1 John 2, the lesson begins in
verse 21. The title of the lesson this
morning is Abide in Him. Abide in Him. So John says in
verse 21, I've not written unto you because you know not the
truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
Now John's not writing to unbelievers who do not know who Christ is.
He's not writing to people who are ignorant of spiritual truth.
He's writing to believers who know Christ, who love Him, who
have faith in Him. Almost all the Bible, and this
is no exception, is written to believers. He's writing to believers
who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. And believers know the
truth. That's what he's talking about
here. They know the truth. We know the Father, who is the
God of truth. He cannot lie. He's the God of
truth. We know Christ, who is truth
itself. He is truth personified. We know
the Holy Spirit. He's the Spirit of truth. We've
been taught the Scriptures, which is God's Word of truth. And we
know that no lie can come from the truth. No lie can spring
from the truth. Truth and lies cannot mix. They are totally separate. I
read this week Matthew Henry said the truth is older than
a lie. The truth came first and the
lie did not spring from the truth. No lie can show us who the Father
is. A lie can't show us the Father
who cannot lie. A lie can never show us our need
of a Savior. A lie can't show us our sin.
And no lie is part of the Gospel. No lie is a part of the Gospel
that comes from God who cannot lie. And you cannot preach partial
truth. It can't be done. Part truth
is a lie. This is a black and white issue.
A partial Gospel is no gospel at all. Look in 2 Corinthians
1, I'll show you that. You cannot preach partial gospel. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. But as God is true, our word,
our preaching towards you is not yea and nay. For the Son
of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even
by me, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, was not yea in name, but in Him
was yea. For all the promises of God in
Him are yea, and in Him, amen, unto the glory of God by us."
The Gospel is not yes and no, it's yes. There's no lie in it. So John's writing to believers
who know these things. Now if you know Christ, you know
the truth, Then why bother writing? You already know Christ. You
already know the truth. Well, John's writing to establish us
in the truth. That we may grow in our knowledge
of the truth. That we may become more established
in the truth. To give us encouragement in the
truth. Because we're going to see in
these next verses that believers are going to need encouragement.
We need to be established in the truth because of liars and
seducers, deceivers who attack God's people And who attacked
the whole world by pushing on them a perverted gospel which
denies Christ. Look in verse 22. He says, Who
is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He
is an antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also. And here's what believers know,
that the Lord Jesus, the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ. He's the Christ that was promised
in all the Old Testament scriptures and the types and shadows and
prophecies. All the scriptures bear witness
that Jesus, the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ. The
miracles that he did as he ministered here on earth bear witness that
he's the Christ, the Son of God. The Father Himself spoke from
heaven bearing witness, this is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. Jesus Christ, that Man that all
the Scriptures and the miracles and the Father bore witness of
is the eternal Son of God. And since He's the Son, there
has to be a Father. All the time growing up I remember
Henry saying this over and over and over again, you can't have
a Father without a Son and you can't have a Son without a Father.
There must be a Father. And John really is talking about
the Trinity here. Now, I read this from John Gill
this week. Gill said the Spirit isn't mentioned
specifically right here, because at this point in history, when
John's writing, there hadn't been any real controversy arisen
about the Spirit. But he's talking about the Trinity,
the Father and the Son. You cannot separate the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit. They're one. Look over a page
of 1 John 5. Verse 6. This is he that came
by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but
by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth
witness, because the Spirit is true. For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. And these three are one. Now there are three distinct
persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But there's one God. In all three, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, each person is God. And they're equal. Now if you
deny the deity, you deny the power, you deny the work, of
any of those three, that's to deny the whole entire Godhead. And it is to be what John says
here. If you deny one of those three,
An antichrist and a liar. Look back at John chapter 5,
because these three are one. That's what our Lord said. John
5 verse 21. For as the Father raises up the
dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He
will. For the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sinned. To deny the Son
is to deny the Father. And it's to deny the Spirit,
too. To deny the Father is to deny the Son and the Spirit.
And to deny the Spirit is to deny the Father and the Son.
It's to be an antichrist and a liar. Now, how does a person
deny that Jesus is the Christ? There are several ways. To deny
Christ as the real Son, there are those that say, well, He's
not really God's Son. It's just a figurative position
as God's Son. That's to deny that Jesus is
the Christ. It's to deny the Scriptures.
