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 one I have waited 25 years. To preach this passage because I've never, it took me that long to understand it.
Because this was the principal passage that was used prior to me awakening to the gospel that was used to absolutely destroy my assurance. And I think probably for many of you, this passage has been the same thing. Second, I have so much to say this morning. I could preach till 5 o'clock this afternoon and still keep going.
So I sat down this morning and was desperately praying, God, there's no way I can give what I've been studying this week in one message. Yeah. I can't even give half of it. I can't even give a quarter of it. Because there's so much here.
You have to understand my context, as I told you, 25 years. To come to understand this passage and what John is saying. Because the point of this passage is to give believers comfort and rest and assurance. And this passage was always used to do the opposite to me. There is this So let me just say this.
We're going to take our time going through 1 John 2, verses 3 through 11. And we'll just go till I get done. Because 25 years is a long time. And I have a lot to say. Because it's so good.
And I just want you to be able to get it. This whole passage is talking about one thing. No, we ain't got And so in his book. Knowing God, J.I. Packer, which I commend you to read.
It's a fantastic book. He's also an Anglican. But in his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer writes this: He says, What were we made for? Yeah.
What what aim should we set ourselves in life. T oh God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
What is the best thing in life? What is the best thing in life bringing more joy? Delight and contentment than anything else, knowledge of God. This is what the Lord says. Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or a rich man boast of his riches.
But let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me. What? Of all the states God ever sees man in, gives God most pleasure. Knowledge of himself. God says in Hosea 6:6, I desired the knowledge of God.
More than burnt offering. Says God. That's a great quote. No, I got Knowing God will set you free from your bondage. Knowing God, coming into fellowship with the Father and the Son through the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, will bring comfort and assurance and joy and delight to your life like you've never known knowing Him.
Listen, knowing God and having assurance that we know God is the central purpose of 1 John. That's why he wrote this letter. This theme of knowing God occurs eight times in this letter. Listen to, for example, 1 John 5, verse 13 and chapter 5, verse 20. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
Listen, so that You may know. That you have eternal life. Verse 20, and listen, and we know. Do you have that confidence? We know.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding. What? What kind of understanding? Knowledge of God. So that we can know him who is true.
And we are in him who is true, in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God in eternal life. Confidence. Confidence, assurance. Knowing God and having the assurance that I know God is the central purpose of 1 John.
If 1 John is presented to you in any other fashion, By which it causes you to have doubts that you have assurance of your salvation, doubts that you know God, that pastor or author or whoever, however big his church or however big his bookselling ministry is, he's missed it.
Now, let me just quickly review back chapter 1, verses 5 through chapter 2, verse 2, which we just studied. What we saw was this, is that John refutes three false claims to fellowship with God made by the secessionists. The secessionist is chapter 2, verse 19. And John says that some of the people who claim to be in fellowship with God have departed. They have gone out from us, they have left the church.
Right, so they have gone out.
So, John in chapter 1, verse 5 through chapter 2, verse 2 is refuting three false claims by those who left the church, departed from the apostolic gospel, and he says they don't have fellowship with God. And doing that, he was giving assurance to those who remained in the churches, who were confessing faith through the gospel they had received, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, that they were actually in fellowship with God.
Now, in chapter 2, verses through 11, John continues to deal with the false claims of the secessionists, those who had departed from the church. And this is what he does in chapter 2, verses 11. John refutes three false claims made by the secessionists that they know God while they don't keep his commandments.
Okay, the three false claims. If you have your Bible, look at your Bibles. Look what John John does. The three false claims by the secessionists are introduced by the same phrase. Verse 4, verse 6, and verse 9.
John says, the one who says, is it in the Greek? It's the phrase, the one who says. Verse 4, verse 6, verse 9.
So three false claims to knowing God. John refused by these people who had departed from the church. Because he says they claim to know God, but they do not keep his commandments.
So, listen carefully. My refuting the secessionist false claims to no God. John is seeking to assure his readers who remained in the churches. We were confessing faith in the gospel they had received, chapter one, verses one through four. That they know God, I'll come back to that.
The test, this passage is usually called the test of obedience for the believer. Test yourself, and if you've got obedience to God's commands, you're a Christian. I'll get into that later. Listen carefully. The test that John is giving here is not for the believer trusting Christ.
It's those who have departed the church, so that those who are trusting Christ and remain in the church can compare themselves to those who had departed from the church. who didn't confess Christ. And they could be assured that they have salvation. Do you see the difference? Because this is the purpose of John's letter, which I just read to you from 1 John 5, verses 13 and 20.
