Confidence in Prayer 1st John Lesson 28

Confidence in Prayer

1 John 5:14-17

 There is an old saying we all know very well. Benjamin Franklin is credited with this saying, although he wasn’t the first to use it. Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Franklin made this statement in reference to our U.S. Constitution. The full quote says, “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

 One has to appreciate the wisdom of Mr. Franklin’s statement as it relates to the temporary and uncertain nature of things in this world, especially human governments. But my friends, this statement simply is not true and does not universally apply to those things promised to those who are truly part of the kingdom of God. The Christian faith is built upon certainties. The things promised to us in the trustworthy and inerrant Word of God are things we can believe with confidence. We can believe the promises of Scripture because God’s Word is truth. The One, Jesus Christ, who was “The Truth” declared to us that God’s Word is Truth. God cannot lie. His promises are certainties which can be trusted with unwavering and unshakable confidence.

 One of my OT heroes is Joshua. Joshua and Caleb were the only two of the twelve spies who had the faith to believe that what God had promised, He would actually do. He got to see God do what He had promised to do. Look at Joshua 21:43-45. My friends, God is certain.

 Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 1:20, “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him (Christ) they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” How many are the promises of God? It has been suggested that there are over 8000 promises in the Bible. In Christ they are all yes. God is glorified in the keeping of His promises. That is why the writer of Hebrews tells us, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

 This is why it has been so important to the Apostle John to write what he has written, so that we may “know.” Last week we expanded on the truth of 1 John 5:13 and talked about assurance of salvation. John has written these things to those who believe in the name of the Son of God so that we may know we have eternal life. The letter has been a series of tests by which we can know. John wants us to have confidence in the fact that we are truly the children of God. John wants us to be able to know this because the evidence is obvious. If the evidence is present, we know we have eternal life.

 Then John goes on in the next verses of Chapter 5 to discuss other things we can know. In verses 14-17 John is telling us that we can know that if we ask anything according to the will of God, He hears our prayers and we have the requests which we ask of Him. Let’s read verses 14-17.

 One of the reasons I am committed to preaching verse by verse through books of the Bible is that I don’t get to skip the hard stuff. If I was going from passage to passage looking for a passage to preach every Sunday, I can promise you I would never pick this one. I would always find a passage easier to deal with than the verses before us today. And that would be wrong. That would be a mistake. These words are just as much the inspired, inerrant, infallible words of God as all the rest. They are just a challenge for us.

 They are a challenge for us on a couple of fronts. First, this thing that John first tells us we can “know” is something that does not line up with our own personal experiences. John tells us here that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. That much we cannot dispute. I have no issue with this statement up to this point. God hears everything. God is especially attentive to the prayers of His children.

 It is this next part that I struggle with. John says in verse 15, “And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” I must confess that my confidence in prayer is not as strong as my confidence about my salvation because I have asked, and continue to ask for things that I hope are in the will of God, or I believe are in the will of God, but I have not received those things which I have asked from Him. And I would guess that this has been the experience of all of us.

 Our experience does not invalidate the truth of God’s Word. What John has written here is true. We know it is true because we trust in the Word of God. But we struggle with this because we don’t get everything we ask in prayer, even many things that we are sure is God’s will.

 This would be easy to dismiss if this was the only place we found something like this said in the New Testament. Jesus said in John 14:13, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” In John 16:24 Jesus said, “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” In John 15:7 Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Back in 1 John 3:22 we found, “and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”

 There are numerous places where we find similar things said to what we find in 1 John 5:14-15. They are all saying essentially the same thing. Whatever we ask according to the will of God we know He hears and we know we have the request. Whatever we ask in the name of Jesus, that He will do. If we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we wish and it will be done for you. Whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

 We need to understand the consistency of the truth taught in all these places. To ask for something “according to His will” is synonymous with asking for something “in My name,” or in Jesus name, which is synonymous with “abide in Me and My words abide in You…” The name of Jesus is not the secret to having all our prayers answered. Most of us, when we pray, we conclude our prayers by saying something like, “In the name of Jesus” or “in Jesus name, Amen.” Praying something in Jesus’ name does not obligate Him to answer our prayers.

 To pray something in the name of Jesus is to pray something that is consistent with all that His name represents. The name of Jesus represents His nature, His character, His Person, and His purposes. To pray for something in the name of Jesus is to pray for His purposes and His kingdom and glory, not for selfish reasons. Our prayers are answered on the basis of His merits and not on our own worthiness. Our prayers are to be in pursuit of His glory and His glory alone.

 This is what our prayers will be if we abide in Him and His words abide in us. This means that His word, which expresses His will, will be at home in us. His word will be at the heart of our mind, our will, and our desires. Because He abides in us, we will be obeying His commandments and doing what is pleasing in His sight. Our prayers will be for His glory, not our own. If Christ’s word abides in us and we abide in Him, our prayers will be prayers that are according to the will of God. If we are asking only for those things we know to be the will of God, then we know that whatever we ask we receive from Him.

 The word “confidence” is “parresia” in the Greek. It means “freedom or frankness in speaking.” Heb. 4:16 says, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Sometimes it is helpful to read the verse with the literal meaning of the word. “Therefore let us draw near with freedom or frankness in speaking to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

I think this may help us understand what John is saying to us. Let’s insert the meaning of confidence in the place of the word confidence in verse 14. “This is the freedom or frankness of speech which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

 I think sometimes we take a lot of liberties before the throne of God. We ask God for a lot of things, not really knowing if what we are asking is in His will or not. Think about many of the things we pray about during our prayer time. We pray for a lot of physical needs, not knowing the will of God. God is patient toward us. He understands how limited we are in our ability to know His will in all these matters. He does not tune us out when we are praying for all these things. But He is only obligated to answer those things which we ask which are according to His will. 

 John’s point here is that we can have confidence in the promise that God, with a 100% degree of certainty, will grant what we ask of Him when what we ask is according to His will. And I’m thankful that there are some things I can ask and know I receive. I’m thankful that when I confess my sins, God is faithful and just to forgive my sins, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. When I pray a prayer of confession and ask God’s forgiveness, I know God hears and answers that prayer. I know that when I find myself in a situation that requires a greater measure of God’s mercy and grace, I can go to the throne of grace and receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 Those of us who meet on Wednesday nights to pray have a list that we use. I update this list once a quarter. It has approximately 150 items on the list. We add things every Wednesday night. We don’t necessarily pray for every item every Wednesday night, but we pray for many things. This passage made me think about this list. I pulled it out just to look at it and see what was on this list that I know we ask that is in the will of God. To be honest with you there isn’t much on the list that I can honest say I know God’s will. 

We pray for a lot of people with cancer. I don’t know God’s will in those matters. I don’t know if God will heal them or if God will allow the cancer to take them out of this world. I ask God for what I want to see, but I also pray that He be glorified in every situation. I know that is a prayer that is according to His will. He desires and He deserves to be glorified in all His dealings with us. If we pray for His glory, we are praying according to His will and we know He answers.

We must always pray as Jesus taught His disciples to pray. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So much of my prayers are for things that I want to be done. I’m thankful that our heavenly Father is patient and gracious and compassionate toward us. I’m so thankful for the assurance and confidence we have that those prayers offered in accordance to His will are answered.

As we move to verses 16-17 we encounter an interpretational challenge. John has not changed the subject from prayer requests according to the will of God. In fact, that is what he expands upon in these verses. John is identifying one thing we can pray for that is according to the will of God. He is telling us there is another request we should not make to God because it is not according to His will.

We are to pray for the brother committing a sin not leading to death and because this request is according to the will of God, God will give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. However, there is a sin leading to death and John tells us not to make request for this. It is not God’s will to give life to the one who commits the sin leading to death so we should not ask God to give this life because to do so would be to ask for something not according to the will of God.

The interpretational challenge is in determining what John means by a sin not leading to death and a sin leading to death. What does this mean? We have to pay close attention to the text and we must have the help of other examples in the Bible to understand this.

First of all, John is talking about a sin being committed by a fellow believer. “If anyone sees his ‘brother’ committing a sin…” Every Christian falls victim to sin. John told us back in Chapter 1 that if we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and His word is not in us. When we are aware of a brother’s sin, we have clear instruction in the word of God as to what we should do. We are to pray for that person and we are to speak directly to that person about their sin. Matthew 18 gives instructions from Jesus on how to deal with a brother in sin. Paul told the Galatians in 6:1, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”

We are to talk to God about the sinning brother, and we are to talk directly to the sinning brother. We are not to talk to anyone else about the sinning brother. This is the first mistake most people make. They see someone in sin and the first thing they start to do is to talk to anyone who will listen, except the brother in sin or His Lord.

Some of you may be wondering if this sin unto death is the unpardonable sin. The answer is no. A true follower of Christ, one who is regenerated by the Spirit of God, and indwelt by the Spirit of God, cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit of God. No true believer will attribute to the Holy Spirit the works of Satan. The unpardonable sin is not the sin leading to death that John speaks of in this verse. The unpardonable sin leads to the eternal damnation of the soul. The sin leading to death spoken of here is physical death.

What is the sin that a believer can commit that leads to physical death? It is any sin for which God decides to take His child out of the world through death. The best way to explain this is to show you a couple examples from Scripture. Turn to Acts 5:1-11.

There is another example in 1 Cor. 5:1-5. A final example is found in 1 Cor. 11:23-32. 

How does this play out? If we know of a brother in sin, we follow the instructions of Matthew 18. Our goal is restoration. If they refuse, we follow the steps and we separate fellowship. We will have done all that we can do at that point to restore them. At that point it is up to God. It may be that this person was never truly regenerated. They may have returned to a life of sin because they love their sin and cannot help living in sin because they are lost. Lost people are going to live like lost people. Then they are going to die and go to hell.

But if this person is truly a child of God, this person’s sin will bring about the chastisement of God. Look at Hebrews 12:4-11. The chastisement of God will intensify and may include physical death. After we have done all we can do in confronting and attempting restoration, we can pray, but if they will not respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the increasing chastisement of God, we can stop praying at some point. God will not answer our prayer to grant them life because they are committing a sin leading to death.

Verse 17 tells us that “all unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.” The sin not leading to death is the sin from which the true believer turns. The true child of God always has the promise of 1 John 1:9 as an alternative to continuing in sin. He can confess, repent, and be restored to fellowship with God and the people of God.

God, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, said in Ez. 18:32, “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord. “Therefore, repent and live.”

There are two points of application we should take with us today. First, we should rejoice in those things we can know for certain as the children of God. We can know that we have eternal life. We can know that whatever we ask of God that is according to the will of God, that request He hears and we receive it. Don’t get hung up on all the things we ask about and don’t receive. Those are the things, about which, we simply cannot know for certain the will of God. But we do know that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and forgive us from all unrighteousness.

The Bible tells us specifically some things that are in the will of God for us. 1 Thess. 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” We know that when we pray for our sanctification we are praying for something in the will of God and we know He hears and grants our request. 

We know that if we lack wisdom, James 1 promises, we can ask God for the wisdom we need, and He will give it.

When we are in need of peace, we know Jesus gives us His peace. When we pray for the peace of Christ we will receive what we request. We know that when we need comfort in times of sorrow, grace in times of distress, strength in times of weakness, we are heard and we receive what we ask. These are certainties of the Christian life.

The other thing we should take away from this passage today is a conviction regarding the seriousness of sin in our lives, or in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We start with ourselves. We must keep diligent watch over our lives to make sure we are walking in holiness. God’s chastening for sin is a serious matter.

And when sin becomes obvious in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ, there are two things we do. We pray for them, and we should attempt to restore these in a spirit of gentleness. We should follow the instructions of Scripture. If you are aware of a brother in sin, don’t call the pastor and tell him he needs to take care of it. Don’t call your best friends and ask them to be praying for the one in sin. Go to him or her. Follow the instructions in the Word of God.

We have one more week in 1 John. We will again be looking at the things we know for certain in the final verses of 1 John next week, Lord willing.

Let’s pray.