The Spirit Makes His Presence Known

Transcript

GR 1101
3/6/1983

1 John 4:13-21
Gil Rugh

The Book of I John in your Bibles. I John and the fourth chapter. Come to the closing half of chapter 4 in our study this evening and remember through the first epistle of John, John has been unfolding the characteristics of those Who belong to God versus those Who do not belong to God so that the evidence is given on how you can know that a person is a child of God. How you can have assurance that you are a child of God. How you can recognize a child of God. He children of God will manifest God's character has been the thrust and an emphases.

Now we came in the verses we looked at last week as we came into the middle of the fourth chapter. Down in verse 7, "Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and loves God. He one who does not love does not know God for God is love." So one of the key tests that has reappeared through the epistle of John is love manifested for other believers. So if you love your brother, you profess to be a believer, do you love those who are believers? And this word "love", you remember, the word "agape" it denotes action, doing that which is the best for someone else. Not necessarily having strong feelings for them, emotional kind of attachment to them. But you are willing to do what is best for them. So it is an action love. It is a love that you choose to demonstrate and to show. He great manifestation of love is God's love for us. That was in chapter 3 and now down in verse 9 of chapter 4. "By this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the satisfaction, for our sins. So here is love demonstrated. What did God do? He sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins, to be the propitiation. Word that means to satisfy. He satisfied the righteous demands of God. God's righteousness demanded that the penalty for sin be paid. Jesus Christ came and paid the penalty. God in love provided His Son. So you see this love does something. He met the need that we have at His own cost. So the application in verse 11, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." And you note, to love one another.

"No one has beheld God at any time. If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us." So the point in verse 12. "No one has beheld God at any time." You manifest the presence of God in your life by the love that you demonstrate because God is seen to be the source of love. It's Him producing love in us. So the fact that you don't see Him means that you can't look and see and touch but you can know He's there by your action. So you see God in my life and the presence of God here by the love that I demonstrate for fellow believers and that's true for each one of us. Now in verse 13, he picks up the theme of God abides in us. His love is perfected in us. And you see there is almost a series of circles. In fact some
Commentators develop the first epistle of John this way. A series of circles that move along and you keep cycling around and picking up the same ideas and adding to them. So what he's going to do now is talk about abiding and in that abiding he'll come back and talk about love and what he's really going to do is talk about God abiding in us in verses 13 to 16 and then God's love being perfected in us in verses 17 to 21. So you see both sides being emphasized. God abiding in us and God's love being perfected in us. And both key to what he is developing and one depends upon the other.

Verse 12 again. "No man has beheld God at any time. If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected." Has been perfected. Brought to completion in us. The intention of God's love in us is that we be loving one another as we should and so it is brought to the goal that God intends. "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit." So you see he continues the circle but he moves along to a new area. He has talked about abiding but he doesn't just go full circle so you're going around like this. That we know God abides in us because we love one another We love one another because God abides in us. But he carries it on a step further We know God abides in us. The demonstration He gives is the Spirit who indwells us. That's the evidence that we have in verse 13. "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us." Now I have stressed this repeatedly. I am going to stress it again. It is a mutual abiding and that's crucial. We abide in Him and He in us. Now I take it there's no such thing as God abiding in a Christian, but a Christian not abiding in God. It's a mutual abiding. We know that we abide in Him and that He abides in us. The concrete tangible evidence that is given is the presence of the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God is present in your life you abide in God and He abides in you. If you don't abide in God, God does not abide in you and the Spirit does not abide in you, dwell in you. The sum total of that is you're not a child of God. You're not a believer.

The presence of the Spirit at the end of verse 13 is the evidence that we abide. So he has moved us along again and repeating though what he has talked about earlier in the book. The Spirit of God indwells those who are the children of God.

Back in verse 24 of chapter 3. "The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in him and we know by this that He abides in us. By the Spirit which He has given us." So the presence of the Spirit of God is the evidence of God's presence in our life. And it is the Spirit of God who is the focal point in the abiding. He is the one who works actively in our lives to manifest His presence by His control and motivation in our life and so on.

