First John 3:19-22 Confidence Before God

Okay, 1 John chapter 3 verses 19 through 22. Do I need this for any reason? Is this a new gizmo? No? Oh, that's not... Can you hear me out in the Zoom area? We hear you. You got me? Okay. And it's not this, right, Roy? That doesn't control it? Sure. Okay. Oh, so I should talk louder for the class? Okay. Yeah. Sure. Okay. Yeah.

Well, this is called Confidence Before God, and verses 19 through 22. I'll read it. It all flows together. I was reviewing and they said in Greek there's no punctuation, right? So I took out all the verse divisions here. So here it is. We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our heart before him in whatever our heart condemns 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. Okay, verse 19.

We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our heart before Him. The phrase, we will know, the verbal phrase there, it's future, middle, indicative, so it's a reality. We will really come to know that we are out of the truth. The fact that we will know we are of the truth is a thing of personal involvement because it's in the middle voice, right, so we're personally involved in this fact.

And coming here, I have a note I was just reading this awfully large Bible that my mom had back in the olden days. My dad had a Bible that was huge. Anyway, I was reading it, trying to lift it. The older you get, the more you'll understand, right? Exactly. But it's a big print too, which helps. I forgot my glasses.

In the King James, New King James, it says, And by this we know that we are of the truth, and we shall assure our hearts before him. And there's a little footnote, John 18, 37. If you turn to that, it's Christ before Pilate, Pontius Pilate. And he says, People who are of the truth. If anyone has it, they could read it. They hear my voice. John 18, 37. Therefore Pilate said to him, So you are a king? Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Yeah, see how he says that exactly, everyone who's of the truth, and I wish I'd known that earlier in the week. I would have put that in, because that's a wonderful thing. So we're of Christ, we come out of where He is, so that we will know that know is, again, it's Gnosko knowledge, it's not a point in time pure knowledge, but coming to know by experience. It's like you learn over time. It's a progressive thing. And when the verse is by this, we will know. But by what?

And then verse 19 is very... Vincent had this... Vincent is very sparse with his words. He just has a little tiny paragraph for each word. But then he had this little note about this verse. said, see critical notes at the back of this 1 John commentary. And it was pages and pages on this passage, 19 through 22. I guess, I can't tell, but it's very hard in the Greek. It raises all these questions.

Our context here is, how we're getting to buy this, is agape love towards the brethren. So we're loving the brethren, as Roger discussed last week, in actual deed and truth. So that's our context for this verse. So we're giving our lives to the brethren, sacrificially, as did Christ, right, in verse 16. And by loving our brethren, and by giving our actual physical resources, food, water, shelter, as Roger mentioned last week, that word bios is what we're commanded to do. And that's how we show love for the brother, the brethren. So the by this is the what answered in verse 16.

We know that Christ laid down his life for us and these are the things we know and This is how we're getting at this. We will know by this. This is the by this We ought to we owe the same sacrificial love to our brethren as as Christ did he lay down his life for all of our sins and we ought to do the same for Roger had that Ophelio, that Greek word in there, that's the word for ought or we owe it to the brethren to express the same love.

It'll happen naturally and organically because it's sourced out from the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the regenerated believer. Ron Merriman, His theme or his title for this section, the whole section, is manifesting the regeneration. So he thinks that all these verses are just a believer manifesting what comes out of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. So we will know that we are out of the truth, still in verse 19 here, out from, you could translate that as, because it's ek, ek, and this reveals the source of our agape love. It's from Christ dwelling within us.

Agape love, I like this Merriman His definition, or his pseudo-definition, is a mental attitude that expresses itself in a sophisticated yet practical manner. It's not passive, but it's active. It's not phileo-love, which is a love of rapport, and he said that phileo-love can manifest itself as like chummy, chumminess, he said, or it could be gushy. or it could express itself in an inappropriate manner. But Agape Love never does that. It's sophisticated. It acts becomingly and not unbecomingly. Well, Andrew, I just want to say that agape love is God's love, so actually that fits the definition.

Right, and it never is gushy like that. Even though God loves us, it's not gushy gushy, it's kind of gushy. Right. Yeah, whereas if Roy and I go out to the Rockies game and we enjoy the Rockies game and they hit it home and we're hugging in there. That's gushy, right? That's fillet of love. But Christians can be both, right? Towards each other. Agape and fillet.

