Tonight, the text for the sermon is 1 John 3, 19-24. And in connection with that, we want to read from the Gospel of John, John 14, verses 15-31, and then turning over to 1 John 3, 11-24. First of all, John 14, beginning at verse 15, that familiar and beautiful chapter of where Christ comforts His disciples and says do not let your hearts be troubled and says that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life. And then in the section that we read together, He promises the gift of the Holy Spirit. Beginning at verse 15 as we give our consideration and our attention to the Word of God. If you love Me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me, because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him. Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own. They belong to the Father who sent Me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. You heard Me say I am going away and I am coming back to you. If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, said when it does happen, you will believe. I will not speak with you much longer, for the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, for the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now, let us leave. In 1 John chapter 3, beginning at verse 11, In the last part, verses 19-24, serving as the text tonight. Verse 11, This is the message you heard from the beginning. We should love one another. Do not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. This, then, is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His command, to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. For those who obey His commands live in Him and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us. Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the things that I have appreciated about this inspired letter of John is that as he moves forward in his teaching, he continually reinforces what he had said before and then he builds on that. And at the same time, he applies what he has taught. In other words, he teaches us, his readers, what we must know and then he teaches us what we must do. Now John began, as you know, talking about having fellowship with God and applying that teaching and applying that by teaching what the evidence of fellowship is, namely walking in the light of the truth of God as well obeying the commandments of God. And then he goes on to teach that those who enjoy fellowship with God do so because they have been born of God. They are children of God. And again, evidence of that is doing what is right, being righteous, and loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, last week we considered what it is that characterizes that love. What does that love look like in daily life? And we can summarize that with one word, and that is sacrifice. And John also taught that the perfect example of love is Jesus Christ Himself who laid down His life for us. But also, our love for each other as believers is to be evidence or proof to us of a most wonderful truth as it is remarked in verse 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. How do we know that we have passed from death to life? Evidence of that is loving our brothers. You see, God gives His children assurance of being His children. And one of the means that He uses to do that is us. ourselves. When we walk in the light, when we walk as Jesus walked, when we obey His commandments, and when we love others all by the grace of God, that is not to make us proud and arrogant so that we might say, well, look at me, how wonderful I am. Surely God must love me. Instead, we are to be humbled as through those things, God gives us assurance that we are His children. He gives us assurance of His work in our lives now the text before us as you can see i trust is a continuation of what we began to consider last week and once again john digs a little bit deeper as he teaches why it is that we as believers find ourselves belonging to the truth and as we consider this word of god belonging through the truth we're going to work our way backward through the text you see there is a progression here, and the climax, I believe, is verse 24, which also then introduces chapter 4. John is really good about that. Maybe you've noticed that he ends a section with a comment that introduces the next section. For example, the last part of verse 10 says, nor is anyone who does not love his brother. He introduces love there, and in the section we have considered last week and tonight, talks about loving one another. And now in verse 24, he says, we know it by the Spirit He gave us. And once again, it introduces talking about the Spirit and testing the Spirit, which we hope to begin to see next week, the Lord willing. But you see, it's because of the truth of verse 24 that what John teaches before that is possible. And here we also learn how God works in the believer's life. The text begins in verse 19, This, then, is how we know that we belong to the truth. And that, I believe, points back to verse 18, which says, Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. This, then, loving in actions and in truth, is how we know that we belong to the truth. Again, that is evidence. Evidence that God gives to us to help assure us of being legitimate children of God. But the reason Christians belong to the truth is that it is through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Verse 24, Those who obey His commands live in Him and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us. John introduces the Holy Spirit of God for the first time in this letter here in verse 24, although he had pointed to the Spirit's work already in chapter 2, verse 20, which says, But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. Now, we call the Holy Spirit of God the third person of the Blessed Trinity, and I'm afraid that we often treat Him as third in importance. We consider Him on Pentecost Sunday every year, as we hope to do in a matter of weeks again. But the truth is, and especially among Reformed churches, He is the forgotten person of the Trinity. But John says so much with that phrase in verse 24, and this is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us. In other words, knowledge comes from the Spirit. And in chapter 2 again, you know the truth. How? By the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Beloved, walking in the light of God's truth, being obedient to His commandments, loving each other, in other words, having fellowship with God and being His children, is only possible through the Holy Spirit. God lives in us, and we in Him, through the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is our lifeline, as it were, to God. Paul talks about life through the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 8. In fact, he says there that the One who raised Christ from the dead, talking about the Holy Spirit, lives in us. And then in our text, John says that it is through the Spirit that we can know that God lives in us. And Paul also reinforces that when he says in chapter 8, verses 13-16, for if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship, and by Him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. An awesome work of the Holy Spirit. We know that we are children of God through the Spirit. You see, it's good for us to consider the place of the Holy Spirit in God's plan of salvation. Now, we know that the Holy Spirit of God has been active in God's history of revelation and redemption from the very beginning, from creation already, all throughout the Old Testament. But when He was poured out upon the apostles and many believers on that Pentecost Sunday, the life of the church changed dramatically. Before that, we know, as we read in John 14, Jesus had promised that He would send another counselor, a comforter. The early New Testament church didn't really understand that at that time. But the Holy Spirit would be able to and would indeed live in each and every single believer. You see, boys and girls, the Holy Spirit is not limited by space. He's not stuck in one place at a time like you and I. He lives in our hearts here in California and in the hearts of believers in New York, but also in those who live around the world in China or even in the hearts of believers in the forgotten parts of Africa. And Jesus also told about the Spirit's important work. Again, John 14 and 15. Again, Jesus says in chapter 14 that we read that He would be with us forever. And also that He and the Father would be with us through the Holy Spirit. And in verses 25 and 26, All this I have spoken while still with you, but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that I said to you. What an awesome work. To make sure that the truth would not die, but that it would continue. Chapter 15 is that familiar chapter about the vine and the branches. In verses 7 and 8, we read, If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to My Father's glory that you bear much fruit. Showing yourselves to be My disciples. Again, only by the work of the Holy Spirit. In verses 12-15, My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. And as well, Jesus made it very clear that it was to His people's benefit that He go away. That His Holy Spirit come and do this marvelous work. You see, congregation, the coming of the Holy Spirit was necessary and essential for our receiving such a great salvation. We could not receive it apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God applies to us, to our hearts, to our lives, to our minds, that which Christ earned for us. And the coming of the Holy Spirit was yet another proof that our Lord's claim about Himself was true. You see, when He came and filled the believers on Pentecost, that was Christ keeping His promise. But that also fulfilled an ancient promise of God recorded in the prophecy of Joel 2. The Spirit will be poured out. Young men will see visions and dream dreams. You can read about that in Joel 2. And the Spirit's coming was also absolute proof that Christ's work was sufficient and that it was accepted by God. Now, I have always understood Christ's resurrection as being proof that His work was sufficient and His ascension as proof that God accepted His work. And indeed, those redemptive events do point to those things. But the giving and the coming of the Holy Spirit is for us. The giving and the coming of the Holy Spirit confirms all of that. His work, that it's sufficient, that it's accepted. The Holy Spirit confirms that to us, to the believer, that we might know it and believe it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son to God's people in order to confirm to us that we are God's people, children of God, and that we belong to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. You see, all the merits of Christ, everything that He earned by His saving sacrifice become ours through faith, which is a gift to us as the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts and convicts us of our sin and our guilt and our unworthiness before the sight of God and lifts our eyes to Jesus as the only Savior. You see, the Holy Spirit is busy in God's people. Busy. Paul says the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but he also says that each individual believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes up residency in our hearts and He is busy renovating our lives. You see, beloved, each and every believer, listen to this, each and every believer is baptized with the Holy Spirit. Each and every one. And we must know it. I'm not talking about being slain in the Spirit as some think takes place with speaking in tongues of gibberish and rolling uncontrollably in the aisles. But each and every believer is baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Must be. You see, if you don't have the Holy Spirit in you, then you are not a Christian. You can't be. It's impossible. And you can and you must know if the Holy Spirit is in your heart. We can know if He is dealing with us and working in us. You see, God's people become interested in spiritual things and in the things of God. And God's people have a desire to read from and be instructed by His Word. And they begin to see that this life isn't about me, myself, and I, but it's about glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. And as well, looking out for the interest of others before myself. And God's people desire that others know and enjoy such a great salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ. And God's people, through the work of the Holy Spirit, desire and indeed try to live for Him. The Holy Spirit's work of renovation is called sanctification, a process by which He works in me day by day to erase, to get rid of the pollution and the guilt of sin, to make me more holy. And through sanctification, God's people desire to be holy even as God is holy and do not desire to be conformed to this world, but instead more and more day by day are transformed by the renewing of their minds after the image of Christ. And this work of the Holy Spirit includes righteous living and loving one another as John has been talking about. Beloved, is the Holy Spirit living in you? Is He active in you? You must know. You can know. And you must know. Are the fruits of the Spirit evident in your life? Does your nature include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and the rest of the fruit? Through the Holy Spirit of God, we live in Christ. And He lives in us. Again, as we know, Jesus taught about the vine and the branches and