1 John 3:19-24

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Let’s take our Bibles and turn together to 1 John 3:19-24. In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, there is a harrowing and memorable moment in that book. I can remember reading about it as a kid and being confused but also terrified by it. It was when Christian and Hopeful jumped a fence on their journey and went onto “By-pass Meadow.” That was a mistake, and later they were captured by the Giant Despair and locked away in Doubting Castle. And while Christian and Hopeful were trapped in this castle, The Giant Despair beat them mercilessly so that, “all that day they spent the time in nothing but sighs and bitter lamentations.”

One of the deepest questions that we have to answer as Christians, and that I have to answer as your pastor is “Why do Christians despair?” “Why do Christians doubt?” And it’s a comfort to know that I’m not the first pastor to wrestle with that question. John Bunyan wrestled with it and wrote a lengthy section about doubting and despair in his book. And it’s a comfort to know that he acknowledged this battle in the Christian life. And it’s a comfort to know that he gave a remedy for this issue … we’ll get to that in a second. And it’s a comfort to know that the Apostle John was not unaware of these challenges as a Christian.

When John writes, “whenever our heart condemns us” (3:20), I think that’s what he’s talking about. How do we deal with doubt? How do we deal with lack of assurance? How do we steady our unsteadied, unsure hearts?

The message today is entitled, “Assurance for an Unsure Heart,” and John gives us here a means by which we can battle doubts and despair and “uncertainty of salvation.” And truly that’s one of the key themes of the book. John writes later in chapter 5, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13). How do we know that we know that we know that we have eternal life? How do we know that we belong to God? And when uncertainty and doubts emerge from our own hearts, how do we combat that? That’s the subject that we will tackle today. 

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Three things. Three weapons in your hand to battle a lack of assurance of salvation when your heart condemns you. Write this down as #1.

When your heart condemns you… 

1) Consider the promises of God (3:19-20)

Meditate even, on those promises. Let His promises be your objective standard of confidence and assurance, when your heart is unsure.

So back to Pilgrim’s Progress for a moment. Christian and Hopeful are locked away in Doubting Castle. They are repentant. They are trying to be cheerful in the midst of their persecution, but they are suffering greatly at the hands of Giant Despair. And Giant Despair is counseling them to kill themselves, because there is no escape for them. And indeed their whole situation seems hopeless.

But while stuck in the dungeons of Doubting Castle, Christian recollects something. He says to Hopeful, “What a fool am I thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well walk in freedom. I have a Key in my pocket called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any Lock in Doubting Castle. Then Christian pulled it out of his pocket, and began to try at the Dungeon door, whose bolt (as he turned the Key) gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out.”

What is this key called Promise that Bunyan wrote about? Well I would suggest to you that it is the truth recorded in Scripture that God loves us and that God saves us by the blood of Jesus, and that we are indeed the children of God. And also… Romans 8:28 – “All things work for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” The cure for despair is discerning God’s truth. The cure for doubt is determined faith in God. The cure for spiritual malaise is meditating on God’s promises. 

John writes in verse 19,

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth 

That’s an interesting turn of phrase right there. John uses “the truth” here as a metonymy for salvation and the family of God. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:37, “I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 

John says here, “By this we know that we are of the truth”… i.e. that we are saved.. i.e. that we belong to God. And the question is “by what” shall we know this? What’s the “this” in the “by this” of verse 19? Well it’s got to be the previous statement in verse 18. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” In other words, If we love in deed and truth, then we know that we “are of the truth.” That is quintessential John the Apostle. That’s how he talks. It’s both cryptic and descriptive. If we love with our deeds, and if we truly love our brothers, than we shall know that we are of the brothers. That’s the idea here. And by this kind of love … 

19 … we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 

Who’s the “him” in verse 19? That’s Jesus. We belong to the brothers. We belong to the truth. We belong to Jesus. And we reassure our hearts before Jesus, in light of what Jesus has done for us. 

Look at verse 20. Now this takes an interesting turn. 

