Blessed Assurance

Text: 1 John 3:10-24

Focus: Love as an act of holiness

Function: To help people understand the importance of loving and forgiving.

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

Did you ever leave a conversation and then remember that you forgot to tell the other person the most important thing?

I want to tell a story about that in the sermon this morning. Today again, we are doing a Bible study.

This lesson plays on the back of last weeks. Last week we looked at the nature of holiness -we are people set apart from this world to point people to Jesus.

We saw that purity is a subset of holiness.

And because we still fail, we asked the question about doubt: we believe in an ideal that we do not measure up to.

How do we know we are saved?

Last week, it was because God said so, not us.

Today, we are going to see two tests to see if we are believers.

How do we know we are saved? How do we know for certain that we belong to God?

So let us start with the Bible study:

Verse ten begins with the theme of holiness again. We are separate. However, the focus is changed. We are separate from Evil. We are separate from the Evil one. We have chosen to serve the living God.

Of course, we know we are separate from Evil. I believe that regardless of whether or not someone is Christian, they believe that they too are separate from the Evil one.

Some people imply that if we are not serving the living God, then by default, we are serving Satan.

But the Bible tells us that there are many things that we can devote ourselves to: we can serve ourselves (1), we can serve money (2), we can serve some idol (3) (which, the Bible says is also serving in the Devil's kingdom) or we can serve God.

Who do we serve? Ourselves? God? An Idol? A false God? The Evil one?

After introducing the idea that we some serve a false God in verse 10, John tells us how we know if we are serving God or not.

And it is simple. If you get nothing else from this message, get this: We can know that we are Christians by the fact that we love others.

Repeat. We can know that we are Christians by the fact that we love others.

But I am not ready to stop with the study because loving others is more than being in love with someone. The passage spells out specifics of what it means to love others.

So, if you want assurance of your salvation? Then give yourself the “love” test.

I think everybody loves something, or someone.

I don't know anybody that doesn't love somebody else in some way.

Does that mean they get an automatic pass?

After all, later on in the book, John will say: God is love. (4:8) But some people get this backward and say: “Since God is love, then Love is God.”

Is the description of an evil person then: “People those who love only themselves?”

I knew a man who might have come close to being a person who loved only himself.

I am going to tell a sad story.

The truly sad part of the story is what his preacher didn't tell him.

My uncle who was nothing more than a mean drunk. He died in his 50's from an overdose of alcohol.

He beat his wife and terrorized his kids.

And I don't know if I have ever attended a sadder funeral.

Well, it was sad for those of us who believe that God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, changes the lives of Christians.

The preacher, who probably didn't believe in any form of judgment after this life, tried to preach my uncle into heaven.

He twisted this very passage of scripture.

This passage says: if we believe and have love for one another, we have love for God. It then says that knowing those two things gives us assurance when the doubts come.

Apparently the preacher knew my uncle pretty well. He used this passage of scripture to try to make a case for his ultimate salvation based on his good deeds of loving...

...his sermon tried to say that if the man was loving, he was saved...

...the problem was, he needed to find something, or someone who felt like his love was given freely to them.

He couldn't.

It was pathetic the way he had to stretch.

So, of all things, his sermon centered around my uncle's love for football.

The preacher said, “The coaches told me that they had to draw straws to see who would face the wrath of my uncle after a football game, especially if we lost.” The preacher went on to say: “his was big and intimidating and someone had to face him at the end of every game...”

Isn't this ridiculous? The preacher is trying to build a case for this man's loving nature and he introduces it by telling everyone just how scared the football coaches were of him?

Football coaches? Those guys win by being tough and generally are not afraid of anything.

So, the preacher went on, my uncle loved football. And everyone who loves is a child of God.

This whole sermon was particularly sad for my missionary -saint of a grandmother- who got saved as a teenager and saw her life turned around by God.

The preacher couldn't point to one person who was a recipient of my uncle's love. The only thing he could point to was his love for a game.

I watched my grandma, and my mom, just hang their heads and weep that this was the best thing that anyone could say about her son, my mom's brother and my uncle.

I got permission from mom to share this story. I don't want to be accused of “the pastor is sharing about his family instead of teaching us the Word.” But you have to understand that the sermon is the lesson explained as it is lived out in the life of the preacher.

I can't separate this passage from that experience because it reminds me of just how important the sermon is.

That preacher was a day late and woefully short of doing his duty to my uncle. Maybe there was some faith, some goodness in my uncle that God saw. God is the judge, not me.

And it isn't the preacher's fault that my uncle choose to be so selfish with his life. Every person gives their own account of themselves before God.

But I made up my mind to tell the truth.

I wish that the preacher had been faithful to the true meaning of this passage.

I wish that preacher had gotten into the face of my uncle and told him that because he was living his life only for himself, he was not God's Child.

After he died, Grandma prayed every night: “Lord, have mercy on his soul.”

