In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'You Must Know This', the focus is on the concluding verses of 1 John 5:18-21. Brown highlights John's emphasis on the certainty that Christians should have in their faith, encapsulated in the phrase 'we know', repeated three times. This certainty encompasses the victory over sin, the assurance of being of God, and understanding the true God in Jesus Christ. Brown discusses the role of action in faith, suggesting that believers are called to actively keep themselves from sin and idolatry, while also being kept by God's power. The sermon contrasts the state of those under the sway of God with those under the sway of the wicked one, illustrating a life transformed by God's love and truth. Brown concludes by discussing the importance of the final admonition to keep away from idols, emphasizing the need for Christians to actively renounce idolatry as part of their spiritual growth and assurance of salvation.

Well, if you would please open up to 1st John chapter 5, and we're going to be reading from verse 18 down to verse 21. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, But he who has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one and We know that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding 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 keep yourselves from idols amen let's pray father we we come before you here again, before the preaching of your word. Lord, and we rejoice and we marvel at how you've led us these many months through this book of 1st John. Lord, as a great shepherd, you knew exactly what we needed and have led us to such a wonderful place, oh Lord, to understand things that might have been diminished and brought them to the forefront, Lord. Love and life and even this, what we're hearing today, Lord, of assurance, of truth.

Lord, we do worship you and we ask you today as we hear your word, oh Lord, let the words drop down into our ears and to our hearts and as mr. Brown preaches Lord fill him with your spirit give him power from on high that you would speak through him to our hearts Lord that you would help us to reveal any idols in our hearts, Lord, that we would keep ourselves from them. Lord, we pray today that each one of us would leave changed as we go through this, finish this book, Lord, that this would be marked in our lives for the rest of our days that we would remember this time, this precious time that you've led us Lord. So help us now, help Mr. Brown and bless this time of the preaching of your word.

Lord, we ask these things in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, this is the final exposition that we'll be having in 1 John. And you know, it's happening again when you get to the end of a book. You look more fondly than ever at the message and you're just starting to think, I think I'm finally seeing what he's trying to say, you know, after all this time.

And you don't want to leave it. You just want to stretch it out, you know. It reminds me of when I had first had just completely fallen head over heels over Deborah, and we decided to get married. And the most hateful word in the English language at that time was goodbye. I did not want to say goodbye.

You know to say goodbye on the phone was such a hardship and I longed for the day when I didn't have to say goodbye. Well, that day happened and I'm so glad that day happened. But here we are, you know, this is how it is a little bit with 1 John. It's been such a blessed experience for us. It's been for healing.

It's been for repentance. It's been for joy. We've seen the love of God. We've been under the tutelage of an old man, John. He's in his 80s.

He walked with the Lord Jesus Christ as a young man. He was one of the sons of thunder and he He's a grandfatherly man and he understands the love of God. He's seen the love of God his whole life and he's so Captured by it. He cannot he cannot quit talking about the love of God and You think about this man? He saw Jesus miracles.

He saw him walking on water He saw him heal the sick and raise the dead and cast out demons. He saw Emperor Nero kill the Apostle Paul. He saw Emperor Nero crucify the Apostle Peter. John himself was probably, according to tradition, he was boiled in oil, but he survived. And he was such a blessed inspiration to so many.

At this time he was probably teaching one of the great martyrs of the church, Polycarp. Like if you read what Polycarp writes, it's John. It's amazing. And John is always quoting Jesus. And Polycarp cannot stop quoting Jesus when he writes to whoever he writes to.

So you have this man, this aged, grandfatherly, gracious man from the son of thunder to the son of thunderous love. That's who he is. We've had the opportunity to spend several months just under his care, under his teaching. It's been such a sweetness. And so in these final statements, it's very clear that he's summarizing pretty much all of what he has said in these final statements here at the very end.

There are three bullet points and one final admonition. And these verses sum up this whole message of assurance that John has been speaking about. And What is the heart of the message? Two words, we know, we know. And he says that three times.

It's a proclamation of the certainty that a Christian has. What we know. And think of John, he's speaking to his little children, probably in Ephesus, and he's saying, this is us, we know this. We've seen it with our eyes. Our hands have handled it.

We know. We have experienced the love and the life of Jesus Christ. And so he says we know these three times. You see your outline in front of you. And The first thing that we know is we know that we have victory over sin.

Do you see that in the first point? We'll talk about that in a minute. We know we are of God. That's the second point he makes in verse 19 And then thirdly we know The true God that's in verse 20 And then he ends with a final admonition that he knows will cause the greatest blessing in everybody's life. Keep yourselves from idols.

So that's the basic flow and outline. It's very simple. And this is the kind of certainty that Jesus Christ offers in his gospel This is the certainty that the Christian can have and this kind of certainty is opposite the way that most people think The spirit of the age is uncertainty. The spirit of the age is tentativeness. Like if you have a firm opinion on a matter of morality, it's not really considered socially acceptable to have that opinion.

And you can get you in a lot of trouble if you have an opinion about a matter of morality, about a certain salvation, that you know that you are saved. But yet this is exactly what John is saying. You can know. You are not like the world that's tentative, that doesn't know, that can't know, That's constantly worried about whether they know or not, you know by the way This is one of the great the great issues before the millennial generation. It's a generation of uncertainty It's a generation that doesn't think you can really know very much But but God says no you can know you can know And it's more popular to have questions.

It's more popular to have problems. It's more popular to try to develop the various different angles rather than say, no, we know. We know that this is true. And so the first three verses of our text bring these very dogmatic statements. This world is against dogmatism, but here there's a kind of holy dogmatism that God has allowed Christians to enter into.

I heard one preacher say that these statements that John makes, we know, they're not just dogmatic, they're bulldogmatic. And they are words of certainty. And it's the certainty that the child of God Can have they can know and the question is do you know John? John wants so much for his little children to know and he wants them to know that they can know and they can walk in that knowledge that they know and it guides their whole life that they know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that they love Him and they want Him and they love His commandments and they want to love and throw off all their hatred and it is a certainty that he's proclaiming here. And so the Church of Jesus Christ doesn't major on an uncertainty and it's not humility to claim that you don't know and There's this false humility that's popular today.

It's it's a shell It's a self-styled humility that says well, we really can't know I can't really know if I'm saved Because Because the spirit of the generation is you really can't know anything. But that's not the spirit of God. Spirit of God says you can know. And here by the power of the spirit of God, we can know. I heard that Adrian Rogers once said that Christians should not go around bent over like a question mark, but that they ought to stand up straight like an exclamation point.

And that's why John says, we know, we know, we know. And this is how he ends his letter. And this is really his entire argument that he's been making from the very beginning that we can know. Because God desires that his people aren't driven and tossed by the wind in uncertainty, but that they do know. And they're not like a weak reed blowing back and forth in the wind, but that they know.

And I think God has brought us here for so many reasons, but perhaps one of them is so that you would know in your heart, you would cherish it, you would see it, and You would say, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep me. I think that's what John is saying. And that hymn writer captured the whole thrust of it. So let's go to these three I know statements or we know statements and the first is we know we have victory over sin. Verse 18, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him." Now this verse opens with these words, we know.

It's in the present tense. It indicates an ongoing reality in a person's life. Notice also it's we know. It's a shared knowledge. It's the way that the church gathers together.

It's the people who gather together as a family and they say we know, we know we love him and we're here. And it's a shared knowledge. We know this love and we know it together. And it's as if he is urging his little children to say, now I know that I know him and I know that we know him together. And he's not saying that you can always tell the salvation of another person, But there is a certainty that God has given his church.

And in this knowing, you know that the clutching jaws of the devil are being removed. You're not what you used to be. You know you're not what you used to be. And so these terms of we know appear over and over again in this letter from John. There are at least 22 times that John uses this term, either we know or you know.

In five chapters, 22 times he says this. The repetition is meant to change our whole orientation of how we think about salvation and If you take away the certainty you take away Christianity and That's why there's there are many so many of them I'm just going to quote a few of them that are that are here in in first John chapter 2 verse 3 he says, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word truly, the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him.

He who says he abides in him ought also to walk, just as he walked. Or you could go to chapter two, verse 28, where he says little children abide in him. And then in verse 29 he says, if you know that he is righteous, You know that everyone who practices righteousness is of him. He practices righteousness. His children are like him.

They're becoming like him. And in chapter 3 verse 2 he says, But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." John's letter is a letter of affirmation. It's a letter of assurance. And so in chapter three, verse four, or verse five, he says, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. In chapter three, verse 13, he says, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.

