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Seven Things Children of God can Know
1 John 3
Series: Real Love, Rich Life
Aug. 14/16
What type of things can you know with assurance? Used to be gold seemed like a solid ‘can’t
fail’ investment; up, up, up. At least untill late 2013 when it has lost ¼ of its trading value c.
$1615 to 1225 (now it’s at $1733). The Price of oil…? The oil patch went boom to bust, $125-40
per barrel. All manner of financial or material securities, consider the oxymoron that is
‘financial security.’
How about simply ‘knowing more’? In our modern era we have acquired incredible amount of
information. Does this mean that we are smarter and more secure. All the electronically stored
data in the world amounts to about 295 Exabytes.
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An Exabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes, or 1 billion billion. All human spoken words in
history are calculated to be 5 Exabytes.
At the turn of the 19th century, knowledge was doubling every 100 years, once a century. By the
end of WW2 knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today different types of knowledge have
different rates…
Scientific information doubles every 5 years
Online information doubles every 6 months
Nano technology doubles about every two years.
Useful genetic information doubles every 18–24 months
The sum total of human knowledge doubles every 2–3 years (and is soon expected to double
every year)
Printed knowledge doubles every 8 years
Technical knowledge doubles every 3 years
Medical knowledge doubles every 7 years.
Each year around a million books are printed (that’s titles, not copies), 25,276 different
newspapers are published annually, 40,000 scholarly journals, 80,000 mass-market
periodicals/magazines, and 40,000 newsletters.
Netcraft Web server survey estimates for June 2016 there are 1,045,534,808 web sites in the
world and 5,951,685 web-facing computers/servers.
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How about some size comparison? Give it some scale… (the scale will be logarithmic, not linear)
One megabyte, is a small ant. This is a good sized novel. (x1000), a gigabyte, or the height of a
short person. This is all the info. in your human genome. (x1000) is a terabyte, or the length of
the old Cornwall south channel Bridge (1 klm.). This is the world’s entire annual literature
production. (x1000) is a petabyte, or the length of Ontario (1000 klm.) plus a bit from Montreal
to Windsor. This is all the research info. in all USA libraries. (x1000) is an exabyte, or the
diameter of our sun, and is 2/3 of all information produced annually in the world.
Today’s sermon ‘sticky point.’ How much good is a full head, yet an empty heart? Lots of
knowledge (or access to it) yet a dry, starving, lifeless spirit? Doesn’t knowledge equal power…?
I guess not.
This passage lays out assurance from a confident knowledge perspective. They (in John’s day)
like us were challenged about the nature and content of what you can know with factuality or
with certainty. Gnosticism was on the rise, that was basically making knowledge something
that would be the possession only of an elite, the educated, the scholarly or wise. Old John was
writing to believers in Jesus, even addressing them as ‘my dear children’ a not so subtle slam
against Gnosticism that knowledge and learning is for children too! Children of all ages…
1 John 3: 1-24
1. (3:1-3) You can know… you’re in his family. God’s love is unique and has a family
quality to it. This has both a present and a future reality. You are now and will be a child of
God; someone adopted and welcomed into the security and safety of a family. There’s an
implication that family membership or a new status comes with rights and responsibilities.
Maybe some behavioural changes… The life of our current regent Queen Elizabeth 2 was
privileged enough from birth, but changed quickly with the abdication of her uncle, King
Edward 8th. Her father (Albert) then became King George 6th and Elizabeth at 10 years of age
was now next in line to the throne. It changes things… If you have this (hope) you purify
yourself, just as he is pure. There’s an accountability and expectation as you are members of a
family. This is how ‘royals’ act. The tabloids love to relentlessly hound celebrities for aspects of
alleged wrongdoing.
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2. (4-6) You can know…your sin has been deal with. It is possible to ‘not sin’
because your sin has been deal with and you CAN live differently now! He appeared… to take
away sin. He appeared to provide himself as a sacrifice of atonement, which brings the reality
of a new nature, a new life we call ‘born again’ which has the real effect of a way out of sin. It is
possible to not sin! Failure is not a given thing…
3. (7-10) You can know… That sin is no longer your master! If you’ve been ‘born
again’ the very essence of that phrase is new life. Jesus appeared to destroy your old nature. Do
you believe he can and did do that? The point is simple. If you have new life in Christ, there is
no way you can go on living a life characterized by sinfulness. You can’t… and you’ll know it.
