1st John 5

1 John 5 and the Opening Illustration of Perseverance

What we're going to do this morning is look briefly at 1 John chapter 5. You can still find 1 John, I know that most of your Bibles just open automatically to Matthew or the Synoptic Gospels or something now, but address an interesting subject here.

There are numerous subjects raised in 1 John chapter 5, we'll just touch on a few lightly and then get to really what I want to look at. Today is one of those days I wish we had one of those raised stools or chairs or something.

Today would be good. I may end up doing this number. No, no, 200 miles yesterday, no, 200 miles last week. But over the past two days was 111 miles with over 10 ,000 feet of ascent. I climbed Mount Graham on Friday.

Anybody ever been up Mount Graham? Well, ride a bike to the top. That's steep. That's steep. And the road is not friendly in any way, shape, or form. And then yesterday, a metric, no, then yesterday was a 70 miler up over Dos Cabezas out toward the Chiricahua and back.

It's pretty, pretty, but it was warm, very, very warm. So 111 miles and 10 ,000 feet just the past two days. So that's why I wouldn't mind one of those seats where I could sit down. That would be nice.

But anyway, it's 10 -5. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, San Francisco is higher than that. But as far as how high you can get on it, snowballs only at 9 ,000 feet. And if you want to go four-wheeling, you can get up to the top of Graham at 10 -5.

So I think you can get a little higher there. But like I said, I went to the end of the pavement, and it goes dirt. And when you're on a skinny tire, when you've only got 23 centimeters of rubber there, you don't go on dirt, especially going downhill.

That's right off the edge. Believe me, some of those edges, they'd only find pieces by the time I got down there. So it was and I'm terrified of heights. Pastor Frye loves to poke at me because when the one year we were taking care of the place, living in the caretaker's home, something happened with one of the things, and he was like, why don't you just go up there and take a look at it?

And I'm like, why don't you go up there and take a look at it? Because if I can fall off of it, I don't like it. And believe me, there are some places coming down Graham on that little teeny, tiny, narrow road where it's just yee-haw, you know.

And so going up, steep, hard work, but going down is where I'm nervous because you're going a whole lot faster going down than up. So it's yeah, last week was 200 miles and 17 ,994 feet of ascent. So that was a new record for me, not distance-wise, but altitude-wise.

So if all of a sudden my eyes cross and I fall over, just somebody take over from there. I'll be fine. Just give me a little water and I'll be Some food, some water. Something, yeah, yeah. I actually slept over 10 hours last night, so I never sleep that long.

But my body said, good night. We'll see you shut down. Oh, yeah, we're going to shut you down, and fast, yeah. No choice about it. Four pounds in two days, just vaporized. It would be easier in November.

But anyways, why are we talking about this? I'm going to be wandering all over creation during this particular Perseverance of the Bicyclist? Yeah, something like that. Yes, it was a very good illustration of perseverance.

Faith in Jesus the Christ as the New Birth

Yes, okay, thank you. Or stupidity, one of the two. I'm not sure which. Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God, and everyone loving the one who gave birth is loving the one having been born of him.

That's a really incredibly awkward construction in the original language, but we're in 1 John 5 if you're just coming in. By this, or in this, we know that we are loving the children of God when we are loving God and doing his commandments.

For this is the love of God in order that we are keeping his commandments, his command, and his commandments are not heavy or burdensome or difficult to keep, I guess would be the paraphrastic way of translating it.

Because everyone, everything that has been born from God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, that is our faith. Who is the one overcoming the world or defeating the world or having victory over the world except the one believing that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is the one coming by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but also by water and by the blood. And the Spirit is the one testifying because the Spirit is truth. For there are three who are testifying, and if you have a King James or a New King James, you're going to have a little added section here that is not a part of the original Greek text called the Communion, which we've discussed many times before.

There are three that are testifying, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree as one. If we are receiving the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater because this is the testimony of God that he has testified, perfect tense, completely testified concerning his Son.

The one believing in the Son of God has this testimony in himself. The one not believing in God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony which he has testified, which God has testified concerning his Son.

