Our scripture reading this afternoon is from the first epistle of John chapter 3. We read the entire chapter and verses 19 through 24 are the text for this afternoon's sermon. The scripture reading is 1st John 3. The text is verses 19 through 24. 1st John 3, beginning to read in verse 1, hear the word of God. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God. And it is not yet being revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is, and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins. And in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love. because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The text begins here. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from 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 gave us commandment. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So far the reading of God's holy and infallible word. May the Lord bless that reading for his glory and for our good. Let's now confess the truths of the Christian faith as they've been summarized for us in the Apostles' Creed. Let everyone say in his or her heart, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe a holy, Catholic, universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Let's join to sing of the assurance of God's people in his tender care for his own from Selection 55. Words from Psalm 23 as we have them in number 55. Please stand to sing. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, If someone were to ask you, how do you know that you're saved? How might you answer that question? It's quite a question, isn't it? Well, the reason I begin with this question is because it leads us to the vital, precious doctrine of assurance of faith. In our time together this afternoon, I want to speak about the nature of assurance of faith, the difference between true and false assurance of faith, and then we'll get to the context and to the text in 1 John 3, And I'll conclude with some applications. From the outset, we need to be clear that there's a difference between faith and assurance of faith. Faith is necessary for salvation. If there's no faith, if someone does not believe on the Lord Jesus for salvation, that person isn't and cannot be saved as long as he or she doesn't believe. Now assurance of faith, on the other hand, is not necessary for salvation. It's necessary for the flourishing of spiritual life, yet it's not necessary for a person to have assurance in order to be saved. Assurance of faith and faith itself are connected and yet they're different. Assurance of faith, boys and girls, is a person knowing that he or she is saved. So in order to be saved, a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Men and women, boys and girls, believe. The Lord works and they believe on the Lord Jesus. But when a person has assurance of faith, that man or woman, boy or girl, knows that he has believed, knows that he knows that Jesus is his Savior and Lord. I said before that it's possible for God's people to have little, even no assurance of faith. And yet, it needs to be stressed that that is a lamentable, a sad and unhealthy condition. And no believer should be content to remain in that sad and doubting condition. It's difficult to explain, at least at a child's level, the difference between assurance and faith, but I've already tried and I'll try to give you an example and maybe this will make it a little bit clearer, boys and girls. In order for you to get a drink of water, if you go and you get your water from the sink in your kitchen, you have the glass in your hand, and you turn on the tap, and in order for the water to get from the well to the sink, it has to go through pipes, doesn't it? Well, in order for the goodness, the righteousness of Jesus to get to sinners, to people, in order to save them, it comes through faith. God gives faith. The Holy Spirit works and He gives faith. And so, men and women, boys and girls, believe on the Lord Jesus. The righteousness of Jesus comes through faith to believers. Like water comes from the well through the pipes into the sink, into the faucet, and into your glass in your hand. But there are people who believe on the Lord Jesus who don't know that they're saved or who have lots of questions about whether or not they're saved. And that's because they don't have assurance or they don't have very strong assurance. But there's good news. We're going to see really soon that the Lord wants believers to have assurance. There are texts that say this very clearly, very strongly. And we'll find out too that the Lord wants to help his people to have assurance because assurance glorifies him and assurance is good for us. Perhaps somebody asks at this point, could it be that I'm one of those people that God has ordained that I will have little or no assurance in my life? And if that's so, what am I to do about that? Well, I would respond that if you have that kind of attitude or that question, you are claiming to have knowledge that is impossible for you to have. You're not God, and God is the only one who knows who will have weak assurance or who will have strong assurance. What do we know then? We know as much as God has revealed in His Word, and Scripture tells us very clearly that believers are to seek for the highest level of assurance possible. Assurance is not something for the super saints. Rather, it's for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. After Paul thanked God for his work in the Philippian Christians, he said this, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's Philippians 1.6. And Paul spoke to the