So if you will turn in your Bibles
to 1st John chapter 4, turn it down just a tad. Thank you. 1st
John chapter 3. We're still at verse 19 and following. Hopefully we can wrap this up
tonight. But this portion of 1st John chapter 3 is so important
in the treatment of assurance that I just want to make sure
that we don't We don't miss the import of what
it says. And so I'm going to read verse
19 through verse 24 as a whole composite, and then we will commence
from the latter part of verse 19, recapping some of the structures
that scripture give us concerning assurance. Verse 19, and hereby
we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before
him. For if our heart condemns us,
God is greater than our heart and he knoweth all things. Beloved,
if our heart does not condemn us, then we have 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 has given
us. So verse 19, we have been treating
for several weeks on the subject of assurance, assurance. And we have made sure that we
understood and grasped that the nature of assurance in the context
of which John is speaking with regards to the believer is the
idea of the heart, the heart, the heart being made to rest. in the presence of God. The idea
of assurance with regards to the believer as John is working
it through in verse 19 is the idea of the heart, the heart,
the soul, the spirit, the mind of the believer being made to
rest, being brought to a place of quietness and stability before
God. We use the term Coram Deo, in
the presence of God, long-standing term amongst our Evangelical
Reformed Protestant churches that understand that salvation
begins and ends with God and the very fact that we are in
the presence of God and we are not consumed is a mercy from
God. But we do understand that our
God with whom we deal with is not a pagan God. He is not the
figment of our imagination. He is not an idol. He is not
a good old pal. He's not the old man upstairs.
He's not a buddy. We do not tolerate a false notion
of God. God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. He's perfect, impeccable. God is glorious. God is a consuming
fire. God is all of these things that
make him different than us for which naturally we ought to fear. The man or the woman that does
not fear God does not know about God. The child of God who has
come to love God both fears him and loves him at the same time
This is a healthy filial fear that we have as the scripture
says in Proverbs chapter 1 and several of the Proverbs The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom This kind of fear is
the fear that respects God because we know God. It's the fear that
comes from loving God and not wanting to mar his reputation
as his children by behaving otherwise than how he would have us to
behave. It used to be a word, this word
fear in this context, which can be translated to reverence or
to respect. are to highly regard, are to
take into the utmost consideration with regards to that person's
station, that person's role in our lives, that person's influence
in our life and our relationship to them. To regard them highly
would mean that when I think about them, I think about how
I am in relationship to them and I don't wanna do anything
to threaten that relationship. It is the healthy attitude, phobia,
of a child towards his parents. And it is again rooted out of
love because the child towards their parents when they have
a healthy relationship, do not want to present anything that
would constitute an offense to mom and dad. I know it sounds
strange in the 21st century where there is an absolute irreconcilable
dichotomy between fear and love, but the Bible teaches that they
are rooted in the same matrix when we understand the concept
of respect, the concept of respect. So our God is a consuming fire.
Our God also is himself love. Now, love is not God. We're not
pagans, but God is love. That means when we think about
love, we must think about love in terms of the character, nature,
attributes and manifestation of God. I can't define love my
own way. God has defined love with regards
to Christian people in terms of the sacrifice of his son towards
us. We have confined love in the
biblical construct, haven't we? as God loving us in such a way
that he gave his son to be a propitiation for our sins. Our love therefore
for God and God's love for us is not rooted in emotionalism
or relationship that's based on respect of persons. This is
important to know. God doesn't love me because I'm
who I am. And therefore he loves me over
against somebody else because Jesse is just so great a person
to love. That would be a faulty premise
to establish any assurance of my relationship to God. And in
fact, if I were to base my relationship to God on him loving me for who
I am and I would begin to walk in the light and see myself for
what I really am by nature, I would start to demerit every potential
prospect for God's love towards me based on my conduct, based
on my thoughts, and based on my actions, if I were to walk
in the light. If I were to walk in the light,
I would say that God has no right to love me. If love from God
towards me is based on me, I am not by nature a lovable person. Guess what? Neither are you. And the reason I have to say
that is because it's important for you to make sure that the
foundation upon which you have this favorable, favorable, amiable
relationship with God is not on who you are. You will be deluded
if you think God loves you, smiles on you because you're a wonderful
person. What happens when you realize you're not? What happens
on that day when you mess up really bad? When you just stink
it up? Coram Dale. Now, how is God's
love towards you? Is it contingent upon how good
you are? We need a better premise of God's love towards us than
us And the christian gospel presents a better premise and that premise
is God's love towards us for Christ's sake So God's love towards
me is stable because God is stable And that God's love towards me
is fixed because God fixed it in such a way that he doesn't
have to ebb and flow in his relationship with me based upon my fickleness. Am I making some sense? So the
Christian gospel always starts with God and it always ends with
God. And you and I are simply beneficiaries of a blessed relationship
that got started. Now, in that relationship, there
is a symbiotic dynamic. This is the area of responsibility
that you and I have to come to learn to engage in. After all,
my children had nothing to do with their being brought into
this world. They're here. They look up. They are born in
the 21st century. Their last name is Gistan. Their
will had nothing to do with it. Their choice and decision had
nothing to do with it. Everything about their life had
nothing to do with it. So much for free will. And then
they had to live with the cards that were dealt to them. They
had to live with the kind of father they have, the kind of
mother they have, the culture they grew up in, the choices,
the challenges that came with that culture. They had to work
with what they had. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And as they grew, they came to realize that the love
of their parents towards them was based upon a relational dynamic
that was rooted in our natures, our natures. Ostensibly parents
love their children, not because of what they do, but because
of who the children are in relationship to them. In 1 John 3, I have
to remind you is dealing with a crucial element that's based
upon the opening verses of 1 John 3. Remember what we learn. that we are now the sons of God. Beloved. It is on that premise
that God is speaking to us about the interrelational dynamics. When once you are secure on being
on the inside of the relationship with God, you don't have to worry
about being kicked out. See, as bad as my kids act. And sometimes I wonder if their
last name is just stand. The last name will always be
Gistan. Isn't that good news? Isn't that
good news? See, once you are born again,
you can never, never, never, never, never have to be born
again. Once you're a son or daughter
of God by faith in Jesus Christ, because he chose you before the
world began and designated you to glory and predestined you
to be conformed to his image. That is an immutable work that
God can never abort because he doesn't lie, change or fail.
That's good news for you. But now god often does have a
pretty big stick to get us into shape And all whom the lord loves
he what? So when people chafe at the fact
that god disciplines us they have failed to understand that
god has used discipline as part of the economy To bring us into
conformity to christ. In fact discipline is the way
that god distinguishes the elect from the non-elect You will hear
people arguing all the time about, well, I don't like this. I don't
like that. God's saints don't do that to Christ. They don't
do that to God. They don't they don't shape at
what God has chose to do, how God works. See, Christ is the
great example. He came, he suffered, he was
beaten, he was smitten. He was bruised. He was ridiculed. He was mocked. And he reviled
not again. He understood that he was the
son of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is critical to where we're going. So I just want to make
sure you understand that. Cause there are a lot of people who say they understand
the grace of God, but don't know how to reconcile or incorporate
in the grace of God, those processes by which we are brought into
maturity in that grace of God. And this is what John is talking
about in verse 19 assurance. There is a possibility if we're
not careful that we can have a false assurance. Is that true? false assurance
to God. That's the thing that you and
I want to make sure that we avoid. We want to have a true assurance.
In fact, remember Matthew chapter 7 said there were a bunch of
folks who were so confident that they were gods that when they
got up to the pearly gates and the Lord said, who are you? They
said, Lord, don't you remember? Don't you remember what we did?
And he said, but I never knew you. So what you do does not
necessarily constitute who you are. What the gospel does is
labors to affirm who we are and then affirm what we do by who
we are. Am I making some sense? So I
don't want you to fall prey to God loving you because you're
the most special person in the world. I know you heard that
all your life. You're the most special person in the world. Neither do I want
you to fall prey to thinking that God loves you because of
what you do, your performance, your performance ought to be
out of a grateful, gratuitous attitude towards your God, because
he has chosen you. Like my kids, I tell them all
the time. I tell them all the time, you ought to be the most
happy, thankful kids on planet earth. And therefore you ought
to empty the garbage before I ask you. You ought to wash the dishes
before I look into the sink. You ought to have your bed made
up before I come walking up the stairs. And you ought to be thankful
that you got a house, a roof over your head, food in your
belly, and a bed to sleep in compared to many of our brothers
and sisters. You know, I really work them with that. I just,
I work them. I work them because, you know. I'm the king running
around the house trying to help them understand that this thing
didn't come free now. So God's people ought to also
be responding to the blessings and benefits of grace to us in
a way that adorns the gospel. Don't ever develop a dichotomy
between a foundation of grace and works that are rooted in
love. Are you guys hearing me? Don't ever develop a dichotomy
or contrast between the two. They are not mutually exclusive.
In fact, faith works by what? That's right. That's exactly
right. So we want to make sure we don't have a false assurance.
We want a true assurance. And this is what John says. Hereby
we know that we are of the truth and we shall assure our hearts
before him. Now, if our heart condemn us, see verse 20. Now
we're moving into the dilemma that's in your outline. What
do we have with a condemned heart? That's what I raised last week.
What do we have with a condemned heart? Now let's say that we
already know that we are children of God. We basically have passed
the test in terms of knowing that we are children of God,
but we are struggling with a condemned heart. Last week, And I want to say
it today just based upon some things that I've observed in
my life over the years. A sociopath or a psychopathic
person, an individual who has no conscience, does not know
the blessedness of a condemned heart. You meet people like that. There are lots of people like
that. And there are also gradations of sociopathic behaviors where
people's conscience don't operate correctly so that they can engage
in unethical and immoral behavior and lie to your face. They can
just lie to you and it'd be straight and they can pass a lie detector
test. Are you hearing me? sociopathic which means when
you have that kind of a lack of consciousness about your behavior
your thoughts and conduct especially in relationship to God you cross
the lines and you transgress and you don't care about it are
you following now I say that to say this if you are a man
or woman whose heart has been made soft by the gospel when
God saved us he took out our stony heart see a stony heart
is sociopathic has no filling. He put in a heart of flesh. Then
he wrote on that heart his laws. That's an enhanced revelation
of the holiness of God and the standards of God by which we
are both to love and humble ourselves before. So that when we interact
with God and interact with one another, we can know very clearly
what pleases God and what doesn't please God. Am I making some
sense? And not by mere external code given to us on two sets
of tables or even in the book, because he wrote it in a heart.
