Believing on the Son of God provides certainty, and God desires His people to know with assurance what they believe. It explores two Greek words for 'to know' (Gnosis and Oida) to explain how God provides knowledge through both understanding and experience. It then outlines seven certainties found in 1 John: the certainty of Christ's incarnation, God's compassion, conversion, relationship, companionship, enlightenment, and transformation. The message emphasizes that this certainty is grounded in Scripture and personal experience, enabling believers to confidently understand and articulate their faith.
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Turn to the first epistle of John chapter five and verse thirteen. First epistle of John chapter five, verse thirteen. I just want to read part of this verse to establish the theme of the message that I had this morning. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that she may know. I realize the rest of this verse says that she may know that she have eternal life.
I just want to stop with the word know. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that she may know. God is interested... in his people being certain. He wants us to be certain of what we believe. It's possible as the people of God to have existed in an environment of the Word of God to believe things that we cannot prove to ourselves or to others. It's possible.
God is interested in us knowing. God has given us His Word so that we may know, so that we may prove not only to ourselves but to others what we could eat. If I see one failure among the Lord's people today, The failure is the inability of most of us to prove what we believe. You want a real challenge in this.
If you really doubt this, you want a real challenge in it. Just take a teenage class of young people and teach them what you believe. You'll soon be challenged to the very core to prove what you say. And I want to take certain certainties that are given to us in the first epistle of John, but first of all I want to notice with you that there are two words in the Greek text that are translated no in this epistle. The first one is Gnoscow. Perhaps the best idea conveyed in this is knowledge gained through understanding, through mental capacity.
This word is used twenty-four times in the first epistle of John and suggests the knowledge that we attain through understanding. Oida is the second word and it's used fourteen times in the first epistle of John and perhaps it's the idea of knowledge gained through contact. Although sometimes these words are difficult to distinguish in this context as they are used in the first epistle of John. Generally, however, both of these words are translated by our single word in English, knowledge. And the verses that I'm going to read with you this morning are a combination of these two words.
Again, I want to say that God is interested in our knowledge, both from the use of our mental capacity. This is one of the great geniuses of men that God has given him, something that we should not be afraid of, the understanding through the use of our mind of the Word of God. And secondly, the knowing of God through contact. experimentally in prayer and in the reading of the Word of God, and allowing the Lord to permeate our lives to know God in this way. One is not sufficient without the other.
I may know God through His Word, but if I have never experienced answers from God in prayer, I have failed to be what I should be in the sight of God. On the other hand, a Christianity that is only involved in experience without wisdom gained through the Word of God is also short of the mock. God wants us to know Him in both ways. Now, the first... There are seven of these that I have listed, and perhaps I... I can give them to you quickly here. The first one is found in first John chapter five and verse twenty.
It's the certainty of Christ's incarnation. We know the Son of God is come. The second is the certainty of God's compassion. We have known the love that God has to us. The third is the certainty of conversion. that ye may know that ye have eternal life. The fourth is the certainty of relationship. We know that we have passed from death into life. The fifth is the certainty of his companionship. We know he abideth in us. The sixth is the certainty of enlightenment.
We know all things. And the seventh is the certainty of transformation. we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. I don't know that we'll get to all of these this morning, but in all of them, God is interested that we know with certainty that these things are true. Most of us here, for instance, believe in the first one. We are certain that the Son of God has come. We are certain concerning the incarnation of the Lord. But there are ways, as we study the Scripture, that we can prove this.
We can prove it, for instance, from prophecy. We know that there are certain verses in the Old Testament that teach very clearly the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, Micah five and two tells us exactly where he was born. Thou Bethlehem afraid us. We know from that verse which we can prove to have been written before the Lord Jesus ever lived, that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. We know from Isaiah nine and six also that this baby that was born was born.
to be called the El Gabor, the Almighty God. He was to be called the Far Shalom, the Prince of Peace. We know that this baby that was to be born was to bear the name of God with us, Isaiah seven fourteen. All of these things we see fulfilled in the life of the Lord Jesus. We can say with certainty that such prophecy as this, fulfilled in exact detail, can give to our understanding the certainty that the Son of God has come.
But not only is this true as to our understanding, it is also true as to our experience. We know the Son of God has come. because of the way that He has affected us in conversion. When we came to the feet of the Lord Jesus and trusted Him as our Lord and Savior, then we knew with certainty the reality of what the New Testament Scripture says concerning Him, because that knowledge, that conversion experience in which we trusted the Son of God, became alive in our heart.
