Introduction

Illustration: Fools Gold

When we lived in PV, the kids found a large golden rock in our yard. It weighted about 2 pounds. They thought it might be gold. If it was authentic, it would be worth about ½ million dollars. They were pretty excited. One of the men in our church was a gold buyer so they talked me into taking the golden rock down to the gold store to get it tested.

He took the rock and to my surprise, he didn’t dismiss it as a fake right away. He did a number of tests on it.

• He checked to see if it was magnetic.
• Then he flaked off a few pieces and applied a chemical.
• Then he rubbed it on a piece of special paper.

When he was finished with his testing he gave us the verdict. He had good and bad new.

• The bad news was: It was not 2 pounds of gold but 2 pounds of iron pyrite. In other words, it was fools gold.
• The Good News: But the good news was that to the right buyer, it was worth about $6.

The most valuable things in life need to be tested to make sure they are authentic. That is the theme of today’s teaching: Tests of Authenticity

Transition

In the last 2 weeks, we defined genuine love as working in the best interest of other people without regard to ourselves. The book of 1 John is consumed with the idea of going way beyond sentimental feelings and putting love into action.

DL Moody once said that every Bible should be bound in shoe leather. What he meant is that the principles in God’s Word are not meant to just create discussions and debates The principles of God’s Word are intended to get boots on the ground in order to help people show love in real, practical ways.

In addition to being a book consumed with the idea of believers loving one another, 1 John gives the basis to test the authenticity of our own salvation. Throughout our study of 1 John, John has brought up 3 mains areas where we can test ourselves. In this final chapter, he revisits those areas one last time. The first Test of Authenticity is Obedience

Joy Filled Obedience

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

This verse means that if we really love other people, we will be diligent to obey God’s Word and to do life God’s way.

PHYSICS: I took a physics class in high school. My time in physics taught me 2 things:

1. I should not be a physicist. (I don’t really love doing math that much and the equations where unbelievably complex)
2. Everything in nature behaves in a very measured, consistent and predictable way.

Scientist call these rules the “law of physics.” In fact, the laws of nature are the same here as they are on the moon… and they are the same on the moon as they are on Pluto. The universe is absolutely governed and ordered by the laws God established.

I like to think of the law of physics as an extension of the will of God. God has physical laws that determine how nature behaves and everything in nature obeys those rules. In Psalm 148, the psalmist observed the laws of nature and listen to what he said:

³ Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
⁴ Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord!
For he commanded and they were created.
⁶ And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
⁸ fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!

Psalm 148:3-8

Psalm 148 says this to me:

• Fire obeys God
• Wind obeys God
• Hail obeys God
• Snow obeys God
• Midst obeys God
• Even fish obey God.

All of nature obeys God and praises God… All of creation praises God instinctually… all of creation except for mankind. Man is the only thing in creation that is free to make his own choices. Man is free to disobey God if he chooses. If he chooses to sin, he will choose to suffer, but he is still free to make that choice.

The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit inside a child of God makes that person totally capable of choosing to push aside the temptations of this world and to choose God’s way. When a believer chooses righteousness over worldliness, the Bible calls that person an overcomer. Skip down to verse 4:

⁴ For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world…

Overcoming the world and choosing God’s way is proof that we are a child of God. Overcoming is a test of authenticity. If we were to probe into a person’s life – look at it under a spiritual microscope – would we see overcoming or do we see worldliness?

God is leading every one of His children to stop doing things like the world does them and to trust God. …God is leading every believer to the truth that if they do things His way, He will bless their lives.

• Finances: If I steward my resources the way God commands, He will provide
• Marriage: God will bless our marriage as we strive to honor our covenants
• Job: If I use God-honoring principles in the workplace, that God will bring the increase.

Loving God does not rely with our feelings. Our love for God is proven when we obey God’s commandments. The Bible exhorts us dozens of times to keep God’s commands. In many of these places, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that we express our love for God by obeying His commands.

• “You shall therefore lovethe Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. Deut 11:1
• Jesus said very plainly, ““If you loveme, you will keep my command” John 14:15
• Then here in our text: ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

Verse 3 tells us that “his commandments are not burdensome” to the people who truly love God. God gave us instructions to follow because He loves us and He wants the very best for His children.

• His commands aren’t burdensome.
• They are exhilarating!

Why is that? God gives us guidelines in his word that are for our good and for our benefit and that are in the best interest of everybody around us. He tells us how to love perfectly and how to be free from sin.

• Jesus says, “…my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:30
• Paul said that God’s will is “good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2)
• David said “In the way of your testimonies I delight     as much as in all riches.” Ps 119:14

When we obey God’s commands, it always works in the best interest of the other people around us. That brings us to the 2^nd test of authenticity: Real, Practical Love for Others

Authentic, Practical Love for Others

² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

POEMS: I read a story in an old commentary this week about a lady who visited a newspaper office and wanted to sell them some poems. The newspaper editor met with her and asked her what the poems were about. She beamed and said they were about love.

The editor figured that the world needed a little more love in it and asked her to read a poem. As she read, the poem was full of romance and the moon and flowers and mushy sentimentality. It was more than the editor could take.

He says to her, “You don’t know the first thing about love! Love is not moonlight and roses. Love is sitting up all night beside a sickbed. Love is working extra hours so the kids can have new shoes. The world doesn’t need more of your poetical love. The world need good, old-fashioned practical love.

Sometimes we get confused in our culture that love has to do with feelings. In over a decade of marriage counseling, I’ve heard a number of people express to me that they don’t feel like they are “in love” anymore and wonder if they should get divorced. Why question is, what do your feelings have to do with love?

Loving God and loving God’s children is not about emotional and sentimental feelings expressed to other people with music playing in the background. Real, authentic, practical love does not usually have soft light and beautiful music.

Authentic love is pretty raw and usually expresses itself in following through on commitments you’ve made to other people. It is practical and it’s active – not just sentimental. Remember what it said in 1 John 3:17-18 –

¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Do you think that Jesus “felt” like going to the cross? No way! He was so distressed about it that he was sweating drops of blood. Luke 22:44 says that Christ was in agony as he prayed about the cross. He begged God the Father to find another way. Why did he go anyway? It was the Father’s will. He so loved God, He was willing to do anything for us.

Do you and I love God so much that we are willing to do anything for other people?

God is so concerned about our best interest that He would do anything for us. No sacrifice is so great that God is be unwilling to make it for His children. He proved that fact and He proved His love for us when He sent Jesus.

The 3^rd test of authenticity is all about Jesus. We can determine whether or not a person is born of God by the presence of a genuine belief that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world.

Genuine Belief in Jesus

⁴ For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Do you know what Jesus gives to those who believe in Him? Nikes.

Well, more accurately, nikē (NEE-kay). The Greek word for victory is spelled the exact same way as our brand of athletic shoes. NEE-kay means victory. (It only appears in the Bible here) The promise that Christ gives to all those who genuinely believe in Him is not just victory though but continual, ongoing, overcoming victory.

• Victory over sin
• Victory over Satan
• Victory over temptation
• Victory over our flesh
• Victory over spiritual death

Faith in Christ leads to continual victory! We know that we are a child of God when we experience victory in our lives because of our belief in Jesus.

So how do we know for sure that Jesus was who He claimed to be? The next section of this text deals directly with that penetrating question and offers solid evidence.

Evidence that Points to the Deity of Christ

Believing that Jesus is the Son of God is the most basic element of Christianity. But how do we know for sure that Jesus is who He claimed to be? Look, some of the people who lived in Jesus’ time called him an imposter (Matthew 27:63). In this next section of scripture, John presents proof that Jesus is the Messiah and that Jesus is God.

The first evidence is historical and subjective evidence: the water and the blood

Subjective Evidence: Water and blood

^6a This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.

Water

The water refers to Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove and God the Father audibly said, ““This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God the Father and God the Spirit both are together in this historical scene attesting to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah and God the Son. God the Father is a pretty credible witness.

Blood

The blood refers to how God the Father was testifying to the authenticity of Jesus’ claims at the time of Jesus’ death. I started out this mornings message by saying the nature behaves in a very predictable way. If something happens outside of its predictable pattern, there has to be some kind of explanation.

Darkness: When Jesus died on the cross, it was about the 6^th hour. That is about noon. Scientifically, there was no possibility of an eclipse on that day….BUT…. when Jesus died, Matthew records that darkness fell over the land for about 3 hours in the middle of the day from noon to 3pm. There is no natural explanation for the darkness other than God supernaturally intervened, broke His own law of physics and made it happen.

God was pointing to the deity of Jesus through nature

Curtain: Matthew says that the curtain in the temple was torn in 2. Many historians think that the curtain in the temple was about 4 inches thick. Hold up your fingers and look at 4 inches. 4 inch thick fabric is not easily torn. With the technology available at the time, there is not a natural way for the curtain to spontaneously tear other than God tore it.

When the curtain tore at the moment of Jesus’ death, God was pointing to the fact that we no longer needed the priests and sacrificial system. The ultimate sacrifice had been made with Jesus on the cross. God was showing us that Jesus gave us direct access to the Father and that Jesus was God the Son.

Saints: The most mind-blowing scene of them all occurs in Matthew 27:52. Matthew records that tombs were opened and Saints who were dead were walking around the city. If you put these things all together, it was such a shocking and supernatural scene that even the Roman, battle-hardened centurion was “filled with awe” (mouth hanging open) and exclaimed that “Truly this was the Son of God.” It doesn’t stop there, the Biblical account recalls to the most extraordinary and the most supernatural event of all time.

The Resurrection: The most compelling evidence that Jesus is God was when God the Son restored life again to his dead and mutilated body and walked back out of that tomb. Jesus was dead. He was dead for 3 days. Nothing dead for 3 days can come back to life – unless God breaks the laws of physics and supernaturally brings it back to life.

The Deity of Jesus was proven when God raised Him physically from the dead and made Him the cornerstone of our faith (Acts 4:10).

• God testified to the deity of Jesus in nature
• God testified to the deity of Jesus in the Temple
• God testified to the deity of Jesus even through the Roman Army
• God testified to the deity of Jesus through the resurrection

God was speaking very clearly that day! It doesn’t stop there. Verse 6 then add the third witness, the Holy Spirit

Objective Evidence: The Holy Spirit

^{6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.}

…And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

The Holy Spirit is the one who opens our eyes spiritually and reveals to us the Jesus is the Messiah. 1 Corinthians 12:3b says, “no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is testifying to the Lordship and deity of Christ internally.

It makes me think of Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles and they were given strength to testify about the resurrection power of Jesus.

There are 2 type of evidence that point to Jesus as Lord:

• Objective and subjective
• History that points to the facts of who Jesus is and what happened during His life
  and History that points to how the Spirit stirred the hearts of men
• Water and Blood (who Jesus was) –
  Spirit (how He affected people)

The water, the blood and the Spirit all speak to the authenticity of who Jesus was. Look at 1 John 5:7

⁷ For there are three that testify: ⁸ the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. ⁹ If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.

In all 3 of these cases, God is the one giving the testimony in regard to his Son

• At his Baptism, God spoke
• At his death, God blotted out the sun, God tore the curtain, God brought an earthquake, God raised dead saints
  Then He raised Jesus physically from the dead.
• Through the Spirit, God transforms the hearts of men (makes them a new creation) and He points their affections towards Christ.

¹⁰ Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Life Application: Why is John Telling us all these facts?

John has told us how to test your authenticity. You know for sure that you are a Child of God if these things are present in your life:

• Joy-Filled Obedience
• Authentic, practical love for others
• Genuine belief in Jesus

John has told us that we can test the authenticity of who Jesus is based on

• Who Jesus was historically (Water and Blood)
• How Jesus Transformed the hearts of men (testimony of the Spirit)

Why has he told us all these things? Look at verse 13

¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

John wrote us all these things about how to test your faith and who Jesus was so that you will know FOR SURE if you have eternal life.

Do you know for sure? Have you trusted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? It is the most important question you can ever ask!

Teaching Outline

Tests to Authenticate OUR Faith

• Joy Filled Obedience – 1 John 5:1-2, 4, Ps 148, Duet 11:1, John 14:15, Matt 11:30, Romans 12:2, Ps. 119
• Authentic, Practical Love for Others – 1 John 3:17-18, 5:2-3, Luke 22:44
• Genuine Belief in Jesus – 1 John 5:4-5
• Evidence that Points to the Deity of Christ – 1 John 5:6-12
• Subjective Evidence: Water and blood – 1 John 5:6a, Matthew 27
• Objective Evidence: The Holy Spirit – 1 John 5:6b, 1 Cor 12:3b, Acts 2