So I can know that when I'm hanging out with my brother and sister
and I'm lying to you, the Spirit of God will check me. Are you
hearing me? Or when I'm setting you up to
manipulate you or control you and take advantage of you because
I've got some kind of deficiency and vacuum in my soul and therefore
I'm a taker because you got lots of people that are takers. You
know what a taker is? He's an individual with a vacuum
in their soul, and they don't walk in a level of contentment,
able to receive from God what they need, and therefore they
leech on others and take from others. Are you hearing me? Such a person should be guilty
for violating relational protocol. They should feel guilty about
every time they get ahold of somebody taking something from
them. Well, you and I are all sinners. Is that true? if you
accept that proposition. See, in our church today, a lot
of people will not accept the proposition that they're sinners.
And I really believe the danger of that lies in two areas. One
is that they haven't entered into the front door of salvation
through the gospel, which humbles you and affirms your sinnerhood
and prepares you for the Savior. Or they're sociopathic. And what
I mean by that is they don't even feel their sin. So they can easily open their
mouth and say, I'm not a sinner. the most contradictory statement
they ever made in their life. But they do it while going about
cheating and ripping off and defrauding people and hurting
people and being calloused and unkind and violating every precept
of scripture. They should have a conscience,
but they don't. This is why a lot of people don't
go to church, because they meet all kind of religious folk just
like that, that can holler Jesus' name and go right in your purse
while they're singing with you. I remember I was preaching a
conference in Jamaica about, I don't know how many years ago,
I'm getting old now, but it was a long time ago. I might've met
Noah there. Anyhow, I'm preaching in a big
conference in Jamaica, right? Now my Jamaican brothers are
cool, but they some hungry brothers. So whenever you worship him with
hungry brothers, you do two things. You bring just enough money to
put in the offering and you keep everything else in the car or
at home. That's just what you do. Don't
you don't ever challenge. You just don't challenge the
temerity of hungry people. And so I'm sitting in the conference
with the pastor's wife and the pastor's wife had had a person
by her and it was open and she had a hundred dollar bill in
it. And there was somebody in the congregation sitting right
there by her. So the offering plate goes around
and she looks in and the hundred dollars is gone. Now in America,
because we are politically correct, we don't like to confront people.
And so in America, she would have sat there and just opined
about, oh Lord, who took my $100? Oh, that's so bad. Oh, do you know what this lady
did? This is the pastor's wife. Watch this. She turned and looked
at the person that was sitting right next to her. And this is
what I said. Here's what she said. Give me
my hundred dollars back. And the person took the hundred
dollars out and gave it back to her. Now watch this. That's real practical. That's called walking in the
light. That's called a man or woman understanding boundaries
and knowing her culture, knowing her environment. She's not deceived
by this dialectical process that tells us that basically everybody
is good. We know not everybody is good,
and especially when you're hungry. Now it ended right there. We
didn't even kick the person out, didn't tell him to leave or nothing.
Just give it back. Well, my Jamaican brothers and
sisters are tough, but that's a perfect example of what I'm
talking about. A heart, Callous enough to do something like that.
That's religion. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So it's very
important to know that what we're talking about about a condemned
heart is simply dealing with the question that we raised last
week that's given to us in verse 20. What do we have with a condemned
heart? What did we learn last week,
ladies? It's called, ladies and gentlemen, it's called what?
Weak what? Weak faith. Weak faith. And I just want you to understand
that this is very important. When our faith is weak, then
our heart will condemn us because of the reality of our deficiencies
and the reality of our weaknesses in relationship to the principle
that got laid down. And that's this, keep my commandments.
And John repeatedly gave us the two commandments that we keep.
That is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to love one
another as God gave us commandment to do. You guys got that? New
Testament obedience is evangelical. It circumscribes two fundamental
principles, believing the gospel and then loving your neighbor
according to the gospel. Just in case you have a legalistic
Old Testament. Understanding of the term commandment
you will read commandments in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation
the last book in the last chapter of the last book talks about
blessed Are they that do his commandments that they might
have right to the tree of life? I want to inoculate inoculate
you inoculate inoculate inoculate you as a medical term From being
afraid of the word commandment Are you hearing me? Because when
God created you in his image, he had the right to command you
to obey him. You got that? Don't you be inoculate,
don't you be hardened, don't you be callous, don't you get
sick over the word commandment. In fact, it's an evidence of
the relationship when he does. And so when John says, God has
already told us how we are to live, that is we are to consume
the gospel, Understand everything that the gospel implies and infers
and promises and gives to us as his sons and daughters. What
a dignity. Haven't we been learning that, ladies? Absolutely phenomenal. For God to instruct me, for God
to advise me, for God to counsel me, for God to give me my instructions,
to tell me what to do. What a privilege. And then he
says, out of a relationship with him, based upon Christ's mediatorial
work, you love your neighbor. So my love for God and my love
for neighbor is evangelical in nature. It's not meritorious.
