I invite you to take your Bibles now and open up to the book of 1 John. We're going to zero in on one verse this morning, 1 John 5:13. And while you're turning there, let me just make one more announcement. If you normally come at nine o'clock to the Bible class, and you found out that today, you moved in here, and now you're wondering, what am I going to do at 11 o'clock because I usually come to the service at 11 o'clock. Well, that wouldn't hurt if you did that – came twice. But anyways, there is another option available to you. There is a prayer meeting that happens every Sunday at 11 o'clock. I don't know if you knew about this. Happens in the new building, you go in up the stairs and turn left and in one of the fellowship group rooms up there there’s a group of people that meet there and pray every Sunday at 11 o'clock; it is led by Dan Crable. And so, if you'd like to do that, after this service that would that's available there for you and you might want to check that out. But we're going to look this morning at 1 John 5:13. And if you're there, let's stand for the reading of God's Word.
1 John 5:13. The apostle John 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.” Amen? Amen.
You may be seated. Let's pray as we come to our time in God's Word.
Father, we are thankful to have your Word this morning and know that it tells us the truth. It is a revelation from you. It's something that we can believe with all of our hearts. And we thank you for this great truth that's presented here about eternal life, and how we can know whether we have it or not. So, I pray, Lord, that you will help us to listen to your word. I pray, you'll give us ears to hear, that our hearts would be receptive to what you have to say to us here this morning. And I pray this in Jesus name, amen.
This verse that we just read provides a much-needed word of assurance in a day where there's so much uncertainty all around us. Today, we're uncertain about everything. We're uncertain about the past, people are wondering, did the things really happen the way we were told that they happened in the past? We’ve got people that are uncertain about the present. We have all kinds of doubts about politicians, about the scientific community, about law enforcement, about teachers, preachers, just about anybody and everybody. We're skeptical of them, we're uncertain about them. And we're uncertain about the future. We’re uncertain about what the future might hold for us financially, politically, and certainly, personally, what's the future hold for me? But here in this verse, the apostle John says that you can know and be certain about the thing that is the most important, and that is eternal life, or salvation. You can be uncertain about a lot of things. But you don't need to be uncertain on this particular topic. He says there in the verse 13, he's writing these things that you may know that you have eternal life. And that word “know” there is an important word. It's a particular Greek word, a specific word. Eido is the Greek word. And it doesn't mean to know by experience, but it means to know without a doubt. It speaks of having a firm confidence. It is to know absolutely. Here's something that you can know absolutely. And John uses this word throughout this book, because there are a number of things he wants to make sure that we know.
And so, let me just give you a quick little survey of some of the places where this word is used, so you can see how important it is in 1 John 2:20-21. John says, “But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it. And because no lie is of the truth.” You can know the truth. You can know it absolutely. And you can be able to detect lies. This is something that you can know because of what God has given to us. In 1 John 2:29 he says, “If you know that he is” (speaking of Christ) “if you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” We can know that Jesus Christ was righteous and that helps us to understand that all who follow him are going to walk in righteousness like him. 1 John 3:2 he says, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” What a day that's going to be when we see him, and we know that when we see him, we will be like him. What a day that is to look forward to, and to know that that's what's going to happen. 1 John 3:5 says, “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.” The one who came has no sin, you can know that for certain. And he came and took away sins, you can know that for certain; he absolutely did it. 1 John 3:14-15 says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” There are some things you can know. And what you know there divides people. Some have eternal life because they love the brothers, some don't, because they do not love the brothers. Those are things you can know. 1 John 5:15, just to give you another example, says, “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.” That's a great confidence in our prayer lives, we know that he hears us. We know that absolutely. And we know that we have therefore the requests that we bring to him, that's something you can know; that's a confidence for our prayer lives. And then he ends with a crescendo of knows in 1 John 5:18-20. He says, “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. 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.”
