Latest / HBCWestminster / 2.5.20 1 John 5:6-15 Pastor Nathan Anderson

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2.5.20 1 John 5:6-15 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  One of our last two lessons for this first epistle of John, we're going to be covering chapter 5, verses 6 through 15 tonight. And I was listening to just the testimony that we sung about, right? The reality of God's faithfulness and the reality that this life is not always easy. In fact, it's often difficult.
• 0:34
  thinking about in those times when things are most difficult, what are the things that really can encourage us and what does God actually tell us to do in those times. And I think in Philippians it talks about filling our minds with whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is pure. And tonight as we jump into this study,
• 1:01
  John is going to be talking about, and I've titled the message, What Do We Even Know? What Do We Even Know? And John's going to be really clear about what we know tonight. And I think it might sound kind of basic as we go through it. I don't think it is because the truths are supernatural and God-inspired and what affects change in our lives and also what stands.
• 1:30
  Against a world that is really lost, really, really lost in a sea of vast definitions of morality, of truth, of reality. And God's word stands in contrast to all of those things. And so I think we're going to see that as we go through this tonight and reminding ourselves of what we know, what we know is true.
• 2:02
  As we get started, I wanted to read, as we consider this, what do we even know? I wanted to read a few quotes, two secular, two Christian quotes, kind of on this topic of truth and knowledge and what can be known, and that kind of help.
• 2:22
  create a backdrop to our study tonight. George Carlin, you guys will know, is a famous comedian who has since passed, but he said, the reason I talk to myself is because I'm the only one whose answers I accept. If you know George Carlin, that's a very apropos quote of him. Then James Carville, if you know who James Carville is, he is a political
• 2:51
  Analyst, I guess you could call him. And I've got a one from Mahatma Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi. Yeah. Gandhi said nobody in this world possesses absolute truth. This is God's attribute alone. We would agree with that part. Right. God is the source of truth. But then he goes on and he says relative truth is all we know. Therefore, we can only follow the truth as we see it.
• 3:21
  Such pursuit of truth cannot lead anyone astray. So what is he saying there? He's saying that our perspective, our reality defines truth. Our experience defines truth and that will not lead anybody to the wrong path if we just follow our own truth and reality. James Carville said this, truth is relative.
• 3:48
  Truth is what you can make the voter believe is the truth. If you are smart enough, truth is what you make the voter think it is. That is why I'm a Democrat. I can make the Democratic voters think whatever I want them to. A longer one from an academic man, Andrew Warren, says this. Truth is unique to the individual. As a phenomenologist, for me,
• 4:19
  that I feel hungry is more of a truth than that of the fact that 2 plus 3 equals 5. No truth can be objectively verified, empirically or otherwise, and the criteria by which we define truths are always relative and subjective. What we consider to be true, whether in morality, science, or art, shifts.
• 4:48
  with the prevailing intellectual wind, and is therefore determined by social, cultural, and technological norms of that specific era. What is he saying there? What is Andrew Warren saying there? He's saying that truth changes based on the realities and the circumstances of our culture and society. R.C. Sproul's
• 5:13
  some of you guys might be familiar with, an incredible theologian. He's gone to be with the Lord. A man who I really appreciate a lot of his commentaries and writings said this. He says, I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers and structural stress models are relative truths. And then, I mean, you guys will all recognize Ravi Zacharias.
• 5:44
  Just brilliant. A man who I believe God has really given a special dispensation of understanding in a time that we needed it. Just brilliant mind. He says, with no fact as a referent or reference, what is normative is purely a matter of preference. Understand what he said there? Without a reference, a fixed point, a fixed truth, everything, everything.
• 6:13
  becomes merely a matter of preference. Why? Because Ravi is talking with academics often and so he talks in academic terms.
• 6:32
  As we have seen over and over again throughout the epistle of John, John describes truth, knowing it and living it. I'm going to go through a few verses with us as we kind of establish our direction and remind us where we've been. 1 John 3.18 says, Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. 1 John 1.8 says, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
• 7:00
  When we looked at just two weeks ago, 1 John 4, 6 says, we are from God and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. 2 Timothy 2, 15 says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles.
