1 John 5:13-21 Seven Certainties That Will Change Your Life

1 John 5: 13 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.14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.15 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.

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life---to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

 

Seven Certainties That Will Change Your Life

The lecturer had vanished! A crowded gathering of distinguished scientists had been listening, spellbound, to the masterly expositions of Michael Faraday. For an hour he had held his brilliant audience enthralled as he had demonstrated the nature and properties of the magnet. And he had brought his lecture to a close with an experiment so novel, so bewildering and so triumphant that, for some time after he resumed his seat, the house rocked with enthusiastic applause. And then the Prince of Wales--afterwards King Edward the Seventh—rose to propose a motion of congratulation. The resolution, having been duly seconded, was carried with renewed thunders of applause. But the uproar was succeeded by a strange silence. The assembly waited for Faraday's reply; but the lecturer had vanished! What had become of him? Only two or three of his more intimate friends were in the secret. They knew that the great chemist was something more than a great chemist; he was a great

Christian. He was an elder of a little Sandemanian Church--a church that never boasted more than twenty members. The hour at which Faraday concluded his lecture was the hour of the week-night prayer-meeting. That meeting he never neglected. And, under cover of the cheering and applause, the lecturer had slipped out of the crowded hall and hurried off to the little meeting-house where two or three had met together to renew their fellowship with God. Why? He had an assurance of something far better than a King's applause.  He had to King of Kings to meet with.

He had a certainty about his Faith stronger than anything else in life.  

As he lay dying they tried to interview the professor, but it was the little child in him that answered them. 'What are your speculations?' they inquired.  'Speculations?' he asked, in wondering surprise. 'Speculations! I have none! I am resting on certainties. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day!' And, reveling like a little child in those cloudless simplicities, his great soul passed away.

John has some certainties too. The same certainties possessed by Michael Faraday are given life to us in John's closing words of his epistle.  Seven Certainties that will change your life.

The growth of the Christian life largely consists in changing belief that rests on testimony into knowledge grounded in vital experience.   How the heart aches for assurance, for confidence, for finality, for certainty.  John closes his letter with a series of seven triumphant certainties, which he considers as certified to every Christian by his own experience. 'We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning,  we know that we are of God... and we know that the Son of God is come.' Now, that knowledge which he thus follows out on these three lines is not merely an intellectual conviction, but it is the outcome of life, and the guarrantee of experimental possession is stamped upon it.  

 'We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning'; a great many of us lay John's triumphant certainty up upon the shelf where the unintelligible things are getting covered over with dust.  We need today to come to the joyful possession of the truth which lies here and which the Apostle conceives to belong to the very elements of the Christian character.

That joyful possession of certainty would make us courageous witnesses for Christ.

If our Christianity had that firm conviction, we would be less at the mercy of every wind of doctrine; we would be less afraid of every new thought; we would be more powerful to rule and to calm our own spirits, and we would be more mighty to utter persuasive words to others. We must know for ourselves, if we would lead others to believe.  You may know!  WE KNOW!!!

you may know that you have eternal life.

we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning

 (we know) he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are from God,

We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true;  and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

It all goes back to that one foundational truth. John had already made that lear in His gospel. The Lord Jesus said: 'Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.' The experience of a regeneration, a being born again, which makes people by a new birth, in relationship with God, which they were not in before that experience. 'To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God.'

Verse 1  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God 'Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.' On condition, then, of a man's faith in Jesus Christ, there is communicated to him a new life direct from God, the Divine life, "the life of God in the soul of man" as one puritan writer expressed it.  This new life dwells in him, and works in him. It is the communication of a new life-power and principle to him.   This new power and principle within us is to spread and permeate the whole nature. "Thus we have the necessary foundation laid for that which characterises the Christian life, from the beginning to the end, that it is a working out of that which is implanted, a working out, with ever widening area of influence, and a working in with ever deeper and more thorough power of transforming the character." Maclaren.   And it is this struggle that can sometimes cause us to doubt. It can attack our certainty.

Last week we talked about being sure of our salvation.

Look at verse 13. 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.

A friend contacted me about the struggle he has always had over assurance of salvation.  He wants to keep things fair and biblical. And he really agonises over this issue.  Perhaps you do too. He looks at himself and wonders whether his sins are so significant that perhaps he is not saved!

John says there are 7 things you know!

One of the things growing up Aussie is that you can tell an Aussie, but you can't tell him much!