Now, the presence of the Spirit is manifested in several ways. We have already seen back in verse 2 of chapter4. "By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. So acknowledgement of the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God's Son come in the flesh. That's an evidence of the Spirit being in your life. He manifests His presence by your understanding and acknowledgement of the Person of Christ. He manifests His presence by producing love and this is in the whole context here and we'll be returning to this in the subsequent verses. The fact that you do have love. Remember we talked about this. This is not a love that you produce yourself. You'll note we say it's a love which is an action, a decision of the will. It is motivated and produced by the Spirit of God.

Galatians chapter 5. The fruit of the Spirit is love. He produces that love that causes you to act accordingly with other believers. That's why it can be indisputable evidence of salvation. It is a manifestation of the Spirit's presence. So the very fact that He is present means He will produce this in the life. Now it's also true that every spirit, every person, who is a believer is indwelt by the Spirit. Come back to Romans chapter 8 again. Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8:9. "However, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him." Now you see how final this is. Now remember we know that we abide in Him and He abides in us by the Spirit He has given us. The presence of the Spirit in the life is God's evidence to us of a mutual abiding. Now Romans 8:9 says if you don't have the Spirit you don't belong to God. So obviously you don't abide in Him and He doesn't abide in you.

Down in verse 16 of Romans 8. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also, and so forth. So you see it's the Spirit testifying to us. It's a supernatural work the Spirit does in our life to confirm our relationship. Now important here. The Spirit confirms this in the context of the Word. You have to be careful that the Spirit confirms this relationship in the context of the Scripture. Some Christians get into trouble because they try to have the Spirit carrying on this ministry apart from the Word and it becomes very subjective because they are cast upon their feeling and they depend on their feelings to tell them what the Spirit is telling them. The Spirit works in light of the Word and gives you the confidence and assurance and so on.

All right come back to I John. Chapter 4. "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit and we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. John beheld and testified. He saw Christ. He experienced the life of Christ. He saw Christ live His life and all the way to the cross and so on. Now he is bearing witness, testifying to what he has seen. He talked about this in the opening verses of his letter. I am testifying to what I have seen that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. This is the same expression, Savior of the world, that was used by the Samaritans in John's gospel, chapter 4:42 where they told the Samaritan woman that after hearing Christ, now they have beheld and heard and they know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. They had come to that conclusion by their personal observation and experience with Christ during His earthly ministry. John said he has come to the same conclusion. This is the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. This verse is based upon verse 14. He is the Savior of the world. Therefore, if He is the Savior of the world, your salvation depends upon your relationship to Him. So, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. Remember that word "confess". Whoever agrees about Jesus Christ abides. So what is the condition for abiding? It is not leading an exemplary Christian life, although we should. It is not a matter of doing something different as a Christian. It's a matter of agreeing with God about Jesus Christ, confessing, agreeing, that Jesus is the Son of God. That means God abides in you and you in God. And again, the person and work of Christ are inseparably linked as we have seen through this section. He is the Savior of the world so if you believe He is the Son of God, those concepts, are inseparable. You must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Because if He is not the Son of God, He cannot be the Savior of the world. So the person and work of Christ are inseparably linked together. A person who denies the Deity of Christ also denies the sufficiency of His death to be Savior of the world. Because a simple human being could not pay the penalty for the sin of mankind. Even if that human being was perfect in every way. One perfect human being could pay the sin, the penalty for one sinful human being.

So the person of Christ is Deity as well as humanity. It is inseparably linked to His work as Savior providing salvation.

All right. This word "confession" we have emphasized in John appears one, two, three, four times. I take it the emphases and stress is on agreeing with God about something. I take it it's always in the context of salvation.

Refresh your mind if you will, with me. Back in chapter 4 verses 2 and 3.
"By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. You see again the issue there in those two verses. Agreeing with God about His Son, Jesus Christ.

Back in chapter 2 verse 23. "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. The one who confesses the Son has the Father." See your attitude towards Jesus Christ determines your relationship with God the Father. Again, in a salvation context. The one who confesses the Son has the Father. If you are one who agrees with God about His Son, you are one who is in a relationship with God.

Back in chapter 1, verse 9. Perhaps the best known verse. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You must agree with God about sin. You must agree with God about Jesus Christ and apart from that agreement, there is no salvation. If you do not agree with God that you are a sinner, you cannot be saved. That's foundational. If you do not agree with God about Jesus Christ you cannot be saved. So you must agree with God that you are a sinner and that His Son Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sin by dying on a cross. And you come into agreement with Him about those facts, that's when you're saved. That's faith— saving faith.

