Believe the Right People
Rev. Res Spears
Walking in Truth and Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
I’m going to tell you something about myself this morning that I’m sure none of you ever knew: When I was in high school, I ran on the track team.
In fact, I set a school record for running the hundred-yard dash. It was one of my proudest moments.
Does it surprise you to hear this?
Well, it should because it’s not even remotely true.
And you should know this if you’ve been paying attention these past few weeks. I’ve already told you how much I hate running. Always have.
You should know this if you pay attention to my lifestyle. There’s nothing about how I go about life that would suggest to you that I’ve EVER had an interest in running.
And, as my wife would tell you, there’s nothing about my life that suggests I’m in a hurry to do ANYTHING, except perhaps when it comes to driving.
And you should know that I was never a track star — or even did anything except walk across the track to get to the football field — by simply looking at me. Anyone who has eyes to see can tell that this isn’t and never was a track athlete’s body.
The closest I ever came to the track team was when I entered to lounge spud Olympics. I’ll give that a moment to register.
Now, I’ve started things off this morning by breaking one of the cardinal rules for pastors: Never lie, especially from the pulpit.
In my defense, I came clean almost immediately, and I told the lie for a reason. You see, I want you to understand that not everyone who claims he’s on the track team is ON the track team.
And if you want to know whether a person is telling the truth about being a champion runner, what would you do?
Well, you’d take a look at his lifestyle to start. Does he do the things that a champion runner does? Does he stay fit? Does he eat healthy? Does he even run? Is he obedient to doing the things a runner does?
And then, you’d try to gauge his love for the sport. Does he find joy in it? Does he try to entice other people to discover a love for running? Does he put his love for running ahead — for instance — of his love for bacon?
You could think of these things — obedience to the lifestyle of running and love for running — as tests of a person’s claim to be a runner.
In my case, I fail those tests completely.
The reason I bring all this up today is that, as we think about what the Apostle John has written in the portion of 1 John we’ve studied during our series, Walking in Truth and Love, we should remember that he gave us obedience and love as tests of whether a person is in fellowship with God — whether they’re in right relationship with Him in Christ Jesus.
Today, we’ll look at the third test, that of abiding. Think of it this way: If I were to claim that running track had been the most important thing in my life, you’d expect that it would STILL be important, right?
I’d probably watch the track and field events in the Olympics. I’d own a pair of running shoes. Maybe I’d be running 5Ks or marathons or the like.
Whatever the case, I’d still be engaged in the sport somehow, even if I could no longer set records in the hundred-yard dash.
Likewise, a person who is in true fellowship with God will be a person who perseveres in that right relationship with Him. They’ll also be someone who perseveres in fellowship with the body of Christ, the church.
And it’s in the context of perseverance as a test of fellowship with God that John warns in today’s passage about the second danger followers of Christ face as they strive to walk in the Light.
You’ll recall I said last week that the first danger comes from within. It’s the danger of loving the wrong things. It’s the danger of giving our attention and affection to things that distract us from loving God, from placing our trust in Him.
It’s the danger of loving anything in such a way that it draws us from God. It’s the danger of finding our identity in anything but Jesus.
The danger John warns about in today’s passage comes from outside. It’s the danger of allowing ourselves to be drawn away from Jesus by those who deny Him, by those who are OPPOSED to Him.
John has a test for us in this passage. He has a warning for us. And he has an encouragement for us. Let’s look at it together. We’re going to pick up in verse 18.
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
Addressing the church with this term of endearment, “children,” he starts this section of his letter with what should be encouraging words to us: “Even now many antichrists have appeared.”
Now, this isn’t THE antichrist of the end times. What John’s referring to here is all those who set themselves in opposition to Jesus.
These are the people who are ANTI-Christ. And what he says about them is that they’re coming; in fact, they’re already HERE.
So, what’s encouraging about that?
Well, the simple fact that there are people out there opposed to Jesus tells us something important: HE HAS COME!
God has stepped into history in the person of His unique and eternal Son. The promised Messiah — the savior of the world, He whom God said would bring forgiveness and restoration and reconciliation — has come.
I’ve always found it interesting that so many atheists mock and scorn Christians for their faith. But they hardly ever heap such ridicule on Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus or Jews.
And I think one of the reasons this is true is that those other religions don’t offer truth to oppose. The devil doesn’t have to work through people to oppose Islam, because Islam offers no true hope for salvation. Only Jesus does that.
And in his sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection, He ushered in the last hour. This is the period in which God is making His final appeal to mankind to be reconciled to Him before judgment begins.
When Jesus hung upon that cross at Calvary, He took upon Himself the sins of the world and their just punishment so that all who follow Him in faith could be saved from the punishment that each of us deserves for our rebellion against God.
And when He rose from the grave on the third day, Jesus demonstrated that He has the power to fulfil His promise of eternal life to all who follow Him in faith.
But from the time of His life here on earth, there have been those who have opposed this Jesus. Some have opposed His deity. Some have opposed his humanity. Some have opposed His assertion that access to the Father — and thus, heaven — comes only through Him.
Many still oppose these things. And John says here that their opposition reminds us that Jesus has come. Furthermore, it gives us confidence in His promise to come again.
But what had happened in the churches of Asia Minor, to whom John wrote this letter, is that some had heard this gospel message and even identified themselves as believers, but they had left the fellowship.
“These people who left the community had shared in its external life but were never truly a part of its internal existence due to the fact that they had never truly been born from above.” [Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 38, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 116.]
And now, they were trying to lure other believers out of the fellowship and back into the world, which John described in verse 17 last week as “passing away.”
Now, this is all connected to the passage we studied last week, and I want to make the point today that the world will always be trying to draw believers away from God.
The world will always be trying to get you to find your identity in something else other than Jesus. The world will always be trying to steal your attention and affection from God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture and in His Son, Jesus.
This happens to ALL of us as followers of Christ. Our faith in Him MUST cause us to reassess our identities, to question where our priorities lie, to choose where to focus our attention and affection.
In fact, I’m going to suggest this morning that if your faith in Jesus HASN’T caused such a reassessment for you, then, at best, you’re not doing it right.
That was at least part of the point when Jesus met His disciples on the shore after His resurrection. They’d gone back to fishing, but He was reminding them that their relationship with Him had changed them.
They were no longer fishermen, but Apostles. They had left the lives they’d had before Jesus. Now He was their Lord and Master, and HIS work was to be THEIR work.
Do you think that was an easy transition for any of these men? Of course not! I imagine they had LOVED their lives as fishermen and tax collectors and so on.
And so, perhaps pointing at the fish that had been hauled up on the shore that morning, Jesus looked to Peter and asked “Do you love Me more than these?” In other words, what are you going to love most, Peter?
On this side of heaven, we will always be tempted to love the things of this world more than we love Jesus.
This is the danger John warns about, and it comes both from within and from without. But he also offers an encouragement. Look at the next two verses.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
By remaining in the fellowship of the Church, this group had demonstrated they believed in the truth they had heard from the beginning.
They KNEW the truth, and that’s why he was writing to them. They knew the truth of the gospel, that God Himself, through the person of His Son, paid the penalty we deserve for our rebellion against Him.
But the antichrists were vying for the attention of these believers, just as they do today. Look at the next couple of verses.
22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father but by Me.” He called Himself THE Way.
When John wrote this letter, there were those who denied that the deity of Jesus. And there were those on the other side who denied the humanity of Jesus.
They believed in God. They believed in heaven. In fact, they said they had some fresh knowledge about God and about how we can get to heaven that wasn’t revealed in Jesus or taught by the Apostles.
But not everyone who says he was on the track team was actually on the track team.
And don’t miss this, because it’s an easy trap for us to fall into: Not everyone who says he believes in God is a Christian.
What is it THAT they believe about God? That’s the question John says we need to answer.
Do they deny Jesus? In other words, do they deny that He IS who He said He IS and that He will DO what He said He will DO?
What John says here is that if they deny these things about Jesus, they’re liars. They CAN’T have a relationship with the Father, because they DON’T have a relationship with His Son.
You can’t have fellowship with God if you don’t have fellowship with Jesus.
And the significance of this point to us as modern Christians is that we need to be careful who we’re listening to when they purport to be ministers of the gospel.
It’s not wrong to listen to or watch other preachers. In fact, I encourage it. But listen closely to what they’re saying.
Are they proclaiming Jesus as God in the flesh of a man? Are they reminding you that He said, “Repent, and follow Me”? Are they telling you that your biggest problem is SIN and that He came to offer you the solution to THAT problem?
Or are they telling you something else? Are they telling you that He was a great teacher, but ignoring that He is God in human flesh? Are they preaching salvation without repentance?
Are they telling you the abundant life He promised represents material satisfaction in this world, ignoring the fact the He called us to take up our crosses and follow Him? Are they talking about sin at all? Are they even mentioning His very name?
