I John, 3:19-22
Bradley W. Maston · Mar 12, 2006
1 John, No. 23
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826234541902

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We got like half Romans today and half 1st John. So if you're in the Romans class, you can open to Romans 3.19.22.

And the 1st John people will open to 1st John 3.19.22. I think we can come up with some interesting cross-references. So, good, good. As is our custom here, we usually start by reading all the words together.

You can use the handout. Does anybody need a handout? Is anyone short a handout? Okay, we got next one? Okay. If you've got a handout might be easiest to read it off that if you can read off the screen, that's fine If you want to read it in your own translation, that's fine, too But you'll be saying different words and that's fine.

All right ready go We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our heart before him in whatever our heart condemn us and For God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 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 the things that are pleasing in His sight. All right, let's plow right ahead.

I'm jumping right into Verse 19, we will know by this that we are of the truth. We will know here is Gnosko. It's a word that we've seen quite a number of times in the past few verses and in the past book. So we're probably pretty familiar right now. But as we've seen, this is a word that refers to knowledge that is gained experientially. So it has the sense of we are knowing. We are knowing by this.

Then we move on to by this. It's n tu tu, tau tu, tu tu? I don't know, tu tau? It'll do. This will be, it could be more translated, literally more translated in this rather than by this. But I think for English smoothness they probably brought it out to buy this because that's the way we would say it. But what is this?

My contention is that this is referring back to verses 17 and 18. which reads, but whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, closes his hearts against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or tongue, but in deed and in truth. So, I think that love is what he's talking about. We know by this, this love that we have for the saints, that we are, and if we get to we are, it's Amy, as Josiah points out, it's one of the most common words in the book, in language.

This is the present tense and the indicative mood. The present tense is meaning that it's something that is applicable right now. It's currently going on. And the indicative mood is the mood of facts and truth. So it's not a possibility, but it's an actual, real, live fact. It says, we know by this that we are of the truth. And this is ektasaritya.

I am actually de-conjugated these words, so if you're looking in your Greek Bible you probably see a different ending on some of them, especially on Aletheia, but this is the way we've seen it before, so I wanted to be consistent with that if at all possible. Ek is a small particle which means from or can also mean the state or place of origin.

So the truth is our place of origin. Now this does not mean that we are out of the truth. is if you were going to say, Ek Christas, it would be out of Christ, as opposed to in Christas, in Christ. And it's not saying that we are out of the truth, it's just saying that we are from the truth. That our place of origin is the truth.

And as it goes on to say, the truth, with the definite article in the Greek. So it is in fact in the Greek, the truth. And I think it's a double, I think it's a double or dual implication. I think that John often times refers to Jesus as the truth, as in the way, the truth and the life.

So we are of Jesus, we are from Jesus. Jesus is our point of origin. And also I think we're not, it's saying that we're not in the same place of origin as those who are of the lie. But we are I should have made an illustration, but the truth encompasses our entire being in our position. So that's where we are from. We're from the truth. And then we will assure.

Assure is a funny word, or it's used in an odd way in a sense. It typically means to persuade, and that's how it's used all throughout scripture. However, in this case, it doesn't make sense to translate it, we will persuade our hearts before him. It just doesn't stand to meaning, so thus you move down on the list of possible meanings to try to find which one is most appropriate in the context. In this case, Tietho is most likely to come across to assure, to tranquilize, or to pacify. This is the most, I think this, I agree that this is the most appropriate meaning for the context. Another, the other, actually the only other instance where this is used, this word is used this way in scripture is when the high priests go to the Roman soldiers and say, oh lie to everybody and tell them that Jesus was not risen but you were, but his body was stolen and if the people above you get angry we will Ketho, we will assure, we'll pacify them, we'll tranquilize them, so that you don't get in any trouble for it.

