I said, I don't know, God told John to eat the book. How weird is that? And so maybe we can eat the book tonight in First John, chapter three, verse 19 and 20. We we've considered the characteristics of true fellowship. Remember how to reestablish fellowship after it's been broken because of sin. And we've talked through First John one and First John two. We'll finish up first John three and then we'll have two chapters left four and five. And in the characteristics of true fellowship we've looked at the characteristics in relation to our prospect in relation to our position. Tonight we're going to look at the characteristics of fellowship in relation to our prayers. Now John gives us three realities are things. that the child of God possesses in relation to prayers when we are in true fellowship. In verse 19 he says, and hereby we know. Now understand this, the book of 1 John has been called the certificate of assurance. And when I lead someone to the Lord and they ask me, what book should I start reading in? I don't know to tell them start in Genesis and read your way all the way through. I say go to the book of First John because it's imperative that they understand that they have assurance. They have eternal salvation and understand this. The arguments of eternal salvation and the argument of assurance are two different arguments. Some people who are struggling with the assurance of their salvation will go to a Christian counselor or some Sunday school teacher, pastor, and say, you know, I'm having a problem knowing whether or not I'm saved. And the person, the spiritual leader, will argue and say, no, once saved, always saved. And he turns the issue into eternal security. The issue is not eternal security. The issue is assurance of the believer. They're two different issues. Now, we are saved through all eternity. The Bible tells us eternal life everlasting life the Bible tells us. We're in the hand of God No, man can pluck us out say well I can own my own free will walk out what say that in the Bible don't say that anywhere and by the way It does say that we're not just in the hand, but we're a part of the body of Christ We're one of the fingers on the hand. That's eternal security the assurance of the believer is is where we get great truth supporting this through the book of 1st John. And I always tell folks, when I say, Pastor, where should I start reading in the Bible? Start at 1st John. It's the certificate of assurance. So, John gives us three realities that every child of God possesses in their relationship to prayer when they are in true fellowship. Now understand this. If we're not walking in true fellowship of the Lord, our prayer life is Zippo. The heavens are brass, and we still can pray, but God doesn't listen. He says that if we have sin in our heart, if we hide our sin, that he'll not hear us. So there are three things I want to share with you tonight. First of all, let me say, the child of God has assurance. We have the knowledge of assurance. Look at verse 19. Hereby we know. Now, throughout 1 John, they use the word know, K-N-O-W, Often that is absolute. And there are those who will say, well, you know, I prayed and I've been baptized and I've joined the church and I try to live a good life. But no man can know if he's going to heaven or not. The first John refutes that. That's that's a heresy. That's that's not true. And in this this lesson, this final lesson on a first John three, we'll see that He reinforces over and over and over that our assurance is based in our relationship of being in Christ. And so we see here that he says, and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. So this verse 19 referenced back to the previous verses that we've already studied. And we know that God loves us. Why? Well, verse 16 says, Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. How do you know God loves you? Loves you. He died for you. That's how you know that he loves you. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And as I told him this last week, doesn't mean that we are to become crucified on the cross for the brethren, but we ought to love the brethren and we ought to be benevolent to the brethren. This is within our ability to help lift a brother up and and make a difference in a brother. Then we need to do that. So we know that we are of the truth. If it's conditional, if we know that We love the brethren. How do we love the brethren? Well, verse 18, my little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue. Brother, I sure love you. Oh, brother, I love you and sister, I love you. It's like the two guys walking down the street and. One turned to the other and said, You love me, don't you? He said, yeah, you know I love you. He said, you love me so much in the Lord that if you had two cars, you'd give me one, wouldn't you? He said, yeah, you know I love you. If I had two cars, I'd give you one. He said, you love me, don't you? He said, you know I love you. Love you in the Lord, brother. He said, as a matter of fact, you love me so much that if you had two tractors, you'd give me one. He said, if I had two tractors, you know I'd give you one. He said, you love me, don't you? He said, you know I love you. He said, you love me so much that if you had two pigs, you'd give me one, wouldn't you? He says, now, you know, I got two pigs. Get the point? You love me, don't you? If you had two guns, you'd give me one, wouldn't you? Yeah. Okay. You see, we're not to love in deed or in word or in tongue. But in verse 18, he says, but in deed, And in truth, you know, the early church, the Bible says they saw the possessions and they gave it to the church so that it could be shared with the brethren. That's Christian love. And, you know, that doesn't mean that we're to to to take away or to put our children, our family in a dangerous way, but it does mean that if we have the wherewithal and we see a brother in need, we need to help make that need. Can you say amen on that? So we know that we are of the truth if we know that we love the brethren, not in deed, not in word, but in, I mean, not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Verse 14 says, we know, here it is again, the assurance, it's an absolute, we know that we have passed from death unto life. Why? Because we love the brethren. So understand this, you may not put a lot of emphasis on love for the brother or love for the brethren, but God's word does. And we see here that we have the knowledge of assurance, verse 19, hereby we know. Secondly, we have the knowledge of truth. Notice in verse 19, we know what? That we shall assure our hearts before him. If we are of the truth, then we are truly his. What's the truth? Well, the truth is that Jesus came born of a virgin, died on the cross for the sins of mankind, buried, rose the third day. And we put our trust and faith in that, in what he's done for us. So we have the knowledge of the truth. We have the knowledge of assurance. We know in our heart and we have the assurance that we are saved. If we are of the truth, then we are truly his. Then we have the knowledge of assurance, we have the knowledge of truth. Notice, we have knowledge of heart, our conscience. He says in verse 20, for if our heart condemns us. And what happens there? I've talked with people for many, many years who have said, you know, sometimes I think I'm saved, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I go to bed, and I'm convinced that I'm saved, and other times I struggle with it. I do. I struggle with it. What happens? They're listening to their heart instead of listening to the Word of God. Can I tell you this? There are some mornings that I wake up. There are some mornings that I wake up, and I do not feel saved. Anybody here ever not felt saved? Yeah. But you know what we do? We go back over to the first John, you read through there. And first John. Convinces us. And we stop riding the wave of feelings, that's our heart, our conscience, our heart. And we start applying what thus saith the word of God. You see, the word of God is the final authority for if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. So our heart or our conscience or our feelings will condemn us because we know that we haven't always loved the brethren. So when we get into sin, when there's sin in our life, that's when the devil comes in and starts telling people who aren't strong in the word, people who aren't spiritually mature, that you're not safe. A safe person wouldn't think that towards another Christian. You see, you're not safe. Look how you behave. Look what you did. people who are under great stress and people who are under great burden and people who are carnal. They're saved, but they have some. They've not grown much in the Lord, have not surrendered much of themselves to God in the area of lordship. But they've been saved by the grace of God. Yet they react in a carnal way. Our hearts are our conscience. Our feelings will condemn us and the devil will will imply you're not saved. Look, look what you're thinking. Look, look what you thought. Look at how you feel. And we start running off of our emotions, off of our feelings, off of our heart because we know that there's sin there. This sin is not having a love for the brethren as we should. John points out here, he shows us and leads us away from our feelings, away from our heart and towards our God who knows all. God knows if we're saved or not. Ask him, he'll tell you. You see, we should thank God that our salvation and the assurance of our salvation are not based upon our feeling of the feelings of our heart or emotion. It's based off of the great and mighty God and what he did for us at Calvary. And it's based off of his word, what his word says. And that is the final authority. No child of God should walk through this world. Not knowing that they're saved. You know, they're It's amazing to me. I've talked with people. I've brought them to this point. I'm drawing the net and sharing Christ with them and They'll say I'm going to put it off, but you know if I told them your brakes may not work in that car They wouldn't get it and drive If I told them, you know, your house may catch on fire, you know, they see the importance of insurance. They want to have insurance on their car, they want to have insurance on their home, they want to have insurance on their possessions, but they don't see the importance of assurance of eternity. How crazy. That drives me nuts sometimes. So we should know this. And so the child of God, one of the realities is has assurance of salvation. It's the knowledge of the truth and the knowledge of the heart and conscious. Secondly, the child of God not only does he have assurance, but he has confidence. Our confidence comes from the assured heart. I was knocking on doors years ago and asked this little lady who came to the door, she knew she would die today, she'd go to heaven. I heard a really rough, gruff voice around the corner saying, nobody can know that. And I said, well, I must be God's pet because I know it. And I can show it to you if you let me come in. He let me come in and I sat there and he she was just a little tiny guy. He's this girl and she's this. He was this big guy. And they were a truck driving team. And I sat there at their kitchen table opened the Bible went through the scriptures and led both of them to Christ. And the next morning they drove their tractor trailer rig up the parking lot of the church and parked it and walked forward made public were baptized. Understand. We should have the confidence. And the confidence is not in ourselves or in and of ourselves. Confidence is nothing about us. All that we have is because we are in Christ. It's what He has done. It's what He has finished. And it's what He has freely given to us. So the child of God has confidence. And this confidence comes from the assured heart. Look at verse 41. Blessed are our beloved. If our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence towards God. Now there's some who put their confidence in their works. There's some who put their confidence in things like church membership, the ordinances of the church, the sect, the... baptism and the sacraments. They have things. There are others who put their confidence in actions. They do this and they do that and they don't do this and they don't do that. And then there's others who put their confidence in others. Mama says I'm saved. The preacher says I'm saved. My son's teacher said I got saved. None of those confidence will help you. None of them. The confidence has to come from God's word. And it comes from the Lord. Our confidence is towards God in prayer. If there is sin in our hearts, then we cannot pray with confidence. If God's not with us about sin and we want to go to the Lord in prayer and understand we have that that blockage that's there, he will not hear. The Holy Spirit reminds us, the Holy Spirit convicts us, and we must confess that sin, whatever it may be, to get our way, to get our fellowship, not our salvation, but to get our fellowship back with the Father so that we can have a productive prayer life. When a Christian is out of fellowship with God or out of fellowship with the brethren, he cannot pray with confidence. How are you in your prayer life? There are some things that can take place in life and you may not have time to get it all right with God. You get a phone call if your wife has been in a terrible automobile accident and the jaws of life are there trying to cut her out of the car. and she's unconscious and she's bleeding badly, you might want to be able to fall to your knees right there and say, oh God, help my wife. Instead of having to say, now Lord, I hate this person and I'm not right with this person and Lord, I'm not right here. And you've got to go through a whole string of things to get right with God before he will hear your prayers. Sin hinders our prayer. It does. The heavens are brass when sin is tolerated and continues in the life of a child of God. Years ago, this is many years ago, Joy and Carrie was out soul winning in a horrible place in Gary, Indiana. It was the murder capital of capital of the world. And the foolish bus driver drove off and left them there. And my son Joshua called me, and we had been out sewing, and it was about one o'clock. We were at a restaurant eating lunch, and Joshua called me and said, Dad, we got a problem here. I said, what is it? He said, Joey and Carrie went on a soaring bus and they went to Gary, Indiana and we were told they would not be taken there and They they've not been seen for three hours Now I gotta tell you something I Almost threw up right there on the table because I've seen this stuff. I've seen photos and I I Then I've worked with law enforcement, and I've seen how this stuff goes. And I want to tell you something. The first three hours of a missing person are key hours. Because in the end of three hours or four hours, you could be in a different state or two different states, depending on where you're at. And I got up, and I walked out, and I literally collapsed against the back of my van and wept and began to pray, oh, God, protect them. I had a little bitterness. I thought I told you I'd not hang around with Carrie. She's gonna get her in trouble one day and here she is. But I was in the parking lot of a restaurant crying out to God, I'm gonna tell you something. I didn't have to start confessing this and confessing that and what I did and what I said and what I watched and where I went. It was an instant connection. And sin hinders your prayer life. You have, you can pray, but you won't have any confidence that he's going to answer or he hears when a Christian is out of fellowship with one of the brethren. He's out of fellowship with God. He cannot pray with confidence. This is also true in the Christian home. First Peter chapter three, verse seven, likewise, ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge. Man, there's some people, some guys who have no knowledge about their wife. I hear guys say things about their wife, with their wife standing right there, and I cringe when I hear them say that. The Bible says, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. That doesn't mean that she's mentally deficient. Matter of fact, it's often the other way. Often, it means what it says, she's weaker. And as being heirs together of the grace of God, look what it says, that your prayers be not hindered. The way you treat your wife and the way your wife treats her husband, that can hinder your prayer life and getting things done. I mean, I know people who don't They don't talk in the home. They don't. They're two ships passing in the night. They don't even share the same bedroom, you know, and they're spiritually bankrupt. The child of God has assurance of his salvation. The child of God has confidence of his prayer life. Now, our confidence is that the Lord hears and answers our prayer. Look at verse 22. And whatsoever we ask, We receive of him because, why? This is conditional. Why when we ask God in prayer we receive? We keep his commandments and we do those things which are pleasing in his sight. Can I tell you this? This teaching about grace covers it all and we can live any way we want to live and do whatever we want to do and we're just going to hold on to God and God's just going to give us everything. Let me tell you something, that's a candy-stripe theology. That's not true. The Bible tells us here that if we do not keep His commandments, we do not walk in His law, not His law, but in His principles, and we do the things that are not pleasing to Him, He's not going to answer those prayers. It is conditional, folks. Some folks wonder whether the prayers never, let me tell you something, you never get your prayers answered. You ought to start tithing. You're robbing God. You ought to share the gospel. You ought to spend time in prayer and reading your Bible. You ought to consecrate yourself from the things of the world. These things hinder your prayer life. You think God's a waiter and you just get on your knees and say, listen here, God, this is what I need. No, no. He tells us here clearly that it's conditional. He says, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and we do those things that aren't pleasing, that are pleasing in this life. Well, what happens when we don't keep his commandments? We break that fellowship and we've got to rebuild. We got to go back and reestablish that fellowship. Again, I'm not a salvation. It's like if if Brother James turns to Ella and she he says, I want you to do ABC and she does a but she doesn't do B and C. Let me tell you something. The fellowship is not going to be grand there. Now, she's still his daughter and he's still her father. But the fellowship has been interrupted. Why? Because she has not kept his commandments and she has not pleased him. That's why. And that's what God is saying here. It's just as clear as can be. So the child of God has assurance, the child of God has confidence, and then lastly, the child of God has a witness. Now, notice the two part commandment of the father, verse 23, and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. So we are to believe in the name of the son of Jesus Christ and love one another. As he gave us commandment. Those are. The two part commandment that gives a witness. Now notice the result. We have this witness in verse 24 and he that keepeth his commandment commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know there's the absolute again that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us. We dwell in Christ, and Christ dwells in us. Again, we have this abiding in the Lord from the Gospel of John, chapter 15. And we know He dwells in us. How do we know that? The witness of the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. Romans 8, verse 16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. What does that mean? We ought to be able to say, Holy Spirit, Am I truly the child of God? He'll say, absolutely. Amen. Notice the position in Christ. Now, this is key and I'll be done. Our position in Christ, what's it begin with? You know this. It begins with faith. Look at verse 23. And this is his commandment that we what? Should believe. Our position in Christ begins with faith that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. Notice our position begins with faith and then our position continues with love. Verse 23, that we should believe. On the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. So our position in Christ, it begins with faith. It continues with love. And listen to me. It is contingent on obedience. Verse 24. And let and he that keepeth his commandment dwelleth in him and he in him. This doesn't mean that we lose salvation. It means that we have a broken relationship, our fellowship. What breaks the fellowship? Disobedience. Saying no to God. Disobedience. I think that we say yes to everything, but to God sometimes. And if you want to take the word of God literally and apply biblical principles to your life, you looked at today as a legalistic person or somebody who's trying to work their way to heaven. No, no, I just want to please the Lord. It's got nothing about salvation. It's about my relationship with him, with my father. So our position begins with faith, our position continues with love, love for one another, and our position is is a contingent on obedience and then our position is confirmed by the Spirit, the latter part of verse 24, and hereby we know that we abide in him by the Spirit which he hath given us. Now, when it comes to your prayers, let me ask you three questions. Do you have assurance when you pray? Do you have confidence that he hears? And do you have the witness testifying within you? Those are three realities every child of God should have when they pray. This is a characteristic of true fellowship with Christ. You can be saved and have broken fellowship and not have any of those. The question to each of us tonight is very simple. Are we enjoying fellowship with Christ? And if no, or if not, then we need to ask ourselves two questions. If we're not enjoying the fellowship with Christ, there's two questions we should ask ourselves. Number one, What needs to change? Nothing about him. It's something about us. What needs to change in your life tonight to to have that fellowship? Now, I see people come to the altar. I see people pray revival time and they think and the Spirit of God deals with them and they get up and they go out and they think it's just going to happen. We've got to have a commitment to serve God and live for God like the way you have a commitment to get up and get ready and go to work in the morning. It doesn't happen through osmosis. It's a decision that we have, that we make. What needs to be changed? Second question. Will you be willing to make the change? What is it in your Christian walk that severs that rich fellowship from time to time? What is it? Temper? Is it your temper? Your language? Is it your recreation? Is it your beverage? Is it your associations? Is it your activities? Whatever it is, it's not worth the cost of severing your fellowship with the Father, because it's going to hinder your prayer life tremendously. Stay with me. Father, help us tonight to be real meet our needs in this, we look through this, just a few verses here in First John, chapter three. May we have that wonderful, divine assurance. May we have that just splendid. Confidence, not in ourselves, but in you. May we have that witness within us that testifies to us, that validates us. Help us to not listen to the heart, our feelings. You've given your almighty God, you've given your holy word, and we stand on the book and on what you've said, not what we feel. But help us to have that deeper, richer relationship with you that we walk that consistent life. That we are spirit controlled. That when we are led of the spirit will not be. compromised by our flesh, give victory over sin, and may we have a richer deeper relationship with the Father.