I want you to look at the first
John chapter 2 verse 20 is where we're going to start. We left
off last week treating the subject of apostasy. We were talking
about how John made it clear to the church the need the need
for them to comprehend the fact that people would come in and
then people would leave and we made the statement that the the
non-elect are the person to for a season appear to believe the
gospel but over time because of an offense or because they
have another agenda. And ultimately it's because they're
not born again. The course that the Christian
is called to take is impossible for them to follow. If the grace
of God is not given to you in Christ, one cannot live for Christ
without his grace. Because the the call of the gospel
and the call of the grace of God in the life of the Christian
is a call to cross-bearing Cross-bearing is not a call to prosperity and
it's not a call to popularity. It's certainly not a call to
personal self-exaltation it's a call to cross-bearing and this
is where at some point in in The walk of many people who come
to the church and come to the gospel or come to the word of
God They finally eventually fall off That's what verse 19 said
they went out from us, but they were not of us for had they been
of us They would have no doubt Continued with us, but they went
out that it might be made manifest that they were not of all of
us so God has a plan by which in the process of developing
and growing and maturing his church is people come and people
go. And I'm not talking about the
local church. I'm talking to church universal.
Every local church as a whole is under test for faithfulness
and fidelity, both to the doctrine of Christ and to the person of
God. Every local church is under test
in terms of fidelity both to the doctrine of Christ, the Word
of God, as well as to the person of God. No local church can ultimately
determine or assign your destiny. So when I talk about them coming
out from us because they were not part of us, what we are really
doing is recognizing that apostolic authority which was given to
John right along with Paul and the others was that authority
that was invested to them by Christ of which if you depart
from Apostolic doctrine you prove yourself to be a heretic The
true church is rooted in apostolic doctrine now again, I don't want
to waste a lot of time with terminology But throughout the years throughout
the centuries throughout the millennium even terms like apostolic
apostolic city can take on a more ecclesiastical connotation and
denominational connotation and not really be rooted in the word
of God. There are lots of churches that call themselves apostolic
and they have departed from the gospel in many ways themselves. As we are working through the
gospel and sexuality on Thursday nights, I happen to peruse through
the different denominations to see what they are dealing with
in terms of this sexual revolution that is bombarding our world
and one of the Fascinating things is that in many of your charismatic
churches your Pentecostal churches, which is what the apostolic church
is they are struggling themselves tremendously to with integrity,
with faithfulness, with obedience to the word of God. They are
being permeated with heresy and false doctrine, and they are
departing from the fundamentals of orthodox teaching left and
right. So they may call themselves apostolic,
but the reality is that to be apostolic is to be consistent
with the teachings that the apostles wrote down in the word of God.
That's critically important to know. So when Paul uses, or when
John uses the term out from us, he's not talking about grace
Bible church. He's talking about the universal church that is
truly identified with the person of Jesus Christ, evidence by
obedience to the word of God as passed down to us from the
apostles. Last week as we are closing I
said that where they go when they leave the church is into
the world Where they go when they leave the church is into
the world and they embrace or receive or um Adopt a worldview
a carnal view a secular worldview and then they return again into
the church To corrupt the church. This is how you have the battles
in the church between liberalism and conservatism between those
who have a high view of the word of god and people who have a
low view of the word of god some of the content with which I am
working through again the gospel and sexuality is dealing with
the heretical and false interpretations of scripture where the Homosexual
community are the liberal church. I'll put it that way your liberal
progressive Scholar would argue that homosexuality is acceptable
and lesbianism is acceptable and And they would argue from
an attempt to prove that the scriptures either do not speak
to the issue of homosexuality or that the scriptures approve
of it. And so they do a lot of what
we call exegetical gymnastics to deny the plain teaching of
scripture. But this is what I mean. They
left the orthodoxy of biblical Christianity. They went into
the world, embraced a secular worldview. And the secular worldview
is what you see out there and what you hear out there. That's
the secular worldview. And then they returned again
into the church through scholarship, through seminaries, through teachings.
to produce pastors and leaders to come into the church as change
agents and start by and by teaching people to accept the way the
culture is. Now, once you recognize that
process of leaving, going out into the world, and then coming
back in, what you understand is that this is called an infiltration
process by which a transformation of the church from the inside
is taking place, corruption from the inside. And the apostles
warned about that again and again. The apostle Paul said to the
church at Ephesus, to whom John is now ministering, he said in
Acts chapter 20, Grievous wolves shall enter into the flock, not
sparing them, not sparing the sheep. And even some of your
own will rise up teaching perverse things if possible to lead astray
those who are naive. So the local church is always
in a battle. No local church is free of a
battle. You can't be a part of a faithful
Bible church that is not willing to and resolved to deal with
the battle of worldviews, the battle of ideologies, the battle
of cultural norms that are contrary to scripture. You're not going
to find a local church that's faithful to the word of God,
where they just get along with everything that everyone is doing.
You have to be settled to know that if you're going to be part
of a faithful gospel church, not only is that gospel church
going to be teaching orthodox biblical truth, but as a polemic,
it's going to expose and condemn those things that are contrary
to the word of God. It's unavoidable. That's just
a necessity. In fact, that's what John is
doing here. Now he's about to encourage the people of God in
a unique way of which we want to exercise our senses, and that's
this. Here's what he says. They went
out from us, but don't worry, you have an unction. See verse
20? You have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all
things. You have an unction from the
Holy One and you know all things. Now, that verse has created a
lot of problems for people who have taken it out of its context
and not really understood that statement for what it really
means. You have an unction. He's speaking to the church.