To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny that Jesus Christ
was a real man. At the same time, real God. That He is the God-man. 100%
God and 100% man. Now, the math on that doesn't
add up, but it's so. He's the God-man, and to deny
that is to deny that Jesus is the Christ. To deny Jesus is
the Christ is to deny Him in any of His offices. It's to deny
Him as Savior, that He's the only Savior of His people. It's
to deny Him as mediator. He's the only mediator between
God and you. It's to deny Him as the sin offering. to say you need something else
other than His blood. You need His blood plus something
else. To deny Him as King, as Sovereign
King. If you deny Him in any of those
offices, you've denied He's the Christ. You deny that Jesus is
the Christ by denying the power of Christ. To deny Him as Sovereign
Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
a beggar hoping somebody will believe in Him and accept His
sacrifice. That's to deny he's the Christ.
Jesus Christ is the mighty conqueror who has saved his people from
their sin. The war's over. The battle's
over. He's not trying to do anything. He has already accomplished everything
that the Father sent him to do. Now, I don't know why you'd ever
want to deny that. That's good news. That's the
gospel. That's our hope. But to deny that is to deny that
Jesus is the Christ and to be an antichrist and a liar. And
whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ, is the Son of God,
is an antichrist and a liar. It doesn't matter whatever other
nice things they say about him, whatever other credit they might
give him, whatever other glory they might try to give him, to
deny that he's the Son of God is to be a liar and an antichrist. And John writes these things
to us because God's children are warned about these men. to
shun them, to stay away from them because their teaching is
dangerous. Look in verse 24. So if you're going to avoid them
and shun them, where do you abide? Where do you stay? Well, he tells
us in verse 24. Let that therefore abide in you
which you've heard from the beginning. If that which you've heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in
the Son and in the Father. Let that therefore abide in you
which you've heard from the beginning. Well, what did you hear from
the beginning? From the beginning of your faith, what did you hear?
Well, it was the Gospel. It was the Gospel that contained
no lie. Pure Gospel. From the beginning of your faith,
you heard the Lord Jesus Christ in His mercy, in His grace, as
sovereign Savior, through the effectual Savior of His people.
Now, don't ever leave that. Don't ever leave Him. Don't ever
leave His Gospel. Thank God, He will never leave
us. He'll never leave His people.
And John's telling us, now don't you leave Him either. You abide
in that Gospel. You stay right there. And don't
you ever leave it. Don't you ever leave those first
truths that you heard. A number of years ago, my sister
Becky and I were talking. She told me this story about
when she graduated from college. She got a job as a teacher. She
told me, she said, I didn't know the Lord. I knew I didn't. But
she said, I knew the only hope I ever had was to be where the
gospel was preached, where He's preached. I knew I didn't know
Him, but my only hope of ever hearing Him and knowing Him was
being where He was preached. She said, I knew where it was
preached and I was afraid to leave it. That's what I'm talking
about. And eventually, in His time,
the Lord saved her. Now, don't you ever leave. That's
what He's saying. Don't you leave this gospel. The first truths
that you heard Now, we'll grow in grace. We'll
grow in knowledge of the Gospel. We'll grow in knowledge of the
Lord Jesus, won't we? We hope we will. We'll learn
more of Him, but you won't learn anything new. Everything you
learn is going to agree, is going to come from the first proofs
that you heard. Just an example, Brother Henry's
told us so many times, when a baby's born, that baby's got everything
she'll ever have. She's never going to grow another
arm. She's not going to grow another finger. She's not going to grow
another toe. She's got everything she'll ever have. It's going
to grow, isn't it? It's going to grow to maturity,
but it's everything she's got, she's got right now. Everything
she's ever going to have, she's got right now. That's what he's
talking about here, to grow in knowledge. But it's going to
grow from those first truths that you ever heard. The gospel
that we've heard from the beginning is the same gospel that these
believers that John's writing from heard from the beginning.
The gospel that the apostles preached from the beginning of
their ministry. And the gospel they preached is the gospel they
heard the Lord Jesus preach from the beginning of His ministry
as He ministered here in this time on earth. And the gospel
He preached is the same gospel that was preached to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. And the gospel that was preached
to those patriarchs is the same gospel that was preached from
the beginning. In the garden, after Adam fell,
God said, there's coming to see a woman who'll crush the serpent's
head. This gospel, which we've heard
from the beginning, is from the beginning, from the very beginning. It's the eternal gospel. Now,
don't ever leave it. Don't ever leave Him. Don't ever
leave Christ, the eternal Savior. And here's what we know. No believer
will ever leave the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, some people will. We read that last week in verse
19. Some, they went out from us, but they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have continued
with us. But they went out that they might
be made manifest if they were not all of us. Some will leave,
but the believer never will. Never. The believer will continue
abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ till the end. How can you be so sure? I'm sure
of that. How can you be so sure? Because He abides in you. You won't leave Him because He
won't leave you. That's why He says it in this
verse twice. He abides in you. And if He abides
in you, that which you've heard from the beginning shall remain
in you, then you shall continue in the Son and in the Father.