Ephesians of Jesus Christ, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. Ephesians 3.12. What's more, in Hebrews 10, 19 and following, the Apostle to the Hebrews says, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Yes, dear ones, every believer is called to pursue full assurance of faith. Listen to Hebrews 611, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. How do you respond to verses like that? Do you think that God over promises and under delivers? Do you think that these verses function like a flyer of a store where the store has one or two things that they're selling at a loss and they have very limited quantities of those things and you know that it's not worth going there because they're going to be out? Do you think of God's promise of assurance that way? Well, if you do, please don't. For God does what He says He will do. He keeps His promises. He's worthy of being taken at His word. He's worthy of your worship. He's worthy of being believed in if you're yet outside of Jesus. What's more, God makes, He gives, and He keeps His promises. Also of assurance of faith. Maybe somebody says at this point, I think it's arrogant and presumptuous for a saved sinner to say that he's sure he's on his way to heaven. Well, I would answer that it's arrogant and presumptuous for you to make your thoughts a higher standard than that of God's Word. Yes, even if they're dressed up with pious sounding language that glorifies doubt. And later we're going to see that assurance of faith won't lead, it must not lead, to pride and arrogance in the people of God. But before we move on, before we get to the text, there's a very important word of caution that I need to say and that you need to hear. And it's the caution against false assurance of faith. Each of us was conceived and born with a sinful nature that is prone to create counterfeits of assurance. Let me remind you of words that are probably familiar to you in Jeremiah 17 9. The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That means that Within each of us, there's a propensity, a capacity to self-deceit. And the only prevention to natural self-deceit is God's saving power, using His Word and blessing that Word through the work of the Holy Spirit to show us who we really are. Even people in Reformed circles, are open to the great danger of counterfeit, false assurance. You could build your assurance of faith on the fact that you're a member in good standing here. Or perhaps you've experienced conviction of sin in the past. You knew that you were under the wrath of God. You felt your sin to some degree. And yet, there was no change in your life. You're living the way you always have. Or perhaps you've made confession of faith, but there's no inner reality to what you've said and what you claimed was true about yourself. And if that's true, you need to know that you're still in your sins. And nothing less than the saving power of God can make a difference in your life. Perhaps you think all is well with you because you had believing parents or you want to think that all is well because That's what you want to think about yourself I'm warning about false assurance of faith because Jesus warned about the very thing in very stark language in Matthew 7 22 and 23 he said these words this is after at the end of the Sermon on the Mount he said many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And what will he say to those many people? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. What's more, in Matthew 25, Jesus gives the parable of the final judgment with the dividing of the righteous and the unrighteous, the sheep and the goats, and there's the dreadful reality that there were people who thought they were on the way to heaven who will be sent away into judgment, who showed by their lives that they had no love for the Lord, no love for His people. Hear it, dear ones, there are going to be lots of people, many people on judgment day. who think that they're going to heaven, but Jesus will send them to hell. This is serious. Most serious. But in His kindness, the Lord doesn't want anyone who hears this word, who now has false assurance, to discover that it's false only when it's too late. He doesn't want that. Rather, He wants you to turn from a counterfeit and to cry to Him for the real thing, for true assurance that rises from true faith in His Son. Perhaps somebody wonders at this point, how can I know whether I have false assurance or not? Well, if you don't want Scripture to examine you, if you push the word read or the preached word away, if you resist the Spirit of God in the preaching when He makes you feel uncomfortable, Friend, that's a sign that things are very badly wrong. To this point, we've dealt with the extremes of doubt, and we've seen that in spite of those who present doubt as a spiritual virtue, that it's not. But the Scriptures are clear that unbelief and doubt of God are sins to be fought against. They're unhealthy. They must be rejected and turned from in the lives of God's people. But at the other extreme, there are those who live in presumption, and presumption is very dangerous. It sends people who think they're on the way to heaven to hell, and it has many victims. There's also a particular danger when it comes to assurance for people who are in the reformed churches and they're living a decent life. They're staying out of trouble or at least they're not getting caught. And this danger rises for those who know the answers to all the questions in their minds. And yet this knowledge has had no impact on their hearts. We need to be clear, dear ones, knowledge is a good thing. Knowledge is a necessary component of faith. We believe concepts. We believe truths from God. These are ideas. These are thoughts. They're knowledge. They're necessary. But faith is more than knowledge. Believing on Jesus Christ for salvation is more than giving the right answers in catechism classes or confession classes or even at the interview with the consistory. It's one thing to give the right answers, even the expected answers, but it's possible for these things not really to reflect what's going on in your life. And so this call to examine ourselves, this call to have true assurance of faith is a message from God for all of us. Also for you young people who are moving toward adulthood. There's also another possibility when it comes to assurance, and it's living with a steady but a minimal assurance. You know that you have believed on Jesus Christ, and you know that the Bible says whoever believes will be saved. And so you believed some time ago, maybe a long time ago, but nothing special has happened in your life since then. If you were charting your spiritual life, it might look pretty much level and not a steady climb or maybe even a slow decline in your life. But dear ones, if that's the case, your life needs to be a display of the supernatural power of God. When people see the character of our lives, our usefulness in the service of the Lord and our lawful callings, there ought to be a joy, a vibrancy, a life that's inexplicable to worldly people in terms of natural categories of thinking. And assurance of faith is one of the things that will account for such a change. Assurance of faith is glorifying to God. for it takes him at his word. And it's good for us, for it leads us to an increase in happiness in the Lord, in joy in Him, and usefulness in this world. What a call then there is for each of us to make this a matter of urgent prayer before the Lord, that He would say to our souls, I am your salvation. that it would be He who says it and not ourselves, not wishful thinking or merely human hope, but it would be His Spirit who communicates this truth and who reveals to us His work in our lives, that our hope would be in Him and not in ourselves. As we come now to the context of 1 John 3, it would be helpful for us to understand that There's a great difference in the men that God used to give us his word. There's a great difference in the way that Paul argues from one point to the next to the third in a very orderly and a logical way. But in contrast to Paul, John argues more in an inspired circle. He repeats himself. He comes back to things that he's mentioned before and he adds more to that original content and then he moves on and around and around he goes. not because he's being careless or sloppy, but because this is who John is in his thought, far more of a circular thinker, and yet he was very much used by the Holy Spirit to give us the Word of God. John is an ideal author when it comes to talking about and learning about assurance of faith. I say that because he makes lots of statements that are very clear, very blunt even, and he doesn't qualify them. Did you notice how many times in the scripture reading we had the phrase, we know? And John uses that phrase because he wants believers in Jesus Christ to know and to know that we know these things are true for us. In fact, the purpose of his book is to strengthen the assurance of faith of God's people. This is what the purpose of his book is in 1 John 5 13. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Perhaps you can read your way through this book of 1 John. You might take 15-20 minutes as family, and you might ask the younger ones to count how many times John says, we know. And you might ask the older children to explain what it is we know. John uses very simple words in his book, but he talks about very deep spiritual truths for the good of the people of God. Getting into the context then, we have an example of such a we know statement in 1 John 3.14. We read there, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. So here John is talking about Christian love, love that is unique to the people of God. It's not based on the benefit that we can gain from one another. Rather, it is selfless, sacrificial love. Later in verse 16, John will speak of God's people laying down our lives for the brethren, like Jesus. This love that God's people have for one another is motivated by God's love, rather by God's work in our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And if you think about the kind of statement we have in verse 14, We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. What John is doing there is he wants his readers to infer from our love for one another that God has produced this love within us. We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. So here again is a means of increased assurance. John wants his readers to know with certainty that we have been saved. I've begun in verse 14 in the context because the text will refer to it. So really it's a way of saving time in the exposition of the text. I'm going to read verses 19-24 now, and if your Bible isn't open, let me encourage you to open to 1 John 3, and we'll be focusing on 19-24. We read in verse 19, and by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from 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 gave us commandment. Now he who keeps his commandment abides in him and he in him and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So assurance of faith is to function in the prayers and in the lives of the people of God. We've already seen that one way we can have assurance of faith is from our love for fellow believers. And we love them because the Lord has worked in their lives and God's people are just thrilled by evidences of God's work in the lives of others. And because God has given us this love then for one another, this ought to result in sacrificial love one for another. So if you claim to be a Christian, if you profess to be a believer in Jesus Christ on the basis of these words of Holy Scripture, I would ask you, what's your relationship like with your brothers and sisters in the Lord? Are there people among them who you just can't stand? Or are you striving to the utmost of your power to live at peace with all people? We need to be clear on the purpose of this question and clear on the reason that John tells us to love one another. It's not to earn our salvation. We can't put God in our debt by what we do. We can't even contribute to God's saving work, working along with him in our salvation, at least in terms of trying to get in the right with God. Rather, if God has done a saving work in your life through his work, as a result of that work, you will seek to love fellow believers also in this place. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we're going to spend eternity together. What a reason we have then to seek unity with one another and true genuine spirit worked love as a testimony to a watching world of the unity that the Lord produces. Verse 19 begins with a very bold, clear statement. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. But what does it mean to be of the truth? Surely it means to have a connection to and a faith in the Word of God and that a belief that the Word of God is true because God says so. He says so in His Word and we believe it. Our believing it doesn't make it true. We believe it because it is true. The Bible is the Word of God. What's more, being of the truth is being savingly connected to Jesus Christ. The truth of God come in the flesh. Now this knowledge that we are of the truth doesn't come immediately or on its own. Rather, it's something we learn over time. It's something we realize. We come to this knowledge. And men and women, boys and girls who know they are of the truth would be able to look back to the saving work of God in their lives. And first, they learned that they were sinners under the wrath of God. And it was God's law that He used to show them their sin. We learned that there was no salvation through our attempts to try to keep God's law. God's law could only show us how guilty and condemned and sinful we were. But in his kindness, God continued his saving work. He showed that there was a way of escape from his wrath through Jesus. And so he led these people of the truth to trust in Jesus for their salvation. And when they did, they received the gifts, other gifts of salvation that God freely gives to all who ask him for them. These people learn more about the benefits of salvation, knowing that they have these gifts of adoption, of being brought into God's family, of being declared to be righteous, and also of being in process of being made righteous through the work of the Holy Spirit. They know that they have these things. What's more, they know that they have these things in such a way that they will never be taken away. Knowing that you are a believer in Jesus Christ and knowing that you know that you are in the right with God, that is assurance of faith and it's a wonderful thing. That's what it means to be of the truth and to know that you are of the truth. Let's consider next what's happening in the experience of these people with assurance of faith. They are in his presence, the text says. But what does that mean? Isn't God everywhere? Doesn't he know everything about everyone all the time? Yes, he does. That's all true. But John isn't referring to that by the phrase, in his presence. Nor is he referring to Judgment Day, for then he uses the phrase, at his coming, to describe the return of Jesus at the end of time. What John is getting at by the phrase, in his presence, is Prayer, the prayer of believers in Jesus. For it is when we pray to God that we are in his presence in a very special way. And it is especially in view of prayer and being in the presence of God that God's people need assurance. Why is that? Well the answer to that question is found in verse 20 where we read, if our heart condemns us, that could be translated whenever our heart condemns us. Perhaps you noticed in our scripture reading earlier that John made very positive statements about the Christian life. Though he makes very positive and encouraging and optimistic statements. At the same time, he can make very realistic statements as well. For example, in chapter three in the reading, he said that Christians don't commit sins. What does that mean? It means that Christians don't live in the habit or the practice of sin like people in the world do. And we say that, I say that, because in chapter 1 John says that whoever denies that he sins is a liar and the truth is not in him. So John is very clear about the reality of continuing sin in the lives even of believers. And there's this same realism when it comes to assurance that, yes, we can know that we are of the truth in God's presence when we pray. And yet, there's also the concern of hearts that condemn. Why is it that the hearts of God's people might condemn us? It's the case because the Holy Spirit renews our consciences in His saving work. If we're walking close to the Lord, if we're seeking to live for the glory of God, if we're spending time in his word, time in prayer as a daily practice, then our consciences will be made more sensitive through the word and the work of the Spirit of God. Now, it's possible for some people to have feelings of guilt over things that are not sin. And sisters, you may be more susceptible to this. I believe Arlene Jonkman, my aunt by marriage, spoke to this a few years ago at your ladies' conference in St. Thomas. I would highly recommend those recordings for those of you who haven't heard them. All this to say it's possible to have guilt over things that are not sins and women may be more susceptible to that than men may. Perhaps we need more sensitizing work from this Holy Spirit so that we would be more sensitive to things that truly are sin that dishonor our God. So that we would be honest with ourselves and honest before God about the remaining sin in our lives as believers. But it's when we're in His presence and we know Him to be sinless and holy and pure, then our sinfulness by nature and the sin that rises from it, our flaws and our failures become more visible. Imagine somebody standing on a platform where there are floodlights that shine down on that person. And imagine that this person has come from doing a dirty job and he still has his work clothes on. And it's through the light that shines down on him that the dirtiness of his clothing is revealed to those who are watching. The dirt becomes more visible, more obvious under the light. And so it is that particularly when we are in God's presence in prayer, that our remaining sin becomes more visible and we become more aware of it. God sees it all the time, but it's when we draw near to God, close to the bright light of His purity and holiness, that our remaining sin becomes more evident to us. What a threat to assurance remaining sin is. The consciences of God's people are appropriately sensitive and they convict us and then our hearts condemn us. It might work something like this. In your time of self-examination and appropriate self-examination, you remember something that happened earlier in the day or the day before or just a few moments ago and then the thoughts rise in your mind. How can you be a Christian and think that bitter, hateful thought that you just did? How can you be a Christian and struggle with your impatience, whether it's impatience in traffic, or in the workplace, or with your children, with your husband, your wife, whomever it is, with that difficult person in your life? You, a Christian? You're kidding yourself. How can you say that you're a Christian and you did that? Perhaps your heart condemns you over what you have not thought, said, or done. Well, brothers and sisters in the Lord, conviction of sin is not a pleasant thing to be sure, but it's a necessary and a useful experience. It's biblical. for the saints of God both to grow in holiness and to become increasingly aware of the sin that remains. It seems as though sin is increasing, but rather the sensitivity to sin increases in the lives of God's people. Let me give you an example, and perhaps this will make it clearer. Imagine that there's someone who's cleaning a room. It's a dark, dirty room that hasn't been touched for some months, and there's thick dust settled over the furniture. What's more, as I said, this is a dark room. The curtains have been closed. The blinds are shut. And imagine that this person has been working for a time, and then someone else comes along and opens the curtains. Light floods into the room. And the dirt becomes visible. The remaining dirt and dust that is there becomes more visible. Now, the light doesn't cause there to be more dirt, does it? And so it is, with the work of the Holy Spirit of God and His grace and His sanctifying work, there really is less sin in the lives of God's people. That must be so when the Lord works. And it is so. But yet, because He's at work, sensitizing the conscience, illuminating the mind and the heart of believers in Jesus, we see the less sin more. His work doesn't cause there to be more sin, just as opening the curtains in that dusty room didn't cause there to be more dirt there. It's His work that illuminates the remaining sin. And praise God, there is less sin, even as we see more of it. These things are not contradictory. They are equally true and they are compatible in the lives of the people of God. It's as if John thinks to himself at this point, the Christians I'm writing to are going to experience conviction of sin when they pray. And conviction attacks assurance. And if they have no answer at this point, there's no antidote, no cure, they're going to be in doubt and trouble. Now, what can I do to help them here? We've already told them that they can have assurance that they are of the truth when they pray. And now I'll help them when they're convicted as they pray. And he does that in verse 20. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. John doesn't want his readers to have the assurance that comes from wishful thinking or the assurance of doing better when we sin and fall and fail. He knows that if we try to live the Christian life in our own strength and to do better in order for God to accept us, it will never work. And if anyone is in that trap of do-betterism, I'll do better and then God will accept me, God will love me, things will go better in my life. If you are such a person, that thinking is not glorifying to God and it's not good for you. Your acceptance in terms of your salvation and earning salvation doesn't depend on your performance, but only always on Jesus. Your good works don't save you. They don't make you worthy of God's favor. Only Jesus and his righteousness does that. How then can the people of God in their sin and their need and their trouble have genuine assurance of faith? We can have it as we appeal to a higher court than the court of our heart. Our hearts work like a condemning judge when it comes to our sin. Each believer stands in the position of the accused and our sensitive consciences function as accusers in this internal courtroom. But there's good news. There's a higher court. It's God's court. Even a heart that condemns is not higher than God. There's an answer for men and women, boys and girls who believe in Jesus. God knows our hearts. God is greater than all. And He is the one who declares believers in Jesus to be righteous the second we believe on Jesus. Now that declaration of God, the justification of believers, doesn't change us. It changes our status in the way that God relates to us. Instead of reacting with anger because of our sin, we are now those whom God gives his favor. We are objects of his pleasure, all because of the perfection of Jesus. And so God gives a gift of faith and he makes it active in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, that we believe on Jesus for salvation. And as soon as the Holy Spirit brings that about in our lives, we're justified. That's a tremendous blessing of salvation. It's something that God knows when he looks into the lives of believers. This is a justified one. This man, woman, boy or girl is righteous all because Jesus lived a perfect life for him, for her. But there's more. than the justification of believers, as precious and wonderful as that is. Something else that God knows when He looks into the lives of His people is the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. He knows that thought of compassion for those who are suffering. He knows that you were grieved when His name was dishonored. He knows that you long to be holy and to live a fruitful life for His glory. And he knows that you didn't do those things. You didn't cause those things. His Holy Spirit did. That's part of the all things that God knows. Just as parents recognize their children and an artist or a craftsman recognizes his work, so the Lord knows and he recognizes his work in his people. Yes, he knows about all the sin that remains. But he also knows about his work and the results of his work in the lives of his people. And so this is how John tells us that every believer can have assurance from God in prayer, which results in a quiet tranquility of heart and conscience. This is a feeling, but it's a feeling that's based on unchanging certain truths. The work of God, His commitment to finish what He's begun in the lives of His people. And what then are to be the results of praying with this assurance in our hearts? Confidence in prayer ought to result. We read that in verse 21. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. It's as we understand the gifts of salvation that the Lord has given to believers. We understand that the righteousness of Christ has been given to us, and because of that righteousness, we're welcomed into God's presence as beloved children. Then we have confidence before him. That is assurance of faith. And it doesn't result in a demanding or irreverent spirit, but rather it gives us freedom of speech. That's the idea of the Greek, this confidence, freedom of speech. And that's a marvelous thing, to give God our praise and our thanksgiving for his salvation, all the blessings he gives us. What's more, this confidence gives us freedom to bring our every request to God with no fear that we ask for too much, no fear that He will send us away. None of God's people will be rejected or turned away. He will always hear us and help us. Now, if you think that's amazing, and surely it is, the truths revealed in verse 22 are better still. We read in verse 22, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Does this mean that God will give us absolutely everything we ask for in prayer? No, it doesn't. John qualifies this, not immediately after, but in chapter 5, verse 14 and 15, he says there, John 5, 1 John 5, 14 and 15. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. So this is not the promise that God will give you a luxury car or a mansion or a bank vault full of money merely because you ask Him for it. That's not a biblical gospel, and it needs to be rejected by the people of God. Rather, the amazing news, the wonderful news, is that God will give us what we need to bring glory to him until he brings us to glory. But if you're yet an unbeliever here this afternoon, What this ought to do for you is to compel and to promote and to spur you on in a prayer for God's mercy and salvation, not a flippant, casual prayer with the kind of attitude you might respond if you're asked if you want fries with your burger. But no, friend, this is of utmost seriousness and urgency. What need you have for the mercy, the saving compassion of God? He wants you to pray for it to Him, and He will have mercy upon you. John tells us more about the saints of God and how God reacts to the way that we live. Though there is sin mixed with the good works that we do, God is pleased with the lives of His people. He explains to us what pleases God back in chapter 3 in verse 23. That if we keep God's commandments, we believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and we love one another as God has given us commandment, that then gives pleasure to God. And as I said before, because John has a repetitive style here, I don't need to belabor these two things. We can move on here after we note that the Christian faith is a faith in Jesus for salvation. And as a result of that faith, not only will we love God, but the saints of God are to love each other. And both of these commands, are crucial in Christianity and the order is very important. Believing on Jesus Christ and then loving the people of God. That's the way that the Holy Spirit produces these things in the lives of the sinners he saves. Well, dear ones, there's much more that the Lord does, much more that he does in producing assurance of faith in the lives of God's people, and we conclude in verse 24. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, that is, in God, and he, God, in him, that is, in the keeper of the commandments. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. It's a marvelous thing to have communion with God, to know that he is with us and in us and for us. To know that there are times when God feels close, not as a threatening, intimidating presence, but as a loving Heavenly Father who delights in us for Jesus' sake, who gives help in our time of need. Surely that is a great reason for assurance of faith. Closeness with God, communion with our God through the Holy Spirit. Indeed, it is the Holy Spirit who is the cause of this all. As He lives within the people of God, He is the one who grants faith and repentance and obedience. The only reason we work in our lives as the people of God is because He works in us, and He causes us to work out the things that the Lord has worked within us. The Holy Spirit of God is the reason that every Christian will persevere, for God preserves us. He is the source of our assurance of faith. It's not in us, not in our good intentions or our efforts, not even in our feelings, but only always in God and His unshakable purpose to do us good. That's why every Christian ought to have confidence. Yes, the highest level of assurance. What reason there is? in view of this picture of great assurance, to fight against doubt as a deadly enemy that would dishonor God and do great damage to us. It is through the Holy Spirit that we can know that God loves us and delights in us for Jesus' sake. It is the Holy Spirit who directs us in the Word of God and with the promises of God and who reflects on the work of God in our lives. So we can know it is the Spirit of God who gives us assurance, who causes us to love God and to love the people of God, even as we share in the sorrows of others and we rejoice in their joys. He's the one who gives the feelings that are better felt than described. Surely these are all things to thank God for. And as long as these feelings are in accordance with the Word of God and the promises of God, and they happen in the lives of people who are focusing on Jesus, those who love holiness and who hate sin, there's good reason to believe that these feelings, this blessed communion comes through the Holy Spirit. It's not something that we stir up by making ourselves susceptible to our suggestions or desires for some emotional experience. The Holy Spirit comes. The Lord our God gives them to His people to help us to know that He is ours and we are His and nothing and no one can change that. But we need to remember, dear ones, that the feelings and the memories will fade. But the work of Christ and the promises of God are sure and unfailing. And what a need we have then for something that is rock solid, sure, and certain as the basis of our hope. so that we would resist the temptation to focus on spiritual things in a mystical and unhealthy way, but that we would be thankful for the certain things, for everyone who trusts in the Lord. For all who do so will not be put to shame. Let me conclude with a few brief applications. Maybe your assurance feels weak or nearly non-existent. If that's so, friend, this text is a call for you to search your life for sin of any kind, to turn from it. to repent of it, to seek the help and the favor of God. He will help you. He's the one who gives faith and assurance and help in the battle with sin. And may he guide you into his truth so that you would see yourself more as you really are and not as you might want to think of yourself to be. What reason then the people of God have to keep looking to Christ? Self-examination is biblical. It's right. But self-examination without looking to Christ will only bring to discouragement and sorrow and trouble. So, as the Lord shows you more of your sin, and He will, because there will be more of it for you to see. What reason there is then to throw yourself again and again on the mercy of God, on the promises of God, in the Son of God, for there you are safe and in Him you will have hope and help and joy in the Christian life. And what reason we have then, dear ones, to be reflectors of this Christian joy, of this assurance of faith. We live in a dark and gloomy world. A world where people are seeing that the government, or even themselves, are not sources of true and lasting hope. We, the people of God, have a hope and a future. And what reason we have, What need we have to speak, to live, to think, to act as those who have this hope and who will share that hope with others in their need and trouble and darkness. Assurance of faith is not something for super saints, dear ones. It's not something for a select few. God wants all of his people to have it. Seek it with him. Ask him for it. He will give it to you. And you will glorify him for it. Receive the blessing of the Lord and go in peace. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen.