Latest / HBCWestminster / Extinguishing the Flaming Arrows of Doubt • Sunday Sermon 5.25.25 • 1 John 3:19-24

Transcript

Extinguishing the Flaming Arrows of Doubt • Sunday Sermon 5.25.25 • 1 John 3:19-24 · HBCWestminster

• 0:13
  Amen. Is the Lord your salvation? If he is, then you have nothing to worry about.
• 0:24
  And if you want to know what 1 John chapter 3, our text this morning, verses 19 to 24 say,
• 0:30
  that's what it says. If the Lord is your salvation, we have nothing to worry about.
• 0:36
  You have no reason to be insecure. You have no reason to doubt. You have no reason to lack
• 0:40
  assurance in your faith. You have no reason to question the genuineness of your faith. Because
• 0:46
  if the Lord is your salvation, if you did nothing to earn it, then guess what? You can't do anything
• 0:51
  to unearn it either. And so you have no reason to doubt. The Lord is our salvation. Amen, church?
• 1:00
  Amen. That's the whole sermon this morning. We could close in prayer, but I did
• 1:04
  spend some time writing a sermon anyway, so I won't dismiss this quite yet. Turn in your
• 1:09
  Bibles, if you would, to 1 John chapter 3, verses 19 to 24.
• 1:10
  1 John chapter 3. Let's read those same truths from the Word of God together. 1 John chapter 3,
• 1:15
  beginning in verse 19. And as you're turning there, I would just remind us that different
• 1:20
  houses have different smells. So do different churches. And if I could set a goal for our
• 1:25
  church, what the smell of our church, what the aroma of Highland Baptist Church would be,
• 1:30
  it would be that we would smell like love and life. That we would love each other genuinely,
• 1:35
  even when we don't feel like loving other people, and even maybe when they don't deserve
• 1:39
  to be loved.
• 1:42
  But that we would also live, not only love, but live with open eyes and ears, being aware of,
• 1:48
  attuned to the needs, the hurts of others, and also with open hands, living generously,
• 1:54
  reminding ourselves that everything we have is not ours. It was given to us by the Father of
• 2:00
  lights. It's only been entrusted to us in order to meet the needs of other people. The more
• 2:07
  generous we are toward others, the more generous God is toward us. Well,
• 2:10
  that catches us up now to verse 19, where we left off. And if you would stand in honor of God's
• 2:15
  word, as I read our text this morning, verses 19 to 24, 1 John chapter 3, beginning in verse 19,
• 2:21
  the word of God says, by this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before
• 2:27
  him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
• 2:36
  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask,
• 2:41
  we receive.
• 2:42
  From him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment
• 2:47
  that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded
• 2:53
  us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides
• 3:00
  in us by the spirit whom he has given us. Let me pray. Lord, your name is love. We ask that you
• 3:09
  receive our prayer in love.
• 3:13
  Father, our sins are more than the sand of the sea, but where sin abounds, your grace abounds
• 3:18
  still more. And so we ask that you look to the cross of your beloved son and view our sin through
• 3:24
  his precious atoning blood. Listen to his never failing intercession for us. And then Lord,
• 3:33
  would you whisper into our ears, your sins are forgiven. Be of good cheer. Lie down in peace.
• 3:42
  We ask all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated.
• 3:49
  I grew up reading Gary Larson's, the far side comics. Maybe some of you did too. I thought
• 3:57
  they were really smart. I thought they were really funny, very clever. He was very good
• 4:02
  at telling entire stories in a single frame. It wasn't a comic strip. It was just one single
• 4:10
  frame.
• 4:11
  No words at all, which told an entire story. And he was just a genius at doing that. They
• 4:16
  were so funny to me. One of them was a couple of cowboys talking together. These were cowboys
• 4:25
  from pioneer days, covered wagons and all of that. They had clearly circled their wagons
• 4:30
  because they were being attacked from without. And so whoever was attacking them was shooting
• 4:35
  arrows at them. And so they had circled their wagons. Now the two of them are talking together,
• 4:40
  these two cowboys.
• 4:41
  The two cowboys are looking at each other as these arrows are hitting their covered
• 4:46
  wagons. Many of the arrows are actually on fire. They are flaming arrows. And one of
• 4:52
  the cowboys looks at the other one and says, are they allowed to light them on fire? Just
• 4:57
  like that. Maybe you guys remember the favorite weapon of our enemy. Ephesians chapter six
• 5:07
  and verse 16, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can be
• 5:11
  able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. You think, wait, getting shot
• 5:18
  in the heart by an arrow is bad enough. Is he allowed to light them on fire? What's the
• 5:25
  difference between just a regular old arrow and a flaming arrow? Regular old arrows inflict
• 5:32
  wounds and that's bad enough. But a flaming arrow actually has a lingering effect. It
• 5:40
  has long-term damage. It has long-term damage. It has long-term damage. It has long-term
• 5:41
  damage. It may, a flaming arrow may destroy things which are nowhere close to the original
• 5:47
  impact. Flaming arrows are designed to cause maximum damage for as long as possible. This
• 5:55
  morning, we study one of our enemy's favorite flaming arrows. You guys ready? I think he's
• 6:02
  got a lot of them, but this is one of his favorites. It's the flaming arrow of doubt.
• 6:11
  Doubting uncertain Christians.
