Birthmarks of the Believer

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. We are born again, and we're born from above. And when we're heaven-born, we're heaven-bound. And when we're heaven-born and heaven-bound, we're heaven-blessed. And there are some radical transformations that take place in our lives.

When we're born from above, there are some birthmarks. There are some traits of the twice-born, because not everybody who is talking about heaven is going there. Not everybody who says he or she is saved is saved. Before we get right into the text, let me just show you three statements here. Look, if you will, in verse 4. He that saith, I know him. Look in verse 6. He that saith, he abideth in him. Look in verse 9.

He that saith, he is in the light. Now, what John is going to do is going to say that some people are saying one thing and living another. They are not what they claim to be. Their walk doesn't match their talk. They don't have the birthmarks of a believer. Now, sometimes people think strange things about themselves, and those things are not true. The nurse came to the psychiatrist and said, Doctor, there's a man out here in the office who thinks he's invisible.

The doctor said, go tell him we can't see him. They're people who have strange ideas about their Christianity. They say one thing, but they're not necessarily true. So we're going to look at this passage of Scripture, and we're going to find out what are the birthmarks of a believer.

How can I say, yes, I have been born again, and I know that I know that Jesus Christ lives in me, and I in him. You know, there's so many caricatures of Christianity. A caricature is a picture that is distorted. Certain characteristics are overemphasized, and certain characteristics are minimized or neglected, and so what you have is a caricature. And many people have a caricature of Christianity. Many people think that Christianity, for example, is a matter of just behavior modification.

Trying to be better, trying to do better, but you can't purify the water by painting the pump. It doesn't work that way. Other people have the idea that Christianity is just all negative.

Don't do this and don't do that. So they have a negative religion, and the devil wants you to think negatively about God, to think that God is some sort of a cosmic killjoy, and Christians are so straight-laced that they can't have any joy in this life. That's a caricature of Christianity. Other people have a caricature of Christianity thinking that all we're interested in is going to heaven when we die. Well, I am interested in going to heaven when I die, but heaven is not just sitting around on a fluffy cloud wearing a woolly robe and plucking a harp. Our salvation deals not only with the sweet by and by, but the now and now.

Right now, we have the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives to give us a life that is full, wonderful, abundant, and free. So what is a true Christian? What is a true believer?

Let's look past the caricatures. Let's look past what some people say, and let me give you three traits of the twice-born, three birthmarks of a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're found in these scriptures that I've just looked at, clinging to that phrase, if we say, because John takes what some people say who are not saved and shows them what they would be if they were saved, what are the traits of the twice-born.

The first one is this. It deals with the lordship of Jesus Christ. A true believer, a real believer, a genuine Christian is somebody who is submitted to the lordship of Jesus. Look, if you will, in verses 3 and 4, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Now, that's very important because Jesus is Lord, and Jesus has a right to command us. He says, Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? And he says, If you say that you know him and you don't keep his commandments, you are a liar. You have never been saved. Now, folks, we're not saved by keeping the commandments.

We keep the commandments because we're saved. Look at that verse again in verse 4. He that saith I know him. That is the perfect tense.

You say, Well, I'm so blessed to know that, Pastor. Well, it's the perfect tense. That means that is something that is done and accomplished, something in the past. I have known him. You could translate it that way. I have known him. Now look, if you will, and keepeth not his commandments. That is in the present tense.

Now, what it means is I have an experience over here. I know him. That's already done. And because that's already done perfect tense, now in the present tense, I'm keeping his commandments. Now, don't get that backward. Don't start on this side and say, I'm keeping his commandments in order that I might know him.

No, no, no, no. We know him past tense, and that's why we keep his commandments present tense. But if we are saved, we are going to keep his commandments. You say, Does that mean, Adrian, if I've ever broken one of his commandments, I'm not saved?

No, that isn't what it means. The word keep is an interesting word also. The word keep means to value, as you would value a treasure.

If I were to give you something, I'd say, Keep this for me. Then you would guard it and protect it because it's valuable, and you give deference to it and respect toward it. Do you give deference to the commandments of God? Do you guard them? Do you treasure the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are they meaningful to you?

