Find Your Rest In God

It’s all too much. I’m not sure if I measure up, or if my faith is real. Ever had any of those thoughts? I remember when I was a student at Corban College, and I was studying so much and learning so much about Christianity, that at one point it was all too much. It was good stuff. But I was on intellectual overload. All that I was reading, studying and learning was beginning to overwhelm me, because when I looked at my life it didn’t measure up to all what a follower of Christ should be. And what I really needed right then was to have a seasoned Christian come along side and remind me that God’s got me covered. That I could rest in what God has already done for me and given me. That I didn’t have to worry about measuring up or getting it all right, because God in HIs grace to me in Jesus had already done that for me. I just needed that reassurance that I was ok, and to be reminded to find my security in God, to find my rest in God, and to stop trying to be perfect.

Well, we’ve come to a point in John’s letter, where John realizes that he’s been hitting us pretty hard about the essentials of the Christian faith: all this truth about what a genuine Christian believes and does – and he recognizes that not only can it be a bit overwhelming, but it can also leave us feeling a bit insecure in our faith, especially if we’re not doing all the things he’s been teaching us about. After all, when you look at what he’s been teaching us about God being light, the seriousness of sin, the need to live righteously, the need to abide – to stay closely connected to Jesus, and to love our brothers and sisters… it doesn’t take long to realize that when we start getting loaded down with all kinds of truth about things we need to be doing, that we can begin to forget about the grace of God. We can begin to feel overwhelmed, insecure, and even unsure if we are really saved since when we see how we’re not measuring up.

So, it’s at this point in John’s letter that he lets his pastoral heart take over for a bit, to remind us that even though these are the things that are meant to identify us as true followers of Jesus – the bottom line is that our security in Christ is not based on what we do, but on what God has done for us. So, as we come to our text today, John’s going to remind us of where our security, our rest is found. And it’s not in what we do, but on what God has already done. So, if you have your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open it to 1 John 3:19-24, where John encourages us to find our rest in God.

That’s why he begins this next portion of Scripture with a word of encouragement by saying: This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence. So, if you’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed, a bit of a failure, or even a bit insecure about your salvation, then let me encourage you to follow along as John reminds us of where you can find rest. So, let’s at verses 19-22. For it is here that he tells us to…

Find Your Rest in God’s Grace John begins by seeking to put our troubled hearts to rest. He tells us how to find assurance of our salvation and rest for our souls at the same time. He gets us to take our eyes off of ourselves and to put them onto God. He writes: This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. 1 John 3:19-20

When you are feeling weak in your faith; when your conscience is bothering you because you have sinned, or you’re not loving your brother; God’s Word instructs us to not trust those condemning feelings, but trust in God who is greater than your heart. God is not surprised when you sin. And God is not persuaded to stop loving you when you act unloving. So, the first thing we need to remember is what God’s Word says about your heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things; and desperately sick; who can understand it.” Zephaniah 17:9

In other words, your heart does not always align with your head. Your heart will at times condemn you, but God is greater than your heart. So, don’t listen to your heart. Listen to what Gods Word says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 God removed your condemnation when you trusted in Jesus. At that moment Jesus took away all your sins. Now, God sees you completely righteous in Christ. He will always see you that way. So, don’t trust your heart. Trust in the God who removed your condemnation.

Think of what God did when He removed your condemnation. Paul wrote: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things. Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (Romans 8:31-35).

The answer is nothing. Nothing can separate you from God’s love. Especially your heart. The misdirected feeling of your heart cannot separate you from God’s love. God is greater than your heart. This then, is how you find rest in God’s grace when you are feeling overwhelmed by guilt, insecure in your faith, or just doubting your salvation. Don’t listen to your heart, but trust that God is greater than your heart. For if God is for you, then there is nothing you can do that will make God love you more, and there is nothing you have done that can make God love you less. God’s heart if full of grace for you. And God does not change. So don’t let your heart condemn you. Instead, rest in God’s grace for you. For God is greater than your heart.

