Knowing God, Part 2

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 2. The book of 1 John.

Last week we looked at this section, chapter 2, verses 3 to 11. This section is about knowing God. Right? John teaches us that all of us were made to know God. But tragically, because of the fall, our knowledge of God has been corrupted through original sin.

But John teaches distinctly in his letter that because of God's undeserved goodness, he has restored the our knowledge of him through the gospel. And John teaches us in his letter that the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the triune God makes himself known to us. He reveals himself completely and fully to us as the Redeemer by the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. In 1 John 4, verse 2, John says, By this you know the Spirit of God. By this know the Holy Spirit, that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God the Father.

Every person who confesses the incarnate Christ as God in human flesh. John says, this is how you come to know. The invisible God, he says in 1 John chapter 5, verse 20, listen to this. He says, We know. There it is.

We know that the Son of God has come. The Son of God has come and has given us understanding. Jesus has given us understanding knowledge of this invisible God. And he says he's done this so that we can know him who is true. We know this true God who is true, and he says that we are in him, who is true, in his son, Jesus Christ.

This is the true God in eternal life. He says, knowing God and having assurance that we know God is the central purpose of his letter. This theme about knowing God occurs eight times in his letter over and over. John talks about. Knowing God and having the assurance that we know Him.

And why does He focus on this? Because some former church members had left the church. They left the church, 1 John 2, verse 19, and they were coming back into the church after they had left with their new gospel. And they were telling these church members who had not left, hey, we know God, they're making claims to know God, we know God. But John says they're making these claims to know God, but they don't keep God's commandments.

So, what happens is, they were causing confusion, they were deceiving, they were causing doubt. And so John comes in to refute these three false claims in chapter 2, verses 3 to 11, think that they know God, that they live in God, that they remain in God. These people who had left, these secessionists that were calling them, they said they know God, and John refutes their claim to know God. Because he says they don't keep his commandments. Look at 1 John chapter 2, just for some context.

Look at verses 4, 6, and 9. John has this phrase, the one who says. He says it three times: the one who says, the one who says, the one who says.

So who is this? He's talking about those who have left the church. He's talking about those who have adopted different doctrines, different gospel that John had not taught these members of the church. And he has one who says, one who makes a claim to know God, to abide in God. Right?

And so he refutes these three false claims and. And as he refutes these three false claims, John brings assurance to his readers. John brings assurance to those who stayed in his churches, who stayed faithful to the gospel that he had proclaimed to them, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. And This is the purpose of his letter. It is to assure Listen.

Now, this might strike you odd, but this is what John is doing. John is assuring sinning Christians that they possess eternal life. Because as a Christian, you'll never stop sinning. John is giving assurance to Christians who sin. He makes that crystal clear in chapter two, verses one through two.

Then he says, I write to you, you said that you may not sin. We looked at this in detail. The gospel is not a license to sin. It's never right for us as Christians to sin. He says, But if anyone sins, what does he say?

He gives them absolution. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is a propitiation for our sins. He absolves them of their sin. He gives them assurance that they know God, that they have eternal life. And John is seeking to assure and give rest and comfort and confidence, he says in chapter 5.

He says, This is the confidence that we have in him when Jesus returns. The second coming of Christ is a day of great confidence and joy for those who are walking in fellowship with God. Let's look at this first claim and finish it this week. Verses 3 to 5. John refutes this first claim.

He says, They claim to know God, but they do not keep his commandments. In this context, when John says, by this we know that we have come to know him, who was him? John says, it's God the Father. We have come to know God the Father. And John says throughout the letter that we come to know God as Father through the incarnation of his Son who has come in the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit.

John makes this clear in 1 John 4, verse 2. He tells us throughout this letter that the Father sent his Son in human flesh to make himself known to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at 1 John 2, verse 4. John says, But the contrary is also true. Those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, he says they don't know God.

