Certainty in Uncertain Times

I John 5:13-21

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know him who is true,
and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.
(I John 5:20)

We live in uncertain times. It seems like so much of what we used to take for granted has been changed,
devalued, or redefined. If you were asked just a few years ago “How do you define marriage?” you’d think
that’s about the silliest question you’ve ever heard. Moral absolutes are a thing of the past and the line
between right and wrong has pretty much been erased. You can hardly turn on the TV news or read a
newspaper without seeing some report of doom and gloom. Terrorism, global warming, the latest 'killer' flu… all
erode our wall of certainty.

You know, in this day and age, I don’t think we even want to be clear-cut. Our society has so bought into
relativism that if you claim to be sure about anything, you’ll be looked at with suspicion. Everyone has their
own opinion and everything is decided by surveys, polls, and focus groups. We can’t make up our own minds
about anything without first finding out what everybody else thinks. That’s the way we market our orange juice
and that’s the way we decide public policy.

It wasn’t so different in the first century. If you think your life is uncertain, imagine living in those times. Life was
hard and virtually nothing about it was certain. You might have work today, you might not. You might have
something to eat, but you might not. And if you were one of these Christ followers, well your life was all the
more uncertain. Add to that, the entrance of the gnostic influences in the church. These people came into the
church casting doubt on the Apostles’ doctrine and mixing in the popular ideas of the day.

What was a first century Christ follower to think? What could he hold on to? What is a twenty-first century
Christ follower to think? What is it that we have to hold on to?

In this section of 1 John, the Elder is wrapping up all that he has had to say. He’s summarizing and he’s also
giving us his goals and purpose for writing his letter. His message is about confidence and certainty in an
uncertain world. There are things about which you can be absolutely confident. No guesswork. No wavering.
Things that we can know with certainty and be able to act upon and incorporate into our lives.

I. The Certainty of Eternal Life (vs. 13)

Where have we gone off track? The very thing that is so clear and important to John is completely rejected by
most people today. If you tell someone that you’re sure that you are a child of God and confident in your place
in Heaven, chances are you won’t be received very well. They’ll think that’s the most arrogant and conceited
statement they’ve ever heard. They hear it as “I’m such a good person that I’m sure that I’ll make it.” You
HOPE you’ll go to heaven. You try to do what you can to make it. But, most people think it’s not possible to
know for sure that you have a home there.

It would be arrogant to think that I can be sure of myself. I know all too well how much of a failure I am to living
up to God’s standards. But, it’s far from arrogant to be confident in what Christ has done for me because He is
far from being a failure.
Can you know if you have eternal life? Well, John tells us that the whole purpose of his writing was so that
“that you may know that you have eternal life.” You can know for sure. It doesn’t do anybody any good for you
to be in doubt…not you and not God.

If it’s true that you can know for certain that you have eternal life… does it make a difference? D. L. Moody
said: 'I have never known a Christian who was any good in the work of Christ who did not have the assurance
of salvation'. I remember reading years ago about the building of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco,
some of you have probably been over it. When they started building there were no safety precautions and
devices used, and because of that 23 men fell tragically to their death. However, during the construction of the
last part of the bridge a safety net was constructed at a cost of $100,000 - which in those days was exorbitant -
but it was worth it, because it saved the lives of 10 men. But the interesting thing about that story was that
when they completed the bridge they discovered, through a very exhaustive study, that 25% more work was
accomplished in the same period of time when the men were completely sure of their personal safety. They
could get on with the work! They had that security that they longed for, to put those questions and doubts out
of their mind and throw all their energies into the work! Do you have that? Do you have the certainty of eternal
life?

II. The Certainty of Answered Prayer (14-17)

Prayer is one area of the Christian life that is completely vital yet so often misunderstood and neglected. All too
often, what we say about prayer is far from what we do. It’s something that should bring us comfort and
strength but often a discussion about prayer only stirs up feelings of guilt and disappointment for the typical
Christian. Now, I think prayer is the foundation of this church more than any other church I’ve been a part of.
But, I think we all could use encouragement in this area.

John tells us: “And this is the confidence that we have before him: that whenever we ask anything according to
his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we
have the requests that we have asked from him.” (1Jo 5:14-15)

A. He Hears
First of all - He HEARS our prayers. Sometimes you may feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, but
we can be assured that He’s listening. It’s more than just acknowledging that we’ve prayed. Hearing assumes
that He’s intimately involved. He’s listening to our requests; when we pour out our hearts to Him. When I was
little and skin my knee, I’d always run to my mom, never my dad. Why? Because Dad would say “aww you
ain’t bleeding to death. You’ll be alright.” But, you know moms. She’d act all concerned, run for band aids and
listen to my wailing. Moms are like that. They’re just modeling their Creator. God listens to our prayers and is
concerned with our problems. He there waiting to run for the band aids.

B. He Answers
John says not only does He hear, but “then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him.”
that is… whenever we ask anything according to his will. That’s powerful language… that’s confidence!

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he made it simple. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” That’s
the essence of prayer. I think that often our prayers seem to go unanswered because we spend too much time
trying to get God on our side. But, the real purpose for prayer is to get us on God’s side. James says that “You
do not have because you do not ask; you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend
it on your passions. “ (Jam 4:2-3)
God isn’t our own personal genie in a bottle. Prayer isn’t to get what we want or to make our lives better.

God is working in this world and in our lives. It’s not our jobs to tell Him what needs done (and that’s often how
we pray) It’s our job to join in what He’s doing. God has given us prayer so that we can play a part. The great
thing is that anyone can do it. You don’t have to be a seminary graduate and you don’t have to have hours of
free time to work in the church. You can have a vital role in what God is doing anytime and anywhere.

If you ask according to his will, he will act. Have you ever read about the life of George Mueller? He was a
preacher and ran an orphanage in England in the mid 1800’s. Amazingly, he cared for over 100,000 orphans in
his lifetime. But even more amazing, he did it all without ever asking anyone for a dime. The children were
always well fed, clothed, and educated at the cost of around $2.8 million but he never had to solicit funds. How
did he do it?

Well here’s a typical story: Mueller sat down to the table with the children and said it was time to give thanks
for the morning’s breakfast. The kids replied “Give thanks for what? The cupboards are completely bare.
Mueller just answered “God will provide.”

So they began to pray but were interrupted by a knock at the door. It seems that the milk wagon broke down in
front of the orphanage while on it’s route. The milkman said that the milk would no doubt spoil before the
wagon could be fixed, so would they be willing to take the milk off his hands? Naturally, Mueller and the
children unloaded the wagon. They settled back in to finish their prayers and there was another knock. This
time it was an employee of the bakery. There was a mix up at the bakery and they had over produced bread
that day. They had more bread than they possibly could sell. Could the orphanage us a few dozen loaves of
fresh baked bread?

There are lots of stories about Mueller just like that one. That’s the way his operation was ran - on prayer. He
simply understood that the work of caring for those orphans was God’s work. He joined in the work with “Thy
will be done” and confidently prayed that God would act. That’s the kind of prayer that always gets answered.

C. Prayer Illustrated
Now comes the tricky part of this passage… the sin that leads to death. John gives an example of praying
according to God’s will. It’s the case of a sinning brother. How do you pray when you see a brother or sister
who is sinning? John says there are two different situations and two different ways to pray.

All through the Scriptures, we are told that Sin is death. It’s nothing to play with, although we too often treat it
as no big deal. Sin ALWAYS leads to dying, even for Christians. If you see a brother sinning, pray that God will
restore him back to life; that sin will be defeated in his life. That’s the best way you can serve him.

Yet, John says there is a sin that, no matter how much you pray, will lead to death. What is this sin? Some
want to divide their list of sins into “mortal” and “venial” (or lesser) sins. There are those really bad things that
God will not forgive. Others say that the sin that John refers to is apostasy, a final rejection after having known
the truth. That makes more sense to me. But, I’m not sure any specific sin is in mind here. I think maybe it’s
just that a person, even a believer, can get so far away from God and be so unresponsive to the truth that he’s
not coming back.

Of course, if that’s the case, there’s no way for us to know, so how do we know whether to pray or not? Well,
John doesn’t command us not to pray. I think the point is that, in this case, our prayers won’t help the situation.
III. The Certainty of a Changed Life (18-20)

Here’s something else that we can be absolutely sure of: A Christ follower doesn’t continue to sin. That’s good
news? We usually approach this verse with a little uneasiness. We kind of use it as a guilt trip: “You know if
you really ARE a Christian, you WILL give that stuff up.”

But, Praise God, it’s true! I can be assured that my life has been changed! That IS good news. Before a
person comes to Christ, they have no control over sin in their lives. Scripture says they are slaves to sin. That’s
not an over-statement. But now, our chains have been broken. We’re free from the tyranny of sin. My changed
life is a certainty. I can count on it.

It’s like the pig who was changed into a sheep. The pig spends his days wallowing in a mud hole. That’s just
his nature. That’s what he does. He’s a pig. You can clean him up, douse him with cologne, and put a bow in
his tail. But, he’ll be right back in that mud hole. He can’t help it. He doesn’t want to help it. That’s what he
does. He’s a pig. Now if the pig would be changed into a sheep, that’s a different story. A sheep doesn’t like
mud. It sticks in his wool and weighs him down so that he can barely walk. He stays away from the mud. That’s
just what he does. He’s a sheep. Now, sometimes he may slip into a mud hole, but he won’t like it and he’ll try
hard to get out. Usually, it takes the help of his shepherd to get out of the mud.

That’s a good description of the changed life and you can be certain that you’re life has been changed that
much, if you’re a Christ follower.

The world doesn‘t offer anything like this changed life. Within this world system, Satan has control and sin runs
roughshod. It’s a mud hole. When I was little, mom would say “don’t play in the mud.” I assumed that meant
‘don’t stand in the mud while playing.” It seemed perfectly ok to stand at the edge of the mud hole and maybe
poke around it with a stick. Of course, you can imagine what happened. I’d inevitably fall into the mud and get
it all over me and I’d have to go back into the house and face Mother’s wrath. I guess that’s a good lesson for
us. We need not to play on the edges of the world system.

Jesus saved me and he also keeps me safe from the domination of sin. The enemy would love nothing more
than to get me back into a life of sin, but now he has no power either. “The evil one cannot harm me” Yes, it is
possible for me to give in to his temptation. I do it more than I want to talk about. But, in reality, he’s powerless.
The only battle that he wins in my life is the one I surrender. I have ample resources. There’s no reason for
Satan to win… unless I let him.

IV. The Certainty of Family (19)

John makes a sharp contrast between those within the world system and those of us who are children of God.
Who’s family are you in? To be part of the world is to NOT be part of the family. The two are mutual exclusive.
Being a child of God is a certainty for a Christian… with all of the position and privileges. My family didn’t have
much. I didn’t have many luxuries growing up. My family wasn’t one of the movers and shakers in town. We
didn’t have a “name.” I can remember wishing that I belonged to a more prominent family. I had classmates
that seemed to get whatever they wanted and could do things that I couldn’t do.

But, the great thing is now I have a family like no other. My Father has resources that no one has. He owns the
cattle on a thousand hills, for pity sakes. Nobody can look down on me because of who I am. I’m a child of
God!

Stay away from idols.