Pastor Christopher: If you're a Christian as is proven by the evidence of Christ like love incrementally budding on the branches of your life, if you are a Christian, then the whole polluted wreck of your soul has been plunged into the crimson ocean of Christ's cleansing blood. Every plank, every floor, every door, every every aspect is plunged beneath him, submerged in him, suffused with him, cleansed by him, covered by him, touched by him. You are in Christ fiber to fiber, soul to soul, every element to every element. You are in Christ, which means Christian, the knowledge of your father about all that you are is a knowledge in mercy. It's a knowledge in love.
Caleb: The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Pastor Christopher: Let me return us to first John, and it's been a long time. Last time we were in first John together, it was July. It was the July. So what we've been doing the last three times that I preached, and then we had pastor Sean preach in between, but the last three times that I preached, we were looking more closely at this idea of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection, specifically through the lens of John the apostle. How does John see the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
And this has not been a detour. It's not that we've just taken three weeks off of John because as we'll see today, everything everything John is writing to us in his epistle and indeed everything in the New Testament, is an unfolding of the what Christ has done and who he is declared to be in his death, burial, and resurrection. So this hasn't been a detour. This has been a pressing more deeply in. That being said though, now we're returning to first John proper, to the to the epistle itself.
And if you can remember, no worries if you can't, it was a while ago. The last time we were in first John, we were asking or John was asking us this question, what are we actually doing? That's what it comes down to. What are we actually doing in our lives? John is not concerned with what his readers are saying so much or with what they say that they believe or with what they feel or with what they really appreciate.
All that's those things are there. They're they're like planets orbiting. But what he's asking them, the center he's asking them is, but what are you doing? Don't tell me what you're saying or feeling, show me what you're doing. That's where John is pressing into.
And his point in doing this is that those who belong to Christ are actually becoming like Christ. Not perfectly, so no one here is saying a Christian is perfect and they never sin. That's not what's being said. But what he is saying is if you are in Christ, then likeness to Christ is going to happen slowly but surely. Not perfectly but truly.
Likeness to Christ is coming about. And specifically when John says likeness to Christ, what he has in mind is love as defined at the cross. Cross defined love. Look with me if you can at first John chapter three verse 16. We read, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
So love is defined not by what I think it is, not by what the world tells me it is. Love is defined by our Lord and our God in his flesh and blood on the cross. And if we are in him, that love will begin to work itself out in us. He laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
And then look down at verse 18. This kind of sums it up. Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. That's the biblical version of the old saying, talk is cheap. It's easy to say something.
I love I love people. I love other believers. I love the Lord. And John says, great. I'm glad you say that, but show me that by what you're doing.
Show me that in your life. So if we've been loved by Christ and so united to him who lays down his life for us, if that's true, we will be incrementally growing in laying down our lives for others. Truly truly giving ourselves up for the brothers and sisters around us. Now that's what we said a month or so ago. This week John is going to continue in that same line of thought, but he's going to take it out of the kind of theological abstract ion up here, a concept, and he's going to bring it down into the difficult thorny experience of our daily lives.
And specifically he's going to bring it down into our consciences. He's going to apply this the necessity of love in our lives. He's going to apply that to the state of our conscience before God. The state of our conscience before God. So we all have, we all listen to it to varying degrees, but we all have an internal voice that kind of is communicating to us.
I'm not talking about hearing a voice. I'm talking about that internal conscience or sense that is sometimes our accuser. Accusing us. Accusing us. Accusing us.
Sometimes it's our excuser saying, oh, that's okay. No. That's fine. That's that's alright. Sometimes it accuses.
Sometimes it excuses. Sometimes this internal voice is beating us down into the ground of shame and not letting us up. Sometimes this voice is letting us off the hook way too easily. Right at the beginning, just say, ah, you're fine. Don't don't worry about it.
Don't think about But whatever it says, whatever this internal voice is saying, this heart is saying, it impacts how we understand ourselves. That internal voice, that impacts how we understand ourselves and it impacts our relationship to others and it impacts our relationship to God. And John today is going to explore how the necessity of loving like Christ intersects with this conscience, this internal voice, and specifically how it deals with our standing before God. So that's where we're going today. That's that's where we're gonna circle around today.