Look at verses 3 and 4. He says, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. And the one who says, the secessionists, those who left the church, 1 John 2, verse 19, is who he's talking about. He says, 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. And so John refutes these secessionist claims to know God while not keeping God's commandments.

Now, this passage also raises very important questions, just like last week. First, what are his commandments that John refers to? What are these commandments? Second, how do we keep his commandments? Right?

Because we're not licentious, we're not antinomians, we are called to obey God's commandments.

So what are his commandments and how do we keep his commandments? We have to answer these questions correctly because there's a popular yet incorrect teaching about 1 John 2 verses 3 through 4 that undermines the believer's assurance. This wrong approach to 1 John goes like this. And this was the approach that I was taught for the first. Gosh, 30, 35 years, 35 years of my Christian walk.

which completely took away my assurance. And I never had it. Here's how 1 John chapter 2, verses 3 to 4 is typically taught, which is. incorrect. We are taught that the book of 1 John sets forth a series of tests to determine whether you possess eternal life.

If you don't pass the test, you'll know where you stand and what you have to do to get eternal life, to have assurance. If you do pass the test, you have reason to enjoy your salvation and have assurance. And so we're taught that 1 John chapter 2, verses 3-4, sets forth the test of obedience. And this is what John is teaching us, this view says. All right.

This is the question. Do you obey God's word? Here's how the test goes, and this comes from an author who writes the test. And so I'm just going to share it with you. 1 John 2, verse 3 couldn't be clearer.

By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The authorizing: if you want to know whether you're a Christian, a true Christian, ask yourself whether you obey the commandments of Scripture. Obedience to the commands of Scripture produces assurance, the confidence of knowing for sure that we have come to know him. Verse 4 presents a logical contrast. 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.

That person is making a false claim, but whoever keeps his word in him the love of God, verse 5, has been truly perfected. How can you determine if you're a true Christian? Not by sentiment, but by obedience. If you desire to obey the word out of gratitude for all Christ has done for you, and if you see that desire producing an overall pattern of obedience, you have passed an important test indicating the presence of saving faith. And so, this is called the test of obedience from the book of 1 John, by which Christians can test themselves.

No, when I came to this so-called test of obedience in 1 John for the first 35 years of my Christian walk, it would destroy my assurance. Why? Because I would take the so-called test of obedience and I would fail. every time I would get an F on the exam. Why?

Because I knew I was sinning. I knew there was disobedience in my life. For example, I had just gotten married and I was in seminary. I was 23, living with my wife, who was just 19. I hear some of you laughing.

My two boys over here are really laughing. And so I was a horrible husband. At times I still am. I just know it now, and I know where to flee. But to Jesus.

And to ask my wife on Mother's Day very quickly, please forgive the idiocy of your husband. I'm just an idiot, you know. But back then, I didn't know Jesus was my, I didn't know Jesus died for the sins of Christians, too. Nobody ever taught me that from 1 John. They would just go back and say, John, go take the test of obedience.

And I said, I did. And I had an argument with Catherine. And so for, this is the honest truth. This is what I thought repentance was for two or three weeks, sometimes up to a month. Just beat the living, you know, what out of myself emotionally, internally, so that God can look at me eventually and go, man, John, you're really repentant.

I forgive you. That's called tenants. It's not repentance. And so, what happened was this: my only conclusion was: I must not be a Christian because I was taught that if I wanted to know whether I was a true Christian, I must ask myself. Whether I obey the commandments of Scripture, because obedience to the commands of God produces assurance.

Yet, each time I took this test, I was seeing in my life a mixture of some obedience with a lot of disobedience. And so, consequently, the assurance of God's favor and his salvation always eluded me. For thirty five. Five years or so of my Christian life, I just lived in a constant state of doubt, confusion, and frustration. Joy and rest were circumvented by anguish and burden.

Because nobody Not one Single Time. Pointed me to 1 John chapter 2, verses 1 through 2, and said, John. Take heart. Christ died for the sins of Christians, too. Nobody.

Never, not even implicitly. It wasn't even in the scheme. First John was just a series of tests. Take the test, pass or fail. That's all it was.