The favourite thing that kids tell their dads is "Yeah I know!"  It was how to annoy your dad properly. "I know I know I know!" "Then why do you get yourself in trouble?"  "Why do you do stupid stuff if you know, you know, you know!"

The congregation at Ephesus had struggles. What happens when someone you know and respect well falls into sin?  Do they lose their salvation? Are they forever lost?   John is going to tell you and I seven things that you might know up here in your head, but not down here in your heart.

Verses 13-20 seven times John says "We know." "We know!" We know He hears our prayers.

1. We know we have eternal life

13 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.

 Eternal life begins immediately There is much discussion in the New Testament about eternal life. Christians have been accused of living a pie-in-the-sky kind of exsistence that is unrelated to the present. But eternal life is not something in the future, but in the present. You received eternal life the moment you received Jesus Christ. First John 5:20 says Christ is the true God and eternal life. The moment you received Christ, you received eternal life.

Jn 3:16Jesus told Nicodemus, "Whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."

John 5:24--Jesus said, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but is passed from death unto life."

Eternal life is a gift  John 10:28--Jesus here said, "I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish." Romans 6:23--The apostle Paul said, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." 1 John 5:11 "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."

Eternal life must be received.  

2. We know He hears our Prayers

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.15 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.

 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life---to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Even faithful Believers stumble into sin. John mentions that everything we do wrong is sin. But there is a certain sin that is fatal. In Mark 3 Jesus said that every sin can be forgiven except one. That's called the unforgiveable sin. Through the years, I've had Christians come to me concerned that they had committed the unforgiveable sin. The unforgivable sin is not murder, or adultery, or suicide. It's not taking God's name in vain. Jesus said the unforgiveable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It's basically the sin of saying, "No" to the Holy Spirit's conviction that a person turn to Jesus and be saved. It's persistent unbelief. Billy Graham wrote a great book on the Holy Spirit. He wrote that there are three sins we can commit against the Holy Spirit. There is grieving the Spirit, and quenching the Spirit. Neither of those are fatal sins. But here's how he described the only unforgivable sin. Billy Graham: "The unpardonable sin involves the total and irrevocable rejection of Jesus Christ. It is rejecting, completely and finally, the witness of the Holy Spirit, which declares that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who alone can save us from our sins. No one has committed the unpardonable sin who continues to be under the disturbing, convicting, and drawing power of the Holy Spirit." (The Holy Spirit, p. 124). Probably John has specially in mind those who have spurned Who Jesus is, as God the Son manifest in the flesh, second person of the triune Godhead, and denied to centrality of His atoning sacrifice at the cross.  John sees this false teaching as the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

So not all sin is fatal. And even the most faithful believers will sometimes stumble into sin.

Abraham lied twice about Sarah being his sister. Jacob stole his brother's blessing. Moses committed murder. Samson could kill a lion with his bare hands, but he was a he-man with a she problem and he lost his strength in the devil's barbershop. David was guilty of adultery and murder.  

Simon Peter. Luke 22:31: Jesus said, "Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."  Peter denied the Lord three times that night.  Not all sin is final nor fatal. He was convicted by the Holy Spirit and he went out and wept bitterly. But then he rejoined the disciples and a few days later, Jesus restored him to a place of leadership. So, we need to remember that nobody is perfect except Jesus. We are all people who fail in many ways. Someone has said that the Christian army is the only army that shoots its wounded.  Rather than shooting at people who are struggling and failing with sin, John says pray for them. And for most (except those who have spurned the gospel, have spurned the divinity of Christ, who have denied who Jesus is as God the Son and what He did at the cross in atoning for our sins) their sins are not sins to death.   Pray for them.  What will happen?  If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life---   14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.15 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.

3. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning…

Wait, let me read that again – "we know that no one who is born of God sins." You're immediately wondering, "That's reassuring?"  Last I checked, I was still sinning . . . in fact, the older I am in the Lord the more aware of how sinful I am.   What does John mean – no one who is born of God sins?

Some believe Christians can lose their salvation by sinning and this text is the proof that you never really were born again because you sinned. So that must mean you lost whatever salvation you thought you had.  It looks like John is saying "true Christians don't sin."  But John has already told us in 1John1:8 that anybody who says they no longer sin is deceiving themselves.  Paul tells us in Romans 7 of the struggle he has with sin that still dwells in him.   Romans 7:"18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing...24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

What John is saying here in this text is something he's already said in this letter. In chapter 3 he wrote about those who practice righteousness and those who practice sin (3:4).   John is saying, "no one who has been transformed by the new birth goes on living in an unbroken pattern of sin."

