Gooding, David: 3 - Overcoming the Pressures of the World

We come to the end of our little series of studies on overcoming the world. On Tuesday evening, we celebrated our Lord's declaration of the name of God that has exposed the slanders of God that have been put about by his satanic majesty, and thus have overcome, for all who trust him, the power of the Prince of the world. Then on Wednesday night, we allowed ourselves the luxury of sitting back to survey the glory of the Father, so that once more it shone in our hearts in such exceeding glory that it outshone the petty attractions of this passing world to deliver us from the love of the world. Tonight we are to celebrate the power of God that is able to give us power to overcome the pressures of the world. And this short reading from the first epistle of John will suffice to launch us on our study this evening. The passage is to be found in the first epistle of John, beginning in chapter four and verse twenty. If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. And this is the commandment which we have from him, that he who loves God love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God, and whoever loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him. Hereby we know that we love the children of God when we love God and do his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous, for whatsoever is begotten of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. And may God give us good understanding of his holy word. By many people, John the Apostle is thought to have been a very old man when he wrote the epistle from which we have just read. And this, they say, some of them, shows through in the fact that he constantly repeats himself time and time again as he pens his way through these chapters. They say that that is the mark of an old man, constantly to repeat himself and really not to advance the conversation any further by so doing. God save us from becoming old men, if that be so. Old man or not, John's epistle is in fact a beautifully planned and structured writing. If it were a painting, we should call it a triptych. That is, it is three pictures that form one logical group. And so that we should put our study in its larger context this evening, I want to take a few moments at the beginning of the lecture to call your attention to the beautiful way in which John has arranged his epistle. It is, as I say, in three parts, and if you care now to take your Bibles in hand, let's examine how the three parts begin. Then we shall examine how each of the three parts ends, and then, being good Aristotelians, we shall look how each of the three parts, what each of the three parts has put in the middle. The first major part of the epistle begins, of course, in chapter one and tells us in verse two: and the life was manifested. And we have seen and bear witness and declare unto you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Magnificent words and spectacular concepts. The life was manifested, says John, and you can hear the surge of excitement, subdued and controlled, of course, surging through the apostle's heart and pen, can you not, when he recalls those breathtaking days, when he walked with Jesus of Nazareth through the fields and streets of Palestine and woke up to the fact that what he was seeing before his very eyes was that eternal life that was with the Father, now manifested, says John. And we felt him, and we touched him, and we saw him, and we contemplated him. I suspect they spared scarce time enough to eat their cornflakes, did they? Such was the spectacular wonder of the opportunity of surveying that eternal life which was with the Father and was now manifested to us. The first great section of the book begins then with the manifestation of the life of God. But now let's turn to the beginning of the second major section of the book, chapter three, and we shall begin reading in verse two. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be, but we know that when he is manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Manifestation once more, but not now manifestation of the life of God, but manifestation of the Son of God. He was manifested, says John in verse eight, once upon a time by his incarnation. Verse eight in the second half, to this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. How we look forward to that great event, do we not? The mention of it begins to warm and move our hearts. Oh, it could be soon, couldn't it, when the Son of God shall be manifest, and he whom we have loved without seeing, and the one in whom we still believe, though we still don't see him. One day I shall see him. Oh, I shall see him descending the sky, coming for me, for me. A wonderful moment when, according to the promises of God's word, I shall not only see him, but I shall be like him, perfectly like him forever. The manifestation of the life of God, the manifestation of the Son of God. Now come to the beginning of the third part of John's book. It is chapter four and verse, um, nine. Herein, says John, was the love of God manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. The manifestation of the life of God, the manifestation of the son of God, the manifestation of the love of God. The life of God manifested in his life on earth. The Son of God to be manifested one day when he comes again. The love of God manifested in the Savior's death. Three major parts to the epistle, a lovely artistic triptych, three different pictures, all combining logically together to present the topic of the manifestation of God. If that's how all three parts begin, let's now look to see how all three parts end. Turn, will you please, to chapter two and verse eighteen, two eighteen. now beginning the last paragraph of section one: Little children, it is the last hour, and as you heard that Antichrist comes, even now have there arisen many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour. Verse twenty two: this is the Antichrist, even he that denies the Father and the Son. So the first section ends with a grave warning against false