Nobody ever told me the comforting good news. That Christ was my advocate, speaking on my behalf before the Father. In offering his life on the cross is my propitiation for my sin and failure. Nobody. So, how are we to understand this passage so that our assurance isn't undermined but strengthened?

Which is John's purpose. I'm going to teach you a different view today that I think is what John is saying to us, and it's very comforting. There are several problems with understanding 1 John 2, verses 3 to 4 and applying it as a test of obedience. Here's the first problem. The first, this so-called test of obedience, listen carefully.

This so-called test of obedience applies to the secessionists who have left the church. It doesn't apply to the faithful who remained in the churches. John's not refuting those who remained in the church. He's refuting those who left. The one who says, The one who claims to know God.

But doesn't keep his commandments. He's not talking about those who have remained faithful in the church. He's refuting the false claim made by those who departed from the fellowship of his churches. 1 John 2, verse 19 and 2, verses 12 to 14, that will come to soon. John has said repeatedly that if you're a father in the faith, if you're a teenager in the faith, or if you're a baby in the faith, he says, I'm writing these things to you because you know him.

He is not. He's not calling into question those who have stayed in the churches, confessing their sins, confessing their faith in Christ come in the flesh, looking to Jesus as their advocate, looking to Jesus as their propitiator. He's not calling those people's faith into question. Let me say it like this: the so-called test of obedience is not for those who were faithfully confessing Jesus come in the flesh, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, chapter 4, verse 2. Those who confess their sins, chapter 1, verses 8 through 9, those who flee to Jesus as their advocate and propitiation, chapter 2, verses 1 through 2.

He's not addressing believers who sin. Who disobey. John has already addressed believers who are faithful yet sin in chapter 2, verses 1 through 2. And look how he handles those people. He doesn't say to them in chapter 2, verse 1, Martin little apostates.

How does he address them? My little children. A term of endearment, a term of comfort, a term of assurance. For Christians who are faithful yet continue to sin, John says we have an advocate with the Father. John says, We have Jesus who's our propitiation.

Trust in him, flee to him, look to him. Rest in him. That's how he addresses faithful believers who sin. He comforts them. To those who claim to be Christians but forsake Christ's visible church.

Come back into it and try to convert them to a different gospel. John says, liars. Do you see the difference? Are you starting to see the context? This so-called test of obedience applies to those who departed.

The second problem is this: that the so-called test of obedience is that God's commandments are never identified. There's just this general statement made about: well, if you're a Christian, you're going to keep God's commandments, you're going to obey God's commandments. They never ever get explicit with us and tell us what are his commandments. There's just this general idea of obedience, and you kind of like for 35 years, I look at my life and go, Well, I think I'm obeying, but I don't even know what I'm obeying. What is John talking about?

Third, this author that I read to you about the so-called test of obedience, he never tells believers how to keep God's commandments. Listen, all he does is this: is being simply told that obedience to the commands of God produces assurance, doesn't produce obedience nor assurance. It's like this. It's like having a great. Big nice yacht out here at Jack's Beach that you pull up to the that you go out in the ocean with, but it doesn't have an engine, it just has a radar, it just has a navigation system.

And you're trying to propel the yacht through the ocean with your navigation system. You're just going to sit there and drift. Because you got to have an engine. To drive it, the navigation system can be the most expensive, the greatest GPS locator satellite navigation system ever known to man. And it can tell you, you're varying off course, you're varying off course, sell over there, go over there, stop, slow down, you're gonna beach the yacht on the beach.

It can just be blinking and flashing and everything and tell you exactly where to go. But if you don't have an engine, That navigation system does nothing for you. It's exactly how God's word works. Being told to have assurance, being told to have obedience, and obedience to the way you have assurance doesn't produce either.

So, what were those? Behind us w Let's answer these two important questions and look at what John is saying. What are his commandments? John says, and take your Bibles and look at 1 John chapter 3, verse 23. John tells us in his letter what he's talking about.

