Brethren, if you will, turn to
1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Last week we looked at verse
16. I'd like to read that again. Our text is going to be from
verse 19 to the end of the chapter, 1 John 3.16, Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and
we ought, out of that debt of gratitude, to lay down our lives
for the brethren. That's this world's good, knowing
that. Knowing that He laid down His
life for us. Verse 17, But whoso hath this
world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? So many preachers around the
world whip people with that verse. You got to share your money,
witnessing and giving. Sharing temporally, yes. If I
have food on my table, and one of my brothers or sisters in
Christ is starving to death, and for me not to give them a
biscuit, or an ear of corn, or a piece of meat, the love of
God's not in me if I don't do that. Yes, temporally we share
those things. The Lord gave us those things.
But spiritually, if we have this good news, if we know Christ,
And we see somebody in true need. Sinners in need of repentance.
Sinners in need of a Savior. And we don't tell them. We have
no interest in telling them. Oh, I'm better than them. They
don't need to know. They're not smart enough to understand
it. How dwelleth the love of God
in them? Verse 18. My little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, It's not just say
that we do these things, but in deed, temporally, in action,
and in truth, in sharing that Word of God about Christ, who
He is, what He's accomplished. That's true giving. And verse
19, and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure
our hearts before him." Now what makes us know that we are of
the truth? In John 18, Christ said, everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice. We know we're of the
truth and we have assurance. in our hearts because we hear
Christ's voice in our new man, in that new spirit born in us.
Christ has given us the Holy Spirit of God. He's created a
new man in our hearts and by that irresistible grace that
He has, He makes us hear His voice and He makes us obey Him. Let me turn it over to John chapter
5. John chapter 5. When Christ speaks
to that new man in us, He successfully makes us obey His commandment
to believe Him. John 5 verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed
from death to life." Verse 25, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Those that are truly dead, sinners,
graveyard dead, that are His, they shall hear. It's going to
happen. And that once they're made to
hear, they shall live. Now turn over to John chapter
15. And if you've got two markers
in your Bible, leave a marker here around John 15. We're going
to go back and forth quite a bit. today because we remember that
that epistle that John wrote in 1 John, he's telling us the
things that he learned in this Gospel of John when he was with
the Master and he's experienced this. In 1 John 15, when Christ speaks
to the new man in us, He makes us obey His commandment to love
our brethren. 1 John 15, 9. I'm sorry, John
15, 9. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. This is my commandment that you
love one another as I have loved you. How did Christ love us? Look there in verse 13. Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. And ye are my friends. If you
do whatsoever I command you. He has laid down his life for
us. We are called the friends of
God. Now these two things make up
God's commandment which we hear and we obey by the voice of Christ
speaking effectually in our hearts and that new heart He's given
us by the Holy Spirit. We believe Christ and we love
our brethren. Now back to our text there in
1 John. 1 John 3, let's look at verse 23. And this is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as he gave us commandment. Now Christ's voice
spoken in our new hearts, he makes his people lay down their
lives for his sake and the gospel's sake by making us believe on
Christ and love Christ and our brethren who he bought. Verse
18 there says, love in deed and truth. How do we do that? How
are we to love in deed and in truth? We believe on cross and
love our brethren in deed and truth by abandoning all our works
as we confess cross publicly. And we unite with our brethren
under the gospel. We believe on Christ and love
one another in deed and in truth by ending all of our attempts
at saving ourselves by works. And we rest in Christ through
faith alone. We believe on Christ and love
our brethren in deed and truth by bearing persecution for declaring
the gospel, for believing Christ, declaring who he is and what
he accomplished on the cross. And that comes through our families,
our friends, the world, whoever. We bear that. We believe on Christ
and love our brethren in deed and truth by continuing to assemble
together with them under the preaching of the gospel. Will
you not? Under that faithful preaching of the gospel. And
together, forsaken all, forsaken our pride to meet together, forsaken
our feelings to meet together, Because there's one thing needful.
