I want you to think about that
proposition, what it means to abide forever as John will seek
to help us. He'll help us understand the
the tremendous blessing that the child of God has to be called
out of this world and into the kingdom of God. Terminology that
if you Don't think about these statements They won't they won't
do what they're supposed to do and that is to blow you away
in your soul with the prospect of the great and precious Promises
that those who believe on him Should have if you think about
the idea of abiding with God forever abiding with God forever
What a thought. What a thought that those who
trust him and those who rest in him and those who are called
to live for his glory are promised to abide with him forever. What an exceeding great and profoundly
overwhelming thought that we would abide forever. And these
kinds of statements which run both from the Old Testament and
the New Testament are designed for the believer to lay hold
of eternal life at the expense of everything that would threaten
that promise. And so this is what we're working
on now in John. John taught us in 1 John 2 that we are to love
God, to love God. And that from an evangelical
and a gospel-centered perspective, according to 1 John 2, for us
to love God today is for us to truly believe on his son, Jesus
Christ. That what the Old Testament taught
in terms of the Shema, hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord,
him only shall you serve. And you shall serve the Lord
with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, which is the first
leg of the law. It's a vertical relationship
between the people of God and God. And then the second leg
of the law is to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments,
Hang all the Word of God, all the commandments of God. When
we have a right relationship with God and our relationship
with God puts us in that designated place of privilege and promise
and purpose and perspective, then it's going to manifest itself
by our loving our neighbor. This is the whole tenor of what
John is getting at when we are working through here in 1 John,
what it means to be true Be in true fellowship with God to be
in true fellowship with God is to love God But to love God is
to believe on his son Jesus Christ So John chapter 2 is exercising
us in love John chapter 1 exercised us in light John chapter 2 is
exercising us in love. He said that we are to love God
then he said we ought to love our brother and then he said
That we are not to love the world So in first John chapter two,
we have two positives. And those two positives are love
for God and neighbor or brother. We can argue or debate those.
And in that same chapter, love not. world and we are about to be
schooled by John in What it means to love God and love our neighbor
is to not love this world system So that we might actually be
able to manifest ourselves as the sons and daughters of God
Note them with me in first John chapter 2 verse 15 through 17
to set the context for verse 17 where in the promise lies
love not the world but Neither the things that are in the world,
if any men love the world, the love of the father is what? So
here we have a mutually exclusive principle set in the context
of a prohibition and a warning. If we are those who are found
not loving this world system, and we will revisit that here
in a moment, then it will prove that the love of the father is
in us. If we have the love of the father
in us, we will have a natural resistance to the system of this
world, which is hostile towards God. The way you and I will be
tested as to whether or not we love God is that when the world
system seeks to impose itself upon you, you will oppose that
world system. That's what the whole lesson
for the rest of the chapter is going to be about. So John says
for that's your Hena clause, connecting clause, all that's
in the world. is the lust of the flesh, and
the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And he reiterates
it, sisters and brothers in Christ, this is not of the father, it
is of the world. Now last week we dealt with those
three sort of axioms that describe this world system. The first
is the lust of the flesh. exceeding passionate drives of
the carnal nature. The word flesh there means fallen
nature. All that's in the world is the
lusts of our fallen nature. Now, if you were in class with
us last night, you will immediately grasp a vivid picture of the
state of the world in that antediluvian period prior to the flood, wherein
God said all that was going on in the world was the evil imagination
of the hearts of men continually. And by their evil thoughts and
imaginations, the whole earth was corrupted to such a degree
that God's only conclusion was to destroy it. Now, when we have
those kinds of commentaries about God's view on the world, what
God is not What God is not condemning is his physical creation, the
cosmos in general are proper. He is condemning the hearts of
men that manifest and express themselves in hostile antipathy
towards God, making themselves the center of the universe and
using God's creation in order to fulfill their carnal desires. So the lust of the flesh is not
merely the lust of our physical bodies that desire water and
desire food and desire air and desire clothing. I want you to
understand that when he says the lust of the flesh, he's talking
about our carnal desires. The natural man can not receive
the things of God. The natural man does not love
the law of God. So in our fallen nature, we are
adversaries to those things that constitute biblical truth. Does
that make some sense? That's the reason our world is
in the mess that it's in now So john says it's not possible
for you to have the divine love of god deposited in your soul
Which makes you a child of god and at the same time coexisting
in your heart Is an absolute passion to fulfill the lust of
your carnal nature Those two cannot coexist in the same sphere
He's saying if you do have a love for this world system if you
approve of this system If this system is something that just
fits your fancy, if you are just utterly delighted in and expecting
of being able to be gratified by the promises of this life,
this world system, then it's an evidence that the love of
God is not in us. Are you guys with me? It's an
evidence. What that means also, if by implication, if you want
to ferret this out before we work through the rest of our
text is this, when you become a child of God and the spirit
of God pours the love of God into your hearts, by the Holy
Ghost, it immediately creates a conflict in your soul. It creates
in you a natural antipathy for the present world in which you
live. In other words, one of the evidences of being an authentic
believer is that now you are a stranger to this world. This is what David said in Psalm
119. I am a stranger in the earth. Hide not your commandments from
me. See, if I were of the world,
the world would love me and I would love the world system. I would
approve of it. It would make sense. I wouldn't have any qualms
with the way the world is going. But since I am of God, not only
do I hate the world system, the world system hates me. It's an
evidence that I'm a child of God. Are you with me so far?
