Hearts Assured Before Him
This sermon was preached at King's Cross Church on October 15, AD 2023.
The Text: 1 John 3:19–24
And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us (NKJV).
Introduction
This morning we will consider the great doctrine of assurance of salvation or assurance of faith. To have assurance of salvation means knowing, deep down, and with great certainty, that through faith you truly belong to Christ.
When a believer has full assurance, he can ask of himself, “Am I a true Christian?” and know by the Spirit that the answer is a resounding, “Yes.” Assurance is to be able to say, “I am sure… I am sure that I am a child of God, elected by the Father, redeemed by the blood of the Son, and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.” It is not a mere fleeting feeling or a wishful hoping, but a true knowing that you have been united to Christ.
Now as we come up to our Reformation celebration next week and Reformation Sunday at the end of this month, I want to note that assurance is a great doctrine championed by the Reformation against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
For example, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent, which was convened in response to the Protestant Reformation declared that a “believer’s assurance of pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence.”
A believer having the assurance that his sins are forgiven is what? Glorious? God’s will? No – it is a vain and ungodly confidence. And so listed in the anathemas of this Council – anathema meaning let those who hold to these doctrines be accursed – are various descriptions of assurance of salvation. As one prominent Roman Catholic bishop said during the Reformation, the doctrine of assurance was a “prime error of heretics.”
Now this morning, my goal is to show you from Scripture that assurance of salvation – having the knowledge that you belong to God – is God’s desire for you and meant to be normative in the life of a Christian. It is not a heresy, but a glorious truth found in Scripture. But then as you can see in your outline, we will also consider why this assurance can be absent or weak in our lives at different times.
It is not uncommon for a Christian to ask that question – “Am I really a Christian?” – and instead of feeling a resolute “Yes” in their soul instead come back with a “Maybe…” or even worse – “Doubtful.” And so we will dig into why that it sometimes the case, and then go over ways to cultivate and maintain assurance in our life.
Summary of the Text: God Desires for You to Have Assurance
Beginning in verse 19, we read “by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.” Here we have the concept of assurance in not one but two words used. We have the fact that we can know we are of the truth and then also that our hearts can rest assured in it. Here and elsewhere in this epistle, John makes it clear that you can know whether or not you are united to God and walking in His ways. It is not meant to be a mystery.
The “this” that John is referring to is what comes before in verse 18 – which reads, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” Having true love toward others, not just claiming to with our mouths but doing so in our actions, is one source and sign of our genuine faith.
But then John turns in another direction. In verse 20 he addresses that sometimes though, our hearts condemn us. Often when we discuss whether or not we are truly saved, we turn inward. And there certainly is a place for self-examination in the Christian life, which we will address in a little bit. But here John recognizes that often when we turn inward, our own hearts condemn us – over things that are already forgiven or things that are simply not sins.
And so our assurance in this passage comes actually from looking outward – looking outward in our actions of love toward others, but then also when our hearts condemn us, John encourages us to look up to God. He says God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. He is all knowing, which in this passage here is not a matter then for fear or judgment, but a matter of assurance, especially for those who are suffering under their own self-condemnation.
Then in verse 21, John then teaches how when our hearts are free of condemnation, we then have confidence with God. Assurance gives boldness in faith, boldness to approach God in prayer and to ask of Him all that we need.
Now this is one very important reason why having assurance is so necessary to have a strong faith. When we lack assurance that we are saved, or that God loves us and has forgiven us – we will not pray. We will not turn to God with our needs. We will not believe that He hears, or if He hears… we won’t believe that He cares.
The result of this confidence then is seen in verse 22, where we get one of those great promises regarding prayer. John writes that we receive whatever we ask of Him, because we keep His commandments. This is not teaching a simplistic formula of “obey” and “get what you want.” Or by your obedience, you then earn God’s favor. Rather, our obedience again is a sign of us being united to Christ, and if we are in Christ, then the Father’s pleasure rests upon us.
Now, we all know that experientially we have not received all that we ask for. And God has His reasons for that and He knows what is truly best for us at this time. But it is still the kind of confidence and hope that we are to have when we pray.
