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Christ, Our Assurance | 1 John 2:1-6 (12-17-23: Mark Evans)
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In this sermon, the speaker begins by reading from the book of 1 John and discussing the idea of assurance of salvation. He contrasts the belief of the Protestant Reformation that Christians can be assured of their salvation with the Roman Catholic belief that this assurance is a heresy. The speaker argues that confidence in salvation is rooted in Christ and that Christians should strive to not sin against God. He emphasizes the importance of having an advocate in Christ who intercedes on behalf of believers. The speaker encourages Christians to have faith in Christ's righteousness as their advocate. If you have your Bibles, do grab them, make your way to the letter of 1 John, as we continue on in this wonderful epistle of John. And today we find ourselves beginning in chapter 2, and so our Scripture reading for this morning will be 1 John chapter 2, verses 1 through 6. And these are the words of the God who is light of very light. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. And the grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we praise You for Your Word that is life-giving, that it is true, that the commandments of Your Word are able to make wise the simple, even able to make us wise for our salvation. And so we do pray, Father, once again, here we are completely, entirely dependent upon You. And so we pray that by the work of Your Spirit, You would grant us eyes to see, You would give us ears to hear. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Many may be seated. Well my goal for today is a little different than usual. Usually in a sermon, the aim is to teach the truth of Scripture. But today is a little different, because my goal today is to teach you a heresy. In fact, I hope to teach you this heresy so clearly, so persuasively, that you embrace this heresy with your whole heart. If nothing else, I now have your attention, so let me explain. If you're at all familiar with the Protestant Reformation, you know that was a time period of no small amount of conflict in the church. That was a time when you saw the rise of what we now know as Protestantism, arising out of and distinct from the Roman Catholic Church. And at a time, Rome was not shy about denouncing a number of so-called heresies that these pesky Protestants were teaching. Now what do you think in Rome's mind was the worst of heresies? You might guess that, well, Scripture alone, that sola scriptura, that Scripture is the full and final authority, that's what most bothered Rome. Or you might say, well surely, the Protestant teaching that we are justified by faith alone, sola fide, that is probably what most bothered Rome. And those would certainly, of course, be good guesses, but there is still a greater error out there in Rome's mind, at least in the mind of the great Roman Catholic theologian, Robert Bellarmine. He famously said this, the essential Protestant heresy is the arrogance of assurance, that for man to claim assurance of salvation, to teach the Christians that we can be confident and persuaded of our salvation, that teaching, said the Cardinal, is as presumptuous as it is dangerous. You'll get lazy if you are assured. You won't try as hard if you're confident of your salvation. No, instead, it's better to be doubting and fearful and uncertain. I'll just compare that to John Calvin's word when he said, quote, the assured heart in Christ will live for gratitude unto his God. Or another reformer's words who said that we are drawn more powerfully by the cords of love than we are by the threat of punishment. Is that not true in your own life? No doubt the threat of punishment is a strong motivator. But is it not true that love is far, far more powerful? This love that bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. Let's go back to the original source. Let's go back to the words of the Apostle John and hear what John has for us to say this morning. This great teaching that the Christian can be assured, even confident of his or her salvation. And this is because the confidence, of course, is not rooted in oneself, the confidence that is rooted in who Christ is and who I am in Jesus Christ. And so we'll walk through this short section looking at three parts. We'll look at Christ, our advocate, Christ, our propitiation, and thirdly, Christ, our assurance. But the main point is that Christians can be firmly assured, firmly confident of our salvation. Maybe that's something you haven't thought about for quite some time. Maybe you haven't ever posed that challenge to yourself. Am I truly a Christian? On the other hand, maybe you have, and if anything, it's that question that worries you the most. You find yourself always doubting, wondering, worrying. Am I a genuine Christian? Well, John has the very words of life for us this morning. So let's dive in. Let's look firstly at Christ, our advocate. And don't ever doubt John's affection for the people of God. You can see it in verse 1, this address which he loves to use. He says, quote, my little children. That's not patronizing. That's his heart coming through for the people of God. Remember, this was that flock disturbed by those Gnostics. And John cares for them like a father unto his own children. So it continues on, verse 1, and he says, this is why I pick up my pen. This is why I write these things. As we ask John, what things? So let's just remember where we are in this letter. We've seen that John says, this word has become flesh. This word has come down to be with us. I've seen him with my very own eyes. We saw last week that God is light, and therefore we are called to walk in the light. We saw too that our failures to walk in the light are met with the full and final forgiveness