“Blessed Assurance” 1 John 4:13-21

Blessed assurance. That is the  title of our sermon today. That is the topic of our sermon.  We’ll be in 1 John chapter 4, so please turn with me in your  Bibles to the fourth chapter of 1 John, and this morning we  will finish the fourth chapter, which leaves us with one more  chapter. That will be the end of John’s letter, so as John  is approaching the conclusion of the letter, he is really tying  together all of the threads that he’s introduced us to since the  very first verse of this letter. He’s reviewing and he’s summarizing  what he said, but not only that, he’s showing how each of these  sources of our assurance really combine and really provide us  with what has often been called our blessed assurance, because  it really is such a blessing to see these things at work in  our life.

And often, we find ourselves  battling difficulties, and they can be physical difficulties,  they can be things in our life, whether it’s financial or within  our families. Whatever it may be, these things  come into our life and they can cause our minds to begin to doubt. To begin to doubt, does God love  me? Am I truly a Christian? Am I one of God’s children? Am  I really saved? I don’t really feel saved right  now. And the good news is, and the  thing that we see in this text this morning, is that salvation  is not a feeling. It’s not about how we feel. Salvation  is a reality. It is a position that we have  before God. And we see in this text this  morning that the source of our assurance John lists five sources  of our assurance and not one of them is our feeling. It’s  not our heart. It’s not our mind. But we will  see five sources of our assurance in this section this morning. And really, as we saw last week  even, all of chapter four is really a summary of what he’s  been talking about.

We saw at the beginning of chapter  four an exhortation, an encouragement. Don’t believe every spirit, but  test the spirits. And we saw what he was speaking  of in that last week. And then we got to chapter, or  verse seven, and he encourages us once again to love one another,  and the reason why is because God is love. God is love, so  if God is in you, you must love. If you don’t love, it shows that  God’s not in you. And these are two of the tests  that John has been giving us, ways to test ourself to see whether  or not we are in the faith, to see whether or not we are Christians. So we have the test of belief  and the test of love. These two tests of belief are  applied more personally. the further we get into this  letter, and we see that even today. These two tests come to  light in our passage this morning, is what we believe and what we  do. That is really how it is we find  assurance of our salvation, how it is we know what we truly believe. And as we get to verse 13 and  onward, not only earlier in the chapter he encouraged us to believe  and he encouraged us to love, Now he gets to the point where  those things are assumed and he gets into what that means  in our life. What are the conclusions if we do believe and if we do  love? Because belief and love are implications,  or have implications for our life, I should say.

This is really  the high point of the letter of 1 John. This is where all  of the doctrine that John’s been talking about comes to a pinnacle  and we see what this means for us. It’s not just words on a  page. It means something for our everyday  life. Really, belief in God and in his son cannot be separated  from loving one another. If we believe in God, if we confess  Christ, then we will love one another. These tests of belief  and love are really one and the same. Jesus Christ, his person and  work, God’s love for us and our love for God and our neighbors,  none of them can be separated. If you have one, you have them  all. And really, belief and love are  related to our doctrine of Christ, what we know of Christ, what  we believe of Christ, Christ’s mission in the world, and also  our doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And we saw that briefly before,  but we will once again speak of the indwelling ministry of  the Holy Spirit this morning and how that is an evidence for  us of our salvation. And again, this is a review. 

John is reviewing these things. So a lot of these things you’ll  have heard before. And it’s often when we are doing our own Bible  reading and we’re reading through the book of verse, John, this  is typically when our eyes start to glaze over because he’s saying  the same thing over again in the same way. And sometimes he  says it forwards and backwards in every way that he can say  it, but it seems like, okay, John, you said this. We get it. But John is Very intentional  in the way that he says things. He’s very intentional in the  order in which he’s written these things.

