That You May Know | 1 John 5:13-21 (4-7-2024)

In the letter of 1 John, the writer emphasizes the importance of knowing God and having confidence in Him through prayer. He encourages believers to pray with boldness and confidence, knowing that God hears their prayers when they align with His will. The writer also emphasizes the need to pray for others and to be aware of the protection that comes from being born of God. Overall, the letter highlights the certainty and assurance that believers can have in their relationship with God. If you have your Bibles, do make your way to the letter of 1 John, as we find ourselves now in the very end of 1 John, and so for our Scripture reading this morning, we will be in 1 John 5, verses 13 through 21. And these are the words of the God who dwells in unapproachable light. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of Him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask God, 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. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who is born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 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. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. The grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we praise You, as we have just read. You have written these things for us, so that we might know. And so, Father, we do call upon You, for we are completely dependent upon You. We humble ourselves before You, that You would give us eyes to see, that You would give us ears to hear, that You would cut our hearts, that You would fill us with Your Spirit, so that we might behold the Lord Jesus Christ, the One whom we are in, the true God and eternal life Himself. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, it was in 1996 that a college chaplain held for the local university students, what the chaplain termed to be a, quote, festival of doubt. Again, this was not the student body, this was the chaplain that convened this meeting. And just as the title implies, this was a gathering that was meant to foster, if not encourage, the role of religious skepticism and uncertainty among the students. And you might remember in the postmodern wake of the 1990s, you can imagine how such a festival was applauded. As one commentator said, it's a strange day in which we live, when doubt is deemed a virtue. Skepticism is applauded as humility, and absolute truth viewed as absolutely false. Well, we come today to what is our final section and final sermon on 1 John. And if the world calls for its festivals of doubt, I hope you see by now that the entire letter of 1 John is a festival of certainty. It is a festival of truth and assurance for the church. Today's conclusion of John's letter might as well be the grand finale of this festival of certainty. You may have heard it during the Scripture reading. John comes right out and he says, I write these things to you so that you might know. There's no hint of uncertainty. There's no celebration of doubt. John's parting word to us is to know exactly who we are in Jesus Christ. And so we'll walk through these final words in three parts, all regarding what John would have us know. Firstly, knowing God through prayer. Secondly, knowing God through praying for others. And thirdly, knowing God's protection. All with that simple main point, knowing that we are from God, knowing who God is and who we are in Christ. And so verse 13, you see right away, John is not shy at all as to the purpose of his letter. He shows us his cards. He says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. Why? So that you may know you have eternal life. This is the first instance of that verb to know. It occurs seven times in just this short section. Now you might be saying, well, you know, I already know that I have eternal life. John is boring me with something that I already know. But that would be as foolish as saying, I've already mastered all the secrets of the universe. I learned that in undergrad. I'm now ready for advanced courses, right? Because knowing God is something that we are always maturing in, up to our dying day and then unto eternity, right? We never plumb the depths of who God is. Or perhaps you have the opposite problem. You have eternal life, but you doubt it. You struggle to know it. Maybe even live contrary to it for a time. All right, just as you could be the wealthiest person in the room and yet live like a pauper because you don't realize just how wealthy you actually are. And John has shown us the many ways through this letter, the way our assurance can suffer. That if, for instance, we do not bring our sins out into the light, if we do not confess our sins, if we do not love one another, if we fail to keep God's commandments, if we fall in love with the world, these are all things that would cloud and muddy our confidence. So John is going to show us what is one of the most powerful, one of the most profound ways to know God, and also what is one of the simplest and most ordinary ways to know God. In one word, prayer. Do you pray to your God? A recent Barna survey showed that the average Christian prays but three minutes a day, and that's including grace at meals. As one pastor said, the evangelical church is slowly but surely giving up on prayer. Should we say, of course, I want to know God, but then to not pray is somewhat like saying I want to know my spouse, but never will I talk to her, never commune with her, never fellowship with her, never talk to or listen to her. We would all say, friend, this is a foolish path to knowing a person. So John gives us great motivation to bow our knees over and over in eager expectation. Verse 14, he says, this is the confidence that we have toward God. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. So we see two things here on prayer regarding our posture and regarding our petitions. Firstly, our posture is one of, you see that word, confidence, boldness before God. So Christian, not just do you pray, but do you pray with confidence? Now that alone is astounding. Kids, kids, imagine if somebody told you, I am traveling to the center of the sun. Yes, that's right. That all-consuming, burning star up in the sky, I'm heading towards the sun and I'm doing it with confidence. You'd say, that person is crazy. How much more so when John says, we approach the God who is Himself light, who dwells in unapproachable light. We approach the unapproachable God. Not only that, we're to do it with confidence. Of course, the only thing that makes this not only not foolish, but right, is that we go there not alone. We come before our God with an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And so in Christ, we can, indeed we must, come with confidence because we are acceptable to the Father, as acceptable as Jesus Christ Himself. First is our confidence. So that's our posture, one of boldness. And that leads, secondly, into our petitions. John says further, why you ought to be so confident, in this verse, that if we ask anything according to His will, God hears us. So you can put those two together. Our confidence is that God hears us. Our prayers are not bouncing off the ceiling. They're not falling on deaf ears. They're not ignored. They're not lost in transmission. Our God has excellent hearing, as I'm sure you have. I've been around those who suffer from poor hearing or hearing loss. And it's painfully obvious how this hearing loss impacts daily conversation. Right? One person says something. The other person says, I'm sorry, can you repeat that? So he repeats it. Then it's repeated back to him, only it's something entirely different. And this goes on for a while, and then eventually the first person just says, forget it, never mind, it's not that important. And the conversation ends in futility. Christian, you need to know, our God has perfect hearing. Does He who made the ear not hear? You might remember from the time of the Exodus, as God's people are being crushed under the regime of Pharaoh and the oppression of Egypt, they cried out to God. And Exodus 2 says, their cry for rescue of slavery came up to God. God heard, and He remembered His covenant. God heard, and He kept His covenant. And Christian, how much more for you that your cries for rescue, for redemption, for forgiveness, for provision, ascend to the God who hears and remembers His covenant of grace. And that is why knowing who God is, knowing His character, compels our prayers, which all the more brings us to knowing God, and on and on we go. And knowing God, of course, shapes what we pray for, the content of our prayers. Because notice John does not say in verse 14 that, quote, if we ask anything, God hears us. That would be a sentimental view of prayer, an idolatrous view of prayer, even the prosperity gospel view of prayer, that whatever I ask of God, whatever I dream up, whatever I desire, God must respond with His heavenly rubber stamp. Notice Proverbs 18 says, that He who turns His ear away from hearing the law, even His prayer is an abomination. Prayer is full of instances of our God not hearing certain prayers. So you see this all-important qualifier. If we ask anything, quote, according to His will, it is just as the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, that we say every single Lord's day, Thy will be done. Not my will be done, but Thy will be done. Because prayer is not us bending God's will to our will, prayer is us subordinating our will to God's will. Now when we say God's will, we can clarify that by thinking of God's will in two ways. Firstly, we have God's sovereign will over all things, His all-controlling, predestinating will. Everything that comes to pass is by God's sovereign will. Nothing comes to pass that is not of God's sovereign will. And so one way to pray in light of that truth is to be faithful, to be content as God's will unfolds for our life. The diagnosis of a terminal illness, tragic and sudden death, a hard providence, or simply a hard day. In these moments we can and we must ask God to preserve us, to keep us in His love. But secondly, we can also think of God's will as what He has revealed for us to do in His word. For instance, as a husband, I don't have to wonder and guess, ah, I wish I knew God's will for my life as a husband. I wish I had some kind of crystal ball to decipher this information. No, I've got plenty to keep me busy. I know I'm to love my wife, to nourish her, to cherish her, I'm to live with her in an understanding way, I'm to provide for her, and on and on. And so too, no wife would have to wonder, ah, if only I knew God's will for me as a wife. I'm to honor and revere and respect and submit to my husband. I'm to build up my house with wisdom, and so on and so forth, right? These are the things that God has revealed to us and for us. And so practically speaking, as you're reading the Bible, right there is your ammunition for your prayers. Turn His promises into petitions. And so when we do that, when we pray God's will, we can pray it with unreserved boldness. Because all that we are asking is for God to work His good pleasure in my life. Help me keep your commandments. Help me be an obedient child. Give me strength to be a diligent