Well, we're looking at God's Word, and we're
looking at that little book of 1 John, so if
you want to turn to it, I'm going to be reading
from chapter 2, beginning of verse 28 in a minute.
This section that we're in now is talking about
hope, and we've been looking at it, and we want
to just kind of concentrate on the very first
part there, verses 2. chapter 2 verse 28 to chapter
3 verse 3. But before we do that, let's ask God's
blessing all this time. Lord, we've gone through
a list of things that we've asked you to be involved
in and we've approached the throne on behalf
of some people that have problems, medical problems,
most of all spiritual problems. We've talked
about the church. and inquires Bible study, a
lot of things that are on a mind and I was thinking
the audacity that I have that I could stand up
here and open your word and tell people what
Almighty God says. That's a practice that the
scripture says don't be too big a hurry to do
that. There's a lot of accountability. And this
morning in our text we'll be talking about the
Lord coming. And that's a fearful thing. Fearful
in the sense that we are sinners and you're not.
You're holy. And the only hope that we have when
we stand before you is if we are in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we belong to Him. And so I
pray that as we're looking at the text, you'll
help me not to confuse the issue or cover it
up or distort it, but that your word would be
clear and you would have free reign in our heart.
You've promised that your word will not return
void. The idea of returning means that it is
sent out. But that returning would be the fruit,
the response to that. That you send it out and
then you bring it back and it's productive. It's
like fishing, almost fishing for men. You go
out and you share the message and you seek to
catch people, their hearts, and bring them back
into the fold, bring them to the foot of the
cross. I was reminded this morning at the restaurant,
the man had a shirt on and talked about people
kneeling for the flag or standing for the flag
and kneeling at the cross, which I thought was
an interesting thought. And yes it is, that we
come to your presence and when we approach your
presence, we fall on our face because you're
majestic and you're holy and you're awesome.
and we're sinful. So as we're looking at 1 John
this morning, Lord, as we start reading through
the text, I pray that you'll help us to get a
glimpse, John's talking about things that make
up hope, that fulfill your will in providing
us with not just a wish, but a biblical hope,
a reality of what you've promised. that is not
only promised, but is promised to us. And not
only is it a promise that we look forward to,
but it is something that we will realize one
day, that you promised it and they will come
to pass. We will see fruit in our lives. And
so I pray about that. I pray as we look at your
word this morning, you will open our hearts,
protect me from saying stupid things, and to
really... Honor you I pray in Jesus name with
thanksgiving amen First John chapter 2 verse
28 And I'm going to point out as I read through
the text there's several words in that text that
I want to comment on But it begins at the very
beginning. He writes in says now little children
And we've talked about that before when he uses
that phrase little children. He's not speaking
so much about the age of the audience, that some
are younger than others, but he's speaking, talking
to Christians as general, and he's lumping them
all together and referring to believers of all
ages as little children. And I suggested using
the term beloved. It's not really an accurate
translation, but it does accurately portray,
I think, what John is saying. So now, beloved.
Abide, and that's one of the words I want to
focus on here. When he says abide, abide has
the idea of holding on, of staying without yielding,
without giving up, without quitting. I think
of the military preparation for the Marines.
They go through At least they used to pretty
strenuous and heavy -handed discipline, and they're
very strict with them in the training. And you've
heard stories, and I've heard stories. I was
talking to a Marine the other day, and I asked
him how he liked Parris Island, and he said,
well, they have a lot of sand fleas and mosquitoes
down there. And what he's saying is that when
they're standing at attention and they get mosquitoes
and sand fleas and stuff on the skin, they can't
do anything. They can't slap them or push them
away. You know what I'm talking about. They're
not allowed to do that. And the reason is it's
not so much because they like mosquitoes or sand
fleas or whatever, but they want to teach them
that if they're out in the field and they're
guarding a bridge or something and there's an
enemy on the other side. They can't afford the
luxury of slapping a mosquito or something like
that and giving away their position. They have
to be able to be faithful and endure whatever
painful issues arise in their lives before them.
And so that's kind of the idea here. When he
says little children abide, you stay faithful.
You can't just exit and walk away. we're not
given that privilege he says abide and notice
the pronoun he uses he says abide in him who
is that that's christ but um he's telling us
to be faithful um it is easy for us sometimes
to want something more than christ to want some
promotion or want some uh provision or even some
relationship. I have a young man at work that
has a girlfriend and he was asking me to pray
for him because he's trying to quit drinking
alcohol. He's a young guy. If you look at him,
you wouldn't think he's a day over 18 or so.