• 7:30
  The word of truth. See from these verses that the word of God is said to be truth. That truth is said to be able to be known as one studies the word of truth. And upon studying the word, we will be able to discern truth and falsehood.
• 7:49
  Our depravity, the enemy, and culture are all at war against this truth, against this truth, this revelation of the truth, against the certainty which comes from the truth. And it is in this battle that the gospel penetrates sharper than two-edged sword to penetrate the heart of stone. It does so because truth is penetrating. It is penetrating to the soul because truth can touch the soul in a way that deception and lies cannot.
• 8:20
  Our souls, we know from the word of God, have God's fingerprint on them. The gospel are the truths which, I'm sorry, our fingerprint, this fingerprint, kind of like a thumb scanner, right? If you think about a thumb scanner, you put your thumb on it and it scans and it gives access. God's fingerprint is on us and when that is met with his fingerprint,
• 8:47
  The truth of the gospel, the love of the creator, his creation, it penetrates us. It unlocks our soul. God's truth, the gospel, unlocks the soul. Truth, the truth revealed in the word of God, the gospel, are truths which Paul tells us over and over again we must fight for. John tells us they are worth living out because...
• 9:11
  They have life in them. So tonight, with the backdrop of those arguments against truth, against certainty, and what God's word tells us it reveals, I've titled our message tonight, What Do We Even Know? I believe that these verses we are going to cover tonight are going to speak to three things that we know because they are revealed in the word of God. First is...
• 9:40
  Verses 6 through 10, we're going to see that Jesus is God. Second is that the believers have eternal life, verses 11 through 13. And third is that God answers prayer. As I said, these might sound basic, but these are foundational and they build confidence and confidence builds action. These will be our points for tonight as we consider what do we even know. Let's read our passage and we're going to pray and we will dig in.
• 10:10
  1 John 5, verses 6-15 say this, This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.
• 10:38
  If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God that he is born concerning his son. Whoever believes in the son of God has the testimony himself. Whoever does not believe, God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God is born concerning his son.
• 10:59
  And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 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.
• 11:27
  And we know that he hears us in whatever we ask. We know that we have the requests that we ask of him, asked of him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I pray tonight that you would guide our minds to truth. Lord, that you would build in us because of what you have revealed in your word to be true, that you would build confidence.
• 11:55
  that confidence would lead to action, Lord, that you would give clarity to my words tonight and that you would guide us through this study this evening. Pray that you would be honored in the teaching of your word. Pray these things in your name. Amen. A number of years ago, I got a jury summons.
• 12:21
  I had gotten a few of them while I was in college in Wyoming, but I never had to serve because I was in college in Wyoming. And they were asking me to be on jury here in the state of Colorado. And so I always got out of it. Well, this time I was in town. So I had to call. Checked the night before like you do. You call up, see if your number's called. My number was definitely called. Let work know. Said I had to go in. And this was my first experience in the whole jury thing, right? So I was very...
• 12:56
  very negative about what the experience held for me from what I had heard from people. Got there, it was a good hour before my number was pulled. I was sitting, they have this huge room and you're watching the screen and they've got all these videos they're talking about all. The interesting part was as I sat there and waited, they had all these videos talking about the...
• 13:16
  what a benefit it is to our society and how this is part of being servants of the community and all this stuff. And by the time they got done, they'd done a good job of brainwashing me because I was actually kind of excited about serving on the jury. I was really impressed by the perspective that they had presented on this and really felt honored to serve my community in this way. And so next, after they go through all of this, they hand out a questionnaire and you fill out all these questions. They ask you background, different...
• 13:45
  questions and stuff like that based on the jury that you're going to end up serving on. And, um, you know, having never served, I really don't know if the one that I got was exceptionally personal or not, but they asked some really personal questions. It was, I was like, this is stuff that some other people don't even know about me. Um, but I had to answer it cause you have to, you can't perjure yourself and all that good stuff. Um, can't lie. Uh, I don't know if that's perjured or not, but anyway, you can't lie to them cause you get in trouble. Uh,
• 14:19
  Anyway, then you wait a little bit more and then you head up to the courtroom and there's like, I mean, there's 50 plus people in the jury selection, right? I don't know how big you guys have been part of, but this was like 50 plus people. We're all sitting there and they call, you know, like 15, 18 people up right away and they have the 12 seats and then they've got the extra seats. And I'm sitting out there. I'm like, I'm not going to. So they get that situated. And then the judge.
• 14:46
  gives like the call to like, do you have any like reason, like this is an undue hardship on you or whatever. And that was very humorous. I don't know if you guys ever sat through that, but the things that people come up with for why this is not like, I can't, I couldn't possibly, like I have a dog at home and I can't, I can't be away. I can't be. And the judge was very gracious, very patient and told everybody to sit back down.
• 15:16
  So you go through the process, and they're calling all these people up and everything. And I was impressed by the entire process, how they walk you through each part of it. Adams County, I don't know if they do an exceptionally good job or whatever, but you go through. I end up getting called up to sit, and I'm like five, six chairs away. And I'm like, there's no way, because they've already gotten rid of a bunch of people. And soon enough, one more gets, you know, the lawyers can.
• 15:46
  Be like, ah, we don't want this juror, this juror. And then you just keep moving up and up and up and up and up. And soon enough, I was sitting on the jury. So then they keep, I think it's, I can't remember, it was like 15 or whatever. And then they do like these one-on-one interviews, right? And they ask you more questions based on your responses to the questionnaires and all this stuff. Again, really personal stuff. And ask you if you're going to be objective to the case.
• 16:14
  and tell you a little bit about the details about the subject matter of what you're going to be hearing and all that stuff, if you're going to have any biases based on that and all that. So I apparently convinced them I wasn't going to be biased or influenced by anything in my questionnaire, so I got to sit on the jury for three days. Three days we listened to testimony on all sides, right? You do that, you sit there. Some of them are one day, some of them are three days.
• 16:45
  The judge went over some of the realities of the courtroom and the testimony considerations, talked about the burden of proof, reasonable doubt, all of those definitions, all that stuff, right? Then when you're all done, then you go to the deliberation. The interesting part about all of that is in a world that doesn't necessarily believe in morality, there are very clear parameters given for this entire process.
• 17:17
  definitions clearly given about all of these things. And the really interesting part to me was when I got in the jury room and we sat there and we were talking, we started deliberating with those other 11 people, we didn't talk at all about the things, we didn't waste any time on the things we didn't know. Right? You don't waste your time talking about, well, what about...
• 17:48
  You go, well, we know this, and we know this, and we know this, and we don't know that. You spend most of your time talking about what you know, what we were convinced of, right? This is what we centered our conversations around because there was much that we didn't know. Like, what was the weather that day? What was the temperature?
• 18:12
  What did they eat the day before? All of these things. There's tons of details that you didn't know, but we spent all of our time focusing on what we did know, what we knew had happened. We did this because what we know builds conviction, convinces us of a direction, right? In order to convict somebody, in order to move forward on information, you have to talk about what you know.
• 18:45
  What you know will help you make a decision, will create an action within you. As we enter our study tonight, we ask that question, what do we even know? We ask that. I ask that because what we are convinced of or persuaded of will create action in us, right? It should propel us forward. If we are convinced, if we know something with certainty, then it builds and creates action. It certainly did in Abraham. If you look at Romans chapter 4,
• 19:14
  where it talks about Abraham. At first, he was disbelieving that Sarah was going to give birth to give an heir for him, right? But then it goes on in Romans, and it says in Romans chapter 4, it says,
• 19:32
  made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness, but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but also for ours. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who was raised from the dead, our Lord, Jesus, our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised.
• 20:01
  for our justification. And then in 2 Timothy 1.12, Paul talks about this same kind of thing. He says, For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. We're going to look at what we know, because what we know...
• 20:30
  What we are convinced of leads to action, leads to living in recognition of the truth revealed. We are convinced, just as Paul was, that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day, that day being the day we enter the rest of heaven. If we are convinced, as Paul was, then our lives will be pushed towards action. That is, my desire is that we would be pushed toward action by being convinced of the truths revealed.
• 20:55
  As I've said over and over again throughout this study, knowing is what John wants us to live in, that you may know to live with certainty because certainty creates action. So again, our points are going to be Jesus is God, believers have eternal life, God answers prayer. The first point we're going to look at is from 6 to 10, those five verses. Jesus is...
