Let's be turning to 1 John, chapter
2. 1 John, chapter 2, the apostle
tells believers here to abide, to continue, to remain in what
they heard from the beginning. Specifically, he's speaking of
what they have heard in the new man born of the grace of God. That confidence which they had
in Christ when they heard in power. That's what he's telling
them here. I'm going to tell you that again
as we go through this message. Let's read verses 24 and 25.
1 John 2, 24 and 25. Let that, therefore, abide in
you. Let it remain in you. Let it
continue in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, continue in you, abide in
you, ye shall also continue, remain, abide in the Son and
in the Father And this is the promise, that he hath promised
us even eternal life." Now, I want to first address the beginning
here of which John speaks. The beginning. The beginning.
I don't think that there's much doubt about it that what beginning
John is referring to here is the gospel. which the apostles
preached. He's referring to the gospel,
the truth. the truth as it's revealed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what they declared when
they gave witness to Christ, when they bore witness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, of who He is and what He successfully accomplished
for His people on the cross when He redeemed them with His own
blood. That's the witness that they
gave of Him. I want to show you this in Luke 24. Let's go there. Turn with me
to Luke 24. It's a lengthy passage, somewhat,
but we'll pick up in verse 36. And I want to turn there because
it serves to explain these two verses. When you go back and
you read it later, Luke 24, verses 36 through 49, is filling out. It's helping us to understand
more of what John is saying here. in this text. So verse 36, And
as they thus spake, this is speaking of the disciples who were gathered
together in a room discussing the things that were being told
to them of the brethren who had seen the Lord. And they were
declaring that Christ had risen from the dead. As they thus spake,
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them,
peace be unto you. This is what Christ says to the
soul, to the heart of his child. When he comes to them, when he
visits them in grace, peace be unto you. But they were terrified
and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit. Now did Christ Jesus rise from
the dead in spirit only? No, no, not at all. There'd be
nothing special about that. He was standing before them in
his resurrected body. This is his new body. This is
his body. He was raised from the dead.
And to prove it, we read in verse 38, he said unto them, why are
ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. He's referring to the nail prints
in his hands and in his feet. When he went to the cross, he's
showing them the wounds, his suffering for them. Handle me
and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have. And when he had thus spoken,
he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet
believed not for joy, it was a good, it was just amazing.
It was unbelievable what they were seeing there. They wondered
and he said unto them, have ye here any meat? And they gave
him a piece of broiled fish and of an honeycomb. And he took
it and did eat before them. And so he's proving his body
to them. Right then and there, he's proving
his body to them that he indeed had risen from the dead, not
just as a spirit, but in his body, in his heavenly resurrected
body. He's dead no more, never to die
again. When Lazarus was raised from
the dead, he died. And he went to the grave again.
But Christ rose from the dead and never died again. He ascended
unto the Father after that. And he said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you.
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. These men had walked with our
Lord for some three, maybe three and a half years there. And now
he's giving them a special revelation, a special revelation to understand
the mystery of God revealed in the scriptures, so that their
understanding is not a fleshly, carnal understanding, but it's
an understanding in the new man, born of the grace of God, born
of the spirit of God, whereby they understand the mystery of
God, which is declared in this word. which the natural man doesn't
see, nor understand, nor believe, nor receive. But they saw it,
now they understood by the grace and power of Christ. And now
he begins to declare to them the gospel which they would be
declaring to others, including the fact that they had seen Christ
risen from the dead. That's why we looked at that,
that in his body he rose from the dead. And he said unto them,
verse 46, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to
suffer. He had those nail prints because
he suffered for his people. He bore that for them. He bore
their sins and iniquities on the cross to put them away forever. Thus it behooved Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance
be turned from dead works that can't save you, trusting these
things, and turn to Christ and receive the remission, the forgiveness
of sins, that this should be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem, And he are witnesses of these
things. This is what you're to go out
and bear witness of. Preach this, teach this to the
people, and declare to them, reveal to them that we are made
new creatures. Speak of these things, what Christ
does for us, making us new creatures. Look at verse 49, and behold,
I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. So this gospel word is declared
here by Christ. This is the word that they received
in the beginning. This is the witness that they
were given in the beginning when they received that confidence. from Christ, that power, that
glory that entered into them, that understanding they had in
the new man, being born of his grace, receiving that blessed
word, understanding the mystery of God then and there, to know
that gospel which they believed, and now we're going out to declare
to the world, to others. And so this is the beginning
word that is heard by the chosen people of God when Christ comes
and speaks to you, peace be unto you, peace be unto you. And he speaks that word into
your heart and opens your understanding to see the mystery of God in
the face of Jesus Christ, to see how this word is testifying
of him, to give us comfort and peace in him. to behold him,
that he's our all. This is what John, this is the
beginning word of which the apostle speaks of in our text. Let's
read it again, 1 John 2, verse 24 and 25. Let that, therefore,
abide in you. which ye have heard from the
beginning. If that which ye have heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in
the Son and in the Father, and this is the promise that he hath
promised us, even eternal life." In other words, his word shall
not fail to deliver his people to the uttermost, to deliver
us into the very arms of our God, So what we just heard our
Lord say in Luke 24, let that gospel, let that sight that they
saw of Christ, beholding him and hearing his words with understanding,
let that fill your understanding when you read 1 John 2, 24 and
25. Let that impregnate that word
and fill that out and amplify that word. The Christ of that
word is the hope of the believer. So now it's been about 2,000
years. We're coming up on that in a
few more decades, about 2,000 years from when the Apostle John
wrote this epistle. So what are we to understand
concerning what we have heard from the beginning? It makes
sense when he's writing this epistle to his hearers there,
but this is almost 2,000 years. What do we need to understand
about what we've heard from the beginning? I just want to affirm
to you, to assure you that what we believe is the same for us
as it was for the beginning. Meaning the beginning for us
is the same as it was for them. They had a beginning. They had
a beginning and we have a beginning. The same witness they heard in
the new man born of the grace of God by the spirit of God.