So let's look at this first claim that John refutes in verses 3 through 5. Look what John says. He says, by this we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments.
Now, look at this. In this passage, he's refeating those who've left the church. And here it is, the one who says, and he's quoting those who have departed from the church. I have come to know him. And does not keep his commandments and is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Now, he's used this word liar many times already, just in the first two chapters. To speak of these secessionists, these who have departed from the church. And so he uses it again. He says, but whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected. It has come, it has accomplished its intended goal in the person's life.
I can't wait to get to that part. Um of verse five because that's that's like just explosive gospel when you see what John's saying there. When I learned what John was saying, that the love of God has been truly perfected. It just blew my mind and just filled me with assurance and joy. But we're not going to get to that today, but I just want to give you a little preview.
So here's the first claim in these verses. The claim to know God while not keeping his commandments, John refutes that. Look at verse 3. This set of verses raises lots of questions. For example, to whom does John refer when he writes, We have come to know him?
By this, he says, by this we know that we have come to know him. Who's him? Second, what does it mean to know him? We have come to know him. What does it mean to know him?
Third, because this is what John's dealing with. How can we be assured that we know him? Fourth, fifth. What effect does knowledge of him have on us? What does knowing God, what does that, what effect, what does that produce in our life?
Lots of questions here. And John answers all these questions for us in this passage and throughout his letter. Right? Because when you interpret a passage, you don't interpret a passage just in its immediate context, but throughout the entire book, also throughout the entire canon of scripture. And so, first, whom does John refer when he writes, We have come to know him.
Let me just cut to the quick and bore you all the exegetical details. Who is him? It's God the Father. John says, by this we know we have come to know God the Father. What does it mean to know God the Father?
And how do we come to know him? He says, John says, we have come, we have come to know him, God the Father. How? Let me just summarize John's argument in this passage in the home letter. In a sentence.
If you take everything that John says in this book. About how we come to know God the Father. This is what he says. He says, We come to know God the Father in the incarnate Son who has come in the flesh by or through the power of the Holy Spirit. John teaches us in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, as he begins this letter, he says, The Holy Spirit works through the proclamation of the gospel, which is central to the incarnation of Jesus come in the flesh, and he grounds the whole thing on the apostolic eyewitness account of the apostles.
And through the proclamation of this eyewitness account of the gospel that has come in human flesh that they could see, touch, handle, and examine concerning the word of life that was manifested to them through that proclamation, John says, you come into fellowship with God the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. You come to know God. You come to have fellowship with God. You have a Trinitarian understanding of God, which is how we begin our service every single week. Blessed be what?
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And blessed be his kingdom now and forever. Amen. And so, this Trinitarian understanding of God the Father, listen, we see this Trinitarian understanding in 1 John. Look at chapter 4, verse 2.
Look what John says. He says, By this you know the Spirit of God. How do you know it's the Holy Spirit? Speaking to you, witnessing to you. testifying to you.
Right. leading you into the truth. By this, you know, here it is, knowledge. You know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ as Jesus Messiah.
Has come in the flesh, that's the incarnation, is from God the Father. John says that those who know him, who have come to know him, who have a true knowledge of God, confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that the Son of God became a human being. Listen, what does it mean to know God? What does it mean to know him? To know God is to know God as Trinity because every father has a son.
The Father, John says in his letter. Over and over and over, he has sent the Son. He has sent the Son. I'm going to come back to that. The Father has sent his Son in the flesh.
to make himself known to us. John says, the confession of Jesus Christ come in the flesh, 1 John 4, verse 2, is made possible by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. By this, you know, the Spirit of God. By this, you know, you possess the Holy Spirit. You confess.
With your faith, Jesus, God in human flesh. John says, You cannot know God as Father apart from Jesus Christ coming in the flesh and the work of the Holy Spirit. It's a triune work of God. Go back to chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. John hasn't left this behind when he's writing later in his letter.
Because the whole letter is founded on these first four verses. Look what John does. He begins this letter by stating that the incarnation of the Son is central to the proclamation of the gospel. And he says in these verses first Opening four verses that the purpose of proclaiming the incarnate, he calls him the incarnate word of life. He is the one who reveals the invisible God.
He's the word. He speaks. He brings revelation of the invisible God who brings life. He's the word of life. He says by proclaiming this gospel, this word of life.
