Assured in Christ

Introduction

Today we are finishing up our series on 1st John called True Christianity. This is a series we started back in January and the main goal of this letter and our series was to define what a True Christian looks like.

As we finish out the book today, we will see that the Apostle John the author of this book finishes his letter with six truths and one warning. He gives his readers six things we can know as Christians. If you are a Christian today, these are things we can anchor ourselves too in the midst of a crazy world.

But these six truths are actually found at the end of a letter that contains at least 15 more truth statements in it. Let me read you what we have come to know from the Apostle John as we have studied his letter.

Exalting Jesus in 1,2,3 John Five Truths God Wants Every Child of God to Know (1 John 5:13–21)

1. We can know that we know God (2:3, 13, 14; 4:7).

2. We can know that we are in God (2:5).

3. We can know that it is the last hour (2:18).

4. We can know the truth (2:21; 3:19).

5. We can know that Jesus is righteous (2:29).

6. We can know that we will be like Jesus (3:2).

7. We can know that Jesus came to take away sins (3:5).

8. We can know that Jesus is sinless (3:5).

9. We can know that we have passed out of death into life (3:14).

10. We can know that no murderer has eternal life (3:15).

11. We can know love (3:16; 4:16).

12. We can know that God abides in us (3:24; 4:13).

13. We can know the Spirit of God (4:2).

14. We can know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception (4:6).

15. We can know that we love God’s children (5:2).

With all of those things in mind, I want to move on to our text for today…

Main Text

1 John 5:13–21 ESV

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

As I said, I want to close out his letter by highlighting his six big truth statements. In some ways, we could say that he saved the best for last, or as John is in the habit of doing, he is summarizing a lot of what he has said throughout the letter and closing with some of his top points.

Six Big Truth Statements

1. We Can Know That We Have Eternal Life (v.13)

It’s Possible To Know You Have Eternal Life - One of the great blessings of God has to come in this form, that we can KNOW that we have eternal life. How miserable would life be as a Christian if you are constantly guessing as to whether you have eternal life or not. You can know.

How Can You Know? Because the Bible tells me so. The Bible is crystal clear on how we become saved. Romans 10:9 “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Our songs encourage us. We used to sing a song called, “Blessed Assurance” - Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

2. We Can Know He Hears Our Prayers (v.15)

Our Prayers Do Not Fall On Deaf Ears. John says, since we know he hears us…Sometimes we think our prayers are not heard. Like they do not rise above the ceiling, but John tells us that is not true. We know that He hears us. God is not on vacation. He’s not lost. He is ruling and reigning from his throne and he hears every one of our prayers. Now, you may not feel like he is listening some time, but he most certainly hears us.

Our Prayers Are Answered - Our prayers are not only heard, but John says that he will give us what we ask for. Now, this isn’t some sort of name-it-and-claim it theology. Or a blab it and grab it one either. This is in the context of Scripture a promise that God not only hears us but that he answers our prayers according to his wisdom. It’s clear in Scripture that as true Christians, we will pray in accordance to the will of God.

The Father is Good - We’ve already been told by John that God is love. The idea here is that since God is love, the actions he takes towards us as Christians are those of love. Most of us struggle to realize that God is good. Even though we say it in our blessings, the truth is God is actually good and he wants good for us.

3. We Can Know Victory Over Sin (v.18)

Before we get to this one, I do want to take a minute and talk about verses 16 & 17.

Sins That Lead To Death - John says there are two types of sins, sins that lead to death and sins that do not lead to death. Now, from what I can tell John may be referring to the same thing as Jesus when Jesus talks about the unpardonable sin. Now many believe this is the sin of rejecting Jesus. Other commentators believe it may be something else like being a false teacher or false prophet. I tend to believe that it is an ultimate rejection of Jesus that John has in mind. Either way, John and Jesus agree that once someone has committed this sin, they are lost.

How Do We Know? The real question for us is how do we know if that person has rejected Jesus and there is no hope for them or not? The truth is we don’t. I’ve seen God soften even the hardest of hearts.

The Point Is Prayer - Regardless of where you fall on what this actually means, the point is that we should be engaged in intercessory prayer. John encourages us especially to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ. “If you see a fellow believer sinning…you should pray, and God will give that person life.” That’s the point. That your brother or sister would repent and God would give them life.

If Prayer Is The Point, Victory Is The Goal - If the point of what he is saying is that when we see someone else in sin, we should pray for them, not gossip about them or judge them, but pray for them, then the goal of that prayer is that they would find victory over our sins.

Notice our victory comes by the prayers of others. Remember John puts a big emphasis on confessing our sins to one another. If we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John believes confession is the key to overcoming.

We hide our sins. While John thinks confession is the key, we think we know better and we think we can beat our sins by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and trying harder. That is not the way of the Lord. If you want to defeat the sin in your life, it comes from the principles taught in Scripture.

Our Victory Is Complete Because Of The Spirit - The only way we can have victory over sin comes through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that lives in us is greater than the Spirit in the world (4:4). John says that God’s children follow God’s commands and that includes forsaking sin and walking in righteousness. This is what the Spirit empowers us to do. When we confess our sins, its Jesus (through the Holy Spirit) who heals us and empowers us to overcome those sins.

4. We Can Know That We Are His Children (v.19)

1 John 5:19 NLT

We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

We can know who we are. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we can know that we are saved yes, but saved into what? Saved into the family of God. WE are now his children.

