22nd January 2024

22nd January 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read - (1 John 3:21-24 focus v21)


Message (Alan Burke) 


Are you a child of God? That might be a question that you from time to time ask of yourself and there are many, even mature believers  who have or have lacked assurance and have asked that question from time to time. It can be for varying reasons but as we come once more John deals with the assurance that we as believers can have and know, that comes about because of the love that has been lavished upon us. Knowing this love will give us confidence in what lies ahead. Knowing we are loved will make massive difference in how we approach the Lord our God. 


As we begin I want you to notice where we left off last week in v20 when John reminded us how we have assurance as we reflect on our lives and even though we will never live to the standards of God the basis for our assurance though rests on God himself, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. God 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.


Why is this assurance necessary, well because our assurance of salvation, our assurance of our status as children of God will impact how we approach the Lord our God. John wants us to have confidence as his children and as we have that confidence it will impact our prayer life. We can come before him asking of our Lord anything, coming boldly, not based on our shortcomings but on his grace. God’s opinion isn’t based on how well we are grading ourselves, how we think that we are doing it is based on what Christ Jesus has done. We know we are loved because of this love that the Father has lavished on us (3:1), that we are his children, our assurance in coming with confidence and having a heart that does not condemn us is not based on us but on what has been done for us in Jesus Christ. 


In our relationship with the Lord the first thing that goes when we loose confidence, when we have said, done something or not done what we should have is that we as a result lack assurance and it is our prayer life that goes. We think how can we come before God, he knows what I said, what I’ve done. We struggle not with what God has done but that he would love us and he would want us to come with confidence before his throne of grace. Just like in that relationships that becomes strained, distant in our own lives because of things we have done that is what happens in our prayer life, not because the Father loves us less but because of our own consciences condemning us or the Devil accusing us when we have failed to obey and to love. 


When we are struggling with assurance the first thing that goes is our prayer life, but just having just dealt with assurance, how God is greater than our hearts, that he knows everything we are told to in v20, he knows if we are trying to live for him, if we are seeking to be obedient, if we are trying to live in love then our hearts should not condemn us and we can have confidence before the Lord. Child of God you can have confidence before your Lord this day not because of you but because of Christ. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q48 What are we specially taught by these words [before me] in the first commandment?
These words [before me] in the first commandment teach us, That God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God. (Ezek. 8:5–6, Ps. 44:20–21)
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