Evidence of Faith Part 2 (1 John 2:6)

Okay, good morning everyone. Take your seats, we'll get crackin' this morning. How's everybody doin' today?

Good morning.

Good morning. It's a beautiful weekend we're havin'. Calm before the storm. We're in the book of 1 John, and I want our scripture reading this morning is gonna be chapter one. We're gonna read from verse five to chapter two, verse six.

So if you grab your copy of God's word, we'll read that and pray and we'll get goin'. 1 John chapter one, verse five. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus' son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says they have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.

That's our passage for this morning. Let's go to the Lord with a word of prayer. Father, we just praise your name this morning. We thank you that we can look all around at the mountains and the beauty of your creation and just be in awe of who you are and the fact that you are an amazing God and that you actually love us and care about us and are involved in the day-to-day of our lives.

What a privilege it is to be called a child of the king. And we just pray, Lord, as you go before us this morning, that you'll help us to understand what it is to look into your word, to rightly divide it, to be accurate in that our hearts would be impacted for obedience to you, that we wanna serve you, that our desire would be to be about your business at all times, that we would be willing to share our faith with any that would listen to us, and that, Lord, we would consider that you would get all the glory and all the praise.

In this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

The Purpose of 1 John and the Threat of False Teaching

All right, so we're in the book of 1 John. It's just definitely been a very encouraging book to me. I don't know about you, but it has for me. I guess it's encouraging unless you're an unbeliever because then not so much, then it might not be so uplifting.

This book was written to believers in Asia Minor. The purpose, John tells us, that your joy may be full. He says that in chapter one, verse four. He says also that you may not sin. That's a good purpose, that we may not sin.

I like that. And also that you may know that you have eternal life. That's beautiful. We write these things so that you may know that you have eternal life. That's good to know ahead of time. Also, he says that you may continue to believe.

That's chapter, it's 5 .13b. May continue to believe. Keep moving on in your faith, continuing to believe. He says also in chapter two, verse 26, it's to address the false teaching that was entering into the church, the Gnostic teaching.

He says in chapter two, verse 26, these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. Remember last week we were talking a little bit about that, the contrasting of Asia Minor and how it isn't really that much different than it is today because of the false temples and false gods that are scattered all throughout America, the same as they were in Asia Minor back then.

It's not a lot of different. Their motive is to lead the people astray. It's really what it comes down to. They wanna lead the people astray. Jesus said this in Matthew chapter seven, verses 13 and on.

Enter through the narrow gate. Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it.

Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. We have to enter through the narrow gate, he says, because the way to destruction is paved by the false prophets in these temples that lead their followers down a different path to Christ.

You know, what is an easy way to tell a false religion from the true one? What's an easy way that we can tell? Any ideas? Think about it for a second. How do we tell the false religion from the true religion?

What is usually one focal point that we can highlight? Be a Berean and check the scriptures, absolutely. We wanna look into the word of God and contrast it with whatever they're teaching. That's very helpful.

What else? They all teach a works-based righteousness to salvation, don't they? It's all about what you do instead of what your belief is. What else? There was another hand up here somewhere, not sure.

They question or deny the deity of Christ. To me, that's one of the heart of the matter right there. Yes, emphasis about the church and not God, so they place a different focus upon what they're teaching and it should be on Christ and what he's all about.

I mean, that's really it for me is their focus is not on Christ. How their view of Christ really dictates how it goes. Either it's false or it's true because everything hinges on him. And if you look at all the false religions that we have in our society and how they view Christ, it is so much different.

It's not that he's God, it's just that he might be a good person, he might even be a great prophet, but he certainly isn't the God of creation. That's not what they teach. When you read the Gospel of John, and 1st and 3rd John and Revelation, it's pretty clear that he teaches that Jesus is God.

I don't think there's any kind of a question there if you really look at it. He is the light that shines in the darkness. He is the word that became flesh. He is the lamb of God who takes the way, the sin of the world, and he is the bread of life.

I mean, Christ is everything. He's the focal point of everything. Deceivers inside and outside the church wanna draw you away from Christ. They wanna draw you away from Christ. What is so striking in the book of 1st John to me is the clarity that he brings in helping us to understand the differences between true and false converts.

We looked a little bit at this along the way where John says, if we say that we have fellowship and yet walk in darkness, he says, we lie and do not follow after the truth. That's one way to tell. If you only say, but then you don't do, he says, you're a liar.

