Good morning. It's always such a pleasure to be gathered with you all here at Grace
Christian Church. You are though an ever-growing sea of faces which is really encouraging.
So those who have not had the chance to meet before or not been here since you've been
here, my name is Justin. I'm a pastor at Gosnell's Baptist Church, married to my wife Stacey.
We have five beautiful children together who you might have noticed in the form of a tornado
down the front here. I've been friends with Michael for a long time now and I still think
he's a pretty decent guy and I think you're quite blessed to have him as your pastor.
As you guys are in between sermon series at the moment, I've got free rein to preach this sermon
and I preached this at my church just a few weeks ago from one John. We've been making our way
through it in a series, hearing from the Apostle John, what are ways in which you can tell genuine
Christianity from the counterfeit. If possible, could I have the clicker please if that's okay?
What ways you can tell genuine Christianity from the counterfeit? The real from the fake.
And John writes this letter to a church or possibly a group of churches for their assurance.
Chapter 5 verse 13 says that, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. And so John wants us to know too
that we have eternal life. He wants us to know that what we have is real. And so we see these
three things appear over and over in a typical circular fashion for John, light, love and loyalty.
Light referring to the holiness which we are to walk in because God is holy, because God is light.
Love referring to the love with which we must love one another with because He loved us first,
He loved us first because God is love. And loyalty referring to the firmness with which we are to
hold on to the apostolic gospel. The resolve that we are to have to hold on to the truth about
who the Lord Jesus is and what He has done for us. And it's these three things which John clearly
shows us over and over again to be the true markers of a Christian. And so on the basis of these things
we can have assurance, confidence that we have eternal life. And our passage this morning
will show us something of this, though not necessarily for the assurance of our salvation,
though it does do that as well, but more specifically our passage shows us how we can have
confidence at the return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So would you pray with me now that
God's Spirit would delight to use our time together in His word to see our Lord Jesus more clearly
and that we might live more faithfully for Him and then we'll dive into our passage. Let's pray.
Gracious Father, we thank you and praise you for all of your blessings to us in our Lord Jesus.
Please would you show us more and more of Him this morning in your word by the power of your Spirit
that we might have deep and lasting joy, full assurance and delight in your love for us.
And please change us to be more like Jesus so that we would honour you for all of our days.
We ask these things for your glory and for your good plans and purposes in us as your people.
In Christ's name we pray, amen.
So I'll begin this morning by asking us to consider this question. How would you respond
if Jesus was to return at this very moment? How would you respond if you found yourself before
the throne of the Son of Man, the Almighty King of Kings, the One who causes the earth to tremble,
the mountains to fall down, the sky to tear in two? How would you respond if you knew that at the end
of the day you were to stand before the Judge of the universe and the books would be opened
and every single thought and deed of your life would be laid bare before the courtroom of heaven?
Do you think you would be confident? Or does that thought terrify you?
And if not, why not?
I mean when Isaiah the mighty prophet, he stood before God on his throne, he cried out,
Woe is me, I am a man undone.
When the writer of this very letter, John the Beloved, the one who laid on Jesus' breast at the
last supper, when he stood before the Son of Man, he fell at his feet and he was
fell at his feet as though dead. The picture is painted in the scriptures so very clearly, isn't
it? It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
And so these words of John in verse 28, the first verse which we read, ought to absolutely shock us,
right? John, what do you mean that we may have confidence at the coming of the Almighty Judge?
How could we not shrink from him in shame when he comes with his host of 10,000 times 10,000 angels
to judge the living and the dead? The big question for us today then is how could we possibly
have confidence? How could we possibly know that we have eternal life? How could we possibly be
confident at the coming of the King and not shrink from him in shame? How is that even possible?
And so there's two main things that I want to help us to see this morning that John wants to show us
to give us his confidence. We can be confident because God has made us his children and we can
be confident because we bear the family likeness. So firstly, we can be confident because God has
made us his children. I wonder if you could identify the last time that you had a meeting
scheduled and it was with someone and about something that you just really weren't sure
how it was going to go. You play out the conversation in your head with all the different
scenarios that could play out and you wonder what the outcomes would be but there is just no sense
of confidence. It can really be quite an anxiety-inducing experience. I think for me the
worst part is always like those final 10 minutes before the moment narrows in. When you aren't sure
how things are going to go, it can be terrifying. But compare that experience to how my kids would
feel as they know that it's almost 4.30 and dad is about to walk through that door from the door
home from work at any moment. And they hear the sound of the door open and almost always I walk
into the screams of dad! Every day it's like I've been gone for this month-long trip or something.
