WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.919 All right, today we finish the letter of John, John's first letter here. 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:10.919 And you may be noticed when we read that if you've been with us throughout the series 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:18.440 at the very beginning in our passage in verse 13, he says in that second half of the sentence 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:23.160 that he writes so that you may know you have eternal life. 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:31.399 Now John has said this a lot of times already that I want you to know that you have eternal 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:32.519 life. 00:00:32.519 --> 00:00:34.840 He said it in chapter one. 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:40.579 He said so that I'm here so that you might have fellowship with God and eternal life. 00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:45.379 Chapter two, he comes and says, I'm here so that you might know you have eternal life. 00:00:45.379 --> 00:00:49.200 And you come to chapter five and there's more instances than that. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:53.079 I write to you so that you may know you have eternal life. 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:58.119 Now if you're married, you know this about your spouse. 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:05.719 And if you know this about your parents, nonetheless, even if you're not married, that your spouse 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:11.959 and your parents, they say the same things over and over again to everyone. 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:17.840 You stand in a circle of friends and your husband, your wife, they tell the same story. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:23.719 And it gets to the point in your life where you know that you can finish the story, the 00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:27.840 sentence, the very phrase that are going to use for them before they say it. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:31.280 And you remember that about your dad, about your mom. 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:37.719 John repeats himself constantly, but he doesn't do it like we do when we repeat ourselves 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:38.719 constantly. 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:44.040 John comes and tells you in verse 13, this is why I can't stop repeating myself. 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:49.800 In other words, he says, I write these things to you because I'm about to tell you the point 00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:51.120 of the letter. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:56.040 I keep saying the same things over and over again because this is the point of the letter, 00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:01.440 the main point, so that you might know that you have eternal life. 00:02:01.440 --> 00:02:02.960 And so I can't stop saying it. 00:02:02.960 --> 00:02:05.400 John's saying I can't stop repeating myself. 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:07.320 I'm saying it over and over again. 00:02:07.320 --> 00:02:09.759 He wants you to know. 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:14.319 And we've talked about this already a few times and it's assurance. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:18.359 He wants you to have the assurance of faith. 00:02:18.359 --> 00:02:24.199 And the assurance of faith is a deep certainty in your mind and in your heart that you are 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:30.079 saved by God and you're kept by God forever. 00:02:30.079 --> 00:02:31.199 John wants you to know that. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.159 That's the big idea of the whole letter that he's writing. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:41.560 Now there's a lot in this passage about prayer and there's a lot about quote, the sin that 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.400 leads to death as John puts it. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.400 And there's a lot about being protected from the evil one. 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:52.120 And we will mention those things, but we need more sermons than we have. 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:57.159 But if nothing else, we want to hear John give us the main point, which is that you might 00:02:57.159 --> 00:03:00.879 have assurance, that you might know that you have eternal life. 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:06.000 Now another way to say this is that John wants you to have what you could call the certainty 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.039 of faith. 00:03:08.039 --> 00:03:09.159 The certainty of faith. 00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:14.280 The certainty of faith is a kind of certainty that's different, a kind of confidence that's 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:17.240 different from other types of certainties. 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:23.000 So you all know that we have scientific certainties that if I stand up here and drop one of Billy's 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.280 books over here, I won't do it. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:30.240 Drop one of Billy's books that I see on the table here to the ground over and over again 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:37.680 that every single time it is going to fall at a negative 9.8 meters per second acceleration. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:43.320 And we know that because we've done it our whole lives and we've got scientists who calculate 00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:45.159 the data for us. 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:51.040 That certainty by way of empirical experiential proof over and over again. 00:03:51.040 --> 00:03:55.520 It's the kind of certainty you get when you want to find something out. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:00.480 That's talking about a certainty here that's a certainty of faith and it's not without reason. 00:04:00.480 --> 00:04:02.080 No, not at all. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:03.080 But it's different. 00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:09.080 It's actually simply when your soul can finally rest. 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:10.080 It's that kind of certainty. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:15.320 It's the certainty of soul when your soul finds a place to rest and have an anchor as we just 00:04:15.320 --> 00:04:16.319 sang about. 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:18.840 It's not a product of experiments. 