BLESSED ASSURANCE - Evidence #9 – “Our Prayer Life” – 1 John 3:19-24
INTRODUCTION: We continue in our SERIES on EVIDENCE that gives us the ASSURANCE of our salvation.
So far, we have seen:
EVIDENCE #1 – A TRUE Christian will desire a relationship with Jesus.
EVIDENCE #2 – A TRUE Christian will confess the sin in their life.
EVIDENCE #3 – A TRUE Christian will be committed to God’s Word.
EVIDENCE #4 – A TRUE Christian will love other Christians.
EVIDENCE #5 – A TRUE Christian will forsake the world.
EVIDENCE #6 – A TRUE Christian will seek to understand the truth.
EVIDENCE #7 – A TRUE Christian will seek to practice righteousness.
EVIDENCE #8 – A TRUE Christian will experience opposition from the world.
NOW – EVIDENCE #9 – A TRUE Christian will EXPERIENCE A GENUINE PRAYER LIFE.
Many blessings became ours the moment we were saved. Our sins were forgiven. The Holy Spirit came to indwell us. We became a child of God. Eternity in Heaven was secured.
Another privilege extended to us was the ability to approach the Throne Room of God at any time … day or night … 24/7/365. Sometimes I have a hard time getting through when I call a company on the phone. I usually get a recording telling me to press a certain number if I know the extension of the person I want to speak to (I usually don’t) … another number if I want to talk to a service representative … another number if I want to order something … etc.
Aren’t you glad God doesn’t have a recording to screen His calls? Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
You & I have access to the very Throne Room of GOD! It’s an INSTANT access. The line is never busy. You will never be put on hold. You don’t have to leave a message on an answering machine. You will never dial a wrong number. The number will never be out of service … no static … no long distance charges.
1 John 3:19 – “before Him” – We receive the “assurance” of our salvation (“we know”) when we can come to God in prayer.
Not everyone can approach the Throne Room of God. The LOST don’t have this privilege. They can SAY prayers … they can READ prayers from a prayer book … they can REPEAT prayers. BUT … they can’t enter into the Throne Room of God. This is a privilege extended ONLY to the child of God.
In this sense, God has an UNLISTED, PRIVATE number. His number is available ONLY to those to whom He gives it. AND … God has only given it to His children. If you have a habit of entering the Throne Room of God, it will give you the ASSURANCE of salvation. If your prayer life is dead and empty, it will cause you to doubt your salvation.
WHAT IS ONE REASON WHY WE GO TO GOD IN PRAYER?
1 John 3:20 – Sometimes our heart “condemns” us … AMEN? God will use our conscience to show us that we aren’t right with Him. He will convict us of sin … to draw us to come to His Throne Room for a talk … to get things right with Him.
God “knoweth all things” … He knows your heart. If God has burdened your heart over a sin in your life, it’s because God knows your heart. Here is an amazing truth: God knows all about you … and loves you anyhow!
Sometimes we don’t realize our own spiritual condition. Sometimes we don’t see the sin, or weakness, or failure in our Christian life. Sometimes we don’t see how we have grieved the Holy Spirit. THEN … God will burden our conscience and our “heart will condemn us”.
WHAT ARE YOU TO DO? When your heart aches because it isn’t right with God, you are to go to Him for the peace that only He can give. HOW? In prayer. WHY? Because “God is greater than our heart”. Only He can make it right, and bring us peace.
You KNOW if your heart isn’t right with God. You know it RIGHT NOW. No one has to CONVINCE you. I don’t have to CONVICT you. The Holy Spirit does that. That’s His job … and He’s very good at it … ISN’T HE?
When we go to God and He gives us a clear conscience before Him, WHAT HAPPENS?
1 John 3:21 – God will give us the ASSURANCE of our salvation. When you have a guilty conscience, it might cause you to DOUBT your salvation. BUT … when you have a clear and clean conscience before God, you’ll live with His peace, love and joy in your heart. This will give you the ASSURANCE of salvation.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE HAVE THE ASSURANCE OF OUR SALVATION, AND WE HAVE A CLEAR CONSCIENCE BEFORE GOD?
1 John 3:22 – There are 2 things mentioned here that cause us to have a GUILTY conscience before God.
o We don’t keep His commandments.
o We do things that don’t please Him.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE OBEY HIM … AND PLEASE HIM?
ANSWER: We ask … and receive. WHY? Because we are LIVING in the center of His will … and therefore ASKING in the center of His will.
When we’re not LIVING in the center of His will … we’re not ASKING in the center of His will. I found out, as a child, that my father was much more willing to give me what I asked for when I OBEYED him … and PLEASED him. Did you find that to be true?
When I lived according to my father’s will, I didn’t have a guilty conscience when I saw him coming down the road. I could look him in the eye. I didn’t have to be ashamed. I could come to him at any time.
HOWEVER … when I was disobedient … or had disappointed him … I had a guilty conscience and avoided him whenever possible.
The same is true in our relationship with God. We tend to avoid Him whenever we don’t live up to His standards. We don’t pray … we don’t read our Bible … we stay away from church. Look around you this evening … there must have been a lot of guilty consciences since this morning!
See 5:14-15. The KEY to answered prayer is living in the will of God … OBEYING Him … PLEASING Him.
WHAT ARE TWO OF THE COMMANDMENTS WE ARE TO OBEY?
1 John 3:23
o Believe on Jesus.
o Love one another.