20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Now let me say two things about “our heart” from verses 19 and 20. That statement shows up three times, and our hearts are not totally reliable. 1) First, our hearts can condemn us. And just to be clear this is a false condemnation. Only God has the right to truly condemn us. We can’t save ourselves and we can’t 

condemn ourselves, so this is a false condemnation that John writes about in verse 19. 

The word used for “condemn” here is the rare Greek word καταγινώσκω. And the idea here is not “conviction.” This is not a righteous conviction; this is false guilt brought about by a false view of reality. Our hearts can be deceived about reality… that shouldn’t surprise us as Christians… and part of that deception can lead to a false condemnation. That’s why John says “God is greater than our hearts.” In other words, don’t trust your heart in a moment of false condemnation! Trust God!

So 1) Our hearts can condemn us (falsely condemn us). And 2) we can reassure our hearts before God. Did you see that in verse 19? Our hearts can falsely condemn us, but we can reassure our hearts about the truth. In other words we don’t have to be enslaved to our own emotional insecurities. We can steady ourselves with the truth of God’s promises. 

Let me show you how this works. The devil gets all up in your face and says “You’re not really a child of God! Look at that sin in your life! Look how you keep making the same mistakes over and over again! Quit repenting, God’s not listening. You don’t really belong to him.” And after a while your heart starts to be swayed by Satan’s accusations, because let’s face it, our hearts are pliable. 

So what do you do in that moment? Here’s what you do—you, take a deep breath! And then you arm yourself with the truth of God’s Word. You load your spiritual shotgun, and say, “I have confessed my sins. I have by faith trusted Christ as my Savior. And I am standing on God’s promises for this life and the life to come.” Everyone with me? And you steady your heart before God. 

Actually that word for “reassure” in verse 19 can also mean to pacify or as John MacArthur suggests “tranquilize.” How fascinating is that? Like a wild rhinoceros you tranquilize your heart with the truth of God’s Word. Whoa!!! Down boy. Go to sleep.

The reason we don’t trust our hearts for assurance is because our hearts are emotionally volatile. And they can be seduced by Satan’s machinations. So we’ve got to tame our hearts. We’ve got to steady our hearts. We’ve got to persuade our hearts with the truth of God’s Word. God’s Word is objectively true, whereas are hearts can be subjectively influenced. So don’t find your assurance, don’t find your security, in the deep recesses of your heart. Find them in the truth of God’s Word. 

Now, I will say this, if you’ve never confessed your sins and trusted Christ as your Savior (as the Bible tells us to), then you should feel insecure. But if you have done that and you are a child of God, then… lock and load, Christian. Soldier up! You need to make war against the devil and you need to tell your heart to get in line and quit believing lies. God is greater than your hearts. Force your heart to conform to what God says, and quit allowing your perception of God to be shaped by your heart. Are you with me, church?

Here’s another way this works. The devil starts telling you, “You’ll never conquer that sin. God doesn’t want you to conquer that sin. More sin, more grace. Just give in. Nurture that bitterness. Give into that lustful thought. Stop guarding your speech and your thoughts. Just let it fly. God doesn’t want you to hold back. God wants authenticity.”

What do we do about that? What does God say about that? God says load up your weapons for war. 

Colossians 3:5 – “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” 

Galatians 5:16-17 – “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” 

You might say, “Tony, I didn’t really sign up for war with this Christian thing. I just want to be one of those casual, pacifist Christians.” I’m sorry, I hate to break this to you. There’s no such thing as a casual, pacifist Christian. The tooth-fairy is basically in the same category as a casual, pacifist Christian. Casual Christians are unbelievers who mistakenly think they are believers. When you gave your life to Christ, you enlisted yourself in a cosmic battle. And there are no conscientious objectors. 

The good news is that we win the war. So no matter how long the battle rages or how intense it is, we can’t lose. The bad news is that sometimes the battle has to be fought internally against the deception of our own hearts. But we can win that battle. John says we can reassure our hearts before the Lord. And we do that by fixing our minds on the truth of God’s promises. 

One Christian commentator says it this way, “We do not look into our hearts to see if we feel secure and then use this as evidence of our security… If our conscience condemns us, God overrides the verdict.” I get the sense sometimes that some Christians are enslaved to the impressionable volatility of their own hearts. It doesn’t have to be that way, Christian. Steady your heart with the truth of God’s Word. 

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Secondly. Write this down in your notes as #2:

When your heart condemns you… 

2) Consider the previous tests of 1 John (3:21-23)

We’ve talked about this already, so this will be review for most of you. And John finds it appropriate at this point to review some of the content that he’s already covered in this book. Like I said, one of John’s objectives in this book is to help us have assurance of salvation. “I write these things to you [so] that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13). John’s writing style in this book is very circular. So he circles back with topics again and again throughout the letter. 

And it’s as if people from the churches are saying to John, “I want to know that I have eternal life!” And to that, John says, “Okay, well that’s why I’m writing this book.” That’s why the church has been studying this book for 2000 years!

And as part of that objective John gives us three tests in the first three chapters. First there was the obedience test

a. The Obedience Test

1 John 2:3 says, “And by this we know that we have come to know him [that’s Jesus], if we keep his commandments.” We’ve called this test at different times the “moral test” or the “light test.” 1 John 1:7 says, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Also 1 John 2:6 says, “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” John says, if we truly believe in him we will look like him, walk like him, talk like him, be like him. Look like Jesus. Walk like Jesus. Talk like Jesus. Be like Jesus. Not perfectly but increasingly as a growing Christian. 

Now John reiterates that principle here by saying, “we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments” (3:22-23). 

So that’s the Obedience Test. There’s also a Doctrinal Test that John administers here in this book. 

b. The Doctrinal Test

If you want assurance of salvation, then you need to pass the doctrinal test, and the doctrinal test relates to the Son of God. 1 John 2:23 says, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” In other words, you can’t have salvation without Jesus. There’s no salvation apart from him. Not only is Jesus the Son of God, but John says He came in the flesh. And that’s key.

1 John 4:2–3 says, “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” And not only did Jesus come in the flesh but he died for our sins. 1 John 2:1–2 says, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins [the wrath-averter… the sin-atoner], and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

If you believe these things… do you believe these things, church? … If you believe these things, then you pass the Doctrinal Test. And this feeds assurance to your soul. If your heart starts to doubt your salvation, then steady your heart with the truths of God’s Word. And go back to the tests. Go back to the Obedience Test. 

Go back to the Doctrinal Test. And if you pass these tests it will feed assurance to your soul. 

Then there’s the Love Test! Which is not just a catch-all love for everybody, but more particularly love for your Brothers and Sisters in Christ. 

c. The Love Test

Do you love your brother? It’s that simple. We looked at this last week. Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? 1 John 2:9-10 says, “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.” 1 John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

Now let’s look at 1 John 3:21-23 and see how John circles back to these tests.

21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God [that’s what we want, right? Confidence! Assurance!]; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him [we’ll talk about that in a second], because we keep his commandments [Obedience Test] and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ [Doctrinal Test] and love one another [Love Test], just as he has commanded us. 

Now those of you who were listening carefully might say, “Pastor Tony, I’ve passed the Obedience Test, the Doctrinal Test, and the Love Test with flying colors. So according to this, I should be able to ask God for whatever I want and he’s going to give it to me.” “So give me a Mercedes, Jesus. Give me a yacht, Jesus. I’m asking for it!” Is that how that works? 

Is that how this works, in terms of claiming the promises of this verse? No! This seemingly unqualified statement is qualified elsewhere, namely later in 1 John 5:14 where it says, “if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” Jesus also said, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). That “in my name” statement is code for “according to my will.” Likewise James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” So much for the Mercedes, right? That just kills that notion right there!

No, this is a not a blank check that God gives us to use however we please. Neither is it a carte blanche statement to ask for any stupid or frivolous thing that pops into our minds. In fact, this has more to do with how keeping God’s commandments and believing his truth and loving one another brings us into closer proximity with God’s will for our lives and therefore our prayers are more in tune with what God wants. Does that make sense? 

