Sermon: You Can Know

Well, let's take a moment and would you bow your heads with me? Let's ask for God's blessing upon His word as we open it.

Father, we are thankful that you are a God who gives good gifts, and we count one of those chief gifts to be the gift of your word. We thank you that it is truth, and we thank you that we have access to that truth this morning. This day we pray that as the word is read and as it is preached, that that truth would grip us, that we would find that we are like the disciples on the Emmaus road with your son. And our savior said it felt

as though their hearts burned within them. They heard the truth of your word. Ah, burn us within this morning. Oh Lord, help us to know that we have encountered you, the living God. May it inform every one of us in this place. And as we leave this place to your glory and to your praise, we pray this in the strong name of Jesus, the Christ. Amen. This morning, first John chapter five, verse 13 through 21. This is the holy and errand sufficient word of God.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, and whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask

and God will give him life to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that all wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. That he who is 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. Little children keep yourselves from idols. Well, the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

I recently read about a kindergarten class where it was show and tell day, always my favorite day in kindergarten class. And uh, there was a little boy Timmy, and it was his turn to come up for show and tell. And as he came up to the front of the class, he had nothing in his hands. And so the teacher said, well, Timmy, clearly you want to tell us something, you have nothing to show. And he said, yes. And she said, well, what is it

that you want to tell us? And he swallowed and he cleared his throat and with as much confidence as he could muster, he said, well, I know Spanish. She said, great. Uh, do do you want to to show us that you know Spanish by telling us? And he said, yes. And he paused again. And then with gusto, he said, taco Burrito enchilada. And all of the rest of the kids began clapping. And he with a smile on his face like he had just quoted a

Shakespeare sonnet, sat down like he had conquered the world. He knew Spanish. John in our text today is concerned with knowing, but but not just any kind of knowledge. This is a timely text. I think it's a timely text for this week as so many of you are here having come back, return to the university or here for the very first time. And a and a world of ideas lies open to you. You will learn new truths and new philosophies and new ideas

and new disciplines, whether you're studying economics or engineering or philosophy or psychology or whatever, you're going to leave this place with new knowledge having been changed.

But John wants to remind us of a deeper foundational kind of knowing something that's eternal, something that gives meaning to all other knowledge. All the other loci, all the other disciplines make sense Only in light of this knowledge, if you leave this city or you leave this university only knowing more about English or engineering, but remain ignorant of this, you've missed the highest truth, the greatest knowledge.

John ends this letter focusing on four areas of knowing, knowing for eternity, knowing for the immediate knowing with affection, and then knowing unto peace. And I wanna walk through each of those this morning. He, he wants them to know it's same word that he uses six different times just in this passage. Verse 13, twice in verse 15, then verse 18, verse 19, verse 20, knowledge matters to him. He first focuses on knowing for eternity.

Knowing for eternity. John writes in verse 13. He says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Not guess, not hope, but know. And this knowing isn't mere intellectual knowledge. The the word carries the sense of experiential certainty. You've tasted it, you've got it in your bones, you've experienced it. It it's in your chest, it's it's in your soul.

You know it. And he wants them. He says He's written, this entire letter is written. So you can have this kind of knowing, this kind of knowledge, this kind of assurance.

There's knowledge that shapes for a moment. If you sit down for lunch today and you have your bowl of macaroni and cheese sitting there and there is a hair in that macaroni and cheese, it will inform you in the moment you're not eating it. There's knowledge that will inform you for a morning. You take a, you get up in the morning and you open up the app on your phone and you look at that weather app and it says there's a 98% chance of rain.

Will you grab your umbrella before you leave your dorm or leave your apartment or leave your house? It, it in that knowledge informs your morning. There's knowledge that will inform a life. You know, that pineapple on pizza is an abomination. It's not good. It's disgusting. You don't do it forms your life.

But there are other things that shaped not just a life for 70 years, but for all of eternity. And that's what John addresses. Why? Because he's a good pastor and he cares for them.

I was reading Dr. Carl Truman this week and he was talking about modern anthropology. What is man, what is woman and how do you answer that? He was talking about how we have sought in our day to divorce, man, what is man from man's end or what we will say in philosophy or theology? His telos, what, what is his end?

And he said this, he said, the modern anthropological myth is that to be truly human is to be on autonomous, unencumbered, self-created. But what's so fascinating and has become the destruction of our age, is that we have used our, as he says, quote, exceptional nature as creative, intentional beings to convince ourselves that we have no significance at all.

And that's what happens when there's no end in view.

But when there is a telo in view, when there is an end in view, it changes everything. It informs everything forever.

And John is asserting these Christians have believed in Jesus Christ, the son of God, they know him. And that knowing is accompanied by the promise of eternal life. When you know that you experientially know that it's in your bone, it shapes everything forever.

There's so many today that today they're walking around and today doesn't matter and today doesn't matter because there's no eternity in their view.