Now, the unction is a term for anointing. You have an unction. Every Christian, if we are truly
believers, as we're getting ready to see, Unchained we are qualified
we are gifted Every Christian has the Spirit of God. That's what that means now It
does not mean therefore because you have the unction or you have
the Spirit of God that you actually know everything This is where
the King James Version fails a little bit. It should be translated
this way and you have an anointing and all of you know the truth
and you have an anointing and all of you know the truth and
And that's the point that John is making, that the truth that
we have been discussing for the last two chapters, John says,
or yeah, two chapters, is the truth you already know. And in
fact, he affirms it this way by what he says over in verse
21. Listen, I have not written unto
you because you, what? Do not know the truth. See it? But because you know it. And
that no lie is of the truth. So mark what he is saying and
mark what he is not saying. He is saying that when you become
a true believer, you are qualified to know the truth. And you know the truth because
you know the person who is the truth and that's Christ. And
you know the truth who is the person of truth that is Christ
by the spirit of truth, who reveals the person of truth to you by
the word of truth. There are three true aspects
that the believer comes to know. And the word know there again
is an understanding that is comprehensive and emphatic and he is willing
to and ready to embrace it with suffering even if necessary unto
death. If you are my disciples, you will continue in my word
and you will know the truth and the truth will continue to liberate
you. The truth that we are talking
about first and foremost is the truth of the word of God Jesus
said in John 17 verse 17 Father sanctified them in thy truth
thy word is true so the first instrumental method by which
we come to know true is the word of truth and This is why we read
here over in verse 24. Let that therefore abide in you
Which you have heard from the beginning if that which you have
heard from the beginning shall remain in you You shall also
continue in the son and in the father. Do you guys see that
the exhortation is to? abide in that It's a neuter form
of an article. It's not in a personal form or
a gender form. It's in a neuter form, which
means that that is not a who, it's a it. And the it that John
is saying that we are to abide in is the gospel. Look at 1 John
1, verse 1. In 1 John 1, verse 1, here's
what he said. That which was from the beginning,
see it? Same phrase, which we have heard, Which we have seen
with our own eyes which we have looked upon in our hands of handled
of the what word of life verse 3 that which we have seen and
heard declare We unto you that you may also have fellowship
with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with the
son So what John is saying in verse 24 is let that therefore? Abide in you which you have heard
from the beginning that that is the Word of God that that
is the gospel of The first thing that takes place in the life
of a person who comes to a saving knowledge of Christ is they are
confronted with the word of truth Ephesians chapter 1 around verse
14 speaks to that when you heard the word of truth The gospel
of your salvation look at it Ephesians chapter 1. I think
it's around verse 14. So the the truth is a an inherent
component of for which the believer is designated to know God. And in knowing God, he knows
God through that means called truth. That truth is the word
of God, Ephesians chapter one, verse 13, in whom also you trusted
after that you heard, here it is, the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So what John is saying
is, You have an unction that is the Holy Spirit and he qualifies
you to hear the truth and hearing the truth. You come to know about
Christ who said in John 14 6, I am the way the truth and the
life. No one comes unto the father
what but by me. So notice what he says in verse
20, which is quite a 24 quite remarkable. Let that therefore
abide in you which you have heard from the beginning, let it dwell,
let it maintain, let it reside, let it remain, let it stay upon
you. If that which you have heard
from the beginning shall remain in you, you shall continue in
the Son and in the what? So two persons of the Godhead
are committing themselves to abide with you so long as you
abide in the gospel. The father and the son promise
that they will abide with you so long as you continue in the
gospel. The gospel becomes the evidence and qualification of
communion with the father and the son. We could put it this
way. If a man or a woman departs from the gospel, they have no
confidence that the father or the son will remain with them.
They have no grounds upon which they can say they're all right
with God. This issue therefore of departing from biblical truth
is a critical critical issue This issue of departing from
biblical truth is a critical critical issue Now I want you
to think it through with me as john helps us close out. Uh,
first john chapter 2 with verses 25 through 28 You will meet a
lot of people christian Who will say that they are christian?