There's a great joy and explosion of words as they try to tell me about their day. Or on the more than
odd occasion when I come home at 4.35 instead of 4.30, like they expect, the first thing I hear is
dad you're five minutes late. Where have you been? It's such a different experience isn't it?
My kids have huge confidence at my coming because they aren't wondering what our meeting is going
to be like. They know that I'm going to grab them and hug them and give them a kiss. And why would
I do that? Well for the simple reason being that I love them. And the coming of our Lord Jesus
ought to be no different for us church. We can have confidence that our Lord's appearing
because of what John says in verse 1. See what great love the Father has lavished on us
that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are.
Our Heavenly Father, He has set this eternal, redemptive, lavish, extravagant, unfailing love
on us to the degree that we can be called His children. No longer His enemies who walk in
rebellion to Him, who have rejected Him in His ways, but restored as His children, adopted as His own,
and now counted worthy of all the privileges that come with being a child of God. This is the kind
of love that He has set upon His people friends. And it is this great love that ought to give us
confidence at His coming. Which raises the question, are you letting this eternal,
redemptive, extravagant, lavish, unfailing love with which your Heavenly Father has set upon you
affect every part of your life?
This is not just a truth to acknowledge right? This is an unbelievable reality that must shape us to
our core as those who are beloved children of God. This is at the heart of what we must be preaching
to ourselves every day and in every circumstance. My great God has loved me and I am His child.
And sorry, I am not firstly a pastor or a husband or a father. This reality, it gets to the very
heart of our identity doesn't it? First and foremost, you are a child of the living God.
Which means that when you don't get what you think you need or deserve out of life,
it need not crush you. Because who you are is not ultimately found in that job or that relationship
or that hope or that dream. You are now defined by the eternal, redemptive, lavish, extravagant,
unfailing love of God. And so if we know that He loves us in this way, then we are not going to
be confident at His coming. How could we not be looking at the clock, eagerly anticipating
the proverbial 4.30 when He returns? Which is, you know, this can be difficult because we don't know
what time He's coming. But nevertheless, may we not set our love on the things of this world like
John talks about in the book of John. And so, we are not going to be looking at the clock
that John talks about earlier in this chapter. May we not let our confidence waver because
of the deceitfulness of our sinful hearts or the distractions of putting our hope in other things
because the weight is hard. But instead, let us be deeply encouraged by John's words here in verse 2.
Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not been yet been made known, but
we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Even though we are waiting for that day when He returns for us to be like Him, now we are children
of God. Church, we do not have to live this life in doubt and uncertainty about whether our faith is
real or whether God loves us or not. No, John wants us to be assured now. And it's this knowledge
of God's love for us now that we are children of God now that can give us great confidence at His
return. And so it's why John tells us back in verse 28 to continue in Him or abide in Him
so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed at Him before His coming.
Dear friends, continue in Christ. Don't give up. Don't lose hope. Don't stop holding fast
to our Lord Jesus when the doubts creep in and things get hard. Don't let the deceitfulness of
sin bring you shame and cause you to turn from Him. You are now a boy of God.
Be assured again today of His matchless love for you.
And hold fast. Remain. Abide in Christ in the same way a branch stays a part of the vine.
And you can have confidence at His coming.
And on that day, when we see Him as He is, we will be like Him.
And every doubt, every fear, every hardship, every sorrow, every sin,
it'll all be taken away from us. And we will be like Him.
And every hardship, every sorrow, every sin, it'll all be taken away.
The day is coming when everything will be made new and set right.
And until then, we can be confident because God's made us His children.
Secondly, we can also be confident because we now bear the family likeness.
For our more literal, linear, Western minds, I think this point can be a tricky one to see in
this passage. I really wrestled with this because we want to be faithful to what John is saying,
right? But it can also be quite hard to reconcile with other parts of Scripture.
Here are some really difficult things which John has said to us in this passage.
No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either sinned
or sinned. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him.
No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in them.
They cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God.
It's tricky because it actually feels like John is trying to rob us of confidence here,
because we all keep sinning, don't we? John, how can we be confident at our Lord's appearing
when you're telling me that if we keep on sinning, then we don't belong to Him?
