May God add his blessing to the reading and preaching of his Holy Word. Amen.

Prayer:

Holy and righteous Father, we are thankful for your Word, we are thankful for the book of 1 John. It is a treasure chest of truth and revelation, of exhortation, of assurance and cautions. It was once for all delivered to us, your saints, your people, for our study and meditation – that we might embrace it and receive it and abide carefully by it. Now, Lord, help us today to open up your Word with accuracy and clarity, in the inspiration and guidance of your Spirit. Help us to hear your truth. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

Recently I read something that Martyn Lloyd-Jones had said in one of his sermons about a particular passage in 1 John and he was reluctant for some time to preach on it because he wasn’t sure he could do it justice and bring out its meaning clearly to God’s people. I’ve had some of those same feelings about preaching these passages that come my way to preach in this book, but I am comforted in the fact that it is God’s Word and it is replete with sanctifying truth and by his help we want to open up these verses and see what we can learn today.

This passage today, as is true of all these passages in 1 John, is so full of content, so full of divine revelation, that one is overwhelmed by it all and we have to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to aid our understanding and application to our lives.

What do we see in our passage today?

Three things stand out:

I. The Imperative Command

II. The Certain Hope

III. The Privileged Position

We see the Imperative Command in verse 28. The text says, 28 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.

John, as an elder in Christ’s church, is writing to Christian people, people in the churches, probably in Ephesus, and this is the third time he addresses them using this phrase, “little children.” He uses this term seven times in this letter. As we have brought out in this series, this term does not refer to their chronological age, as if they were all under the age of twelve, but it is a term of endearment to the people of God, recognizing that they are children of God, chosen by God, and belonging to him. It is probable that the apostle John knew many of them personally, and had counseled them and knew their lives, their ups and downs, and he had a pastoral bond and relationship to them as their elder in the faith. So he looks upon them as his precious flock, his precious people, and calls them “little children” – the people of God, the true believers to whom he was writing.

And then he gives this simple but certain command to them, “abide in him.” This word abide means “to remain, to stay.” This is a very important command. Only three words, “abide in him.” But the apostle John said this very deliberately to the people of his day and to us today, and he gives this command, “abide in him.” He could have given many other commands, he could have said, “obey him, or be faithful to him, or worship him or follow him or do not neglect him – and all these are good and legitimate commands that we need to take to heart, but he chose to use this expression, “abide in him.”

Now I am calling this “the imperative command.” You know what the word “imperative means”? It means the same thing as a command. If I say, “it is imperative that we pay our water bill today,” it means it is necessary, we cannot neglect or fail to do this. So John is giving the church this necessary command, “to abide in him.”

I wonder how many times we might ask ourselves, “Am I abiding in Christ?” Or do we pray at the beginning of the day, “Lord, help me to abide in you today, help to remain in you, help me to stay in you.”

Let’s go back for moment and see how the Lord Jesus used this very command in John 15, verse 3-5, “4 (C)Abide (D)in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; (E)you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that (F)bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus uses an agricultural illustration that everyone in his day would have been familiar with. There were many vineyards all over Galilee and Judea in those days and people knew exactly what Jesus was talking about. The little branches on the grape vine had to be connected to the main stem if they were to get nourishment and be able to produce grapes. So Jesus is saying to his disciples, if you want to produce any spiritual fruit, you have to abide in me, that is, remain in me, stay in me, the way a grape branch has to stay connected to the main branches of the grape vine.

What is the secret and power of the Christian life? It is to be in a vital union with Jesus Christ, to be in a living personal relationship with him. It is to be connected to him by the Holy Spirit, by faith. It is only through our union with him that we can produce any good, any spiritual fruit.

If you or I am abiding in Christ, we are living our Christian lives as he intended, and we will be producing fruit unto his glory. We don’t live lives of perfection; we have many imperfections, but our lives are still fruitful, because we are abiding in the source of our spiritual life, who is Jesus Christ himself. And all this is brought about through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Praise be to God for his gracious work in our lives!

But in this particular context, when John tell us to “abide in him” he has reference, I believe, to two particular ways we need to abide in him: in doctrine and in life. We need to abide in the true doctrine of Christ and abide in a faithful walk before him.

If a person says he abides in Christ, but he holds to false doctrine regarding the person of Christ he is not abiding in Christ. Likewise, if a person says he is abiding in Christ and is living an ungodly life, far from the commands of Christ, he is not abiding in Christ.

Let’s consider first of all, abiding in the true doctrine of Christ. You remember how John began this whole letter – he talks about how he and the other apostles had seen the Lord and heard him and touched him. So, he immediately begins this letter stressing the true and real incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and his bodily resurrection from the dead. To abide in Christ means to believe that God sent his Son and he became incarnate of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The eternal Son of God was made man.

Then last week brother Wayne went over the previous section in chapter two about the coming of the antichrists. Who are the antichrists? Verse 22 of chapter 22 says, “22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.”

John tells his readers that they must abide in the true doctrine of Christ, in the gospel they had heard from the beginning, that God sent his Son and he lived and died on the cross for our sins, and was raised from the dead on the third day, and ascended back to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. This was the Gospel preached to these believers, and it was confirmed by the anointing, as he calls it, of the Holy Spirit. True doctrine mediated and confirmed by the Holy Spirit. To Biblically abide in Christ means to abide in the true doctrine of Christ, not in some false doctrine.

But to abide in Christ also means to abide in a lifestyle that reflects Christ – that reflects his nature and character and holiness. To walk in the flesh, that is in the sinful nature, and to fulfill the desires of the flesh, is not abiding in Christ, it is abiding in the flesh, in the sinful nature. Such is a false Christianity.

What are some of these sins of the flesh that are opposed to the kingdom of Christ?

1 John 2:11 says “11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness.”

1 John 2:15-16 says, “15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[a]—is not from the Father but is from the world.”

So to abide in him, that is, abide in Jesus, means to abide in the true doctrine of the incarnate Son of God, fully God and fully man in one person, and abiding in Jesus also means walking through this life as he would walk, in righteousness and holiness, loving God and loving the brethren, hating evil and sin, humble before God.

This is what it means to “abide in him.” Yes, it means to seek to be consciously in his presence, but it also means to abide in the true doctrine of Christ and to walk in holiness and righteousness in our daily lives. Abiding in Christ is not some nebulous command without specificity, without concrete dimensions, but it is very specific: to abide in Christ means, first of all, to know and believe correct Biblical doctrine regarding Christ and secondly, it means to live a life consistent with Christian character as laid out in the Bible.

Besides this Imperative Command, there is a second great truth laid out in this passage, and that is, of…

II. The Certain Hope

Verse 28 of Chapter 2 of 1 John says, “…abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” 

Notice the certainty of this great hope here. It says “when he appears.” The “he” here refers to Jesus Christ. It doesn’t say “if he appears” or “in case he happens to appear” but it says, “when he appears.” John, the writer here, has no doubt that Jesus will appear, he will return at the end of human history and wrap up this era. He will appear when God the Father ordains that he should leave heaven and return to earth.

The Lord Jesus himself made it clear that he would return to earth. We read in Matt. 25:31-32: 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

The return of Jesus Christ, his appearing again at the end of the age, is a fundamental truth of the Word of God and of Christian theology. It is part of our own church’s belief as stated in Article 12 of our Statement of Faith, “We believe in the personal, bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ who will come back to earth just as he left, only this time with power and great glory to establish the kingdom of God in the fullest sense and to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

The New Testament is clear: Jesus Christ will appear again at the end of this age. Hear these texts:

Col. 3:4 - 4 When Christ (A)who is your[a] life (B)appears, then you also will appear with him (C)in glory.

2 Thess. 1:7-8 -  …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Notice what the rest of v. 28 says about Christ’s coming, “…so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” 

There is another reason we need to abide in him, that is, abide in Christ: it is so that when he returns we’ll not shrink from him in shame. Why would we do that? It is because if we are engaging in sin, and he arrives, we are going to be ashamed of ourselves. We are going to regret that we allowed ourselves to fall into sin.

But you see, for the Christian person, this need not happen. Why not? First of all, it’s because of the righteousness of our Savior. V. 29 says “he is righteous.” We know that is true, do we not? If there’s one thing we can say about our Savior, it is that he is righteous and holy and perfect and there is no sin in him whatsoever.

And it’s because of the nature of our Savior that we, too, practice righteousness. Why is that? It’s because as it says at the end of v. 29, those who practice righteousness have “been born of him.”

You see, our Savior saves us to make us like himself. He saves us so he can grow us and mature us into faithful, joyful Christians. So, if we’ve been “born of him,” we are going to practice righteousness. Why is that? It’s because we’ve been given a new nature. Our hearts of stone have been changed into hearts of flesh.

It is literally impossible for a born-again Christian not to practice righteousness. Why is that? It’s because they have a new nature, a new power within them. They have the indwelling Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit enters a human life, things begin to change. New loves begin to emerge: new love for God, new love for his people, new love for his Word, new love for his truth. New hatreds arise also: hatred for sin, for unrighteousness, hatred for evil and cruelty. For the man or woman in Christ, all things are new. Our attitudes change, our thinking and our speech changes, our interests change.

There is a warning here – it’s possible that we could be ashamed at his coming, ashamed because of our behavior, if we have fallen off the path of righteousness and holiness and been swayed and tempted by worldly allurements around us. But we can avoid this shame if we abide in Christ, abide in the truth doctrine, and life lives that are pleasing to Christ, in conformity to his Holy Word – repenting of and forsaking sin. We have to get radical with sin. Jesus got radical when he left heaven and took upon himself our flesh so he could die on the cross. If we’ve been born again by the Spirit of God, we have a great power within us to help us resist evil and cling to and promote that which is good and holy and true. We need not shrink from him at his coming but instead welcome him with open arms.

So we have The Imperative Command to abide in Christ and the Certain Hope of his Coming – it’s going to happen. But we also see here that we have…

III. The Privileged Position [of Believers].

Look at 1 John 3:1, 3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

Our Privileged Position is that we are children of God. This is not something to be taken for granted. 1 John 3:10 lays out before us the two great classifications of humanity. It says, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil…” All of us were “children of the devil” before God saved us. We were immersed in trespasses and sins and there was no righteousness within us.

But then to be called “children of God” is no small matter, it is of great importance, it is a great mercy from God. It is a Privileged Position. Ephesians 2:3 describes our spiritual state as God saw us before we were saved, “3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

1 John 3:1 says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us…” What John is saying, is, let’s stop and take note, let’s consider the “kind of love the Father has given us.” It’s not a normal kind of love, it’s not a human kind of love, it’s not a love that we have earned by our own good works. Listen to a few texts from the NT describing the “kind of love the Father has bestowed on us:

1 Jo. 4:10 - 10 In this is love, (A)not that we have loved God (B)but that he loved us and sent his Son to be (C)the propitiation for our sins.

Rom. 5:8 - 8 but (A)God shows his love for us in that (B)while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Eph. 2:4 - 4 But[a] God, being (A)rich in mercy, (B)because of the great love with which he loved us,

This is the “kind of love” the Father has poured out upon our heads:

-he loved us first before we ever loved him.

-he loved us enough to send his Son to die for our sins.

-he loved us even while we were still sinners – we weren’t lovable or attractive to him.

-he loved us because, in spite of our sin, he had mercy on us. We didn’t deserve his mercy, but because that is his nature, he embraced us with his mercy.

So God our Father has given us a name, a special name: he could have called us his followers or his servants or his disciples – and all these terms are true about us – but jhe called us his children. This means we belong to him, he is our Father, not just a guardian or a supervisor or a ruler, but he is a Father to us - he brought us life by the regenerating Spirit of God. Before that we were dead sinners; we were walking around on planet earth but we were spiritually dead. But then in sovereign mercy he breathed spiritual life into us. We came alive.

As the father who welcomed his prodigal son back home again, so God receives us, “24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”

And notice the last phrase in chapter 3, verse 1, “…and so we are.” We are really his children.” John makes to hesitation in making this pronouncement: we really are his children. We really do belong to him. We really are in a permanent relationship with him.

John is giving us another one of his “reality checks.” The reality for the Christian believer is that we really are children of God. Yes, we still sin. Yes, we still need cleansing. But we walk in light to which he has brought us, and as we walk in his light, the blood of his Son keeps on cleansing us from sin.

Let me read you a few words from Martyn Lloyd-Jones regarding John’s statment, “so we are” the children of God: He says: “We shall never be more the children of God that we are now... You cannot be a Christian one day and not the next day. Once your are born of the Spirit and born of God, you are a child of God…you cannot be in and out of the relationship. You cannot! Relationship is something that is fixed and remains. Other things are variable and come and go, but “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” (p. 286-287, Life in Christ.)

This is our “privileged position.” You really can’t be in any better position as a human being on this earth – we who were born in sin and lived in sin and destined for eternal punishment. Our status before God is totally changed – now we are his “children” – not just associates or inquirers or observers, but actually “children.” We’ve been adopted into full family membership with all the rights and privileges thereof.

John goes on to say in v. 1, The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Well, this is understandable. The people of the world have a different Lord – Satan – and they do not know our heavenly Father. They belong to a different kingdom. They have a totally different mindset and agenda in life.

The living God, in all of his holiness and righteousness, is a threat to their lifestyle and their sinful pleasures. They have no intimate, personal relationship with God, nor do they want such. So we Christians are seen as outsiders to their way of thinking, we are strange to them. We are rejected by them. Sometimes persecuted or mocked by them. But look what they did to Jesus. Are we his servants greater than our Master. Shall we not suffer as he suffered?

Look at verse 2, “2 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. Again, John stresses the fact that we are God’s children “now.” Today we are. God’s children. We don’t have to wait to see if he will accept us are not. You see, people like Roman Catholics don’t have this assurance. They never know if they’re going to finally make it to heaven or not. They could commit some sin on the last day of their life that could cancel their hopes of heaven.

But the salvation that Jesus gives is people is radical, it is permanent, it is justifying, it is settled in the heaven’s once and for all.

And look what verse two goes on to say, “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.”

Here in this life we don’t know the full extent of the glories of this great salvation that await us. Paul said in Romans 8:18, 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

We do know that when he appears, when he returns, we are going to be like him because we will see him in all his glory and his very presence before us will have a transforming power to communicate, to extend to us something of his own holiness and beauty and even of his own physical, resurrected body.

Paul said in Phil 3:20-21, 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform (A)our lowly body (B)to be like his glorious body, (C)by the power that enables him even (D)to subject all things to himself.

The transformation of our bodies will take place at Christ’s return. Paul tell us in 1 Cor. 15:23 that when he returns “ this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” and “death will be swallowed up in victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Hallelujah!

This is our Certain Hope: he will return and he will clothe us with resurrection bodies like unto Christ’s own resurrection body and we will changed so that we will be like him in holiness and righteousness – free from the enslavement of sin forever.

We have The Imperative Command – to abide in Christ, to abide in the true doctrine of Christ’s real incarnation – deity took upon himself our humanity. And to abide in the Chrisitan walk and lifestyle of holiness and commitment to living out God’s Word in our daily lives

We have also The Certain Hope – of his coming and of the bestowal of our resurrection bodies.

And we have the Privileged Position – of being children of God now, now and forever.

So we are blessed and we give thanks to God for his gracious and mighty salvation and all his benefits to us.

Let us pray: