Hi, this is the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. We're going through the New Testament book of 1 John. The current series is about what it means to truly know God. That sounds simple and complicated at the same time, doesn't it?
Well, bear in mind that many people claim to know God, but do they? We have to ask ourselves how do we treat certain things like the truth, God's commandments, and loving our neighbor. Let's take a deeper look into this passage. Here's John with Knowing God, Part 4. First John chapter two, verses three to eleven.
If you were in John's congregations that he wrote this letter to, this might be kind of what It would have sounded like if one of the secessionists, one of those who had left the church, chapter 2, verse 19, was speaking to you. Ah, so this is how it might have gone. We have experienced a special anointing of the Holy Spirit. This special anointing has led us to go beyond the message that John and the other apostles first shared with us. Because of this special anointing, we have come into such a close fellowship with God that our sin no longer affects our fellowship with Him.
In fact, We don't sin we don't sin anymore. Yes, Jesus is real and he really didn't live and die, but you don't need him. You don't need Christ atoning sacrifice for sins because Jesus is not the Christ, the Son of God, who has come in the flesh. Jesus can't give you. any more of the father None we can.
In fact, He can't give you the Father at all, but this new knowledge that we have of God, we can give you Him.
Now, please hear us. We're not telling you not to believe in Jesus. You're free to believe in him all you want, so long as you realize this: that Jesus has no more access to the Father than any other man who walked in Israel. But Don't believe in him because you think Jesus can bring you into fellowship with the Father. He can't.
And you don't need Jesus to get to the Father. What you need is us. Because we have come to know God and been enlightened. behind what you've been taught. We don't have to obey the novel commands that John and the Apostles have given to us because.
We have come to know God in a greater way now. And so these are the things, this is why we've left the church, but because you lack this spiritual insight and knowledge of God that we have. We want to come back to you and share this profound, life-changing teaching with you. Because you see, we want you to have this close fellowship with God like we now have. We want you to know God like we know Him.
We want you to be enlightened like us so that you can truly abide in Him and no longer sin. That's sort of what they were hearing from these people who had left the church. And he had come back. And so the effect of their teaching upon the members of these churches was to undermine. These believers' confidence in the message of the gospel as they had originally received it from John.
These faithful believers in the church were thinking was: is the message that we've heard from John and the Apostles, is it really true? I mean, are we really in fellowship with God? Do we really know God? Don't we really abide in Him? Have we received the Holy Spirit's anointing like they have?
Do these former church members who've left and come back, do they have, have they discovered insights that. that we're lacking. These were the questions that were beginning to come up in the minds of these believers who had remained in the churches. And so they lost their assurance. And so John found it necessary to strengthen his faithful children's assurance.
And this is why he has written this letter to them, which he says in chapter 5, verse 13: These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. These negative effects of the secessionists. Teaching them out. Knowing God. And having assurance that that We know God is central to the purpose for why John wrote this letter.
And so on chapter 2, verses 3 through 11, this is what John does is he refutes these three claims by the secessionists that they know God. And he says they claim to know God, but they do not keep his commandments. Look at verses 3 to 5, and this is what we saw: the first claim that John refutes. He says the secessionists claim to know God, but they do not keep his commandments. In chapter 3, verse 23, he tells us what these commandments are that they were breaking.
He says that God has commanded us to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to. Love each other just as he commanded us. And so, through faith in the incarnate Christ is exactly what these people who had left the church was exactly what they were denying. And John says, and we're called to love each other. And this is exactly what the secessionists, those who left the church, were not doing.
But John comforts his readers because this is what they were doing. They were trusting in the incarnate Christ and they were loving each other in the church. And he says, by this you can be assured that you know him and that you abide in him, which comes to the second false claim. Look at verses 5 through 8 that we looked at last week. He said they make this claim to abide in God, but they don't walk as Christ walked.
And so, from the context of verse 6. We saw that John makes it clear that to walk as Jesus walked means that we obey God's commandments, just like Jesus obeyed God's commandments in his incarnate state. And so these commandments, again, first John chapter three, verse twenty-three. Trust Christ. Believe in Christ.
And listen. And love one another in the church, which is exactly what these secessionists, these people who had left the church, they did not have. This brings us this week to verses 9 to 11. Here's the third and final false claim that That John refutes that the secessionists were making. Verses 9 through 11, he says, the claim to be in the light.
while hating fellow believers. Look what John says in verse 9. He says, The one who says, This is the secessionist, this is their claim, the one who says he is in the light. and yet hates his brother, his fellow believer. Is it in the darkness until now?
Verse 10, but He says, the contrast, the one who loves John's readers. Right? The one who loves his fellow believer abides in light, and there's no cause for stumbling in him, but the one who hates, The secessionists. The one who hates his fellow believer is in the darkness, and he walks in the darkness and he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
So these, John is refuting in chapter 2, verses 3 to 11, these false claims by the secessionists. Chapter 2, verse 4, they claim to know him. Chapter 2, verse 6, they claim to abide in him. Chapter 2, verse 9, they claim to be enlightened by God. They claim to be in the light, to be enlightened, to have their minds enlightened by God.
But John says their claim to be enlightened Is false because they demonstrate this because they have hatred for fellow believers in the church. And look what John does in verses 9 through 11. He expands on this light-darkness dichotomy that he introduced. All the way back to chapter 1, verse 5, where he said this: God is light, and he says, and in him there is no darkness at all. And so John in this letter sets forth this antithesis between love and hate in relationship to light and darkness.
Love equals light. Darkness equals hate. And John portrays these who have left the church as those who are in the darkness because of their hatred for fellow believers in the church. They don't love Christ's people. Look at chapter 3, where John develops this charge of their hatred for God's people.
He develops it more fully in chapter 3. Look at chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. John compares the secessions, those who've left the church, right? He compares them to Cain. Verse 11 and 12, for this is the message you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another, not as Cain.
Not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brothers. were righteous. John uses Cain as the model for those who have left the church.
Listen, he says, those who hate a fellow brother, a fellow believer in the church. They're like Cain. Why? Because what did Cain do? He hated his brother and he slew him.
He murdered him. And John says that is exactly what these people who have left the church are like. They're like Cain. Look at 1 John 3, verses 17 through 18. John charges a secessionist of failing to give material aid to fellow believers who are in need.
He says in verse 17, But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? He says, Look, little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. And so the context in verses 9 through 11 is love for fellow believers. in the visible church. John teaches that keeping God's commandments is not the opposite of love.
But it is his concrete expression. His teaching here echoes Jesus' teaching to his disciples in John chapter 13 verse 35. Jesus says, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. This is so incredibly important. Love for fellow believers in the church is the necessary fruit of abiding, walking in the light.
John says back in verses 5-6: it is the necessary fruit of those who abide in God. He says in verses 3 and 4 of chapter 2: it's a necessary fruit of those who know God. Back in chapter 1, verses 6 and 7, he said, it's the necessary fruit of those who are in fellowship with God. Those who walk in the light reflect the God who is light. And John tells us that in chapter 1, that as we come into fellowship with the Father, we also come into fellowship with the Son, and the Father and the Son have this mutual loving fellowship.
And it pours forth our fellowship with him. Two others in the church. And as I pointed out last week, love for each other isn't natural. It isn't natural. Prior to our conversion, all of us, by virtue of our fallen nature, are born into this world, inclined to hate God and to hate one another.
This is what Paul writes in Titus 3, verse 3. He says, We also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in, here it is, look, spending our life in malice. And envy Hateful. in hating one another. John says this hatred for fellow Christians in the churches.
Moral darkness. It's inconsistent with the God who is light. And he also says in chapter 4, he says, chapter 4, verse 8, and chapter 4, verse 16, he says that God is love.
So in this letter, he says, God is light. And he says, God is love. And hatred for fellow Christians is inconsistent with the God who is light and the God who is love. Because when you abide in God who is light and love, It can't be separated from love for others in the church. This is John's point in 1 John 4, verse 8.
The one who does not love does not know God. He says, for God is love. 1 John 4, verse 16, he says, We have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and he says that one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. And so John refutes the secessionist claim that they know God, that they abide in God, that they are walking in the light.
That they become enlightened. Because he says, the one who claims he isn't in the light yet hates his fellow believer. is in the darkness until now. And so far from being in the light, John says these secessionists. They're in the darkness.
In chapter 2, verse 8, look what John had said previous to verse 9. He says that the darkness, that is, the present evil age and all of its fallen evil desires, he says the darkness. Look, he says, is passing away and the light is already shining. But then he says in verse 9, look what he says. He says, even though the light of Christ is, he says, it's already shining.
The darkness, he says, is not yet fully passed away. What is he saying there? This is what he's saying. The visible church is not totally pure. The visible church Is the visible church this side of the resurrection is always going to be a mixed assembly.
that is disciplined. The invisible church consists of both wheat and tares. And so discipline in exposing error is necessary because John says the light of Christ is not seen everywhere and it's not seen in every person who is in the visible church regardless of the claim that they might make. And so John refutes the secessionist claim to be in the light, to be enlightened in the truth, because he says they hate rather than love fellow believers in the church.
So here's the question that all of this raises. Right. Fowl did the secessionists hate fellow believers in the church. How did they do this? How are they not loving fellow believers?
Look at verse 10, and now it gives you a hint. Verse 10, he says, The one who loves his fellow believer. Abides in the light, and there's no cause for stumbling in him. John says it is hate towards fellow believers in the church to cause them to stumble.
So what does it mean to cause someone in the church to stumble? How were these secessionists, these people who had left the church, how were they causing John's faithful children to stumble?
Well, if you look at the whole context of 1 John. We see that the effect of the secessionist teaching was to undermine. John's faithful children's confidence in the message of the gospel. Therefore, John found it necessary to write this letter to strengthen their assurance in the faith of the gospel that had been delivered to them. The secessionists were causing John's faithful believers to doubt the truth.
Of the gospel, and because of that, they lost the assurance of their salvation. This is what John is saying. Listen carefully. It is hatred towards fellow believers in the church to cause a faithful Christian to doubt the truth of the gospel. That's hatred.
Why? Because it causes that believer to lose his or her assurance of salvation, which is utterly destructive. This is exactly what these secessionists, these people who had left the church and come back into the church with this false teaching, were doing to these poor little believers who are faithful. but now had their faith shaken to the core. If you just look at the whole book of 1 John, You can see what these people who had left the church and come back.
You can see what they were doing to these faithful believers. Listen, chapter 1, verses 8 through 10. They denied human sinfulness. Chapter 4, verses 2 and 3, they deny the reality of Christ having come and incarnate in human flesh. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 2, they denied the need for Christ's atoning sacrifice for sins.
And because of all of this false teaching they had brought back into the church. They were causing John's faithful children to stumble. John says this, that true love for fellow believers means that you do not put before them anything that would entice them to believe something that is false or act in a way that is contrary to God's will. And this is exactly what these people who had left the church and come back were now doing. He says the secessionists, these people who claim to know God, they actually hate fellow Christians, chapter 2, verse 19, because they abandoned the fellowship and they have returned.
Chapter 2, verse 26, and they've returned in order to deceive them. They return to lead them away. The light of the truth of the message that they had heard from the apostles. And so John insists that false teaching in the church. is not loving towards fellow believers.
because it harms them. He says it doesn't matter how well-intentioned the person is. in the claims that they make. If you are taking people away in the church from the simplicity of the truth. Of the gospel message given by the apostles, he says in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, who were eyewitnesses of the whole thing.
He says that's hateful. This is the application for us as we think about this. Isn't this always the objective of the enemy of our faith to just lead us away from the simplicity and truth and light of the gospel. That's what the enemy is always trying to do to us, to blind our eyes. By false teaching, so that we don't see the light of Christ and have assurance of our salvation.
This is what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3 to the Corinthian church. He says, I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion. to Christ. It's exactly what John was concerned about with these believers in the church. And he says, hating believers in the church and causing them to stumble constitutes walking in darkness.
Look at verse 11. John says, darkness is not neutral. We have to understand this. Darkness is not neutral. In verse 11, he says: darkness causes spiritual and moral blindness.
Listen to verse 11. He says, But one who hates his brother, His fellow Christian in the church. Yeah. He's talking about the secessionist. He says is in the darkness.
And walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. John portrays these secessionists. These people who have left the church and come back into the church and were seeking to give this enlightened teaching that they had to. lead these believers away from the truth of the gospel. He portrays them as being like blind men who are just fumbling their way through the darkness.
They don't know where they're going. They're just fumbling through the darkness. What is the darkness? The darkness is the realm in which sinful behavior predominates. It's this present evil age.
It's the sinful fallen desires, which in this context, what is a sinful fallen desire? It's hatred toward fellow believers in the church. What is the darkness in this context? It's the false teaching. These secessionists who were seeking to lead God's people away from the apostolic truth of the message they had received, the gospel.
Darkness is the absence of light. What is the absence of light in this context? It's the absence of Christ, who has come in the flesh, who is the light of the world. Darkness is the absence of Christ in a person's life. It's the absence of being cleansed from all sin.
1 John 1, verses 6 through 7. Look what John says: if we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, he says we lie and do not practice the truth. Verse 7, but if we walk in the light, as he is himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, you see. And this is the benefit, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. To To be in the darkness is to be absent from having been cleansed from all your sin.
