872. Knowledge That Assures Us of Life

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, Dr. Steve Pettit, President of Bob Jones University, is continuing a study series entitled Truth and Love, which is a study of the book of 1 John. Let's listen to today's message where Steve will help us understand the reason for the book of 1 John where the believers were experiencing doctrinal controversy and interpersonal strife.

The message is titled, Knowledge that Assures Us of Life. Would you please take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to 1 John, 1 John chapter 1 today. Last week, we began our series on Truth and Love as we're going to be studying this semester, 1 John chapter 4. And last week, if you were here, we covered basically three things, a little bit about John's life, why it is that we believe that he wrote this book and then what was the purpose, what was the motivation behind the writing of 1 John. Today, my goal or my desire is actually to be very simple and try to present to you the big picture of 1 John.

Next week, next time we meet, we will jump into the study of the verses themselves. But today, I think it would be very helpful if we could look at the whole big idea of why did John write this letter. And as we read 1 John, if you've ever read it, one of the things that you notice is that his style of writing is actually quite different than for example, the Apostle Paul. What's the difference in the style between like Paul and John? Well, when you look at Paul's writing, it's a little bit like building a road. It's a very logical case. So he builds one section to the next section to the next section with the purpose of arriving at a destination.

We call that linear or straight line. It'd be like somebody saying, I'm going to travel today on a one-way trip and I'm going to drive today from Greenville to Columbia. And when I get to Columbia, I've arrived at my destination. That's the way Paul writes. So he lays out very logically his doctrine and then from there he goes into the practice of how we're to live out our Christian faith. But when you come to John and you read the way that he writes, you notice that John's writing is quite different. In some ways, you're not quite sure where he's going.

And we would say that his writing is very circular. And the easiest way for me to explain it would be the decision to take a trip up into the Smoky Mountains. You start here in Greenville and if you've ever driven to the Smokies, you can see the mountains from here.

You sort of get a big picture view. And then you take your drive maybe up I-25 or maybe up Table Rock State Park area or Caesar's Head area and you drive up into the mountains and maybe you go to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Maybe you stop for barbecue lunch in Brevard.

Maybe you drive down to Cashiers, drive up to Asheville, Grandfather Mountain. And so you sort of meander through the mountains and then you drive back down. And when you get back down from the mountains and you look back up and you see the Smokies, now you have a better understanding. You have a bigger picture of what's going on. And so when we look at John's letter, it's like taking a journey and John wants us to see something. He wants us to see a big picture or you could say a big idea. So what is that big picture? Well, in order to understand the big picture, you have to understand the big problem. And that is there was a huge problem going on in John's day that really precipitated the writing of the letter. And what was that problem?

Well, I mentioned it last week, but I want to delve a little deeper into the problem. When John wrote this letter, he was a very old man. He was probably in his late 80s.

And think about that. When's the last time you talked to somebody that was like 88 years old? He was an older man. It had been 30 years since he had last seen Christ because he saw Christ in his resurrection in 30 AD.

This is almost 90 AD. He was the only living apostle. All the others had died a martyr's death. He had been an elder in the church in Ephesus. We think that he had already written his gospel, the gospel of John that was written for the purpose of evangelism.

And now we come here to 1 John. So what's the big problem in the church? Well, last week I said false teachers had arisen from within the church and they were advocating a kind of Christianity that was actually different from what John had been teaching. So what did these false teachers believe?

Well, actually it's a little complicated, so I'm going to make it very, very simple. Most commentators believe that the false teachers were what we call the Gnostics. The word Gnostic comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge. So what is it that the Gnostics taught? Well, basically they had a fundamental belief in two things. Number one, that the spirit within you is good and that your body or the material or the physical things of life were evil.

The spirit is good. The body of the material is evil. We call that dualism. So there was a divide between what is spiritual and what is material. And since we as human beings live, that is our spirit, lives inside a material body, then the Gnostics believed that the human spirit was trapped. The human spirit was good, but it was trapped in a body and deliverance could only be experienced through a superior, higher knowledge. So deliverance or salvation was based on knowledge.

Therefore, the Gnostics did not believe that we needed to be saved from our sins. We needed to be saved from spiritual ignorance. And this ignorance could only be dispelled by the Gnosis or by the knowledge that came from the Gnostics.

So where did they get their knowledge? Well, the knowledge was brought by a messenger of light and the main messenger that they believed was Jesus Christ. And Jesus came to bring the word, the Greek word for word is logos, to bring the word of the true God. Therefore, the Gnostics did not believe that Jesus came to save us from our sins. They believed that Jesus came to reveal to us the knowledge of truth. And since deliverance was through spiritual knowledge, then what would they have rejected about Jesus? If the body is evil and the spirit is good, then they would have rejected the virgin birth of Christ. Because the whole point of the virgin birth is that God's spirit became a man, human, to live inside the human body. And not only would they have rejected the incarnation of Christ, but they would have rejected the crucifixion of Christ as the atonement for our sins because Jesus bodily died.

