The Real Danger of Idols (1 John 5:14-21)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.440 --> 00:00:03.919 Will please remain standing, if you're able, and turn your attention now to 2 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:09.949 a first John Five, a chapter five, verses fourteen through twenty one. 3 00:00:10.070 --> 00:00:21.309 Let's give our attention to God's word. It is life, and this is 4 00:00:21.350 --> 00:00:26.019 the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to 5 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:31.140 his will, he hears us, and if we know that he hears us, 6 00:00:31.179 --> 00:00:34.740 and whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we 7 00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:40.289 have asked of him. If any one sees his brother committing a sin not 8 00:00:40.329 --> 00:00:45.250 leading to death, he shall ask and God will give him life. To 9 00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:49.450 those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that 10 00:00:49.570 --> 00:00:53.079 leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. 11 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:58.039 All wrong doing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to 12 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:03.520 death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep 13 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:07.950 on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him and the evil 14 00:01:07.989 --> 00:01:14.629 one does not touch him. We know that we are from God and the 15 00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:19.500 whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and we know that 16 00:01:19.659 --> 00:01:25.099 the son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may 17 00:01:25.140 --> 00:01:30.099 know him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, 18 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:38.609 in his son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 19 00:01:38.650 --> 00:01:51.079 Little children, keep yourselves from idols, you may be seated. Well, 20 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:57.200 up until maybe this last year or so, I always felt that the 21 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:01.989 last verse of this chapter was fairly abrupt, and maybe you feel that way 22 00:02:02.030 --> 00:02:07.349 as well. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. John ends the whole 23 00:02:07.389 --> 00:02:15.069 book, or this whole letter with when he hasn't mentioned idolatry once in this 24 00:02:15.189 --> 00:02:21.539 whole book, not explicitly anyway. This command, after all of these other 25 00:02:21.699 --> 00:02:27.460 great themes of love and the work of Christ and and other things, deserve 26 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:32.569 conser related to our community. Who we are in him, how we determine 27 00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:37.849 who belongs in the church who doesn't, all of these things that mark a 28 00:02:37.969 --> 00:02:42.210 true Christian from a false Christian, what it means to re really born of 29 00:02:42.330 --> 00:02:46.039 God and not. He ends not explicitly talking about any of those, at 30 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:53.240 least it seems. He says instead, keep yourselves from idols. But as 31 00:02:53.240 --> 00:03:00.629 I've had the great pleasure of spend time in this letter, maybe time that 32 00:03:00.629 --> 00:03:05.389 I should have spent a long time ago, it doesn't feel abrupt at all 33 00:03:05.509 --> 00:03:07.550 to me anymore, and I want to I hope that's true for you as 34 00:03:07.629 --> 00:03:14.139 well. And and if not, I want to help connect this verse with 35 00:03:14.259 --> 00:03:17.460 the things that Paul, or sorry, John says in the rest of this 36 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:22.539 passage that we've read, but also in the book. So you might see 37 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:27.169 that it's not just a tack on ending or even a strange ending, but 38 00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:32.129 it's exactly the right thing to say. And indeed we should keep ourselves from 39 00:03:32.129 --> 00:03:38.409 idols. Let's not forget that. So it closes with this clear command. 