And here we see, again,  all of these things that he’s been speaking of since chapter  one, verse one, all of them tie together in this short section  this morning. And we will see five sources  of our insurance. Five sources that we can go to  to know that we are truly saved. Our five sources in this text  are number one, the indwelling Holy Spirit. Again, we’ve talked  about this already, but he brings this back to the number one source  is the indwelling Holy Spirit within every believer. Number  two is the reliability of God’s Word, the reliability of Scripture.  The number three, once again, he brings up our confession of  who Christ is, who Jesus Christ is, the confession of Jesus Christ.  Fourthly, our experience of God’s love, God’s love in us. And then  fifth, the practice of God’s love, living out God’s love in  our life, loving others because God loves us. And these are the  five evidences we can go to when we are feeling that doubt and  that insecurity of whether or not we are truly saved.

When  we struggle with the things of life that cause us to wonder,  is God really there? Is God loving me? We can turn  to these five assurances and know that we are God’s children,  that we are truly saved. And like a good father, God wants  his children to know that he loves them. That’s why this letter’s  in the Bible. He wants us to know. Our Christian life is not just  about having good doctrine. Although we need to have good  doctrine, we need to know the right things and believe the  right things. The Christian life is also about a real and living  relationship with a living God. It is something we believe, but  it’s also something that we live. And in this passage, we’ll see  how all of this doctrine that John is talking about comes together  in our real life. These five assurances provide  us with a real life experience of certainty that we are God’s  children.

So I’m going to read our passage  once again, and then we will start to get into these five  assurances. But starting in verse 13 of 1  John chapter 4, it says this. By this we know that we abide  in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  We have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the  Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus  is the Son of God, God abides in Him and He in God. And we  have come to know and have believed the love which God has in us.  God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God,  and God abides in him. By this, love has been perfected  with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,  because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no  fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear  involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected  in love. We love because he first loved us. If someone says, I  love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who  does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom  he has not seen. And this commandment we have  from him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

So how is it that we know? How  do we know we’re not false converts? How do we know we’re not counterfeit  Christians? How do we know we’re not just  going through the motions here? How do we know we are truly saved?  Well, number one, John goes back to the Spirit, the indwelling  Holy Spirit. He says in verse 13, by this  we know. And that phrase right there is  really how John structures this letter. You could break it apart  at every time he brings back, by this we know. By this we know that we abide  in him and he in us.

So that right there, that’s Christianity. That’s what it is to be God’s  child, to be a true Christian. God abides in you and you abide  in God. So by this we know God abides  in us and God, and, and, Sorry, I jumped up a verse. By this  we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given  us of his spirit. So the first evidence here is  that we have his spirit. We can know that we abide in  God because he has given us of his spirit. And we covered the  ministry of the spirit a few weeks ago. But the indwelling  Holy Spirit is a gift of God to everyone who believes. To everyone who trusts in Christ for salvation, it is by the Spirit  that we come to understand and believe in the first place. The  Holy Spirit softens our heart and enlightens our understanding  of who Christ is and what he has done, and who we are in light  of that. And it’s by this same Spirit  that we are given the ability to love one another like God  loves us.

You see, in our fallen and unredeemed  state, we are blind and we are selfish. We only are concerned  about ourselves. And even though we can go through  the motions and we can come to church and we can do the things  that Christians do, until you are truly regenerate, you’re  doing all those things for yourself. You’re in it for yourself. It’s  not until God comes and breaks into our life and softens our heart and softens  our understanding and gives us a knowledge of the truth. First  of all, the truth of how sinful we are, that we are sinners dead  in our sin. And that we are headed on a course  that will bring us to eternal punishment. but that God has also provided  an answer for us in Christ. And when we come to this realization,  he also gives us the ability to believe, to believe in Christ,  to believe in who Christ is and what he has done on our behalf. It is only by the grace of the  Holy Spirit that we ever come to believe in Christ in the first  place. And it is by this same grace  of the Holy Spirit that we can love others, that we can love  one another.

In Galatians 5, we see the fruit  of the Spirit, the produce of what the Spirit brings to your  life, the results of what it is to have the Spirit, the characteristics  the Holy Spirit produces in us. And the very first characteristic  listed there, the very first fruit of the Spirit is love.  Because if we as Christians with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us  should do anything, it’s we should love. If we should look like  anything, we should love. God is love and if we are his  children, we should love. Our love for one another is the  result of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit was  promised to those who believe. It was a promise given by Christ. 