I'm not seeking to have to, as it were, merit God's favor. I'm
doing it because God has bestowed his favor on me. Are you hearing
me? Only two commandments, right?
But oh, how difficult they are. This is where the condemned heart
comes in at for the honest person. Are you with me? The honest person
says, Lord, I believe But help my what? Lord, I love you. But boy, there's a lot of weakness
in my love. So the condemned heart is struggling
with what we call weak faith because weak faith at that moment
hasn't done what we've learned over the last three, three weeks.
It must do reach up. and embrace the objective evidence
of God's assurance to us, which is the assurance of faith, the
assurance of hope, the assurance of the Spirit, remember what
we learned, and the assurance of love. And what we're talking
about are those things we talked about earlier that's at the top
of your outline. The plural, phoreo, love of God. Hebrews 10 speaks of the assurance
of faith. Hebrews 6, the assurance of hope.
Colossians 2, the assurance of understanding. First Thessalonians
1.5, the assurance of the spirit. So what does God do? He resources
us according to the gospel and the grace of God in Jesus Christ
with everything necessary for us to know that when God says
he will never leave us or forsake us, we can take that to the bank.
But to the degree that my heart is weak, my faith is weak. Those realities can be written
all over God's love letter to be called the scriptures. And
do you know while I'm reading the scriptures, I won't see those
precepts. They'll disappear right before my eyes. Lo, I have loved
you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn you to myself? I bless you with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. According as
I have chosen you in him before the world began that and on and
on and on and on and on go the promises and the blessings of
the scripture. But when my heart is weak, I can't get a hold to
those. Am I making some sense? So I'm
struggling with a weak heart based upon a condemned, a weak
faith based upon a condemned conscious or a condemned heart,
because now I'm looking at myself and I'm being honest with my
struggles. So what do you do when the promises
are there, but because of the weakness of my faith, having
been honest with who I am and my conduct and my attitude, Towards
God, even. You can have a funky attitude
towards God. What do you do as a child of God when you act like
Jonah and you're sitting on the hillside, really want God to
burn up your enemies. And God preached, God called
you to preach to them so they can be saved. And even after
you preach to them, you still want them to burn up like God's
going to change his mind for you. You know, you really messed up
that day. That's a, that's a bad day. Is that a bad day? You on
the hillside, after God has given you the commission, you see these
folks repenting all the way through the nation. In fact, they're
repenting more than your church folks are repenting. And then
you on the hillside still kind of say, well, it's a slight angle
that God might open the door and still pour out his wrath.
You know, your head is all messed up. You got some anger issues,
don't you? You got some animosity issues going on. You got some
racism going on. And all of this is still in the
church. Racism. discrimination, funky attitudes,
resentment. Can I get a witness? Now, so
when you're a child of God and you understand the promises of
God are yes and amen through Jesus Christ to the glory of
God by us, that God doesn't give us a promise and take it back.
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. When
you know that God is faithful on his end and all he tells you
to do is by faith, appropriate that to us, but you can't appropriate
it because of the weakness of your faith and because you are
looking at your transgressions because you are a soft hearted
as you ought to be. What is the rule of faith? What
do I do when I know that I am in a bad way with God? I am to
walk in the light. I am to go to the throne of God. I am to confess my sins. I am to admit my need of the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. I am to apply the atoning
work of Christ to my relationship with God so that I can find confidence
to get up after confessing my sin and continue my walk with
the God who is the light. Am I making some sense? And that
relational premise which is 1st John chapter 1 is the way you
make it through the world. The way you make it through the
world as a saved sinner struggling through the issues of your sin.
to constantly remember the blood atoning work of Jesus Christ
by which the Father has already not only forgiven you of your
sins but he has already cleansed you of them so long as you are
in the present tense confessing your need of Christ. You got
that? See, the spirit then enters into
that humble faith, because that's humble faith, and then raises
you up out of the mire of your weakness and starts you back
on your journey. How many of you know what it's
like to go through those low ebbs, those weak periods, that
down period, that dark period, that doubting period, that anxious
period, that fearful period, and then realize what God meant
by our outward man is perishing, but the inner man is being renewed
day by day. And you wake up one day strong.
in faith, giving glory to God. And you go, Lord, I thank you
for recovering a brother from the pit. And you know that wasn't
from yourself. How are you going to pull yourself
up out of the pit? When you and I fall in the pit, we have no
rope to pull up. And God, if you had one, God
would take it away from you. But you do find yourself recovering,
don't you? You wake up and you go, you know,
I'm trusting God again. Man. This is wild. I still believe that's the promise
of God to you. Remember what he said to Peter,
Peter, you getting ready to go into a deep pit, brother. The
devil is getting ready to sift you like wheat. He's going to
destroy all of your false confidence because see, you've been with
me for three years and you think you're all right because you're
an apostle. And you've been able to look at your other boys down
your nose and say, you know, I'm more faithful than they are.
I'm more committed than they are. But Peter, you getting ready
to hit the dust, brother. But I pray for you. I didn't
pray to keep you from hitting the dust. I prayed that when
you hit the dust, your faith wouldn't disappear. And Peter,
over time, experienced the recovery of grace from his failure. Because his master came to him,
as we learned last week, on the shores of Galilee, after he had
fixed the catfish and hot water cornbread. We learned that, right? And he said, Peter, do you love
me? That's all I want to know, brother.
If you love me, we're good to go. And Peter said, Lord, watch
this. You know everything. When Peter
said, Lord, you know everything, you know what he was doing? He
was taking his condemned heart. Are you ready? And placing it
into the hands of a God who is greater than his heart. That's our text. He was taking
his condemned heart and placing it into the hands of a God who
is greater than our hearts. You have nowhere else to go when
your heart is condemning you. No judge on earth can relieve
you of that pain. Only the judge in heaven. And
that's what Peter did. Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And
I can't say this now based on omniscience. I can't say it based
on pride. I can't say it based on presumption
because I just failed you. I just denied you three times. But I still love you. Are you
understanding what I'm saying? That's what we are dealing with
here in verse 19 and 20. For if our heart condemns us,
here's the solution. God is greater than our heart. And he what? He knows all things. Turn with me in your Bible. I
want to see if I can affirm this by a text of scripture. Turn
with me in your Bible to first Corinthians chapter four. I want
to just read one verse. This is what you and I are talking
about is the mechanism and the economy of God in sustaining
his people day by day as they walk with God. Now, God demands
and he expects you and I to correspond to him through his word, because
his word gives us the promises that we need to overcome the
failures that we find ourselves engaged in. 1 Corinthians chapter
4, I'm going to start at verse 2 and work my way through verse
5. And verse 5 is going to be the verse that underscores where
we are with regards to the need to make sure that we give our
condemned heart to the God that is greater than our heart because
of the weakness of our faith. Moreover, it is required in stewards
that a man be found to be what? Now, you know, stewards here
is a reference to my calling as a pastor, our elders, our
deacons. This would be leadership in the
church. They are stewards, but every believer is a steward too.
And you should be sure that God is calling you to the same faithful
characteristics that he's calling me to. But with me, it is a very
small thing that I should be judged of you. Notice what Paul
is doing now. Paul is dealing with a case scenario
where people are judging him. He's the apostle of God. But
he's also a human. You know what that means? In
the process of him executing his calling as an apostle, people
were able to look at his foibles, look at his idiosyncrasies, look
at his human tendencies and propensities, and maybe assign to his actions
bad motives. They may have even said he sinned
here and there. I mean, after all, if they could
do that with the Lord Jesus, they could do that with any of
us. Boy, you are a mess when you leave your conscious in the
hands of men and especially religious folk, because religious folk
will shred you to pieces just to make themselves feel good
by finding some fault in you. How does Paul then as an apostle
overcome that? Here's what he says. He says,
I don't let your judgment of me. Amount to a lot. Did you get that? Now watch this,
this is wisdom now, this is gonna be wisdom. He didn't say he totally
disregarded you. He just said he put it in such
a perspective that your judgment of him doesn't become an idol
where it usurps the place of God. Where your judgment of him
can bring him in the bondage. captivity, bind him up, hinder
his ministry and calling, cause him to question the temerity
and the verity of his ministry. You know, people can do that.
If you have too much respect for what someone thinks about
you in such a way that you allow them to occupy the place where
God should be, You are in danger of committing idolatry. Are you
hearing me? Religion does it all the time.
Church folk do it all the time. Well, I think I'm going to step
in God's place today. I think I got enough capacity
to judge what's going on in your life. And I have made an assessment.
If you allow them to do that, you are committing idolatry.
God is judge. You guys got that? God is judge. And so what he says is, he says
that your judgment towards me is very small. It's a small thing
that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Now watch
what he says. I judge not my own self. Do you see that? You know what
he's saying? He's not saying that he doesn't
understand guilt or he doesn't understand condemnation. He's
saying that he doesn't make the final assessment as to the extent
of it and the consequences that should be yielded for it. This
is profound because what Paul is teaching you and I is don't
you become your own judge to execute punishment on yourself
as if you actually know the extent of the crime that you committed
so that you render satisfaction yourself as your own judge. He
says, you gotta leave that to God. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? You gotta be able to lead that
to God. You know, sometimes when we are in what we call conundrums,
or dilemmas, or paradoxes, or tensions, a conundrum is a situation
which is so complex that you don't have any way out of it.
That's a conundrum, okay, for us government school folks. And
then the, The paradox is two ways that appear completely contradictory
to each other. And you're stuck between going
this route or going that route. And it's kind of like, you're
damned if you do, if you're damned if you don't. Have you ever been
in that kind of situation? You're like, man, I'm in trouble. Have
you been there? And then you're also just stuck
between tensions, choices that can have consequences When you
act, what God is saying is make sure before you respond that
you aren't letting other people be the judge. Neither are you
becoming the judge because both they and you will get it wrong. You know what Paul was saying
is two things. When I find myself in those struggles,
you know what I need to do? I need to go to the word of God.
Because the Word of God is the light. The Word of God is the
lamp. The Word of God is the resource.