40 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:45.439 I think in many ways it is a perfect way to end a letter that 41 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:51.639 has been all about the dangers of being outside of Christ. If you think 42 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:58.389 of idolatry in a very simplistic way, it'll feel abrupt. The ending will 43 00:03:58.430 --> 00:04:03.069 feel abrupt if you think about idol idolatry is merely a statue, let's say, 44 00:04:03.669 --> 00:04:08.550 if a few oranges in front of it and somebody's house or restaurant or 45 00:04:08.590 --> 00:04:13.060 something like that, or even as a very large thing that people might go 46 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:17.100 to a temple to worship, those are indeed idols. But if that's all 47 00:04:17.259 --> 00:04:20.180 it is, then you might say to yourself, well, good, that 48 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:25.649 commands fairly easy. I don't have any idols in my home. My eye 49 00:04:25.730 --> 00:04:29.970 and and and maybe some of you don't, at least not in that way. 50 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:32.810 You think about this command keep yourself from idols and you say, well, 51 00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:36.970 I basically do this. This doesn't really apply to me. I guess 52 00:04:38.009 --> 00:04:42.040 other people should keep themselves from idols. This one's not a problem. But 53 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:46.560 of course it is, because what John's been talking about throughout the whole letter 54 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:51.160 is what that Jesus Christ is the true God. He says it right here. 55 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:59.829 He says he is the true God and eternal life. Idolatry is the 56 00:04:59.829 --> 00:05:04.230 thing that is opposed to God. Now let me ask you a question. 57 00:05:05.589 --> 00:05:11.899 What is sin? Sin Is the thing that is opposed to God. These 58 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:16.220 things are very related. Anytime we sin, any time we act in some 59 00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:23.250 way or another, and often it's not a very far connection, we are 60 00:05:23.449 --> 00:05:30.689 committing sense of idolatry. Idolatry is found in our lives whenever we deny the 61 00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:36.879 true God as God or fail to worship and glorify the true God as God, 62 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:45.920 whenever God is not our God, we are committing idolatry. In other 63 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:49.230 words, we might sort of know in an intellectual sense, okay, there 64 00:05:49.389 --> 00:05:54.470 is a true God and I'm not supposed to worship anyone else. But if 65 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:58.509 he is not our God, if he's not personal in that way, but 66 00:05:58.629 --> 00:06:03.660 we are in fact directing our worship resources and are glorifying the things that we 67 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:08.980 do and our life and our hope and all of the rest to something else, 68 00:06:09.019 --> 00:06:15.660 well then we aren't giving him what he deserves. Any time we give 69 00:06:15.860 --> 00:06:21.089 worship and glory that's due only to him to another, we are committing idolatry. 70 00:06:23.250 --> 00:06:27.610 Any time we are putting our faith in our hope that belongs to him 71 00:06:27.889 --> 00:06:33.680 in another, we are committing idolatry. John tells us to keep ourselves from 72 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:42.680 idols, because idolatry is everywhere. It's not just over there in this person's 73 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:48.870 house or over there in that country or this thing that grandma does. It 74 00:06:49.110 --> 00:06:57.550 is all over our lives, because there are constant places and temptations in which 75 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:06.300 we are attempted to direct our worshiping are glorifying. If we go back to 76 00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:10.620 what John says and what we read earlier in First John to, this is 77 00:07:10.660 --> 00:07:13.699 exactly what he's talking about. Do not love the world, he says. 78 00:07:14.860 --> 00:07:20.930 That's a pretty comprehensive category, isn't it? Do not love the world or 79 00:07:21.050 --> 00:07:26.250 the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of 80 00:07:26.290 --> 00:07:29.649 the father other, and that father is God, is not in him. 81 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:32.600 He's saying, if you love the world in this way, then you don't 82 00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:38.199 love God. God's love is not in you and your love is not being 83 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:43.839 directed toward him. That relationship has broken down. It doesn't exist if you 84 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:47.269 are loving something other than God. And what is the other that? He 85 00:07:47.389 --> 00:07:53.709 talks about the world, the things in the world, and he gets specific 86 00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:59.180 for all