It's not to be in fellowship with fellow believers in the church, which means you're not in fellowship with God Himself. Walking in darkness is to reject God's revelation of Himself in Christ, who has come in the flesh, and thus to walk in death. Walking in darkness is to live and behave in a way that is antithetical to God's revealed will for our life. It's not to practice the truth, it's to be blind and walk in error, to walk in unconfessed sin. Why?
Because these secessionists are saying they don't have any sin. They become enlightened. We have nothing to confess. We know God. We have fellowship with God.
We have been freed from all our sin. We don't sin. And John says that is to walk in darkness. Meaning secessionists were in darkness. They rejected the apostolic gospel.
They abandoned the fellowship of Christ churches. To listen carefully, to leave Christ's visible church is to leave the realm of truth and light and to go into darkness. And so John shows us that walking in darkness is spiritual bondage. They don't know, John says, they don't know where they're going. Look at this bondage that he says here.
He says it very clear in verse 11. He says they don't know where they're going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. They don't know where they're going. This is spiritual bondage. Those who walk in the darkness, John says, need the light of Jesus in the gospel to open their blind eyes and dispel the darkness.
Just as Jesus, for example, physically healed the man who had been born blind and opened his physical eyes. And this is exactly what God does through the gospel. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6. He quotes Genesis chapter 1, verse 3, and he says, For God who said light, this God, for God who is light, right? For God who is light.
Satan light shall shine out of darkness. And he says, and he's the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge. Of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Just as God spoke light. into existence from the realm of darkness and creation.
Paul says here, so he has brought light out of the realm of our spiritual darkness. And so, as we bring this section to a close. Chapter 2, verses 30 to 11. We've seen how John has refuted three claims of the secessionists. Those claims are they know him, they abide in him, and he's in the light.
You know, all these three claims are essentially a claim to having personal, close knowledge of God. And so, what has John taught us in this section about those who, about the one who truly knows God? He says that those who truly know God will come to keep God's commandments. And what are his commandments? Again, 1 John 3, verse 23.
This is his commandment that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. In that we love one another just as he commanded us. By exposing the false claims of these secessionists who were not trusting Christ. Who are not loving fellow believers? John assures his faithful children that they know God because this is exactly what John says they were doing.
So, let me ask you the two simple questions today.
So that you can have assurance. And you have to understand this as you hear these questions. It's not the degree. but simply the possession of it. And John says this.
Are you trusting in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, come in the flesh for the forgiveness of your sins? Are you trusting in him for that? Because this is what the secessionists were not doing. They denied that Jesus had come in the flesh. They denied that they needed Jesus' atoning sacrifice for their sins.
And John says, if you're trusting Jesus, The Son of God, come in flesh for the forgiveness of your sins. He says, You know him. You abide in him. You've been enlightened by him. And second, This is a very important one for us, particularly after coming out of COVID.
Do you love Christ's people? That is such an important question. I just I just read another article this past week. And this was a title of the article in a major newspaper in the country. And this was the title.
They are not coming back. And it was a secular newspaper referring to the fact that all those so-called Christians prior to COVID who attended church, they're not coming back anymore. John says, if you're walking in the light. If you're abiding in Him, If you know God. The the evidence of that is that you love Christ's People.
Love his visible church. And for those people who are not coming back and staying home or whatever it is that they do. The question that comes from this text to them would be, Why? If you claim to know God, and if you claim to abide in him, and if you claim to walk in the light, don't you want to be where God's love is most expressed, which is in his church? Don't you love what he loves?
Because if you abide in God, who is light and love, listen, you begin to love what he loves. What does Jesus love the most? What does the Father and the Spirit love the most? His church, his people. And to claim to know God and to abide in Him, but not associate with God's people, not be with God's people, and not want to love being with God's people.
is evidence that you might not know him. Faith in Christ. Love for Christ's people, John says, are the marks of those who know God, abide in God. are enlightened by the truth of the gospel. And John says to his readers, this is exactly what you're doing.
Again, it's not the degree nor perfection of it, it's the existence of it. And John says, Therefore, you can be assured that you know him.
So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage of Scripture that we've looked at. We thank you for. Your church. We pray that you would, by your Holy Spirit, Grant us a greater ability to trust Christ.
To trust Him for the forgiveness of our sins. and to love your people. And the greatest way that we can love one another is, as is here, as John says, it is to. Point people to God who has light and love, who has revealed Himself perfectly in Christ. And so help us to.
Point people to Christ. For the forgiveness of their sins and to speak this truth to one another and to build one another up in the faith. as we have opportunity. We pray this in Jesus' name. Immense.
Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. Please subscribe if you haven't already for all our new episodes. And if this message was just what you needed to hear, please let us know in the comments and share it with a friend.