If we say that we have no sin, he says, we're deceiving ourselves into thinking that we are a believer. And I think the reason why he needed to do that is because of the Gnostic teaching that was happening.

The biggest issue there is that the Gnostics were pretending to be the real and one true church. They were spreading their lies that they were also the true Christians. So you can imagine that when you have that mixture within a congregation, there might be some confusion as to, well, who really is a believer and then who really isn't, right?

That confusion could enter in. And it's up to us to look at the scriptures, to understand who an authentic believer is from an imposter. And I think this is what John does really well as he's going through this.

He's contrasting this idea of a true believer from a false believer. In 2 Timothy, Paul tells us this, but evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And he's talking about the end times there.

Paul described these evil men perfectly in 2 Timothy 3 .5. He said, they were holding to a form of godliness. What is a form of godliness? How can someone have a form of godliness, but then not have the true God?

All talk and no walk. I love that. You gotta walk the walk, right? A form of godliness might be really just going to church, might be going to a Sunday school. It might be listening to a podcast. You can do a lot of things that have a form of godliness, but it says they denied its power.

What is the power in our godliness? What is it? What is it that gives us the power? See, they didn't have that. They had a form of godliness, but that's not godliness. A form of godliness is not godliness.

It's an appearance of godliness, isn't it? It's like we're doing all the right things. We're trying to live this certain way. It's religion without the power of Christ. Christ is what provides the power for us to live a godly life.

It's him in us that drives that out. We don't pretend. We don't have a form of godliness. No, we actually are godly because of him in us. That's the difference. But this is how imposters work. They have that outward appearance of Christianity, but yet they lack the indwelling spirit to bring it to life.

Christ provides the juice, if you will, for authentic faith. He provides the spirit within us, the capability for us to do that. I love that. It's the spirit within. But Paul said we are to avoid these kinds of people at all costs.

We're not supposed to be around the deceivers. We avoid them. John writes that if we are really in him, then we should produce godly characteristics. They're evident in others around us. And then we've talked about this.

If we walk in the light, he says, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. That's a godly characteristic. If we confess our sins, as verse 1 .9 says, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Wolves care very little about their sin. But we agonize over it, don't we? We agonize over it. I hate it. I wanna try to kill it at every turn. Every time I have a thought, I wanna drive that stake right through the heart of it.

But a wolf doesn't have that same perspective. Their perspective is only to devour, and they care nothing about their sin. But we are supposed to keep his commandments. In chapter 2, verse 3, it says that.

That's what we're striving for, is to follow after him, to keep his commandments. We keep his word. It says in chapter 2, verse 5, our desire is for him, that godly desire and passion, to keep his word.

We read it, we study it, we do everything we can to be involved in it. What sets us apart from the world system is that God is the God who lives in us. Asia Minor, America, they're very similar. Because of that, the actions that we take towards others show that we're different.

We're not the same as everyone else. We demonstrate God's love in a lot of different ways. I mean, when we visit the sick, when we preach the gospel to someone, when we help them to confront truth with error, we are showing these godly characteristics in our lives that we are of the king, we're a child of the king.

It's when we shovel someone's driveway, or when Earl cuts 50 cords of wood in one day and gives it to people that need it. It's a way that we can demonstrate our faith to other people and I think that's an important characteristic.

And John brings these out through the first John and definitely through his gospel of John, and you see that in there. And so the focus of our teaching today is gonna be on chapter two, verse six. So let's read that.

The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. I don't know if you remember back when Jim was teaching in John, but he spent four or five Sundays on the vine and the vine dresser and what it means to abide.

And I would encourage you to go back and listen to those messages because it's some amazing teaching on what the word abide means. I probably won't get as deep into it today on that, but that would be good for you to go back and listen to that because in John, the gospel of John and first John, I mean, that theme just runs through it so deeply that we are to abide in Christ.

Does anybody remember Jim's teaching on what it means to abide? Any thoughts on that? I know it's been a long time. You may not remember all of it, but to abide, anybody have any ideas? Good job, Earl.

He said it's to remain in him. And I think that hits the nail on the head. I mean, it really does. I mean, it's to dwell, to remain with, to stay put, to abide. You know, I think about like when I used to go over to my dad's house, you know, I'd go over there and I'd abide with him.

I remained with him. It was comfortable. It was a good place to be. And I think about the same with my Savior, you know, to remain with him, to abide with him, to dwell with him. It's my desire to be about his business and to do that.

