Chapel of the Lake
We Proclaim Confidence In Christ
Welcome to Chapel of the Lake in Lake St. Louis, Missouri. The chapel family is a multi-generational community of believers who gather weekly to worship and explore God's Word as we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Join us now as Pastor Aaron McMillan opens the scriptures. Well, good morning. Good to be back. We are wrapping up our series in 1 John this morning. So I encourage you to open up your Bibles to 1 John 5 and just a second we're going to be in verse 13. Much of what we are going to look at this morning is not new. This is John's final few admonitions for his readers. He goes back and revisits the themes that he's been circling around this entire letter. So a lot of what we're going to talk about hopefully is familiar to you. But I want to bring us back actually to the gospel of John before we get started. At the end of John, the very last verse of the gospel of John, John writes why he wrote his gospel. He says in John 20 verse 31, "But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." So the gospel of John was written so that people would believe that they would hear and believe on the name of Jesus that they might receive eternal life. But as we turn and open up the letter of 1 John where 60 years or so after the life of the ministry of Jesus, it's getting towards the end of John's life as he pens this letter and he tells us in our first verse here this morning why he wrote the letter if we haven't figured it out already. First John 5, 13, he says, "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 so you see the shift between the gospel of John and this epistle or letter of John at first he writes so that the world might see and witness and believe in Jesus. But now he writes to believers. Through centuries he writes to us as believers and he wants us not just to believe but to know to have assurance that we have eternal life. And so that is how he's going to end his letter. We're going to look at five truths that the Christian can have confidence in here this morning. But let's open up with a word of prayer. Together we're thankful that this morning we're here because of you not because of us that we have heard the gospel prayerfully we have received the gospel and this morning may you encourage us as we see that we can have confidence in Christ knowing that we have eternal life. We pray these things in your name. Amen. All right so first truth reasons why we can be confident in Christ. We've already read it. We know that we have eternal life. Throughout the letter this is what John has kept coming back to. He's encouraging them that their salvation is not based on subjective feelings or secret knowledge as some were trying to claim at the time but there's actual tangible evidence of faith that should be seen in our lives. He's acknowledging in this verse that doubts may arise within the life of the believer but he writes so that we would have confidence in place of doubt that we would know for certain that we have been born of God that we are his child. And if I gave you the choice this morning between being a doubting Christian and being a confident Christian my guess is that you would want to be a confident Christian that everyone would desire to have confidence in their spiritual lives and their walk with God and John through his letter here has given us a pretty simple formula for our confidence as we look and just evaluate our lives. Where are the tangible evidences that John has written about through this letter? I think you can boil it down to three simple things. Number one is faith. We believe we have faith in what? In the name of Jesus Christ and as we've seen before this name isn't just that we believe that Jesus existed or that there's some intellectual truth that we just accept. No when John writes that we believe in the name of Jesus Christ he's saying that we believe in who he is and who he said he was is an acceptance of all who he claimed to be and all that he accomplished on our behalf. And so John says if you have faith this is evidence that you have been born of God this is evidence that you have eternal life but he is also repeatedly through the book told us that obedience to God is a mark of the true believer. We can know that we have eternal life if we obey his commands. We looked at a lot of this last week that those who are born into the family of God should look or resemble the family of God. God himself, Jesus and the way that he lived his life in perfect obedience. John told us that obedience isn't just about a checklist of commands but it ought to be motivated by our love for God and that would be this third tangible evidence not only our faith and our obedience but in the way that we love that we can know that we have eternal life because we love God and we love other Christians. We love those who are also in the family of God. This is evidence of the new birth because this is not natural. If you look around the room and we say yeah we love each other. First of all do you really and second of all why would you look around? We're a different group of people. There's really no reason that we all would show up here at this time and in this place unless we know and love Jesus and that is what unites us and that is unnatural to the world and so the fact that we are willing at least to acknowledge the idea that we ought to love what another in the family of God is evidence that we have eternal life in all of these cases. John is telling us that we can be confident because eternal life rests in Christ. Rest in what he has done not ourselves not our own efforts not our own feelings but in Christ and so what he does over the next few verses just really expound on why we can be confident in Christ and him alone. And the next four verses there's another reason to be confident because we know that he hears our prayers. We'll start with verse 14 and 15 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. He says and this is the confidence it's actually probably better translated therefore based on the fact that we can know eternal life through Christ therefore we also have