Christs, Antichrists. And in this modern time, when the New Age movement is surging ahead in so many countries, even in Russia today, barging in alongside of the gospel. We need to listen to John's warnings, don't we, about false Christs. Uh, then the end of the second major section, look what that says, chapter four verse one: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. End of verse six: by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. If the first section begins with a warning against false Christs, the second se- ends with a warning against false Christs, the second section ends with a warning against false. And the final section of the book, here it comes, the last two verses. This is the true God and eternal life. My little children, guard yourselves from idols. And idols are set ab- against the true God, for idols are false gods. It is a very deliberate scheme to which John writes, a warning against false Christs, a warning against false spirits, a warning against false gods. In the middle of each section, John talks to us about the world, and as you might now expect, he's not repeating himself as though he were some doddery old man, but carefully and accurately pointing out to us that the world has different faces. It will show us one face at one time and another face at another, and if it can't trip us up by that, it will turn yet another face. Let us look at this three-faced world. Chapter two, uh, uh, the verses that we read the other evening, verses fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, talks to us of the attractiveness of this world. Here is the world when it puts on its pretty and attractive face. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the vainglory of life is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passes away. This is the attractive world, the danger of which is that it will so captivate our love and affections as to draw us away from the Father and destroy or suppress our love for the Father. The attractive world. Now look at chapter three for a very different face that from time to time the world puts on. Chapter three and verse thirteen, uh middle of the second section of the book. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. For on times the world can seem attractive and lure us. On other times the world can be exceedingly hostile and hate us, and in some many cases murder the true children of God. We perhaps in our favored circumstances, know little of it. Our good fellow believers in so many countries have known a great deal of it. And I have found it in my time a very humbling experience to be called upon to stand in front of fellow believers who have been imprisoned and tortured for the sake of Christ, and to dare to exhort them to anything. Who should I be to talk to such noble people of God, when they have suffered so much and have so little, and I have so much and have suffered so little? But here you are, the other face of the world, its face of hatred and hostility to the Son of God and the children of God, in the manner of Cain's hatred of Abel. The attractiveness of the world, the hatred and hostility of the world, and now in chapter five, the pressures of the world. For look at the argument that is to be found in chapter five, verse three and four. Says John, this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And then he adds, and his commandments are not grievous. They are not burdensome. They are not irksome. They may on times be very costly. They may entail much suffering, but a true believer will not find them irksome. The load that I put upon your shoulders, said the Lord Jesus, is easy, and my burden of teaching is light. A true believer will not find the commandments of the blessed Lord Jesus irksome, a boring weight. He will often say, Lord, I have failed to do them, have mercy on them, but you know my heart, I want to keep your commandments. And why is that, that a believer does not find the commandments of God excellent and weighty? It is, as John explains in verse four, they are not grievous, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. That is a fact. That is why the commandments of God do not appear irksome to a believer, for the believer has within him the power to overcome the world. Of course, if a man were not a true believer, then he would not have that power, and he would find the world a colossal weight, a pressure, an incubus against the keeping of the commandments of God. And sure enough, we can see the truth of that, can't we? This world may not always be hostile. Some days it may caught us with its attractiveness, but on no occasion will we find this world calculated and so arranged as to make it easy to do the commandments of the Lord. The world isn't in that business. In Spain, for instance, my Spanish brethren have often told me that people customarily, the whole nation almost, cheats on its income tax and never pays what it should pay. And therefore, the income tax authorities in Spain always charge far more than they need to charge, because they have to reckon with the fact that all Spaniards will cheat and not pay what is demanded of them. And that presents a very big problem for the ordinary Spanish believer. What is he to do? If he obeys the Lord and pays his taxes, he'll be paying in excess of what he really ought to pay, but he's keeping the law of the land. But it's going to cost him a lot. That particular tax system is not geared to making it easy for a believer to follow his conscience and obey the Lord's command. In France, to quote another country, many people, l- men and women live together without being married. It's becoming common in many a country too, in in Britain as well. And when people get converted in France, young people in particular, one of the first things that they have to learn and do learn and have to put right is that if they're living together with their girlfriends, they must not live with them anymore until they get married. But you see, then if they get married, they will forfeit the allowances that they used to get from the state and only get a less allowance. So