We unite under that, under the preaching of the gospel, the
truth of Christ, and together we send out that gospel. We tell
others about it. We support missionaries and have
different means that the Lord's provided for us to broadcast
the gospel in any way we can. We believe on Christ and love
our brethren in deed and truth by bearing the burdens of our
brethren. Those that are overtaken in a
fault, And we restore them. And we restore them by pointing
them back to Christ. And we wait on Him to do the
work, to chasten their hearts. We're in verse 19, 1 John 3,
19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure
our hearts before Him. Our confidence that we are of
the truth is by Christ speaking into that inner man. Keeping
us believing on Him, keeping us loving Him, Him keeping us
loving our brethren. By unity with Christ, by the
Spirit that He's given us. How is that possible? And this
old corrupt heart, this wicked man that I am, how does He do
that? How does He keep me? He's greater
than this old heart. Look there in verse 20. For if
our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth
all things." Now, there's an application here. Remember, John's
telling us, showing us a difference for the last several verses from
chapter 2, difference between the child of the devil and the
child of God. He's contrasting those here.
And at this point, we can see that there's an application to
that child of the devil there. If a person's heart is somewhat
condemned, if they feel a little bit bad, And they're never made
to repent from the Lord. The Lord never makes them believe
on Christ. They prove that they're a child
of the devil. In that case, if a man's heart
is truly condemned in him, he would know that God's greater
than his heart is. God knows all things about him.
He may ignore his conscience, but he cannot ignore God. But
John here is assuring And He's comforting believers. That's
who He's speaking to. And we know and are assured that
we are of the truth because God is greater than our hearts. There
in verse 20, that if could be translated when, for when our
hearts condemn us. Every sinner born of God hears
these things. That the true child of God believes
on Christ and loves the brethren in deed and in truth. Our heart
will condemn us to that. But at times, our heart condemns
us because our faith is so weak. And we know that we don't love
as we should. We know we don't believe as we
should. We don't look to Christ as we should. But hereby know
we are the truth. How? How so? Our hearts condemn
us. That new man in us condemns us.
If we were a child of the devil, we wouldn't care. We might feel
a little bit bad. It wouldn't haunt us. Oh, I haven't
leaned on the Lord today like I ought to have. Oh, I didn't
trust Him. Why would I be so foolish to
think that He's not going to provide temporal things or spiritual
things for me? Heart condemns you. I didn't
treat my brother the way I should have treated him. Oh, I wish
I wouldn't have said that. I worded something wrong. Have you ever
lost sleep at night worrying that you might have said something
wrong to one of your brethren? The heart is condemning you. If you were
the child of the devil, you wouldn't care. When the heart of the child
of God condemns us, God our Father is rebuking us in loving correction. There in Hebrews 12 it says,
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. Now we're prone. to accuse the
preacher when our heart condemns us. I've done that. There have
been several messages I've heard sitting in a congregation, and
I go to my pastor in that back door as he's walking out, and
I say, you turned them cameras back on in my house again, didn't
you? You've been watching me. But if the message blesses our
heart correctly, we praise God, don't we? Oh, if we're filled
up and blessed, we say, oh, the Lord gave a good message today.
But if it condemns us, we're often times look to getting on
to the one who told us about it. How should we do that? How should
we react to that? The one that lifts us up is the
same one that brings us down. If the word's being preached
in truth, according to the word of God, If we are a true child
of God, then it's God condemning us in our hearts. He's the one
that's greater in our hearts. It's not me. I'm not the one
pruning you. I don't have cameras in your
house. I ain't got enough time to watch
you to know what to say to pick on you. You little ones, I watch you.
I may be getting after you. Let's turn over to John chapter
15. He prunes his children. John 15, verse 1. Christ is speaking
here. He says, I am the true vine,
and my Father is the husbandman. He's the one that tends to the
vine. Verse 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He
taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, He purges it. He purges it. He prunes it. That
it may bring forth more fruit. At our home, I'm learning not
to brag about this because I've been to Mike and Karen's house,
but I've got two tomato plants growing in the desert. I'm pretty
proud of that. But when those tomato plants first started growing,
I went out and I pruned those tomato plants. I watched the
main shoots go up and I saw the suckers coming off and those
shade leaves that don't bear fruit. And I went through and
I pruned them. and I left what I wanted to leave.
And there was just about as much tomato plant laying on the ground
when I got done as there was still standing. You thought I
killed it, but now we got plenty of fruit. It brings forth more
fruit than it would if I didn't trimmed it. Now who trims us? The husbandmen, not the branches. The whole time I trimmed the
tomato plants, not once did I see a true branch that had little
flowers on it that's going to bear tomatoes reach down and
cut off a sucker. It doesn't trim itself. And those
suckers and those shade leaves don't remove themselves. The
husbandman does. We're pruned by him. When our
Heavenly Father chastens us, the Hebrew writer told us, no
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness in them that are exercised thereby."