Does that make sense? Okay, cool. Yeah, so I think that this assuring our hearts before us, before him, is key. Heart here is Kardia. The Greek word Kardia was used much as we use the word heart. It could refer to the organ that pumped blood, or the emotional center of a person. So just as in English, we can have the heart can be broken, we can have, or best put, it's the source or the center of our thoughts, feelings, passions, and desires. And coincidentally, this word cardiac is where we get our word cardiac. And it's interesting to draw, and I didn't try to come up with any specific meaning for this, but the word that Roger used last week was almost used for the same idea.

But it wasn't cardio, it wasn't hard, it was... The inner bowels are right out of your stomach. Right out of your gut. Like you have a quivering stomach sometimes, like you have a feeling in there when something happens. Yeah, and I think some of the... I'm using the same sentence, I agree. In Old King James, didn't they use bowels for that sometimes? Bowels of mercy? Compassion, I think. Oh, is it compassion? Yeah. All I know is they knew which organs were important back then. All right, I know there sure are hearts before him.

Now my first thought with this, and I don't know if it's yours as well, was a courtroom setting. As we are before him in almost a judicial sense. However, in this I could not, I couldn't find a, not that I go looking for the things that I think they should mean, but at the same time I didn't find that and I was surprised not to find that, that judicial sense of being tried before someone or before a jury or before God as judge. But the lexicons I had were fairly simple in saying it can be about location or it can mean in the presence of or in the sight of which we're going to see actually in the sight of at the end of our study today. So here the Holy Spirit is telling us where that assurance is. It's in His presence and in His sight and it's before Him that we are assured, that we can assure our hearts.

I know I cut the verse in half so we'd have less to see, but, you know, well, I think we'll look at it a little bit more fully in a second. Most translations already have interpreted him, because in the Greek it's just autos, they didn't do the same things with capitalization that we did, that just automatically insinuated, and Not that it's of any terrible amount of consequence, but the question I'd love to pose to the class if anyone has a feeling, I know I have a certain feeling about it, but is Him going to be the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, God the Trinity? Does anyone have any feelings on that? I think I know where I fall down, but I don't think that I'm totally convinced that I'm 100% sure about it.

We will share our hearts before Him. I'll tell you right away then, my gut reaction is to say that this is God the Father. My gut reaction, because obviously we don't... I don't think we need to assure our hearts before Christ, as Christ is the one who is the evidence of this and all that, so...

I think it's almost implicit. Does anyone have any thoughts on that before we move on? I just didn't want to tell you. It's talking about God the Father when I wasn't 100% sure, so... He probably didn't go back to 16 and could be the son. It's true. That's absolutely right. Go back to 16 as it reads, uh, putting out his love because he laid down his life for us. You're absolutely right.

So it could refer to Jesus. And, um, and this is why I kind of wanted to leave it open for us. Cause I didn't want to, and honestly that the commentaries I looked at didn't address that either. They were just willing to let it. let it be so, and which is why I think honestly it doesn't have a massive amount of importance on the interpretation of the verse on total, but even still, worth some thought. So, here's the summary of verse 19.

We will know by this that we are of the truth and we will assure our heart before Him. We will know by this that we are of the truth and we will assure our heart before Him. So we can always be assured of our salvation by actively and truly loving the saints, that is, other Christians, we see these loving actions and can be pacified and take peace in the fact that we are saved. It is an evidence of this salvation. Note that the word that I used there was evidence of this salvation. It is not an actor in this salvation, it is not a reason for this salvation, it is not a cause of this salvation, but it is an evidence, a proof, if you will, something that you can touch and hold. So, Anyway, so we can be assured of our salvation, we can be pacified in our hearts because of this evidence.

However, as, and Roger, I think, pointed this out really well last week, what is the source of this love that we're living out? Is it ours? Is it something that we're created, that we have created, or it's something that we're supposed to create or be creating? Or will we walk around heaven with our thumbs behind our holy suspenders saying, I love the saints very well.

I mean, I think the reality is that we all know from the grand scope of scripture is that we won't. That all this love that is being displayed throughout us is done by Christ and Christ's work in our hearts and I think that's a very, very safe thing to say in light of scripture and whole. That John isn't going around with a stick saying, you might not be saved, you might not be saved, as we've pointed out again and again and again. But rather he's saying, Just like it says, Christ's outworking in your life is going to look like this.

