By this we know that he abides in us
Notes
Transcript
By this we know that he abides in us
By this we know that he abides in us
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 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. 24 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.
What if the scriptures actually help us makes sense of everything we are experiencing even right now?
What if our hearts were faint, but his word strengthened us to believe God for the things HE is doing in this season of life?
What if our prayers were so aligned with his will that it seemed as though there was never an unanswered prayer?
What if we all were getting a refresher course in putting our Faith in Christ which would relate us rightly to God; and in this season of waiting and anticipation of return to what we hope, we were being renewed by Grace that would enable us to love one another better moving froward...
What if we are being set up by the Father, to be refined as his church that needs to be revealed to the whole earth, for such a time as this.
What if we could have assurances that he abides in us?
I want to start us today thinking deeply about the practicality of Christianity.
How the mutual love and fellowship we display is evidence for the new life we have in Christ.
How we all face uncertainty in our hearts because of the residue of sin in our life, and Yet God is greater, as John tells us in this text.
How we can have confidence in our time spent in prayer.
How faith in Christ connects us to the Father, and his renewing grace enables us to love one another.
And finally, how all this points to the Spirit abiding in us.
The text we have here today makes no sense unless we know what John is talking about, os let’s back it up for a moment and get the context right, even most of you are tracking with us every week through this series on 1 John.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
John is talking to us about the love of Christ for us in saving us, and now our love for each other. That our love cannot be in lip service only but there must be an action to it and it must be founded on the truth of the gospel. So everything he is going to refer to in the text today is pertaining to the topic of the Love that believers show, especially to each other. With that thought in our mind let’s look at the text.
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
I think it is important for us to see the motivation of John in writing this letter. He is constantly say this phrase, “By this we know”. Why? Why does he constantly go back to using this phrase for his readers that he refers to as dear children and brothers and sisters sincere in the faith?
The first thing I want us to see is that John is most concerned about us having assurances from God. He doesn’t want us falling away from truth or being seduced by false teaching, so he is writing to us in tender ways to show care for us because this is the whole central theme: Love for each other because of the love we have already recieved from God. And his writing is meant to build us up in assurances.
Scripture is full of assurances but we must know them in order to believe them
Scripture is full of assurances but we must know them in order to believe them
Just to recap what we have already learned from the Apostle John in 1 john alone here is what he said...
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
Assurance of us coming to know him
5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Assurance that we are in him, meaning our lives are found hidden in him
10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Assurance of who belongs to God and who doesn’t
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Assurance of how to know true love
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Assurance that we are of truth, meaning we are not the ones who believe false teaching.
24 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.
Assurance of God abiding in us.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
Assurance of knowing the Holy Spirit and not being fooled by false spirits
6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Assurance that you are from God, meaning you are really saved.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
Assurance that it is mutual abiding, him in us and us in him.
17 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.
Assurance that real love is made perfect in us.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
Assurance that we love other believers.
Think about it, there is so much false teaching that would convince you not to believe the simple truth of the gospel. There are so many questions we have and there is so much that seems to change in this life, it is hard to have assurances. We are a fickle people sometimes. We are constantly led by our emotions and struggle with truth when everything around us seems to be screaming a different message. And yet John seems to be giving much attention to assuring God’s people of fundamental truth so that they can KNOW they are saved.
So let’s look again at this passage and recognize that in light of us Loving each other as Jesus has loved us and God has saved us, we can know things, or have assurances.
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Did you see the problem that John is trying to address here? Our hearts need to be reassured before God. Why? Because our hearts are wicked and always looking to worship everything but God sometimes and our conscious becomes guilty before God. Why?
Because if we are keeping this in context, we specifically don’t love the way Jesus loved us, and we struggle loving each other, so we fail, and our hearts fear.
And rightly so, because when our hearts accuses us of what we have actually done, we would naturally want to shy away from God.
If we are looking more to our sin than to our savior we will run from God instead of to God.
If we are looking more to our sin than to our savior we will run from God instead of to God.
See John is giving us an assurance that even though our hearts carry a guilt because of things we have certainly done, like failing to love each other, God is greater than our sinfulness, he knows everything.
And while that phrase is scary to say… God knows everything, it is also comforting to believe.
Since God knows everything we should be ashamed of our sin, and a true believer is broken over their sin. But also we are encouraged because God knows everything and has promised to saved you because of the work of Christ on your behalf.
Since he knows everything, he will not turn his back on you, he didn’t make a mistake in saving you, no matter how much your heart struggles to believe the truth sometimes.