and skillful employee. God, I'm being tempted right now by lust, by anxiety. God, would you provide the way of escape for me, just as you have promised to do in Your Word? And on and on and on. In verse 15, John even tells us how we are to think right after we say the word, Amen. If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have the request that we have asked of Him. Now, don't read that verse as saying that our knowledge somehow makes prayer effective. John's point is that as we know that God hears, so we know that God will answer our prayers. Not one prayer will go unnoticed or unheard. Heaven will not be silent and God will answer us if and as we pray according to His will. It's, of course, not as if God says, let me think about it. I need some time to process your request. I need to strategize and think some things out before I give an answer. No, as the Lord Jesus said, before the word is even on your tongue, your Father knows before you ask. And, friends, this comes to us as a correction, as a rebuke that so often we do not have simply because we do not ask. You might remember Elisha telling the king to strike the ground with his arrows, and he strikes the ground three times. Seems pretty good. Elisha is mad. Why did you stop there? Why not strike five or six times? And how often is that us in prayer? How little we realize we come before the God who is able to do abundantly more than all that we ask or think, before the Creator of all things, who upholds the world by His word, who just so happens to be our Heavenly Father. And yet we often have kinder thoughts about man than we do God. This is Jesus' point. If you being evil can give good gifts, how much more so will your Father in heaven? Now, all that said, let's address so-called unanswered prayers. I prayed for the promotion, and I was passed over. I prayed for healing, and no healing came. I prayed for an open door, and the door slammed in my face. I prayed and prayed, and all I got was this bitter cup to drink. Well, this goes back to God's sovereign will and His revealed will and how they both align. God has revealed to us that by His sovereign will, He will work all things for our good and for His glory. As the psalmist says, no good thing will God withhold from those who walk uprightly. And a fair objection is, well, how can we call cancer good? How is job loss good? How is abuse and slander and stress and pain and even death itself good? Well, recall Ecclesiastes. God makes everything beautiful in its time. Our present sufferings are not worth comparing to coming glory. By faith today, we can say, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. By faith today, we can say with the psalmist, it was good for me that I was afflicted. By faith today, we can say, my suffering is conforming me to Jesus Christ, and that is always good. And of course, nowhere is that prayer more perfectly displayed than in the life of our Lord Jesus. That it was God's will for Him to go to the cross and to drink down to the very dregs of the cup of wrath. And we see our Lord Jesus wrestling, agonizing, praying through sweating drops of blood. Is there any other way to not drink this cup? And only then does He pray, not my will be done, but thine. And friends, His prayer was heard. As Hebrews says, in the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers to God and He was heard because of His reverence. And so just as our Christ was heard, so too is your confidence that your prayers are heard. But we don't stop there, because John shows us next that we are to pray not merely for ourselves individually, but for one another, for our brothers and sisters, with a particular emphasis on those straying from the faith. I'm sure you don't have to think hard to cue up in your mind names of friends, church members, family members who are straying, wandering, backsliding from the faith. And you might feel quite helpless, even hopeless, that there is nothing I can do in this process, because the prodigal will not return. But John shows us one of the first, one of the best things we can do for such persons is to intercede. You probably know the name Augustine. That's certainly a respected, a revered name now. But he once lived a life full of wandering lust and waywardness. He could have made a pagan blush in his day. And he said in his own words, it was the steadfast prayers of my mother, Monica, that I credit my salvation. And John summons us to that same approach at the most basic level in verse 16. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, what does he do? He shall ask. The apostle of love says one of the best ways to love one another is simply to petition and plead for them, particularly when we are ensnared in a sin. All right, it's a simple question to ask yourself. What is my first instinct when I see the faults and sins and weaknesses of my brothers and sisters? What is my default reaction? And, of course, we know in the flesh our first instinct is to run and tell someone else about it, to gossip about it, guess what so-and-so did, or to pridefully look down our noses at them in an air of superiority, or to just leave it alone and think, man, I've got enough of my own business to deal with. I don't have time to pray. Here's the instinct of love. Pray for that person. John Owen once said, if we would talk less and pray more, things would be all the better. Less talk, more prayer. As we've been covering the Lord's Prayer in our Sunday school, one of the things we have highlighted is praying the right pronouns, praying the right pronouns, simply meaning The Lord Jesus did not teach us to