We Are In Him

Confidence in God’s Preservation and the Christian’s New Birth

Please remain standing and open your Bibles to 1 John 5. This is the last Sunday of the sequential exposition of the first epistle of John. I'll begin reading in verse 14. 1 John 5 .14. This is God's holy and infallible word.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know that He hears us whatever we ask. We know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask and he will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.

All unrighteousness is sin and there is sin not leading to death. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin. But he who has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ.

This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Amen.

Please pray with me. Oh Lord, we thank you for your provision of your most excellent word. We thank you for the study in 1 John. We pray that you would make use of it in the hearts of your people. Holy Spirit, we ask today that you would bring both light and heat, that we might have our understanding illumined, that we might glorify you and treasure you, oh Lord.

And this would be pleasing in your sight and we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus.

Christ.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Thank you.

Certainties for the Christian in an Age of Doubt

We live in an age when certainty is always called into question. We live in a time where people don't know for certain whether a boy is a boy or a girl.

Is a girl.

But today we have in the scriptures many occasions that we can say these are certainties. There are four things that a Christian can be certain of. First, we know that we are born of God and kept by his power and presence.

The evil one cannot touch us. Second, we know the Christian has been separated from the world and consecrated, sanctified for God's service. You are of God. Third, we know the Son of God has come and given us an understanding of all that is true, namely himself.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the truth. We know the true worship of God and therefore we keep ourselves from the idols. The Christian is certain.

We know.

Whoever Is Born of God Does Not Continue in Sin

Let's look at our text beginning at verse 18. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin. To know is to first see with the eyes physically, but in the metaphorical sense it leads to perceiving, to see with the mind.

It is the gateway to grasp spiritual truth from the physical plane. We could say in this context it is well known, it is acknowledged that whoever is born of God does not sin. That's the sense of this language.

This language of being born of God has been in 1 John a number of times. It is related to the idea of begetting and physical offspring. But you be reminded that peculiar to John's gospel and in this epistle, it refers to God conferring upon men the nature and disposition of his sons, imparting to them spiritual life by his own holy power, prompting and persuading souls to put their faith in Christ and to live a new life consecrated to him.

This is a very key recurring theme in John. The new birth is essential for spiritual life, but the new birth is also transformative. We are new creatures in Christ. Old man has died and we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life.

When we are tempted to sin, we need to be reminded of our in birthing in God and we need to flee from it because it is incompatible with our new nature in Christ. And now the question, whoever is born of God does not sin.

What does this mean? Well, none of you, if this is a strict literal reading, none of you have salvation. We should read it literally, but we have to understand what it means. Whoever is born of God, the grammar, the languages does not continue in a pattern of sin.

The Christian is characterized not by sinlessness, but repentance. The Christian is mortifying the flesh and putting sin to death. And whenever it comes up again, they are trying again to kill it, to put it away, to walk in that new life in Christ.

What John is speaking of here is the Christian in contrast with the unbeliever does not continue in his sin. How long does this last? I don't know. But if you are cherishing sin and walking in sin and you're unbothered by it, this is not a good sign for your soul.

The Christian does not continue. He does not keep on sinning. He repents, he turns. He's been freed from the yoke and bondage of sin. But the unbeliever, who's contrasted in our text here, just continues in it.

He's under its curse and power. The Christian always returns to walk in that newness of life. The next phrase is important and it's awkward in English and it's hard even in the original. It says, but he who has been born of God keeps himself.

This word keeps means to guard, to protect, to spiritually guard. The Christian who is born of God guards himself against the wiles of the world, the flesh and the devil. And it seems that he does this because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and his union with Christ.

So God is doing it and we are doing it. We keep ourselves from sin. We keep ourselves in the new birth. We keep ourselves under the power of God, walking in faith. That's a very interesting thing to think of.

The son of God would never seek to dissolve the parental bond with the father. I'm talking about us, not the Lord Jesus Christ. They keep watch over their lives and their doctrine. They prize their sonship.

They keep a guard and watch over it. He who is begotten of God desires to remain in the state which he is. He is not trying to escape the safety of God's love. Now, there's a good case that maybe the he here should be capitalized for the Lord Jesus Christ, but I think the meaning is the same.

We're not operating under our own power. The spirit of God dwells in his people, for those who have been united, it's Christ who is at work in us, and therefore we keep ourselves because he keeps us. We are kept by the power of God.

Therefore, we keep ourselves from this trouble. We do not return to the yoke and bondage of the enemy. And that leads us to our last phrase in verse 18, and the wicked one does not touch him. The devil, the evil one, does not assail him.

And when I think about touching, I think about a superficial touch. I walk up to you, I maybe touch your shoulder. That's not what this touch means. Touch is the appropriate word to be translated here, but it properly means to fasten to, to lay hold of, to know carnally.

It's it's the word that that Mary used when talking with the angel. How can I be pregnant? I've never known a man. I've never touched a man. And it means to cling to. The Christian can be harassed by the evil one, but he cannot be overtaken by him.

The Christian cannot be laid hold of in the grasp of the enemy because of his union with Christ. The wicked one, I hope this is an encouragement to you. He can't lay his hands on you and grasp you and put you in his clutches.

Because you belong to Christ. It's impossible for him to do that. So there's something here that we know in verse 18. We know that those who are born of God do not continue in a life and pattern of sin.

And we know that there is an element of perseverance and preservation in the life of the Christian because God himself is keeping his people, he's preserving them, he's causing them to persevere. And because of this union with Christ, because of the work of God, the wicked one cannot touch him, cannot lay his hands on him.

Oh, what a great joy for us. What security we have in Christ to know that the enemy cannot get his unholy hands on us. Well, we must continue with another of the elements of what we know. Verse 19 says, We know that we are of God.

We know it fundamentally. We know it deep in our soul. And there is a sharp distinction between us and the world. We have been separated unto God. We've been born of God, as it says in verse 18. We are his people.

He is our God. We are the sheep of his pasture. He is our God. We are his people. And there is a big distinction between us and the world. Now, I have to pause here. The Christian church in this present age is less concerned with personal holiness than it has been in other times in history.

The church has incorporated worldliness into her practice and into her doctrine. But if we are those who are of God, we have to acknowledge that we have been set apart. That we are different. Do you know that you are of God?

Do you know by experience, not merely by an intellectual ascent to the facts of a historic Jesus, but do you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? If you do, then you can know that you are of God. Do you now, in your new nature, bear the family resemblance of God's sons?

If you do, you can have greater confidence and know that you are of God. You and I should be very eager to throw off worldliness and to have great sensitivity to see where we're incorporating synergistically the ways and the mindset of the world.

We have to become very wise in discerning of the world and her ways. The whole cosmos lies under the sway of the wicked one. The whole world, we must not forget this. The believer cannot be grasped by the wicked one.

The unbeliever in the world system is completely under the sway of the enemy. Maybe that explains why there's so much resistance to us. Why it seems we're swimming upstream, the whole world, the whole system, the ungodly multitude, the whole mass of men alienated from God and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ, the ordered system of unbelief are in opposition to us.

That's why we need to see things more clearly by faith. The trappings that enslave the world should have no sway over us. James says friendship with the world is enmity with God. The Christian is called to be separate, to come out from the world and be separate.

We are salt and light in this world, but we are not mucking around with it. We're very different. We're not trying to escape from this world. After all, we just saying it, this is our father's world. And we live as sons in this world, but we have to recognize bad company corrupts good.

Morals.

We, too, are susceptible to those corruptions and we must be on guard of them. And we lose our saltiness. We lose and cover up our light when we are more and more like the world. It's funny. Methodology for the late 20th century was you have to be just a little bit more like the world in order to draw the people in, to be more like the world, to give them a cheap imitation of the world.

The world is more fun in its debauchery than a worldly church. We need a holy church. We need a different kind of community, a covenant community in soul and singular allegiance to God in Christ. Our lives are very attractive because God has touched us.

We've been born of him. We know him. The whole world is under the sway of the wicked one. May it not be so for us. Well, there's another thing that we know, we know, and this is acknowledged, it's well known, that use of the word know that the son of God has come.

I know with every fabric of my being that Jesus Christ is the son of God and he has come in the flesh. I know that he lived a sinless life. I know that he offered himself on the cross as an acceptable substitutionary sacrifice for sin.

I know that on the cross, my guilt was applied to him and his righteousness is applied to.

Me.

And I know that on the third day he rose again from the dead in triumph and even now sits at the right hand of God in heaven. This I know.

We know this.

We know that the son of God has come and he's given us an understanding. This word is very interesting. It's a full ordered reasoning and dialectical thinking. This language is it reaches across to the other side.

It fully encompasses the matter. I tell my friends, I tell my children, I don't need the news sources to tell me what's going on in the world when I read my Bible, I know what happens in the world and I can discern truth from error.

Jesus has not only made himself known, he's given us this full or understanding, this full or reasoning. Our life, our salvation is intimately and unequivocally and uniquely, exclusively tied to our union with Christ, we believe in him, we are united to him, and this is our salvation.

In fact, the next phrase says that we may know him who is true. This know is a little bit different. This is gnosko, which is to know through personal experience, to know the one true God, to have an intimate knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

It's one thing to say, I believe in some surface way that Jesus died on the cross. It's another thing to understand and know that that salvation, that sacrifice of Christ has been applied to me and it's efficacious unto salvation.

That's a very, very big difference. It's not just history, it's my reality, not in a postmodern sense and the ancient sense. This is the real. This is tangible. I know this by experience, I know I am not the man I once was, and every Christian can say it.

God has transformed the Christian. We know him who is truth itself and we are in him, we are so united to him that we are described throughout the New Testament as being in Christ, in him, we're united to him.

He is one with us. He has made us bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. That's why the church is called the bride and body of Christ. We know him. Who is truth itself, we are in him, who is true in his son, Jesus Christ.

The True God and Eternal Life in the Son

Now, children, I don't know if you know the significance of this, but the next verse is one of the greatest declarations and apologies defense for Jesus Christ being the son of God. And in fact, it was instrumental in refuting various Aryan heresies about the person of Christ.

