07 When Your Heart Condemns You (1 John 3:13-24)

Speaker: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word, a serious Bible study applied to real life. Today is October 23rd, 2013. Our passage is 1 John 3, verses 13 through 24, and our teacher is Krisan Marotta. This is the seventh message in our series on the book of 1 John. Krisan Marotta: Okay, we are in 1 John chapter 3 today, and I'm actually I've this is one of the sections of 1 John I was very excited to teach. I love passages where you the first time you read them, they're like there's a puzzle. There's something unusual or something you have. Well, how can I unravel that? And then when you finally, after you know hours of study, you unravel. It's just so exciting and satisfying. So that's that's how this passage is today. And as we're going to look at 1 John 3, you'll notice there's a familiar pattern of contrasts. So, and it makes sense that John would be talking about contrasts in this letter because he's been trying to teach us how to recognize the true gospel from false gospel and how to tell the true gospel that the apostles taught from heresies that are starting to spring up in his day. So he makes sense that he'd talk in kind of black and white terms. So we've seen him talk about light and darkness, death and life, truth and error, God and the devil, and today he's gonna use love and hate. So the problem in this passage is John seems to be saying that love is a mark of believers and hate is a mark of non-believers. But if you look around you, I'm sure you all know you've run into believers who struggle with hate or not liking someone, and you've run into non-believers who genuinely uh love their children or their family or whatever. So how I mean, who among us hasn't, you know, cross paths with someone in their Christian life that just drives you crazy? You know, and you think, how am I ever going to get along with them? You know, maybe for good reason. And then John comes along in 15 and says, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him? So it's well, what am I supposed to do with that? And you've probably all met atheists who wholeheartedly love their children and um who have long-term successful marriages, you know, or they show deep abiding respect for their elderly parents or friendships that have lasted a lifetime. So isn't that real love too? So, how can love be a mark of believers and hate um be a mark of non-believers when we look around us and that doesn't seem to be true? So that's the puzzle we're gonna try to unlock today. So let me just review where we are. So remember, John started this in 1.5 after his little his preface by saying, God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. So God is completely and totally good, and in him there is no evil, no darkness, no sin of any kind at all. And so then he says, Therefore, genuine believers or those who are his children will know that they're sinful. That was chapter 1, uh 5 through 10. They will long for the holiness, that was 2, 1 through 11. They will not long for the world, things of the world, that was 12 through 17, and then they will confess that Jesus is Christ. So that was 2, 18 through 29. And then last week we added to that from the beginning of chapter 3, they will pursue a lifestyle of holiness and not a lifestyle of sin. So he's told us so far genuine believers will know they're sinful. They were hunger and thirst for righteousness, to use Jesus' words, so they will long for the things of God, to use John's words. They will not long for the things of this world, they will confess that Jesus is the Christ, and they will pursue a lifestyle of holiness, not a lifestyle of sin. So those are the marks he's given us before. So to help us unravel what's going on here, I want to actually back up and look back at the pat the verses we ended with last week. So in first John three, eleven through thirteen, remember this is how we ended last week. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was the evil one and slew his brother, and for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. So just to review where we ended, that was his example last week, and he talked about the world or non-believers, those who don't follow God, will hate believers because they are good, because they are righteous. So as we saw with Cain and Abel, the darkness hates the light. They see it as a threat. So for what reason did Cain murder Abel? It wasn't revenge, it wasn't because Abel had harmed him in some way, it wasn't to settle any kind of a grudge or his livelihood or his life wasn't threatened, it was because Abel was righteous and he wasn't. So Cain murdered Abel because Abel trusted God and he didn't. Well, uh he the clue we have in the text is that uh Abel says it says Abel offered brought an offering to God of his first fruits, the best of his flock, and Cain just brought an offering. So presumably Abel was following God and God was pleased, and Abel brought a less than stellar offering, and God was not pleased with it, and he reacted to that, and he wanted Abel out of the way. So he kills his brother because he is righteousness, he did what was pleasing to God and uh Cain didn't, and then he says, Don't be surprised if the world hates you, and that should be a familiar topic. Um remember this is from John 15, 18 through 20. This is part of the upper room discourse where Jesus is giving final instructions to the twelve, and he says in John 15, 18 to 20, If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, because I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. So when John says in three thirteen, don't be surprised if the world hates you, well, that should sound familiar to