Confidence for today and for all eternity

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

We love because he first loved us.

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)

I. Believers can be confident that God is with and in them today.

A. All three persons of the trinity are involved in giving us this confidence.

1. Starts with the regenerating and awakening work of the Spirit

Starts with the regenerating and awakening work of the Spirit

a. through Biblical preaching or sharing of the Gospel

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Titus 3:4–7 ESV

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

4. If we look at verses 13-16, we see that it is all 3 of the Godhead at work

a. · We know God as our Father (personal relationship – Abba)

· We know and confess to others that Jesus as God’s Son

by faith we come to taste and see that the Lord is good by the Holy Spirit opening our spiritual eyes and making us brand new on the inside.

· We know Jesus as our Savior (relief from sin and guilt and shame and self-righteousness)

· We have experienced the Holy Spirit as God’s abiding presence in us

b. by faith we come to taste and see that the Lord is good by the Holy Spirit opening our spiritual eyes and making us brand new on the inside.

B. But the Spirit’s continuing work is to

1. give us a spirit of adoption of sons

2. That we cry out ‘Abba, Father!”

a. This is in contrast with a spirit of fear from . We have been given a Spirit of Adoption as Sons not slaves!

3. help us understand Scripture and see Jesus in it

4. All this is from God the Father and brings Him much glory

C. Derek Thomas, Welsh pastor and professor at RTS says it this way:

a. “To have the Spirit in our hearts is to have Him who has been intimately involved in every facet of Jesus’ work-incarnation, obedience, sacrifice, and resurrection. And the Spirit has been in fellowship with the Son for eternity. It is the Spirit who us into fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.”

2. It is this confession that is both brought about by the Spirit and gives evidence we are truly born again.

3. This confession of trust in the person and work of Christ is also the confirmation that God is at work.

a. For the non believer they won’t call on God as Father. They might say Lord, or Oh God but they don’t see Him as Father.

b. This is because only the Spirit of God can cause someone to make this confession.

c. So if you see God as your Father and Jesus as His one and only Son who died in your place, this is the first step for the believer in a growing confidence and God’s presence and love in their life.

d. For the non believer, this may be a wake up call

4. Derek Thomas, Welsh pastor and professor at RTS says it this way:

C. Through ongoing Biblical preaching and reading we are reminded of God’s care and presence in our lives.

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D. Through ongoing Biblical preaching and reading and in biblical community we are reminded of God’s care and presence in our lives.

C. Through ongoing Biblical preaching and reading we are reminded of God’s care and presence in our lives.

E. Verse 16 says something profound that is the result of the Spirit’s work in a believer:

1 John 4:16 ESV

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.

2. The Holy Spirit helps us do both:

a. Know-understand the Gospel-who Jesus is and what he has done

b. Believe-we are given faith as a gift to trust and hope in these truths that have been revealed

c. This guards us from just mental assent and from easy believeism.

d. But the content of this statement is astounding: God really does love His children! Not distantly or capriciously but certainly and intimately.

e. He loves us enough to give us Himself!

f. This experience is foreign to the non believer. They don’t know that they are fully known and deeply loved by God. They may desire it and that may be God at work in their life. But

1. Don’t we often wonder if God really loves us? Is He really in me?

2. Is God at work in me/you in the same way spiritually as he was in John or the believers back then?

James Boice

“In answer to this question he therefore now argues that if God is at work, the evidences for it will be seen in a combination of love and sound doctrine.”

3. Maybe we have come to understand the Gospel, but we still approach God as though he is angry or impatient with us. If that is our perception of God now, how can we long for Him to come back and judge the world? Scripture says we can and by God’s grace we will.

II. Believers can be confident on judgment day.

A. Many of us have come to know and enjoy God and His goodness. Many of you have come to find comfort and success in this life.

1. But what is challenging for almost all us, if we are honest, is the idea and actuality of a day of judgment.

2. None of us want to think about ourselves or our lost friends, neighbors, and family members suffering by God’s hand for eternity separate from Him and all joy.

3. But it is difficult to imagine having confidence on that terrible day when we don’t want that day to exist at all. If you were to consider in your own heart right now, rate your confidence standing before a holy and perfect God of the universe.

a. Did you tremble a bit? Did you find doubts welling up in your soul?

b. Or did you again flee to Christ and His life, death, and resurrection as your only hope and plea?

c. But the truth from Scripture is that day is real and coming and every person must face it.

· God is righteous. And so it is right for God to judge and punish evil and wickedness

· It is right for the unrighteous person to fear judgment.