He suffered. He suffered in his body to deliver us from our sins. And because this knowledge was received by a select number of Gnostics, in other words, not everybody got the message, then they had an attitude of pride, of elitism, of intellectualism. And they would hold the enlightened members of the church that didn't believe that, they would hold them in contempt. And this brings us back to what I said last week, that the false teachers denied the fundamental truths of the Gospel in three areas. Doctrinally, they denied the deity of Christ and the necessity for a sacrifice for sins. Number two, they rejected the inherent sinful nature of man. Sin was not the issue, it was ignorance. And then number three, because they separated from the believers, they did not practice love towards genuine Christians. So one writer said the false teachers were perverted in their Christology and they were deficient woefully in their morality.

So here's the big problem. They were believing this teaching and so they left the church. We would say they had a church split. They went out and they started their own ministries. However, they stayed in contact with the former church members. They continued their connection and by doing so, what did it do for the believers in the church? Well, it began to shake them up.

They became unstable and they were uncertain. You can imagine the questions that were rolling around in their mind like, are they right? Are they the truth? Or are we in the truth?

Do they really know God because they speak with such intellectual, spiritual language? Who is Jesus? Were we wrong about Jesus? Was He really the Son of God in human flesh? And then you can imagine, did we really experience eternal life? Did we really become a believer?

Did we really get saved? So why does John write this letter? To help those Christians. He wrote to combat the error.

I want to lay this out because this is something I'm going to deal with in the next couple of sessions that we have together. That it is very, very important today that our preaching and teaching exposes error. Because the vast percentage of New Testament letters were written to deal with problems and false teaching. We need to have the true knowledge of Jesus Christ. So it was written to combat error and secondly, it was written to reassure or to comfort the believers that they really were saved.

So what is John's approach in writing? Well, we call that the big picture. And it starts with what John writes in 1 John chapter 1.

And let's go and look at that this morning. We call this the introduction or the prologue. And for those of you that remember, John's gospel has 21 chapters. And in chapter 1 verses 1 through 18, we call that the introduction, the prologue.

Well, John in his epistle has a prologue. And I want to read this and as I read this, I want you to note how it is that John is combating the Gnostics from the very start. Let's begin reading in verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.

Now let me ask you a question. Did you see anything in there where John was combating the idea of Gnosticism? Where the spirit is good and the material is evil? John begins by stating that the word of life and the word there is the word Logos. And it's the opening word in John 1 verse 1 says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and then John 1 verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. John is saying that the true knowledge of God and what life is all about is found in a human being.

It is found in a person and that person is Jesus Christ. And this human was the eternal God who became a human being just like us. John says this is a person that we saw.

It is a person that we spoke to. It is a person that we physically touched and the word of life has become a real human body made of flesh and of bones and of blood. And John says that it is this one through whom we have eternal life.

It is through this one that we experience what life is all about. Where is life? Life is in Jesus. Where is eternal life? It is in Jesus.

Where is the purpose and the meaning of life and the joy of life? John is saying it's all in Jesus. That's how he starts. A suggestion has been made that 1 John is written like an upside down pyramid with the apex or the high point being in the very beginning, the very prologue and the rest of the letter sort of goes up like a funnel or a widening spiral going up. And what John is doing is the rest of the letter is explaining what it looks like when a person has a relationship with Jesus. And the whole big picture is he's driving to the fact that we as believers have the true knowledge of God. And I want us to look at 1 John 5 and verse 13 because this is the theme of the book. This is the culmination of the book.

This is the ending of it. And there's a word he uses here 37 times in this letter. It's the word no. Look at 1 John 5 and note verse 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.

Why? That you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. The word no there is the word gnosko. It's the word that what they use for gnostics. Can you not see what John's doing? He's punching them in the nose. He's slapping them in the head. He's saying they were trying to teach you the true knowledge but it was not true knowledge.

It was false teaching. I'm giving you the true knowledge. Here's the true knowledge. It's Jesus. And I've written this book that you might know that you have eternal life.

And that word no there that word for knowledge is the word that we talk about experiential knowledge. I'm married to my wife Terry and many of you know my wife but you don't really know her. Maybe somebody says do you know the president's wife? Well yeah I mean I know her. I've seen her. I've shaken her hand. She's really really nice. But you don't know her. But I know her.

I've been married 36 years to her. I'm the first time I met her. The first time I saw her was in church.

It's a great place to meet your wife. She was like stunningly beautiful. My first thought is I'd like to get to know her. First time I ever dated her was right here on the campus of Bob Jones University in the most romantic spot on campus, Alumni Stadium.

And we began a relationship at that time that has continued on to this day a relationship of getting to know one another. I know what my wife is like. I know what she likes. I definitely know what she doesn't like. I know what makes her happy. I know what makes her sad and I really know what makes her mad.

I know her. Here's what John is saying. I have written this book that you might experientially know in your heart that you really are a child of God.

So here's my question to you and this is what the whole big picture is all about. Do you really know that you're saved? I mean experientially have you experienced that fullness of knowledge that you really are a child of God? Let me share with you my experience and how God gave me I would say this knowledge or you could say this assurance or confidence. I grew up in church. My dad was a deacon and a Sunday school teacher actually in a church in Columbia, South Carolina where I grew up. But as I was growing up I have no recollection or any knowledge of ever being confronted with my need of salvation. I did believe in Jesus, definitely believe in his existence, but I didn't know my need of salvation because no one ever confronted me about my sinfulness.