This is the part in the believer by which we are prompted constantly
to cry Abba father because we are presently Separated from
him as Christ was and daily threatened by the carnal nature and the
sinful things of this world One of the struggles we have is with
the temptations of this world system. Is that not true? Secondly
the lust of the eyes you guys see that All that's in the world
is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye. And we talked
about this last week that the lust of the eye becomes for mankind
that vehicle and prism through which it begins to work out its
carnal passions because the eye gate is access or gateway to
the soul to fill it with ideas and notions by which it will
labor then within its thought life to manifest its passions
and desires outwardly. without visual aid or visual
stimulus or visual function, we wouldn't have a context or
a canvas upon which we would splash the images of our carnal
passions or have that with which we reciprocate in our carnal
passions of which we would affirm and desire in their pursuit. Adam and Eve fell into transgression
and sin by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil as we learned last night the sons of God saw the daughters
of men I gate They desired them the lust of the flesh and they
took them wives of all that they chose they acted on it So we
see that principle there. That's the same triad or axiom
that's set up here the lust of the flesh Will through the eye
gate pursue the satisfaction and gratification of its own
objectives and purposes, and then to culminate this world
system, the pride of life. You guys see that? All that's
in the world is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and
the pride of life. Now, this third one is subtle, but it will
trip up everyone, believer and not. Because you and I as believers
are just like the non-believer, the unbelieving person, We are
still humans with all sorts of cravings and needs. Those cravings
and needs set us up for temptations to derive approval from the world
system. Those cravings and needs set
us up to derive our approval from the world system. The cravings
in us that set us up for the approval of the world system
are the craving of notice. visibility, importance, fame,
success, accomplishments. Please hear what I'm saying.
The pride of life are the boastful accomplishments of our biography. That's a way to translate it.
All that's in the world is the pride, the boastful accomplishments
of our biography. The word life is bios, from which
we get the term biology, and that is a fundamental discipline
by which we observe the way the world works, the way life works.
If you study biology, you study how organisms work, and how plant
life works, and how human life works, and the food chain, and
all of those dynamics. But biology also spreads itself
into those pragmatic functional elements that constitute human
life. Sociology, how we interact, and
the drives and passions of human nature in terms of its goal orientation. We act out of our need. Do we
not? You guys act like I'm speaking
some brand new language or something. We act out of our need. And because
we act out of our need, we are vulnerable. The threefold nature
of the child of God is that he's spiritual, he's psychological
or soulish, psuche, psychological, soulish, and that he's physical. I've said it to you before. Here's
an axiom. You can take this and run with
this. This is why I build this type of thesis concerning Christian
anthropology. When I am led by the spirit,
that means my soulish desires are brought into captivity by
the will of God. to the degree that my soulless
desires are brought into captivity by the will of God, my physical
body then is only a slave to the spirit. When I am led by
the flesh, then my spiritual man suffers the lack of rightful
authority in my life because my carnal nature now is making
the choices that will gratify the ego, the me, the need. When
the flesh rules the carnal man, my physical body now becomes
a slave of the flesh and it seeks to fulfill the passions of the
flesh. Are you hearing me? This is where
the conflict comes in. And this is what we call walking
in the flesh. It's important for you to know.
So now that you have that basic strategy for the internal conflict
and warfare, you can kind of see how you fare in the course
of a day or a week, how that sometimes you are definitely
walking in a triumphant way as the sons and daughters of God
in the spirit, but at other times you are giving way to the lust
of the flesh and experiencing the conflict that you choose
to have because you choose to allow your soulless needs to
have more dominion than the spiritual man. Is that true? That's the
battle that you are fighting. What John is telling us that
our whole world system is built upon, premised upon those three
axioms, the lust of our fallen nature, epithemia, the deep and
profound desires, the temperature rises, thermometer, epi, deep
profound temperature rising of our aspirations and desires called
lust, the epitome of the eye, the eye gate becomes a absolute
cesspool of options like the proverbial candy machine with
all of the different choices. You just hit a button and fulfill
it. So the psalmist said, not the
psalmist rather, The preacher said in Ecclesiastes, the eye
is not filled with seeing, like the ear is not filled with hearing.
And then it goes on to speak concerning the proverbial language
of the leech's daughter crying, give, give, and how the barren
womb is never satisfied and how that hell never says it's enough. These are metaphors for lust.
Are you hearing me? So that one must know that the
way to deal with lust is not by fulfilling his needs because
lust can never be satisfied. Are you hearing me? The way you
deal with lust is deny it. You can't deal with lust by seeking
to fulfill its needs because lust has no, it has no bottom. It has no parameters, has no
boundaries, has no limits. Lust is just like hell. It can
go on and on and on and on. It eats up everything around
it. You too. So he says that this is not of
the father but of the world and the world is passing away now.
Here we go John now is going to give us a step back from this
process with which you and I are fighting every day for which
you have to get on your knees and ask God for mercy and Then
he says the world is what? Passing away. That's this world
System now. I want you to put guy God's eyes
on now the world system is passing away. That proposition needs
to be heard by the child of God. That statement needs to be grasped
by the child of God. The child of God must know that
while he is stuck in this matrix called this world system, It
may not feel like it or appear that way, but this world system
is presently passing away. Now, the benefit of that knowledge
is this. At some point in time in the near future, what is will
be no more. At some point in time in the
near future, what is will be no more. Now, if you know that
this present world eventually will dissolve In fervent heat,
the elements waxing old and this present world system being consumed
in a conflagration by God to be renewed in righteousness,
this present world system will be demolished. I'm talking about
the way people act, the way people think, its worldviews, its ideologies,
its ultimate construct, its objective to get rid of God, its objective
to enthrone man. This system is fading away. Now,
John said this in approximately 60 AD. 60 AD for us is almost 2000 years
ago. And if it was passing away then,
is it not even more so passing away now in front of our faces? Now, see, this is why you've
got to have biblical eyes on, because in order to see this
old, crickety, fading, soon to be abolished world system for
what it is, You've got to see it the way God sees it. And God
says, it's already in process of passing away. The form of
the Greek is in what we call the perfect tense. Now a perfect
tense in the Greek means that something is already happening
and there is nothing inadequate about that process. We are fully
in process of fading away. We have to worry about the fact
that there's going to be a reversal. We are already on the downside
of this world system Now the believer needs to know that The
believer needs to know that especially in light of the next statement
now watch this This world system is passing away and the less
thereof to Amazing Did you hear what he's just saying? and that
very dynamic that's in you that causes you to struggle and toil
with obedience to Christ and maximizing your time versus minimizing
your time and distracting you instead of aiding and abetting
you on the course with Christ, you know that lust? It's fading
away too. See, so you can't let the present
empirical dynamics of what you are going through dictate to
you Its agenda or its destiny because it will tell you that
it's going to be around forever Okay, so I'm gonna be a little
humorous here just to break the ice before we get into some of
the difficult stuff The whole dynamics of the world system
is really predicated upon the idea of living forever, too It's
working on it is seeking to do that. It has a fear of death
Hebrews chapter 2 gripping it and it wants to do everything
it can to possibly survive, even if it has to work out the process
of passing the agenda to the next generation, which it labors
to do. That's the objective of the devil. That's the objective
of the fallen nature I'm not gonna live but 80 or 90 years
by reason of strength or maybe a little more and then I'm gonna
die Let me spend all my life passing this agenda to the next
generation so I can vicariously live through them, right? Maybe
somebody will discover a life serum that I can take that will
allow me to live forever These are the foolish notions of this
present fallen world system But every day, every individual that's
part of this fallen world system is recognizing, watch this, that
they are passing away too. See, we are getting older. Isn't that right? So where much
of the damnable sin takes place in the life of human beings is
in that youthful dynamic and realm of power where possibilities
are enormous because our passions are at their peak. And because
we think when we're young, we're going to live forever. And then
we take on the world. and we do magnificent feats and
we become the giants of Genesis chapter six, the renowned men
of Genesis chapter six. And those men and women who become
giants and renowned are the ones who have the biggest fist in
God's face. So long as they are young, but as they get older and the
lust that's in them starts to wane, they lose that zeal. Are you hearing me? This is why
you see a lot of old people trying to come to Christ when they get
old. Because they just, the libido is gone and the lust is gone. Like B.B. King said, the thrill
is gone. Right? Isn't that what he said?
That's for us brothers who love the blues. The thrill is gone. And see when the thrill is gone,
like the preacher said in Ecclesiastes 12, nothing is coming after the
thrill is gone, but evil days. You young people don't know nothing
about that. But the evil days will tell you that God was right
and you were wrong. Am I telling the truth? The evil
days will tell you the world is passing away, you are passing
away, and you better answer the question while you are still
here, are you on the world's side or are you on the Father's
side? Because you're passing away just
as quick as the world. See what I'm getting at? How
pragmatic and practical this is. Chronology, if you are a
believer, is on your side. It reminds you every day that
you must extricate yourself from the notion that you are going
to be delivered by this world system. The older you get, the
happier you ought to be in Christ. Am I telling the truth? Because
what it does is it ushers you closer to the promise of the
reality of what we're getting ready to talk about now. Look
at what he says. and the world passes away in
the lust thereof, but the man or the woman or the people that
do the will of God do what? Abide forever. Do you see that? That's the proposition that John
lays out to you. That's the proposition that John
lays out to me. John argues emphatically that
the world is passing away. This maniacal antichrist false
prophet beast system, which threatens to take over and rule forever
is passing away. Our bodies are passing away. Our neighbors are passing away. Our lust is passing away. All things are passing away that
do not correspond to the will of God. Therefore, the believer
has to ask himself how important is the will of God in my life
in relationship to eternity. Are you hearing me? Because this
statement, but he that doeth the will of God abides forever
is the promise from the beginning of creation to the end of time
from God to us. What John therefore tells his
church in this first century is keep your focus clear. Keep your mind on the goal. Stay fixed on the objective for
which God called you. And that objective is the will
of God, the will of God. So we have to work through that.