Let me say that again. This passage has more to do with how keeping God’s commandments and believing his truth and loving one another brings us into closer proximity with God’s will for our lives and therefore our prayers are more in tune with what God wants. That’s why our prayers are answered. We’re not pulling God down to our prayer requests. “Come on, God, get down here with what I want.” No, we’re pulling ourselves closer to God so that our prayers reflect his will for our lives. 

Let me just say this from my own experiences. The more obedient I am to God’s will for my life and the more I love my brothers and sisters in Christ and the more that I hold fast to the truths of Scripture, the more I see answered prayer in my life. Because my will becomes God’s will. God’s will doesn’t become my will. My will becomes God’s will. And my prayers get answered. And assurance of salvation grows inside of me. All these things are connected: 1) Love for the brothers, 2) Obedience to God, 3) Holding fast to his promises, 4) Assurance of salvation, 5) submitting our prayers to God.

And I’m not saying that I’ve never doubted God’s goodness. And I’m not saying that I’ve never doubted God’s work in my life, or that I’ve never doubted my own salvation. I’ve struggled with those doubts throughout my life, especially during times of rebellion and sinfulness. But those doubts are diminishing more and more as I get older, as I mature in Christ. And my confidence in God is intensifying. 

And for those of you in this room, I want you to have that, if you don’t already. And I want to help you to train your hearts to rest assured in the promises of God. And I don’t know any other way to do that then to point you to the revealed truth of God’s Word here, and say here it is church! Believe it! This is true! This is good! You don’t have to live a life of doubt and insecurity. You don’t have to lack assurance of salvation. You don’t have to indulge the doubts inside of your heart as some kind of misguided demonstration of false humility. Here it is! Just believe it!

Tell me if you’ve heard this before! 

The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me. 

Did anyone else sing that song as a kid? That’s good stuff.

I stand alone on the Word of God, The B-I-B-L-E. 

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Thirdly, write this down:

When your heart condemns you…

Consider a Fourth Test. 

3) Consider the Holy Spirit Test (3:24)

By the way, these tests aren’t mutually exclusive. There’s a lot of overlap and cross-pollination between them. For instance, John writes in verse 22, “Whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments…and this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another.” So part of obedience, is loving one another. And part of obedience is believing the doctrinal truth about Jesus as the Son and as the Christ. So these tests are interwoven in many ways, and altogether reflect the substance of a changed life.

And that’s true with the Holy Spirit Test. In large measure, we know we have the Holy Spirit because we grow in obedience to Christ. And we know that we have the Holy Spirit, because we love the brothers. They have the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit. There’s a natural camaraderie that comes with that. The God that dwells inside of us, dwells in them. 

Now here’s how John describes the Holy Spirit test.

24 Whoever keeps his commandments 

Here we are again with the Obedience Test. 

24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 

John has said already, “Abide in him.” “Abide in him.” Twice he said it in Chapter 2. Now he says, the reason we have this insatiable desire to abide in him is because he abides in us. God abides in us. The Holy Spirit dwells inside of us.

Why do you have this desire to come to church on Sunday, even though sometimes you’d rather stay home watching football? Why do you have a hunger to read God’s Word, even though honestly there are a lot of books out there that are easier to read and more superficially entertaining? Why do you have this desire to love and have relationships with other Christians? Even though you know relationships are messy! Even though you know relationships are hard and complicated! Honestly it’s easier to just stay at home and play minesweeper on the computer. 

Why do you have this hunger to know God, even though some people in this world could care less? Why do you have this desire for holiness, when the rest of the world worships and craves un-holiness? Why do you experience that sting of conviction when you cuss at work or use the Lord’s name in vain? Why do you keep working on your marriage, even though you’d rather give up and honestly most people in your situation would’ve given up already by now? Why do you want to be godly? Why do you want to stop sinning? Why do you grieve the sins of the world and long for eternity? Why do you want to love others? Why do you want other people to come to Christ? 

Why, why, why, why, why? Why all these things? I’ll tell you why. Because the God of the Universe lives inside of you! Because the Holy Spirit pulsates inside of your soul! God abides in us. And therefore we long to abide in him.

