was enabled this evening, I wish
to direct your very prayerful attention to the First General
Epistle of John, Chapter 5, and by way of text, verses 20
and 21, the final verses. First General Epistle of John,
Chapter 5, verses 20 and 21, "...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. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. 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 the Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. Every now and then, we may meet someone of exceptional
talent. Perhaps, an innocuous character to the
world not achieving great worldly status in terms of their occupation
or perhaps in terms of their wealth or general station in
life but nevertheless you see something in them perhaps
that others don't And is it not that way with these
disciples? With these apostles of whom the
Lord... Simple fishermen. Simple fishermen. But they weren't
foolish, were they? They learned in Christ's school. And thus we have the benefits
of such a man here, John. The derivative of John is Johanan,
which means the Lord is gracious. And what an epistle! This epistle
was, of course, written by the apostle John. If you can't accept
that, well, I've got nothing more to say. What language? What language? The We Know Epistle. And here writing at near the end of his life. You
have to remember that these General Epistles and the Book of the
Revelation were written in John's very old man. the benefit of
all those years of experience. We have before us here closing
in this fifth chapter in this general epistle a doctrinal and
an experiential epistle. He's writing to a circular of
churches. Churches that had come very much under the influence of false
teachers. This grieved him. Notice how
it didn't take long did it really? Didn't take long for those to
come in. For those to come in who knew
not the truth. And it was his desire that the
people, the true people, of the Lord would be instructed and
set right in respect of these things. Now there were three
main errors been propagated at the time. One, the first one,
was Gnosticism. A Gnostic is one who claims to
have extra special revelation. What we might call the word of
knowledge. You'll find such people generally
in Pentecostal and charismatic circles. Some of you here have
had far more experience of them than I have. I've dealt with
them a little bit. And they always want to tell
you some kind of word of knowledge that they've got. But you don't. Beware of such. Beware of such. The word of knowledge. The second group of people, Dorsetism. Dorsetists. And this is the belief that Christ is only a
man in appearance, but not in reality. And this view became very popular. The third is Sorinthianism. This is the belief that the conception
of Christ was not by the Holy Ghost but by the ordinary manner
of men. Denial. really of Christ's unity
with the Spirit. It's what that Christ, of course,
had been conceived of the Holy Ghost. And these three views
were working. Working and wreaking havoc within
the churches. But you see what we have here
is something special. Why? because John was an eyewitness
to Christ. He'd seen the reality of the
things he was preaching. The last of the Apostles. It's
probable, but by this date, they'd all gone. They'd all died off. But here we have one spared and won by the instrumentality
of the Holy Ghost to set these things in order. And what does he emphasize? What's
the real emphasis here? Well again, we have to come back
to our theme of Christ in all the Scriptures. But he sets these things forth
in quite a striking manner. He interweaves doctrinal and
experiential truth almost as one. But he comes back to it time
and again. For we know, and we know, and we know, and we know. You know John was dogmatic. people don't want dogmatic preachers
today they want wish-wash they want something that's not
too offensive that the Lord came not to bring
peace but a sword and he's ever sifting his people there was a discussion that we
had in the vestry before we came out I'm absolutely convinced
that the events of the last few months, they're a sifting. They're
a sifting. No doubt there's those who could
be within our midst this evening that choose not to do so. It's
a sifting. I know there's those who cannot
and perhaps should not for health reasons. But you know, dear soul,
it's no surprise to me that chapels are closing. No surprise at all. Caesars are sifting. Going on. And we know that the Son of God
is come. You see, the Messiah, that which
had prophesied, is come. And here is a declaration by
John that the Lord had come in the flesh. He'd not come in the way that
was expected, which was appearing in great glory and reigning over
a physical kingdom in Jerusalem. Sadly, there's still people looking
for that today. They won't find it. They won't
find it. Oh and dear soul, don't be deceived.
Don't be deceived. The Lord's Kingdom is spiritual. It's experiential. It's not physical. You know, there's something within
us and it's part of that human nature we have, isn't it? That
asks for something that the eye concealed something tangible. The scribes and Pharisees wanted
something tangible. What did the Lord Jesus say?
