Blessed Assurance: God > Our Hearts
Niko Tsamoutalidis
1 John 3:19-24
6/15/25
•Well Good Morning Church – Happy Fathers Day to the dads. I hope you are honored today with pizza and buttercream icing. This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice & be glad in it. The gathering of the Saints on the Lord’s Day is a foretaste of heaven. True believers love gathering as the church. If it bores you, heaven will too. Praise God for Sunday worship.
•Today’s message and title is Blessed Assurance – because the Apostle John through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit knew back then and now that some of us at times wrestle with self-condemnation
•Many Christians doubt their eternal security. We can become trapped into thinking that if we aren’t doing enough or aren’t holy enough then we’ve lost our salvation, or maybe were never saved. What is Blessed Assurance? Fanny Crosby, who wrote the lyrics to the song Blessed Assurance, stood firm on her faith in Jesus. As a child, she memorized multiple books of the Bible. She knew the promise written in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace charis (χάρις) you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Salvation (Soteria (σωτηρία))is a gift we don’t earn or deserve. The unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor of God. We believe in Jesus and receive (lambanomen)/seize it by faith.
•Assurance means to be certain and confident, free from doubt. Blessed assurance is a holy or sacred confidence. It’s an unshakeable certainty of the truth, “Jesus is mine,” He is my Savior and Lord forever. Assurance is rooted in God’s truth and not in feelings or even your thoughts.
•Blind from six-weeks old, Fanny Crosby, a devout Christian, strong in faith, a celebrity in her time, and probably a genius, penned the lyrics to this song and more than 9,000 other hymns. She frequently wrote words to fit the music composed by others. One day her friend Phoebe Knapp played a song on the piano and asked Fanny if she could provide lyrics. As was her custom, Fanny first prayed and then she spoke, “It says, ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!’” She then dictated all the stanzas for this beloved hymn.
•Blessed assurance! Glorious guarantee! Anyone who believes in Jesus belongs to Him forever.
•And praise God the Apostle John writes to comfort believers struggling with assurance the verses in 1 John 3:19-22.
“Feelings come and go… my warrant is the Word of God.” — Martin Luther
“When I was in eighth grade and preparing to enter high school, I experienced what many call “The Dark Night of the Soul.” This is often described as a spiritual depression, triggered by things such as doubt, difficulty, and fear of God’s abandonment. It was around this time that I believed in Christ, not just because my parents were Christians, but because I truly believed in my heart that Christ was Lord. However, for a reason that is still unknown to me today, I began to suffer from serious doubts. I struggled with doubts about God’s existence, the deity and resurrection of Christ, the sufficiency of Scripture. I cried and wept often, lost a lot of weight, and hated the nighttime, probably because it reminded me of the spiritual darkness I was in. My struggle took a long time, and I remember wondering how long Christ would bear with me. Could his love let me go? I was unsure about the Doctrine of Eternal Security, which teaches that those who genuinely place their faith in Christ cannot lose their salvation. I struggled to find the assurance of my salvation.The Scripture that comforted me the most in this period of spiritual darkness was none other than Romans 8:31-39, specifically verses 37-39. I first learned of this passage through my father. On those nights, when I most feared going to sleep because of the torment in my mind, my father would take my hand, and we would walk around our home, meditating upon and reciting Romans 8:37-39 over and over again. I would ask in my mind, could this darkness separate me from Christ’s love? The Word of God would say, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Love of Christ was my anchor that ensured that I would make it home, that He loved me with a love that would never let me go.” + Yanni N. Tsamoutalidis
The Hero of this story was the Lord Jesus as He saw a childlike faith in my son and a desperate plea and cry from a father (me) who did not know what else to do but trust in the sufficiency of His Word and believe that the Power of His spirit that lives in me and lives in my son would somehow come together and remind us that where 2 or more are gathered in my name, I am there among you…we focused vertically on God, we needed a touch from heaven, we need an encounter with the Lord Almighty, the God of the Universe, the presence of the Lord and His Love… and so this is what we did. We were obsessed by the presence of God. And when we have this desire to be obsessed by God, then we build a sturdy barricade against the assaults of the enemy, we build a sturdy barricade against the worries, concerns, and tribulations of life in general. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” The weapons we use as Christians in spiritual warfare are powerful and effective because they are divinely empowered. They are might and they are enough.
