Series: 1 John
Title: Hereby We Do
Know
Text: 1 John 2: 3-6
Date: September 13,
2018
Place: SGBC, NJ
John is writing to
believers declaring Christ the Word of Life, Christ our Advocate, Christ our
Righteousness, Christ our Propitiation.
Now, he deals with assurance.
1 John 2: 3:
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4: He that saith, I know him, and
keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5: But whoso keepeth his word, in him
verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6: He that saith he abideth in him
ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
A believer’s chief
desire is to know Christ and be found in him.
We love true doctrine. But not
simply for the sake of knowing doctrine.
We love doctrine that makes us know Christ. It is Christ we want to know and be found
in. Paul said,
Philippians 3: 8:…I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:…that I might win
Christ 9: And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness [but his]…10: That I may know him,…
I want to be assured that I know Christ and am in
Christ. Here, the Spirit of God declares that it is possible for believers to
know that very thing. A few of my
brethren struggle with assurance. We all
at times lose our assurance. A sinner
can believe God and not have assurance; so never question a fellow believer’s
faith simply because he does not have assurance or because his assurance wavers
at times.
Some insist it is
impossible for believers to have assurance that they know Christ and are in
Christ. But Job said, “I
know that my Redeemer liveth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25-26). The apostle Paul said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep
that which I have committed unto him” (2 Timothy 1:12). One reason John wrote this epistle is because
he wanted his fellow believers to have assurance.
1 John 3: 14: We know
that we have passed from death unto life,…
1 John 5: 13: Those
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that
ye may know that ye have eternal life.
Proposition:
Our text declares it is possible for believers to know that we know Christ and
that we are in Christ; it is my prayer that the Spirit of God will give us
assurance that we know Christ.
Divisions:
1) The way we know 2) By whom we know 3) The result of knowing
THE WAY WE KNOW
1 John 2: 3:
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4: He that saith, I know him, and
keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
God declares the way
we have assurance that we know Christ is, if we keep his commandments. What are his commandments?
1 John 3: 23: And
this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus
Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
The first commandment
to those who know him is to believe on Christ.
John 6: 28: Then said they unto him, What
shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29: Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God,
that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Those who know
Christ, believe Christ is the Son of God, our Sovereign Lord and Savior. We
believe he is the Alpha and Omega of our salvation, the Author and Finisher of
our faith. True faith believes our acceptance
with God is in Christ in whom we are complete, apart from anything of us. We believe the Son of God, Christ Jesus, is
our Prophet, Priest and King. Faith
believes Christ is our Shepherd: we hear his Voice and he knows us and we
follow him alone. We believe he is our
Sanctifier and our Sanctification, our Redeemer and our Redemption. We obey him by believing on him and by
confessing him publicly in believer’s baptism and by partaking of his table in
remembrance of him. And from the first
hour to the last we walk by faith. We
look to Christ, led of Christ, corrected by Christ, following Christ through
the preaching of the gospel. “We worship
God in Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh.” As Romans 3:31 declares, through
faith in Christ we establish the whole law of God because Christ established it
on our behalf.
The second
commandment to those who know him is to love one another.
John 13: 34: A new
commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another.35: By this shall all men know that ye are
my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Those who know
Christ, first and foremost, love him, our Elder Brother, God’s Firstborn
Son. We do whatever Christ’s word
teaches us in the gospel because we are constrained by his love for us. We further his gospel out of love for him. Love makes us do whatever Christ commands us
to do in love to our brethren for their good for his sake.
1 Corinthians 13: 4: Charity suffereth long, and
is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5: Doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6: Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth; 7:
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things. 8: Charity never
faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there
be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall
vanish away.
Then the Spirit of
God shows us the opposite as a solemn warning—"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is
a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Most
everyone says they know Christ. Some say they know Christ historically by saying, “I believe there
is a God, I believe Jesus walked this earth.” Others say they know Christ
professedly: many have made a
profession of faith, been baptized, joined a church, many even go to church
services regularly. Many say they know
Christ theologically—many know the
five points of Calvinism and they can quote scripture and they say they know
Christ. But there is a great difference
between knowing about Christ and knowing Christ.