He's probably older than that, but he's trying
to quit alcohol. So as I was talking to him,
I said, Cory, why are you doing that? And I said,
I'll be praying for you. And he said, well, I'm
doing it because my girlfriend, I get mad when
I get drunk and act up. And she's going to leave
me. And so he said, I've quit alcohol. I haven't
had a drop in a month and a half or so. And so
that's a nice saying. But you can kind of clean
up the outside, the activity of doing something
like that. and yet not change your heart, not
make a difference in your personal relationship
with the Lord and you can discipline yourself
and you quit alcohol or quit smoking. I used
to smoke for ten years and Elaine told me when
I first met her, after I first met her, that
I had an erratic heartbeat and she was concerned
about that so I quit. And you can do that. But
the difference here is what he's talking about
is staying in a relationship with Christ, focusing
on Him, putting Him first. It's easy to put ourselves
first. It's easy to put things that we want,
whether it be a girlfriend, whether it be a vacation
like Pete and Doria are going on, whether it
be a new car like a Subaru, which I know you
would really like to have, or something like
that. These are things that we could really be
impassioned for. He says to abide in him to remain
faithful in him don't yield and He says that
because it's coming today when he's going to
be revealed. That's what he says in the text
He said now little children abide in him so that
when he is Manifested we may have confidence
and not shrink away from him notice that all
this is around the idea of abiding I mean says
abide in him so that when he is manifested that
idea of manifested means to perceive and particularly
it focuses on perceiving by sight. So that what
he's saying is that when he stands before us
and we see him, we'll behold him with our very
eyes. If you remember in the scripture, Bible
says no man can see God and live, can't look
at his face. It's a deadly thing because you're
standing in the presence of absolute holy God
and the only response is to fall on your face.
your mouth in the ground because he's holy and
we're not we're not ready for that but in Christ
we can be accepted in the beloved we can have
our sins paid for our relationship with the Lord
can be cleaned if you will Bible talks a lot
about cleanse me from sin and remove the stain
in my heart we're dirty God is holy and so he
we can be cleansed And so what he's saying here
is, abide in him, stay faithful, stay without
yielding, don't compromise, stay in him so that
when he is manifested, when we stand before him,
we may have confidence. To be honest with you,
it kind of terrifies me. I know it sounds funny,
the way to say that as a pastor, you should be
bold and everything should be all right and you
don't have any problems. No, I do have problems.
The biggest problem is in my heart. because I
know what it's like to lust, I know what it's
like to struggle, and I'm sure you do too, struggle
with sin and stuff like that. And I think, you
know, I got to stand, I got to stand in the presence
of the Lord one day and give an account. And
I just really, that's a scary thing for me. And
all of us are going to have to do that. We're
going to stand before Him. That day is actually
coming. And we want to be ready for that. We
want to take him seriously and to put that challenge
maybe before us and let it be kind of a purifying,
having a purifying effect, which is kind of where
he's going with this. So he said, abide in him
so that when he is unveiled, when he is revealed,
when we can perceive him by sight, that we may
have confidence and not shrink away. Again, I
keep changing the words here, but the word confidence
there, an interesting word, has the idea of boldness
of speech, believe it or not. Boldness of speech.
You say, well, that's kind of a funny thing to
say. Well, if you remember in the scriptures,
I think it's Romans, it is Romans chapter three,
where it says in there, Paul is listing from
Psalms a lot of the passages in Psalms that describe
man's sinful condition and some of the words
he says, there are none righteous, no not one,
there are none that understand, there are none
that seek God, all are turned aside together
to become useless. And that goes on to the very
end, when it gets to the very end of that, he
says that every mouth will be stopped, that all
the world will become guilty before God. part
of where the Lord is standing, that when we stand
before Him, it's not that God's going to say,
and put His hand over our mouth so that we can't
talk. It's not going to be like that. It's going
to be that man realizes how absolutely guilty
he is and he has nothing he can say. Can't add
anything to it. You can't say but. You can't
blame your wife, or your husband, or your school,
or the company, or the government, or the president,
or your neighbor, or whatever. It's your fault.
You're sinful. You have said you stand before
God guilty, and so we really have nothing to
say. But in this verse, He's saying that when
we stand before the Lord, we are to abide in
Him so that when He is manifested before us,
We may have freedom to speak. We may be able
to say something. You see what I'm saying? That
our sin will be paid for. That's what he's saying.