Well, there's two things that I think John wants us to keep in mind here.
The first is that the Christian now pursues a life of faithfulness, not flawlessness.
I've listed some verses there where I think we can clearly see this in John's writing,
and he knows that we will sin and praise God that we have an ever faithful and all-sufficient
advocate in our Lord Jesus when we do. Indeed, He appeared so that He might take away our sins.
What we will be has not yet been made known. Our sinless state has not yet come, but we know
that when Christ returns, we will be like Him, sinless, for we shall see Him as He is.
And this reality of a faithful, not flawless is reflected more helpfully,
I think, in the ESV translation of these verses where it says,
whoever makes a practice of sinning, it's the life of habitual sin with no remorse,
no repentance, no desire for God to be glorified. It's that life who does not know God and who has
not been born of God. The Christian, however, now longs to put their sin to death. They have
new desires, ones for righteousness and holiness, which they are not always able to act on because
of their sinful flesh. It's still at work within them, but nonetheless, there will be increasing
degrees of faithfulness to what is pleasing to God. As God's children, we do not make a practice
of sinning anymore, but now we make a practice, a habit of walking in the light of the Lord Jesus
of walking in the light as He is light, faithfully, but not flawlessly.
The second thing that John wants us to keep in mind is if sin will cause us to shrink from Christ
in shame at His coming, then don't you think that righteousness will do the very opposite?
Faithful living can actually give us confidence. Let's go back to imagining my kids at 4.30 when
they're expecting me home. It's a Thursday and that morning I told them that they must make sure
that their rooms are clean when I got home or I won't be taking them to the park. And surprise,
surprise, I get home and their rooms are trashed. Would you expect them to meet me joyfully at the
door that afternoon like they normally do? Probably not, right? They have not put into practice what I
commanded them to do and so that will produce a fear and anxiety, a lack of confidence at my coming
home because they don't know how I'm going to respond to them. They might even doubt my love for
them in that moment. Of course, not that they should. And so in this way, I think we can see
how John is suggesting that we can have confidence in him at his coming. I think we can all recognise
those moments when we sin and we shrink from God in shame, whether it be for a few moments
or a few weeks or maybe it has even been a few years for you now and we lose confidence before him.
And we would shudder at the thought of him returning in all his glory at this moment.
But how true is it that when we are walking in the light, when we are loving one another as he has
loved us, there is an immense joy and intimacy and fellowship with him. There is a nearness and a
delight that we enjoy when we are walking in his ways. And so flip back again to my kids, how
confident, how joyful, how expectant are they when their rooms are clean and they are even more
excited that dad's nearly home and we've done what he's asked and we get to go to the park when he gets here.
And John, he wants us to have this same confidence, friends.
And so why can we have this confidence when we walk in righteousness?
Well, because we are bearing the family resemblance.
It's in this letter that we have these simple yet profound statements that God is light. God is love.
Love and holiness are not things that God does, it is who he is.
And so when we practice righteousness, when we are holy, when we love one another,
we are bearing the family likeness. We look like our father in heaven,
which is why John can say in verse 10, this is how we know who are the children of God,
or more literally by this it is evident who are the children of God and who the children of the devil are.
So we can have confidence when we are obedient to the commands of our heavenly father,
not because it merits our salvation in any way whatsoever, but because it proves, it is evidence that we are his children.
Do you see the correct ordering of this? That fruit is the evidence of our faith.
And so we can rejoice and be confident before our father when we see it.
It's not a source of boasting, it's not a source of merit,
but a source of joy and confidence because we are being changed by the love of the father,
by his spirit, through his word and we bear the family likeness as we live out the righteousness
which is being brought about us in us by the spirit.
Sometimes though it can be really hard to see it in our own lives, can't it?
Oftentimes I'll find myself praying for patience and later on that day I will just demonstrate the very opposite,
usually around that 430 mark or not long after.
It can be really discouraging, can't it?
But let us remind ourselves that this is not how fruit is normally produced.
Can God change us in a moment? Yes, he can and he will.
One day. But until then fruit comes in seasons, doesn't it?
After the soil has been cared for with water and fertilizer so that the roots can be strengthened.
And so I've often found this question to be much more helpful.
Can I see evidence of growth in the last year?
In the last five years?
And if the answer to that is yes, then rejoice, praise God.
Let it grow your joy and your confidence in him that you are his child
and be confident and wait expectantly for his return.
