1 John 5:9-13
Standing on the Promises
Introduction
In 1994, the Texas Rangers baseball team called up a young infielder by the name of Benji Gil. The Rangers needed a shortstop and they promoted Gil from their AA team directly to the major league—something rarely done. But Gil had a hard time—especially at bat. So he was sent back down to the minor league. The next year Gil was invited back to the major league for spring training camp where he performed superbly. The manager of the Rangers—Johnny Oates—didn’t want Gil to worry about being sent back down to the minors so he assured him that the shortstop position was his for the rest of the season. Well, Gil had an excellent year. But the next season—in 1996—Kevin Elster had a fantastic spring training and a tremendous year. So Elster replaced Gil in the starting lineup.
Many people view their relationship to God like Benji Gil’s baseball career. They think that if they play well, then God will keep them on the team and they’ll go to heaven when they die. But if they experience a slump, then God will kick them off the team and they’ll go to hell when they die. But what does the Word of God say about the matter? How does a person join God’s team? That is, how does a person become a child of God? And once you join God’s team, can you get kicked off the team? That is, is it possible to lose your salvation? Or can a person know for certain that when he dies, he will go to heaven? The answer to those questions is found in 1 John chapter 5. This morning we want to look at 1 John 5:9-13. There John tells us how a person receives and keeps eternal life. Starting in 1 John 5:9, the Apostle John tells us about the …
1. ACCEPTANCE OF ETERNAL LIFE
1 John 5:9 states, “We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.”
You’ll recall that the Mosaic Law required 2 or 3 witnesses to establish a testimony. Two weeks ago we saw from verses 6-8 that there are 3 that testify that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And those three witnesses are water—the baptism of Jesus, blood—the death of Jesus, and the Spirit—the Holy Spirit of God.
John continues in verse 10 by saying, “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.”
And what is this testimony that God has given about Jesus? We’re told in verse 11: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life.”
God has provided a way for man to live forever. You see, each of us is a sinner. We have disobeyed God’s laws and have sinned against Him. And our sin has caused us to be spiritually separated from God. And as punishment for our sin we must go to a place of torment when we die—a place called hell.
Now, what can we do to get our sins forgiven so we don’t have to go this place of punishment? The answer very simply is: trust in Jesus and Jesus alone to forgive your sins—that’s what gives you eternal life.
And that’s what John says in verses 11 and 12: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
It’s that simple. If you possess Christ as your Savior—if you’ve trusted in Him to forgive your sins, then you have eternal life and when you die you will go to heaven. If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior—if you haven’t trusted in Him to forgive your sins, then you don’t have eternal life and when you die you will go to hell.
Now, I hope you have accepted the gift of eternal life through Christ. And once you have done that, God wants you to be assured of your salvation. He wants you to possess the continual confidence that your sins are forgiven and that heaven is your home. That’s why in verse 13 John writes concerning the …
2. ASSURANCE OF ETERNAL LIFE
Look at verse 13 with me. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may [what’s that next word?] know that you have eternal life.”
John says that you can know—k-n-o-w—know for certain that you have eternal life. God wants you to have the confident assurance that if you were to die today, that you would have no doubt that you’d go to heaven.
Now, where does this confidence come from? How can a person know for certain that he has eternal life? Well, some people look inward and say it’s because of their …
· Feelings
They believe their assurance of salvation rests in the fact that they feel saved. But the problem with our feelings is that they are so fickle. If we have a good day and everything is going well for us, then we might feel saved. But if we’re having a bad day and nothing seems to be going right for us, we might not feel saved. We cannot depend on our feelings.
A man once came to Evangelist D. L. Moody. He told Moody that he was worried because he didn’t feel saved. Moody asked, “Was Noah safe in the ark?” The man replied, “Certainly he was.” Moody responded, “Well, what made him safe—his feeling or the ark?” The man got the point. He looked at Moody and said, “How foolish I’ve been! It is not my feeling; it is Christ who saves!” So, don’t depend on your feelings for assurance of salvation.
Here is a copy of my birth certificate. [Show document.] My birth certificate indicates that I was born in Rochester, NY in 1955. It objectively testifies to me that that I am a citizen of the United States. I don’t need to ask myself, “Do I feel like a U.S. citizen?” My birth certificate tells me I am, regardless of how I feel. Feelings play no role in assurance of our earthly citizenship. And feelings also play no role in assurance of our heavenly citizenship. So don’t look inward and depend on your feelings to determine your spiritual status.
Now, some people don’t look inward. But they do look outward for assurance of salvation. They base their spiritual status on their …
· Fruit
They believe their assurance of salvation rests in the fact that they produce fruit—good works in their lives. Some people teach that if you live a life of good works, then that is proof that you are born again. But if you don’t live a life of good works then that’s proof that you were never really saved. But I don’t believe that’s what the Bible teaches.
Now, it is true that once you’re saved, God wants you to produce fruit in your life as His child—He wants you to live a life of good works. Paul said in Ephesians 2:8, 9, and 10: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
As verses 8 and 9 state, good works won’t save you. But verse 10 tells us that God wants Christians to do good works after they are saved. And we do this as a way of thanking Him for saving us.
But the absence of good works does not mean you aren’t saved. It is possible for a Christian to have very little fruit in his life, but still be saved. Take the Corinthian Christians, for example. We spent 2 years studying the book of 1 Corinthians here at Shiloh on Sunday mornings. You’ll remember that Paul wrote that letter to the church to rebuke and correct them for all the sins they were involved in. And do you recall some of those sins? Chapters 1-4: divisions in the church—they were fighting and bickering; chapter 5: sexual immorality; chapter 6: lawsuits—they were suing each other; chapter 7: marital conflicts; chapters 8-10: legalism and license; chapter 11: drunkenness; chapters 12-14: abuse of spiritual gifts and disregard for others; chapter 15: false doctrine; and chapter 16: greed. Paul said in 3:3 that the church was acting more like the unsaved than the saved! And yet in 1:10 Paul refers to the church of Corinth as brothers in Christ, in 1:2 he calls them saints; and in 6:19 he says they are temples of the Holy Spirit. They were believers—they were saved, but they weren’t living like they were children of God. They weren’t bearing fruit.
So, God doesn’t want us to become fruit inspectors—to determine whether or not we are saved based on the presence or absence of good works in our lives.
Well, if we shouldn’t look inward to our feelings for assurance of salvation, and we shouldn’t look outward to our fruit for assurance of salvation, then where should we look? The answer is: Look upward to …
· The Father
We base our assurance of salvation on God the Father’s promise to us. Look at what John says in verse 13: “I write these things …” And what are the “these things” John is referring to? Answer: what he just stated in verses 11 and 12: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
So, John says in verse 13: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” We know we have eternal life because of God’s promise. God promises eternal life to all who trust in Christ.
Harry Ironside was pastor of Moody Church in Chicago. An elderly man once came to him and said, “I will not go on unless I know I’m saved, or else know it’s hopeless to seek to be sure of it. I want a definite witness, something I can’t be mistaken about!”
Ironside replied, “Suppose you had a vision of an angel who told you your sins were forgiven. Would that be enough to rest on?”
The man replied, “Yes, I think it would. An angel should be right.” Ironside continued, “But suppose on your deathbed Satan came and said, ‘I was that angel, transformed to deceive you.’ What would you say?” The man was speechless. Ironside then told him that God has given us something more dependable than the voice of an angel. He has given us own Word that if we trust in Christ all our sins are gone. Ironside read 1 John 5:13 to the man: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Then Ironside asked the man, “Is that not enough to rest on? It is a letter from heaven expressly to you.” The Holy Spirit used God’s promise to bring assurance of salvation to the man’s heart.
We know that we have eternal life because of the testimony of God. God promises eternal life to all who trust in His Son as Savior. And that’s what we base our assurance of salvation on—not on our feelings or on our fruit, but on the Father—God’s promise to us. A believer knows he is going to heaven because God says he is. And we stand firmly on that promise of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring! Glory in the highest I will shout and sing—Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail, when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail; by the living Word of God I shall prevail—Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, bound to Him eternally by love’s strong chord, overcoming daily by the Spirit’s sword—Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall, listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, resting in my Savior as my all in all—Standing on the promises of God.
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” God said it. I believe it. That settles it!
Conclusion
Charles Fuller was a radio Bible teacher years ago. He once announced that he would be speaking the following Sunday on the topic of “Heaven.” During that week, he received a letter from an elderly gentleman who was very ill—on his deathbed. The man wrote: “Next Sunday you are to talk about Heaven. I am interested in that land, because I have held a clear title to a bit of property there for over fifty-five years. I did not buy it. It was given to me without money and without price. But the donor purchased it for me at a tremendous sacrifice. I am not holding it for speculation since the title is not transferable. It is not a vacant lot. For more than half a century I have been sending materials out of which the greatest architect and builder of the universe has been building a home for me which will never need to be remodeled or repaired because it will suit me perfectly, individually, and will never grow old. Termites can never undermine its foundations for they rest on the rock of ages. Fire cannot destroy it. Floods cannot wash it away. No locks or bolts will ever be placed upon its doors, for no vicious person can ever enter that land where my dwelling stands. It is now almost completed and ready for me to enter in and abide in peace eternally, without fear of ever being rejected. I hope to hear your sermon on heaven next Sunday from my home in Los Angeles, but I have no guarantee that I shall be able to do so. My ticket to heaven has no date marked for the journey—no return coupon—and no permit for baggage. Yes, I am all ready to go and I may not be here while you are talking next Sunday, but I shall meet you there some day.”
What gave this dying man the knowledge of his sins forgiven and the confidence of a home in heaven? He accepted God’s free gift of eternal life and stood firmly on that promise. And the same can be true of you.
If you haven’t received Christ as your Savior, do so now. Simply say to God, “Lord, I know I’m a sinner and I deserve to go to hell. But I thank you that Jesus died for me to pay for my sins. I know my good works will not get me to heaven. So right now I place my faith in Christ alone as my Savior. I accept your free gift of eternal life.”
If you’ve already received Christ as your Savior, then rest in the fact that you are eternally secure. And base your assurance of salvation not on your feelings or on your fruit, but on the Father’s promise of eternal life.
Let’s pray.