us because that's part of the words of Jesus. But when he says in three fifteen, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life, well, that raises the question, we've got hate equals murder equals no eternal life. In what sense? How do we know that? Now, again, we do have some words from Jesus on this. This is from the Sermon of the Mount. This is Matthew 5, 20 through 22. For I say to you then less that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court, and whoever says to his brother, You good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court, and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Well, that's comforting, right? I mean I look at that and I go, Oh dear, I'm in trouble. What does he mean? Everyone who says you fool, who hasn't, you know, turned to their husband in anger and said, You fool? What what is Jesus saying? So Jesus is claiming, look, we all fall short here, I think. That's part of the the pr uh the message of the Sermon of the Mount is if you're counting on the law to get you there, you're it's not gonna work. You're falling short. And John comes along and says, Okay, if you're if you fall short, there's no eternal life, so how do we reconcile those ideas? What's going on? Okay, so let's start thinking this through. He can't mean that no one who is hated at any point in his Christian life is not saved, because none of us would be saved. We we can just look through the Bible, look at the heroes of the faith, and see that there are times when their anger is recorded, and we know that hate is part of sin and we're all sinful, and so if he means once we're saved, we can never be angry again or be sinful again, then we're all in trouble. And he we know he wouldn't mean that because he's already reassured them that he believes in their faith and that they are believers. Now I think that's precisely the point Jesus was trying to make in this in the Sermon on the Mount. He was trying to say, you're sinful, you fall short. You think the law is down here, and the law just says, don't actually commit murder, but I'm telling you the intent of the law is up here, you shouldn't even want to commit murder. So the same sin that makes you actually do it makes you want to do it, and there's not so you're falling short. So there's nothing you can do on your own to make yourself righteous. So don't think all your outward law keeping is going to impress God and save you when your motivation for keeping that law is selfish and evil. So looking good on the outside is not enough. You actually have to be good on the inside. So I think that's what's going on in the Sermon on the Mount. And we know that John thinks some of us are saved because he's already commended his believers for persevering in the faith. And what's the point of writing a letter to teach us how to tell genuine believers from false believers if there aren't any? So, okay, so let's rule that, take that one off the table. So another option is maybe John is actually talking about committing murder, so actually following through with the act and murdering. So not just hating, but actually following through on your hate and taking a life. Well, that's going to rule out a lot of heroes of the faith, because think about Paul who persecuted Christians and stood by watching while Stephen was martyred, or Moses who killed an Egyptian in anger because the Egyptian was beating the Hebrew, and of course, you've got David and Uriah, David sending Uriah off to the front lines of battle so he could take his wife. So now we're in trouble. And I don't think John would intend to cast doubt on these people's fate. So I think we can take that one off the table, too. Alright, so now what are we left with? Well, this is where I think Cain and Abel comes in, because that's the context. So remember, he was just talking about Cain murdered Abel as a sign of his hostility to God. So Cain was angry with God. He didn't think um, he was, he didn't trust God enough to offer the best of his flock and his offering, and he was angry that God didn't accept his offering, and he um so he took all that anger at the invisible God out on his visible brother, and he killed his brother because the darkness hates the light. So he killed his brother out of a rebellion to God. Now that kind of begins to make sense because we know that no one who lives in rebellion to God is saved. And I would suggest in in 315 that John is not speaking of murder per se, but murder that comes from a rebellion to God. So it's hate, like we saw with Cain, his hate was a hate that was born from a rebellion to God, and it was expressed in the murder of his brother. And those people who hate like that, whether they actually commit murder or not, they will have no eternal life. So I think that's why John can say Cain wasn't the evil one. He was acting in rebellion to God just like Satan does. He was a slave to his sin, he was a slave to that rebellion to God, and we know that no one who is a slave to sin has eternal life. So Christians are still gonna hate at times. And what does that mean? Well, it may mean we're not acting like a believer at that particular moment, but I don't think it means we cease to believe or we cease to be be a believer. So he we may not be acting like a Christian, but we are still a Christian. And I think John's been talking about eventually our the conviction of our sin will win out. We will begin to see it. God will change our hearts so we see it for what is is and grieve with us. So after or during the hate, we would expect to see a reaction of a broken heart, of throwing ourselves on God's mercy, crying out that we were wrong and asking him to save us, as we see with David, for instance, in Psalm 51, after Nathan confronts him about his sin with Bathsheba, he cries out, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. So that's the response we'd eventually expect a believer to have. Okay, so that kind of sets the stage. Let's look now at uh verse by verse. So we're going to start in 1 John 13 and well in 14. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you, for we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. So I think all he means by passed out of death into life is we are no longer controlled by death the way we used to be controlled by it. So the familiar New Testament language might be we are no longer slaves to our sin. Now our ultimate destiny is we will be saved and we will have life and righteousness. So before we had faith, the law said, here's the standard of righteousness, actually way up here. Do this and live, don't do it and die. But we couldn't do it. Because, as when I used to teach second grade Sunday school, we used to say we have broken choosers. And the thing inside us that makes us choose is broken, so that we always choose the wrong thing no matter what. But as we are incapable of choosing the right thing for the right motives, but as God changes us and saves us, he fixes our broken choosers so that now we have the ability to choose the right thing. And we increasingly not only actually choose the right thing, we want to choose the right thing even when we don't. So we have a resource we didn't have before, which is the Holy Spirit and God writing the law in our hearts, that gives us the ability as we grow in faith and maturity to keep the law. So we still sin, but our reaction to it is different. We don't justify it, we don't glory in it, we don't excuse it, instead we grieve and mourn over it. So Christians may still hate at times, but they react differently. Instead of it controlling them and guiding them and taking over their lives, they become eventually convicted of the sin and overwhelmed by the shame and cry out to be saved. While I think we can say non-believers will persist in their sin or in the rebel out of a rebellion to God. Okay. So that's what he's saying. So we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. That was 14. What happened to verse 15 in my notes? Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So let's so we're kind of beginning to unravel how is hate a mark of non-believers, but we haven't really answered the question, how is love a mark of believers? And so when he says in Um 16 or is it uh I'm losing my spot here. We where is that? Because we love the brethren, and he okay, well let's just go on. Let's I'll find it when I I'm probably ahead of myself in my notes. So he's saying, we know that we're believers because uh we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and in 16 and then in 14, because we love the brethren, we know that we are believers because we love the brethren. So what's going on there? How can he say that loving others is a mark of belief? Well, I think partly we know that it because it's a mark of saving faith. So loving others is not something we would do left to ourselves, it's part of the gift. So just review, hopefully, this is a review for most of you. Saving faith involves four things. First, a genuine recognition that I am sinful. So that's what John's been talking about in this letter. I know that I'm sinful, and we might add to that, left to myself, I can do nothing about it. So I know I'm sinful, and I know I can't do anything left to myself. That's the first aspect. The second thing would be a genuine longing to be freed from my sin, longing to be holy. Again, that's what John's been talking about. That is a mark of faith that believers want to be changed. Third, he hasn't said this one, but I think we know from other scriptures, it would be a genuine recognition that God owes me nothing. So I have done nothing to deserve grace or forgiveness. There's no reason God has to forgive me because there's nothing about me that I've done. So I I know that I'm sinful, I know I can't get there on my own, I long to be freed from my sin. I know God owes me nothing, and then the last one is a firm trust that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God will in fact forgive me, will grant me grace and make me righteous. So that second aspect, that longing to be holy, uh means, as we've seen in 1 John, that I love the things of God, and those who have faith will love the things of God, including the people of God. Okay. So we've that's kind of what we've learned so far with John. But how is he saying here, love is a mark of a Christian in a way that it's not a mark of a non-Christian? So I don't think the Bible ever claims that Christians have a monopoly on love. There are kinds of love, and we you I'm sure you've run into many non-believers who love their friends and family and so forth. But I think the Bible does say that Christians have a kind of love that is different than non-believers, and we see it in verse 16. The kind of love that's different is the kind of love we saw in Jesus and that he laid down his life for us. So there's a sense in which before we come to faith, all our love is self-centered. You know, it's it's uh selfish in some sense. We love our children because they're our children, and we love our parents because they're our parents, and we love our relatives because they're our family, or and we love our friends because they're nice to us and they please us and they help us, and then well, if they don't, you know, we we drop them. You know, so there's a sense in which love in the non-Christian world is always self-centered because it's based on what you do for me and how well we get