BELIEVE ON JESUS. This is PRIMARY, because it means SALVATION. You can’t PLEASE God, if you’re not a Christian. You can be moral, ethical, kind, generous, loving, sensitive, respectable … BUT … if you’ve never trusted Christ to save you … you can’t please God … no matter how good you are.
God has made ONLY one path to Heaven … and that is through His Son Jesus. Acts 4:12 – “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
If you don’t obey THIS commandment, even obeying all the others will do you no good. Remember the Rich Young Ruler. Matthew 19:16-21.
You’re prayers won’t be answered unless you OBEY this commandment to BELIEVE ON JESUS.
Matthew 22:37-39 – “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Another CONDITION for answered prayer.
1 Peter 3:7 – “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
As we have seen before, this “love” isn’t just a warm fuzzy feeling (like in forgiveness). We are to love others, even when the emotion isn’t there. Matthew 5:46-47 – “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? [47] And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?”
We are to love others, even (especially) when they are difficult to love. God does … He loves YOU, doesn’t He? Some of us aren’t very easy to love … especially when we consider that God knows all about us … and still loves us!
If you want your prayers answered, you have to genuinely love others … as Christ does. I’ve known some “unloving” Christians. They are gossips … or bitter … or cruel … or hateful … or mean-spirited … or (Well, we used to call them “old bitties” if they were women, and “grouches” if they were men). You know the type. Do you think they OBEY God … do you think they PLEASE God … do you think God ANSWERS their prayers?
TRUST Jesus as your Savior … OBEY Him … PLEASE Him … live IN HIS WILL … and God will give you the desires of your heart (which will be the desires of His heart).
1 John 3:24 – Disobedient Christians will doubt their salvation. “dwelleth” means ‘to be close to, to feel at home with’. How can you doubt your salvation, when you feel close to Jesus? You can’t! The more we allow the Holy Spirit, Who lives within us, to take charge of our hearts & lives … the more at home we will be with Jesus.
CONCLUSION:
In the past 9 weeks we have seen how we can have the ASSURANCE of our salvation. It’s not based on a PAST EXPERIENCE … it’s based on PRESENT EVIDENCES in our life.
Let’s take a spiritual inventory. Grade yourself. Ask yourself if these are EVIDENT in your life. You will come to 1 of 3 conclusions:
o It will CONFIRM the fact that you are a TRUE Christian.
o It will CONDEMN you to the fact that you are religious .. but lost.
o It will CONVICT you, as you see your lost condition and come to Christ to save you.
#1 – Do you desire fellowship with Jesus?
#2 – Do you deal with sin in your life … or let it go?
#3 – Do you love God’s Word?
#4 – Do you love other Christians?
#5 – Do you see a change in your life since you were saved?
#6 – Do you have a desire to understand the truth of God’s Word.
#7 – Do you see yourself growing more conformed to the image of Christ?
#8 – Is your life different from the world?
#9 – Do you enjoy a prayer life with Jesus?
Being honest with yourself and God … your answers to these questions will give you the ASSURANCE of your salvation … OR .. the ASSURANCE that you are religious … but lost.
If you don’t have the ASSURANCE of your salvation, you need to come to Jesus … before it’s eternally too late.
STAND – PRAYER
OUTLINE FOR HANDOUT:
BLESSED ASSURANCE – Evidence #9
“Our Prayer Life” – 1 John 3:19-24
INTRODUCTION: One of the blessings of salvation is access to the Throne Room of God – Jeremiah 33:3
1 John 3:19 – Only the SAVED have access to the Throne Room.
- Entering God’s Throne Room gives us ASSURANCE of salvation.
1 John 3:20 – We go to God in prayer because our heart “condemns” us … convicted of sin … guilty conscience.
- God knows your heart … and loves you anyhow!
- God will burden your conscience to show you how you have grieved Him … to bring you to Him in prayer.
- God is “greater than your heart” … only He can make it right.
- The Holy Spirit will convict you … you don’t need me to do it.
1 John 3:21 – A guilty conscience may cause you to doubt your salvation … a clear conscience gives you ASSURANCE.
1 John 3:22 – 2 things that give you a guilty conscience:
Failure to keep His commandments … failing to please Him.
- When we OBEY and PLEASE Him, we ASK … and RECEIVE.
- When we LIVE in the center of His will, we ASK in the center of His will.
- We tend to avoid God when we have a guilty conscience.
- 1 John 5:14-15 – OBEY & PLEASE God to get prayers answered.
1 John 3:23 – 2 commandments to obey: BELIEVE on Jesus … LOVE one another.
- You can’t please God if you aren’t saved … no matter how good you are – Acts 4:12
- The Rich Young Ruler proves this – Matthew 22:37-39
- Loving others is a condition for answered prayer – 1 Peter 3:7
- Love others, even when the feeling isn’t there – Mt. 5:46-47
1 John 3:24 – When you feel at home with Jesus (“dwelleth”), you won’t doubt your salvation … prayers will be answered.
CONCLUSION: Take a spiritual inventory to CONFIRM your salvation … CONDEMN you as lost … CONVICT you to repent.
#1 – Do you desire fellowship with Jesus?
#2 – Do you deal with sin in your life?
#3 – Do you love God’s Word?
#4 – Do you love other Christians?
#5 – Do you see a change in your life since salvation?
#6 – Do you seek to understand the truth of God’s Word?
#7 – Are you growing more conformed to the image of Christ?
#8 – Is your life different from the world?
#9 – Do you enjoy a prayer life with Jesus?