You see, in the first instance we knew through the understanding from the Scripture. In the second instance we knew through the effect in our own life of Christ living in us. We know the Son of God has come. We know his come from history. No other fact has been more attested in history than the incarnation of the Lord Jesus. Josephus mentions him. The great historians of that day mention him. He must have lived because by the year three hundred AD, the world had renounced much of its polytheism.
and Turkey, for instance, and the nations around the Mediterranean Ocean have taken on Christianity as a national religion. Now, I'm not saying that, or perhaps that was five hundred AD, I'm not saying that this meant that they were Christians. Perhaps they were mostly nominal Christians, but we know from history that the Son of God has come. We can be certain of His compassion. We have known the love that God has to us. I could tell you many ways that we could know God's love.
We can know that the Lord loves us by the beautiful creation that He put us in. You can see the trees, you can see the stars, the handiwork of God. can see the genius of man as it goes to work to produce great monuments to the love of God. We could spend a great deal of time telling the many ways that a person should know the compassion of the Lord, should know the greatest monuments to His compassion that is calibrated. As we go back, by eyes of faith and view that lovely man hanging upon the center cross.
We say like John, herein is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us. Here is the proof positive of God's compassion. Not only was his incarnation attested by history, but his sacrificial death was attested by history. As we look upon his suffering unto death in our behalf, we know his love. We know his compassion. We would give our lives for someone we know and love, perhaps, perhaps a wife, perhaps a child.
But here was one who proved his love by giving himself for those that did not love him. when they did not love him. Here was one who came into his own and his own received him not, and yet his loss shone upon their back. So great is that love that as we were speaking of yesterday, that someday he is going to bring them to national repentance. And even his judgment at that time is the proof of his loss as he draws them to himself. We know the compassion of God.
We know the certainty of conversion. We know that we have eternal life from His word. As we come to the word of God, these things says, John, have I written unto you that she may know that she have eternal life. God has not left us with uncertainty. We sit this morning, we can say with absolute assurance, we know that we have eternal life. How do we know this? We know it simply because the Word of God teaches this.
This is the gospel message, isn't it? Just as the knowledge of His compassion is the gospel message. The gospel message is the certainty of our salvation. revealed through the Word of God. God says it, I believe it, and that's enough. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, has everlasting life. The Word of God is certain, and I can know with deep assurance that I belong to the Lord Jesus. because of his word.
God has given us his word so that we could be certain about our own conversion. To be otherwise leaves the soul in fear. I often, I don't know whether you've ever read any of the books of great books of church history or not. Man by the name of Skippington Wood. Someday, I'm not really a book salesman. I'm a book deliverer. I really don't try to sell books, but some books I've really enjoyed in my life, and one of the series of books that I've really enjoyed are the books of A. Skivington Wood. If you really want to enjoy the story of the conversion of certain people, you should read the books that A.
Skivington Wood has written. It's written one called Kathy to the Word. And it's the story of the conversion of Martin Luther, how he came to know the Lord. Skippington Wood has an unusual ability to get at the heart of the person's conversion. And he traces the conversion of Martin Luther to his tower experiences. He shows how that before this... Martin Luther wrote from pure legalism, and following this he wrote from the knowledge of the grace of God. Incidentally, Schillington Wood is a Methodist, but a pre-millennial pre-tribulation Methodist. It's very interesting. He's written one book called Prophecy in the Faith Age.
I think it's out of print right now. Perhaps the classic book that he's ever written. is a book covering church history during the Wesley revival. He writes of the story of the conversion of John and Charles Wesley. One was saved through reading the Luther's book on Romans and the other reading Luther's book on Galatians. But along side by side with the ministry of these two men, there was the ministry of George Whitfield. George Whitfield was a strong Calvinist. He believed in the certainty. of salvation, the certainty of the knowledge of salvation, while John and Charles Leslie were Armenian in their doctrine, and were not certain as to the certainty of eternal salvation.
But you know, one thing that you learn as you read of the lives of men who have, though great, had been great men in their ministry, that whenever they have been of this persuasion, that is, that you could be saved and lost again, their lives were lived in fear. Their lives were lived in fear. They were constantly afraid, lest through some error, some sin, they would at last be lost. John is very clear about this in his epistle.
