Latest / HBCWestminster / Assurance Ammunition • 1 John 5:13-21

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Assurance Ammunition • 1 John 5:13-21 · HBCWestminster

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If you've got your Bibles, let's open them up to 1 John chapter 5. That's where we're going to be
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this morning. And if I have not met you, my name is Sam. I'm one of the pastors here,
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and I'm filling in for Danny this morning. He is out of state in the motherland, not Russia,
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California. And yeah, I have the blessing of opening the word with you today. So 1 John
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chapter 5. If you're not sure where 1 John is, it's toward the end of your Bible. Just a few
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books in front of the last one, Revelation. And as Carla mentioned earlier, we are finishing out
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our study of 1 John this morning. We're going to cover verses 13 to 21. We begin this series with
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the idea that John wants to delineate between true Christians and Christians in name only,
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right? Between those who actually know God and those who profess to know God but don't actually
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possess God.
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God. And throughout his letter, John has supplied evidence of true belief, not just for the sake of
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splitting that crowd between true Christians and false Christians, but also for the sake of
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assuring true Christians in their faith. If you're a believer here this morning, and we got some
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believers here this morning, don't we? If you're a believer here today, John wants you to know beyond
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a shadow of a doubt that you really are saved, that you really do have eternal life.
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And you know, assurance of salvation, it's one of those topics that I think every serious Christian
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wrestles with at some point. Isn't that true? How many of you guys have wrestled with the assurance
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of your salvation? At some point, just like, I don't really know if I'm safe. If you're not raising
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your hand and you're a believer, you're a liar, right? Like everyone struggles.
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Everyone struggles.
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struggles with this, and here's why I think that's the case. Every serious believer struggles with
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assurance at some point or another because every serious Christian takes the holiness of God
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seriously and the unholiness of their sin seriously. And so there come points for all of us
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where we just go, man, I am not sure. I wish I was more confident. Every one of us wants to feel
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confident that we truly have been born again and that God is for us. And so let me just, before we
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dive in, I just want to ask you this simple question today, Hyland. Is it possible to have
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assurance of your salvation? Because I know that there are some of you in here this morning who
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really wrestle with that, and you're like, I don't really know, and you can't really know until you
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get to heaven, and we just kind of hope that God's going to say, enter into the joy of your master
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rather than depart from me. I never knew you, and you just can't really know now. Can you know?
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The Apostle John says, yes.
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Yes, you can. Now, let me also ask you this question before we dive in. What more important
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topic can you possibly consider than that, than the state of your soul before God? What greater
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endeavor, what greater pursuit is there than that? Is there one? I would hope your answer would be no.
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There is nothing greater we can consider today than this. Now, John, throughout our study, has
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repeatedly employed the idea that we can't have assurance of our salvation, and we can't have
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the phrase, by this we know, or that you may know, kind of variations on those phrases, in order to
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encourage us that we can be rock solid in our knowledge of the Lord. Now, look at this list with
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me. Here are a bunch of things that John wants us to know as we read this book. He says, we can know
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that we know God. We can know that we are in God. We can know that it is the last hour. We can know
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the truth. We can know that Jesus is righteous.
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We can know that we will be like Jesus. We can know that Jesus came to take away sins.
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We can know that Jesus is sinless. We can know that we have passed out of death into life.
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We can know that no murderer has eternal life. We can know love. We can know that God abides in us.
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We can know the spirit of God. We can know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception,
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and we can know that we love God's children. This is what John wants you and I to know.
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And I love what one commentator has said. Look at this. He said,
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Christianity is not an I-hope-so or I-think-so faith. It is an I-know-so faith, because what has
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been revealed in the Bible was given to us by God, a God who speaks and a God who speaks only truth.
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When it comes to what you and I believe, this isn't just a Jesus is Lord because I think he is.
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The Bible is.
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Reliable because it worked for me. No, we're talking about something that is objectively true.
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And it's an I-know-so faith. This is not resting on opinions of Christian masses.
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It's an I-know-so faith. The apostle John not only wants you to know the truth,
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he wants you to know that you know the truth.
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That's what he desires for us. And so in the closing words of this letter,
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John,
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hands over the remainder of what I'm calling his assurance ammunition, which I pray would
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encourage you and spur you on toward love and good works. And so if you've got your Bibles open
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to 1 John chapter 5, let's stand in honor of God's word. And I'm going to read verses 13 to 21.
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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,
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that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him.
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That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
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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.
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If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask,
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and God will give him life to those who commit sins that do not lead to death.
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There is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that.
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All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
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We know that everyone who has been born of God does not live to death.