But what are the commandments we are to keep? Throughout all of 1 John the commandments are summarized as they are in verse 23 – we are to believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and we are to love one another. Believe and love. If we are doing those two things – John says we can know we are in the household of God and have great assurance in Christ.
And so what I want us to see in this passage here is that assurance of salvation is there for us to have. We can know and be assured that we are walking in the truth. And even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. He desires our hearts to be at rest in Him.
This here in a nutshell is one of the primary themes of all of 1 John. Repeatedly throughout the book is the word know. By my count, in the NKJV the word “know” occurs in this context of knowing that we know God or knowing that we are walking in the truth about 30 times. John summarizes in 1 Jn. 5:13 that his whole reason for writing this epistle was that his readers would know that they have eternal life and continue to believe in the Son of God
Now before we move on to our next section regarding why our assurance may be weak at times, I just want throw out a few more passages from the New Testament to strengthen this doctrine – that we should desire to have the assurance of our salvation and that God has promised this to us as a normative part of the believers life.
In 2 Peter 1:10 we read this exhortation, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble..." Here the Apostle Peter is telling his readers that they ought to be pursuing an assurance of their calling and election in Christ. And if they are commanded to pursue it by an apostle, we can be sure that is is there to obtained. The fruit of this assurance here is that if you do this, Peter says you will not stumble and fall. Assurance strengthens the believer to persevere to the end.
The writer of Hebrews says in Chapter 10 says that we are to have boldnessto enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. He then writes that having this boldness by the blood of Christ enables us to draw near to the throne of God with “a true heart in full assurance of faith” because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Full assurance.
For one more passage, in Romans 8 we see that one reason God gives us His Spirit is to grant us the gift of assurance. The Apostle Paul writes this – “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Do you hear that? The Spirit of God testifies to our own spirits, to our inner man, that we indeed are God’s children. And having this assurance that we are God’s children, then we may approach Him as our good Father.
Have you ever considered what it means to call God your Father? That is not a meaningless name, but it has all the import of fatherhood to it – the relationship of a father to a son or a daughter. God wants you to know him as your loving Father. Think about this. Do your children ever look up at you, while sitting in your lap, and wonder to themselves, “Is he really my dad?” No! And if they were to that would break our hearts. That would be bizarre. In a godly home they are so surrounded by love, they feel so protected and cared for, that they have full assurance that you are their father and enjoy them. That is how God desires for you to relate to Him – with full assurance that you are His child, never doubting.
II. Your Assurance May Be “Shaken, Diminished, and Intermitted”
Now it is one thing to know okay – God does want me to have assurance. Got it. Can’t argue with those passages. But it is another thing to experience that assurance.
Throughout our lives we will all go through many seasons in our faith, and subsequently many seasons with regards to assurance. When it is summer in Idaho, the sun is pretty much guaranteed to shine everyday. We can go many weeks without a drop of rain – in fact, to me it seems like we can go many weeks without a cloud in the sky. But as seasons go, now that we’re in autumn, the weather is less predictable. Some days will be sunny and rather warm, and other days overcast and raining.
Assurance can be like the weather in this instance – it may be constant and strong like the summer sun. At other times, it feels very fleeting – like the sun peeking through on a rainy day, only to disappear again. And then sometimes, it is all but absent.
One of the great comforts I have found with regards to this uncomfortable reality is that all of the great Reformed confessions and catechisms acknowledge this truth in the Christian life. Think about that. These great consensus documents occupied on big theological topics like the attributes of God, soteriology, the church and sacraments – turn to the topic of weak assurance.
So just for one example, I have printed in your bulletin the section from the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the confession that our ministers and elders hold to. In that paragraph, we are told that true believers may have their assurance shaken, diminished, and intermitted. To have this happen to you is not an indication that you are not a Christian.
