The Condemning Heart

Have your Bibles with you turn with me if you will to first John chapter 3.

Looking at verses 20 through 23 for whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Love it if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us to spray heavenly father were great and glorious passage we have before us. Tonight we pray heavenly father that you would help us, for we know that we are dealing with many of us today with very tender conscience isn't Satan can easily take advantage of that in and bring us under spirit of condemnation that keeps us defeated and has the the potential Lord of really doing damage to our hearts.

We would ask heavenly father that you got indirect us in this passage tonight that we might know how to deal with a heart that is filled with condemnation not realize the enemy that we are up against an Lord, that we might be able to put on the whole armor of God, and deal with it. Got indirect history. This passage tonight Lord. May Jesus be exalted and lifted up his congregation beatified senior holy and precious name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine. Most Christians that I know have special place in their heart for that particular hymn. We love to feel secure and our relationship with God. We love to think about heaven and ponder what eternity will be like. We love to live our lives with freedom and freedom.

Men and boldness, knowing that if we God's okay because we belong the Lord he's gonna work in our heart, he saved us for all of eternity.

We are in his hand in and no one can pluck us out of his hand. We belong to him. He is promised never to leave us nor forsake us. Our salvation is sure and had glorious that is that we don't have to fear disease. We don't have to fear demons or disaster or destruction or death. We belong to him. We are safe in our salvation.

Hallelujah. Perfect submission always at rest. I and my Savior am happy and blessed watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love at all make a Presbyterian shout the old Puritan Thomas Brooks called assurance the suburbs of Paradise.

I like that the apostle John is an experienced pastor didn't fall off the turnip truck when they brought them into emphasis to to begin to preach he was a man who had much done spiritual knowledge. He was not spiritually naïve in any way. He knows the human heart and he knows their people in this congregation who have very tender consciences, and they can be easily devastated through false guilt. John is been laying out the distinguishing marks of a true believer. He's been teaching us all the way through this epistle on how to know that you're a believer in and how to trust in God is and how to live your life as a cot believer in the last distinguishing mark that we looked at was the distinguishing mark of love and he is trying to help us here and he is said that if you see a man who is in need and he is hungry and you have the supplies and the wherewithal to help that man you won't do it. Then he says, how can the love of God be in you and John knows that there will be true Christians who read this portion of his letter and become so sensitive and so tender in their conscience that they will immediately began to feel just condemnation and they will immediately begin to doubt their salvation.

They'll say there are thousands of people in this town that are hungry and and I haven't help them. Maybe that means that I'm not truly saved and maybe you think that generally happen as a pastor, let me assure you that happens I had a lady in my first church that I pastored and craved more is a wonderful lady love the Lord she was in church every time the doors were open. She studied the word of God.

She was a lady of prayer. She had publicly professed her face. She had been baptized. She was a lady who had a servant's heart. She gave took food to those that were hungry.

She gave to the Lord's work.

She was not duplicitous she was not. She was not living a double life, but her conscience was his tender is it could be. I could preach a sermon on the spiritual gifts and she feel guilty because she didn't have them all but but she came to my office one day and she said Doug I'm just scared and I so what are you afraid of. She said I'm afraid that when I was a child I might have blasting the Holy Spirit. And that's the unforgivable sin. She said I'm afraid that maybe I've been this season.

I'm not truly say that all I spent weeks with this lady trying to explain to her what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was antacid look. If you have blasting the Holy Spirit, you would have rejected Christ and you would not be fretting about your salvation.

I think you'd be so hard that you wouldn't care about your salvation, you'd be mocking the Lord and mocking God's people. That's if anybody has not committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit achieve acidity trusting Christ as your Lord and Savior. She said yes I said if you repented of your sin. She said yes I said you believe that he is made out of you a new creation were old things are passed away and behold all things are become new. She said yes I said when you see him does it hurt your heart bother you.

She said oh yes and I said you enjoy fellowship and with God's people and just like being around the people of God and enjoy worshiping with them.

She said all more than anything. If anybody had the distinguishing marks of a believer. This lady had it, but her conscience was so overly sensitive that she lived under a spirit of condemnation. Finally, the grace of God gave her light and gave her understanding and that burden was just lifted off of her. She became one the most joyful Christians that I've ever known fact I begin to use joist that's her name, I begin to use her as a resource for me when somebody was wrongly doubting their salvation on your symptoms or to Joyce and let her talk to them and she was always a tremendous tremendous help. So with all that said, I want to share four points with unite and number one is dealing with the condemned heart dealing with the condemned heart. Look at verse 24 of our heart condemns us. God is greater than our heart and knows everything. I believe that the apostle John is speaking to us here out of a pastor's heart, and he's trying desperately to help us other people at tender, sensitive consciences in the church not to fall under a spirit of condemnation.