how the branch lives from the vine, drawing that life, giving sap from the vine. And it's kind of a two-way street. Believers draw that life from Christ and Christ lives in and through believers. And this is all carried out by the Holy Spirit of God who inspires us to confess Jesus as the Christ come in the flesh. And as well, He empowers us to live righteously and to love our brothers and sisters. Through the Holy Spirit, believers belong to the truth. It's the only way that we can belong to the truth. What an awesome work, huh? What an important work of the Holy Spirit. And that belonging then is demonstrated by obedience. Verse 23 says, And this is the command to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. Again, as we have been saying, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to empower us to obey God's command and to do what pleases Him. And verse 23 speaks of command in the singular, but with two parts. And I believe that John says it this way because the second part flows naturally from the first part. And the first part is to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Now if you think about it, we are called to believe the unbelievable, to believe that which doesn't make common sense, at least to the world. First, as we consider that first part, the name of Christ is talking about the person and work of Christ, everything about Him. We are called to believe that the man Jesus was not only a human being, but that He was human and divine. We must believe that He is God, and for a very good reason, and that's because the Bible clearly teaches that He is God, and apart from His divinity, there is no salvation. And we must also believe that as the Christ, He is the anointed Savior of the world. He is the cornerstone, as we heard so beautifully this morning. And not one of many, but the one and only cornerstone upon whom the entire church rests. But you see, believing in Him is more than simply believing who He is and what He has done. There must be a personal application of that, which again is the work of the Holy Spirit in me. I must believe that He is the Savior of me. Again, as Mr. Viz said so beautifully this morning, I must believe that He is critical for my soul. So beautiful. Critical for my soul. He alone was able and did accomplish salvation. And He did it for me too. And my benefit from Him is eternal life. Jesus says in John 6, verse 40, For My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life. and I will raise Him up at the last day. Now, a moment ago I said that we are called to believe the unbelievable. And this is no secret, is it? Paul says that the cross is foolishness to the world. It's unbelievable. We know that in a battle situation, death is ordinarily a sign of weakness and defeat. It's not a sign of strength and victory. And also, wicked man cannot fathom having done anything so bad that deserves hell. Certainly, I couldn't have done anything that bad. But instead, he thinks that he deserves the best life has to offer. And therefore, the Word of God, which says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him, these things are foolishness. And anyway, to think that one who was crucified and suffered hell and died and was buried, to think that he rose again and ascended into heaven before the eyes of His followers just lift it up. Come on, we know about gravity and that He's coming again? Well, come on. That's too unbelievable. Those kinds of things just don't happen. But we are called to believe in the name of God's Son, Jesus Christ, and to believe that His work was perfect, that it was complete, and that salvation is only in Him because the Word of God says so, and that is the truth. Beloved, those who belong to the truth by the grace of God and know that truth by the power of the Holy Spirit, believe all that Scripture teaches and look to Christ alone for new life and for salvation. And that new life also includes the second part of that command to love one another. And we considered that last week, and John hasn't finished with that yet. He's going to talk more about that in chapter 4. Last week I said that John isn't talking here about the second great commandment to love our neighbor as ourself. And I need to qualify that a little bit. He's not talking about loving our neighbor in the broad sense of anyone who crosses our path in life, believer or unbeliever alike. He's not saying that we must not do that either. Not at all. He's not contradicting that second great commandment. But here he is talking specifically in the narrower sense of our neighbor, of fellow believers. Our closest neighbors we know are our family members and our church family. Our brothers and sisters in Christ. And as John says in verse 18, we are to love them not only with words and tongue, but with actions and in truth. You see, love that desires to sacrifice that which has value for my life in order to enrich the life of another is also a necessary consequence or result of Christ living in me through His Holy Spirit. And oh, that's so hard sometimes, isn't it? Young people, it's hard, isn't it? It's so easy to get stuck on ourselves, how we look, how we dress, who we hang out with. But Christian love is not selfish. It's selfless and looks away from self to the needs of others. And as we have said before, belief in Christ and love for His people, through that, the Holy Spirit gives us assurance that we belong to the truth and that we are God's children. And therefore, belonging to the truth also produces confidence before God. Verses 19-22 This, then, is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. Now, we need to understand that this is not talking about a proud or arrogant confidence in ourselves. It makes us think that we are a little better than the rest. But this is talking about a humble confidence. And these verses talk about having confidence both when our hearts condemn us and when our hearts don't condemn us. There's no contradiction here. But I believe that John gives us an on-the-one-hand or on-the-other-hand scenario or situation here. And the idea here is that of the work of our conscience. Heart and conscience overlap here. The conscience is a wonderful thing, isn't it? It's kind of a built-in alarm system. The Holy Spirit sanctifies and purifies our consciences as well. They're not yet perfect. But often when we as believers do something wrong, our conscience lets us know and hopefully then we stop doing whatever it was that was wrong. And in that case, if our conscience accuses us of wrong, then we can know that God who is greater also accuses us of the same thing. But I don't believe that that's what John is talking about here when he says in verses 19 and 20, This, then, is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything. You see, not that what we just said isn't true. It is true. But here in verse 16, John had just given his readers the perfect example of love, namely Jesus Christ. And when believers who are called to walk as Jesus walked, When we examine ourselves against the standard of Christ, every single time we will find that we fall so far short. We don't even begin to measure up. We don't even begin to live up to His standard of love and therefore our hearts condemn us and remind us of our failures. But John is saying that we can have peace and rest as we remember. That God alone is the true and perfect searcher and reader of the born-again heart. He knows the new desires of our hearts. He knows our righteousness in Christ given to us by the grace of God. He sees the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And therefore, when our hearts honestly condemn us that we cannot follow His example perfectly, we can have peace and rest because God knows. But also, as verse 21 points out, there are times when our hearts don't condemn us. Again, since our consciences are not yet perfect, it's possible that our sin temporarily blinds us from the truth of a situation. But again, I don't believe that's what John is talking about here. For those who live in Christ and Christ lives in them, when they find their confidence in Christ alone and not in themselves, then their hearts do not condemn them. Not because of themselves, but because of Christ. Because they stand in Christ. They stand on what He has done. And beloved, whether our hearts condemn us or don't condemn us with regard to our demonstration of Christian love, our confidence is to be only in Christ Jesus. Being confident that any love we demonstrate rightly is only done by His work in me by His Holy Spirit and being confident that where I have sinned and fallen short of His love, that my sin is covered by His blood and paid for by His sacrifice. And those who possess this confidence in Christ and enjoy oneness with Him through His Holy Spirit, they also may have the confidence that as verse 2 says, that we receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. Now, as you can imagine, this verse risks terrible misinterpretation. John is by no means saying that our obedience merits or earns receiving whatever we ask. That would severely contradict the Gospel message of the Word of God in many other places. But, obedience to God is the indispensable condition of answered prayer. Why? Because obedience to God demonstrates being one with God. It reflects, as we have said a number of times, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It reflects Christ living in me and the Holy Spirit being active in me. You see, God does not hear those who are not His. He does hear those. who belong to Him, who are His. And His are obedient to Him. But we must also understand that the child of God does not ask for just anything. He doesn't ask for frivolous things, but desires to ask for, and only desires that which is according to the will of God. Now, we do make selfish requests. We need to make that clear. We often pray and ask for things for ourselves. God, help me in this. Bless me in that. Heal me. We pray those things. And we must. But our prayer must always be, Father, not my will be done, but Thy will be done. Yet we need to understand that there are many things the Christian may be confident about that he will receive. You see, the regenerated heart will ask for certain things. The regenerated heart will ask for the forgiveness of all my sins. It will ask for the blessings of salvation. It will ask for strength of faith in Christ Jesus. It will ask for sanctification and deliverance from corruption. It will ask for perseverance in the faith. It will ask for grace to stand no matter what the enemy may do. And to stand firm in the faith and to confess the name of God. It will ask that the church indeed be complete and that Christ come again, even as He promised. God's children, you see, can be assured that God will give all the blessings that belong with His gift of salvation. Beloved, there is only one truth. And that is the truth of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. And God's people belong to that truth through the Holy Spirit of God for the sake of the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And although each one of us may go through times in our lives when we doubt our place in the family of God, as the Holy Spirit lifts our eyes to Jesus Christ day by day, we receive new confidence day by day that we belong to Him. You see, God's love for His people is so great that He will not allow us to walk around in despair worrying about our eternal state. But instead, He gives us confidence through the Christian life of our eternal security in Him. And congregation, we are to humbly take that confidence to the world that they may know that we are Christians by our love. That the world may see our confidence as God's children in humility and desire that. That they might indeed know what is it that you have? What makes you so filled with joy? What makes you not fall into despair in times of sickness or in the face of death? Then we might have the opportunity by God's grace to share that confidence with His people. Do you have that confidence? Do you own it? Is the Holy Spirit alive and well and active in you? You see, apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no confidence, only fear of the unknown. And if that describes you tonight, then you are being urgently and sincerely asked to repent of your sins, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone who takes away the fear of the unknown and reveals to His people through His Spirit the light of the truth, the truth that sets us free. Many walk around in the blindness of the unknown, but those who are led by the Spirit of God confidently stand firm in Christ who lives in them. And they live with the blessed assurance that they will never be separated from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we thank You, O Lord, again for this, Your Word. We thank You for the gift of Your Holy Spirit who has taken up residence in our lives, in our hearts. The One who applies this Word to us. The One who makes us to hear it, to listen to it, to believe it, to be obedient. The one who transforms our hearts and lives. And Father, may we indeed be transformed more and more daily according to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spirit of God, be busy in us. Be busy in this world continuing to bring others to the saving truth of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice alone for the payment of all of our sins and the salvation of our souls. Hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.