All right. Come back to chapter 4. And we read verse 2 of chapter 4. That would indicate that the statement in verse 15 that whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. That's a ministry of the spirit of God to bring that about and the reason you have come to that perception and that understanding is because the Spirit of God enlightened your mind and gave you that understanding. I take it you came into that the moment you believed in Christ but you didn't believe in Christ by your own effort and your own doing. It was because of the sovereign intervention of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life, convicting you of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. That He drew you to that point where He gave you that recognition and you believed in Jesus Christ. That's an evidence of the presence of the Spirit in the life and of His ministry.

Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 where if we confess with the mouth and believe in the heart concerning Jesus Christ, we will be saved. Confess with the mouth, believe in the heart, the two are linked together there. The acknowledgement, the agreement which flows out of faith. So I say that faith and confession as I see it are joined together and become synonymous expressions. The confession with the mouth and the believing in the heart are saying the same thing because the agreement concerning Christ is to flow out of faith in the heart and does if there's true understanding there. It's—this is my understanding of Jesus' statement— whoever confesses Me before men, I will confess before My Father in heaven, who is in heaven. Whoever denies Me before men I will deny before My Father who is in heaven. In other words, you must come to agree with God about Jesus Christ in this life on earth. Those who do will be owned by Christ in heaven. Those who do not will be denied by Him.

All right. Back in I John 4:16. "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us." You see what he has talked about. He has talked about the abiding relationship, the evidence of abiding, the Spirit of God dwelling in us. The evidence of the Spirit of God dwelling in us, the love that is produced and our understanding and acknowledgement concerning the Person and work of Jesus Christ. You know that a person has the Spirit of God dwelling in them when they recognize who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. You know that a person has the Spirit of God dwelling ±1 them when you see the manifestation of His presence through the demonstration of love for fellow Christians.

So verse 16. "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him." Okay. We have come to know and have believed. I take it knowledge and faith are linked together. And that's important. We have come to know and have believed. There are many people who have faith but it's not connected to biblical knowledge. That's not saving faith. You must know certain truths. That's why Romans chapter 10 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God because saving faith can only be present in the context of the Word of God. Unless a person hears that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for their sin, they cannot believe and be saved. Now they can have faith, but salvation is only a result of faith placed in the finished work of Christ because faith is something we all have in different ways and in different things. So important emphasis here. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us and that love was talked about back in verses 8 and 9. That love which was demonstrated in the giving of the Son of God to pay the penalty for sin. We have believed the love which God has for us. What do I mean? I believed the love that God has for me? I believed in His Son Jesus Christ because that's His love.

Verse 9. "By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him." then you say a person has come to believe the love of God, the love which God has for us, you're saying he has come to believe in Jesus Christ. I realize there are many religious people today who say they believe in God and they talk about the love of God. The demonstration if they have any understanding of the love of God is— do they believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's the stress here.

We have cane to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love. Now we talked about this statement up in verse 8. The one who does not love does not know God for God is love. We noted neither grammatically nor theologically can the statement be reversed. You cannot say love is God. Grammatically that's just not correct. It just doesn't say that. That's not what the text here says. God is love but you cannot say love is God. You know why you cannot say love is God? Because there is more to God than love. Love is one of His characteristics or attributes but it is not all of them because God is also righteous. God is holy and so forth. So love is one aspect of His character but it is not everything about God. More could be said about that. There are other examples of that. That's why you can say Jesus Christ is God. But not God is Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is God but the Holy Spirit is God and the Father is God. That's why you have John 1:1 worded the way it is, expressed the way it is, to mark that distinction, lest you believe that Jesus Christ is all there is to God. No, the Holy Spirit is God and the Father is God. So God is very precise. God is love. This is His—love is part of His basic character, His basic nature.

All right. The one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. You see the only source of true love is God. That's crucial. The only source of true love is God. Now there is distorted kinds of love. There's even a wrong kind of agape love where we attach value to the things of this world. We saw that in I John 2. But the only source of true love is God. Now if God is love, the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. You see he has drawn same parallels and now shows how they tie together. If I'm abiding in love and God is love, then I'm abiding in God when I'm abiding in love. That's why love is a demonstration of a relationship with God. Love is a demonstration that God abides in me. It's a manifestation of His character. It is abnormal, humanly speaking. It is supernatural to have this kind of love for fellow Christians, other believers. It is a demonstration of God's presence in us.

Read that last statement again. "The one who abides in love abides in God. God abides in him. You see he keeps stressing both are time. I abide in God. God abides in me. Love is the outcome. How can I claim to be a child of God living in a relationship with God, having God indwelling me, and you have no love for fellow Christians. Something is wrong. The evidence of the Spirit's presence is the manifestation of the character of God and if you don't have love, then you don't belong to God because you could not abide in that relationship and not have love. That's a strong statement. Yet it's what John says.

Verse 17. "By this love is perfected with us that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as He is so are we also in this world." The connection here "by this". By what he has just said. Our being in God and God being in us results in our being perfected in love. Now this being perfected in love.

Look up in verse 12. The last statement. "If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. Same expression. Same tense. Perfect tense. Love has been perfected in us. Something happened in the past and it continues in the present. That's the stress down in verse 17. By this love is perfected or has been perfected in us. God's love produced in us when He comes to take up residence and it continues its manifestation. So it's by this mutual abiding that this love is accomplished so it's true for us because of that.

That we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Now the reason for -this perfecting of love is that we might have confidence, boldness, assurance in the day of judgment. Now that's an interesting concept that we would have confidence in the day of judgment.

Look back in chapter 2 verse 28. In 2:28 "Little children abide in Him." Where we noted a statement of fact. Little children you abide in Him. The reason you abide in Him is so that when He appears we may have confidence. There's our word. And not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

We noted in chapter 2:28 that when Christ comes those who don't abide in Him will be put away from Him in shame. "Depart from Me, ye cursed. I never knew you." They are put away from Him in shame. Those who do abide in Him will have confidence.

Now back in chapter 4 I take it it's the same idea. Love is perfected or has been perfected in us that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as He is so also are we in the world. The character of God is produced in us. That gives us an identification with Him, a belonging to Him, if you will. An evidence of our belonging which gives us confidence as we anticipate judgment. But I am confident that I will stand uncondemned in the presence of Christ on the day of judgment because His character is being produced in my life. His love is being produced in my life. Not perfectly. We talked about this in Philippians 3.
That's a tragedy. It ought to be produced perfectly. There's no reason it should not be because the Spirit of God who indwells me is able to produce it perfectly but I resist His accomplishing His purposes perfectly. Nonetheless I have confidence. It is there. I am fully assured when I stand in the day of judgment I will be uncondemned because I am a child of God in an abiding relationship with God.

Look over in John 17 . chapter 17. Verse 22. "And the glory which you have given Me [Christ speaking to the Father] ..the glory which you have given to Me I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one." You note that identification. That we might be one as they are one. Let's enter into that relationship of oneness. So that the end of verse 17 of John 4 says "So also are we in the world because as He is so also are we in this world." John 17:22 says "the glory which you have given to Me I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one." So we are as Christ and the Father. We are in a relationship of oneness. We are in a relationship of mutual abiding. We abide in Him. He abides in us. We are one as Christ and the Father was one. So we have full confidence regarding seeing Jesus Christ and standing before God.

Come back to I John 4. Now as a dimension here. Verse 18. "There is no fear in love. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love. No fear in love. No fear of punishment. This is a different word than the word for a godly fear or reverence that is used for instance in the Book of Hebrews so often. Here the word indicates punishment. It's only used one other time in the New Testament.

Turn over to Matthew 25:46 Matthew 25:46. Those who are going to be put away from Him in shame at His coming in verse 45. Then He will answer them and say, "Truly I say to you, that to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. You did not do it to one of the least of these. You did not do it to Me and these will go away into eternal punishment." There's the only other use of this word "punishment" that we have in I John. So the righteous into eternal life. It has to do with the destiny of the unbelievers. Now we have no fear of this.

Come back then to I John 4. When he says we have, there is no fear in love because perfect love casts out fear and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We don't fear punishment. I don't fear eternity in hell. I don't fear being condemned by God. His love has been perfected in us. It has worked in us and as a result of that it will work through us. There is chastening for us as God's children. There is the correcting process that goes on but there is no condemnation. So we have a little misunderstanding the way we use the word "punishment." We say we are punishing our children, but we don't have an electric chair in our house. We don't have a gas chamber. So when we talk about punishing our children, we are talking about in the context of correcting or chastening, different than like when you talk about the punishment when someone is going to endure capital punishment. Now that's the distinction here. God chastens us to correct our behavior. But I have no fear of being condemned by Him and sentenced to hell. His love has been perfected in us.

Now he goes on to develop this. The one who fears is not perfected in love. Has not been perfected. Again, this word is in the perfect tense. The word "perfect" in the perfect tense—has not been perfected. He has not been perfected in love in the past. The result being, he is not perfected in love now. He has not come into this relationship of love with God so he does have fear and psychologists say that the universal fear among mankind is the fear of death and often connected with that is the recognition that there is something beyond death. Fear of punishment. The fear of standing before God. And some say, Oh, I'm not afraid. They cover it by avoiding it and not thinking about it. But the distinction between a believer and an unbeliever. We understand there is a heaven we understand there is a hell. I understand that those who do not believe in Christ are going to spend eternity in hell, but I have no fear about it, no worries. It doesn't burden me at all. God's love has been perfected. So those who are not perfected in love are not believers so they have a fear of punishment. That's a good verse on eternal security, incidentally. That you don't have to worry as a believer because of God's work in your life. Because of His work of love in your life out of which flows your love for other believers. You can have complete confidence. I don't have to be afraid—what if I lose my salvation? Then I'd have to be afraid of being punished and going to hell but there's no fear.

We love, verse 19, because He first loved us. And here he has given -the reason for our love. The motivation for our love. So you see the order is important. We love because God first loved us. So that's why our love for one another is a demonstration of God's work in our life. It starts with God who is love. He enters into a relationship with me when I come to trust in Christ, indwells me and produces His character which is love in me. So the fact that we do love one another. The fact that you love me is a supernatural phenomenon. Could only be because God first loved you and He first loved me and did the work of redemption necessary to bring us into that relationship. That's why in marriage even, in all our relationships, marriage—perhaps most obviously takes on a dimension that is not possible where we are talking about believers.

A believer has a dimension and capacity in this area that an unbeliever does not have and cannot have. If someone says, so we are going to draw some conclusions, if someone says, here's a claim. I love God and hates his brother. What are you going to do? I mean he claims to love God and you don't want to judge.
Judge not lest ye be judged. What does John say? Liar. That's a judgment. He has rendered a verdict. If someone says I love God and hates his brother, hates fellow Christians, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. Now that's interesting.
We have seen that up earlier, the fact that we haven't seen God. Verse 12. "No one has beheld God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected." What do you have? I see you as a fellow Christian. I see God dwelling in you. I've never seen God. You've never seen God. We see the evidence of God's presence in the lives of fellow believers. If I hate you, how can I say I love God. You are the one in whom and through whom God is manifesting Himself. You know what the people mean? They love their idea about God. They love the God they have created in their mind. They don't love the God of the Bible. That's why our relationships with one another as believers are so crucial and important because that is the evidence of our relationship with God. Isn't this what Jesus said in John 13? "By this shall all men know you are My disciples if you have love for one another." So here, the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. It's God's character. I'd say, well, I'd love you if you had more of God’s character. But you know we come up with excuses. The fact is if you are a believer and I look close enough I do see God's character. You know what I often do?

I focus on the areas of your life where God's character is not as clear as it ought to be. But that's not the excuse. The fact is even the Corinthians, carnal as they were, had evidences of God's character in their lives. Paul speaks to that and I take that's true of every believer here. We need to be careful about that focus on what we don't like in fellow Christians. We ought to be concentrating on what is desirable and beautiful and attractive as the character of God is produced in them. Then we'll become usable of God to help refine and bring to further maturity. That's the tragedy of the backbiting and the murmuring and the complaining in the church of Jesus Christ. Who are we attacking when we attack one another? Who are we tearing down when we tear down one another? What are we saying to one another? What are we saying to the world?
What are we saying before God? Something's drastically wrong and it's put strongly here. You cannot love God if you don't love fellow Christians and if you make that claim you're simply a liar. That's all because anybody can say anything but the demonstration is how it is lived out. And this commandment we have from Him that the one who loves God should love his brother. So we have a commandment from
Him. If you love God, you should love your brother. So they are inseparably joined together. Now this passage has been overwhelmingly simple and I have to admit as I study I John, think-boy, there's a lot of repetition here. You know if God wanted to abbreviate He could have maybe made one chapter and said all this once. But you know I need to hear it again.

We get confused. How do I know if a person's a believer? One of the constant criticisms is judging. You say people aren't Christians. Who are you to judge? God has already told us. Look. Read it, dummy. Not you, me. You know all I got to do is look. How do I know if a person's a Christian. Boy, what am I, what am I going to do? And he claims it and who am I to judge him. You're nobody but if God has already done it I can tell you what God says. If you claim to love God and don't love fellow Christians you're a liar. And if you're offended by that your problem is with God because that is what He has said. Liars do that. Now He has given us a commandment. If we love Him we are to love one another. Now that's simple and it's a commandment that He has empowered me to carry out. Why? Because He indwells me. The Spirit of God indwells me. I live in an abiding relationship with God. You know we don't grasp what that means. The eternal God dwells in me and I in Him. There is an inseparable union there. You need to realize when you wake up tomorrow morning, when you go about your tasks every moment of every day, it will be an inseparable union with God Himself. Joined together. Him in you. Everything you say. Everything you think. Everything you do will be done in a relationship inseparable with the eternal God. I don't tell Him to have a seat in one roan while I go off and do something. No. He's there. He indwells me. He is manifesting His presence. He desires to control me in every area of my thinking, in every area of my action and can you really believe that the eternal Almighty God can indwell a person? Live in a life and there be no difference in that person? What in the world kind of God are we talking about?

We have made God to be some shriveled up old man who has no abilities. That you can say the Almightly, eternal, all-powerful God indwells me, lives in me in this physical body but there are no evidences of course of His presence. They have borders on blasphemy. That's what John is saying. That is impossible and what you have when you have such a case, you have a liar. You have a person who claims to have a relationship with God, but who does not. Every time we get this harsh, harsh and hard, there are people who are going to come up and say, Wow, you know, I'm really wondering if I am saved. Well, all I can say is you better get in the Word. You can read it. Find out. If you are, the Spirit of God will bear testimony with your Spirit. Let me ask you. Have you believed what God said about your own sinful condition? Have you believed what God said about His Son Jesus Christ— that He as His Son, the God-man, died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. Do you really believe that? Are you trusting that alone for your salvation? Do you see the evidence of God working in your life? Then you're a child of God. Now you'll have to emphasize the positive. Look and see. Do you believe those things? Do you see Him working in your life?

We tend to focus on it. Say, oh, yeah, there is a Christian though I've really had a hard time with it. And to tell you the truth, they get under my skin. And to even be more truthful, I can't stand the sight of them. Well, you need to back up and say, now wait, do I generally love believers? Yes, well then maybe I better work on this situation. Maybe I better work on this. Maybe it's not a matter that I'm not a believer. Maybe it's a matter I'm unwilling to have God do in my life in regard to this fellow Christian what He wants to do.
So it's not bad to examine yourself. Examine yourself and see if you be in the faith.

Paul had to tell the Corinthians that for good reason. Good for us to examine yourself. But don't become so introspective that you're taking yourself apart piece by piece. You must allow the Spirit of God in light of the Word of God to give you that confidence and assurance. But isn't it exciting. You know that puts a new dimension in life. You know I'm going to get up tomorrow, face the day and God is going to be indwelling me and He is going indwelling me and I'm going to be living in Him in that union every place we go in everything we do, in every situation we confront, in every conversation we carry on, in every thought that passes through my mind. Boy, what an exciting thought. You know the power that is resident within me as a child of God. If I simply allow Him to have His way. God forbid that any of us are dragging around tomorrow saying, oh, I can't stand it. I hate to say that because I hate Mondays, I got to admit.
But God is with me on Mondays. He abides in me on Monday just as He does on Thursdays. Sometimes it's harder for Marilyn to see on Monday than Thursday. But He's still there and I need to remind myself of it and live like it and allow/ Him to have His way in it.

Let's pray together