Are You Sure

It is my honor to be here with you again. I'll ask you to open your Bible to 1st John chapter 5, please 1st John chapter 5 and while you're turning there I want to refer back do a little refresher on what we talked about the last time I was here with you on a Wednesday night We talked about the phrase it is finished and we said that it can and does mean all of the following things It means that Christ's work was completed It means that Christ was the perfect spotless Lamb of God without blemish It means that the picture of redemption or the drama of redemption was completed And it means that the debt we owed to God has been paid in full You remember I said that Spurgeon wrote about These things and and he said that there were five things that were completed or finished or terminated When Christ declared from the cross it is finished He said that all types and shadows and prophecies of Christ and all the promises of God were delivered and completed in Christ He said all all Old Testament sacrifices were terminated or made obsolete All of Christ's perfect obedience was completed the wrath of God against sin was exhausted for those who would believe and That the power of sin Satan and death were completely destroyed terminated and defeated So we learned that when Christ said it is finished Think of all that he meant by that one little Greek word to tell us died that I couldn't pronounce when I was here with You before and I'm amazed.

I've got it out that time We learned that everything in the Old Testament that pointed to him found their final fulfillment in him That all the promises of God were fulfilled and guaranteed in him on the cross That there is never a need for even one more sacrifice He sacrificed himself one time for all time and it's over We learned that his perfect obedience and therefore your Perfect obedience if you've been born again Was completed there Not only did he take your sin upon himself, but he transferred his perfect obedience his perfect righteousness to you and The transaction was completed done Right then and there also God's punishment for all the sin of all those who would believe was finished Right at that moment done over There is now therefore no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus because it was fully exhausted in and on Christ Who took all of the wrath intended for you Christian on your behalf?

And then finally the power of sin the power of death the power of Satan was utterly vanquished on that day all Defeated done sin death and the devil have no power over you if you've been born again to harm your eternal standing before God So with that little refresher with all that fresh in our minds Let me ask this to believers in this room if all of that is Comp is finished completed done in Christ and if your eternal eternal life is bound up in Christ and if your Eternal security is based on what Christ did Bay don't based on what he's already done How secure are you? How sure of your eternity? Should you be? How sure of your salvation?

Can you be? The title of my last message was live like it's finished because it is And the title of tonight's message is simply are you sure? Are you sure? Now let's look at first John chapter 5 and we're gonna read from verse 6 down to 13 and we're gonna focus on votes verse 13 and then verse 11 quite a bit So starting in verse 6 of first John chapter 5 John says this is he who came by water and blood?

Jesus Christ not by the water only but by the water and the blood and The Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth For there are three that testify the Spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree If we receive the testimony of men the testimony of God is greater For this is the testimony of God that he is born concerning his son Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he's not believed the testimony that God has born concerning his son and This is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in the Sun Whoever has the Sun has life whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life Verse 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know That you have eternal life Let's pray Lord it's my desire to get out of the way.

It's my desire for your word to speak and so Lord I know that you promised that your word will not return to you void But it will accomplish the purpose for which you sent it. That's my prayer that you would receive glory Lord that your word would do its work in Jesus name Amen, so let me get my pages, right? Cuz I've got all that written down on my page too and I ended up reading it out of my Bible So there are three key portions in verse 13 that we're going to examine in some detail here The first is the fray or one of them is the phrase these things Then the phrase are also the phrase so that and then the phrase may know That you have eternal life now before we consider the phrase these things let's talk for a moment about the phrases so that and may know The phrase so that it's really straightforward.

It comes from the Greek word Hina H-I-N-A in the English the Greek word Hina which can be described as a term of purpose and it simply means guess what so that in order that or Sometimes rendered with the sink the single English word so John uses Hina to point to the purpose of his writing. He wrote these things which we'll discuss momentarily Hina or in order that or so that or so You may know that you have eternal life Like I said Hina is pretty straightforward The next phrase we want to briefly examine the phrase may know Is also very straightforward in the Greek?

But we have to take a little bit of care in English because both the word may and the word know Can have a couple of the different meanings and we want to make sure we nail down the correct understanding of those two words the little word may M-a-y can have one of two meanings. It's used to either express possibility or permission An example of using may to express possibility would be it may rain today But of course the phrase it may rain today also means pretty much it may not Rain today that's using may to express possibility in this sense. The English word might is sort of Interchangeable it might rain and it might not Is it gonna rain?

Maybe maybe not that's using may in the in the sense of Possibility an example where the word may is used in the sense of permission Mother may I Yes, you may and we all probably had the same experience at elementary school where you raised your hand and said teacher Can I go to the bathroom and what does she say? Yes, you yeah, she said I don't know or she said I'm sure you can and you also May or can is a word of it and I forgot about that. That's exactly what she said.

I don't know can you yeah Can is a word of ability and may is a word granting permission We'll consider here in a minute whether John is talking about Possibility or permission when it comes to knowing that you have eternal life But first though we really need to grab hold of the word know KnoW in this phrase and this is fascinating to me There are a couple of Greek words used to talk about the idea of knowledge or knowing in the Bible One such word is gyn. Osko gyn.

Osko Which is a root word from which comes words like epigen Osko and epigen osis that's not on the test and this word group generally refers to knowledge gained by experience or experiential knowledge Interestingly, have you ever heard the phrase Gnostic heresy you heard about the Gnostics Well the word Gnostic which is spelled G in Ostic where the G is silent.

It's from the same root and The Gnostics were folks who claimed to have supernatural experiences That afforded them higher knowledge than regular believers And you may not be aware of this but such people exist today Gnostics were not just a first century phenomenon Anyone who claims to have received extra biblical revelations from God which are Revelations from God that are not in the Bible or run counter to what is in the Bible are Gnostics That's Gnosticism.

It's part of what Gnosticism is Gnostics Gnostics also believed and I assume still believe that Jesus did not Have a physical body because Gnostics believed that matter physical matter was evil But regarding this idea of knowledge, that's what Gnostics are so gyn Osko is one of the Greek word families referring to the idea of knowledge and it's generally confined to the area of experiential knowledge or knowledge gained or learned by experience or through an experience a knowledge gained progressively over time But that's not the Greek word that John uses here in this verse The word for know that John chose is a dough e i d o a dough Actually, he used it in its perfect tense, which is oida.

Oh Ida oida Now a dough and oida often refer to intuitive knowledge rather than experiential knowledge I Found this definition online and it seems helpful to me Edo oida is not so much that which is known by experience as It is an intuitive insight that is listen drilled into one's heart it is a perception a being aware of an understanding an intuitive knowledge which in the case of believers can only be given by the Holy Spirit and so Edo and oida Suggests listen to this fullness of knowledge Salute knowledge that which is without a doubt rather than a progress in knowledge like that referred to by the word ginosco and in its derivatives and It doesn't stop there because John used the perfect tense of the word oida.

Oh, I da it also means permanent knowledge settled knowledge That's the word John used here. So John says look I'm writing this stuff or these things So that you may know That you may have fullness of knowledge that you may have absolute knowledge permanent settled knowledge Knowledge that is drilled into your heart by the Holy Spirit the sort of knowledge that is without a doubt That you have eternal life Are you getting a sense of the weight of what John is saying here the importance of it?

If you're a believer one of those who believe in the name of the Son of God to whom John is speaking This is big big stuff that you can hang your hat on One more thing before we Consider the phrase these things The little word may remember could be permission could be possibility Is John using it here as a word of possibility or a word of permission? Is he saying?

For example the purpose for which I'm writing these things to you is so that it is Possible for you to have eternal life in other words so that you might know or you might not know That you have eternal life or maybe you'll know maybe you won't Or is he saying the purpose of which I'm writing these things to you is to grant you permission To know that you have eternal life permission in the sense that because of these things that I have written Because these things are true Knowledge of your eternal security is attainable Because I've written these things to you you are free to know without doubt that you have eternal life I Think the context shows it's the latter That the little word may is being used here as a word of permission rather than a word of possibility Why do I say that I say that because of everything we learned about the little word Oida?

Remember Oida refers to permanent settled absolute knowledge without doubt That just doesn't sound like a maybe sort of word to me It doesn't make sense to me that John would couple such a word as Oida With a word that means maybe maybe not Because John wrote these things it is of course Possible for you to have the sort of settled permanent absolute knowledge without doubt that you have eternal life If you've been born again John says that these things he has written makes such knowledge Attainable and because John wrote these things you are permitted to have the sort of settled permanent absolute knowledge without doubt that you have eternal life if you've been born again So finally what things are these things to which John is referring here Well, there's quite a bit of disagreement about that it was interesting in my study to find Some different camps it basically three different camps of what John was because John really didn't spell out what he meant by these things And so there are those that say that John is referring to the whole letter of 1st John Everything from chapter 1 verse 1 all the way up to chapter 5 verse 12 right before he says this in verse 13 There are those who say that John is referring to everything in chapter 5 That is from 1st John chapter 5 verse 1 to verse chapter 5 verse 12 And then there's a group that says John is only referring to what he just wrote That is the verse immediately preceding verse 13, which is of course John John 1st John 512 which says whoever has the son has life whoever does not have the son of God does not have life It seems to me that the strongest evidence in favor of the first option that John in fact was talking about Everything he had written in the book up to that point Is the strongest Has the strongest argument there's two pieces of evidence that really kind of seal that idea for me First is that John actually used similar phrasing in the gospel of John in John chapter 20 verse 31 where he says but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and That by believing you may have life in his name and due to the context there It's obvious that he is referring to everything that he wrote in The gospel of John so the argument is that because he did that there He's likely doing that here and and that makes sense to me We do see patterns in the writers of the New Testament there are Paul has readily recognizable patterns, which is why there's great dispute some people who say Paul wrote the book of Hebrews and Others like me who said I don't think so because it doesn't there aren't the Pauline patterns in there that you find Elsewhere so it does make sense to me that if John did that in John gospel of John Chapter 20 that that's probably what he's doing here The second piece of evidence similar piece of evidence where the phrase these things in John 1st John 5 13 Seems to provide a bookend to the same exact phrase he used in the beginning of the book in 1st John 1/4 Where he says and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete Now in that instance, it seems pretty clear that John is referring to everything He's writing in the book and is about to write in the book So it seems logical that in 1st John 5 13 He will be referring back to everything he has written in the book that just again.

It just makes sense to me the case is made for John using these things to either describe only verse 12 of chapter 5 or even just Everything in chapter 5 are not nearly as compelling so I feel pretty confident that he was referring to everything He'd already written in the whole book So let's turn back to 1st John chapter 1 and start at verse 1. No, I'm kidding. That's a joke.

Don't do that We don't we don't have time for that and besides brother Keith has already done a marvelous job of walking us through the entire book Of 1st John so we don't we don't need to do that Instead I do want to focus briefly on verses 9 to 12 of chapter 5 So if you want to if you're still in chapter 5, let's read again starting in verse 9 Through verse 12 if we receive the testimony of men The testimony of God is greater for this is the testimony of God that he is born concerning his son Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning his son And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son Whoever has the son has life whoever does not have the son of God does not have life John here is describing what he calls the testimony of God Regarding Christ.

What is that testimony? Look back at verse 11 where he spells it out plainly Verse 11 says and this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son Just a few thoughts here and we'll be done Let's briefly look at three things here in verse 11 first the character of the one testifying then the content of the testimony and Finally the conclusion of the testimony Notice first the character of the one who is testifying whose testimony is John giving us here Is it his? No It's not his own testimony. It's God's testimony. It's what he says right in the verses, right?

John is telling us that God himself has testified and He didn't have to be sworn in Prior to prior to testifying God didn't have to put his hand on the Bible and say I Solemnly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth why? Because God's not a man. He cannot lie Whatever God says is true Absolutely true with no falsehood mingled in God does not utter half truths Every word of God is perfect Unadulterated truth what God says can be trusted the testimony of God is utterly trustworthy Second let's look at the content of God's testimony That God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son You remember how when we were last together that we started in Ephesians chapter 1 and we ran down through Ephesians chapter 1 pointing out all the words of completion all the words that Indicated action that had been done and completed in the past all the words of completed action You see any such words in the first part of God's testimony here, how about God gave Other translations say God has given That's a completed action.

It's finished the Greek word translated is gave or has given is Dido me di d o m i dido me Which is in the a or est tense and refers to I love this a historic fact It refers to something that has already happened a completed action a historic fact God gave God has given or you might even say God has already given He isn't in the God has given a gift. It's done. He gave it He isn't in the process of preparing a gift He isn't considering giving a gift.

No, he gave it already He chose to do it in eternity past and in eternity past it was as good as done He gave it he has given it you with me So what is the gift that he already gave well the verse names it Eternal life it's right there in the verse What does eternal mean? it means unending Everlasting Eternal life is life that does not Dare I say cannot ever come to an end Listen to what Christ says in John chapter 11 Verses 25 and 26 John 11 if you want to write that down John 11 25 and 26 Jesus said I am the resurrection in the life whoever believes in me though. He died yet.

Shall he live listen and Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die That's the nature of eternal life It never comes to an end John chapter 10 verses 27 and 28 John 10 27 and 28 Christ said this my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me I give them eternal life and they will never perish and No one will snatch them out of my hand If you have eternal life, you can never perish So eternal life is life that is well eternal It's life that will never end It's life that cannot ever end It's important to grasp that Because you will run across people Who teach that a person who has been saved can somehow? quote fall from grace they say They teach that a person who's been born again can sin in such a way as to become Unborn again, I reckon So they basically teach that what John here and elsewhere describes as eternal life Must not really be all that eternal at all Do you see the inconsistency there you see the absurdity of that?

Listen eternal life is either eternal everlasting never-ending Or it's not eternal life, right? And if it's not eternal life then God is a liar How absurd is that and According to verse 11. Where is this gift of eternal life that God has given to those who believe? It's found in his son Eternal life is in Christ Christ is the gift folks Therefore if you are in Christ You have Eternal life you already have it.

It's yours as a gift from your father But listen if you're not in Christ You don't have it is not yours and all you have to look forward to is condemnation and wrath So we've looked at the character of the one who is testifying here it's God and he cannot lie his character is unassailable We've looked at the content of the testimony Which is that God has already given as a historical fact? He's already given eternal life in Christ to those who believe on his name Finally what is the conclusion of the testimony? What is the certified result of God's testimony here?

Well look back at verse 13 which says I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God That you may know that you have eternal life According to that verse the conclusion we can come to based on God's testimony the conclusion at which we should arrive the conclusion upon which we have Absolute certainty is this We can know that we have eternal life Folks do you know that you have eternal life? Do you know that you have been born again? Or do you live every day with an I hope so assurance? What I mean is that if I were to ask you face to face whether or not you've been given eternal life Would your answer be I hope so?

Or would your answer be yes? I know that I have eternal life because God's Word is true I know that I have eternal life because of what he has done Because of what Christ has done because of all those things that were finished on the cross Here's here's the thing If you're if you're born again John is telling us because of everything in John chapter first John You can know that you have eternal life, and it's the sort of knowledge that is settled permanent absolute and As part of the definition it says without doubt now does that mean that?

As a believer you can never doubt or that you will never doubt no absolutely I'm not suggesting that doubts won't pop up from time to time Listen you need to remember Satan cannot affect the eternity of a believer he cannot he has neither the power nor the permission to do so But he can't so doubts He can try and steal your assurance But when he does that we who've been born again must appeal to the cross and to the testimony of our father Who cannot lie and?

Remember that the devil is a liar and the father of lies Doubts might creep in if you find yourself slipping in the sin or if you for whatever reason aren't reading your Bible regularly or spending time in prayer Such things can cause you to wonder about your security. I get that And it's good from time to time to examine yourself The Bible tells us to do that to examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith And a good way to examine yourself, and you need to do this in fact. I recommend you do it tonight Not right now, but when you get home. It's by studying the book of first John.

It's not a long book By by carefully studying first John you'll find yourself Confronted by a test or really three Sort of categories of three tests of genuine Christianity The first test can be described as a doctrinal test That examines what it is that you believe the the basic test question is this do you believe? That Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God who came in the flesh? Who lived a sinless life? Who died on the cross for the sins of those who would believe? Who was buried who was raised on the third day and who's seated now to right hand of the throne of God? That's the doctrinal test. Do you believe that?

Well, that's the easy one. That's the easy test. I feel pretty confident There's not a single person in this room who would say nope not me. I don't believe that I don't believe any of that. I don't think that In fact I was telling Patty. I'm not sure I know anyone In my whole life who would say no. I don't believe that I Mean in this part of the country most of us have heard those things All of our lives and readily give mental ascent So test number one is a doctrinal test. What do you believe? The second test is a little more challenging It's an ethical test or a behavioral test The question is How do you live?

What does your life look like The simple fact is that if you've been born again You were changed into a different person than you were before you were saved You don't do the wicked things you used to do You don't think the way you used to think You don't want the things that you used to want Look before I was born again. I used profanity so so much. I Have a degree in English, but I cussed so much that I would use curse words as the wrong part of speech That's how profane my tongue was But the moment I was born again, and I mean that very moment I stopped cussing I Love to tell the story of my first real assurance.

I had that I'd been saved I Was working out in a shed patty and I were living in our first home that we bought and I was working out a shed on something Building some shells or whatever and I split my thumb wide open with a hammer And when I did I hollered out Or something like that And it dawned on me immediately that I didn't cuss And I thought I've got a new heart and I went we had white Linoleum floors or light blue or something and I went running through the house dripping blood everywhere Throughout the house screaming patty. I'm really saved.

I'm really saved and It was a real meaningful assurance to me because I'm telling you the day before I was born again I'd have been that the neighbors would have been calling the cops because I would have been You know how in the cartoons they have all those little You know asterisk and exclamation point number symbols and all that would have been pouring out of my mouth But my heart was changed. You can tell a lot about what's in a person's heart by hearing what comes out of his or her mouth Is it praise and worship and kindness? Or is it cursing and foul joking and bitterness or meanness?

Are using words to cut other people to pieces if it's the latter then in all likelihood that person fails this test This behavioral or ethical test When I was born again, I was also delivered from pornography Took a little longer for that battle to be ultimately one But my desires changed instantly when I was born again I wanted to please God and honor my wife even though I I failed for a little while So do you look at pornography sir or ma'am for that matter?

If you do you need to know that you're an adulterer you're guilty of adultery and you need to repent The bottom line of this second test the behavioral or ethical test is summed up in 1st John chapter 3 verses 4 through 10 1st John 3 4 through 10 which says Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness Sin is lawlessness You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin No one who abides in him keeps on sinning No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him Little children let no one deceive you whoever practices righteous righteousness is righteous as he is righteous Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil For the devil has been sinning from the beginning The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works the devil No one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning Because he's been born of God by this it is evident Who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God Nor is the one who does not love his brother So if you are still sinning just like you always sinned If you haven't been changed if your tongue is still filled with poison You need to cry out for mercy and be born again probably for real So that's the second test that last part of verse 10 there We just read as a great transition to the third test of 1st John and it says whoever does not practice Righteousness is not of God, but this is the part I'm talking about Nor is the one who does not love his brother the third test can be described as a relational test or a Relationship test and the question would be this Does your life reflect a love for the church and a love for others?

Now look we don't want to put anyone on a guilt trip We here at Grace Life Church of Brookhaven don't want to foster a legalistic mindset We're not going to say to you you have to be here every time the doors open or you're going straight to hell No, we don't believe that or think that way so that's not the question here Rather the question has more to do with your heart and your desires, you know Before I was saved I went to church But it wasn't really where I wanted to be. I wanted to be on the golf course or at home But when I was born again, my desires changed.

I became hungry for the Word of God I wanted to learn as much as I could I Wanted to be with people who were learning just like me. I Wanted to be with people who worshiped the God who had saved me I've heard brother Chris you have to give us similar testimony Several times that he wanted to be there every time the doors are open So how is your heart in this matter? Are you here because just because it's the right thing to do are you here because it's really where you want to be? How is your heart toward other people?

We brother Chris took us through the parable of the Good Samaritan I guess it was the last last Wednesday Has God made your heart like the heart of the Good Samaritan that we studied a heart that is moved to compassion toward others or if you honestly evaluate your heart is it more like that of the priest and the Levite in the story who just really couldn't be bothered or Who didn't want to get dirty or whatever? Whatever it is So examine yourself to see if you're in the faith to see if there is evidence Based on how you do on the three tests.

We just discussed whether you have indeed been born again Or whether you need to run to the cross and cry out for mercy God is rich in mercy and he will save to the uttermost Those who humbly come to him for mercy so doubts will bubble up Doubts can come from the devil or they can come from our own flesh But if you've been born again those doubts can be answered They can be erased and put to bed those doubts can be dealt with and should be dealt with by doing three simple things Just three things number one Remember what Christ has done on the cross it is finished Number two remember the testimony of God He has given eternal life to those who believe on his son And then third it held up two fingers three fingers third examine your life is sin still the pattern of your life or Has God changed you have you been changed?

Are you a new creation with a new heart new habits new desires? Those three things settle the matter for a believer one way or the other period Whether you have an eternal life is not up to you folks I'm not telling you when you examine your life in in by those tests that oh Well, I need to control my tongue better or I need to go to church more. No, that's not it those Those tests in those tests you're looking for evidence of what God has done Because it's not up to you.

You don't receive eternal life based on anything about you or Based on anything you've done or not done and you don't keep it Based on anything about you or based on anything you've done or not done Listen if it were up to me To keep myself saved. I couldn't do it for 15 minutes and neither could you Trust Christ Trust God's Word be assured Christian And listen if you aren't sure If you examine yourself by those tests in the book of first John and you see that you've got some areas that you really you know Like hmm. I'm not sure Well come see us brother Chris brother Keith these men care for you and Want to help you?

You can be assured but you got to be born again To be assured Let's pray Father I thank you that your word is true That your word is ever truthful ever faithful and that you can be trusted and Lord I am so thankful that my salvation was not up to me Either gaining it or keeping it Because Lord you never fail and I trust your promise that You who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it I trust your promise that you will present me blameless on that day Not because I am my own life and behavior or blameless surely not But you will present me in the blamelessness of your son Because you have clothed me with your perfect righteousness which conceals my miserable disobedience So thank you.

Thank you for your sacrifice Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for the love with which you have loved Those who believe on you The Lord I pray that you would help us Help everybody here anybody listening Lord to examine themselves to see that they're in the faith And I pray that your word would have its desired work in Jesus name Amen