Romans chapter 8 verse one says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus in the life of a Christian we should experience conviction but not condemnation. If you are experiencing condemnation as a Christian then rest assured that condemnation is not coming from God. It is coming from Satan is coming from Satan. Satan condemns us in order to make us give up and quit God on the other hand, convicts us and it's with the exact opposite purpose. He convicts us in order to bring us to repentance and to bring us in the right fellowship with God and to give us hunger in our heart to persevere in the face less. I miss my guess there might be people in this very room tonight that I have just stopped growing as Christians. Your life is not bringing glory and you just kind of settled on being miserable and think that's just the way it's gotta be. Why is that, well it it may be that there is been some type of failure in your life, and might've been a big failure might've been a moral lapse. It might've been a divorce. It might've been a situation where you cheated on an important test. Whatever it is, if you feel a sense of condemnation on you that you just given up hope and you can rest assured that is Satan. It is brought that on you in the verse that you need to stand on that one I just mentioned. Romans chapter 8 verse one there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. God doesn't continue your his child. And if you're his child. When you do something that's wrong, you're out of fellowship with him, he will convict you and that hurts. He'll spank you heal discipline you. He will chasten you. He will do whatever he has to do to get you back in line with his will and get you back into sweet fellowship with him, but he will not condemn you not been your pastor for a long time and you know I'm not soft on sin. And I don't consider myself a compromising preacher, but this I don't do note, we are Christians, but were not Christ, and we all have a tendency to fall and first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13, Paul said, for there is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful. He will not permit you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation provide a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. You know what the verse before that says the verse before that verse 12 says let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. I talked to an elderly pastor before I went in the ministry and I said to him I might be wrong but it seems to me like younger pastors preach harder on sin than older pastors do acid is that right. He thought for a minute and he said that very well may, but may be right that younger pastors preach harder on sin than than older pastor divisively why would it be that way. He said because older pastors have lived a lot longer and they probably fouled up a whole lot more. He was right in that and he went on to say that older pastors have seen godly people who have made mistakes in their life and and and CN then done wrong things and is brought just great harm to them and great harm to others is that if older preachers are wise and they will look at sinners with pity instead of with condemnation.

Realizing this truth except for the grace of God that could be me. He said to me, Doug.

The older I get, the more I realize how desperate I am for God's grace that doesn't make me soft on sin.

It makes me needy for Christ and he was exactly right. And I needed to hear that reviewed it was very helpful to me read you what Sam Gordon said about this verse John is teaching us that God is greater in the sense that he is able to be more merciful with our failures. Even then we are. He said this, some of us know from personal experience and we all know from observation that a person with a sensitive conscience and a tender heart has a hard job forgiven himself. Such people tend to magnify failure and blow it up while all out of proportion when they found themselves in such a blur. They are inclined to skewer the positive and upbeat aspects of their lives. What we need to remember is this God sees everything in perfect perspective. He sees the entire situation in sharp focus.

If that is the proper way to understand the text. And I think it is, then God's greatness is not seen as a threat to us. It is a source of enormous consolation and comfort. It means our God is able to overrule all our anxious doubts he knows us is an awful lot better than we think we know our sales.

These words are therefore not an indictment against us with a source of tremendous reassurance for us art that takes us to the second point, striving for confidence with God. Verse 21 beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

What is it that steels are our boldness for men, and our confidence before God. Most often it's guilt I'm living in duplicity, saying one thing and then do another RR and I feel guilty about that.

I worry that getting called I worry about God's discipline in my life because of this, and I lose my joy, I lose my confidence with God. We have to strive to have a heart that doesn't condemn us. How can we develop a heart that doesn't condemn us number one by developing a clear clean conscience. How do you do that how you develop a pure clean conscience will imitate what you don't do.

You don't make a vow that you're not going sin again because you make a vow that you're not going to see him again.

You're gonna sin again and then you're going to feel guilty about that but you make a commitment to Christ to put on the whole armor of God, and to be a soldier that will fight sin to keep a clear conscience is not to be without sin, but it is to live in us in a state of perpetual repentance and to keep short accounts. First John chapter 1 verse nine is one that we looked at such an important verse.

It says the us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The quicker the time. From the moment that you commit a sin to the moment that you confess it and repent of it.

The clear your conscience is going to be if you gotten angry at a fellow worker said something sharp and ugly to that fellow worker then is soon as the Lord convicts you of that. It should be soon, then you immediately go to that person. Don't wait for a week to go to that person to deal with it. You got him immediately and asked for forgiveness and telling that you were wrong. You need to confess it to God. Don't wait until you go to bed that night. Say your prayers to confess it, confess it as soon as possible. Keep short accounts. Robert Candler said it will when he said I cannot look my God in the face if I can't look myself in the mirror like .3 answered prayer is a key to assurance verse 22 and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him confidence before God is fundamental and having a decent prayer life. I love Hebrews 4, verse 15 through 16 it says see and that we have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet was without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of me.

