[0:00] Speaking of great stuff, turn to, if you haven't already, 1 John chapter 4. I have no idea what page that is in the Pew Bible, but it's all the way in the back of your Bible.
[0:13] Before the book of Revelation, before Jude, before 3 John, 2 John, you'll find 1 John. 1 John. And then chapter 4, we are in the section from 1 John 4, 7 through 21, which is again Paul, John.
[0:32] John's perspective on how we love one another again. But we've broken this big section into three parts. So last week we looked at 4, 7 to 12. Today we will look at 4, 13 to 16.
[0:44] Next week, Lord willing, we'll look at 17 to the end. Because each section, John kind of is now weaving things together. Now he's, remember, he's kind of gone straight on with these subjects.
[0:56] Now he's bringing these tests and these indicators of being born again, of having eternal life. He's bringing them together like they are in real life. They're not separated.
[1:07] They're intertwined. So I want to read the text first and then we'll pray and then we'll dig into it. So if you're able, please stand. As I read from 1 John 4, we'll pick it up at verse 12.
[1:21] 1 John 4, verse 12. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
[1:36] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and have testified that the father has sent his son to be savior of the world.
[1:55] Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
[2:11] God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God. And God abides in him. So reads.
[2:23] Let us pray. Father, help us today as we see John kind of digging a little deeper and spreading out a little bit more. Help us to keep track with his very, very wise unpacking of truth.
[2:41] To see how abiding and how the spirit and how our confession and how we love one another. How all those things begin to relate together and show us genuine Christianity.
[2:53] Show us that today, Father, by your spirit we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Speaking of knowing what's real and what is true.
[3:13] A woman brings a limp duck to her vet. And so the doctor examines the duck and he gets a stethoscope and he's listening to the duck and he's examining the duck.
[3:31] And finally he shakes his head and says, I'm sorry. Cuddles has passed. And the woman's quite distraught.
[3:42] Are you sure? Are you sure? Yes, it's a dead duck. So she's sobbing. He says, but you haven't done any tests. You haven't done any tests.
[3:53] Maybe he's in a, maybe Cuddles is in a coma. So the doctor walks out and he comes back into the room with a Labrador retriever.
[4:03] And the Lab kind of stands on his back and puts his paws on the table and begins to sniff the duck from top to bottom. And the dog looks at the doctor and shakes his head.
[4:19] Kind of whimpers. Walks out of the room. Next comes in a cat. Yes, a cat. This cat jumps up on the table and gently sniffs the duck.
[4:30] And kind of sits back and meow. And then leaves. So the doctor says, I'm now quite absolutely sure this duck is dead.
[4:45] And he goes over the computer and types out the bill. And the bill says $150. And the woman's in shock. $150? Just to tell me that the duck is dead? He said, well, if you'd have taken my word for it, it would have been $20.
[4:56] But, you know, I had to do the lab report. And then I had to do the CAT scan. You know, all these tests add up. Very good.
[5:13] I didn't make that up. That's real life stuff right there. So how do we know, right? We go to a doctor. How do I know? How do I know things are real?
[5:24] How do I know what's really going on? So this is what John's asking throughout this book. How do we know? And so he keeps saying, by this we know. By this we know.
[5:35] By this we know that we have eternal life. So he's writing the whole book about these are the different ways you can determine if your faith is genuine. If you are truly born again.
[5:47] If you are abiding in God. So here now in these verses in John 4, he's going to approach this subject. How do we know that God lives in us?
[5:58] How do we know God really is abiding in us? And how do we know we are really abiding in him? Living in him? Dwelling in him? Is it just a subjective feeling?
[6:10] How do I know God is in me? Lots of people will say, oh, I believe God is in me. I can feel it. I can feel his presence. Well, does that mean it's the God of the universe?
[6:24] There are other spirits, right? God is in everything. So God must be in me. Well, how do we test that?
[6:36] So this is what John's getting at. He's going to test it. And he gives us in these verses three indicators to evaluate if God is truly abiding in us.
[6:49] If God is actually alive in us. Not just in some generic way. So in verse 13, notice he talks about abiding. By this we know we abide in him and he abides in us.
[7:02] Because he's given us of his spirit. So one spirit test. We abide in him, he abides in us. Verse 15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God.
[7:12] Again, that God abides in me and I abide in God. How do I know? By the confession. And then verse 16, he's going to say it again. So we have come to know and believe that the love that God has for us, God is love.