So, um... Before you continue, can I ask a question? Yes. You're saying that basically this is a back-up assignment? I can try. There it is. Is that the one you wanted to go back to? So the last word is, well assure our heart before him. You said a previous line that could refer to organ and pump blood. You implied that I don't think so I think this is that I think this is using the the more metaphorical sense I think I must I wasn't actually very clear on that I realize it now so but no I think that it's assuring our emotional center our the thought the the basis the center of our hearts or our sorry our thoughts our feelings our desires I don't know I almost say our soulishness like that part of us which would come to conflict And the prevalent attitude amongst fundamentalists is that they have Christ in their heart. And I was teaching this one time, and a woman, I made the comment that, just as you did, leaning more on the fact that he was the emotional center of a person and source of thoughts, feelings, passions, and desires.

And I said that was mine. And there was a guest missionary speaker that day. His wife stood up. and took me to task and said, I don't know about you, but when I accepted Christ into my heart, I know that he physically came into my heart, that he lived in my heart. I was probably your age at the time, okay, so a few hundred years ago. But it did lead me to give it a considerable thought, and I devote deference to those people, such as most of my family, who believe they have Christ in their heart.

I think it's a misnomer, and I think we believe that Jesus Christ is our mind, not our heart. I thought you went through this passage awful fast. That's just my opinion, but I think it's borne out by the other context of scripture that we talk about our emotions. I really don't think it's down here. I think it's up here in our brain. And only in our brain. That's just scripture for Larry Johnson.

So I just don't like to I think it is a very mental thing in our being and I think too often we teach children to ask Jesus Christ in their heart and I think that we are teaching the wrong thing. I didn't go so far as to say that I would be afraid to do some of the people who ask Christ in their heart and understand the law and that is actually true. Well Larry you have read Dennis Rocker's book haven't you? Seven reasons why not to ask Jesus Christ. Yes and also President and Senator Ron Rivers teaching where he always a head up on the overhead. I talked about it. It's interesting you brought that up, because I'm virtual in that regard.

I just really struggle with verses like this. I'm not self-presenting against you, but I almost had the feeling you were saying the center of emotions and everything is totally within our torso. I didn't hear you use the concept of our thoughts, our minds, our brains, or anything like that. Just add to the confusions.

It's obvious to me that Larry, a Greek and not a Hebrew in terms of what he's saying is absolutely true. But if you came out of the east, the center is not your brain. The center is your belly, if you will. And so it sort of depends on the context where you came from. I'm talking about where we are right now. Yeah, well where you are right now, you would come to Christ with your brain. And the Jews require a sign. They would come to it out of their inner being, if you will. See what I mean? There's a difference in... People are different.

Now most of us will think logically and make a rational decision for Christ. And that, I think, is beautiful. But a lot of people will. That decision will be based on emotion. But the decision still is just not. But you have so many TV that let Jesus come into your eyes. And I understood. But in the context of John Wright, John was in Ephesus when he wrote it.

That's the other side, east of there, rather than west. I don't want to take your time on this, but I think it sounds like a good idea. We just have to go faster. But it may, depending on what we know about our mines today, we need to at least include the possibility that the part that we're looking at is environmental capacity in that regard as well. I was going to offer an observation. If you go back, it's not easy to go back the whole course.

What is he addressing in this whole context here? He's actually addressing confidence in where we are in Christ and who we are in Christ. Actually, that's a theme that appears in other places in Scripture. So I think we need to kind of say, well, what is John trying to say here? He's talking about confidence in who we are in Christ and what we have in Christ. And actually, there's a passage in Acts X twenty three one. This is Paul talking.

You want to turn to it. I haven't looked this up before. So I was I was kind of curious. What was it? What's the intent of these or these words? I'm getting to your bottom line here. I apologize. You know, it's confidence in what we have, I think, in Christ.

