So we are studying the book of 1 John here at Haines Creek Church this year. I invite you now to turn with me in your Bible to 1 John chapter three as we continue that study this morning. 1 John chapter three, and when you have found your place, let's stand together for the reading of God's word this morning. Before I read, let us pray. We ask you now, God, our Heavenly Father, the illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit, that we hear again your words to us through your servant, John, here in the pages of Holy Scripture. That truly, Lord God, we would know that it is you who is speaking and speaking to us. The meaning, the force, the life-changing power of your word would not be lost on us, and so God, add a blessing to this, your word to us this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. So our sermon text today is, in the beginning, a repetition of some lines that we have already considered, but I wanted to take in this passage as a whole today. So 1 John 3, verses 16 through 24 is our sermon text today. First John chapter three, beginning at verse 16, listen now to the word of God. 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. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, well, 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. This is the Word of the Lord. Please be seated. If you want to get people's attention on the internet these days, if you want them to watch you, if you want them to be your follower, then you had better be prepared to do something pretty fabulous. Because, as you know, you are literally in competition with the rest of the world for that attention. So if you are, let's say, a juggler, and you can juggle five balls, that's pretty good. And that will likely win you the talent contest in your town. But that is not going to cut it on YouTube. Because there's a guy in Stockholm, Sweden who can juggle 12 balls. that are 12 live hand grenades and live animals, and he can sing like an opera singer beautifully while he's doing it. And so really, who's going to watch you when they can watch him? So it is attention-seeking on the internet. Thankfully juggling is not your thing. As a Christian, I remind you what your thing is, and it is love. That's one of the things that the Apostle John has taught us. this epistle. We, we Christians, we know love in Christ's love for us and as he has loved us, so we as Christians are to love one another. That's what we do and hopefully we do it well. Granted, that love in practice, the way it actually manifests itself in the world, doesn't often make the most fabulous YouTube video. We might just be talking about taking a meal to someone in their time of need. So as for attention on the internet, I'm not sure we're any better off here, but I will remind you of this, that even if the whole world is tuned out to what you're doing, because they're tuned in to this Mr. Beast character, because he's giving away a Norwegian cruise line to some lucky contestant or something, when you, Christian, are helping a fellow Christian in need, you always have the attention of at least one viewer. You always have one notable follower, and that is your Heavenly Father. God, our Father, delights to see the love of His Son, Jesus Christ, in all of His children, and especially so in their love for one another. So be assured, God is watching you. Now this morning's sermon is not really about being watched by God, though that is part of it. But it's really ultimately about intimacy with God, and how you as a Christian, as a child of God, can enjoy intimacy with God, and I mean in your life right now. How you can walk with God as Enoch walked with God in his days. How you can be a friend of God, an intimate friend of God like Abraham was a friend of God in his days. How you can follow closely with God and watch his ways and learn from him as John did. being the disciple of Jesus Christ, the disciple whom Jesus loved. I'm talking about walking in the light of God's countenance, to use a biblical metaphor, to walking in the power of God's love. That's the intimacy that I'm talking about. And as I speak of that, you may think, boy, that is what I want. That is what I want. How do I get that? I don't want the world's attention. I just want to walk with God. What should I do, Pastor? Maybe I should go on a three-day mountain retreat, leave the wife and kids behind, get my backpack and tent and just go up in the mountains and walk those trails and maybe fast and pray to God. Is that the way to know this intimacy with God again? Or maybe, Pastor, I should go to seminary take some seminary classes, get more serious and more in depth in my study of theology. Is that the way for me to get close to God? Or maybe I should, as so many people do, find one of these highly organized, fantastic Christian conferences with all the great musicians and all the great speakers and the great bookstore, and in that way renew my relationship and my walk with God. How do I do this if I feel that I'm not doing it right now? Here the Apostle John says, no, none of that. But instead sets before you an old lady. This old lady you'll notice is poorly clothed. This old lady is in declining health. And this old lady is seriously worried. She's worried she's not gonna make it. She's alone and she's afraid that she can't make it alone. And this old lady is a Christian. She's a Christian widow in need. And the question that you should ask yourself today is what does my need for intimacy with God have to do with her need for bread? That's what John's gonna teach us about this morning. As we look at three things, obedience to God, confidence before God, and then lastly, intimacy with God. First, obedience to God. Look at verses 16 through 18. Again, we've looked at these verses before. Verse 16, John says, By this we know love, because he, Jesus, 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, John says, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. So this is As you now know, Christ's new commandment, that's what he called it. I keep bringing it up because John keeps bringing it up in this epistle. We find Christ's new commandment in the Gospel of John chapter 13. Christ's farewell discourse. He's speaking to his disciples in the upper room as he prepares to go to the cross to offer his life as sacrifice for them. Jesus said, among the many things he said to his disciples, quote, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So that's the reference here in verses 16 through 18. Christ's new commandments. We know love in this, that Jesus loved us and loved us enough to lay down his life for us. So the emphasis of that is upon sacrifice. He loved us enough to make sacrifices for us, even to sacrifice himself. In loving each other than as he loved us, John is saying, as Jesus taught, that we ought to be prepared to lay down our lives for one another. That is, make personal sacrifices to help one another when we see that others need our help. You notice here that this is not just something that Christians do when and because they feel like it. Rather, this is something that we do when there is a need. We see that there's a need, verse 17, and because this is what Christ has commanded of us. So John uses the language of obedience here. We ought to do this, and doing this would be keeping his command. We love each other this way, because that's what Jesus told us to do. And we're not to think furthermore, you know here, that it's enough merely to talk a good talk about these things, to talk about loving each other, which is apparently something which the Gnostics did. But truly obeying Christ's new commandment means seeing a need and not hardening our hearts, which may be our first inclination, but rather repenting of that and instead opening our hand wide to help. to show compassion, and to show compassion to provide, to share, John specifies, worldly goods that we have with other Christians who need them. This is what it is to love, as he says in verse 19, in deed and in truth. So what kind of love is this that we're talking about here? The love to which we know and to which we are also called as Christians. It is, John teaches us, family love. That's what it's like, that's what it is. That's why in verse 17 he speaks of a brother in need. You see a brother in need. The church is a family. It's proper to speak of it that way. This is our church family and we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are taught in the Bible to speak like that. We are encouraged in this way to see each other and to care for one another like that. God is our heavenly father. Jesus is our elder brother. We are all God's children and we are now spiritually growing up together in God's house. And this is not just talk. That's part of John's point. We're a family, and what do families do when a brother is in distress? Well, we love him, and not just in words. When there's love in families and a brother is in trouble, you can see it. The other members of the family will stop everything, and they will go to him, they will get on a plane, they will enter in to help him out, and whatever it takes. They let him know, we're going to go through this together and we're going to get through this together. And doing so, they understand this will involve sacrifice. This will be costly. But a brother, if he is a true brother, does not shrink from the cost. John again sets forth here a Christian brother. I'm representing this Christian brother in need, but the Christian widow, because that's often the emphasis in scripture. John sets forth this old lady and look at her. She needs bread. And she is not your sister. That is, as far as your family in this world goes. Her parents are not your parents. You didn't grow up together as kids. And yet, she is your sister. God says she is your sister now. So other people will see her, see her plight, say, that's too bad. But really, not my problem. I hope somebody takes care of her. And they'll excuse themselves. But the Christian sees the same thing and says, not while I can do something about it. Not while I can do something about it. There'll be no excuse for not helping. Christ has commanded this. We know what his commandment means, and we see it right here. Christ, who loved us and laid down his life for us, wants us now to likewise love her, our sister. So this is the time to enter in, and in entering in, to obey. That's verses 16 through 18 on obedience to God. John continues then, from there to speak of confidence toward God, or I'm saying confidence before God. So look with me in verses 19 through 21. He says, and by this we know that we are of the truth. and shall assure our hearts before him, that is God. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, John says, we have confidence toward God. So the background for this is that we Christians know that some are not of the truth. We've seen them. There are some who are just talkers and they talk a good talk, but that's that's really all that there is going on with them. And in John's time, it's the Gnostics who left the church not long before that he has in mind. So we know that there are some who are just talkers and talkers are not of the truth. And so we do sometimes wonder about ourselves. Am I truly a Christian? Or do I just talk like one? Am I really one of God's elect children? Did Jesus Christ really die on the cross for me? These are important questions and they deserve real answers. It's important that they be answered with good biblical answers. The heart needs to be assured, verse 19. The heart needs to be assured, your heart, Christian, needs to be assured. So where is, according to John, the evidence of sincerity, of reality, of substance, that would dispel these sorts of doubts? And again, what does John reach for? He reaches for that old lady. A Christian widow in her need, he sets her before you, your sister. See what she means. Christ's new commandment is pretty clear, which means that God's will is pretty clear. And there are some moments in the life of the church, I think, where it is particularly clear what God, what Christ wants us, the other members of the church, to do, particularly in obedience to the new commandment. What does he want us to do? Help her. Isn't that clear? Seeing her need, don't, verse 17, shut up your heart from her. You have worldly goods. It is your duty and to help this, your sister, in need. Obedience. would require that of a soul. So the question is, how can we have confidence toward God? John says, do that. Do that and you will have confidence towards God. That's his phrase in verse 21. And to be clear, this confidence is not a reference to confidence before God at the final judgment on the last day. What John is speaking of is confidence before God, your heavenly father, right now in your life as a Christian. Another way we might say it is, are you confident right now that things are right with you and God, your heavenly father, right now? When it comes to the prospect of standing on the last day before the judgment throne of God, Your confidence there is entirely based upon the finished work of Christ on your behalf. And you may be assured of that. That is the rock, the solid rock, the foundation of your new relationship with God in Christ. Under the new covenant, you have become God's child by the blood of Jesus and the grace of adoption. There you stand and there you shall stand on the last day. But God being now your father is watching you, as fathers do. And you should know that. And so knowing that, being aware of God watching you in your life right now, His child, how is it with you and your heavenly Father? Is it well? Do you have confidence that it is well? You know, gentlemen, it's like with our wives. Sometimes things are right with you in your life. And sometimes things are not right with you and your life. And you can tell the difference, okay? Even if you can't quite put your finger on what the problem is, you are conscious that there is a problem. There's a coldness, right? There's a distance that is there. And the same sort of thing can be experienced in our relationship with God. Why? Well, here's an illustration. speaking of fathers and their children. Let's say that your father tells you one morning that he wants you to cut the grass. The grass is getting too high, I want you to cut the grass today. You say, okay, dad. He gets in the car, he drives off to work. And the day passes and you don't do it. It wasn't that you couldn't do it, The lawnmower's in working order. Your dad provided you with a full tank of gas. You certainly could have done it. And you should have done it. It wasn't that you had other particularly important things to do. You just didn't do it. And to be honest, you didn't do it because you didn't want to do it. And you thought that maybe you could get away with it. So there you are, you're playing video games or something on the couch, and you hear in the evening your father drive back into the driveway. And what happens? In John's words, your heart condemns you. It's not necessary for your father to come in the room and condemn you. Your own heart condemns you. You made excuses. But there was no excuse. You get up. You look out the window. You see all that tall grass that you didn't cut. And you know very well that what you can see, your father sees too. Because things like this don't get past him. It's not that you're not his child anymore. It's not that he doesn't love you anymore. But it is that Things are not now right between you and him. As you're looking out the window, you can see him sitting in the car and he's not looking at the grass. He's looking at you. How did this happen? It's your fault. You didn't obey him. The thing about the new commandment is it's clear. You see the need of a sister in Christ before you. You see that you can help her. God has put you in a position to do that. If you do so, you know this, that God is watching. And if he sees you help her, he will be pleased with you as his child. You will be able to know in your own heart that you're not just a talker, a Christian talker. At least you weren't today. But you were today a true Christian. You are today a brother to this, your fellow believer, your sister in Christ, and you will know that this is indeed Christ's love for you. That's what his love would do. And your own heart will be assured to use John's language. And in that assurance, you will have a sort of confidence before God, your heavenly father. And that's a good feeling. As a child of God, you will know, today things are right between me and him. And that brings us then lastly to intimacy with God. So obedience to God leads to confidence before God, and where there's confidence before God, then the door is open to intimacy with God. Picking up verse 22. John says, and whatever we ask we receive from him, from God, 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. All right, so back to the illustration. Again, you didn't cut the grass. It's evening now, you see it. As your father drives into the driveway, your heart condemns you. Your father sees it too, nothing gets past him. And that's when you remember, ah, I was gonna ask him for something. I'm involved in this project, it's an important project in my life, and I was gonna ask for his help, because I needed it. Alright, I got somewhere that I wanted to go and it's important that I get there, so I was going to ask him if I could have the keys to the car. So what are you going to do? Tonight? You going to go ahead and ask? Oh yeah, by the way dad, can you help me with this thing? Can I have that thing? You know, knowing very well, being condemned in your own heart, that you didn't cut the grass like he told you to, are you gonna be so bold as to go ahead and ask him for the thing that you want? I doubt it. If you did cut the grass, however, very different. It's a different matter. The truth is, your father loves you, and because he loves you, he would love to help you. This is something that we hear in scripture. And things being right between you and him right now, being confident that he is pleased with you because you obeyed him today, you can see no reason not to ask him and no reason to think that he will say no. So you'll go ahead and ask him. And likely he'll give you what you ask. Your Heavenly Father, Christian, loves to say yes to your prayer. That's another thing the Bible teaches very clearly, to give you the desires of your heart, to give you the things that you ask for. So Jesus says ask, and you'll receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. And this is something of the very intimacy with God that we all long for, to be as children at his table, knowing that he loves us, seeing the light of his countenance smiling upon us, being able freely to ask him for whatever help we need, to be able to ask him right now for the things that we need right now. Okay, so go back and follow John here as he lays this out. Going back to verse 18, we're to love each other, not in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth, which means freely giving to a brother or sister in need. Verse 17, when we do so, our hearts will be assured before God, They will not condemn us, and we will have confidence toward God. With that confidence, we'll be able to go to Him in prayer and ask Him for the things that we need, knowing, verse 22, that we shall receive it. And why? If we come to this point in the passage and say, why? How can we know? Look what John says. He says, because we keep His commandments. and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And we know exactly what that is. It is believing in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and it is also with it loving one another as he gave us commandment. As John continues to unfold this blessing of a right relationship with God in verse 24, he says, and he who keeps God's commandments abides in God. That's intimacy, isn't it? And God abides in him. And by this intimacy we know that he abides in us for the spirit whom he has given. So that is the language of real intimacy with God. And John's talking about right now. Right now in the life of the Christian. His life in me, my life in him, being assured of that. in his confidence before him and the blessings of his favor and affection just flowing from heaven to earth in the answer to my prayers and as a result of that spiritual health and growth and fruitfulness unto his glory. I mean, surely this is to walk with God as Enoch walked with God. This is to be a friend of God as Abraham was a friend of God. This is to be a beloved disciple of God leaning upon the Savior's breast as John did. And when you contemplate that, who wants a Norwegian cruise line from Mr. Beast? When you might enjoy intimacy right now with the God of the universe, like a Christian. Would it really matter if no one else noticed? Would it not matter to you? Not at all. Would not God's attention, God's intimacy be enough and more than enough to satisfy you so that you didn't have to post anything on the internet to be seen, to be adored? But here's the thing, and this is the critical thing in this text, I think. It all hinges on her. the Christian widow in her need. That's how John sets it up. The usual means of her provision have failed her. Her husband has died. She has no surviving children to care for her. She needs someone to have pity on her, and probably not just for a moment, but from this point forward, to take her into their care so that she will know that she's not going to starve. But what family does she have? If she's a Christian, she has her church family. Which is to say, she has you. And you know what God, our Father, would have us do. So what then if you don't do it? It's inconvenient, it's costly. All it takes to neglect her is just to be careless. When this is brought to your remembrance and you realize what you've done and what you've not done, will not your heart condemn you before God? Will not the question be asked of you, Christian, what of all that talk about church family and brother and sister and all that? Will you not know, among other things, that you are not right with God right now? Will things get any better for you if you go on a mountain retreat, or take some seminary classes, or go to a great Christian conference? My answer is no. All you'll get from God is a cold stare out the window, an all-knowing, heart-searching stare. And that stare does not mean that he doesn't love you, but it does mean that he is not pleased. You say, he's such a tyrant. How can he not be pleased with me? Does he not see I've been praying? Does he not see I've been reading my Bible? I mean, furiously. Does he not see that I've even been fasting? inflicting myself in my devotion to him. What would God say? We know very well what he would say, because he said it with the prophet Isaiah in chapter 58, verse 6. He would say, Is this not the fast that I have chosen? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? Would you see the naked that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Do this, God says, and then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall rise before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, God says, and the Lord will answer. Then you shall cry, and he will say, here I am. The point is, If you want intimacy with God, Christian, which is to say spiritual health, walking in the light of his countenance and all that, you cannot neglect her, the Christian widow in her need, and all the needy Christian people in your church whom she represents. All the rest profits you nothing, gets you nowhere, is rightly dismissed as mere talk, when somehow she gets overlooked and goes without. It ought not to happen. Church is a family, and it ought to be like the best of families. It's not that we can't solve all of each other's problems, but the ties that bind us are no less real. And when those bonds are tested by distress in the life of someone that is here It ought to hold. It ought to be found genuine. It ought to be seen to be, when tested, the very love of Christ for us all. Christ who laid down his life for us. That's the standard. Inconvenient, costly, and that's the beauty of it. So I'm preaching to myself as much as to you, you know. Don't neglect it. This is, to say it another way, essential to Christianity. It's not an optional thing. And nothing can go well in your Christian life where this is overlooked. There are a lot of needs there. They're poverty of all kinds. Thankfully, the poverty that they knew in the ancient days is not as common as it is in our days. But surely there are other kinds of poverty, right? We always have the poor with us. And it should be part of the Christian life and the Christian lifestyle and the ongoing life and ministry of the church to be aware of and helping one another in our times of distress. Rightly, it starts with your nuclear family. Take care of those Christians, your wife, your husband, your children, and they need a lot from you. So don't put that in a different category. But it doesn't stop there. From there then embraces the greater family of the local church. Of that you can be certain. And even at times extends to the needs of other Christians elsewhere, particularly where the spirit tugs at your heartstrings. I encourage you to listen to that. Don't excuse yourself easily. from the call to help other brothers and sisters whenever and wherever you can. And part of your reward in doing so is that when you do so, you will be able to look into that and say, that is the work of Christ's Spirit in me. That is a work, just the sort of work. by faith in Jesus Christ and in obedience to his commandment, that's the sort of work that is well-pleasing in the sight of God and a sign of genuine Christianity in me. And on that basis, right now, you may enjoy intimacy with God and all the benefits of that confidence before his throne of grace. Pray as knowing that what you pray, you will receive. Let's pray together.