Coffeeville First Baptist Church By Craig Baker, Pastor
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I want you to think for a minute about the things you believe. From the complex to the simple, we all have things we believe. How many of you went into a room this morning and flipped on the light switch? Why did you do that? You did it because you believed it would make the light come on. The same goes for turning the key or pushing the button on your car. You did that because you believed it would start. There are all sorts of things we believe in, and because we believe in those things we do or do not do certain things. Our beliefs cause us to act, think, or feel certain ways. The point is our beliefs change us. That should certainly be true of our belief in Jesus. All of Jesus’ disciples were changed by their belief in Him. For example, Peter seems to have been arrogant, irresponsible, and a know it all. When Jesus tried to wash Peter’s feet Peter said, “I don’t need you to wash my feet.” When Jesus told Peter he would deny Him, Peter said, “No way,” but he did just that. Peter seemed to have a gift for putting his foot in his mouth. Yet, Peter’s belief in Jesus transformed him into a humble, steadfast leader, a founder of the church.
John was another who was dramatically changed by Jesus. He was a young man, the youngest of all the disciples. He seems to have been a hot-headed young man. He was probably boisterous, loudmouth because Jesus called him a Son of Thunder. When the Samaritans rejected Jesus, John wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy them. John was the one who argued with his brother thinking he was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. However, John’s belief in Jesus changed him. John’s would later became known as the Apostle of Love and was noted for his gentleness and goodness.
We know that Jesus changes lives, but how can we know that He has changed ours, that our faith is real? Despite having professed faith in Jesus, at some point most of us will question our salvation. We will wonder if we are truly saved, so how do we know our faith in Jesus is real? How do we know that we are saved? In seeking to answer that question, we need to be careful to not compare ourselves with other people who claim to be Christians. Otherwise, we fall into thinking that if we are better than this person or that person, we are ok. The fact is they may not have genuine faith themselves.
The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith; test yourself, and you will realize that Jesus is in you unless, of course, you fail the test. Paul is saying stop relying on your emotions or what somebody else tells you or comparing yourself to other people who say they are Christians and test yourself to see if your faith is genuine. The question is, how do we do that? How do we test our faith? Fortunately, we do not have to wonder. In his first letter, the Apostle John wrote to the church with the purpose of giving them a test of their faith. He wrote in 1 John 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
When this letter was written, Christianity had been around for a generation or so. There had been a lot of persecution, although the church had survived, one of the main problems confronting the church was the declining commitment of many who professed to be believers. People were claiming to be saved and to be part of the church, but they were starting to conform to the world rather than the Word, very much like a lot of professing Christians today. So, John wrote this letter as a way for those who professed to believe to know if their faith is real.
We have seen that a big focus of John’s gospel is on the fact that Jesus is the light of the world and the perfect and complete manifestation of God’s great love for us, so it should not surprise us that John tells us that the life of a person who is a true believer will be characterized by two things; light and love.
The Apostle John wrote of that light in 1 John 1:5-7. Some have taken what John wrote in 1 John to be him explaining the difference between a believer who is walking with God and a believer who has fallen away from God. They take this text to mean that, if we say that we know Him and yet walk in darkness, we are just a confused Christian who has gone astray. That is not at all what John was saying. In 1 John, John made it very clear that you are either lost or saved. You are a Christian or not. There is no in between. Darkness is not a friend of light. They are not partners. Darkness is the absence of light. If we say we have fellowship with Jesus, if we say we believe in Him who is the light of the world and light of life, yet we walk in darkness, we live our lives in a way that contradicts God’s Word and there is no light in us, then we are a liar who does not practice the truth. What is the evidence of light or darkness in our lives?
In Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul called the evidence of light and darkness the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh respectively. As you read Paul’s list, I want you to imagine these characteristics are listed on a test, and you are to circle each one that applies to your life. The fruits of the Spirit, evidence of light, are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The works of the flesh, evidence of darkness, are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.
Let me be clear, we all struggle with sin at times, and when John wrote of walking in light and darkness and the Apostle Paul wrote about the works of the flesh and the spirit, neither was talking about sinless perfection. However, the light of life, the fruits of the Spirit, will be prevalent in those who believe in Jesus as their Savoir. His light abides in us driving out our darkness. As we examine ourselves, the question is, “Is the light of Jesus shining in you?”