Not only that, He knows everything! When you said that harsh word to your sister, God knew it. When you put down your brother, God knew it. When you didn’t volunteer because that project was beneath you, God knew that too! When you could have helped a brother and turned a blind eye, God wasn’t blind to your actions. You see, God is not blind to any of our unloving actions. He knows everything. God knows every detail of every sin we ever make. But here’s the good news: in spite of knowing our every sin, God still forgives. And He will never stop forgiving those who are His.

So, yes, we are imperfect. And yes, we will blow it. In fact, when you fail to obey His command to love your brother, God is not be surprised. He knows everything we do. He knows everything YOU do. He knows every unloving word, every slanderous or critical word. He knows when your motives are selfish, when you hold malice in your heart, or when you lust, envy or covet. He knows everything about your flaws, your failures and your sins. But He no longer condemns you for them.

In fact, the good news of God’s grace is that He doesn’t have two lists of sin. He doesn’t have one list of minor sins that He looks at when you sin, and then says, I will forgive him for that one. And He doesn’t have another list that He looks at and says, “Oh well, Bob crossed the line with that one. You went too far this time. No forgiveness for you.”

No, God doesn’t have a rolling scale of forgiveness. So, His question to us this morning might be this: why do you? Why do you not forgive yourself? If God sees and knows every sin you do and is quick to forgive, why do you let your heart accuse you, condemn you? Why do you listen to your heart? God is greater than your heart. So, stop playing God. If God forgives you, forgive yourself! Listen again to God’s Word: This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.

God no longer condemns you. And He doesn’t want you walking around condemning yourself. Instead, God has removed your judgment, and in its place has given you acceptance. You are no longer an outsider, He’s made you family, and this reality assures you that you belong to the truth, that you belong to God. And when you rest in the knowledge of all God has given you, it does something in you. It gives you a confidence. A confidence not in yourself, but a confidence that comes from God. In fact, that’s what John writes next. He says, Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we keep His commands and do what pleases Him. 1 John 3:21-22

When we know that God knows everything about us, and still loves us, this creates a confidence in us that motivates us to come to God with anything. It fuels our love for Him. It builds our trust in Him. When we rest in God’s grace, we find ourselves in a place where we are completely forgiven and totally accepted by Him. His grace to us helps us know that there’s nothing that hinders us from coming to Him. For, now, in His presence, the is no fear of judgment, no worry of rejection. His presence is a place of total acceptance and love. His grace to us means that He knows everything about us but still loves us. And when His unconditional love for us sinks in; when you know that He knows the worst about you but accepts you fully – this does something inside you: It gives you a confidence to come before God and ask Him for anything.

It changes everything you thought you knew about prayer. Prayer is no longer be something you feel you ought to do because you are a Christian. It becomes something you get to do, because you get to come near the One who cleansed you by His mercy, and now loves you as His own. And it’s all because of God’s grace to you. And because of God’s great grace to you, He fills you with a confidence that you can come to Him and ask Him anything

So, here’s how God would have us respond to the grace that’s found in Him: Stop following your heart, and rest in God’s grace to you. Remember, God is greater than your heart!

Build your spiritual confidence, not on what you do, but on what God has done for you.

Rest in His forgiveness. And come confidently into His presence whenever you need His grace or mercy in your life.

Now, I’ve spent the majority of our time today emphasizing how much we need to rest in God’s grace rather than listen to our hearts. But John has more to say, so let’s look at a second way he teaches us to find rest in God, when you’re feeling out of sorts. In verses 23 and 24, John tells us to Find Your Rest in God’s Presence: We find our rest in God’s presence by obeying His commands. Here John boils down all God’s commands into two simple ones: And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us.1 John 3:23

Here is John’s irreducible minimum for Christian faith and experience. This verse provides both a summary of all his teaching and the point of his whole letter. The two central truths are here. God, who is light, has revealed Himself in the unchanging truth of His Word, written in the Scriptures, and revealed to us through the incarnation of the Son. Here alone is ultimate reality. The response that He requires from His revealed truth about His Son is belief. Believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to believe in the name of Jesus? Here he is not speaking of believing in Jesus as in making a personal form of commitment by trusting in him. He uses a Greek verb that asks us to believe something that is true, credible, real.

