Final Certainty #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. A secular authority on public speaking once said, tell your audience what you're going to say, and then say it, and then tell them what you just said. A little three point outline there for public speaking.

That's not bad advice, even if I wouldn't totally embrace everything that the man who said that was known for. But as we come to our final passage in 1 John, you can turn in your Bibles to 1 John, as you come to the final passage of 1 John, that is exactly what is going on here. The Apostle John is summarizing everything that he has said in the letter.

He had said up front what he was going to say. He spent five chapters saying it, and now as we come to this final passage, he is telling us what he had just said in order to bring things to a fitting climax and conclusion that would justify and vindicate everything that he had said. Now throughout the book of 1 John, the Apostle has been teaching his readers how to achieve spiritual victory in a hostile world. How is it that we as believers face the world and the devil and false teachers and the trials and temptations that come to us?

How is it that you obtain spiritual victory through all of those supernatural foes, or more accurately, over all of those supernatural foes? John has spent the entire book describing that and explaining it as he was refuting the false teachers who were abusing his readers. Now as we come to the final four verses, he summarizes everything to make his final impact and call to action.

He closes on a final note of certainty. Look at verses 18 through 21 with me. John says, "'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. We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, guard yourselves from idols.'" Now as you look at that passage, as we just kind of approach it from an overview fashion, look at the beginning of the first three verses. And John starts them in the exact same way. He says, "'We know...' verse 18, "'We know...' verse 19, "'We know...' verse 20, verse 20, "'We know Him who is true. We know Him who is true. This is the true God and eternal life.'"

I want you to notice something very crucial as we approach this passage. John is speaking in the language of dogmatic affirmations. He is speaking in the language of certainty. He is not making hesitant suggestions. He is not speaking in the academic doublespeak of deference and possibilities. He is speaking in a language of clarity, a language of certainty, not confusion, not doubt. John isn't like some of the modern teachers of the Bible today who delight in stimulating doubt in their hearers, stimulating confusion, asking questions but never getting around to answering them, posing difficulties but never solving them.

John does the exact opposite here. He has said what he has to say and now he is coming and driving home, pounding the nails home with a final word of exhortation. And what he's done here is he's really summarized all of the themes that he has said throughout the earlier part of the letter. And so we're going to look at two aspects.

Right now I'm getting ready to tell you what I'm about to say, alright? We're going to look at the certain realities of salvation that John explains in verses 18 through 20. And then we're going to look in verse 21 at the corresponding responsibility of salvation, the certain realities of salvation in verses 18 through 20 and the corresponding responsibility of salvation, the responsibility that flows from being a possessor of eternal life.

So that's where we're going to go and now I'm going to tell you all about this, not all about it. I've spent 43 messages up to this point in 1 John and what John has done here is he's summarizing everything that goes before. And so we're not going to try to unpack everything, we're going to summarize it simply like John does. So point number one, the certain realities of salvation. Now as you go through this final section, John is acting like a skilled trial attorney who is making his closing argument.

He's driving the jury to the verdict that they need to reach. He's summarizing everything that has been presented in order to call them to action. He lays out here three realities of salvation in verses 18 through 20.

And these are just summaries of what has gone on before. First of all, the first certain reality of salvation that he gives here as he summarizes is he sets forth the certainty of our sanctification. This would be the first subpoint of the main point, the certainty of our sanctification.

John begins to close his argument here by emphasizing once more that holiness will mark the true Christian. Look at verse 18 with me. He says 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. Look at the way John expresses this. He speaks not only in the language of certainty, but he speaks in absolute certainty.

He doesn't allow for any exceptions when he says this. He says we know that no one who is born of God sins. You recognize a true Christian from false professors of Christianity because his relationship to sin changes. There is a certain and an inevitable consequence from becoming a Christian, and that is there is an increasing growth in sanctification. There is an increasing separation from sin. John here is not teaching that a Christian never commits an act of sin, but he's saying that true Christians do not live in an unbroken pattern of sin.

And he said this repeatedly throughout the letter. Stated differently, you can recognize a true Christian because they are committed to turning away from sin as the overall mark of their lives. That is what Christians do. True Christians do not truly come to Christ in order to have Jesus give them a better life, in order to have Jesus make them happy. True Christians, the point of conversion, the point of salvation is that we come to Christ in order to be delivered from sin. And God in His act of salvation does that. He delivers us from the power of sin and that deliverance has certain inevitable consequences in the life of the one who is truly redeemed. Now, how can John speak in such language of certainty?

He can say it with certainty. He can say it without exception because without exception, true salvation changes a man's nature. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, behold, the old things have passed away, behold, new things have come. New things have come, there is a new nature and a true Christian lives according to that new nature, which is oriented toward God's holiness and away from the sinful manner of his former life. God, as we've said so many times in the act of regeneration, plants a new nature in the man's heart. He takes out the stony heart and puts in a heart of flesh.