Now verse 25. This is the promise. that He
has promised us eternal life. Now God, who cannot lie, the
God of truth, has promised His elect eternal life in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That promise is conditioned on
God's free grace. It's conditioned on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And because it's conditioned
on Him who cannot fail, if you're one of God's elect, you will
have eternal life. Guarantee it. God will see to
it. He sends the gospel to his people.
And when he sends it, he sends it in power. He gives faith to
believe. He gives a heart to love it and
to receive it. And you have eternal life. One day you're going to have
the perfection of it, but you have it right now. Look in John
chapter 6. Our Lord said this in John chapter
6, verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Now, it will
have everlasting life someday. Has it right now. Now, look over
in 1 John chapter 3. In fact, in our text it's across
the page. One day, you have it right now. One day, we're going
to enjoy the perfection of it. Look in 1 John 3 verse 2. Right now, are we the sons of
God? And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. You look at me sometimes, it don't look like he knows God.
It doesn't look like he has eternal life. But we know that when he
shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as
he is. One day we're going to have it.
The perfection of it when we're made just like him. I can't wait. Can you? Now where
is this light? It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where God's put it. In
Him. Look over another page here at
1 John 5 again, verse 10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. If you
want life, if you want this eternal life, go to Christ. Flee to Him
because life's in Him. All the promises of God have
been put in His Son, including this promise of life. It's in
His Son. So go to Him. Run to Him. That's
where life's found. Now back in our text in chapter
2, verse 26. These things have I written unto
you concerning them that seduce you. Here's why John wants us
to be established in the truth, because there are those who will
try to seduce you. He wants us to abide in the truth
because he knows we'll be under attack. And under attack, the
believer, any believer, could be staggered for a time could
be knocked off balance for a time. But they'll never totally fall
away from Christ, because Christ won't allow it. But these seducers
will try to lure you away from the Lord Jesus Christ. I looked
this word seduce up, and the original Greek, as it is used
here, it means to lead away. Sometimes it's translated to
see. So I looked up in the dictionary, and the dictionary definition
is exactly the same thing. is to lead away by false promises. It is to lead away to disobedience.
Somebody doesn't try to seduce you by false promises to good
things. It's to disobedience. It's always
the bad things. Always. Usually this word is
used about a man trying to entice a woman sexually. That's the
way we normally use it. And he does that by false promises. by telling her what she wants
to hear. That's the way he does it. Just by talking sweet and
telling her what she wants to hear and never meaning a word
of it. And eventually, what he hopes is she'll get caught up
in that whirlwind of lies until, you know, that starts sounding
okay. Or, you know, that makes sense.
Or that sounds appealing. He's seducing her by false promises
and through lies. Now how's that done in a spiritual
sense? I'll tell you where it's done. It's done in bullpens is
where it's done. Satan was the original deceiver, the seducer. How did he do it? Quoting God. Quoting what God said. Quoting
God's Word. And seducers today have come
right down the line from Him. They're deceivers. They lie in
wait to deceive. They're lying in the weeds waiting
to jump out. They walk in craftiness, handling
the Word of God deceitfully. Look over in Ephesians chapter
4. Ephesians 4, verse 14. Here's why John wants us to be
established in the truth. So verse 14, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro. If you're established,
you won't be tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. They twist the Scriptures. They
handle the Word of God deceitfully and they try to lure you away
with false promises. They never give you a straight
answer. You know, that man is trying to seduce that woman.
He'll never tell her what his real motive is. He's trying to
seduce her through false promises. And these spiritual deceivers,
seducers, they hide behind big theological words and big theological
Ideas and terms that no ordinary person with mind can begin to
understand. And it's so deceptive because
there's an element of truth with it. It's so close to the truth.
There's truth mixed in there with it. And it sounds very religious. Oh man, he must know what he's
talking about. That sounds so religious. But it's the empty
lie of a snake oil salesman. I'm telling you the truth. It's
sad. It's a sad truth. But they exist. So avoid them. Just avoid them. Now you think
about the opposite of this seducer. It has to be the Lord Jesus,
doesn't it? When He preached to people, He
talked to people, simple sinners with absolutely no education
whatsoever understood exactly what He was preaching. At the same time, Educated people
understood exactly what he was saying. They didn't have any
trouble understanding what he was saying. Now, they didn't
always believe it, but they understood what he was saying. There was
no misunderstanding about what he was saying. That's the way
we ought to preach. And if you can't understand clearly
what somebody is saying, be careful. That's the way a seducer goes
about business. Now, verse 27, But the anointing
which ye have received of him abideth in you. And ye need not
that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." Now this anointing in
the Scriptures in the Old Testament was done with oil. It was poured
on the head of a man being made king or priest or something.
Sometimes they rubbed it into their skin. And the Holy Spirit
is frequently compared to oil. And this is what John is talking
about here. When God saves somebody, that person isn't anointed by
the Spirit externally. It's internally. It's an anointing
not of the body, of the heart. It's internally. He says here
that that anointing which you have received of Him abided in
you. It's not an external thing. It's
at the heart. It's internal. The Holy Spirit abides in God's
people. And because that's true, John
says, you don't have any need that any man teach you. Now,
you know he's not saying that we don't need pastors and teachers.
Do you know what you're reading here? Well, how can I except
some man show me? We need pastors and teachers
to teach us. What he's saying here is God
uses means. He teaches his people through
the preaching of the Word. The Holy Spirit teaches God's
people. by using God's appointed means
of teaching the Word. I heard Henry say this once.
Pastors teach, but the Holy Spirit does teach. The Holy Spirit gives
you the faith to believe it. He gives you the understanding.
A pastor teaches, but it's the Holy Spirit that does the teaching.
And the Holy Spirit teaches us all things. Now, we certainly
don't know everything, do we? I wish I knew more. I wish I
understood more. Certainly we don't know everything.
But the Spirit teaches us all things that are necessary for
salvation. He shows us our sin. We know
that. He teaches us everything that
Christ has done for us. The Spirit points us to Christ
who is everything to the believer. Who's done everything for us.
And He teaches us that the truth is not a lie. He teaches us how
to tell the difference. And that abides in you. You have
that constant witness of Christ in you if you're a believer.
So because He abides in you, John says, now you be sure to
abide in Him. Stay in Him. He says in verse
28, now little children, abide in Him. That when He shall appear,
We may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him that it
is coming." He says, little children. This is a term of endearment.
Little children. Use a term of endearment for
somebody that you care about. These people John cares about,
he's telling them, abide in Christ. The best thing I can tell you
is abide in Him. Hold fast. to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Hold fast to His Word that you've
been taught. Hold fast to the Gospel that
you heard in the very beginning. And don't be moved away from
it. Be like Peter when somebody tries to ask you, will you go
away? They try to lure you away. Say, no, sir. To whom shall we
go? Where are we going to go? Right
here is the Word of Life. Abide in Him. Stay in Him. Don't be lured away. Abide in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And before long, He's coming
back. He's coming back. And when He
appears, some will be frightened. They'll run to the mountains
and hills and pray that the mountains and hills follow them. Because
they'll be ashamed. They'll be ashamed when their
refuge of lives is swept away by the overflowing storms. But
a believer will have confidence. You're not going to have to run
to the mountains and hills. Where are you going to run when
He appears? To Him. You've got confidence
when you're in Him. You have confidence when you're
abiding in Him. A believer will never be put
to shame. Why not? He bore our sin and
shame and put it away. That's why we're not going to
be ashamed. That's why we can have confidence. We have a lot
to be ashamed of in ourselves because of who and what we are.
But we will not be found naked when He appears. who will be
clothed in His righteousness. We won't be ashamed of our hope. We will never be ashamed of abiding
in Christ. Oh, some people, their refuge
of lives will be swept away, but Christ will never be swept
away. He is unmovable, and everybody who abides in Him will not be
moved either. Now, verse 29, if you know that
He is righteous, You know that everyone that doeth righteousness
is born of Him. Now you know, this is the truth
that you know. You know that Lord Jesus Christ
is righteous. He's God, so He's holy. Perfectly
righteous. And as a man, made under the
law, born of a woman, made under the law, He was perfectly righteous. Perfectly obedient to every minute
detail of the law. Now a believer is one who believes
Christ. It's not that you believe doctrine.
It's not that you believe the five points of Calvinism. It's
not that you believe the righteousness of Christ. You believe Christ. Him who is righteous. There's
a world of difference there. And everyone that doeth righteousness,
doeth righteousness because they're born of God. The natural man,
left to himself, can never do Because he doesn't have faith.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. The woman that's born of God
is made like Him who begat us. If you're born of God, you know
that. You don't have any need for any
man to teach you this. You know that. Now, don't be moved away
from it. Don't be moved away from it.
Abide in Him. In all of them.