If you read the Puritans, assurance is one of their favorite topics. And why is that? It’s not that they just had so great assurance all the time and demanded it of others. Rather, many of them experienced themselves, and counseled others, who had very dark times in their faith. When their hearts were condemned. When they felt forsaken, and couldn’t see or feel God’s tender love. When assurance was all but absent.
We see this reality throughout the psalms. The psalmist prays things like, “I am overwhelmed with troubles, and my life draw near to death" and “Why, Lord, do you reject me? And hide your face from me?”
Reasons We May Lack Assurance
1. The first potential cause for shaken assurance could simply be the presence of sin.
Sin disrupts our fellowship with God, and therefore, often our faith is shaken by it. This occurs first with unconfessed sin. If you know that you are not walking in the light, but rather indulging in and hiding some sin unconfessed – you have every right to question the legitimacy of your faith.
You ask “Am I Christian?” And the answer your life is giving is – “Doesn’t look like it.”
It is therefore the grace of God in this instance to withdraw His presence from you, in order that you may be awakened to your senses, repent, and flee to Him for forgiveness. But we can doubt our faith as well when simply confronted with the temptation to sin, or after we have confessed our sin.
It is not an uncommon feeling to confess again to falling into the temptation of lust, or anger, resentment – or name any sin you frequently are dealing with – and wonder to yourself, “What is going on?” And the encouragement here is to remember that Christians are not people who do not sin. They are people who are keenly aware of their sin and know what to do with it – they know how to repent and confess it to God in order to receive forgiveness.
It’s very important to wrap your head around this. Confession of sin is not a sign that you are an unbeliever. Unbelievers do not confess their sin – they are not convicted over their sin and they love their sin. If you have concern and grief over sin, that is actually a sign of life – it is a sign of great faith. When you confess your sin, you are apprehending the promises in 1 John. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And John there says if you claim to not have sin, you are the liar. A Christian does not deny his sin, but instead he takes them to Jesus Christ the righteous, our Advocate with the Father, and they’re dealt there in the light of God’s presence.
Richard Baxter had a helpful saying with regards to sin and assurance. He had two categories – beloved sins vs hated sins. Do you love your sin? Do you cherish it? Do you hide it in the secret places of your heart? Then you have no right to feel assurance from God right now. Or do you hate your sin? Do you so desperately want to be free of it? Are you weary of it? Then take heart, for God is at work in your life. He will help you overcome.
I recently heard this story regarding a young woman who struggled for years with a lack of assurance. She was frequently given over to morbid introspection, constantly looking inward to see if she was really a Christian. She often doubted her salvation and struggled with great depression and anxiety attacks. And so one night she had the opportunity to meet a pastor that she highly respected at a small gathering and so she shared her story and asked him what she should do.
And the woman telling the story about this young lady says that the pastor, after hearing her story, basically looked at her and said, “I think you should give it all up.” What? He said “Give up. Just forget about it. Go live life – go party and just forget about all this Christian stuff.” Her immediate response was, “No! I can’t do that!” And so he asked, “Well why not?” And she replied, “I don’t want to. I want to follow Christ.” And so the pastor looked at her and said, “See? So you are a Christian then.”
This simple exchange radically changed that woman’s life. What were her true desires? They were to follow Christ. She may be weak. She may falter and struggle in her faith. But she is like Peter, who when Jesus asked if he wanted to walk away from him like the rest said, “Lord, to who would we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
2. The second cause for weak assurance can be Satan.
We don’t talk about him often in Reformed circles, but this does not mean he is not a present threat to Christians. One of Satan’s main duties, you could consider it his job title, is that of “the accuser of the brethren.” That is what he is called in Revelation 12.
One of the schemes of the devil is to bring up past forgiven sins and tempt you to be freshly ashamed of them. To accuse you of sin, to harass and trouble your conscience. This is because he knows that if our assurance is diminished, then our joy in Christ and our zeal for Christ will be diminished –rendering us ineffective in the assault against his petty kingdom.