And this is the testimony that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one having the Son has life, has the life, the specific life of eternal life. The one not having the Son of God is not having life, that same life.

These things I have written to you, plural, in order that you might know that you have eternal life, to the ones believing in the name of the Son of God. And this is the testimony which we have before him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us whensoever we ask, we know that we will have the requests or the things that we ask from him. Verse 16. If anyone, if a certain one sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he should ask, he shall ask, and life will be given to him, specifically to the one sinning not unto death.

There is a sin unto death, and I am not saying that he should make request or ask concerning that. In other words, I am not saying that the one who sees someone committing the sin to death should make request or pray for that person to be forgiven of that sin.

That's what it says. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. That's as far as I want to go because that's the main thing I want to look at, but I want to follow the text up to that point.

Okay? Forgive the not so smooth translation, but at least it gets to the point. Now, John is completing his letter, and over and over again we have the one believing. 1 John 5 .1 begins, This is a phrase that you need to understand and have a handle on.

The New American Standard translates it, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God. Now, a couple things, and I hope, you know, if you're in this class, you're not one of the people that tunes out once we start talking about difficult things because I try not to talk about difficult things, grammar, syntax, and things like that, unless there's a reason to communicate it to you.

And I want to commend you for the fact that there are just a lot of folks that whine and complain when you start talking about some of the fundamental issues in regards to the text. They'd much rather just hear traditions over and over again, and you folks aren't like that, so I appreciate that.

But I also don't just bring this stuff up just for the fun of it, either. There are some important things to see here. The phrase, pas hapistion. Pas means any or all. Sure. I will, I mean, do you want it in, do you want, do you want that, or do you want, or do you want that?

This is a long opus, so I'll write it that way. Pas hapistion. Why is this important? Well, because this isn't the only place this phrase appears. This is called a participle. It's a present participle.

It has an article. It's talking about an ongoing action. The one believing. And it's very important in John to recognize the difference between the one believing, present tense, ongoing action, and a person who believes.

In the Gospel of John, there is another form. It's not a different word. It's still pastuo, which means to believe. But when you put it in what's called the aorist, it's an undefined action. Normally point action, but its basic meaning is undefined action.

And when people believe in Jesus, not present tense, but this aorist, interesting things happen. In John chapter 2, when people believe in him after the wedding in Canaan Valley, Jesus does not, it's interesting, it's the same word, believe himself or entrust himself to him because he knows what's in men.

There is a false faith. Any faith that's like this is not a true saving faith. Not in John. In fact, in John chapter 8, after there's some dialogue between Jesus and the Jews, it says, Having heard these things, many believed in him.

And it's to them Jesus said, If you continue in my word, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. And it's those alleged believers that go, Set us free? Me? I don't need to be set free.

And they're offended, and by the end of the chapter, what are they doing? They're picking up stones to stone Jesus. So, there are people who have that kind of faith that are in no way, shape, or form true believers.

The one believing is the one who is believing on an ongoing basis. There is real faith that shows itself by its continuous presence in the life of the believer. When you put pos, now pos, all or every, but that's singular.

So, that's where you get the whoever. This construction indicates you have a group defined by the verb believers. And it's whoever is doing the action of the group. Now, why do I emphasize this? Because you have this very same phrase in John 3 .16.

And many translations will say, So that whosoever believeth, and you will hear people preaching entire sermons on the word whosoever. The problem is, there is no word whosoever in the original language.

That's just an English way of saying everyone of this group, whoever believes, this follows. So, here, it's everyone believing a certain thing, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christos, has been born of God.

Now, it's interesting, I might just point out in passing, that the has been born of God is in the present tense. I'm sorry, perfect tense. So, it is a completed action with abiding results. And when you see a present with a perfect, it is the being born of God that results in this.

If you, right now, are believing that Jesus is the Christ, why are you believing with this kind of faith that Jesus is the Christ? Because you've been born of God. You see, there are many people that say, well, it's my faith that causes me to be born of God.

