The Ground for Assurance in Salvation: 1st John Lesson 18

1 John 3:20-25

 We are going back to 1 John 3 this morning to continue the topic we started last week. Last week we looked at verse 19 which says, “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our hearts before Him.” With this verse John very clearly states that the issue of assurance is not a vague issue. We looked at a number of passages that teach us about how secure we are in the salvation God has provided. Because salvation is the work of God from start to finish, and because there is no greater power or authority than God, what God has started God will finish in the life of every true Christian.

 The issue of whether or not one can be born again and lost again is a settled issue if you read the Bible and study it carefully. Those who truly born again, as Peter tells us, have been “caused to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” This is why, as Peter goes on to say in 1 Peter 1, that we will “obtain as the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls.”

 If someone is born again they will not be lost again. Those who walk away from the faith and abandon a commitment to the Lord prove they were never truly saved. This is a common problem as evidenced by the teaching of Jesus regarding the wheat and the tares. Satan is using a distorted gospel to fill the church with those who “believe in Jesus” but are not truly converted. Satan wants as many as possible to experience the horrible pronouncement of Jesus when people say to Him, “Lord, Lord” only to hear from Him, “Depart from Me.” Paul’s letters tell of many who departed from the faith because they were never truly part of the work of salvation.

 As we saw last week, there are a number of people who believe in the biblical doctrine of eternal security who believe they are going to heaven based on the fact that this doctrine is biblical and true, rather than on the evidence of a transformed life. There are so many who have prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into their hearts and gotten baptized and joined a church, and were told that because they did this they are saved and will never loose that salvation. The problem is that the Bible never says anywhere that getting saved is as simple as praying a prayer and asking Jesus into your heart. Salvation involves repentance, and faith and counting the cost of discipleship and surrendering one’s life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. This is the result of the supernatural work of God in bringing sinners to the end of themselves where they find Jesus Christ as the only hope of salvation.

 But as secure as we are in salvation, we know that doubts are a common problem. Last week, when I asked you to raise your hands if you ever dealt with doubts regarding your salvation, the vast majority of us raised our hands. We need the truth of verse 19. “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our hearts before Him.” It is critical to understand what John means by “this.” I told you last week that “this” had to refer to either what John has previously written, or what he is about to write. We find “this” in the words that follow. So what we find in verses 20-24 are those things upon which a confident assurance should be based. Here are the evidences upon which we can assure our hearts before God. Let’s read verses 19-24 again.

 The first of these evidences is a heart that does not successfully condemn us. Look at what verse 20 goes on to say following verse 19. Let’s read them together. “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our hearts before Him in whatever our hearts condemn us;” Let’s stop there. Let’s consider a question. Do our hearts condemn us?

 Remember last week when I asked you to raise your hand if you ever dealt with doubts regarding your salvation? Almost every hand in the house went up. Why is it that we who are truly saved still deal with doubts? It is because there are times when our hearts still condemn us. We are not perfect. We still sin. John established early in the letter that if we say we have no sin we lie. When we sin we open the door for our hearts to condemn us.

There are times when I find the residual effects of sin so prevalent in my heart that I say to myself, “How can I be a Christian and this still be a problem for me?” One of the areas of my life that has been a struggle has been the area of anger. When I get angry it is far too easy for me to get “into the flesh” if you know what I mean. There have been times in my Christian life when my anger has produced some stupid actions. When things settle down and I come back down to earth I am broken, repentant, full of regret, usually embarrassed, and filled with doubt. How could a person who has been born again of God let himself get that angry? I must not truly be a Christian. No one who has God’s Spirit abiding in him should be able to act like that. In those times my heart condemns me.

 The accuser also goes to work in those times. Revelation 12:10 calls Satan the accuser of the brethren who accuses us before the Father night and day. For some reason God allows Satan access to make his hateful accusations. This is what makes what we learned in 1 John 2:1-2 so important. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the entire world.” When Satan accuses, Jesus Christ the righteous pleads our case. He is our Advocate who simply says, “That sin has been paid for. I paid the penalty for that sin.”