And we're going to look at this more explicitly next week as well in this passage from chapter from verses 6 to 11. What are his commandments? John says, This is his commandment. All right, what is it? That we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

That's the first commandment, and here's the second: love one another just as he, Christ, commanded us. Those are his commandments that John is talking about in this letter. He's not talking about the Ten Commandments. There's nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments, but that's not what John is talking about. His commands, this phrase, his commands is not simply a list of rules and regulations that reduces the Christian religion to a legalistic system.

John's commandments refer to believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has come in the flesh to reveal the Father to us, and he says, and to love each other as Christ taught. John says that the ones who know God are those who believe in God's Son. And love fellow believers in Christ's visible church. They love the visible church. And so John clarifies a central concern in his letter, which is to enable his readers to distinguish between those who claim to know God but do not, the secessionists.

Those who know God but have doubts, the faithful who've remained. Those who have remained faithful to the message that he says in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, they remain faithful to the message that they've heard, he says, from the beginning.

So, this first commandment, listen to this first commandment. God's fundamental command to all people is to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. What does it mean to believe in the name? The name is the same as believing in the person. Trust Christ to be your advocate before the Father, chapter two, verse one.

Trust Christ to be your propitiation. Chapter 1, verse 7. Trust that the blood of Christ, his death on the cross, cleanses you from all unrighteousness. Trust him. Trust Christ, who he says in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, has been with the Father and been manifested to us and revealed to us the living God.

Trust that Christ. Trust him for salvation. This is God's fundamental command to all people. And listen carefully. This is precisely the commandment that the secessionists, those who had left the church, were not doing.

1 John chapter 4, verses 2 and 3. John says that these people now were coming back into the church denying the incarnation. They weren't trusting. Jesus, come in human flesh. And that we're teaching these believers who are trusting John's gospel: you don't have to trust Jesus to be your propitiation anymore because we're sinless.

You don't need Jesus' death on the cross, atonement on the cross. Because you're sinless, we're sinless. We know God now the way that you don't know. They were confusing these people. They were causing doubts in these poor little sheep who were sinning, yet trusting John's gospel, and lost their assurance of faith because these members who looked just like them had left and come back and were trying to convert them.

And so John says the secessionist claim to know God is false because genuine knowledge of God the Father comes only through the incarnation of God the Son. He says this in John in his gospel in chapter 1, verse 18: No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God. who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made him known. God's fundamental command this morning to you is trust in his Son, come in human flesh, for the forgiveness of your sins. Are you doing that today?

If you're doing that today, John says, rest because you know him. Second, John says Christ's commandment is to love one another. This theme of love among believers in Christ's visible church is a huge theme throughout John's letters. And he says it over and over in 1 John here.

Now, listen carefully. Failure to love fellow believers in Christ's visible church is precisely the commandment that the secessionists were not keeping. Listen carefully, and rather. Then, loving fellow believers in Christ's visible church, the secessionists departed from the fellowship of the apostolic churches. That's what John says in 1 John chapter 2, just a couple verses later in verse 19, he says, they went out from us.

But that were not really of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But he says they went out so that it would be shown that they are all not of us. The secessionists did not know God, and they proved this. Listen, they proved their claim to know God to be false because it was based on the fact that they had departed from the apostolic churches where the gospel, the pure gospel, was being preached. Second, He says, as these secessionists, they don't know God and they prove their claim to be false because it's based on an unorthodox doctrine regarding the person of Christ.

They deny that Jesus has come in the flesh. They deny that you need Jesus' atonement for their sin. They don't confess that the Son of God is sent by the Father to reveal the Father. Further, John says, That they were coming back into the church trying to deceive. The church.

We'll come back to that. They claimed sinless perfection, 1 John chapter 1, verses 8 through 10. Which John says proves their claim to know God is false. 1 John 2, verses 1 through 2, they deny the need for Jesus' atonement for sin, which proved their claim to know God to be false. Listen, this is the point that John is making.