And even when we look at the preaching in the book of Acts  as the church was started, as we looked at in our Sunday school  this morning, in Peter’s sermon in chapter two, he preaches the  gospel. He explains to them who Christ  is and what He did and what they did to Him. And you get to verse  37 of Acts 2 and the people respond and it says, now when they heard  this, they were pierced to the heart. And Peter said to Peter  and the rest of the apostles, men, brothers, what should we  do? That’s the response. of someone  who has totally realized what they are, who has seen their  sin, who has seen their depravity. What do I do? In verse 38, Peter says to them,  repent. Repent and each of you be baptized  in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins  and you will receive the Holy Spirit. Every Christian receives the  Holy Spirit the very moment that they believe. This is a distinguishing mark  of every Christian. Every Christian has the Spirit. 

In Romans chapter 8, Paul explains it this way. In verse 9 he says,  you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the  Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the  Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Very simple. You are not in the flesh, but  you’re in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.”  That’s how Paul distinguishes if you’re a Christian, the Spirit  of God dwells in you, but then he goes on to further explain,  but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t  belong to him. If you don’t have the Spirit,  you’re not a Christian. And we see the witness of the  Holy Spirit.

We know we have the Spirit in  two ways. We see it in the inward testimony,  the witness within our own hearts. And then we see it in the outward  testimony, that the Spirit’s work on our life. First, we are  assured that the Holy Spirit dwells within us by the Holy  Spirit’s testimony to us. A few verses later in Romans  8, in verse 16, he says, the Spirit Himself testifies with  our spirit that we are the children of God. So one of the ministries  of the Holy Spirit within us is to convince us that we are  children of God, to remind us that we are children of God.  The Spirit testifies to us. The Spirit reassures us in those  moments of doubt. that we are the children of God. He doesn’t leave us alone. He  is with us.

We spoke of our consciences a  few weeks ago. And when our conscience convicts  us, when our heart is convicting us and accusing us, God is bigger  than your heart. Because the Holy Spirit testifies  to us that we are the children of God. So even when our own  heart is telling you, you’re not saved, you can’t be saved. Look at what you’ve done. Look  at what you’ve thought. Look at what you’ve said. How  could you be a Christian? Even in those moments, God is  greater than our hearts. And while we do sin and we do  break God’s heart when we sin, the fact that it breaks our heart  as well, Even in that, the Holy Spirit testifies to us. We are  the children of God. And secondly, the Spirit testifies  through us, testifies outwardly.

This is where we see the fruit  of the Spirit. As we grow in Christ, we produce more and more  the fruit of the Spirit. We begin to grow in love, joy,  peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and  self-control. And as we see that fruit more  and more on display in our life, we see the outward testimony  that we have the Spirit. We see the testimony of the Spirit’s  work within us coming out through us. It is an amazing comfort to know  that we have the Spirit, that the Spirit dwells within our  hearts. This is the Spirit’s assurance  that we are the children of God, and it brings peace and stability  to our soul, to our walk with Christ. So our first source of  assurance is the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit within  us.

Which leads us to our second  source of assurance, and that is in verse 14, and that’s the  reliability of Scripture, that we can trust in God’s Word. Verse 14 says, we have beheld  and bear witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior  of the world. The gospel is not something that  any human mind made up. We couldn’t. We know the gospel because we  heard it from God’s Word. Through some means that brought  it to our ears, we heard the gospel because it came from God’s  Word.

In the opening of Paul’s letter  to the Ephesians, Paul says that by revealing his plan of salvation,  by revealing the gospel to us, in chapter 1 verse 8, God caused  us to abound in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the  mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He  purposed in Him. The gospel is a mystery because  nobody could ever come up with this idea. Nobody could ever  think this up. Nobody could ever come up with  a plan as marvelous and unbelievable as God’s plan in the gospel.  That He would send His own Son for wicked sinners that hate  Him. Who would do that? But the gospel was made known  to us. The gospel’s a mystery because no one could conceive  something so wonderful. And here in 1 John, John says,  we beheld and we bear witness that this happened, that the  Father did send the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Here  John is going back to his authority as an apostle, as a writer of  scripture. He is sent by Christ. That’s  what the word apostle means. He’s sent by Christ. He was there. He saw him. Remember, that’s  how we opened this letter in 1 John 1.1. What was from the  beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes,  what we beheld and touched with our hands concerning the word  of life. And here in verse 14 of chapter  4, he says the same thing. We beheld him. We bear witness  that the Father sent the Son. He was there when Christ died  for our sins. You and I weren’t there. We can’t  rely on some memory that we have of seeing Christ with our own  eyes on the cross. John can. John was there. We don’t have  to. We don’t have to rely on our  own memory. We don’t have to rely on some experience. We can  rely on the word of God because God’s word is reliable.

That’s  John’s point here in this verse. You can trust me. This happened. So that when we doubt and when  we have questions about whether or not this actually happened,  whether or not Christ actually died for me, read your Bible. Your Bible is where your assurance  can be found. Read about the gospel, read about  it every day. Read about what Christ did. Read  about why Christ had to come. Read about the benefits and blessings  we have because of what Christ has done. Remind yourself of  the gospel from the reliable word of God. Not from your own  thoughts and feelings that can change in any moment. John was there, he wrote it down. We can have assurance that the  gospel is true and we are truly saved because of the reliability  of God’s Word. The third source of our assurance  is, once again, the confession of Jesus Christ, confessing who  Christ is. Verse 15 says, whoever confesses  that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

Now, we saw a similar statement  last week in chapter 4, verse 2. There he says, by this you  know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus  Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit  that does not confess Jesus is not from God. So again, it’s the confession  of Christ, but if you notice in those verses, it’s confessing  the humanity of Christ, that He came in the flesh. Whoever  confesses Jesus came in the flesh is from God, and if you don’t,  you’re not from God. Again, that was in opposition  to those who said that Jesus was only a spirit, that He looked  like a man, but He wasn’t really a man. And John says that is a heretical  error, meaning if you get that wrong, if you don’t believe Jesus  came in the flesh, you’re not a Christian. And we talked about that last  week. But here, John focuses on the other side, the deity  of Christ. Because he says, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son  of God, Jesus is truly God. He is from  God. He is the Son of God. And the  confession of who Christ is is a central part of our salvation. It is central to being a Christian,  what we confess.

Paul says in Romans 10, the familiar  passage, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord  and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,  you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes  and is justified and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. So we see that confession is  essential. for salvation. But as we see here in Romans,  it’s not just confession. It’s not just repeating words. I mean, you could train a parrot  to say that Jesus is the Son of God. That does nothing. It’s not repeating words. It’s  believing. You must confess and believe. And true confession means trusting  in who Christ is and that He is Lord, that He is Lord. And it’s not just the words that  show you believe that. It’s not just words that show  that God abides in us. It’s belief and submission to  Him. That’s the result of our confession. 

Only a true Christian would ever believe and submit to Jesus as  Lord. Oh, one day every knee will bow.  Don’t get it twisted. Every single knee will bow. Every  person you’ve ever met will bow their knee to Jesus Christ, the  Lord. But until that day, Only true  believing Christians will willingly bow their knees. They will willingly  live in such a way that their life demonstrates that they’ve  bowed the knee and acknowledged Jesus is their Lord. So the third  source of our assurance is our confession. Four and five really  go hand in hand because four is the experience of God’s love. Verse 16 says, and we have come  to know and believed the love which God has in us. God is love,  and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides  in Him. By this love has been perfected in us, so that we may  have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so  also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but  perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment, and  the one who fears is not perfected in love.

This is really a summary statement  of all John’s been talking about, about the love of God. He’s really given us each of  these elements of God’s love piece by piece throughout the  letter, and here he brings it all together, and he explains  the results. in our life when we truly experience  the love of God. He says, we have come to know  and believe the love which God has for us. One of the wonderful things about  growing as a Christian is coming more and more to know God’s love. Seeing God’s love in everything  that happens in your life. Even when it doesn’t feel good,  even when it hurts, the more and more you grow as a Christian,  you can see God’s hands of love in everything. And we can rest confidently knowing  that the one who abides in that love abides in God, and God abides  in us.

And John brings up judgment. This is where it gets real. This  is not just a theory. This is what love does in our  life. One day we will all see a day  of judgment. We will stand before the judge. God will judge every person who’s  ever lived. And he will separate believers  from unbelievers. Or as Jesus calls them, the sheep and the  goats. That’s not a fairy tale. That  will happen. And when we experience the love  of God, it gives us confidence as we look forward to that day.  When we see the love of God in our life, when we see God do  something that he only does because he loves us. Now when I look forward, knowing  that day is coming, I have confidence. I have nothing to fear. If God  loves me now, He’s going to love me then. We know we are going to be found  righteous. One of His children, we know  that because of the love He shows us now. Because the love we have experienced  already.

And why is it that we have such  confidence? He says, because as he is, so  also are we in this world. That’s an amazing statement.  As he is, so are we in this world. As Christ is, in this world, that’s what we  are like. We are not the perfect image  of Christ yet. But God clothes believers in  the righteousness of Christ so that as he looks at this wicked  and sinful world and he sees his people within and throughout  it, as he is, so are we in this world.

Someday we will stand before  God, before God’s judgment seat. And we will stand there as confidently  as our Lord Jesus Christ will, because we are clothed with His  righteousness. When we reach that final day,  that day where all things are brought to account, we will see  the fulfillment of what John said back in chapter three, verse  two, now we are the children of God and it has not yet been  manifested what we will be, but we know that when He is manifested,  we will be like Him. because we will see him just  as he is. We will be like him. We can stand before God confidently  because we will be completely like Christ.

And John mentions our perfect  love here. There is no fear in love, but  perfect love casts out fear. This does not mean that we always  love perfectly. We’re still sinners. It’s God’s  perfect love that casts out fear. When we know that God loves us  and He loves us perfectly, that eases our fears. We have nothing  to fear because as John says, fear involves punishment. What  is it that we fear? We fear punishment. But perfect  love shows us we won’t face punishment. We won’t face God’s eternal wrath.

Romans 5:9 says this, much more  than, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved  from the wrath of God through Him. That’s why this matters. We have been justified by His  blood. But much more than that, we will be saved from the wrath  that is coming. Paul’s saying, you think your  salvation’s good now? You think it’s great to be a  Christian right now? You think it feels great that  Christ died for me? And it does. He’s like, wait,  there’s gonna be a day coming when you’ll be even more. blessed  and fortunate and so thankful that I’m justified because His  wrath is coming. God’s wrath is coming and much  more than being justified by His blood, we will be saved in  the future when God’s wrath is poured out and not on us, not  on those who believe. That’s why, as John says, perfect  love casts out fear, but the one who fears God’s judgment  has not been perfected in love.

Now, there’s really two aspects  to what he’s saying here. On the one hand, if you fear  judgment, it may mean that you’re not in God’s love. Someone who professes Christ  but is not truly saved, who is not truly a Christian, who has  not truly experienced the love of God, they should fear God’s judgment.  If you are not truly saved, if you are not a Christian, God’s  judgment should scare you to death. John could be speaking to those  who are not yet perfected in their love, those who have not  yet experienced the fullness of God’s love, those who are  still experiencing doubt, who need to be reminded that God  loves them. Because as Christians, sometimes we do still fear. We do still fear sometimes. When  we think of God’s judgment and am I truly a Christian and am  I gonna face God’s wrath, John’s point here is the answer  is look to God’s love.