And, and what begins to happen is, is that their life and the life of those around them and the lives of those around them, and everything around them, all of it becomes meaningless because they don't have a tell us. They, they walk around as though everything is meaningless, has no significance.

Oh, says, John, you have the promise you matter eternally.

And that changes everything

that John knows. That this assurance isn't always easy, it is not easily come by. In one sense, let's say as a pastor over all of these years that besides marital conflict, conflict with children and struggles with lust, what people will come to me more often than not for counsel about is this is assurance of their salvation. That they're, they're, they, they're not quite sure.

And it's no small struggle. It keeps men and women up at night. There will be sleepless nights co exhibit. Every warning regarding fires of hell brings some kind of soul, terrifying thoughts. Every promise of heaven stirs apprehension. And John wants the Christian to know.

You can know,

often will tell people as we're meeting together, you know, struggle with assurance is often not a sign of unbelief as much as it is a sign of belief.

Paul called our faith a fight. Hebrews calls it a race. Ephesians calls it warfare. It's a battle precisely because we have something worth keeping eternal life. And your assurance as a Christian, it may rise and it may fall, but your salvation does not. Why? Because you are kept and you're kept not by your feelings and not by your resolve, but by Christ. And so for the Christian, some will have a great measure of assurance.

The moment they come to saving faith to the very end of their life, they have this great measure of assurance. They never have a day where they doubt their salvation. There will be others that have a modicum of assurance and there will still be others that find that they go through in entire seasons of life where they have very little if any assurance.

But the Westminster confession hopefully says this about, that this infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be a partaker of it. That is, your salvation is not equal to your assurance. Your assurance can ebb and flow and your salvation is solid because it's not based upon your assurance, it's based upon him. And it is such a gift.

It's a, it's a gift given to the Christian. And John wants the Christian to enjoy this. He's saying, look, it's a gift from your father. You have believed in the name of the Son of God and if you have believed in his name, if you are saved, then assurance is a gift that is yours. You are to know it and you can know it.

The greatest gifts in this life,

he keeps us.

We are in his hands. He will say in John 10, they are good hands, the very best of hands He keeps us.

That idea of him keeping us. If he is saved us, he keeps us that that idea is replete through scripture. You see it over and over and over from Abraham to, to Jacob, to the nation of Israel. He, he said to Jacob, behold, I am with you and we'll keep you wherever you go. It's the same God who kept Abraham that, that kept Jacob and kept Israel in Egypt and kept Israel in the wilderness. It's the same God that gave the onic

benediction to his people. The Lord bless you and keep you.

It's the same Christ that we are kept by the same Christ that said to the Christian low, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age, he keeps us. We can say with David the psalmist in Psalm 1 21, that he guards are going out and are coming in from this time forth and forevermore. He keeps us.

And this you can stand secure in Christ. That's why John goes on to say, and this is the confidence that we have toward him. Our confidence is not here. It's there in Him. And we look to him and we're to have such confidence

'cause of that knowing for eternity. John moves on to the implication. Our second point, knowing for the immediate knowing. For the immediate, because we are eternally His. Because we're eternally His. We can come confidently to him today,

says, and this is the confidence that we have toward him. Verse 14. And that word confidence has the idea of boldness as the hymn. And can it be says bold, I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. That's not arrogance. When you sing back, it's sonship. You have a right. We we don't shrink back. We draw near children don't ask their father for bread and fear. They, they ask in confidence because they belong.

It's already mentioned it in chapter two, verse 28. And now little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him and shame that is coming. 3 21. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Chapter four verse 17 by this is love perfected with us that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. When you know that you are eternally his, it grants you confidence in the immediate, the present.

I'm a child. I'm a child of his forever.

I love the scene that will often unfold here on Sunday mornings. Uh, you get to see an awful lot when you stand back here behind the pulpit. Uh, more than you would realize. And it happens pretty regularly where there will be some child, a toddler, elementary age that will look down the row and they will begin just to crawl over their siblings and they will get to their father and they'll just launch into his lap and take a seat.

There's no hesitation, there's no fear of being turned away.

They believe they have a right to it and they do. He's their protector, he's their keeper, he's their provider. They belong and they go there with confidence. And so John encourages make your requests made known to him. You, you go to him with confidence and your prayers will be answered. John says, if we ask according to his will, you remember Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane? He is there upon his knees and he's sweating drops of blood.

And in that moment of anguish, he is looking at the cross to come and the wrath of the Father that is to be poured out upon him for sinners. And he looks at that this father that he has always loved and he is always received the love of the Father and never has known a day when there has been any disharmony between he and the father. And he's looking at that cross and realizing he has to bear that wrath and he's going to drink that cup.

And he says to the Father in pleading prayer, father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He makes his desire known in his flesh. He's looking at it and saying, I, I don't want to drink that cup.

But then he closes the prayer, doesn't he? But not my will be done, but thy will be done.

We prayed over and over in the Lord's prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And as his children, we make our requests made known to him. We make our desires made known to him and we always wanted according to his will. We ask of him boldly.