they lose financially by getting married. If they chose to live sinfully, the government would pay them more, uh, state allowances. The world isn't geared, is it, to making it easy for believers to keep the commandments of the Lord. And surely, our news media, and television in particular, are not, uh, setting out, are they, to make it easy for believers to keep the commandments of the Lord? Sure they're not. They're constantly brainwashing the nation with permissive ideas, and often infiltrating the very minds of the people of God, so that unconsciously and little by little, the church takes over the presuppositions of the world and its standards. So much so that if in some countries you, uh, raise a voice to protest against the rampant divorce that is allowed in many Christian churches, you will be told that you're being very un-Christlike. How un-Christlike? Well, you're going against the modern ethos of the world that says it's a very kindly thing to allow rampant divorce, so that sometimes you can get, uh, ministers of the Word of God that are now on their third or fourth wife preaching to you. The world infiltrates the church, doesn't it? And subconsciously, often the Lord's people allow their minds to become conformed to this world and adopt its standards. The world then is an enormous weight, a pressure against keeping the commandments of God, even when it's not trying to be positively hateful and hostile. What is the solution to it? The first solution that John warns us against is a false solution, of course. It is the idea that so long as we love one another, it doesn't really matter how we behave. We had a bishop some twenty years ago, or was he thirty, in Britain, who wrote a bestseller. It was called Honest to God, and he followed it up with all kinds of, uh, other strange and outlandish ideas, you'll see. And he advanced the theory that, uh, fornication wasn't a bad thing in itself. It could be jolly good, so long as you did it from a motive of love, you see. If you love somebody, it doesn't really matter what you do. That is false, of course. And you might expect such funny things from a dreamy academic. But alas, you'll say it is the standard of the world, isn't it? If it feels good, do it. Anything that inhibits my pleasure seeking is considered by definition to be bad. Even God exists to minister to my pleasure, and if God were to be a bore for five minutes, too bad for God. But the whole thing is false, you'll see. Says John quite explicitly, of course we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. If a man say I love God and hates his brother, he is a straight liar, you'll see. And if you say I love God and you don't love your brother, your Christian brother and sister, well, of course you're living in a fantasy. How can you love your, uh, brother whom you have, how can you love God whom you have not seen, if in fact you don't love your brother whom you have seen? And anyway, says Don, it's the straight commandment of God that he who loves God shall love his brother also, you'll see. That is a plain fact. At, uh, how do we know that we are, are loving our brothers? What does it mean to love your brother? And here comes John. Hereby we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. It is not loving my Christian brother if I break the Lord's commandments in order to please him. That is not true love. That is a false solution. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. Now we need to be nothing less than realists, do we? We have to look at and quite through sometimes the emotions that surge in our hearts, that cause us constantly to say to the Lord, oh Lord, I love you. That's lovely to tell the Lord we love him, but it doesn't sound too good unless the love is that kind of love that issues in the keeping of his commandments. We'll see if we know God, says John, we shall love him, and if we love God, uh, we shall keep his commandments. John is very insistent on it. He said it, didn't he, earlier in chapter two: Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that says I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. If I claim I know God, then I shall love him. If I don't love him, I don't know him. If I love him, I shall keep his commandment. If I don't keep his commandment, I don't love him and I don't know him. Suppose you came to me after this lecture and you said, my good sir, you travel the world quite a bit, don't you? I said, yes, a little bit. What country on earth do you love the best? And after some scratching of the English head, I said, well, now let me think. Um, I think Switzerland is the country I like the best. I love every inch of it from corner to corner. You say, yes, I see. So you must like mountains, I, I, I gather. Oh no, I said, I don't like mountains. I hate mountains, and I don't go anywhere near mountains, actually. I wouldn't, I never go anywhere where there are mountains. You say, that's odd, and you're telling me you, you, you love Switzerland, but you don't like mountains. You'll say the English are more queer than we thought they were. That's a nonsense, isn't it? And if I say I love God, but I don't love his commandments, well, that's a similar nonsense. If I don't love his commandments, then I don't love him. So we must beware, says John, of that false solution, that so long as we love people in our sentimental way, it doesn't matter whether we keep the commandments of Holy Scripture or not. What then is the real solution to this question of the pressure of the world that makes it, could make it difficult for a believer to keep the commandments of the Lord? And the solution is one we have known long since, isn't it? It is nothing short of the new birth, the being born again of the Holy Spirit of God and receiving the life of God and the nature of God. His commandments are not grievous, says John, not burdensomely irksome, because whatever is born of God overcomes the world. That is the fact. The little lark, that lovely little bird that trills its way up into the heavens is hatched in a nest on the earth, but it hasn't been hatched long, and