AAAAAAAAA

A blog post with every single category marked (I'm doing this for scribefire)

The Gay Wizard

From the department of forbidden-magic:

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is gay.

She made her revelation to a packed house in New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday, as part of her US book tour.

She took audience questions and was asked if Dumbledore found "true love".

"Dumbledore is gay," she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.

The audience gasped, then applauded. "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy," she said.

As someone who has yet to read the final Harry Potter Book, I am annoyed at the fact that PEOPLE TALK ABOUT DUMBLEDORE IN THE PRESENT TENSE!

A rising secularism in America

And who is to blame? We Evangelicals:

When young people were asked to identify their impressions of Christianity, one of the common themes was "Christianity is changed from what it used to be" and "Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus." These comments were the most frequent unprompted images that young people called to mind, mentioned by one-quarter of both young non-Christians (23%) and born again Christians (22%).

Kinnaman explained, "That’s where the term 'unChristian' came from. Young people are very candid. In our interviews, we kept encountering young people - both those inside the church and outside of it - who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity. Their perceptions about Christianity were not always accurate, but what surprised me was not only the severity of their frustration with Christians, but also how frequently young born again Christians expressed some of the very same comments as young non-Christians."

The above quote was from Barna, one of the few evangelicals in America to use quantitative polling data to work out what is going on with American Christianity. He's not terribly good theologically, so I take his solutions with a grain of salt, but his conclusions are quite reliable.

I found this quote via reading a posting by a secular blogger named "Classically Liberal". The title of the post is "The rise of a post-Christian America". As some of you know, I have been concerned for many years that American Evangelicals have been essentially trying to punish unbelievers for acting like unbelievers. The rise of Dominionism, with its roots in heresies like Kingdom Now Theology and the Latter Rain Movement, have created an evangelical movement that is combative and overtly hostile to the world around them. It is not enough for evangelicals to believe that homosexual relationships are sinful (which is entirely biblical), but to work at stamping out homosexuality in society altogether (which is not biblical at all). Rather than presenting a God who has acted in history to provide a saviour, modern Evangelicals are presenting a God who demands to be the unelected president of the United States with the Bible replacing the constitution. This is the fruit of syncretism - a merging of American Exceptionalism, Revivalism and Biblical illiteracy. I mention Biblical illiteracy simply because, as a self-described evangelical myself, I cannot find any support for Dominionism in the scriptures. I can quite happily continue to call myself an Evangelical because I believe what the Bible says - and do this while mainstream evangelicalism continues down its unbiblical path.

The signs of secularism in America have been there for a while. Census figures show an increasing amount of people who describe themselves as having no religion. In the 2001 Census, some 50.8 million people identified themselves as Roman Catholic, 33.8 million as Baptist and 27.5 million as having "No Religion", making religious unbelievers the third largest "religious" group in America. Moreover, the amount of "No religion" adherents has more than doubled since the previous census in 1991 (Source: Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population: 1990 and 2001, 22k excel file).

I believe that when Christianity is practised biblically, the result will be a strong church. The fruit of heresy, worldly culture and biblical illiteracy will decimate any church movement over the long term - and this is precisely what is happening with American evangelicals.

I predict that over the next two decades there will be a massive realignment in American religious culture. The swing against evangelicalism will result in an exodus of members from churches. There will be a lot of "churn" - believers moving from one church to another - and during this phase there will be many churches that grow and proclaim their success while all the while the net amount of believers will shrink. Dobson and the Christian Right will continue their political activities for at least another decade before someone writes an article in Christianity Today outlining the utter failure of this movement to meet its goals.

Unbelievers will, quite rightly, point to this period in history - specifically the Bush presidency, the Iraq war and massive corruption within the Republican party - as being one in which evangelicals dominated and who are, in the end, responsible for much that has gone on. The loss of civil liberties, the sanctioning of torture and an unjust invasion that will probably end up ending the lives of between 1.5 and 2.0 million Iraqis will be seen as tragic and preventable actions that were fully supported by, and originating within, American Evangelicalism. The result will inevitably be a future America that has disdain and hostility towards the evangelical movement since it was complicit in America's humiliating disregard for its own high standards.

James Dobson - Postmodernist

From the department of Evangelical-conservatives-are-postmodern-after-all:

After two hours of deliberation, we voted on a resolution that can be summarized as follows: If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous.

The other issue discussed at length concerned the advisability of creating a third party if Democrats and Republicans do indeed abandon the sanctity of human life and other traditional family values. Though there was some support for the proposal, no consensus emerged.

Speaking personally, and not for the organization I represent or the other leaders gathered in Salt Lake City, I firmly believe that the selection of a president should begin with a recommitment to traditional moral values and beliefs. Those include the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage, and other inviolable pro-family principles. Only after that determination is made can the acceptability of a nominee be assessed.

David Cook, the principal of Sydney Missionary and Bible College, always told us that "the things that go without saying need to be said". The above quote from James Dobson's article in the New York Times is an example of why this is important.

Let's pretend that I'm in the USA and I'm walking up to Hillary Clinton. Here's how the conversation would pan out:

OSO: Mrs Clinton, do you believe in the sanctity of human life?

Clinton: Of Course I do. I don't want to go around killing people.

OSO: Mrs Clinton, do you support the institution of marriage?

Clinton: You need to ask me? I could've ditched Bill had I chosen to. Why do you think we're still together?

OSO: Mrs Clinton, do you support traditional morals and beliefs?

Clinton: Well if you mean by that the importance of personal freedom, freedom of speech, and a system of laws that guarantee them - all of which are covered in the US Constitution - then yes I am supportive of such values.

Of course the reason I chose Hillary is because she is the personification of all that is evil, especially amongst the Dobson following evangelicals. But the issue here is not what Hillary would've said, but the fact that the descriptive terms were so general that they could be interpreted by anyone according to their own set of beliefs. The sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage and traditional moral values are phrases that can be agreeable to Hillary, Osama, Bush and anyone else who represents 99.99% of the world population.

Given my understanding of Dobson's position, it is clear that the "sanctity of human life" is just another way of saying "pro-life", that the "institution of marriage" is another way of saying "no gay marriage", and "traditional moral values" is another way of saying "conservative biblical ethics". I know this. Everyone who has read or is reading Dobson's article knows this. So why does Dobson not simply say it how it is? Why has he chosen to couch these terms so neutrally? Why has he chosen to use phrases that are so woolly that they can essentially mean anything? Dobson, without realising it, is being postmodern.

One of the elements of postmodernism is the literary theory known as Death of the Author. Rather than texts having their origin in the mind of the author, this theory says that it is not the author, but the reader, who has the power to interpret the text in his or her way. The author is "dead" because meaning is not to be sought in the author's intent in creating the text, but in the reader's intent in reading the text.

Dobson's article is a classic case of deliberate obfuscation. Rather than using phrases that are clear and unambiguous, Dobson uses phrases that are nice, fluffy and ultimately confusing. It is as if he (or someone ghostwriting for him) has deliberately "toned down" his words so that they are more acceptable to readers. "Hey look at me" Dobson seems to be saying "I use these nice words. I must be okay!"

One thing that endears people to conservatism is that its values and beliefs are so clearly and easily understood. As an evangelical myself I hold to many of the same conservative values that Dobson holds - although he and I would differ strongly about how to apply them in the world of politics. Nevertheless, as one of the louder voices of American conservatism it is surprising that Dobson would choose to use phrases that communicate little, if anything, of his real beliefs.

To me, it indicates that Dobson may be trying to broaden his popularity. He might be trying to deliberately present himself as a moderate. The last guy who did that managed to get into the White House under the banner of "compassionate conservatism".

Actually, what is also interesting in this article is the following statement:

The other approach, which I find problematic, is to choose a candidate according to the likelihood of electoral success or failure. Polls don’t measure right and wrong; voting according to the possibility of winning or losing can lead directly to the compromise of one’s principles. In the present political climate, it could result in the abandonment of cherished beliefs that conservative Christians have promoted and defended for decades. Winning the presidential election is vitally important, but not at the expense of what we hold most dear.

Given that the majority of Americans appear to support a pro-choice position and support the right of homosexuals to at least exist in society, then this statement is as close as you'll ever get to Dobson admitting political defeat.

But I just wish he was clearer. The things that go without saying need to be said.

George Michael won't test himself for AIDS

From the department of you've-gotta-have-faith:

Pop star George Michael has asked for an interview in which he discusses his fears of having HIV to be removed from a forthcoming BBC programme.

The BBC has confirmed the interview will no longer feature in the documentary, Stephen Fry: HIV and Me.

Michael's former partner, Anselmo Feleppa, died of an Aids-related illness in 1995.

"On reflection, he felt it was too close and too personal a journey," said a spokesman for the singer, 44.

He added: "It was too personal for Anselmo's family to revisit."

When the documentary was launched in July, the BBC revealed details of Michael's interview.

"George says he does not believe in tests," said producer Ross Wilson.

"He says he finds the wait for results too harrowing and that he hasn't had a test since at least 2004 due to his fears it might be positive."

The two-part programme will examine how HIV is spreading and show Fry taking an HIV test himself.

Michael is still set to appear in this year's festive edition of Catherine Tate's BBC comedy programme.

In June, he became the first singer to perform at the new Wembley Stadium, nearly seven years after the last concert at the London venue.

One day before the gig, he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and banned from driving for two years after pleading guilty to driving while unfit.

The star blamed "tiredness and prescribed drugs" for the offence.

America as the New Roman Empire

I was talking to a friend the other day who remarked that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire had some unusual parallels with the current situation in the United States of America.