And might that spur you on to love him more and more?
What if the answer to that question is no? What if you would say,
Justin, I just can't see any evidence of growth in holiness.
I can actually see where I do make a practice of sinning.
There are things which I feel enslaved to and despite my best efforts, I still do.
There are things which I feel enslaved to and despite my best efforts, I just cannot give them up.
I would say to you, Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for your sins.
And if you confess your sins, he is faithful and he is just and he will forgive you
and he will cleanse you of all your unrighteousness.
You have an advocate before the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
So I would say to you, hold fast to him. Trust deeply in him.
Be in utter dependence of his righteousness to be worked out in you.
And trust the process. As you keep trusting in Christ, keep trusting that just as he has justified you,
giving you a right standing before God, trust that he's also sanctified you, that he has made you holy.
And that he is working that out in you bit by bit.
And as you keep trusting that he is doing that work, work with him in that too.
Fill your mind with what is good and what is pure. Be on your knees in prayer, pleading that he would change you.
Make good and wise decisions to minimize opportunity for your sinful flesh to rear its ugly head.
And remember the right ordering of what John is showing us here in this passage.
That evidence will come, not because we're good enough, not because we've made it,
but because we are God's children now.
And that's where our confidence is.
Not in the works themselves, but because we're bearing the family likeness.
And so the correct ordering of this also means that the marker of God's blessing, his love, his favour in your life now,
is not how well your life has been.
It also means that the marker of God's blessing, his love, his favour in your life now, is not how well your life is going.
Like some sort of Christian karma.
We cannot have confidence before him because we have the job or the house or the number of healthy children or fill in the blank.
Can I confess something to you?
I find myself having more confidence before God when my favourite sports team has had a win.
How ridiculous is that?
That I, that we would feel like we have a more worthy status as a child of God and more confidence before him.
When we have a sense of success.
But John says in verse 7, little children, let no one deceive you.
Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he, as God is righteous.
Let no one deceive you.
Worldly children, let no one deceive you.
Let no one deceive you.
Worldly success is not a marker of the child of God.
Being a nice person is not a marker of the child of God.
Going to church is not the marker of the child of God.
But how easy is it to be deceived into living this nominal Christian life
and think that there will be pie in the sky when we die,
but not being deeply shaped by the realities of the gospel.
No, we can only have confidence because we have been loved by God in his son Jesus.
Because his Holy Spirit is deeply at work in us, producing the righteousness of God in us.
And whenever we fall short, which we will every day,
we run into the arms of our Saviour once again for his forgiveness,
utterly dependent upon him.
The Christian life is a life of faith,
trusting that only God can bring about the things in us which we need for eternal life.
So friends, let us not hope in anything or anyone other than our Lord Jesus.
Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
The Apostle John wants to say to you again this morning,
Beloved, hope in him.
Hope in him.
Hope in him. Hope in the one who appeared in order to take away your sins.
Hope in the one who makes you pure.
Hope in the one in whom we will see face to face,
we will in the twinkling of an eye be made like him because we shall see him as he is.
Hope in Jesus and abide in him.
Find your assurance in his finished work.
Find your identity as a child of God in the love of the Father displayed nowhere more clearly than in the cross of Christ.
And live out the righteousness which he has won for you and is bringing about in you.
And in this we can have confidence that is coming because we are children of God.
Because we are children of God.
And because we bear the family likeness.
Let's pray.
Gracious Father, we thank you and praise you for your word to us.
Thank you Lord for your Holy Spirit who works its power out in our lives.
And thank you for your son Jesus who has done everything for us that we might enjoy eternal life with you.
Father would you help us to cling to our Lord and Saviour.
To deeply abide in him.
To love him and to treasure him for all of our days.
And Lord that you would help us to live in ways that are pleasing to you because they reflect your goodness and your character and your glory.
Father would you comfort those of us here this morning who would be lacking confidence at your return right now.
Comfort us in the love that you have for us.
That you long to see us live in the reality of more and more each day.
And Lord give us confidence when we do see fruit.
That there would be a momentum that would grow in our lives as we put sin to death and as we find joy and life in righteousness.
May we indeed be those who bear the genuine faith of a Christian.
That our lives would look like what John is laying out for us in his letter.
And Lord that in all of that you would be glorified and that we would grow more and more into the image of our Lord Jesus for our good.
In his name we pray. Amen.