Confidence

We are finishing up the book of First John this morning. First John chapter five, so take out your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand up high, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are near the end of the Bible, in a book called First John. If you open to the very end of the Bible and turn a little bit to the left, you'll find First, Second, and Third John. Today, we are in chapter five, picking it up at verse 13.

By God's grace, we are actually going to finish this little book. In First John chapter five, verse 13, the Apostle John writes these words: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. If we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit the sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death; I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding 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.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Father, we look to the Scriptures this morning for wisdom. We look to the Scriptures for You to use them to transform us, and we pray, God, that You'd continue to do that work. Lord, I thank You.

You have given us Your Word, and You have given us this truth. Jesus, You prayed, "Sanctify them by Your truth; Your Word is truth." We pray that this is exactly what would take place. Spirit, soul, body, mind—everything that we are—would be transformed by Your grace, by the working of Your Spirit, and by the activity of Your Word in us. So, God, do work, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You may be seated.

There once was a man who became thoroughly convinced that he was dead, in spite of all apparent evidence. He was confident that he was dead, and as a result, he lost pretty much all drive or hunger to live life. Eventually, this became very devastating to his family. They tried everything they could to convince him that he was, in fact, alive, that he was not dead, and that he should reengage with life, but it just didn't seem to be working. They took him to specialists; they took him to doctors. Finally, his wife found a psychologist who said, "I think that I might be able to help."

At the appointed time, she took him over to this psychologist. They sat down together, and from the moment they began their session, the psychologist drove home this proposition: only living people bleed. The man was a little shocked when the psychologist said that. He looked at him, a little dumbfounded, as if to ask, "What's this got to do with anything?" The psychologist started to give him evidence and tried to rationally explain that only living people bleed. They went back and forth for over 90 minutes, and they decided, "Well, I guess we'll have to get together for another session."

A week went by, and they got together for another session. They sat down, and the doctor started again: only living people bleed. They went back and forth for an entire second session, and the man was not really following along as to why this was so important. Finally, they had a third session, and after an hour sitting together, the man finally said, "Okay, fine, I'll grant you the proposition: only living people bleed."

At that point, the psychologist pulled out a pen and took the man's hand. He drove it into the man's index finger. The guy looked at him with incredulity, asking, "What are you doing?" As the psychologist pulled it out, a big drop of blood formed on the end of his index finger. The man looked at it fascinated and then looked up, saying, "Well, I suppose dead people..."

As we come to John's final words in the Epistle of First John, he turns his attention to an important topic: conviction. Being convinced, or having confidence, means being certain that something is right and true. It is true to say that those who lack that kind of conviction, those who lack confidence, have a more difficult time navigating through life.

The confidence that John addresses at the end of this letter, as he closes out these five chapters, is essential for us to navigate the Christian life well. To make it through the life that God has given us, we need this confidence. We began looking at this topic of confidence in the last verse of the last section we considered last week. I opened with it just a moment ago. In First John chapter 5, verse 13, John says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

One of John's aims in writing this letter to the churches he had been ministering to was that his readers would end up with a confident assurance of their eternal position. He wanted them to know that they had eternal life. As I mentioned earlier, I don't think it is possible for us to navigate this Christian life well without having the confidence that John speaks of. He wrote these things to those who believe in the name of the Son of God so that they may know they have eternal life. This is one of those confident truths we need to be convinced of if we are going to live this eternal life well.

A valid question when discussing confidence in our eternal position with God is: Where does this confident assurance come from? How do we gain a confident assurance that we have eternal life? This is an important question, especially for those who may have come from a faith tradition or religious background where such assurance was not emphasized.

Have that kind of confidence? You actually had more doubt than you did confidence. You wondered if you had kept a certain set of principles, laws, and statutes correctly to be able to have assurance that you had eternal life. Did you follow the sacraments correctly to be able to have that assurance? So, you never really did have this kind of assurance.

Yet, John says this is his purpose in writing: so that you would know that you have eternal life. Where does that confidence come from? The same John who wrote this letter also wrote the Gospel of John in our Bibles. The New Testament begins with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. John, who wrote this letter, is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John. Those who would have been receiving this letter no doubt had read through John's Gospel, which had been well circulated in this area by the time he sent this letter.

The purpose of the Gospel of John is given at the end of John chapter 20. He states in John 20:30-31, "Truly, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these signs are written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he is Savior, and that he is the Son of God, that he is God in the flesh incarnate. And that by believing, you would have life in his name."

John says the reason he wrote those chapters about the life and ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of John was so that you might read it, comprehend it, understand it, and trust in Jesus as Savior, recognizing that he is God in the flesh, God incarnate. By believing, you would receive life in his name.

What kind of life? The kind of life that Jesus spoke about, also recorded in the Gospel of John chapter 10. Jesus said there, "The thief has come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come that you would have life and that you would have it more abundantly."

So, Jesus came to give an abundant life—not just an abundant life here and now, but an abundant life that continues on into eternity, forever. Eternal, abundant life. John says that life is accessible to those who trust that Jesus is Savior and that he is God in the flesh, so that you would have life in his name.

This is exactly what Jesus was talking about when he was approached by a very religious man, a story also recorded in the Gospel of John chapter 3. A man named Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and Jesus talked with him about being in eternity and having eternal life.

Life is a journey, and as Jesus talks with a man about eternal life, he references John 3:14. He says, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, the Son of Man must be lifted up, and whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Jesus is drawing a parallel to an Old Testament story found in the book of Numbers. In the same way that Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God, would be lifted up on a cross. Whoever trusts in Him, whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life.

This leads to one of the most translated and perhaps the most famous verses in the Bible, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life."

In another part of the Gospel of John, we see Jesus's close friendship with a family consisting of a man named Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Lazarus became ill and ultimately died from his sickness. Jesus went to comfort his sisters in the town of Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem. The story is recorded in John 11. As Jesus approaches the town where Lazarus had just died a few days earlier, he is met by the grieving sister Martha. She says to Him, "Jesus, if you had only been here, my brother would not have died." She trusted that Jesus had the ability and power to heal Lazarus, but He showed up too late, and now Lazarus was dead.

Jesus has a conversation with Mary, which includes one of the most famous passages of His words in the Gospels. He says to her in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." He then asks her a crucial question: "Do you believe this?"

Whoever believes in Him will have life because He is the resurrection and the life. So, how can we have assurance that we have eternal life? Jesus performed these works recorded in the Gospels so that we would trust that He is the Savior, that He is God incarnate. We are called to trust and believe in Him being lifted up on the cross in our place, on our behalf, and to trust in His finished work.

He who is the resurrection and the life gives us life by grace through faith as we trust in Him. Our faith in God makes it possible for us to be born again and to become His children. The Gospel of John opens with very similar words. In John 1:12, it says, "But as many as received Jesus, to them God gave the right to be called the children of God, to those who believed in His name, who were not born of the flesh, nor of blood, but of God."

We can be born again and become the children of God, inheriting the promises of God, including eternal life, by trusting in Jesus. By receiving Him and trusting in Him, we become the children of God. This leads us to point number one on our outline this morning: as God's child, I am confident of my future eternal position with God. It is very important that when I trust in Jesus and receive Him, I am given the right, as stated in John 1:12-13, to become a child of God. As a born-again child of God, I have confidence in my future eternal position with Him.

But wait, there's more! Look at what John says in 1 John 5:14. "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." Here in verses 14 and 15 of 1 John 5, our confidence moves from our assurance of the future, where we can know that we have eternal life (verse 13), to our assurance in the present moment.

In Jesus Christ, by grace through faith, I not only have confidence in my eternal future with God, but I also have secure confidence that He has saved me and that I will be with Him for eternity. Furthermore, in the present moment, I have assurance as well. Now, at the beginning of this book, in the very first chapter, you are just a few pages away. Turn to the left to the first chapter of 1 John. You may remember if you've been...

Here with us, as we've been going through this whole book, John said this in verse 4 of 1 John 1: "These things we write to you." This letter we are writing to you is so that your joy may be full. Why is this series called "Fullness of Joy"? Why does the screen up here say "Fullness of Joy"? Because John says, "I'm writing these words to you so that you would have fullness of joy." His desire was that his readers would have fullness of joy, and I would suggest our desire is that we would have fullness of joy as well.

