Book of First John, as I read
through this book, looking for a message from the Lord, there
were two words that kept appearing in this epistle over and over
and over again. And I thought I would bring a
message from each of those words this morning. The first word
that kept appearing over and over and over again in this short
epistle, just five chapters. Is the word, no, I'm entitled
to lesson this morning, some things We know. The Apostle John
uses in just these five chapters, he uses the word no 38 times. That tells me there are some
things we know. Now, we certainly don't know everything that there
is to know far from it, but there are some things that a child
of God knows. There's no reason for ignorance
in these matters, the things that John talks to us about.
I know we don't know everything, but there is no reason for ignorance. And since we know these things,
this is not a not a doubt. Some believers know them and
some don't know. All believers know these things.
Since we know these things, we have to clearly and dogmatically
declare these things. They're not up for debate or
up for question. Every believer knows these things.
The word of God tells us that they do. And the first one is
this. Every believer knows God. Salvation is knowing God. Our
Lord said that in John 17, verse three. He said, this is life
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus
Christ, who thou hast sent. To be saved is to know God. Now, that means a whole lot more
than knowing God exists. The devils know God exists. They're
not saved. Knowing God is having a vital,
intimate, personal relationship with God. It's to know God is
to believe Him. If you know Him, you believe
Him. You know He's trustworthy. If you know Him, you trust Him. You rest in Him. And there are
some things that a believer knows about the character of God. It's
not the God of our imagination. It's the God, the character of
God that's revealed in His word. There are some things believers
know about the character of God. And we know those things because
we know Him. In the exact same way, my wife knows things about
my character because she knows me. A believer knows things about
the character of God because we know Him. Every believer has
that knowledge of God. We know Him because we're united
to Him. Look at 1 John 2, verse 13. I write unto you, fathers, because
you have known Him that's from the beginning. You fathers, you
who have been in the faith a long time, you know Him that's from
the beginning. He says it again in verse 14.
I've written unto you, fathers, because you've known Him that's
from the beginning. Every child of God knows God. And we know God because He's
revealed Himself to us so that we can know Him. The Lord said
in Jeremiah 31 verse 34, Speaking of his people that he's made
a covenant with, he said, they'll all know me, every one of them
from the least to the greatest. They'll all know me, sayeth the
Lord. We know God and there are some
things we know about God, about his character, about his, who
he is, his attributes, because we've experienced them. There
are things I've learned from reading them in a book. There's
things I've learned from experience. Experience is the best teacher.
There are some things a believer knows from experience. I know God is love. You know
I know that? He loves a sinner like me. The
only reason that is possible is God is love. We know from
experience God's merciful. That's not just a doctrine we've
got put down a statement of faith somewhere. We know God's merciful. that he's been merciful to a
wretch like me. That's how we know that. We know
that God is gracious because he's been so gracious to a rebel
like me. We know God hears the prayers
of his people. Sinful though we be, he hears
the prayers of his people. I know that so because of the
many times God's answered my prayers. So a child of God knows
God. That's all we care about. A child
of God is not interested in all the isms and theologies of theology. All a child of God wants to know
is God. When you come here on Sundays
and Wednesdays, I hope the only thing you're interested in hearing
from the pastor is, tell me more about the Savior. Tell me more
about Him. Everything I think I need, the
greatest need I have is to know God. The greatest need you have
is to know God. That's why we're determined to
only preach Christ to you. The greatest need we have is
to know Him. Just tell me more about Him.
A child of God isn't interested in all the church history. We've
got to do this because of this tradition. We've got to do that
because of that tradition because the church has historically done
this. All a child of God is interested in is knowing Christ. on whom
the church is built. Just tell me about Him. Give
me Christ or else I die. Now I know, now we know God.
Every believer knows God. Now I understand that we don't
know much about God compared to everything there is to know
about Him. God's eternal. God's infinite. How can the finite
know that? We can't. We don't know everything
there is to know about God. Every believer knows God in a
saving, intimate relationship with Him. 1 John 4, verse 16. And we have known and believed. See, if you know God, you believe
Him. We've known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God
in him. See, there's that intimate relationship
with God. We dwell in God and God dwells
in us. That's how we know him. Every
believer knows God. Second, every believer knows
something about ourselves. Every believer knows the truth
of man. 1 John 5 verse 19. And we know that we are of God
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. That every believer
knows that man, mankind, is fallen in Adam. And we've laid in sin
and wickedness ever since. Every believer knows that. That's
true of the whole world. That's true of every child that's
ever been born. That's true of every son of Adam
out there. And that's true of every son
of Adam in here. That's true in here. The nature of this flesh
lies in wickedness. Not only does a child of God
know all men are depraved, I've told you this before, as long
as I can remember knowing anything, I've always known men are totally
depraved. I've always known that. Boy, it's a white horse of another
color when God showed me I'm totally depraved. Every believer knows that. I'm
totally depraved. The nature of my flesh is controlled
by Satan, the prince of the power of the air. And it's not hard
for him to do because my flesh loves sin. My flesh desires to
follow sin. My flesh craves sin. That's my flesh. That's the nature
that I was born with. Every child of God knows this.
My carnal mind is enmity against God. My carnal mind hates God
and wants to take God off the throne. My carnal mind wants
that. My flesh hates God's law. My flesh is opposed to God's
law. It hates it. It's incapable of
keeping God's law. And what's more, my flesh doesn't
want to keep God's law. That's my flesh. That's the nature
I was born with. Every child of God knows this
about himself. Everything I do, everything I
say, everything I think, everything I desire is sin. That's all the natural man desires.
And we know that I deserve to be damned for my sin. The wages
of sin is death. Every child of God knows that.
The trouble with sin is not out there. The trouble with sin is
not the political race and the problems in the schools and society
and the liberal, everything there is. No, I'll tell you where the
problem is. The problem right here in my heart is that there
are no greater sinner than me. First John 1 verse 8. Every believer knows I'm totally
depraved. If we say that we have no sin,
if we say we don't have a sin nature, we deceive ourselves. and the truth's not in us. Every
believer knows I am totally depraved. That's the truth of man. But
now here's the third thing every believer knows. Every believer
knows how that sin is taken away. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter three, verse five. And we know that he was manifested
to take away our sin and in him is no sin. Every believer knows
that the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, was manifest in the
flesh. He appeared on this earth in
the form of a man in flesh. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The son of God was made flesh,
made of a woman, born of a woman, made under the law so that he
could be the representative of his people, that he could do
for us what we can't do for ourselves, keep the law. He appeared in
human flesh. without sin. John said in him
is no sin. He did what he came to do. As
a man, the Lord Jesus obeyed God's law perfectly. Perfectly. He is the opposite
of us in every way. Whatever way you can think of,
Christ is the opposite of you and me. Everything we say, everything
we do, everything we think, everything we desire is sin. Everything
he said, everything he did, everything he thought, everything he desired
was perfectly holy. He always desired to keep God's
law and he did it. And that's what made the Lord
Jesus a suitable sacrifice for sinners like us. He's the only
sinless sacrifice there was. And here's how he took our sin
away. The father made that sinless, holy, righteous man sin for his
people. Christ could take all the sin
of his people because he had no sin of his own. He perfectly
righteous. And he traded his perfect obedience. He gave that perfect obedience,
that perfect righteousness to his people. And he traded that
for the sin of his people. He took the sin of his people
in his own body on the tree. And by his death on the cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ completely removed, took away the sin of
his people. Just like that fit man on the
day of atonement, the high priest would symbolically, he would
confess and symbolically transfer all the sin of Israel onto the
head of that live goat. And that fit man would take him
out in the wilderness, and he'd walk, and he'd walk, and he'd
walk, and he'd walk until he got to a land uninhabited. They
let that goat go and came back. And they watched. And here he
came. And they watched. That goat wasn't turning along
behind him. Sin's gone. Now that was a symbolic way,
a picture of how the Lord Jesus Christ took the sin of his people
away. The Father made him sin for his
people. He took that sin and his body on the tree. And he
took that sin to a land that's uninhabited. He blotted it out
with the blood of his sacrifice. And it'll never be seen again.