This is why John is writing to us and why it is important for us to read the word and know the truth. We need God’s word in our hearts to continue to convince us that we are acquitted, especially when we are guilty.
I love what R.C. Sproul said in the reformation study bible notes on this verse.
“The word of God that acquits believers must prevail over the word of our hearts that condemns us.” R.C. Sproul
“The word of God that acquits believers must prevail over the word of our hearts that condemns us.” R.C. Sproul
John recognizes the tension of sin in the believers life, and how devastating it would be if God and his word wasn’t stronger than our hearts own doubting and fears.
And again we are talking not only just about sin in general, even though it is rightly applied here as well, but more specifically to believers in loving each others.
Do you sense that you have failed to do that in many ways, and know that you don’t want to be in front of God after violating his commands for you to love? Well, take heart, because he knows it already and is stronger than your own sin. And if you are struggling in these days we live in right now, keep looking to his word keep reminding your heart of truth. Remember what Jesus prayed for us before he was betrayed.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Look to the Word of God for truth!
When we believe this because we read it and hear it enough… when we train our hearts by hearing the good news of the gospel every week… When we are being formed into passionate followers of Jesus by proclaiming the Gospel and the Glory of God, our hearts start to believe in faith and confidence. We experience a change in demeanor in our approach to God… Look at what John goes on to say...
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
See doubt is removed whenever we walk in faithfulness and obedience because we are in his word and know truth. So then our hearts do not condemn, meaning that insecurity and fear will give way to Confidence before God.
This kind of assurance will cause us to want to enter God’s presence with certainty, so that whatever we ask in his name we know we will receive from him.
That word confidence is the greek work “PARRESIA” which means ‘boldness’ and carries with it the idea of ‘freedom of speech’… It means for us to speak with frankness because we know the privilege that is bestowed on us to come to someone of importance and power and feel free to express anything little thing we need to.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
this is the same word and carries much of that same idea that we see in 1 john.
And so for many of us it means coming into the presence of our loving heavenly Father without fear and with a full assurance that whatever we ask we receive from him. And while this may sound on its face like it is it presumptuous to approach God in this way, we would be quick to point out that last part of verse 22… because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
This confidence will come from an awareness of God’s will, because our desires are clearly aligned with his will, and that is evident by our lifestyle. So we can actually be confident that will give us what we ask when we know that we asking what is according to his will. Look ahead a couple of chapters and see John expound on this further...
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
See, we are not there yet but a quick spoiler alert here, john is building his teaching towards us becoming more attuned with God as he encourages us in this letter. And he will get to the point where he can make this statement and have us understand what it means and not take it out of confidence.
See right now if I say God will give you whatever you want so just pray about it and it will happen, I just described a genie. That is an entity that has no will of its own, and that is a transaction in which you are the boss and final authority.
But for believers who humbly approach God in prayer to display a confidence, means that they are sure of who God is and what God wills. And it also means that we can ask and say, “Lord if it be your will”, with as much confidence as anything else we ask, because we know that God will only do what he has already willed. We know this and submit joyfully to it and so we can have confidence when we pray.
And so the point is not, “then why pray if God already knows”… the point is we are commanded to pray and commended to pray. We are encouraged to pray and ask, for in asking and seeing God answer it builds our faith to continue to have confidence in him.
Prayer is not meant to inform God, it is intended to train our hearts to have confidence in him.
Prayer is not meant to inform God, it is intended to train our hearts to have confidence in him.
Prayer is not to inform God, it is to train our hearts and inform us of his will as we pray and see somethings answered with a ‘yes’ and others things answered with a ‘no’. The confidence we receive from knowing his word is only strengthened by praying and seeing God answer prayers.
How loving is our God to want us to come to him with confidence knowing that we are aware that we have no right to do so, and yet his word is filled with the encouragements to pray anyways.
God really cares and really wants to hear his people pour their hearts out and he really wants to answer prayer. So if our prayer life is lacking it is no wonder that our confidence is sometimes diminished. And if we are not in the word either, we have nothing but our hearts accusing us of the sin that so easily ensnares us, and so it isn’t any wonder that we treat each other badly, and the world cannot see Christ alive within his people.
And that is why John tells us again what God’s commandment is...
23 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.
See John is telling us of the command that God’s people have always had but could never get right. It is a parallel to the 10 commandments, which can easily be broken into 2 categories. Loving God and loving others.
You shall have no other gods before me… Loving God, right?!
You shall not kill… Loving others, right?!