The hope that you are brought into fellowship with God the Father. and his Son Jesus Christ, and also one another in the church. And so, John is teaching us in this letter: the way that we come to know God as Father is. In the Son comes in human flesh through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, who is also God. Knowing God is a major theme also of John's Gospel.
For example, in his prologue in John chapter 1, verse 18, John teaches that there is no genuine knowledge of God apart from the incarnation of the Son. He says in verse 18 of chapter 1 of his gospel: no one has seen God at any time. God is invisible. No one has seen God at any time, at any time. Listen to this: the only begotten God.
Who is in the closest fellowship with the Father has made God known? 1 John chapter 1 verse 2. John, recall, he says that Jesus is the eternal life which was with the Father. In closest fellowship with the Father for all eternity. He has come from the Father and was manifested to us.
This final verse in John's prologue is his climactic and ultimate statement of the eternal word made flesh to us, chapter 1, verse 14. Listen to John as I summarize what John says. John says, Jesus is the only begotten God, he is the begotten God. Manoganese, he is the begotten God. And he says in chapter one, verse one: the begotten God is God Himself.
And he says that this begotten God, who is God himself, and is in the closest relationship with the Father, and he has become incarnate, chapter 1, verse 14. And he, because of this incarnation of assuming humanity to his deity, he's fully revealed and made known to us what the invisible God is like. He gives us knowledge of the Father. In John chapter 14, verses 7 through 9, Jesus says to his disciples, If you had known me, listen, you would have known my Father also. He says, Now, one, you know him, and you have seen him.
Just like I would have said to, just like Philip, Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father. And it is enough for us. And Jesus says to him, Have I been so long with you? And yet, you have not come to know me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, show us the true, show us the Father? Jesus, John says, comes from the closest fellowship with the Father, with whom he is one, he is God in human flesh. And Jesus tells Philip to have, Philip, to see me is to see what the Father is like. To see Jesus in the Gospels is not just to see Jesus, it's to see God the Father loving and saving sinners. Because every single thing that reveals Jesus in the Gospels that we read, Jesus is revealing the Father to you.
Who loves you? John 17, verse 3, in his high priestly prayer, Jesus prays, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. To know Jesus is to know the Father. And so John says, through the proclamation of this gospel, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, the Holy Spirit, chapter 4, verse 2, opens our eyes to accept Christ for who he is, the God-man who has come in human flesh, and through Christ come in the flesh. John says we come to know God the Father by the power of the Spirit.
Now we'll get to 1 John chapter 2 verse 4. John says the contrary is also true. He says He said I was Anyone who does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh doesn't know God. Look what he says. 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.
We're going to come back to that in greater detail, but let me just set it up for next week and tell you what John's doing in context of knowing God. John is refuting the secessionist claim to know God while not keeping God's commandments.
So, here's another important question, and we'll come back to it. What are his commandments? What commandments is John referring to? It's not the Ten Commandments. It's not the Mosaic Old Covenant.
What commandments is John referring to then? Turn your Bibles to 1 John 3, verse 23, and John tells you exactly what commandments he's referring to. First John chapter three, verse twenty-three. This is his commandment. What is it?
That we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another. just as he, Christ, commanded us.
Now, as I said, I'll come back to this in great detail. I'll flesh it out through the whole book of 1 John. You'll see what it means next time. But let me just, for the sake of the point we're making here today, from 1 John chapter 2, verse 3, we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments, Note what John says in the first part of verse 23.
John says, No God. To know God the Father. is to believe. In his Son, Jesus Christ, who has come in the flesh. This is precisely the commandment that the secessionists who had left these churches were denying.
Listen carefully here. Rather than confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, as proclaimed by the apostles, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, they denied it, chapter 4, verses 2 and 3. That denied that Jesus was God in human flesh. And as I taught you from chapter 1, verses 5 through chapter 2, verse 2, they denied that Jesus needed Jesus' atoning death, his propitiation for the forgiveness of their sins. They claimed to be sinless.
So they didn't need Jesus in his atonement. And so they denied this commandment to believe in the name of the Son of God who has come in human flesh. They denied it. And John says the secessionist claim to know God is false and they're liars. Very certain language.
Why? Because John is teaching His people, he calls them my little children in the faith. He's their spiritual father in the faith. He has birthed them through the proclamation of the gospel that he gave to them. Chapter 2, verse 1, my little children, listen.
He says, their claim to know God is false because genuine knowledge of God the Father comes only through the incarnation of his Son, Jesus, who has come in the flesh.
