Truths God Wants Every Child of God to Know
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
The apostle John certainly thought knowledge was important. He was vitally concerned that his “little children” (v. 21) know a number of things to be true because they had come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God.
In fact, a quick survey of this five-chapter letter reveals at least the following things we can know:
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).
16. We can know that we have eternal life (5:13).
It is clear from 1 John alone that the child of God can know and be certain of quite a lot!
In this final section of 1 John (vv. 14–21), things we can know continue to dominate the conversation. Seven times the word “know” appears. Christianity is not an “I hope so” or “I think so” faith. It is an “I know so” faith because what has been revealed in the Bible was given to us by God, a God who speaks and a God who speaks only truth.
As John brings his letter to close, what is it, in particular, that God wants every child of His to know?
I. We Can Know That We Have Eternal Life - 1 John 5:13
I. We Can Know That We Have Eternal Life - 1 John 5:13
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
In a real sense, the entire letter of 1 John has been pointing to this verse. On five prior occasions, John has given his reasons for writing.
Summing up all these reasons for writing 1 John goes like this:
I am writing because you are true believers, but there are deceivers in your midst, and I want you to be rock-solid confident in your present possession of eternal life as regenerate children of God, so that you are not drawn away after sin. And if this letter has that effect my joy will be complete. So at the heart of his reason for writing is the desire to help them know they are born again—that they now have new spiritual life. Eternal life. (“Everyone Who Has Been Born of God”)
The apostle John tells us it is possible to have eternal life, the very life of God, and yet have doubts. However, he does not want us to have doubts. He wants us to have assurance. Therefore he provides multiple tests throughout the book (“these things” in verse 13 refers specifically to 5:1–12, but in general the phrase refers to the entire book) revolving around the three themes of belief, obedience, and love.
Those who believe Jesus is the Son of God, pursue obedience, and love others can be assured they have eternal life right now.
Today! Forever! Don’t doubt because of an ignorance of God’s Word and His promises.
Don’t doubt because of a faulty theology (e.g., eternal life is something I can lose or forfeit).
Don’t doubt because of disobedience.
Don’t doubt because of hate.
Flee to Jesus! He is the Word of life (1:1). He is eternal life (1:2).
In this fleeing we must remember: Feelings come and go, and feelings can be deceiving. My confidence is in the Son of God; no one else is worth believing.
Jesus said in John 10:28–29
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
I will take Jesus at His word. I can know I have eternal life.
With the assurance of eternal life comes another confidence: answered prayer.
II. We Can Know That God Answers Prayer - 1 John 5:14-17
II. We Can Know That God Answers Prayer - 1 John 5:14-17
R. A. Torrey said,
Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All that God is and all that God has is at the disposal of prayer. But we must use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do and since God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. (The Power of Prayer, 17)
John addressed prayer in 1 John 3:22.
And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
There he informed us that God answers our prayers when we are
(1) keeping His commands and
(2) doing those things that please Him.
John now adds a third requirement:
(3) we must ask “according to his will” (v. 14).
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
With these three keys in place, John says we can be confident toward God as we pray. We can know He hears us as we ask, and we can “know that we have what we have asked Him for” (vv. 14–15).
We might ask why anyone would want something contrary to God’s will. It is right to pray according to God’s will, and it is wise to pray according to God’s will. He knows what is best, and He wants what is best: His glory and our good.
God wants to give you what you would want God to give you if you were wise enough to want it.
Now, God’s will may be different from what you want, but I believe this: it will always be better than what you want.
Romans 12:2 tells us God’s will is “good, pleasing, and perfect.” I want what God wants for me. I want God’s will.
In verses 16 and 17 John gets specific regarding prayer. Verses 14–15 were about petitions. Verses 16–17 are about intercession.
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
First, John addresses a brother who is “sinning a sin” not leading to death. Then he addresses someone whose sin “brings death.”
The crucial question is this: Is John speaking of physical death or spiritual death? Further, does he have a Christian in view in both instances or is the second situation that of an unbeliever?
There is no place for dogmatism in interpreting this verse, but lets consider the following.
John has spiritual death in mind and two different persons in view. So his argument is that brothers and sisters in Christ can fall into sin, but their salvation and spiritual death is not at stake because they have Christ as their atonement and advocate and they believe in Him for eternal life.
If you see them in sin, don’t talk first to others about them, which is gossip. Talk first to God about them. Pray for their restoration because this is always God’s will. Pray to the Lord and He will give life; He will restore the joy and vitality of their salvation since their sins do not and cannot lead to spiritual death.
Then John addresses a sin that he says leads to death. He does not say the one committing this sin is a brother. Of this sin John says, “I am not saying he should pray about that.” Note, he does not command us not to pray, but it is clear he is doubtful that it will do any good. Now the question which confronts us is this: “What is the sin that leads to death?”
Three main views have been put forward.
1. A specific, deadly sin. (Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 11:30) It is sin that is willful and deliberate; sin that is of a serious nature. In fact there are some, like F. F. Bruce (Epistles, 124–5), see the death that results as physical (e.g., Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1–11; the Corinthians abusing the Lord’s supper in 1 Cor 11:30).
2. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (cf. Matt 12:32; Mark 3:29). This is a deliberate, knowledgeable, willful, verbal, and continual rejection of the truth to which the Spirit bears witness. It is a hardening of the heart to a degree that prayer will not help.
