Navigating Spiritual Warfare: Understanding Our Confidence in God

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to go ahead and continue our study in the book of First John.

So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of First John.

And we're in First John, chapter five.

First John, chapter five.

And our main text here this evening is going to start in verse 18.

Even though I do want to review with you because I know that sometimes a week can be a long time to remember what we talked about last time, or maybe you didn't get a chance to be with us last time.

And I want to make sure everybody is up to speed with where we are.

So the whole book of First John is speaking of the relationship that we can have with God.

And so the word that I would like to emphasize with you when it comes to the book of First John is fellowship.

Fellowship with God and the fellowship with God that stems to fellowship with others.

So fellowship with God and our relationship with him and our spiritual growth in him, and then fellowship with others in that spiritual growth.

So we should be fellowshipping with other believers as we fellowship with God.

But then in, in First John, chapter five, he reminds us of the confidence that we can have when we are walking in that fellowship.

So as we're walking in obedience to the Lord, as we're walking in him, as the Bible says to abide in him when we're communicating with him through prayer and through the word of God, through Scripture, we are able to have that type of confidence that can only be found with that confidence and hope in Jesus Christ.

And so in First John, chapter 5, verse 13, he says, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.

So Jesus is the deciding point.

It's not about the religious.

It's not about the good people.

It's about those who believe in Jesus.

He says, I've done this, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

So the confidence that we can have is not in ourselves with fellowship with God.

It ultimately brings confidence in him, confidence in what he says, confidence in what he does.

And so ultimately we're trusting in Him.

And so when the idea of doubting, specifically in the context of our salvation, when we doubt whether or Not God is continuing to save us, or we doubt that we're enough, or we doubt that we're going to heaven.

You know that sometimes, sometimes that comes from somebody not walking in fellowship with God.

So if I'm not walking in fellowship with him, I'm not going to have the confidence that he extends to me.

Why?

Because my mind is focused on something else other than what he has done for me.

Another side of that would be I'm focusing on myself.

And when I focus on myself, I'm gonna find all the flaws, I'm gonna find all the limitations.

And so my salvation is not based in me.

My salvation is based in him.

And that's what he's talking about here.

So he says that's the type of confidence that we can have.

And so he says, when you have that type of confidence in him, when what does that look like?

That looks like a relationship that calls out to him.

Verse 14.

And we know that we can ask him.

We know that we can bring our requests to him.

And so that's prayer.

We can communicate with our Savior.

We have a personal God.

That's an amazing thing to have in our lives.

But we know that initially our thoughts would be completely about us, right?

Lord, what can you do for me?

And we pray, and I think we should pray for the things that we're dealing with in our lives.

But the Bible does teach us, and this is what we looked at last week, that the more we grow in the truth of God, the more we grow in our spiritual maturity, the more our focus goes to others, to pray for others, to initiate help to others and teaching to others.

And so he talked about how when we see a brother in sin, we pray for them, and we pray for them, and we encourage them, and we speak truth into their life.

And so he's going to conclude his thought here in verse number 18.

So we.

We've talked about fellowship, we've talked about confidence.

And ultimately here he's going to explain what we have in this fellowship.

He says in verse 18, we know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not.

Now, if you read that out of context, you might say.

You might be tempted to say, well, does that mean that if I'm saved, I will never sin again?

Well, we know that other places of Scripture contradict that.

First John, chapter two.

He says, my little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not.

So the goal for a Christian is to live a sinless life.

That should be our goal.

We should always strive to be honoring God.

Completely in every element of our lives.

But the reality is that we still will stumble.

And he says, so don't sin.

Verse 1 of chapter 2.

And he says, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

Why?

Because he is the propitiation for our sins.

And so the idea would be this.

We will still sin.

But when we are walking in fellowship with him, when we are walking in the guidance of the Spirit, we will not sin.

And so the idea that John is getting across here is that when we are walking in the Spirit, when we are following him, we will not follow the way of the flesh and follow the way of temptation and give into sin.

And so he's not saying in verse 18, if you're saved, you're not going to sin.

But what he is saying is that when we're walking with him, we're not going to be given over to habitual sin.

And that's really the idea that he's talking about here in context.

In the battle against sin in our life, it's essential, it's important that we keep in our minds who.