[7:24] And whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. So three times he talks about our abiding in God and God abiding in us.
[7:34] And three different indicators to match that up. One is the spirit. One is our confession. And one is our love. Okay? So we're going to look at that today.
[7:44] How do I know? Right? John's giving us indicators. I want you to remember just real quickly the big picture of 1 John. He's talking, he's written the whole book.
[7:55] We know at the end of the book he says in 513, I write these things to you who believe. He's writing to believers. Who believe in the name of the son of God. Why?
[8:06] That you may know that you have eternal life. I have written these things, this whole letter I've written, so that you can know for sure, you can have assurance that you have eternal life.
[8:17] But you really do. It's not just some generic hope, but there are tests. And so he gives various tests. He started with, in chapter 1, walking in the light. God is light. Whoever walks in light has a relationship with God.
[8:30] Whoever walks in darkness does not. Right? And then chapter 2, he does that test again. How do we walk? Do we practice righteousness or do we practice sin?
[8:41] So that's the first test. Kind of how do we walk? What are we like before God? Second test, he begins in chapter 2. Do you love your brother or hate your brother? No in between.
[8:52] For John, you love your brother or hate your brother. If you don't love your brother, then you hate your brother. If you're withholding your love from your brother, then you essentially hate your brother. That's John's view. So loving your brother is a test of whether you have eternal life.
[9:06] And then in chapter 3, when he picks up this theme again of love, he talks about it in terms of laying down your life. Laying down your life for your friend. So do you lay down your life?
[9:17] Or now he goes from hate to murder. So if you don't lay down your life for your brother, then you're a murderer. Like, wow. Okay. Because you're withholding life from them.
[9:28] You're stealing life from them that you owe to them. Because Christ has given you life. And then the third test is confession of truth. Do you confess the truth about who Jesus is or do you deny the truth?
[9:42] Do you side with the Antichrist? Do you believe in Jesus' name? Or do you not believe and side with the Antichrist and believe something different? So for John, there's just two ways.
[9:52] There's two kinds of people, right? You either walk in the light. You walk in the darkness. You love your brother. You hate your brother. You confess the truth. You deny the truth. Those are the tests. So if you're walking in light, if you're loving your brother and you're confessing the truth, these three tests together tell you that you have eternal life.
[10:08] That you've been changed. That you've been born again. That you are truly walking with God. That your faith is real. Not just one test alone, but three tests together. So now in chapter four, he's going to take those tests that he's looked at two times in chapters one, two, three.
[10:25] And now in chapter four, he's going to begin to take those three tests and interweave them. He's going to kind of combine them. He's going to put... Because in real life, we don't just kind of do those things all separately. I'm just... One day I walk in the light and another day I love my brother and another day I...
[10:38] They're all interweaved. So John's going to kind of get real with it. So now he's going to interweave them. So verse seven, he talks about love. Right? Verse 11, he talks about if God so loved us, we also ought.
[10:51] We ought. We have a duty. We have an obligation. We owe everything to him. Not in a legalistic sense. I can't pay him back. But in a personal sense, I owe him everything.
[11:02] I ought. Right? If he's loving me, then I certainly ought to love like he loves. Right? So there's a duty sense to it. Verse 15, he talks about this confessing. And then again in verse 16, he comes back to love.
[11:14] So he's kind of weaving through. He's putting these things together. So all of these things in these verses lead to assurance that God dwells in us.
[11:27] Like I said three times, he talks about this mutual dwelling. How do we know with certainty that God is dwelling in us? Well, let me summarize it in two cents.
[11:38] There's two witnesses. Two kinds of witnesses. There's an inner witness. Verse 13. We know he dwells because he's given us his spirit. There's an inner witness. And then in verses 14 through 16, he's going to talk about an outer witness.
[11:52] An external witness. A confirming witness. That which the apostles have given. That which I confess. And that which I demonstrate by how I treat people. Okay? So an inner witness now.
[12:03] That's how I know if God's real. It's not just an inner witness, but it's also an extra. Do those line up? Do those match? Do I confess what the apostles confessed?
[12:13] And how do I know this spirit that I have is really the right spirit of God? Well, that spirit's going to line up again with the external witness. It's going to line up with what Jesus said. What the apostles said.
[12:24] So if you have a spirit teaching you something different than Jesus said, that's not God's spirit. See, that's what John's saying. All right. So two witnesses. An inner witness is the spirit given by God.
[12:36] God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit whom he has given to us. So how does God abide in us? By the spirit that he's given to us. He dwells in us and we dwell in him by this gift of the Holy Spirit.
[12:51] So how do we know? So verse 13, again, he's given this gauge. Here's this statement. By this we know. I think it's some 13 times in this first letter in 1 John, he uses that phrase.
[13:03] By this we know. By this we know. By this we know. And I say, this is the evidence. This is the proof. This is the gauge that we know we're abiding in him and he's abiding in us. How do we know?
[13:14] What's the indicator? Well, he says, because he has given us of his spirit. Literally, it says, because he has given the spirit of him to us.
[13:29] Not a spirit. Not just any old spirit. But he's given the particular, specific spirit of God. Okay?
[13:40] Because as John has mentioned already in verse 1 of chapter 4, there's many spirits. Right? How do we know which spirit is which? How do we? And he says, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits.
[13:52] Right? Because there's spirits that come from the evil one and there is the spirit that comes from God. So he tests it. How do I know which spirit is right? Right? So he's saying, this is how we know we're abiding because of the spirit he's given.
[14:06] That spirit comes and confirms to us, witnesses to us of Christ. He gives us assurance by this gift of the spirit. Now, this is the third time that John has spoken of the spirit in this little letter.
[14:18] We go back to chapter 2, verse 27. He speaks about this battle of truth. There's the Antichrist who's already come. He's already working in the world.
[14:29] Not the final, final Antichrist, but the spirit of the Antichrist is already in the world. He's already working in the world. There's already deceit and false teaching and false prophets everywhere going on.
[14:42] So how do we know what's true? In 2.27, John says he's given us an anointing, an anointed one who abides in us and teaches us all things.
[14:56] And when we line that up with other scriptures, he's talking about the Holy Spirit. Who comes to us, abides in us, and teaches us. Right? So 2.27. And then again, the end of chapter 3, verse 24, he's talking about how do we know, right?
[15:14] How do we know God abides in us and we in him? Whoever keeps his commandments. This is chapter 3.24. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.
[15:28] Almost the same wording. And the very next verse he says, don't believe every spirit. How do we know? By the spirit that he's given us. But don't believe every spirit.
[15:38] Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. So how do I test the spirit? Right? Spirit's invisible. Spirit's.
[15:48] Well, the spirit, the spirits, the false spirits work through false prophets. So I hear the spirit through the prophet. I hear the spirit through the radio or through the TV.
[16:02] I hear that the false teacher is coming, is being led by a false spirit. Okay? That's how he knows. And then he tells us, this is how you know.
[16:13] How do I know that a spirit's from God? Verse 2. For to, by this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
[16:24] And every spirit that does not confess that is from the Antichrist. So one or the other. Right? The spirit that agrees with Jesus. The spirit that talks about who Jesus is. That's how you know.
[16:35] So I don't talk to a spirit. And by the way, spirit meaning demons. Would there be any benefit to talk to a demon? Are they going to tell you the truth?
[16:49] No. They lie. So, you know, don't engage. Other than to say the Lord rebuke you. The Lord, not I. The Lord rebuke you.
[16:59] Like Michael did with Lucifer. Right? The Lord rebuke you. Right? So, but we analyze the message that comes.
[17:12] So when you hear a preacher, when you hear a teacher, and they say that they claim to be speaking from God, how do I know? Well, I analyze their message. What is their message? Does the message preach Jesus Christ has come in the flesh?
[17:23] In other words, Jesus the Savior, Christ the Messiah who is the Son of God, come in the flesh, who comes in human form, who is conceived of a virgin. Right? From conception through resurrection, he is human.
[17:38] Even now, still has a human body. Right? He had committed to that. It's not a temporary flight thing. Okay? Okay? So, is that Jesus?
[17:49] That Jesus. That's how I know the Spirit. So, here, so here he brings up the Spirit again. So, how do I know? By the Spirit.
[18:00] Chapter 2, the Spirit teaches me. How do I know that I'm abiding in Him? Because He's given me the Spirit. Now, in 4.13, again, the Spirit is a witness to God's true abiding in me.
[18:13] Okay? So, I want to spend just a few moments talking about the Holy Spirit. Because this is now the third time He's brought Him up. And people are confused about who the Holy Spirit is.
[18:25] Remember, I showed, I told you the test that Ligonier did, right? The survey that Ligonier did of evangelicals a few weeks ago. And he found that of the evangelicals who were surveyed, I think something like 40% believed the Holy Spirit was a force.