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We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning,
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but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
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We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
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And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding,
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so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ.
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He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
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This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
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This morning we have four final statements which should ground us in our faith
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and in the assurance of our faith.
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And we're going to begin, John begins this section,
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with the simple statement that we can know that we have eternal life.
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Throughout the book, John has given many purpose statements for why he has written this letter,
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but verse 13,
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is surely the all-encompassing one. And I'm going to read it again. Look with me, verse 13.
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John says,
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Beyond the experience of joy, which John mentioned in chapter 1, verse 4,
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and all of his exhortations to love each other,
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John wrote this letter so that his readers would know they possess eternal life.
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And this verse calls to mind,
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John's purpose statement, not for this letter, but for his gospel, the gospel of John.
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Look at this verse. This is John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31.
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John writes this at the end of the gospel.
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He says,
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Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.
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But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
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and that by believing you may have life in his name.
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It's interesting to take this purpose statement in tandem with the purpose statement that he just,
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wrote in verse 13 of his letter.
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Because it's clear from the purpose statement of this gospel,
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that John wanted his readers to believe in Jesus and then receive eternal life.
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He wants them to believe and receive.
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But that's not the purpose statement for the letter.
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His purpose statement for the letter is, he wants you, verse 13, to know and grow.
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And so if you ever have someone who's never read the Bible,
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or if you've never read the Bible,
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and you don't really know where to start, start in the gospel of John.
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Because he wants his readers to come,
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face to face with Jesus.
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And then at the end of this letter, he says,
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I'm writing this so that you can know and grow.
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Right?
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You may notice in verse 13,
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that John is writing to believers,
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to those who believe in the name of the Son of God.
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John is not writing here to give assurance to those who don't believe in Jesus.
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John doesn't want to comfort anyone in their,
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unbelief, because those who do not have Jesus,
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do not have any standing before God.
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We ended last week with verse 12, right?
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The verse just previous to the one we're studying,
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where John says,
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whoever has the Son has life.
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Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
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And so if the person who doesn't really know God,
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or who is not willing to come through Jesus,
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your morality and your religion and your offerings are not enough.
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And you cannot be assured that you are good with God,
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unless you come,
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through Jesus.
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He is the only way.
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He's the only way.
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You forfeit assurance of favor with God.
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If you are not coming to him through Jesus Christ.
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Now for this original audience,
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false teachers had undoubtedly shaken their confidence and caused them to question whether they actually knew Jesus.
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Because as we've studied in the last handful of weeks,
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there were tons of false teachers teaching all different things about Jesus.
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And so these believers are wondering,
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okay,
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with all that's going on,
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am I sticking true to the true Jesus?
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Because he's the only one that can give me eternal life.
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And John is writing to them saying,
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yes,
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I want you to be confident that you actually know Jesus.
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And we can be shaken in the same way through numerous things in our lives,
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right?
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Whether it's false teaching or whether it's temptations to sin,
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whether it's hard circumstances in your life,
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we can be shaken in our assurance.
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Like,
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do I actually know the Lord?
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And what John tells us is,
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yes,
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you can know.
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And then he gives us the first assurance in verses 14 and 15,
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where he says,
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God hears and he answers our prayers.
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In chapter four,
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we were told that we as believers can have confidence on the day of judgment because God's perfect love within us casts out all fear.
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And so there's this future orientation to Christian confidence.
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Because of the atoning work of Christ,
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that has forgiven us of all of our sins.
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And because God's love is perfected in us,
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we don't have to have fear for that final day of judgment,
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right?
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And so there's this future orientation for Christian confidence.
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But here,
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John says,
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there's also a present relevance to Christian confidence.
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Look at verse 14 with me.
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He says,
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and this is the confidence that we have toward him,
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that if we ask anything according to his will,
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he hears us.
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And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask,
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we know that we have confidence.
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We have the requests that we have asked of him.
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How can we know that we have eternal life?
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John says,
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God hears and he answers our prayers.
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Now Highland,
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let me just ask you if you think this is true.
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There are not many things that bolster and strengthen our faith like answered prayer.
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Isn't that true?
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Like man,
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you're just praying for healing for somebody.
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And then God answers.
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And it just seems like all the doubts you ever had about God just evaporate into nothing,
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right?
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Or man,
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you're,
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you're faced with like,
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I don't know how I'm going to pay this bill.
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I don't know what I'm going to do about my car that's having problems.
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God,
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I just need you to provide for me.
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And then he provides.
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And man,
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don't you just feel this reinvigoration for your faith,
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right?
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Strengthened or answered prayer really strengthens us.