And this is exactly what he sought to do when tempting Christ in the wilderness. The Father had just spoken over Christ in his baptism declaring Him to be His beloved Son, with whom He was well pleased. And then all of Satan’s attacks on Jesus in the wilderness began with – “If you are the Son of God…” – as an attempt to cause Christ to doubt his identity and sin. And so when we recognize that we are being tempted to despair, tempted to question God’s forgiveness, we must resist the devil and he will flee.
3. A third potential cause for lack of assurance is quite simply ourselves.
Now I’m distinguishing this cause from what also comes from ourselves in the first cause – our sin. Rather by this I am referring to our unique psychological makeups.
Some of you in this room know that you are more prone to melancholy, depression, morbid introspection, and other things similar. We have to distinguish rightly here, for some of this can certainly be giving in to a sin of sort. Sin is always tangled up in our lives. And at the same time, much of it can be understood as an affliction. The causes are various – whether it be biological, learned, habitual, etc. – some of you know you have a temperament that bends in that direction. You resonate with our first passage this morning – your heart is often condemning you. And if you are struggling to enjoy the good things in life, then of course you will struggle to be enjoying Christ and the assurance found in Him.
Charles Spurgeon was a great preacher who deeply suffered with depression throughout much of his ministry. And with regards to this reality, he once said this. “Believe me, the life of grace is no dead level, it is not a fen country, a vast flat. There are mountains, and there are valleys. There are tribes of Christians who live in the lowlands… where the air is stagnant and fever has its lair, and the human frame grows languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the lowlands of unbelief are forever doubting, fearing, troubled about their interest in Christ, and tossed to and fro…” And then he then goes on to compare them to other Christians who by God’s grace have climbed the mountain of full assurance.
This is heavy. Nobody wants to live in the lowlands. But an encouragement this morning if that is you, or someone you know, is that God is still present in the lowlands. And He will help you make progress up the mountain, even if it is slow.
4. This leads to our last potential cause – which is God’s sovereignty.
There will be seasons in life where it seems as if God has withdrawn from us, but not due to any perceived sin or cause. As the Westminster Confession states in your bulletin… True believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken… by God withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear himto walk in darkness and to have no light…”
Notice here that the assurance is taken even from those who fear him – those who are walking righteously. Think of Job, who was by all accounts a righteous man, and yet God allowed for him to go through many trials and temptations.
There are going to be times in your life, or there have been already, when it feels dark. When things are not going well –either in your circumstances or in your soul or in both – and all you can say to God is, “Help.” Help me. And in those situations where we don’t understand, we must simply trust. It is right to say to God – I don’t understand, this hurts, I’m confused – but I will trust in you. In the words of Job, “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.”
When the Apostle Paul was suffering from the providential thorn in his flesh, he comes to an understanding that its purpose was to humble him… to cause Him to rely on God in his weakness… knowing that God’s grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in his weakness.
So sometimes, God will take the light of His face from us. And we must know that it is always meant to teach us to rely on Him alone, and it is ultimately for our good. It is actually in the midst of conflict and trial, that our assurance can grow deeper and mature.
III. How to Cultivate Assurance
If we are called to make our calling and election sure, then we can trust that God has provided ways to do so.
The first way in which we can bolster our assurance is to attend to what have been called the means of grace. The means of grace are typically defined as the Word and sacraments.
We are to be people of the Word, for that is the means by which God both saves His people and keeps them. The Spirit works with the Word, applying it to our hearts and lives. This happens both with passages of law and warning, keeping us on the narrow path and convicting us of sin. And it also happens with passages that contain great promises of God’s grace, that the Spirit then gives applies to us to hold onto as our own. We are to read Scripture prayerfully, and hear it preached carefully, as if it were God’s Word written to us – because it is.
Likewise the sacraments are given to us as signs and seals of our salvation. Baptism is the covenant sign where God lays hold of us and claims us as His own. And whether you remember that moment or not – you know that it has been applied to you and its meant to be an encouragement to your faith. And each week when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, it again is a visible sign of Christ’s sacrificial death for you. When you partake of the bread and wine in faith, you are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Another way to cultivate assurance is to keep short accounts and to confess your sins regularly. As we discussed previously, being a Christian does not mean that you do not have sin. Therefore when you are confronted with that sin in your own heart – it is not a sign that you are not saved. Rather, the mere fact that you are aware of your sin and convicted over it is great assurance that God’s Spirit is at work in you.
The Puritan William Perkins had a great syllogism with regards to sin and assurance of salvation. He put it this way:
Major premise: Only those who repent and believe in Christ alone for salvation are children of God.
Minor premise: By the gracious work of the Spirit, I repent and believe in Christ alone for salvation.
Conclusion: Therefore, I am a child of God.
It really is that simple.
Now you might say, yes – but I keep repenting of the same sin. Surely I should expect more progress than this by now. If that is you this morning, know this. God delights in you. He rejoices in your fight over sin. His Spirit is within you, and He will not abandon you. He will sustain you to the end. Your progress may feel like two steps forward, one step back. Two steps forward, one step back. And you need to know that even if you’re barely crawling forward – the Lord is pleased with you and He does not grow weary of His saints.
Now as you examine yourself for sin, it is good to remember these words from Robert Murray M’Cheyne. He was a zealous pastor seriously devoted to holiness, not unfamiliar with self-examination. And he said this – for every one look you take at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. You can do a whole lot of digging inside, turning over every stone. And you will find dirt and worms, I’m sure. But do not get stuck looking inward, for that is not where your salvation comes from. Confess any sin that God has shown you. Trust in His promise of forgiveness. And move forward.
And one way to be sure not to get in the rut of morbid introspection, of always digging around inside for another hidden sin, is a third way to cultivate assurance – and that is turning outward in service and love.
Throughout 1 John he says that we know we are of God if we keep His commandments. But then he defines and summarizes the commandments of Christ as this – love one another.
If you are kept busy in the service of others, both in your families and in the church, you will be encouraged by God in your good works. This is because you are able to see your genuine faith tangibly expressed. It’s all out right in front of you, and it’s not merely about what your most inward thoughts are, but its in action. It’s seen in meals prepared, diapers changed, encouraging texts sent, fellowship, and in many other acts of service.
Paul writes in Galatians 6 that a man reaps what he sows. If you sow to please your flesh, if you sow sin, you will reap destruction. But if you sow to please the Spirit, you will reap eternal life. Therefore, do not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” There is great assurance that simply comes from seeking to obey God, particularly by serving those around you.
IV. Conclusion: Stand on God’s Promises
Now we will conclude with one last way to regain or strengthen your assurance. All the things that we just mentioned – attending to the means of grace, confessing sin, and serving others – are necessary and good. God has called you to them.
But our ultimate grounding of assurance does not come from within us. They are evidences and they matter – but beneath all of them must be knowing God’s promises and believing in them. These are the things that will never be shaken, that will never be weakened, that will never falter. God’s promises toward us are as unchanging as His character.
So begin with the gospel. There’s a reason John 3:16 is such a popular Bible verse – its such a concise statement of God’s promise of salvation. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Those who believe in Him don’t hope to have salvation. They have it. They have everlasting life.
Again in Romans 10 – “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Do you believe? Have you confessed that Jesus is Lord? What is the promise then? You will be saved.
Here are a couple other promises to rest on your soul on. Jesus says in John 10 that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. If you hear His voice and are following Him, He says that you have eternal life and no one can snatch you out of His hand. Likewise, the Apostle Paul says that you can have confidence and assurance in this: that He who began a good work in you will complete it. He will never leave you behind.
So do you love Christ? Do you desire to follow and obey Him? Do you love His people? Then with these promises in hand, rest assured. You are His and He is yours. Even if you feel that your faith is weak – faltering faith is still faith. It is not the degree or strength of your faith that saves, but the object of it, which is Christ. You may feel tired, too unsure to hold onto Him, but the promise is that His grip on you is ever-sure and He will never let go.
So look to Christ. Look to Christ and His work on your behalf. And even when your faith is weak, and your assurance is small, you can speak like Job in a world gone very dark and say – “I know – I am certain – that my Redeemer lives.”