Are you just blase about it? Do you keep? Do you guard his commandments? Also, this word keep was a sailor's word. They didn't have global positioning satellites when this was written, and men who would sail across the trackless sea, in order to steer the ships, they had to guide themselves by the stars. Those stars never change, and so a sailor guiding his ship across the ocean would be doing what they called keeping the stars. That is, he sets his course by the stars. He keeps the stars.

Now, folks, listen to me. Those who are born again keep the commandments of Jesus. They submit to the lordship of Jesus. They want to live their life according to Jesus because they value his commandments, and they steer by his stars.

Are you doing that? I mean, is the burning ambition of your life to please him, to keep his word, to keep his commandments? Now, if not, do you know what the apostle John calls you? If you say that you're saved, he says you're lying.

He says you're lying. You are not saved if you don't keep the commandments, if you don't value these commandments, if you don't steer your life by these commandments, that doesn't mean that you could never, ever sin. A man steering the ship may get blown off course. A man steering the ship may take his eyes from the stars and let the wheel turn in the wrong way, but he sees what he's doing and he corrects the course. The desire of his heart is to steer by those stars, and the desire of my heart is to live by God's word. Is that the desire of your heart? If not, you need to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, again, you're not saved by keeping the commandments, but if you are saved, there's a change in your heart and in your life, and you desire to do the will of God. From the moment I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, to this very moment, there has been in my heart, in my life, a desire to do his will. Now, if that desire is not there, you need to put a big question mark after that thing that you call salvation. Now, you don't do this because you are trying to work your way into heaven.

You do this because you love the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse 5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected, hereby know we that we are in him. These are not legal commandments. They're love commandments.

The love of God is made rich and full and perfect in our lives because God is in our hearts and in our lives, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. That's the reason Jesus said in John chapter 14, if a man love me, he will keep my word. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to obey him and serve him, not in order to earn your salvation, but because you love him. I love Jesus, and I want to keep his word. There are times I'm sure that I fail.

There are times I'm sure that I stumble. But I want to guard those commandments and steer my life by God's stars to keep his commandments. So that's the first trait of the twice-born.

Is that true in your heart and in your life? Hereby know we that we know him if we keep his commandments. Now, let me give you the second one.

The first one, what is it? We submit to the lordship of Jesus. The second one, we seek the lifestyle of Jesus. Look, if you will, now in verse 5 and then read till verse 6. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.

Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. Now, the walk means the lifestyle.

You know what my life is to be like? I'm to walk as Jesus walked. Now, again, I don't walk as Jesus walked in order to be saved. I walk as Jesus walked because I abide in him. His life is in me.

His life is reproduced in me. Look in verse 6 again, as he walked. Do you see that as he? Now, that little phrase as he, John uses quite a bit. And when you see how John uses that little phrase as he, you're going to understand what it means to have the lifestyle of Jesus. That is, I am to be as he is. You know, in 1 John 4 verse 17, the last part of that verse, look at it.

Just turn your Bible over there and look at it. 1 John 4 verse 17, the last part, it says, For as he is, so are we in this world. As he is, so are we, not when we get to heaven, but in this world. That is, I am to walk as he walked. He is my example.

He is my pattern. When I abide in him, I walk as he walked. That is, the lifestyle of the Lord Jesus is to be my lifestyle. Now, how did Jesus walk? Well, 1 John 1 says he walked in the light.

The Bible says if we are in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Now, Jesus walks in the light. If I walk as Jesus walks, how am I going to walk? I'm going to walk in the light. Well, what does it mean to walk in the light?

It means nothing hidden. I'm not in darkness. To walk in the light is to walk as Jesus walked, and that is with honesty. One of the great marks of walking as Jesus walked is you're going to be honest. Jesus was honest with the Father, he was honest with himself, and he was honest with others. Now, if you're living a lie, you're not walking as Jesus walked. If your heart is full of deceit and lies, you need to get saved.

That's all there is to it. Jesus walked honestly. Now, not only did Jesus walk in honesty, but Jesus also walked in purity. Take your Bibles and look, if you will, in 1 John 3, 3.

Look at it. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, now listen to it, even as he is pure. Is Jesus pure?

Of course he is. Then I have to ask myself, am I walking as he walked? Well, then if he walks in the light, I'm going to walk in the light. If he is pure, I'm going to be pure. That means that if there's filth, immorality, pornography, impurity in my life, that's not the lifestyle of Jesus. Some of you claim to be saved and you're reading filthy literature, you're subscribing to dirty magazines.

Can you imagine Jesus Christ doing that? You see, what are the marks of a believer? What are the traits of the twice-born? He submits to the lordship of Christ because he keeps his commandments. He seeks the lifestyle of Christ.

What is the lifestyle? It is one of honesty, he walks in the light. It is one of purity and it is one of righteousness. Let me show you another verse there. Look in 1 John 3 and verse 7.

Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. There's our phrase, even as he.

Each time he says, even as he. That is, I am to be like Jesus is, even as he. Now, righteousness is not merely not doing certain things. You say, well, I don't steal and I don't get drunk and I don't curse.

Well, neither does a telephone pole. No, listen. Jesus went about doing good. That was righteous.

Everywhere he went, he was doing good. That is the lifestyle of Jesus. The Bible says we are to walk as he walked because 1 John 4.17, as he is, so are we in this world. Now, he that saith he abideth in him ought also to walk.

You see that in verse 6? The secret of walking as Jesus walked is to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does it mean to abide in him?

Well, you go to the Gospel of John and the master teacher explains it in John chapter 15 verse 5. And then Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches. You are to abide in me just like a branch abides in a vine. Well, how does a branch abide in a vine? Well, in the first place, it is a life of full relinquishment.

What does that mean? It means that the vine and the branch have such a relationship that the branch is totally surrendered to the vine. Are you totally surrendered to Jesus Christ?

That is what it means to abide in him. Did you know that a branch has no side issues? None. Well, you say, Pastor, I have got to have side issues. I mean, I have got a job. I need a vacation.

I need recreation. Are you trying to tell me that all I can do is serve Jesus? That is what I am trying to tell you. That is all you do is to serve Jesus. Nothing else. You say, what about my job? If you use your job right, you will be serving Jesus with your job. You say, what about my family? You are serving Jesus with your family. What about my recreation? You are serving Jesus with your recreation. I am telling you, to abide means you do not have any side issues. The apostle Paul said this one thing I do. Jesus said, no man can serve two masters.

That is what he said. Do you know, listen, the branch does not depend upon anything else except the vine. Everything that the branch needs, the vine supplies. When the branch needs water, the vine sends down his roots and brings water to the branch. When the branch needs sap, it just clings to the vine and the vine puts its life into the branch. When it is the fall and grapes are there, the branch does not worry about how many grapes, what size, what color, how sweet. Listen, the branch does not produce the grapes. All the branch does is bear the grapes.

It has but one thing to do and that is relinquish to the vine and rely upon the vine and then rejoice in the vine. Jesus said, these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. You know, people were watching the Lord Jesus. They could not understand his life.

They could not understand how he lived and how he did all of these things and it was an open secret. Jesus as the model human being, Jesus said, look, what the Father does, I do. What the Father says, I say. What I see the Father doing, that is what I am doing. What Jesus is saying is that I am totally 100% committed to the Father and therefore it is not I but the Father who is doing these works in me.

Now come up here close and I want to tell you something. If you want to walk as Jesus walked, when you are to Jesus what Jesus was to the Father, Jesus will be to you what the Father was to Jesus. You just abide in the Lord Jesus Christ and 1 John 2 verse 6 says, He that saith he abideth in him ought also to walk even as he walked. You see, that is the life of God that is reproduced in you.

This is supernatural. You are not just trying to imitate Jesus. There is a novel that has, I read it when I was a teenager and now our teens are reading it again and I am grateful. It is called In His Steps and it tells about a group of people who began to ask this question in a particular city and church. What would Jesus do if he were here?

And you have seen kids and adults wearing a bracelet, WWJD. What would Jesus do to remind them? And that is good and I am not opposed to that at all but I just want to put this caveat there. I want to put this explanation there because listen to me very carefully. It is not enough for you just simply to ask what Jesus would do.

And I will tell you why. That presumes that you would know what Jesus would do. Now friend Jesus will surprise you and many times he will do things that you wouldn't think he would do. And unless he gives you an insight into what he would do, you wouldn't have a clue sometimes. And number two, it presumes that even if you knew what Jesus would do that you could do it.

Now suppose I am standing at the plate in the World Series or in a big league baseball game and that pitcher winds up there and he throws that ball across that plate at 100 miles an hour. And I just ask myself, well now what would Mark Maguire do? So what?

I mean I am not Mark Maguire. For you to ask yourself, what would Jesus do? That presupposes that you could do what Jesus would do if you knew what Jesus could do.

And here is the third thing. You say, well what would Jesus do if he were here? Friend, Jesus is here.

That is the whole thing you need to understand. He is here. He is alive and well through his Spirit living in you. And as you abide in him, his life comes into you and now the life you live. You live by the faith of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you and it is not I but Christ that lives in me as you abide in Christ. His life is reproduced in you. He knows what he wants to do. He can do what he wants to do because he is here now alive and a Christian is the visible part of the invisible Christ and Jesus is the invisible part of the visible Christian and he that saith he abideth in him ought to walk also as he walked.

Now listen, this is the lifestyle. A mark of a true believer in Jesus Christ is not somebody who just subscribes to a code or a cause or a church. But it is somebody who is abiding in Christ, who like a branch is drawing his life from the vine and abiding in him. Look at it again in verse 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought also to walk even as he walked.

So what is a trait of the twice born? Number one, listen, you submit to his lordship. You keep his commandments. Number two, you seek his lifestyle. Now that doesn't mean that you're going to be as perfect as Jesus. You won't have that until you get to heaven. But this is the goal, the desire of your life, the secret of your life is to let his life come through you.

Number three, number three, here's the third mark. Now again, look down there at that little phrase, he that saith, and notice how John straightens this out in verse 9. He that saith he is in the light and hadeth his brother is in darkness even until now.

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there's none occasion of stumbling in him. That's the third thing he says, he that saith, he that saith, he that saith. The first one is, the first mark of a true believer is, he submits to the lordship of Jesus. The second mark is, he seeks the lifestyle of Jesus. The third mark is, he shows the love of Jesus. He shows the love of Jesus. You see, God is love. And when I'm born again, his nature is in me. And Romans 5, 5 says that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. So, if his love is in me, then I'm going to love others. If my heart is headquartered for hate, I am not saved.

Friend, you can't hate anybody, anybody, no matter what they've done. When they were nailing Jesus up to the cross, he prayed for them, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Jesus said in John 13, a new commandment give I unto you, that you love one another, even as I've loved you. And Jesus said that after he'd washed his disciples' feet.

Because real love is not just saying, I love. It is serving love. Can you imagine Jesus washing the smelly feet of fishermen? It is sanctifying love.

He was washing the feet as a symbol that he was cleansing and forgiving the sin. It was steadfast love, John 13 says, and having loved his own, he loved them to the end. He never stopped loving them.

There was that old loud-mouthed Peter, the big fisherman, he loved him. There was James and John, the sons of thunder, with a hair-trigger temper. They were the ones who wanted to call down fire upon the Samaritans. Lord, you want us to nuke them? Lord, a little heavenly napalm will take care of those people down there. Jesus said, you don't know what you're talking about.

They were there. Jesus loved them. There was doubting Thomas, cynical, quizzical, doubting. Jesus loved him.

There was calculating Philip. Jesus loved him. There was even Judas who betrayed him, and Jesus washed his feet. And he said, if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. You ought to love one another as I have loved you.

Folks, listen to me. The mark that you know Jesus is that you have love. Jesus said, if you have love one for another, then you might assign them. If you have any kind of racial hatred in your heart, you need to bring it to Calvary, and I mean soon.

Get rid of it. I've just come back from Israel. They have a museum there in the new city of Jerusalem called Yad Vashem. It is a Holocaust memorial, and it shows the atrocities that Nazi Germany perpetrated upon the Jews. Six million of them were put to death, not simply because they were enemies in war, but because they were Jews.

It was a form of racial cleansing. That museum is so heartbreaking. I could not believe that educated, literate, artistic, intelligent Germans could do what they did. I couldn't believe it.

Yet there's that mute testimony to it all. I felt tears coming up. I bowed my head in shame. I stood there and I prayed, and as I walked through that museum, I wanted to find a Jew somewhere and put my arms around him and say, I am sorry. I am sorry. I didn't do it, but I'm sorry it happened.