No, it's God who causes people to be born of God, actually. And the result of being born of God is what? You believe a certain thing. You believe that Jesus is the Messiah. And so, the point is, when we look at this phrase, people will take their traditions and they'll read traditions into it without thinking about what the text is actually saying.

Everyone believing a certain thing, that Jesus is the Messiah, why are they believing that Jesus is the Messiah? What is it that... You know, this is similar to what Paul says when Paul talks about the fact that no one can say what?

Iesus kurios. Jesus is Lord, except by what? By the Holy Spirit. Now, I've heard many an atheist say Jesus is Lord. So, it's obviously not the enunciation of the words. But it is a reflection of one's true faith, what one truly believes.

No one can say Jesus is kurios, except by the Holy Spirit. The one who is saying Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. It's not their saying that that caused them to be born of God. It was their being born of God that results in the fact that they keep on saying this.

And you see, if you don't understand this, then you run across texts like what Jesus says, He who endures the end shall be saved. And what have people done with that? They've turned it into a mechanism whereby, well, I've got to work this up inside myself.

And boy, every time I sin, I need to run off to a priest or something like that and get re-saved or whatever else it's like. Rather than seeing, once you see this, then you understand, well, the reason my faith endures to the end is because it's saving faith.

Saving faith will endure to the end. And that's how you determine the difference between saving faith and not saving faith. Not saving faith doesn't endure to the end. It might endure for a while. We've all seen religious hypocrites in the church.

And sometimes it's amazing how long they can endure, but they won't endure to the end. So, and then notice, you have the exact same phraseology in the next part of the verse. And everyone loving the child loves, everyone loving the father, it's literally the one who begat, loves the one born from him.

And it's pas ha agapon. And now you have the one loving. And so this ongoing love relationship describing the Christian relationship with God the Father and God the Son, everyone, if you love the Father, then you love the one begotten of Him.

You cannot make distinctions. And this is part and parcel of what John's going to be saying here. Look, there are going to be people who say, oh, I love God, I love God, I love God. I just don't accept this Jesus stuff.

Or I want to view Jesus as a great moral teacher, or as a great prophet, or whatever else. But I just have to make a distinction here and put Jesus on a much lower place. I was introduced this week to a...

I watch some odd things, and one of the things that I watch every once in a while is called The Dean Show. And Dean is not D-E-A-N. It is D-E-E-N. And Dean means religion or religious way of life in Arabic.

So this is an Islamic program. And they love having former Christians on the program that they style as experts in Christianity. And so they had this Dr. Lawrence Brown on the program. And Dr. Brown is an ophthalmologist, a retired Air Force major.

And he was an atheist who said he really tried to make Christianity work. Well, I listened to something just this morning. He gave top ten reasons not to believe in the Trinity. And oh, it was bad. But he was giving his story.

And he was talking about how he tried to make Christianity work by going from church to church to church to church. And he tried them all. He tried the Catholics, and he tried the Evangelicals, and he tried the Baptists, and he tried the Mormons.

And I'm just going, oh, wow. Bing, bing, bing, bing. And I just couldn't find one that believed what I saw in the Bible and that was that Jesus was not the Son of God. Well, congratulations. That explains a few things right then and there.

But listening to this, you know, you listen to the Muslims and we're the second largest religion in the world that teaches people to love Jesus. No, you don't. You have a Jesus who is a mere Azul, a mere prophet.

You do not love the child that was born of Him. In fact, it's fundamental. Your very revelation says that the world is turned upside down when they ascribe a child to God. To ascribe a child, a son to God is a thing most heinous indeed.

And so, here you have direct words to that. Can you, you know, John is writing a time when there's many false teachers. He calls them antichristoi, antichrists, plural, that have gone out into the world.

And they want to present to you all sorts of different kinds of Jesuses. Jesus didn't have a real physical body. He didn't come in the flesh. How do we know the end of Christ? Denies Jesus has come in the flesh.

And so, he's talking now positively the one believing, the one loving. Why is anyone doing that? Why does anyone persevere in true saving faith and love toward God? Well, it's the work of God. And by this we know that we that we love let's see, go back here.