And here’s the point of all this. Here’s the primary point that I think John is making. To the extent that you surrender yourself to the Holy Spirit’s prodding and leading in your life, you will grow assurance of salvation in your soul. 

Sinfulness will weaken assurance. Hate will weaken assurance. Bitterness will weaken assurance. Lust will weaken assurance. So I think the test is not only, “Do I have the Holy Spirit inside of me?” I think that’s a good question for all of us to ask, and I hope the answer to that question is yes. And if he doesn’t, then turn from your sins, trust Christ, and the Holy Spirit will come and live inside of you. 

But more universally for all Christians at all levels of maturity the question is this: “How much do I submit myself to the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life?” That’s where assurance is generated. That’s where we experience confidence in knowing that God in fact abides in us. And that’s where we abide in him.

Let me ask you this, church. Let’s do some soul-searching right now. Does the Holy Spirit abide within you? Does he? And if he does, are you responsive to his leading? Is he producing his fruit in your life (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control [Gal 5:22-23])? Are you receptive to his convictions regarding sin? Are you using the gifts that he has given you for the edification of the church? 

As we do those things, as we cultivate that relationship with the God who lives inside of us, assurance comes. We know we belong to him. We know it!

In my own experiences, I’ve discerned that those people who are the most holy and the most effective for God and the most loving towards other believers are also the ones that have the strongest assurance of salvation. 

Some people think it’s humble or God-honoring to have doubts about God or doubts about your salvation. “I don’t know. I hope I get to heaven.” Fingers crossed! Some people think that’s humble to talk like that. That’s not humble. In fact that’s dangerous. That’s a sign of immaturity or even worse a lack of conversion. And God would not have you live in a state of insecurity regarding your soul. 

I’ll tell you the truth, the people that speak like that have a low view of God and a low view of his promises. That’s not humility; that’s effrontery to the God of the Universe. 

We can have assurance of salvation. God has promised us these things. The question is this: Are you going to believe it or not? 

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Let me close by circling back to Pilgrim’s Progress. After Christian and Hopeful escaped from Doubting Castle and the Giant Despair by means of the key called Promise, they ran to freedom back to the by-pass meadow. And they got back onto the King’s Highway leading to the Celestial City. By the way, the Giant Despair gave chase to them, but sunlight caused the Giant to convulse into fits. It’s an interesting reminder that the only thing that conquers the darkness of despair is light. You might say the “light of God’s Word” or “the light of the truth of God’s Promises.” That’s what conquers despair. 

But after Christian and Hopeful return to the place where they went astray, they decide to leave a sign there for future pilgrims to warn them about Doubting Castle and the Giant Despair. You see, the King’s Highway that they had traveled on had grown rocky and hard, and they longed for an easier route. So they took by-pass meadow because it was at first easy on their feet and seemed a reasonable shortcut. That’s when their problems began. 

And thinking that other pilgrims might be tempted similarly, they made a sign and put it beside the road. And it read like this, “Over this fence is the way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who despises the King of the Celestial Country, and seeks to destroy his holy Pilgrims.” And then as they went on from there, they sang this song:

“Out of the way we went, and then we found

What ’twas to tread upon forbidden ground:

And let them that come after have a care,

Lest heedlessness makes them as we to fare;

Lest they, for trespassing, his prisoners are,

Whose castle’s Doubting, and whose name’s Despair.”

As a Pastor, I feel like I need to do something similar to what those pilgrims did. I feel like I need to put a sign in the ground and say, “Watch yourself, Christian.” “Watch your heart.” “Don’t be fooled into thinking that a lack of assurance is humble. Or that allowing your heart to condemn you is normal.” “Don’t feed that doubt monster inside of you, instead go back to the promises of God, go back to the truths of God’s Word and reassure your hearts before him.” 

Doubts will come. But you don’t have to be enslaved to them. Hold fast to the truths of God’s Word. Let’s bow together in a word of prayer. 

Taught by Tony Caffey

Senior Pastor of Verse By Verse Fellowship

1 John