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Man,
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I was just thinking,
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this last Wednesday in men's ministry about that kid,
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Nathaniel from Newland.
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You guys remember him?
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Terrible heart problems for,
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I mean,
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since he was born,
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but terrible heart problems.
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And the doctors are like,
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you're going to die.
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And so we start praying.
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And then we're like,
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oh,
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the heart's actually doing okay.
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And the doctor's like,
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yeah,
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but his kidneys,
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man,
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just with the blood flow,
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not happening.
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Like it was supposed to kidneys are shot.
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So we start praying for his kidneys and then they're totally fine.
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And they're like,
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yeah,
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but you are probably going to need a liver transplant.
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Cause that got really messed up too,
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with all the drugs we're putting in your system and the whole thing.
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And then we pray for his liver and it's totally fine.
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And then he's standing up here on stage,
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not that long ago,
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just giving testimony to the grace and the miraculous power of God.
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And all of us were like,
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yes,
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yes.
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Like,
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yeah,
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man,
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we're all strengthened in the faith when our prayers are answered.
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Now,
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let me ask you this as well.
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Conversely,
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consistently unanswered prayers.
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Don't they just drain the assurance right out of us?
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Like when you're praying and it just seems like God isn't listening.
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I don't know.
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For me,
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it does.
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I don't feel assurance of my faith.
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And what's cyclical about that is that the first thing to suffer when I'm struggling with assurance is my prayer life.
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And I feel this need,
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this kind of impulse,
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like I gotta clean myself up so that I can come to God all pretty and done up and all of this,
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but I got to fix myself and then come to this.
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The Lord and my prayer life just tanks,
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right?
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Undoubtedly,
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these two verses,
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verses 14 and 15 can and have been used to manipulate believers into thinking that prayer moves God to do whatever they want him to do.
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Some lift these verses out of their context and begin praying for things that would either harm them or they begin demanding things of God.
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Like God,
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I pray you do.
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That's how this works.
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And there's this kind of,
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this arrogance,
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this presumption when it comes to prayer.
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And certainly these approaches of prayer are wrong.
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And so what is John saying?
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It's important to note that here and in chapter three,
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John gives qualifications for how prayer is to be conducted.
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In chapter three,
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verse 22,
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he said that our prayers are answered positively when we walk in obedience,
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not perfection,
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but obedience.
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We walk in obedience,
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and we live in a way that pleases God.
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Now that's kind of obvious,
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or at least it should be right.
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If you want God to hear your prayers,
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you should obey God,
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right?
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I mean,
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I'm at like any,
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any one of us.
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Imagine your kid all day is just defiant and you're telling him to do stuff.
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He's like,
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no,
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no,
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he's having this attitude.
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Go clean your room.
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No,
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do this.
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No,
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do this.
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No.
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And then he comes to you.
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He's like,
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dad,
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can I have some Fruit Loops or whatever?
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The Kroger brand is a Fruit Loops that I just bought.
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I don't even remember what they're called.
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It's not a toucan on the front.
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I'll tell you that,
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but they're just as colorful,
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right?
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Hudson,
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dad,
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can I have Fruit Loops?
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Like,
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no.
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Why?
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You've been defying me all day.
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And then like,
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dad,
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can I have money to go hang out with my friends?
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No,
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absolutely not.
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You don't just get to walk in disobedience and then come to me asking for stuff.
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That ain't happening,
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right?
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Now,
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God is way more gracious than we are as parents,
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but the same principle applies.
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You can't expect to be,
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uh,
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expect God to hear your prayers while you're walking against his will,
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right?
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It's,
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uh,
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pretty obvious.
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Um,
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what is the qualification here in verse 14?
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So from chapter three,
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we have obedience.
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What's the qualification here for prayer?
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Okay.
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He says,
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if we ask anything according to his will,
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he hears us often when I've counseled people who have questions about how to know the will of God,
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how to walk in the will of God.
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What I've found is that many people conceive of the will of God as this secret predetermined course of life that they need to discover like a treasure map.
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It's like,
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if you mapped out all of life,
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there's this thread and you got to stick with the thread.
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And it's kind of funny.
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Cause that's not how the Bible describes the revival.
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The will of God doesn't reveal the will of God at all.
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It's not this hidden secret deterministic treasure map instruction.
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The will of God is much more like a playground.
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It's much more like a playground with a fenced border inside the playground.
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There's tons of room to play,
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right?
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But outside of that fence is the will of God.
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And so inside you've got what God has said in his word about how to live,
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how to believe,
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how to conduct your life,
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the whole thing,
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right?
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Outside of that fence is when you start going against what he has said.
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Okay.
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So what John is saying is like this,
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don't expect God to hear your prayers.
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If you're either hopping the fence or praying to get things that are outside of the fence,
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God has already said,
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no,
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that's not my will.
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That's not what I want for you clearly from this book.
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So John gives a qualification here for prayer.
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You have to pray according to the will of God.
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Now,
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what does that mean?
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To pray this way is to humble your will beneath his,
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to embrace his will for you,
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to empty yourself of every selfish pursuit so that all that is left inside of you are these words,
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not my will,
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but yours be done.
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Listen to how John Stott describes this.
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He says,
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prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God or for bending his will to ours,
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but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to his.
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It is by prayer that we seek God's will,
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embrace it and align ourselves with it.
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Every true prayer is a variation on the theme.
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Your will be done.
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Our master taught us to say this in the pattern prayer.
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He gave us,
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that's the Lord's prayer,
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and added the supreme example of it in Gethsemane.
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In such prayers and only in such,
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he hears us.
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All right.
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I need you to think with me about the gravity of the statement I'm about to say,
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because it's very easy to get caught up in all the theological kind of debates and stuff about this text.
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Let's just pause and consider this thought for a minute.
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When you walk in obedience,
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not perfection,
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obedience.
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When you walk in obedience,
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and your heartfelt desire is for God's will to be done,
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God hears you.
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How amazing a thought it is
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that the omnipotent almighty creator
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who sits enthroned among thousands and thousands of angels
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and whose rule extends to the furthest corners of the unexplored universe
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hears when you pray.
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That should not be lost on us this morning.
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The glory of that thought.
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We just have to say,
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when we think about that,
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we have to say with Psalm 8,
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like what is man that you are mindful of him
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and the son of man that you care for him.
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Like the God of the universe hears me.
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Sometimes when I'm at home
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and I'm preoccupied with some task,
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Hudson,
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who's my little two year old son,
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Hudson will come up
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and he'll say something to me
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and then just repeat it again and again and again
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because he knows I'm not listening.
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You guys have that?
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Like daddy,
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fruit loops.
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Daddy,
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I want fruit loops.
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Dad,
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fruit loops.
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And I'm just like,
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I just need to get this task done.
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You know what I'm saying?
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You guys have been there with me.
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Come on,
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don't judge me.
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Come on,
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I see it in your eyes.
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No,
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but you've been there,
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right?
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I'm just like,
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I really got to finish this.
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Church,
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you never have to worry
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that God is so preoccupied with something else
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that he's not listening to you.
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He's like,
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I just really got to fix this thing
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in the Middle East real quick
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and then I'll get to your little prayers later.
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Just let me focus on it.
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Like, no.
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When you pray,
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God is sitting on the edge of his chair.
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He's not breaking eye contact with you.
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He's hanging on every word.
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He loves when you pray
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and he listens.
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He listens.
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Man,
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what a glorious thought.
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Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount,
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everything you need,
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God already knows before you ask him.
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He already knows before you ask.
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And so you don't need to like heap up empty phrases
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or try to make your prayer something they're not,
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more eloquent,
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more polished in order for God to hear you.
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He's already listening.
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I love what renowned man of prayer,
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George Mueller said.
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He said,
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prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance.
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It is laying hold of his willingness.
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You're not trying to like convince or coerce God.
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Like, please listen to me.
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You're not overcoming any sort of reluctance.
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He has,
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he's willing.
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And all you got to do is lay hold of that.
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That's what prayer is.
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Man, in the last two months,
23:36
I have really,
23:37
realized how often I have prayed without actual faith.
23:44
You ever been there?
23:45
You reflect on your prayers.
23:46
You're like,
23:46
I don't even know if I just prayed that with confidence
23:50
that God is listening
23:52
or with confidence that he would even hear me.
23:55
I just kind of threw it out into the ether.
23:57
All right,
23:58
provide,
23:58
I guess.
24:00
Heal if you can.
24:04
Right?
24:05
And man,
24:06
the spirit had just been like challenging me on that.
24:13
Like, man,
24:13
do you recognize who you're coming to when you pray?
24:17
Why don't you pray a little bit bigger?
24:18
Why don't you pray with some trust?
24:20
Why don't you leave things in God's hands and let your worry go?
24:23
Because that's the proof of trusting God,
24:25
right?
24:26
Like leave it in God's hands.
24:29
And I'm so glad because it's been so challenging,
24:31
but also it's been so life-giving.
24:33
It's been changing the way that I pray.
24:35
Man,
24:36
I'm going to come with some confidence.
24:36
God is hearing me and he will answer me.