of our sins, that the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Now, lest we think that such full forgiveness of sin somehow promotes loose and licentious living, John heads that off in verse 1. You see, he says there, I write to you, quote, so that you may not sin. And you can just appreciate how relevant this is to our modern day. You hear Christians say things like, Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. Or how modern Christianity today is more concerned with the therapeutic, with felt needs, with personal fulfillment. And while John might agree with that in part, he has us set our sights far, far higher. That come what may, come whatever temptation, come whatever tribulation, the Christian is determined that by the grace of God, I will not sin against my God. And like the psalmist said, I will store up God's word in my heart so that I might not sin against him. Just ask yourself, is that the ambition of my heart? I've so tasted the love of God that nothing would bring me more displeasure than to sin against my God. And we'll see so much of this letter, as John's saying, my beloved children, do not sin. When you think about it, that's simply another way of saying, be like the Lord Jesus Christ. And what's so wonderful is how John encourages us to not sin. Never moralizing, never sermonizing, never dull, never naive, never stale. No, he'll say things like, because you have been born of God, because you have been gifted his spirit, because, not because you have first loved God, but because God has first loved you, therefore, do not sin against him. He sets it in the most beautiful of ways for the Christian life. That said, John well knows what is in the heart of man, and so he continues in verse 1. And he says, but if anyone does sin, here is the good news. We have an advocate. That Greek word there for advocate is a word you might know. It's the Greek word paraclete. John likes to use this word. You might remember in John's gospel, he uses that word of the Holy Spirit, the helper, the comforter, the paraclete. Christ said, I will send you another helper to be with you. But we see here that while Christ sent his paraclete to earth, we have our paraclete in heaven. We have this helper in heaven, this advocate, specifically in light of our sin. Now it's asked, why would sin require an advocate? Just remember from last week, John's encouragement was, bring your sin out into the light. Come and confess your sin before your God. You've probably watched enough courtroom TV to know those scenes where the accused boldly says, I don't need an attorney because I will represent myself. I will defend myself. In legal speak, that's called self-representation. And while it makes for great drama on the screen, in real life it's said that the man who represents himself has a fool for a client. And how much more so is that true? If man were to represent himself before the God who is light of very light, who is of pure eyes, then can behold evil. For a sinful man to come before God who is in all-consuming fire, who cannot look upon iniquity. Well, John says the Christian's fate is not so foolish. He is not there without an attorney. We do not self-represent. No, instead, we have this great advocate on our behalf. And just see what John says as verse 1 continues, that specifically our advocate is, quote, That there he is with the Father on our behalf advocating for us. But though glorious, this is still not sufficient, is it? The scripture tells of many men who intercede and who advocate. You can think of Abraham interceding for Sodom. You can think of Moses advocating for Israel, the prophets, the priests advocating for the people of God, and so on. Of course, the problem is that to a man, every one of those advocates had their own sin to deal with. They pleaded from this position of guilty. But not this paraclete, not your advocate. Just look how he is described. Just what kind of advocate he is. John says, verse 1, he is Jesus Christ, the righteous or Christ, the just. Our advocate is perfectly, thoroughly righteous. Now, we should ask, well, why is that so important? Well, because anything less than that is totally insufficient before the God of light. If you and I come before our God as we are on our own terms with even the smallest defect of darkness before the God of eternal radiance, then we have no plea, no pardon, no hope, no chance. No, we must have an advocate who can plead what nobody else can plead. And that is that he was born of woman, born under the law, that he fulfilled all righteousness, that the fear of the Lord was his delight, that his very food was to do the will of God, and that his offering upon the cross, it was not an offering for his own sins. No, he was condemned there, representing us with his sacrifice as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, the just for the unjust. And therefore, death could not keep him down. Because, you see, even more glorious is this truth that John says, not that we had such an advocate in the past, but in the present tense, Christ at this very moment is the resurrected paraclete. John does not say in verse 1, we had, no, we have this helper. It's that great truth that Christ not only died for us, Christ also lives for us, that he always lives to make intercession for his people. He's got this advocacy that knows of no expiration and no days off, no cases lost, that by this power of an indestructible life, he is always engaged in the work of bringing his children to glory. And so, Christian, you should take tremendous confidence to draw near to your God, knowing you have such a paraclete. He will never be turned down. He will never be turned away. And therefore, you will never be turned down and never turned away. Now, we need to be careful with all this talk of a courtroom, of Christ pleading on our behalf. It's vital to keep in mind that when we say Christ pleads on our behalf, that it is not the case that Christ had to convince the Father to love us. There's God with his arms crossed, frowning, utterly reluctant, unwilling to love us, were it not for Jesus. Because Christ is such a good lawyer, he somehow managed to convince God to love us. Now, John himself will soon say, it was the love of God that gifted, that gave us Jesus Christ. There are no disputes within the Trinity. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit always work in a harmonious love in order to bless God's people. So there's Christ, our advocate. Let's see next, Christ, our propitiation. As verse 2 plainly says, he is the propitiation for our sins. If you don't know this word, let's learn this word, propitiation, together. Because it appears not only here, but in Romans, you see it in Hebrews, and the Hebrew word is all throughout the Old Testament. Propitiation is not an everyday word, to be sure, but it is a glorious word. Because the concept simply means to appease the wrath of God. To propitiate just means to placate, to pacify, to satisfy God's wrath unto sin. Indeed, the Old Testament use, it's centered around what we read earlier, that mercy seat that was in the tabernacle. Recall, the priest goes into the Holy of Holies, and he would sprinkle blood there on the mercy seat, and God would see that blood, as it were, and he would be appeased. God's wrath unto sin would be pacified, and he would, in turn, be merciful, gracious towards Israel. That bloody mercy seat was the place of propitiation. Well, John now says, that place is now a person. Christ is the propitiation. Because he entered into, not the earthly tabernacle, no, he entered into the heavenly tabernacle by means of his very own blood. And that was the pleasing aroma to God, and so God's wrath unto our sin, your sin, my sin is appeased. And now God is favorable, merciful, gracious towards his people. And some lawyers, of course, might go and plead that, hey, look, Judge, this defendant is not such a bad guy, after all. I just look here, Judge, he has no prior record, no convictions. Here's some character witnesses that say he's a good guy. Why, just look, he even gives to charities. What a good guy. Well, Christ, of course, does none of that. He doesn't argue that our sins are not so bad, after all. They're not so grievous, after all. He doesn't plead for a reduced sentence or a lesser sentence, time off for good behavior. No, Christ comes and he simply pleads himself that he is both the priest and the offering. He is both the sacrificer and he is the sacrifice himself as the propitiation for our sins. That is the work of our triune God, the appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God all through the gift of our God. And oh, how that is good news for John's audience. But John does not stop there. Among the many things that I'm sure John learned when he sat at the feet of Christ was to think bigger. Think bigger, John. Think wider. Think deeper. Because Jesus would have a way of saying things like, I'm not just light. I am light of the world. I don't just take away sins. I take away the sins of the world. God so loved the world that he gave me. And just put on your first century ears for a moment and remember at this time you're largely thinking, well, yeah, God so loved Israel. God cares for Israel. God loves the people of Abraham. And so when Christ comes and he says things like, I give life to the world, it nearly blows up one's eardrums. You stop and say, wait a minute, say that again. Are you saying you're the savior of the entire world? You mean the Jewish world, right? And Jesus says, no, in me all the families of the earth shall be blessed. As Isaiah said, this root of Jesse will come and in him all the Gentiles of the world can hope. Kids, it was like God dropped a nuclear bomb of grace there in Bethlehem that mushroom clouds out and fills up the entire world. And that's John's point as he continues in verse 2, that Christ is the perpetuation not just for us, not those just reading John's letter or hearing John's epistle, no, think bigger, think better. He is the mercy seat for the entire world, for the whole cosmos, for all who would turn and believe in him. As a Christian, you just need to ask yourself, how big is your Christ? Perhaps we have far, far too small a view of Christ and it shows up in our disposition, our lack of zeal, our neglect of evangelism. Many say God has his frozen chosen, as it's sometimes called, this very small circle of believers that only seems to be shrinking by the minute. Well, no, Christ comes and he says, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people, all my people to myself from the four corners of the earth. All my elect shall come to me. And why wouldn't they? The earth is mine and the fullness thereof. And so what can cure us from our pathetically small view of Christ? It's just how awesome, how abundant is this propitiation that just one drop of Christ's blood accomplishes, secures the redemption of all of God's chosen people throughout all the world, throughout all generations, throughout all of time. Are God able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think? That means by implications, our prayers and our thoughts are likely far, far too small. And so let us be armed with these words of John. He's not only our mercy seat, not for merely a tiny cluster of people, but mercy for a whole world of sinners who would turn and believe in him. Indeed, if you're here this morning and not a Christian, here is mercy for you. Turn to him, turn to him and bow to him in simple faith and trust and reliance and he will in no wise turn you away. But to be fully armed, we need a fuller assurance. Assurance of salvation is one of John's great burdens. He wants you to have this firm persuasion, yes, I belong to Jesus Christ. It's said that imposter syndrome is a real thing. You interview highly successful people, highly successful celebrities and it seems they walk around with what's known as imposter syndrome. It's essentially this internal feeling of angst that they will soon be found out as a fraud. It's this kind of low-grade insecurity that they're not really a success, it's all just a fluke and that will soon be uncovered. And you can imagine the world has its own versions of curing this imposter syndrome. Cures that tend to revolve around positive self-talk, self-esteem, trusting and believing in yourself. Essentially, live life as though you're the hero of a Disney movie, more or less captures the main idea. And yet Proverbs says, he who trusts in his own mind is a fool. Well contramundum, John has for us true assurance that truly overcomes imposter syndrome, should we doubt that we belong to Jesus Christ. You see he says there in verse 3, by this we know that we have come to know Him. That's the language of assurance. Do you know that you know? The question is not, do you know Christ, though that is of course of first importance. John's question is, do you know that you know Christ? That's a different question altogether. One of the gut-wrenching things about assurance is that there can be those who truly do know Christ as Lord, and yet they have a very weak assurance. They may doubt that they sincerely know Christ, and yet on the other hand, there can be those who don't belong to Christ at all, and yet they walk around with a false assurance in their heart. And how many are those who never darken the door of a church for years, and yet they claim, well because I walked the aisle some 30 years ago and made a profession of faith, well then all is well and good. So John says, no, here's how we possess a confident, strong, unwavering assurance, knowing that we know that we belong to Him. Verse 3, he says very plainly, it's rooted in this reality, that we keep His commandments. In keeping God's commandments, there is great reward. And you see, one such reward here is this strong assurance of faith. As Christ said, if you love Me, you will keep My commandments. Now why is that so? Because God has so made us that whatever we set our heart upon, always, for better or for worse, guides our footsteps. This is why Christ could say things like, where your money is, there is your heart. Whatever words come out of your mouth, that reveals your heart. Guard your heart. Out of your heart come these streams of living water. And so John's going to say, for those who have a new heart, a new birth in Christ, it always brings with it this newfound love and newfound obedience that desires to follow Christ and obey Him. As Christ said, My sheep know My voice, and they will follow Me. It's quite simple that a genuine love for Christ longs to obey the commands of Christ. And you know by now that John is a very keen student of human nature. He well knows that we are capable of self-deception. We all too easily can dupe ourselves. And so he says the same thing, but now stated negatively, saying that whoever claims, I know him, but does not keep His commandments is a liar. Notice John is once again addressing the claim, a person who can mouth the words. And that is particularly relevant in our day, isn't it? In our current social moment, we have so elevated our words, our claims, to the highest of highs. If I say, I feel a certain way, then who are you to challenge how I feel? Even some movements that claim that when we speak words, we're speaking reality into existence. We're putting something out into the universe as though by some kind of magical power. Well, John will have none of it. He says by the light of Scripture that if someone says, or if someone does not keep God's commandments, then such a claim is invalidated. And no matter how heartfelt, how sincere such a claim may be, just hear the words of the sweet, kind, grandfatherly John who calls that person a bold-faced liar. Frequent criticism levied against Christians by the watching world is that of hypocrisy. The Christians say one thing and do another, right? Their talk does not match their walk. Christians are no better than anyone else. Now very often, that is a thoroughly unfounded criticism, to say that all Christians are hypocrites is as unwarranted as it is nonsensical. But you can see in John's day, there was genuine hypocrisy of those who would claim Christ and not keep the commandments of Christ. Such a witness, of course, was a stain to the church. It brought reproach upon the gospel. And John wants to head off such hypocrisy. Now that said, when John speaks of keeping God's commandments, we need to bear in mind, he certainly does not have in mind sinless perfection. Because I suspect if I surveyed this room and I asked, do you keep God's commandments? The reflex of many might be, well, no, of course not. Not at all. I have sinned and I fall short of the glory of God. I would not dare boast that I keep God's commandments. Friends, John does not have in mind sinless perfection. If that is the case, then no one should have assurance of any kind whatsoever. Of course, to keep God's commandments is just saying that we are abiding in God's ways. The pattern of our life is a trajectory of growing obedience. Yes, offset by our weakness, by our indwelling sin, but by God's grace, we are growing more and more in our conviction of sin, in our confession, in our repentance, in our newfound obedience. There's this upward progression to our pattern of godliness. I hope you can look back at yourself five years ago and you could see such progress in your life. And by the grace of God, you could look back on this very moment five years from now and you could see even more progress. And maybe the very moment we begin to suspect how John is