pray, give me my daily bread, forgive me my sins, lead me not into temptation. Those are not the pronouns. If ever we pray as if we belong to a one-member church, then we are missing the mark. It's give us our daily bread. Well, to persuade us more, verse 16 shows us the reward for interceding for others. He shall ask, and what happens? God will give him life. I'm sure you've seen, as I have, many a blood drive or blood donations where people are just lined up around the corner to donate their blood. It seems these people are convinced that something as simple as donating their blood will give someone else life. And John says, how much more when you donate your prayers? The verse is very simple. We donate our prayers for others, and God responds in giving them life. And though simple, you see just how high the stakes are in this verse. Life itself is on the line. If you ever think that your prayers, which may seem so insignificant, so insufficient, so routine, are in truth a secondary cause of someone else's salvation, that if one of us is heading towards the cliff of damnation, ensnared in a sin, wandering away, then the means God has ordained to reclaim such a sinner is you bowing a knee. If you ever think, what do I possibly have to contribute to this body of saints? Here is always your answer. Well, with that, let's not skip over this curious language in these verses. You surely notice this phrase, the sin that leads to death. Even as the verse continues, John goes on and says, there is a sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. So this is a confusing verse, to say the least, at first read. It sounds like John is saying there are two types, two categories of sin. One to death, one not to death. You add to that, John's words seem to be contrary to other passages. Like when Paul says, the wages of sin, any sin, is death. But John, of course, is not contradicting Paul. John is certainly not being light on sin. He says right here that all wrongdoing is sin. But we still need to ask, what is this sin that leads to death? Well, some commentators, of course, would point to the unforgivable or unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And that certainly is a possibility. But I think if we take the verses in context, even as the next verse, verse 18, helps us better understand John. He goes on, he says, here's what's true about the born-again Christian, that if you are born of God, you do not keep on sinning. John, of course, does not mean sinless perfection, but rather that those who truly have the Holy Spirit, when they do sin, the Spirit convicts them. The Spirit indicts our conscience, produces godly grief inside of us. We confess our sins, repent, and turn away from our sins. We do not persist in our sins. By contrast, the person who walks in complete worldliness, John says, is not born of God. No matter how sincere the profession, no matter how genuine it may seem, it is an empty, vain profession of faith. And to me, it's nearly clear that there were former members of John's church that did exactly this in the most rebellious of ways. Remember from chapter 2, John said, they went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been genuine Christians, they would have endured. They would not have fallen away. And at the top of John's list is those false, apostate, heretical teachers who had taught the truth at one point, and then consciously, deliberately, persistently denied that Jesus is the Christ, taught others to deny that Jesus is the Christ, and to run towards Gnosticism for their salvation, those whom John names as anti-Christ. And so it seems likely John's referring to these wolf-like teachers and their sin that leads to death, this kind of high-handed rebellion that despises the grace of God and sins against better knowledge. And incidentally, this is why our confession rightly says that some sins are more heinous than others. Now, the egalitarian mind of today tends to say, well, no, all sins are equal, right? We're all sinners. No one sin is worse than any other sin. And that's true only in the sense that all sins fall short of the glory of God. But Scripture is clear. Some sins are more aggravating, more heinous than others. And you've got a fine instance of that here. And friends, this is why the book of Hebrews gives us such a sober warning, that if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but only a fearful expectation of judgment. A more sober warning Scripture could not give, that if we stiffen our neck against God's corrections, Hebrews says, you have outraged the spirit of grace and trampled the Son of God underfoot. One of the deadliest things we can do is simply do nothing, to not confess our sins, to hold iniquity in our heart. You might as well cast fire into your lap. This is why every Lord's Day we have a confession of sin. Among other things, to train us. We are a people who confess, and we have a God who is faithful, who is just, whose very nature and essence is to forgive us and to cleanse us. So we've seen prayer, we've seen secondly praying for others, lastly we see the protection of God. We're left off in verse 18, and we dare not skip over this rock-solid truth at the end of verse 18, which says that those born of God are protected by Him. Let's just ask a simple question. How good is God at protection? If you were going to hire a security guard, a bodyguard, you'd have a list of questions. I need to gauge your security, right? How protected will I really be? Well, here's John's answer in verse 18, that God's protection of His sheep is so good, so powerful, so all-controlling, the evil one cannot touch us. To be sure, Satan can and does tempt us, buffet us, accuse us, persecute us, fire his arrows at us. You'll remember Jesus told Peter, Satan's desire for you is to sift you like wheat. That imagery might be lost on us. That means Satan's desire is to put Peter into a sieve and to crush him, to pulverize him unto utter destruction. And what prevented Peter's demise was manifestly not Peter, as the Lord Jesus said, no one will snatch My sheep out of My hand. Peter, I have prayed for you. We see next just why God's protection is so precious and so powerful. Because John tells us, here's where it lies outside the walls of God's fortress of protection in verse 19. We know that we are from God. By contrast, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Many of you know it was just last week that Easter happened to fall on March 31st. Easter, of course, the day the church has historically commemorated and celebrated the risen Christ. And you might know the news that on that same day, March 31st, the White House chose to recognize what is the so-called transgender day of visibility. In other words, that right alongside of and adjacent to the joy of our risen Savior, the state, our governing authorities, called for its citizens to celebrate what is the satanic, destructive, dark spirit that is embodied in LGBTQ and the sexual revolution. And in doing so, the state is at its near heights of abusing her God-given authority by putting darkness for light and light for darkness. It's a near perfect instance of the seed of the woman warring against the seed of the serpent. And those kind of episodes pose serious questions for Christians, mainly, how did we get here? What wrong turn did we take to wind up here? And that's a complex question and that emits of many answers. But verse 19 helps us out. And John has told us much about the world already. And now he teaches us. The world is just a puppet. It's an avatar of the evil one. G.K. Chesterton rightly said that when you stop worshiping God, you do not stop worshiping. You will worship something. You will exchange the truth for a lie and start manufacturing your own false gods to worship. And you see exactly that in our state's false worship of autonomy and of self-rule. And if you read that verse in isolation, that would be a fairly depressing verse, to say the least. But notice John does not put down his pen. You see, verse 20, he keeps writing to remind us of a greater truth. You know that the Son of God has come. And why has the Son of God come? First John 3, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. We rightly boast just how good Christ is at restoration, but we should also glory in just how good Christ is at destruction. If you've ever built anything, you know that before you build, often comes demolition. You can't build a new house on top of an old house. First, you've got to level the old house to the ground. And so, as the psalmist says of our Messiah, He breaks them with a rod of iron. He can dash them like a potter's vessel to clear the ground, all in order to build up His kingdom. And, friends, that is our confidence in the midst of any current chaos. Do not try to make sense of sin. Sin is, by definition, senseless and irrational. And so, while we can't make sense of the world's ways, John says, here's what you do know in verse 20, that God has given us understanding that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ, true God in eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. So, you see the contrast. The world lies in the evil one, but we are in Jesus Christ, His Son. And so, John says, for this reason, keep yourselves from idolatry. Calvin once rightly said that our heart is but an idol factory, that we are really good at pumping out idols. My self-righteousness, my appearance, how much attention can I draw to myself? How much pleasure can I squeeze from my wealth, my lust, my ambitions? There's hardly anything out there that we cannot make a God of. And so, John's final word, little children, guard your hearts. It is the wellspring of life, because you will become like what you worship. Whatever it is you set your heart on, you are going to become like that thing. And so, the great remedy to idolatry is what comes right before that. There's not so much truths about Christ. John here says very directly, nearly for the first time, the truth that we are in Christ. We are in His Son, Jesus Christ, united to Him, like a branch to a vine. The Christian is united to Christ, who is Himself, true God in eternal life. So, it's as if John is simply saying, choose this day whom you will serve, an idol that is mute, deaf, and dumb, or the true and living God. God has given us this understanding so that you may know Him who is true. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we praise You that You have revealed these things to us and for our salvation, that Your Word is making us wise for salvation. Father, we praise You, too, that we can come before the throne of grace to pray unto You according to Your will, with confidence that You will hear us as we ask for ourselves and as we ask for our fellow brothers and sisters, that no matter what chaos is going on around us, that even if the world lies in the power of the evil one, that You have promised to protect us, to guard us, and to keep us, that as the Lord Jesus said, as the hen gathers the chicks under her wings, so, too, are we protected under the shadow of Your wings. And so, we do pray that You would give us courage, confidence, and endurance. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.