My junior year of high school I was sitting out in front of my public school and a friend of mine asked me, he said, Steve do you know if you died today you'd go to heaven? His name was Bill Kneff. We used to call him Wild Bill because he was really crazy.

He was a wild guy. But he got converted in a camp basically went to a camp up here in North Carolina, became a believer and he came back and began to share the gospel and he talked to me. And I told him I didn't know I was saved and so for the first time in my life I had somebody clearly explain the gospel. And in the explanation of the gospel he explained my sinfulness, the condemnation for my sin, that is my judgment and I was going to go to hell. And then what Jesus did when he died on the cross, he took my sin so I could be saved. He made it personable and I had to accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior.

That was my junior year of high school. He asked me that day, Steve do you want to be saved? And I said no, I'm not ready to get religious. What I really meant was hey I'm 17 years old, I want to live my life.

My life right now and salvation are not going the same way. So the age of 17 years old I didn't turn to God, I turned from God and for the next two years of my life I lived for myself. I went off to college at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, tried out for the varsity soccer team. I made the team my freshman year.

There was one other fellow on the team who was a freshman and his name was Maxie Birch. Maxie was a born again Christian, got saved his senior year of high school and he began to share the gospel with me. As we would walk to the stadium for practice during the afternoon he would say to me Pettit you need to get saved. And I said yeah I know, I know, but I kept putting it off, kept putting it off and I could feel in my heart both conviction and hardness. But God worked in my life by his own providence and just the sovereign working of God of drawing a sinner to himself. Jesus said no man can come to me except the father which sent me draw him.

God's got to do a work in your heart. And so during my freshman year through a lot of different circumstances and hearing the word of God I came under conviction that I needed to be saved. And on Easter Sunday 1975 driving home from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina I turned on the radio and I listened to a preacher. On the radio he preached the crucifixion and the resurrection and the need of salvation. And honestly I felt like I was the only person he was preaching to because I felt like he was talking to me. And on that day driving down the highway coming home I asked Jesus to be my Savior. So when I look back at my salvation experience I could say definitively that's when I accepted Christ as my Savior. But let me be honest for the next five or six months I thought okay did I have enough faith?

You ever wonder that? Did I really mean it? Did I mean it enough? I mean there were times like Lord if I didn't mean it then I really mean it now. So I prayed more than one time to be saved. By the way how many of you have ever prayed more than one time to be saved?

Yeah some of you prayed last hour to get saved. And here's what I recognized. I knew that I had accepted Christ but I didn't really know if he had accepted me.

Does that make sense? And I knew he loved me. I knew he died on the cross but experientially in my heart I wasn't totally sure. My sophomore year of college I was invited to go to a Bible study I remember exactly where it was it was in Jenkins Hall at the Citadel that's where all the military officers had their offices and we called it the tool shed. So I went to the tool shed and there was a Bible study going on and the Bible study was about the evidences of salvation and it was from 1st John. And here's what the teacher did he made it really simple. He walked through all the verses in 1st John that dealt with the knowledge that somebody saved.

For example let me read a couple of them to you. 1st John chapter 2 verse 3. Hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that sayeth I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but whosoever keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. So how do you know you're a Christian because you keep his commandments. 1st John chapter 4 verse 7. Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.

A real believer loves he loves people in particular he loves God's people. Okay here's what happened. He went down the list of the seven different tests in 1st John. So it weren't were not things he made up he just basically taught the scriptures. And here's what happened. As he went down that list of what the bible says every point my heart amen to what was going on. Or I could say it this way my heart did not condemn me. My own heart that is God working in my heart through the word confirmed. That what happens in the life of a person who's a genuine Christian had happened in my heart.

I remember that day like it was right now. And when the bible study was over with there was no invitation we just went through the scriptures I remember very clearly as I was walking back to my room in the darkness of the night I had this incredible joy that I knew that I was saved. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life experientially in your heart you know that. That's the big picture. That's why John was written.

To give those who are professing Christians the confidence that they really are children of God. So I ask you my friend do you know that? Is your heart amening yes I know him? If not then this entire semester we're going to go over it over and over and over because that's John's big picture that's his message to us and that's how we come to know truth and to know love. May we pray together. Father we thank you for your confirming word. Thank you that you have given it to us in inspiration.

You have kept it by preservation. We have it today and through your word we come to know eternal life. Thank you Lord that is not in just higher knowledge but it's in the person of Jesus Christ and we praise you for that. God give grace I pray for every student here that they would know in their heart with a fullness of joy that they are your children in Jesus name.

Amen. You've been listening to a sermon by Dr. Steve Pettit president of Bob Jones University. If you're looking for a regionally accredited Christian liberal arts university I invite you to consider BJU which is purposely designed to inspire a lifelong pursuit of learning loving and leading. For more information about Bob Jones University visit bju.edu or call 800-252-6363. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study in 1st John here on The Daily Platform.