Latest / HBCWestminster / Knowing the God of Light 1John 2:3-11 10.9.19

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Knowing the God of Light 1John 2:3-11 10.9.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, we are in 1 John. We have been laying, John has been laying the groundwork really for what he's going to be teaching us through the whole thing. I think in these beginning verses, we have covered to 1 John chapter 2 verse 2. This evening we're going to be looking at John 2, 3 through 11. You'll see a quote at the top there from Warren Wiersbe, The Life.
• 0:27
  that is real, cannot be built on things that are deceptive. Before we can all in the light, we must know ourselves, accept ourselves, and yield ourselves to God. Recap of where we've been, a reminder of what this book is about. John is writing to combat heresy, which was sneaking into the church, was causing disruption of the certainty of the believers who were there.
• 0:58
  We as Christians, we have learned as we've looked at these verses previous, we as Christians are so very willing to deceive ourselves to live a fiction. The enemy wants us to live in the fictional rather than independence and openness with our loving Heavenly Father. And last week we considered that we can do this. We can walk in openness and dependence with our loving Heavenly Father. We can do this because Christ the righteous has paid.
• 1:28
  all for my sins, which means we can now, in loving response to the love of God, walk redemptively towards perfection. To this point, John has been establishing the basic differences, the underlying principles, to true fellowship with God, who is the source of light, he has told us multiple times. And this fellowship, which John has been building the foundation for,
• 1:57
  And last week put up the first wall of the building, I think, to this true and real fellowship can only happen as we walk openly with God who knows our sin. That is to say that we can only walk in true fellowship as we walk in dependence on God who has forgiven.
• 2:23
  Our sins. John tells us this fellowship can be real and deep because we have forgiveness of sin and a right standing before God. And we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. Thus, we can become aware of our sin. As we become aware of our sin, we can walk our sin in humble confession to the throne of God, knowing that we fail, but he does not. He forgives and has forgiven that which.
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  John began in 1 John 1, 5. He ended last week in John 2, 2, stating that this forgiveness was available to all. And this week is still part of that foundational portion of 1 John. And we will take us through verse 11 of chapter 2. And this portion tonight is going to draw our focus on the results or what should be the goal of this fellowship. As he tells us that we can have fellowship and what that...
• 3:19
  And that we can have real and deep fellowship with the God who has forgiven us. He's now going to tell us what the goal of this fellowship, specifically that this fellowship should lead, can lead to knowledge of God. Let's read the passage and we'll pray and begin. 1 John chapter 2 verses 3 through 11 says this. And by this we know.
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  that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected by this. We may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way which he walked, beloved.
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  I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause.
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  For stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Father God, this evening I pray that you would give us a deeper appreciation for the life that you have redeemed us to.
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  God, that we can walk in the light, Lord, that we can walk in the sanctification that you offer through your grace each and every day. God, I pray that you would guide us in the truth this evening, that you would guide my words, you would guide our ears, and most of all, Lord, that we would apply these things as your spirit leads us to. I pray these things in your name. Amen. All right, chapter 2, verse 3, I've titled The Claim.
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  And this, and by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. It is an easy thing in this life to name drop, right? To say that we know somebody. I can tell you guys all that I know John Elway, right? I could tell you guys that. That could mean a whole plethora of things. That could mean that I know of John Elway. That could mean that I know things about John Elway.
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  about the stats of his career, that he's won this many Super Bowls, I can say that by me saying that I know him could actually also mean that I go have dinner with him twice a month and we talk about the Broncos together and we decide what we're going to do. There are levels sometimes, that's not true, obviously. I mean, maybe, if he's taking advice from me, that's probably why they're terrible this year. But there are levels. When we say we know somebody, there can be levels.
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  to what that means, okay? John in verse 3 makes it very clear what he means when he says, come to know him. We might say that we know Jesus, but John actually challenges that and he says, on what level do you know Christ? We talked several weeks ago about the fact that proximity, right? We can sometimes draw the conclusion that it would have been easier for the disciples to believe in Christ.
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  Because they were around him all the time. That kind of falls flat considering one of them betrayed him. There were many people who were in close proximity to Christ, but that doesn't mean that they knew him personally. And so, when John says here, he's saying, what level do you know Christ? The kind of knowledge that John describes here is one which changes the way one acts.
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  claiming that we know Christ and his character and truth of who he is in a personal way should then be reflected in our behavior, John is telling us. It is very possible that John, I think, has the upper room conversation in his mind as he writes this verse. John 14, 15, Jesus says, Do you love me? Keep my commandments. This was a warning and a reminder of Judas.