I don't know about you but I need to focus on the father child relationship in prayer. I need to always keep that in my mind that God is my father that I'm his child imitate Watts helpful to me and I know that this is not true of a beat.

Maybe all of you, but it was true in my life. My dad was a great dad and and when I had a need in my life and I would go towing and telling him about that need he would do whatever he had to do to meet that need not. I'm not saying he tried everything you do to make to meet all my wants. But if it was a genuine need. He would do everything he could to meet it and I knew he was that way the under grocery store when I was a kid and he had to work 7075 hours every single week. Now it not because he loved money, but that's what it took to make a living. I can't ever remember my dad buying anything for himself except food always, it was us first.

Always. I don't mean these folders because he didn't but he went out of his way to meet his needs. I think because I had that kind of dad, it makes it easier for me to understand the kind of God that we have a God who loves us God who desires truly desires to meet our needs in prayer. We need to see God. His father, and we need to say God is big. What I mean by that I mean capable of doing all things. Not long ago was praying is praying for a lost man in this particular man was hard as a rock. He he was cynical he thought he knew everything he was stubborn he was hard to deal with and I remember praying for them and I said, Lord, if you can would you deal with this man's hard and trawling to your sale and all of a sudden it hit me what I said if you can. If you can.

This is a God who said, let there be light and there was light.

This is a God he spoke the word and created the world in a split second of time. This is the God who took King Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the greatest thing on the face of the earth and just turned his mind into mush until he went out into the field and ate grass in the field like a goat.

Then he came to realize who God truly was.

This is the God who converted who converted Saul of Tarsus, a rabbi, a Jewish Pharisee who is as hardheaded as any man that ever lived in one meeting with Jesus and he turned him into the apostle Paul, a man who wrote half the New Testament, a man who planted churches all over the Middle East. A man who who was decapitated because he would not quit preaching the gospel and I prayed to this God. And I said if you can, I had to repent. Listen to these words from Sam Gordon concerning how we need to view this God that we are praying to. Here's a God who can do anything but fail. Here's a God who never disappoints us here is a God, he was able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Here's a God whose resources are unfathomable. Here's a God whose reservoir is never in danger of drying up. Here's a God who desperately wants to help us. Here's a God, he passionately longs to intervene on our behalf. Here's a God who loves to come alongside his people and show them the way forward.

Here's a God who is losing with kindness and his generosity. We cannot comprehend. Here's a God he finds endless delight pleasure and satisfaction in answering the prayers of his children. Nephew allowed Satan to permit your heart with condemnation. Then you will not believe what I just read if you pray at all. It will not be praying with boldness and will be praying with hesitation and intimidation was his first name and it is this verse mean that all prayed I'll give anything that I won't. Is this one of those verses that they up that the name it, claimant blabbing, grab a crown use. Oh if you just want anything all you gotta do is just ask God to give you whatever you want no matter how wrong it might be brothers and sisters. If we live in an obedient support keeping his commandments before doing those things that are pleasing the Lord.

We are in his wheel and if you're in his wheel. Guess what you pray for you. Pray for his wheel to be done. One bottle expositor said it this way, God is not a mechanical blessing dispenser who calls out the goodies. Every time we insert the appropriate prayer coin is a father and he answers our request in a way analogous to that in which any parent listens to and responds to his children. If you've never read a biography of George Buehler. I would just encourage you to do that. George Mueller was man lived back in the mid-1850s. He started orphanages in Bristol, England, and he was a man who took care of literally thousands of orphans.

He had this life purpose that he would glorify God through the care provision and protection of orphans and this was his his life goal. He prayed this way. He said I will never make my needs known to any human source I will only make my needs known to God. Then when God answers the prayer God will be glorified and not any human being and he stuck to that all the way through his ministry.

How many televangelist have that kind of a conviction not many we share with you. George Miller's Mueller story. One particular week, the orphanage ran out of food. He knew that the next morning when I got up they would have nothing for breakfast. He got on his face before God began to cry out to the Lord to take care of the food need for those orphans say just went right to sleep after that, he was awake and the next morning very early on, knock on the front door. He went to the front door there was a lady there with a cart that was filled with plum cakes and she said the Lord led me to just give these plum cakes to the orphanage. Do you need them and he said oh boy do we need them. Thank you and he took them. It was wholesome food it was enough food to take care of their needs for the next several days soon as he shut the door just a few minutes later another man showed up at the door and the man said this or you, George Mueller said yes. Is this the orphanage he said yes. He said the Lord laid on my heart to give you some money that I was going to bring it tonight but when you read you what he said I could not go any further, and I felt constrained to come back to the house and he handed Mueller enough money for another couple days of food and Mueller said, my eyes look not to the empty purse into the empty shales but to the riches of the Lord only the fourth point is reminder to love with verse 23 and this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us the command to love is written in a continuous tense.