Abiding forever. Point number one, your outline
means abiding in him. Abiding forever means abiding
in him. Of course, now I'm using a pronoun. Who is the Him? Christ. Or we could say God. And what
I mean by that is all three persons. Abiding in Him is to abide forever. No one is going to abide forever
who does not abide in Him. If that proposition is true,
then when John says, he that doeth the will of God shall abide
forever, We must therefore recognize that the will of God means to
be in Christ. Are you hearing me? So go with
me in your Bible. Let's run through a few verses to reestablish this
so that we can be clear on this idea of abiding forever. John
chapter eight, verse 31 through 35. Of course, we're going here
because John is merely echoing the master. And as he echoes
the master, we are blessed because A good Bible teacher, a good
pastor, a good shepherd will only echo what the great shepherd
has said if we want the sheep to be blessed. John chapter 8,
notice what it says in verses 31 through 35. Are you there?
Here's what the master said, John is echoing it, and we are
called upon to believe it. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, if you do what? Does the same word abide? Abide if you abide in my word
If you continue in my word, then you are my what? Okay, so to
abide in him also means that we are Serious about his word
which will make us disciples if you continue in my word Then
are you my disciples? indeed, and you shall know the
truth and the truth shall what I So abiding in Christ's word
brings about a dynamic which you discover. And that discovery
is this, that if you are legitimately capable of abiding in God's word,
you're going to become his disciple. The reason why people are not
his disciple is because they do not abide in the word. See,
the net consequence of coming under the influence of scripture
is that it changes your life. The net consequence of coming
under the scriptures, abiding in the scripture, is that it
changes your life. See, whatever you give yourself over to that
you become. Transformation is a matter of
subjecting yourself to the very thing for which you are in front
of and submit to. When a believer submits to the
word, the word is going to enter into his life and his life is
going to be informed by the word and that life is going to take
shape and that shape is going to look like a disciple. Are
you hearing me? You cannot abide in the word
continually without the word transforming you. Now you can
abide by the word, what a difference a preposition makes. You may
abide with the word, around the word, but when the word is abiding
in you, it's a penetrating preposition, which is pregnant with promise.
If that word is in you, it's gonna metabolize, it's gonna
transform you. it's not gonna be in you that
was the whole discourse of Christ with the rulers and the people
of the Jews the reason why you don't know me is because my word
is not in you if my word were in you you would know me and
you would know where I come from that's because the word would
do what the word said it would do if it ever gets on the inside
are you guys hearing so When people are able to frequent and
be around church and join church and hang out in church for 10,
20 years, but the life doesn't change, the word's not on the
inside. Be sure of that. Be sure of that. They did not abide in his word.
So here's what John tells us. If we continue in his word, we
will become his disciples and we will know liberty. Sorry,
first we will know true and true shall liberate us. That's verse
32. Verse 33, then answered him,
they answered him, we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage
to any men. How are you saying that you shall
be made free? See verse 33, it's an evidence
that the word wasn't in them. Because they're asking a question
about a dynamic that is sure to take place when it's on the
inside of you. Had they had the word in them,
they would have simply said, amen. Now notice what it said,
verse 34. Jesus answered and says, verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever is committing sin, whosoever
is in a constant state of sinning, whosoever is living in sin as
a lifestyle is the slave of sin. Do you see it? Isn't that what
Jesus said? He's trying to help them understand
the problem here. Verse 35. And the slave does
not abide in the house for what? See, we're talking about what?
Abiding forever. What Jesus said, if you are a
slave, you don't abide in the house forever. You might frequent
the house. You may have a part in God's
larger corporate plan. You may even be part of the ministry,
but so long as you are a slave, you have no promise of an eternal
body abiding. That's what Jesus said. Now,
just to make it more objective, if it's threatening to you, here's
how this works. The rulers of the church thought they were
secure with God because they were stewards of the scriptures
and because they knew the Tanakh, because they were in a position
of authority over the people. What they failed to realize is
that their knowledge of the word was not a knowledge of the word
on the inside of them, subjected to the truth of that word, which
would have made them very much aware of what was really qualified,
what was really required for them to be in the house forever.
Had they had a proper understanding of the word when the Lord Jesus
Christ showed up, they would have known that he was the household
Lord. They would have known he was
the household ruler. They would have known that he
was the curious of the house. And then they would have received
him because they would have been like him for, they would have
been family members in the house looking for the head son over
all the other sons in the house. but they were merely slaves in
the house, doing the eikonomos or stewardship work in the house,
thinking that by doing the stewardship work, that they had a ground
in case for being there forever. The problem is, is that they
thought that abiding forever meant their own works righteousness
as a standing before God would secure them for all eternity.
But their own works righteousness only made them to stand in opposition
of the household Lord, which Christ was. So when the household
Lord came, they were threatened by him, weren't they? Their threat
by him should have warned them that they had a wrong notion
of God. The internal threat that a person
has when Christ is preached is to warn you that your understanding
of the word of God is wrong. The fear you have when Christ
exercises the lordship that is rightfully his over his creatures,
that fear that one has ought to indicate that you're not in
a proper place with the household ruler. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? So what Jesus is teaching in
John chapter eight in verse 35 is the difference between, and
that's point number two in your outline, sonship and slaves. Do you see it? Sonship and slaves. Mark what he says again in verse
35, the slave does not abide in the house forever, but the
son abides forever. Got it. The son abides forever. If we're gonna abide forever,
we're gonna have to be in him. If we're gonna abide forever,
we actually have to be sons. See what I'm getting at? See
what I'm getting at? This is called a family affair.