• 7:59
  had already decided in his heart to reject Christ at the time of this statement, but this reminder was timely for Peter. So as he says, and by this we know, we have come to know him if we keep our commands. I think he is considering what Christ said in the upper room discourse. This is another instance where we get this all-important phrase by John also, by this we know.
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  Now this word used for know is, I always butcher these Greek words, but they enamor me because they're so incredible how much meaning is packed into them. So I'm going to try and say this word, but it's going to be wrong. Genosko, there we go, the Greek guy over there. Which is an experiential knowing. This is not a head knowledge, but a practical lived out.
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  And there's actually two no's. If you look in verse 3, you'll see that there's two no's mentioned. And by this we know that we have come to know Him. There are two no's used here. One is in the present continuous tense and the other is in the perfect tense. And this is significant because it tells us a couple things. When He says these two things and He uses two different tenses to say it. We have...
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  The opportunity to constantly, every moment, each minute, each day, experience the blessing of knowing Him because we have already come to know Him. We experience Christ because we know Christ. Secondly, we are known by Him.
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  And we get to each day experience the blessing which comes from being known by Him, which brings about a practical and deeper knowledge of Him. Living with somebody every day gives us a greater knowledge and appreciation for who they are. And this is what John is talking about here.
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  once and for all come to know at the moment of salvation, we know in the perfect tense, we are His. But then because of that, we get to experience this renewal, this ongoing development of our knowledge and understanding of Christ in our life. We get to know Him better and better, trust Him more and more, which leads to us lovingly responding in more and more obedience in both small and great matters.
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  In this life, we obey because we know and we know because we are known. Now, he sets out with a statement, with a claim that if we know him, we will keep his commands. And then he kind of gives us what I called the lie test in verse four. Whoever says I know him, but does not keep his commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. A claim.
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  can be poked at and disproved if not experienced personally. I can stand here, if you guys have never been to Alaska, and I can tell you guys that it's not actually 24 hours of sunshine at points in Alaska, and that it actually doesn't shine all the time up there. And if you guys have never seen it, I could perhaps, if I laid out a good argument, convince you that that actually doesn't ever occur.
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  But if you've lived up there and you've experienced it, me convincing you is going to be almost impossible. We can claim something, but it's very different when we have experienced something. One of my favorite things to do with my kids is I like to hassle them. I like to try and, yeah, Bob's going, really? But the problem with that is.
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  As they grow older, they figure this out, and it's almost impossible for me to trick them at this point, because I've done it so much. Like, Lucy literally just basically looks at me every time, and she's like, really? Like, no. Like, we'll be watching a movie, and like, Oren will say, is that real? And I'll be like, yeah, that's totally real. And Lucy's like, really? So I can't mess with them anymore. It's very disappointing.
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  That's a side note. Actions will reflect our convictions. If you guys remember a couple weeks ago, I talked about this being the third generation Christians who John is writing to, right? And that there's this interesting thing that happens. First generation, the first one who has been convinced of belief, their convictions, then those convictions as they're passed down to the next generation often go into...
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  And then they on the third generation can come to a point where they're basically preferences that can be changed at any time. And I think John is continuing this idea as he goes into this, that our actions will reflect our convictions, our beliefs. John spells this out clearly and uses.
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  The same word again, know. Now, if I say I know Christ and walk in rebellion against his commands, I'm not walking in the light and thus not in communion with the person whom I am claiming to know. It doesn't make much sense, does it? John has previously taken into account the occasions of our sin, as we saw in the previous section where he talks about the fact that we're going to sin. It's inevitable.
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  We have an advocate. We have a path. We can be forgiven of our sin. Our daily struggle to walk. He knows our failures. John knows that we're going to fail. He knows our daily struggle to walk in the light. And John knows this to be real and has told us to confess, to walk in forgiveness. And here then John is talking about the attitude or the tenure of our life. Our lives will have an attitude to them.
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  A smell, you know, a number of what I think when I first started got on staff, I preached a message from First Corinthians. I think maybe it was before I talked about what is your life smell like? Right there. Our lives have an aroma. And I think that kind of is the idea that John is talking about here. He's talking about basically an attitude of disobedience. OK, it's not about just one time, one moment where we fail. We will fail.