[18:43] Not a person. So, these are evangelicals. Evangelicals claim to whatever the Bible says, we say. So, what's happened, right? False prophets have gone into the world.
[18:54] And people have abandoned the faith. They're abandoning it little by little. Who Jesus is. Who God is. They're also saying God changes. They're also saying, you know, Jesus, you know, I don't know.
[19:07] Right? That's how we lose our faith. That's how we lose the gospel. So, who's the Spirit? This is important because this Bible teaches a lot about the Holy Spirit.
[19:19] Jesus started that. In the Gospel of John, chapter 14, 15, and 16, he keeps talking to the disciples in that upper room about the Holy Spirit.
[19:31] He says, I'm preparing you. I'm about to leave. But I will not abandon you because I will send the Holy Spirit to you. I'll send another helper who's just like me, who will never leave you or forsake you.
[19:43] He'll be with you. He'll abide in you. He'll be with you. Empower you. Teach you. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, let me just look at a couple of places that I think help us understand the work of the Spirit.
[19:55] Jesus taught us, right, that he would spend the Spirit as a witness to truth. John 15, 26. Jesus in the upper room telling the disciples, when the helper comes, when the paraclete comes, the one called alongside, comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, who is that helper?
[20:17] The Spirit of truth. Not a spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. He. He will bear witness about me.
[20:30] That's what he's going to do. He's going to bear witness about me. Now, what's fascinating is Jesus uses the pronoun he. Right, James? Pronouns, that's important, right?
[20:41] Yeah, sure, whatever you say. The word spirit is neuter in language. Masculine, feminine, neuter.
[20:52] Spirit, neumos, is neuter. So, the correct grammar would have been for Jesus to say, the Spirit, not he will bear witness, but it will bear witness. But what does Jesus do?
[21:02] He changes it. Because the Holy Spirit is not an it. Even though the word is neuter, the Spirit is a person. He will bear witness.
[21:14] The Spirit is not a feeling. The Spirit is not a force. The Spirit is the person of God. Okay? There's a person. He is a person.
[21:25] And Jesus goes out of his way to say that. The Spirit. He himself will come to you and anoint, and will witness about me.
[21:39] And you also will bear witness because you've been with me from the beginning. So, he's talking about this dual witness. There will be an inner witness of the Spirit, and there will be an external witness of the Apostles. These two will match.
[21:51] If the Spirit within you does not match what the Apostles say, that's not the Spirit of God. Then in 1 Corinthians 2, how does the Spirit work in us? What is his role? Paul has a different, not a different, but a more clarifying perspective on what the Holy Spirit does.
[22:07] 1 Corinthians 2, 9. But as it is written, he's quoting, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.
[22:19] These things, Paul says, God has revealed to us through the Spirit. This is one of the roles of the Spirit, is to reveal what does Scripture mean?
[22:30] What do these Old Testament verses mean? How do they apply to us? He reveals these things. What we've never imagined, what no eye has ever seen, what no ear has ever heard, what the heart has never imagined, God has, these are the things the Spirit's revealing to us.
[22:47] What was hidden in the past is now revealed in Christ. So the Holy Spirit is revealing those things to us. Why? For the Spirit searches everything. Again, notice it's the Spirit.
[22:59] The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person, which is in him. So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God, which means he's one with God, which means he is not lower than the Father.
[23:20] He is equal to the Father. He has a different role. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God.
[23:33] Why? What is the Spirit doing? So that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit.
[23:50] Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. So what is the role of the Spirit? Well, he's a teacher. He teaches us. He takes these difficult things that we don't understand by the natural mind, and he gives us illumination.
[24:04] He gives us understanding. Now, that's a process, right? Our whole life we get a little deeper, but he begins to open our eyes to see what these things are.
[24:14] These are spiritual things. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. He begins to show us these mysteries, right? He begins to interpret Scripture for us. He gives us conviction.
[24:25] He gives us comfort. He gives us power, right? We bear the fruit, right? It's the fruit of the Spirit, not me.
[24:37] I'm the vessel that I... He's producing. I'm not the producer. I don't go out and love joy, peace, and kindness to everybody. I'm the vessel through which the Holy Spirit does that.
[24:49] So I walk with him. He empowers me. He produces. I bear. I'm just the branch, right? We need to understand it because it's not about I go do stuff.
