The sermon titled 'A Certain Conclusion' by David Green focuses on the final verses of 1 John chapter 5, emphasizing the assurance of eternal life for believers. The speaker highlights the repeated use of the word 'know' to stress the certainty and confidence believers can have in their salvation and relationship with God. The sermon elaborates on the distinction between those who are 'born of God' and the rest of the world, which lies under the influence of the evil one. It underscores that while believers may sin, their lives should not be characterized by sin, and they are protected from Satan's grasp. The speaker uses the story of Job to illustrate the limits of Satan's power, emphasizing God's sovereignty. The sermon concludes with a warning against idolatry, urging believers to keep God as their primary focus and to live by His Word.

1 John chapter 5, readers of text verses 13 through 21. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. As we read through this text, by the way, pay attention to how many times you see the word no here. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Verse 15.

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. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

We know that no one who has been born of God sins, but he who was begotten 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 in eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols. So I thought to put a conclusion to this series, the title of my message is, A Certain Conclusion, A Certain Conclusion.

All the times that John uses that word no, and even confidence there in verse 14. He's trying to tell us something. By extension, he's telling not only his original readers but also through the Holy Spirit, preservation of His Word, we're being told something. And certainly that word no is repeated often in the text, in this letter. There's something about assurance.

We can know, we should know. That's why, that's the reason he wrote. Verse 13, He says, these things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. We may know that we're saved. Not that we will find out someday.

What a terrible thing that would be that go through life and then death, and then that's when we find out. No, no, we may know now. We may know that we have eternal life now, here, today, at this moment. Our faith is a sure thing. Not a hope so, maybe so, might be so, but it is sure, a reality.

We looked at verse 13 already, previous message. Then we looked at the fact that we know that He hears us when we pray. We know that. We know this reality. We know this reality.

We aren't so brash and arrogant to think that God is going to do everything that we demand of Him to think that if we demand X, He's going to give us X. And if we want Y, He's going to give us Y. The reality is that as a child of God, our desires become his desires, and his desires become our desires, and when we pray, we pray such that His will be done. And so that, so that we don't think of him as a genie in a bottle, so that we're the sovereign over him, but rather he is the sovereign. And we know that he hears us, but we also know that His will be done.

When we pray, we pray for that lost person to be saved, but we know, we know that His will be done. When we pray for that person to be healed, and we pray and we pray for these things, we know His will be done. But we know He hears us. And these things have already been covered. And we rejoice in these things.

And so we pick up at verse 18 this morning. As John writes these final few words, these final few sentences, he says, we know that no one who has been born of God sins, but he who was begotten of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. If you've been born of God, there's been a change in your life. John wants his readers to know that the present life of one who has been born of God is one that is incompatible with sin. Incompatible with a life characterized with sin.

To be born of God means that our life now shares the very life of God himself, which is different than a life of sin. Now he's not writing of sinless perfection. There are some groups that teach that. But that's not what John's writing about. In fact, he makes that very, very clear.

In this very letter, back up in chapter 1, remember in chapter 1 and verses 8 through 10, and why it's very dangerous to take verses and lift them out of context. In chapter 1 verses 8 through 10, He says on the other hand, sorry that's chapter two, chapter one verses eight through ten, if we say we have no sin, if we say we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us." So he flat-out covers two groups of people here, those who say, well I've not sinned since, They give a date, and then there's those who say they've never sinned. Oh really?

What about this text here who says we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us, we make him a liar and his word is not in us but praise be to God he says if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We stand not not on our own righteousness but on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Cleansed, forgiven, washed by the blood of the Lamb. So what John is teaching here is that the child of God will sin, He does sin, but He's not characterized by life of sin. We have victory over sin in Satan too, amen.

In our text, he tells us, by there in chapter 5, He who was begotten of God keeps him. The evil one does not touch him. What do you mean, he who was begotten of God? Let's go to John chapter 3. John chapter 3.

Verse 16 very familiar passage of scripture but notice what it says here for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Life. You and I are kept by the Son of God. You see, God has many sons. I'm one, you're one.

You say, well, wait a minute, I'm a daughter of God. Yes, In one sense, if you're a woman, you say, I'm a daughter of God. Yes, in one sense you are, but if you're fellow heir with Christ, there's this sense of being sons of God. And so in Christ, there's neither male nor female. I'm not gonna take the time to go into all of that, but we'll do that maybe another time, but understand something as far as as far as being an heir there's a reason why that's laid out it's very very important now there's only one who's There's only one who's called the begotten of God, his only begotten.

We're kept. We're kept by He who was begotten of God keeps Him. Your salvation, my salvation is secured not in your righteousness, not in my righteousness, kept because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We have victory over sin and Satan because of what Jesus did. And in the text here he says, and the evil one does not touch him.

I love that. That word suggests grasp or lay hold of in order to do harm. The devil, Satan, the accuser of the brethren, is A terrible foe. Roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, the Bible tells us. But may I remind you, as terrible as he is, and he is terrible, don't ever think like the Charismatics do, that you can go and fight the devil yourself and all of those things.

It's not going to happen. But may I remind you, church, that God is sovereign over all. He's sovereign over even the devil himself. As believers, we belong to God. You belong to God.

You belong to God. I belong to God. And if you've been born again, if you've trusted in Jesus Christ, you belong to God. And because of that, Satan cannot touch you. He must operate within God's sovereignty.

And can I go beyond what God allows? There's a very clear example of that in the Old Testament book of Job. And if you will, let's go over there for just a moment. Job chapter 1. I love this beginning of chapter 1.

I actually love the entire book, but Job chapter 1. There's a man in the land of us whose name was Job. That man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. The Bible tells us that he had seven sons, three daughters, that were born to him, and his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred pairs of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and very many servants. And that man was the greatest in all the sons of the East.

He had great possessions. This man was very very wealthy. He had a lot of things going for him, but here's the thing, he was very, he was very God-fearing man. Spiritually, we find that in the unseen spiritual realm, both Yahweh and Satan took an interest in him. And as you read through the text, we find things like in chapter 1 verses 8 through 12.

Then Yahweh said to Satan, Have you set your heart upon my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. Satan answered Yahweh and said, Does Job fear God without cause? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side. You are blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land.

But send forth your hand now and touch all he has. He will surely curse you to your face. Then Yahweh said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand, only do not send forth your hand toward him. So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh. So God, Yahweh, gives him permission to touch his possessions but not to touch him.

Chapter 2, after all the death After all the death and destruction that he went through, chapter 2 verses 3 through 6, he always said to Satan, Have you set your heart upon my servant Job? For there's no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. He still holds fast his integrity. So you incited me against him to swallow him up in vain. Satan answered Yahweh and said skin for skin.

Yes all that a man has he will give for his life. However send forth your hand now and touch his bone in his flesh. He will curse you in your face So Yahweh said to Satan behold he is in your hand only spare his Life then Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh and struck Job with terrible boils, the sole of his foot to the top of his head." So we see that in this first incident, second incident, There were limitations put on what Satan was able to do. Satan had permission to do up to a certain point, and then there were limitations. In all this text, as you read through the book of Job, we're never told that Job was ever became aware of what was happening behind the scenes.

The spiritual realm, we don't know if he ever became aware of it. Now maybe Job wrote this book, but it would have happened later in the fact if he did write it. So it is in your life and mine. We don't know what's happening behind the scenes. We don't know what's happening in the unseen spiritual realm, but understand this, Satan may persecute, he may tempt, he may try, he may, and he does, accuse day and night even.

But our God protects His people and places definite limits on what Satan can or cannot do because God is sovereign over even the devil. And so And so the evil one, as our text says, does not touch him. You and I are safe and secure in the firm grip of our God, our Savior Jesus Christ. As our song said, he will hold me fast. In fact, the one verse of that song said, When the tempter would prevail, he would hold me fast.

He will not let my soul be lost, his promises shall last. By him at such a cost, he will hold me fast. Those he saves are his delight." I don't know if that's, if the songwriter had this text in mind, but certainly this is a good text to think about when we sing that song. But all through the Scriptures, this is the theme, that God is the hero, not us. We didn't save ourselves.

We can't keep ourselves saved. God is sovereign. He is the one who has kept us and is keeping us. Back to our text here in verse 19, He says, we know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. There are many divisions in the people of this world and in the people of this country.

If we narrow it down to the people of this country or of the state, we know that there are people who are divided up of rich and poor, conservative and liberal, whatever that's supposed to mean these days, Republican and Democrat, northerners and southerners. The list goes on and on. And then you get into further divides you know, there's immigrants and then those get divided up between legals and illegals and Then and then on and on we go division upon division but at the end of the day, there's really only two divisions that matter. Two groups of people that matter. Judgment day is coming.

And at that day, all that will matter is you're either a child of God or a child of Satan. You're either in Christ or you're not. You've either been born again or you haven't. You see, this is what John is talking about here. When he says, we know that we are of God, that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

There's a division, a division that has happened in this whole world. John says, we know. We know where we're at. We know where we're headed. We know that we're in Christ.

But we also know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. We first came across this in this epistle back in chapter 3 and verse 10. He mentioned this. He said, By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested. Everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother." So he's talking about this division, The children of God and the children of the devil.

In this, of course, you can trace this line all the way through your Bibles, going all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis 3 and verse 15, with the fall of man. And when the curse was pronounced, and God, Yahweh is pronouncing this curse, and He says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, you shall bruise him on the heel." So there's something about the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent. Certainly the seed of the woman we know Jesus Christ.

Praise God for those who are in the seed of the woman. Praise God for those who are in Christ. But there is the seed of the serpent. There are those who are the children of the devil. Bottom line is this, Everyone in this world, everyone in this country, everyone in this state, everyone in this county, everyone in this room, either belongs to God or to the evil world system that is Satan's domain.

And so I ask you, where are you? Where are you today? Where are you now? If you're in Christ, if you're in Christ, there's a warning. There's a warning here.

Because the whole world belongs to Satan, we have to be aware. So as to avoid its contamination. There's contamination in this world. In our text here, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. There's warnings throughout the scripture.

As I thought about this, you know, we're here in the world and we need to, we can't shut ourselves off from the world. We can't be like the Amish or some of these other groups or be like the monks that try to be separated completely from the world. We have to be out in the world, else how else could we witness to the world? But we have to be careful to not let the world influence us. The psalmist said in Psalms 1, this in Psalms 1, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.

But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water which yields its fruit in its season, its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does he prospers." We must be aware of the counsel that we get from the the the the world. Everybody in this world is operating on one of two worldviews, either a Christian worldview or an ungodly worldview, a satanic worldview. In Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, chapter 15, 1st Corinthians chapter 15, in verse 33, a Text that's very easy to memorize and Treasure in your heart So you won't sin against God He says do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals.

Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Be careful who your friends are And that's not just a warning for young people, that's a warning for everybody. In the kitchen, back behind me, we have a place where we keep fruit. And in that basket of fruit, sometimes one fruit will begin to to go bad.

It'll begin to rot. If that rotten fruit is not removed from the rest of it, the fruit that it touches, the fruit that's immediately around that rotten fruit will begin to go bad as well. Never have I ever seen a time where the good fruit around the rotten fruit turns the rotten fruit good. It always is the opposite. The rotten fruit always makes the other fruit around it go bad.

And that's the way it is in life. And the Bible is clear on this. There's no middle ground. We're in a battlefield here. When we're around the wrong kinds of people, It's not too long until their way of life influences us and their way of thinking and all that, you know, even righteous lot.

He was there in Sodom and well, he got into Sodom and all that. And when the Sodomites were knocking on the door, trying to get in to the angels that had come in there, and all of those things, You can go back there and read the text, but let me tell you, his mind had gotten so corrupt that he came out and tried to appease them and he said, he said, look, I've got two daughters. Why don't you just take them? How terrible. How terrible.

Why would you offer your daughters to a bunch of filthy sodomites? But that's how corrupted he had gotten hanging around those fellows to think. Well at least it's a man and a woman. No, no. You see over in Luke chapter 11, Luke chapter 11 and verse 23.

Jesus said, He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Battle lines have been drawn. Battle lines were drawn long before you and I were ever born. But Jesus says, He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Over in James chapter 4, James chapter 4 and verse 4, You adulterers, adulteresses, you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God." And so, the Bible is clear on these things. We've got to be aware. We've got to be careful. We've got to watch out and not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Well, we know that we are of God.

But in verse 20 of our text in 1 John chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5, verse 20, and verse 21, in verse 21. 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 in eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols. This passage is the summation of John's whole letter.

The incarnation of Christ guarantees the certainty of everything else. Nothing else could be true, or would be true, were it not for the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Were it not true that Jesus came into the world to die for sinners? The fact of His virgin birth, His sinless life, His death on the cross, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension back up into glory, all of these things. We would not know anything else to be true.

In fact, if it weren't for this, this is the doctrinal foundation upon which everything else rests. Our love and obedience rests. Our love and obedience flows from this very truth. The truth of Christ. The Son of God come in the flesh.

What a fitting ending for this letter that began. Remember how it began in 1 John chapter 1? Verses 1-4. He started us out with what was from the beginning. What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life.

Life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we've seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you may also have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we are writing so that our joy may be made complete. He started this letter writing about the coming of the Word of Life. His readers have been troubled apparently by some Gnostics, some fellows that had some ideas that maybe the flesh wasn't really there or Maybe it wasn't really that Jesus had been there in the flesh and those sorts of ideas.

And He writes about the coming of the Word of the Life in the flesh and He closes with the certainty that the Son of God has come. With the final stroke of the pen, he ends it with little children. Guard yourselves from idols. And guard yourselves from idols. Idolatry was not just an Old Testament problem.

Anything you put above God is an idol of the heart and needs to be warned about, needs to be taken care of. Jesus must be high and lifted up in our worship, both here as we gather corporately as a church, but also in our homes too. Privately as we go about our day-to-day lives as individuals, but also as families. There's much confusion in the world today. Many idols in the world.

But we have certainties. We have the word of God given. The psalmist put it this way long ago, and we'll close with this in Psalms 119. Verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And so today, We've pointed to Christ. If you don't know Him, we point you to Him today. And if you do know Him, we trust that this has been a blessing. And I thank you for your attention to the preaching.