Abide in him so that when you stand in his presence,
that you'll be able to talk. You'll be able to
say, I don't know the best way to word that,
but it's just that the text says, confidence
means that you'll be bold enough to be able to
speak. and not to shrink away. The shrink away
means to cower. There we have this contrast where
he's standing before the Lord and one of two
things are going to happen. Either we're going
to have the freedom to say something and speak
or we're going to cower and run away and hide
and not be able to be bold before him like that.
that that's a challenge to you and it's a challenge
to me and I I just want you to know that it's
not something that I Really enjoy saying oh good.
I'm going to see Jesus and I it's not quite that
simple. It's pretty severe in scriptures Anytime
anybody sees God or an angel angels many Angels
are many times in the scripture when angels appear.
What's the first? What's the first thing to say
be not afraid exactly fear not Because that's
a fearful, fearful thing to stand in the presence
of an angel. How much more fearful is it to stand
in the presence of Almighty God? It's terrible.
And yet here he said that you'll have confidence
you'll be able to speak and not shrink away from
him in shame, not be put to shame in embarrassment
at his coming. Shame is a way of saying that
we would not I want to say that we would not
be embarrassed, but I think the idea is a lot
more serious than just embarrassment. Think of
the things that you've done or that I've done
that we're really embarrassed about. Things that
are private, things that only you know about,
things that if they were revealed to the public,
you would go away and never want to be seen again.
You would hide. When we stand before the Lord,
all our past is going to be exposed. And I don't
like that. Even though I'm a pastor and you think
you've got it all together, no, don't have it
all together. And I know my life and I know my
thoughts and I know things that I've done both
publicly and privately. And yet he says here
in this passage the word that we're looking at
is the word abide in him, be faithful in him,
walk close to him so that when he is unveiled
or manifested or revealed that we may have boldness
of speech and not run away or hide in shame at
his coming, which by the way there is a reminder
there that he is coming back. The world has not
seen the last of our Savior. The last time he
was here, they spat upon him and they mocked
him and stuff like that. But when he's coming
back, he's going back on a white horse. He's
coming back, the Bible describes him like a sharp
sword coming out of his mouth, which is the way
of seeing that his word will cut and destroy
and expose. And so this is a terrifying picture,
but that's the first picture that he has there
that John paints, is that we want to abide in
him so that when he has appeared, when he comes
back, we will not be ashamed. We will not...
run away from him. The second thing in verse
29 is he says, you know, and that has to do with
an objective, you know for sure in your heart,
you know, not because you've experienced it,
but you know as a fact that he is righteous.
The idea of righteousness when it says you know
he is righteous means that you know that he is
right. He's doing what's right before God. He's
doing what's right. And we're told to be righteous.
We're told to be righteous before God. We're
told to do what is right, to be what is right.
What does the scripture say? Righteousness exalts
a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
Righteousness, what is right? Doing what is right.
Being what God has said and pleases Him. Doing
what is right. The practice of that, the pursuit
of that, the investment of that. makes a nation
strong, exalts a nation, but to live for personal
gain, personal lust, personal sin, personal advancement
is a disgrace, it's an insult, it's death to
a nation. What do you think we stand in our country
today? We've got it all over the place. Riots
in the street, fires, political battles that
are going on. We need to pray for our country.
We need to pray for our country. We saw the assassination
that we were talking about that. I don't know
what God's going to do with it. He could stop
it if he wanted to. He's absolutely sovereign.
That's a comfort that I have to know that God
is sovereign. It doesn't mean that he's happy
that the assassination took, but I think it means
that he's going to use it. That he is able to
take tragedies both in public and in your life.