[25:04] It's about I abide in him. He abides in me, and things happen that are God things. And then finally, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, Paul again talks about the Holy Spirit.
[25:18] What difference does the Holy Spirit make that he dwells in us? Well, Paul talks to the Corinthians quite boldly. He says, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?
[25:35] Whom you have from God, you are not your own. You have been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. My body doesn't matter.
[25:45] It doesn't matter, right? I can do whatever I want with my body. My body's mine. And Paul says, don't you know, if you're a believer, if you've been born again, if you have received Jesus Christ and claim him to be your own, that your body is not your own.
[26:02] You are now a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are a sanctuary. And the gift of the Spirit is a mark of God's ownership.
[26:14] He is a mark of our assurance. He is helping us. But he is also reminding us, you are not your own. So remember, how do we identify false teachers?
[26:28] Well, what do they say about Jesus? And then secondly, what do they say about the purpose of the gospel? We have a lot of false teachers in our realm that claim to be Christian, even claim to be evangelical.
[26:40] And say the gospel right. Jesus died for our sins on the cross, right? We believe. They say these solas. They say those things. He saves us from sin.
[26:52] They will say that. But that's not the whole gospel. He saves us from sin to what? Why are we saved?
[27:03] So that I can live for myself, right? Or as Joel says, so you can have your best life now. God wants to please you.
[27:13] God wants to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise. God wants to do all these things for you. Well, that's an absolute twisting of scripture. That's not the purpose of the gospel.
[27:24] Jesus said, if you're going to follow me, what do you do? Deny yourself. Okay, it's not about you. Take up your cross. Walk like I did. If the master suffered, the disciple will suffer.
[27:37] It's not your best life now. Will you experience abundant joy? Absolutely. Will you experience peace and incomprehensible? Yes. But that's through suffering.
[27:48] That's through trial and hardship. Just like your master went through. Your best life now isn't now, it's later. It's a good life now.
[27:58] It's abundant life now. Not the best. Not by human standard. See, so we have to judge what we hear people saying is, well, do they get the gospel right? Well, yeah, they get the first half right.
[28:10] So, yeah, they're evangelical. But where are they going with that? See, what are we saved to? That's where usually you'll notice your false teachers today. Well, it's about you.
[28:23] It's about you. Yeah. You need to take care of you. You know, don't put up with that. No, you need to take care of you. You need to avoid those kind of people.
[28:34] The very same people that God will say, no, you need to go to those people. You need to love those people. You need to lay down your life. Okay? Okay? So, the Holy Spirit helps us do that.
[28:48] Helps us understand these messages. Okay? And His teaching will always square with this teaching. The Holy Spirit will not be different than what Jesus taught, what the apostles taught.
[29:02] He will give us deeper understanding of those things, give us light in those things, but not a different message of it. So, witness one is the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
[29:15] That's how we know He is truly abiding in us, and we are dwelling and living in Him. There's a second witness, right? How do, again, which spirit are we talking about?
[29:26] So, now He's going to balance the gift of this inner spirit. This is what is subjective with, okay, how do I know that subjective experience within is the Spirit of God and not just that I'm deceived in some way?
[29:42] That's just warm feeling, right? Because a lot of people talk about spirit. They have spirits, right? Oh, it makes me feel good. I feel such peace. I don't know.
[29:56] What kind of peace are you talking about? You know, so how do I know? So, Scripture's not about, and eternal life is not simply about, you know, it's what I believe and my truth and all.
[30:10] It's verifiable. John is insisting that to know what's real is verifiable. Yes, there's an inner part of it. Yes, absolutely, because that's real.
[30:22] But how do I know that's real, right? So, now He's going to come to the other side. What's the external witness? What is the witness that confirms the inner witness is of God? His dwelling in me is evidenced by my confession of who Jesus is.
[30:38] See, if it's the Spirit of God that dwells in me, I'm going to speak what God speaks then, right? I'm going to be consistent with the message that God has brought.
[30:50] I'm going to agree with what Jesus has said. I'm going to agree with what the apostles have said. And now that's still going to be the same message today.
[31:02] Right? So, it tests the Spirit. Does it agree? Verse 14. Does the Spirit agree and confirm with the witness of the apostles? Verse 14.
[31:14] We have seen and have testified that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. The inner witness of the Holy Spirit confirms that historic witness of the apostles.
[31:28] It will authenticate, verify. The apostolic testimony is what they saw and heard and touched. Right?