Dr. I. Howard Marshall explains this in his commentary saying, “There is a certain stress here on the thought of right belief: the readers are to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a stress that is demanded by the situation in which false beliefs about Jesus were prevalent. Belief in the name of Jesus means believing that His name contains power which it signifies, so that the question is not simply one of right belief, but of trust in the One who is the object of the Christian confession.”

This kind of belief in Jesus is more important today than ever. There are all kinds of teachers who love to use the name of Jesus in their teaching. But you have to listen closely to their teaching. Is the Jesus they teach divine? Is Jesus God who has come in the flesh? Did He live a sinless life? Did He offer up His life on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins? Did He defeat sin and death by rising from the dead? Cults like to use the name of Jesus in their teachings, but they often teach that he was just a prophet or a just a man, or good example, but not God. So, believing in the name of Jesus means believing in the Son of God, who was fully man and fully God, who lived a sinless life, offered His life to die for the sins of the world, then rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended to heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for you. So, yes, believing in Jesus is more than just praying a prayer. It’s believing in who He truly is, the Lord and Savior of your soul – the Son of God who gave His life for you to bring you to God.

But belief in Jesus is meant to be lived out. And the way our faith is to be lived out is by our love for one another. The God who loves us calls every believer to allow His love to flow into and through our lives. This is the love we unpacked last week that seeks the best for another regardless of the cost or consequences to ourselves. It is an unconditional and sacrificial love. And in this verse, the verb John uses is a continuous present tense, meaning that this love is the constantly expressed evidence of faith. In other words, faith and love must go together!

Now, what does belief in Jesus and expressing that belief in love have to do with finding rest in God’s presence? Well, this command to love one another is what Jesus commanded us. John is merely repeating what Jesus taught him and his fellow disciples in the upper room. In John 14:23, Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

This is the blessing of obeying Jesus’ command to love one another. When you obey this command, Jesus promises that the Father will love you, and both the Father and the Son will make their home in you. God the Father and God the Son will take up residence in you. When you obey God’s commands, you will experience God’s presence. That’s God’s promise. And that’s what John reveals to us in this passage: “The one who keeps God’s commands lives in Him, and He in them.” 1 John 3:24a

Then he tells us how God lives in us: And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us.” 1 John 3:24a When you believed in Jesus, God gave you His Spirit to live in you. And now, the Spirit Himself manifests God’s presence to you, by assuring you by His inner witness that you belong to God. The Apostle Paul wrote it this way: “The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:16 So, do not fret, do not worry when you’re feeling insecure, overwhelmed, or unsettled in your faith. You will never be alone. God will always be with you, because He lives in you, by the Spirit, He gave you. So, rest in God’s presence.

Rest in the knowledge that God’s Spirit in you is His mark of ownership upon you, that you will always be His child. Rest in the knowledge that what God gives you, He will never take away. Rest in the knowledge that the reason you know what His love is like, is that God poured our His love into your heart by His Spirit. Rest in the knowledge that His presence in you, is the assurance of your salvation. The world cannot see who lives in you. But you know Him, because He has made His home in you. And He will never leave you nor forsake you. So, find your rest in God.

Now, I began this message by acknowledging that there will be times when you will struggle with your faith. There will be times when you won’t feel like you have it all together. And there may even be occasions you will even feel insecure about your salvation because you don’t seem to measure up. But God doesn’t want you to feel insecure. He wants you to rest in His grace, and trust that He is not just for you, but He is in you.

That’s the good news of God’s grace to you in Jesus Christ, His Son. God is greater than your heart. God knows everything about you, even the worst things about you. But He has already done everything you need to have life with Him forever. So, don’t fret, don’t’ let your heart accuse you. Believe in Jesus and love one another. And find you will your rest in God.