Open your Bibles with me to 1st
John chapter 3 you will find my text tonight in verse 24 1st
John chapter 3 and verse 24 The first sentence of this 24th verse
John was inspired by God the Holy Spirit to tell us this and
He that keepeth his commandments shall dwelleth in him, and he
in him. He that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in Christ the Son of God, and Christ the Son of God
dwells in him. Now remember, John is addressing
believers. He's addressing believers as
believers throughout this epistle. Christ's redeemed ones, God's
elect, sinners who have been called by God's omnipotent mercy
and irresistible grace to life and faith in Christ. His purpose
is to give us the blessed comfort of the gospel. His purpose is
to show us that trusting Christ, we have every reason to live
in assurance. Sometimes I know you hear things
and I say things and they kind of fly by quick. Don't let that
fly by. Trusting Christ, Merle Hart,
you have every reason to live in assurance before God. Trusting
Christ, You have every reason to live in assurance before God. Now watch this. He that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. Obviously, John's intention is
to refer our thinking back to what he has just said in 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. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him. Now this is just exactly what
John's telling us. If we trust Christ, if we love
our brethren, this is the reason. We dwell in Christ, and Christ
dwells in us. We are one with Christ. Therefore, we trust him. Therefore,
we love our brethren. We've been born of God. We live
in union with the Son of God, our Savior. That causes us to
trust him. That causes us to love one another. Now look at the next line of
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, and by the Spirit which he hath given us. Hereby we know. That's my subject tonight. Hereby
we know. Hereby we know that He, the Lord
Jesus, God's Son, abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath
given us. Now, I want to show you two things
in this text, the two things this text addresses. The first
is our union with Christ. The second is the assurance of
that union. So first, John speaks to us about
our union with Christ. There is a mutual indwelling
of Christ and his people. He dwells in us, and we dwell
in him. Turn back to Ephesians, the first
chapter. Ephesians, the first chapter.
There is between the Lord Jesus Christ and all God's elect an
everlasting, living, vital, eternal union. A union without which
we do not exist. And a union without which Christ
does not exist. I chose my words deliberately.
It is a union that's vital. Vital to Him and vital to us. It is a union without which we
do not exist and a union without which Christ does not exist. I speak now, not of Christ as
the eternal God in his pure character as God, but as our mediator,
as our sheriff, as our representative, as the God man, as the Christ
of God, the key to Ephesians chapter one, verse 15. The Apostle
Paul writes by inspiration and says, wherefore I also, after
I heard of your faith, heard that God had given you faith
in Christ and of your love unto all the saints, cease not to
give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. And this
is what I pray for, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the father of glory, May give them to you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of christ the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened That you may know What is the hope of his
calling? And what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us word which believe? According to the working
of his mighty power. What a statement Paul says, I
want you to know the power of his grace whereby we believe
according to the working of his mighty power. Verse 20, this
power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far
above all principality and power and might and dominion and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come. and hath put all things under
his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church. Now watch this. Watch this. I
said there is a vital union, a union by which Christ and his
people exist together, a union without which he doesn't exist
and we don't exist. Watch what it says. The church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. His body is incomplete without
each of his members. This is a vital union, vital
to him as our mediator and vital to us as his people. Now, let
me show you four things in connection with this union. Believers enjoy
the most intimate union communion and fellowship with Christ. As
the Father and the Son are one, so Christ and his people are
one, and all his people are one in him. The Lord Jesus never
existed as our mediator. except as God saw his people
in him, and he loved us in him, chose us in him, and accepted
us in him. And our life eternal, this immortal,
everlasting life we have in him, is that life which we had in
him before the world began and is made manifest in time when
he calls us by his grace. What the Savior has, we have. Where the Savior is, we are. What the Savior is, we are in
Him. Oh, my soul, that's more than
I can ever think about understanding, let alone explaining. Where the
Savior is, we are. What the Savior has, we have. What the Savior is, we are in
Him. The glory thou gavest me, he
said, I have given to them. The glory I had with the Father
before the world was, but now is made manifest by the Father
putting all things publicly under my feet, under my dominion, that
glory I have given to them. As he is king and priest unto
God, he has made us kings and priests unto God. As he is the
Son of God, so we are made the sons of God by his adopted grace. We have the same life before
God that he has as our mediator before God. We have the same
life before God that he as our mediator has before God. Christ is the habitation, the
dwelling place, the abiding place of his people. How the scriptures
in the Old Testament over and over again give type and illustration
over and over again, over and over again, of this indwelling
of Christ in us and of us in Christ. The cities of refuge,
that's Christ. And we flew to him and dwell
in him and never come out. He is a covered in the time of
tempest to be a peace and a calm for our souls in the tempest
He is a high tower and the righteous run unto him and are safe Christ
is our habitation our dwelling place our abiding place we Abide
in him dwell in him and he dwells abides in us Let me show you
these four things in number one We have been dwelling, abiding
in Christ secretly from eternity, in the heart of his love, in
the hands of his omnipotence, in the arms of his mercy, in
his body, one with him from everlasting. Are you still in Ephesians? Look
at chapter 1 again and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. There's God's everlasting love.
There's the eternal election of our souls. There's our predestination,
what God intends to do with his elect when he gets done with
everything. Now watch what it says in verse six. To the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein in his grace, in his eternal
grace, in his covenant grace, in his grace that has no beginning,
in his grace given us in Christ before time was, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved. so that as the father looked
upon the son in covenant mercy as our covenant surety before
the world was and accepted him, so he accepted us from everlasting. We were in him representatively
from everlasting as our surety, as the mediator of the covenant,
secretly and safely in him. When Adam sand in the garden,
and all humanity fell in him. The whole race was lost in Adam. The whole race made sin in Adam. The whole race died in Adam. You too, me too. The whole race
went astray from God in Adam. The whole race brought under
the curse of the sin and law in Adam. The whole race. We too
were like all other men by nature, children of wrath, under a sense
of God's wrath and his just condemnation. But when Adam sinned in the garden
and we sinned in Adam, we were safely in Christ. And no harm
came to us by the fall. I said just exactly what I intended.
James, no harm came to us by the fall. All that appears to
be harm will at last prove to have been best for our souls
and the glory of our God. So that when Christ is done with
us and he's done with all things, he will remove from his creation
the very slime of the serpent and no evil shall be known. No evil shall be known. We were
in him. When he hung upon the cross,
bearing the wrath of God as our substitute. When God poured out
all the vengeance of his holy law upon him, we were in him. Like Noah was in the ark. Noah
was in the ark. And all the fury of God's wrath
fell upon the ark. It escaped nothing. All the fury
of God's wrath that fell upon the whole world fell on the ark
and fell on Noah in the ark, but it never touched him because
he was in the ark. The ark absorbed it all. So in
Christ Jesus, all the fury, all the hell, all the vengeance,
all the justice of God's wrath fell on our souls, but shall
never touch our souls. Christ absorbed it all. We were
in him. When he was buried in the tomb
in him as he rose and seated in heaven. We were quickened
together with Christ Quickened together with Christ look at
Ephesians again chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 God who is
rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us Even when
we were dead in trespasses and in sins have quickened us together
with Christ What on earth can that mean? Do you mean, Paul,
when Christ was quickened by the Spirit and raised up from
the dead and took his seat at the right hand of the majesty
on high, we were quickened in Christ, raised up from the dead
and sat down in heaven with him? That's exactly what he means.
That's exactly what he means. quickened together with Christ,
one with Him. And when our Savior Jesus, the
Christ of God, sat down on heaven's throne, we sat down with Him,
loved in Him with an everlasting love, redeemed, justified, and
sanctified in Him from eternity, accepted as one with Him from
everlasting. Here's the second thing. We're
taught in the scriptures about this union we have with Christ.