it's not been breathing long before its nature asserts itself, and it rises above the earth, gravity notwithstanding. It is the nature of a lark to do it. And if a bird doesn't do it, well, one thing is certain, it isn't a lark. And says John, you'll see, that is the nature of a believer. Whatever is born of God overcomes the pressure of the world. And therefore, that is why a believer doesn't find the keeping of the commandments of God an irksome business. You'll see verse, uh, uh, verse, the end verses of chapter four are saying, and the beginning of five that if someone is begotten of God, if God is really their Father, that person will love the Father. That doesn't mean that a believer is sinless. Of course it doesn't. We often make mistakes. We become conscious that we've grieved the Lord. But when we become conscious that we have grieved the Lord, it hurts us, for we want to love the Father, we naturally love the Father. It's not put on gush. It's the expression of a reality that is the very nature of God within our hearts. And if we love the Father, we love all the Father's children. And if we don't love the Father's children, then it's doubtful whether we belong to the family of God at all. That's John's philosophy, and it is an important lesson to be maintained in our modern world, isn't it? When perhaps we are in danger of seeing much superficial Christianity. People that are Christianized without being born again. People that come into the church because they're in a community but have never known the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Peter, in his turn, warns us against this kind of thing, doesn't he? You'll see there was a great deal of what we should modernly call permissiveness in some of the early Christian churches. There were indeed, Peter tells us, some teachers in the church, if you please, that were teaching believers generally that permissive morality is okay, do see. And there were many falling for it and going head over heels into it. And Peter explains, doesn't he, why that is. He says it has happened to them according to that old proverb, the sow that went to the baths has returned to a wallowing in the mire. I suppose it was rather bold of Peter to refer to a fable like that. It was, as you probably know, a Greek fable, and um, I wouldn't be allowed to, to use it in some countries in Europe, but I think you will allow Peter to talk to you tonight, will you not? And even quote a Greek fable. It's about the old sow, according to the Greek fable, and, uh, she lived in the time when the Greeks, you'll see, didn't have private baths in their houses, or only a few of them did, and, uh, they had to go to the public baths. And this sow had been watching the ladies of the town go to the baths, and how pretty they were when they came out, you'll see, you should have seen them in their beautiful dresses and, uh, all spanking clean and pink and, uh, uh, their earrings and what have you. So the dear lady pig decided, well, if, uh, these other ladies could look like it, why couldn't she? So she went to the bath and paid the fee and took a bath, you'll see, came out all dressed up in a beautiful dress, you'll see the latest fashion and an ear, a jewel in the snout and a few earrings and things, and uh, recently been practicing walking on her hind legs, so up she went up the street, you'll see this how, and trying to be the lady that she thought she had now become. And all went well until she came across a deep pool of mud, and forgetting all about being a lady, in she went and wallowed in it and said, mud, glorious mud. And why did she do it? Because though she'd been cleaned up outside, she had never been changed inside. And we need to listen to the warnings of our apostles, for our modern world becomes to resemble the first century world, with our modern world turning back to the pagan permissiveness of the ancient world. It troubled the church then, it's troubling the church now. We need to be sure that we make the gospel clear that nothing short of personal regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God is enough to introduce anybody into the family of God. And it's cruel to soft pedal that emphasis, isn't it? Because only regeneration can give anybody the power to love God and do his commandments, to love the people of God, and to overcome the pressure of the world. So then this is John's solution to the problem of the world's pressure being born again. But now we come a little bit deeper as we probe the context of these exhortations. If the new birth is so tremendously and basically important, how does this new birth come about? What is its secret? What is the secret of this power to overcome the world? John points out in verse one what it is, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is the one that finds this power. Or again, he says in verse four, and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcomes the world except he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Two parts to the secret, then. Our initial faith that Jesus is the Son of God. For the first time we came to see it and believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The great victory was won, the initial victory that praise God can never be undone. This was the victory that overcame the world when we realized and believed that Jesus was the Son of God. That initial victory has to be followed by a continual victory in the warfares of life. Notice the change of tense from the past to the present. Who is he that constantly overcomes the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Let us think, therefore, together of what John is now saying. The secret of overcoming the world. John doesn't say that the secret is, um, believing that your sins are forgiven. That is important. He doesn't say that the secret of overcoming the world is that you've got a wonderful feeling inside your heart and you feel at peace. No, of course not. Faith in Christ brings forgiveness and will bring peace with God. But there is something more fundamental still. If Jesus is not the Son of God, then