Confidence Before God
1 John 3:19-22
June 19, 2022
In recent weeks, as we have studied this 3rd chapter of 1 John
We have been looking at A PATERNITY TEST.
We have looked at our two potential fathers; Jesus or Satan
And we have sought to deduce whose imprint we see in our lives.
We learned that Jesus never sinned but Satan has sinned from the beginning.
• So we looked at our own PRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS to determine whose
DNA we are carrying.
And we learned that while Satan slew his brother, Jesus laid down His life to save His brother.
• So we looked at our BROTHERLY LOVE to determine whose child we are.
And the overarching question has been simple:
ARE YOU SAVED OR NOT?
• Have you been redeemed from your former life of sin or are you still living in it?
• Have you been transformed by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit or not?
• Is Christ in you or not?
It really has been sort of a FORENSIC EXAMINATION.
NOW YOU SHOULD KNOW THE PRIMARY REASON WHY
JOHN HAD US TAKE THE PATERNITY TEST.
John’s primary reason for this test was NOT evangelistic, it WAS pastoral.
Certainly if the truths of 1 John 3 exposed you as unredeemed
Then the call would be to salvation.
But what we see in our text this morning is that John DID NOT follow the first 18 verses of chapter 3 with an INVITATION TO SALVATION.
John concludes the chapter with a STATEMENT ON ASSURANCE.
John didn’t give us the paternity test to expose us,
John gave us the paternity test to confirm us.
John pictured us as confused children,
Uncertain as to whether or not we were in fact God’s children,
And John has set out to prove we are.
If you will recall, that is really the overarching theme of this book.
1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
And certainly we have seen that even in the previous chapters.
1 John 2:3 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
1 John 2:5 “but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:”
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”
John has certainly been direct, but his application has always been
That when you see these attributes in your life,
You should take heart and know that
These are evidence that you are a child of God.
Do you walk in obedience?
Do you keep His word?
Do you love the brethren?
You wouldn’t do those things if God had not redeemed you.
These are proofs that you are His.
YOU SEE THAT ASSURANCE IS THE GOAL.
I might also remind you that this is straight from the heart of Jesus.
We think of that magnificent Upper Room Discourse in John 13-17
(of which clearly John had in mind in writing 1 John)
And we see how important it was to Jesus
To instill assurance into the hearts of the 11 before He departed.
John 14:1-3 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
John 16:27 “for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”
Even in His final prayer for them:
John 17:6-9 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;”
Jesus is not being evangelistic in the upper room.
He knows what they are about to face.
It is important to Him that they not be confused regarding their salvation.
That is John’s heart in this letter as well.
While John has clearly laid out for us
The distinctions between the lost and the redeemed,
It has also been very clear that John believes these people to be saved.
1 John 2:12-14 “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
You don’t write like that to people you think are lost.
1 John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
John is writing to those who are believers.
John believes them to be saved.
And the goal of John is that they know it too.
WHY?
Because clearly deceivers have come in.
• Those Gnostics have invaded the church
• And it has unsettled the souls of God’s children.
• They are doubting their salvation.
1 John 2:18 “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”
1 John 2:26 “These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.”
The result of these deceivers is that the church has lost her assurance.
They don’t know if they are saved.
They don’t know if they are welcome to God.
They don’t know if they are His children.
AND A CHURCH IN SUCH A CONDITION IS PARALYZED
God wants those whom He has saved to know and enjoy their salvation.
BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW IT?
Not emotionally (what you feel)
But evidentially (what is fact)
That is why John wrote.
He’s giving FACTS.
He’s giving EVIDENCE.
He’s giving TESTS.
Things like practical purity and brotherly love.
• Abstract tests that have nothing to do with how you feel, but with how you live.
And he’s giving these tests, not to expose you,
But so that even if you don’t “feel” saved,
You can know that you are saved.
John wants you to be so certain that you are a child of God,
That you would walk right into His house even without knocking.
That’s the goal.
THIS IS THE OTHER SIDE OF A VERY IMPORTANT COIN
ON ONE HAND we know that we are welcome to God
Because of the WORK OF CHRIST.