Look again at verse 14: ¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.

So what does love mean? What did that preacher fail to communicate to my uncle?

Our lesson points it out. There are two things.

First: Love means forgiveness of others. If we do not forgive, we are not loving.

If you refuse to forgive someone, then you are guilty of hating them.

Verse 15: ¹⁵All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them.

Do you want to know you are saved? Then know that you are living in forgiveness.

And yes, you may say to yourself, or to me: But you do not know the harm that person has done to me. I have a right to my hatred.

I worked with a woman's shelter in Indianapolis. It was a home for victims. And the first thing the director lead them to was forgiveness.

These women were being asked to forgive for things that I can't imagine. The director, who had many years of experience, knew that the path to wholeness in their lives meant forgiveness.

That does not mean they didn't allow the justice system to do its work on their behalf. That didn't mean that had to feel affection toward their abuser.

But her principle for forgiveness is based on verse 16: ¹⁶We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.

The director explained to them God is the one who does revenge, and since God forgave those who killed His own son, we should do likewise.

Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die.

It isn't easy. The world hates our standard of forgiveness. Vs 13: ¹³Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you.

They hate it because they do not understand Jesus' gift for us.

I wish that preacher had gotten into my uncles face and said, “That love thing? God meant that!”

So, the first test of love if forgiveness.

The second test of love is Charity.

Do we actually do charity?

This passage speaks of charity to the point of sacrifice.

What is Charity?

Let me tell you what it isn't:

I pastored in a small town.

Every month, the “Christian Layman's Breakfast” was held to raise money for the poor travelers who happened into the town. My church was next to the interstate, so I was the one who distributed most of the money.

One night, I gave money to a man with a family for a night's lodging in the local hotel. The president of the Christian Layman's Breakfast club got angry with me. He said: The purpose of this money is to get them out of town so that we do not have to deal with them. We need to get them out of our hair.

Does that sound like Charity? Give them just enough money to get rid of them so that we do not have to deal with them? No, it isn't

Then he called the police with the hope that the man had some sort or record.

Look at verse 17: ¹⁷How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

That question is rhetorical. It assumes that the reader is smart enough to know that the love of God is not abiding in that kind of person.

Charity is our responsibility as Christians.

I wish that preacher had told my uncle that his eternal soul rested on his faith AND HIS LOVE FOR OTHERS.

But he didn't. Instead, he lied and told us that because the man loved football, he must have been righteous.

I wish I was making that up.

But this is serious stuff.

And I don't mean to leave you offended with that preacher. I have forgiven him. Honestly, I have. However, I am not going to forget because this message means life and death for the one who hears it.

So, that is the heavy part of this bible study.

Let us cheer up and look at the blessings promised through love.

There are some sweet promises attached with this passage.

The first one is that we have a very good defense against the shame that the Devil would bring on us.

We sing that song, they will know we are Christians by our love.

The fact that they will know us by our love come straight from Jesus' words. (John 13:34-35) Jesus told us that our salvation will be proven to other by our love for others.

Which is what John the apostle reminds people of again in this letter.

In this letter, John, takes another angle to those words of Jesus. John says that we will also be able to prove it to ourselves.

I know you all. I don't know anyone who fails these tests of love. You have heard that word spoken for generations here in this Church.

Apparently, no preacher here has shied away from it.

But it is important that we keep on asking ourselves those love test questions.

I believe that most often we will find that we do pass.

So look at the blessings.

Verse 20, ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Our relationship with God is real and personal. Not only are we able to take the test and give ourselves a passing grade. At the same time, God, by the Holy Spirit speaks this same truth to us.

God speaks to our hearts.

We are going to take the bread and the cup in a few minutes.

The Bible tells us that every time we do it, we are to examine our hearts.

I pray this, silently: “God, is there anyone I need to forgive? God, is there any sin that I am hanging on to? God, is there a chance for me to do charity that I am refusing because I am selfish?”

I pray that “Love test.”

And you know what? Almost every time, God reveals something to me. I am reminded of something that I need to clear up. And I do, during those moments of silence before I partake of the ordinance.

That is what he is talking about when he speaks of God speaking directly to our hearts.

It is a mystical thing.

It is addressed in versus 23-24. The mystical presence in our hearts for everyone who believes in Jesus. God speaks with us.

So, when this love thing is practiced, honestly between us and God. We have the benefit of a real, loving and personal relationship with God.

Oftentimes, when people come to me and tell me that God seems way to distant and they have doubts, I try to get to the question of love for others. I try to get to the question of whether or not they are hanging on to bitterness. I try to get the question of forgiveness.

Love, Charity and forgiveness is the path to a deep and meaningful relationship with the living God.

So, there is a final promise: Verse 22: ²²and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

These are serious words. And when we follow them, we have peace in our hearts. We believe in Jesus, we are forgiven