• 21:18
  In these first five verses we consider tonight, we see the emphasis on trusting Christ. Everyone who believes. He starts off in the middle. I'm sorry. He says everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. John tells the reader that a person who trusts Christ is born of God and is able to overcome the world. To believe that Jesus is the Christ, is the Son of God, is the basis for salvation and belief in this, faith in this.
• 21:43
  Truth separates Christian from non-Christian. We all know that. We believe that. We trust in that reality. But here's the question. How do we know that Jesus is God? Jesus Christ is God. How do we know that? Especially since there were some in his ministry years who doubted him. Who even called him crazy. Who said that he did things by the power of demons. How do we know that Jesus Christ is God? People who...
• 22:14
  John was writing to, as he wrote this epistle, were certainly exposed to false teaching about who Jesus was. We've talked about that. It's the reason why he's writing this letter. As we have covered already, John is writing to combat the heresy they were teaching. So how do we know that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God? John gives three witnesses which attest to the truth of who Jesus was, the witness of the water.
• 22:40
  then he says in verse 6, this is he who came by water and by blood, not by water only, but by the water and the blood. The first witness that John references is the water. Jesus came by water and blood. The water is talking about the...
• 22:57
  The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan where we know he was baptized by John. And as he came up from the water, God spoke from heaven saying, this is my son whom I am well pleased. People witnessed this. They saw this. They testified to it. Matthew 13, 3, 13 through 17 is where that is recorded. The first testimony is concerning Jesus' baptism and the Lord, the voice from heaven coming down and saying, this is my son.
• 23:24
  Second witness is the blood. God the Father gives further witness to Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus' earthly ministry draws to, as his earthly ministry drew to a close and nears a time for Jesus to give his life, the Father spoke audibly from heaven once more and said in John chapter 12 verse 28, I have glorified my name and will glorify it again.
• 23:49
  confirming that through Christ he was going to glorify himself. Then God the Father gives witness once more as Jesus is giving his blood on the cross, his dying on the cross, the supernatural darkness which comes on to the earth and the earthquake and the rendering of the temple veil, tearing it.
• 24:09
  And splitting it, which are all testimonies to the power of Christ and his being of the father as he sacrificed on the cross. The blood is a reference to his sacrifice on the cross. And God again testified through supernatural means that this was his son. The last witness is the spirit. The spirit was given to bear witness to Christ. John 15, 26.
• 24:39
  And John 16, 14 talk about this. The Spirit is the same Spirit which is called the Spirit of truth here. In verse, the end of verse 6 he says, because the Spirit is the truth. We were not present at the baptism of Christ. We were not present when Christ was crucified. John was, and he gives his testimony to that. We saw that at the beginning. We saw that in the previous chapter in chapter 4.
• 25:14
  But there's another who testifies to this truth, the Holy Spirit who was there. The witness of God the Father gave at the time is recorded in history. We have that in the Gospels recorded that Jesus came, he was baptized, that God called from heaven and said, this is my son. We have these things recorded in history, but the Holy Spirit continues to testify to the fact that Jesus is the Christ.
• 25:45
  The Son of God. John says the Spirit is the one who testifies. The Spirit is the one who testifies. How does the Spirit witness or testify to the believer in our hearts of this truth, of this reality? Paul writes, For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children.
• 26:18
  Romans 8.15 says that the Holy Spirit testifies, witnesses to our hearts in order to bring confidence in our souls. Confidence that we are of Christ and that He is God's Son. The Spirit also witnesses to us through the Word. 1 Corinthians 2 verses 12-14 say, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might...
• 26:48
  Understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words. Not taught by human wisdom. But taught by the spirit. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God. For they are folly to him. And he's not able to understand. 1 Corinthians 2.
• 27:19
  12 through 14 gives us very clear insight into what the Spirit does for us. He interprets the truths which are spiritual, which our natural selves cannot understand. John gives three witnesses here. The water, the blood, and the Spirit. This is not by accident. As he lists these three things, he even says at the end of verse 8,
• 27:54
  the spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. Old Testament law actually required that two or three witnesses be able to give the same account in order for there to be a conviction. Two to three witnesses would settle a matter. Deuteronomy 19.15 talks about this requirement. Here we see John pointing out that the matter of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God, is a closed case.