God said, God who sees everything said, I don't see that sin anymore. God can't see it. You and I can't
either. It's gone. That's how Christ took the sin
of his people away. And every believer, I don't care
where you find them, what country you find them in, what culture
they're in, what language they speak. Every believer knows the
only hope I have of my sin being taken away is Christ took it
away from me. He took it away and he put it
away, completely blotted it out under his blood. My sin is not
put away with a cooperative effort between me and Jesus. No, it's
not, you know, I quit sinning and I take care of the sin that
I can take care of and then he takes care of what I can't take
care of. No. I can't take care of any of it.
So Christ put all of my sin away by himself, by the blood of his
sacrifice. And if he didn't do that for
me, I still lie in wickedness and I'll be dangerous. That's
the only two options. Every believer knows the only
way my sin can be put away is in the blood of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every believer submits to
that commandment, the commandment of the gospel, to repent and
believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of our
sin and to rely entirely on Christ to put it away for us. First
John 2 verse 3. And hereby we do know that we
know Him. Here's how you know you know
God. If you keep His commandments. What's His commandment? His commandment
is to repent of your sin and believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every believer is obedient to
that command to believe on Christ. Fourthly, every believer knows
this. Every believer knows they've
been born again. First John 3 verse 14. We know that we've passed from
death unto life. How do you know that? Because
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Now, the nature of this flesh
is to be hateful, to be hateful and to envy everybody else. But one day, a child of God suddenly
finds himself loving people, caring about people, especially
loving the brethren. What happened? I'll tell you
what happened. He was born again. He passed
from death unto life. He received a new nature, new
life and the new birth. It wasn't the flesh that suddenly
decided to, you know, softened up and started loving people.
No. When a person is born again, the nature of the flesh does
not change. The nature of the flesh cannot
change. That which is flesh is flesh. It's always sinful flesh. So
in the new birth, there's a new man born and he's got a new nature,
a holy nature, a righteous nature. And if you've been born again,
you know it. If God has given you life, you
know it. Life is not a mystery to someone
who's got it. Now, if you're dead, you don't
know you're dead. If you're dead in sin, you don't
know it because if you're dead, you don't know anything. But
if you're alive, if God's given you life, you know it. If you're
in darkness and God suddenly turns the light on, you know
it. You know if you've been born
again. And you know that you've been born again for several reasons.
Number one, you know you've been born again because suddenly there's
a warfare going on inside of you that wasn't there before. There's a warfare going on inside
of you. The flesh still loves sin, sin
as much as it ever did. But suddenly there's a warfare.
The spirit is lusting against the flesh and the flesh is lusting
against the spirit. And you've got this miserable
civil war going on inside of you. That's how you know you've
been born again. If you've only got one nature,
there's no fight against sin. Oh, but there is if you've been
born again, because the new man fights against the old man. Secondly,
every believer knows they're born of God. They know they've
been born of God because now they have a nature that desires
Christ. They have a nature that believes
Him. They have a nature that needs Him. A number of years
ago, Mike Young and I were on the golf course, and we were
talking about this matter of two natures and a believer. It's unfortunate how people in
our day have drastically overcomplicated this matter of a new birth. And
this is what Mike said to me. He said, well, that's simple. I know there's two natures in
me. He said, I have a desire to read God's word. I have a
desire to pray. I have a need to worship. That
can only come from God putting a new nature in me that wasn't
there before. He's exactly right. I couldn't have said it any better
myself, that's why I quoted him. It's simple. That desire for
Christ, that need for Him, that need to call on Him in prayer,
that need to read His Word, that need to come to the worship service,
all comes from a new man being born who wasn't there before.
I'm going to tell a story. My little brother was little.
He was a little guy. Every Sunday, he was sick. I mean, I mean, oh, I mean, anything
made the kid sick. And then, you know, by noon,
he's miraculously healed. What a miracle, you know. Now
you can't keep him from the worship service. What happened? A new
man. That's exactly what happened.
The new birth is to have Christ form in us. To have the Holy
Spirit dwell in our hearts. Chapter four, verse 13. Hereby know we that we dwell
in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit. The new birth is to dwell in
God and for God to dwell in us. That's the new birth. The new
man who's born of God is a holy man. He's righteous. He can not
sin. He can't sin. because he's got
the nature of Christ who can't sin. Chapter three, verse nine. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Can that be more plain? Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in
him. It's the whole issue is the seed
from which we're born. This natural man can do nothing
but sin because of the seed. the corruptible seed from which
we're born. The new man cannot sin because
he's born from holy seed, incorruptible seed. He cannot sin for his seed
remaineth in him. He cannot sin because he's born
of God. He's been given spiritual life
from God. Look over chapter five, 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. The wicked one cannot
touch him. And that's what every believer
knows. Every believer knows I've got a nature I was born with
that can do nothing but sin. But I've been born again. God's
given me a new nature that cannot sin. And anyone who doesn't know
that, anyone who does not know that there is a new man in me
who cannot sin is not saved. Because Paul said, we know. that
what whosoever is born of God sinneth not. It's as simple as
that. Fifth, here's something every believer knows. Every believer
knows the gospel. They know the truth when they
hear it. Chapter four, verse one. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they're of God, because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the
spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist,
whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already
is it in the world. Now look down at verse 6. He
says, We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. When we preach the gospel, he
that knoweth God hears us and believes us. He that is not of
God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Now, when John here talks about
these spirits, he's talking about preachers. Now, there are many
false preachers who are intermingled among God's true preachers. And
you might wonder, how can I tell the difference? I don't want
to listen to a false preacher. How can I tell the difference?
How can I tell who's preaching a lie and who's preaching the
truth? How can I tell? You tell by their message. Their
message, the message of God's servants is Christ. You tell
who's a false preacher and who's a true preacher by the Christ
that they preach. Every preacher that confesses
that Jesus Christ has come into flesh. And here's what John means
by that. Every preacher who confesses that the son of God came into
flesh and accomplished everything God promised that he do. Every
preacher who preaches that Christ came in the flesh and that he
saved his people from their sin, that preacher's of God. He's
sin of God. He's got a message from God.
But any preacher that says Christ came and he just accomplished
part of your salvation and he left just this little small thing
left for you to do to make it all effectual. That man's not
of God. He's not preaching the Christ
of this Bible. He's preaching another Jesus
is what Paul said. Now, Every believer is not a
preacher. Every believer is not a theologian.
Very few are. But every believer knows the
truth from anger. They might not be able to explain
it. They can't put it into words as good as somebody else. But
when they hear it, they say, that's it. That's the truth.
And they'll recognize a lie. Eventually, they'll recognize
a lie. Our Lord said it's not possible
that a false prophet deceived the elect. Not possible. Now
you hear something and you think, that's not right. And you might not be able to
put your finger on it exactly. You certainly won't be able to
debate it with that false prophet. He's good at what he does. You're
not going to be able to debate it with him. My strong recommendation
is don't debate it with anybody. The gospel is not up for They
want to debate about it. Don't do it. Just don't debate
with them. But you'll even though you can't say exactly what's
wrong, you'll recognize a lie when you hear it. You recognize
error. If you know Christ is the truth,
that's how you that's how you know you recognize error when
you hear it because of what John says here in verse four of chapter
four. You're of God, little children, and have overcome them because
greater is he that's in you. than he that's in the world.
You might be sitting there thinking, Frank, that's a tall order for
me to recognize a false prophet. I just don't think I could do
it. I think I'd be deceived. Just
hang on. Here's your competition. Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world. Yeah, that false prophet's a
deceiver, and he's good at it. But greater is he that's in you
than he that's in the world. God's greater than all. He won't
let you down. He won't let you down. That's
how you'll recognize error and truth when you hear it. Here's
the sixth thing every believer knows. Every believer knows Christ
is coming back and he's coming back soon. Chapter two, verse
18. Little children, it's the last
time. And as you've heard that Antichrist
shall come even now, Are there many antichrists whereby we know
that it's the last time? These last days when he talks
of the scripture, talks about the last days, it's all the days
since Christ ascended back to glory. These are the last days
and he's coming back soon. Soon he's coming back. It may
be a day or maybe a thousand years. I don't know, but both
are the same to God. So he's coming back soon. We know this. Every believer knows. Christ
is coming back. Y'all know that? He said so. And that's all I need to know.
He said so, so he is. And when he comes back, sin is
going to be put away forever. This whole creation is going
to be burned up and put away, and he's going to create new
heavens and a new earth wherein dwells the righteousness. Wayne,
when he comes back, we're done with sin forever. I'm glad he's coming back soon,
aren't you? Because when He comes back, we're done with sin. And I'll tell you, since we know
Christ is coming back, we know He's going to burn this whole
shooting match up, how should we treat our pilgrimage through
this earth? Look at chapter 2, verse 15. Love not the world. Just don't get too caught up
in this world because you know it's not going to last for long.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. That's how we know that we know
he's coming back. And we know since he's coming
back, we're just not get too bent out of shape about the things
of this world. They'll take care of themselves.
And no matter what happens, God's gonna burn it all up anyway.
We know that Christ is coming back. And seventh, every believer
knows that when Christ returns, will be made like him, just like
him. Now the new man who's born in
the new birth, he's born in the image of Christ. He's got the
nature of Christ. That's the new man that dwells
in me. As you sit there and look at
me, oh, you're not looking at the finished product. Far from
the finished product. You just wait. Chapter three,
verse one. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew
him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Right now we're sons of God.
Right now we have eternal life. Right now we're righteous. And
it doth not yet appear what we shall be. We're not the finished
product yet. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him. for we shall see him as he is. Now that is a whole lot more
than just a doctrinal knowledge of the events surrounding Christ's
return. The heart's desire of every believer
is to be made like Christ. That's all I care about when
he returns. I don't know all the other events. I really don't.
I don't much care about them. This is what I'm waiting on.
to see Him face to face and no longer need faith and to be made
just like Him. I don't care the other ends.
Whatever it is, I don't care. If I'm made like Christ, I've
got my heart's desire. That's what a believer desires,
this knowledge of Christ. It's more than just knowing He's
coming back and His people will be changed when He does. A believer,
their faith in Christ, their desire is a whole lot more than,
I just don't want to go to hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. A
believer desires to be made what I'm not. To be made what Christ
is. A believer is not as much interested
in not going to hell as being where Christ is. Wherever he
is, that's heaven for me. That's our desire. And here's
the last thing. This thing about knowledge, we
have to look at this point fully equipped. Every believer knows. Now we know these things. If
you know God, you know everything I've told you this morning. But
every believer knows this too. The only way I know these things
is God taught me. God revealed them to me. I didn't
figure this out on my own. Chapter five, verse 20. And we
know. that the Son of God has come
and have given us an understanding that we may know Him that's true. And we're in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. You know, our knowledge of God
should never puff us up and make us difficult to be around. If
we have any knowledge of God, it'll humble us. Really, if we
know God, it'll humble us. We know we don't have anything
we didn't receive and we don't know anything God didn't teach
us. One last scripture, John chapter six, the gospel of John
chapter six. Here's how we know these things
that every believer knows. John chapter six, verse 45. It's written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. That's how we know these
things. God taught us. Every man therefore that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. Why do you know
these things? Why do you come to Christ? Because
God himself taught you these things. That's how you know them.
Everything we know, we know because God taught us. Now, there's no
reason for us to be ignorant of these things, aren't there?
We know these things and thankful. The only reason we know them
is by God's grace. He taught us. All right. Lord
bless you.