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INTRODUCTION
John wrote his gospel so that people might believe in Jesus we might call his gospel a tract for the
unbeliever. But 1 John is clearly a letter for Christians and once again in verse 13 John gives a very clear statement about his purpose for this letter. The church was under pressure from those who had left the
church and had gone after another gospel. Their false teaching was obviously making an impact upon the church so that the true church was starting to doubt their own salvation.
After all the church has not had any secret knowledge or any anointing of the Spirit which these false teachers
proclaimed they had experienced. Yet carefully and thoroughly John has been giving a number of tests that will help the church to be assured of its salvation. So in verse 13 we have a summary statement of John's
purpose. He has written all these things down in order that the true believer can know that he has eternal life.
Now this assurance is only possible when someone is believing in the name of the Son of God. This means someone
who is believing the right doctrine about Jesus that he is the Son of God and it also means someone who in trusting in the name of Jesus for Salvation. It is having right belief but it is more than having a right
belief it is about having a heart commitment. But it is still possible for people to presume that they are Christians, they might feel they are Christians, when they clearly are not. John has established clear tests
in order to ascertain if our assumption is right. These tests are right belief about Jesus, obedience to the Lord and loving his people.
If you pass these tests then John says this letter was written for you that you might know that you have
eternal life. The issue at stake is a big one eternal life. Most religions and cults will tell you that you can't be sure that you have eternal life, you simply have to do your best and hope that it is good enough.
But John says that when you pass these tests then you know that you know that you have eternal life. So as we have gone through this book those who are true believers ought to have had an increasing sense of
assurance.
Now a growing sense of assurance will not cause us to put our feet up and rest and say I am assured of heaven
that's all that matters. No! Real biblical assurance enlivens our faith and encourages us to press on for one of the marks of true belief is obedience to God and that will mean we will have a desire to follow our
Master by pressing on. One of the effects of an assurance of salvation will be an assurance in prayer (vs. 14-15). This is the matter that John now comes back to and deals with it.
1. ASSURANCE IN PRAYER (vs. 14-15)
John now applies the doctrine of assurance to the prayer life of the Christian. If we know that we have eternal
life that we belong to God that He is our heavenly Father and that he loves us deeply then one of the most natural things to do is to pray knowing that he will hear us. We can come before God with great confidence
knowing that he hears us. We can do so because we know that our God wants the best for us we can trust his word, we trust his character and we trust his motives.
Therefore there is nothing in God that would hold us back from coming to him in prayer. John says that we can
have confidence in prayer. The word 'confidence' means freedom of speech; we can come before our heavenly father freely and tell him our needs and desires. John mentions one simple condition about our prayers. Our
prayers must be in line with his will and purposes for us (v 14). Now there are some Christians who tell you that to pray like this is unbelief especially when praying for healing. But John clearly puts this
statement in for a purpose.
For prayer is not a blank cheque to which you simply put your name and your request is cashed in. No prayer is
asking God for things that he has promised to give. We can boldly ask God to provide for us our daily bread because we are told by Jesus to pray for it (Matthew 6:11). But we cannot ask God to make us rich for the
bible tells us to be content with what we have and not to covet (Phil 4:11-12 and Exodus 20:17). John puts this little condition in for it saves us time and energy praying for things that clearly is not God's will.
God speaks through his word and he tells us there are things that we ought to pray for and things that we
cannot pray for. We cannot pray about doing something, which is sinful for sin is not God's will. I knew a young lady once who was praying about marrying her boyfriend. But if she knew her bible she wouldn't have
been praying like that for her boyfriend was an unbeliever.
There was once a young lady who was praying about whether to go into the full time Pastorate. But it was a
waste of time to do so for God has already spoken about the role of woman in the church and it is not the role of Elder or Pastor (1 Timothy 2:11-12). However if we pray for anything that is in line with his will
then we can have confidence that he hears us and if he hears us that is all that matters. So we can and should pray for the building up of his church.
We should pray for more labourers to be sent out into the harvest field. These are things that are clearly in
line with the will of God and therefore we can approach God with confidence because he is our Father and he will hear us.
We can only pray in accordance with his will if we spend time getting to know his will. This involves time
cultivating our relationship with God. We need to spend regular time in his word and we need to spend time in prayer for only as we spend time with the Lord will we become more in tune with his will. But what about
those things that we do not know what his will is. Perhaps we are praying about a new job and we apply whatever biblical principles we can think of and there seems no reason why we should not do this particular job.
But how do I know if it is God's will for me? Well we can pray for the job and apply for it and go through the
whole process but we must always be prepared to submit to the Lord's will in the situation. So that if the job does not materialise we simply have to submit to his will, knowing that God is God and he is concerned
for our eternal welfare and knows what is best for us. Prayer is not about getting God to do what we want, but it is about God getting us to submit to his will for us.
There will be times when we feel a certain step in the right one; we may well pray about it with confidence
asking for God's will to be done.
We can be sure that God will hear our prayers for we belong to him and have eternal life. However we have to
understand and realise that God's will is perfect and good and therefore we must be prepared for God to change our plans without feeling angry or resentful towards Him. He is our heavenly Father; no earthly Father
gives his children all that his children think is good for them. The earthly Father sees the dangers in giving his son everything he wants for he knows what is good and what is harmful for him.
So it is with God giving us all that we want even when what we want might not be wrong or harmful in itself but
receiving it might do us more harm than good. There once was a man who wanted a new car. He loved cars and looked after his own car really well but he wanted a new one for his old one was coming to the end of its
life. He prayed about it and presented to God all his reasons why he should have one.
Many of the reasons seemed good like picking people up for the church bible study. After months of prayer there
was no sign of a new car so in his impatience he went into considerable debt something he promised the Lord he wouldn't do and bought a new car. He justified his actions by claiming it was God's will for him. He
loved his new car so much so that instead of going to the bible Study and picking up people as promised, he stayed at home to clean and polish it or else he was out having a run in the car.
You see God knew what was best but the man thought he knew better than God. Therefore there are things we
clearly can pray for knowing it to be God's will. There are things we cannot pray for knowing it is not God's will.
There are other things we can pray for knowing that God hears us but always submitting to his will knowing that
he knows what is best for us and the person we are praying about.
In verse 15 the phrase 'we know that we have' in the Greek can mean that our petitions are granted at once but
the results of that granting are seen in the future. In other words praying in God's will means that God hears us and answers our prayers even though that answer may not be seen until sometime in the future. Just
think how encouraging this is concerning the salvation of someone we are praying for.
Who knows but it may well be that God has already answered that prayer although at this moment of time that
person you are praying for shows no sign of turning to Christ.
This gives us great confidence in prayer we can be certain that when we pray for anything in accordance with
God's will then He hears our petition and answers. The church today needs to recover this sense of confidence in prayer for I feel that we lack confidence and boldness this is why so few Christians see the need to
pray.
2. WHAT SHOULD WE PRAY FOR: (vs.16-17)
Well what should we pray for? John gives us something that we ought to pray for and something that we should
not pray for. If you thought the verses in the last sermon were very difficult to understand well these verses are twice as hard and there is no real agreement among conservative commentators. I will also confess
that I don't think I understand them either. However it is clear that John and those in the churches that John is writing to understood what was going on and what John meant.
The first part of verse 16 is reasonably clear. If we see a brother or sister sin then what we should do? We
should not say well that's what I expect from him or her. Nor should we in a sort of proud sort of way tut tut at them. We ought to pray for them. Pray that God will give them life that God will restore them to full
fellowship with himself. Sin breaks our fellowship with God. The praying in the church today can be very general sometimes vague but here John wants us to remember in prayer specific people who have fallen into sin.
He wants us to pray for them not so that we can feel more superior to them for we should never be guilty of such a thing but so that God might restore them. But what does John mean by a sin that does not lead to
death. Well it must be talking about spiritual death and its ultimate consequence of judgement. John is talking about a brother a fellow Christian who sins. His sin does not lead to death because Christ has died to
pardon him.
He has paid the price so that we do not have too. Therefore we are to confess our sins to God and we have an
advocate with the Father but our sin does break fellowship with our Father. It's just like a son who does something against his Father, and as a result the temperature between them cools. But at the end of the day
the Father is still the father of his son and the son is still the son of his Father. This is how it is for Christians and so we ought to pray that the sinning Christian should be brought to confess their sin and to
be reconciled to God.
However John says there is a sin that leads to death. What does he mean? Well I think he is talking about the
false teachers. They once were members of the true church (2:19) but left and now they are opposing the church. They have rejected the gospel, which brings life, and by so doing they are committing the sin that
ultimately leads to death if they continue on that pathway. You see any who reject Jesus as the way of salvation are sinning against Him.
That sin if continued in leads to its ultimate end, which is eternal death. The difficulty is why should we not
pray for such people? John is not commanding here but simply saying that we should not pray about that. I think the answer has to do with the discipline within the church. These people have abandoned the faith; they
have left the church and therefore they have rejected the way of salvation. By their actions they are saying they do not want God's salvation and so perhaps John is saying these are the people who by their actions
are showing a deliberate disobedience and therefore as part of the church's discipline upon them they are to no longer pray for them. There is virtually no hope for them or so it seems (Jeremiah 7:16)
This does not mean that there are two different types of sins as the Roman Catholic Church teaches from these
verses. They teach that there are mortal sins and venial sins. Mortal sins are unforgivable and venial sins are lesser sins. John says that all wrongdoing is sin (v 17) but not all wrongdoing leads to the same end.
When a Christian sins he breaks fellowship with God but ultimately his sin does not lead to eternal death because Jesus is the atoning sacrifice the propitiation for our sins (2:2).
However the unbeliever who sins and continues to do so without repentance ultimately faces the consequences of
their sin, which is eternal death. This is why if you are in such a situation let me encourage you to repent for you are on a dangerous pathway. If you continue on this pathway then you will face eternal death. So
head this warning do not turn your back on Christ and his salvation and come to him and receive his forgiveness.
Amen
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