And in verse 15 he says, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. In verse 16 in chapter three he says, by this we know love, We know love. Here's what love is. He laid down his life for his friends. And this is how you know love in the church, when you lay down your lives for one another.

In chapter four, he continues, by this we know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. So there are so many places that John uses this word, we know or you know. This is a letter to encourage those, to help them to know whether they know or not. And I pray God has really affirmed that in our hearts, that we have a greater assurance than we've ever had before.

And that if we don't have assurance that we would flee to him and repent and turn to him with all of our hearts so now he says that we We know that whoever is born of God does not sin now. What does that mean does not sin now again? We have to we have to be good interpreters of the Bible and use the proper rules of hermeneutics, because you can't take one verse out of context and make it mean something that wasn't intended to mean. And we know from everything that John has said already in his letter that he's not talking about perfection. He's not saying that you don't have any sin, but he's talking about not perfection, but the direction of your life.

It's your turning from sin and your victory over sin that he's really talking about But this is the verse that people turn to to try to prove sinless perfectionism It's also they used first John 3 9 but taking this single verse out of its context forces a false interpretation. John has already said, if anyone sins, we have an advocate. So we know that what John says here doesn't mean that you never sinned. He's not talking about that. John has already affirmed that if we say we have not sinned, the truth is not in us.

John has already urged us to pray for our brethren who have fallen into sins not leading to death. We should pray for one another so that we would have life, that we're part of the solution in delivering one another from sin. We pray for each other. When we see someone falling in sin In the church, we don't blab about it, we don't yap our gums about it, we pray. That's what we do.

And because there is a sin not leading to death. In the very last verse of our text today, there's the sin of strengthening your idols rather than keeping yourself from idols. And he's telling the church, keep throwing away your idols. You still have them, you know? Keep yourselves from them.

Run from them. So the assumption of the letter is that you will sin. So when John says this, he was born of God does not sin, he's talking about whoever is born of God cannot be continuing in a state of sin freely and practicing it as a lifestyle, persisting in it. Because persisting in sin, loving your sin, and continuing in it is a contradiction to the life of God. What Christians do is they sin and they repent they turn from their sins and That's what John is speaking of here.

He's talking about this persistent walking in darkness a persistent Hatred of his commandments a persistent hatred of your brother. This shows you that you do not know God. But Christians are also recovering sinners. And that's why John uses this statement. But what he's saying is that regeneration makes a difference because the new birth brings a new life and Christians belong to a new kingdom and the power of sin is broken in that kingdom.

And so there are this language here in the second clause of this verse, but he who has been born of God keeps himself from the wicked one, keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him." Well, let's look at that. What does he mean by that? He who is born of God keeps himself. Now, there are some manuscripts that have the word keeps him, and there are some that say keeps himself. In other words, he's either saying that you keep yourself from the wicked one or he's saying that he himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, keeps you from the wicked one.

It could be one or the other. There's this textual variant that exists that makes it a cloudy issue. And so the first way to take this is that the believer takes action to keep himself from the wicked one. He who is born of God keeps himself. That's the way the translators of the King James and the New King James have rendered this.

And What this means is that following Christ is not passive. That the Christian is a person of action. And he does what Paul tells Timothy to do, to keep yourself pure. Or what James says, keep yourself unspotted from the world. Or what Jude says, keeping yourself in the love of God.

In other words, you take action. This is, you find this all over the Bible. In 1 Peter chapter one, we're called to take action. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, do something with your mind, change, you know, fill your mind with things, be sober and rest your hope fully on the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to former lusts that you had in your ignorance.

But no, but be holy because you're called to be holy. So there's this whole stream of truth in the Bible that You have a responsibility. You have to take action. There is a way that you keep yourself. And whether John means you keep yourself or whether he keeps you is the right question to ask.

But we know that the Bible teaches both. We know that the Bible teaches that you must keep yourself, you must possess your vessel in discipline and honor and keep it from sexual immorality. There are things that you must do in order to do that. At the same time, we also know that he also does keep us that there that there is fruit fruit-bearing in our indiligence and so but the second interpretation is that Christ keeps the believer and That that he keeps him and you can find this all over the Bible, too We just sang a song about it. He will hold me fast For my Savior loves me.