The Word of God may have the very precept to shed light on
what I'm dealing with. See, I intentionally did not
take you down this road because I was hoping that you knew the
answer there. A lot of times when you and I are struggling
with a weak faith and a condemned heart, it's because you and I
don't deal with the book. We try to navigate this walk
with God in our life without reading the book. Am I making
some sense? And I'm saying if you are practicing
trying to solve problems without deferring to the word of God,
you are basically setting yourself up for failure because you're
becoming your own judge. What if you get into a dilemma
and you don't have the real answer and you span the scriptures and
then you call your brother or your sister and they span the
scripture and then you call for the elders and the deacons and
the pastor and you span the scriptures and the scriptures don't quite
give you the key that you need. You know what God did? God, the
Holy Spirit, didn't give you nor us access to that precept
that's all over the scripture to release you because he wanted
you to yield yourself to God. and the fact that he's omniscient
and he sees it all. Did I just make some sense right
there? Did I make some sense right there? And it's very important
to know, because sometimes people try to go to the scriptures and
get an answer for everything like, you know, going to a Ouija
board. A lot of times what God is dealing with you and I on
is just the need for us to recognize Coram Dale and the fact that
I need to be honest with the God before whom I stand. See
what I'm getting at? Lord, you know all things. Have you ever been there? You're
on your knees, the situation is occurring, and you just don't
know which way to go. And you say, Lord, I just don't
know, but you know. That's what I'm talking about.
I'm even talking about dire situations, ladies and gentlemen, that have
to do with stuff like going to prison and having to FaceTime
and having to deal with issues that could really radically change
our lives. So I'm not talking about small issues. The believer
has a lot of struggles in their life that can produce a heart
that's condemned based upon our weaknesses. And the only way
you overcome that is by pleading, confessing, calling on God and
recognizing the provision of the blood. Remember, if we confess
our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us of our sins. and
to have already cleansed us from all unrighteousness. If we are
confessors that we are sinners and need the blood atoning work
of Jesus Christ all the time, I wanna maintain my relationship
with you. Now watch this, the confession of the ever present
atoning work of Jesus Christ is to establish my relationship
with God. It's not to make me omniscient.
That'll help somebody. Because a lot of times what we
are wanting to do in difficult situations is to know everything.
Remember Brother Joe? That brother, he was doing well
for about six chapters. The Lord gives, the Lord takes
away. Right around the sixth chapter,
he was saying, where's God at? Remember he was going up and
down through those 40 chapters. In those 40 chapters we saw his
faith diminish, we saw his faith abound. I know that God knows
the way that I take and when he is done I'll come out as pure
gold. I know that my Redeemer liveth
and I shall see him at the end of time. I will stand upon the
earth and my body and my own eyes will see him. So faith was
resident, working from time to time through those 40 chapters.
But Job got to a place where he said, if I could just, if
I could get into the presence of God, I'd give him my mind.
Have you ever been there? But that's my point. See, my
point, we have these tendencies to struggle. You may not be going
through something as extreme as Job. I hope you never do.
But do you know what? You know what Job knew? He knew,
and this is what he said, he knew that God was the one who
justified him. That's what Job says. I know
that my justification comes from God. See, his confidence lie
in the faithfulness of God. It didn't lie in him figuring
out the situation. Ladies and gentlemen, cuz God
never let Job know why he went through what he went through
Finally after all the brothers were hollering at Job and the
young man Elihu gave his last little word and Job says Okay,
y'all came y'all miserable comforters get out of here. I'm still stuck
in the same place God showed up Do you remember that? Job
went Everything that Job had said
went right out of his mouth He put his hand on his mouth and
he says I don't even know you your holiness is so absolutely
piercing That your presence now Coram Dale have completely destroyed
all my Arrogant presumptions. I can't wait to get in God's
presence And that's what the Spirit of God will do to you
and I When God wants you to simply Watch this now Trust him Trust
him but it's humbling. It's humbling to lose your house,
to lose your family, to lose your business, to lose your health,
to lose your friends, to gain your friends as your enemies,
your wife, your enemy. Everybody's your enemy. You lost
everything and God's gone. It's humbling to simply trust
God. Are you hearing me? But watch
this. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. When God showed
up, Job says, forget everything I said. Do you know God didn't charge
Job with folly? Do you know why God didn't charge Job with folly?
It goes back to what I was saying. God didn't choose Job because
Job was the best man in the land. God chose Job because he had
placed Job in Christ before the world began. And when God looked
at Job, he saw Christ. And he said, is this not a perfect
man? Because of Christ who was in
Job. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
God's love for Job never changed. Clouds and storm and winds were
blowing. God was still smiling on Job,
letting the devil and fallen angels know There's nothing that
will separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Joe rises up out of that dilemma. Having the same grace that God
had given him when he was rich, living large, driving that Lexus
and the Mercedes Benz and everybody in the town calling him the chief
and the governor and the king. He rose up with that same righteousness
to pray for his friends. To mediate for his friends. who
had missed the point of the trouble we go through as believers when
God's purpose is to sanctify us and to purge us and to make
us more like Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And when people miss that what God is doing with his elect is
purging them and sanctifying them to make them more like Christ,
the only thing they can do is misjudge you. And if you miss
that what God is doing is sanctifying you and purging you and conforming
you to Christ, you too will misjudge yourself. So let's go on and
follow what it says here in our outline. I want to close out
here in five minutes and open the floor for questions before
we leave. Any kind of question you may have in our outline,
it moves from what do we have when our hearts condemn us? And
I tell us in point A, remember the promises of that love of
God. If you're struggling with a condemned heart, which is the
consequence of a weak faith, which also equals unbelief, remember
the promise of God's love towards you. Go to those verses that
declare God's faithfulness to you. Verse 21, what do we have
in a heart that does not condemn us? What is it? Strong faith,
strong faith. Strong faith Strong faith look
at verse 20 for if God verse 21 beloved if our heart condemn
us not then we have what towards God What do we have towards God? We have confidence towards God.
That's the same as watch this now strong faith Confidence towards
God Equals strong faith. Are you with me brother Hillary?
No one can say they have confidence towards God and have weak faith.
I Strong faith equals, I'm confident in God. Are you hearing me? And
watch this, therefore my heart does not condemn me. Not because
I didn't do something wrong, but because God overcame it.
by the resources of grace that he gives to us, and the assurance
of faith, and the assurance of hope, and the assurance of love,
and the assurance of understanding. Am I making some sense to you
guys? Because I'm getting ready to turn the corner on this and
close here. What John is saying is, when we get past the weakness
of our faith, which results in a condemned heart, and we move
into that strong faith, which results in a heart that is confident
towards God, You and I have experienced the overcoming power of the gospel
in our life. The gospel has kept us. It has
recovered us. It has retrieved us. It has restored
us. And that's something that we
need. And so we have in verse 21 in our outline, what do we
have in our heart that does not condemn us strong faith? And
then I'll quote several verses. I'm just going to quote one.
Now watch this. When your faith is strong and
you have confidence towards God, isn't this a blessed promise?
He who had begun a good work in you will perform it unto the
day of Jesus Christ. Isn't that a blessed promise?
The one who started this thing will finish it. Now that's sweet
when our faith is strong. Are you hearing me? And there
are all kinds of verses like that running through the Bible
Here's what I'll say before I close out with what we call the linchpin
of John's exhortation to the believer to know that God will
keep you. All through the scriptures, we
have these testimonies of God swearing by himself that he will do what he told
you he will do. Will you hear this? This is God, the God of the universe, the
God of glory, the God of omnipotence, the God of all power, the God
that is unchangeable, immutable, the God that is impeccable, this
glorious saving God. He swears by himself. Now, saints, listen to me now. It gets no higher authority than
that. If you need more than that, you
in trouble. Are you hearing me? If you need
more than for God to swear by himself because he can swear
no higher than himself, you probably don't know God. Are you hearing
me? When you get to a point where,
well, God, you got to do better than that. I mean, yourself,
I mean, that's cool, but you got to do better. You don't know
God. And when God says he swears by
himself to you, it speaks to his condescending love to let
you know he knows how weak you are. How gracious a God we have
that will swear to us by himself that he will start a thing and
finish it for us. how weak we are in nature that
we need this God to do that. I know a few people are getting
it. How great our God is and how worthy of our love towards
him is for him to swear, I swear by myself, I will have you with
me for all eternity. How weak we must be for God to
have to do that to secure our faith, down here. How much God
must love us for Christ's sake that he would swear by himself
with an oath that he will do what he said he will do. The
last thing is if you follow your text here's how John closes this
out. Verse 22 through 24 and really
where I want to go is the last verse of 24. Once we have overcome
a weak faith a condemned heart, because we have cast ourselves
upon a God who is greater than our heart and knows all things.
And once we have recovered by the promises of God, which do
not fail, then we can get back to the business of asking God
for what we need. Look at verse 22. And whatsoever
we what? We receive of Him because we
keep His commandment and do those things that are pleasing in His
sight. Remember verse 22 with regards to keeping His commandments?
What is keeping His commandments? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
and loving one another as God said to do. Are you hearing me? So now, you got two simple commandments.
I can't break them down to one. I'm not better than God. God's
not gonna let me just reduce this thing down to basically
nil. We got two to struggle with, all right? We ain't got but two.
I wish I could reduce it down like to half a commandment. Only
believe or something like that. But he says, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, that's not believing on
a title. That's believing on a person. That means you gotta
learn of him. You gotta learn of who he is.