This is what it says about Jesus Christ, this is the true God referring to Christ and eternal life. Jesus Christ is God and he is life eternal. There's been a big archaeological discovery going back about 1800 years and they can't believe it.

In the mosaic, it's carved in stone. Jesus is God and it's a big news story. The church knows that Jesus is God. I'm glad they found archaeological evidence that says that from 1800 years ago. But Jesus is the Christ.

He's the son of God made flesh. We know that he is. This is the true God. This is life eternal. Eternal means the unique quality and reality of God's life at work in the believer. It's not just concerned with future infinity.

And as the Lord manifests his self-existent life as it is in his sinless abode of heaven, we pray, O Lord, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's focused on the quality of the age. Thus, believers like you live in eternal life right now, experiencing this quality of God's life now as a present possession.

John has regularly used this in both the gospel and here in the present tense of having now in this moment, not just when you die now, the people of God have eternal life and that eternal life is in the Son.

You have life in Christ, the only way of salvation. You have the truth himself. He is the true. He is the true God. He is the way. He's the only way of salvation. Life cannot be found outside of him. So it follows.

It's actually not inconsistent. If you read this at first glance, it seems like verse 21 is a little awkward. Why does he say this now? Well, we've just been called to, as sons who have been born of God, who are separated and different from the world, we have been given a full or understanding of the reality of spiritual and heavenly and earthly things.

It's found in Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life in our hearts sleep within us and we worship and praise him. We we recommit ourselves to obey him and to walk in his ways and keep his commandments.

It's appropriate for John to give us a warning. Little children, the technia, do you remember that the term of great endearment, the darlings, the deeply loved ones? Keep yourself preserved by keeping your eye on the uninterrupted vigilance that a shepherd would have over his calving flocks.

It's like a military guard. These treasures are so weighty and so significant. We sell all that we have to buy this field. And when we own this field and we have Christ, we do everything to guard it. But we not let nothing intrude upon this sacred ground.

Are you personally on guard against. Every form of idolatry, idols are false gods, whether they're fashioned into statues or images, whatever it is that we worship or put up as a rival to God, could be something as foolish as alcohol, can be something as foolish as drugs or sex, can be a lot of idols that we have created.

And we, as God's children, have to keep ourselves from those idols. How much time and energy have you given? Are you on guard against idolatry? As we've said hundreds of times, Calvin's great statement, we are idol factories.

And the antidote to idolatry is the right worship of the one true God. If you are worshiping God, you were created for worship, there is no space for idolatry. If you're walking in faith and walking in the light and walking in obedience and keeping his commandments, there's no room for these things that are contrary to us.

We struggle to open the Bible for daily devotion. We struggle to be attentive at corporate worship and prayer and those kinds of things, the very things that feed our souls and keep us true to who we really are in Christ.

Exhortations to Abide in Christ, Reject Idolatry, and Live in Repentance

A couple of words of application here and I'll close. The Christian in Christ abides in him. The believer is preserved and protected from sin and Satan. He is freed from the bondage. His life is characterized by repentance.

And what glorious news, the enemy can never bind us, can never bind us. We can go and take up the old dead man carcass ourselves. That's us, not him. There's also some distinguishing marks of the Christian that are kind of embedded in this text from 1st John, we're those who have been born of God.

We have faith in Christ. We've been freed from the bondage of sin. We are actively fleeing worldliness. We're keeping his commandments and our love for God is revealed in our love for the brethren. Oh, what a sharp contrast.

The unbeliever is under the sway of the evil one. He denies Christ, who is the truth. He receives and is open to the false teacher's errors. He is in bondage to sin. He is a friend of the world. The commands of God are heavy and burdensome to him.

And he does not love the brethren. We know that the son of God has come. Did you know that the son of God has come? Do you know that you are born of God? Do you recognize and acknowledge? Do you see with your eyes?

Does your mind understand that the world outside of Christ lies under the sway of the evil one? And we have to be different. We need a true understanding of who Jesus Christ is. And the people of God have this at our disposal because we are in him and we know him.

And we have been born of God. The Christian is certain about many things. Namely, certain that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life and the entirety of our lives have to be given over to him in service and obedience.

I hope that's true for you. If it's not today, repent and believe. If you're a Christian who has not been taking these things as serious as you should today, recommit to have a serious singular allegiance to the preeminent Christ in every corner of your life.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Oh, Lord, we thank you for the provision of your word. We thank you for John, who kicks us on our backsides, encourages us to to live according to our nature in Christ. Oh, Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the truth.

We don't understand the depth of your love to come and rescue your creatures from sin and death, but we revel and rejoice in it. Oh, Lord, I pray that we would be grateful sons and daughters, that we would love your holy things more than the passing pleasures of the world.

Oh, Lord, we know that you have given us a robust, comprehensive, full-orbed understanding because we know you by truth and experience. Oh, Lord, I pray that you would keep us from idols and that you would do this by drawing us into your worship and causing us to take up residence there, never to depart.

We ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.