This isn’t based on what we do, but who we are, but what we do does matter. If you are born again, you are born into God’s family and its not based on your work. It’s not based on your merit. It’s based on Him and what HE HAS DONE. Because of what he has done, it changes what we do. We don’t continue to sin as he said in the previous verse.

It’s Jesus that holds us, we don’t secure our own salvation. Because it’s not on us to try to earn our salvation or earn our sonship, we are now secure because Jesus is the one who holds us or secures our salvation.

God’s children are God’s children anywhere and everywhere, and shall be even unto the end. Nothing can sever that sacred tie, or divide us from his heart.

Charles Spurgeon

Because Jesus Secures Our Salvation, We Can Be Confident That We Are His Children. Jesus redeemed us, or purchased us at a great cost. That’s how we can know we are his, he bought us with his blood. The cross is what gives us confidence that we are his children.

5. We Can Know The Son Of God Has Come (v.20)

John is Writing With A Purpose - Even in the closing of this letter, John is still making his point against some of the false teachers of His day. Remember I mentioned Cerinthus last week. He was teaching Jesus wasn’t really God, but received the Christ-spirit at his baptism. John here is saying, Jesus is the Son of God and he has come. This is his way of continuing to push back against those heresies.

He says that we have understanding. This means this isn’t some secret knowledge, this isn’t gnosticism, which was another false teaching in his day. We don’t need some super gurus to sell us secrets. We have everything we need for life. Put your trust in Jesus and you will have life.

6. We Can Know The True God (v.20)

The ultimate knowledge is found in knowing Him. John promises at the end of verse 20 that if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, then you can “know Him who is true.”

Knowing Jesus, Not Just Knowing About Him - John here is not pushing for just some sort of head knowledge. If you are here today, you can know Jesus, personally. This isn’t just about learning from the Bible, this is about knowing Him intimately, following him daily and abiding in his love always.

John Warns Us To Avoid Idolatry

John Ends His Letter In An Unexpected Way. After telling us all of these great assurances we have because we know Jesus and Jesus is the truth, he ends his letter with a warning.

Avoid Idolatry. He says keep yourselves from idols. Now for us this may seem like a throwaway line. We don’t have idols in our homes. At least not in the way that we think. We think of idols as a golden calf or a buddha statue or something along those lines, but I love the way the NLT translates this verse for us. Listen…

1 John 5:21 NLT

Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

Stay Away From ANYTHING That Might Take God’s Place In Your Hearts. This is the final thoughts of the apostle John, that we would avoid things that try to take God’s place in our hearts. This is a bit more on the nose to me than just keep away from idols. This speaks to what the heart of idolatry actually is.

Idolatry is worshiping anything other than God. Or giving your heart to something other than God. Many of us get hung up on that word worship, so let me just define that quickly, we worship what we give to. When we offer ourselves, our heart, our minds or our bodies to something we are worshiping it. This is the essence of the first commandment, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and body. This is the essence of what worship is.

What Does This Look Like? If worship is an act of giving, what do we have to give? Our time, our talents and our treasures. This is the essential elements of worship. What are you giving your time to? What are you giving your money to? What are you serving?

Imagine a standard American family today…Husband, wife, two kids, both people work full time. The husband is secretly addicted to porn. The wife buys way too much off of amazon and gossips about others daily, but disguises it as “she just cares”.

They vote republican and the husband drinks at least one cold beer every night before bed and the wife has a glass or two of wine before bed, because hey it’s been one of those days.

Their calendar is full. The kids are into multiple sports and hobbies, which keep them all busy year round. Because sports team require this now, the parents have to volunteer for that sports team just so their kid can participate.

They attend church once per month on average because games and hobbies are on Sundays now and they can’t say no to their kids. And don’t even mention all of the money this cost. The team, the tournaments, the hobbies, the travel, the fast food (because they are never home), most of their income it seems goes towards their busyness.

They throw a few buck in the offering plate as it passes by, when they happen to be at church, it makes them feel good. They can’t serve in the church though because of their other commitments and their schedule.

Does this describe the Christian Life? Or did I just list out many of our idols? Is this really the life God intends for us, a life given over to the things of this world or is he calling us to something deeper?

This verse tells us that there are things that try to take God’s place. What this means practically is that everything in your life is fighting to be your top priority over God. It’s a fight. Most of us in church today would say that God is our top priority, but man, we live a life that says anything but that. We are giving our time, our talent and our money to all of these other things and while some of them are good things, they are not God things.

The Apostle John warns us to avoid, keep away from, run away from, flee ANYTHING that would seek to take God’s place in your hearts. Too often we don’t avoid it, we embrace it. We welcome it. We sign up for it.

Jesus tells us we cannot have divided interests. We cannot serve both God and Mammon. We will love one and hate the other. John tells us to keep away from the things that try to take God’s place in your heart. The question is what will you do?

Decision

This letter of 1st John is designed to give us hope and to help us overcome the evil one. There were a lot of things that John wants us to know and to root our lives in. We talked about six of them today:

We can know that we have eternal life.

We can know that God hears our prayers.

We can know victory over sin.

We can know we are his children.

We can know the Son of God has come.

We can know the True God.

So if you are here today and you don’t know these things, you don’t know Jesus as your savior, I would beg you to please not leave this place without making it right with him. And how you do that is to repent of your sins, forsake them and turn to Jesus. Pray to Jesus and tell him you want a personal relationship with him and ask him to fill you with his Holy Spirit.

And finally if you are a Christian today, John leaves us with a word of warning, stay away from idols. Keep away from anything that would seek to take God’s place in your hearts. Perhaps you have found yourself given over to the things of this world. You have allowed something else to take His place in your heart.