I'm not going to agree or disagree with this notion, however I must point out that the analogy of the Roman Empire being used to describe modern America is a common one, and one that is present in both sides of political discourse.

Fundamentalist Christians, for example, point to the moral decadence of Rome and then use that as a springboard to condemn homosexuality, abortion and atheism.

Left-wingers will point to an over-extended military, decaying public infrastructure and greater disparities between rich and poor.

But there are some important things we need to remember as we compare the US to Rome:

1. The United States has not been invaded by hordes of vandals and barbarians destroying outlying cities of the Empire.
2. The United States has not suffered massive and protracted deaths because of plagues.
3. The United States has not needed to split itself into two distinct sections in order to maintain governance.
4. The United States has not gone through periods of great famine that have resulted in the deaths of large swathes of the population.

Of course, the truth of the matter is that America is different to ancient Rome. Moreover, the broad message we get about all empires is that they eventually decline and America is no exception to this - in which case, arguments about poverty, infrastructure, the military and morals are important as general indications of decline without it needing a direct comparison. The British Empire, for example, has shrunk quite considerably from what it was hundreds of years ago but you can't really make the case that further decline is inevitable.

Sadly, I think that, just like Godwin's Law, we need to be judicious in our use of the Roman Empire in our discussions about America and its (so called) decline.

A disturbing headline

Homosexual atheists tie up Christian girl to car, drag her around.

The headline is, of course, false. Unfortunately, a girl did get dragged behind a car - but those responsible weren't homosexual atheists. Yes, you guessed it.

A question

Does anyone know of any instances where gangs of homosexuals, or a lone homosexual, has gone out and killed Christians because they think that the sexual beliefs/practices of Christians are immoral?

The reason why I ask is because it seems to happen the other way around quite a lot in the US.

Harry Potter is thinly-veiled homosexual propaganda

From Kuro5hin:

Harry's indoctrination begins in earnest when he is sent to a special school who purpose is to train him to use his wizard powers safely, while still being able to live in a world full of muggles. Young students at this school are forbidden from practicing "magic" (i.e. homosexuality) outside of the school (this is the so-called "restriction on the use of underage magic"). They are also forbidden from using magic in the presence of muggles, who might be frightened or angered by witnessing it, an obvious and heavy handed commentary on gay-straight societal tension.

The students at this school are segregated by gender, a clear attempt to encourage homosexual relationships. The most popular pastime at the school is a game called "Quidditch", which involves riding hard shafts of wood, handling several types of balls, and trying to score points by successfully penetrating the hoop. This activity is enthusiastically endorsed by school officials for obvious reasons. Harry quickly excels at this new game and quickly becomes known for his above-average broom handling.

I met Peter Blackburn the other day

Peter Blackburn is one of those unsung warriors in today's Uniting Church. Ever since the controversial "resolution 84" was passed some years ago by the Uniting Church (which essentially allowed practicing homosexuals to be ordained as Christian ministers), people like Peter Blackburn have been working effectively to strengthen the disparate evangelical remnants within the UCA.

Last Friday night our family had dinner with another church family. The wife's parents were there and I got talking to her dad, who eventually told me that he was an ordained Uniting Church minister. When I asked him his name I was sort of gobsmacked that it was Peter Blackburn, visiting his kids and grandkids in Newcastle (the church family we were visiting).

I found Peter an engaging person. The fact that God continues to work through His Spirit and His Word within the hostile Uniting Church environment today is because of courageous and biblical preachers and leaders like Peter Blackburn.

American churches able to speak against Homosexuality?

Not any more, according to the American Family Association:

A bill now before Congress (H.R. 1592 / S. 1105) would criminalize negative comments concerning homosexuality, such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit, a "hate crime" punishable by a hefty fine and time in prison. This dangerous legislation would take away our freedom of speech and our freedom of religion.

So, what should we, as Christians, do? We could:

a) Pray against the horrible, sinful and evil powers that are working against the church, or
b) Vote for respectable and godly political candidates (ie anyone in the Republican party), or
c) Organise protests and send mail outs, or
d) Check whether the AFA has actually got its facts right before doing anything.

I am continually frustrated by the errors of so many "Christian" leaders, and the stupidity of those who follow them.

Some good news about Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard is in the news again. He's leaving Colorado Springs, where his church is, and going to Phoenix, where he will probably attend the Phoenix First Assembly of God while studying a graduate degree in counseling.

What impresses me about this news is that Haggard is not going off and founding another church or making moves to "restore himself" in ministry. If my memory serves me correctly, the pastoral oversight board that asked Haggard to step down from his church (for sexual sins with a homosexual prostitute) also reiterated the fact that Haggard should never return to pastoral ministry.

Even before Haggard's fall, I was not impressed with the guy. I was actually the original creator of the Ted Haggard page on Wikipedia, mainly because I felt that he was a "wolf in sheep's clothing" within the evangelical church. Not only was a Pentecostal, he was also a dominionist and an open theist. As head of the National Association of Evangelicals and an adviser to president Bush, I saw him as a dangerous man.

So when he "fell", there was a private element of schadenfreude going through me.

But there was also cynicism. Would he be "restored" and return to pastoral ministry at his church after a period of repentance? Would he continue to be blindly followed by American Christians?

It seems that some of my cynicism was wrong. The way things are going, there is no chance that New Life Church will have Haggard back, and no chance that he will return to pastoral ministry. And that is good.

All this is based upon my understanding of what the New Testament says about elders and pastors. They should be "above reproach" and be sexually pure. Haggard, 50, has spent most of his adult life as a pastor but managed to continue pastoring even when he was engaged in private homosexual behaviour. Haggard did not come out and acknowledge his sin - it needed the male prostitute himself to publicly declare the fact (something which, by the way, many members of Haggard's church have thanked him for).

In short, Haggard can no longer be trusted to be a pastor (theological heresies notwithstanding). He lived a double life with major secret sin. I am hoping his humiliation and fall will act as an example for others - that sexual sin (amongst other major sins) by a pastor automatically disqualifies him from the ministry.

A Caveat: I'm not talking here about sexual sin committed before a person becomes a believer, but sexual sin that is engaged in before or during a believer's position as church pastor (or elder).

Let's thank God that Haggard seems to be taking the right steps, and pray that he will be strengthened in his faith during this time and spend the rest of his days in joy as he contemplates the undeserved graciousness of God.



From the Theosalient Department

© 2007 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/

FAQ about the author



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Fundies say the Darndest things

The webpage Fundies say the darndest things! is quickly becoming one of those sites where I weep with laughter and sadness at the same time. As far as I can tell, the quotes they come up with are genuine and have been sourced from Christian internet forums and discussion groups.

Here are some examples:

"No, everyone is born Christian. Only later in life do people choose to stray from Jesus and worship satan instead. Atheists have the greatest "cover" of all, they insist they believe in no god yet most polls done and the latest research indicates that they are actually a different sect of Muslims."
---
"One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it. [emphasis added]"
---
"Gravity: Doesn't exist. If items of mass had any impact of others, then mountains should have people orbiting them. Or the space shuttle in space should have the astronauts orbiting it. Of course, that's just the tip of the gravity myth. Think about it. Scientists want us to believe that the sun has a gravitation pull strong enough to keep a planet like neptune or pluto in orbit, but then it's not strong enough to keep the moon in orbit? Why is that? What I believe is going on here is this: These objects in space have yet to receive mans touch, and thus have no sin to weigh them down. This isn't the case for earth, where we see the impact of transfered sin to material objects. The more sin, the heavier something is. "
---
"I can sum it all up in three words: Evolution is a lie"
---
"I often debate with evolutionists because I believe that they are narrow mindedly and dogmatically accepting evolution without questioning it. I don't really care how God did what He did. I know He did it."
---
"I appreciate your recommendation, and it is intriguing, but as a pro-lifer, I cannot support an organization that is opposed to the death penalty."
---
"All Aboard! Everyone hop on the Darwinist holocaust train!
Well the everyone grab your ticket! The dark side is going to make it that every man, woman and child has free health care. It's not exactly the same, but for me it brings back images of the jews being led towards the death showers in Germany."
---
(Irony award goes to this one:)
Alton Verm filed a "Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials" Thursday with the district regarding "Fahrenheit 451," written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953. He wants the district to remove the book from the curriculum.

"It's just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read "Fahrenheit 451." "The words don't need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class."
---
"I don't even want to know how much you hate yourself and your life because you're an atheist. Life must be so pointless to you. I bet you amke your family miserible. That's another thing. I read your rant diary thing and I'll tell you what: that premature baby you got? I want you to know you did it. You almost killed your own baby because you reject the One True God! The sins of the father will fall unto his flower I tell you that much! How does that make you feel to know that because you hate God that you caused this tragedy in your family? If you still have a little spark of Jesus you should feel bad right now. If not it might be too late for you becaue the Devil has eaten your heart to peaces."
---
"Marijuana is the Gateway Drug.

And Darwin is the Gateway Science.

First it's evolution. Then comes plate tectonics and the Big-Bang. Then comes Athiesm. Then comes self-loathing and misanthropy, which leads to elitism and superiority complexes. The resulting social ostracization leads to homoeroticism and other perversions. The insatiable demand for money to fund extravagances coupled with the sloth that accompanies the welfare check creates a visceral hatred of capitalism. Finally, the abuser is no longer able to feel for his country and multiculturalism takes over. The transformation is complete.