And the worst thing about it is that Germany was known as a Christian nation. He that saith I know him and hateth his brother, John says, he's a liar. He's a liar.

Just a liar. Now, friend, I am telling you, you listen to me. You are not saved by submitting to His Lordship. You are not saved by seeking His lifestyle. You are not saved by showing His love. But if you are saved, you'll do all of those things.

You're saved by the grace of God. But if your religion hadn't changed your life, you'd better change your religion. If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new. Years ago, in a little Welsh mining town, there was an evangelist. His name was Henry Morehouse. Henry Morehouse preached primarily the love of God. His text was John 3.16.

Everywhere he went, he preached John 3.16. And there was a man in that little Welsh mining town who was a drunkard, a brawler, a profane, ungodly man, a gambler who consorted with prostitutes, who had abused and beaten his wife and his children. His name was Ike Miller. When Ike Miller heard that Henry Morehouse was there holding a revival, Ike Miller said, if that preacher preaches tonight in this town, I'm going to come to the meeting and I'm going to pistol whip him out of town. And the people knew Ike Miller and they said to Henry Morehouse, Brother Morehouse, don't preach tonight. Go on somewhere else. Don't let this man abuse you this way.

Henry Morehouse said, no. I'll be there tonight and I'll trust God to take care of me, but I'll preach. That night, the little church was full when this man of God stood up into the pulpit and everybody heard the back door slam.

And in walked this hulk of a man with a pistol in his hand. And he sat down and folded his arms like this and looked at the preacher as if to say, you do your stuff and then I'm going to do mine. Henry Morehouse began to preach. He took his text from John 3.16 and he preached, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life. And he poured his heart out and he preached what I'm preaching, the love of God.

And when he preached that, at the close of the service, this hulking man stood up like that and everybody said, oh no, it's about to start. But rather than coming forward after the preacher, he turned the wheel around and went out the door, slammed the door behind him and began to walk down the street of that little mining town and the girls from the upper window said, Ike, come on, Ike, let's have a good time. But he paid no attention. Some of the men in the saloon said, hey, Ike, come in, let's have a drink.

He paid no attention. He went down the main street of that little town until he came to a little side street and he turned down that dusty side street until he came to a little weather-boarded shack and with his big ham-like fist, again, he threw the door open of that shack. Inside was his wife who had been beaten and abused so many times and little children. When those little children saw their father come home, they thought he'd come home in a drunken stupor. And the little children, like squirrels, scurried under the bed and his wife spread her skirt out and backed up to hide the children under the bed.

He looked at her and he said, woman, you don't have to be afraid. Get the kids out from under the bed. We're going to pray. She said, what? He said, you heard me, woman.

Get the kids. We're going to pray. So she got the kids out. And Ike Miller kneeled down by the bed and he tried to pray. He didn't know how to pray. He said, oh, God. But no prayer came. Lord, no prayer came. And then he remembered a prayer that his mother had taught him when he was a little boy. And this is what he prayed.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child, forgive my simplicity and suffer me to come to thee. And Ike Miller was saved. He's the one who has recorded the story that we can share.

Do you know what it was that changed Ike Miller's life? People came to Henry Morehouse and said, why didn't you preach the wrath of God? Why didn't you scold him? Why didn't you preach against sin? He said, because that man needed love. He needed the love of God.

And, friend, that's what our world needs. And when we began to practice what John is talking about, when we submit to the lordship of Jesus, when we seek the lifestyle of Jesus, when we show the love of Jesus, this world is going to believe what we say is real. That's the reason why John keeps on saying, if we say, if we say, if we say, it's time to stop talking the talk and walking the walk, amen?

To be like Jesus. The God that saved Ike Miller is the God who will save you today. Your lifestyle may not have been the lifestyle of Ike Miller, but there's nobody so good they don't need to be saved, and nobody so bad they cannot be saved if they trust Jesus. Would you pray, Lord Jesus? Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Look upon me, gentle Jesus, meek and mild.

Look upon a little child. Forgive my simplicity and suffer me to come to thee. Come into my heart, Jesus, and save me. In your name I pray, amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.