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  to follow God's commandments. We are imperfect people. Here he's talking about an attitude of rebellion, an attitude of disobedience. Is the attitude and tenure of our life one of obedience or rebellion? The connection so many times to our Christian walk and the parent-child relationship is strong and helps us clear up what can be difficult at times to grasp. We don't want to walk this trail
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  truth of knowledge leading to obedience and to a legalistic view of the Christian walk. So let us consider the parent-child relationship for a moment. The way we start with our kids, our kids begin in obedience because they have to, right? They have to. Hopefully over time, that obedience, as our kids grow,
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  Hopefully the parent-child relationship was one which invoked a loving response of obedience and understanding the enjoyment which comes as you saw that parent had your best at heart. It's the same in our Christian walks. Christ sets boundaries and calls us to obedience. And at first it might be out of compulsion. And as we experience the love of Christ in our life, as we experience the joy of following Him,
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  we begin to see that he has our best at mind and it actually goes better when we walk with him and we walk in loving response to him rather than in disobedience. Walking in obedience, John says, involves honesty and love. It involves following the example which Christ set for us, which we'll see in 1 John 2, 6 shortly. So thus, if we claim to know him yet walk in dishonesty and hate,
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  We walk in rebellion, walk against the word of God, and we show ourselves to be a liar. That's what verse 4 says. Next, he gives us the love test. So the lie test. If we say we love him, if we say we know him, and don't walk in accordance with him, we are walking in rebellion against him. Next, he says in verse 5, but whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected by this.
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  we may know that we are in Him. In contrast to the negative example of verse 4 presented by John, we now see what it looks like when we claim to know Him, what the claim to know Him should look like in the life of the believer. Our knowledge of God is tested by our obedience, but also, and even more importantly, our love is also tested. The Christian who claims...
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  To love the Lord but does not walk in accordance to the word of God is deceiving oneself, John says. And so by contrast here, John says that there is a practical overflow or outflow of love from the heart of the believer who is keeping his word. If we keep his word, there will be an outflow of love from us. There is a statement here which must be considered, I believe, also as we look at verse 5. He says that the love of God is...
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  perfected. There's a really powerful illustration, I think, which depicts this well. The statement that John makes is, in him truly the love of God is perfected. And I think there's many of you guys will be familiar with the gal by the name of Corrie Ten Boom. She and her family were part of hiding, I think there's a book called The Hiding Place, about her and her family trying to protect
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  the Jews who are being attacked by the Nazis. And there's a story that she tells in one of her books, I don't think it's The Hiding Place, a different one, where she talks about, she's at church, and she had noticed one of these Nazi soldiers was in the church. And she describes in her immediately this welling up of hate.
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  Dislike for this man. And he came up to her. After the service was over. And he said. I just wanted you to know. That I became a believer. And I trusted Christ. And I just feel horrible. For all the things that I did. And she says. That at that moment. She began to pray. And ask the Lord to help her. And he welled up in her.
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  love for this man, this man who had done deplorable things, because as she considered this, she realized what she had received from Christ, and that there was no other choice but to forgive this man. And so as he asked for forgiveness, she forgave. That is not possible apart from the love of God, and that is the love of God personified in our lives. And I think when John writes,
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  The love of God is perfected as we keep his word, his word being Christ and what he's written down to us, his example to us. And he'll say that here in a second in verse six. But that is the love of God perfected in us, walking in obedience and forgiveness to those around us. When John says the love of God is perfected, this is what he is talking about.
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  was only able to forgive the vile evil done to those she wanted to save and rescue because she had experienced the great forgiveness of Christ in her life and thus was compelled to walk in obedience and forgiveness and love. The contrast is clearly laid out. Our lives will reflect our convictions. If I say I know Christ, know God, and yet walk in continual rebellion against His Word, I am a liar and the truth is not in me. However, if I walk...
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  if I am walking in the light, if I am walking in loving obedience to Him, to His Word, we then, brothers and sisters, we can know that we are in Him. Verses 6-11, I've titled Abiding. I think this is kind of the outworking, what this idea of if we know Him and what the love of God looks like if we abide. Verses 6-11.
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  Verse 6 says, whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way which he walked. In this section, I believe John makes a statement. If you claim to abide in Christ, then you better walk it, live it. And then from verses 7 to 11 tells us illustratively what that walk might look like. John uses the word, this word abides or abide. And this has the idea of.
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  dwelling, of living with, to remain with. This word is certainly not foreign to John, and in fact, what seems like one of his favorites, John 15 is one of those famous passages which many know, and John uses this word, abide, many times in that passage. John, as he says, this certainly has, as he says this, he certainly has a statement in him from verse 5. It says,
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  By this we know that we are in him. I think in verse 6 he has that statement in mind. He then is building upon that. What does that look like when we are in him? The abider then is the believer whom has and is learning, yearning to learn, to walk in the footsteps of Christ. But how on earth do we do that? When he says,
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  Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. How do we walk in that way? I think verses 7 through 11 help us get a little bit of a handle on it. He says, Beloved, I am writing to you. I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is that the word that you have heard from the beginning abide.
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  John wants to make sure, as he writes verse 7, that the readers understand that this is not some new, just-off-the-press kind of commandment, not something which has changed from history past, but rather that this is a long-standing, firmly rooted, from the beginning command. Not command, command. John seems to like summing up commandments into one singular focused point.
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  We see him do this in John 15.10, John 15.12, 1 John 3.22 and 23. And Paul also does this in Romans chapter 13 verses 8 through 10. And they all connect back, all of these connect back to John 13.34 where Christ says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
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  We can conclude that to walk, to abide in him, is to walk as he walked, is to walk in love towards one another. He says, from the beginning, and this connects to John's statement from verse 1, that which was from the beginning. John is writing, again, reminding, let's remind ourselves that John is writing to contrast the authority of his...
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  The authority of his with those of the false teachers. And so in saying this from the beginning, John is speaking the original truth of Christianity in contrast to the new truth of the false teachers. So as he's trying to say that this is not a new commandment, he's trying to draw a contrast that this is from old. This is not something new like what the false teachers were trying to lead these Christians astray with.
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  John had seen how Christ had acted, the way he lived, the way he reacted in the face of rejection and loss, betrayal and lies. He saw what Christ did even for his enemies as he healed the man's ear, which Peter lopped off in anger, who was there to arrest him. John knew everything about Jesus, his life, his actions, his thoughts, his purpose, was like turning on the lights in a dark room to those who saw it.
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  So as John looks at Christ, the fulfillment of the Old Testament law, John says he now sees a new commandment. So he first says in verse 7, I am writing to you no new commandment, but an old one. Then he says at the end of that, in verse 8, at the same time, it is a new commandment. So what is he saying? This is kind of confusing, right? I'm not writing a new one, I'm writing an old one. And then he says...
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  At the same time, I am writing a new one. Well, what he's telling them is that it's not an old commandment. The commandment to love and to keep the Lord's, to abide in him and to walk in accordance with his truth is not a new commandment. To love those around them is not a new commandment. However, they couldn't do this, right? This wasn't something that they were capable of.
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  Christ came and fulfilled this. Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Testament law. John says he now sees a new commandment, new because Christ was the incarnation of the Old Testament law, which none could keep. Christ made a way because he fulfilled the law, which we could not, so that we can now walk as he walked. It's a new commandment because we follow Christ.
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  which was the fulfillment of the old commandments. It's old because it's been around since the beginning. It's new because it's been fulfilled and we can walk as he walked, as he empowers us through his spirit. Because of this beautiful truth, John exclaims the darkness is passing away. The light, the true light is already shining. Love had been incarnated in Christ as he made a way where there was no way. Love shined bright.
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  in all his ways, and what is true of him, John says, should now be true and can be true of us. Because we are the Lord's, and he is our example, and he is light, John says, whoever says that they are in the light, yet does not love their brother, is still in darkness. Light and darkness cannot coexist. Turn a light switch on, darkness always leaves.
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  And as far as John is concerned, neither can a Christian and hate. Whoever says, in verse 9, he says, whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. As you consider this statement, I think there's a really beautiful thing that you see in John's life that has happened. In Luke chapter 9, let's hop over there. Luke chapter 9, verse...
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  51 through 56. They come to a Samaritan village and this village rejects Christ, rejects the disciples. And verse 51 of chapter 9 of Luke says this, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village.
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  of the Samaritans to make preparations for him, but the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, this is the same John, saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But he turned and rebuked them and went to another village. John's immediate reaction
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  In this passage, I mean, I don't know any other way to say it. I mean, if you're going to call fire down and destroy people, I think there's probably anger, there's probably hate going on in John's heart for this rejection that they are feeling. There's probably a little bit of pride, too, because Jesus had sent out the twelve disciples, right? And they had been doing all these great things, and then they come into this village and they're rejected by these people. And it's kind of like, well...
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  Who are you guys to reject us? We're with Christ. We're doing all this great stuff. How could you possibly do this? And so he responds, let's call fire down. Let's destroy these guys. That same guy is the guy who writes verse 9 and talks about the fact that whoever hates, whoever doesn't love his brother is still in darkness. John, I think, has come.
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  a very long way from where he wanted the Lord to call fire down on Samaria. John had gone from judgment and hate for these people to learning from Christ's example of love. And in fact, John and Peter were both used to do what? Who were they? Mainly the ministers of the gospels to Gentiles would have included the Samaritan people.