I've seen it happen again and again."
---
"I didn't come to Jesus by my intelligence and neither will you my friend."
---
"Have you ever seen an airplane or a bird? They defy the theory of gravity. Dont' say stupid stuff..... theorys can be broken, that's why they're not laws....."
---
"[Re: AIDS] It's transfered through blood and there for, seeing as it started in the homosexually community, a sign from god that we cannot suffer homosexuals to live. It's common sense.

god is basically saying that if we don't kill all homo's that we will all be judged now and die."
---

Homosexuality, Anglicanism and Nigeria

Being theologically conservative, I think that it is a good thing that homosexuality within the Anglican church is being tackled by Bible-believing Christians.

But this is not what I had in mind.

1 John 5.18-19

Introduction

About seven years ago I had a work colleague swear to me
that both he and his brother had had a close encounter with a UFO.
Given the propensity of the guy to play practical jokes on people,
I wouldn't be surprised if he was pulling my leg about the whole thing.

But the business of aliens is one in which many people have been convinced of over the years.
One of the best known hoaxes over the years was the so-called "Alien Autopsy".
It was a film that purported to show two US Army medical doctors opening up a dead alien
and revealing all sorts of horrible goo and organs on the inside.

It's funny, but the word "Alien" doesn't really mean little green men from Mars.
It is actually a word that denotes an outsider
- a person who is living amongst others
but is not from the same world or country or region as the majority.

We, as Christians, are aliens.
We live in this world, but we are not of this world.
We are born of God.
An older word that is sometimes used is "Sojourner"
- which gives us the idea that we as Christians are not only different to the world we live in,
but we are travelling to a better place, a better world.

I've titled today's sermon "Alien Autopsy"
- obviously one of my more creative titles!

So if we to have our own Alien Autopsy
- a spiritual examination of the Christian
- what would we find?

Explanation of the Passage

Turn your Bibles to 1 John chapter 5, verses 18-19.

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

Let's work through this passage together.

First thing to notice is the opening words.
"We know" it says.
The word here for "know" refers to a complete knowledge.
In other words, it is talking about a solid conviction that something is true,
and a conviction that no other knowledge is required
in order to hold this belief.
It is not talking about knowing a little bit about something.
But what is it that we can know for sure?

The second thing we notice is the phrase "anyone born of God".
What this is referring to are all people who are Christians.
A Christian is someone who is "born of God".
This reminds us of Jesus' words to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 3:

I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

A person who is "born of God" is someone who has undergone a spiritual rebirth.
We are born physically once,
but because of sin,
we are born spiritually dead.
In order for us to become Spiritually alive,
the Holy Spirit must come upon us and breathe new life into us.
Theologians call this concept "Regeneration"
- we who were once dead have become alive.
But notice that while our rebirth is something that occurs because of the Holy Spirit,
it is described as being "Born of God",
in other words,
our rebirth occurs because of the will and the decision of God the Father.
So while God the Father is the one who has chosen to make us spiritually alive,
it is God the Holy Spirit that actually does the work of making it happen.

The next phrase we see there in verse 18 is "does not continue to sin".
As I've pointed out a few times before,
this idea is talking about a state of continual sinfulness
- of an attitude of rebellion and disdain for God the Father.
It is not referring to the individual sins we commit.
Taken by itself, this phrase could easily be misinterpreted.
It could be misunderstood by thinking that all true Christians live in a state of sinless perfection.

So the first sentence of verse 18 can be understood like this:

We can know for sure
- we can know completely
- that all those people who have been born again,
all those people who have been brought into God's kingdom by the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit
- we can know that these people who have been born of God
do not live in a state of continual rejection of God as their king.

So what now?
Well John goes on to explain why this is the case
- why it is that we can know for sure that the Christian,
those born of the Spirit,
can no longer live is total rebellion against God.
He says "The one who was born of God keeps him safe".
There is only one person that fits this description
- the one who was born of God is simply another way of saying Jesus Christ.
The reason why John calls him "the one who was born of God" is so that our spiritual state can be linked
to the Spiritual state and mission of Jesus.
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary through the work of the Holy Spirit.
At the beginning of his mission, the Holy Spirit came upon him to equip him when he was baptised by John.
When Jesus rose again from the dead, it was the work of the Spirit that achieved this.
And when Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit continued his work on earth
through the work of the Apostles at Pentecost and beyond.

What this phrase teaches us is that our salvation,
our standing before God,
is created and maintained by Jesus.
We can't continue to live in rebellion against God
because the sin and rebellion that is part of our nature has been taken away through Jesus.
And John makes it clear that when Jesus took it away,
he didn't just get rid of it,
he took it upon himself.
It wasn't that Jesus became sinful,
it was that Jesus took upon himself the crime and the punishment that all sinners deserve.
When Jesus died on the cross,
he took our sinfulness upon himself.
When Jesus died on the cross,
he died because God the Father chose to punish him instead of us.
This is how Jesus keeps us safe.
His death on the cross for our sins means that all the sins we have committed in our life,
and the general attitude of rebellion and disdain towards God,
was removed from us and placed upon Jesus.

It is the work of Jesus,
the work of the Son of God
empowered by the Spirit of God,
that keeps all Christians safe in salvation.

But notice what the rest of the verse says - "the evil one cannot harm him".
What John is talking about here is God's adversary, Satan; the Devil.
Now this phrase may seem a little strange.
If we look at the Bible's testimony about Satan's behaviour
we notice a number of important things.

The first thing we know is that Satan was intimately involved in original sin.
If we remember back to the first few chapters of Genesis,
we recall that it was Satan as the snake
who tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.

The second thing we know is that Satan is involved in the sufferings in our world.
In the first two chapters of the book of Job,
we learn that God allows Satan to cause sickness and suffering upon God's people.
God prevents Satan from killing Job,
but it is clear that,
given the freedom that God allows him,
Satan has the power to kill saints.
In the book of Revelation we see Satan working through various evil people
to persecute and kill Christians.
And yet here in 1 John 5.18 we are told that God keeps us safe.

What it is saying here is that our ultimate security is totally safe.
The Devil can persecute us, hurt us and even kill us.
But he can never take away God's love for us,
and he can never take away our eternal security.
God has not given Satan that power,
and he will never give him that power.
The one who was born of God
- Jesus Christ
- keeps us safe,
and the evil One
- the Devil
- cannot harm us.

Let's turn now to verse 19.
"We know that we are children of God" says John.
Again, the word here for "know" is complete knowledge.
We can know for sure.
We can have total confidence in the facts.
"We know that we are children of God".
The NIV stuffs up the translation at this point.
"Children" is not in the original text.
It should simply say "We know that we are of God".

What John is saying in this phrase
is that that we can know for sure that we belong to God's people.
We are not of the world,
we are not from the Devil.
We are from God.
We are from God because of the work of Jesus on our behalf
- he has taken us away from the world and from the Devil,
and has brought us to himself and placed us in his kingdom.

The final phrase of verse 19 says this
"we know that the whole world is under the control of the evil one".
The word for "world" here is the Greek word "kosmos".
It doesn't so much refer to the created universe
as it does to those people who live in it who are not God's people.
The "world" here is all people who have not submitted to Jesus as Lord
and have had their sins forgiven.
What this teaches us about God and Satan is quite clear.
The world is being controlled by Satan.
The church
- all those who serve Christ and trust in him for their forgiveness
- are controlled by God.

Application

So now that we have gone through the usual painful analysis of the Bible's words here,
how can we apply it to our lives?
What things do we learn about God?
What things should spur us on in the Christian faith?
What things can we take away and ponder upon as we face the world in the coming week?

There are six things about God that we learn from this passage:

1. God brings us new birth through the Holy Spirit

We have to remember that it is God who has saved us.
When we made the decision to become a Christian,
we have to remember that it was because God acted in us first to do so.
We have to remember that our old lives have been cast off.
We are no longer sinners under God's judgement.
Instead we have been reborn.
It means that God's Holy Spirit lives inside of us.
It means that we who were once spiritually dead are now spiritually alive.

Now what does all this mean for us today?
It means that God's people live transformed lives.
Because we no longer live in rebellion against God,
we live pure and holy lives.
One of the most famous sections of scripture is Galatians 5.22-24:

The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

This is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The Holy Spirit has given us new birth.
We are no longer under God's judgement and we are no longer living selfish evil lives.
It is because of the Holy Spirit living in us
that we now lives full of love for God and other people;
lives that our full of joy because of our salvation;
lives that promote peace with others;
lives that are patient with other people's sins and shortcomings;
lives that show kindness and concern for all people, even those who do not deserve it;
lives that show the goodness and grace of God;
lives that show that we are faithful, that we can be trustworthy;
lives that reflect gentleness rather than harsh and rude behaviour;
and lives that reflect self control, where we are able to stay in control of our sinful urges
and not indulge ourselves or lash out in anger and bitterness.

If we are truly born of God then we will be known by our fruit.
The fruit of the Spirit is not what saves us,
but it is a pretty good indicator that the Spirit is in us.

2. God keeps us in new birth through Jesus Christ

Since it is God who has saved us and given us new birth through the work of his Spirit,
we can know for certain that our salvation is secure.
How?
Because of the one who was born of God - Jesus Christ.

It still astonishes me that people can be so shocked by the Christian who claims 100% certainty of heaven.
Yet that is what we are promised.
All who belong to Christ,
all who have had their sins forgiven through his death and resurrection,
all these people have the certainty of heaven.