[31:39] Remember how John began this whole letter? He began by saying that which was from before, the eternal life that was eternal from the Father, came and became visible and we saw Him and heard Him and touched Him.
[31:54] We verified this wasn't a phantom. This wasn't a spirit. This wasn't just an idea. This was a person. A person that was eternal now became flesh. Right? So, there, all these apostles are saying that they are eyewitnesses.
[32:08] We saw Him. We talked to Him. We heard Him. We touched Him. He's real. When He rose from the dead, we again saw Him and heard Him and touched Him.
[32:18] Remember, Thomas, touch. Does the spirit have flesh and bone? This is the resurrected Jesus. He's no longer flesh and blood, but now He's flesh and bone.
[32:30] Spiritual body, different. It goes through walls, disappears, you know. But can also be touched. Touch me. Touch me. See with the scars? Well, it wouldn't be here. It would have been here. Right? Have the scars?
[32:41] Here. In my side where I was pierced. Right? Does the spirit have that? Resurrection body has that scar. At least Jesus has done.
[32:53] So, it's verifiable. See, Jesus is verifying. Now, the apostles are saying what we saw was real. We didn't make this up. This whole gospel was not written by some fake Thomas in the 7th century after Christ.
[33:12] That's what you'll Google on the internet. And they'll find, oh, these gospels, yeah, they're written in the 5th, 6th century after Christ. It's all made up. All you gotta do is a little research.
[33:23] Don't do it on Wikipedia. You know, there's tons of evidence. Like I said, John's writings are some of the most ancient. I mean, we have pieces of his gospel from the 1st century.
[33:37] We don't have a whole thing because manuscripts don't last. Don't get me started on what's verifiable. But this is what he's talking about again.
[33:49] So, how do I know that spirit is me? Well, he's gonna agree with the historical witness of the apostles. And that's gonna be the same that we confess. Verse 15. So, we also confess. Whoever confesses. So, the apostles have testified.
[34:02] Now, we who have heard their testimony, now are believers if we confess that Jesus is the son of God. God. And whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God is abiding in him.
[34:16] And he is abiding in God. Those are confirming. And note earlier. Remember back in 4.2 we read, how do I know what spirit is from God?
[34:28] Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. So, remember that was the test before. Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Now he's talking about a different confession. It's really the same, but it's clarified.
[34:41] Now it's confession that Jesus is the son of God. Oh yeah, in case the other one run on. Now, what I'm trying to say is, when John gives us a test, right, in 4.2, whatever spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that statement comes in a context.
[35:03] Who is the Jesus Christ that John is talking about? Well, he's the same one that was eternal. He's the same one, right, that forgives our sins. He's the same one that satisfied God's wrath on the cross, right, etc., etc.
[35:15] He's also now saying, the one who not only confesses, just says that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. I could say Jesus Christ came in the flesh and not be a believer. Yeah, I mean, it's historically verifiable that there was a man named Jesus who was called the Christ who lived in 30 AD and died on a cross.
[35:37] That's verifiable outside Christian sources. So I could say, yeah, I believe Jesus Christ came in the flesh. What do I mean by that?
[35:49] Is that the Jesus who saves us from our sin? Is that the Christ, the Messiah, who's King of Kings? Is that one who's fully human? And now I'm saying he's also the son of God.
[36:01] So not only was he fully human, but he's fully God at the same time. Okay, that's impossible. But that's what I believe because that's what Scripture says. And eyewitness after eyewitness testify to this fact.
[36:16] And in fact, if you give up one or the other, if you give up that Jesus was fully man or you give up that Jesus was fully God, you don't have a gospel and you don't have a salvation. Because unless a holy God took a body and died on the cross for my sins, paid my sins, a perfect sacrifice, I don't have a salvation because I can't get one myself.
[36:40] I have failed him. I have broken his law, every law. Let's just look at the 10 commands. How are you doing with those? Don't even go to what Jesus says.
[36:52] You've heard it was said murder. I say, what? A little gesture to the guy that cut you off. Yeah. Yeah, raka. Right? Nobody knows what that means, but it's probably similar to what we call today flipping the bird.
[37:07] Right? Something like that. Because, you know, 200 years from now, people are going to read about flipping the bird and they're going to go, what do they mean by that? Some raka thing. Yeah, you've heard it was said, don't commit adultery.
[37:21] Okay, I'm pretty safe with that. I haven't committed physical adultery. Oh, but if you look at a woman to lust, you've already committed adultery in your heart. Oh, Jesus. I was pretty safe with the 10 commandments.
