1 John 2:28-3:3

Trey Fisher

1 John • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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1 John 2:28–3:3 ESV

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Let’s Pray...

Abide in Him...

Today we are going to go over a little Doctrine, is that okay with everyone? A lot of churches today don’t speak of Doctrine because:

They don’t know it

They don’t want to offend people because “doctrine divides” right?

and as John MacArthur would say, “yes it does, it divides right doctrine from wrong doctrine”.

But we believe that the Doctrines builds us up and strengthens us.

So many times we read the Bible to see what we MUST do to be saved. So many times we read the Bible to see what we MUST do to STAY saved don’t we?

When we do this we are reading the Bible wrong!

Let’s look at Verse 28 and 29

1 John 2:28 ESV

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

1 John 2:28–29 ESV

Don’t raise your hand but when you read this verse are you thinking “man, I HAVE TO ABIDE in him

So many times we come to verses like this and try to find out what is it telling me to to do?

Here it says to:

Abide and practice righteousness.

So we think to ourselves: “If I do these things then when he comes I will be saved in the end!”

Some look at verses like these and say, “okay…I can do that! I’ll just do it! It says to do it so I’ll do it”

But we are reading it wrong if we read it like this!

Here is the good news… “you are not under law but under grace”.

The LAW says DO THIS… but we’re not under LAW!

Look at what John said just before this in verses 26 and 27…

1 John 2:27 ESV

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

1 John 2:26–27 ESV

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

HE has already given us what we need to abide in Him!

The Christian already has what he needs to abide in Christ…do you believe that? Do you trust His Word?

So HOW and WHY do we ABIDE in Him? How do we Rest, remain in Him?

Colossians 3:4 ESV

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

FIRST…by his Word…the apostolic teaching of His Word

Col 3:

Look back at verse 24

1 John 2:24 ESV

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

We have to saturate our minds with the Word of God. We need to always be in His Word. HIs Word should always be in our thoughts and on our minds.

How did Christ fight the lies of the Evil One? By quoting Scripture. Maybe that is something we need to do to fight the lies of the Evil One when they whisper temptations in our ears. But in order to quote Scripture we must KNOW Scripture.

Rest in in His Word Church.

Secondly…Abide, REST, REMAIN in Him Alone! It says, “And now, little children, abide in him...” In HIM ALONE.

We can never get too big for our britches thinking that we can do this on our own. None of us are good enough to do what God has commanded us to do on our own.

When we forget what he has done for us we start thinking that we did it ourselves.

Remember …before the 10 Commandments are given it says “I am the Lord YOUR God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of SLAVERY”

Don’t forget what it felt like when you realized what a depraved sinner you were in need of a Savior. Don’t forget how you fell on your knees and cried out the Jesus to save you from your sins because for the first time in your life you realized what a wretched sinner you were.

I never want to forget that. When we forget that moment, that moment we came to Christ broken and desperate to save us from our sin we start abiding in ourselves don’t we.

Time passes, months pass, years pass and we grow in our knowledge of Scripture…we start new and better habits and we think… “I got this”. No you don’t! That’s Pride and we have all fell into it. I know I have. And when we go there we aren’t abiding in Christ.

We Abide in Christ by relying on him for our strength.

John began this with “little children”…think of a little child, can they make it on their own? NO!

We need to think of ourselves in this way…like little children who can not make it on our own without our loving Father in Heaven.

Sometimes children think they can make it on their own but man…that never works out does it.

We rely on Christ for justification and also our Sanctification.

Philippians 2:13 ESV

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

phil 2:

So WHY do we ABIDE?

“so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming”

Think about your life right now. Think about where you are in your Christian walk right now…Think about where you have been...

Let this verse sink in...

“little children, abide in him, SO THAT when he appears we may have CONFIDENCE and NOT SHRINK BACK from him IN SHAME at his coming”

How would you have reacted if Christ came back last night? Were we abiding in Him?

What if Christ came back when we were lusting in our hearts? Think of the shame we would feel if in the midst of that sin the heavens opened and Christ came back.

Imagine screaming at your wife, screaming at your husband in a rage the moment Christ returned. Imagine how we would shrink back in shame at his coming.

What if we had bitterness in our hearts, unforgiveness in our hearts toward someone when he came back. Imagine how we would shrink back from him in shame at his coming.

Imagine if we have claimed to be a Christian for years and years and we never really ran the race. We were always too busy to invest in the Kingdom of God. We were too busy chasing money, our own desires and passions…we were just too busy to run the race for Christ… a life wasted you might feel. If that is us, we will shrink from him at his coming.

The King IS COMING!

See, it is only when we ABIDE in Him that we may confidence and NOT shrink back.

CONFIDENCE IS THE REWARD at his coming!

WOULD’NT that be an awesome feeling to be CONFIDENT when we see HIM.

I want to encourage all of the believers in here to Abide in Christ Alone this morning…and that includes me. I want us all to have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

1 John 2:29 ESV

If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

1 john 2:

The false teachers that John is writing against (verse 26) say they have some “secret knowledge”. A “knowledge” that is not revealed in Scripture or in the Apostolic teaching. They claim to have this great “knowledge” but they walk in darkness.

John says that what matters more than this “knowledge” they claim to have is a life lived in righteousness.

A TRUE regenerate believer can not claim to be born of God and not live righteously.

You know why? Because “a child always exhibits the parents character because he shares the parent’s nature. A person’s righteousness is thus the evidence of his new birth, not the cause or condition of it” (Stott).

LOOK AT VERSE 29 AGAIN… (ON THE SCREEN)

Now look at

John 1:12–13 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

People…us…people who were already born did receive him and did believe in his name. But we had another birth we didn’t realize at the time. The Word of God says that we were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD.

Yes…we did believe in his name.

When you come to understand this…that God made you a child of his…not because of anything of yourself but for HIs own purpose it will light you up! When you come to understand that God gave you a new birth and it wasn’t because your parents were believers, it wasn’t because you did something for it, and it wasn’t even your own decision…it was all God…when you come to understand THAT…you come to understand

1 John 3:1 ESV

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Don’t read it the way you have read it before…READ IT LIKE IT IS SUPPOSE TO BE READ!

AND SO WE ARE!

look at verse 2 on the screen

BELOVED, we are God’s children NOW!....

When we don’t fully understand what God has done for us we can not understand this verse

For those that believe you can lose your salvation there are three things to consider:

You aren’t confident that you are a Child of God NOW. Because how do you know you won’t lose your salvation if you believe Christians CAN lose their salvation

You don’t believe the Father loves you the way he says he does

You just haven’t thought through all of the Scripture that speaks about what God has done for us.

verse 3…on the screen

1 John 3:3 ESV

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

If our hope is on Christ’s return then we will purify ourselves. If we do not want to be ashamed when we see him then we will practice righteousness and we do not want to be ashamed when we see him.

For us to purify ourselves we must ABIDE, REST, REMAIN in Christ Alone! We must remember that we are little children. We can not make it on our own so we rest in Christ.

either we don’t agree with verse one of chapter 3 or...

It says that “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we will see him as he is”. IF we want to be like him when he appears let us be like him while the King is away. Let us be at his business.

we don’t really believe verse 2.

I want to leave you with another verse from Colossians.

Colossians 3:1–17 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:1-

Christian…ABIDE IN CHIRST AND LET HIS WORD ABIDE IN YOU!

If we believe that our salvation is something we can lose then we can’t believe we are ACTUALLY God’s children NOW.

maybe if we do this and that and keep doing doing doing all this work to prove our worthiness to him then maybe he will accept us in the end. But we can not confidently say that we are his children NOW.

Or…if we say that we are his children NOW yet still believe we can lose our salvation then we have a hard time with VERES 1 that says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God”

What kind of parent would get rid of one of their children? Many of us either have children or know of someone who has children that are in such a hard spot right now but I bet you anything you haven’t disowned them. Parents who truly love their children do not disown their children.

What kind of Father gives his love to a child and then tells them… “now you better not

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