He says, Cast us out all fear. But fear has torment. If I was afraid tonight, or this afternoon or this morning, or this morning, or this morning, if I were afraid that before this day was over, I might lose my salvation, my life would be a life of torment and dread. I remember when I was first saved, there were doubts cast in my heart by Satan that I hadn't really trusted the Lord. And I tell you, I went through torment at times over this. God has given me the grace and understanding from His Word to now trust simply His Word.
Perfect love cast about all fear. We have the certainty of relationships. We know that we have passed from death until life, that we have been delivered from the old habit, the old place in which we live, like the swine wallowing in the mile. We have the certainty that we have now new life in Christ. The certainty of this is found not only from the word of God, but it's found from the appetite that God has given us. You know, I'm convinced that heaven would be hell to a person who didn't know the Lord.
How would you like, thinking back to your unsaved faith, how would you have liked to have been in heaven with meeting such as this, going on all the time, with no capacity to enjoy? You know, whether you want some of the little fellows, as they sit during the gospel meeting up here on the cross, they draw pictures in the sawdust, One little fella leaned over to me, and Leonard was speaking the other night, and he says, it was about to be over yet, and I had to tell him the son and chief, no, I had to speak yet. But heaven would be held to a person like that, who didn't have the capacity to understand.
We know that we have passed from death into life. Because we have the ability, the capacity to sit in a meeting such as this. And enjoy ministry concerning Christ. There's life in our dreams. We know this. Because we can enjoy. The preciousness of Christ. The preciousness of His word. The blessing. Of ministry concerning Him. We have the certainty of His companionship. We know He abideth in us, also we in Him. This is a wonderful truth too, isn't it?
To know that no matter what happens, the Lord is always with us. This is not something that's left to chant. This is not something we have to pray through to. Sometimes, you know, I think when we think of sin, in our lives and the sins that we commit. We almost get to the state mentally that we think the Lord Jesus is no longer with us. Well, in a sense, he's not. In a sense of communion, he's not. But we should never forget the foundation truth that he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
And this means that no matter what we do, He won't be the companion of our sins, but He'll never forsake us. We'll never get to the point whereby simply turning to Him. And in prayer and in confession and in forsaking sin, He won't respond to us. We can never go to a place on earth where He won't be with us. I used to wonder as a child how missionaries could ever stand the thought of being separated from civilization, from their loved ones.
You know, the only thing that can enable a person to do this is the certainty of those words I will never leave me nor forsake me. And even on that beach, the Carrere River in Peru, in Ecuador, where the both side missionaries laid down their lives for the Lord, I am certain as the spears went into their booths, they were still conscious of the fact that he had said, I will never reason nor forsake me. It was a very interesting book. It's been printed recently. It's not been very highly advertised. Christ, but it's called Akka's Down River.
And it's the story of what happened to this Akka community. You've never read it, you should. Again, I don't have it, so I can't tell you. I'm not trying to sell books today. But apparently the entire Akka nation has now been reached with the gospel. One of the most touching incidents related in that book is the instance of the child of one of these young men. that was killed on the bank of this river. I forget just which one it was now, but he and his little sister went with the man who had pierced their father through with the spear, who is now an elder in the meeting there.
They went to view the graves of these five missionaries, and as they stood there, they came over with his name. He looked at these graves and then he looked at this boy. The boy's desire as he became a Christian was this man who had killed his father with baptizing. And this actually took place. This Indian, this Akah Indian, baptized the son of one of the men that had been killed by him. As he looked at the graves and as he looked at this boy and as he thought of what he was about to do, you know what he said? Here not understanding, we sin.
Here not understanding, we sin. You know, the thought that comes to me and says, is the world would say, God persists them. They die. You know, as I think of that, I think that God was never with them all. And the day that they were marked with them, on the shores of that river. God hasn't always promised to be with us in the way that we think we should be. But we've always promised never to leave us or forsake us. We're certain of enlightenment. No Christian needs to be unenlightened.
I said to begin this message that I'm concerned and I really am over the fact that Nine out of ten Christians cannot prove many of the things that we say we lose from the Scripture. There are two areas that is almost swamped us, and one of them may yet swamp us if we don't get back to the Scripture. Five years ago, what is called the Jesus Revolution. almost swept this country. Young people by the hundreds, whether you're willing to accept it or not, were saved by a miracle in the Holy Spirit of God.