And because the heart is beating with new lifeblood, new life comes out without exception. Without exception, the seed that is planted will necessarily grow and bear fruit. That's why we speak with dogmatic certainty on this point. Look back at chapter 3 verse 9 where John addressed this earlier in the letter.

You'll see as we go through this passage here today how he just picks up on themes that he's already been talking about earlier in the letter. He says in chapter 3 verse 9, he says, no one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, God's seed abides in him and he cannot sin. In other words, he cannot go on sinning because he is born of God.

He's been born into a new family and that new family has new characteristics that inevitably mark themselves. Now as we go back to verse 18, chapter 5 verse 18, we see that there's something else that guarantees this holiness in the life of a believer. There's something else that makes it certain, that makes this inevitable as a consequence of true salvation.

So inevitable, so necessarily true that the absence of this is a sure mark of someone who's never been converted in the first place. What is the other thing that guarantees this that goes beyond the fact that God has caused us to be born again? God has placed His Holy Spirit within us.

What else is there, as if that weren't enough? What else is there that shows the comprehensive glory of salvation that God has given to us? Look at verse 18 with me again. He says we know that no one who is born of God sins, but he who was born of God, a reference to Jesus Christ as shown by the change in the verb tense in the original language and in your NASB a capital H marking out that interpretation as well, he who was born of God, Jesus Christ who was historically born into the human race by the power of the Holy Spirit, that one who was born of God keeps the child of God. He keeps Him and the evil one does not touch Him. Jesus Christ keeps us so that we do not fall back into our former way of sin. So that we do not fall back into the former manner of life.

So that we do not completely apostatize back into the person we were before. It's not just that God has given us a new nature, but now that He has given us a new nature, the Son of God Himself keeps us in salvation. He keeps us progressing in salvation through all of the ups and downs of life, through all of the ups and downs of spiritual growth. The unseen hand of the powerful Lord Jesus Christ is guaranteeing our further progress in holiness. Jesus Christ keeps this child of God. S. Lewis Johnson said, we as Christians are the objects of the keeping ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ who through the Spirit indwells us and keeps us from persistent sin, end quote.

Part of the ministry of Christ, part of His multifaceted, loving, gracious ministry to the redeemed is that He keeps us from sin. And the powerful work of Christ, the powerful hand of Christ cannot be thwarted. He cannot fail in His ministry.

He cannot fail to do what He has said that He would do. His salvation cannot fail. And because Christ cannot fail, and because He is the one who has saved us, and the reason that He saved us was to save us from sin, then it is inevitable, it is necessary, it is certain that the true child of God will not continue in sin in the way that He did before His salvation. There will be a change in life. There will be a change in nature.

There is a change in nature that manifests itself. And the absence of that evidence of sanctification is certain proof that a person was never born again to begin with. Not saying, as we said before, we're not saying that a Christian never sins. Look back at chapter one, you have to keep the totality of what John says in mind to stay on, to stay balanced in what he's saying so that you don't go places that he doesn't intend you to go. It's not a matter that we never commit acts of sin, it's that the whole orientation toward sin is different. Because in chapter one, verse nine, he says if we confess our sins, if we are confessing our sins, the language means, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Chapter two, verse one, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone sins, if despite this provision you still find yourself from time to time sinning, we have an Advocate with the Father who has us covered, whose blood has turned away the wrath of God from us. And so John is talking about more than individual acts of sin, he's talking about something deeper and more profound.

He's talking about an orientation of life. And he says the true child of God is so oriented away from sin that we can rightly say that He does not continue in sin now that He has been saved. And the spiritual reality undergirding that is the keeping ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are a Christian here this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is keeping you by name in order to preserve you in holiness. Call that to mind the next time temptation comes your way. Call that to mind the next time you're tempted toward discouragement and despair. Call that to mind.

Call to mind the keeping ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ whose personal hand is on your personal life. There are no exceptions to the true Christian. We are wonderfully blessed, aren't we?

This is amazing. And this is not subject to debate. This is not subject to question. The Apostle John says, we know this, this is certain. On the authority of God's Word, we know this to be true. And in it, we find our motivation for holiness and our motivation to persevere. In the passage that Shawn read a little earlier, turn back to John 17, I want to go back there for just a moment. Jesus alluded to this aspect of His ministry.

He manifested this aspect of His ministry even during His earthly life with the 12 disciples. Chapter 17 verse 12, I want you to turn there if you haven't. John 17 verse 12, where Jesus said, while I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me. And I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Verse 15, I do not ask You to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one. And He is praying and He's saying I'm keeping them and I ask You, Father, to keep them. And in verse 20 He says, I don't ask on behalf of these alone, those that were around Him at the time, but for those also who will believe in Me through their word that they all may be one. We have...we have an awesome Redeemer.

I mean, adjectives just fail me when we talk about this. There aren't adjectives that are lofty enough and grand enough from the fallen lips of a sinful man using fallen language to express how glorious this is. The Son of God not only came and sacrificed His life in order to redeem us from sin, He not only was raised from the dead and intercedes for us now at the right hand of the Father, He is keeping us.

Oh my friends, your heart should just melt with glorious overflowing gratitude and thanksgiving and praise to Christ. If you have any portion of the Holy Spirit, the reality of these truths, lift your thoughts and lift your heart to places of glory that nothing else does. This is why we love Christ with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. This is why we are devoted to Him. This is why we are committed to Him. This is why we are committed to His Word. He has been so gracious to us and He still is and He will be throughout the unfolding of all the ages of eternity.

I love Him, don't you? Now in describing the keeping ministry of Christ, the last thing that we would say is that now that Jesus is keeping us, we have no responsibility to actively pursue holiness. That is not what John teaches, that is not what anyone has said that has been true to the Bible. In fact, in verse 21, John is going to conclude with a command that requires the pursuit of holiness in the lives of those who know Christ. But what we're saying here is that the ultimate success in our pursuit of sanctification, the ultimate keeping power comes from Christ Himself. He keeps us.

He preserves us and therefore sanctification is a certain reality of our salvation. That's the positive expression of it. John expresses it in the negative side as well, as he does throughout this letter. He'll state something in a positive way and then he'll state the other side, the negative aspect of it.

The head of the coin and the tail of the coin, so to speak. He goes back and forth and covers all of the bases. He makes positive affirmations and he makes negative declarations, all to bring us to a point of clarity in our thinking, a point of assurance, a point of certainty about these things. Listen, I understand, and Phil Johnson has taught much better and much more often than I have, that in certain circles, doubt, spiritual doubt is perceived as a virtue, as an expression of humility. It is not, it is a gross sin for someone to come to the Bible and read the kinds of things that we see here in front of us today and say, no, I doubt that.

I question that, I can't be sure. The whole point of 1 John is that you'd be sure, and the arrogance lies not in the one who proclaims certainty, but the one who questions it. The one who would not only question it himself, but lead other people into doubt and uncertainty, rather than clarifying questions so they could have the kind of assurance for which this book was written. Verse 18, the other aspect of this, Christ keeps us in a positive sense, and look at the end of verse 18, he says, the evil one does not touch him. A reference to the devil, the reference to Satan himself, and all of those powers that are under his control. What this is saying is, is that Christ's protection of his own is so thorough and complete that even the devil himself does not have the power to lay hold of us and harm us. There really isn't much need to go around praying to rebuke Satan and, you know, casting him out by the mighty name of Jesus.

Jesus does that anyway. The evil one does not touch him. Christ our Savior protects us from him, protects us from that kind of harm. And you see that illustrated in the life of Job where God set specific boundaries around what the devil could do. The devil does not have unhindered access to us as believers.

He doesn't. He cannot touch us, he cannot touch us and ultimately harm us. The whole idea of the being saved, being delivered in part is a deliverance from the power and domination of the devil. I love Christ, don't you? To have been under...to have been a child of the devil, to have been under his domination, to be a child of wrath and Christ delivers from that us from that. He has delivered us from that with ongoing results and now we are free from that, free from that fear under the sovereign gracious hand of God, the sovereign gracious hand, the nail-scarred hands, you might say. Of our Redeemer? What a magnificent position we have in Christ. What glory should be going from our hearts up to His holy throne as we consider these things? To be sure, Christians are still subject to temptation, but God establishes the boundaries. He draws a circle around us, as it were, so that it never exceeds the place that He has brought us to spiritually. Let me remind you of 1 Corinthians 10, 13 in this context.

You don't need to turn there, but jot it down in your notes. It's an important cross-reference. 1 Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and here's the point for today, and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able because He keeps us, because the devil does not have unrestricted access to us. He cannot lay hold of us and harm us in an ultimate sense. And so, rather than giving in to the severe trials and temptations that come our way, here's a point of application. When we see them coming, when we find ourselves in the midst of them, the very fury of the trial should strengthen us and encourage us all the more to realize that even the power of this trial is not something that is beyond the power that God has given to protect me and to sustain me. And you measure the vast scope of His power, the vast scope of the power of salvation even in the midst of your worst trials and struggles by recognizing that the power of that has to be subordinate to the greater power of God. And while it seems overwhelming at the time, what would otherwise overwhelm you simply becomes an indicator, a leading indicator of an even greater power that protects you.

Because if it was actually had the ability to overwhelm you, it never would have come to you in the first place. And so you measure the depth of the power that holds you, sometimes by the depths of the trials that the Lord allows to come into your life. And as a believer in Christ, those severe trials are simply a measure, an indicator of a greater power that John says cannot touch you, cannot harm you.

It's an indication that even through that, Christ is going to keep you. The certainty of sanctification that He expresses here is rooted in the ministry of Christ on behalf of those that He loves, and we love Him in response. Well, my friend, before we go after today's broadcast, I just want to invite you to look me up on Facebook, Don Green on Facebook. I often make original posts, I make comments about ministry and other matters of biblical importance there that do not make their way into this broadcast. And so if you are on Facebook, I invite you to join me, look for Don Green, and join us on Facebook for another way to connect with our ministry. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.