encouraging some kind of works-based pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps Christian life, as if assurance is man's doing, he obliterates any such man-centered approaches in verse 5. He tells us, here's what's really at work in your life, that whoever keeps God's Word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. There are nearly too many artists to count who say that when they're painting a painting, all they're trying to do is work love out onto the canvas. Dorothy Sayers describes such work as the labor of pure love. And John says so here, that whenever we keep God's commandments, what we're really looking at is God's love being put on display, His love being worked out and into our lives. Is it not true of you and your life that when you walk in God's ways, when you put off your lust, your pettiness, your anger, your wrath, your mouth, your slander, and you put on kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, when you put on Jesus Christ, is it not true that what's really going on is just the love of God at work in your life? We often say things like, I love you too much to let you go your own way. I love you too much to leave you to yourself. Well, how much more is that true with our God whose love is as fierce as it gets? That God's love will not, cannot, does not leave us unchanged. That He can and will transform us from one degree of glory to another as His craftsmanship of love. And so, Christian, you need to see why assurance of grace is so precious, why assurance of faith is so real, why it is so great a treasure for the Christian to pursue with all of your mind, because you're not seeking for a self-confidence, it is a God-confidence, it is a fruit of nothing less than God's love being worked out into the lives of His children. And so what is ours to do is to make gains on such assurance. As Philippians puts it perfectly, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You be the one to work it out. And the only reason you can do that is because God is at work in you, both to will and to do. And so such perfection is going to require all of our patience and our perseverance. As any artist knows, you don't sit down and at first brushstroke have a masterpiece. The Puritan William Gurnall said it well, don't look at how the Christian begins, look at how the Christian finishes. John leaves us with the footsteps that we are to walk in if we're going to grow in our assurance. Verse 6, he says this, Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walks. One of the ancient missionary rabbis of old would tell his disciples this blessing, May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi. And now that might seem more like a curse to us than a blessing, but it was meant as a blessing. Because as a disciple would walk behind his rabbi, as the ancient Near East was a dusty place, and there the rabbi is just kicking up dust with his feet. If you were walking faithfully behind him, then you would be covered in dust. Again, that seems unappealing to us, but that was a blessing. That meant that you had not strayed. You had not wandered. You had not turned to the left or to the right. You had faithfully followed behind your rabbi's path. You were covered in his dust. Well, John says, may that be true for the Christian. That as you walk, you could look down on the dust of your feet. You could look at the dust on your garment. You could look on the dust on your soul and you could say, oh, yes, I really am a disciple of Christ. By the grace of God, I have abided in him. Who is the life giving vine? I can see the dust on my sandals. How often the call of Christ was very simple. Follow me. Take up your cross daily and follow me. Follow me and you will be a fisher of men. Follow me and you will have treasures in heaven. As much as we love to speak about leading, we are firstly made to follow. We are all following something. We can either be following the course of this world, following our lust, following our pride, or following and walking in imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, so great is Christ's love that he makes us Christ followers. And the more and more that we follow him, the more and more that we know we truly are in Jesus Christ. Our soul sings and says, is it really true that he is mine and I am his? Friends, that is to have a slice of heaven here on earth. And so Christians just ask, do you have that assurance? Do you know that you know? Well, our kind and loving Father has revealed to us he does not want insecure children. He does not want doubting children. He does not want children to wonder, is this true really of me? No, he wants his children to know that yes, really nothing, not even death itself, could separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Christian, do you know that you know him? Go to Christ, your advocate. Go to Christ, your propitiation. Go to Christ, who is your very assurance. And he will have you and he will never leave you and never forsake you. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we do praise you for your word. It is the very path of life because it leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ. That we can walk and follow in his train. And we praise you for the only way that that is so, because we were once darkness and you have made us light in the Lord. And you have commanded us to walk as children of light. And you have commanded us to do this with the easiest of yokes because you have given us your very Holy Spirit, the helper, that the Lord Jesus won by his life, death, and resurrection, who is with us, ever bringing us to glory. And so we do pray, Father, we would treasure up this great treasure in our hearts, knowing more and more that we know him, until that very day that we will see him and so be like him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