00:04:18.840 --> 00:04:22.319 It's not like the scientific laboratory. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:27.759 But it's when your head and your heart find a rest in the one that makes sense of everything 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:30.040 else for you. 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:31.399 And that's what he's talking about here. 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:37.000 And in the context of the letter, there are people in the region that he's writing to 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:38.480 that are telling the Christians. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:39.600 He's writing to Christians. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.839 They're saying to the Christians, you can never know that God really loves you. 00:04:44.839 --> 00:04:45.920 That's what people were saying. 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:50.600 They were saying, you can never be certain that when you die, you're going to have a 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:52.760 hope of real life. 00:04:52.760 --> 00:04:55.480 You can never really know that. 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:58.960 You always have to hope, but you can never know. 00:04:58.960 --> 00:05:01.240 And so they pitted hope against knowledge. 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:03.480 And John says, you don't have to do that. 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:04.480 You can know. 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:06.680 You can know that you have eternal life. 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:11.200 You don't have to be wracked with purposelessness in your life or guilt that you can't get 00:05:11.200 --> 00:05:13.600 rid of. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:14.600 Forgiveness is sure. 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:15.600 Meaning is sure. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:18.760 Hope is sure because God is not fickle. 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:23.120 And this is what he teaches us, two things. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:27.680 Assurance means having confidence in Jesus, number one, very simply. 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:33.000 And secondly, assurance then means knowing your rights, your rights. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:35.360 Okay, so let's look at those two things. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:38.199 First, assurance means confidence in Jesus. 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:40.319 That's what John says here. 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:45.439 Now in first John 5, 13, he says, I write these things to you. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:48.360 That is a direct quote, if you will. 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:53.960 He's repeating himself, not just in his letter, but that's exactly what John says at the end 00:05:53.960 --> 00:05:55.379 of his gospel. 00:05:55.379 --> 00:06:01.800 So in John 20, he says, I write these things to you so that you may believe. 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:08.400 And then in the letter at the end, he says, I write these things to you so that believing, 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:11.439 you may know you have eternal life. 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:16.560 So you see in the gospel, the gospel he's saying, I wrote the gospel about Jesus so 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:20.040 that you would believe in the first place in Jesus. 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:25.759 I'm writing the letter so that those of you who do believe would now be confident in that 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.920 belief, that you would have faith in the midst of that belief. 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.680 Now that means that when you approach verse 13, and we can just walk right through verse 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:39.920 13, he says, I'm writing these things to you who believe so that you can gain confidence 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:41.279 in that belief. 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:47.799 Meaning, if you want to have confident faith, step one, the presupposition for John is you've 00:06:47.799 --> 00:06:49.359 got to have faith. 00:06:49.359 --> 00:06:50.759 You got to have faith. 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:53.039 You got to have faith. 00:06:53.039 --> 00:06:54.039 You got to have faith. 00:06:54.039 --> 00:06:59.519 That's the foundation of any possibility of an assured faith, of a confident faith. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:01.439 And you see the way he puts that. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:07.959 He says that I write these things to you so that those of you who believe in the name 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:10.079 of the Son of God might have confident faith. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:16.719 Now he says here, if you want to know assurance in your life, you've got to then believe in 00:07:16.719 --> 00:07:18.399 the name. 00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:19.399 That's how he says it. 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:24.719 The object of your belief has got to be the name, the name of the Son of God. 00:07:24.719 --> 00:07:28.519 And that's an incredibly strange way to speak. 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:32.479 But I say, John says to you today, believe in the name. 00:07:32.479 --> 00:07:35.279 Why does he say that? 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:41.199 And it's because this in the old world, in the old world, the pre-modern world, names 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:42.599 meant so much. 00:07:42.599 --> 00:07:48.399 The power of naming, the power of spoken word even was so much more than we know it today, 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:50.719 but especially when it comes to people's names. 00:07:50.719 --> 00:07:57.519 Now my name, I've said this before here, but my name has the background of Greek, a Greek 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:01.039 etymology, Greek origin and Gallic origin. 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:09.879 So in the Greek, my name comes from the word quora, which is a very not famous and unpopular 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:13.920 goddess in the Greek pantheon, in the Greek mythology. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:19.160 And my name, Kuri, my name, my first name, also comes from a Gallic word. 