I don't know that I've ever met anybody who doesn't want to experience fullness of joy. They may not be able to articulate exactly what that means or what that looks like, but they would say, "Yeah, that sounds pretty good. Fullness of joy? I'm good. I'm on board with that." So, John says, "I'm writing you this letter so that you would experience fullness of joy."

I do not believe that you can experience fullness of joy without the confidences that John is talking about here in this passage. To say it another way, fullness of joy is connected to, or maybe even the result of, a confidence in God that I am going to be with Him eternally, and a confidence right now in God that He is with me and will deal with and answer the petitions, the prayers that I bring to Him.

It's worth noting that when John writes in 1 John 5:14, "Now this is the confidence that we have," that word "confidence" was originally written in the Greek language. That word is the same Greek word used by the author of Hebrews when he writes in Hebrews 10:19 that we are to have boldness. So, it would be perfectly right to read this verse as, "Now this is the boldness that we have in Him."

If you are a child of God, then you can have boldness in God that He will answer the prayers that you bring to Him, and that is a source of great joy. I would say it's not just a source of great joy; it's a source of great peace. The peace, the joy, the rest in having confidence and assurance that I am going to be with God forever and that God is with me right now.

If you were born again by grace through faith, then you have this confidence available to you—a boldness to say, "I will be with God for eternity, and God is with me right now."

Point number two on your outline: As God's child, I have a present confidence that He hears and answers my prayers.

If God is your Father, then you can have boldness in the way that you talk with Him in prayer. You should have boldness in the way that you talk with Him in prayer. Of course, the question has to be asked: Do you have boldness in the way that you talk with God in prayer? I think that Jesus taught this when He taught His disciples to pray. It's recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, specifically in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6. It's recorded again in the Gospel of Luke in Luke chapter 11.

At that point, Jesus's disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray," as John the Baptist's disciples were taught by him to pray. He said, "When you pray, this is how you ought to pray." Many of you have prayed that prayer: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be His name." That whole prayer, which we sometimes call the Lord's Prayer, might be better referred to as the Disciples' Prayer because He gave it to the disciples to pray.

There is a boldness in that prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our sins as we forgive others." There is a boldness in coming before God as Father. I was talking with a friend a number of years ago who was a hospital chaplain. He was called into the hospital room of a family that was unplugging someone from life support—the patriarch of the family. This was a Jewish family, and he was there as a non-sectarian chaplain, meaning he wasn't necessarily representing Jesus Christ in a very open and bold way, but he was receptive. He was there on behalf of God, which could be a challenge for some people.

However, there he was, ministering to this family as they went through a great time of crisis. As they unplugged their grandfather, they asked him, "Would you mind, chaplain, praying with us?" He said, "I'd be honored to pray with you." They then asked, "Would you mind leading us in a prayer?" Being a Jewish family, he thought he wanted to be as comforting as possible in this moment. So, he prayed to God as Father. He didn't mention Jesus's name, as he didn't want to offend them, but he wanted a way to reach across the aisle and minister to them.

When he was done praying to the Father, he opened his eyes and saw tears streaming down their faces. He said, "I'm sorry, have I offended you?" They replied, "No, you haven't offended us, but you actually seem like you know God." Why? Because he had a boldness of confidence to talk to God as Father, to converse with Him, and to bring his needs before God, trusting that God hears and answers prayer. They were blown away by it.

They were in awe of that relationship. If God is your Father, then you can have boldness and confidence to come before Him in prayer. John, in writing this truth, must have had in mind the teaching of Jesus that he himself wrote about in his Gospel.

On the night that Jesus would be just hours before Judas Iscariot would betray Him to the Romans and to the Jewish leaders, Jesus taught His disciples. This teaching is recorded in the Gospel of John, chapters 14, 15, and 16. You don't have to turn there, but maybe just note it down in your notes.

In John 14:12, Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do because I am going to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." Those are spectacular promises.

Then, one chapter later, in John 15:7, the Apostle John records the words of Jesus: "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it shall be done for you." Again, in the same conversation, John 16:23 states, "And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now, you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

There is a fullness of joy that is experienced in the person who has the confidence in knowing that God hears and will answer their prayers. This is the teaching that Jesus gave that evening with His disciples just before He would be betrayed.

However, this confidence and these assurances that Jesus gives us in John chapters 14, 15, and 16, which are reiterated by John here in this passage, also trigger a whole bunch of questions, don't they? When you read Jesus say, "Ask anything in My name," and "If you abide in Me," it raises many thoughts and inquiries.

My words abide in you; you'll ask, and you will receive whatever you desire. This triggers all kinds of questions. What is the extent of this assurance? Can I ask anything I want? Is God beholden to do whatever I ask Him to do in my prayers in Jesus' name? Is He on the hook for every whimsical desire that I have?

Most certainly, you can watch some TV preachers or listen to some things on the radio, and it seems that’s how they interpret these passages. Is that what Jesus is saying here in this passage? Well, in some respects, it would seem like that, but we need to understand exactly the wording of what Jesus says in John 14, 15, and 16, as well as what John writes in 1 John 5:14. When we begin to look at it, it becomes pretty clear.

Jesus says that as I abide in Him and His word abides in me, I will bring my requests, my petitions, supplications, and intercessions—these are just different kinds of prayers—to the Father in the name of Jesus, according to the nature of Jesus. If it is in accordance with His will, 1 John 5:14 states, "This is the confidence that we have: if we ask anything according to His will, He’s going to do it." As I bring those things that are according to His will, then I can have absolute confidence that He hears and will answer those prayers.

To make clear what John is driving home here in this passage, he gives us an illustration in the very next verse. In 1 John 5:16, he talks about the confidence that we, as children of God, have in God answering prayer. He then says, "Let me give you an illustration of what this looks like." If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask—what is that? It’s a prayer, an intercession, a supplication. He will ask, and God will give him life for those who commit the sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death; I do not say that we should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

These verses are clearly fascinating and open up all kinds of questions, which we'll explore further.

At the baseline, as a child of God, we have a confidence that God gives to us in prayer. I am confident of my future position with God because of the finished work of Jesus. Jesus was lifted up on the cross; He died in my place and in your place. My sin was placed upon Him, and He took the punishment for my sin. Now, because of what He accomplished, I have confidence in my future position with God. I am not in doubt about that.

If you died today, would you go to heaven? Yes. How do you know that? It's not based upon my works; it's based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I have confidence that I will be with God eternally in His kingdom because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

I also have confidence right now. I am confident that God is with me and will answer the prayers that I bring to Him. Since I have this confidence, I pray boldly for the conversion of other sinners. If I have been saved by grace through faith according to the finished work of Jesus, and I have confidence in my eternal position with God, as well as confidence that He will hear and answer the prayers I pray in accordance with His will, then I will boldly pray for the conversion of others. I desire that other sinners will also be transformed by the grace of God and come to that grace to be saved.

As I mentioned, there are some challenging things in verses 16 and 17 that invite scores of questions, volumes of commentary, and endless debates about what is going on here. Questions arise, such as: What is the sin not leading to death? What is the sin leading to death? Are there people that we should not pray for? Does God grant life to people based upon our prayers? As you read through the passage, these are some of the questions that come to mind.

Like with the passage we looked at last week, if you open up a commentary, you can find all kinds of interpretations and ideas regarding these words. These are good questions, and that is how we should approach the Scriptures. We should ask questions like that, and each one of these questions could be a message of its own. We could stretch this into a whole other series and talk about just these verses.

I won't do that, I promise. But once again, we have to humbly acknowledge that when we come to passages in which there is little agreement among teachers, commentators, and scholars as to the answers to these questions, we need to seek the plain sense of what is being said. That's not to say that we don't try to answer those questions, and I most certainly will. I'll actually spend more time talking about it on the Questions Podcast this week. So, if you're not subscribed, go to the QuestionsPodcast.com, and we'll talk more about this.

I only have 12 minutes and 45 seconds, so I can't possibly do justice to the topic in this time. I can talk for a long time on the Questions Podcast, and you can listen to it at one-and-a-half speed, so it's just as good. I already talked at one-and-a-half speed, but if you can understand me at that speed, God bless you; you are good!