Let me read for you a larger section and then we'll zoom in on the part that we're actually gonna look at this morning. But if you've got your bible, you can turn with me to first John chapter three. We're gonna start in verse 18 or you can just listen as I read. So John says this, little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
For whenever our heart condemns us, there's that internal voice. Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps this commandment abides in God and God in him.
And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So this morning we're gonna look at just two verses, verse nineteen and twenty. By this we know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. Let me read.
Let me pray for us and then we'll look at this. So father, we need your grace today. We need the the presence of your Holy Spirit. Father, by myself I will wield your word like a clumsy club and and be doing things with it that are that you don't intend. But by your Holy Spirit this word can become a scalpel doing the precision work, doing the healing work that you intended to do in Christ.
And so I pray that the Holy Spirit would overshadow my speaking now and make these words Lord the means of your gracious working in the lives of your people. Make them the means of giving Christ to all that you've brought here and make them the means Lord of doing things that I could never imagine to do but that you intend and that you have intended from the very beginning. So I pray father come and empower your word now and the declaration of your word and grant Jesus Christ our Lord to be seen with clarity and his people to be built up in him and those far from him to be gathered into him and your will to be done in all these ways we pray in Jesus name. Amen. So let's begin looking down in verse 19.
John says, by this, we'll come back to that in a minute what he means by this. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. The first question here might be, what does it mean to be of the truth? What does it mean when he says of the truth? Does it mean you'll you're telling the truth?
Does he mean you're believing the true things? What what does he mean by of the truth? And for the sake of time, I won't go into all that John means, but basically when John uses the term truth, what he has in mind is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. John fourteen six is perhaps the simplest and best way to see that.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. And and in verse 18 it talks about chapter three here verse 18, it talks about loving in truth. By which John means loving like Christ. Loving as the way he's laid down his life.
So when John speaks of truth, he's speaking of Christ, crucified and risen as the one who is the truth about God. Alright. Jesus, the slain and risen Jesus, is not just something true about God. He is the truth about God. He is the truth of who God is.
And similarly, as the truth about God, Jesus is the truth underneath all things. So when you think of Jesus, don't think, oh, he's true as if he aligns with something greater and he lines up with that and so he's true. That's not how it is. Jesus is the truth in alignment with whom everything else is either true or false. Jesus is the truth under all things, the bedrock truth.
And all our experiences and situations and all these other things, they're on top of that truth. And they're like sand that can be blown around, but his, who he is, remains. And in the end, only what is united to him will be proven true. Finally and ultimately true. Jesus is the truth.
And so to be of the truth, when John says, by this you will know that you're of the truth, it basically just means to be united to Christ. This is how you know that you belong to Christ. That you're united to Christ. That you're part of him. That you're his own.
And this is repeating a theme that we see all throughout John's writing. This idea of an organic union between the believer and Jesus. For John, and it's true across the New Testament, but John really emphasizes this. It's not a matter of I signed a card and now I'm a member of the Christian club or I believe these things and now I'm part of this like society. For John, it's an organic union.
I'm in Christ, united to Christ like a like a branch in the vine, Like a bride united to her groom. We're united to Christ. And so it's that union, that in ness, that being of Christ, That's at the very center of all of John's thinking of all of our life as Christians. And that's what he's talking about here. When he says that you might know that you're of the truth.
The simplest way to say it is he's saying that you might know that you are a Christian. That you might know that you belong to Jesus. That you might know that you're actually his. That's what he's talking about here. Now the whole point in bringing this up is that John says there's a way to know.
Look, verse 19. By this we shall know that we are of the truth. So by this we can know that we belong to Christ, that we really are Christ's. And if you think about it, that is a very critical question. Why it's hard to think of a more critical question than that.
Am I in Christ? When we think of Christ as that truth and everything else is sand and there's a tornado coming and everything that is not Christ is going to be blown away and Christ alone remains and those bound to him, it really matters, am I his? Am I united to this immovable Christ or am I floating out here on my own, you know, fodder for the windstorm that will blow everything away that is not Christ's. So that's a question to ask ourselves and John's calling us to ask it. When John says by this you will know that you're of the truth, he's implicitly saying to everyone who hears that, are you of the truth?
Do we do I belong to him? And he's asking that to Christians. He's he's presenting these words to Christians. And in our culture right now, it's blasphemy to question anything anyone says about themselves because self in this culture is God and to question am is counted as blasphemy. So you can't question what somebody declares themselves to be.
But scripture doesn't function by that worldview. Scripture comes to us and says you say you're a Christian. Are you? You say you belong to Christ. Do you?
That's what this text is asking me as a pastor. Yes. It's asking me that and it's asking you that. It's asking us that. And so we then respond.
Okay. How do we know? What what is the assurance given in this text that one belongs to Christ? That one is of the truth? Well look at what John says.
Look at verse 19, chapter three. Does he say, remember the date of your baptism? Or does he say, well, remember when you believed that Jesus, you know, when you trusted him as your savior? Remember when you signed a card and trusted him? Or does he say, well, here's a theology test and if you pass it then you're good.
He doesn't say any of those things. What does he say? Look at verse eighteen and nineteen. Little children, let us love in word let us not love in word or talk, but let us love in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and so reassure our hearts before him.
This, when he says by this, he's pointing back to verse 18. Our love for brothers and sisters in Christ mainly, that's what's in view here, but in general, our love in action is the way that we can know that we belong to Christ. That's what that's what John is saying here. He's saying actually loving one another. Now again, don't hear me say perfectly always without flaw, but the love for others really being developed in our lives.
He's saying when we're laying down our time, we're actually loving with our time, with our bank accounts, with our comfort, with our efforts. When we're loving the brothers and sisters that is a sign and we're doing this in the name of Christ. That is a sign that we belong to Christ. Conversely, he's saying if that love is not there, if I see a need and close my heart to it, if I see a need and close my hands, close my eyes to that need, he's saying that's a sign that we're not in Christ. That we're not in Christ.
So the confession here that matters is not mainly the confession of your mouth. What are you saying? I say I'm a Christian. Okay. Great.
The confession needs to be there. We must confess the crucified and risen Jesus as Lord and God. Amen. We must. But John is saying, if the confession of your mouth is true, it will be answered in the confession of your life.
It'll be answered in the confession that you're saying not with your mouth but with your hands and with your time and with your efforts and with your energy. And I'm saying you but I mean me too. I mean us. So John is saying, if you are of the truth, then love will be worked out in your life. Such that you can look at the fruits of love and say that's how I know I belong to Christ.
I see it. I see fruit. So I know I'm his. I know I belong to him. So again, this example Jesus gives in the gospels is helpful here because if being of the truth, belonging to Christ is like being a living tree, then Christ like love is like the fruit on that tree.
Okay? That's a perfect example because the fruit doesn't make the tree alive. But if the tree's alive, the fruit's there. And you can point to it and say, know that tree's alive even from a distance. How do you know?
Look at the fruit, so I know it's alive. And John is saying, Christian, you can know you're in Christ. How? Look at the fruit. Is love being worked up?
Am I becoming a more loving person in the name of Christ? Is my life being made like his love from the cross? That's a fruit that we can point to and say, therefore I know I belong to him. Now this is weighty to consider. Whenever scripture says consider yourself, that's a weighty thing.
But John is bringing this up to reassure us. He's bringing it up to comfort us, not to make us anxious. Look again at verse 19. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure. That's what he wants.
That's what John wants for us. That's what the Holy Spirit wants for us. Reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. So this is being written to reassure our hearts.
So let's look at that. Okay. How does this text become a reassurance to my heart and to yours? That's what I wanna ask now. How does looking at the fruit of love in my life, examining if it's there, how does that reassure my heart?
Well first, let's look at when this reassurance is needed. He says verse nine verse 20, whenever our heart condemns us. That's what he's taught. That's when we need the reassurance. Whenever our heart condemns us.
Now the word for condemn here is rarer. You don't see it that often in the New Testament. And basically what it means is to know something against someone. To I know something against you. That's the idea of the condemnation in view here.
The idea is that your heart, your inner person knows something against you and brings it up as evidence in the courtroom of your soul. That's the idea here. And and I don't know about you, but my heart, my inner self can be pretty vicious sometimes. Perhaps yours as well. Because our hearts know what we've done better than anybody else.
Our heart knows it. Our heart has a lot of knowledge against us. It knows what we've done. It knows what we've said. It knows what we've thought and haven't said.
It knows what we've hidden and kept pushed down low. It knows all the ways we failed even when we've tried to cover them up externally. It knows the ugliness of our soul. And often our hearts will drag these skeletons out of the places we've hid them, throw them down in the courtroom of the soul and say, look, look what I know. Look at that.
You think you're a child of God? Behold what manner of the love the Lord has given us that we should be called children of God? You think you're a child of God? Look what I know about you, so says the heart. Remember this?
Remember this right here? So says the heart. You think you're walking in the light? You think you're acceptable to him? Look what I know, says the heart.
That's the idea here. Knowledge against us and the heart is bringing that up. And John says, I I wanna I want you to be able to reassure yourself that you are of the truth when that happens. When that's coming against you. How are we to reassure ourselves when our heart does this?
Because it's not making this up. Right? It's not saying the heart makes up things. The heart is bringing things against us. How do we reassure ourselves in the face of that knowledge against us?
Well before I go to that, let me give a qualification here. And that's this. I I always, and you heard this in my prayer at the beginning too, I always need to depend upon the Holy Spirit when I'm preaching. Anyone does who's teaching. That's that's always true.
But here I really feel that in a unique way and I want to call it out because these words need to land on different people in different ways and I can't make that happen. So I need I am depending on the Holy Spirit to make this differentiation happen. What do I mean? Well there are even in a room that's that's comparatively small like this, I'm sure there are some of us who really do need to hear a rebuke from our consciences. I don't know who, I don't know.
I'm just saying I'm sure there are some of us who need to hear that stinging word and we need to be convicted. We need to hear that. We need to listen to that. And for those among us for whom that is true, John's words here are not intended for us to stifle that. John's not saying here's a way to just stifle the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit so you don't have to listen to it.
So if you're in that group and and I trust the Lord to make that clear, John is not saying here's how to stop being bothered by your conscience. Okay? That's that's one group. But I'm sure there's also another group whose consciences are plaguing them at every turn. Who are always being plagued by their conscience.
Who are always being haunted by particular sins from their past. Who are always being beaten down under the bludgeon of shame for what they've done or who they've been or what they did again. And they're terrified that they don't really belong to Christ. There's that group too. And and these are the same words but they need to land differently on those groups because for one the the Lord would want real conviction and for the other the Lord would want freedom from that condemnation.
And the spirit must apply this passage accordingly. And a way to discern this difference, you heard it in my language there, condemnation beats us down and gives no relief. That's not from the spirit. Conviction may indeed beat us down, but it beats us to the cross where there is freedom. So conviction pushes us to the cross and when we cry out and confess to the Lord, there's relief.
That's how you know it's conviction the spirit's working. Condemnation says, no, I'm not letting you up. And you cry out to the Lord for relief and condemnation continues to say, nope. Nope. No relief for you.
That's not from the spirit. And so that's there's two things going on here, and I'm praying the Lord will make these words applicable to wherever you are in that camp. And John says, if you're under this condemnation that's not letting you up and your heart keeps bringing things against you, I want you to reassure your heart. But he wouldn't say, hey, if you're being pricked by the Holy Spirit that you need to repent, John would say, deal with that. That does need to be dealt with.
Now Lord, take it and make it clear to your people. Okay. That's the qualification. Now what does John say here? How can we reassure our hearts before God when our heart is condemning us?
How can we reassure our heart before God? Well, we've touched on it, but I'll read it again for clarity's sake. Verse 18. John says, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth, in action. By this by this love indeed and in truth, by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before God.
For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. So what's what how do we reassure our hearts here? This is what John says. If Christian, if you are opening your heart to the needs of those around you and acting in love, not perfectly, but truly. Acting in love, laying down your life, your time, your efforts, your money, your goods, laying down yourself in the name of Jesus to love those around you, if that's happening, then it shows that you belong to Christ.
And on the basis of that belonging to Christ, John says, your heart should be silenced. The condemnation is silenced. Your heart is reassured. You say you can say, I belong to him. I do belong to him because I see the fruit of his working in my life.
Now wait a second. Wait a second. Did John just say that we quiet the condemnation of our heart before God by pointing to our works? By saying, look what I've done. Did John just say, don't be condemned.
Don't let your heart condemn you. Look at look at the works in your life. Is that what's going on here? Because that that sounds dissonant to this idea of being saved by faith alone, which we affirm, which the New Testament affirms. Well, let me give a Johannine answer to you.
Does John point to our works as a way to quiet our heart in the presence of God? Yes and no. So let me let me explain what I mean by that. I'm not trying to be coy. Yes and no.
Yes in this way. In this way. John is saying look at your life. Has there been real change? Has there has your confession of the crucified and risen Jesus as Lord actually begun to make you like him?
Has there been real change? Has fruit begun to be born in your life? Just like if somebody brings to me a dry rag and says I just pulled it, I just dunked this into the ocean. I'm gonna say, I don't think so because it's it's not wet at all. So too, if we bring a life to someone and say, believe in Christ and nothing is looking like Christ in our life, then someone is right to say I don't think so because it doesn't have anything of him in it.
And so John is saying if we belong to Christ, likeness to him will begin to work out in us. Not perfectly, not instantly, but truly and incrementally. This is the same thing Jesus says back in the gospel of John. John chapter 15. I'll read it for you briefly.
He says, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. The bearing of fruit in our life shows us to be his disciples. And then down in verse 16 he says, you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you so that you should go and bear fruit. That your fruit should abide so whatever you ask the name of the father he may give it to you. These things I've commanded you so that you will love one another.
So John is saying is worked out love happening in your life? Because that is the fruit of truly belonging to Christ. That is the truth, the fruit of truly belonging to Christ. The presence of acts of self giving love for our brothers and sisters is a means of assuring our heart in the midst of condemnation because those acts of love are evidence that we belong to Christ. Okay?
That's that's the way in which, yes, we do look at our works to find assurance before him. Just like we look at the fruit on a tree to find assurance that a tree is alive. But but here's the no part. John is not saying depend upon what you've done. He's not saying your works of love are a foundation upon which you stand before God.
Well why why is he not saying that? Because it sounds maybe like he is. He's not saying that for this reason. The acts of love in our lives prove what? That we belong to Christ.
And it's belonging to Christ that is our assurance. It's not the works. They show that I belong to Christ. Belonging to Christ is where my confidence lies, is where my hope lies. So acts of love give assurance to me when I when my heart is feeling condemned, when my heart brings knowledge against me.
I can point to the acts of love in my life and find assurance. Not because these earn anything for me. I'm not saying, no no no, look what I've done. I've I've I've made up for that. I've earned something back.
I'm not saying that. But I am saying no, look at the fruit in my life that shows that I belong to Christ. And because I belong to him, what you're bringing against me heart is covered and is quieted and is put away. Let me give you an example because there's a lot that's a lot of that's a lot of complex thinking. Here's an example.
Imagine there's a city that's under siege and there's a general of that city and he says, okay, get everyone out. Get everyone out of the city. Everyone who's alive gets out of this city. No exceptions. Okay.
So they go into the hospital and the nurses begin saying, who's alive? Everyone alive gets out of this city no matter what. And they're looking at their breathing to see are they alive. Some of them very clearly, they're breathing, they're alive. Okay.
They get get them out. But then say there's someone who they go up to and they they don't know. And they put a little mirror under their nose and they can see a mist on the glass. Just a mist. And they say, she's alive.
Get her out. Bring her out. Bring her out of the city. Just like everyone else who's alive. Bring her out too.
So it she came out. Why? Why was that woman able to come out of the city? Because she was breathing so well? Because was it was it they're looking for breath?
No. They're looking for life and the little mist of breath on the mirror was enough to say she's alive. And her being alive is what gets her out of this condemned city. Similarly, for us Christian, it's it's not so for her, think about for her. It wasn't like, oh she's breathing so well.
She's breathing so strongly. She's breathing so consistently. The the the character of that breath is beside the point. The question is, is it there at all? Because if it's there, she's alive.
She comes out. So too for us. Our assurance is not, look how much I've loved. Look how much I've done. Look how good I am.
That's not the spirit that John's coming across with here. Rather, our assurance is that there is some change. Look. Love is happening. Acts of self giving love that would never have been there before are being born in my life.
I can see that a change has come about. Not something I've done to be proud of. I can see that a change is being worked in my life even a little mist on the mirror. I can see that a change is there and on the basis of that I know that I belong to Christ. And for that reason I'm confident.
For that reason I have assurance. So that's what John is saying here. He's saying Christians, if you're in Christ, this love will be forming in you. And the evidence of that love in your life is a way that you can say, heart, be quiet. I belong to Christ.
I belong to him because he's bringing about a change in my life. Not because the change is so good it earns me confidence, but because the change at all shows that I'm his. Okay. Now in closing then, let's move to the last section that John gives us here. Because up to this point John has been emphasizing, you look at the works of love in your life and there's confidence that's brought about by your knowledge of your works, of the love that's being born in your life.
But now he's going to press this all the way to the roots and he's going to say here's the deepest place Christian of your assurance before God. Here's the deepest place of your assurance before God and ultimately it is God's knowledge about you as he knows you in Christ. As he knows you in Christ. So there this is our last point, but track with me here. There's three different kinds of knowledge in our text this morning.
You say, well where are they? Okay. The first one is what we know. Verse 16, by this we know that we are of the truth. By this we know.
The second one is our heart's knowledge. Because remember the condemning of the heart here, whenever our heart condemns us, that's the heart's knowledge against us. So there's our knowledge, what we know about ourselves. There's our heart's knowledge, what it knows against us. And then deeper than these, the third knowledge is God's knowledge.
Look at verse 20. Whenever our heart condemns us, whenever our heart knows something against us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. So there's my knowledge of myself. There's my heart's knowledge of my sin and there's God's knowledge as the as the ground underneath. And that's the ultimate basis because think about it.
We know something. Right? I can look at the acts of love in my life and say, okay. Alright. I I know that I belong to Christ, but my knowledge is fallible.
There's things I don't see. There's things I'm not factoring in. There's things I don't understand. My knowledge is good. I've got to work with it, but it's not perfect.
That's my knowledge. Then there's the knowledge that the heart has of me. Right? It's my failure, my sin, my shame, my ugliness, my brokenness. My heart has a lot of knowledge, but it's not decisive.
My heart's knowledge of me isn't the last word. And deeper than these kind of knowledges, beneath these knowledges is the knowledge that God has of you. The knowledge that God has of us. So he knows all the fruits of love that have been born in your life, Christian. Far better than you do.
And more comforting to me than that, he knows all the dirt and the grime and the sin and the shame running through our veins. He knows it better than your heart knows it on its most vicious day. When your heart is most battering you with what you've done and who you've been and you're you're it's bringing this knowledge against you, God knows all that. And oceans more that the heart isn't even aware of. Oceans more against us.
God knows all of that. And in the end, it's not my knowledge of myself or my heart's knowledge of my sin, but God's knowledge of me that counts. Who God knows me to be is what matters. It doesn't matter what I say about myself. It doesn't matter what my heart says about me.
And right now we're saying when your heart's condemning you. But there's another side of this isn't there where your heart says, you're fine. Oh, you're fine. Don't worry about it. No.
No. No. Don't think about that. Don't think about that. It's it's fine.
You've done enough. You're good. And to that heart too, this text would say, it doesn't matter what your heart says. It matters what God says about you. And here's the thing.
If he knows us in Christ, all of his knowledge of us is mercy. All of his knowledge of us is grace. Even as if he knows us outside of Christ, all that he knows of us is finally condemnation against us because we're opposing him. We're standing against him. But that's an application, a different application.
What I want to show you at this point is that God knows all things about you and me. We're completely known. You are completely known. The closed doors, the bolted rooms, they are open to our father's eyes. Just consider that the doors that you've slammed shut and say, okay, never going in there again.
No one is going in there again. Open. Open. Wide open to the eyes of our father. The depths the depths of our being are known by God, which means there is no condemnation that our heart could ever bring against us that is not known by him.
There's no condemnation that your heart can bring up and say, well, look at this, That our father doesn't of that say, I knew that. I knew that. I knew that before you were born. I've known that. We how much time do we spend trying to hide and push down and clean up and look good, look good for others, look good for myself, look good for God.
I wanna look good, the whole time knowing I'm not good. I'm a I'm a mess. And what a relief to hear that God says, I know. I know all of that. There there is nothing that's hidden.
There's nothing that's that you have to hide. All of it is known. There's so much peace in that. There was a time in my life where I spent so much effort trying to prove to myself I wasn't as bad as I seemed to be. And the only relief that came from that was when I realized you are that bad and, and this was the really merciful part, you're worse.
You're as bad as you think you are and you're way worse. And that whole mess is known by God in Christ and loved Christian. That's what's true of you. If we're outside of Christ, that whole mess is known and held against us. But if we're in the one who bore this for us, all of that is known and we're held by him.
If you're a Christian, if you're a Christian as is proven by the evidence of Christ like love incrementally budding on the branches of your life, If you are a Christian, then the whole polluted wreck of your soul has been plunged into the crimson ocean of Christ's cleansing blood. Every plank, every floor, every door, every every aspect is plunged beneath him, submerged in him, suffused with him, cleansed by him, covered by him, touched by him. You are in Christ fiber to fiber, soul to soul, every element to every element. You are in Christ, which means Christian, the knowledge of your father about all that you are is a knowledge in mercy. It's a knowledge in love.
God's knowledge of us is greater than our knowledge of our sins and it's greater than our hearts condemning word against us. It is decisive. And our works of love are not things we're using to earn good favor from him. Our works of love are God's authoritative declaration to us. Look what I'm working in you.
You are mine. You are mine. Your works of love. Remember, you love because he first loved you, which means your works of love are the declaration from God that you are loved and belong to him. So your works, your love declares to you, God declaring to you authoritatively, you are mine.
Let me end here. I have time to do this. Let me end with one story. And I know pastor's kids are always upset when the pastor's use a story of them. Here I'm gonna use one of Wicklow, but I I found it fitting.
So last week, Wicklow got in trouble. He was in his room for ten minutes. I said, you gotta go to your room buddy. After that ten minutes was up, okay? It was up.
It's done. I said, you can come out. And he didn't come out. And he was protesting. And he was saying, I'm not allowed to come out.
I'm not He was laying on the ground in his room saying, I'm not allowed to come out. I'm not allowed to come out. I said, buddy, the time's up. You can come out. He said, no.
No. No. No. I'm not allowed to. And he was really getting worked up.
So I went in and I kneeled down and I said, listen, Wicklow. I'm your daddy. I am the authority in this house over you right now, and I am saying you can come out. And if I am telling you you can come out, not even you or any other authority in this house and not even you can say you're not allowed to come out. If I say you're allowed to come out of your room, you're allowed to come out of your room on the basis of my authority.
And I picked him up and I brought him out. Similarly, when our hearts know something against us and leave us lying on the floor of our room, the room of shame, the room of fear, the room of regret, the room of doubt saying, I'm not allowed to come out. I'm not allowed to come out. My my heart won't let me come out. I'm not allowed to leave.
Praise God, our heart is not the authority in this house. Our father comes to us as he knows us in Christ and he says, I'm the authority. I'm the authority here. Not your heart. Not anyone else.
I'm the one. And as I am bearing witness to you in your life through the change that is working out incrementally, that you're being made like Christ, I am telling you on my authority that you are able to come out of that shame, of that fear, of that regret, of that doubt. In Christ our father says, I don't care what your heart knows against you. I care what I know. I am the authority in this house and if I say you can leave this room of shame and regret and fear and doubt, then no one, not even you, can keep you in that room.
And he picks us up in Christ and he carries us out. May it be so. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you that there is assurance before you.
Thank you Lord that you work change in the lives of your people and Lord we pray for that. We want to see change in our lives. We want to be made like Christ so that we can point to that fruit and know we belong to him. And thank you that you do that father and I pray that you would do that in me and in my brothers and sisters and friends here. But thank you father that ultimately deeply unshakably beneath all things our assurance is that you know your people in Jesus Christ.
And we cast ourselves upon that grace. We throw ourselves into that grace, claiming Christ, Christ, Christ alone as our life, as our Lord, as our covering, as our peace. So Lord may that be may he be given to your people this morning. Amen.
Caleb: Thank you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.