All who were in Christ secretly from everlasting, all who are
in Christ secretly from eternity, shall be brought to have a manifest
union with Christ in time by the call and the gift of God
the Holy Spirit. Like I said before, God's people,
like all others, were lost through the fall of Adam. children of
wrath, even as others, accursed people, men and women living
under the sense of just condemnation, like all others, without God,
without Christ, without life in this world, aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
but by the irresistible call and omnipotent grace of God the
Spirit, Convinced of our lost estate and our need of Christ,
we flee to our city of refuge and find in him a stronghold,
a place of safety, a defense for our souls, a hiding place,
a cover from the tempest, and we dwell in him. Now third, from
this dwelling place, from this dwelling place, from this refuge, We can never be turned out. From this dwelling place, from
this city of refuge, from this rock, from this high tower, we
can never be turned out. Though often our carnal hearts
condemn us, What a blessed relief it is to our souls under the
reproach of our own hearts to look away from ourselves to our
Savior. There is more in Christ to uphold,
more to bless, more to justify than there is in sin to condemn. Being born of God, the life that
is ours in Christ, sin cannot destroy. Death cannot end and
Satan cannot touch. Ours is eternal life, the gift
of God. Ours is eternal life, not the
loan of God, not that which God has sold us, the gift of God. And they who have this eternal
life shall never perish. Our life is hid with Christ in
God and hell can't reach Him. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. Sin can't reach Him. Our life
is hid with Christ in God. All the world can't reach Him. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. It is not our strength of faith
which gives us confidence. but the full, finished salvation
of Christ our Redeemer that is our confidence and gives strength
to our faith. The foundation of confidence
is altogether outside ourselves. The foundation, the basis of
hope is altogether outside our experience. I can't stress this
sufficiently. I do not have hope before God
because of something I do or feel or know. My hope is the
finished work of my Redeemer. But I have no hope except Christ
dwell in me. You have no hope unless you're
born again. You have no hope unless you believe
on the Son of God. And believing Him is the proof
that He dwells in you and you in Him. God, the Holy Spirit
comes in us and brings faith and brings grace and brings life. And this creates the experience
of this union we have with Christ Jesus. I have read every good
sermon, every good book, every good article I've been able to
find in the last 46 years about our union with Christ. And I
preached on it all. Have been able to preach on it
and every time I had the slightest inclination I tackled the subject
but I haven't yet read or heard or declared anything that compares
with John Kitts him in Describing this union. Let me read this
Him it's a little lengthy, but I want you to hear it. You've
heard it many times God help you to hear it now. I which Jesus
and the chosen race subsist a bond of sovereign grace, that hell
with its infernal train shall ne'er dissolve nor end in vain. This sacred bond shall never
break. The wrath should to her center
shake. Rest doubting saint assured of
this, for God hath pledged his holiness. He swore, but once
the deed was done, to a settle by the great three in one, Christ
was appointed to redeem all that the father loved in him. Hail,
sacred union, firm and strong, how great the grace, how sweet
the song, that worms of earth should ever be one with incarnate
deity. one in the tomb when he arose,
one when he triumphed over his foes, one when in heaven he took
his seat, while seraphs sang all hell's defeat. This sacred
tie forbids our fears, for all he is or has is ours. With him, our head, we stand
or fall, our life, our surety, and our all. the sinner's peace,
the daysman he whose blood should set his people free, on them
his fond affections ran before creation's work began. Blessed
be the wisdom and the grace, the eternal love and faithfulness
that's in the gospel scheme revealed and is by God the spirit sealed. Let me show you one more thing
about this union. God's saints are the habitation,
the dwelling place of God's Son. God's saints, you who are His,
you who believe, are the habitation, the dwelling place of Jesus Christ,
God's Son. The new birth is no more, no
less, than Christ Jesus taking up residence in the soul of his
elect. The life that you have in Christ
is the life of Christ in you. It is Christ living in you. Christ Jesus resides permanently
in his people. The tabernacle was a temporary
housing for God. The temple was but a temporary,
though outwardly more glorious, housing for God. But all the
while, God says, I dwell not in temples made with hands. But
