First John 5:18-21 Confidence and Certainties of Believers 3,

Well, this lesson today was indeed a challenge and I spent some time talking it over with Roger during the week. And I think you'll pick up on that as we look at it together. Would you open your Bibles to, if you haven't already, 1st John chapter 5 and what we're doing is this is the last lesson in 1st John. We've titled this Part 3 of Confidence and Certainties of Believers covering verses 18 through 21 in chapter 5 of 1st John. Here's just a real quick overview of 1st John. There's five chapters.

And Chet McCauley has given us this little outline, has a preface there in verses 1 through 4. And God is light, so his children ought to walk in that light. Chapter 1 verses 5 through 229. God is love, so his children ought to walk in that love. Chapter 3 verse 1 through 512.

And then we jump into the section that we're in now, the last one, the conclusion, verses 13 through 21 of chapter 5. If you're interested, there's his email address again. Chester McCulley is with the Lord, but his messages are on recorded audio at that URL if you're interested. Now let's take a look at our relationship to God, parts 1 and 2, because what I'm doing is reviewing chapter 5 with you.

We began with these three verses. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. And by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. It sounds like your mic is on there, Mike. Do you want to turn it off, please? Thank you, appreciate that. Okay, verse 3 again.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. And somebody always asks, well what are his commandments? In the New Testament, Gospel of John, the Apostle gave us very distinctly the two commandments that our Lord and Savior spoke. believe on him whom God has sent, and love one another as he loves us. Those are the commands that are distinctly given. Now, part two of our relationship to God, we covered verses four and five.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world. Notice, whatever is neuter, it has to do with our faith, the faith of us. And who is the one who has overcome the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Jesus, God's Son, is the one we trust. And notice that it is the faith of us that we believe that is overcoming.

Look at the other pair of testimonies in this section, chapter 5, the testimony of the spirits, part 1 and 2. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not with water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. And these three are in agreement.

In part two of the Testimony of the Spirit, we covered verse 9 through 12, If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for the witness of God is this, that he is born witness concerning his Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself.

The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God is born concerning his Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

Isn't that comforting? Looking at another thing now, Parts 1 and 2 of the very section that we're going to pick up today with Part 3, Confidence and Certainties of Believers. Verses 13 through 15 was the first part. These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, We know that we have the requests which we have asked from him. In part two, we went on with verse 16 through 17.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will give him life. to those who commit sin not leading to death, and there is a sin leading to death. I don't say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. How tender the care is in God telling us that we ought to be not only looking out for ourselves, but by prayer, committing to God's care, those who we observe sinning in our fellowship in God's family. Boy, pretty personal, isn't it? Part three is today. Beginning at verse 18, we'll go on to the end of the chapter.

We know that no one who is born of God sins, but he who was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. Now we know that we are of 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 in order that we might 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, guard yourselves from idols. Roger, when you selected me to cover these verses, I'll tell you, we could spend a year on these verses. Anyway, let's delve into verse 18 first, and I've highlighted in black what we're going to look at first. We know that no one who is born of God sins, and that we know is Oida.

It's perfected knowledge in the perfect tense used as the present tense. And this is one of those rare words that comes from Aidan, which is an ancient word no longer in use in Greek when this was written. And so what they did was they took the meaning and put it in its usage, primarily perfect tense, but understood to be in the present tense. The perfect tense, if you were technical about it, is completed action in the past with abiding results today.

And one of the things that we're looking at here is, well, then how do we interpret this? Yeah, Roy, I think you had a question here. You bet. I think you mentioned the fact that we could spend a long time on these verses. And one verse, you know, kind of, it's a little bit hard to understand. And that verse is, we know that This is 18. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. And the one who was born of God keeps him safe. I agree with that, except that I certainly sin now, but my sins are covered by Jesus.

You bet. And we're going to cover this in detail if you'll hang with us, Jim, okay? Okay. It is Jim, right? Do I have your name right? Yes. Yeah, okay, thank you. I'm going to go into a lot of detail here, so hang with us, okay? And if you have questions, that's great. We'll try to answer them. Oida, I'm trying to explain this first word in this very verse that you're asking about. And I've given it the meaning in bright red here, we inwardly know. This is, from God's perspective, perfected knowledge. Knowledge that He has given us that has been made complete and true. What do we know?

Any man, and this is an inclusive adjective, it includes any specific man. It is indefinite, and therefore we can't really pinpoint this as being a specific individual, but any man is described here. It's an adjective, so it's going to describe what follows. What follows is a definite article in the masculine form.

The translation would be as it is in your Bible. The New American Standard is what we're quoting at the top there. He who is a good translation here. The new-in-kind man is of God's nature, and we get that by understanding that we have been recreated in Christ as new-in-kind with His nature. And that's who's in view here. Any man, specifically the one who has God's nature, has been born.

And this is from Ginnomai. And this is a perfected birth. Perfect tense. This is not used in the present form, but this is in the full force of the perfect tense. Action in the past with abiding results. Out from, the God, is the next words in our text. That little preposition X means out from. And the original source here is the genitive form of God. The God, specifically, article plus noun. Not any God, but the God is in view. And it is the form in genitive of subject. He's the actor here. We are born by Him.

And then the negative not and sins. And this is where most people stumble a little bit because they want to put in the word continues to sin as if sometimes the new man inside of us that God has created may sin and sometimes he doesn't sin. Therefore, they put the word continues in there. No, that's not what it says. It says he does not sin continuously. He is not the source. Listen to me. Source of sin is not our new man. We'll go into that some more in a few minutes.

My literal translation, and I've put my notes here at the bottom, it's the original word order with italicized words only added if I thought it might be helpful. We have one italicized word here. does not sin. We inwardly know that any man who has been born out from the God does not sin and that's a literal rendering of the text if you want to hear what God had to say here. Now let's go on to the last part of the verse and it begins with but and we're going to pick that up with Allah It is a contrast that is view.

And so he is focusing on a definite article, specific one, masculine form. So this is the new kind of man, God's man, that he has made us. This is the new man in us. You may disagree with that and obviously the New American Standard Version here has capitalized HE, designating that this is God or Jesus Christ.

I do not take it that way and I want to be very specific here because I think there's a great deal of confusion here. What does the text say rather than what are we wanting to read into it? It says, he who has been born, and notice it is not the perfect. It is the aorist passive. Passive action has been occurred here on this new man that is in view. Out from God. Again, same words.

The specific one who has been born out from God is keeping, and the meaning here is keeping, guarding, preserving, and I have given you and capitalized His work. Note, born of God man guards, and I'm going to get to this, himself. So only God's work is done in and through himself. This is where I really find an epitome of taking the verse for what it says.

The next word is himself. It is not him. This is a reflexive pronoun. It refers to self. the object of the action is this new man that has been born out from God, not the personal pronoun him. And I want to emphasize that. Why? If it is interpreted to be Jesus Christ, then you would have to say Jesus Christ is keeping or guarding himself. That is not true. He does not need to be guarded.

We do. And this text is literally saying that we guard or protect the work of God in us. That's what the new man is. Whose nature is it that we have? God's. And God is going to only protect His own work in us. And that's who we are now. We are part of His nature. That is so intimate. It goes way beyond putting God in a separate category and saying He protects us. No. We are guarding ourselves to let Him do His work in us. That's what the text says.

And the evil one, and this is in addition to that, the evil one, the wicked one, not is touching him. My literal translation, we're inwardly knowing that any man who has been born out from the God of Ada does not sin. But he who has been born out from the God is keeping himself. And the evil one is not touching him.

Now, lest you think that I'm emphasizing me versus God, I'm not. The keeping work that is in view here is the work of God in us, his life. And we want to keep that sacred and separate from anyone else doing that work, including ourselves. Let me go on with the text. We know that we are of God in verse 19, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Again, same perfect word here. We inwardly know that out from the God, again subjective is God here, He is the actor, We exist, we are being. I like that MA verb, the status quo, the existence we have.

The new in kind man is of God's nature, continuously existing. This is the perfected birth. It's not an incomplete birth like we have here on earth. This is the perfect birth out from God so that we now exist as children in His family. Isn't that wonderful? How specific the Holy Spirit is here. And look at this. We know this. I'm going to answer the question, how do we know this, by looking at the text a little bit further on. Because God tells us how we know this. And the world, the whole world, the entire world, not just part of it. What is the world? The world is man's organized chaos.

All of it. is in the evil one. It's held in the evil one. And that word held means actually lying under or being in sleep. in the control of the evil one, obviously referring to Satan. And this is the fallen birth out of fallen man, so that man now exists as held down by Satan. Boy, how specific the Holy Spirit is in giving us these words. We inwardly know that out from God we are being, we are existing, out from God, while the whole world in the evil one is literally asleep, held asleep. Why? I like J. Vernon McGee's, when he's teaching that verse, what does he say? Satan is in control of all of the world and he does not want the world woken up.

Isn't that something? Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Verse 20 begins with, And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding. Look at that. Here it is again. We inwardly know. Same form. And there's a but here, it's a mild but, it's not the strong one like Allah. But in contrast to that, the Son of God, again, the Son, again, we have that genitive, subjectively, out from God. The Son has been born out of God and He has come. The Holy Spirit is telling us something in the present form, right now. He exists now. He has come. He was promised before, wasn't he? He has come now. And He has given to us perfected action mood here. He has given something that He has done in the past with ongoing results right now to us, understanding. How do we know inwardly with perfected knowledge? Here's the answer. He has given us understanding, comprehension that is correct and thorough.

It comes from God, not from us. But we inwardly know that the Son of thee God has come, and he has given to us understanding. He told his disciples when he was leaving, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, and he's going to take the things of mine and show them unto you. And this is John who was in that room when that was said to him, repeating it. He has given us understanding. Let me go on with the middle part of the verse here.

In order that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is one of the most precious truths that you'll ever run across. This is positional truth. This is our existence from God's perspective. in order that with this purpose he gave us this firm knowledge that we might be knowing by experience the one who is true literally that's what it says here the true one he is reality this is a conditional now We may be knowing by interacting with Him who created us intimately, harmoniously, experientially, His very essence of life, which is our light and which is manifest, like Him, in love and joy. It was for the joy set before Him that He loved us through the cross. Isn't that something? And that joy is that we may be knowing Him. He, when He died, ripped the veil between the holy of holies and the holy place from top to bottom.

And God has come out to us so that we may know him now personally. And we are being in the one who is true. This is positional truth. We exist in him now. This is our position from His perspective. Our condition is that we may be knowing Him. That's conditional, day by day. Our eternal position is we, right now, exist in the One who is true. And this is real. We're really, right now and forever, positioned in Him.

Isn't this a powerful verse? He couldn't be more specific. He continues by saying, In the Son of Him, Jesus Christ, there is no one else that we are in. We are in Him. And in translation, in order that we may die, knowing Him, I'm sorry, may be knowing the One who is true, and we are being in the One who is true, in the Son of Him, Jesus Christ. The last part is tremendous.

This is the true God, that eternal life. He couldn't be more specific. This one man is how that literally, this particular one is being. He exists in reality. The one who is true, he is reality. God's reality is much bigger than anything we can see or touch or feel. Okay, let me just continue. This is the true God and eternal life is what we're looking at. This one man, this particular one is being, is existing as the one who is reality, God himself. We sometimes miss this. He is the perfect man as well as real deity in all of the sense of deity. He is fully God. Not just partially. Fully God united with perfect man. One individual and only one individual meets that qualification. And guess what?

We're in Him. and life eternal. Of all of the words that the Holy Spirit has chosen to describe what is being shared with us by Himself, life is the word that He focuses on. Life of God is our light. In the Gospel of John, you'll find that in the first chapter. The life of God is the light of men. Jesus Christ is God's life.

It's unlimited by time, revealing both to us and through us his perfection and joy. And that's the direction that the Holy Spirit has taken us up to this point in this verse. But he's not done. Let me give you the literal rendering before we move on. But we inwardly know that the Son of God has come and He has given to us understanding. in order that we may be knowing the one who is true. And we are being the one who is true in the Son of Him, Jesus Christ. This one man is being the one who is true God and life eternal outside of time. Little children, guard yourselves from idols is the last verse.

And it is an evocative voice here, neuter. He's talking to born ones, little, your children. And he is addressing as if he is commanding us. And he uses a word that is a command here, and it is a fulaso. It's the activity of a watchman. Guard, protect, watch.

Of all of the words that he could have chosen, the Holy Spirit chose this word and he used it with a, again, reflexive pronoun, one that focuses on yourselves. So John speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit and under his influence says, children, guard yourselves. And this is reflexive, just like we had back in verse 18. The action focuses on self. And this includes us as members of God's family. Is everything okay? Yeah. Okay. Mike Pola, you got your mic on again. Could you shut it off? Sometimes he comes on with his mic and it makes a little background noise. That's why I'm asking him to do that. Thanks, Roy. That helps.

Amen is the last word. It's an indeclinable form. Why is it indeclinable? Because it's a transliteration from the Hebrew amein. And it's usually translated into Greek by genoito, let it be so truly. And this amein is not in the older Greek texts, so I haven't included it in my literal translation.

Children, guard yourself from idols. And I want to say this about this. God's concluding address to us is a summation of all that he's told us previously in this book of First John. God's command is to stand guard over ourselves, his new in kind family. And in the context, that does not mean that we are just looking at ourselves. It means that we are observing our family of God as well in prayer. And we are holding the shield of faith in our Creator, using Paul's terminology, the shield of faith that enables us to enjoy His life while He reveals His life of light and love, not just to us, but through us.

When I read this, I thought, hmm, how am I supposed to do this? Duh. Read the context. How does he reveal himself? by His witness inside us. Look again at 1 John 5, 6-12. We read it this morning, just a few minutes ago. God's witness is absolute truth. So trust in Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, and Him alone. That is guarding yourself from idols, in a nutshell. Ah, boy, it's hard to break away from the text like this, but let me look at it from this standpoint.

In the New American Standard, we have these words. In my literal rendering, we have the words in the middle, in bold. And at the bottom, we have a Wiest's expanded translation. And I've got to move here because we're running out of time. So let me read it quickly in Wiest's, okay? I do not agree with his translation but I want you to notice from his translation he is faithful but has read in a little bit of his own interpretation in verse 18.

We know absolutely that everyone who has been born out of God and as a result is a regenerated individual does not keep on habitually sinning but he who has been born out of God maintains a watchful guardianship over him, and the pernicious one does not lay hold of him.

We know with an absolute knowledge that out of God we are, and the whole world in the pernicious one is lying. We know with an absolute knowledge that the Son of God has come and is here. And he has given us a permanent understanding in order that we may be knowing in the experiential way the one who is genuine. And we are in the genuine one, in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the genuine God and life eternal.

Little children, guard yourselves from idols. I'm going to do something today that I've never done before. I'm going to take us on a word hunt. Let's look first, based on our title of this section of 1 John, at the words for confidence in 1 John. Just looking at that thought pattern.

In 1st John 2.28 it says, And now little children abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence, and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. Notice in chapter 3.21, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. in 4.17, by this love is perfected in us. I'm sorry. How precious this is. God loves us so much and when it reaches the goal that he has in mind, we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Because as He is, He has made us also in this world.

In 1 John 5, 14-15, and this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if we know, and we do, that he hears us in whatever we ask we know that we have the requests which we have asked from him and again the focus here is we believers recreated as new and kind in his nature will be talking to him according to his will and he hears us and we'll have what we ask for I want to say something here.

When our Lord in the garden prayed, Not my will, but thy will be done. Isn't there any other way? Not my will, but thy will be done. His humanity was crying out before he bore our sins. And God taught him Obedience as a man is best. It is exactly that way that he deals with us. When we know he hears us, he will answer what is best according to his plan for us. Just like it was for Christ.

Isn't that personal? I'm sorry, there's a lot there. Look at this word, certainties, the second part of our title of this section of the text. It is from Oida and Gnosko. Two words, completed knowledge, certain knowledge, and experiential knowledge. Knowledge we learn by experience.

In 2.11 it says, one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going.

In 2.20 it says, but you have anointing of the Holy One and you all know, every one of you, you know what is true because it's the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we have. And I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it.

That's 1 John 2.21.

In 2.29, if you know that he is righteous, and you do, you know experientially that everyone who practices righteousness is born out of him by this new man you have in you.

In 3.2 it says, You know that when he appears, we shall be like him. We shall see him as he is when he comes. And in 3.5 it says, And you know that he appeared in order to take away sins. Wow!

In 3.14, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren.

And sometimes it's hard to love the brethren, isn't it? He who does not love abides in death. Separation of fellowship in view, I believe. If you don't love those who have been born out by God into existence, 315, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding. God's life is not at home in him. Doesn't mean he's not alive. It means that God's life is not at home in him.

4 7 Beloved let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows experientially God. We can't love one another unless we're born of God and then we experientially know God. He continues in chapter 5 verse 13, These things I've written to you that who believe in the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. In 515, if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

In 5.18, my translation this time, we inwardly know that any man who has been born out from the God does not sin. But he who has been born out from the God is keeping himself, and the evil one is not touching him. You can also look at 3, 6, and 9. The ones abiding in him and born out from him do not sin. Notice three times God tells us that our new nature does not sin.

519, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 520. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know experientially 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. Seven times, we is used with the perfect of oida, perfected knowledge.

Why? The we tells us that John is including himself here. Not just distressing you and me. And I've given you some observations regarding the title. Here's something as an example of born of God. How much more do you have to go, do you think? I'm going to sum up pretty quickly. OK, thanks. You bet. There are in the text before us, born of God words. Notice 229, born of him, 39, born of God, born of God, 47, born of God, 5-1, born of God, born of him. 5-4, born of God. And 5-18, born out from thee God, born out from thee God. It's the same in these other texts, don't get me wrong.

Here's observation about 10 verses about life, and there they are. Here's an observation in 1 John about 5 verses about light, and there they are. Observations in 1 John of 17 verses about love, and there they are. My beloved, this is a bit of homework. Check these verses out. See God's life, light, and love and how they're revealed. I've done the homework of telling you where they are, but you need to have the homework of looking them up.

I've never done that before, folks. I just hope it is applicable to this message today in our study. Isn't it precious how God has given us so much in 1 John? Not just in the way of, how shall I say this? A knowledge that is nice and we can go home. I don't think it is that way at all. It is, this is who you are and this is who I am that he is saying to us. And in that regard, he wants us to be firm in our confidence in him. Don't let anything else get in the way of your focus on Jesus Christ. Isn't that something? Jim, I don't know you're visiting today. Was that of any help to you? Yes.

My beliefs are the Bible is absolutely correct in every way. You bet. A verse that is a little confusing, I jump right on it because I have to make sure that I feel comfortable with that verse because I believe Whatever is in the Bible is absolutely correct.

So do we, and that's why I was so careful by bringing it out that it is a reflexive pronoun that is the receiver of the action here in verse 18, himself. Not him. As has been taken, and we do understand, it's very true that he protects us, isn't it? But we're reading into the text that truth, rather than exegeting, reading out of the text, what is he saying? And that's what I'm attempting to do. I'm going to stand before God. You're going to stand before God. And we're each going to be held accountable. Did we represent him the way he wanted himself to be represented as to what he said?

I've done the best I can, folks, but I'm just a man, just like you, okay? Heavenly Father, thank you for this time together. Man, I'll tell you, you are so specific and you make it so easy to not just hold up the shield of faith in you, but experientially come to know you. And we thank you for that. May each of us never let anything get in the way of trusting you. May we be, like you tell us in 1 John, perfectly conformed to your image by the work of your Spirit in every way. In Christ's name, Amen.