All of these things that are certainties for the Christian. All these things that we can know, John wants you to know, he wants you to know these things. He wants you to know what you can know. And so, he spells it out clearly in this book. And he wants you to know in particular that you have eternal life. In Jesus Christ, everybody who's in Christ, you can know that you have eternal life. And eternal life is a kind of life, it's the kind of life that knows God, as you saw there, even in verse 20. You know him, you know the one who is true, you know the one who is eternal life, we have eternal life, because we're connected to the Eternal One. And so, we have a kind of life, that is called eternal life. And Jesus himself talked about this in his prayer recorded in John 17, as he's speaking to the Father, he says in John 17:3, “this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John wants you to know that in Christ you have eternal life, and he wants you to know that you have that life. That's why he's written this book.
Now, there are some people who would say what John is talking about here is impossible, that you cannot know that you have eternal life, that you cannot have assurance of salvation. For example, the Catholic Church would say that this doctrine of the assurance of salvation is one of the chief heresies of us Protestants, to think that we could know that we have eternal life. Because you see, when you have a works-based system, you can't have assurance, because you could blow it anywhere along the way. So, there they say it's not possible. Also, there are branches of Christianity that say, you can't have assurance of salvation because you could actually lose your salvation. So, you can’t have assurance because you could lose it at any point. That is really not good news, is it? Because if I could lose my salvation, I guarantee you, I will. But there are branches of Christianity that teach that. And so, in that kind of a system, you can't have assurance of salvation. So how can John say what he says here? How can you and I know if we have eternal life or not? And my guess is that every Christian here would confess to times when you have doubts about your salvation. Would that be right? Anybody here ever doubted your salvation? This is church on Sunday morning, we're telling the truth, the whole truth about the truth there. Right? So, we can confess that we have doubts about salvation.
So how can we really know? How can we really know? Well, in this one verse, 1 John 5:13, which really is the key to the whole book at 1 John. He's going to give us three foundations that will help you develop assurance of salvation, or what we're calling here, blessed assurance. So, let's take a look at it, and look at 1 John 5:13. He starts off by saying, “I write these things to you.” That's an important statement.
And if you want to take notes you can put down for number one: If you want to have the assurance of salvation, you need to learn what is written. Learn what is written. John says, “I write these things.” Our assurance is built on what is written in this book. True assurance rests on the solid rock of God's inspired Word. Doesn't rest on human opinion, doesn't rest on human feelings. It rests securely on the revelation of God given to us in the Scriptures. That is so important that we get that as a starting point. For you to have a solid, stable, growing, fruitful, dynamic Christian life, it's got to be built on the assurance that comes from what God has said in his Word. I'm afraid because of the culture we live in, and this is kind of the culture of the church as well, that we depend on our feelings. Do I feel like I'm saved? What exactly would that feel like? I feel saved, or we rely on our emotions. Or we're looking for some kind of an experience to confirm whether we're saved or not. A person's sense of assurance, and that kind of a way of thinking goes up and down. And it's totally dependent on these things that are inherently unstable. My feelings are not a stable source. And it's amazing that we will trust our feelings more than we will trust God's Word. I mean, when you say it out loud, it does sound pretty silly, doesn't it? I'm going to trust my feelings over God's Word. But in reality, that's what we do. That's what we often do. Many people, I think, are looking for some kind of a sign that they're saved or not, rather than just trusting what God has said. And John is saying, I'm writing these things to you. And that's another thing that he emphasizes, throughout the books.
Let me take you on another quick little survey of 1 John, and just show you how much he emphasizes this. In 1 John 1:4, he says, “we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” I'm writing these things down so that you have a record. You have something that's fixed, something that's not going to go anywhere. You have a written record to go by. 1 John 2:1 he says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you.” I'm writing them down, so that you'll have them forever. This is God's revealed Word to us. It's written down so that we have it in a book and we can study it and understand it and learn from it. 1 John 2:7, says, “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” I'm writing these things down so that you'll have them, and you'll know them. 1 John 2:12-14, he mentioned the number of times that he is writing these things. I am writing to you 1 John 2:12-13, “I am writing to you” again in the middle of 1 John 2:13. “I am writing to you” at the end of the verse “I write to you.” And he goes through the same thing in 1 John 2:14, he is writing these things down, so that you would learn them, have them with you forever. 1 John 2:21, says, “I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it.” He says, I'm writing these things to you. This is important that you have these things written down, 1 John 2:26, “I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.” How do I know somebody's trying to deceive me? Well, I've got some things written down here that helped me to evaluate. These things were written down.
That goes back to John's gospel. At the end of John's gospel. In John 20:30-31, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 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, John is saying, hey, I wrote this down so that you can believe in Jesus and have life. Now he's writing 1 John, so that you can know that you have that life. He's writing them down. We need to look at what's written, we need to learn what's written, we need to base our assurance on what God has given us in the Scriptures. We will go astray if we start trusting our experiences.
Jesus warned about that. You might remember the account in Luke 16 about the rich man and Lazarus. And they both died. And the rich man went to Hades where he was in torment and agony, and Lazarus want to be with Abraham. And then the way Jesus tells us, an interesting little conversation goes on between Abraham and the rich man. And the rich man, first of all, he wants Lazarus to go back and dip his finger in some cold water and put it on the rich man's tongue because he's had so much torment in the flames of Hades. And Abraham says, yeah, that's not happening. And so, then the rich man says, well, I got five brothers. Could you send Lazarus back to warn my brothers, so that they don't wind up in this torment that I'm in? That might be a noble desire, a noble request. But Abraham says, you know, they have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to that. And the rich man says, no, no, no, you don't understand. If a guy came back from the dead, surely they would believe. And Abraham said, if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't believe even if somebody rises from the dead.
If they're not going to believe what's written, they're not going to believe. And what is written is more powerful than any experience. And the apostle Peter gave testimony to that in 2 Peter 1. Peter, he had some experiences. And in this chapter, 2 Peter, when he talks about the time when he and James and John were on what we call the Mount of Transfiguration, where they saw Jesus and all of his glory revealed, that was a pretty amazing experience that Peter had. But when you read what he says about that, starting in 2 Peter 1:19, he says, “and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed,” more fully confirmed, more reliable than any experience, even an experience like what he had. And he says, “to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So, what we have in the Scriptures is more reliable than any experience that you might have. We need to look to God's word here. It talks about how God gave us a revelation, and he secured that revelation by the means of inspiration as the Holy Spirit carried along the writers of Scripture, so that they said exactly what God wanted to have said.
We have to be confident of what has been written for us. And we need to learn what it says. You want to have a real assurance of salvation. It begins by learning what the Bible says and relying on what the Bible says, more than anything else. And so, if you're learning then what is written what are you supposed to do with that? Well, going back to 1 John5:13, you'll see that he says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God.”
So, you can put this down for number two: Now we're going to learn what is written in the Scriptures. But number two, you need to believe with your whole heart. John wrote to those who believe, and that's a word, I think we need to pull the car over and stop and take a look at. Because it means a whole lot more than what the average person might think when they just see that word on the surface. It's a word that means to place your total confidence, or to put your whole trust into something or someone. To believe means I'm all in. I'm putting all my trust in this thing that I believe in. That's the way it's being used here. I am going to believe completely. I'm going to put all my confidence into this one thing. It's described that way in Hebrews 11:1. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith (or belief) is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Yeah, the Scriptures are going to tell me about things I have not seen. It's going to talk to me about things that I would not know otherwise. But I am going to believe what it says. I'm going to have the assurance of those things that it tells me to hope for, and that's going to develop a conviction in my heart that this is real. It's that kind of a total confidence. You know, the problem with many people today is that they have a defective faith. They have what 1 Corinthians 15:2 says they have believed in vain. Their belief is empty. It's just on the surface. It's not a wholehearted commitment.