And then, which they went out and preached to the churches,
the beginning word that we are to abide in is the witness of
Christ revealed in the gospel to the new man. That's the beginning. That's the beginning. So I'll
use myself as an illustration to help us understand this a
little better, this beginning. Because we've had beginnings,
various beginnings. We've all had various beginnings.
I just want you to see the beginning is when Christ reveals himself
to you as your savior, delivering you from death, from your sins,
from vain dead religion, to hear his voice, to believe him. So
myself as an illustration, I've mentioned a number of times how
I've grown up in religion. From a young child, I was in
religion. And what I heard, I heard in
the flesh. I heard it in the flesh. I didn't
hear the gospel. Whether or not they were preaching
the gospel, I can't say. I just know I didn't hear the
gospel. I didn't hear it. And I mentioned
before that I had heard some true things, though. I did hear
some true things. I had heard that Jesus is the
Son of God, come in the flesh, and that He and He alone is the
Savior. There is not a Savior. There
is not another Savior. There is one salvation, one name,
under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. I heard that. I heard that. Now, what I heard from the beginning
as a child is not the beginning spoken of here. That's good that
I heard that. I'm glad that I heard that. But
that's not the beginning that John is speaking of here. And it was some useful things.
I mean, those are true things. Those are things that we must,
that all believers hold dear. We know this, we know that Christ
is the Savior, and He alone, and that He is the Son of God,
come in the flesh. Those first words that I heard
and embraced are not what's intended here, even though they were made
useful to me in my teenage years. They were made useful to me.
There came a point when my parents stopped going to church, and
I stopped going to church. They didn't take me there anymore. And although I became very liberal
in my sinning, I was very liberal, I did a lot of wicked things.
Yet, I must confess that that knowledge, that limited knowledge
that I had, did stand. The Lord made it useful as a
guard that did stop me from doing certain things because I knew
that Jesus is the Christ. And it was made useful. I believe
the Lord put that word, seeded that word there for my good.
to prevent me from going even further than what I would have
done. So it was useful in that sense. I'm thankful for that
word. But that's not the beginning.
That's not my beginning. That's not what I heard and received
at the beginning that John's speaking of here. As a young
adult, late in my teens, 19 years old to be exact, I was stirred
up by the Lord. He brought me into various stresses
and trials and difficulties that troubled me greatly and caused
me, without my parents, to begin seeking the Lord. in great duress,
in great stress, I began to seek the Lord. And what I heard had
some truthful things in it, but it was mixed with a whole bunch
of wicked lies, a whole bunch of just false doctrine. I believe
a lot of the things that John here is writing of the teachings
of Antichrist. It just pervades the church.