24:39
Right?
24:40
I'm walking in obedience.
24:41
I'm trying to pray his will.
24:44
And so you want assurance of faith,
24:48
walk in obedience,
24:50
pray according to the will of God,
24:51
and then watch him work.
24:55
And if you're finding that your prayers aren't answered,
24:57
because we've been there too.
24:58
You're either in that season right now,
25:01
or it's going to come.
25:03
But if your prayers aren't being answered,
25:05
just seek to continually conform your will.
25:08
To his.
25:11
Make that your pursuit.
25:14
This comment on prayer takes us to verses 16 and 17,
25:18
where the subject changes from personal petition
25:20
to interpersonal intercession.
25:24
Look with me at verse 16.
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If anyone sees his brother committing a sin,
25:30
not leading to death,
25:31
he shall ask and God will give him life.
25:33
To those who commit sins that do not lead to death.
25:36
There is sin that leads to death.
25:37
I do not say that one should pray for that.
25:39
All wrongdoing is sin,
25:41
but there is sin that does not lead to death.
25:46
As our personal faith is strengthened through answered prayer,
25:49
John wants to make sure that we don't end up
25:51
a bunch of Christians who are all self-absorbed.
25:55
He doesn't want us to neglect the spiritual well-being of others.
25:59
And now before I really begin explaining this portion,
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I need to give a little disclaimer.
26:06
Okay?
26:08
This,
26:09
the meaning of this passage is very hotly debated.
26:12
But how do you define sin not leading to death?
26:14
Sin leading to death?
26:15
Who is it the one that gives the believer life?
26:17
And there's all these questions.
26:18
And rather than just like data dumping on you,
26:21
here's all the possible explanations.
26:23
I'm just going to give you the one that I think is the most accurate
26:25
and frankly is the most simple as well.
26:27
Okay?
26:29
What John is concerned with here is the steadfastness of his reader's faith
26:33
and the care they should show toward those in their midst who are wrestling with sin.
26:41
It's clear that he's talking about Christians,
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since the title brother contextually applies both to the person whose sin is not leading to death
26:49
and the person whose sin is leading to death.
26:51
Right?
26:52
So we're talking about Christians here.
26:54
And that idea of sin leading or not leading to death,
26:57
that's kind of confusing.
26:58
Right?
26:58
Because if you know your Bible,
26:59
you're like, wait, Romans 6, 23,
27:01
isn't the wages of sin death?
27:03
Doesn't all sin lead to death?
27:06
Yes.
27:08
And in Romans 6,
27:09
Paul's making a theological statement.
27:11
And painting theological landscapes.
27:13
Here in 1 John,
27:14
that's not what John is doing.
27:17
Okay?
27:18
Now, if you have a Catholic background,
27:20
when you read these verses,
27:22
you might be thinking of like the mortal venial sin idea.
27:26
Or you might be thinking of the seven deadly sins.
27:29
Like is that what John is talking about here?
27:31
I don't think John was talking about the 1855 Catholic catechism
27:36
when he wrote this.
27:37
I think he wrote this a little bit before that.
27:39
I also don't think,
27:40
it's a joke,
27:41
I also don't think that he was referring to the medieval idea
27:46
of the seven deadly sins.
27:48
What John is doing here,
27:50
I believe,
27:50
is going way further back than that
27:52
to the book of Numbers.
27:54
And specifically Numbers chapter 15, verse 30.
27:57
Numbers 15, verse 30,
28:00
which mentions this idea of sinning with a high hand.
28:04
Maybe you guys have heard of that phrase before.
28:08
Sinning with a high hand.
28:10
In the Mosaic Law,
28:12
sinning with a high hand merited more severe punishment than other sins
28:15
because it involved conscious rejection of God
28:19
and covenant responsibilities without repentance.
28:23
So again, conscious rejection of God and the covenant
28:27
without repentance.
28:28
The person who sinned with a high hand,
28:30
to quote one writer,
28:32
looks at the sin directly,
28:35
self-consciously reflects that it defies God,
28:38
and opts for the sin in order to defy God.
28:44
There was no sacrifice to atone for this sin in the Old Covenant.
28:47
The punishment was excommunication.
28:49
Like, you don't get to live with us anymore
28:51
if you are actively and openly and consciously defying God.
28:55
This idea is similar to the unforgivable sin in Matthew chapter 12.
29:00
You guys remember that story?
29:02
Jesus is performing miracles,
29:04
specifically in Matthew 12.
29:05
He heals a man,
29:06
a demon-oppressed man,
29:07
who is blind and mute.
29:09
And he heals him.
29:10
And the people are wondering,
29:12
this guy has to be the son of David.
29:14
This is the guy we're looking for.
29:16
And the Pharisees say,
29:19
no, it's by the prince of demons that he casts out demons.
29:22
And they attributed his power,
29:24
the power of the Holy Spirit,
29:25
to the devil.
29:28
So the Pharisees saw the truth.
29:31
They intentionally closed their eyes to the truth.
29:35
And Jesus says,
29:37
that sin will not be forgiven.
29:40
This is,
29:41
what we're talking about here is willful apostasy.
29:45
Deliberate abandonment of God.
29:47
It's what Hebrews warns us about in Hebrews 6 and 10.
29:50
This is the sin that leads to death.
29:53
And so,
29:54
here's what I think John is saying.
29:56
It is possible for a Christian to fall into sin
30:00
without rejecting the gospel in full conscience
30:04
forsaking the truth altogether
30:05
and basically flipping the bird to God.
30:09
Right?
30:10
Now this is the person like,
30:11
you're repentant.
30:12
You still believe in Jesus.
30:14
You want to walk in righteousness.
30:16
You want to do what's right,
30:18
but you were overcome by temptation.
30:20
Any of us ever been there?
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Yeah.
30:22
Right?
30:23
For those believers,
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John says,
30:25
pray.
30:27
Intercede.
30:28
And God will restore them and give them life.
30:33
But,
30:33
for those who understand the gospel
30:37
and have tasted the blessings of God
30:39
and of Christian fellowship
30:40
and still reject it,
30:44
John is not urging us to pray for those people.
30:49
I'm not talking about someone who just grew up in church
30:53
or who knows some things about Christianity.
30:55
That person is an unbeliever.
30:57
Right?
30:59
I'm talking about someone who really got it.
31:02
They really got it.
31:03
They were not ignorant of the things concerning Jesus.
31:07
Now notice that John doesn't forbid prayer for that person.
31:11
He just doesn't urge us to pray
31:13
because he doubts the efficacy of that prayer.
31:15
Now I got to say this.
31:16
Someone requested,
31:18
in first service,
31:19
someone requested that I
31:21
go a little bit deeper on this.
31:23
And so I just,
31:24
I have to say this.
31:26
I know that when we read a passage like this,
31:28
many of you guys are thinking about
31:32
kids, grandkids, family members,
31:34
even spouses who have walked away from God.
31:39
And you know the weight of that difficulty.
31:43
And so you're probably wondering,
31:45
wait, Pastor Sam,
31:46
are you telling us to stop praying for that person?
31:49
No.
31:50
I don't think John is telling you to stop praying either.
31:54
I have a very close family member
31:56
who grew up in church.
32:00
We grew up,
32:01
I mean, going to church together,
32:04
and at the end of high school,
32:06
he walked away from God,
32:07
and walked away hard.
32:08
Not just like,
32:09
I'm going to become an agnostic.
32:10
It was like,
32:11
I'm going to live contrary to the Bible.
32:17
And it was heartbreaking.
32:22
And I would tell him,
32:23
you know what God says about this,
32:25
and you know he wants a relationship with you,
32:28
and that will involve turning away from this sin.
32:33
It was a number of years
32:35
he had been walking in sin,
32:36
and very conscious of what the Bible says about it,
32:40
what our family believed about it.
32:42
And the Lord put on my heart,
32:48
this is probably four or five years ago,
32:50
five, six years ago maybe,
32:52
the Lord put on my heart to begin praying for him
32:53
very consistently,
32:55
very frequently.
32:57
So I did.
32:58
Prayed for him for two or three weeks,
33:00
and after that,
33:02
those two or three weeks,
33:03
I'm sitting here at the office,
33:05
I'm studying,
33:06
he gives me a call.
33:08
And he just says,
33:09
God wants to get a hold of my life,
33:11
and I don't know what to do.
33:17
Yeah.
33:19
And now we talk all the time about Jesus.
33:21
He is walking in spiritual health,
33:23
walking through some darkness still,
33:25
but he's walking with Jesus.
33:27
So I say all of that to leave you with this.
33:32
Those people who have walked away from the Lord,
33:34
if they continue down that path,
33:35
does that path,
33:36
does that sin lead to death?
33:39
Yes.
33:41
Are they without hope?
33:44
No.
33:46
They are not without hope.
33:48
The scriptures attest to that.
33:49
I've experienced that.
33:50
So I hope that encourages you today.
33:56
John says,
33:57
it is the inevitable action of a true believer
34:02
to intercede for brothers who are caught in sin.