The difference is
they lack the works which are the fruit of truly knowing Christ—"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not
his commandments…” The person who
does not believe on Christ does not know Christ. He does not believe on Christ only, who looks
to an experience in the past, to self-wisdom, self-seeking, or some spiritual
experience. Nor does a person believe on Christ who
thinks he is obligated to keep the
law of Sinai or the traditions of men to add to Christ’s work. A sinner does not believe on Christ who has
a mercenary spirit, trying to indebt God for a better reward than others or who
trusts in his denomination or who fits the worship of God and the fellowship of
brethren around his life.
He does not know
Christ who does not love Christ’s brethren.
The person full of self-love rather than love for brethren does not know
Christ. He who thinks he is more
righteous and looks down on brethren or who holds believers suspect does not
have the love which God produces in the heart.
A sinner who will not overlook sin nor bear the burden of erring
brethren but is easily offended and makes a man an offender for a word does not
have love. The sinner who separates
himself in self-righteousness and forsakes assembling together with God’s
saints under the gospel does not know Christ.
Faith in Christ and love for brethren are the works whereby many deny
Christ.
James 2: 14: What doth it profit, my brethren, though a
man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?...19: Thou
believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and
tremble. 20: But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
The Holy Spirit says
in our text “He is a liar”—he does
not know Christ; “and the truth is not in
him”—he is not born of incorruptible seed through the gospel of Christ!
How do I know if I
trust an experience or a profession from my past or am looking to something in
addition to Christ? One way is if the
word of God contradicts my experience or contradicts that work I am trusting in,
yet I deny God’s word to defend my experience and my works then I am trusting
that rather than Christ alone. When the
Spirit makes us know Christ, a believer renounces everything that the word of
God contradicts; it is called repentance, faith, and submission to God. Believer’s baptism is renouncing everything
we formerly trusted, confessing we are now Christ’s, walking in newness of life
from here on.
When Christ declared,
“This is the work of God that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent” the liars to whom he spoke proved they did not
know him because they would not keep his word but went away. But the apostles said, “Lord, to whom shall we go. Thou hast the words of eternal life and we
believe and are sure thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.”
Do you believe on
Christ as your only acceptance with God?
Do you love him and your brethren in whom he dwells? The Spirit of God says, “Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” “Faith is the evidence.”
BY WHOM WE KNOW CHRIST
1 John 2: 5: But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is
the love of God perfected: hereby we know that we are in him.
The word “perfected”
means the love of God has brought him to its purposed end. The Spirit of God declares it is God shedding
his love abroad in our hearts that we know Christ and keep his word. The end to which God’s love brings his child
is to make his child keep his word by believing on Christ and bearing all
manner of trial out of love for his brethren.
Romans 5:1: Therefore
being justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3: And not only so, but
we glory in tribulations also: [including trials for brethren whom we love]
knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4: And patience, experience;
and experience, hope: 5: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
When the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts we behold God’s great, everlasting, unchanging,
sovereign love in Christ for his elect, wherewith he loves even me. For the first time, we behold his great love
in making us sons of God simply because the Father loved us and chose us in
Christ in eternity without a cause in us.
1 John 3:1: Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God:
When the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts we behold how Christ sent his only Son who laid
down his life and made satisfaction to his holy justice for all his elect by
his precious blood. And we behold he did
this for us who did not love him.
1 John 4: 9: In this
was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10: Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.
When the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts we behold that we cannot even glory for believing
on Christ and loving our brethren. We
see that the only reason we love is because Christ sent the Holy Spirit who
quickened us and created in us a new spirit and brought us to the purposed end
of making us love Christ and our brethren.
1 John 4: 12: No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his
love is perfected in us.
When the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts God brings us to the purposed end of removing our
fear of judgment so that we can approach God.