It's very unloving to claim to be sinless. Why? Because this false claim prevents fellowship with one another. I don't know about you, but it is impossible to have fellowship with another person who claims to be a Christian and they tell you they've never sinned. I've actually met people and had conversations with people who told me that they did not sin, that they are sinless, they don't sin.

You cannot Fellowship with that person that is not loving. to claim to be sinless. What is loving? each other in the church. 1 John 1, verses 8 and 9, 1 John 1, verse 7, it's the humble confession of the need for the cleansing blood of Christ that is loving because this is what enables believers.

John says in 1 John 1, verse 7, to have fellowship with Jesus and to have fellowship with one another. That's why, when we come to the Lord's table every week, what do we all do? We drop to our knees in humble confession. Lord, I have miserably blown it this week. That is where true fellowship is found, and that is loving.

It's very unloving. to believers they don't need Christ's atonement for their sin. That doesn't love the fellow believers in the church. It's very unloving to direct believers away from the apostolic gospel they had received from the apostles. That's very unwelcome.

In 1 John 1, verse 10, John says that the secessionists who deny their need for Christ's atoning sacrifice made God a liar, and they said they do not have his word in them. Look what he says here in chapter 2, verse 4. He says, The one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments, that is, believe Jesus comes in the flesh. Love fellow believers in the invisible church. He says these people liars and the truth is not in him.

Listen to what John is saying. Lying to fellow believers in the church is very unloving. Lying to them. In 1 John 2, verse 26, he says, These things I have written to you concerning those secessionists. Listen, who are trying to deceive you?

1 John 3, verse 7, little children, there is a term of endearment, a term of affection and assurance. Little children, make sure no one deceives you. John says lying. Deception. Falsely persuading others, misleading others to go after a false gospel damages, does not promote fellowship between believers.

That is not loving the church. What does John say in contrast? Speaking the truth of the gospel to fellow believers in the visible church is loving, because this is what promotes fellowship. Pointing each other to Jesus, who is our advocate and propitiation, is a loving, the most loving thing you can do. The gospel, he says, in chapter one and two, creates, motivates, and strengthens fellowship amongst believers in the church.

1 John 3, verses 17 and 18: Not closing your heart to fellow believers who are in need is loving to them. All of these things that John says is loving is exactly what those who had left the church were not doing. And it is exactly the things that those who are in the church were doing. This brings us to one final question.

So, those are his commandments. How do we keep his commandments? John tells us in verse 5. Look at verse 5. He says, but whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected.

So, how does John tell us in this verse how to actually keep God's commandments, obey His commandments? Listen carefully. Look at verse 4. John says, the secessionists, those who had left the church, He says they're not keeping God's commandments. Why?

He says, because the truth is not in them. In contrast, verse five. Look where the truth is. John assures his readers that they were keeping his commandments. He says, Because the love of God has truly been perfected in them, they had the truth in them.

What is John saying? What does he mean by perfected? And this, listen carefully. It's not talking about perfection, an impossible goal to meet the side of the resurrection. What does he mean?

This word perfected means to reach fulfillment. It means to bring something to his intended goal. Listen carefully how John teaches us to keep his commandments, to believe in his son, and to love each other in the visible church. John says that God has love for us in Christ Come in the flash has a goal. This is the goal to bring us to keep his commandments.

to bring us to believe in his son. and to love each other. John says it like this: whoever keeps Christ's word, his command to love each other, truly in this one, the love of God has reached its intended goal. Let me say it like this. What is John saying?

John says, God's love. For you in Christ leads to your love for fellow believers in the church. He says it all throughout his letter. 1 John 4, verse 19, John is again refuting the secessionist claim that they love God. And this is what he says as he refutes their claim.