But by and by, as you begin to discuss biblical truth, what
you come to find is they have no regard for sound doctrine. You will meet a lot of people
who will quickly tell you they are Christian. And they will
say that with the utmost confidence and boldness, I know I'm a Christian. But as soon as you begin to discuss
theological truth, critical to an affirmation of their profession
as a Christian, They begin to vacillate in their understanding
or their commitment to biblical truth. Why is that? Because there's
a cultural Christianity today that makes it easy for everyone
to say, I'm a Christian without them being tested. There's a
cultural Christianity today that makes it easy for everyone to
say, I'm a Christian without being tested. And I've told you
before, if I say to someone that I'm a Christian, I am allowing
myself by virtue of that open declaration that I'm a Christian,
I'm allowing myself to be tested by them. Once I say I'm a Christian,
I must now therefore be ready to be tested. They can ask me
questions. What do you mean when you say
you are a Christian? What do you mean when you say
you're a Christian? Can you explain to me what Christianity is in
your own understanding? How does your Christianity square
with the word of God? See what I'm getting at? And
if I can't defend my Christianity from the scriptures, I have every
reason to be alarmed as to whether or not my profession is true
or not. This is what the whole of First
John is all about. He that said he knows him, but
does not abide in the true is a liar and a deceiver. See what John is doing is he's
bringing to bear the question. Can you say you are a Christian
and prove it and demonstrate it objectively from the truth
of scripture? If you profess to know him, You
have to be ready to demonstrate it. And that's what John is working
on, because there are many false prophets that are going out into
the world. So now let's work through this. I want to start
at verse 25, because this is where we were leaving off last
week, and I want to work my way through this. And this is the
promise that he has promised us, eternal life. Verse 25 is
corresponding to the whole proposition of the gospel. It's a simple
statement whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ hath
everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but has
passed from death to life. That's John chapter 5 verse 24
and 25. Whosoever is believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ hath eternal life. Eternal life is already
evident in that person's life who is believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ is not some emotional conviction where you kind of,
in an ethereal way, cast yourself on God in some nebulous form. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is you coming to terms with biblical truth that reveals the person
and work of God in Jesus Christ and what he did on Calvary Street
for sinners who trust him. You guys got that? See, believing
is not just casting yourself on God in some nebulous way.
We are to believe on him according to his word. God reveals himself
to us in the scriptures. Our hearts and minds are challenged
as to whether or not we believe what the scriptures say. In other
words, let me put it to you like this. If you are uncomfortable,
with sound biblical exposition and the kind of probing, comprehensive,
pervasive Bible study that gets way down into your business and
challenges you in terms of your profess standing before God,
you are not quite ready for the battle of telling a person that
you are a Christian. If you are struggling with being
able to bear up under what the word of God says about what a
Christian is, you might very well ask yourself, what is the
foundation upon which I am asserting that I am a Christian? Did that
make some sense to you? I just wanted to drive that home because
what a disservice we would be doing to ourself as we're getting
ready to see here. For us to tell everybody in the
world we are a Christian and then stand before God on the
last day and God say, I ain't never knew you. What a disservice we would be
doing to ourselves. Here we are telling everybody
we're a Christian. And every day we're skirting
and avoiding biblical truth that nails us to the wall to determine
whether or not what we say is true or not, only to meet him
who is the truth. And he tell us, I never knew
you. John 17 3, and this is eternal
life. That they might know you. the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent essentially
when you say you're a Christian you are saying you know God you
guys got that when you say you're a Christian you're saying you
know God now again down here on this terra firma on the horizontal
plane everybody love to say I know God but you have to ask yourself
am I willing now for the heavens to rent and the veil to be removed
and for me to face my maker right now and say I know you see what
I'm getting at This is profoundly important because this here is
what we call the front door ministry. This is entry into the kingdom
of God or not. And this is where John is really
pressing home the matter. These things have I written unto
you, verse 26, concerning them that do what? Seduce you. Seduce. John uses a very advised term
here when he uses the word seduce. We'll come back to it in the
future. As I told you, John deals with concepts. He talks about
it a little bit, then he moves on to something else. Then he
unpacks the concept that he started dealing with previously in another
chapter, because he plans on dealing with that. The word seduce
here is the word to deceive. And the word to deceive is our
Greek term planos, which means to err, to err. Look at 1st John chapter 4. I
want you to see it in 1st John chapter 4 as we work our way
through this. In 1st John chapter 4, this is one of those maxims
that you need to learn. You need to learn this. It's
very important. In 1st John chapter 4, verse 6. We are of God. He that knoweth
God heareth us. The we and the us are the apostles.
He that is not of God does not hear us. The apostle John is
speaking as a vicar and representative of Christ. And he's saying to
the church, if people don't believe what we teach, the authority
that's been given to us by Christ, they are not of God. See, Jesus
plainly told the disciples before he sent them away these words.
He says, I'm sending you as sheep among wolves. He that heareth
you, heareth me. He that heareth me, hears him
that sent me. You see the unbreakable link
between the messenger and the message and the origin of the
message. Apostolic authority is critical
to this process. Apostolic authority is critical
to this process. So as you are interpreting 1
John, make sure that when you look at the we and the uses,
that you take a contextual consideration of it and not just go into the
larger general application of all believers. It's not true.
We are of God says John he that knoweth God heareth us and he
that is not of God heareth not us if this Interpretation is
true in verse 6. Here's what we know in the first
century The basis upon which the churches could examine whether
or not a preacher was Orthodox Was whether or not what they
taught? Corresponded with what the Apostles taught the way we
knew in the first century that Whether or not a preacher who
was going around saying he was an apostle or a prophet or a
bishop, whether or not he was telling the truth is when you
listen to him, you were to assess whether or not his gospel corresponded
with the gospel of the apostles. Are you guys hearing me? Now,
you notice it's true. And if you don't, let me help
you. First century believers didn't walk around with King
James Bibles. They didn't have NIVs and ESVs
and all of the different translations you got. I told you before, the
vast majority of the early church obtained a knowledge of the gospel
by hearing only. They were poor people. Bibles
were not given in plethora. We didn't have printing presses.
