Now let's go back to 1st John
chapter 3 that Mark just read. The text that I'm going to deal
with is beginning at verse 19 of 1st John 3. And hereby we
know that we are of the truth. Now that's talking about believers.
And he says in this way or hereby or based on what has been revealed
here in God's Word, we know, we know, we have an assurance,
that's what he's talking about, that we are of the truth. Now
that truth there is very important. In other words, whatever assurance
he's talking about here, it cannot be based on a lie. It cannot
be based upon a false gospel or a false Christianity or a
false religion. Well, how do I know the difference?
Well, look here, it says, hereby we know that we are of the truth
and shall assure or persuade our hearts before him. That word
is sure or persuade. It's the same word that Paul
used in 2 Timothy 1.12 when he said, I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. It's the same word that the Apostle
Paul used in Romans chapter 8, I think it's verse 38, when he
said, we are persuaded that neither life nor death will separate
us from the love of God. Verse 20, he says, for if our
heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. Now that's the
title of the message this morning. God is greater than our heart. And I hope we'll see through
this message that we thank God that God is greater than our
heart. And he knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then have we confidence towards God. Now it's the goal
of every true gospel preacher to do two things in this realm
of assurance of salvation. That's what we're talking about.
The first goal is I want to do what God told Isaiah the prophet
to do in Isaiah 40 in our opening verses. Comfort ye, comfort ye
the people of God. Speak ye comfortably. I wanna
speak peace to those of you here this morning who are truly trusting
the Christ of the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ as he's
identified and distinguished in this book, not a false Christ
now, there are false Christ. There are counterfeit Christ. I want to speak peace and assurance
and comfort to you here this morning and those who are listening
on the internet, watching on the internet. or who hear this
message on CD or whatever, I wanna speak peace to every one of you
who are truly trusting Christ for all salvation, for all righteousness. Do you have any other righteousness
but Christ? If that's your case, then I don't
wanna speak, that's the second thing, I don't wanna give unbelievers
false assurance. False hope. If you're not looking
to Christ alone as the author and finisher of your faith, as
your whole salvation, your whole righteousness, I don't want to
speak peace to you. Not because I'm mean. Not because
I'm exclusive. The gospel's exclusive, isn't
it? The narrow way. But because I want you to stop
it. And I want you to look to Christ.
I want you to see him as he's revealed in the word, his glorious
person, God in human flesh, God manifest with us. The perfect
God man who came to this earth as the surety, the substitute
of God's people and lived and died, was buried and raised again
the third day for their justification before him so that they would
have righteousness before God and no other righteousness but
his. That's it. If you're looking anywhere else
for righteousness, for justification, for forgiveness, for cleansing
from sin, I don't want to speak peace to you. I can't speak to
you comfort. I want you to repent. That's
my prayer for you. And turn to Christ. Speak ye
comfortably. But now this thing of assurance
of salvation, I tell you, it's really something when you get
in and do a biblical study of it. It's something, if you claim
to be a Christian, which most in our area do, we all want assurance
of salvation. We all want that. We want to
know that when we lay down our heads for the last time here
on this earth and go to sleep, we want to know that we'll wake
up with Christ in glory, don't we? And I, you know, you go to
funerals today and nobody perishes, you know, I mean, everybody ends
up in heaven some way, somehow, you know, usually it's something
they made a profession when they were 12 or 13. And of course
that's not biblical. I mean, nothing wrong with making
a profession. Don't get me wrong. But, but my assurance is not
what happened to me when I was 13, 14, 15 years old. My assurance is not how I feel
today. I might not feel good today standing
up here preaching. I might feel great, but it doesn't matter.
Feelings come, feelings go, feelings are deceiving. My warrant is
the word of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
That's just it, isn't it? But people are all over the map
on this thing of assurance of salvation. Listen, there's some
say that if we have no assurance, then we're not saved. And they
even go so far as to say a believer is one who never doubts, but
we have a battle within. We do have to deal with doubts
and misgivings. Paul said in Hebrews chapter
12 that that's the sin that so easily besets us. It's unbelief.
And the only remedy for it is in Hebrews 12 too, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Don't look to self
now. If you're looking to self, I'm gonna tell you something,
you not only have reason to doubt, you have reason not to assure
yourself at all. Look to Christ. He's my hope. Paul, what'd he say? I know whom
I have believed and persuaded that what? He is able. I'm not able. You're not able. I don't care what you think of
yourself, you're not able, but Christ is. He's able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto the Father by Him. Scripture
says. There are some people say that
if we have assurance that we're not saved. You know there's people
who say that all assurance is presumption. Well let me show
you a couple of scriptures here. Back in Isaiah chapter 32. I
want you to see this. Now Isaiah chapter 32 is a prophecy
of Christ. The Messiah. It starts out in verse one of
Isaiah 32, it says, behold, a king shall reign in righteousness
and princes shall rule in judgment. The king who reigns in righteousness
ultimately is Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. His reign
is speaking of his mediatorial reign after he had finished the
work of redemption for his people, for his sheep. for his church. You remember on John 19.30 he
said, it is finished. And what he meant by that is
he fulfilled all righteousness for his people. He satisfied
the justice of God against their sins. Their sins were imputed
to him, charged to him, accounted to him. And he died and paid
that debt in full. Jesus paid it all. All to him
I owe, all the debt I owe. And he finished it. And he was
buried and raised again the third day because he finished the work.
See, sin demanded his death. Sin, charged to him, demanded
his death. He had to die. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. But in his death, as
God-man, he brought forth righteousness. And righteousness demands life.
Bible says this body is dead because of sin, this physical
body, Romans 18. But the spirit is life because
of what? Righteousness. Whose righteousness?
Yours? Mine? Absolutely not. His. And so he's the king who reigns
in righteousness. Now the princes that rule in
righteous, rule in judgment are his preachers because we preach
the gospel of his righteousness. You know the gospel, people say,
well, we're not to judge. You know the gospel is a judgment
in itself? That's true. I'm gonna talk about
that next week in our Bible study at 10 o'clock on to judge or
not to judge, Matthew 7. A lot of people misquote that
verse and misuse it. The gospel itself is a judgment.
Here's what it says, he that believeth shall be saved, he
that believeth not shall be damned. That's a judgment, isn't it?
But it's God's judgment. So he's the king of righteousness.
We'll look over verse 17 of Isaiah 32. Now listen, because of this
king who reigns in righteousness, because of Christ, it says in
verse 17, the work of righteousness shall be peace. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness, that means being settled, and assurance forever. Now what does that mean? That means if I'm in Christ,
if I'm washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness
imputed to me, then I'm as sure for heaven as if I were already
there. Now a lot of people make that statement, don't they? I'm
as sure for heaven as if I were already there. Here's the point.
What's the ground or the basis or the authority of that statement?
If it's anything but Christ's righteousness imputed, the effect
of righteousness, His That's what that is. His death, his
work, his finished work, his redemptive work. If it's anything
but that, it is presumption. Somebody says, well, I'm as sure
for heaven as if I were already there because I was baptized.
Is that your ground of assurance? My friend, you'll perish unless
God brings you to repentance. Shouldn't we be baptized, preacher?
Yes, to confess that our righteousness is in Christ. Somebody says, well, I know I'm
saved because I made a profession when I was 14. Is that your ground
of assurance? Who are you looking to today?
Who are you trusting in today? That's the key. Well, people
can have all kinds of reasons for having assurance. Look over
to Hebrews chapter six with me. Look at this passage. Our believers,
true believers now, are we to have assurance of salvation?
Well, listen, this is Hebrews chapter six. He's talking about the promises
of God that were made to Abraham. And that's how Abraham patiently
endured in life, believing God. And look at verse 16 of Hebrews
six. He said, for men verily swear
by the greater. That means talking about when
men swear an oath. In other words, to seal the oath. You swear an
oath, you make a promise to do something. When you swear an
oath, you swear by something greater than yourself. Of course,
the Bible has a lot to say about swearing oaths. I'm not going
into that this morning. But he says, verse 16, for men
verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife. That's the end of all argument.
There's an oath there. There's an agreement. Verse 17, now look
at this. Wherein God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise. Now, who are the heirs of promise?
Believers. That's what the Bible teaches.
This is not for unbelievers. This is for believers. He said,
to show the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel
confirmed it by an oath. Now the immutability of his counsel,
that's the unchangeableness of God's word. God doesn't go back
on his word. Now sometimes we do, don't we?
But God never, God is always faithful. So you have God's word
for this, that's what he's saying here. And then he says, he confirmed
it by an oath. But now look at verse 18. That
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, a strong comfort, strong assurance,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, that's Christ. which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil." That's Christ, the forerunner. Christ did the
work and entered into the presence of God as the surety, the substitute,
the advocate of his people. He stands there, even, he's seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. But now let me say this. You
see, he says there, when men swear an oath, they swear by
something greater than themselves. But now when God swears an oath,
what does he swear by? There's nothing greater than
God. You know what he swears by? He swears by himself. So here's what we have, two immutable
things. We have God's word and the fact that God has engaged
himself to fulfill that word. That cannot change. That ensures
the success of it. You see, that tells us that this
false gospel today, will do nobody any good. Somebody says, well,
God's trying to save you or wants to save you if you'll just let
him. That's not the God of this book, friend. I'm sorry. I know
that's offensive to people, but it's true. God's going to save
his people. Now you seek him. Somebody said,
well, what if I'm not one of his people? You seek him. That's
what his people do. That's your responsibility. You're
not to think in divine terms because you're not God. You seek
the Lord. That's what he commands you to
do. The secret things belong to him. The revealed things belong
to me. And that's what he lets us in
on. But it's his purpose, based upon the immutability of his
counsel and his word, that we have strong consolation. Now
go back to 1 John 3. Assurance. How are you going
to have assurance of salvation? Some people say we gain assurance
by looking at our godly lives, our works, the fruit. Bible doesn't teach that, folks.
Should we live godly lives? Of course we should. Should we
bear the fruit that comes from the vine who is Christ, the power
of God? Sure. Should we cultivate that? Yes, we should. But that's not
what we gain assurance from. And you know there's some people
who say we can have faith without assurance. That's not biblical. What is it to have faith in Christ? It's to believe that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. What
have I committed unto him? My whole salvation's committed
to Christ. My whole eternal well-being is committed to Christ. Is he
able to do it? I believe he is. I'm assured that he is. What does the word of God say?
You know assurance of salvation, godly assurance, let's put it
that way. There's a lot of assurance that's presumption because it's
based on a wrong ground. But godly assurance gives us
strength in times of trial. Godly assurance gives us motivation
for obedience and godliness. You see, we serve God, we obey
God, not in order to make our salvation sure. We serve God,
we believe God, we worship God, we obey God, because our salvation
has already been sealed and assured by what Christ did. You see the
difference? You see, assurance of salvation
establishes the motives of grace and love and gratitude. Work
salvation cannot do that. In work salvation, you're always
working either to attain or to maintain or to earn. You see? That's legalism. Let me give
you these three things. Number one, true godly assurance
can only come from God's word. Now that's what he's saying here.
Look at verse 19 again. Hereby we know that we are of
the truth and shall assure our hearts before him, for if our
heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. Now what does
that mean? Who God is and what God is is
greater than even my heart. Now hold that thought. Here's
the second thing. True godly assurance can only come by looking
to Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of our faith. You're
looking anywhere else for assurance, you're looking the wrong place.
Christ, the Lord, my righteousness. There's my assurance, there's
the ground. What Christ did on the cross, shedding his blood
is the complete payment for all my sins. How do I know that I
don't owe a debt to God's law and justice? I'll tell you how
I know, I believe Christ paid it all. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified, Hebrews 10, 14. I believe that hymn when we sing
it, Jesus paid it all. Now if you've got something left
to pay, you don't believe he paid it all. Comes Christ, the
author and finisher of our faith. He started it and he completed
it. It's all Him. All my salvation
is conditioned on Christ, and Christ fulfilled every condition
that would assure my salvation. Somebody said, well, what's left
for me to do? I'll tell you what's left for you to do. Live in the
enjoyment of it, in the peace of it. Obey God, not because
of what you can get out of Him, but because of what He has freely
given you, which you did not deserve and did not earn. You know when people say, well,
if I believe that, I just go out and sin as much as I want
to. You know what they're actually saying? They're saying, well,
that message gives me no motive for obedience. In other words,
the only motive they have for obedience is legalism. They're
either a legalist who's serving out of fear of punishment or
fear of loss of reward, or they're a mercenary trying to earn their
reward. But you see, this is the obedience
of a child of God. Here's the third thing, true
faith which is the gift of God has evidences as recorded in
God's word. Now this is what John's talking
about. The ground of assurance is Christ crucified and raised
from the dead, his blood, his righteousness, his merits. That's
the ground of assurance. But here's what John is dealing
with. You know he'd been talking about people who claim to be
Christian but then who forsook the gospel. They forsook the
truth. Which proved they never did believe. Which proved that their faith
was always a false faith. They never were united vitally,
spiritually, eternally with the people of God. And so we believe
in Christ. But here's the question I would
ask. Do I really believe that Christ is all my salvation? Do
I really believe that he is my righteousness? John had given
several things. You see, faith in Christ has
evidences that accompany it. These evidences of grace are
not the grounds of our assurance. They're not the foundation of
our faith. Christ alone, His righteousness alone is the ground
of our assurance. His righteousness alone is our
surety and substitute before God is the ground of our salvation,
the foundation of our faith upon which we rest our hope of eternal
life. That's the hope. that we have. This is our assurance. He is.
But if we have faith in Him, faith which unites us to Him
spiritually, there are things that accompany faith. There are
things that prove that our faith is real and genuine and of God.
John had been dealing with that. First of all in chapter one he
said this, you walk in the light. If you truly believe and Christ
is truly the ground of your assurance and your salvation, then you
walk in the light. What is the light? That's truth.
You're not walking in a lie. You know, there are a lot of
people who claim to be Christian who believe a false gospel. It's
Christ plus something. They believe in a false assurance. And that's why we have to get
to the word of God. John said, if you believe in
Christ, you'll keep his commandments. Now that, somebody said, well,
that means we keep the 10 commandments. Well, my friend, if that's your
ground of assurance or the evidence of your faith, you're a goner. Keeping his commandments, he
said that back here in 1 John 3, 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 commandment. We believe
in Christ and we unite with others who believe in Christ. We're
connected with others. We're a spiritual family. Every
believer here is either my brother or my sister in Christ. That
has nothing to do with our personalities. It has nothing to do with our
social life. It has to do with belief of the
truth. Remember, turn over to second John in verse nine. You remember he says here in
verse nine, Second John, verse nine, just over a couple of pages.
Whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine, the teaching
of Christ, hath not God. You hear that? Do you know the
fellowship of faith and love in Christianity is based upon
the doctrine of Christ? That's the doctrine of his person,
who he is, and the doctrine of his finished work. What did he
accomplish on Calvary? Did he die to make you savable? No, he died to save his people
from their sin. His blood, his righteousness
ensures the salvation of everyone for whom he died. So whosoever
abideth not in that doctrine hath not God. Now he that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. Look at verse 10. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, this teaching, this truth, this light,
Receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speak. Now
that doesn't mean that you cannot have unbelievers in your house. It means you do not receive them
into the household and family of God. If you're an unbeliever,
here's what I'm telling you. If you're an unbeliever this
morning, you are not my brother or sister in Christ. Now I love
you, and I want the best for you, and I'm gonna tell you the
truth, and I'll pray for your salvation. but I cannot receive
you into the fellowship of faith if you're an unbeliever. Do you
understand that? That's not being mean or devised,
that's being truthful. And that's why he says in verse
11, for he that biddeth him God's speed is a partaker of his evil
deeds. If you're an unbeliever, if you don't trust Christ for
all salvation, and I would go ahead and receive you and speak
peace to you, I'm a fellowshiper with you in evil deeds. So think about that. You're not keeping his commandment.
Because his commandment is to receive him not. Now again, if
you're an unbeliever, I'm glad you're here this morning. And
I welcome you, but I'm not going to speak peace to you. I'm going
to tell you the truth and pray for your salvation. I want you
to look to Christ. Stop looking to self. Stop looking
to others. Look to Christ. And then loving
the brethren here. This love of the brethren is
that loyalty and unity that binds us together in the teaching of
Christ, in the gospel, in the way of salvation. That's what
it is. We're bound together. We may
not like the same ball team. We may not like the same food.
We may not like the same restaurants. We might not like the same activities,
but we love the same Christ. We love his righteousness, the
same God. You see what I'm saying? That's
what binds us together. Now, so that's the emphasis here. Do you believe in Christ? You
know, I thought about this. Do I know Christ? Do I really
know him in salvation as my Savior? Do I love him? Do I walk in his
truth, beginning with the gospel? which is the power of God unto
salvation, the righteousness of God. His righteousness imputed
as the only ground of my salvation, my reconciliation with God, and
the only source of my spiritual life. His word of truth. I thought about the prodigal
son. You remember when the prodigal son, after he'd gone out and
he'd squandered all of his inheritance, he ended up in a pigsty feeding
upon the husk. That's a picture of people sitting
under false gospels, false religion, feeding on the husk of false
religion. You know, I've had a lot of people
say to me, they watch the TV program or they hear me preach,
they say, you know, I believe exactly what you're preaching,
but I go over here where they preach another message. And here's
what I'm telling you, if you claim to believe in Christ and
you can gladly or tolerate the husk of false gospels, the husk
of false religion, then your faith is not real, it's not genuine,
it's not saving faith. What happened to the prodigal
son? He came to himself and he went home. And that's what happens
to a believer, to a child of God when God, the Holy Spirit,
brings him to be a believer. He stops feeding, he or she stops
feeding on the husk of false gospels, false religion, works,
salvation by the works and will of man, and he starts feeding
on the truth, the Word of God. He can't tolerate anything else.
Can't sit under anything else. He's got to get up from the pigsty
and leave the husk and come to where the feast is, the fatted
calf. That's Christ and His righteousness. He's brought to repentance. Now,
back here in 1 John 3, I'm going to continue on this. Next week,
I'm going to be dealing in James chapter 2, but I'm going to come
back to this. Listen to this. When he says, verse 20, for if
our heart condemns, what is the heart? Well, it's the mind. It's the affections. It's the
will. It's the inner man. Obviously,
John, if he's talking about a believer, he's talking about the new heart.
You know, God gives us a new heart. It's the conscience. If
our heart condemn us, what is it about our minds that condemns
or justify? It's our conscience. That's what
he's talking about. And you can look at this in one
of two ways. Really, it could apply in the
sense of a person who claims to be a Christian who's not,
but it can also apply to believers. Let me show you what I mean by
that. He says, Beloved, if our hearts condemn us, he says, God
is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. You know,
the Bible tells us to give diligence to make our calling and our election
sure. It says examine ourselves whether
we be in the faith. Now how do we do that? Well,
we go to the Word of God. We don't go to how we feel. We
don't even go to our own conscience naturally. We go to the Word
of God. What does God's Word say? God
is greater than our heart. So here's a person that claims
to believe the gospel. But, for example, they've never
repented of dead works and idolatry. They still believe they were
saved when they believed a lie. Well, now, let me tell you something. And they're troubled by that
in their conscience. Well, let me tell you something.
God's greater than your heart. He knows all things. He knows the
reality of it. So if you condemn yourself, think
about what God does. He knows your heart. He knows
my heart. If you claim to believe the gospel,
to trust Christ, but you don't love the brethren, you don't
congregate with the brethren under the preaching of the gospel,
but you can still feed on the husk of false religion and fellowship
with those who do. Well, let me tell you, God knows
it even better than you. What does his word say? You understand
that? He knows all things. You can't
fool God. That's what he's saying. Like
these people who left the gospel, they fooled us for a while. They
didn't fool God. God knows it all. God's greater
than our heart. He's greater than our conscience.
But now let me show you how this applies to a believer. You know,
every true believer is a person who's been convinced of sin and
of righteousness and of judgment. Let me tell you, if you're a
true believer, You know from God's word how weak, how sinful,
how inadequate we are. Think about this. I can tell you without blinking,
without him being there, I do love the Lord. But I want to
tell you the reality of it, folks. My love for the Lord is so pitiful
sometimes. Isn't it? I know this. Now here's what I know. I can
say I love, and the reason I love him is because of his grace and
power. It didn't come from me, it came from him. Hearing his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. Sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sin. Here's what I want you to
know. If God were to look down on Bill
Parker and say, now Bill, I'm gonna judge you And I'm either
going to condemn you or reward you based upon your love for
me. Let me tell you what would happen to me. I would perish
forever. And that's based on my best efforts
to love Him. You see, you know, John had set
the standard up here when he talked about Christ. It says
in verse 16, First John three, hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. That's Christ's
love for his people, that's a perfect love. That's a righteous love. When I compare my love to God
and my love to my brethren, to Christ's love for his father
and his love for his brethren, I'm not even on the scale. If God were to judge me, based
upon my love for him, my obedience to him, I'd be damned forever. Now that's so. And sometimes
in my conscience, I'll look to myself and I'll say, oh, you're
such a pitiful preacher, you're such a pitiful excuse for a believer,
and that thought that went through your head, that's enough to sink
a world to hell. And my conscience condemns me. But here's the point. God is
greater than my heart. What does his word say about
a sinner who's clinging to Christ for salvation? Clinging, I have
no righteousness but Christ. I have nothing in myself to plead
to recommend me unto God. My only plea, my hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now what does
God say? What does his words say? He says, he says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn me? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
he's risen again. That's what John is talking about
here too. He says, beloved, if our heart condemn us not, verse
21, then we have confidence toward God. Well, how can my heart not
condemn me? That's the heart, the conscience
that's cleansed before God by the blood of Christ. That's it. What cleanses my conscience from
the guilt of sin? Let me close with this. Turn
to Hebrews 10 and I'll hush. Hebrews 10. Listen to this. He's talking about the death
of Christ in the place of God's people to put away our sins. And he says in verse 18 of Hebrews
10, now where remission, pardon, forgiveness of these sins is,
there's no more offering for sin. There's nothing. If Christ,
listen, Christ took care of the problem. He put them away. And his is the only offering
that did it. There's no more offering for sin. Verse 19, having
therefore brethren boldness, confidence, liberty to enter
into the holiest, a center coming into the holiest, but how, on
what basis? By the blood of Jesus. There
it is. By a new and living way which
Christ hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to
say his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God.
Look at verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart, a sincere
heart. In full assurance of faith, what
is the full assurance of faith? It's the full assurance that
we have looking to Christ. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, a guilty condemned conscience. And our
bodies washed with pure water. What is that sprinkling? That's
the blood of Christ. That's the righteousness of Christ.
That's the satisfaction that he accomplished on Calvary to
put away our sins and to make us righteous before God.