And so here we have the same break down Loving God, which only happens through believing in the name of His son Jesus Christ and loving one another. But I love how John does this here.
He gives us the object of our love, in the name of His son Jesus Christ. He doesn’t just say, this is the command, Love God… No he is way more practical in showing us what that means to Love God...
Believe in the name of His son Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ is our Lord because he defeated death for us, he slayed sin for us, he lived perfectly and died innocently in our place because of the rich mercy and great love of our God.
To love God is to believe in the name of Jesus Christ
To love God is to believe in the name of Jesus Christ
It is to believe in the gospel and the glory of our god, found only in the person of Jesus Christ. How can someone who denounces God’s rescue mission for humanity and refuses to believe in the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior ever truly love God. There was nothing more important to God than accomplishing his work to save sinful humanity.
We can’t love God by loving nature, or by being a good neighbor and showing a general sort of accepting love to every person because that seems more respectable to the masses.
To love God means to be willing to be excluded from society and be treated poorly because it is of greater value to believe in the name of Jesus Christ than anything else. That is what it means to love God. And that is not something that can be faked because it will come out in how we treat each other… Which is the next part.
Love for one another, just as he commanded!
Once we have the object of our faith right and we now Love God, then it is only natural to follow his command and love each other.
And if John was emphatic enough about through the whole book of 1 john, he drills it home here in this verse by reminding us this isn’t a suggestions but a command.
To love each other is a command from God
To love each other is a command from God
We never get a free pass on this. God never is ok with us not loving each other. It is straight up sinful when we do not love each other.
Just because we live in a world that is increasingly polarized by political views, socio-economic classes, prejudices and pre-conceived notions of each other… that does not excuses us as his people from loving each other.
And just so we are clear, to love each other truly we must come to place where this will take effort. Here is what I mean. It is not a good example of loving each other when we all find that we agree totally on any given topic. Rather we see that we love each other when people who would normally be divided over topics throw their disdain out the window and fully embrace others who they would normally never be able to agree with. And we do this because of the object of our faith, the name of His son Jesus Christ who bought us and redeemed with his own blood when we didn’t deserve it.
And when we do, looks at what John says to us...
24 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.
So here it is another assurance… that God abides in us!
The Glory of God our creator will abide in us. He does this by his Spirit.
But how do we know he does this?
Well you don’t see people who are spiritually dead and enemies of God following his commandments. You don’t see people in the world loving their enemies and caring for those around them without expecting anything in return. You do not see people preaching the Good news of Jesus Christ to everyone the world around them.
Only those that God abides in will do these things, and especially be able to love one another.
And we will have an assurance by the Spirit whom God has given us. look at this
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
It is the Spirit who makes spiritually dead people come alive, he gives sight to our blind eyes, and he convicts us of sin and causes us to repent. It is the Spirit that places us into the body of Christ...
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
We are in one body because the Spirit brings us there. And it is the Spirit that gives us gifts in ministry for the church to be built up in love. It is through the Spirits illumination that we are able to have scripture come alive to us when we read his word.
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Listen if you have the Spirit in us, this makes total sense to you, and you know what John is saying when he is saying to love one another.
And this isn’t some ploy by me to say, “you would understand what I am saying if you had the Spirit”, as if to make us for my poor preaching. But there is certainly something that you are receiving from all this because of the Spirits work, and those who don’t have the Spirit are not able to get anything from it because it is spiritually discerned.
And beyond that, the Spirit also energizes the prayers of the saints, and intercedes for them (rom. 826-27). The Spirit leads and guides us as Christians and he assures us that we are children of God and in fact seals this truth in us...
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
See salvation is not a one time event, but rather it is a way of life that we must be willing to follow Jesus no matter the cost.
John MacArthur said it this way
“The presence of genuine holy affections - gratitude toward God, boldness in prayer, submission to his commandments, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and appreciation of the Holy Spirit’s power in their lives - are all characterized and undergirded by a continual love for other believers - Marks those who persevere in true faith. The presence of those godly virtues gives those who manifest them true assurance and confidence that they have been born from above by the power of God.”
There is simply no way to escape how important our life change, lived now by God’s spirit alive in us, is to us and is best seen by demonstrating love for others, especially those in the household of Faith.
Today let us ask God by his Spirit to infect our hearts so much so that when we come before him we have confidence and boldness to freely speak to him and know he not only hears us but also animates us to ask him the very things he has decided to do and so we are even more assured that he abides in us and we abide in him. Let’s pray.