So 1 John chapter three and verse
18. My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And 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, and knoweth
all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we
ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and
do those 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. 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. There are three phrases in today's
reading which caught my attention particularly. And I say that
any passage that we can read in the Bible that speaks of confident
peace with God, that speaks of saving knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that speaks of personal assurance of free
and sovereign grace ought to interest a poor, needy sinner. These three phrases are these. Hereby we know Hereby we assure our hearts, then have we confidence. Hereby we know, hereby we assure
our hearts, then have we confidence. And perhaps you can see why it
is that I am endeavouring to convey to you this sense of purpose
that John has in writing this little letter, that he might
encourage the Lord's people to know their standing in Christ,
to be assured in their hearts of their interest with God and
have confidence towards God with respect to their union and communion
with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And I know that we have doubts
and I know that we are challenged and I know that there are difficult
times in the Christian life and walk and experience of all the
Lord's people. But these things are written
that we might be able to turn to them and that we might be
comforted by them. So our thoughts today are going
to be directed to this knowledge and assurance and confidence
that we can have in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the gospel
of free and sovereign grace. But just before we consider these
fine statements, let me remind you why they are important. Your eternal salvation as we've
been thinking about in Psalm 90. Your eternal salvation and
a knowledge of it in this short life that we are living is the
most important matter of your life. Your eternal salvation
is the most important matter in your life. Now I know that
there are 101 other things that come into our life, dwell in
our mind, trouble our heart, weigh heavily upon us and we
can easily become preoccupied with such matters of this world
and of time and of circumstances. And all of these things become
a devilish ploy in order to take
our minds off of the important matters of our spiritual relationship
with God. The devil seems to crowd in upon
us so often, distracting us with this, causing us to deviate in
our purposes with that, leading us into circumstances and issues
and troubles that cause us to be distracted and detained along
the way. so that we find that we spend
whole days and whole weeks and whole years of our lives and
hardly ever give any time to the things of God and the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How often is it that we even
struggle to get out to the service, get out to hear a sermon on the
Lord's day, and we are confronted by challenges even in that. The most important thing in our
life is our eternal well-being and salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord. I'm reminded of the
Lord's words to Martha, his friend Martha, of Mary and Martha and
Lazarus, concerning Mary, her sister. In Luke chapter 10, verse
41, we read there that Jesus answered and said to Martha as
she was appealing to him for help. He said, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing
is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not
be taken away from her. One thing is needful, and for
all the things that trouble us and all the things that we're
careful about, one thing is needful, and I want us to stress that
today. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
friends who are listening to my words, one thing is needful,
and that is simply this. the hearing of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the one thing. That's
what the Lord Jesus Christ says. You know, if I could say it's
the most important, it's important amongst equals, it's important
amongst many things, then I would tell you that. But that's not
what the Lord said. It says one thing is needful,
and it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us endeavour to get our priorities
right. Today, we seek that good part
that Mary chose, to be under the sound of the gospel, and
we seek it that it be not taken away. I want to make a distinction
here, which I trust you'll find helpful. You know, the Bible
never tells us to go and get Christ, or go and get God, or
go and get grace, or go and get salvation, or go and get forgiveness,
for the simple reason that it's not in our power to go and get
these things. Eternal life is not gained by
deciding to go and get it. or even desiring to have it. I don't know a person who doesn't
desire to have everlasting life, who wouldn't want to go to heaven,
but it's not obtained by the desiring of it. It's not obtained
by agreeing to receive it, even. It's certainly not obtained by
our endeavouring to earn it or win it by the things that we
do. Simply put, salvation is a gift. It's a gift, it's a present that
God gives to certain people. Justification with him is a gift. Acceptable righteousness is something
he gives us unilaterally, unconditionally. And it is given to some people
and it is not given to others. Who receive it is according to
God's choice in election. And we must always trace salvation
back to God's purpose. and Christ's blood sacrifice
and the Holy Spirit's quickening call. Salvation of men and women,
salvation of boys and girls, salvation of sinners is due to
the purpose and accomplishments of the triune God alone. Man is a recipient, never a collaborator. But the hearing of the gospel,
that one important thing, the hearing of the gospel is God's
method of bringing sinners to know their need for mercy. It is the gospel that gives us
a felt need of mercy. You won't ever discover that
outwith the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the gospel
that teaches us about the free grace of God. And it is the gospel
that teaches us about the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So that one needful thing, the gospel of Jesus Christ, teaches
us of our need for mercy, teaches us of the free grace of God whereby
mercy is obtained, and teaches us of the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ by which God is reconciled to us as sinners. And having heard that gospel
and received in that gospel the quickening call of the new birth. That's not the end of our Christian
experience and it's not an end of our need to continue hearing
the gospel of God's grace. In fact, the phrase new birth
is very appropriate because it reminds us that when we're born
again, we're just like little babies. We're just like little
children. It's a creation process. It's
a new beginning. And from that new birth, growth
must follow. We must grow, we must mature
and deepen in knowledge and relationship with God and with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that growing, that maturing
comes to us in hearing the gospel preached, the one needful thing.