I have to tell you that the forgiveness that you imagine you have is all empty talk. It is not real. You're not forgiven if Jesus isn't the Son of God. You can have all the peace in your heart and wonderful feelings and ecstatic experiences, but if Jesus is not the Son of God, they are all vain imagination. For if Jesus is not the Son of God, there is no Christian gospel. And it's not just believing in him, though that is exceedingly important and is the next step. The first step is absolutely vital, that I come to the deep conviction, and the continuing conviction that Jesus is the Son of God. There lies the secret of overcoming the world. Because not to put too fine a point on it, ladies and gentlemen, overcoming the world and keeping the commandments of God, though not irksome, may well be costly. My bank manager came to me once. He looks after my five and a half dollars that I have in the bank, and he said, David, because he was a Christian man himself, he says, is it wrong for a Christian to be a member of the Freemasons? Well, of course it's wrong, isn't it? It's sheer idolatry that the old Freemasons, they engage in such idolatry as old Ahab and Jezebel indulged in, in the ancient testament. I said, why do you ask? Well, he said, you'll see, the principals of the bank are putting tremendous pressure on me. I've got to join the Freemasons. Why? Well, simply because that's a way of getting business. And if you don't join them, said the principals, then we shall lose business in the bank. You must join them. And he said, you'll see, if I don't join them, I, I miss all chance of promotion, you'll see. Marvelous man, of course, he resisted the pressure. But it can cost, can't it? Now, you'll say, if Jesus Christ isn't the Son of God, you would be a consummate fool to sacrifice anything for his sake, wouldn't you? Well, if he isn't the Son of God, there's nothing in Christianity at all. But contrary-wise, if Jesus is the Son of God, we would be absurd fools. Not to sacrifice everything we've got, if we were called upon to do it, for the sake of Jesus Christ. For if he is God's son, creator and owner and inheritor of all that there is and the mighty galaxies that whirl in space, then suppose I lost everything for his sake, I have lost nothing. This comes to us, doesn't it, as the key that's going to determine our lifestyle as believers. We shall live very unhappy lives if we try to live in the twilight between the world and the true following of Christ, shall we not? The person that says, look, I do believe I, I, I, I want to go to heaven, and I have trusted Jesus, uh, uh, to take me to heaven because I can't afford to live for him here outright, and I'm not interested in doing his commandment. You'll say, well, such a person, of course, is not devoted. He's failing in his devotion to the Lord. That is perfectly true. But it would also be true to say he's failing in his intellect, he's a little bit astray in the head, wouldn't you? Or to say in one breath that Jesus is the Son of God, and then to add, but I'm not prepared to live absolutely flat out for Jesus. Well, that's a logical nonsense, an absurdity. For if he is the Son of God, heir of the Father, inheritor of all things, and not to live for him borders on insanity. But if everything depends on this question, is Jesus or isn't he the Son of God? I've got to ask a deeper question, have I not? How do I know he's the Son of God? How I would love to come around you all, my brothers and sisters, and profit from your experience, and, uh, we'll say to, uh, ask you each one, come tell me, my brother, my sister, why do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? I wonder what you'd say. I was in a Bible class not so long ago, of bright young and delightful young Christian people. They had asked me to talk on overcoming, we'll see. So when it got round to talking on overcoming the world, I cited this verse, that the secret is believing that Jesus is the Son of God. And so I put a question to them to say, eh, why, pray, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Well, they were only young folks, and they hadn't had a lot of time to think, I suppose. But I was a long time getting some answers. One man volunteered, I believe it because the Bible says so. I said, that's an excellent reason, my good sir. And why do you believe the Bible? Well, now he wasn't quite sure why he believed the Bible, but he said he did. Good man, he did believe it anyway. If you ask me, why do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, I think my first reply would have to be, in all honesty, my father and mother told me he was. Thank God for my father and mother. What they told me was true. That's a very good reason. Don't you ever be ashamed of it, young person. If your mother and father and your Sunday school taught you that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, thank God for those dear people, for what they taught you is true. But if we're going to face this modern world, we shall have to have reasons beyond that, can't we, for believing that Jesus is the Son of God. And it ought to be so that we are so aware of our reasons for believing that if somebody woke us up in the middle of the night and hit us on the head with a brick and said, start now and tell us, why do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? We ought to be able to raffle off the reasons, don't we? Could you cite a half a dozen reasons? Now, my brothers and sisters, if you can't, and you're going out to fight this evil, ungodly, atheistic world, you're like children going out against an army, barehanded against machine guns. It used to grieve me to see young people, Christian young people, bright young Christian people coming up to the university, and to watch their faith being inch by inch destroyed, because in their churches they'd been content to teach the young people little stories such as are suitable for the Sunday school. Under the plea that our young folks can't take the deeper stuff. Foolish notion. The afo said young folks were studying physics and computers in such depths