It is so easy to be depressed about sins.
We claim to be Christians and yet we sin.
The fruit of the Spirit,
which we have just looked at,
is difficult to do.
It's much easier to hate.
It's much easier to be bitter and to be selfish.
And yet when we sin we might be tempted to doubt our salvation.
But that is not the case.
Yes we should be ashamed of our sins
- that is why we confess them and repent before God at the beginning of our worship service
- but we do so knowing that they have been forgiven already.
God has given us new birth
and it is God that will maintain our relationship with him.
God has not only created the means by which our sins have been forgiven,
but also the means by which we remain Christians and persevere to the end.

When we sin we should be angry with ourselves.
When we sin we should be sorrowful before our Lord.
But throughout all this we must remember that it is God's grace that saves us,
not our obedience.
We should confess our sins and repent,
but we do so because we belong to God,
and because he keeps us in his kingdom through Jesus Christ.
The one who was born of God keeps us safe.

3. God has defeated Satan through Christ

The evil one cannot harm us.
That is what God is saying to us here in verse 18.
We have to remember that Satan is a real being.
The Devil does exist.
Banish from your mind all the images you have of Satan with horns and wings and pitchforks and red skin.
I know that the movie The Passion has a figure that represents Satan as well.
If you've seen that movie then banish that image from your mind too.
Images do not give us complete knowledge
- a picture doesn't tell a thousand words
- and Satan is no exception.

We only learn of the person and work of Satan
through what God tells us in the Bible.
I've said before that Satan is the perfect businessman, and he is.
Satan is not interested in flair or finesse.
Satan is only interested in results.
He is only concerned with the bottom line
- how to keep people from entering the kingdom of God.
And Satan does all sorts of things to achieve this.
Satan uses false teachers to confuse the church
and make sure that God's people are leading ineffective Christian lives.
Satan does not want the Gospel to be preached,
and he is happy when Christian preachers forget to preach the Gospel
or expound the Word of God.
Satan will use sickness, sufferings, persecutions and death to hinder God's work in the church.

Satan will use historical events to bring about his goal
- think of the Holocaust in world war two
and all the unconverted Jews who perished and are in hell because of Hitler.
Think of the Rwandan genocide in 1994
which killed over a million people,
most of whom would have perished without knowing Jesus as their saviour.
And think now of the situation in Iraq,
where Moslems the world over see the work of "Christian America" in torturing and humiliating people,
with Satan hardening their hearts against hearing the Gospel of Christ.
These people will die with their hearts set against the God of truth.

And yet we can know that our God is in control.
We can know that despite Satan's efforts we still have eternal life.

Let us not be surprised when we get sick,
when we suffer,
when our lives are in the balance,
or when people persecute us or disown us for our faith.
Let us not be surprised that Satan will try to use our moments of darkness to undermine our faith.
But through all this let us remember that our hope of heaven remains rock solid and secure
- not in anything we have done,
but through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

4. God has given us complete knowledge of our relationship with Him

The reason why I spent a bit of time discussing the meaning of the word "Know" here at the beginning of verse 18 and 19
is because we can so easily be unaware of just how powerful the word "know" is.
John used this word because he was teaching us that our knowledge of the situation is sufficient
- it is everything we need.
It is not saying that we can know everything about God
- that's impossible
- but it is saying that God has given us everything we need to know,
and that such knowledge gives us assurance of everything that God says.
If we are a Christian,
we don't sit there and wonder if our sins have been forgiven.
If we are a Christian,
we don't sit there and wonder if we are going to heaven.
If we are a Christian,
we don't sit there and wonder whether Satan is able to take us away from God.
We don't do that.
We know that our sins have been forgiven.
We know that we are going to heaven.
We know that Satan can't take us away from God.

This also means that we can know everything that God wants from us.
The Holy Spirit works in our lives to make us more like Christ.
When we read God's word,
the Bible,
it is quite easy for us to treat it like a chore,
like reading some meaningless book.
But when we read the Bible,
we need to remember that it is God speaking to us.
Something spiritual, something fantastic occurs, whenever we pick up the Bible and read it.
When we do so the Holy Spirit works in us.
And when we hear that word expounded and taught when we come to church,
the same sort of thing occurs.
Hearing and understanding the Word of God is the most amazing thing that can happen to us,
and yet it appears to be very simple and very unspiritual.
Yet God works through such an amazing thing.
You see, in the Bible, we have God giving us complete knowledge.
Everything we need to know about God,
about Christ,
about the Gospel,
and about living the Christian life
can be found in the Bible.
We don't need anything else.
The Bible gives us complete knowledge,
which in this case means sufficient knowledge,
about everything that God wants us to know about.

You may have heard of a man named Mordechai Vanunu.
The man was a technician in a nuclear power plant in Israel during the 1980s.
In 1986 Vanunu travelled to London
where he revealed to an investigative reporter that Israel had been building nuclear bombs.
He provided enough technical information and photographs to prove his case,
and there was an international uproar
it made the front pages of almost every major world newspaper
- Israel wasn't supposed to have any nuclear bombs at all.
Later, Vanunu travelled to Rome
where he was captured and drugged by Israeli secret agents
and shipped back to Jerusalem.
There he faced trial for treachery,
and was sentenced to 18 years prison.

What is often forgotten about this man is that,
in 1986, before he went to London he spent time in Sydney.
While in Sydney he underwent a spiritual crisis
and walked into an Anglican church there.
He befriended a minister named David Smith,
who told him the gospel.
Vanunu accepted it and became a Christian.
It was after his conversion that he decided to go to London and reveal his nuclear secrets.

Vanunu spent 18 years in prison.
Most of the time was spent in solitary confinement.
He was allowed very few personal belongings,
but because of his Christian faith,
his gaolers let him have a Bible to read.
Recently, Vanunu was released - his 18 years were up.
What was his first stop after leaving gaol?
He went to the Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem with his Christian friends,
including David Smith,
to pray and give thanks to God for his release.
After 18 years the guy was still a Christian!
God kept him safe from the evil one.
He had God's spirit in him,
and he had God's spirit-inspired Word to read and study.

5. God has chosen us to be his special people

In verse 19, John says that "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."
When John says this he is being very black and white.
He is essentially saying that there are two types of people in the world
- those who are of God, and those who are not.

We have to remember that as God's chosen people, we are unique.
We are not like the world.
God hasn't chosen us to be his people by anything that is good or wonderful in us
- he has chosen us because of his free gift of grace.
He has taken us out of the world
and made us into his special people.

This is important because it is a badge that we have to wear.
We should publically identify ourselves as Christians to those who know us.
I'm not saying that we should say
"I'm a Christian and isn't that great?",
and I'm definitely not saying we should go on about how great the Presbyterian church is!
But what I am saying is that our friends and family who know us should be aware of the fact that we are committed to God through Christ.
Now I realise that's hard
- especially when our friends and family know our sins!
But this fact still needs to be brought out.

I bumped into a young guy the other day (May 2004) while out shopping.
He was in year 12 in a Christian School,
but he told me that he wasn't a Christian.
When I asked him about the Christians at his school he was dismissive of them.
When I asked why, he told me.
All the Christians at his school were the type that went off on Friday and Saturday nights
and got drunk at parties
and swore and carried on.
But when they came back to school on the Monday they were nice Christians again
and were upheld by the teachers to be upstanding Christian leaders
and examples for others to follow.
He told me how hypocritical these people were,
and I couldn't help but agree with him.
I have grave doubts that these particular Christians at this Christian school are genuine Christians
and I think their future lives will bear this out.

It is the same with us.
If we are truly God's people,
if we truly trust in Christ for our salvation and are committed to God as our King,
then we should be obvious about it.
We should avoid sin and hypocrisy and we should lead holy lives.
And as we lead these holy lives,
people will see our good deeds,
our good attitudes,
our honesty
and our trustworthiness.
And they will see what a Christian lives like,
and they will be attracted to the Gospel
- they will ask us about our faith and what we believe.

6. God has made us aliens in this world

John says that we are of God.
We are not of the world.
The world we live in now is controlled by the Devil.
It should not surprise us that our world is opposed to God.
We should not be surprised that people will ridicule us, demean us and persecute us for our faith. We should not be surprised when our nation's laws reflect the ungodly behaviour and thinking of our lost world.

But we need to remember not to get on our high horse about all this.
We have laws in our nation that allows homosexual behaviour,
that allows sex before marriage,
that allows other religions and other gods to worshipped,
that allows greed.
Let's not be surprised.
The whole world is under the control of the evil one.

The only way things can change is when people are made spiritually alive.
People can only become spiritually alive through the sovereign work of God
as he sends his Holy Spirit onto people.
And these people can't have the Holy Spirit work in their lives
if they do not hear the message of the Gospel.
And people will not hear the Gospel
unless we as God's people tell them.
Our mission in this world
- all of us
- is as a witness to the God of grace.

But we need to remember too that this world is perishing.
A day will come when Jesus will return and take us away.
And on that day we shall be in glory,
but the world of sin and the world of the Devil will be judged and punished in the depths of hell for eternity.
While we ache at the sin of the world
and weep at the injustice and sin that wracks our society,
we must remember that our ultimate goal is eternal life,
and that our place in this world is to love God and enjoy him forever,
and in doing so we act as a witness to others of the greatness and graciousness of God.

Conclusion

So what does it mean to be an alien?
How are we different to those around us?

We are different to the world because God has brought us new birth.
Through the work of the Holy Spirit
we have been turned from a spiritual corpse to a living spiritual being.

We are different to the world because God keeps us in our new birth.
We cannot change who we are.
God has made us alive.
We cannot lose the salvation we have.
Because of Christ's death on the cross for our sins,

We are different to the world because Satan's power over us has been defeated.
When Jesus died on the cross, Satan was defeated.
And now he is our enemy
because we have been brought to new life.