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:26.480 Whose etymology means empty, an empty cavern, a hollow rock or a shallow pool. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:31.600 So my name from Gallic means empty, hollow and shallow. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:36.759 Now thankfully in the modern world, we don't believe that the meaning of your name is who 00:08:36.759 --> 00:08:38.680 you are. 00:08:38.680 --> 00:08:42.480 Now it may be true of me, but at least we don't believe that in the modern world. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:44.840 But in the old world, that's exactly what it was like. 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:50.840 So God says Abram, your name is no longer Abram, it's Abraham. 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:55.879 Meaning you are the father of nations, which is the very word Avraham. 00:08:55.879 --> 00:08:59.799 That's what it means, Abraham, and go be the father of nations. 00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:06.360 In other words, in the old world, name meant the unity of identity and vocation. 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:10.879 Your name is who you are and what you should do in life at the same time. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:12.840 That's why people had the last name of Smith. 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:15.080 It's who they are and what's what they do. 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:18.480 They Smith, they're steel workers, whatever it may be. 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:25.840 Now, let me give you another example of the power of words, the power of the name. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:29.560 Esau and Jacob, you remember the Old Testament story? 00:09:29.560 --> 00:09:35.440 Jacob tricks his father, Isaac, and his brother Esau into getting the firstborn birthright 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:37.240 from his dad. 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:42.040 But then Esau figures it out and he goes in and he says, dad, why can't you just give 00:09:42.040 --> 00:09:43.560 me the birthright? 00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:49.560 You know, yes, you said it to Jacob, but you could just turn and say it to me and say, 00:09:49.560 --> 00:09:50.560 I messed up. 00:09:50.560 --> 00:09:53.840 Now I'm going to give it to you, the real firstborn. 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:55.720 And what does Isaac say? 00:09:55.720 --> 00:10:00.519 Isaac says, I cannot give it to you for I have already spoken. 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:05.399 I've already declared that Jacob's name is firstborn. 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:07.040 Doesn't matter his biology. 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:12.440 The words have gone forth and that's the power in the old world and the ancient world in 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:14.120 the Bible of naming. 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:18.920 Now John's gospel, John 1 12 says the same thing. 00:10:18.920 --> 00:10:25.080 So John's repeating himself, remember John chapter one verse 12, the gospel of John. 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:32.560 It says this to everyone who believes in the name, they will be given eternal life. 00:10:32.560 --> 00:10:35.320 And here it is again at the end of John's letter. 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:39.639 Now God says, God says, if you believe in the name, you shall have eternal life. 00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:40.920 Why? 00:10:40.920 --> 00:10:48.520 Because the angel Gabriel came down to Joseph and said to Joseph, when your wife, Mary has 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:57.679 that baby boy, his name shall be Jesus, Jesus, Joshua, many ways to say it. 00:10:57.679 --> 00:10:59.159 What is his name? 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:03.199 His name is God saves. 00:11:03.199 --> 00:11:08.439 You see the power of the name, belief in the name in other words is trust in the power 00:11:08.439 --> 00:11:11.279 of the person that has been named. 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:16.199 And Jesus's name is not only what he is, but what he does in power. 00:11:16.200 --> 00:11:20.480 And when he says here, you must believe in the name if you want to have confident faith. 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:26.160 It's saying you need to know that when Jesus is named Jesus, God saves. 00:11:26.160 --> 00:11:31.600 It's because in his person and in his work, it's exactly what he is and what he does. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:32.600 He can't help it. 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:33.600 He has to. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:34.600 It's what he is. 00:11:34.600 --> 00:11:35.600 It's what he does. 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:36.600 It's the power of his name. 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:41.520 And that means today, before you can talk about the assurance of faith, the confident 00:11:41.520 --> 00:11:45.600 faith that John wants you to know, there's a choice. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:48.480 Faith is a choice. 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:50.200 John talks about the obedience of faith. 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:54.680 He means there that faith is a choice that stands before all of us today. 00:11:54.680 --> 00:12:02.200 And it is the choice to say today, I rest my hope on the power of the person, the name 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:05.040 Jesus. 00:12:05.040 --> 00:12:07.600 And that's to say, it's to ask questions like this. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:10.639 Can I be freed from the guilt that I struggle with? 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:12.399 Well, I believe in the name. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:19.639 I believe that he is the power and sacrifice for my son. 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:24.600 It's to ask a question like, is there a beginning of history and a purpose at the end? 00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:26.799 And it's to say, I believe in his name. 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:30.600 His name is Alpha and Omega beginning and end. 00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:32.159 That's his name. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:38.399 It's to ask, is there a hope for me in the midst of this life of perpetual fears, the 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:44.399 fear of death at the end of my road, and his name is refuge. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:45.399 His name is rock. 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:46.399 His name is fortress. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:48.399 He will keep you. 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:53.799 So John says, that's the presupposition, that you can't talk at all today about an assurance 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:59.799 of faith if you don't believe in the name, the name Jesus, the name of the Son of God, 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:03.120 that he is power and that he has truly done it. 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:07.919 Now, then if you do today, that means you're a Christian and that means you have the possibility 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:13.039 of having a confident faith, an assurance of faith. 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:14.599 And that's what he says in the second line. 00:13:14.599 --> 00:13:20.279 He says, so that you might know, if you believe in the name today, I want you to know that 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:21.559 you do have eternal life. 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:22.879 I want you to have a confident faith. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:24.719 Now, here's how you get it. 00:13:24.719 --> 00:13:26.879 Here's how John tells us that you get it. 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:30.439 Remember John 1-12 in the Gospel where he's repeating himself. 00:13:30.439 --> 00:13:37.480 He said, if you believe in the name, you have eternal life because God has given you the 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:41.759 right to be called child of God. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:43.960 How can you have confident faith today? 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:49.800 How can you walk away from here having the assurance of faith believe in the fact that 00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:54.360 God has given you the right to be called child of God? 00:13:54.360 --> 00:13:57.120 Now, we talk today about human rights. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:58.800 Human rights are all over the place. 00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:02.639 The right to healthcare, the right to life, all sorts of things, the right to choices 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:05.480 of all sorts. 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:07.800 Rights are anytime, what do we mean by that? 00:14:07.800 --> 00:14:14.360 Rights in the modern world, in the philosophical sense are anytime a justice is owed to you 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:17.320 with respect to simply being a human being. 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:21.920 The justices that are owed to you as a human being, period. 00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:25.159 Now, this is how you can have an assured faith. 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:26.720 Hear this. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:33.000 God, if you believe, John 1-12 says, John 1-5 says, if you believe, it is only because 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:40.519 God has given you, gifted to you the right to be called named child of God. 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:45.919 You have a justice that's been given to you from outside of you that is to be named by 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.799 God child, son or daughter. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:52.399 Now, let me make a little more sense of this. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:56.480 Two problems that every Christian today is going to lean towards. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:14:57.919 All of us. 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:03.120 If you're a Christian today, you either tend this direction or that direction. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:04.120 Here's the two directions. 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:11.719 Some of us today come to this and say, I do not have confident faith because I'm not 00:15:11.719 --> 00:15:16.719 willing to say for sure that I'm a Christian. 00:15:16.719 --> 00:15:18.839 I know my own thought life. 00:15:18.839 --> 00:15:20.799 I know what's in my heart. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:21.919 I know my doubts. 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:24.159 I know my fears and I know my sins. 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:25.360 I'm not willing. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:31.240 Some of you today are saying, I'm not willing to say outright, I know I'm a Christian. 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:33.720 I know I have eternal life. 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:37.360 On the flip side, some of us are here today and we say the exact opposite. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.639 We say, I've always been a Christian. 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:40.759 I know I'm a Christian. 00:15:40.759 --> 00:15:43.680 I'm confident that I have eternal life. 00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:45.399 It's because I've got strong faith. 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:48.680 I've never really had any doubts. 00:15:48.680 --> 00:15:50.039 I've always been consistent. 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:51.639 I've always believed. 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:56.840 Let me say that on both accounts, whatever direction you might tend to, both of those 00:15:56.840 --> 00:15:59.639 are actually spiritual pride. 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:03.679 Both of those are ways of being prideful before God. 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:07.759 In the first, it's false humility. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:13.279 It's saying, I can never truly know because I know my own doubts. 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:17.919 In the second, it's spiritual arrogance because it's saying, I know that I know because I 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:21.360 know the power of my own faith. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:26.360 You see the mistake in both of those is both of those think that the assurance of salvation 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:33.440 comes in the confidence of personal faith, in the strength of your own faith. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:38.000 In other words, you say, if my faith is weak, I can't be sure. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:41.519 If my faith is strong, then I'm very sure. 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:43.680 John says no. 00:16:43.680 --> 00:16:45.600 That's not the assurance of faith. 