confidence that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And what John is saying that when we have assurance of our salvation we have assurance in Christ then that leads to the confidence that God answers prayer. And here is where I hope we see this connection between faith and prayer that that prayer is a mark of the believer because it reveals where our heart truly lies. With our kids we we're going through the new city catechism and we're almost to question number 38 of 52 but 38 is an easy question and I think my kids already know this one the question is what is prayer and the answer that they'll give us is prayer is pouring out our hearts to God. And so I just ask you think about your prayer life over the past week or the past month over the past year. What does it reveal about your walk with God? What does it reveal about your heart? What does it reveal about your faith? Because prayer really gets the essence of what it means to be a Christian because it's through prayer an in prayer that we that our will becomes aligned with God's will. It's through prayer that we begin to take our thoughts and minds captive to the things of Christ and John tells us here that not only are we to go to God in prayer but the good news is that if we will go to God in prayer if we ask him of something we can know that he hears us and he goes on to say and so if God hears us we also can be confident that he is already given an answer. And this is a little tricky if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. He's saying once you've asked God it's as good as done because he's heard it and if he's heard it he will do it. The question then becomes well what can I ask God really though is he is he getting answer everything I ask of him and that answer he's already covered in chapter three but here he tells us there's a qualifier there in verse 14 and this is the confidence that we have towards him that if we ask anything according to his will. I think this is the truth of Psalm 37 4 in action Psalm 37 4 says delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. If you want a Lamborghini you can want it you can even ask for it you might get it but I can guarantee you that the only way you're going to get it if it aligns with the will of God and maybe that is God's will for your life but think realistically about what it means to pray for the will of God because prayer is not trying to get what you want that would be me in a Lamborghini maybe not you but he's saying prayer isn't you asking or even getting what you want it's you asking what God wants for you and that's that's the difference there's a there's a world of a difference between what I want and what God wants and what John is saying is we ought to be praying for what God wants and if we're praying for what God wants we can be guaranteed that that answer is going to come true theologians he says this prayer rightly considered is not a device of imploring the sources of God to fulfill our desires but a means by which our desires may be redirected according to the mind of God and made into the channels for his will and so that leads to maybe another signed question well then what should I ask for how do I know I want what God wants but how do I know how to pray according to God's will and the principle I think is is pretty simple number one we've already said we can pray for whatever we want as we are children of God but we are only confident that we are going to receive the request that align with his will his plans and so how do we know what is what is it mine or is it gods I think John Calvin is helpful he says God supplies a twofold remedy and I'm going to add one more but Calvin first Calvin says supplies a twofold remedy lest we should pray outside the command of his will he teaches us in his word what he wants us to ask and he has also set over us his spirit as our leader and ruler to restrain our affections that we may not let them stray beyond due balance I think this is important you want to pray for God's will then good start with scripture God's will is revealed through his word and God's will will never contradict his will never contradict his word so if you want to know how to pray what to ask for according to God's will then you start with the word start with the word that's our first God then Calvin rightly says we trust the Holy Spirit this is Romans eight even when we don't have or know the words to pray we trust the spirit is at work in us and it's the spirit who is crafting or molding our desires into the desires of God the third is maybe not a third thing it's more of a caveat if you want to be praying what does God want for me if you want to be praying to be aligned with the will of God you're going to be centered and grounded in the word of God you're going to be guided by the Holy Spirit this implies though that we want the will of God now I think first blush of course everyone wants the will of God yeah but do you really though because what if the will of God is hard what if the will of God for you means sacrifice what if the will of God for you means leaving your comfort zone what if the will of God for you looks radically different than what you think God's will should be for your life I think it would be appropriate to pause and to think can I truly say not my will but yours be done this is how Christ taught his disciples to pray thy will be done do we have a desire for God's will if we do it will change and shape the way we pray which will then go on to change and shape the way we live but John says here importantly that we can have confidence in Christ we know that he hears our prayers I was reading through some stuff this week I came across the story of Martin Luther and I'm not I definitely would not recommend necessarily this approach about the story that I'm going to tell you briefly but it speaks to the boldness and the confidence that Luther had so the story which is well attested for the story is that Martin Luther had a friend a good friend during the height of the reformation his name was Frederick Miconius and in 1540 this man Miconius became ill he was on his deathbed the doctors are like you're gonna die so as he is on his deathbed Miconius writes a letter to Luther just telling them how much he appreciated him and that he was about to die well Luther received this letter and then wrote back a reply here's Luther's reply I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church the Lord will never let me hear while I live that you are dead but will permit you to survive me for this I am praying this is my will and may my will be done because I seek only to glorify the name of God that's pretty bold now I'm not advocating that we maybe just take this language but here though his passion what was his passion for the glory of Christ and so I think he took this verse at its word he's like I know if my will is a new God's will and my will says don't die I need you I'm not gonna hear of your death because you are valuable as we serve Christ now I think Luther knew that he could die and that his prayer would still have been answered just maybe and not what he expected so Miconius got the reply from Luther he was so weak that he could barely speak you know what happened a couple days later do recovered he recovered he lived six more years he can continue to assist Luther and Luther died two months before Miconius now again not a prescription but to me it's a powerful thing of do I pray with an ounce of that confidence shouldn't I as a child of God as one who's confident of Christ as one who has eternal life one who knows that he hears may I be so bold to pray that God's will would be done not only in my life but also in the life of others and that leads us to the next two verses is still under this head enough he hears our prayers but he shifts from our individual petitions to interceding on behalf of others we have the confidence that he works in our life but we also have confidence that he works in the lives of others right I'll tell you the next two verses are debated not necessarily disputed but debated it can seem kind of awkward at first but I think it's not as hard as it might sound at first so let's read it and we'll just walk through it piece by piece verse 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 all wrong doing is sin but there is sin that does not lead to death you got that super clear all right we'll take it one piece at a time if anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death okay who are we talking about a brother a believer you see a fellow believer you see not here not gossip you see a brother committing a sin okay this is the problem there's ongoing sin someone who claims christ but he qualifies the sin and he says well it's a sin not leading to death why does john make disqualification if you see a brother sinning sin literally reads sinning a sin committing a sin not leading to death we know that all sin leads to death that's what Paul says in Romans so how how is john saying that there's sin that doesn't lead to death well it's what he has already read in john one nine if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and what john is getting at here you see someone sinning good news they're a believer and that sin can be forgiven it's not leading to death it can be forgiven to anyone and all those who confess and we know that if will confess it that he will forgive it and so what should we pray it says he shall ask and god will give him life now when we talk about death and life here throughout this whole letter is never talking about physical death it's talking about spiritual realities either eternal life or eternal death separation from god well then why are we praying that god would give him life like he's a believer doesn't he had already have life now say yes and yes this is the concept i think we talked about last week where eternal life is not so much just about the future and what we have or will gain but it's also about the quality of life that we live now and if a believer is living an ongoing sin where are they missing out on life the eternal life that god wants for us even expects of us here and now as a believer so when we see someone a fellow believer committing sin we pray that god might open their heart open their eyes open their mind that they might see their sin for what it is it's breaking fellowship it's keeping them from the abundant life that Jesus desires for his disciples and what that tells us is that as believers even even though we can have confidence in eternal life and we know that he hears our prayers there's still a battle to be fought there's still temptation around there's still a pull which we'll see in a moment from this world and even within ourselves in our own flesh and sinful nature and so we pray that god might open their eyes that god might bring them back into fellowship when's the last time that you prayed for someone's spiritual needs i hope it's often i often go through our prayer chain if you're not on the prayer chain talk to our office staff and we'll get you on the prayer chain and we send prayer requests out couple times a week we ought to be praying for people but if you look at the majority of our prayer requested tends to be health not health wealth and success but health circumstances things that are happening i wonder how often we remember that we have the opportunity and the privilege and i would say even the calling and command to be praying for one another's spiritual growth and in this context is prayer to keep away from sin but i think we can also say that we have a positive that we can pray on the other end that they would say from sin away from sin but that they would grow in their maturity they would they would be strengthened in their faith and so we ought to be praying for one another all the time for spiritual life there's another type of sin that john identifies he says there is sin that leads to death and that's where we get a little hung up and say well what is this sin that leads to death and i'm going to give you some options i'm going to preface it i want to go from least likely to most likely but i don't want us to get lost the point that john is making is not about the sin that leads to death that's not his emphasis that's not the focus the focus of the