He's able to take these tragedies and remake
them and use them. What does the Lord Joseph
say? You meant it for evil, but God meant it
for good. He's able to turn it around and turn
it into a blessing to make it good. And so here
in this text here, he says that you know for
certain that he is righteous. He is conforming
to God's will. And you know that everyone Who
does righteousness that is not only do you know
that he is righteous? But you know that everyone
who does righteousness who practices righteousness
whose habit is doing what is God's will? has
been Born of him so that not only is he telling
us to abide But he's saying you know what God
is like that you know that those that do his
will and that's what he's talking about us to
do What is what is pleasing to him to do what
is consistent with him and righteousness? Everyone
that does that is born of Him. To be born of
Him, what does Jesus say to Nicodemus? You must
be born again. That comes out of John 3. To be
born again means to have a new life, a new nature,
a new beginning in a way. It's not just that
you need to have a little turning over of a new
leaf, but you need to be reborn. You need to
have a new life. I don't know where you stand
on that. I know that most of us in church hear
that and we talk about that, but have you been
through that fire? Have you met the Lord face
to face and surrendered your life? Because that's
what he says. If anyone wants to come after me,
let him deny himself. In other words, stop putting
yourself first and take up his cross and follow
me. And you know, we talked about the cross where
in the New Testament time if you saw somebody
carrying a cross on their back and they were
going somewhere. They would have soldiers with
them. That person that had the cross on his back
is a person that's been tried and found guilty
and condemned to die. And all he's doing is going
to the place of execution. What Jesus says is
you deny yourself. Don't put yourself first.
Take up your cross. That is the emblem of self.
Execution, if you will. Die to self and live
to me, if you will. That emblem, Paul says, I
am crucified with Christ. I died to self. When
Christ died for me, I was with him and we died
together. In that sense, we're associated together
with that. I am crucified with Christ, yet I
live. Nevertheless, I live yet not I but it's
Christ living in me and the life which I now
live by faith I live in the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me that
personal sacrifice that personal personal death
To self is what he's talking about here. And
so he says here We know you know for sure that
he is righteous that he is conforming to God's
will and you know for sure that everyone who
does what is conforming to God's will, has been
born of Him. And what does that mean? What it
means is that in our life and in our flesh, we
don't do God's will. We pursue our own selfish
goal. We pursue our own purpose, our own agenda.
To be honest with you, we might say that we care
about God thanks, but we only say that for a
little while because in truthfulness we care
more about what we think. We want to do what
we want to do. We want to put our will first,
our goal first, our purpose first, our passion
first, instead of Him. And that's sin. And so
you know that everyone that does what is righteous,
what is proper, they're not doing it in the flesh,
they're doing it because they've been born of
God and they belong to Him. And so that's kind
of the second thing. First thing is to abide.
The second thing is to live. in a way that's
consistent with God's purpose and God's will
for your life. And then maybe one more we'll
look at out of this text. That is verse one of
chapter three. See how great a love the Father
has given to us. This love is the provision of
His Son, is salvation that He has made available.
The word that I would focus on here is the little
word given. God has given out of His great love,
that's what the verse is saying, is given to
us so that we would be called the children of
God, the children of God to offspring. See how
great a love, how a massive love. Do you know
that the cross is a display, it's not just a
display of God's love, it is a display of His
love. But it's more than that, it's a display
of His Holiness. Christ died not just to show
love, but He died to pay for sin, to pay for
your debt and my debt. It's like an exchange
where we're guilty before God. I don't know if
you've ever had, or you probably have had your
parents, thank you. I know that I was in school.
In fact, I was home. I remember one time that
I had started to set my sister on fire. Before
you get upset about that, we were little kids
and we had a tool shed in the back of the house
in Wake Forest and somehow I'd gotten hold of
some matches and there was some newspaper there
and I could see my little sister standing on
the side there and I lit that paper and all of
a sudden it started getting a big fire and I
got scared so I ran. and left her there. Well,
there were college students upstairs. There was,
at that time, the college was in Wake Forest,
and we had boarding students there. And they
saw the smoke coming, and they ran down there,
and it was going out, but they grabbed her and
stuff. My mother was really upset. I can remember
to this day, I can remember the first thing she
said when she came out of the yard, where's Peter?
And I was hiding under a fig bush. And she said,
wait till your daddy gets home. And sure enough,
he came home and gave me a spanking, which was
pretty severe. I mean, about that, it was painful.
But I can remember anticipating that, thinking,
I'm not looking forward to that. That's not something
I want. Wait till your daddy gets here. It's
not very pleasant. Well, here is a text here
in this passage. See, our greater love, the Father
has given to us that we should be called the
children of God. This is that anticipation here
that He said that we have this love that God
has provided for us, and that He has given this
to us, that if that sacrifice has paid for the
sin that we otherwise would have to pay ourselves,
that we would stand before Him as guilty. And
so here is a display now, not just of abiding
and not just of righteous living, but a display
of God's love and God's provision. in the cross
to pay for our sin in Christ and so he says see
how great a love and the fact that he uses that
phrase see how great a love means that this is
something that we want to contemplate here it
is before you this is a love this is not just
a a feeling but a sacrifice that was paid a sacrifice
by Jesus on the cross see how great a love the
father has given This is freely the the the idea
is abundantly given to who? to us So that we
would be called the children of God when he uses
the phrase children of God It's actually just
saying that we are offspring of God That's one
of the aspects and it took them to look at the
scriptures You see somebody as a child of God
or you talk about Jesus being the son of God
means that he is like his father He is taken
of the same nature the same personality the same
character. God is holy He is holy God is God
He is God these are the same thing and we He's
saying this is a love that Christ has paid for
us that we would be called children of God. We
would be called sons of God. And the word call
there just simply is a word that means it's summoned.