Chastening is never fun, but it's needful. And afterwards,
we see the fruit that it bears. Our Heavenly Father knows what
His child needs. Now, when we begin looking to
ourselves, and we start looking at our own branch, and we start
looking at those branches around us, we start putting our faith
in our faith, or we start putting our assurance in our love, well
I'm sure because I love how my love is, then God prunes us to
increase our faith and our love in Christ alone. He keeps us
looking only to Christ and keeps us loving Christ and love our
brethren in deed and in truth. What a blessing that God our
Father makes our conscience condemn us to turn us from ourselves
and turn us to Christ and to his people, to our brethren.
And he only does that to the ones he loves. And once our heart
condemns us, we're pointed to Christ. Then there's relief. Is that relief? Have you ever
had that happen? There's relief when that happens. You're in
a heavy trial, and you're looking to yourself, and you're looking
around you, and then you're made to look to Him. Well, now you
can breathe. This don't matter, does it? Our
conscience stops troubling us During that trial, I wrote that
and then I went back as I read through and I underlined it.
It's going to happen again. But during that trial, we have
comfort, don't we? Why? Our heart condemns us not. Look here in verse 21. Back in
our text, 1 John 3, verse 21. 1 John 3, 21. Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive
of Him, because we keep His commandments and do things that are pleasing
in His sight. And this is His commandment,
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as He gave us commandment. Another way God
assures our hearts is by purging our conscience. When we hear
these things concerning faith in Christ and love the brethren,
and our heart condemns us not, But we're comforted, it's because
we have communion with Christ. We have that co-union. We're
made one with Him. We're made aware of that communion
with Him, and we're comforted. The only way a sinner keeps his
commandments, of believing on Christ, loving the brethren,
is by the Spirit of God purging our conscience with the blood
of Christ. We believe on Christ and love our brethren by Christ
being in us and us being in Him, by being made one with Him. That's
unity. Note there in verse 24 it says,
and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him. You don't have to turn there,
but Christ says in John 15, 3, Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you,
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine. No more can you, except ye abide
in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. What does that bring us to? It
brings us to prayer, doesn't it? We turn into Hebrews chapter
10. By having our conscience purged
by the Lord, that we've kept Christ's commandments, we have
boldness at His throne of grace and prayer. We have boldness
to come to Him. He said in our text, our beloved,
if your hearts condemn us not, then we have confidence towards
God. Look here in Hebrews 10, verse
18. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by. the blood of Jesus by a new
and living way. What's that new and living way?
Well, the old way was my approaching, my righteousness, me coming on
my merit. Now, it's the blood of Christ.
That's the new way, different from what I come up with, and
it's the living way. That's where life is. By the
new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, His flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Then in our text there, John
says, "...and whatsoever ye ask, we receive of him." Why? Because
we're made one with Christ. Because we keep His commandments
and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. We saw
there from verse 24, we only do that when Christ dwells in
us and us in Christ. Meaning, because we are in communion
with Him. We're made one with Him. We turn
to John 14. Believers keeping the commandments
of Christ in no way merits favor to answer our prayer. That's
so many people, we've looked at this before, they have these
prayer chains and these big gatherings together to pray, to force God
to do something they want. That's a mutiny. They're putting
Him in a chicken wing, bending His arm, making Him say, Uncle,
do what they want. But God approves of the things
that are done in faith, from a heart of love, from a heart
for His glory. And He shows His approval by
granting our desires, by answering our prayers. Look here in John
14, verse 12. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these
shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye
shall ask in my name, That will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. And if ye shall ask anything
in my name, I will do it." He said, now the works that I do,
you're going to do. And those that believe on me,
you're going to do what I do, what Christ did. Honored the
Father. He said, not my will, but your
will be done. Look at verse 20, John 14, 20.
And at that day ye shall know, ye shall know, that I am in my
Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments,
and keep them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,
Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and
not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, if a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. They're gonna dwell in him. So
it's by God the Father and Jesus Christ abiding, aboding, living
in us that we're able to keep His commandments. Believing on
Christ and loving our brethren. That's the reason we're able.
And He shows us His approval by granting our prayer. Giving
us boldness to come to His throne of grace. Now many think that
that's a blank check. We do come with our Father with
everything. Prayer is submission to the Lord,
isn't it? Often times I went to pray for
something. As I'm making a feeble attempt at praying, quickly I'm
shown that whatever I'm asking for doesn't matter. And I say,
Lord, Your will be done. That He gives us boldness to
come. But the truth is, when we're in this state of communion,
So we believe on Christ, we're loving our brethren. The only
thing we ask is that the Father's will is accomplished. And it
will be. It's answered. When we believe on Christ and
love our brethren by having communion with Him, we ask that our needy
brethren, who are condemned in their conscience, be restored.
We pray for our brethren to be pointed back to Christ. That's
us believing on Christ to do it. And that's loving our brethren.
By praying for Him to do it. Asking Him to be the one to do
it. And He shows His approval of faith and love by restoring
our brethren because that's already His will. He's going to do it. It's only when our sin nature
gets a hold of us that our communion is interrupted. that unity with
Christ is interrupted. But it's only interrupted, it's
only disturbed on our side. He still abides in us, but we're
the ones that start looking to our flesh, trying to find assurance
in our faith, trying to find assurance in our love, looking
for assurance in ourselves, rather than in Christ who gives it and
who sustains it, who keeps it. So He chastens us, condemning
our conscience, but thankfully our brethren Those that are in
communion with Him, they're praying for the same thing we just prayed
for. Lord, Kevin's down. Lift him up. He will. He's going
to do that, isn't he? That's His will to do so. And
He answers their prayer by doing what He was already planning
on doing, accomplishing His will. By His never-ending faithfulness
and love on God's part to do His will towards His people,
Christ keeps us all, all His children, Believing on Him, coming
to that throne of grace, coming to that throne of mercy, and
loving our brethren by our prayers for one another. And this is
done by God the Holy Spirit in us. Look there in verse 24, 1
John 3, 24. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the spirit which he hath given us. Hereby we know
we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
It's because we keep His commandments. I believe in Him, love in our
brethren, and we do so because we dwell in Him and He dwells
in us. And hereby we know that we abide
in us by the Spirit which He hath given us. Turn over to John
14 and we'll close. We hear Christ's voice speaking
in our inner man by the Spirit which He's given us. And this
abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is not the special gift
of God belonging only to a select few. This isn't something that
only happens to the top 10% of the believers or the real strong
elder believers. Those that aren't sheep, they're
rams. It's not just for them. This special gift of God is common
to all His elect, to every one of us. In John 14, 15, If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and
He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth
Him, but you know Him. For He dwelleth with you, and
shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless,
I will come to you, yet a little while, and the world seeth me
no more, but you see me. Because I live, ye shall also
live. At that day, ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." He's going
to make his children know that, that he abides with us, that
we're one with him. Through that cycle of trials,
our heart condemning us, our heart being fulfilled. It's like
a heart pumps now, it squeezes and lets go. And then John tells
us there, verse John, and hereby we know that we are of the truth
and shall assure our hearts before Him. Have you experienced that? Do you know that He abides in
you? Has He made His comfort come
to you, that you shall know Him? You've been through trials where
you looked to yourself and just felt so miserable you couldn't
stand it, and you returned. You were comforted by looking
to Him alone. Then you know. You have assurance. And it's
nothing here. It's nothing the world sees.
It's in Him. He's our assurance. Isn't that
so? I hope that gets you through
this week. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we walk around
this world and are so concerned with the things around us, Lord,
turn our attention to things above. As we struggle watching the news and watching
the trials around us, Lord, comfort us. soothe our hearts by making
us look to Christ, making us see what He's accomplished for
His people, making us see that He abides in us. Lord, give us
that comforter to look to Him, to convict us of our sins, and
to teach us. Cross Jesus, our Lord. Point
us towards Him, Lord. Give us the strength to encourage
our brethren, to love them, to pray for them. And we know that
You will comfort them. What an assurance we have in
our Redeemer. Lord, thank You. Forgive us our
sin. Forgive us for what we are, Lord,
and keep us. Keep Your children to that day
we're made like Him, conceived face to face. It's in Christ's
name that we ask it. Amen.