, what is He like, and would I want to spend eternity with Him?"
Because God came in human form in Jesus Christ, we can know what God is like? He is not the god of the animist who demands human sacrifice to appease his anger. He is not like the gods of Greek and Roman mythology who satisfy their own passions at our expense. He is not like the god of Islam who demands our submission. These are idols, man-made gods that reflect sinful mankind.
In Christ, God revealed Himself to be a God of justice and love. You can be sure God will do what is right and merciful. In Christ, we see tears flow for the death of a friend. In Christ, we see forgiveness for the women caught in adultery. In Christ, we see self-sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world.
In 1981, a Minnesota radio station reported a story about a stolen car in California. Police were staging an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief. On the front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers that, unknown to the thief, were laced with poison. The car owner had intended to use the crackers as rat bait. Now the police and the owner of the VW Bug were more interested in apprehending the thief to save his life than to recover the car.
The Bible and Jesus Christ reveal a God who is chasing us down to save us, not to punish us. But when we don’t respond, we are actually running from the very help we need and the very longing we have. We long to know God and to have an eternal relationship of love with God.
Someone said, "If only I knew God could be trusted, I would live worry-free." The good news is that God can be trusted. And John knew. And John wants us to know also, so that our joy can be complete.