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  God turned his heart around. John had grown in his understanding. As he walked with Christ, he began to know Christ. And as he began to know Christ, this knowing began to affect a change in his life, in his heart. Namely, his ability to love those he once hated. There was no space in John's mind for not loving a fellow believer in the lost. He had seen all of Christ, his humanity and deity.
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  and had seen Christ exemplify love for those whom we might want to hate. And I would actually say we probably would have hated. I wouldn't have been super gracious with Judas. Christ knew before he had betrayed him, before the action of betrayal, Christ knew that he was going to betray him. And yet,
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  He allows him to stay amongst them. If you guys knew, in three months, Clarence is going to stab me in the back. It's going to happen. I'd be like, Clarence, you're going to have to leave. I wouldn't keep Clarence around, or I would leave. There would no longer be a relationship.
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  There. Yeah, just move it up a little bit. Okay. There's something powerful, too, as we look at Christ's example. As we look at what he was willing to do. As he, as I said, healed the guy who came to arrest him. We see nothing but love exemplified from Christ. In short, if Christ could love a person like Pilate.
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  who turned him over to be crucified, if he could love somebody like Judas, if he could love somebody like the woman caught in adultery, if he could love somebody like me and you as much as he loved John, then what excuse do we have for hating a forgiven brother or sister? For as we do this, as we walk in love for each other,
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  we abide in the example set forth by Christ. And then by this, we know we are in Him. Do you guys see how John builds this reality for us? How John is writing to give this firm foundation for us. Give us a picture of what the Christian life can and should look like. And if these things are being exemplified in our lives,
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  We know it is only by God's grace. There's no other reason why I would love Clarence. Right? I love you too, Clarence. Let's jump over to verse 11. Verse 11 says, But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. The darkness has blinded his eyes.
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  a verse which should grab hold of our hearts and be a warning. Brothers and sisters, let this be a warning. As we consider this last verse, verse 11, I think we can look to Saul and his relationship with David as an extremely vivid example of what John is talking about in verse 11. There is a very dark end to Saul's life, is there not? The dark end of Saul's life
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  It's filled with disobedience and hate. Hate for David. For David and his successes. And this hate grew in Saul. Till it so filled him. It dominated his thoughts and actions so much. So that he hated those whom loved David. He sought to kill those whom supported him. Hate became Saul. Much as we talked about in verses 5 through 10.
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  where the person who lies become one who lies because they are a liar. Saul grew to hate because he was a hateful person. It blinded his actions. It blinded his eyes. Saul became hateful because he was a hateful person. Brothers and sisters, if we allow it, sin will define us, control us, move us.
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  But on the same note, if we live in the light, if we abide in the light, then we will be defined by light. Walk in light. Be compelled by light. It will move us to action, which is honoring in the Lord's sight. You don't get much more contrasting examples than in 1 John, especially in this first section.
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  As he lays out light versus dark and what light looks like and what dark looks like. Dark looks like hate. Light looks like love. You want to know, you want to know that you are of him, that you are known by him. Walk according to his commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. John in this section says, by this we know. Brothers and sisters, our lives will reflect.
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  That's supposed to be convictions, not conditions, sorry. Our convictions will reflect that which we are compelled by. John warns against hate, yes, but more importantly, he admonishes and encourages us to love, to walk as he walked, to abide in him. May we be defined by the right thing, knowing the God.
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  of light. Our lives really will have a tenure. They will have a smell, an aroma to them. How we walk matters because we have been saved to something. As we saw last week, we've been gifted with the option now. Before we were saved, we had no choice but to sin. We had no new
• 40:27
  new life in us. But as Christians, we now have the opportunity to walk in humble obedience to Him. And as we do that, we're going to get to know Him, the God of light. I can't think of anything better to do with our lives than to do that. Christ fulfilled the law. We don't have to. And as we love others, we can perfect, show the perfect love of God.
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  Exemplified in us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, I pray that you would guide us tonight. I feel it. I know my thoughts were scattered tonight, Father. I pray that you would just use this time, Lord, that you would be honored and that you would guide each of us into an understanding of what you want us to grab a hold of this evening, that you want to infuse into our lives, Lord. I pray that you would
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  Guide us by your word, God, that we would submit, we would yield to your spirit, Lord, that you can have your way, Lord, that we can walk in the newness of life that you offer us, Lord, and that we would not shut the light switch off and walk in darkness, Lord. Father, we pray because you are powerful enough to answer, because you're gracious enough to hear. Thank you, Father.
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  In your name, amen.