If you have believed in that word is a once and done tense, then you will love and that's not in a once and done tense is in a continuous tense John is telling us that genuine love walks hand in hand with faith. So what if you have people in your life that you hate people that have hurt you and damaged your heart. I mean real hurts made. Maybe it was a military commander, the commanded your son to go out on a very dangerous mission and your son went out on that mission, was obedient to that commander, and he was killed in that mission.

What about a drunk driver who ran into your wife's car named her and mangled her.

What about us fails who cheated on you walked out of your life and broke your heart. What about an employee a fellow employee of yours that a lot of that you and got you fired. Does God expect you to love these people and forgive them. Yes, yes, God expects us to love those people and forgive them. That doesn't mean that we are to like what they have done that doesn't mean that but we are commanded to love our enemies as well as our friends. I'm not talking here about leniency and injustice. Murderers ought to die for the murder that they commit drunk driver should thin time in prison right this should pay dearly for their crime with their need for punishment does not free us from responsibility to forgive the sermon on the Mount Matthew 615 Jesus said, but if you will not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive you your trespasses.

A true child of God has no recourse but to give friends and enemies. If you won't do that, then you have reason to doubt your salvation. The black pastor that pastored up in Detroit Michigan. I heard a pastors conference probably back in mid 70s and is name is Frederick Sampson and in that particular preaching time for him.

He shared part of his testimony he grew up in Alabama and he said that that one day he and his family were in their house and they mom and dad were not there is only a grandma was there watching over them. Is it all of a sudden they heard horse horse horse beats out on the hoof beats out on the front yard and said they open the door and when they did they saw a KKK mob and said this, the man jumped down off their horses. They ran into the house and said they grabbed his 15-year-old brother and they drug them out of the RM to the yard and they shot him in the leg said.

Then they tied his leg to one of the horses and said there is only one adult there. The grandmother she tried to stop it in and she couldn't I just pushed her down and one of the guys said toward this boy. This boy molested one of our daughters and he's gonna pay for it and I get the horse and the horse took off down the road and the boy was tied back behind the horse and his body began to just bounce back and forth on those cobblestones 1/2 hour later they brought the boy back. His body was mangled. His skull was crushed is bleeding profusely, and they cut the rope.

They looked over the grandmother said were sorry we got the wrong boy and I rode off.

She took the boy she put his head in her lap and she sat there and she wept and she prayed until he breathed his last breath and died right there in her arms.

Frederick Sampson said he had never been that angry before or since the they never felt that kind of hatred before sense. Hey, he said that he hated the whole white community for what those men had done is that the next day his grandmother came home from doing the work at cooking and cleaning for white family that she worked for and when he came she came into the door. He looked at her he was angry and he said grandmama.

How could you do that after what those men did last night. Tommy GC said I don't understand it, he said, wanting you take one of their little babies and just and just put them under the water in the bathtub and kill one of their babies and get them back or what wanting you just poison their food.

When you do something to them to get some revenge and she took Amy was just a little guy about six or seven years old. She picked him up. She put them on her lap and she said did you see the anger in the hatred that those men had in their hearts said yes ma'am. He said you think she said you think he though those men had any joy do you think they know the Lord Jesus did.

Do you think that that they were happy and what they did that, it made them feel something special and he said no man she said I want you to know that if you hold the kind of hatred and anger and bitterness that they had in their heart that when you grow up you will be just like them. She said you don't blame a whole race of people for what some hateful people do. Frederick Sampson said that he looked at his grandmother and he said the, the countenance of his grandmother was so field with the Holy Spirit of God that all he could do was weep and he looked at her because she had asked him the question.

Do you want to be like them. He stopped. He thought about that and he said grandmama I will be like them.

I will be like you, she reached up on the shelf. She took the bottle out.

She sat down with the Scriptures in her hand and she went to a gospel presentation and that night in that house.

Frederick Sampson is a six or seven-year-old boy trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior God call that man to preach and will be honest with you I don't know of any preacher that I've ever heard. With more power and more anointing and more unction than that man had. He was weeping through that message is he shared that testimony puts God's love through God's people will change the world. Can you forgive the love of Jesus is there, if it is, you can and you will and your insurance will grow in Satan's attempt to condemn your heart will never work for God is greater that our heart is pray. Heavenly father, we thank you and praise you for the precious truth is that we have just seen in the Scripture we pray heavenly father that she would help us, that we might rejoice over these truths that they might become solid and real in our hearts solidified is is truth, not just in general, but truth for us personally.

Help us heavenly father that we might strive to put on the whole armor of God to be serious each day about fighting sin help us heavenly father that we might realize that when we feel condemned is an attack from Satan. If we convict feel convicted is the love of God.

Lord help us that we might see the difference that we might respond correctly and it's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen