In his sermon titled 'The Purpose In Writing,' David Green draws from 1 John 5:13 to highlight the assurance of eternal life for believers. He underscores the certainty of faith, contrasting it with the uncertainties of the world and human limitations in knowledge. Green emphasizes that God's knowledge is limitless and assures believers of their eternal life through faith in Christ, unlike the uncertainties faced by unbelievers. He reflects on the apostle Paul's life, illustrating how believers can live with assurance and purpose. Green also discusses the importance of continual belief and divine revelation in gaining absolute knowledge of salvation, noting that this assurance is available to both new and mature Christians. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to find joy in the certainty of eternal life as revealed in the scriptures.

1 John chapter 5. One verse will be our text today. Verse 13. 1 John 5 and verse 13. 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.

Once again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven we are thankful for your blessings. We thank you, our Father, for the time that we have that we can gather ourselves together here in this place at this hour. Lord, what a beautiful Lord's day you've given us. We thank you, our Father, for the song that's been sung, for the prayers of your people.

We thank you for the ones who have come out today and we pray our Father that you'll just work in our hearts, our minds, our lives. Lord we thank you for the message before us in this text. Lord the assurance that we have. I pray our Father that you'll be with the preaching of your word and truly be presented in truth and received as such. Forgive us of our sins.

Forgiveness in Jesus name we pray. Amen. John wrote this letter and in this letter he wrote 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. And so it is Our faith is not a hope so, a maybe so, a might be, could be, maybe kind of a faith. Faith.

And that's been the major theme of this epistle as we've gone through this text. In fact, in fact throughout this passage I trust you've found some assurance. If you're a believer, I trust that your assurance has been strengthened. But if not, if not, I trust that you've been made to see that your only hope is in Christ alone. Notice in this text, in this verse, that word no is there.

And as I read that, as I meditated on this, John used that word and we're going to come back to this as we go through this message today. That word no is there and It's a big deal. To know something is a big deal. I know what's going on in this room. You know what's going on in this room.

But we don't know what's happening outside. We don't know what's going on in the neighbor's house next door even though they're very close to us. We don't know what's going on over there. We don't know what's happening at that neighbor's house. Terry's a nice guy.

We can assume what's happening over there. Casey over there, we don't know what's going on in his house, But we know what's happening here. There are limits to our knowledge, even here, isn't there? Even though I can look around and see what's going on here, I'm limited to what I can know. I can't read your mind.

I don't know what's in your heart. You can't read my mind and you don't know what's in my heart. What's in my heart? God knows those things. There's no limits to his knowledge.

God knows what's going on in your mind. He knows what's happening in your heart today. He knows what's happening in this house, in this place, in this assembly. He knows what's going on and he knows what's going on in the neighbor's house. He knows what's happening across the road.

There's no limits to his knowledge. And even though I can look around and I can see what's going on in here and have a good idea right now, I don't know what's coming. Something might happen in here that could change the way things are in an instant. So when this room could have a stroke or a heart attack or seizure, It will change the dynamic of this place in a moment. It's happened.

Our lives are...there's things unsure about our lives. And we may think, oh, well, it'll be the oldest person in the room, but it might not. But let us never be like the Baptist church I heard of before that was so cold, so indifferent. Somebody in the church had a medical emergency, heart attack or whatever. They fainted, whatever happened.

So somebody called an ambulance And paramedics came and carried out five people before they got to the right person. Everybody was so dead and cold. Let's not be like that. In all seriousness, there are uncertainties, aren't there? In life, in work, I mean, my job, the company I worked for, it got bought out by another company.

Nobody saw that coming. Well, except for the people at the top. They knew it was coming, but none of us saw it coming. It's been a lot of stress this year. Our cars driving along and all of a sudden the check engine light comes on or something doesn't sound right or where's Lee a burning smell comes what's that what's going on you know those sorts of things our appliances we think the Lord when they work then when they don't work we know we don't expect that this year I'm pretty sure Jill and I have either had to replace or repair just about every appliance in this house.

Just about. We didn't start off 2025 expecting any of those things. It's starting to get cold and turn on the heater and we expect it to work but sometimes it doesn't. Y'all know how that goes. There are uncertainties and while there are limits to our knowledge, and we certainly do live in an uncertain world, we can be sure, we can know what John wrote about here in 1 John 5 and verse 13.

And this is kind of the anchor, if you think about it, in the storms of life. 1 John 5 and verse 13. 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. John wrote this to believers in his day. Now you and I we see here in our day and we say well we're 2, 000 years separated from them and that's true.

We say we're culturally separated from them, we're Americans and they were in Europe and that's true. There are differences but the more you study human history, cultures and people, we're all very much the same. They lived in an uncertain world as well. And they needed this assurance in their world, same as what we needed today. And so as he wrote this, as John put pen to paper and wrote this to a literal group of people in his day.

By extension, the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God, which has been translated all the way down and preserved all the way down for us today so that you have a copy of it in your lap whether it's digital or physical this is for you believer today It's not for unbelievers This text is not for the unbeliever. You ask the unbeliever what they're sure of and what are they going to tell you. Ask an unbeliever what they know, what they're sure of, and they're probably going to tell you death and taxes. Death and taxes. That's A knee-jerk reaction that they'll tell you about and it goes all the way back So some say it goes back to Benjamin Franklin, but he may not have even originated it death and taxes But even back to the To the flood they were eating they were drinking they were giving him marriage and then the flood came and destroyed them all.

They weren't sure of anything except for what they could see, feel, taste, touch, smell, and then death. But ask the unbeliever what they're certain of after death. Maybe you're hearing you don't know Jesus. Or maybe you're hearing you don't have that assurance of salvation, what are you sure of? Past death, Many haven't thought that far, or many don't want to think that far.

John says, I know, You may know. I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. The unbeliever doesn't have that. The unbeliever doesn't have that. He didn't say to the believer, I've written this so that you know that you will have eternal life.

No, no, you have it. And we talked about that some last week, but he says, he says, you, I've written this so that you may know that you have eternal life. Not everybody's gonna preach this, but this is what we see in the Word of God. The Roman Catholics, they don't preach like this. The Mormons, man, they knocked on my door the other day.

They don't preach like this. There's no assurance in their religion. But even when you drill it a little bit closer to home, there's some Baptists that don't preach this. The primitive Baptists, maybe you've seen them and heard of them, they don't preach assurance. But God's word says, you may know now that you have eternal life.

And in a certain world it's offensive to some. They say, oh, you're arrogant. How can you know that you have eternal life? It's offensive and arrogant to know about anything they say, and especially something as big as this but the Bible is God's Word that is filled with absolute certainties and we know John says it I've written this. Our problem is a lot of times we spend our time debating and arguing about things that we're not sure about.

Space landings, government conspiracies and things like that, Some of that stuff we may never know. The JFK assassination, stuff like that. We may never know the truth about some of that. And I'm okay with that. Some of that we may never know the truth of it, but we can get into God's Word and we can know some stuff.

Like we can be certain. We've been in Genesis on our midweek service. We can know when the universe began. We can know where it came from, that God created it. We can know that God made man in his own image.

We can be certain that there really was a worldwide flood. We can know as we skip through some things, some highlights, we can know that Jesus really did start his church during his earthly ministry. And he promised that the gates of Hades would not overpower it. He promised those things. We know that He died on the cross and was buried and He rose again the third day.

Literally. We know Jesus is the only way to heaven. We know that He's literally coming back one day. There's so many things we can know of a certainty, and one of those things is, somebody asks us, are you going to go to heaven when you die? Yeah, I am.

I know some well-meaning Christians who will answer that question. I think they're trying to be humble and they'll say, well, Lord willing, or I sure hope so. Give a sure answer when you hear that question. Somebody says, where are you going when you get to heaven? Or where are you going when you die?

Or are you going to heaven when you die? Answer it with all assurity. If you're a believer in Christ, our place in glory is sure. Listen to Paul as he neared the end of his life over in 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2nd Timothy chapter 4.

Beginning verse one he tells Timothy says I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and teaching. Great patience, like King James said, all long suffering. Truly, truly we do suffer long in life and in the ministry.

He said, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled. They will accumulate from themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth, will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Verse 6. Kind of where I want to focus here he said for I am already being poured out as a drink offering.

The time of my departure has come. In the Old Testament there were many different kinds of offerings, or meat offerings, there were other kinds of offerings, but in the drink offering there was absolutely nothing left when it was offered. Paul said, I'm being poured out as a drink offering. That's what his ministry was all about. He was willing to pour out His life Himself.

Everything He was or ever hoped to be, He was willing to pour it out for the cause of Christ. And if you study his life, this is why he was willing to go from city to city, from place to place, beat up, torn up, persecuted, slandered, bruised, battered, destroyed even physically. Bruised, battered, destroyed even physically. One place to another, And yet, he would go city to city preaching Christ and Him crucified. Whether it was to the Jews or the Gentiles, whether it was in the synagogues or the marketplace.

He was willing to be spent. He was willing to spend and be spent for the cause of Christ. He says there in verse 7, I fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. That's what an old preacher said. He said the message to Timothy and by extension to us is keep fighting, keep running, keep believing, and at the end of life, mission accomplished.

Verse 8, he says, in the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day." When he doesn't stop there, he says, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing." One old preacher said that at the beginning of his ministry his focus was always on the first part of this preaching the Word. And then now that he's old he said he he wanted to focus in on finishing well. And I thought, well, that's really good. But since I have no idea where I'm at in my journey, I might be at the middle, I might be at the end, I have no idea. But I think for all of us to consider this passage we have to consider and for the sake of this message we ought to Consider that Paul's great hope was sure, and while he had a good idea that his life was about to end, You and I, we don't know when our life is going to end, but if we're in Christ, we have the same hope that Paul had, the same hope that John was writing about.

And certainly we ought to make the most out of it. Not everybody is going to be a Paul who's going to be privileged to go all around the Roman Empire and be beat up and torn up for Christ. Some might be a Timothy. Others might be someone else who is kind of more in the background supporting doing the things of the Lord in some capacity, in some business. Maybe working at working as a painter or in an RV park or as a cook in a restaurant or as a pressure washer or a nurse or whatever the case may be.

But the fact is that we ought to do the best that we can for the cause of Christ. Knowing that there's more to life, there's more to life than what we see and feel, taste, and smell. Feel, taste, and smell. Knowing that just as sure as that pressure washer is, knowing just as sure as that paintbrush is. No one just as sure as this pulpit stand is.

No one just as sure, and even more sure than that. Because guess what? The pressure washer, the paintbrush, this pulpit stand, those things are going to be destroyed, but eternal life will never fade away, nor be destroyed. What John wrote in his epistle in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. He wrote similarly in the gospel of John, John chapter 20 and verse 31.

Or we can start in verse 30. In John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31 it says, Therefore, many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. What we have, He's given us so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the believing you may have life in His name. Through the pages of the epistle of 1 John, We've noticed that there's been many evidences of eternal life that have been provided.

And so by self-examination, we can see evidences that we can determine that we're saved. But the focus, the focus must always be on Christ. Our hope, our life, our eternal life is always in Him. You see, the legalist reads these things about evidences, and So sometimes they'll say, well, you just need to keep trying harder. In fact, I mentioned the Roman Catholic and the Mormons, that's their problem.

When there's doubts and fears and all those sorts of things, they say, oh, you just need to keep trying harder and harder. But if you'll remember, back there in 1 John chapter 5, Verse 12, the verse right before the one that we have for our text, he wrote, He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have that life. Plain and simple. Either you have Christ or you don't.

Either you have life or you don't. And taking these verses together, and taking the whole of this epistle and looking at it We know that you're that those who are saved are going to believe And and by the way believing he says there in verse 13 I think is significant these things have a written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. He doesn't say those who believed past tense. It's a continual belief. There's some people out there who will talk about that they believed one time in Jesus, but salvation is believing continually.

And as he goes on, he says that you may know of eternal life. I told you I'd get back to that word, no. It's a Greek word that he uses here as Paul or as John wrote it. John put these words down on paper. He used a Greek word, euda.

It's a word, it's meaning I'm told, means absolute knowledge. So don't misunderstand the message that's coming from 1 John. This knowing is not something learned by experience. So as you go through life, it's not that as you go through life and as you mature as a Christian and as you somehow get more sanctified and all that, that eventually you come to this height of knowledge that you can know. Do you have eternal life?

No, it's not like that at all. The meaning here is absolute knowledge, not something learned by experience, but by divine revelation. This surety is for all who believe, even the youngest of Christians, the babe in Christ as it were, to even the most mature saint. So that that babe in Christ who has first believed who doesn't know anything except the old song Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. To the most mature saint who knows the Bible and has read it multiple times this is the knowledge he's talking about.

We know we have eternal life. There are evidences of it, yes. There are evidences of that salvation. But they all rest upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. Our hope in life and death is Jesus Christ.

The finished work of Jesus Christ. That's where our security rests. And so now I ask you this question as we bring this to a close. Do you know? Do you know?

Are you a believer? Over in 1st John chapter 1 when we started this study in verse 3, you remember what he wrote there? He said what we have seen, sorry verse 4, verse 4 Sorry, verse four. Verse four he says, and these things we are writing so that our joy may be made complete. So he wrote these things so that our joy may be complete.

There is great joy in knowing. So I said we live in an uncertain world. There's some things we don't know. Some things we aren't sure of, but we can know that we have eternal life. There is great joy to be found here, right here in the pages of scripture.

By the authority of the word of God, we can now, because of Christ and what he has done. That great work that he's done in our lives. May God have the blessing to preach you of His Word. With Mary, Sister, and Leah, you all want to come and let's have a heal. Him.