34:05
You'll notice he doesn't say,
34:06
you should ask for God to give them life.
34:08
He just says,
34:08
he shall ask.
34:11
This is what naturally happens in us.
34:13
For the spiritual wellbeing of our brothers.
34:16
And so today I would just encourage you to pray
34:17
for those who are struggling.
34:19
And let me encourage you with this too.
34:22
Take their sins to the Lord in intercession
34:25
and not to other people in gossip.
34:29
Right?
34:29
Come on.
34:32
This is our first assurance.
34:33
We pray for our own petitions.
34:34
We pray for others.
34:35
And then we see God answer.
34:37
That's the first.
34:38
Now we've got three more that are much shorter,
34:41
but the second assurance that we have for our faith
34:43
is found in verse 18.
34:44
And so look with me there.
34:44
Verse 18.
34:46
We know that everyone who has been born of God
34:48
does not keep on sinning,
34:49
but he who was born of God protects him
34:51
and the evil one does not touch him.
34:55
This theme has been repeated throughout this letter.
34:58
One way you actually know God
35:00
is that the presence of sin,
35:03
the presence and power of sin in your life is declining.
35:06
It's decreasing.
35:09
And you are increasingly uncomfortable with sin.
35:14
It's like when you were a kid
35:15
and you were growing out of your shoes.
35:19
You remember that?
35:20
You'd be wearing your pair of shoes,
35:21
even if they were your favorite,
35:22
and they would just get tighter and tighter.
35:23
And you just go,
35:24
oh man, like I can't walk in these anymore.
35:27
I got to put on something else.
35:29
It doesn't fit.
35:30
That's what sin is like in the life of a believer.
35:32
Just like, man, it just,
35:33
I'm not comfortable with it.
35:34
It doesn't fit.
35:35
I got to put on something else.
35:38
Right?
35:39
And so not only is your life headed toward holiness,
35:41
but John says you're also protected
35:43
from the evil one.
35:44
And whether the protector here is Christ himself
35:46
or that interceding brother,
35:48
the point is the same.
35:49
You guys, each believer,
35:50
each one of us is protected spiritually from evil.
35:55
And so that's the second assurance.
35:57
We know we cannot keep sinning.
35:59
And this takes us to our third assurance in verse 19.
36:02
He says,
36:02
we know that we are from God
36:03
and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
36:08
The unbelieving world rests in the power,
36:11
literally the grip of the devil.
36:15
But he says,
36:16
we rest securely in the hand of the almighty.
36:22
It was Jesus himself who in John chapter 10 said this,
36:25
my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
36:29
I give them eternal life and they will never perish
36:31
and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
36:35
My father who has given them to me is greater than all.
36:37
And no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.
36:40
I love Eugene Peterson's description of Christian security.
36:47
He says,
36:47
when many of us think about the security of our souls,
36:51
we think of it like walking on a tight rope
36:55
from one cliff to another
36:58
over a crowd who morbidly would frankly love
37:02
nothing better than to see you fall.
37:05
And the whole time you're doing this
37:07
and that's the state of your soul.
37:09
He says,
37:09
that's not how the Bible describes it at all.
37:13
The security that your soul has if you are in Christ Jesus
37:15
is you are sitting in an impenetrable fortress.
37:22
It's just this castle,
37:23
like no one's getting in, nobody.
37:27
So you aren't balancing
37:28
and it's all up to you to keep it together.
37:30
No, you're sitting securely in the hand of God.
37:35
What a picture, right?
37:37
It made me think as I was studying that,
37:38
are you in good hands?
37:40
Yes, I am, all state guy.
37:42
Yes, I am, right?
37:45
Finally, we come to verse 20.
37:48
He says,
37:49
and we know that the Son of God has come
37:50
and has given us understanding
37:52
so that we may know him who is true.
37:54
And we are in him who is true,
37:56
in his Son, Jesus Christ.
37:58
He is the true God and eternal life.
38:02
Here at the end of the letter,
38:03
we have John's last repudiations of Gnosticism,
38:06
which we've been mentioning the last handful of weeks, right?
38:09
Where he says,
38:09
Jesus has come.
38:10
That's that whole flesh idea.
38:11
He's given us understanding, right?
38:13
Rather than that Gnostic knowledge,
38:15
like secret knowledge kind of thing.
38:16
Jesus is the one who truly enlightens us.
38:19
But then John also just leaves us with this declaration
38:21
of the truthfulness, reliability,
38:24
and glory of Jesus Christ.
38:27
Jesus came, John says,
38:29
so that we may know him who is true.
38:31
That is God the Father.
