“And yet here is Christ provided for sinners, just the sort of a Saviour sinners need; and the encouragement is added, ‘Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out;’ ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’”
Now let us come to the Word. John tells us in his Gospel what Christ did for us on earth. In his Epistle He tells us what He is doing for us in heaven as our Advocate. In his Gospel there are only two chapters in which the word “believe” does not occur. With these two exceptions, every chapter in John is “Believe! Believe!! Believe!!!” He tells us in xx. 31, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that, believing, ye might have life through His name.” That is the purpose for which he wrote the Gospel—“that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that, believing, we might have life through His name” (John xx. 31).
Turn to 1 John v. 13, he there tells us why he wrote this Epistle: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.” Notice to whom he writes it “You that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” There are only five short chapters in this first Epistle, and the word “know” occurs over forty times. It is “Know! Know!! KNOW!!!” The Key to it is Know! and all through the Epistle there rings out the refrain—“that we might know that we have eternal life.”
I went twelve hundred miles down the Mississippi in the spring some years ago; and every evening, just as the sun went down, you might have seen men, and sometimes women, riding up to the banks of the river on either side on mules or horses, and sometimes coming on foot, for the purpose of lighting up the Government lights; and all down that mighty river there were landmarks which guided the pilots in their dangerous navigation. Now God has given us lights or landmarks to tell us whether we are His children or not; and what we need to do is to examine the tokens He has given us.
In the third chapter of John’s first Epistle there are five things worth knowing.
In the fifth verse we read the first: “And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” Not what I have done, but what HE has done. Has He failed in His mission? Is He not able to do what He came for? Did ever any heaven-sent man fail yet? and could God’s own Son fail? He was manifested to take away our sins.
Again, in the nineteenth verse, the second thing worth knowing: “And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.” We know that we are of the truth. And if the truth make us free, we shall be free indeed. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John viii. 36.)
The third thing worth knowing is in the fourteenth verse, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” The natural man does not like godly people, nor does he care to be in their company. “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” He has no spiritual life.
The fourth thing worth knowing we find in verse twenty-four: “And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.” We can tell what kind of Spirit we have if we possess the Spirit of Christ—a Christ-like spirit—not the same in degree, but the same in kind. If I am meek, gentle, and forgiving; if I have a spirit filled with peace and joy; if I am long-suffering and gentle, like the Son of God—that is a test: and in that way we are to tell whether we have eternal life or not.
The fifth thing worth knowing, and the best of all, is “Beloved, now.” Notice the word “Now.” It does not say when you come to die. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear; we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (v. 2).