along, or how what I get from you, and that in that sense. So there's always a s a selfish aspect to it. And Jesus made this point again in the Sermon on the Mount. This is Matthew 5, 43 through 47. You've heard it said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. And then listen to this verse, for if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax gatherers do the same. And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. So Jesus gives us a clue that there is a kind of love that we all have that's no different between believers and non-believers, and that is we love those who love us, or we love those who are lovable, or we love those who belong to us. And it's always the self-centered based on what I get in return or how it makes me feel. But something happens when we become believers, and that God can give us the kind of love such that we love those who are not lovable, or we love our enemies, or we love those who persecute us, or we love those who are unlovable, or those who give us nothing in return, and that is a sign of a believer. The desire to love not only those who love you, but those who don't love you. And that's something left to ourselves we don't have. But once God changes us, he grows it in us. Okay, follow me there. All right, now let me just make one clarification. I don't think John is saying that every believer who is a stranger to me has to be automatically become my new best friend. All right, so there are personality differences out there that you know that separate us, that uh are huge barriers to getting along, and sometimes it takes a lot of time and effort to overcome all the differences that separate us. They can be ethnic differences, racial, gender, you know, personality, introvert, extrovert differences, generational differences, all those kinds of things can be obstacles such that we meet people and we don't click or we don't automatically understand each other or get along. And I don't think John is saying everyone who comes along who claims to be a believer and maybe a stranger to me ought to be my new best friend, because there's all kinds of reasons why that might not happen. But he I think what he is saying is there are all these barriers that we have to overcome, but one of them ought not to be that we love Christ. That ought to be a bridge. So the fact that I I come across a believer who may be completely opposite of me, the thing that draws us together is the love of Christ. So that can become a bridge that overcomes all those other barriers like age, race, gender, whatever. So if I think his warning would be if you come across another believer, and the thing that irritates you about them is the fact that they're a believer, you better question where you are. You know, it may irritate you that you maybe they're conservative and you're liberal or whatever, vice versa, but it better the thing that better not drive you apart is the fact that you both love God. Okay. So remember, that's how he used the example of Cain and Abel. Cain hated Abel because he was a believer, because he was righteous. He killed him for it. And that's the negative example. He gives. And now then the the flip side of thing ought to be the one thing that ought to draw you together is your mutual love for God and the things of God. And if the love for the things of God is a barrier, hmm, better worry. Alright. So notice he gives us the positive example. We know love by this, and I think he means the kind of love I'm talking about that is a mark of believer, this is how we know what kind of love that is. We saw it in Jesus that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So we ought to start showing that kind of self-sacrificing love. Now, even to the point of being willing to give up our own rights. So in other words, show that kind of love that Jesus showed, which is the exact opposite of a self-centered love, a love that says, I will love you as long as you're lovable, versus a love that says, I will love you even when you're not. And maybe gives up your own rights and your own, you know, what you deserve to the point of death on the cross. So remember, of course, Jesus' last words on the cross were, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So even as he hung there dying, he prayed for the very people who were killing him. That's the kind of love. So this willingness to serve, this willingness to give up my own rights, to show love for another is a mark of a Christian. It's the example Jesus left us, and it's the example John calls us to. And notice it's in the present tense, suggesting this is repeated, continuous action. I don't think it means that we necessarily have to start dying for each other, but we ought to start showing this kind of love that says, I don't have to get my way, I don't have to always be right, I don't have to be the one in control. I can lay down my rights, my needs to serve someone else. And that's what he goes on to say. Look at verse 17. But whoever has the world's good and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or in tongue, but in deed in truth. So I think the point here is not that we should meet every need, but that we shouldn't close our hearts. Notice there's a transition from the plural our brothers in 16 to the singular his brother in verse 17. I think that's significant because I think he's saying you don't have to meet every need, but when you see a specific need, you ought to be, ought not to close your hearts. So whoever has the material necessities of life, so those who you have he's assuming you have the resources to meet this need, you see a specific need, like God drops it on your front door or in your lap, you ought to be willing to meet it. So I don't think this is the general case of you must go solve world poverty and all the needs of the world, but there are specific needs that God will put in your life. There are people you'll come across, there are needs you might come into, and when when God brings them to you, respond. A commentator that wrote back in the 1800s talking about this said, loving everyone in general can be an excuse for loving no one in particular. So we want to love those in particular. And I as I was thinking about this, I had when I used to live in Oregon, I had some friends who fell on hard times, and the husband hurt his back, he was bedridden and for almost a year, and at the same time his wife was pregnant with their fourth child. They were in a home b uh family business with their uncle, and it as all this wasn't enough, during the time he was bedridden and she was pregnant, they found the uncle was embezzling money from the business. So they were basically broke and they were in danger of losing their house. So she called their church where they were members, where they'd been in and out, and explained their situation and said, Look, I don't know how I'm gonna feed my children tomorrow. And whoever she talked to on the phone said, I'm sorry, we don't have a program for that. I thought, whoa, it's easier to talk about love than to do it, you know, easier to have a program than to actually be loving to people. And I, isn't that amazing? I I mean that's that's I think the kind of situation John would say. If you're in position to help and you see a specific need, so this wasn't a stranger off the street, this was someone they knew, a member of the church in hard times, um, you ought to help. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm guilty. I mean, I read these two verses and go, okay, I I'm in trouble. I mean, I who has ever been loving enough? I mean, how can I ever say I've I've met every need that God's put in my path? So I immediately start making lists of all, you know, all the new projects I should take on or how much money, more money I should give away. And there's a sense in which those verses ought to be convicted, but there's also a sense in which you have to realize your salvation is not on the line there. So if you read this and you go, I fall short, you're right. We all do, because none of us are the Messiah. We don't have to be everyone's savior. That's why we have a body of Christ. We need all of us. The body works, not just me. So don't get overwhelmed and I think you have to go, you know, solve world peace. But when God puts a certain need in your life, you ought to act on it. When you see a specific need and you have the resources to help. Now, my personal opinion is one of those needs we've been called to serve is our families. I mean, no one else is called to serve your family the way you are. No one else is called to to raise your children the way you are. So we can get all caught up in, oh, I've got to go out and serve the church and the world and the city and forget that there are people God dropped in your lap, and those are your family for the first part, and we ought not to neglect them. Now, beyond that, the possibilities are endless, and I encoura and I encourage you to find them. But and realize you're whatever God's calling you to do, it doesn't have to be the big, glamorous, high profile thing that always gets prayed for up front or out loud. There are lots of ways we can serve that never get noticed. You know, that they're acts of love and compassion and kindness, um, and they may never get written up in church magazines or make the front pages of the newspaper, but they are important and necessary. So don't get caught up in the trap of thinking it has to be high profile and glamorous. Okay, so back to so here's where we are with the puzzle. So we've we've kind of unraveled it this way, that we're saying, this is what I'm saying anyway, hopefully you agree with me, that the hate which is a mark of unbelief is a hate that results from a lifestyle of rebellion to God. And the love which is a mark of belief is a love which is not self-centered, which seeks to love the unlovable regardless of what you get in return. And that left to ourselves, we are unable to love like that. But because God has changed us and start writing his law in our heart, we are now able to show it, so it is a mark of belief. Okay, now he shifts gears a little bit to offer some reassurance. And I don't know about you, but if you've going through the first chapters of uh three chapters of 1 John, you can be filled with despair and start thinking, ooh, I'm not measuring up enough. I don't know if this describes me, and if if you're in that kind of doubt or despair, these next verses are for you. So look at three nineteen through twenty-two. We will know by this that we are of truth and will assure our heart before him, and whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. 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 the things that are pleasing in his sight. So we know that we are of the truth. I think he means a follower of the truth, or one who is a faithful disciple of Jesus. So it's a little different language than he's used up to this point, but I think it's the same concept. We know that we are genuinely believers, people who follow the truth. Then he interrupts himself with this little aside and finishes his sentence down in verse 22. So it's a little hard to tell from the English grammar, but the sentence is by this we know that we are of the truth, and then the interruption, and then in verse 22, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. So that's kind of the sentence. What's stuck in the middle is a kind of a parentheses. So I want to kind of take the sentence and then go back and look at the aside. So the keep his commandments, I think, just means to persevere. Think about it. So we've got this what's the difference between keeping his commandments and do the things that are pleasing? They're they're basically getting at the same point with a little different nuance. So when I have a keepsake, I value it and I safeguard it, and I want to keep it in its pristine original condition so it's not lost or destroyed or marred in any way. And that's the idea of keeping his commandments, valuing them, preserving them from distortion. You know, think about you have your great-grandmother's china, and whenever you use it, you know, you handle it with very extra care and you carry it precisely and steadily from the table to the to the dishwasher, and you maybe wash it by hand so nothing mars it. That's the idea. You keep it, you preserve it, you value it. You want to keep it in its original state. Um, and then do the things that are pleasing in in the second part of that verse is basically what also what we've been talking about, striving to conform my life to the teachings of Jesus. So not only hold these things as true in value, but actually want to follow them and to live like them and and to value them such that it's the way I want to live my life. So I think there it's basically one idea expressed with two different kinds of nuances that we know that we are of truth when we long to follow the things of Jesus and the law. Okay, and now let's look at the interruption because I think that's where the real reassurance is. So he's talking about our heart, and it's not the typical use of heart in the New Testament. Normally, when we see heart, it tends to mean my worldview, what I value, my goals. So when we talk about where my heart is at, it's what I've set my life on, my goal, my worldview, so um, that kind of thing. Here I think he means my subjective appraisal of who I am. So my heart is that inner voice that tells me you're doing a good job or you're not doing a good job. Or more, probably more typically for most of us, that inner voice that says, you know, you're really unreliable, you're kind of a loser, um, you're not really doing what you ought to be, you're not really a child of God, you better start worrying. That inner voice. And what he is saying is, your heart is unreliable. That inner voice that tells you you're wrong, don't listen to it. If you you can assure that inner voice, and when it condemns you, for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. But if our heart condemns us, we have confidence before God. I think he's saying, your heart isn't a reliable judge of your spiritual status, but God is. God is reliable. And look at what he's told you. He's told you that there are legitimate signs of faith, and if you show them, you're a believer. So not that you're obeying perfectly every minute of every day, but do you see the evidence of faith, the grieving over the sins, the longing to be righteous, the wanting to be saved, the trusting God for it? That's objective, tangible evidence. And so my assurance is not based on my subjective feelings, it's based on the evidence that God has given me about who I am. So your heart in that sense, your feelings, your inner voice, your emotional perceptions, that's not a valid indicator of your spiritual status. Your heart's gonna condemn you and say, well, you might not really be saved, maybe you don't pray enough, no, you don't love enough, you haven't done the right, loved the right people, you're deceiving yourself. It's gonna try to tell you that, but God is greater than your heart. So I think this is reminiscent of Paul's language in Romans 8, where he says, Who can separate us from the love of God? If Christ is for us, who can be against us? And John is saying, not even your inner voice, not even your inner voice can separate you from the love of God. You can't condemn yourself if God has forgiven you. Even you can't condemn yourself. And if you know that, then you can have confidence before God. So whatever we ask, we receive. Remember the context of this. This is presupposing a child of God asking, and the context is how do I know I'm saved? Which implies that if you ask for salvation, if you ask for forgiveness, if you ask for freedom from your sins, you will get it. You can have confidence you will get it. Okay, now he doesn't say this, but I John doesn't say this, but I would argue the flip side is also true, that our heart can deceive us both ways. So sometimes our heart can tell us, ooh, I'm really doing a good job here, you know. I vi'am away. God must be pleased with me, and I would be just as worried about that kind of uh inner voice. It can deceive both ways. I imagine the Pharisees thought they were right with God and that their hearts told them they were right with God, but they were wrong. And we can do the same. Um so I think the the message to take away with is don't get too caught up with how I feel or what I think about in that sense, how I feel about being a Christian. And if I don't feel like a believer today, well, your feelings lie. Or if you feel like, oh, I'm the best believer in the church today, yeah, it's probably a lie too. Sorry. So we've seen nothing about feelings in John's letter so far. He has never said that Christians will know their believers because they feel passionate, they feel worshipful, they feel whatever. He's said this is the only time he's addressed our feelings, and he says, don't trust them. They lie, you can be deceived by them. The marks of a Christian are conviction of sin, a self-centered, a non-self-centered love, confessing Jesus is the Messiah, and a lifestyle marked by the desire for righteousness and holiness. Okay. So this then he goes on to explain this in verse 23-24. On what basis do you reassure a condemning heart? This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us. The one who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And we know by this that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. So, what is the commandment that we can look at to reassure ourselves? It's that we believe Jesus is the Son of God and we love one another. So if I claim to be following Jesus as the Messiah, and I want to teach his bri uh to follow his teaching, maybe I don't do it well or perfectly. But if I see that as the tenor and characteristic and goal of my life, I can reassure myself. So the and I think the big important aspect of Jesus' teaching that we are to follow is that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the one sent by God to fulfill the Davidic covenant and solve the problem of our sin. So when you start feeling those doubts or that inner voice starts whispering in your ear, ask yourself, what do I do with Jesus? Do I accept his claim to be the Messiah or do I reject it? And if you embrace it, then you have objective evidence that that voice is wrong and you can ignore your deceitful heart. Now, notice the similarity when Jesus said, What are the two greatest commandments? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. I think we see that reflected in 323. What's the two most important things? Knowing Jesus is the Son of God and came to teach us about that God that we love and then loving those with our believers. So God is greater than my heart and knows all things. I love that verse because it says, Who ultimately knows the truth about me? Me, my deceitful heart, or my creator, my king, and my Lord. And of course, it's God. He knows better. He's the one who can say, Um, do you believe in my son or not? That's the evidence, that's the mark, and I can settle my doubts. Okay, now I, John, I think in this context is talking about how do I know if I'm a believer, how do I know if I'm a child of God, but I think we could apply this to other areas of our life. So, for instance, the voice that tells me you're worthless, you have no value, you're just a loser, you're never amount to anything. Well, we have objective evidence that that is not true. We are made in the image of God, and that gives us infinite worth. We have been chosen by Him, uh, and Christ came to die for us, and that gives us infinite worth, period. So that inner voice that says, You're a loser, you have another way to ignore that. So the reality is what God says about us, not what we say about ourselves. That would be, you could explore that in your small groups. That would be probably fun. So, okay, so he's not saying your feelings are wrong in every each and every way and never to be trusted. But I think he is saying when your feelings contradict the objective evidence you have, then you know they're wrong. Okay, just to add that as a little disclaimer. So, beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence for good before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from him. So when we have silenced that inner voice and ceased to listen to it, we can have confidence before God. We can approach him with joy and grace and thanksgiving because we know we belong to him, and whatever we ask, we receive. Remember, I said this earlier, but I just want to emphasize the context is our status as children of God. So I think this is not a blanket promise that if you ask for a new car, you're gonna get it. But this is a promise that if you are worried about your salvation, if you're worried about am I truly a follower of God, and you ask him for faith and salvation, he will give it to you, and you can have utter confidence in that. So it's a very specific context. How do you know that you're saved? And he's talking about receiving then the desires of our heart, which in this context is salvation. All right. Well, let me just wrap this up then with a little application. So, how do we know we are abiding in Christ or we are children of God? We've seen we will confess that Jesus is Lord, we will love the things of God, which includes his people, we'll know that we're sinful and we're long for holiness. Or as Jesus says, we will love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. So, just um how do we apply this? So, what should you do tomorrow? So, how would what would we take away from this? I don't think the point of 1 John is to go out and be more loving. Um, but the point is to recognize who God is and who isn't, and who's listening to God and who isn't. And this this is just like, okay, I'm getting on my soapbox. This is one of my pet peeves. There are kind of two things in Christian circles that we use as trump cards, and that's prayer and love. You know, so the right answer is always we're not praying enough or we're not loving enough. You know, whatever group you're in, whatever problem you're trying to solve, it's like this race to see who can say first, well, we need to pray more or we need to love more. And it can almost be a competition to say, you know, who can say it first? Because it it's always true. I mean, it is always true, apart from Jesus, who loves enough and praise enough? Who can ever do that? This side of heaven, how can we ever say we've done it enough? Now, and I'm not talking about, you know, the Hitlers of the world, I'm talking about, you know, just normal, average, everyday people, me and us. And we read things like 1 John and Jesus coming into the world to make us loving people, and we all think, well, I'd better, I better do roll up my sleeves and do a better job. And the problem is most often when we hear that kind of you need to love more speech, it's in a fundraising message. Have you noticed that? Or motivational speech, you know, when you're trying to get volunteers for a cause. So when someone wants your money and wants to recruit you from a cause, you often hear, well, Jesus died for you, the least you can do is give to this cause or give to, you know, your time or your finances or whatever. And um, it sounds like maybe John would agree with that. And we, you know, we all have run into those speakers where they say, you know, how can you be comfortable when there are people in the world suffering, and how can you drive your fancy car when someone's walking to work, and how can you have you know nice gourmet home cooked meals when people are starving, you know, or you have a comfortable house when people are homeless. And that's a Trump card because none of us can ever answer, I've done enough. I mean, none of us ever. So I just I would say John's words ought to sting us in the sense that it ought to challenge us to flee from selfishness and pursue righteousness. But I don't think we want to say uh to use him to manipulate others into following our cause, whatever that cause may be. So I don't think his point is if you are unloving in any way, you are not a child of God. That's not what he's saying. And I don't think his point is saying if you're not doing enough if you haven't solved every need, because none of us can ever do enough. Um John's point is if you claim to love God and follow the things of God, how can you hate people who love God? Um and there's a fundamental disconnect here. If you part of loving righteousness is being attracted to those who love righteousness, part of uh being a child of God is beginning to show those signs of faith and maturity. But he's not saying you have to meet each and every need. And for me, here's the showstopper you're not the Savior. That job's already taken, and none of us have it. So Jesus does not expect you to solve every problem and to meet every need and to heal every wound and champion every cause. I mean, notice even in the Gospels, Jesus goes off to a lonely place now and then and prays. I mean, there are still blind and lame people clamoring for his attention, and he leaves them all behind. To go pray with his father. So the burden of saving the world is not on our shoulders. And none of us will ever pray enough or love enough in this life. So I think the key is knowing what are you called to, what are your priorities, in the sense of what has God asked you to do, do that and say no to everything else. I mean, gosh, if we could only learn that, right? If I could bottle that, I'd be a millionaire. So, but that's the challenge of the Christian life, to figure out what has God called me to do, where are my gifts, where are my skills, who's in my life that he expects me to minister to and do that. Now maybe he's called you to try to solve world poverty. That that some people are called to do that, but I think we ought to meet the needs in front of our face. So, and we usually don't have to go on a crusade to find them. You usually just have to live your life. Just go out the front door every morning and see what God puts in your path and be willing to meet it when he gives it to you. So, you know, all the that's a whole nother talk on how do you find the will of God. But you know, praying, um, meditating, knowing the scriptures, seeking wisdom, uh, seeking wisdom from other wise believers. I mean you go through all those steps, but it's okay to say no to some things and say, you know, that's really not my calling. Um but when I see someone who loves righteousness in desperate straits, it ought to put it tug at my heart. There ought to be a sense in which I want to share and help. Um so that's gonna get off my soapbox now. So but basically, be skeptical when someone comes at you with a you're not loving enough or you're not praying enough speech. It's true of all of us, and it's not necessarily means you have to sign on the dotted line to whatever they're selling or or committing. And they're usually worthy causes, which people are called to do. The challenge of the Christian is am I called to do that or not? And and you may not. So I think what we've added then to this in this section from 1 John is if we're truly children of God, that change should start to grow in me, and I should start to see more evidence of overcoming that selfish kind of love and exhibiting more often a love that is a di that has the desire to do what's right, the desire to love the unlovable, even if I get nothing in return. Okay, let's pray. Father, we know that we are not the people we should be, and that the standard of Jesus' love for us and dying on the cross is one we could never meet. We could never hope to even approach it apart from your grace and your mercy. But thank you that you don't leave us in that spot, that you come into our lives to write the law into our hearts, to change us, to make us people who first begin to want to love like that, and then increasingly have the faith and maturity to actually love like that. And we just pray that we would trust you in that, and we would seek wisdom to know what to say yes to, what to say no to, and how to follow you and meet the needs that you would have us meet. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker: Thanks for listening to Wednesday in the Word. For more information about this message or additional talks in this series, please visit our website, wednesdayintheword.com. We pray that this has been a blessing to you and you will join us again soon.