[37:34] They're pretty tall. Jesus kind of cuts the fence down and all of a sudden, oh, that's murder too? That's adultery too? Of course, the 10th commandment is talking about coveting, so that kind of nails everybody anyway.
[37:50] And the first one about other gods, if you define what a god, little g, is. So I desperately need a savior, and I need a savior who's the son of God, who took on human flesh, who was totally human, veiled in flesh, the Godhead sea, right?
[38:13] Who emptied himself of all of his omniscience and omnipresence and omnipotence, emptied himself.
[38:24] I did nothing but what the Father said for him to do. So every time he spoke, it was what the Father told him to say. Every time he healed or didn't heal, it's what the Father told him to do. Jesus said, I do nothing, I say nothing, but what the Father has told me.
[38:43] He lived every moment by the power of the Spirit, trusting in his Father, which earned him a righteousness that he gives to us, a perfect righteousness.
[39:00] We just read our opening thing. Jesus came to be baptized, and John's like, no, you're higher than me. You should baptize me.
[39:11] I'm your servant. No, do this. Why? To fulfill all righteousness. See, it's essential that I come in the name of all humanity. It's essential that I get baptized like everybody else, that I enter through all the, to be tempted in every way yet without sin.
[39:30] And the baptism is where the symbol, the Holy Spirit, right, officially anoints him, right? And not a lamb flying down, not a lion flying down on his shoulder, but a dove.
[39:49] Sacrifice. You're my anointed sacrifice for the world. That's what I need.
[40:01] And so that's what I confess. And then, so he talks about abiding in God, and God in us is proved by the inner witness of the Spirit. It's proved by my genuine confession of who Jesus is, confessing the same Jesus that he claimed to be, that the apostles testified him to be.
[40:21] I now confess as well. And then John adds this kicker in verse 16. So it's not just what I feel, and it's not just something that I say.
[40:33] Because I could say that ingenually. Okay? Does it show in my life? So John adds verse 16.
[40:44] Well, he didn't call it verse 16, he just wrote the next words. So John adds these words, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
[40:55] So he brings it back to love. So what we confess is born out of love of God. We have come to know and we have come to believe. By the way, those are in perfect tense, which mean they have known it and they continue to know it in a deeper way.
[41:09] They have believed it and now they continue to believe, in fact, are thoroughly convinced of the love that God has for us. God is love. All that he does is love.
[41:23] And whoever abides in love is abiding in God and God abiding in him. So the third way of saying this abiding, this mutual abiding is happening is by how we love.
[41:35] Do I love like he loves? If he's abiding in me and I'm abiding in him, so what's the difference by the way? He's abiding in me and I'm abiding in him.
[41:49] What's the difference? If he abides in me, does that ever stop? No. I will never leave you or forsake you. It's permanent. What about my abiding in him?
[42:01] That's kind of inconsistent. It's kind of head and miss. Yeah, it's kind of head and miss. But I don't think we talked about this in study school. It was a really interesting discussion, which by the way, more people ought to come to that class because we have really good discussions.
[42:16] We don't go over the sermon, we go over the text. And so we go deeper stuff. So we talked about what's the difference with that. And when I sin, do I stop abiding in him?
[42:28] In a sense, yes, right? Because I'm not trusting in him, I'm abandoning him. But do I ever completely, fully, am I ever absolutely no longer abiding in him?
[42:41] No, because he's in me. Right? So when Jesus washed the disciples' feet, right? Peter's like, I'm really dirty, wash me all. And Jesus is like, no, you're fine.
[42:53] You're clean because of the word I spoke. I spoke your cleanness. But your feet are dirty. You're clean. You're good. But you still walk daily on the dirty road.
[43:03] You still get dirty. You still pick up dirt. So I need to clean your feet. That's our daily confession. That's why we confess daily, right? Because we're inconsistent. We fall and fail. But we're never totally disconnected from him.
[43:18] I'm still living in him, even when I'm failing. Because there's a connection of the Holy Spirit, okay? I never fully cut him off.
[43:29] I might, yes, wander. I might even rebel. I might get so messed up in myself that I just defy him sometimes. I do the David kind of stuff, right?
[43:41] I love him with all my heart, but I also wander. And then really act out badly on those kind of things. That's possible for a true believer to do, right?
[43:57] Lord, help us not to do what David, you know. David's the best of us and the worst of us, all in one person. So, but I'm never fully disconnected because, okay?
[44:09] But there is a difference. His abiding's permanent, perfect, faithful. my abiding is inconsistent, right? Up and down. But when I abide, what happens?
[44:28] Spirit, power of the Spirit. That's how, whoever abides in me, right? I'm the vine, you're the branches, remember that? I bear fruit when I'm connected, when I'm abiding.
[44:39] Apart from me, you can do nothing. I can do stuff, but it's nothing, it doesn't matter. But when I'm abiding, that's where the real love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, comes from.
[44:52] Him. So how do I know I'm abiding? Well, the first fruit of the Spirit is what? Love.
[45:04] I love like God loves, which means I lay down my life, I sacrifice. Even if it's just I see a need and I just meet the need, that's still sacrifice, that's still laying down my life, it's a sacrifice.
[45:17] But ultimately what we learned last week is what? Forgive. The real costly, hard kind of love is to bear that wound that another has caused.
[45:35] To bear it. To pay for it. to own it. And by the power of God, let it go and have peace.
[45:50] Right? And then the Satan has that foothold to just... So, our confession is about, and the other thing I didn't point out in these verses, we have Spirit, Father, Son.
[46:04] Did you notice that? Verse 13, you have the Spirit. And then verse 14, we have the Father sending the Son. And then 15, we're confessing the Son, and then we're back to the Father.
[46:16] So, you have the triune confession as well. If we're confessing Jesus, we're also confessing the Father. And we're doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit.
[46:29] We're confessing the Father and the Son's and the Spirit's work in our salvation. Do you know all three of them work together in our salvation? The Father plans, right?
[46:40] The Father sends, right? The Father's the one drawing us, right? The Son comes and accomplishes, pays for, right? Our salvation with all of His life.
[46:54] And what does the Spirit do in our salvation? Well, we're born again of the Spirit, right? He's the one that makes us alive.
[47:05] He's the one that convicts us. He's the one that changes us. He applies. You get the Father plans it, the Son fulfills it, and the Holy Spirit applies it. If you want to think, and probably should go this way.
[47:19] I think, anyway. Doesn't make the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit any less unequal. They're equal, they just, they have different roles. So, Paul talks about this, Romans 5.
[47:34] Have I gone long? I don't care. I mean, sorry. I do care. Sorry. Take that out of the tape.
[47:48] I pray, I honestly pray every week, Lord, keep me from stupid work, you know. So, it's his fault. No, it's not. I was probably just disobedient right there, so I'm confessing to you.
[48:01] Paul says, Romans 5, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
[48:21] More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.
[48:39] Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
[48:51] Again, he's applying. He's making real. The love that's out here that we just hear about, the Holy Spirit is pouring into our hearts. So we get it.
[49:03] We feel it. We experience it. For while, here's the proof. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
[49:14] Not when we got our act together. Christ died for us while we're still weak. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps a good person would even dare to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, undeserving, Christ died for us.
[49:32] Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
[49:54] His death gives us justification. His resurrection gives us salvation. In other words, his resurrection is God's acceptance of the sacrifice.
[50:07] It's his glorification of the son. So we confess. What do we confess? We confess Jesus as the son of God who is sent by God the father who loves us.
[50:18] The son saves us by his blood, justifies us, saves us from the wrath of God, reconciles us to the father. What's the spirit do? The spirit is given to apply salvation to us, to take the love of God and pour it into our hearts so we might understand it, that we might experience it, that we might have peace.
[50:38] Right? And the Holy Spirit is also the mark of God's ownership, right? We are his temple. So how do we know God abides in us and that we abide in him?
[50:51] By the inner witness of the Holy Spirit God has given and by our genuine confession about who Jesus is. The son, the son of God.
[51:06] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. God, we know that this is truth that the world does not accept. We know that this is truth that to the world seems absurd.
[51:27] And you know, God, your thoughts are not our thoughts and your ways are not our ways. We would never do it the way you did it. We would try to make some way for us to accomplish it ourselves.
[51:40] So that we might feel good about ourselves. You have done it in a way that only glorifies you. You have done a way that shows that you're the only one who's faithful and righteous and true.
[51:54] We recognize that, Lord. And we honor you. Let us be those, oh Father, who prove that you really exist in us, that you are really dwelling in us by by what we confess, and by how we love our brothers.
[52:17] Make that more and more real in Little Log Church, we pray in Christ's name. Amen