Helps for Daily Life 13
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BIBLE STUDY 2: HELPS FOR DAILY LIFE
A SERIES: THERE IS HOPE
LESSON 13: 1st John 1:8-2:2 IN THE FAMILY – IN THE FELLOWSHIP – OR LOST
INTRODUCTION
One of the puzzling facts of life is that there are many people who have professed that they know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, but they give no evidence by their life that they have really received the Lord Jesus Christ. Are these people really saved? There is no need for us to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that this does not exist because it does. Everywhere we go in our communities, in all of our personal families, in every church fellowship there are those who have been baptized and joined a church fellowship somewhere but have never been saved. Maybe they attended or even became involved for a while but then they drifted away, and today they give no indication by their lifestyle that a genuine, born again experience has taken place in their life and some of them live a more corrupt life than they ever did before. You know as well as I that there are people whose names are on the rolls of many churches across the land who never darken the doors of the church and worshiping God has no place in their life. There are those who profess that they are Christians, and yet there are all kinds of very bad things are in their life. They are involved in drinking, drugs, profanity, immorality and all kinds of other sins. There are some who get into deep evil deeds, which outside of God’s grace will never escape, who have said that they are saved. With broken hearts you and I wonder about these people and question, are they really, genuinely, truly saved? Have they genuinely been born again?
As we move into this study and try to find some solution to this question, I think it is important for us to make a distinction which the Bible makes. In particular, when we study I John we find that there is a distinction made between being IN THE FAMILY OF GOD AND BEING IN FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. I want you to pause and really think about that for a few moments before you make any judgments or conclusions – BEING IN THE FAMILY OR IN THE FELLOWSHIP.
INTERPRETATION
What does it mean to be in the family of God, a child of God, a member of God's family? If you go across the world today and ask people of what religious persuasion they are many if not most would say “I am Christian.” Well, saying we are Christian is implying that we have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and we are forgiven of our sins by His shed blood on Calvary’s cross and we are in the family of God. Therefore, there is much more involved than just saying that we are in the family of God. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, what Jesus was saying is that there is more to it than just saying it. Having a profession of faith does not prove that we have a possession of faith. We can say that we are saved and not necessarily be saved. We can say we have been born again and not necessarily be born again. We can say that we are God's child and not necessarily be God's child.
EXPLANATION
THE FAMILY OF GOD.
There are three children in my family and all three of them can say that they are members of my family. However, anyone else who may say they are in my family are really not in my family at all. I doesn’t matter how much a person may want to be in my family, just by their claiming to be one of my children does not change the facts. There are only three children who can truly say they are members of Frank and Susan Denning’s family.
In the New Testament we find that there were people who professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the record makes it very clear that their profession was not genuine. In the book of Acts there was a man named Simon, the sorcerer and we are told in Acts chapter 8 that Simon the sorcerer believed and was baptized. There are some who say, "That means that he was genuinely saved." Yet later on we discover that Simon the sorcerer tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. He tried to buy the gift of God. Simon Peter said to him, "You are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." Here was a man who believed and was baptized, and yet according to the Bible, he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity and was never a saved person at all.
There are different kinds of belief. There is head belief and there is heart belief. The Bible says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved." I am afraid there are some people who are going to miss heaven by 18 inches. That is about the distance from the head to the heart. There are people who have Jesus in their head, but they don't have Jesus in their heart. Having Jesus in our minds and believing intellectually in Jesus Christ is entirely different than believing in Jesus in our heart, and truly inviting Jesus Christ into our heart and into our life. Mere profession of faith in Jesus from our lips does not prove that there is true possession of Jesus in our hearts. Just saying we are in the family of God is not enough, we have to truly be a member of the family of God through a born again experience in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit of God.
Jesus described getting into God's family in terms of a birth. We are in a human family by a miraculous natural birth. All of our children were born into the Denning family that way. They are in a particular family and they have a particular family name. All of us got into our natural families in the same way. Once upon a time we were born into that family. We became a member of that family because we were born into that family.
Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and wanted to know how he could get into God’s family. Jesus said to him, "You must be born again." We received our physical nature by means of a physical birth. We get our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth because of a physical birth. The same thing is true spiritually. We have to be born again to be a member of God's family. That's how we get our spiritual eyes, ears, heart, and sight. We have to receive it by means of a new birth.
How does that birth come about? How is a person born again and how do you become of member of God's family? The Bible says that somewhere along the way somebody has to tell us the story of Jesus and we have to hear the gospel. The gospel is the good news of Jesus. It is the message that we are sinners. The Bible says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." We have to understand that we are a sinner. Then we have to understand that Jesus is a great Savior and that Jesus came into the world. It says in 1st John 2:2, "And he is the propitiation," which means that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice. It is talking about what He did on the cross for us to forgive our sins. The Bible goes on to say, "And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." That means that we can tell anybody in the world that Jesus died on the cross for them!