We are different to the world because we know that God has saved us.
Because of what Christ has done on our behalf,
we can have total assurance that our destination is eternal life.

We are different to the world because we are God's chosen people.
God has taken us out of the world
and he has made us into his own special people.
A people who love God and will enjoy him forever.

And we are different to the world because God has made us aliens.
We have pledged allegiance to God,
we trust in what Christ has done on the cross,
and we are merely passing through this world,
heading towards heaven,
and inviting those we meet along the way to join us.

God has taken us out of this world,
and he has given us new birth
through the spiritual work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

From the Kerygmatic Department

© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.






This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

1 John 5.16-17

Introduction

When I was a younger Christian, in High School, I had quite a number of Christian friends,
and each of these friends were trying to work out how to understand what the Bible was saying and how we should live the Christian life.
When I was in year nine, I remember one friend of mine admit to me that the way he spoke and behaved showed that he was not a Christian.
He did, however, go to a church every Sunday evening,
and the service he went to seemed to really energise him in the Christian faith.
It appeared as though every Sunday he became a Christian
and as soon as he went to school on Monday he gave up his faith.
He commented to me that, if he was to go to heaven,
then he hoped that he would die on a Sunday night after church
- because that was when he was a Christian.
Now fortunately he eventually saw the problem with this
and made some form of permanent commitment later on.

I find it interesting that when I consider the Bible's teaching on the Christian life,
I always find myself thinking back to my high school days,
in those first few years of my Christian life
- I became a Christian when I was 13 years old.
And it is quite amusing to remember some of the theological things we discussed.
I remember another friend of mine coming up with a very deep theological question
- what happens if you're a Christian and you're having adulterous sex with the most beautiful girl you've ever met,
and then Jesus returns while you're doing it.
Where do you go?
Do you go to heaven or do you go to hell?
It's an amazing question because it show both
the struggle of a teenage mind to understand theology,
while at the same time showing the effects of rampant hormones.

And yet such a question is not as unimportant as it sounds because behind it lies a very important question about the Christian faith
- what happens when Christians sin?
It is the same question that underpins my friend who hoped to die after church so he could go to heaven.
What happens when Christians sin?

Now I say all this because the passage we are looking at today is one of those which addresses this issue.
It is a verse that shows that sin and belief can co-exist,
and that sin does not take away a Christian's promise of eternal life.

The way I'm going to do this is first I'm going to go through and explain what the verses say.
These verses are quite confusing
and I've had to try to understand all the different interpretations of them before choosing one which,
I believe,
fits in with the Bible's teaching best.
I'll examine some of these different interpretations
and show you where such interpretations can lead in terms of practice.
After I've explained these verses I'll then attempt to apply them
- to show how they can make us stronger and more faithful Christians.


Explanation

Let me read to you again 5.16-17:

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying we should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. (NIV)

Now John here has presented us with a doosie.
He is again using words that need to be examined carefully,
and he is using words that need to be kept in context with his whole letter,
as well as the whole Bible.

I've pretty much been beating you all with a stick over the past few years about how to read 1 John properly.
John wrote the letter to churches that had been influenced by false teaching.
These false teachers taught that Jesus did not have a body,
they taught that his death on the cross did not atone for our sins
and they taught that it was possible to live a sinless and perfect life.
Those who have studied 1 John over the decades have come to this conclusion by examining what John said in this book.
John himself thought these teachers were so bad that he labelled them antichrists in Chapter 2.

What John is partially addressing here is one of the teachings of these antichrists
- that once a person has come to faith then they can live a sinless life.
What does John say in verse 16?
If anyone sees a brother commit a sin...
Notice that John refers to a Christian who sins.
He does not say "If he sees an unbeliever commit a sin",
he speaks about a brother sinning.

Notice also what John says in this phrase in verse 16.
If anyone sees a brother commit a sin that does not lead to death.
While the phrase by itself is hard to understand,
what it does say is that when a Christian sins,
those sins do not automatically disqualify a person from salvation.
How do we know this?
Well, it is because the sin they are committing does not lead to death
- it does not lead to judgement or hell.
They sin, but their sin does not mean their salvation is lost.

But let's look at the entire sentence -
because this one is hard to understand.
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.
Now on the surface it seems to say this:
You see a Christian sinning, so what should you do?
You pray for them
- you pray for their forgiveness.
God will hear your prayer and God will give that sinful Christian life.

That's not what it says - believe me.
If it did then it would mean that a person's salvation is not dependent upon God,
but upon our prayers for them.
In other words, if you sin and a Christian does not pray for you
, then your sins remain unforgiven.
In the wider context of the Bible's teaching that idea makes no sense.
So what does it say?

It simply says this.
You see a believer sinning.
That's a bad thing to see.
So what should you do?
You should pray for them,
but you should pray for them knowing that God has given them eternal life.
You're not praying for them to be re-saved.
You're praying that God will make their sin clear to them so that they may repent
- knowing all the while that their sin, while bad, has not affected their eternal future.

But why does John word the sentence in such a strange way?
Remember that he is speaking to churches that are being influenced by false teachers.
Many Christians and church members would have been influenced by these teachers,
and any Christian who began to follow some of their teaching was in a serious situation
- they were sinning by following this wrong teaching.
But what John is saying is that, despite this sin, these people were still brothers in Christ.
More than that, we should treat them as such by praying for them
and asking God to discipline them,
to make them more faithful Christians.

But John goes on.
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death.

Now here John is being a little bit more specific.
Why does he say "I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death"?
We might think that this has something to do with the unforgivable sin that is mentioned in Matthew 12
- blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
That was my initial thought
- after all, we can sort of assume as much given that he is speaking about those whose sin does not lead to death,
rather than those whose sin does lead to death,
as though there was a sin that Christian could commit that made them lose their salvation.
Fortunately, the unforgivable sin, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is not being looked at here.

But what is?
Remember that there were false teachers and there were those who were influenced by them.
Those whose sin does not lead to death were specifically those Christians who had been influenced by this false teaching,
although they had not fully embraced it.
But John goes on to say in verse 16

There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying we should pray about that.

What he is talking about here is not the followers, but the teachers themselves.
These false teachers were described by John as antichrists.
In 1 John 2.19, John admits that these false teachers came from within the church,
but their lives and their teaching prove that they were not truly believers in the first place -
If they had been of us they would have continued with us John says.

What this teaches us is very disturbing.
John says that these false teachers are going to hell
- their sin leads to death.
John has made a judgement call on these people and it is not a good one
- these people who are leading the church away from God are ultimately heading to hell.

Now if that is disturbing, then so is what he says next -
I am not saying we should pray about that.
Now there's a lot of conjecture about what John is saying here
because he seems to say it in a rather off-hand style,
as though he just wants to avoid talking about it.
What he seems to say is that we should not pray for these false teachers.
While we should definitely pray for those Christians who have been influenced by their teaching,
we should not pray for the teachers themselves.

It was this situation that caused me to do a bit more research into this issue where I found something quite astounding.
It all revolves around the word "ask".
For us in English it is a fairly straightforward word.
But in the Greek there are two forms of the word "ask"
- which is the word used often for our praying to God for things.

It goes like this.
The first form of the word "ask" refers to pleading
- it is the word used for a person of lesser station begging for something from someone of a higher station.
The beggar in Acts 3 asked Peter and John for money
- he begged for it,
he pleaded for it,
he saw those he begged from as being superior to him.
The second form of the word "ask" has more equal footing to it.
In this form of asking, the questioner has the same status as the person questioned.
In Luke 14, Jesus gives an example of two kings who are about to go to war,
one of whom asks for peace
- the word ask here refers to asking someone of equal status.

As an aside, in John 14-16 Jesus mentions quite a few times that he will "ask" the Father on the disciples' behalf. One example is John 14.16 "I will ask the Father and he will give you a helper to be with you forever - the Holy Spirit". The word used here is asking on an equal footing. This indicates that Jesus did not see himself as being inferior to God the Father, which is additional support for the idea of Jesus being God.

But what we have here in verse 16 are two asks.
When we ask God about the brother who sins,
we are pleading with him.
But when John says we should not ask about those whose sins lead to death,
the asking referred to here is one of equal footing.

I think what is being said here is that praying for those whose sin leads to death
- specifically here these false teachers and antichrists
- is actually an act of presumption.
It's one thing to walk up to a king and plead for your life or for the life of someone else.
It's another thing to walk up to a king and ask him for a million dollars.

All this seems to be proving the point that John is asking the church to NOT pray for these false teachers.
It may seem a rather strange thing to do,
but this is not unusual.
In Jeremiah 7.16-18, God says to Jeremiah about Israel
"Do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you".
Amazing words.
What they indicate is God's judgement
- that God is so angry with the sin of Israel that he commands the prophet to stop praying for them.
God says the same sort of thing in Chapters 11 and 14 of Jeremiah.

Now what about verse 17?
All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
All John seems to be doing here is re-stating what he's already said.
Christians are capable of sin and wrongdoing,
but these sins do not lead to a loss of salvation.

So, what can we summarise so far?

What John is saying in these two verses is, essentially, quite simple.
If you see a Christian sinning,
pray for them knowing that they have not lost the promise of eternal life.
Do not, however, pray for these false teachers
because they are opposed to God and God is sick of them
and will bring them to death and destruction.

Application

So that is what the passage means.
We've gone through all that painful process.
How should we apply it to our lives today?

There's five things that we can glean from this passage about God that is important to learn.