He said the kingdom of heaven is within you. It's in the midst
of you. As the margin says. It wasn't
an outward thing to be expected at all and thus here John is
emphasizing not that which is outward but that which is inward. And we know that the Son of Man
is come. All these that denied that the
Lord Jesus had come in the flesh or that He was or that were denying
His human nature. Very God and very man. He's come. notice this, I must
hasten on and hath given us an understanding an understanding it's interesting isn't it? that
word understanding it does have something to do
with the mind but as much as anything It has the meaning of
discernment, of that which is reflective, of that which is
wisdom. It's interesting to see, you
know, as many of you are aware, I'm a great lover of old sermons,
particularly old strict Baptist sermons, William Gadsby, James
Wells, Charles Waters Banks and the like, John Kershaw. Most of those men,
most of them, it's the odd exception, but most of them left school
at the age of five or six. They couldn't read and write
when they first entered the world of work. But through their own diligent
study, some of them even became quite well acquainted with the
original languages. And they ever remained true to
what they were, which was ordinary industrial working people. But they had the mind of Christ,
didn't they? That's the difference. They had
understanding. they had discernment to see what
was going on around them and exercised tremendous ministries. Why was this? Well this was the spirit working
within such men they had understanding That we may know Him that is
true. That we may know Him that is
true. You see all this was united to
Christ and His person. And this is what John is emphasizing
here. It is to know Christ in His person,
to see Him by the eye of faith, not to see Him with the physical
eye, for He descended unto the right hand of the Father, but
to see Him by faith, to lay hold on Him by faith. That is what
to know Christ is. that we may know Him that is
true. And notice this discernment I'm speaking
of. There's a marginal reference
to chapter 4 and verse 6. We read it tonight. We are of
God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth
not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of
truth and the Spirit of error. all that we'd ever be granted that knowledge the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error and again we must correct this
phrase that people regrettably use they talk about head knowledge
Now, I know, as much as anybody, that we can know all the doctrines
of grace and not know the grace of the doctrines. We know that. We know that. But, you know,
the inference is that experiential religion is completely separate
from any kind of doctrinal instruction. Well, that's complete nonsense.
Complete nonsense. Mind and heart must always go
together. And that here is what John is
emphasizing. What is it? To have the spirit
of discernment. To have the spirit of Christ.
To preach a real Christ. Very God and very man. That we may know Him that is
true. And notice this. and we are in Him. That is true. What is it to be in Christ? Well that has of course a doctrinal
and an experiential application. Because to be in Christ has to
be to be one of His. We read tonight that we love Him because, it
says that, because He first loved us. I'm saying these things because,
not because I'm obsessed with the doctrine of predestination,
but because it's here. We can't apologize for these
things. We can't dumb them down in any
way. I'll say they're not important.
They're essential to the context. We love Him because He first
loved us. Here we see Christ electing love
and mercy. It's put like this. John Gill
makes a special mention of this text in Matthew 11 and verse
27 where the Lord says, "...all
things are delivered unto me of my Father and no man knoweth
the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save
the Son and he To whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. And then of course we have those
famous words. Come unto me all ye that labour
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you
shall find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. See, many people overlook this,
but part of the real emphasis of those words is the fact that
there were many, many, the scribes and Pharisees, the religious
leaders of the day. Oh, they were burdensome. Over
300 additional rules to the law. Oh, it was burdensome. That's
religion today, isn't it, really? Legal. Burdensome. Oh, you're under the rod of Moses
continuously. And you come the next week and
you get more of Moses' rod. I heard a sermon the other day
where a minister driving through the southern states, as you know
in the southern states of the USA, there's many churches just
found on street corners in the countryside and he said I saw
a church and it had the sign Mount Sinai Baptist Church what
a horrible name what a horrible name this is what you have you
see this is what you have, this is religion today dear soul this
was to liberate what he calls his children, little
children, otherwise known as dear children, to liberate them
from the heavy and burdensome, not just legality, but the intellectualism that they were been oppressed
with. It's no life, you see, outside
of Christ. And here, notice the emphasis That we may know Him that is
true. This is communion with Christ
and we are in Him that is true. Oh, the Lord's people don't remain
strangers to Him. They don't remain strangers to
Him. But they're brought to Him. Brought
to see an appreciation of Him. as the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. As we sang this morning, why
should the children of a king go mourning all their days? Surely we, yes we mourn over
self. Self is a horrible thing. We
see ourselves for what we are. But this is the true God and
eternal life. The question was raised recently. What is a Christian? Well, we
have our answer in verse 12. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. A Christian is one who has Christ. It's as simple as that, isn't
it? And a non-Christian is one who
does not have Christ. Such a question, we can perhaps
stumble at the answer, but we have the answer there. This is
the true God and eternal life. Our souls have an eternal destiny. An eternal
destiny. Eternity. eternity what a heavy
heavy word to be right for eternity and this is what
John is setting forth here this is what John is setting forth
because to have a false view of Christ or to see him as anything
else as the God-man, is to be indamnable heresy. That's what it is, it's heresy. Now we know that these things
have and still do touch our denomination. But you know it's not just ours. The errors of the person of Christ
are far-reaching. They're far-reaching. If you
go to any cult or sect, you'll see they virtually all have a
faulty view of Christ, His person, and His atoning work. Now, this last verse may seem a slightly... well, very different in terms
of the theme that John has been on. But I found it right that
we should consider it here. He says, little children keep
yourselves from idols. Now, John in writing to this
circular of churches We have to remember that in the immediate sense they were
surrounded by pagan worshippers. Surrounded by them. And we know that Israel of old
was very prone, and John would be aware of this, was very prone
to fall into idolatry. very prone to become influenced
by the heathen nations around them, especially if there was
some kind of economic benefit. John here is warning his people, keep yourselves from
idols, and there of course in those days was the practice of
Meats that were sacrificed unto idols. Now, the Apostle makes
it clear, an idol is nothing. An idol is nothing. But in not
to offend your brother, it would be better if you did not partake of such
meat offered unto idols. That's the immediate sense. But
this also has another meaning, doesn't it? It has a deeper meaning. What is an idol? Well, an idol
is something that takes the place of Christ. And idols, very often, and I
think I could almost say exclusively here, it's very unlikely that
any of us here are going to bow down to a Buddha. Or a piece of wood. Very unlikely. But, you know, we might just
have and hold an idol in the heart. And I'm not preaching legal religion
when I say these things. I say it in this way. What does an idol do? Well, it
takes the place of Christ, but it also robs us. It robs us. the liberty of Christ, doesn't
it? Because an idol is really that
which is wedded to the earth. And an idol won't really do anything
for your soul. Idols come in many forms. Many forms. But the real issue with idols is that they're really found
within the heart. And as with all things, it's not the externals
that are the problem, it's those that are in the heart.
In my family, it's a typical family in the north of England,
my extended family have a great fascination with various kinds
of sport. And it doesn't really concern
me that they go to these things, but he just rules them. It's the great God of the house. We heard it here, someone moved
to Fratton Park because they said that they wanted to be near
their place of worship. And it just tells you everything.
It just tells you everything. Dear soul, here we see the centrality
of Christ once again. Communion with Him. Is this not our desire? Is this
not our desire? And you know we mourn our own
selves, don't we? We mourn our lack of faith. We're
not always on the mountaintop. We're certainly not always living
in the Spirit. But you know, to be experimentally
acquainted with Him. When the Lord gives us that sight
of who we are by nature and a renewing within us. Renewing within us. Perhaps we're
reading the Scriptures. Perhaps we're reading or listening
to a sermon. Oh, that we would ever continuously, we would ever continuously be
drawn into communion with Him. He says, little children keep
yourselves from idols, there's so much around us, falls without
and falls within. But again, as we concluded this
morning, we have to come back, and we have to come back, and
we have to come back, and we have to come back to the cross.
And we never get beyond that. We never get beyond that. You
see, each of us, if we're to be found in heaven, has to receive
the kingdom of heaven as a little child. John writes to these people in
this way. He describes them as little children,
dear children. And it doesn't matter how theological we may or may
not profess to be. We are each completely dependent
upon the grace of God. And if we're to be found in heaven
we have to come as a little child. We considered with the friends
at Osset on Tuesday the case of blind Bartimaeus. I just give
him as an example. That name Bartimaeus means son
of and Timaeus means honourable. The indication being he had a
somewhat privileged upbringing. But he'd lost it all. He'd lost
it all. He had to come to Christ as he
was, which was a beggar. And the garment, the rag, had
to go. You see, he'd had all the advantages
but he still had to come to Christ as a little child. You see there, we see the grace
of God at work. The Lord commanded and called
him. And here, this is the true God
and eternal life, oh eternal life. Thus the Lord sweetly draws his
people to himself and gives them the eye of faith, though it may
be as a grain of mustard seed. He makes it to grow. Amen.