 I want to remind you of what the Bible teaches us about our hearts. The world’s mantra is “listen to your heart.” The Bible tells us that the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. (Jeremiah 17:9) When our hearts condemn us we need to remember that our hearts are more deceitful than all else and desperately sick. We need to remember what the rest of verse 20 says, “for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things.” He knows who are His. He is not deceitful or desperately sick. Who are you going to trust? Your heart which is deceitful and sick, or God who is faithful and true. God has promised that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If that is true, and I know it is, it doesn’t matter what my heart says. It doesn’t matter how much Satan accuses. If I am in Christ I am not condemned because that is what God has said.

 Verse 21 says, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” This is an important statement. “If our heart does not condemn us…” Is it possible to avoid a condemning heart? Yes it is. What will prevent our hearts from condemning us? When we fill our hearts with the truth and we see the evidence of a transformed life, our hearts will not be able to condemn us. We avoid even our hearts condemning us when we love one another, when we obey God’s commandments, and when we abide in the truth.

 It is when obedience characterizes our walk, it is when we walk in righteousness as a course of life, it is when we love one another as a way of life, it is when we love the truth and walk according to the truth that we find that our hearts do not condemn us. It is our obedience that produces confidence before God. It is our love for one another that gives us assurance before God. It is loving and living according to the truth that keeps our hearts from having anything to work with. This is what keeps the accuser at bay. We have confidence before God.

 I don’t worry too much about the believer who doubts his or her salvation as long as they are striving to please God and failing once in a while. Disobedience will produce doubts. When we disobey we give our hearts and the accuser something to work with. So I don’t worry about the one who is striving to please God who fails from time to time. I worry about those whose lives are characterized by disobedience but they never doubt. They are deceived.

 The first evidence of a sound basis for assurance is that our heart is not successful when it condemns us.

 The second evidence is answered prayer. Answered prayer is one of the things God does for those who are truly His. Answered prayer is a reliable piece of evidence that we have a right relationship with God through salvation.

 This is a challenging statement John makes here. John seems to make a broad and comprehensive statement regarding answers to prayer. He says, “whatever we ask we receive from Him.” Is there even one person here who can say that they have always received everything they have asked God for? I can’t. Does this mean that I am not a child of God?

 Those who teach the prosperity gospel, rather the prosperity false gospel, teach that we can have anything we ask if we just have enough faith to believe we will receive it. The Bible never teaches anything of the sort. That theology makes God a great genie in the sky who grants us infinitely more than three wishes. It is appalling doctrinally.

 James tells us why we don’t get what we ask for most often. Sometimes we ask with wrong motives. I know that many times when I pray for something I must admit I am not able to tell what God’s will is regarding the situation. I pray for a miracle healing for someone dying with cancer. I don’t always get what I ask for but I don’t know what God’s will is. I have to trust that He knows best.

 Here is what John is emphasizing in verse 22. When our hearts are not condemning us it is because we are walking in close fellowship with our heavenly Father.  When we are keeping His commandments and doing the things that are pleasing in His sight, we are walking in intimate fellowship with our heavenly Father. We have confidence and boldness in our relationship with Him because there is nothing that is hindering our sweet, intimate fellowship.

 If the goal of your life is to maintain unbroken, intimate, flawless fellowship with your heavenly Father, nurturing a relationship with Him that facilitates confidence in His presence, and you would never do or say or think anything that would offend Him or violate His will, you have confidence that you will receive what you ask of Him. If this is true of us we will not be asking for anything that isn’t His will to grant.

 The problem is that too often it is true of me that I am not taking my obedience as seriously as I should. I’m not as focused as I should be on doing only those things that are pleasing in His sight. I’m not doing things necessarily that are sinful, they may be more neutral. I find it hard most of the time to focus my every thought, word, and deed on doing only what is pleasing in His sight.

 I think if we could reach the point in our maturity where we were only always filled with the Spirit and focused only on doing what was pleasing in His sight, we would see a great deal more answer to prayer. But you know what? God answers my prayers even though I am not perfect. He gives grace. He knows me. He understands how easily I am distracted. He confirms my relationship with Him through answered prayers. I have assurance and confidence before Him because He answers prayers.