So let's remember John's purpose here. What is John's purpose? What is he doing? His desire is 1 John 5, verse 13, to give assurance to his readers that they have eternal life. How is he doing that in this passage?
He does it by assuring them that they do, in fact, know. God. He's saying, don't listen to those who have departed and are now coming back into the church with a false gospel. Listen to the proclamation that the apostles who are eyewitnesses, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. Listen to that gospel.
Stay on that gospel. Don't leave that gospel. And that's where you know God the Father from. To know Christ. It is to know God the Father and to have fellowship with the Father and the Son and to possess eternal life.
1 John 1, verse 3, 1 John 5, verse 13, 1 John 5, verse 20. And so John is assuring his readers that they know God because he refutes the claims of those secessionists who claim to know God but do not keep his commandments. They do not believe in the name of God's Son, Jesus Christ, which is exactly what John's readers were doing. And they were confused and they needed discernment of the truth. And so their spiritual father in the faith comes and assures them: you've got the truth, don't leave this gospel.
We saw it, we held it, we touched it, we examined it, the word of life that was manifest, who's come from the closest relationship with the Father. We proclaim this. You have brought you into fellowship with the Father and with this Son, Jesus Christ, and with one another. Don't leave it. And so, in contrast to the secessionists, whom John calls liars, 1 John 2, verse 4, John speaks confidently of his little children's knowledge of God.
Look at 1 John 2, verses 13 and 14. John has no doubts about the assurance of their salvation that they know God. Because you're trusting in this gospel. He says, I'm writing to you, fathers, these are people who are on in the faith, more mature in the faith. He says, I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know him.
There's no doubt there. There's no lack of assurance. John is not doubting that the believers who are in the church in fellowship with God know him. Just because I'm writing you, Father, is because you know him. Who has been from the beginning?
He says that I'm writing to you young men, spiritual teenagers. Right? Because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you children because children. Babies in the faith just birthed.
I have written to you, children, because you know. The father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know him. Who has been from the beginning? John has no doubts about his children.
He's refuting those who have departed. He's not disturbing the faith of those who haven't departed. He's building it up. What does it mean to know God the Father? John says, By this we know that we have come to know Him, God the Father.
What does it mean? Let me just summarize the whole letter of 1 John, parks of it for you. Just listen, 1 John 4, verse 2. To know God the Father is to believe in Christ come in the flesh. Why?
Because the Father sent his Son to make himself known. To know God the Father is to trust in Christ as the only way to receive forgiveness for our sins and to be cleansed from all unrighteousness. That's why I said if you come to know God, it is exhilarating, it's freeing. He forgives all your sin and he cleanses you from all your defilement from your sin, all of it. Makes you clean.
There is nothing better to your conscience than to feel clean. To know God the Father is to trust Christ is the only way that all your sin can be forgiven and all of your filth can be cleansed. To know God the Father is to trust in Christ as your advocate and propitiation. 1 John 2, verses 1 through 2, which we looked at last week, Jesus serves as our advocate. He's our defense attorney.
He speaks on our behalf in the presence of his Father because He has come from the presence of His Father. That's where He dwells. He speaks on our behalf in the presence of his Father when we sin, and he offers his propitiation on the cross as our defense. The low exhaustion of God's wrath against us forever is his defense in God's courtroom. To know God the Father is to trust in Christ for our adoption, the highest privilege of the gospel.
God the Son, John says, has come in human flesh. And he has given us knowledge of God as our loving friend. Father. What does the Lord's Prayer begin with? In Matthew 6, verse 9, Jesus says, when you pray, pray this way.
Say it with me. Father. Prayer begins not with a formula, but with the fellowship of God. And the highest privilege given to us possible in the gospel, our Father. The same relationship that the Son has with his father, because we're in that son, we have that exact same relationship.
1 John chapter 3, verse 1. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that what? That we should be called children of God, and such we are. Do you hear the confidence? Maybe.
If you're good enough. No. Such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us. The world doesn't have this knowledge of God as Father, a loving Father.
They don't understand us because it did not know him. You see, the knowledge of God as Father is wonderful. It's satisfying. Filled with joy, it's fellowship, it's going back to the John hasn't mine Garden of Eden here. And he has in mind the consummation of the new Garden of Eden, which you heard in Revelation 5 today, which was a consummation of the prophet Jeremiah read to you today.
John says that a true knowledge of God consists in knowing how great the Father's love is for us. See how great. Love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God, adoption. See how great a love. The Father loves you.