By this we know that we love the children of God because we love God, we're keeping His commandments, things like this. He talks about the fact that God's commandments are not burdensome. The person who truly loves God doing what He says is not a difficult thing.

Whatever is born of the world overcomes the world. This is victory that has overcome the world. Our faith, that faith that is ongoing. And then he asks, who is the one who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Absolutely central to the Christian confession. Then we have this description. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not with water only, but with the water and with the blood. Now, there's all sorts of interpretations of this.

Since I'm trying to get to verses 15 and 16, I've got to be brief here. But the point is, the reality of the Incarnation and the reality of the giving of Christ is seen here. If you do not believe that Jesus has a physical body, He just sort of beamed in like the Gnostics seem to teach.

You chuckle, but it's amazing how many people today will rely upon writings from the early centuries that basically have Jesus doing exactly that. Who was it I was listening to recently? Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Fairly well-known guy. He's a conservative talk show host up in Canada, Michael Coren. And he just wrote a book called Why Catholics Are Right. And I listened to it and when he presented the stuff about Mary, it was just so incredibly surface-level.

It was terrible. But one of the things he quoted was an early Gnostic-tinged document. And he just said, well, this was written back when people were still alive and knew what had happened. And I've read that document and it is just whacked out.

I mean, it is, you know, God feeding these deities because God has mammary glands. It's just weird, weird, weird stuff. But it also has this idea that Jesus just beamed out of Mary. It's really Star Trek-type stuff, except without the Star Trek part.

And it's just weird, weird, weird stuff. And yet people will quote it. And you know that all Michael Coren has ever seen is a quote of this book. He's never read the book. He doesn't know what the background is.

He doesn't know what the context is. But people will do that. And it's very, very common and a sad thing that you have to deal with all the time. But there's this, the assertion being made here is water and blood, some people connect that with the spear thrust in John's Gospel.

Some people connect that with the water and the blood that comes out of the spear thrust. That's a possibility. I'm not going to say I disagree. But I would take the perspective that we're talking about natural birth and the fact that he gave his life.

So the true incarnation and the true giving of that life is how I see water and blood here. And then it's the spirit who testifies because the spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the spirit, the water, and the blood.

And these three are in agreement. So the spirit testifies as to the reality of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. That is a part of the testimony of the Spirit of God. You deny that and you are clearly separating yourself from the Christian faith.

And he says this is the testimony of God. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. The testimony of God comes by the Holy Spirit and he has testified concerning his son. So God has made witness and this of course again flows directly out of Jesus' own teaching.

John chapter 5, John chapter 8, the Father. Many good works I've done. These works come from the Father. They testify of me. This idea of martyreo, to testify in the original language, all through John's writings.

And so there is a testimony that God has given concerning his son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony himself from the Spirit of God. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has made concerning his son.

Now that is incredibly strong language. That leaves absolutely no area of neutrality at all. If God has made testimony by sending his Spirit of God, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, all the ways that Scripture says God has testified concerning Christ.

If God has made testimony, then if you do not believe that testimony, you are not simply taking a position of neutrality. You're not saying, well, you know, I just don't see enough evidence. If you, quote-unquote, don't see enough evidence, then you're saying that God's testimony is not clear enough.

The point he's here saying is that you've made him a liar. Because his testimony is clear. I mean, it's not an area where you can go, I don't know. There is no room for agnosticism here. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his son.

That is straightforward. The testimony is this. God has given us eternal life. This life is found in only one place. 1 John is not one of the happy places for pluralists and universalists and people who want to just, you know, we all grab hands and sing Kumbaya.

This is... John is not one of their favorite people. He who has the Son has the life. Verse 11. He who does not have the Son does not have the life. And this is the only life that one can really count on as far as eternal life is concerned.

Verse 13 is one of the most commonly misquoted verses. Oh my goodness, it's quarter after? See, I just got to start looking at my watch because I can't say it anymore. It's terrible. One of the most misquoted verses in the New Testament.

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. This is the one that, you know... Did you know Campus Crusade has changed its name, by the way?

It's crew. Crew. Whatever. Crew. Crew likes to throw that one out and say, hey, you know, you get your ticket punched, you're on your way to heaven. Say these words and I will punch you. I have your official heavenly punch ticket right here.

And I punch it and you can just go your way. Problem is, what's these things? You know, I would think most people would want to wonder, what things have I written? Well, it's everything that came before.

All this stuff about the Son and eternal life and propitiation and loving the brethren and all that stuff there. These things I have written that you might know that you have eternal life is the ones believing in the name of the Son of God.

And that believing isn't just the tip of the hat and, well, you know, I'll say this to get you off of my back and leave me alone. But anyway, these things I've written so we might know there is the ability to grow in one's assurance and knowledge of one's relationship with God.

And this is the confidence that we have before Him. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have requests which we have asked from Him.

And we obviously spend a lot of time on that, but I've only got ten minutes or so to look at this one text because this is what I really wanted to get to. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, not me prosthonaton, not to death.

Now, I thought all sin led to death. Well, if we're talking about the wages of sin is death, yes, but I don't think that's what John's talking about. There is, we will see, I think, a very clear connection between what John says here and what we're going to encounter in a matter of months when we get to the end, the next few verses in Hebrews chapter 10 in our journey through that book.

And that is, here we have, you see a brother, he sins, but it's not that sin. Well, what's that sin? The sin unto death because he specifically says there is a sin unto death. I am not saying that he should make requests concerning that one.

So there was something that John's readers knew was the sin unto death. Not a sin that brings about death in the sense that all sins bring about death. All sin is unrighteousness. But that there is a sin which is the sin.

Is it the unpardonable sin that Matthew talked to us about? Well, remember we talked about that. We talked about the fact that it was being committed by the scribes and Pharisees, people with great light who could identify the work of the Holy Spirit as being the work of Satan.

There was such twistedness and yet so much light that they could commit the unpardonable sin. I think it's similar, but there's only specific people who can commit this sin. I would like to suggest that the sin that leads to death in this text is defined for us by what we have seen that came before.

How do you have life? Who is the only person who has life? The person who confesses that Jesus is the Christ. That's the only way you can have life. So, if knowing that that's the truth, knowing that that's the case, you go back from that and say, you know, I once said that, but I'm going to go back and offer the sacrifices in the temple.

Or I'm going to go join this group over here that says that Jesus didn't have a physical body, and so He didn't really suffer and die. Yes, I know I made that profession of faith, and I know I talked about loving the Father and the Son and all those things, but I have decided to go this other direction.

I don't believe those things anymore. We all know people like that. Well, I'll take that back. Maybe you don't. I'm the one that has to get to know people like that all the time. But I was probably in my early 20s before I was really conscious of someone that I knew that had made a clear profession of faith and now denied clearly that profession of faith.

So maybe you don't, but I certainly do. I could start listing names and we wouldn't have time the rest of our time together to finish up the list. But you see, there is... When you see someone, you see a brother, he stumbles, he falls into sin, you pray for the brother and God will be merciful to him.

But John doesn't even say if you see someone who commits apostasy, you commit that sin. That one. He even uses an interesting term, echinace. That one, I don't say that you should ask about that. You should make...

And erotaho is frequently the request verb used in prayer. It doesn't even say that you should ask concerning that one. That's pretty strong language. But then he says, verse 18, we know that everyone who has been born from God is not sinning, but he is keeping, the one who has been born from God, he is keeping him and the evil one will not touch him.

You see, there's the promise. Why do you not pray for this one? Well, you do pray for the brother who has not committed that sin. Because you have this promise. The one born from God, God knows his own.

And God will keep his own. Remember, this is the same book. Remember, I don't know, about a year ago, I preached that sermon, The Blessings of Apostasy. And remember what I emphasized out of 1 John 2?

They went out from us, so it might be demonstrated they were not truly of us. For if they had been of us, they would not have gone out. There's that wonderful promise there. If they were of us, they would not have gone out.

There's a promise there, a beautiful promise. A promise of security, of true believers. Right there in the midst of the statement, it's good that they went out so it might be demonstrated they were not of us.

If they stayed in the church, then there would be massive confusion. But they went out from us. Because if they had been of us, they would have remained. Same thing here. The one born from God, God keeps him.

The evil one can't grab hold of him. So if we see one that the evil one has grabbed hold of, who is going to deny that Jesus has come to flesh, who is going to deny that Jesus is the Son of God, who goes back and offers sacrifice upon the altar.

This is one of the reasons, folks, where we are often criticized for eschewing many of the methodologies that are popular today to get the quote-unquote quick decision. Folks, making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is really weighty stuff according to the Scriptures.

According to the Scriptures, the person who makes that profession of faith and then goes back and then goes and does what Lawrence Brown did and becomes a Muslim and denies that Jesus is the Son of God, that's weighty stuff.

That's a sin unto death. That's the very thing that we're going to see in Hebrews 10. He's trampled underfoot the blood of the Son of God. How much more severe punishment do you think he will be worthy of?

Those are harsh words. And so, if you take those words very seriously, you don't want to do what a lot of people in the world do, and that is get that quick, oh, yeah, sure, okay, what do you want me to do?

Oh, okay, God, yeah, I'm sorry. They have no idea what you're talking about. You haven't talked about sin, you haven't talked about repentance, you've not really delivered the Gospel, but you've got a notch in your gun belt.

Ever talk to someone? Ever sat with someone in the airport or in the restaurant or something like that and you start talking to them and, oh, yeah, yeah, I went down an aisle one day and I'm good, I'm good.

And you can just tell from talking to them. They haven't given Christ a thought in three years. And yet they're like, that's okay, heard it all before. You think you heard it all before, but you haven't.

You were only given that much and a partial truth is not a whole truth. Don't get me wrong, God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick. And there have been people who've been saved with a gospel presentation that would curl my hair and I don't care if I had any.

But, our desire should always be to be very careful with God's truth, to honor God's truth in our presentation of it. And so, strong words. I, not concerning, literally, not concerning that, the sin of death, I am saying that request should be made.

I don't see any other way to understand it than John is saying, look, you know what I'm talking about. And that's different than when you go to the Lord and you pray for a brother or sister and you say, Lord, I see things happening here and Lord, grant your grace and grant repentance and draw them back to you.

Once you see someone who says, Jesus didn't rise from the dead. Jesus didn't come to flesh. I'm going to go to the temple and I'm going to offer animal sacrifice. You do that and you're saying the sacrifices will continue, which means you're saying, God the liar.

Because he has testified concerning his son, Jesus Christ. And that's really important stuff. And that's what lies behind our concern to be very careful. As Paul said, what did Paul say to the Ephesian elders?

I am innocent of the blood of any man. Why? Because I did not shrink back. I did not hesitate. To do what? To declare to you the whole counsel of God. There are times when either for fear of the faith of men or because we know that if we actually proclaim the whole counsel of God, there's going to be a whole lot more explaining we need to do, a whole lot more teaching we need to do.

And it just looks like this guy's ready. Really? So you're saying that those apostles, they explained way too much in those sermons of theirs. Long-winded. We live in the modern day. People don't listen to the long sermons anymore.

Okay, well, can't the Holy Spirit of God overcome any weakness on our part? Who are we depending upon to make our message effective? Our methodologies or the Spirit of God? That really becomes the question.

The Comma Johanneum and the Closing Prayer

Any questions real quick? Yes, sir. The Kamiohonium. It's the phrase, there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. And these three are one. And then there are three that bear witness on earth, the water, the blood, and the Spirit.

And these three are one. It's the Father, Word, Spirit that is the later insertion. What translation do you have? New King James is based on the Texas Receptives, which is the same. It's all verse seven.

Verse eight would be there. It's the, there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. And these three are one. That's what's in addition. Then it says, there are three that bear witness on earth.