Jim said in one of his sermons that abide is meno. That's the Greek word meno. And he said that there's 118 times in the New Testament that that word is used. That's a lot, 118 times. And just even in 1 John, there's 23 times, you know, that he uses the word abide, you know, in chapters two, three, and four.

So it's an important theme that you can understand and get. When we truly abide in Christ, we remain in him. It's our desire. You know, that's what it is. So he says in John 15, four, I'm gonna read this.

It says, abide in me and I in you, as the father cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you abide in me. So we abide in him, but he also abides in us, right? I mean, the abiding is mutual.

You know, if we say he abides in me, then I abide in him. I abide in him, he abides in me. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, I think. When we abide in him, we bear a lot of fruit. We have seen some of that in 1 John.

He says this in 1 John 2, five, but this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. But whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.

I love that. The opposite is true for those that don't abide, though, in him. I mean, how can they bear fruit if they're not grafted into the vine? If they're not truly remaining and being involved in Christ, you know, they cannot bear fruit.

It's not possible for them to do that because they're not connected to the God who is love. This is salvation, you know, unbelievers between believers and true converts and false converts. We can see the difference.

Jesus said this to the unbelieving Pharisees in John 5, 38. You do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe in him who sent me. You don't have that abiding word in you because you don't even believe him.

There's a contrast between those that abide and those that don't. That's what we see in John. He says if you keep his word and keep his commandments, the love of God is in you. That's one of the ways we can see.

But if you don't even believe in Christ, it isn't possible for you to abide and remain in him. Look over at chapter four, verse 13. In 1 John chapter four, verse 13, kind of drive this point home here.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. Question, how do we know we abide with him? How do we know? I just gave you the answer.

I just gave you the answer.

How do we know that we abide with him? Any thoughts? Because, yes, because of that spirit that lives within us. This is how we know that we abide with him. There was never a question about salvation for me when I got saved.

It was just a 180 degree turn. And I think that's probably been the case for all of you as well that claim him. The spirit of God that he's given us helps us and allows us to remain in him.

It's simple.

That if you don't abide in Christ, then the spirit of God doesn't dwell in you. If you don't abide with him, you don't dwell with him. You can't know him or abide with him without the spirit of God. You have to have that component.

Romans 8, 9 says this. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. You get that?

Wow.

If anybody does not have the spirit of God, he says he does not belong to him. This is not something that the world really wants to hear. They wanna hear inclusion. They wanna hear that everybody wins.

They don't wanna hear that one goes and the other does not. They don't wanna hear that side of it. But isn't this what John has been trying to convey to us in chapter one? If we say that we have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Wow.

They do not practice the truth because the spirit of God isn't in them. That's the difference. We have to have him within us, the true vine. We talked about John, or wanna talk about that just for a second.

To practice the truth, you need to be connected with the true vine, right? You have to be connected. John 15, four and five says this,.

Abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.

Question, there is something we have to do to bear fruit. What is that? Abide where? In him, what else? We have to abide in him, in the vine, right? We have to be connected, grafted in to Christ in the vine.

How do we become part of the vine? How do we do that? Can we do it by ourselves, under our own power, under our own capacity? Good point, it's repentance, it's the gift of grace, it's in following Christ, it's being about his work.

It's to receive his spirit, isn't it? We're grafted in through the spirit of God and that's how we can abide in the vine. Once we are in there, we remain there, don't we? One of the things I liked about Jim's teaching there is that he talked about the vine and abiding and the fact that we can never, I mean, if we're in there, we cannot stop abiding.

We're going to remain in him. I'm sure he said it way more eloquently than I just did, but anyway, the idea is that we're going to remain with him. John 12, 46 says this, I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness.

That's the idea. Spirit of God, get grafted in and because of that, we have different characteristics. And that's what John's talking about a lot. And I think it's a vital truth that Christ is to be proclaimed.

He talks about that in 1 John. I mean, this Christ who I have felt and heard and been involved with, this Christ is who I announced to you and he said he proclaimed it and we're supposed to understand the truth and the differences between true and false believers as a result of that.

That is those that abide in Christ and those that don't. There are those that are truly connected to the vine and others are not. We need to know the difference between true and false converts and we need to be able to identify those.

This passage in Matthew describes the good and the bad fruit beautifully. If I'm going to read it here, it's just a couple of verses, but it's Matthew 7, 15 to 23.

He says this,.

Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?

So every good tree bears good fruit but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

He is the vine and we are the branches. It says when we abide in him, it means that we have been grafted into the vine. But even in normal, I guess, horticultural terms, I mean, all trees can't be grafted into each other.

They are not compatible. What makes us compatible with the vine? Christ in us, salvation makes us compatible with the vine. I love that ability to be able to be connected to Christ in this way. If you are in the vine, you have to grow the fruit of the vine.

If you're really in Christ, I mean, the fruit that we bear has to have the same characteristics of Christ, doesn't it? It can't be my fruit. Nobody that stays in the vine produces bad fruit. We're not supposed to produce bad fruit because we're of him.

Walking as Jesus Walked

So the second part of this thing that we wanna talk about is the one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as Jesus walked. Chapter two, verse six says this, very same thing.

The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. What does that word ought mean? Any thoughts about that? It's not a very common word, right? I don't use that word.

We ought, says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. What does that word mean? Say it.

Should do it.

We ought to do it, we should do it, right? That's a good way to put it. If we abide in him, we ought to walk as he did. We should definitely walk as he did. The Greek word is ophalo, and it means to owe, to owe, to be in debt for, to be under an obligation bound by duty or necessity to do something used to indicate a duty or correctness.

I mean, we're motivated by that obligation because why? He saved us in him, and now we ought to walk as he did. We want to do that for him. So when we say that we ought to walk in the same manner as what he walked, what that means is we have an obligation, doesn't it, to walk as he did.

My life should reflect his character. I'm not walking exactly as he did because I'm not God, right? We're not talking about doing everything exactly as Christ did, but I'm following the pattern of how he walked, following the pattern of how he walked.

It's like a father and son's normal relationship, right? I mean, my father, I was born into his family. I've taken on some of his characteristics. Some of them I like, but you ever had somebody say, you're just like your father, and sometimes I'm happy about that, and other times I don't really like that, but we're supposed to follow the pattern of Christ in becoming more like him every day.

I mean, more like him every day, and it says we're supposed to walk as he walked. So a question, how did Jesus walk, and how can we emulate that? How did he walk, and how can we emulate that? Yeah, yes.

Christ knew his father's will. He abided by it. He was gracious. He was compassionate. What else? He was perfect. I wish I could be that perfect, right, but I don't think that's gonna happen. Love to be there, but no.

Yes, we will one day be perfect in him and in heaven, won't we? One of the things to think about is Christ walked in obedience, didn't he? John 5, verse 19 says, "'Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, "'the Son can do nothing of himself "'unless it is something he sees the Father doing.

"'For whatever the Father does, "'these things the Son also does in like manner.'". Christ did everything that the Father wanted him to do. He was obedient to him, and our model, right, is look at the scriptures, look at Christ, look and see what he did, and we are to do the same thing, same actions.

Here's kind of a list of things that, you know, you can find in Luke and probably other passages, but he talked about faith when he walked, and you think about walking, right? When you walk, I think about a daily, you know, how I carry myself on a daily basis, how people really see me.

I'm not different at work and then come home and completely another person. It's a continual walk. Christ was baptized. You know, that's a mandate, right? We're believed, we're saved, we get baptized.

I know people that don't think that's very important. They got saved, they save, but then they're like, yeah, baptism's not that important. It was very important for me. I mean, it really signified that public declaration of who Christ was in my life through death, burial, and resurrection.

He read the scriptures, separates us from unbelievers. He preached to the poor, set the captives free, didn't he? It's a beautiful thing. He called disciples to follow him. Do we do that? Do we ask other people to follow him?

He prayed all night. He taught about how to love. He sent his disciples on a journey to do the same thing. I mean, we're making disciples, we're bringing those in. When you abide in Christ, you walk as he walked.

That's the beauty of it. And I think I always use this analogy with my kids. It's like being under God's umbrella. You know, there's a degree of safety there. Keeps us from harm, keeps us from trouble because his ways are always the best and right ways.

So I would say, examine your faith. Examine your faith to see whether you are in him or not. Should you be listening online or here in person, I would say something to each of you that you should examine your faith.

The reason being is that some of you think that you are saved and that you're not. You examine your heart. And some that are here are saved and maybe have lost the passion that they have for the Lord.

And they need to be reminded that they actually are in the vine and that they are to bear good fruit. 2 Corinthians 13 five says this, test yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test.

Some pretty powerful words. Examine your hearts to see whether you're in the faith. Look inside yourself and ask the honest questions. Do I abide in Christ or am I an imposter? Do I really have that true faith that really motivates me or am I an imposter?

Is my desire to bear fruit or am I just playing the game so others will think that I'm part of the vine? See a lot of people out there doing that, don't we? People think they're saved, but the real test comes when you examine your heart against the scriptures and it proves out just as 1 John here is talking about.

If we say that we are in him, but don't follow after him, we're lying and the truth is not in us. I would say today to examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith. The reason why I bring this up a lot of times is because I think in America we see a weak gospel being presented.

It's a weak gospel presentations so you lead to false conversions, don't they? And I've fallen into some of this trap when I was really young. I didn't know how to present my faith the way that I needed to.

Have you noticed that some of the presentations these days, I mean, have you seen them? Just pray this prayer. Have you heard that? Just pray this prayer. I always heard this one. Now with every eye closed, you know, if you've accepted Jesus, slip up your hand real quick.

Oh yes, I see you over there, I see you. I mean, all these things I think it's easy believism and it's not based on a true gospel presentation. And this example I'm gonna present could be a lot of different places but this one was on Jimmy Swigert's website and I know he's definitely not the example for all things but I think this typifies a gospel presentation that a lot of people actually emulate.

It goes like this. He has this right on his website. Dear Lord Jesus, I realize that I am a sinner and have broken your laws. I understand that my sin has separated me from you. I am sorry and I ask you to forgive me.

I accept the fact that your son Jesus Christ died for me, was resurrected and is alive today and hears my prayers. I now open my heart's door and invite Jesus in to become my Lord and my Savior. I give him control and ask that he would rule and reign in my heart so that his perfect will would be accomplished in my life.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. And then there's this little thing. Congratulations, if you prayed this prayer in all sincerity, you are now a child of God. That's a terrible presentation of the gospel. That's easy believism.

That's a false assurance of salvation and that approach really has led so many down a path of false conversion and that's really what we're trying to avoid is that false conversion. We're trying to give them the true gospel.

First John talks about that. The one who says unbelievers don't give a false assurance of salvation to those kinds of people. And the one who does, the true believers. There's a contrast, isn't there, between the ones who actually do the will of God and out of a passion and a desire and a love for him and the ones that just say that they are in him.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, what Peter was saying is what are some of the issues with the presentation there of this kind of a gospel presentation and what should we be highlighting here? I mean, some of the issues, I think, is just you're praying a prayer without really asking for a heart change.

There's not a true grieving over your sin. I mean, there's definitely a worldly sin that says, hey, I'm sorry about my sin. I'm sorry I got caught. But then there's that godly sorrow that drops you to your knees and you really view yourself before the Lord as a broken individual that needs his grace and salvation.

Repentance is truly a changing, I mean, it's obviously your life character should be changing. There should be that. I mean, there's a cost to following him. I mean, that's not being presented. If you're gonna follow Christ, I mean, there's definitely a cost and people need to know and be aware of that.

But didn't really highlight sin all that heavily, that we are sinners, we can't save ourselves. We need a savior to do that. I mean, there's a lot that's wrong with this presentation. And I think as you read the scriptures, you start to see that clearer and clearer every day that it is all Christ.

I don't just make a decision for him. He draws people to himself. That's the beauty of it. We don't have anything in this. That's the nice part about it, is that he draws us, he saves us, he grafts those into the vine that he wills and wants to.

And we are in humble adoration to him. So that's, I hope that answers that question. I don't know.

Right, it's a good point.

Yeah, there's bad theology in that presentation of the gospel for Jimmy Swaggart. There's no doubt about it. Exactly. Yeah, there's only one way to the Father. That's through the narrow gate. It's not all these other religions, is there?

But the life that we live in Christ is not possible without abiding and walking in him. That's the point of it. When times of need come, we draw our strength and we draw our direction from him and we don't rely on ourselves.

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those that are wholly devoted to Christ and those that are wholly devoted to themselves. There's not much of a difference. The Bible doesn't tell us that we need to abide, but it doesn't just tell us that we need to abide, but also how to do that.

It's an instruction book. It gives us examples. It gives us insight on how to do that. Believers sin, of course, and we fall into all kinds of struggles, but we know that if we confess, he is faithful and just, and it's not a pattern in our life to do this, to continue in sin, because even if we fall away, we can't fall away forever.