He removes this fear by teaching us that as Christ is perfect and accepted
of God so are we in this world.
1 John 4:17: Herein
[is the purposed end to which God’s love brings us when it is shed abroad in
our hearts] that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is,
so are we in this world.
When his love is shed
abroad in our hearts then we see in all of this that it was not by our will and
our works first approaching God but by him first loving us.
1 John 4:19: We love him, because he first
loved us.
So the Holy Spirit is
not teaching us to seek assurance in our obedience itself. But rather our faith in Christ is assurance
that we have a saving knowledge of Christ because the only way his people
believe on Christ is by God making us to know Christ.
John 6: 45: It is
written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Likewise, the one
cause that makes us keep his command to love Christ and our brethren is being
born of God and knowing Christ by divine revelation.
1 Jo 4:7: Beloved,
let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God.
This is why the
Spirit says in our text, “if we keep his
word, hereby we do know that we know him and hereby know we that we are in him.” So
to you my brethren who struggle with assurance, understand what the Spirit is
teaching. Faith in Christ is the
evidence whereby we know that we truly know Christ and are in Christ.
THE RESULT OF KNOWING CHRIST
1 John 2: 6: He that saith he abideth in him ought
himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
The word “ought”
means “from a debt of gratitude.” He
that professes to abide in Christ ought himself, from a debt of gratitude, also
so to walk, even as he walked.
As the Father’s
servant, how did Christ walk? Christ walked by faith and love.
Christ walked by faith obeying his Father by establishing the law for his elect
that it might be taken out of the way so we might live unto him. So we who abide in him, ought ourselves, from
a debt of gratitude, also so to walk, even as he walk trusting that he
established the law for us so that we can live unto him. We are under his light
and easy yoke. We serve the law of God
in our inward man. And would keep it
perfectly ourselves, if not for sin our members. (Rom 7: 21-25) But because we respect God’s
law as holy and because we are obedient to Christ, we confess that we only
establish the law of God through faith in Christ, as he commands us.
Also, Christ loved his elect freely, without a cause in us, by laying down his life
for his brethren. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for
us: and we ought”, from a debt of gratitude to him, “lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 Jn 3: 16) “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God”, after this manner, “loved
us”, that is, freely, without a cause in us, “we ought”, from a debt of gratitude, “also to love one another” after this same manner. (1 Jn 4: 10-11)
So in all of this we
see that faith and love rules the believer with a far stronger, superior rule
than law. We see it by the joy faith gives a believer as we wait on the Lord in
hope to work in our brethren through the gospel. There is no joy with those under law. And we see it by the trials that love endures
for brethren who are overtaken in a fault.
Love will endure and forebear with great suffering for brethren while
law judges and whips and separates from a fallen brother.
One says he knows
Christ, who knows doctrine inside and out. But when a brother says or does
something they do not understand or they do not agree with, instead of faith
trusting Christ to make the fallen brother stand and instead of love forbearing
and suffering long as Christ does with his people, knowledge puffeth up. He separates himself, forsaking the assembly
of the saints and by his actions says, “Stand
over there, I am holier than thou!” But the glory of Christ which he
claimed to defend does not mean enough to him to pack up and move to where he
can hear the gospel preached. Instead,
he remains alone in the wilderness. His
absence of faith and love speaks louder than merely saying he knows
Christ. The Holy Spirit says “he is a liar and the truth is not in him.”
But another one who
says he knows Christ sees a brother who, indeed, is in error, even worse than
the first. But through faith in Christ, he says, “If you put all my knowledge
in a thimble, it would rattle around like a peanut in a boxcar. Yet, God forbears with this poor, ignorant
sinner for the sake of Christ. And
Christ continues to teach me: here a little, there a little. So I believe Christ is able to teach my
brother.” And by his love he bears the
burden of his erring brother and suffers long with him because he knows the
longsuffering of Christ in perfect love toward him. James said, “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith
made perfect?” (Ja 2:22) “He that saith he abideth in him ought”, from a debt
of gratitude, “himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
Amen!