The printing press didn't really develop until the Great Awakening,
or prior to the Reformation, when John Hus and Wycliffe and
those brothers really started publishing the Word of God. Bibles
were developed very slowly, very tersely, very... uh it was a
draw a long drawn-out process by which a person could acquire
even the old testament and the new testament took almost 300
years to be completely compiled so that what was happening was
early churches the first hundred years first couple of hundred
years the early churches were merely holding on to the Old
Testament and whatever writings were circulating by the apostles
through the churches that were given to the elders to read to
them. So that when we use the term
faith comes by what? That was the primary mode of
maturity and growth for the early church. There weren't like you,
me and all of our kids with seven or eight, 10 different Bibles
in the house, most of which we don't read, right? So they were serious about what
they heard. So then here comes, you know,
a Tom, Dick and Harry calling himself a prophet. The way that
the early church was able to determine whether his prophecy,
his teaching was true, was to weigh it out over against what
the apostles taught. This is why John is saying what
he's saying here. If they don't hear us, they're not of God. You guys got that? So we read
going back then, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't finish. We are of God,
and he that knoweth God hears us. He that hears that is not
of God does not hear us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of what? Now, you see the term planos
just for those of you who are new. That's a Greek term, planos,
planates, planitos. Planos is the word which is translated
often planet or stars. For us, the word planet is from
where we get the word planos. Can you see how the root of it
is there, planos? And planets for us, especially
in the early church, were often stars that were mistaken for
planets. But in the New Testament, the
word planos is translated stars in 1 John. where John says false
prophets are like wandering stars. Have you ever saw a falling star
that loses its place in the hemisphere because of its energy source
evaporating, dissipating, and then all of a sudden it falls?
Well, John says that's how false prophets are. False prophets
are like lights that appear for a moment, but ultimately fall. Once you start to err, that's
what it means, fall, then you prove yourself to have been a
false prophet. Am I making some sense now? That's
the idea of planos. And if a false, a falling star
passes by your way and gets your attention because of its zeal,
its passion, its ability to move and shake and stir up people
and get people aroused by its new revelations and its new teachings
and its new visions and its new insights. You don't know, but
you're getting ready to go on a fall with that fallen prophet.
That's why so frequently for people who are not grounded in
the word of God, when they get caught up in these newfangled
false prophets, the ride is enthusiastic for a while, but the expected
end is virtually always calamity. They promise you great things
and never produce. If you were to initially examine
them on this premise, what do they want from me? You'd find
out quickly what they want, and that's your money. or allegiance
over your heart, control over your soul. Read it for yourself.
Second Peter chapter two. But what John is saying is there
are two spirits in the world, the spirit of truth and the spirit
of error. Now I'll help you again. If you don't know, how do I,
as I continue to study my word and listen to different popular
teachers and preachers and stuff, uh, discern whether or not an
individual is of God or not. Cause they all say they are.
Well, the only way you're gonna know is to ask God to help you
be so committed to biblical truth that when you listen to them,
you can tell whether or not they have an allegiance to the word
of God or not. Whether or not they have a real
allegiance to scripture. Ladies and gentlemen, let me
make this plain as I go on. It's real easy to distinguish
a true preacher from a false preacher. It's real easy to distinguish. It's just as easy to distinguish
in our day as it was in the days of Jesus. The mode of operation,
the modus operandi of the devil, who is the energy source and
power behind all false teachers, is always the same. It's the
lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
The mode of the devil is to always incite your flesh, incite your
lust, create in you and affirm in you a greed a passion for
material things. And their teachings are always
couched in such a way that either they make you espouse and establish
a relationship with God, where God becomes a bellhop to bless
you materially, or they become the vehicle between you and God
by which if you pay allegiance to them and give them enough
money, enough service, enough homage, then you get blessed
by God through them. They are the liaison of your
blessing. At the end of the day, it's always
a proposition around what God can do for you in terms of a
temporal, material, prosperity-oriented message. There's never, what
I said to you in the opening of the study, that the way of
Christianity is the way of suffering a cross-centered philosophy. that recognizes that I must decrease
and he must increase. That real authentic biblical
Christianity is about an internal transformation of character based
upon a continued revelation of the glory of God in the person
of Jesus Christ, bringing me into conformity to Christ so
that God can be pleased to use me in the life of men and women
as I am being brought into submission to Christ. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? A cross-centered, Bible-based,
spirit-aided theology humbles us, exalts God, by which God
is pleased to use us to point men and women to Christ. In other
words, in some of our most simplest terms, you'll see it in some
of the t-shirts running around here. It's not about me. And
it's not about you. It's about Him. And even that
language today, we have to arrest because one can say it's about
him and what he can do for you. Failing to realize what we're
about to get into in our study, what he has already done. So
mark the next few verses. Go back with me now to our text,
1 John 2, so we can close out chapter two. 1 John 2, verse
27 and following. But the anointing which you have
received of him Abides in you and you do not need that any
man teach you but as the same anointing teaches you of all
things and is truth and is no lie and Even as it hath taught
you you shall what abide in him? John goes back to his previous
proposition that we have an unction we have been qualified by the
Spirit of God the Spirit of God therefore is the one who secures
us in the truth and And if we continue to walk in truth, we
will avoid error. And if we avoid error, we will
not be deceived. We will not be seduced and we
will not fall away. But let's look at this statement
here and be careful to make some clear observations and your outline. Love is of God. This is where
we're going. We're getting ready to head to chapter three, but
I'm dealing with verses 28 and 29, the closing verses. In our
outline, I actually, where we are is in verse 27. So let me
just stay there before we go there. The anointing which you
have received of him abides in you and you need not that any
man teach you. Have you ever heard a person
say, I don't need a human teacher? Because God is my teacher. Have
you ever heard that? I don't need human teachers.