3. Total rejection of the gospel and Christ. (1 John 2:19) This is the sin of the false teachers who willfully and habitually oppose the witness of God concerning the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 John 2:19).
This one is not called a brother. He is an apostate. D. Edmond Hiebert is helpful here:
These false teachers manifested the spirit of Antichrist, separated themselves from the true church, and perverted or rejected the apostolic message of redemption in Christ. In deliberately rejecting the incarnate Son of God, in whom eternal life is available, they committed themselves to a spiritual attitude and course of action that could only be characterized as “sin unto death.” (“An Exposition of 1 John 5:13–21”)
If this is correct (and I think this is the best interpretation), John is saying that for those who willfully, resolutely, and irrevocably reject the biblical teaching about Jesus, death—spiritual death—is their destiny. To pray for such a one is futile and useless. It will do no good.
Verse 17 affirms, “all unrighteousness is sin,” yet John again states, “There is sin that does not bring death.” Such sin can be confronted and even conquered through the faithful intercession of one believer for another.
III. We Can Know Victory Over Sin - 1 John 5:18
III. We Can Know Victory Over Sin - 1 John 5:18
We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
Here in verse 18, John makes three powerful affirmations that assure us once again of our victory over sin.
First, we know that the person born of God does not keep on sinning.
First, we know that the person born of God does not keep on sinning.
Sin is no longer the pattern of his or her life. John is affirming the purity of our lives, not perfection, something he addressed in 3:2–3. Future glorification (perfection) impacts present sanctification (practice).
Second, “the One who is born of God keeps” or protects him.
Second, “the One who is born of God keeps” or protects him.
I like the fact that the HCSB capitalizes “One” because I believe the reference is clearly to Jesus and not us. We do not keep ourselves. Jesus keeps us.
Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten of God, protects me and keeps me safe.
Therefore, and this is our third promise, “the evil one does not touch” me.
Third, “the evil one does not tough” me.
Third, “the evil one does not tough” me.
The word “touch” has the idea of grabbing hold of something with the intent to harm.
Satan may grab at us and tempt us through doubt, friends who fall away, idols, fleshly enticements, and worldly allurements, but because of the power of Christ he cannot get us.
There again is a beautiful logic to this verse. The Devil does not touch the Christian and harm him in any ultimate sense because he is protected by the Son. And because the Son keeps the believer safe, he cannot persist in or continually practice sin. It is contrary to his nature. It is contrary to his Protector. Now we know why we have victory over sin and why we have victory over Satan.
IV. We Can Know That We Are of God - 1 John 5:19
IV. We Can Know That We Are of God - 1 John 5:19
In stark contrast to the safety of the believer in Christ, the whole world rests in the power of the evil one. We are safe, but the world is a slave. Believers in Jesus have a certain and settled knowledge that they belong to God.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
Here is confidence, an inner assurance, that spiritual death has no claim on me. Here is a certainty of the soul that sin cannot dominate me and the evil one cannot harm me (v. 18).
Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me; Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. (Norman J. Clayton, “Now I Belong to Jesus”)
Tragically, those caught up in the lies of this world-system are controlled and captivated by the power and authority of Satan himself, “the evil one.”
Satan—who blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Cor 4:3–4),
snatches the Word of God from human hearts (Matt 13:4, 9),
deceives by miraculous signs and wonders (Matt 24:24; 2 Thess 2:9), and
entices through fleshly desires and pride (1 John 2:15–17)—has the entire world in his pocket.
We are in a global conflict with an enemy that influences and in many instances controls cultures, societies, finances, and even governments.
But know this: As we move forward, we are children of God, a God who is in us and who is greater than he who is in the world. (4:4). We are His and He will protect us (5:18).
V. We Can Know What is True - 1 John 5:20-21
V. We Can Know What is True - 1 John 5:20-21
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Not surprisingly, John ends the letter as he began it: talking about Jesus! He affirms again the reality of the incarnation (“we know the Son of God has come”). He also affirms that it is Jesus who gives us understanding so that we may know Him who is true (God Himself) in and through Jesus Christ.
These words echo Luke 10:22 where Jesus said, “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.”
Because of our union with Christ, we understand the truth of the gospel, we are safe from the claws of the evil one, we know the Father, and we abide “in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ.” Of Christ it can be said, “He is the true God and eternal life.” Here is truth. Here is life.
Here is knowledge and understanding. All of this is ours by virtue of our union with Christ, because “we are in the true One.”
However, if there is a true God, there are also false gods. Therefore John provides a simple but perfect complement to verse 20 and a perfect conclusion to the letter in verse 21. “Little children,” he says, “guard yourselves from idols.”
Be on guard, John says, from god-substitutes. Paul gives us similar warnings in Ephesians 5:5 (“For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.”) and in Colossians 3:5 (“Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.”).
Idolatry is anything you love, enjoy, and pursue more than God, more than Christ, who “is the true God and eternal life.”
Idols say we are true when God says only Christ is true.
Idols say they will give life when God says only Christ provides life, eternal life.
Idols promise but can never deliver, whereas God says Christ both provides and delivers.
So guard yourself from idols of power, control, comfort, approval, position, applause, and pleasure. Your heart will never be satisfied and at rest with any of these little false gods. Only Christ truly and eternally satisfies. Jesus said it perfectly:
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Conclusion:
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the true God, and the only God who gives you eternal life—and you can have it with certainty. All you have to do is believe in His name. He and He alone is the “true God.”