It's all over. There's a lot of foolish things
that cause me great stress and great confusion. More confusion
than it was even helping me. It was just driving me into greater
darkness. And so as a result in my religious
experience in going through different churches and all different places,
I went through many dangers and toils and various snares, right? But in all of it, I was tried
greatly for my sin, very much tried for my sin. And in the
end, I was just stripped of all comfort. I had no peace. I had
no understanding of salvation, because I was constantly just
being driven to the flesh, to just do better, to try harder,
to stop this, to start that, try this. And it was just driving
me nuts. And I had no comfort that Christ,
the Son of God, loved me. and gave himself for me. I knew
he was the savior of men, that he was the savior of his people,
but I had no comfort that he was my savior, no comfort. And
so those words are not the beginning that John is talking of here,
right? We've all come from religion, many of us from various religions,
and we've heard lots of things. Some things good, many things
bad. And so that wasn't the beginning
either. One day I heard the gospel preached. I'm a man named Don
Fortner, a man hated by so many people in the world. But I heard
him preach. And I remember his text, which
was Ephesians 432. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. And it blessed my heart. And
it wasn't so much the text that he preached from. I just remember
the text. But that wasn't so much the text
that he explained, but it was the gospel. It was the gospel
that he preached in that message that blessed my heart. The Lord
just opened my ear, turned my heart to Christ, and I began
to see Christ is all. Christ is all, and it was such
a joy and a comfort to my heart. He just declared the successful
Savior in what He does for His people, what He did for His people,
and what He does, what He works effectually in the hearts of
His people, turning us from striving and spending and laboring and
trying to get it right and just constantly coming up short and
just sinking down in our sin because all I could do was look
at myself. Because that's all that I heard. It was like, look
at Christ. Oh, but then fix yourself. You
better start working really hard. And it was just a burden. And though many years of trial
still lay before me, it was still difficult. I still went through
many difficulties. Yet the Lord blessed my heart
to receive his word, to see Christ, and to believe him. And there
was no gospel church where I was for many years until the Lord
planted one there. And so my food was very sparse
for a while there, and I would just hear it on CDs. We didn't
have streaming devices and things like that to make it easy. I'd
have to get CDs. But once the church came, especially,
I began to be settled, just settled in the gospel of Christ, settled
in Christ. with all my confidence in him." And that's where he
brings his child, to be rooted in Christ, to feed upon the bread
of heaven, to eat his flesh, to drink his blood, that is to
hear and to receive and rejoice in his atonement in what he's
done and behold him and worship him for what he's accomplished
for us. That's the beginning, that beginning
confidence, which you heard and received that Christ is all,
that he's all my salvation. And that's where he roots us
and then we bear fruit and he prunes us. And He makes us more
and more fruitful in Him as He grows us and turns us to Christ. It's that new, it's that word
that we heard by the Spirit making it effectual in our hearts in
the new creation of Christ. Not something we created, not
something we forced, because I've done it. I've tried forcing
it. I've tried driving my stake in the ground and saying, never
again, I'll never do this again. And then I'm just right back
there doing it again. But by the grace of God, all
I can do is turn to Him, and confess it to Him, and lay it
before Him. And by His grace, I see His power
so much more in Him. And I do me, because I don't
have any power. I've tried to do it, what I thought
I should do, only to fall on my face. But Paul even said it
this way, even the mystery, this is when he turns us to Christ,
even the mystery in Colossians 1, 26 through 28. even the mystery,
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles."
Right? Who had no religion. And if you want to call it religion,
it was just sheer idolatry. It was just wicked, wicked, false
ideas, just sheer idolatry. To whom God would make known
the riches of his glory to these fools, these base, ignorant barbarians,
that He would make this known to them, which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory, that He's all my hope. I don't have any
righteousness of my own. I don't want to be found in my
own righteousness. I want to be found in the righteousness
of Christ. And to just see Him and to believe
Him and just trust Him is what He reveals in our hearts, whom
we preach, warning every man, And teaching every man, right?
Warning every man, not driving them to religion warning. No,
warning them, get to Christ. Get to Christ. He is the Savior. He is the robe of your righteousness
by whom we enter boldly into the throne of God and are received
of Him. Teaching every man in all wisdom
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That's the goal. to be found
in Christ, to present you in Christ Jesus, not to present
you perfect in Moses and the law, not to present you perfect
in works, religion whereby you strive and spend and labor to
make yourselves righteous, not to present you in will worship
based on your decision for Jesus or not, no. If you love Christ,
it's because He loved you first and gave you that love and turned
your heart and drew you to Himself to present you in Christ Jesus
by the power of the Holy Ghost in Christ, what He does for you. Now, having With that understanding
of that's the beginning, John says, let that, therefore, that
hope of Christ, that confidence in Christ, let that, therefore,
abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. Your beginning
in grace, when he revealed it with power to your heart, that
beginning. when he delivered you from the
bondage and darkness of this prison in the flesh, in the palace
of the strong man, that devil, when he delivered you from him
and brought you into the light of Christ, when you heard grace
at the beginning of grace, when Christ's seed was formed in you
and that new man is born. in us when we are regenerated,
not from Adam's seed, but from Christ's seed. And John asks,
if that which ye have heard from the beginning, when you tasted
the grace of God in spirit and in truth, if that shall remain
in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.
He gives us that confidence, that confidence in Him. So continue in that hope of Christ's
righteousness. Don't be turned the way the Galatians
we see, how they were turned from Christ back to the law. as if we could improve on Christ's
righteousness. Don't be turned. Continue in
the hope of Christ's righteousness. Continue in the hope that his
sacrifice has satisfied once and for all the holy justice
of God, and that following him in faith, hope, and love, not
being turned aside if we're persecuted for our hope in Christ, not Not
being choked out by the cares and the concerns of this world
and the pursuit of momentary pleasures and the passing things
of this world. Don't be turned from those things.