And they might even quote that text. And when they do, the question
that you wanna raise is this one. Who taught you that? That's the question you wanna
raise. Who taught you that? Who taught you that you don't
need teachers? Because who taught
you that Going to determine whether or not you are operating out
of the spirit of truth or the spirit of error Are you guys
following me getting ready to work this one through? If you're
confident that you don't need a human teacher to instruct you
in the Word of God Because you have been taught by someone that
first John Chapter 2 tells you that because now you have the
Holy Ghost. He's the only teacher that you need to You better ask
the question, where was the source of that interpretation of that
biblical text? Because the Bible very clearly
tells us in several places of the scripture that we need teachers. In fact, Jesus gave the commission
to the disciples in Matthew chapter 28, go into all the world and
preach the gospels. every creature and Teach them
My feeties teach them to observe all things whatsoever. I have
a commanded you We are told in first Corinthians chapter 12
that God has given gifts unto the church Ephesians chapter
4 God gave gifts unto men we are told that we are to submit
ourselves unto the the leaders of the church, for they are the
ones who preach the word of God into us, Hebrews chapter 13.
Watch this, and they watch for our souls. Are you guys following
me? That's what the word of God teaches.
So now, how do we reconcile biblical leadership, the ministry of teaching,
which is a perpetual ministry, in fact, empirically speaking,
what I mean by empirically, experientially speaking, While people may use
that term, I don't need anybody to teach me. The fact is, they
are probably still being taught by other people all the time,
just like you and I have been taught. The fact is that there's
no one that's an island and able to receive accurate revelation
from God without it coming through the humble vehicle of others
being teachers in our lives. When they, when John uses this
phrase, you have the anointing and the same anointing teaches
you of all things. And it's true. He is saying that
God is our ultimate teacher, but he is not saying that God
is our exclusive teacher. Are you guys following me when
he says, You have an anointing and you need not that any man
teach you. What he is saying is you are
not bound to and dependent upon man to teach you as if God is
not there to determine decisively what the truth is in your life.
In fact, I'll show you a couple of verses to underscore what
I mean by this. Go with me in your Bible to Hebrews
chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight describes the new covenant. The new covenant is the covenant
that you and I are under, and it will talk about an aspect
of the stipulation of that new covenant that's critical for
you and me. In Hebrews chapter eight, I'm
going to start at verse 10 and read through verse 11 and 12.
Are we there? Here's what the word of God says. For this is
the covenant that I will make with them with the house of Israel
after those days, said the Lord. Now watch this. I will put my
laws into their mind. And I will write them in their
hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me
a people. This here is a direct work of
God in the life of the people of God by which we are now qualified
to be the people of God. We'll see that when we unpack
1 John 3 next week. But notice what he says in verse
11. Now watch this. And they shall not teach every man his
neighbor. Do you see that? And every man
his brother, saying what? Know the Lord. for all shall
know me from the least to the greatest. You guys got that?
Now that's what John was saying in first John chapter two. And
here's what he's teaching. And the subsequent verses will
unfold this. There is a knowledge for the
people of God that only God can really teach. He is the ultimate teacher of
this knowledge, but he's not the exclusive teacher. The ultimate
knowledge that God has to teach a man or a woman is the knowledge
of salvation. Salvation is something only God
can convince you of. The knowledge of the gospel of
the person and work of Jesus Christ is the ultimate work of
the Spirit of God in revealing to us the truth claims of Jesus
Christ. What that means is God has secured
and has watched over the means by which his people who are called
his elect, his sheep, will certainly know what salvation is. so that
they are never misguided or led away or led into error by those
who would teach another gospel. Are you guys hearing me? The
concept of God being your teacher in the sense of your salvation
is that the spirit of God would be the one who would lead you
and guide you into the true claims of Jesus Christ. So when we read
John chapter 10, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd,
and I know my sheep and am known of mine. That's what he means. He means that when the word of
God is faithfully taught, the spirit of God works through that
word to convince men and women of what salvation is so that
people don't have to ask other people, what is salvation? When
you come to know salvation, you come to know it for yourself.
And you don't need anyone to tell you what salvation is. That's
what that is teaching. So it's not teaching the fact
that you can study your Bible and you can come to all sorts
of revelations on your own about special, unique things or deeply
profound, complexing things in the scriptures. The likelihood
of you and I coming to understand theology in a deep in a rich
in a profound way Will always be as a consequence of the collective
efforts of the church as a whole For instance, if you have set
out to know the word of god I I I guarantee you that you have had to go by
lexicons and thesauruses and anilinears And then all kinds
of Bible works commentaries exegetical books and if you say yeah pastor,
but I will study it on my own You're not being honest This
is what Jesus meant in John chapter 4 when he says other men have
labored and you have entered into their labors Are you guys
following me? The humility necessary for us
to recognize that knowledge in terms of those things that flow
out from that saving revelation that comes to your soul and saves
you is the knowledge that is a part of the interdependence
of the body of Christ as God gives different gifts to the
church to break open scripture and expound scripture and explain
scripture to give to the church so that the church can grow and
be edified. Are you hearing me? So this maverick
idea of autonomous Bible study so that you say, you know, I
don't listen to anybody is rebellion and error. It's a lie. It's a lie. If you're going to
be serious about Bible study just on a fundamental level,
you're going to have to learn how to rightly interpret the
scriptures as First Timothy chapter 2, I believe says verse 15, study
to show yourself approved unto God a workman that needs not
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If you're
going to be diligent about orthodoxy, that's what the word rightly
dividing means. You're going to have to learn languages. I mean, if you're going to learn
languages, unless the Holy Ghost is just going to teach you Greek,
Hebrew and Aramaic, then you're going to sit under somebody and
learn the disciplines of the language. Am I making some sense? And so the idea of buying the
interpretation that you don't need anyone to teach you what
the scriptures are saying is that when the word of God is
preached and the gospels proclaimed concerning the person and work
of Jesus Christ, what the spirit of God does is take that true
and convinces you that that's true so that you don't need to
ask a priest or a preacher or a bishop what's true about the
person and work of Jesus Christ. Salvation is yours to know, live,
love, and die for. Am I making some sense now? So
it's simple again. The knowledge that you have from
God through his word or through the preaching of which you don't
need anyone to affirm to you because if a human being is the
one who can, as it were, confirm salvation on you so that you
only know what you know because some human being taught you,
he can take it away from you. If a human being can give you
salvation, which is what goes on in legalistic religions, like
Catholicism and other churches, where people are told what to
believe, but they are not having a dynamic with God by which they
come to know convincingly what the truth is, we call it a saving
knowledge of God. I quoted it earlier, John 17
3. And this is eternal life, that they might know you. The
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou has said, and this
is why Jesus said, Father, sanctify them in your truth. Your word
is true. Nothing is more liberating when
the soul comes to know for themselves what salvation is. Nothing is
more liberating when you are able to say, I know whom I have
believed. And I am persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that
day. That's the knowledge I'm talking about. I know whom I
have believed. I'm persuaded that what He has
accomplished for me 2,000 years ago will secure me for all eternity. I am convinced by the Spirit
of God and the Word of God that Christ is the only way, truth,
and light. And no one comes to the Father
but by Him. Now that knowledge only God can teach you. But as
we grow in other disciplines of biblical truth, your job in
mind is to submit ourselves to teachers to help expand on that
core reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, there'd
be no purpose for missionaries, right? There'd be no purpose
for evangelism. The lost sinner cannot come to
know God on his own. He can only come to know God
through the proposition of the message of the gospel by the
church. Spirit of God then takes that
message and seals it to his heart. We're gonna learn that on Sunday
and that person says now I know I'm ready to stand for the cause
of Christ and in other areas we continue to grow by and by
good I got a few more minutes. I want to work with this and
then we'll go on so he says here in They shall know me from the
least to the greatest now notice what they will know I want you
to see this in verse 12 and third verse 12 not 13 for I will be
what? Merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities will I what? Do you see what they come to
know They come to know the forgiveness of sins in the person and work
of Jesus Christ as their own They come to know the god that
knows how to justify them freely by his grace Putting away their
sins by the death of jesus christ on calvary street God convinces
the sinner that their sins are forgiven Now only god can do
that No human being can forgive you of your sins No human being
can give you the peace that comes with the forgiveness of sin only
the Spirit of God can give you that peace That comes with the
forgiveness of sin and that comes through a knowledge of the person
and work of Jesus Christ by the way And this is why the gospel
must be preached if I be lifted up I will what draw all men unto
me and I don't mean lift it up in praise and worship I'm talking
about lift it up in the proclamation of the gospel so that you see
with the eye of faith Who Jesus is the God-man? who assumed a
human nature, walked this earth, lived a perfect life, died under
the wrath of God, swallowed up death, became the object of God's
holy vengeance and vindication for your sin. And in his resurrection,
he affirmed that God had finally put away your sin and he has
clothed you in the very righteousness that Christ earned for you by
his substitutionary work before, on, and after the cross so that
your soul says, Yes to Jesus Christ. Does that make some sense?
You have now what we call a saving revelation of Christ. Christ
is my savior. Christ is my savior. I see him
before the world began. I see him in his human nature. I see him suffering under the
wrath of God. I see him hanging on Calvary's
tree. I see him in the borrowed tomb. I see him rising again from the
dead. I see him on his throne in heaven.
I see him as the sovereign Lord of my life. That's a revelation
of God in Christ. Not everybody has that. Great
peace have all they. that see Jesus Christ that way.
