Sometimes understanding the background of a Biblical book is important to understanding its message. For example, remembering what was happening to the readers of the Book of Hebrews helps us to understand some of the more difficult things Paul was saying. Those good folk were being sucked back into Old Testament Judaism. But if they turned their backs on Jesus, the Christ, they where without hope. And remembering that the people reading First John were being influenced by Gnostics helps us to understand why certain things are emphasized in this book. For example, some of those Gnostics were hedonistic Antinomians. Some of them believed that life meant the pursuit of pleasure – they were hedonists. They further believed they could sin in their bodies while their souls remained unstained. So John wrote, “My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not.” Most Gnostics believed that their knowledge of God was proprietary. They felt that they possessed special knowledge while the rest of the world didn’t. The word “Gnostic” comes from the Greek for “knowledge” – “gnosis.” If the Gnostic teachers didn’t give you wisdom, you’d never know the Lord properly. But John wrote that any and all God’s children should and could know Him. Many Gnostics separated the humanity and deity of Christ. Some went so far as to even deny the human nature of Christ. But John said, “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; That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Many Gnostics, because of their egoistical pseudo-intellectualism were cold – heartless. So John urged and stressed the importance of brotherly love. He said that it was a good test of true Christianity.
John begins his letter by saying, “I have studied Christ Jesus, and I know Him well. And because I know Him, the Master of love, I understand of love.” Besides this, there is something else he learned from the Master: We can say that John learned “confidence“ from Christ. John had convictions, and growing out of those convictions came confidence. Remember that Christ Jesus taught not as Scribes, for He spoke as one with genuine authority. When the disciples learned from the One with absolute authority they learned, at least, that they could repeat His doctrine with absolute confidence. The confidence which John displays in his first epistle is very important.
For example, he said, we know that we are of God.
This is basically saying, “I know that I am a child of God because my faith is in Christ Jesus!” None of this, “I think that I’m going to Heaven” business for John. None of the common: “I sure hope so”…. or, “I’m trying my best.” “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that ye have Eternal Life.” “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom (God the father) hast sent.” Nine times out of ten, the man who doesn’t have this absolute assurance of salvation also doesn’t have God’s absolute salvation.
I read the story of a woman who was asking for admission to one of the churches of Christ. The Pastor asked her, “On what do you rest your soul?” She replied, “I’m trusting the justice of God.” The preacher was appalled – “God’s justice means your destruction!” The woman replied, “No, I’m trusting that the Father will act justly towards Jesus’ sacrifice for my sin. “I am saved by grace, because the Father will honor the Saviour’s substitutionary death.” In other words, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day (of judgment).”
“We know that we are OF GOD.” What does that mean, “We are OF God”? That little pronoun means exactly what it means in 1:5 – “This then is the message which we have heard OF him, and declare unto you…” John’s was a message which BELONGS to Christ. And he and we are the people which BELONG to the Father. For example, we know that we have come from the creative hand of Elohim. John spent no time debating subject of evolution; It wasn’t an issue in his day. Humanity is the product of direct, uninterrupted and immediate will of Almighty God. There is no atheistic evolution, and not God-directed evolution either – no “theistic evolution.” But that is actually secondary to the really important point: John knew that he was also a product of God’s RE-CREATIVE grace. “I have been born again, and this time from above. I have been regenerated; I have been adopted into the Lord’s family.” As the song says, “I am His, and He is mine.” We have been quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. We have been made alive and made aware and alert enough to know that Christ has saved us from the flames of Jehovah’s wrath. I know that I am doubly the property of the Lord by creation and salvation.
Now there are many results and blessings from being this property “of God.” And each of them contribute to our Christian confidence. We know that we have eternal life – “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” We have confidence that if we pray properly we are heard of God – “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” We know that the child of God will not permit sin to be a predominant characteristic life – “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” We know that we are kept through Christ and the wicked one cannot claim us as his own – “And we know that we are of God.” And we know that the Lord has given to us a wonderful revelation of Himself – “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” There many religious people in world, who think or hope that these things also apply to them. But at the same time they still cling to their superstitions, or to the skirts of their priests. They think and they hope, but without a substantial foundation. They cannot say, “We know…..”
In contrast to them, the foundation of the true Christian’s confidence is revealed in verse 11. We know that we are of God, because God’s Word has declared it to be so. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” “As many as received (Christ), to them gave he power to become the sons of GGod, even to them that believe on His name. “He that hath the son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Some people may rest their hope on the words of man, but I rest my hope upon the Word of God. We may KNOW that we are of God.
And, as John says, we know that most other people lie in the bonds of wickedness. The word “wickedness” here refers to the same thing that we see in verse 18 – “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” This is talking about the realm and stolen dominion of the Wicked One – Satan. As the word “whole” – “whole world” is used here, we see once again that sometimes in the Bible the all-inclusive words are not always all-inclusive. “Just about” the whole world lieth in wickedness, but those whom the Lord has saved are an exception. The word “world” doesn’t refer to our planet, the globe that we call “earth.” This is talking about, as is usually the case in the Bible, the world of mankind. It is our “society” our “human race.” “We know that we are the people and property of God, but all the rest of the population of the world are the people and property of Satan.”
Probably none of this is new or exciting to you. But now we begin to come to the things I’d like you to think about this evening. Some of the things that set the Christian apart from the rest of the world are all these confidences. In a world of spinning confusion, the Christian has access to rock-solid assurances. There has never been a day when there was so much agnosticism, atheism and humanism. Mankind is starving for spiritual food – but it lies there in the garbage can where he threw it. Some theological graduates may not be sure of the deity of Christ or surety of grace. But the simple Bible believer has absolute confidence in these and dozens of other Biblical facts. We know that the Wicked One toucheth us not.
And isn’t the measure of our certainties, also the measure of our ministry?
We might evaluate the atheist’s success by the amount of doubt he spreads. But the worth of a ministry for Christ can be measured by the assurance we leave with others.
Have you ever had the Monday morning blues? It was a common joke in Bible school that the minister quits every Monday morning. But that is not an attitude confined to preachers. What is it about Mondays that are so depressing? Sometimes, it’s that we have had such a good weekend that we don’t want to go back to work. Sometimes, it’s that we’ve had a terrible weekend, not getting enough done, and now we have to switch gears and restart our usual work-week after 48 hours of failure. Sometimes people hate their day-to-day grind, but once again it is staring us in the face.
A few years ago, a British psychiatrist, Giles Croft of the University of Leeds, did an experiment. He divided up a bunch of volunteers into three groups. To one group he gave a fictitious report, proving that people were more depressed on Mondays than on any other day of the week. It declared that there are more accidents, more heart attacks, and more problems at work on Monday than any other day of the week. He filled his reports with statistics, news articles, historical “facts” abound Mondays – some fictitious, but all very negative. To the second group he gave a report that declared just the opposite – Monday’s were the best day of the week, because everything was fresh. To the third group was given nothing; they just began their week as they always had. As he expected, the first group, which were told that Monday was the worst day of the week, just about universally found that to be the truth, but not so the other two. Croft determined that how people expected their Monday to be determined how their Monday would actually be. What you believe or expect to be true is crucial to your attitude – your behavior – your outcome. Things about which you are confident color your life.
Now think of Acts 1:8: – “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” I used to hear messages every third week from this powerful verse. Just about everyone of them stressed either “coming,” “going” or “witnessing.” What is it to witness? It is the act of bearing testimony to some assured fact. No one can be a good witness to something unless they are absolutely sure about its truthfulness. What will happen if someone is summoned to a trial and in the witness stand he says that he thinks he saw a man with dark hair, and perhaps glasses, and maybe a limp, commit the crime? The defense lawyer will tear his testimony to shreds, if that witness is not positive about what he saw. And in the light of Acts 1:8 we might as well sit down, shut up and forget about our faith, if there are no certainties in our faith. Our witness should be about the things to which John refers.
After Pentecost when the Spirit had arrived in the fullness of His power, the disciples became like new men. It said of Peter and John – “they took knowledge of them, that they been with Jesus.” What was it about the Apostles that led the enemy to that conclusion? Wasn’t it that when they filled with Spirit, they opened their mouths with boldness? It is difficult to be truly bold about something about which we’re not sure. The only other conclusion would be that they were liars, boldly trying to cover themselves. Not only John, but Peter and all the others, had absolute assurance of their doctrinal facts.
And it was that assurance which made the early church so ministry-centered. “Beloved, we are of God, and the whole world lieth in Wickedness.” Nevertheless, we are also sure that Son of God is come to give life. “He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Would it be unfair to say that those who care nothing for the glory of the Lord…. those who couldn’t care less about a poor missionary struggling away….those who never try to win the unsaved or invite them to hear the gospel…. Would it be unfair to say that they lack the certainties of the Christian faith? Paul said, “Beloved, I know, Beloved, I know the terror of the Lord, and therefore I persuade men.”
Christian zeal flows out of some startling and essential certainties. The certainty of judgment and hell; the certainty of the Lord’s Return. The certainty of man’s depravity; the certainty of salvation only through Christ. Missionaries march to the music, not of John Philip Sousa, but to “Brethren, we know….” If, in a marching band, the drum section is weak or imprecise, the band is going to be imprecise. The beat, the rhythm of missions is, “We know, we know, we know …” “Brethren, we know that the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Brethren, “he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
For just a moment I go back to Acts 1:8 and the word “witness.” “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The Greek word for “witness” is “martoos” – “martyr.” And over time the transliterated “martoos” came to speak of one who gave his life for a cause or a principle. What is the likelihood for someone to become a martyr over a mere supposition? Martyrs give their lives only for what they consider to be absolutely true and essential. That is, they give their lives for certainties.
My point is this: where there is a lack of zeal, a lack of service, a lack of unction… the cause of these deficiencies could be from a lack of conviction and Christian confidence. What does the Bible say? What do we believe about what the Bible says? How can we prove that there are certainties in our lives, if there is no action? How far are any of us from practical atheism if there is no acting upon our convictions?
The world is still being spiritually assaulted by Gnosticism. And the solution is still the revelation of God. But it is the application of that revelation which is the sword necessary to slay this dragon. And that application must begin in us and with us.