You know, you've heard the story about the man a century ago or so with the tight rope across Niagara Falls. And a crowd formed, and he walked across, and they were all amazed. And then he started doing all kinds of other things. He pushed a wheelbarrow across, and they were more amazed. He put stuff in the wheelbarrow and pushed it across, and they're totally amazed. And he says, do you believe I could put a person in the wheelbarrow and push them across? And they all go, well, of course you can. You've done all this other stuff. Why couldn't you do that? And yes, we believe you could do that. And so, he says, okay, who wants to be the first one in? So now we're going to find out who's really believing. See, a lot of people might believe these things kind of in a general sense, but they're not all in on it. There are people who have the facts about Christ but not faith in Christ. They have believed in their heads, but not in their hearts. And the way the heart is spoken of in the Bible is not just an emotional thing. It's really the mission control center of your life. It's where everything happens in your heart. There are the people with a defective faith. They have come to church, but they've not come to Christ. They profess Christ, but they don't possess Christ. They've turned over a new leaf, but they have not received a new life. They've been reformed, but not reborn. They wear a cross, but they never bear one. They know the Word of God, but not the God of the Word. They give their money to God but not their life. They have a practical religion, but not a personal relationship with Christ. In the words of 2 Timothy 3:5, they have a form of godliness, but they've denied the power of it. I mean, the reality is some people have what I call a Burger King faith. Know Burger King, have it your way. That slogan has been around for a long time. Hold the pickles hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us. Have it your way at Burger King. The truth is, they've never given it to me my way at Burger King because my way would be free. They’re not making that offer. And you can walk in there today and get the your-way meal at Burger King. And see, that's what a lot of Christians are. They want it their way. I'll believe what I want to believe I'll obey what I want to obey. I'll call myself a Christian, but I'm not really all in. It's like I'm picking and choosing what I want. They are a Burger King Christian.
Bible constantly warns about this kind of defective faith. And a lot of those warnings are found in 1 John. So, let's take another little tour through 1 John, you might want to buckle up your seat belts for this one, keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. It might get a little rough along the way. But let's just take a little survey going back to 1 John 1, where John is going to point out defective faith. 1 John 1:5-6 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” So, there are people who say they know God, they say they're walking in the light with God. But the reality is they're walking in the darkness. And so, they are lying. That's not, an innocent mistake. That's a deliberate act. This person does not understand the sinfulness of sin. They think they can play around with sin and say that they're following God, walking into the light. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So, this is even more serious. Now this is the person that has deceived themselves. And today, it's so easy to do that because today we don't call sin sin anymore. And we explain away sinful behavior by saying the person has a physiological reason why they do what they do, or they've got a psychological reason, they got a syndrome, or a disorder of some kind that leads them to do what they do. or there's some kind of a social cause, you know, the environment that they were brought up in. So, that's just the way they are.
And so, we're really good at excusing sin today. But my question for you is, is there ever a legitimate excuse for sin? Okay, now Bible class. This is the interactive part. Is there ever a legitimate excuse for sin? No, no, there is not. We're not saying that people don't have challenges in their life. We're saying that, but that is not an excuse for sin. What we are doing is we are failing to accept responsibility. And we say we have no sin because I've got an excuse for that. I've got a note from my doctor that says it's okay for me to do this sin. 1 John:1:10 says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” This is the most blatant right here. This is saying we have not sinned, so now we're making God a liar because God says all have sinned. This person is directly attacking God. 1 John 2:4. “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” This person makes a claim, but they have no basis for their claim. Their life undermines their claim. They say they know Christ, but they don't live like they know Christ. They don't keep his commandments. The bottom line is they don't know him. 1 John 2:11 says, “whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” This talks about a person, they say they're Christian, they say they're one of the brothers, but they hate others. And it says that they are blinded by that; they walk in the darkness, their eyes are blinded. That just shows the blinding power of hate. People think maybe they're justified for their hate. This is not good news for haters. There are people in the church, they call themselves Christians, but they there are people that they hate. And some of those people live in the same house that they live in. This verse is not going to give assurance to that person. Look at verse 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” A person who really loves God is going to seek to do his will. They're not going to be loving the world. So, lots of people who say I love God, but the reality is they love the world. And you can't love both. You can't serve both masters. 1 John 2:22 says “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”
He's dealing there with a particular problem that was current in those days. People had kind of a strange view of Christ, that, you know, the physical Christ, it wasn't what mattered. It was the Spirit of Christ that mattered. And so, they had all kinds of wrong views about Christ. They're saying that they believe in Christ, but their Christ is not the real Christ, the Christ of the Bible. And he's saying, if you're saying that you believe in Christ, but this is what you believe about him, you're a liar. You don't really believe in the Christ of God. And there are a lot of people in the church today, their view of Christ, their actual view, their working view of Christ is not the true Christ. The Christ that they say that they believe in is apparently very small and very weak. And their problems are way bigger than he is. It's a defective faith. 1 John 3:7-8 says, “Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” So, there it talks about the practice of a person's life, the habits of their life. And Satan is deceiving people today just like he did Eve in the garden, that you can sin and there are no consequences. And there's people thinking that today they're thinking, I can believe in Jesus and sin, there are no consequences. But if that's the habit of your life, you don't really even know him. Many are believing the devil's deceptions. That's why it says there in verse seven “Little children, let no one deceive you.” 1 John 3:15 says, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” So, this is the same as 1 John 2:11, only stronger, saying that if you hate your brother, you're actually a murderer, and murderers aren't going to heaven. This is not good news for haters.