If they’re doing those things, then what John would call them is antichrists. Giving heed to their message won’t endanger your salvation if you’ve followed Jesus in faith. But it will draw you away from Him and cause your fellowship with Him to suffer.
And so, John calls us to ABIDE in that which we’ve heard from the beginning, the message of salvation, of forgiveness from our sins, of life the way it was always meant to be, in fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Look at the next couple of verses.
24 As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
25 This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.
Do you abide in what you heard from the beginning? Does all your hope for this world and the next rest in Christ and Christ alone? Or have you allowed the world to draw you away from Him with its false promises?
The best the world can do is promise to satisfy your lusts and desires in THIS life, and even that promise is a lie.
But what Jesus promised was ETERNAL LIFE.
That’s life the way it was always intended. That’s abundant life in fellowship with God Himself through Christ and by the Holy Spirit.
And it’s not just abundant life in heaven. No, the emphasis in the Greek text, both here and wherever we see this term, is on LIFE.
If you have followed Jesus in faith, you don’t have to wait until you get to heaven for the abundant life Jesus promised, for the fellowship with God that John writes about in this letter. It’s available to you right here, right now. And if you’re a believer, then why WOULDN’T you want that?
But you need to be aware of the dangers from within and the dangers from without. You need to be aware of the inward tendency we have to turn back to the things that defined us before, to go back to being fishermen.
And we need to be aware of those who try to capitalize on that tendency by promising they have some new revelation, some teaching that ignores or distorts God’s revelation from His Word and IN His Son.
Look at the next couple of verses.
26 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.
27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
The deceivers — that’s another word for “liars” — will draw you AWAY from Jesus. They’ll HARM your fellowship with God. And they’re relentless.
They’re relentless, because the only thing the devil can do to hurt those who are IN Christ is to draw them out of fellowship with Him. To take away the joy and peace that such fellowship brings.
That’s why John says for us not to love the things of this world. And that’s why I listed all those things last week.
When we hold onto THOSE things too tightly, we can’t cling to JESUS. When we love those things too dearly, we can’t experience the joy and peace that comes from loving Jesus so completely that our our hope is in Him and Him alone.
And so, John concludes this passage with advice for standing against the internal dangers and the external dangers for believers.
ABIDE.
Abide in Jesus through the anointing of the Holy Spirit who abides in you.
And understand that John isn’t saying in verse 27 that human teachers and preachers aren’t important. He wouldn’t have written this letter if he’d thought that.
What he’s saying is that the Holy Spirit worked through the Apostles — and now through Christ-honoring teachers and preachers — help us to understand the life-giving message of salvation in Jesus Christ.
The Spirit doesn’t work through the liars, but through the truth-tellers. He takes the words of those who are ON the team and uses them to equip the team, to encourage the team, and to build up the team.
Nobody’s coming to me for advice on how to run fast. If I wrote a book with all the best advice I could find about how to run fast and my photo was on the back cover, nobody would read it.
My life doesn’t reflect obedience to the rules of running. My life doesn’t reflect a love for running. And my life doesn’t reflect a continuing devotion to the sport.
But I hope and I pray that my life DOES reflect obedience to God, that it DOES reflect my deep love for Jesus, that it DOES reflect a Holy Spirit-enabled devotion to Jesus and to the gospel I heard from the beginning.
THAT’S the team I want to be on. THAT’S the identity I want for myself. THAT’S the person I want the world to see.
Because THAT’S where I’ll find the abundant life of joy and peace in true fellowship with God.
Why would we, as followers of Jesus, ever settle for anything less?
But maybe all of this just sounds foreign to you. Maybe you’re looking at your life and thinking: Joy? Not really. Peace? Nope.
If you’re missing those things from your life, then I want to suggest to you that maybe it’s because you’re missing JESUS from your life.
The Apostle Paul wrote that the fruits of the Spirit who is given to us at the point of salvation are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” They’re the characteristics we expect to find, to some degree or another, in followers of Christ.
These characteristics grow within people who have been forgiven their sins and welcomed into the family of God by His grace and through faith in Jesus.
Forgiveness is a powerful thing, and God is waiting to lavish it upon you.
Will you admit your sinfulness before Him today? Will you turn to Jesus in faith that only His life, death, and resurrection can reconcile you to His Father? Will you turn your life over to Him today?
True life awaits. Please don’t put it off any longer.