And this will assure, this is the critical part of our lesson today. Part B of verse 19. And will assure our heart before him. Um, that word assure is Pytho. It's in the future tense, middle voice. Uh, no, active voice, I'm sorry. Active voice and indicative mood. So, it's a reality and it's a fact. Um, and the word for heart is Cardia and you recognize that as cardiology or a cardiogram, things like that.

So, this word assure, Pytho, usually means to be absolutely persuaded. Persuaded is the definition for it. But there's a sub-meaning, and it's a much better meaning or usage in this verse. And that's the concept of being fair, I think it is, is being tranquilized or being pacified or soothed, assurance. Smith always also gives the word like soothes for this word pytho assurance It's clear in the Nash the NIV which is the What does an internet new new international version I was said national international version and But the NIB says, this is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in this presence. See that, at rest? That's a nice word for assurance, or pytho.

If you look grammatically, it's in vines, this word assurance or assure, occurs right with, very closely related to, the word for faith. Pistis, or pistis, and hupostasis. It's right in that area. And Hebrews 11.1 has a lot of the same crossover for this word assurance. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11.1 has the word for faith, peistes, and that word hupostasis is the word, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. And that's around in the same universe of the word we have here, this assurance. Kardia is the seat of our inner life, our hidden man. our heart or the hidden man of the heart. So we will have an undergirded foundation or persuasion and a heart rest, a blessed assurance of this fact that we are of the truth and we are before him. And so at least to a question of why You know, why is our heart doing that? Why is this alarm being sound? Why are we a little unsettled in this fact? And why the lack of persuasion?

And as always, John sort of does things in reverse. So he answers it in verse 20. You got to get there. He says, in whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. So here's what's sort of unsettling us. We're unsettled because our heart is condemning us. And the interlinear condemns, it has the word blames us. Our heart is blaming us. Now that sounds very negative, doesn't it? Super negative. And that's why we could get a little unsettled about this.

But before him, we want to have this tranquility of heart, is the meaning we're getting at here. And before him, that phrase has a face-to-face meaning, or an in-front-of-him meaning, or in his presence. So let's look at this word condemns. in whatever our heart condemns us. It's the word kata ginosko. You know that word ginosko. That means knowledge. And so it's over and against knowledge. So it's something against ourselves, right, that we're figuring out. So what is this that's unsettling us?

So Smith in Weiss' Commentary says, he gives this explanation, in taking stock of how we are doing, you know that thing that Bob always says, how are we doing? So we're taking stock of ourselves. In taking stock of how we are doing, in having agape love for the other saints, and how we are measuring up to the standard of Christ, who laid down our life, his life for us, And we owe the same to the brethren. The reflection may awaken in us a misgiving in our minds. Am I loving as I ought? Our failures in duty and service might rise up before us and our heart will then condemn us of this thing.

So that's what this verse is getting at. So I know I've had this feeling and I'm sure a lot of you have had it too. where you have just a misgiving or, gee, did I do that right? Or things that bother your heart, right? And the word, if you look at it, whatever, it could be whatever it is, these things kind of eat at you, right? And it could be anything and it could be sin. So we have this unsettled thing in our heart because our heart is condemning us.

Yeah, I was coming here and there was a detour and I made a left-hand turn, but there was all this traffic from Denver. There's millions of people or thousands of people. So you had this detour, so this new way I had to go. And then I had to get on highway nine or something. So I came and went on highway nine, but the cars were coming this way and stopped here. And there's is the three way stop.

What is this? So I was making the turn and I overshot it a bit, but I heard this screech, you know, with someone laying on their brakes behind me, I think. I don't know. So was that me? I don't know. Or was that car about to hit another car behind me? I didn't see anything in front of me, but I feel guilty. My heart is vexed about that. Maybe I did something wrong. So this is like that. This verse is sort of like that, even though that's maybe not a sin, but that's what we're getting at here. And we're still on this blaming us because our heart condemns us.

The best case study in this is that F.B. Hull gives, and that's Peter, who who, you know, he loved the Lord, but he denied him three times, right? Once, twice, three times. The Lord Jesus said, you will deny me. So then after that was done, how did Peter feel? His conscience was just yelling at him. But then, what it was, days later when Christ appeared to him on the Sea of Galilee, he the reassurance that the Lord gave to Peter on the shore of the Galilee.

So he said he drilled down to the heart of the matter by asking him three times, Peter, do you love me? And he said, yes, I love you. Peter, do you love me? Yes, I love you. Peter, do you love me? Yes, I love you. So he got down to the bottom of Peter's failure and his condemned heart, right?

And then he restored him by saying, feed my sheep three times. So the Lord knew all about this and the Lord was greater than Peter's failure here. And that's in verse 20 we have, for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. And boy did the Lord know the gravity of what Peter did there. But he restored him. And he soothed the alarm of Peter's guilty heart, and he pacified him.

He tranquilized his state of troubledness with a balm of forgiveness. I saw the word balm in there from someone, and I thought of the old black spiritual. I think they came up with this hymn. There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal a sinsick soul, right? Mahalia Jackson did a really nice version of that.

So he restored him. He tranquilized him. He even made him breakfast. He even cooked him fish. I don't know how fish is breakfast. So Peter was restored. Peter had a tranquilized heart in that matter. So you see how this is a big verse? It's a very chewy verse. Whatever, the word whatever is E-A-N, and Hull says it's a blank check of things that we could be condemned about or alarming our hearts. But when He forgives us, there's no further need for anxiety, right? Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you, 1 Peter 5, 7. So I thought about how well this wraps in so nicely to confessing of sins.

First John 1.9 and even 1.7, 1.8 in there. And, you know, when we think about these things missing the marks, we have this resource of the forgiveness of sins.

And then in John 2.1, we also have an advocate. before God. Same word there. We have an Advocate, that's Christ, and how reassuring is that too? So on to verse 21. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. There again is Beloved, we've seen this a lot of times, it's love by God, and it has that agape love root. divinely sourced. If our heart does not condemn us, so it's the opposite of verse 20.

It's a third class conditional phrase. So it's saying our hearts may not condemn us or our hearts may condemn us. And that's the force of that subjective mood, right? And it's in the present tense. active voice, and condemn again is katakonosko. We'll know this by experience. The kata adds, and I kind of mentioned this before, but it adds something against our heart due to the exercise of our heart is what Vine says.

And here I have the fact that verse 21 is the reverse or the flip side of verse 20. In verse 20, our inner man is condemned, is blamed, and is exercised about something. Versus in verse 21, our inner man is not condemned and therefore enjoys a good conscience, a clear conscience before God here. The then, you could read it, beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God.

This word, confidence, is pericia, or pericia. It's a boldness to come openly in the presence of God and vinces with plainness. or an alternative definition is freedom to speak, freedom to speak freely with a cheerful courage and a free and clear conscience. Again, I thought of this again when making this part of the study is how nicely this association between This verse, too, wraps into 1 John 1, 7-9 and the advocacy of Christ. So, in conclusion here, this good, clear conscience before God gives us much-needed restored fellowship and intimacy with Him.

And sometimes this condemning Sometimes it's not right. Sometimes it could be not a satanic attack, but our old man trying to convince us of something that's wrong with us, but really isn't. You know, maybe we're oversensitive and you know, or you could see Satan trying to upset your rest or your knowledge of your position before him. So something that you, or something, that you have confessed in the past, done, now it's coming up again. And it shouldn't, right? It should be done.

I thought of this, I thought of something, I don't know what it was, two years ago, one year ago, I was laying in my bed and I thought of this terrible sin that I've been doing long time, but it was an attitude sin of the heart, right? So it's very subtle and very internal. It's an attitude I had. So I said, Whoa, I cannot believe that I've been doing this all these years and never thought of this. It came over me all of a sudden. So it must have been the Holy Spirit, right? Convincing me, convicting me of this thing that was so subtle. So I confessed it. And I can't remember. I would tell you, but I can't remember what it was. So that it was carried far away, and now I can't remember.

So that is kind of the force of this verse, this heart condemning me. But forgiveness of sin kind of takes care of that. It's nothing against any of you, so this sin. So that's a good news. I just can't remember what it was. So verse 22 and the last verse we have for today.

And whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and we do the things that are pleasing in his sight. So this result of our heart searching exercise then is answered prayer. The verse says it right there. And effectual prayer in all things Which is all the whatever's? That verse 22 has and whatever we ask we receive from him Here we have first Peter 5 7 again casting all your anxieties on him in prayer and Ephesians 3 20 now to him who is able to do far more abundantly Beyond all that we ask in prayer or think according to the power that works within us Ephesians 6 8 with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and It's interesting there you're praying for the saints and that's an act of this brotherly love that John has in the previous verses. Philippians 4, 6 and 7, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let all your requests be known to God and then you can come be formed with these requests openly like we discussed Confidently, with boldness, that's that assurance word. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension or understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. And peace, that's a word for tranquility, right? Peace and rest. Tranquility and rest. You know, Spock used to say, I can't do it, but peace and tranquility, right? Yeah, so peace and tranquility.

So he knew, if Spock knows, we should know that. Mark 11, 22 to 24, look at this. So I'm highlighting this sort of parallelisms here in these verses, because now John is really, in this verse, talking about prayer.

Have faith in God, Jesus says. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt it in his heart. There's our word heart. But believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted to him. Therefore I say to you, all things, these are all things, which you pray and ask. Believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you.

So prayer is, the definition of prayer is asking. And this was a nice review that I had in studying this and I learned something new that I hadn't known before and I'll share it with you now. So prayer is asking or making a request of God. So the word ask in verse 22 here is ateo, there you see it. It's in the present tense, and it's a durative action, so it goes on.

This asking is one of a suppliant, or the one who's asking, the petition of a person of lesser position than the grantor of that request, a teo. On the flip side, the word erateo, there you see it there, is always applied to Jesus when he asks of the Father. It's a different Greek word. The petitioner or the suppliant, the one who's asking, is on equal footing and equality with the grantor of the request. So that verse, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper. That's John. What is that John? I didn't write down the... John 14. Fourteen, sixteen. Fourteen, sixteen. Yeah.

So that word there is eroteo. So if you have. If I'm asking the president for something, I'm down here, he's up here. But if the president of France asks President Biden something, it's eroteo because he's requesting, he's asking something of someone who's on equal footing with himself.

So that, I didn't know, that's an interesting kind of thing. So there's just a little aside for this verse in verse 22. So again, it's present tense, dirt of action, asking. And we are keeping, too, right? We are both asking and keeping dirt of action in this context. So our present standing before God in regard to unconfessed sin is a critical matter. And that matters to God in answering our prayer or not.

In Isaiah 59, 1 through 2, the Old Testament, we have, Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save, nor his ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities, there's your sins, but your sins have made a separation between you and your God. And that's just Doctrine 101, right? And it continues from the Old Testament to present day, this New Testament period. So that you have a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you. where I think of that before him so you yeah instead of being before him openly there's there's a hiding fact there's a there's a barrier there of sin your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear and that's Isaiah 59 1 through 2 so he does not hear a prayer when you're out of this sort when you're out of confession wrapping it up again into John's forgiveness of sins in the first chapter. And this is all from, I adapted from Ron Merriman, because he went on, for this verse he went on a little kind of sub-study of prayer. And it's true, it's a wonderful prayer verse.

So the ultimate purpose in asking, or ateo, is to bring glory to the Father. John 14, 13. So that verse, before that, I will ask the Father and He will give you, that must be 16. So there you go. So in 13, he says, whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, so that the Father, here's the purpose clause, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. So then if you look up to 1 John 3, 22, um whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and we do the things that are pleasing in the sites in a site so this is john uh in the future years borrowing from john in the past years his gospel he's making these uh doctrinal pronouncements from his gospel because he this stuff is ingrained in his head and he remembers these things so he brings it up again and he sort of he does it he rearranges it a little to make it a doctrine and not just a more so than a Direct quote from Christ or a saying of Christ because sometimes you go Christ will say something you quite don't understand it, but John clears a lot of that up by Restating it in his epistle here A case in point that out of the truth, when he was before Pontian's Pilate, it becomes more clear because John clears it up.

So here's our last... Oh, where did my nice... I had nice font there and it's gone. I'd really nice... So this must be an older version of PowerPoint. It won't be as pretty as it should be. Oh yeah. So as you can see, I kind of skipped over this part B of verse 22 because I think I'll hit that next week. It wraps up nicely into verses 23 and 24 about the commandments. So we'll do that next week. just so you think you're not getting your money's worth this morning.

So these verses that we've discussed today are consoling and not condemnatory. I don't know if condemnatory is a word, but I'm trying to get at this point where they're soothing verses for us, and they restore fellowship with the Father. They are comforting, not vexing.

So searching our hearts and confessing our sins and acknowledging all of our shortcomings before the throne of grace prepares our hearts to enjoy this verse in Ephesians about the riches of Christ. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. There's that phrase again, before him. In love. There's the word love and that wraps into what John was saying about this agape love towards the brethren.

So we'll close there. Right on time and we'll look at that more of those commandments next week. I think I'll be here. Who knows? Or whoever is here. They'll tell you all about it. So let's close and pray. Our Heavenly Father we thank you for this time in John that you've blessed us with to study your word and all the wonderful things we have in Christ.