• 28:25
  He gives three specific witnesses and he tells us that they are all in agreement. The spirit, the water, the blood. For they are three that testify. They are the three that testify. John says, case closed, Jesus is God. This is the first and foundational certainty which he writes about. And is really the essential building block for the rest of what John writes about.
• 28:54
  concerning what do we even know. So first we know Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. We have three witnesses which testify to that. We see John referencing the Old Testament reality that two or three needed to be present and agree, and he says they do. We can be convinced of this because of that. Jesus is God. Next, believers have eternal life.
• 29:22
  11 through 13 says, And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 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. As he's been talking about the testimony, the witness, the record,
• 29:54
  Which testifies to the truth that Jesus is the son of God. He tells us what the implications are of this testimony now. Because this testimony is true. Because Jesus is God's son. And because he sacrificed himself. And because that sacrifice now means something. Because he is God. We have eternal life. He completes the circle in this argument. We know.
• 30:22
  Because of these witnesses, because of this testimony, we have eternal life because Jesus is God's son. Verse 13, John says, I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Eternal life is both from and in Christ. It is a free gift given to us in the person of Christ, Jesus, but also it is a gift of putting us in Christ. We both get gifted the person of Christ and we are put in Christ.
• 30:52
  2 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. God wants His children, brothers and sisters, He wants us to know that we belong to Him. That we are in Christ. We have been gifted Christ and the Spirit. That because we have Christ and are in Christ, we have eternal life. As Christ said in John 10.10,
• 31:23
  The thief has come only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. Verse 11 and 12 tells us clearly, and this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son. Believers have eternal life. We have eternal life. This is what John wants us to know. Let us recap a little bit about...
• 31:54
  What are the characteristics of a believer? If we have eternal life, if we believe in Jesus as God's son, John has spent much of this epistle telling us what that looks like, what it looks like to be a son, a child of God. Chapter 2, verse 29 says, Everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. Chapter 3, verse 9 says, No one who is born of God practices sin.
• 32:23
  Chapter 3 verse 14 says we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren or the brothers. Chapter 4 verse 7 says beloved let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And last week we looked at chapter 5 verse 4 for whoever is born of God overcomes the world.
• 32:52
  We saw last week this is because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. I think everybody in the room is going to remember this guy, President Gorbachev. Whatever, Clarence. President Gorbachev is well known for probably quite a few different reasons. President, leader.
• 33:21
  the eighth leader of the Soviet Union. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. He was very prominent, very famous for many things as the Cold War was going on and all of that. Many discussions with President Bush and all of this stuff, right? But if I was to ask you...
• 33:49
  What is the thing that he's probably most well-known for? What would you say? His birthmark. Absolutely. Prominent. Right? Everybody saw it. The Lord saw fit to make him bald and give him a birthmark right here on his head. Right? Probably the most identifying mark and the thing he was probably most famous for, honestly, was his birthmark. John says,
• 34:21
  If you bear these birthmarks, what we just read, practice righteousness. Don't practice sin. Love each other. Love one another. And are overcomers of the world. These things are true of us because we are children of God. These are the birthmarks. These are the evidence of being adopted into his family. It will be...
• 34:56
  Obvious, John says, plain, clear, because you bear this birthmark of being a believer. And because of that, you can have confidence that you were born of God and you know him. We have crossed over from death to life. We have received eternal life as a believer. This should give us confidence, just as
• 35:35
  John says the matter of who Jesus was is a closed matter. There are three witnesses in agreement. Don't question it. Don't worry about it. The Bible testifies and speaks clearly about it. The Spirit continues to testify to this truth. Because this is true, we know we have eternal life. Because we know we have eternal life, we can live out that reality as we seek to practice righteousness, as we seek to love one another, as we seek to live in confidence.
• 36:07
  I think that is John really closing that loop, that argument. And then he goes on as he closes that argument about the testimony and what that testimony gives us in eternal life. He then goes on and goes to what I think are the implications of that as he tells us that God answers prayer in verses 14 and 15. God answers prayer. He says in those verses, in verse 14, and this is the confidence we have toward him.