Now, we are all sinners. The Bible tells us that "All have sinned." Jesus Christ is the Savior, the propitiation, or the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The Bible says that if we will repent of our sins and receive Jesus as our Savior, we'll become a member of the family of God. Jesus said in Luke 13:3, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." To repent simply means that we admit to God that we are a sinner, and we turn away from our sins and we turn to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to forgive us of our sins. When we repent of our sins we have a change of mind and we turn away from our sins.
A number of years ago a little boy was visiting his grandma in the summer with his first cousin. They were playing one summer afternoon, and were throwing rocks. The little boy threw threw a rock and accidentally hit Grandma's goose in the head and it died. His first cousin said, "I caught you. I saw what you did. You hit Grandma's goose with a rock and killed it. You had better do what I say or I'm going to tell Grandma what you've done." That first cousin just made the summer miserable for that little fellow. He had to do all of his chores and give him his candy. The whole summer he was just under such terrible bondage, afraid that Grandma would learn that he had killed her goose. One day he couldn't stand it anymore. He ran into the house and jumped up into Grandma's lap and said, "Grandma, Grandma, I'm so sorry. I accidentally killed your goose, and I didn't want you to know about it, but I did it and I am so sorry." She said, "Darling, I know you killed my goose. I was looking out the window and saw you when you did it. I was just waiting for you to come and admit it to me."
That is the way it is with repentance. God knows we have sinned. God just wants us to come and admit to Him we have sinned. By repentance we turn from our sins. By faith we invite Jesus into our heart as our Savior from sins. We believe on Him in our heart and the Bible says that when we do, we are born again. We become a member of the family of God. Then, once we become a child of God, we become a member of God's family; it is an eternal experience, an eternal relationship, which can never, ever be undone.
Jesus said in John 10:28, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish." My children are in my family forever. They can leave me. Rebel and leave behind all I have taught them for a season. Get into all kinds of trouble. They can do anything they chose to do but there is nothing they can do to get them out of my family. When we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we are born into the family of God. We can be disobedient, rebel, get into all kinds of trouble, and do all kinds of things for a season but we will never escape the guilt of forsaking God and His love for us and there is nothing that will take us out of His family. However, we need to be sure that we have been born again! Becoming a member of the family of God is not just walking down a church aisle, not just being baptized, and not just having your name on the roll of a church. It's having a new birth experience.
I have a real concern in my heart that there may be a multitude of people who have gone through some kind of experience or ritual or tradition but they have never truly received Christ as their Savior. I am so afraid there are scores of people who may have their name on the church roll, but they have never truly been born again. As each one studies along with me and thinks about this I pray that everyone will be open to the Holy Spirit and will settle that issue in your own heart; and you will be able to say, "I'm a member of the family of God."
I am aware that to many, what I have just covered is very basic and may seem elementary, however, there are people who have been around this kind of teaching and knowledge and think they have it all figured out in their head and yet have never settled personally in their heart. At the same time there are others who will read and study this who have never had this clearly explained and therefore have never understood and have never taken the necessary steps to become a part of God’s family even though they may truly love God.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD.
There is a great a distinction between being in the family of God and then what the Bible discusses about being in fellowship with God. There is a difference between the the family of God and fellowship with God.
1 John 1:3 (KJV) says, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
1 John 1:6 (KJV) says, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:”
1 John 1:7 (KJV) says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
There is a difference between being in the family of God and being in fellowship with God. Nothing can take us out of God's family. However, there is something which can take us out of God's fellowship. My children are my children and nothing they do can undo that but it is possible for them not to be in fellowship with me. It is possible for them not to be in my favor.
The thing which can break our fellowship with God is sin. When we sin, that relationship with God is hindered in terms of having fellowship with Him. To be in fellowship with God means to have a peace, a unity, a communication, and have a life in common with God. If we are truly born again, we will enjoy the things of God. We will enjoy the fruit of the family. We will enjoy learning more and more about our Heavenly Father and Bible study. We will enjoy seeing the family grow and mature. We will enjoy seeing people born into God's family. We will enjoy the fellowship of the family. We will enjoy the things of the God. However, when sin enters into our lives and we let it remain there, it breaks that fellowship with God.
Let's think about that for a few moments. When I was in business before God called me to preach a Pentecostal Christian lady whom I respected very much that worked for me told me one day in conversation, “I have been saved, sanctified, and sin no more!” I did not dare try to argue with her because she was convinced and there was no one who was going to change her mind. Nevertheless, friends, I want us to know it is possible for believers to sin, no matter how saved and sanctified we are. However, believe it or not, we may have never thought about it, but we don't have to sin. John said in 1st John 2:1, "These things write I unto you, that ye sin not." In other words, God says, "I've made provision for you not to sin." When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the price for our sins in terms of its penalty, but He also made provision by what He did on the cross to help us conquer sin on a daily basis. We do not have to sin because God has made provision for us that we need not sin.