He says, when we love, Because Hey. First, what? Uh does How has God loved us? John tells us in 1 John chapter 4, verse 10. He's as it And this is love, not that we have loved God the Father, but that God the Father loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God the Father has loved us in Christ by sending his Son to exhaust forever his wrath against us for our sins. There is how much God the Father loves you. He would exhaust his wrath on his Son on the cross. That's the Father's love for you. God, the Father's love for us in Christ has this transformative goal, which is to bring us to keep His commandments, which is this: first, believe in His Son.

Let me ask you a question. Just think about your own experience. Would you love God and trust Christ if you thought God was your enemy? If you think God is against you. Do you want to trust him?

No. His love for you is what wins over your love and trust to him. Think about it like this. How about loving another fellow believer? Right?

How do you do this? John says, How does God's love do this? Because we receive the flow of divine love, it comes to us first. from the Father and the Son by the Spirit. Fills us up with knowledge of the Father's love for us in Christ by the Spirit, then that love flows outward to others.

in Christ's visible church. The secessionists didn't love fellow believers. Why? Because Josh says they abandoned them. Abandonment is not love.

They came and taught them unorthodox doctrines of sin. We're sinless, and you can be sinless. No, that's not love. They taught them, you don't need Jesus' atonement for your sin. That's not love.

John says. These secessionists did these things because the truth is not in them. The love of God in Christ through the gospel, it's not in them. If you don't know first the Father's love for you in Christ through the gospel applied by the Holy Spirit, you can't be a loving person. They didn't know God, the Father, like that.

John says the truth is not in men. They don't know the love of the Father. Express through the sending of his son as an atoning sacrifice of propitiation on the cross. They don't know God the Father like that. The truth is not in them.

Therefore they hate people. They don't love. John was setting the secessionists against those believers who, with John, remained faithful to the original message of the gospel. And listen, by stressing love for fellow believers in the church, John sought to achieve two ends. First, to assure his readers that they really know God.

And second, to show them that the claims of the secessionists were false.

Now As we reflect this morning on John's refutation of these people who left the church and they claimed to know God, here's a vital lesson for us to take home today. as we finish. This is what John is teaching. Listen carefully. Your love for God.

Your trust in his son, your love for fellow believers in the visible church must be one and drawn out by your knowledge of God the Father's love for you. That's what he's teaching. You can't love God. You'll not trust His Son. You'll not love God's people, Christ's people in the visible church, unless you first come to understand and know how much the Father in Christ loves you first.

John confirms this for us in chapter two, verses four through five. Listen again as we finish. The secessionists didn't love fellow believers. Why? They weren't trusting Jesus.

Why? He says, because the truth is not in them. The love of the Father and the gospel is not in them. You see. They've never known, they've never tasted, they've never received the love of God the Father in Christ through this.

gospel that the apostles had proclaimed. In contrast, those believers who were John were and remained faithful to this original message of the gospel. John says the love of God the Father has reached its intended goal for them. John and his little children in the faith knew the love of God the Father in Christ for them through the message that the apostles had proclaimed to them from the beginning, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. John teaches that in the gospel we come to know that God the Father truly loves us through Christ who has come in the flesh and has forever exhausted God's wrath against us forever.

That's how we know the Father loves us. And John says it is this divine love. From the Father. In the sign. Through the Holy Spirit, apply to us that has this intended goal to bring us to keep His commandments.

which is to Believe, trust in his Son for the forgiveness of our sins. Into. Love fellow believers in Christ's visible church. This flow of God's love to the believer, and believers' love to fellow believers, is the gospel flow in the church. And that's what John is teaching here.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have loved us. And you have sent your son to be a propitiation for our sins. Confirm and strengthen us in your love for us so that as we receive love from you, we can give it to others. And help us to know you as Father.

Loving Father, not a judge, but a loving father. Express to us through the sending of your Son in the flesh. Who gave his flesh as a propitiation for our sins so that we could be restored to fellowship with you and to fellowship with one another. in your church. We thank you for your visible church, where we can hear this good news proclaimed to us, and we can come and receive rest and assurance.

for our faith. We pray this in Jesus' name. Oh man. 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.