If you struggle with fear and  doubt, look to God’s love. Look at how God loves you. That  should put all your fears and doubts to rest. Paul says in  2 Timothy 4.8 that all saints love his appearing, and we should. We should look forward with excitement  to the return of Christ. We are to fear God, that’s true.  But that’s not a terror or a dread of God. It’s a healthy respect  and reverence for who God is. So if we continue to live in  fear and terror and dread, we need to grow spiritually. We  need to look for God’s love in our life. We need to abide in  the love of God. We need to allow the love of  God to control your thinking. So again, if you are a believer  who struggles with fears, you need to ask God to help you experience  more of his love. That’s what John says the answer  is, because perfect love casts out fear. That’s our fourth assurance,  the love of God in us, the experience of God’s love.

And fifth, the  practice of God’s love, the result of God’s love in our life. This  is the love we show to others. Starting in verse 19, he says,  we love because he first loved us. And if someone says, I love  God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does  not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom  he has not seen. And this is the commandment we  have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother  also. John goes back to square one  in verse 19. We love because he first loved  us. So he already started with God’s love in us, our experience  of God’s love, and now he goes to our love. We love because  God loved us. It was God’s perfect love that  drew us to himself. And now he gives us the ability  to show that love to others.

And then John gets practical.  He gets logical. If someone says, I love God,  but he hates his brother, he’s a liar. because that cannot be true. Think about that. If you hate  your brother, you cannot love God. You are a liar if you say you  love God and hate your brother. He explains, 4, the one who does  not love his brother whom he has seen You cannot love God  whom he has not seen. It’s easy to love someone you  can see. That should be the easier one to love. And if you can’t  even do that, then you don’t love God whom you’ve not seen.  It’s not possible. If we are true believers, God’s  love is in us and we will love one another. That is who we are  now. Christian love is responsive.  It’s a response to God’s love. When God’s love invades our hearts,  we respond by showing love to others. Christian love is the response  of a saved sinner. That is our fifth assurance.  Our fifth source of assurance is seeing the love we show to  others.

And the Christian, we know this,  the Christian life is filled with ups and downs. And we face difficult circumstances,  we face difficult family issues, we face difficult health issues,  we face financial issues, we face a lot of hard things in  this life. And they can cause fear and doubt  in our hearts and minds. And we need the assurance of  our salvation to remain faithful. And we’ve seen in this text we  can find that assurance in five different ways, five different  sources. And any one of these is more  than enough, but we have five here. The indwelling Holy Spirit,  the reliability of Scripture, the confession of Jesus Christ,  the experience of God’s love, and the practice of God’s love.  And when we see all of these assurances, we can know That  we can stand before God without fear. We can have confidence. God’s perfect love is a blessing  to us. Perfect love is far greater than  any feeling. It’s a complete, mature love  that reflects God’s work in our heart to those around us. Especially for those in the family  of God.

So if you do not have this assurance that God is your  Father, that Christ is your Savior, and that you trust Him alone  for your salvation, don’t leave here today without that. Please  talk to one of us, somebody here that can help you know, help you know who Christ is,  help you know who you are as a child of God. By this we know.

We’re gonna close here in a moment  with the song, I am his and he is mine. And this is how the  first verse of that song goes. Loved with an everlasting love,  led by grace that love to know. Gracious spirit from above, thou  has taught me it is so. Oh this full and perfect peace,  oh this transport all divine. In a love which cannot cease,  I am His and He is mine. That is our assurance.

Let’s  stand and close in a word of prayer this morning. Father, we thank you for this  passage of Scripture. It is so helpful to us because  we do struggle sometimes. We are sinful and fallen in this  body. We give in to fears, we give  in to temptations. We give in to our feelings. Lord,  help us to remain faithful. Help us to know who we are in  you. Help us to experience all of  these sources of assurance that we can find in your spirit, in  your word, in your love for us, and in our love for one another.  We thank you for the confidence that you give us through your  word. We pray that as we go from here,  we would live this out so that your love would flow through  us to those around us. We pray all of this in Christ’s  name, amen.