That is the gospel. And this is what we're talking
about. Let's go back to our text for a moment. 1 John 2, and let's wrap up these
two thoughts here, and then I'll open the floor for a few questions
and we'll close. At verse 28 and 29, and here's what John
says as he closes out verse 28 and 29. He says, now little children
abide in him, Earlier he said, let that abide in you, which
was the gospel. He says, now little children
abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have what? Our boldness, our sense of assurance
and not be what? Before him at his coming. So
in your outline, verse 28, I raise a couple of questions or make
a couple of observations and questions. Verse 28 a abide in
him until he what comes you guys see that so the the imperative
to abide is a continuous imperative And it means to abide always
As you are abiding today, always abide. Abide in Christ until
he comes. Remain. Stay under the truth
that leads you to Christ, that gives you a sense of dependence
upon Christ, where you are trusting Christ, until you breathe your
last breath, or until he comes again. The commandment is to
always stay under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Abide in his
word, abide in his gospel, abide hoping in him, depending upon
him, trusting him, relying upon him. That's what you do until
you see him. Here is the fundamental premise upon which that imperative
is given. And it's this, you're gonna see
him. You've got to meet the Lord. That's the premise upon which
that word abide is given. Of course, if you don't understand
why John is pressing that, our last two studies have said people
have left. Many have departed. Apostasy
takes place. They went out from up from among
us because they were not of us. But you abide in him. Well, isn't
that what Jesus said? Remember, John echoes Jesus.
John, Chapter 15. I am the true vine. You are the
branches. My father is the husbandman, every branch. That remains in
me that abides in me and brings forth fruit My father purges
it so that it can bring forth more fruit every branch that
does not bring forth fruit My father takes it away cuts it
off and casts it into the fire. That's the metaphor of the union
between the believer in christ Who is the true vine by which
our life is infused into us? Our life is fused into us And
Jesus is saying the same thing. Abide in me and I will abide
in you and so you will bring forth fruit. That's a pretty
simple proposition. Just abide in him. Now notice
what he says. And now little children abide
in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not
be ashamed. Part B, the duration of our abiding
is until he comes. I know I'm reiterating it, but
it's important for me to do that. Matthews 24 13 says he that endureth
to the end the same shall be what saved That's Matthews 24
14. So there's a real sense in which
you have to accept the tension of biblical proposition Let me
help you with that because a lot of folks don't get it There is
a security for the believer upon conversion and faith manifested
in Christ if a man or woman actually believes the gospel they already
have eternal life and That eternal life is the work of regeneration
in the soul by which you have been quickened from the dead,
no longer now being despondent to God and completely enraptured
in the world. Now you are averse to the world
and you are now responding to God because he's raised you from
the dead. No longer are you giving over to carnal and earthly passions.
Your interest is in spiritual things and heavenly things. Are
you with me now? Now, you can hear God's voice. Now, you can
hear His unctions. Now, you can hear God's promptings.
Now, you can sense His providence in your life. The Holy Ghost
is abiding in you now, convincing you of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. The Spirit of God is walking
with you as the paraclete, helping you to understand what is the
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That didn't happen
before conversion. That only happened when God quickened
you from the dead. You were dead in trespasses and
sins, and God quickened you together with Christ. By grace are you
saved, and now God is walking with you. Am I making some sense? And he has given your heart a
love for the Word of God, for the truth of God, for the glory
of God, for the worship of God, for the things of God. Blessed
is he that hungers and thirsts after what? Righteousness, for
verily he shall be filled. That's what happens when you
become born again as newborn babes desire the sincere milk
of the word that you might grow thereby A person ain't hungry
for the word. He's still dead Are you hearing
me you're dead that goes back to the beginning of our study
you can pretend all you want When a person is born again,
there are several metaphors But when you are a brand new baby,
you come out the womb and you ain't ready to jump on that nipple
You sick Every baby coming out first thing they do is get at
that nipple Am I telling the truth get at that nipple till
they wear it out. It gets sore. They get to get at it so much
That's a healthy appetite evidence in life It's a healthy appetite
evidence and so you see that in the Gospels they ran after
Christ Where shall we go? You are the only one with the
words of eternal life. I They stayed in the wilderness
when he did that three-day conference. They wouldn't even go home. They
were ready to starve. We ain't leaving. That's called
being hungry for truth. The book of the Acts is filled
with that same intensity and drive. People were pursuing the
apostles everywhere they went. This is how you know a person
has been quickened by the Spirit of God. How love I thy law it's
my meditation all the day long. I hunger and thirst for your
word That's what the scriptures teach. And so that's how you
know, it's very important for you and I to Understand that
and that evidence of our hungering for God's Word is our hungering
to know him. I Want to know him. That's what
Paul said, right? and so What Paul is what John
is teaching is that we got to be careful not to Become negligent
or become Careless or disinterested or become apathetic To the natural
waning process That takes place It's true with us in relationship
to God as it is in our human relationships I'm gonna help
you with this You can, if you are foolish, get bored with God. You can, if you are foolish,
get bored with God. Come on now, can I get a witness?
And I'll tell you, honest people ain't going to hell. You can,
if you are, and you're human, you can get bored with God. This
is why the scripture exhorts us to continue in the faith. Your faith can wane. You can
find yourself just cold. This is why Jesus, in his post-resurrected,
glorified state, as the high priest and king of the church,
told the church at Ephesus, you better return to your first works. For you have lost your first
love. You better stir that thing up again, get on your knees and
pray, beg God to give your heart a rejuvenation of desire and
passion for Christ. Am I making some sense? The world
can wear you down and get you to a point where you don't open
your Bible except on Sunday. Now I'm poking people right now.