• 6:13
  Christians who lack assurance are ineffective. Let me ask you this. If you're uncertain of your
• 6:22
  own salvation, if you're not even positive that you're saved, how can you wage war?
• 6:31
  I don't even know whose team I'm on. Which uniform am I wearing? Which direction should
• 6:36
  I be pointing? If I'm not sure who the bad guys are and who the good guys are,
• 6:41
  how can I get involved?
• 6:44
  I can't. If you can't get your spiritual legs under you, how can you possibly throw punches
• 6:50
  fighting the good fight? I mean, a boxer who is constantly off balance cannot possibly throw
• 6:56
  effective punches. If you've been uprooted by insecurity, how can you possibly bear any fruit?
• 7:05
  I mean, we've all just put our tomatoes in the ground, right? That probably happened in the last
• 7:08
  two weeks, I'm guessing. We're all now praying for the next two weeks that a hailstorm will come.
• 7:13
  A hailstorm wouldn't come through and wipe them all out, okay? That is the prayer of all of the
• 7:17
  gardeners in the room, right? We've just put them in the ground. We're hoping they take root. Can
• 7:22
  you imagine if somebody came through and ripped all of our tomatoes out and then laid them in the
• 7:26
  dirt? They've been uprooted. Are those tomatoes going to grow any fruit? No, of course not.
• 7:31
  They're out of the ground. If we've been uprooted by insecurity, we cannot possibly bear fruit. And
• 7:37
  so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point
• 7:42
  been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity.
• 7:43
  And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages has at some point been attacked by insecurity. And so it's no surprise then that every single believer through the ages
• 8:13
  it as this thin veneer of doubt through which I now have to look at everything else. Everything
• 8:18
  is covered by this insecurity. And so he says, I begin to doubt God's love for me.
• 8:26
  I begin to doubt his forgiveness. I begin to doubt his word. I begin to doubt his care. And all of
• 8:33
  those things kind of culminate eventually to my doubting my own salvation. Has that ever happened
• 8:39
  to you? Like I know the gospel and I know upon whom I have believed and I know his goodness and
• 8:46
  I know the cross is true and I know the resurrection is valid. I know all of those things. And yet
• 8:52
  there is this insecurity way down in the depths, in the darkest parts of my heart
• 8:58
  that caused me to lie awake at night sometimes questioning the genuineness of my own salvation.
• 9:05
  Has that ever happened? Your spouse is asleep.
• 9:09
  Your kids are quiet. There's nothing else going on in the house. And yet I'm going through Matthew
• 9:13
  seven in my own head. Lord, what if I'm the guy who on judgment day says, didn't I preach a whole
• 9:20
  bunch of sermons? Didn't I pray with people? And didn't I share the gospel? Didn't I do all these
• 9:23
  mission strips? And didn't I? And then he would say to me, away from me, you evil doer, I never
• 9:26
  knew you. Has anybody else ever prayed the prayer of salvation again, just in case? Like just one
• 9:31
  more time, Lord. I know that you know, but you know what? One more time. You know that I'm all in,
• 9:37
  right? Am I the only one?
• 9:40
  One? Doubt is this weird little splinter that festers. It's not just an arrow. It's a flaming
• 9:47
  arrow, which begins to ignite other things in our lives and actually cause destruction over the
• 9:53
  course of our lives. And instead of fighting the good fight, there are times where because of this
• 9:58
  insecurity that I feel hobbled. I feel like I'm pinned down in a foxhole. I feel like I cannot
• 10:04
  run the race that the Lord has marked out for me with joy. I may be running, but I'm not running
• 10:09
  with joy. I'm not running with joy. I'm not running with joy. I'm not running with joy.
• 10:09
  And if you can relate to that, then this sermon of encouragement is for you.
• 10:15
  I'm here to tell you, there is no need to be pinned down in a foxhole anymore. You can get in the
• 10:20
  fight. You can run the race with joy. And so let's look at God's word. Notice I'm going to give you
• 10:26
  guys three flaming arrows of doubt, three flaming arrows, and then three counterattacks for those
• 10:33
  arrows. How can we extinguish the flaming arrows of doubt? So let's go through it. Flaming arrow
• 10:38
  number one.
• 10:39
  Flaming arrow number one. Doubt fixates on personal deficiencies. Doubt fixates on personal
• 10:47
  deficiencies. The enemy loves to tell you you're not good enough. Isn't that true? That you've
• 10:52
  sinned too much, too frequently, too severely. Yes, God is a gracious God, but he ain't that
• 10:58
  gracious. I mean, that one was bad. No, you can't be one of his kids. Look at how much you've sinned.
• 11:08
  I mean, how many times does he have to forgive you of the same thing over and over? Now, you can hear
• 11:15
  the voice of the enemy just say, no. I mean, he's a forgiving God. I've met him, but he's not that
• 11:21
  forgiving. Look at verse 19. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth. And now notice this
• 11:28
  word and reassure our heart before him. Reassure. Don't forget the author is writing to Christians.
• 11:36
  These are the Christians.
• 11:38
  In Ephesus, what encouragement do Christians need? They need assurance. They need persuading.
• 11:46
  They need convincing. That word for reassure, if you like to underline or write in your Bibles,
• 11:51
  you can circle it and draw an arrow over to the margin. That word reassure means to set at rest.
