1 John 3:19-24
Notes
Transcript
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Good morning, I’d like to set the tone for the opening of today’s message with a different verse of scripture.
A portion of scripture that I believe if we’re honest with ourselves we all fight with.
Paul and his struggles.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Reread verses, line by line and breakdown Pauls struggles and his dependance on God.
This sets the tone of love and encouragement here in today’s opening verses.
I’d like to start todays study with the end verse of last weeks scripture reading and move into todays verses.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;
Our confidence in Christ, that’s one thing as Christains we’re very confident in.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Confident, He lived, He died and was buried, rose out of the grave, and was seen by many. Proving He defeated the grave.
Confidnet as an all powerful, all good, all holy and all righteous King.
Confident in his love, knowing the scriptures defines Him as love.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
But some of us question our salvation, we look and see and wonder...
I know He loves others but does He really love me with all my mess?
We read verses about loving God with all our heart, mind, body, and soul.
Love our neighbors as ourselves.
And the start of today’s verses and possible question our assurance in Him...
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;
We stop and ponder our ways of loving in deed and truth and start looking back...
Realizing we don’t always love the best.
And little by little we start basing our salvation on our works over the saving works of Christ.
What does that bring?
Either a legalisim type faith where we work harder to love and do well to prove our love to God, all the while really looking back at our works and propping them up to God.
Saying see, look, this is why I’m worthy of being saved.
Totally missing the works of Christ and looking at yours instead.
Or we can go into hiding. Not thinking about, staying away, feeling unworthy, hiding from His Word, hiding from brothers and sisters. All the while falling further and further down the rabbit hole feeling unloved by the creator. Pushing HIm away.
Both are horrible areas to travel into!
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
So remember “whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart , and he knows everything.”
Do you see this? We have the utmost confidence in God’s power in speaking things into excistene. Utmost confidence, in His love for others and Him wanting them but when our heart condems us we challenge His love and saving power over us!
This can’t be, He is greater than our heart!
You want truth of His saving power?
Look to the fruit of His saving power!
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
Are we born again?
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
We used to be a thornbush but now an apple tree.
There is a difference from old to new.
We are changed! If no change excists then you might want to question this and ask Him to become born again.
What are these changes of rebirth?
Four things I heard between John McAuthor and a host online.
#1 We begin to love, a heart that pumps and is alive through Christ! Our heart of stone has been removed!
A love for God and for people. A selfless love.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
We love.
#2 humility, we’re aware of our brokeness like never before and so in need of Him. Where before we’d run from, we now run to. Who will save? Thanks be to God!
Grace and Mercy are no longer just churchy words. We’re humbled by them.
“Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found” No pride but humble thankfulness.
#3 Obidence, we take serious the will of the Lord and do what He says or asks. Not always perfectly but we long to do His will over ours.
#4 Trials in life. Who do we run to? Where before it might be our friends, family, money. It’s now Christ. Our hope and trust is in nothing else.
From David being persectued by Saul, to Job being taken to the cleaners, to the dispiles being Martyed. Their hope and trust came from nothing else...
Do we have faith in Him or in....?
Very people that used to come here, got complety ship wrecked in life with sin and family drama. and instead of running to, blamed God and the church.
Our faith should never be only when things are well cause folks storms are coming.
We must have our foundation firm in Him.
Are we perfect? No! Why? because there is only one that is.
And secondly, we’re still tethered to this fleshly, selfish, always wanting and crying body.
It never stops, that’s what we seen with Paul in Romans 7.
Sin is right there with righteousness, who will save?
Thanks be to God!
For those of us that struggle with these four things, remember this.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
John 6:39 NLT And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Last part of 3:20 says “and He knows everything”
He knows all this, He knows your heart better than you do!
He knows when your heart is acting selfishly and foolishly.
And when you get that displined gut punch that hurts your heart, praise His name!
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Folks we are far from perfect and He knows this.
Take sin very serisously but remember He is bigger than our sin.
Praise God that he does disipline! Because that’s an indication of His love and the truth of scripture in our born again lives.
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
How can we ever be to a place that our heart doesn’t condemn us?
We know plenty of how our heart can condemn us… but here it talks about an uncondmning heart...
By keeping his commandments,
What commandments? Remember, two weeks ago when we talked about doing well biblically and what that was?
It’s the condensed version of all the Old testament commandments.
Matthew 22:35-40
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
we know and believe in the Son and through this knowing by the power of the Holy Spirit we selflessly love.
Think about this type of selfless love, a love of dieing for one another…giving of yourself over your own well being.
Thinking of others over self.
Think for a moment if you could stop and pause every action, every word based on loving them. Meaning what is truly best for them before I speak, before I act....over myself.
How would you talk, how would you act?
This is a heart that doesn’t condemn, this is a heart of and from Christ!
In this type of heart, is what it means “ask and we shall receive”. A heart of love for Him and one another, pray and you will receive.
These are the prayers of the spirit, of love.
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Again, this talk of being born again!
We’ve been given a new life a new spirit.
Without God we cannot keep His commandments.
Having a problem with love and His commandments? Pray!
Having a problem with repentance? Pray!
Let’s never run to our works for salvation but always to His works of love.
And also never run away from Him in shame…For God is greater than our heart!
Have confidence in that...
