Abiding Assurance

1 John 5:13–19 NKJV

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. 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. 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. 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. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

Prayer

Last week, we examined the testimony of God being the grounds for our confession.

We saw how the confession of Jesus being the Son of God and belief in His name was the only way to find life.

God’s testimony was the way we have confirmation that we really are believing the right things.

In a world of darkness, and deception, the only comfort is found in assurance.

Assurance that you have eternal life, that your prayers are heard, you have spiritual protection, and you belong to God.

Today we are going to examine four different kinds of assurance for the believer.

1 John 5:13 NKJV

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.

The first kind of assurance is…

Assurance of Eternal Life

John concludes his letter by reminding us why he wrote to begin with.

The purpose for this letter is that believers would know that they have eternal life.

John is not nearly as concerned in this letter with unbelievers coming to faith as much as he is concerned that believers would know and be convinced that they possess eternal life.

In the gospel of John 20:31, John writes.

John 20:31 ESV

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

He wrote his gospel for unbelievers, so that they may believe that Jesus is the Christ.

And that they would have life in His name by believing the truth.

So his gospel’s purpose could be summarized as…

That you may hear, and by hearing may believe

But John’s purpose in this letter is not the same thing as his gospel.

His purpose is that believers may KNOW that they have eternal life.

By putting together the purpose statement from John 20:31 and 1 John 5:13.

By believing may have life,and by living you may know

It can be said that John has written so that the reader may hear, hearing may believe, believing may life, and living may know.

Doctrine is NOT only to convert people.

Doctrine also has the duty of confirming within those who already believe the truth.

Heres the thing: there are many Christians who have remnants of unbelief.

There are many Christians who are weak in their faith.

Having $11 in My Account

I remember when I was a junior in college.

Those were rough days, they were rough because I had no money.

I remember checking my bank account and the balance being $11.

I had to drive to school and back and I was low on gas.

The whole time knowing that if I had to get gas, I wouldn’t have the money to do so.

And what’s sad is that many Christian’s live their life in this same manner.

Going around and wondering when they will be declined.

Going around and wondering when God is going to reject them.

The Christian life is NOT meant to be lived with this kind of a poverty mentality.

This is NOT that way that John desires us to live.

People have often cited that it is extremely arrogant that a person may know that they have eternal life.

“You presume upon God to assume that you can know you have eternal life.”

“How dare you think you can actually know you have eternal life!”

It is not presumptuous to know that you have eternal life.

To be presumptuous is to “failing to observe the limits of what is permitted”

But the presumptuous person actually comes from doubting the word that God has spoken about him.

To presume upon God is to NOT Trust what He has said in His word.

John goes on and gives the second reason for assurance...

1 John 5:14–17 NKJV

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. 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.

Assurance of Prayer’s Heard

John has already said something similar in 1 John 3:21.

1 John 3:21 ESV

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

But here, the confidence is the result of a believer assurance before God.

1 John 5:14 NKJV

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Prayers Heard

“Can You Hear Me?”

John reminds his readers of the confidence that we have before God.

A boldness of approaching God.

The logic would be, “If we will be eternally rescued, then God will hear our prayers in the present”

The only condition is the fact the person remain “in Him”

John 15:7 NKJV

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

John 14:13 NKJV

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 15:16 ESV

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Jesus has promised us that when we abide in Him, we can ask anything in His name.

Often when we consider prayer, we think if we pray with more unction or force, God hears us more clearly.

But that’s not what this text says, it says...

1 John 5:14 NKJV

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

God does not hear you for your prayers sake.

He doesn’t even hear you for your name’s sake.

He doesn’t even hear you because you have been a good little boy or girl.

“You are to consider that God does not hear you for your prayers’ sake, but for His name’s sake and His Son’s sake, and because you are His child.

The mother does not neglect to hear and relieve her child when the child cries, but she is tender, not because the child cries more loudly, but because the child cries, and the weaker the child is, the more pity she shows.”

Thomas Goodwin

What Goodwin says there is that a child is not heard because he cries louder.

He is heard because of the name by which he prays in.

When we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears us.

“The faith we produce may be weak, yet because its object is Christ, therefore it justifies.

So it is in prayer; it prevails, not because of the performance itself, but because of the name in which it is made, even Christ’s name.

Therefore, as a weak faith justifies, so a weak prayer prevails as well as a strong one, and both for the same reason, for faith attributes all to God, and so does prayer. ”

Thomas Goodwin

1 John 5:14 NKJV

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Praying the Will of God

“Confidence in Prayer”

What does John mean by “the will of God”?

The Will of God is NOT a Mystery

When John says, “the will of God”, he does not have in mind something that is unclear.

He does not have in mind a mystery.

He does not have in mind something strange or mystical.

When we treat God’s will as a mystery to be discovered, we pray in very haphazard ways.

We pray very worldly prayers.

Fix this, fix that, change this, change that.

All along saying, “It could be God’s will.”

He has in mind the REVEALED will of God.

Jesus even commands that we pray with God’s will on the forefront of our minds.

Matthew 6:10 ESV

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

But though it is made clear, it often is not clear what that looks like in every situation.

We walk in the revealed will of God, and trust God with the hidden things.

Even Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, knew what His Father’s will was.

He knew it, yet He asked for the cup to pass from Him.

He knew it, yet He yielded Himself to it.

Mark 14:36 ESV

And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus knew what He came for, but yet he still prayed for the Father’s will to be done.

Even Paul in another place tells the believers.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (ESV)

For this is the will of God, your sanctification:

When we treat God’s will like a mystery, we inevitably downplay what God has clearly revealed in His Word.

We know God’s purposes, because He has told us.

We even know God’s ultimate plans, because He has said.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

So our prayers should be in line with this.