So that we would be summoned before God as His
children. Before we stand before Him to see Him
as He is, now we are being summoned before Him
as His children. And it says for this reason,
The world does not know, that means they intimately
know us because we are standing before God as
his children. The world does not intimately know
us because it did not intimately know him. It
didn't have that relationship with him. That's
another thing that we can see in it in our lifetime.
We can see it as believers. that our heart and
our passion is different from the world's. Jesus
said, I've given them thy word, and the world
has hated them. If we have God's word in our
heart, it puts us on a different level, a different
family, and a different goal, and a different
direction. The Bible says, being unequally yoked
together with unbelievers, that's one of the
reasons why you shouldn't marry unbelievers,
because you're still not going in the same direction,
you're going in opposite directions. and you
can't walk together, two can't walk together
if you're not in agreement like that. And so
he says, for this reason the world does not,
for this reason, this is talking about intimate
knowledge, does not know Him. And then he uses
again a very dear phrase, beloved, now are we
the children of God. This is right now at this
present, and it does not, it has not been manifested,
it has not been opened up, it has not been has
not appeared to us as sight we have not been
able to see it what we will be this is future
this is another word i would have to stop here
at this point but what we will be does not manifest
we are looking um kind of down the road at the
future promise of what we will be we don't know
yet what it will be we don't know exactly except
we know that when we stand before him we will
stand before him in perfect fullness um Have
you ever thought about what it's going to be
like to stand before God? To stand before Him,
really? Because you are and I am too. You can
tell this morning I've been talking about this
is a serious wake -up call for me and I'm sure
it is for you as well. That this is what we will
be when we stand before Him. That He's making
that change in our hearts and our lives so that
we stand before Him complete in Christ. We will
look like Him. We will see Him. as he really
is, and we will be at peace in his presence.
I don't know if you had loved ones, I know I
have, that have died, and you look down at the
empty coffin, or you look down at the coffin,
it's not empty, and you miss them, but if they
know the Lord Jesus and you know the Lord Jesus,
you'll see them again. I have that happen all
the time at work. People would talk about the
military, and I tell them I... married a girl
who outranked me. She's a better wife than I
deserve. And I said, she died October 10, 2013.
Oh, I'm so sorry. And I said, it's OK. I'll see
her again. I know who she is. I know who she
is. She's doing better. She's a better off man
than she ever was before. I looked over at David.
I just remembered his dad. I remember Vernon
and all the things. We used to have a picture
of him on my phone there. I can look at that
and see him. He was a great man. He was one of
the most godly men I knew and you probably all
of you could say the same. He was a great man.
We'll see him again because we know where he
is and we just want to take him seriously. So
here he is. We stand before the Lord. We want
to abide in him. We want to do what's righteous
and because we're his children and we want to
be pleasing to him. Now let me close this in
prayer. Father has been sort of I kind of rushed
through this maybe too much but I do thank you
for your your patience and your mercy and your
grace and your love for us. Thank you for your
love for me in spite of all the rebellions and
bad things that I've done and said and still
say and things you have been you have been and
I shouldn't put that in the past since you are
merciful and you are gracious to me and to us.
And I pray that those here sitting here in this
room this morning who have not surrendered their
life, I ask you to speak to their hearts. Help
them to realize that it's not a toy, not something
to play with, that we can't just decide what
we're going to do like that. We make the decision
to walk away from you. We may walk away for the
last time. So it's not a toy. It's not just a
guessing game. It's real. And I just pray for
our hearts, that you'll work in our hearts. My
heart, make this obedient. Open our lives to
examination by you and show us the things that
need to be confessed and show us how we can turn
our lives over to you. You said that if we want
to come to you, we deny ourselves, take up our
cross, but that's not all. Then we are to follow
you. Help us to do that. I pray in Jesus' name
of thanksgiving. Amen.