Romans 8:37-39 (NKJV): 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors (HUPERNIKAO) through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And we recited the Word of God because Christ explicitly stated the connection between spiritual health and the Word of God (Matthew 4:4) – God’s word is a nourishing meal to be enjoyed and consumed rather than a menu to be solely studied. We can actually turn our study into an academic exercise while regressing in spiritual understanding. This is why scripture says that mere “knowledge puffs up” – 1 Cor. 8:1 Do you believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant revelation of God? (Matt. 5:17-18; 2 Tim. 3:16) That its purpose is not just to give us information for our heads, but food for our new nature to feed upon so that spiritual growth can be maximized (1 Peter 2:2). What milk is to a baby’s body, the Word of God is to our souls. It’s the food that fuels our growth to become more like Christ from glory to glory – the written word. We will talk more about the living word next week. Here’s a visual: Do you read scripture in this light; do you consider the Word to be like a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we are looking into it, see His face reflected—dimly, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for one day seeing Him face to face. The New Testament is Jesus Christ’s letters to us. The essence of the Word of God is Christ.
The human heart is a tender, vulnerable, and complex component of every single person. Who you are on the inside, what we sometimes call “the real you,” is a gracious gift from God when it is functioning as our Creator intended. As an ethical barometer, it helps us to make moral choices. It also allows us to express emotions and feelings and to be self-reflective. Sometimes we like what we see when we look on the inside. At other times we are wounded and even crushed by what we find. Our inclination is to embrace platitudes like “trust your heart” and “let your conscience be your guide,” but God tells us in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?” Interestingly, the answer to this often quoted verse is found in the very next verse in Jeremiah: “I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give each according to his way.”
From this biblical lens and perspective we should recognize there can be a number of reasons a person may have what John calls a condemning conscience or heart.
James Boice notes, Self-condemnation can be due to a number of factors. It can be a matter of disposition; some people are just more introspective and melancholy than others. It may be a question of health; how a person feels inevitably affects how he thinks. It may be due to specific sin. It may be due to circumstances. But whatever the cause, the problem is a real one and quite widespread. How is a believer to deal with such doubt? (Boice, The Epistles of John, 121-122)
The Apostle John recognized that those who have believed in Jesus (1 John 3:23) could still suffer from a hurting heart, a condemning conscience. He also knew there were some basic truths, all grounded in the Good News of the Gospel, that could provide healing, the exact cure that is needed. Some basic knowledge of what God has done and is doing in the lives of those who have trusted in Jesus provides the precise remedy for this all too common heart condition. The medicine is strong, but the outcome for the patient is more than worth it.
I.Love for Others Reassures our Hearts That We Belong to God (1 John 3:18-19) – 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
John uses verse 18 as a “hinge verse” to connect two related passages that have a common subject. The subject is love. Agape. Let me clarify, what he literally means is, let us not love only in word or tongue but also in deed and in truth. So he tells us here, love verbally, because that’s what he’s comparing here, don’t love only in word or tongue, but it’s good to do that,it’s good to say verbally that you love somebody. But then also love them in deed, love them practically, show them and love them in truth. Love them truthfully, be honest and sincere in your love towards them. When we love “with truth and action” (v.18), this reassures our hearts before God that we are of the truth (v. 19). Assurance will spring forth in our heart, in our conscience, when we demonstrate genuine and authentic love for others. That we love God, and that we love others, by action/doers of the word for others and not just hoarders of biblical knowledge. It assures us that we are children of God. We have confidence in HIS presence that HE is our God and we are HIS children.
Loving others as God in Christ has loved us strengthens our hearts and gives us assurance. By loving others in truth (v.18) we come to “know we belong to the truth” (v.19) However, we must be honest. Loving others is not always easy. Clearly it is easier said than done. I know for myself, this has been a difficult season of ministry, harder than when my wife and I ministered to the homeless, addicted, and broken men at the Allentown Rescue Mission and in S. 6th Street Allentown. Despite these perplexing times, at the heart of love is serving others as we have been served by Jesus. HE calls us to be faithful AND obedient. Sometimes this service is public, noble, and newsworthy. Sometimes it is private, humiliating, and unnoticed. Sometimes it flows easily and naturally and other times it seems drier than the Sahara Desert. It can be a challenge.
Richard Foster nails it when he writes in Celebration of Discipline, “In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus’ call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the Gospel than His Word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. …But in service we much experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial. (Celebration of Discipline, 110)
Love requires service. Service involves humility as you die to yourself. And loving others in humble service gives us assurance that we belong to Jesus. A living faith will be evidenced by good works which assures us that our faith is real and our trust in Jesus is sincere and genuine humble service to Him & for Him. It is by this knowledge & truth in our minds that assurance is planted & flourishes in our hearts. Beware of merely declaring your love with your mouth. What your lips profess, your life must support. Our functional theology is the measure of the truth of the theology we profess. We read in scripture and church history how those that depended upon Christ’s love DARED much, & because of their LOVE FOR CHRIST they did much. And the call has not changed for you and me. So, how do you serve your fellow brothers & sisters when you gather with them?
We continue; verse 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
Let me unpack this— for if our heart condemns us God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Everybody needs to understand if you don’t already that there’s a difference between condemnation and convictions. Hear this again; there’s a difference between condemnation and conviction in Christ. Paul writes in Romans 8 verse 1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Who walked not after the flesh but after the spirit. So once you become a Christian, Jesus paid the price, took our shame, took our guilt took our sin. If you’re still walking in condemnation; then you either have a super-sensitive heart where you are condemning yourself or you’ve not totally just walked in that forgiveness and given that shame and guilt to the Lord. But maybe the enemy keeps reminding you, and you call yourself a Christian- do you remember when you did this, remember when you said that, even though you’ve confessed it as sin and God’s forgiven you of it. So what the Apostle John is saying here is — don’t walk in condemnation, because he says if your heart begins to condemn you there is therefore NOW no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus. Spurgeon said it this way, he said, “sometimes our heart condemns us but in doing so gives a wrong verdict but we have the satisfaction of taking the case to a higher court where God is greater than our hearts.” So don’t walk around in condemnation, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that’s why John adds here God Is greater than our heart. So if your heart starts to condemn you, take it to the Lord AND let God remind you of his forgiveness, & His grace. God is greater than our heart grants us assurance that He has forgiven us through the atoning work of Christ. Memorize this scripture even if you simply chew on: God is greater than our heart, because He is. This is precisely why we can’t be led by our emotions. Emotions are good if properly ordered. If out of order and allowed to overcome the truth of God, we will live out of order and fall into sin. The truth that God is greater than our heart is key to keeping our inner life – thoughts, feelings, etc. – properly ordered. And you allow the pure oxygen from heaven into your soul as the written word renews and transforms your mind as an effective barricade against your thoughts, opinions, doubts, or lies of the accuser. Who would love to see you caged and ineffective.
Conviction however is a necessary thing, Jesus said in John 16 verse 8 that part of the mission of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin… so when I do something that is sinful or wrong and displeasing to God and I feel that conviction of the Holy Spirit, that’s a good thing… so if you feel conviction of the Holy Spirit that’s a good thing… don’t walk around go & rebuke that conviction in Jesus name. I rebuke that ________. No, conviction, that’s the Holy Spirit – but there’s a difference between conviction… That was not right. I shouldn’t have said that, I shouldn’t have done that, Lord forgive me I confess it a sin cleanse my heart versus condemnation which is… I’m guilty I’m never going to be forgiven, this thing haunts me, I’m just never gonna be right with God and and that kind of rehearsing over and over again is what the enemy and your adversary the accuser loves to bring up, or what we bring up ourselves because we’re unforgiving often towards ourselves even though God has forgiven us. Don’t be people of condemnation, but yes we should be people who are under conviction. Amen!
II. God Is The Perfect Judge Who Sees Everything (3:20) – For whenever our heart condemns us, GOD IS GREATER than our heart, and he knows everything.
To recap, the basic meaning of verse 20 is clear. Even though Christ has propitiated all our sins by His perfect atoning work, we may experience a condemning heart or guilty conscience, something the great and omnipotent God does not want us to have. So when our conscience sends us on a guilt trip, look to faith to the God who is greater than our wavering heart and our Father assures us of our total and complete forgiveness through the perfect and final work of Jesus on the cross. Claim the wonderful truth of 1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John directly addresses those who carry a guilty conscience and the way to deal with it. In verse 20 he does so in the context of the omniscience of God and in the next (2) verses in 21-22 he will do so in the context of prayer.
The Bible teaches us that it is possible to be saved and yet have doubts and become discouraged. When or if that happens, we would be wise to take the threefold test which is a theme that we have seen in 1 John. Let’s Read the Slide.
Belief: Do I really believe rightly about Jesus?
Obedience: Am I really obeying God as I ought?
Love: Is my love for others what it should be?
If you doubt, when you disobey, if anger, rage, or even hate comes seemingly out of nowhere, and these things bother you…that is a good thing. The fact that it bothers you is a good thing, not the emotions or thoughts. Those who do not know Christ ask none of these questions because these things do not bother those with hard hearts or depraved minds. But they should trouble those who profess that they follow Jesus. When your heart hurts and your conscience condemns you, look to God. Look to Christ and the Gospel. Because He is greater than our conscience, our thoughts, our hearts…AND He knows all things. The Word of God applies the healing balm in these situations that wish to trouble your mind and heart in several ways.
First, when we do not love in action & truth (v.18), God who is greater than our hearts and knows all things—deals with us. Sometimes our heart rightly convicts us, challenges us for not loving others in a real & genuine way. Basically, our conscience calls us out—which is a good thing! God in His grace and mercy through the power of the Holy Spirit can help us overcome a hard and unloving heart. His Word inspires, encourages, and challenges us to love others just like he has loved us (1 John 3:v.16) –16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And Romans 5:5 – This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. – Paul tells us only when God is your hope is your hope sure and secure. Only He can give you the life that your heart seeks, only He is able to give your soul the rest that it needs, only He can deliver the internal peace that is the hunger of every human being and provides us with blessed assurance. Basically Paul confronts us w/ this thought – if our hope disappoints us, it’s because it’s the wrong hope!
Second, our conscience can be too lenient in its verdict. However, our conscience may also be too severe, forgetting that “no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). God is greater than all, AND He knows all. He is the perfect judge. None of our failures or successes escape His notice. This is the difference between our conscience and His omniscience! He knows! He sees! Yet, He still accepts us in Christ! Hallelujah. Praise be to God.
Remembering who we are in Christ will provide assurance as we stand before the perfect Judge, who also happens to be our Abba Father. The Lord Almighty.
So here’s a quick application: Be honest and humble with God. Acknowledge that we truly do not have perfect self awareness and at times do not know why we do what we do or don’t do what we ought to do. (Romans 7) But Praise God, He knows us perfectly, so commit all judgement to Him. Put it all in the Lord’s hands. Pray Psalm 139:23 – Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
Trust what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5: 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
Bottom Line: If you can’t trust your heart/thoughts, trust the One who made it. Trust the TRUTH of HIS WORD.
Be Confident that God answers our prayers
verse 21 – Beloved, if our heart does condemn us, we have confidence toward God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him.
Let’s follow and unpack John’s argument in these verses. Loving others as we have been loved by Jesus assures us that we are in the truth, even when we don’t love perfectly. Lack of confidence is a tremedous stumbling block to prayer. But when you love others and act as an answer to their prayers, you can be confident that your Father will put things in motion to answer your prayer according to His Will. Thus, a clear conscience before God leads to boldness & confidence before God in prayer. God says, “Trust me, not your conscience which is not infallible, and is not always correct. Now that we are confident before God (v.21), we can be confident when we pray (v.21-22) – Confidence: (parrēsian)boldness – I brought this word up from 1 John 2:28 from my sermon on “The Blessings of Abiding in Jesus”- so John is emphasizing a clear conscience before God leads to boldness & confidence before God in prayer. And not a self confidence but a Gospel boldness. “Our assurance is not our righteousness, but Christ’s.” — R.C. Sproul
John addresses his readers as Agapetoi (Beloved) showing concern and compassion for followers of Jesus struggling with a hurting heart and a condemning conscience followed by words of encouragement. John is emphasizing: When we trust the judgement of our conscience to our great God, who is omniscient about everything, our confidence shifts from being based on our feelings and our experience to being based on God’s Word and what He says about us. He tells me there is No Condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1) And (Romans 8:31-34) – 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Do you truly see who you are in Christ from His Word? This is key and critical. Because if you truly do, then you can have (parrēsian) confidence and boldness. But the boldness is not in ourselves, it’s a Boldness with which the Son appears before the Father, and not that which the accused appears before the Judge (Westcott, The Epistles of St. John, 118). Huiothesia (SLIDE)
I want to take a moment before we unpack the final (2) verses to link our identity to assurance. Because if you truly see who you are in Christ from His Word, you can approach the Father in complete freedom – having confidence in your relationship w/ HIM & freely sharing what is on your mind.
The concept of υἱοθεσία, or adoption, is a profound theological theme in the New Testament, illustrating the believer’s new relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This adoption is not merely a legal transaction but a transformative relationship that bestows upon believers the full rights and privileges of being God’s children.
In the cultural context of the Greco-Roman world, adoption was a well-understood legal practice that conferred upon the adopted individual the same status and inheritance rights as a biological child. The New Testament writers, particularly the Apostle Paul, use this concept to convey the depth of God’s grace and the believer’s new identity in Christ.
• Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!'” – because of this we have confidence before God
• Romans 8:23: “Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” – because of this we have confidence before God
• Galatians 4:5: “to redeem those under the Law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.” – because of this we have confidence before God
• Ephesians 1:5: “He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will.” – because of this we have confidence before God
Galatians 4:4-5: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” – because of this we have confidence before God
These passages highlight the transformative nature of adoption, emphasizing that believers are no longer slaves to sin but are now children of God, able to call upon Him as “Abba, Father.” This adoption is made possible through the redemptive work of Christ and is a testament to God’s love and grace. – because of this we have confidence before God
So; we have been saved and blessed to have this confidence before God, resulting from a clear conscience in Christ, which provides motivation & assurance as we approach Father God in prayer: if our conscience/heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and can receive whatever we ask from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. (v.21-22). So this implies a direct correlation between obeying God & receiving answers to prayers. Receive – (lambanomen) – to forcibly seize or take, lay hold of; an active and deliberate action of grasping or acquiring something. Matt shared this a year ago in part 39 of the Evangelism Series in Season of Persecution. Do what pleases Him implies that it is possible to do things each day that “please” God.
Our request in prayer flows from a heart and life that 1st – delights in keeping His commands & 2nd – does what pleases Him. This provides the context for the later promise in (1 John 5:14-15) – 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
•A clear conscience doesn’t mean perfection
•Confession and trust restore confidence
Thank God that: “A weak faith can lay hold on a strong Christ.” — Thomas Watson
Like a trusting child coming to a loving Father who knows all my sins and imperfections and still loves me anyway in His Son. The Fathers love is greater than our hearts/conscience/guilt, etc. everything and anything. Blessed Assurance is Based on: Christ’s finished work, Love in action, God’s omniscient grace, and His pure, unadulterated truth of His Word.
SO Now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
Thank the Lord. Our God is a God of mercy & compassion slow to anger and abounding in love. He desires to display His compassion.
Thank the Lord. God does not share in the meanness that is so often found in human hearts. Let’s be honest w/ how hard we are on ourselves.
Thank the Lord. His generosity is far greater, His compassion towards the needy much greater than their own.
Thank the Lord that He knows everything. His omniscience is a comfort not a threat. He knows everything and so we can rejoice. He knows everything that we have done is covered by the blood of the Lamb.
Thank the Lord. God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. So today and every day we can always go to God, who knows us better than we know ourselves.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life (Psalm 139:23-24)
He will show us mercy when we come to Him; He will comfort us, and reassure us that we are His children. This is the truth. It is the truth that always overcome our feelings.
That is our answer today. It is Christ and Christ alone that will bring us through all condemnation. Sure our condemning hearts, our consciences have a lot to throw at us. So much we have done in the past, so much we have done in the last week, so much we have done because of these crazy times and so much we will do in the future. Like I tell some who are close to me and not just my conscience, you don’t have to look to hard to find sin in my life. I am prone to wander, prone to leave the god I love. When I desire to do good selfishness and impatience is right there with me. And the law of God is condemning. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one is righteous, no not one. There is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. It should not be that praise and cursing or gossip should come out of the same mouth. But there is hope for today and every day because God is greater. There is forgiveness for us. There is Hope for us. The final judgement will not be done by our hearts but Christ the Lord. God knows everything and He knows the blood of Christ has paid the price for the sins of His people. The wrath has been taken from those who have faith in Him. Jesus lived the life of righteousness and put it on our account. And He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, He was buried…The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. In Christ we can have life more abundant. Today the truth is if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts…All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Our God is greater. And our God desires to fellowship with us in a meaningful way. What way? His table. Today family of God He invites us again to the table of the Lord.
Let’s summarize & close in a circular pattern of repetition, like the Apostle John in this letter;
How the believer can be assured in their heart of their acceptance before God – John’s if/then argument in verse 20 flows into verse 21 – If your heart condemns you, God is greater than any real or imagined condemnation you face; He knows all things after all. He knows all the truth about you, and still offers Christ to you to be your dwelling place (2:6), righteousness (2:28), Advocate, and Propitiation (2:1-2). If your heart doesn’t condemn you (because God is greater), then you have boldness to come to God. Christ is our propitiation and Paraclete, the one who comes alongside us to plead our case.
Does your heart condemn you? Whose heart doesn’t? After all, we bear the guilt and shame of our sin. Our heart bears witness against us that we are violators of God’s Law. Our heart is deceitful (Jer. 17:9). Our heart is stone (Eze. 36:26). But God is greater. Sweeter words have never been spoken.
How do we know that God is greater? It is all founded on the prologue, the Word has been made manifest. This is leading up to the gloriously simple litmus test of salvation in chapter 4 & 5: those born of God believe that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (4:2), and that Jesus is the Christ (5:1). Jesus dwells in you, as you dwell in Him by faith (2:24). He stands there, by the Spirit, to tell your condemning heart to hush.(“siōpaō”- calm/hold your peace) In response to questioning: Jesus remains silent in response to the high priest’s questions (Matthew 26:63), demonstrating his divine authority. – Like the accuser who wants you to believe his lies of condemnation. Metaphorically: Jesus uses “Peace! Be still!” in Mark 4:39, commanding the wind and sea to be silent, symbolizing his power over nature. (Imagery)
And when your heart is silenced by the indwelling presence of the Great Triune God, it then has boldness, confidence, and courage to approach God & ask in prayer.
Now, as we ask, we know we receive what we ask because we are keeping God’s commandments. As we walk in the light as He is in the light we are inclined to ask for the very things which will fortify and equip us to carry out His commandments, to do those things which are pleasing to Him. His love has been lavished upon us (3:1), and so we are compelled to love the brethren, and when we see our brethren in need (3:17-18) we will be compelled to ask God for such things as are necessary to assist our suffering brother.
This boldness in prayer is not to be done to spend on our lusts, as the Apostle James teaches (Jas. 4:3); but we also must be careful not to so narrowly limit what the Apostles’ frequently make broad. The saint is entitled to ask for whatsoever, and as they are walking with the Lord their requests will not be amiss or improper or carnal, but will be the sort of requests that please the Father. Boldness in prayer is a mark of true evangelical faith. A clear conscience (by walking in the light and keeping His commandments) produces a fearlessness to make our petitions and requests known to our Father.
Archibald A. Hodge, teaches that, “Full assurance, therefore––which is the fullness of hope resting on the fullness of faith––is a state of mind which it is the office of the Holy Spirit to induce in our minds. […] [The Holy Spirit] gives origin to the grace of full assurance––not as a blind and unforeseen feeling, but as a legitimate and undoubting conclusion from appropriate evidence.”1 All that to say and read it to yourself from the slide behind me – Assurance isn’t a feeling, it is a legal standing. This passage is the crown jewel of God’s evidence to the saints of their assurance of welcome into His presence to seek the Father & pray. Christ has quieted (siōpaō- calm/hold your peace) their condemning heart by His great love, and now they have boldness to ask their Father for grace & mercy to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). 1 Hodge, Archibald Alexander. The Westminster Confession: A Commentary. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 2002. Pg. 242
Hebrews 4:16 – Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
Amen!?