Assurance Of Salvation

FEBRUARY 24, 2021 STUDY NOTES I JOHN 3:19-20 BIBLE TEACHER: CLIFTON JONES ASSURANCE OF SALVATION INTRODUCTION The last verses of this chapter are among the most difficult to understand in this book John continues to use the means of contrast and opposites to teach us He speaks of the conscience that condemns us and when the conscience does not condemn us It is not easy to interpret all that John is telling us by his comparison of the conscience But it seems certain that “assurance” is his main thought throughout theses verses John now directs our thinking to the Biblical truth of the “Assurance of Salvation” He wants us to have the assurance of an eternal salvation and know that God is always in our life We can have that assurance of salvation and experience the results of “Salvation’s Assurance” There are ways that we can know that we are a sincere Christian and not being a hypocrite John tells us one way we can know that our salvation is a true, genuine experience I thought of different titles for this study, one was “Blessed Assurance” Watch the screen and sing along if you like Our story must be, praising my Savior all-the day long, regardless of what those days might be ASSURANCE OF TRUTH 1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. HEREBY: Refers to the preceding context and points back to verses 17 and 18 It refers back to the genuine love of Christians loving “in deed and in truth” Which is when we see a need in someone’s life, and we do everything we can to meet that need When our effort has been more than concern, more than sympathy, and more than talking about it When we have done more than say, “God bless you,” “I love you,” “I will be praying for you” When we know that by and through the love of God, we have done something to help others in need When our love has gone into action and that action tells the truth about God’s love The truth about God’s love is that God wants to take care of the needs in my life and your life God will take care of the needs of our life as He works through us to meet the needs of others God’s love working through us gives us assurance, telling us “We know,” we need to “know” “We Know” because we have come to know through personal experience Our experience of loving one another and helping one another is the evidence or assurance we need We know that we truly are of God or we would not love others with a heart of such love Our experience teaches us, we have the evidence before us, we have the proof within us This verse tells us that we have the assurance of two things: 1. Knowing that we are of the truth 2. A clear conscience before God We know that we are truly sincere and not playing the part of a hypocrite We know that we are of the truth, The thought is that “We are born of the truth,” the same meaning as “born of God” Which is another way of saying that we have been saved, that we have been born again God is truth and we belong to God, through Christ, we belong to the realm of truth God gives us that assurance when we are living the truth of the Christian life Page 1 of 5 We are living the truth when we show the evidence of God’s love which dwells within us We reveal that truth by meeting the needs of others through the love of God And when we do that our hearts are filled with assurance--and shall assure our hearts “Heart” does not refer to our physical heart, it figuratively speaks of the control center of our life Referring to the center of our moral nature which is known as the conscience Our conscience is a built-in warning signal, but be sure the conscience is wired properly It must be wired to the truth of God’s Word, all circuits must be tuned into the Holy Spirit Our conscience either assures us or condemns us, both God and Satan work through our conscience Assurance of heart means a clear conscience, a peace of mind, a joyful heart When our heart is set at ease, fears all gone, doubts all settled All of us have experienced many discouraging days recently, we needed assurance We needed to experience exactly what Paul is explaining to us John is telling us that a heart of assurance should be the daily experience of a Christian Regardless of what we are facing in life we should live daily with the “Assurance of Salvation” What a way to live, can we really live like that? How can we experience heartfelt assurance? SALVATION ASSURANCE comes: When you are living the life that God wants you to live, living daily in His will When you get up in the morning and begin the day with God through prayer and Bible study When You face the daily trials of life in the faith that has come through prayer and Bible study When you talk to others about God, about His Word, and about Christ in your life When you experience a joyful fellowship with other Christians as you worship together, which is a must John is telling us that we will have an assurance of heart as we love others and minister to them And that assurance of heart will be “before him” before him. “Before him” is not referring to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, John did not say “when he comes” John is talking about the assurance that we can have today, the daily assurance of God’s presence Every moment of our life we are in God’s presence, but we don’t always sense that we are There are times when we want to ask questions, such as, God why? God, where are you? Do you sometimes feel that you are no longer in God’s presence? “Assurance” is the emphasis of this verse and assurance is of utmost importance to our daily life It is important that we have the assurance of a right standing before God every day John assures us that our heart can tell us that we are in a right relationship with God But we must realize that someone other than God speaks to our heart, Satan also speaks to us Satan has had much to say to the Christian during the days of coronavirus and the extreme bad weather So, we must learn to tell the difference, we do that by considering the facts Realize that Satan does not want us to experience the “Assurance of Salvation” Satan is the accuser of the brethren, Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. So, Satan will falsely accuse us through our conscience and our conscience will begin to bother us Satan will remind us of every possible sin and every opportunity we had to live for God We have all failed to meet opportunities to do what John is telling us to do through God’s love Satan works in us to keep us from loving others and meeting the needs of others Page 2 of 5 Satan makes sure that we think of all the reasons we can not help or should not help And then when we don’t help Satan works through our conscience to bring about doubt and guilt Doubt that leads to discouragement and defeats us spiritually, turning us from our spiritual duties Satan will work through our heart or conscience to trouble us, confuse us, disturb us, and defeat us But we have the assurance of what John now tells us--GOD KNOWS 1Jn 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. One interpretation of this verse is that it is a warning, another is that it is a word of comfort Probably both are true, the point is, God is telling us something, God wants us to learn something Again, “heart” is better understood as “conscience” When our conscience “condemns us” it is telling us that something is wrong Our conscience will set off an alarm, accusing us and making us feel guilty It is not just a passing thought, but something that continues to ring out in our mind Why would our heart condemn us? Why would we have a guilty conscience? There are many reasons But in this context, because we have not been interested in the need of a brother It would be when we have loved only in word and in tongue, and not in deed When we have not performed deeds of love to help those in need When you have loved in word and tongue only there will be a conviction of the heart If there is a conviction of the heart we should confess and accept God’s forgiveness That is what Satan does not want you to do, first, he does not want you to serve others through God’s love Then he does not want you to confess when you sense your failure to do God’s will Then he does not want you to believe that God did forgive you if you confessed your sin unto God Satan will use a condemning heart to bring about doubt and fear, he wants to discourage you He wants you to quit being faithful in prayer and not to pray with faith or confidence He will then use your guilty conscience and doubting mind to turn you from God’s Word He will encourage you to quit coming to church, to become unfaithful in church attendance By then Satan has you doubting your salvation and beginning to act like a hypocrite Or Satan has convinced you that your life is okay without prayer, Bible study, or church attendance 1 John 3:20 is a warning and a comfort, it directs our attention to where it should be, toward God John is encouraging us to look to God in order to understand our conscience Verse 19 is what we know, verse 20 is what we don’t know, but God knows Verse 19 is the assurance we have because of what we know Verse 20 is for our assurance, the assurance of what we know that God knows God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Satan does not want us to know what God really knows and what God wants us to know God knows more about us than we do, He knows the complete story and every detail And God wants us to know the complete story and to understand every detail Turning to God is the answer to a heart of guilt and condemnation We are to turn to God for the comfort and assurance of our heart Satan will lie to us, God will tell us the truth, we must listen to God Satan wants you to doubt and fear and become discouraged and to question God’s promises Even to the point of wondering if we are really saved Satan will tell you that you have lost your salvation because you have not obeyed God He will tell you that you are no longer one whom God loves because you failed to obey God How can we be assured of the truth? How can we know for sure the truth? Page 3 of 5 God is “Truth” and Satan is a “Lie,” listen to God, be sure you turn to Him for truth We learn the “Truth” from the Word of God, God’s Word guarantees our salvation We will not lose our salvation because of a sin that we commit God does not overlook sin in our life, but He does not forsake us because of sin We will sense guilt, but we still belong to God and we still belong in His presence Every sin that we confess will be forgiven regardless of what Satan says God will discipline us because of un-confessed sin and will teach us a lesson God wants us to learn from disobedience to be obedient The emphasis of the verse is upon assurance and assurance comes from the all-knowing God CONCLUSION The conscience will condemn when you have failed to obey God When it does you must turn your heart toward God Scripture assures us that we are not spiritually lost and separated from God because of failure Through your conscience Satan will tell you that you are now separated from God Satan will tell you that God no longer loves you and has turned you away Don’t let Satan use your conscience to tell you lies John is encouraging us to look to God and let God explain our conscience This is just another reason why learning God’s Word is so important As Christians we know the things that John has taught us are true Whenever our hearts condemn us turn to prayer and the study of God’s Word Again, remember that Satan will turn you away from seeking the truth from God Satan does not want you to believe God is love and God still loves you Listen to Satan and you will not have the assurance that comes from a heart of love You will not have the assurance of God’s presence that comes with loving one another God will speak through our conscience because He wants us to learn from disobedience to be obedient We will sense guilt, but we still belong to God, and we still belong in His presence John is going to later in his letter teach us the way that God’s teaches us obedience when we sin God does not overlook sin, God will deal with our unconfessed sin, He will because He loves us Through the rest of 1 John 3, John is going to teach us to turn to God at all times Something that God teaches us through all of the experiences of our life Have we learned to turn to God through all that we have experienced in the last year and recent days? During our testimonial time Sunday, Russ shared a great point with us He walked out on the porch and there was silence, no noises from the source of electricity Even the birds and animals were silent, what a time to realize that God was still there For the last year God has given us many opportunities to realize that God is present The problems of life have been loudly proclaimed, the silence for God must be broken It is time to give attention to, Psa 100:1 A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Psa 100:2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Psa 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psa 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psa 100:5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. Listen to what Paul said to Timothy, 2Ti 1:12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which Page 4 of 5 I have committed unto him against that day. Now watch the screen and sing along Do you have the “Assurance of Salvation?” Is there peace within your heart? Page 5 of 5