Assurance before God

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This morning we’re going to be in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. You probably know some people in your world who are difficult to read.

And if you don’t know anybody like that, it’s probably because you are the person in other people’s worlds that is difficult to read. I don’t understand quiet people. And if you are a quiet person, and there are some in this room, I don’t mean that as a criticism.

Because you probably look at me and say, I don’t understand how he talks so much. But I don’t understand quiet people because I’m not one. I do have some people in my family that I look at them and I never know what they’re thinking.

And some people that I’ve met in church over the years, that they’re shaking my hand and they could be thinking, Oh, it’s so good to see you this morning. Or they could be thinking, I hate you and I wish you dropped dead. And their face wouldn’t change either way.

And the reason that it just makes me nervous is because I don’t know where I stand sometimes. And there are people like this. There are people from different cultures, as I’ve gotten to know people from some countries overseas.

There are some countries that are very expressive and some countries that are not. As I’ve met some people from the northern states, they tend in general to be less expressive than us down here. That’s not every person, but it seems that way in general. There are some people that I just, they’re hard to read.

And it’s hard to know where you stand with them. Again, I don’t mean that as a criticism. But it can be very confusing.

And sometimes you can worry about it. Okay, are they mad at me? Did I do something to upset them?

No, they’re just quiet. That’s just how they are. Sometimes it’s hard to read people and to know where you stand.

You can look at the problem that we’re facing in foreign policy as our country deals with the threat of North Korea, and it goes back to really not knowing where we stand with them. Back in the 1950s, and some of you were alive when this happened, and remember the news reports? I only remember it from documentaries and such.

But back in the 1950s when the Korean War started, you know, the North Koreans nearly drove the South Koreans and what few Americans there were off of the peninsula, and then the Americans came back and they brought General MacArthur, and they landed at Incheon and they began to take the peninsula back, and then they got too close to the Yalu River, and the Chinese came across and drove them back, and it was fighting back and forth, and MacArthur came up with a plan and said, I want to finish this. MacArthur’s plan was to finish the war, to drive the communists out of Korea and even march on to Beijing. And if you recall what happened, either from being there or from history, President Truman fired General MacArthur instead of letting him do that, instead of letting him finish it.

And I’ll leave that to the historians to decide whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, whether that would have been in our best interest to finish it that way or not. I don’t know. I have some thoughts, but I have conflicting thoughts on it, so I don’t know.

The point being, what resulted instead of MacArthur finishing the war in Korea is that we signed a ceasefire in 1953, I believe it was. A ceasefire. There was never a peace treaty to conclude the Korean War.

Technically, we are still at war with North Korea. And what has happened as a result of that, we don’t really know where we stand. We’re technically at war, but we’re not fighting, although there’s some shooting and border skirmishes every now and again.

And there’s saber rattling, and there’s tough talk from the North Koreans. There’s tough talk from us. Nothing ever seems to change, but there’s always the threat.

We don’t know where we stand, and that’s why we’re so worried about it. What is that lunatic Kim Jong-un going to do? Because we don’t know where we are.

There’s confusion. We don’t know where we stand. Anytime you don’t know where you stand, whether it’s in a personal relationship or whether it’s nation to nation, there’s going to be anxiety.

Because whether it’s good or bad, we like to at least know where we are. We like to, most of us I think, we like to know what the circumstances are because if you don’t know where you are, if you don’t know where you stand, you don’t know how to deal with it. And you can’t begin to try to deal with it.

And so uncertainty about where we stand is always very troubling. And that’s why it’s so comforting to me the way John writes as we go through the book of 1 John, that so much of what he’s written is to take away the uncertainty. I mean, so many times that we’ve already looked at, he said, I’ve written this, here’s how you know this.

Here are the signs you look for to see if this is true. He gives evidence and he talks about signs and says, this is how you know. As we get into chapter 5 especially, he begins writing about these things I’ve written that you may know.

And he just hits that word no, no, K-N-O-W, not N-O. He hits that word no over and over and over again because John wants us to be sure. And John wants us to be sure about our faith because God wants us to be sure about our faith.

I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about God. That they think God just wants all of this to be a mystery and we’re just supposed to grope around in the dark and figure it out. And it’s really not that way.

That’s not the way God designed our relationship with him to work. It’s not supposed to be, well, hopefully I’ll figure it out. I mean, I’m not really sure where, but can you really know?

And I’ve given you the example before many times of the, if you remember, of the man at the first church I pastored. He was a member of the church, and I would preach. I would preach about the gospel all the time, which you should.

But I’d hit it really hard, especially as we had visitors and new people coming, and I wanted to make sure the gospel was very clearly understood. And as I’d counsel with him about some other things going on in his life, I’d say, well, do you know for sure where you’d go if you died? Well, I think I’d go to heaven.

Okay, and I would think, well, maybe I’m just asking the question wrong. Maybe he’s not understanding what I’m asking. Okay, do you know that you’d go to heaven if you died?

Well, I hope so. And that always bothered me. You don’t have to hope so.

We are supposed to have hope, but the word hope is not supposed to be just like wishful thinking, the way the Bible uses it. You don’t have to hope that you’re going to heaven. You don’t have to hope that you have a relationship with God in the sense that, well, I’ll just wait around and see.

Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. I can’t really know. That’s not what God intends for us.

And I talked with that man until I was blue in the face. He has since passed on, And I hope that, I hope in the sense of wishful thinking, because I don’t know. I hope that I will see him again one day, but I don’t know.

Because I don’t know if he ever did come to that place where he really fully put his trust in Jesus Christ. But here’s the thing, ladies and gentlemen. God wants you to know where you stand. God doesn’t want you to say, well, I hope I have a relationship with God.

I think I’m going to heaven. Well, I’d like to believe my sins are forgiven. God wants you to know for sure.

God wants you to know for sure this morning where you stand with him. And that is very important for you to understand. Wherever you are in your spiritual life, this morning God wants you to know where you stand.

Because, see, God wants to have a relationship with you. And in order for that relationship to progress as it’s supposed to, you have to know where you are. I can’t remember what TV show it was on years ago, but I remember the line where this lady says, I broke up with this guy, we were engaged, or at least I was, and I laughed at that.

There was a studio audience laughed at that. The thought that she would be in a relationship, but he wasn’t, or she didn’t realize she wasn’t. The confusion is what made it funny.

We’re not supposed to be in that kind of relationship with God. Well, maybe I am, maybe I’m not. God wants you to know.

And so in 1 John 3, starting in verse 19, he says, And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. Now, remember last week we talked about love, and he explained that love is really the missing component, that you can do all this other religious stuff, and you can behave well, and you can do good things, and you can look really super religious. You could be the perfect Christian in every other respect, but if you don’t love other people, you’re a counterfeit, you’re a fraud.

And we talked about the idea of putting that love into action, demonstrating that love, because he said in verse 18, not to just love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth. And then he goes on in verse 19 to say, and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. He said, this is how we know that we’re in the truth.

What does it mean to be in the truth? It means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It means to have come to the point where in your relationship with God that you have been reconciled to God, that that sin that stood in between you has been dealt with. And we don’t use the word reconciliation a lot anymore, but we know the concept.

When you have that friend that you’re fighting with, when you have that family member that you’re fighting with, and you take the things that were causing the division between you and you deal with them and you get them out of the way and your relationship comes back to the way it’s supposed to be, and hopefully even stronger than it was before, that’s reconciliation. When we get back to where the relationship needs to be. To be in the truth means that because of the truth of the gospel, that Jesus Christ died to pay for my sins and yours, the things that stood in between our relationship with God, stood in between us and God, that because Jesus Christ died to pay for those things, that we’ve been reconciled to God and we are now in the truth.

We now have that relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And he says, hereby we know that we’re of the truth. Not we think we’re of the truth. Not we hope we’re of the truth.

But he says, we know we’re of the truth. And shall assure our hearts before him. And word assure means to give confidence to.

So those times that we think, am I really saved? Could God really forgive me for that? Do I really belong to God?

Do I really have a relationship with him? All those lies that if you’re a believer, it doesn’t mean Satan won’t whisper those lies in your ear. No, he’ll still try to make you doubt your salvation if he can.

He can’t steal your soul, but he can steal your effectiveness for the kingdom of God by sidelining you and making you think you don’t belong to him. So he’ll whisper those little things. God can’t forgive you for that.

Think about what you’ve done. You really think God’s going to let that go? Do you really think you belong to God?

You wouldn’t act like that. And those times that we lie awake at night thinking, do I really belong to him or not? Do I really have a relationship with Jesus or not?

Am I really saved? Am I really going to heaven or not? Those times that we lie awake, what our hearts need is assurance, confidence.

Not confidence in ourselves, not confidence in our ability to do enough things that God will love us, but confidence, assurance in the promises of God. See, when I stop thinking about my salvation as something that, well, I just, okay, let me phrase this. I don’t want to say it in a confusing way.

I knew from the time that I was saved, I knew that I couldn’t get into heaven because of anything I’d done. I knew all I had before God were sinful hands. And that it was because of Jesus and Jesus alone that I could be forgiven.

But still there were those questions. Did I believe enough? Did I believe strong enough?

Look at the things I’ve done since. Doesn’t that prove I don’t belong to Him? How can I belong to Him and do that?

All these nagging questions and I finally came to the point of realizing that my faith, my trust can’t be in any way, shape, or form in the things that I do. It has to be in the promises of God. Because it comes down to either God’s promises are true or not.

Either I believe God’s promises are true or I don’t. And when you realize that it’s all based on God’s promises, it’s all based on what God says, I will do this. And if you believe God’s promises, there’s an assurance in that.

There’s a confidence in that where your heart can say, you know what, I’ve messed up and I’m still a sinner, but God promised this. God promised forgiveness. God promised to remember my sins no more.

God promised to put my sins as far from me as the east is from the west. And you know what, it doesn’t matter what I’ve done, it matters what God said. And we can have assurance in that. Assure our hearts before him.

It says in verse 24, And what he’s saying here is that our conscience, as he’s talking about the heart, our conscience tends to tell us that the conscience that God has put in us tends to tell us when we’re doing something wrong. That’s why we feel guilty. That’s why even as a believer, you feel guilty.

But your sins are under the blood of the Lamb. Your sins are forgiven. Why do I still feel guilty?

Because I’ve done something wrong. Yes, they’re forgiven. They’re not going to be held against me in eternity.

But still, this needs to be, This is not right and I can’t continue on in this. I like to think of it as a two-way walkie-talkie, a baby monitor, something like that, where the Holy Spirit is the broadcaster and the conscience is the receiver. I don’t know if that’s strictly accurate, but that’s how I like to think about it.

The Holy Spirit speaks directly to the conscience. And the conscience is that part that God has placed in us that gets those messages from the Holy Spirit. The red light goes off, danger, danger, this is not right.

If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. He said, if even our own hearts that are sinful, even if our own conscience realizes that something is wrong with our behavior, he said, God knows even more. If we can recognize sin in our own hearts as believers, then God is greater than our own hearts still.

And he knows everything. But he says in verse 21, beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And when he says our heart condemns us not, now he’s talking here to believers.

The world looks at God and rejects God, rejects what it knows about God, and usually doesn’t care. Well, God says this is wrong. I don’t care.

There’s not the heart condemning them there. But with a believer, our hearts should condemn us when we’ve done something wrong. There should be that prick of conscience.

And for him to say if our hearts condemn us not, he’s not saying if we come to a point of perfection where there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing for our conscience to feel, or if we just ignore our conscience when we do wrong, that we’re fine. What he’s talking about here is a conscience that’s been purified. A heart that’s been purified by Jesus Christ. It’s been purged of that sin.

Does it mean I no longer sin? No. I still sin.

But it means that sin is dealt with. It’s paid for. Not only paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, but it’s also been dealt with as I go and confess it.

Now my confession adds nothing to the blood of Jesus Christ. It’s already been forgiven because of what Jesus Christ did. The confession is just clearing the error between you and God. The relationship is still there, but the fellowship is being returned to what it needs to be.

And so if we’re in that point where we’ve dealt with God and we’ve been reconciled to Him, and our own heart doesn’t condemn us, we really do soul searching and say, God, show me what’s wrong there. Search my heart and know me as King David prayed. Show me if there’s any wicked way in me.

If we do that kind of soul searching and we find nothing there, nothing there that is between us and God, nothing there that is hindering the fellowship, he said, if our own hearts don’t condemn us, then we have confidence toward God. Now, what I want you to understand this morning is that peace with God is possible. Peace with God is possible.

You need to know today where you stand with God. You need to know where you stand in your relationship with Him. And if what you find is, well, I don’t know.

I feel like I’m on shifting sand. I can’t read him. I don’t know where I stand.

If you look at your spiritual relationship today and say, I don’t know where I stand. It’s full of uncertainty. Or you look at your relationship with God and say, we are distant.

And I am far from God. I won’t say God is far from you. You’re far from God.

Because you’re the one who moved. But if you find either of those things to be true, you need to understand this morning that peace with God is possible. It’s not just something, well, I hope or I wish or I think or maybe.

Peace with God is possible. It’s possible for you this morning. As we look at this in verses 22 and 23, he says in verse 22, whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

Okay, so he’s talking about being in a relationship with God and God granting the requests that were asked in prayer because we obey God. Do not for a minute take from this the idea that, oh, to be in a relationship with God, I just have to be obedient. Oh, if I just do the right things, then God will love me.

That’s not what the Bible is saying because you look down at verse 23 and he says, and this is his commandment. Here it is. You want to know how to be in a relationship with God?

You want to know how to get your prayers answered? Here’s the commandment to follow. This is his commandment, verse 23, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment.

Believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. And when he says that, you need to understand what the word believe means. It’s not just, well, I believe in Jesus, I believe he existed. Okay, great.

So does the devil. The devil’s real clear on that. He’s still not getting into heaven.

I believe he was the son of God. Okay, so does the devil. Again, the Bible says the demons believe and tremble.

What it means here is putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and what he came to do. Not simply believing that he existed, not simply believing that he’s God’s son, but believing that he’s God’s son who was sent to pay for your sins. Believing that he is the Messiah of God.

The one and only sacrifice for your sins. Believe on his name. Put your faith and trust. Take the faith and the trust that you’ve been putting for your eternity in yourself and your works and thinking, well, if I can just work harder, God will love me.

If I can just do the right thing, God will accept me. If the good I do outweighs the bad, then God will let me in. Take all the faith and trust you’ve been putting in your own effort.

Pick it up out of that basket and put it into the basket of trusting completely in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross of Calvary. Believe on the name of the Son of God. Put your faith and trust in Jesus.

He said that’s the commandment. That’s the commandment we’re supposed to follow. And then what follows from that is that we love one another as he gave commandment.

And so once you put your faith and trust in him, once you’ve repented of your sins, once you’ve changed your mind and realized I need a Savior, and you’ve put your entire faith and trust in Jesus Christ as that Savior, it’s going to follow that you’re going to love people and obey them. But peace with God is possible, and it comes, first of all, From trusting in Jesus Christ. Not Jesus plus my efforts. Not Jesus plus I hope so.

But really trust Jesus Christ for your salvation. That’s where peace with God comes from. That’s the whole reason that God sent Jesus to the cross.

It was because that was the only way that we could have peace with him. That’s the only way that we could be reconciled to a holy God. Because we are sinners.

We are sinners. We do sinful things. We have a sinful heart.

I was listening to what John MacArthur said talking about Charlottesville, and part of his answers were a little confusing to me, but one thing he said was absolutely right, that ultimately it wasn’t about white supremacy, as evil as that is and as sickening as it is to see that on display. Ultimately, it wasn’t about communist protesters. Ultimately, what was behind Charlottesville was the wickedness of the human heart and all the hatred and all the selfishness and all the violence and everything else that we saw on display and all of its glory grew out of the wickedness of the human heart.

That’s not just true of Charlottesville. That’s true of all the crime that we see around us. That’s true of all the war that we see around us.

That’s true of every troubled condition of man that we see. Grows out of the wickedness of the human heart. And we look at a God who is sinless perfection and we look at us down here in the mire and the muck.

And the only way for us to be reconciled for that sin to be cleansed. We can’t do it ourselves. Jesus Christ paid for that sin in full.

He paid for every rotten thing I’ve ever done or every rotten thought I’ve ever thought when he shed his blood and died on that cross so that we could be reconciled to him. Romans chapter 5 verse 1 says that through Jesus we have peace with God. Because without Jesus we don’t have peace with God.

Peace with God is possible but it comes through trusting Jesus Christ. And we look back at verse 22. The beginning of that says, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments. Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments.

Peace with God is possible, and it comes through trusting Jesus Christ, but there’s a result of this, and it places our wills in harmony with his. Because what the result of this is, once we’re at peace with God, we’re able to ask him for things in prayer, and receive them. Wait a minute, you’re going into name it, claim it territory.

I’m really not. Because what the picture of this is, is of believers who’ve been reconciled to God, and who believe in Jesus Christ, and who put their trust completely in Him, and are following His commandments, and obeying Him and loving Him, and doing all of those things as an outgrowth of what He’s done in us. And it puts us in a state of harmony with God.

We’ll love Him and be obedient, and live in peace with God. it’ll put us in a state of harmony with him where what we ask for is going to be in line with his will. Wait a minute, so I can ask God to give me a new truck?

But you can ask him, that’s not a promise that he’ll give it to you. Well, if I give a dollar to the church, that means God will give me 70, that’s not a promise. What we’re looking at is people that are being obedient to God, people whose hearts beat in time with his own.

And when your will is in harmony with God’s because you’re at peace with Him, then the things that you will desire will be the things that He desires for you. And don’t think about that in terms of material goods. And we think way too much about praying for material goods.

But the things that we pray for will be in line with His own will. In other words, God will so change your heart that the things you want are going to be the things that He wants. His will will be yours.

Don’t twist that around and think, well, my will will be God’s. Whatever I want, God will want for you. No, no, no, no. God will put us in harmony with Him.

And people who are so much at peace with God and being obedient to God in such a way that their wills are in harmony with Him are going to be working with God and at God’s direction and God working in and through them to build His kingdom and the things that you ask for when you’re asking for things that are according to God’s will He delights to pour out those blessings on you. And you’ll see Him at work and you’ll see Him do things and you’ll see prayers be answered when your will is in harmony with His. And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave commandment.

And He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in Him, and hereby we know that He abideth in us in the Spirit which He hath given us. We look back at verse 20 and verse 21, where it talks about, If our heart condemneth God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemneth not, than we have confidence toward God.

Peace with God results in a clear conscience. Not because you’re perfect, but because God has looked at that sin and concluded it to be under the blood of Jesus Christ. Concluded that it’s paid for. In other words, your debt to society, your debt to the kingdom has been paid.

Only we’re not the ones who pay it. Just like when somebody commits a crime and they go to prison, and they serve out their term, and they get out and they go straight, and they do what they’re supposed to do. That crime is not supposed to be held against them.

They’re not going to be picked up and thrown in jail for the same thing over and over again because that debt’s been paid. Well, God looks at you and says the debt’s been paid by Jesus Christ. And as he enables us to walk in obedience to God, we’re able to do so with a clear conscience. Peace with God results in a clear conscience.

And finally, this morning, it allows us to rest in his presence. As we look, especially at verse 24, he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him. It’s talking about obedience, yes, but obedience that started at obeying the command to believe in Jesus Christ. So this is not works-based salvation.

This is works that grow out of salvation. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him. His word dwell, we could easily use the word abide.

And as we’ve been through the book of 1 John, I’ve been talking to you about the word abide, meaning I’m going to sit here and I’m going to rest and I don’t have any plans to go anywhere else. I’m going to stay here and put my feet up and be content. and we need to do that in our relationship with God.

He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him or abideth in him. When we’re living lives of obedience, when we’re at peace with God, we are able to rest in his presence and God is within us and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us. The Holy Spirit of God takes up residence in you when you’re at peace with God through Jesus Christ. I want you to think about that for a moment.

this idea of being at peace with God and being able to rest in his presence. Because the way that we tend to think about God is we think about him always looking at what we’ve done wrong and always finding fault. And as a righteous judge, as a holy God, he does see our faults.

And he does see what we’ve done wrong. But it’s not his fault that he looks at us and sees what we’ve done wrong. It’s our fault for having done wrong.

There’s always that fear of being judged. Maybe you have that friend or that family member who comes over to your house and they always remark about how clean it is or how clean it’s not. Or maybe you are that family member, I don’t know.

I know Charla always wants to clean the house when somebody’s coming over. I don’t see anything wrong with how it is now. She sees it.

And I’ve been there. I’ve been there where she is. The thought, oh no, they’re going to judge me.

I can’t relax when other people are here because they’re going to judge me. And then I came to the point a few years ago, it’s my house, it’s not filthy, it looks lived in. If they don’t like it, they can get their own house or grow their own house, I don’t care.

We live here. But there’s that worry of, I can’t relax in your presence, because I feel like I’m being judged. It’s like being on a constant job interview.

Years ago, when I was fresh out of college and looking for my first job, my first full-time job, I went on dozens of interviews before I finally got hired on with the county government. And I hated those job interviews because you felt like you were being judged. Every word you say is being written down.

Don’t say too much. Don’t say too little. Watch what you say.

Watch what you don’t say. Watch how you cross your arms. Watch tone of voice. I mean, who could relax?

Who could relax in a situation like that? And we think that’s how God is with us. Because He does see our faults and because He does see our flaws, we feel like there’s never any peace or rest in the presence of God.

That God is this all-seeing eye who’s staring at us all the time, waiting to find a fault so he can zap us. Let’s be clear. God does see our faults, and God does call them out.

And God will chasten us and chastise us and discipline us if we get out of line as a loving father. But realize this. God loves you.

God doesn’t like your sin. God hates your sin, but God loves you. And when God sees your faults and when God says they need to be dealt with, it’s not because God wants to destroy you or because God wants to make your life miserable.

It’s because God wants to be reconciled to you. God wants to reconcile you to himself. And that’s why he sent Jesus to pay for your sins.

That’s why our sins can be covered under the blood of Jesus. That’s why he wants to have peace with us. Folks, peace with God is possible.

And part of it, part of that peace with God, if you’re a believer this morning, If you’re a believer this morning, you need to realize that God sent Jesus to the cross so that you could be at peace with him, so that you could be reconciled to him. And your sins are forgiven. And there are times that we need to come back and confess the sins to God and clear the error when we’ve done wrong.

But we need to be able to rest in God’s presence. Stop looking at God as the one who’s up there trying to find fault so he can zap you. That we need to be able to find rest in the presence of God.

God cre