 The third evidence is faith. Look at verse 23. “This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” The Apostles of our Lord had much more in mind when they spoke of believing in Jesus than many people today who claim to “believe” in Jesus. Obviously, John understood that to believe in the name of God’s Son Jesus Christ was to understand the compelling message of the Gospel. It was to find Jesus as the only answer to man’s sin problem. It was to turn to Him in repentance and faith and surrender to Him as Lord of your life. They would have soundly rejected the idea that all a person has to do is intellectually assent to the truth that Jesus died for their sins and all you have to do is ask Him to come into your heart.

 The Apostles, every one except John, laid down their lives as martyrs for what they believed about Jesus. If believing was as easy as it is sold today, they would have been fine if they had taken the easy path. They didn’t have to die as martyrs. They could have denied Jesus with their lives and their lips, but they would have been “ok” as long as they “believed in Him in their hearts.” There are some who teach that this kind of belief is all that is required.

When John writes of believing in the name of the Son of God he means that we embrace all that this name represents. It is to believe what He claimed about Himself. Caleb rightly stated last week concerning the words of Jesus in John 14:1, “Do not let your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” If Jesus is not God these words are blasphemy. Believe in Me as you believe in God because I am God. If Jesus is God, and He is, then belief in Him means so much more than just some kind of shallow confession that Jesus is my Savior.

Anyone who will not surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ has no basis for assurance of their salvation. We cannot confess Christ and live for ourselves and know for sure that we are His. By this we will know we are of the truth, when we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and embrace all that this name represents.

 The fourth evidence is love for one another. Look again at verse 23. “…and love one another, just as He has commanded us.” We don’t need to say much about this because we have seen it so much and we will see it again. It is one of John’s major themes. We will love one another. We will be devoted to meeting one another’s needs. We will not be able to look at the needs of a brother or sister in Christ with indifference. We will be willing to lay down our lives for one another. Our love for one another gives us assurance that we are of the truth.

 The fifth evidence is obedience to our Lord’s commandments. Look at verse 24. “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.” This statement also brings back into focus things we have already seen. Obedience is what characterizes the true Christian. It is impossible to have assurance apart from obedience. John tells us that those who keep His commandments abide in Him and He in the one who keeps His commandments. We learned that to abide in Him means that we are of one heart, one mind, and one will with Jesus Christ. We love what He loves, we think what He thinks, and our will is conformed to His will. This is what gives us confidence before God. This is what assures us that we are of the truth. Loving what He loves, as He loves, thinking like He thinks, and doing what He would do – this is the basis for assurance. 

 The sixth evidence is His Holy Spirit whom He has given us. Look again at verse 24. “We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Every true child of God receives the Holy Spirit at the time of his or her conversion. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 that after hearing the message of the gospel and having believed, we are sealed in Him (Christ) with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

 God’s Spirit abides in the true believer. He does what Jesus promised He would do. He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. He guides us into all the truth. He is our Helper. He helps us when we pray. The Holy Spirit is God’s abiding presence in us. Because He abides in us, we have assurance that we are of the truth.

 Doubts are a common experience among the true faithful followers of Christ. We don’t always do everything we should and our conscience is sensitive and our hearts condemn us. Thankfully God’s grace is sufficient. We may doubt because we don’t see prayers answered as often as we would like. Sometimes our faith is not as strong as it should be. Maybe we don’t always demonstrate love for one another the way we should. I know that I am not always as obedient as I could be or should be. And there are times when I don’t respond to the Holy Spirit as quickly as I might. 

 There will be doubts when these evidences are lacking to some degree. I don’t worry about the believer who struggles with doubt. I worry about the believer who should be struggling with doubt but doesn’t. If there is a confidence that is not based on the evidence, there is likely a person who has been deceived into believing they are a Christian when they may not be.

 If you are struggling with doubts, spend some time memorizing and meditating on this passage. Ask God to affirm you as His child. He doesn’t want you being crippled by doubts. He certainly doesn’t want you to walk away from the faith just because you can’t eliminate all doubt. Ask Him to help you grow in your confidence before Him. That is a prayer He will answer. Ask Him to help you mature in the faith. That is also a prayer He will answer. Ask Him to help you love your brothers and sisters in Christ. He will show you opportunities to do that. Ask Him to help you walk in obedience to His commands. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you hear Him speak to your conscience and grow sensitive to His work in hour heart. If you have grown calloused to His voice, confess, repent, and yield to the Holy Spirit in everything.

 We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before Him. Let’s pray