1 John 3:19-24 Five Practical Aims To Strengthen A Believers Confidence Part 1
Last week we looked at 1 John 3:15-18. We saw that a believer is radically changed when the truth of the gospel is received by faith. They become children of God. A believer has eternal life abiding in them and they also have the love of God abiding in them. And where these two things come together in the life of a believer profound things can happen.
Now all of this sounds great! We look at this and we expect that every believer will immediately dogreat exploits and profound achievements for the kingdom of God in this life. We consider the fact that the love of God and the life of God dwells in us and we think that this means that we will never struggle with anything ever again.
And yet, the very next part of the text that we come to today in 1 John 3:19-24is about how a believer can experience assurance and confidence before God. We have the love of God and the life of God in us but we will still have to deal with indwelling sin which often makes us lack assurance and lack confidence to come near to God. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit abiding in us, but we have only begun the process of learning how to rely upon Him and not upon ourselves.
Consider the church in Galatia who struggled with this. They responded well to the gospel initially but when they began to walk out their sanctification they responded in the wrong way and they found themselves in a very dire situation. They abandoned Christ and began to accept a false gospel. Paul says in Galatians 1:6-7, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
Then in Galatians 2:17-21Paul says, “But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live, in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
In a similar way, the believers that John is writing too have been thrown into confusion by the false teachers and their deceptive teachings. John has been addressing these teachers and their teachings throughout this letter and will continue to do so. Now he encourages these Christians in practical ways that will keep them abiding in the truth and in ways that will help them to rely upon the truth of God and not be deceived. They have the love of God and the life of God abiding in them but it is best manifested among those who apply the gospel in five different areas of their life.
Let’s read 1 John 3:19-24,
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 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. 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.
Our text this morning is about how a believer can have assurance before the Lord. It is a text that gives us instruction as to how we can know that they are enjoying fellowship with the LORD. To do this John gives us five things to consider. We will consider these things over the next two weeks. These five things are:
A confident and assured Christian addresses the issues of the heart (19-21)
A confident and assured Christian prays and sees that God answer (22)
A confident and assured Christian walks by faith in the Son of God (23)
A confident and assured Christian loves the brothers and sisters in Christ (23)
A confident and assured Christian keeps the commandments of God (24)
If a Christian makes these five things the AIM of his life he will reassure his heart and have confidence before God. (1 Cor. 9:26; 2 Cor. 5:9, 13:11; Rom. 14:19; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:4, 3:10) He will discover that he abides in God, and God is in Him; and he will know that God abides in Him by the Spirit that is given to us. None of these five things can be done apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who fulfills our attempts by His power (2 Thess. 1:11)
This morning we will be celebrating communion and this has directed my thoughts concerning this sermon. Here are the two main things that I will focus upon. First, we will consider the arrogance of the sinner and the apprehension of the saint before God. Why is it that a sinner is so confident in their sin and the saint can be so uncertain about the grace that they have received?
Secondly, we will spend some time looking at where John tells us to begin. A saint is to plumb the depths of their soul and heart with the truth of God and the light of God to mortify the sin that dwells there and to witness the grace of God at work. (Psalm 43:3)
Let’s Consider The Arrogance Of The Sinner And The Apprehension Of The Saint
There is a paragraph that is found in the book, Flower’s From A Puritan’s Garden, that I would like to read. The book does not tell who the original author was but the text applies to our topic today. It says,
The story of our lives is all engraved upon the heart, and when God awakens the heart, and when God awakes the conscience, it tells of past sin. God will open the sinner’s eyes in the next world, not by a holy illumination, but by a forced conviction. We are told in Revelation 20:12, ‘The books were opened’, and one of these books is conscience, and though it be in the sinner’s keeping, and therefore may become blurred and defaced, yet our story will be legible enough, and forgotten sins will stare us in the face: ‘Be sure your sin will find you out’ (Numbers 32:23). We forget it now, and we think we shall never hear of it more; but God can make all occur to memory as fresh as if newly committed, and in an instant represent the story of an ill-spent life, and show us all the thoughts, words, and actions that ever we have been guilty of. The paper goes white into the printing-house; but within one instant it is marked within and without, and comes forth stamped with words, and lines, and sentences, which were in no way legible there before; even so will it be with the soul when conscience is aroused at the last. (p.97)
Consider again how that paragraph began, “The story of our lives is all engraved upon the heart, and when God awakens the heart, and when God awakens the conscience, it tells of past sin.”
The quote above speaks of the Day of Judgment when God will ‘awaken the conscience’ and ‘open the sinners eyes’. On that day, they will experience a ‘holy illumination’, and by ‘a forced conviction’, they will be made to see the sinfulness that they could not see in this life. They will be made to remember all of the sins that they had suppressed and forgotten about over time. What once had become ‘blurred and defaced’ will be seen clearly by the conscience on that day. In that moment, God will make the memory of these sins ‘as fresh as if they were newly committed’.
On that day, for the very first time they will experience shame for those sins that they had so willingly flaunted in their lives. They will experience the shame that they thought they had successfully avoided all of those years. They will be made to see the sins that they had amassed throughout their lifetime.
The sinner claimed to be in the light while they walked in darkness (1:6). The sinner claimed to have no sin; and in doing so proved the Word of God was not in them (1:8). The sinner boldly claims to declare the truth while they make God out to be the liar (1:10). They say, ‘I know Him!’, but they lie (2:4).
The heart of the believer is what John is speaking about in 1 John 3:19-21. The word ‘heart’ is mentioned four times in the first three verses of our text. When John speaks of the heart he also is referring to the conscience of a person. John says, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God...”
The Christian’s heart and conscience has already been made alive and they have been made to see their many sins, transgressions, and iniquities that they have committed against a holy, righteous and just God. Their conscience has been made alive and so they sense when they have done something that will offend the holiness of God.
The irony of what we have seen in this letter is that there can be such a great confidence, pride and arrogance in men when their conscience is dead. They can speak so confidently of the very things that they do not possess. They claim to be saved; but they are not. They claim to have fellowship with God; but they don’t. They claim to have great knowledge and wisdom; yet they have become fools and walk in the path of folly. They are like the woman Folly in Proverbs 9:13, “The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.”
The sinner boldly comes to God and says, “Lord I thank you that I am not like other men, the extortioners, the unjust, the adulterers, or even like this tax collector!” (Luke 18:11) The wicked join together and with one loud voice and they proclaim, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:3) They boldly declare, “There is no God!”
And yet, a genuine Christian whose conscience has been made alive says the opposite things. They are humbled by their sinfulness and cry out for mercy, They are like the tax collector who stood far off and beat his chest and would not even look up to heaven while he said, “God have mercy on me a sinner.” (Luke 18:13) They are like the psalmist in Psalm 123 who says, “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!...Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt….the contempt of the proud.” (1,3,4)
An unbeliever is not aware of their sinfulness; but a believer has become aware of their sinfulness and of their desperate need for Christ! Paul says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our LORD!” (7:24-25)
A christian has been made aware of the battle that rages within them concerning indwelling sin. A Christian will grow in their sanctification but they will always be able to say with Paul, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.” (Philippians 3:12)
The Believer has the life of God and the love of God abiding in them; but they can often lack assurance and confidence before God because they are aware of these things. As a result, they wonder if they have genuinely believed upon Jesus Christ? They wonder why they are not progressing more quickly in sanctification? They become frustrated over besetting sins and habits that they succumb too. They feel as though progress in sanctification can easily be erased in a single moment.
As doubts like this begin to arise, John provides some helpful advice for us in our text. He gives us five things to keep in mind as we run this race. He gives us five things to make our own, because Christ Jesus has made us His own (Philippians 4:12).
A confident and assured Christian addresses the issues of the heart (19-21)
A confident and assured Christian prays and sees that God answer (22)
A confident and assured Christian walks by faith in the Son of God (23)
A confident and assured Christian loves the brothers and sisters in Christ (23)
A confident and assured Christian keeps the commandments of God (24)
John begins by letting us know that a Christian gains assurance when they address their heart. Really? How can we gain assurance by looking there? The heart conceals many sins that we would never want to be revealed. The heart contains some of our most precious and cherished sins that we secretly never want to do away with.
John is letting us know that we don’t grow in assurance by ignoring sin or redefining sin. We don’t grow in assurance by believing that sin is something that is for someone else to deal with. No, a believer who has assurance and confidence with God will shine the light and truth of God’s word in the depths of the inner workings of the heart. (Psalm 119:10-11 – With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.)
It does not always come easy to consider the heart. Yet we are commanded to do so in places like Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
It is easy to see the externals and forget about the condition of our heart. Let me illustrate this with a story. The other day I was sitting at home and I noticed that the end of my thumb was black and blue. I looked at it for quite some time and tried to figure out what I had done to my thumb that made that happen. I did not remember hitting it. I did not remember smashing it into something. I probably spent five minutes looking at it and trying to remember what had happened. Then I looked just two inches down my thumb and saw the wound that is still healing from the seven stitches I had to get in my hand two weeks ago.
I was shocked that I had spent so long trying to figure out what had happened to my thumb that it did not cross my mindthat it was the cut that caused it. How could I have forgotten that? I cut myself with my own hand. I had to go to the walk-in and get seven stitches. I will have to pay a rather large sum of money for the medical attention I received. And yet, I forgot about it till I looked just two inches down my thumb.
There are many people today who lament, weep and mourn over the sin around them; but there are only a few people who weep over the sin that is in their heart. There are only a few people who will look at their heart and say with the apostle Paul, ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ (Romans 7:24)
One of my favorite books, ‘Keeping the Heart’ was written by a man named John Flavel. He says“Reader, I think I shall prevail with you. All that I beg for is this, that you would step aside more often to talk with God and your own heart; that you would not suffer every trifle to divert you; that you would keep a more true and faithful account of your thoughts and affections; that you would seriously demand of your own heart at least every evening, ‘O my heart, where have you been today, and what has engaged your thoughts?’”
We know that there are some seasons when a believer will lack assurance more than at other times. There are some seasons when we are more prone to doubt the love of God and the life of God is in us. (adversity, troubles, trials, temptations, transgressions, times of spiritual darkness, etc) But what if John wrote this passage with the thought in mind that it would have daily significance for the believer?
Daily we ought to look at our heart and say with the apostle Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
And having addressed our heart we would then be able to say with Paul, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our LORD!” (7:24-25)I have seen that the most wretched part of me is my heart; but I have seen the greatest grace and the greatest power is done by God in my heart as well. If we will do the hard work of addressing our hearts we will say with Paul, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16)
As we come to Communion this morning we are called to examine ourselves. Paul says, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the LORD in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the LORD. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat the bread and drink of the cup.” (1 Cor. 11:27-29)
As we come to communion this morning let us take time to reflect upon the five things that John addresses in our text.
A confident and assured Christian addresses the issues of the heart (19-21)
A confident and assured Christian prays and sees that God provide answers (22)
A confident and assured Christian walks by faith in the Son of God (23)
A confident and assured Christian loves the brothers and sisters in Christ (23)
A confident and assured Christian keeps the commandments of God (24)
Having taken the time to reflect upon these things let us approach communion by remembering…
Christ and what He has done,
by receiving and acknowledging the grace of God that is provided to us,
by approaching this moment with confidence and assurance,
and by responding practically in any appropriate manner.
loving our brothers and sisters,
respond in obedience to God’s Word and commands
spend more time addressing the heart
pray appropriately for the grace that is needed
respond in faith and apply the gospel in all areas of our life