• 11:58
  To set at rest. Can you imagine? What if the Lord just came to you and just said, hey, relax.
• 12:05
  Relax. I've got you.
• 12:08
  I'm just saying, I am your salvation. And if that's true, then you've got nothing to worry about.
• 12:14
  Be at peace. It's okay. The Lord knows. However ready our hearts are to join the enemy
• 12:24
  in our own condemnation. You know, the enemy of our souls loves to condemn us, doesn't he?
• 12:29
  Guess who else loves to condemn us? We do. We love condemning ourselves.
• 12:38
  We love condemning ourselves. We love condemning ourselves. We love condemning ourselves. We love
• 12:40
  This is why our hearts resonate with songs like, come thou fount. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it.
• 12:47
  Prone to leave the God I love. That's a 300 year old song. And yet we're still singing it. Why?
• 12:53
  I think it's because of that line. I think on that line, everybody's like, yeah, I know that feeling.
• 12:59
  I am not prone to faithfulness. I'm prone to wandering. That's me.
• 13:03
  I'm not prone to stay in the presence of God. I'm prone to leave, forsake my first love.
• 13:08
  The Westminster Confession of Faith speaks of the believer's assurance this way. Listen to this
• 13:12
  several hundred year old confession. It says, true believers may have the assurance of their
• 13:17
  salvation shaken, diminished, and intermitted as by negligence of preserving it. So one,
• 13:23
  you can have your assurance stripped away by neglecting it, by falling into some special sin,
• 13:30
  or by some sudden temptation. In other words, that confession is saying, if you're sinking
• 13:37
  into the dead, you're not going to be saved. You're not going to be saved. You're not going to be
• 13:38
  of spiritual despair. It is likely your own fault. You're like, okay, I thought you said this was
• 13:44
  going to be an encouraging surrender. I'm ready for the encouragement. The encouragement would be
• 13:51
  this. If we're lacking assurance this morning, that lack of assurance is not coming from God.
• 13:59
  That lack of assurance is coming from us. We're the ones shaking ourselves loose. He is remaining
• 14:05
  faithful. And that's the encouragement we're going to draw here in just a minute.
• 14:10
  A Puritan, Anthony Burgess, has written this,
• 14:13
  ordinarily, the more formal and careless we are in our approaches to God, the more are our doubts
• 14:17
  and fears. The more careless we are with our souls, the more insecurity you feel. And so let me ask
• 14:25
  you, church, are you ever careless with your own soul? Does that ever happen? Our souls are the
• 14:35
  most precious thing that we possess. Isn't that true? There is nothing more precious than our
• 14:40
  souls. It's not your 401k.
• 14:44
  It's not your bank account. It's not your house. It's not whatever you've got hidden in your safe.
• 14:50
  It's not even your family, your spouse and your kids. That is not your most precious possession.
• 14:54
  The most precious thing that you have is your soul. Are you ever careless with it? We're being
• 15:02
  careless, I think, with our souls anytime we linger in the guilt of our sin.
• 15:07
  If we wallow in our own guilt and shame, we are being careless with our souls. How?
• 15:12
  Because by wallowing in that guilt, by holding on to that guilt, we are being careless with our souls.
• 15:15
  that shame, we are declaring that God is the exactor of punishment and not the bestower of grace.
• 15:22
  Right? We're just waiting for God to punish us. Anytime there's that guilt just lingering in our
• 15:29
  hearts, we're saying, now God is just going to bring down the hammer instead of being the bestower
• 15:35
  of grace. But let me ask you, church, is that what this book teaches? Is God the exactor of this great
• 15:41
  punishment against his people? Or has he not already,
• 15:44
  already paid the penalty for our sin in the cross. He's already done it, hasn't he? So what is
• 15:51
  awaiting you and I? Is it punishment? No, it is grace. And more than that, John chapter one says
• 15:58
  grace upon grace. More grace than you can even handle. He is going to fill up your cup with so
• 16:04
  much grace that it overflows. Abounding toward us is the grace of God. For us to wallow in our guilt
• 16:12
  distorts our theology. It actually causes us to view him differently, which then causes us to view
• 16:19
  ourselves differently. We're being careless with our souls. We're also being careless or reckless
• 16:24
  with our souls anytime we live in fear. Why? Do you need to be afraid? If God is for you, church,
• 16:35
  what does it say? Who can be against us? Who am I going to be afraid of? Do you remember Matthew
• 16:41
  chapter 10? Jesus sharing that parable.
• 16:44
  Don't be afraid of people. All they can do is kill you. Rather, he says, fear the Lord.
• 16:54
  Fear the Lord. The perfect love of God has cast out any fear we may have on this planet.
• 16:59
  We need not fear. Why? Because the perfect love of God has cast it out. The fear, fear is the fuel
• 17:05
  of the enemy. It is what he uses to ignite the insecurity in our own hearts. We're being careless
• 17:14
  with our souls anytime we live in hypocrisy. It's careless. Speaking boldly, but then living
• 17:20
  blandly. And if I could be really honest here for a moment, I struggle with those things.
• 17:25
  Anybody else? You struggle with being careless with your soul? Like, I didn't even know I was
• 17:29
  being careless with my soul until I read that list. I struggle with doubt. I struggle with
• 17:36
  insecurity. You ever heard somebody say, I am my worst critic? I am my worst critic.