Jesus accomplished everything necessary to reconcile us to God so that we may able to draw near to God.
• He fulfilled the Law
• He satisfied God’s wrath
• He imputed righteousness to us
Hebrews 9:13-14 “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
The key phrase there is that Christ cleansed our conscience.
That is to say He took away our guilt.
And now we can confidently approach God because of what He did.
Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
And Jesus intercedes for us to make sure that our access to God remains.
Hebrews 4:14-16 “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
So we understand that it is the work of Jesus
Which gives us confidence to approach God.
But as I said, that is only one side of the assurance coin.
There have been times when I doubted whether or not I was saved.
My doubt was never in the sufficiency of Christ’s work.
(I always believed He was enough)
My doubt was rooted in the genuineness of my faith.
(Had I responded correctly)
In other words, as far as the work of Christ was concerned,
I had perfect assurance that salvation was real.
My doubt was in whether or not that work had touched me.
John is addressing that second aspect of assurance.
John is seeking to help believers see that they are in fact saved.
AND HE IS DOING THAT SO THAT
They will have confidence to approach God as His children.
So there’s the issue this morning.
• Do you have confidence to approach God?
• Do you have confidence that you have properly responded to Christ and have been saved?
• Do you have confidence that you are God’s child?
IT IS POSSIBLE to be saved and not know you have it,
Particularly if a deceiver has twisted the truth.
And as we said, that is paralyzing and crippling to a church.
So this morning let’s look at this assurance which John wants the redeemed to enjoy and even why he wants them to have it.
There’s 3 points to be made here this morning.
#1 LOVE PRODUCES ASSURANCE
1 John 3:19-20
We see at the beginning of verse 19
That familiar statement that John loves to use: “We know”
He is not speaking in hypotheticals.
He is speaking in absolutes.
“We know by this”
By what?
Our PRACTICAL PURITY and our BROTHERLY LOVE.
John already laid the foundation.
1 John 3:7 “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;”
1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”
Those are genuine evidence of salvation
That totally transcend feelings.
If you have practical purity and brotherly love…
“We know by this that we are of the truth”
Assurance is a great feeling,
BUT IT IS NOT BASED ON FEELINGS
When you go into the doctor for a checkup, the doctor doesn’t ask,
• “Do you feel like you have cancer?”
• “Do you feel like you have high cholesterol?”
• “Do you feel like you are diabetic?”
They don’t examine your feelings to diagnose your body.
There are practical and physical tests they run to see if those things are so.
And often times people who have worked themselves up into a frenzy with fear and worry regarding what might be wrong with them are actually granted peace when the actual test reveals their problem was minor.
SO IT IS HERE.
Put your feelings aside for a moment.
I’m not asking if you feel saved.
“We know by this that we are of the truth”
Saved people walk in practical purity and brotherly love.
If you do that, then you are saved.
Don’t let your feelings have the final word.
For notice what John says here:
(19-20a) “We know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us…”
Now we see the problem.
These people have been condemned.
In fact they are in a constant state of condemnation.
But who is doing the condemning?
It’s not God
It may not even been the deceivers
IT IS THEIR OWN HEART
John is talking about when “our heart condemns us”
Certainly you are aware that every man is born with a conscience.
You are born with an instinctive moral compass
To help you navigate right and wrong.
This is true of all men, whether the grew up in a Christian home or not.
Romans 2:14-15 “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,”
Every man is born with a conscience, an innate sense of right and wrong.
BUT…
You need to know that your conscience is not infallible.
You need to know that your heart is not always correct.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”
Your heart will lie to you.
See, your heart (really your mind or conscience)
IS SUBJECT TO EXTERNAL INFLUENCE.
Take our culture today.
• June has been designated by some as “Pride Month”
• It is a month when much or our culture celebrates homosexuality.
And while there are some who do this simply in fear or rebellion,
There are some who genuinely (in their heart)
Believe that homosexuality is a normal and good thing.
Why do they believe that?
Because their heart has been influenced by falsehood.
• Deceptive teachers…
• Sinful temptation…
• Immoral culture…
• Peer Pressure…
We see it in false religion.
We see men in false religion do all sorts of bizarre things.
• Their conscience has been corrupted.
• Their heart has been deceived.
• And now their heart lies to them about what is right and what is wrong.
The point is that you are born with a conscience
But that conscience is not infallible, it can be corrupted.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,”
Ephesians 4:17-19 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”
You see the work of a fallen conscience in the lives of the unredeemed.
• They actually sear their conscience.
• They become callous.
• They are no longer bothered by what should bother them.
HOWEVER
The conscience of a believer can also be corrupted.
• When they are fed deception and lies,
• Especially in the arena of legalism or a false gospel,
• Their consciences can also work against them.
Typically the conscience of a believer does not become calloused,
But rather through the conscience becoming OVERACTIVE.
These people are thrown under a hyper-standard
Which God has not ordained
And their conscience picks up on that and starts to condemn them.
Think about the Galatians
• Who had trusted Christ,
• But the Judaizers convinced them they were not saved because they had not
been circumcised.
• When their hearts believed that, their hearts started condemning them until
they complied.
That is an example of an undiscerning and overactive conscience.
AND THAT IS WHAT JOHN IS ADDRESSING HERE.
People who were saved, but deceivers had told them otherwise
And now their own heart was condemning them.
THAT IS A HORRIBLE PLACE TO BE!
What should a believer do in such a situation?
Exactly what John is doing.
FIRST, examine what is true.
(Facts about practical purity and brotherly love)
SECOND, pull your conscience back in line with that truth.
See what John says:
“We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him…”
“assure” is the Greek word PEITHO (pi-tho)
It means “to persuade”
It can even be translated “tranquilize”
THE PICTURE IS THAT
• You take the truth, and you win your heart over.
• You take the truth and you tell your conscience to settle down and be tranquil.
You do as Paul told the Corinthians,
You “take every thought captive in obedience to Christ”.
You take the evidence which John laid forth,
You present it to your conscience as that which is true,
And persuade your conscience to stop condemning you.
Do you see why constant exposure to the truth is so important?
AS A SIDE NOTE:
This is one of the reasons you need to be under constant preaching and teaching of God’s word.
This is one of the reasons why gathering with the saints is so important.
CORPORATE WORSHIP WILL PROTECT YOU CONSCIENCE
In those cases where your conscience has been deceived
And is working to condemn you,
Take the truth and persuade it back to what is right.
A man who is lost and has seared his conscience
Needs the truth to awaken his conscience so that he might repent.
A man who is saved and whose conscience is wrongly condemning him
Needs the truth of the gospel to grant him assurance.
That is what John means when he says:
“for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”
JOHN HOLDS UP GOD AS A CONTRAST TO YOUR HEART.
Let me put it like this.
Who do you think is a more accurate authority on whether or not you are saved; God or your own heart?
Who do you think knows what is true; God or your own heart?
Clearly God.
Let God be the expert in regard to your salvation.
Let God be the expert in regard to your condemnation.
Stop listening to your feelings
And start accurately applying the word of God to your life.
I think it is the greatest tragedy of modern evangelism.
Namely that they appealed to men
To listen to their feelings regarding their salvation.
Invitations became an emotional circus.
Feelings became the chief target in order to solicit a response.
When all along it should not have been the feelings that we targeted,
BUT THE MIND.
It has left a generation who thinks they are saved
Not because of their practical purity or brotherly love but because they feel like they are.
And it leaves even saved people who think they are lost,
Not because they lack purity or love, but because they don’t feel like they are.
Throw that nonsense aside.
• Take John’s paternity test.
• See if you have practical purity and brotherly love.
• And then persuade your heart.
But you see John’s point.
LOVE PRODUCES ASSURANCE.
When you see that you love the brethren, that is concrete fact whether you feel it or not.
Look at your love and claim your assurance.
#2 ASSURANCE PRODUCES CONFIDENCE
1 John 3:21
Here we see one of the reasons
WHY ASSURANCE IS SO IMPORTANT FOR BELIEVERS.
Because look at what believers with assurance have.
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;”
“confidence” is PARRESIA (par-rhay-SEE-ah)
It means “freedom in speaking; openly; frankly”
Acts 4:13 “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”
And John says that this openness or frankness or freedom in speaking
Is something that WE CAN HAVE BEFORE GOD.
And this is really mind blowing!
We think about Job in God’s presence saying, “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…I repent in dust and ashes.”
We think of Isaiah in God’s presence saying, “Woe is me, for I am ruined!”
We think of the children of Israel in God’s presence backing away and telling Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”
We think of Peter on the boat after Jesus caught all the fish saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
The idea of having boldness in the presence of God
Is seemingly unheard of.
And yet John says here that it is a reality for the church today.
We can boldly go before Him.
We can openly speak to Him.
We don’t shrink away, we don’t run away, we aren’t afraid.
This is a benefit of assurance.
• When you are so convinced that you are God’s child
• And that He has set His love upon you,
• That instead of fear, there is confidence.
It is a horrible thing for a Christian to live in this world
And face all the tribulation which the world presents
And yet for that Christian to not feel like they can run to their Father.
It would be horrible to be caught in such a crossfire.
The world shooting at you from one direction
And to think that God is shooting at you from the other.
I LIVED THERE FOR A WHILE.
• I had an incomplete understanding of the gospel.
• My heart was engulfed in legalism,
• Trying to accomplish on my own what Christ had accomplished for me.
• I knew I was a stranger in the world,
• But in my conscience felt like God was angry at me too.
There is no peace there and it is a horrible place for a child of God to live.
John wants you to know that you can approach God.
YOU CAN BE CONFIDENT BEFORE HIM.
Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Hebrews 10:19 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,”
Believer it is God’s intent that you have this confidence.
• It is God’s design that you know you are welcome before Him.
• It is God’s design that you know you can speak openly to Him.
Remember how Paul described the relationship?
Romans 8:15 “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
John gives you that paternity test so that you will know He is your Father.
So that you can persuade your heart not to be afraid.
And so that you can confidently go before Him.
Love produces Assurance Assurance produces Confidence
#3 CONFIDENCE PRODUCES PRAYER
1 John 3:22
There may indeed be many benefits of having confidence before God,
But no benefit is greater than the benefit of effective prayer.
I told you earlier that in the Upper Room it was important to Jesus that His followers have assurance.
You will also notice that it was important to Him that they know
THEY COULD PRAY TO GOD AS THEIR FATHER.
John 14:13-14 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
John 15:7-8 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”
John 16:23-24 “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
John 16:26-27 “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”
• Certainly we understand the implication of asking according to His will.
• Certainly implied is that we are not asking selfishly or with wrong motives.
• James taught us that won’t work.
But here is a child of God, walking according to the will of God,
And they need to have confidence before God
That He will answer their prayers.
“and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”
THIS DOESN’T MEAN THAT
You manipulate God to answer your prayers by obeying Him.
This is a relationship not a labor contract.
God’s children are those who “keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”
And God is He who answers the prayers of His children.
Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
Or we could go read about that widow who approached the unrighteous judge where Jesus taught us “at all times to pray and not to loose heart”
The simple point of John here is this.
God’s children need to know that God is for them
And that He answers their prayers.
Do you know that?
• Do you know that your Heavenly Father will answer your prayers?
• Do you know that He grants the requests of His children?
If you say, “No” I’m not sure of that.
Then follow John’s teaching here.
Take the paternity test he outlined in the chapter.
• Do you walk in practical purity?
• Do you love your brother in deed and truth?
If so, then you are God’s child.
• I don’t care if you feel it or not, you are His child and you should persuade your
heart.
And once you do that, you will gain confidence before God,
• Even confidence in prayer to approach Him and appeal to Him that He might
grant what you ask.
And let me just say in closing here.
THE CHURCH NEEDS THIS!
• We need a confident church today.
• We need a church not afraid to approach God in prayer today.
• We need a church who realizes God is on her side and will come to her aid.
There is power here and it is necessary power
If the church is to accomplish her mission in the world.
So take the paternity test.
• Find your assurance and the confidence that comes with it.
• And then boldly approach the throne of God as His child that He might come to our aid.