that is in the world and he lists three things, the desires 87 00:07:59.259 --> 00:08:03.259 of the flesh and the desires of the eyes, and pride and possessions, 88 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:09.019 or sometimes it's translated the pride in life, the sort of I am amazing 89 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:15.529 because I'm alive, I am amazing because I have all of these things, 90 00:08:16.449 --> 00:08:20.129 I have solid bank accounts, I have stable relationships with my friends, my 91 00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:24.889 kids all have nice haircuts and whatever it is you think is important. You 92 00:08:26.170 --> 00:08:28.079 look at your life and you say, look how solid this is, look 93 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:33.240 how much better I'm doing than other people. This is the pride of life, 94 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:37.360 or pride and possessions, pride in the things that we have. That 95 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:43.429 might be honor, that might be wealth, might be beauty, or the 96 00:08:43.549 --> 00:08:48.710 desires of the eyes these things we want, the desires of our sinful flesh. 97 00:08:48.750 --> 00:08:54.870 Are are cravings. And here he's not talking about being hungry and needing 98 00:08:54.990 --> 00:09:00.700 food. He's talking about the ways in which we trust food to give us 99 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:05.179 the eternal life that we need, the ways in which we trust not just 100 00:09:05.419 --> 00:09:16.129 food but all kinds of things, sex, alcohol, other people, relationships 101 00:09:16.250 --> 00:09:22.970 that we have, our work, our status, they're all kinds of things 102 00:09:22.049 --> 00:09:26.759 which we go to and we say, this thing will give me life, 103 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.799 this thing will help me with my problems. This is where it's at. 104 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.200 This is the thing I should fear not having, this is the thing I 105 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:39.990 should desire and hope for. This is the thing I should spend my waking 106 00:09:39.190 --> 00:09:46.470 hours planning for, thinking about, trying to figure out how to get. 107 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:54.899 That's what idolatry is. Our time, our lives, John says, should 108 00:09:54.940 --> 00:10:01.500 be spent seeking after the Lord, seeking after his things, the thing that 109 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:05.860 he wants. We should be planning righteous deeds, we should be seeking ways 110 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:16.769 to love, finding greater finding greater and more opportunities to serve him, but 111 00:10:16.570 --> 00:10:22.279 we often don't. Instead, we often don't keep ourselves from idols and instead 112 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:28.720 go to idolatry and find other things things to set as our highest priority. 113 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:39.309 There is a songwriter named Derek Webb and I want to read to you some 114 00:10:39.509 --> 00:10:46.230 lyrics that he wrote. He wrote this song recently as a kind of Christian 115 00:10:46.350 --> 00:10:50.539 praise song, or at least it was meant to sound that way, but 116 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:56.299 ultimately it's it's about something else. I listen to the words and listen to 117 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:03.100 well, just listen and then we'll think about it. He's he writes and 118 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:07.250 it's it's in this sort of praise song mode that you might hear on Christian 119 00:11:07.250 --> 00:11:09.730 radio or something like that. He says, help me to forget all of 120 00:11:09.889 --> 00:11:13.490 my regret. I know you're strong enough to do the job. You go 121 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:18.039 by many names. Forever, stay the same. Your promises, I claim. 122 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:22.399 You're all I've got. So we raise our voice, we raise an 123 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:28.279 offering. Would you come near and quench our thirsts Oh, lift our hearts 124 00:11:28.679 --> 00:11:31.799 as the spirit bears the curse. Oh, we depend on you. We 125 00:11:31.909 --> 00:11:37.950 know that you'll come through. We feel it instantly when you move. It's 126 00:11:37.990 --> 00:11:41.230 more than chemistry, more than community. You enter into me, you're in 127 00:11:41.309 --> 00:11:46.990 my veins. We raise an offering. Would you come near and quench our 128 00:11:46.110 --> 00:11:52.980 thirst? Lift our hearts as the spirit bears the curse. Now my knees 129 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:56.779 are weak, my speech is LURD. Oh the things you shake, oh 130 00:11:56.899 --> 00:12:01.139 the things you stir. I'm calling out the only name that delivers me from 131 00:12:01.139 --> 00:12:13.370 my guilt and shame. Oh alcohol. I don't think he's being ironic. 132 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:26.320 I think he's being honest about being caught in his own sin and I think 133 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:31.190 that a lot of us would do well to be a lot more honest about 134 00:12:31.190 --> 00:12:35.710 our idolatry. It's not just alcohol that works this way. Of course, 135 00:12:37.990 --> 00:12:41.549 many, many things. As I've said, the world and the things of 136 00:12:41.629 --> 00:12:48.820 this world, anything that is not of God, the takes over our lives. 137 00:12:48.899 --> 00:12:52.500 That's that we go to and we say things like this. I'm feeling 138 00:12:52.539 --> 00:12:56.220 guilty, I'm feeling ashamed. What do I need to do? I need 139 00:12:56.379 --> 00:13:01.850 to and if that answer is not fine, forgiveness in Jesus Christ, find 140 00:13:01.970 --> 00:13:07.210 communion and God, seek his name and his praise and find my rest and 141 00:13:07.330 --> 00:13:13.200 security in him. But if it's take another drink, take another by, 142 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:20.440 spend a little more time online, spend a little more time chasing that relationship, 143 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.190 whatever I mean, we could go all day a whatever that is that 144 00:13:26.309 --> 00:13:31.190 we're trying to appease our Gil trying to take care of our shame. That's 145 00:13:31.230 --> 00:13:37.710 idolatry. Wherever we whatever, we lift our hearts up to and raise an 146 00:13:37.789 --> 00:13:41.940 offering to. That's not God. That's idolatry where we seek him, not 147 00:13:43.139 --> 00:13:46.059 just when we seek something, not just out there, but we want it 148 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:50.980 in us. We want to abide in it, abide a part of it, 149 00:13:50.419 --> 00:13:54.419 to belong to it and to and to possess it in a way. 150 00:13:54.809 --> 00:14:03.490 And if that's not God, that's idolatry. Trusting in the promises of anyone 151 00:14:03.570 --> 00:14:09.919 other than God for these eternal things is idolatry, and that's what John's warning 152 00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:28.990 us about. It's really dangerous. Why is it so dangerous? There's many 153 00:14:28.029 --> 00:14:33.750 answers to that question. Simply put, you could say it brings bad consequences, 154 00:14:35.870 --> 00:14:41.539 makes life terrible. What person do you know, or what thing can 155 00:14:41.580 --> 00:14:45.820 you look at in your life where you say that idolatry there? That actually 156 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:54.529 was pretty good you, as I look on these various things past yourself guide, 157 00:14:54.570 --> 00:14:58.649 do have to say there is one exception I could know? Of course, 158 00:14:58.809 --> 00:15:03.649 not all all these things that we look at in our lives we recognize 159 00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:07.120 when we go yeah, that's doing nothing but causing pain. That's doing nothing 160 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:13.120 but destroying my relationships, or risking destroying my relationships. That's doing nothing but 161 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:18.559 making me homeless, losing my money, destroying the people I care about, 162 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:28.789 separating me further from God. That's what idolatry does. It promises something and 163 00:15:30.309 --> 00:15:35.059 it doesn't deliver. It's really as simple as that. It's really as simple 164 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:39.659 as that. It says here you can have everything. Freedom from your guilt, 165 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:45.460 freedom from your shame, a strength, renewed sense of help, whatever 166 00:15:45.539 --> 00:15:50.809 it is. This even good things that you want. It promises them, 167 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:58.690 it will promise them. That's what Satan does. He's a liar. John 168 00:15:58.809 --> 00:16:03.129 says that in this book. He is a liar. He lies to you. 169 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:11.000 Don't listen. Why? Because he's lying because the consequences are really, 170 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:15.200 really bad, and not just in this life, not just here and now 171 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:21.710 for your relationships and your health and your finances and all of that, but 172 00:16:21.909 --> 00:16:26.429 for your e turn a life. That's what it's ultimately promising. After all. 173 00:16:27.470 --> 00:16:33.299 You don't just want a fix here and now and whatever it is your 174 00:16:33.299 --> 00:16:37.460 drug of choices. You want something that is forever right. You don't want 175 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:42.379 to have to keep dealing with these problems over and over again. You want 176 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:48.529 them solved. That's what the world promises. It promises to solve your problems 177 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:57.809 in five evs, easy steps, or whatever. The consequences of idolatry are 178 00:16:57.970 --> 00:17:04.640 seen in the eyes of hopeless people, of ashamed people, guilty people, 179 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:11.319 struggling people, lonely people. Idolatry is not all it's cracked up to be, 180 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:15.750 as I'm all as much as it's promised, as much as our hearts 181 00:17:15.789 --> 00:17:22.869 in the flesh say it's good, it's not. It also is a very 182 00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:26.910 shameful thing. This is one of the dangers of idolatry. Aside from destroying 183 00:17:26.069 --> 00:17:33.180 us in our lives, it's shames us. It embarrasses US too. Great 184 00:17:33.299 --> 00:17:40.700 Classic examples are when the great idol of the Philistines, I think it was 185 00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:45.289 Dagon was his name, before the Lord is overnight comes face down in the 186 00:17:45.410 --> 00:17:51.769 ground and his head falls off, and the Old Testament, another great example 187 00:17:51.809 --> 00:17:55.490 from the old test them and is Elijah up on Mount Carmel and all the 188 00:17:55.569 --> 00:18:00.920 prophets of bail calling after their God and they end up a shame because they're 189 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:06.240 beating themselves and they're yelling and they're screaming and they're trying to get the attention 190 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:12.750 of bail to to prove his great strength, and nothing happens. A God 191 00:18:12.829 --> 00:18:18.910 of their own imaginations doesn't take them any further than beyond themselves, and so 192 00:18:18.990 --> 00:18:26.029 they're stuck and there are ashamed. When the Lord of the Heavens and the 193 00:18:26.109 --> 00:18:32.900 Earth reigns down fire upon that mountain and a show of his powers, might 194 00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:37.180 and his glory. Throughout the whole Bible, God is testifying this, to 195 00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:42.170 this fact that the lie is a lie and that he is true. Who 196 00:18:42.250 --> 00:18:47.410 is the true God and who does not lie? Is the one who has 197 00:18:47.650 --> 00:18:55.569 life in himself, all life, in the biggest way that you can conceptualize 198 00:18:55.690 --> 00:19:03.720 that word life. It's in God. All beauty, all goodness, blessedness, 199 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:11.470 communion, love, everything that would describe a perfectly blessed life is there 200 00:19:11.789 --> 00:19:18.869 in God himself, and it's in the sun that we receive that. This 201 00:19:19.109 --> 00:19:26.299 is the amazing thing about Christianity is that it testifies to the truth that this 202 00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:33.900 God is and the life that is in him is not accessed through all the 203 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:40.210 ways that we normally try to access it. We're him the ways we try 204 00:19:40.250 --> 00:19:44.369 to find fellowship in him a life in him, communion with him, love. 205 00:19:45.930 --> 00:19:49.890 We try to scramble up into the heavenly places. We do that by 206 00:19:51.690 --> 00:19:56.599 great thinking, you know, sit down ourselves in the chair and turn off 207 00:19:56.680 --> 00:20:00.599 the lights and say, all right, I'm going to start at principle A. 208 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:07.869 I'm going to work myself to God. People do this, our philosophers 209 00:20:07.950 --> 00:20:11.829 have done this. It doesn't work. Our thoughts get no higher than the 210 00:20:11.910 --> 00:20:18.269 lighting. We try, if not that way, we try to will ourselves 211 00:20:18.309 --> 00:20:21.430 up to God on a sort of ladder of good works. Well, if 212 00:20:21.460 --> 00:20:22.660 I do this one and then this one and then this one, I'll get 213 00:20:22.660 --> 00:20:26.700 higher and higher and higher. The only problem is we keep putting Greece on 214 00:20:26.740 --> 00:20:33.539 the ladder for some reason, we keep climbing different ladders, we keep doing 215 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:37.569 everything we can to destroy our own efforts and we never rise up, never 216 00:20:37.650 --> 00:20:42.690 get off the ground. Or if we don't try to sort of intellectualize our 217 00:20:42.730 --> 00:20:48.490 way there or or work our way there through our good works, well maybe 218 00:20:48.529 --> 00:20:52.599 we can emode our way there. Right, we'll try to surround ourselves with 219 00:20:53.160 --> 00:21:00.039 fog machines and lights and music and whatever else, or candles or history, 220 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:06.269 or who knows, whatever you want, whatever helps you to find God within 221 00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:11.509 yourself. Go deeper, deeper, deeper, just let go. Let go 222 00:21:12.750 --> 00:21:15.829 and find God. Of course, the further we go in, the more 223 00:21:15.910 --> 00:21:19.700 we find all this, just this idolatry, garbage that's in there. The 224 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:23.420 more we feel stuck, the more we feel pain. I mean sure to 225 00:21:23.579 --> 00:21:27.539 taking some moments to breathe and relax and will be helpful to you in some 226 00:21:27.740 --> 00:21:34.970 way, but it's not going to give you eternal life. These are the 227 00:21:36.049 --> 00:21:47.160 ways in which we try to find God and can't. Why? Because we 228 00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:53.640 are limited, because we are sinful and because, ultimately, as sinners, 229 00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:59.039 we don't want to find him. It's like playing a game that's rigged from 230 00:21:59.079 --> 00:22:03.630 the beginning. We're after something else where, after the desires of the flesh, 231 00:22:04.269 --> 00:22:08.710 the pride of possessions. That's what we really want. So we go 232 00:22:08.869 --> 00:22:15.980 on this search for God when really all what we're after is just feeding ourselves 233 00:22:15.059 --> 00:22:26.579 anyway. All this is really shameful, embarrassing. Produces more guilt, more 234 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:32.809 frustration. How can we be saved? Well, the way we are saved 235 00:22:33.049 --> 00:22:37.930 is not by climbing up to God by our intellect or our will or our 236 00:22:38.009 --> 00:22:48.119 emotions, but by him coming down to us. He takes on the form 237 00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:56.440 of a man. Paul says in Philippians, Jesus, the son of God, 238 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:06.390 becomes man. He Unites Himself to us because we were unable to unite 239 00:23:06.390 --> 00:23:11.269 ourselves to him. Why did he do that? Because he's really loving. 240 00:23:11.309 --> 00:23:21.380 It's a simple as that. He's really, really loving, more than you've 241 00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:26.900 ever experienced before, more than you'll ever experience apart from him. He is 242 00:23:26.410 --> 00:23:33.369 love and he comes down into this world, in this savior, as he 243 00:23:33.490 --> 00:23:37.250 says in Verse Twenty, and we know the son of God has come and 244 00:23:37.450 --> 00:23:41.720 has given us understanding, the thing that we were seeking and couldn't find. 245 00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:48.400 He gives to us. Why? So that we may know him who is 246 00:23:48.599 --> 00:23:56.269 true. He reveals himself to us and we are in Him who is true, 247 00:23:56.430 --> 00:24:00.829 in his son, Jesus Christ, he is the true God and eternal 248 00:24:00.910 --> 00:24:07.990 life. Little children, keep yourself from idols, stay in Jesus Right. 249 00:24:08.190 --> 00:24:15.819 That's what John is saying. Keep yourselves from idols is the two by four 250 00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:19.539 up against the side of the head kind of application when you think about what 251 00:24:19.819 --> 00:24:26.250 life in Christ is. That's why he says it that way. John has 252 00:24:26.329 --> 00:24:32.769 been emphasizing throughout this letter that life is found in the son of God. 253 00:24:33.569 --> 00:24:37.730 Remember back in thirteen, the verse we ended with last time. I write 254 00:24:37.809 --> 00:24:41.079 these things. This is a summation kind of verse. I write these things 255 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.599 to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you 256 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:49.319 may know that you have eternal life. He's saying to these Christians whose community 257 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:55.309 is broken, who have false teachers that are teaching anti Christian things. He's 258 00:24:55.349 --> 00:24:59.630 sang to them. Listen, you can know that you have eternal life when 259 00:24:59.670 --> 00:25:03.309 you believe in the name of the son of God, because he is the 260 00:25:03.549 --> 00:25:12.700 true God. He is eternal life, he is love. You can trust 261 00:25:12.740 --> 00:25:21.420 him, you can go to him. Everything apart from God is the opposite 262 00:25:21.450 --> 00:25:27.930 of this life. God offers US salvation in his son. He offers US 263 00:25:29.009 --> 00:25:32.089 life in him, and all good things in come in him, and that 264 00:25:32.289 --> 00:25:37.480 means, by definition, all bad things that come come apart from God. 265 00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:44.680 It's like darkness. It's the absence of light. Idolatry is like a desert, 266 00:25:45.160 --> 00:25:49.750 so the absence of water. Idolatry is evil, it's the absence of 267 00:25:49.910 --> 00:25:56.069 good. Idolatry is death, it's the absence of life. Idolatry is the 268 00:25:56.349 --> 00:26:00.750 opposite of God, it's the opposite of serving him, worshiping and finding our 269 00:26:00.869 --> 00:26:06.299 lives in him. So keep yourselves from idols, because idols is everything that 270 00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:08.900 is not from God, and everything that is not from God is disaster, 271 00:26:10.019 --> 00:26:17.059 darkness, death, corruption, shame, guilt. That's where we find ourselves, 272 00:26:17.099 --> 00:26:22.490 that's what we have when we don't have him, whereas in God we 273 00:26:22.609 --> 00:26:26.170 have only all things that are good, nothing that's bad, and even seemingly 274 00:26:26.369 --> 00:26:33.720 our bad situations are used for our good when we're in God, whereas an 275 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:38.079 idolatry, the opposite's true. We're even those things that are seemingly good are 276 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:45.160 used for our bad. So what is it that we have in God? 277 00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:53.509 Life? Eternal blessings, freedoms, safety and protection as well. Want to 278 00:26:53.630 --> 00:27:00.069 close by thinking about this. And then just one more little thing. He 279 00:27:00.230 --> 00:27:07.140 says in verse eighteen. We know that everyone who has been born of God 280 00:27:07.299 --> 00:27:11.819 does not keep on sinning in this kind of habitual, enslaved way that we 281 00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:17.289 are apart from Christ. We know that everyone who has been born of God 282 00:27:17.450 --> 00:27:19.450 does not keep on sinning, but he who is born of God, that 283 00:27:19.650 --> 00:27:27.970 is Jesus, protects him and the evil one does not touch him. That's 284 00:27:27.970 --> 00:27:33.799 a quite a different thing from idolatry, which is being ensnared in the lies 285 00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:37.279 of the evil one, captured by the things of this world, totally engulfed 286 00:27:37.319 --> 00:27:41.200 by them. And on the other hand, here he says you will not, 287 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:48.829 he will not touch you. In God, in True Religion, in 288 00:27:49.069 --> 00:27:56.509 Christ, we are perfectly safe. The Eternal Life we have is secured in 289 00:27:56.630 --> 00:28:03.660 this iron box that is Christ. Nothing can be taken out of it. 290 00:28:03.700 --> 00:28:11.180 It is perfectly safe in him, and that's ultimately because our blessings are not 291 00:28:11.220 --> 00:28:18.890 apart from him. Our blessings are in him. So as secure as God 292 00:28:18.250 --> 00:28:25.289 is in and of himself from being touched by the devil, that's how secure 293 00:28:25.329 --> 00:28:29.720 our blessings are in him, how secure our internal life is in him. 294 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:37.880 It's as secure as God. There's nothing that beats that and everything else falls 295 00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:48.029 short of that. You can't just repackage God in some other form and say 296 00:28:48.109 --> 00:28:55.190 here, it's similar enough. No, we can only have this faith, 297 00:28:55.509 --> 00:29:00.339 this life, this freedom, through Jesus. That's what John has been telling 298 00:29:00.420 --> 00:29:04.819 us and that's what we want to abide in, keep our faith in. 299 00:29:06.339 --> 00:29:08.779 And when we see idolatry and when we have it in our lives, we 300 00:29:08.900 --> 00:29:18.049 want to flee far from it. Proactively keep yourselves from idols. Don't just 301 00:29:18.210 --> 00:29:23.720 stop when you're already there or wait until it happens, but we proactively keep 302 00:29:23.880 --> 00:29:32.839 ourselves from this because our life is in Christ. And here's the last thing. 303 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:40.349 We don't do this alone. God has blessed each and every one of 304 00:29:40.430 --> 00:29:45.509 you with one another. He's given each and every one of you, each 305 00:29:45.549 --> 00:29:52.230 and every one of you. He gives us us as he gives us himself. 306 00:29:52.500 --> 00:29:56.380 The Bible describes us in the form of various metaphors. One of them 307 00:29:56.420 --> 00:30:02.539 is that of a body. The Bible describes the church. God describes the 308 00:30:02.619 --> 00:30:06.220 Church with Jesus as the head of the body and all of us, like 309 00:30:06.420 --> 00:30:14.970 its various parts in him, united together and and working together. And in 310 00:30:15.170 --> 00:30:22.440 doing that, God uses us to help one another, to fight our battles, 311 00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:29.559 to keep ourselves away from idols, to flee the evil one and the 312 00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:36.430 darkness that is there and to stay in God. We're experiencing that here right 313 00:30:36.509 --> 00:30:41.029 now, as we've Sung together, prayed together, as I have the opportunity 314 00:30:41.109 --> 00:30:48.589 to preach to you and to discuss these things with you, with and with 315 00:30:48.710 --> 00:30:56.220 each other. In Colossians and an Ephesians, I'll quote from Colossians. Paul 316 00:30:56.299 --> 00:31:00.700 says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly singing psalms hymns 317 00:31:00.779 --> 00:31:07.529 and spiritual songs. This is our life together. We build ourselves up in 318 00:31:07.730 --> 00:31:12.450 Christ, as the spirit is working in us, building us up in him. 319 00:31:14.730 --> 00:31:18.250 This love that we experience, this community he did we experience, is 320 00:31:18.329 --> 00:31:22.480 it self another blessing that God gives to us, and that's expressed in this 321 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:27.799 passage as well, where he gives us confidence in our prayers and verses fourteen 322 00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:32.559 and fifteen, all to lead up to this point. If anyone sees his 323 00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:37.309 brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask God and God 324 00:31:37.029 --> 00:31:41.630 will give him life, a Paul or John does describe. He says there 325 00:31:41.670 --> 00:31:45.430 is a sin that leads to death, but I think what he's saying there 326 00:31:45.509 --> 00:31:51.539 is I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about life within the 327 00:31:51.619 --> 00:31:55.339 church, life within Christians, people who are united to Christ and will never 328 00:31:55.460 --> 00:32:00.650 lose that salvation. When you pray for them, he says those prayers will 329 00:32:00.650 --> 00:32:07.569 be effective. This life in communion with one another and with Christ that John's 330 00:32:07.569 --> 00:32:10.890 been talking about from the very beginning, understanding who belongs and who doesn't, 331 00:32:12.009 --> 00:32:15.210 and what are the false teachers are and where they're not? What is the 332 00:32:15.329 --> 00:32:17.799 true faith and how do we believe it? All of these things are leading 333 00:32:17.799 --> 00:32:22.079 up to this point where he's saying now live your lives together and as you 334 00:32:22.119 --> 00:32:27.440 seek to keep yourselves from idols, as you seek to stay and abide in 335 00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:31.670 the love of Christ, pray for each other and God will answer those prayers. 336 00:32:34.230 --> 00:32:42.990 That is an amazing promise, that God helps us as we pray for 337 00:32:43.150 --> 00:32:47.380 one another. All wrong doing. He's is sin, he says in verse 338 00:32:47.420 --> 00:32:52.019 Ifti Seventeen. But there is sin that does not lead to death. What 339 00:32:52.220 --> 00:32:55.660 is the sin that does not lead to death? It is the sin that 340 00:32:55.819 --> 00:33:02.049 is confessed. It's the sin that is given over to Christ, a sin 341 00:33:02.210 --> 00:33:07.329 that is not harbored and coddled or relying on false gods and false promises. 342 00:33:08.490 --> 00:33:15.200 But it's the sin that gives that play. That's the sin that is given 343 00:33:15.799 --> 00:33:21.519 to Jesus as he pays for it on the Cross. And so we know 344 00:33:21.640 --> 00:33:28.190 that everyone who has been born of God changes. Though they sin, they 345 00:33:28.230 --> 00:33:32.349 don't keep on sinning, not in the old way. Why? Because he 346 00:33:32.430 --> 00:33:38.549 who was born of God protects him. That's what Jesus does. He protects 347 00:33:38.589 --> 00:33:44.980 US and the evil one does not touch us. We know that we are 348 00:33:44.980 --> 00:33:47.220 from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 349 00:33:47.299 --> 00:33:52.099 And we know that the son of God has come and given us understanding so 350 00:33:52.220 --> 00:33:57.650 that we may know him, who is true, and we are in him, 351 00:33:58.569 --> 00:34:02.009 who is true, and he his son, Jesus Christ. He is 352 00:34:02.089 --> 00:34:08.250 the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. 353 00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:14.840 Let's pray. The Lord will hear our prayers.