1 John 4:8 gives the flip side; says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” See, the one who knows him is the one that's characterized by love, the kind of love that God has. It's an amazing thing to think that somebody could say, I love God, and I've experienced his love for me, that overwhelming, powerful, life changing, undeserved love that God has poured out on me, and yet, I don't love others. John saying that's not how it works. And again, one more verse. 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” That's just the emphasis there. Our profession for the defective faith of the false believer, their profession is denied by their actions. And that's what John assignment, this kind of defective belief is not a wholehearted trust. But many with this defective faith have been deceived into thinking that they are saved, and they have a false assurance. It's not a real assurance, that kind of assurance John wants people to have, it's a false assurance. And false assurance is far worse than a weak assurance. A weak assurance can be strengthened. False assurance, it's hard to reach that person. Churches are full of people that have false assurance. I know, I spent twenty-four years in Texas, where pretty much everybody thinks that they're a Christian. And trying to reach a person who thinks they're a Christian, when they're not a Christian, that's really hard. It's really hard. Because they have to come to the point where they recognize, hey, what I was thinking I was on, I'm really not that person. Really hard to reach that person.
You know, in Texas, we were in San Antonio. And at the heart of San Antonio, was this little building called the Alamo. Have you heard of the Alamo? It's the number one tourist attraction in the state of Texas, the Alamo. And you might know the story of the Alamo, you might have seen a movie about the Alamo, about this little band of men who held on for 13 days against the mighty army of Santa Ana coming up out of Mexico. And they bought time for general Sam Houston to get his army together, and eventually defeat Santa Ana and win independence for the Republic of Texas. So that's all the Texas history you need to know, that's probably more than you wanted to know. But the story of the Alamo is these this group of guys there, and at some point, they realized, hey, no help is coming. It's just us against this massive army. And so, Colonel Travis, who was the commanding officer, calls everybody together, he pulls out his sword, he draws a line in the sand, and he says, I can't ask you guys to stay, you know, knowing what's going to happen here, but if you want to stay step across the line. And that's exactly what this kind of believing that we're is that we're talking about. Where you step across the line, you go all in, you say, I don't care what happens to me, I am all in with Jesus Christ. That's the kind of belief that we're talking about here. It's like the line is drawn in the sand. Are you going to be all in or not? There's a lot of people that want to straddle the fence. They want to have one foot in the world and one foot in the church and think that they're okay. But the reality is, they can't even enjoy their position because they can't really enjoy the world because they know there's things they shouldn't be doing. And they can't really enjoy the church because they know that they're not all in. But they think they're okay because they think they've got one foot in the church. I preached on that one time, and a man came to me afterwards and he said, hey, I'm the guy. I'm the guy on the fence. I'm the guy with one foot in and one foot out. And he said, I want to get off the fence. And I said, okay, which side do you want to land on? That's the question, isn't it? Which side are you going to land on? Which side do you want to be all in with? That's what this kind of belief is talking about here.