Your conscience will scream at you. This is to give you a measure of assurance. ‘Doing right’ is
outwardly observable. Don’t think that others won’t pick up on it! That’s good. If you can
continue living as before… I doubt anything ever happened. Roman 6-8 emphasizes how in our
identification with Christ, we identify in his death. You die to your old life, as you believe he
died for you…Who’s your master now? If Christ is your Saviour and Lord… it is IMPOSSIBLE for
sin to be you master, to hold power over your life! Christians rest in the knowledge that Satan
is a defeated enemy. The war has been won, sentence has been passed (verses?). Similar to the
pockets of Japanese soldiers who were still fighting and resisting in caves and the jungles of
some Pacific Islands long (even years) after the surrender of Japan…
4. (11-15) You can know… that you have a new enduring love in your heart. “We
know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.” The same
experience has touched all… in the same manner. Ever find yourself sitting at some event
somewhere and within 5 minutes you realize that the person sitting beside you is a Christian,
and immediately you connect with them? What is that? That’s likely the testimony of the Spirit,
and a spirit of love and unity. You can be here in Cornwall… you can be in Rio, Cuba, Australia,
China… doesn’t matter. You didn’t create or conjure this up did you? And it should be obvious
that hatred between people who share this fellowship with Christ (mutual headship) is
absolutely impossible (verse 15). The text doesn’t say it’s forbidden or counterproductive. It is
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impossible! That’s why it can offer assurance. Love for believers is internally affirming. Not that
you won’t disagree of collide, even get out of sorts from time to time… but there will never be
hatred.
5. (16-18) You can know… all this because love is active, love is real! (v. 18 is going to
make a great memory verse). The test of Christian love and his presence in a life, is not merely
the absence of hatred, but a practical and evident love. Love in words only is like playing
hockey in words alone. Eventually you need to step onto the ice and demonstrate it. You can’t
fake it can you? You can talk all you like… but it is by nature an activity. Love must be
accompanied by actions. Chances are you won’t be required to lay down your life for another.
How good are you at loving with actions and therefore in truth? Seriously. This has a universal,
E for Everyone rating on it! Verse 18… What has love looked like for you (actions) this past
week? Maybe it’s fairly automatic for you. Love binds us together. It’s what draws people into
our midst… and it keeps them here. Without it, we’re a service club, or a family restaurant.
Have some fun and a good meal… get ‘caught up’ then go home and come back next week. A
spirit of love should be so evident in a church family. People walk in the door and it should
stand out like fresh baked bread in the kitchen. “By this shall all men know you are my
disciples… by your love for one another!” Changes everything we do!
6. (19-23) You will know… a peace and assurance personally. “Dear friends, if our
hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” If your heart does not condemn
you (an accusing conscience) you will be at peace… rest. It’s a general principle here. The heart
can also make mistakes and accuse falsely, but we look for alignment with God’s revealed will
in his word. Martha got very worked up and bent over Mary sitting and listening to Jesus… she
was wrong. Jesus defended Mary’s actions (he knew her heart). One of the classic situations we
struggle with is lingering guilt after confessed and forsaken sin. Now, we should not take sin
lightly, but the devil will try time and again to rob you of peace and confidence before God.
Self-loathing (self-hatred) can be as destructive as hatred for others. Verse 21, 22 peace and
rest in God fuels your prayer life. Love for others in the body of Christ… fuels your prayer life.
Love for them demonstrates your abiding in God’s will where prayers will be answered.
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7. (24) You will know and see the Holy Spirit confirming all of this! Faith in God and
love towards others are two sides of the same coin. You can’t elevate doctrine over love. When
a person is justified by faith, he will also know (should know) that the love of God has been
poured liberally into his heart! Romans 5:1-5. That’s a picture of living in or abiding in Christ (v.
24). You live in him (and he in you). This is how we know… “we know it…” The authenticating
Spirit. Galatians 5 indicates that he validates through the fruit he produces in a life. What’s the
first of the 9 listed? Love. The Holy Spirit uses our obedience to God’s commands (our love for
believers in actions and in truth) to impart the sure knowledge that we are in a real, life giving
union with God.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3
We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds
up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to
know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.
Never before have so many know so much about so little… Know the best, the right things.
Assurance for you! Love (Agape) is a most basic level of assurance for us. Got Love?
(preciousness and value, volitional). You’ll have health and wellness. Opposite of love?...
Bitterness has long been identified as an internally devastating force. It’s been compared to
drinking poison and waiting for the ‘other person’ to die. Psychiatrists have long been warning
that malice, hatred and bitterness are root causes of many physical and emotional conditions.
One author titled his book “Love or Perish.” The author Dr. Banton argued that “humans cannot
survive w/o love.” “Nothing but surface changes can be made if there is not an increased
capacity for love, Love your neighbour as yourself is a requirement … for a reason.”
Love listens.
Love sees.
Love answers.
Love gives.
Love helps.
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Love encourages.
Love meets needs.
Love draws close.
Love befriends.
Love cooperates.
Love enjoys.
Love respects.
Love desires.
Love accepts.
Love overlooks.
Love forgives.
Love is patient.
Love corrects.
Love warns.
Love guides.
Love protects.
Love serves.
Love shares.
Love sacrifices.
Love is generous.
Love is loyal.
Love is gracious.
Love smiles.
Love weeps.
Love comforts.
Got one or two that stand out for you…?
Beliefs change behaviour.