Well, Jesus Christ, right?

He's talked to us about this.

And when we're born of him, when our identity is in him, we know that we can be free from sin and the bondage of sin, meaning this we are freed from the power of sin, we are freed from the bondage of sin, and essentially we're free from the burden of habitual sin, meaning we can't get out of it.

And so if there's a Christian who says, hey, I'm dealing with a sin that I cannot get victory over, there's a big issue there because the Bible says that God has given us the victory over the power and of the guilt and of the control of sin.

And so if there's a Christian who is dealing with a habitual sin, it's not a matter of not being able to overcome that sin.

It's a matter of me following the truth of Jesus Christ and getting victory over that sin.

So furthermore, he says this, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.

Now, that does somewhat look like this idea that I have to keep myself.

But really what it's saying here is this.

When we're born of God, when we are walking in the Spirit, when we are fulfilled following the truths of Jesus Christ according to His Word, God will basically keep us.

So we find God's provision, we find God's sustaining power when we are kept in him.

And then it says here, this is an amazing thing in verse 18.

And I think that many people forget that this is the truth.

And it says, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

What does that mean?

It means this.

If we are born of God, if we are walking with him, we have protection against evil.

We have protection against the evil one.

And that's the type of confidence that we can have in the midst of spiritual warfare.

Now, I'm just going to pause here for a few moments and talk about spiritual warfare.

The Bible is very clear that if we are believers in Jesus Christ, we are facing spiritual warfare.

We are in a battle.

It's not a matter if you've signed up or not.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are in the battle, whether you know it or not.

And Satan's trick is to trick Christians into believing that it is not a battle, that we have the victory completely in our flesh.

And no, the victory is not in our flesh.

The victory is in the power of God.

But Jesus very clearly teaches.

And throughout the New Testament and the Old Testament, there is a battle between good and evil.

And the book of Ephesians tells us all about that.

The book of Ephesians tells us to arm ourselves, to protect ourselves with the armor of God.

Why?

Because Satan is firing his darts of temptation towards us.

And so the recognition would be that we are in a spiritual battle, but ultimately the wicked one, the evil one, Satan cannot touch us.

Now, that idea of toucheth in the King James here, it says toucheth him not.

The idea here would be in the Greek, it's more than just touching or affecting, because we all know Satan can to some degree affect us with temptation, with evil circumstances.

That's not what this is saying.

Because the Christians.

The Bible says that Christians will face persecution.

Satan is going to be firing those darts at us.

But the idea here would be laying hold of.

So that word touch is deeper than just a touch like this.

It's grabbing hold of and having control of.

And so what the Bible essentially says is that Satan cannot control you.

If you were in Jesus Christ, he's not gonna lay hold of you and stick to you.

And so the idea for the believer is, hey, I know that I'm facing evil.

I know that I, I am going to be facing against temptation and naysayers, and ultimately Satan trying to get in the way and be a stumbling block.

But ultimately what he does cannot overcome me.

It's not going to control me.

And so it means to lay hold of or grasp onto.

And so the idea that John is trying to get across here is this.

If you're walking with Jesus, there's nothing that Satan can do to affect you in the long run.

There's nothing that he can do to take away your eternal hope.

There's nothing that he can do to take away your confidence.

It's when you turn your eyes off of the Lord and begin to think that you know what, maybe he is winning.

Maybe evil is stronger than good.

Maybe the darkness is overcome the light.

And that's the doubt that he's trying to warn us against here, that there's no way that he can touch us.

Verse 19.

And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

And so he really poses this battle like this.

We are of God and when we're on God's side, we are against the world.

We know earlier on he says you can't have the love of God and the love of the world at the same time.

You can't love God and the world at the same time.

It just cannot happen.

We have a lot of Christians who try to do that.

I know there's been periods of my own life where I've wanted to have the things that we call the blessings of the world and the blessings of God at the same time.

And the Bible says that's not going to be so because we can't serve two masters.

You can only serve one master.

And the Bible goes on to say that the reality is this, if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us.

That's all throughout first John and he speaks of that.

And so I would encourage you to think about that.

I would encourage you to think about what is in this world that I'm holding onto that is replacing the things that I should be holding onto in the truth of Jesus Christ.

The power of this world is a strong power.

And the thought would be here this evening that it's attractive.

There's a lot of people that would say, well I want a little bit of this, but a little bit of that.

The Bible has a statement to say about that in the book of James.

In the book of James, chapter one, it says that a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways because he's like a wave that's tossed to and fro back and forth.

So the Bible says a double minded man.

What is a double minded man?

Well, biblically speaking, a double minded man is trying to be controlled by two different things.

His mind and his heart are set on two different things.

They're set on the good and the bad.

And the Bible says to set our minds on the things above.

Romans, chapter 12.

Renew Our Minds daily to think on the right things, to believe on the right things.

And so he says, don't think that you're part of the world.

The whole world lieth in wickedness.

So why would we want to be under that?

Essentially, it's saying this.

The whole world is under the sway of evil.

Why would we want to be a part of that?

If we're born of God, we are set apart from the world.

I could show you verse after verse in the New Testament that says that we're different, we're distinct, we're set apart.

Let's not join in to what the world is doing in the way that they think, in the way that they act, in the way that they respond, in the way that they love.

The world's trying to do what they believe is right.

But at the same time, we know that the Bible says that the world sees wrong as right and right as wrong.

And so knowing this means that we can be free from the bondage and the darkness of this world, and we can separate ourselves from the truth of Jesus Christ.

And we can essentially separate ourselves from the conflict that the world has put in our path.

And the idea would be this.

The conflict is this.

Well, the world is so attractive.

The things of the world are pulling me.

Well, if that's the case, what do we do?

Well, we don't try to just hate the world, because that's actually sometimes what's preached.

Just hate the world, hate the things in the world.

I would venture to say that the Bible says to hate the world means to love God more.

And so instead of just trying to avoid things, try to go after the Lord.

There's a song, and I think it's an amazing song.

It says, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will go strangely dim and in the light of his glory and grace.

So instead of just telling a child, don't eat those cookies or don't.

What we do, and the Bible actually tells us this, the more we think about how bad sin is, and the more I try in my flesh to avoid it, the more I'm going to be drawn to that temptation.

And so what do I need to do as a Christian?

Love God more?

I don't.

So let me give you an analogy about this, okay?

In my marriage, okay, I'm going to talk about a marriage.

And sometimes people get uncomfortable when I talk about my marriage, but it's the only one that I know.

So I'm going to talk about mine.

Okay?

I won't talk about yours.

I don't walk around, I'm supposed to love my wife completely, 100%.

I am not supposed to have a love for anybody else.

So I don't walk around and look at other people and go, well, I just need to stop loving these other women so that I love my wife more.

Right.

That would not make sense.

That would not be a healthy way to think.

Like.

Well, I mean, I just.

I just.

I want to love that person, but I know I can't.

So I'm just going to not try to love that person.

No, it's.

I love my wife so much that everything else is gone.

There's nothing there.

I don't want that.

That's the opposite of what I'm desiring.

It's the same thing with God.

It's not about trying to stop sinning.

It's more just loving him and growing in him.

And the Bible says we will separate ourselves from those things of this world.

So if you live like Christ, you will be different.

If you live like Christ, your desires will change.

If I live for Christ, there are going to be people that notice the distinct change that happens in my life.

I'm not going to talk the way that I used to talk.

I'm not gonna have joy in the things that I used to have joy in.

There's gonna be things that die in my life, and it's not gonna be that I wanted that.

It's just gonna be the natural response to a love for Christ.

Now, of course we should not want those bad things, but there's a lot of people in this world that claim to be Christians that say, I don't wanna do those things, but they're still doing them.

Why?

Because it's a lack of love for God.

It's a lack of understanding the separation that we have for the things of this world.

And what we ultimately need to do, as the Bible says, is to be a distinct people, a different people.

And not different in a weird way, but different in a way that honors God.

So we go further.

This is an amazing verse.

This.

This next verse is something that I get super excited about talking about, because here in this verse, he essentially has the whole thought that.

That the whole book is about in this verse.

And I. I understand that most of us, our first language is English.

My first language is English.

But to read this verse completely and to understand it completely, I do.

I.

And by the way, I Don't believe that you need to be a Greek scholar to know the Bible.

Okay, let me just clarify that, okay?

God has preserved it and there's a good translations that we can see here the truth.

But I will tell you that knowing the Greek does help in some ways of understanding context.

Now don't just take my word for this.

Please don't be a berean and check this, okay?

But in verse number 20, I'm going to read it for you here.

And then I want to point out a few different things it says.

And we know.

So there's the first know, okay?

K n o W. And we know that the Son of God is come and have given us an understanding that we may know him.

That is true.

Now I'm going to stop there.

We see two instances where the word know K n o w is used.

Now I'm going to tell you that in the Greek those are two different words.

Now we know that in English I can say the word like, for example, love.

That's a good example.

Like, I love my wife, but I also love steak.

Now, I don't love them the same way.

Okay?

That's the.

You.

You understand by way of context that those are two different words, even though it's the same word.

So in English we have to understand context, but in the Greek, they're completely different words.

So, so it says.

And we know.

Now this word know is the word edu.

And.

And you don't have to remember that, but what that word means in the Greek is essentially this.

To intellectually know, to understand a concept.

Like, I know that.

I live in Middletown.

Why?

Because I see it, okay, I'm witnessing.

I can comprehend something.

So he says here, and we know that the Son of God has come.

So he says, you can know that Jesus has come intellectually, you can understand by evidence that Jesus has come.

But then he goes further and he says, and have given us an understanding.

And so he says, God has not just come in the flesh in Jesus Christ, but he's also given a spiritual understanding.

Now we know in the Holy Spirit, we have guidance, we have teaching, we have truth.

And so he says, God has given you evidence to know that he exists and to know that he works and to know that you can trust in him.

And then he says this that we may know him.

That is true.

So kind of sounds interesting here.

We know that he's come so that we know he's true.

That other word know is ginosko, which means to experientially know.

It's like so to experientially know it in a way that I have experienced this myself.

Like this is real for me.

So I don't just know it in my mind as a.

But I know it by way of experience that I have imparted in this love.

I have a part of this.

I have experienced this in a personal way.

So for example, like I know that.

Let me see.

Like I know the country of Australia exists.

Like I know that.

I believe that.

Why?

Cause I've read about it, I've watched it on tv, but I have never been there to experience it.

Right?

So I could tell you animals that are there, I could tell you what the landscape might look like, but I have never experienced it myself.

Same way is that I have been to Israel.

Before I went to Israel, I knew that Israel existed.

I saw buildings on pictures.

But now that I've been to Israel once, I can tell you I know it a lot differently because I've experienced it.

I know what it feels like.

I know the smells there, I know the food that was being cooked.

I know all the things that come with that experiential knowledge.

I've used the example before.

I could get up here all day and tell you how great chocolate tastes.

But if you've never tasted chocolate, you could be like, well, you know what?

I think that sounds good.

I think I might like that.

But once you know it, then you can experience it.

So what is John saying here?

He's saying this.

God has given us all the facts, all of the proof that he is who he says he is and so that you can know him in that way in faith and have fellowship so that you can experience him and know him on a greater level.

Like I know people that I've come across as acquaintances, but I know my family on a different level.

So it's experiential.

That's what he's saying here.

He says God is come to us in the flesh not just so that we can know facts about him, even though facts about him are important to know.

Knowing facts about my wife and my family is an important thing to know.

But there's something further than just knowing in my mind facts about God and seeing proof he exists.

Those are all great things.

But if it stops there, if our relationship with God stops with an intellectual knowledge of, hey, you know what?

I believe that he did miracles.

I believe that Jesus came to this earth.

I believe that he died on a cross.

I believe that he rose again.

That's enough to know him on a basic understanding but the whole idea here is that God wants to know us on a deeper level.

He wants to fellowship with us.

He wants us to grow in him and to know him and to abide in Him.

So he says, and we know that the Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him.

That is true and we are in Him.

That is true.

So he says it's more than just knowing about Him.

It's about being in him, the identity in him, abiding in Him.

Jesus talked all about this in John chapter 15.

He speaks of the vine and the branches.

He is the vine, we are the branches.

We can do nothing without Him.

And so what does he say here?

He says this.

The goal of God is not just to have a basic acquaintance relationship with you.

He wants to know you personally.

He wants there to be growth.

And so it says, even in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life.

That's the whole point of everything, to know Jesus and to walk with him and to live in his truth.

And so the work of Jesus gives us a basic understanding and the ability to know Him.

But abiding in fellowship with him gives us an opportunity to grow in that and grow in our trust in Him.

So the understanding of God is given to us.

We cannot obtain that on our own.

I cannot find God in my good works in my own wisdom.

I can only find God through the power of God.

He reveals Himself to us.

That's something that we talk where there's two aspects of God's revelation.

There's general revelation that every individual can experience by just opening their eyes and seeing this world.

But then there's specific or what we would call special revelation that God gives us in accordance to his word that we can know that yes, there is a God who exists.

But the God who exists is this God right here.

The God who we see in Scripture, who shares with us that the only way to know him is through Jesus Christ.

And so the theme of John's whole letter is this, the importance of true belief, trusting in the true Jesus, and then obviously walking in fellowship with him after that.

And so the Jesus of the Bible is the one who is true.

There is only one Jesus.

It's not the Jesus that we create.

It's not a made up Jesus that many people have made up over the years.

You know, there's basically, if you do your research, which I know that many of you have, all of the religions of the world, all the cults of the world, every religious movement believes that Jesus existed in many different ways.

They believe that he was a good teacher.

Or maybe they believe that he did work miracles.

I know when we were in Israel, one of our tour guides, who was not a believer in Jesus Christ, believe that Jesus came and did all these amazing things, and he recognized that Jesus wasn't in the tomb.

He said, I don't know how that happened.

I don't know what went on there.

Maybe something miraculous happened, I don't know.

But that wasn't enough to save him.

Why?

Because he had not put his faith in the salvation that Jesus Christ extends through the grace of his.

Of his life, burial, his life, death, burial and resurrection.

So the thing that John is saying here is this.

You want to be a Christian?

You want to know what it means to be a Christian?

Are you questioning whether or not you're a believer?

Go back to the only thing that can save you.

Do you believe in the one true God through Jesus Christ?

That's the only thing that's going to bring eternal life.

John tells us who Jesus is.

Yes, he was 100% man, but he was also 100% God.

He is fully both God and man.

That is our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And so he says, that is what you worship.

That is what you follow.

Whenever someone comes and tells you something else that is not that, that is a lie, that is a.

Is deceit.

And then he goes on, which a lot of people will read this and they'll say, well, this kind of sounds out of place, that he ends in verse 21 with little children, keep yourselves from idols.

I think it makes complete sense because he says, anything outside of this true Jesus that I just told you about is an idol.

Anything you worship, anything outside of Jesus Christ and the way that he has said to worship him is an idol.

Now, let me be very clear here.

I understand that many of us are different, and many of us, when we say worship differently, I know what we mean by that.

Because many different cultures worship in different styles.

And so I would not expect a church in a faraway land to have the exact same snapshot of how we worship here in Middletown, Delaware, because culturally speaking, there are different styles of worship.

But the question would be, what is the ultimate object of that worship?

And so I'm going to tell you here today, there might be different styles of worship, but there are not different ways of worship.

Because worship is ultimately boiled down to one thing, exalting somebody.

So the question would be, what is the style of worship?

Yes.

Okay.

But then we would go further and say, who Are we worshiping?

Who are we lifting up?

And so that would be the thought that I would have, is that there are people that sometimes will say, well, I worship God my way.

I worship God my way in the way that I want to worship Him.

That is a very dangerous thing to say.

That is idolatry.

And essentially you're worshiping yourself by saying that you have a better way than what God has said.

God is very clear in how we worship.

How we worship is by lifting up the one true God.

That is worship.

If we were lifting up anything else, even partially, that is idolatry.

Now, there's a lot of things that God says about idolatry.

You understand that the Old Testament speaks very frequently about God's hatred for idolatry.

It's not that God just gets upset with idolatry.

God hates idolatry.

Now, we could look at all those Old Testament passages, which I'm completely fine with doing at some point.

But I will say that even in the New Testament, there's warnings against idolatry.

First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 14 says, Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry?

Not, not just, hey, turn away from it, but flee from it, run from it, get as far away as you can from anything that even smells of idolatry.

Now, let's stop here.

When we think of idolatry, maybe I'm speaking for myself, but maybe you would be the same as me.

When I think about idolatry, I think of like a statue or some type of monument or anything that we would kind of frame in our mind as the old school idolatry, a golden calf or.

Or some type of statue of a person, even though that would be definitely idolatry.

If we worship one of those things, we know that through context of scripture that it could be anything in our life that we exalt and worship above the Lord.

It could be something that's evil, like worshiping some type of sin.

Some of you know that some of the goddesses and the gods, little G. Gods of the old days were maybe goddesses of fertility or a God of the weather or whatever.

But then there's other things that we could even say are what we would say, quote, unquote, good things that can become an idol in our life.

I'm going to tell you that there are periods of time in my life where that I am tempted to look at my ministry as an idol or my job as an idol as that.

That's the number one thing that I'm focused on.

Or some of us.

Maybe it's money.

Now, is money a bad thing?

Well, the Bible doesn't say that money is the root of all evil.

It's the love of money.

Money is a necessity that God has put in our life to deal with.

But at the same time, if the love of money comes up, that's idolatry.

And so we could sit here all night and talk about things that can fill the gap that really should be only saved for the worship of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And that's really what we have in this world today.

The temptation isn't so much that we would all go bow down to an idol, even though there are some places and some areas that are still doing that.

But for us in American society, the idols have changed to some degree.

An idol can just be another person.

An idol can be a movement.

An idol can be something even in our own lives.

It could be worshiping ourselves, which that idol then becomes me.

And that's something called humanism.

That's been a lie from the very beginning.

If you think about Satan's lie to Eve, it was, hey, you can be like God.

You can be just like him.

You can have all the access that he has.

You can have all the power he has.

So lift up yourself.

And that's a lie that's been told from the very beginning.

So there's warnings in Scripture so much about idolatry.

Galatians chapter 5 lists idolatry as one of the manifestations of the work of the flesh.

One of the aspects of the work of the flesh is idolatry, among many other things.

And so we see over and over again the Bible warning against the dangers of idolatry.

First Corinthians, chapter 10 says, don't be idolaters.

Don't follow in the path of the world, because the world is basically, the Bible says here, made up of idolaters.

And so he says, little children, keep yourself from idols.

Amen.

Now he says little children there because again, we know he's speaking to believers, and in many cases, he's speaking to immature believers.

And I think that we live in a world today that struggles with idolatry.

And it might seem like a weird way to end the letter, but I think it follows right along with the theme.

And so the thought would be this.

We should only have a true, real relationship with God, who is really there.

Everything else is empty.

Everything else is going to fail us.

Everything else is going to lead us down a path of destruction.

And so he says, my little children avoid this.

And I think if I could give any advice to a believer in this world today, it would be avoid those things that pull you away from your love for Jesus Christ.

You know, for me it can come in very subtle ways.

It comes in very quietly sometimes it comes in very.

What we would say is just non threatening.

But eventually those little steps of compromise that can happen can eventually manifest itself in a huge wedge in our fellowship with God.

And before we know it, we can be so far away from our love for God that we have really not even perceived how far away we've actually drifted.

And the struggle would be then is what do we do?

What does our country do?

Like what does our family do?

What does our church do?

Well, it's very simple.

It's very simple.

If we want revival, I don't know if you've been around our church long enough or you've been around any church long enough, you'll hear the word revival.

And that word revival can mean many different things to many different people.

For me growing up, you know what revival meant for me?

It meant that we were going to be at school and hear from a preacher all day at school and we were going to hear it every single night because we had a seven day revival at our church.

And it was going to be a lot of yelling, there was going to be a lot of guilt trips, and there was going to be a lot of opportunities for us to come forward and get right.

Now I'm not saying that those are wrong, I'm just saying that we, me, I'm not going to judge anybody else, but I reduced revival down to a time when where people were gonna come and try to stir me up.

Okay, what's that person gonna do to get me excited for God?

But you know, and I was part of those services, I was part of the services that we had a big campfire at the end of the week and we got all of our idols and we threw it into the fire.

And that's good, we can do that.

Problem was, is like I was right on the cusp of the digital age and someone threw a CD into the fire, but they could go download a CD the next week when that initial conviction wore off.

Right?

So what do we do?

So what is biblical revival?

What is revival?

Well, just look at that word revive.

It means to come back to life, to be renewed, to be refreshed, to be challenged, to get to where we need to be.

Revival does not happen.

You can read the Book of Judges, you can read all the Old Testament instances where the Israelites were revived.

Revival, true revival, always comes with repentance.

What is repentance?

Repentance is recognizing where we have gone astray.

And then actually the word is to about face, to go the opposite direction, to run away from.

So repentance would.

And it's not just turning away to nothing, it's turning away from the sin.

It's turning away from our rebellion and turning to God.

And so that's repentance.

And so then with repentance, well, what does repentance look like?

It could look like a lot of things.

But in repentance there's got to be conviction.

Without conviction, there's not going to be repentance.

Because if I don't perceive and respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I'm not going to see a need to change.

And so with repentance comes conviction.

But I will also say that with repentance comes confession.

Conviction.

Confession, you say confession.

I didn't think we were in a Catholic church.

I don't think I need to confess.

Well, you don't have to confess to me.

But remember where we started.

In First John, chapter one, verse nine, he's talking to Christians.

And a lot of times we quote this verse in the context of salvation, which is true, but it's in the way that I read First John, it's two Christians.

And so he says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That doesn't mean that we have to get resaved over and over again.

But what that does mean is that when we fall into sin, the conviction leads us to a place of repentance.

And repentance brings us to a place of confession.

And by the way, all confession means is to say the same thing about something.

To agree with someone, we're agreeing with God about the sin that's in our life.

We turn away from that.

We.

We ask God for our forgiveness.

And what does he do?

He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, to restore us back into fellowship.

And so the idea here would be that's revival.

Revival starts with me.

Well, actually starts with God.

And then it's my decision in revival.

And so revival is not a feeling because we can try to fabricate some sort of situation which makes people feel really guilty about certain things.

And by the way, Remember Romans, chapter 8?

There's no more guilt, there's no more condemnation in Christ Jesus.

And so it's not a guilt that we bring upon people.

It's the Holy Spirit's conviction.

Conviction always leads us to a place of change.

It leads us to a place of righteousness.

It doesn't lead us to a place of hopelessness.

So revival isn't, hey, you guys are a bunch of sinners and you leave tonight with no hope.

You guys are just.

No revival is.

God has convicted me on something.

He's gonna lead me to the truth.

He's gonna bring me to.

And by the way, with the conviction comes the confession.

And with the confession and the restoration comes comfort.

Right?

He is the comforter.

He is the convictor, but he's also the comforter.

And so anytime we come with repentant hearts to him and confess our sins to him, he's faithful and just to forgive us and bring us that comfort that only he can bring.

And so false guilt and false condemnation never comes with comfort.

But hope in Jesus Christ always brings comfort.

And so we end with this.

You and I could fall into the trap of idolatry.

It is possible to slip.

But the Bible says that we as Christians recognize that, and we come and die to our flesh and say, lord, I confess my sin.

He already, by the way, confession is not telling God something that he doesn't know.

He already knows where we are.

He already knows what we're doing.

He already knew what we were doing before we did it.

He already knew what we were doing.

He already knows what we're doing tomorrow before we were even born.

Okay?

That's the grandeur of God.

So it's not telling God something that he doesn't know, but it's showing him that we agree with him.

And it's allowing ourselves to humble ourselves before him and not try to save ourselves and not try to sweep away the conviction and try to figure out a plan to get out of it.

It's confessing to God and saying, God, I need you to save me.

I need you to restore me.

I need you to bring me back into fellowship.

And so, again, it's not being re saved.

I mean, I grew up in an environment that there were individuals who thought that every single Sunday when a preacher would preach, they would have to go forward and get saved.

I got saved again today because I knew I fell into sin.

That's a miserable life to live.

To think that I have to keep.

I have to just keep doing this.

God's got us.

He's not gonna let go.

No man can pluck us out of his hand, including myself and So I believe in eternal security, and I believe one John teaches that.

But at the same time, I believe that there are many people who have claimed to be Christians who are grabbing onto the wrong things for their confidence.

And so therefore maybe they think that they are believers.

But we know that in Matthew chapter seven, there's many people that say, well, I did this, I did this.

I served here.

No, did you know me?

It was their fellowship.

And so I'm not saying that a lot of people are unsaved in churches, but I am saying according to scripture that there are many people that possibly believe that they are saved for the wrong reasons and will doubt and have to say, you know what?

I need to keep doing this, I need to keep doing that.

There's nothing that we need to keep doing for our salvation.

Jesus has already done the work.

It's just trusting in him.

And so just kind of a quick snapshot of revival.

What is revival?

It's when the individual believer perceives the conviction of the Spirit, files the conviction of the Spirit in a heart of repentance, comes to a place of confession.

In that confession comes righteousness through Jesus Christ.

And that brings us to a place of revival.

And that's the desire that God has for all believers is to be walking in fellowship with him.

The greatest place to be is to be walking in fellowship with the Lord.

When we have that type of confidence, when we can lay our head on the pillow at night saying, lord, I know I'm not perfect, but I know you are.

That's a beautiful thing to understand that peace and comfort.

I mean, I don't know about you, but there are times in my life here recently that I have been tempted to slip from a place of concern about the things that are going around me.

Like, just turn on the news.

Okay, concern's a good thing.

I think we should be concerned about things around us that's biblical.

But when that concern slips to worry and it consumes, that's where we get into a really bad place.

And folks, it's easy to slip into that place of being consumed by the fear of man.

And I'm going to tell you, there's a lot of deception in this world right now.

There's always been a lot of deception, but it's on the uprise more and more of this deception.

All the more reason we need to strap in into our driver's seat and say, lord, okay, you're driving.

This is where the answers are.

Okay, you are going to be told a lot of things.

And there's Going to be a lot of promises and there's going to be a lot of information.

The Bible says that in the last days, which I believe started at the time of Jesus resurrection and ultimately his ascension.

It says in the last days there will be people who are ever learning but never coming to a place of knowledge and wisdom.

I believe we're in that society today.

We have a lot of information.

We're on information overload, okay?

But with all that information, there's really not a lot of true Bible wisdom within this world today.

And so we as Christians, we have to recenter our minds and not allow ourselves to be told what the truth is.

Anything outside of the word of God is not truth and that's idolatry and we have to be on guard for that.

And so I would encourage you to think about that when we conclude here in First John.

I hope that each and every one of you can find and follow what it means to be in the fellowship of Jesus Christ.

It's an amazing, amazing place to be.

And my prayer for all of us is that we have that.

But if you don't have that right now, if you're struggling in that, there's hope.

And hope is not in me.

Whether they say you can lead a horse, the water, I'm not calling you horses, but you understand what I mean.

The idea for me as a Christian is I cannot impart to you living water.

I'm not Jesus Christ.

When Jesus went to the woman at the well, he says, I have living water, okay?

I don't have the living water.

Or at least I don't have the opportunity to give that to you.

All I can do is lead you to that living water in Jesus Christ.

My job as a pastor is to try to make that living water as appetizing and as beautiful as it is.

But I'm going to tell you that the world is trying to pose that other water that's not living, it's bitter.

And trying to pose that is really attractive.

And so I'm going to tell you here tonight, trust me or don't trust me.

Trust the word of God that knowing him is the greatest type of knowledge you can ever have.

And so know the facts so that you believe the truth, but ultimately believe the truth so that you can know him in a personal way.

And so I encourage you to think about that as we conclude here in one John.

Now some people have been asking me, where are we going after one John?

I'm glad you asked if you didn't ask that you're about to get your answer.

Anyway, we're going to just go ahead and continue on in the theme and do second John and then go on to three John.

Okay, so they're very short books.

So they're literally just one chapter each.

And so if you look at two John, there's 13 verses, and then if you look at third John, there's 14 verses.

And so for the next few weeks, we're going to go through those two books and then we'll move on.

We'll go to another book.

So thank you so much for your attention in this study.

If you missed any of the lessons and you want to go back, we do catalog all of ours on our YouTube page page or our Facebook page and you can go back to those.

But I just wanted to extend that to you.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at middletown baptist baptistchurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.