38:33
And what's interesting is that word for
38:35
we know him who is true,
38:36
that word can more accurately be translated real.
38:40
We know him who is real.
38:42
Highland, God is real.
38:44
He's real.
38:46
And he can only be known through his Son, Jesus,
38:49
who himself is the truth.
38:52
If you have come to know Jesus,
38:54
you have come to know the truth.
38:55
You've come to know God.
38:56
And so this morning,
38:57
do you guys want to be a group of people
38:59
who lives in the truth?
39:01
You're living in reality.
39:02
You're not living in some delusion
39:04
that you yourself have created.
39:05
No, you want to come face to face with the real world,
39:07
with even all of its ugly parts.
39:09
You want to do that,
39:10
you've got to come face to face with Jesus.
39:12
He is the truth.
39:15
And so if you seek to live in the truth,
39:17
and if you seek life with God forever,
39:19
and if you want to know that you have eternal life,
39:23
come to Jesus.
39:26
He is the key.
39:28
He is the answer.
39:30
And this is why John ends the book
39:32
the way that he does,
39:33
with verse 21,
39:34
where he simply says,
39:35
little children,
39:36
keep yourselves from idols.
39:41
This is intentional.
39:42
It's not like John was writing a letter
39:43
and then he forgot to turn the stove off
39:45
and he's like, oh shoot.
39:46
And he runs and then he sends off the letter like,
39:48
man, I meant to finish it.
39:50
No, this is completely deliberate.
39:53
He ends with this exhortation
39:55
because more than anything,
39:56
you guys, John wants you
39:57
and he wants me to come to know the true Jesus.
40:00
And nothing derails that pursuit quicker than idolatry.
40:07
We began this series with the idea
40:09
about avoiding idols who promise eternal life,
40:12
but can't deliver.
40:13
And so just let me say this.
40:17
Verse 21 means nothing without verse 20.
40:25
Verse 21 means nothing without verse 20.
40:29
Hyland, if you have idols in your life
40:32
and you are trying to keep yourselves from those idols,
40:36
you must turn to Jesus.
40:40
You must.
40:43
All of your efforts
40:44
to turn from porn or from your depression
40:49
or from your self-absorption or from your anger
40:52
or from your phone addiction will mean nothing
40:55
and they will be powerless unless you come to Jesus.
41:00
You have to bring your entire self to him
41:03
and submit to him.
41:05
Man, hear me please when I say this.
41:07
We are not pursuing more moral lives,
41:10
more respectable lives,
41:12
more disciplined lives for their own sake.
41:14
We are pursuing Jesus.
41:18
And nothing less than him will do.
41:21
That will all come.
41:23
But if you pursue that without him,
41:25
it is a Christless, idolatrous pursuit.
41:29
We want Jesus.
41:33
Man, here at the end,
41:34
John just shoves across the table
41:36
all of his assurance ammunition.
41:39
And he just says,
41:40
you want to know if you really know Jesus?
41:44
Consider these things.
41:46
Number one,
41:47
we know God hears and answers our prayers.
41:50
Number two,
41:51
we know we cannot keep sinning.
41:54
That sin just,
41:54
it doesn't fit in my life.
41:57
We know we are in God's hands
41:59
and not the devil's.
42:00
And then lastly,
42:01
we know the truth
42:02
because we know Jesus.
42:05
Man, what glorious,
42:07
massive spiritual realities surround your soul today.
42:11
This is huge.
42:12
And you can know where you stand with God.
42:16
You can just lean back into his provision
42:19
and his grace for you and relax.
42:23
We're going to close today by singing.
42:27
And so I'm going to invite the worship team up.
42:30
And specifically,
42:31
we are going to sing
42:33
and just thank God
42:34
for what he has accomplished for us.
42:37
That not only has he brought us to himself,
42:39
he's brought us to himself in a way
42:41
where we can just find,
42:42
find security for our souls.
42:44
And really what made that all possible
42:46
was the shed blood of Jesus for us
42:49
and his resurrection.
42:51
Amen.
42:52
Let me pray and then we will sing.
42:56
Father, we are grateful this morning
42:58
to spend some time in your word
43:00
and to consider
43:03
the rock solid ground
43:04
that our lives are built on.
43:10
God, I know that there are some in here
43:12
who are struggling with the assurance of their faith.
43:14
And so I pray that by your spirit,
43:17
you would empower them to walk in obedience.
43:20
That they would seek nothing more
43:23
than your will.
43:26
That today they would just rest
43:28
in Jesus.
43:30
We're grateful.
43:31
Be honored as we worship you.
43:33
In Jesus name.
43:34
Amen.