If you would, be turning with me in your Bibles over to the book of 1 John. And again, today we'll be in chapter three. And as you can see from the screens behind me there, this is our sixth week in this study. Our sixth week in a study which I had planned to do two weeks in, as far as this chapter goes. But there has been a lot of good stuff in this chapter to unpack along the way. and we needed to take the time to do that. Now, it has been a couple of weeks since we have been in this study, so let me remind you that we have been in the second section of this study, which begins for us in verse number 11 and runs through the end of the chapter. And we want to read this section together as it all goes together, all flows together. So we want to read verses 11 through the end of the chapter in verse 24. It says, for this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother, hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. and love one another as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby we know he abideth in us by the spirit he hath given us. Now, in my Bible, this whole section is titled under the phrase of love one another, and I think that that's a good title that is there. You know, John, as he writes this, of course, he is writing to the false teachers of the day, and he keeps coming back to the subject of love. not just to love those who are like us or the kind of people that we like, but rather love for our fellow man, but especially that of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Verses 12 through 17 showed us the contrast of true brotherly love. One who is murderous in nature certainly does not show us love. And John used an extreme example of Cain and Abel, the first example of brotherly love gone bad in the word of God, to show us that. And then John goes on to say, if you hate your brother, you are of that same murderous nature, And there he does the same thing that Jesus Christ does in the Sermon on the Mount as he talks about hate, as he talks about adultery, that kind of thing, as far as it being in the heart. But then John went on to say even deeper that if we pass by a brother or sister who is in need and we have that which we can spare to help them, if we are indifferent to help those who are in need, then there is no love of God in us. Meaning, therefore, we are not saved. That's what he's saying. So, in these things, John says, He isn't just, He's not just warning us against the traits of the false teachers. Certainly He's doing that, but in saying these things as well, He is also assuring us. He is assuring us that if we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, if we seek to do them well, if we love the Father and love the commandments, then these are signs indeed that we are saved. Building on that then, last time we saw the greatness of the assurance of our salvation. Remember, we just looked at that one verse. A salvation that cannot be taken away, but rather a salvation that is eternal in nature because it is given to us by one who is eternal in nature. And John writes, of course, this letter to expose the teachings of the false teacher, but he also gives the Christian assurance. of salvation. In fact, chapter 5 of this book, John winds down everything that he's been talking about and he says in chapter 5 and verse 13, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know ye have eternal life. and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." So yes, our assurance of salvation is a big thing. And we should indeed be assured. Not because someone told us that we were saved because we raised a hand and said a prayer. But rather, we know that we are saved because there has been a change within us. There has been a desire to keep His commandments, a desire to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. And you know, we still have yet people today who want to assure people, but they want to assure them falsely. They want to tell people that they're going to heaven because they again raised a hand or said a prayer and that everything is good and everything is great. But yet that person continues to live a life of disobedience. And folks, that is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the Christianity of the Bible. It never has been and it never will be. Now, today we want to begin in verse 20, which flows directly from verse 19. And verse 21 flows directly from verse 20, and they're all relating again back to verse 19. These verses are all still speaking about assurance, and we want to read them together. It says, For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, that we have confidence toward God. John is saying in verse 20 that if your heart is condemning you over what has been said so far in this letter, if you look at your life and you see a lack of love towards your brothers and sisters in Christ, if you look at your life and see that you have no love of the commandments of God, then it is because God is convicting you even now that your salvation is not sure. Your salvation is a sham and you need to be right before God. If, however, as we see in verse 21, whenever you read these words that John has been saying, although you may see room for improvement, you know that you look at your life and say, yes, I love His commandments. Yes, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ and I want to see them do well. Then there is no conviction of God upon your heart. And you can rest assured that your salvation is indeed real, that it is sure that you indeed have eternal life. Now let's look in verse 22. It says here, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. Now, in this verse, we have the magic genie of the chapter. The magic genie of the chapter. Now, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is there are many today who believe that we have the power to command God to do certain things through prayer. We often In our realm, we like to call it the name-it-claim-it crowd, right? And it's part of what we call the prosperity gospel movement. And this is a movement that has been profoundly successful in the United States, and from what I understand, in talking to some of my brothers that are on foreign soil in some of the poorest of places, this prosperity gospel is just growing like wildfire. People who have very little clinging to the hope that they can indeed have great wealth just by praying it and claiming it in faith. And of course, that message is almost always universally coupled with the message that you'll get those things by helping to fund the ministry. from the ministry, and you all know what I'm talking about. You sow a little, you reap little, but you sow a lot and you will reap a lot. You've all heard the men, and in this day you have to say it, the women on TV or on the radio talking about sowing the seeds and asking for large pledges of money indeed in return for great miracles in people's lives. and you will hear them quote the verse that we just read, at least in part. You won't hear them quote the whole thing, but they will quote part of the verse that we just read. Besides this verse, you may hear some other verses as well. You might hear them say Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 and 8. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. You might hear that one. You most likely will hear the one that's most heavily used in part. It comes from James chapter 4 and verse 2. Ye lust, and ye have not. Ye kill and desire to have, and ye cannot obtain. Ye fight and ye war, ye have not, because ye ask not. Right? That's where the emphasis is put. Now, the fact of it is, is all of those verses are in the Bible, aren't they? We just read it in 1 John 3 and verse 21 there. We read it there in Matthew 7, 7. We read it in James 4, 2. All of those things are in the Bible, but does that mean that all you have to do is tell God what you want in faith, give a little bit of seed money, and it won't be long before these things take place in our life, whether it be a new job, a new car, a new house, great health, Do these verses ensure indeed that all Christians should be having that little mansion on the hilltop here in this lifetime? Well, the answer, in short, I believe you know, is no. The answer is no. I want you to look again here in 1 John. in verse 22. I said verse 21 just a second ago, but verse 22. But notice again what it says here. It says, And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because... We keep His commandments, and we do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Now, I want you to notice why we receive of Him. It is because we are, number one, faithful to keep His commandments. Now, I want you to think back to the messages that you've heard from the prosperity gospel of those proclaiming these things. Outside of the commandment to send in your seed money, How often do you hear them talking about the commandments of Christ? The fact of the matter is, is you don't. You don't hear them talking about holy living. You certainly don't hear them talk about the command of Christ to be content with food and raiment. You don't hear those messages. You hear the message of how God wants you to be better. God wants you to have more money, a better job, better health. It really is just a message of personal empowerment followed by positive reinforcement week after week. There's no talk of sin. There's no talk of a holy life. As one prominent pastor says, pastor of the largest church of the United States. We don't want to talk about bad things. That's why we don't talk about sin. There's enough bad things in the world. Our verse here also says that we receive of Him because we are doing things that are pleasing in His sight. What kinds of things are pleasing in his sight? Well, we look at the context of the chapter. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Loving them like Christ loved us. Seeking to help those who are in need. Is that a message that is prominent in their teaching? Not a chance. It's not where it centers. Well, how about the verse in James? The one that they love to quote the most. You have not because you ask not. Is this a wide open door to ask for everything your heart desires? Again, that little magic genie to rub on? Some have certainly used it that way, but again, what is the proper context? Well, it's worthy to turn to, so let's do that. Hold your place here in 1 John, and let's look over a few books to your left over in the book of James. The book of James. And again, chapter 4 is where we're headed. And let's read this verse with the verses around it. Let's see what it says. Ye lust, and have not. Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. Ye fight, and war. Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and ye receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God." Now, notice verse 3. You don't receive because you ask amiss. What does it mean to ask amiss? Well, the NASB brings us some clarity here. It says you ask and do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. The ESV here says you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. God says you ask and you don't get because your motives are all wrong. You ask because you're wanting to fulfill the desires of the flesh rather than the things of God. The fact of the matter is, folks, you need shelter, but you don't need a mansion. In today's world and where we live, you really do need transportation, but you don't need a luxury vehicle to get you there. You need food, but you don't have to dine out every night on the finest of foods. Listen, our Father who is in heaven understands that you have needs. and he is just to fulfill those needs even if it isn't at the standard of the American dream of which we've all come to expect by right rather than to appreciate. Our God is not a magic genie. He is not a lamp to rub in our prayers for all of our wants and our desires. When you pray for those things and they do not come, it isn't because of your lack of faith. It isn't because you didn't send in enough seed money. God says you didn't get them because you asked wrongly. He's not going to give those things to you. Again, notice verse 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. Now, James calls them adulterers and adulteresses. And he calls them that because he's speaking to people who have proclaimed to be Christians. But yet, they are in love with the world. Their love is divided between God and the world. God tells us here that being a friend of the world is to be an enemy with God. We know that scripture tells us that we cannot serve two masters. Either we will love the one and hate the other. We cannot serve God and yet seek after the things of this world. But yet that's exactly what the prosperity gospel boils down to. getting the things of this world. Now, folks, as you can see, so much of the verses that the Prosperity Gospel uses is destroyed just by reading the context of the verses that are around it, the chapters around it. You know, the fact of the matter is, can we look to Scripture and find men of great wealth? Well, the answer is yes. Abraham had wealth. Job had wealth. David had wealth, Solomon had wealth, many men had wealth. And there is nothing wrong with having wealth if that wealth is gained justly and honestly. And as long as that wealth does not take you away from serving after the Lord. But you know what? It takes a strong man to have his pockets full and still serve God the way that he should. Solomon, again, who was one of the richest men who ever lived on this planet, understood the dangers of material wealth. In Proverbs 30, verses 8 and 9, he says, Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be fool and deny thee and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. Yes, Solomon understood the danger of both sides of the equation. He understood that being incredibly poor might indeed cause someone to steal for food or his basic needs. But just the same, he understood that the man who has great wealth becomes reliant upon himself rather than reliant upon the God who is still yet supplying those needs daily. You might say, well, How about that asking you shall receive, knocking it shall be opened unto you? Was Christ saying there, if you ask for wealth and knock hard enough and long enough that it was going to poured out like manna from heaven? You know that's not what Jesus meant. You should know that by now. You should also know that that was found in Matthew chapter 7. In Matthew chapter 6, you know what he said? Lay not up treasures, yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You know, folks, if your heart is set on earthly things, then you're not in a right place before God. If the things that you desire after in this life are the things of the world, then that is where your heart is set. Listen, God's Word never talks about living your best life now. God's Word talks about living your best life for Him now. And be rewarded for it in the life to come. Now, I know that that doesn't exhaust our list of verses that the prosperity preachers use. But again, all you have to do is just listen to the verse, turn to the verse, read the verses before it and after it, and it'll usually clear it right up. That's the danger of plucking a verse out of context. You can make the Word of God say anything. You know, the prosperity gospel speaks of poverty and disease as though it were a sin. Kenneth Copeland states, the basic principle of the Christian life is to know that God put our sin, sickness, disease, sorrow, grief, and poverty on Jesus at Calvary. Listen, I want to make this as clear as possible. Christ did not die on the cross to cure us from cancer. He died upon the cross to save us from the penalty of our sins. He did not die on the cross so that you would not have times of sorrow or grief. He died upon the cross to save us from the penalty of our sins. He did not die upon the cross so that your pockets might be full and your bank account in six digits. He died on the cross to save you from the penalty of your sins. Now, as we return our thoughts to 1 John, that's where we need to go back to now, 1 John. As we return our thoughts back to 1 John, the fact of the matter is that when John wrote this, he wasn't thinking about how the devil would later take these words to come up with the prosperity gospel. This whole discussion that I've been having about the magic genie is not even what John is on the radar about. We're only having this conversation because that's what it's become. When you think about the prosperity gospel, the reason that it wasn't on the radar for John is because it did not exist in any form or fashion. It didn't take long for one to look at Jesus and the life that he lived and saw the fact that he had no home, no place to call his own, during his ministry, he was not living a life of prosperity. A life of prosperity certainly didn't exist for Matthew, who gave up his wealth of being a tax collector to follow after Jesus, to sleep on those same hillsides and places not his own. It didn't exist for the apostles who gave up seemingly successful fishing businesses to follow after Jesus. It certainly did not exist for Paul, who said he found himself wondering and thirsting in nakedness. But yet he counted all those things But nothing more than a pile of dung. That's what he said. Nothing more than a pile of dung. So that he might win someone to Christ. Certainly didn't exist for even the Apostle John. When he spent his years on the island of Patmos in exile. Not in riches. Exile. So know as John writes these things in this chapter, he has no idea how the devil is later going to twist those words in the world that we live in today. But again, we're having this discussion because this is, right now, the fastest growing religion in the world. In Christianity. What's called Christianity. Let's just say that. What's called Christianity. These are the churches in our own communities with the big crowds. The church is full of entertainment, full of filling people with unscriptural baloney. That's what it is. Patting them on the back and telling them they're saved, and yet there's never been a change. These are the people that you run into daily. It truly is. These are the people you run into daily. And you need to know how to deal with what they say according to Scripture. And here's the thing that you need to know as well. They may tell you of how God miraculously gave to them something for nearly nothing or free or whatever it might be. You know, I not very long ago was having a discussion with a patient and he told me how he set his mind upon a piece of property that he desired. So he went out to that property and he began to walk the boundaries praying and claiming it for himself. And how God gave him that property indeed for a price far less than what it should have been sold for on the courthouse stairs. I've had patients tell me of how they prayed for cars and all kinds of other material blessings and how God has given that to them. And you know what? I want you to understand that as I say this, I am not saying that God does not at times bless His people with earthly possessions that are truly great. In fact, He does. In fact, every good and perfect gift comes from God. But I do want you to understand this. that the God of this world, who is Satan, knows your wants, he knows your desires, and the God of this world gives gifts too. He's all about living your best life now. Now, we got a few more verses. Let's read. Verse 22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He has, as He gave us commandment. I'm back to verse 22, because verse 23, again, naturally flows from 22. We've been away from it long enough to forget what it said. This is the way that it was meant to be understood, the way that John writes it here. The Lord provides for those that believe in Christ, keep his commandments, and love one another. John has said it over and over again in this book. How do you know you're saved? Did you believe in Jesus Christ for the saving of your soul? Do you believe that He died and rose again for you? Do you believe that He's coming again? Do you believe in that Jesus Christ? Do you have a desire to keep His commandments? Or was your profession of faith followed by no change in your life? Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you care for them as Christ has cared for you? That's what He desires of us. If you can say yes to these three things, then you can have the assurity of eternal life. Don't believe that Christ died for you? then you can rest assured that you are not saved. Do you live a life where you don't really care about the commandments of God? Then John says you need to re-evaluate what you call yourself. Do you live a life where you have no desire to love your brothers and sisters in Christ and in fact even hate them? Again, John says you're not. who you say you are. Now, let's look at our last verse together. Verse 24 says, And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he has given us. John has given us here three spiritual checks to be assured of our salvation. Believing in Christ, keeping His commandments, and having brotherly love. He now adds the fourth to the mix. We know we are of Him because the Spirit resides within us. The moment that you are saved, Not the moment that you are baptized. Not any other moment. The moment that you are saved, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, enters into you and will be with you until the end of your Christian journey in this life. And folks, I want you to think about that for just a moment. Think about the fact that right now the Holy Spirit is within you. Because I think sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we forget that wherever we go, God is with us. For good or for worse. Whatever we see, God is with us. for the good or for the worse. And folks, it may be a sobering thought for us sometimes to think that He is always with us and always sees us when perhaps we are doing the things that we should not be doing. But folks, is it not a sobering thought to know that He is always with us? That He will never leave us? He will never forsake us? It is indeed a sobering thought, but it is a wonderful thought. Now next week, we're going to be looking at the first six verses. Six chapters, that would never happen. Six verses of chapter four, and you might want to read those as we look at testing the spirits next week. I think you'll find it an interesting topic here as we look at that. Let's bow our heads in prayer.