Series: 1 John
Week: 25
Passage: 1 John 5:18-21
Title: The Last Three Assurances for the Believer
Focus: Assurance
INTRODUCTION: When it comes to assurance in salvation, it has been said that there are three groups of people:
1. Those who are secure but not sure: These are people who are hard-working believers in Christ who are saved but lack assurance.
2. Those who are "sure" but not secure: These are professing Christians who say, "Even though I'm living in sin, I'll make it. After all, 'once saved, always saved!'"
3. Those who are secure and sure: These are born-again believers who enjoy a warm, secure relationship with Christ each day.
a. This group not only believes with assurance the truth about Christ (I John 2:2,4; 2:15; 5:1), but also loves the fellow brothers and sisters in Christ (I John 3:14, 18, 19, 4:7-8), and obey God’s commandments (I John 2:3-5) thus experiencing a joy that the other two categories will never know.
Why is that important to understand? That information is important because John is closing his letter demonstrating the importance for a believer to understanding that his or her salvation does not depend on his feelings or individual effort but only on the assurance of what God has done for His people through Christ, lived out in faith. To move from group one and two into group three remarkable assurances for the believer to live a life the will constantly have them in amazement.
SCRIPTURE: “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was 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.” 1 John 5:18-21
TITLE: Three Assurances for the Believer (Closing statements on the book of 1 John)
Assurance #7: The Assurance of Power (1 John 5:18)
• Explanation: John affirms “the one who has been born of God keeps himself” (1 John 5:18). John is restating an old truth we already know in a different form. Two ways we have power as believers.
o The New Self Has Power of over Satan: Remember the new self we received when we came to faith in Christ? The “new self”
• (1) Creates us to “be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24)
• (2) Renews us “in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:10)
• This “new self” is not influenced by the work of Satan
o 1 John 2:14 “You have overcome the evil one.”
o The New Self Has Power over Sin: Satan cannot touch that which has been given power from God. This new self from God gives victory over sin. John is not saying that a Christian never commits an act of sin but declares that if we are born of God we do not make a habit of sin! You have been given power through the Holy Spirit.
• Example: Before a person comes to know Christ and is born into the family of God, the whole trend and the whole direction of his life is toward sin. He really has no choice about the matter. He sins because it is his nature.
• Illustration: “Every time Satan knocks at the door, I let Jesus answer.”
Application: Are you letting Jesus answer the door when Satan comes knocking? John gives us an expression of God’s power when he says that Jesus is God’s Son. Jesus keeps the children of God under his care through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Humanly we have no power to overcome but through God’s grace His power can be manifested in the life of the believer.
o John states, “the evil one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18).
• NOTE: “Touch” is a metaphor referring to the grasp that Satan cannot have on the followers of Christ. Just as he had no hold on Jesus (John 14:30) so also he cannot conquer the followers of Christ, the co-heirs to the kingdom of the Father. Not even the power of Satan can strip us of who God has made us to me (Romans 8:35-39)
• The devil cannot lay hold on the child of God. That is, the devil cannot get the child of God in his grasp. The devil has only the permission that God grants him in dealing with the believer (Example = Job).
Point #8: The Assurance of the Position (1 John 5:19)
• Explanation: John continues in his conclusion by assuring the believer that we have position with God through Christ. We have already discussed this from the exhortation on God’s testimony (read 1 John 5:9-13). So John, what does that mean?
o We are free from the control of the world: We need not listen to the world’s ideas advanced by the antichrists (1 John 3:7 “Do let anyone lead you astray.”) or surrender to worldly desires (1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or anything in the world.”).
o We are free from the power of sin: As stated above (Point 1), we are free from the power of sin because of our power but our position also validates our power.
o We can have certainty: John says we know... What do we know?
• We know that we are of God - 1 John 5:19
• We know that we originate from God - 1 John 2:3
• We know that the source of our spiritual life is God - The man who is born of human nature is born into sin. If a man is born only one time and lives life only with that one nature and dies, the Bible says he dies in his sin. However, if we are born again, we receive the nature of God (John 1:12-13) and we are in God (Colossians 3:3 “hidden with Christ in God.”).
• We know that the world faces destruction – the word “lies” also carries the sense of being “destined” for something. The connotation in this verse is that of “languishing” – the world is lying in a despairing state and lacks the wisdom and ability to rise of its own strength and therefore lacks eternal life apart from God
• Illustration: In a large city in Sri Lanka there is a huge statue of Buddah in a reclining position. The chiseled face is calm, the eyes are closed and the head rests upon one hand. A full 50 feet long, the image is impressive except for one thing: Buddah is sleeping while the world goes by. He is paying no attention to his worshippers. He protects and blesses us. Shame on us when we are filled with fear and uncertainty.
• Application: God is not a sleeping Buddah. He is not asleep; he is active and engaged in the life of the believer positioning you to overcome the opinions and insults from the world. The Bible is living and active and must be used by the believer so that we can understand our position as we use it as a defense, like John did in his day.
Point #9: The Assurance of Perception (1 John 5:20-21)
• Explanation: John concludes, “We know also 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 by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:20-21). In the Greco-Roman world of John’s day, any ethical concession with worldly perspectives would to lead to some involvement with idolatry. John wanted to make sure his audience had the proper perception of who they were in Christ so that they would not get involved with idols. If the audience had been involved in idol worship, he or she must change perception from that which is in the world to the power from God and position in Christ.
• Illustration: “Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.” Unknown
• Application: Do you want to know God? Do you want to know the God who is real? Then be assured that Jesus is the true God! You met God the day you came to faith in Jesus Christ. The only way to God is Jesus Christ. There are not many roads which lead to God. There are not many avenues which lead a man to salvation. There is only one way to God and that is the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). The only way you will ever come to find reality is when you met reality in the Lord Jesus Christ and that will change your perception for eternity.
CONCLUSION: Be assured believers in Jesus Christ. God has given you the ability to constantly know who He is and what he has done because (1) He has given you POWER (2) he has given you POSITION and (3) He has given you a new PERCEPTION.
