"Guilt Trip" Part 2
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It was bedtime and my wife and I had all the lights in the house turned off to help our little three-year-old son prepare for bed. The only shining light was in the room where the three of us were sitting. With a not-yet-tired voice, my son said, "Daddy, I need to go potty." Thankful that he was finally learning to use the bathroom on his own, I said, "OK, you know where the bathroom is." I watched as he skipped to the short hallway leading to the bathroom, only to see him turn and run back to me.
"Daddy, I can't go there. It's dark."
"Then turn the light on," I said flatly.
"Daddy, It's scary. I want you to come with me," my little son begged.
With a sigh, I got up and walked behind my son as he trotted toward the bathroom. When we reached the dark hallway, he turned to me and said, "Daddy, put your hands on my shoulders." I put my hands on his small shoulders and followed as he confidently walked on into the darkness.
"Why don't you turn the light on?" I asked.
"It's OK, Daddy. I don't need to," he said, "because you're with me."
Confidence. Confidence in our Lord is one of the most comforting realities for the Christian today. No matter what the circumstances, we will be OK because the Lord is for us. And what is comfort it is during our current culture. For many of us, confidence is something we just don’t have much of anymore. Who can we trust? Who can we depend on? As American citizens, we have the right for certain things. But now, in some cases, maybe we don’t have those rights anymore. Even with the new movement of virtue signaling in society, it still does not steady the ship. Still not much too be confident about. But it is not in society nor our government that we need to have confidence in. They will always let us down, but our confidence does not rest in the potential of mankind but in the power of the living God.
As Christians we are not to be in a place of no confidence in life. Not only should we be assured because of the work Christ has done for us in His death and His resurrection, but we can be assure by the work that the Holy Spirit will do in us. We will have confidence not just to approach the Lord, but have the confidence that we will receive. We can have confidence in God. Let’s look at this more today.
Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
The grass withers the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
1. The Uncondemning Heart
2. Pleasing the Lord
The first thing we will look at today is how our hearts no longer stands condemned, but now reassured, we have confidence in fellowship with almighty God. Finally, we will see how it is the work of the Holy Spirit that will lead us to a place of obedience doing what pleases the Lord.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to lose confidence in life and in the Father, but it is the gospel of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that will remind us of the goodness of God and cause us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
I. The Uncondemning Heart
- From a heart that condemns to a heart that blesses.
A. The Apostle now moves on from the curse of a condemning heart, and how to reassure it, to the blessing of a heart which now does not condemn. This blessing is not only the peace of an untroubled conscience, but in its result, namely a communion with God with confidence.
- “The thought here is of the boldness with which the Son appears before the Father, and not of that with which the accused appears before the Judge” - BF Westcott.
B. The blessing of an uncondemning heart is now stated. We have confidence not only to enjoy access to him in prayer, but to receive answers from him too. Confident to come to Him and confident we will receive.
C. Peitho - translated here confidence. It carries here the idea of the full citizen of a Greek city-state who had the democratic right to speak freely. And the right to receive. This is the confidence we have in approaching God and receiving from Him.
D. But maybe a bit on what is meant by “we will receive whatever we ask.” We should or must see this passage in light of other scriptures that give conditions.
Dr. John Stott writes, “This simple and unqualified promise must, of course, be interpreted in the light of further conditions upon which, in other parts of Scripture, God promises to grant his people’s requests.”
And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!
E. John continues to flush this out a bit more with the next part of the verse. We receive what the ask because we are pleasing to the Lord. But we have to understand that the pleasing of the Lord is done because we obey His commands. Obeying the commands and pleasing the Lord is one and the same. We please God by obeying His commands.
Colin Kruse - “Doing what God commands and so pleasing him is what engenders confidence when believers pray.”
F. Its pretty simple right… we know that we displease the Lord when we disobey, therefore, we should assume that we are pleasing the Lord when we obey. And how is it that we obey?
II. Pleasing the Lord
- When we trust and obey.
A. One thing that we see here that is significant. God has asked for one fundamental thing. What is this one thing? When John talks command it is in the singular. This brings us to an important piece of the gospel of John.
They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
B. This is where we need to see the foundational nature of having faith in Christ. This is why I always assert that the issues we face today is not because we don’t try harder to be good Christians, but because we don’t believe. Our problem is not the lack of virtue signaling, lack of faith. Our problem is not lack of effort, but lack of trust. Our problem is not a lack of motivation of good works, but lack of believing in the one He has sent.
C. Let us not be deceived. No amount of virtue signalling, good works, acts of kindness, or pharisaic level practice of the law will ever be pleasing to God if there if no faith.
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
D. In other words, Jonathan Edwards points out that "true virtue" is only possible for those who have experienced the grace of the gospel and have faith in Christ. Any person who is trying to earn their salvation or accomplish something does "the right thing" in order to get into heaven, or in order to better their self-esteem, social position, or personal identity(etc.). In other words, the ultimate motive is self- interest. This is why virtue is not true and no amount of virtue signaling will ever be real virtue unless there is faith.
E. Why? Because persons who know they are totally accepted do "the right thing" out of sheer delight in righteousness for its own sake. Only in the gospel do you obey God for God's sake, and not for what God will give you. Only in the gospel do you love people for their sake (not yours), do good for its own sake (not yours), and obey God for his sake (not yours). Only the gospel makes "doing the right thing" a joy and delight, not a burden or a means to an end.
F. But Shane does not John say that we need to love our neighbor too? Absolutely… there is no problem here. If you have faith in Christ you will love your neighbor also.
This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.
G. So there is no faith in Christ without love for our neighbor.
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
H. Good deeds do not produce faith, but faith produces good deeds. This is the point of James 2. Works are the evidence of faith.
I. This is how we are pleasing to God. That we have faith in His Son Jesus and that we through that faith show love to our neighbor. And we see through the scriptures it is the work of the Lord in us.
For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
J. A young woman, worked in a large umbrella factory (in Philadelphia), at that time considered the largest umbrella factory in the world. She said to her pastor one day, in a discouraged manner, "Pastor, I'll have to hunt another job." "What's the matter?" he asked her, "have they discharged you?" "No, they haven't discharged me." "Well, hasn't your factory enough orders to keep going all the time?" "No, not that at all. They have more orders than they can fill; but they haven't enough electricity to keep all the machines going at once, and my machine has to lie idle part of the week, and I lose so much time and pay. The trouble with the factory is, they have more machinery than power." Let us not forget that the finest machinery made is useless without power, and it is God's power which is ESSENTIAL to the carrying out what pleases Him.