• 17:44
  Nobody ever needs to point out my faults. I am very aware. There are times that I pray. I ask
• 17:51
  the Holy Spirit to reveal in me, bring conviction in my heart whenever my heart is out of alignment
• 17:57
  with your word. But oftentimes, I don't even need the Holy Spirit's help. I'm really good
• 18:02
  at knowing the places I fail. Joel Beek has worded it this way, failing in faith, failing in love,
• 18:09
  failing in obedience prompts us to wonder if we're really Christians at all. And I struggle
• 18:14
  with that. I struggle with that. I struggle with that. I struggle with that. I struggle with that.
• 18:14
  Sometimes, like, man, I fail so often. How could one of God's own kids fail as often as I do? I know
• 18:23
  something about myself, something dark and ugly, something in my inner being, something worse than
• 18:29
  anybody else knows about me. And my conscience uses that knowledge to condemn me over and over
• 18:36
  and over. And this is why the author includes verse 20. Look at verse 20. Whenever our hearts
• 18:43
  condemn us,
• 18:46
  the word for heart is one that we know, cardia. We know cardiac. We know cardiology. Oftentimes,
• 18:53
  when we use that word heart, we're referring to our literal hearts,
• 19:00
  our actual quad-valved blood pumps that keep us all alive. But in John's day, in the ancient world,
• 19:08
  heart wasn't necessarily used of our actual hearts. It was used of our conscience.
• 19:13
  Your heart was the seat of your morality. It's where your convictions came from. It's where
• 19:19
  your deepest beliefs, the center of your passions, even the very center of one's being came from your
• 19:25
  heart. It's more, it's closer along the lines of when I tell my wife, Hallie, I love you with all
• 19:31
  of my heart. That's more what he meant by that. I'm not talking about my actual blood pump. I love
• 19:38
  you so much from this weird organ thing right here. I love you from this weird organ thing right here.
• 19:42
  I love you with all of it. You get all of it. She's like, I don't really want it. You can keep
• 19:46
  that, right? No, when you say I love you with all of my heart, what you're saying is I love you with
• 19:50
  everything to the very core of my being. So keep that idea in mind whenever our heart condemns us.
• 19:57
  The word for condemn means to know something about someone else, something you would use as leverage
• 20:05
  against them. So now put that together. John is describing this phenomenon that we're probably
• 20:11
  very familiar with. We're probably very familiar with it. We're probably very familiar with it. We're
• 20:12
  familiar with it. I don't need somebody else to condemn me. My own heart knows something about me
• 20:18
  and the condemnation. My own heart is screaming against me is severe because after all, who else
• 20:25
  knows me better on this planet than I know myself. I know the worst things I've done.
• 20:32
  We don't necessarily need somebody else to condemn us. We don't even need the Holy Spirit to bring
• 20:36
  conviction on us. What we need rather is the Holy Spirit's reassurance that the gospel can
• 20:41
  save even the worst thing I've ever done. Amen. This is his first counterattack. There's the
• 20:50
  flaming arrow. You are a rotten person. The counterattack is this. Verse 20, God is greater
• 20:56
  than your heart and he already knows everything. God is greater than your heart. Look at verse 20.
• 21:02
  Whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart and he knows, what does it say?
• 21:09
  Everything.
• 21:10
  everything. He knows everything. Whatever list you started compiling in your own head when I
• 21:18
  started talking about your worst sin, the worst thing you've ever done, even the stuff nobody
• 21:23
  else in the room knows, the worst things you've thought about, the worst things you've dreamed
• 21:27
  about, the worst things you've fantasized about, certainly the worst things you've done have
• 21:32
  actually gone and done. He knows all of it. Do you see how this extinguishes that flaming dart?
• 21:40
  The enemy would say, man, you are way too bad. You've done way too many things. When God said
• 21:46
  he forgave you, he didn't know about that one. And you can now come back and say, well, no, wait,
• 21:53
  God knows everything. He knows everything. He already knows everything I will ever confess.
• 22:00
  All of it. I was saved at the age of 14. That was when I finally bowed the knee and said, Lord,
• 22:08
  you know what? You, not me.
• 22:10
  And I was saved. And the Lord forgave me for everything I had ever done
• 22:15
  and everything I would ever do. Is that true? Okay. Guess what? The age of 14,
• 22:24
  I wasn't even close to done sinning. I hadn't sinned even a fraction
• 22:34
  of the sin I would commit in my life. By the age of 14, right? I hadn't even done the worst stuff
• 22:40
  yet.
• 22:42
  Most of my worst stuff starts with the line one time when I was in college.
• 22:47
  That's for me. I know it's different for other people, but for me, when I was 20 years old,
• 22:51
  21, it was not good. There were a couple of years, not good. When I was saved at the age of 14 and
• 22:58
  the Lord said, you know what, Danny, I know that you're in the eighth grade. And I know that there's
• 23:01
  a lot of worse stuff coming. There's stuff you don't even know about yet. Still, you're mine.
• 23:05
  Stamped. You're mine. Did he know what was coming?
• 23:11
  Is he ever surprised? Does he ever learn? Does God ever learn? No. He has never been taught.
• 23:21
  He's never been informed, which means he's never been shocked. Whatever you bring to him,
• 23:28
  you can't make him blush. Like, oh, I didn't know about that. Ooh, that's really bad.
• 23:34
  I didn't know about the 20 year old stuff. Right? No, he says,
• 23:40
  everything already. So you can imagine the enemy shooting this flaming arrow at us.
• 23:44
  There it comes and whack. And it hits us in the heart. You're like, you know what? I am a horrible
• 23:49
  person. I'm an absolute wretch. How do I put that out? God reminds us, Hey, I already knew about all
• 23:54
  of that. I forgive you anyway. When I said yes to you, I already knew. I knew that you were going
• 24:02
  to be surprised, but I was never surprised by any of that. Look at this promise from Romans chapter
• 24:07
  five. I love this. God shows his love for us.
• 24:10
  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up.
• 24:15
  He didn't wait for us to repent. He died for us before any of us ever repented. Isn't that true?
• 24:21
  He offered us the gospel before any of us were ever even born. What a great truth that is.
• 24:29
  Flaming arrow number two, doubt feeds on spiritual uncertainty. Doubt feeds on spiritual uncertainty.
• 24:38
  So here's what the enemy is going to do.
• 24:40
  He's going to come to you and say, you're a rotten person. He didn't know about all of that.
• 24:44
  And you say, nope, I can put that one out. You grab your fire hose and you're spraying it off
• 24:48
  saying, no, God knew everything. Then the enemy is going to come and say, okay, fine. Maybe he
• 24:53
  forgives you of everything, but that doesn't mean he wants you around. You're still kind of gross.
• 25:00
  He doesn't want you in his presence. He's not inviting you in his presence. He causes you to
• 25:04
  feel uncertain about even coming to the Lord. Fine. If he's bestowed this unbelievable grace
• 25:08
  on me, certainly I am humiliated to the point.
• 25:11
  That I can't approach him. I'm not going to come into his presence. Wrong. Look at verse 21.
• 25:18
  Beloved, if our heart doesn't condemn us, we have confidence before God.
• 25:25
  The enemy is going to whisper. You don't deserve to talk to him.
• 25:28
  Make sure you catch what John is saying. If we truly trust that God is gracious and that he
• 25:33
  has forgiven us by that grace, then we can stand in his very presence with confidence.
• 25:40
  Hebrews chapter four says,
• 25:41
  let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and
• 25:47
  find grace to help win. Do you guys all see it up there? When do you get to approach the throne
• 25:54
  of grace with confidence? When? In time of need. You ever get tired of people asking you for stuff?
• 26:03
  Co-workers like seriously, I have showed you this. I have done this for you so many times.
• 26:09
  I am not doing it for you again. Employers, employees,
• 26:14
  your kids. Mom. I'm so thankful my name's not mom. Can I get mom? Like, man, Hallie, they're calling you.
• 26:34
  Right. And listen, I know because we just have the most gracious women in the room. I know you
• 26:40
  answer that call with grace and mercy and joy every time, right? You never get tired of it.
• 26:46
  Your shoulders never slump. You never just,
• 26:48
  just think, man, are you serious again? Again? I'm not doing it. Right? And you get annoyed and
• 26:56
  what? Listen, the Lord never does that with you. Never. You can come to me boldly. He never says,
• 27:08
  man, how many times do I have to do this? How many times do I have to answer the same question?
• 27:11
  How many times do I have to forgive the same sin? Honestly, again, Danny? Like, dad, I did it again.
• 27:21
  You can come. Confidence. Do you hear the enemy whispering again? Do you hear that flaming arrow?
• 27:27
  You don't get to go to him again. I know that he's a gracious God. Maybe he has forgiven your greatest
• 27:32
  sin, but honestly, over and over and over, you think he's just going to, he's just going to roll
• 27:37
  out the welcome mat for you over and over and over again. And this says, yep, that's exactly what he's
• 27:42
  going to do. Yep. How many times? As many times as it takes. Do you have a need? Look at it again.
• 27:49
  Do you have a need?
• 27:52
  Come. Come. He's saying, what a great promise that is. We don't need to run from God because
• 28:02
  we're undeserving. Rather, we can run to God because Christ is deserving. And after all,
• 28:07
  we are in him. We're in Christ. Romans chapter eight and verse one, there is no condemnation
• 28:12
  for those who are in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus? If you're in Christ Jesus,
• 28:18
  then you have nothing to worry about. What a promise this is.
• 28:22
  No condemnation. I am what they call generation X. Generation X. And I know there's been like six
• 28:29
  generations since generation X. I don't know how the math works out on that. Right? I think we've
• 28:35
  started over on the alphabet at this point. Generation X. Anybody else Gen Xers? Like our
• 28:40
  parents were boomers. I don't know. Our little brothers and sisters were millennials, I think.
• 28:45
  Our kids are Zs. I don't know how it totally works, but I know I'm X. I'm part of the generation that
• 28:51
  changed the channel. I know that. I know I'm part of the generation that remembers before the
• 28:57
  internet, before smartphones. I'm also part of that generation that went to the playgrounds
• 29:03
  expecting to get hurt. Anybody else? Generation Xers, you ever look at the playgrounds nowadays
• 29:08
  and you just think, man, this next generation is soft. The ground literally bounces. How did they
• 29:15
  make ground that bounces? When I was a kid, it was dirt. Most of the time, hard packed dirt.
• 29:21
  Or if we were lucky and people could afford to spring for it, it was gravel. Okay. Gravel. That
• 29:26
  was your soft cushion. You hit the ground and it's just, you know, and that's it. There was this
• 29:31
  playground toy that we had. Generation X. I never see them now. The generation X had this thing,
• 29:37
  the carousel, like a merry-go-round. Okay. And it was this metal disc with all of these steel piped
• 29:44
  handles. It was just some machinist went in there and bent all of the steel piping. And it was on
• 29:51
  metal, right? And so you could just get that thing spinning. And the idea was you throw a bunch of
• 29:55
  second graders on there, namely me, seven-year-old little Danny, sits on this thing and you hold onto
• 29:59
  the handle and then somebody gently spins you. The problem is there was no governor on that.
• 30:05
  There was nothing that regulated the speed at all. It was just greased ball bearings in there.
• 30:09
  And there was always some 17-year-old high schooler willing to spin that thing.
• 30:13
  Like, hey, pile on, you know? And man, he would get that thing slinging, just buzzing.
• 30:21
  And you get all these little seven-year-olds, you know, kind of laughing in the middle and then
• 30:25
  eventually laughing a little further out and then sliding. You're like, where are we going? You know?
• 30:29
  And you eventually really do. This is a real thing. You hit the edge where there was the
• 30:34
  handle that went up and down. And at some point you're holding onto that handle and this 17-year-old
• 30:38
  is just laughing and smacking your feet on the way by, right? And pretty soon you're not even
• 30:43
  touching anymore. You're just out like this, holding on like that until one of you eventually
• 30:48
  lets go and goes skidding to a stop on the gravel.
• 30:51
  That was playgrounds in the mid-1980s, okay? I love this picture. Answers in Genesis
• 30:59
  has created, they've got a live, not a live, a full-scale model of Noah's Ark.
• 31:07
  It's amazing. It's called the Ark Encounter. They've built a full-scale ark. There it is.
• 31:12
  It's in Louisville, Kentucky or Ohio or someplace over there, right? It is massive. You look at
• 31:18
  the size of this thing. It's massive.
• 31:21
  It is colossal. You guys remember when God comes to Noah and says,
• 31:26
  you know, I want you to build a boat. You're like, I live in the middle of nowhere. You know,
• 31:31
  I live in the middle of the desert. What do I need a boat for? I'm going to make it rain.
• 31:35
  If you look back, there are a lot of commentators that think Genesis 1 to 7,
• 31:38
  it had never rained. Maybe this was the first time it had ever rained. Dew was still covering
• 31:43
  the earth, watering all the plants. So there's a possibility it had never rained before. No,
• 31:47
  I'm going to send rain like has never happened. You're like, it has never happened.
• 31:51
  Well, I'm going to flood the earth with rain. I want you to build a boat. And so he starts
• 31:55
  constructing this boat. The scriptures say it took him about a hundred years to construct this
• 32:02
  gigantic boat. It is huge. Multiple decks. I mean, it is, it is a huge, huge boat. And over
• 32:09
  the course of a hundred years, man, his neighbors thought he was nuts. They're making fun of him.
• 32:13
  What's it, what are you doing, Noah? I'm building a boat. Why? Because the Lord is going to flood
• 32:16
  the earth. How's he going to do that? We live in the middle of the desert. He's going to make
• 32:19
  rainfall from the sky. Like you are crazy. What are you talking about? You see the size of it. It's
• 32:27
  not like he could hide it for a hundred years. You guys remember when you were building that
• 32:33
  little shed in your backyard, hoping your HOA wouldn't notice, right? He couldn't keep this
• 32:38
  from his HOA. The neighbors are calling. Okay. It's the size of a city block. It is huge. And
• 32:45
  after a hundred years, animals start showing up. They start climbing into the water. They start
• 32:49
  the boat of their own free will. God gets all the animals on board. Then he says, Noah, take your
• 32:55
  wife and your three sons and their wives and get on board. And for a week, the eight of them sat
• 32:59
  on that boat, ready to go for one week. That ramp remained open. Genesis chapter seven says,
• 33:05
  after a week, the Lord shut them in, shut them in. Imagine the first rain starting to fall.
• 33:15
  Imagine the sound. Imagine the, the heavens breaking open, even the earth breaking
• 33:21
  apart, water coming out of the depths, the scriptures say. And as that rain begins to
• 33:26
  fall and people realize that Noah, that whole time was right. Imagine how many of them tried.
• 33:31
  And this is a pretty, pretty bleak picture. Okay. But imagine how many of them tried getting into
• 33:36
  that boat as the water is ankle deep and then knee deep and then waist deep. And they are trying with
• 33:41
  all of their might. And imagine how many people grabbing stakes or spikes or something and
• 33:46
  pounding them into the side of that boat. Ding, ding, ding, ding. And just trying to hold on. I
• 33:51
  hold on to the outside for a year. That's fine. That's how long they were on the boat for a year.
• 33:56
  I'll stay. I'll just hang on to the outside of the boat. Can you imagine like little second graders
• 34:03
  hanging onto the carousel? I'm just going to hang on with all my might. I'm strong enough. I can do
• 34:08
  it. I'm strong enough. I'm strong enough. I'm strong enough. And isn't it true that some people
• 34:11
  try to cling to Christ from the outside? The way that Noah was shut in the ark is how we
• 34:23
  are in Christ. You don't have to hold on. He's got you. You're not staked to the outside. Like
• 34:32
  I'm going to pound in eight handles, Noah, and you and your sons and their wives, you better hold on.
• 34:37
  If you can hold on tight enough, maybe you'll survive. That's not what it says.
• 34:41
  Think of it instead as a great hamster ball and you're on the inside and nothing can hurt you.
• 34:49
  Nothing can harm you because you are in.
• 34:53
  In Christ, J.B. Phillips has worded it this way. In him, God has placed us in a sphere
• 34:57
  where his own wrath can never reach us. We're secure as Christ can make us. There is no more
• 35:05
  condemnation for sin. So doubt begins to feed on these spiritual uncertainties. I know that God has
• 35:11
  forgiven me in the past. Maybe he won't forgive me again. I don't deserve to be in his presence,
• 35:16
  but here's his counterattack. Are you ready? That was flaming arrow number two.
• 35:20
  Counterattack number two, God is always accessible to you.
• 35:23
  He's always accessible. His door is always open. Again, back to verse 21. It says,
• 35:30
  beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence, confidence before God.
• 35:37
  That word for confidence is the word transparency, open speech. Think of it like this. Before the
• 35:43
  Lord, you have freedom of speech. You're invited anytime. Why? Because Christ is invited into his
• 35:50
  presence anytime. And you're invited anytime. And you're invited anytime. And you're invited anytime.
• 35:53
  So you can be bold and free. I love that the author just slips in verse 22 here.
• 36:01
  The Lord Jesus knows what it's like to be us. And so he anticipates the enemy's next move.
• 36:06
  He counters it before he can even get another shot off. The enemy is going to say, yeah,
• 36:11
  but God obviously isn't listening to you. Yeah, you can come to him anytime. You can present your
• 36:18
  request. Sure. But he's not listening to you. How do I know? Because he doesn't ever answer your
• 36:22
  prayer.
• 36:23
  God doesn't answer your prayer. And look what he says in verse 22. Whatever we ask,
• 36:28
  we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
• 36:32
  Like, well, wrong again. We're not only invited to stand in his presence. We're actually invited
• 36:38
  to make requests. Now, what a promise. Verse two is actually saying that whatever we ask,
• 36:44
  we will receive as long as our desire is to do what pleases the Lord. As long as we're committed
• 36:49
  to walking in his ways, then ask for anything you want.
• 36:53
  And he'll give it to you because your prayers will align with his will. So here's a prayer you
• 37:00
  could pray today and he will answer it. You ready? Lord, give me mercy. Granted. Lord,
• 37:08
  give me peace. Granted. Lord, give me wisdom. Granted. Lord, give me strength. Granted. Lord,
• 37:21
  give me courage.
• 37:23
  Granted. Lord, cause me to decrease so that you can increase. Granted. Lord, glorify yourself in my
• 37:34
  life, in my home, in my family, in my church. Granted. Lord, give me money. Is what I've given
• 37:47
  you not enough? Listen, I'm only going to grant that request if it's good for you. And even then,
• 37:57
  I'm only just going to give you enough so that you won't forget.
• 38:00
  Who your true provider is. I'm not going to give you so much. You can pray for it all day,
• 38:06
  but I'm not going to give you so much that you can forget about me. You can trust in other things.
• 38:13
  Lord, fix my spouse. You know what? I am doing a work in your spouse, but let's talk about you.
• 38:21
  Let's fix you first, right? This isn't about her or him. Let's fix you. Let's work on you.
• 38:28
  Now, Lord, give me a promotion.
• 38:31
  You know what? A promotion might be good for you. I will, but don't neglect where I have you now.
• 38:38
  Don't forget when and where I have you now. Don't forget the co-workers that you'll be moving on
• 38:43
  from. Let's make sure that you're faithful where I've put you so that if you're faithful over
• 38:47
  small things, yeah, maybe we can talk about getting bigger things. Lord, not my will,
• 38:53
  but yours be done. Granted. Doubt will say God doesn't care about you. A doubt will say God isn't
• 39:01
  interested in you.
• 39:02
  Doubt will say God isn't listening to you, but we can counter that with the fact that God already
• 39:07
  knows everything, everything about us, our families, our needs, our wants, our dreams.
• 39:11
  He has invited us to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. He's
• 39:16
  invited us to stand not only in his presence, but to present requests in his presence. And then he
• 39:22
  promises in verse 22 to grant those requests, which are in accordance with his will.
• 39:29
  A flaming arrow, number three. And with this, we conclude.
• 39:32
  Don't doubt. Doubt forgets the gospel's simplicity. Doubt forgets the gospel's simplicity. Verse 23
• 39:41
  says, and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, that we
• 39:48
  believe in the name of the son, Jesus Christ. There are many new Testament scholars who believe
• 39:54
  that this nine word phrase in the English believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ became one of
• 40:00
  the first churches, the churches.
• 40:02
  First confessions of faith, like a catechism. What is the gospel answer? Believe in the name of
• 40:10
  his son, Jesus Christ. And that verb believe is in the aorist tense. All that means is that it
• 40:16
  refers, could refer to a past event. This belief referring to salvation, that one time crossing
• 40:23
  over from death to life, this transaction where Jesus took your penalty and gave you instead his
• 40:30
  righteousness. It refers to a past event. It refers to a past event. It refers to a past event. It refers
• 40:32
  back to the moment in time where you heard the gospel, understood the gospel, embraced the gospel.
• 40:37
  You placed your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, confessing and repenting of your sin,
• 40:42
  submitting to his Lordship. It refers back to the day that you were saved. For me, that was February
• 40:47
  1st, 1990. It refers back to that event, this once for all transaction, Christ for me. But notice the
• 40:57
  command to love one another is in a different tense. Believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ. And
• 41:02
  love one another just as he commanded us. Now, we have talked extensively last Sunday about that
• 41:10
  command to love one another. So I won't belabor it now, but just remember that loving each other
• 41:15
  is in the present tense. It's an ongoing, continuing manifestation of walking in newness of life.
• 41:24
  He's not commanding us here to love people so that we can be Christians. Rather,
• 41:28
  he's commanding us to love people because we are Christians.
• 41:33
  Let us not overcomplicate the gospel. The gospel is very simply summed up in these nine words.
• 41:39
  Believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ. Believe. Heart penetrating faith. Not merely a
• 41:47
  mental ascent. In the name. These are the words and works of Jesus Christ. It's everything he
• 41:52
  represents. The name of his son. Divinity. God's son. The second person of the Trinity. Co-equal,
• 42:00
  co-eternal. In the name of his son, Jesus.
• 42:02
  His name literally means Yahweh saves our Redeemer and our Savior. And believe in the name of his son,
• 42:08
  Jesus Christ. Christ, the anointed one, the final prophet, the final priest, the final king. It's so
• 42:13
  simple. But doubt will want to make it more complicated. Add stuff, doubt will say. That
• 42:24
  gospel is way too easy. He's not just going to give you eternal life. So there's got to be some
• 42:30
  kind of works. Some kind of favor. Some kind of merit. Some kind of credits.
• 42:35
  Indulgences, penance, payoffs, paybacks, paying dues, indebtedness, duty, rituals,
• 42:41
  pilgrimages, ceremonies, certainly some pomp and circumstance.
• 42:47
  Doubt tries to attach a cost to your salvation. And then when that idea takes root,
• 42:54
  it tries to make you pay it back as if grace could be paid back.
• 43:00
  If we really are saved by grace, then there is no payback because it stops being grace.
• 43:05
  Grace. Think with me about this for just a moment. If we could pay it back,
• 43:13
  let's say that we could pay it back, what would it cost?
• 43:19
  What do you give in exchange for the precious blood of the eternal son of God?
• 43:27
  Like he's going to give us that. What do you give back? Anything that you can give back would be
• 43:31
  pennies compared to the value of the blood of Jesus. Isn't that true?
• 43:35
  It can't be paid back. So don't try. And counterattack number three is just very simply.
• 43:43
  God is already satisfied with the blood of Jesus. Anytime you get that welling up in you that,
• 43:49
  oh, I got to do something. There's this guilt. I got to do, I got to do more. I got to,
• 43:53
  I've heard it preached this way. You guys, here's how I've heard it preached from pulpits.
• 43:56
  I've heard pastors say, Jesus died for you. What are you willing to do for him? You ever heard that
• 44:02
  Jesus died for you? What are you willing to do for him? It's just, it's just debtors.
• 44:05
  Ethic. You're in debt to him. That's not what this says. If we're in debt, then it wasn't grace
• 44:12
  is gave it to you. So relax, be at rest. Don't worry. He's got you. If the Lord is our salvation
• 44:22
  that we need not worry, doubt, doubt will fixate on our personal deficiencies. It'll whisper in
• 44:28
  your ear. You aren't good enough. Do you fail too often? You've sinned too much, but God counters
• 44:33
  that by reminding us that he already knows.
• 44:35
  Everything you ever need to confess, the Lord already knows and has already forgiven.
• 44:42
  Doubt will feed on your spiritual uncertainty. It'll make you think that somehow you have to
• 44:48
  hold on to Christ for dear life. Like you're on the outside of the arc instead of the inside of
• 44:53
  the arc that if you ever lose your grip, you're going to go slinging off into the gravel pit of
• 44:59
  spiritual oblivion. But God invites us instead into his presence with confidence. He hears and
• 45:04
  answers our prayers. He answers our prayers. He answers our prayers. He answers our prayers.
• 45:07
  Doubt will forget the gospel's simplicity. It'll guilt us into efforts to pay back that which
• 45:14
  cannot be paid back. And God's abiding presence in us confirms that we are truly his. Allow me to
• 45:22
  pray. Lord, thank you for the confidence that we can have in the gospel, the simple grace given to
• 45:30
  us that we can be saved. And God, I pray that when our hearts condemn,
• 45:35
  us, you would remind us that you know everything. You're never shocked by anything we've ever done,
• 45:40
  any sin we've ever committed. You offer free forgiveness. And Lord, when we begin to think
• 45:47
  that somehow we're not welcome in your presence or that we can't present our requests,
• 45:51
  that may we be reminded that our heavenly father's door is always open,
• 45:55
  that we are in Christ and he is invited into your presence and we're with him.
• 46:01
  And Lord, when we begin to attach work,
• 46:06
  to the gospel, to your grace, would you remind us, Lord, that what has been freely given cannot
• 46:11
  be paid back. Your abiding presence in us confirms that we really are yours.
• 46:18
  Lord, we love you for all of these things and so many more. In Jesus' name, amen.