as would stand me on my head. They were coming up to a, a university full of atheists, unarmed, not really known why they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, except that believing it had brought them a kind of a, a, an emotional experience in their hearts. What are the evidences, therefore? One hundred and one evidences, John cites, is led to cite here, uh, three, isn't he, isn't he, is he not? This Jesus, he says, this is he that came by water and by blood, and not by the water only, but with the water and with the blood, and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. Three witnesses to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. There are many evidences beside, of course. Let's briefly consider these three. He came by water. Notice that, not he went, he came by water. Talking of his official coming to Israel. And as you'll remember, great emphasis is put in the gospel story upon our Lord's introduction by John Baptist. When John Baptist was asked, how do you know that Jesus is, uh, the Christ? They didn't say what would have been true, well, my mother Elizabeth, I will say, and my father Zechariah told me. No, no, that's a good private reason. That wouldn't do for a public reason, would it? He said, actually, in my official capacity as the forerunner, I didn't know who the the Messiah would be, but this is my testimony to you. He who sent me to baptize with water, that is God, God said to me that as you are baptizing John, the one on whom you shall see the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and standing on him, this is the one that baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And I saw, says John, I saw it with my own eyes, in all the spuffle and the splashing and the sound and conversation and the shouting of the crowd, in all that turbulence, I saw a dove unafraid come and light upon the Savior and stay on him in spite of all the surrounding commotion. And I'm telling you of the God-given sign I was given, that this is the Son of God. He came not climbing up some other way. He came in fulfillment of the great prophecies of the old Testament, of which John was one fulfillment, the one who came to prepare the way of the Lord. It invites us to think of all those long series of prophets and all that they prophesied, John the Baptist being the last one of them, and consider the accumulative evidence that Jesus Christ fulfilled those ancient prophecies to the full. He not only came by water at his baptism, he came by blood. Note, it doesn't say he went by blood, though that is in itself true. He came by blood. But John the Baptist, right at the very beginning of his public introduction of the Son of God, said as follows, didn't he? This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That is, John was announcing that Jesus had come to die. That is the purpose for which he came. And he came to die, announcing from the very start that he had come to die for the sins of the world. The idea that Jesus' death was a sacrifice for sin was not some idea that the early Christian church thought up after they were disappointed because their Lord was crucified. It was stated right at the very beginning of his ministry. This was the great purpose for his coming. He had come to die as a sacrifice for sin. He's the only one that's ever claimed it, isn't he? The only one amongst all the religious leaders of the world that have ever been. The only one that has ever claimed that he came to die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. And of course, there's a very good reason for that. If you had a friend and he suddenly announced to you that he had come into this earth to die for, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, your reaction would be to call for a psychiatrist, I expect. You think the man had gone megalomaniac. And of course, if that is not true, that Jesus came to die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, then Jesus' claim that he had so come would be a sign of lunacy. And then the same Lord Jesus Christ has been responsible for more mental health, peace, and calm than all the philosophers put together. Together. This is your unique Jesus Christ. How do I know he is the Son of God? I see the objective evidence of his introduction into our world by the Baptists. And then I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit came down from heaven first and foremost, to vindicate the claims of the Lord Jesus, didn't he? To demonstrate that he had been raised from the dead, and therefore was the one he claimed to be. And then, of course, there is the subjective side of the evidence. How do I know a loaf of bread is bread that can feed me? Well, I know the difference between a loaf of bread and a piece of concrete. If I try to bite the concrete, it doesn't feed me. But when I'm hungry, I bite a piece of bread, it does meet my need. And as I survey the world's religions and all the philosophers, I'm left with my own need, which is this, that I am a sinner. No good you're just telling me to be good. I knew that before you told me. My trouble is I have not been good. How can I find forgiveness in such a way as will maintain my own moral values, let alone God's moral values. No good saying, oh, well, forget your sins, old chap, just brush them under the carpet. What you've done doesn't matter. How would anybody build a paradise on that kind of nonsense? If our sin doesn't matter, then nothing matters. How then shall I find forgiveness that will uphold my standards, let alone God's. Neither Hinduism nor Buddhism has any answer to the problem. Jesus Christ is the only one that has the answer. Marvelous savior and unique is he. And how do I know I've got this eternal life? That's the next big thing, isn't it? How do I know I've got it? Well, not by, uh, simply by feelings within myself. Though, according to John, he who accepts, the person that accepts the testimony of God will receive an inner testimony of the Holy Spirit within. God's Spirit will witness with our spirits that we are children of God. But back of it all is this moral, logical