And it's important to know, it may be hard to grasp, but it's
important to know. What constitutes the security
of the believer in terms of eternally abiding with God is not so much
what they know, but who they know. It's not so much their
position with respect to duties and service in the house. It
is a matter of sonship. The people that will abide with
God forever will be the sons and daughters of God. Does that
make some sense? Because the distinct difference
between the sons and daughters of God and the rest is the difference
between slavery and freedom. Now, legalism enslaves you. The gospel liberates you. Legalism
sets you up to work for your salvation. The gospel makes you
a son that abides forever. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is what Christ is laying down. And this is what
John is saying too. And this is why when John can
say, whosoever does the will of God, he's essentially saying
to do the will of God is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To
do the will of God is to be in Christ. To do the will of God
is to be a son of God. That's exactly what Jesus teaches.
That's precisely what he teaches. So follow me with this. You will
see this as well. Matthew chapter seven, uh, verse,
uh, let me go to John chapter six, 39 and 40. Then I'll go
to Matthew seven, John six, 39 and 40. We are reiterating what
John is teaching in first John chapter two, verse 17. The world is passing away. It's
less just passing away, but the men are the women that's doing
the will of God. Abide forever Here's the will of God expressed
explicitly by Jesus to us in John chapter 6 verses 39 through
37 through 40, but I'm gonna read just 39 and 40. Are you
there? And this is the father's what? Which have sent me that
all which he has given me I should lose nothing But should raise
it up again at the last day verse 40 and this is the will of him
that sent me. Now mark the will of God that
everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him may what? There it is. There it is. There it is. And you know what's
glorious about the proposition? It comes from the head son to
all the potential sons to let them know that abiding forever
really constitutes you believing on him. Do you see it? And here's
what he says. This is my father's will. If
you guys want to know what the will of God is, this is God's
will. You know, people get really wrapped up in the will of God. I may get an email every other
month with that question. Pastor, so how can I know the
will of God? Easy. The will of God is to believe
on him whom he has sent. Did you guys get that? This is
how simple it is. From that nexus, from that center,
will manifest all the other inferior wills of God, if you will, pertinent
to your life calling. But apart from this central will,
believing on Christ, all the other wills mean nothing. The
will of God for your life, whether you should be married or not,
means nothing. The will of God should you get this job that
job means nothing The will of God whether you should do this
or do that means nothing The one will that circumscribes and
establishes all of the wills is this do you believe on his
son? Did you get that that's the will
that matters and no other will matters Apart from that will
that's the will that secures a soul inside the household for
all eternity And this is the will of him that sent me that
all that believe on me should have everlasting life and I'll
raise him up at the last day. Verse 40 shuts the believer up
to the permanent promise and prospect of eternity. All who
see the son, how are we going to see the son through the preaching
of the gospel? All who believe on him, how are we going to believe
on his son through the preaching of the gospel? What does that
merit? It merits eternal life. Believing.
is the evidence that we have eternal life. That's the prospect
of scripture. Now go with me and your Bibles to Matthew chapter
721. One more verse before we go and
break into the rest of our outline. Matthew chapter 721. Now you
know this context because it's been approached many times in
preaching and teaching, but I simply want to remind you one more time
of the rude awakening of those who fail to recognize the essential
nature of the gospel's call to union with Christ, which is the
ultimate will of God. That if a person gets involved
in Bible study, gets involved in church, gets involved in religion,
gets involved in doing this, that, and the other thing, which
all things are good, so long as they are subservient to this
one fundamental objective, and that is knowing Christ through
the gospel. Apart from knowing Christ through
the gospel, all these other things are evil. Are you hearing me? Going to church is evil. Reading
your Bible is evil. Doing good works is evil. Getting
baptized is evil. Seeking signs and wonders is
evil. Speaking in tongues is evil. Praying and fasting is
evil. All of it is evil if it's disconnected
from the foundation for which those things have their importance,
and that is Christ. They're gross evils, by the way,
because not only do they set you up to be deceived, as we're
going to see, they deny God's glory in that central and unique
and necessary work of atonement and redemption through his darling
son, Jesus Christ, which is the door into the kingdom. All this other stuff is a liar
and a thief and a robber coming in some other way than the front
door. This is why gospel preaching
ought to always be the ultimate objective of the church. Shake
the world up to hell with gospel preaching. Bring it to its knees
with the challenge of the proposition of gospel, true declaring to
men and women, there is no other way to be saved than that you
buy, bow the knee to Jesus Christ. You don't even give people room.