And I wonder, more than prayers for physical things, what life would look like for Christian church if we began praying in step with this.

And listen to what John says to the person who does pray in line with it.

1 John 5:15 NKJV

And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

He Hears His Children

“Whatever!”

He moves us from being confident that God hears us, to being confident that He will answer.

Listen to the promise of Jesus in Mark 11:24

Mark 11:24 ESV

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

This means that we can ask for "WHATEVER”.

Literally whatever.

We should never qualify this.

We should never place any limits on what God’s Word does NOT.

The only qualification is it is in line with His will.

But listen to the way that John now applies this...

1 John 5:16 NKJV

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.

God’s Will for Your Brother

John now seems to spell out a more specific instance to show how the above passage applies.

The Christian is not saved unto himself.

The Christian is NOT completely occupied with themselves.

They are occupied with the duty of caring for their brothers and sisters.

Notice that the text says, “he will ask”...

This is not a command.

Rather it is an expectation of the Christian.

This is not the Christian joining Cain in asking, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

We are our brother’s keeper and we are to guard our brothers and sisters in prayer.

James 5:19–20 ESV

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

The job of the Christian is to bring back those who are wandering.

As the writer of Hebrews says, Hebrews 3:12-14

Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

It is an expectation of the Christian to be concerned for other believers.

1 John 5:16 (NKJV)

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.

Notice too, “he will ask, and He will give...”, the first is lower case and the second is upper case.

The translators are trying to show that the first “he” refers to the person asking, and the second “He” refers to God as the giver.

The problem is, this is unwarranted in the text.

I want you to see the force that John is ascribing to the person praying for the one in sin.

The person who prays for the one in sin is the one who asks and vicariously the one who gives life.

In either case, whether it is us who gives or not, God is ultimately the one who hears and gives.

There are some natural questions though from this text.

What is the “sin that leads to death”?

In one sense, we need to say that all sin leads to death.

James 1:15 ESV

Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But we need to ask more specifically, what is the “sin that leads to death?”

1 John 5:16 (NKJV)

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.

“The Sin that Leads to Death”

The point of this is not to sit and debate the sin leading to death.

But when we see our brothers or sisters sinning at all, we pray.

John is likely referring to those who “went out from us” (1 John 2:19).

The Gnostics who have forsaken the gathering.

The Gnostics who knew plain and well what they were doing.

I think it would be more appropriate to see what John talking about here as “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”

The “sin that leads to death” is not one particular sin, rather it is a kind of sin.

Hebrews–Revelation Comment

“Sin that leads to death is deliberate refusal to believe in Jesus Christ, to follow God’s commands, and to love one’s brothers.”

This text is NOT encouraging us to sit and distinguish between people’s kinds of sins.

Rather it is a description of a deliberate refusal to believe, follow, and love.

“deliberately and maliciously turning light into darkness,”

“changing the one medicine of salvation into a deadly poison.”

Jesus talked about this posture in a person..

Mark 3:22 ESV

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”

The Scribes were ascribing to Jesus the works of the devil.

They were calling the marvelous works of light, darkness.

This is the core of blasphemy against the holy Spirit.

Listen to what Jesus says of that person..

Mark 3:28–30 ESV

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

When people become scared that they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, you can guarantee that they haven’t.

The kind of people John is referring to are people who do not recognize what they are doing.

When you pray for yourself and for others, for what do you pray?

If you were to extend out those prayer requests, how far would they go?

Are they for merely temporary things?

1 John 5:16–17 (NKJV)

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.

Don’t Pray For That!

Why does John “not say” we should pray for people committing such sin?

At first glance this may appear rude or mean of John.

But John’s point is that we should pray for those who are sinning.

But at some point, once we have confronted.

Once we have made clear through the process of Matthew 18, we can stop praying without feeling guilty.

We need to be careful not to rush to this conclusion.

It is NOT always clear when this should happen, so he doesn’t prohibit praying for these people.

What we should see is that he gives permission to stop praying for those who have clearly departed from the faith.

John clarifies again that all wrongdoing is sin, but there is a way a person can sin which leads to death.

Now John moves on to the third assurance for the Christian...

1 John 5:18 NKJV

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.

Assurance for Spiritual Protection

John now turns to another form of assurance for the believer.

Namely assurance from Spiritual forces which may come against him.

Notice again, the that a person has been born again proceeds the fact of protection.

1 John 5:18 (NKJV)

We know that whoever is born of God does not sin;

First, John declares again that a person who has been born of God does not sin. (1 John 3:6, 9)

The new birth creates both a promise and an obligation for the believer.

The obligation is the fact that the believer will not sin in the future.

1 John 5:18 ESV

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.

Can’t Touch This!

“Protection from Above”

The promise is that the evil one will not touch him.

I want to be abundantly clear, Satan can tempt the believer.

He can tempt and entice you.

He can press against and bring persecution.

But he CANNOT touch you.

The word “touch” is very weak, but what should be conveyed here is to harm, destroy, and take captive.

“The evil one can’t get a grip on you!”

The grounds for this comes in the fact that Jesus Himself guards you from the evil one.

John 17:15 ESV

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

What comfort it is to know that because the Savior has prayed for you, your faith will not fail.

Your faith is NOT dependent upon your ability to keep yourself, it is based in the fact that Christ keeps you.

Even Jesus promises as much..

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Or listen to the Apostle Paul work out the question, “who can touch you?”

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 5:19 NKJV

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

Assurance for Belonging to God

This last verse can be included in this section of assurance for the believer.

The last assurance is that we belong to God.

But in this section, John gives us an important fact about the world we live in.

1 John 5:19 NKJV

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

Under the Power of the Evil One

We don’t live in a neutral world, we live in a world which lies in the power of the evil one.