I. "AND WE KNOW THAT WE ARE OF GOD."
A. John is dealing with things that we know intuitively or by the Spirit.
1. Verse 18 "We know that whosoever is born of God does not live in sin."
a. Sin is abhorrent to our new nature.
b. There used to be a song, "Doing what comes naturally."
c. While we were by nature the children of wrath even as others, we lived in sin because we were doing what came naturally.
d. Now that we have been born again by the Spirit, we do what comes supernaturally.
2. That Jesus Christ is keeping us.
a. In 1 Peter, Peter gives thanks to God because we have been born again, and thus now have a living hope because Jesus had risen from the dead. We now have an inheritance that incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us who are being kept by the power of God through faith.
b. The psalmist said in the 37th psalm,
PSA 37:23 The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
PSA 37:24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth [him with] his hand.
3. That the wicked one cannot touch us.
a. If you are in Christ, he would have to come through Christ to get to you.
b. Jesus said of Satan, "The prince of this world cometh and has nothing in Me."
c. Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.
4. Verse 19 We know that we are of God.
a. How do we know this?
ROM 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
ROM 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
b. The Holy Spirit is the seal of God's ownership of me.
EPH 1:13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
EPH 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
c. Earlier John said,
1JO 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. Thus we know that we are of God because of the love that He has given us.
5. We know that the whole world lieth in wickedness.
a. All that is of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, is of the world and is not of God.
b. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "In times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is working in the children of disobedience: Your life in times past was ruled by the lusts of your flesh as you sought to fulfill the desires of your flesh and of your mind for you were by nature the children of wrath even as others."
c. The whole world has been in rebellion against God.
d. It began in the Garden of Eden, and has never stopped.
e. In the days of Noah the Bible says,
GEN 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
GEN 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
GEN 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
(Note) No wonder we feel out of place in this world.
1. We are not in sync with the world, we do not march to their beat.
a. It is amazing how this irritates them.
b. Somehow we become a great threat to them.
2. It is any wonder that we feel like we do not belong here?
HEB 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
1PE 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
6. "We know that the Son of God has come."
1JO 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
a. In His coming He has given us understanding. Jesus said the good ground upon which the seed was sown were those that heard the Word and understood it.
b. Luke tells us that in the evening of the day that Jesus rose from the dead, as the two disciples had returned to Jerusalem with the exciting news that they had seen the risen Christ
LUK 24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace [be] unto you.
LUK 24:37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
LUK 24:38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
LUK 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
LUK 24:40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them [his] hands and [his] feet.
LUK 24:41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
LUK 24:42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
LUK 24:43 And he took [it], and did eat before them.
LUK 24:44 And he said unto them, These [are] the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and [in] the prophets, and [in] the psalms, concerning me.
LUK 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
c. He gives us understand that we may know Him that is true.
1. The bottom line of the purpose of the coming of Jesus into this world is that we might have fellowship with the Father.
2. This fellowship was not possible while we were still living in sin.
3. He died that we might have forgiveness of sin, and thus fellowship with the Father.
4. To have fellowship with God we must also know God, so Jesus came to give us understanding of Him Who is true, that we might be in Him that is true.
C. "Even in His Son, Jesus Christ."
JOH 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
2. John tells us,
1JO 2:23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
3. Again, Jesus said, "I and the Father are One."
4. We have this beautiful relationship, as I dwell in Jesus Christ, I also dwell in the Father and the Father dwells in me, because you can't have one without the other.
D. This is the true God and eternal life.
1. The clear teaching of the New Testament is that Jesus is the true God.
2. Anyone who seeks to deny this is anti-christ. In his second epistle John said,
2JO 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
2JO 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
2JO 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2JO 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into [your] house, neither bid him God speed:
2JO 1:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
3. "He that has the Son has life, He who has not the Son, has not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