And seek him for it because we all see, we all know the draw
and the lust of this flesh. We know it's present that we
may know, that we may seek him and strive to seek him, to flee
to him for all. Continue hearing his voice in
the preaching of the gospel. and following him, continue in
that hope that his death please the Father and his resurrection
justifies all who believe him and worship the Father, trusting
his blood and righteousness. All right, as Paul said, we are
the circumcision who worship God in spirit and have no confidence
in the flesh. We've seen what we are in the
flesh. We know, we know, have no confidence in this thing.
It's a, deceitful, wily, unbelieving Jacob, is what this flesh is
by nature. It's tricky just like him, but
by the grace of God, we are Israel, by his grace and power. Continue
in that, continue in him, knowing that Christ makes us acceptable
to the Father. And then John speaks here of
the believer's perseverance, to continue in this hope, to
not be turned from it, verse 25. And this is the promise that
he hath promised us even eternal life. And this is throughout
the scriptures. Paul said something very similar
in Hebrews 3 verse 6. He said, Christ as a son over
his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. And again,
Hebrews 3.14, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold
the beginning of our confidence. It's almost the same thing that
John's saying. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast
unto the end. If the work is Christ's, we will
hold that beginning, the beginning of our confidence. That is when
Christ in grace revealed his love, his mercy, his sacrifice,
his righteousness, his power, his grace to you. When he revealed
that to you, that's the beginning. that we heard Him and rejoice
in Him, we shall persevere to the end because His grace preserves
us in the body of Christ. Ye also shall continue in the
Son and in the Father. So this is the very promise of
God to His saints, to finish the work that He has begun in
you. When He shows you Christ, He'll
finish that work that He's begun in you. He says, this is the
promise that He hath promised us even eternal life. John says
a little later in 1 John 5 forward, whatsoever is born of God overcometh
the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Faith is not of the flesh,
it's His gift to you, which He bears as fruit in the new man
to continue in Him. Hold the beginning of our confidence. and hold that confidence when
it ceased to be you saving yourselves and it was all Christ and you
cast yourselves upon Him. Our perseverance is the testimony
that God hath given us our hope and our confidence in Him. We
that persevere, it's because God has called you. And though
we've come, each of us, through various ways with baggage and
luggage and all kinds of ideas from the flesh and traditions
of man and various things that we thought were important. But
in his grace, he brings us to see, as he showed Mary and was
teaching Martha, the one thing needful is Christ. He's the one
thing needful and that from him that all things are fruitful.
and all things are rightly understood and received, faithful is he
that calleth you who also will do it." He'll do it. He'll do
it. Philippians 1.6 He makes us confident
of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So I exhort
you brethren, hear this word, receive Christ, hold fast that
confidence that He is your Savior, venture wholly upon Him, Cast
yourselves upon him. Knock at the door. Seek him.
Ask him. Beg him. And he'll reveal himself
to you. More and more, he'll root you
in him and show you the very truth of these words. Colossians
1, 10 through 12, that ye might walk worthy. He'll show you this.
He'll keep you that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing. That's what we want. We want
to be pleasing to him. And we need Him to do it, because
without Him we can do nothing. That we might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all
might, according to His glorious power. That's what we want, to
be strengthened with His glorious power. Unto all patience and
long-suffering, with joyfulness, right? If it's His work, then
we can bear it. We can bear it, if he's our strength,
we can bear it in him and continue in him. Giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. See how, that's Colossians 1,
verses 10 through 12. He just keeps turning our eyes
to Christ, to Christ, to him, to what he does to save his people
according to promise. so that we shall inherit that
eternal life which He's promised us. We shall. That if rests all
on Him. You will bear that fruit. You
will continue if the work is His. If the work is ours, we
won't. We'll fight, we'll go a long
ways, but we will come up short in the end. But if it's His work,
will not come short of that which you seek, Christ and his kingdom,
his glory, his praise, and his honor. So rooted in Christ, he's
saying we cannot be lost. We cannot die in our sins because
they've been put away by Christ forever. You shall live. This is the promise that he hath
promised us even eternal life. His glory is at stake. If he's
begun it, you shall not come short of that which he's begun
in you. He's promised it in his word.
He gave his darling son to secure it, and therefore he shall bring
it to pass in your heart, witnessed in your continuing in that word,
that confidence which he gave to you in the new man in the
beginning. He revealed it to you, that Christ
is all. He is all, who hath sealed us
and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, which is
the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment of our inheritance,
until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of
his glory. Abide, continue, remain in Christ,
and be not moved away from Him. Continue in Him and you'll continue
in the Son and in the Father. Continue in that word, believe
it, receive it, hold it. Hold it fast, brethren. Amen.