19th January 2024

19th January 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read - (1 John 3:16-20 focus v19-20)


Message (Alan Burke)


For the believer we look to Christ Jesus he is our example and it is only through him we know what love is. The love that was shown forth was him laying down his life for us who are by our very nature his enemies. For the believer, the follower of Jesus Christ love it is much more than words it should be seen in our lives. Let me ask you can you see in your own life how what Jesus has done has impacted your actions, that has lead you to give sacrificially to the church, materially to a bother or sister in need, has the love of Jesus impacted your desire to help those in need in the church local and universal? If we live like this it should help us to come before the Lord God, it is through things like this that we know we belong to the truth, that we are his children. This isn’t the first time that John had dealt with the matter of assurance back in chapter 2 where he said how we know that we have come to know him is if we keep his commandments (2:3), ie if we are seeking to be obedient to the word of God. How we live and how we love are both things that will help gives us assurance before the Lord our God, if we are those who belong to the truth it will be seen in our love and seen in our actions. 


Because if we are honest as John makes the point of “whenever our hearts condemn us” that even those who have been believers for a long time, even mature believers will be troubled by the conscience and doubt their salvation, they will lack assurance of there status before the Lord. If that is you, if you are having a crisis of assurances, if you are feeling the guilt of sin, the failure of living a life of love, then there are two ways in which you can regain our assurance, the first is to look back in your life. Has the love of Christ in you lives prompted you to live in a certain way, to love others, is there evidence of this, we should be able to look back in our lives and see a progression, that although we will never live to the standards of God, we all fall short of his glory that we have made progressive steps in our sanctification, what that means is that we are becoming holy as we turn from sin and live for Christ. 


The basis for our assurance though rests on God himself, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything, he knows our heart, our motivation, the things that we see as sin and the things that he knows within us that we are oblivious to as sin, yet he receives us not based on our own goodness, but based on the righteousness of Christ Jesus which as been imputed to us, given to us when the Spirit brought us to knew life in christ Jesus when we were born again. While our hearts condemn us, while others may point fingers at us, God’s promise is that if we have trusted in Jesus alone, if we are repentant for our sins then will spend eternity with him.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q46 What is required in the first commandment?
The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; (1 Chron. 28:9, Deut. 26:17) and to worship and glorify him accordingly. (Matt. 4:10, Ps. 29:2)
​