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:51.320 That's not how you get confidence that you know that you do indeed have eternal life. 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:54.800 Here's what John says instead as we close this point. 00:16:54.800 --> 00:16:56.240 You can see it in John 1.12. 00:16:56.240 --> 00:17:03.000 He says, do you believe it's because you've been given a right by God, a justice. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:07.160 But here in our passage, verse 18, 19, and 20, if you just scan your eyes over it, you 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:08.799 can see how he says it. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:14.039 He says, we know that if you believe today you've been one, you've been born of God, 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:15.120 verse 18. 00:17:15.120 --> 00:17:18.880 If you believe today, verse 19, you are quote, from God. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:26.200 If you believe today, it's because verse 20, the Son of God came for you and gave you gifts. 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:27.200 And you see what he's saying? 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:32.240 He's saying, confident faith is never grounded. 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:37.160 Confident faith is never grounded in the power of your personal faith. 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:41.680 Instead, it's when you know that you're passive and he's active. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:44.560 It's when you know that God did it all. 00:17:44.560 --> 00:17:47.560 If you believe it's because you were born from God. 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.720 If you believe it's because you were quote, from God, what God did? 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:57.599 If you believe it's because you've been given a right to be called child of God adopted. 00:17:57.599 --> 00:17:59.319 It's all God and not you. 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:05.119 And that means that the assurance of faith is never found in the personal quality of 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:06.720 your faith. 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:12.000 Not at all, but in the object, the strength of the object, which is God's work, God's 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:13.759 doing, what God does, not what you do. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:16.879 Now, here it is as we close. 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:17.880 Here's how it works. 00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:20.240 It's all about status. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:29.080 Imagine an orphan, a little boy that's an orphan and he gets fostered for a long time 00:18:29.080 --> 00:18:33.680 and the family loves him and he loves the family. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:37.640 He loves the mom, he loves the dad, he loves the brothers, he loves the sisters. 00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:41.600 They come to the orphanage, they pick him up day in and day out. 00:18:41.600 --> 00:18:45.160 They feed him, they clothe him and they drop him off. 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:46.160 They take him back. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.000 And he loves being with them. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:52.279 They love being with him. 00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:57.240 And you know, that's really good. 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:01.240 But the little boy longs for the day, doesn't he? 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:04.720 The little boy, he wants more than to be picked up and dropped off. 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:06.960 He wants more than to be fed good meals. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:11.320 He wants more than to even be told by this couple that they love him. 00:19:11.320 --> 00:19:12.519 He wants more than that. 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:14.560 What does he want? 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:21.119 He wants the day where mom and dad sit down, pull out the papers and sign their name and 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:24.200 say, adopted. 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:25.919 He's mine forever. 00:19:25.919 --> 00:19:27.599 You see? 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:29.319 That's called a status change. 00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:35.839 In other words, the little boy, the day that happens, the little boy can say, yesterday 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:40.679 they liked me, today I am their son. 00:19:40.679 --> 00:19:41.679 That's status change. 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:45.120 And when you have faith, this is what John's saying. 00:19:45.120 --> 00:19:53.840 If you believe in the name today, you can say yesterday in the past, God loved me, but 00:19:53.840 --> 00:19:57.039 today I'm his son. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:58.039 I'm his daughter. 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:00.240 I've had a status change. 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:04.920 And what that means is that your faith, the quality of your faith does not make you a great 00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:09.759 Christian any more than the weakness of your faith gets you out of the kingdom of God. 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:15.319 You see that your strong faith does not get you more into God's status any more than your 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:18.200 weak faith gets you kicked out. 00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:19.640 Not at all. 00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:20.759 It's about a status change. 00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:25.720 It's about God's right that he gave to you to say you're adopted. 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:28.960 Now if you believe that, you can know. 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:34.440 You can say, I didn't do it so I can know that I have eternal life. 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:35.720 It's not the quality of your faith. 00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:36.920 It's the object. 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:38.160 Jesus Christ. 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:44.440 Secondly, and finally, now if that's you today, if you believe that and you're growing in 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:50.320 the confidence of faith, John then comes briefly to say, you need to know your rights before 00:20:50.320 --> 00:20:51.820 God. 00:20:51.820 --> 00:20:53.120 And that's the rest of this passage. 