So he will hold me fast Well, that song is just a reflection of dozens of passages of scripture that make it clear that he'll hold you, he'll see you through. If you're a Christian, you're gonna make it. He's gonna take you to the end. He's bringing many sons to glory and you're one of them. And so there is this assurance of his protection, of his care that the Bible does teach.

So take both of them. Take both of these meanings deep in your heart because they're both so true. This was prophesied in the Old Testament. Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah 32 verse 40, the Lord says, I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn away from doing them good." This is God doing this. And then he says, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they will not depart from me.

He puts his fear in your heart. He puts an awe toward God in your heart. He puts a love toward God in your heart. You think he is so marvelous, He puts that in there and you can't get rid of it. If you're a Christian, it's not gonna go away.

You know, it can ebb and flow. You know, it can wax and wane. It depends on what we feed our souls, but what he's saying is that I'll put my fear in your heart and when I put my fear in your heart it's never going away never no one can pluck you out of my hand So you have these two interpretations that are correct, that can be correctly preached. You know, this week, you know, I preached through 1st and 2nd Peter and running across Some of my favorite verses in 1 Peter. You know, I realized I preached on through 1 Peter in 1980 when I was a young pastor.

I think I was 26 years old. And I pulled out my old notes. And back then and back now today, my favorite phrase in 1 Peter is that you are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. Kept. You are kept by the power of God, kept.

He is keeping you. He is holding you fast. So you have these two things that are so true. It's like what Jude said in Jude 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with with joy this is what he does he keeps you and so this is this is taught in many many places and It's it's such a blessing that we are safe.

He will hold us fast Then he says the wicked one does not touch him now. What does that mean? Well, has you think the wicked one has ever touched you? Well, you would most of us would say yes. He has He's touched me so many times.

But what is he talking about here? The word that's used here is a word that gives you a picture of something. Grabbing onto someone, gripping them, okay? Digging their claws in and you cannot get them free. You know, one of the marvelous birds that we see from time to time is the osprey.

The osprey had these talons that are absolutely devastatingly strong. And they dive, they dive into the water and they pick up fish. And when they come, they come into the water like this, it's amazing. And they grab those fish. And sometimes their grip is so hard and they have a way of gripping down it's almost like a like a vice grip that locks down and sometimes if they get a fish that's a little bit too big they have a really hard time letting go and that can be a problem But it's a word that has to do with to fasten oneself, to cling to, it means to be in the clutches of something.

And what he's saying is that the claws of the devil are weakening and you can keep pulling those claws off. Those claws are coming off. They're weak now. They used to have you. They were taking you to hell and God, through the power of his son, Jesus Christ, destroyed the power of those claws and they're coming off and it's such a marvelous word this same word is used in John chapter 20 where the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in his after his resurrection to Mary Magdalene and she was clutching to him.

You remember that? She was clutching to him. It's this word. She was just grabbing on him. Jesus said, don't touch me for I'm not ascended to my father, you know.

So it's that kind of clutching and he's saying that he cannot cling to you. He is not going to get his hooks into you and carry you to hell. It's not going to happen. That's what he's saying. And he will take care of you.

You are not stuck in your sin. You can shake him off. You can flee. You can put off the arms of the devil you can throw him off By the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what he's saying when he says the devil cannot touch you He's not saying the devil cannot influence you He's saying the devil cannot keep his claws in you because the power of the Holy Spirit has come and broken the power of sin and death.

This is Christ's victory over Satan and it's the marvelous truth that the devil's meat hooks are getting removed in your life. When we come together, that's one thing we rejoice. We rejoice in, you know, his claws are coming off. They come off one day at a time. When you start out in the Christian life, you got a lot of claws, you know, gripping on you.

But they keep coming off. And this is why we have patience with one another in the church. And, But his claws are coming off one by one. And so then he says after we have victory over sin, in verse 18, he makes it clear that we know that we are of God. Verse 19, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

This language is so remarkable. The whole world is under the sway. You're being swayed. And you have this picture of two people. Some are swayed by the wicked one, and some are under the sway of God.

The contrast is two kinds of people under the sway. Have you ever been under the sway of someone or something? Some of you are pilots. You understand what it means to be under the sway of a wind. And you're moved by the wind.

Sometimes dramatically, sometimes hardly at all. But we are always under the sway of something. There is something swaying us. And John is bringing this language of being under the sway. Now first of all, he says that we know we are of God.

That's the first part. Of God. So you have two things. Of God and then lying, lying under the sway. Those are two things that he's speaking of here.

And when he says we are of God, it means that we have come from God. Our life is coming from God. What's coming out of our lives now is something that is being born of God, because we have been born of God. And so it's a life toward God. It's a life dependent upon God.

It's a life delighting in Him and our delights really producing our whole life and so what we have we have We are now under the sway of God. But then he says that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Now, there are several things that we should be very careful to notice. First of all, he's identifying the whole problem with the world, and it's the wicked one. And he is talking about the wicked one, Satan himself.

So you have two kinds of people in the world, those who are under the sway of the wicked one and those who are under the sway of God. He's talking about two different kinds of people in this verse And the word lying, you know, the whole world lies under the power of the wicked one. Now, he's talking about the people of the world. He's talking about the way that the world system has an effect on those who do not know God. And he uses this word, the whole world lies.

He's talking about the people of the world. They are lying under the sway of the wicked one. And the word suggests a word picture. And you children should grab this, because it's a really critical thing. It'll help you to understand what it means not to be a Christian and because he the word suggests a stranded ship Stuck in the sand, You know, one of the glories of living in North Carolina is our seacoast is the graveyard of the Atlantic because of the sandbars that are there and the hundreds and hundreds of ships that have gone down there and they keep finding them.

It's a remarkable, It's really a remarkable coastline. It grabs ships and sticks them there and then pummels them. I have this book that tells all these stories of people clinging to the rigging all night long of their ship that is stuck in the sand. And they are falling one by one into the water. And the life-saving station has sent out their harpoons that they shoot out into the surf to try to rescue people.

And They're just remarkable stories that have come out of the shipwrecks of the North Carolina coastline. And many of you have been there. But whenever you go to Cape Hatteras or anywhere up in that coastline, when you look out there, there are ships that have been sunk all along that coastline. Well, this imagery of lying in the sway of the Yvonne, it pictures a ship stuck on the sand, or like a lost sheep in a hole and can't get out. You're held fast there.

You're lying under the power of the wicker. When I was reading a commentator, he said, it's like the devil. The devil has his couch and he catches you in his couch. And he brings all these scents and pleasures into his couch but he always mixes these even good things with things that will destroy you so it's a picture of lying in the in the sway of the wicked one. And to fall is to fall really out of the arms of God and into the arms, into the sway of the wicked one.

And John is so appealing to this life of being delivered from the wicked one. You're no longer lying under, you're no longer stuck on that sandbar. You're no longer in that hole. You're no longer on his couch. You are on Christ's bed.

And he fills your heart with songs in the night on his bed he there's so much love in his bed and His arms are wide open and But when you when you fall into the couch of of the devil you you find what Isaiah Described you know the the bed of the devil is just a little bit too short and The and the and the and the sheets are short and you don't get a good sleep. It looks good but once you get in it, it's a torment. That's the devil's bed. That's what it means to lie in the sway of the wicked one. And you know that you're in the sway of the wicked one.

From a very simple test. That you feel that his commands are harsh. Or that they're unappetizing. Or they're really not for you. That's what John says in the early part.

If you don't love and keep his commandments then you can't you can't call yourself a child of God. So there are those who are of God and there are those who are of the world of the sway of God of the sway of the world on The couch of the Lord Jesus Christ or on the couch of the devil himself being counseled by him there So these were this remarkable verse just helps us to see. But what is John saying? He's saying, we are of God. We are of God.

We are. And I think we should rejoice about that. You who know you are of God, let this be such a day of rejoicing that you are of God. You know you are of God. You have certainty in it.

And then, and then he says, we know the true God in verse 20. We know. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding 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.

Now just transport yourself back into the presence of the Apostle John. And there he is. He's speaking to you and his heart is so full of thanksgiving. And he says these words, We know that the Son of God has come, we know. And I think John is just, he is just full of thanksgiving, of this certainty that he has with his little children.

This is a little church that is certain of its salvation. Not to say that there aren't unbelievers in that little church, because there are always unbelievers in a church but he's speaking about this binding love that the church has and it is a it is a love that is assured that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and he is alive and you and you're not under the sway of the devil anymore he is affecting you but it's not like it used to be now the Bible The Bible knows of different kinds of assurance. There's false assurance. And false assurance usually has various, various qualities about it. False assurance, in some cases, speaks about how you're good enough because you've been good enough and your life is orderly and you're not mean and you don't steal and you haven't committed adultery.

False assurance relies on lots of outward things like that. And false assurance also Is the kind of assurance that people have even though they do love their sin and they're not running from it They're running toward the world They want more of the world the world continues to satisfy them and they want more of it And when they go through their days, they really would rather be satisfied by the world than the Lord. They would prefer it. They would prefer to spend their time there. Those are two kinds of false assurance, but he's talking about true assurance and it's an understanding and awareness of the truth about his grace and that you've entered into his grace.

And so he says we know that this has happened and John, John, notice again, John is affirming his children. John is not judging his children to be unbelievers here. Okay, do you see that? You've seen that over and over again. John is assuming that they believe And but he's but he wants them to evaluate to make sure that they do he does that over and over again But he's what he's saying is You he's here's what he's saying to his children, and I think we should say it to one another.

You're not like the world. You don't want the works of the devil anymore. He's saying we know him who is true. We have a true faith. It's real.

We have a genuine God and we have a genuine faith. He is a living God and we have a living faith We have been born of God. We have an advocate with the Father We are being kept from the Antichrist. We are being taught how good the Lord Jesus Christ is and we believe he is good. That's what he's saying.

That it's true, it's real, it's a real faith. And that he has come, he has given us understanding. In other words, he's opened up our eyes. That's what understanding is. Your eyes are open and you see Him and you love His glory.

And then He says that we may know Him as true and you really believe He is true. And then He says that we are in Him who is true in His Son Jesus Christ. In other words, we have experienced being in Him. We have seen Him work. We have seen Him reveal His glory to us and His truth.

We have seen Him change our minds. We have seen him protect us from a wrong trajectory in our life. We've seen it. And he says, this is the true God and eternal life. And this is the kind of assurance that he is speaking about.

And it's critical that we understand assurance and that we have assurance. John is just desiring that his people have that kind of assurance. And that's why he says, We know, we know, we know. Now, sometime take a look at the Baptist confession, or the confession of our church. And This confession is such a beautiful reflection of 1 John.

The way that it's worded and what he says in the first paragraph of the confession, the writers talk about how people deceive themselves, how people deceive themselves and they shouldn't be assured. That's the first paragraph. The second paragraph is what is infallible assurance? And the confession draws from John and other places. You can have what the writers of the confession call it an infallible assurance.

And that's why John says, we know, we know, we know, we know. And in the third paragraph, the writers say that assurance is progressive and how you can, and also they tell you how to make it grow that Sanctification that growth and assurance is something that grows over time and There are ways that you grow your assurance And John has talked about a lot of that. In the fourth paragraph, there's an instruction about how your assurance can be shaken. And they say that your assurance can be shaken when you fall into grievous sin and stay there. And they say, if you're there too long, you should question your assurance.

That's what the confession says. But it's really a reflection of what John is saying here. Now, every pastor has had to answer really earnest questions of people who are struggling with their assurance. And it's just all too easy to try to heal the wound lightly and say, nope, you're not a Christian, or yep, you are. I mean, we have to return people to the Word of God.

And returning people to John is really a helpful thing to do. And you know we do have a responsibility to comfort those who are in Zion, but we also have a responsibility to give them biblical tests that John speaks of. And he says, in the first paragraph, in the second half of it, in the confession, I'm just going to read this. I think it's a beautiful statement. He says, those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him.

May in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed." And I pray that's fulfilled as a result of our time, that we are rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed." And I pray that's fulfilled as a result of our time, that we are rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God like never before in this church, like never before. That we see the salvation of Jesus Christ, His atoning sacrifice, the purity that He has laid upon the believer. You know, I think it was Paul Washer, I heard him say one time, he said the most worldly believer will be the most glorious being you can imagine in heaven. And really because of Christ's sacrifice. They're more glorious than you know.

Because Jesus Christ does save sinners and he does make them holy. So he's speaking of this marvelous assurance that we can have. And so, and now we come to the final verse in 1 John. Verse in 1 John. And some people have said that these are the last words chronologically in Scripture.

It may be true. But in these very last words of most likely the very last words that were penned in God's written revelation is this phrase, little children keep yourselves from idols. So in light of all these things, in light of the fact that the world lies in the power of the evil one, in the light of what Jesus Christ has done, keep yourselves from idols. In light of what is the most wonderful thing in the world in light of the fact that you can know him in light of the fact that you can have fellowship with the father and with the son in light of that keep yourselves from idols And so that's how he ends his letter. It almost seems kind of an abrupt ending, doesn't it?

But we know that it's perfectly appropriate. It's exactly what the hearer needs to hear at this very last moment. After hearing so much of the glory of God and the beauty of salvation, there's this warning that we all need to hear every day. Little children keep yourselves from idols. So John is looking back at his time of his life and he's heard the messages, he's walked the roads with his Savior, he's conversed with him.

And what does John do? He takes us back to the First Commandment. And he takes us back to the most basic principle of Christianity, and that is when you turn to Christ, you turn away from your idols. And that is the whole message of how a life changes, but it is the most basic message of Christianity. So it's a logical conclusion.

And he's saying don't don't dance with your idols, don't play with your idols anymore, don't be friends with them. Friendship with the world makes you an enemy with God. And so, it's so critical that you understand this. We have to realize that everything we do is a form of worship. What you submit your body to is a form of worship.

Everything you do with your body is worship. You're always worshiping when you act, when you speak, when you dress, when you listen to anything or watch anything. You are always involved in worship. And It's always a mistake to minimize worship, minimize what idol, what idolatry is, because idolatry is far, far deeper than putting up some image that people gather around. In fact, the Old Testament idols really were just excuses for people to gather together and do despicable things around those idols.

It wasn't the idol itself, It was the things that that idol represented and the things that those people did when they gathered around the Asherah poles and the emerald things that took place before the idols. The idols were just hunks of wood, but it was the stuff in the hearts of the people and what they were doing that was the idolatry. Lloyd-Jones says that anything that moves and rouses and attracts and stimulates me is an idol. And you know your idol can be your theology, your idol can be your church your idol can be your group, it can be your friends it can be a lifestyle, it can be a look It can be your tools, it can be your sports, it can be your hair, it can be your shoes, it can be anything. Because idols are always of the heart.

You can have just as many idols in Christian ministry as having them outside of it. The devil is no respecter of your vocation and what you do with your life. Idolatries everywhere. And so, he says keep yourselves from idols, and that means that there's an activist position that we must take as Christians. We must take action against the idols keep yourself from them Deprive yourself of them starve yourself of them run away from them That's what he's saying and it's very very simple and so you have a person who's under the sway of the wicked one and he cannot see that he has embraced a lie.

Like Isaiah said, is there not a lie in my right hand? The man making the idol doesn't even see that it's an idol. He doesn't even see it. He can't know it. But the Christian does see it, and he keeps himself from it.

He wants to throw it away and get rid of it William Grinnell the English Puritan said this the Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his bosom sins. Those sins which have lain nearest his heart must now be trampled under his feet. So John ends with a final appeal to flee from every form of sin and idolatry that you know of in your life, to run from it. Because there is something so much greater, there is something so much more wonderful. And what is more wonderful?

It is wonderful to know. It's wonderful to have assurance. It's wonderful to know that you have victory over sin. It's wonderful to know that you are of God. It's wonderful to know that you know the true God and it's even more wonderful to know that you're learning to hate your idols and you're turning from them.

John is speaking as a great grandfather of a people. And he's, you know, the Lord is with us through his voice now. We're under his ministry now. We're being taught by him. And we are all his little children.

And we know that whoever is born of God does not find itself under the sway of the wicked one. Well, this last section of John is such a beautiful summary of everything that John has said. He draws almost all the threads together just in these last three great propositions. We know, we know, we know. Let's do this today.

Let's rejoice that we've been born of God and that we're a little family who's been rescued from the claws of the devil and they're coming off one by one. What a blessing. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord we thank you for this marvelous instruction that you've given to us in your Word. We pray that you would give us such a rejoicing, such an affection together, such a happiness in the salvation that you've secured for us.

How you've taken sinners and you've come and you've put us on your couch and we're being instructed by you in your loving kindness, in all of your good ways. Lord, we praise you for the sway that has come upon us and how you're continuing to move us by your sway. We love the work of this swaying hand that you have as you guide us as you put your hand on our heads and you sway us in one direction and then another so that we might be brought to glory Amen.