he comes to the poor and contrite and dwells in the broken heart. God Almighty takes up his residency
in his people permanently and dwells in us. so that you who
are Christ are the temple of the living God. He dwells not
in our heads, but in our hearts. He dwells in us by faith as we
eat his flesh and drink his blood. That's what he speaks of in John
6. He said, he that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. By faith
we take the Son of God and eat his flesh and drink his blood
so that all that he is, in all his obedience and death, in all
his incarnate divinity, in all his humanity, we take to ourselves
and becomes ours. We eat his flesh and drink his
blood. And he dwells in us. Look at
Ephesians again, chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. Verse 15, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, that he should grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being
rooted and grounded in love, that's the only way you can know
the love of God, is by Christ coming into you by His grace. May be able to comprehend with
all saints the breadth and length and depth and height and to know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. How can you know the
love of Christ that passes knowledge? Well, you can't know it all but
you know the whole thing. You can't possibly know that
which passes knowledge, but by experience we're made to know
the infinite, indescribable, immeasurable love of God in Christ
Jesus for sinners, when the Son of God, who died in the room
instead of sinners at Calvary, takes up residence in the hearts
of worms of earth like you and me. That ye might be filled with
all the fullness of God. What a prayer! What a prayer! But understand, this is not one
of my prayers for you. This is not a prayer expressing
the desire of my heart for some people that I dearly love. This
is the inspired prayer of an apostle who writes by inspiration
of God the Holy Spirit declaring to us what God shall do for everyone
in whom Christ comes. He fills you with all the fullness
of God. Fills you with all the fullness
of God. For Christ comes and takes residence
in you. Christ in you, we're told in
Colossians 1.27, the hope of glory. What is the fullness of
God? What is the fullness of God?
I can tell when I said, quoted actually, I didn't say it, when
I read here in Ephesians 3.19 and said, God's people, shall,
according to this passage, be filled with all the fullness
of God. I can tell by the look on your face, that can't quite
register. That can't quite register. Listen to this. You are complete
in Him in whom dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All the fullness of God resides
in the man, Christ Jesus. And Christ comes and resides
in you. Christ takes up residence in
you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, that's the first part of
our text. It speaks about our union with
Christ, his union with us. It's a secret eternal union.
A manifest union in time. An indestructible union unto
everlasting. Now look at the second sentence
of 1 John 3, 24. It speaks of the assurance of that union. How can I know that I'm in Christ? How can I know that Christ is
in me? How can I be certain? How can
I be certain? that the fullness of God is in
me, that the life of God is in me. And hereby we know that he
abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us. The assurance
of salvation, the assurance of life, in and with and by Christ
is the gift of God the Holy Spirit, the seal of the covenant. Hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given
us. Now, before God, I acknowledge
my concern about presumption. I don't dare want to presume
before God that I possess what I do not possess, that I have
a hope I do not in reality have any claim to. I do not dare want
to live and die with the presumption of life when I have no life. And I make it my business pointedly
as your pastor to do everything I can to destroy every false
refuge you might raise up for yourself so that if you're hiding
under some false refuge, God will destroy it and cause you
to take refuge in Christ. I want to destroy everything
you might lean on as God speaks by me and calls you to lean on
his son and his son alone. It's my purpose to do so. The
scriptures warn us against presumption. The apostle tells us, take heed,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief
departing from the living God. Take heed concerning those things. The Bible is full of warnings.
There are many, many, many who will come to our Lord in the
last day saying, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? Have we not done many miracles in thy name? Have we not done
many wonderful works in thy name? To whom our Lord will say, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I don't want
you to be numbered among them, and I don't want to be numbered
among them. But the Word of God speaks plainly about assurance. And I don't want to rob myself
or you of the blessed assurance given in the Word of God that
is rightfully to be possessed and enjoyed by believing sinners.
The Apostle John, writing this epistle, uses this word, no,
26 times in these five chapters. I take that letter to mean he
wants you to know something. He wants us to know our life
with God. He wants us to know our faith
in the Redeemer is real. He wants us to know that our
union with Christ is real, that our salvation is real. How could
those men spoken of in Scripture have the assurance that they
had in the midst of their experience? Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Job started out pretty good. He started out pretty good. Trouble
came and affliction and all this. Job sinned not, didn't charge
God with folly. He bowed his head and worshipped.
He bowed his head and worshipped. He bowed his head and worshipped.
Finally, his wife said, Job, why don't you cuss God and die?
And Job said, woman, you're like one of the foolish women. Shall
we receive good at the hands of the Lord and shall we not
receive evil? And he went on pretty good. until
after so much stress and pain and pressure, after so much slander
from his pretended friends, after so much misjudgment and misunderstanding,
Job said he cussed the day of his birth. He cussed the day
of his birth. And we'll get to chapter 19.
This is how that man spoke. I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that at the last day He shall stand on this earth, whom I shall
see for myself. These eyes are going to see Him,
not yours, mine. You're not going to see Him for
me. My eyes are going to see Him. How could He say that? Knowing
what He was and what He had done, how could He say that? There's
a man by the name of David. who took his faithful servant's
wife, and then with great scheming had his servant Uriah murdered,
attempting to cover his crime. And when Nathan the prophet came
to him and described the sins that had been committed, David
said, as surely as God lives, the man who did this is going
to die. And Nathan said, David, you're the man. You're the man. And let me show you how this
man, David, met God in his last hour. Although my house be not
so with God, yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordering all things in sure. This is all my salvation and
all my desire, although he make it not to grow. How could he
have such assurance? Knowing his crime knowing his
offense knowing what he had done and what he had been he had just
numbered Israel and thousands upon thousands There was a 70,000
died in Israel because David numbered Israel and yet he dies
in peace Peter After denying the Lord Jesus
three times Taking an oath and denying him the third time and
forsaking him When the Lord Jesus came to him, as he said he would
at Galilee, and asked him twice, Simon, do you love me? And then the third time asked
him, using the strongest word in the Greek language for love,
he said, Simon, son of Jonas, do you really love me? And Peter
was grieved because the third time he used that strong word
and said to him, lovest thou me? And Peter looked him in the
face, and he said, yea, Lord. Thou knowest all things, thou
knowest that I love thee. How could he have such assurance?
How could he have such assurance? He looked out of himself to the
Christ of God standing before him. They looked out of themselves
to the Christ of God interceding at God's right hand. They looked
out of themselves to the Christ of God hanging on the cursed
tree. They looked out of themselves to Christ the surety who is one
with them and they with him from eternity. How could they do that? Turn over to Galatians chapter
4 and I'll show you. Galatians chapter 4. They did it by the Spirit that
dwells in them. Galatians chapter 4, verse 6. And because ye are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but
a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. The spirit that he's given you
is the spirit of faith. The spirit of comfort that convinces
us of sin, of righteousness and judgment. taking the things of
Christ and showing them to us, showing us what Christ has accomplished
for us. It is the spirit of faith and
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ by whom we
have the mind of Christ. It is the spirit of life and
peace, of holiness and sanctification by which all the blessings of
God are sealed to our hearts and the blessed experience of
his saving grace. This we have by the spirit. This is that glorious better
part, most dear to each believer's heart, Christ Jesus dwelling
in the soul, the sovereign monarch of the whole. Pursuing His eternal
love, He comes in mercy from above and enters by almighty
grace the hearts of all His chosen race. His Spirit plants His grace
within and there subdues the power of sin, renews, transforms,
and stores it well, and there He shall forever dwell. Does
Christ the Savior dwell in me? Then I shall endless glory see,
He is my hope, in him I rest. In Christ I am forever blessed. The hope of glory, oh how bright
Christ is, salvation, life, and light. The fullness of the triune
God revealed and promised in his word. 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. Amen.