00:20:53.120 --> 00:20:58.040 And all we can do is rifle through it very quickly with a couple of these rights. 00:20:58.040 --> 00:21:00.800 Let me mention two to you. 00:21:00.800 --> 00:21:01.900 This is the application. 00:21:01.900 --> 00:21:03.040 This is what John says. 00:21:03.040 --> 00:21:04.040 Confident faith. 00:21:04.040 --> 00:21:05.920 This is what confident faith does. 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.600 Verse 14, there's the first one. 00:21:08.600 --> 00:21:16.200 Confident faith comes and knows that you can have confidence towards God. 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:20.279 And here's the confidence that if you ask anything according to God's will, he will 00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:21.279 hear you. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:27.360 In other words, the first right that you have been given by God as an adopted son or daughter 00:21:27.360 --> 00:21:32.560 is that you can pray to God and know that he truly hears you. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:39.079 Now that means that faith changes the way you pray. 00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:42.279 Confident faith changes the way you pray. 00:21:42.279 --> 00:21:47.319 And let me just mention three things in just a sentence or two that God says to you about 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:49.079 your prayer here. 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:55.000 He says verse 14 first, that if you believe in him, he hears you. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:01.759 And that means you can know, you can know that if God has signed your adoption papers, 00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:04.839 that what Jesus said in the gospels is true of you. 00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:05.960 Remember what Jesus said about prayer? 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:14.160 He says, when a little child comes and asks their father for bread, would the father ever 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:17.079 turn around and hand him a poisonous snake? 00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:18.079 And that was about prayer. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:23.519 He's saying, if you know that you're a child adopted by the father, don't you know that 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:26.599 every time you come to the father, he doesn't hand you a poisonous snake? 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:27.680 He hears you. 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:31.240 He hears that request for bread and for water. 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:36.079 Now the second thing he says, that means you've got to come and prayer then knowing your rights 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.519 with expectation. 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:44.160 And so he says in verse 15, verse 15 at the end of verse 15, know that he hears you. 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:46.680 He does hear you, so know that he does. 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:51.519 Meaning there's got to be, that means you've got to come to prayer with expectation that 00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:56.079 God will not leave your prayers unanswered. 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:01.879 And at the same time you say today, look, I've prayed a lot and I know, I feel like there 00:23:01.879 --> 00:23:05.079 are times when my prayers have not been answered. 00:23:05.079 --> 00:23:10.399 And that's important to say because in verse 14, there's a qualification. 00:23:10.399 --> 00:23:11.399 Did you see it? 00:23:11.399 --> 00:23:18.199 It says, you can know every time God answers your prayers if you come to him and pray how? 00:23:18.199 --> 00:23:20.879 According to his will. 00:23:20.879 --> 00:23:21.879 Now here it is. 00:23:21.879 --> 00:23:25.859 And we, I have to just say one thing about this and walk away. 00:23:25.859 --> 00:23:32.639 God says that your prayer will never go unanswered because you've been adopted by God if you 00:23:32.639 --> 00:23:36.079 pray according to the will of God. 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:38.240 How do you do that? 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:40.319 Here's one way. 00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:42.439 Pray the Bible. 00:23:42.439 --> 00:23:46.799 How do you know that your will and prayer is conforming to the will of God? 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:50.599 What he wants, pray the Bible back to God. 00:23:50.599 --> 00:23:54.439 And you know that the very words of God that have been spoken into the world as you pray 00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:58.680 them back to him are definitively the will of God. 00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:03.120 So you can walk through the Psalms and you can pray line by line exactly what the Psalms 00:24:03.120 --> 00:24:08.400 pray back to God to couch your petitions in the midst of the language of the Bible. 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:13.200 And then you know, you know, you can walk away and say, I know that God will answer 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:19.080 my prayer because I've prayed it in the power of his very words, his very will. 00:24:19.080 --> 00:24:24.240 Now the last thing he tells us here about prayer and we need a different day on this 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:29.759 is he says that your prayer, confident faith means your prayer is so powerful. 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:34.680 Verse 16, that it has the power to be priestly. 00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:36.720 What does it mean to have priestly power? 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:43.680 Priestly power is when you can actually represent other people before God and God respond and 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:45.920 do something about it. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:46.920 Did you see verse 16? 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:53.559 It says, verse 16 says that when you pray for another Christian who is struggling, who 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:59.599 is maybe going down a road that is dangerous, when you pray for them, God says, I will hear 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:02.240 it and I will restore them. 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:03.599 That's priestly prayer. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:08.799 That your prayer as an adopted son or daughter of the king is so powerful that you can through 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:14.839 the medium of prayer restore a brother or sister under God back to life. 00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:18.679 Now that means a lot of things and we can't go into it right now. 00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:24.480 He even says, there is a sin that leads to death and he says I'm not saying you should 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:28.460 definitely pray for that, but he's not saying don't pray for those who have committed a 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:29.519 sin that leads to death. 00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:31.240 What is that? 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:35.680 He's saying pray for everybody and for those who have committed a sin that leads to death, 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:37.320 he's saying I don't know what God will do. 00:25:37.320 --> 00:25:38.480 That's his point. 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:40.279 But pray for them and what is that? 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:47.000 And I can only mention it and it's this, it's after having been in the church professing 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:54.359 faith according to John's letter, a person comes and says Jesus Christ is not God who 00:25:54.359 --> 00:25:57.200 has come in the flesh to save. 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:00.240 That's the sin that leads to death in John's letter. 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:04.359 And John is saying pray for any brother or sister who is struggling and I will give them 00:26:04.359 --> 00:26:06.640 life through your prayer. 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:12.599 That's priestly prayer and maybe God will also work to bring somebody back. 00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:19.359 Let's profess faith and walked away and said Jesus Christ is not God coming the flesh. 00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:20.359 That's your first right. 00:26:20.359 --> 00:26:24.480 Your second right before God that you've been given as adopted son and your final that I 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:27.399 can mention today is this. 00:26:27.399 --> 00:26:35.679 He says here lastly that Jesus will be a shield all around you for all of your days. 00:26:35.679 --> 00:26:41.759 And that language comes out of Psalm three where it says that God is our shield all around 00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:44.200 us, which is a seed shield. 00:26:44.200 --> 00:26:49.680 It's the kind of shield that you wear when you're going into siege a castle wall and 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:54.240 you got to have a shield over your head for the rocks and the oil and in front of you 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:58.119 and behind you into your sides because the castle wall is shooting at you from every 00:26:58.119 --> 00:26:59.460 side. 00:26:59.460 --> 00:27:04.000 This says that Jesus Christ you have a right before God Jesus will protect you in your 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:08.000 front and your back and on top of your head the rest of your life. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:09.920 That's your right as an adopted son or daughter. 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:11.240 Now how does he say it? 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:16.000 He says that in verse 1819 that God will protect you. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:21.680 Jesus Christ will protect you from the evil one from Satan that Jesus will be the shield 00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:23.880 in the midst of the attack of the evil one. 00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:32.200 Now what this means here is that if you're an adopted son or daughter of the king, God 00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:40.200 has declared over you judicially legally that you are forgiven and that you are his forever. 00:27:40.200 --> 00:27:42.640 That's eternal life. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:46.319 But Satan comes and makes a claim against you. 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:50.759 Satan has the right, the true right to make a claim against the world. 00:27:50.759 --> 00:27:54.160 Verse 18 says the world belongs to the evil one. 00:27:54.160 --> 00:27:55.440 Why? 00:27:55.440 --> 00:28:01.080 Because human beings have committed great injustices against God and Satan truly has 00:28:01.080 --> 00:28:04.200 a justice claim against us. 00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:10.120 Satan in the Old Testament comes to God and says I can charge this one with guilt because 00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:12.119 they are guilty. 00:28:12.119 --> 00:28:18.039 And you see no matter what it's saying, if you're adopted, Satan can never come to God 00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:23.839 and say about you, I have a claim to make against this one. 00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:24.839 They belong to me. 00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:25.839 I'm taking them. 00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:27.159 I'm bringing them into death. 00:28:27.159 --> 00:28:28.399 They can't have life. 00:28:28.399 --> 00:28:31.199 No, Jesus Christ is the shield all about you. 00:28:31.199 --> 00:28:36.159 He'll never let that happen because you've been legally, judicially adopted. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:43.080 You can know, be confident in what Jesus says about you that Satan can never take you. 00:28:43.080 --> 00:28:46.519 If God is for you, can the evil one be against you? 00:28:46.519 --> 00:28:47.519 Paul asks. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:49.600 No, absolutely not. 00:28:49.600 --> 00:28:52.560 Jesus is the shield all about you. 00:28:52.560 --> 00:28:55.080 Now, the last word. 00:28:55.080 --> 00:28:58.720 John says legally you're safe. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:00.880 You can know that you have eternal life. 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:03.040 You can be confident in your faith. 00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:07.960 You have hope meaning purpose, forgiveness, that your guilt is washed away all in Jesus 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:08.960 Christ. 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:13.440 You can know and you can lean into those rites of prayer, confident prayer. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:20.119 You can lean in to Christ your shield that no evil can take you away from him. 00:29:20.119 --> 00:29:26.519 And then at the very end, he says now little children, keep yourself from idols. 00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:28.799 It's a strange ending. 00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:33.919 You say, John, you've been telling me all about my rights, about my confidence and faith, 00:29:33.919 --> 00:29:38.480 but the very last thing you say, stop committing idolatry. 00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:40.000 And you say, now I'm not sure anymore. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:42.680 I'm not sure about my faith anymore. 00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:45.759 But remember, it's not the quality, it's the object. 00:29:45.759 --> 00:29:46.919 Why does he end like this? 00:29:46.919 --> 00:29:51.519 Why does he say at the very end, little children, keep yourself from idols? 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:57.159 This is why he's been saying the whole time, God will keep you. 00:29:57.159 --> 00:29:58.639 God will keep you. 00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:00.200 You can have assurance of faith. 00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:01.200 God will keep you. 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:04.320 He'll hold on to you. 00:30:04.320 --> 00:30:06.640 And now you need to live like it. 00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:08.080 In other words, God will keep you. 00:30:08.080 --> 00:30:09.080 God will keep you. 00:30:09.080 --> 00:30:10.240 God will keep you. 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:14.280 Now you need to keep yourself from idolatry. 00:30:14.280 --> 00:30:18.800 In other words, live in accordance with what you are before God. 00:30:18.800 --> 00:30:20.080 You are kept. 00:30:20.080 --> 00:30:21.640 You are a child. 00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:22.640 You are a son. 00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:24.860 You are a daughter of the king. 00:30:24.859 --> 00:30:29.599 And so live in accordance with that honor of God, your father, and Christ, your brother, 00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:35.039 who has done this great work by keeping yourself away from idolatry. 00:30:35.039 --> 00:30:37.399 Another way to say it is like this. 00:30:37.399 --> 00:30:42.319 God has given you so much eternal life confidence. 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:44.399 And it'll never be taken away from you. 00:30:44.399 --> 00:30:46.919 Don't settle for less than that. 00:30:46.919 --> 00:30:51.000 Don't settle for anything less than the eternal life that God has offered you. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.240 And so keep yourself away from idols. 00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:55.920 There's something you've got to walk away from here and do. 00:30:55.920 --> 00:31:01.519 And that's to walk away, push back, fight against the idolatries that come up in your 00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:02.519 life. 00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:08.079 Do not go from here and love things more than God because God has given you something so 00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:11.319 much better than any creature can give you. 00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:20.279 And so don't settle for creatures as your God, not politics, not pleasure, not Netflix, 00:31:20.279 --> 00:31:26.920 not celebrity, not financial peace, not your spouse, not your children, not your selfish 00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:31.720 ambitions, not your hope of a relationship, none of it. 00:31:31.720 --> 00:31:35.319 Don't let it be your God because look at what God's already given you. 00:31:35.319 --> 00:31:39.440 Don't settle for the little things when you've got the big thing. 00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:43.240 And this is a cliche way to say it as we close. 00:31:43.240 --> 00:31:46.079 A cliche quote, not a cliche way. 00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:50.759 But it's C.S. Lewis, the weight of glory, his great essay. 00:31:50.759 --> 00:31:52.240 Did anybody put it better than this? 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:53.919 This is what Lewis says. 00:31:53.919 --> 00:32:00.679 It would seem here that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. 00:32:00.679 --> 00:32:07.000 We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:09.839 joy is being offered to us. 00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:14.399 Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he can't 00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:19.280 imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the seaside. 00:32:19.280 --> 00:32:25.320 Don't settle for that for an idol when you've got confident faith in the object that is 00:32:25.320 --> 00:32:30.240 God himself gifting you eternal life forever. 00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:34.680 You see, last word, John says, little children. 00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:41.120 He keeps saying it, little children, little children, meaning you're adopted, little child. 00:32:41.120 --> 00:32:42.920 God has signed your status papers. 00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:48.039 He got on his knee, he put his hand on your shoulder, and he said, we don't just like you, 00:32:48.039 --> 00:32:49.759 we're keeping you. 00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:51.519 We're signing the papers forever. 00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:52.519 We love you. 00:32:52.519 --> 00:32:54.480 God loves you that much. 00:32:54.480 --> 00:33:01.039 Little children assured by the word of the Father in Jesus Christ at the cross, God says 00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:05.200 this, I love you, that's the assurance of faith. 00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:07.600 So keep yourself from idolatry. 00:33:07.600 --> 00:33:08.600 Let's pray. 00:33:08.600 --> 00:33:12.240 Father, give us the assurance of faith today. 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:18.279 I pray, Lord, for someone who does not yet believe like the gospel calls for, that you 00:33:18.279 --> 00:33:25.519 might show them the beauty of Jesus Christ's love for them today, and for the rest of us, 00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:32.920 for those of us who are believers, whether weak or strong, give us hope not in the quality 00:33:32.920 --> 00:33:39.079 of our faith this morning, but in the strength of the object, which is you, your love, your 00:33:39.079 --> 00:33:41.480 work, the work of Christ. 00:33:41.480 --> 00:33:43.079 We pray for that. 00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:44.079 Cast away our idols. 00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:45.640 Oh, Lord, in Christ's name. 00:33:45.640 --> 00:34:12.800 Amen.