I know I'm poking people. I remember I told you guys this
last year and on our Monday program, only 5% of Christians in the
United States read their Bible in the course of a week. Now
y'all know that's true. Y'all be acting like y'all so
zealous for God, don't even open the book up. till Sunday or Friday
because you know you come here you got to open that book but
and the point is is this when you hear these exhortations in
the scripture to be careful about falling away be careful about
growing cold Hebrews is filled with it a writer to the Hebrews
is filled with it be careful about the deceitfulness of sin
Hebrews chapter 2 lest your heart be hardened as those people in
the wilderness were hardened of God. You and I are like a
wicker basket, that's Hebrews chapter two. Be careful that
you do not let the word slip away from you, the things that
you heard. And it does slip, am I telling you the truth? You
know how you can go so long without studying the Bible, you forget
what John 3, 16 said. Now what does Genesis chapter
one verse one say again? You've been a Christian 30 years
and you forgot what Genesis was. It says something about in the
beginning. Now, who was that in the beginning? You can get
cold. You can get cold. Am I telling
the truth? You can get cold. Let's close
out with this last verse here. Then I'm looking forward. Next
week is going to be, we're going to have a really good time in
first John chapter three. There's some beautiful, glorious
truths that are coming out of even just verse one, but I'm
looking forward to the whole chapter verse 29. If you know
that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness
is what? Born of him. So John closes out
chapter two by telling the believer to abide in the gospel. And in
abiding in the gospel, the father and the son promises to abide
with you. to abide under and in the anointing,
which is the presence and power and working of the Spirit of
God, by which the gospel stays vital, by which the promise of
the Father and the Son abiding in us is just a continuous delight,
that God would abide with me, all three persons, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. That's just absolutely a stupendous
thought. and that they would abide with
me and keep me and sustain me and nurture me and grow me is
a profound promise, which really ultimately is what is meant in
verse 25, eternal life. And then John says, and make
sure you stay in that place because one day you got to meet Jesus
and you want to make sure that when you meet Jesus, you are
not but naked. Got it. The word ashamed. Means to be but naked. When you
stand before God on that last day, the word of shame there
takes us all the way back to the Genesis account. And it runs
all the way through the scriptures. And it goes all the way to the
book of Revelation. I'm closing here. In the beginning, when God created
Adam and Eve, they were naked and they were not ashamed. They
had a beautiful complementarian relationship because they were
without sin. and they were walking with one
another in harmony and unity because their covering was God.
God was in their midst. God was part of their life. He
never had to ask them, where are you? That's called communion,
fellowship with God. Adam was the son of God. Eve
was the daughter of God. Adam and Eve were married. They
enjoyed nuptial relations with each other. Didn't have to wear
anything because there was nothing to hide. That's called honesty,
deep, profound honesty, a sense of clear perpiscuity, nothing
to hide. You know, when you don't have
nothing to hide, that means there's no sin there. But they fail,
right? Genesis chapter three, verses
one through seven, first thing they did was put on fig leaves. And
then they realized the fig leaves wasn't working, and so they ran
and hid behind trees. And we've been doing that ever
since. And when God said, hey, where y'all at? not that he didn't
know where they were, but they didn't know where he was because
their sin has separated between them and their God. Isaiah chapter
50 verses one through four. We were afraid when we heard
your voice because we were naked. So we ran in here. Got it. Who
told you you were naked? So the process starts from that
point. God has been covering his people
with coats of skin. Pointing to the righteousness
of Christ with which we must be clothed in order to have a
healthy relationship with God Why because we're still sinners So long as there's sin in our
nature sin in our bodies we have to be clothed in Christ's righteousness
So that when God looks at us, he doesn't see us. He sees Christ
Are you guys following me? And that clothing is my relationship
are the grounds and basis of my relationship with God. And
it's the clothing, Christ's righteousness that I must have when I die and
shed this body and stand before God on the last day, by which
he can say, you're accepted in my presence. But those who enter
into his presence on the last day without the righteousness
of Christ will be ashamed because they will be without a covering.
before a holy God. And this is what John is saying.
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is what? Born of God. Now I'll just close
right here with this. The idea of doing righteousness
for John, for Paul, for Jesus, and for you and me is the idea
of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ so that his righteousness
is given to you by which you can stand before God. What does
it mean to do the works of righteousness? Well, it means the same thing
that God said about Abraham in Romans chapter 4, that Abraham
believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness so that
the just, the righteous, shall live by what? Faith. Faith in the person and work
of Christ is our righteousness. Daily trusting Christ, daily
relying on Christ, daily depending on his righteousness as our grounds
of acceptance is the work that God grants us to do. When we
stand before God on that last day, we don't have to be ashamed
because the righteousness that we will have, which is our covering,
is his righteousness given to us freely by grace. The evidence
that I have is righteousness is that I believe God. You guys
got that? All right, let's close in prayer.
Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for our brothers and
sisters. Thank you for this study. May it bear fruit in our life
as we prepare to enter into chapter three. May we study The subsequent
passages in front of us and may we get ready to hear from you
lord Prepare us to worship you on sunday as you ought to be
worship. Give my brothers and sisters traveling mercies now
Take them to their homes in their abode safely. May their sleep
be sweet May tomorrow be a blessing to you and may sunday be a joyful
day of absolute jubilation and worship You are worthy to be
praised. We pray in