• 36:37
  Brothers and sisters, John's words could not be more clear. Because we have believed in the Son of God, because we have heard and accepted the testimony of the three, water, blood, spirit, we have eternal life. We now bear the birthmark of sonship. We have confidence. Go with me to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16.
• 37:13
  Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 says, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive and find grace to help in time of need. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.
• 37:38
  We who are in Christ can approach the throne of God not as sinners, not as vagabonds, but as sons. Sons of the Most High, as we are told. We are fellow heirs, full heirs. And so we approach the throne of grace with confidence because we are in Christ. Because we have the Spirit. And we are told in Romans chapter 8 verse 26 that the Spirit will actually interpret our prayers. We don't always know what to pray. He says in...
• 38:07
  In 1 John 5, it says that if we ask anything according to His will, we don't always know what God's will is, right? Romans 8, verse 26 tells us, don't worry about it. The Spirit's going to interpret it, and He's going to say what we don't know we need to say. Romans 8, verse 26 says, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray as we ought.
• 38:35
  But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. John says, the testimony is clear. The case is closed. Because of that, we have eternal life. And because of that reality, we should have confidence to go before the throne of God and pray. Because the Lord hears us. You know, when I was younger, I didn't really understand.
• 39:15
  I still don't really understand prayer completely, but I believe in its power. I believe in its gift and its blessing. But because of my wrong understanding of what prayer was, I thought I could mess it up. I thought I could screw it up. I could pray for the wrong thing. So I would pray very hesitantly. I would pray haphazardly. I would pray with a lot of lack of faith. I thought if I prayed the wrong thing, I might...
• 39:52
  Send me in the wrong direction or ask for the wrong thing and screw something up. Here, the Lord in his word, the word of truth, tells us that we should have confidence. Confidence in our new life, abundant life, and in approaching, presenting our prayers to God, the Father, because we have an interpreter. Don't worry about praying the wrong thing because the Holy Spirit is translating everything anyway. So here's the exhortation. Pray. Pray with confidence.
• 40:25
  Just as we saw tonight in Ephesians 3, verse 20, right? God is able to give us more abundantly than what we even comprehend or think to ask for. Pray with confidence. Come before your Father in heaven. Be confident as heirs, as full heirs of the grace and mercy of our Father, and pray. Pray your hearts out to him. He knows it anyway. Pray with confidence. We've got nothing to hide, brothers and sisters. He loves you.
• 40:55
  He wants to bless you with peace, joy, and confidence. We know that God answers prayer. We know that we have eternal life. We know that Jesus, that all of this is possible because Jesus really is God's son. Just as in that jury room, we did not waste time on what we didn't know. We talked about what we did know. So John has talked about rights of what is known.
• 41:28
  We know Jesus is God's son. We know that we have eternal life if we have trusted in that. And we know because of those things we can have confidence to come before the throne. So will we pray with no reservations or hesitancy? Will we pray expectantly knowing that God is hearing us? Because John knows that if we know we bear the birthmark of the son on our lives, others will come to know the truth as well.
• 42:10
  He wants action. John wants Christians who are active. The Lord wants Christians who are active, who are propelled forward in confidence, to walk in confidence, brothers and sisters. We should walk as those who have and know that we have the truth because we do, right? Spirit is testified. There are three witnesses. Case is closed. We don't have to doubt.
• 42:46
  We have access to the throne room of God. Truth is not relative. Morality is not relative. Truth is unique, penetrating, and powerful. Truth convinces and creates action. I pray, I know we're over. I know that these are, you guys are like, yeah, I've heard. I know Jesus is God's son. I know I have eternal life. But let's not let that,
• 43:26
  The familiarity with those truths. Allow ourselves to be cheated out of the opportunity to have the confidence with which God wants us to walk. Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, I pray we come to you because you ask us to. Because you offer it to us. Because you tell us that you're going to hear us. Father, I pray that we would come before you.
• 44:07
  with all our stuff, confident that we are in Christ, that we may confess and find forgiveness, that we may walk with passionate conviction because we have the truth. And there are those who are lost. As we saw in those quotes, there are those who are lost. They think they can define truth and it will lead them to something, but it will only lead to destruction. So God, give us the confidence to walk our faith.
• 44:40
  to live it out, and to speak it. God, we pray these things in your name. Amen.