ASSURANCE IN ABIDING

Assurance is a wonderful aspect to enjoy. For the young child, afraid of the dark, the assurance that her parents are there offers security and protection. For the individual beginning a long journey in their car, they want to be assured that the vehicle will safely transport them to their ultimate journey.

Perhaps because we recently had a little boy, but I think a baby in the arms of a mother or father is the perfect picture of assurance. That little baby does not have a single care in the world. There is no fear, no worry, just security, assurance.

John communicates this idea of assurance frequently in this letter with a word: abide. Abiding, and the accompanying assurance, is one of the Basics of Believing. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have assurance, because we abide in God and He abides in us.

In our present epistle of 1 John, we have observed John’s frequent use of the word abide. It is found in 2:6, 10, 14, 17, 24, 27, 28; 3:6, 9, 14, 15, 17, 24; 4:12, 13, 15, and 16.

If you remember, abiding means an intimate relationship , a dwelling of two together. We are discussing an enormous teaching of Scripture.

It is remarkable in its complete incomprehensibility. The fact that the infinite God, who knows no bounds of space, time, or immensity, resides with, abides in, dwells with finite beings limited by space, time, and immensity.

It is completely incomprehensible because God is holy, and by holiness we mean both moral perfection as well as infinite transcendence, yet we are sinful creatures.

It is completely incomprehensible because it took the birth, perfect life, death, and resurrection of God the Son to bring God to man. He is, after all, called Emmanuel, that is, God with us.

It is completely incomprehensible, and were it not for God’s Word we would not, indeed, could not believe it. Yet, God’s Word assures us, as God reminds us in Isaiah 55:8-9,

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God abiding in us, and we in Him, is completely incomprehensible. But like children grasping the fringes of lofty thoughts, we enjoy a glimpse of this abiding, and with it we enjoy assurance.

John, in 4:13-16, offers us three ways by which we have assurance in abiding.

I. Assurance through the Indwelling Holy Spirit- 13

II. Assurance through the Savior- 14-15

III. Assurance through the Father- 16

I. ASSURANCE THROUGH THE INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT- 4:13

Our assurance comes through the actions of the Triune God. Our text demonstrates this wonderfully. God is one, of this Scripture makes it abundantly clear. But God is also triunity, He is three persons. God has revealed Himself in the three persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And, as Beeke and Smalley remind us,

“Though difficult to grasp and impossible to fully comprehend, the Trinity is central to Christian doctrine, worship, and life.”—Joel R. Beeke & Paul M. Smalley

In fact, it is essential to salvation. God the Father planned our redemption, God the Son procures it, and God the Spirit applies it.

The trinity is also central to our assurance of salvation. And we see this first in the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. John says, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”

That is, assurance that comes from abiding in the triune God comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit. We will look at the work of the Holy Spirit in general (and briefly), the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of believers, and the accompanying assurance that comes from His indwelling.

A. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT GENERALLY

Briefly, the Holy Spirit is constantly at work in the Scriptures, often unseen. For example, we see the God the Spirit at work in creation (Gen. 1:2; Job 33:4; Psa. 33:6). The Holy Spirit is at work in the minds and hearts of unsaved people, such as Cyrus, king of Persia (Isa. 44:28-45:6). The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, as we learn from John 16:5-11. It is God the Spirit that draws men and women to God, away from their sin, for salvation (John 16:5-11). He also restrains the evil of our present age (2 Thess. 2:6-8).

There have been entire works of theology written upon the work of the Holy Spirit, so I beg your pardon for attempting to condense this information into a small paragraph. But we need to move on to the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of the believer.

B. THE INDWELLING OF THE BELIEVER BY THE SPIRIT

The other work of the Spirit, particularly pertinent to our present passage, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will dwell in us (John 14:17). That word dwell is the same word from which we get the word abide. Now, as we just looked at (briefly), the Holy Spirit is busy. In addition to those works, God the Spirit also does the following, specifically to or with believers:

He fills (Eph. 5:18; Acts 6:3; 11:24)

He guides (Gal. 5:16, 25)

He empowers (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:17)

He teaches (John 14:26; 16:13)

—Henry Thiessen, Lectures In Systematic Theology 255-256

The Holy Spirit dwells, indwells, abides, He comes into the believer and it always present. What a blessed benefit we have!

C. THE ASSURANCE THAT COMES FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT

The general and special work of the Holy Spirit in the world and in the life of the believer bring us back to our passage in 1 John. It is the indwelling Spirit that offers us assurance. John writes, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” God has given us His Spirit, and this is the way we know the we abide in Him and He in us.

It is like filling up your car with gas. One way that you know your tank is filled is when the pump stops. It shuts off. Another way you can tell your tank is full is when gas begins pouring out. By this we know our tanks are full, when gas is spilling onto the ground.

That is the idea here. John says, “By this,” that is, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we know we abide in God and God in us. The question, now, is how do we know the Spirit abides in us?

I want to offer a few brief ways to determine if you have the Spirit, all from Romans chapter 8.

Are you walking according to the Spirit (i.e., living a Spirit-shaped life)? (Rom. 8:4)

Are you increasingly achieving victory over sin through the Spirit? (Rom. 8:13)

Is the Spirit working in your heart in your prayers? (Rom. 8:26-27)

As you grow in your abiding, these will become clearer and expanding in your life. And this, John tells us, gives us assurance. We have assurance through the indwelling Holy Spirit. But we also have assurance through the Savior.

II. ASSURANCE THROUGH THE SAVIOR- 4:14-15

We have assurance through the Holy Spirit, but we also have assurance through the Savior, or God the Son. In fact, it is through the Son by which we have access to the Triune God.

We began this epistle on 5 January with the sermon Fellowship with the Godhead, which is through the work of Jesus Christ. John speaks of the incarnation, that is the fact that God the Son became man and experienced life as a human being fully. It is the blood of Jesus his Son [that] cleanses us from all sin” (1:7).

It is Jesus Christ the righteous, 2:1, Who is our advocate with the Father. He is our propitiation (2:2 and 4:10). Our sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ.

John says, “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” Interestingly, John says we cannot see God, but we can see that God sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world. This is what John has seen and testified to us. He is a witness, the same task that we have. We have been called to be witnesses (Acts 1:8).

It is through Christ we have assurance because he saved us. God sent His Son when we were in a desperate plight, hopelessly lost. John 3:16-17 reveals the same thoughts. [ORANGE TAB]

John 3:16–17 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

What is awesome about the Triune God’s work for our salvation is that each person of the Trinity was involved in saving us. Returning back to Beeke and Smalley, they write,

“The good news of salvation is inseparably bound up with the doctrine of the Trinity. Paul shows us the Trinitarian shape of the gospel in Galatians 4:4-6: “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son in your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Every aspect of salvation involves the direct agency of God, yet the three divine persons act in distinct ways.”—Joel R. Beeke & Paul M. Smalley, 877

Now, with this comes an important point, as Beeke and Smalley comment, “The link between the gospel and the Trinity is Christ’s incarnate mediatorial work.” (879) Without Christ, we would not have our sins paid for, because there would be no blood to wash away our sins. Without Christ, we would not have an Advocate with the Father. Christ is absolutely necessary for our salvation.

Christ, our Savior, gives us assurance. How? How can we have assurance in the Savior?

When Christ is your Savior, you have fellowship with the Triune God and joy (1 John 1:3)

When Christ is your Savior, you have fellowship with other believers (1 John 1:7)

When Christ is your Savior, you have an Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1-2)

This comes from what John says next, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God.” That is, you believe who Jesus is and what He came to do. You believe the gospel. And, as a result, you are born again, and thus have assurance because you are abiding in God.

We have assurance through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have assurance through the Savior, and now let us examine the Assurance through the Father.

III. ASSURANCE THROUGH THE FATHER- 4:16

Assurance in abiding is our focus this morning, and we have seen that as believers we have assurance in the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have assurance in the Savior, and now we will spend the remainder of our time see our assurance through the Father.

Because the indwelling Holy Spirit and the saving Jesus, John says “we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.”

We have come to know, both by knowledge and experience, and as such we believe (to accept, to offer faith in) the love that God has for us through God the Son and God the Spirit!

We discussed this last week, but we know love by the Triune God’s work of salvation! And John continues from 4:10 by saying, “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

It is through abiding in love, dwelling in love, that we have assurance that we abide in God. That is, it is through loving others that we have assurance that we abide in God.

This is not a new idea to John, because he has referenced it numerous times, just in different ways. He refers to it as walking in light in chapter one. He refers to it as keeping his commandments and loving your brother in chapter two. He refers to it as practicing righteousness and loving one another in chapter three. And in our present chapter as loving one another.

When you love others you demonstrate that you abide in God. You have assurance, like a baby resting sweetly in the arms of her parents. And God abides in you.

CONCLUSION

By this, John tells us, we know that we abide in him and he in us, through the assurance of the triune God. It is through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Savior, and the Father by which we know, both academically and experientially, that we abide in God and He in us.

I would like to discuss two points of application with our last moments together.

First, if you are a believer, particularly struggling with assurance (Am I saved? How can I be a Christian and do…), learn what it means to abide in God.

The Triune God offers us assurance through the Father’s abiding in us as we extend love to others. Do you extend love to others? Here is one simple way (and you can think of many more, I am sure) to extend love to others. Find one selfless act you can do for someone each day. As you do, pray and ask God to extend His love through you to that person. And as you do, you will experience abiding.

The Triune God offers us assurance through the Son’s salvation. Think back to that moment in which you confessed your sins and experienced salvation. That gives us assurance. Remember that first time you heard a sermon and the burning sensation you had in your heart at the thought of God’s love to you. This gives us assurance through abiding.

The Triune God offers us assurance through the Spirit’s indwelling. Work through those avenues of the Spirit’s indwelling. Are they true of you? Work to improve them? Are they lacking? Perhaps there is a sin to confess, a relationship to restore, or salvation for which to ask?

These offer assurance that you abide in God and He in you.

Second, if you have never experienced this abiding, then you need to be saved. You must confess your sins to God, falling on His mercy and ask Him to save you. That is why, John tells us, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ! He wants to save His people!

By this we know. Do you know?