What he did, why he did it, what the consequences of what he did
is, what the long-term eternal effects of it are, how it relates
to his father, how it relates to the Holy Ghost, how it relates
to the glory of God, the salvation of sinners. That's what it means
to believe on Jesus. Believing on Jesus ain't a five-second
proposition where you accept this God you don't know into
your heart. You can't believe on somebody you don't know. Therefore,
believing on Christ is a lifelong journey of unpacking who he is
and letting your soul be simply satiated with a knowledge of
his glory. That's what God is calling us
to, to believe on his son is the same as John 17 3. And this
is eternal life. that they might know you, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is a
lifelong journey. In other words, you know what
God is calling us to? A relationship that ought to, from a vertical
perspective, translate in our response to our fellow man. I'm
so jazzed by God calling me out of darkness into his marvelous
light, opening my ears, opening my eyes, opening my heart, revealing
his glory to me, giving me his paraclete to walk with me and
talk with me and commune with me and transform me and make
me new, that it must result in me loving my neighbor. But even
while I am trying to love God and love my neighbor, I still
need to ask God, That's why he said go back to asking because
you had not because you asked not I need to ask God to help
me every day with this I need to ask God for forgiveness every
day. I need to ask God for strength every day I need to ask for wisdom
guidance instruction every day. I need to ask for power every
day I needed strength every day. Am I making some sense now? The
only reason God calls us to asking is because that's a necessary
consequence of relationship You ain't got nothing to bring to
the table. You better start asking. This is a one sided thing. I'm
sorry. You know, I just I just got through
counseling a couple in marriage. You got to both bring stuff to
the table when you get married or else you're going to defraud
one side. When it comes to God and you get married, you ain't
bringing nothing to the table. So you asking all the time and
it becomes an evidence of your relationship. It becomes an evidence
of a healthy relationship. When you get to the place where
you are afraid to ask God for stuff and afraid to say, God,
I need this and afraid to say, God, you know, I want this and
afraid that then you are failing to understand the conditions
of the relationship. God's under no illusion. He know
you can't give him what you don't have. That's good, isn't it? So you got a lot more asking
to do. The brother was saying, I've
been struggling for the last seven years, trying to get right. I said, did you ask? He said,
what? I said, did you ask? It didn't dawn on him that he
didn't have the capacity in himself to get back to God. You can't
get back to God on your own. You didn't get to God in the
first place. Do you hear me? You can't get back to God on
your and so what people will try to do is they'll try to work
their way back and Manipulate their way back and cannot their
way back and promise that you have you ever promised your way
back and didn't get one step further to God Promising your
way back you ask God find me Hell that's what you do, but
see that takes humility and But it also takes love because love
don't mind love. Listen, when my kids need something,
do you know how loud they scream? Help my wife and I'm always poised. They're going to be hollering
for help in a minute. Because that's the nature of a familial
relationship, when from the parents side of the equation, we're doing
the giving and they're doing the receiving. I'm making some
sense tonight, Emma. See, we fail to understand that
when God created us in his image and in his likeness, he poured
into our basic economic strategy, the parallelism between us and
him. But we stopped seeing the relationship between us and him,
failing to see that he has already inherently given it to us in
the family dynamic. Do you know it ticks us off as
parents that our kids would have the brazen, brazen, bold confidence
to mess up one minute In the next minute, come beg for something. Isn't that right? What audacity. And yet, can I tell you what
you call that? Grace. Grace. To come to the throne
of grace in time of need, asking for mercy from the God who alone
can fix your problem. Now, the way John ties this up
is he gives us one little last little statement. And then I'm
just gonna trust that you guys got it. And then we'll start
chapter four next week, verse 24. The one that is walking in
this fundamental gospel Christ-centered, cross-centered evangelical commandment
dwells in Christ and Christ in him. And hereby we know, I gotta
say something about that. He that keeps his commandment,
and we already figured out what that is, dwells in Christ. You
guys got that? You guys got that? And Christ
dwells in him. Now the beauty of that statement
is this. The very thing that the father is asking us to do
that I have just elucidated for a whole hour is exactly how Christ
lived his whole life with his father down here. Are you hearing
me? Everything he did, he asked his
father for. to model for us how it was to
be done. I always do those things that
my father tells me. I never do anything of myself.
I asked my father, he gives it to me. And he, the Lord boldly
says, father, I am thankful that you hear me always. Well, why
does the father hear him always? Because he was asking always.
He was demonstrating for us as the true and authentic, only
real son of God, that this is how you relate to your father.
When you need something, you talk to him, you ask for help. He's hanging between heaven and
hell at the apex of eternity and his soul is crying out. Is
there any other way? You know what he's doing? He's
asking his father. He's asking his father. You get
trapped in a situation. I said it earlier. Don't be too
proud to ask the father that made sense to somebody. I already
can tell that it did. I'm just going to state the last
portion of verse 24 and hereby we know that he abides in us
by the spirit, which he has given us. The father sits on his throne
in glory. Unchanged unmoved perfect glorious
spotless impeccable the mountain of Glory the rock of Gibraltar
the Sun Condescended to take on humanity that he might bridge
the gap between us and a glorious God and the Holy Ghost has taken
all that Christ did and Revealed it to us and in us and is daily
bringing us into conformity to Jesus Christ, because this is
the will of God for us, even our sanctification. When you've
got the Father on your side, and you've got the Son on your
side, and you've got the Spirit of God on your side, what have
you to do but ask? Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Thank
you for your glory. Thank you for your gospel. Thank
you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your atonement.
Thank you for the assurance of your truth. Help it to go deep
down in our soul. We want to know you better and
more fully. We want to live more authentically resting on you
like your son did. We want to be sons and daughters
of God in a real way. Help us to see the promises.
Help us to see the benefits. Help us to see the privileges.
Help us to see the endowment. Spirit of God, make it real in
our life. Deliver us from evil for thine
is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you.