When Jesus died on the cross the soldier took a spear and thrust that spear into the side of Jesus. The Bible says that blood and water came out of the side of Jesus. We have a hymn that we sing about that, "Rock of Ages." In that hymn there is a line that says, "Be of sin the double cure. Saved from wrath." That's by the blood. "And make me pure." That's by the water.
What John is saying is that, "Jesus has died that we may not sin. I am writing these things to you that you will understand that God has made provision for you." We don't have to be helpless when temptation comes. 1st Corinthians 10:13, says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." God has made provision. When we are tempted to sin, there is a way out. When we are tempted to sin, God can give us victory. When we are tempted to sin, we don't have to succumb to that temptation.
In the rest of John 2:1 John says, "And if any man sin." Though we do not have to sin, we may sin. The truth of the matter is, not only may we sin, but we do sin! Now let's just think real hard about this for a moment. Would you be able to say, “I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior?” I am going to assume you have. Would you be able to say, "I have not sinned since I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior?" If you dare to say you haven't sinned since you have been saved, it means your wife, or your husband is not in this Bible Study with you. Of course, we have all sinned! We don't want to sin. Nevertheless, Jesus has made provision for us so that we do not have to sin. However, the Bible says, "We may sin."
Well, what are our alternatives then? (I thought you would never ask!) When we sin as a Christian, we have two alternatives. I want you to make a notation of this in your Bible because it is so important to us to remember. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” This verse shows us the choices available when we sin as a Christian.
Those are our two choices when we sin as a believer. We can cover our sin – we can try to hide your sin or we can confess our sin. Remember what John said in 1 John 1:6 (KJV) “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” In other words, it is saying that we can cover our sins. John said in 1st John 1:8 (KJV) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” We cover our sins. John said in 1 John 1:8 (KJV) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” John said in 1st John 1:10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar." We can cover over our sin. We can lie about it. We can pretend. We can deceive about the matter of our sin. That's what David did. David sinned, and David went almost a whole year covering his sins. When we cover our sins, God says that He will chastise us for our sins. Chastisement is something that has to do with God's relationship to His children. When we sin as believers, if we cover that sin, God says, "I will chastise you." Here's how it works. In Revelation 3:19 (KJV), the Lord says, "As many as I love." He's saying, "I love you." "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent." God says that when we sin as a believer and we try to cover it over, the first thing God says He does is He rebukes us.
When we do something that we know you shouldn't do, we feel rebuked on the inside. Maybe we come to church and the preacher gets up and he deals with that very thing in our life and we wonder who told the preacher what's going on in our life or if he has been reading our mail. The Lord said, "As many as I love, I rebuke." Isn't that the way we parents have done our children? When they are doing something they shouldn't do and we say, "Wait a minute, don't do that. Mom and Dad doesn't want you to do that." We rebuke them. "As many as I love, I rebuke." Nevertheless, if we keep on, what happens? God chastens us. He spanks us. God says, "I love you so much and I know what sin will do in your life. I am not willing to let you, one of My children, go on in that sinful behavior and it be undealt with." According to Hebrews 12, God chastens those who are His children.
There may just be someone studying this lesson who would say, "I'm sinning and I'm not being chastened. I'm getting by with it and I'm enjoying it and nothing's happening to me." Hebrews 12 says, "If you sin and you are not chastened, it is a proof that you are illegitimate, and you are not a child of God." We cannot sin and get by with it if we have really been saved. If we cover our sins, God says, "He will chastise us."
Proverbs 28:13 (KJV) continues by saying, "But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Here are our alternatives. When we sin we can cover it. God says that if you do, He will chasten us. The other alternative is you can confess it. God says, "You'll have mercy."
1st John 1:9 (KJV) says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The Greek word “confess” is a word that means to put together. The word “confess” literally means to say the same thing. When we confess our sins, we say the same thing about our sins that God says about it. We have different names for sins. We want to call it something else besides what God calls it. Nevertheless, when we confess it, we start calling it what God calls it. You can come to God and say, "Oh, God, I called it righteous indignation, but You say it's sinful anger. I agree with You. God, we say that it's just a little flirtation. You say that it is adultery and fornication. I agree with You about it." You say the same thing with God.
The main question is, have we called our sin what God calls it? Of course, we know what our sins are. We know what is in our life that is coming between us and God. One of the reasons I know that I am saved is that when I sin I don't enjoy my sin. The reason I cannot enjoy my sin is because of God’s Holy Spirit that lives in my heart is convicting me and filling me with guilt and dissatisfaction. It is not that I can't sin, but it's when I do sin, I don't like it. When I do sin I want to conquer it and I want to get rid of it and I want to get it out of my life. If you have sin in your life you need to come clean before God and confess it. Call it what God calls it and God says, "I'll cleanse you and I'll forgive you and I'll send it away."