The pattern now is sin and confession . . . sin and confession; the pattern of sinning without regret is now transformed into sinning with regret and a desire to live a holy life.  In other words, the true believer no longer lives to sin.   It used to be natural to sin, but now that we've been born of God, it is unnatural to sin. We don't like it . . . we're troubled by our sinful nature and our acts of sin.  We long, like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, to be freed at last from the wretchedness of our sinfulness.

John is saying, the one born of God doesn't continually sin in an unbroken pattern. It is no longer our lifestyle. The one born of God does not have a lifestyle of sin.  He pursues a pattern of righteousness which is the mark of the believer instead of a pattern of unrighteousness which is the mark of the unbeliever.   The true believer longs to please his Lord.  Our greatest joy in life is pleasing Christ and our greatest sorrow is in sinning against Him. Paul wrote, "My ambition in life is to be pleasing to Christ." 2 Cor 5:9  We grieve that we grieve Him. We sorrow that we bring Him sorrow. We know that the believer no longer lives to continually sin. By being born again we have the family likeness.

Family resemblance  Keiffer and Donald Sutherland, Ben and Jerry Stiller and grandma Grose.

4. We Know He who was born of God protects him,         

The Lord Jesus protects us.  He who is born of God and He who was born of God.  The Son of God was born physically into the family of mankind.  Why?  to keep you.   To keep you!  The word John uses means to guard . . . literally, to stand guard like a sentry at his post. And John uses the present tense to reassure us that Jesus never goes off duty. He continually preserves the believer and stands guard over him.  Nothing can happen to us without first passing by our Great Guardian.  and the evil one does not touch him.

He's not talking about your neighbour or your boss: he's actually talking about Satan himself.

The Evil One can't touch you-  to lay hold of – to fasten to.   To grip you.  One author said, the slimy fingers of Satan will never regain an abiding grip on the redeemed soul. Satan would have to defeat Christ in order to regain his hold over your eternal future.  The Lord Jesus Christ I give eternal life to them and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand (John 10:28).  There is no way your soul can slip from the hand of Christ, back into the hand of the Devil.  Your security is not in your grip on Christ – but His grip on you!  And God will never lose His grip.

5. We know that we are in a Spiritual Battle.

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

When we are born again, we changed sides in this battle.  We are on God's side now. We are partakers of the divine nature and there is now a sense of oneness of mind and outlook, between the Christian and God. "We know that we are of God."  Ek out of. We going the same direction as God now. And that means we are going against the current of the world. This is the spiritual reality of our world.  It isn't left versus right. It isn't men versus women. It isn't along racial lines.  This world is divided into two.  And we have fellowship with those who are on God's side of it all.  And that's not a lot.  In other words, the world system and all the unbelievers of this world system are under the power the dominating influence – the mastery – of the evil one.  This is really a horrifying reality.  The unbeliever thinks he's celebrating his freedom – when in reality, he is being seduced by the Serpent who is even now wrapping his coils about their hearts to crush them in the end.  the world lies in the power of –reclines in the arms of the devil. The whole entirety of human culture: it's economics; it's politics; it's finances; it's education; its entertainment and it's religions all lies in the power of the evil one keeping people away from the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.  And now, if you are born again, you are aware of the spiritual struggle you are involved in.

Are you different than your loud neighbours about the spiritual realities of this world?

Are you in aligned with the world and its god, or the Lord?

6. We Know That the Son of God has come and has given us understanding

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. The historical reality "We know that the Son of God has come"  into our world. He who was God the Son in all etnerity past has now walked with men, with John the apostle as a real human being, very God of very God, Truly a man.  These historical facts, this historical event, is real. A real Person in a real world. This is not some vague philosophy that has been imagined or thought out, or worked out by men, but something that has been revealed by God, carried through by God in the real world as a historical fact. Facts, not feelings, are the foundation upon which our faith will rest.  And this fact means something else too: he has given us, you and I, understanding of Who He is. The truth of Who He is. We see Him as the Saviour. We see Him as our Saviour!

What began in the historical past, is now permanent and continuous. When Jesus Christ came, He came not  only to die and rise again, but He also 'came to stay.'  His coming into the world was also the point of  the beginning of a permanent reality. He has come, and He has not gone. He said 'Lo! I am with you always' — and that thought of the fulness and permanence of our Lord's presence with Christian souls is lodged deep and all-pervading.  We are conscious that we are not alone, but that the dear and strong one is beside us wherever we are whatever happens.

7. We Know God Gives us fellowship with God

Being born of God you desire to know God. I guess it is like a new born baby. It knows whether the person holding it is its mum, or some random adult.  It was beautiful to see our newest granddaughter passified by the rocking in the arms of her mum and dad.  Nothing else could settle her but her parents. There is an amazing sense of knowing there.  

so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.

If there is the historical reality which lies at the very heart of my Christian faith and experience, there is also: The continual reality.  The new life received gives us the capacity to know the reality of the grace of God experimentally in our own lives.  Being born again, born of God, means there is relationship with God in Christ. Fellowship with Him. Intimate knowledge of Him.

"We know that the Son of God has come and we know that he has given us understanding to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."

He has given us understanding of Himself! Just as a friend has a choice whether or not to reveal himself or herself to another friend, so the Son of God has chosen to reveal Himself to those who are born of God.  If you are born of God you know He has revealed Himself to you as your Saviour and redeemer.  And He continues to do that as you read His Word.

And this is a big reality and an authentic Christian experience than anything else in our world.

There is a reality about the Christian experience that is as true and as real as any other form of reality- It may be some thing which the natural man cannot see but the Christian can and does see it; and this new realm of reality into which the Christian has entered is the ultimate, and the true, and the abiding, and the eternal reality. It is "the real reality". Temptation may come to me sometimes to doubt but that does not alter the fact that it is real. Reality isn't what the world says is reality. Reality is what the Lord Jesus says is reality. And we know that reality in fellowship with Him.

8. We Know Jesus Christ is the true God.

Here you have again a reference to the doctrine of the Trinity. The real God – the God of the whole Bible – is one God, existing in three Persons. They are equal in essence – equally divine. Jesus the Son does the will of the Father and the Spirit exalts the ministry of the Son. 

And any other view is idolatry.. worshipping a false view of God.
JI Packer wrote "I am so often disillusioned about myself. This is unspeakable comfort . . . in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my [ultimate, spiritual and eternal] good."

The certainty that Christ is God is the summation of John's entire epistle. That is the greatest certainty of all. When people question the deity of Jesus Christ, they must not have read 1 John 5:20. The phrase reads, "In his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God." The incarnation of Christ guarantees every other great certainty we have covered. The Son of God has come to give us an understanding that God is truth and that Christ Himself is the true God. Our faith is not an intellectual theory, but an abiding reality based on the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. "is come" The term "is come" in verse 20 is in the present tense and therefore means "to come and be present." God has come to this earth and is continuing to give us an understanding of Himself. As a result of faith we are in God, and His Son who is the true God.

2. "true"  The Greek word here translated "true" is alethinos which means "real" or "genuine." In is in contrast to verse 21: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Since we are in the True One, we are to keep ourselves from false gods and false religions. God is the ultimate reality, as opposed to idols.

3. "know" The Greek word translated "know" in verse 20 is ginosko, which refers to knowing by experience. It is in the present tense, which indicates we are now knowing Him who is true. We are in a constant state of knowing God because we know Christ and Christ is God. You cannot know God without the Son and you cannot be in God without being in the Son, because He is God. In essence John says in verse 21, "Little children, stay away from the errors of the heretics, because you are of the truth."

We may know all about the God that Christ has revealed and yet not know Him in the very slightest degree. To know about God is theology.  That knowledge, if it is real and living, will be progressive. More and more we shall come to know. As we grow like Him we shall draw closer to Him; as we draw closer to Him we shall grow like Him. We know … that we are in Him that is true.

John Oxenham has expressed the same thought with an accent and emphasis well worthy of the theme:

Not What, but Whom, I do believe, That, in my darkest hour of need, Hath comfort that no mortal creed To mortal man may give.

Not What but Whom. For Christ is more than all the creeds, And His full life of gentle deeds Shall all the creeds outlive.

Not What I do believe, but Whom. Who walks beside me in the gloom? Who shares the burden wearisome? Who all the dim way doth illume, And bids me look beyond the tomb The larger life to live? Not what I do believe, But Whom! Not What, But Whom!