conviction. But John says it is this, you'll see. If we receive the witness of men, and we do many a time, though sometimes we are let down, aren't we? You ring up the airport and say, when is such and such a plane leaving, and they say such and such a time, and you get to the airport sometimes, uh, and the air, uh, airline has made a mistake and it's not leaving at that time. In spite of that kind of thing, we trust people's witness. Well, if we receive the witness of men, says John, how much more should we receive the witness of God? Indeed, if God says something and you don't believe him instantaneously just because he says it, you are bringing into question the moral character of God. Belief, in the last analysis, therefore, is a question of my moral estimate of God's character. Can God lie, or can't he? Because, you see, God's testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and that life is in his Son. He who has the Son, therefore, has life. How do you know it, you say? Why, because God says so. And to refuse to believe it is to make God a liar. You'll not live in the same heaven with a God whom you can't believe, you know, will you? We have to settle it deeply in our hearts, therefore, what we think of the moral character of God. And as we are brought to believe him, the devil's lie is undone, isn't it? The trouble started with our race in Eden, when Satan was successful in his slander and raised the question, has God said? When man was moved and tempted to disbelieve God, all the other disaster followed. It is put right when we come to believe God because of God's own moral character. Good. But then John says there's more, you know, there's more to believing that Jesus is the Son of God than that. For pray, says John, if I may paraphrase him, what does it exactly mean to believe that Jesus is the Son of God? What does that mean, that part of it mean? Is it merely that he's the Son of God, that he's in the inheritor of the universe? No, not merely that, though it is that, of course. It means that as Son of God, he is the perfect expression of God. You have never seen God, but if you have seen Jesus Christ, you have seen God. He that has seen me has seen the Father. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God is to believe that Jesus is the telling out the manifestation of the love of God, of the very heart of God. To see him is to see exactly what God is like. What a wonderful thing that is. So in our final moments, let us consider what the love of God is like as we have seen it revealed, manifested, the manifestation of the love of God in the Son of God. And as we see it, we shall find something else happening to us, but more of that amon. In chapter four from verses seven to eleven, John talks about the manifestation of the love of God, and from two points of view. He says, you'll see, in this was manifested the love of God. Here was the outward demonstration of the love of God. And then he says, herein is love. Here is the basic underlying principle and cost of God's love. We'll say, sir, it may have happened to you and you, madam, that, uh, when you were a child and you praised your father to have, say, a bicycle, and you got it for Christmas, you'll say, but it was in the bad old days of the Depression, and you could see they loved you, they gave you a cycle. It wasn't till you yourself were grown up and married and hit bad times in the family that you thought back and you said, you know, I, I, I can remember now, didn't understand it at the time, but what that must have cost Dad and Mum. And I remember how shabby Mum used to be dressed, and she wore the same dress for, for a long time. Well, you'll see, providing cycles for all us kids in the house costs a lot of money, and you begin to perceive the underlying cost of it. You first saw the manifestation, then you came to appreciate the cost. In this was manifested the love of God. Here is the exhibition of it, my good friend. Oh, what a magnificent exhibition. Herein was the love of God manifest, that God has sent his only son into the world, that we might live through him. This is God's manifestation of love. Tell me, what would you like God to do to manifest to you that he loves you? So I think I'd love him to give me a job. That's what I would like just now, if he really were to love me. Yeah, that would be good. What if he gave you a galaxy one of these days, whole galaxy, not just, not just one world, but a whole galaxy full of suns and planets and what have you. Would that convince you that God loved you? Think a moment. God's got so many galaxies, he wouldn't miss one or two, would he? Uh, like a millionaire giving you an ice cream. No. I tell you straight, God's not in the business of bribing you. That's the point that Satan tried to make, that God had bribed Job and given him sons and daughters and houses and fields and wealth and health and everything else. Ha ha ha, said Satan, of course the man says he loves you and he doesn't mind singing a few choruses to that effect. You take away his goods and he'll curse you to your face, men. God's not in the business of bribing us. If it would do us any good, he'd give us a half a dozen galaxies, and maybe he will one day, my good sister. Uh, as a reward for your faithful work, he'll give you a few galaxies to look after. The manifestation of God's love is that he gives you himself. That's not bribery, is it? None could ever accuse God of bribery. He gave his only son, his own very life, that we might live through him. Oh, what a magnificent God you have. I congratulate you on it. And not only share his heaven with you and his universe with you, he shares his very self with you. That's love. Pray, consider the cost of it. We made it marvelously difficult for God to love us, did we not? Well, I did. To start with, we didn't love him. He had to take the initiative. And then we made it mightily difficult for God. He's holy, and our sin was repulsive to him. And every time he thought of our sin, it stirred his divine displeasure. How could he come anywhere near us? Oh, what it cost God to love