I've met them. I met three or four of them and they were saved. They were the ugliest looking monsters I'd ever seen in my life. And as I listened to them tell me how they got saved, I said, boys, you don't know what it is to know the Lord. And I still know those four boys, and they've still the most heard of witnesses I've ever known in the Kansas City area. They leave no stone unturned to tell others about the Lord Jesus. But you know, these boys have embraced Pentecostalism. Some Christian young people associated with Pentecostalism have embraced Pentecostalism.
Did you know that? Did you know that there are some, say, assemblies as we know them, quite frankly, my view of what is a New Testament church has been enlarged in recent years? But I know assemblies that once were opposed to Pentecostalism, that now openly advocated. Do you know the reason why I think this has happened? is because nine out of ten of us couldn't give an intelligent reason why we don't believe in speaking in tongues other than the fact that we've been taught not to believe in it.
I tell you, if you come face to face with some of these young people that are in this movement, they'll shake you to the foundation. They'll shake you to the souls of your feet. And if you're going to hold your college age young people who are going to college today, you're going to have to give an intelligent reason about what you believe concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of tongues and of healing, the whole bit. Don't hide behind the fact that brethren have never believed this. I heard it. an aged preacher say one time, I can't believe.
And this was the reason why he was telling everybody they shouldn't do this. He says, I can't believe that Darby and Kelly and William Trotter were wrong. This is not enough. William Kelly and Darby had been wrong. They might be wrong about that. How do you know? I'll tell you, it's time that we're going to have to get back to knowing ourselves, to not just believing, but to prove it, what we believe. It's going to require the midnight oil on some of our clock.
It's going to require us to turn off the TV, to throw away the newspapers, to quit getting and gaining. to work eight hours a day rather than sixteen. It's going to require us getting back to the Word of God. God has given us the ability to know, to be certain. He's given us His Holy Spirit to enlighten us. And I should see nothing but this answer, if we don't. Then said that some assemblies are almost to close the door. This is true.
I know two assemblies in the Kansas City area that in my childhood had mammoth conferences, five and six hundred people today. The combined total of those two meetings is less than twenty-five. I think for no other reason I'm not accusing any one of them there of this. I think perhaps the main reason that this is happening is our failure to be men and women of the Word of God, of the Book of Scripture. This is also true of the last thought that I leave with you this morning, the certainty of transformation.
I predict, I'm not being like Straylans or Bond who has written a book called I predict, but I'm going to make a simple prediction. that unless we get back to the study of what we believe about prophecy, twenty years from now, the assemblies as a whole will no longer believe in the three millennia through tribulation last year in the church. There's not one out of twenty that can tell you what the day of the Lord involves.
There's not one out of thirty that has ever made a study of Daniel chapter nine. There's not one out of fifty that can give you an outline of the book of Revelation. I'm not being derogatory to you. I'm just trying to emphasize the fact that unless we began to understand what we believe and to be able to prove it from Scripture, we're headed on a course of disaster. Our young people don't know what we believe because we don't know what we believe ourselves.
I say believe, I don't mean that. We know what we believe. But we don't know how to prove it. We've been raised up in it. But we can't prove it. Right now, how many of you could tell me where the Bible speaks of the time of Jacob's trouble? How many times does it speak of this? There are innumerable points of prophecy that are absolutely essential to an ordered presentation of the glorious hope that we have of the coming against Christ at any moment that most of us could not give.
I want to challenge you. Young people are asking this question today. They're being challenged, ensued by other Christians. That's the why they believe they're being shaken. That's the why they believe what they say they believe. And thus we as a people, as we as assembly, return to the ordered study of the Word of God in our private individual lives. We need not shake our head twenty years from now and say, why has this happened to us?
The problem lies within our own heart. We fail to study the Word of God. The certainty of transformation we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him. as he is. Thank God for this wonderful power. We know he has come. But we can know this not only from our emotional experience. We can know it with certainty, with the mind from the word of God. May God grant that this will be true of us.
His name is Christ. Shall we pray? My Father, we thank thee for thy word. We thank you for all that has told us in my word about the certainty of knowing these things. We thank you that we know we're saved. We thank you that we know the Lord Jesus is coming again. We thank you that we know we shall forever be with him. Help us that the magnitude of these things will fill our hearts, and so make us order our lives to be like David.
In thy law have I meditated day and night. Grant us this blessing, we pray, for Jesus.