It's described in the Bible as seeking the kingdom of God. of
hungering and thirsting after righteousness, of growing in
grace and the knowledge of truth, of standing fast in the liberty
wherewith God has made us free, fleeing sin, fleeing fornication,
fleeing idolatry, These desires that have been
placed in a new-born child of God are evidences of grace in
an individual's life. seeking after God, hungering
and thirsting after righteousness, growing in grace and in a knowledge
of the truth, standing fast in our liberty. These are evidences,
they're proof of life, if you like, proof of spiritual life. They're spiritual abilities,
spiritually enabled by God, the Holy Spirit, and spiritually
experienced because of the new birth. And that new birth, it spawns
and grows and develops and instils and generates new feelings in
our hearts, new desires in our souls, new passions, new understandings
and new hopes in our life. However, That new creation is
not without trouble in the world. And the old man continues to
dwell with the new man. And the old man with his flesh
and his lusts opposes and contradicts the new man, obstructs the new
man. The old man obstructs the new
feelings of desires after the things of God. He obstructs the
passions and causes us to be without the desire and the love
that we feel we ought to have. He tries to break down our hopes
and he challenges these evidences of grace. He even goes to the extent of
contradicting and denying that they are in any way proof of
spiritual life. He denies, he repudiates the
work of grace in a believer's heart. And often that conflict
is more grievous as the Christian
grows in his understanding. It seems as if that growth makes
us more sensitive to the opposition of the devil and the old man
and the temptations of the world. It seems as if we have a sharpened
awareness of sin in our lives and a new estimation of our own
wickedness that leaves us doubting if we're the Lord's people at
all. And the devil whispers in our ears and he says, you're
deceived, you're kidding yourself. and the flesh is a hurdle and
a barrier to our spiritual growth because we're tired and we're
weary and we're distracted and we're angry and we're short-tempered
and we're easily put off from the spiritual good things that
would help us and encourage us and comfort us. And we become
cumbered with much trouble, like Martha, in our responsibilities. and the world conjures up many
distractions and temptations. Therefore it is at such times
when we feel this weariness that John's words to us today become
very precious. They are very precious to the
tried and to the tempted. Why? Because hereby we know,
despite the devil's whisperings in our ears, despite the world's
temptations, despite the flesh's opposition, despite the weariness
of soul that we feel, hereby we know. Hereby we assure our hearts that
we are the children of God. Hereby we have confidence toward
God. How do we know? How do we know?
Well, John's telling us that's the point about these verses.
We know because we love the Lord Jesus Christ. We love his gospel. We love the way of salvation. We love the accomplishments of
our Saviour on the cross. We love the fact that He bore
up underneath the wrath of God. We love the fact that He endured
to the end. We love the fact that He was
able to stand and bear all of that sword of anger and wrath
which ought to have fallen upon our bare souls in his own body
on the tree. And we are full of admiration
for the things that Jesus Christ has accomplished. More than that, we have a desire
to love him more. because we see so very often
that our love is dulled and diminished by the distractions around us
in the world. Not only do we love him, but
we wish we could love him more. Not only do we grasp the significance
of what he has done, but we wish we could grasp it more. Not only
have we learned something of what Jesus Christ has accomplished,
but we wish we could learn more of him. We wish that we could
do more for our brothers and sisters in the church, that we
could be more considerate, more helpful, kinder, and we have
a desire to be more Christ-like in our life and in our walk.
To love Him and them as we are loved by Him and them. And we may not always be able
to achieve that desire, but we attest it to be so. To the best
of our understanding, there is no insincerity here. There is
no hypocrisy. There is no lip service in this
matter. To the best of our understanding,
we desire to honour the Lord. And hereby we know How does that assure our hearts?
How is it that that assures our hearts? Even when the devil is
whispering in our ears, it's not so, it's not so. How are we assured when we have
these two conflicting evidences? For this reason, that we can
find no other explanation for the change that has occurred
in our lives, because it was not always thus. Once, the Saviour
was a stranger to us. Once we cared nothing about the
Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we would have gone in
the opposite direction. to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
last thing we would have wanted to do was be under the sound
of the gospel. Once the gospel was hidden to
us and we knew nothing about its content, its meaning, its
significance, but that is no longer the case. We understand
now what has been accomplished in the gospel and what the gospel
accomplishes in sinners. Once our hope was in our own
works, in our self-righteousness, in our personal obedience, in
the decision that we made to be followers of God, followers
of Christ. That was what we once hoped in. And now we have no hope except
on God's mercy, except in Christ's righteousness freely imputed. We are convinced that if we are
to be saved, it must be by grace. Now we're convinced that Christ's
blood alone can atone for our sins. And now we're convinced
that the gospel promises are the only grounds of our hope
for what lies in store for us in the days to come. So we have a knowledge of the
gospel and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have an assurance
that flows from that knowledge that a change has occurred in
our lives So how is it that we can then
have confidence towards God? How does these things, this knowledge
and this assurance, how does it inspire us and embolden us
and encourage us in our confidence? because it teaches us at those
moments of opposition, at those times of antagonism from the
devil, when the temptations of this world come against us, when
the flesh rises up and we're weary and weak and tried and
tested, we are emboldened and encouraged to look away from
ourselves and rest upon God's will for us. We don't trust in
our faith, but we argue his faithfulness. We don't rely on our dedication,
but we claim his promises. And we don't hope ignorantly,
but we hope with a knowledge of the way that he has opened
up in Christ for sinners such as us. And I use that word argue
purposefully because what I am endeavouring to show you here
is that this is the heart of the battle for doubt. This is what the devil is coming
to say to us. He is coming against us with
his allegations and his accusations and his condemnations and we
are to argue Christ. That is why the gospel is that
one thing that is important because it is only the gospel that will
give us the armaments It is only the gospel that will provide
us with the weaponry. It is only the gospel that will
give us the ammunition to fire back at him. The sword with which
to attack and defend ourselves. We are to argue the faithfulness
of God towards us despite our sin and despite our unworthiness. When Satan comes and condemns
us, our answer to him should be, if God damns me, he will
be just to do so because I deserve no more. I am a worm and no man. I am a sinner and the wages of
sin is death. And when the world comes and
condemns us, we are to say, we are to argue, if God saves me,
it will be because he has found a worthy substitute. One who is able to bear my sin,
which I cannot bear. Carry my load, which I cannot
carry. One who will bear our griefs
and carry our sorrows and take our sin upon him. And when our own heart condemns
us, we are to say, if God accepts
me, it is because he has supplied a righteousness suitable for
his presence. One has been delivered for our
offences and he has been raised again for our justification. God accepted his offering and
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and Jesus Christ is ascended
in glory into his Father's presence to receive all honour. That is
our argument. I have no other argument. I have
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died. And I hope that he died for me. Such is the reasoning of faith. That's the reasoning of faith. It is the logic of necessity. It's the inspiration for hope. We say with Peter, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And that's good ground to stand
on. And maybe this would be a good
place to end. But you see, the problem with
doubt is that it hears these things and yet it holds on. It holds on to its fears and
its doubts and it hears those accusations and it hears those
condemnations. So you say, I hear all this and
still I'm fearful. I hear all this that you say
about the Gospel. I hear the Gospel. I hear what
Christ has done. I hear what God's way of salvation
is. I know what Jesus Christ has
accomplished. I believe the Bible to be true
in all that it says about God, but still my heart condemns me. Still my sin rises up and declares
You're a fool. How dare you presume a portion
in Christ's death? How dare you rejoice in your
sins forgiven when they weigh heavier than ever they did when
you were in the world? And the devil says to us, God's
grace may indeed be true, but it was never meant for you. brothers and sisters, troubled
friends, little children. There is more. 1 John 3, verse
20 tells us, If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart
and knoweth all things. Now if you want to find another
interpretation for that verse, then play away. but I'm not giving
this up because what this verse tells me is this, even self-condemnation
must give way to faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans
chapter one, verse eight says, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. and even if our own hearts condemn
us, and we cannot get away from that sense of self-condemnation,
that is a feeling which has no substance, because the reality
is that God doesn't condemn us. Hear me. All you are doing in
your self-condemnation is robbing yourself of the joy of the Lord,
because there is no condemnation. The Lord has given us new life
in Christ. He has taught us the way of salvation. He has shown us the wonder of
Christ's accomplishments. He has brought us to believe
in the actuality of that as the door and the way and the access
into his presence and that there is a righteousness which is meet
and suitable for acceptance and justification with him. And if
we condemn ourselves from our own heart, then there is no condemnation
for us. If even our hearts condemn us,
God is greater than our heart. You know what that verse is saying
there? If you believe the gospel to be true, then that verse alone,
that verse alone removes every legitimate argument you have
to doubt. Your salvation is not threatened
by how you feel about yourself, but it is founded upon the promises
of God in Christ. There's more in Christ to cleanse
you, to justify you, to comfort you, to keep you, than all the
sin that is in your heart and all the sin that is on your conscience. There's more in Christ to cleanse
it. There is more in Christ than all the condemnation that is
in our heart. Sin cannot destroy our life in
Christ, nor can death, nor can Satan ever reach that. Our life
is hid with Christ in God. Colossians chapter 3 verse 3.
Now I started off today by saying that our faith does not earn
our salvation, it's a gift. Nor does our unbelief jeopardise
our salvation because it was a gift. It's fixed in Christ. Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy
chapter 2 verse 13, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. And hereby,
says John, we know, we know. Hereby, says John, we assure
our hearts. Hereby, says John, have we confidence
toward God. Our joy in believing, our confidence
in God flows from our knowledge of Christ in the gospel and that
is why the gospel is so important. To unbelievers, yes, it's the
way of life, but to believers, because it is the very soul and
substance of our strength and comfort, we trust in its promises
and we hope in its arguments of grace. Knowledge, trust, and
hope are spiritual gifts which come to us from the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you what is well-pleasing
in God's sight, what is doing the will and the commandment
of God. It is simply this, that we should
believe in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ. And that gift is
a faith. God calls nothing from us that
he hasn't already placed in us. that we should believe on his
Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. These are spiritual enablings.
So if your heart condemns you, ask for more faith. Ask for more grace. Ask, and
it will be given unto you. No good gift will he withhold. And whatsoever ye ask, says John,
we receive of him. Christ is in his people. and his people are in him. That's the gospel. Our feelings
and our fears and our failures have nothing to add to that and
they have nothing to take away from it. It's Christ's power
to save. We are his. and he is ours for
time and for eternity, now and forever, from everlasting to
everlasting. He is our dwelling place. That's
where we started and that's where we end. Amen. Amen.