When John says I'm writing to you who believe that That's the kind of belief he's talking about. In order to have this blessed assurance, an assurance that produces real peace because I know things are right between me and God, a kind of assurance that produces an overflowing joy because I know that no matter what happens today, no matter what my circumstances might be, my future is totally secure in Jesus Christ, the kind of assurance that will produce a boldness to help me stand up for the Lord, no matter what the opposition might be, a kind of assurance that'll give me perseverance through all the trials of life, a kind of assurance that'll give me contentment in my heart, because I know I have all that I need in Jesus Christ, and the kind of assurance that removes the fear of death. If you want that kind of assurance, you need to learn what's written in the Bible. And you have to wholeheartedly believe what is written. And that means, thirdly, going back to our text, you need to focus on Jesus Christ, because that's what it says, doesn't it? “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God.” John is writing to those who believe in the name of the son of God. This wholehearted trust must be placed completely and exclusively on the person of Jesus Christ. My belief is only as good as whatever I'm believing in. This kind of belief is a belief that is in Jesus Christ completely and exclusively.
I'm not believing in him plus my good works. I'm not believing in him, plus my go into church. I'm not believing in Him, plus the fact that I got baptized. I'm believing in him completely. And he is the son of God, he's God in the flesh, who came to redeem us from our sin. And he is the Christ who is revealed in the pages of Scripture. The name, when it talks about the name of the son of God, the name refers to all that he is. All that he is. All that he is, as he's revealed to us in the Scripture, that's the Christ, I'm going all in with. And that, my friends, is the key factor to assurance. That's the key factor. My assurance is not found in me. It is found in Jesus Christ, is found in who he is, and what he has done, not who I am and what I have done. My assurance does not depend on how strongly I'm holding on to him, it depends on how strongly he's holding on to me. I need to focus my attention on him, not on me. If I think about myself long enough and hard enough, I could convince myself that I am not a Christian. If I just think about myself, and I know, I am the worst sinner, I know because I know everything about me. I am the worst sinner. I know. If I thought about myself long enough. I could convince myself I'm not a Christian. And I have a book in my office. It's called The Almost Christian Discovered, written by a Puritan in the 1600s. Matthew Mead was his name. And it's just page after page, you can do this, you can do that you can do this other thing, and still, that only makes you almost a Christian. I can only read like two pages at a time, and then I'm so convicted and wondering if I really am a Christian, that I had to put the book away and maybe next year, I'll pick it up and do two more pages. And last night, I mentioned that and then I said if you'd like to borrow that book, kind of I said it kind of jokingly, if you'd like to borrow… and somebody came up to me afterwards, that I'd like to borrow that book. Okay. All right. I've warned you. But see, it's not about me, and what I have done. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he has done. In this letter John wants to make it crystal clear that salvation is only found in Christ. And our salvation is totally secure in Christ.
In fact, let me take you on one more tour. This will be a happier tour, just to show you what John tells us about what Christ has done. 1 John 1:7 says, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us…” how much sin? “All sin.” He cleanses me from all of my sin forever. My salvation is found in him because he's the one that takes away my sin. My salvation is secure in him because he took away all my sin. He made it so that I can stand justified before God. In fact, 1 John 2:1-2 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” He's the propitiation, that means to make a satisfaction, he satisfied God's wrath, he satisfied God's justice, he satisfied God's righteousness. He did that on my behalf. And so, if I have to stand before God, regarding my own sin, he's the advocate I want standing next to me because he's never lost a case. Because he's made the propitiation, he has made satisfaction for all of my sins. I might I, salvation is found in him, my security is found in him.
1 John 3:5 it says, “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” He's the sinless one, he's the son of God. He came, that's why the sacrifice of his sinless perfect life was acceptable to God, and it could take away all of my sins, take them away. What a great picture that is that all my sins have been taken away. That's the thing that is the barrier between a person and God, it's their sin. Jesus has taken all that away. And the Bible tells us that our sins have been separated from us as far as the east is from the west. And that's a really powerful statement. Because if you think about the globe, if you start going north, eventually you're going to start going south. Right? But if you start going east, how far do you have to go before you start going west? This is not a trick question. You will never go west; you'll just keep going east the whole time. And that's the whole idea. They've been separated from us to the infinite degree. He has taken away our sins. 1 John 3:8 says, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” See, the Bible tells us that not only are we dominated by our sin, but we're under the dominion of Satan. Jesus comes, takes away the sin, and he destroys the works of the devil; he sets us free. And in him, we're free. We're free indeed, we're free forever because of what he has done. 1 John 3:16, says “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.” He didn't do this grudgingly. He came because he loves us. And in love he gave himself up for us, he laid his life down for us. It's like Paul says in Galatians 2:20, I put my faith in the one “who loved me and gave himself up for me.” I'm going to trust that one. I'm going to follow him because he takes my sins away. He loves me with an everlasting love, and I am secure in him. See, it's all about him. It's all about focusing on him.
1 John 4:9 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” And this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. My love for God is not the key thing in this factor. In fact, I did not love God. Before Christ was made known to me, I hated God, I ignored God, I wanted nothing to do with God, I disregarded God in every way. But he reached out to me in love, and in love sent his son to die for me, so that he could bring me to himself. I'm secure in him. That's a securing kind of love. 1 John 5:5, says, “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” The victory is in Jesus. It's not in me. It's in him, Jesus, the son of God. And the real clincher is in John 5:11-12. “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” If you have the son, you have the life. You have eternal life. And that's kind of the answer to you can lose your salvation thing, isn't it? He doesn't give temporary life. He doesn't give probationary life. He gives what kind of life eternal life? Eternal life. And that means just like what it sounds like, it's eternal life. If you have the son, you have the life.
Assurance is a confidence that rests on faith in Jesus Christ. That'd be a good one-sentence definition for assurance. Assurance is a confidence, a confidence, not a feeling, not an emotion, not an experience. It's a confidence that rests on not my feelings, but on faith in Jesus Christ. And our assurance can get stronger as we grow in our knowledge. And as we grow in our walk with Christ, the doubts that Christians have come from either their ignorance of the Scripture, or their immaturity in their walk with the Lord, or just the challenges of trials and temptations that come into their life. And that's what we're going to be talking about more in the Bible class in weeks to come. So, you're all invited. We usually meet over there in the new building. But that's what we'll be talking about in the weeks to come in this series on Blessed Assurance. But the bottom-line question is, do you have this kind of wholehearted belief in Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Bible? A wholehearted faith in the Jesus that we read about in here. Everything we read about him in here. That's the question. That's the only way to know that you have eternal life. And if you have questions or doubts, I would encourage you to talk to somebody, talk to me, talk to any of the other pastors, talk to your fellowship group leader. John's purpose in writing this is not to make people feel bad. It's to give people assurance that if you have the son, you have life. You have life. God wants his children to know. He wants them to have a genuine and full assurance. That's what God wants for his children. And that's what you want. Believe me, that is what you want. You want that kind of assurance. Charles Spurgeon, that great preacher from the 1800s in London, we’re told that he was so sure of his salvation, he said that he was so sure of his salvation, that he could grab onto a corn stalk, swing out over the fires of hell, look into the face of the devil and sing, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. That's the kind of confidence you can have. That's the kind of confidence you want to have. That's the kind of confidence we want you to have. And you can get it by learning what's written, believing with your whole heart, and focusing on Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
Lord, we are thankful that we can have this confidence not because of anything we have done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done. Because of who he is, because of what he's done on our behalf, we can place our trust in him completely, and know that we have eternal life in him. Lord, we pray that you might give all of us that kind of assurance as we look to Jesus Christ. But we recognize there might be some here today that don't have that assurance for any number of reasons. We pray that through your Word, you would bring them to that place of full assurance. Lord, we recognize that there might be some who don't have that assurance because they don't have the kind of faith that the Bible talks about. They have a defective faith. They might know the information, but they haven't put their trust completely and unreservedly in Jesus Christ. They haven't denied themselves, taken up their cross and determined I'm going to follow Jesus Christ. Lord, if that's true for any here today, I pray, you’d open their eyes, so that they might see where they are, and that they might come to full faith in Christ. Lord, we're so thankful that you sent your son, that in your love, you sent your son into the world to take away our sins. He provided the sacrifice that was sufficient to cover the cost of all of our sins so that everybody believing in him could know that they have eternal life. Lord, you don't want your people guessing, you want them knowing that they have eternal life. So, thank you for this time this morning just to look at your word. I pray your word would do a work in every heart here, and that your name would be honored and glorified. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. Song “Blessed Assurance.” … We're pretty creative around here. Blessed Assurance, let's sing that as we close.