Grace Church exists to glorify our Heavenly Father by
 continually making more disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Blessed Assurances 1 John 5:18-21 Get Real: A Study of 1 John Sermon #24 Voltaire said, “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” In the same time period famous American, Benjamin Franklin, said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” But is it really possible to be certain about anything? Ancient and modern skeptics have said no. While we don’t have all the answers, Christians do not live in the great “I hope so.” Christianity is a faith of certainty, sure things. This letter of John’s is about certainty, about the real about assurance. The word know occurs 39 times in John’s brief letter, eight times in this last chapter.   It’s entirely appropriate that a book of the Bible dealing with certainty and Christian assurance should end with a shout of confidence, We know! Three times John says “we know” as he ends his letter. These statements are a summary of much of what he’s been teaching and they’re a reminder of how important certainty or assurance is to Christianity. Here we have statements of Blessed Assurance that neatly summarize truths introduced earlier in the book. It’s as if John has heeded the advice often given to teachers and speakers that one should “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them.”   God doesn’t want His children to live in doubt or uncertainty. While there are many things that we don’t know and other things we’ll never fully understand in this life, there are things that we can know and ought to know. And we ought to not let the things that we do know be shaken by the things we’re unsure of. 1 John 5:18-21 is Blessed Assurances (p. 864).      We’ve dubbed this series, Get Real! That’s because the life that is real is built upon divine certainties found in God’s Word and in His Son, Jesus Christ. A lost world may accuse Christians of being arrogant and dogmatic but that does not keep us from saying, “I know.” In these three “I knows” once again, John unpacks the believer’s relationship to sin (v. 18), reasserts the crucial contrast between a Christian and a lost world (v. 19), and sets forth the reality of Christ’s mission and its results (v. 20). Then, he throws a final warning at us (v. 21). John says that we know three spiritual truths. 1. We know that we are free from the power of sin, vs 21. “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.” Some years ago radio commentator, Paul Harvey, told the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin.   First the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then, he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh, frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the sharp edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the Arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf doesn't notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his tongue nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more – until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!   Satan is a ravenous wolf waiting to destroy the believer with sin. W. R. Inge wisely said, “It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.” You and I don’t have to pass resolutions, we’re free from the wolf’s domain. One of Dr. Martin Luther King’s most famous speeches was called I Have a Dream. In this speech King said he had a dream that all people, regardless of race or religion, would live peacefully together and that we would be free of hatred and racial prejudice. The speech ended with these stirring words: “When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last!Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’” But what was only a dream for Dr. King is a reality for the believer.   It’s not normal for true children of God to live in sin. The new birth results in a new behavior. Sin and the child of God are incompatible. John restates the same point he made in 3:4-10 “no one who is born of God will continue to sin” (3:9). Sins is in the present tense which allows for the sense of “continually sin.” Since John has clearly said that believers do sin (1:8, 10; 2:1; 5:16), what he means here is that no genuine child of God lives in a state of sin. As someone wisely said, “A saint is not a man who never falls, he is a man who gets up and goes on every time he falls.”   In 3:9 John based his assertion that those born of God could not sin on the fact that God's seed abides in them. The new birth provides a new nature from God, which cannot sin. So both in chapter 3 and here at the end of the book, John is saying that the new birth has an obvious result…a righteous life. While true believers do fall into sin, they cannot live in it indefinitely. The changed nature results in changed behavior.   If a pig falls into a mud hole, he wallows in it and doesn't try to get out, because that’s its nature. But if a sheep falls in a mud hole, it wants to get out, get cleaned up, and avoid that hole in the future, because it has a different nature. That’s the way it is with a true child of God.   Verse 18 gives as the reason that no one born of God sins. The NASV renders this “We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He (capital H referring to Jesus) who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.” It’s not that we’re so tough but Jesus is. And Jesus the Good Shepherd keeps us safe from Satan. While Scripture does talk about the believer keeping himself, here John is focusing on Christ as the one who keeps us from Satan's clutches.   When it says that “the evil one does not touch him,” it doesn’t mean we’re completely isolated from Satan's assaults. What John is saying is that because we’re part of God’s forever family, Satan’s slimy fingers can’t hang on to us. His attacks may be vicious but the promise is that he cannot destroy the true child of God. The security of the saint, even when he is tempted…even when he sins, lies in the power of the Savior to keep him from Satan’s clutches. The Old Testament saint, Job, is a perfect example. Satan was able to test Job, making his life miserable but God still held on to Job and never gave Satan complete control.   