Moving on to my final thought as I conclude this study I want to briefly touch on a delicate subject that is controversial in some cases among some people. You may differ with me and that is fine, but make sure you can back up your conclusion with the Scripture in its context. Here is the issue: What about those who say they are saved and have professed to be saved and yet they give no evidence that they are truly members of the family of God? What's the answer to the question? What about people who profess to be saved, and yet they give no evidence in their life? Are they truly saved? The answer to the question is going to be very telling as we go along so keep your minds open and really stay tuned in sharply. As one of my elementary teachers use to tell us in school, “Put on your thinking caps!”
Jesus told the parable in Luke 15 about the prodigal son. He was a son when he left his father's house. He was a son who went out in the far country but at every stage in the story he was still a son. Most of the time we use this story to apply to lost people coming to the Lord, and there is application there. However, there is also application here for a child of God who gets out of the will of God. There he was in the hog pen and he said, "I will arise and go to my father."
In 2nd Peter 2:20 it is talking about professed believers, those who say they are saved but are not. It says, "For, if after they escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning."
Verse 21 says, "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."
Verse 22 says, "But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire."
In these two portions of Scripture – one from Luke 15 – one from 2nd Peter 20 – it looks like the Bible is talking about two prodigals. The prodigal son said, "I will arise and go to my father." The prodigal “sow” said, "I'll go back to wallowing in the mire.” They both returned to their father's house.
We know that Jesus told this story in Luke 15 as a parable, an earthly story to get across a Spiritual message. So let’s do the same thing with the prodigal “sow.”
The prodigal “sow” had left her wallowing in the mire and went to where everything was fresh and clean. She washed and was smelling great and everything about her was Sanitation Grade A. That went on for several days but finally the prodigal “sow” went to the son and said, "I don't like it here." The son said, "What's wrong?" The prodigal “sow” said, "It's all these clean sheets we sleep on every night. I'm used to sleeping in the mud. It's all these neat tables and sparkling plates we are eating out of. I don't like that. I like to eat my food down in the mud where I can step on it and squash it and grunt around it. I don't like this sweet fragrance in your father's house. I like the stench and the smell of the hog pen."
Then the prodigal “sow” said, "I will arise and go to wallowing in the mire – to my father." Then he takes off to the hog pen. As the prodigal “sow” is approaching the hog pen, that old papa pig sees his darling “sow” coming home he kind of rolls over in the mud and says, "Come on, kid." The prodigal “sow” that was once washed jumped right back into the mire of the hog pen and started wallowing as though she was right at home and happy to be there.
Now here is the answer that I want you to get and think very seriously about. Please, prove me wrong if you can and if you will! If you are a son, sooner or later you will arise and you will go to your father's house. If you are a “sow,” sooner or later you'll arise and go to your father's house. Do you know why I come to that conclusion? Because a son is a son and a “sow” is “sow.” You can take a “sow” and wash her, curl her tail, clean her ears, and polish her nails and even put a pretty ribbon around her neck. You can put her in a beautiful parlor, but the first chance that “sow” gets, she will be right back out into the hog pen because a “sow” is a “sow, is a “sow.” A “sow” will do that which is consistent with its nature.
In Jeremiah 13:23 God says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" The answer to that is "No." That's the nature of the Ethiopian and the leopard.
The nature of the “sow” is to act like a “sow.” The nature of a lost person is to act like a lost person. Here's the good news. What is impossible from the human standpoint is possible from the divine standpoint. God can take sinners, and by the miracle of the new birth, transform them and make them children of God.
If you haven’t already, I want to invite you to receive Jesus as your Savior.
DO YOU NEED SOME HELP?
To find more help in receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior please go to the Bible Study Title Page “ETERNAL LIFE.” Please send me an email and let me know about any decision for Christ you make so that I may pray for you. Feel free to send me any questions, comments, or responses you may have as well. For those who are already Christians I invite you to also please let me know of any decisions you make in your Christian life for Jesus. Please send me your questions, comments, or responses and let me know if the Bible Studies are helping you.
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ALWAYS REMEMBER!
The support of your local Church ministry and the ministry of your Pastor should be the first priority of your Christian life and your service to the Lord. Be faithful to prayerfully prepare and attend Sunday School and Worship Service this Sunday and participate in worship as your Pastor preaches the Word. Do not forget to give the Lord at least your TITHE through your local church from your gross income – that is your first fruits. Any other other giving is an offering to a ministry unto the Lord. Honor the Lord in all you do and with all that you have. Always remember that everything you have and all you are belongs to the Lord. It is on loan to you – so manage it well! There will be an audit one day! Make sure the Books Balance!
All Bible Studies Are Prepared by Pastor Frank Denning And May Be Be Used By Permission.