text is we ought to be praying and we ought to be praying for one another especially those who are struggling against sin we ought to be praying for believers but we're in the text it's in the text we should explain the text there is sin that leads to death so there's a few different options number one is there's this idea that there's different levels of sin that some are mortal as then you commit this particular sin and you're done you're going to hell there is no forgiveness i would say that's not biblical it's not supported and it's certainly not what john is talking about you'll see that out there occasionally this could be talking about a believer who commits apostasy one who believed in christ but now has fallen away the problem with that interpretation is the whole book of first john which says no true believers don't fall away that's his whole point if they do first john too they were never among us so i don't think that he's talking about a believer who's committing apostasy he says that in just a moment that we're kept and protected by Jesus himself i trust in that not myself so who's he talking about because i don't think it is believers you notice that it's we're praying for the brother that commits sin that doesn't lead to death but now we're not told who is committing this sin and i think this sin is committed by an unbeliever this sin that leads unto death so some will say well this is physical death there are sins that will lead to god's discipline much like in an isophira lied and then we're struck dead like yeah that's what john's talking about i think that's unlikely mostly because we're not talking about physical death at all in this letter we're talking about the spiritual reality of eternal life or eternal death and separation from god so i think that is unlikely the last two are the most convincing most makes the most sense many will point to jesus and how he explains uh blasphemy of the holy spirit and the simple explanation of that would be uh people saw the work and evidence of the holy spirit before them with their own eyes and then denied or attributed the work of the spirit to the devil himself and jesus like yeah there's no hope for you you're gone okay it could be talking about that however what i think and others would agree but what i think is really what john is talking about is the unrepentant sin that is just characteristic of an unbeliever i don't think it's particular a thing but i think it's exactly what he's been trying to encourage these believers about and exactly the problem of the false teachers and those who had departed that they there are people even some that had been within the church but who are rejecting the true doctrine of christ who are disobeying the clear commands of christ who could care less about the fellow believers in the church these are all evidence of what unbelief these are all evidence of a lack of saving faith that cannot be forgiven it is not being asked for forgiveness because it's just a flat out denial of who christ is what he has done and so that leads only one place and that's death and judgment apart from christ and so when he says i do not say that one should pray for that he's saying listen i you can pray if you want but there's really no helping the person who is bent against god and bent against christ so worry maybe less about that and focus on the one another that we see throughout this book of love one another and now here it's pray for one another especially those who are caught in sin and so the focus here fits the theme of the letter which is one another we're doing this together in fellowship this is why paul writes in Galatians 6-1 brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness keep watching yourself lest you to be tempted and here is where john makes a shift he moves from our confidence in prayer to our confidence in protection we know that we are protected by christ and so just as paul had said in Galatians 6 if someone's caught in sin then they should be restored but he also says keep watch on yourself lest you be tempted john will say in verse 18 we know that everyone who has been born of god does not keep on sinning it's not a characteristic of the believer that's why we're praying for them in the verse before why why doesn't the believer continue in sin because he who was born of god now he does talk about believers in a general sense being born of god but this is clearly of reference as we walk through the letter that he who was born of god is jesus it's not us ourselves who are doing the keeping it's he who was born of god jesus protects him the believer and the evil one does not touch him how does jesus protect us from ongoing sin he empowers us through the holy spirit this idea of the evil one not touching it isn't just like a put it a hand on the idea is being held in the devil's grip john is saying those who have been born of god do not keep on sinning because he has freed us christ has freed us from the grip the grasp the hand of satan says through the power of christ we share in his victory over satan he no longer holds us our confidence then is not in ourselves again but it's what christ has always already accomplished which is victory over satan which brings us then protection and freedom in christ jesus has empowered us to win the battle against sin when we trust in christ we're acknowledging that satan has been defeated that our eternity is secure in christ and so we know and can lay hold of that same victory of christ in us as john says not only do we have the power over sin through christ but it's that our position is secured through being brought into the family of god that's verse 19 we know that we are from or of god we know that we are of god and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one john is saying once again there's two choices you're either in the hand of the world the hand of satan or you're in the hand of christ it's one or the other you can't have both in the world the world lies in the power of the evil one the idea is even that they're asleep and don't even know it they're unconsciously just in the hand arresting in satan but we john says believers know that we are of god that by virtue of being in his family we have been pulled out of the grip of satan placed in to his safe hand this doesn't mean that the christian life is going to be a cake walk right the evil one still will work to bring discouragement to bring doubt but every time we come back and we recognize and emphasize that we have been rescued by christ that we have been placed under protective care of the father by virtue of our position as a child of the king then he says we know that we are in the truth this is verse 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 see the key word over and over again true true true john says we can be confident we can know that we are in the truth how do we know the truth number one we looked at it last week and almost every week the testimony of christ says he has come right he has come he is true he is god we know that we are in the truth because of the testimony of christ which is the testimony of god which is the testimony of the holy spirit these three agree john says we also know the truth because of the enlightenment that we receive from christ here john uses this word understanding we know that the son of god has come and has given us understanding now the translation makes sense because our minds were comprehending all these truths literally the son of god has come and has given us this mind and it's the same word mind that is also used in Matthew 22 when jesus says that we are to love god with all our soul mind is the word our soul mind and strength this word mind is the same word that's used in Jeremiah 31 to describe the new covenant is the same word that's used in Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10 when he says i will put my laws in their understanding or in their mind and i will write them on their hearts you see what john is telling us is that we know we are in the truth because christ has given us enlightenment through his spirit that this was the promise of the new covenant that he would write his law on our minds on our understanding and our hearts so work of the spirit that we would understand and know the security that we have in christ that we know that we know the truth and we also can know that we are in the truth because of his presence he says we are in him so that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true this is important for us to recognize or understand that to be in him is a positional statement as in that will not change we are a child of god but it also speaks to our personal relationship with Jesus this is not just an academic exercise this is just not knowledge that we're dumping into our mind no we know and understand the testimony of christ he has put it in our mind in our heart and we walk in him we walk with him this is what the christian life is supposed to be a relationship an active personal relationship with Jesus and if you're walking with Jesus you can know you'll be confident that we are in the truth and so then we get to the last verse there's one last command his last imperative in the whole letter and it might seem a little out of place but i think it's going to make sense in just a second we know the one true god little children he says in verse 21 keep yourselves from idols this is a weird way to end like we're getting all this confidence and knowing and then all of a sudden it's little children keep yourself from idols why does he end this way well i don't know his mind exactly but let's connect just a couple of dots you see his pastoral heart right this is aged apostle nearing the end of his life he's encouraging them encouraging them encourage them giving them confidence and insurance in whose they are and the fact that they are children of god and really little children keep yourselves from idols really marks or underscores john's purpose for the letter he wants them to know that they know to be confident in their standing before the lord to be assured that they have eternal life yes but here he ends with keep yourselves from idols i think here is a warning to the believers to the church to us today to be alert to be proactive when it stands against when it comes to being on guard or that's what keeping literal means to to be on guard against the world against idols what's an idol anything anything that we give our heart to other than god anything that we worship or put in place or above god this was a lot of the problem with the false teachers in first john where they had taken worship of god and corrupted it and changed it at its core do you know what that is idolatry and so john says keep yourself from idols be proactive and how do you keep yourselves from idols it comes back to those three things that we started with it's a commitment to right doctrine to faith it's a commitment to obedience consistent christian living it's pursuing a deeper love for god and others faith obedience love for god and others is how we keep ourselves from idols from start to finish what john has been telling us is that the ultimate reality the ultimate truth the reason that we can know what we know is true can only be found in god through his son jesus christ only jesus is verse 20 true he is the true god and eternal life and so if we put anything other than him first we have now succumbed to idolatry and that's the conclusion of the book and that's the conclusion of our series at the end of the day this is what we want to proclaim my confidence is in christ all the things we've talked about my confidence is that i know i have eternal life that i know my prayers are answered that i know it's christ who keeps me thank goodness not myself i know that i walk in the truth and i know that there is only one true god and i am in him let's pray do or thank thankful for these truths we're thankful that it's about you your son what he has done what he has accomplished on our behalf i pray that you would help us live in this confidence live in this knowledge that you would help us proclaim this great joyous truth that we have eternal life through your son jesus and it's in his name we pray amen may god bless you as you grow in your walk with him this week [BLANK_AUDIO]