Well, I was taught in seminary that this is how you do public speaking. And if you’ve taken a public speaking class, you’ve probably heard this too. First, you tell people what you’re going to tell them. And then, you tell them. And then, you tell them what you told them. Right? That’s how you do it in public speaking and that is what I was taught. But, have you noticed that the apostle John does things a little bit differently? He’s got his own particular and peculiar style. And basically, he does it backwards from that. If you look in his gospel, John 20:31, at the end of his gospel look what he says, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name." John goes through the whole life of Christ in that book, His death, and before His resurrection he inserts this part. "Oh, by the way, this is why I wrote these things." And it’s exactly the same thing he has done here in this part of 1 John.
Here at the end, he writes in verse 13, "[Here’s why I’ve written these things] I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God." Now, you’ll notice this verse from [the gospel of] John was written to people who need to hear the gospel and need to respond to it. "I tell you these things that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ." And now writing to people who have believed that Jesus is the Christ, here in 1 John he writes, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that [here’s the purpose] you may know that you have eternal life."
And as I thought about this I said, "Why is security so important?" Why does John use in this little passage this word ’to know’? He uses it again and again and again. It’s starting again in verse 18, "We know …" "We know…, " verse 19. "We know..," verse 20. And again, "So that we may know." The word that he uses here is the Greek word that means ’perfection of knowledge.’ There are two Greek words. One of them means ’an experiential knowledge that is growing.’ The other one means a real sure, "I know this to be true" kind of a knowledge. And that’s the word he is using throughout this passage.
Why isn’t it better to be insecure? I had a man in my first church. I was teaching on security, and he said, "But it’s more motivating to be insecure. It’s easier to motivate people to live the Christian life if you hold the dangle of the carrot of fear. Say, ’You’re not so sure you’re going to heaven, but if you’ll do these things then maybe you’ll make it.’" Well, that may be a nice fleshly, manly style of motivation, but that’s not what John is saying here is it? He’s saying, "I want you to know."
Why does he want us to know? Why doesn’t he choose the fear route? Because we’ve learned that insecurity frees us from fear, and fear we have found out is the enemy of faith. Fear and faith do not go together like peas and carrots. They don’t fit like a hand in a glove. They are oppositional to one another. If you are afraid, you don’t have faith. If you have faith, you’re not afraid. John’s response from the beginning of this epistle until the end has been the same: if you have Jesus you have it all. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be insecure. Don’t be nervous. Don’t chew your nails. Because when you start doing that and you give in to that fear, you start making decisions based on that fear that are wrong decisions. I was reminded yesterday that there is a verse in Romans that says this, "Everything that is not of faith is sin." Wow. "Everything that is not of faith is sin."
So, John has called us throughout this book to examine our lives and to see if certain things are present in our lives, and if those things are present they are clear proofs that God has done and is continuing to do a work of regeneration and miraculous change and transformation in our lives that we can be sure of. And so this morning, here at the end, we’re going to do a little bit of detective work. Because one of the things that detectives use in solving crimes is fingerprints. They look for fingerprints. If your fingerprint is on a murder weapon, everybody’s finger points at you. If there’s no reason for you to be normally in a particular place and that place was a place where a crime was committed, and they find your fingerprints all over that room, the finger tends to point at you. We’ve got fingerprints all over us. They are the fingerprints of God. How do we identify them? What are those fingerprints that are evidence of God’s relationship with us? That’s what this passage is about.
First, and I’m calling it a thumbprint because it’s the most important print, just like in the hand. The thumb has 80% of the strength of your hand is in your thumb. Have you ever tried to work without your thumb? It’s very difficult. The thumbprint is the thumbprint of faith. Look at verse 13. Here’s the basis for our security. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life."
Now that’s a pretty powerful statement and I think that if you’ve got a pen and you’re not afraid to mark in your Bible, you should underline that verse because that’s a great verse that says if you’ve got faith in Jesus Christ, you have this wonderful gift of eternal life. And we see this throughout the book. John is very consistent. Throughout the book he has said the same thing. He has marked out this faith, this expression of belief, this transferring of trust from my own works to the finished work of Jesus Christ, as the trigger or the foundation of the fruit that is borne in the Christian life. It means to stop believing in your own plan, that somehow that my works are going to be able to satisfy God and bring me into His presence.
The person who has faith in Jesus Christ stops believing in their own self and their own works and starts believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And that work is that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, that He was a man who took on human flesh, that He was not only really divine, but He was really human and that He came to take upon Himself our sin as a person who was fully human. It is a very specific faith, not in my works but in His; not in a version of the truth, but His version; not in my character, but in His. John wrote the same thing in a verse that we all know. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." If you’ve got a Bible with cross-references, that may be one of the cross-references to 1 John 5:13; John 3:16. Believers are resting in the Person of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Think about that great hymn, "Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art. I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart."
God’s first and foundational fingerprint is a thumbprint, is the thumbprint of faith. And you will find, as you put your faith in Christ, that your faith in Christ is not a stagnant thing. It’s not a static thing. It doesn’t say, "Okay, I’ve put my faith in Jesus. I’m done with it." Have you found in your life that that faith in Jesus Christ continues to grow and grow and become stronger and stronger as you realize, as you rest your weight on Him, that He is fully capable of bearing that weight and you find out who He is and the greatness of His person and you explore His character and you say, "Man, I can’t believe how great this Person is?" And your faith gets stronger and stronger as the Holy Spirit continues to point to the Person of Jesus Christ. That’s the thumbprint.
Now there’s a fingerprint that goes along with that, one of the fingerprints. And that is the fingerprint of confident prayer. Now, to most people God is a really scary being. And before you put your faith in Christ, God might not have only been a scary being but, if He existed at all, a mean cruel person, someone who you didn’t really want to have anything to do with. But, when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you discovered something about this caricature of God that you had developed. It was dead wrong. Dead wrong. You might have once said, "Approach this being with great caution. Be very, very afraid of Him”. But then you read something like verse 14, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us."
Our relationship with God has changed dramatically. Once this was a Person for whom we had no regard, didn’t want to be with Him, hopefully flying under the radar so we would not gain His attention as if He didn’t know what we were doing. But now, because of our faith in Christ, there is this wonderful change that is taking place, that barrier of sin between us and God has been removed, and suddenly God is someone who I can approach, the Bible says, "With confidence." That I can (Can I say it?) walk right up to Him with a smile on my face without the trembling of abject fear, with awe and majesty certainly and awe at who He is. I can walk into His presence and not be struck dead in my tracks. And this change has manifested itself in my beginning to go to Him in prayer, confident that He knows me, confident that He’s interested in listening to what I have to say to Him, confident that He is a person who wants my very, very best even though it doesn’t always look like that. But we don’t understand the work of God.
Our confidence is based on three things. First, that our sins have been forgiven through the blood of Christ. Second, that God has revealed Himself as One who has a character of love and grace and mercy. And third, that our own will is being transformed to desire the things that God desires. "If we ask anything," it says here, "according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of Him." You see, have you noticed this that as you are maturing as a believer in Christ, have you noticed that your prayers are changing? Have you noticed that you are not praying as much for yourself as you are for other people? Have you noticed that instead of always, "Bless me, Lord. Bless me, Lord," it’s, "How can I be a blessing to this person?" And we start to find ourselves praying for ourselves that we would become more like Christ, instead of that God would give us a pony or finish a math test for us or give us a million dollars or something like that. Instead, we start to pray for the things that are real – for a deeper walk with Christ, for greater understanding of His Word, for more effective ministry to other people. Are those prayers God is going to answer? Of course He will, because we are praying in line with His will. And when He sees us coming to Him in prayer, "I just love to answer this person’s prayer because they pray for things that I want. They pray for people to understand the gospel. They pray for opportunity to share the gospel. They pray for the needs of others. And they are thankful to Me for the way that I have blessed them." Pretty simple.
Now, in that context, we come to verse 16. Look at it in context. These verses are about seeing a brother commit a sin that does not lead to death or those who are committing a sin leading to death, I think what he is doing here is giving us an example of the kinds of prayers that are characteristic of a person who is growing in Christ. He says if you see a brother committing a sin (and he is a Christian brother or a Christian sister) and you see them committing a sin that you know is going to mess up their life, that will make them less effective as a believer. They are listening to the lies of the devil. They are going to be going down a path that’s going to have consequences that are going to be very distasteful to them, even though they’ve fallen for the lie of Satan and he’s dangled a trinket in front of them and they’re going for it, they’re going for the lie – what’s he say to do? He says, "Pray for them." Pray for them that God will invade their lives. Pray for them that God will come and be involved in a disciplinary way in their lives and give them life, bring them back on the path of life. That’s all that God wants. What John is saying is for us to be involved in intercessory prayer for other people. When you see other people making a mistake like that, don’t say, "Yep. There they go. Guess they’re going to be in trouble." Pray for them. Pray that the Lord would involve Himself in their life in a powerful way. Intercede.
Now he says, "I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death." Now, some people have looked at this and say, "Oh, this must be talking about the unforgivable sin." And I’ve met some Christians, at least one Christian in my life was so afraid of committing the unforgivable sin that she didn’t even want me to tell what it was because then she would be afraid that she would commit it. She was afraid as a believer that she would somehow commit the unforgivable sin and fall out of faith. That’s not what’s talked about here.
We’re talking about the person who is involved in the persistent denial of the truth that is manifested in open and ongoing rebellion against God. We’re talking about the person who is really described back in chapter 3:4, "Anyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness." We’re talking about a person who has gone away from God, who has rejected God. And what John is saying here is, "It’s not that I’m going to prohibit you from praying for that person." In fact he says back here in chapter 5, he says, "I am not saying that you should pray about that." He’s not prohibiting you from praying for that person. Pray for them. But he’s not saying that you should necessary pray for that person the same way you pray for the person who is a believer involved in sin. You don’t know what God’s will is for that person. Pray for them. Sure. But that person may have already rejected God so many times that the Spirit of God is no longer working in his life in any way. He may be one of those that the Bible calls a reprobate who has just said no to God and has slammed the door, rejected Him entirely.
Sin that believers get caught up in is sin which destroys our effectiveness and our joy, but it doesn’t lead to separation from God. One commentator named I. Howard Marshall in his commentary on 1st John says this, "The sinner is overcome by temptation against his will, still wants to love God and his neighbors, still believes in Jesus, still longs to be free from sin, and he’s been caught up in a sin – it’s not leading to death, it’s just leading to the destruction of his effectiveness. And we pray for that person in line with God’s will." And so the fingerprint that John is pointing out here is that we pray. We pray. When we see a problem, we pray. When we see a need, we pray. We pray in line with God’s will. And for a person to pray in line with the will of God is a fingerprint, is an evidence that God is in his life to transform him. And that’s actually the third fingerprint.
The third fingerprint is the fingerprint of a transformed life. This is what we see as God has been working. Look at verse 18. "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. The one who was born of God keeps him safe and the evil one cannot harm him." Now we have seen this statement before. We have seen it before, as I read earlier, in John 3:4 where we saw that sin is lawlessness. And if you can remember that long ago, we defined that word ’lawlessness’ as ’the rejection of God’s right to rule over me.’ So a person who is involved in that kind of sin says, "God, I want nothing to do with You. I don’t want to see Your face again. Leave me along. I completely reject You and Your ways and Your law." Is that how you feel? Is that how you feel? If that’s how you feel, then you need to have a serious look at the book we’re handing out about why Jesus died. But, I would guess for the majority, if not everyone here, this morning that’s not how you feel. You don’t say, "God, get away from me. I want nothing to do with You."
"We know that anyone born of God does not [manifest that kind of attitude], no longer continues in that kind of sin because the one who is born of God [that is, Jesus Christ] keeps him safe [keeps him from falling into that kind of hole]." Jesus is the one who came to give new life. "When Jesus spoke again to the people," as He said in verse 12 of John 8, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life." You see, God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit is a powerful force in our life lighting our way so when we go down a certain path, and if it’s a destructive path and it’s a path that is going to ruin our lives, God is right there with His big search light saying, "Look. Look where you’re going." We’re not just stumbling off into the darkness. When we sin, as believers, our way is lit and we know exactly from the Word of God and from the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, where that sin is going to take us. And even if we continue on in it, then God is going to be down the road somewhere with a big two by four to knock us back on the right track.
"Because the one who is born of God, [that is Jesus Christ,] keeps him safe. And the evil one"… Satan can irritate you. He can oppress you. He can discourage you. But he can’t take away the one thing that makes all the difference – your relationship with God. And as we go along, by the Holy Spirit’s power and as we read the Word, we begin to hate sin like God hates sin. Have you found this true in your life? That you start to have the same response to sin that may look like how God responds to it? And you begin to recognize its destructive character. You begin to recognize how harmful it is. You recognize how ugly it is. And no matter how Satan dresses it up with lights and sprays perfume on it, it still stinks because you can see through it. We reject it because we see it for the terrible lie that it is. And Satan, too is unmasked. He’s unmasked and he no longer looks to us like an angel of light, the way he tries to portray himself. We see past it. We see through it and our life bears out the fingerprint of that transformation.
We have the thumbprint of faith on us. We’ve got the fingerprint of confident prayer in our life. We have the fingerprint of a transformed life. We also have the fingerprint of relationship. You know what? This whole book is about relationship. This whole book of 1 John is about this wonderful relationship that we have been given by God through faith in Jesus Christ. Look at verse 19, it just jumps off the page. "We know [That’s that same Greek word that means ’we know this for a fact.’ This isn’t guess work.] We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one." What a statement. "We know that we are children of God."
I know that there are people in the world that when they hear that God is their Father, the picture that comes up in their minds is not a happy one because their father was cruel or distant or never there. So when they think of God as their Father, there’s confusion. All I can say is the father image that God uses over and over again in the Bible is that picture of the father who every father was meant to be; the loving father, the protecting father, a providing father, a loving father, like my father. Did you ever notice that when God names Himself in the Bible it’s always words of relationship – Father, Husband, Protector, Provider, Creator, Redeemer, Shepherd. Oh, I love the book of Revelation in the end when he says in chapter 21, "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ’Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them. And they will be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God." The whole purpose of God is relationship with us. That’s what it is. And He wants us to have a secure relationship with God and to say, "God is not maybe like my father was to me." He’s a different Father. He’s what every child wants his father to be. That’s who God is. That’s how He presents Himself and He opens His arms to you and says, "Come on. Be secure in the relationship that you have with Me, what I have purchased for you with the blood of my own Son."
Now, contrast that because there is a strong contrast here in this verse. "We are the children of God. The whole world was under the control of the evil one." There’s a very interesting word that’s used here that’s translated ’under the control of’ in the NIV, in the NASB it’s ’in the power of’, and in the NKJV it’s ’under the sway of.’ But it really is a term, the literal translation is ’to lie on, to lie.’ And for me, as an old wrestler, it’s a wrestling image. Now, by the grace of God, I did more lying on than being lied on. But, I was lied on a couple of times, and controlled by other people. But, it’s a wrestling term.
Satan is sitting on people. And if we have the fingerprint of God on us, what kind of print do people have who Satan is sitting on? I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself. We have the fingerprints of God on us and Satan hates the people who he is controlling. He hates the people he is pinning to the mat. He doesn’t want a relationship with those under his control.. He can’t even have a relationship. But, he is just like a dad who has no time or interest in having a relationship with his kids, but because they’re his kids he tosses them a trinket once in a while, or a toy. "Here, this will replace me in your life. Here have a car. Here have a boat. Here have a toy. Have money. Here. Now are you happy?" That’s what Satan does. He is like an absent, terrible, disinterested father. He’s like a kidnapper who wears a mask over his face, never revealing the real him, never wanting to have a relationship with his captives, just to keep them quiet, just to keep them satisfied. But, God is eager to have a relationship with us, arms open wide, calling us to Him, and we see that, those fingerprints of God all over us.
I read about a lawyer one time, a very, very busy man. He had a son. He called that son to him one day to him and he said, "Son, I’m going to give you a gift. I’m a very busy man, you know that. But I’m going to tell you something. Every day, after dinner, when dinner is over, the next hour is yours. Whatever you want, whatever you want to do, whether you want to talk, you want to play something – the next hour is yours." That’s like God. "How can I bless you today? What needs can I fill? What can I do? How can I help you? How can I demonstrate to you that I love you?" That’s God.
We have a final fingerprint. Here’s number five. You can think of this by using your hand. The thumbprint of faith, the fingerprint of confident prayer, a transformed life, a relationship, and finally, the fingerprint of discernment. Verse 20, "We know also that the Son of God has come and given us understanding so that we may know Him who is truth." Once again, an implied contrast because where there’s truth, there’s got to be lies. Where there is something that is real, there has to be something that is not real.
This word in the Greek is translated ’discernment,’ ’the ability to reason correctly.’ Here’s the amazing thing, brothers and sisters, a five year old child who has put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ has more understanding of eternal truth and insight into the things that really matter than a Ph.D who doesn’t believe. They can trot those guys across the news programs till they’re blue in the face to explain to us who Jesus was, and a five year old kid in Chandler Bible Church Sunday School who knows that "Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so" has more smarts about stuff that is real than that guy with ten Ph.D.s. Amen? Because we have been given the Spirit of discernment. We’ve been given understanding. What a gift. What a gift that God has given us. And that gift has a purpose, "So that we may know Him who is truth."
Now this is the only time in this passage where this word ’know’ is a different Greek word. The other times have always been this word “to know in my mind, be sure.” This is the word for relationship. This is the word that Paul uses in Philippians 3 when he says, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings." We have been given all this knowledge and this discernment and understanding so that we may enter into a relationship with the living God, freed from the lie to serve the living and the true God, freed from error and the terror that comes when we don’t in the love that God so powerfully expressed in the giving of His own Son.
And in light of that, verse 21 makes all the sense in the world. "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." You see how that fits in? He says, "You’ve gotten all this understanding. You’ve got the fingerprints. Your body is covered with the fingerprints of God, so why would you want to chase the lie?" If you were a diamond expert, would you wear cubic zirconium? Would you buy cubic zirconium? Of course not. You know it’s fake. It may look nice, but it’s not real. Would you buy one? "Oh, I’m a diamond expert. Would you marry me? Here’s a nice cubic zirconium to seal the deal." Of course you wouldn’t. It’s foolishness.
We know the truth. We know what’s real. We have been given this by the wonderful grace of God. So, don’t chase after stuff that purports to be God, that purports to give you satisfaction, that promises you happiness. Idols. Keep yourself from them. Don’t be sniffing around them. Don’t go examining them to see if they’re any good. Knock it over. It’s just a block of wood. Just like Dagon. I love it in the Old Testament when they brought the Ark of the Covenant in and put it in Dagon’s temple. The next morning, the statue of Dagon had fallen on his face. So they propped him back up, and the next morning he had fallen on his face, his hands had fallen off and his head was rolling around in the corner. God’s saying, "Don’t even think that this carved piece of whatever can hold a candle to the living God."
Now, brother and sister, that’s what we’ve got. And John, writing to these persecuted believers, was saying, "Don’t chase other gods. Don’t chase other truths. You’ve got the truth. You’ve been changed by the truth. The fingerprints of God are all over you. Don’t think there’s someone else out there who’s going to give you something better. It’s a lie." Amen? Amen.
