Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford

1 John 5:1-12 [NLTse]

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves His children, too. ² We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey His commandments. ³ Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. ⁵ And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶ And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by His baptism in water and by shedding His blood on the cross—not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, Who is truth, confirms it with His testimony. ⁷ So we have these three witnesses— ⁸ the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree. ⁹ Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about His Son. ¹⁰ All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about His Son.

¹¹ And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

¹³ I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

Sermon

I went and sat with Evelyn Ruff last night in her room at Karen Ann Quinlan’s hospice home over on the other side of Newton. She was in her last moments, or perhaps her last days. Only God knows… She was not conscious while I was there, that I know of. So I held her hand, stroked her forehead, read Scripture, prayed, and sang.

It was such a blessing to sit with her. Evy has lived such a faithful life; overcome much hardship and many trials; and yet all of it with such hope and trust in Christ, at least as I’ve been near watching her these past 18 years. As I sat there saying “goodbye” and entrusting her into the Lord Jesus’ care I was so grateful for her life in Christ. I was so grateful for the confidence I had (because I’d seen the way she lived by faith), and so I could read God’s promises and entrust her to Him so assuredly.

Now, we can never be absolutely sure of another’s saving faith, of course. The Reverend Billy Graham has given the world so much evidence of the genuineness of his faith, and yet, even so, we can only truly speak the promises of God and be consoled by the promises of God with hope when it comes to the salvation of other people. After all, we can only see the outside. God alone knows the heart.

But we can know and be assured of our own saving faith. We can know the sincerity of our own love and our own commitment and our own faith and trust in God’s Word and work for us on the cross of Christ. More than that, God wants us to know and be assured! And yet many Christians don’t allow themselves the benefit of such confidence.

In 1654 a Puritan named Thomas Brooks wrote, “Assurance is the believer’s ark where he sits, Noah-like, quiet and still in the midst of all distractions and destructions, commotions and confusions… [However] most Christians live between fears and hopes, and hang, as it were, between Heaven and #@!*. Sometimes they hope that their state is good, at other times they fear that their state is bad: now they hope that all is well, and that it shall go well with them for ever; [then] they fear that they shall perish by the hand of such a corruption, or by the prevalency of such or such a temptation… They are like a ship in a storm, tossed here and there.” (Brooks, Heaven on Earth, p. 11)

Many followers of Jesus Christ who are seeking to be more confident in their identity as new creations and children of God look in the wrong places. They tend to seek the assurance of their salvation in the things God is doing in their lives, or in their spiritual growth, or in the good works and obedience to God’s Word that is evident in their Christian walk. And while these things are important evidence of our new lives in Christ, God-lovers should not base our confidence on them. Rather, we should find our foundation and assurance in the truth of God’s Word. We should have confident trust that we are in Christ and that Christ is in us based on the promises God has declared, not because of our subjective experiences.

How can you be assured you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ? Consider 1 John 5:11–13 from our reading this morning: “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.” If you you’ve trusted in Jesus and are following Jesus and have entrusted yourself to Jesus, you have Him, and you have life. Not temporary life. Not 10 or 40 or 70 or 90 years of life, but eternal life. God’s message to you and me in the Bible promises it. And God never lies.

Don’t get me wrong. You can be saved and doubt it. You can go to Heaven in a fog, not knowing for sure that you’re really going to get there, but that’s certainly not the best way to enjoy the trip!

And, of course, all of us as Christians have times when doubt makes us question if our faith is true and if our relationship with Jesus is real. For some, those times are but fleeting moments that come and go; for some, such doubts are nagging and ingrained and last a long time; for others, they seem like a way of life.

On the other hand, some people have assurance who shouldn’t. Jesus said, “Not everyone who calls out to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in Heaven will enter. On Judgment Day many will say to Me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws.’” (Matthew 7:21-23). Many people are deceived about their salvation which is why the apostle Paul said, “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

There seem to be several common reasons why Christian people doubt their place in God’s family. Some people lack assurance because they can’t accept God’s forgiveness. They are ruled by their emotions and feel they are too bad to be forgiven. Their identity as “bad” is still bigger to them than Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. And yet, as someone wrote: “Manasseh is saved. O despairing souls, the arms of mercy are open to receive a Manasseh, a monster, a devil incarnate; he caused that gospel prophet Isaiah to be sawed in the midst with a saw… He turned aside from the Lord to commit idolatry, and caused his sons to pass through the fire, and dealt with familiar spirits, and made the streets of Jerusalem to overflow with innocent blood…

“The soul of Mary Magdalene was full of devils; and yet Christ cast them out, and made her heart His house… Why dost thou then say there is no hope for thee, O despairing soul?

“Paul was full of rage against Christ and His people, and full of blasphemy and impiety, and yet behold, Paul is a chosen vessel, Paul is caught up into the Heaven, and he is filled with the gifts and graces of the Holy [Spirit]… Why should thou then say there is for thee no help, O despairing soul! … The apostle tells you of some monstrous miscreants that were unrighteous, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners; and yet these monsters of mankind, through the infinite goodness and free grace of God, are washed from the filth and guilt of their sins, and justified by the righteousness of Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, and decked and adorned with the precious graces of Christ… Why then, O despairing soul, shouldst thou fear that thy unworthiness and unfitness for mercy will so stop and turn the stream of mercy, as that thou must perish eternally for want of one drop of special grace and mercy?” (Heaven on Earth, pp. 93-94)

You must realize that God knew you were a sinner, which is why He sent Jesus Christ into the world to completely pay the price for your sins: Past, present, and future. God Himself said, “I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for My own sake and will never think of them again.” (Isaiah 43:25). What you can’t forget, God has chosen not to remember!

Of course, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead proves that His work on the cross brought about an eternal salvation. Jesus said He was God and rose from the dead to prove it! He said He came to accomplish the work of salvation, and God raised Him from the dead to show He was successful!

A young convert once said, “If anyone is ever to be kept out of Heaven for my sins, it will have to be Jesus, for He took them all upon Himself and made Himself responsible for them. But He is in Heaven already, never to be turned out, so now I know that I am secure.” (Ironside, p. 75)

Many Christians can be tempted to doubt God’s love for and adoption of them because of their personal struggles and the bad things they are having to endure. And yet Romans 5 says, “Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us … and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” (vv. 1-5). Our trials are not to make us discouraged or doubt. We are to let them produce hope and assurance in us as we draw near to Christ through them!

“Dear brothers and sisters,” says James, “when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” (1:2-4) Rather than causing us to doubt, the trials of life are to prove God’s love and power in us on our behalf.

Lastly, it’s been rightly said that high levels of assurance cannot be enjoyed by those who persist in low levels of obedience. To live in sin is to live in doubt. Preacher Charles Spurgeon talks about what he’s experienced in his own life:

“Whenever I feel that I have sinned and desire to overcome that sin for the future, the devil at the same time comes to me and whispers, ‘How can you be a pardoned person and accepted with God while you still sin in this way?’ If I listen to this I drop into despondency, and if I continued in that state I should fall into despair, and should commit sin more frequently than before; but God’s grace comes in and says to my soul, ‘Thou hast sinned; but did not Christ come to save sinners? Thou art not saved because thou art righteous; for Christ died for the ungodly.’ And my faith says, ‘Though I have sinned, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and though I am guilty yet by grace I am saved and I am a child of God still.’ And what then? Why the tears begin to flow and I say, ‘How could I ever sin against my God who has been so good to me? Now I will overcome that sin,’ and I get strong to fight with sin through the conviction that I am God’s child.”

Jesus Himself assures those who believe in Him: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:28–29). Yes, you should see the evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life drawing you to Jesus, helping you understand His Word, growing to be more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled as God’s Spirit transforms your life. But the bedrock for our assurance are God’s promises – made to you and to me, if we trust them – across His Word.