Sometimes folk hesitate from becoming a Christian for fear that they will not be able to hold out. The blessed assurance is not that we’re holding on to Jesus, He’s holding on to us. That’s how we have victory over sin.   Roy Laurin tells of an old man who’d been a drunk for many years without any hope of freedom from this destructive, enslaving habit. He came to Christ and there was a complete change in his life and habits. Someone noticed this great change in him and said, “So you’ve gained the mastery of the devil at last!” To which the former drunk replied, “Oh, no, I have the Master of the devil.” He knew that it was the presence of the Master who gave him the mastery. John gives a second assurance… 2. We know that we are in the family of God and not under the control of Satan, v. 19. “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” For several decades there’s been a lot of talk about legalizing drugs, that the drug war is a waste of taxpayer money. Imagine a world where drugs not only have been legalized, they’re also supplied free to those who request them. Within a few years everyone is addicted to some form of a hard drug. Society no longer knows what it’s like to think clearly. No one knows what it’s like to have a head free of acid and crack. Children are born, grow old and die always high on drugs.   Like everyone else, you’re an addict but out of the blue, you’re snatched in a back alley. Someone shoots Naltrexone, a drug used for rapid detoxification, into you. For the first time in your life, your head clears and you can think soberly. You see this man grinning from ear to ear. “Welcome to the land of the living,” he says. Over the next few days you see this world for what it is. Men and women destroying their lives with drugs and they don’t even care! You go to your friends and family, beg them to give up the drugs but they look at you like you’re crazy. Who would want to give up these drugs that make you feel so good? You shake your head. How could I have been so blind? How could they be so blind? Why can’t they see the truth?   That’s not a pretty picture but it actually reflects the state of our world. In this world there are two and only two groups. Those who are born of God and those who are in the power of the devil. Those in Satan’s power are trapped. They live in a world where they cannot see the truth but it seems like a velvet cage. They quite enjoy it and don’t realize that the path they’re on leads to destruction. What separates these two groups is only the fact that some have accepted Christ, they’ve been brought out of this world’s system and now understand the truth about Christ, and sin, and life.  Christians now know this world for what it really is. The Apostle understood this only too well. You’re either with Christ or against Him. There’s no middle ground. You’re either a child of God or under control of the evil one. Isn’t that exactly what John says, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”   Let’s be honest, where would those in the world rather be – would they rather belong to God or would they rather lie in the power of the evil one? If you stop the average person and ask, “Would you rather belong to God or Satan?” most would say, “Oh, I’d rather be God’s.” But phrase the question another way. Ask them if they want their booze, their partying, their gambling, their life filled with amusement or if they want holiness, self-discipline and self-sacrifice. To most of the world the Christian life sounds like hell on earth. To them the equation sounds like this. Sunday morning pagan style versus Christian style. I sleep in. Have a leisurely breakfast. Read the paper. Watch ESPN and relax. Or I could get up early. Get the kids ready. Rush to church. Drone a few hymns. Give my precious money. Doze through a sermon and all in all waste my day off! They don’t want Christ and the things of Christ. Sure they would choose heaven over hell, but only for selfish reasons not because they wanted Christ.   The truth is that this world is very content to lie in the arms of the devil. He titillates them, feeds their lusts. He tells them they’re the most important thing in the world. He tells them there’s no hurry, to just enjoy each day and he has them totally deceived. The picture is not of frantic captives, desperately trying to escape this depraved tyrant. Rather, they lie quietly in his evil clutches, oblivious to their tragic plight. The god of this world has blinded their minds (2 Cor. 4:4). They can wear Life is Good T-shirts, oblivious that they’re wandering perilously close to the edge of the abyss. They don't realize that soon they’ll face God in judgment. Rather, they are sleeping peacefully in the arms of the evil one who will destroy them! The world isn’t fighting to be free from Satan and does not want to give up its vices. Like an addict, it remains hooked in its hell.     When they hear the truth of the Gospel, they reject it. It doesn’t sound as good as the lie. In fact, no one would ever accept the truth if God did not batter down their defenses and make them pay attention. But once our eyes are opened, we’re shocked to see the lie that the world has swallowed. We’re shocked they can’t see it. We’re shocked that the world is heading to hell and no one seems to care. And this truth makes us ever more grateful that God called us, opened our eyes and protects us. We’re all either of God or of Satan. We’re either God’s children or Satan’s. Whether we have accepted the truth about Christ or rejected it, determines whose power we’re in. Because we’ve accepted the truth, because we live under Christ’s lordship we must remember that we’re part of His rescue team, seeking to rescue those still under “the power of the evil one” as we once were. 3. We know that Jesus is the Christ and has given us spiritual discernment, v. 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. This is the true God and eternal life.” During the recent Yugoslav war the people in Serbia didn’t know that their army has forced a million ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo. They were ignorant of the atrocities of Slobodan Milosevic. They didn’t know why NATO bombed their country for 78 days. Why? Because their media only told them what Milosevic wanted them to know. During the war how could they know the truth about the war which devastated their country? Only if Western journalists broadcast the truth to them. We’re like the Serbs and are kept ignorant of the truth by our own sin and deception and by the lies of Satan.   If mankind is divided into two families: God’s and Satan’s, how did we come to know the truth about this world and that we were in the wrong family? We came to know it because someone from outside this world told us the truth. And more than that, this truth-teller gave us a spiritual heart transplant so that we could accept the truth. John’s third blessed assurance is “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. This is the true God and eternal life.” Jesus opened our eyes to the truth of this world and God’s Word and world.   Satan is a liar and is the inventor of all this world's false religions, the inspirer of all its false philosophies, and he has a deception suited for everyone. John has the antidote for all that and in this verse he puts the straightedge of truth alongside Satan's most brilliant lies. To do so, John needs only two words—know and true—and he hammers them home. Heresy had raised its ugly head—persuasive and pervasive. Soon the last of the apostles would be gone and who could tell what other lies Satan might invent? John urgently, insistently, again and again brings the church back to foundational certainties. If we grasp these, this world's lies become void.  The invalidating of these lies is accomplished through two great supernatural acts.   a) The incarnation of the Son of God, “the Son of God has come.” John could summon angels from heaven to testify of this. He could summon Elizabeth and Zacharias, Mary and Joseph, the Magi and the shepherds. He could summon aged Anna and old Simon, as well as John the Baptist and the disciples. He could appeal to the Father and to the Spirit, and he gives witness himself, “The Son of God has come.” Significant figures from Old Testament prophets to the apostle Paul testify, “The Son of God has come.” The second person of the Godhead contracted to the span of a virgin's womb. What a feat! God, who had been manifest in burning suns and blazing stars, has now been manifest in flesh. Let ten thousand false teachers mock it but the truth remains, “The Son of God has come.   b) The illumination of the children of God, “and has given us understanding” Our understanding is not based on human reasoning. When the unregenerate human mind examines divine truth, it comes up with error. It spawns so-called higher criticism and tears the Bible to shreds—at least to its own soul-damning satisfaction. Or, it invents false religions and cults. Our understanding is based on divine inspiration and divine illumination. When Simon Peter made his great statement concerning the Son of God, the Lord Jesus immediately said, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Spiritual understanding is a God-thing. This truth also has two perspectives.   c) It’s a positive truth, “so that we may know Him who is true.” We’re on the cusp of another presidential election. The big movers and shakers are moving among the little movers and shakers. It’s considered an asset to know the great ones of this world, but not to the apostles or the early church. They were unimpressed with that. They knew that the all-important One to know is “Him who is true,” King Jesus. To know Him is to be kept from all that is untrue. Evidently, there were those who had abandoned the church in the pursuit of some special knowledge. They were not satisfied with Christ—with Him who is true”—so off they went on the broad highway of error that leads ultimately to a lost eternity. Know “Him who is true” is John's word. Jesus is the truth. He said so Himself (John 14:6).   d) It’s a positional truth, “and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.” Though we don’t fully understand this, at salvation, we are placed in Christ. He’s all around us and that's a wonderfully secure place to be—in the Father and in the Son. These aren’t just mystical theological propositions, they’re statements of fact. John is describing things that are true. As we pass through a world engrossed in lies, we’re wrapped in truth.   e) This is who our God is. John concludes with “This is the true God” or as it can be rendered, "This is the real God." John has just referred to the Father as "Him who is true," and to "His Son Jesus Christ." While he doesn’t mention the Holy Spirit, He’s also present. He was the One who was revealing these truths and inspiring John to write them down. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit— three Persons, one God. This is the true God, the real God. The real God, the God of the whole Bible, is one God, existing in three Persons, to each of whom are ascribed attributes, qualities and prerogatives. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each distinct from the other, each possessed of deity, each with specific spheres of operation, which operations are said to be wrought by each. The divine names and titles belong properly to the Father, yet the Son and the Holy Spirit bear the same designations. Thus, the Son is called "God" (John 1:1), "the blessed God" (Rom. 9:5), and "the great God" (Tit. 2:13). So, too, the Holy Spirit is called "God" (Acts 5:3-9) and "Lord" (2 Cor. 3:17). The revelation of God as triune is the supreme mystery. The Greeks, with all their intellectual genius, were totally ignorant of the true nature of God. No unenlightened human mind ever envisioned such a mysterious mode of existence as that enjoyed by the triune God as revealed in Scripture. The mysteries inherent in the Trinity are far beyond the grasp of our finite minds. No man could have invented them. "This," says John, "is the real God." To know Him and His Son is our greatest safeguard from error.   f) This is where we are headed, “and eternal life.” John follows up his statement about who God is with two words about our destiny: No other God can bestow this gift of all gifts, eternal life. Let’s consider those two words, eternal life.   Life! John remembered the words of the Lord Jesus, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). Eternal! To go on living forever where time is not counted by years, where the streets are paved with gold, and where Christ sits at the right hand of His Father; to go on living beyond the reach of sin and death in a place of joy unspeakable and full of glory; to be with Jesus forever and ever; to have a share in all the wonders of the unborn ages in those vast new empires in space that will one day replace this worn-out old rag of a world, all marred and spoiled by sin—such is eternity for the believer. That's John's last word…almost…but not quite. He has one more thing to say. 4. We have one last warning, vs. 21. “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” At first glance this seems out of context but in verse 20 John has just mentioned the one true God. This undoubtedly brought to his mind the false god of the heretics. They denied the God of the Bible. They said that "the Christ" came upon the man Jesus at His baptism and left just prior to His crucifixion, but they did not believe that He is the eternal God in human flesh. In light of their false god, it’s natural for John to warn his little children to guard themselves from idols.   The words “guard yourselves” mean to watch something closely, like a guard watching over a prisoner or a bodyguard protecting a celebrity. Gary Burge observes, “We must be diligent and alert--never passive--when it comes to taking care of ourselves spiritually.” In other words this is something only you can do for yourself, your parents can’t do it for you, your spouse can’t do it for you, our church can’t do it for you, I can’t do it for you and you can’t do it for me. Each of us must guard our own lives.   We’re told to guard ourselves against idols. In the ancient world an idol was a carved image of a god or goddess, something a craftsman made and that people bowed down to in worship. The first two of the Ten Commandments forbid idolatry. In our modern world we rarely encounter literal idols made of wood or metal, but there are still lots of false gods that clamor for our attention in our culture today. An idol is anything that squeezes God out of the center position towards the margin of my life. One definition of an idol is “trusting people, possessions or positions to do for me what only God can do.” An idol is anything that substitutes for God’s rightful place on the throne of our lives.   The problem of idols is essentially a problem of faithfulness. When we come to know Christ personally we enter into a relationship of faithfulness, where He promises to stay with us, walk with us, forgive our sins, and where we promise to walk with Him, obey Him and trust Him. When we embrace an idol--a god substitute--we are unfaithful to that promise, like a spouse who breaks a marriage vow. The main idols Christians struggle with in our culture today are the idols of materialism, success, adventure, leisure, pleasure and comfort. At the root of all of these is the idol of self.   The idolater has not yielded the throne of his life to the true God. Rather, he wants his will and his way, and he tries to use God to get what he wants. If his god delivers, he sets the god back on the shelf until the next time he needs something and then uses it again. If it doesn't deliver, he'll shop around for a better god who gets him what he wants. But the idolater does not submit to the living and true God.   I fear that even many who claim to be born-again Christians are only trying to use God to get happiness or peace or a better life. If He brings trials, they look for a new god. My friend, that’s idolatry!   John warns us to guard ourselves from idols, which implies that we have something valuable the enemy is trying to steal. Spurgeon points out that if a man has a box and he's not sure what's in it, he won't be very careful about guarding it. But if he knows that it contains a rare and valuable treasure, he’ll be diligent to guard it carefully. John is saying that if you know the true God and His Son Jesus Christ, you have a treasure. Guard it so that you don't drift into one of the many forms of idolatry. Conclusion: Last century a group of students at Harvard once tried to fool famed professor of zoology, Louis Agassiz. They took parts from a number of different bugs and with great skill attached them together to make a creation they were sure would baffle their teacher. On the chosen day they brought it to him and asked him to identify it. As he inspected it with great care, the students grew more and more certain they’d tricked this genius. Finally, Professor Agassiz straightened up and said, "I have identified it." Scarcely able to control their amusement, they asked its name. And Dr. Agassiz replied, "It is a humbug."   A lot of people say, "It doesn't matter what you believe, just as long as you’re sincere." It does matter what we believe. You can be sincere but if you don’t go God's way, you’re not right.   There was a story in the news some years ago about a tragedy that occurred with a salt shaker. Several people died because what they thought was salt in a salt shaker wasn’t salt at all, but a poison that looked just like salt. They sincerely thought they were eating salt, but they were eating poison.   My friend, Are you for real? Are you a real Christian? Do you have spiritual reality? Have you come to Jesus Christ? Can you say with John, "I know"? Do you have God’s blessed assurances?