God the Father's love for us is expressed in adopting us as His children, and God the Father's love for us is expressed in providing a way for this adoption to happen. What is that way? Through sending His Son to come in human flesh to be a propitiation for our sins. Listen to John in 1 John 4, verses 9 through 10. By this, the love of God was manifested in us.
This is the love of God the Father. That God the Father has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we love God the Father, but that God the Father loved us. Therefore, he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. God the Father sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins and give us the highest privilege He could possibly bestow upon us when we didn't know Him and we were in our sins.
Jesus didn't secure the Father's love for us by dying on the cross. I've said it a thousand times. No, the originating cause of Jesus' death for us is the Father's love for us, so the Father sent him for us. And bestowed on us the highest privilege. Free of charge.
David this past week had his Uh basketball banquet. And it was great. Love sports, been a sports my whole life. The coach gave him a t-shirt. And he's a hard coach.
He's a great coach. The hard coach. We know that. The t-shirt said And Not Given. Perfect covenant of works.
Perfect. Sports is a covenant of works. You get a trophy because you earned it. You don't get a trophy because like our daughter Who swam right in college at the highest levels? Lost her gold medal as a national championship by a hundredth of a second.
She didn't get it. A hundredth. of a second. She didn't get it. Aren't you glad that's not how God the Father treats you?
You swim to a hundredth of a second, you jump out of the pool, you have a record time, and God the Father looks at you and says, It's not good enough. You're out. Because he doesn't say And not given. He says to all of us who have not lost by a hundredth of a second, but have lost by hundreds of hours. Given, not earned.
That's how he treats sinners. That's how God the Father loves you. How he loves sinners. That's what it means to have come to know, we have come to know him. In his book, J.
Packer says when he's commenting on the gospel benefits of propitiation and adoption, he says, were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be adoption through propitiation. I do not expect ever to meet a richer or more pregnant summary of the gospel than that. Pack again commenting on adoption and knowing God as our Father. He says, You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one's holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father.
If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new and better than the old covenant. Everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish is summed up in the knowledge of the fatherhood of God. Father is the Christian name for God. We have come to know him, John says.
And as we reflect on this knowledge of God as a loving Father. Who sent his Son to come in human flesh, and who, through the power of the Spirit, Testify to us that Jesus has come in the flesh so that when we rest in Jesus, Jesus then directs us back to the Father and we come to know God as Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This knowledge of God as our loving Father, the knowledge of our sonship and adoption from our Father for the sake of His Son. By the power of the Spirit, that's a gift of grace. It's given, not earned.
It's a work of the Holy Spirit. This is not natural knowledge. You cannot reason your way to this. Try to reason yourself into understanding God and man in one person. You can't do it.
This is why we pray for the invocation of the Holy Spirit when we begin the service. Almighty God. Right. Finish with this, J. A.
Packer says that in Paul's day and Roman law, it was a recognized practice for an adult who wanted an heir. Mm-hmm. To have somebody carry on the family name to adopt him else as his son. He says this would usually take place at age rather than in infancy, as is the common way today. He takes this practice of Roman adoption.
And he shows how the New Testament authors work it out. And we see that the apostles proclaim that God the Father has so loved those whom he redeemed on the cross through his Son that he has adopted them all as his heirs. Your inheritance is free of charge, there's nothing you can do to earn it. Nothing. Given, not earned.
He makes us co-heirs with Christ. All that Christ has inherited through his ascension is ours. We come to see and to share in the glory into which his only begotten Son has already come. God the Father sent his Son to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full adopted rights of sons. Galatians 4, verse 5.
Ephesians chapter 1, verse 5: We were foreordained unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ unto himself. 1 John 3, verse 1. How great, how great? Say that with me. How great?
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us? He's not skimping on you. He's not reluctant to withhold anything from you. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us? That what?
That we should be called children of God. And this is what we are. This gets us to the heart of what it means to know God. John says, by this we know. That we have come to know God the Father.
This is assurance. This is rest. This is comfort. This is the Garden of Eden glorified. Promise to us now in this age that is passing away.
waiting the new age to come. Thanks be to God. Father in heaven, thank you. For the gift of your Son, come in human flesh. And thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is here and now, working to testify to us this is true.
Let every one of us leave this place today with this comfort and this knowledge. And as we come to your table of grace now. Your visible gospel confirms to our hearts all this. Good news, this just sounds too good to be true. How could it be given, not earned?
How great How great is the love that the Father has for us? We thank you. Give us, testify to this powerfully to us today through this means of grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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