The reality of God’s love for us is our only hope in the face of judgment

B. The ground for the believer’s confidence on the day of Judgment is in the person and work of Christ in their place and on their behalf. Verses 17 and 18 point us to this confidence.

1 John 4:17–18 ESV

1. D.E. Hiebert quoted by Danny Akin says it this way

a. “The function of love in the believer’s life is the impartation of a bold confidence that will enable him to stand before the judgment seat of Christ without fear or shame.”

D.E. Hiebert quoted by Danny Akin says it this way

1. This is applied and confirmed by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

C. It is the combination of the indwelling presence of the Spirit, his ongoing pointing to and exalting Christ,

D. and what he leads believers to do, namely confess, believe, and love the person and work of Christ.

1.We are not those that shrink back at the coming of Jesus. We are running toward that day in great hope!

Hebrews 10:37–39 ESV

For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

3. We are God’s people who have His Spirit reminding us of God’s love and presence that give us confidence that we will not be rejected on that day of judgment.

a. The greatest and surest expression of God’s love for you is in sending His Son to die for you.

b. · This leads to:

D. John Stott says it this way:

times in life when we experience and sense God’s love

· But there are times when we doubt God’s love

· How to believe God loves you even when it doesn’t feel like it?

-Meditate on the cross and all that means for you now and eternity

-let me commend 2 books to you:

The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes

When I don’t desire God by John Piper

-and some good music

Shane and Shane Embracing Accusation or any

Good hymns full of good truth

D. John Stott says it this way:

1. “The only way to love, as the the only way to believe, is by living in God and God in us. For it is the divine indwelling which alone makes possible both belief and love.”

E. It is this abiding in God and He in us through our new love relationship with him that are steadied against the ongoing fear of punishment.

John Stott “The only way to love, as the the only way to believe, is by living in God and God in us. For it is the divine indwelling which alone makes possible both belief and love.”

1. If God won’t leave us or forsake us and assures us in ongoing ways that we are loved by Him and belong to Him, we can be assured when we face Him in eternity, that won’t ever change.

2. We must constantly remind ourselves and be reminded that God is in us and to grow together with all the saints in our understanding and apprehension of God’s great love for His Children.

F. But if we know and believe God’s love for us and that helps us in eternity, does the love and presence of God helps us in the here and now. Absolutely!

III. Believers who are confident in God’s love, grow in their love toward others.

A. In verses 19-21 we see yet another huge way that the Holy Spirit presses confidence into God’s children is giving them a growing love for each other.

1 John 4:19–21 ESV

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1.In we see that loving the brethren is one of the proofs that we have passed from death to life.

2. Here again in verses 20 and 21, John reminds us that this love flows out of God’s love for us but it is not an accident or simply something that just happens.

a. We love others because we know the love of God deeply and because we are commanded to love one another.

-Loving one’s brother is not just a spiritual requirement; it also is a command. And it’s a command because love reflects God’s character.

b. May seem a little weird, like parents telling siblings they have to love each other. But this is what we all need, people in our lives who love us like Jesus loves us.

John Piper says

“I think we will love each other and those outside with a distinct, supernatural love when we taste the fellowship of the Trinity.”

c. Loving other’s of God’s family in our speech, action, and service is what we are called to do as believers.

d. non believers value love but don’t have the resources to love like Jesus did and does.

In the church

e. John here is not concerned with people who have merely not tried to love but

f. “his complete unwillingness and inability since he does not have the love of God in him order to accomplish the task in the first place.” Danny Akin

B. Inside and Outside of the church

1.In the church we should love other believers

a. Enjoying gathering and worshipping with them

b. Enjoying spending time with them

c. Having growing and deepening relationships within the body of Christ

for accountability and the fight against sin we are all in

for laughter and encouragement to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ

2. F.F Bruce

a. “The love which dwells in the community of God’s children and which they show to one another is His love imparted to them. More than that; the God of love imparts Himself to His people, so dwelling within them that they in their turn, dwell in His love and dwell in Him.”

3. At work

a. Do good work

b. Be kind to coworkers

4. In your neighborhood

a. invite people over for meals

b. Do things with other folks in your neighborhood

1.Swim team

2. walking with others

3. Kids’ play times/friendships

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Confidence for today and for all eternity

Confidence for today and for all eternity

Intro

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I. Believers can be confident that God is with and in them today.

II. Believers can be confident on judgment day.

III. Believers who are confident in God’s love, grow in their love toward others.