Aside from any interpretive statements about these verses, point number three is worth restating or reiterating: having confidence that I am going to be with God eternally because of His finished work on the cross. I have confidence that God will answer the prayers I bring to Him in accordance with His will. Now, having that confidence, I should pray boldly for the conversion of other sinners, that they would come to know Christ. If I have confidence in my eternal position with God, if I have confidence that God hears and answers prayer, and if I have confidence that God wills that people would be saved—which is exactly what the Scriptures say—then I should pray boldly for the conversion of sinners.

This is a prayer I can pray in total confidence, trusting that God will hear and answer prayer.

Now, what about the questions? What is the sin not leading to death? What is a sin leading to death? What is going on here in this passage? As I said, good commentators like Martin Luther or John Calvin, or modern scholars like David Guzik or John MacArthur, have different opinions on what's being said here. They interpret the passages as they believe the Scriptures indicate.

John says there is a sin leading to death and a sin not leading to death. What does that mean? If you've been around the Bible for a while and you read through the New Testament, especially the Book of Romans, you would probably agree that the wages of sin is death. All sin leads to death. The Scriptures say that in the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, breaking God's law, sin would come. This resulted in a spiritual death that would come from sin, as well as a physical death.

The teaching of Scripture, from the beginning in Genesis to the end in Revelation, is that sin, or lawlessness—breaking God's commandments, both the moral law written upon the heart and His law given in the Scriptures—brings physical and spiritual death. Therefore, the wages of sin is death; all sin ultimately leads to death.

But what is John saying when he mentions a sin that does not lead to death? He seems to be speaking about a spiritual death that will be extended through sin to a person who is a follower of Jesus, a believer who is caught up in that sin. This sin is not going to lead to their death. How does this work?

I think the best explanation of this came from a Bible teacher you may know, Alistair Begg. I want to read a quote from Alistair Begg, as well as a paraphrase of the passage we just looked at, verses 16 and 17, from a translation by J.B. Phillips, which I think provides some insight.

Alistair Begg, speaking about a sin that leads to death, says that it is akin to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It is a bitter, hardened resistance to the truth of God revealed in Jesus—a recalcitrance towards the truth. It is not the magnitude of the sin that prevents its pardon; rather, it is the attitude and disposition of the sinner. The sinner refuses to find cleansing and forgiveness in the only solution that is offered. For John has already said in 1 John 1:9 that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So, we have a source of cleansing: the finished work of Jesus on the cross. If there is a sin that leads to death, it must surely be tied up with the attitude and disposition of the one who is sinning. What is Begg saying? I think he is right on this.

The only sin that leads to spiritual death, and is technically, theologically unforgivable, is the sin that refuses to receive the cleansing that is found only in Jesus. There is only one source for forgiveness; there is only one path for cleansing, and Christ alone is the one who can forgive us. If you reject the forgiveness and the cleansing that He offers, there is no other sacrifice for sins. He is the only way. This is why He Himself would say, "I am the way, and no one comes to the Father but by me."

The only way to come before God the Father is to be holy, that is, declared righteous. The only way to be holy and declared righteous is according to the finished work of Jesus. Therefore, the only unforgivable sin, the only sin leading to ultimate spiritual death, is the sin that refuses to receive the cleansing that comes from Jesus.

J.B. Phillips' paraphrase of verses 16 and 17 says this: "If any of you should see his brother committing a sin, I don't mean deliberately turning his back on God and embracing evil, but if anyone should see his brother sin, he should pray to God for him and secure fresh life for the sinner." It is possible to commit sin that is deliberate, embracing evil, and that leads to spiritual death. As Phillips notes, that is not the sort of sin that I have in mind when I recommend prayer for the sinner.

Every failure to obey God's law is sin, of course, but there is a sin that does not preclude repentance and forgiveness. So how should we frame this or interpret this? I think the best way to interpret it is this way: Christians still stumble into sin. We all know this observationally; we all know this experientially. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're a Christian, and you have failed within the last 24 hours—maybe even within the last 20 minutes. You might be saying, "Can you just hurry this up?" That's sin. Well, okay, maybe not, but anyways, we all sin. We all fall short of the glory of God, even after we put our trust and faith in Jesus.

So, Christians still stumble into sin, and if you, a Christian, see another follower of Jesus stumble into sin, the teaching that...

John gives us an important message in this passage: our response to witnessing someone fall into sin should be to talk to God about it. In other words, when we see a brother or sister stumble, it is far better to pray for their restoration, repentance, and forgiveness than to gossip with another believer about that person. This is worth acknowledging because the inclination of my flesh, when I see another Christian do something they ought not to do, is to follow their sin with my own sin of gossip. I might justify it by saying, "We just need to pray for so-and-so because the other day I saw them do this thing."

Why do we do that? I think one of the reasons is that it makes us feel better about ourselves, but it is still sin. The best response to seeing another brother or sister stumble into sin is to bring that situation to God and pray for His work to be done in their life, leading them to repentance and the restoration of forgiveness. We should not follow their sin with our own sin of gossip.

When we pray for a Christian who has stumbled into sin, we can have great confidence that God will work in their life. How do we know this? In 1 John 5:18, it states, "We know that whoever is born of God does not sin." We need to examine this in the original language to understand its meaning. When it says "does not sin," it refers to present active sin. A better way to read this would be, "We know that whoever is born of God does not continue in sin."

Point number four on your outline is that I am confident those who are born of God will not continue in sin. They may stumble, yes, but the person who is born of God will not persist in that practice or pattern of sin. Why? Because God is at work in their life. John continues in verse 18, stating that whoever is born of God does not continue to sin, and he adds that the one who has been born of God keeps him or keeps himself.

The wicked one does not touch him. Now, I am reading from the New King James Version. I honestly think that the English Standard Version and the New Living Translation might translate this better. The New Living Translation says that God's Son, when we talk about the one who was born of God, holds that person securely. The evil one cannot touch them. That's really good news. The English Standard Version says that he who is born of God protects that person, and the evil one does not touch him.

He goes on in verse 19 of 1 John chapter five: "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." We know that the Son of God, Jesus, has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true. We are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Knowing Him is eternal life.

Then, in verse 21, he writes: "Little children, keep yourselves from false gods, from idols." Amen.

Point number five on your outline, and we'll close: As one born of God, I am confident that I will not remain in sin. How can I be so confident? Because God does not command what He does not also expect, and God does not expect from me what He does not also enable me to accomplish. When He commands, "Keep yourselves from false gods; keep yourselves from idols," He expects that I, as His child, would keep myself from idols.

However, He knows the inclination of my fallen flesh. In and of myself, I can do nothing, but by God's grace and through His strength, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. With God's commands and His expectations come His enabling power to accomplish those things. Since I am reliant entirely upon His fullness of grace and strength in my life, yes, I work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. But I know this: it is God who works in me to will and to do His good pleasure.

So, I have confidence in my eternal position with God. I will be with Him. Why? Because He finished the work, and I have confidence.

He is with me right now, enabling me to do that work, and I will not continue to remain in sin.

Now, for the final question: How might your life be different if you walked every day with that confidence? This is something to think about this week. If you were absolutely certain every single day of your eternal position with God, knowing it is not dependent upon what you do or what you don't do, how might that change the way you live? If you were absolutely certain that God is there with you in the midst of every situation, available to enable, empower, and strengthen you through whatever circumstance, how would that change the way you live? I think it might give you some more joy, maybe just a little.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer?

God, thank you for this passage of Scripture. I pray that, though there are some challenging things to think through in this passage, you would give us spiritual insight and wisdom to comprehend not just what these things mean, but how they ought to affect, transform, and change our lives. Your Word is living and powerful, and it is given for the purpose of transforming us more and more into the likeness of your children.

So, God, would you do that work today and this week? Make us just a little bit more like you. Lord, I pray that you would stir our hearts to walk in confidence, knowing that our position with you is secured by your grace. Having that rest and peace that this reality gives would strengthen our determination to follow hard after you.

When we see someone else fall into sin—and we will—I pray, God, that you would stir our hearts to cry out to you to do the work of drawing them back. We trust that those who are born of you will not continue in sin. We praise you, Lord, that we can be confident of this very thing: that you who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Even though every one of us here today is in process and we stumble sometimes, we thank you, God.

When we do God's work in your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. All those who are great singers, we invite you to join us.