you, my dear friend. To overcome that difficulty that his holiness found. He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, to bear our sins and exhaust the wrath of God that was against us. Oh, what a magnificent God. What an exhibition of the love of God. And I can tell you what's going on in your heart if you are a believer. Poor as my word is, as you think now again of the manifestation of the love of God, you're saying to yourself instinctively, aren't you? Oh, and I would like to love like that. And that's what John is saying. If God so loved us, we ought to love one another like that. You say, if God loved us, we love him. But if we love him, if we say, yes, that is magnificent, that love of God, but of course I don't intend to love anybody like that myself. Which would be rather odd, shouldn't we? We shall own in spite of all our imperfection, that if God so loved us like that, we have a bounden duty to love one another. We have, we have. You might find it exceedingly difficult to love the Englishman in front of you. I'm telling you what, you must overcome all the difficulties I present to you. Of course you must. If you're Christians, you will, of course. You do, of course, don't you? And a man said a very funny thing to me the other day. He said, you know, if we held a church prayer meeting, well, we can't, he says. I said, why can't you? He said, well, we ho- if we hold a church prayer meeting, we should only get ten people there. I said, that's interesting. How many have you got in your church? He said a hundred. m Why don't they come to the prayer meeting? You say, well, there are all fogies at the prayer meeting. Well, I don't know whether they're including themselves or not in that statement. My dear young folks, if the old folks in your assembly are old fogies, you'll have to learn to overcome the, uh, the distaste it produces in you if it does. God had to overcome your sin to come near and save you. And if you profess that God loved you like that, you'll find a desire in your heart to love your fellow Christians in spite of any natural revulsion that you might feel against them because they're old and you're young and you're modern and they're ancient or whatever it is. If we don't admit our duty to love one another, like Christ has loved us, we raise the question, don't we? Whether we have realized what the love of God is. How do we perceive the love of God, and how is that love perfected within us? John raises the problem. He says, you know, God, no one has beheld at any time. You can't behold God, he's not visible. And when we get home to heaven at last, we shall not see three gods, shall we? Each one sitting on a throne. There is one God. And God no one hath beheld. How do we know God is real? How do we know that God is in us? Because we find a love beginning to work in us, says John, for our fellow believer. That's how. While we cannot see God with our natural eye, there is a spiritual perception of the love of God, isn't it? Says John, and we have behoved and perceived, bear witness to this, that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. We know it's true because he has given us of his spirit. Oh, my dear Christian friend, in the dying moments of these meditations, come once more with me to Calvary, will you not? Tell me, tell me, my brother and sister, who is it there on that center cross? And what's he doing? What do you see? The world outside nowadays sees very little. Some would see, well, it's a martyr, they say. Ah, but you see more, don't you? Ah, you say, thank God I see it. That's God there. That's God incarnate. That's the Son of God. I see it, I see it. And I see it that the Son of God was sent by the Father to save me. Oh, I see it. Maybe heaven will depend on your seeing it. We have beheld and seen that the Father has sent the Son to be the savior of the world, and in seeing it, you feel the very love of God within you mounting up, don't you? The love of God has got through to you, it's got into you, and I nearly said against your will, not quite, but it will proceed to change you, and through you love others. That's how we know it's real, isn't it? And in this, the love of God is not only perceived, but perfected, says John, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. On this ground that as he is, so are we in this world. That is positionally true. Christ is in glory, accepted with God, and if my faith is in him, I am as accepted with God as he is, though I'm still in this world. What is more, if eternal life is real, my brother, my sister, failing as we are, there is already a sense in which, in practical terms, we're like him, isn't it? He loved us and expressed God's love to us. And we, in turn, are finding within the power and the desire to love God and keep his commandment. We boast of nothing. We didn't take the initiative. We love because he first loved us, and it's real. And we love God. And we want to keep his commandment. And if we don't... And if we find his commandments an irksome bore and try to get round them and say that's only Paul, or that was only social conditions of the time, and we don't have to obey Holy Scripture. And it begins to raise very serious questions, doesn't it? As to whether we have been born again at all. That is John's argumentation. Oh, how we need to be realistic in our day before God do in order. Listen to John as he closes his exhortation. This is the true God and eternal life. This is the real thing. This is how it works. My little children, says he, do keep yourselves from idols, false gods that seem to be the real thing and are not the real thing. An idol is with something that we love rather than God. It's a something that we trust instead of trusting God. God, give us the realistic wisdom to make sure that what we've got is the real thing, the true God, and eternal life, working out in our lives by his grace. Wherein we fail, let us come boldly to the throne of grace and confess our sins and show that we're genuine people of God by seeking the Lord's mercy and an increase of his grace within us for his name's sake. Amen.