You don't even let them contemplate some other way. You don't count
in this religion. I Was reading today as I'm working
on my Monday show How the Billy Graham organization Has basically
removed the Mormon Church from being a cult status on his website
platform so that it can somehow accommodate those who would want
to vote for Mitt Romney and Through the billy graham institution
because you see ministries influence people, right? Ministries influence
and and what bigger name than billy graham. Most people believe
billy graham is a true prophet. They most most people do They
don't search it out. That's just something like we
learned last night. Most people just buy what the Multitude says
what the majority says they don't check it out. They don't go through
the archives They don't go through the history, but the man showed
his colors last night He showed how much more politics is important
to him than the truth of the gospel. So he removes the cold
status of the Mormons to basically say that they are under the umbrella
of Christianity too. Some of y'all might've thought
that. Now watch this. You speaking for yourself, but
out of all these people here, somebody probably believes that
because we know that people are weak to the allure of ecumenism. We know that. We know that it's
in our natural makeup to want to get along with everybody.
It's true. Most, half of y'all think that
Catholics and, and, and the evangelical church or Protestants, uh, at
least feel philosophically or theologically are in the same
camp. Most people believe that Catholics
don't believe that now I'm talking about Catholic doctrine. I ain't
talking about the folks that go to the Catholic church. They're
just like the folks that go to the evangelical church. They
don't know what they believe. But Catholicism in its dogmas
and doctrinal points will tell you that the Christian church,
the Protestant church, the evangelical church is apostate, that they
are the only true church. See, I love a person that don't
lie. Even if you're wrong, I like
you if you tell the truth, even if you're wrong. See, so the
Catholic church, It holds that those of us who are evangelicals
who believe in the Bible alone, and grace alone, and scripture
alone, and faith alone, and Christ alone, and the glory of God alone
is heretical. that we're damnable and going
to hell, that we can't be saved because we believe in justification
by faith apart from words. We're going to hell. That's what
they say. Cool. I understand that they can't prove it through
the scriptures, but that's their position. But the moment they
pretend that Catholics and evangelicals and Protestants, we all serve
the same Lord. Now you're now you hoodwinking
me. Now you're compromising. So the Billy Graham Institution
has proven what many of us have said long, long ago. They never
preached the gospel. They compromise so many times
throughout the history of the ministry. They're just showing
their true colors. Now, are you hearing what I'm saying? So what,
what Jesus is teaching in the word of God and what the scriptures
are teaching is the narrow way of salvation and security for
eternity, not through a religious institution, not through a denomination,
not through a church, not through a set of rules and regulations
and victims built up by religious men, but through the narrow door
of faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works. That's Matthew
chapter seven. Wide is the way that leads to
destruction. Narrow is the way that leads
to light. Straight is the gate and few
there be that find it. And then he says over in verse
21, these words, not everyone, that saith unto me, Lord, Lord
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Got it. Now the picture
here is this coming up to the pearly gate at the end of your
religious life under the influence that all the good works you did
while you were down here ought to be your resume and qualification
for Peter to open the door to let you in. That's the context. You get to the door and the angel
says, or the Lord Jesus says, why do you think you should be
letting to my kingdom? Well, because I did this, I did
that. I did the other thing. I did
this, that, and the other thing. It's on the list. You, you, you
know that it's on the list, Lord. I can, in fact, we did all that
in your name. We cast out devils. We healed
the sick. We did miracles. We did evangelism. We missionized
the world. Isn't that what it says? We did
all these things, verse 22. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? You got that? And
in your name have cast out devils and in your name did many wonderful
works, verse 23. And then will I profess, says
the Lord, unto them, what? What is he demanding for entrance
and access into heaven? Union with Christ. Do you hear it? He's not demanding
your list of performances that you engaged in down here. They
have another purpose. But when it comes to access into
glory, it must be based upon sonship. It's not based upon
duty. This list made them slaves, not
sons. Am I making some sense? What
makes you think you have the right to come into heaven, Jesse
Gisten? because I believe on your son,
Jesus Christ. Cause I've been born again. I have the spirit
of adoption by which I cry Abba father. I've been calling on
your name because you're my only hope for glory. You're my righteousness.
You're my wisdom. You're my sanctification. You're
my redemption. You're my salvation. You're my
hope for glory. Without you, I'm going to perish.
You think that'll get me through the door? You think that'll get
me through the door? Will it get me through the door?
because it is an appeal based upon a relationship with a person,
not a system. Got it? And this is what Jesus
is teaching. This is why he gives us this
abrupt analogy in this parabolic language of saying, I didn't
know you. I didn't know you. So the pressure or the point
of tension is around knowing the Lord Jesus. Go with me now
back to our text. Let's work through verses 18
and 19. We're gonna just work through verses 18 and 19, then
we'll come back and do 21 through the rest next week, the Lord
willing. 1 John 2, verse 17, John is turning the corner as
he deals with his precious flock to encourage them to be reminded
that the fundamental thing in the midst of all that's going
on in their life, which we're getting ready to deal with the
context, the kairos, the season in which that church is going
through, What he's telling his church that is going through
all the difficulty that they are going through is that they
must, must keep in mind at all times that their hope is in the
gospel that was preached to them at the first. That's what you're
going to see deriving out of this exhortation here. Watch
how this works. The world's passing away verse
17, the less thereof, but he that does the will of God abides
forever. Verse 18. First line, watch this,
little children. That's our little phrase again,
a philotechnon, and that is the endearing phraseology of a father
to his children, which means the words that he is He's sharing
with them in terms of love God, love your neighbor, love not
the world, the world's passing away. These are not admonitory
things in a negative sense. This is a father telling his
children how to successfully navigate this world. Now he's
getting ready to remind them how much he cares about them,
that not only does he want them to be clear on the geography
and the social conditions of his world, of their world in
which they're in, but now he wants them to to focus in on
and crystallize their thoughts upon the moment. Watch this.
