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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, this is Day 4 of our look through 1st
John Chapter 5. I'm talking to you from Kigali, Rwanda, where God's people are
struggling and working and succeeding and choosing to love one another, to love
brothers and sisters in Christ, even in difficult times, even with difficult
history, difficult past to forgive. There's still in every life, in every
church, in every country, in your life, there is the hope of loving other people
in your life.

Why? Because God's given us these assurances. He's given us power that we don't
have on our own.

Yesterday we began to look at six assurances that God gives to us in this last
part of 1st John, the 5th chapter. We looked yesterday at the eternal life that
He's given to us, that's an assurance. We looked at the prayers in Jesus' name
that are answered, that's an assurance.

We looked at the new lifestyle that He's given us. We have a new life, and so
those who are born of God do not continue to practice a lifestyle of sin. Some
people are confused by the book of 1st John when they see these phrases, "Do not
continue in sin.

" It sounds like, "I'm never going to sin again once I'm a Christian. " But if
you take a deep look at what that phrase means, it has the idea of a lifestyle
of sin. My life is marked by sin rather than marked by a new life in Christ.

When I become a Christian, I have the assurance of a new life in Christ. And
then, as we get into verse 19, He begins to talk about some other assurances.
There's a fourth assurance that God gives to us.

He assures us that we are children of God. Verse 19a, He says, "We know that we
are children of God. " We know it.

We know that we're children of God. We don't have any doubt about it. We don't
have any struggle about it.

How can you know that you're a child of God? Doesn't that sound prideful?
Doesn't it sound as if somehow you're elevating yourself above other people?

If you feel that way, you're not alone. Many, many people have felt that way.
But the truth of the matter is, you can know you're a child of God because God
the Father sent the Son.

And the Son gave His life for you. And when you trust in the Son, you come into
the family. And if you're in the family, it's okay to say, "I know I'm part of
the family.

" Some people think it's prideful to say, "I'm a child of God. I am a believer
in Jesus Christ, and so God is my Father in a special way. " It wouldn't be
prideful to say, "I'm a part of this family," if you're born into a human
family.

In fact, it would be denouncing your family, not to say, "Yes, that's my Father,
and yes, this is my family. " And it's the most natural thing in the world for
you as a believer in Jesus Christ to say, "This is my family. I am a child of
God, and I know it.

I can stand on that. " Satan wants to tear away at that assurance in your life
because he doesn't want us to live a confident, assured life of faith. He knows
that the mistakes that we make, he knows that the sins that we commit, he knows
that the weaknesses that we have can cause us to look at ourselves and say, "Me,
a child of God?

" Remember, it's not based on who you are, it's based on who Jesus is. And when
I keep my eyes on the Father, when I keep my eyes on Jesus, I have new strength
and power to live out the life of a child of God. I can know that I'm a child of
God.

You can know that you're a child of God. There's also something else you can
know. It's in the last part of verse 19.

It may not sound positive at first. You can know that the world is under the
control of the evil one. We know that we are children of God, and we know that
the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

Now, why is that assuring? Isn't that scary? That the world is somehow under the
control of the evil one?

Remember, in 1 John, the phrase "the world" doesn't mean the physical world. It
has to do with the "without God" way of thinking that's in the world. The
selfish way of thinking that's in the world.

And what John is saying here is this. When you see people that are selfish, when
you see people that are living life for themselves and you wonder, "How could
God be in this world when people act that way? How could evil be done in this
world if God is truly good and truly powerful?

" There are people who choose not to follow God. And when I choose not to follow
God, I'm going to follow the evil one. And the result of that is going to be
selfishness and evil.

We are children of God, and the world is under the control of the evil one.
There is a difference. There is a vast, incredible difference between being a
child of God and being under the control of the evil one.

Now, I don't see it. You don't see it easily. When you become a believer in
Jesus Christ, you don't get a new tattoo on your back that says "child of God"
and an old one that says "child of Satan" is erased.

I don't see it immediately. I don't get a new facial features, but these verses
say there's an incredible difference that happens the moment we become a
believer. You move into a new family.

So if you're ever worried or confused by the differences in this world, why is
there so much evil when God is real in my life? Does that mean maybe God
couldn't be real? No.

No, it just means that those who don't follow God under the control of the evil
one, and you see the results of that. And when you and I do follow God, then we
are living out what it means to be a child of God, and you see the results of
that in your life. Assurances.

We can be assured that we are children of God. We can be assured that the world
is under the control of the evil one. But we can also be assured of a third
thing.

We can be assured that the Son has come and has given us understanding so that I
can have a relationship with Him. We can be assured of our relationship with
Jesus Christ. Listen to verse 20.

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that
we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true even in His Son Jesus
Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. I can know this, that Jesus really
did come into this world, and He really did come to bring me the truth.

And He really did come not to bring me some intellectual truth. He came to bring
me relational truth. He came not just so that I could understand, but so that I
could know Him who is true.

I love this in these verses. The Son of God has come and given us understanding.
Well, that's a good thing.

I want better understanding of God. But then He goes on and He says, "So that I
might know Him who is true, have a relationship with God. " So I don't just
understand the truth.

I know Him who is the truth. I have a relationship with Him. And then He goes on
and He says, "And we are in Him who is true.

" I not only have a relationship with Him, God is in me through His Holy Spirit.
That's how powerful God's truth is in my life. We are in Him who is true even in
His Son Jesus Christ.

This is the true God and eternal life. The true God and eternal life are in your
life, promised by what Jesus Christ has done for you. That's how powerful God's
truth is in your life.

The Son of God has come and has given us understanding that leads to a
relationship with God. And then John ends this book. We're going to do a review
of the book tomorrow in this fifth day and I'm going to have a special guest
join me.

But John ends this book with these simple words, "Dear children, keep yourselves
from idols. " I love these words because they go to what these assurances should
mean in my life. First he says, "Dear children, these assurances we've talked
about the last couple of days, they have to do with how I see myself.

And when I start to see myself as a dear child of God, it changes the way I act.
It changes the kind of person that I am. You are a dear child of God.

You're dearly loved by God. You're a child of God. " And so he appeals to them
as children of God.

Dear children. And then he says, here's the practical, "Keep yourself from
idols. " Because of these assurances, something different should be happening in
my life.

And when he says, "Keep yourself from idols," he's indicating that they were
struggling with this. You ever have struggles in your life as a believer? They
did too.

So he's not talking in these assurances about a life of no struggle. But when he
says, "Keep yourselves from idols," he's saying you can live a different way.
Keep yourselves from idols.

Idols are any false image that you put up that you're going to follow instead of
God. In their day, they were little clay gods that they put up on a shelf. In
our day, it's materialism.

In our day, it's being popular. In our day, it's this thing that I need to own.
Anything can be an idol.

It's anything that I want more than I want God in my life. And so he says, "Dear
children, based on these assurances, keep yourself from idols. Keep yourself
from these things in your life that take away God's love in your life.

Because the best thing about you is not the things that you own. The best thing
about you is not even the relationships that you have on this earth, as good as
those may be. The best thing about you is not some position that you have at
work.

The best thing about you is that you know him who is true, and you are in him
who is true, the true God and eternal life. That's going to last forever. That's
the true power for your life.

So as we talk to him today, let's just talk to him in practical ways. Jesus
Christ, as John talks about assurances, he then talks about what I should do
about it. Lord, I pray that you help me to see today what to do about your
assurances in my life.

Help me to see today how to live out your assurances in my life. What does it
mean that I need to put down? Stop doing.

Give me the strength to do that. What does it mean I need to pick up? Start
doing.

Give me the strength to do that. What prayer do I need to pray? What person do I
need to love?

What hope do I need to have? God, I need your strength to show me. It may seem
very small, but if you ask me to do it, I will do it.

It may seem very big, but if you ask me to do it, I will do it. I ask for your
strength. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Well join us tomorrow. We're going to look back together at the powerful
assurance of faith in the book of 1 John.