1. That God is the one punishes unbelief with spiritual death.

Firstly, we learn that God punishes unbelief with Spiritual death.

This is not the main thrust of the passage, but it is certainly important in understanding it.
We have to remember that there are essentially two types of people in the world
- those who are headed to eternal life and those headed to eternal death.

Who goes to hell?
We might want to think that it's all those horrible murderers and paedophiles and so on.
But the simple fact is that anyone who does not have their trust in Christ is headed to hell.
Why is this so?
It is because hell
- the lake of fire mentioned in Revelation 20
- is where all sinners go to be punished.
And because all people sin, we know that everyone deserves to go to hell.
Now the language in Revelation is quite symbolic
- hell is not literally a lake of fire
- but it does give us the message that hell is the worst place to be.
How do we avoid hell?


2. That God is the one who grants eternal life.

Well the second point of application is that God is the one who grants eternal life.
We have to remember that we cannot escape God's judgement through anything we do.
It is God who grants us eternal life.
It is he who sends his Spirit on us and breathes new life into us,
and it is the Holy Spirit in us that causes us to repent and trust in Christ as He uses the message of the Gospel that we hear.

Romans 6.23 describes this situation well.
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What this tells us is simple
- what our sins earn is death.
We deserve death for our sins.
Death is not our reward for sin, it is our right
- we earn it.
But eternal life is not earned
- it is a gift from God.
John says here in verse 16 "God will give him life"
- God is the one who brings us life.

And how do we get this life? How are our sins dealt with?

3. That God forgives the sin of all believers.

The third point of application is that God forgives the sin of all believers
- all those who are his have had their sins forgiven.
Now this is probably the major point of these two verses.
All who belong to God have eternal life
- which means, of course, that their sins have been forgiven.

John explained this in greater detail way back in Chapter 2.
There he states that Jesus' death on the cross was a sin sacrifice
- he died in our place and took upon himself the punishment from God that we deserved for our sins.
And because this punishment had been transferred to him,
we are now declared innocent.
Even though we are still living in the sinful world,
and even though we still sin, we have been forgiven.
In Chapter 1 John says that Jesus' blood cleanses us from all sin.

It is a testimony to the effectiveness of Jesus' death that all subsequent sins we commit after our salvation are dealt with as well.
You see, if this was not the case
- if we commit sins after our salvation and therefore lose our relationship with God
- then it means that the cross is not what saves us,
but our continual obedience to God's rules,
which is, of course, impossible.
If this were our situation,
then Christ's sacrifice would merely be a temporary solution to our problem.

For us this means joy!
It means the realisation that our Christian life, while hard, ultimately does not depend on us but upon God.
We've all sinned.
We have all sinned despite the fact that we have turned to God in repentance and faith.
Is this sin wrong? Yes.
Is this sin serious? Yes.
Should we do all we can to avoid sin? Yes.
Should we lose heart? No, absolutely not.
Why? Because even though we sin while being a Christian, we can know that God has forgiven us.
Why do we repent?
Why should we be sorry for our sins? We do so because we're Christians.


4. That God listens to our prayers and acts.

The fourth point of application is that God listens to our prayers and acts.
There is nothing wrong with coming to God with important things.
It pleases God to hear our requests and answer them.
In the context of this passage,
it means that when we pray for believers,
we should pray that God will lead them away from sin and error.
We should pray for our fellow believers who reject or ignore parts of God's truth,
so that they may please God and be strengthened in their faith.
And we pray for them knowing that God will not take away their salvation.

All this fits in with the previous three verses - verse 13-15.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if he hears anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him.

When we pray for believers, we can be confident that God is working in them to strengthen them and make them holy.
We know this is the case because it is God's will that this be so.
Verses 16-17 -
what we're looking at today
- are an example of how we should pray.
We should pray and God will give them (the sinful Christian) life.

What this verse teaches us is that we should always keep our Christian brothers and sisters in mind when we pray.
It teaches us that another person's faith is our business.
We don't keep our faith to ourselves
- it is not something private.
And when we see a fellow Christian brother or sister who sins,
we should pray for them.
Of course we should rebuke them, correct them, encourage them and so on
- but we need to remember that none of this is effective without the work of God,
which is why the first resort always is to pray.
We may prefer action,
but no action is of greater benefit than to pray for someone first.

5. That God takes bad theology and false teaching very seriously.

The fifth point of application is a very serious one - God takes bad theology and false teaching very seriously.

Now I know that over the years I've got up here and named names and discussed certain types of belief that is bad.
One of the curses that God has given to me while studying 1 John is the realisation that bad theology and false teaching is something that God hates.
And although I want to be nice to people,
although I want to say that God works in different ways in different churches
and that God doesn't mind differences of opinion,
I can't - I just can't.
When you read the Bible with the understanding that it is God's word,
and then you hear or read about what some Christian leaders are saying,
and when you realise that what they are teaching is different to what the Bible is teaching,
then you have no choice but to speak up.

It really is a curse.
I have become less tolerant and more worried about the state of the church since I began preaching through 1 John on the 4th of March 2001 at the Redhead Presbyterian church.
I desperately want to believe and say that things are alright,
that doctrine and theology don't really matter,
and that we're all one big happy family.
But I can't.
1 John compels me to be negative at this point.

In 1 John, God has been teaching me about these false teachers.
He has been teaching me that false teachers distort the message of the gospel.
False teachers downgrade the importance of solid biblical theology.
God has taught me that those who reject the notion that Christ died on the cross as a sin substitute are wrong.
And more than that. God has taught me that such false teachers are not really members of the church,
that they are unbelievers.
These false teachers are heretics
- they are teaching things contrary to scripture.
He has taught me that these people are antichrists
- people used by Satan to destroy the church.
And in these verses today God has taught me that these false teachers have nothing but eternal damnation to look forward to.

And who have I named as I have preached through 1 John?
Who are some of these false teachers, these heretics, these antichrists, these people who are destined for eternal damnation?
Samuel Angus, Presbyterian New Testament Scholar at St Andrews Theological College in Sydney during the 1920s and 1930s.
A man who taught that Jesus was not God, that his death on the cross was not for our sins.
I have named Peter Carnley
- current Anglican Bishop of Perth and Primate of the Anglican church in Australia.
A man who denies the physical resurrection of Christ,
a man who has used his influence to prevent others from preaching the substitutionary atonement.
I have named Bishop John Spong,
formerly Anglican Bishop of New York,
who has rejected the resurrection of Christ and promotes homosexuality as a God-given gift to people.
I have named faith healer Benny Hinn.
A man who denies the Trinity,
a man who has claimed to speak directly from God and yet none of his prophecies have come true.
A man who uses his popularity and the gullibility of a large section of the Pentecostal church
to line his own pockets and fill his bank accounts.

Samuel Angus is in Hell.
Peter Carnley, John Spong and Benny Hinn will join him there one day.

During the 19th century, in America, there was a man named Charles Finney.
Finney was an evangelist.
Thousands were converted during his crusades.
His influence was so great that he is considered the most influential person in the life of the American church.
Evangelist Billy Graham, Christian musician Keith Green and a whole host of others have all spoken highly of Finney
and his influence upon them and their ministry.

When Finney was alive,
he gave a number of lectures on theology.
In one of these lectures he answered the question
"Does a Christian cease to be a Christian when they sin?"
That's what we've been looking at today.
What was Finney's reply?

Whenever he sins, he must, for the time being, cease to be holy. This is self-evident. Whenever he sins, he must be condemned; he must incur the penalty of the law of God.... The Christian, therefore, is justified no longer than he obeys, and must be condemned when he disobeys; In these respects, then, the sinning Christian and the unconverted sinner are upon precisely the same ground.

What is Finney saying?
He is saying that a Christian who sins loses his salvation
- the opposite of what the Bible is saying
- what this section of 1 John is saying.
What else did Finney say?

The doctrine of an imputed righteousness, or that Christ's obedience to the law was accounted as our obedience, is founded on a most false and nonsensical assumption, for Christ's righteousness could do no more than justify himself. It can never be imputed to us.... It was naturally impossible, then, for him to obey in our behalf. Representing the atonement as the ground of the sinner's justification has been a sad occasion of stumbling to many.

What is Finney saying here?
He is saying that when Christ died he did not die for our sins.
He is saying that Christ's atonement
- his death on the cross
- is not the basis of our salvation.

In Galatians 1.9, the Apostle Paul says
"If anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned".
Was Charles Finney preaching the Gospel? No.
He was preaching a false gospel.
He denied the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
He denied that our salvation depends on God's work.
He preached that we alone are responsible for our salvation.

Finney was a false teacher.
He was a heretic.
He was an Antichrist.
He taught a different gospel and has been eternally condemned.
And yet he is lauded as the greatest influence on American Christianity.
Have you ever wondered why the church is so sick?

I truly am sorry that I can't be nicer.
It is not that I'm in a negative frame of mind,
but I honestly feel that the word of God is compelling me at this point.
In the past I would have qualified my remarks about these false teachers,
but we have to understand that John doesn't do that here.
He doesn't say "these false teachers are heading for hell if they don't repent".
He doesn't say "there is a possibility that God will condemn them if they continue on teaching this stuff".
No. John says "there is a sin that leads to death". A
nd John is so hard on these false teachers that he even instructs us to not pray for them.
How arrogant is that?
How hard-line is that?

Conclusion

We should finish.

I don't want to finish today in a negative frame of mind.
The Apostle John, despite his firm teaching, is not hopeless in this situation.
Instead, he is quite hopeful.
Why is that?
It is because the Christian life is one in which we enjoy God's forgiveness.

God gives life to all those who trust in him,
who have repented and placed their faith in the death and the resurrection of Christ.
Our salvation is not up to us,
it is up to God.
God saves us.
God maintains our salvation, despite our sin.

We all know that sin is something we have to take seriously,
but the passage we've looked at today gives us great encouragement. Why?
Because despite the seriousness of sin,
we can trust in God's activity to save.

And this is why we should be wary of false teachers,
and why we need to be discerning,
and why we need to call a spade a spade
and call a heretic a heretic.
We do it because The Devil is desperate for the church to be confused about the faith.
We do it because it is The Devil's desire for the Gospel of grace to be hidden,
to be denied,
to be forgotten.

If we lose our salvation every time we sin,
then the death of Christ is useless, and our eternal state depends not on what God has done,
but upon what we do.
Praise God that this is not the case.
Praise God that he has brought us from death to life.
Praise God that he keeps us safe.
Praise God.

From the Kerygmatic Department

© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

1 John 5.1-5

Introduction

July 2003 (this year) was a landmark month for one of Australia's largest Christian denominations.
The Uniting Church became the first to formally accept as ministers people who were living in open homosexual relationships.
For those of us who have been observing the Uniting Church for many years, the decision was inevitable
- after all, the organisational hierarchy of the church and the various theological colleges around Australia have been quite openly progressive in their beliefs and in their actions since union in 1977.
Since many in the Uniting Church leadership had dispensed with the objective authority of the Bible,
it was only a matter of time before church policy and belief dispensed with Christian morality.
As someone who has kept tabs on the Uniting Church for the past ten years,
I can tell you that this recent decision did not come as a surprise to me since I knew that it would eventually come.

What was surprising, however, was the strength of the resistance towards this decision from within the Uniting Church.
There is, within the church, a group called EMU
- Evangelical Ministers in the Uniting Church.
The chairman of EMU is a woman named Mary Hawkes.
After the Uniting national Assembly had passed the motion to allow homosexual ministers,
she wrote about her thoughts and feelings on the EMU website,
where she made the following comment:

There was never a chance that the Assembly was going to refuse this motion and I can only see that as being the hand of God in the beginnings of judgement. I fear for the future of the UCA as we know it. We cannot go on mocking God and belittling his word with no consequences. If this does not bring us to our knees before the Lord then I don't know what will. We must cry out to God in repentance and ask for mercy, as well as seeking His way forward.

Since Mary Hawkes wrote that initial response, she has met with Uniting Church believers all over the country,
with many of the meetings hosting upwards of 1000 people,
all of whom were angry and confused and wanting direction.
What is obvious from this backlash by Uniting Church Christians who hold the Bible as the objective word of God
is that the church,
at the very least, is heading towards a time of great turmoil or,
at the very worst, a formal split.

I am not here today to discuss the issue of homosexuality and Christian belief.
What I am merely pointing out is that when the leaders of Christian churches ignore the plain teaching of scripture they will inevitably be guided not by God,
but by the values and beliefs of the world around us.
A world that is cut off from God and his word, and a world that lives in defiance of him.
It is, in the end, a world that is governed by the Devil.
When a church ignores what God is saying it can only then begin to listen to what the Devil is saying.
The acceptance of Homosexuality as a legitimate form of relationship is merely one of a multitude of satanic teachings and beliefs held by churches worldwide who have abandoned God's word.
And when a church abandons God's word,
they abandon God,
and God abandons them.

But all this begs the question from us
- why is the world seemingly beating God?
Since the church is being taught not by God but by the world,
does this mean that God is defeated?
Is God losing the war against unbelief?

The answer to that question is obvious - no.
God is not losing,
and he is not going to be defeated.
While the influence on the Devil in the church is undeniable,
what is also true is that God is working to defeat the world
and defeat the power of Satan.

Let me read to you 1 John 5.1-5 again:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

God will be victorious over the world, and we are an essential part of that victory.
What is interesting is that God as Trinity is involved in this victory.
God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all mentioned in these 5 verses
and together work to defeat the world.

So let's move on to my first point:
The Father's victory over the world.

1. The Father's victory over the world.

When John uses the word "world" here, he is referring to the world of opposition to God
- he's not referring to the creation we see around us.
But since God created everything,
he is therefore the creator of all those who oppose him.
It is therefore in God's interest to destroy all opposition to his rightful rule.
And God does this by two means
- the first is that he calls those who oppose him to repent and beg him for mercy,
the second is by eventually using his power to punish all who have rebelled against him.
To the first group of people he grants forgiveness and eternal life.
To the second group of people he brings judgement and eternal damnation.
Now while the hellfire and brimstone segment of God's rule is not to be ignored,
these verses do not refer to God's judgment.
Instead, these verses are directed towards those who have repented and been forgiven
- the church.
Us.

The church is therefore God's way of defeating the world.
By "church" here I am not referring to denominational structures or buildings,
but all people throughout all time
who have turned to the Father in repentance
and have been forgiven.

The first thing we see the Father doing to defeat the world is by sending his Son, Jesus, as the Messiah.
What we see here is the relationship between the mission of the Father and the mission of the Son.
Both are striving for the same goal,
but both have different roles to play.
When it says in verse one that Jesus is the "Christ",
we have to remember that the title "Christ" can also be translated as "Messiah."
A fuller explanation of what this means will occur presently.
All we need to know at the moment, however,
is that the Messiah,
the Christ,
is the one whom God has sent to earth to create the church.

The second thing we see the Father doing to defeat the world is that he adopts us as his children.
Look at the end of verse one.
"Everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well."
We might like to think that "his child" refers to Jesus,
but this is not what it means.
"His child" is anyone who is part of God's church.
What this verse teaches us is that when we become members of God's church,
we enter into a relationship with God
- we can call him Father.
And if we can call him Father,
then we must be his children.
We are not simply people who live under the King's rule,
we have actually been adopted into the royal family by the decree of the King.
God is our king and ruler,
but he is also our Father and protector.

The third thing that the Father does to defeat the world is by being the focus of our worship and love.
In verses 2 and 3, John says
"This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and keeping his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands."
God is the one whom we love,
he is the one whom we serve.
The world does not love God
- it hates God.
So if God is going to defeat the world by creating the church,
then the church must have God as the centre of their love and adoration and worship.
You can't be a member of God's church if you don't love God.
Why? Because God called us into his church for us to treat him properly.
And the only proper way to treat the God of all creation is to love and serve him.

The last thing that the Father does to defeat the world is by giving his people, the church, commands to follow.
Our love for God is not blind, it is not simply based on emotion.
God has given us commands for us to follow
- commands that, according to verse 3, are not burdensome.
What are God's commands?
If we are God's people then our lives will reflect the truth about God
and we will treat God and other people the way God wants us to treat them.
How do we know this information?
God has given it to us in scripture - the Bible.
In this book is God's living word, speaking to us and guiding us to live lives for God's glory.
This side of heaven we will all fail in our duty to obey these commands,
but the reason why they are not burdensome
is that our obedience to them is not what saves us.
God saves us, and gives us these commands to follow
- but praise God that we don't have to rely on ourselves to obey them
or remain in relationship with God.

So those are the four ways the Father has victory over the world
- by sending his Son, Jesus, as the Messiah;
by adopting us as his children;
by being the focus of our worship and love;
and by giving us commands to follow.
The Father has done these things so that we, the church,
can be brought out of the world that opposes God's rule,
and be brought under his rule and serve him properly.

I have it on good authority that the people of Japan are, by and large, a law abiding culture.
Like any culture or nationality they have their faults,
but one thing they do show is a respect for the community.
When you get on a bus in Japan, you pay your money into a machine inside the bus.
You have already figured out how far you are going to travel and you buy a ticket accordingly.
The bus driver doesn't even check your ticket.
But you can see how this can be abused can't you?
It is easy to simply buy the cheapest ticket all the time and travel as far as you want because no one is going to check your ticket.
Does this happen in Japan?
Yes, but only very rarely.
The people, by and large, accept this rule and obey it without question.

If we are part of the church then we have been called by God through the person and work of his Son and Messiah, Jesus.
If we are part of the church then have been adopted by God into his family and are his beloved children.
If we are part of the church then loving God will be our prime focus,
and we will obey his commands because they are not a burden to us.
When a church loses sight of all these things then we can conclude that God is not in their midst and they are not, in fact, the church
- after all, they are being controlled by the world, not be God.

So that is how the Father has victory over the world.
What about the Son?
What about the work of Jesus?

2. The Son's victory over the world.

I mentioned earlier that Jesus is the one sent by God to create the church.
The word "Christ" is a Greek word that means "Messiah",
a Hebrew word found in the Old Testament.
Christ is not Jesus' surname
and the Messiah is not music written by Handel.
Christ and Messiah mean the same thing.
In Psalm 2 verse 2 are the words
"The Kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather against the LORD and against his Anointed One."
The words "Anointed One" refer to Israel's king
- the person God has put on the throne to lead his people Israel.
When Samuel meets David for the first time in 1 Samuel 16,
he anoints him with oil
- a ceremony that indicates God's special blessing upon him for him to become king,
which David eventually becomes.
The Hebrew for "anointed one" is the word "Messiah".
Later in the Old Testament, prophets predict a return of a special king sent by God.
This king is similar to King David,
except that his power and rule will be far more spectacular than anything David could produce.
This Messiah,
this special king sent by God,
will defeat all of God's enemies
and bring peace and justice to the world.
This Messiah will also bring to himself God's people,
who will live in paradise for ever more.
There are also indications in the Old Testament prophets that this Messiah is in some way God himself in human flesh.

So who is the Messiah?
He is a king sent by God to destroy God's enemies, to bring to himself God's special people and is in some way God himself.
Well guess who we're talking about here?
Jesus of course.
Jesus is the Christ, he is the Messiah.
He destroys God's enemies
and has created the Church as God's people,
and he is God himself in human flesh.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God.

The first way that the Son has victory over the world is the fact that he as Messiah was sent by God.
Although it is impossible for us to understand the nature of the divine Trinity,
we need to accept the fact that there is some level of hierarchy.
The Son does not act on his own,
he acts because he obeys the Father.
Jesus did not take it upon himself to come down as Messiah.
He was sent by the Father to do this.
We need to understand that Jesus' mission on earth was determined by the Father.
God did not choose to act in many different ways
- he chose to act in one way,
through the mission of his Son, Jesus.

The second way that the Son has victory over the world is that he as Messiah died for God's church.
With all the Old Testament prophecies speaking of a glorious, powerful ruler,
we need to also remember that the Messiah was also prophesied to be the suffering servant.
In Isaiah 53 verse 5 we read of this suffering servant that
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
The Messiah came as king,
but he also came to suffer and die.
Remember that the world is opposed to God's rule,
and God will deal with the world by either forgiving those who repent or by punishing the unrepentant with eternal damnation.
But if God is a God of justice,
how can he merely forgive people their sins?
That verse I read from Isaiah 53 shows that the Messiah's death will atone for the sins of God's people, the church.
God has forgiven us,
but he still deals with our sins justly through the death of Jesus.
If God is to take for himself a people from this sinful world,
then he must still deal justly with their sins while at the same time being gracious and loving.
Jesus, the Messiah, the King God sent to rule over us as his people, willingly sacrified himself on the cross
so that the sins of the church may be atoned for.

The third way that the Son has victory over the world is through his resurrection.
When Jesus was crucified, Pilate placed a sign above him saying "King of the Jews".
The death of a king is a momentus thing in the life of a nation.
For us as God's people, the death of our Messiah, our King sent by God, could be seen as a defeat.
But Jesus didn't stay dead.
The Gospels record for us that he rose again and was seen by his followers and many others for months following his death on the cross.
If Jesus is the Messiah, the King sent by God to create the church, then he could not stay dead for long.
His resurrection defeated death, and shows that all who belong to God's church will one day too be raised from the dead.
We are all going to die one day,
but because we are members of Christ's church,
our death will not be permanent
- we will live again.

The final way that the Son has victory over the world is when he as Messiah returns again.
We live in a world where the majority of people still reject God and his rule.
We are the Church that Christ has created,
but the world is still opposed to God.
It appears we are in a stalemate.
But we're not.
Jesus, after his resurrection, went to be with his Father in heaven.
But he will return one day,
and when he does the world as we know it will cease to exist.
We who are his people will go to be with him in paradise forever,
while those who are not will suffer eternal death and suffering.
Jesus has yet to return to allow time for people to turn to him in repentance.
The world that opposes God will one day be destroyed when Jesus returns to judge them.

So the Father has victory over the world,
and the Son has victory over the world.
What about the Spirit?
How does he have victory over the world?

3. The Spirit's victory over the world.

One of the most obvious questions about these 5 verses in 1 John is "why talk about the Holy Spirit when he isn't even mentioned?"
In these verses we see Jesus mentioned,
and God mentioned,
but where is the Spirit mentioned?
Well, it's quite easy
- In verse one and verse four we see the phrase "born of God".
"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" it says in verse one.
"Everyone born of God overcomes the world" it says in verse four.
This phrase "born of God" refers to the idea of Spiritual birth.
When Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about the necessity to be "born again" or "born from above",
he is referring to Spiritual birth.
Being "born of God" means that God's Holy Spirit is at work in the church.
It therefore means that the Holy Spirit is part of God's victory over the world.

In the Nicene creed we read the words
"We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son."
Remember that the Trinity has some level of hierarchy to it.
We've already seen that the Son can only act in accordance with the will of the Father.
Well it's the same with the Spirit
- the Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son" says the Nicene Creed.
What this recognises is all the Biblical evidence to show that the Holy Spirit acts and works only in accordance with the will of the both the Father and the Son.
And if it is the will of the Father to create the church through the work of the Son,
then it must therefore be logical to see the person and work of the Holy Spirit through this process.

Now if you like sermons that have nice structures then surely you'll have liked today's.
I have three main points about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Each of these main points has four sub points about how they have victory over the world.
Let me just say that I didn't really try to make it this way,
it sort of happened.

The first way the Spirit has victory over the world is through the power of rebirth.
If the world is opposed to God
and God is determined to call the world to repentance
and to create for himself a people out of this sinful world,
then the people who make up the church have to be born again
- they have to be born of God's Holy Spirit.
Sin is so awful and is so powerful that we as sinners cannot control it
- sin controls us.
And because sin controls us,
we cannot of our own free choice choose to repent and have faith in God.
The reason is because sin makes people spiritually dead.
And when a person is dead,
they have no free choice to act in the world that they are dead in.
When a person is physically dead,
they cannot freely act in the physical world.
Go for a walk in a cemetry and ask one of the dead people a question.
Will they answer? No.
Not because they choose not to, but because they can't
- they're dead!
When a person is spiritually dead,
they cannot freely act in the spiritual world.
The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring people back to life spiritually,
and when that has been done, they will automatically choose to repent of their sins and turn to God in faith.
We need to remember that our Spiritual rebirth is something that God initiates through the Work of the Holy Spirit.

The second way the Spirit has victory over the world is through the power of knowledge.
What sort of knowledge?
The knowledge of the Gospel of Christ.
In verse one we read "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."
In other words, those who have been spiritually reborn,
those who have been born again,
are those people who know and acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ
- that Jesus is the Messiah.
Remember that the Holy Spirit does not work apart from the work of the Father and the Son.
I've already spoken to you about the work of the Son as Messiah
- how he came to earth to die and rise again
so that we might be forgiven,
that God might create for himself the church.
It is that message, that knowledge, that the Spirit uses.
If a person is truly born again of the Holy Spirit then they will know and accept the message of Christ crucified and risen again.
The reverse is equally true
- if a person is not truly born again of the Holy Spirit then they will be ignorant of or hostile towards the message of Christ crucified and risen again.

The third way the Spirit has victory over the world is through the work of Christian love.
In verse one we read that "everyone who loves the father loves his child as well."
If we truly have the Spirit of God,
if we have truly been born again,
then the natural outworking of this fact will be a genuine love for other members of the church.
I've spoken at length about love in previous sermons on 1 John,
but what we see here again is the simple fact that love is one important indicator of true faith.
If we have God's Holy Spirit, then we will love one another.

The final way the Spirit has victory is through an ongoing resistance to the world in the lives of all true believers.
Verse four says "everyone born of God overcomes the world".
We need to understand that when John says "overcoming" here in these verses, he is talking about both a single event and as an ongoing process.
In other words, when we overcome the world,
we overcome it through our conversion to Christianity
- the single event
- and we overcome it through our persevence as believers
- the ongoing process.
If we are to be faithful Christians
and if we are to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to avoid the sins and pitfalls of this evil world,
then we must turn to the Spirit-inspired word of God.
God's Holy Spirit created the Bible,
and through reading it, studying it and speaking it to others,
the Holy Spirit works powerfully.
And when this is done, the world is being defeated.
This is more than just head knowledge, it is applying the Bible's teaching to our daily lives.
Without the work of the Spirit within us as he speaks to us in the Word of God,
we would never be saved,
we would never be part of God's church,
and we would never be able to resist the world's evil.

Conclusion

We need to be thankful that God is still working in the Uniting Church of Australia.
Despite the massive influence of the world in the church, there are still many believers who have remained faithful to God and his word,
and who have been spurred to action by recent events.
We need to be thankful to God for our own denomination,
the Presbyterian Church of Australia,
that despite decades of unbelief and heretical teaching,
the true believers in the church remained faithful and have been used by God to turn the church away from the world,
and instead submit to the Father.

God is creating for himself his own people, taken from this world of unbelief
- the church,
the true church, not some business organisation.
And by doing so he has defeated the world.

God the Father has defeated the world by sending his Son, Jesus, as the Messiah to create his church.
He has defeated the world by adopting us, the church, as his children.
He has defeated the world by being the focus of the church's love and worship,
and by giving his people commands to follow.

God the Son has defeated the world because he was sent by God to rule over the church as its King and Messiah.
He has defeated the world because by his death on the cross he atoned for the sins of the church.
He has defeated the world through his defeat of death through his resurrection, bringing new life to all who turn to him.
And he will finally defeat the world when he returns in glory to bring his church into paradise and bring those who oppose him to death and judgement.

God the Holy Spirit has defeated the world by acting to bring us from spiritual death to spiritual life
because of our inability to do so ourselves.
He has defeated the world by working in and through the message of the Gospel that the church believes and trusts in.
He has defeated the world by causing the church to turn to one another in love and concern, rather than being selfish and uncaring.
And he has defeated the world by giving us the strength to persevere as we trust in God's word
and resist the evil and temptations of the devil.

We believe in a mighty God.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you powerless and humble. It was you who created us and saved us from death and judgement. Thank you for sending Jesus to die and rise again, and thank you for sending us your Spirit to make us alive and to strengthen us as we await your final victory. Amen.

From the Kerygmatic Department

© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.