Here's what he says, little children, it is the last what? Now your Bible says time, the
Greek word is ora, from which we get in our English language
hour. It is the last hour. That's an apex in the Greek and
what it means is this is one of those words in the New Testament
that is only used one time. You won't find this Greek word
in the New Testament. You'll find it in Greek culture,
you'll find it in coin a Greek in the 1st century, 3rd century,
2nd century, what have you. John knows what he's doing when
he uses this word, but you won't find this word commonly used. This is why the translators translated
it time, but it is the word ora, ora from which we get the word
hour, hour. Now, what is an hour? is one
part of a 24 hour day, right? Is one 24th of a day. It's still wet up here. And so
when we talk about a day, a day, there we go, or a time, which
is what the translators used, or an hour, what we are doing
is we are designating epic or a situation now a day is longer
than an hour right but a time is longer than a what a day when
a person says the hour is at hand what are they talking about
they're talking about a thing being right up on you isn't that
true so I'm not gonna go through a lot of scriptures with this
I just want to I want to stimulate your thought on this because
that phraseology that John is using comes out of the apocalyptic
language of the book of Daniel. Daniel's book about the church
in Babylon gives us this tension between the people of God in
the midst of tribulation in a foreign culture, always in danger. The
word hour is used when God is about to do something immediately
like this in that same hour Nebuchadnezzar took Shadrach Meshach and Abednego
and cast them into the fiery furnace in that same hour Darius's
servants took Daniel and threw him in the lion's den. Are you
hearing me? And so sometimes even in the
gospel of John Jesus would say my hour is not yet, but yours
is always at hand The idea of the hour is the idea that a crisis
is right in front of you Are you hearing me? It's a little
bit more alarming a little bit more apprehensive than a day
Because in the scriptures in an eschatological way when we
talk about the day of the Lord the day of the Lord can encompass
a long period of time and And in fact, for us presently, the
day of the Lord has been 2000 years. We are living in the days
of the Lord. These are called the last days. Hebrews chapter one in many ways
and in diverse manners, did our did our did God speak to our
fathers through the prophets? But in these last days, he has
spoken to us in his son. He said in Hebrews chapter 9,
26, that the Lord Jesus Christ has appeared in the end of the
world, putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Therefore,
he has appointed unto us once to die and after that, the judgment.
So we believe that we are in the end of the days. We are in the end time. John
uses the language of the hour, because when you reduce a day
to an hour, you confine the events to a very narrow, tight experience
that you now can focus in on in much more of a simplistic
way than a 24 hour a day. If you were to ask me what went
on over the last 24 hours, I would have a hard time explaining to
you everything that went on. I can tell you some things, but
I couldn't tell you everything. Could you tell me everything
that you went through in the last 24 hours specifically and
in detail? But I can tell you what happened
in the last hour. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So here's what John says. This is where we're gonna stop
We'll open the floor for some questions and close. Here's what John is
saying little children It is the last hour and you have heard
that Antichrist shall what? You've already been taught that
there's an Antichrist system an Antichrist doctrine and Antichrist
Church an Antichrist world system an antichrist who is coming to
oppose the truth of Christ. Now watch this. You've heard
that he is coming. Here it is. And even now are
there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last hour. So you know what he does. He
ties that hour into a period where in Antichrist systems and
Antichrist doctrine and Antichrist teaching and Antichrist worldviews
and Antichrist culture becomes prominent and nemesis in the
life of the people of God in other words The last hour is
not a chronological hour It's an hour of condition and status
and state of being in terms of the culture The church is in
this last hour because it's facing in the first century, A.D. 50, A.D. 60, where John is writing this
epistle. It's facing the emergence of
an antichrist system. In first century Rome, when our
Lord was crucified, dead, buried and risen, the church had the
experience of preaching the gospel from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria
and the uttermost parts of the world for approximately 30 years. 30 years, the gospel spread,
but about, um, 80, 66, a little bit before that, because the
Jews were persecuting the Christians, the Christians were also suffering
persecution from the Romans, but the Roman empire started
really rising up with hostility towards both the Jews and the
Christians. And in the context and matrix of the hostility of
the Roman secular powers, of which Nero was one of them, and
the Roman Titus, poised to destroy Jerusalem, both the church in
the Middle East, Palestine, and in the regions of Rome, the gospel
church was primarily Palestinian. You know, those folks who, through
the political, diatribe of the day, try to get Christians to
hate Palestinians because they are Palestinians. What Christians
don't know is most Palestinians throughout history were the Christians
you read about in your Bible. Didn't that wild? But see, that's
why I say you shouldn't be deceived by politics, because what politics
will do is choose your enemies for you and your enemies, often
the friends that you should be loving. And so, Jesus was preaching to many Palestinians
all throughout his gospel ministry. Folks are becoming saved. John
is prophesying of the encroaching apostasy and the encroaching
persecution that his church would experience shortly called the
hour, called the hour. Now, what we're gonna do next
week is look at John unpack what happens in that hour. Now follow
me now, cause this is going to be a mirror on us. What happens
in that hour when you wake up and the policies of the government
is round up all the Christians and throw them in prison. What
happens in that hour when you wake up and you find that the
policies of the government is if you believe in only one God,
you will be thrown in prison. What happens when you wake up
in the policy is belief in the triune God, father, son, and
Holy Ghost is a crime punishable by death. What happens when you
wake up in that hour and you come to discover that a lot of
people that you love have defected from the gospel because of a
fear of persecution and have gone back to Judaism and have
gone back to paganism. are now ready to turn you in
and throw you into the synagogue because you believe on Jesus.
Are you hearing me now about how the context is working? See,
when we live in a culture that seems to be amenable or accepting
or indifferent or apathetic to the gospel, that's the time when
you and I should be drinking in Christ most deeply. During
the free times, our soul should be so immersed in the things
of God so that when the world is capable of taking away from
us what it can, it won't be able to take away from us what it
can't. So it takes away from us our
time. So it takes away from us our jobs. So it takes away from
us our peace. because its policies are pervasive
everywhere. And every time we turn around,
we got to deal with an antichrist policy that threatens our job
if we say something. So it takes away our friends
because our friends become cowards of the gospel too. And then they
have to turn on us because we're standing for the gospel. So it
takes away our sons and daughters because our sons and daughters
are not yet born again. So it takes away our spouses.
because we were just religious as the whole group. But once
the fire came, the purgation came, the test came. This is
what we're going to unpack next week. See, the purpose of the
fire. Is to manifest the substance.
From the wood and the stubble. And if you care about your flock
as John cares, he's letting them know the fire is increasing. Are you guys with me? That's
why he said children, This world is passing away. And I'm gonna
talk about the contextual meaning of the world passing away in
John's day next week. Don't you pass away with this
world. Don't let this world fool you. It's not gonna be around
forever. Don't let the Roman pontiff,
don't let the Roman emperor, don't let the king, don't let
the Caesar tell you he's God. Don't let the courts, don't let
the government tell you they can give you whatever you want.
Don't let them deceive you into thinking that they can abide
forever. Nations don't abide forever.
Kingdoms don't abide forever. Rulers don't abide forever. You
know, I was just thinking of, I'm getting ready to open the
floor now because I think I got your attention for this hour. Good
study, wasn't it? I was thinking about that knucklehead
over in Cuba. Those precious people in Cuba
who have had to live under a dictatorship for 50 years and told that communism
is the best system in the world, have lived and died in poverty
and in less than stellar conditions under an illusion of a promise
of freedom and prosperity. Only to find out now that the
man who exercised the iron fist over that country to the point
where he drove hundreds of thousands of his citizens to hazard their
lives, to get on boats, to come to America. Anybody know what
I'm talking about? He acted like a God. Government
is supposed to do two things, protect its citizens and give
them the freedom to prosper, not dictate what they should
believe. That's called communism. Wherever
it rules, it rules with an iron fist and people want to leave
when they can. What kind of ruler is it that
when you lay on your deathbed The people can't wait for you
to die. I was meditating on that and
thinking that went through and I was saying, Lord, help us to
understand as believers. I want to make the application
to you now how important it is that when you lay your head on
your sick bed and you will one day you will that God would be
pleased to cause you to be missed by a lot of people. Are you hearing
me? You don't want people to just
want for you to die. You want to be such a blessing
to people that when you lay on your sick bed and they have to
think about you dying, they start missing you already. Even if
you used to tax their butt with the truth. Cause they know that not many
people know how to tell the truth and love. And then you coupled
that truth with real love for people. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? That's what you want. Cause every one of us got to
go the same way of Fidel Castro Castro one day. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? And in the small sphere of your,
influence. People are going to be either
saying, man, I can't wait to that. I can't wait till he go.
Are they going to be saying, I'm going to miss him some, but
we all have to go. And we all have rulership over
certain spheres of our life. Mamas and daddies and brothers
and sisters. Do you hear me? Saints, you're
going to have to lay your head down. And you want people to
miss you. You hear me? You want people
to miss you. It's very important for us to
understand that we are here to be a saver of life unto life,
to those who are longing for life and a saver of death unto
death, to death, to those who are ignorant of life. If perhaps
God would be pleased to turn them around. You and I don't
want to have the kind of ignominious departure from this world that
Fido Castro will have. The nation is poised right now
to celebrate when he dies and then establish a new constitution
because they're hoping to be free when he dies. Any questions? Anybody got questions?
Anybody got any questions? Y'all just ready to go home.
Five, four, three, two, one. No questions. All right, let's
pray. Let's stand in prayer. Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Give us traveling mercies
as we go now and take us to our homes and may our sleep be sweet.
Give us rest in our souls so we can be prepared to worship
you like you ought to be worshiped on Sunday. Lord, we love to gather
together with the saints of God. We love to hear your word. We
love to worship you, Lord Jesus. You are altogether glorious and
we are looking for the prospect of one day being able to have
vocal cords and a mouth and a heart and lungs. glorified by your
spirit so that we can shout and scream and praise and worship
the God of glory in the person of Christ.