Paul talks in Acts 23.1, he says, And Paul, looking intently at the council, said, Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day. And there's other verses, there's much other verses too, but the point is, what John is addressing, we can have confidence and a conscious confidence element. If we're walking in Him, then our actions will live without involving our brothers. And I think that's what he's addressing here, not so much trying to say, well, am I thinking through this? He's just saying, I can have confidence in what I have in Christ. I think that's why I take away from these verses.

Yeah, what I just put forth is I think that you're speaking in a slightly deeper sense. ultimately speaking, with the exception of the fact that Jesus could come back at any moment, our brains are going to decay. And our hearts are going to decay. But what we're referring to here is something that won't decay. When our bodies go away, if you, you know, heaven forbid we were killed in any sort of way that our brain or our heart were completely unrecognizable or unrepairable by human hands. even still. What he says, when he says heart, I think he's referring to something supernatural. Yeah, the seed of our being, if you will, something that God has created. So, um...

That is exactly what I would be thinking. Have you ever seen the three, a centrifugal diagram that shows that the spirit is within a person and their soul and then the outer man is the third. I think he's talking about soul here. Forgive me that I didn't think to put this up here. But I think that's what he's addressing. I think you were too in a context. I don't mean to disagree. I just, you just seem to, your mannerism It's a good point and I'm glad we went over it because I think that's Jesus physically walking around in the arteries.

It would be uncomfortable for everyone really. Okay, in whatever our heart condemns us for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. So in whatever, I don't like this translation, I'll be honest with you. It's not very literal. For if, the King James has for if and I think that's closer in line to the Greek. Though there's a reason why they chose whatever, I think. So that's what they're trying to bring across. So it's claiming a condition, so it should read, if this, then that.

So what does it mean, if our hearts condemn us? Is this a condemning heart? Does your heart look like this? In your chest? Right now? Okay. If our heart condemns us, once again, same word, cardiac, so I think it's that same seed of soul issue, not talking about Every time we do something bad, we get a little heart attack.

So anyway, if our heart condemns us, condemns here is kata ganosko. If you spread the words apart, you've got kata and you have ganosko. We've seen ganosko even just today and it's to know by experience. Kata can mean down against or down or has that idea of pressing down on.

So someone quite literally carries this idea of knowing something against another. So if your heart, or if your soul, if you will, knows something against you and is pointing the finger at you and saying, well you didn't do this, or you didn't do that, or you did this, or you did that, or that wasn't very loving to the saints, is the idea that's getting across. This idea of condemning. It's not just the fact that sometimes we have people in our lives that are condemning for no reason, and sometimes there are those situations in life where someone knows something about someone else, and even if they don't say anything, there's that sense, like, oh, he knows what I did, or he knows what so-and-so did, or I know what you did, or whatever. So it has this whole idea of not just condemning openly or verbally, but just knowing something against. So John is addressing a situation that our heart would have something to say against us, whether it be situations where we did not meet the standard or things of that sort. God is greater than our hearts. This word is, I want to say maison, maison. The word is an irregular comparative of the word megas, which is where we get the word mega. What do we use the word mega for?

Very Very big, very good, very large. We don't say, my, this is a mega cup of coffee. No, this is just a big cup of coffee. A mega cup of coffee would be like the thing Josiah carries. So mega means very, very big. We don't use the word mega. I mean, they found a new dinosaur and it was the biggest dinosaur they've ever seen. They call it Megalodon or whatever. It's not a small word, a word of subtle comparison. It's not saying like, this is big, but this is mega. No, this is just a little bit bigger.

So anyway, God is so much greater than our hearts and that comes across clearly in the Greek. And knows all things. This is Gnoskopanta. So anyway, Gnosko, Panta, Gnosko, we've seen before, Panta means all things. So does it mean that God knows pants? Or that God knows Fanta? No, it means that God knows all things. God knows all things at the deepest experiential level.

So it's not that He knows it academically, but He knows it inside and out. The word Panta means all things, or all where we get our English prefix pan, as found in the word pandemic. When it's complete it doesn't mean some, it doesn't mean most, it means all. So he knows all the things.

So we know from experience that our heart will condemn us from time to time for things that we did or didn't do or for no reason at all. Maybe you don't. I know that from time to time my heart will condemn me, or my soul will condemn me and say, you're not really it, you're not really, you know a Christian wouldn't, so. And you have that, sometimes we'll have that inner monologue or that inner voice in life. However, we're not to place any confidence in our own hearts and understanding or how we would see ourselves, but rather how God sees us. Our feeble hearts can be deceived, But God, who knows all things, has declared us innocent.

And we'll actually elaborate on this concept, but essentially, I think what this is saying is, are you going to take God's word? Are you going to take your feelings? Are you going to, as you walk through your day, are you going to consider how you feel, or are you going to consider what God has told us?

I think it brings into striking Second clarity, the positional truths. So basically what you're saying is we live out our position. We know who we are in Christ, we live in that place. If we do the other way around... Right. It's a pretty bumpy road. Yeah, and we walk through our lives and we don't feel like we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And the question is, are you going to take God's word for it? That you are seated with Christ in the heavenlies?

Even on the days when you don't feel like it? Are you going to go to a church because it makes you feel good, or are you going to go to church because it reminds you what God tells you is true? Are you going to get yourself into situations in life because they make you feel good, or because they're what God tells you? So, I guess the point is, are you going to take your soul's word, your heart's word, or the world's word, or are you going to take God's word? As we live our lives, I say, is the challenge. Verse 21. Oh, I'm sorry. Does anyone have anything to add to that last verse? Questions? Comments? Complaints?

We've actually got time. We're running ahead. You know, I think sometimes God does talk to us about things that really shouldn't be noted. So, I mean, how do we always know whether it's our hearts or if it's God? I mean... Don't we count on the conviction of the Holy Spirit when we're alive? I mean, I do think I always have to be careful of the majority of my own mind about using the Holy Spirit for my sins. But how do you measure it? I think it's by God's word.

There's nothing wrong with our, like this isn't necessarily wrong in the way I'm interpreting it, that my heart condemns me. If I do something wrong, I've got a conscience, and I think they're synonymous in this case. So it's letting me know that that was sin or that wasn't right, and then as long as my conscience is in line with God's word, then there's not a problem there. And so I know that according to this verse, that even if my heart condemns me, well, God's greater than my heart.

And you're bringing in the positional aspect here. I'm still in Christ. First gets into maybe the more conditional side, but it's good stuff. Well, actually, as I look, there are several verses that talk about conscience and scripture. And if you go through and look at what scripture says about our conscience. And it basically says that God's conscience, as we're abiding in Him, as we're walking in Him, we have the mind of Christ.

So I think it hangs together. So the opposite side, if we're abiding in the flesh, we're going to have fleshly conscience, so to speak. It's too simple. I think you're absolutely right. And I think, you know, just like Ben was saying, our conscience is a easily corruptible, easily swayable, and easily given to relativism.

I mean, I know at times in my life I've done something wrong, and then I'll go to a non-Christian friend or something and say, oh, I feel so bad that I did this because I know I shouldn't, because the Holy Spirit is convicting me. And my non-Christian friend will say, you shouldn't feel bad about that. Oh, you were just standing up for yourself, or you were just defending yourself, or whatever. But then I allow them and their standard, which is completely apart from God, to pacify me in my feeling, rather than confessing it before the Lord and trying to rectify the situation.

So anyway, boy, we're down a bunny trail. Yeah, let me read one verse. 2 Corinthians talked a lot about conscience. Do you remember that? We did that last year or so, and so 2 Corinthians 1, 12 says, For our proud confidence is this, that the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, especially towards you. Talking about the conscience there, talking about, you know, conduct, but it's all obviously in the grace of God. So it's got plenty of packages, all that. Cool. Well, thanks. Cool. Alright.

Should we move ahead? I think we're actually still not terribly behind track, so I'm not going to start hurrying yet. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Beloved, and you'll notice we're going to go through this verse fairly quickly because most of the words that we've seen before, or most of the words that we're seeing are the same words as before. Heart, condemn, obviously us, not, typical particle. So anyway, we're going to really just kind of stop on the highlights that we haven't seen before. in the interest of time.

So here we see that John is reminding his readers again and again and again that we're beloved, that they are beloved, that we are beloved. Beloved of him and beloved of God, John is not about to let any Christian forget what they are and who they are as the beloved ones of God. Wiest, interestingly enough, just kind of seems to throw the whole Beloved of John out the window and say he just wants them to know that they're Beloved of God. He actually always translates this agapito as Divinely Loved Ones. Divinely Loved Ones.

And, you know, it's really interesting that this verse kind of seems to show up, and I didn't do a really specific study, but it seems to show up in any verse where we might be tempted to question our salvation. Or question the fact that he's Talk are you are you saying that I might not be saved and he always starts it with beloved Beloved you are who you are. You're eternally the beloved of God and that's not going anywhere and And then you know, he just always seems to stick those in the most appropriate places.

It's really pretty impressive Now we have confidence before God persia This word is freedom of speaking or assurance of speech. It has the meaning of speaking without any level of ambiguity or fear of the one that is being addressed. It means that we have reason to speak freely before God, not as withholding, but from our souls.

So, I love this word because Because once again, the books that I read kind of gave it this impression of when you're going towards someone who is in higher authority, like you're going to talk to your boss and you're going to tell him that the company's going to go out of business because of some mistake you made.

You always walk in and you say, how's the weather? And you kind of beat around the bush and finally come around to, oh, by the way, I made a mistake and we're all without jobs now. But so it means that we have reason, we can walk in with God, especially, you know, if you're talking to the President and the President says, Jim, what's wrong with America? You know, you're most likely to say, well, you know, I really like it and it's really great what you're doing, but, you know, health care stinks. Whatever, you're not just gonna go up to the President and say, you know what stinks about this? And I think what this is saying is confidence. And it is confidence in speech. It's not just confidence as we walk throughout our day. It's a verbal, vocal, it's the confidence and assurance in speech. Confidence in speaking.

This is the kind of confidence we have before God. This is what John is telling us anyway. We have this confidence in speech before God. That we don't need to go beat around the bush with God if we're angry with our situation. We can take that to God. He can take it, I think. The Psalms are a great inspiration for us in that, or I hope they are, in your personal prayer life.

To say that there's nothing that we can't take to God. And that we can have utter confidence that although we are just kind of puny little specks of dirt, that He'll still listen to us. It's pretty impressive. Pretty amazing. Truth. Yeah. If you're remiss to move right on past that. Before God, it's... Same construction as before, in the verse earlier. And that is before Him. Now it's just before God. So this verse tells us that if our heart does not condemn us, then we can speak freely and confidently before God. Freely and confidently before God is an amazing truth that should seriously affect our prayer life.

I don't know about you, but in my personal application, is my prayer life often becomes pretty packed. Like this is just kind of how I pray and it's almost, you know, what's the word, format, like just a stated format. I always thank God and this and that and I don't actually let what's really, you know, what I'm really feeling or what I'm really about or what I'm really concerned about come in because I think, well, you know, I'm talking to God. I don't want to just tell him I'm, you know, a little bit scared about not having a job. So anyway, just thought it kind of speaks to what our prayer life could, should look like.

It is important also to note that our heart not condemning us does not imply that we are sinless. To the contrary, our heart not condemning us means that we have accepted and believed the truth of God over our perception of matters. So, and I think this is kind of tying into what Vani was saying, We're still sinful people. We're still going to sin. And John is not saying, whenever you're perfect, you can ask God for something. That's not what he's saying at all. He's just saying if our heart does not condemn us, and if our heart does not condemn us, it means that we've said, yes, I have sinned. Yes, I am sinful. Yes, I will continue to sin. But I take God's word that I'm forgiven. I take God's word over mine, over my soul's feeling. So anyway, yes, no, maybe, questions, comments, concerns? Anybody want to throw a rock? Okay. Move forward.

And whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is, as Josiah said, I think this is where we start to move into the more conditional aspect of this. And John, actually as Ben pointed out, John was a Hebrew. He didn't take time to say, position, condition. position, condition, he's just going position, condition, position, condition and he sews it together like a blanket or or maybe better like knitting where everything is interconnected and position and condition he will not let them be separated in your mind because of the Hebrew nature, the way of thought whereas in our Greek way of thought we're just so happy to separate things out and put everything on a pie chart So, we'll move forward, but this is kind of moving into our more conditional aspect. We ask, aeto, to ask, to crave, to beg, to desire, or to require. This is also in the present subjunctive. This speaks of continuous action.

So it carries with it the idea of laying our prayer requests, continually laying down our prayer requests before God, the thought that or the first that came to mind was the persistent widow that Jesus told the parable of the widow who kept going back to the unjust judge and saying please give me justice and he said even though I'm not just and I don't fear God I will give this woman justice because she's annoying me so or because she's so persistent as it were so anyway I think this is that similar aspect if you know Jesus encouraged the people around him to pray like that And I think John is echoing that here, saying we need to continually be laying our prayer requests before God. We don't just, you know, set up with our checklist beside our bed and say, okay, pray for Hal, pray for this, pray for that. Okay, those are done. Forget about it.

I think God wants us to be continually laying these prayer requests before God. It's why I love the fact that every week we seem to lift up the troops in Iraq and lift up those in our family body in Iraq. And I think that's the way God would have us pray. Continually remembering those things in prayer until he answers them with constant faith that he will All right receive lumbano This word can mean to take or to receive and I had a hard time sussing that out in my mind. How do you think? Like whatever we ask of God we take from him. No, it just doesn't make sense.

I This verb is also this present tense and in the active voice. I'm going to read it to you. So there's a picture being given of us constantly going to the Lord in prayer with our prayers of supplication and Him constantly meeting our needs. Because they're both in the present tense.

So we're constantly bringing our prayer requests to the Lord again and again and He's constantly meeting our needs. I mean, to me it paints this image of God wanting to have this relationship where we're constantly bringing our new problems and issues in life, not that this is the center of our prayer life, but it is a part of our prayer life, and God constantly answering those prayers as almost an exchange. From Him, this could be translated from Him, by Him, or of Him, but the meaning pretty much remains constant. The important thing to realize is that God is the source here. We don't receive them from ourselves, or from our good intentions, or even out of a sense, a sort of even trade with God, but rather we receive it from Him.

So I just didn't want to get the impression, and when I read Wiest, we'll maybe talk about this at the end, because it looks like we'll have some time, but Wiest got the impression that this whole set of verses he was reading If you're walking in Him, then He will answer your prayers. As if the walk... how do I put it? The walking in Him and the doing of good deeds was a prerequisite to having answered prayer.

And I have a hard time accepting it. So we can talk about that later, just because I don't think God's up there going, okay, holiness number 5, I'm sorry you can't have a car. Holiness number 7, like I just don't see God as kind of raiding us out, chopping us out like that. Good.

So this is because we keep His commandments. We need to keep, to guard, and to observe. It's in the present tense, the active voice, and the indicative mood. So it would just as well be translated, because we are continually keeping. It's about where we are now, not where we were yesterday, not where we will be tomorrow. It's about where we are right now, and where we continue to be as we step into the future.

His commandments, entole. We've talked about this word. It means commandment. This is something very distinct from law. The Greek word for law, as we've talked about before, is namos. We're not being told to obey any law here, but rather to obey His commandments. Or, I'm sorry, to keep His commandments. And as we studied in previous weeks, 1 John 2, 4, I think Raj and Josiah have made this abundantly clear, and I think I completely agree.

That His commandments is a phrase at this point that means keep living, or to keep living in keeping with who we are positionally in Christ. I got keep going and it just came up like five times in that sentence. So, being hard to read. His commandments is a phrase that means keeping living in keeping with who we are positionally in Christ.

That was a well thought through sentence. I hope you get the gist of it. I think I think that makes basic sense Yeah, and I I didn't want to burn a lot of time because I had a feeling we'd be running short or a little bit close which we are So if you have questions about that Equation of his commandments to that I'd suggest going back to first John 2 for which I believe was one of Rogers versus I can't maybe yeah um but I I think it's so convincingly laid out there. I know I did the verses before it which dealt with it and didn't deal with it nearly as effectively because I didn't draw on that connection yet. And I think this is absolutely in keeping with the word. So, just to move ahead, poieo for do. This word can mean make or do.

In this case it is in the present tense, active voice, indicative mood. The tense of this word gives it the sense of habitual action. And Weiss loves that word habitual. Everything's habitual with him. Sometimes this is the consistent outflow or something that is the consistent outflow of the believer's life. It suggests that we are each day displaying the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the result is that which is pleasing to God. I just love this word habitual because it It's just so day-to-day.

It's so in our walk. It's so dust on your feet. I mean, it is to say that things that were not habitual when we were young Christians start to become habitual as we become more mature. And in the short time that I've been a Christian, I've just seen it outplayed in my life and I noticed that I didn't do anything to get that. I didn't do anything to make myself to think this way, be this way, know that this was wrong, know that this was right. I didn't do anything to get that.

And I think that that habitual outpouring of the Spirit that comes from the Holy Spirit, comes from time in the Word, comes from being Romans 12.1, being transformed by the renewing of our mind, you know, things like that.

This is all stuff that God is doing. And once again we'll get to the end of the road and we'll say, my salvation, my maturity, every step that I made that was good was all completely God's doing. So, anyway, and everything else at least seems to me like me getting in the way.

So, found that I'm pleasing. This word means pleasing or agreeable. Thus it is used of those things that please or are acceptable to the Lord. In his sight, we used to explain sight as an opium from up, like where we get optics or to see and is, and in, which is in. Thus, a penetrating gaze. So they're pleasing, what the outgrowth of Christ in us is pleasing, not just at his glance, but at his penetrating gaze. As he looks upon you, he is pleased. He looks deep, he looks down to the center of you, and it is pleasing to him because of what his son, what Christ, what Christ is doing, what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. So, pretty powerful. Pretty powerful stuff.

So from this verse we can clearly see that God answers prayer. God wants to give us what we ask of Him. However, this verse is not a promise that God is handing out convertible cars to anyone who asks. I kind of feel like this is kind of an understood, but I thought best to trace out the lines. God answers prayers in ways that are consistent with who He is and who He is making us to be.

As we go to maturity, our prayers will be affected by that and those prayers will draw closer to Him that draws closer to Him will be answered. So, pointing this way that we shouldn't, well, not that we shouldn't be, but our answers for cars or bigger houses or things that are not consistent with who God is, what God wants for us, and who we are are not necessarily the kinds of prayers being discussed here, which I'd love to open up to discussion because I know that's not a terribly clear explanation of that concept, but I think that's almost something.

Before we break into questions, can we read it all together one time so we can put it all together? Before we don't break into questions, can we read it all together one more time? Alright. Ready, go. We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our heart before him in whatever our hearts condemn us For God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 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 the things that are pleasing in His sight." Does anybody have any prayers or questions that they absolutely have to get out of the way before we just pray and close?

If you do have any questions after this, Roger will be available. Or Josiah. I'm going to the bathroom with a cup of coffee to hide. Alright, let's pray real quick. Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for this wonderful fellowship. Praise you and thank you for the new guests that are among us. And just the wonderful blessing of having new bodies and perspectives in the room. Praise you and thank you for your wonderful word and a wonderful opportunity to come together in fellowship and Lord in unity of mind and unity of spirit Praise you and thank you for this blessing in this opportunity pray that we could all have soft hearts and soft minds to learn during the sermon and to worship you with all our hearts throughout the Service and throughout the week in Jesus. Holy name. Amen