Remember when Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, he tells us to ask and we shall receive. He, he says, which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then who are evil will know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask him? And James will pick this up, doesn't he?

James says, oh, the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change, he says, every good gift comes from above from that Father. Every good gift. So you ask of him with confidence,

knowing you're a child of God forever grants you freedom today. And you say, but ah, his will's always accomplished. So, so what, what is the point? Well, the the point is manifold, but one of them is this, is that he chooses to use the prayers of his children here on earth to accomplish his will on earth. And that's where John goes in this. It never underestimate the power of faithful prayer. So in that line of thought, John becomes more particular

or third point knowing with affection, knowing with affection. John says verse 16, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will give him life. A committing sin is a present partisan. It speaks of, of ongoing activity. This is habitual sin, a lifestyle of sin. And he says, when we see it in our brothers or sisters, we don't gossip, we don't critique, we pray.

That's real affection. That's loving someone, loving them enough to intercede for them, to pray for them.

John makes a distinction. He says there's a sin that leads to death and most likely he's referencing the, the hardened willful rejection of Christ that, that Jesus will call the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit or the unpardonable sin.

This isn't a sin you can stub into, it's, it's, it's settled. It's a defiant refusal of the truth. When you know better if, if you've ever wondered as some people do, ha, have I ever committed this unpardonable sin? Have I ever blasphemed against the Holy Spirit? If you're wrestling with that, you never have.

As Bain said, it's a quote denial that contradicts the conviction of the mind, the illumination of the conscience and the intuitions of the heart. That's a sin unto death. But every other sin, he's saying, every other failing is an invitation to pray and oh, how that's needed in the church.

Not just prayers for ailments or jobs, but prayers for holiness for one another. Or you're praying. How often do you pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ? You say, ah, Lord, would, would you help him to grow in contentment or would you help her to be a little less complaining and a little more joy filled?

Ah, father, would you help him in his pride?

Not in a condemning but out of love.

Our fellowship is only as rich as is our prayers for one another. I take that even a step further and say our love and affection for one another as only as real as our prayers for one another. No with affection,

he then moves on as he closes out this entire letter. As he's kind of bringing all these things to a summarizing point, he then moves on to three other statements of Christian knowledge that he wants him to grasp. And our final point, knowing unto peace, knowing unto peace. Verse 18, he states again what he already said in three six and three nine. But there's a change here, an emphasis change in those two verses. He lights, he highlights that the child of God,

the believer in Christ does not continue in sin because they are a child of God. They fight against it. But here John emphasizes that we do not live in sin because the son of God, notice the phrase He who was born of God, the only begotten son, he says, we do not live in sin, habitual sin because the Son of God protects us. He keeps us. You're not unprotected, you're not alone. You, you live in the land of the king who reigns overall

and the king of the land protects you.

I will often tell people, I've told two people this this week, they were in habitual sin and that habitual sin came to light. I would say that, do you realize this is a mercy of the Lord? It's actually his kindness and his grace and his goodness and his love aimed at you that he brought this delight so that you would not continue in this path of habitual sin. It's his goodness shining at you.

He protects, he wants you to have life and life abundant.

Verse 19, we know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of evil. When the world thinks it's free, if it throws off the the mantle of God, but in reality it's enslaved. John is saying true freedom. True peace comes from being from God known by God, kept by God. That's real freedom. I came to set you free. Jesus said, I give you life, life abundantly. He says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

He says, that's life.

That's what John ends. Verse 20 brings it all home. The son of God has come so that we may know him who is true. He's the true God and eternal life. And so John ends where he began. You can know. You can know. It's amazing.

You and I clouded in ignorance, clouded not understanding, not seeking, not loving. And you can know,

you can know that you have eternal life. You can know the one who is true. You can know peace because you're kept knowing matters. But what you know especially matters.

So what do we know? What do you know? Brothers and sisters in Christ?

We know for eternity we are saved. We know for the immediate we can come boldly. We know with affection. We are to pray for our brothers and sisters. And we know under peace, Christ guards and he keeps us. Christ is the truth. Ist truth there is

you don't get more true.

I say to you, students that are returning or coming for the first time, maybe just maybe

you're not here just to learn about physics or English or engineering, but to come to know the greatest truth or to come to know that truth more fully Christ.

If you know him, you have wisdom for all of eternity.

Let me pray for us.

Our Father, we are thankful this morning,

you are a God who has chosen to reveal yourself, that you did not lead us shrouded in darkness,

that you sent your son into the world, and that the light has pierced the darkness and that he who is the way and the truth and the life has been manifested to us. And in him we can know.

We thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you for the Holy Spirit of truth.

We thank you that even this morning that as we stand and sit in this place, that there is a truth that governs all truths. And we can know it. And we would ask and we would plead with you that every single soul in this room

would know the truths truth there is your son, and that they would know that they have eternal life.

And for those of us that know oh, it shape our living, living as those, the knowledge of what is to come may form our day today. And we pray all of this in the strong name of Christ Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.